It’s been a struggle, but they’re finding peace. 

On Jan. 21, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, five local women set out on an eight-month, cross-country peace walk that is scheduled to end in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, a year after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 

The “Peace-by-Peace” walk, initiated by twin sisters Angela and Lisa Porter of Berkeley, is not a political journey, they say, but a journey of discovery focused on the question: “what is peace?” 

Two of the walkers, Angela Porter, who does specialized body work in Oakland at the Breema Center, and Emily Hooker, a former employee of Berkeley’s Pedal Express bike messenger service, have returned to Berkeley to organize a March 23 fund raiser and update celebration. 

Porter and Hooker will rejoin the group, currently in Arizona, after the event. 

The women have faced, and overcome, exhaustion, interpersonal conflict and the fading of their own idealistic visions of the walk, according to Porter and Hooker. 

“Rather than trying to fulfill an image of what the peace walk was,” said Porter, “we are learning to live in peace together.” 

The learning process took some time, she added. 

“The first two weeks were anything but peaceful,” said Porter. “They were chaotic.” 

Part of the problem was that, apart from the Porter twins, none of the women, including Hooker, Amanda Cohen, of the Ecology Center in Berkeley, and Jo Laurence, an HIV outreach specialist for UC San Francisco, knew each other before the walk. 

“When you don’t know people, there’s a lack of communication,” said Hooker, noting that a series of small conflicts and misunderstandings roiled the group for the first couple of weeks, as the walkers made their way south through San Jose and into the Central Valley. 

Shortly thereafter, near Bakersfield, the walkers had a pair of lengthy, painful meetings with Patrick MacRauri, a longtime friend of the Porters, who was driving the group’s support vehicle. 

“It wasn’t working,” said Hooker. “It felt like he was the one who needed support.” 

MacRauri left shortly thereafter, but the meetings proved a turning point for the walkers. 

“It was the first time, for me, that we connected as a group,” said Hooker. 

But, Porter and Hooker said they have also connected with strangers along the way. 

Hooker said that, to her surprise, small-town conservatives have welcomed the liberal walkers, four of whom are lesbians. 

“It made us really question a lot of our perceptions,” said Hooker. 

The walkers told the story of a bartender near Adelanto, along Highway 395 east of Los Angeles, who was rude to the group at first, but after talking with the women, opened up about his father and experience as a soldier in Vietnam. 

“When I left, he was crying and hugging me,” said Porter. “Before, there was this wall of distance and fear and judgment, and all of a sudden, it just opened.” 

The walkers said that other strangers, even those who support the military action in Afghanistan, have engaged the group in meaningful discussions about peace and thanked them for taking the walk. 

The group, which has met with everyone from school children to homeless people to discuss peace, will make its way across the South in the coming months, walking a portion of the Trail of Tears and visiting several historic civil rights sites. 

But before then, Porter will give a trip update and several local musicians and dancers will perform at a 7 p.m. to midnight fund raiser Saturday night at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. “Peace-by-Peace” is asking for a $15 contribution, or whatever attendees can afford. 

Performers will include soul singer Edna Love, jazz artist Denise Perrier, folk singer Pear Michaels and Afro-Cuban dancer Margarita. 

After winning their first four games by scores like 17-1 and 15-0, the Berkeley High boys’ lacrosse team may have felt invincible until Tuesday. But a tough game with University High (San Francisco) that ended in a last-minute loss may have brought the Yellowjackets back to earth. 

University’s Andrew Kirchner corralled a loose ball in front of the Berkeley goal and bounced a shot past ’Jacket goalie Marc Bloch to claim a 7-6 advantage with just 23 seconds left in the match. Bloch had just saved two point-blank shots by the Red Devils, but stopping three shots from such close range was too much to ask. 

Berkeley (4-1) looked out of sorts nearly the entire game, often struggling to get the right players on the field. Tuesday was the ’Jackets’ first game away from their home Astroturf, and the field at The Presidio in San Francisco had ankle-high grass, slowing down both the ball and the Berkeley players. 

“We were psychologically taken out of the game,” Berkeley head coach Jon Rubin said. “The grass took us out of our usual style of play. This was a learning experience for us, so hopefully it will be good for us.” 

Rubin said his team wasn’t used to making substitutions on the fly, and it clearly cost them on the final possessions of the game. The ’Jackets turned the ball over twice in the last two minutes on technicalities concerning positioning and substitution, not something one would expect from a team with 12 seniors. 

“We were completely out of whack on the defensive end,” Berkeley head coach Jon Rubin said. “We kept making mental errors, coming off when we shouldn’t have.” 

University’s comeback ruined some late heroics by Berkeley players. Down 4-3 late in the third quarter, Berkeley’s Sam Geller tied the score with a high shot that whistled by University goalie Nick Fram. A moment later, Cameran Sampson picked up a loose ball and bounced a shot into the net for a 5-4 lead. 

But the Red Devils (3-3) got two quick goals to start the fourth quarter from Colin Mistele, the first a sidewinder that threaded its way past two defenders and Bloch. Berkeley answered back with a nice goal from Erick Lindeman, who head-faked a defender and put a left-handed shot into the goal for a 6-6 tie. Both teams had opportunities down the stretch, but Berkeley’s turnovers made the difference. 

“Up to this point we’d given up just 10 shots on goal and four goals,” Rubin said. “We were able to just take the ball away from the other team. That didn’t happen today.” 

Neither team ever took more than a one-goal lead in the game, as University got two second-quarter goals from Thomas McKinley and Berkeley had solo goals by Julian Coffman and Lindeman. Strangely, the Berkeley players looked more fatigued than their opponents, despite have a roster nearly three times the size of the Red Devils. The second half was full of end-to-end action, both tiring and confusing the Berkeley regulars. 

Both goalies played well in the game, with Bloch standing out with several tough saves. 

“It could’ve been a different game with Marc didn’t make so many saves,” Rubin said. 

The ’Jackets are entering a tough stretch, with games against strong programs Menlo, St. Ignatius and Marin Catholic in the next two weeks. They then head into league play in the brand-new Shoreline Lacrosse League, which also includes Piedmont, College Prep and Bishop O’Dowd. Rubin said O’Dowd will likely be their main challenger for the league title, as the other two schools have just established their programs. This is the first season for lacrosse as a CIF-recognized sport, so the ’Jackets can look towards regional playoffs if they win their league.

Editor: 

How can we tell our children that adulthood is something to look forward to when they read in the papers daily that America is in a state of “indefinite war” and that we have targeted seven nations for nuclear destruction? 

And stop saying that “They hit us first”.  

We hit them first. We spent a CENTURY hitting them first. 

Let's stop spending trillions of dollars a year on producing killing machines. 

Let's start spending that money on education, health services, arts, etc. 

Let's use that money to buy the people of the world a sense that there WILL be a future someday. America can give this amazing gift to the world. 

Dropping bombs is NOT the way to create peace. Perhaps our leaders and generals think that if they only kill enough people the bad guys will be scared into submission. The human brain does not work that way. The human brain is hard-wired like this: The more someone is punished, the more they resist.  

Even serial killers and terrorists see their foul deeds as heroic acts of resistance. 

Jane Stillwater 

Berkeley

924 Gilman Mar. 22: Tsunami Bomb, No Motiv; Mar. 29: Limpwrist, All You Can Eat, The Subtonics, The Bananas, Sharp Knife; Mar. 30: 9 Shocks Terror, What Happens Next?, Phantom Limbs, The Curse, Onion Flavored Rings; All shows begin a 8 p.m. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

The Albatross Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Mar. 20: Bob Schon Jazz Quintet; Mar. 21: Terence Brewer Jazz Trio; Mar. 22: Anna & Ellen Hoffman Jazz Tunes; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 23: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 24: Christy Dana Jazz Group; Mar. 25: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 26: Jason Martineau and Dave Sayen; Mar. 27: David Widelock Jazz Duo; Mar. 28: Randy Moore Jazz Trio; Mar. 29: Anna & Ellen Hoffman; 10 p.m. Hideo Date; Mar. 30: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m. Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Blake’s Mar. 20: Hebro, $3; Mar. 21: Ascension, $5; Mar. 22: Shady Lady, View From Here; $6; Mar. 23: Mystic Roots, LZ & Ezell Funkstaz, $5; Mar. 24: Passenger, The Shreep, $3; Mar. 25: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Mar. 22: 8 p.m., The Teethe, The Natural Dreamers, Yasi, $3; Mar. 23: 8 p.m., Guest DJs and MCs, $5; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344, Shows are All Ages.  

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Mar. 20: The Hot Club of Cowtown, $17.50; Mar. 21: Tish Hinojosa, $17.50; Mar. 22: Marley’s Ghost, $17.50; Mar. 24: Teresa Trull & Barbara Higbie, $18.50; Mar. 27: Paul Thorn, $16.50; Mar. 28: Old Blind Dogs, $17.50; Mar. 29: Jack Hardy, $16.50; Mar. 30: Faye Carol, $17.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Mar. 24: 4:30 p.m., Alegria, $6-$12; Mar. 30: 4:30 p.m., Dmitri Matheny Orchestra presents “The Emerald Buddha”; 2087 Addison St., 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

Rose Street House of Music Mar. 21: 7:30 p.m., Rose Street on the Road/Indiegrrl Tour kickoff featuring Irina Rivkin, Making Waves, Francine Allen, Amber Jade, and Christene LeDoux, 594-4000 x687. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Persimmony Jones” Mar. 16: 12 p.m., Designed for a young audience, this is the story of a young girl trying to find her place in the world. As Persimmony travels through different lands on her search, she is forced to reexamine her own ideas about tolerance and acceptance. Free. Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2978 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 7: 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 5 p.m. Sun., The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. Mar. 16 - 31:Thrust Stage at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.; Apr. 4 - 7: UC Theatre on University Ave.; 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org. 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Mar. 11: A Star is Born, 3 p.m.; Flesh, 7 p.m.; Mar. 12: An eye Unruled: An Evening with Stan Brakhage, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 13: The Bicycle Thief, 3 p.m.; Daughter from Danang, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 14: The Student I, 7 p.m.; Mar. 16: Shaping Identities Through Community, 7 p.m.; The Wolf, 9:30 p.m.; Mar. 17: For the Love of It: Amateur Filmmaking, 5:30; Mar. 18: Cabaret; 3 p.m.; Carnal Knowledge, 7 p.m.; Mar. 19: Stranger with a Camera, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 20: Sunset Blvd., 3 p.m.; Chemical Valley, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 21: Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 22: A Thousand and One Voices: The Music of Islam, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 23: In a Lonely Place, 7 p.m.; The Big Heat; 8:55 p.m.; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Asian American Film Fest” Mar. 13: Daughter From Danang; Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

Exhibits  

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Works of Alexander Nepote” Through Mar. 29: Nepote was a 20th century artist whose medium is a process of layered painting of torn pieces of watercolor paper, fused together in images that speak of the spirit that underlies and is embodied in the landscape he views. Check museum for times. Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., 849-8272 

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: An exhibit of mixed media sculpture by Jim Freeman, and acrylic paintings on canvas by Krystyna Mleczko. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Journey of Self-discovery” Through Mar. 30: Community Works artist Adriana Diaz and Willard Junior High students joined together to explore gender stereotypes, advertising, and other influential elements in society in a project that culminated in two life-size portraits that explore self-identity. Free. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 845-3332. 

“West Oakland Today” Through Mar. 30: Sergio De La Torre presents “thehousingproject”, an open house/video installation that explores desire surrounding one’s sense of home and place. Marcel Diallo presents “Scrapyard Ghosts”, an installation that presents a glimpse into the process of one man’s conversation with the living past through objects of iron, wood, rock dirt and other debris unearthed at an old scrapyard site in West Oakland’s Lower Bottom neighborhood. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland  

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

“Portraits of the Afghan People: 1984 - 1992” Through Apr. 6: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Bay Area photographer Patricia Monaco. Free. Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400 

“The Zoom of the Souls” Mar. 23 through Apr. 13: An exhibit of oil paintings by Mark P. Fisher. Sat. 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Bay Area Music Foundation, 462 Elwood Ave. #9, Oakland, 836-5223 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Mar. 18 through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Expressions of Time and Space” Mar. 18 through April 17: Calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Julien Designs 1798 Shattuck Ave., 540-7634, RyNakasone@aol.com.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Mar. 3 through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Mar. 13 through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Suzan Hagstrom reads from her book “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chielnik,” chronicling the survival of one brother and four sisters in Nazi death camps. Free. 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Mar. 7: Carl Parkes, author of “Moon Handbook: Southeast Asia”, presents a slide show exploring his travels in the region; Mar. 12: William Fienne describes his personal journey from Texas to North Dakota as he follows the northern migration of snow geese; Mar. 14: Gary Crabbe and Karen Misuraca present slides and read from their book, “The California Coast”; Mar. 19: Barbara and Robert Decker present a slide show focusing on the volcanoes of California and the Cascade Mountain Range; Mar. 21: Stefano DeZerega discusses opportunities for study, travel, and work in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

GAIA Building Mar. 14: 7 - 9 p.m., Lecture with Patricia Evans speaking from her book, “Controlling People: How to recognize, Understand and Deal with People Who Are Trying to Control You.”; Mar. 19: Reading and slide show with Carol Wagner, “Survival of the Spirit: Lives of Cambodian Buddhists.”; March 21: 6 - 9 p.m., 1st Berkeley Edgework Books Salon; Mar. 22: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., Book Reading and Jazz Concert with David Rothenberg; All events are held in the Rooftop Gardens Solarium, 7th Floor, GAIA Building, 2116 Allston Way, 848-4242. 

Gathering Tribes Mar. 15: 6:30 p.m., Susan Lobo and Victoria Bomberry will be conducting readings from “American Indians And The Urban Experience.”; 1573 Solano Ave., 528-9038, www.gatheringtribes.com.  

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series Mar. 7: Marilyn Hacker reads from her most recent book, “Squares and Courtyards”. Free. Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Berkeley campus, 642-0137, www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems. 

University of Creation Spirituality Mar. 21: 7 - 9 p.m., Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, An Evening with Author Margaret J. Wheatley, $10-$15 donation; 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x29, darla@berkana.org. 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Mar. 3: Myung Mi Kim, Harryette Mullen & Geoffrey O’Brien; Mar. 6: Bill Berkson, Albert Flynn DeSilver; Mar. 10: Leslie Scalapino, Dan Farrell; Mar. 13: Lucille Lang Day, Risa Kaparo; Mar. 20: Edward Smallfield, Truong Tran; Mar. 24: Susan Griffin, Honor Moore; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading @ South Branch Berkeley Public Library Mar. 2: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. 1901 Russell St. 

Word Beat Mar. 9: Sonia Greenfield and Megan Breiseth; Mar. 16, Q. R. Hand and Lu Pettus; Mar. 23: Lee Gerstmann and Sam Pierstorffs; Mar. 30: Eleanor Watson-Gove and Jim Watson-Gove; All shows 7 - 9 p.m., Coffee With A Beat, 458 Perkins, Oakland. 526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat. 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin, poetry, storytellers, singers and musicians. $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898. 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Mar. 16: 1 - 4 p.m., Moviemaking for children 8 years old and up; Mar. 20: Spring Equinox; “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below Grizzly Peak Blvd. 642-5132 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Wednesday, Mar. 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish  

Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St. 

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Cealo is Coming 

7 - 9 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

Fireside Room 

2727 College Ave. 

Gayuna Cealo is a Burmese monk who’s mission is to lead people to their true selves. $10 donation. 525-6472. 

Community Prayer Breakfast 

7:30 a.m. 

H’s Lordships Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina, 199 Seawall Dr. 

The 62nd year of the interfaith prayer breakfast celebrating spirituality in the community. $18. 549-4524, vicki@baymca.org. 

Thursday, March 21

Still the Source of Grace?  

Reading the Bible as a Gay Christian 

5 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion chapel  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

With L. William Countryman, professor in biblical studies at 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and co-author with M.R. Ritley of “Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church.” Free and open to the public. 849-8206. 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

People telling stories about the ways they have changed their lives by finding ways to work less, consume less, rush less, and have more time to build community with friends and family, as well as live more lightly upon the planet. 549-3509, www.simpleliving.net. 

Friday, March 22

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Robert Kruger, first vice-president, and Larry Miller, certified financial planner and senior vice-president, Solomon Smith Barney; “Investing in the Market Post 9-11.” $1. 848-3533. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Nature of Work: Joanna Macy and Matthew Fox in Dialogue 

7 - 9 p.m. 

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway, Oakland 

Matthew Fox, Ph.D., founder and president of the University of Creation Spirituality, will engage in dialogue on the nature of work with Joanna Macy, Ph.D., an eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. $10-$15 donation. 835-4827 x29, www.creationspirituality.org. 

International Women’s Day Celebration 

7 p.m. 

Revolution Books 

2425 Channing Way 

Cultural and video presentations, speakers, discussion and refreshments. Donation requested. 848-1196. 

Berkeley Design Advocates 

Design Awards 

5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

Design Awards for building projects in Berkeley will be presented by Berkeley Design Advocates (BDA). Projects completed over the past two years were selected based on their quality of design, how well they fit into their surroundings, their innovative qualities and how well they contribute to urban life. 528-2778. 

Saturday, March 23

5th Annual Summit – Last  

Chance for Smart Growth? 

10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 

Laney College Forum 

900 Fallon St., Oakland 

Regional public agencies will soon hold workshops to select from among three alternative visions for regional growth and finalize one Bay Area vision. Summit participants will learn about these alternatives and provide input that will affect future government policy. 740-3103, robert@transcoalition.org. 

Jazz Clinic 

2 p.m. 

Longfellow School for the Arts 

1500 Derby St. 

Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra will be holding a jazz clinic. $5, 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net. 

Berkeley Dispute  

Resolution Service 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

BDRS Office 

1968 San Pablo Ave.  

The community is invited to learn about mediation and the conflict resolution services and resources available through BDRS. Children’s activities and refreshments provided. 428-1811. 

Hunger Hike in Joaquin Miller Park 

9:30 a.m. 

Ranger Station, Sanborn Dr. 

Hike through the East Bay redwoods while raising money to help people in need. Hikers are encouraged to collect pledges. Funds raised will benefit the Food Bank’s hunger relief efforts. $20. 834-3663 x327, ilund@secondharvest.org.  

Our School Information Event for 

Prospective Parents 

10 a.m. - noon 

St. John’s Community Center, Room 203 

2727 College Ave. 

An event for prospective parents to learn about Our School’s approach to education. 704-0701, www.ourschoolsite.ws.  

March and Rally for Justice  

11 a.m. 

12th & Broadway BART 

Assemble at BART then march to Oakland Federal Building, then 1 p.m. rally in Jack London Square. In support of airport screeners, port workers, and service industry workers and against all racist and anti-immigrant laws and policies. 524-3791, labor4justice@aspenlinx.com. 

Sunday, March 24

Invitational Karatedo Tournament 

11 a.m. 

Oakland YMCA Main Gymnasium 

2350 Broadway 

A tournament promoting Japanese Karatedo. Spectators are welcome and admitted for free. 522-6016, jbtown501@aol.com. 

Stagebridge’s 11th Annual 

Family Matinee Theatre and 

Ice Cream Social 

3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2501 Harrison, Oakland 

Premiere of Linda Spector’s “Chicken Sunday and Other Grandparent Tales,” followed by an old fashioned ice cream social. $8 general, $4 children. 444-4755, www.stagebridge.org.  

Monday, March 25

Free Legal Workshop 

“Too Sick to Work: 

Cash Assistance and Health Insurance if Cancer Prevents You From Working” 

12:30 - 2 p.m. 

Highland Hospital 

1411 E. 31st St., Oakland 

Classroom B 

This workshop will provide information about State and Federal disability programs that provide cash benefits and health insurance for people unable to work due to a serious health condition. 601-4040 x302, www.wcrc.org.  

Transportation and the  

Environment in Berkeley 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School Room 7 

1222 University Ave. 

Matt Nichols of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will discuss the impacts of your transportation decisions, and the resulting impacts on local pollution and our health. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Tuesday, March 26

Tuesday Tea Party 

6 - 8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

Harrison and 27th St., Oakland 

Open gatherings to build a new peace movement. 839-5877. 

Wednesday, March 27

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Dan Kammen, professor of Energy and Resources Group and director of Energy and Science, UC Berkeley; “Energy and the Environment.” 

$5. 848-3533. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish  

Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St. 

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

General Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

The Clean Money Campaign and the League of Women Voters will talk about Clean Money, Clean Politics: Campaign Finance Reform in a Democracy. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com. 

At a meeting in which residents were unclear about what they could talk about, whether city officials could respond to their letters and how they could add items to the agenda, Tuesday night’s City Council meeting was all about fair process. 

Most of the audience showed up to discuss a senior housing project on Sacramento St, but many others wanted to discuss what they saw as unfair changes to the General Plan that would allow affordable housing to be built on the Santa Fe Right of Way. Still others came to protest that the issue of population density was not addressed in the General Plan. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque had to clarify several times the city policy on restrictions intended to prevent unfair lobbying by individuals or organizations and explain that such rules about fairness also restricted public comment on appeals hearings from the Zoning Adjustments Board to the written record. 

Residents’ confusion and complaints about the process were most clear in the case of the senior housing project. 

It was frustrating for Carl Golden who was not even talking substantively about the Sacramento St. project but just about the process of the ZAB discussion that did not begin until midnight on March 15.  

He had to keep referring to “the thing we can’t talk about” when he was complaining about the lateness of the ZAB meeting. He also pointed out that city staff had changed parts of the plan without supplying clearly exhibited new models. 

Planning Manager Mark Rhoades tried to explain the plans presented at the ZAB meeting and the environmental impact reports to the council amid hisses from the audience.  

He said that ZAB voted to go forward with a plan by the city to build a 4-story unit of affordable housing. 

The decision came after months of staff study and presentations to neighbors, according to Rhoades. He said his office was satisfied “this project would not have a detrimental impact on the neighborhood.” 

But councilmembers were not satisfied. 

“I think there are significant issues about the fairness of the process,” said Dona Spring.  

Pointing to the fat sheaf of written comments that were submitted on the item and the number of people who came to discuss it, Spring said, “People want to be heard. I think we should set this for a public hearing.” 

Other councilmembers murmured their agreement.  

But Councilmember Linda Maio was concerned that the proposal was time-sensitive. She wanted to know about deadlines for tax credits to fund the project. 

Rhoades and Housing Director Stephen Barton explained that, if the city wanted help in funding this project, it had to two chances. The first round of funding would be considered March 29 and the second in late June. 

“I don’t like that a project like this came with a caveat that we better not endanger public funding,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong.  

Although Armstrong favored building the project, she said she did not want to be rushed because once the building was constructed, it would be there permanently.  

She also worried that councilmembers in general were not listening to constituents’ concerns and that such an imperative was missing from the vision of Berkeley described in the General Plan. 

Agreeing that it was not necessarily the fault of the staff that the timing for this project was unfavorable, the council voted 8-1 to give the public a better opportunity to talk to the city at a public hearing. 

Only Kriss Worthington voted no, though Maio had expressed reservations about how difficult it was to find subsidies in a recession.  

By agreeing to a public hearing, Worthington said, the council was giving the nod to long, disorganized nights. He suggested that the public hearing on the senior housing project be set for another night. 

The motion was approved 6-3. Some councilmembers dissented because they thought it would allow boards and commissions to be lazy about getting through agendas. 

At the end of this vote, though, they wanted to make sure there was no confusion about the process.  

Dean clearly enumerated the ways residents could contact the City Clerk to find out about the date of the hearing and directed them to the web site www.ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Dean then held up the ream of paper each of the councilmembers had in front of them.  

“I don’t want this again.” 

Editor: 

Berkeley’s idea of enacting a 20 mph speed limit is superfluous, since the effective limit already approaches zero, given the number of diverters, blocked streets, potholes, mis-timed signals, drivers visioning Nirvana and Volvo drivers. 

Instead, Berkeley should pass an ordinance forbidding all “rolling-motion,” and mark entrances to the city with “You’re entering a Rolling-Motion Free Zone” signs.  

To manage the resultant walking congestion, residents could purchase $200 walking permits, allowing locomotion between 2 A.M. and 5 A.M.  

Walking-meters (failing 90% of the time) and luminescent orange flags would be provided to prevent injuries.  

Violators would be restricted to using the sewers, provided they did not endanger rats and their protected habitat. 

Administering the ordinance necessitates a progressive tax (those living in the hills paying a surcharge due to their gravitational advantage) and would be handled by the “Department for Unified Motion of Bodies” (DUMB), “personed” entirely by supervisors or those already moving at a glacial pace.  

Applicants are screened to ensure they come from friction-motion challenged and discriminated households or are couples engaged in long term same motion (i.e. friction-friction or rolling-rolling) relationships U.C. Berkeley’s entrance policy would give preference to those who haven’t passed the discriminatory and culturally-biased driving exam. Berkeley would cease business with companies using rolling motion and disinvest in the “Axles of Evil”: Ford, G.M. and Chrysler.  

Council would sever diplomatic relations with foreign and domestic naysayers and instead establish a sister-planetary relationship with Mars since it has visionarily enacted, enforced, and practiced such an ordinance. 

Steve Magyary 

Berkeley 

Wednesday, March 20 is the 79th day of 2002. There are 286 days left in the year. Spring arrives in the northern hemisphere at 2:16 p.m. Eastern time. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

One hundred and fifty years ago, on March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was first published. 

On this date: 

In 1413, England’s King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V. 

In 1727, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London. 

In 1828, Norwegian poet-dramatist Henrik Ibsen was born. 

In 1896, U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution. 

In 1952, at the Academy Awards, “An American in Paris” was named best picture; Humphrey Bogart best actor for “The African Queen”; Vivien Leigh best actress, Kim Hunter best supporting actress and Karl Malden best supporting actor for “A Streetcar Named Desire”; and George Stevens best director for “A Place in the Sun.” 

In 1969, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. 

In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup. 

In 1987, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients. 

In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule. 

In 1995, in Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin leaked on five separate subway trains. 

Ten years ago: Congress passed, and President Bush immediately vetoed, a Democratic tax cut for the middle class that would have been funded by a tax hike on the rich. 

Five years ago: President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin opened talks in Helsinki, Finland, on the issue of NATO expansion. Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive and admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teen-agers. 

One year ago: The skipper of the USS Greeneville took the stand in a Navy court and accepted sole responsibility for the Feb. 9 collision of his submarine with a Japanese trawler off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese. New York native Lori Berenson, accused of aiding guerrillas in Peru, received a retrial in civilian court (she was later convicted of “terrorist collaboration”). Power-strapped California saw a second day of rolling blackouts. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Jack Kruschen is 80. Producer-director-comedian Carl Reiner is 80. Children’s TV host Fred Rogers is 74. Actor Hal Linden is 71. Singer Jerry Reed is 65. Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney is 63. Country singer Don Edwards is 63. TV producer Paul Junger Witt is 59. Country singer-musician Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky) is 56. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Orr is 54.

Editor: 

The vast majority of people do not take a stand on the Israel/Palestine issue. They merely say “its none of my business.”  

What’s worse are the individuals that espouse peace like a robot without examining why they are saying it. “Peace” just seems like the right thing to say, any death is wrong etc.  

There are always sacrifices that must be made, for any cause whether abolishionist, or a rebellion in the warsaw ghetto. Our cause is the same, requiring sacrifices for a sovereign jewish state — for the jews, founded by jews, and governed by jews.  

The arabs have the whole of northern africa, and most of the middle east. They still want Israel... so the question remains, why?  

The muslims of the gaza strip and west bank want Israel because they know that Jews would be killed in the process. They froth at the mouth crying for land but dreaming of a twenty first century holocaust.  

The problem is that people of the United States have trouble seeing through this rouse. They guess, but do not take a stand for fear of being politically incorrect.  

Now that the Palestinians motives have been lain bear the vast center of America must take a stand.  

Would they rather have minor skirmishes in defense of Israel or whole-scale bloodshed when her defenses are let down?  

Gabe Kurtz  

student UC Berkeley 

Brooklyn on a diet 

NEW YORK — Is New York City’s largest borough getting just a little too large? 

Maybe so, says Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. He is urging his fellow Brooklynites to go on a two-month diet. 

Starting in mid-April, Markowitz will establish weigh-in stations at hospitals and government offices all around Brooklyn, which has the largest population of the city’s five boroughs. 

Those who participate will have their starting weight recorded, which will be compared with their heft two months later. 

The slightly pudgy Markowitz won’t let his constituents go it alone. He says he’ll be the first to weigh-in. 

Losing weight could be tough in the borough famous for its rich foods, including cheese cake and hot dogs. 

How a good person turns bitter 

KEYSTONE, Iowa — A driver who tried to be a good Samaritan had his car stolen, then destroyed, when he stopped to help at the scene of a traffic accident. 

Billy Lee was driving his 1999 Ford Escort to work in dense fog when he saw an accident in front of him. 

He stopped within feet of hitting a van and pulled to the side of the road to check on the other driver. That’s when he noticed a man peering into his car. 

“I just didn’t feel right about it, so I started running toward my car,” he said. Lee was about 50 feet away when the man jumped in and left in Lee’s car. 

The man, identified by the Iowa State Patrol as Brenton Roberts, 21, crashed about two miles later. Authorities said he then took a pickup from someone who stopped to help. 

He finally surrendered after police shot out a front tire on the stolen truck. Roberts faces more than 17 charges. 

Lee, 51, managed to make it to work after all that happened and tried to look at the bright side. 

“As bad as it was, it could have been worse,” he said Monday. 

——— 

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — With wads of cash strapped to his body and hoping to make some people happy, Kevin Shelton gave away $1 bills while strolling through a mall. 

In two hours, Shelton says he gave away about $7,000 — with only smiles and “thank yous” to show for it. 

“It’s what I choose to do,” he said Friday after the cash giveaway. “I think it’s making an impact.” 

Shelton, 32, says he earned his money buying and selling real estate in the Tampa Bay area. 

Reactions at the International Plaza varied — from hugs to lectures for not giving the money to the poor. 

Most shoppers happily took the free money and walked away giggling. Some vowed to give it away. Others planned to buy a lottery ticket. 

Shelton began doling out cash last year as a way to brighten people’s day and spark generosity. He swears it’s not a gimmick. He says he doesn’t keep track of what he gives away, but guesses it’s in the tens of thousands. 

——— 

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Some mourners whined and others wept as police officers and their canine partners turned out at a memorial service for a police dog that was stolen from its cage and shot. 

“Some may think of him as just a dog, but the reason we’re here today is to remember someone we consider an officer,” Vigo County Sheriff Bill Harris said Monday during the service for Rocky, a Dutch shepherd. 

Rocky disappeared from his cage on March 6 and was found shot to death a week later north of West Terre Haute. Investigators believe the dog may have been shot in revenge for recent drug arrests. 

“Rocky wasn’t stolen and killed. Rocky was kidnapped and murdered,” said Deputy Charlie Funk, the dog’s handler, who was wearing a black ribbon across his badge. 

The warden at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute gave Rocky to the Sheriff’s Department in June 2000. 

One of the defining moments for Wanusa Pereira Dos Santos was when a heavily armed police force rushed a settlement of 300 families, chased them up a hill and then set fire to their homes.  

Even when the police packed them on a bus and dropped them somewhere far away, they went back and built up their lives again. 

“The important point is that these people didn’t give up. They showed how strong they were in looking after their own rights,” said Pereira, who will be speaking tonight at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center about Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). The event will be in English and Portuguese. 

Speaking to the Daily Planet through a translator, Pereira explained that she is in Berkeley to spread the word about the MST, Latin America’s largest social movement that works to redistribute land in Brazil.  

Because the Brazilian constitution says that land has a social purpose, it is legal to take land that is not being used “productively” and work it. The MST also builds houses, schools and health clinics. 

“We really want our story to reach those who are willing to listen,” said Pereira. 

“In the U.S. there are people who follow the government and those who think freely and want a different world to emerge.” 

Pereira, who got involved with the organization as a college student studying social work, will be talking tonight about the history of the MST, its current projects and the problems with mainstream thinking about globalization.  

One of Pereira’s main topics will be about the free-trade bill before the Senate – what the movement calls “NAFTA on steroids” – and its effects on the entire American region. 

Her speech will draw from her extensive experience as one of the coordinators of the movement’s political education program. She organizes classrooms in the settlements where the history of Brazil and its political movements are taught and practical ways of moving toward a new Brazil that is fair to workers is discussed. 

Constantly under attack by the government, and especially the media, the workers in the MST need to be aware of their own rights and history, said Pereira. 

“There needs to be a raising of consciousness so we can have confidence in ourselves and resist,” she said.  

Pereira’s visit is hosted by the San Francisco-based Friends of the MST, a network that supports the MST in America and holds public educational events.  

Because of her importance to the movement – and to workers’ movements worldwide – the FMST is organizing a nationwide tour.  

“She is one of the most significant contacts with community groups and social groups and organizations in the U.S. For those struggling on the ground here, she has a big impact,” said FMST Program Coordinator Dawn Plummer. 

La Peña was chosen as a venue for Pereira’s appearance in the Bay Area because the cultural center has not only hosted art events, but also political events, said Eric Leenson, co-founder of the center. 

Leenson, also one of the co-founders of the FMST, has seen first-hand the effects of MST’s land reforms. 

“There’s a sense of empowerment for people who were poor and the hopeless. Through the movement, they can see a future for themselves that had not existed before,” he said. 

This is not something that should be limited to Brazil, Leenson added. “It’s part of a bigger struggle for the average working person to have a say in the economic workings of society.” 

Tickets to the La Peña event are on a sliding scale of $5-$15. For more information on the MST and Pereira’s visit, go to the FMST Web site at www.mstbrazil.org.

LOS ANGELES — The dog-mauling trial that began with a defense attorney crawling on the courtroom floor during her opening statement neared its end with a judge threatening to lock her up if she didn’t sit down and keep quiet. 

Jurors began deliberating the case on Tuesday following a stormy closing rebuttal by the prosecution during which Nedra Ruiz was rebuked for her interruption. “Take your seat now and do not get up again or your next objection will be made from the holding cell behind you,” Superior Court Judge James L. Warren warned. 

Ruiz represents Marjorie Knoller, who is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and owning a mischievous dog that killed a person. She was walking her two huge presa canario dogs when they mauled neighbor Diane Whipple to death in January of 2000. 

Knoller, 46, could get 15 years to life in prison if convicted. Her 60-year-old husband, Robert Noel, faces involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a person and could get up to four years. 

MONTERREY, Mexico — Days after the United States promised a 50 percent increase in foreign aid, the Bush administration is coming under fire for not doing enough — and not doing it right. 

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that President Bush’s pledge to increase aid by $5 billion over a three-year period was a minuscule amount compared to the country’s overall wealth. 

“With President Bush’s commitment carried out, we’ll be giving 12 parts of out of 10,000 of our Gross National Product,” Carter said. “That’s a tiny bit.” 

Carter, who spoke on the second day of the U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development in the northern city of Monterrey, also expressed concerns about Bush tying that aid to political conditions. 

“I hope there won’t be any political aspects to it because most of our aid now is given for political purposes,” Carter said. 

“If we set down strict criteria that that country can’t receive assistance before they prove that they’re going to be efficient, they will never get any help,” he said. “So we’re going to have to be generous and not just be demanding.” 

Last week, Bush pledged $5 billion more in foreign aid, and suggested the money be given away in the form of grants to countries with relatively stable financial and political systems. U2 singer Bono, who has argued against saddling poor nations with too many loans, helped him make the announcement. 

On Tuesday, U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson said at the conference that Bush will likely raise aid levels even further in the future if he sees countries making efforts to reduce corruption, build a democracy and open doors to business. 

European leaders, who pledged last week to increase aid levels by $20 billion by 2006, argue that giving money out in grants instead of loans could eventually drain World Bank coffers at a time when development aid levels are already declining. 

“We may not be able to do as much for the least-developed countries,” EU Development Commissioner Poul Nielson said Tuesday on the sidelines of the conference. “The role of the bank is a bank.” 

The World Bank says more than 95 percent of all loans are repaid, allowing it to continue to hand out credit to needy countries, and bank officials have expressed concern that too many grants could cause future problems.

SACRAMENTO — A bound, strangled body pulled from a Sierra foothill lake last fall was identified Tuesday as that of a Los Angeles-area real estate developer. 

Authorities believe Meyer Muscatel was one of multiple victims of a Los Angeles-area Russian mafia group that has dumped Muscatel and at least four others into New Melones Lake near Modesto in the Central Valley. 

A fifth body — apparently that of a woman — was pulled from the lake Tuesday night, said FBI spokesman Nick Rossi. It is the fourth body recovered from the lake since Sunday, but the first female. 

Muscatel’s body was found floating in the lake Oct. 18, hands bound and a plastic bag over its head. The 58-year-old Sherman Oaks homebuilder disappeared Oct. 11 after telling his family he was going to a business meeting. 

Muscatel’s Calaveras County death certificate says he was “smothered by the hands of another.” His throat and lower face were crushed, the death certificate says, though some injury could have been caused by hitting the water. 

SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, the Musee Mecanique, a beloved collection of mechanical games once played in saloons, carnivals and boardwalk arcades, has been one of the most authentic and bizarre tourist attractions on the West Coast. 

Seranaded by 15 player pianos, visitors to the dark, crowded basement of the historic Cliff House dispense fistfuls of change as if they were in Las Vegas, buying cheap entertainment from the 160 antique, coin-operated machines. 

A couple of quarters can activate a mechanical baseball game, pick a fight against a chain-driven arm-wrestler or induce a mighty, half-crazed belly laugh from Laughing Sal, a giant female figure that stood near the Fun House at the city’s long-gone Playland-at-the-Beach from 1940 to 1972. 

“We wanted to come here before they close,” said Eulos Horn, who challenged his girlfriend to a hand-operated boxing game, National K.O Fighters, a crude pugilistic ancestor to Mortal Kombat and other video games. 

Attendance has tripled on weekdays and quadrupled on weekends in the month since the Musee’s owners, Ed Zelinsky and his son Dan, announced that they’ll have to find a new home or close down by September, when renovations begin on the seismically flawed roadhouse restaurant upstairs. 

The repairs have been delayed for years. “There is asbestos and the roof is falling in on them as we speak,” said Carrie Strahan, who is managing the renovation for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. 

Eventually, the Musee will be housed in a visitor’s center to be built just up the hill from Ocean Beach, where Zelinsky, 76, will be able to display more of the 300 machines he began collecting at age 11. 

Meanwhile, they’re hoping to move to a temporary home without damaging the fragile machines, which are full of gears, pulleys and wooden parts. Dan helps keep them in working order, using tape to patch tears in the brittle rolls of piano music and quietly seething when visitors occasionally take out their anger on the games. 

Will it soon be Game Over for this accumulation of Americana? Nostalgia-lovers hope not. They’ve rallied with petitions, and local media have campaigned to save the Musee. 

“The future of the world’s greatest museum of two-bit machines — player pianos, fortunetelling, hockey, race-car and other games — is indeed uncertain,” the San Francisco Chronicle said. “If this hands-on chunk of history is lost, the entire region will be the poorer.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — A woman suspected of animal cruelty for hoarding cats in Petaluma is now under scrutiny in Sausalito, where police are investigating a batch of 50 felines living in squalid conditions. 

Marilyn Barletta, 63, walked into Sausalito Police headquarters Monday and complained that her cats had been seized from an office space she had been renting for a few months. 

A veterinarian who owns the building told police the cats were kept in filthy living conditions. 

“He had been receiving complaints from other tenants about the smell and cat noise,” Sausalito police spokesman Kurtis Skoog said. “He went in there and thought the cats were not being cared for.” 

Skoog says the landlord didn’t want animal control to destroy the animals and sent them to a cat rescue organization in Los Angeles. He also cleaned the office space. 

The Marin Humane Society and police are investigating before deciding whether to press charges for animal cruelty. 

“She wanted to get the cats re-acclimated after they were spayed. That’s what she said,” Skoog recalled. 

Barletta currently faces four felony charges of animal cruelty for keeping 196 cats at a home in Petaluma. If found guilty, she could face up to five years in prison. 

She was arrested May 22 and charged with one felony count of animal cruelty. She has pleaded innocent and posted $50,000 bail. 

Barletta lives in San Francisco but bought the two-story Petaluma house solely for the cats, driving from her San Francisco home to Petaluma daily to feed the animals, though the house soon fell into disrepair with cat feces and warped floors. 

Barletta’s attorney L. Stephen Turer said he just heard about the Marin County cat stash today. He said his client appears to have been keeping the cats with hopes of adopting them out to other people. 

Turer said he doesn’t think she has more cats in other places and isn’t sure where she gets all the cats. 

“I don’t know,” he said. “I have wondered myself where she finds them.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government fined an Oakland metal finishing company $385,000 and sentenced the owner to six months house arrest Tuesday for diverting wastewater directly into the sewer. 

The fine, the maximum allowed under the Clean Water Act, followed a federal and local investigation, which was prompted by reports that E-D Coat, Inc. was bypassing wastewater treatment systems. 

The Environmental Protection Agency and East Bay Municipal Utilities District found that the company had installed a bypass valve in its building that sent wastewater contaminated with metals straight into the sewer. 

Jerry Rossi, 59, of Alameda, E-D Coat’s owner, chief executive officer and president, and Jack Marlow, the company’s supervisor of the wastewater treatment facility pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act. They each were sentenced to three years’ probation, in addition to Rossi’s six-month house arrest, and each were ordered to pay a criminal fine of $215,000 in addition to the EPA’s $385,000 civil fine. 

The bypass valve could be operated with the flip of a switch, according to the EPA. The agency is uncertain how long the company was bypassing treatment, but the valve was built into the buildings. 

“Usually, in criminal cases, the industry has a hose and pump and they’re pumping at night into their toilet or something,” said Greg V. Arthur, an environmental engineer for Clean Water Act compliance at the EPA. “Nobody has built-in ways to get around the treatment system. Never have I seen that.” 

The bypass valve allowed cyanide-bearing waste streams to be treated in a first step to remove the cyanide and acid, but it then directed the waste past the second step, which removes metals, and sent it directly to the sewage system. 

The buildings also had concealed pipes that drained waste through bathroom connections into the sewer. That waste was completely untreated, and officials found that acid from that had corroded sewer lines along Fourth Street in Oakland. 

The metal waste also could have shut down operations at the sewage treatment plant because the plant uses bacteria to dispose of waste, and the metals are toxic to the bacteria.

SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities shut down two BART stations and stopped all trains into and out of the city for about an hour Tuesday after white powder was found in one of the cars. 

Fire, police and hazardous materials crews were sent to the Powell Street station to investigate. 

BART Police Sgt. John Junier said the powder was tested and found to be harmless. It was first reported by a Bay Area Rapid Transit employee. 

Authorities had no idea how many commuters were delayed as they headed to the East Bay. 

“It was a big headache for everybody,” Junier said. 

Melissa Losasso, 23, was delayed about a half-hour as she headed home to Berkeley. She didn’t know that white powder had caused the closure until BART reopened at 7:45 p.m. 

“I’d rather take the bus home, but I’m here so I’ll risk it again,” she said. “It’s kind of scary, but you just have to live with it.” 

About 325,000 commuters use BART each weekday. 

CUPERTINO — Hewlett-Packard Co. chief Carly Fiorina claimed victory Tuesday in the nasty proxy fight over the $20 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp., saying shareholders narrowly approved what would be the computer industry’s biggest merger. 

Shortly after a two-hour shareholder meeting in which she was booed and dissident director Walter Hewlett got a standing ovation, Fiorina said at a news conference that HP’s proxy solicitor had assured her the company would have enough votes to win. 

“It appears that our shareholders made a choice today, not only to embrace change, but to lead it,” Fiorina said. “We think we have a slim but sufficient margin, and we think it’s important to let people know that.” 

Hewlett, the HP heir who had harshly criticized Fiorina and led a five-month fight against the deal, said the claim of victory was premature. 

“In a proxy contest this close, where stockholders are changing their votes right up until the closing of the polls, it is simply impossible to determine the outcome at this time,” he said. 

HP’s claim came as somewhat of a surprise because, when the day began, nearly one-fourth of HP shares were publicly in Hewlett’s camp and less than 10 percent had come out in favor of the deal. But HP had claimed for a while to have a “silent majority.” 

Still, it will take several weeks to determine the official result of what appeared to be the closest corporate election in years. Independent proxy counters must verify each vote, and each side can challenge whether the proper people signed certain ballots. 

Only after the result is certified can HP and Compaq begin working together. Compaq shareholders are expected to easily approve the deal at a Houston hotel Wednesday. 

“We are very close to making this merger a reality,” said Compaq CEO Michael Capellas, who would be No. 2 at the new HP. 

HP shares fell 45 cents, more than 2 percent, to $18.80 on the New York Stock Exchange, where Compaq jumped 78 cents, 7.5 percent, to $11.14. 

HP and Compaq say the deal is essential for their survival in the consolidating computing industry. They believe that together they can dramatically improve their end-to-end packages for corporate customers, improve their slumping personal-computer divisions and generate $2.5 billion a year in cost savings. 

Hewlett contends HP is overpaying for Compaq, would get bogged down selling low-margin personal computers and services and can’t afford to risk the complex integration of the companies’ huge organizations. 

That disagreement turned into one of the most intriguing episodes in high-tech history, largely because HP is one of Silicon Valley’s marquee institutions and its late founders are still revered as visionary engineers. 

Fiorina, who was hired to lead the giant computer and printer maker in 1999 and ordered to shake the company up, had staked her reputation on the deal and was expected to resign if it failed. 

She had to overcome an initially hostile reaction from Wall Street after the Compaq deal was announced on Sept. 3, and then the opposition of Hewlett and Packard family interests with 18 percent of HP stock. Several large pension funds also opposed the deal. 

“She took a strong position based on what she believed in, and it’s to her credit that she followed through whether she wins or loses,” said Forrester Research analyst Charles Rutstein. “This has been a polarizing battle.” 

With the stakes so high, HP and Walter Hewlett each spent tens of millions of dollars to deluge HP’s 900,000 shareholders with letters, advertisements, telemarketers’ phone calls and multiple ballots. 

“I feel like I stepped out of my life and into an alternative universe, if you will, but it was definitely a cause that needed to be taken up,” Hewlett said after Tuesday’s shareholder meeting. 

Most investors already had mailed in their votes before the meeting, but many began lining up at dawn outside a Cupertino auditorium to cast ballots in person and watch Fiorina field questions. 

Gary Masching, who works for HP spinoff Agilent Technologies Inc., wore a green cape — in honor of Walter Hewlett’s green proxy cards — and tapped out a march on a drum while shareholders lined up. 

He said he decided to oppose the deal when HP derided Hewlett as a “musician and academic” without the business acumen to question the Compaq deal. “I was shocked,” he said. 

Mike Beman, 24, of nearby Los Altos, opposed the deal and came to the meeting to be part of Silicon Valley history. 

“The thing that swayed me was that the Hewlett and Packard foundations are both against it,” he said. “I really respect their opinions over that of the (HP) board.” 

Despite the viciousness of the proxy fight, the shareholder meeting was relatively civil. 

Hewlett spoke briefly from a microphone on the floor of the auditorium, thanking HP’s employees and stockholders for listening to his arguments against the deal. 

“For decades, HP has represented the best of what an American company can be,” Hewlett said, drawing applause from the audience of more than 1,000 shareholders — and Fiorina. No matter how the vote goes, he said, “I think that this has made us a stronger company.” 

When he concluded, he got a standing ovation. Fiorina applauded from her podium on the stage. 

Then shareholders had a chance to question Fiorina. Nearly all the investors who spoke were current or former employees. 

Some complained about how last year’s 7,000 layoffs at the company were handled and the 15,000 more that will come with the Compaq deal. 

When one man asked Fiorina about independent polls that found employees at three HP sites opposed the Compaq acquisition by a 2-to-1 ratio, she responded that internal surveys gave her confidence that most workers company-wide actually support the deal. 

Many in the crowd booed. 

Later, after declaring victory, Fiorina said she hoped to put the rancor of the proxy fight behind the company, and hoped to work with the Hewlett and Packard families in the future. 

When asked what she learned about herself during the contest, she replied: “I learned how much I love this company, and how much I’m willing to fight for what I believe in.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Pro-merger site: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Opposition site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

SALT LAKE CITY — Software company Siebel Systems will expand its business in Utah by building a data center and hiring about 600 employees by 2005, the company said Tuesday. 

Gov. Mike Leavitt said the move is a step toward achieving his goal of luring more high-tech companies to the state. He has promised to turn the state’s economy into a high-tech powerhouse in the 1,000 days that began last month when the Olympic torch arrived in Utah. 

The data center already being constructed near Salt Lake International Airport will provide Siebel’s customers and employees with 24-hour technical support. 

“This is not a satellite, but part of our core corporate infrastructure,” said Mark Sunday, spokesman for Siebel Systems, which was founded in 1993 in San Mateo, Calif. He said most of the jobs created would be highly paid, technical jobs that require computer science or engineering backgrounds. 

Sunday said some employees would be moved from California, but the majority would be hired in Utah. The company’s software helps keep track of sales and customer information. Corporations such as drug maker Amgen and computer maker IBM use it. 

Siebel already employs 125 support and sales workers at an office in Sandy. 

The 30,000 square-foot data center will open in June. In the case of an emergency, the center will serve as backup for computer systems in California, Sunday said. 

Siebel’s stock closed Tuesday at $34.80, down 4 cents. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Siebel Systems: http://www.siebel.com 

SACRAMENTO — Senators criticized Department of Health Services officials Tuesday for their recent regulation that allows the dumping of radioactive debris in regular landfills. 

The new regulations mirror federal guidelines for decommissioning nuclear sites and pose no threat to the public, said DHS Director Diana Bonta. 

Opponents of the new rules said the DHS didn’t anticipate what would happen to items with residual radioactivity after the nuclear sites were decommissioned and no longer regulated by DHS. 

Debris and buildings from those sites are now free to be deposited in neighborhood landfills, recycled into new consumer goods, or donated to schools or other organizations, said Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Urban Landfills. 

Romero has introduced a bill that would ban radioactive debris from regular landfills. 

Nearby residents already oppose attempts to expand landfills, Romero said. The process would be more difficult if “neighbors are saying, ’How can you assure us that you’re not going to dump low-level radioactive waste right next to my elementary school, or my football field, or put it into my child’s braces?”’ 

DHS discussed the state’s adoption of federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations at a public hearing in October 2000. High-level nuclear waste from reactor cores and items that are toxic or highly radioactive are sent to licensed facilities out of state. 

Bonta stressed that the new guidelines tighten cleanup standards for contaminated sites. Previously, the state required sites to eliminate radioactivity. The new standard releases sites if they produce less than 25 millirem of radioactivity per year. 

Still, the new level is like having four additional chest X-rays each year, said Daniel Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap. 

And, he said, while one load of debris could have a very low level of radioactivity, the cumulative effect of repeated loads of debris to a landfill could create a hazard. 

State landfill regulators were also unhappy with the regulations, said former state Sen. David Roberti, now a member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Once the site is decommissioned, the debris delivered to landfills isn’t tracked. 

“No matter what the situation is, the individuals who are taking in the waste should know it,” said Roberti. 

Despite DHS’ assurances that the risk from such low levels of radiation is low, Roberti said he was “skeptical, given how long workers at landfills may be exposed.” 

Lawmakers should address “whether low-level radioactive waste belongs in landfills to begin with,” Roberti said. “People in California view municipal landfills as garbage dumps, not toxic dumps.” 

Bonta said her department would work with Romero on her bill, but Bonta predicted this issue would lead to “disputes among good, honest people trying to protect the public.” 

A representative of industries that use nuclear science said he hoped that Romero would hold another hearing and invite representatives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before moving forward with her bill. 

The bill would “expand the scope of radioactive materials that must go to a licensed facility, at the same time that we do not have a licensed facility in California,” said Alan Pasternak, technical director of the California Radioactive Materials Management Forum. 

Currently, nuclear sites in California can ship low-level waste to facilities in South Carolina or Utah, but the South Carolina facility is expected to stop accepting low-level nuclear waste in 2008, Pasternak said. That could put medical centers, universities and nuclear power plants in a bind if they can’t ship any of their waste, Pasternak said. 

“In a few years, Utah will have a monopoly on the disposal of radioactive waste,” he said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Read the bill, SB1623, at www.senate.ca.gov 

Peace should not be a pie in the sky, but a goal to strive for, said Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who spoke at UC Berkeley Monday. 

In front of a cheering audience of 300, Lee delivered the first Ronald V. Dellums lecture, a lecture series created by the university to honor the Cal alum who held the 9th Congressional District seat before Lee. 

It was Dellum’s commitment to peace and justice that inspired the university to name a lecture series and a professorship in Peace and Conflict Studies after Dellum in 1999, said Chancellor Robert Berdahl.  

When discussing who should give the inaugural lecture, he and his colleagues had no difficulty choosing.  

“There was no one more suitable than Congresswoman Lee,” he said. 

Indeed, Lee, who is best known for being the only representative to vote against the Congressional resolution to give the president wide anti-terrorism powers, is proud to carry on the mission of her mentor Dellum.  

She is also a proud to support the program at her alma mater.  

“The goal of this program is to bring serious discussion of peace and conflict into the mainstream,” said Lee. 

Policy-makers, professors, citizens, journalists, and movie directors need to know that an military force is not the answer, she said. 

Although the events of Sept. 11 were horrifying, Lee said, Americans need to come away with more than just anger. 

“We need to have a stronger faith in democracy, the Constitution. We need to have a stronger faith in our fellow human beings. We need to look into the basic causes of terrorism, dedicate ourselves to peace and be more aware of the world around us.” 

But many have been critical of Lee’s idealism and dissenting vote on Sept. 14, including two protesters who held signs in front of the auditorium yesterday.  

“She refuses to stand up and help defend our country, though she was elected to serve and protect our country,” said Travis Ratliff, a first-year Cal student. 

Lee, however, defended her action and her patriotism in her lecture. 

“I believe that the lifeblood of democracy is the right to dissent. I believe that casting a no vote was the right vote,” she said. 

Lee acknowledged that pursuing peace might be hard work, but she exhorted progressives to keep fighting. 

“Peace must be a policy option. It must be on the table at all times. It should be, in reality, our only option,” she said. 

Cal students who attended the lecture said that listening to Lee made their respect for her grow. 

“A lot of communities outside Berkeley see the city and Barbara Lee as naive,” said Zach Rosenberg, a junior who majors in political science. 

But he was encouraged by her clear thinking and commitment to progressive ideals. “It proves the kind of strong, resolute conscience that Barbara Lee and Barbara Lee’s district really has,” he said. 

Berkeley resident Shauna Harris was also impressed by Lee’s passion. “I was struck by her conviction and her knowledge that there’s always a way out if you think about it.” 

While Lee’s lecture was an opportunity for the congresswoman to exhort activists to stave off cynicism, it was also an opportunity for the university to ask for donations. 

The university does not yet have enough money to create the Dellums professorship, said Katherine Cook, Development Coordinator for International and Area Studies, which oversees Peace and Conflict Studies.  

The university still needs to raise another $500,000, she said.

A track meet is a circus it can be hard to find someone if you happen to be looking. And it doesn’t get any easier when all four teams at the meet (St. Mary’s is hosting Kennedy, Holy Names, and Albany on this particular spring afternoon) conspire to wear the same color. (Crimson, scarlet, cardinal? Right - red.) 

So you don’t look for all-state thrower — Kamaiya Warren — amidst the sea of sprinting, hurdling, and leaping red bodies; you listen. And soon you hear a coach, far across the turf at the discus ring, bellowing at the spotters - who are loitering, tape in hand, waiting to mark the landing of the next toss: 

“You need to back up! Hey! Baaaaaaaaack UUUUUUUUUUP!” 

Yes, that’s it - it’s Kamaiya Warren’s turn to throw. 

So you head across the grass toward the discus ring as the spotters, smart kids, move it back – way back – a good 30 feet past the longest previous toss of the day. They’re safe. 

Warren carefully takes her mark. Slowly she twists back, coiling, storing power; then, accelerating, she uncoils from the ground up: legs leading hips, hips leading shoulders, shoulders leading a trailing right arm – the disc is unleashed. 

The discus sails in a high, right-to-left curving arc. Gasps and a few whispered, awestruck curses from the varsity boys throwers standing nearby. The disc is still 25 feet up in the air as it flies over the heads of the dumfounded spotters out there on the turf, staring skyward, mouths agape - who were never in any danger after all. Not while they were standing so close like that, anyway. 

The tape measure, unwinding rapidly from its reel, jams. 

While the spotters work to untangle the tape, you are introduced to Kamaiya. Warren is 6-foot-1 and powerfully built; pretty, even in the middle of a track meet; and as you talk to her it becomes clear that she is the center of the discus ring - even when she is standing at its outskirts. 

A baseball comes bounding in from the adjacent diamond and it is Kamaiya Warren who hollers at the baseball players, “Hey! Can we get a warning, puh-LEASE?!” Cross-country runners keep making the dangerous mistake of running in front of the discus ring, instead of taking the wiser route, behind it, and it is Warren who redirects traffic. “If they would get hit with a discus I would feel dreadful,” she says. “I think they would feel worse,” she laughs, “physically. But I’d feel worse emotionally.” 

Finally, the discus measurement comes in: 131 feet, six inches. Nearly 50 feet better than the next-longest throw at the day’s meet – and nearly 30 feet less than her personal record of 158’2’’, set last year at the Meet of Champions in Sacramento. Why? 

“Oh - there are different ways to throw,” Warren says. “I only did a half-turn today, instead of a spin. I don’t have room here – I didn’t want to hurt myself.” 

Right. The Herculean toss you have witnessed is the best Warren can muster – with a half-turn, a half-effort - under confining circumstances. The discus ring at St. Mary’s, damaged last year during some nearby construction, is scheduled to be rebuilt sometime this month. 

Warren, a favorite to win the California girls discus at the state meet, failed last year to even qualify for that event: she fouled on all three of her attempts at her league meet, which by all accounts she should have won handily. So she didn’t throw at sections, and didn’t throw at state. You hate to do it, but you have to ask: What did that feel like? 

“If feels like you’ve been left in the middle of the desert by yourself and you have nowhere to go,” Warren says. “It hurt so bad. I was like ‘okay, my life is over, I can’t throw discus.’” 

Of course, it wasn’t really as bad as all that. Warren did qualify for the state meet in her second-best event, shot-put – and placed third. And this year, she’ll have another shot at both events. 

The 131’6’’ is more than enough to wrap up first place in today’s discus event, and the throwers head over to the shot-put area. Here, a different coach is running the show, with help from a different spotter, but as he calls Warren’s name from his clipboard he mimes, and mouths, the same message you heard yelled before: 

“Back,” he waves to the spotter, almost wearily. “Back. You just really need to move back…” 

And Warren once again establishes her dominance – heaving 44’1’’ on her first attempt. (The second-closest of all the day’s throws will come in at something slightly less than 30 feet.) Warren is overjoyed by her performance. 

“I never throw over 42 here,” Warren exclaims. “Oh – I’m going home and drinking non-alcoholic beverages all night!” 

There isn’t even a hint of pretension in her manner as she says this. Between throws, she is playing hop-scotch on the stepping-stones leading to the shot-put pit – and later, she is practicing her balance-beam on the railroad ties that encircle it. She is a delight, a nice girl who happens to live in a commanding body - a body that might someday take her to the Olympics. 

“I want to go at least once,” Warren says. “But a lot of [my competitors] are strong – they lift heavy – bench press, and squats. I don’t know - I’m just naturally big - and powerful.” 

2002 is the final year of throwing at St. Mary’s for Warren – and her final shot at the state title. She is currently weighing offers from UCLA and Arizona (both have offered a near-full ride), and is waiting for offers from Cal and Arizona State. (It is hard not to notice that she is wearing a golden UCLA sweatshirt between throws, but she says she owns sweatshirts from several different colleges.) 

“The only thing I’m not looking forward to is not throwing under my dad,” she says. Larry Warren has coached the St. Mary’s throwers during Kamaiya’s years there – just as he did a decade ago during her brother Ihsan’s career. (Kamaiya and Ihsan now hold all four St. Mary’s records for the shot-put and discus.) “Well – I’ll miss my dad, and I’ll miss all my friends.” 

Kamaiya is hugged by no less than five teammates and spectators during the short time you observe her. You get the feeling that everyone at the meet on this day will miss Kamaiya Warren as she moves forward – except, perhaps, for the spotters, who might be tired of moving back.

Editor: 

Thank you for taking the time and effort to expose the issue of homeless pets in such a good light.  

Your story on Kristine Crawford's Search and 

Rescue Dogs was a wonderful ending for dogs that didn't have the best start in life, to say the least. Not only are they great examples of heroes, but they were almost overlooked as “throw aways” of our society.  

They now are giving back to the same society that shunned them. This story has so many different levels of humanity and healing.  

Thank you for bringing this story to light. 

Megan Alexander 

Sacramento Area Animal Coalition 

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Self Help Strategies and  

Techniques from Feldenkrais  

and Pilates 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates, Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Arthritis Foundation Northern California Chapter fibromyalgia support group. 644-3273.  

The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of  

Genocide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor of  

Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union Building  

Second symposium of the annual Breaking the Cycle, Mending the Circle Conference: Contemporary Issues of Genocide. This particular symposium is entitled The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide. 642-4270.  

Wednesday, Mar. 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish  

Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St. 

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Cealo is Coming 

7 - 9 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

Fireside Room 

2727 College Ave. 

Gayuna Cealo is a Burmese monk who’s mission is to lead people to their true selves. $10 donation. 525-6472. 

Community Prayer Breakfast 

7:30 a.m. 

H’s Lordships Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina, 199 Seawall Dr. 

The 62nd year of the interfaith prayer breakfast celebrating spirituality in the community. $18. 549-4524, vicki@baymca.org. 

Thursday, March 21

Still the Source of Grace?  

Reading the Bible as a Gay Christian 

5 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion chapel  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

With L. William Countryman, professor in biblical studies at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and co-author with M.R. Ritley of 

“Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church.” Free and open to the public. 849-8206. 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

People telling stories about the ways they have changed their lives by finding ways to work less, consume less, rush less, and have more time to build community with friends and family, as well as live more lightly upon the planet. 549-3509, www.simpleliving.net. 

Friday, March 22

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Robert Kruger, first vice-president, and Larry Miller, certified financial planner and senior vice-president, Solomon Smith Barney; “Investing in the Market Post 9-11.” $1. 848-3533. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Nature of Work: Joanna Macy and Matthew Fox in Dialogue 

7 - 9 p.m. 

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway, Oakland 

Matthew Fox, Ph.D., founder and president of the University of Creation Spirituality, will engage in dialogue on the nature of work with Joanna Macy, Ph.D., an eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. $10-$15 donation. 835-4827 x29, www.creationspirituality.org. 

International Women’s Day Celebration 

7 p.m. 

Revolution Books 

2425 Channing Way 

Cultural and video presentations, speakers, discussion and refreshments. Donation requested. 848-1196. 

Berkeley Design Advocates 

Design Awards 

5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

Design Awards for building projects in Berkeley will be presented by Berkeley Design Advocates (BDA). Projects completed over the past two years were selected based on their quality of design, how well they fit into their surroundings, their innovative qualities and how well they contribute to urban life. 528-2778. 

Saturday, March 23

5th Annual Summit – Last  

Chance for Smart Growth? 

10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 

Laney College Forum 

900 Fallon St., Oakland 

Regional public agencies will soon hold workshops to select from among three alternative visions for regional growth and finalize one Bay Area vision. Summit participants will learn about these alternatives and provide input that will affect future government policy. 740-3103, robert@transcoalition.org. 

Jazz Clinic 

2 p.m. 

Longfellow School for the Arts 

1500 Derby St. 

Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra will be holding a jazz clinic. $5, 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net. 

Berkeley Dispute  

Resolution Service 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

BDRS Office 

1968 San Pablo Ave.  

The community is invited to learn about mediation and the conflict resolution services and resources available through BDRS. Children’s activities and refreshments provided. 428-1811. 

Hunger Hike in Joaquin Miller Park 

9:30 a.m. 

Ranger Station, Sanborn Dr. 

Hike through the East Bay redwoods while raising money to help people in need. Hikers are encouraged to collect pledges. Funds raised will benefit the Food Bank’s hunger relief efforts. $20. 834-3663 x327, ilund@secondharvest.org.  

Our School Information Event for  

Prospective Parents 

10 a.m. - noon 

St. John’s Community Center, Room 203 

2727 College Ave. 

An event for prospective parents to learn about Our School’s approach to education. 704-0701, www.ourschoolsite.ws.  

March and Rally for Justice  

11 a.m. 

12th & Broadway BART 

Assemble at BART then march to Oakland Federal Building, then 1 p.m. rally in Jack London Square. In support of airport screeners, port workers, and service industry workers and against all racist and anti-immigrant laws and policies. 524-3791, labor4justice@aspenlinx.com. 

Sunday, March 24

Invitational Karatedo Tournament 

11 a.m. 

Oakland YMCA Main Gymnasium 

2350 Broadway 

A tournament promoting Japanese Karatedo. Spectators are welcome and admitted for free. 522-6016, jbtown501@aol.com. 

Stagebridge’s 11th Annual 

Family Matinee Theatre and Ice Cream Social 

3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2501 Harrison, Oakland 

Premiere of Linda Spector’s “Chicken Sunday and Other Grandparent Tales,” followed by an old fashioned ice cream social. $8 general, $4 children. 444-4755, www.stagebridge.org.  

About 100 Berkeley High School students conducted anti-violence workshops on campus Monday, kicking off a pupil-led effort to stem the violence at BHS. 

The students, mustered by Youth Together, an East Bay leadership development group, spoke in English classes throughout the day and reached more than 90 percent of the student body, according to organizers. 

“We’re trying to have a schoolwide conversation about violence,” said Josh Parr, Youth Together coordinator at BHS. 

Workshop leaders asked their peers to define violence and discuss how stereotypes can feed interracial conflict. They also distributed surveys to gauge students’ perceptions of violence and potential solutions. After compiling survey data, Youth Together plans to stage a forum on student-generated solutions and form committees to implement them. 

The organization is working closely with BHS deans of discipline Meg Matan and Robert McKnight. Matan, whose position was just created this year, said seeking student input is vital in any anti-violence efforts. 

“We need the kids,” she said. “It’s got to be a grassroots thing. The kids have to buy into it and have that voice.” 

But Youth Together and high school staff face serious obstacles. Matan said since she started work as a full-time dean in January, she has been surprised by the sheer volume of incidents that come across her desk, noting that there are at least two to three fights per week at BHS. 

Students in a freshman English class Monday told their own stories of hallway fights, street conflicts and a gang called “Tfflon” with members in Oakland and Berkeley who engage in on-campus violence. 

“Tfflon is (behind) a lot of the violence at this school,” said sophomore Risa Swarn, noting that her own brother, a former BHS student, is in the gang. 

Saima Shah, a Pakistani-American junior, added that many of the Middle Eastern students at the school have suffered from harrassment since Sept. 11. 

Students suggested that reporting a fight is not an option because word gets around, and aggressors threaten to beat accusers. 

Jasmine Stiggers, a BHS sophomore who led a number of workshops on Monday, added that anti-violence activities tend not to reach the most violent kids. 

“The people who are causing the problems aren’t going to class,” she said. 

With the district in serious financial trouble and $6 million in cuts on the horizon, Matan said expensive solutions are probably not an option. But, she said inexpensive new programs and greater promotion of existing, underutilized school services could have a significant impact. 

Matan said a peer mediation program run out of the guidance counselors’ office and counseling services available through the the high school’s health center are two examples of programs that could be better used. 

BHS senior Sarena Chandler, who is the student representative on the school board, agreed that BHS could make better use of existing resources. But ultimately, she said, a systematic approach is necessary. 

“We’re not dealing with the roots of violence,” she said. “When the home is failing to provide support, it’s the schools’ responsibility to raise children, to provide community.”

Editor:  

I was dismayed by your report that a Contra Costa County resident had illegally registered his poodle to vote as a Republican ("Man registered dog as Republican, gets jury notice," March 16). 

As a former poodle owner, I know these dogs to be highly intelligent and empathetic. If consulted in the matter, the average poodle would almost certainly prefer to register Democratic. 

Michael Katz 

Berkeley

Superintendent Michele Lawrence will recommend that the Board of Education close City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School next year at the board’s Wednesday night meeting. 

Lawrence originally recommended the move, which would save the financially-strapped district an estimated $326,000, in January, but reconsidered in the wake of strong parental opposition. 

In recent weeks, Lawrence suggested that the school might remain open next year during a long-scheduled refurbishing of the Virginia Street building. But, in a memorandum to the school board, included in the standard board packet released several days before each meeting, Lawrence argued that Franklin must close during construction. 

“After considerable analysis and consideration,” Lawrence wrote, “it has been necessary to now put forward the recommendation to close City of Franklin MicroSociety Magnet School.” 

Lawrence, who was out of town on district business Monday, wrote that the future, long-term use of the Franklin building is being studied. She noted that she will provide a recommendation in “late spring.” 

Lawrence and school board members have noted that there are many potential uses for the building, including a new elementary school and district office space. 

Lawrence’s memo recommends that Franklin parents get first choice of schools next year for their children. The memo recommends converting “flex rooms” at schools in the north and central sections of the city into classrooms to accommodate the influx. 

Lawrence also suggests that the system provide displaced Franklin students with bus service to any school in the district’s north and central zones. Busing will not be provided if a student chooses to attend a south zone school. 

Lawrence’s memo includes four reasons for the closure of Franklin: 

low enrollment, making the school expensive to maintain 

few parents have expressed interest in enrolling kindergartners next year, suggesting long-term enrollment problems 

several Franklin teachers may be laid off next year, disrupting the continuity of the specialized program, which is modeled after a small city 

the difficulties of housing students in the building during construction 

School board member Ted Schultz said he is likely to support Lawrence’s proposal at the Wednesday meeting. 

“I think that I’ll be supportive,” said Schultz. “It’s pretty well laid out there. they have very small enrollment.” 

School board president Shirley Issel said she will be interested to hear Franklin parents speak at Wednesday night’s meeting before making a decision, but added that she has not yet received any information that would convince her to abandon her current support for closure. 

School board member John Selawsky said in a Monday interview that he was still unsure how he would vote. He said he had questions about the true savings of the closure, especially given Lawrence’s offer to bus displaced Franklin students to new schools in the district’s central zone. 

Board members Terry Doran and Joaquin Rivera could not be reached Monday, but Rivera has been a vocal proponent of closing the school. 

Parents reached Monday were upset with the proposal. 

“I’m very disappointed that that is her recommendation,” said Karen Ransom, mother of a Franklin third-grader. “It’s going to be extremely disruptive.” 

Ransom said that, when Lawrence announced her reconsideration of the Franklin closure, parents thought they would have a substantial voice in determining the eventual fate of the school. 

“My impression was that we would have some say,” Ransom said. 

Franklin PTA president Carla Campbell, parent of third- and sixth-graders at the school, said the district has handled the whole situation poorly. She said, in the future, the district should inform parents of school closures earlier in the year so they are in a better position to make preparations for the subsequent fall. 

Campbell said she will present the findings of a parental survey on what to do about Franklin at the Wednesday meeting. 

Editor: 

As if Oakland didn't have enough of an image problem (can you say Ebonics?), now it is naming streets after terrorists like the IRA's Gerry Adams (Daily Planet, Mar 16-17). 

Perhaps the city council thinks it will be a tourist attraction and will continue the theme by naming nearby streets after other terrorists. Maybe there's a four-way intersection where Gerry Adams Way could meet Mohammed Atta Avenue, Timothy McVeigh Street, and Ahmed Ressam Road. 

Mark Johnson 

Berkeley 

Carol Russo, conciliation specialist for the U.S. Department of Justice, has held a series of meetings with city and school officials in recent weeks focused on violence at Berkeley High School, according to a spokesperson in Mayor Shirley Dean’s office.  

Russo, based in the department’s Western Regional Field Office in San Francisco, has not returned repeated calls from the Planet. Superintendent Michele Lawrence has referred queries to Dean’s office. 

“The meetings focused certainly on increasing safety at the high school through better communication between the city and the school district,” said Jennifer Drapeau, Dean’s chief of staff. 

Drapeau said city and school officials focused, in particular, on improving coordination between the police department and the school’s security staff. 

Drapeau said Russo held meetings with city and school officials, including Dean and Lawrence, on Feb. 11 and Feb. 25. She said Russo met with Dean alone, during a round of information-gathering meetings, several weeks prior to the Feb. 11 meeting.

Editor:  

When the Berkeley Central Library reopens on April 6th, Library patrons will most certainly welcome all the improvements that have been made (A few months ago when I toured the building with other Foundation contributors, even then, in its unfinished state, the Library was magnificent.) But is anyone ready for other changes on Kittredge? Coming soon right next to the Library (on the site of the current Hinks parking garage) will be a mega-development, Library Gardens, the biggest non-University housing project ever built in Berkeley and more than twice the size of the Gaia Building. How big? Five buildings, four stories of apartments in each, all built over three levels of parking. It will have 176 units with 320 bedrooms in an area of just 1.5 acres. The parking structure will be much larger than Hink’s.  

This project did not get much public comment, perhaps because it is downtown, has few residential neighbors and thus is not a NIMBY issue. Yet it will have two prominent public-supported "institutional" neighbors, the Central Library next door and Berkeley High School on Milvia. (The property lines of BHS and Library Gardens are just 140 feet apart.) 

In late February the City Council dismissed without discussion an appeal of Library Gardens. The appeal showed quite plainly that essential environmental review for the project vis-à-vis both the Central Library and BHS had not been done. In the case of the Library, the environmental study did not assess the impact of the project on the functioning of the Library.  

However, the larger issue concerns BHS. The environmental review ignored entirely the new BHS buildings going up along Milvia just west of the project. Two buildings, a PE Building and an Administration/Commons Building, will extend in an unbroken line from Bancroft to Allston Way with a pedestrian gate between them at the foot of Kittredge. This gate will be a primary entrance to the BHS campus. In practical terms, large number of students will exit through the gate, cross Milvia, and walk up the street past the project to the Central Library and downtown. The combination of project traffic and vehicle drop-off and pick-up of students at the Kittredge-Milvia intersection will produce congestion hazardous to both pedestrians and drivers. Further, the Kittredge entrance to the new parking structure will be moved west toward the intersection.  

Aware of the inadequate environmental review of Library Gardens on BHS, I was appalled by John DeClercq’s recent open letter to the BUSD Superintendent urging her not to compromise BHS school safety in the current budget crisis, and even to increase funding to ensure student safety. Yet, as the major spokesperson for Library Gardens, Mr. DeClercq obviously gave no thought to the safety of 3000 BHS students when presenting the project’s environmental review.  

On April 6th when Library visitors look out the impressive bank of windows westward over Hink’s Garage toward the High School, they may not know that a massive apartment complex and a stretch of new high school buildings will soon obliterate their vista. They will be standing in a public building that was generously renovated by a voters’ bond measure and looking out toward new construction on the BHS campus, also funded by a voter bond measure. But in between will be a privately built residential complex out of sync with the neighbors. Library patrons, as well as BHS students and parents, may want to ask their City Council members what they had in mind when they dismissed the appeal without discussion or any attempt to get broad public comment. 

Josephine Arasteh 

Berkeley 

March 19 is the 78th day of 2002. There are 287 days left in the year. This is the date the swallows traditionally return to the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. 

Highlight in History: 

On March 19, 1920, the U.S. Senate rejected, for a second time, the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 49 in favor, 35 against, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval. 

On this date: 

In 1859, the opera “Faust” by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris. 

In 1917, the Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour work day for railroads. 

In 1918, Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time. 

In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling. 

In 1941, Jimmy Dorsey and Orchestra recorded “Green Eyes” and “Maria Elena” for Decca Records. 

In 1945, about 800 people were killed as Kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan; the ship, however, was saved. 

In 1945, Adolf Hitler issued his so-called “Nero Decree,” ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands. 

In 1951, Herman Wouk’s war novel “The Caine Mutiny” was first published. 

In 1976, Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage. 

In 1979, the U.S. House of Representatives began televising its day-to-day business. 

Ten years ago: Democrat Paul Tsongas pulled out of the presidential race, leaving Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton the clear favorite to capture their party’s nomination. 

Five years ago: Following the withdrawal of Anthony Lake, President Clinton nominated acting CIA Director George Tenet to head the nation’s spy agency. President Clinton departed Washington for his summit in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Artist Willem de Kooning, considered one of the 20th century’s greatest painters, died in East Hampton, N.Y., at age 92. 

One year ago: California officials declared a power alert, ordering the first of two days of rolling blackouts. 

Today’s Birthdays: Former White House national security adviser Brent Scowcroft is 77. Actor-director Patrick McGoohan is 74. Theologian Hans Kung is 74. Author Philip Roth is 69. Actress Renee Taylor is 69. Actress-singer Phyllis Newman is 67. Actress Ursula Andress is 66. Singer Clarence “Frogman” Henry is 65. Rock musician Paul Atkinson (The Zombies) is 56. Singer Ruth Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) is 56. Actress Glenn Close is 55. Actor Bruce Willis is 47. Rock musician Gert Bettens (K’s Choice) is 32. Actor Craig Lamar Traylor (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 13.

Berkeley could soon join cities like San Francisco that regularly set aside a car-free area, if a project presented last week to the city’s Transportation Commission is given the green light. 

At Thursday night’s meeting, Transportation Commissioner Dean Metzger proposed that, as part of the national Try Transit Week, a rectangle of downtown Berkeley could be reserved for buses, bicycles and pedestrians on Sept. 7 and 8 at the end of that special week. 

The car-free area would be bordered by University Avenue, Oxford Street, Bancroft Way and Milvia Street. 

Though many people have complained – loudly – about the city’s transit situation, Metzger said he has seen very little leadership in the matter. The city usually does nothing for Try Transit Week, so Metzger thought he would put forth a concrete proposal. 

He also named the groups that would need to be involved: the city, UC Berkeley, AC Transit and several citizens’ groups. 

“It’s an attempt to see if there’s support for a car-free downtown,” he said. 

If the weekend is successful, Metzger said, Berkeley could hold an event like this once a month or once every three months. 

Dave Campbell, president of the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition said he liked the idea of a car-free day and pointed to the success of car-free Sundays in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. 

“We’re taught that the roadway is for vehicles and for vehicles only, that it is not part of the community,” said Campbell.  

“This would return the streets to the community.” 

But businesses like the Santa Fe Bistro, whose patrons are very likely to drive in to downtown, are concerned that a car-free downtown could affect business.  

“If they provide parking spaces for people, it could be a good thing. But considering the shortage of parking spaces at present, it could be a problem,” said the bistro’s manager, Mohsen Kamrani. 

Kamrani’s concerns were echoed by the merchant’s group, Downtown Berkeley Association. 

“The car-free weekend would have to be well-publicized in advance,” said Deborah Bahdia, the association’s executive director. 

“Some customers might now know in advance, get angry, turn around and decide never to come back to downtown. That’s how some people make decisions,” she said. 

Bahdia said she only became aware of the idea on Sunday, but hopes that if the project goes through, the DBA will be involved. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, whose district includes the downtown area in Metzger’s proposal, said that while she was fond of the idea, the city would have to make sure to involve the businesses. 

“Saturday is a big day for businesses in downtown Berkeley,” she said. “A lot of people go shopping on Saturday so they have to try to be sensitive to businesses that need to clear a profit each day,” said Spring. 

Peter Hillier, assistant city manager for transportation, cautioned that the proposal was still in the early stages. 

Although the commission deemed Metzger’s plan interesting enough to think about, it has not yet begun to hammer out the devilish details. 

“What is critical is the extensive planning,” said Hillier. “It is key that stakeholders are part of the planning process.” 

“But the likelihood that it is done this year is really slim,” he said.  

Hillier said that his office is so busy with other transit projects in the works – including talks with AC Transit about shortening bus routes to keep them on schedule and expanding the Eco Pass program for free AC Transit rides – that the car-free weekend is not a high priority. 

Metzger said that a subcommittee meeting on Thursday can move the process along, but he was not optimistic that anything could be decided before the next Transportation Committee meeting in late April.

OSAKA, Japan — Berkeley activists have no idea. Sure, we realize our efforts at building a more just, barrier-free, environmentally sound community have made a difference in the lives of people living in our town. We may even realize that some other U.S. communities have adopted a few of our better ideas. 

But here in Japan, halfway around the world in a country whose culture pre-dates ours by thousands of years, peace and justice activists have elevated our fair city to a virtual Valhallah, and have dedicated themselves to emulating our way of life. 

I am in Japan at the invitation and expense of Linking Peace and Life (LPL), a grassroots group that brings together activists focused on a range of progressive causes. I will be meeting with activists and public officials in Osaka, Sakai, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kobe, and Hirakata through March 25. 

Afghanistan Resolution Attracts Attention 

Berkeley first came to LPL’s attention in late September, when our City Council passed (just barely) a resolution condemning the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and calling for an end to the bombing of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Since that time, LPL has sent a succession of delegations to Berkeley to express their thanks and to study our approaches to environmental protection, disability rights, homelessness, and ethnic harmony. (They love the multi-ethnic theme of our city logo.) Most particularly, they are fascinated by Berkeley’s extensive system of citizen advisory commissions. 

Their awe of our community can be discerned in the title of the peace conference at which I spoke Sunday: “Advance with Berkeley To Create Peaceful Communities.” Though our town may seem far from perfect to us, in the eyes of these Japanese justice advocates we are a powerful inspiration. Seeing the meeting rooms adorned with the Berkeley logo, hearing the speeches peppered with frequent references to “Buh-kuh-lee,” meeting public officials and community leaders who look to us for inspiration and guidance, one is overwhelmed by the impact our local efforts are having on this side of the international dateline. 

Young People Especially Inspired 

Among the activists I've met in my first two days in Osaka, I've been heartened by the young people who are particularly enamored of Berkeley and seek to learn from us how to organize for social change. 

Tetsu Okada, 18, feels he was born 40 years too late and on the wrong side of the Pacific. Inspired by reading Berkeley in the ‘60s and studying the hippie govement (which, he says, inspired his long hair), the philosophy graduate student hopes someday to live in a commune, but worries that flower-power ideals may have been found to be unrealistic. Speaking fluent English peppered with frequent exclamations of “that’s cool,” he plans to move to London and volunteer with homeless activists in the squatter’s movement. (Osaka has about 6,000 homeless, according to an LPL official.) He is seeking contacts with Berkeley co-housing communities and with Berkeleyans promoting alternative energy. 

Miha Kawashima, a personal aide to disabled people in Kyoto, is organizing the Earth Day parade in her city on April 21, and hopes to have an exchange of greetings between that event and Berkeley’s Earth Day festival. She is interested in promoting community self-governance, and in protecting the dugong, the manatee-like sea mammal whose habitat is threatened by U.S. plans for a new military base off the coast of Okinawa at Japan's southern end. 

According to Misao Inoue, the LPL leader who invited me and is coordinating my visit, the influx of young activists into the Japanese peace-and-justice community began after Sept. 11, as cynicism has given way to heightened desire to take action. To make the younger activists welcome, grassroots organizations have adjusted their meeting styles, abandoning the formal, highly structured speech-making format in favor of dialogue interspersed with protest songs, skits, and cultural performances. Public outreach activities have included setting up wireless Internet terminals in public places where passersby can stop and send messages to public officials. LPL has gathered thousands of petition signatures since Sept. 11 and held major demonstrations, including one that numbered in the thousands. 

City-Level Strategy Inspired by Berkeley 

Japanese peace activists, whose efforts in the past have been more symbolic and educational, are now working overtime to develop approaches that can change national and international policies. To LPL’s strategists, Berkeley’s actions are a guide. In Japan, citizen input at the national level is quite limited. Policies are set by the political parties, and elected officials rarely stray from them.  

Legislators seldom speak at public events or meet with citizens. Inspired by Berkeley, LPL has devised a strategy of pressuring local governments to take stands on national and global issues as a way to affect Japan’s national leadership. It may prove more effective here than in the U.S. 

The effort is already showing results. Hidetoshi Oguri, an LPL member from Tokyo, said the Tokyo city council adopted his group’s Afghanistan proposal unanimously. Considering the 5-4 vote in Berkeley, perhaps we're observing another instance of the old maxim, “the student soon surpasses the teacher.” 

Steve Freedkin, a member of Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission and publisher of the activist Web site ProgressivePortal.org, is in Japan for 11 days of meetings with grassroots activists and public officials.

LOS ANGELES — Against a backdrop of bloody autopsy pictures, a prosecutor implored jurors Monday to convict two San Francisco dog owners in the mauling death of a neighbor, calling the animals “time bombs.” 

“There were earlier explosions but this time they killed a woman,” Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer told the jury, which was expected to hear defense arguments later in the day and begin deliberations on Tuesday. 

Holding up a cast of the gaping teeth of the dog that killed Diane Whipple, the prosecutor pointed to the defendants and said, “Do not let them get away with their lies and don’t let Marjorie Knoller get away with murder.” 

Knoller, an attorney, is charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and owning a mischievous dog that killed a person. She could receive 15 years in prison if convicted. Her husband, Robert Noel, also an attorney, is charged with the latter two crimes and faces up to four years if convicted. 

Hammer recounted a television interview in which Knoller was asked if she took responsibility for Whipple’s death. 

“And cold as ice she said, ’No, she should have closed her door. That’s what I would have done,”’ Hammer said. 

Hammer ridiculed Knoller’s testimony in which she painted herself as a hero who tried to save the life of Whipple, 33, who was mauled as she brought groceries to her San Francisco apartment on Jan. 26, 2001. 

Knoller claimed she threw her body on top of Whipple’s to protect her from the raging dog, Bane, one of two massive presa canario dogs the couple kept. 

But it was too late by then, Hammer argued, asserting that Knoller and Noel should have already been aware that their dogs could become killers at any moment. 

He showed ajurors charts recounting the testimony of more than 30 witnesses who said that Bane and the other dog, Hera, lunged at them, barked and growled, in one case bit a man, and terrorized people in their building and outside. 

“By Jan. 26 it was not a question of whether someone was going to be mauled,” Hammer said. ”... The only question was when and who and where. That is the issue in this case: What did they know before Jan. 26? They knew they couldn’t control the dogs and they knew what the dogs could do.” 

Hammer pointed to a letter in which Knoller said that if Bane were to get away from her she could not stop him, and comments by Noel that his wife alone could not control the dogs. 

Nevertheless, he said, Noel left their apartment that morning, leaving his wife alone to take care of Bane and Hera. 

“That was reckless and flagrant disregard because they didn’t give a damn about people,” the prosecutor said. 

Holding up the mold of Bane’s teeth, he said, “With the size of these teeth and what these teeth have already done ... that is 100 percent notice of the danger of these dogs and it didn’t mean a damn thing to them.” 

The prosecutor showed a picture of Noel’s nearly severed finger, taken after he was bitten by Bane while trying to break up a dog fight. He also showed photos of Knoller’s cut hands after Whipple’s death. The defendant claimed the injuries were the result of trying to save Whipple. 

“My mother gets worse wounds gardening,” the prosecutor said. “Compare those to what happened to Diane Whipple.” 

With that he projected on a huge screen the gruesome, bloody photos of Whipple’s mangled neck, bitten arms and legs and crushed larynx. 

Hammer also said it did not matter that Noel was not present during the fatal attack because he set events in motion by his earlier actions. 

He said the entire tragedy began when Knoller and Noel became involved with two Pelican Bay State Prison inmates who had a plan to raise guard dogs for the benefit of the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent prison gang. 

“These prisoners didn’t choose poodles,” he said. “They didn’t chose lap dogs. They wanted tough dogs. Presa canarios were meaner than pit bulls.” 

Knowing all of that, he said, Knoller and Noel agreed to raise the dogs. 

DALY CITY — A woman and her two young sons died Monday when they were overcome by thick smoke while trying to escape an apartment fire, officials said. 

The 34-year-old woman and the boys, ages 3 and 6, were found in a second-floor hallway. Four other residents were taken to hospitals for treatment, according to Daly City Fire Marshal David Dewey. 

The three succumbed to smoke inhalation in a stairwell after smoke from the fire poured through an open fire door on the second floor, Dewey said. 

“It was really needless. People made a tragic decision and went from and area that was safe into an area that was not safe,” Dewey said. The woman’s mother, who stayed in the apartment and went to the balcony, survived. 

The victims’ names were being withheld pending notification of family members, Dewey said. 

About 50 firefighters battled the four-alarm blaze, which began around 2:30 a.m. It was contained about 4 a.m. 

No firefighters were injured in the fire, which apparently broke out on the second floor of the building and burned up into the third floor, Dewey said. 

Investigators suspect the origin may have been a malfunction in a lamp in a second-floor unit, though the damage in the apartment was so bad that was little evidence left, according to Dewey. 

Thirty people were displaced by the flames. They were taken by bus to the nearby Serramonte Shopping Center to be fed and interviewed by investigators. 

SAN JOSE — Hoping to gain a foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing Internet markets, online auctioneer eBay Inc. has bought a 33 percent stake in Chinese auction site EachNet. 

Ebay said Sunday it will invest $30 million in EachNet, the leading online trading community in China with 3.5 million registered users. 

San Jose-based eBay, which has more than 42 million registered users around the world, has been eagerly eyeing more Asian expansion. 

“Over the next three to four years, China’s e-commerce revenue is projected to grow nearly twelvefold to more than $16 billion,” said Meg Whitman, eBay’s president and chief executive. “Together with EachNet, eBay will be well positioned to help develop this emerging market and benefit from its growth long term.” 

The EachNet deal is eBay’s second move in Asia in less than a month. 

In February, eBay said it would acquire Taiwanese auction site NeoCom Technology Co. Ltd., paying $9.5 million in cash and a yet-to-be determined amount of working capital. NeoCom claims to be the leading Internet auction company in Taiwan as measured by the total value of goods bought and sold on the site. 

And a year ago, eBay acquired a majority stake in South Korea’s largest online auction business, Internet Auction Co. Ltd., for about $120 million. 

Ebay entered the Japanese market in 2000 but will close that site on March 31 in a rare sign of defeat. Even without charging user fees there, eBay ranked a distant fourth in the market and never got close to Yahoo! Japan Corp., which is that country’s No. 1 player in online auctions. 

Today, China has more than 27 million consumers online, making it the world’s fifth-largest Internet population behind the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. 

Citing market research from the International Data Corp., eBay said China is the fourth largest e-commerce market in Asia, and its online commerce is expected to nearly double every year for the next four years. 

“Ebay is preparing for the growth there though it’s still a question of when the market will really take off,” said Jeetil Patel, analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. “But it’s better for eBay to be early than late.” 

Patel said eBay could even hasten the growth in the China e-commerce market by bringing its online expertise. 

EachNet was founded in Shanghai in August 1999 by two U.S.-educated Chinese entrepreneurs, Bo Shao and Haiyin Tan. 

Under the deal with EachNet, eBay will have the right to further expand ownership. Whitman and Matt Bannick, senior vice president of eBay’s international business, will join EachNet’s board of directors. 

EBay said the investment is not expected to have a material impact on net revenue or operating expenses this year. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.ebay.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — Bank of America offered more apologies than explanations Monday for a computer failure that temporarily blocked electronic deposits to customers in California, Nevada and Arizona during the weekend. 

A data processing problem prevented the Charlotte, N.C.-based company from registering direct deposits that were supposed to transfer Friday night to thousands of customer accounts. The glitch alarmed customers who checked their balances Saturday only to discover the money wasn’t in their accounts. 

By switching to a backup system, BofA credited the deposits to affected accounts by early Sunday morning, spokesman Harvey Radin said. The bank wouldn’t say how many customers were affected by the outage. The Los Angeles Times reported about 1.1 million BofA customers didn’t get their money on time. 

BofA plans to reimburse customers for any fees they may be charged because of the late deposits. 

The weekend lapse is unlikely to cause mass customer defections from BofA, predicted industry analyst Joseph Morford. 

“It’s just part of the price people pay to have an account at a big bank,” he said. “The service can be disappointing at times.” 

The breakdown shouldn’t raise concerns about the reliability of BofA’s direct deposit system, Radin said. 

“Hopefully, this won’t shake anyone’s confidence in direct deposit. It’s a great service,” he said. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.bankofamerica.com 

CUPERTINO — The five-month fight over the computer industry’s biggest merger neared its conclusion Monday with Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq Computer Corp. and dissident HP director Walter Hewlett making last-minute bids for investor support. 

HP’s shareholder vote last Tuesday shaped up as one of the closest corporate elections in history. HP and Hewlett both claimed to have momentum, but would not publicly predict victory. 

Like political candidates on election eve, Hewlett, HP chief Carly Fiorina and Compaq CEO Michael Capellas hit the phones to lobby big shareholders who might not have made up their minds. 

“This company has a lot of investors, and every one of them is going to count,” said Hewlett spokesman Todd Glass. 

HP believes buying Compaq, in a stock deal now worth $21 billion, would give it more complete technology packages for corporate customers, improve the economics of its struggling personal-computer division and squeeze out $2.5 billion in annual cost savings. 

Hewlett, son of one of HP’s late co-founders, says HP is overpaying for Compaq, would get bogged down selling low-margin PCs and services, and can’t afford to risk the complex integration of the companies’ massive organizations. 

The company and Hewlett have swamped HP’s 900,000 shareholders with letters, advertisements, telemarketers’ phone calls and multiple ballots, since investors can change their votes as many times as they want, with only the last one counting. 

Most investors have mailed their proxies, but at least 1,000 shareholders are expected to come to an auditorium in Cupertino to cast their votes in person today. 

Many Hewlett supporters have told his advisers they will wear green T-shirts in honor of the green proxy card they will cast against the deal. The company’s proxy cards are white. 

Fiorina will begin the meeting by declaring the polls open and making a presentation. Hewlett will get to speak next — though HP noted that it didn’t legally have to give Hewlett any time at all. Fiorina will take questions from the audience. The event could last a few hours. 

Afterward, HP or Hewlett will claim victory or say the race is too close to call. In either case, the results will not be official for weeks, because independent proxy counters painstakingly will have to verify each vote. Each side also can challenge whether the proper person signed a particular proxy form. 

While the shareholder meeting will provide some insight into what some individual owners of the company think of Fiorina’s and Hewlett’s ideas, the event’s significance is limited, said Charles Rutstein, an analyst at Forrester Research. 

“I think it’s symbolic, but nothing more,” he said. “The decisions are being made outside that room, not inside that room.” 

Indeed, many investors already have made their decisions — and an unusual amount of them have disclosed their positions. 

Including the Hewlett and Packard families and foundations, about 22 percent of HP stock has already come out against the acquisition. About 9 percent has said it is in favor. 

HP executives believe a “silent majority” of investors will approve the deal, but Hewlett’s camp also is encouraged by the number of no votes found in the proxies already mailed in. 

Rarely do proxy fights turn into such cliffhangers, said Charles Elson, director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. 

“Usually you get a pretty good sense of how it’s going to go one or two days out. The fact that neither side is claiming victory shows that this ranks up there as one of the closer ones,” Elson said. “It’s going to go down to the wire.” 

No such mystery surrounds Compaq’s stockholder vote Wednesday in Houston. The deal is expected to be overwhelmingly approved there, largely because of the premium HP is paying for Compaq shares. 

Befitting the bruising nature of the proxy fight, the final day before the HP vote featured a squabble over each side’s public statements. 

Hewlett said HP insulted its individual shareholders when an undisclosed member of the company’s camp told a newspaper that HP was winning support from “elephants” — big investors — but was “getting eaten alive by the fleas.” Hewlett demanded an apology. HP denied the statement was made by anyone at the company. 

HP shares rose 20 cents, about 1 percent, to $19.25 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, where Compaq gained 3 cents to $10.36. 

That widened the gap between Compaq’s price and what HP would pay for its shares — indicating an increase in Wall Street’s belief the deal will be rejected. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Pro-merger site: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Opposition site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

Dr. Amichai Kronfeld called the publishing of a quarter-page advertisement in the New York Times condemning the Israeli occupation a modest contribution to an ongoing struggle.  

Kronfeld, one of four Bay Area residents spearheading the Jewish Voices Against Israel’s Occupation (JVAO) group, saw a nine-month project reach one of its goals Sunday in the publishing of the ad that summarized its position on the conflict in Israel, and ended with three simple statements: The Settlements must go. The Occupation must end. There can be no peace without Justice. 

A recent letter to the Berkeley Daily planet and other responses the JVAO’s position has received from the Jewish community indicate an enormous diversity of opinion within the community.  

The letter, which would represent the extreme in some of this dialogue spoke of “ the covert and overt tide of the Bay Area anti-Semitism,” and referred to militant “ pro-Palestinians” as “self-hating Jews” and “Uncle Isaacs.”  

But Kronfeld says in response to that no one Jew has the right to dictate how all Jews respond or behave. 

“I’ve earned the right to criticize Israel,” he said. “ It’s not a matter of self-hating. It’s a brutal occupation that is going on. It’s clear who is being occupied and who has all of the power.”  

Dr. Bluma Goldstein, a former Berkeley professor of German Literature and Philosophy, and the chair of the Jewish Studies program there from 1995-2000, echoed Kronfeld’s opinion of the diversity of opinions within the Jewish community about Israeli occupation. 

“I think there are a lot of Jews in the area who have a lot of different opinions,” Goldstein said. “It’s difficult to say. The problem arises when someone believes he can speak for all Jews, and that anyone who disagrees needs to be eliminated or cast out. I find that very problematic.”  

According to Kronfeld, it was Goldstein, a long-time political activist, who hatched the idea for the Times advertisement. The two of them, along with Dr. David Glick and Annette Herskovits, not only had to reach a group consensus on the issues at hand, but also needed to raise a sizable amount of capital. 

A full-page ad in the Sunday Times Op-Ed section runs for $114,000. But with the backing of more than 600 supporters — all reporting to be Jewish — as well as a plug for the group in the most recent issue of The Nation, the funding came through. 

“We decided on the Times because it has the broadest base,” said Goldstein. “We started with the idea of a full-page ad, but decided in the end that we needed to cut it down. Fortunately, we got a lot of help from a lot of people.”  

“I’m so happy we were able to pull it together,” said Kronfeld. When we began, we thought, ‘How expensive could this really be?’ We were kind of naive when we started out.”  

Kronfeld is Israeli and fought in both the Six Days’ War of 1967 and the October War in 1973.  

The group’s mission began last June. The unforeseen events of Sept. 11th only intensified the urgency of their message. Since then, increased violence and the perception that the conflict is moving further from resolution has given the JVAO’s message even more relevance, according to Kronfeld. 

“If anything, September 11th proved to us that a resolution in the Middle East was not only a moral imperative, but also essential to the security of the United States,” Kronfeld said. 

The JVAO advocates the establishment of an international peacekeeping force in the region as well as an end to further Israeli occupation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.  

But the group “ as Jews and U.S. tax-payers” also calls upon the American government to suspend military aid and reduce financial aid until an evacuation of the occupied areas is completed. The funds should then be redirected toward aiding the “devastated infrastructure of Palestine.”  

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority should “make every effort to curtail acts of violence against Israeli civilians. 

Both Kronfeld and Goldstein say that a move back to the pre-1967 borders is the most integral step in the progress of peace, followed by the eventual development of a two-state agreement. In order for this to happen, the United States must play a larger, more active role. 

Kronfeld feels any problems concerning the legitimacy of the American Jewish perspective on issues so geographically removed, don’t apply in his case. 

“It’s not just the Palestinians who deserve better. The Israelis are not living in paradise.”  

As for potential opposition to the JVAO ideology in the Berkeley area, Goldstein told of a past lecture at the Berkeley International House by Palestinian activist Hanan Aschwari, who has made an appearance on the McNeil-Lehrer Report in support of the Palestinian cause.  

“There were a few students definitely there to disrupt things,” Goldstein said. “There’s no question that there is a group of students heavily supported by the Jewish Federation.  

“But that sort of thing, again, is just a section of the population.”

Editor: 

We are the grand children of death camp survivors transplanted to the United States. Our homes were in Russia, the Middle East, Spain, and Germany. We are the wandering jews and along the horizon there is a beacon... Israel. A place ripe for transplantation.  

Our fellow jews emigrated there in huge numbers, back to the welcoming bossom of our true mother country. Recently though, our mother has been villanized for fending for her children.  

Jews from all over the United States are chatising their mother, chanting “accept us but, do not defend us.”  

These are jews who want their culture dilluted with the blood of their country men, jews that hang Chanukah lights from their window in December. Something must be done, our culture has never taken to destroying itself from within. We must instill pride in our fellow jews for their culture and their mother country.  

It is time to accept invitation of our mother country and defend her like we would our own.  

Gabe Kurtz  

student, uc berkeley 

Monday, March 18

Conscientious Objection to  

War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will discuss the 1965 United States Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction of Daniel A. Seeger. Also a reading and discussion of Seeger’s pamphlet, The Seed and the Tree.  

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home 

Owners Committee 

1:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office 

1403 Addison St. 

Finding good repair people, good tenants, locating resources for low and middle income home owners. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com. 

Thwarting the Next Energy  

Crisis 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School Room 7 

1222 University Ave. 

Learn to install your own basic home weatherization measures. Class will 

cover selection of materials and the proper installation of door weather 

stripping, attic insulation, duct tape, caulking and more. Lecture includes 

hands-on demonstrations. 981-5435, Energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Self Help Strategies and  

Techniques from Feldenkrais  

and Pilates 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates, Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Arthritis Foundation Northern California Chapter fibromyalgia support group. 644-3273.  

The Destruction of Land and  

People: The Industry of  

Genocide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor of  

Martin Luther King Jr. Student 

Union Building  

Second symposium of the annual Breaking the Cycle, Mending the Circle Conference: Contemporary Issues of Genocide. This particular symposium is entitled The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide. 642-4270.  

Wednesday, Mar. 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

Compiled by Guy Poole 

After scoring just six runs in their last three games, the Berkeley Yellowjackets finally found their offense on Saturday against Bishop O’Dowd, raking 11 hits on the way to an 11-5 win in Oakland. 

Clinton Calhoun led the ’Jackets with three hits and four RBIs, and Cole Stipovich and Sean Souders combined to hold the Dragons to five runs despite some shaky defensive support early in the game. 

Saturday’s win was a result of Berkeley’s depth, with eight starters getting at least one hit. With young players like Kory Hong and Jonathon Smith making contributions at the bottom of the order, the ’Jackets have the luxury of solid hitters at every spot. 

“This is exactly what I expected from this team,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. “We are so deep, we even have solid bats on the bench.” 

Especially pleasing to Moellering was the output of Calhoun, the No. 3 batter in the order who had been struggling to start the season. With RBI singles in the first and fifth innings already under his belt, Calhoun went deep in the seventh, smacking a ball off the top of the fence in right field, the deepest part of the O’Dowd field. 

“We’ve been doing a lot of situation hitting in practice, and I’m more comfortable going to the opposite field now,” said Calhoun, who also laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt in the fourth inning. 

Leadoff hitter Lee Franklin also provided a charge, starting the game with a ringing double off of O’Dowd starter Tony Amato and scoring on a Calhoun single. Franklin also doubled during the five-run fourth inning and made a circus catch on a flare down the rightfield line from his second base position. 

The Berkeley defense made things tough on Stipovich to start the game. The ’Jackets’ two-run lead in the first was quickly in jeopardy when third baseman DeAndre Miller muffed a grounder by O’Dowd leadoff hitter Dominic Ruma. Berkeley rightfielder Jeremy LeBeau then lost a pop-fly in the sun after heading out without sunglasses, and the bases were loaded with just one out. A wild pitch brought Ruma home, and Nick Meyers hit a double to the gap in right to plate two more runs for a 3-2 lead. 

Hong and Smith hit singles in the second and scored on a Franklin groundout and a Miller single, respectively, but the Dragons again took advantage of Berkeley errors to tie the game in the bottom half. Miller overthrew first base on a Ruma grounder, and Ruma all the way around to score on a Steve Singleton sacrifice bunt that Miller threw into right field. LeBeau backed up the play, but his throw to third was wild as well. Stipovich managed to get out of the inning with no further damage, but his high pitch count through three innings caused Moellering to pull him in favor of Souders, who allowed just one run in his four innings of work. 

The ’Jackets, meanwhile, drove Amato from the game in the fourth, batting around on the strength of five hits and Calhoun’s squeeze. Reliever Sean Hunter wasn’t much more successful, giving up three runs in just 1 2/3 innings of work. 

Saturday also marked the long-awaited return of Berkeley’s Jeremy Riesenfeld to behind the plate. A senior, Riesenfeld was slated to be the starter at catcher last season but suffered a shoulder injury early in the year. Two surgeries later, he finally returned to a pinch-hitting role to start this season, but his throwing shoulder is still only at about 80 percent. A gifted receiver, Riesenfeld will get spot duty behind the plate while he works his arm strength back. 

“It feels good to get back behind the plate, but I’m a little timid with my arm,” Riesenfeld said after catching the final inning. “Hopefully I’ll get some more time back there next week.” 

On Friday, amid warning that thousands of California children may fail to meet tough new education standards, Assembly Majority Whip Wilma Chan called for major changes in early education and health services for children. 

Chan, D-Oakland and Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on California Children'’s School Readiness and Health partnered with Stuart Richardson, Healthy Start coordinator at Fruitvale Elementary School in Oakland and Nancy Waltz, president of the San Juan Teachers Association at the Friday press conference. 

The three described challenges teachers face in the classroom when children come to school without proper preparation and health care they need to succeed. They also detailed collateral problems to inadequate health care such as repeat tardiness and absence. 

The Preparing Our Children to Learn report and legislative recommendations grew out of hearings held last fall and early this winter in Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles and Salinas - the first hearings ever convened to look at how a child's health status affects their ability to do well in school.  

Many of the recommendations have since been translated into proposed legislation. 

• Requiring that HMOs cover the cost of expectant mothers' visit to a pediatrician before the baby is born so that they can help the baby in his/her first months.  

• Requiring HMOs to cover the cost of dental sealants to reduce dental decay. 

• Expanding mandatory vision screening for children entering school to include all vision impairments and requiring dental exams when children enter pre-school. 

• Expanding dental insurance to low income working families whom may have general health insurance from work, but lack dental coverage. 

• Requiring that counties, Children and Families Commissions and mental health providers work collaboratively to increase mental health services and maximize utilization of existing (but not spent) funds for mental health services to young children. 

• Increasing training for teachers and child care providers so they can better help young children transition from home, to pre-school, to kindergarten.  

•Increasing training to help teachers and child care providers recognize and refer children who are in need of physical, nutritional or mental health services. 

• Reducing malnutrition and obesity by requiring schools to offer nutrition classes. 

• Developing 'one stop' family resource centers at school and health sites to provide family-friendly, coordinated health, education and social services assistance to families. 

• Bringing together state children's services, currently scattered between numerous agencies, programs and departments into a single Department of Children's Services, modeled after the Department of Aging and Long Term Care, to provide for better services. 

The report cites testimony such as nearly half of kindergarten teachers report that half or more of their students come to school with social or emotional problems. In addition, more than half of children ages 6-8 suffer from untreated dental disease.  

Education continues to be the most politicized issue in California today. Last year, a public opinion poll by the Public Policy Institute of California indicated that education ranked equally with the economy and electricity as the top three issues facing California.  

Editor: 

By increasing density who is denying Ms. Benson or any other homeowner of their yard space and fruit trees? (Homeowners Should Protect Their Land, March 15, 2002).  

Homeowners want to protect their land? Build a fence. 

Too many homeowners are under mistaken impression that not only do they have the right to determine what takes place on their own property but that they have the right to determine what can take place on their neighbors' property as well!  

If they don't like it, they feel, well then it should not be allowed to be built. Sorry folks, in this country we don't have a system where one property owner or even a group of property owners (e.g., a neighborhood association) gets to determine what goes on in the surrounding neighborhood. Shock of shocks! You mean the homeowners (or even renters) are not sovereign?  

Remember, we live in a representative democracy. Homeowners and the rest of us delegate our authority to our elected representatives to make decisions as to what can be undertaken or built elsewhere in the neighborhood. We, as individual or organized homeowners don't have the right to determine what can and cannot be built next door, short of a citizen's initiative. So, don't like what you're seeing? Recall your elected representatives. 

Circulate a ballot imitative. Short of that? Build a fence.  

Felix Richardson 

Berkeley  

Cal held scoreless for 9 1/2 minutes in second half of NCAA loss 

PITTSBURGH – There’s no ’D’ in Pittsburgh, but try telling that to Cal’s can’t-score Golden Bears. 

Pitt held Cal without a point for 9 1/2 minutes during a decisive 16-0 run, and the defense-driven Panthers moved into the South Regional semifinals with a 63-50 victory Sunday. 

Julius Page scored seven of his 17 points during that spurt, which began with Cal leading 32-28 with 16:40 remaining and ended with Pitt up 44-32 with 7:08 left. The Golden Bears went more than 11 minutes without scoring a basket, and 15-plus minutes with only one basket. 

Pitt third-team All-American Brandin Knight was an all-over-the-floor force with 11 points and seven assists, but he wasn’t really a factor offensively – not that he needed to be with Pitt’s defense so dominating, so controlling. 

The Steelers had the Steel Curtain during the 1970s, and now Pitt has the Steal Curtain – a suffocating, Knight-led defense that is the school’s best in 50 years, and one that held Cal to only six baskets in the final 16:40 of play. 

By winning twice within a mile of its campus, third-seeded Pitt (29-5) advances to the regional semifinals for only the second time in school history, and the first time since losing to David Thompson’s sky-walking North Carolina State Wolfpack in the 1974 regional finals. Until now, that was the only Pitt team to win two games in an NCAA tournament. 

Now the Panthers will play 10th-seeded Kent State on Thursday in Lexington, Ky. 

Good college basketball teams aren’t supposed to win when shooting 43 percent or making only 12-of-26 free throws or getting so little offense from their star, as Pitt did. 

Of course, skilled teams such as sixth-seeded Cal (23-9) – which beat UCLA twice – are supposed to make more than three of their first 20 shots in a half. The Bears, growing increasingly frustrated the longer they failed to score, were only 9-of-31 (29 percent) in the second half and 18-of-58 (31 percent) overall. 

Only Shantay Legans (13 points) and Joe Shipp (11 points) scored in double figures for the Bears, who were only 4-of-24 from 3-point range. 

Chevy Troutman, a freshman making only his second career start, added 11 points for Pitt, and Ontario Lett outmuscled Cal’s bigger front line for 10 points in Pitt’s biggest victory in more than a quarter-century. The Panthers won for the 11th time in 12 games and 14th time in 16 games. 

Pitt, playing Cal for the first time in 51 years, made a surprise adjustment to the Bears’ size advantage by benching 6-foot-10 center Toree Morris and opening with a lineup in which no starter was taller than 6-8. 

That didn’t keep Cal from opening an 8-5 lead, but Pitt answered with a 7-0 run to go up 12-8. 

In a game in which two of the nation’s top defenses were as dominant as the offenses in UCLA’s 105-101 upset of Cincinnati on the same floor earlier Sunday, neither team led by more than four points in the first half. Pitt led 26-25 at the break. 

It clearly was a pro-Pitt crowd in a sold-out Mellon Arena – any Panthers’ run brought resounding waves of noise, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as if the game had been played on their home court a mile away. 

Cal coach Ben Braun tried to downplay Pitt’s hometown advantage, no doubt trying to convince the Bears that the atmosphere was less hostile than some of the Pac-10 courts where they play.

By Molly Bentley 

Special to the Planet 

George Nervez, the editor of the Filipino Guardian, leaned back in his chair in his home-office and recalled a friend’s advice after September 11. “ ‘Shave your beard,’ the friend said. He’d look less like a terrorist.  

The beard stayed put. But like many other Filipinos, Nervez, who has lived in the United States for 16 years, said the post-September climate has affected him and the 378,000 Filipinos, the majority of them Catholic. 

He now avoids airports, he said. He doesn’t fly, and he “doesn’t want to” because he’s heard too many stories of ethnic profiling.  

People are stopped for extensive questioning if they are Filipino, Arab, Mexican, or just darker-than-Caucasian, he said. Friends who have returned from the Philippines have told him they’ve had a hard time getting back into the country. They all have green cards.  

“Even if the stories aren’t true,” Nervez said. “They feed into an insecurity.” And, he added, “People won’t go home because they might have a hard time coming back.”  

Unlike, Arab-Americans, Filipinos in California generally are not targets of violence, said Nervez, but six months after the attacks in New York and Washington, Bay Area Filipinos say a sense of mistrust endures. Filipinos, along with other non-Caucasians endure a profiling, by “the color of their skin,” that makes them suspect to some Americans.  

He points to the defeat of Proposition C, in last week’s election, as an example of an anti-immigrant mentality. Proposition C would have allowed non-citizen San Francisco residents to serve on local boards and commissions. Nervez says the defeat of the bill is “pitiful” because many non-citizen immigrants are qualified and enthusiastic about serving on local boards. 

Nervez said, however, that the more immediate impact is economic. Although the recession has hurt everyone in the Bay Area, when the pink slips came in Silicon Valley or after September 11, some Filipinos had to leave. Without a sponsoring company, non- U.S. residents were forced to return to the Philippines, he said 

In addition, a new federal law that requires all airport screener to be U.S. citizens has directly affected the Filipino community. Activists predict that 4,500 workers will lose their job in the Bay Area; eighty percent of them Filipino, according Kawal Ulanday, a spokesperson for Filipinos for Affirmative Action. Of those, 90 percent of are non-citizens.  

Nervez says the new law “didn’t target Filipinos directly,” but has affected them disproportionately. His daughter, Gwen Flores, who works at the Filipino Guardian, is less charitable. She says that the passage of the Transportation Security Act, is a deliberate strike against immigrants.  

“It’s a major injustice,” she said. “It shows you how paranoid people can be. Immigrants are used as scapegoats and they are the first to go.” The Department of Transportation spokesperson Jim Mitchell said that the law is not designed to target immigrants but to create a professional security force. 

The law nationalizes airport security entirely by November 19th. Non-citizen screeners, even if legal immigrants could start receiving pink slips anytime, according to Ulanday. 

Not everyone in the Filipino community has had a bad experience.  

A Filipino man in his fifties, who didn’t want to be identified because his immigration status is pending, said he flew to California from the Philippines six months ago. He was on route to New York where a job awaited. Having taken “the last plane from the Philippines to SFO” that day, he and his wife landed at San Francisco International airport the evening of September 10th. They stayed the night in Daly City. 

“We woke up to the news of the attacks in our hotel,” he said. All U.S. flights were grounded for the next few days. The man said he couldn’t fly to New York or back to the Philippines. He and his wife discussed a future in the new America.  

“Do we want to live here with this situation?” he said they asked each other, as the news of the attacks consumed the nation. They decided to stay.  

“If this can happen in the U.S., it can happen anywhere,” he said. The United States, he figured, was as safe a place as any.  

In the week they waited for flights to resume, his wife fell in love with California. They cancelled their East Coast plans. The Bay Area Filipino community grew by two.  

KISH, Iran--President Bush may list Iran as part of an "axis of evil," but writers and intellectuals on this dry and weedy coral island 25 miles south of the mainland say democracy may yet thrive in their country. 

In a project designed by President Mohammad Khatami, the reformist leader re-elected in 2001 in Iran, some 30 writers gathered to meet foreign authors and thinkers recently in a program titled, "Dialogue Among Civilizations." Though censorship remains strong in Iran, especially in matters of politics and religion, most Iranians here agreed that recent years have delivered a strong and steady push toward social liberalization. 

In fact, these days Iranians are quick to compare life "before the election" and "after the election." The elections were seen as a mandate 

for Khatami's reformist policies. Soon after, the ban on satellite dishes was lifted, for instance. Use of the Internet, albeit small, is growing quickly. Western music is coming back. And bookstores are full of titles that had previously been censored. Books by Sama Behrangi, a pre-revolutionary leftist writer of children's stories, and works by the leftist poet Khorsro Golsorkhi are prominently displayed. Translations of Western authors such as Isabel Allende, Danielle Steele and Michael Crichton sell briskly. 

"We still can't write, 'The man and the woman lie down on the bed and make love,'" said Asadollah Amaraee, a 47-year-old translator of Western novels. "We have to write, 'The man and the woman lie on the bed and take turns counting the number of light bulbs above their bed.' But everyone understands what we mean." 

Iranian writers, Amaraee said, are pushing these limits vigorously. But that doesn't come without risk. 

When a Swedish scholar voiced surprise to a thirty-something Iranian writer that the Tehran government deemed fiction serious enough to hold a seminar on the topic, the author answered emotionally, "Yes, seriously enough to have a few (authors) disappeared and a few assassinated as well." 

Like many other women here, the writer wore makeup and jewelry as well as a traditional head scarf, and asked not to be named. Only a few years ago, a handful of Iranian poets and writers were disappeared and others murdered for their writings. 

But she was quick to add, "I hope you are going to say something nice about Iran. We are not evil. We are nice and we are full of hope since the last election." 

The Ayatollah Khomenei's death in 1989 and the subsequent battle between conservatives and reformists put Iran into gridlock. The economy suffered with 30 percent inflation, and unemployment still hovers at 17 percent. 

But in the 2001 elections, the reformists triumphed, overturning the conservative domination of the country's parliament. The parliament had previously blocked reform efforts by Khatami, who became Iran's fifth president in 1997. 

Now, says Mohammed Sharifi, the author of 16 novels, things are slowly changing for the better. Tiny aspects of social life, nuances that many foreigners wouldn't notice, are, in fact, indicators of important changes, Sharifi said. "Before the election, you couldn't applaud after someone read their work on stage. Now, people applaud like mad."

Bears end regular season with a fourth-place finish 

Cal (5-9, 1-5) capped off the regular season schedule with a fourth place finish (191.975) in a home quad meet Saturday evening at Haas Pavilion. Sacramento State won the meet with a team total of 194.350. Boise State finished second at 194.275 and San Jose State finished third with a score of 193.775.  

Freshman My-Lan Dodd placed first on the uneven bar with a mark of 9.900. The Seattle native also finished high in the all-around, finishing second with a 39.100 tally. The score also tied her second highest all-around mark of the season.  

The Bears’ Lauren Shipp scored a career-high 9.800 on the beam to place fourth overall in the event. Junior Lisa Arnold also placed fourth on an event, earning a 9.775 on the vault.  

Cal travels to the Pac-10 Championships Saturday, Mar. 23. at 6 p.m., at Maples Pavilion on the Stanford campus.  

Cal track & field finishes third in L.A. 

LOS ANGELES - The Cal men’s and women’s track and field team turned in some strong performances but finished third at the UCLA Triangular Saturday at Drake Stadium. On the women’s side, UCLA came in first with 148 points, followed by Washington State with 136 and the Golden Bears with 112. The Bruins also took top honors in the men’s competition with 160.5 points, followed by WSU with 148.5 and Cal with 89.  

Three seniors won three different events for the Cal women. All-American Jennifer Joyce won the hammer throw for the Bears with a mark of 202-11, and junior Sheni Russell came in third in the hammer with a personal best of 166-9. Joyce had already qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet. Marielle Schlueter broke her own Cal record in the 3000m steeplechase by over a second by winning the event in 10:43.49. Erin Belger (2:10.71) and Lache Bailey (PR: 2:12.41) finished one-two in the 800m.  

Other personal bests for Cal came from sophomore Jenna Johnson in the shot put (3rd, 48-10.75, NCAA provisional), junior DeCola Groce in the 100m (3rd, 12.12) and sophomore Stephanie Cowling in the 400mH (3rd, 1:02.68).  

Senior Jerriod Mack (triple jump, 49-5.75) and junior Mike Pestorich (800m, 1:54.36) turned in the only first-place performances for the Bear men.  

Personal best performances from the Cal men included junior Zech Whittington in the hammer (4th, 173-9), freshman Randy Fair in the 400m (4th, 48.64), junior Mark Blanco (fifth, 48.77) and junior Nick Mazur in the 100m (5th, 10.68).

Tomorrow the public will be given an opportunity to weigh in on Councilmember Linda Maio’s proposal to build affordable housing on the Santa Fe Right of Way. 

The proposal is adamantly opposed by the Berkeley Partners for Parks who have called it “illegal housing.” 

The proposal called for an amendment to the General Plan Open Space Policy OS-6 on March 12 — the decision to add that amendment was a 5-to-4 vote in favor of the progressives. The proposal would add to the city’s supply of affordable housing, but has many who live around the Santa Fe Right of Way concerned. 

The SFRW is a former railroad right-of-way and critics of Maio’s plan say it is ideally suited for open space, community garden and bicycle/pedestrian greenway uses. 

“This proposal allow dense public housing on the SFRW, a precious green corridor better used for a pedestrian/bicycle greenway and public open space uses,” wrote Berkeley Partners for Parks in a prepared statement. “Councilmember Maio has a vision of an asphalt pathway skirting between housing, but given that the SFRW is only 30'-40' wide where a pathway is proposed, this seems highly improbable, and even if realizable, will be more like a public sidewalk adjacent to a 40' wall then a greenway.” 

Council will discuss the SFRW tomorrow night at a public hearing.

Highlight in History: 

On March 18, 1959, President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill. 

On this date: 

In 1766, Britain repealed the Stamp Act. 

In 1837, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was born in Caldwell, N.J. 

In 1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years’ imprisonment for civil disobedience. (He was released after serving two years.) 

In 1931, Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor. 

In 1937, more than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas. 

In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany’s war against France and Britain. 

In 1962, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce. 

In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether. 

In 1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States. 

In 1979, Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett, a day before deporting her and a companion for what were termed “provocations.” 

Ten years ago:  

South African President F.W. de Klerk claimed victory for his reforms a day after a whites-only referendum on whether to end apartheid. National Football League owners voted to drop the use of videotape replays to settle disputed calls during games (however, instant replay was brought back in 1999). 

Five years ago:  

Bulldozers began clearing away rocks and earth for a Jewish housing project in disputed east Jerusalem, triggering Palestinian protests. Labor Secretary-designate Alexis Herman got a generally favorable reception from Democrats and Republicans alike at her Senate confirmation hearing. 

One year ago:  

The Socialists conquered Paris in municipal elections, ending a century of nearly unbroken rule by the right. John Phillips, who co-founded the Mamas and the Papas and wrote its biggest hits, including “California Dreamin”’ and “Monday,” died in Los Angeles at age 65. 

Birthdays:  

Actor Peter Graves is 76. Author George Plimpton is 75. Composer John Kander is 75. Author John Updike is 70. Nobel peace laureate and former South African president F.W. de Klerk is 66. Country singer Charley Pride is 64. Singer Wilson Pickett is 61. Actor Kevin Dobson is 59. Actor Brad Dourif is 52. Singer Irene Cara is 43. Actor Thomas Ian Griffith is 40. Singer James McMurtry is 40. Singer-actress Vanessa L. Williams is 39. Olympic gold medal speedskater Bonnie Blair is 38. Country musician Scott Saunders (Sons of the Desert) is 38. Rock musician Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) is 36. Rock singer-musician Miki Berenyi is 35. Rapper-actress-talk show host Queen Latifah is 32. Rock musician Stuart Zender is 28. Singer Devin Lima (LFO) is 25. 

SAN FRANCISCO — New field surveys of Hispanic men in Tijuana and San Diego show an increase in HIV infection rates in gay and bisexual men who move across the border. 

The rates of infection are as much as four times as high as those in other California cities, said George F. Lemp, director of the University of California’s AIDS Research Program. 

Infection rates in San Diego are particularly high, with more than 35 percent of gay and bisexual Hispanic men infected with HIV. In Tijuana, almost 19 percent were infected. 

“Those numbers are alarming and shocking, and they come as a real surprise,” Lemp told the San Francisco Chronicle. “While the AIDS epidemic exists so far only in pockets in Mexico, there’s a danger that it will explode, so we need to look closely at the behaviors and the centers of infection in both border regions.” 

In comparable populations, previous studies have found infection rates of up to 9 percent, in cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento and Long Beach. Los Angeles County has a rate of about 16 percent. 

The study, done by the Bi-National AIDS Advocacy Project, looked at 400 volunteers. It found that in Tijuana, only about 56 percent of the men had received information on preventing the spread of HIV and 46 percent had been tested for the virus. In San Diego, 77 percent received information and 63 percent had been tested. 

Researchers plan to look at two cities in Mexico known for sending a lot of men to work in California and two California counties with large populations of Mexican migrant workers. 

FRESNO — Armando Sanchez was diagnosed with leukemia in October. Now enduring chemotherapy, Sanchez said he wishes farmers had warned him of the dangers of pesticides. 

“The cancer is because of the pesticides,” said 66-year-old farmworker, who spent 40 years spraying chemicals on grape and citrus fields in the Imperial Valley. Hispanic farmworkers have higher rates of brain, leukemia, skin and stomach cancers compared with other Hispanics in California, according to a study by the Cancer Registry of California, a state agency that has collected data on cancer cases statewide since 1998. But the registry’s study doesn’t specifically link pesticide use to the higher rates of cancer. Female Hispanic farmworkers also had higher cases of uterine cancer than the rest of the state’s Latinas, according to the study, “Cancer Incidence in the United Farm Workers of America, 1987-1997” published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine’s November 2001 issue. 

“The union’s position is that it’s directly related to pesticide usage,” said Doug Blaylock, the union’s medical plan administrator. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A fire raged for hours at the Haslett Warehouse, a historic landmark on Fisherman’s Wharf, destroying the fourth floor and roof. 

The fire was contained Sunday, but firefighters continued to watch for flare-ups. 

The fourth floor and roof of the 198,000 square-foot building were completely destroyed, although the brick facade still stands, Fire Capt. Pete Howes said. 

Firefighters were keeping people away from the building in case of collapse. The building was built around 1907 and was undergoing renovations. 

The Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group had signed a 57-year lease with the National Park Service, which owns the Haslett Warehouse, to transform it into the Argonaut Hotel. 

“It’s a disappointing circumstance,” said Tom LaTour, chairman and chief executive officer of the Kimpton Group. He said the hotel’s opening day had been scheduled for the end of this year and will likely be pushed back to mid-2003. 

LaTour said he has no idea how much the damage will cost. 

The warehouse is adjacent to The Cannery shopping center, which remained closed Sunday. Some of the 30 shops and restaurants had smoke and fire damage and would remained closed until cleanup was finished, said Kris Kremers, marketing director for the shopping center. 

There were no reports of injuries. Most businesses on the wharf were closed when the fire broke shortly before midnight Saturday, city fire Lt. Eric Richardson said. 

Flames had caused burn damage to adjacent buildings. 

Fire investigators did not immediately determine a cause. 

Hewlett-Packard’s plan to buy Compaq is valued at $22 billion, but stockholders could vote to stop the deal 

PALO ALTO – Hewlett-Packard Co. chief Carly Fiorina told her 88,000 employees in a November e-mail that talk of a feud between her and sons of the company’s founders was merely “lazy reporting” by journalists trying to sell newspapers. 

“It is far easier to dream up a feud that doesn’t exist than to research complex, far-reaching, industry-changing business concepts,” she wrote. 

Perhaps Fiorina was right — there was no feud. Because “feud” would be a huge understatement for the all-out war that has raged the last five months over HP’s plans to buy Compaq Computer Corp. in a stock deal now valued at about $22 billion. 

The bickering should end Tuesday, the deadline for HP’s 900,000 stockholders to send in cards indicating how they stand. Hundreds of shareholders also are expected to come to a Silicon Valley auditorium to vote their stakes and speak their minds. 

The contest appears too close to call. While Compaq shareholders are expected to approve the deal Wednesday, HP results might not be known for weeks because independent proxy counters will painstakingly verify each vote. Both sides say early tallies of proxies already mailed in show the vote going their way. 

Whatever happens, this deal will forever change HP, a proud institution two engineers launched in a Palo Alto garage 64 years ago. 

Even longtime business observers have been stunned by the tenor of the proxy fight, which has matched Fiorina and her management team against dissident director Walter Hewlett and his advisers, who are intent on blocking what would be one of the world’s biggest high-tech mergers. The deal is also opposed by David Woodley Packard and other heirs of the late founders. 

Each side has spent tens of millions of dollars on newspaper and Internet ads, road trips for meetings with investors, legal fees and public relations blitzes. 

“Carly is a warrior,” said HP board member Patricia Dunn, chief of Barclays Global Investors. “She’s been very resilient.” 

Not everyone sees that as a plus. 

“If she was as enthusiastic and paid as much attention to running the business as opposed to doing the deal, Hewlett-Packard shareholders would be in a lot better shape,” said David Katz, president of Matrix Asset Advisors, which will vote its HP and Compaq stock against the acquisition. 

HP and Hewlett sometimes talked past each other, failing to address specific issues. Each accused the other of violating tenets of corporate governance: Hewlett blasted HP for allegedly hiding lucrative pay packages waiting for Fiorina and Compaq’s chief, Michael Capellas; HP slammed Hewlett for missing three key board meetings. 

“In my personal opinion, HP’s image has been tarnished by this proxy fight,” said Paul McGuckin, a Gartner Inc. research director who supports the merger. 

“HP used to have an image of taking the high road, of not engaging in dirty tactics, of wanting to be a trusted adviser. After slinging mud with Walter Hewlett the last two months, HP doesn’t look like a company that takes the high road.” 

There are more tangible concerns as well. 

For one, if the deal is rejected, HP’s and Compaq’s leaders have to skulk back to their stand-alone companies — which they have spent six months describing as desperately in need of overhauls the mega-merger could provide. Fiorina would likely leave HP; Capellas would probably stay with Compaq. 

But the picture could get even muddier if the deal does pass. 

HP, a $45 billion seller of printers, computers, servers, digital cameras and high-tech services, believes that with Houston-based Compaq and its business-computing expertise on board, it will be able to dramatically improve the end-to-end packages it offers. 

Still, many customers have told independent surveys they worry they’ll be neglected while HP and Compaq figure out how to work together. 

On the other hand, some big Compaq and HP clients have offered high praise for the deal. And the companies contend customers have nothing to fear because the merger is being planned better than any in memory. 

Perhaps a bigger worry is that HP’s employees — the people who would turn Fiorina’s home-run strategy into reality — still need convincing. 

Though HP says internal surveys show that about two-thirds of its work force supports the merger, independent polls of employees at three company sites by the well-regarded Field Research Corp. found the opposite results. 

Fiorina, brought in to shake up HP in 1999, tends to provoke strong opinions. 

Many employees say she has reinvigorated a staid, decentralized Gray Lady of Silicon Valley. But others say she is imperious, too flashy for HP’s engineering culture, too cold about last year’s 7,000 layoffs and the 15,000 more that would be needed if the deal goes through. 

Even so, it’s unclear how much whatever employee hostility to the deal might exist would hamper HP as it tries the complex integration of Compaq. 

For example, a 22-year HP veteran who hates the deal says that even if only 35 percent of employees agree with him — as the most optimistic surveys suggest — “it’s the end of HP” because “you need everybody on board.” 

But in the next breath, the same engineer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says he expects that even the deal’s biggest opponents would work hard at making it successful if it does go through. 

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, we’ll do our best — that’s the HP way.”’

SAN FRANCISCO – A fire raged for hours at the Haslett Warehouse, a historic landmark on Fisherman’s Wharf, destroying the fourth floor and roof. 

The fire was contained Sunday, but firefighters continued to fight it. 

“We’re not calling it under control because we still have a lot of heat in the heavy timbers,” said Capt. Pete Howes. 

The fourth floor and roof of the building were completely destroyed, although the brick facade still stands, Howes said. Firefighters were keeping people away from the building in case of collapse. The building was built around 1907 and was undergoing renovations. 

The Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group had signed a 57-year lease with the National Park Service, which owns the Haslett Warehouse, to transform it into the Argonaut Hotel. 

The warehouse is adjacent to The Cannery shopping center, which remained closed Sunday. Some of the 30 shops and restaurants had smoke and fire damage and would remained closed until cleanup was finished, said Kris Kremers, marketing director for the center. 

There were no reports of injuries. Most businesses on the wharf were closed when the fire broke shortly before midnight Saturday, city fire Lt. Eric Richardson said. 

Flames had caused burn damage to adjacent buildings. 

Fire investigators did not immediately determine a cause.

SAN FRANCISCO – Surfing the Web these days requires two hands – one to click the mouse, the other to dig into your pocket to pay fees demanded by sites that used to be free. 

Every day, it seems, another desperate dot-com concludes it’s better to charge a smaller congregation of visitors than to lose money on a mass audience looking to get something for nothing. 

“The presumption has always been you would have free access to almost everything for one basic price of admission. That’s probably not going to be the case any longer,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which studies online trends. 

Free online content hasn’t disappeared. Most fee-based Web sites still give away some of their wares. 

But the freebies are becoming the online equivalent of a supermarket’s food samples – tantalizing morsels designed to coax sales of more satisfying amounts. 

“The stuff that really has some value is going to have to be paid for,” said Charlie Fink, president of AmericanGreetings.com, which began charging at the end of last year. 

With online advertising in a funk and venture capitalists no longer willing to subsidize losses, Web sites of all shapes and sizes are asking users to ante up. 

They range from online powerhouses like Yahoo!, which now has 25 different subscription services, to one-man operations like Thepaperboy.com, an Australian news portal that hoped to attract 50 subscribers a month when its owner Ian Duckworth introduced a $2.95 monthly fee in September. 

Although he wouldn’t provide specifics, Duckworth said the subscriber response has exceeded expectations. 

“Things should get easier as users start to come to terms with the ’user pays’ principle,” Duckworth said in an e-mail interview. 

It took American Greetings just three months to build the Web’s largest paid subscription base. The Cleveland-based company has signed up nearly 1 million subscribers since December, when it began charging $11.95 to visit its most popular card sites – AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com and eGreetings.com. 

American Greetings still offers free cards at two other company-controlled sites, BeatGreets.com and PassItAround.com, neither of which offer the same quality. 

American Greetings is one of six online networks boasting at least 500,000 subscribers – something only two Web sites, ConsumerReports.org and the Wall Street Journal’s online edition, claimed a year ago. 

Since unveiling its fees, traffic at American Greetings’ sites is down by about 30 percent, as surfers turn to free cards offered by Yahoo and Hallmark.com, Fink said. 

The company “has no regrets,” Fink said. “This is the way the industry and the audience is moving. We decided to take the plunge, knowing if we succeed others will follow.” By year’s end, American Greetings expects to have at least 3 million subscribers. 

Kathy Harris of Chicago swears she won’t be among them, although she once sent cards from BlueMountain.com and eGreetings.com. She is among the legion of Web surfers who avoid fees at almost any cost. 

“I figure there is so much on the Internet that you can always find something similar for free,” said Harris, 24. 

Other Web surfers are more sanguine about the shift. 

“A lot of people on the Internet want to pay because they figure the site might be around longer and the service might get better,” said San Francisco’s Evan Williams, whose site, www.theendoffree.com, tracks online subscriptions. “It’s tough to complain about something if you don’t pay for it.” 

The trick to getting people to pay for online content and services is to offer something unique, said Larry Gerbrandt, an analyst with Kagen World Media. 

After building one of the Web’s biggest audiences with mostly free features, Yahoo is banking on a fee bonanza. By 2004, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company hopes subscriptions account for half its revenue. Yahoo’s revenue totaled $717 million last year. 

For inspiration, Yahoo can look to ConsumerReports.org, which counts more than 800,000 subscribers, most of whom pay $24 a year to view the online edition of the consumer watchdog magazine. 

RealNetworks, too, is selling a burgeoning number of $9.95-a-month subscriptions to its online video service. Outside providers – including CNN – are using the company’s RealOne SuperPass to sell content. 

Media companies “are thrilled to see signs of life in the online subscription model,” said Larry Jacobson, RealNetworks’ president and chief operating officer. 

Two other Web sites – MyFamily.com and Netflix.com – also claim at least 500,000 subscribers. 

For some cash-strapped sites, even a few paying subscribers go a long way. 

During the first year it charged a fee, online magazine Salon.com signed up 33,000 subscribers who pay $30 annually or $6 monthly. 

This year, subscriptions will bring in more than $1 million, estimated Salon vice president Patrick Hurley. 

Homestead.com CEO Justin Kitch likens his site’s free-to-fee transition to a child’s passage into puberty. 

“It can be a painful thing,” he said, “but at least you can see this thing has a chance of growing up to be an adult.”

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said he has no quarrel with the Bush Administration’s level of involvement in the Irish peace process during an East Bay appearance Friday afternoon. 

“I have no complaint about the attention the White House is giving,” Adams said at an Oakland press conference, brushing off critics’ complaints that President Bush is not as engaged as his predecessor, Bill Clinton. 

“The times are different,” Adams said, noting that Clinton came into office before the historic Good Friday peace accord of 1998 that paved the way for a joint Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. 

Adams, on the last legs of a U.S. tour that included a Wednesday meeting with President George W. Bush, was in the East Bay for the dedication of Gerry Adams Way, a small street, which intersects with Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in downtown Oakland. 

Adams said he was honored by the connection with Martin Luther King, Jr., who “inspired a whole generation of young people” in Ireland in the 1960s. 

“It’s a mark of the way people connect across a huge ocean and a whole continent,” said Adams. 

Developer Ciaran Scally, a native of Northern Ireland who is putting the finishing touches on an 18-unit residential development on Gerry Adams Way, asked the Oakland City Council to approve the street name in 1999. 

The council agreed to name the heretofore unnamed stretch of concrete Gerry Adams Way despite the objections of a handful of Irish Protestants who flew to the Bay Area to protest the move. 

Adams’ political party, Sinn Fein, is the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, and opponents argued that the street naming glorified terrorism. 

But speakers at the Friday event praised Adams for his work to bring peace to Northern Ireland. 

“We will follow the example of Mr. Adams to lay down our arms and solve our problems with words,” said City Councilmember Nancy Nadel, who sponsored the 1999 resolution to name Gerry Adams Way. 

“There is no other place in the United States that has recognized the importance of Gerry Adams in bringing peace to Northern Ireland,” added Oakland mayor Jerry Brown. “Hopefully the English are listening so we can get on with negotiations and real peace.” 

Adams said there is a growing sense of stability in Northern Ireland. But, he touched on a series of current conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, including an ongoing debate over how to best diversify a traditionally Protestant police force. 

U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland Richard N. Haass has criticized Sinn Fein for moving slowly to cooperate, but the party has responded that proposed police reforms do not go deep enough. 

“While we want to be part of the police service, it has to be one that is genuinely de-politicized,” Adams said Friday.

The first non-native people to settle in California were the Spanish who began building missions in the late 1700s. In the early 1800s the King of Spain divided up the land into huge ranchos and in 1820 granted Don Luis Maria Peralta the area that today is approximately all of Alameda County. In 1842 Don Luis divided his rancho among his four sons and Jose Domingo Peralta was given the area that would become Berkeley.  

Jose Domingo and his wife Maria built their first home of adobe bricks on the south bank of Codornices Creek and in 1851 built a larger, more substantial two-story frame house. While no traces of these buildings remain, there is a brass plaque marking the location of the adobe at 1304 Albina St.  

By 1852 Jose Domingo had sold all his land except for a 300-acre parcel around his home. But when he died in 1865 he no longer owned the 300-acre parcel, and his family could not afford a headstone for his grave. In 1872 his widow and 10 children were evicted from their home.  

Peralta’s home site was subsequently subdivided in 1878 by Casper Hopkins and he named it Peralta Park. The subdivision was planned in a naturalistic style and trees and shrubs were planted along the roads and lot lines. The then isolated area remained undeveloped until 1889, when the tract was sold to Maurice B. Curtis who arranged to have a horsecar line laid along Sacramento Street from University Avenue to Hopkins Street. As the centerpiece for his residential subdivision, Curtis also built a fabulous turreted Victorian hotel, named the Peralta Park Hotel, with 60 bedrooms and 20 baths. The hotel opened in 1891 and thirteen impressive homes were built.  

But only a year later Maurice Curtis was forced to sell the subdivision and the hotel. The hotel building was used as a school from 1901 until it was demolished in 1959, and the site is now the campus of St. Mary’s High School. 

Of the 13 Victorians built in Peralta Park, only five remain. These are: Edward Leuders House, 1330 Albina Street, Ira A. Boynton, architect, (1889), Adock/McQueston House, 1675 Hopkins Street (1889), 1307 Acton Street (1890s), 1466 Hopkins Street (1880s) and 1492 Hopkins Street (1880s). The original large lots were re-subdivided in the 1920s and seven Victorians were replaced by apartment houses or gas stations. 

Susan Cerny is author of Berkeley Landmarks and writes this in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Editor: 

In his March 6, 2002 letters to the Daily Planet, UC Berkeley Director of Transportation Nadesan Permaul outlines his reasons for not supporting a bus pass program for UC Berkeley employees.  

Mr. Permaul argues asserts that the program would be ineffective and inequitable, providing a disproportionate subsidy for one transit user group on the campus while only meeting the needs of a limited number faculty and staff. It would seem that Mr. Permaul would support only programs that treat every commuter equally. 

But not every commuter should be treated the same by the University. What Mr. Permaul fails to consider is the inequitable impact that those who drive to campus have on the environment and local community. Each additional driver decreases air quality and adds to the impact of global warming. Moreover, every additional car on the road is an added threat to those who walk and bike. Furthermore, driving adds to the traffic congestion, slowing those who wisely choose to take the bus.  

Of all the commuter choices, driving has the most disproportionate impact. It is only fair that drivers compensate for their costs by supporting programs that reduce driving.  

As the so-called flagship institution of the UC system, UC Berkeley has the potential to set a shining example of ecological concern and efficiency. Rather than dismissing programs such as a bus pass, Mr. Permaul should support innovative solutions that reduce the impacts of driving.  

Instead, Mr. Permaul furthers auto dependency by supporting projects such as the three-story Underhill Parking Structure, which will hold approximately 1400 cars when completed. Such regressive thinking is not surprising coming from Mr. Permaul. Unlike the City of Berkeley, which utilizes energy efficient three-wheeled vehicles for parking enforcement, UC Berkeley’s Transportation Department’s vehicles of choice are none other than SUVs. 

Nad Permaul is nothing more than cheerleader for cars. UC Berkeley can do better.  

Rick Young 

Berkeley resident and  

UC Berkeley alum 

The children’s joke “knock knock” invites the response, “Who’s there?” The answer can be “uncle Milty’s underwear” or “boo” or any number of responses. 

In cartoonist Jules Feiffer’s 1976 existential sitcom “Knock Knock,” the answer is “Joan of Arc.”  

On Thursday, the Aurora Theater Company opened a production of Feiffer’s dark, comedic ode to cynicism in downtown Berkeley. 

In tone and character, “Knock Knock” is a lot like Feiffer’s famous Village Voice cartoons of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s that feature neurotic, intellectualizing, self-absorbed characters who comically try to think their ways out of despairing and narcissistic feelings.  

As the play opens, it finds two such crusty old geezers sharing a log cabin in the woods and bickering about the meaning of life. 

Cohn (Will Marchetti) is an unemployed musician who hasn’t left the house in 20 years. His philosophy of life is, “I believe in me. After that, there’s room for doubt.” 

His roommate, Abe (Dan Hiatt), is a retired stockbroker , who is also unable to find anything in meaningful life.  

Their verbal gymnastics skip across the topics of reality and illusion, beauty and ugliness, parallel worlds, religion, change and the probability of things turning out one way or another. It’s the same pseudo-intellectual guff of Feiffer’s cartoons.  

It’s as though Felix and Oscar from Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” have somehow merged with Vladimir and Estragon from Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” 

When, by the magic of whimsical divine intervention, Cohn is granted three wishes, Joan of Arc (Rachel Brown) knocks at the cabin door along with a zany sidekick named Wiseman (Sara Moore). The story then becomes one of a cynic getting his wishes granted, and finding he’s not able to deal with that very well. 

But the play’s absurdly twisting and turning storyline is not consistently funny. At its best, under Michael Butler’s direction, “Knock Knock” achieves moments of entertaining dialogue a little like the Abbott and Costello who’s on first routine. 

Other highlights include a funny scene where Cohn tries to stuff Wiseman into a trunk and the limbs keep popping out. Elsewhere, there is a hilarious poker game between Abe and Wiseman. 

But ultimately it’s hard to care much about these two humorless, dogmatic, self-centered men who take their self-absorption so seriously. 

Further, there is a definite New York Jewish humor component to the two men’s dialogue that goes mostly unrealized in this production. Where the lines in “Knock Knock” often aren’t funny per se, their phrasing and rhythms invite the performers to make them funny with attitudes and inflections. 

In many ways, the two women in this production do better with the humor than the two men. Sara Moore is a zany, frenetic, motor-mouthed Wiseman, outstanding in the poker-playing scene, and bizarre as a UPS delivery boy with a vacant Valley Boy accent. 

Brown turns in a distinctive performance as goofy, blissed out Joan, someone who appears not to be playing with a full deck.  

Oddly, “Knock Knock” is the second play this year at the Aurora in which Joan of Arc figures as a major character. The first was January’s “St. Joan." This appears to be some kind of Aurora in-joke. 

Feiffer began his famous Village Voice comic strip in the mid-1950s, and won a editorial cartooning Pulitzer for it in 1986. Abe and Cohn of "Knock Knock" are cousins to the characters in the comics. 

But in elaborating their stories beyond a few quickly read newspaper panels, Feiffer hasn’t given them enough complexity to carry the weight of a full evening in the theater. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for "American Theatre," "Backstage West," "Callboard," and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@yahoo.com or fax him at 1-419-781-2516. 

924 Gilman Mar. 22: Tsunami Bomb, No Motiv; Mar. 29: Limpwrist, All You Can Eat, The Subtonics, The Bananas, Sharp Knife; Mar. 30: 9 Shocks Terror, What Happens Next?, Phantom Limbs, The Curse, Onion Flavored Rings; All shows begin a 8 p.m. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series Mar. 17: 8 p.m., Vorticella; the laptop duo of Kristen Miltner and Kendra Juul; $0 to $20, TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline. 649-8744, http://sfsound.org/ acme.html. 

The Albatross Mar. 17: Bobby Nickels, Kyle Thyer, Cherlie, 8:30 p.m.; Mar. 18: Paul Schneider; Mar. 19: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@ mindspring.com. 

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Anna’s Bistro Mar. 15: Sallie/Dave/Doug Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 16: Bob Crawford Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 17: Aleph Null; Mar. 18: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 19: Tangria; Mar. 20: Bob Schon Jazz Quintet; Mar. 21: Terence Brewer Jazz Trio; Mar. 22: Anna & Ellen Hoffman Jazz Tunes; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 23: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 24: Christy Dana Jazz Group; Mar. 25: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 26: Jason Martineau and Dave Sayen; Mar. 27: David Widelock Jazz Duo; Mar. 28: Randy Moore Jazz Trio; Mar. 29: Anna & Ellen Hoffman; 10 p.m. Hideo Date; Mar. 30: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m. Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Mar. 15: 8 p.m., Peter Rowan and the Bluegrass Intentions, $15; Mar. 17: 7 p.m., Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos; Mar. 19: 8:30 p.m., Peter Rowan and the Bluegrass Intentions, $15; Mar. 23: A Benefit for Forest Defense with The Funky Nixons, The Gary Gates Band, The Shut-Ins, $8 - $20; Mar. 29: Alpha Yaya Diallo; 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Mar. 15: King Harvest, First Circle, $5; Mar. 16: Omaya, $7; Mar. 17: The Lost Coast Band, The Real, $3; Mar. 18: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 19: Mind Go Flip, RLT, $3; Mar. 20: Hebro, $3; Mar. 21: Ascension, $5; Mar. 22: Shady Lady, View From Here; $6; Mar. 23: Mystic Roots, LZ & Ezell Funkstaz, $5; Mar. 24: Passenger, The Shreep, $3; Mar. 25: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Mar. 22: 8 p.m., The Teethe, The Natural Dreamers, Yasi, $3; Mar. 23: 8 p.m., Guest DJs and MCs, $5; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344, Shows are All Ages.  

Cal Performances Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Gyuto Monks perform multiphonic chanting in accordance with the spiritual practices of Tantric Tibetan Buddhism. $24 - $36; Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Andras Schiff, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Apr. 7: 3 p.m., Murray Perahia, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin at an evening of poetry, music, and spoken word. $5-$10 donation. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898, pubsol@pacbell.net.  

Freight & Salvage Mar. 15: David Maloney performs Irish folk opera “The Great Blight”, $17.50; Mar. 16: The Black Brothers, $18.50; Mar. 17: Tom Russell, $16.50; Mar. 19: The Okros Ensemble, $17.50; Mar. 20: The Hot Club of Cowtown, $17.50; Mar. 21: Tish Hinojosa, $17.50; Mar. 22: Marley’s Ghost, $17.50; Mar. 24: Teresa Trull & Barbara Higbie, $18.50; Mar. 27: Paul Thorn, $16.50; Mar. 28: Old Blind Dogs, $17.50; Mar. 29: Jack Hardy, $16.50; Mar. 30: Faye Carol, $17.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Mar. 24: 4:30 p.m., Alegria, $6-$12; Mar. 30: 4:30 p.m., Dmitri Matheny Orchestra presents “The Emerald Buddha”; 2087 Addison St., 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

Rose Street House of Music Mar. 15: 8 p.m., Jamie Anderson and Wishing Chair; Mar. 21: 7:30 p.m., Rose Street on the Road/Indiegrrl Tour kickoff featuring Irina Rivkin, Making Waves, Francine Allen, Amber Jade, and Christene LeDoux, 594-4000 x687. 

The Starry Plough Mar. 15: 9:30 p.m., Moore Brothers, $6; Mar. 16: 9:30 p.m., St. Patrick's Celtic Meltdown, Blue on Green, Green Man Gruvin, $5; Mar. 17: 6 p.m., St. Patty's Day Celebration, Chameleon, Irish dancers & bagpiper, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

UC Men's Octet Annual Spring Show Mar. 14 and 15: 8 p.m., all-male a cappella group; $7 students, $12 general, UC Berkeley, Wheeler Auditorium, 301-2367 octoevents@hotmail.com. 

“Harmonica Ace and Band” Mar. 15: 8 p.m., 10 p.m., Carlos Zialcita and his band team up with guest vocalist Ella Pennewell for a blues concert. $12. Dotha’s Juke Joint, 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668 

“Expressionality” Mar. 13 through Mar. 16: Wed. 10:15 a.m., Thurs. 10:30 a.m., 7 p.m., Sat. to be announced. An opera created and produced by 4th and 5th graders. Wed. and Thurs. shows at Malcolm X Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Sat. show at Oakland Museum of Art. 644-6313 

“The Art of Disability” Mar. 16: 7 p.m., A showcase of performing artists with disabilities. $10 -$50 sliding scale. Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, hesternet@jps.net 

“Tribute to Oakland’s Gospel Greats” Mar. 16: 7:30 p.m., The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and Youth Choir will present a free tribute concert. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison St., Oakland, 839-4361  

“The Song of Songs” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Composer Jorge Linderman creates a musical setting for Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s translation of “The Song of Songs”. $32. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Mbira Concert” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Forward Kwenda, considered the “Coltrane of Mbira” performs with Erica Azim. $12 - $15. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 845-2605 

Celebration for the Trees Mar. 17: 7 - 10 p.m., Benefit for the Ancient Trees Coalition Education Effort with Making Waves, Green, Marca Cassity, Folk This!, and Hali Hammer. BFUU Fellowship Hall 1606 Bonita. 

“Chamber Music Series” Mar. 17: 4 p.m., Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of Kronos Quartet, gives a solo performance of both acoustic and electronic pieces. $10, free children under 18. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

Dance 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Persimmony Jones” Mar. 16: 12 p.m., Designed for a young audience, this is the story of a young girl trying to find her place in the world. As Persimmony travels through different lands on her search, she is forced to reexamine her own ideas about tolerance and acceptance. Free. Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2978 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 7: 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 5 p.m. Sun., The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. Mar. 16 - 31:Thrust Stage at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.; Apr. 4 - 7: UC Theatre on University Ave.; 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org. 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Mar. 11: A Star is Born, 3 p.m.; Flesh, 7 p.m.; Mar. 12: An eye Unruled: An Evening with Stan Brakhage, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 13: The Bicycle Thief, 3 p.m.; Daughter from Danang, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 14: The Student I, 7 p.m.; Mar. 16: Shaping Identities Through Community, 7 p.m.; The Wolf, 9:30 p.m.; Mar. 17: For the Love of It: Amateur Filmmaking, 5:30; Mar. 18: Cabaret; 3 p.m.; Carnal Knowledge, 7 p.m.; Mar. 19: Stranger with a Camera, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 20: Sunset Blvd., 3 p.m.; Chemical Valley, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 21: Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 22: A Thousand and One Voices: The Music of Islam, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 23: In a Lonely Place, 7 p.m.; The Big Heat; 8:55 p.m.; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Asian American Film Fest” Mar. 13: Daughter From Danang; Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

Exhibits  

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Works of Alexander Nepote” Through Mar. 29: Nepote was a 20th century artist whose medium is a process of layered painting of torn pieces of watercolor paper, fused together in images that speak of the spirit that underlies and is embodied in the landscape he views. Check museum for times. Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., 849-8272 

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: An exhibit of mixed media sculpture by Jim Freeman, and acrylic paintings on canvas by Krystyna Mleczko. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Journey of Self-discovery” Through Mar. 30: Community Works artist Adriana Diaz and Willard Junior High students joined together to explore gender stereotypes, advertising, and other influential elements in society in a project that culminated in two life-size portraits that explore self-identity. Free. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 845-3332. 

“West Oakland Today” Through Mar. 30: Sergio De La Torre presents “thehousingproject”, an open house/video installation that explores desire surrounding one’s sense of home and place. Marcel Diallo presents “Scrapyard Ghosts”, an installation that presents a glimpse into the process of one man’s conversation with the living past through objects of iron, wood, rock dirt and other debris unearthed at an old scrapyard site in West Oakland’s Lower Bottom neighborhood. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland  

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

“Portraits of the Afghan People: 1984 - 1992” Through Apr. 6: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Bay Area photographer Patricia Monaco. Free. Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400 

“The Zoom of the Souls” Mar. 23 through Apr. 13: An exhibit of oil paintings by Mark P. Fisher. Sat. 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Bay Area Music Foundation, 462 Elwood Ave. #9, Oakland, 836-5223 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Mar. 18 through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Expressions of Time and Space” Mar. 18 through April 17: Calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Julien Designs 1798 Shattuck Ave., 540-7634, RyNakasone@aol.com.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Mar. 3 through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Mar. 13 through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Suzan Hagstrom reads from her book “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chielnik,” chronicling the survival of one brother and four sisters in Nazi death camps. Free. 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Mar. 7: Carl Parkes, author of “Moon Handbook: Southeast Asia”, presents a slide show exploring his travels in the region; Mar. 12: William Fienne describes his personal journey from Texas to North Dakota as he follows the northern migration of snow geese; Mar. 14: Gary Crabbe and Karen Misuraca present slides and read from their book, “The California Coast”; Mar. 19: Barbara and Robert Decker present a slide show focusing on the volcanoes of California and the Cascade Mountain Range; Mar. 21: Stefano DeZerega discusses opportunities for study, travel, and work in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

GAIA Building Mar. 14: 7 - 9 p.m., Lecture with Patricia Evans speaking from her book, “Controlling People: How to recognize, Understand and Deal with People Who Are Trying to Control You.”; Mar. 19: Reading and slide show with Carol Wagner, “Survival of the Spirit: Lives of Cambodian Buddhists.”; March 21: 6 - 9 p.m., 1st Berkeley Edgework Books Salon; Mar. 22: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., Book Reading and Jazz Concert with David Rothenberg; All events are held in the Rooftop Gardens Solarium, 7th Floor, GAIA Building, 2116 Allston Way, 848-4242. 

Gathering Tribes Mar. 15: 6:30 p.m., Susan Lobo and Victoria Bomberry will be conducting readings from “American Indians And The Urban Experience.”; 1573 Solano Ave., 528-9038, www.gatheringtribes.com.  

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series Mar. 7: Marilyn Hacker reads from her most recent book, “Squares and Courtyards”. Free. Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Berkeley campus, 642-0137, www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems. 

University of Creation Spirituality Mar. 21: 7 - 9 p.m., Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, An Evening with Author Margaret J. Wheatley, $10-$15 donation; 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x29, darla@berkana.org. 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Mar. 3: Myung Mi Kim, Harryette Mullen & Geoffrey O’Brien; Mar. 6: Bill Berkson, Albert Flynn DeSilver; Mar. 10: Leslie Scalapino, Dan Farrell; Mar. 13: Lucille Lang Day, Risa Kaparo; Mar. 20: Edward Smallfield, Truong Tran; Mar. 24: Susan Griffin, Honor Moore; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading @ South Branch Berkeley Public Library Mar. 2: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. 1901 Russell St. 

Word Beat Mar. 9: Sonia Greenfield and Megan Breiseth; Mar. 16, Q. R. Hand and Lu Pettus; Mar. 23: Lee Gerstmann and Sam Pierstorffs; Mar. 30: Eleanor Watson-Gove and Jim Watson-Gove; All shows 7 - 9 p.m., Coffee With A Beat, 458 Perkins, Oakland. 526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat. 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin, poetry, storytellers, singers and musicians. $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898. 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Mar. 16: 1 - 4 p.m., Moviemaking for children 8 years old and up; Mar. 20: Spring Equinox; “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below Grizzly Peak Blvd. 642-5132 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

“Hooked” 

1:15 p.m. 

Alta Bates Hospital, Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

A talk and slide show from the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 763-0779, www.unhooked.com. 

Tax-Aid: Bay Area Free Tax Service for Low-income Taxpayers 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lincoln Recreation Center 

250 10th St., Oakland 

Tax-Aid offers free tax return preparation to Bay Area families with incomes of less than $32,000. Eligible families simply bring their W-2s, other proofs of income and tax forms. Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators are available.  

St. Patrick’s Day Community 

and Family Contra Dance 

7:45 p.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

7 p.m., Contra dance music teaching session. All levels welcome, easy dances for all ages. $10 adults, $5 kids. 482-9479. 

Special Education Workshop 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Navigating the System: Understanding Legal Responsibilities. Get a working sense of relevant special education law, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Learn to advocate for your child in assessments and IEP meetings. 558-8933, sandstep@earthlink.net. 

The Effect of Sept. 11 

on Working People 

noon 

Albany Library 

1247 Marin Ave. 

LaborParty—East Bay with speakers: Ethel Long-Scott, Mario Santos and Warren Mar. 273-9219. 

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and  

Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The  

Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Stagebridge’s 11th Annual 

Family Matinee Theatre and 

Ice Cream Social 

3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2501 Harrison, Oakland 

Premiere of Linda Spector’s “Chicken Sunday and Other Grandparent Tales,” followed by an old fashioned ice cream social. $8 general, $4 children. 444-4755, www.stagebridge.org.  

Fundraiser 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A fundraiser benefiting Bay Area Classical Harmonies and the Berkeley Art Center. $20. 219-5400, sarahfinley@hotmail.com.  

Monday, March 18

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will discuss the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction of Daniel A. Seeger. Also a reading and discussion of Seeger’s pamphlet, The Seed and the Tree.  

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home 

Owners Committee 

1:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office 

1403 Addison St. 

Finding good repair people, good tenants, locating resources for low and middle income home owners. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com. 

Thwarting the Next Energy Crisis 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School Room 7 

1222 University Ave. 

Learn to install your own basic home weatherization measures. Class will cover selection of materials and the proper installation of door weather stripping, attic insulation, duct tape, caulking and more. Lecture includes hands-on demonstrations. 981-5435, Energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Self Help Strategies and Techniques from Feldenkrais and Pilates 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates, Auditorium — Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Arthritis Foundation Northern California Chapter fibromyalgia support group. 644-3273.  

The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor of  

Martin Luther King Jr. Student 

Union Building  

Second symposium of the annual Breaking the Cycle, Mending the Circle Conference: Contemporary Issues of Genocide. This particular symposium is entitled The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide. 642-4270.  

Wednesday, March 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish  

Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St. 

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Cealo is Coming 

7 - 9 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

Fireside Room 

2727 College Ave. 

Gayuna Cealo is a Burmese monk who’s mission is to lead people to their true selves. $10 donation. 525-6472. 

Community Prayer Breakfast 

7:30 a.m. 

H’s Lordships Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina, 199 Seawall Dr. 

The 62nd year of the interfaith prayer breakfast celebrating spirituality in the community. $18. 549-4524, vicki@baymca.org. n 

Thursday, March 21

Still the Source of Grace?  

Reading the Bible as a Gay Christian 

5 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion chapel  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

With L. William Countryman, professor in biblical studies at 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and co-author with M.R. Ritley of “Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church.” Free and open to the public. 849-8206. 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

People telling stories about the ways they have changed their lives by finding ways to work less, consume less, rush less, and have more time to build community with friends and family, as well as live more lightly upon the planet. 549-3509, www.simpleliving.net. 

– compiled by Guy Poole 

Two-run seventh inning gives  

St. Mary’s a win to start BSAL 

The St. Mary’s High baseball team kicked off its league season with a sloppy, last-gasp 10-9 win over St. Joseph on Friday. First baseman Pete McGuiness drove home the game-winning run with a drive to the fence in right field, scoring Joe Storno from second base. 

The game was a slow affair, with 11 total errors leading to seven unearned runs between the two teams. 

“We knew this was probably going to be a crazy game,” St. Mary’s head coach Andy Shimabukuro said. “We’ve been wiped out by injuries.” 

Those injuries include Shimabukuro’s two top pitchers, both out with shoulder injuries and with uncertain return dates. Friday’s starter, Joe Storno, has become St. Mary’s ace-by-default, and he struggled through six-plus innings against St. Joseph with a 9-6 lead. But Storno loaded the bases in the top of the seventh without getting an out, and Shimabukuro was forced to pull him. 

“I knew it was going to be a fight in that last inning, but I was trying to get (Storno) through for a complete game,” Shimabukuro said. “Our bullpen is pretty much non-existent right now.” 

The Panthers turned to shortstop Manny Mejia. Mejia closed Wednesday’s game against Castlemont, but that was the first time he had pitched in a game. He did a passable job against the Pilots in a tough situation on Friday, but the visitors managed to push across four runs on his watch for a 10-9 lead. 

“I didn’t even think I was going to pitch today,” Mejia said. “But I felt I could do it, and I know (Shimabukuro) has confidence in me to get the job done.” 

But the Panthers had the heart of their order coming up. Chris Morocco led off with a groundout, but second baseman Chris Alfert made up for two errors in the second inning with a blast to center that cleared the fence to tie the game.  

“Alfert’s our main guy.” Shimabukuro said. “If anyone’s going to step up, it’ll be him. Our 3-4-5 hitters are going to have to carry us, because we’re scrappy through the rest of the lineup.” 

Storno followed with a single, and Chase Moore lined another single to left. With the winning run on second, the St. Joseph outfield was forced to play shallow, and McGuiness ended the game by launching a shot over the centerfielder’s head. 

The early part of the game was ugly for the defenses. Alfert’s two second-inning miscues led to four runs for the Pilots, but three St. Joseph errors in the third handed the Panthers three runs. St. Mary’s followed that with a six-hit, four-run fourth inning that put them ahead 9-4 before the Pilots chipped away at the lead.

The University of California may suspend its study abroad program in Israel because of escalating Middle East violence, according to a university spokesman. 

“We don’t want to send any signal that we are abandoning the state of Israel,” said Michael Reese, UC’s assistant vice president of strategic communications. “But student safety comes first.” 

Reese said the university will decide in the coming weeks whether to recall UC students currently in Israel, and whether to cancel next year’s program. He emphasized that any suspension of the program would be temporary. 

“Regardless of what we do, we will keep our infrastructure in place,” he said, referring to partnerships with Israeli universities in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv, and a series of UC employees at each site who provide academic and day-to-day support for students. 

Fifty-five students from campuses throughout the UC system started the year in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem. Many have decided voluntarily to return home, and today, only 27 students remain. 

Reese said the university is not leaning one way or the other in deciding whether to recall students. 

“There are powerful arguments on either side, not the least of which are made by the students themselves, who want to stay,” he said. 

Reese said the university is in constant communication with UC officials in Israel and the U.S. State Department. He said a State Department advisory to recall students could render any debate on the issue moot. Reese said he has no knowledge that an advisory is forthcoming.

Dear Ms. Lawrence: 

We understand that you are doing your best to balance the school district budget. However: 

The safety of the students must be insured and assured before any education in the classroom can take place. There should be no diminution of the safety staff and safety plan at the Berkeley High School. The safety budget needs to be increased, not decreased. Staff and tools must be increased to increase student safety. 

Several years before you arrived, it took us years to reconstruct the high school safety plan that had been dismantled by the prior school board. Do not undo what we worked so hard to re-create.  

Safety and stability on campus must be assured, so that students arrive in the classroom calm and ready to learn. 

Hold the line.  

No cuts in school safety. 

John H. DeClercq 

Berkeley

NEW YORK — Ask Seymour Rexite to sing your favorite song and the 91-year-old will gladly oblige, in Yiddish. 

“Yiddish radio was very big,” Rexite says, and so was he for 40 years on the air. “Name just about any song and we’d sing it in Yiddish.” 

Then he breaks into a heartfelt Yiddish rendition of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” followed by a bilingual plug for the shaving cream “Bar-ba-soooool!” 

After a half-century on the shelf, recordings of Rexite in his prime and other gems of Yiddish radio history are returning to the airwaves — this time on National Public Radio, in a 10-part series starting Tuesday. 

The longest series ever to air on NPR, “The Yiddish Radio Project” is the product of 17 years of digging through archives for the fragile aluminum discs recorded during Yiddish radio’s heydey, from the 1930s to the 1950s. 

Ranging from funny to heartbreaking, the broadcasts bring listeners into the everyday lives of an immigrant community at its peak, before its members — Jews from Central and Eastern Europe — assimilated more fully into mainstream American culture. More than 100 stations nationwide had Yiddish programming, and nearly 5,000 records were produced for the nation’s 2 million Yiddish speakers. 

“This is really the story of every ethnic group in America that has ever tried to retain its cultural identity,” said Henry Sapoznik, who produced the series with David Isay and Yair Reiser. 

“It doesn’t matter that this is Yiddish or that it took place in the Lower East Side of New York. This is the story of Spanish-speaking communities, of Greek-speaking communities, of every community that’s had to find a way to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable. There’s a history waiting to be uncovered of these tiny, low-powered stations attempting to reach their own communities in their own language.” 

Rexite performed with his wife, the late Miriam Kressyn. His silken voice and delicious translations earned him the title “the Yiddish Perry Como,” and won him four Goldies, the Oscars of the Yiddish theater. 

The short bespectacled statuettes still line the mantle in his Greenwich Village apartment. On the walls hang pictures of Frank Sinatra, Fiorello LaGuardia and Albert Einstein — all fans, he says, of Yiddish performance. 

Unlike mainstream American radio of the time, “there was no Yiddish Lone Ranger, there was no Yiddish Flash Gordon,” Sapoznik said.  

The NPR series, to run on Tuesday afternoons, explores Yiddish dramas, news programs, advice and game shows, and includes some early man-on-the-street interviews. 

By the end of the 1950s, the golden age of Yiddish radio came to a close. Television overtook radio. Yiddish culture in Europe nearly vanished because of the Holocaust. In America, “The melting pot was bubbling and no one wanted to encourage people to stay within their culture,” Sapoznik said. 

“These people who did the Yiddish radio shows were swimming against the current.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

www.YiddishRadioProject.org 

PITTSBURGH – The NCAA tournament committee didn’t do California any favors, forcing the Pac-10 school to travel across the country for its first-round game. 

And now that they’re here, the Golden Bears figure they might as well spend the weekend. 

“Why not?” guard Brian Wethers said. 

Joe Shipp scored 20 points as Cal played a solid all-around game and advanced to the second round with an 82-75 victory over Pennsylvania in the South Regional on Friday. 

The sixth-seeded Golden Bears (23-8) will play Pittsburgh in the second round Sunday. The third-seeded Panthers, playing a short walk from their campus, beat Central Connecticut State 71-54. 

Wethers hit several key jumpers and added 19 points for Cal, which avoided being beaten in the first round for the second straight year by holding off the 11th-seeded Quakers (25-7). 

Last March, Cal was eliminated in the opening round by Fresno State, resulting in a plane ride back from Memphis that still hurts 12 months later. 

The Bears were determined not to let it happen again. 

“We’re a lot more focused, a lot more prepared and a lot more hungry,” Wethers said. “Last year, we were excited to be in. But this year, we really wanted to get a win in this tournament and make a run.” 

They’re off. 

Ugonna Onyekwe, the Ivy League’s player of the year, and Koko Archibong led Penn with 16 points apiece. Jeff Schiffner added 12 before fouling out. 

Much of the talk leading up to tipoff had focused on the Ivy’s Quakers, who had won 10 straight games and 15 of 17 to get into the tournament. 

Unlike Princeton, which staged NCAA tourney upsets in 1996 and ’98, Penn is a much more athletic team. And based on their regular-season wins over Georgia Tech and Temple, the Quakers became a trendy office-pool pick to knock off Cal. 

“That bothered us a little bit,” Wethers admitted. “We tried to look at it as if we were the underdogs.” 

But it was Cal which looked like the Ivy League squad, making backdoor cuts and playing hard-nosed defense. 

Cal, which held Pac-10 teams to 66.4 points per game this season, came up with nine steals and held the Quakers to 42 percent shooting. 

“We wanted to make them work for everything,” Shipp said. “In the second half, we really stepped it up after we gave them too many easy looks in the first half.” 

Cal’s man-to-man pressure made it tough on Penn for the entire 40 minutes, and even when they led by double digits late, the Bears didn’t back down. 

“I thought we had some good looks, but we just didn’t shoot well enough,” Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. “Give Cal credit. They made big shots at big times.” 

This wasn’t the same Cal team that got drubbed by 46 points by Arizona on March 2, but more like the one which started the season 9-1 and won seven of eight in conference play before the meltdown against the Wildcats. 

“Yeah, we’ve taken our bumps and bruises in the past,” Wethers said. “But we’ve learned from our losses. I think this was more like the team we really are.” 

Leading by four points with 15:41 left, Cal’s Ryan Forehan-Kelly hit a 3-pointer, and Shipp had a thunderous dunk over Archibong to cap a 9-0 run that put the Bears ahead by 13 with 12:26 remaining. 

“That was huge,” Cal coach Ben Braun said of Shipp’s dunk, which he punctuated by walking over the legs of Archibong, who was sprawled on the floor. Shipp “doesn’t need to see that again. I’m probably going to turn off the TV when that play comes on.” 

But with Wethers the only Cal player looking to shoot, Penn crawled back with three 3-pointers and pulled within 65-59 on Archibong’s two free throws with 4:16 left. 

That’s when Shipp brought Cal out of its offensive funk by draining an NBA-range 3-pointer on a designed play to make it 68-59 with 3 minutes to go. 

“That was the play,” said Shipp, who scored 11 points on free throws. “I got a great look, took my time and just stroked it. It was a good shot and we needed a score.” 

Joseph W. Charles, a gentle spirit who brightened the commute of millions of motorists, has died at age 91. 

For 30 years, Charles spent weekday mornings standing on a busy Berkeley street corner to wave a cheerful hello to passing cars — a practice that earned him the name “Waving Man.” He died Thursday of heart failure at an Oakland hospital. 

By the time he retired in 1992, for health reasons, Charles had been featured in newspaper and television reports worldwide. For a city better known for making political waves, the charming and unassuming Charles was a beacon of goodwill. 

“He was the heart of Berkeley,” said Julie Conger, an Alameda County Superior Court judge and longtime friend. “He was just a wonderful, wonderful man.” 

Charles began his routine in 1962, a custom that started informally with a casual wave to a neighbor. 

At first, he said he got some stares and his wife wanted to know “if I was crazy.” But, gradually, his cheerful waves and benediction “You keep smiling” became a staple of the morning drive. 

In 1971, Charles retired from his regular job at the Oakland Naval Supply Center, but he still rose each day at 6:30 a.m. to take up his post on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Back then he would “go to bed thinking about my waving and wake up thinking about my waving,” he said in a 1992 interview with The Associated Press. 

Over the next three decades, the traffic got thicker and the commute more tense, but still Charles waved. 

“People not just in Berkeley but from all over would drive miles out of their way just so they could drive by the waving man,” said Martin Snapp, a columnist for the Berkeley Voice and a friend of Charles. 

“My daughter turned to me when she was about 12 or 13 and she said, ’You know, Mom, every time you drive by Mr. Charles, it’s like getting a blessing,”’ Conger recalled. “And that’s exactly what he was to so many people. It was like starting your day with a blessing.” 

After a fan presented Charles with a pair of bright yellow gloves, his waves got even easier to spot. Those gloves are now in the Berkeley Historical Society Museum. 

“He’s a legend,” said Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean. “He always had this wonderful kind of sparkle about him.” 

Although he became a Berkeley landmark, Charles wasn’t a native Californian. He was born in Lake Charles, La., and moved to the San Francisco Bay area in the 1940s, part of the migration of southern blacks in search of work in the booming shipyards of World War II. 

As a young man, Charles played baseball in the Negro Leagues and often talked of once facing the great Satchel Paige. 

“He struck out but he got a foul tip,” Snapp said. “He was very proud of that foul tip.” 

Charles’ wife died several years ago, and his two children also are dead. He is survived by a grandson, Robert Charles, of Oakland. 

Charles’ legacy, said his friends, will be his smile, his wave and his often-repeated exhortation to “Have a GOOD day!” 

“He loved people,” said Snapp, “and that was his way of doing it.” 

Editor: 

I, Israeli and Jew, am appalled by Gabe Kurtz’s March 15 letter. I am one of those “Uncle Isaacs” he so viciously castigates. A Pro-Palestinian media to picture Israel badly is unnecessary: Ariel Sharon and his military machine are doing a great job. 

Specifically, the photograph of which he writes is from a surreptitiously shot video showing Israeli soldiers in the best traditions of a Latin American death squad.  

Mr. Kurtz may not have seen the shots of the crowd dispersed by automatic gunfire and the victim stripped to his briefs prior to being shot. In a professional disciplined army, there is no excuse (how does Mr. Kurtz know the shooter had family killed in a terrorist act?) for soldiers to act-out personal agendas.  

In the IDF in which I served thirty years ago, these soldiers would have been immediately arrested, tried and sentenced for murder. 

They shame all Israelis, in and out of uniform. 

The Israeli press recounted this past week that Israeli soldiers are “tattooing” Palestinians with numbers on their forearms.  

This practice was devised and practiced only by the Nazis for inmates of the concentration camps.  

Reading of it, I was stunned into silence, then rage at this crime of “injuring the public sensibility,” an offense which includes any public display of Nazi symbols, means and methods, particularly those used in their campaign to exterminate the Jewish people.  

And an Israeli military officer publicly stated that in the fight against the Palestinians Israel must learn the lessons from any source, including the Nazi’s methods in the Warsaw Ghetto, which included curfews, deliberate starvation of the population, public humiliations, unprovoked summary executions, deportations. 

No, Mr. Kurtz, Israelis and Jews demanding an end to the occupation of Palestinian lands, an immediate end to Sharon-and-CO.’s state terrorism, an immediate end to confiscating Palestinian land, destruction of crops, humiliating and life-threatening check-points, extra-judicial use of lethal force against suspected terrorists, and immediate end to the politically excused emulation of Nazi techniques against an occupied population violating the Fourth Geneva Conventions, are not “Uncle Isaacs” but rather modern day Jeremiahs decrying evil performed in our name.  

We proudly denounce these acts.  

NOT OUR NAME! 

E. Arnon 

NEW YORK — Rosie O’Donnell, in her first extensive public discussion about being gay, says in a television interview to air Thursday that she didn’t come out sooner partly because she didn’t consider it a big deal. 

O’Donnell said she didn’t want the adjective “gay” permanently attached to her name. 

“It was never a big deal for me,” she said. “It remains not a big deal for me. It is not the way that I describe myself. But nor is it a way that I distance myself from.” 

Diane Sawyer inteviewed O’Donnell during “Primetime Thursday.”  

O’Donnell, who has won four straight Daytime Emmy awards for best talk-show host and was nominated again on Wednesday, is quitting her syndicated show in May. She told Sawyer that played a part in her decision to talk about her sexuality now. 

She also wanted to speak out to oppose a Florida law restricting the adoption of children by gay parents. O’Donnell, who has three adopted children, said she’s willing to be the nation’s image of a gay parent. 

“I don’t think America knows what a gay parent looks like,” she said. “I am the gay parent. America has watched me parent my children on TV for six years. They know what kind of parent I am.” 

O’Donnell’s coming-out is a big moment for gay and lesbian Americans, said Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. 

“Now no one will be able to say that they don’t know someone who is gay,” Garry said, “because everyone knows Rosie.” 

Some gay activists were unhappy that O’Donnell hasn’t spoken out publicly before, but Garry said GLAAD doesn’t fault her because it’s a difficult personal decision. 

The announcement isn’t likely to affect her show, according to an expert in television syndication. Ratings have slid for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” as they have for most talk shows, because there’s more competition in daytime TV, said Bill Carroll of the Katz Television Group. 

“The audience has accepted her and I think they will be accepting of any choice she makes,” he said. 

O’Donnell has a similar faith in her television audience. 

“I think if they felt as though it was a lie, if they felt like I was pretending to be who I am on the show, they would turn away,” she said. “But I haven’t lied to them yet. This is another element that I haven’t shown them. But it was never a lie.” 

O’Donnell said she realized she was gay when she was 18. Two years later, she first fell in love with a woman, but she said she also has had male lovers. O’Donnell is in a four-year relationship with a woman, former TV executive Kelli Carpenter, with whom she has adopted a child. 

O’Donnell’s childhood — with a mother who died when she was young and an emotionally distant father — caused her more difficulties than being gay, she said. She said she had never felt discriminated against because of her sexuality. 

“I have lived my life very openly and very truthfully,” she said. “When I was with a man, everyone knew who my partner was. And when I was with a woman, everyone knew who my partner was. There was never any secret or any hiding.” 

Her much-publicized “crush” on actor Tom Cruise wasn’t an attempt to deceive. “I never once said I want him naked in a bed doing the nasty,” she said. “I want him to mow my lawn and get me a lemonade.” 

She said she hoped her children would not be homosexual because “life is easier if you’re straight.” 

People don’t need to approve of her lifestyle to support making laws easier for gays and lesbians to adopt, she said. 

“I’m not asking that people accept homosexuality,” she said. “I’m not asking that they believe like I do, that it’s inborn. I’m not asking that. All I’m saying is, don’t let these children suffer without a family because of your bias.” 

Sawyer noted that President Bush has said he believes children ought to be adopted in families with a woman and a man who are married. 

“President Bush is wrong about that,” O’Donnell said. “He’s really wrong. And, you know, if he’d like, he and his wife are invited to come spend a weekend at my house with my children. And I’m sure his mind will change.”

PHOENIX – Billy Beane’s contract as general manager of the Oakland Athletics was extended by three years Friday through the 2008 season. 

“This has been a tremendous opportunity for me,” said Beane, who became general manager following the 1997 season. “I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplishment up to this point, but I feel like it’s unfinished business.” 

Beane, who also had his current contract restructured, has overseen a franchise that went from a 65-97 record to 102-60 last year. Oakland has made consecutive postseason appearances, losing twice in the first round to the New York Yankees. 

“Billy and I both knew he wanted to stay, and we’ve talked about this for four or five months,” A’s co-owner Steve Schott said. “All we had to do was put the pieces together. I hope this dispels any rumors about Billy going to Boston.” 

Beane, 39, joined the A’s front office in 1990 as an advance scout. 

He played six years in the majors with the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers and A’s. He was a reserve on the 1989 World Series champion A’s team, his final season as a player. 

“This is a signal to the stability that exists here,” Beane said. “This also represents my own faith in the stability of the franchise.” 

The A’s are on a year-to-year lease with the Oakland Coliseum through 2004, and are discussing construction of a baseball-only facility in Oakland.

This is Saturday, March 16, the 75th day of 2002. There are 290 days left in the year. 

Highlight in History: 

Two hundred years ago, on March 16, 1802, Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. 

On this date: 

In 1751, James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va. 

In 1836, the Republic of Texas approved a constitution. 

In 1850, “The Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel about adultery, revenge and redemption in Puritan Massachusetts, was first published. 

In 1915, the Federal Trade Commission was organized. 

In 1935, Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles. 

In 1945, during World War II, Iwo Jima was declared secured by the Allies. 

In 1968, during the Vietnam War, the My Lai Massacre was carried out by U.S. troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr. 

In 1978, Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas, who later murdered him. 

In 1982, Claus Von Bulow was found guilty in Newport, R.I., of trying to kill his now-comatose wife, Martha, with insulin (Von Bulow was acquitted in a retrial). 

In 1985, Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991. 

Ten years ago: Robert J. Eaton, head of General Motors’ profitable European operations, joined Chrysler Corp. as Chairman Lee Iacocca’s future successor. 

Five years ago: At the request of a hobbled President Clinton, Russia’s Boris Yeltsin agreed to delay their upcoming summit by one day to give Clinton an extra day to recuperate from knee surgery. Jordan’s King Hussein knelt in mourning with the families of seven Israeli schoolgirls gunned down by a Jordanian soldier. 

One year ago: Rap impresario Sean “Puffy” Combs was acquitted in New York of taking an illegal handgun into a crowded Manhattan hip-hop club where three people were later wounded; he was also cleared of trying to bribe his way out of trouble. Combs’ bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones, was acquitted of the same charges. Saudi commandos freed surviving hostages and ended the hijacking of a Russian plane by armed Chechens that resulted in the deaths of a flight attendant, a hijacker and a passenger. 

Birthdays: Actor Leo McKern is 82. Comedian-director Jerry Lewis is 76. Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., is 75. Movie director Bernardo Bertolucci is 61. Game show host Chuck Woolery is 61. Singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker is 60. Country singer Robin Williams is 55. Actor Erik Estrada is 53. Actor Victor Garber is 53. Actress Kate Nelligan is 51. Country singer Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) is 51. Rock singer-musician Nancy Wilson (Heart) is 48. Golfer Hollis Stacy is 48. Actress Isabelle Huppert is 47. Rapper Flavor Flav (Public Enemy) is 43. Actress Lauren Graham is 35. 

LAFAYETTE — Barnabas R. Miller, registered Republican, has been called for jury duty in Contra Costa County this month. 

There are two problems — Barnabas is only 9 years old, and he’s a poodle. 

His owner, Donald Miller, wanted to point out holes in the voter registration system. 

“If I can register my dog, then anybody can register,” Miller told the Contra Costa Times. “You’re supposed to be a citizen. He doesn’t even have a driver’s license.” 

But Barnabas received a jury summons, and now Miller, a 78-year-old retired iron worker, has some explaining to do. 

“He should not make his point in this manner,” said Candy Lopez, the county’s assistant registrar. 

Shad Balch of the Secretary of State’s office said the voter registration form is signed to testify the information is correct — under penalty of perjury. 

Balch said a perjury conviction could get Miller four years in jail. 

Prosecutors aren’t sure if they’ll press charges. 

“I have never heard of it happening before,” said Brian Baker, a senior deputy district attorney. 

California’s voter registration laws changed in the 1970s to let people register by mail, rather than just in person. 

“We try to make it a very simple process,” Balch said, calling California’s voter registration an honor system. 

Miller still has a few days to return the affidavit answering Barnabas’ jury summons.

Don’t mess with tire pressure  

Dear Tom and Ray: 

During a safety meeting at my workplace, we were discussing tires and driving in the snow. Several folks suggested that you could get better traction in the snow by letting some of the air out of your tires. I disagreed, since it seems like this would only increase the likelihood of skidding. I told my crew I'd research this and get back to them. Can you help? — Danny 

RAY: Well, our official position is that you should not mess with tire pressure at all, Danny. And if you won't take our word for it, ask anyone who has rolled over a Ford Explorer. 

TOM: Even in theory, it's a tough question to answer, and it depends on what kind of snow you're in. Generally speaking, thinner tires are recommended for most snow conditions. Thinner tires are better able to bite down through the snow and reach the pavement for traction. That would argue for higher tire pressure, which creates a thinner tread patch. 

RAY: But if you had snow that was so deep you couldn't cut through it, you might want the widest possible tread footprint, to mimic a snowshoe. That would argue for lower tire pressure.  

TOM: Of course, there's no way you'd float a 3,000-pound automobile on top of the snow, but we're just talking theory here. 

RAY: But that theory does apply on sand. When you drive on sand, manufacturers suggest that you lower the tire pressure. You'll never cut through the sand, so you want the largest, softest footprint you can get to try to maintain traction on top of the sand. 

TOM: So what's the answer, Danny? Leave it alone. We're opposed to playing around with your tire pressure for two reasons: One is that it will hardly make a difference, in terms of snow traction. The tread pattern, the rubber compound and the condition of your tires will play much bigger roles than a few pounds of pressure either way. 

RAY: And more importantly, once you get through that situation, you'll then be driving on improperly inflated tires, and that's dangerous.  

TOM: So make sure your tire pressure is set at the level recommended by the manufacturer. And put a set of snowshoes in the trunk in case you have to walk to a phone booth and call a tow truck.  

Traditional jumper cables work best 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I continue to see ads for battery chargers and battery jumpers that operate through cars' cigarette lighters instead of the battery terminals. I have never tried one because I'm concerned that too many amps would be flowing through the lighter, which would be a hazard. Am I right to avoid these things? — Ann 

RAY: Yes, but for the opposite reason. Not enough electricity passes through them. 

TOM: If too many amps passed through the lighter, it would blow a fuse. So these things have to trickle electricity from car to car so slowly that you could build your own replacement battery out of potatoes and twigs by the time your battery is charged back up. 

RAY: So stick with traditional jumper cables, or, if that makes you uncomfortable, there are two other good options. One is a new kind of safer jumper-cable system that is supposedly idiot-proof (although, to be honest, I have yet to test it on my brother).  

TOM: It's called Jump Star. The cables run through a computerized box that won't let any electricity flow until you have each of the connections hooked up correctly. They're quite pricey (about $100) and are available through Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories at (800) 367-2462. 

RAY: Of course, the other safe option is a good, old-fashioned emergency-roadside-service membership, Ann. Good luck.  

Rear seat headrests increase safety 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I have a four-door, 1996 Jeep Cherokee, and I'm worried that the low rear seat, which doesn't have headrests, might be dangerous in an accident. I noticed this when my son recently went from being in a child seat (which extended up past his head) to being in the back seat without a child seat. Now his neck is just above the low seat back. Although I really like the Jeep (despite its barbaric interior), I'm concerned. I see newer SUVs, and they have two or three headrests in the back. They must be there for a reason. So, is this car safe for rear-seat occupants? Frankly, if it's not, I'll sell it tomorrow and get something else, because my family's safety comes first. But if I'm just being a paranoid lunatic, I'll keep it. — Alan 

RAY: Well, you can always do what my brother did. He left his son in a child seat until the kid was old enough to drive himself.  

TOM: You're absolutely right to be concerned, Alan. The reason vehicles have headrests is to keep passengers' necks from snapping in a collision.  

RAY: Since 1969, the federal government has required headrests on the front seats of all cars. In 1991, NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) extended the rule to include previously exempt light trucks -- which is the category that includes the Jeep Cherokee. 

TOM: But manufacturers have never been required to put headrests in the back. Lots of manufacturers do, because it's been proven to decrease neck injuries. But they don't have to. 

RAY: So when you buy a cheap, barbaric vehicle like the Cherokee, you don't get all of the amenities you'd get if you bought something better. Jeep simply skimped on the rear headrests in this vehicle. And no, it's not safe. If you were rear-ended, your son could suffer a serious neck injury. 

TOM: Normally, you'd have three options, Alan. One would be to go to a junkyard and buy a rear seat from a Cherokee that does have the optional rear headrests. But you can't do that because, as far as we know, they were never even offered as an option on the Cherokee. 

RAY: So your second option is to find an interior customizer. Look in the yellow pages under "Van Converters." They would have the seats, the experience and the insurance liability coverage to replace your rear seat with one with a higher back. 

TOM: But your best bet might simply be to a get another vehicle. The Cherokee got a "Marginal" rating in overall crashworthiness from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And if safety is really your primary concern, you can do a lot better, Alan.  

***

SAN FRANCISCO — Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta touted the administration’s advances in aviation and transportation security Friday, while outside, airport workers and their supporters lambasted the federal government’s requirement that airport baggage screeners be U.S. citizens. 

“Citizenship has nothing to do with the job,” said Erlinda Valencia, a legal immigrant who has been in the United States for 14 years and is in the process of getting her citizenship. “What we need are experienced screeners who know the job.” 

Mineta said he could do nothing to change the law. 

“What we have done is to develop a program with the (Immigration and Naturalization Service) to inform people how to expedite their applications for citizenship,” he said, speaking at a Commonwealth Club of California luncheon. 

San Francisco city supervisor Gerardo Sandoval spoke to the small group of protesters gathered in front of the hotel where Mineta gave his speech, pledging to do all he could to help the screeners. 

“What we have here is not a war on terrorism anymore, it’s a war on immigrants,” Sandoval said. 

Up to 1,000 airport workers at the San Francisco Bay area’s three main airports — the San Francisco International Airport, the Oakland International Airport and the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport — could be affected by the new rule, said Daz Lamparas, a representative of the Service Employees International Union, local chapter 790. 

The union had a petition with more than 3,000 signatures on it asking Mineta to waive the citizenship requirement. Mineta did not meet with the protesters. 

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has proposed a bill that would have the same requirements for airport security screeners as for U.S. military recruits, who currently are not required to be U.S. citizens. 

Mineta also spoke about the advances made in security in aviation and other modes of transportation, pointing out that more sky marshals have been hired and that new federal employees have been sworn in to oversee security at seven airports. Mineta said he would select a federal security director for San Francisco International Airport in the next two weeks. 

Mineta also said that industry leaders from across the country, including the service sector and high tech, were helping the government try to figure out ways to keep travelers moving while doing better checks of passengers 

“I can assure you, we are building a transportation security system that will defeat efforts of people who seek to use our system against us,” he said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Once again, Mayor Willie Brown has caused an uproar by letting his tongue run loosely while away from home. 

In Paris this week on a trip to promote tourism, Brown responded to concerns about safety in San Francisco saying, “I think you’ve got us confused with Miami. There are probably no safer streets, comfortable streets in the world today than those that are in San Francisco.” 

“If only he’d left his mouth in San Francisco,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, whose columnist Rob Morse joked that the streets are not only comfortable, they’re “warm with fresh urine.” 

“Brown’s mind is Versailles-like in its isolation from reality,” Morse wrote. 

A mayoral spokesman said Brown’s comments were “tongue-in-cheek” and blown out of proportion by the media. “The mayor didn’t mean any harm by it,” spokesman Ron Vinson said Friday. 

But Miami Mayor Manny Diaz isn’t laughing. He wrote Brown saying he’s “very dismayed,” and claimed crime has decreased significantly in Miami, a major destination for French tourists. 

“In the future, I hope you will refrain from making comments that unnecessarily impugn the character of another city and its residents,” Diaz wrote. 

Brown was still in Europe on Friday and was unavailable for comment, Vinson said. He was unsure whether the mayor would later contact Diaz. 

Brown’s comments in Paris were prompted by questions about San Francisco’s rampant homeless problem. Tourists on many downtown streets encounter bodies sprawled on sidewalks, accompanied by the stench of urine and feces.  

Drugs and related crimes are endemic. 

It wasn’t the first time Brown’s mouth got him in trouble in Paris. During a 1996 visit after a 49ers loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Brown also made an infamous crack about San Francisco’s backup quarterback, Elvis Grbac, calling him “an embarrassment to humankind.” 

Such remarks gained so much attention that Brown made a 1999 campaign promise to keep his mouth shut. 

“There’s a tendency for the mayor to shoot from his hip, and when you do that, there’s a chance that maybe it will ricochet,” said Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano. “I don’t think he’ll ever escape it.” 

Ammiano should know. Brown once referred to the city’s supervisors as “his mistresses and a bunch of pantywaists.” 

“At the next meeting,” Ammiano said, “we said, ’It’s Mr. Pantywaists to you.”’ 

———— 

On the Net: 

http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/mayor/ 

http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/mayor/

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for John Walker Lindh have sought to block publication of an “instant book” about the American Taliban, calling it “grossly and outrageously false and defamatory.” 

“Publication would be at your peril,” Attorney George Harris wrote in a letter faxed to the book’s publisher, San Jose-based University Press. Copies of the legal threat were sent to Amazon.com, Borders Inc. and Barnes & Noble, all of which were still taking orders Friday. 

Lindh, 21, of Marin County, is awaiting trial in Virginia on charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad by aiding terrorists in Afghanistan. 

A pre-publication copy sent to The Associated Press appears to be a compilation of unattributed quotes and information two authors took from news reports and government case documents, with significant editorializing and speculation, little sourcing and no footnotes. 

“It’s not hard cold facts,” said the publisher, Rhawn Joseph. “It is more like circumstantial evidence.” 

Joseph declined to provide resumes or biographical information for the two authors, whom he claims did some investigative reporting. He would not make them available for an interview. 

Joseph said he had offered Lindh’s lawyers an opportunity to add 50 unedited pages to the manuscript, but that he would publish with or without their input. 

“They might not like it but I don’t think there is anything they can sue us for,” Joseph said. 

The booksellers also weren’t backing down. 

“We go by whatever the courts determine,” said Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith. “The threat of litigation is no reason to take off a book.” 

She noted pre-orders for the $14.95 book rank it in the top 5,000 books sold on the site. 

Joseph said the threat of a libel suit may be good for sales of the instabook, one of a series his company has produced with a team of freelance writers. 

“It is in the oven right now,” Joseph said. “We have already gone over the proofs and are set to start shipping on Monday.” 

LOS ANGELES — California’s jobless rate declined modestly in February, thanks to gains in construction and trade jobs, officials said Friday. 

But the state bucked the national trend of job growth, showing a net loss of 4,700 payroll jobs since January. 

California’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent last month, down from a revised 6.4 percent in January, the Employment Development Department said. A year ago, the state’s jobless rate was 4.7 percent. 

Despite the positive uptick in February, key sectors of the economy continued to show weakness. 

The services sector, which includes business services such as advertising and computer programming, posted the largest month-to-month decline, losing 17,600 jobs. Manufacturing also continued to shed positions. 

Earlier this month, figures showed the national economy adding 66,000 new jobs in February, helping push the country’s jobless rate down to 5.5 percent, from 5.6 percent in January, and giving the strongest signal yet that the national recession could be ending. 

In California, however, even as the numbers improve slightly, major sectors of the economy such as technology and manufacturing remain under pressure. 

In Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, the jobless rate in February declined to 7.3 percent from 7.7 percent in January.  

In Los Angeles, it fell to 6.4 percent from 6.8 percent. 

In a separate survey of households, the EDD reported that 84,000 more Californians were working in February than in January. A record total of 16,523,000 people held jobs in the state during the month. 

PALO ALTO — Hewlett-Packard Co. chief Carly Fiorina told her 88,000 employees in a November e-mail that talk of a feud between her and sons of the company’s founders was merely “lazy reporting” by journalists trying to sell newspapers. 

“It is far easier to dream up a feud that doesn’t exist than to research complex, far-reaching, industry-changing business concepts,” she wrote. 

Perhaps Fiorina was right — there was no feud. Because “feud” would be a huge understatement for the all-out war that has raged the last five months over HP’s plans to buy Compaq Computer Corp. in a stock deal now valued at about $21 billion. 

The bickering should end Tuesday, the deadline for HP’s 900,000 stockholders to send in cards indicating how they stand. Hundreds of shareholders also are expected to come to a Silicon Valley auditorium to vote their stakes and speak their minds. 

The contest appears too close to call. While Compaq shareholders are expected to approve the deal Wednesday, HP results might not be known for weeks because independent proxy counters will painstakingly verify each vote. Both sides say early tallies of proxies already mailed in show the vote going their way. 

Whatever happens, this deal will forever change HP, a proud institution two engineers launched in a Palo Alto garage 64 years ago. 

Even longtime business observers have been stunned by the tenor of the proxy fight, which has matched Fiorina and her management team against dissident director Walter Hewlett and his advisers, who are intent on blocking what would be one of the world’s biggest high-tech mergers. The deal is also opposed by David Woodley Packard and other heirs of the late founders. 

Each side has spent tens of millions of dollars on newspaper and Internet ads, road trips for meetings with investors, legal fees and public relations blitzes. 

“Carly is a warrior,” said HP board member Patricia Dunn, chief of Barclays Global Investors. “She’s been very resilient.” 

Not everyone sees that as a plus. 

“If she was as enthusiastic and paid as much attention to running the business as opposed to doing the deal, Hewlett-Packard shareholders would be in a lot better shape,” said David Katz, president of Matrix Asset Advisors, which will vote its HP and Compaq stock against the acquisition. 

HP and Hewlett sometimes talked past each other, failing to address specific issues. Each accused the other of violating tenets of corporate governance: Hewlett blasted HP for allegedly hiding lucrative pay packages waiting for Fiorina and Compaq’s chief, Michael Capellas; HP slammed Hewlett for missing three key board meetings. 

“In my personal opinion, HP’s image has been tarnished by this proxy fight,” said Paul McGuckin, a Gartner Inc. research director who supports the merger. 

“HP used to have an image of taking the high road, of not engaging in dirty tactics, of wanting to be a trusted adviser. After slinging mud with Walter Hewlett the last two months, HP doesn’t look like a company that takes the high road.” 

There are more tangible concerns as well. 

For one, if the deal is rejected, HP’s and Compaq’s leaders have to skulk back to their stand-alone companies — which they have spent six months describing as desperately in need of overhauls the mega-merger could provide. Fiorina would likely leave HP; Capellas would probably stay with Compaq. 

But the picture could get even muddier if the deal does pass. 

HP, a $45 billion seller of printers, computers, servers, digital cameras and high-tech services, believes that with Houston-based Compaq and its business-computing expertise on board, it will be able to dramatically improve the end-to-end packages it offers. 

Still, many customers have told independent surveys they worry they’ll be neglected while HP and Compaq figure out how to work together. 

On the other hand, some big Compaq and HP clients have offered high praise for the deal. And the companies contend customers have nothing to fear because the merger is being planned better than any in memory. 

Perhaps a bigger worry is that HP’s employees — the people who would turn Fiorina’s home-run strategy into reality — still need convincing. 

Though HP says internal surveys show that about two-thirds of its work force supports the merger, independent polls of employees at three company sites by the well-regarded Field Research Corp. found the opposite results. 

Fiorina, brought in to shake up HP in 1999, tends to provoke strong opinions. 

Many employees say she has reinvigorated a staid, decentralized Gray Lady of Silicon Valley. But others say she is imperious, too flashy for HP’s engineering culture, too cold about last year’s 7,000 layoffs and the 15,000 more that would be needed if the deal goes through. 

Even so, it’s unclear how much whatever employee hostility to the deal might exist would hamper HP as it tries the complex integration of Compaq. 

For example, a 22-year HP veteran who hates the deal says that even if only 35 percent of employees agree with him — as the most optimistic surveys suggest — “it’s the end of HP” because “you need everybody on board.” 

But in the next breath, the same engineer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says he expects that even the deal’s biggest opponents would work hard at making it successful if it does go through. 

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, we’ll do our best — that’s the HP way.”’

An independent audit of last year’s school district finances points to a number of serious flaws. 

The audit, conducted by Bohren and Company of Martinez, and presented at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night, focuses on 10 areas of concern, including four serious “material weaknesses.” These weaknesses include: 

• Inadequate monitoring of the district’s self-insurance, adult education and cafeteria funds. 

• A failure to track student contributions to clubs and other student-funded activities. 

• An inadequate reserve fund. 

• A rejection of last year’s budget by the Alameda County Office of Education. 

Bohren’s audit manager, Sondra White, presented the document and spoke sternly to the board. 

“You have to have adequate reserves,” she said, in one of several pointed criticisms.  

But White said many of the 10 problems, including a failure to spend $450,000 in state and federal grant money that expired at the end of the year, are related, at least in part, to a faulty data system, which the district plans to replace by July. 

Board Vice President Joaquin Rivera said he was particularly upset that all six of the problem areas identified by Bohren for the 1999-2000 budget were again cited in the 2000-2001 audit. 

“I find it very disturbing,” Rivera said, addressing district staff. “What are the plans to make sure these issues are addressed?” 

Associate Superintendent of Business Jerry Kurr warned that some of the 10 items will likely be on the list next year. But, he said he is working hard to correct errors in several areas. 

“The audit is a tool,” Kurr said. “For me, it provides a road map for areas we need to work on.” 

Board rejects field trip ban  

The board, which voted unanimously to accept the audit Wednesday night, also rejected a resolution, put forth by the Peace and Justice Commission, to ban student field trips to the Lawrence Hall of Science on Centennial Drive.  

Commission members, students and activists from the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste raised concerns about the science museum’s proximity to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Tritium Labeling Facility. They said radioactive waste from the tritium facility, which is due to shut down permanently in a matter of weeks, could harm children. 

But Lawrence Hall staff and Rivera pointed to several scientific studies demonstrating the museum’s safety and accused activists of attempting to drag a long-standing political fight over the tritium facility into the schools. 

“This is just a move...to bring the school board into their political agenda...and I resent that,” Rivera said. “No evidence has been presented to me that will make me change my opinion.” 

Gene Bernardi of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste objected to the board’s decision in an interview with the Planet.  

“I think it’s disgusting,” Bernardi said, arguing that the board should operate on the “precautionary principle,” blocking student trips even if they are not sure about the risks involved.  

The vote against the resolution was three to zero, with two board members, Terry Doran and John Selawsky, abstaining. Doran and Selawsky, while raising concerns about tritium, said they did not have enough information to pass an immediate ban. 

Editor: 

Responding to Kristin Miller (Mar. 9-10), why shouldn’t we homeowners protect our turf? Who said we shouldn’t have a home with a backyard that children can play in, a yard where we can plant trees and harvest fruit and vegetables? 

And as to accommodating ever more requests for housing, any fool knows that the more places there are, no matter how dense the area, the more people will come to fill them. There are other places, there are open spaces, elsewhere. It’s a big wide world, after all.  

Kristin Miller may be happy with her closeness to Codornices Creek and the Karl Linn Gardens, but how do they service the high density housing she espouses elsewhere? 

Who, anyway, are Ecocity Builders? 

Dorothy V. Benson 

Berkeley 

cumentary explores the struggle of being gay and Jewish 

If there is such a thing as a kosher way to make a movie, documentarian Sandi DuBowski may have done it. “Trembling Before G-d,” opening today for a week-long run at the Shattuck Theater, is a film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their strict religious disciplines. DuBowski made the film in accordance with Talmud teaching. 

The G-d of the title is God, a word too sacred to be tossed about easily in secular print. Interview subjects in the film often lapse into Hebrew when describing their faith, and subtitles are provided to explain. Those subtitles also refuse to spell out G-o-d. 

Vignettes in the film depicting holy rites and celebrations could not be filmed on holy days because it is not permitted to use electricity during rituals, said DuBowski in an interview on KALX radio in Berkeley. So he staged religious ceremonies with willing participants shot in silhouette behind scrims on non-holy days. 

DuBowski’s respect for religious law matches his respect for his subjects, often interviewed in shadow or in silhouette, for whom “outing” would not only be an affront to their privacy but damning in their religion. 

The film is an attempt to create a dialogue regarding the often overlooked or outright ignored homosexual population in Orthodox communities, which expressly forbids homosexual behavior. These people have had to make an existential decision to identify themselves by their sexuality or their faith, and have chosen faith. But because their sexual orientation cannot be ignored, their own religion condemns them. 

It’s a tricky situation. For these Jews who regard the Talmud as the highest law, for whom the religious community is tantamount, they are not able to follow the example of more radical gay and lesbians who choose to escape and overthrow oppressive strictures. Their attempts to live as Torah-abiding Jews and bring up respectable families while harboring their sexuality leads to depression, ostracism and even suicide. 

The film is an ennobling look at a struggle between the sacred and the profane, with a deep respect for both. The subjects, in their various ways, are expressing a need to challenge Divine law so it can be interpreted to acknowledge it’s sinners. 

One of the film’s subjects tells a joke: two rabbi’s are walking down the street — one Orthodox and the other non-Orthodox. They see a man praying while greasing his wagon wheel. The non-Orthodox rabbi laments to God that the man as defaming prayer by doing it in an unclean fashion; the other rabbi praises God by showing him his children bring Him into their lives all the time, even when they are greasing their wagons. 

One of the central and more profound ideas in the film is the question of when are secular activities beneath religious consideration. DuBowski has said he wanted “Trembling” to be both a document and a catalyst for opening homosexual discussions among rabbis and yeshivas (religious schools). The film is a first significant investigation into this heretofore unvoiced population. 

Sexuality, the film suggests, is as mysterious, profound and sacred as Divinity. In a religious lifestyle which guards its secrets, this could hinder attempts to bring homosexuality into an open discussion.  

As one psychologist says in the film, “The more hidden something is, the more holy it is.” DuBowski may have found a way of filming holiness. By photographing religious ceremonies behind scrims and shooting discussions of sexuality in shadow he may have struck upon a method to gently bring the sacred and the sexual onto the same kosher level. 

By Peter Crimmins 

Special to the Daily Planet 

If there is such a thing as a kosher way to make a movie, documentarian Sandi DuBowski may have done it. “Trembling Before G-d,” opening today for a week-long run at the Shattuck Theater, is a film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their strict religious disciplines. DuBowski made the film in accordance with Talmud teaching. 

The G-d of the title is God, a word too sacred to be tossed about easily in secular print. Interview subjects in the film often lapse into Hebrew when describing their faith, and subtitles are provided to explain. Those subtitles also refuse to spell out G-o-d. 

Vignettes in the film depicting holy rites and celebrations could not be filmed on holy days because it is not permitted to use electricity during rituals, said DuBowski in an interview on KALX radio in Berkeley. So he staged religious ceremonies with willing participants shot in silhouette behind scrims on non-holy days. 

DuBowski’s respect for religious law matches his respect for his subjects, often interviewed in shadow or in silhouette, for whom “outing” would not only be an affront to their privacy but damning in their religion. 

The film is an attempt to create a dialogue regarding the often overlooked or outright ignored homosexual population in Orthodox communities, which expressly forbids homosexual behavior. These people have had to make an existential decision to identify themselves by their sexuality or their faith, and have chosen faith. But because their sexual orientation cannot be ignored, their own religion condemns them. 

It’s a tricky situation. For these Jews who regard the Talmud as the highest law, for whom the religious community is tantamount, they are not able to follow the example of more radical gay and lesbians who choose to escape and overthrow oppressive strictures. Their attempts to live as Torah-abiding Jews and bring up respectable families while harboring their sexuality leads to depression, ostracism and even suicide. 

The film is an ennobling look at a struggle between the sacred and the profane, with a deep respect for both. The subjects, in their various ways, are expressing a need to challenge Divine law so it can be interpreted to acknowledge it’s sinners. 

One of the film’s subjects tells a joke: two rabbi’s are walking down the street — one Orthodox and the other non-Orthodox. They see a man praying while greasing his wagon wheel. The non-Orthodox rabbi laments to God that the man as defaming prayer by doing it in an unclean fashion; the other rabbi praises God by showing him his children bring Him into their lives all the time, even when they are greasing their wagons. 

One of the central and more profound ideas in the film is the question of when are secular activities beneath religious consideration. DuBowski has said he wanted “Trembling” to be both a document and a catalyst for opening homosexual discussions among rabbis and yeshivas (religious schools). The film is a first significant investigation into this heretofore unvoiced population. 

Sexuality, the film suggests, is as mysterious, profound and sacred as Divinity. In a religious lifestyle which guards its secrets, this could hinder attempts to bring homosexuality into an open discussion.  

As one psychologist says in the film, “The more hidden something is, the more holy it is.” DuBowski may have found a way of filming holiness. By photographing religious ceremonies behind scrims and shooting discussions of sexuality in shadow he may have struck upon a method to gently bring the sacred and the sexual onto the same kosher level. 

By Peter Crimmins 

Special to the Daily Planet 

If there is such a thing as a kosher way to make a movie, documentarian Sandi DuBowski may have done it. “Trembling Before G-d,” opening today for a week-long run at the Shattuck Theater, is a film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their strict religious disciplines. DuBowski made the film in accordance with Talmud teaching. 

The G-d of the title is God, a word too sacred to be tossed about easily in secular print. Interview subjects in the film often lapse into Hebrew when describing their faith, and subtitles are provided to explain. Those subtitles also refuse to spell out G-o-d. 

Vignettes in the film depicting holy rites and celebrations could not be filmed on holy days because it is not permitted to use electricity during rituals, said DuBowski in an interview on KALX radio in Berkeley. So he staged religious ceremonies with willing participants shot in silhouette behind scrims on non-holy days. 

DuBowski’s respect for religious law matches his respect for his subjects, often interviewed in shadow or in silhouette, for whom “outing” would not only be an affront to their privacy but damning in their religion. 

The film is an attempt to create a dialogue regarding the often overlooked or outright ignored homosexual population in Orthodox communities, which expressly forbids homosexual behavior. These people have had to make an existential decision to identify themselves by their sexuality or their faith, and have chosen faith. But because their sexual orientation cannot be ignored, their own religion condemns them. 

It’s a tricky situation. For these Jews who regard the Talmud as the highest law, for whom the religious community is tantamount, they are not able to follow the example of more radical gay and lesbians who choose to escape and overthrow oppressive strictures. Their attempts to live as Torah-abiding Jews and bring up respectable families while harboring their sexuality leads to depression, ostracism and even suicide. 

The film is an ennobling look at a struggle between the sacred and the profane, with a deep respect for both. The subjects, in their various ways, are expressing a need to challenge Divine law so it can be interpreted to acknowledge it’s sinners. 

One of the film’s subjects tells a joke: two rabbi’s are walking down the street — one Orthodox and the other non-Orthodox. They see a man praying while greasing his wagon wheel. The non-Orthodox rabbi laments to God that the man as defaming prayer by doing it in an unclean fashion; the other rabbi praises God by showing him his children bring Him into their lives all the time, even when they are greasing their wagons. 

One of the central and more profound ideas in the film is the question of when are secular activities beneath religious consideration. DuBowski has said he wanted “Trembling” to be both a document and a catalyst for opening homosexual discussions among rabbis and yeshivas (religious schools). The film is a first significant investigation into this heretofore unvoiced population. 

Sexuality, the film suggests, is as mysterious, profound and sacred as Divinity. In a religious lifestyle which guards its secrets, this could hinder attempts to bring homosexuality into an open discussion.  

As one psychologist says in the film, “The more hidden something is, the more holy it is.” DuBowski may have found a way of filming holiness. By photographing religious ceremonies behind scrims and shooting discussions of sexuality in shadow he may have struck upon a method to gently bring the sacred and the sexual onto the same kosher level. 

924 Gilman Mar. 15: 90 Day Men, One Line Drawing, Division Day, The Reputation, SLOE; Mar. 22: Tsunami Bomb, No Motiv; Mar. 29: Limpwrist, All You Can Eat, The Subtonics, The Bananas, Sharp Knife; Mar. 30: 9 Shocks Terror, What Happens Next?, Phantom Limbs, The Curse, Onion Flavored Rings; All shows begin a 8 p.m. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series Mar. 17: 8 p.m., Vorticella; the laptop duo of Kristen Miltner and Kendra Juul; $0 to $20, TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline. 649-8744, http://sfsound.org/acme.html. 

The Albatross Mar. 17: Bobby Nickels, Kyle Thyer, Cherlie, 8:30 p.m.; Mar. 18: Paul Schneider; Mar. 19: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Mar. 15: Sallie/Dave/Doug Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 16: Bob Crawford Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 17: Aleph Null; Mar. 18: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 19: Tangria; Mar. 20: Bob Schon Jazz Quintet; Mar. 21: Terence Brewer Jazz Trio; Mar. 22: Anna & Ellen Hoffman Jazz Tunes; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 23: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 24: Christy Dana Jazz Group; Mar. 25: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 26: Jason Martineau and Dave Sayen; Mar. 27: David Widelock Jazz Duo; Mar. 28: Randy Moore Jazz Trio; Mar. 29: Anna & Ellen Hoffman; 10 p.m. Hideo Date; Mar. 30: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m. Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Mar. 15: 8 p.m., Peter Rowan and the Bluegrass Intentions, $15; Mar. 17: 7 p.m., Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos; Mar. 19: 8:30 p.m., Peter Rowan and the Bluegrass Intentions, $15; Mar. 23: A Benefit for Forest Defense with The Funky Nixons, The Gary Gates Band, The Shut-Ins, $8 - $20; Mar. 29: Alpha Yaya Diallo; 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Mar. 15: King Harvest, First Circle, $5; Mar. 16: Omaya, $7; Mar. 17: The Lost Coast Band, The Real, $3; Mar. 18: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 19: Mind Go Flip, RLT, $3; Mar. 20: Hebro, $3; Mar. 21: Ascension, $5; Mar. 22: Shady Lady, View From Here; $6; Mar. 23: Mystic Roots, LZ & Ezell Funkstaz, $5; Mar. 24: Passenger, The Shreep, $3; Mar. 25: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Mar. 22: 8 p.m., The Teethe, The Natural Dreamers, Yasi, $3; Mar. 23: 8 p.m., Guest DJs and MCs, $5; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344, Shows are All Ages.  

Cal Performances Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Gyuto Monks perform multiphonic chanting in accordance with the spiritual practices of Tantric Tibetan Buddhism. $24 - $36; Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Andras Schiff, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Apr. 7: 3 p.m., Murray Perahia, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin at an evening of poetry, music, and spoken word. $5-$10 donation. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898, pubsol@pacbell.net.  

Freight & Salvage Mar. 15: David Maloney performs Irish folk opera “The Great Blight”, $17.50; Mar. 16: The Black Brothers, $18.50; Mar. 17: Tom Russell, $16.50; Mar. 19: The Okros Ensemble, $17.50; Mar. 20: The Hot Club of Cowtown, $17.50; Mar. 21: Tish Hinojosa, $17.50; Mar. 22: Marley’s Ghost, $17.50; Mar. 24: Teresa Trull & Barbara Higbie, $18.50; Mar. 27: Paul Thorn, $16.50; Mar. 28: Old Blind Dogs, $17.50; Mar. 29: Jack Hardy, $16.50; Mar. 30: Faye Carol, $17.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Mar. 24: 4:30 p.m., Alegria, $6-$12; Mar. 30: 4:30 p.m., Dmitri Matheny Orchestra presents “The Emerald Buddha”; 2087 Addison St., 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

Rose Street House of Music Mar. 15: 8 p.m., Jamie Anderson and Wishing Chair; Mar. 21: 7:30 p.m., Rose Street on the Road/Indiegrrl Tour kickoff featuring Irina Rivkin, Making Waves, Francine Allen, Amber Jade, and Christene LeDoux, 594-4000 x687. 

The Starry Plough Mar. 15: 9:30 p.m., Moore Brothers, $6; Mar. 16: 9:30 p.m., St. Patrick's Celtic Meltdown, Blue on Green, Green Man Gruvin, $5; Mar. 17: 6 p.m., St. Patty's Day Celebration, Chameleon, Irish dancers & bagpiper, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

UC Men's Octet Annual Spring Show Mar. 14 and 15: 8 p.m., all-male a cappella group; $7 students, $12 general, UC Berkeley, Wheeler Auditorium, 301-2367 octoevents@hotmail.com. 

“Harmonica Ace and Band” Mar. 15: 8 p.m., 10 p.m., Carlos Zialcita and his band team up with guest vocalist Ella Pennewell for a blues concert. $12. Dotha’s Juke Joint, 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668 

“Expressionality” Mar. 13 through Mar. 16: Wed. 10:15 a.m., Thurs. 10:30 a.m., 7 p.m., Sat. to be announced. An opera created and produced by 4th and 5th graders. Wed. and Thurs. shows at Malcolm X Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Sat. show at Oakland Museum of Art. 644-6313 

“The Art of Disability” Mar. 16: 7 p.m., A showcase of performing artists with disabilities. $10 -$50 sliding scale. Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, hesternet@jps.net 

“Tribute to Oakland’s Gospel Greats” Mar. 16: 7:30 p.m., The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and Youth Choir will present a free tribute concert. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison St., Oakland, 839-4361  

“The Song of Songs” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Composer Jorge Linderman creates a musical setting for Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s translation of “The Song of Songs”. $32. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Mbira Concert” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Forward Kwenda, considered the “Coltrane of Mbira” performs with Erica Azim. $12 - $15. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 845-2605 

Celebration for the Trees Mar. 17: 7 - 10 p.m., Benefit for the Ancient Trees Coalition Education Effort with Making Waves, Green, Marca Cassity, Folk This!, and Hali Hammer. BFUU Fellowship Hall 1606 Bonita. 

“Chamber Music Series” Mar. 17: 4 p.m., Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of Kronos Quartet, gives a solo performance of both acoustic and electronic pieces. $10, free children under 18. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

Dance 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Persimmony Jones” Mar. 16: 12 p.m., Designed for a young audience, this is the story of a young girl trying to find her place in the world. As Persimmony travels through different lands on her search, she is forced to reexamine her own ideas about tolerance and acceptance. Free. Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2978 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 7: 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 5 p.m. Sun., The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. Mar. 16 - 31:Thrust Stage at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.; Apr. 4 - 7: UC Theatre on University Ave.; 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org. 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Mar. 11: A Star is Born, 3 p.m.; Flesh, 7 p.m.; Mar. 12: An eye Unruled: An Evening with Stan Brakhage, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 13: The Bicycle Thief, 3 p.m.; Daughter from Danang, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 14: The Student I, 7 p.m.; Mar. 16: Shaping Identities Through Community, 7 p.m.; The Wolf, 9:30 p.m.; Mar. 17: For the Love of It: Amateur Filmmaking, 5:30; Mar. 18: Cabaret; 3 p.m.; Carnal Knowledge, 7 p.m.; Mar. 19: Stranger with a Camera, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 20: Sunset Blvd., 3 p.m.; Chemical Valley, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 21: Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 22: A Thousand and One Voices: The Music of Islam, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 23: In a Lonely Place, 7 p.m.; The Big Heat; 8:55 p.m.; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Asian American Film Fest” Mar. 13: Daughter From Danang; Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

Exhibits  

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Works of Alexander Nepote” Through Mar. 29: Nepote was a 20th century artist whose medium is a process of layered painting of torn pieces of watercolor paper, fused together in images that speak of the spirit that underlies and is embodied in the landscape he views. Check museum for times. Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., 849-8272 

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: An exhibit of mixed media sculpture by Jim Freeman, and acrylic paintings on canvas by Krystyna Mleczko. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Journey of Self-discovery” Through Mar. 30: Community Works artist Adriana Diaz and Willard Junior High students joined together to explore gender stereotypes, advertising, and other influential elements in society in a project that culminated in two life-size portraits that explore self-identity. Free. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 845-3332. 

“West Oakland Today” Through Mar. 30: Sergio De La Torre presents “thehousingproject”, an open house/video installation that explores desire surrounding one’s sense of home and place. Marcel Diallo presents “Scrapyard Ghosts”, an installation that presents a glimpse into the process of one man’s conversation with the living past through objects of iron, wood, rock dirt and other debris unearthed at an old scrapyard site in West Oakland’s Lower Bottom neighborhood. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland  

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

“Portraits of the Afghan People: 1984 - 1992” Through Apr. 6: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Bay Area photographer Patricia Monaco. Free. Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400 

“The Zoom of the Souls” Mar. 23 through Apr. 13: An exhibit of oil paintings by Mark P. Fisher. Sat. 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Bay Area Music Foundation, 462 Elwood Ave. #9, Oakland, 836-5223 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Mar. 18 through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Expressions of Time and Space” Mar. 18 through April 17: Calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Julien Designs 1798 Shattuck Ave., 540-7634, RyNakasone@aol.com.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Mar. 3 through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Mar. 13 through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Suzan Hagstrom reads from her book “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chielnik,” chronicling the survival of one brother and four sisters in Nazi death camps. Free. 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Mar. 7: Carl Parkes, author of “Moon Handbook: Southeast Asia”, presents a slide show exploring his travels in the region; Mar. 12: William Fienne describes his personal journey from Texas to North Dakota as he follows the northern migration of snow geese; Mar. 14: Gary Crabbe and Karen Misuraca present slides and read from their book, “The California Coast”; Mar. 19: Barbara and Robert Decker present a slide show focusing on the volcanoes of California and the Cascade Mountain Range; Mar. 21: Stefano DeZerega discusses opportunities for study, travel, and work in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

GAIA Building Mar. 14: 7 - 9 p.m., Lecture with Patricia Evans speaking from her book, “Controlling People: How to recognize, Understand and Deal with People Who Are Trying to Control You.”; Mar. 19: Reading and slide show with Carol Wagner, “Survival of the Spirit: Lives of Cambodian Buddhists.”; March 21: 6 - 9 p.m., 1st Berkeley Edgework Books Salon; Mar. 22: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., Book Reading and Jazz Concert with David Rothenberg; All events are held in the Rooftop Gardens Solarium, 7th Floor, GAIA Building, 2116 Allston Way, 848-4242. 

Gathering Tribes Mar. 15: 6:30 p.m., Susan Lobo and Victoria Bomberry will be conducting readings from “American Indians And The Urban Experience.”; 1573 Solano Ave., 528-9038, www.gatheringtribes.com.  

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series Mar. 7: Marilyn Hacker reads from her most recent book, “Squares and Courtyards”. Free. Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Berkeley campus, 642-0137, www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems. 

University of Creation Spirituality Mar. 21: 7 - 9 p.m., Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, An Evening with Author Margaret J. Wheatley, $10-$15 donation; 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x29, darla@berkana.org. 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Mar. 3: Myung Mi Kim, Harryette Mullen & Geoffrey O’Brien; Mar. 6: Bill Berkson, Albert Flynn DeSilver; Mar. 10: Leslie Scalapino, Dan Farrell; Mar. 13: Lucille Lang Day, Risa Kaparo; Mar. 20: Edward Smallfield, Truong Tran; Mar. 24: Susan Griffin, Honor Moore; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading @ South Branch Berkeley Public Library Mar. 2: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. 1901 Russell St. 

Word Beat Mar. 9: Sonia Greenfield and Megan Breiseth; Mar. 16, Q. R. Hand and Lu Pettus; Mar. 23: Lee Gerstmann and Sam Pierstorffs; Mar. 30: Eleanor Watson-Gove and Jim Watson-Gove; All shows 7 - 9 p.m., Coffee With A Beat, 458 Perkins, Oakland. 526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat. 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin, poetry, storytellers, singers and musicians. $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898. 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Mar. 16: 1 - 4 p.m., Moviemaking for children 8 years old and up; Mar. 20: Spring Equinox; “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below Grizzly Peak Blvd. 642-5132 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Changing Face of  

Disability Law in the 

New Millennium 

8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Booth Auditorium 

Conference exploring the evolving laws and emerging issues that define the status of disability rights in American society. Panel discussions addressing legal issues affecting disability rights. 643-8010, www.boalt.org/BDLS/conf.html. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

“Hooked” 

1:15 p.m. 

Alta Bates Hospital, Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

A talk and slide show from the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 763-0779, www.unhooked.com. 

Tax-Aid: Bay Area Free Tax Service for Low-income Taxpayers 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lincoln Recreation Center 

250 10th St., Oakland 

Tax-Aid offers free tax return preparation to Bay Area families with incomes of less than $32,000. Eligible families simply bring their W-2s, other proofs of income and tax forms. Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators are available.  

St. Patrick’s Day Community 

and Family Contra Dance 

7:45 p.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

7 p.m., Contra dance music teaching session. All levels welcome, easy dances for all ages. $10 adults, $5 kids. 482-9479. 

Special Education Workshop 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Navigating the System: Understanding Legal Responsibilities. Get a working sense of relevant special education law, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Learn to advocate for your child in assessments and IEP meetings. 558-8933, sandstep@earthlink.net. 

The Effect of Sept. 11

on Working People 

noon 

Albany Library 

1247 Marin Ave. 

LaborParty—East Bay with speakers: Ethel Long-Scott, Mario Santos and Warren Mar. 273-9219. 

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and  

Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The  

Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Stagebridge’s 11th Annual 

Family Matinee Theatre and 

Ice Cream Social 

3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2501 Harrison, Oakland 

Premiere of Linda Spector’s “Chicken Sunday and Other Grandparent Tales,” followed by an old fashioned ice cream social. $8 general, $4 children. 444-4755, www.stagebridge.org.  

Fundraiser 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A fundraiser benefiting Bay Area Classical Harmonies and the Berkeley Art Center. $20. 219-5400, sarahfinley@hotmail.com.  

Monday, March 18

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will discuss the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction of Daniel A. Seeger. Also a reading and discussion of Seeger’s pamphlet, The Seed and the Tree.  

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home 

Owners Committee 

1:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office 

1403 Addison St. 

Finding good repair people, good tenants, locating resources for low and middle income home owners. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com. 

Thwarting the Next Energy Crisis 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School Room 7 

1222 University Ave. 

Learn to install your own basic home weatherization measures. Class will cover selection of materials and the proper installation of door weather stripping, attic insulation, duct tape, caulking and more. Lecture includes hands-on demonstrations. 981-5435, Energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Self Help Strategies and Techniques from Feldenkrais and Pilates 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates, Auditorium — Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Arthritis Foundation Northern California Chapter fibromyalgia support group. 644-3273.  

The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor of  

Martin Luther King Jr. Student 

Union Building  

Second symposium of the annual Breaking the Cycle, Mending the Circle Conference: Contemporary Issues of Genocide. This particular symposium is entitled The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide. 642-4270.  

Wednesday, March 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish  

Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St. 

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Cealo is Coming 

7 - 9 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

Fireside Room 

2727 College Ave. 

Gayuna Cealo is a Burmese monk who’s mission is to lead people to their true selves. $10 donation. 525-6472. 

Community Prayer Breakfast 

7:30 a.m. 

H’s Lordships Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina, 199 Seawall Dr. 

The 62nd year of the interfaith prayer breakfast celebrating spirituality in the community. $18. 549-4524, vicki@baymca.org. n 

– compiled by Guy Poole 

The St. Mary’s High track & field team got their first look at the competition in the BSAL, and it wasn’t exactly intimidating. 

The Panthers hosted a three-way league meet between Kennedy, Holy Names and Albany on Thursday, as St. Mary’s is one of only two schools in the BSAL with track facilities (Piedmont is the other). St. Mary’s entered most events, with their scores not counting, to get in a day of practice. Although many of the home team’s top competitors didn’t participate, the Panthers still established their dominance over the league, winning most of the events they entered. 

“We have fun out here, but it’s also a hard practice for us,” St. Mary’s senior Solomon Welch said. “But I know the coaches take it seriously.” 

But veterans like Welch, a state finalist in hurdles last season and on of the state’s top jumpers, weren’t really what the St. Mary’s coaches were concentrating on. Distance coach Dennis Mohun, who ran the event, said the league meets are a good chance for the younger athletes to get a taste of competition. 

“For some kids this is their first meet, and it’s a big learning experience,” Mohun said. “Our vets also get a chance to help the younger kids, which they can’t usually do at a meet.” 

But for the Panthers’ top athletes, Thursday was a chance to either rest or run some different events. Welch, not usually a sprinter, ran the 100- and 200-meter dashes along with the 110-meter hurdles, finishing second in each event. Three of the team’s top competitors, Trestin George, Courtney Brown and Chris Dunbar, didn’t even suit up for the meet, choosing to rest their legs after taking part in a national event in New York last weekend. 

Some of the stars did come out for St. Mary’s, however. Kamaiya Warren, a state hopeful in both throwing events, easily bested the field in the discus, with Leon Drummer dominating the boys’ side in the event. Junior Jason Bolden-Anderson won both hurdles events and finished third in the 100-meter dash, nipping Welch in the 110-meter hurdles and finishing just behind him in the sprint. 

“It’s fun to run against Solomon, since I see him every day in practice,” Bolden-Anderson said. “We get a chance to see where we’re at for real.” 

St. Mary’s senior Steve Murphy, who missed most of last season with pneumonia, came back with a vengeance, winning the long jump and the 100-meter dash. For Murphy, the league meets will be a chance to get his form back before regionals and possibly state. 

“I’m getting my legs back, and I know I have to train hard to get to the state meet in the 100,” Murphy said.

Who switched the tape? 

That is the mystery at the heart of a new student opera, written, produced and performed by fourth- and fifth-graders at Malcolm X Arts & Academic Magnet School. 

The opera, “Expressionality,” centers on a class of performing arts students – a painter, a poet, a dancer, a rapper, a comedian, a juggler and a jazz musician nicknamed “Poison Ivy.” 

Ivy, who has a reputation for being mean to the other kids, steps up to play a clarinet solo only to find that someone has switched the tape of accompanying music, foiling her performance. The rest of the opera focuses on the search for the culprit. 

The production is the brainchild of more than 50 Malcolm X students who have worked on the opera since September, serving as writers, composers, electricians, set designers and even public relations staff. The group calls itself “Lights Camera Opera!” 

The students performed once Wednesday and twice Thursday. The opera will run again this morning, in the Malcolm X auditorium and at the Oakland Museum Saturday at 4 p.m. 

Giselle Moreno, a fifth-grader who helped write the script, said the production has taught the students about cooperation. 

“(We learned) how to work together,” Moreno said. “These are fourth- and fifth-grade classes and we didn’t know each other well.” 

Malcolm X teachers Jennifer Adcock and Marilyn Hiratzka guided the production after attending trainings the past two summers with the New York-based Metropolitan Opera Guild. 

Last year, students under the direction of Adcock and Hiratzka wrote and performed an opera called “Treacherous Crossings” about the trip across the Mexican-United States border. 

This year, two more Malcolm X teachers, Candy Cannon and Tara Easley, will lead a group of students in putting up a May opera. 

“I think the biggest thing (the students) get out of this is a collective experience,” said Adcock, a fifth-grade teacher. “They learn, in tangible ways, that they are important as individuals, but far more powerful as a collective.” 

Hiratzka added that students learn about their own potential to write, build and produce something meaningful over time. 

“There’s a lot of discovery in the process,” she said. “What does it mean to start something, and six months later, have something else?” 

Students say they also learned practical skills in constructing sets and footlights.  

“We learned how to use rulers,” said fourth-grader Charles Wood, who served as a set designer. 

Hannah Miller, another fourth-grade set designer, talked about transferring set drawings from small pieces of paper to larger flats by making use of grids on both surfaces. 

It wasn’t always an easy process. Claire Engan, a fourth-grade scriptwriter, said that before they selected character names, students referred to the players as Characters A, B, C, and D. 

“It was kind of confusing,” she said. But, Engan added, it all worked out in the end. 

When a reporter asked the assembled cast and crew if they had fun putting “Expressionality” together, the answer was a resounding “yes.” 

Editor: 

For too long we have sat idly by watching the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine make Israel into their desired image. They display a picture of an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a Palestinian’s head but, they forget to mention the soldier had his family splattered against the walls of a disco two days prior. We can no longer be complacent, the covert and overt tide of the Bay Area anti-Semitism must come to an end. We must turn their foot hold in the moral majority into a hold in mire. 

Israel is our birth right and we cannot let Jews in name only give it away. We must show these militants for what they really are: self-hating Jews, uncle Issacs. The time for action is now, these uncle Issacs must no longer be able to protest without opposition or fear of reprisal. we can make a bringing the true intent of these pro- Palestinian groups to light. That is the annihilation of a Jewish sovereign nation.  

Gabe Kurtz 

Berkeley 

NEW YORK — Amazon.com will pull a listing that says a new J.D. Salinger book is due in November. No publication date has been set for “Hapworth 16, 1924,” a novella that appeared in The New Yorker in 1965 and was originally expected in book form five years ago. 

Several Web sites had repeated the information posted on Amazon, and even included links to the online retailer, raising hopes that a “new” Salinger work would be coming for the first time in 40 years. But both Salinger’s agent, Phyllis Westberg, and his publisher, Orchises Press, told The Associated Press that Amazon was wrong. 

“There’s enough uncertainty about when it’s going to be published that we’re going to remove the date,” Amazon.com spokesman Bill Curry said Monday. 

Curry said the source of the November date for “Hapworth” is uncertain, but that it likely came from a distributor’s catalog. He declined to say how many orders had been placed for “Hapworth,” which as of Monday afternoon ranked 25,106th on Amazon. 

The unpredictable fate of “Hapworth” has only added to the unpredictable image of Salinger, the author of “Catcher in the Rye.” 

In early 1997, Westberg confirmed rumors that a book version of “Hapworth” was coming out soon. Salinger presumably could have signed with any of the major publishers, but instead selected Orchises, a small imprint based in Alexandria, Va., and run by an English professor at George Mason University. 

The novella is an episode from Salinger’s famous Glass family saga, a purported letter from camp written by precocious, 7-year-old Seymour Glass. Anticipation was so high that New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani didn’t wait for a review copy, but tracked down the old New Yorker text and panned it as a “sour, implausible, and, sad to say, completely charmless story.” 

For reasons unclear — some speculated about the impact of Kakutani’s review — “Hapworth” didn’t appear. Salinger, of course, wasn’t talking. And Orchises was only slightly more accessible, saying that publication was still planned, but not giving a date. A spokeswoman for Orchises recently said that that status is unchanged. 

Even before removing the November date, Amazon had cautioned Salinger fans. 

“As one might expect with a J.D. Salinger title, there are some twists and turns,” reads a message posted on the page devoted to “Hapworth.” 

“There can be unexpected delays in the publication process, especially with a title that is generating as much demand as this one, and unfortunately such delays are beyond our control. ... (But) Orchises notes that all backorders will be honored and assures us the book is really being published. 

“Salinger has always refused to take the conventional route, and it looks like he’s running true to form with the publication of this book.”

NEW YORK — The clock sits frozen, forever recording a moment in time: 8:50 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001. 

Artist Edwin Class received the battered timepiece from a worker at ground zero shortly after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The first plane hit the tower at 8:46 a.m.; the clock somehow survived where so many people did not. 

The find is now part of a multimedia New-York Historical Society exhibit chronicling the emotions that washed across the city following Sept. 11. “Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning” opens to the public on Tuesday. 

The stopped clock, collected by Class while he worked as a volunteer after the attacks, is among the more disturbing exhibits. 

“I’m an artist, and this is just how I responded to what I saw,” explained Class, who collected dozens of items at the site. “I was just doing this to get it out of my system.” 

Class’ collection fits perfectly in the exhibit’s random style: photographs, video, pieces of impromptu memorials that cropped up around the city — about 150 items. 

Included is a Halloween costume from last year’s Greenwich Village parade, showing papier-mache twin towers adorned with wings and a halo. 

There are 15-foot rolls of butcher paper collected from Union Square Park, each filled with hand-scrawled messages of conflicting emotions. 

And there is a wooden firefighter carved by Dave Fontana of Brooklyn’s Squad One, who was one of 10 firefighters from the Park Slope firehouse killed when the towers collapsed.  

The statue stood for months outside the firehouse in tribute to the lost firefighters. 

The wooden firefighter, while hardly a typical museum piece, turned out to be perfect for this exhibit. 

“Two days after it happened, our president, Ken Jackson, brought the whole staff together and said we had to do something,” said Travis Stewart, a society spokesman. “We just didn’t know what.” 

They soon found out, creating a collection that mingles candles from street memorials, toy fire trucks, a teddy bear in firefighter’s garb, a John Lennon figurine. 

The wide-ranging artifacts display the scope of how people mourned and what artists produced after living through such a tragedy, Stewart said. The collection was assembled in conjunction with City Lore, a group of folklorists and artists. 

Some of the items are more uplifting and hopeful, like a photograph of a dust-covered fire truck with the words “BLESS YOU” rubbed in the ashes. There are also hundreds of messages left near ground zero, honoring the dead. 

Class used some of the items he found in lower Manhattan as an inspiration to make new art. He created a series of construction helmets painted with World Trade Center themes, and an American flag made from tiny bags of the ash that covered all of lower Manhattan for weeks following the attacks. 

The exhibit is designed to be a companion piece to an existing one at the Historical Society titled “WTC: Monument.” Conceived before the collapse of the towers, that exhibit details the remarkable efforts made to construct the World Trade Center. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The New-York Historical Society: http://www.nyhistory.org 

Prep scores 

Boys Volleyball – Salesian def. St. Mary’s 15-12, 15-9, 15-8 

The St. Mary’s Panthers are now 2-1 in BSAL play for the season.

As the City Council steps closer to finally inking the General Plan, 15-plus years in the making, some say there are still unresolved questions concerning density and how it will affect the diversity of the city’s population. Citizens will also likely vote on a height restriction ordinance in November, written by Martha Nicoloff. 

“I think many of these so-called progressive thinkers are going to have to resolve themselves with the fact that a lot of this no-growth rhetoric is going to leave us with a city of nothing but students and very rich white people,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who added that even she has a difficult time voting for increased density and affordable housing projects in the face of vehement neighborhood opposition. 

“One side of me says well OK, that’s fine. It is true. I would like to live in a city that is less crowded and with lower density. I too would like to enjoy some of the benefits of our hometown appeal,” she said. 

But without increasing the housing stock, through increased density or by other bold measures, Armstrong says the city will become even more victim to a socioeconomic divide that is driving low-income and moderate income minorities from the Bay Area.  

Councilmember Miriam Hawley agreed that it is very difficult for elected city officials to vote on issues about affordable housing when there is so much organized resistance from neighborhood groups. 

“The truth is the neighborhood preservation movement is very strong in this city right now. And it’s very hard for a city politician to say ‘no’ to an organized group of people who are saying ‘not in my backyard.’ ” 

What about the front yard? 

Richard Register of Ecocity states that much of the opposition in Berkeley to development is short-sighted and that the city does have to look outside of its traditional thinking to resolve the imbalance of housing and jobs that have been created over the last ten years. 

“We really do need to provide for people somewhere, and in our city’s front yards is the only place that makes sense because of the transit that is available,” said Register who envisions a Berkeley with dramatically increased density in its downtown corridors and more green space in its residential areas. 

“Because what happens is that people commute very far away to work here in Berkeley and you have traffic congestion and air pollution,” Register said. “So it’s ultimately a contradiction here. They claim to be progressive but they say they want lower density and they are simply excluding lots and lots of people. A lot of people are very proud and rightfully they should be because there a lot of social services here. But if you don’t have many people here that can use those great services, how great can they be.” 

And it’s also a contradiction when people say they are pro environment lock people into a low development pattern, because they are essentially locking the community into complete dependence upon their cars and long commutes,” he added.  

Becky O’Malley, however says she personally takes offense to that remark and does not believe that increasing the housing supply will benefit low-income families or people of color. 

“First of all, Berkeley is the third densest city in the Bay Area and the only way we are going to get more affordable housing is to be careful that the infil housing has a large percentage of affordability,” O’Malley said. “All development does not benefit people of color, and it’s a foolish myth to say a rising tide lifts all boats.” 

O’Malley went onto say that she does not personally want to live in a city that provides dormitory style living accommodations to single wage-earners but is an adamant believer in providing more affordable housing. 

At present, all residential developments in Berkeley (Berkeley has prioritized residential development over housing development) has a 20 percent set aside for below-market rents.  

O’Malley added that the real danger in not providing close oversight for residential development is “using up all of the supply on luxury housing and it leaves no space left for affordable housing.” 

“The only way we can keep the economic mix of cohabitants in Berkeley is if we structure our planning,” she added. 

Rob Wrenn of the Berkeley Planning Commission states that he personally believes the city has addressed the issue of density already, and has clearly stated that they want a moderate increase in density and do not want taller buildings. He also stated that simply increasing the stock of housing will not ensure that there will be additional housing for low-income people. 

The general plan said things are just right, and that’s the way we want to keep it. There are some areas where modifications should be made.” 

And ultimately according to Wrenn the majority of residents in Berkeley are simply not in agreement with Register’s view of environmentalism. 

“The majority of people in Berkeley don’t buy that particular version of environmentalism,” Wrenn said. “And the real key to the thing is affordability. The people who are driving in are people who can’t afford to live here. They are not going to be able to afford if we build a thousand luxury apartments downtown either. That’s why the real focus of the general plan is affordable housing.” 

If the city has made their statements known on the issue of density, November may also provide an opportunity for its citizenry to voice their opinions on various development subjects as Martha Nicoloff has authored a height restriction ordinance she wants placed on the November ballot.  

“The citizens of Berkeley are going to have a chance to voice their opinions now because this will be on the ballot,” said Martha Nicoloff. 

The Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhoods will be holding a meeting this Saturday at Live Oak Park at 9:30 a.m.  

“With friends like these, who needs enemies?” That is probably one of the many thoughts going through the minds of some the leaders of countries mentioned as nuclear threats (or targets) as well as some of the American people, who didn’t realize that ‘pushing the button’ could occur even if nuclear weapons were not being used. 

The leaked Pentagon report, called The Nuclear Posture Review (regarding American nuclear weapon contingencies), offers a frightening, possible “end-game” solution for the war on terror from rogue nation states. 

According the policy review, the United States has identified those nations as Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Syria. However, in that same leaked report, there are countries among which we have normalized relations (Russia and China). The question then is, who are our friends and who are our enemies? In the Bush administration, there seems an unyielding motto (ala The X-Files): “Trust, no one.” 

Late in the week, apparently an officer(s) at the Pentagon leaked the mostly unclassified report to the press by giving a partial copy to The Los Angeles Times and a full one to The New York Times (both left of center news institutions), but as the New York Times, with the full document, noted key portions were kept secret. Unfortunately for President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the world now knows of our nuclear strategic policy. And what is the significance of this leak? It is the apparent willingness of President Bush to steer the United States away from a Clinton-derived, coalition-driven, foreign policy and to an isolationist posture (i.e. the Cold War), acting only in response to threats that may jeopardize our strategic self-interests.  

In the military document, the Pentagon goes on to point out the three scenario in which nuclear weapons may be used: an Iraqi attack on Israel, a North Korean attack on South Korea, and a Chinese attack on Taiwan. In the case of Iraq and North Korea, it has not been proven (probably not) that they even have nuclear weapons. It is also a confusing signal for China after receiving ‘favorite nation’ trading status (despite continued human rights violations).  

On its face, such a plan appears to go against the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in which the United States would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states. The strategic threats the Pentagon identifies say simply “attacks,” not of what origin. Like breaking the ABM treaty with Russia, President Bush appears to have no qualms of re-establishing American imperialist objectives on contracts or agreements do not suit his administration’s goals. The only problem is what will the global, political atmosphere be when the President leaves office? 

In the eyes of the mainstream news media, the answer appears to be any nation that can solve the nation's insecurity about terrorism in place of not being able to capture Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With this secret plan revealed, we risk the developing world and our “former enemies” wondering whether our intentions are genuine or simply strategic in the war on terror (especially since the focus has moved on to a non-terrorist Saddam Hussein). 

There are three reasons why the Bush administration should not implement this plan: No. 1, its announcement will undercut Vice President Cheney’s diplomatic mission to the Middle East, in preparation of a possible military conflict with Iraq over the United Nations weapons inspections; No. 2, the plan will bring distrust among our European allies of American foreign objectives, precisely when the E.U. is formulating their own military strategy; No. 3, the document will raise doubts within Russia and China as to whether the U.S. has acted in good faith with current nuclear nonproliferation agreements. 

In short, the Nuclear Posture Review will lead to an unraveling of the notion of American goodwill in foreign policy, hampering our efforts to forge alliances with the Arab states in the war on terror, and asking Russia, China and (most importantly) the emerging European Union, to reevaluate strategic military posture in regards in the U.S.  

If the leaking of this Pentagon brief was to justify the President’s “axis of evil “ gaffe, the intention has backfired. 

Whoever leaked this report wanted the American people to know that our strategic nuclear interests have changed, not only do we distrust our new “friends,” but we are willing to annihilate our perceived enemies if it suits our best interests. For the first time, there may be fear of the unthinkable-again (Hiroshima). Let’s hope that doesn’t occur.  

Tommy Ates 

Friday 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. St. Joseph, 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. San Ramon, 4 p.m.  

at Berkeley High School 

Track – St. Mary’s at Distance Fest, 4 p.m.  

at Piedmont High School 

Saturday 

Men’s Rugby – Cal vs. Norwich, 1 p.m.  

at Witter Field 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Bishop O’Dowd, 1:30 p.m.  

at San Pablo Park 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. Oakland Tech, 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School 

Sunday 

Men’s Rugby – Cal vs. TBA, 1 p.m.  

at Witter Field

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating letters received by Latino organizations this week containing ethnic slurs and a white powder purported to be anthrax.  

Four Berkeley-based groups, one on the UC campus, were also sent the mailings. A few dozen were received throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento. 

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft called the anthrax hoax letters “serious violations of federal law.” 

The powder in the letters tested negative for anthrax and was sent to FBI laboratories for further testing, Justice spokesman Dan Nelson said Wednesday. 

Gov. Gray Davis released a statement Thursday condemning the actions as cowardly and divisive and calling the senders “hate-mongers.” 

“We will not tolerate your acts of hate and when we find you, you will answer to the strongest anti-hate laws in the country,” he said.  

About three dozen people have been charged nationwide with perpetrating anthrax hoaxes. 

“Perpetrators of criminal acts, targeting Americans because of their race or heritage, will not be permitted,” Ashcroft said. “We are committed to identifying, tracking down and prosecuting domestic terrorists who threaten the lives and welfare of innocent Americans.” 

The FBI and the Justice Department’s civil rights and criminal divisions are investigating the mailings, authorities said. 

The letters were received Monday and Tuesday by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials; League of United Latin American Citizens; Aspira Association Inc.; and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, all in Washington. Other organizations that received letters include five offices of the National Council of La Raza in the Southwest United States, in Texas, and the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund in Sacramento, Calif. 

One of the letters also was opened Monday by a staffer at the California Chicano News Media Association in Los Angeles. 

“She didn’t notice the powder until she was preparing to make a photocopy of the letter, which tilted, spilling the stuff on the machine and her pant leg,” the association’s Executive Director Julio Moran said. 

“It was a generic letter, full of ranting and raving that was not addressed to us specifically — except for the envelope,” Moran said. 

Today is the 74th day of 2002. There are 291 days left in the year. This is “Buzzard Day” in Hinckley, Ohio. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 15, 1919, the American Legion was founded, in Paris. 

On this date: 

In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius. 

In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere. 

In 1767, the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, was born in Waxhaw, S.C. 

In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state. 

In 1875, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal, by Pope Pius IX. 

In 1913, President Wilson held the first open presidential news conference. 

In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical “My Fair Lady” opened on Broadway. 

In 1964, actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second. 

In 1975, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis died near Paris at age 69. 

In 1977, 25 years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television. 

Ten years ago: Democratic presidential candidates debated in Chicago, criticizing President George H.W. Bush’s handling of the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath, and clashing over economic issues. The United Nations officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia. 

Five years ago: President Clinton spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating from surgery for a partially torn knee tendon. Greek frogmen and U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania by that country’s descent into anarchy. 

One year ago: Chechen men wielding knives and claiming to have a bomb hijacked a Russian plane carrying 174 people after it left Turkey and forced it to land in the holy Saudi city of Medina. (Saudi special forces stormed the plane the following day; a flight attendant, a passenger and a hijacker were killed.) Actress Ann Sothern died in Ketchum, Idaho, at age 92. 

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Carl Smith is 75. Former astronaut Alan L. Bean is 70. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 69. Jazz musician Cecil Taylor is 69. Actor Judd Hirsch is 67. Rock musician Phil Lesh is 62. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys) is 61. Rock singer-musician Sly Stone is 58. Rock singer-musician Howard Scott (War) is 56. Rock singer Ry Cooder is 55. Actor Craig Wasson is 48. Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 47. Actress Park Overall is 45. Movie director Renny Harlin is 43. Model Fabio is 41. Singer Terence Trent D’Arby is 40. Rock singer Bret Michaels (Poison) is 39. Singer Rockwell is 38. Rock singer Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) is 34. Rock musician Mark Hoppus (Blink 182) is 30. Rapper-musician will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) is 27. Rock DJ Joseph Hahn (Linkin Park) is 25. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Home health care worker Claudia Arevalo says her life changed in 2000, when San Francisco enacted its living wage and her employer, which receives city funds, raised her pay. 

In 1998 she earned $6 an hour and to get by rented out a room in her apartment and worked 300-hour months which included night shifts as a janitor. Now Arevalo, 37, works a regular schedule. 

“I have more time for my family, for myself. I have a better life,” she said. “It’s the living wage that made the changes come.” 

Cities that mandate minimum wages be boosted well above the federal floor are adopting a policy that increases unemployment but ultimately benefits the working poor by reducing poverty rates, a new national study has found. 

More than 60 U.S. cities, counties or public agencies have adopted a “living wage” since 1994. But this movement has stumbled over criticisms that requiring firms to pay more than the federal $5.15-per-hour minimum leads to layoffs while benefitting only a fortunate few who keep their jobs. 

The new study, published Thursday by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, will encourage living wage advocates — not least because its author is a noted minimum wage critic. 

“Living wages actually reduce poverty,” said author David Neumark, an economics professor at Michigan State University. “If someone’s getting up on a soapbox saying these are a disaster, they may believe it, but there’s really no evidence.” 

Living wage ordinances often are not as radical as they sound. None of them applies to all workers in a city — most cover only city employees or private firms with significant government contracts. And Neumark said that the average pay raise equals around 3.5 percent, though it may be significantly higher for some workers. 

Still, the movement has been growing. 

California has at least 10 living wage cities, according to the study, including Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Baltimore passed the first living wage law, with Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Omaha and San Antonio among the large cities that followed. 

Urban poverty rates fell from 1996 through 2000, the span Neumark studied using Census Bureau data. But the living wage accelerated the drop in those cities, he said. 

Neumark concluded that cities where the living wage is 50 percent higher than the federal or state minimum see poverty drop 1.8 percentage points. 

There are losers, too. According to Neumark’s projections, the 10 percent of workers who earn the least in these cities would experience a 7 percent increase in unemployment. 

On balance, however, “it looks like the winners win more than the losers lose,” Neumark said. 

San Francisco’s living wage of $10 an hour is about 50 percent higher than the state’s $6.75-an-hour floor. Over a 2,000 hour work year, that could mean a $6,500 raise to $20,000 — and the difference between official poverty and a lifestyle less desperate. 

The government says a family of two adults and one child needs $15,020 a year to stay out of poverty, though that is low for a high-cost regions such as the San Francisco Bay area. 

Critics counter that there are better ways, such as the earned income tax credit, to help the poor. 

Workers who hover around the poverty line can lose valuable federal benefits if they earn just a few thousand dollars more, according to Richard Toikka of the Washington-based Employment Policies Institute. 

“It’s not the best way to go,” Toikka said. “The workers that are harmed are the ones that have the most serious skill deficits.” 

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On the Net: 

http://www.ppic.org/ 

http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/ 

http://www.epionline.org/ 

By Justin Pritchard 

The Associated Press 

SAN FRANCISCO — Home health care worker Claudia Arevalo says her life changed in 2000, when San Francisco enacted its living wage and her employer, which receives city funds, raised her pay. 

In 1998 she earned $6 an hour and to get by rented out a room in her apartment and worked 300-hour months which included night shifts as a janitor. Now Arevalo, 37, works a regular schedule. 

“I have more time for my family, for myself. I have a better life,” she said. “It’s the living wage that made the changes come.” 

Cities that mandate minimum wages be boosted well above the federal floor are adopting a policy that increases unemployment but ultimately benefits the working poor by reducing poverty rates, a new national study has found. 

More than 60 U.S. cities, counties or public agencies have adopted a “living wage” since 1994. But this movement has stumbled over criticisms that requiring firms to pay more than the federal $5.15-per-hour minimum leads to layoffs while benefitting only a fortunate few who keep their jobs. 

The new study, published Thursday by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, will encourage living wage advocates — not least because its author is a noted minimum wage critic. 

“Living wages actually reduce poverty,” said author David Neumark, an economics professor at Michigan State University. “If someone’s getting up on a soapbox saying these are a disaster, they may believe it, but there’s really no evidence.” 

Living wage ordinances often are not as radical as they sound. None of them applies to all workers in a city — most cover only city employees or private firms with significant government contracts. And Neumark said that the average pay raise equals around 3.5 percent, though it may be significantly higher for some workers. 

Still, the movement has been growing. 

California has at least 10 living wage cities, according to the study, including Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Baltimore passed the first living wage law, with Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Omaha and San Antonio among the large cities that followed. 

Urban poverty rates fell from 1996 through 2000, the span Neumark studied using Census Bureau data. But the living wage accelerated the drop in those cities, he said. 

Neumark concluded that cities where the living wage is 50 percent higher than the federal or state minimum see poverty drop 1.8 percentage points. 

There are losers, too. According to Neumark’s projections, the 10 percent of workers who earn the least in these cities would experience a 7 percent increase in unemployment. 

On balance, however, “it looks like the winners win more than the losers lose,” Neumark said. 

San Francisco’s living wage of $10 an hour is about 50 percent higher than the state’s $6.75-an-hour floor. Over a 2,000 hour work year, that could mean a $6,500 raise to $20,000 — and the difference between official poverty and a lifestyle less desperate. 

The government says a family of two adults and one child needs $15,020 a year to stay out of poverty, though that is low for a high-cost regions such as the San Francisco Bay area. 

Critics counter that there are better ways, such as the earned income tax credit, to help the poor. 

Workers who hover around the poverty line can lose valuable federal benefits if they earn just a few thousand dollars more, according to Richard Toikka of the Washington-based Employment Policies Institute. 

“It’s not the best way to go,” Toikka said. “The workers that are harmed are the ones that have the most serious skill deficits.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.ppic.org/ 

http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/ 

http://www.epionline.org/ 

OAKLAND — The state transportation commission unanimously has approved more than $4 million in state grant funds for an intercity rail station at the Oakland Coliseum. 

The new station will be adjacent to the Coliseum Bay Area Rapid Transit station and will be served by Amtrak’s popular Capitol Corridor train service. This will allow Amtrak passengers to connect with AC Transit bus service, BART’s light rail network and the AirBART shuttle to Oakland International Airport. 

The new train stop also will give residents from Sacramento to San Jose greater access to Oakland’s professional sport teams, a concert arena and the airport. 

“The more we discover how convenient it is to take the train to events at the Coliseum the less we’ll suffer the headache of battling traffic congestion,” Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said in a statement. 

Stanford doctor pleads innocent to charges 

SAN JOSE — A Stanford Medical Center physician charged with embezzlement and elder abuse in connection with her grandmother’s death last year has pleaded innocent. 

Dr. Cheryl Walker, 43, an associate professor of gynecology, was ordered released on a $1 million bond Wednesday. Her mother, Janice, 72, also charged with manipulating the $500,000 estate of Mary Lee Koleber, 95, entered an innocent plea. Janice Walker remains behind bars in lieu of a $2.5 million bond. 

Cheryl Walker and her mother were jailed last month after being indicted on charges they looted Koleber’s estate before killing her by administering an overdose of painkillers. 

Stanford attorney Debra Zumwalt said Walker remains on administrative leave until the end of the month. 

Koleber was found dead May 10 inside the Walkers’ San Jose home, where they had brought her several weeks earlier from Florida. Both women told police Koleber had not been taking any medication. 

Cheryl Walker reported the cause of death as pneumonia. But just before Koleber was to be cremated, alarmed relatives called authorities alleging she had been secretly hustled out of South Florida. An autopsy revealed that Koleber had actually died after ingesting a deadly cocktail of prescription drugs, including morphine. 

Ikea moves in to East Palo Alto  

SAN MATEO — Furniture maker Ikea won last week’s ballot measure battle in East Palo Alto. 

A final total count showed that 1,562 residents in East Palo Alto had voted in favor of Measure C, while 1,419 voted against it, Elections Manager David Tom said Wednesday. 

The final tally took place with the presence of supporters and opponents who had demanded to observe the daylong process at the San Mateo County election office. 

Ikea opponents had hoped the remaining ballots might give them the advantage. 

Though disappointed, they said they have not given up. Opponents have complained to county election officials about alleged electioneering and other improprieties by Ikea supporters. The matter has been referred to the San Mateo County District Attorney. 

“These have to be checked out, and until they’ve been resolved there’s a cloud over this election,” said Peter Bagatelos, an attorney representing Ikea opponents. 

Bagatelos said opponents will decide whether to call for a recount.  

They could also contest the election and ask for a court hearing on the matter, he said. 

Measure C asked voters to approve zoning and other changes that would allow Ikea to construct a store in East Palo Alto. 

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ended it’s national search for a new director, appointing Neal Benezra, deputy director and curator at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

“We’ve hired a person who is solid, bright, respected by all his peers, has Bay area roots, possesses great integrity and can boast of the managerial skills we need,” said SFMOMA board chairwoman Elaine McKeon. 

Benezra, 48, was a strong candidate since the beginning of the national search launched shortly after the abrupt departure of former director David Ross in August. Ross served for just three years, and the terms of his departure from SFMOMA were never made clear. 

Benezra was born in Oakland and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree from UC Davis and master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. 

Benezra said he tried and failed to get an internship at SFMOMA while in school. The museum’s search ended Wednesday with his return 20 years later. Benezra stressed SFMOMA’s ambition and history as attractions for him. 

Benezra, noted for his wide take on contemporary art and his inclusive taste, will assume his position Aug. 1. 

We recently built closet systems in our homes. Our wives helped with the installation and we wanted to share our experience with you. 

Prefabbed shelving systems are a bit more bulky than most individuals can handle, so enlist the help of a friend or spouse. 

Storeowners like to spruce up their displays with the most elaborate — and most expensive — combinations of products such as: pullout tie racks; pullout hampers; pullout belt racks; built-in ironing boards; raised panel doors; clear acrylic doors; drawer dividers, and more. 

Fancy finishes can make your new closet system look more attractive and can increase versatility. Experts told us that most folks buy systems with fewer features. It does take some imagination to figure out how to use all of those whistles and bells, but once in place, a well-appointed closet system can be a pleasure to use. So, keep these features in mind as you design your own system. 

The popular combination of items requested by more than 80 percent of closet-system purchasers include three basic elements: a single-pole section for long hanging; a shelf section for folded items, shoes, etc.; and a double-pole section to maximize hanging space for shorts, shirts, etc. 

Almost all prefabbed closet shelf systems have adjustable shelves. Again, experts tell us that when visiting past customers, they find most shelves are not moved after installation. Is this silly, or what? Adjustable shelving costs more, but isn’t taken advantage of? This is where we have to disagree with the experts. Although one might not adjust shelf placement later, having the ability to initially make adjustments can be extremely important to the novice who isn’t sure exactly what to plan for. 

Also, if needs do change, the adjustable closet system can change, too. We think that adjustability is an important feature and that adjustable shelving can reduce anxiety over how one’s garments eventually will fit within the new scheme of things. Experts suggest considerable savings can be realized by purchasing and using a fixed-shelving system. Sorry, but we found that the added versatility of an adjustable system reduced our anxiety which in itself was worth the cost. However, it’s your closet and your pocket book, so you get to decide. 

The neat thing about pre-drilled adjustable systems goes way beyond being able to simply change shelf positions. With these types of closet systems the shelves can be replaced with clothes poles. In this way, the same space can be used for either hanging or shelf storage. And later, the system can be modified — without the use of tools — as either hanging or shelving space. Simply slip out the shelves and slip in the pole. In our system each module came with shelves and a pole. We mounted the pole brackets in every unit whether it was going to be used for hanging or not. In locations where we decided to use shelves, we pulled the pole out (leaving the pole brackets in place) and stored the pole in the corner of the closet. Later, if we need more hanging and less shelving, we will be able to make the change in reverse just as fast. 

Experts tell you to plan in advance for what you will want to store in your closet. We agree, planning is smart, but no one can be absolutely sure of how a storage system will ultimately be used. Therefore, we feel it makes sense to leave yourself choices. Install a shelf system that can be used either for hanging or shelving. This way, you can’t go wrong. 

A couple of other tips: 

Be careful not to box in corners in walk-in closets by placing shelving so that clothing abuts the shelf face. This might be OK when the closet is only partially full, but once clothes poles are completely filled, getting to shelves in corners can be a real problem. Corner units are available that eliminate this problem. This is where spending slightly more can get you a big return on your investment. 

Yet, there are things that cost a lot that don’t improve storage, such as: 

—Chrome clothes poles (painted ones hold equally well). 

—Glass shelves (melamine ones are easier to keep clean). 

—Exotic lighting (the good old-fashioned fluorescent kind still is best). 

Bright lighting is a good investment in any closet. Not exotic lighting — bright lighting. Lighting that can help you differentiate between navy blue and black and between dark green and dark blue is helpful. 

Tie racks can be used for ties and suspenders too. Wire drawers can be used up high for drawer storage that you can see through. And don’t forget shoe racks, dirty clothes hampers and telescoping poles that pull out (called valets) where clothes can be hung perpendicular to the clothes poles. This makes it easier to see the front of the garment while using free hands to mix and match with other pieces. 

You will never have enough clothing storage. If you are satisfied with your closet system so that it makes you giggle in the morning while you are planning what to wear, then the rest of the day is bound to smile back at you. 

For more home improvement tips and information, visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com. 

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Readers can mail questions to: On the House, APNewsFeatures, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020, or e-mail Careybro(at)onthehouse.com. To receive a copy of On the House booklets on plumbing, painting, heating/cooling or decks/patios, send a check or money order payable to The Associated Press for $6.95 per booklet and mail to: On the House, P.O. Box 1562, New York, NY 10016-1562, or through these online sites: www.onthehouse.com or apbookstore.com. 

Q. Mary asks: I recently had someone test my water. I learned that my water at this point is unsafe to consume. I am told that I have methane gas in my water and that some kind of release valve could be mounted on my tank to release this gas. Is this possible and, if so, how do I find the equipment or tools needed for the job? 

A. We don’t think that methane gas should be anywhere near ones home — it’s explosive! There are sleeves that can be added to your well that can remove air and other gasses from your water — before it gets to your home. Check with a well contractor for more details. This might not qualify as a do-it-yourself project. If you want to drink your well water, run it through a reverse osmosis filtration system. A small one that will supply drinking water to a family of four will run about $1,000 installed. 

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Q. John asks: There is a “slamming” when the toilet valve shuts off. I recently replaced floating arms in both our toilets with floating cup ball cocks. Now, when the water shuts off, the valve slams shut hard and it sounds like water hammer. What should I do? 

A. If it sounds like a water hammer it probably is. This is not uncommon when a new valve is installed. Open the valve by removing a few screws, lubricate the gasket and replace it. Do this on both valves. If rubber-gasket lube isn’t enough, install an air chamber (shock absorbers) at each of the toilet supply pipes. 

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Q. Gracie asks: The waste water from the clothes washer and kitchen sink drain onto the floor of the garage or into the backyard through a pipe on the exterior of the home-kitchen wall. This pipe was broken prior to moving in and remains open. Should I call a plumber? 

A. Waste water from your clothes washer and kitchen sink should not drain onto the garage floor or into the backyard. This waste should discharge into an onsite septic tank or a municipal sewage system. Anything less is unsanitary. 

We suggest you contact a reliable plumber or sewer and drain service in your area to make sure that the drainpipes are configured properly and draining freely. 

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Q. Bonnie asks: Our hot-water heater safety-pressure valve runs all the time and drains all the water out of the tank. Why? 

A. All water heaters have a temperature-and-pressure-relief valve that is designed to prevent the water heater from exploding. Some manufacturers suggest testing the valve every six months or so by raising and lowering the test lever on the valve. This should produce a sudden burst of hot water from the drain line connected to the valve. More frequent testing can reduce the chance of a leak caused by mineral and corrosion buildup. However, if a leak results immediately after a test, simply operate the test lever several times to free lodged debris that might be preventing the valve from seating properly. 

There are a few reasons why your valve is running all the time and wasting water and energy. The valve might be built up with corrosion. Try flipping the test lever up and down a couple of times and tap the stem using a hammer to seat the valve. If this doesn’t do the trick, check to make sure that the thermostat (located on the controller) hasn’t been turned up. It should be set on medium for the safest and most efficient operation. Excessively hot water will cause the temperature-and-pressure-relief valve to open. Test the temperature of the water by using a thermometer in a glass filled with hot water from the tap. The temperature should not exceed 130 F. 

Finally, excessively high water pressure can cause the temperature-and-pressure-relief valve to leak. Residential water pressure should run between 30 psi and 55 psi. Pressure exceeding 55 psi can potentially damage clothes washers, dishwashers, icemakers and other water-supplied automatic appliances. Most homes have a water-pressure regulator valve at the location where the water enters the building. You can test the water pressure by using a gauge available from the hardware store. Screw the gauge onto a hose bib and turn on the water. You can adjust the water pressure by turning a nut or screw on the pressure regulator. 

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For more home improvement tips and information, visit www.onthehouse.com.

Many gardeners get through winter by holding on tight to seed catalogs and perusing every page. Others do that, too, but they also live with the garden look all year round to keep them inspired. 

It doesn’t matter where you live — cottage, suburban two-story or high-rise apartment — you can warm your home with garden trappings, such as potted plants, floral prints and fabrics and aged outdoor furniture pieces. 

In some climates, there’s little distinction between indoors and outside, but in others, the weather creates a firm definition. If that’s your situation, picture in your mind what you love about the outdoors. Then work to bring it inside. 

That doesn’t have to mean a total, costly remodeling. Sometimes castoffs and found objects like small urns, metal gates or an architectural piece provide the just-right touch. Combine those pieces with botanical prints, floral fabrics, vintage pottery and garden-bright colors, and you’ve got a fresh look. 

Mixing the old and new will remind you of the relaxed charm of the garden you love. Decorate with your watering can until it is needed outdoors. Place a garden lantern inside at a strategic spot, or bring an Adirondack chair out of winter storage and make it your favorite reading chair. 

Enjoy this season as a time to browse thrift shops and antique malls for garden ornaments. Then try them out inside your home first; don’t wait for the garden. Visit garden shops when they’re not full of plants to see some interesting pieces that you might ignore when you’re shopping for bedding plants. Shop for vintage and new fabrics that might enhance the garden look in pillows or window valances. 

Some simple projects can add to the overall garden feel of your rooms. Need an extra bedside table? Add a folding wooden or metal chair and stack gardening books for bedtime dreaming. Hang a small wooden garden ladder horizontally on the wall and drape antique quilts from it for colorful display. 

Add leaf motifs to white bed linens in a guest room or be fanciful in a painted fern-patterned screen. Fill a small child’s wagon with plants. Plant some ivy in colorful pots. 

As temperatures allow, treat your deck, patio or sunroom as an outdoor room. Invite colorful patterns into the mix or give a floor cloth look to the wood floor by painting a geometric or floral pattern. 

Introduce texture wherever you can. Hang dried flowers, vintage tools, small wreaths or even a straw hat to help create a restful oasis. Display some vintage or reproduction floral prints to create a focal point in a neutral room, and include touches of patterned fabric. If bold isn’t your style, fashion a restful, quiet spot with soft backgrounds and painted white furniture. Many shades of white, taupe and soft green work well together in subtle rooms. 

——— 

Better Homes and Gardens Garden Style and Garden Style Projects (Meredith Books, $34.95 and $24.95 respectively).

SAN FRANCISCO — The major record labels believe I ought to be very jazzed that MusicNet and pressplay have launched their online music services. 

So why don’t I care? 

For one thing, I can’t share music with others, the way I can lend a CD. 

I can only burn 20 percent of my downloads to blank CDs with pressplay, and none with MusicNet, constraining my ability to listen to music in the car. 

I can’t even keep the music if I decide to drop the services later — my songs simply become inaccessible from my “collection.” 

This is really more like rental radio for the PC. 

It’s a poor all-around effort by the major labels to unseat the likes of Gnutella, Morpheus, KaZaA and a host of other popular applications that allow users to trade stuff for free — sometimes illegally — over the Internet. 

Pressplay is the joint venture from Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group offering music from those labels as well as from EMI. 

I installed the application without a hitch. 

For $9.95 a month, I can download 30 songs onto my computer each month for listening anytime, as long as my subscription remains active. I also get 300 “streams,” where I can listen to songs without storing a copy (though listening to it again will cost me another credit). 

Other service levels weigh in at $19.95 per month (750 streams, 75 downloads, 15 CD burns) and $24.95 (1,000 streams, 100 downloads, 20 burns). 

Finding songs on pressplay’s interface is simple. I could search by artist’s name, album title or song title. 

I typed in Britney and got lots of Britney Spears tracks. I typed in Mariah and got a lot of Mariah Carey tracks. 

But when I went looking for “Windy” by The Association, pressplay returned results for songs by Earth, Wind and Fire and Steve Winwood. It turns out music from The Association is handled by Warner, a partner for the competing service MusicNet. 

Instead of The Association, pressplay did offer me downloads from fellow hippie-era rockers Sonny & Cher and The Mamas & the Papas. 

Songs take about 30 seconds to download from pressplay with a broadband connection. Those downloads happen much faster than any of the free peer-to-peer services available. 

Pressplay’s streaming feature offers a nice way to preview songs you might want to add to your growing bank of music. The sound quality of the streams and downloads is excellent. 

Overall, pressplay is a functional program limited by the absence of artists from Warner and BMG. I would have liked to transfer those downloads to my digital music player, but portable devices are not supported. 

On to MusicNet, the joint venture of RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group. It comes through RealNetworks’ new RealOne media player. 

Had I gotten the service to work, I would have received 100 downloads and 100 streams per month for $9.95. Other pricing plans are available, including $19.95 for an additional 25 downloads, 25 streams and a host of video content. 

But alas, I never got it to work. 

I signed up at work, downloaded the RealOne software and was told I needed a “RealOne music component.” When I tried to download it, my computer crashed. The problem stumped tech support at MusicNet and RealNetworks as well. 

Undaunted, I tried to install the software again at home. I went through the steps again and even paid RealNetworks another subscription fee — $14.95 for a higher-level service — under the silly impression that forking over more money might make it work. 

It didn’t. 

After another few sessions with tech support, they told me the problem appeared to be a firewall issue. 

Even after explaining my system setup, tech support still couldn’t help me make the service work. I’m 0-for-2, and $24.90 lighter. 

For those who can get MusicNet to work, it offers a catalog of more than 75,000 songs from thousands of artists and you can create your own custom playlists from your library. 

The service doesn’t support CD burning or transferring to portable devices. 

Isn’t there an easier way to get music than MusicNet? For me, that answer is, somewhat grudgingly, pressplay. 

Now if I could just bring myself to uninstall Limewire, the software for connecting to the free Gnutella network. Nah. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.musicnet.com 

http://www.pressplay.com 

GARDINER — For John Clawson, finding an elk antler in the woods after a long, difficult hike is exhilarating — a rush. 

“I look at it like Easter egg hunting, finding a nice surprise,” the miner from this tiny southern Montana town says. “No two are ever the same.” 

The mix of mountain air and nature awakening help draw antler hunters like Clawson to lands near Yellowstone National Park each spring, when elk in the region’s vast herds begin the natural process of shedding their antlers. 

For most antler hunters, it is a leisure activity conducted lawfully, usually in the region’s national forests. Families make it a favorite spring pastime, much as baseball outings are in other parts of the country. Boy Scout troops sometimes gather antlers as a fund-raiser. Antler buyers set up shop in parking lots where people returning from weekend outings can sell their bounty. 

“Ninety percent, I think, do it because they like the freedom and fresh air,” said Clawson, who likes to take his children hunting with him. “They get out in the wild, and it’s like you get a prize when you get an antler.” 

But for some, antler hunting has become a highly competitive and potentially lucrative. Shed horns are sold for use overseas as health or food supplements. Some in Asia consider powdered antler to be an aphrodisiac. In the United States, craftsmen turn antler racks into knives, chandeliers and even Western furniture that can sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. 

The demand worries law enforcement officers at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Antler collecting is forbidden within the parks; park resources, from obsidian rock to wild animals, are meant to be viewed and enjoyed — not taken or disturbed. 

But the temptation can prove too great for some, who will take the risk that park rangers will be too busy with other duties to try to track them through the vast ranges. 

“I think people are getting away with a lot of stuff here,” said Dan Kirschner, a special agent with Yellowstone. “There is no way for us to physically monitor the entire boundary.” 

“In places like this, you could make several hundreds dollars in a few hours if you know where to look,” added Brian Helms, a backcountry supervisor at Yellowstone. 

In Wyoming, state game officials are considering designating a gathering season on certain lands to help control the competition for elk antlers and prevent animals from being harassed. 

At Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge, shady antler hunters monitor the antler shedding as closely as game management officials. Officials try hard to pick up antlers as quickly as they are shed to deter poaching, but admit they are not always quick enough. 

And some poachers sneak into areas set aside as winter range for the elk and closed to people on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, near Jackson, Wyo. They stash antlers to be collected later in the spring, when the winter range reopens to legal access and the antlers can be retrieved without raising suspicion. 

“Some of these guys are real crafty. They will spend the night laying out under the bushes, just like somebody fighting a war, I guess,” said Shane Wasem, a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service. 

Catching them in the act or with antlers — not just wandering the restricted areas or looking suspicious — “is a pain in the keister,” he said. 

Though poaching of elk antlers is a concern each year, park law enforcement officials cannot say just how widespread the problem is. On average, just 1 percent to 10 percent of the people committing crimes in Yellowstone are caught, Kirschner estimates. 

“It’s a crime but not against a person. So who’s going to report it?” he said.  

“It is hard to detect (the crime) and apprehend the criminal, and the payoff is big.” 

Helms said plenty of folks are willing to risk getting caught in the park where, in one day, they could find the same number of antlers it might take two or three weeks to legally gather outside Yellowstone. 

Prices for antlers are about half of what they were even a few years ago, which antler hunters blame on a poorer Asian market. But even at $4 to $5 a pound, with a large antler weighing up to 10 pounds, walking the woods isn’t too bad a day’s work. 

“Everything gets picked over,” said Jim Darr, who began hunting antlers for fun 20 years ago and now sells some of those he finds near Gardiner. 

The trade consists of a widespread network of hunters, sellers and buyers. An auction of antlers gathered at the elk refuge near Jackson each year attracts people from around the world to the Western town. 

Antlers still are sent overseas for use as food supplements, said Don Schaufler, whose Montana business is a major buyer of antlers in North America. And the market among craftsmen remains strong as well. 

“They’re still worth something,” said Schaufler, who calls it a “sin” that the Park Service lets the antlers lie on the ground. 

Antlers shed on the park floors by migrating elk are considered part of the natural ecosystem. Rodents gnaw on them for nutrients and tourists who happen across shed antlers glimpse part of nature’s cycle, said Steve Cain, a senior wildlife biologist at Grand Teton. 

Park law enforcement officers say they have to work extra hard, with a limited number of rangers responsible for various jobs and budgets that are spread thin. Grand Teton has about 25 permanent law enforcement personnel; Yellowstone has roughly 50. 

“We’re definitely worried about falling behind,” Kirschner says. 

Colin Campbell, the chief ranger at Grand Teton, says detection devices or certain markings can be placed on antlers to help officials track them. Tips from the public, he says, are invaluable. 

Park officials have painted antlers bright orange — even cut them into bits — but poachers still snatched them up, Helms says. 

Officials at Yellowstone and Grand Teton decline to be more specific about current steps taken to deter — or catch — poachers. 

“Technology definitely helps us. But as we get more technologically advanced, guess who else does?” Kirschner says. 

Some unscrupulous antler hunters go to extremes to get what they want. Jason Anderson, a spokesman with Bridger-Teton, says there have been reports of elk being chased among trees where piano wire has been strung to knock off antlers, and attempts to shoot antlers free. 

Poachers at Yellowstone often find antlers by day, sneak them out by night. Some stow away antlers for pick-up later in the year, Helms says. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Grand Teton National Park: http://www.nps.gov/grte/ 

Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell/ 

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp.’s approximately 1,600 San Francisco Bay area employees are in for a rude surprise this summer — a smaller paycheck. 

Beginning Aug. 1, the software giant will cut the “geographic differential” it pays its Bay Area employees by 40 percent, from 25 percent of their base salaries to 15 percent, spokesman Jim Bak said Thursday. 

The 10 percentage-point cut, announced in an e-mail sent to workers Feb. 4, affects employees working in Mountain View, Foster City and San Francisco, the company said. 

The bonus pay was introduced in February 2000 as a way to lure and retain employees in what was then highly competitive market, Bak said. It was originally set at 15 percent, then increased to 25 percent in November 2000 as demand for tech workers grew. 

Now, with the market in a slump, Bak said the company decided it didn’t need to offer such a strong economic incentive. Voluntary attrition at Microsoft’s Bay Area units has dropped from nearly 30 percent in the company’s fiscal year 2001 to just over 9 percent in fiscal year 2002, he said. 

Microsoft also pays a 15 percent geographic differential to its employees in New York City, Bak said, and hasn’t announced plans to change that. 

Shares in Microsoft fell 88 cents to close at $61.22 each in trading Thursday on the Nasdaq stock market. 

——— 

On the Web: 

http://www.microsoft.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — “Liar! Liar!” came the voices from the crowd. 

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson stopped short, caught midsentence. He had started by saying: “Science has told us so far there is no medical benefit for smoking marijuana ...” 

Hutchinson pushed on with his message, reiterating President Bush’s newly aggressive anti-drug policy, which links casual drug use to terrorism and objects to state laws like California’s that allow the medicinal use of marijuana. 

Just hours before Hutchinson’s appearance Feb. 12, federal agents — with no help from police — seized more than 600 pot plants from a medicinal marijuana club. They also arrested the group’s executive director and three suppliers, including pot guru Ed Rosenthal, author of “Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don’t Get Busted.” 

The federal raids have angered and alarmed local officials in San Francisco. 

On the day Hutchinson spoke, a half-dozen city officials joined a boisterous street protest against the DEA. Even District Attorney Terence Hallinan grabbed a bullhorn and criticized the raids, as demonstrators, some in wheelchairs and on crutches, chanted, “DEA, Go away!” and pot smoke wafted through the air. 

Opponents of Washington’s stand on marijuana said the raids may be a precursor to showdowns in at least seven other states that have also passed laws in conflict with the federal ban on pot. 

“I think the goals here are to stomp out this emerging political movement once and for all,” said Keith Stroup, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The way they’re trying to do that is to come into San Francisco, at the heart of the legalization movement, and arrest, prosecute and jail the major players.” 

DEA spokesman Richard Meyers in San Francisco countered: “You know, personally my heart goes out to someone who has cancer or AIDS, and I’m sure they’re just trying to alleviate their pain, but federal law does not make a distinction between medical marijuana and marijuana, and the DEA has a commitment and duty to the public to enforce the law.” 

In recent months, federal agents have raided three other cannabis clubs in California, seizing a garden of marijuana grown for sick people in Hollywood and taking away the records of 5,000 medical marijuana users from a doctor’s office near Sacramento. 

But for nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that there is no medical exception to the federal law against marijuana, federal agents had avoided San Francisco. 

Now that the United States is facing unprecedented challenges to homeland security, Hutchinson said the time is right to crack down on drugs. 

“History teaches us that in a time of national emergency, and we have seen that since Sept. 11, a nation’s moral values are clarified,” he said during a recent debate with New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who advocates legalizing marijuana. 

Under a law passed by California voters in 1996, marijuana clubs can dispense pot to people with cancer, AIDS or other chronic illnesses to relieve pain and nausea. 

But the Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-drug laws supersede laws allowing medicinal marijuana in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. 

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said DEA officials are being “asinine and disingenuous” when they say they cannot back off the federal law. He has gathered 25 co-sponsors for a bill to give states the right decide their own medical marijuana policies. But he conceded there is little chance the bill will even make it out of committee. 

“It’s going nowhere because politicians are afraid of being seen as soft on drugs,” Frank said. “The people are way ahead of the politicians here.” 

As for Hutchinson, he said he was not surprised by his reception in San Francisco. 

“Maybe it is not such a bang-up idea to defend our nation’s drug policy in the city of San Francisco,” he said, “which has such an extraordinary tradition of toleration toward drug use, from the popularity of the opium dens of the late 19th century to the drug culture thriving in the Haight Ashbury district of the ’60s to the cannabis buyers club of the new century.” 

WASHINGTON — Muslim extremist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was indicted Thursday in the kidnapping and murder of reporter Daniel Pearl, the government pushing for quick U.S. criminal charges out of concern that Pakistani authorities might release the suspect. 

A federal grand jury in Trenton, N.J., indicted Saeed on charges of conspiring to take Pearl as a hostage and then kidnapping him. Since the Jan. 23 kidnapping resulted in the Wall Street Journal reporter’s death, Saeed could face the death penalty if brought to the United States and convicted. 

The charges were filed in New Jersey because Saeed is accused of sending e-mails, using the alias “Chaudrey Bashir,” to Pearl that were relayed electronically through the Journal’s computer network in South Brunswick, N.J., officials said. The kidnapping took place in Pakistan, where Saeed is in custody. 

Authorities said Pearl probably already was dead when his kidnappers threatened in an e-mail on Jan. 30 to kill him within 24 hours unless their demands were met. The exact date of Pearl’s slaying remains a mystery. A videotape showing him decapitated was delivered to U.S. officials in Pakistan and is being studied for clues by the FBI. 

Announcing the indictment, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Saeed “methodically set a death trap for Daniel Pearl, lured him into it with lies and savagely ended his life.” 

The indictment alleges that Saeed trained at Afghan military camps and also fought with Taliban and al-Qaida fighters last September and October as the war in Afghanistan was beginning. Prosecutors believe the kidnapping plot was hatched in January “to take hostage a journalist from a U.S newspaper in order to affect U.S. government policies,” according to the indictment. 

President Bush met with Pearl’s widow, Mariane, in the Oval Office on Thursday. White House aides did not release any details of the meeting. Ashcroft also met privately Thursday in his office with Mrs. Pearl, who is about to give birth to the couple’s son. The attorney general told her afterward, “The United States has not forsaken your husband.” 

“Where freedom is feared, men and women like Daniel Pearl will always be hunted, but where freedom is cherished they will be forever defended,” Ashcroft said. 

A spokesman for Dow Jones & Co., the parent company for the Journal, said: “This is a matter for the justice authorities in the United States and Pakistan.” 

The Justice Department also disclosed Thursday separate criminal charges against Saeed in Washington, where a grand jury indicted him in November 2001 on counts of conspiracy to take a hostage, taking a hostage and aiding and abetting. Those charges involved the October 1994 kidnapping of another American, Bela J. Nuss, during a tourist visit to India. Nuss was released after 11 days. 

The charges against Saeed in that case carry a maximum of life in prison. 

The decision to press forward with a U.S. criminal indictment in the Pearl case caps weeks of deliberations within the White House, Justice Department and State Department about how to proceed, even as Saeed faced criminal proceedings in Pakistan. 

U.S. officials have been in discussions with Pakistani officials about bringing Saeed and possibly others to the United States. The two nations have no formal extradition agreement, but Pakistan previously has sent suspects to the United States under a less-formal procedure known as “rendering.” 

Ashcroft acknowledged Thursday that his decision to obtain a U.S. indictment in the Pearl case was driven by concern that Saeed might be released in Pakistan. Authorities in neighboring India released Saeed in December 1999 after his arrest in the Nuss kidnapping in exchange for passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines jet hijacked to Afghanistan. 

“We think it’s important to have charges in place if, for some reason, he would be in any way released,” Ashcroft said. “We are collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interest. They have him in custody, and we don’t.” 

Asked whether Ashcroft was concerned about possible legal challenges claiming Saeed would face “double jeopardy” by being prosecuted for the same crime in Pakistan and the United States, the attorney general answered “yes” but did not elaborate. 

More than 5,700 residents and businesses in the southern and central portions of Berkeley lost power Wednesday afternoon when a splice connecting two underground cables at Bancroft Way and Fulton Street failed. 

The failure occurred at 12:42 p.m., according to Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. spokesman Jason Alderman. 

“We were able to reroute a lot of those customers ... within the hour,” Alderman said. But 2,600 customers, mostly in southeast Berkeley, remained without power after the rerouting. 

PG&E restored power to the remaining customers by 4:51 p.m., Alderman said. “That’s pretty good,” he commented. 

Alderman said there were probably sparks associated with the splice failure, but that neighborhood rumors of an underground “explosion” were exaggerated. 

The blackout came on the heels of a smaller outage Tuesday evening that left 56 customers without power for more than eight hours. That outage was due to an underground cable failure near Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street. 

“Whenever we have an outage, we regret the inconvenience to customers,” Alderman said.  

ALAMEDA – Having let Jon Gruden go to Tampa Bay, the Oakland Raiders replaced him with an assistant coach who has shadowed Gruden for the past seven years. 

Bill Callahan, who was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach, said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to change much of the system Gruden presided over during the last four years as Raiders coach. 

“Jon and I are very similar in a lot of respects – our work ethic, our intensity,” said Callahan, who has never been a head coach at any level. “The system itself will not change. The day-to-day functions will not change.” 

One thing that will change is the personality of the Raiders’ head coach. 

Gruden was theatrically intense on the sidelines, throwing tantrums and glaring at players and officials. Callahan, 45, who moved with Gruden from Philadelphia to Oakland in 1998, is studious and laid-back. 

By promoting from within the system, Raiders owner Al Davis appears to have reasserted control over the team he has guided for nearly four decades. Gruden came to the Raiders as an outsider, and his relationship with Davis was strained at times. 

As a sign of who now holds the real power on the Raiders, Davis sat on a silver and black armchair – which looked very much like a throne – during the news conference announcing Callahan’s promotion. 

Callahan sat on a black and white folding chair, as did Raiders executives Bruce Allen and Amy Trask. 

Callahan will be making a lot less money than his former boss is making now. 

Gruden signed a five-year, $17.5 million contract with the Buccaneers in February despite being in the final year of his deal with the Raiders. As compensation, Oakland got four draft picks and $8 million.

Editor: 

Berkeley residents have patiently considered the messages of prophets in the past. Erhart and EST, Raj-neesh and red clothing have come and gone and now, for all too long, Richard Register and his Ecocity Builders have been making noises. In his public announcements he has been smarting over the rejection of most of his amendments to the city’s General Plan, they considered neighborhood housing as under-utilized land-use. He has now started attacking a legitimate alternatives offered by others. (See March 9 Daily Planet, Opinion Page) 

The “Eco-Community” document, that Register’s partner describes as mockery, is a serious alternative to the vision of towers in the sky they have promoted repeatedly for the BART stations. The “Eco-Community” position paper outlining those alternatives will very soon be posted on the “Berkeleyparty.com” Web site. 

Register and his developer cohorts are probably gearing up for a new initiative, the Berkeley Height Ordinance, to appear on the November ballot.  

It will control out-of-scale development in the flat-lands and additions to existing buildings. The Berkeley Height Ordinance will give residents a chance to express their opinion about the bulky, up-to-the- sidewalk, 50-foot high projects that have caused many communities to assemble at countless public hearings. However, several new limitations on speech at these hearings have throttled the opportunity of citizens to have input. Many of us can remember the very large gatherings when the main auditorium at the high school had to be opened for public hearings, and so many speakers wanted to be heard that the hearing was continued for additional nights. 

We are all conscious of the five council seats that are on the November ballot, so it is urgent that neighborhood-friendly representatives be supported and elected. Even though the campaign against the initiative by developers will be fierce, I have no doubt that city residents will vote to support the Height Ordinance that will be in effect for 10 years. The Berkeley Height Ordinance is now finally complete and the city attorney has promised to pass it for publication before March 20, or sooner.  

Martha Nicoloff 

Berkeley

Thursday, March 14

Significance of March 5 Primary and Insights into Upcoming Nov. Election 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library,  

Edith Stone Room 

1247 Marin Ave.  

Speaker Anne Henderson, legislative director of the League of Women Voters for California, will speak about the Mar. 5 election and its significance. 843-8824. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble Imani Community Church. 

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Changing Face of  

Disability Law in the 

New Millennium 

8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Booth Auditorium 

Conference exploring the evolving laws and emerging issues that define the status of disability rights in American society. Panel discussions addressing legal issues affecting disability rights. 643-8010, www.boalt.org/BDLS/ conf.html. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

“Hooked” 

1:15 p.m. 

Alta Bates Hospital, Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

A talk and slide show from the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 763-0779, www.unhooked.com. 

Tax-Aid: Bay Area Free Tax Service for  

Low-income Taxpayers 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lincoln Recreation Center 

250 10th St., Oakland 

Tax-Aid offers free tax return preparation to Bay Area families with incomes of less than $32,000. Eligible families simply bring their W-2s, other proofs of income and tax forms. Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators are available.  

St. Patrick’s Day Community and Family Contra Dance 

7:45 p.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

7 p.m., Contra dance music teaching session. All levels welcome, easy dances for all ages. $10 adults, $5 kids. 482-9479. 

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

A small, fragile woman with close cropped gray hair, Gloria Olivera, 65, quietly waits in line behind the bullet-proof glass at the check exchange on San Pablo and University avenues. Like the majority of check-exchange customers today, however, she is not there to cash a check. She’s there to get a loan.  

“My friends tell me, ‘Stay away! They’re stealing you’re money!’” she says. A cancer patient and retired teacher’s aid, she lives on $700 a month in Social Security. She has come to the exchange to get a $50 advance, or “payday loan,” on her Social Security check, so she can buy her medication, she said.  

Payday loans are small, short-term loans with annual interest rates of more than 400 percent. Prohibited in 19 states, in California they have been around since 1997 and have increasingly become a last resort economic resource for many of the state’s poor. 

Payday loans function as the simplest kind of loan. Customers must have a bank account and write checks for up to $300. The check exchange then loans the customer the money, deducting $15 for every $100 lent. After two weeks, the customer must repay the loan, or the exchange will deposit the check.  

“That averages out to be about a 450 percent annual interest rate,” said Berkeley Public Policy professor Steve Raphael. “The worst of the credit cards are lending for 20 to 25 percent.” 

Raphael sees payday loans as “a huge tax. It’s 20 percent of your take-home after taxes are deducted. It’s an incredible amount to pay,” he explains, “just to get your pay check two weeks earlier Pam Douglas first used the service in December “to cover some emergency expenses.” Since then, however, she has been unable to pay off the original loan and has had to take out an additional loan every two weeks to keep her bank account from dropping below zero. 

“I can’t seem to get myself out of the hole,” Douglas says. 

Payday loans were introduced in California in 1997 after fierce lobbying on behalf of the California Financial Service Providers Association, which represents 1,200 of the states 3,000 check exchanges. “One of the reasons we sought this legislation,” says Association president Jim Ball, “is because we knew our check cashing revenue would decline due to cuts in welfare and increasing reliance on direct deposit.” 

Both sharply reduced the numbers of checks being cashed. To head off the losses, the industry pushed for and won California state legislation, legalizing payday loans.  

The move proved very lucrative for the 2,000 check exchanges in California which provide the service. Previous to 1997, check cashing provided for the majority of industry revenues. Today it has shrunk to as low as 25 percent. Payroll advances in large part have taken up the slack. 

“We’ve seen a phenomenal growth in the product,” said Ball.  

Consumer groups including CalPRIG, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and Consumer’s Union, as well as legislators such as Oakland California State Senator Don Perata, meanwhile are organizing to put an end to what they see as exploitation of lower income people, who have little access to other means of credit.  

Unlike other forms of credit, such as credit cards, there are no payment plans available to consumers of payday loans. “If you can’t pay off the loan entirely at the end of two weeks, it flips over and you have to take out another loan,” says AARP’s Lupe de la Cruz. “The product is fundamentally flawed. It is designed to keep you in debt.” 

According to AARP research, the average income of people who take out these loans is $15,000. “These are products are targeting people living on fixed incomes”- retired people on social security, welfare recipients, or surprisingly, military personnel..” A 2000 AARP survey found that the highest concentration of payday lenders is around military bases. 

For the past three years, Senator Don Perata has attempted to reform payday loans through legislation, co-sponsored by the AARP and Consumer’s Union, which would set up payment plans to allow consumer’s to pay off their debt over a three month period.  

“But,” says Perata Chief of Staff Erin Niemela “We’ve faced serious opposition. Check casher’s are fighting it across the board.”  

The shorthanded Berkeley High baseball team couldn’t get much offense going without two of its top hitters as the ’Jackets fell to Mt. Eden, 8-5, on Wednesday at San Pablo Park. 

Mt. Eden cleanup hitter Rolando Fajardo hit a bases-clearing double during a four-run third inning, then the Monarchs tacked on three more runs in the fourth to pull away. 

Berkeley, on the other hand, managed to score only single runs in the first, third and fifth innings before putting up a couple of consolation scores in the seventh. The ’Jackets had baserunners in every inning, but just couldn’t put together a rally. 

“If we get a big hit, this is a different ballgame,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. “We got down too many early to start scratching for runs.” 

Moellering was short three regulars on Wednesday. Centerfielder Bennie Goldenberg is out with an injury, and heart-of-the-order hitters DeAndre Miller and Matt Toma rode the pine for breaking team rules. Toma is Berkeley’s only real power source, while Miller is a table-setter who usually hits second. 

One positive was a nice showing by Jeremy LeBeau in Toma’s cleanup spot. LeBeau had three hits, including a double, and scored two runs. Sean Souders, known more for his pitching than his bat, had a solid game with three RBIs out of the five-hole, and Chris Wilson, subbing for Miller at third base, also had two base hits. 

But the negatives outweighed the positives for the ’Jackets (1-3) on Wednesday. They committed three errors in the field, and three of Mt. Eden’s runs scored on wild pitches and passed balls.  

Berkeley catcher Sam Geaney just learned to play behind the plate this summer, and his handling of balls in the dirt left something to be desired, especially with Walker Toma on the mound. After starting pitcher Ethan Friedman lasted just three innings, the sophomore Toma brother (Matt is a senior) came in to finish the game. He looked in control early, but a scratch hit and a walk put two runners on. A wild pitch moved the runners up, then a passed ball by Geaney scored one run. A single and two more wild pitches plated two more runs for the Monarchs, and suddenly Berkeley was down 7-2. 

“(Walker) Toma had a rough inning, but he settled down,” Moellering said. “We know he’s going to be a great pitcher for us.” 

Toma got through the next two innings with relative ease, striking out four, but Fajardo led off the top of the seventh with a mammoth blast to left that cleared the temporary fence, a sidewalk and a stretch of grass. Toma walked the next batter on four pitches, but regained his composure to set down the next three in a row. 

Berkeley actually got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, as Mt. Eden reliever Javier Contreras loaded the bases with two walks and an infield hit before he got an out. Berkeley’s Cory Hong grounded out to first to score a run, and Geaney hit a single up the middle to cut the Monarchs’ lead to 8-5, bringing Wilson to the plate with two men on. But Wilson hit the first pitch to Fajardo at short, who tagged second base to force Geaney and end the game.

Editor: 

Mr. Register made light of the public process in his letter of Dec. 18, mocking “the same crowd of a dozen or so [who] turn up at planning and council meetings.”  

He forgets that Jane & John Q. Public have lives, jobs, children to care for and are not at liberty to pursue the defense of their city and neighborhoods with as much convenience as developers whose business interests make the promotion of big, profitable, self-glorifying buildings their full-time job. While supportive of a number of the ideals of the Ecocity amendment, I condemn most of its elements as proposed. Instead, I commend to the public what Kirstin Miller called a “mockery” (March 9), the perfectly viable Eco-Community alternative (available at http:// www.berkeleyparty.com), offering a process-oriented path to many of the same goals. The Ecocity Amendment offers a developers dream cloaked in fuzzy environmentalism. Mr. Register promotes it with with jargon-babble (March 9) that masks its internal contradictions and ultimate hypocrisy. 

Ecocity Policy No. 1 offers utopia without thought: requiring “the highest quality architectural and ecological design for new development projects” sounds good, but the “highest” quality literally would add enormous costs to housing — why not a more thoughtful “good?” Mr. Register is quick to suggest sites for construction of huge buildings (see the PUD and EDP proposals in Policy No. 3), but has not been so quick to offer plans for those ecological public spaces in “higher density city centers” — where, where will these be; where, oh, where, is the proposed ecological balance? 

I find Policy No. 2 downright agreeable, and then stumble on the peculiar implication that although Elmwood and Fourth Street are acknowledged as attractive examples along a continuum of city “centers,” the suggestion that they “should increase appropriately in density” rather begs the characteristics that made them attractive in the first place: their comparatively low height and humane scale. The Fourth Street development is no taller than Elmwood! With no definition of “appropriate” density, the implication is that Ecocity is happy to see the developmental intensity and height of all of the “centers” rise together on the glorious tide of environmentally friendly density. Meanwhile, congestion will tie Berkeley in knots.  

The goal of augmenting affordable housing articulated in Policy No. 3 is already well targeted by the Planning Commission’s draft of the General Plan, and already supported by the state Density Bonus Law and the city’s Inclusionary Ordinance — poorly managed by the city as the laws may be. What heights are Mr. Register’s taller buildings? Turns out they are at least 10 to 11 stories (his letter of Dec. 3). Policy No. 4, urging transfer development rights (TDRs), would push those heights even further. The draft General Plan’s public process has rejected this vision of downtown height. Mr. Register has already has his Ecological Demonstration Project (EDP): the Gaia Building — a project that is 33 percent short of the inclusionary units it owes the city (providing 12 instead of 18 inclusionary units) and a design that uses ecologically insensitive electrical heating, thereby generating three times the greenhouse gases that gas-heating would have. Thank you for the demonstration. It will prove costly to the tenants as well as our environment. Ecocity Builders need no special consideration for other such buildings. 

Ecocity Policy No. 4 packages the concept of TDRs in the heartwarming colors of “Funding Environmental Restoration.” Developers can buy a bit of land, then promise not to build on it in return for the privilege of adding highly profitable floors to downtown projects. Frankly, it recalls the medieval purchase of papal indulgences, buying a little advance forgiveness of sins. As ever, the devil dances in the details. One can, with trepidation, imagine who will compose the “multi-disciplinary group of experts” created to draft the rules! TDRs are a very complex mechanism, the efficacy of which has yet to be truly demonstrated — they look more like a developers’ plaything. 

At 9,823.3 persons per square mile, Berkeley is already the most densely populated city in the county and (for its size or larger) the third densest in Northern California. It is 37 percent more dense than Oakland! Under the General Plan, Berkeley expects to build 3,000 more housing units over the next 20 years, providing denser housing than any other place in California except San Francisco. The public already declined Mr. Register’s formulation of ecological balance and vastly increased density, and will not be pleased if the public stewards accept an end-run.  

Howie Muir 

Berkeley 

Steve Freedkin, a member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, leaves for an 11-day trip to Japan today in the latest exchange of Berkeley and Japanese activists. 

Freedkin, who hopes to help build an international “city-to-city network of peace and justice activists,” will speak at a peace conference in Osaka, meet with the mayor of Hiroshima and visit with “hibukasha,” survivors of America’s atomic bombing there at the end of World War II.  

Freedkin’s visit will mark the second time in a month that Berkeley peace activists have traveled to Japan. In February, Leuren Moret of the Community Environmental Advisory Commission and Robert Rose of the Peace and Justice Commission spoke at a peace conference in Tokyo and met with Japanese activists. 

Japanese politicians and activists have made three trips to Berkeley since November, and will arrive for a fourth visit later this month. 

Japanese activists initiated the exchange after Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, voted against the use of military force in Afghanistan in September, and the Berkeley City Council approved a resolution calling for a speedy end to U.S. bombing in October. 

“It’s been a very beautiful exchange,” said Councilmember Dona Spring, a key force behind the council’s October resolution. “We’re on two opposite ends of the world, but there is a strong alliance.” 

Freedkin, sponsored by a grassroots the Japanese peace group Linking Peace and Life, said he will discuss U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and Berkeley’s system of citizen commissions.  

Freedkin said Japanese activists are interested in the commission system because they want to learn more about how Berkeley politicians solicit public input before making decisions. 

“They really seem to view Berkeley as a model to be emulated, in many respects, and I can’t blame them,” he said. 

Freedkin said he also plans to collaborate with Japanese activists on a series of issues, including the proposed construction of a U.S. military installation in the Henoko section of Japan’s Okinawa island. 

In 1996, the United States, which houses thousands of troops on Okinawa, agreed to return the Futenma air base to Japan if the government provided an alternative location on the island. In 1999, local authorities settled on the Henoko site, but Japanese activists have raised a number of concerns, including the potential effect on a large sea mammal called the dugong. Freedkin said the dugong is considered a symbol of peace. 

Freedkin added that he will join Japanese activists to coordinate protests of the Hoya Corporation, a Japanese company with offices in Fremont that sells glass to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility.  

The facility is developing a 192-beam laser that will simulate nuclear weapons tests, according to Lab spokesperson Lynda Seaver. 

Julie Storms, spokesperson for Hoya Corporation, had no comment on Freedkin’s concerns. 

Steve Vogel, associate professor of political science at UC Berkeley said Freedkin’s trip comes at a critical moment for the Japanese peace movement. 

“I think it’s been going through a bit of a identity crisis the last five or 10 years,” Vogel said, arguing that the end of the Cold War has deprived a movement, which once focused on keeping Japan out of the U.S.-Russian struggle, of a central reason for existence. 

However, Vogel added, the peace and war debate has escalated in recent months as Japan has debated its proper role in the “war on terrorism.” Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, put in place after World War II, forbids the nation from participating in military conflict. But the government has provided transport, medical and other support services to the United States in its Afghan campaign.  

A week after Freedkin arrives in Japan, a delegation of 20 to 30 union activists, students and politicians, including two members of the Japanese Diet – the equivalent of the U.S. Congress – will arrive in Berkeley and participate in a March 23 peace conference in City Council chambers. 

During their visit, the Japanese activists will join with Berkeleyans in planning a larger, international peace conference, either in Berkeley or Japan. The conference should take place in the fall, according to Spring. 

Freedkin will return March 25, the day the Japanese delegation leaves. The two parties have arranged to meet at San Francisco International Airport.

Local gymnast wins Golden Bear Invitational 

Berkeley resident Marissa Tolero scored the highest score at her level in Northern California, winning the Golden Bear Invitational last weekend. Tolero, 12, won the bar with a score of 9.6 and the beam with a 9.5. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School student also took second on the floor and vault events. 

Tolero’s next challenge will be the Level 7 State Championships on April 13 in Visalia. 

Cal golf’s win streak ends 

MENIFEE – No. 16 California saw its tournament win streak end at two with its seventh-place finish at the Pioneer Electronics Bruin Classic, which concluded Tuesday at Menifee Lakes Country Club. The Golden Bears fired a final round of 310 to finish the 54-hole tournament with a 917.  

Pepperdine won the 16-tournament with a score of 876, including a tournament low of 284 in the final round. The Wave's Katherine Hull, the defending champion, won by seven strokes with a nine-under 207, highlighted by a course record round of 64 over the final 18.  

Host UCLA posted a 901 (299, 297, 305) for runner-up honors, while New Mexico (305, 301, 302) and Oklahoma (303, 295, 310) tied for third with 908, three strokes in front of San Francisco to round out the top-five in the elite field.  

Sophomores Sarah Huarte and Anna Temple led the Bears, tying for 10th with scores of 225. Huarte led Cal with a 73 in the final round. Unfortunately for Cal, Temple's scores didn't count towards the team score as she was competing as an individual.

Today is Thursday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2002. There are 292 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 14, 1743, the first recorded town meeting in America was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston. 

On this date: 

In 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry. 

In 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act. 

In 1923, President Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report. 

In 1939, the republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation. 

In 1943, Aaron Copland’s orchestral work “Fanfare for the Common Man” premiered in New York, with George Szell conducting. 

In 1951, during the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul. 

In 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy, the previous November. 

In 1965, Israel’s cabinet formally approved establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany. 

In 1967, the body of President Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery. 

In 1991, a British court reversed the convictions of the “Birmingham Six,” who had spent 16 years in prison for an Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released. 

Ten years ago: The Associated Press obtained the names of 22 of 24 of the worst offenders in the check overdraft scandal at the House bank; topping the list were former Rep. Tommy Robinson of Arkansas and Rep. Bob Mrazek of New York, both Democrats. 

Five years ago: Surgeons at Bethesda Naval Medical Center repaired a painful torn knee tendon in President Clinton’s right leg; the injury had been caused by a freak middle-of-the-night stumble at the Florida home of golfer Greg Norman. 

One year ago: Inspectors tightened U.S. defenses against foot-and-mouth disease a day after a case was confirmed in France. Doug Swingley won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska for the third straight year. 

Today’s Birthdays: Former astronaut Frank Borman is 74. Singer Phil Phillips is 71. Actor Michael Caine is 69. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 69. Former astronaut Eugene Cernan is 68. Movie director Wolfgang Petersen is 61. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 57. Rock musician Walt Parazaider (Chicago) is 57. Actor Steve Kanaly is 56. Comedian Billy Crystal is 54. Country singer Jann Browne is 48. Actor Adrian Zmed is 48. Prince Albert of Monaco is 44. Producer-director-writer Kevin Williamson is 37. Actress Megan Follows is 34. Actor Jake Fogelnest is 23. Actor Chris Klein (“American Pie”) is 23. Actress Kate Maberly is 20. Singer-musician Taylor Hanson (Hanson) is 19.

Every week, Gabriel Gutierrez, associate editor of the San Francisco bilingual paper, El Mensajero, does a “word on the street” column and on the afternoon of Sept. 11 he had no trouble finding immigrants who wanted to talk. Nowadays, readers are more hesitant to comment on the war. 

“They don’t want to talk, or don’t want their photo,” Gutierrez said. “And when they give me their name, it sounds like they’re thinking about it or making up a name and it could be for whatever reason.” 

The change underscores a growing concern among Latinos about legal status in the United States. In the days following Sept. 11, El Mensajero readers, were concerned about how terrorism was going to effect their safety. Now those readers worry about new immigration laws and losing their jobs. 

“Little by little, people began to realize that (the war) was going to affect immigration issues,” Gutierrez said.  

As a result, border issues have become the hot topics of the weekly paper that serves the Latino community in the San Francisco Mission District, but is distributed in areas as far north as Concord and south as San Jose. At Christmas, readers wanting to travel home for the holidays were concerned about getting back to the United States.  

Readers have also begun to focus on job loss because tourism in the city is down.  

“People tend to work in hotels or restaurants, service industry type of jobs,” Gutierrez said. “And were afraid they were going to lose their job. It was having a domino effect all the way down, whether they could cross the Golden Gate Bridge or if they’d have a job the next day.”  

Between increased security along the border and service industry jobs being lost, readers are paying more attention to policy meetings between President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox. The two are expected to meet on March 22, in Mexico.  

Many of the policy initiatives on the agenda the last time they met in early September, including amnesty for many living here illegally and a guest worker program have, Gutierrez said, gone “out the window.”  

“George Bush put it on the back burner,” Gutierrez said referring to the amnesty proposal, “and that’s one of the changes that people are directly feeling. If they had hope before, now they’re in limbo.” 

Many of his readers are also less interested in the war nowadays because the dangers of anthrax and a bomb on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge feel less imminent.  

Moreover, those readers from Central America look at the war against Afghanistan as somewhat mild compared to what they experienced in their own countries.  

“They didn’t think it was as bad as the media was portraying it because the bridge wasn’t being bombed, downtown San Francisco wasn’t being bombed, there wasn’t fighting in their backyard like some of the countries they did come from,” he said.

Livermore Lab employee wins  

sexual harassment suit 

ALAMEDA — A computer technician was awarded $1 million after an Alameda County jury concluded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory dismissed her for supporting a colleague’s sexual harassment claim. 

“I am hoping that by me going to court and going this far, other people will see you don’t have to fall to this pressure,” said Dee Kotla, a Livermore resident who now works for Santa Clara County. 

Lab officials have not decided whether to appeal Monday’s wrongful termination award. They maintain Kotla was legitimately fired for using her lab computer and phone to conduct unauthorized business. 

In the early 1990s, Kotla was a supervisor in the lab’s telecommunications department when one of her employees complained of sexual harassment by a higher-level manager. The worker, Kim Norman, later filed suit against the lab. 

Kotla, a 10-year lab employee, supported Norman’s sexual harassment claims in a deposition. During that testimony, Kotla revealed she occasionally worked for an outside company owned by a friend. 

Within two months of her testimony, Kotla was fired. 

Garcia’s guitar battle continues 

SAN RAFAEL — The fight over Jerry Garcia’s guitars hit another snag — this time over taxes — surprising even the judge who thought the ownership dispute was nearing an end. 

It’s the latest in the battle between Grateful Dead Productions and Doug Irwin, who built for Garcia the guitars known as Tiger, Wolf, Rosebud and Headless. 

When Garcia died in 1995, he left the guitars to Irwin. But the Novato-based production company that oversees the band’s affairs maintained the guitars belonged to the Dead, not Garcia. 

Collectors have estimated the guitars could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Both parties agreed to compromise and walk away with two guitars each. 

Marin County Judge Michael Dufficy was expected to sign off on the deal Tuesday. But Irwin’s lawyer argued that Tiger should pass through Garcia’s estate, meaning Irwin would not have to pay taxes on it. Dufficy will consider the conflict at a hearing scheduled May 14.

SACRAMENTO — Out-of-state students may have to pay 15 percent more for tuition at California State University campuses starting this fall, under a proposal by CSU officials announced Wednesday. The tuition boost would generate an extra $11.8 million for the 22 campuses. 

If approved by the Legislature, it would be the first increase in nonresident tuition in 10 years. 

University system officials said the proposal was driven by the state’s budget crisis and will go to the system’s Board of Trustees for a vote in May. If the trustees approve it, the proposal will move to the Legislature. 

Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for Gov. Gray Davis, said he doesn’t expect to raise tuition, although the budget does call for all parts of state government, including higher education, to cut spending. 

California faces a $14.5 billion budget shortfall brought on by sagging state revenues, the collapse of the high-tech industry and financial woes related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Davis’ $100 billion plan for 2002-03 uses spending cuts, deferred spending and loans to make up for the shortfall. The budget proposal includes $5.2 billion in spending cuts, including deep reductions to health and welfare programs and education. 

The proposed tuition increase would affect about 10,800 student, said Richard West, the system’s executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer. 

West said the board didn’t anticipate another increase for out-of-state students and that in-state tuition would not go up. 

“We had talked to students and said (an increase) was a possibility,” West said. “The last time we did was the last time we were in a crisis. I think it’s fair that citizens of the state get first treatment.” 

Not so, though, said resident Senka Filipovic, a Cal State University Sacramento sophomore and government major. 

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Filipovic said. “I think it’s just going discourage those from out of state to come to the California schools.” 

System trustees also voted Wednesday to allow more than $145 million in bonds to be sold. Bond revenue, West said, would give CSU campuses better credit ratings and help pay off bills. 

The bonds will allow the university to pool revenue from many programs, instead of specific ones, such as parking and housing. 

“This way there will always be a reserve that we can borrow from in case we need it,” West told the board. 

Each university will then repay its portion of the bond debt. 

The revenue sources pledged to this pooled program are fees from student housing, student union, parking, health center facility and continuing education. The bonds will not exceed $145.2 million.

SACRAMENTO — Fourteen new degrees will be added to 10 of the California State University campuses in the next five years, university officials announced Wednesday. 

During a Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday at California State University, Sacramento, officials said the 14 new programs will meet changing education needs. For example, California is trying to fill more than 20,000 teacher positions and several of the programs are aimed at teachers or prospective teachers. 

David Spence, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer, said the number of programs being added this year is down from 15 last year and 22 two years ago. 

The programs are: 

Bakersfield: MA, Economics 

Channel Islands: BA, Anthropology 

MS, Bioinformatics 

BA and BS, Chemistry 

BA, English 

BA, Fine Arts 

BA, History 

BA, Psychology 

Chico: BA, Music Industry and Technology 

Dominguez Hills: BS, Quality Assurance 

Hayward: Master of Social Work 

Maritime Academy: BS, Global Studies and Maritime Affairs 

Northridge: BA, Public Sector Management 

Pomona: BS, Computer Engineering 

BS, Integrated Earth Studies 

San Bernardino: MA, Child Development 

BS, Information Systems 

MA, Spanish 

Master of Public Health 

San Luis Obispo: MS, Agribusiness 

BS, Software Engineering 

SACRAMENTO — Republican congressmen investigating California’s energy crisis have accused Gov. Gray Davis of “stonewalling” their review. 

In a letter to Davis sent Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Davis’ office failed to submit documents requested by his staff and several House subcommittees. 

Tauzin had asked for documents relating to California’s power expenses, particularly the long-term energy contracts state officials signed last year. Critics say the contracts, totaling $43 billion, locked the state into a decade of high prices. Davis says they helped stabilize California’s volatile energy market. 

Davis’ press secretary said the letter, which included an outline of the information the committee says wasn’t received, was politically motivated. 

“Clearly they’re more interested in politics than in solving problems. They haven’t even done their basic homework,” said spokesman Steve Maviglio. “If they bothered picking up a newspaper, they’d get most of their answers.” 

Tauzin also asked the governor to provide detailed information on Davis’ energy consultants, their contracts and their statements of economic interest. 

He also requested copies of the state’s long-term energy contracts. Those contracts were made public in June, after Republican state legislators and several news organizations sued to get the details. 

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Tauzin’s committee, denied that politics were involved in the information request. 

“The Davis administration appears to be hiding critically important documents from us. Little of the information they provided answered any of our specific questions,” Johnson said. “This is not a game. Congress has made an official request for this information and one way or another we’re going to get it.” 

The committee has subpoena power “and we’ve shown we’re not afraid to use it,” he said. 

The letter asked Davis to provide the additional information and produce a representative to meet with Tauzin’s staff at the end of March. 

Some of the documents Tauzin requested “simply don’t exist,” Maviglio said. That includes statements of economic interest for energy adviser Michael Peevey, who worked for free and wasn’t required to file those papers, he said. 

Maviglio said the governor’s office sent four boxes of documents in response to the earlier request and would “continue to be cooperative with the committee on issues that address the problem at hand.” 

In the administration’s January letter that accompanied the documents, Davis adviser Nancy McFadden said some of the information requested wasn’t available to the governor or couldn’t be released. 

That included information on the state’s “ongoing efforts to renegotiate the state’s contracts,” she said. “These matters are obviously highly sensitive until the renegotiated terms are finalized.” 

Additionally, McFadden offered assistance “in any investigation you may be conducting of Enron Corp.” 

Maviglio said Tauzin’s staff has not contacted the governor’s office for that help. 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis has appointed U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, to a vacant slot on the University of California Board of Regents. 

Blum, 66, a financier, will serve a 12-year term as one of 18 regents appointed by the governor. 

Blum, who contributed to Davis’ gubernatorial campaign, was appointed Tuesday.  

Blum serves on several company boards including Northwest Airlines and Korea First Bank. He also has served as co-chairman of the World Conference on Religion and Peace. 

Some of Blum’s business interests in China have drawn conflict of interest criticism to Feinstein, D-Calif., during her votes on economic issues related to China. She has said her husband relinquished his Chinese holdings in 1999.

WASHINGTON — The Navy SEAL killed after falling from a helicopter during battle in Afghanistan has been awarded the Bronze Star. 

The medal honors the service of Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts, 32, who grew up in Woodland, Calif. Officials gave the medal to Roberts’ widow, Patricia, during a memorial service Monday, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Cutler. 

Roberts was among a group of special operations troops on a MH-47 Chinook helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade March 4. They were part of Operation Anaconda, a drive to capture or kill al-Qaida and Taliban forces in a 60-square mile area of eastern Afghanistan. 

Roberts fell out of the helicopter as it hurriedly left the scene of the grenade attack. Video from a remote-controlled spy plane showed him being dragged away by al-Qaida fighters, and troops who returned to the scene found his body. 

SAN JOSE — A Hewlett-Packard Co. director who heads a $769 billion investment company said Wednesday she was at first very skeptical that HP would be able to handle the complex absorption of Compaq Computer Corp., but is now convinced HP is up to the task. 

Patricia Dunn, chief executive of Barclays Global Investors, said she always thought buying Compaq would strengthen HP’s technology products for businesses, but worried whether HP could come up with an integration plan to “capture the prize that was clearly there.” 

She became sold after seeing how the 900 HP and Compaq employees planning the integration have studied what went wrong in failed mergers, and made clear decisions on which products and brands will survive and how the new HP’s sales and service organizations will work if the deal is approved. 

“It’s been: ’Make tough decisions, make it clear which way we’re going, and then get on with it,”’ Dunn said in an interview. “I think they can pull it off.” 

However, for the $22 billion deal to get to that point, it will require the approval of HP shareholders on Tuesday. Most analysts believe the race is too close to call. 

More than 21 percent of HP stock is publicly lined up against the deal, including Bank of America’s investment arm, which said Wednesday it will vote the 6.4 million HP shares it controls against the deal. 

About 8 percent of HP stock appears to be in the company’s camp, including the 3.1 percent held by Barclays. That firm put its vote in the hands of Institutional Shareholder Services because of Dunn’s HP connection. ISS blessed the deal last week. 

HP and the deal’s leading opponent, Walter Hewlett, both believe they will find sufficient support to win the proxy fight among the shareholders who have yet to announce their positions. 

“It’s unprecedented in a proxy contest for investors to be announcing their vote,” HP spokeswoman Rebeca Robboy said. “Remember, we have 900,000 shareowners. You’ve heard now from a handful, many with ties to the opposition. This is not a barometer of how all investors feel.” 

Dunn said she also has confidence in HP’s ability to combine with Compaq because its management learned a lot from the 1999 spin-off of Agilent Technologies Inc. out of HP’s scientific-equipment division. She said that process of subtraction was just as difficult as adding another company. 

Echoing comments made by other directors, Dunn said she would have a difficult decision about whether to remain with HP if the deal is rejected. 

She also urged investors to trust that the board has spent a great deal of time making certain that buying Compaq is HP’s best strategic option. 

“I believe in shareholder democracy,” she said. “But I also know that it’s very difficult for investors to replicate the process a board goes through in coming to a decision like this. I believe in this decision.” 

HP shares fell 45 cents, more than 2 percent, to $20.11 in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Houston-based Compaq lost 12 cents, 1 percent, to $11. 

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On the Net: 

Pro-merger site: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Opposition site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

HOUSTON — While fire and brimstone are predicted at next week’s Hewlett-Packard Co. shareholder vote on its proposed purchase of Compaq Computer Corp., the atmosphere at Compaq has been comparatively serene. 

And where an HP management bloodbath and corporate turmoil are possible if investors nix the deal, Compaq and the analysts who cover it expect the Houston company to quietly continue restructuring and streamlining. 

In a message to employees this week, Compaq chairman and chief executive Michael Capellas said the company hopes the merger will pass, but it must focus on its own business just in case. 

“The most important thing we can do is to stay close to our customers and do the work necessary to deliver the quarter,” Capellas said. “Based on the outcome of the votes next week, we will communicate next steps.” 

Compaq shareholders are expected to favor the $22 billion acquisition overwhelmingly once the votes are tallied at a special shareholders’ meeting set for Wednesday. But massive opposition on the HP side of the equation, led by dissident director Walter Hewlett, has left Tuesday’s results in California too close to call in advance. 

If Hewlett and other investors torpedo the deal, he predicts a shakeup of company management. No such chaos is expected at Compaq, which turned a profit last quarter as it continues to restructure its businesses and reduce costs. 

Mike Winkler, a Compaq executive vice president, said the company hasn’t altered its strategies based on the possible acquisition by HP. 

“All the things we are doing today are things Compaq needs to do to be a strong stand-alone company or to be an excellent merger partner with HP,” Winkler said. 

Compaq, which grew from a small startup in the 1980s into a massive manufacturer and industry star in the 1990s, has struggled in recent years to overcome an expensive indirect distribution system, overexposure to the mature personal computer business and its 1998 purchase of Digital Equipment Corp. 

Compaq ousted former chief executive Eckhard Pfeiffer after the company revealed its first-quater results in 1999 would fall far short of expectations. That summer, the board surprisingly promoted Capellas, a former chief information officer. 

In Capellas’ 2 1/2-year reign, Compaq has focused on cutting distribution costs, refining its product line and expanding non-PC businesses, such as large-scale servers and computing services. 

Fallout of a failed merger could help Compaq if Hewlett, who has railed against Compaq’s still-heavy exposure to the PC business, gains influence at HP and causes it to shrink its share in the sector. 

“In the longer term that’s not necessarily bad for Compaq,” said Lehman Brothers analyst Dan Niles, noting that Compaq and Texas rival Dell Computer Corp. would have develop even more dominant market share in the PC business if HP scaled back. 

Niles also noted that Capellas’ background in information technology has helped Compaq connect with IT customers, saying Capellas “understand the mentality of those guys.” 

Carl Claunch, a research director at Gartner Inc., said a failed merger would leave Compaq to continue to grow its business computing business by itself, a job that would have been easier with HP as a partner. 

“They still have to address this challenge, just in a different way,” Claunch said. 

Richard Gardner, of Salomon Smith Barney, is another observer who believes Compaq has gotten well under Capellas and is healthy enough to survive on its own. 

“Our sense is that management finally sees the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel that Compaq entered into four years ago,” he wrote in a recent report. 

Though Compaq is promoting the merger, it also is girding for an independent future. For instance, Compaq is among the companies negotiating to rename the Houston Astros’ downtown baseball park. 

If the deal goes through, the Compaq brand will fade into HP and the new company’s headquarters will be in Palo Alto, Calif., though HP intends to keep a large manufacturing presence in Houston. 

As for the city, the nation’s fourth-largest, Niles said Houston should be fine regardless of what happens to its largest corporate citizen. 

“If Houston can survive the oil industry (collapse in the 1980s), I’m sure it will survive whether or not Compaq gets merged,” he said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — After Pacific Gas And Electric went bankrupt last year, the utility’s parent company rewarded 11 top executives with a total of $5.75 million in cash bonuses and stock grants now worth $24.8 million, according to documents filed Wednesday. 

PG&E Corp. paid $2.38 million to CEO Robert D. Glynn Jr., supplementing his $900,000 salary with $1.48 million in cash bonuses. 

The San Francisco-based company also gave Glynn the rights to 307,693 shares of company stock worth $6.4 million, based on the shares’ closing price of $20.91 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Glynn’s salary and bonuses in 2001 more than doubled his 2000 paycheck of $900,000. 

Gordon R. Smith, who runs the company’s bankrupt utility, also more than doubled his 2000 paycheck of $630,000. PG&E paid Smith $1.5 million last year, including $874,808 in cash bonuses. The company also gave Smith 179,488 shares of stock currently worth $3.75 million as of Wednesday. 

All told, PG&E distributed 1.18 million shares of free stock to the 11 top executives listed in the company’s shareholder proxy statement. The executives won’t gain full ownership of the stock until 2003 or 2004, the company said. 

The lucrative awards paid to PG&E’s executives outraged critics who believe the company pushed California’s largest utility into bankruptcy by siphoning billions of dollars from the business over several years. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is suing PG&E in a complaint that accuses the company of fraud. 

PG&E’s executive paychecks are “just off the charts. It’s astonishing,” said Mike Florio, a senior attorney for The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group fighting to overhaul California’s power market.  

“I think you could just walk down the street and find a lot of people capable of driving a company into bankruptcy and alienating an entire state in the process.” 

PG&E believes its executives deserved the rich rewards for guiding the business through a tumultuous year that began with rolling blackouts in Northern California and ended with the scandalous collapse of Enron Corp., once the nation’s largest energy trader. 

In between, PG&E suspended its quarterly shareholder dividend for the first time in 85 years as its credit rating deteriorated to junk status. 

Management blamed the utility’s woes mostly on state regulators for not allowing the company to charge its customers more for electricity during a long stretch when prices on the wholesale market soared. 

“It was an extraordinary year and we performed well under the circumstances,” said PG&E spokeswoman Renee Parnell. 

Despite its utility’s bankruptcy, PG&E earned $1.1 billion on revenue of $22.9 billion last year, reversing a loss of $3.4 billion on revenue of $26.2 billion in 2000. The company’s stock fell by 4 percent during 2001. 

PG&E’s rewards covered more than just its executives. The company said it gave $64 million in bonuses to 6,200 administrative employees for last year’s work, a 28 percent increase from 2000. Money collected from Pacific Gas and Electric’s customers paid for about 25 percent of the 2001 bonuses. 

“Ratepayers and shareholders ought to be steaming mad about this,” said Doug Heller, senior consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. “This is not a successful management team. They failed.” 

Most of the cash bonuses paid PG&E’s executives were tied to the company’s financial performance. The company also paid $1.07 million in retention bonuses to seven executives, including Glynn and Smith. PG&E won bankruptcy court approval to pay retention bonuses to discourage top executives from abandoning the company. 

Last year’s stock awards represented another piece of the company’s retention plan. 

The executives will gain full control of the stock at the end of 2003 if PG&E’s shareholder return ranks among the top 25 percent of its peer group in the power industry, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents. If PG&E’s shareholder returns don’t measure up, then the executives will have to wait until the end of 2004 to become fully vested in the stock awards. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.pgecorp.com 

OAKLAND — The city and port have hired a private security guard to block Caltrans contractors from the planned staging site for the first section of the long-awaited new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. 

The legal dispute over who owns 52 acres of waterfront land came to a head Friday when Oakland city and port officials sued state and federal transportation agencies. The twin suits were filed in state and federal courts. 

In federal court documents, Oakland claimed the agencies violated federal base closure, environmental protection and transportation laws, when they invoked a law allowing the Federal Highway Administration to seize property from other federal agencies for critical interstate projects. 

Oakland is seeking an injunction prohibiting Caltrans’ Bay Bridge contractor from using the land and a pier at Burma Road. Plaintiffs also seek an immediate injunction, and backed up the threat with guards. 

Caltrans officials said they were stunned by the Friday’s lawsuit and even more surprised by Saturday’s arrival of a guard. 

“No one wanted this to happen. We needed to resolve this,” said Port Commission President Phil Tagami after he initially denied the guard had been assigned to stop Caltrans. 

Major Jerry Brown would like to develop a four-star hotel and American Indian-run casino at the former Oakland Army base, which closed in 1999 and was to be transferred to the city and port later this year. The city also would like to build an industrial park on the site. 

The port has been using Burma Road for its maritime operations to unload odd-sized cargo. 

It’s just the latest hitch in a project to replace the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which partially collapsed during the 7.1-magnitude quake in 1989. The work began in January after taking 12 years to get off the ground and seeing a budget zoom from $200 million to the current worst-case estimate of $3.2 billion. 

Caltrans says using the former Army property will save about $30 million because it’s the closest and best possible staging area to the bridge. 

One hot dog, but I won’t hold anything 

BALTIMORE — Betrice Gonzalez may sell you a hot dog, but don’t expect her to hold your stun gun. 

The vendor, fed up with requests to hold items not allowed inside the Clarence Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, posted a sign on her stand recently telling people not to bother inquiring. 

“Absolutely no holding: weapons, bags, radios, drugs, etc. while in the courthouse!!,” the sign reads. 

“I’ve had people offer me money to hold their bags,” she said Friday while serving steaming hot dogs to customers. “People get rude when I say ’no.”’ 

During the seven years Gonzalez has worked at the stand, a few yards from the courthouse entrance, people have asked her to hold everything from clothes to knives. 

“One person even asked me to hold their stun gun,” she said, laughing. “They offered me $20, but I still said ’no.”’ 

Most are not jurors or courthouse employees, but visitors who have forgotten the items are not allowed inside the courthouse. 

“I was stunned when I saw the sign,” said frequent customer Stacy Madden, 28, who works at the bank across the street. “I didn’t know people actually did that. I could believe it, though.” 

Betting on cow dung 

CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. — The prom committee at Connellsville Area High School is hoping to raise $20,000 with one smelly pie. 

Players can participate in “Cow Patty Bingo” for $10, claiming one of 3,025 squares marked off on the front lawn of the high school in Fayette County. A lottery will determine who owns which numbered square. 

At noon on April 6, a cow will be led onto the lawn to graze, moo and, hopefully, do her business within two hours. The square with the most pie will win $10,000. If the pie lands evenly on two squares, both will be awarded $5,000 each. 

“It’s a unique idea,” principal Robert McLuckey said last week. “It’s innovative, and I thought it would be a lot of fun.” 

Tickets went on sale in November and committee members have sold 1,700 tickets, generating $17,000. 

The committee is trying to raise as much money as it can to offset the $32,000 cost of the May 18 prom on the Gateway Clipper riverboat in Pittsburgh, about 36 miles northwest. 

Waitresses get a big tip 

MARKLEVILLE, Ind. — A farmer who became a regular at restaurants in the lonely years after his wife died has left posthumous tips to some of his favorite waitresses. 

Paul Chadwick, who died at age 88 on Dec. 25, 2000, named in his will 10 waitresses, each of whom he bequeathed $2,500. 

Among them was Lana Evans, who, as a teen-age waitress at what was then Pugsley’s Diner in Middletown back in 1982, recalled that Chadwick stopped by the restaurant about every day for lunch. 

“I met him right after his wife passed away, and he seemed so sad,” Evans said last week. “I would sit and talk to him as he ate.” 

Nine other waitresses from area restaurants were named in Chadwick’s will, which also bequeathed amounts to numerous friends, family members and community organizations. 

“Mr. Chadwick was a very nice man; I would even say courtly,” said G. Douglass Owens, the attorney who was executor of Chadwick’s will. 

After the 88-year-old farmer died, Owens was charged with locating those named in Chadwick’s will. He found nine of the waitresses. He believes the other is deceased. 

“It goes to show, you never know what a little kindness might mean to someone,” said Melinda Padgett, township trustee.

LIVERMORE, Calif. — After two years of urging Asian-American scientists to pass up jobs at nuclear weapons labs, the Berkeley professor who organized the boycott says he’s proven his point. 

“I am committed not only to ending this boycott, but also to becoming actively involved in recruiting Asian-Americans to these labs,” Ling-chi Wang said. 

Officials at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories agree a negotiated deal is near. 

Wang, a longtime activist, is still waiting for a written plan that would address issues of promotion, disparity in pay and a workplace culture that sometimes leaves Asian-American employees feeling left out. 

“As long as that type of discrimination exists, there’s no reason an Asian-American scientist would want to go in there and work in these Department of Energy labs,” he told the San Jose Mercury News for a story Sunday. 

Wang, the head of the ethnic-studies program at the University of California-Berkeley, initiated the boycott at a conference of Asian-Pacific Americans in Higher Education in Long Beach in March 2000. He persuaded the organization to pass a resolution calling for “all Asian-American scientists and engineers not to apply for jobs at the national labs.” The resolution came at a vulnerable time for the labs. As a result of the Wen Ho Lee case, Los Alamos and Livermore had already seen a drastic drop in the number of Asians, both U.S. citizens and foreigners, applying for assignments at the labs.  

Emeryville Vice-Mayor Nora Davis sat on the steps of City Hall on a recent Sunday morning and offered a preview of the city’s efforts to honor a Native American shellmound as it replaces it with a modern development.  

“They beat Emeryville to that whole mixed-use idea,” Davis said of the Ohlone and their ancestors. “Bay Street will be a gathering place very similar to the use by the Native Americans.” 

Much like Native Americans once gathered at the Emeryville Shellmound to exchange goods, she said, Bay Area residents will come together at Bay Street to shop — at stores like Banana Republic, Gap, Pottery Barn and Victoria’s Secret. But while Native Americans relied mainly on a shellfish diet, modern shoppers will have restaurants like Pasta Pomodoro and Prego to choose from. 

This may sound like an unlikely comparison. But at least, residents will soon get to learn more about what the $400 million Bay Street project replaced. Next month the city will launch a Web site devoted to the shellmound. It will feature a much-awaited report about what archeologists found there, and include educational Web pages for children and adults. 

The battle over the plans for the Bay Street project, a combination shopping center, 12-screen movie theater and condominiums, began in 1999 when the city found human remains while digging a pit to keep toxics in the soil from washing into the Bay.  

Most thought years of industrial use, toxic contamination, and a brief stint as an amusement park had destroyed what was left of the mound, but when the burials were discovered Native Americans, conservation activists, and archeologists started packing city council meetings to protest destruction of the site.  

The number of burials found recently still remains a mystery. 

"We did find a lot of intact burials," said Oakland archeologist Sally Salzman Morgan, who was hired by Emeryville to study the site. "It’s too inflammatory to say how many there were. But most (burials) were disturbed." 

Morgan, who works for Oakland-based URS Corporation, said she found artifacts, animal bones, and tools in addition to human burials. But dangerous toxic waste made for serious problems at the shellmound, she said. 

"I do think the city did the right thing," Morgan said. "People have to understand that time marches on." 

Emeryville may face criticism from those who say they did the Ohlone wrong. But city staff said when the shopping center opens next to Ikea this fall, it will honor the Native Americans who once lived, died, and remain buried at the site. 

The city and developers from Madison Marquette are now planning exactly how they will celebrate the past as they move on the future. DeeDee Taft, a project spokeswoman who works for Tiburon-based Spin Communications, said Bay Street developers are committed to "commemorating the cultural and natural history of the Emeryville site."  

Taft declined to provide details because developers haven’t made any final decisions about commemoration plans. But in an emailed statement, Taft said Bay Street will feature sculptures, artwork, and a community room with Native American exhibits and artifacts. 

Lynn Tracy Nerland, assistant city attorney for Emeryville, said a commemoration committee has discussed a "water feature" to honor nearby Temescal Creek, and possibly an open model of a Native American-inspired home, know as a ghost structure. 

"They may do a ghost structure," Nerland said. "But they don’t want to call it that." 

Several streets in the project may have Ohlone-inspired names. 

Nevertheless, Native American activists and advocates say the city should have done more to preserve the shellmound, or at least a portion of it. 

"Why look at the Taliban when you can look at the Emeryville City Council?" said Perry Matlock, who has volunteered with the International Indian Treaty Council for 10 years. He compares building over the shellmound site to the recent destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan. "They’re both destroying cultural resources." 

Matlock, who’s grandmother was a Chippewa Indian, began working with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Society to protest development. He calls the developer’s commemoration plans "pathetic."  

"I’m very disappointed that Emeryville decided to destroy its most precious resource," said Stephanie Manning of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Society. She said the worst part was the pile drivers, which she could hear from her West Berkeley home. "It’s going to make me sick to think of those mothers and babies buried there, with those piles driven through them." 

Emeryville said any remains excavated during construction are being treated respectfully, and will be reburied near the shopping center.  

But Rosemary Cambra, tribal chair of the Muwekma Ohlone, calls the city’s new, culturally-sensitive development the legally-permitted erasing of a culture. 

"We’re still living in the world of politics of erasure," Cambra said. "It’s just an old way of racism. Nothing has really changed for tribal groups in the Bay Area." 

Vice-Mayor Nora Davis said the emotional attachment people have to the land makes it impossible to please everyone. And that becomes quickly apparent while Bay Street opponents talk passionately about the importance of the site. 

"There is no question," said long-time Oakland archeologist Allen Pastron, who quit the project after a few weeks. "Even the remnant of the Emeryville Shellmound that I saw had to be one of the most significant, if not the most significant, archeological site in the Bay Area. If not all of Northern California."  

Pastron said thousands of bodies, and hundreds of artifacts, were buried at the site over the 2,500 years Native Americans lived there, making it one of the oldest mounds and "crucial to understanding early cultures in California." 

"The portion of the shellmound that I saw in 1999 was a large intact remnant of that," he said. He urged the city to delay construction for several months, but they refused. 

Archeologists already removed more than 700 burials during excavations in the early 1900s. Despite early archeologists, and the lead, arsenic and DDT that leached into the soil from paint and pesticide factories on the project, some burials remained. He acknowledged that toxic contamination was a problem, but said Emeryville used it as an excuse to avoid dealing with an important cultural resource. 

Kent Lightfoot, a UC Berkeley anthropology professor, agreed that development has quickly destroyed most of the areas more than 400 sites. So fast, he said, there hasn’t been enough time to understand them before they’re gone. 

"They have a great significance with Native peoples," he said. "but we still know very little about them." 

SACRAMENTO — A federal fisheries council recommended an indefinite moratorium Thursday on the use of longlines off the entire West Coast. 

A typical longline boat lays thousands of baited hooks over miles of ocean to catch tuna and swordfish. Environmental and recreational fishing organizations, along with federal regulators, say the practice frequently catches turtles, sea birds, marine mammals and protected fish. 

But they worry Thursday’s action by the Pacific Fishery Management Council may one day open the door to a commercial fishing industry proposal to let 10 boats experiment with longline fishing within West Coast waters. The council regulates the ocean from three to 200 miles off California, Oregon and Washington. 

California and Washington ban longline fishing, while Oregon is experimenting with longline fishing 25 miles off shore. 

The pending moratorium would be the first by one of the eight regional councils that manage fishing in U.S. coastal waters. The council’s plan, expected to receive final consideration in November, would have to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

Conservation and sport fishing groups want an outright ban on longlining. However, council members voted Thursday for a moratorium instead, with possible re-evaluation if researchers find ways to reduce the snagging of unintended fish, birds and turtles. 

The pending plan also would close a loophole that lets West Coast-based longliners fish in restricted areas off Hawaii. 

Thursday’s vote “keeps the door open for longlining,” said David Wilmot, director of the Ocean Wildlife Campaign made up of six national conservation organizations. “There’s a lot of time now for mischief to occur.” 

Commercial fishermen argue that longlining could snag fewer unintended species than the floating gill nets that still would be permitted in coastal waters. 

Objections from environmental and recreational fishing organizations “seem to be based more on emotion and politics than objective, scientific fact,” argued Chuck Janisse, manager of the Federation of Independent Seafood Harvesters (FISH). 

Trading gill nets for longlines “is like arguing that cyanide fishing on coral reefs is less damaging than dynamite fishing,” countered Wilmot. 

Supporters and opponents agree the council’s decision will have significan ce in the larger international debate over the use of longlines. 

Janisse said a West Coast moratorium or ban would be inconsistent with other regions where longlining is permitted. 

But the pending plan would end an inconsistency in regulations governing West Coast and Hawaii-based commercial fishermen. 

Large areas of the North Pacific have been closed to longlining to protect turtles and albatrosses. Vessels based on the West Coast are not currently bound by the Hawaii regulations, but would be under the pending plan. 

The plan is the subject not only of environmental, but economic debate. 

Deep-sea fishing operations say commercial fishing is hurting sport fish populations and what they say is a $2.5 billion annual sport-fishing industry in California alone. 

Commercial fishermen challenge that economic estimate, but say they’ve been outgunned by sport fishermen. 

“All we have is a token fishery here on the West Coast — particularly in California,” said Pete DuPuy of Ventura, a FISH director who spent 70 of the last 90 days at sea. “What they’re doing here is not going to do anything for the fish population. All it’s doing is hurting the fishermen and the consumer.” 

Because the fish migrate great distances to feed and breed, he argued commercial fishing should be regulated with international treaties, not geographic restrictions. 

Environmental groups, to the contrary, see the pending West Coast restriction — the culmination of what has been nearly three years of debate — as a prelude to outlawing longlining elsewhere in U.S. waters, and ultimately worldwide. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.pcouncil.org 

OAKLAND — Officials are eyeing a 13-acre parcel near the city’s downtown as a possible site of the new ballpark for the Oakland A’s. 

Representatives from the design firm leading the search were in Oakland to update public officials about four potential sites — three in Oakland, including the Telegraph Avenue site, and one in Fremont. 

Craig Meyer, principal architect for HOK Sport of Kansas City, said the Telegraph Avenue parcel near the Greyhound bus station “is clearly the most interesting to us.” 

“It is the site that says the most about Oakland, and to us that’s what the project is all about,” Meyer said Tuesday. 

HOK representatives also discussed problems associated with the other sites. Earl Santee of HOK told the Alameda County Board of Supervisors that two waterfront sites near downtown are trailing because they aren’t close to Bay Area Rapid Transit stations and have limited parking possibilities. 

Oakland officials expect to narrow down the search to one or two finalists within the next month and to unveil a financing plan within 90 days. The ballpark is scheduled to be open in 2006.