With Berkeley’s biggest neighbor planning to add over two million square feet of girth in the coming 15 years, residents gathered Wednesday to tell UC Berkeley to slow down before it gobbles the town whole.  

“This plan is a death knell to the historic ambiance of the Berkeley community,” said Clifford Fred, one of more than a dozen residents to speak at the first of two scoping sessions on the university’s Draft Environmental Impact Report to its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP).  

And when a university spokesperson pledged that the university “will pay our fair share” when it comes to mitigating impacts caused by the plan, a woman in the audience called out, “No you won’t,” accompanied by a chorus of jeers from fellow residents. 

The proposed development plan, released last month, guides future university development both on the central campus and on city streets through 2020. It projects 2,600 new dormitory beds, 2,300 new parking spaces, 2.2 million square feet of new administrative space, and nearly 5,000 more people traveling to campus daily. 

While the goals are ambitious—the plan calls for roughly three times more development than its predecessor adopted in 1990—UC Berkeley Project Manager Kerry O’Banion said both that the new space is needed and that the university is committed taking the city’s concerns seriously. 

UC Berkeley often catches flak among city residents because, as a state entity, it pays no property taxes, offers the city little compensation for municipal services such as sewers and public safety, and is exempt from city zoning rules for its directly education-related activities. 

O’Banion assured residents that more than three-quarters of the proposed new space in the LRDP would be built on the main campus and adjoining city streets. He said the campus is already short some 450,000 square feet of research space after several consecutive years of state mandated enrollment growth.  

O’Banion also assured residents at the scoping session that for developments planned on city streets, the university would seek harmony with city planning mandates. Unlike UC’s last EIR adopted in 1990, O’Banion said, the new plan begins each chapter with an analysis of Berkeley’s General Plan, which guides Berkeley city development. In addition, the university’s LRDP commits development south of the main campus to conform to the city’s Draft Southside Plan.  

“We do take local plans seriously,” O’Banion explained. 

Residents in attendance were nearly unanimously critical of the university and were especially concerned about what anticipated UC growth would mean for Berkeley’s already congested streets. 

“Twenty-three hundred new spaces could put people back in their cars,” warned Nora Foster, who works at a UC Library. 

Steve Geller urged the university to use its resources to find a better way to mitigate traffic problems than merely putting a series of new traffic lights at affected intersections. 

“Seems like you folks should be able to figure it out,” Geller said. “They did it at the University of Washington and Stanford.” Those schools offer a subsidized transit pass, which UC Berkeley is considering establishing. Parking for UC staff ranges from $78 to $108 per month, while an AC transit 31-day pass costs $60. 

But O’Banion countered that new parking is needed, especially after the university failed to approach its parking goals in the 1990 plan. Though that plan called for 1,000 new spaces, the university has actually lost 300 spaces since 1990, he said. About 50 percent of UC Berkeley staff and 10 percent of students drive to campus, according to O’Banion. 

Another area where the university has fallen short of its 1990 goals is housing. UC is already building about 1,000 new beds of housing south of campus and the plan pledges to guarantee housing for sophomores, new faculty, transfer students and first-year graduate students.  

But one plan to build 100 units of faculty housing on Summit Road faced organized opposition Wednesday. “The proposal will do great harm to our neighborhood,” said David Nasatir, who echoed other neighbors’ concerns that the project would create noise and traffic problems. 

Former City Council candidate Anne Wagley chastised the university for leaving Berkeley taxpayers to pay for city services that go to the university.  

“Every new sink and toilet UC builds burdens the city’s sewer system and property tax payers in Berkeley subsidize this,” said Wagley, who is an employee of the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Residents will get a second opportunity to comment on the plan May 11 at the Krutch Theater on the Clark Kerr Campus. The university must respond to all comments in the final EIR, which is scheduled to go for final approval before the Board of Regents in the fall. 

Berkeley Assistant City Manager Arrietta Chakos announced that the city would hold its own public hearing on the university’s development at the May 19 meeting of the Planning Commission. She said the city currently had a 10-person team reviewing the plan and that the City Council will consider it at a May 25 work session and at its June 8 meeting. 

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After 31 years as one of the nation’s most prestigious centers for foreigners to come and learn the English language, class was officially dismissed at Berkeley’s English Language Program (ELP) Thursday.  

But as the professors marched out of their last classes and through the campus to vent their rage at UC administrators at a tearful mock funeral, they insisted their fight to save the program—or at least to force a severance package out of the university—isn’t over yet. 

“We can’t let them get away with not taking care of us,” said Suzan Tiemroth-Zavala, one of five teachers who stands to lose lifetime health benefits when the program officially closes next week. 

Last January, UC Berkeley Extension announced that the ELP, which regularly attracted 2,000 elite students every year from across the globe, would shut its doors this month. The rationale wasn’t financial or programmatic, said UC Berkeley Extension Dean Jim Sherwood, who made the call to terminate the program. Rather it was a question of appropriateness.  

According to a strategic plan completed last year, Sherwood said, English as Second Language has proliferated throughout the Bay Area and is no longer a good fit for the Berkeley campus. He explained that the program lost about $400,000 last year—a fraction of the Extension program’s deficit. 

When the ax fell, the 26 instructors found themselves with few rights. Although most of them had taught full-time with the program for over a decade on one-year contracts, they were not unionized, not classified as faculty, and were not entitled to a severance package. 

For the five teachers under the age of 50, the blow was particularly hard and the stakes exceptionally high. A UC policy offers 100 percent life-time medical benefits to employees with more than ten years of experience that retire at age 50 or older. Workers who started after 1990 are entitled to only 50 percent. 

At age 48, and with 16 years as an ELP teacher, Tiermroth-Zavala was two years away from guaranteed lifetime health care. Now, come July when her contact expires, she is looking at $1,000 COBRA premiums for her and her family, and an eventual loss of health insurance when those COBRA benefits run out. 

“It’s outrageous,” she complained. “Just because of our age, we lose everything.” 

Tiermroth-Zavala and the other teachers have 120 days to find another job at UC, but as non-union worker, they have no preferential rehire rights will be placed behind a waiting list of 200 prospective union candidates. 

The teachers are asking for a year’s severance from the day they were notified of the program’s demise—the same right negotiated by the university’s lecturers, said Michelle Squitieri, a Field Representative for University Council-American Federation of Teachers. That organization is offering guidance to the ELP instructors.  

Squitieri said Dean Sherwood sacked the program because the teachers had already filed unfair labor grievances against UC for past layoff practices and that the Dean failed to follow proper procedures, which, she said, required him to consult the Academic Senate’s Committee on University Extension before canning the ELP. 

For his part, Dean Sherwood maintained that although he didn’t discuss the ELP program specifically with the committee, he did go over the strategic plan’s criteria for “appropriateness” last fall before he closed the program. 

“I honestly believe I sought advice from the committee and I feel I followed the process that was outlined,” he said. As far as the severance, he said his hands were tied by a UC system-wide policy.  

Debra Harrington, UC Berkeley’s manager of labor relations, did not return phone calls to the Daily Planet. 

On Monday, UC Berkeley’s Divisional Academic Senate is scheduled to review a report on the decision to close the program. While he cautioned that he hadn’t yet seen the report, prepared by the Academic Senate’s Extension Committee, Senate Chairman Ron Gronsky said, “I don’t think we’re going to see that there was faculty consultation. The dean should have gone to the committee and said we need your advice. That’s what should have happened.” 

Even if the Academic Senate finds Dean Sherwood didn’t follow proper procedures, Gronsky said it acts solely in an advisory capacity for the Extension program, and he didn’t think its decision could compel the university to reinstate the program or compensate the teachers. 

“I told [them] the legal route is [their] best hope,” he said. 

In that vein, ELP teacher Cliff Stevens filed a grievance with the university last month, asking for the program to be reinstated. In the alternative, Stevens is asking for the teachers to receive a severance package. The case is currently before James Hunt, a professor of civil engineering. 

Additionally, Margot Rosenberg, the attorney for UC lecturers, has amended the ELP teachers’ complaint before the Public Employee Relations Board to include the charge that UC Extension axed the program as retaliation for ongoing complaints filed by the teachers. 

The amended complaint seeks to keep the program alive, but Rosenberg hopes that if it fell short of that goal it could at least bring monetary relief. “In lieu of that, we’re seeking to make the teachers whole for their loses,” she said. 

Most teachers said they were left with an empty feeling on their last day of classes. 

“It’s like being found guilty in court when you know you’re innocent,” said David Winet, who has taught at the program since 1975.  

“I’ve never worked anywhere that had a faculty community feeling like this place,” said Kathleen Letellier, a teacher at the school since 1991. “It’s awful to walk into a teacher’s room and see people crying.” 

Then turning to Tiermroth-Zavala, her eyes welled up. “This is what I’ve been in denial about all this year, that I’m not going to see you every morning,” Letellier said. 



The Florida version of the 2000 presidential election proved that punch cards are problematic. California’s adventures with touchscreen voting machines—including what amounts to a blanket decertification by the California secretary of state—demonstrated that this form of tally has some problems as well. Paper balloting seems a relic of the distant past. With the November general elections quickly approaching, many are wondering how they can ensure that their votes actually are counted. 

Daniel Silverstein, a freelance computer consultant and recent Cal graduate, says he has a solution. When he looks at paper ballots and touchscreen machines he sees where they are flawed, but also looks at their advantages. Instead of looking to one or the other to ensure the vote, he says, we should be looking at both. 

By both Silverstein doesn’t just mean a voter verified paper trail, where a touchscreen machine prints out a paper receipt. Instead, he thinks both the paper and electronic components should be used in conjunction, balancing each other out and aiding each other in facilitating the vote. 

“Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” he said, explaining the need for redundancy and verification. “Expect machines to fail.” 

Silverstein has put his ideas on paper and is currently trying to get his academic essay—“Improving the Security of Your Election by Fixing It,” co-written with two other students, Tobin Fricke and Damon McCormick—published in a peer-reviewed journal. The paper is currently being reviewed by Rebecca Mercuri, a computer science professor and one of the leading experts in the field.  

Silverstein said he does not have plans to patent any voting machine product that might result from the publication of the paper, but is more interested in adding his ideas to the debate over the issue. 

The goal of the proposed new system, Silverstein said, is to “leverage both computers and paper ballots to create a hybrid voting system which is more secure, auditable, and fault tolerant than either paper ballots or electronic voting alone. 

What Silverstein proposes is one step further than the one recently demanded by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Instead an electronic system with a voter-verified paper audit trail that merely checks the electronic vote, Silverstein envisions using electronic signatures that are attached to both paper and electronic votes so that both systems can double check each other.  

Silverstein said he originally came up with the idea after monitoring the touchscreen controversy and then participating in the recent UC Berkeley ASUC elections. The experience, he said, gave him and others the perfect opportunity to analyze an electronic voting system without the restrictions they might have faced in a regular municipal election. 

As part of his proposal, Silverstein has broken the voting system into three categories; recording, storage and tabulation. In all three, both paper voting and electronic voting have their disadvantages. Combined, however, the two systems balance each other out. 

In the recording phase, he calls punch card or scanned ballots “barely adequate.” Along with hanging chads, he says things like incomplete pencil marks and partially erased bubbles can tie up such systems. Electronic voting machines, on the other hand, are much easier to use. Large type and clear interfaces help ensure that voters record the vote they intended to make. Most importantly, voters can initially verify how the machine reads what you tell it on screen. 

In the next phase the two systems switch. Storing paper ballots is “fairly clear cut.” Since they are paper, we can rest assured they won’t change themselves. One of the only vulnerabilities is ballot box stuffing, a problem that Silverstein said is fairly well-guarded against. 

Once a vote is cast on a computer, however, Silverstein said even the most comprehensive checks sometimes can’t ensure the machine won’t make a switch. 

“There is no way to know the insides of a computer,” he said. Even if the machine’s software code is open, its hardware and software have been tested and certified, there is no way to know that every time a vote is cast, the machine will do what is it told. 

Storage on computers is also a problem because even if the vote is recorded correctly on the touchscreen, the data is transferred to another central tabulation machine that can also switch the vote. 

The third and final phase—tabulation—has errors on both systems. Counting paper ballots is slow if done by hand and often inaccurate. Machine is quicker, but—in the case of punch card ballots—can vary widely from the original count to the recount. Counting on a computer is almost instantaneous, but there is no record to prove the votes were cast and counted the same. 

What Silverstein and his co-authors have proposed is system that casts votes electronically and produces a paper trail and signs both using cryptography to produce a digital signature, setting up multiple ways to ensure the ballot has been recorded accurately while facilitating the counting process. 

Silverstein says his cryptographic techniques are similar to the technology used to ensure an on-line purchase is secure. He says the technique ensures a vote can’t be switched because the cryptographic signature (which locks the ballot) is based on codes that he says would take the next 1,000 years to crack and, therefore, change. If the vote comes into a central tabulation site different than it was cast, that is an indication that something in the voting system has been tampered with. 

At the same time, there is also a paper printout of the vote with the same digital signature, which Silverstein envisions as something similar to the magnetic ink numbers at the bottom of a check. With this digital signature at the bottom, voters can verify that the vote is theirs and make sure all the data is accurate. 

The project, said Silverstein, comes one step closer to ensuring a quick and accurate vote. 

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The proposed fiscal year 2005 City of Berkeley budget presented to the City Council by City Manager Phil Kamlarz Tuesday night erases Berkeley’s $10 million general fund deficit without reducing—as some citizens had feared—fire services or eliminating school crossing guards. What it does to other city jobs is another question.  

The budget calls for the elimination of 78 full-time equivalent positions, 63 of which are already vacant or filled by temporary workers. By the city’s calculations, that would leave approximately seven career employees and 15 contract employees without work. 

Nearly $6 million of the city’s projected budget shortfall comes from spiraling employee retirement costs (see accompanying story), while a loss of tax revenue and state funding have also contributed to the $10 million gap. 

With a budding taxpayer revolt last year causing Mayor Tom Bates to withdraw a proposed budget-balancing parcel tax ballot measure, City Manager Kamlarz set out to close the shortfall primarily through a $6.7 million cut to city programs. The cuts include $5.1 million to departmental programs, $1.2 million in savings from employees, and $400,000 in contributions to Berkeley nonprofits. 

The closure of one of the city’s two fire truck companies was expected to be on the list of cuts. However, Kamlarz said the fire department was able to save $500,000 by eliminating two positions through retirement and assigning a lower paid civilian employee to a third position. The school crossing guards will be funded by an extra $300,000 allocated from the city’s reserve fund.  

The $115 million general fund budget—up $2.8 million from last year—restored partial funding to the Sustainable Development Program, Berkeley Community Media, the Berkeley Alliance and the Berkeley Boosters and the Berkeley Guides. 

Berkeley libraries remain slated for cuts this year and senior centers are still targeted for cuts during fiscal year 2006. 

To save $1.2 million in employee costs, Kamlarz is asking city workers to contribute three percent of the city’s contribution towards their pension funds this year. If they refuse, Kamlarz has threatened to close city hall one day a month to save an equivalent amount of money. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington doesn’t think job losses are on the horizon despite the elimination of positions.  

“They’re using the threat of layoffs to threaten employees to give up millions in benefits,” Worthington said. 

City staff handed councilmembers the budget immediately before at the 5 p.m. meeting, so few members had time to ask substantive questions and only Worthington called for specific alterations to the proposal, including a request to spare cuts to the nonprofits. The seven percent cut, he said, would devastate several groups and prevent the Quarter Meal Program from any hope of revival. Quarter Meal, which feeds the homeless, is scheduled to close in June from a lack of funds. 

The council will hold public hearings on the budget on May 18 and June 8 and present proposed amendments May 25. The council is scheduled to adopt a final budget on June 22. 

In addition to cuts, Kamlarz proposed raising $300,000 in new fees and spending $1.3 million from city reserves.  

Kamlarz expects to save $1.7 million from government restructuring, most of which has come from refinancing part of the city’s retirement obligations to police officers. The program will save the city $1.2 million this year, but could cost it more in future years depending on the performance of the State Retirement Fund. 

Part of the restructuring plan included placing the city’s Office of Economic Development under the city manager’s office and eventually folding the transportation department into public works. 

Kamlarz also said the city would provide financial bonuses for nonprofits that can achieve savings by consolidating their operations. 

In addition, the city manager’s proposed budget increased capital funding in the general fund by $600,000 and restored $75,000 for sidewalk repairs. 

The proposed budget doesn’t include four taxes the city council is considering taking to voters in November. They include: 

• A $1.2 million emergency medical services tax that would fund paramedic services at an annual cost to the average homeowner $30. 

• A $1 million tax clean water and storm drain tax that could include money for unearthing creeks at an annual cost to the average homeowner of $25. 

• A $1 million youth services tax that would restore cuts proposed in the general fund and also include money for the crossing guards. The tax would likely be levied on property transfers. 

• A $1.2 million library tax that would restore proposed service reductions in the general fund at an annual cost to the average homeowner of $30. 

Revenue from those tax measures wouldn’t reach the city treasury until the 2006 budget year. 

The city is also considering a hike in the Utility Users Tax, which could go into effect immediately after voter approval. The tax has received increased attention as a possible replacement to a proposed surcharge for 911 services that had been projected to raise $2.5 - $3 million dollars. Questions have since arose over the legality of the fee. 

After the budget overview, the council reconvened for its regular meeting. Asked by the Transportation Commission to include Dwight Way on a list of streets that would limit the allowable truck weights from five tons to three, the council did the commission one better. They implemented the three-ton limit for Dwight, Cedar Street and the Derby/Warring Corridor. 

Although Berkeley police don’t assign officers to enforce the rule, supporters of the change say that by imposing stricter weight limits, police will better be able to identify which trucks are in clear violation of the rule. 

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FRIDAY, MAY 7 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Utah Phillips, singer/songwriter and Karen Pickett, Earth First! organizer, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. 528-5403. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Tim Holt, environmental writer on “Should California Be Split in Two?” Luncheon 11:45 a.m. for $12.50. Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925. 

Womansong Circle Singing for the mothers and the mother of us all at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $8. 525-7082. 

Nabalom Bakery Collective Benefit with live music, silent auction and refreshments at 7 p.m. at Transparent/Ashby Theater, across from the Ashby BART. Tickets are $20 at the door. 845-BAKE. 

All-Oakland Talent Show at 7 p.m. at Oakland Box Theater, Telegraph Ave. between 19th and 20th. Tickets are $10. Sponsored by Oakland Leaf, which brings afterschool programs to school children. 

Tibetan Aid Project Spring Benefit Dinner A vegetarian culinary experience in support the continuation of Tibetan Buddhist culture, at 6 p.m. at The Brazilian Room, Tilden Park. For tickets call 800-338-4238.  

“Anarchist Cookbook” a comedy about living on an anarchist commune in Dallas, Texas at 8 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.longhaul.org 

“The Personal Grail and the Public Wasteland” with Jeremey Taylor in a workshop from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Naropa Oakland University, 2141 Broadway. Cost is $50-$80. 835-4827, ext. 19. www.creationspirituality.org 

Hawaiian Cultural Practices and The Struggle for Independence Workshop and “talk story” about the Akaka-Stevens bill, Hawaiian soveriegnty, and the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, from 7 to 9 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Language Studies International, 2015 Center St. Cost is $75 for both days, $20 for Fri. only. Registration recommended. 525-7257.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets at 7:15 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 652-5324. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. 525-5231. 

Herbal Tea at Three Learn tea lore, medicinal properties, and taste familiar and exotic varieties from 3 to 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 8 

Town Hall Meeting on the California Budget Crisis with Assemblywoman Loni Hancock from 10 a.m. to noon at Rosa Parks School, Multipurpose Room, 920 Allston Way. 

Bike Day at Berkeley Farmers’ Market in Civic Center Park from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with presentations on locking your bike, bike repair, and safe commuting. Sponsored by Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition. www.BFBC.org 

Green Home Expo and Energy Symposium in Civic Center Park. From noon to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. www.greenhomeexpo.org 

Remember the Meaning Behind Mother’s Day and honor all mothers who have lost children in Iraq, Israel and Palestine from noon to 1 p.m. at 51st St. and Broadway in Oakland. Sponsored by Bay Area Women in Black. www.BayAreaWomenInBlack.org 

Celebrate Mother’s Day Canoeing with Save The Bay A scenic canoe tour of Goodyear Slough. We will wind through the native tule reeds and discuss the importance of this arm of the Bay to migrating wildlife. All equipment and instruction included. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mothers and Save The Bay Members $30, Non-members $40. To register or for more information call 452-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

“California Butterflies, Host and Nectar Plants” A class and garden tour from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $30-$40. Advance registration encouraged. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Kids Garden Club Discover non-native plants and help remove these invasives, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 7-12. Cost is $3, registration required. 525-2233. 

Junior Skywatchers We’ll learn about the mysterious forces of gravity. We’ll do experiments and then do some moonless stargazing, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 8-11. Cost is $4. 525-2233. 

A Walk Through the Garden of Old Roses with UCBG horticulturist and rose expert, Peter Klement. Discover the rich historical background of the collection, including how Chinese, Persian and European cultures created the parents of the roses we grow today. From 10 a.m. to noon at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Cost is $12-$17. To register call 643-2755. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The Finnish Community in Berkeley” led by Harry Siitonen from 10 a.m. to noon. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

East Bay Connection College Fair from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Saint Mary’s College, 1928 Saint Mary’s Road, Moraga. More than 170 schools will be represented. 925-631-4224. www.stmarys-ca.edu/ebcc 

Oakland Day of Percussion with world-class drummers and persussionists presented by the Percussive Arts Society from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 415-296-0454. www.pas.org/chapters/california/oak.html 

Wheat Weaving Craft Day from noon to 2 p.m. at the Albany Library. Create simple beauty and celebrate a history that goes back to early human’s appreciation of wheat. Free and open to all ages. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext 20.  

Cragmont Elementary School Spring Carnival and Auction Performances, crafts, food and games. Help us in this partnership with local merchants for an easy and rewarding way to raise money for a Berkeley public school. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 644-8811. 

Healthy Street Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School, 1500 Derby, with food, prizes, health screenings and entertainment. 883-6504. 

LeConte Elementary School’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration with food, dancing, music and games, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 2241 Russell St. Admission is $1-$10. 644-6290. 

Friends of Kensington Library Annual Book Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Blvd. 

Crowden Music School Gala, honoring Gordon Getty, at 6 p.m. at the Rotunda, 1501 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $150. 559-6910. 

A Celebration of Traditional Asian Arts and Culture from noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. 637-0455. 

Oakland Museum of California Gala After Hours at 9 p.m. with food and dancing. Tickets are $75. 238-6711. www.galaafterhours.com 

Pro Arts 30th Anniversay Gala from 5 to 9 p.m. at 550 Second St. Oakland. Tickets available at www.proartsgallery.org 

Festival of Body-Mind Movement celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 830 Bancroft Way at 6th St. Cost is $5-$20. 594-4048. www.SpringIntoMotion.org 

Shamanic Journey Class from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Anam Cara House, 6035 Majestic Ave., Oakland. 415-333-1434. 

SUNDAY, MAY 9 

Berkeley Architectural Hertitage House Tour “Berkeley 1890 - At Home” from 1 to 5 p.m. featuring ten Victorian-era houses along Berkeley’s Fulton St. Tour information and ticket order form are at www.berkeleyheritage.com/housetours/2004_spring_house_tour.html  

Mother’s Day Celebration at the Judah L. Magnes Museum at 2911 Russell St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Family treasure hunt, docent tours of exhibit “Brought to Light,” gift shop sale, and free admission. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

“Designing Your Garden with Natives” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Field trip to Pt. Reyes on May 16. Cost is $75-$85. Registration recommended. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Shear Fun Where did your wool clothing come from? Join Judd Redden who has been shearing sheep for ten years to learn about this remarkable, renewable resource. From 10 a.m. to noon at The Little Farm in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Dreaming in Nature An 8-week class meeting Sundays, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Park. Cost is $160. 636-1684. www.ebparks.org 

John Kerry for President Party with Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and author of “Why Liberals Will Win in America.” Sponsored by The Berkeley Democratic Club. From 5 to 7 p.m. at 21 Tanglewood Rd. Donation $50 to the Kerry campaign. Please RSVP to BerkeleyDemocraticClub@comcast.net 

Maganda Magazine Celebration with spoken work and readings celebrating this Pillipino literary arts publication. At 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568.  

Friends of Kensington Library Annual Book Sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Blvd. 

”A Transylvanian Unitarian Minister Comes to Berkeley” with Maria Pap at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Favorite Hymn Sing-A-Long at 7 p.m. at St. Cuthbert’s, 7900 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 367-9145. StCuddy@aol.com 

Tibetan Buddhism, with Sylvia Gretchen on “Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmocana Sutra” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MAY 10 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas from the other side of the Pacific Rim and learn their cultural and natural history, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Registration required. Cost is $5-$7. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Community Gardening Collective with Babak Tondre speaking about EcoHouse at 6 p.m. at the Peralta Community Garden, Peralta and Hopkins St. Potluck. 883-9096. 

Non Profit Organization Orientation How to get your group publicized on B-TV Channel 28 using the media facilities at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Community Media. 848-2288 ext. 12. www.betv.org 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call Emily at 601-4040, ext. 109. emily@wcrc.org 

Baby Yoga at 11 a.m. and Yoga and Meditation for Children at 2:45 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthening at 1:15 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, MAY 11 

Morning Birdwalk Meet at 7 a.m. at the pull-out on Wildcat Canyon Rd., east of Grizzly Peak Blvd. 525-2233. 

Public Hearing on UCB’s Long Range Development Plan at 5:30 p.m. at the Krutch Theater, CLark Kerr Campus. Copies of the plan and the draft Environmental Impact Report are available at http://lrdp.berkeley.edu 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Sts from 3 to 7 p.m. 843-1307. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 233-2144. dan@redefeatbush.com 

“The Evolution of California Water Policy” with David Kennedy, former director of the California Dept. of Water Resources at 5:30 p.m. in 105 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Water Resources Center Archives. 642-2666. 

“Evolution’s Rainbow” Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, with Dr. Joan Roughgarden at 7:30 p.m., 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. 643-7008. bnhm@berkeley.edu 

Writer’s Workshop: Crossing Genres with Melita Schaum at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Goddess Grace Moving Meditation at 10 a.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $7-10, bring a yoga mat or blanket. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Joan Sinon will speak on Home Instead Senior Care at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672.  

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 

Fresh Produce Stand Grand opening from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center, with home-cooked food and festivities. Sponsored by Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Free to Fly: The US-Cuba Link” a documentary on the efforts of people to maintain links after 16 years of no direct travel, at 6:30 p.m. at the South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

“Miel de Oshun” a film about a Cuban American who goes back to Cuba to search for his mother, at 7 p.m. at Fellowship of Humanity, 390 7th St., Oakland. Donations accepted. 393-5685. 

East Bay Genealogical Society meets at 10 a.m. with speaker Diane Rooney on research on Eastern European families. Library Conference Room, Family History Center, 4770 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. 635-6692. 

The Knitting Hour at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave., at 7 p.m. Come and learn to knit, regain old skills, and get inspiration for new projects. Limited supplies are available. Please feel free to donate. For beginners, we recommend a pair of size 8 needles and one skein of yarn. All ages welcome. 981-6270. 

Poetry Writing Workshop, led by Danna Zeller, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, MAY 13 

“There’s No Place Like Home” a fundraising event for First Place Fund for Youth, for youth who “age out” of the foster care system, at 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Tickets are $50. 272-0979. www.firstplacefund.org 

Berkeley Adult School Career Fair from 9 a.m. to noon at 1222 University Ave. Free admission. 644-8968. 

“Election” the political comedy will be shown in a benefit for the John Kerry campaign at sundown at the outdoor cinema, Pyramid Alehouse, 8th and Gilman. Bring your own seating: blankets, lawn chairs, etc. Suggested donation is $20 or whatever you can afford. All donations go Kerry's campaign. apbeahrs@mac.com.  

Embracing Diversity Films and Albany High School PTA present “Bums’ Paradise” at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. 527-1328. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers monthly meeting at 7 p.m at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. 547-8629. 

East Bay Mac User Group meets to discuss MacWireless at 6 p.m. at Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound St. www.expression.edu 

ONGOING 

Free Community Yoga Workshops with David Korman, every Wed. on the grounds of Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., North Berkeley. Next session starts May 19th. 649-1664. 

Vista College Study Abroad in Mexico Live with a family and learn language skills in a two-week session in July in Guadalajara. 981-2917. www.peralta.cc. 

ca.us/interntl/studyabr.htm 

Berkeley Video and Film Festival is calling for entries. The deadline is July 10. 843-3699. www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

Radio Summer Camp, four day sessions from June 4 through Sept. 6. Learn how to build and operate a community radio station. Sponsored by Radio Free Berkeley. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

Medical Care for Your Pet at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society low-cost veterinary clinic. 2700 Ninth St. For appointments call 845-3633. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., May 10, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Four by Four Joint Task Force on Housing Members of City Council and the Rent Board meet Mon. May 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Stephen Barton, 981-5400. http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/4x4/default.htm 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon. May 10, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Mon. May 10, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Housing Authority, 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud. 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publichousing 

Commission on Disability meets Wed. May 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets May 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront

Nothing seems to represent the philosophy of Berkeley better than the combination of good pastries and a non-hierarchical work environment.  

You’ll find both at Nabalom Bakery off of College Avenue, which, since 1976, has been both baking up their famous cinnamon twists and doing it in an equitable way. Over the years, the practice has helped Nabalom become one of Berkeley’s more well-known institutions. 

But not necessarily an institution on the soundest financial foundation. 

In an oftentimes cruel world, even an attempt to do things the right way doesn’t ensure smooth sailing. Mired in a financial slump recently, Nabalom has been slowly trying to pull themselves back into solvency.  

Toward that end, the bakery holds a benefit today, Friday, at the Transparent Theater in South Berkeley with entertainment, live music, Nabalom treats and a silent auction.  

Throughout the hard times, Nabalom stuck to its original philosophy. Originally started by a group of local neighbors, the bakery has been owned by the employees since the start. At that time, there wasn’t even a business classification for a worker-owned “collective.” This focus on workers’ rights and control allowed Nabalom to attract workers who both love baking and have a commitment to reform and improve the world. 

“My sense is that people at the bakery are committed to creating a more egalitarian society,” said Jim Burr, one of the collective members. “A lot of people have ingrained skepticism of the U.S. government. [There is] a certain militant pacifist streak to some of us.”  

As a collective, Burr said they’ve tried to turn their political and social philosophies into reality, creating a social niche where many of the rules of the outside world don’t apply. 

Crow Bolt, another collective member, said he’s at Nabalom because he does “work that is good, with people that I care for in an environment of mutual respect. [But] first and foremost we are a bakery. We have some really qualified people with several years of baking experience.” 

Lately, the collective has been trying to come up with healthier baked goods, a move that combines their baking and their politics. One of their newer collective bakers is an Italian pastry maker who specializes in vegan and macrobiotic products. 

Over the years, Nabalom has also established a firm clientele. While employees can’t name all of the regulars, they know who they are and exactly what they want. 

Moira Roth, an art history professor at Mills College who lives nearby, said Nabalom has been her “regular morning haunt” for years. Every morning she comes to order something tasty, read the New York Times, write, and relax. 

“The staff (always a magnificent group of highly interesting and passionate folk), the coffee and baked goods (the best in the world—and I travel a lot!), the general ambiance (changing art on the wall, the piano, the scatterings of tables and chairs…) and the regular customers (a marvelously mixed group) are very central to my sense of well being and community,” wrote Roth in a statement she prepared for Nabalom’s upcoming oral history project. 

“There is not a baked good you can go wrong with,” said Mark Nielsen, a regular who comes from North Berkeley to get his treats. Like Roth, he said he likes the ambiance, especially the swinging screen doors that lead into the bakery. He said they remind him of the corner shop in the small town he grew up in Iowa. 

Unfortunately, along with the benefits of a collective come the problems. The responsibility of running a business sits squarely on everyone’s shoulders. That means that if everyone doesn’t do their part, things quickly fall apart.  

Burr said problems are usually caused when someone doesn’t carry their load. Because the person is a friend, people often wait to confront them about the problem until it’s too late, when their slacking off has hurt the business. At that point the only way to solve things is often to let the person go. 

Burr said he once had to fire one of his best friends. The whole process was full of long, awkward silences and when the former employee walked out, Burr said he burst into tears and had to hide in the bathroom. Burr and the former employee are still friends, but he confessed that for a while it was not pleasant. 

Nonetheless, the problems with a collective are not outweighed by the perks, according to the employees.  

“I have a lot of love for collectives,” said Bolt, covered in flour, but smiling as he rolled out the dough for croissants and pizza Wednesday morning. Bolt said he is part of several other collective including a housing collective and the food program, Food Not Bombs. 

Burr said even though it’s a struggle, baking and being able to run a business he feels good about, where he can enjoy just smiling at customers, is worth it. He says the best way to describe it is with a paraphrased quote from Moby Dick: “Despite all the chaos and murderous insanity, while constellations of woe revolve around us, deep within lies an isle of silent joy.”   

The Nabalom Bakery Collective Benefit starts at 7 p.m. at the Transparent/Ashby Theater, across from the Ashby BART. $20. For more information call 845-BAKE. 

›

Berkeley’s budget mess is proving difficult to solve, but easy to trace. The city, like 248 other local agencies, has gambled and so far lost on a hastily passed 2000 state law to boost employee retirement benefits on the promise that the state retirement fund had the cash reserves to cover their short term costs. 

But when the stock market tanked, Berkeley—like many of its neighbors—has had pay up almost immediately. In the upcoming fiscal year, the combination of increased pension fund obligations and plummeting investment returns amounts to $6 million of the city’s $10 million general fund deficit. 

Those figures only scratch the surface of Berkeley pension problems. 

In fiscal year 2005, according to a report released in November by former city Budget Director Paul Navazio, $15 million of Berkeley’s $115 million general fund will pay for contributions to the California Public Employees System (PERS). Last year, the city spent $8 million on retirement benefits. The year before, when the state Legislature passed the bill that allowed Berkeley to improve the pension benefits, the city spent only $2.8 million. 

A lot of that money is going to cover stock market losses, but a good chunk will pay for improved pension benefits to Berkeley’s growing ranks of retirees—72 left the city’s employment ranks last year alone—who threaten to strangle the city’s general fund for the foreseeable future. 

Berkeley Police Lieutenant Sherrie Aldinger, who is retiring after 28 years on the job, will receive 84 percent of her highest annual salary from the city for the remainder of her life. The salary for a Berkeley Police Lieutenant ranges from $104,568 to $119,136. 

“Basically they’ve given away the store,” said Ron Roach of the California Taxpayers Association, one of the few groups to oppose the bill—SB 2000—which passed nearly unanimously through the state legislature. 

The legislation granted generous new benefits for state public employees, and in a last minute addition, he said, gave local agencies the option to negotiate the benefit into their union contracts. 

For local police and firefighters the bill meant they could now bargain to retire at age 50 with a pension that equaled three percent times their years of service—75 percent of his or her highest yearly salary, for instance, for an officer who retires at age 50 after spending 25 years on the force.  

Subsequently the state passed a law allowing police and firefighters to receive a pension as high as 90 percent of their highest annual salary. 

Once the city grants the benefit, it becomes binding for all current officers. 

The bill’s passage wasn’t a proud moment for the legislative process, said Steve Keil, legislative analyst with the California State Association of Counties. “They jammed it through without any debate,” he said. 

Tom Branan, owner of the Public Retirement Journal, said the bill was the product of a mutual campaign by the unions who came forward with the idea and the PERS board which was selling the benefit.  

“They were being overly optimistic,” he said. “The whole thing was based on a continuation of what everyone said was unprecedented market growth.” 

After 10 years of flush investment returns, PERS told lawmakers and local officials that the fund had enough reserves to cover the more costly retirement formulas for several years. But just as former Gov. Gray Davis signed the legislation, the bottom fell out of the stock market. From June, 2000 through June, 2003 the value of the PERS fund dropped by $28 billion, leaving employers like Berkeley to make up the difference. 

Despite the alarming stock market returns, Keil said that once a few localities negotiated the generous new benefits, “a panic started driving the rest of them to follow.” 

The pressure was especially strong when it came to police contracts, Keil said. Cities typically spend about $100,000 training a new recruit before the recruit actually joins the force. With the state already offering the new benefits, Keil said, the highway patrol began luring away recent hires from local agencies rather than paying to train their own officers. 

Berkeley faced a uniquely severe recruitment problem, said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. Not only did the city pay below the Bay Area median wage, but it required officers to have a two-year degree without added compensation, a distinction for which other localities offered a bonus. 

“They told us you guys aren’t matching apples for apples,” he said.  

So in 2001, when it was time for Berkeley to negotiate a new police contract and replace its aging force, the city granted officers the improved retirement formula on top of a hefty raise. 

That contract has had a snowball effect. A year before, the city had granted firefighters the new pension benefits in return for giving up cost of living raises. The firefighters protested the new police contract and ended up with a 7.6 percent raise as part of a contract extension to achieve parity with the police. At the same time, the city negotiated a new contract with its non-public safety employees and improved their pension formula. 

The combination of the improved pension benefits and poor investment returns have been staggering.  

Since 2000, according to the Navazio report, the percentage of the personnel costs the city pays in pension benefits have soared from 2.5 percent to 20 percent for non-uniformed employees, 3.63 percent to 40 percent for police, and 3.63 percent to 25 percent for firefighters. The city subsequently used an option to refinance their police pension obligation which lowered its 2005 contribution rate to 33 percent.  

Total benefits for police, including pension, social security, insurance, now amount to 58 percent of an officer’s salary. 

Other cities have suffered the same dilemma. Last year, Lodi had to contribute 48 percent of firefighters’ pay and 42 percent of police officers’ pay to PERS and the city of Orange last year announced it was experiencing a 384 percent increase in pension costs for police and fire employees. 

Darin Hall, a PERS spokesperson, said better news might be on the way. Since PERS factors in a two-year lag in calculating contribution rates, this year’s shortfall is tied to the poor performance of the stock market in 2001 and 2002. Hall said the fund reaped strong returns in 2003 which will help bring down future contribution rates. 

But the burden of higher pension payouts to increasingly younger retirees could still leave Berkeley perpetually in the red, even if the market recovery continues.  

According to a PERS Actuarial report provided to Berkeley, even if PERS earns a 8.25 percent return over the next six years, Berkeley PERS contributions to its firefighter’s pension would increase from 25 percent to 40 percent. 

“This problem doesn’t completely go away,” said City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who has generated a report that tracks expense rate increases for the average Berkeley homeowner since 1993. If current trends continue, Wozniak contends that by 2009 the cost of employee salaries and PERS contributions will have increased by 87 percent, while the Consumer Price Index will have risen by 55 percent. 

The new benefits are permanent for all active city workers, but the city does have the option of unilaterally imposing a reduced pension rate for new hires.  

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is lobbying to roll back the benefit for state workers, and Kamlarz said it remained an option for the city as well. 

“That’s something we have to think about,” Wozniak said. “We have to look at this because it’s what’s driving up our costs.” 

ˇ

Stumble leads to traffic fatality 

An 83-year-old man who had paused in the center island as he crossed Shattuck Avenue at Kittredge Street shortly before 4 p.m., Thursday, lost his balance and stumbled backwards into traffic on Shattuck, where he was struck and killed by a passing truck, according to Berkeley Police spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

“The truck had the green light,” Schofield said. He added that the truck driver “pulled around the corner and waited after the accident.” 

The victim’s name was withheld pending formal identification by the Alameda County Coroner’s office. 

Bystanders Chase, Catch Teenaged Purse-Snatchers 

When a pair of teenagers strong-armed a purse from a woman pedestrian on Dana Street near Durant Avenue early last Saturday evening, irate passers-by set off in pursuit, capturing a pair of 15-year-old bandits. Berkeley police scooped them up and took them to city jail. 

Gunshot Victim Reports Robbery 

Berkeley Police were summoned to Highland Hospital in Oakland Tuesday night after a man appeared with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound and reported he’d been shot by a robber near the intersection of Sacramento Street and Alcatraz Avenue in Berkeley. 

The victim told Berkeley officers he’d been shot by a man in his mid-20s, said BPD Spokesperson Kevin Schofield. No suspect has been arrested.

There is videotape of the beatings by the six guards, available on the Internet for download. Soft and grainy and shot from a distance, still, what is happening is unmistakable. Two prisoners are lying sprawled on the floor, face down, unresisting. An L.A. Times news article graphically describes the scene: “[One of the guards] sits astride [one of the prisoners and] begins punching him with alternating fists, landing a total of 28 blows. At one point, [the guard] can be seen lifting [the prisoner’s] head by the hair in what looks like an effort to get a better angle for his punch. A few feet away, the tape shows [a second guard] slugging [the other prisoner] and using his right knee to pummel him in the neck area as the [prisoner] lies motionless. … One [guard] is seen shooting the [prisoners] with a gun that fires balls of pepper spray, while another sprays their faces with mace.” 

The video also shows one of the guards giving a kick to the head of one of the prisoners with the toe of his boot. 

No, the videotape is not of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. So far as I know, no such videos exist. The video of which I speak documents the beating of two United States citizens—juvenile prisoners under the control of the State of California—by guards of the California Youth Authority at the Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton, California. Chaderjian. Abu Ghraib. It is easy to get them confused, I suppose. 

(Both the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office and the office of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, by the way, have declined to bring charges against the guards in the incident, citing their contention that there was “no reasonable likelihood of conviction” of the guards in a California courtroom.) 

This week, President George Bush went before representatives of various Arab-language television stations and stated—in reaction to the photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers coming out of Abu Ghraib—that “[this] does not represent the America that I know.” 

No, I suppose not. Mr. Bush has never been a black or Latino kid, locked up by the CYA. 

What one finds most disturbing about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses is this national display of collective shock and surprise as television commentators pass serious comments about the meaning of it all—the widened eyes—the caught breath—the hand over open mouth—the calling in of the multitude of expert commentators—the incredulity that Americans, of all people, could be the author of such acts. Has no-one been paying attention? 

“[This] does not represent the America that I know,” says Mr. Bush. 

The president must, one must guess, therefore never watch broadcast television. The physical abuse by United States guards of prisoners incarcerated in United States jails is so well-known and widespread that it is a running, national joke. Watch any sitcom long enough, and sooner or later someone will make a threat about someone going to prison and having to “do the laundry of a 300-pound cellmate named Bubba.” It is a joke—if one misses the point—about people being raped in United States prisons, a condition that does not invoke calls for investigation, intervention, and reform, but merely a David Letterman or Jerry Seinfeld smirk. 

Yes. How very funny. 

America shocked—shocked!—at the Abu Ghraib humiliations? Why should we be? The humiliation of individuals has become an American obsession…it is, in fact, the growing American pastime, surpassing football and baseball as our national sport. We used to hold contests in which people competed, and then judges awarded a prize to the person who they thought performed the best. It was the thrill of the victory in which we wanted to share. The camera focused on the joyous, beaming Star Search winners while the second- and third-placers, mercifully, were hustled offstage before their frozen smiles shattered and their tears flowed over the loss of just-missed dreams. Now, voyeurs of despair, it is the agony of the losers on which we dwell. Televised contest after contest—from ESPN’s new announcer to Donald Trump’s “You’re fired!” to American Idol to Elimidate—puts the spotlight not on just the losing, but the degradation of those who lose. 

Our reveling wallow in the culture of suffering has become so widespread that now one national automobile manufacturer—I cannot recall their name because having watched it once, I have to turn it quickly off because I do not want the sickening images in my head—begins with a montage of horrific, swollen knots on people’s heads, then moves to a young yuppie admiring a car and, turning, still distracted, busting his head on an overhanging fixture, knocking himself to the floor. My god. It is the equivalent of selling hamburgers by watching photos of the carnage resultant from highway accidents. America’s Funniest Home Videos—the once-backchannel program where we became comfortable in snickering at people’s pain like a kid thumbing through porno locked in the bathroom—has now come out of the closet and moved into the mainstream. 

But “[this] does not represent the America that I know,” says Mr. Bush. 

Oh. Really? 

“That the way the United States treated its prisoners in occupied Iraq would become a focal point of international scrutiny, and perhaps a critical element in winning the confidence of the Iraqi people, should not have been a surprise to anyone,” the San Francisco Chronicle writes in an editorial. “From the top down, the message from U.S. commanders should have been crystal clear: Humane treatment of prisoners is essential to our mission.” 

No, actually, it’s more fundamental than that. How we treat prisoners under our control is indicative of who we are. It is essential to our very humanity. It is how we are defined, both by ourselves, and by others who either observe or interact with us. Christian doctrine—and the right insists, with pounded breast, that we are a Christian nation—teaches in Matthew 25:40 that “the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” That, again according to New Testament Christian doctrine, is how we are to be judged. 

“[Abu Ghraib] does not represent the America that I know,” says Mr. Bush, in all seriousness. 

If so, he must not have been paying attention. 

ABU GHRAIB 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

George Bush says that the reprehensible behavior of American soldiers (under the guidance of U.S. intelligence officials) at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq does not represent “the America I know.”  

It’s a disconcerting statement to say the least, but not inconsistent of a man who boasts that he doesn’t read newspapers. 

It’s tempting to hope that now he does know a bit more about his, er, America, he’ll change course—after all, he certainly knows that the Senate Armed Forces Committee is at this moment investigating reports of rampant torture and murder in U.S. prisons in Afghanistan and Cuba. 

But that would be most unlikely; it certainly wouldn’t be the president I know. 

Sheila Newbery 

• 

BICYCLES 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Ask a silly question, get a silly answer. In regards to Mr. Garden’s question: “Have you ever tried carrying a TV or a kitchen table on a bike?” My answer is not only “yes!” but also “so have a lot of people, how long have you lived in Berkeley?” I have participated in assisting several friends move their homes and with enough people, bicycles and bicycle trailers, we have successfully moved them without the aid of fossil fuels. Berkeley Critical Mass, on a monthly basis, moves a sofa and large amounts of stereo equipment from downtown Berkeley BART to other locations around the city. Friends of mine regularly carry large construction materials on their bicycles, which is how goods are also usually transported in so-called developing countries. I specifically moved to the Bay Area from Southern California so I would never have to own a car. In the 10 years I have lived here I have bicycled not only to go to school, jobs and errands, but also to radiation and chemotherapy appointments for the cancer I was diagnosed with seven years ago. When I am too sick or tired to bicycle, my friend transports me on his tandem or I use public transportation, as do most of the people who also cannot drive: the disabled, the elderly and children. Anyone who pursues an auto-centric society is clearly opposed to the concerns of some of the neediest people in our society. 

Jennifer Dieges 

• 

PARKING 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

In support of his proposal to further limit parking in downtown Berkeley, Charles Seigel states in his letter that was published in the Daily Planet’s May 4-6 edition that there is “relatively little parking” in the Union Square area of San Francisco which he classifies as the “most successful shopping district in the Bay Area.” To the contrary, what sits under Union Square is a large, relatively low priced parking garage. As a result of this, Union Square is the one part of San Francisco where I am willing to shop. Convenient parking is essential to any retail business district.  

When I worked in San Francisco and made the same trip into and out of the city every day at the same times, I used public transportation. For non-routine trips or trips where I have substantial amounts of purchases to get home such as grocery shopping, I need to be able to drive and park near to where I am going. Would that we lived in a paradise where everyone was young and fit and every store delivered. But until that world arrives, I will continue to need to drive my car and will need parking for it.  

Mary Oram 

• 

WARNING SYSTEM 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Suppose you’re having a family barbecue in your West Berkeley back yard when a railroad car carrying 90 tons of cooled liquified chlorine derails on the western edge of Berkeley. The liquid turns to a gas almost instantly and the prevailing wind off the Bay moves the dense poisonous cloud toward your house. If you are warned in time, you can get your family into the house, close it up, and shelter in place until the cloud passes by. If you stay outdoors and are close enough to the release point, mere breaths of the gas can kill you, each member of your family, and your pets. 

Or suppose you live in a house near Tilden Park or Strawberry Canyon by the Cal stadium when coals from a campfire built by someone living in the woods blow into dry weeds and brush, igniting a blaze that moves rapidly uphill, turning within minutes into an inferno roaring toward your house. 

A way of warning Berkeley residents of such impending disasters in time for many to take protective action has been under study by the Office of Emergency Services, a division of the Berkeley Fire Department. It is an outdoor siren system that would alert people and give them verbal instructions on what to do. A sonic survey to determine coverage in Berkeley, an important step in the design of this outdoor warning system, was conducted on April 22, 2004. Many people complained, both before and after the survey tests. Comments included “The sirens are loud” (put your fingers in your ears as you do when a fire engine passes you on the street), and “It reminds me of the use of sirens during the unrests here in the late ‘60s” (face it—this IS different). 

In Berkeley we’ve experienced disastrous wildfires and we are aware of, but sometimes try not to think about, the terrible damage that earthquakes can cause. We seldom consider terrorist events in Berkeley, which are not only conceivable—they’ve actually occurred here: bombs at a bookstore, two Unabomber attacks that injured people on the UC campus, and more. Think what publicity would follow from a successful terrorist act on the West Coast, near San Francisco, in world-famous Berkeley.  

How big could the tank-car event be? EPA studies indicate that the toxic plume in this case could reach more than six miles into the city. To a terrorist, the resulting deaths and serious injuries would be attractive newsworthy results. 

Please support the OES outdoor alerting and warning initiative to provide our citizens with the early emergency warnings that could greatly reduce loss of life and the number of serious, long-lasting injuries. 

For more information on the spread of poisonous gas see material on chlorine under “technical background” at http://yosemite.epa.gov/oswer/ceppoweb.nsf/content/EPAguidance.htm#Ammonia. 

Dick White 

Member, Berkeley Disaster Council 

• 

GAY MARRIAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Marlene Friedlander, in her letter of April 23, quotes “no less a civil rights icon than Jesse Jackson” as saying that “’gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution,’” as a way of claiming that the black struggle for equality is more valid than the gay struggle for equality and therefore same sex marriage cannot be a right. Does being hounded, beaten, lynched (yes, I said lynched), and made a social pariah count? Does having to spend one’s life hiding the truth for fear of being fired, ostracized, compared to a pedophiliac count? Does living under a constant stereotype count? Do the horrendous murders of people like Gwen Araujo and Matthew Shepherd count? Marriage is a ceremonial union between two people that on the one hand automatically provides important legal rights granted in no other union and on the other, announces to the world that two people have sworn to love, care, and respect each other for as long as each shall live. I don’t need to go into the state of opposite sex marriage in the United States today; just look at the statistics for divorce and abuse. Is anyone suggesting that is due to the existence of people whose sexual orientation may be different from theirs? I do find it encouraging that people—any people, any color, any sexual orientation—care enough about each other to want to live together under law, their religion, and in the eyes of society, with mutual honor and love, and I find it repugnant that ignorance denies love because it doesn’t match some definition from so-called civil rights icons or for that matter, religious sources like the Bible—Genesis 29:17-28, for example, sets the precedent that marriage shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women, especially if the first wife is guilty of barrenness, and Deuteronomy 22:13 makes it clear a valid marriage is between a man and a woman who’s a virgin—and if she’s not a virgin, she must be stoned to death. 

Many people still do not have equal rights in this country, including immigrants, women, the poor, gays and lesbians, and people of color. No one group has any business declaring that they and only they have suffered enough to be worthy soldiers in the struggle. An amendment was necessary to overturn the injustice and wrongness of the three-fifths human definition. No amendment is necessary to deny people the right to love and marry. 

Jacquelin Bautista 

• 

UC ADMISSION FEES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a law student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall. I am writing to voice my concern about the proposed fee hikes facing all students enrolled in a public institution of higher learning in California as part of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget. In short, the cuts are unfair and shortsighted. 

If the governor’s budget is approved, all UC professional school students will face a $5,000 increase in fees, on top of a $2,500 increase implemented three weeks before the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year. This would be a total 80 percent increase since enrollment began for the class of 2005. None of these increases come back to our own schools—the money goes to the California general fund, making the hikes a de facto direct tax on a population least able to afford it—graduate students already massively in debt.  

The governor is asking students to shoulder a great burden. Under the proposed budget, fees will also soar by 10 percent for undergraduates and 40 percent for students in graduate liberal arts and sciences programs. At the same time, key university programs continue to be under-funded. These increases are in addition to recent cuts we’ve already suffered, including faculty-hiring freezes, no cost-of-living salary increases for faculty or staff, the elimination of vital community outreach and retention programs, and cuts to financial aid. 

These increases will hurt Boalt, the UC flagship law school, in some special ways. Right now Boalt is able to offer a top legal education at a competitive price, making it accessible to students from many economic backgrounds. In addition, I think I am justified in saying that Californians are proud of the quality of its public higher education institutions, including Boalt. If fees continue to increase, disadvantaged students won’t be able to afford Boalt, and talented students who can may stop choosing Boalt because of its comparative value in favor of other top schools like Stanford, Harvard, and NYU. Boalt’s prestige will decline, deterring talented faculty and students from coming to Boalt and causing a vicious downward cycle. Greater student debt will also discourage Boalt graduates from pursuing lower-paying public interest careers, which will tarnish Boalt’s reputation as a leader in the field of social justice and public service. 

UC Berkeley graduates drive the California economy, constantly producing new ideas, technologies, and innovations that improve the quality of life in California. We provide social services as doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, social workers, psychologists, and health workers. If Gov. Schwarzenegger makes the U.C. inaccessible (by hiking grad and professional fees), he’ll be taking away the social infrastructure that keeps Californians healthy and safe. 

But what disturbs me even more about the drastic proposed cuts to public higher education is reneging the promise made to all qualifying high school students who graduate in the top 12.5 percent of their class of a guaranteed place at UC The governor’s “solution,” offering these talented and dedicated students two years at a community college with the “promise” of later enrollment at UC, is a paltry substitute and a complete failure to uphold the state’s end of the bargain it has made with all California students. 

The California legislature has not finalized the budget yet, and there is still hope that our legislators will listen to our demands that California continue to provide its citizens with top-notch, accessible public education. Our future depends on it. 

Jamie Crook 

Law student, UC Berkeley 

Millions of witnesses were shocked by the graphic photographs of American soldiers reveling in the vicious torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, a U.S.-run prison outside Baghdad, notorious for torture and massive executions under Saddam Hussein. The photographs depicted images of a prisoner, his head covered in a Ku Klux Klan-style hood with wires fixed to his fingers, toes and genitals; nude inmates piled in a human pyramid; a triumphant soldier named Chip Frederick sitting on top of a naked prisoner while Private Lynndie England shows a “thumbs up” sign while pointing to the genitals of a detainee forced to masturbate; a dog attacking a prisoner; stripped inmates being forced to simulate sex with each other and beat one another.  

In a Muslim society, where modesty is a prized basic value, to force men and women into public nudity is humiliating enough, let alone torturing them into committing overt sexual acts. In Abu Graib, however, U.S. military police were required to “loosen up,” or “break down” the inmates to “make them talk” to military intelligence agents and private contractors by subjecting them to deprivation from food, water and sleep; intimidation; taking away their clothes, mattresses and sheets; handcuffing and shackling them while repeatedly beating them.  

Systematic illegal abuse of detainees was routinely perpetrated at all levels against more than 900 detainees crammed into small cells, most of whom were innocent women and children picked up in random military sweeps. Investigators admit that most did not pose a threat to society but were detained indefinitely, without keeping any record of their imprisonment. Abu Ghraib had become a replica of Guantanamo Bay. No wonder the Pentagon quickly dispatched Major General Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the Guantanamo detention center to head Abu Ghraib! 

Disciplinary measures are pending against six low-ranking soldiers charged with abusing and sexually humiliating detainees. These, however, are merely used as scapegoats to blow smoke over a horrendous institutionalized system of torture in the Army prison system. The way the high ranking military “intelligence” personnel and the Pentagon’s hired guns methodically train our “liberation forces” to de-humanize, demonize, torture, and violate the very integrity of modest Iraqi Muslims is truly horrifying. What is more appalling is when we condone the torture and killings by closing our eyes and ears, remaining silent for fear of retribution and keeping the real perpetrators in power. The main responsible culprits are higher up.  

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 men crashed four hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, both symbols of U.S. Imperialism. Nearly three thousand innocent people from across the globe were brutally set ablaze. Our government emphasized ad nauseum, that all 19 men were Muslims. Hence, all Muslims were portrayed as terrorists, denigrated to enemy status and became the object of hundreds of untold hate crimes, many of which go unpunished. When President Bush himself uses 19 men to represent over one billion Muslims in the world, against whom to wage his “Holy war for freedom,” what can be said about his subordinates?  

When 9/11 occurred, the whole world cried out against the perpetrators of the WTC disaster. This included rallies in support of Americans by tens of thousands of people in Muslim countries including Iran, later blacklisted on George Bush’s “axis of evil.” In less than one year, we managed to arouse the outrage and ridicule of people worldwide by empowering a president who is on a crusade to create an empire through pre-emptive strikes and “shock and awe” at our expense. It didn’t take long before we fueled the anger of average Iraqi people who are not afraid to fight to the last breath to reclaim their country from foreign occupation. As a former Marine Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cowen said of the tortured prisoners, “These people at some point will be let out. Their families are going to know. Their friends are going to know. We will be paid back for this.” 

We went to Iraq as “liberators.” We showed the world our twisted and tortured notion of freedom by killing, maiming, torturing and raping the powerless under our control. We sent our innocent, uneducated and ill-trained youth to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed nation, but ended up piling their innocent naked bodies into pyramids like Saddam’s piles of bones. Yet when Ted Koppel, a responsible journalist who defies the censorship of mass media owners, went on “Nightline” on April 29, 2004, some networks balked at the mere mention of the names of “the fallen.” They called it “unpatriotic” to show the faces of those who gave up their lives to wage Bush’s war. They deem it “disloyal” to dissent against wrong government policies that undermine the Constitution.  

Whatever happened to our loyalty to individual and collective human rights, our respect for freedom and justice for all? How can we distinguish between “good Americans” and “bad” ones who violate every moral value when we ourselves are incapable of distinguishing good Muslims who struggle against dictatorship in their own countries from “bad” ones who terrorize a nation? 

When are we going to wake up and bring the real offenders to justice? The blame needs to roll uphill. We should bring to account not only the ill-trained soldiers, mercenaries and private contractors who are paid out of our tax dollars to commend the “Chip Federicks” for their “great job,” but also bring to justice the unelected president and his notorious attorney general who have torn to shreds our hard-won Bill of Rights. Each time we go to the polls, we need to remember our roles as free citizens and elect individuals who truly care about our interests, not the value of their stocks or the balance of their bank accounts. We must empower those who let their actions speak for their values, those who prove patriotic by honoring human integrity, those who respect the right to dissent against losing our basic freedoms in the guise of “national security,” those who refuse to use our youth as human shields in legally and morally wrong wars which lead to lamentable bloodshed.  

We need to remember that freedom, justice, love and compassion for all are the only true American values. Not hatred, vengeance, torture and destruction. We must lift our voices and let our leaders know that we will not forget or forgive what they have done in our name. If not now, then when? If we, the ordinary citizens don’t do anything, who will?  

Ramona Shashaani 

8750-67 Villa La Jolla Drive 

La Jolla, CA 92037 



The recent commentary in the Berkeley Daily Planet by opponents of the new Shasta Fire Station is proof that anti-civic behavior does not die easily. These opponents, having watched a failed appeal to the City Council and a failed law suit against the city (by individuals) to block construction of the fire station, are now attempting a last stand by discrediting the results of an exhaustive four-year public process that produced the program and final design for the new fire station. They are now arguing that the station is unnecessarily large and that the city should not be spending money in tight financial times. They say that the new station will be “an oversized, exorbitantly expensive building” even though it is being built in an area where some of the houses are larger then the size of the new station. Let’s be clear: this is not a group of concerned citizens trying to protect the city’s financial interest but some of the same group that have argued that “a fire station is inappropriate in our bucolic neighborhood.”  

The funds for this station were approved by Berkeley voters in 1992, as part of Measure G which called for the upgrading of all of Berkeley’s fire stations and for the construction of this new station. Work on all of the stations in the city has been completed with the exception of Station No. 7 (to be used for storing wildfire firefighting equipment) and the New Shasta Station. Those who continue to oppose the construction of the station had the opportunity for participation in the public process that established this program, and to attempt to discredit the final results only reflects on their own selfish interests in not wanting the station built. 

The program for the new fire station was carefully developed by the Berkeley Fire Department in cooperation with East Bay Regional Municipal Parks Fire Department and was scrutinized and modified through a public process that included an Environmental Impact Report and 24 public meetings and hearings. The station includes a three-bay (three-truck) facility, two bays for city and one bay for an East Bay Parks truck, living facilities for the three rotating crews and a public meeting room which doubles as a dorm for the East Bay Parks crew during the summer fire season. The fire department originally requested a 10,000 square-foot facility on the 19,000 square-foot property. This was reduced after public input to 6,800 square feet. The size of each individual component matches or is smaller then the Alameda County Fire Department construction standards being used by other municipalities throughout the county. In fact, while the new three-bay Shasta Station is now programmed at 6,920 square-feet, a three-bay station was recently built in Dublin which is 12,800 square feet, 5,880 square feet larger than the new Shasta Station.  

It is important to understand that the living and equipment storage requirements of a fire station are substantively different from those of an ordinary house. Three crews will rotate through the station and that requires uniform and clothing storage as well as food service facilities for three “families” of three. The crews are required to be physically fit to perform their most demanding duties, so like other modern stations the new Shasta Station will provide a fitness room. In addition this station will house a full crew from the East Bay Regional Park District during the wildfire season. Currently that crew spends their nights on duty in sleeping bags in the East Bay Park’s corporation yard. In addition the truck bays require special storage and washing facilities for fire fighting clothing and equipment to separate out toxic materials that are inherent in fire scenes. All told, a fire station has very special requirements and safety demands that require special facilities to meet those demands. It is simply not responsible to claim that the new station is oversized. 

The current Station No. 7, at Shasta and Queens Road, which is seismically unsafe, was built in 1939, 65 years ago. We should expect the new Shasta Station to serve the city for at least that long. Reducing the size of the new station that will be the only Berkeley station east of the Hayward Fault and which we will be expecting to serve us for perhaps, the next 100 years would be folly. Instead of asking why can’t we reduce the size of the station we should all be asking “is it large enough”? Are we providing everything we need in this facility that will be our first line of defense against the next, inevitable fire storm? Are we building a facility that will be adequate 50 or 100 years from now? 

Yes, the station will go before the Zoning Adjustments Board on May 13 and we urge the board to sustain their previous support for the construction of the station. Perhaps at that meeting the opponents will explain how the costs the city sustained in defending against the suit to block the project and the increased construction costs brought on by the unnecessary two year delay caused by opposition to the project has been in the city’s financial interest.  

Neighbors for Fire Safety: Eric Arens, Barbara Allen, Steve Beckendorf, Gloria Bowles, Jay and Zee Claiborne, Art and Sue Day, Jean and John DeWitt, Rex Dietderich, Tom Edwards, Bob Flasher, Genevieve Dreyfus, Vonnie Gurgin, Erwin and Natalie Hahn, Vic Kley, Collin Murphy, Austin Olson, Bob Schneider, Trudy and Jack Washburn, Holly Wilson

When the Berkeley Youth Orchestra takes the stage this Sunday for their final program of the season, it’s quite possible that no one will be having more fun than the performer in the spotlight, 13-year old Jasiu Purat. The winner of the orchestra’s concerto competition, Purat defies cliches of the talented young musician under pressure to excel. Instead, he simply describes his musical activities as opportunities to enjoy himself. 

Purat will be playing the first movement of the Violin Concerto in C Major by Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky. “I really like playing a lot,” he says. “It’s fun for me. This was one of my first solo pieces, so it’s really interesting for me to play.”  

The concerto will be the centerpiece of the BYO’s program at 4 p.m. at the Laney College Theatre in Oakland. The program will also include works by Beethoven, Bizet, Grieg, Gliere, O’Reilly and Lotti. 

BYO Music Director Jay Lehmann says of the piece, “The tempo is very rapid, and it’s very exciting. It’s neat because it has so many folk elements, so it’s fun for the orchestra as well as the violinist to play. It’s exciting how Kabalevsky weaves the melody through the piece, and many instruments get featured spots in addition to the violin.” 

Purat adds, “The piece interchanges lyrical and fast passages. I don’t know if it’s very showy. I kind of choose pieces because they’re fun to play or they help me play better.”  

The BYO is comprised of students between the ages of 10 to 15, and provides an outstanding opportunity for young musicians to further their studies. The ensemble draws dedicated young musicians from as far as Vallejo and Castro Valley, although the majority come from the Berkeley-Oakland area. 

Purat has played in the orchestra for two years, and his musical progress has taken him from the principal second violin seat last season to this year’s concertmaster, the leader of the first violin section. Lehmann says of the orchestra’s section leaders, “I gave them the challenge to serve not only as a principal but as a leader to the section. We have coaches who come, too, and they support the coach. Jasiu is willing to fill his traditional role of leading the section, but he goes beyond that. He’s really personable and helps the kids out.” 

Although musical competitions can be high pressure affairs, Purat took the process in stride. “We chose an audition time, we warmed up, and then we went in there and started playing, and two judges gave me comments. I guess I was pretty comfortable. It was my first real competition. I had only played in concerts, so I guess I was a little nervous, but it turned out fine, and I played really well.” 

Purat’s rapid progress has been supported by his attendance at the Crowden School in Berkeley, where music is at the center of a rigorous academic curriculum for fourth- through eighth-graders. Michael Taddei, the school’s Administrative Director, who is also the Berkeley Symphony’s principal bassist, explains, “At Crowden, the first two periods are devoted entirely to music, as well as work on bowing, intensive chamber music, orchestral coaching, and music history and theory.” Purat says he tries to practice the violin two hours a day in addition to his activities at Crowden, and credits his teacher, Berkeley violinist Debbra Wood Schwartz.  

Taddei is also Purat’s chamber music coach, and enjoys his student’s varied abilities and enthusiasm. “Jasiu has always shown a great deal of promise, and it’s very gratifying to see that fulfilled. He started at Crowden in the fourth grade and he’s now in the seventh. He’s a very gifted improviser. His ease and ability to improvise and play in different styles really gives him confidence and the ability to dig in.” Working on a difficult new work by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov, Taddei adds Purat “has torn into it like a starving person at a buffet table.” 

Of his varied musical interests, Purat says, “I went to an alternate styles camp last summer and it was really fun because I already had a basic idea of improvising, and it’s really fun to make up your own tunes. I like classical and I like alternate styles equally. They’re both fun to play.”  

Lehmann seconds Taddei’s opinions on Purat’s approach to music. “Jasiu is really strong and he’s got a lot of energy. The kids really look up to him, and he plays with a confidence that really helps the orchestra stay together. Sometimes the kids will spontaneously break into applause for him at rehearsal.” 

One of Purat’s most enthusiastic supporters is, not surprisingly, his mother, Katie Mangotith. Of his studies, she says, “The Crowden School is a great place for kids. I went through music as a kid, and I put my kids into the music program because it’s such a great experience. It changes their lives.”  

On his future musical plans, Purat says, “I really like playing chamber music. I really like everything. I was thinking of joining another orchestra next year, and we were thinking of putting together a string quartet at Crowden. We’re hoping to find a high school with a music program. Berkeley High is a pretty good possibility.” Will he aim to become a professional? “It would be fun,” Purat says, “because it’s one of the things I enjoy doing.” 



Impact Theatre is up to another one of its delightful pieces of nonsense, the three part Money and Run, staging it—as usual—at La Val’s Subterranean Theatre. That’s what the pizza parlor on Euclid Avenue has dubbed the small black stage in its basement where so many good theater companies spend time while they work their way up the theatrical ladder to more awe-inspiring quarters. But Director Christopher Morrison isn’t much interested in that stepping-stone kind of thing. 

Morrison, who helped found the company, sees La Val’s as an ideal venue for the audience Impact Theatre is designed to attract: 18- to 35-year- olds. He’s in favor of an atmosphere where people might feel like taking some pizza and beer down to catch the show. There’s idealism, as well as fun, in Morrison’s madness. He’s after the group of people who have to be wooed into live theater if there is going to be live theater at all in a few decades. 

And Christopher Morrison is legitimately proud of Impact’s success at reaching that goal. He says that at least 80 percent of their audience is from their young adult target group. He’s even prouder of the fact that he always gets at least one enthusiastic audience member after a production who tells him that it was the first live production that she, or he, has ever seen. 

This time, Impact is actually doing three different plays—separate episodes of the outrageous antics of “Money,” aka Robby Jean Marshall, played by Alexandra Creighton, and “Run,” (short for Jimmy Jake Mcallister, played by Casey Jackson) and the various villains and weirdoes they encounter as they struggle to keep the main nemesis, “Big Momma Bob,” from making good on various nefarious plans. (One of Bob’s more ambitious ideas is to tear down a Catholic orphanage in order to build “Liquor World,” the nation’s first and only alcohol-themed family fun park.) 

The three episodes are staged in sequence on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Money and Run meet in Episode 1 (Money, Take Run), when they both try holding up Big Mama’s Premium Liquor and Wine Emporium at the same time. However, it isn’t at all necessary to see the plays in any particular order. They aren’t going to make much more sense one way than they do another—good sense isn’t the point of these bubbles. You will, however, save yourself five bucks if you decide to get a “season pass” for all three. 

Impact has already established a reputation for reliably good productions, but Morrison is extraordinarily satisfied—as well he should be—with the cast. He says that “From top to bottom, this is the strongest cast we’ve ever had.” Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that they have actors for the lead roles who are even astonishingly appropriate physical fits for their roles. Alexandra Creighton and Casey Jackson appear to have been born to play Money and Run.  

The plays have been so successful in their home base of Seattle, Washington, that at least three more episodes have been written, including A Very Special Winter Holiday Special and A Terribly Spooky Halloween Special. Maybe we’ll be able to persuade Impact to pull these out of their bag of tricks when the right time comes.  

In the meantime, you could bank on a highly amusing evening (or three of them!) by checking out La Val’s. Oh, and by the way, don’t let that “18-35” demographic stuff scare you off. The humor is perfectly good grown-up stuff and Impact doesn’t check your age at the door.  

Impact Theatre’s Money and Run shows at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through June 5 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. For tickets and information call 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com. 



FRIDAY, MAY 7 

CHILDREN 

We Love Our Mamas with Audrey Penn at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Transformation” works by Lanny Weingrod, Mayumi Hamanaka and Taro Hattori. Reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at Nexus Gallery, 2701 8th St. Exhibit runs to May 9.  

Richmond Art Center, reception for artists, with music by Faun Fables, from 6 to 8 p.m., at 2540 Barrett Ave. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“Animal Art” by Kay Bradner, Ketzia Schoneberg, Jathy Sheehan, Rita Sklar and Heidi Wyckoff. Reception 6 to 8 p.m. Exhibition runs to May 27, at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

A Mother Should be Loved: “Woman of Tokyo” at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and continues on Fri. and Sat. through May 15. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre Company “Antigone Falun Gong” at 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through May 16. Tickets are $28-$40 available from 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley High School “Man in the Musical” premiere of an original musical theater piece by Phil Gorman and Lila Tschappat at 8 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston and MLK Jr Way. Also May 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5-$10. 332-1931. 

Berkeley Rep “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Charles Ludlam’s theatrical cult classic, at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage at 8 p.m. and continues through May 23. Tickets are $39-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre “Money and Run” an action serial adventure with different episodes on Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Runs through June 5 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. For tickets and information call 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lolly Winston looks at loss in “Good Grief” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ellen Oppenheimer, quilt artist, talks about the work she created as artist in residence at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Maxine Alexandra Bernstein, sporano and Sergei Podobedov, piano at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Reception follows. Benefits the restoration of the Julia Morgan landmark. Tickets are $35. Reservations required. 883-9710.  

UC Men’s and Women’s Chorales Spring Show at 7:30 p.m., Room 20 Cesar Chavez Center. Cost is $5-$8. 643-2662. 

Ricardo Lemovo and Makina Loca, Afro-Cuban music at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. Tickets for the previously scheduled Cubanismo will be honored at the door.. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

(R)evolutionary (Id)entity presents “Any King, Any Path,” ambient poetry and accoustic rock at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Susan Getz, jazz vocalist, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Djialy Kunda Kouyate plays music from Sengal at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Baby Jaymes, Dynamic at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Pacific Sound Collective at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Skin Divers at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Jackie Ryan at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Triple Play, jazz trio, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Dr. Masseuse at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

René Marie Fri. and Sat. at 8 and 10 p.m., Sun. at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Drunken Cat Paws at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower, The Raking Bombs, Brilliant Red Lights at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, MAY 8 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri and music from Latin America at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Wild About Books” storytime at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Home is Where the Art is” Opening reception from noon to 5 p.m. at the Art of Living Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave. 848-3736. 

FILM 

Jacques Tati: “Playtime” at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karen Joy Fowler introduces the comedy set in the Central Valley in “The Jane Austen Book Club” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Olive Gallagher introduces “A Simple Path to the Good Life” at 2 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

Poetry Concert with Jami Sieber, electric cello and vocals, Kim Rosen, poetry, Michelle Goerlitz, percussion, at 8 p.m. at Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1606 Bonita Ave. Tickets are $18-$20 available at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra performs Verdi’s “Requiem” at 4 p.m at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St., at 8 p.m. and Sun at 4 p.m. Free, donations welcome. 964-0665. www.bcco.org  

Showtime at the Apollo presents the Bay Area finalists at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$42 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the musical direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

American Bach Soloists Choir and Orchestra with soprano Marguerite Krull and tenor Gerald Thomas Gray at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 621-7900. www.americanbach.org 

Baroque Etcetera “A Telemann Celebration” at 8 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 5201 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donation $10. 540-8222. www.baroquetc.org 

Oakland Day of Percussion with world-class drummers and persussionists from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 415-296-0454. www.pas.org/ 

chapters/california/oak.html 

“Off Our Rockers” Lu Mitchell in concert at 7 p.m. in the Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2951 Derby St. Donation $5-$15, no one turned away. 848-6397. 

West Coast Live with Austin Lounge Lizards, the Cowlicks and others at 10 a.m. at the Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18. 

Maria Marquez at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Jazz Choir Spring Show at 8 pm in the Choral Rehearsal Hall in the basement of Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$8.  

Youth Movement Records Artists at 8 p.m. at Youth Radio Cafe, 1801 University Ave. Cost is $3. 435-5112. 

YWCA Dance Performance at 7 p.m. at 2600 Bancroft at Bowditch. Free. 848-6370. 

Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

David Siegel, Machingura & Folk This! at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. All ages welcome. Donation $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Lithium House at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

House Jacks, a cappella quintet, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Andre Thierry performs Cajun/Zydeco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Apocalipstick, Castles in Spain at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Shanna Carlson, jazz vocalist, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Tickets are $15-$20. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Fred Frith, Toychestra at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Scott Amendola Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

The Phenomenauts, Jason Webley, Harold Ray, The Mothballs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 9 

CHILDREN 

Mary Miché on Mother’s Day with music for children and the whole family from 3 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

Kathy Kallick Band in a Mother’s Day Family Show at 1 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50-$8.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Cycles of Gentrification” reception 3 to 9 p.m. at the Longhaul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave.  

THEATER 

Acme Players Ensemble “Martha Stewart in Hell” at 7 p.m. at APE Space, 2525 8th St. at Dwight. Free but donations welcome.  

“INsight” a Destiny Arts Youth performance of spoken word, theater, hip hop, modern and aerial dance by youth age 13-18 at 3 p.m. at McClymond’s High School Auditorium, 2607 Myrtle St. Tickets are $6-$12. 597-1619. 

FILM 

A Mother Should Be Loved: “The Only Son” at 5:30 p.m. and “A Hen in the Wind” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with D.A. Powell and Mark Bibbins at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Mothers Remembered,” a reading of poetry and prose at 2 p.m. at Change Makers Bookstore, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 655-2405. 

“Eccentrics and Court Painters in Eighteenth-Century China” a Gallery Talk with Lee Patterson, at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra with 13-year-old Jasiu Purat, winner of the Concerto Competition, at 4 p.m. at the Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. Oakland. Tickets are $5 at the door. 663-3296. wwwbyoweb.org 

California Revels Mother’s Day Showcase at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $5-$10 available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Cornelius Cardew Choir Spring Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Admission is $8-$10. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Organ Concert with Jonathan Dimmock performing the music of Copland, Reger, Vierene and Bach, at 6 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bancroft and Ellis. 

Americana Unplugged: The Squirrelly String Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience in a benefit for Albany’s Public School Music Program, at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Gym, 603 Key Route Ave. Tickets are $10-$35. 527-7320. www.albanymusic.org 

Art Lande Quartet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com  

Jazz Party Project at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, MAY 10 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Al Honig “Constructions: Robots and Beyond” opens at Oakland Museum of California, Sculpture Court, 111 Broadway. 283-6836. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul and Anne Erlich discuss their lastest collaborative work, “One With Ninevah: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Ilana de Bare discusses “Where Girls Come From: The Rise, Fall, and Surprising Revival of Girls’ Schools in America” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Paul Krassner writes on “Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express, featuring Christina Hutchins from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Paul Krassner, investigative satirist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Faye Carol at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MAY 11 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Douglas Unger reads from his new collection of short stories “Looking for War” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Michael Eric Dyson introduces “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Oliver Chin, author and artist of graphic novel, “A Window to the World,” a story of a diverse group of Bay Area teenagers struggling with the aftershocks of 9/11, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

James Lilley introduces “China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy” at 1:30 p.m. at the Women’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Part of the New Perspectives on Asia Series from the Institute of East Asian Studies. 549-2668. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Ursula Schultz and Cathy Goldberg of Berkeley’s Cheese Board Collective take us on “A Tour of Old and New World Cheeses” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mingus Amungus, 10 year anniversary party at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Con le Nostre Mani” photographs of Italian Americans at work in the East Bay opens at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6233. 

Rogen Ballen “Photographs” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant. 642-1295. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Carl Pope on “Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bill Caldwell discusses “Oakland: A Photographic Journey” at 7 p.m. at L’Amyx Tea Bar/Spectator Bookstore, 4179 Piedmont Ave. 653-7300. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Café Poetry hosted by Kira Allen at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Jordi Savall, viola da gamba virtuoso, at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

West Coast Swing Dancing with the NC Blues Connection at 9 p.m. with a swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hawaiian Music’s Next Generation with Keoki Kahumoku, David Kamakahi, Herb Ohta, Jr., and Patrick Landeza at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Brasil Brazil at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20 in advance, $22 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ducksan Distones explore the creative concept of dissonance in music at 8 and 10 p.m. at The Jazz House. $5 donation. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Roy Hargrove Quintet at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The Drouges, The Slandt, Cargo at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jules Broussard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Phil Thompson Group at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.V

“…piecin’ a quilt’s like living a life…the Lord sends us the pieces, but we cut ‘em out and put ‘em together pretty much to suit ourselves…”  

Anonymous 

Drop by the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, between now and May 29 and you’ll see just how true this quote rings. Sixty-one antique, traditional, contemporary, and vibrantly eclectic pieces of art hang from the rafters and walls of this well-loved library during its 25th annual Quilt Show. Follow the self-guided tour throughout the premises and learn the history behind each quilt. You’ll be moved and amazed, smiling and teary-eyed at the same time, as you gaze up and around at the colorful, touching display. 

Starting in the lobby, Call Me Doctor, a quilt made and loaned by Dorothy Vance, is a playful patchwork that depicts irreverent visits with the medical community in every square. Spin around to view The Shirt Off His Back, a soft, passionate quilt made by Fern Royce in memory of her father. The muted orange, gold and brown plaid pieces are scraps from her father’s favorite wool shirt. Included within the work is a pocket and cuff. Ms. Royce explains that when she wraps the quilt around her it brings back many fond, warm memories of her father. 

On display in the Adult Reading Room are numerous quilts made from a variety of materials and patterns. Some—like Vortex 2002 pieced together by Bess K. Chin, Fan Quilt stitched by Phyllis Partridge, Ajisai by Mieko Taketa, and Crazy Quilt created by Fumi Hayashi—have a distinctly Asian feel. Be All That You Can Be, designed by Sue Astroth, has sewn within it a collection of quirky, oddball objects and photos, including medals, flags, and bric-a-brac picked up at thrift stores and antique shops. Chili Pepper Passion, loaned by Madeline Wolf, celebrates her husband’s love for chilies, and his fiftieth birthday.  

In the nearby display case is Miniature Matrix, a tiny 14” x 17” meticulously hand-stitched piece of art that tried the patience of its creator, Angie Woolman. Below it is Quilted Pillow, an unusually shaped fabric sculpture crafted from Tahitian pareo textiles and designed and sewn by Madame Puaniho of Tautira, Tahiti. 

In the Children’s Room are many more quilts, some of them dedicated to specific individuals and events such as Elizabeth’s Quilt (made to commemorate Elizabeth Minor’s 1999 graduation from Berkeley High School), Michael’s Quilt by Jeanie Minor (celebrating the college graduation of her daughter’s boyfriend), T-shirt Quilt (patched together from creator Tina Krietz’s daughter’s old cotton shirts), Quilt (the vibrant, colorful sea and sky creation made by Monica Gyulai for her 5-year-old son, Sebastian), and Ruby’s Quilt (sewn by the friends and relatives of Ruby Bianca Triest and dedicated to her memory). 

Also in the Children’s Room are quilts and works-in-progress constructed by some very young artisans. Spare Change is by Sydney Carson, age 11, Puppy Paws, was stitched together by third grader Zoey Wolinksy, and Summer Fun was sewn by nine-year-old Raven Carson. 

I’m Not Carrying Your Brand, an unusual quilt researched and designed by Olaitan Callender-Scott, depicts America’s obsession with labeling—starting with African slaves branded with a hot iron, imprinting the mark of French, English and Dutch companies on their chests, to the modern day advertising efforts of companies such as Gloria Vanderbilt, Gap, Levi’s, Old Navy, and Tommy Hilfiger. 

Included in the display are three beautiful quilts to be raffled off on May 8. Created by the students, faculty and family members of Jefferson Elementary, Cragmont Elementary, and Berkwood Hedge, proceeds from the raffles will benefit a variety of programs at each school. A fourth quilt, pieced together by students of Thousand Oaks Elementary, has already been won in the raffle and removed from the show. Raffle tickets for the remaining quilts can be purchased at the library. Don’t miss this lovely event, funded, in part, by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library, curated by Teen/Reference Librarian Debbie Carton, and created and generously shared by the local quilting community. 

The North Branch Library open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250.  

Cartoon by Justin DeFreitasÅ

Voters here in Berkeley and throughout Alameda county could be back to voting on paper in the November elections, according to a stunning, far-reaching ruling last week by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelly. 

  Late last Friday, Shelly decertified all touchscreen machines in California citing security concerns. The decision came days after a state panel, the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel, voted unanimously to continue using the machines as long as they met a string of new security requirements. The secretary of state’s decision both alters and adds to the panel’s recommendation by taking the machines out of service, forcing them to be recertified to prove they have made the required security updates. Included in that decertification were the Diebold touchscreen voting machines used in Alameda County. 

  With only six months before the election, the secretary’s decision has left county election officials throughout the state—including the Alameda County Registrar of Voters—scrambling to re-do their voting systems. According to the secretary’s spokesperson Doug Stone, Shelly’s office will be drawing up a timeline to try and insure the re-certification process can be done before the election. 

  “Right now we are talking with the counties and the vendors in terms of creating a realistic process, and that should be known shortly,” Stone said.  

  But according to Alameda county’s assistant Registrar of Voters, Elaine Ginnold, any time line is going to be hard to meet with only six months to go. 

  “From the surface, it looks pretty impossible,” said Ginnold. Or maybe, she explained, just “doubtful. ... We’re in election limbo. It’s not pleasant.” 

  Shelly’s decision forces affected counties to either install a voter-verified paper trails on their electronic voting machines or else meet 23 security measures before he recertifies those machines. According to Ginnold, Alameda County has pretty much ruled out the option of making their machines produce a paper trail because the changes would take too long.  

  The county is therefore currently trying to work through the second option to see how many of those requirements they can meet. Ginnold said the county already meets a number of them but is worried that it will get hung up time-wise on just one or two.  

  In particular she is worried about one of the requirements that would force the county to seek federal approval for a software update on the county’s central tabulation software. Because they need federal approval to meet a state requirement, she thinks the process could take longer than the allotted six months. 

  Another recertification requirement is a firmware update that also has to be federally certified. 

Because potentially neither option could work out for Alameda County, Ginnold said they are also looking for their own solutions. One would be reverting back to paper ballots entirely. Paper ballots would qualify as a paper trail and therefore meet Shelly’s demands.  

  Reverting back to paper ballots would also be time consuming and costly, but Ginnold said it looks like one of the only realistic options given such a short period of time.  

  If paper ballots were used they would be made available at polling places and then either counted on optical scan machines at the polling places or sent to a central tabulation location—most likely the county seat in Oakland—where they would all be counted at one time. Either way, the county would have to invest in optical scan machines for the polling places or the county’s tabulation sites. 

  In his press release Shelly said he had taken into consideration the additional costs any changes will result in.  

  “I understand the financial constraints counties are under right now and they will not incur any additional cost as a result of the measure I have announced today,” he wrote. 

  Shelly also said he considered banning touchscreen voting machines outright. Along with his decision about the type of machines used in Alameda county, he banned four other counties outright from using a similar, but modified, version of the touchscreen machines. 

  Meanwhile, whistle blowers across the country are cheering Shelly’s decision, hoping it will influence other states struggling with similar issues. 

“Kevin Shelly is without a doubt a leader in the United States,” said Bev Harris, a well-known activist and opponent of the current touchscreen technology who runs the website blackboxvoting.org. “He has tremendous pressure on him. I have the utmost respect for him and the people who work for him.” 

  “We are going to see a lot more of this to come. You simply cannot have companies with insecure software and insecure procedures, and one that lies to the authorities running the elections,” she said. 

  Harris said Shelly’s move was an important step in taking a more in-depth look at the election process in general, which she said has flaws that are even larger than touchscreen machines. For example, she said, even if paper ballots are used, several counties, including Alameda County, use central tabulation software made by Diebold that has also been heavily scrutinized.  

  “We need to step back and take a look,” she said. “We need to stop saying that everything is going to go smoothly and set up some other checks and balances.” 

  She also proposes that Diebold should be forced to pay for all the cost counties will now incur to meet Shelly’s demands. 

  For now, Ginnold said the Registrar of Voters office is doing its best to ensure the vote runs smoothly, and accurately in November. 

  “We’re just trying to digest,” said Ginnold. They’re “trying to determine what our options are.”    

À

While critics of UC Berkeley’s recently released Long Range Development Plan fear the university’s vision for Berkeley amounts to a parking space for every car and a traffic jam for every street, a local legislator—Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley)—is pushing a state bill that would require the university to pay Berkeley for those and other headaches caused by its continued growth within the city. 

On Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Berkeley residents will have the first of three opportunities to provide comment on the university’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) released last month. All comments issued at the public meetings or sent to UC before the June 14 deadline must be addressed by the university in its final EIR expected to be submitted for approval to the UC Board of Regents in the fall. 

The LRDP provides the framework of policies and guidelines that will direct future development on the campus and in surrounding Berkeley neighborhoods through 2020.  

It projects 2,600 new dormitory beds (a 32 percent increase), 2.2 million square feet of new office space (an 18 percent increase), and 2,300 new parking spaces (a 30 percent increase), all to accommodate a projected 12 percent rise in the total campus population from 45,940 in 2002 to 51,260 in 2020. 

How those new Berkeley students and employees get to campus and how the university plans to keep them from further jamming Berkeley streets has raised the most concern among residents who have studied the plan. 

The plan proposes mitigating the acknowledged traffic crunch primarily through a series of traffic lights on affected intersections near the campus. New signals would be installed at Durant Avenue and Piedmont Avenue, Derby Street and Warring Street, Addison Street and Oxford Street, Allston Way and Oxford, Kittredge Street and Oxford, Bancroft Way and Ellsworth Street and Bancroft and Piedmont where the university estimates that rush hour traffic volume would increase from five to 19 percent. 

“A lot of the traffic signals could be avoided if the university got more serious about encouraging its staff to use alternate modes of transportation,” said Rob Wrenn, a Berkeley Transportation Commissioner. Like other critics of the plan, Wrenn wants UC to build less parking and offer faculty and staff a transportation pass that provides subsidized AC Transit service, currently provided to students. 

“I think if people understood the mess that was going to be caused by more commuter parking spaces they would be outraged,” said Andy Katz, a UC Berkeley graduate student and chair of the Berkeley Zoning Adjustment Board. 

UC is working on a discount transit pass for employees, but Katz said the proposed fees for the pass would likely still make driving and parking at a university garage the more economical option. In the DEIR, the university also proposes to establish limits on the total number of parking permits sold and increase the number of parking spaces available only after 10 a.m. to avoid further clogging roads during the morning rush hour. 

Wrenn wanted UC to consider a program instituted by the University of Washington at Seattle that offers students and staff cheap transit passes, and which, according to that school’s annual report, has eliminated 74 million car trips to the campus since its inception in 1991 as well as avoided the construction of 3,600 parking spaces. 

Student government officials are also calling for the construction of more dormitories and a change in campus policies regarding housing construction. Currently if a dormitory is built over a parking garage, the university’s housing department must compensate its parking department to replace lost parking spaces. For the new dormitory at College Avenue and Durant Avenue that replaced a 100 space lot, the rule added $2.2 million to the cost of the project. 

“Why should the university tax students to pay for faculty parking spaces?” asked Jesse Arreguin, ASUC City Affairs Director. Despite vacancies at some student dormitories, Arreguin and other students are pushing for the plan to include more housing units to safeguard students against any future housing shortages. 

UC’s ambitious development goals won’t necessarily all be realized in the next 15 years. The university’s last plan in 1990 called for 3,400 new dormitory beds, of which the university built less than half, Arreguin said. 

Jim Sharp, who lives near the sector, doubted residents would be able to influence the new plan. “The university can generally do whatever it wants short of an illegal action,” he said. 

But a bill authored by State Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) could give Berkeley a little more leverage in dealing with the university, especially when it comes to exacting compensation for the costs that university’s growth means for city services. 

The bill, AB 2901, which passed the Committee on Natural Resources Monday and now heads to the Appropriations Committee, would require a public agency, like a state university, to pay for the mitigations of the impacts determined through an environmental review performed under the California Environmental Quality Act. 

In a letter of support of the bill, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates wrote, “It is only fair to expect a public agency to devote a portion of their resources to mitigating the impacts of their projects, and not to place this burden on local residents. AB 2902 creates a mechanism to address the impacts a project would have on activities for which the lead agency is not directly responsible.”  

AB2901 is opposed by the University of California. 

e

Sherrie Aldinger decided to become a police officer in her senior year at Cal, while she was working in a dress shop at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Durant Street. 

“It happened after I got to know some of the beat officers from the city and from the campus police,” she recalls 28 years later, in an interview held three days before her retirement. “I took the tests for the UC police and the City of Berkeley, but the city had a hiring freeze.” 

She heard from the university police the same day she graduated with a B.A. in communications and public policy. Seven weeks later she showed up at the Butte Police Academy for 10 weeks of training. 

“The hardest part of the transition was sitting in class straight through from eight to five every day,” she said, smiling. 

What happened at the academy proved a foretaste of what lay ahead. In a male-dominated class, Aldinger set several fitness records, including the most sit-ups in 60 seconds. 

Ten months after she was sworn into the campus police, the city called. The hiring freeze was over, “and I decided I wanted to go with a city department,” she said. 

From there, her career blossomed. She became successively the Berkeley Police Department’s first woman to make sergeant, then the first to make inspector, and, finally, the first to make lieutenant. 

Along the way, she received 128 commendations, many for the analytic projects for which her UC degree proved especially helpful. 

BPD had been effectively sexually segregated until 1973, when the city finally opened up the position of “officer” to women. 

“Before then, women could only become ‘policewoman’ or ‘assistant policewoman,’” she said. The former all had four-year degrees and were kept off the streets, restricted to investigative positions. The latter were either jail matrons or secretaries. “There were only four women on the force when I joined,” Aldinger said. “Now there are 33.” 

She encountered some hostility early on for invading a male-dominated bastion, “but I ignored it. Thankfully, Berkeley’s a pretty accepting place.”  

Her first assignment was patrol, and she worked all over the city. “Then I was asked to go into sex crimes. For about three years I had the great pleasure of working with Inspector Larry Lindenau, who’d been working sex crimes for over two decades. That’s when I really learned how to be an investigator.” 

Aldinger’s investigative skills led to the apprehension and conviction of two serial rapists. 

From sex crimes it was back to patrol, and, in September, 1983, her promotion to sergeant—making her the department’s first-ever woman supervisor. “I’d just gotten married to Rich Aldinger, who was also a sergeant, so for a while the Berkeley Police Department had two Sgt. Aldingers.” 

After a year on patrol she was assigned to the department’s communications center, which had just been merged with the fire department’s center. 

“It was the first time in the department’s dispatchers weren’t police officers,” she said. Aldinger trained the dispatchers and supervised operations for a year, then headed back to patrol for another year until, in 1986, she was assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau, policing the police. 

Now promoted to inspector, she ran IAB for three years before she went back to patrol in September, 1989. Three months later, on Dec. 31, she made lieutenant. 

Then Capt. Roy Meissner assigned her to get the department in shape for accreditation under the newly instituted nationwide CALEA Accreditation Program. Under her lead, BPD became the 151st department in the country to win accreditation. 

After three more years in administration, it was back to patrol. Aldinger’s spouse retired in 2000, while she was starting her three years as supervisor of the detective bureau and the city jail. Her final assignment started last June, when she was brought back into administration to, she explained, “revisit policies and procedures and to formulate an action plan for getting them updated.” 

Aldinger said the biggest changes she’s seen at the department are the growing numbers of women and the declining age of the officers. 

“I’m glad that I’ve got a fair number of colleagues in supervisory and command positions now. It’s nice. I’m also glad that I’ve been able to mentor women as they come up through the ranks,” she said. 

The declining age of officers was sparked by a large number of retirements between 2000 and 2002. In 200 alone, 24 of the Berkeley department’s 200 officers retired, and “right now close to half the officers have less than 10 years’ experience.” 

Aldinger said the Internet had also wrought changes in local law enforcement, “because we get almost immediate coverage on a number of websites, from activist and community groups to local television stations. I tell incoming officers, ‘Envision yourself as though you’re always on camera.’” 

Lt. Aldinger was born in Oakland and raised in Lafayette, but her ties to Berkeley go way back. He parents met while both were students at the university. 

“My dad was going to school on the G.I. Bill and working as a firefighter in Orinda,” she said. “He got put on academic probation, so he decided to take a French class to boost his average—he was raised in a French-speaking family. He met a woman in class who was struggling with the language, and they went on to have five children.” 

Her father became an independent Maytag repairman, and her mother finished her last year of college the moment her youngest started kindergarten. She went on to become the director of a preschool. 

“They’re both still working, and I don’t expect either one of them to ever retire.” 

Aldinger’s identical twin took the mommy track while Aldinger’s law enforcement career soared. Now that her sister’s children are grown, her sister has started school preparing to embark on a new career. “It’s almost like we’re working on opposite tracks,” Aldinger said. 

Berkeley Police Chief Roy Meisner will lead the ceremonies for Aldinger’s retirement Thursday afternoon.

The City Council will get its first look tonight (Tuesday, May 4) at a finalized budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year that is sure to leave many in Berkeley feeling shortchanged. 

At a 5 p.m. non-voting work session, City Manager Phil Kamlarz plans to unveil the plan to close a $10 million deficit in the city’s $113 million general fund by a combination of raising fees, using the city’s rainy day reserves, trimming employee costs, and cutting funding to city departments and community groups by roughly ten percent. 

The plan was not available at press time, but councilmembers believed it would be nearly identical to a strategy presented by Kamlarz at a March council meeting, where over two dozen firefighters and about 60 seniors came out to oppose the proposed service cuts that directly affected them. 

Four public meetings have been scheduled for May to discuss the city budget, giving the council plenty of time to tinker with the plan until a scheduled vote on June 22. The council won’t consider the budget proposal during its regularly scheduled 7 p.m. meeting tonight. 

Berkeley’s current budget shortfall is due in large part to a drop in state aid and the spiraling costs of employee benefits. That combination forced the city to cut $6 million to balance last year’s budget and is expected to result in an additional projected $4.6 million deficit in 2006 that will also need to be balanced. 

“These cuts are hitting the bone,” said Councilmember Miriam Hawley, who warned that a proposal in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget could deprive the city of an additional $1.6 million in property taxes in 2006. 

To get a handle on the city’s structural budget woes in a political climate not hospitable to big tax increases, City Manager Kamlarz last month proposed $9.2 in budget cuts over the next two years. 

Among some of the services on the table include: 

• Closing public libraries on Sundays and some evenings and reducing the library budget for new books and CDs, for a savings of $1.2 million next year. 

• Reducing programs and consolidating services at Berkeley’s senior centers, for a savings of 327,000 over two years. 

• Shutting down one of the city’s two fire truck companies ten hours a day, saving the city $500,000. 

• Eliminating 13 vacant police officer positions for a savings of nearly $2 million, as well as eliminating 25 part-time school crossing guards for an additional savings of $328,000. 

Some of the services could be salvaged by four proposed tax hikes totaling $4.2 million that the council is considering taking to voters in November. Nevertheless, according to the most recent figures provided by the city manager’s office, next year’s proposed budget will likely eliminate 81 positions, 69 of which are already vacant. 

Before any city employee is laid off or a service is cut, Councilmember Kriss Worthington wants the city to factor into its calculations the estimated $3 million it stands to gain from the sale of its health building on Sixth Street and two plots on McKinley Street near the public safety building. So far, city staff has kept anticipated revenues from the sales off the books. 

Worthington said he would fight hardest to preserve funding to senior centers. Councilmember Dona Spring said she opposed the roughly 20 percent cut slated to hit Berkeley Community Media. 

Hawley identified school crossing guards as a top priority to save from cuts. Money for crossing guards would be included as part of a proposed $1 million ballot measure to preserve youth services. 

While the council considers what programs to cut, city staff continues to haggle with unions over employee givebacks. The city is pushing the unions to contribute three percent of the city’s required contribution to their pension plans this year. If the union doesn’t agree to the concession that would add an estimated $3 million to the city’s coffers, City Manager Phil Kamlarz has threatened to close city hall once a month to reduce expenses. 

At tonight’s regular 7 p.m. meeting, the council will consider a plan to keep big delivery trucks off residential streets. The proposal from Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier would decrease allowable truck weights on many city streets from five tons to three tons.  

Sports Utility Vehicles and pick-up trucks weigh in at under three tons, but many smaller trucks and larger vans would be forced onto major arteries under the plan. Although Berkeley police don’t assign officers to enforce the rule, supporters of the change say that by imposing stricter weight limits, police will better be able to identify which trucks are in clear violation of the rule. 

Some residential streets identified as truck routes, including Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Gilman Street, and Cedar Street would retain a five ton limit. 

The Transportation Commission supports the proposal, but wants to extend it to Dwight Way between San Pablo and Sacramento Street, which the city has argued is too vital a transportation corridor to limit truck access. 

Fran Haselsteiner, a Dwight Way resident and member of the Transportation Commission, said her 36-foot block is too narrow to handle the heavy flow of busses, cars and trucks it faces. “The problem is there’s just too much traffic so narrow streets are facing more vehicles than they were meant to handle,” she said. 

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TUESDAY, MAY 4 

NFL Flag Football for ages 9 to 11 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at 1255 Allston Way. Free for Berkeley residents, $15 for non-residents for the six week program. Sponsored by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 845-9066. www.byaonline.org 

Mid-Day Meander through Tilden Park. Bird songs, oak galls and ferns on the trails today. Meet at the Tilden Nature Center at 2:30 p.m. 525-2233. 

Robert Reich on “Social Justice & Social Empathy” at 5:30 p.m. at Anderson Auditorium, Haas School of Business, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for the Development of Peace & Well-Being. 643-8965. 

American Red Cross Volunteer Orientation from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance sign-up needed 594-5165. 

Kerry-oke for John Kerry for President Sing your own or traditional lyrics to popular songs that are pro-Kerry, pro-America, at the Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave., from 8 to 11 p.m. A $15-$25 donation for Kerry’s campaign is requested. To RSVP call 697-1126. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 233-2144. dan@redefeatbush.com 

Human Rights Violations in Coca-Cola Bottling Plants, video screening at 7 p.m. at Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. sojistas@yahoo.com 

Paddling 101, an introduction to canoes and kayaks, and places to paddle close to home, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Guided Autobiography for Mature Seniors on Tuesdays to July 6 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Regional Park, Botanic Gardens. Cost is $85 for the 10-week session. To register call 636-1684. www.ebparks.org 

“Environmental Policy and Environmental Injustice” with Dr. Dara O'Rourke, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley, at 7 p.m. in the GTU Dinner Board Room, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2560. trees@gtu.edu 

Death Penalty Vigil, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley BART station. Sponsored by Berkeley Friends Meeting. 528-7784. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Leonar Joy will speak on Human Rights at 11 a.m. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Sts every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. A project of BOSS Urban Gardening Institute and Spiral Gardens, for more information call 843-1307. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672.  

Goddess Grace Moving Meditation at 10 a.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $7-10, bring a yoga mat or blanket. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 

Public Hearing on UCB’s Long Range Development Plan at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Copies of the plan and the draft Environmental Impact Report are available at http://lrdp.berkeley.edu 

“A.W. Pattini, Victorian Designer-Builder” with Paul Roberts at 7:30 p.m. at Church by the Side of the Road, 2108 Russell St. Tickets are available from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Break the Silence of Sex with hip-hop and spoken-word performances and a showing of the film, “Silence Ain’t Sexy” at 7 p.m. at King Middle School Auditorium. Sponsored by PinchMe Films and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.  

“Rhythm and Smoke” a documentary on the cigar-making process in Cuba, interspersed with a variety of Cuban music at 6:30 p.m. at the South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

Cinco de Mayo Celebration Workshop Bridging Zapatismo to our communities. Celebrate 5 de Mayo by looking at the Zapatista indigenous struggle in Chiapas, Mexico and bridging local struggles in the SF Bay Area. At 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-10. 849-2568.  

“Media Regime Change,” a forum with Robert McChesney, co-founder of the media reform group Free Press; John Nichols, D.C. correspondent for The Nation magazine; and Jerry Mander, the president of the International Forum on Globalization, at 7 p.m. at Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. Cost is $7. Co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, New College Media Studies. 415-546-6334, ext. 300. 

Cinco de Mayo Films “Santiago de Cuba” and “Oggun” presented by Tina Flores at 7 p.m. at Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. Oakland. 393-5685.  

“Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter” with Lloyd Kahn who continues his odyssey of finding and exploring the most magnificent and unusual hand-built houses in existence, at 7:30 p.m. at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. http://bbevents.c.tep1.com 

Considering Teaching? Find out about UC Berkeley’s teaching credential programs, 6 to 8 p.m. in 2515 Tolman Hall. To RSVP, email gserecruiters@berkeley.edu 

Reading Workshop for Parents of 1st-3rd Graders at 8 p.m. at Classroom Matters, 2607 Seventh St., Suite E. Free, but reservations required. 540-8646. www.classroommatters.com 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. For information call Robert Flammia 524-3765. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

tion, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop in to file complaints, assistance available. 548-0425. 

THURSDAY,MAY 6 

Morning Birdwalk Meet at 7 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area to look for summer residents. 525-2233. 

“No American Left Behind” A benefit for MoveOn.org and Code Pink at 7 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, with a screening of “Bush in 30 Seconds” and a conversation with Carrie Olson, a co-founder of MoveOn.org and Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink. Tickets are $5-$10. 427-7447. www.noamericanleftbehind.org 

“In Over Our Head: Chaos, Creation, and Power” with constructive theologian Catherine Keller at 8 p.m. in the Tucson Common Room, CDSP, GTU, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2560. 

“Women in Impossible Places Beating the Odds” with Angela Mason at 5:30 p.m. at Northbrae Church, 941 The Alameda. Sponsored by Soroptimist International of Albany. Donation $5. 524-6303. 

Introduction To Sustainable Landscape Design Create an environmentally friendly oasis in your yard using the principles of sustainability. We will cover the fundamentals of design, installation and maintenance of a sustainable landscape. Use of native plants, recycled materials, water conserving techniques and pest control will be discussed. From 7 to 10 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $35. To register, call 525-7610.  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. in the Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

FRIDAY, MAY 7 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Utah Phillips, singer/songwriter and Karen Pickett, Earth First! organizer, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. 528-5403. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Tim Holt, environmental writer on “Should California Be Split in Two?” Luncheon 11:45 a.m. for $12.50. Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925. 

Womansong Circle Singing for the mothers and the mother of us all at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $8. 525-7082. 

Nabalom Bakery Collective Benefit with live music, silent auction and refreshments at 7 p.m. at Transparent/Ashby Theater, across from the Ashby BART. Tickets are $20 at the door. 845-BAKE. 

All-Oakland Talent Show at 7 p.m. at Oakland Box Theater, Telegraph Ave. between 19th and 20th. Tickets are $10. Sponsored by Oakland Leaf, which brings afterschool programs to school children. 

Tibetan Aid Project Spring Benefit Dinner A vegetarian culinary experience in support the continuation of Tibetan Buddhist culture, at 6 p.m. at The Brazilian Room, Tilden Park. For tickets call 800-338-4238.  

“Anarchist Cookbook” a comedy about living on an anarchist commune in Dallas, Texas at 8 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.longhaul.org 

“The Personal Grail and the Public Wasteland” with Jeremey Taylor in a workshop from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Naropa Oakland University, 2141 Broadway. Cost is $50-$80. 835-4827, ext. 19. www.creationspirituality.org 

Hawaiian Cultural Practices and The Struggle for Independence Workshop and “talk story” about the Akaka-Stevens bill, Hawaiian soveriegnty, and the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, with Clarence Kukauakahi Ching, kanaka maoli cultural practioner and David Ingham. From 7 to 9 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Language Studies International, 2015 Center St. Cost is $75 for both days, $20 for Fri. only. Registration recommended. 525-7257. waihili@aol.com 

Berkeley Chess Club meets at 7:15 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 652-5324. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. 525-5231. 

Herbal Tea at Three Learn tea lore, medicinal properties, and taste familiar and exotic varieties from 3 to 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 8 

Town Hall Meeting on the California Budget Crisis with Assemblywoman Loni Hancock from 10 a.m. to noon at Rosa Parks School, Multipurpose Room, 920 Allston Way. 

Bike Day at Berkeley Farmers’ Market in Civic Center Park from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with presentations on locking your bike, bike repair, and safe commuting. Sponsored by Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition. www.BFBC.org 

Green Home Expo and Energy Symposium in Civic Center Park. From noon to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. www.greenhomeexpo.org 

Celebrate Mother’s Day Canoeing with Save The Bay A scenic canoe tour of Goodyear Slough, just northeast of the Carquinez Bridge and west of Suisun Bay. We will wind through the native tule reeds and discuss the importance of this arm of the Bay to migrating wildlife. All equipment and instruction included. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mothers and Save The Bay Members $30, Non-members $40. To register or for more information call 452-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

“California Butterflies, Host and Nectar Plants” A class and garden tour from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $30-$40. Advance registration encouraged. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Kids Garden Club Discover non-native plants and help remove these invasives, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 7-12. Cost is $3, registration required. 525-2233. 

Junior Skywatchers We’ll learn about the mysterious forces of gravity. We’ll do experiments and then do some moonless stargazing, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 8-11. Cost is $4. 525-2233. 

A Walk Through the Garden of Old Roses with UCBG horticulturist and rose expert, Peter Klement. Discover the rich historical background of the collection, including how Chinese, Persian and European cultures created the parents of the roses we grow today. From 10 a.m. to noon at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Cost is $12-$17. To register call 643-2755. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The Finnish Community in Berkeley” led by Harry Siitonen from 10 a.m. to noon. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

East Bay Connection College Fair from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Saint Mary’s College, 1928 Saint Mary’s Road, Moraga. More than 170 schools will be represented. 925-631-4224. www.stmarys-ca.edu/ebcc 

Oakland Day of Percussion with world-class drummers and persussionists presented by the Percussive Arts Society from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 415-296-0454. www.pas.org/chapters/california/oak.html 

Wheat Weaving Craft Day from noon to 2 p.m. at the Albany Library. Create simple beauty and celebrate a history that goes back to early human’s appreciation of wheat. Free and open to all ages. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext 20.  

Cragmont Elementary School Spring Carnival and Auction Performances, crafts, food and games. Help us in this partnership with local merchants for an easy and rewarding way to raise money for a Berkeley public school. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 644-8811. 

Healthy Street Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School, 1500 Derby, with food, prizes, health screenings and entertainment. 883-6504. 

LeConte Elementary School’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration with food, dancing, music and games, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 2241 Russell St. Admission is $1-$10. 644-6290. 

Friends of Kensington Library Annual Book Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Blvd. 

Crowden Music School Gala, honoring Gordon Getty, at 6 p.m. at the Rotunda, 1501 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $150. 559-6910. 

A Celebration of Traditional Asian Arts and Culture from noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. 637-0455. 

Oakland Museum of California Gala After Hours at 9 p.m. with food and dancing with the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers and Kool Katz. Tickets are $75. 238-6711. www.galaafterhours.com 

Pro Arts 30th Anniversay Gala from 5 to 9 p.m. at 550 Second St. Oakland. Tickets available at www.proartsgallery.org 

Festival of Body-Mind Movement celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 830 Bancroft Way at 6th St. Cost is $5-$20. 594-4048. www.SpringIntoMotion.org 

Shamanic Journey Class from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Anam Cara House, 6035 Majestic Ave., Oakland. 415-333-1434. 

SUNDAY, MAY 9 

Berkeley Architectural Hertitage House Tour “Berkeley 1890 - At Home” from 1 to 5 p.m. featuring ten Victorian-era houses along Berkeley’s Fulton St. Tour information and ticket order form are at www.berkeleyheritage.com/housetours/2004_spring_house_tour.html  

Mother’s Day Celebration at the Judah L. Magnes Museum at 2911 Russell St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Family treasure hunt, docent tours of exhibit “Brought to Light,” gift shop sale, and free admission. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

“Designing Your Garden with Natives” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Field trip to Pt. Reyes on May 16. Cost is $75-$85. Registration recommended. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Shear Fun Where did your wool clothing come from? Join Judd Redden who has been shearing sheep for ten years to learn about this remarkable, renewable resource. From 10 a.m. to noon at The Little Farm in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Dreaming in Nature An 8-week class meeting Sundays, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Park. Learn how to understand, interpret and recall dreams and the interconnection with nature. Cost is $160. 636-1684. www.ebparks.org 

John Kerry for President Party with Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and author of “Why Liberals Will Win in America.” Sponsored by The Berkeley Democratic Club. From 5 to 7 p.m. at 21 Tanglewood Rd. Donation $50 to the Kerry campaign. Please RSVP to BerkeleyDemocraticClub@comcast.net 

Maganda Magazine Celebration with spoken work and readings celebrating this Pillipino literary arts publication. At 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568.  

Friends of Kensington Library Annual Book Sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Blvd. 

”A Transylvanian Unitarian Minister Come to Berkeley” with Maria Pap at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Tibetan Buddhism, with Sylvia Gretchen on “Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmocana Sutra” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues. May 4, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., May 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/com 

missions/women 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs., May 6, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., May 6, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., May 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., May 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks

Thanks to an outpouring of support from the community and a little clever detective work, a potentially bad story turned good late last week after three local students had their instruments stolen from St. Joseph the Worker Church. 

  According to a representative for the St. Joseph the Worker school, students in their choir were practicing Thursday for the adjoining church’s 125th anniversary celebration that was held this past weekend. The students broke for lunch around noon and left their instruments in the choir area at the front of the church. When they came back they found that three instruments—a trumpet, saxophone and flute—were missing. After a frenzied search to make sure no one had misplaced the instruments, the students realized that someone had come into the church and stolen them. 

  “My mom was speechless,” said Devante Dubose, a sixth grader who lost his trumpet. Dubose had just gotten the trumpet for Christmas and had never played it in a performance.  

“It was devastating,” said Melissa Angulo, a fifth grader who lost her flute. “We had really been working hard on the mass.” 

  Natalie Tovani-Walchuk, the principal at St. Joseph the Worker school said they immediately contacted the police and that night the story aired on a local TV station’s nightly news broadcast.  

  According to Tovani-Walchuk, police from the city of Alameda also picked up a homeless man that same night for a different warrant and found a saxophone and trumpet in his possessions. After the shift change on Friday morning, an officer who had seen the news broadcast the night before saw the instruments and immediately made the connection. 

  The police contacted the school after a search of the vagrant’s possessions located the flute buried at the bottom of a trash bag. While both the flute and the sax had only minor damages, the trumpet was badly beaten up.  

In the meantime the school had rented instruments so the students could practice before mass. School officials were also worrying about how to reimburse the students for damages because the instruments were not covered under the school’s insurance. 

  Come Friday by the beginning of school, however, there was no need to worry and all the rented instruments were returned. After seeing the news broadcast that night, people from around the Bay Area started contacting the school to send donations. People gave instruments and money, and by the end of the day the school had four flutes, one trumpet, one guitar, a promised saxophone and around $1,000. 

  Even though the flute and saxophone were usable, and there was no immediate need for a guitar, people said they felt obligated to contribute. 

  One of the women who contributed had her flute stolen as a child but was too poor to buy a new one. When she got older she bought a flute because she could. She immediately identified with the students and decided to donate the flute, shipping it by courier so it got there that same day. 

  One man got on BART in San Francisco, rode across the bay, walked to St. Joseph’s, donated an instrument, got back on the BART, and disappeared. 

  “I think people really cared about our school,” said Dubose, who cheerfully tried out his new trumpet on Friday afternoon. “When they gave me the trumpet I felt like they really cared about me.” 

  The two other students cleaned their instruments using disinfectant, and were right back at it Friday afternoon. 

  All the extra instruments, according to Tovani-Walchuk, are still a blessing even though they weren’t immediately needed, because students who can’t afford their own instruments will now have something to play. The school does not have the money to provide all the band students with instruments. Tovani-Walchuk also said the money donated will go directly to the school’s music program. 

  “It gives me hope in the world,” she said. “It’s amazing what people can do in this world [even though] there is all this yukkiness.” 

  Tovani-Walchuk said the school is not pressing charges but the District Attorney will issue a stay-away order to the alleged thief. The church, which is always open so people can use it as a sanctuary and place to pray, will remain open. But, she said, the next time students practice they’ll make sure to take their instruments with them if they go on break. 

Thanks to an outpouring of support from the community and a little clever detective work, a potentially bad story turned good late last week after three local students had their instruments stolen from St. Joseph the Worker Church. 

  According to a representative for the St. Joseph the Worker school, students in their choir were practicing Thursday for the adjoining church’s 125th anniversary celebration that was held this past weekend. The students broke for lunch around noon and left their instruments in the choir area at the front of the church. When they came back they found that three instruments—a trumpet, saxophone and flute—were missing. After a frenzied search to make sure no one had misplaced the instruments, the students realized that someone had come into the church and stolen them. 

  “My mom was speechless,” said Devante Dubose, a sixth grader who lost his trumpet. Dubose had just gotten the trumpet for Christmas and had never played it in a performance.  

“It was devastating,” said Melissa Angulo, a fifth grader who lost her flute. “We had really been working hard on the mass.” 

  Natalie Tovani-Walchuk, the principal at St. Joseph the Worker school said they immediately contacted the police and that night the story aired on a local TV station’s nightly news broadcast.  

  According to Tovani-Walchuk, police from the city of Alameda also picked up a homeless man that same night for a different warrant and found a saxophone and trumpet in his possessions. After the shift change on Friday morning, an officer who had seen the news broadcast the night before saw the instruments and immediately made the connection. 

  The police contacted the school after a search of the vagrant’s possessions located the flute buried at the bottom of a trash bag. While both the flute and the sax had only minor damages, the trumpet was badly beaten up.  

In the meantime the school had rented instruments so the students could practice before mass. School officials were also worrying about how to reimburse the students for damages because the instruments were not covered under the school’s insurance. 

  Come Friday by the beginning of school, however, there was no need to worry and all the rented instruments were returned. After seeing the news broadcast that night, people from around the Bay Area started contacting the school to send donations. People gave instruments and money, and by the end of the day the school had four flutes, one trumpet, one guitar, a promised saxophone and around $1,000. 

  Even though the flute and saxophone were usable, and there was no immediate need for a guitar, people said they felt obligated to contribute. 

  One of the women who contributed had her flute stolen as a child but was too poor to buy a new one. When she got older she bought a flute because she could. She immediately identified with the students and decided to donate the flute, shipping it by courier so it got there that same day. 

  One man got on BART in San Francisco, rode across the bay, walked to St. Joseph’s, donated an instrument, got back on the BART, and disappeared. 

  “I think people really cared about our school,” said Dubose, who cheerfully tried out his new trumpet on Friday afternoon. “When they gave me the trumpet I felt like they really cared about me.” 

  The two other students cleaned their instruments using disinfectant, and were right back at it Friday afternoon. 

  All the extra instruments, according to Tovani-Walchuk, are still a blessing even though they weren’t immediately needed, because students who can’t afford their own instruments will now have something to play. The school does not have the money to provide all the band students with instruments. Tovani-Walchuk also said the money donated will go directly to the school’s music program. 

  “It gives me hope in the world,” she said. “It’s amazing what people can do in this world [even though] there is all this yukkiness.” 

  Tovani-Walchuk said the school is not pressing charges but the District Attorney will issue a stay-away order to the alleged thief. The church, which is always open so people can use it as a sanctuary and place to pray, will remain open. But, she said, the next time students practice they’ll make sure to take their instruments with them if they go on break. 

On the otherwise gray wall of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity house is a painting of the U.S. Marines struggling to raise the American flag at Iwo Jima. Beside the painting is a testimonial to fraternity brother Colonel Harry Liversedge, who “led U.S. forces” in the famous World War II battle.  

Now nearly 60 years later, the brothers of Alpha Sigma Phi are again looking for a few good men, not to save their country, but to save their fraternity and their house. 

Three weeks ago the eight non-graduating brothers plastered flyers around campus offering residents of Bowles Hall—the last all-male dormitory on the UC campus with rituals not unlike a fraternity—the chance to join the Alpha Sigma Phi and take over the house.  

“We want to bring a group of friends here, teach them our ways and our traditions and then let them run with it,” said Jay Lynas, a junior. When Lynas pledged the fraternity last fall, he was one of a pledge class of only four. This spring, no one pledged. Lynas loves his brothers, but in the cutthroat world of Greek life at UC Berkeley, four new brothers a year isn’t enough to keep a fraternity viable.  

To survive, Alpha Sigma Phi has opened its doors to boarders—residents who live at the fraternity house but aren’t members. It’s enough to pay the rent, but ultimately it might not be enough to keep the house, which is owned by alumni and run as a nonprofit corporation.  

“They have no reason to run it if no brothers are living in the house,” Lynas said. 

Tasvir Patel, president of the Inter Fraternity Council, said an overflow boarder population is not unique to Alpha Sigma Phi. UC Berkeley’s Greek population has been declining at an average of 1.5 percent a year for several years, while two new fraternities have been established. “It’s survival of the fittest, to some extent,” Patel said. 

The brothers of Alpha Sigma Phi didn’t always live on the edge of extinction. The fraternity was founded in 1913. Like many UC Berkeley fraternities it died in 1965 at the peak of the Free Speech Movement. A new group revived the fraternity in 1983, however. It boasted a strong membership until the early 90s, when its ranks began to dwindle and the number of boarders at the 20-room fraternity house sometimes topped the number of brothers.  

Even in a friendly housing market, the Alpha Sigma Phi and other similar fraternities have always found tenants. Since their landlord doesn’t seek a profit, they offer bedrooms starting below $400 with free cable television, DSL Internet hook-up, and a cook. 

Lynas, like several of the fraternity brothers, entered the house as a boarder, and chose to pledge. Still, he said, some lines were drawn between the brothers and the boarders. “We make sure they’re out of the house or in their rooms when we’re having our ceremonies or stuff,” he said.  

Frank Hane, a brother who graduated last year, said some of the boarders are actually bigger partiers than the brothers. “We’ve had a few guys come in and puke all over the place. We’re not cool with that by any means,” he said. 

For Hane, the house has been the centerpiece of his college life. “This place is my connection to UC,” he said. “We’ve had a great group of brothers. It’s more intense than a regular friendship.” 

No member of Bowles Hall took the fraternity up on its offer, but five underclassmen from different dorms expressed an interest, and last Wednesday night they were made pledges. If all goes well, this week they will become full-fledged members.  

Theo Widjaja, a fraternity brother said he had mixed feelings about the future members only having to pledge for a week, buy Lynas thought that was insignificant. 

“We met them and kind of got a feeling that somehow they had that spark to carry on what we’re offering to them,” Lynas said. 

Although they are offering easy membership, Lynas said the fraternity still has standards. “Despite how we’re appealing to people, we’re still selective of who we’ll allow to take over the house,” he said. “We don’t feel like we’re moving out and it’s going to nothing. We still have a few active members trying to rebuild it.” 

On Cinco de Mayo 1862 at Puebla, in southeastern Mexico, a conquest army of 6,000 seasoned French soldiers funded by Emperor Napoleon III of France, and marching at behest of Archduke Maximilian of Austria, met 4,000 Mexican defenders who were mostly last minute recruits from the barrios of Puebla. The invaders were headed for Mexico City 60 miles away to install Maximilian Emperor of Mexico. They expected little resistance. French General Charles Ferdinande de Lorencez had declared, upon landing of his troops at the port of Veracruz, that because Mexicans were merely “bloodthirsty half-castes who united the vices of the white man with the savageness of the Indian... We are so superior to the Mexicans in race, in organization, in discipline, (and) in morality...that, at the head of 6,000 soldiers, I am already master of Mexico.” 

The rag tag Mexican forces routed the French invaders, who slunk back to Veracruz and did not venture inland again till March of the following year, by which time they had amassed 30,000 troops. There was strong symbolism in Mexico in May 1862 in laborers and peasants defeating the technologically superior, militarily superior, seasoned troops from Europe. The nation had just emerged from a long civil/class war and the French brought with them a cadre of supporters of the conservative losing side that fed the French notions of Mexico being a land of “Chinacos.” Definitions of Chinaco include: a runaway, a person of no social grace, lower class Indian who had left the homeland, a mixed race person with African heritage, a half Indian/half African, a robber, a slave, a guerrilla, a creature of the night, a bat, a bent twig, a person with multiple personalities, and more. The Juaristas proudly adopted the term. And today the lead definition of Chinaco in the dictionaries is a fighter for the “Reform,” i.e., the liberal cause in the civil war, and the fight against the French that was led by led by pure-Indigenous President Benito Juarez. A Juarezista culture magazine was titled Chinaco, and in it were poems and essays to the glory of the nation and its “Chinacos.” A poem by the magazine’s editor Guillermo Prieto had the following lines: 

In that you are a Mister 

I am a Chinaco. 

In the days leading to May 5, 1862, recruitment among the “Chinacos” of Puebla was led by the frail, spectacled, seminary trained 33-year-old General Ignacio Zaragoza, who was of mixed race with substantial Texas Indian blood, and who Juarez picked for the task because of oratory abilities in behalf of the “Reform.” Central to Juarez’s “Reform” ideology was belief in democracy, as he displayed in a letter to a British supporter of the Mexican fight against the French imperialists. “Believing as I do that progress is part of the human condition, I hope that the future will be, of necessity, one of democracy, and each day I have more faith in the republican institutions of the American world, and that they will be extended to the unfortunate people of Europe who are still held down under the weight of their monarchy and aristocracy.” 

While we don’t know exactly what Zaragoza said in his recruitment, we can assume something of the above, and probably mention that Maximilian was believed intent on a coalition with slave owners in the U.S. Confederacy then at war with the Union army. Mexico had abolished slavery and had declared for racial equality since its 1821 independence war peace plan of Iguala, which stated, “All inhabitants of New Spain, without distinction to their being Europeans, Africans or Indians are citizens ... with the option to seek all employment according to their merits and virtues.” 

On Cinco de Mayo the Poblanos, as Pueblans were known, repulsed repeated charges of the French troops. The defenders also withstood barrages from French canons, and while there were cannons in the two forts at Puebla, the Mexican side lacked artillery experts. The defenders compensated for their weaknesses with resourcefulness. A near thousand head of cattle had been gathered from nearby ranchos, and when the French charged up the steep hill toward Puebla, the cattle were stampeded into their ranks. The French cavalry was ready to charge the Mexican lines and create panic; to draw them off, General Zaragoza sent his cavalry of Zapotecan Indians from Oaxaca on an attack from the side against the French horsemen. The Zapotecans faked a panic and fled, and laughing French rode after them. A Hollywood version of cowboys and Indians seemed in the offing, but the Zapotecans turned and attacked. The French didn’t know how to handle the new script and they were cut to pieces. 

Armed with the spirit of democracy and equality the defenders of the nation sent the French troops home from their Mexican Vietnam/Iraq in 1867. French Emperor Napoleon III embroiled his soldiers in a new adventure in 1870, a war with Germany. A subsequent uprising created the anarcho-communist Paris Commune, in which there were enough disgruntled soldiers for the conservative French press to blame the revolt upon the infection of revolutionary spirit from Mexico. That “outside agitator” accusations would be leveled on Mexico would seem to prove Juárez's point that in that era of the famed Cinco de Mayo, his country represented the vanguard for world progress.

When a suicide bomber parked a van disguised as an ambulance in front of the Shaheen Hotel in the Karadah neighborhood of Baghdad on January 28 and blew himself up, he killed four people and wounded scores of others.  

He also blew the lid off a dirty little secret of the Coalition Provisional Authority: due to its “outsourcing” of privatized security services, the CPA has put terrorists, mercenaries and war criminals on the payrolls of companies contracted by the Pentagon. 

After the Shaheen Hotel blast, departmental spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa at South Africa’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that one of the Westerners killed was South African Frans Strydom. Four of the wounded were also South African nationals, including Deon Gouws, who sustained serious injuries. 

News that Strydom and Gouws were in Iraq sent shockwaves throughout South Africa: In front of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, both men were granted amnesty after confessing to killing blacks and terrorizing anti-apartheid activists, acts that can only be called crimes against humanity.  

In Iraq, Strydom and Gouws were employed by Erinys International, a security firm based in the United Kingdom. Erinys Iraq, the subsidiary of Erinys International, was awarded a two-year, $80 million contract in August 2003 to protect 140 Iraqi oil installations. Erinys has been awarded subcontracts to protect American construction contractors, including San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. and Halliburton’s subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root.  

“It is just a horrible thought that such people are working for the Americans,” said Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, speaking to European reporters last month. 

Strydom was a member in the Koevoet, Afrikaner for “Crowbar,” an outlaw group that paid bounty for the bodies of blacks seeking independence during the 1980s. The Koevoet terrorized blacks in Namibia and northern South Africa for more than a decade. Hundreds of deaths are attributed to its members. 

More notorious is Gouws’ past. A former police officer, Gouws was a member of the infamous Vlakplaas death squad that terrorized blacks under apartheid. Only after South Africa established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Col. Eugene de Kock, a former death-squad leader who supervised Gouws, applied for amnesty, did the activities of the Vlakplaas come to light. Gouws faced a choice: repent by confessing, or be charged with crimes. He applied for amnesty, confessing on his application for absolution to killing 15 blacks and firebombing the homes of “between 40 and 60 anti-apartheid activists.” 

There are an estimated 1,500 South Africans employed by security contractors in Iraq, according to the South African foreign ministry. Many used their backgrounds as mercenaries during Apartheid to bolster their credentials.  

After being pardoned but ostracized in South Africa, “Where are these men expected to go?” asked Judge Goldstone. 

Erinys International refused to comment on the matter. 

The role of civilians contracted to work in Iraq was relatively unknown to most in the United States until four American security contractors met grisly deaths in Fallujah in March. While the vast majority of individuals contracted for security work may be honest, hardworking professionals, the desperate search for manpower is allowing criminals to join their ranks. 

“At what point do we start scraping the barrel?” Simon Faulkner, the CEO of Hart, a respected British security company, asked recently in the New York Times. “Where are these guys coming from?”  

Not only apartheid-era terrorists are finding opportunities in Iraq. Prior to the U.S.-led war, Saddam Hussein hired over a dozen Serb air-defense specialists—at the reported cost of $100,000 a month—to devise a mobile radar system that would protect Iraq’s air defenses from attack. Many were wanted for their paramilitary activities during the Balkan Wars in Europe.  

Upon the American takeover of Iraq, some of these Serbs remained behind, selling their services to the highest bidders, including security firms under contract to provide protection for employees of Blackwater USA and Titan Corporation of San Diego. They have now been joined by some of their compatriots, who had been working for the Pentagon for several years in Afghanistan. “The Bush administration is so eager to avoid responsibility for order in Afghanistan that they’ve outsourced to mercenaries the work of protecting Afghan President Hamid Karzai,” Dave Marash reported in the Washington Monthly in March 2003.  

Karl Alberts, a South African pilot, recently prepared to travel to Iraq. Before he left he was arrested and charged with mercenary activities in the Ivory Coast in 2002 and 2003. 

But for every Alberts who fails to make it to Baghdad, others succeed. Though their numbers are relatively few, the harm these men can do to an occupation government desperately seeking support from the Iraqi people is enormous.  

Louis E.V. Nevaer is an author and economist whose most recent book, NAFTA’S Second Decade (South-Western Educational Publishing, 2004), examines the political economy of the international development and trade.

For a long while now, her neighbors envied her. While they suffered under colonial rules, she alone in Southeast Asia developed independently and in peace. While they suffered from insurgencies and warfare, torn apart by opposing Cold War ideologies, she grew in confidence and sophistication, all the while under a constitutional monarchy. Indeed, by all geopolitical standards, Thailand seems a blessed country.  

Until now. In the southernmost province of Narathiwat, near the Malaysian border, insurgents attacked security checkpoints and police stations. Police and security forces shot dead 107 machete-wielding youths, and the image of Thailand as a peaceful country—the “land of a thousand smiles”—is all but tarnished. 

Known as the tourist Mecca of Southeast Asia, Thailand always has had a grimmer side, one that it tries to keep tightly under wraps. Now, images of teenagers lying in pools of blood crowd the front pages of newspapers.  

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin dismissed the insurgents as local youths and gangs. But the rebels have legitimate grievances. The two southernmost provinces are Muslim majority, but live under Buddhist minority domination. From culture to language—many Muslims in the southern provinces speak Yawi and not Thai—to economic status, they live as an ostracized minority. Police brutalities and crackdowns are routine in the south. Human rights activists have railed against the torture and disappearance of suspected separatists for years.  

Most famous was the disappearance of human rights Muslim lawyer Sonchai Neelaphaijit while under police surveillance in March. Four policemen were indicted in April for his kidnapping and murder. Sonchai was representing five Muslims who were charged with stealing weapons from a military camp in Narthiwat on Jan. 4. That’s the same camp the machete-weilding youths were attacking when they were ambushed by Thai authorities, who apparently were tipped off. 

Neelaphaijit’s disappearance prompted national rights commissioner Pradit Charoenthaithatwee to declare that Thailand is “being ruled by a police state.”  

In Bangkok recently, before the latest attack, a nervous mood could be felt above and beyond the city’s typically frantic pace. Many worried because separatists have stolen dynamite from a mining company, an act similar to what happened in Spain before the train attacks of March 11. One bomb exploded on March 27 in a southern border town of Sungai Kolok, known for its girly bars and karaoke dens and considered sinful by religious Muslims. The blast injured 30, including eight Malaysian tourists. Many Malaysians have stopped coming to Thailand. 

One government official, speaking anonymously, said: “We are all waiting for a bomb to go off in Bangkok. If that happens, all bets are off.” He was referring to the Thai tourist industry, the lifeblood of his country. Some 11 million visitors come to Thailand every year. Each spends an average of $90 dollars a day, and stays a week on average. Tourism is the number one source of income for Thailand, employing more than 5 million people out of a total population of 64 million. 

Every major hotel in the country now employs armed guards. A visitor to the new, elegant five-star Conrad Hilton in Bangkok is greeted by an obstacle course flanked by armed guards with bomb-searching mirrors on the way to the hotel’s door. “We take extra precaution,” says Darinee Suthivong, a hotel publicist. “We’re very close to the U.S. embassy and across from ambassador’s residence.” 

The Thai government hopes its latest military success against the rebels will keep the lid on the insurgency for the short term. They also hope that sophisticated networks like Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant Islamist group active in several Southeast Asian countries, are not involved. 

In the long run, however, it is in Bangkok’s interest to address the real grievances of the south, rather than reacting in an un-Buddhist, violent fashion that could transform regional anger into something that might literally bring down the house. 

Andrew Lam is an editor at Pacific News Service who recently returned from Thailand.a

Ten years ago this week my husband Ralph had an accident that left him a C-4 quadriplegic. Cruising down Claremont Avenue on his Italian racing bike, just above the Claremont Hotel, his front tire went flat and he sailed over the handlebars, landing in the middle of the road. He slipped in and out of consciousness until a passerby discovered him and called 911. An ambulance picked him up and delivered him to Highland Hospital, where emergency room doctors monitored his vital signs. When I arrived at the emergency room the prognosis was not good. I was warned that he might not make it, then later informed that if he did pull through he wouldn’t be able to use his arms and hands again. Twenty-four hours later we were told that he would probably remain paralyzed from the neck down. 

For awhile, Ralph and I operated on hope, and then later on drugs, coffee, and alcohol. But within two months we began to realize that he would not get better, that he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, unable to eat or void on his own. We were relieved that he could still use his brain, but we were unprepared for the lessons that lay ahead. 

Each year when the anniversary of his accident comes around, we both ignore it. It doesn’t help to dwell on the past we tell each other—just keep looking forward and try to get through the current day. For the most part, I think this philosophy has served us well. It suits our personalities and our psyches, keeps us present in the here and now, living one moment at a time. But at some point I do need to look back and see where we’ve come from and how far we have traveled. I remember 10 years ago being hopeful, praying for a miracle, and frantically looking for answers. Then slowly the truth crept in and I knew that I was going to have to accept the reality of Ralph’s paralysis or lie on the living room couch forever. That was not an option. There was too much to do. 

So how far have we come? Pretty far, I think, although we’re still at the same address and Ralph rarely leaves his bed except to attend board meetings at the Center for Independent Living up on Telegraph Avenue. He has learned to manipulate an electric wheelchair with his head, hold a mouth stick between his teeth, and tap out letters on his computer keyboard. On good days, when everything is working right, he can change the channels on his TV. Several years ago, he made some money on the stock market, and then a few months later he lost it. He’s become an insatiable sports fan, surfing from channel to channel to watch whatever game is on. He’s collected film noirs until the house is overflowing with video boxes, and he has become an expert on letting other people do for him the things he cannot do for himself. 

As for me, I have practiced patience and the art of trying to pace myself, postures I was never good at before the accident. I have grown more tolerant of certain behaviors; conduct I thought I could never live with, I live with quite comfortably now. I understand a little better how the world works, how our society views the severely disabled and the people who assist with their care. I’ve gotten a first-hand education from the disability and caregiver communities on marginalization, racism, drug addiction, prison life, and the art of survival when the chips are down. These are things I wasn’t interested in learning before Ralph’s accident, didn’t even know I needed to learn them, hadn’t known what I’d be able to do with them once learned. Although I knew Ralph was a tough cookie when I married him, I have discovered that he is a lot tougher than I ever imagined, and, as a consequence, so am I. 

A single car accident that began on the University Avenue Interstate 80 overpass early Sunday claimed the life of a Berkeley man and a 19-year-old passenger. 

The Alameda County Coroner’s office identified the driver as Anthony Lane, 30, of Berkeley. He was driving his 1995 Buick Regal from Oakland to Berkeley at 7 a.m. when he took the University Avenue exit at a high rate of speed, according to California Highway Patrol officer R.E. Caggiano. 

Lane lost control of the car, sideswiping a pillar before it slammed into a tree and a tiled concrete wall at the northeast corner of Eastshore Highway and Hearst Avenue. 

Killed along with Lane was a passenger, identified by the coroner as Brittany Breazeale, 18 of Oakland. Berkeley paramedics rushed a second passenger, an 18-year-old Oakland woman, to Highland Hospital for treatment of a broken right arm and clavicle. 

Caggiano said both Lane and the injured passenger were wearing seatbelts. The fatally injured passenger was not.

UNDERREPRESENTED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a front-page piece presented as a news article in your April 30-May 3 edition (“UC Admissions Drop Hits Native Americans”), Jakob Schiller repeatedly uses, but never defines, “underrepresented,” as in “underrepresented students,” “underrepresented groups.” 

The article states Cal is admitting fewer Native Americans this year. It fails to compare the percentage of applying Native Americans who got accepted this year with the percentage last year, and fails to compare either percentage with the percentage of accepted applicants from other groups. 

Either set of facts would put some meat on the “underrepresented” adjective employed. 

It’s also unfortunate that you buried the real problem on the next-to-last page of the paper: that many Native Americans don’t have a peer model that associates personal success with academic performance. 

David Altschul 

• 

WEST BERKELEY ODOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Hawkridge (Letters, Daily Planet, April 30-May 3) speaks of a noxious odor in West Berkeley. This smell has been making my family really nauseous for the last five years and we have been consistently told by agencies we have called that it is either “coffee being processed” or “burnt bread” from a local bakery. 

I was incredibly disturbed by the last letter, as we have driven around many times trying to find this odor as it makes us (and neighbors) really sick. The elderly, disabled woman down the street gets severe headaches and vomits from this. Isn’t this supposed to be environmentally friendly Berkeley? Isn’t this supposed to be the city that prides itself on pure air, soil and a caring city government? We moved here five years ago from Benicia, as we were worried about the industrial odors. I can’t believe that this is being allowed to go on. Are we (the occupants of West Berkeley) considered to be disposable —are we being poisoned , so that we can be turned into mulch that will be then turned into another park? This is crazy. What makes this any different than Los Angeles, or South San Francisco (noxious fumes galore), I thought it was because we could live here and not be poisoned. UNFAIR !!!!! 

Catherine Malkow 

• 

CENSORSHIP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The responsibility of the press and TV is to inform us about what is happening in our world. They present facts and we, their readers and viewers, have the responsibility to think about what is read or said and draw our own conclusions. 

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, by refusing to allow ABC’s Nightline to air on their stations, does not serve the public interest of our need and our right to know. I strongly object to this stand. It is censorship at the worst level. 

Anne Smith 

• 

DOWNTOWN PARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Malcolm Carden writes that the responses to his earlier letter have not contradicted his statement that restricting parking in downtown is bad for downtown businesses. He concludes by asking: “have you ever tried carrying a TV or a kitchen table on a bike?” (Letters, Daily Planet, April 30-May 3). 

But my response to him (Letters, April 23-26) did contradict his statement. I said that the most successful shopping district in the Bay Area is the Union Square area, which has relatively little parking. And I said that downtown Berkeley cannot compete with auto-oriented shopping areas, because of its distance from the freeway and limited street capacity, so its best chance of success is creating an interesting, pedestrian-oriented environment. 

People buy heavy items like kitchen tables on a very small percentage of shopping trips. When they are in urban neighborhoods, the stores that sell these items offer deliveries. The Ikea in New York delivers more than half the products that they sell. 

I have never carried a kitchen table on my bicycle, but I used to bicycle to Gorman’s to buy my furniture, because they would deliver for a few extra dollars. In central Berkeley, where 40 percent of households do not own cars, we need a furniture store that offers deliveries. Does Carden think all those people should buy cars, so they can use them once a year when they buy furniture? 

Charles Siegel 

• 

AMERICAN VALUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Perhaps by now most people have seen the pictures of the atrocities of the U.S. soldiers in Iraqi prison. This is not a surprise and not new. This is American chivalry. Americans have done it in Vietnam, Korea, and many other places. So, next time you see the charred bodies of Americans in pieces hanging from bridges in Iraq, do not call the Iraqi freedom fighters barbaric. Bush always says that they hate us for our values and our way of living. Are American values about violating human rights? 

Saleh Almajridi 

• 

FREE SPEECH AT UC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is one issue that has been conspicuously absent from the review process of the Code of Student Conduct, which is its effects on free speech. 

After highly politicized hearings in recent years targeting student protesters, the administration has responded to criticisms from both sides (those who wanted swift and harsh punishment and those who thought the disciplinary process was unfair) by suggesting the revision of the Code of Student Conduct. 

Despite such beginnings, the committee has not discussed the potential effects of the revised code on First Amendment activities. Such matters were supposed to be discussed in a subcommittee within the review committee, but that subcommittee has never been convened. (Vice Chancellor Padilla has suggested that it will be convened next year, but the final report of the code revision is being prepared now.) 

By severely limiting due process rights—no guarantee of legal representation, nor of open hearings—future political protests could become easy targets of punishment. The university will be even more vulnerable to outside demands for the punishment of unpopular speech because it is going to 

be easier to carry such demands.  

It is regrettable that UC Berkeley, with its proud tradition of free speech, has come up with a set of rules that are so weak in its protection against potential abuses of the disciplinary process. 

Takeshi Akiba 

Graduate student representative to 

the Code of Student Conduct Revision Committee, 

UC Berkeley 

• 

NUANCE AND VENOM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a letter seething with venom for your newspaper, Nate Bloom (Letters, Daily Planet, April 30-May 3) charges that those who have written in defense of the controversial DeFreitas cartoon (“State of Palestine,” Daily Planet, April 16-19) “suffer from an intellectual laziness that is often reflected in the same lack of rigor that the people who post these cartoons have in regard to a nuanced or evenhanded discussion of the [Israeli-Palestinian] issues.” Apparently as an example of said rigor, Bloom soldiers on to claim that “there is little difference between the Ku Klux Klan and elements of the Left in terms of their Jew hating,” etc. 

I, too, would like a little nuanced discussion from those who uncritically support anything that Ariel Sharon and Israel do in the way of progressive brutalization and dispossession of Palestinians, which is a bit like watching a protracted mugging in broad daylight. I have previously posed three questions: What is “Greater Israel,” why are there any Jewish-only colonies on Palestinian land, and why am I paying for these ever-expanding colonies with my taxes? 

So far, I have had no answer other than accusations that I am anti-Semitic or prone to “Pravda clichés” for asking. 

This is nuance? 

Gray Brechin 

• 

WARSAW GHETTO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was the middle of the night. The phone rang. “If you ever say that Palestine is like the Warsaw Ghetto again, we will kill you.” Click. And they didn’t even leave a call-back number! 

Despite all that, here I am again. Equating Gaza with Warsaw. What am I thinking! But jeez Louise. The simile is just too ripe for a writer like me to resist. And besides, don’t you just hate it when people tell you what to do? 

I first figured that Gaza might be for sale when Ariel Sharon was accused of corrupt real estate dealings in Greece. And I was right too. Sharon has put together a real estate package in Gaza that is a sleazy developer’s dream: Trading that run-down Gaza dump for the eloquent olive groves and high rises of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Score! 

That’s like trading the South Bronx for the Garden State—including Princeton, Washington Crossing and Atlantic City. That’s like dumping Mediterranean Avenue and buying the Boardwalk. And Park Place! 

But wait. Won’t the Palestinians at least come out of the deal owning Gaza? Isn’t that a trade up for them? They will now own houses and hotels, right? Wrong. Palestinians will not be passing Go. And they will not be collecting $200. They will not be owning Gaza. Ariel Sharon will still own Gaza. What the Palestinians will be getting from this real estate deal is the right to continue to live in a prison, a jail and a slum.  

What the Palestinians will be getting is a place on a map that is the exact re-creation of the spirit and mood of the ghetto at Warsaw—no more, no less. The Israeli army will surround Gaza on all sides. No one will be let in or out. Watch towers, machine guns and barbed wire will ring the city. Tanks will rumble up and down the streets. The only thing missing to complete this tableau will be the yellow crescents sewn on residents’ clothing—and that can be arranged.  

Being an Arab these days is chillingly similar to being a Jew in 1939. The only difference I can see is that instead of Prescott financing genocide, we now have his grandson George.  

No one spoke out to protect the Jews in 1939. But dag nab it, I’m not going to let that happen again. And, hopefully, it’s not going to kill me to do it.  

Jane Stillwater 

• 

OVER-POPULATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to two recent articles, one about bullying and the other about the population boom, it is also very important to remember that California’s over-population boom is exactly what is feeding the bullying problem within our schools. As a discipline counselor with the Los Angeles School District and a part time resident of Berkeley, it is obvious to see that the same apparent factors prevail within different areas of the state. When the homes are as overcrowded and dysfunctional as are the schools, competition among peer groups and bullying prevails. School is often regarded as requiring more structure than students’ homes, thus becoming the “enemy” where students are often acting out. 

Thanks also to the negative and counterproductive influences of rap music, community violence and various forms of media within the free society, such daily occurrences of school violence, graffiti, including “tagging crews,” fights and different forms of group hatred are regularly seen. This often results in families with better resources or perhaps just concern for their children, in seeking other school possibilities. 

To many, it is unclear just why California is inviting so many people here these days, especially when schools are overcrowded and funding for public education is almost always in jeopardy. Think about it, it affects all of us in society. 

Michael J. Packer 

• 

VOTING REFORM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The swirling buzz of proposals for constitutional amendments reminds me of the most fundamental change we need to make in order to preserve our democracy: Every vote must count equally. Under the current system, a million more Californians could vote for one candidate than for the other guy, and it wouldn’t have any more impact on the presidential election than if that candidate received only one additional vote. Nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand votes would be thrown away, just as Gore’s half-million-vote majority was dismissed in the last election. 

The problem, of course, is the Electoral College mechanism which gives voters in small-population states, like Wyoming, nearly four times the count as voters in California have. This anachronism must go; everyone’s vote must count equally. The Electoral College was originally instituted as a political compromise for conditions far different from the way we live now. Then, electors had the option of not following their state’s majority outcome, in case the “uneducated rabble” elected the “wrong man.” Now, the outcome of the Electors’ meeting is predetermined by law. And in the last election, when a true controversy arose about how the votes were counted, or mis-counted, it was the Supreme Court, not the Electoral College, that determined the current President. 

If Bush were to be re-appointed president with a minority of votes, the legitimacy of the Federal government’s authority would end, along with our claim to be the world’s leading democracy. I don’t know if people will march in the streets, form revolutionary cadres, or simply shrug their shoulders and pay their taxes. But I would feel a very close kinship with our nation’s Founders who fought to forge a democratic government from the grip of King George. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 



Iraq can quickly move to democracy if it is based on small groups rather than the mass democracy practiced throughout the world today. Small-group voting can be implemented quickly, at low cost. A bottom-up election process can create a democratic legislature in Iraq by June 30, in time for the planned transfer of sovereignty to Iraq. 

Mass democracy has failed throughout the world. We see the failure today in Haiti, and throughout Latin America, where elected governments have repeatedly been overthrown. Democracy has broken down in Africa, and works badly in Russia. A new model is needed for democracy to take root and resist being toppled. 

Democracy must start small. Each village and city neighborhood elects a local council. These would be the cells of the political body. Where a traditional clan leadership is in place, it would be recognized as the local authority. The cell would be small enough so that the people can hold meetings and know the candidates personally. There would be no need for large amounts of campaign money. 

Democracy for Iraq must thus begin with the village or neighborhood council. The local council would be open to women, giving anyone a chance to enter into governing. The coalition authority in Iraq has already established village and neighborhood advisory councils. These now need to be elected by the people and given real governing authority. 

The local councils would then elect the provincial or city councils, which would elect regional councils. The national legislature would be elected by the regional councils. The legislature would elect the president. This multi-level voting structure gives more power to the individual voter, because his concerns can be leveraged up. The direct election of top representatives in a mass election provides a feeling of choice while in substance leaving the individual citizen with little influence, because he is but one of many thousands of voters. 

Cellular, bottom-up multi-level democracy can be implemented in time for the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30. This would to a great extent resolve the problem of political power among the religious and ethnic factions of the country. The question of Islamic law would be shifted to the local councils, avoiding the problem of religious domination. 

The violence in Iraq feeds on the absence of self rule. The Governing Council is dismissed by many Iraqis as puppets of the coalition, and the U.S. is blamed for whatever goes wrong, because it is in charge. Establishing genuine democracy and restoring sovereignty quickly will thwart the anti-democratic forces, because it will be clear then that they are fighting the Iraqis, not the Americans. The coalition troops would still maintain order and provide civic services, but only at the invitation and consent of the people of Iraq. We can achieve lasting stability in Iraq with decentralized bottom-up democracy. 

Fred Foldvary is a Berkeley resident. 

Our city is in a financial crisis and we are being told that there may have to be cuts in vital services and a tax increase. Under these circumstances is it right to be planning a $5-$6 million replacement fire station in Fire District 7? The facility to be built in northeast Berkeley will have 7,200 square feet and 1,500 square feet of decks and will house three Berkeley engines. The three-person crew will, in addition to the decks, have 3,200 square feet of living space. The project has been presented as the additional multi-jurisdictional station specified by 1992’s bond Measure G. It is, however, called “Replacement Station No. 7.” Bond money will indeed pay for the construction, but let us remember that bond money is a loan and our taxes pay the principal and interest on that loan. Furthermore, the costs of maintenance and operation must also be paid for with our taxes that fund the city’s already inadequate yearly operating budget—the same budget that currently cannot pay for all our vital services, let alone the additional costs this project will incur! 

The existing 2,500-square-foot Fire Station #7 is located three blocks from the proposed site of the new station. The proposed site must be purchased from the East Bay Municipal Utility District at fair market value. In addition, a small right-of-way owned by the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is being acquired by giving EBRPD 8 acres of waterfront property. The existing station is the only one in Berkeley that has neither been seismically retrofitted nor improved as specified in Measure G. In fact, the city has failed for decades to maintain it. Councilmember Olds has said repeatedly that the station is so infested with termites it’s ready to fall down. If the city did not employ an exterminator over the past 20 years, how will they maintain a behemoth new station which, due to its problematic location, will always have maintenance problems? Architect Marci Wong wrote of the site in 1999 “Constant dampness due to building into the hill and constant shade may result in maintenance, mold, and mildew problems.” Costs for the project continue to rise above the $5 million budget. For example, we now learn that the site needs to be raised four feet due to drainage problems. 

A much less expensive alternative plan to expand existing Fire Station No. 7 was proposed over two years ago by an architect with fire station design experience. That design would house two Berkeley engines and four firefighters, and eliminate the need for a three-point exit turn (which slows response time). The budget for this alternative would be about $1 million, a savings of at least $4 million over the current proposal. 

Why was this option never given consideration? No issue raised by opposing residents and experts in wild-land firefighting has been given consideration. The plans went through the Zoning Adjustments Board, Design Review, and the City Council virtually untouched. This was a “done deal” for political reasons rather than safety concerns. Minds had been made up before the project was ever presented to the public for scrutiny. The current plan was developed during the booming late 1990s, when money was no object. Now money is an object, and politicians are trying to distance themselves from the monster buildings that have been completed on their watch (as Councilmember Linda Maio is with respect to Acton Courtyard).  

City officials have “sold” this project to hills residents as necessary to save their lives in case of a wildfire. This is not true. The city simply had bond money to spend, a neglected old station, and understandably nervous and fed up voters. However, an oversized, exorbitantly expensive building will not save lives. Since the 1991 fire, the Parks District has increased its personnel and equipment and the LBL fire station has been converted to a county facility. Those important changes should be accompanied by regular and expert vegetation management on our private and public lands. That will go a lot further in promoting fire safety than this ill-conceived, overly expensive project that will be a financial burden on the city for decades to come. 

Mayor Bates is proposing tax increases for the November ballot. Since our taxes are currently paying for millions of dollars in interest on unspent bond money that is earmarked for this project, shouldn’t the less expensive alternative of renovating Fire Station No. 7 be considered now? Wouldn’t it make sense to pay down the existing bond principal by the extra $4-$6 million the proposed project would cost? This would result in an immediate reduction in principal and interest payments and would reduce the amount of any required tax increase. If the city is in a fiscal crisis, but spending lavishly, something is very wrong. It is blatantly unfair to pour money into an unnecessary project in northeast Berkeley while expecting other parts of the city to bear the twin burdens of higher taxes and reduced public services. 

If we don’t act now, this plan will shortly become reality. The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will meet on May 13 to approve recent changes to the project. Let your voice for fiscal responsibility be heard. Attend the ZAB meeting (7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 13, Old City Hall), call the mayor’s office (981-7100), and/or your councilmember’s office. 

Minor Schmid, Marilyn and Richard Collier, Doris Nassiry, Cindy Fulton, Stefan Carrieri, John Ngai, Lisa Brunet, Dr. and Mrs. Russell F. Henke, Nathaniel R. Henke, Mrs. Louis E. Weichold, David and Inja Johnson 



At the end of April 2004, I resigned as president of Berkeley High School Parent Teacher Student Association because I got fed up with being called names and threatened because I have been preaching to the district that something should be done about the high percentage of black children behind at our elementary schools in math and reading. I have been called anti-Semitic, a racist and other names that cannot be printed here. The most recent one is that I am too emotional to be president of the PTSA. 

Since I have succeed at making some of the whites in the community angry with me, I may as well get the blacks teed off at me too. I say that because my criticism has mostly been directed at the school district for black children having such poor grades. The bottom line is that no matter what the district does, if black parents don’t get off their butts and get involved in the schools, nothing the district does will matter. We have black children coming out of our elementary school one to two grades behind in math and reading. The district and the schools cannot educate these kids alone. If black parents don’t go to the schools and take a part in their children’s education, what on earth do you expect? About four years ago a few notable blacks in our community went before the school board and demanded that a moratorium on retention be put into place. If a child leaves the elementary school on a third grade reading and math level, what do you expect of them at the high school level?  

Did you happen to hear the figures from Cal concerning the freshman class this year? More than 7,000 students, 900 of them Latinos and a grand total of 194 black children. Where is the outrage among black people? Where has the togetherness of the black community gone? Where is the hunger for education that the parents of my generation preached to us? When did we get to the point where we became so complacent because of our cell phones and nice cars that we forgot about our children? Do you realize that at the start of this year there were about 800 students at BHS with a chance of graduating? That figure is down to about 500. I wonder how many of those are black children. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is less than 100. This is ridiculous. And please don’t blame the high school for these figures. For the first time in a long time, we have a man at the high school that genuinely cares. Don’t even try to drag him down because we have neglected our duties as parents. 

We have teachers without the proper tools and supplies to teach. We have a district and black parents that are not willing to sit and talk about why we have this problem. We have a community that is willing to yell “racism” at the drop of a hat. We spend a ton of money on programs at the high school to try and recover children that we ignored at the elementary levels. We have a nation that is outsourcing jobs because our children are less educated. What is going on here, black folks? Why are we allowing our children to fall further and further behind? Why are we using our schools as baby sitting agencies? That is not what they were meant for. If nothing else, I hope I have angered enough of you to flood your child’s school and demand that you be allowed to get involved in your child’s education. 

Lee Berry served as president of the Berkeley High School Parent Teacher Student Association from June, 2003 to April, 2004.

This spring, the Berkeley High School theater department is putting on an impressive world-premiere musical, called Man In The Musical. The ambitious and well-done show was written by Bay Area natives Phil Gorman and Lila Tschappat. 

The musical is about Cornelius Love (BHS Junior Simon Trumble), a struggling, unhappy New York actor cast as the lead in an off-Broadway musical. Unfortunately, Love is vehemently anti-musical, and must struggle with that and his growing feelings for his co-star, Mina (Sonja Dale) as well as what the program calls “his own limitations and the inability to make life what he thinks it should be,” as the world around him soon becomes a musical itself. Love is serenaded by homeless people on the street asking for spare change, and he is trailed by three doo-wop-style backup singers who seem to pop up wherever he goes. All of this action is punctuated and complemented by the witty and interesting sub-plots, such as Love and his roommate Ned’s (Perry Young) search for a third roommate, which yields applicants like Bitsy, a nasal, designer-clad uptown Daddy’s girl, and Edward, a rapper hailing from Iowa with dreams of being a big-city pimp.  

The witty script captures these characters honestly and intelligently, winning real laughs from the audience. The musical-within-a-musical, entitled Boris’ Borscht Kitchen, is an absurdly funny Russian-Jewish mob drama set in prohibition-era Chicago, where a mafia family sets up shop trafficking illegal wine. We see scenes from this play, as well as snapshots of Mina’s crumbling engagement to her insensitive, workaholic fiancée (Dav Wright) and Ned’s burgeoning romance with Paige—Mina’s uptight best friend—who moves in with Ned and Cornelius. This is precisely where less talented writers could go wrong, abandoning plots or allowing them to slide into unbelievable absurdity. However, Tschappat and Gorman juggle all the plots with grace, resulting in a compelling, sometimes heartbreaking New York story. 

Tschappat and Gorman both attended Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco and graduated from Yale. They both now live in the Bay Area, where Gorman serves as the administrator of Camp Kee Tov, a summer day camp affiliated with the local Jewish Temple Beth El, and Tschappat works as a counselor at a teen drug rehab facility called Thunder Road. This is their first original musical, though they have also collaborated on an adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s book James and the Giant Peach. This is also the first time the BHS drama department has put on a premiere showing of a serious musical.  

Though Man In The Musical is a first in many ways, it does not appear on the stage as such. The young actors take on their roles with a professionalism that is surprising for high school students. According to Tschappat and Gorman, “these kids are as good and in some cases better than the adults we usually work with.” Trumble and Dale, in their leading roles, give nuanced performances, though there is a noticeable lack of onstage chemistry between the two. However, the true stars of the play are the minor characters, especially Sean Barry and Dav Wright in several small roles each. Perry Young, as Ned, shows amazing comic timing and stage presence, and Martina Miles, as Kenner Stross, Boris’ Borscht Kitchen’s metaphor-spouting, pretentious director, delivers a performance that is colorful but not too over-the-top. 

All of the actors also show impressive dancing and singing abilities. The high-energy dance numbers, credited in the play’s program to “Simon Trumble and cast,” are the highlight of the show. The songs are backed by an eight-piece band of Berkeley High students led by Gorman himself, and feature smart and creative lyrics. Gorman also oversaw musical training during rehearsals, and it shows through the actors’ singing. Especially amazing are Chandra Krinsky, Young, and Emily Stein.  

The show is staged in Berkeley High School’s intimate Florence Schwimley Little Theater, and the sets and costuming are unobtrusive but complementary to the show in its entirety.  

In nearly every way, Man in the Musical is a first rate musical, complete with a funny script, talented performances, and creative dancing. This performance is definitely worth seeing. 

Ellen Cushing is a sophomore at Berkeley High School. o

One of the highlights of the 29th annual Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association 29th Spring House Tour on Sunday, May 9, is the Tape House on Russell Street near Shattuck Avenue. It was once the home of the pioneering Tape family. 

Acclaimed Berkeley filmmaker and UC Ethnic Studies lecturer Loni Ding is currently completing a documentary called Mamie Tape and the Fight for Equality in Education, 1885–1954. Mamie Tape was an 8-year old San Francisco girl who, in 1884, was denied admission to the neighboring public school because of her Chinese descent. Mamie’s parents were Americanized Christians educated by Presbyterian missionaries. Joseph C. Tape (1852–1935) and his wife Mary McGladery (1857–1934) were born in China and came to California in 1869 and 1868, respectively. They met in San Francisco, married in 1875, and raised four children: Mamie (1876–1972), Frank (1878–1950), Emily (1880–1934), and Gertrude (1890–1947). Mr. Tape was an expressman—he had a monopoly on transporting bonded Chinese immigrants and handled large drayage contracts for wholesale merchants in Chinatown. In addition, he was the interpreter to the Imperial Consulate of China in San Francisco. 

Mary McGladery Tape, an orphan from the Shanghai area, was multi-talented and progressive to a degree rarely seen in Victorian ladies. An accomplished amateur photographer, painter, and telegrapher, she was also imbued with a strong sense of justice. She and her husband knew that restrictive school laws embedded in the California Political Code had been repealed by the state legislature in April 1880. Section 1662 of the revised Code read: 

“Every school, unless otherwise provided by law, must be open for the admission of all children between 6 and 21 years of age residing in the district; and the board of trustees, or city board of education, have power to admit adults and children not residing in the district whenever good reason exists therefor. Trustees shall have the power to exclude children of filthy and vicious habits, or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases.” 

The Tapes sued the San Francisco Board of Education in the landmark Tape v. Hurley case, which is still cited as precedent in racial quota lawsuits. On Jan. 9, 1885, Superior Court Judge McGuire decided the case in favor of the parents, writing, “To deny a child, born of Chinese parents in this state, entrance to the public schools would be a violation of the law of the state and the Constitution of the United States.” The school board appealed the decision to the California Supreme Court. Fearing a negative ruling, School Superintendent Andrew Jackson Moulder lobbied a compliant state legislature to introduce Assembly Bill 268, which was passed under an “urgency provision.” AB 268 added the following coda to Section 1662 of the Political Code, which would not be repealed until 1947: 

“...and also to establish separate schools for children of Mongolian or Chinese descent. When such separate schools are established Chinese or Mongolian children must not be admitted into any other schools.” 

In April 1885, Mamie Tape was again denied admission to Spring Valley School. Her mother sent an impassioned letter to the school board on April 8: 

To the Board of Education—dear sirs: I see that you are going to make all sorts of excuses to keep my child out of the Public schools. Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? Didn’t God make us all!!! What right have you to bar my children out of the school because she is a chinese Decend.  

Although Mary vowed in her letter that Mamie would “never attend any of the Chinese schools of your making,” both Mamie and her brother Frank were the first pupils to appear at the Chinese Primary School, which opened on April 13, 1885. In an 1892 interview, Mary told a reporter of the San Francisco Call: “Their education in the common branches has been gained at the Chinese public school on Clay Street, and their other accomplishments by private tutors. Each of them has some accomplishment, and my eldest daughter Mamie is quite proficient on the piano.” 

Most accomplished in the family was Mary herself. According to photography historian Peter E. Palmquist, she was “a very popular member of the California Camera Club and of the amateur photography scene. Not only was she considered a fine photographic technician but she also won a number of salon awards for the artistic excellence of her photography.” Mary photographed landscapes, portraits, and still life, prepared her own plates, and made her own prints. Her photographs were exhibited at the Mechanics’ Institute. She was also a proficient painter in oil and on china. One of her painted dishes is included in the Smithsonian collections. 

Mary’s proficiency in Morse code was noted twice in newspapers of the period. In an 1889 interview, the “Chinese Edison” Wong Hong Tai deemed Mary his equal in both telegraphy and photography, adding that they regularly conversed on the telephone, “discussing science at long range.” Tai had invented a new camera, and Mary was creating extra-sensitive dry plates for capturing “trotters in motion and birds in flight.” In 1892, the Call reporter noted, “She can send and receive as well as the best operators, and keeps in constant practice by daily use of the instruments, connected with a line running from the house to some point near her husband’s place of business. […] The telegraph instrument is on a table in the dining room and its least click can be heard in any part of the house.” 

In 1895, the Tapes’ youngest daughter, Gertrude, reached school age. The family moved to Berkeley, where schools were integrated and where they were able to buy a home (in San Francisco, restrictive clauses in most property deeds barred Chinese from occupying property outside Chinatown). They bought a Victorian house on Russell Street near Shattuck Avenue, which remained in the possession of the family until 1949. The Tape house will be open on the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s house tour, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, May 9. Loni Ding hopes to complete her film and screen it in the Tape house during the tour. 

ˇ

TUESDAY, MAY 4 

CHILDREN 

Gary Lapow at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 981-6270. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bryan Sykes, Professor of Genetics, Oxford Univ. describes “Adam’s Curse: A Future Without Men” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Gloria Feldt talks about “The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women’s Rights and How to Fight Back” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Marvin Korman will read from “In My Father’s Bakery: A Bronx Memoir” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Co-sponsored by Black Oak Books. 848-0237, ext. 127. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anoush performs Balkan music at 8:30 p.m. with a dance lesson with Norma Adjmi at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz- 

school at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Shocked and Awed” an exhibit of drawings by Iraqi school children. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Museum of Children’s Art, 538 9th St., Oakland. Runs to June 6th. Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sat.-Sun. noon to 5 p.m. 465-8770. www.mocha.org 

Huichol Art Show, yarn paintings, beaded bowls and animals from 4 to 7 p.m. at Gathering Tribes Gallery, 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038. 

FILM 

Film 50: “The Man Without a Past” at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Susan Moon, editor, is joined by contributors to “Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“A.W. Pattini, Victorian Designer-Builder” with Paul Roberts at 7:30 p.m. at Church by the Side of the Road, 2108 Russell St. Tickets are available from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Hampton Sides introduces his unique compilation of “Americana: Dispatches From the New Frontier” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry for the People with Mohja Kahf at 3:15 p.m. at Unit 3 All Purpose Room, UC Campus. 642-2743. www.poetryforthepeople.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with hosts Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7,  

$5 with student i.d. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert Javanese Gamelan at International House, Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Songwriter Showcase at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $5. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Cinco de Mayo Celebration with Conjunto Coyote at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

I.C.E. Series, experimental music jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

David Lindley, string instrumentalist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Whiskey Brothers perform old time and bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatross- 

pub.com 

Jules Broussard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Ryoko Moriyama at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Oswald, Jacuzzi, Crackpot Theory at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Crowsong at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, MAY 6 

THEATER 

Berkeley High School “Man in the Musical” premiere of an original musical theater piece by Phil Gorman and Lila Tschappat at 8 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston and MLK Jr Way. Also May 7-8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5-$10. 332-1931. 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “The Bigamist” free screening at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems Student Readings at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-0137. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Lucinda Barnes in a Curator’s Talk on travelers and photographers of the late nineteenth century at 12:15 p.m. in the Theater Gallery, Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Tres Santos, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. For information call 526-5985 or 205-1749.  

Edward Smallfield is the featured poet at at 7 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

Jay Dalessandro introduces his new novel “1906” set during the San Francisco earthquake at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Kat Albracht introduces us to “The Pet Chronicles: Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Michael Andre Bernstein reads from his new novel “Conspirators” set in Austria-Hungary in 1913, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Chorus performs “Music for Sacred Spaces” at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant. Tickets are $5-$8. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu/concerts.html  

Otis Taylor plays the blues at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited with music from Zimbabwe at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Touch of Soul at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Casey Neill Band and Little Sue at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Patrick Cress’ Telepathy, inoovative jazz, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $7-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Winard Harper Sextet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, MAY 7 

CHILDREN 

We Love Our Mamas with storyteller Audrey Penn at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Transformation” works by Lanny Weingrod, Mayumi Hamanaka and Taro Hattori. Reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at Nexus Gallery, 2701 8th St. Exhibit runs to May 9. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center, reception for artists, with music by Faun Fables, from 6 to 8 p.m., at 2540 Barrett Ave. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“Animal Art” by Kay Bradner, Ketzia Schoneberg, Jathy Sheehan, Rita Sklar and Heidi Wyckoff. Reception 6 to 8 p.m. Exhibition runs to May 27, at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

A Mother Should be Loved: “Woman of Tokyo” at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, opens at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and continues on Fri. and Sat. through May 15. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre Company “Antigone Falun Gong” at 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through May 16. Tickets are $28-$40 available from 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley High School “Man in the Musical” premiere of an original musical theater piece by Phil Gorman and Lila Tschappat at 8 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston and MLK Jr Way. Also May 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5-$10. 332-1931. 

Berkeley Rep “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Charles Ludlam’s theatrical cult classic, at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage at 8 p.m. and continues through May 23. Tickets are $39-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre “Money and Run” an action serial adventure with different episodes on Thurs., Fri. and Sats. Runs through June 5 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. For tickets and information call 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lolly Winston looks at loss in “Good Grief” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ellen Oppenheimer, quilt artist, talks about the work she created as artist in residence at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Maxine Alexandra Bernstein, sporano and Sergei Podobedov, piano at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Reception follows. Benefits the restoration of the Julia Morgan landmark. Tickets are $35. Reservations required. 883-9710.  

UC Men’s and Women’s Chorales Spring Show at 7:30 p.m., Room 20 Cesar Chavez Center. Cost is $5-$8. 643-2662. 

Ricardo Lemovo and Makina Loca, Afro-Cuban music at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. Tickets for the previously scheduled Cubanismo will be honored at the door.. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

(R)evolutionary (Id)entity presents “Any King, Any Path,” ambient poetry and accoustic rock at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Susan Getz, jazz vocalist, with Leonard Thompson, piano, Justin Hellman, bass, Jemal Ramirez, drums, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Djialy Kunda Kouyate plays music from Sengal at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Baby Jaymes, Dynamic at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Pacific Sound Collective at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Skin Divers at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Jackie Ryan at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Triple Play, jazz trio, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Dr. Masseuse, album release party, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. 

www.shattuckdownlow.com 

René Marie Fri. and Sat. at 8 and 10 p.m., Sun. at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Drunken Cat Paws at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower, The Raking Bombs, Brilliant Red Lights at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, MAY 8 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri and music from Latin America at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Wild About Books” storytime at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

FILM 

Jacques Tati: “Playtime” at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karen Joy Fowler introduces the comedy set in the Central Valley in “The Jane Austen Book Club” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Olive Gallagher introduces “A Simple Path to the Good Life” at 2 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

Poetry Concert with Jami Sieber, electric cello and vocals Kim Rosen, spoken poetry Michaelle Goerlitz, percussion, at 8 p.m. at Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1606 Bonita Ave. Tickets are $18-$20 available at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra performs Verdi’s “Requiem” at 4 p.m at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St., at 8 p.m. and Sun at 4 p.m. Free, donations welcome. 964-0665. www.bcco.org  

Showtime at the Apollo presents the Bay Area finalists at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$42 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the musical direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

American Bach Soloists Choir and Orchestra with soprano Marguerite Krull and tenor Gerald Thomas Gray at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 621-7900. www.americanbach.org 

Baroque Etcetera “A Telemann Celebration” with concerti and cantatas by Georg Phillip Telemann at 8 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 5201 Park Blvd., Oakland. Suggested donation $10. 540-8222. www.baroquetc.org 

Oakland Day of Percussion with world-class drummers and persussionists presented by the Percussive Arts Society from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 415-296-0454. www.pas.org/chapters/california/oak.html 

“Off Our Rockers” Lu Mitchell in concert at 7 p.m. in the Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2951 Derby St. Donation $5-$15, no one turned away. 848-6397. 

West Coast Live with Austin Lounge Lizards, the Cowlicks and others at 10 a.m. at the Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15 in advance, $18 at the door, available from 415-664-9500 or www.ticketweb.com 

Cal Jazz Choir Spring Show at 8 pm in the Choral Rehearsal Hall in the basement of Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-8.  

Youth Movement Records Artists at 8 p.m. at Youth Radio Cafe, 1801 University Ave. Cost is $3. 435-5112. 

YWCA Dance Perfromance at 7 p.m. at 2600 Bancroft at Bowditch. Free. 848-6370. 

Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

David Siegel, Machingura & Folk This! at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. All ages welcome. Suggested donation of $7-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Lithium House at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

House Jacks, a cappella quintet, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Andre Thierry performs Cajun/Zydeco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Apocalipstick, Castles in Spain at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Shanna Carlson, jazz vocalist, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Fred Frith, Toychestra at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Scott Amendola Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

The Phenomenauts, Jason Webley, Harold Ray, The Mothballs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926.8

Anyone who passed through Austin during the glory years of the Texan counterculture will remember the establishment called Armadillo World Headquarters. Well, there’s a spot in Berkeley that I’ve begun to think of as Salamander World Headquarters. (No, y ou can’t get Lone Star or Shiner Bock there.) It’s the courtyard of a nondescript south-of-Campus apartment complex that has some irresistible attraction for salamanders. A friend who lives there keeps finding them: mostly arboreal salamanders, although a slender salamander turned up a few weeks ago. 

The arboreal salamanders seem particularly out of place. These chunky dark-brown amphibians, as the name implies, favor trees, especially oaks, as habitats, and Salamander World Headquarters is as oak-free a s a parking lot. Arboreals hide out in cavities and crevices, sometimes 30 feet off the ground, and climb down at night to hunt their prey—small insects and arthropods—in the leaf litter below. Trees are where female arboreals lay their grape-like cluster s of eggs, and where both sexes wait out the dry season. When the first fall rains hit, dehydrated salamanders cling to tree trunks soaking up the life-giving moisture like sponges. 

The skins of these creatures are their respiratory organs. Their distant ancestors had lungs, but at some point hundreds of millions of years ago they dispensed with them. One theory has it that the primordial lungless salamanders lived in rushing mountain streams, where the buoyancy of air-filled lungs put them at risk of be ing swept away by the current. But there’s a rival explanation involving adaptations to life on land and the development of chameleon-like tongues for catching prey, and the jury is still out. 

Arboreal salamanders are odd beasts (lacking vocal cords, the y can produce a squeak by retracting their eyeballs and forcing air through their mouths), but not as odd as slenders. Slender salamanders—there are 20 species, all but one native to California—bear a disconcerting resemblance to worms. They have no neck s to speak of, and rudimentary legs. 

Slender salamanders are often found hiding under things: logs, boards, flowerpots. If you pick one up, it will curl up in a tight coil, then suddenly uncoil like a watchspring and fling itself out of your hand. In a pinch, they can shed their tails—always good for distracting a predator—and grow them back later; 50 to 80 percent in some populations were found to be regenerating their tails. As a final fallback, slenders exude a sticky skin secretion that can gum up a predator’s jaws. One garter snake that had attacked a slender salamander was out of commission for at least 48 hours afterward. 

Our local species is the California slender salamander, which occurs near the coast from the Rogue River in Oregon to San Benito County. Some of its relatives have extremely narrow ranges: the Gabilan Mountains, the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Inyo Mountains, the lower Kings River, the Channel Islands. Although they all look pretty much alike, the genetic profiles of the slender salamanders are distinct enough to suggest they’ve been evolving in isolation for millions of years. According to UC Berkeley herpetologist David Wake, some of the Coast Range species appear to have ridden microplates—loose bits of the Earth’s crust—as te ctonic forces propelled them north along the San Andreas Fault. 

Most of the time, neither arboreal nor slender salamanders are all that gregarious. In summer, though, large numbers of arboreals may aestivate together in some damp dark hollow. And female slender salamanders congregate at communal egg-laying sites. Why either species would gather under the steps of an apartment building in early spring is an open question. Maybe the place has really tasty bugs. But how would word of this get around among these sedentary creatures? 

I have come to suspect that the social lives of salamanders, like those of most creatures, are more complicated than we give them credit for. I’m fascinated, for example, by recent studies of the red-backed salamander, an easte rn species that forms monogamous pair bonds and appears to be capable of jealousy. When researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette removed the male of a pair, let him spend some time with another female, then brought him home, his mate whaled the tar out of him. Those foreign pheromones clinging to his skin were the amphibian equivalent of lipstick traces. "It almost looks like the females are waiting at home with rolling pins when these poor unfaithful males come back," herpetologist Ethan P rosen says. 

And there may be more going on cognitively that you might think. Salamanders aren’t wired for brilliance: The brain of some species contains fewer neurons that that of a honeybee. But they’re smart enough to have a sense of number. Claudia Uller, also at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, found that her lab salamanders, given the choice between a tube containing two fruitflies and a tube with three, consistently went for the three-pack. They did about as well as adult monkeys or human infants at this task. (No, the babies were not offered fruitflies.) Quantities greater than three confused them, but that was also true of the babies and monkeys. 

I am not sure how Lafayette came to be the center of cutting-edge salamander research. I ca n see the attractions of the place; it’s a great town for music if you like fiddles and accordions, and (unlike Austin) for food as well. But the synergistic possibilities are limited. There are some things even the boldest Cajun cook would never try to etouffee. 

) 

Photo by Pierre Fidenci›

Cartoon

Wow. It looks like the aging but still potent Disney megacorp might finally have met its match. Here at the Daily Planet alone we got a bunch of letters expressing outrage about Disney’s decision to bar its subsidiary Miramax from distributing Michael Moore’s new movie Fahrenheit 911. It’s an expose of, among other things, the Bush family’s long history of palling around with the Bin Ladens of Saudi Arabia. (Yes, those Bin Ladens.) Hot stuff. The New York Times has already written an editorial denouncing Disney. Maureen Dowd has made a skewering comment in her column. FAIR, the very effective media criticism organization, has taken up the cause. The FAIR e-mail newsletter quotes Moore’s agent, Ari Emanuel, about the reason for Disney’s action: “According to Emanuel, he had a conversation last spring with Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, who asked him to cancel his deal with Miramax and ‘expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor.’” 

Well, maybe, but maybe not. Disney has owned a big hunk of Florida politics for a long time, and a little thing like a critical documentary probably won’t change that. The first magazine article I ever wrote, now about 25 years ago, was an expose of how Disney circumvented Florida’s environmental laws to build Disney World, mainly by acquiring a few legislators. It’s hard to believe that brother Jeb would get unbought just because of a little ol’ movie distribution deal.  

The Disney Corporation has a history of fighting long and hard for what it wants. Our beloved op-ed page comic strip author Dan O’Neill had an epic battle with Disney over whether he had the right to satirize Mickey Mouse. It’s almost enough to make one believe in the arcane branch of political thought which holds that corporations are living Frankenstein’s monsters, capable at the drop of a comma of running wild and devouring everything in their paths. It’s true that the big bad Disney Corporation legend has gone on for a long time. Many people who grew up in Los Angeles in the 40s and 50s knew cartoonists who were victims of the battles to unionize the Disney studio, which Disney won.  

But Michael Moore has won a few battles too. He relishes the role of David to the corporate Goliath, and is a master at rallying the supporting legions. This promises to be a worthy sequel to Dan O’Neill’s epic, and it should be fun to watch. 

—Becky O’Malley›

The mythic history of the American Revolution which used to be taught in the elementary schools (and perhaps still is) reserved a special bad guy slot for the role of the Hessian soldiers who fought with the British against the American revolutionaries. They were “mercenaries,” hirelings who fought for money instead of for principle (like the Americans) or for king (like the Redcoats). Never mind that the major part of the payment for their services went to their German rulers, and that the Hessians themselves were poorly paid peasants. (Many of them were stranded in the United States with no way to get home when the war was over.) Americans, our teachers made clear, didn’t use mercenaries. World War II was fought by citizens, not mercenaries.  

The Vietnam war, which was fought some years after I left grade school, saw the beginning of American reliance on foreign mercenaries in particular circumstances. The Hmong people were used as mercenaries by the U.S. forces, so that after the war many of them were forced to flee to the United States for resettlement. But the current occupation of Iraq has given a major role to a new kind of mercenary: the international soldiers of fortune who are in it strictly for the money. Michael Moore, as usual, has nailed the euphemisms used to describe them: 

“Those are not ‘contractors’ in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway. They are mercenaries …they are there for the money, and the money is very good if you live long enough to spend it.”  

Many rank-and-file employees of mercenary corporations, of course, are no more culpable than the Hessian peasants who were hired to fight for George III. Tommy Hamill, who has just escaped from captivity in Iran, has the same reason for becoming a mercenary that many of the Hessians had: he’s in debt. According to the Jackson Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, he’s “a former dairy farmer who took a truck-driving job in Iraq to save his family from bankruptcy.” As the two-tier economy continues to dominate the United States, more and more Americans who aren’t making it financially may be forced to become mercenary employees of war profiteers. And their employers, the Halliburtons and the CACIs, will continue to fatten off their labors, just as the Hessian princes profited from sending their poor farmers to fight in the American Revolution. 

Some of the mercenaries who are hired by the corporations in Iraq, however, are (mincing no words) evil embodied. They are trained to torture and to kill, and they’re paid handsomely for their skill. Seymour Hersh in the May 10 New Yorker quotes a February report on the allegations of torture in an Iraq prison:  

“‘I suspect,’ [General] Taguba concluded, that [army intelligence officers] Pappas, Jordan, [and CAIC International, Inc. employees] Stephanowicz and Israel ‘were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse at Abu Ghraib.’ “ 

Contracting firms like CACI operate a revolving door employment agency for ex-military who want to make big bucks on the outside. CACI’s web page sports the slogan “ever vigilant” as a cutline in its logo. Job seekers who have a top-secret clearance can go to a special webpage to apply for work at CACI.  

The result is the creation of an amoral culture of violence-for-profit which is not even subject to the kinds of controls which still occasionally restrain the behavior of the U.S. armed forces. A former military man from Florida now working for a contracting company in Iraq, identified only as “Scott”, e-mailed his assessment of the situation to a friend who posted it on the Internet on April 8: 

“Instead of a professional military outfit here we have a bunch of cowboys and vigilantes running wild in the streets. The ugly American has never been so evident. Someone in charge needs to drop the hammer on this lack of discipline, especially that which is being shown by the Special Forces, security contractors, and ‘other government agencies.’ We won the war but that doesn't mean we can treat the people of this country with contempt and disregard with no thought to the consequences.” 

This week’s revelations about what went on at Abu Ghraib prison, and probably elsewhere in Iraq, have shown Scott to be a prophet. The consequences which he predicted will be felt for years to come. 

—Becky O’Malleye