Police have noted a rise in the number of compact discs stolen from apartments and houses in recent burglaries. 

In a burglary Saturday in an apartment in the 2900 block of Regent Street, 70 CDs were stolen, along with a 19-inch television and a telephone. The burglar entered the apartment through unlocked French doors. 

In a Sunday burglary in the 2600 block of Parker Street where two residents had separate bedrooms in an apartment, 250 compact discs were taken from one of the bedrooms and 70 from the other one. The burglar entered from an opened window in one of the bedrooms. 

On Monday a burglary was reported at 11:30 p.m. in the 2500 block of Etna Avenue in a rear cottage. Earlier in the day a stack of about 60 compact discs was stolen from the living room of the home. The victim, said Police Capt. Bobby Miller, believes the burglar entered from an unlocked front door. The plastic wrappers still were on some of the discs. 

Miller said thieves frequently try to sell stolen CDs on the street or to music stores that buy used compact discs. He said the police department enlists the cooperation of such stores as Rasputin Music and Amoeba Music, asking them to be aware of people selling large lots of the discs. 

Inspector Arnold Liu noted compact discs are one of the items that are more easily converted to cash and easier to haul away than a 27-inch television. But he said victims of a burglary often have left a door or window unlocked making it even easier for a burglar. 

He said one ruse used by thieves to cash in on CDs is to find some on the street, paying that person to use his or her identification to sell them in a store. 

Liu said his detail speaks to store personnel about “being leery of who they buy from,” and to question the veracity of two sellers when one of them acts like the owner but the other shows the identification. 

Marc Weinstein, owner of Amoeba Music on Telegraph Avenue and in San Francisco, said the store keeps lists of collections that have been stolen by the counter. Hopefully titles are included, he said. 

“A lot of people walk in with 10 or 20 CDs,” Weinstein said. If they match the list of the customer who told Amoeba they were stolen, the store keeps them aside and contacts the police with information about the person who sold them. 

He said they must provide current California identification to sell compact discs to the store. “At least once every few weeks we catch them.” 

People who want to safeguard their CDs can take a few steps that could help, including writing their names on the cover of the CD jacket and investing in renters’ insurance. The names can discourage thieves from either stealing or attempting to resell the discs, and insurance often proves to be a worthwhile investment for renters. 

Wednesday, May 10  

Demonstration against Secretary of State Madeline Albright 

Noon 

Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley campus 

Bay Area organizations, groups, students, and individuals representing a diversity of issues and viewpoints are organizing a regional response to protest Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s appearance as the Commencement Speaker for UC Berkeley’s graduation ceremony. At 1:30 p.m., protesters will march to the Greek Theatre, where Albright will be speaking later in the day. Demonstrators will be protesting Albright’s support for sanctions against Iraq, the embargo against Cuba, the drug war in Columbia and more. 

510-343-2139 x1957; 510-548-0524 

Low-vision support group 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Discussion of Globalization, hosted by the Berkeley Gray Panthers 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange will be the featured speaker. 

510-548-9696 

Carefree, Carfree Tour to Berkeley Art Center (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1:30 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

UC Berkeley Commencement Convocation 

4 p.m. 

Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley campus 

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will be the keynote speaker. This event is open to students, faculty and family, and a ticket is required. 

510-642-7026 

Commission on Disability 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Among the items the commission will address are: working with implementing recommendations on the Bike/Pedestrian Task Force and Berkeley Bike Coalition on Traffic Calming; the advisability of having disability organizations “ghettoized” at the proposed Ed Roberts campus at the Ashby BART station, and recommendation on the continuing lack of accessible polling places. 

Special BUSD school board meeting 

7-10 p.m. 

Board/Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

The board will discuss reports for the current and upcoming fiscal years. The board also will receive a more comprehensive overview of the Maintenance Report, which highlighted various maintenance problems around the district and funding proposals to address those problems. 

Planning Commission Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

As part of the General Plan planning process the commission will discuss land use in Berkeley. Information is on the city web site at: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Planning/advplan/genplan/GenPlan2ndDraft/lunot.htm. 

Improvisational theater 

7:30-9:30 p.m. 

The “Improvsters” is a group of intermediate-level improvisational players who meet weekly. The group is looking for additional members; an audience is also welcome and there is no charge to join them. Call the group for specific location. 

510-848-4357 

Poetry Flash at Cody’s (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

2474 Telegraph Ave. 

Hannah Stein, Sandra Gilbert will be the featured poets. 

Buses No. 40, 64 

Pianist John Wolf Brennan and flutist Diane Grubbe 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 

Tickets are $12. 

510-84-JULIA 

New Music Bay Area (formerly 20th Century Forum - Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

This is a concert of music by Bay Area composers foreshadowing music of the 21st century. $8, FOF free. 

Thursday, May 11 

Orchestra concert with elementary students 

9:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

The first part of the concert, at 9:30, will feature Oxford Elementary School students performing with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Students from Washington Elementary School will perform at 10:45. 

Men’s chorus performance 

11:15 a.m. 

Movie: Outbreak 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Jazzschool BART Plaza Concert (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

Noon 

The Brazilian Ensemble, under the direction of Marcos Silva, will perform. The concert is sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association, Amoeba Music, BART and the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Free computer class for seniors 

1-4 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

Berkeley Arts Magnet Instrumental and Choral Concert 

1:30 p.m. 

1645 Milvia St. 

Carefree Carfree Tour to Judah L. Magnes Museum (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1:30 p.m. 

Meet at the Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Community Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic, 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Among the items the commission will address are: the Health Access Report, the midwife crisis and the budget. 

Zoning Adjustment Board 

7 p.m. 

Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Among the items the board will discuss is a recommendation to deny a permit to demolish a 2,900 square-foot house on Woodmont Avenue and replace it with a 5,200 square-foot house. 

Update on Haiti 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Cedar and Bonita 

Members of a recent delegation to Haiti, including local activists Pierre Laboissiere, will be talking about their trip, the recent episodes of violence in that country and the upcoming elections. The event is sponsored by Global Exchange, the Bay Area Haitian American Committee and others. 

The Plight of the Redwoods 

7 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Forest defender Redwood Mary, tree-sitter Nate Madsen (via live cell phone), and Chie Abad, human rights activist and former Saipan sweatshop worker will be on hand to explain the current campaign to focus attention on the connection between sweatshops, Fair Trade, and forest destruction. There also will be a screening of the 20-minute video “ Timber Gap” by the Headwaters Action Video Collective, about the efforts to save the last of Mendocino’s coastal redwood forest from overexploitation. 

510-548-2220, ext. 233 

Friday, May 12 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Jones and Fourth streets 

This show-and-sale highlights work by clay artists, Ikebana demonstrations, one-of-a-kind bargains throughout the complex of art studios, and more. The event is free. 

510-524-7031 

Fund-raiser for the Aquatic Park Children’s Playground 

6 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way 

This event will help raise funds for the Aquatic Park Children’s Playground project. Build Days are May 18-21 and May 31-June 4. Volunteers (skilled and unskilled), food, beverages, and money are needed for that event. There is a sliding scale donation of $2 to $10 per person for the fund-raiser. 

510-649-9874; ZasaSwanson@EminentSoftware.com; http://www.bpfp 

Poetry reading 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington 

Monza Neff will read from her two poetry collections, “Exultation: A Poem Cycle in Celebration of the Seasons” and “Healing the Womanheart.” This event is free. 

510-559-9184; www.boadeciasbooks.com 

Saturday, May 13 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program was established in 1974, providing project-based and tenant-based housing assistance to low-income persons who rent. When both tenant and landlord qualify under Section 8, tenant pays one third of her/his income for rent, with the balance subsidized. It has been one of the best possible uses of federal funds, because it countermands need for costly welfare-type expenditures associated with sheltering persons with small incomes who are willing, able, and eager to live independently. And yet when conservatives’ attempts to eliminate HUD failed, they were able to focus on the Section 8 program and its various components. Seniors currently receiving Section 8 rent subsidies in project-based buildings, for example, have been receiving annual notices of possible loss of their status. 

Landlords prefer not to accept vouchered tenants and are not renewing their Section 8 contracts with HUD because they can get bigger rents and what they consider “desirable tenants” on the “open market,” where the demand exceeds the supply. Market-rate rents are highest in Bay Area California. 

In Berkeley, it may also be possible for a low-income family to obtain a Section 8 voucher in a Berkeley Housing Authority lottery. Then, within a short period of time, they must also find a vacant apartment owned by a landlord who will accept both the subsidized rent voucher and a tenant who may or may not fit a model profile! In addition to managing these “tenant-based” Section 8 rentals, the Berkeley Housing Authority has the city’s public housing within its purview. 

HUD requires that housing authorities involve residents in the planning process by means of a Resident Advisory Committee or board (RAB) consisting of public housing residents and Section 8 participants renting in tenant-based buildings. The RAB’s role is to make informed comments regarding proposed procedures. The Center for Community Change has declared that residents will have to be vigilant to make sure that this happens in a meaningful way, and cautions that, where there is a history of mistrust and hostility between residents and housing authority management, housing authorities may meet only the minimal requirements to involve residents or even less than what is required. 

In October 1999 the Berkeley City Council authorized the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project, with the goals of providing coalition-building, tenant organizing, and other activities to help save Federal Section 8 and other affordable housing programs. An AHAP goal is to join with other active tenant organizations in the Bay Area, state and nation to pursue these goals. (For more information about the AHAP, contact Wanda Remmers at Housing Rights, Inc., 510-548-8776, 1-800-261-2298.) 

An important element in AHAP’s mission is involvement in and influence upon the federally-required Public Housing Authority Plan that the Berkeley Housing Authority is presently developing. During the month of May, AHAP is sponsoring a series of Town Hall Meetings throughout Berkeley to discuss the Berkeley Housing Authority – how it operates now, how Berkeley tenants can help to improve it, and how they can impact its planning process. The Town Hall meetings are being held from 6 to 8 p.m. on May 17 (North Berkeley Senior Center), May 24 (South Berkeley Senior Center), and May 31 (West Berkeley Senior Center). Anyone who lives in Berkeley Housing Authority-managed public housing or who has a Section 8 voucher or certificate, or who is a tenant-based Section 8 renter is urged to attend. This is your opportunity to influence your housing situation. Don’t agonize – organize! 

Helen Rippier Wheeler is a member of the Berkeley Housing Authority, the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project steering committee, and the Alameda County

THEATER 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE 

“Let My Enemy Live Long!” by Tanya Shaffer, April 19 through May 12. The story of an ill-advised boat ride up West Africa's Niger River to Timbuktu. 

$19 to $48.50. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; April 19, 8 p.m.; NO PERFORMANCES APRIL 25 AND APRIL 26. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-4700 or (888) 4BRTTIX. 

IMPACT THEATRE 

“The Wake-Up Crew” by Zay Amsbury, May 5 through June 3. A comic book on stage that pits unemployed UC Santa Cruz grads against the forces of chaos and destruction. 

$10 general; $5 students. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. (510) 464-4468. 

SHOTGUN PLAYERS 

“The Skriker” by Caryl Churchill, through June 4. In this ecological play, faeries are damaged due to polluted rivers and woods, and are forgotten. 

$15 general; $10 seniors and students. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. The Warehouse Performance Space, 1850 Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco. (510) 655-0813. 

MUSIC VENUES 

ASHKENAZ 

Red Archibald and The Internationals, May 10, 9 p.m. $8. 

Grateful Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave, May 11, 10 p.m. $5. 

Mutabaruka, DJ Zodiac Soundz, May 12, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. $11. 

The Johnny Otis Show, Clarence Van Hook, May 13, 9:30 p.m. $20. 

Caminos Flamencos, May 14, 7:30 p.m. $10. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

BLAKES 

Third World with UC Buu, DJ Add, Jah Bonz, Big Willie, May 10. $5. 

Ripe, Sol Fire, May 11. $4. 

Orixa, Fuzzbucket, May 12. $6. 

Nobody From Ipenema, Brazilian Dance Party, May 13. $6. 

Ten Ton Chicken, May 14. $3. 

For age 18 and older. Music at 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886. 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Alison Kinnaird and Christine Primrose, May 10. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Ferron, Lui Collins, May 11. $17.50 to $18.50. 

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, May 12. $17.50 to $18.50. 

Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, May 13. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Kathy Kallick Mother's Day Show, May 14, 2 p.m. $5.50 kids/ $7.50 general. 

Melody of China with Wu Wei, May 14. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Zapatista Band Fest, May 11, 8 p.m. Featuring Venus Loon, Epidemia, Blasfemia, Caradura, Lodo y Asfalto. $8 to $10. 

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, May 12, 8 p.m. $12. 

John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, May 13, 8:30 p.m. $15. 

Cafe Rumba, May 14, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.  

Cancionero, May 14, 8 p.m. $8. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

Sangre Amado, Blood Hag, Noise of Struggle, May 12. 

The Oozzies, Trust Fund Babies, May 13. 

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Hanuman, Shelley Doty X-tet, May 11. $5. 

Stikman, Faun Fables, Brian Kenney Fresno, May 12. $5. 

The Damnations, TX, The Ex-Husbands, May 13. $7. 

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

MUSEUMS 

UC BERKELEY ART 

MUSEUM 

“Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition,” May 20 through July 2. The 13th annual exhibit of work by candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree. Artist Talk, May 21, 3 p.m. At Gallery 2. 

“Anne Chu/MATRIX 184 Untitled,” April 16 through June 18. The exhibition features a selection of Chu's T'ang dynasty funerary figures sculpted following her travels to Xian and Guangdong. The wooden figures range in height from 28 inches to over six feet.  

“China: Fifty Years Inside the People's Republic,” through June 18. The work of 25 Chinese and Western photographers explores half a century of social and political upheaval in this unusual exhibit. The 200 photographs, both black-and-white and color, cover the many regions, cultures and people that make up China as well as the mix of traditional life and the modern one. 

“Autour de Rodin: Auguste Rodin and His Contemporaries,” through August. An exhibit of 11 bronze maquettes on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in Los Angeles. The bronzes range in style from the artist's classically inspired “Torso of a Woman” to the anguish of “The Martyr.” Some of the maquettes were cast during Rodin’s lifetime, others have been cast fairly recently under the aegis of the Musee Rodin which alone is authorized to cast his sculptures posthumously. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students ages 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 1 1 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. 

HALL OF HEALTH  

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level), Berkeley 

A hands-on community health education museum and science center sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland and Alta Bates Medical Center. 

“This is Your Heart!” ongoing. An in teractive exhibit on heart health. 

“Good Nutrition,” ongoing. This exhibit includes models for making balanced meals and an exercycle for calculating how calories are burned. 

“Draw Your Own Insides,” ongoing. Human-shaped chalkboards and models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their bodies. 

“Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention,” ongoing. An exhibit on understanding how cells become cancerous and how to detect and prevent cancer. 

Free. For children ages 3 to 12 and their parents. 

(510) 549-1564 

LAWRENCE HALL 

OF SCIENCE 

“Dinosaurs 2000,” through June 4. An exhibit featuring 16 lifelike robotic creatures, fossils, activities to compare yourself to a dinosaur, and daily live demonstrations. 

“The News About Dinosaurs,” through June 4. Learn more about the “Dinosaurs 2000” exhibit with live demonstrations exploring recent paleontological discoveries and how scientists know what they do about prehistoric creatures. 

Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. 

$6 general; $4 seniors, students and children ages 7 to 18; $2 children ages 3 to 6; free children under age 3. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

PHOEBE HEARST MUSEUM 

Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley 

“Modern Treasures from Ancient Iran,” through Oct. 29. This exhibit explores nomadic and town life in ancient and modern Iran as illustrated in bronze and pottery vessels, and textiles. 

“Pana O’ahu: Sacred Stones – Sacred Places,” through July 16. An exhibit of photographs by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. 

“Phoebe Hearst Museum-Approaching a Century of Anthropology,” a sampling of the vast collections of the museum, its mission, history, and current research, with selections from ancient Egypt, ancient Peru, California Indians, Asia (India), and Africa. 

“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” Ishi, the last Yahi Indian of California, spent the final years of his life, 1911 to 1916, living at the museum, working with anthropologists to record his culture, demonstrating technological skills, and retelling Yahi myths, tales, and songs. 

Wednesday through Sunday 10 am -4:30 pm; Thursday until 9 pm (Sept-May) 

(510) 643-7648 

HABITOT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

A museum especially for children age 7 and younger. Highlights include “WaterWorks,” an area with some unusual water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library. 

Exhibit: “Back to the Farm,” open-ended. This interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and much more.  

Admission is $4 for adults; $6 child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child.  

Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

(510) 647-1111 

JUDAH L. MAGNES 

MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Chagall: Master Prints and Posters, Selections from the Magnes Museum Collection.” Accompanying the exhibition is “Exploring Chagall and His Use of the Elements of Art,” a child-friendly Interactive Educational Room with five work-stations and a central activities space. 

Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

(510) 549-6950. 

GALLERIES  

A.C.C.I. GALLERY 

“The Garden Show,” through May 20. A group exhibit of landscape paintings, ceramics and garden sculpture. Free. Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527. 

BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY, SOUTH BRANCH 

“You’re Blase: The Art of Nick Mastick,” May 15 through June 15. An exhibit of collages. Free. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1901 Russell St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6860. 

GRADUATE THEOLOGICAL UNION 

“On Common Ground.” through June 23. This exhibit is a portrait of faith-based communities in Los Angeles. 

“Finding the Sacred Mountain,” through June 20. An exhibit of sumi-e and watercolors by Robert Kostka. 

Free. Monday through Thursday, 8:30 am. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., Berkeley. (510) 649-2541. 

KALA ART INSTITUTE 

“High Touch/High Tech: Crossing The Divide,” through May 26. An exhibit of juried and invited artists. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-2977. 

NEW PIECES GALLERY 

“Rock, Stone, Masonry and Mosaics,” through June 1. An exhibit of quilts by Charlotte Patera. 

“The Rhapsody of Dolls,” through June 1. An exhibit of dolls by Patti Medaris Culea. 

Free. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1597 Solano Ave., Berkeley. (510) 527-6779. 

Free. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1597 Solano Ave., Berkeley. (510) 527-6779. 

A PIECE OF ART 

Jane Fox, Mixed Media Works, April 27 through June 10, with an artist reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 1. Ongoing new works by Gallery Artists in ceramic, metal, glass, wood and works on canvas and paper. 

Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment. Closed Monday and Tuesday. 

701 University Ave., in the parking lot across from Spenger’s. (510) 204-9653. 

TRAYWICK GALLERY 

“nudge,” May 17 through June 18. An exhibit of new work by Terry Hoff. Reception, May 17, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Artist Talk, June 9, 10:30 a.m. 

“minimalPOP,” April 15 through May 14. A group exhibit of a variety of media. 

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1316 10th St., Berkeley. (510) 527-1214. 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). 

Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. 

Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information. 

The “belly-itcher” in the well-known ballyard chant was nowhere to be found on Tuesday afternoon – just two great pitchers – as the Berkeley High softball team took on league powerhouse Livermore at James Kenney Park.  

Berkeley’s Lilli Bermeo pitched a complete seven innings, striking out eight Cowboys, but it was Livermore’s all-league starting pitcher, Jen Graver, who stole the show. Graver shut down a BHS offense that scored 16 runs last Thursday against Monte Vista, striking out four Yellowjackets on the way to a shutout victory. Bermeo allowed a handful of earned runs in front of an unusually error-prone defense, and the Cowboys left Berkeley with a comfortable 8-0 triumph. 

“Livermore is one of the top teams in the league. The first time we played them, we got no hits at all,” said Bermeo, who managed a double against the highly-touted Graver, who is headed to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo on a softball scholarship next season. “We’re hitting pretty well now. We stuck with them.” 

“Last time we played them we didn’t get on base,” agreed BHS coach Elena Bermeo. “We got on base six times today, and even had two or three girls in scoring position – that’s definitely a huge improvement.” 

Livermore’s Danielle Cuellar anchored the Cowboys’ offensive effort, teeing off on Bermeo pitches for a double and a triple. Candice Brook also managed a pair of extra-base hits, drilling two doubles en route to two runs scored.  

“This is the No. 1 team, they have a lot of titles under their belts,” the Berkeley High coach said about Tuesday’s opponent. “They go to hitting coaches and have a batting cage. We’ve never beaten Livermore in four seasons, playing them twice a year. The girls wanted this one, especially the seniors.” 

According to the BHS players, Tuesday’s shutout loss will not be a setback for the squad, which continues East Bay Athletic League play at Granada High on Thursday. At 2-9 in league, the ’Jackets hope to close out the final three games of the season with at least one victory. 

“Every team we play in the second half (of the season), we’ll get better. Now we’ve seen all the pitchers,” BHS third-baseman Emily Friedman said. “I definitely think we can take (May 18 opponent) Cal High – they’re really not as intense a team (as Livermore). We can play with them, especially with our pitching.” 

“(California High) is one that’s beatable, but there are no easy teams in this league,” Elena Bermeo added. “On any given day, any given team can really do anything.” 

Thursday’s game begins at 3:45 p.m. at the Matadors’ home field.

In a surprising twist, a state mediator issued a “total press and information blackout” Tuesday in connection with the contract negotiations between the Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. 

That means people who attend tonight’s special board meeting expecting to hear what offers are on the table will walk away disappointed. 

“I just wanted to make sure that negotiations stayed within the negotiating room,” mediator Ron McGee said Tuesday night. “I asked the parties to agree to the blackout.” 

That action applies to “all matters related to, and/or issues under discussion,” and must be followed by anyone who knows anything about the negotiations: board members, district administrators, union staff and teachers. 

The blackout is a sudden shift from comments made a week ago by School Board President Joaquin Rivera and BFT President Barry Fike. Rivera said it was possible that after this week’s mediation session, held Tuesday, that it was possible that the two sides would release more information about the negotiations, including information on what’s currently on the table. And Fike told the Daily Planet that the union had been willing to release much of that information for some time. 

When reached by telephone Tuesday night, Rivera said that based on his immediate interpretation of the mediator’s decision, he was unable to offer any comment on the reasons the blackout was imposed. Fike did not return a phone call Tuesday night. 

The mediator’s decision casts shadows on the likelihood of an informational forum scheduled for next week. The event was supposed to be an opportunity for the community to direct questions to the union and the school district. 

“That’s outrageous, absolutely outrageous,” PTA Council President Mark Coplan said, after hearing about the blackout. “Publicly, both sides accepted the challenge to this event, and apparently privately, one side put a nix to it.” 

Late last week, the PTA Council had assumed responsibility for organizing the forum. The event was initiated by the newly formed group Parents For Increased Salaries for Teachers, but was adopted by the neutral PTA Council. The League of Women Voters had agreed to moderate the forum at Berkeley Arts Magnet School. 

While revelations of negotiation stances won’t be on the agenda, the school board will hold a special meeting tonight – it’s actually a combination of two workshops – from 7 to 10 p.m. in Board/Council Chambers in Old City Hall, at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The first 90 minutes will feature a discussion of the budgets for the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 fiscal years, and consideration of budget reallocations. 

Those reallocations include a proposal to cut the budget by $2 million through a variety of actions, including cutting nine teaching positions, eliminating a school psychologist position and chopping $10 per student in school supplies. 

The second 90 minutes will address the report prepared by the Facilities Maintenance and Security Advisory Committee. That document called for the school district to significantly increase its corrective and preventative maintenance spending. 

No action will be taken by the board tonight on either the budgetary or maintenance issues.

St. Mary’s High 1998 graduate Jerriod Mack, who helped establish the Panthers as a boys track and field powerhouse before moving on to Cal, was recognized by the Pac-10 conference on Tuesday as the Men’s Field Athlete of the Week. 

The accolades came three days after Mack led the Bears to a 84-79 victory over Stanford in the 106th Big Meet, held at Edwards Stadium. Despite having his entire season threatened by a burst appendix in early April, the Cal sophomore recovered in time to take first place in the triple jump, his primary event, and second in the long jump, with a season-best 23-7.5 mark. The stellar performance netted Mack eight key team points. 

As the close meet score indicated, the Bears would not have been able to top Stanford, had Mack and Nate DeSomber – an injured Cal thrower who took second in the shotput – not made lightning-fast recoveries and combined for 11 points.  

Mack next competes this Saturday, along with the bulk of the Cal track and field squad, at the 59th annual Modesto Relays in the Central Valley. The Bears will also send representatives to Friday’s Cardinal Qualifier, hosted by Stanford, and this weekend’s Pac-10 multi-event competition in Eugene, Ore.

There were plenty of woofs and cheers from the several dozen dog-lovers at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, after the body voted unanimously to make permanent a year-old off-leash dog area at Cesar Chavez Park. 

The dog owners told the council that they had worked hard over the last year educating dog owners about keeping dogs leashed in the designated area, cleaning up after careless dog owners, and even pulling out the dreaded star thistle, a non-native plant that tends to overrun native species. 

Sporting a paper dog-bone in support of the park, Friends of Cesar Chavez Park Board Member Ken McNeil told the council that fears of other park users had been assuaged. “Kite flyers and bird watchers were afraid they would be excluded,” he said, explaining that all the different park users now share the off-leash space. 

“The Friends of Cesar Chavez Park have done a fabulous job,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who walks her two small pooches, Franklin and Theodore, at the park regularly. 

While voting in support of the off-leash area, Councilmember Margaret Breland noted that she had received a number of complaints from people who said there needed to be better enforcement by animal control officers to keep the unleashed dogs within the proper area. 

Staff responded that her request for more enforcement would be costly and it was put on the long list of “to-be-funded” items that the council will address as part of budget discussions in the coming weeks. 

Councilmember Linda Maio shared her concerns for nesting birds and asked that the dog park area have clearer designation so that owners would keep their animals away from the wildlife. 

“It’s hard for new visitors to recognize the boundaries,” she said. 

Parks Director Lisa Caronna talked about plans to install a number of long, narrow vertical markers to demarcate the boundaries. The parks department would also prepare maps of the area as handouts. 

Of some concern is a proposal for what some are calling a solar calendar and others are calling an amphitheater. Caronna said the project, which will come before the Parks and Recreation Commission at some point in the future for its approval, will be about 100 feet in diameter and serve as a place for gatherings and celebrations. It would include a solar clock to mark the hours and seasons. 

The resolution as passed Tuesday says the boundary of the off-leash area will exclude the solar calendar area, which would be on the central western ridge. 

The resolution also included the unobtrusive vertical boundary markers, improved signage for the natural protected areas, continued enforcement by Animal Control, improved disabled access into the area and continued public education in partnership with the Friends of Cesar Park about the rights and responsibilities of dog park users.

With four days remaining in the 2000 boys volleyball season, there’s still a chance that somebody in the East Bay Athletic League will beat league leader Foothill. But it won’t be Berkeley High. 

The Yellowjackets rode a two-game winning streak into Pleasanton on Tuesday evening, hoping to take the undefeated Falcons down a notch. Instead, Foothill controlled three of four games with superb blocking, and had little trouble defending its home court with a 15-7, 15-5, 13-15, 15-6 win. 

“Foothill’s going to win that battle in the middle, they’re just too big. And they have more experience than my middle blockers,” Yellowjackets’ coach Justin Caraway said after the match. “Foothill kept a lot of balls in play – some of the balls we hit would have gone down against Amador Valley or San Ramon.” 

The Falcons’ sizable blockers – standing 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-4 – gave Berkeley fits throughout the evening, beating the ’Jackets with intimidation, as well as strong hitting. Though freshman middle blocker Robin Roach managed five kills in a reasonably strong individual outing for BHS, Caraway admitted that his middles were significantly outmatched. 

“Their middles had a field day. It sucked for us, but it was pretty impressive to see from the sidelines,” the Berkeley High coach said. “They came ready to play. We didn’t match their intensity.” 

Besides snapping Berkeley’s short win streak, the loss to the Falcons also put the Yellowjackets’ backs to the wall in their hunt for a North Coast Section playoff berth. According to the coach, this Thursday’s regular-season finale against California High will be crucial, if his squad hopes to be selected with an at-large berth. 

“I still think we have a pretty good shot of getting in, certainly it’s going to be close,” Caraway said. “They know the importance (of the California High game). They know it’s on the line.” 

Thursday’s game kicks off at 5 p.m. at the Grizzlies’ home court in San Ramon.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, one of the most prominent women in American public life and the outspoken advocate of President Clinton’s foreign policy, is the lead speaker at the UC Berkeley commencement today. 

She’ll speak to graduating seniors and their guests at the commencement convocation at 4 p.m. in the Hearst Greek Theatre on campus, but not before a group of protesters offers its dissent. 

A protest rally/teach-in is scheduled for Sproul Plaza from 12 to 1 p.m. today by the “Madeleine Albright Unwelcoming Committee.” 

Following the speeches at the teach-in, the rally is scheduled to move across campus to the Greek Theatre, where guests will be admitted as early as 2 p.m., said Stephen Dunifer, who is coordinating the rally. 

The Berkeley activist and community organizer said speakers at the rally would represent the spectrum of dissent with Clinton foreign policy in general. 

Dunifer said the Unwelcoming Committee has contacted dozens of groups in the Bay Area, and peace and justice centers are organizing car pools for the rally. 

The International Action Center in San Francisco has contacted groups, he said, and the protest plans are being aired on radio station KPFA. 

“We hope at least 1,000 people will show up,” Dunifer said, adding that enthusiasm is still high from protests in Seattle and in Washington, D.C. 

The committee has its own web site with a picture of the secretary of state with a hawkish visage compared to the softer image of Albright on a State Department web site. 

One of the central issues for the groups expected to attend is the Clinton Administration’s sanctions against Iraq. Dunifer and others have said the economic sanctions against Iraq are killing hundreds of thousands of children there. 

Others are protesting the embargo of Cuba, which affects food supplies among other things; military aid for what Dunifer said is the “supposed drug war in Columbia;” the bombing of Yugoslavia; and trade normalization with China. 

Capt. Bill Cooper of the University of California Police Department said the department will increase the number of officers on duty at the graduation ceremony to 45 officers, but more could be added depending upon the crowds. 

The university will work in tandem with security forces from the United States Department of State, and as a precaution, all guests at the event will walk through a metal detector. 

Berkeley Schools Superintendent Jack McLaughlin has kept his word – in a manner of speaking. 

In late February, after withdrawing his name for the list of candidates for a superintendent post in Salem, Ore., McLaughlin said that he wouldn’t pursue jobs in any other district except San Francisco. 

And he’s now a finalist for the job across the Bay. 

“My personal goal, for many years now, has been to head a large, urban school district,” he told the Daily Planet on Tuesday. “Berkeley in many ways is a lot like San Francisco, and I like both places a lot.” 

The 58-year-old McLaughlin, who was named California Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators last year, has held the Berkeley Unified School District job since November 1994. Before coming to Berkeley, he was a superintendent in Hemet from 1987 to 1994 and in Sunnyvale from 1974 to 1987. 

The San Francisco Unified School District job is the third one that McLaughlin has considered this year. 

In January, he met with the Oakland Unified School Board about the superintendent job for their beleaguered district. He withdrew his name on Jan. 31 and threw his support behind Dennis Chaconas, superintendent of the Alameda Unified School District, whom the board ended up hiring. 

In February, he was one of three finalists for the top job with the Salem-Keizer School District in Salem, Ore. After a series of interviews and community meetings – the hiring process in Oregon is, by law, an open process, which officially is different from here in California – McLaughlin decided he “couldn’t make that commitment.” 

In both cases, McLaughlin was contacted by recruiters. 

This time around, it was personal interest that attracted him to the open position. He worked as an assistant superintendent in South San Francisco from 1972 to 1974, and interacted frequently with administrators from the SFUSD. And it would be a natural final step for his career. 

San Francisco, with its 66,000 students, would be far and away the biggest district on McLaughlin’s resume, if he gets the job. The BUSD currently has around 9,500 students, and the largest district he has overseen was Hemet Unified, which had 15,000 students when he left. 

The SFUSD is meeting in closed session tonight to discuss the six finalists for the superintendent position, which has been filled on an interim basis by Linda Davis since June 1, 1999. Tonight’s meeting is expected to narrow the field. 

“There is no final date set for a decision,” said LaVoneia Steele, a consultant from the California School Board Association who is assisting the SFUSD. She’s also a former BUSD superintendent, serving from 1990 to 1994. 

“With this kind of process, it’s difficult to set a definite date.” 

Neighbors have started calling the 170-foot triangular structure at McKinley and Addison streets the “tower of power” or the “oil rig.” 

The recently erected police and fire communications tower at the new public safety building destroys views and hurts home values, they say. 

Moving the tower or breaking it up into smaller pieces would satisfy the Martin Luther King Jr. Way-Addison Street-Grant Street-Neighborhood Association members. 

But without an expert to back their demands for its displacement, MAGNA is having a hard time putting teeth into its fight against city hall. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who represents the area, has placed an item on the 1,000-plus-page agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting, asking the city to allocate $10,000 to hire an expert in communications equipment to examine alternative sites or configurations for the antennae. 

“The city has a conflict of interest at this point,” Spring said, explaining that, having erected the tower at its present location, city staff will not objectively examine other sites. 

“I think they have not explained (the alternatives to) the full extent,” she said. 

Capital Projects Director John Rosenbrock says there is no conflict of interest for the staff. 

“We’ll do whatever we’re directed to do by the council,” he said. 

However, he argues that there is every reason not to move the tower. Moving it away from the security of the communications building site makes the tower accessible to vandals and distancing it from the 911 center increases the possibility of the loss of communication between the center and the tower. 

“Moving it to another neighborhood can create problems in that neighborhood,” Rosenbrock added. 

Staff estimates that moving or reconfiguring the tower could cost anywhere from $200,000 to $2 million. 

Although Spring’s item appears on tonight’s agenda, a public hearing on the tower is not scheduled until the May 16 council meeting. 

Tuesday, May 9  

Cragmont School Instrumental and Choral Concert 

9:30 a.m. 

Cragmont Elementary School, 830 Regal Road 

510-644-8810 

Exercise to music with Doris Echols 

10 a.m. 

Community meeting about the senior center 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Free computer class for seniors 

1-4 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

Historical Institutionalism Seminar 

4 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Robert Kagan and William P. Nelson, both from UC Berkeley, will speak on “The Politics of Tobacco Regulation in the United States.” 

City Council meeting 

7 p.m. 

Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

The council holds its first regular meeting after its spring recess. 

Wealth, Poverty, and Alan Greenspan: Social Policy and Macro Economic Policy 

7 p.m. 

Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich, now Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University, will be the featured speaker. This event, sponsored by the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, is open to the public. 

510-642-4408; swdean@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

510-531-8664 

DAMO Disabled Advocates of Color presents “New Voices” Poetry Reading (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Avenue. 

Disabled poets of color reading their poems of life, love, and surviving being disabled and minorities in America. Hosted by Gary Norris Gray, co-founder. $5, FOF (Friends of the Festival) free. 

Wednesday, May 10  

Demonstration against Secretary of State Madeline Albright 

Noon 

Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley campus 

Bay Area organizations, groups, students, and individuals representing a diversity of issues and viewpoints are organizing a regional response to protest Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s appearance as the Commencement Speaker for UC Berkeley’s graduation ceremony. At 1:30 p.m., protesters will march to the Greek Theatre, where Albright will be speaking later in the day. Demonstrators will be protesting Albright’s support for sanctions against Iraq, the embargo against Cuba, the drug war in Columbia and more. 

510-343-2139 x1957; 510-548-0524 

Low-vision support group 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Discussion of Globalization, hosted by the Berkeley Gray Panthers 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange will be the featured speaker. 

510-548-9696 

Carefree, Carfree Tour to Berkeley Art Center (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1:30 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

UC Berkeley Commencement Convocation 

4 p.m. 

Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley campus 

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will be the keynote speaker. This event is open to students, faculty and family, and a ticket is required. 

510-642-7026 

Special BUSD school board meeting 

7 p.m. 

Board/Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

The board will discuss reports for the current and upcoming fiscal years. The board also will receive a more comprehensive overview of the Maintenance Report, which highlighted various maintenance problems around the district and funding proposals to address those problems. 

Improvisational theater 

7:30-9:30 p.m. 

The “Improvsters” is a group of intermediate-level improvisational players who meet weekly. The group is looking for additional members; an audience is also welcome and there is no charge to join them. Call the group for specific location. 

510-848-4357 

Poetry Flash at Cody’s (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

2474 Telegraph Ave. 

Hannah Stein, Sandra Gilbert will be the featured poets. 

Buses No. 40, 64 

Pianist John Wolf Brennan and flutist Diane Grubbe 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 

Tickets are $12. 

510-84-JULIA 

New Music Bay Area (formerly 20th Century Forum – Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

This is a concert of music by Bay Area composers foreshadowing music of the 21st century. $8, FOF free. 

Thursday, May 11 

Orchestra concert with elementary students 

9:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

The first part of the concert, at 9:30, will feature Oxford Elementary School students performing with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Students from Washington Elementary School will perform at 10:45. 

Men’s chorus performance 

11:15 a.m. 

Movie: Outbreak 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Jazzschool BART Plaza Concert (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

Noon 

The Brazilian Ensemble, under the direction of Marcos Silva, will perform. The concert is sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association, Amoeba Music, BART and the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Free computer class for seniors 

1-4 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

Berkeley Arts Magnet Instrumental and Choral Concert 

1:30 p.m. 

1645 Milvia St. 

Carefree Carfree Tour to Judah L. Magnes Museum (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1:30 p.m. 

Meet at the Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Update on Haiti 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Cedar and Bonita 

Members of a recent delegation to Haiti, including local activists Pierre Laboissiere, will be talking about their trip, the recent episodes of violence in that country and the upcoming elections. The event is sponsored by Global Exchange, the Bay Area Haitian American Committee and others. 

The Plight of the Redwoods 

7 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Forest defender Redwood Mary, tree-sitter Nate Madsen (via live cell phone), and Chie Abad, human rights activist and former Saipan sweatshop worker will be on hand to explain the current campaign to focus attention on the connection between sweatshops, Fair Trade, and forest destruction. There also will be a screening of the 20-minute video “ Timber Gap” by the Headwaters Action Video Collective, about the efforts to save the last of Mendocino’s coastal redwood forest from overexploitation. 

510-548-2220, ext. 233

Kudos for your front-page coverage of Rick Young’s sit-and-sleep-in on the University’s Underhill parking lot (Wednesday, May 3). Rick’s dramatic action underscores the University’s unwillingness to listen to and engage the larger Berkeley community beyond a vocal minority of parking-obsessed faculty on the Academic Senate’s Sub-Committee on Parking and Transportation. 

As co-chair of Students for a Livable Southside (SLS), a student-based group advocating for balanced transportation and housing solutions, I fully support Rick’s effort to bring attention to the University’s unbalanced approach to a prime site in the heart of Berkeley’s densest (and most damaged) pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. 

Under current UC policy, parking spaces take precedence over housing when it comes to allocating UC Berkeley’s scarce land resources. At an ASUC housing summit in the fall, Chancellor Berdahl casually dismissed any suggestion that he or his staff should sit down with students to discuss the administration’s much-maligned $22K parking “replacement” policy. The current policy requires student housing to “compensate” parking - at $22K per space - for the privilege of using public land once devoted to surface parking lots. To the best of my knowledge, no student representatives were consulted when drafting this policy. 

The fact that the recently released Underhill EIR dismisses every alternative to adding a three-story parking structure with 1,400-car capacity on the site bounded by College, Channing, Bowditch and Haste is just one more indication of the administration’s “parking-uber alles” approach to neighborhood planning. 

The social and environmental consequences of ignoring the concerns of the greater Southside community are significant. They include a further erosion of town-gown relations, greater auto congestion, increased localized carbon dioxide and particulate pollution, slower and less reliable transit service, and a hostile biking and walking environment. 

Rather than continuing this criticism, SLS has developed a simple list of constructive policy ideas that take the entire Berkeley community’s concerns into account: faculty, staff, students, residents, people who need to drive, those who don’t, those who take the bus or ride a bike and those who walk. Consider the following list a complimentary “cheat sheet” for Chancellor Berdahl if and when he decides to meet with Rick Young. 

Renegotiate the $22K “parking replacement” policy. The current policy discourages housing in favor of parking. Instead of excluding students from policy-making entirely, hold good faith negotiations with representatives from the ASUC and the GA to determine a more equitable and fair approach to sharing UC land. 

Subsidize transportation choices, not parking garages. Instead of providing parking as a subsidized perk, which encourages driving, let individuals decide how to spend their own transportation dollars. Provide a monthly “cost of transportation” benefit to all faculty and staff, linked to inflation, equal to the price of monthly market-rate parking. Those staff and faculty who need (or chose) to drive can devote their monthly fee towards parking, but those who chose other modes (like bikes, buses or BART) are allowed to “cash out” and invest their savings in non-automotive pursuits. Think of this as an auto-free incentive, as opposed to a mandate. 

Reallocate existing parking spaces based on need, not seniority. Existing parking should be allocated based on demonstrated needs, like family obligations or lack of viable alternatives, rather than staff and faculty hierarchies. A single mother who must drop-off and pick up her children from day care in Albany deserves a space closer to campus than a tenured faculty member who lives within walking distance of campus. Under the current system, rigid rules trump social justice. 

Develop realistic alternatives in the Underhill Draft EIR. The current DEIR does not adequately explore alternatives that meet the goals of UC, the students and the larger Berkeley community. Host a series of small “roundtable” discussions with community representatives, hosted by a neutral third party like TAA, to provide constructive feedback on such alternatives. 

Do not build parking for 1,000-1,400 cars on the Underhill Lot. Seriously consider options that dramatically reduce the share of parking on this site, like moving 500-600 cars to a mixed-use office, student services and parking structure on the Tang Center parking lot. Parking on this site could be actually generating income for UC at night, when movie and restaurant patrons need access to Downtown. Merchants would probably support the idea, as would neighborhood groups. 

I hope that the UC administration will take this opportunity to reconsider its current trajectory and begin putting people and places before parking. Until they do, SLS will make sure that Rick Young is comfortable in his new $22,000 home. 

Michael R. Yarne is a graduate student at the Boalt Hall Law School and Department of City and Regional Planning. He is co-chair of Students for a Livable Southside, and a board member of the Telegraph Area Association and Urban Ecology.

SAN FRANCISCO – Margaret Edson’s rich and powerful 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Wit” opened last week at San Francisco’s Curran Theater in a strong touring production starring Judith Light, best known from television’s “Who’s the Boss?” 

Centered around Light’s very moving performance, “Wit” tells a powerful and, yes, funny story about a brilliant, highly regarded, arrogant, 50-year-old literature scholar who, after a successful, independent professional life, suddenly finds herself diagnosed with stage four metastatic ovarian cancer, and facing death. 

Directly addressing the audience, the sarcastic, funny, impatient, judgmental Vivian Bearing (Light), two hours before her death, invites the audience to hear her cancer story in a series of flashbacks over past last eight months. 

Profound loss of control, by someone who lived for control, and the humiliation over the deterioration of her body, force Bearing to a dramatic re-evaluation of the meaning of her life. 

She is reluctant to do this. And, in the end, she is not happy with what she sees. 

A researcher herself, Bearing agrees to participate in the cancer physicians’ cutting-edge research and therapy program. Although she has trouble dealing with the arrogant doctors, she slowly realizes they are a reflection of herself. 

Bearing is a scholar of 17th century English poetry with a focus on the religious and metaphysical poetry of John Donne, whose work examines connections among life, death, and life-after-death. 

In the play’s central conceit, the arrogance of Bearing’s professional expertise in the metaphysics of immortality is contrasted with her human vulnerability in the face of actual death. 

An insightful parallel is drawn between the poetry scholar’s interest in Donne’s desire to understand mortality and eternal life, and the medical scholars’ desire to understand what they perceive to be the immortality of cancer. 

Ultimately, “Wit” is about an arrogant person who learns that humanity, humility, compassion and vulnerability are more important than brains and material success. 

“Wit” is also about learning to listen to other people, and about the emptiness of a life lived outside of compassionate relationships. 

Despite its morbid-sounding story, the play is quite funny. Bearing’s angry, sarcastic, acerbic tongue, and her intolerance of the world of nitwits she perceives to be around her, make for much humor. 

If “Wit” has one limitation, it’s that it makes its point about Bearing’s ironic and limited apprehension of the world over and over. The message gets heavy handed and didactic at moments. 

But this is a small deficiency, in comparison to the otherwise powerful achievement of the play. 

The performers in this show are pros, and they all do nice work. Brian Smiar doubles as the arrogant, self-absorbed cancer physician attending Bearing, as well as her father in a flashback. 

Daniel Sarnelli is funny and frightening as Bearing’s former student, now a medical resident more interested in disease research than in the people who have the diseases. 

Lisa Tharps, as a nurse attending Bearing, proves to be the transforming sympathetic agent to Bearing’s emotional discovery process. 

The production is vividly directed by Leah C. Gardiner, based on original direction by Derek Anson Jones. The design team of Myung Hee Cho (scenic), Ilona Somogyi (costumes) and Michael Chybowski (lighting) do some great work on a stark white set that displays occasional distinct colorful moments. 

For example, Bearing wears white hospital garb with a red baseball cap to cover her head, which is bald from chemotherapy. 

Further, the largely white set, defined by white curtains drawn one way or another to define hospital room spaces, occasionally has its neutral color design changed by lighting to, say, hospital green, to establish mood and place. 

Good new plays don’t come along very often. If you enjoy theater, “Wit” is one to go see. 

“Wit” runs through May 28 at the Curran Theater, 445 Geary (at Mason), San Francisco. For ticket and information, call 415-551-2000, or visit www.bestofbroad

THEATER 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE 

“Let My Enemy Live Long!” by Tanya Shaffer, April 19 through May 12. The story of an ill-advised boat ride up West Africa's Niger River to Timbuktu. 

$19 to $48.50. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; April 19, 8 p.m.; NO PERFORMANCES APRIL 25 AND APRIL 26. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-4700 or (888) 4BRTTIX. 

IMPACT THEATRE 

“The Wake-Up Crew” by Zay Amsbury, May 5 through June 3. A comic book on stage that pits unemployed UC Santa Cruz grads against the forces of chaos and destruction. 

$10 general; $5 students. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. (510) 464-4468. 

SHOTGUN PLAYERS 

“The Skriker” by Caryl Churchill, through June 4. In this ecological play, faeries are damaged due to polluted rivers and woods, and are forgotten. 

$15 general; $10 seniors and students. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. The Warehouse Performance Space, 1850 Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco. (510) 655-0813. 

MUSIC VENUES 

ASHKENAZ 

Edessa, Poullard/Thompson Cajun Band, May 9, 9 p.m. $8. 

Red Archibald and The Internationals, May 10, 9 p.m. $8. 

Grateful Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave, May 11, 10 p.m. $5. 

Mutabaruka, DJ Zodiac Soundz, May 12, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. $11. 

The Johnny Otis Show, Clarence Van Hook, May 13, 9:30 p.m. $20. 

Caminos Flamencos, May 14, 7:30 p.m. $10. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

BLAKES 

Third World with UC Buu, DJ Add, Jah Bonz, Big Willie, May 10. $5. 

Ripe, Sol Fire, May 11. $4. 

Orixa, Fuzzbucket, May 12. $6. 

Nobody From Ipenema, Brazilian Dance Party, May 13. $6. 

Ten Ton Chicken, May 14. $3. 

For age 18 and older. Music at 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886. 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Alison Kinnaird and Christine Primrose, May 10. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Ferron, Lui Collins, May 11. $17.50 to $18.50. 

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, May 12. $17.50 to $18.50. 

Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, May 13. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Kathy Kallick Mother's Day Show, May 14, 2 p.m. $5.50 kids/ $7.50 general. 

Melody of China with Wu Wei, May 14. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Zapatista Band Fest, May 11, 8 p.m. Featuring Venus Loon, Epidemia, Blasfemia, Caradura, Lodo y Asfalto. $8 to $10. 

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, May 12, 8 p.m. $12. 

John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, May 13, 8:30 p.m. $15. 

Cafe Rumba, May 14, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.  

Cancionero, May 14, 8 p.m. $8. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

Sangre Amado, Blood Hag, Noise of Struggle, May 12. 

The Oozzies, Trust Fund Babies, May 13. 

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Hanuman, Shelley Doty X-tet, May 11. $5. 

Stikman, Faun Fables, Brian Kenney Fresno, May 12. $5. 

The Damnations, TX, The Ex-Husbands, May 13. $7. 

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

MUSEUMS 

UC BERKELEY ART 

MUSEUM 

“Anne Chu/MATRIX 184 Untitled,” April 16 through June 18. The exhibition features a selection of Chu's T'ang dynasty funerary figures sculpted following her travels to Xian and Guangdong. The wooden figures range in height from 28 inches to over six feet.  

“China: Fifty Years Inside the People's Republic,” through June 18. The work of 25 Chinese and Western photographers explores half a century of social and political upheaval in this unusual exhibit. The 200 photographs, both black-and-white and color, cover the many regions, cultures and people that make up China as well as the mix of traditional life and the modern one. 

“Autour de Rodin: Auguste Rodin and His Contemporaries,” through August. An exhibit of 11 bronze maquettes on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in Los Angeles. The bronzes range in style from the artist's classically inspired “Torso of a Woman” to the anguish of “The Martyr.” Some of the maquettes were cast during Rodin’s lifetime, others have been cast fairly recently under the aegis of the Musee Rodin which alone is authorized to cast his sculptures posthumously. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students ages 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 1 1 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. 

HALL OF HEALTH  

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level), Berkeley 

A hands-on community health education museum and science center sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland and Alta Bates Medical Center. 

“This is Your Heart!” ongoing. An in teractive exhibit on heart health. 

“Good Nutrition,” ongoing. This exhibit includes models for making balanced meals and an exercycle for calculating how calories are burned. 

“Draw Your Own Insides,” ongoing. Human-shaped chalkboards and models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their bodies. 

“Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention,” ongoing. An exhibit on understanding how cells become cancerous and how to detect and prevent cancer. 

Free. For children ages 3 to 12 and their parents. 

(510) 549-1564 

LAWRENCE HALL 

OF SCIENCE 

“Dinosaurs 2000,” through June 4. An exhibit featuring 16 lifelike robotic creatures, fossils, activities to compare yourself to a dinosaur, and daily live demonstrations. 

“The News About Dinosaurs,” through June 4. Learn more about the “Dinosaurs 2000” exhibit with live demonstrations exploring recent paleontological discoveries and how scientists know what they do about prehistoric creatures. Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. 

$6 general; $4 seniors, students and children ages 7 to 18; $2 children ages 3 to 6; free children under age 3. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

PHOEBE HEARST MUSEUM 

Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley 

“Modern Treasures from Ancient Iran,” through Oct. 29. This exhibit explores nomadic and town life in ancient and modern Iran as illustrated in bronze and pottery vessels, and textiles. 

“Pana O’ahu: Sacred Stones – Sacred Places,” through July 16. An exhibit of photographs by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. 

“Phoebe Hearst Museum-Approaching a Century of Anthropology,” a sampling of the vast collections of the museum, its mission, history, and current research, with selections from ancient Egypt, ancient Peru, California Indians, Asia (India), and Africa. 

“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” Ishi, the last Yahi Indian of California, spent the final years of his life, 1911 to 1916, living at the museum, working with anthropologists to record his culture, demonstrating technological skills, and retelling Yahi myths, tales, and songs. 

Wednesday through Sunday 10 am -4:30 pm; Thursday until 9 pm (Sept-May) 

(510) 643-7648 

HABITOT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

A museum especially for children age 7 and younger. Highlights include “WaterWorks,” an area with some unusual water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library. 

Exhibit: “Back to the Farm,” open-ended. This interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and much more.  

Admission is $4 for adults; $6 child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child.  

Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

(510) 647-1111 

JUDAH L. MAGNES 

MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Chagall: Master Prints and Posters, Selections from the Magnes Museum Collection.” Accompanying the exhibition is “Exploring Chagall and His Use of the Elements of Art,” a child-friendly Interactive Educational Room with five work-stations and a central activities space. 

Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

(510) 549-6950. 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information.

Jamie Lee scored seven goals to lead an offensive field day for the Berkeley High girls lacrosse team on Saturday, as the Yellowjackets closed out the 2000 regular season with a 16-2 annihilation of Robert Louis Stevenson, at the BHS home field. 

“I think it’s a confidence-builder,” said Lee, who missed her season-high by a goal. “We had a chance to work on some things. It was like a practice.”  

With a spot in this week’s league playoffs already clinched, the BHS squad went into Saturday’s matchup with last-minute adjustments in mind. The ’Jackets begin postseason play this Wednesday, when they visit Monte Vista in a first-round showdown.  

“We were using it as a tune-up game for playoffs,” Berkeley High coach Lia Farley said about the final home game. “We worked on things we need to use against Monte Vista this Wednesday, like midfield defense, and double-teams.” 

“We focused on getting the double-teams. It was good, because there was room for mistakes,” Lee added. “Their defense was pretty bad, and once you get one-on-one with the goalie, it’s hard for the goalie to win.” 

While Saturday’s competition pales in comparison to the challenge awaiting Berkeley High this Wednesday, Farley is not concerned that her team has become complacent with its recent winning streak. According to the coach, the ’Jackets have already faced Monte Vista so many times over the years, that there will be no element of shock. 

“They know exactly what the competition’s going to be,” said Farley, whose squad has beaten the Mustangs in the first round of the playoffs the last two years. “I don’t think (the RLS) game helped or hurt anyone’s confidence, since it was such a blowout. They know they can take on Monte Vista.” 

The Mustangs, who defeated the ’Jackets in both 2000 regular-season meetings, bring a consistent offensive attack to the field, as well as a tenacious midfield known for hustling to loose balls. Berkeley High will also have to contend with Monte Vista’s physical style of play, which has taken the Yellowjackets out of both games this season. 

“I think we’re ready,” Lee said. “We’ll come into the game ready to play.” 

Wednesday’s matchup begins at 4 p.m. at the Mustangs’ home field.

At least 500 parents, teachers and community leaders from Berkeley joined thousands of other people in Sacramento on Monday to urge the governor to make public schools a top priority when decided how to spend the state’s estimated $13 billion budget surplus. 

“California enjoys the richest economy in the nation, but our schools are confronting a terrible funding crisis that is not of local making, and the solution must be statewide,” Berkeley parent and PTA Council member Simone Young said during the rally, according to a copy of the speech provided to the Daily Planet. 

“We call on all Californians to make sure that our state is not only the first in wealth, but also first in educational opportunity.” 

The timing of Monday’s huge rally was intentional. Next Monday, Gov. Gray Davis plans to release his revised state budget plan, including his proposals for spending the surplus estimated by the Legislature’s budget analyst as up to $13 billion over two years. 

The Democratic governor’s revised 

budget is the real start to legislative budget negotiations for the new fiscal year that starts on July 1. 

Preparing for those talks, the Senate passed a preliminary $92.8 billion budget proposal Monday that could grow to a record $100 billion with Davis’ revised revenue figures next week.  

Monday’s rally at the Capitol – attendance was estimated at around 8,000 people – was organized by the California Teachers Association and included representatives from around the state. Among the crowd were hundreds of Berkeleyans, who rode up on six school buses and dozens of private vehicles. 

Mark Coplan, president of the Berkeley PTA Council and a lead organizer of local participation in the rally, said he was pleased by the event, particularly the response to a Berkeley-led petition effort. A new organization called “Advocates for Public Schools,” has created a petition that calls for the state to help provide “fair pay” for teachers, fund ongoing teacher training and parent involvement, finance academic support programs and allow districts greater flexibility in how they use certain portions of state-allocated funds. 

As of Sunday night, the group had collected at least 1,000 signatures, Coplan said. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people from other parts of the state signed on Monday, and thousands of petitions were distributed to the crowd to take home. 

Berkeley’s delegation included a wide range of school, city and community representatives. Four of the five elected school board members and the student representative were at the rally, as were the mayor and two councilmembers. The Berkeley Federation of Teachers also was represented with union leaders and teachers from the district. 

The local group was invited to participate in the rally, and Coplan and Young spoke to the crowd to tell them of their petition efforts. 

Young said she hopes to governor really listened to what was said during the event. 

“If he expects people to vote for him (for another term or for another office), he better do something now,” she told the Daily Planet. “He really needs to listen to the people, and I hope that the speeches today helped make him more aware. Otherwise, teachers aren’t going to put up with it, and parents aren’t going to put up with it. 

“He needs to remember what his platform was going in, and we want him to put the money where his mouth is.” 

The California School Boards Association, whose 5,000 members are the locally elected board members at the state’s nearly 1,000 school districts, held its annual legislative conference Monday with lobbying also aimed at increasing school funding. 

Many board members also attended the rally on the Capitol lawn. 

Public schools are certain to get a hefty increase in funding. Davis told the California State Parent-Teacher Association convention Saturday that he will double the school funding increase he proposed in January.  

He would not give specific figures. His January budget proposals included $28.2 billion for schools in the 2000-01 fiscal year, a $1.8 billion increase from this fiscal year.  

“What really matters is what happens when the governor releases his revised budget,” Coplan said. “We’re talking about money that’s going to be there, and we want to see more of it spent on education.” 

The Senate budget plan approved Monday by a 27-11 vote includes $1.3 billion for public schools above the governor’s January figure.  

Davis maintains the state is getting very close to the national average in per-pupil spending, which can be measured several different and complicated ways.  

The CTA disagrees and insists the state is $1,200-per-student below that average, based on 1997 National Education Association figures.  

The CTA has an initiative that would require the Legislature to increase taxes by billions of dollars to bring per-pupil spending to the national average. The CTA is expected to submit signatures to try to qualify for the November ballot this week.  

The initiative could split the education community, which otherwise is united in its desire for increased “discretionary” school funding, meaning money that districts can use for their individual needs. Davis on Saturday promised a “very substantial amount” of discretionary funds in next week’s increase. 

Other major school groups would like to give the governor a chance to increase funding and are wary of the CTA initiative, said Kevin Gordon of the California Association of School Business Officials, the chief financial officers for the districts. 

“We have very serious reservations about asking voters to support a $5 billion tax increase when the revenues are there to get to the national average right now,” he said Monday. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The North Coast Section has always rewarded two things when choosing its at-large seeds for postseason boys volleyball: Quality of competition and late-season improvement. 

As members of the East Bay Athletic League, which Berkeley High coach Justin Caraway considers the best league, top to bottom, in the NCS, the Yellowjackets would seemingly have no trouble fulfilling the first requirement. And with BHS currently riding a two-game winning streak into today’s penultimate regular-season matchup with first-place Foothill, Caraway’s squad has a chance to fit the North Coast’s at-large profile perfectly. 

“Hopefully we’ll take care of business against Foothill, win the next two games,” senior setter Luis Ramirez said after last Thursday’s convincing four-game win over Granada. “This team is very talented. When I first walked into (Donahue) Gym, I knew this team could go to the playoffs.” 

This evening’s opponent, Foothill, is inaptly named, as the undefeated Falcons will be more of a mountain for the ’Jackets, who lost the schools’ previous meeting in a three-game sweep on April 6. The Falcons field a versatile attack with no real weaknesses, and according to the BHS coach, there is no trick or gimmick that can be employed to battle the Falcons. 

“Just be prepared, is really the strategy,” Caraway said about today’s 5 p.m. showdown at Foothill’s home court in San Ramon. “We’ll go in expecting a tough match, expecting them to have some big kills. We have to settle down and play disciplined volleyball.” 

Though the Yellowjackets seem to be peaking, having won their last two games, Caraway has no illusions about today’s challenge. According to the coach, even his team’s recent surge will not mean enough momentum for the Foothill battle. After the Granada win, the coach complained of shortcomings in passing and blocking, as well as intensity and focus. 

“If we play with this type of emotion, Foothill’s going to kill us,” Caraway said after Thursday’s four-game triumph over Granada. “Foothill keeps the ball in play, we’ve got to be prepared to get in there. I think we’ll be ready to go.” 

“We could have been a little more crisp, (against the Matadors),” agreed Ramirez, who is confident that his team will rise to the occasion with a solid effort against the Falcons. “Foothill’s a big one. (But) we’re definitely where we want to be right now.

More than 1,000 pages of briefings on 72 agenda items will be before the City Council for possible discussion or action tonight. 

One of the more intriguing items on the agenda deals with religious holidays. It seems that a number of important community meetings were held on April 19, the first day of Passover, one of the more significant of the Jewish holidays. 

“We are dismayed at your disregard for permitting the scheduling of public meetings on a religious holiday which automatically excludes the possibility of a section of our citizenry to attend these meetings,” Viki Tamaradze and others wrote Mayor Shirley Dean. 

So, in an item before the council, Dean is proposing that the city manager write an annual calendar taking into account the major religious holidays and distribute the calendar to those persons who schedule city-sponsored meetings. 

An aide to the mayor was unable to say which religions and which holidays would get on the calendar. She said that would probably have to be debated in a public forum. 

An item likely to spark some discussion is a request by Councilmember Dona Spring for equity in city mailings and TV time. 

Spring says the mayor had more than her share of TV time through her televised State of the City address, and that the other eight councilmembers should each get an hour of TV time, paid for by the city. 

Spring also said Councilmember Betty Olds and the mayor have been signaled out for recognition on city mailings, while others have been ignored. She wants the city to fund mailings for the other seven councilmembers to advertise their meetings. 

Some dozen items are repeats of items that have come to the council, but that the council has not discussed over the past weeks and months. 

Other items are new. The manager is scheduled to present a mid-term budget report, although the report had not yet been submitted to council at the time the agenda packet was distributed. The budget is on a two-year cycle, so this would be a preliminary discussion of the Fiscal Year 2000-2001 budget. 

Other new items include: 

• Discussing a proposal to go to court to authorize using Measure G funds to purchase the Cragmont Water Tank from the East Bay Municipal Utility District. 

• Making permanent the temporary off-leash dog park at Cesar Chavez Park. 

• Discussing which measures to put on the November ballot, including taxes for fire safety, affordable housing, public arts (a hotel tax), city hall expansion, a youth center, an animal shelter, remodeling the warm pool, and more. 

Some three-dozen items appear on the council’s consent calendar. If these items stay on the consent calendar, they will be passed with nominal comment. Councilmembers, however, often remove some of these items for discussion later in the evening or at another meeting. Councilmembers can also opt to place noncontroversial items – yes, there are some – from other sections of the agenda, onto the consent calendar. 

Consent calendar items include: 

• Mandating training for commission chairpersons. 

• Adding a year to the retrofit-property transfer tax program, so that people who buy new property will have two years to protect their homes from earthquakes and still receive a transfer tax rebate. 

• Establishing a position of information technology director with a pay range of $90,000-$123,500 annually. 

• Changing the name of the Personnel Department to the Human Resources Department. 

• Approving $17,000 in state health funds, in addition to $18,000 in state health money already allocated to the program for a community-wide prenatal through preschool health needs assessment. 

• Naming the public safety building and its plaza after two officers who were killed in the line of duty. 

• Endorsing a May 13 rally to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is seeking a new trial after being convicted of killing a police officer. 

A number of items on the consent calendar and regular agenda are referrals to budget discussions that will take place later this month. They include: 

• Funding a position – or part of a position – as an employment specialist to link training and placement agencies for the high-tech/multi-media industry. The economic development division is asking for $65,000 for this function. 

• Funding $35,000 for a meals program for Section 8 residents of Strawberry Lodge. Strawberry Lodge is a residential housing project for seniors. 

• Funding $21,000 for the Hope Pre-Recovery Program, a shelter for homeless youth 18-25 years old, sponsored by Jubilee Restoration, Inc. Most the shelter funding comes from federal sources. 

• Funding $50,000 for bicycle and pedestrian safety efforts. 

The council meeting takes place after the housing authority meeting a few minutes past 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It is broadcast on KPFB 89.3-FM and televised on Ch-25. 

OAKLAND – Some 50 people showed up Monday morning to support Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, on trial for obstructing a police officer during the height of the summertime conflict between KPFA and the Pacifica Foundation, which holds the license to the community radio station. 

In a rally/press-conference outside Superior Court, Davey D., a disc jockey on KPFA’s Hard Rock Radio show and KMEL, called for support for the 23-year-old middle-school teacher of Puerto Rican ancestry. 

The continued prosecution of Jacobs-Fantauzzi “sends a message to others. Why should we take a stand when we’ll have to go through this process?” he said. 

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson also spoke. 

“It’s a very somber day for free speech,” Carson said, noting that he had written District Attorney Tom Orloff three weeks earlier, asking him to drop charges against Jacobs-Fantauzzi. Carson said he received no response. 

The Berkeley City Council and the Pacifica Foundation Board have also asked that charges be dismissed. 

Supporters say that Jacobs-Fantauzzi, the only person to go to trial for civil disobedience during last summer’s conflicts, has been signaled out for his youth and because he is a person of color. 

Police say he is guilty of obstructing officers when they were trying to arrest protesters in front of KPFA July 21. 

Some 100 other protesters were arrested during the conflicts. Most cases were dismissed. A few protesters were cited for jaywalking and given time served. 

Friday, a judge offered to let Jacobs-Fantauzzi plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a lesser crime than obstructing an officer. 

But he turned it down. 

“I’m not guilty of any crime,” Jacobs-Fantauzzi said. 

In court Monday, Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s attorney, Richard Krech, argued that he should be allowed to introduce videotapes of the arrest as evidence. The court approved that motion. Both Krech and the prosecution have asked the Oakland Tribune to turn over photographs a photographer took of Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest. The newspaper, however, has so far declined to do so. 

The trial moves into the jury selection phase today at 2 p.m., 661 Washington St., Oakland.

A woman walking home with her infant son in her arms about 7 p.m. Sunday on 10th Street near Bancroft Way was robbed by a man who held his hand under his jacket as if he were holding a gun. 

According to Capt. Bobby Miller from the Berkeley Police Department, the victim saw the suspect get off the No. 73 bus at Bancroft Way and San Pablo Avenue, as she was walking west on Bancroft. The suspect caught up with her from behind, and simulating that he was holding a gun, he told her he would kill her if she didn’t give him her purse, As she bent down to put her baby on the ground so she could hand over her backpack-type black nylon purse, he reached out and grabbed the strap from around her back and ran off on 10th Street with the purse. It contained children’s clothing, a zippered coin purse and approximately $100. 

The suspect is described as an African-American male, 30 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing around 180 pounds. He was wearing a three-quarter length black leather coat, blue jeans and tennis shoes.

Smokers who want to quit the habit may want to consider changing jobs. 

A recent UC Berkeley study found that smokers employed in locations with strong anti-smoking workplace ordinances were 38 percent more likely to quit over a six-month period than those in regions with no such laws. 

Results of the new study will be published in the May 2000 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.  

“The benefits of workplace smoking ordinances for non-smokers are well known,” study co-author Joel Moskowitz, a director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health, said in a news release. “This is the first time we’ve seen such a big benefit for smokers also.” 

Moskowitz and co-researchers Zihua Lin of UC Berkeley and Esther Hudes of UC San Francisco examined data from a statewide field survey sponsored by the California Department of Health Services. It was conducted in 1990, before California had a statewide workplace smoking law and when job sites still were governed by local legislation. 

In communities with tough laws, 26.4 percent of smokers quit and remained non-smokers within six months of the survey. In communities with no workplace restrictions, only 19.1 percent of smokers quit, the team found. 

The effects were greatest in regions with the strongest rules. Such rules included prohibiting smoking in restrooms, meeting rooms and hallways; allowing employees to designate their work area as smoke free; permitting nonsmokers’ concerns to take precedence in a conflict; and not exempting any businesses with four or more employees.  

Today, California’s statewide law prohibits all indoor smoking at work sites. It is the strongest anti-smoking legislation in the nation. 

Moskowitz said the new findings make a great deal of sense from the standpoint of what influences smokers to quit. For instance, what he calls “the nuisance factor” associated with workplace restrictions – having to seek an outdoor spot to smoke, timing smoking around work breaks and so forth – probably motivates smokers to stop. But he said perhaps even more important are two other factors: the support of nonsmoking co-workers and the smoke-free air itself, which decreases the biochemical and psychological cues to light up in the first place. 

Mandatory workplace ordinances have been controversial nationwide, Moskowitz said. Some employers are concerned about increased compliance and enforcement burdens. Others believe that a positive effect on the bottom line health of workers has not been proven sufficiently. But California’s experience suggests otherwise. 

Moskowitz said the new results are quite promising for employers and show for the first time that government intervention can help both the nonsmoker and the smoker.

The big green buses that travel on San Pablo Avenue from downtown Oakland to the Hilltop Mall are precursors of what nine East Bay communities are eyeing as the wave of the future. 

The goal is to speed up AC Transit’s bus service and make it more reliable for the 14,000 daily passengers on the 17-mile stretch and attract new riders from the ranks of automobile drivers. 

Jim Gleich, deputy general manager for AC Transit, said during a press conference Friday in Oakland that the concept is based on bus service functioning as light rail transportation, a sort of subway on the street. 

The plan employs high-tech strategies to pinpoint the location of buses and allow for longer green lights for the new buses. Currently there are about 24 of the low-floor coaches on the San Pablo corridor, in addition to the regular buses on the route. 

A new multimillion-dollar Signal Interconnect Program will begin this summer to decrease congestion and ease the flow of traffic through the nine cities along San Pablo Avenue from Oakland to Hercules. San Pablo is one of the five heaviest traffic corridors for AC Transit. 

The buses will be equipped with sensors that emit signals to a traffic controller, who will determine if the bus gets priority, said Min Lee, a Caltrans signal operations manager. 

“The idea is to extend the green light,” Lee said. 

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said many people choose not to ride buses because of the slow speed, as well as the shabby appearance of vehicles. 

“This is very exciting and it is a step forward,” he said. “It will make buses more appealing to a wider range of people.” 

Dennis Fay, executive director of the Alameda Congestion Management Agency, said 90 traffic signals will be timed for smoother flow of traffic. The result should be a 25 percent reduction in travel time on the corridor, he said. 

He said the hardware component of the project is completed and the software is in production for the Signal Interconnect Program. In the future “it will get even more high tech,” said Fay. 

With global positioning technology, he said, AC Transit will be able to locate the buses within 10 meters to ease them through the intersections and keep them on schedule. The project will move forward in increments. 

In March, the cities signed a memorandum of understanding for San Pablo Avenue, along with Alameda County and Contra Costa County and regional transportation agencies, to work together to improve transportation along the corridor. 

Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean said the cooperative project originated in 1995 with Berkeley, Albany and Oakland leaders in a positive reaction to business development in Emeryville. 

“We came up with the idea of a quality bus system,” said Dean. 

The idea was frequent bus service, less congestion and coordinated traffic signals. She said they wanted people to stop along San Pablo and shift the focus away from just driving to Emeryville. 

She said Measure B funding for transportation will be up again on the November ballot; the last time it was on the ballot, Measure B failed to garner the necessary two-thirds vote for passage. Federal funding also is sought to further the San Pablo Corridor Project, Dean said. 

Steve Heminger, deputy executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the transportation funding would be used to make communities more livable. Too often transportation has had the opposite effect, he said. 

Converting automobile drivers to bus passengers will have ecological benefits as well as easing congestion, and Brian Weinberger from the office of Sen. Don Perata, 16th District, said the San Pablo project is a piece of the big picture of transportation. 

Increases in population in the Bay Area and the corresponding new housing, combined with the need of employers to attract personnel who can commute to work in a reasonable time frame, make transportation innovations essential, said Weinberger. 

Combined with “bus rapid transit” the cooperating municipalities have completed face-lifting projects on San Pablo Avenue. The City of Berkeley utilized a $230,000 grant for façade restoration. 

Transportation all boils down to the person waiting for his or her bus to come on time, to be clean, and to get that person to a destination as quickly as possible, said Nora Davis, speaking for the Emeryville City Council. 

For more than 20 years fire safety has had a low priority in the Berkeley City Council, particularly for the hill area, where there is the greatest danger that a firestorm like the one in 1991 might develop. In the 1980s the city even considered closing the only fire station in the hill area, which is also the only one east of the Hayward Fault. Over this period while the total number of city employees was rapidly increasing the number of firefighters was being steadily decreased. Even in the year right after the 1991 fire disaster in Oakland and Berkeley, the Berkeley Fire Department was forced to make a further cut in personnel. Because of these cuts it is now only possible to have three firefighters assigned to each engine company, which is far less effective than the standard number of four. 

Berkeley voters approved an increase in firefighting capability in the hill area with the inclusion in Measure G of funding for a new joint fire station with the City of Oakland in the hill area along with upgrading of the Shasta Road Station No. 7. That would have given us two first-class stations east of the Hayward Fault. Unfortunately, Berkeley and Oakland could not agree on a location for the joint station, and Oakland built its own station in the Oakland Hills. 

This made it necessary for the City of Berkeley to consider alternative ways to satisfy the desire of the voters for improved fire safety in the hills. It was decided that this could not be accomplished merely by expansion of Station 7. It was on a site that was too small and located on a narrow, winding road that could not provide short response times to most of the hill area. 

For the above reasons, the city developed a plan to replace the old Station 7 with a new, first-class facility at the top of Shasta Road just off of Grizzly Peak Boulevard, opposite the Park Hills Gate. This site, provided by East Bay Municipal Utility District, is large enough for a first-class facility that on high fire hazard days would include an engine company from the East Bay Regional Park District. Because of its location it would decrease fire and emergency response times to most of the hill area and to the wildland areas just east of the Berkeley border. The city has developed preliminary plans and has done geologic studies of the site showing it is stable. These plans deserve the enthusiastic support of all North East Berkeley residents. The project is clearly consistent with the intent of Measure G to improve fire safety in the hill area, even though the exact way it is to be achieved is not that specifically described in Measure G. The plans represent the first time in years that the City Council has supported an increase in fire safety and shorter emergency response times for our neighborhoods. 

In light of this history it is shocking that a small, well-organized group of people has been formed in an attempt to kill this plan for the new station, many of whom are not even close neighbors of the proposed site and some of whom do not even live in the hill area. They are using an argument that because the plan eventually developed is not exactly the one spelled out in Measure G and because that requires the city to use a validation lawsuit to authorize expenditure of Measure G bond money, the city should go back to square one. Many of us would agree that this kind of validation lawsuit has been used irresponsibly in the past to permit expenditure of bond money authorized by the voters for one specific purpose for a quite different purpose. However, this case is clearly not an irresponsible use of bond money; it is obviously consistent with the intent of Measure G to improve fire safety in the area. Going back to square one on this project is likely to result in years of further delay on a project that is long overdue and would waste the money that has been spent studying the site and developing the present plans. 

Please write a note to the city manager, the mayor and the City Council in support of this excellent, much-needed project. It is particularly important for North East Berkeley but it also provides increased safety for flatland areas because it makes it much less likely that a small fire in the hills could again develop into a firestorm that spreads into neighboring areas as has occurred in the past. 

A Berkeley resident, Jack Washburn is a former fire safety commissioner.

For seven out of the eight track and field squads competing at Saturday’s league qualifying meet, “EBAL” stood for East Bay Athletic League. For the ambitious Berkeley High girls squad, however, that anagram could have stood for its minimalist approach to the meet: that is, “Eke By At Least.” 

With their speed already tested and proven, the Yellowjackets looked at Saturday’s qualifiers more as a test of efficiency. Because Berkeley’s record-setting sprint contingent had to be whisked away to Sacramento’s Meet of Champions to perform that same evening, coach Darrell Hampton was forced to distribute his girls’ energy resources, at the expense of the EBAL qualifying times. As it turned out, however, the challenge of being two places at once proved to be a bigger obstacle for BHS than the opposing athletes, and the ’Jackets managed to qualify in all expected events. 

“Everything went according to plan, and some things went better. I believe we got the best out of (the weekend),” Hampton said after the meets. “Our thing was to use the morning to learn how to conserve.” 

As expected, Berkeley High swept the individual EBAL sprint events, with Katrina Keith, T’carra Penick and Aisha Margain winning the 100m, 200m and 400m, respectively. Simone Brooks, also a member of the 4x100 team, contributed a first-place finish in the 100m hurdles, running a 15.31 to edge San Ramon Valley’s Michelle Cook. Cook would get the better of Brooks in he 300m hurdles, but the BHS senior still posted a qualifying 48.91 mark to take third.  

Granada dominated the field events, taking first in the shot, discus and pole vault, but two Berkeley girls, both jumpers, also found themselves among the qualifying field athletes. Long jumper Tatiana Newman leapt 15-11 to take fourth, while state-title candidate Laura Winnacker breezed through a 4-6 qualifying round in the high jump. 

“We’re looking good. I’m very happy with where we are right now as a team,” Hampton said. “I keep looking at the (statewide) numbers. I thought we’d be third (in the state) right now, for sure, but we may be second.” 

Despite Hampton’s plans, Saturday’s EBAL qualifying meet did turn out to affect his girls’ performance at Sacramento’s Meet of Champions. Berkeley’s 4x100 relay team of Margain, Penick, Keith and Brooks arrived too late to compete in the event, and had to be content with a first-place finish in the other relay – the 4x400. The Berkeley contingent won the longer event comfortably, posting a 4:02 against a field of competitors that Hampton said was depleted from the original entrants. 

“I don’t know if we’re becoming bullies, or what, but (the other teams) started leaving when we showed up,” the BHS coach said. “I was a little disappointed by that. We came to run. But our team was still very good.” 

Though overshadowed as usual by their female counterparts, the Berkeley boys also managed to make a sound in the EBAL meet, qualifying in two individual events. Gimey Baird will represent the Yellowjackets in the 200m at this Saturday’s EBAL championship meet, having run a 23.13 on Saturday. Daveed Diggs won the 110m and 300m hurdles to qualify for the second straight year in both events. Diggs’ 14.64 mark in the 110m placed him almost two full seconds ahead of his closest competitor – Monte Vista’s Brian Gromer.  

“They’ll all be ready for this weekend,” the BHS coach said about Saturday’s league championships, which marks the last time the ’Jackets will compete in the EBAL, before switching leagues next season. “We’re going to break a bunch of records. Before we go into another league next year, it’s important to leave our lega

A community advisory committee was unable to offer any solid recommendations to help the Berkeley Unified School District with its financial crisis, and the main culprit was time. 

“A group this large, this diverse cannot in the time given to us, given the fact that we all have other jobs to do in our daily lives, come to as complicated an issue as this with really responsible insights,” Don Read, a member of the Blue Ribbon Resources Advisory Committee, told the school board last week. 

Committee members concluded that they didn’t have enough time or information to be able to make a recommendation to the board on where cuts could be made or where the BUSD could find additional revenue. The district is looking at significant budget deficits for the current and upcoming fiscal years. 

The committee, which only met five times, was formed in February and was given the charge of offering input on how the district could restructure its budget or find outside funding sources. In the end, the main recommendation the group made was that the BUSD needed to create “a permanent citizens committee on budget and resource issues.” 

During their meetings, some committee members said it was difficult to thoroughly analyze the district’s financial situation because the budget documents were tough to read and interpret. 

Read echoed that sentiment, noting, though, that he wasn’t speaking for all of the more than two dozen people who served on the committee. 

“I for one did not feel that I got a good sense of the budget, and I’d worked on budget issues on other committees of the board before, but I think those were my limitations,” he said. 

But he felt that a permanent group could get a better sense of the district’s finances and could make solid recommendations for future budgets. 

“It was unfortunate that the timeline did not allow the committee to be able to come to particular recommendations, but I like the idea of establishing a permanent committee on budget and resource issues,” said Board President Joaquin Rivera. 

An outgrowth of the committee’s work was the formation of Advocates for Public Schools, which is petitioning the state to significantly increase its funding for public education. Today, the group will be represented at the rally in Sacramento supporting more spending for schools. 

Director Ted Schultz said that even though the committee was unable to provide direction for the board on the financial picture, he was pleased that the group didn’t leave “any stone unturned.” 

And Vice President Terry Doran said the committee’s work showed that the budget decisions the board will be forced to make are “more political than fiscal.” 

“I think that your challenge that we gave you, judging from the neutral nature of this resolution, I think further emphasizes the complexity of our budget and the fact that there are not easy solutions to reorganizing our budget to do things in a different way,” he said, “or this committee, with the tremendous expertise that it included, I believe would have brought the recommendations very clearly to us, and they couldn’t.” 

The committee will hold its final meeting on May 16 and decide whether its members are willing to continue serving, or if the board should follow another option for creating the permanent committee. That recommendation will be presented to the board on May 17. 

Mr. Jeffrey M. Hannan expresses his feelings best in his opening paragraph (Perspective on teachers’ union, May 5) in which he details his 30-35 hours of work in a period of three days: In contrast to Mr. Hannan, we are all wimps who are “ignorantly giving in to the manufactured battle of the BFT leadership.” Mr. Hannan’s well thought out, “reasoned” approach on the situation paralleled that of board member Shirley Issel, whose quiet, detached, analytical scolding is first-rate rhetoric, but to those of us in the trenches, brings to mind Luther’s words, “the whore, Reason.” 

At the board meeting, the voices of Berkeley High School teachers were some of the strongest, and not without cause. Yet, it seems the high school’s circumstances and their effects on teachers can be quietly reasoned away, as can other issues brought forth Wednesday night by other school teachers. 

Wake up, Berkeley! Indifference is a broken promise and breeds decay. 

Pat Russell 

English Department 

Berkeley High School 

As the 2000 season winds down, the pace has been picking up for the Berkeley High girls varsity crew, which competed in its first race in two weeks at Oakland Estuary Sunday, in a tri-meet with Pacific and Serra/Notre Dame/Mercy, a combined squad.  

Having already defeated both crews this season, the ’Jackets entered the varsity-8 race confident in the outcome, and managed to outrun their closest competitors – Serra/Notre Dame/Mercy – by more than 10 seconds. The first-place finish sends the BHS crew into May 20’s state championships with the momentum of two consecutive victories – the other occurring at Sacramento’s River City Invitational on April 22.  

“It was a fast course today (because of) the tailwind,” said Berkeley High girls coach Molly Mugnolo, whose varsity-8 squad rowed a 6:50 to come away with the triumph on its home course. “We’re practicing our race plans, really tuning up for the state championships. I felt our plans were effective (on Sunday).” 

The Yellowjackets hope to parlay their recent success into a top-three finish at the state meet, taking place in two weekends at Lake Natoma in Folsom. Though Mugnolo expects the season’s final race – featuring Bay Area powerhouse St. Ignatius, plus 15 other crews – to be the most competitive of the year, she believes her team is peaking at the right time. 

“I think we’ve been rowing really strong the last month and a half,” the coach said. “We’re pretty confident in how we’ll do at state. Our goal is to get a medal, get first, second or third.” 

The Berkeley High boys varsity-8, also heading to Lake Natoma in two weeks, closed out its 2000 season with a second-place finish at Sunday’s tri-meet. Pacific won the boys’ race, edging the BHS boat by six seconds.

Who ordered the rain? 

It’s early May, which means festival season is about to kick into high gear. This weekend, numerous organizations held festivals, fairs and outdoor events around town, banking on the good weather that Mother Nature has delivered in recent weeks. 

This weekend, she changed her mind. 

Instead of two days of glorious sunshine and spring weather, the Bay Area was treated to a dose of clouds, wind and rain. So, many of those springtime events found diminished crowds, and in some cases, the organizers called an early end to the festivities. 

One of Saturday’s affected events was the second annual Downtown Music Circus. The morning clouds weren’t a problem for the dozens of musicians who performed around downtown, but when the rain started falling in the afternoon, some of the groups packed up their instruments, microphones and amplifiers. And a piano on the sidewalk outside Eddie Bauer had to be rolled inside to keep it dry. 

“Even with the cold weather and rain, it was amazing the number of musicians who were able to find refuge under some kind of shelter,” said Bonnie Hughes, the music festival’s director. “But it was the spectators who couldn’t always find enough shelter to stay around and listen to the music.” 

Across town, at John Muir Elementary School, the cold weather kept away some families from the school’s annual May Fair, said Fern Royce from the school’s PTA. And the event ended an hour early thanks to the afternoon rain. 

Organizers of a similar event at Jefferson Elementary School were fortunate, as far as the rain was concerned: They scheduled their May Fair to end at 2 p.m., about an hour before the rain began. 

On Sunday, the city-sponsored Cinco de Mayo gathering in Civic Center Park was significantly smaller than in previous years, when the weather was more cooperative. The event was scheduled to run until 6 p.m.; by 2:30 p.m., the event was effectively over. 

Other outdoor events scheduled for Sunday included the Jazz on Fourth Street concerts and History/Storytelling Day at People’s Park. 

The National Weather Service forecasts continued clouds and drizzle this morning, with more sun by the afternoon. Partly cloudy skies are expected for the next few days. 

Mr. Walter Wood says (Perspective, May 1) that our quality of life will suffer if 30 units of affordable housing replace an empty paint store in his neighborhood. He accuses of Berkeley of building housing developments that are “too large, too dense, too detrimental and too numerous.” 

When I read that, I was sorry to see the same old prejudices are still in place. Ever since the City of Berkeley approved replacing the run-down old Bel Aire Motel with housing the NOT-IN-MY-BACKYARD argument has resurfaced again and again in one form or another. 

New, affordable housing is needed in Berkeley by students, seniors, workers and the disabled. All of these folks are part of Berkeley. How about a little compassion and neighborliness? 

Helen Lima 

Berkeley 

I am writing to support the comments made by Councilmember Armstrong (Perspective, May 1). I too believe that Berkeley is a unique community with unusual resources and profound complexity. I would like to see our paper celebrate our diversity and our triumphs. I know there is a lot of political infighting. I believe that is one of the reasons that our schools are in such poor shape. A community such as ours, with the amount of brilliant people, both adults and school age children, should be able to produce a scholastic system that functions far better than the model we currently have. At the same time, I would like to read about our efforts at improvement. Bad news is so very easy to access. The Berkeley Planet can perhaps help us define ourselves in a format different from the usual barrage we have been accustomed to turning off! 

Thank you. 

Sheli Nan 

Berkeley

The Virginia-based Whitaker Foundation has awarded $15 million to the two-year-old Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley, boosting work on biomedical advances to diagnose and treat disease and prolong healthy life. 

Officials say the gift to the College of Engineering will help support increased student enrollment, new faculty positions, expanded courses and research programs, and a new building.  

“We’re committed to educating a whole new kind of engineer at Berkeley – a bioengineer who is grounded in biology, engineering, and in the many fields that will be critical to medical advances that are just beyond our grasp today,” Paul Gray, dean of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, said in a news release. 

“The Whitaker Foundation has been a catalyst in furthering biomedical engineering across the country. Its gift to Berkeley has helped ignite a very special teaching and research effort here.”  

Established in 1998, the Department of Bioengineering is the newest department at UC Berkeley and the first created in the College of Engineering in 40 years. It is part of the campus’s Health Sciences Initiative, launched last fall as a broad interdisciplinary approach to education and research in the health sciences. 

The department is planned to become a unique, two-campus entity, administered jointly by UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.  

The Whitaker Foundation has awarded more than $525 million to biomedical engineering programs at colleges and universities. 

The foundation supports about 400 faculty research projects, 150 graduate fellows, and 100 education and internship programs in the United States and Canada. 

Engineers, biologists, computer scientists, physicians, and others make up the department’s faculty and collaborators. 

Bioengineering at UC Berkeley has been one of the most competitive majors for admission in recent years. 

Over the next five years, enrollment in the department will increase to 300 undergraduates and 100 graduate students, a rise of 63 percent from the time of the department’s inception. 

Six new faculty members also will be hired.

I refer to the Perspective by L.A. Wood in the April 27 edition of the Daily Planet. Wood tries to build a case that folks on the UCB campus should be concerned about past radionuclide releases on the Central Campus, originating from Department of Energy research activities. When discussing the Melvin Calvin labs, he maintains that “Environmental reports from the mid-’70’s document releases of hundreds of curies of tritium annually in that area of the Central Campus.” I have recently reviewed the 1970-1980 Radioactive Effluent Monitoring Reports from the Berkeley Lab which have been provided to the City of Berkeley’s independent reviewer (Bernd Franke, IFEU). These reports show that less than 6.6 curies of tritium was released from the Calvin Lab over these 11 years, with less than 25 millicuries in the period 1974-1980 - maybe a factor of 1,000 less than Wood’s claim. Maybe Wood misread these reports, or maybe he has other reports I don’t know about. If so, he should bring copies to the Department of Energy so everybody can discuss the same information. 

Given the prejudicial tone of his article, a factor of 1,000 exaggeration is important, and casts a considerable cloud over his motives. 

Philip G. Williams 

Oakland

Formed in 1996, and producing about four shows a year, Berkeley’s indigenous Impact Theater specializes in affordable original plays that speak to a younger generation that may have grown up on television, movies and music, without experiencing much live theater.  

In keeping with this mission, Impact opened Friday at La Val’s Subterranean for a five-week run a decent grassroots production of Berkeleyan Zay Amsbury’s “The Wake-Up Crew” – a play about superheros that is part comic book story, part pro-wrestling smackdown, and part an expression of identity crisis among Berkeley youth. 

Running about 70 minutes without an intermission, “The Wake-Up Crew” is about four Berkeley boys (Steven Klems, Christopher Morrison, Noah James Butler, and Elijah Berlow) who, upon graduation from UC Santa Cruz, turn into comic book-like superheros as the final upshot of a freaky acid experience. 

The play then becomes a behind-the-scenes look at superheros and their infighting, as the boys battle alternately in alliance and in conflict with two senior female superheros (Cara Gilson and Sigal Shoham). 

In its own Berkeley way, the play ponders the unhappy problem of young people growing up into an adult world that’s filled with unpleasantnesses. 

There is a yearning in this story to go backwards in life to the memory of a happier and simpler time of childhood and friends, before there was work, and before there were romantic relationships. 

Interestingly, in touching on these issues, “The Wake-Up Crew” expresses themes in common with “Itgirl,” a recent local production by Emerald Rain, another Berkeley-based theater that specializes in original work for a younger theater audience. 

In “The Wake-Up Crew” there is also some child-of-divorce and mother-and-son stuff going on in the deeper subtexts. 

The play is also about people waking up to the power of their real potential. And in the context of superheros – defenders of right and wrong – “The Wake-Up Crew” asks who is it who determines what is right and what is wrong. 

Despite its action-oriented characters, however, “The Wake-Up Crew” is a talky script – particularly in the first half, where much of the backstory set-up of what has transpired, and what people think of it, is explained expositionally in detail. 

There are also many accounts of past off-stage events and actions that turn the plot of the story. Generally, playwrights are encouraged to steer away from giving accounts of action that has taken place off-stage, and are encouraged, rather, to show the action on-stage. 

Characters in “The Wake-Up Call” also tend to give each other didactic lectures on how things are in the world, and what they should and shouldn’t do. 

Director Josh Costello and fight choreographer Christopher Morrison have created a number of lively physical brawling and stage fighting scenes – sort of like a pro-wrestling smackdown – although the non-fighting scenes are sometimes oddly static. 

Actors Klems and Morrison are the most successful at bringing real emotional centers to their characters that allow them to connect believably to others. 

Sound designer annaconda has provided pulsing music for the fight scenes, and other-worldly sound effects appropriately to punctuate unusual moments in the story. 

Set designer Chris Hammer’s terrific dingy student apartment living room is wrecked in the course of the play’s fighting. 

Kids who grew up in Berkeley as children of 1960s baby boomers lived in a unique and strange world, and this world is reflected in “The Wake-Up Crew.” 

“The Wake-Up Crew” plays Friday and Saturday, through June 3, at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid Ave. (at Hearst). In keeping with Impact’s mission to produce affordable theater for its generation, admission is $5 (students and Theater Bay Area members) and $10 (general). 

For information and reservations, call 510-464-4468. Or check out Impact’s web site (www.impacttheatre.com).

Providing health, nutritious, organic food to children in the Berkeley public schools is a noble and worthy goal, but it’s also a costly one, the school board was reminded this week. 

The Berkeley Unified School District’s food program will lose money this year, and the deficit is projected to increase next year, according to a report prepared by the Child Nutrition Services office. 

Based on current estimates, the district will lose more than $48,000 on the program, a sharp reversal from the $60,000 profit it made during the last school year. During the 2000-2001 school year, the food program is forecast to lose more than $130,000. 

The reason, says program director Elsie Lee-Szeto, is rather simple: Increased activity requires more staff and more supplies. 

The food program’s projected revenues for this year – almost $2.14 million – are more than $300,000 higher than last year. But the expenses have grown from $1.74 million to more than $2.18 million. 

This year, a number of new programs have been instituted around the district, including ones initiated by last year’s passage of a district-wide food policy. That policy generated national media attention because of its promotion of organic food, but it included a wide range of other substantive proposals and plans, including soup-salad bars at schools, nutritious after-school snacks and a move toward more recycling, reusing and composting efforts. 

Lee-Szeto told the school board that progress is being made in each of the goals outlined in the food policy. For example, Oxford School has established a weekly organic soup and organic salad bar, and participation is 40 percent to 60 percent higher than on regular meal days. A similar effort is in the works at Washington School. 

The district needs to look for other revenue sources to help offset the increased costs, but it also must look at its facilities. 

“At this stage, I think the Child Nutrition Services is realistically maxing out on what it can do with its currently facilities,” parent Eric Weaver, who was involved in the development of the district’s food policy, told the school board Wednesday night. 

The report and its recommendations will return to the board for action in the coming weeks.

Saturday, May 6 

Restore a Salt Marsh 

9:30 a.m. 

Meet on the south side of Buchanan Street, between freeway and Golden Gate Fields 

Join Friends of Five Creeks and the California Native Plant Society in clearing invasive ice plant from the salt marsh at the mouth of Codornices and Marin Creeks. 

510-848-9358; f5creeks@aol.com 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory open house 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

LBNL campus 

This is the first open house at the Lab since the fall of 1997. Free parking and shuttle service will be offered from the Downtown Berkeley BART station and from UC Berkeley campus parking lots along Hearst Avenue. The event is free. 

510-495-2222; www.lbl.gov/OpenHouse 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Jones and Fourth streets 

This show-and-sale highlights work by clay artists, Ikebana demonstrations. Event is free. 

510-524-7031 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

Jefferson School PTA Mayfair 

10 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Jefferson School, Rose and Sacramento streets 

The fair will feature a cakewalk, carnival games and other booths, a benefit drawing for a quilt and many other prizes, plants and used children’s books for sale, art activities, entertainment, food, and more. 510-528-8191 

John Muir School May Faire 

11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

John Muir School, 2955 Claremont Ave. 

This annual event will include food, games, a yard sale and craft activities. Highlight will be annual PTA quilt raffle. Tickets for Quilt Raffle are available for $1 each, or six tickets for $5. The proceeds will be spent on projects at the school. 

510-644-6410; 510-540-1028 

The New School International Family Fair 

11 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Bonita Street between Cedar and Virginia streets 

This block party will feature a handcrafts bazaar, games and activities for children, raffle, a Capoeira demonstration, Flamenco, African, and Philippine dance, Taiko drumming, Native American flute music, and more. The event is free. 

510-548-9165 

“The Rides of Spring” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center Street between Milvia and MLK 

The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition is sponsoring this community bike ride – the actual “destinations” will be decided as the bikes travel. 

510-601-8124 

Cinco de Mayo Celebration, a family sing-along (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11:30 a.m. 

Habitot Children’s Museum, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Children $6, Adults $3, FOF $5 & $2. 

Downtown Music Circus (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1-5 p.m. 

Hundreds of musicians of every tradition will gather on Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Haste Street, playing from streetside, stores, balconies, cafés. Anyone can bring an instrument and join in the fun. Sponsored by Downtown Berkeley Association and Amoeba Music. 

For Fun, Ning Ying (China/Hong Kong, 1995 - Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7 p.m. 

On the Beat, Ning Ying (China, 1995) 

9 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way 

Cal Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

“Summerspace” and the West Coast Premiere of Cunningham’s “Interscape,” set to music by John Cage. Tickets $20 to $40. 

510-642-9988 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

Bach, B Minor Mass. Free. 

Liam Ensemble: Traditional Persian Music (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theater, 2646 College Ave. $25. 

Celebration of Spring: A Benefit for the Crowden School (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

St. John’s Church, 2727 College Ave. 

Turtle Island String Quartet. Tickets: 658-2799. 

California Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra 

8 p.m. 

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way 

Chorus and orchestra will perform J.S. Bach’s “Mass in A Major” and Cantata 21. Tickets $20 general; $15 seniors; $10 students. 

650-299-8616; www.calbach.org 

Berkeley New Music Project 

8 p.m. 

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

This free concert will feature new music by graduate student composers. 

Sunday, May 7 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Jones and Fourth streets 

This show-and-sale highlights work by clay artists, Ikebana demonstrations. Event is free. 

510-524-7031 

Berkeley’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration 

10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

This free event will feature mariachis, salsa bands, Latin jazz and Tex-Mex music, dancers, clowns, face painters, a petting zoo, vendors of arts and crafts, and more. 

510-549-0192 

Jazz on Fourth Street (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

A benefit for the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble with Mingus Amongus, Charanga Tumbao y Cuerdos, Kemp Generation, Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble. 

Carefree Carfree Tour to Bernard Maybeck’s First Church of Christ-Scientist (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11:30 a.m. 

Meet at Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Crowden School Community Music Day (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1-5 p.m. 

Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. 

A family affair with an instrument “petting zoo” for children of all ages. Performances by the Kairos Youth Choir, the Arethusa Woodwind Ensemble, and the Rose Street Players Musical Theater. Free. 

510-559-6910 

BAHA’s 25th Annual House Tour and Reception 

1-5 p.m. 

This year’s tour and reception will focus on the “Claremont Country Houses and their Gardens: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmstead and Duncan McDuffie.” Tickets are $25 for Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association members and guests, $32 for public. 

510-841-2242 

Kimi Kodani Hill Lecture on Berkeley’s Ethnic Diversity (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1 p.m. 

1931 Center St. 

Sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. Free. 

510-848-0181  

History/Storytelling Day 

1-4 p.m. 

People’s Park 

Share stories of the Park’s rich history of activism. Bring ideas for creating a People’s Park Archive. Sponsored by People’s Park Community Gardening Collective. 

510-601-8643 

Youth Arts Festival (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 

Washington School Student Concert and Dances from Sri Lanka. Free. 

Sketches on a Windy Afternoon 

3 p.m. 

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Robert Calonico and Jonathan Elkus will conduct the UC Davis Concert Band and University Wind Ensemble in this performance. 

Three Tenors 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool/La Note, 2377 Shattuck Ave. 

General admission $12; students/seniors $10; Jazzschool Students/Children under 13, $6. 

510-845-5373 

China: Fifty Years Inside the People’s Republic (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

4:30-6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Museum Theater 

Slide Show and Panel Discussion: Other Views, with photographers Jeffrey Aaronson and Xing Danwen. 

Himalayan Fair Concert (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7 p.m. 

King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. 

Proceeds benefit grassroots projects in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet. Tickets $15. 

510-848-6767; www.himalayanfair.net 

Cal Performances: The Kronos Quartet 

7 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Tickets $20 to $42. 

510-642-9988 

News from Native California Magazine presents ShadowLight Productions (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

A free lecture/demonstration of California Indian stories. 

Poetry Flash at Cody’s (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

2454 Telegraph Ave. 

Performance poet Sandy Diamond, Quraysh Ali Lansana. 

Works in the Works 2000 (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

Eighth St. Studio, 2525 Eighth St. $8, FOF $7.

Anyone strolling past a school playground roundabout lunchtime is quite familiar with the great debates that permeate early school life: 

• “Let’s play freeze tag!” “No – let’s play regular tag!” “No – let’s play TV tag!” 

• “No way am I gonna agree to that trade! I’ll offer my Pikachu for your Charmander...” 

• “Yeah, well Debussy could kick Schubert’s butt even if he was standing on Bach’s shoulders!” 

While variant strains of tag and the relative values of Pokemon cards could be the subject of a panel discussion at most any school, the classical music conundrum would probably be limited to just one – Berkeley’s own Crowden School. 

Now a thriving city institution, The Crowden School’s makeshift origins and subsequent ascent mirror a garage band-turned-supergroup. Founded back in 1983 by Scottish-born violinist Anne Crowden, the school was initially run out of a church basement and featured only 11 students in its debut class. 

“We’re a unique environment, no other middle school in the country offers this blend of intense musical education and academics,” says school associate director Benjamin Simon, Crowden’s handpicked successor to take up the reins following this academic year. “Music is very challenging and entertaining, particularly to young children. So they really are given an opportunity to explore doing something difficult and challenging, mastering a series of tasks, and watching their older peers do more difficult music and pieces that sort of lead them through.” 

Crowden and academic director Piero Mancini – who, intrigued by Crowden’s quest to start a musical school, moved his family from Italy to Berkeley – have watched their school grow from 11 students in grades six and seven to roughly 70 in grades four through nine. Two years ago, the school ascended from its longtime home in the basement of the University Christian Church to move into its current location, the old Jefferson School building on Rose Street. 

And while chamber music remains the crux of the institution, the students run the full gamut of academics from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – following, of course, the 8-to-10 a.m. session under the watchful eye of Crowden, Simon (a violist) and a slew of other Bay Area musicians. 

“The aim is not to be a conservatory,” says Crowden, who was trained in her native Scotland and at London’s Royal Academy of Music before touring extensively in Europe and eventually immigrating to the United States in 1965. “It’s a wonderful background for the very talented students who do want to go on (to professional playing). For others, the love of music will be a lifelong hobby. The whole give and take of playing music together is a lesson they don’t learn any other field except perhaps on a very good sports team. 

“But then they’re not using this so much!” laughs Crowden while pointing at her head. 

Crowden’s analogy of team camaraderie is not ill-fitting. Many of the instructors and administrators are musicians themselves, and musical love and skill is a mutual bond for all the students. 

“At this school you have something in common with everyone,” says Karla Donehew, a ninth-grade violinist in her fourth year at The Crowden School. “You get a lot of different views from everyone, and you pick which one you’d like to take. In music, there’s not only one right way to do things. Getting all the different ideas from different teachers is really good.” 

And while The Crowden School has offered tomorrow’s musicians – and music lovers – a place to learn and grow, it is also more than just a small private institution. The school additionally runs the Crowden Community Music Center, reaching out to hundreds of Berkeley children (and possibly in the future, adults). 

“We’re helping make musical education available to the community,” says Michael Dalby, chair of the school’s board. “There are roughly 350 children who partake in the CCMC’s ensembles, beginning instruction, chorus, musical theater, guitar and woodwind (programs). That’s as much a part of our vision as running the day school during school hours.” 

In addition to the CCMC, The Crowden School also puts on numerous concerts, and sponsors many others (the classical-fusion Turtle Island String Quartet plays at St. John’s Church at 8 p.m. Saturday in a school-sponsored concert, and Crowden’s big spring show is on the 17th, also at St. John’s). 

The precision the young musicians demonstrate during their many concerts is something of a contrast to the frenzied everyday atmosphere greeting Benjamin Simon when he first walked through the school’s front door two years back. 

“There was chaos, controlled chaos, creative chaos,” says Simon, who has known Crowden since his early high school years. “Music was coming from under every door. Kids were running down the halls with works of art under one arm and instruments under the other.” 

While Crowden plans to hand the school director’s baton to Simon after this year, she still plans to teach at the 8-to-10 a.m. sessions of the school she founded 17 years back. 

“The thing that makes it all worthwhile is that it works,” says Crowden. “The children are happy and engaged; they support each other tremendously.” 

The Crowden School, located at 1475 Rose St., is having its Spring Open House on Sunday. For more information about the school, visit the web site at www.thecrowdenschool.org

The opinion piece by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) scientist Howard Matis (May 2) is not accurate regarding what occurred at the Alameda County Board of Education meeting (April 25) when they agreed to review their decision to advise parents and schools about the radioactive contamination at the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) museum. 

The children’s museum sits directly downwind from LBNL’s Tritium Labeling Facility, an assembly line industrial scale research facility which uses and loses large amounts of radioactive tritium in its most dangerous form – tritiated water. If as Mr. Matis stated the board had given the LHS a clean bill of health then they would have withdrawn both decisions they made at their 4/11 meeting. The board did rescind their decision for a moratorium on trips, which they never had authority to enforce. Because the levels of radioactive contamination in and around the museum were found high enough to qualify for Superfund Clean-up, and the overwhelming evidence and testimony presented by credible scientists the board voted 5-2-1 to recommend that parents investigate the information and make their own decision. Does this sound like a clean bill of health? 

Contrary to Mr. Matis’ claims LBNL presented no nationally known experts. What we got was LBNL’s standard slide show public relations team, the same two EPA reps with the same tired “acceptable risks” speech and LHS staff who under questioning admitted they get significant fees from the schools’ visits. The scientists critical of the contamination from the tritium facility made the following observations: 

(1) The LBNL scientists were liars; (2) They did their science backwards-formed a conclusion first and then found evidence to support it; (3) The tritium facility’s inventory records were a shambles with 23,000 curies of tritiated water unaccounted for and presumed dumped on the LHS; and (4) The tritium facility doesn’t have the equipment to gauge how much is returned through reclamation and just pick numbers out of the air which don’t even come close to those at Livermore Lab’s reclamation division. 

Also presented was evidence that there was hardly any tritium activity when the EPA took their air tests showing no danger to the public. The EPA refuses to test soil, groundwater plants and trees because that would show more accurately what was released when the facility was in high gear. Recently it has been discovered that there was hardly any tritium on site when the air tests were conducted. This is about as honest as having your car checked for smog with the engine off. 

Mr. Matis forgot to mention the usual platitudes about how much he cares about the safety of the children at the LHS. The truth is that he and his cohorts don’t care a whit about these kids, workers or neighbors especially when it hinders the operation of one of their nuclear gizmos. LBNL’s scientists actually do care about exposing themselves to tritium as shown by the elaborate venting system they built which takes the rad-waste hundreds of feet away. It then comes out a stack 20 feet from the fence where the visiting children play in the museum’s rear outside activity area. No wonder the Berkeley City Council has twice called for closure and cleanup of the tritium facility. Mr. Matis might want to reconsider broadcasting insults and innuendo and take a serious look at what this creepy tritium facility is doing to tarnish LBNL’s reputation from some of the great things they have accomplished. 

Mark McDonald is a member of Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission. He has been involved with radiation pollution issues for over 20 years and currently works with the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste.

The St. Mary’s High track team continued its leisurely stroll through the Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League schedule on Thursday afternoon, taking first place in 10 of 14 events on both the boys’ and girls’ sides to win the respective meets, 123-43 and 128-53, over its closest competition, El Cerrito. The Panthers’ effort also yielded comfortable victories over Albany and Salesian at the quad-meet. 

Danielle Stokes keyed a diverse effort on the girls’ side, taking first in the 110m hurdles and long jump events, and picking up an additional five points with a third in the 100m. Representing the mid-distance contingent for St. Mary’s, Bridget Duffy took first in the 800m, outrunning her nearest competitor by a gaping 15 seconds. The Panthers also managed a one-woman sweep in the field events, as thrower Kamaiya Warren posted a 39-6.5 and 131-4 to win the shotput and discus, respectively. 

“We feel good about the way this team’s running,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “With the training we’ve done recently, the kids are running better than we anticipated.” 

Though El Cerrito managed to kick off the boys events with a first place in the 100m by Joe Onyenegecha, St. Mary’s swept the Gauchos in every other track event, including the 4x100 – the meet’s only relay. Chris Dunbar and James Ross posted victories in the 400m and 1600m, while Solomon Welch and Trestin George completed a Panther 1-2 sweep in the long jump. St. Mary’s also dominated the hurdles, as Halihl Guy left his league-mates in the dust in both the 110m and 300m hurdles. 

“The competition was OK, but I’m just trying to get my time down,” said Guy, who won the 300m hurdles – his best event – by nearly three seconds. “I think (the team’s) getting closer.” 

“Now the focus is trying to look sharp, win our league,” the coach added. “The goal of this team is to win the NCS championship for both the boys and girls.” 

Though Thursday’s league win was hardly in question, considering the Panthers’ status as NCS championship contenders, this Saturday’s Meet of Champions in Sacramento promises to be a distinctly different experience. Featuring Northern California’s top track powers, the meet is designed to prepare the state’s most competitive squads for the postseason, beginning at the end of this month. 

“The Sacramento Meet of Champions is a good-quality track meet,” Lawson said. “It’s the best nine (in Northern California) in every event, so it should be a great tune-up.”

Rotarians will gather on the USS Hornet on Saturday night to do what they do best – raise money to help people around the world. 

The fund-raising party in Alameda will support Rotary International’s Polio-Plus Campaign, with a projected $30,000 being raised toward the eradication of polio in Ghana. 

Steve Holland, past president of the Rotary Club of Berkeley, said Polio Plus has been hugely successful in halting the disease, and Rotarians have donated $345 million to the campaign worldwide. 

Currently the campaign funds are paying for polio serum and for the publicity necessary to let people know they need to be inoculated. 

Holland, a past president of Berkeley Rotary, is one of the hosts this weekend for a conference attended by 330 Rotarians at the Berkeley Marina Radisson Hotel. 

The conference guests are members of 63 California Rotary Clubs in a district that stretches from Berkeley and Contra Costa County in the south, up to the Oregon border. 

Guest speakers at this year’s convention include Shirley S. Chater, Commissioner of the United States Social Security Administration; baseball analyst Joe Morgan, a former Cincinnati Reds second baseman; and baseball broadcaster Lon Simmons. 

Holland, an insurance executive and 12-year member of the club, said the last time the Berkeley hosted a district conference was 35 years ago. 

The local club was founded in 1916 and had more than 50 members by the end of its first year. Among its local activities, the Berkeley Rotary raised funds and built the Berkeley Art and Garden Center in 1965 for its 50th anniversary. 

Additionally, the club pledged more than $400,000 to fund a building drive in 1992 for the Berkeley YMCA. The club provides more than $25,000 annually to local community projects. 

On a district level the Berkeley Rotary Club is participating in an international service project that helps fund programs for young people in the Czech and Slovak Republics who have lost limbs. 

Holland said it is a $40,000 project in connection with another club. It involves the young people riding horses, a specialty program that otherwise would not exist in those countries. 

Having already addressed its void in the frontcourt with the spring signing of Gabriel Hughes and Saulius Kuzminskas, the Cal men’s basketball team went to work on the backcourt Friday, announcing the signing of Alhambra High guard Michael Lawson. 

The 6-foot-2 Bay Area native earned all-league honors all four years at Alhambra, posting an obscene 24.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game as a senior in 1999-2000. Lawson also holds the all-time scoring record at AHS, with 2,104 career points. 

“We’re excited to have Michael join our program,” Cal head coach Ben Braun said about the team’s newest addition. “I like Michael’s versatility. He’s shown the ability to play both guard positions. 

“Michael had an outstanding high school career and comes to us with tremendous potential. He has shown a strong interest and commitment in our program and our university.”

An armed robbery was reported about 11 p.m. Thursday by a woman who was accosted by a gunman as she sat in her car in the 2300 block of Woolsey Street. 

She reported that she had just driven up to her boyfriend’s apartment and she saw a man standing on the corner. He immediately walked over to her car and asked her for the time. 

The woman looked at her purse as she was about to exit her car, and she saw the man pull out a gray steel handgun from his waistband. 

He saw her look at her purse and told her, “That’s what I want,” according to Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

The suspect took her purse and her car keys and as he left she screamed at him to give back her keys. He threw them back toward her car and walked, and she found them with a flashlight. 

The suspect is described as an African-American male in his 20s, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 150 pounds, wearing a pink T-shirt, black sweatpants, and white tennis shoes. The victim lost her purse and identification cards and $15.

Berkeley High track and field coach Darrell Hampton couldn’t decide which was more important between today’s East Bay Athletic League qualifiers and the Sacramento Meet of Champions. So he’s bringing his ’Jackets to both. 

“We’re going to have to pull double-duty,” said Hampton, who admits the Sacramento meet is more prestigious, but did not want to give up on the EBAL – which the BHS girls are favored to win. “We’re looking to get everybody qualified for (next Saturday’s EBAL) finals, and improve on all our individual times.” 

Since placing eighth in the 4x100 and 4x400 events at last weekend’s Penn Relays, Berkeley’s nationally known girls relay team has been trying to smooth out their handoffs, in preparation for this weekend’s competition. On Tuesday, the ’Jackets were slated to run their final dual meet of the year, against California High, but a broken water main forced a cancellation. 

Hampton considers this weekend especially important, in light of a slow week of practice, at which the coach saw little improvement. According to Hampton, his top performers have become so accustomed to the spectacle of big meets, that their practice habits have suffered. 

“I’m not very confident (right now), even in practice, the relay times were terrible (this week),” the coach said. “They’ve turned into meet performers. We’re still shaky on our handoffs – we’ve got to work on that (Saturday).”

A bomb threat at 7:30 p.m. Thursday forced the occupants of a drug rehabilitation program on Scenic Avenue to evacuate the building they occupy. 

The person who received the threatening telephone call said the suspect said, “There’s a bomb in your building,” and then hung up. The person who received the threat said the caller spoke in a low raspy tone, disguising his voice. The man did not know if he knew the suspect or not. 

Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller said the police searched the building and did not find a bomb. The police department has a three- or four-member bomb technician team with a supervisor. Miller said such threats usually are intended to aggravate and make people feel unsettled, and they achieve their purpose.

Scores of Berkeleyans will travel to Sacramento on Monday for a rally promoting an increase on state spending for public schools. 

The participants have chartered five buses for the trip, and several dozen cars also will be used for transportation, according to Mark Coplan, president of the Berkeley PTA Council, who has been spearheading the effort. 

Many of the participants are affiliated with a new organization called “Advocates for Public Schools,” a Berkeley-based group that was formed last month. The organization has created a petition that calls for the state to help provide “fair pay” for teachers, fund ongoing teacher training and parent involvement, finance academic support programs and allow districts greater flexibility in how they use certain portions of state-allocated funds. 

The endorsement list includes all five members of the BUSD School Board, representatives from the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, the Berkeley chapter of the League of Women Voters. and former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien. 

Monday’s rally will be held two days before Gov. Gray Davis will release his revised state budget. Public education supporters have called on the governor to use the expected budget surplus to raise per-pupil spending levels so they’re more equitable with funding levels of other states. 

The rally, sponsored by the California Teachers Association, will be an ideal opportunity for the Berkeley group to share its message and seek more signatures for the petition, Coplan said. Berkeley parent Simone Young will be one of the speakers at the rally. Prior to that event, the Berkeley contingent will be meeting with state Sen. Don Perata, who already has signed the petition, and Coplan is still trying to arrange an appointment with a member of the governor’s staff to deliver the documents. 

But local involvement in the rally has touched a nerve with the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, currently in mediation with the school district over increased salaries for teachers. On several occasions in recent weeks, the union has warned the district not to use the Sacramento rally as a way of distracting attention from local contract issues. 

“Yes, this is Sacramento’s fault,” BFT President Barry Fike told the school board Wednesday night, referring to low wages for teachers throughout the state. “But this isn’t the type of competitiveness we’re asking of you, the Berkeley school board. What we’re asking of you is to simply commit to make Berkeley salaries competitive with other teachers’ salaries in the area. 

“Your continued refusal to make this commitment and your attempts to blame this on Sacramento means that the BFT is unable to devote the full energy and attention on Sacramento that we would like to.” 

Coplan said he understands the tension between the union and the district surrounding the contract negotiations, but he believes next week’s rally can be a unified for the community. 

“I’ve seen division in this district, and it’s horrendous, and I’ve seen what it does to us,” he told the school board. 

“I’ve also seen the power of the people. But, I think what the people can do when their efforts are combined, can be even greater. Once place where we can get to that point is at the rally in Sacramento.”

Friday, May 5 

Historical Institutionalism Seminar 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Paul Pierson from Harvard University will be the featured speaker. 

U.K. Seminar 

Noon 

201 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Robert Peirce, counsellor, Political and Public Affairs for the British Embassy, in Washington, D.C., will discuss “Modern Britain: An Examination of Devolution and the Revitalization of Britain’s External Relationships - Europe, U.S. and the Commonwealth.” 

Opera: Queen of Spades, Part One 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Carefree Carfree Tour to KALA Art Institute (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1:30 p.m. 

Meet at Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Family Reading Night 

6:30 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary School, 920 Allston Way 

The Berkeley PTA Council is sponsoring this event to encourage reading by all members of local families. The free event will include a reading workshop, a reading pledge a free dinner and treats. A prize drawing will be held, and prizes will include 11 computers. 

510-647-5219; 510-849-2683; 510-644-6618 

Mr. Zhao, Lu Yue (China, 1998; Bay Area Premiere - Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 & 9:30 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way 

Buses No. 7, 51, 64  

The Sounds of Berkeley: A Vibrating Experience (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Helen Holt, Sherry Burke, Debra Dooling-Sherman, Dress, Aidan McIntyre, Art Peterson, Waldir Sachs, Robert Sherman, Steven Strauss, John Zalabak. $5, FOF (Friends of Festival) free. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

8 p.m. 

Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. 

UC Berkeley’s Collegium Musicum, conducted by Anthony Martin, and the University Chamber Chorus, conducted by Marika Kuzma, will perform Venetian music from St. Mark’s for violins, recorders and voices. Tickets $10 general; $8 seniors and students. 

510-549-3864 

Cal Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

This program will feature Cunningham’s “Summerspace” and the West Coast Premiere of Cunningham’s “Interscape,” set to music by John Cage. Tickets $20 to $40. 

510-642-9988 

Marcus Shelby Orchestra, big band, Ellington-inspired jazz (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. $10, FOF $8. 

Bus No. 43  

Saturday, May 6 

Restore a Salt Marsh 

9:30 a.m. 

Meet on the south side of Buchanan Street, between the freeway and Golden Gate Fields 

Join Friends of Five Creeks and the California Native Plant Society in clearing invasive ice plant from the salt marsh at the mouth of Codornices and Marin Creeks. Bring work gloves if you have them. 

510-848-9358; f5creeks@aol.com 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Jones and Fourth streets 

This show-and-sale highlights work by clay artists, Ikebana demonstrations, one-of-a-kind bargains throughout the complex of art studios, and more. The event is free. 

510-524-7031 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

Jefferson School PTA Mayfair 

10 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Jefferson School, Rose and Sacramento streets 

The fair will feature a cakewalk, carnival games and other booths, a benefit drawing for a quilt and many other prizes, plants and used children’s books for sale, art activities, entertainment, food, and more. Free admission and reasonable prices. 

510-528-8191 

John Muir School May Faire 

11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

John Muir School, 2955 Claremont Ave. 

This annual event will include food, games, a yard sale and craft activities. The highlight of this year’s May Faire will be the annual PTA quilt raffle. The May Faire is free; tickets for the Quilt Raffle are available for $1 each, or six tickets for $5. The proceeds will be spent on projects at the school. 

510-644-6410; 510-540-1028 

The New School International Family Fair 

11 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Bonita Street between Cedar and Virginia streets 

This block party will feature a handcrafts bazaar, games and activities for children, raffle, a Capoeira demonstration, Flamenco, African, and Philippine dance, Taiko drumming, Native American flute music, and more. The event is free. 

510-548-9165 

“The Rides of Spring” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center Street between Milvia and MLK 

The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition is sponsoring this community bike ride, which may visit the Berkeley Marina, Cesar Chavez Park, the Ohlone Greenway, Cedar-Rose Park - the actual “destinations” will be decided as the bikes travel. The group expects to be back downtown between 2 and 3 p.m., in time to participate in the Berkeley Music Circus Festival. 

510-601-8124 

Cinco de Mayo Celebration, a family sing-along (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11:30 a.m. 

Habitot Children’s Museum, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Children $6, Adults $3, FOF $5 & $2. 

Downtown Music Circus (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1-5 p.m. 

Hundreds of musicians of every tradition will gather on Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Haste Street, playing from streetside, stores, balconies, cafés, and a piano situated on the divider at Center St. You, too, can bring an instrument and join in the fun. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association and Amoeba Music. 

For Fun, Ning Ying (China/Hong Kong, 1995 - Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7 p.m. 

On the Beat, Ning Ying (China, 1995) 

9 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way 

Bus No. 7, 51, 64 

Cal Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

This program will feature Cunningham’s “Summerspace” and the West Coast Premiere of Cunningham’s “Interscape,” set to music by John Cage. Tickets $20 to $40. 

510-642-9988 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

Bach, B Minor Mass. Free. 

Bus No. 51 

Liam Ensemble: Traditional Persian Music (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theater, 2646 College Ave. $25. 

Bus No. 51  

Celebration of Spring: A Benefit for the Crowden School (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

St. John’s Church, 2727 College Ave. 

Turtle Island String Quartet. Tickets: 658-2799. 

Bus No. 51 

California Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra 

8 p.m. 

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way 

Warren Stewart will conduct the chorus and orchestra in their performance of J.S. Bach’s “Mass in A Major” and Cantata 21. Tickets $20 general; $15 seniors; $10 students. 

650-299-8616; www.calbach.org 

Berkeley New Music Project 

8 p.m. 

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

This concert will feature new music by graduate student composers. The concert is free. 

Sunday, May 7 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Jones and Fourth streets 

This show-and-sale highlights work by clay artists, Ikebana demonstrations, one-of-a-kind bargains throughout the complex of art studios, and more. The event is free. 

510-524-7031 

Berkeley’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration 

10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

This free event will feature mariachis, salsa bands, Latin jazz and Tex-Mex music, dancers, clowns, face painters, a petting zoo, vendors of arts and crafts, and more. 

510-549-0192 

Jazz on Fourth Street (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

A benefit for the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble with Mingus Amongus, Charanga Tumbao y Cuerdos, Kemp Generation, Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble. 

Bus No. 51 

Carefree Carfree Tour to Bernard Maybeck’s First Church of Christ-Scientist (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11:30 a.m. 

Meet at Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Crowden School Community Music Day (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1-5 p.m. 

Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. 

A family affair with an instrument “petting zoo” for children of all ages. Performances by the Kairos Youth Choir, the Arethusa Woodwind Ensemble, and the Rose Street Players Musical Theater. Free. 

510-559-6910 

Bus No. 67 

Kimi Kodani Hill Lecture on Berkeley’s Ethnic Diversity (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1 p.m. 

1931 Center St. 

Sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. Free. 

510-848-0181  

History/Storytelling Day 

1-4 p.m. 

People’s Park 

Come, and share your stories of the Park’s rich history of activism. Bring ideas for creating a People’s Park Archive. This event is sponsored by the People’s Park Community Gardening Collective. 

510-601-8643 

Youth Arts Festival (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 

Washington School Student Concert and Dances from Sri Lanka. Free. 

Sketches on a Windy Afternoon 

3 p.m. 

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Robert Calonico and Jonathan Elkus will conduct the UC Davis Concert Band and University Wind Ensemble in this performance of works by Sousa, Holst, Jerome Rosen, Franz Von Suppe, Bach, Percy Grainger and Fisher Tull. 

Three Tenors 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool/La Note, 2377 Shattuck Ave. 

Tenor saxophonists Tony Corman, Dave Tidball and Jim Norton will be joined by Matt Clark, piano, Jeff Massinari, guitar, Fred Randolph, bass, and Phil Hawkins, drums. General admission $12; students/seniors $10; Jazzschool Students/Children under 13, $6. Limited seating; reservations recommended. 

510-845-5373 

China: Fifty Years Inside the People’s Republic (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

4:30-6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Museum Theater 

Slide Show and Panel Discussion: Other Views, with photographers Jeffrey Aaronson and Xing Danwen, moderated by Robert Templer. 

Himalayan Fair Concert (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7 p.m. 

King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. 

This concert will feature Ali Khan, Ancient Future, Stephen Kent and Eda Maxym, Viviana Guzman, Techung and Jeff Greenwald. Proceeds benefit grassroots projects in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet. Tickets $15. 

510-848-6767, ext. 609; www.himalayanfair.net 

Buses No. 15, 67 

Cal Performances: The Kronos Quartet 

7 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

The quarter will be joined by soprano Dawn Upshaw in a program of 20th century music. Tickets $20 to $42. 

510-642-9988 

News from Native California Magazine presents ShadowLight Productions (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Tales from Native California, a lecture/demonstration of California Indian stories. Free. 

Poetry Flash at Cody’s (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

2454 Telegraph Ave. 

Performance poet Sandy Diamond, Quraysh Ali Lansana. 

Buses No. 40, 64 

Works in the Works 2000 (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 p.m. 

Eighth St. Studio, 2525 Eighth St. $8, FOF $7. 

Bus No. 65

It’s Wednesday and I’ve already put in about 30-35 hours at my job, since Monday. I don’t have a union to protect me. Or to set my hours. Or negotiate on my behalf against seemingly unjust labor practices. 

So I’d like to address the current situation between the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) and the school district. Specifically, I’d like to respond to the fabricated environment of discontent during the Board meeting on Wednesday, May 3. 

I own a modest home in North Berkeley. A significant portion of my tax dollars go to paying the Berkeley teachers. I wish they were paid more. But I wouldn’t like to see the beneficial but expensive social programs that the district runs get shut down. Unfortunately, the school districts in California have suffered greatly from vindictive leadership in Sacramento. Traditionally, every school dollar comes with a string attached. Most school dollars are so bound up in state politics that it’s impossible to discern the real intent behind the allocation. 

Unions are a good thing. But they become disruptive when they turn communities against themselves; in particular when they fight against their local school districts instead of mustering the courage to fight against the real enemy, which is Sacramento. I’m glad to see that at least the Berkeley PTA is taking up the challenge. 

I would like to challenge the protesters who were in attendance May 3 to tell taxpayers what the school district is offering the Berkeley Federation of Teachers for a settlement, and why it is so egregiously bad that the leadership of the BFT has had to initiate the divisive preliminaries for a strike. The agreements that have been put on the table have been sealed to the public. So how do they know what they’re fighting for? Sounds like union rhetoric to me. I challenge the protesters to ask BFT leaders what the truth really is. I spoke to an otherwise well informed, sign-toting parent outside who didn’t have a clue. 

Meanwhile, protesters, do a little bit of homework about where the real struggle lies instead of ignorantly giving in to the manufactured battle of the BFT leadership, who think this is still the ‘60s and that partnership and collaboration are the enemies of rational people. 

When good, unions are a good thing. Unfortunately the BFT has chosen to upend the city by turning district administrators into the enemy, at the expense of our teachers, and at the expense – like always – of our students. 

Jeffrey M. Hannan, a Berkeley resident, is an independent Web consultant.

SAN FRANCISCO – As part of its “Absurdist Season 2000,” San Francisco’s iconoclastic Exit Theater, located in the heart of the Tenderloin, opened the world premiere Tuesday of East Bay playwright/actor Dan Carbone’s energetic but disappointing farce “Salvador Dali Talks to the Animals in the Heaven on Top of Heaven.” 

In “Talks to the Animals,” Spanish painter Salvador Dali (Carbone) is brought back to life during a television talk show. The play then careens through an eccentric, disorderly and subjective retelling of Dali’s life, as filtered through Carbone’s offbeat satiric imagination. 

Director John Sowle and an energetic cast give the performance everything they’ve got, but no amount of broad acting, sight gags and silly antics can compensate for a script that is basically a not-very-funny, two-hour, episodic, sketch comedy segment. 

In “Salvador Dali Talks to the Animals,” following the bizarre talk show segment, we visit Dali at home with his dysfunctional family, transposed somehow into a television sit com complete with laugh track. There his oversexed oedipal daughter (Marin Van Young) eats breakfast cereal out of her brother’s (Russell Pachman) underwear. 

Soon a cow (John Baumann) who was traumatized during the television talk show flees to Africa to become a tourist guide. There he’s joined by Dali’s family where he tells them, in the form of a puppet show, a traumatic dream from his childhood. 

At one point, Dali gives a lecture to the audience on the history of art, complete with slides, identifying where he fits in. Later, his wife Gala has sex with a stranger in a cab. 

The highlight of the evening is a scatological poem about a dog who eats tinsel off the Christmas tree, and the outcome of that. 

But “Salvador Dali Talks to the Animals” contains no real thesis or story. It’s a series of episodic skits. The play is surreal, but not funny. The jokes are often labored. 

The characters, even Dali, who holds center stage for much of the evening, are cartoon characters. Carbone’s Dali is a caricature who talks about himself in the third person in grand, exaggerated phrases. Two hours of that starts to wear thin. 

The stock satirical situations, such as the dysfunctional nuclear family, are often familiar and recognizable. 

As far as the writing goes, the opening moment of each segment is usually the strongest moment. Then, typically, the “scenelet” meanders for a while, before stopping. A little story structure would have helped this piece. A crazy fantasy doesn’t necessarily make a play. 

Director John Sowle has done his best to breathe life into the piece. Everyone tries hard to be funny. Carbone performs Dali with lots of grimacing and a squeaky Spanish accent. He’s sort of a half-way-there Father Guido Sarducci. Berkeleyan and Shotgun Players regular Marin Van Young, who is a skillful actor, turns in some of the show’s strongest work as Dali’s sexual daughter Twinkle Ann, and later as a trendy guest at a party thrown by Spanish King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. Paul Gerrior has nice moments as talk show host Zachary Strayhorn. 

Carbone won a Best of the Fringe award for his piece “Up from the Ground” at last year’s San Francisco Fringe Festival, but this long and complicated journey through the life of Salvador Dali asks for a lot of indulgence from an audience. 

“Salvador Dali Talks to the Animals in the Heaven on Top of Heaven” plays Tuesday and Wednesday, 7 p.m., through May 24, at Exit Stage Left, 156 Eddy St. (at Taylor), San Francisco. For tickets and information, call 415-931-2699.

OK, so maybe predicting a win over league punching bag Granada doesn’t exactly make Berkeley High boys volleyball coach Justin Caraway Nostradamus. But after seeing the way his ’Jackets dominated the Matadors in a four-game victory at Donahue Gym on Thursday, the coach’s more presumptuous prophecy of picking up a postseason bid is beginning to look less and less crazy. 

Determined to win their 2000 home finale, the senior-intensive BHS squad opened a quick two-game advantage on the winless Matadors, before finally showing weakness in game three. With the ’Jackets in a temporary funk, Granada managed to string enough points together to take the game, but Berkeley responded with a big effort in game four to preserve the 17-15, 15-5, 6-15, 15-2 victory. 

“In that third game, it was the same thing as always. They got tentative and started making passing mistakes,” Caraway said after the game. “But we outplayed them for the most of the game. We were clearly the better team. We weren’t going to come in here and lose to a team that we haven’t lost two in two years.” 

“We could have been a little more crisp, but we’re definitely where we want to be,” added BHS senior Luis Ramirez, who posted two aces to lead all servers.  

Keeping with tradition, Caraway worked all seven seniors into the lineup in the final home game. As usual, the BHS victory was keyed by the play of the senior leaders, with D.Q. Li and Mason Chin combining for 25 kills and 26 digs. Another fourth-year athlete, Jacob Kardon, left his mark on the home court, scoring eight kills, 10 digs and a team-high five blocks. 

“This team is very talented - one of the most talented I’ve ever played on,” said Ramirez, who transferred to Berkeley High after playing for a high school in Denver last season. “I could tell when I first walked into the gym that this team could go to the playoffs.” 

Though Berkeley has cleared its first hurdle in its hunt for the postseason, the most difficult obstacle, first-place Foothill, remains in the team’s path. The ‘Jackets and Falcons face off next Tuesday in San Ramon in a game that would figure to be Berkeley’s most convincing argument for NCS, if it can finally stop its undefeated league mates. Still, the BHS coach admits that beating Foothill is a far cry from beating Granada. 

“If we play with this type of emotion, Foothill’s going to kill us,” Caraway said after Thursday’s win. “We’ve got to come out prepared to play. Foothill keeps the ball in play. Just being prepared is really the strategy.” 

“...The window is busted, and the landlord ain’t home/And Butch joined the army, yeah that’s where he’s been/And the jackhammer’s diggin’ up the sidewalks again...” 

– Tom Waits, “In the Neighborhood” 

While noise, vandalism and discomfort form the holy trinity of all too many neighborhoods, a Berkeley block has mounted an effort to preserve its sanctity from a perceived threat. 

Residents of Peralta Street just off Solano have waged a yearlong war against Pacific Bell’s installation of a second telephone switching box (those metallic objects on the roadside resembling a small tool shed and containing a mass of brightly colored wires and sockets). 

“Sometimes they come twice a day, sometimes three times a day,” says 30-year area resident Nel Watkins of Pac Bell employees coming to work on the new box. “Because of the narrowness of the street, I can hear the music from their radios, their conversations, the trucks backing up. It’s quite an intrusion.” 

Watkins and other residents of Peralta Street claim the large Pac Bell trucks clog up an already precariously narrow street, leading to the occasional fender bender. The box has also been characterized as extremely unsightly, a target for graffiti, and potential cover for a mugger to hide behind. 

“In essence, it creates a permanent construction site in front of our house,” said Joseph Nichols, who estimates the new box is roughly 10 feet from his front door. “Usually they send out just one truck to work on that box, but sometimes it’s two or three trucks.” 

When the new box – which Pac Bell claims will replace the old box, not serve in addition to it – was installed roughly a year back, concerned neighbors held meetings with city and Pac Bell officials. Following the meeting, Mayor Shirley Dean wrote a recommendation for a moratorium on any new or rebuilt “telephone service pedestals, switching boxes or hubs” until the implementation of a master plan for telecommunications. The City Council passed the recommendation in its March 21 session, passing the matter to the City Manager’s office for an ongoing study of the legal and political ramifications of such a moratorium. 

At the heart of Peralta neighborhood’s objection is a feeling of “Why here? Why on such a narrow, residential block?” Pacific Bell’s answer mirrors the words of the mountaineer’s motto: “Because it’s there.” 

“We have to replace and upgrade the present (box). All the facilities are there (by the old box),” says Mindy Ahluwalia, Pac Bell’s design engineer for the Albany/El Cerrito area. “If we went further on, we’d have to trench it. We went the city and mayor and they asked how much it would cost to relocate, to go around the corner to the little park next to Solano and Peralta. It came out to be very expensive ($44,000). They said no, no, we cannot pay.” 

Ahluwalia emphasized that once the new box is up and running – and it has stood dormant during this yearlong controversy – the old one will be removed. He added that replacements such as this are necessary due to a need to double existing phone service to keep up with consumer demand. 

“Now almost every person has a minimum of three lines,” says Ahluwalia. “The facilities are exhausted. We have to double (the number of lines). In a business area, maybe more. Maybe four or five times. 

“I don’t know what they mean by ‘moratorium,’” continues the engineer. “If we’re not allowed to put in any more boxes and upgrade boxes, we can’t meet the requirements of the people. We’re already a year behind (on Peralta). We’re short facilities in that area.” 

Meanwhile, the analysis of the proposed moratorium may be reaching its conclusion. Chris Mead, Berkeley’s information systems manager, says the city attorney’s office may have an answer on the legal quandaries of a moratorium as soon as next week, while the policy analysts could require several more weeks. 

“I think the City Council felt a lot more policy needed to be developed regarding these issues,” says Mead. “There’s an enormous rush to deploy lots of telecommunication services, and all the cities in the Bay Area are really struggling on how to administrate this.” 

But whatever the result of the potential moratorium, it looks like the box on Peralta Street may be here to stay, much to the chagrin of its neighbors. 

“Every time I look at that box and see they put it that close to the entrance of somebody’s home, I get angry,” says Watkins. “It really is a most unacceptable thing.” 

Albert Lau’s letter in your May 4th edition misses the point. TransAction proposes to construct a new development, which will contain not only much needed housing for downtown, but also replacement of the existing parking, plus additional parking. We are very aware that the interim disruption is a major inconvenience for downtown visitors, and are working hard to put programs in place to mitigate the inconvenience. The existing structure is incapable of supporting additional weight load. We cannot simply build apartments on top of the existing structure, but rather must build a new structure as a platform for new housing. The city and DBA (Downtown Berkeley Association) were very concerned about the county’s courthouse plan, because that plan did not provide for a re-creation of the existing parking. TransAction’s proposal does provide for the recreation of the existing parking. Thus, but for the temporary, but very real, inconvenience, the downtown and the city will be better off with the new development. 

John H. DeClercq 

Senior Vice President 

TransAction Financial Corporation 

Berkeley High pitcher Lillia Bermeo allowed just two hits and one earned run in five innings in a fantastic outing against East Bay Athletic League rival Monte Vista on Thursday. But thanks to her own squad’s offense, she couldn’t have pitched a complete game if she wanted to. 

After setting the tone with a seven-run first inning, highlighted by a Bermeo triple, the ’Jackets continued to take batting practice off the Mustang starter, building an embarrassing 12-run lead by the fifth inning. At that point, the officials put the Mustangs out of their misery, declaring the game a 14-2 Yellowjacket win, by “slaughter rule.” 

“Lilli hit that triple, and everyone started hitting (in the first inning),” BHS coach Elena Bermeo said after the game. “It was a chain reaction. We just moved through the lineup.” 

Berkeley’s Caitlin Drulis helped lead the offensive onslaught, going 3-for-3 with a triple and three runs scored. Jasmine Jew also joined the three-hit club, batting 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs. Bermeo contributed a home run, in addition to the first-inning triple, to help her own cause. 

“They all stepped up. We had a lot of confidence going into the game,” the BHS coach said. “There was cheering on the bench, and everyone was psyched the whole game.” 

The win was just the second of the year for Berkeley, which hopes to improve that tally next Tuesday against Livermore, another EBAL opponent.  

According to the coach, Thursday’s offensive breakthrough sparked a new feeling of confidence at the plate that could carry over into next weeks matchup with the Cowboys. Picking up where they left off vs. the Mustangs may prove tricky on Tuesday, however, as Livermore is likely to start First-team All-league pitcher Jen Graves. 

“Everyone’s swinging the bat in the second half of the season,” Elena Bermeo said. “We were talking about Livermore on the bus ride home, and that’s the team to beat. We beat Monte Vista before, and now we think we can beat Livermore.” 

Tuesday’s game begins at 3:45 p.m. at James Kinney Park in Berkeley.

A 22-year-old Oakland man was arrested Monday evening in connection with a strong-arm robbery on Prospect Avenue at Dwight Way. 

According to Berkeley police reports, the man and a female companion approached the victim about 9:15 p.m. The victim said that as the suspect swept past him he grabbed him in a headlock and took him down to the ground, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

The suspect repeated commands to the victim to stay down, “I’ve got a gun, give me your money” he told the victim, who then complied. 

The suspect and his companion rifled through the victim’s pocket, and they took a green lighter, the digital watch he was wearing and $7, and left him there. 

When the police apprehended the suspect – Anthony Joseph Martinez – a few minutes later at Prospect Avenue and Channing Way, he did not possess a gun, but he had a lighter and the victim’s watch in his pocket. 

The woman, who was not arrested, is described as a white teen-ager about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with a “chubby build” wearing a dark top with a hood. 

Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), our neighborhood experienced a crisis when one of my neighbors could not find his 6-year-old child who had been playing in the backyard of their home. The incident ended on a happy note when, an hour and a half later, the child returned from a trip to the grocery store with his mother. It turned out to have been a matter of missed communications between the parents. Nonetheless, the response of the police in that hour and a half made me proud to live in a city like Berkeley that can call on the incredible professionalism of its police force in an emergency. 

Within minutes of receiving the 911 call from the distraught father, the police had arrived in force (there were five patrol cars on the corner when I drove up to my house), searched the neighbor’s house and yard and begun to spread out in a controlled way to search the neighborhood. As time went on, reinforcements were called in from the traffic division (I had never before thought of meter maids as potential resources in a crisis), and the city’s crisis team. It seemed as if every move had been thought out and rehearsed, everyone knew what to do and did it, at the same time remaining sensitive to the emotional state of the parent and the increasingly concerned neighbors. I can’t say enough positive things about every city employee who played a part – THANK YOU!! And to Berkeley residents – be grateful for our extremely professional, well-trained police force! 

Mary Ann McCamant 

Berkeley

Three weeks after hiring Santa Clara’s Caren Horstmeyer to replace Marianne Stanley as head coach, the Cal women’s basketball program has named two assistant coaches for the 2000-2001 season. 

Sue Phillips-Chargin, who coached San Francisco’s Archbishop Mitty High to the NorCal finals in 1999-2000, enters the Cal program with eight years of prep coaching experience and an impeccable 224-31 lifetime record.  

The other new hire, Shaunice Warr, coached under Horstmeyer at Santa Clara, and was selected for her intensity and recruiting skills. 

“I am excited to hire two outstanding individuals to help build the Cal program,” Horstmeyer said on Thursday. “Sue brings a winning mentality to the team. She’s a good communicator and an extremely hard worker. Her ties to high school basketball in California will be an asset to our recruiting efforts. 

“Shaunice knows the system I run, having worked with me for three years at Santa Clara. She’s extremely competitive, and is an excellent recruiter. The two of them also are solid teachers of the game.” 

The Cal head coach still plans to hire one more assistant, and expects to make the decision in the coming weeks.

Bayer Corporation’s Berkeley site is the first in North America to meet one of the most rigorous international environmental standards in the world, company officials announced this week. 

Bayer’s Worldwide Biotechnology Center and Biological Products manufacturing facility has been certified as meeting the ISO 14001 standard, a comprehensive set of policies designed to ensure both a high level of environmental sensitivity now, and an ongoing process of continuous improvement. 

“Meeting the ISO standard was a true team effort,” Thomas Malott, principal environmental specialist at Bayer Berkeley, said in a news release. “When we made the decision to pursue this standard, we put together a team to assess our environmental management system and make the necessary changes.” 

After an initial audit last October, a list of observations was made and all of those were addressed in the final audit. 

The ISO 14001 certification means that the company can compete with other biotechnology companies in Europe, where it is expected that the ISO standard will be required. 

ISO, or International Organization for Standardization, is a non-government federation of standards groups from more than 130 countries. All standards developed by ISO are voluntary and rigorous. The purpose of the Environmental Management Standard is to ensure that companies operating under the standard not only meet current regulations, but have a process in place by which systems are continuously evaluated and improved. 

Bayer’s Berkeley site manufactures Kogenate, Prolastin and Thrombate III. It is also the Worldwide Biotechnology Center, responsible for the discovery, development, and process development of recombinant protein drugs and gene-based therapies. Both are part of Bayer Corporation’s Pharmaceutical Division, headquartered in West Haven, Conn. Bayer Corporation, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a member of the worldwide Bayer Group, a $29 billion international life sciences, polymers and specialty chemicals group based in Leverkusen, Germany.

As part of Berkeley’s Earth Day events, hundreds of people joined the pledge to take specific steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These pledges now total more than 2 million pounds of carbon dioxide and other gases that will be taken out of our atmosphere. That was a good beginning, but we all have a way to go. Greenhouse gases are causing the earth to warm. As the earth warms unusual climate events happen, as evidenced by massive flooding and devastating mudslides in some parts of the world and severe droughts and raging fires in others. The rain forests are in distress and island nations, existing as they do at sea level, watch in horror as the oceans warm and rise a little more each year. Severe climatic changes represent a real threat to our way of life and to the world’s water and food supplies. 

The City of Berkeley has joined together with towns all over the world in pledging to reduce these harmful gases. For example, we have purchased alternative fuel vehicles and are poised to buy our electricity from renewable energy sources. We are asking households, your readers, to join in. 

Most of the greenhouse gases come from the pollution we in the developed nations cause in the simple course of our daily lives: the cars we drive, the energy we consume. Note that a single Sport Utility Vehicle typically emits more than 20,000 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere per year – an astonishing amount (see www.fueleconomy.gov). Every person’s actions, or inactions, count. People have pledged to drive smaller cars, carpool, take public transit, compost, use more efficient light bulbs, insulate and weatherstrip, and buy green power from renewable sources. Go ahead and take the pledge at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/housing/energy/pledge.html. Or call 665-3486 to get a pledge card and for information. We will add up the pledges as they come in and continue to announce to the world the total pounds Berkeley has pledged to remove from the earth’s atmosphere. Take the pledge. Be a partner in protecting our climate. 

Linda Maio 

Berkeley City Council

A 10-year-old boy allegedly brandished a pocket knife at a 9-year-old girl in the hallway of LeConte Elementary School on April 26. The girl’s mother reported the incident on Tuesday of this week. 

The girl said the suspect came to school late and another person questioned his reason for his being late, according to Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miler. The suspect mistakenly thought the girl made the remark, and he walked up to her, pulled out a red and silver pocket knife and pointed it at her stomach. Then he asked her what she said about being late, and the girl ran away from him and into a restroom. 

Later, she left the restroom and told her teacher about the brandishing. The teacher took the knife away from the boy and they all went to the principal’s office. The victim said the suspect did not touch her with the knife. Miller said the incident apparently was handled in the school’s disciplinary process. 

The Berkeley-Albany YMCA will host its 60th Annual Community Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday morning at H’s Lordships Restaurant at the Berkeley Marina. 

Since 1941, the Community Prayer Breakfast, formerly known as the Lenten Breakfast, has brought people together to celebrate common values and a shared sense of community. 

This year’s breakfast, which begins at 7 a.m., will feature Kenneth Barnes, Senior Pastor at Arlington Community Church. A choir from Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley will provide a special musical number. 

Tickets for the Community Prayer Breakfast are $12 and are still available. There is a special breakfast sponsorship for $84, which includes eight breakfast tickets, and a table reserved in your name or your company’s name. 

For more information on how to purchase tickets for the YMCA’s Community Prayer Breakfast call Vicki Bargagliotti

The sculpture of an eagle, worth $800 according to its owner, was stolen from the front yard of a home in the 2800 block of Webster Street. 

The sculpture is about three and one half feet tall and has a wingspan of 40 inches. It is made of metal with rust over black, said Police Capt. Bobby Miller, and it weighs 140 pounds. 

The owner saw it Sunday afternoon and on Monday morning he noticed the eagle was gone. Miller said there are as yet no leads.

It had been a month since the last school board meeting, which meant it had been a month since parents and teachers had their last opportunity to demand that the board reach a contract agreement with the teachers union. 

As they did on April 5, parents, teachers and students crowded into the board’s chambers in Old City Hall on Wednesday night. For over an hour, speakers blasted the school board for the situation and called on the district to provide more equitable wages for its teachers. 

“Increase our salaries now,” one teacher said, “put us at the top priority of the budget, and then, if we find some more money, we can pay administrators to shuffle papers around their offices, and we can fund the things in the Berkeley school district that are not as essential as teachers.” 

But Director Shirley Issel bristled at the implication – and open assertion – that the board doesn’t care about teachers. 

“I think there is a disturbing amount of anger and contempt toward the board and the administration,” she said. “People have the idea that we do not understand the consequences of low teacher pay.” 

In early March, the district and the union reached an impasse in contract negotiations, particularly over the issue of increasing teachers’ salaries through a multiyear agreement. Teachers have a contract that continues through 2001, but the deal allows such issues as compensation to be reopened each year. The current negotiations began more than a year ago. 

According to information provided by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, which came from state reports for the 1998-99 school year, only one Alameda County school district with more than 500 students has a lower salary range for new teachers. 

Some speakers warned the board that if a contract agreement is not reached soon, it could come back to haunt them in the fall, when President Joaquin Rivera and Director Pamela Doolan are up for re-election. One speaker threatened a recall of the whole board. 

“We’ve heard about your commitments, your wishes, your intents,” said parent Lincoln Malek. “Unfortunately, that’s all meaningless rhetoric. It’s meaningless because it doesn’t put food on the table. What puts food on the table is a paycheck, and paychecks are determined by contract language.” 

But after the public comment period, Rivera made his most expansive comments to date on the contract standoff. He said that after next Tuesday’s mediation session between the BUSD and the BFT, it is possible that the two sides will release more information on the negotiations, including information on the deals both sides are offering. 

After leaving the meeting, BFT President Barry Fike told supporters, “Don’t hold your breath.” He said the union has been willing to release much of that information for some time. 

A group of parents is calling for students to be kept at home on May 31 because of the contract impasse. 

Thursday, May 4 

Jazzschool BART Plaza Concert (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

Noon 

The Advanced Jazz Workshop, under the direction of Mike Zilber, will perform. Sponsored by  

Downtown Berkeley Association, Amoeba Music, BART, Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Harris Seminar 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Rod Gould, city manager of San Rafael and the Stone &Youngberg California Local Executive-in-Residence, will speak on “Semi-RationalExuberance: The Outlook of a City Manager Facing the New Century.” 

UC Students Poetry Reading (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

12:10-12:50 p.m. 

Morrison Room, Doe Library, UC Campus. Free. 

Buses No. 7, 51, 64  

Free computer class for seniors 

1-4 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

Movie: “Notting Hill” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Draft Southside Plan: Public Safety 

7 p.m. 

Trinity United Methodist Church, 2362 Bancroft Way 

This will be a discussion on the public safety element of the Southside Plan. 

Youth Arts Festival (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 

Poetry with Rita Davies & Katie Johnson Oxford Elementary School students read their original poems. Free. 

“Best Bay Area Day Hikes” 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Author Ann Marie Brown gives a slide presentation from her book “101 Great Hikes of the San Francisco Bay Area.” 

510-527-4140 

Residential Street Sweeping Meeting 

7:30-9:30 p.m. 

St. John’s Church, 2727 College Ave. 

The city is considering changes in its residential street-sweeping program. The public will have a chance to give input to the changes at the meetings. 

510-665-3440 

Friday, May 5 

Historical Institutionalism Seminar 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Paul Pierson from Harvard University will be the featured speaker. 

U.K. Seminar 

Noon 

201 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Robert Peirce, counsellor, Political and Public Affairs for the British Embassy, in Washington, D.C., will discuss “Modern Britain: An Examination of Devolution and the Revitalization of Britain’s External Relationships - Europe, U.S. and the Commonwealth.” 

Opera: Queen of Spades, Part One 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Carefree Carfree Tour to KALA Art Institute (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1:30 p.m. 

Meet at Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Family Reading Night 

6:30 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary School, 920 Allston Way 

The Berkeley PTA Council is sponsoring this event to encourage reading by all members of local families. The free event will include a reading workshop, a reading pledge a free dinner and treats. A prize drawing will be held, and prizes will include 11 computers. 

510-647-5219; 510-849-2683; 510-644-6618 

Mr. Zhao, Lu Yue (China, 1998; Bay Area Premiere - Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7:30 & 9:30 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way 

Buses No. 7, 51, 64  

The Sounds of Berkeley: A Vibrating Experience (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Festival Gallery, 2216 Shattuck Ave. 

Helen Holt, Sherry Burke, Debra Dooling-Sherman, Dress, Aidan McIntyre, Art Peterson, Waldir Sachs, Robert Sherman, Steven Strauss, John Zalabak. $5, FOF (Friends of Festival) free. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

8 p.m. 

Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. 

UC Berkeley’s Collegium Musicum, conducted by Anthony Martin, and the University Chamber Chorus, conducted by Marika Kuzma, will perform Venetian music from St. Mark’s for violins, recorders and voices. Tickets $10 general; $8 seniors and students. 

510-549-3864 

Cal Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

This program will feature Cunningham’s “Summerspace” and the West Coast Premiere of Cunningham’s “Interscape,” set to music by John Cage. Tickets $20 to $40. 

510-642-9988 

Marcus Shelby Orchestra, big band, Ellington-inspired jazz (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. $10, FOF $8. 

Bus No. 43  

Saturday, May 6 

Restore a Salt Marsh 

9:30 a.m. 

Meet on the south side of Buchanan Street, between the freeway and Golden Gate Fields 

Join Friends of Five Creeks and the California Native Plant Society in clearing invasive ice plant from the salt marsh at the mouth of Codornices and Marin Creeks. Bring work gloves if you have them. 

510-848-9358; f5creeks@aol.com 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show 

10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

Jones and Fourth streets 

This show-and-sale highlights work by clay artists, Ikebana demonstrations, one-of-a-kind bargains throughout the complex of art studios, and more. The event is free. 

510-524-7031 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

Jefferson School PTA Mayfair 

10 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Jefferson School, Rose and Sacramento streets 

The fair will feature a cakewalk, carnival games and other booths, a benefit drawing for a quilt and many other prizes, plants and used children’s books for sale, art activities, entertainment, food, and more. Free admission and reasonable prices. 

510-528-8191 

John Muir School May Faire 

11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

John Muir School, 2955 Claremont Ave. 

This annual event will include food, games, a yard sale and craft activities. The highlight of this year’s May Faire will be the annual PTA quilt raffle. The May Faire is free; tickets for the Quilt Raffle are available for $1 each, or six tickets for $5. The proceeds will be spent on projects at the school. 

510-644-6410; 510-540-1028 

The New School International Family Fair 

11 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Bonita Street between Cedar and Virginia streets 

This block party will feature a handcrafts bazaar, games and activities for children, raffle, a Capoeira demonstration, Flamenco, African, and Philippine dance, Taiko drumming, Native American flute music, and more. The event is free. 

510-548-9165 

“The Rides of Spring” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center Street between Milvia and MLK 

The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition is sponsoring this community bike ride, which may visit the Berkeley Marina, Cesar Chavez Park, the Ohlone Greenway, Cedar-Rose Park - the actual “destinations” will be decided as the bikes travel. The group expects to be back downtown in time to participate in the Berkeley Music Circus Festival. 

510-601-8124 

Cinco de Mayo Celebration, a family sing-along (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

11:30 a.m. 

Habitot Children’s Museum, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Children $6, Adults $3, FOF $5 & $2. 

Downtown Music Circus (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

1-5 p.m. 

Hundreds of musicians of every tradition will gather on Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Haste Street, playing from streetside, stores, balconies, cafés, and a piano situated on the divider at Center St. You, too, can bring an instrument and join in the fun. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association and Amoeba Music. 

For Fun, Ning Ying (China/Hong Kong, 1995 - Berkeley Arts Festival) 

7 p.m. 

On the Beat, Ning Ying (China, 1995) 

9 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way 

Bus No. 7, 51, 64 

Cal Performances: Merce Cunningham Dance Company 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

This program will feature Cunningham’s “Summerspace” and the West Coast Premiere of Cunningham’s “Interscape,” set to music by John Cage. Tickets $20 to $40. 

510-642-9988 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

Bach, B Minor Mass. Free. 

Bus No. 51 

Liam Ensemble: Traditional Persian Music (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theater, 2646 College Ave. $25. 

Celebration of Spring: A Benefit for the Crowden School (Berkeley Arts Festival) 

8 p.m. 

St. John’s Church, 2727 College Ave. 

Turtle Island String Quartet. Tickets: 658-2799. 

California Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra 

8 p.m. 

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way 

Warren Stewart will conduct the chorus and orchestra in their performance of J.S. Bach’s “Mass in A Major” and Cantata 21. Tickets $20 general; $15 seniors; $10 students. 

650-299-8616; www.calbach.org

The recent resolution passed by the Alameda County Board of Education seems to have caught Lawrence Hall of Science and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab officials off-guard, in its straightforward, no-nonsense advisory to Alameda County schools to suspend field trips to the Lawrence Hall of Science. Children could be put in danger, the Board of Education advised, by radiation releases in the form of tritium from the stack of the National Tritium Labeling Facility, located adjacent to the Hall of Science. 

Last week’s amended version of that resolution by the Board of Education softens but does not completely rescind the warning issued to parents, teachers and students. We are told in the amended resolution passed Tuesday, April 25, that the Alameda County Board of Education “notes the differences of opinion regarding the possibility of hazards associated with visits to the Lawrence Hall of Science, and recommends that educators, students and parents independently assess the possibility of risk and make individual decisions regarding the visits to the Lawrence Hall of Science.” 

Sounds good on paper, but how do we get this information, and how do we get it from unbiased sources, or at the very least, from a balance of sources, in order to come to some sort of meaningful conclusions on whether all field trips to the LHS are off? Do we proceeds to the Hall only when clad in full radiation protection gear and respirators; or do we declare all this a false alarm, and merrily frolic with abandon amongst the tritium-infused eucalyptus pods? 

And, what about those worrisome reports of yet another source of radiation release from the Lab, involving neutron bombardment of neighborhoods around the Lab’s accelerator? These are the questions and puzzlements confronting the community of parents, faced with a barrage of media coverage, some proclaiming this all to be no more than hoopla, some saying any radiation is harmful, some saying the jury is really out at this point. 

Then, of course, we have Lab representatives pointing out that radiation levels are well below regulatory standards, while citizen advocacy groups argue that such statements by the Lab distort reality. The Lab, the City, regulatory agencies and the citizen activist groups have been at this for a long time. But, it is only now that this issue (primarily due to intense media coverage of the Alameda County Board of Education resolution) has risen into the visual field of the public at large, and particularly, of parents with children who frequent the Lawrence Hall of Science. 

What to do? Well, fortunately one thing is working in the citizens’ and parents’ favor here: The City of Berkeley has hired an independent consultant, Berndt Franke, a person with a very positive track record with the public, to perform an independent analysis of potential risks. Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, in turn, was wise enough to contract with Dr. Owen Hoffman of SENES Oak Ridge, who is known to many members of the public and scientific communities at sites of radiation releases as a very straight shooter, with high integrity, someone who tells it like it is. 

So, we are off to a good start with regard to the “experts” to be involved in helping to analyze the true risk presented. The Lab plans a series of meetings with parents to answer questions and safety concerns, and those questions and safety concerns are rolling in, perhaps faster and in much greater quantities than the Lab had anticipated or hoped. 

Because the two of us, as parents of Berkeley students, are also both people (“Hanford downwinders”) who were exposed as children to offsite radiation emissions from the Hanford nuclear weapons facility in southeastern Washington State, we are understandably both a bit wary of blanket safety assurances by operators of federal facilities handling radioactive materials. After all, our parents were reassured by the operators of the Hanford facility that it was perfectly safe to live downwind from the plant. And the result? Both of us know have severe thyroid disease from the radioactive iodine we inhaled and ingested as infants and children from Hanford’s releases. We have parents and other relatives who have died far before their time from aggressive forms of cancer. 

We realize that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Hanford are two distinct radiation release scenarios, but safety reassurances made by the Lab cause in us a certain hesitation to believe without proof. We are ready to listen and to learn, like the parents who have spoken to us, but our fears are not readily put to rest by Lab officials saying not to worry. 

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco’s unusual and innovative Word for Word theater company takes classic and contemporary works of fiction – not drama – and performs them on stage as theater pieces. 

The group’s device is to stay exactly with the precise text of a piece of fiction in performance, but to find new power in a story from the immediacy of its characters on stage, and from the speaking of non-dialogue narrative by characters in the story. 

This approach works very well. 

Word for Word’s latest effort is a world premiere co-production with A Traveling Jewish Theater’s (ATJT) of two short stories by American Jewish writers – “Goodbye and Good Luck” by Grace Paley, and “The Jewbird” by Bernard Malamud. This very successful collaboration opened Monday at ATJT’s theater space at Project Artaud in San Francisco. 

Paley’s funny and ironic 1930’s New York story “Goodbye and Good Luck” is an unusual take on love and marriage. Unmarried Rose Leiber (Patricia Silver), describing herself as “fat and fifty” and “lonesome in bed,” chats with her niece (Sheila Balter), and gives an elder’s advice. 

Rose looks back on her life, and tells of the choices she made in romance. Her youthful job as a box office cashier at a Jewish Russian theater on Second Avenue led to a romance with the theater’s married leading man (Corey Fischer), and a life in which Rose sacrificed her own conjugal fulfillment to be “the other woman” in someone else’s life. 

This funny and delightful story ends with a happy and unexpected twist. 

Director Wendy Radford’s crisp and vigorous production manages to get the smooth, humorous and quick-paced feel of a 1930s screwball comedy. It is well performed by a cast of four, two of whom play multiple roles. Fisher stands out as the arrogant, charming, philandering, smooth-taking Yiddish theater actor. 

In Malamud’s sweet, funny, magical story “The Jewbird,” a scraggly-looking crow (Corey Fischer) flies in the window of the Cohen family’s Lower East Side apartment, talking Jewish, and claiming to be a “jewbird,” who is fleeing anti-Semites. 

The mother (Jeri Lynn Cohen) and her son (Sheila Balter) love the creature and his unexpected arrival, but frozen food salesman father (Albert Greenberg) hates the bird. 

When the jewbird, who says his name is Schwartz, tutors the son, the son’s grades in school improve. But the bird is fussy about his food, and conflict in the household grows. 

Under David Dower’s direction, Fischer again finds a wonderfully funny and melancholy performance as Schwartz the bird, effectively capturing the abrupt, comic movements of a crow. 

“The Jewbird” seems to be about how individuals have larger connections to the world than they may realize and, conversely, how things that appear alien in the world may be closer to us than we think. 

Malamud is the author of the surreal baseball novel “The Natural,” which Robert Redford made into a movie. “The Jewbird” contains some of the same effective mix of reality and supernatural. 

Set designer Melpomene Katakolos deserves a mention. Her vivid New York kitchen, which could define either the 1930s or the 1950s, and which serves as a background for most of the action in both plays, is a strong contributor to the evening’s wonderful feel – almost a character in its own right. 

Although Word for Word maintains a perfect fidelity to a fiction author’s written text, the directors of these plays find all sorts of insights, humor, irony, conflict, or perspective by the by the way the lines are assigned to different actors, and how the actors play off each other. 

This technique brings a powerful new life to the art of story telling. 

“Goodbye and Good Luck” and “The Jewbird” play Thursday through Sunday, through June 4, at A Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida St. (at 17th Street), San Francisco. For tickets or information, call 415-399-1809.

The St. Mary’s baseball team has been hearing the stories about Piedmont High pitcher Matt Shartsis all year, but until Wednesday afternoon, it was all second-hand information.  

Though Shartsis came through with a solid effort for the Highlanders, it was perhaps the intimidating lefty’s reputation that hurt the Panthers most. As St. Mary’s starting pitcher Jeremiah Fielder admitted after the game, the Panther offense hesitated to assert itself amidst the buzz about Shartsis’ dominance. And by the time they figured out he wasn’t so tough, it was too late. 

“We fell into the hype a little bit, seeing the scouts with (radar) guns,” said Fielder about the hubbub surrounding the opposing pitcher, who is bound for Arizona State on a full ride next season. “We had read about (Piedmont) in the paper, and now we’ve seen them for real.  

“(Shartsis) pitched a good game, but we saw we could play with them.” 

Fielder managed to turn the opening innings into a bona-fide pitcher’s duel, allowing just three runs in the first five innings to keep the Panthers within a run. The Highlanders managed to break the game open in the sixth, however, stringing together four runs, and prompting a pitching change. Though Joe Storno closed out the Highlanders with minimal damage, St. Mary’s couldn’t capitalize on a bases-loaded situation in the seventh, and ultimately dropped the league game, 9-4. 

“They were definitely the real deal,” St. Mary’s coach Andy Shimabukuro said after the game. “Shartsis pitched a good game, got outs when he needed to. I give credit to him, because we’ve been strong on offense all year. There’s nothing we could have done today.” 

The Piedmont starter pitched six strong innings, allowing just five hits and two earned runs to the usually productive Panther offense. Fielder and Storno registered the only two extra-base hits for St. Mary’s – both picking up doubles.  

“We faced (Encinal star) Dontrelle (Willis), and we figured (Shartsis) was on that same level,” Fielder said. “We can play with good pitchers, (the hits) just didn’t fall our way today.” 

Currently occupying second place in the Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League, St. Mary’s has four league games to play before the conclusion of the 2000 campaign. With a strong regular-season finish and a complementary performance at the ACCAL tournament, the Panthers could contend for a North Coast Section playoff bid. 

“We’ll take (the Piedmont loss) in stride,” Fielder said about his team’s resilience. “Now we know we can play with them.” 

“We’ve got four league games left, and we’re going into all of them expecting to win,” Shimabukuro added.

On South Shattuck Avenue signs of renewal and growth are banishing the has-been image of the commercial corridor that has endured years of neglect. 

“We have been kind of the forgotten part of Berkeley,” said Suzan Steinberg, owner of Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics, at 2518 Shattuck. 

She is the fourth-generation operator of the “old-fashioned fabric store” that serves the neighborhood as well as the region and is a destination for regional customers. 

Steinberg believes the commitment of the merchants and the neighborhood organizations and the efforts of the city have created the revitalization. She said the longtime merchants such as herself and General Appliance have a working relationship with the surrounding community and count the neighbors as regular customers. 

Stonemountain is at the north end of what is considered to be South Shattuck, the stretch from Haste Street to Ashby Avenue, but signs of revitalization appear even further south. 

Recently the city’s manager of economic development, Bill Lambert, pinpointed 15 locations on South Shattuck Avenue and Adeline Street where new businesses or other organizations are in place or on the drawing board. 

Lambert drew a picture as far south as the BART Station parking lot on Ashby to illustrate the emerging strength of the corridor. 

The Ed Roberts Campus intends to buy part of the parking lot at the Ashby BART station and the city’s air rights over the BART Station to build an 80,000-square-foot office building alongside the station. 

Lambert said the city, BART and Ed Roberts Campus have a conceptual agreement and the project is now in the fund-raising stage. The structure will house disabled rights and independent living activist group in a setting easily accessible by public transportation. 

A distinguishing aspect of the project would include an international conference center. Lambert envisions traffic via BART from the San Francisco Airport that will bring international visitors to Berkeley. 

He recently accepted an award for the city from the California Association for Local Economic Development for his department’s efforts in helping the Berkeley Bowl move into the site of the former Safeway supermarket. 

It took more than four years for the produce giant to finally land in the 42,000-square-foot space at 2020 Oregon St. 

“If it weren’t for Tom Myers and Dave Fogarty (economic development staffers), we wouldn’t have done it,” said Glenn Yasuda, owner of the Berkeley Bowl Marketplace. 

He said the city was instrumental in his being able to purchase the property across the street from the smaller store he operated for 20 years - which itself was a re-use of a former bowling alley. 

He said the city also waived some fees and expedited the permit process so he could open the anchor full-service supermarket as soon as possible. Yasuda has been in the new space for about one year. 

The neighbors provided the original impetus for getting a full-service supermarket, said Max Anderson, a member of the Alcatraz Avenue Neighborhood Association. 

“We had to fight back the attempt to put a McFrugal store,’’ he said of the discount merchandiser. “It would have retarded the economic life of that corridor. 

“We held out for something that would better serve seniors who had come to depend on the Safeway.” 

Anderson said the Adeline corridor is the last commercial strip to receive attention from the city. He said Solano, College and University avenues have benefited from city resources, and now it’s Adeline Street’s turn to receive formal planning. 

The points on Lambert’s map with entrances on Adeline Street include a new Walgreen’s Drug Store. Lambert said Walgreen’s plans to spend $1million to renovate the former Rite-Aid space. 

Further south at Ashby and Adeline, the Cooperative Federal Credit Union will remodel the building vacated by the Bank of America. Lambert noted that several banks have left the area in the last 20 years. 

The city applied to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and received an award of $1 million for pedestrian oriented improvement on Adeline between Shattuck and the Oakland border. The city will add another $200,000 making it a $1.2 million project, he said. 

In the city’s “South Shattuck Strategic Plan,” published in 1998, the planning process was identified as originating with three neighborhood groups. 

The Community Committee for a Full-Service Supermarket, Ward Street Neighbors and South Shattuck Neighbors joined with the LeConte Neighborhood Association and the United Neighborhood Watch to request a formal planning process for the corridor. 

One of their concerns was the 1995 city-approved bid of a Hollywood Video Store to open an outlet at Derby Street, which eventually became the site of Reel Video. 

Rob Wrenn, now chair of the Planning Commission, said neighbors feared the impact of traffic that Hollywood Video intended to reach the site from Derby. Concerns also were expressed about having a corporate store in the neighborhood. 

Hollywood Video backed out of the deal fearing a boycott, he said. Reel Video agreed to provide access on the Shattuck side. 

“It was a real effort by the neighborhood to shape development of a site compatible with the neighborhood and Reel Video has been very successful,” said Wrenn. 

He said the neighbors have pushed for improvements because they’re repelled by blight and they’re concerned about what kind of development comes in. 

Like Suzan Steinberg’s assessment of Shattuck revitalization, Wrenn said neighbors want the kind of businesses they can patronize. 

He said a big box office supply store wanted to move into the space vacated by the Berkeley Bowl but the neighbors opposed it, and Any Mountain, an outdoors outfitter, now occupies the space. 

In the South Shattuck Strategic Plan the city’s economic development aim is to encourage neighborhood-serving businesses, mixed-use buildings with retail stores on the first floor, and housing above, and to join with business owners and residents in the process. 

Another goal is to address the problem of seriously blighted properties in the South Shattuck area with code enforcement and assistance to property owners. 

One building on the block between Parker and Carleton remains an eyesore, but the owner of the building, Reza Valiyee of Leaders Universal Industries, said he wants to be part of the revitalization process but the opposition from neighbors and difficulty in obtaining permits has stymied him. 

He said he has owned the building on that block for l5 years and that it needs only cosmetic changes. He had it seismically refitted before the practice became fashionable, he said. 

But he praised the city for its help in turning the Jim Doten Honda property at 2600 Shattuck that he owns “into a place that everyone says is beautiful.” 

Lambert said Leaders Universal has ongoing code violations and that the city currently is working with Valiyee to try to rectify some of them, and to bring in development assistance on the property between Parker and Carleton. 

In providing economic assistance retailers and property owners, the city has provided $25,000 for a façade facelift for the 2500 block containing Stonemountain & Daughter. 

Steinberg said the work is mostly painting, but also includes working with an architect and obtaining three-dimensional signage that will give the entire block an identity. 

A $60,000 grant from the city will provide tree grates and planters in front of stores on Shattuck between Dwight Way and Ward Street. 

John Gordon of Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services, owns two properties at 2567 and at 2450 Shattuck. 

He said the 2567 building was known as the Berkeley Free Market in 1906. In renovating it, he said he tried to stay as close to the original materials as possible but the terra cotta front was removed in the 1940s. 

He received support in learning about the structure’s history from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association and the building is slated to become a Berkeley city landmark. 

The building is mixed use, which is what the strategic plan requests. It has two spaces available for lease on the ground floor and 13 artists who rent the top floor for day studios. 

The other location was formerly the Penny Saver Market and the renovation work is almost completed, he said. It will become the home of Aaron Brothers Framing and Art Supplies. 

“We feel that South Shattuck is an area that has underutilized buildings and we feel that it

Your March 27 article “Downtown Apartments in the Works (by Marilyn Claessens) illustrated perfectly greed exhibited by a developer and lack of thorough consideration by Berkeley’s city government. 

Hinks/Kittredge Garage currently offers the largest off-street parking spaces in the downtown Berkeley area. 

Previously, the city attempted to seize this site, on basis of “eminent domain,” for construction of a new county courthouse. It became moot when Alameda County declared no funds available for such undertaking, and after county supervisors’ decision to downgrade Berkeley court for handling small claims plus traffic cases only. 

Now, here is this new development proposal (J. DeClercq of Transaction Companies) calling for demolition of Hinks Garage, without any clear idea on provision for interim replacement parking. Presently, curbside parking in the downtown area is already problematic, due to multiple construction projects occurring in the vicinity. 

Earlier, both the Downtown Berkeley Association and Berkeley Public Library have expressed strong opposition to demolishing Hinks Garage, for good reasons. People come to the downtown area to work, shop, dine out, go to the library and attend shows. Not everyone has convenient access to public transportation. 

The city appears to focus mainly on potential increase in property tax revenues with private developers’ proposals, just as its previous emphasis on increase county funding with a new courthouse. There is no thorough consideration/planning on environmental impact, traffic/parking, provisions for out-of-area visitors who work/do business/shop (thus providing retail base and boost sales tax revenues) in the downtown Berkeley area. 

The Berkeley High boys volleyball team kicks off a three-game season of sorts this evening, hosting East Bay Athletic League rival Granada in its 2000 home finale at Donahue Gym. The 5 p.m. showdown marks the first of three must-win game for the Yellowjackets, who hope to contend for an at-large berth at North Coast Section, if they can win at least two out of the next three, against the Matadors, Foothill and California High. 

In their last meeting with winless Granada, on April 4, the ’Jackets came away with the road victory, taking five games to vanquish the feisty Matadors. Though BHS coach Justin Caraway acknowledges Granada’s ability to overachieve, he does not expect his team to have much trouble, if it approaches the matchup with the right attitude. 

“We didn’t do a good job of controlling their two hitters (last time), and they had a field day,” Caraway said. “We always want to win, that’s not a concern. They’re winless in league, and (my players) don’t want to be the ones to lose to them.” 

Having defeated Monte Vista in a home game last Thursday, Berkeley enters today’s showdown hungry to foster a substantial winning streak – something that has eluded it thus far in 2000. Though undefeated Foothill and second-place San Ramon Valley look to be in position to get the EBAL’s top two NCS spots, Caraway believes his squad still has a chance to be considered as an at-large selection, in light of its recent play. 

“We’re on the border for North Coast. The win over Monte Vista was big for us, and we’re playing pretty well,” the coach said. “I believe we need to win two of our next three to have a chance.” 

As part of BHS tradition, today’s home finale has been deemed “senior day” for the squad, which features nine graduating seniors, all of whom Caraway expects to take the court at some point this evening. The special occasion, coupled with the fact that Berkeley has not lost to Granada in two years, figures to be plenty of incentive for a victory today. 

“(The seniors) really want to win their last match at home,” Caraway said. “We don’t need any special motivation.” 

The Yellowjackets close out the regular season next week with a pair of road games. On Tuesday, BHS travels to Pleasanton to battle first-place Foothill, before heading to San Ramon to play Cal High on Thursday. NCS playoffs begin May 16.

The public will get the opportunity to walk around Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory this weekend during the site’s first open house since the fall of 1997. 

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Lab, located on the hillside about the UC Berkeley campus. 

“Kids are our primary focus for the open house,” said Lab spokesperson Ron Kolb. “This is a great way for them to learn about the different scientific activities at the Lab, but it can also be a way of encouraging them to consider science careers.” 

The open house is being crafted around four theme areas: To Your Health – Shedding Light on Life’s Mysteries; The Universe in Your Pocket – Exploring Particles and Matter; The World at Your Fingertips – Exploring by Computer; and Home and Environment – Protecting Our Planet. 

Visitors will receive a program highlighting the various buildings and exhibits that relate to each theme. For example, someone interested in the “Home and Environment” theme could visit the Lighting Laboratory, the rock-fluid imaging lab, the firehouse or the hazardous waste handling facility. 

Special events during the day will include a ceremony honoring Bay Area math and science teachers at 12:15 p.m., and a 2 p.m. showing of the feature-length documentary “Me & Isaac Newton,” which includes the story of Berkeley Lab scientist Ashok Gagdil. 

Kolb said around 5,000 people attended each of the two previous open houses, held in 1995 and 1997. About half the people had a direct link to the Lab – a friend or family member of an employee – while the other half were members of the public. 

And the Lab anticipates that as in previous years, protesters will visit to distribute information highlighting their concerns about activities at the Lab, particularly with the National Tritium Labeling Facility. 

Last week, the Daily Planet was invited to take a tour of the Lab along with a group of Richmond educators who may be bringing students to this weekend’s event. The tour visited several of the sites that will be open to the public on Saturday, including the 88-inch Cyclotron, the Advanced Lighting Source, the Lighting Laboratory and the fruit fly genome center. 

Each stop featured a short presentation by scientists and staff members working on specific projects, including attempts in the Cyclotron to reconfirm the discovery of “superheavy” Element 118, which was reported at the Lab last June. 

Other presentations were made on the development of energy-efficient compact fluorescent torchiere lamps and the ongoing “mapping” project of fruit fly genes. 

Reed George, a former Motorola executive who is now working with the Lab on the mapping effort, said his current work often feels more rewarding than working with “a plastic box that beeps.” 

“Well, all of our students have your pagers,” replied one of the teachers, “so maybe they can pick up some of your science, too.” 

No public parking will be available Saturday at the Lab, but free parking and shuttle service will be offered from the Downtown Berkeley BART station and from UC Berkeley campus parking lots along Hearst Avenue. For more information, visit the Lab’s web site (www.lbl.gov/OpenHouse) or call 510-495-2222. 

It has come to my attention that the Berkeley school board is about to consider the placing of a maintenance parcel tax on the fall ballot. Meanwhile, our teachers are campaigning for an equitable salary schedule, our parents and students are supporting well-developed programs to prevent retentions, and our high school campus seems to be under siege. All of these issues are of immediate concern to our community. It seems that they must first be solved before we embark on other less significant projects. 

Additionally, the rumor around South Berkeley is that the parcel tax will be used to fund street closures and the building of a baseball field, projects that the majority of us in South Berkeley oppose. It has even been mentioned that the school board is willing to pay $65,000 for a new study regarding such an issue. If this is true, then you can be sure that South Berkeley will be in the forefront of resisting such efforts to sit in opposition to the will of our neighborhoods, both now and in the fall elections. Let’s get back to the most important concerns facing us and stop wasting time with peripheral “distractions.”

The Commission on the Status of Women honored seven individuals Wednesday night as “Outstanding Berkeley Women.” 

The honorees, chosen from nominations from the community, have made exceptional contributions to the community in any of a number of fields, including politics, science, education, labor, peace, the arts, volunteer services, and the environment. 

The women honored during the 12th annual awards ceremony were: Nancy Carleton, neighborhood activist; Barbara Hammer, homeless advocate; Nancy Hormachea, advocate against domestic violence; Jeanie Rucker, civil rights and education advocate; Carol Schemmerling, urban environment activist; Enid Schreibman, community safety advocate; and Ursual Sherman, human rights activist. 

“The commission really intends to honor people who ordinarily would not be recognized,” said Ruby Primus, a management analyst for the Department of Health and Human Services, who doubles as the commission staff. Primus compiled brief biographies of the award recipients. 

Carleton works for the environmental issues, gender equality and neighborhood organization and improvement. 

She is a founding member and past president of Berkeley Partners for Parks. She also was a vice-chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission. Additionally, she is a past member of the Board of Directors of the East Bay Lesbian/Gay Democratic Club and has worked on the language for the city’s Domestic Partners Ordinance. 

Hammer is chair of the Mayor’s Independent Task Force on Homelessness and serves on the board of the Homeless Action Center in Berkeley, as well as in other volunteer positions. 

Primus said Hammer “has managed to do all of this work while being homeless and suffering from multiple disabilities.” 

Hormachea is an immigration attorney, and half of her clientele are people seeking political asylum in the United States. On a pro bono basis she helps women who are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. 

“I work closely with Narika,” she said, referring to the organization that primarily assists Asian women who are immigrants and victims of domestic violence. 

Mainstream women’s organizations aren’t usually prepared to deal with the unique cultural, language and religious orientations of these women, she said. 

Rucker, a lifelong Berkeley resident, has played a significant role in initiating changes in politics and education in the Berkeley area. 

In her work for school PTAs and as president of the Berkeley school board, she said she tracked students in honors and gifted programs. 

“It was as I suspected,” Rucker said. “Minority children were in the program for the disadvantaged and underrepresented in the gifted program. There was a tremendous gap between kids of color and the white and Asian students.” 

She also was regional director of the NAACP and campaign coordinator for former Congressman Ronald Dellums. 

Schemmerling is a longtime member and chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission. She is Bay Area coordinator for the Urban Creeks Council. 

In another venue she volunteers at the Suicide Prevention Clinic and for the Berkeley Resolution Services. 

Schreibman has been a community organizer active in the Elmwood for 30 years. She also was a founder of the Bay Area Women Against Rape in 1972, and she helped organize block captains in her neighborhood for public safety. 

She was a citizen diplomat in the Cold War, leading trips to the former Soviet Union and hosting visitors from that country. She was instrumental in forming sister city relationships between two cities in Russia and Berkeley. 

Sherman, a refugee from Nazi Germany, was one of the organizers of the Hillel Streetwork project, which became Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency. 

She also was a founder of the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, and she is chair of the Jewish Music Festival, now in its l5th year. The festival devotes a week in March to presenting Jewish music that is ethnic, classical, liturgical and multicultural. 

I still protest the oversized antenna tower in McKinley Street. 

In Berkeley, to build a tall ugly structure, you need a building permit. I have four questions: 

1. Which person approved the building permit for the McKinley Street tower? 

2. Which person approved payment for the tower? 

3. Is there any indemnity in place for errors like this? 

4. What is the refund, resale or salvage value of the structure as it now is? 

The usefulness – of utter lack thereof – of tracking the nation’s average wage was demonstrated in a big way Tuesday night by a little guy – former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. 

“If anyone brings up averages when they’re talking about the economy, watch your wallet,” warned Reich, speaking to a packed crowd at Sibley Auditorium on the UC Berkeley campus. “Shaquille O’Neal and I have an average height of 6-foot-1. Averages don’t tell you what’s going on with the little guy.” 

Reich (who, for point of illumination, has a stature closer resembling a jockey’s than an NBA center’s) pointed out that the skyrocketing average wage in today’s economy is largely due to the huge successes of those on the top of the financial pyramid. The secretary of labor in Bill Clinton’s first administration maintained that median wages for the middle class and poor had elevated only slightly, with that demographic working much longer, harder hours than in previous years. 

That striking point was used to bolster Reich’s main claim – that the nation’s macroeconomic and social policies are inexorably intertwined, with a particular emphasis on the activities of the Federal Reserve Board. 

“We tend not to think about what the Federal Reserve Board Open Market Committee does. We assign their role to the business pages of newspapers,” said Reich, now a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University’s Heller Graduate School. “But what you must understand is, in this economy this is the most important group in Washington and perhaps the most important group in the nation in terms of governance of the country. It’s not an exaggeration to say that (Reserve Board Chairman) Alan Greenspan is, in terms of the economy, the most powerful man in the nation, and the singularly most important person in the world economy.” 

The Fed has raised short-term interest rates five times since June, and is meeting again next week (where popular opinion states rates will be hiked an additional one-half percentage point). 

Reich claims this action – undertaken to keep the economy from outpacing itself by slowing it, consequently preventing inflation (and raising unemployment) – hurts the Americans who are most vulnerable. 

“If The Fed slows down the economy, unemployment starts to creep upwards,” said Reich. “People who are societally excluded will be the first to lose their jobs or any gains made in terms of earnings if they keep their jobs. Those at the end of the job queue will be the first to be laid off when unemployment rises. And, let me emphasize, they are also going to pay more as a percent of income in interest rate costs, borrowing costs. Poor people are in debt more than those who are wealthy. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.” 

Reich also emphasized that a societal plan to preserve the economy by hiking unemployment coupled with the dismantling of the welfare system could deal a crippling blow to the nation’s working poor. 

The author of the best-selling book “Locked in the Cabinet” contended that economic modes equating low unemployment with impending inflation are outmoded, due to increased price competition and better worker productivity via technological improvements. Reich pointed out that the nation’s unemployment rate stands at 3.9 percent, and has stood at below 4.5 percent with “no signs of accelerated inflation.” 

With this in mind, Reich emphasized that pre-emptive steps to curb inflation by raising interest rates would be a step in the wrong direction. 

“I submit the Federal Reserve Board should wait until it actually sees the whites of the eyes of accelerated inflation before it raises interest rates any further,” said Reich. “Because, my friends, this economy is different than the textbooks of the ‘70s, ‘80s and even early ‘90s. When I went to Washington in 1993, the assumption was you couldn’t get below 6 percent (unemployment) without accelerated inflation. That was the so-called natural rate of unemployment. 

“The reason it’s now possible to run the economy with much lower rates of unemployment and at a faster growth rate is because of the new technology,” continued Reich. “It’s a new economy. It allows us to grow a tighter labor market than ever before. I don’t know how low unemployment can get without accelerated inflation. Let’s try to get unemployment as low as we can, and as much rapid growth as we can, so we can help out the good old working class and poor who haven’t gotten much out of this recovery. Let us not raise interest

A UC Berkeley law student protesting development plans for the Underhill area is about to make a sacrifice for his cause: He’s going to miss an in-class final instead of leaving his site in the Underhill parking lot. 

“I don’t think I have much choice really,” Rick Young said Monday night. “The (Boalt Hall) dean said an in-class final is an in-class final, but I’m not going to leave.” 

Young has been camped out in the parking lot since April 30 after delivering a five-point letter to Chancellor Robert Berdahl’s office, asking him to discuss such issues as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and emphasizing Southside housing over parking. 

On Friday, Young received a letter from Cummins, John F., the assistant chancellor/chief of staff for Berdahl, stating that while “opinions vary widely” over the Underhill issue, the appropriate way to express viewpoints is through the established public comment process. At this point, that would mean submitting written statements to the university by June 9. 

The Underhill block – bordered by College Avenue, Channing Way, Bowditch Street and Haste Street – used to house a multi-level parking structure topped by a gargantuan Astroturf playfield. Following the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, the upper levels of the structure were demolished, leaving the resultant parking pit. Under the current plan, the university is aiming to rebuild the multi-tiered structure, increasing the lot’s capacity from around 400 to over 1,000 or up to 1,450 with attendant parking. Right now, the lot can handle around 400 cars. 

A key argument Young makes is that the university has exaggerated the number of parking spaces lost between 1988 and 1999. Based on the statistics he has compiled, he says UCB has only lost 64 spaces during that time, from 7,450 to 7,386. 

The university disagrees with Young’s conclusions. Officials also note the projects for the Underhill area include the addition of nearly 900 student beds. 

So, the student activist and his university have reached an impasse, and the immediate sacrifice is one of Young’s classes at Boalt Hall. He’s been able to take two take-home finals, but his professor and dean both reached the same conclusion on the Corporations class final: It must be taken in class. 

“I never really planned on pushing this to the limit, but

Two burglaries Wednesday took place in small cottages here in Berkeley. 

One of them happened in the 2300 block of Oregon Street. It was reported about 6 p.m. when the victim, a student at UC Berkeley, returned home. The burglar somehow gained entry to the rear cottage through a fenced yard with a padlocked gate. Police Capt. Bobby Miller said the burglar either scaled the fence or climbed through blackberry bushes and a gap in the fence. The victim lost a portable Aiwa stereo, a comforter and a blue duffel bag with CAL printed on it. 

The other burglary was in the 3000 block of Hillegass Avenue where the cottage, partially hidden by trees, has a loft with two wood frame windows that swing out. Miller said the burglar entered the cottage through one of those windows next to the front door. The burglar apparently took a laundry basket and loaded it with approximately 200 compact disks valued at about $3,000. The victim was out of town when the crime occurred. 

– Daily Planet Staff