It’s been over a month since a fire nearly destroyed the B Building at Berkeley High School, but the school is still dealing with the aftermath. 

And it is unlikely that the campus will be back to normal any time soon. 

The fire, an act of arson that occurred April 12, started on the first floor of the building located on Bancroft Way, in the middle of campus. It spread through the hallways and through the ceiling, up to the second floor. By the time the flames had been put out, the Health Center, reprographics room, library, and counselors’ offices had all been at least somewhat damaged. 

When the fire rekindled the following day, a Thursday morning, students were sent home for an early spring break. 

The Berkeley City Task Force met that day and decided that the school would not be able to open by the time spring break would end, over a week later. However, led by Associate Superintendent of Instruction Chris Lim, the emergency planning team was able to bring in portables to replace the B Building classrooms, give cellular phones to counselors and administrators who had no other phone access, and get the campus going again with the help of volunteers. 

The school reopened the Monday following spring break, and slowly but surely, some order has been restored. 

The counselors’ offices moved across campus to the first floor of the H Building. The Health Center temporarily moved into a dressing room in the Community Theatre. The principal’s office moved into a portable in the school’s courtyard. 

“Anything that was on computers is still there, but things like grade change forms that were on our desks, transcripts that kids had brought in, all that stuff is gone,” counselor Deidra Johnson said. 

The counselors moved into a multi-purpose room with almost no office supplies to start with. The school rented desks, and over time each counselor’s cubicle has been furnished with a computer, pens, and paper. Counselors used the cellular phones until early May, when they received regular telephones. 

“It’s almost like walking into an empty building and starting over,” Johnson said. 

In addition to room changes, the daily procedures, both academically and administratively, have been revised. 

Students are forced to carry ID cards and class schedules with them at all times, while staff need identification badges. The school has also implemented a system this year where students have to get a pass if they are more than five minutes late to class. 

Berkeley High also boosted its security, which was has always been highly noticeable around campus. There are security guards, volunteers, and teachers constantly patrolling the school.  

The school’s perimeters have been secured, and students are only allowed to be on campus between 7:45 a.m. and 4 p.m. All visitors must now enter through a breezeway located on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, sign in, wear an identification sticker while on campus, and sign out upon leaving. 

“The halls are a lot quieter,” school safety officer Betty Spillman said. “I think students are really concerned. People are taking it very seriously now; it’s really disruptive (when students roam the halls during class).” 

However, some students disagreed with the notion that the campus is safer. 

“Initially they planned to make it a lot more secure around here but I think as Berkeley High has in so many other situations, they really haven’t really lived up to that,” junior Will Lerner said. 

Sophomore Ben Chambers agreed that early attempts to boost security on campus have deteriorated. 

“There was a big increase (in security) in the beginning and now it’s pretty much the same as it was before,” Chambers said. “Right after the fire there were so many security guards.” 

However, Chambers said that the school has strictly implemented rules about keeping students out of the halls during class periods. 

The front portion of the B Building, where the offices of counselors and administrators were located, has been deemed safe of contaminants. Everything that was left in this area after the fire has been removed to sheds outside the building. 

The school library, which was located on the second floor, is somewhat safe from asbestos and other contaminants and the school has begun removing books. Supplies from the rest of the building will not be removed until air-quality samples are taken. 

The estimates for repairing the damages are about $2 million, but classrooms and offices will not be ready for over a year. 

Since the B Building contained control panels for the entire school’s communication system, clocks, phones, bells, and Internet connections do not work in any classrooms. 

“It has changed the way we do business, it has changed the way we relate to one another, it has changed the way school runs, it has changed our space relationships,” principal Theresa Saunders said. “There’s the key issue and security issues. There are locks on doors where there weren’t locks before. 

“It has changed what’s happening in classrooms. Students and teachers are feeling a lot more stressed because we know this person (who started the fire) is among us.” 

Saunders said she feels strongly that Berkeley High still provides a good atmosphere for education. 

While security may have improved the safety of Berkeley High, some have noticed changes in the attitudes of students. 

“It’s much looser,” English teacher Jeff Rapson said. “Some of the students have told me that no longer does the office call home when they cut, so attendance has really dropped a lot. 

“There’s a sense that things are so screwed up right now that a lot of (students) are using that as an excuse for not performing, not coming, not doing their work. They just feel like they can get away with more than they could earlier.” 

Rapson also suggested that the end of the school year usually brings unrest, and that next year could show improvements. By that time, students and faculty may have fully adapted to the new Berkeley High School. 

Tuesday, May 23 

Blood pressure screening 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.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 

Today’s market will feature strawberry tastings from participating farmers who sell the fresh fruit. 

Funding for public schools 

6:30 p.m. 

B-TV, Cable Channel 25 

“You get what you pay for . . . “ , “Dare to Be Average” and other pertinent euphemisms about the funding crisis in California schools, were rampant at the May 8 school funding rally in Sacramento. Before the rally, the League of Women Voters had an opportunity to interview local parent activists in an attempt to unravel the complexity and urgency of school funding - particularly how it effects BUSD. This week’s edition of “City Conversations,” the League’s local cable TV program, includes the interviews with Nancy Riddle, Harry Weiner and Trina Ostrander, a five-minute video of the May 8 rally, as well as addresses and phone numbers of our state representatives. 

City Council meeting 

7 p.m. 

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

Agenda items for tonight’s meeting include the Living Wage Ordinance, the police antenna tower, lights for Memorial Stadium and the College Avenue street-paving project. 

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 

Yiddish Humor and Jewish Humor 

7:30-9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

This is the second of a two-session course examining the humor of East European Jews as one form of adaptation to their lives from the pre-World War I period to today. Cost is $15 for BRJCC members, $18 for public. 

510-848-0237, ext. 236 

Wednesday, May 24 

Funding for public schools 

7:30 a.m. 

B-TV, Cable Channel 25 

“You get what you pay for . . . “ , “Dare to Be Average” and other pertinent euphemisms about the funding crisis in California schools, were rampant at the May 8 school funding rally in Sacramento. Before the rally, the League of Women Voters had an opportunity to interview local parent activists in an attempt to unravel the complexity and urgency of school funding - particularly how it effects BUSD. This week’s edition of “City Conversations,” the League’s local cable TV program, includes the interviews with Nancy Riddle, Harry Weiner and Trina Ostrander, a five-minute video of the May 8 rally, as well as addresses and phone numbers of our state representatives. 

Low-vision assistance 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Allan Burn will discuss reading devices in the Berkeley public library branches and on the market. 

510-644-6107 

Public housing meeting 

6-8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This meeting is designed for people who live in public housing in Berkeley or who have a Section 8 voucher or certificate. The Affordable Housing Advocacy Project is sponsoring this meeting to discuss how the Berkeley Housing Authority works, how it can be improved and how residents can affect the planning process for the federally funded Public Housing Authority Plan. 

1-800-773-2110 

Baby Bounce and Toddler Tales 

7 p.m. 

West Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. 

This storytime program is designed for families with children up to 3 years old. The free, participatory program features a half hour of multicultural songs, rhymes, lap jogs and stories to give very young children a lively introduction to the magic of books. Parents also will enjoy the new stories, rediscover old favorites and learn new songs and games to share. 

510-644-6870 

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; there is no charge to join them. Call the group for specific location. 

510-848-4357 

Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association’s annual meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Palache Hall of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Claremont Boulevard at Russell 

Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz will make a presentation on how bond measure funds and tax assessments are currently spent, and what new bonds, fees, assessments and taxes the city is contemplating putting on the November ballot. Fire Chief Reginald Garcia will present the situation and answer questions about the neighborhood’s protection against fire and emergencies. 

Poetry Flash 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured poets this session will be Fanny Howe, Mark Levine and Carol Snow. 

510-845-7852; 510-525-5476 

The French Revolution, Napoleon and the Jewish People 

7:30-9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

This two-session course will be led by Lee Marsh, chair of the Jewish Learning Center. Cost is $12 for BRJCC members, $15 for the public. This is the second session. 

510-848-0237, ext. 236 

Thursday, May 25 

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.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: “Analyze This” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Friday, May 26 

“Judicial Independence: Why is it so Important Anyway?” 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

The Hon. Ming W. Chin, California Supreme Court justice, will speak during this week’s meeting of the City Commons Club. Social hour begins at 11:15 a.m. Luncheon is served from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Speaker starts promptly at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is $11 or $12.25; admission to the speech is $1, free for students. 

510-848-3533 

The History of New York Yiddish Theater Music 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107

The vote by the U.S. Congress this month on whether to grant permanent “normal trade relations” status to China is really a question of whether trade is above anything else. 

For four decades the U.S. government has kept an unfair and useless embargo on Cuba, a harmless small country with lack of political freedom and repression against Castro’s opposition; but enormous China, despite its serious repression of religion and political freedom, its brutal occupation of Tibet and its proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – chemical, biological and nuclear technology – is treated much better. This U.S. economic foreign policy is overwhelmingly inconsistent. In fact, the only similarities between Cuba and China are that they are both one of the last few “communist” or State-controlled nations in the world and that neither allows opposition parties. In everything else, including human rights abuses, China is a much worse offender. But the U.S. government, backed by businesses, wants to treat China as if it were a country like any other because 1,300 million Chinese is a huge market this group can’t wait to get its greedy hands into. That is what it’s all about, greed versus human rights. Actually, the fact that China is an oppressive regime is probably even welcomed by businesses because there is less room for social upheaval and more stability for business, and Clinton’s – and others’ – view that economic liberalization eventually brings increased freedom is just an excuse. 

If the House passes this resolution, it is formally telling the whole world that it doesn’t matter how repressive a State is as long as it has potential for economic growth and U.S. exports. Poor Cuba, if it only had 900 million more people to please the U.S. government and its business owners. 

Jorge Valle 

Oakland

With quality athletes in virtually every event, the St. Mary’s boys and girls track and field teams have the ideal mix of talent and depth needed to compete with the best in big meets outside their league. At last weekend’s North Coast Section Bayshore Championships at Chabot College, however, the Panthers didn’t look as good on the track as they did on paper. They looked better. 

Besides winning eight of 16 events to claim the inevitable boys’ championship, St. Mary’s set a blazing pace on the girls’ side, placing in enough events to garner the considerably less-expected girls’ title. When all was said and done, the Panther boys had rolled to a 138-86 win over second-place Mission San Jose, and the girls had pulled out a 96-80 triumph over James Logan. 

“Logan has a great team on the girls’ side. Going in, I wasn’t sure we could beat them,” said St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson, whose girls had already claimed a victory over Logan High in a regular-season dual meet. “I think we’re running very well. Everyone’s feeling good, and our speed training has kicked in – the legs are starting to feel fast.” 

The girls’ win seemed destined from the first event, when Tiffany Johnson and Quiana Plump pulled huge jumps seemingly out of nowhere, taking second and third in the triple jump – an event in which neither was expected to medal. Johnson’s best jump of 37-1 marked a personal best by more than two inches. 

“We built up some momentum early – the triple jump ended up being a surprise event for us,” Lawson said. “We’ve got lots of quality girls, in the top three or four (in NCS), but it’s the rest of the team that decides these meets.” 

Distance star Bridget Duffy picked up two of the Panthers’ three top finishes, taking first in both the 1600m and 3200m by comfortable margins. Parras Vega grabbed the only other St. Mary’s event championship, winning the 800m by a second over Irvington’s Stacie Lopes. In the field events, thrower Kamaiya Warren displayed her usual dominance, taking second to Bishop O’Dowd phenom Michelle Daggs in both the shotput and discus. St. Mary’s registered two more runner-up finishes on the girls’ side, as Johnson and Danielle Stokes placed second in the 200m and 100m hurdles, respectively. 

“We knew if we went into the 2-mile with the lead, Bridget would win the 2-mile and ice the meet,” Lawson said. “I’m extremely happy with our performance (at NCS).” 

The Panther boys had an easier time claiming their crown, winning in all expected events, and then some. Solomon Welch paced the squad with an impressive three event championships, in the 110 hurdles, long jump and triple jump. Halihl Guy completed the hurdles sweep for St. Mary’s, taking the 300m title with a 38.66 mark, while sprinter Denye Versher and jumper Ebon Glenn won the 400m and high jump events, respectively. The Panthers also garnered firsts in both relays. 

“We went in expecting to win. The guys have been running so well, and this team is so strong and deep,” the head coach said. “We said we wanted to focus on ourselves (at NCS), and we did.” 

Having locked up the team titles, St. Mary’s enters this weekend’s NCS individual championship meet with plenty of confidence. While Lawson admits his deep squad is less suited for such individual competition, he still expects to send a healthy contingent of Panthers to the CIF state meet in two weeks.  

“We think we can qualify between 14 and 18 athletes,” the coach said about this weekend’s goals. “We have athletes who are going to qualify, and a number of athletes kind of on the bubble. We’re hoping they can run well enough to qualify.” 

The NCS championship meet begins this Friday morning at 11 a.m. at Cal’s Edwards Stadium.

Berkeley may be poised to adopt the highest “living wage” standard in the country. 

The proposed $11.37 wage – one of several choices the City Council will discuss tonight – would apply to some 50 workers, mostly low-wage workers employed at companies doing a significant amount of business with the city or leasing city land. 

Affected employees include parking garage attendants, janitors, hotel and restaurant workers, and those who work for nonprofit agencies. 

The City Council will evaluate staff recommendations tonight and adopt a Living Wage Ordinance next month. 

City Manager Jim Keene will ask the council to look at two pay standards. A consultant has recommended a third option. 

The standard of $11.37 per hour, or $23,649 per year for a full-time worker, is one of the choices discussed by the manager in his report. 

This includes a $1.62 per hour health differential. So if an employer pays $1.62 per hour for health benefits, the worker would receive $9.75 per hour. This level allows a family of three to slightly exceed the poverty level in the immediate East Bay Area, the manager’s report says. “It would place Berkeley far in front of almost all other communities across the nation in adopted living wage levels,” he notes. 

A lower standard, patterned after that adopted in Oakland, is $10.12 per hour, or $21,049 annually, without benefits or $8.50 per hour when the employer pays $1.62 per hour in health benefits. Oakland has raised its base “living wage” pay to $8.65 and requires $1.25 per hour toward health benefits. 

The $8.50 per hour option “is essentially keeping within the range of surrounding communities while still demonstrating a commitment to the living wage philosophy,” the manager’s report says. 

Berkeley Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rachel Rupert said her group is concerned about passage of the ordinance. The Chamber would prefer than none is passed, however, it is recommending the lower wage scale. 

Increased salaries mean increased costs to the employer, she said. These costs will be passed along to customers, making Berkeley businesses less competitive, Rupert said. 

The manager’s recommendations excludes consideration of the $11 per hour plus $1.62 in health benefits, recommended by a city consultant. This standard, supported by the Labor and Housing Advisory commissions and the Coalition for a Living Wage, equals $12.62, or $26,249 annually. 

“Given the high cost of living in Berkeley, we think (the council) should look seriously at $11 an hour,” said Amaha Kassa, spokesperson for the Coalition for a Living Wage, which includes the Gray Panthers, Berkeley Citizen’s Action, labor unions and other organizations. “The City Council should be allowed to consider higher wage levels.” 

This rate, equal to the poverty level for a family of four adjusted for the cost of East Bay living, is not sustainable for a city such as Berkeley, the manager’s report says. 

The manager’s proposal targets relatively few people: 

• Individuals working at least 25 percent of their time on a city contract, working for a for-profit business which provides services valued at more than $25,000 annually and having more than five employees. 

• Individuals working for a nonprofit agency, where their positions are funded at 100 percent by the city. Like the for-profit businesses affected, the nonprofits must do more than $25,000 in business with the city annually and have more than five employees. 

• Employees who work 25 percent or more of their time on the premises of employers who lease their property from the city. They will be affected only if the employer has more than five employees and $250,000 in annual gross receipts. 

• Employees who work more than 25 percent of their time on the premises of employers who receive loans or other economic assistance of at least $100,000 annually from the city. 

The manager says that some 43 employees in the for-profit sector would be affected and about nine to 12 employees affected in the nonprofit sector. 

Receipts from leaseholders at the Sather Gate Mall are less than $250,000 annually, so they will not be affected, and negotiations for leases at the Marina come up in 10 to 15 years, so these workers will not be immediately covered by the ordinance, the manager says. 

Staff estimates that the costs of doing business with contractors will increase, costing the city $265,778 if the $8.50 living wage proposal is adopted or $415,489 if the $9.75 per hour standard is adopted. 

Monitoring the ordinance would cost about $85,000, the manager says. 

Rupert argues that the city should not be increasing the cost of city government. The Living Wage Ordinance will have “a budget impact on the city,” she said. 

Kassa argues, however, that the cost to monitor the ordinance will cost half of the city’s estimate. 

Moreover, he believes that the report has overestimated the costs that businesses will pass on to the city. 

“The cost is probably overblown,” he said.

The Berkeley High girls crew season ended in triumphant fashion this past weekend, as the steadily improving varsity-8 boat took home an unprecedented sixth at the state championship meet at Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova.  

The impressive finish stood as a marked improvement over last year, when the ’Jackets failed to qualify for the finals. Featuring four seniors – Sara Appelbaum, Ananda Chou, Juliet Bonczkowski and Anna Wolfe – the varsity-8 crew parlayed two months’ worth of progress into what Berkeley High coach Molly Mugnolo considered its best performance all season. 

“That’s a big improvement for the varsity-8. I think they rowed their fastest race this weekend,” said Mugnolo, who initially worried about her girls’ ability to adapt to the much hotter weather at Lake Natoma. “In spite of the sweltering heat, they did a great job.” 

Berkeley High, which entered crews in several events, garnered its only medal of the day in the girls varsity pair event, as sisters Juliet and Veronica Bonczkowski combined to take the bronze. The Berkeley High boys varsity-8 failed to qualify for the final day of competition, after placing fifth out of six boats in its preliminary heat on Saturday afternoon. 

“This was my goal for this year,” Mugnolo said about the girls’ results. “Berkeley High hasn’t done this well for a few years.”

Double tower troubles will top the 77-item agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting. 

One is the 170-foot structure dubbed variously the “eyesore” tower and the “oil rig” by the neighbors of the new Public Safety Building. The other is several light towers planned for Memorial Stadium on the UC Berkeley campus. 

At last week’s council meeting dozens of people signed up to tell the council how ugly they thought the Public Safety Building tower is and how afraid they are of the possible health dangers from its radiation. 

Some offered suggestions. They said the city could spread the antennas around town, so the burden wouldn’t be on one neighborhood alone. Then the tall tower could be replaced by a 120-foot pole, where the remaining antennas would be located. 

At tonight’s meeting Councilmember Dona Spring will ask the council to allocate $10,000 for a consultant to help the neighbors formulate alternatives to the tower. 

The other towers that will be discussed tonight are in the hills at Memorial Stadium. Their purpose is to hold lights so that evening games at the stadium can be televised. 

But Memorial neighbors say the permanent light towers will block their views. Preservationists contend that the university has failed to study how the lights will affect nearby historic properties. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong is asking the council to approve a letter to the chancellor asking the university to do a full study of the environmental impacts of the lights and their assemblies. 

Bidders on the College Avenue street-paving project will have a chance to explain their bids to the City Council in a public hearing reserved to them. 

A problem arose when the low bidder for the project – Gallagher and Burk of Oakland – won the right to do the project. 

All bidders are required to submit proof that they are a “disadvantage business enterprise” – one belonging to a woman or minority person – or that their subcontractors are DBEs. Gallagher and Burk, however, did not submit the required documents certifying that their subcontractors were DBEs until the day after the bids were to be submitted, said Glenn Carloss, project engineer. 

The public hearing will air concerns that the project was awarded unfairly. After the hearing, the council may go into closed session to talk about possible litigation in the case. 

In the postcard wars, Spring is demanding equal time. Councilmember Betty Olds got council approval to send out 6,000 cards to advertise a meeting on the proposed fire station in her district and Spring wants equal treatment – 6,000 cards sent to let people in her district know about an upcoming meeting in Ohlone Park. 

Other items on the council agenda include: 

• A proposal for a runoff by mail ballot for the Dec. 5 runoff election. 

• Execution of a contract for the I-80 bike/wheelchair/foot overpass with C.C. Meyers, Inc, for $5.3 million. 

• Support for a Walkathon for the Children of Iraq sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, June 4 in Tilden Park. 

• Exploration of installing robotic parking at the Center Street Garage “to move cars around, robotic parking uses lifts, pallets, hydraulics, and other mechanical means, controlled by computers and with built-in safety backups and redundancies,” according to a report signed by the mayor. 

• Adoption of a small business support program that would include development of work-force business skills, city purchasing programs favoring Berkeley, increasing ownership of one’s business site. 

• Identification of the wells in Berkeley and determination of possible municipal use to reduce dependence on the East Bay Municipal Utility District for irrigation and for emergencies. 

• The council will continue to address possible ballot measures: making the council chambers comply with the American Disabilities Act, a special fire services tax, parks tax, streetlight tax, affordable housing tax, and a health services tax. 

• Forwarding City Council opinions on the Underhill Environmental Impact Report to the university as part of the public comment period. 

Amidst all of the above, the council will hold a work session on the 2000-2001 budget. 

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be held in Council Chambers in Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The meeting will be broadcast on B-TV, Cable Channel 25, and 89.3-FM, KPFB. 

Firefighters still were searching for hot spots Monday afternoon in the wake of Sunday’s five-alarm fire that swept through the property of two companies on Fourth Street between Channing and Bancroft ways. 

Jetco Motors, a Japanese engine and transmission company at 2334 Fourth St., was destroyed by the blaze that left only the shell of the building standing. On Monday, the interior was a jungle of twisted metal. 

Andros Technologies, a complex of labs and administrative buildings on the north side of Jetco, was severely damaged in the fire, but not destroyed. 

Andros is a manufacturer of equipment that analyzes different kinds of gases. Employees milled around the accessible parts of the complex Monday waiting to get back to work. 

Kate Squire from the city’s economic development office said she would offer the city’s help to Andros in resuming business and rebuilding its plant in Berkeley. 

Assistant Fire Chief David Orth said the fire started at Andros, but the cause in not known and the department is investigating to learn its origin. 

The fire was reported by alarm around 4:49 a.m., and about 20 minutes later a motorist on I-80 spotted the flames, Orth said. When firefighters went to the scene after the alarm sounded, they couldn’t get in the Andros complex and they did not see any fire. In 20 minutes the flames were full blown. 

To find the cause of the fire, Orth said that the investigating team has to dig through huge piles of debris, and some of the digging will be done with a backhoe and some of it carefully by hand. 

He said Andros’ insurance company would pay for backhoe segment of the search, a common practice by insurance companies after a property fire. 

Of the toxic fumes that were reported, Orth said a lot of cylinders on the property contained compressed gasses, most of which were non-flammable compressed gas or CO2. Fires in general produce noxious fumes not fit for breathing, he said. 

The company makes machines that analyze gas for the medical industry. They attach their products to known concentrations of gasses and read the data, he explained. 

He said a lot of those machines were destroyed but Andros is trying to recover by moving into a vacant part of its facility to restart business. 

On the Andros property a lab was burned on its backside and another building connected to it was completely destroyed. A third structure had fire damage but firefighters stopped the fire. 

Orth said the only fire in recent memory in Berkeley that equals this one in scope happened several years ago in the very same block – in the building north of Jetco that housed a candle factory at the time. 

The building is currently owned by Sweet Potatoes, the children’s clothing manufacturer and wholesaler that operates a upscale retail store further north in the Fourth Street shopping district. 

Ginny Holmes, one of three owners of Sweet Potatoes, was grateful for the team of 75 firefighters who brought the blaze under control Sunday. 

“They were incredible. They saved our building,” she said. 

The owners and employees were checking and cleaning their computers Monday morning as they waited to have their telephone service restored. 

The fire burned out chunks of the north wall of Sweet Potatoes’ second floor design room revealing daylight where Jetco Motors had been. 

They didn’t lose inventory but Holmes said, “we feel devastated for our neighbors.” 

A burglary that happened May 5 was reported Friday by students who were caught up in the end of year exams. 

Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller said an unknown suspect apparently entered the apartment in the 2600 block of Durant Avenue and stole about 100 compact discs and a mountain bike. 

Another tenant recalled that on May 5 she heard a noise like a car door slamming and looked out her window and saw a man described as an Asian or Hispanic male, 5-feet, 10-inches tall, 180 pounds wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. She saw him leap over a fence that led into the area of the victim’s apartment. 

Later she saw the same man with a mountain bike and a white pillowcase, place the pillowcase in the bushes and then return a few minutes later to retrieve it. 

Another burglary was reported at 1:25 a.m. Friday by a man and his wife who were awakened in their upstairs bedroom by their dog barking downstairs. The man heard the front door shut and he went downstairs and found it closed but unlocked and he had locked it before he went to bed. The prowler had apparently forced open a window and stole a Dell Latitude laptop computer.

Rick Young’s been getting a first-hand education in jurisprudence. That’s what the second year Boalt Hall law student said Monday in a telephone conversation with the Daily Planet from inside Santa Rita Jail. 

Sunday morning was Young’s third arrest since April 30, when he began camping out in the Underhill parking lot, protesting UC Berkeley’s push to build a 1,000- to 1,400-car parking garage rather than housing at the site. 

Young’s case will make its way to the Berkeley City Council tonight, when Councilmember Kriss Worthington will ask his council colleagues to approve a resolution to support the protester. Young, 33, said he had expected to see a public defender, then to be arraigned Monday. He said he was brought to the Berkeley courthouse, along with other prisoners, and waited for an arraignment. But a guard told him that he had no court date and would not be arraigned. Young said he doesn’t know when he will see an attorney or a judge. 

“I have no idea what’s going on,” he said. 

Young was first arrested on “lodging in public” charges Friday morning, after a Thursday evening protest where a car was smashed in the Underhill lot. He was bailed out of jail, then went back to the parking lot where he was arrested on trespassing charges Saturday. 

Once again, he returned to the lot after getting out of jail. Sunday morning, police were about to arrest his at a little before 5 a.m., but Young said he thinks the arrest was put on hold when officers were called to the large fire in West Berkeley. They came back at 9 a.m. and arrested him for trespassing. 

Young has vowed to keep returning to Underhill, even if that means arrest, until Chancellor Robert Berdahl agrees to meet with him. 

Young said his goal has grown beyond getting the university to build housing rather than parking in the lot. He wants the university to “take the environment seriously.” 

“I appreciate the council’s support,” he said.

The City of Berkeley’s James Kenney Recreation Center, located at 1720 Eighth St., is offering a free Computer Literacy Course on Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. 

The course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

To register, call 510-644-8511.

A woman reported she was raped at 5:30 a.m. Friday, several hours after the rape occurred. 

Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller said the victim knew the suspect, who is the cousin of the victim’s boyfriend. Miller would not immediately release the name of the suspect. 

The victim and her boyfriend live in separate units in the same apartment complex. Miller said the suspect came to her apartment when her boyfriend was absent and allegedly forced her to have sex with him. She was not physically injured in any other way. 

The crime is being handled by the sexual assault detail.

Daily Planet Staff 

For nearly three weeks, Rick Young has sat in the Underhill parking lot in protest. 

Fewer cars, he declares. More housing, he advocates. 

Thursday evening, his message was endorsed in a destructive fashion – but he hopes people heard the message nonetheless. 

With dozens of curious people and dozens of supporters looking on, Young took a sledgehammer in his hand and broke the windshield of his newly acquired, got-it-through-a-friend automobile. He then handed the hammer to a friend, and told everyone that they were free to take a swipe at the car, too. 

The purpose of the exercise, Young said, was to draw attention to his argument against building a 1,000-space parking garage on the Underhill block, which could house around 1,400 vehicles with attendant parking. 

The second-year Boalt Hall student contends that UC Berkeley needs to place more emphasis on constructing student housing and less on building parking garages. That’s why he has camped out in the Underhill lot since April 30, and that’s why he had the car brought to the site Thursday: to make a statement not just for housing but against cars. 

For the record, the university notes that its plans for the broadly defined “Underhill Area” include the addition of nearly 900 units of student housing. 

Did people really hear the message Young was trying to deliver Thursday? Or will they simply remember that a bunch of people, several of whom could be appropriately described as anarchists, decided to destroy a car? 

“If people focus on just the destruction of the car, they’re missing the message,” Young said. 

Before taking his first swing, Young delivered a harsh attack on UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl. Young has said he will end his protest as soon as Berdahl agrees to discuss several environment-related issues, a demand the chancellor has been unwilling to meet. So, standing on the rooftop of a car whose windshield displayed a picture of Berdahl with a “I Love Pollution” sticker affixed, Young said that if the new parking garage is built, “it will be the moral equivalent of murder.” 

Here’s his line of reasoning: Building the garage will encourage people to drive, and when more people drive, that adds to greenhouse emissions, which can increase the intensity and frequency of storms, which often kill people in Third World nations. QED: the moral equivalent of murder. 

The entire incident was observed by UC police, and one officer filmed the episode from Haste Street looking down on the parking lot. A fellow officer said her role was simply to file an incident report with her supervisors, who would decide if any action would be taken against anyone involved in the incident. 

Young said he doesn’t believe any crime was committed. 

“I’ve only been in law school for two years now, but I think it’s legal for me to destroy my own property,” he said while watching others do the job for him. 

Daily Planet Staff 

Berkeley police don’t stop drivers just because they’re black, the department concludes in a report on its six-month statistical study of traffic stops. 

In the 17-page report released Wednesday, Berkeley Police Chief Dash Butler says that the statistics generated from 8,727 traffic stops indicate Berkeley’s police officers do not engage in racial profiling also known as “Driving While Black or Brown.” 

African-American drivers comprised about 29 percent of all the department’s traffic stops in the time period from last August through January of this year, the report states. 

Berkeley police initiated the study “because we decided it was the right thing to do,” said Capt. Bobby Miller. 

Mike Van Winkle of the California Justice Department summarized recent action on legislative bills to document racial profiling, saying the governor reached a compromise with Sen. Kevin Murray, who proposed the legislation. 

Murray – who said he has been stopped solely because of his race, something that Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson says also has happened to him – proposed that state law enforcement agencies report the ethnicity of motorists they stop. 

In the compromise, the law enforcement agencies will not be required to record ethnicity, but officers will give business cards and motorists can follow up with a complaint. 

Van Winkle said Gov. Gray Davis requires the California Highway Patrol to profile the ethnicity of motorists in its traffic stops. 

In the Berkeley Police Department Vehicle Stop Demographics Study, department analyst Lt. Bud Stone used computerized data from 8,727 traffic stops. The report contains nine informative maps revealing high-density traffic patterns and frequent accident sites. 

Almost half (49.1 percent) of the traffic stops were white motorists; 28.9 percent were African America; 6.7 percent were Hispanic; 8.7 percent were Asian; and others comprised 6.6 percent. 

By age, 38.3 percent were drivers between the ages of 18 and 29, and close behind those drivers are the age group of people 40 years of age or older. People in the 30-to-39 age group were stopped 28.3 percent of the time. 

About 75 percent of drivers stopped received citations from police officers, and about 25 percent received warnings. 

The report describes how the data was compiled. When Berkeley police officers stop drivers they are required to notify the department’s Communication Center and give the location. 

For each stop the center generates an event from Computer Aided Dispatch or CAD. The officer provides a disposition code for the event that identifies the race, sex and age of the driver, and the reasons for stopping the driver and the enforcement for violations. 

The report cites demographic date from the 1990 census, listing about 64,400 Berkeley residents as white, 19,000 as black, 15,000 Asians and 8,600 Hispanics. That number may change with this year’s census figures. 

However, the department points out that demographic data is “not necessarily a valid measure of racial equity of car stops.” 

That’s because a high number of car stops are made of drivers who are not residents in the community where they were stopped, according to an Alameda County report. 

According to the report the Berkeley Police Department analyzed moving citations written in Alameda County in 1999. In more than 74,000 citations only 42,561 or 43 percent of them were written to individuals who live in Alameda County. 

Of that random sample of Alameda County tickets, Berkeley officers wrote 5,966 of them. Of that number of tickets 3,394 or 57 percent were not Berkeley residents, according to the report. 

Bay Area traffic dynamics involves massive movement of vehicles each day from in and out of counties and cities, the report emphasized. 

The department used its Geographic Information System that ordinarily plots crime activity for the traffic profiling analysis. 

Of the 8,727 traffic stops in all, 2,525 of them were of black drivers and 1,879 of those stops were plotted on one of the report’s nine maps. 

Those corridors with the most frequent stops of blacks mainly were south of University Avenue and heavy concentrations were noted there, on Shattuck/Adeline, on Sacramento Street, Ashby Avenue, Telegraph Avenue, San Pablo Avenue and Martin Luther King Way. 

In the map that illustrates stops of all motorists, the corridors with the most traffic stops were quite similar to the one for police stops of black drivers. 

Again the area north of University Avenue contains fewer black dots reflecting traffic stops than the area south of University Avenue. 

In plotting traffic stops of white drivers, the report’s authors used 3,516 of a total of 4,281 stops. Again they reflected the well-traveled corridors, possibly with more stops north of University Avenue. 

Police respond to high-frequency traffic locations and to community complaints about traffic violation locations. All officers are expected to write tickets in their 18 beats. 

The report explains the higher number of traffic stops for African Americans in South and West Berkeley because of increased concentration of police in that area. 

Two Drug Task Force teams regularly patrol South and West Berkeley in addition to one regular beat officer in each beat in those areas, the report states. 

The San Jose Police Department also did a racial profiling study that spanned two time periods, from July 1 to Sept. 30 and from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. 

Capt. Rob Davis said “if you look at overall numbers the minority group over represented in the traffic stops is Hispanic.” Blacks comprise 4.5 percent of the San Jose population, Hispanics, 31 percent. 

He analyzed the findings of the San Jose report similar to the way Berkeley analyzed its report. 

Davis said there may be higher concentrations of stops in areas where minorities live, because more officers are patrolling there, due to the higher numbers of 911 calls from residents who live in those areas. 

Daily Planet Staff 

Southside residents have complained that a multi-tiered city and university planning process obfuscates the interrelationship between land-use, transportation, and housing issues in the south-of-campus area. 

So the Planning Commission took a stab at bringing a range of concerns together in one forum Wednesday night. 

“There’s a lack of comprehensive planning,” Susan Cerny told commissioners, university planning staff and some 35 other attendees at the workshop. 

There are at least three planning efforts running along parallel tracts: 

• A draft Underhill Area Environmental Impact Report; this process addresses the impacts of projects proposed by the university, including a parking structure for some 1,000 cars – or 1,400 vehicles when attendant-parked – with a sports 

OAKLAND – A jury has found KPFA supporter Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi not guilty of obstructing or delaying a police officer in the course of his duties. The decision was announced in Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Tabor’s court at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

The charges stemmed from a demonstration outside KPFA radio on the morning of July 21, 1999, when Jacobs-Fantauzzi, acting as a police liaison, was arrested for impeding a police officer. At the time, Sgt. Randolph Files was trying to go to a demonstrator who had pitched a tent on the 1900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way in front of the radio station. Jacobs-Fantauzzi testified that acting as police liaison, he was trying to talk to the officer. 

Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s attorney, Richard Krech, said that some of the jurors told him after the trial that they were convinced of his client’s innocence by a citizen’s videotape that had been entered as evidence. It showed that Files had misspoken when he described the events that led up to Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest. 

The verdict showed that Jacobs-Fantauzzi was selectively prosecuted, Krech said. The 24-year-old middle-school teacher was the only protester among some 100 arrests against whom charges were not dropped by the District Attorney’s office. The exception was for a handful of protesters who pled guilty to jaywalking charges. 

“After the trial, jurors asked the prosecutor (Assistant District Attorney David Lim) why Kahlil’s charges had not been resolved” as they had with the other protesters, Krech said. 

Lim told the jurors that was because of Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s previous arrest at UC Berkeley, where he had participated in demonstrations in support of affirmative action, Krech said, concluding that his client was signaled out for prosecution. 

A pre-trial motion contending that Jacobs-Fantauzzi was prosecuted selectively was denied by Judge Ron Greenberg. 

Given Files’ inconsistent testimony and the ruling in favor of the defendant, Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who was a character witness in favor of the defense, said he has questions about Files’ testimony and Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest. 

“We’ve asked the city manager to do an investigation, to get a transcript of the case and give us a report,” Worthington said. 

An investigation into the incident would show whether there needs to be changes in police procedures, in training or if it was a question of individual behavior, he said. 

At this point, Worthington said he is not sure if the manager will investigate or if it will take a council resolution to spark an investigation. 

Jacobs-Fantauzzi said he is planning a civil suit based on false arrest. 

In a related matter, Krech dropped his demand Tuesday for unpublished photographs from The Oakland Tribune, saying that he did it on the request of Jacobs-Fantauzzi. 

A court had found the Tribune’s chief photographer in contempt of court for not turning over the pictures, and the Tribune had intended to appeal the ruling. 

About 20 supporters showed up for a small press conference early Wednesday evening outside the radio station, where Jacobs-Fantauzzi said the struggles within the Pacifica radio network and within the community aren’t finished. 

One of the supporters who spoke was Dennis Bernstein, whose on-air defiance of Pacifica regulations sparked the heated conflict at the station last summer. 

“They say (Jacobs-Fantauzzi) was obstructing justice,” Bernstein told the group. 

“What I say he was doing was obstructing the abuse of justice.” 

THEATER 

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 

Wawa and The Oneness Kingdom, DJ African Riddims, May 18, 9:30 p.m. $8. 

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, May 20. 9:30 p.m. $11. 

Victor Essiet and The Mandators, Mondo Ragga Samba, May 21, 7:30 p.m. $10. 

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

BLAKES 

Ripe, Quimbombo, May 18. $4. 

Songo, Invisible Inc., May 19. $5. 

Most Chill Slackmob, LZ and Ezell, May 20. $5. 

The Spectors, Paradigm, May 21. $3. 

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

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Chris Hillman, May 18. $16.50. 

Tempest, May 19. $14.50. 

The Nigerian Brothers, May 20. $15.50. 

John Haley-Walker, May 21. $14.50. 

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

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Taller Boricua, May 18, 9:30 p.m. $3. 

Rompe y Raja, May 19, 8:30 p.m. $12. 

Rafael Manriquez, Lichi Fuentes, Jorge Tapia, Fernando “Fena” Torres, May 20, 8 p.m. $8. 

Omar Sosa's “Bembon,” May 21, 8 p.m. $15. 

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

924 GILMAN ST. 

Submission Hold, Tragedy, Honeysuckle Serontina, Manchurian Candidates, Vae Victas, May 20. 

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

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Noche Flamenca, May 18. $5. 

Ninewood, Spezza Rotto, May 19. $6. 

The Unreal Band, May 20. $5. 

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. 

$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. 

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 

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

(510) 643-7648 

JUDAH L. MAGNES MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season,” through May 2002.  

An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. Highlights include treasures from Jewish ceremonial and folk art, rare books and manuscripts, contemporary and traditional fine art, video, photography and cultural kitsch. Through Nov. 4: “Spring and Summer.” Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (510) 549-6950. 

GALLERIES  

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. 

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. 

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.

From the instant Jeremiah Fielder’s first-inning double came off the bat in Wednesday’s semifinal showdown with Piedmont, the St. Mary’s baseball team knew the game would be no repeat of the 9-4 defeat it suffered at the hands of the Highlanders on May 3.  

After allowing just two earned runs to St. Mary’s in the first meeting, Piedmont ace Matt Shartsis found himself unusually hittable at his home field on Wednesday, yielding six runs to the hungry Panther offense. St. Mary’s starter Anthony Miyawaki turned out to be the more dominant hurler, holding the usually explosive Highlanders scoreless through nine innings of work. Miyawaki would finish with six strikeouts, while allowing just six total hits and no walks. 

“Anthony kept them off-balance, he’s one of those guys who can throw both the fastball and curveball for a strike,” St. Mary’s coach Andy Shimabukuro said after the game. “Piedmont’s in a little bit of a slump, and we’re playing good ball at the right time of the season.” 

Center fielder Justin Kelley, who drew a walk to force in the winning run in Tuesday’s quarterfinal victory over Alameda, stepped up once again on Wednesday with a two-RBI single in the second inning. The Panthers also received productive offensive performances from Ryan Bahado-Singh, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Fielder, who finished at 2-for-3 with two runs. 

“We definitely had the confidence going in,” Kelley said. “We knew we could hit (Shartsis), because in the first game, we kept it close the whole game.” 

The semifinal victory earns the Panthers an automatic bid in the North Coast Section tournament, beginning next Tuesday, plus a chance to compete for the Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League tournament title.  

St. Mary’s meets Encinal, which took care of El Cerrito in the other semifinal, in the league championship game this Friday, beginning at 3:45 p.m. Since the Jets’ well-known ace, Dontrelle Willis, pitched five innings on Wednesday, Shimabukuro does not expect the dangerous hurler to take the mound on Friday. 

“If Willis is not pitching, we have a good shot, and even if he does, he’s got to be tired coming off one day’s rest,” the St. Mary’s coach said. “(Shartsis) is a comparable pitcher, so beating

Jamonie Robinson tells a dog story from his hospital bed that would frighten any early morning jogger. 

The 26-year-old rap singer is a patient in Alta Bates Medical Center recovering from the severe bites of two dogs whose owner commanded them to attack Robinson about 5 a.m. on May 8. 

The Oakland resident is undergoing kidney dialysis from the effects of muscle deterioration from the traumatic bites. 

“They bit me on my arms and legs,” the victim said. “They didn’t get my head because I fought them off. If they got to my neck I would be dead. The dog that had my arm almost ripped it off.” 

Robinson had just returned an automobile he borrowed from his cousin who lives near San Pablo Park at Park Avenue and Oregon Street, and he jogged around the corner to visit a friend’s home nearby. 

As he turned the corner he saw two pit bulls standing unleashed on the sidewalk with their owner or handler. He stopped in his tracks. 

Robinson thinks the dogs were about one and one half years old “They were in shape,” he said. “I know how a good dog looks. They were slim in the hips.” 

The handler of the black and brown dogs commanded them to attack Robinson, he said, in a language he couldn’t understand. 

The handler was a black male about 6 feet, 2 inches tall with a slim build, and about 30 years old. Robinson said he wore his hair was in dreadlocks to his shoulders, and a Jamaican Rastafarian-type hat. His beard was rough. 

Robinson, at 5 feet, 11 inches tall, has dropped in weight from about 220 pounds to 196 pounds since being admitted to the hospital. 

He thought the attack lasted at least 15 minutes with one of the pit bulls chewing on his left arm continuously while Robinson fought them off with his right arm. He tried to get the other dog in a headlock and he grabbed his silver chain but couldn’t manage to get back to his knees. 

“Everything was in shadows,” Robinson said. “I could almost see myself faint out.” He said the handler of the dogs did not seem to name them when he spoke. 

Eventually the handler called off his dogs, leaving Robinson alone and severely injured on the sidewalk. 

A passer-by came to his assistance, helping him walk back to his cousin’s home. Robinson said he hardly remembers the man, because “he was more a shadow than anything.” 

The editor of Berkeley’s Bark magazine, Claudia Kawczynska, said she has seen a man who may fit the description of the handler of the attack dogs, walking two leashed pit bulls in the meadow near the Berkeley Marina. 

She said pit bulls have gained a bad reputation because of the way people train them. 

“Obviously this man has trained them to attack people, but this isn’t a breed thing,” she said. 

They’re highly intelligent and trainable, she said, likening them to German shepherds, Dobermans and Rottweilers, other breeds that have been feared. 

Robinson’s cousin drove him to Alta Bates in the car Robinson had borrowed and returned earlier. 

His grandmother, Margie Bates, said the family wanted to thank the Good Samaritan, but can’t since he didn’t leave his name. 

She said the police officer in the emergency room may not have realized the life-threatening nature of the attack right after it occurred last week, so the family made it public this week. 

Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller said Wednesday morning that the suspect has not yet been identified. The attack is being investigated by the homicide detail, under the direction of Sgt. Howard Nonoguchi, as a felony assault. 

Bates said her grandson’s left arm has been reconstructed, that the level of sugar in his blood skyrocketed and was then controlled by doctors, and that he has no medical insurance. 

“When he recovers he is going to pursue his music.” 

On Wednesday Robinson was feeling “real cool,” he said. “My career is just going to spark now. I got a whole bunch to tell. 

“When you’re almost upon the verge of death, you got a whole new outlook. I’m just going to push a little harder right now. I’m not discouraged.” 

Thursday, May 18 

Playground construction 

8 a.m.-9 p.m. 

East side of Aquatic Park 

Today is the first “build day” for the new community playground at Aquatic Park. The Dream Land for Kids - its name was chosen by 9-year-old Joseph Newell - is designed by and for Berkeley’s schoolchildren and will be built entirely by the community. Build days continue through Sunday, and a second series of days will be held May 31 through June 4. Everyone is welcome to volunteer, regardless of age or skills. Older children can help, childcare is provided for younger, toilet-trained children. Bring work gloves and tools if you have them. Lunch is at noon, Dinner at 5 p.m. Bring a dish to share or a sack lunch if you can.  

510-649-9874; http://www.bpfp.org/AquaticPlayground 

2-by-2 Committee 

12:30 p.m. 

Executive Conference Room, Third Floor, 1900 Addison St. 

City and school district representatives will discuss a series of items, including possible fall bond measures; high school-related topics, including post-fire plans for the Health Center; and school traffic plans for Oxford School and St. Joseph the Worker School. 

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 

Film: “Housing is a Human Right: Housing and Section 8” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The film will be shown and housing activist Helen Lima, will discuss this documentary. The video is closed-captioned, and the program is free. Lima began the Save Low-Income Seniors’ Section 8 Housing movement in 1997 as a self-help, grassroots effort in behalf of low-income “seniors” who rent - or need to be able to rent - federally-subsidized apartments. 

510-549-2970 

Prostate support group 

3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Legends of Ancient India” 

3:30 p.m. 

West Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. 

Armin Palkhivala will present picture books and stories for children ages 3 through 9 highlighting ancient Indian legends and culture, and will incorporate the many and various festivals celebrated in India. 

510-644-6870 

John Muir Elementary School Reading Extravaganza 

6-8 p.m. 

John Muir School, 2955 Claremont Ave. 

Two workshops will be offered: Raising a Reader, and Grammar 101. Author Donnell Rubay will also be on hand to read an autograph her book, “Stickeen: John Muir and the Brave Little Dog.” 

510-594-9484 

“Education for Social Justice: Teaching the Next Generation of Activists” 

7:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 

As part of its 25th anniversary series, La Peña is sponsoring this event for and by teachers. Educators will share and discuss ideas that connect students to issues in their world and motivate them to work for social justice. Admission is $3 donation at the door. 

510-653-7882 

Design Review Committee 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Among the projects to be reviewed by the board is the construction of a four-story, 47 unit mixed-use project, with ground floor retail space at 2700 San Pablo Ave. and the design of 801 Grayson St. 

Jews ‘n’ Jazz 

7:30-9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

This three-session course will examine the role that Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century played in the developing musical genre of jazz. The first session examines “Background and Theory.” The second session, on May 25, looks at “Early Jewish Jazz Pioneers.” The third session, on June 1, focuses on “Swing, Bebop, Latin and Modern.” Performer and educator Mark Levy leads the series. Cost is $25 for BRJCC members and $30 for the general public. 

510-848-0237, ext. 236 

Friday, May 19 

City offices closed for Malcolm X Day 

Playground construction 

8 a.m.-9 p.m. 

East side of Aquatic Park 

Today is the second “build day” for the new community playground at Aquatic Park. 

510-649-9874; http://www.bpfp.org/AquaticPlayground 

“Women’s Role in China” 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Annie Soo, historian with the Chinese-American Historical Society, will speak during this week’s meeting of the City Commons Club. Social hour begins at 11:15 a.m. Luncheon is served from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Speaker starts promptly at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is $11 or $12.25; admission to the speech is $1, free for students. 

510-848-3533 

“From the Ground Up” 

11:30 a.m. 

KQED, Channel 9 

A documentary produced by Berkeley filmmaker Yoav Potash will be broadcast at this time. The film follows the work of a multicultural group of UC Berkeley students who helped rebuild burned African-American churches in Alabama. The documentary is being broadcast during this time slot to allow schools to show it during the school day. 

www.jfed.org/groundup 

Malcolm X Arts and Technology Magnet School reunion 

5:30 p.m. 

Malcolm X School cafeteria, 1731 Prince St. 

The is the school’s first-ever reunion, and the school is also creating the MX Alumni Association. A benefit concert at 7 p.m., with performances by the MX Jazz band and chorus and jazz drummer Eddie Marshall and his band, will follow the reception, open to former students and teachers. 

510-644-6517 

Berkeley High School jazz concert 

7:30 p.m. 

Schwimmley Little Theater, BHS campus, Allston Way side of campus 

Berkeley High School’s award-winning Jazz Ensemble, Combos, and Lab Band will perform. This concert features the program’s nine seniors, who have performed in Europe and Japan in the last four years. Tickets for the event are $8 for general admission and $3 for students, seniors and Berkeley High School teachers. Proceeds help fund the Jazz Program. 

Circle dancing 

7:45-10 p.m. 

Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. 

This session will feature simple folk dancing in a circle, with a certain attitude (Findhorn style). Beginners are welcome, and a variety of dance styles will be demonstrated, including Scottish, Israeli and Greek. The event is sponsored by the Bay Area Circle Dancers. 

510-528-4253 

Saturday, May 20 

Playground construction 

8 a.m.-9 p.m. 

East side of Aquatic Park 

Today is the third “build day” for the new community playground at Aquatic Park. 

510-649-9874; http://www.bpfp.org/AquaticPlayground 

Ohlone Greenway walk 

10 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Begins at the Berkeley BART station; ends at the El Cerrito Del Norte BART station 

The Greenbelt Alliance is leading this eight-mile walk along the Greenway, and along the way, local activists will share the story of the Greenway. Event is free, but reservations are required. 

415-255-3233 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

Today’s market will feature strawberry tastings from participating farmers who sell the fresh fruit. 

510-548-3333 

Shasta and Tamalpais Roads Architecture and History Tour 

10 a.m.-noon 

With a limit of 30 people, the tour begins at the top of Rose Walk Steps, above Euclid Avenue, where the steps meet LeRoy Avenue. This walk, led by Ken Cardwell and John Underhill, will follow the loop of Shasta and Tamalpais Roads, explaining the history and architecture unique to this area. Price is $5 for the tour for Historical Society members, $10 for non-members. Call ahead for reservations. 

510-848-0181 

National Public Works Week event 

11 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Civic Center Park, Downtown Berkeley 

At this event, public works professionals will be on hand to answer questions and increase awareness of its programs and services. 

Thousand Oaks School 25th Annual Spring Carnival 

11 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Thousand Oaks School at the Franklin site, 1150 Virginia St., near San Pablo 

This annual event will featured food, games, AstroJump, cake walk, quilt raffle and silent auction. Entertainment includes the T.O. student Talent Show, “Uncle Eye” and Brazilian Dancing. Paint a tile for the new school building on Colusa, which opens in September. Proceeds benefit Thousand Oaks PTA-sponsored programs. 

510-524-1553 

Washington Elementary School’s Annual Spring Garage Sale and Fair 

11 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Washington School, corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bancroft ways 

Events will include a Dinosaur Jump, drumming performances, hat-making and face painting, a raffle and the garage sale. Proceeds will benefit the Washington PTA.

Last time the Berkeley High softball team roamed into the San Ramon Valley Wolves’ territory, it left whimpering with its tail between its legs, after being mauled by its league rivals, 10-0, on opening day. In Wednesday’s rematch at the Wolves’ home field, however, the Yellowjackets had the defense to protect themselves. 

Berkeley drew first blood in the fourth, and managed to keep its league rivals scoreless through four innings, leading 1-0 until the Wolves parlayed a pair of fifth-inning errors into two runs. The ’Jackets would be unable to take advantage of baserunners in the final two innings, and San Ramon escaped with the 2-1 victory. 

“We went in at 100 percent for the entire game, except that one inning,” BHS third baseman Alice Brugger said. “People were more on top of the game. Everybody hit today. We figured we might as well go in and play our hardest.” 

The Yellowjackets scored their first run in three games against the Wolves, on a bizarre fourth-inning play. With Lilli Bermeo caught in a pickle between first and second, third-base occupant Amaya Webster took advantage of the confusion to cross the plate and give her squad the early advantage. According to Brugger, Berkeley High entered the game with heightened confidence – on defense, at least – from the previous day’s 1-0 loss to first-place Foothill.  

“We knew (Foothill) was good, so that game really boosted our confidence,” she said. “If we can hold that team, we should be able to beat anybody.” 

At 2-11 in the East Bay Athletic League, Berkeley’s record reflects its persistent offensive woes, and fails to do justice to the accomplishments of starting pitcher Bermeo, who has compiled a dazzling 0.67 ERA over the past three games. Bermeo takes the mound again this afternoon in the 2000 season finale – a 3:45 p.m. affair at James Kenney Park pitting the ’Jackets against California High.  

Though the Grizzlies defended their home turf in the two schools’ last meeting on April 25, the BHS players believe that things could play out differently on the Yellowjackets’ home field. 

“The second time around, we know we can beat them,” Brugger said about today’s opponent. “We just have to execute, have to finish it.”

In Economics 101, they talk about a choice between guns and butter. 

At the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency meeting Tuesday night, agency members tried to pick between a bike bridge and a parking garage. 

In the end, the bike bridge got approval – $1.3 million from the Redevelopment Agency. That left about $1.7 million in the pot that could be spent as partial funding for a parking structure or for other Redevelopment Area projects. 

The bike-wheelchair-pedestrian overpass – still on the drawing board after more than five years – was originally expected to cost about $4.4 million. Funding would come from the state, city and the Redevelopment Agency. 

But inflation hit the project and bridge plans were modified, so actual bids for the project came in at about $5.3 million. 

The project faced a $1.3 million shortfall thanks to the higher bid and other increased costs associated with the bridge. 

At first, staff wanted to use General Fund money, but city councilmembers, who serve as the governing board for the Redevelopment Agency, pointed to the unspent redevelopment funds. In its five-year spending plan, the agency had called for a $3 million expenditure on a “possible central parking facility for the Fourth Street retail district.” 

Councilmembers – especially those who believe that building a parking structure will attract more traffic rather than alleviate the problem – focused on the word “possible.” They argued that since a firm decision on the expenditure of funds has not been made, the money could be redirected. 

Berkeley’s Redevelopment Area stretches from Cedar Street south to University Avenue and from Sixth Street to the Eastshore Highway. The area’s property taxes – more precisely, the increase in its taxes after the area was formulated – are put into the agency for projects within the area’s boundaries, projects that will improve the area, and low-income housing anywhere in the city. 

The bike bridge project is located just outside the Redevelopment Area, but most of the councilmembers said the bridge would benefit the area, so they were able to vote the funds to support the bridge. 

Public testimony focused mostly on whether it is appropriate for the public to subsidize a parking garage. 

Denny Abrams, who developed much of the Fourth Street area, said that it is wrong to call funding for the $8 million garage a “subsidy.” 

“It is considered an investment,” he said, asking the council not to redirect any of the $money toward the bike bridge. 

Abrams offered to get property owners together in a Business Improvement District to fund the remaining $5 million for the project, if the Redevelopment Agency would allocate the $3 million. 

“We want you to support (small businesses) with a garage,” he said. 

Patsy Slater, co-owner of Fourth Street’s Slater/Marinoff Furniture backed Abrams’ proposal. She underscored the need for parking to keep Fourth Street on the cutting edge. “We are competing with Emeryville,” she said. 

Slater asked agency members to look elsewhere for funds to supplement the bike bridge. 

Others, however, lined up to back the bike bridge and fight the parking structure. 

“Speaking as a taxpayer, I don’t want my money going for a parking garage,” said Berkeley resident Eric Forno, arguing that the overpass will bring cyclists and pedestrians to Fourth Street. 

Victor Bull, who owns a software company near the Fourth Street retail area, said the lack of Fourth Street parking is a development and zoning problem. 

“Developers created the parking problem by not creating parking for their own development,” he said. “Why bail out the developers who did not have the necessary foresight?” 

The question of whether the Agency will spend the remaining $1.7 million on partially funding the parking garage will be discussed at a future meeting. 

Seven councilmembers voted to use the almost $1.3 redevelopment funds for the bike bridge, with Councilmembers Diane Woolley and Polly Armstrong abstaining.

After serving eight years on the Berkeley Unified School Board, Pamela Doolan has decided that she won’t run for a third term this fall. 

“With my fourth and last child graduating from Berkeley High this year and having been a volunteer for the Berkeley public schools for the past 26 years, I will consider this early retirement,” she told colleagues and the community during Wednesday night’s board meeting. 

Doolan was one of two board members whose terms are up in November. Board President Joaquin Rivera, who is completing his first term on the board, is expected to run again. Each term is for four years. In her comments, Doolan emphasized that her decision was not linked to the “unpleasantness” of the ongoing contract negotiations with the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. 

“I fully expect negotiations to be completed sooner rather than later and certainly well before elections,” she said. “However, that will take goodwill from all parties involved.” 

While some of her votes in recent months could be defined as controversial – particularly her advocacy of moving the school district away from its race-aided student assignment plan – she is considered highly popular at many school sites because of her hands-on involvement. Doolan, who was first elected to the board in 1990, said that she will remain active as a volunteer in the school district. 

“I might even come to open mike and pester the school board,” she quipped.

Teachers and the school district could reach a contract agreement as early as the middle of next week, predicts the state mediator working with the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the Berkeley Unified School District. “Over the course of the last two meetings, the parties have moved significantly closer to agreement,” mediator Ron McGee said in a statement released late Wednesday night. “I am cautiously optimistic that the parties will be able to reach agreement at the next scheduled mediation session on May 24, 2000. Therefore, I am extending the total press and information blackout for one week.” 

The two sides met for more than 14 hours Wednesday, and two school board members even broke away from part of their regularly scheduled meeting in the evening to participate in the continuing discussions. 

It’s not publicly known what each side is offering. A document released by the district at a public budget workshop last week indicated that a salary increase of $665,000 for the current fiscal year was figured into the budget projections. But it wasn’t clear how old that offer was or what had been presented by the teachers union. 

The document also indicated that $1.9 million was being targeted for salary increases in the 2000-2001 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Those increases presumably would cover all unions, not just the BFT. 

The first interim budget for the 1999-2000 fiscal year reported teachers’ salaries as being a total of $22.1 million, so the $665,000 increase would be a 3 percent increase. 

McGee’s announcement will extend the “blackout” on information, which has been followed rather well by both sides. Wednesday night, no one showed up to speak about the contract issue, a sharp contrast from the two previous regular board meetings, which featured scores of parents and teachers protesting. 

The union and the district reached an impasse in March over the contract negotiations. Teachers currently have a contract that continues through 2001, but the deal allows such issues as compensation to be reopened each year. The current “reopener” began more than a year ago.

“I’ve got a bike, you can ride it if you like/It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good/I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.” 

– Pink Floyd, “Bike,” 1967. 

Though Syd Barrett may have penned the words to the ditty above 33-odd years ago, Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean’s set of wheels for Tuesday morning’s “Bike to Work Day” ride concurred on all counts. 

The first bike the mayor has pedaled in 40 years did indeed have a basket, a bell that rings and lots of things to make it look good (glitter, streamers and a set of day lilies on the handlebars Dean assured were “real, not plastic”). 

To top it off, the bike – actually, adult trike – was on loan from Rahila Jarret, who uses the cycle to deliver Daily Planets and to pedal her 7-year-old daughter, Arlice Hague, to school. 

“We’re hoping that Bike to Work Day will encourage people to ride bikes. This is a very good way to travel,” said Dean, who wore a bright yellow construction hard hat with “MAYOR DEAN” emblazoned on the sides. “Berkeley has one of the highest bike-riding rates in the state, and the highest in the Bay Area.” 

Of course, correspondingly, Berkeley also has one of the highest tallies of bicycle accidents in the state, and Tuesday’s procession from the intersection of Channing Way and Milvia Street to temporary City Hall a few blocks off was also intended to bring attention to steps the city is taking to increase bike safety. 

“We do have one of the highest rates of bicycle accidents in the state. But logically, if you have five times the number of people biking, you’ll have five times the accidents,” explained Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who rides his bike to work nearly every day, and even takes it on buses and BART throughout the Bay Area. “There are ways to make it safer to ride bicycles. Bicycle boulevards will be a major thing.” 

The city plans to create additional “bicycle boulevards,” bike-priority streets. Not coincidentally, the launching point of Tuesday morning’s ride was at the intersection of two already existing bicycle boulevards. At the junction the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition set up an “Energizer Station,” handing out drinks, food, stickers and various other bicycle paraphernalia (including wildly popular temporary tattoos) to any passing cyclist. 

“The bicycle boulevard plan is what Berkeley is doing to make the streets safer,” said Caycee Cullen of the BFBC. “Most people don’t choose bicycle (transportation) because they fear it’s unsafe. People can feel wherever they are in the city, they can ride on a bicycle boulevard and get around safely.” 

In addition to Dean and Worthington, Councilmember Betty Olds also rode in Tuesday’s procession, hitching a ride in the back of Bill Mitchell’s baby blue pedicab. 

Mitchell, an industrial hygienist, last pedaled as a “cabdriver” four years ago. Working out of the MacArthur BART area in Oakland, Mitchell charged four to five dollars a mile, and averaged about eight-to-10 mph. 

Wednesday, May 17 

Chinese Club meeting 

1:15 p.m. 

Caregivers group for Alzheimer’s/Dementia 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Commission on Aging 

1:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

The agenda includes discussion of the warm water and the rent ordinance proposal which would protect seniors and the disabled from owner move-in evictions. 

Berkeley Housing Authority meeting 

6 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

This is the first in a series of Town Hall meetings to discuss the Berkeley Housing Authority - how it operates now, how we as tenants can help to improve it and impact its planning process for the federally-required Public Housing Authority. 

1-800-773-2110; 510-549-2970 

Citizens Humane Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The agenda will include the euthanasia policy at the Berkeley Animal Shelter and a discussion of a revised spay/neuter ordinance. 

Special Planning Committee Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The commission will hold a public workshop on the relationship between the Southside plan and the Underhill Area Project and continue the public hearing on the Underhill Area Project. 

BUSD school board meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

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

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; there is no charge to join them. Call the group for specific location. 

510-848-4357 

The French Revolution, Napoleon and the Jewish People 

7:30-9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

This two-session course will be led by Lee Marsh, chair of the Jewish Learning Center. Cost is $12 for BRJCC members, $15 for the public. The second session will be held May 24. 

510-848-0237, ext. 236 

Thursday, May 18 

Playground construction 

8 a.m.-9 p.m. 

East side of Aquatic Park 

Today is the first “build day” for the new community playground at Aquatic Park. The Dream Land for Kids – its name was chosen by 9-year-old Joseph Newell – is designed by and for Berkeley’s schoolchildren and will be built entirely by the community. Build days continue through Sunday, and a second series of days will be held May 31 through June 4. Everyone is welcome to volunteer, regardless of age or skills. Older children can help, childcare is provided for younger, toilet-trained children. Bring work gloves and tools if you have them. Lunch is at noon, Dinner at 5 p.m. Bring a dish to share or a sack lunch if you can.  

510-649-9874; http://www.bpfp.org/AquaticPlayground 

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 

Film: “Housing is a Human Right: Housing and Section 8” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The film will be shown and housing activist Helen Lima, will discuss this documentary. The video is closed-captioned, and the program is free. Lima began the Save Low-Income Seniors’ Section 8 Housing movement in 1997 as a self-help, grassroots effort in behalf of low-income “seniors” who rent - or need to be able to rent - federally-subsidized apartments. 

510-549-2970 

Prostate support group 

3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Education for Social Justice: Teaching the Next Generation of Activists” 

7:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 

As part of its 25th anniversary series, La Peña is sponsoring this event for and by teachers. Educators will share and discuss ideas that connect students to issues in their world and motivate them to work for social justice. Admission is $3 donation at the door. 

510-653-7882 

Design Review Committee 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Among the projects to be reviewed by the board is the construction of a four-story, 47 unit mixed-use project, with ground floor retail space at 2700 San Pablo Ave. and the design of 801 Grayson St. 

Jews ‘n’ Jazz 

7:30-9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

This three-session course will examine the role that Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century played in the developing musical genre of jazz. The first session examines “Background and Theory.” The second session, on May 25, looks at “Early Jewish Jazz Pioneers.” The third session, on June 1, focuses on “Swing, Bebop, Latin and Modern.” Performer and educator Mark Levy leads the series. Cost is $25 for BRJCC members and $30 for the general public. 

510-848-0237, ext. 236 

Friday, May 19 

City offices closed for Malcolm X Day 

Playground construction 

8 a.m.-9 p.m. 

East side of Aquatic Park 

Today is the second “build day” for the new community playground at Aquatic Park. The Dream Land for Kids – its name was chosen by 9-year-old Joseph Newell – is designed by and for Berkeley’s schoolchildren and will be built entirely by the community. Build days continue through Sunday, and a second series of days will be held May 31 through June 4. Everyone is welcome to volunteer, regardless of age or skills. Older children can help, childcare is provided for younger, toilet-trained children. Bring work gloves and tools if you have them. Lunch is at noon, Dinner at 5 p.m. Bring a dish to share or a sack lunch if you can.  

510-649-9874; http://www.bpfp.org/AquaticPlayground 

“Women’s Role in China” 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Annie Soo, historian with the Chinese-American Historical Society, will speak during this week’s meeting of the City Commons Club. Social hour begins at 11:15 a.m. Luncheon is served from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Speaker starts promptly at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is $11 or $12.25; admission to the speech is $1, free for students. 

510-848-3533 

“From the Ground Up” 

11:30 a.m. 

KQED, Channel 9 

A documentary produced by Berkeley filmmaker Yoav Potash will be broadcast at this time. The film follows the work of a multicultural group of UC Berkeley students who helped rebuild burned African-American churches in Alabama. The documentary is being broadcast during this time slot to allow schools to show it during the school day. 

www.jfed.org/groundup 

Circle dancing 

7:45-10 p.m. 

Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. 

This session will feature simple folk dancing in a circle, with a certain attitude (Findhorn style). Beginners are welcome, and a variety of dance styles will be demonstrated, including Scottish, Israeli and Greek. The event is sponsored by the Bay Area Circle Dancers. 

510-528-4253

THEATER 

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 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau, May 17, 9 p.m. $8. 

Wawa and The Oneness Kingdom, DJ African Riddims, May 18, 9:30 p.m. $8. 

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, May 20. 9:30 p.m. $11. 

Victor Essiet and The Mandators, Mondo Ragga Samba, May 21, 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 17. $5. 

Ripe, Quimbombo, May 18. $4. 

Songo, Invisible Inc., May 19. $5. 

Most Chill Slackmob, LZ and Ezell, May 20. $5. 

The Spectors, Paradigm, May 21. $3. 

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

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Margot Leverett with Gerry Tenney's California Klezmer, May 17. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Chris Hillman, May 18. $16.50. 

Tempest, May 19. $14.50. 

The Nigerian Brothers, May 20. $15.50. 

John Haley-Walker, May 21. $14.50. 

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

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Taller Boricua, May 18, 9:30 p.m. $3. 

Rompe y Raja, May 19, 8:30 p.m. $12. 

Rafael Manriquez, Lichi Fuentes, Jorge Tapia, Fernando “Fena” Torres, May 20, 8 p.m. $8. 

Omar Sosa's “Bembon,” May 21, 8 p.m. $15. 

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

924 GILMAN ST. 

Submission Hold, Tragedy, Honeysuckle Serontina, Manchurian Candidates, Vae Victas, May 20. 

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

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Ceili Dance featuring Brian Theriault and Friends, May 17. Free. 

Noche Flamenca, May 18. $5. 

Ninewood, Spezza Rotto, May 19. $6. 

The Unreal Band, May 20. $5. 

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 

“Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season,” through May 2002.  

An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. Highlights include treasures from Jewish ceremonial and folk art, rare books and manuscripts, contemporary and traditional fine art, video, photography and cultural kitsch. Through Nov. 4: “Spring and Summer.” 

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. 

Look up “moral victory” in the dictionary, and you might find a description of the Berkeley High softball team’s hard-fought, 1-0 defeat at the hands of first-place Foothill on Tuesday afternoon.  

The ’Jackets, who were blanked by the Falcons, 8-0, in their first meeting on April 13, stepped up their defense in a big way at James Kenney Park, committing just one error on the afternoon. After keeping the league co-leaders scoreless through three innings, BHS pitcher Lilli Bermeo finally allowed a run in the fourth, as Lindsey Jones singled to right to produce the game’s only RBI.  

“We’re not really disappointed. We did pretty well against them – that’s proof right there we’re a good team,” BHS shortstop Jasmine Jew said. “(We’re) trying our hardest, what more can you ask for? I’d get angry if I thought this team wasn’t doing their best.” 

Empty basepaths spelled doom once again for the ’Jackets, who were limited to two total runners – on basehits from Alice Brugger and Bermeo. The result marked the second straight game in which Berkeley High has lost by a single run. After the game, Foothill coach Ray Alsdorf admitted his squad had underestimated BHS, and commended the ’Jackets for their stingy defense. 

“What a good ball game,” the coach said. “Berkeley played very well defensively. It was a fine effort against us.” 

“At the end of the game, the Foothill coach came up and said what a great team we had,” BHS coach Elena Bermeo added. “That was a huge compliment. It was the closest we’ve ever played them. The story of this season is (lack of) hits.” 

Lilli Bermeo went the distance in the seven-inning showdown, inheriting yet another loss not reflected in her brilliant ERA. With regular starting catcher Alice Brugger playing third base, Emily Friedman took over behind the plate, calling an almost perfect game and gunning down all three would-be Foothill base thieves at second. 

“(Emily) stepped up today,” Elena Bermeo said about her usual third-baseman. “She has a strong arm, but bad knees. Last time (we played Foothill) they got around the bases a lot more.” 

With just two games remaining in the 2000 campaign, Berkeley High hopes to close out the season with at least one more league win – against either San Ramon Valley today, or California High on Thursday. Today’s opponent dealt Berkeley its worst loss of the season – a 10-0 shutout – on opening day, giving Bermeo’s girls special motivation to bring their best game to the field. 

“That was our worst loss of the season, I’m really looking forward to playing them again,” the BHS coach said. “We’ve been losing 1-0 the past two games – we’re definitely due.” 

Lilli Bermeo is once again slated to start for Berkeley High in today’s matchup, beginning at 3:45 p.m. at the Wolves’ home field in San Ramon.

A recommendation to cut $1 million from next year’s budget goes to the Berkeley Unified School Board tonight, even though the governor has proposed higher spending for California’s schools. 

The list proposes several cuts at Berkeley High School, including the full-time equivalent of four teachers and half of the funding for the athletic directors’ positions. But the overall cuts are about half of what the district was considering just a few weeks ago. 

The Berkeley Unified School District is facing budget shortfalls of around $3 million between the current and upcoming fiscal years. Technically, the district is not in the red, although expenses are outpacing revenues this year, and the trend is expected to continue next year under the district’s original budget. 

But the BUSD is legally required to maintain a 3 percent reserve fund. So, while the district is projected to end the current fiscal year with a positive fund balance of about $1.7 million, that’s $829,000 short of the mandated reserve level. 

Earlier this week, Gov. Gray Davis announced the May revisions in his proposed state budget for the 2000-2001 fiscal year, which begins July 1. A significant portion of the money would be discretionary funds for school districts, meaning no strings would be attached to how the money is used. Other increases Davis is proposing fall into the categorical areas, which means districts must use that money for specific purposes or programs. 

The district estimates that it will gain $3.2 million in additional revenue next year from the state, if the governor’s proposed budget is adopted. It still must go through the state Legislature, where changes could be made. But with the state looking at a $12 billion surplus over the next two years, lawmakers will likely pass most of Davis’ proposals. 

The discretionary money is good news for the BUSD, and the proposed allocations allowed Superintendent Jack McLaughlin to reduce the amount of money in his proposed budget cuts. 

Earlier this month, he presented the school board with a list of cuts totaling just over $2 million. Tonight’s proposal has been decreased to just over $1.1 million in cuts. 

A financial issue in everyone’s mind is the state of negotiations between the school district and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Salary agreements for the current fiscal year already have been reached with other unions, but the BUSD-BFT negotiations hit an impasse in March and are currently in the mediation stage. 

A mediation session between both sides is scheduled for this morning. 

Last week, the state mediator declared a “press and information blackout” on all issues related to those negotiations. But one piece of information emerged last week and slipped under many people’s radars. During a budget workshop last Wednesday, a document distributed by the district reported that the “cost of the current salary offer to BFT for 1999-2000” was $665,000. 

That document also states that the district is setting aside $1.9 million in the 2000-2001 fiscal year for salary increases, presumably for all of the unions, not just teachers. 

Tuesday night, during the final regularly scheduled meeting of the Blue Ribbon Budget Advisory Committee – formed earlier this year to examine ways the district could restructure its budget to save money – McLaughlin told committee members that officials would be “scrounging, squeezing and cleaning the budget” to fund salary increases. 

“If we keep the status quo, we’ll never get ahead,” McLaughlin said. “Not only do we have to fund the offers on the table, we have to go forward if we’re ever going to have competitive salaries for our teachers.” 

The board meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in Board/Council Chambers in Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The meeting is scheduled to be broadcast over B-TV, Channel 25, and 89.3-FM, KPFB. 

The Berkeley High baseball team’s 17-7 overall record wasn’t enough to get it into North Coast Section playoffs last year, so it seems logical that this year’s record – currently at 11-9 with two games to play – will yield a similar postseason fate. But as long as his Yellowjackets aren’t mathematically eliminated, BHS coach Larri Gordon still considers them on the playoff bubble. 

“It’s a long shot, but if we win our remaining two, and (the Foothill Falcons) lose their remaining two, we have a chance (at NCS at-large selection),” Gordon said.  

In order to keep their postseason chances from sliding from slim to none, the ’Jackets must win today’s showdown with third-place Foothill, a team that had little difficulty defeating BHS, in their last meeting on April 14. Berkeley enters today’s showdown at the Falcons’ home field riding the momentum of an 8-7, come-from-behind victory over Granada achieved last Friday at San Pablo Park. 

“It’s a big, big game at their place,” Gordon said about today’s East Bay Athletic League matchup, beginning at 3:30 p.m. “Foothill put some good numbers up on us last time.” 

All year, the ’Jackets have been characterized by streaky play, with the lineup exploding for double-digit runs on one day, and being shut down the next. According to Gordon, this is testament to the youth of a BHS squad that graduated 12 seniors last year. 

“We’ve always been up-and-down, like Jekyll and Hyde,” the coach said. “I hate to admit it, but it is a rebuilding year. We’ve had some tough times coming down the stretch, but he players have handled it well.” 

After today, Berkeley begins to gear up for its regular-season finale, hosted by California High on Friday.

The body of an unidentified man was found floating in the bay Tuesday morning near the rocks along West Frontage Road about one-quarter mile south of University Avenue. 

The Harbormaster at the Berkeley Marina received a call from police about 9:30 a.m. requesting a harbor patrol boat to transport the body from that location and take it to a public dock where it could be removed from the water. 

Crime Scene Unit officers were present at the dock, along with a Berkeley Fire Department truck and an ambulance. 

Lt. Russell Lopes said a fisherman had discovered the body “half in the rocks and half in the water,” earlier in the morning. The man is described as an African-American male in his mid-20s, about 6 feet tall and well-dressed in blue jeans, a shirt, and work boots in good condition. 

The police department’s homicide detail is working on the case, said Lopes, although at present they don’t know if a crime was committed. 

“Now it’s a suspicious death,” he said. 

The dead man could have been a fisherman washed up from San Francisco, although he wasn’t dressed like one, he said. 

“He could have been put into the water anywhere in the bay. It depends upon the currents and the tides,” Lopes said. 

The man had been in the water less than three days, said Alameda County Deputy Coroner Charles Brewer. 

There are no knife or bullet wounds in the man’s body and his death may not be the result of foul play, but it will be investigated unless evidence indicates otherwise. 

Brewer said the man could have fallen or jumped into the bay. Fingerprints and missing person reports are the primary leads that the coroner’s office can use to help identify him. 

Anyone with information about the victim or this incident is asked to call East Bay Regional Park District Detective Ron Anderson at (510) 544-3105 or King at (510) 881-3103.

OAKLAND – A jury heard closing arguments and began deliberation Tuesday on charges that KPFA supporter Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi obstructed or delayed a police officer during protests last summer at the listener-sponsored radio station in Berkeley. 

In their summation to the jury, the prosecution and defense agreed on a key point debated by the two sides in the trial’s opening arguments last week. Both had come to agree on the defense’s assertion that Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s actions leading to his arrest on July 21 took only a few seconds – not the minute or more originally argued by the prosecution. 

The two sides, however, continued to debate fiercely over whether Jacobs-Fantauzzi blocked a police officer in the course of his duties. 

Assistant District Attorney David Lim told the jury that Jacobs-Fantauzzi did just that. 

Prosecution witness and arresting officer Sgt. Randolph Files testified last week that on the morning of July 21, in the 1900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way in front of the radio station, Jacobs-Fantauzzi twice placed himself between Files and a protester who had illegally erected a tent on the sidewalk. 

Files testified that when Jacobs-Fantauzzi blocked his path, the officer told him that he was violating the law but attempted to go around Jacobs-Fantauzzi, without arresting him. 

When the officer stepped to the side, Jacobs-Fantauzzi stepped once again in front of him, blocking his access for the second time to the protester with the tent. 

The officers “were hindered by the defendant. They were obstructed by the defendant,” Lim told the jury in his summary. 

In mid-July, KPFA had been boarded up, and its staff and volunteers locked out of the station as part of a conflict with the Pacifica Foundation, which holds the license to the 50-year-old station. There were almost daily demonstrations with numerous acts of civil disobedience at the station. 

Although some 100 arrests were made, charges were dropped against almost all of those arrested. Just a handful of protesters pled guilty to jaywalking charges and were given “time served” for the several hours they spent in jail. 

Defense attorney Richard Krech told the jury his version of the story of Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest. He said his client was exercising his free speech rights and acting as a police liaison on behalf of the protesters, when he approached police at about 7 a.m. that day. Within seconds of his brisk approach, police “took down” and arrested Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Krech said. 

“There is no dialogue, no warning, no blocking of the path, no legal arrest,” he said. 

Then Krech used the phrase he would repeat throughout his closing arguments: “There was no time to commit the crime.” 

Krech repeatedly attempted to show the jury that that Files, who was the arresting officer and the chief prosecution witness, had contradicted himself a number of times and had given false testimony. 

“He lied to you ladies and gentleman,” Krech told the jury. 

One way Krech tried to discredit Files was by attempting to show that Files may have misspoken when he said that he had not talked to fellow Berkeley police officers about the facts of the case. Krech reminded the jury that a fellow officer had testified that “he would not rule out that he had talked about the facts of the case with Officer Files.” 

Krech pointed out that Files had said there were only four officers on the scene at the time of Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest, but noted that a videotape showed numerous officers at the van to which Jacobs-Fantauzzi was carried after his arrest. 

“He does not tell the whole truth,” Krech said. 

Central to Krech’s argument was Files’ contention that the incident with Jacobs-Fantauzzi took from 40 to 60 seconds. 

Testimony from defense witnesses and a video of the arrest show that the incident took only a few seconds, Krech noted. He told the jury that Files was a skilled and experienced witness, trying to mislead them. 

“This case is about an illegal arrest,” Krech said. “(Files) made a bad call and is trying to cover it up by convicting my client.” 

Krech said the jury should conclude that there was “reasonable doubt” in the prosecution’s case and asked jurors to rule his client not guilty. 

After viewing a videotape provided by the defense and hearing defense witnesses, Lim told the jury that he had come to believe that the overall incident, from the moment Jacobs-Fantauzzi approached the officer until the time of his arrest on the ground, took just a few seconds. 

Files had said the incident took much longer, but Lim explained his witness’ perspective. The officer was paying attention to the bystanders and Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s use of a bullhorn, rather than noting the precise amount of time the incident took, Lim contended. 

“The officer just testified to his best recollection,” Lim said, reminding the jury that in moments of distress, persons will swear that “my life flashed before my eyes.” 

Toward the end of closing arguments, Lim appeared to agree with Krech’s assertion that Files was not a thoroughly credible witness. 

“If Sgt. Files were the only person testifying...there would be enough reasonable doubt,” he said. He asked the jury to evaluate the sum of the evidence. 

“Luckily, your job is to look at all the facts from all the witnesses,” he said. 

Lim pointed to testimony of two of the character witnesses, UC Berkeley Professor of Education Pedro Noguera and Councilmember Kriss Worthington. Both had testified to the defendant’s truthfulness and to his political zeal. 

“A truthful person can obstruct a police officer,” Lim said. “Especially a truthful person who believes in his cause.” 

It is that fervor, that “passion for his cause (that Jacobs-Fantauzzi attempted) to stop (police) from what he thought was an egregious wrong,” Lim said. 

In closing, the prosecutor pointed to Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s 1997 arrest at UC Berkeley, when he was demonstrating in support of affirmative action. 

“You know what he’s done in the past,” he told the jury. “You can extrapolate.” 

The Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association will hold its annual meeting at 7:30 p.m. on May 24 at the Palache Hall of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Claremont Boulevard at Russell. 

Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz is scheduled to make a presentation on how bond measure funds and tax assessments are currently spent, and what new bonds, fees, assessments, and taxes the City is contemplating putting on the November ballot. 

Fire Chief Reginald Garcia will present the situation and answer questions about the neighborhood’s protection against fire and emergencies. 

A small fire at Washington Elementary School was quickly doused Sunday evening. 

A resident reported seeing smoke from the campus, which covers parts of two blocks at the intersection of Bancroft Way and McKinley Avenue. Fire department crews found a small stack of newspapers that had been set on fire outside one of the school’s bungalows on the west side of the campus. The fire caused minimal damage.

Firefighters arrived at the Cal Hotel at 2008 Shattuck Ave. about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday to find that a fire in a mattress and box spring already had been extinguished with a dry chemical. 

Capt. Malcolm Greene from Fire Station 2 said a smoke alarm had alerted the son of the hotel’s manager. A tenant in a studio in the residential hotel apparently was smoking in bed, Greene said, and threw his cigarette toward the trashcan but missed 

Firefighters made the standard initial response to what is classified now as a Condition A or minimal fire, Greene said. 

A box spring with a burned off cover showing the wooden slats underneath was brought down into the street with the mattress, but the damage from smoke was negligible as it was from water. Greene said the firefighters used about one gallon of water inside. 

Orchestra to perform 

The Berkeley High School Concert Orchestra will present its gala spring concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday. 

The concert, which will be held in the Berkeley Community Theater, will feature a mix of old and new music, including works by Dvorak, Mozart, Saint-Saens, and Stravinsky. It marks the re-establishment of the strong and diverse music curriculum at Berkeley High School. 

Because the orchestra has grown from approximately 15 students to over 60 in the last six years, the Little Theater stage can no longer comfortably accommodate the concert. Instead, the orchestra will perform at the 3,000-seat Community Theater for only the second time in decades. 

Admission is $4 for adults, $1 for students age 13-18, and children under 12 are admitted free. 

Congresswoman to speak 

The Zonta Club of Berkeley/North Bay’s spring luncheon on May 31 will feature guest speaker Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

The luncheon will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe Bar and Grill Restaurant, 1310 University Ave. in Berkeley; tickets are $40. All proceeds from the event will benefit programs sponsored by Zonta, a club focused on advancing the status of women worldwide. 

Lee will discuss issues affecting women’s legal rights and economic advancement, both from a local and national perspective. She will also speak about her views on the traditional “women’s issues” of education and healthcare. 

Zonta has approximately 36,000 members in more than 1,150 clubs in 67 countries. 

The Berkeley/North Bay sector has contributed to a number of local scholarship funds for young women, including the Merritt College of Nursing program and the Tech Trek program for middle school girls. It has also donated books to the Berkeley Reads project of the Berkeley Public Library. 

Reservations are required; call 510-845-6221 or 510-644-4480 for more information. 

City to sell boats 

On June 3 at 11 a.m. the City of Berkeley Marina will auction off approximately nine boats. Eight sailing vessels are being sold to pay for the delinquent berthing fees owed to the City of Berkeley, and a power vessel is surplus equipment once belonging to the Department of Boating and Waterways will also be auctioned. For more information, contact the Marina Office, at 510-644-6376. 

French music featured 

“Frightfully French,” a classical music event associated with the Berkeley Early Music Festival will take place on June 5 at 3 p.m. at the St. Joseph of Arimathea Chapel, located at 2316 Bowditch St. The performance includes music from the French Baroque, including the cantatas “Arion” by Campra and Monteclair’s “La Bergere.” Requested donation is $12. For more information, call 415-586-5285. 

Friends will host Bock 

Audie Bock, independent Assemblywoman from California’s 16th district, will speak at the Berkeley Friends Meeting on June 7 at 7:30 p.m. Her subject will be “Challenges to an Independent Legislator.” 

As an assemblywoman, Bock holds the highest office yet to be won by a Green Party candidate. She has since withdrawn from the Green Party and re-registered as an Independent. She has introduced 30 bills in the Assembly to date. 

The meeting will be located at 2151 Vine St. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and no charge for admission. 

MFA works displayed 

An exhibition of works by candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree at UC Berkeley has opened at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. 

“Now: The 30th Annual MFA Graduate Exhibition” marks three decades that one of the museum’s galleries has been devoted to a selection of new work by Master of Fine Arts graduates. Seven student artists will present their work through a wide range of media, including photography, painting, found-object sculpture, and installation. 

“This annual exhibition of work by MFA graduate students is a highlight of the strong relationship between the UC Berkeley Art Museum and the campus,” Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator and curator of this exhibition said in a press release. “‘Now’ provides an exceptional opportunity for MFA students to present their work within a professional museum context, and to a wide and diverse audience that includes their fellow students.” 

The exhibition runs through July 2. 

Youth training offered 

Bay Area Wilderness Training will offer two Wilderness Leadership workshops in the Sierra Mountains for adults serving youth in the Bay Area. The workshops will be May 24-28 and June 7-11. The course is designed to give adult youth workers the tools needed to take youth on multi-day backpack adventures. There is a mandatory pre-trip meeting prior to each session. For information, call Victoria Ryder, Program Director at 415-788-3666, ext. 126. 

– Daily Planet Staff

Berkeley Police Sgt. Cary Kent is taking a new direction in his investigation of the unsolved murder of Rick DeVecchi. He’s working with the hypnotized recollections of an eyewitness to the crime. 

“We have new possibilities on the plate. I don’t know how tangible they are until we investigate and we have over 300 possibilities to investigate,” he said. 

The owner of a trucking firm in the 1900 block of Second Street, DeVecchi was killed Dec. 17, 1998. Around 7:15 a.m. that day, he had walked over to a Cadillac driven by a man who up until then had been standing near a truck. He may have thought the man was delivering something, but the suspect may have been attempting a robbery. 

According to witnesses the driver of the older-model car deliberately accelerated and rammed DeVecchi, killing the 37-year-old husband and father of two children. 

The driver of the Cadillac sped off toward Hearst Avenue and then headed north on the Eastshore Highway toward Gilman Street. 

The vehicle is described as a 1970s or 1980s Cadillac similar to a Coup DeVille, white or cream-colored, with a dark vinyl top in poor condition. 

Kent said the witness who was hypnotized by a psychologist remembered more information about the license plate on the Cadillac. Kent says the witness added new letters and numbers to what he already had told police two years ago – that the letters CUS were on the license plate. 

However, he said, the witness was under high stress at the time of the murder. He saw the license plate while he was running to catch up with the Cadillac and that may have interfered with his ability to memorize the letters and numerals accurately. 

During the session with the psychologist the witness recalled new combinations. Kent said the department will investigate the different mathematical possibilities. He said he tried using an Excel program “but it just got to be too much.” 

The department already has a description of the suspect gleaned from witnesses and a broad survey of automobile related businesses, police traffic stops and the Department of Motor Vehicles. 

A composite sketch and description released by the Berkeley Police Department identifies the suspect as an African-American male, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 185 pounds with black hair. 

In March, the national television program “America’s Most Wanted” profiled the murder and Kent followed up on numerous tips that came to his attention, but those did not lead to the suspect. 

Kent, who recently was promoted to the robbery detail, has been investigating the DeVecchi murder since February. It was at his request that the witness be hypnotized. He hopes the result will be a new break in the case. He said it’s not a final effort, that he has not yet exhausted all the avenues of investigation. This is another step, he said. 

While he’s investigating the new letters and numerals, his real aim is to elicit a tip from someone who knows who committed the crime, because the suspect revealed it to that person. 

“We really need this tip that hasn’t come in yet,” Kent said. 

There is a $35,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect. 

A smaller reward of $5,000 will be paid, with no questions asked, for information leading to the identification of the Cadillac.

OAKLAND – Uncle Eye, a singing storyteller from Berkeley, will present an evening of Singable Stories and Soulfolk Tales on Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Cato’s in Oakland at 3891 Piedmont Ave. Tom Hallenback will join Uncle Eye on the cello and mandolin and perform an extra set of original songs at 8 p.m.