What does a renter do when the toilet doesn’t work, the roof leaks and the landlord refuses to return the security deposit?  

It’s Tenants’ Rights Week on the UC Berkeley campus and answers were dispensed Tuesday at a booth in Sproul Plaza, where five volunteer students talked to a steady stream of renters who are having landlord trouble and are uncertain about their rights. 

The students are volunteers with UC Berkeley’s Renters’ Legal Assistance, an organization formed in 1998 to help tenants – especially students who make up about 30 percent of Berkeley residents – understand their options.  

“Student tenants come from other states, they’re often renting for the first time and they can be naive,” said Carlos Rios, a housing counselor with the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board the cosponsor of Tenants’ Rights Week. “Our effort is to make sure they are an informed body so they can conduct their business properly.” 

Two members of the Berkeley Property Owners Association heard about the event and set up a booth right next to Tenants’ Rights Tuesday morning. Claude Zamanian and Robert Englund handed out leaflets and cookies. However, since they are not students and did not have a permit, campus police asked them to fold up the table and chairs. Police allowed them to continue displaying a placard and handing out literature and cookies, however. 

“We are just here to present the landlords’ point of view,” Zamanian said.  

According to one of their fliers, property owners claim strict rent control creates a housing shortage and fewer controls means more rental space for students. Property owners argue that low rent created under rent control makes tenants unlikely to move. In one flier a landlord was quoted as saying: “I’d love to house the class of 2000, but I’m still housing the class of ’79.”  

The students are holding counseling sessions all week in Sproul Plaza from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday’s theme was “All About Security Deposits.” Tenants are often unsure of their rights when it comes to retrieving security deposits and landlords sometimes take advantage, organizers said. 

For example many tenants don’t know landlords are required to pay interest on security deposits in either rent rebates or cash payments, they said. Upon request they are also required to provide bank statements detailing the time during which the interest was earned and the amount of interest paid. 

“The other problem is landlords withholding a large percentage of deposits for repairs that were existing when the tenant moved in,” said Kim Encianas, a student volunteer with Renters’ Legal Assistance. 

Tenants are advised to take pictures of as much of dwelling as possible both when they move in and when they move out. 

Today’s theme is “How to Get Repairs Done.” The counselors will offer information about what steps to take when the landlord refuses to fix common problems such as heating problems, roof leaks and broken faucets. 

Eileen Lau, a UC student who pays $700 a month for a small room in a rooming house, was glad to get some definitive answers to her landlord problems. “The upstairs bathroom hasn’t worked in months and he refuses to fix it although it doesn’t stop him from charging exorbitant rent,” she said.  

Zamanian said landlords who aren’t getting what they deem to be a fair rent for apartments are sometimes not motivated to fix problems. “Landlords often feel like they’re not getting a fair return on their investment and are not so motivated to fix problems.” he said.  

He pointed out that last year the city allowed landlords to raise rents only $6 per month per unit and this year they could raise rents by $10. 

On Monday the counselors held a workshop called “How to Handle Problems With Your Roommate.” There is little legal recourse with these issues, but counselors offered advice on how to avoid common problems like paying utilities, loud music and dirty dishes.  

Thursday’s topic is “What is Rent Control and Friday’s is “How to Break Your Lease.” Though the various days have specific themes, counselors said they are happy to answer any housing questions the public might have. 

Encianas said that often tenants know their rights are being violated but have to get verification and also advice about how to proceed. “A lot of times they know the answers they just have to hear it from somebody.” 

There will be a public hearing on rent issues tomorrow on campus at the Associated Students’ Senate Chambers at 5:30 p.m.  

For more information about housing issues you can contact the Rent Stabilization Board at (510) 644-6128 or visit their web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us./rent/ or contact the Berkeley Property Owners Association at 525-3666. 

Wednesday, Oct. 25

International Jewish Video Competition Winners 

7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

Screening of the four winners in the Museum’s seventh annual competition.  

Call 549-6950 

“How to Get Needed Repairs” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

Hearing with City Council/Rent Board Housing Committee  

5:30 p.m. 

Eshleman Hall Chambers 

644-7714 

Low vision support group 

1:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Civic Arts Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Halloween Puppet Show with Hazel Jazel 

3:30 p.m.  

San Pablo Library, 1555 International Marketplace, San Pablo. (510) 374-3998. 

Free. 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar 

Discussion on a City Council item about earthquake preparedness.  

Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Discussion of a report on renewable energy and a report on residential energy consumption. 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 MLK Jr. Way 

Planning Commission 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Public hearing and comment on the planning commission draft general plan.  

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Discussion of the relocation of the Police Review Commission’s offices.  

“Beyond Organic: The Vision of Fairview Gardens” 

7 p.m.  

Martin Luther King Middle School Auditorium  

1871 Rose Street  

Call 845-4595 

Thursday, Oct. 26

“A Contemporary Food Fight: GM Foods in the market place” 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

International House, Homeroom 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

A discussion with Dr. Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbiology at UC Berkeley, and Dr. Petra Frey from Switzerland, of the scientific basis for biotechnology, it’s risks and benefits. 

Contact Maribel Guillermo,  

642-9460 

“What Does Rent Control Do For You” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

New Science & Ancient Wisdom Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International Center 

2222 Harold Way 

Featured speakers include Father Charlie Moore speaking on “The Cosmic Origins of Man,” Dolores Cannon speaking on “Visions of Nostradamus,” and David Hatcher Childress speaking on “Technology of the Gods.” Event runs through Sunday.  

Pre-registration admission, $65; after Oct. 27, $85 

Call Charles Gotsky, 650-343-5202  

From Morgan to Modern 

Julia Morgan and Hearst Castle:Designing and American Country House 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10 or $35 for series that continues through November. 

841-2242 

Adult Aerobic Class 

9:30 - 11 a.m.  

Berkeley Adult School 

1414 Walnut St.  

Get fit doing simple routines to upbeat music. Adaptable to those with physical limitations. Free.  

Call Dolores, 540-0771 

East Bay Science  

& Arts Middle School 

Noon  

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Middle school students perform dances of folk, swing, and Cuban rueda styles. Free.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway, 549-2230 

Proposition Brown Bag 

Noon - 1:30 p.m.  

Institute of Governmental Studies 

109 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Hear presentations about and discuss the eight propositions on the California ballot.  

Call 642-4608 

Tai Chi 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst, 644-6107 

Homeless Action Center’s 10th anniversary Benefit 

Club Muse 

The Vagabond Lovers, comedian Doug Ferrai 

856 San Pablo Ave. Albany 

For ticket information call 540-0878 

Christmas in April  

This volunteer service renovates homes and community centers for low-income, elderly and disabled persons.  

They are seeking applications for free home repairs to be completed in 2001. Applicants should be low-income seniors, 55 or older, or disabled residents who own their homes. Applications are due November 1.  

Call 644-8979 

Zoning Adjustments Board Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Old City Hall 

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

West Berkeley Project Area Meeting 

7 p.m.  

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth Ave. 

Friday, Oct. 27

“Transportation: What’s in Store?” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Larry Dahms, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Council speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon is served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 

Luncheon: $11 

More info and reservations: 848-3533 

“Right Ways to Get  

Out of a Lease” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305  

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107  

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

Halloween Haunt at the Downtown YMCA 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Downtown Berkeley YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

A haunted house, ghosts, Halloween crafts, a family swim in the “bat cave,” and face painting among other happenings. Free and open to the public. The Y is asking for a $1 donation to benefit the YMCA’s Youth and Government Program.Call 665-3238 

Saturday, Oct. 28

Shakespeare Festival’s annual costume and garage sale  

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, props, and set pieces from previous productions. Free. 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley.  

(510) 548-3422 ext. 120. 

A Day of Mindfulness with Claude Anshin Thomas 

Buddhist Peace Fellowship 

A day of meditation, dialogue, teachings and reflection on transforming violence in ourselves an in the world. 

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 

We the People Auditorium, 200 Harrison St. Donations excepted 

496-6072 

Community Workshop to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Berkeley High School  

9 a.m. – noon 

Florence Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School 

Students, parents, teachers, business owners, neighbors, and others are invited to a discussion on that will help set the course for future school improvements and provide the basis for accreditation review. 

Iris Starr, AICP, 540-1252 

tinstarr@earthlink.net 

“Grassroots Globalization vs. Elite Globalization” 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. 

595-7417 

“Halloween Mask Making” 

Tilden Regional Park 2 p.m. 

Come learn the origins of Halloween and make a plaster-gauze mask. Registration required. $4. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more.  

Call 649-3943  

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

St. John’s Church and Camp Elmwood Haunted House  

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  

Party for teens from 8:45 tp 10 p.m.  

Free. Wear a costume and bring a canned good, book or toy donation.  

845-2656 

“The 3rd annual Habitot Halloween” 

Habitot Children’s Museum  

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

A not-too-spooky Halloween event for young children with entertainment, parades, games, magic and songs. Come in  

costume. Registration strongly suggested. $4 general; $6 for the first child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

647-1111 

“Not Very Scary Halloween Celebration” 

10:30 a.m. at La Pena  

Betsy Rose performs songs and activities to celebrate the harvest season and the ancestral spirits. Children are invited to come in costume. $4 general; $3 children. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2572. 

New School’s Halloween Bazaar 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

1606 Bonita St. (at Cedar) 

Free to the public, this annual event features face painting, mask-making, children’s games, apple bobbing, pumpkins, live entertainment, and a vast array of other delights. Proceeds benefit the New School’s scholarship fund and the playground project. Free.  

Call 548-9165 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 29

“Almost Halloween Hike,”  

Tilden Regional Park 

10 a.m.  

Explore the nature of Halloween folklore on the trails.  

“Wake the Dead: A Music Concert”  

Celebrate the Celtic “Day of the Dead” (Halloween) with folksong artists Paul Kotapish and Danny Carnahan.  

2 to 4 p.m.  

(510) 525-2233. 

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

An Evening with The Professor 

5 - 9:30 p.m. 

Mambo Mambo 

1803 Webster St.  

Oakland 

Berkeley resident Geoffrey A. Hirsch, better known as the Tie Guy from the “How Berkeley Can You Be” parade got his start in comedy in 1996. A professor in real life, Hirsch tell the story of how he became a funny guy.  

$5 for show only, $10 for show and dinner 

Call Geoffrey Hirsch at 845-5631 to reserve tickets 

“Liberty Heights” 

2 - 4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Directed by Barry Levinson, this film introduces the Kurtzmans, middle class Jews living in Baltimore in the 50s’. A discussion of the film will follow.  

$2 suggested donation 

Call 848-0237 

“The Key of Happiness” 

3 p.m. 

St. John’s Church  

2727 College Ave.  

Carlos Lozano, former Columbian Ambassador to India and Egypt, will speak on meditation. Free. 

Call 707-529-9584 

Monday, Oct. 30

Fun with Oragami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

“BYOP: Pumpkin Carving By Porch and Hearth,” 

Tilden Regional Park 

4 to 7 p.m. “Bring your own pepo” 

Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak  

Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equip,emt. fundamental climbing techiques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Task Force on Telecommunications 

7 p.m. 

North Berkely Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Fire Safety Commission 

7:30 p.m.  

Fire Training Division 

997 Cedar St.  

Discussion will include undergrounding of utilities in Berkeley and a proposal to the City Council for additional support for the Fire Department.  

Citizen’s Budget Review Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Board of Education 

7:30 p.m. 

Old City Hall 

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Spirit of the Road 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Don Patton, general editor and Vice President of Publishing for the California State Automobile Association presents a slide show celebrating the first one hundred years of the automobile and the CSA. Free. 

Call 843-3533 for more info.  

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

7:30 p.m., 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

New Science & Ancient Wisdom Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International Center 

2222 Harold Way 

Featured speakers include Father Charlie Moore speaking on “The Cosmic Origins of Man,” Dolores Cannon speaking on “Visions of Nostradamus,” and David Hatcher Childress speaking on “Technology of the Gods.” Event runs through Sunday.  

Pre-registration admission, $65; after Oct. 27, $85 

Call Charles Gotsky, 650-343-5202 

The Next Ivory Trade? The Intellectual Property Rights of University Faculty 

A conference sponsored by the Berkeley Faculty Association/American Association of University Professors Coalition 

9 a.m. tp 3:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley International House 

841-1997 

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour 

Downtown Berkeley  

Tour new construction, new uses, historic rehabilitation and public improvments that are completed or still in the works.  

Noon 

RSVP required 841-0181 space is limited. 

Tickets: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers. 

A Dispirited Rebellion 

10 a.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Author, television personality and columnist Gadi Taub will explore the literary and cinematic changes in Israeli society since the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. A brunch will be served at 10 a.m.  

Admission: $7 non-JCC members; $5 members 

Call 848-9237 

Monday, Nov. 6

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Tuesday, Nov. 7

Zonta Club dinner 

5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

$20 per person 

Dr. Sylvia Earle, a marine bioligist, author and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, will be the featured speaker. 

For more information call 845-6221 

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

“Diabetes: What to Know Head-to-Toe” 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free 

869-6737 

Love and Betrayal: A Musical Journey 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Mezzo Soprano Sylvia Braitman discusses the role Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler played in the development of modernity in German, Austrian and Western music.  

Tuition: $8 for general; $5 JJC members (class code A101-BJ) 

Call 848-0237 for more info.  

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

“Time Across Cultures” 

2 - 4 p.m. 

St. Clements Church 

2837 Claremont Ave.  

The annual Roselyn Yellin Memorial lecture with a slide-illustrated panel discussion. Also a tour of the “Telling Time” exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum followed by a reception at the museum, 4 - 5 p.m.  

More info: 549-6950 

Buddhism & Compassion 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Psychiatrist and teacher Bobby Jones on “Healing through Compassion.” Free.  

843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 13

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s works include “Animal Dreams,” “High Tide in Tucson,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Prodigal Summer” 

free parking $10 in advance, $13 at the door 

Benefits KPFA and Urban Ecology. 

848-6767 

From Rossi to Bernstein 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses the works of Jewish classical composers beginning with the sixteenth century. The first in a series of three Monday evening classes on music.  

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students  

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students 

Call 848-0237 

Berkeley Preschool Fair 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, this fair features representatives from local preschools. The topic will be how to evaluate preschool education philosophies and make the most of the admissions process. A fair featuring many local preschools will follow panel discussion. 

$5 non-members; Free to NPN members 

Call 527-6667 or visit www.parentsnet.org 

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Take a Trip to the Steinbeck Museum and 

Mission San Juan Bautista 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organzied by the Senior Center.  

$40 with lunch, $25 without  

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

“The Hand of Buddha” 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck (at Rose) 

In her new book poet, columnist and travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin explores the lives of women from different ethnic backgrounds and in moments of crisis. Free 

Call 843-3533 

Thursday, Nov. 16

Reminiscing in Swingtime 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Library  

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

George Yoshida, author and jazz drummer, presents a multi-media program recounting the big band experience in the Japanese American internment camps. The presentation will be capped with a set of live jazz by the George Yoshida Quartet. 

Call for more info: 644-6850 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Free blood pressure screenings 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

free 

869-6737 

Saturday, Nov. 18

S.F. Stairs and Peaks 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Begin the day with a visit to the farmer’s market, then meander up the stairways and streets of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Then up Russian Hill, descending to Fisherman’s Wharf for a ride back on the new historic streetcar line. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival 

11 a.m. - 1 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Fourteen hours of free concerts, workshops, jam sessions and to top it off a Saturday night dance. The fifth annual Folk Festival will feature Shay & Michael Black, Spectre Double Negative & the Equal Positive, Larry Hanks, Wake the Dead and many others. Sponsored by Charles Schwab and the City of Berkeley.  

More info or to volunteer: 525-5099 

Sunday, Nov. 19

Soprano Deborah Voigt 

Cal Performances  

3 p.m.  

Voigt’s performance is a postponment from her original Oct. 15 date. The program will remain unchanged. 

$28-$48 For tickets call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Mt. Madonna & Wine  

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Hike through evergreen forests and visit the remains of a 19th century estate, then finish the day with a visit to Kruse Winery. One of many free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: (415) 255-3233 for reservations 

“Drawing Marathon”  

Merritt College’s Art Building 

Live models, group poses.  

$12 for half a day, $20 for a full day, senior and student discounts available. No cameras or turpentine. 

523-9763 

Monday, Nov. 20

The Music of Israel 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses the music of Israel, from the early pioneers of Palestine to the latest rock.  

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students 

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students  

Call 848-0237 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Good food is better than supplements 

Editor: 

Your article on the dangers of so-called “natural” supplements never addressed why people turn to supplements in the first place: the failure of western medicine to successfully treat a wide variety of illnesses and ailments including, but not limited to, cancer, aids, heart-disease and diabetes (Daily Planet, Oct. 23). Unfortunately, the alternative health industries look very similar to western medicine, not only in terms of corporate profits, but more importantly, in their narrow-visioned attempts to treat symptoms, not causes, with pills and potions. While traditional peoples may have sometimes resorted to medicinal herbs and plants to treat disease, they always looked at food first. They understood the vital relationship between human health and natural foods. 

While we would all like to believe that their is a “magic pill,” yet to be discovered, that will “cure” not only minor ailments, but life-threatening ones as well. We have put all of our money and focus on finding a “cure;” a quick fix that will allow us to continue living our lives chaotically with absolutely no acceptance of any personal responsibility whatsoever. We have placed all of our faith in science, as if we are merely machines; as if modern science can explain life and health beyond cells and molecules; it obviously cannot as evidenced by the alarming lack of health today, by the failure of the “War on Cancer,” etc...etc... As human beings, we are much more than just a collection of genes and cells; we have emotions, imaginations and spiritual conditions that have an immense effect on our health. We have all freely chosen the physical, mental and spiritual conditions in which we now find ourselves (if not in this life, in past lives). Disease takes many years to manifest, so let’s stop investing our money and our lives in symptomatic, corporate solutions to disease...whether they be “natural” supplements or toxic drug therapy. There are no “magic pills,” no quick fixes. In these terms, disease can now be seen as a wake-up call; a teacher...and a friend. Make sure to listen carefully. 

Michael Bauce 

Berkeley 

Breland should speak out about 2700 San Pablo 

Editor: 

Regarding the front page story of the Oct. 21 Daily Planet, I for one am glad Councilmember Margaret Breland has proposed that there be no fast food service in that part of Berkeley and applaud Ms. Breland’s efforts on behalf of her constituents on this. However, I am puzzled about why she has remained silent on behalf of other members of her constituency, namely the families in the area surrounding 2700 San Pablo Ave. We too have “quality of life issues” in regards to the size and scope of the Kennedy/Choyce project planned there.  

Under their current proposal this massive building of 48 apartments takes up nearly an entire block, at 4-5 stories, towers over the surrounding 1 and 2 story homes and businesses and is built to the very edge of the property in all directions. In addition, there will be parking for 61 cars adding to the air pollution and traffic in this area. The Kennedy/Choyce plan also currently includes a permit for a fast food service. Why aren’t our “health ramifications” important to Ms. Breland? Like this other group, we also have a petition signed by 400 plus people living in the area, but we had to do it ourselves. Margaret Breland did not offer her services to us and was extremely difficult to reach when we did ask for her assistance. I have personally spoken with many members of this community – particularly elderly African-American homeowners who are very upset about this project but who are either too ill or too busy to do anything. Where is Ms. Breland in all this?  

Why has she chosen to represent the developers not her community? Not surprisingly, her list of campaign contributors include Patrick Kennedy and his wife as well as the Rev. Choyce. 

Our neighborhood would welcome this building if Kennedy/Choyce would simply modify their design to be a 3 story building. This could be economically feasible for them, still provide a great deal of necessary housing, create a sustainable precedent for future building and help San Pablo develop into a great avenue. Between Dwight and Ashby, there are 11 large lots that developers like Patrick Kennedy will want to develop into massive projects and companies like Shell Oil and Carl’s Jr. will want to stake their claim to with mini-marts that sell fast food and liquor. We need to tell developers and corporations that we want more desirable development that benefits our community! 

Phyllis Kamrin 

Berkeley 

Want to cross the street? try Fort Bragg 

Editor: 

While passing through Fort Bragg, there it was, in unmistakable glory, an outstanding piece of pedestrian crosswalk engineering. By pushing a button, a pedestrian activated not only flashing yellow lights on the crosswalk signs for approaching traffic, but flashing yellow strip-lights imbedded in the road surface along the crosswalk lines.  

Unmissable.  

Visible even in broad daylight. Such a feature not only provides pedestrians with an assurance that automobile drivers are made aware that someone is about to cross the road, but the driver receives an unmistakable and clearly visible signal about the location and imminent use of the crosswalk. Perhaps Berkeley could learn something useful from its cousin up north in its quest to improve pedestrian safety? 

Howie Muir Berkeley 

Editor,  

On United Nations Day I found myself wondering how my brother and sister Berkeleyans are observing this special day. Perhaps some of them could drop me a short note to tell me. (Contact me c/o the UN Information Center, whose address is below.)  

Perhaps some of them took time to notice the UN flag flying in its regular spot in Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center. Perhaps some of them noticed the plaque on the wall of the UC Printing Services building at Center and Oxford memorializing the Printing Services important role in preparing signatory copies of the UN Charter for the signing ceremonies in San Francisco in 1945. 

Perhaps some of them found their way to the United Nations Depository Library, part of the UC Library, or to the United Nations books in the Berkeley Public Library or to the small, but rich, collection of books and other materials at the East Bay United Nations Association Information Center at 1403B Addison, adjacent to the Adronico’s Market parking lot at University and Acton.  

My wife and I witnessed Oakland’s annual presentation of UN member nation flags and the raising of a new UN flag for daily flying at Jack London Square Saturday morning. We then heard Fred A. Lawson, professor of government at Mills College, speak eloquently and informatively on the United Nations and the Middle East.  

The next day we joined some 80 runners and walkers (plus supporters of various sorts) at the Berkeley Marina for the 2nd annual Run for Peace with flags flying. Pray for peace and the United Nations. It can’t hurt! 

Bill Trampleasure 

Berkeley 

Food for thought 

Editor, 

As a resident of Berkeley for over 70 years I cannot resist writing, re: “Sharing our heritage.”  

Last Saturday evening, at a traditional clubhouse on Cedar Street, a one-man show was presented. It was a fundraiser for Berkeley’s Adult Education Program by a highly skilled and gifted author, actor, and dramatist who hails from three continents. He was erudite, gentle, fiery, and had a message of kindness above all kindness. The champagne reception was charming and the message was revealing, nay life sustaining.  

The rent for the few hours was around $100 per hour, I’d guess. After years and years of living for and by and with human rights, there was no monetary profit whatsoever. To this Berkeleyan this isn’t a business as usual laissez-faire event. Nay, it was food for mental well being, emotional enjoyment; inspiration if you will.  

Is this our culture of poverty and/or the poverty of culture? Let’s re-think our values and act accordingly, i.e.: Let’s revive the golden rule in this “Athens of the West!” Artists need to eat. We all need food for thought. 

Lucretia Prentiss de Herget 

Berkeley 

It’s no park; let them build 

Editor, 

We live near the site where Congregation Beth El is planning to build its new synagogue, and we fully support the plan. 

We moved to this neighborhood because we wanted to be in an area that offered all the advantages of city living. We could have gone to the suburbs, but we deliberately chose to be near shops, offices and houses of worship. 

Though we are not members of any church or synagogue, we appreciate the contribution these religious institutions make to our community. We are particularly impressed with Congregation Beth El’s many social outreach programs, including its meals for the homeless. 

We are aware that the site Beth El has selected is zoned for the use it intends. It is not and never has been a public park. In fact, the city explicitly rejected the opportunity to acquire the property years ago. Much of the lot has remained open space until now only because the previous owners decided not to build the expanded church and school that was approved by the city. 

We think it is unfair and unwise for people who bought homes in this mixed use neighborhood to oppose the synagogue’s plan to move two blocks from its present home to a more appropriate location, and we urge you to support Beth El’s plan.  

Melvin & Dorothy Lemberger 

Berkeley 

Editor,  

As a senior citizen and one of many to whom the passage of measure R will be a life saver, I am writing you concerning the warm-water pool run by the City of Berkeley as part of the Berkeley Unified School District. 

This pool has served the community for over 20 years and is now badly in need of renovation. Due to a spinal condition I swim there several times a week. I find it the one most effective pain reliever I have experienced so far, and it is the only place where I can get the weightless exercise essential to my general health.  

Of the people who I see there and who share my experience there are many who have serious disabilities, many who are in wheel chairs, some who are elderly, some who are quite young, and some obviously in pain. All of them find relief and healing in the warm water of this pool. 

Measure R, if passed, will provide the needed money to save this pool, as neither the City nor the School District reportedly have the funds available to do this.  

I can only have implicit trust in the compassion and humanity of my fellow voters in their support of measure R. We will be infinitely grateful.  

Augusta Lucas-Andreae 

Berkeley 

525-5145 

Editor,  

I feel it is necessary for me to respond to the incident reported on the front page of Thursday’s Daily Planet, in which my wife, Carrie Sprague, was publicly singled out at the Berkeley City Council meeting by the President of the Berkeley Police Association. 

Later, in the hallway outside the Council Chambers, Carrie was surrounded by 20-30 hostile and shouting police officers. Towering one and a half feet above her, Randy Files, President of the Police Association, threatened her with arrest and shouted that all the members of the Police Association personally hate her to the cheers of his cronies. 

It is ironic that some police officers blame Carrie and other neighbors for their difficulties in finding parking for their personal vehicles. During many, many planning meetings for the new Public Safety Building, Carrie repeatedly addressed the need for adequate Police Department employee parking.  

Unfortunately, neither the Police Department nor the Police Association ever sent representatives to these meetings to discuss employee parking. In addition, Carrie sent a letter to the Berkeley Police Association more than a year ago requesting that they meet with neighborhood representatives to discuss mutually beneficial solutions to parking problems. No response was ever received.  

I believe that the personal hostility toward Carrie has come about because she has worked for effective enforcement of the Residential Permit Parking ordinance. She continues to insist that police officers may not disrespect our law or our neighborhood. 

As for the effort by some Police Association members to bully Carrie, I can assure all those who are concerned for her safety that she was not in the least intimidated. Having lived with me for 20 years Carrie readily recognizes bluster without substance when it occurs.  

Stan Sprague 

Berkeley 

Dear Judy! 

Homeowners beware! Measure "Y" applies to you - just as does Section 13 

(Good Cause Required for Eviction) of Berkeley's rent law, which it 

modifies (= tightens). 

Say you're renting a room or an in-law suite to a student or other 

low-to-maderate income person. Under "Y" you would have to pay that person 

$4,500 "relocation expenses" if you wanted to reclaim the accommodations 

after a year for your own or your family's use. Worse yet, if your tenant, 

regardless of age or disability status, had been there for at least five 

years, he/she would have gained a lifetime estate, and you'd have to pay 

even more to dislodge him/her or hire a lawyer and go to court -whichever 

cost less - in order to regain full possession of your home. Not to speak 

of the nightmarish scenario which could arise, were you to leave for a year 

(Sabbatical?) and rent out your home while you're away. 

Read the proposed measure in all its details (2 and 1/4 full pages in your 

voter information pamphlet!). It applies to you! Vote NO on "Y". 

Peggy Schioler, 1530 Henry Street, Berkeley 94709. 848-1828 or 848-1131 

(msg) 

Editor: 

To often, Berkeley “Activist” groups work separately or take different approaches to solve the same problem. Your article about the southwest Berkeley neighborhoods opposition to a new fast food complex at 1200 Ashby Ave. appeared above an article stating that southwest Berkeley residents have a life expectancy of 20 years less than those residents in the Berkeley hills. 

There is a major connection here between these two groups of activists and they should be working to help each other. Those residents in southwest Berkeley ( read African American) die at a younger age not only because of a lack of healthcare but because of poor eating habits. A recent study on health showed that black youth get 40 percent of their daily vegetable intake from french fries. An article about the free lunch program in Oakland High schools revealed that very few of those eligible took part but instead bought fast food.  

Obesity among all Americans has increased more than 60 percent since 1990. There is more of a health crisis than a health care crisis.Those who want healthcare for everyone should think in terms of wanting a healthy life for everyone. Help people to enjoy their lives by improving their quality of life not just prolonging it. Berkeley is proud of the fact that it promotes the use of bicyles and not the automobile. It is time for Berkeley to promote healthy lifestyles and ban fast food.  

Caring about health is as important as caring about healthcare. 

Michael Larrick  

(510) 849-4572 

Editor: 

Hello, my name is Kinchasa Taylor and I am and have been a resident of Carrison Street for the past 23 years. I am upset by the article written about the block and how the people who live on the block are represented. 

I believe that the opinions in opposition to the plans to build a fast-food restaurant and mini mart are valid and I would agree with them. 

What I do not agree with is the way my new neighbors portrayed Carrison Street as a “street overrun with drug dealers and prostitutes.” I’d like to point out that Vicki and Mike Larrick have not lived on Carrison Street for eight year as stated. Drug dealers and prostitution has never been a problem on Carrison Street. 

Until they moved in, this street was filled by senior citizens. 

Actually the house in which they live was owned by a senior citizen until her death. They moved in her house maybe 4-5 years after she died. 

I know this because up until they moved in I watered the grass. I believe that my anger is mostly directed at this couple because of their portrayal of themselves as saviors to the community. 

The community expects people who move into the neighborhood to show respect for those that have lived here before and have raised successful families. It saddens me that we have lost our predominantly African American neighbors. 

But as people move in to clean up the neighborhood they must keep in mind that are new that they are joining the group that was already established and attempting to make a change themselves. 

It is really sad to see that my neighborhood is being represented as a bad black neighborhood until it was saved by it’s new white residents. Some of the arrivals of the migration to South Berkeley, do not respect the people, the community, or the residents they have joined with. 

Our land, our efforts, our homes are being taken over by people that have only one thing on there mind: how can I live here and make it the way I want it to be, not how can I become a part of this community and help with the efforts being made.  

If you want to write something about the community, write about the gentrification, genocide, and mentacide occurring in south Berkeley. It’s real and it’s occurring. 

If you don’t believe me ask my old neighbors, senior citizens with historically fixed rents, uniformed of there rights and Measure Y, why they had to move out there homes, and move after over 25 years of occupation.  

Kinchasa Taylor, 

Berkeley 

In an unexpected development in a criminal investigation that began last fall with the death of an Indian immigrant, prosecutors say Berkeley’s wealthiest landlord and four family members will plead guilty next week to federal charges arising from their alleged importation of teenage girls from India for sex and cheap labor.  

The move comes as the result of an apparent plea agreement with the government discussed in court documents filed Thursday. 

Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 63, an Indian immigrant who is Berkeley’s largest residential landlord, will enter a guilty plea Oct. 30, as will his younger son, Vijay Lakireddy, 31, according to documents filed by the United States Attorney’s office.  

Three new defendants are also expected to enter guilty pleas to at least some of nine federal criminal counts handed down to Reddy earlier this year: Reddy’s wife, Annapurna Reddy, his 47-year-old brother, Jayprakash Lakireddy and Reddy’s older son, 42-year-old son Prasad Lakireddy.  

It was not known Tuesday what specific charges Reddy or the other defendants would plead guilty to, or what sentence they might receive.  

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment Tuesday. None of the five defense lawyers involved in the case returned calls yesterday seeking comment.  

In a typical plea bargain, government and defense lawyers will agree on reduced charges and jointly recommend a sentence. Under federal rules, however, federal district court judge Saundra Brown Armstrong is not obligated to accept the joint recommendation and may impose a harsher sentence if she chooses.  

Reddy and Lakireddy Bali Reddy have been charged, with importing aliens for immoral purposes and other immigration offenses. The father-son pair was arrested in January for allegedly bringing two teenage girls into the United States from their village in Southern India so the girls could engage in sexual relations with Reddy and perform manual labor on his rental properties and in his downtown Berkeley restaurant. 

Reddy faces a maximum sentence of 70 years in jail and $2 million in fines if found guilty on all nine counts. 

Vijay Lakireddy faces charges on three of the nine counts and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison plus $750,000 in fines. 

But with a plea agreement apparently having been reached, prosecutors will likely ask the judge to impose far lighter sentences in exchange for guilty pleas from the father-son pair.  

The minor girls, one of whom died accidentally from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Reddy-owned apartment on Bancroft Way in November 1999, were allegedly admitted to the country on fraudulent visa applications stating they were children of a man employed by Reddy. 

Several hearings in the case were put off in recent months after prosecutors asked the judge for more time to investigate and name additional defendants. It may be that government and defense lawyers were negotiating a plea deal during this time to avoid a trial. 

One of the defendants named Thursday, Jayprakash Lakireddy, owns an East Bay construction company, Jay Construction. The company was fined $6,000 last year by Cal OSHA, the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Agency last year for safety violations related to unsafe scaffolding during a painting job at Reddy’s Pasand Restaurant on Shattuck Avenue. The scaffolding lacked railings, was too narrow and did not have proper fall protection, according to OSHA spokesperson Dean Fryer. 

Reddy’s wife, Annapurna Lakireddy, is the only defendant who will need a language interpreter at the hearing on Oct. 30, according to court documents. 

SAN FRANCISCO — An Internet startup backed by six major airlines launched a cheap-seat service Tuesday that promises to undercut the prices of other online discounters who helped put the concept on the map. 

San Francisco-based Hotwire.com believes it will be able to beat the airline ticket prices of other popular online services such as Priceline.com and Expedia.com by tapping into a vast reservoir of unsold seats. An estimated 3.5 million airline seats are unoccupied each week. 

With Hotwire, the airlines hope to generate some revenue from those previously empty seats without diminishing the sales of their full-fare tickets. 

Six airlines that contributed part of Hotwire’s venture capital of $75 million are also supplying the service with an unspecified number of hard-to-sell seats on hundreds of domestic flights. The airline industry’s two biggest carriers, American Airlines and United Air Lines, are backing Hotwire in addition to Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways and America West Airlines. Hotwire said it expects to persuade other airlines to offer their unsold seats on the service in the months ahead. 

By launching its site Tuesday, Hotwire beat another online ticketing service called Orbitz that also has been backed by a group of 25 airlines. That site, which includes some of the same investors, also is promising to deliver low fares. 

After studying the market, Consumers Union recently asked federal regulators to investigate whether some online airline ticketing services favor certain carriers based on their financial relationships with the Web sites. Consumers Union hasn’t studied Hotwire nor Priceline yet. 

Hotwire CEO Karl Peterson said the company’s airline investors have no say in the company’s day-to-day operations. He said the service also has adopted a firewall to prevent the airlines from seeing how many seats each carrier is contributing to Hotwire’s inventory. 

Thomas Fogarty, an industry analyst with Thom Weisel Partners in San Francisco, doubts Hotwire will produce the same kind of consumer buzz that Priceline.com and other online travel services did when they hit the scene a few years ago. 

“This has become a bit of old hat for consumers,” he said. “People are much more used to the Internet now. They’re a bit more jaded.” 

Unlike Priceline.com, Hotwire will sell its seats at a fixed price and prospective travelers will be under no obligation to purchase the seats offered to them. 

To use the service, Hotwire visitors list their travel destinations and then receive a discount price quote. The customers can’t pick a specific airline or flight. 

“We are going to have the best prices anywhere, day in and day out,” Peterson said. 

The size of Hotwire’s discounts is expected to vary widely, depending on the destination. The more popular the flight, the smaller the discount is likely to be. Peterson said in some cases travelers who wait until the day before a flight to buy a ticket might save up to 90 percent on the ticket if seats are available. 

A request for a flight leaving San Francisco on Oct. 26 for New York’s JFK Airport and returning on Oct. 30 obtained a price of $381 on Hotwire, though flying times were unknown. The best price available on Expedia for the same dates at any time during the day was $1,084. 

Hotwire is entering the crowded field of online airline ticket discounters during a turbulent time for the best known of the lot, Priceline.com. The name-your-price service popularized by the off-kilter commercials of actor William Shatner recently closed an affiliated discount gas and grocery operation, and has been battered in the stock market because the business remains unprofitable. 

Priceline.com’s stock dipped 22 cents to close at $5.41 Tuesday. Priceline’s stock has plunged nearly 90 percent so far this year. 

Despite the downturn in its stock, Priceline remains popular among travelers. The company sold about 1.3 million tickets during the its most recent quarter, Fogarty estimated. 

——— 

ON THE NET: 

http://www.hotwire.com 

http://www.priceline.com 

http://www.expedia.com 

http://www.cheaptickets.com 

http://www.lowestfare.com 

CHP officials reported today that a Berkeley woman was killed Monday afternoon when her car collided head-on with another vehicle on U.S. Highway 101 in southern Mendocino County. 

The California Highway Patrol said the 3:48 p.m. accident claimed the life of Leisa Jean Rossman, 53, when her southbound 1983 Toyota Corolla crossed the double yellow line and collided head-on with a northbound vehicle about  

six miles from the Sonoma County line. 

Saranya Thianngern, 49, of San Francisco, a passenger in the northbound 2000 Honda CRV, is in critical condition at Stanford University Medical Center.  

She was transported there from Ukiah Valley Medical Center with several broken bones in her ribs, left wrist and left ankle, a lacerated liver and back injuries, the CHP said. 

Two other passengers in the Honda were treated for minor injuries at Santa Rosa’s Memorial Hospital.

PETALUMA — Trey Atkin was an active, gregarious 11-year-old, just the kind of boy you’d expect to spend a buddy’s birthday party leading the charge through the nearby bushes. 

Saturday was one such sparkling day, with a strong wind raking clouds from the fall sky and Atkin romping about a field just off Haverfield Lane west of Petaluma. 

It was there – perhaps because of the afternoon gusts, perhaps for no reason at all – that a 20-foot redwood branch broke off and struck Atkin, crushing his skull. 

People who saw the accident said he was running with a big smile on his face when the limb hit, said the boy’s father, Chip Atkin. 

Walter W. Atkin III, as Trey was born, died of severe brain damage Sunday morning at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. 

“The fact that he would be on that spot when he could be anywhere on six acres...” said Barbara Caswell, whose daughter had been friends with Atkin since they were toddlers. Caswell’s daughter had insisted that Atkin come to her party, like all years past, even though their families no longer shared a neighborhood. 

“He was an irresistible person to keep in her life. He was so kind to her,” Caswell said. “Trey was the kind of person with the socially conscious parents where we all thought he would grow up to make some kind of contribution to the world. As it turned out, he is making a contribution.” 

Atkins’ parents have decided to donate his organs to help others live. 

On Monday, students returned to Wilson School, where Atkin was a popular fifth grader and combined a gifted-and-talented intellect with skill on the basketball court. 

“He had many, many friends. Unlike a big-man-on-campus popularity, he was the kind of child other students sought out for help,” said principal Bob Raines. “He was an incredible little boy. We’re all really reeling with his loss.” 

Mondays at Wilson always begin with an assembly to discuss the upcoming week. For the second straight time, Raines has comforted his students – over the prior weekend, fourth grader Yobani Pulido died from an acute asthma attack. 

“Unfortunately, I’ve learned a lot more about grief among kids than I ever wanted to know,” Raines lamented. “And one of the things’ I’ve learned is that their emotions change all the time.” 

Many kids are angry, blaming the wind for their friend’s loss, wondering why life isn’t fair to everyone. 

That was the kind of question that Atkin had already started to ask in his own short life, friends and neighbors said. 

One neighbor remembered how Atkin organized a neighborhood watch after a home across the street was burglarized. 

Another neighbor, Pat Katen, watched Atkin grow up next door, shooting hoops in the driveway. She would kid around with him, but knew he was responsible enough to take care of her house when she left town. 

“He was just a good kid,” Katen said. “You could tell he was going to be a good man as well.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — A 20-year former FBI agent settled her sex discrimination claims against the government Tuesday in a case setting new precedent. 

Agent Kathleen Anderson claimed she was subjected to sexual taunts and ridicule by co-workers and supervisors over many years, denied equal job treatment and was punished when she complained. 

She settled for $150,000 plus undetermined costs and legal fees. The most Anderson could have reaped was $300,000 under federal anti-discrimination laws. The government admitted no wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker had ruled that he could not consider most of her claims of abuse dating back to 1986 because she failed to complain to a government equal-employment counselor within 45 days. 

According to her suit, between 1986 and 1990 her supervisor called her “gorgeous,” “the good little girl” and “the office sex goddess” and whistled at her. When she entered a room in 1987 to conduct a briefing, she saw an easel with a drawing of a pair of breasts and the words “Operation Cupcake.” 

Anderson also said she was passed over for promotions, excluded from critical meetings and denied backup agents who were provided to men. She said she was assigned to a dead-end job after filing her first complaint, and was transferred from a desirable case in retaliation for filing her suit in 1997. 

SACRAMENTO — Richard and Millie Hoagland had a “very sick truck,” a smoke-belching big rig they knew would not pass a smog inspection. 

They faced some unpleasant options: Come up with $27,000 to replace the engine or go out of business. 

Then the government came to the rescue. 

The Hoaglands, who run a one-truck hauling company in the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove, were able to get $20,500 from a state program to put a rebuilt, cleaner-running 1989 engine in their rig. 

“Twenty-seven thousand would have been completely out of our range,” Millie Hoagland said. 

The Hoaglands and their truck were on hand Tuesday for a ceremony to kick off an expanded version of the program that helped them — a $95 million effort to reduce diesel pollution in the San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento metropolitan area. 

Both regions are facing federal sanctions in the form of lost highway construction money if they don’t meet clean air requirements. 

The expanded program stems from a bill by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, that allocated $50 million for the Sacramento region program and $25 million for the San Joaquin Valley. 

Sacramento officials are chipping in another $20 million for their effort. 

The programs will offer grants to owners of trucks and buses to help replace older engines, install pollution-reducing catalysts, make mechanical changes needed to use cleaner-burning fuel or buy a new vehicle with engines that are cleaner than currently required. 

The San Joaquin Valley program will also offer grants to clean up off-road diesel-powered vehicles, such as farm equipment, said Josette Merced Bello, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Valley Pollution Control District. 

Tom Swenson, a program coordinator for the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, says the program is targeting trucks and buses because of the relatively high amounts of pollution they emit. 

The Sacramento program hopes to eliminate three tons of oxides of nitrogen, a key ingredient in smog, by 2005 by reducing emissions from up to 6,000 vehicles, he said. 

Alan Lloyd, chairman of the state Air Resources Board, said the Sacramento-San Joaquin program would complement a new ARB program requiring soot-catching filters on diesel engines. 

“We need both the carrot and the stick approach,” Lloyd said. “This is a wonderful example of the carrot.” 

Martin Tuttle, executive director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, said the Sacramento-San Joaquin program could become a national or international model. 

——— 

On the Net: Read the bill, AB2511, at http://www.sen.ca.gov 

Read about the Sacramento program at http://www.sacog.org/secat 

LOS ANGELES — These are real Star-bucks. 

All 13 employees at a mid-city Starbucks, one of six boasting Earvin “Magic” Johnson as an investor, are winners of last weekend’s $87 million Super Lotto Plus jackpot. 

Despite their riches, manager Mary Champaine and other workers showed up before dawn to open the coffee house at La Brea Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard and serve lattes and frothy cappuccinos. 

“I’m a multimillionaire but I don’t have the money yet. I had to open the store. Starbucks has been good to me,” said Champaine, a 53-year-old widow whose husband died of cancer a year ago. 

The 13 workers will each get $6.7 million, before taxes, over 26 years, California Lottery spokeswoman Norma Minas said. 

They will each get a first check for $167,307 in three to six weeks, with annual payments increasing each year to a final $341,307 payment in the 26th year, she said. 

The retailer who sold the winning ticket, Thomas Lewis of L&E Liquor, gets $435,000. 

It was Champaine who collected $1 from each of her employees on Saturday after learning the jackpot had swelled. 

“Who wasn’t here I just went down in my purse and I found enough change, got enough to include everybody. I would hate for us to win and not everybody. We are a team here. I wanted all my team to be sharing in the winnings,” she said. 

What’s she going to do with the money? 

“Paint the house and get a new fence,” Champaine said. 

Employee Moisha Oliver, who rides a city bus to work, said she got a call Monday night from Champaine to let her they had won. She didn’t believe it. 

“I said, ’I’ll see you in the morning. If there’s cameras and lights, I’ll know we won,”’ she told reporters Tuesday staking out the Starbucks before dawn. 

Oliver said she was going to buy a house, stash college money for her kids and get a car. 

Asked how she could be so calm, she said: “I am doing toe touches and cartwheels inside. I’m trying to keep it calm, not get too crazy. I can’t do cartwheels because I have a skirt on. If I had pants on I think I’d be out there giving you a cheerleading show, jumping up and down on the tables. But I’ve got to be ladylike,” she said. 

Employee Keith Matthews was also on the job. There was no way to wipe the grin off his face. 

“I don’t know what to say. It’s the kind of news that makes you want to jump up and say hi to the guys in the shuttle,” Matthews said. 

It’s been a rough couple of years for Champaine. Besides the death of her husband, she had lost her job when a department store shut down. 

“I don’t drink coffee and I don’t know much about the culture, but Starbucks hired me and made me manager. I came to work today with only $7 in my pocket. God is wonderful,” Champaine said, adding she had no immediate plans to quit her job. 

A 440-square-mile sweep of jagged mountains and desert in Southern California became the country’s latest national monument under a law President Clinton signed Tuesday to protect the land from encroaching development. 

The Senate and House each passed the bill without opposition to create the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. The area forms the postcard backdrop for Palm Springs, rising from the desert floor to the 10,804-foot peak of Mount San Jacinto. 

The primary advantage to monument status – one step shy of recognition as a national park – will be a higher priority for federal funding and a coordinated management plan among various federal agencies that own the land. 

“The better able we are to acquire lands, the better all the agencies working together will be able to manage the resources and ensure that they stay pristine,” said Bill Havert, executive director of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, which pushed for the legislation. 

The bill’s sponsor, GOP Rep. Mary Bono, whose 39th birthday coincidentally was Tuesday, said she was thrilled with added protection for the rugged mountains that are walking distance from her home. 

The mountains are home to endangered peninsular bighorn sheep and the threatened desert slender salamander. Because the mountain range features drastic changes in elevation, the proposed monument has five distinct climate zones, from desert to pine forest and arctic pine at the summit.  

Hiking and horseback trails cross the hills, offering spectacular views. 

“It’s important that those lands be recognized as special,” said Jay Watson, California director of the Wilderness Society. “The protection is as permanent as the Santa Rosa Mountains are themselves.” 

Bono negotiated for more than a year with a local officials, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to protect the land as a monument.  

The legislative, bipartisan compromise defused the hard feelings that monument designations provoked in recent years. 

Clinton has used his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate 10 monuments spanning 3.7 million acres since he took office in 1993 – the most by any president except Jimmy Carter. Western Republicans often complain about the designations as federal “land grabs” that prevent access to public lands. 

Palm Springs developers had voiced concern about Bono’s proposal, fearing it would unfairly curb development.  

But she negotiated explicitly to prevent any impact to development outside the monument boundary and to allow planes approaching the Palm Springs airport to fly over the mountains. 

She said Clinton could ignore such rules if he declared the land a monument himself, a threat she said helped propel the bill to passage. 

Much of the Santa Rosa land already is protected by federal or state government, but declaring it a monument offers permanent protection rather than protection under current administrative management, which is subject to change. 

The monument includes the Santa Rosa Mountains National Scenic Area, part of the San Bernardino National Forest, the state’s San Jacinto Wilderness Area and part of the Indian reservation. 

For the first time, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, along with the tribe and a local advisory board, will create a joint management plan for the area. Advocates say the monument designation will make it easier to win federal funding for the plan, which is to be developed within three years. 

“It needs this approach with lots of grassroots involvement,” Bono said. 

Besides general protections for land and wildlife, the bill aims to preserve Indian ceremonial lands and archaeological sites. It would prohibit off-road vehicle use. Mining is banned, but grazing could continue under the bill. 

The bill is H.R. 3676. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The bill is at http://thomas.loc.gov. Rep. Bono’s site is at http://www.house.gov/bono 

SACRAMENTO — A Sacramento man charged with a 1994 rape might be the first person in the nation arrested using a DNA warrant, prosecutors say. 

Paul Eugene Robinson, 31, was arrested last month after state computers matched his genetic code to a warrant issued in the rape of a woman in August 1994, police said. 

The suspect listed on the warrant was only identified by a DNA sample. 

Other law enforcement agencies have filed such DNA warrants but Robinson is believed to be the first suspect arrested through one, said Norman Gahn, an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee, Wis. His office pioneered the concept of filing charges using only DNA identities. 

“This is all new territory, but hopefully in 10 years, it will be an everyday thing,” said Sacramento Police Detective Peter Willover. The rape was one in a series of attacks that police believed were related. The attacker was named the “Second Floor Rapist” for his penchant of assaulting women living on the second floors of apartment buildings. 

If investigators had not issued a DNA warrant in the case, they would have been unable to arrest Robinson because the statute of limitations is six years. 

A $50 million grant from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning has been distributed to police departments around the state to do DNA testing done on old rape cases. 

Beginning in January, a new law will nearly eliminate the six-year limit on rapes in cases where DNA evidence is available. 

Some civil rights groups and defense attorneys say limiting the time to file charges ensures fair trials. Over several years memories fade and evidence gets lost or contaminated, said Johnny Griffin, Robinson’s attorney.

SACRAMENTO — A California ballot measure that would put thousands of drug offenders into treatment rather than behind bars wouldn’t solve the state’s prison crowding problem, Corrections Director Cal Terhune said Tuesday. 

Crowding is worst among the most violent inmates and those who face life terms under California’s three-strikes law, said Terhune, who is retiring Nov. 4. 

Nonviolent drug users, by contrast, are generally housed in 16 dormitory-style minimum-security community correctional facilities, most of which are run by public or private agencies under contract with the Department of Corrections. 

“That isn’t where our pinch is,” Terhune said in an interview. “I wouldn’t suggest anybody do too much experimenting with putting high-level security cases in those lower-security beds.” 

Regardless of whether Proposition 36 passes Nov. 7, the department must still  

reduce the number of violent inmates housed two-to-a-cell, Terhune said. 

All told, the system is housing nearly double the inmates envisioned in its design capacity. 

Terhune took no position on the merits of Proposition 36 itself during an extended interview.  

However, he said he favors drug treatment for those who need it.  

And he noted that the number of treatment beds in prisons have increased from 400 to 8,000 during his three-year tenure as director. 

The proposition would require treatment rather than incarceration for those convicted for the first or second time of being under the influence of drugs or possessing drugs for their personal use. 

That would divert as many as 24,000 nonviolent drug offenders a year who currently go to prison or are sent back to prison for violating their parole, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates. 

Many serve just a few months in prison, however, so the analyst projects the state would need 9,000 to 11,000 fewer prison beds if Proposition 36 is approved. 

“That’s a huge dent in the prison population,” said Dave Fratello, campaign manager of the California for New Drug Policies, Proposition 36’s prime supporter. 

A typical year of treatment costs about $4,000, compared to an average $23,000 to house an inmate in prison.  

However, a dormitory-style prison costs $15,000 to $17,000, the department said. 

The proposition would also cut parole caseloads by about 9,500 per year, the analysis estimates, because drug users wouldn’t be sent to prison in the first place. 

“It’s a solution to a crisis that’s been building for 10 years or more,” Fratello said. 

He doesn’t dispute that the state may still need more high-security beds.  

But Fratello argued there would be an incalculable long-term savings and social benefit from those whose early treatment deters them from other crimes that would eventually send them to prison. 

Lance Corcoran, vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, questions the analysis because he thinks most first-time drug offenders already are sidetracked into treatment programs. 

He also questions the social benefit of repeatedly sending drug users to treatment rather than prison. 

“We’re not talking here about ’Joe One-time-casual-user’ here who gets popped,” Corcoran said. 

On the Net: 

Read Proposition 36 and arguments pro and con at http://www.ss.ca.gov

FRESNO — To the golden trout of the Sierra Nevada: This Bud’s for you. 

Facing pressure from environmentalists, Anheuser-Busch suspended grazing on fragile Sierra Nevada meadows that threatened the habitat of the state fish. 

The controversy with the world’s largest beermaker has been brewing for years in the Golden Trout Wilderness of Inyo National Forest, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles. 

More than a century of grazing sheep and cattle high in the rugged mountains has trampled meadows, killed vegetation and muddied waters where the fish – prized for its brilliant colors and said to sparkle like a $20 gold piece – once thrived. 

“The fish are rare in one extreme, they spawn in degraded habitats,” said Brett Matzke, public lands director for California Trout in Fresno.  

“Now almost the entire river is spawning habitat so they’re starving to death.” 

Two weeks ago Trout Unlimited, a conservation organization, filed a federal petition to list the troubled trout as an endangered species, citing grazing as one of the hazards to its health. 

Earlier this summer, a number of environmental groups, including California Trout and the Sierra Club, threatened to boycott Anheuser-Busch products unless it removed its herd from the last natural habitat of the golden trout. 

The company, which makes Budweiser beer, said it was not those threats that drove its herd from the hills. 

“We’ve had people threaten to boycott us because we support the Humane Society because the Humane Society opposes cockfighting,” said Anheuser-Busch spokesman Charles Poole. “We thought it was the right thing to do for us at this time.” 

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch has been in the cattle business in the Owens Valley since 1986. It bought the Cabin Bar Ranch in Olancha to lock up valuable groundwater rights in case it needs water for its Van Nuys brewery. 

The company also benefitted from the century-old ranching operation, cashing in on valuable permits to graze cattle on U.S. Forest Service land. 

In the summer, the ranch drives 900 cows and their calves onto 100,000 acres in the mountains between 8,000 and 11,000 feet. The cost is about $4,700 a year for the permits and the government picks up the tab of mending fences and other upkeep. A study by Inyo National Forest — home of Mount Whitney — found it spent about $80,000 a year to restore resources, manage permits and monitor the area. 

“It’s nothing more than a welfare system for cowboys,” Matzke said. “It’s unfair for people who graze private land and it’s unfair on the American taxpayer. We’re subsidizing these folks.” 

During the time Anheuser-Busch cows have grazed in the Golden Trout Wilderness, a forest service study found the meadows have continued to recover from degradation caused through the 1930s when grazing was poorly regulated. Improvements have occurred slowly and now the question is how fast recovery should take. 

The future of cattle in the area could forever be altered when the forest service presents a grazing plan next month. 

Eliminating grazing would be the quickest route to restoration, but the area can also recover amid grazing, said Del Hubbs, a range conservationist at Inyo National Forest. 

“It’s kind of like saying if you want your car to last you don’t drive it. But in the real world we do drive,” Hubbs said. “In the real world we have to manage a balance between all users.” 

The beermaker’s future in farming in the Sierra could be decided by the government’s plan. Anheuser-Busch will only say it won’t be grazing cattle in the wilderness next year. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Inyo National Forest Web site on the Kern Plateau: 

http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/inyo/kern 

California Trout: 

http://www.caltrout.org/ 

Anheuser-Busch: 

http://www.anheuser-busch.com/ 

Trout Unlimited: 

http://www.tu.org/ 

The City Council tonight will again broach the touchy topic of city employee parking near Civic Center.  

At last week’s council meeting about 20 off-duty Berkeley police officers got into a loud verbal exchange with a police station neighbor who records their parking violations and chanted “What do we want? Parking!” outside council chambers in protest over what they described as a parking nightmare.  

The mayor agrees with the officers as well as fire department employees and public school teachers who said they will be competing for sparse parking spaces when City Hall is re-occupied in January. She wants the city manager to make parking a top priority and to explore possible solutions including shuttles and the commandeering of existing spaces in city-owned garages near the Civic Center. 

The council faction that often opposes the mayor is presenting an opposing recommendation tonight. Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Linda Maio said in their recommendation that it’s too early to put such a high priority on parking. They ask that the council wait until the Southside-Downtown Transportation Demand Study is completed. The study will include analysis of existing parking conditions and make recommendations about possible solutions. The study is due in three to seven weeks. 

According to the councilmembers’ recommendation, some of the other options the council might consider include  

• Offering “Commuter Checks,” which would allow employees to use pretax dollars to purchase transit passes.  

• Creating programs to reduce automobile use by city employees. 

• Educating employees about the importance of using public transportation. 

On another parking topic, the council will consider the adoption of extended residential parking on Emerson Street between Tremont Street and Shattuck Avenue and all of Keoncrest and Catherine drives. The permit parking program allows Berkeley residents to decide for themselves whether or not they want permit enforcement on their blocks. The process requires signatures from at least 51 percent of residents on any given block.  

The Council will consider repealing private indoor entertainment ordinances, which focused on regulating participant behavior, and replacing them with new ordinances designed to enhance safety. The new ordinances would apply to indoor music events, live or recorded, that are open to the public and are expected to draw over 150 people. Sponsors would have to ensure that the building in which the event is to take place is up to code. This would include emergency access, the presence of fire extinguishers, functional sprinkler systems and fire alarms. 

Under the old system the sponsor would apply for a permit from the chief of police which regulated the nature of the event – whether alcohol was going to be served, whether there was lighting in dance areas and whether a prohibition on obscene dancing would be enforced. 

A sign that Berkeley is growing in popularity is the increased use of portable toilets. The city currently maintains a total of 14 portables in seven parks as well as supplying additional units for 13 special events each year such as Earth Day, How Berkeley Can You Be? and the Bay to Barkers. The increased popularity of the city’s parks and events has meant increased use of the units which has also caused maintenance cost to rise. Lisa Caronna, the director of Parks and Waterfront has recommended the City Council contract with the Portosan Company of Benicia, which submitted the lowest bid at $72,000 for 12 months, to maintain the portable toilets. Redwood Sanitary Service had the maintenance contract, which will expire at the end of the month. 

The session starts tonight at 6:30 p.m., with a Housing Authority meeting, followed by a Redevelopment Agency meeting scheduled for 7:20 p.m. and the regular meeting which is slated for 7:30 p.m. The meeting is at the Council Chambers at Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way and is broadcast on KPFB 89.3 and televised on Ch-25, then rebroadcast at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and 9 a.m. on Sunday. 

Tuesday, Oct. 24

“Security Deposits” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

2 p.m. - 7 p.m.  

Derby St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Come taste a bounty of fall fruit varieties for free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Blood Pressure 

Alice Meyers 

9:30- 11 :30 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Oct. 25 

International Jewish Video Competition Winners 

7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

Screening of the four winners in the Museum’s seventh annual competition.  

Call 549-6950 

 

“How to Get Needed Repairs” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

 

Hearing with City Council/Rent Board Housing Committee  

5:30 p.m. 

Eshleman Hall Chambers 

644-7714 

 

Low vision support group 

1:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

 

Civic Arts Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

 

Halloween Puppet Show  

with Hazel Jazel 

3:30 p.m.  

San Pablo Library, 1555 International Marketplace, San Pablo. (510) 374-3998. 

Free. 

 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar 

 

Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 MLK Jr. Way 

 

Planning Commission 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

 

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

 

Bay Area premier of Beyond Organic: The Vision of Fairview 

Gardens 

Reception begins at 7 p.m.; Program begins at 7:30 p.m. 

Martin Luther King Middle School auditorium, 1871 Rose Street, Berkeley, California. For more information call 845-4595 or e-mail info@ecoliteracy.org. 

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Thursday, Oct. 26

 

“A Contemporary Food Fight: GM Foods in the market place” 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

International House, Homeroom 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

A discussion with Dr. Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbiology at UC Berkeley, and Dr. Petra Frey from Switzerland, of the scientific basis for biotechnology, it’s risks and benefits. 

Contact Maribel Guillermo,  

642-9460 

 

“What Does Rent Control  

Do For You” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

 

From Morgan to Modern 

Julia Morgan and Hearst Castle:Designing and American Country House 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10 or $35 for series that continues through November. 

841-2242 

 

East Bay Science  

& Arts Middle School 

Noon  

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Middle school students perform dances of folk, swing, and Cuban rueda styles. Free.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway,  

549-2230 

 

Proposition Brown Bag 

Noon - 1:30 p.m.  

Institute of Governmental Studies 

109 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Hear presentations about and discuss the eight propositions on the California ballot.  

Call 642-4608 

 

Tai Chi 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

 

Homeless Action Center’s 10th anniversary Benefit 

Club Muse 

The Vagabond Lovers, comedian Doug Ferrai 

856 San Pablo Ave. Albany 

For ticket information call 540-0878 

 

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Friday, Oct. 27

 

“Transporation: What’s in Store?” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Larry Dahms, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Council speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon is served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 

Luncheon: $11 

More info and reservations: 848-3533 

“Right Ways to Get Out  

of a Lease” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107  

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, Oct. 28

 

 

Shakespeare Festival’s annual costume and garage sale  

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, props, and set pieces from previous productions. Free. 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-3422 ext. 120. 

 

Buddhist Peace Fellowship 

A Day of Mindfulness with Claude Anshin Thomas 

A day of meditation, dialogue, teachings and reflection on transforming violence in ourselves an in the world. 

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 

We the People Auditorium, 200 Harrison St. 

Donations excepted 

496-6072 

 

Community Workshop to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Berkeley High School  

9 a.m. – noon 

Florence Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School 

Students, parents, teachers, business owners, neighbors, and others are invited to a discussion on that will help set the course for future school improvements and provide the basis for accreditation review. 

Iris Starr, AICP, 540-1252 

tinstarr@earthlink.net 

 

“Grassroots Globalization vs. Elite Globalization” 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. 

595-7417 

 

“Halloween Mask Making” 

Tilden Regional Park 

2 p.m. 

Come learn the origins of Halloween and make a plaster-gauze mask. Registration required. $4. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

 

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more.  

Call 649-3943  

 

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

 

St. John’s Church and Camp Elmwood haunted house  

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  

Party for teens from 8:45 tp 10 p.m.  

Free. Wear a costume and bring a canned good, book or toy donation.  

845-2656 

 

“The 3rd annual Habitot Halloween” 

Habitot Children’s Museum  

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

A not-too-spooky Halloween event for young children with entertainment, parades, games, magic and songs. Come in  

costume. Registration strongly suggested. $4 general; $6 for the first child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

647-1111 

 

“Not Very Scary Halloween Celebration” 

10:30 a.m. at La Pena  

Betsy Rose performs songs and activities to celebrate the harvest season and the ancestral spirits. Children are invited to come in costume. $4 general; $3 children. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2572. 

 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

 

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Sunday, Oct. 29

 

 

“Almost Halloween Hike,”  

Tilden Regional Park 

10 a.m.  

Explore the nature of Halloween folklore on the trails.  

“Wake the Dead: A Music Concert”  

Celebrate the Celtic “Day of the Dead” (Halloween) with folksong artists Paul Kotapish and Danny Carnahan.  

2 to 4 p.m.  

(510) 525-2233. 

 

 

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

 

An Evening with The Professor 

5 - 9:30 p.m. 

Mambo Mambo 

1803 Webster St.  

Oakland 

Berkeley resident Geoffrey A. Hirsch, better known as the Tie Guy from the “How Berkeley Can You Be” parade got his start in comedy in 1996. A professor in real life, Hirsch tell the story of how he became a funny guy.  

$5 for show only, $10 for show and dinner 

Call Geoffrey Hirsch at 845-5631 to reserve tickets 

 

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Monday, Oct. 30

 

 

Fun with Oragami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

 

“BYOP: Pumpkin Carving By Porch and Hearth,” 

Tilden Regional Park 

4 to 7 p.m. “Bring your own pepo” 

Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak  

Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

 

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Tuesday, Oct. 31

 

 

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

 

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

 

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Wednesday, Nov. 1

 

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equip,emt. fundamental climbing techiques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

 

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Thursday, Nov. 2

 

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

 

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Friday, Nov. 3

 

 

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

7:30 p.m., 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

 

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Saturday, Nov. 4

 

 

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

 

The Next Ivory Trade? The Intellectual Property Rights of University Faculty 

A conference sponsored by the Berkeley Faculty Association/American Association of University Professors Coalition 

9 a.m. tp 3:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley International House 

841-1997 

 

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Sunday, Nov. 5

 

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

 

Berkeley Historical Society walking tour 

Downtown Berkeley  

Tour new construction, new uses, historic rehabilitation and public improvments that are completed or still in the works.  

noon 

RSVP required 841-0181 space is limited. 

Tickets: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers. 

 

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Monday, Nov. 6

 

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

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Tuesday, Nov. 7

 

Zonta Club dinner 

5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

$20 per person 

Dr. Sylvia Earle, a marine bioligist, author and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, will be the featured speaker. 

For more information call 845-6221 

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Thursday, Nov. 9

 

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

 

“Diabetes: What to Know Head-to-Toe” 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free 

869-6737 

 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breland corrects the record  

Editor, 

Last week your paper published a letter from Robert Cabrera, the president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association, which was an attack against me.  

In his letter, Mr. Cabrera alleged that we had met and had a conversation about rent control. His report of our conversation cast me in a very bad light. This is a conversation that never happened.  

My opponent in the upcoming election is supported by the mayor, who has long been an opponent of rent control and is closely aligned with the Berkeley Property Owners Association. Mr. Cabrera owns a substantial amount of income property in Berkeley. He is likely experiencing a considerable increase in his income due to vacancy decontrol.  

I’m sure he is concerned about jeopardizing his returns. Mr. Cabrera knows well that I am a supporter of rent control and voted to place Measure Y on the ballot.  

Measure Y would protect the disabled, the elderly, and long time renters from bogus evictions. Mr. Cabrera’s letter was nothing more than a political attack, motivated by the upcoming election.  

He would clearly like to see me unseated and fabricated a conversation that never happened to influence District 2 voters. Unfortunately, election time tends to bring out the worst in people. 

Councilmember Margaret Breland 

Berkeley 

Enough parking already 

Editor, 

Is the supply of parking available to public employees working in the Civic Center area of downtown adequate? (Berkeley Daily Planet, 10/19) Yes, it is. 

When city employees choose to park six or eight or ten blocks away from where they are working, it’s not because there is no parking closer to their workplace. It’s because they are looking for free parking and don’t want to pay for parking in the numerous garages or lots that are only one to four blocks from where they work. 

The City of Berkeley should not provide free parking for any employee.  

From an environmental standpoint, provision of free parking is a very bad idea. Rides for Bay Area Commuters’ Commute Profile 2000 found that only 4.8 percent of commuters with free parking at work use transit. For commuters without free parking, the use of transit and other modes jumps to 42.1percent.  

There is no doubt that expanding the supply of long-term parking, especially if it is free, will encourage driving, undermine transit, and worsen traffic and air quality. 

In fairness to rank and file city workers, no city employee from the City Manager and department heads on down should be given free parking.  

City Councilmembers and their aides should also not be given free parking spaces. They should set an example and pay like everyone else.  

Or better yet, they should set a positive example by taking transit, riding a bicycle or walking. 

The city should collect money for the use of every parking space on city owned property used by city officials and city employees. All of this money should go into a fund to help cover the cost of transit subsidies for city employees. The Southside/Downtown Transportation Demand Management Study draft and the draft General Plan both call on the city, 

UC and other area employers to establish a transit subsidy program similar to UC’s “class pass” or the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s “Eco-Pass” program. 

Just as UC negotiated with AC Transit to provide UC students with a pass that is paid for by a nominal increase in student fees; so the City and other employers need to sit down with transit agencies to establish programs for employees.  

The money generated by charging all city employees full market rate in city owned parking spaces can be used to help cover the cost.  

The total cost is likely to be relatively minor compared to the cost of other employee benefits. The City should be a model employer and provide all employees with transit passes at no cost. 

The School District and the County courts, which currently do absolutely nothing to provide incentives for employees to use transit, should be encouraged to do the same.  

No effort should be made to provide more parking for BUSD and Alameda County employees. 

Eco-Pass in Silicon Valley has been a big success. At companies where employees get the free passes, transit use has increased by an average of over 70 percent. 

The Class Pass at UC has increased student use of buses. 

Will all employees use transit if provided with free passes? Of course not. But enough will to significantly reduce demand for existing parking in the area.  

People who choose to continue to drive will have more parking spaces to choose from. There is no need to expand the existing supply of parking. 

The City should also implement the trip reduction strategies in the Resource Conservation and Global Warming Abatement Plan which they adopted in 1998, including the proposal to subsidize bicycle use by city employees. 

For city employees who get off work late at night, the city can provide escorts or shuttles at the end of shifts to BART, bus stops and to parking areas just as UC provides escorts and shuttles for its students. 

The proposal made by members of the Police Officers Association to give city employees permits to park in residential areas is a terrible idea that would turn neighborhoods west of downtown into employee parking lots and would have a detrimental impact on neighborhood quality of life. 

The City needs to take a comprehensive approach that recognizes the inter-relationship of parking, traffic and transit. Piecemeal planning and looking at parking in isolation is counterproductive. 

Rob Wrenn  

Chair, Berkeley Planning Commission 

Fuel reduction service still carries on in hills 

Editor: 

Please note – the hills area still pays for and receives fire-fuel reduction service – chipper and bins for yard waste, during the summer. The fire district coincides, mostly, with refuse collection District 3.  

The Council, after a public hearing, raised refuse collection rates for District 3 to cover the fire-fuel removal services. 

Tania Levy 

Berkeley 

Measure Y: reasonable assistance for renters 

Editor: 

Measure Y will help senior, disabled and other long-term renters to remain in Berkeley. 

I am confident that once Berkeley voters find out the truth about Measure Y, they will give it their overwhelming support. 

Rental property owners succeeded in passing a State law that substantially weakened our local rent control program; it allows rents to be raised as high as possible whenever old tenants move out of apartment units and new tenants move in.  

Now, landlords have a strong incentive to change tenants frequently. 

Unscrupulous landlords attempt to drive out long-term tenants with reasonable rents so they can lease their apartments at sky-high rates to newcomers. Such landlords initiate evictions based on the assertion that they (or their relatives) want to occupy the tenants’ homes.  

Once the tenants leave, the landlords move in for a short while, then hang out a “For Rent” sign. These ‘owner move-in’ evictions can be fought only with difficulty under current law. Measure Y will strengthen tenants’ legal protections against this kind of abuse. 

Under Measure Y, long-term renters of larger landlords will be shielded from owner move-in evictions. After all, the landlords have many options besides driving out people who have put down roots in Berkeley and who, because of the current feverish market, will often be unable to find replacement housing they can afford anywhere in the Bay Area. 

Measure Y will discourage deceitful evictions by mandating that when landlords claim they need to push out tenants in order to occupy a rental unit, they actually intend to live there for a substantial period of time instead of just a few months. 

Measure Y will not restrict the ability of small “mom and pop” landlords to move into their property. 

Measure Y will provide reasonable relocation assistance to renters who are displaced by owners the same dollar amount of assistance that is required when landlords exercise their right under State law to go out of the rental business. Only low-income tenants who have lived in a place for at least a year will be eligible for this help. 

Measure Y will keep some of Berkeley’s most vulnerable residents from being unfairly forced out of their homes. Please vote “yes” on Measure Y. 

Randy Silverman 

Chair, Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board 

Citizen documents selective enforcement 

Editor: 

I agree with Steven Finacom’s point about the Berkeley police’s singling out of Carrie Sprague.  

There’s another issue, though. What Sprague is documenting is selective enforcement by the police for their own benefit. That’s corruption, actually, which may explain their overblown reaction to a woman with a clipboard.  

I sympathize with their desire for more parking, but it;s a two-fold abuse of their power both to flaunt the law and then harass the one who calls them on it.  

John Parman 

Berkeley 

Editor: 

Your article on the dangers of so-called “natural” supplements never addressed as to why people turn to supplements in the first place: the failure of western medicine to successfully treat a wide variety of illnesses and ailments including, but not limited to, cancer, aids, heart-disease and diabetes (Daily Planet, Oct. 23). Unfortunately, the alternative health industries look very similar to western medicine, not only in terms of corporate profits, but more importantly, in their narrow-visioned attempts to treat symptoms, not causes, with pills and potions. While traditional peoples may have sometimes resorted to medicinal herbs and plants to treat disease, they always looked at food first. They understood the vital relationship between human health and natural foods. 

While we would all like to believe that their is a “magic pill,” yet to be discovered, that will “cure” not only minor ailments, but life-threatening ones as well. We have put all of our money and focus on finding a “cure;” a quick fix that will allow us to continue living our lives chaotically with absolutely no acceptance of any personal responsibility whatsoever. We have placed all of our faith in science, as if we are merely machines; as if modern science can explain life and health beyond cells and molecules; it obviously cannot as evidenced by the alarming lack of health today, by the failure of the “War on Cancer,” etc...etc... As human beings, we are much more than just a collection of genes and cells; we have emotions, imaginations and spiritual conditions that have an immense effect on our health. We have all freely chosen the physical, mental and spiritual conditions in which we now find ourselves (if not in this life, in past lives). Disease takes many years to manifest, so let’s stop investing our money and our lives in symptomatic, corporate solutions to disease...whether they be “natural” supplements or toxic drug therapy. There are no “magic pills,” no quick fixes. In these terms, disease can now be seen as a wake-up call; a teacher...and a friend. Make sure to listen carefully. 

Michael Bauce 

Berkeley 841-5420 

I would like this to appear in the Daily Planet but I know that it is too long for a letter. Can it be a perspective piece? Any other suggestions about how I can get my voice heard 

on this? 

Editor, 

Regarding the front page story of the Oct. 21 Daily Planet, I for one am glad that there will be no fast food service in that part of Berkeley and applaud Ms. Breland’s efforts on behalf of her constituents on this. However, I am puzzled about why she has remained silent on behalf of other members of her constituency, namely the families in the area surrounding 2700 San Pablo Ave. We too have “quality of life issues” in regards to the size and scope of the Kennedy/Choyce project planned there.  

Under their current proposal this massive building of 48 apartments takes up nearly an entire block, at 4-5 stories, towers over the surrounding 1 and 2 story homes and businesses and is built to the very edge of the property in all directions. In addition, there will be parking for 61 cars adding to the air pollution and traffic in this area. The Kennedy/Choyce plan also currently includes a permit for a fast food service. Why aren’t our “health ramifications” important to Ms. Breland? Like this other group, we also have a petition signed by 400 plus people living in the area, but we had to do it ourselves. Margaret Breland did not offer her services to us and was extremely difficult to reach when we did ask for her assistance. I have personally spoken with many members of this community – particularly elderly African-American homeowners who are very upset about this project but who are either too ill or too busy to do anything. Where is Ms. Breland in all this?  

Why has she chosen to represent the developers not her community? Not surprisingly, her list of campaign contributors include Patrick Kennedy and his wife as well as the Rev. Choyce. 

Our neighborhood would welcome this building if Kennedy/Choyce would simply modify their design to be a 3 story building. This could be economically feasible for them, still provide a great deal of necessary housing, create a sustainable precedent for future building and help San Pablo develop into a great avenue. Between Dwight and Ashby, there are 11 large lots that developers like Patrick Kennedy will want to develop into massive projects and companies like Shell Oil and Carl’s Jr. will want to stake their claim to with mini-marts that sell fast food and liquor. We need to tell developers and corporations that we want more desirable development that benefits our community! 

What about it, Margaret? 

Phyllis Kamrin 510 548-3627 

Berkeley 

Editor: 

To often, Berkeley “Activist” groups work seperately or take different approaches to solve the same problem. Your article about the southwest Berkeley neighborhoods opposition to a new fast food complex at 1200 Ashby Ave. appeared above an article stating that southwest Berkeley residents have a life expectency of 20 years less than those residents in the Berkeley hills. 

There is a major connection here between these two groups of activists and they should be working to help each other. Those residents in southwest Berkeley ( read African American) die at a younger age not only because of a lack of healthcare but because of poor eating habits. A recent study on health showed that black youth get 40 percent of their daily vegetable intake from french fries. An article about the free lunch program in Oakland High schools revealed that very few of those elegible took part but instead bought fast food.  

Obesity among all Americans has increased more than 60 percent since 1990. There is more of a health crisis than a health care crisis.Those who want healthcare for everyone should think in terms of wanting a healthy life for everyone. Help people to enjoy their lives by improving their quality of life not just prolonging it. Berkeley is proud of the fact that it promotes the use of bycyles and not the automobile. It is time for Berkeley to promote healthy lifestyles and ban fast food.  

Caring about health is as important as caring about healthcare. 

Michael Larrick  

(510) 849-4572 

Editor: 

I am and have been a resident on Carrison Street for the past 23 years. I am upset by the article written about the block and the people that represent the block. I believe that the opinions regarding the plans are valid and I would agree with them. 

What I do not agree with is the way my new neighbors portrayed Carrison Street as a “street overrun with drug dealers and prostitutes.” I’d like to point out that Vicki and Mike Larrick have not lived on Carrison Street for eight year as stated. Drug dealers and prostitution has never been a problem on Carrison Street. 

Up until their move, the Larricks, this street was filled by senior citizens. 

Actually the house in which they vacate was owned by a senior citizen until her death. They moved in her house maybe 4-5 years after she died. 

I know this because up until they moved in I watered the grass. I believe that my anger is mostly directed at the Larricks because of there portrayal of themselves as saviors to the community. 

Carrison st was fine and it is fine and it will be and will always be with or without there contributions. From the moment they have moved in they have only acted as conquerors. They have showed no respect for those that have lived here before and have raised successful families.  

For example, Mike Larrick decided to appoint himself as block Captain, until residents became aware of his self-appointment and voted him out. There lack of knowledge and need to feel heroic is overtly present in this article. It saddens me that my neighborhood has gone from predominately black to racially mixed, whatever that means. 

But as people move in to clean up the neighborhood they must keep in mind that are new that they are joining the group that was already established and attempting to make a change themselves. 

It is really sad to see that my neighborhood is being represented as a bad black neighborhood until it was saved by it’s new white residents. Some of the arrivals of the migration to South Berkeley, do not respect the people, the community, or the residents they have joined with. 

The Larricks have made this apparent by the extreme measures they have taken to isolate themselves from the community until it is time for the Great White Hope to appear. It is like prehistoric times,,as a resident I feel like existing residents are like the Indians. Our land, our efforts, our homes are being taken over by people that have only one thing on there mind how can I live here and make it the way I want it to be, not how can I become apart of this community and help with the efforts being made.  

If you want to write something about the community, write about the gentrification, genocide, and mentacide occurring in south Berkeley. It’ real and it’s occurring. 

As a matter of fact you can interview the Larricks to find out how their efforts have contributed. They are recruiters for those looking for cheap property, occupied by residents of over 20 years, that they can ask to move and give them enough money to pay 3 months rent. 

If you don’t believe me ask my old neighbors, senior citizens with historically fixed rents, uniformed of there rights and Measure Y, why they had to move out there homes, and move after over 25 years of occupation. Oh yeah the people that bought the house were friends of the Larricks. If I am not mistaken Vicki Larrick assisted with the selling of the home. Try to help them.....Please. Thank You  

Kinchasa Taylor, 

Berkeley 

The City Council will consider an ordinance tonight that would ban stores from displaying tobacco products in a manner that encourages minors to attempt to purchase or steal cigarettes.  

A study conducted by the city last February showed that despite state and city laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors, it still occurs with alarming frequency. The study showed that minors were able to purchase tobacco products in 33 percent of stores surveyed.  

“Study after study shows if you start young the more likely you are to form a lifelong habit,” said Fred Medrano, director of Health and Human Services. “This ordinance will further prevent the purchase or theft of cigarettes by underage folks.” 

The ordinance will require all sales of tobacco to be “vendor assisted,” which means a store clerk will have to physically hand the cigarettes to the customer. It would also prohibit displays that allow cigarette self service.  

According to a study commissioned by the City Council, minors are more likely to attempt to buy or steal cigarettes when they are within easy reach. It also showed that vendors are more likely to ask for age verification if they are required to retrieve tobacco products from a secured location behind the counter and physically hand items to customers. 

One store that will be affected by the new ordinance is Fast Mart on University Avenue near Shattuck. The small store stocks candy, soda pop and other items that would attract the large numbers of high school students who walk down the street after classes. But among the candy and gum near the counter is a large display of cigarettes that dominates the front of the store. The display is not designed for self service but it is within easy reach of customers. 

The manager of the store refused to comment about the new ordinance. 

Marcia Brown-Machen, the Berkeley’s Tobacco Prevention Program director, said that most Berkeley merchants are in favor of the ordinance. 

President of the University Avenue Merchants Association, Kirtal Khanna said he would strongly support any ordinance that would reduce smoking among minors or adults. He said he couldn’t speak for the entire association but was reasonably sure other members would agree with him.  

Khanna owns the Bazaar of India on University Avenue, a retail store that sells handcrafts, books and sundries. “My personal opinion is that smoking is terrible,” said Khanna who used to sell Indian cigarettes but took them off the shelves five years ago. 

Brown-Machen said her department sent out 140 letters last June to tobacco retailers alerting them about the proposed ordinance and not one store owner responded negatively.  

She added that a survey completed last year showed that out of 95 tobacco retailers only 19 had tobacco displays customers could reach. 

Brown-Machen said this ordinance might not have a huge impact on teen smoking but there is evidence that a combination of factors is causing reduced smoking among young people. “Non-smoking campaigns, state laws, city ordinances and various other community programs are having an effect,” she said. 

All the states that passed cigarette tax rate increases have shown a reduction in smoking. In fact, California now has the lowest tobacco-use rate in the United States. 

Brown-Machen said another barometer is that the tobacco companies now spend 10 times more in advertising since Californians passed Proposition 99, the Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act of 1988, a state law that adds 25 cents tax on each package of cigarettes. The revenue goes to smoking prevention and research. 

The Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Program currently has a variety of programs designed to reduce underage smoking. One is Youth Purchase Surveys, in which trained minors, under the supervision of the Berkeley Police Department, attempt to purchase cigarettes from tobacco retailers. Responsible store clerks who refuse to sell to minors can be rewarded with a certificate signed by the mayor. Those who do sell cigarettes to minors are cited on the spot and fined $200 for the first offense. Fines increase with each additional offense. 

There is also an advertising campaign in the Yellow Pages of the UC Berkeley phone directory, which features “Debbie” a woman who communicates through a stoma, a hole at the base of the throat through which she breaths and speaks since having her larynx removed due smoking related cancer. 

Ben Weintraub and Michael Liu became poster guys for the Measure Y campaign Monday afternoon.  

Standing in front of an apartment from which they were asked to leave, the duo explained to the press that the eviction would not happen under the proposed Measure Y. 

Measure Y protects seniors and the disabled against owner move-in evictions, provides $4,500 to low income renters who are displaced and guarantees renters a comparable rental unit if one is available. 

Weintraub, Liu and a third roommate rented the two-bedroom apartment at 1404 Fulton for $1,371 in June 1998.  

The building was sold and on June 14, 1999, a year after they had moved in, they got a certified letter from Peter Kutrubes, attorney for landlords Grace Chizar and Michael Lai, telling them that “Mr. Lai desires to take back your apartment, Unit 308, to make it his own personal residence.” Attached was a 30-day notice. 

The three UC Berkeley students were offered a one-bedroom apartment in the same building for $1,400 per month. 

Instead, they found an apartment on Haste Street for $500 more rent than they had been paying and moved in. Liu and Weintraub said they do not believe that Lai lives in the apartment, since he is seen daily leaving a Haste Street apartment building that he also owns.  

Neither Lai nor Chizar, responded to calls for comment. 

There’s more to the story than a fraudulent owner move-in eviction,Weintraub and Liu said, flanked by advocates for Measure Y and pro-rent-control candidates for the Rent Stabilization Board. 

Under Measure Y, large landlords would not be permitted to evict tenants and move into the unit, if there are other comparable units available. If there are non-comparable units available, they need to offer one to the tenants. The fair rent would be determined by the rent board. 

“If the landlord owns another available unit, the tenant has the right of first refusal,” said Paul Hogarth, a candidate for the Rent Board. 

Hogarth said the students’ eviction may have been legal, if, in fact, a relative of one of the owners moved into the unit. The identity of the person who moved into the unit has not been determined. 

“It’s possible that it might have been legal, but it’s unfair,” he said. “Measure Y stops the legal loopholes that exist.” 

Berkeley Property Owners Association President Robert Cabrera takes a different view. He says that if, in fact, the owner move-in eviction was fraudulent, then the renters should have taken the landlord to court. He points to a San Francisco Bay Guardian story that tells of a $500,000 settlement tenants in San Francisco won against such a landlord. 

“There exist legal remedies that have teeth,” he said. 

Cabrera has been working hard against Measure Y and says, if passed, it will hurt those it seeks to protect. He talks about a studio apartment he just rented for $1,000. He said he had his choice among dot-comers, students and others to rent to.  

With this kind of choice, landlords will not choose to rent to seniors and disabled, who would gain protection under the measure, he said.  

“Measure Y greases the skids for discrimination,” he said. “All you’ll get is a transient population in Berkeley.”

A yellow school bus that carried those who will defy the United States embargo against Cuba stopped Sunday at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. 

On its side, the vehicle sported a hand painted sign declaring “Cuba is not our enemy.” A tree of friendship adorned the left side of the bus and a blue dove of peace stood next to it. The portrait of Che Guevara was painted on the right side. On the rear window, a bumper sticker read: “Reality is for people who lack imagination.” 

The travelers, organized by Pastors for Peace, left Monday for Fresno. 

In San Antonio, Texas, it will meet other caravans from the East Coast and the midwestern states. The large group will then cross the border together and fly via the national Cuban airline from Tampico, Mexico, to Havana. Many Americans fly to Mexico or the Bahamas to avoid the watchful eye of U.S. authorities.  

“But we are publicly breaking the embargo, and telling the U.S. Treasury Department that we will go to Cuba,” said Alicia Jrapko, organizer of Sunday’s send off. 

For American citizens, it is legal to go to the Caribbean island. However, Americans are prohibited from spending money under laws governing trade with an enemy. 

“We oppose the embargo to demonstrate our solidarity with the Cuban people. This doesn’t mean that we’re Communists. We just believe in self-determination,” Jrapko said. “The Cuban system is not perfect, but it has a more humanist line than other regimes. While America bombs other countries, Cuba exports doctors,” she said. 

Inside church, a Cuban flag hung next to a poster of Che Guevara adorned with the slogan “Hasta la Victoria Siempre.” A group of musicians played John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and some Zapatista songs. 

Six people descended from the bus. Among them was Alfred Dale, a retired Methodist pastor from Washington, and leader of the West Coast caravan. He was the keynote speaker Sunday. 

“We will be among the 600 U.S. citizens who will attend the Second International Conference for Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba,” said Dale. He joined Pastors for Peace in 1988, and went to Cuba for the first time in 1992. “We also want to help install a solar plant in a school in the Pinar del Rio Province,” he said. 

“We believe the embargo is immoral, because sanctions are always aimed at the people,” he said. “Besides, we don’t think the government should block people’s right to go where ever they want to.” 

Regarding Pastors for Peace’s attitude towards political freedom on the island, Dale said that when he visited Cuba, he could talk to anyone and was followed only by his translators, since he doesn’t speak Spanish.  

“In the Cuban parliament, more than 80 percent of the members are new. That’s more than we have,” Dale said. 

When asked about his opinion on the status of political prisoners, he said: “If you are a saboteur, they throw you in prison. Every government defends itself against aggressors. There are more than 400 political prisoners in the U.S.”  

Regarding the treatment of dissident intellectuals, he said that he didn’t know of any such case, but that if intellectuals wrote against the government, it was because they felt under-compensated. “They get greedy. But if they cared about the people, they wouldn’t pay attention to that, “ he said. 

Amnesty International’s 2000 report on Cuba paints a different picture. It says there are more than 350 political prisoners. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reports that in Cuba, groups using only peaceful means to stand up for human rights, including trade union rights, are persecuted in various ways.  

“They are charged with ‘enemy propaganda,’ ‘contempt,’ ‘unlawful association,’ ‘clandestine possession of printed matter,’ ‘posing a danger,’ ‘rebellion,’ and ‘acts against state  

security,’” according to the report. 

SAN DIEGO — A coalition of environmental groups have settled a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management after the agency agreed to limit the amount of land that could be used by off-road vehicle owners in an Imperial County wilderness area. 

The Center for Biological Diversity, along with the California/Nevada Desert Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, settled their lawsuit Friday when the bureau agreed to restrict off-road vehicles in 48,000 additional acres of the Algodones Dunes. 

The settlement went into effect  

Friday afternoon. The Dunes are located in Imperial County, near Interstate 8, about 125 southeast of San Diego. The agreement brings the total of protected acreage in the Algodones Dunes area to about 80,000 acres.  

The dunes cover about 150,000 acres. 

About 70,000 acres of the dunes will remain open to off-road vehicles. 

The groups sued the agency to force officials to deem more acres of the dunes area closed to off-roaders, which environmentalists complain trample critical habitat. 

Among the endangered species in the area is Peirson’s milkvetch, a silvery-colored perennial plant. According to the groups, the Algodones Dunes is the only area in the United States where the plant grows. 

Environmentalists are still at odds with the bureau over protection of other endangered species in the California Desert Conservation Area, which covers about 400 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border to Death Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills. 

MIDDLETOWN — Firefighters who worked through the night proclaimed victory over a Lake County fire that had charred nearly 4,000 acres, but said it would take until Thursday to fully extinguish the blaze. 

The fire, which started Saturday, was 95 percent contained as of Monday morning. Officials said they hoped to have it fully contained by Tuesday morning. 

“There’s very little active fire at all,” Ann Rudesill, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Monday. 

There were still 1,000 people working on the fire, which damaged four structures, including a barn, a vacant dwelling and a couple of sheds. Property losses were estimated at $200,000. 

Firefighters worked through the night to contain the 3,970-acre blaze. The fire started Saturday afternoon and was spread by strong northern winds. Most of the area consumed by the fire was remote ranchland and forested mountain country. 

Two minor injuries were reported, both of them to firefighters. An ember injured a firefighter’s eye, and another was involved in a traffic accident. There were no evacuations ordered, although some residents left their homes voluntarily. 

Improving weather conditions lessened the risk that the fire would spread. Wind slowed to 10 mph to 12 mph and humidity was up to 25 percent, compared to Sunday’s 10 percent humidity. 

Costs to suppress the fire reached $480,000, and were expected to reach $1 million. 

There were several other small fires around Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties, but firefighters were able to contain them within a few acres. And firefighters worked to keep fires in Oakland and San Jose under control. 

Firefighters in Oakland were on a fire watch and were clearing away dense brush and other fire hazards after a 10-acre grass fire Sunday at Mountain View Cemetery near Piedmont. 

In San Jose, the 25-acre fire that consumed a house and injured two in the eastern hills of the city was brought under control Sunday night.  

The fire started when a pine tree fell onto a power line. 

With lighter winds Monday, “we feel it’s a lot safer,” said Capt. Mark Mooney of the San Jose Fire Department. 

Most of the homes that lost power during the weekend’s high winds had regaining electricity by Monday afternoon. About 80,000 Bay Area customers lost power during the peak of the windstorms Sunday, with East Bay residents hit especially hard. 

SACRAMENTO — California’s minimum wage will rise $1 an hour to $6.75, one of the highest in the nation, under a decision Monday by the state Industrial Welfare Commission. 

The commission voted 5-0 for the minimum wage increase, which will take effect starting Jan. 1 with a 50-cent raise followed by another 50-cent raise Jan. 1, 2002. 

“I would have preferred it to go higher,” said Commissioner Barry Broad, who earlier acknowledged that he was in the minority on the board in seeking a bigger increase.  

“It should definitely go above $6.75 to help the families that are already struggling.” 

California last raised the state’s minimum wage in March 1998. 

Washington state and Oregon currently have the nation’s highest minimum wage, $6.50 an hour. In 2002, only Washington’s would be higher than California’s.  

Washington’s minimum wage is indexed to keep up with inflation and is expected to be slightly above $6.75 then, said Jean Ross with the California Budget Project, a liberal research group. 

The California increase was a blow to some business leaders who asked commissioners to wait until the federal government considered an increase in the federal minimum wage , which now stands at $5.15 an hour. 

Business leaders said a higher minimum wage would make it difficult for them to compete with companies in other states, which would have lower overhead costs because they could pay workers less. 

Farmers also protested the higher wages, arguing they would be unable to recoup their costs in the tight agriculture market. Grape grower John Baranek of Sacramento was the only speaker objecting to the increase Monday.  

He said the raise could keep California farmers from making their loan payments and leave them unable to compete internationally. 

“This will have a ripple effect, especially in the Central Valley,” Baranek said. “I ask that you postpone making a decision until it is determined what the shakeout is going to be.” 

California unions are pushing for a minimum wage of at least $8 an hour. They say a $1 increase is still not enough for minimum wage earners given California’s high cost of living. 

The increase approved Monday would affect 1 million workers currently making the minimum wage and 2 million workers who make less than $6.75, according to the California Labor Federation. 

The five-member Industrial Welfare Commission also withdrew exemptions for several classes of workers – including home health care assistants, actors and carnival workers – who were not covered by the state minimum wage law. 

An exemption for an estimated 100 shepherds in California was not removed Monday. 

The commission voted 3-2 to let a wage board examine the exemption before a final decision is made. That is expected to take six months. 

Shepherds work 24 hours a day and under federal law must be paid at least $900 a month and given free meals, housing and medical care. 

The shepherds’ employers were the only group to protest an end to the exemption, which persuaded commissioners to take a closer look at the issue, Bosco said. 

“It could be challenged in court if we try to take away that exemption, as most decisions are now days,” he said. “We want to make sure we are doing things the right way.”

SANTA CRUZ — The fervently liberal seaside city hopes to set an example Tuesday night by passing the nation’s highest “living wage” – $11 an hour, or $12 without benefits. 

Like most of the roughly 50 other living wage ordinances nationwide, Santa Cruz’s would at first only cover full-time workers for the city or for-profit companies with city contracts. Most, if not all, city workers already make more than $11 an hour. 

But officials in this surfing haven and college town of 56,000, 75 miles down the coast from San Francisco, have a more ambitious plan for the coming months. They want to extend the minimum wage to temporary workers employed by the city and to workers for social service agencies funded by the city. 

“Our hope is that the city can act as a role model,” Mayor Keith Sugar said. 

While some economists contend “living wage” laws are symbolic and have little effect, supporters of the Santa Cruz ordinance believe it will give hundreds of people a boost, even in communities elsewhere in the county. 

Theresa Espinoza, a 34-year-old single mother of five, works in nearby Watsonville as a receptionist for the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project, a nonprofit organization that gets money from the city of Santa Cruz. She said her organization recently decided to give her a raise from less than $9 an hour to $11 because it expects that will soon be mandated anyway by the new ordinance. 

Even so, she still has to work part-time as a library clerk to support her family. 

“I’m not even able to buy a house. I don’t think I’ll ever be able,” Espinoza said Monday. “I really think about those things. Do I have to wait to my children are of age to work? What I really want them to do is get an education and try to find a different way of life.” 

The California Industrial Welfare Commission voted 5-0 on Monday to raise the state’s minimum wage by a dollar, to $6.75, despite protests from business leaders and farmers who said it will give other states an unfair competitive edge. The federal minimum wage is $5.15. 

There was no formal business opposition to the Santa Cruz ordinance, which would take effect on Thanksgiving and lets companies facing hardships appeal for an exemption. Future increases in the minimum wage would be tied to the Consumer Price Index for the San Francisco Bay area. 

The National Association of Home Builders recently ranked Santa Cruz the second-least affordable area in the nation — behind only San Francisco. 

“Santa Cruz is a paradise destination for a lot of people, and our proximity to Silicon Valley and the big dollars there have a lot to do with why our housing prices and the cost of living have escalated here,” said city councilman Michael Hernandez, a supporter of the ordinance. 

Added Sandy Brown, coordinator for the Santa Cruz County Coalition for a Living Wage: “People who are performing service jobs and city work, child care, all of these industries are losing workers because people can’t afford to live here. We believe this will keep people living in our community.” 

The living wage in Santa Cruz would be the highest in the country, said Ron Bird, chief economist for the Employment Policy Foundation, a think tank in Washington, D.C. 

But he says such well intentioned laws have little effect, since they target only small slices of the workforce, and many companies forgo doing business with cities rather than greatly increase their labor costs. 

The federal government’s earned income tax credit, he said, is a more thorough and direct way of helping poor families. 

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties gets $57,000 a year from the city of Santa Cruz, and so executive director Willy Elliott-McCrea is preparing to make certain that all 20 of his employees make at least $11 an hour. A handful make less, as little as $9.40. 

He said the food bank, which serves 38,000 people, will have to work harder to raise money to cover the new living wage requirement, but he strongly supports the ordinance. “It’s clearly the right thing to do,” he said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Santa Cruz County Coalition for a Living Wage: http://members.cruzers.com/cab/livingwage/livingwage.html 

City home page: http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us 

Employment Policy Foundation: http://www.epf.org 

There were speeches, cheers and a symbolic breaking of ground in an area of Berkeley often neglected by city officialdom – the 3200 block of Adeline Street. 

A $1 million grant and $200,000 from the city will bring bike lanes, add bulb-outs to make crossing the extra-wide street safer and more friendly, include public art and other amenities in the south Berkeley shopping center. 

No one could have been happier than Patricia Stocken, a nearby neighbor who had come out to hear the speakers. “It means bringing more people into the area. It means safety, friendliness, openness,” she said. 

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was present to lend her support. She shepherded the federal transportation funds through Congress. Sam Dyke, head of the Alcatraz-Adeline Merchants Association, introduced the speakers. The mayor was there, and so were people from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, in whose district the project sits. “This is another piece in the rising of South Berkeley,” Shirek said. “We aren’t done yet.”

OAKLAND – When Ralph Nadar took the stage Saturday night at Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium, the more than 7,000 people who filled the seats and sat in the aisles jumped to their feet. 

When he talked about George W. Bush as “nothing more than a corporation disguised as a human being,” the crowd went wild. 

Nadar was no less kind to Democrat Al Gore, whose politics, he argued, were identical to those of Bush, particularly concerning their support for the North America Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization and belief in the death penalty. 

“The stronger we get, the more fearful they become,” said Cornell West, Harvard professor of Africa-American studies, who was among the luminaries who appeared at the rally in support for Nadar.  

The Oakland rally was one in a series of “superrallies” that have attracted thousands of people in Portland,Ore., Chicago, New York as well as others nationwide.  

In addition to west, the rally featured entertainers Patti Smith and Jello Biafra.  

Nadar pointed to the growing numbers of people who support his campaign, citing polls that say he has 8 percent support in Minnesota, 6-7 percent support in California, 9 percent in Connecticut and 17 percent in Alaska.  

With that support behind him, his condemnation of the system that refuses him entry into the presidential debates grows. Tuesday Nadar filed suit in state and federal courts against the debate sponsors, claiming violations of his civil rights.  

At a press conference that preceded Nadar’s speech to the rally, a Berkeley High School Jacket reporter was the first to pose a question. 

Nadar first questioned the youth’s membership in the local press corps, then responded to the question on his position on Proposition 38, the voucher initiative. “We won’t solve the problems by funding vouchers,” he said. 

When asked what he’d have said, if allowed to participate in the debates, Nadar responded that, on the tax question, he’d “raise taxes on stock transactions and crack down on tax loopholes.”  

On the question of immigration, he’d stop the “illegal” use of force against undocumented migrants, allow people to work short periods in the United States on contract, then return home, and stop support for “oligarchies” from which people flee. 

While Nadar campaigns furiously trying to capture every vote he can in order to get the 5 percent support nationally the Green Party needs to receive matching funds in four years, Democrats say it’s dangerous to vote for Nadar. If too many people throw their vote his way, Bush might win, the argument goes. And if Bush wins, he could stack the Supreme Court with his ilk and get rid of a woman’s right to choose. 

The Nadar camps’ reply could be seen in signs scattered around the auditorium: “Vote your hopes, not your fears.” 

Monday, Oct. 23

“Dealing With Roommate  

Problems” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

“Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin,”  

through Oct. 28. Guess the correct weight of the pumpkin and bring it home in time for Halloween. 

Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington.  

(510) 524-3043. 

Berkeley Chinese Community Church Turns 100 

6 p.m. 

Nov. 4 

Silver Dragon Restaurant 

835 Webster St. 

Oakland 

Reservations: $30 per person 

More info: 548-5295 

Public Schools Parent  

Information Night 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Parents, principals and other administrative staff from 11 elementary schools will speak about their schools. Sponsored by Neighborhood Parents Network.  

Admission: free to members, $5 non-members 

527-6667 

Parks & Recreation Board  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Solid Waste Management  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St. 

The Changes Happening with  

HMOs 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Oct. 24

“Security Deposits” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

2 p.m. - 7 p.m.  

Derby St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Come taste a bounty of fall fruit varieties for free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Blood Pressure 

Alice Meyers 

9:30- 11 :30 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Oct. 25

International Jewish Video Competition Winners 

7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

Screening of the four winners in the Museum’s seventh annual competition.  

Call 549-6950 

“How to Get Needed Repairs” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

Hearing with City Council/Rent Board Housing Committee  

5:30 p.m. 

Eshleman Hall Chambers 

644-7714 

Low vision support group 

1:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Civic Arts Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Halloween Puppet Show  

with Hazel Jazel 

3:30 p.m.  

San Pablo Library, 1555 International Marketplace, San Pablo. (510) 374-3998. 

Free. 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar 

Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 MLK Jr. Way 

Planning Commission 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Bay Area premier of Beyond Organic: The Vision of Fairview 

Gardens 

Reception begins at 7 p.m.; Program begins at 7:30 p.m. 

Martin Luther King Middle School auditorium, 1871 Rose Street, Berkeley, California. For more information call 845-4595 or e-mail info@ecoliteracy.org. 

Thursday, Oct. 26

“A Contemporary Food Fight: GM Foods in the market place” 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

International House, Homeroom 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

A discussion with Dr. Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbiology at UC Berkeley, and Dr. Petra Frey from Switzerland, of the scientific basis for biotechnology, it’s risks and benefits. 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

“What Does Rent Control  

Do For You” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

From Morgan to Modern 

Julia Morgan and Hearst Castle:Designing and American Country House 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10 or $35 for series that continues through November. 

841-2242 

East Bay Science & 

Arts Middle School 

Noon  

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Middle school students perform dances of folk, swing, and Cuban rueda styles. Free.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway, 549-2230 

Proposition Brown Bag 

Noon - 1:30 p.m.  

Institute of Governmental Studies 

109 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Hear presentations about and discuss the eight propositions on the California ballot.  

Call 642-4608 

Tai Chi 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Homeless Action Center’s 10th Anniversary Benefit 

Club Muse 

The Vagabond Lovers, comedian Doug Ferrai 

856 San Pablo Ave. Albany 

For ticket information call 540-0878 

Friday, Oct. 27

“Transportation: What’s in Store?” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Larry Dahms, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Council speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon is served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 

Luncheon: $11 

More info and reservations: 848-3533 

“Right Ways to Get Out of a Lease” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107  

Saturday, Oct. 28

Shakespeare Festival’s annual costume and garage sale  

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, props, and set pieces from previous productions. Free. 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-3422 ext. 120. 

Community Workshop to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Berkeley High School  

9 a.m. - noon 

Florence Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School 

Students, parents, teachers, business owners, neighbors, and others are invited to a discussion on that will help set the course for future school improvements and provide the basis for accreditation review. 

Iris Starr, AICP, 540-1252 

tinstarr@earthlink.net 

— compiled by Chason Wainwright 

“Grassroots Globalization vs. Elite Globalization” 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. 

595-7417 

“Halloween Mask Making” 

Tilden Regional Park 

2 p.m. 

Come learn the origins of Halloween and make a plaster-gauze mask. Registration required. $4. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more.  

Call 649-3943  

“The 3rd annual Habitot Halloween” 

Habitot Children’s Museum  

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

A not-too-spooky Halloween event for young children with entertainment, parades, games, magic and songs. Come in  

costume. Registration strongly suggested. $4 general; $6 for the first child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

647-1111 

“Not Very Scary Halloween Celebration” 

10:30 a.m. at La Pena  

Betsy Rose performs songs and activities to celebrate the harvest season and the ancestral spirits. Children are invited to come in costume. $4 general; $3 children. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2572. 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 29

“Almost Halloween Hike,”  

Tilden Regional Park 

10 a.m.  

Explore the nature of Halloween folklore on the trails.  

“Wake the Dead: A Music Concert”  

Celebrate the Celtic “Day of the Dead” (Halloween) with folksong artists Paul Kotapish and Danny Carnahan.  

2 to 4 p.m.  

(510) 525-2233. 

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

An Evening with The Professor 

5 - 9:30 p.m. 

Mambo Mambo 

1803 Webster St.  

Oakland 

Berkeley resident Geoffrey A. Hirsch, better known as the Tie Guy from the “How Berkeley Can You Be” parade got his start in comedy in 1996. A professor in real life, Hirsch tell the story of how he became a funny guy.  

$5 for show only, $10 for show and dinner 

Call Geoffrey Hirsch at 845-5631 to reserve tickets 

Monday, Oct. 30

Fun with Oragami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

“BYOP: Pumpkin Carving By Porch and Hearth,” 

Tilden Regional Park 

4 to 7 p.m. “Bring your own pepo” 

Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak  

Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equip,emt. fundamental climbing techiques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

7:30 p.m., 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Monday, Nov. 6

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

“Diabetes: What to Know Head-to-Toe” 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free 

869-6737 

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

“Time Across Cultures” 

2 - 4 p.m. 

St. Clements Church 

2837 Claremont Ave.  

The annual Roselyn Yellin Memorial lecture with a slide-illustrated panel discussion. Also a tour of the “Telling Time” exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum followed by a reception at the museum, 4 - 5 p.m.  

More info: 549-6950 

Buddhism & Compassion 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Psychiatrist and teacher Bobby Jones on “Healing through Compassion.” Free.  

843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 13

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s works include “Animal Dreams,” “High Tide in Tucson,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Prodigal Summer” 

free parking $10 in advance, $13 at the door 

Benefits KPFA and Urban Ecology. 

848-6767 

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Take a Trip to the Steinbeck Museum and 

Mission San Juan Bautista 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organzied by the Senior Center.  

$40 with lunch, $25 without  

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Thursday, Nov. 16

Reminiscing in Swingtime 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Library  

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

George Yoshida, author and jazz drummer, presents a multi-media program recounting the big band experience in the Japanese American internment camps. The presentation will be capped with a set of live jazz by the George Yoshida Quartet. 

Call for more info: 644-6850 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Free blood pressure screenings 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

free 

869-6737 

Saturday, Nov. 18

 

S.F. Stairs and Peaks 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Begin the day with a visit to the farmer’s market, then meander up the stairways and streets of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Then up Russian Hill, descending to Fisherman’s Wharf for a ride back on the new historic streetcar line. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 

 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival 

11 a.m. - 1 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Fourteen hours of free concerts, workshops, jam sessions and to top it off a Saturday night dance. The fifth annual Folk Festival will feature Shay & Michael Black, Spectre Double Negative & the Equal Positive, Larry Hanks, Wake the Dead and many others. Sponsored by Charles Schwab and the City of Berkeley.  

More info or to volunteer: 525-5099 

 

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Sunday, Nov. 19

Soprano Deborah Voigt 

Cal Performances  

3 p.m.  

Voigt’s performance is a postponment from her original Oct. 15 date. The program will remain unchanged. 

$28-$48 For tickets call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Mt. Madonna & Wine  

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Hike through evergreen forests and visit the remains of a 19th century estate, then finish the day with a visit to Kruse Winery. One of many free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: (415) 255-3233 for reservations 

“Drawing Marathon”  

Merritt College’s Art Building 

Live models, group poses.  

$12 for half a day, $20 for a full day, senior and student discounts available. No cameras or turpentine. 

523-9763 

Tuesday, Nov. 21

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center, Maffly Auditorium 

Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Call D.L. Malinousky, 601-0550 

Saturday, Dec. 2

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Storyteller Kellmar draws from her African-American roots with stories that touch the heart and the funnybone. For childen aged 3-7. 

Call 649-3943  

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

LOS ANGELES — For decades, Los Angeles’ bus drivers and riders have looked at each other across the fare box with suspicion and distrust. 

The Metropolitan Transit Authority consistently told riders that drivers’ salaries were behind rising fares. Drivers, in turn, got the message that the only way to keep their jobs secure was to stick it to riders in the fare box. 

Yet, the recent 32-day drivers' strike saw drivers and riders forge a winning alliance against the MTA – an alliance that not only won the strike, but marks a shift in the city's balance of power.  

L.A. bus riders – overwhelmingly immigrants from Mexico and Central America – are the base of the city's new economy. The buses carry room cleaners in downtown luxury hotels, seamstresses from garment sweatshops, day laborers, domestics and janitors.  

A majority of the drivers are African-Americans. Over the last two decades, the closure of L.A.'s steel, auto and tire plants has left thousands of black workers in the street.  

Driving a bus today is one of the few secure jobs left carrying union benefits and a salary high enough to allow a family to buy a home. 

Defending those wages and conditions was an uphill struggle. 

As one picketer said, “there’s a lot of resentment out there against people of color, especially women, making $50,000 a year.” 

Los Angeles' changing economy has pitted these two sections of the workforce against each other, and many elected officials exploit the consequent hostility. Overcoming this divide in the course of a bitter labor dispute shows a new level of awareness in both communities. 

Riders and drivers saw clearly that the pressure to raise bus fares came not from salaries, but from the huge construction budgets for new rail systems bringing mostly white commuters in from the suburbs. 

The rail system will promote land development on the city's fringe –good news for the giant firms paid millions to do the work, and the building trades, the old guard of the city's labor movement. 

The MTA first tried to cut bus service to pay for rail, but the Bus Riders Union went to court and won a consent decree mandating minimum service levels. 

The transit strike started as a battle against MTA efforts to to pay ballooning construction costs by converting hundreds of full-time jobs to part time, reducing pay to affected workers and limiting overtime. 

Underlying these demands was a plan to break up the transit system into autonomous units serving smaller areas – a precondition for turning operations over to private contractors. 

As soon as the strike started, the riders' union began organizing big rallies to support the drivers. At the end of the strike, over 850 drivers signed letters demanding no cuts in service. 

“There was a radical change in the drivers' attitude towards the riders’ union,” says Eric Mann, a member of the riders’ union planning committee.  

“In the past, their union relied on an insider relationship with the MTA and saw us as troublemakers. That’s not true anymore.” 

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor also backed the striking drivers, breaking long-established relationships with two MTA directors – staunch Democrats Gloria Molina and Yvonne Braithwaite-Burke – who are also county supervisors elected with labor votes and dollars. The two made common cause with Republican Mayor Richard Reardon against the unions. 

Miguel Contreras, the first Latino head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, came to the drivers' defense, also breaking long-standing political relationships with the building trades and MTA management.  

Contreras took the side of the federation's most active unions today, which include janitors, hotel workers, and garment workers. 

Against this alliance, even Governor Gray Davis proved powerless. In the middle of the strike, Davis agreed to sign legislation guaranteeing MTA jobs, wages and union contracts for four years in the event of the breakup of the transit system.  

He then tried to use the agreement as leverage to get the supervisors and mechanics unions’ leaders to send their members across the drivers’ picketlines and back to work.  

The heads of these unions agreed, but the following morning, only eight of over 1,800 mechanics crossed the lines.  

The rest refused. Supported by Contreras, James Williams, head of the drivers' local of United Transportation Union, declined the governor's blandishments. 

In the process, both riders and drivers protected the integrity of the transit system. Since the agreement prevents the use of lower wages and broken unions as an incentive, at least for the next few years, it is less likely that the district will be broken up and privatized. 

The settlement that ended the strike is a compromise. It allows the MTA to begin hiring part-timers at lower wages. Overtime will be limited, and management will be able to intervene on work rules. 

But a new political truth overshadows this compromise – the city’s low-wage workers showed themselves willing to defend higher wage-earners. 

Latinos made common cause with African-Americans. Drivers came out against service cuts that would have bolstered rail service for suburban commuters at the expense of working-class bus riders.  

Just a few months ago, L.A.’s low-wage immigrant janitors fought a celebrated strike – the latest in a decade-long series of rebellions from below – for drastic improvements in pay and working conditions. 

They won the support of the city's emerging Latino political establishment, against the downtown old guard. 

When that movement came to the support of the drivers, it recognized a basic common interest. The city's low-wage workers desperately need the public sector – social welfare, public schools, subsidized transportation, free healthcare and other public services.  

L.A. county workers, for their part, find themselves engaged in a bitter struggle for wage increases and higher budgets for those public services. This new labor-based alliance has the power to redefine who will benefit from the city’s new economy. 

PNS associate editor David Bacon is a Berkeley resident who writes widely on immigrant and labor issues.

After a first half characterized by dropped passes and sloppy tackling, the tenacious play of unheralded St. Mary’s senior fullback Danny Wheeler sparked the Panthers to a 34-0 rout of Albany High (1-4) Saturday afternoon.  

Taking over after Albany’s first drive stalled on St. Mary’s 24-yard line, the Panther’s embarked upon a six-play, 3:10 drive capped by Wheeler breaking one tackle and rumbling into the endzone from 12 yards out. 

A back-up center for the Panther’s last year, Wheeler made the most of the opportunities afforded by an unsuspecting Albany defense to rush for 54 yards and one touchdown on nine carries, providing the backbone of the 237-yard Panther rushing attack.  

Commenting on his play, Wheeler said: "Most people key in on Trestin (George), but they have no idea that I’m there. I just run with my heart." 

After taking this seven-point lead, St. Mary’s fell asleep at the wheel and was unable to sustain any notable drives for the rest of the half, and accumulated only another 54 yards of total offense before halftime. Albany was similarly ineffective and put together only one more drive, pushing the Panther "bend but don’t break" defense to the 17-yard line.  

The Panthers woke up at halftime, and played the second half with all the intensity they had lacked in the first. After kicking off, St. Mary’s promptly forced Albany quarterback Yaw Yiadom to fumble, and Omar Young pounced on the loose ball to give the Panther’s their first scoring opportunity of the half. Starting on his own 37-yard line, St. Mary’s head coach Dan Shaughnessy turned to his newly founded inside-outside running attack. With the Albany defense keyed in on senior running back Trestin George, Wheeler pounded the ball up their gut and George stuck with his strength, sweeping downfield. Seven plays and 3:26 later the Panther’s took a 14-0 lead.  

After the game, Coach Dan Shaughnessy noted that "I was concerned about us being lethargic at the beginning, team-wise. We were slow getting ready. But that’s okay, we came through at the end." 

Wide awake and playing full-tilt, the Panther defense roared again, and forced Yiadom into his second consecutive turnover. Squeezed in a collapsing pocket, Yiadom tried to dump the ball to tight end XY. Junior Omarr Flood leaped, tipped, and intercepted the ball. His sprint to the endzone was short, and 20 yards later the Panthers took a commanding 21-0 lead.  

Looking confident after stopping Albany at midfield, St. Mary’s gave the ball to George, who sprinted 45 yards down the sideline to leave his Panther teammates salivating at the prospect of another six points. St. Mary’s pounded twice into the Albany line, and George bounded into the endzone on the third attempt to give his team a 27-point lead.  

After receiving another Albany punt on the 41-yard line, St. Mary’s gave the ball to George. In a deja vu, virtual replay of a few moments before, George took a sweep left, avoided two tacklers, and scampered 41 yards downfield. This time, however, George crossed the goal-line to earn his third touchdown of the afternoon, and giving him 159 yards for the afternoon and his team a 34-0 victory. 

The win carries St. Mary’s to 4-3 (2-0 BSAL) while Albany drops to 1-5. St. Mary’s goes on the road to take on St. Patrick’s High at 5:30 next Friday night.

Underground youth activist Jia Ching Chen has rappelled off buildings, been tear-gassed, and led throngs of multiracial youth in the first “hip-hop sit-in” at the San Francisco Hilton.  

Yet, the winner of this year’s Mario Savio Memorial Free Speech Award stumbled on his words while receiving his prize earlier this week. 

“I was nervous,” said the 27-year-old activist. “Maybe because it had a feeling of being mainstream.” 

He received $1,000 as part of the award from Lynne Hollander Savio, widow of Mario Savio, the famed Berkeley free speech activist in whose the honor the award is given.  

Chen was recognized for leading a new generation of activists in the fight for human rights and social justice with integrity, said Savio.  

He has led youth of all colors across the Bay Area in campaigns against police brutality. Last year, he organized a group that protested the World Trade Organization in Seattle. 

Although honored by his award, Chen later said he is more accustomed to addressing multiracial teenage groups and felt slightly awkward in front of the ceremony’s crowd.  

More than 200 activists and academics, many middle-aged and white, came to Pauley Ballroom Tuesday to see feminist authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild speak for the Savio Memorial lecture.  

“It’s a demographic that made me uncomfortable in my past,” he said.  

Growing up among few people of color in Salt Lake City, Chen, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, said he experienced racism. 

“It took me a long time to figure out what democracy really was,” he said. “That the government can provide checks and balances isn’t really true.” 

After getting his architecture and interdisciplinary arts degrees from the UC Berkeley, Chen became politically active.  

In 1998, he founded the East Bay chapter of the Third Eye Movement, a youth of color group that fights against police brutality. He has also worked with the Berkeley-based Ruckus Society, which trains people for the rigors of public demonstrations. 

A highlight in his short but vivid activist career was shutting down the WTO ministerial last year, he said. 

Seven months ago, Chen joined JustAct: Youth Action for Global Justice. This group educates other youth groups on how their individual issues, like gay and lesbian rights or environmentalism, tie in with global ones. 

“We’re trying to build a grassroots solidarity. To meet people engaged in similar struggles all over the world,” he said. 

The group often teaches workshops on world trade and banking to minority youth organizations. 

“We want to bring an understanding of global economics to traditionally marginalized constituents, explain its effects on their fights,” he said.  

Despite leading many in their struggles, Chen initially had doubts about how rallies with youth groups could change the world. 

“It can be really stressful and difficult,” he said. “It took me a while to feel empowered by working collectively,” he said. 

“In the beginning, I felt some discomfort at demonstrations,” he said. “But the need to act overcame that.” 

Daily Planet Wire Services 

SEATTLE - Washington scored 23 points in a 6:01 span of the fourth quarter to post a 36-24 come-from-behind victory over Cal Saturday afternoon in Husky Stadium.  

The Bears led for most of the game and entered the final period up, 24-13. However, two fumbles, an interception and a blocked punt in four straight possessions directly led to 23 UW points, giving the Huskies their 18th consecutive win over the Bears.  

Up to that point, Cal played one of its best games of the year. Joe Igber rushed for 116 yards and quarterback Kyle Boller threw for one touchdown and rushed for another. However, UW, which has outscored its opponents by more than 60 points in the fourth quarter this year, took control down the stretch.  

Cal enjoyed fine field position throughout the first quarter and broke into the scoring column on a 54-yard touchdown drive. The march was kept alive by a roughing the punter penalty, which set the ball at the Washington 30-yard-line. Two plays later, Boller hit freshman Geoff McArthur, who found a seam in the zone and he hauled in a 24-yard TD pass with 4:52 left in the quarter.  

Penalties also played a big role on the next drive. A Cal fumble recovery was negated by an offsides penalty and a Marques Tuiasosopo scramble inside Cal’s 10-yard line was wiped out by a holding penalty. However, the Huskies converted a 3rd-and-25 situation with a 28-yard pass to Paul Arnold at the Cal 16. Five plays later, Rich Alexis took the ball into end zone from one-yard out to tie the score on the first play of the second quarter.  

On its next possession, Cal marched all the way to the Husky 33, but failed on a fourth-down attempt.  

That field position paid off, though, as Cal got a major break on the next play. Andre Carter caused a Rich Alexis fumble and linebacker John Klotsche picked up the loose ball and rambled in 34 yards for a touchdown and a Bears 14-7 lead with 11:12 left in the half.  

Taking over at their own 23-yard-line with 2:51 left in the half, the Huskies used crossing patterns to quickly move down the field. After getting as far as the Cal 25. The Bears stiffened and John Anderson came on to nail a 42-yard field goal to make it 14-10 at the intermission.  

Cal began to take seemingly control of the game in the third quarter. After stopping the Huskies, the Bears again moved into Washington territory. A 40-yard run by Igber put the ball at the Husky 16. Three plays later, Boller dropped back, saw a wide open middle, and scrambled 15 yards for a TD and a 24-13 lead with 2:07 left in the third period.  

Washington attempted to get back into the game on its next drive. Thanks to a 4th-and-1 conversion at the Cal 30, the Huskies advanced deep into Cal territory. When the drive stalled, Anderson came on to attempt a 32-yard field goal attempt, but it sailed wide right with 12:37 left in the game.  

Disaster struck three plays later when Anthony Kelley came on a blitz and forced a fumble as Boller was attempting the throw. Linebacker Derrell Daniels fell on the ball at the Cal 12-yard-line. Cal’s defense rose to the occasion and this time Anderson hit a 29-yard field goal to make it 24-16 with 10:35 left in the game.  

Washington received yet another break on the next drive, when Swafford slipped trying to make a cut to the sidelines and the pass floated straight into the hands of cornerback Omare Lowe at the Cal 31-yard-line with just under nine minutes left in the game. A pair of first downs put the ball at the 10-yard-line with just over seven minutes to go. Tight end Jerramy Stevens culminated the drive when he hauled in a TD pass to pull the Huskies within two. A two-point pass conversion was negated by three penalties and everybody had to do it again. This time the pass across the middle was incomplete, knocked down by Jemeel Powell, and the Bears were clinging to a 24-22 lead with 6:49 left in the game.  

An illegal block on the ensuing kickoff put the Bears in poor field position at their own 12-yard-line. On the first play, Joe Igber fumbled the ball and Hakim Akbar recovered at the Cal 16-yard-line. Rich Alexis made the Bears play as he rambled 16 yards on an option pitch for the TD. With the extra point, Washington had its first lead of the day at 29-24.  

The trend continued for Cal on its next drive. After a 20-yard run by Igber, the Bears were eventually forced to punt. This time, UW blocked the Nick Harris kick, recovering the ball on the Cal 9-yard-line. Two plays later, Tuiasosopo his Todd Elstrom in the back of the end zone for the 36-24 lead.  

Boller finished the day completing 14-of-32 passes for 213 yards, including three each to Igber and Chase Lyman. Tuiasosopo was 19-for-35 on the day for 225 yards.

Ever since Martyn Smith, professor of toxicology at UC Berkeley and graduate student Christine F. Skibola, published their findings in the “Free Radical Biology and Medicine” journal, they’ve been inundated with phone calls and e-mails from very worried people.  

Their studies showed that an excessive intake of certain components of plant food, called flavonoids, in the form of supplements, could be toxic. High concentrations of flavonoids are present in popular products such as ginkgo pills, quercetin tablets, grape seed extract and flax seed.  

“People want to improve their own health, and unfortunately believe the wild claims made for these supplements. They believe that their memory is going to be sharpened by Gingko Biloba. There is absolutely no evidence for that in normal people. So, they’re trying to improve themselves, but in the effort, they may be doing more harm to themselves than good.”  

Smith and Skibola embarked on this study because they got tired of hearing only about the beneficial effects of flavanoids, which according to them are actually in fruits and vegetables. “The companies selling these compounds are touting the good things. But people have to be aware of the dangers they’re exposed to,” said Skibola.  

Smith points to the example of a supplement called Quercetin, which is widely advertised as an antihistamine, and is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties. “The bottle of Quercetin in our lab has a skull and cross bones ‘poison’ sign on it. We handle it only with protective clothing. You can go to a health food store and buy it, and they recommend that you take a gram a day. There’s no warning on it. The first studies at Berkeley on that compound and others, which showed that it produced generic damage were done in 1977, and published in ‘Science’ on the Berkeley campus. People seem to have forgotten that. They seem to think that it’s a harmless natural substance, and that’s just not true.”  

Smith and Skibola don’t doubt that flavonoids are potentially very useful compounds. The duo say the benefits are in eating flavonoid-rich foods, like green teas, apples, onions, and other fruits and vegetables, and not in taking supplements with high flavonoid concentrations. “What is good for you in nature is not necessarily good for you in a concentrated form,” said Skibola. 

Smith said the crux of the problem is the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. With the passage of this act, the dietary ingredients used in dietary supplements were no longer subject to the pre-market safety evaluations required of other new food ingredients or for new uses of old food ingredients. “The supplements can only be taken off the market if the Food and Drug Administration can prove that they are unsafe. The burden of proving that they are unsafe is on the government, and not on the manufacturer,” said Smith.  

But manufacturing companies insist that this doesn’t give them any leeway to do as they please. “The FDA does regulate us. Certain label claims have to be approved by the FDA. We have to adhere to their guidelines. We have a legal department and a regulatory department to deal with label claims,” said Jim Sword, director of corporate communications at Twin Labs. 

And it appears that many consumers would rather believe the labels than the studies. 

Andrew Saito, 21, an ethnic studies student at UC Berkeley, likes to use grapefruit extract and black currant oil. He believes that they help with acne and eczema. He wasn’t sure if the findings would make him stop using these supplements.  

“There are conflicting theories about everything. So, I don’t know what to believe,” said Saito. 

Many consumers agreed with him. So did the people on the other side of the counter. “A lot of people are doing research. One says one thing. Another says some thing else. I look at a lot of reference books, before I decide what to keep in my store. And my reading tells me that flavonoids are good, because they are a part of the natural environment.” said Baoul Scavullo, the owner of a health food store that sells various dietary supplements. “When people say that to me, I tell them that arsenic, mercury, benzene and lead are all perfectly natural,” said Smith. “There are all these poisons you can think of, which are perfectly natural, and there’s no demonstration that with time, that you become more resistant to them.”  

Smith and Skibla are worried that too many people are self-medicating themselves with these supplements, and not telling their doctors about it. This could confuse matters when the doctor is trying to make a diagnosis or prescribe treatment. The only way out, according to Smith, is legislation.  

“You can combat this only with new legislation, requiring the manufacturers to establish safe levels of intake and to demonstrate that their products are safe. I think the burden should be on the manufacturer, and not on the government.”  

Sabo, Mueller score as Cal gets third straight shutout 

In a game marred by high winds and dirty play, the Cal women’s soccer team came out on top, 2-0, over a plucky but overmatched Arizona squad. 

First-half goals by forward Kyla Sabo and defender Ashley Mueller provided the scoreline, but it was during the second half that things got interesting. After playing with the strong wind at their backs in the first half, the Bears struggled to keep Arizona (3-11-2, 0-5-1 Pac-10) from getting scoring opportunities with the wind in their faces, as the Wildcats sent high ball after high ball down the field.  

“I’ll take rain, even a little snow over this kind of wind,” Cal head coach Kevin Boyd said. “It effects the gameplay quite a bit. You feel like you’re running uphill when its in your face. I thought we played well in spite of the conditions.” 

Midfielder Ashley Gonzalez stopped many charges short with her steady play in the air, but the Cal backs were caught napping several times as the Wildcats attacked down the flanks and sent crosses through the box. But Arizona’s forwards couldn’t get a boot to the ball at the right time, and several balls went untouched past the Cal goal. 

The second half also saw a change in strategy by the Arizona defense, who supplemented their man-marking and persistent double-teaming of Pac-10 leading scorer Laura Schott with hard fouls. Schott spent most of the half being hacked at, and she eventually retaliated with a hard foul of her own on Arizona’s Cassidy Guinn, who stayed down for several minutes before continuing. Boyd removed Schott from the game soon after, ending the sophomore’s eight-game scoring streak. 

“I’m pretty sure their coach got on them at halftime about trying to match up and battle with our forwards, and the referee pretty much swallowed his whistle,” Boyd said. “We just had to work through it and deal with the fouls we took.” 

The physical play wasn’t limited to the Arizona defense, as several battles emerged in the midfield, and the Cal defense responded with some physical play of their own. 

“We have to control the game. If they’re going to foul our forwards, we’ll go in harder on theirs,” senior sweeper Tami Pivnik said. “We don’t like to play like that, but we’re going to do it if we have to.” 

Sabo’s goal came just seven minutes into the game. Cal midfielder Natalie Stuhlmueller streaked down the left sideline and served a cross right onto the onrushing Sabo, who headed the ball past Arizona goalkeeper Inger Airheart. The goal was Sabo’s sixth of the season, giving the junior a career-high 20 points for the year. 

Sabo, who also scored a week ago against archrival Stanford, has become a complementary scorer behind Schott, something the team needs as opponents begin to key on stopping the All-America candidate. 

“Teams are coming in saying ‘Laura’s the scorer, we’ll man-mark her and they won’t score.’ Kevin’s been telling me I have to step up and be more dangerous,” Sabo said. “They’re so concerned with Laura that they forget about whoever else is up front with her.” 

Cal’s second goal came in the 24th minute, as an Arizona defender cleared the ball right to Mueller. The sophomore stepped up and hit the ball with her left foot from 35 yards out, and the ball whistled into the left corner of the net pas the diving Airheart for Mueller’s first goal at Cal. 

“I hit it really hard and it just went in,” Mueller said. “I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so accurate. It’s nice because defenders don’t get much of a chance to score.” 

The win boosted the Bears overall record to 14-1-1 and put them in second place in the conference with a 4-1 record. 

Next up for the Bears is a tough road trip to Los Angeles, where they will play at USC (11-3-2, 3-1-1) on Friday and UCLA (12-2-1, 3-1-1) Sunday. Both teams were undefeated in Pac-10 play before this weekend, when both lost close games to conference leader Washington. 

This weekend’s games will likely determine Cal’s postseason fate. Boyd said he feels his team has earned a tournament spot and are now vying for a first-round bye and possible seeded spot. If the Bears earn a split next weekend and sweep the Oregon schools at home to close the season, Boyd expects a first-round bye. The coach said the team needs to win all four remaining games to earn a seeded spot in the tournament, something he thinks is a very real possibility. 

“I think we’re playing well. I think we can go in there and give them tough games,” Boyd said. “They’re going to have to do a lot to beat us, that’s for sure.”

California scored six unanswered goals to top Davidson, 6-1, on Sunday at Kleeberger Field to finish the conference schedule undefeated at 5-0.  

Davidson (6-12, 1-4 in NorPac) came out at the started of the match with an aggressive attack and a stifling defense that virtually created a human wall at one point to stop Cal’s leading scorer, Nora Feddersen, from advancing with the ball.  

The Wildcats only score of the game came off a penalty corner when Davidson’s leading scorer Lea Jaeger took a set shot for a 1-0 lead. 

Fighting winds of up to 25 miles at some points in the game, Cal bounced back and scored six straight goals as Stephanie Lyons scored on the Bears fourth penalty corner to knot the game at 1-1.  

Cal (9-4, 5-0 in NorPac) scored one more goal before the intermission as senior defender Leslie Katch scored off of a rebound on a penalty corner. Erin Booth tipped the initial save and Katch was there to put it home for her third goal of the season.  

“It really feels good to help out the team on offense,” said Katch. “Mainly I’m a defender, but, we’ve been working on having our defense come up and help out offensively. Even if they’re scored on corners, it’s just nice to contribute that way instead of just stopping the goals.”  

In the second half, the Bears continued their offensive outburst on another corner as Feddersen faked a shot from the top of the circle setting up junior, Amber Stockstill who collapsed down towards the goal, putting Cal up, 3-1.  

“I have to give the team some credit,” said coach Shellie Onstead. “I actually made one up (corner formation) on the fly and that’s the one that Amber Stockstill scored. I yelled to them what to do and they executed it perfectly.”  

Harkins third assist came when she found a streaking Pooja Mehta who handled the pass and lifted the shot passed Davidson goalkeeper, Amanda Mordavsky.  

“After they scored that first goal, we were upset because we’re conference champions and they’re up on us like right away,” explained Harkins. “So we decided that we had to get it back.”

OAKLAND — Green Party Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader rejected calls from a dozen of his longtime fellow activists that he rethink his campaign because he could cost Democrat Al Gore the election. 

Twelve old “Nader’s Raiders” urged Nader on Friday to drop out of the White House race in states where Gore is in close fights with Republican George W. Bush. 

“There’s a dozen former Nader’s Raiders out of several thousand who decided to raise this point,” Nader said Saturday at a news conference preceding a rally that hall officials said drew more than 6,000 people. 

“I think they’re well-intentioned, but frightened liberals who sided with the lesser of two evils,” Nader said of the dozen, who call themselves “Nader’s Raiders for Gore.” 

Some of the dozen have in recent years gone into corporate employment or work for the government, and don’t understand that times have changed for consumer activists, he said. 

“We can’t get done what we got done when they were working with us,” because of “big money in politics and the increasing homogenization of both parties into one party indentured to business interests,” he said. 

The dozen critics also said Nader broke a promise to campaign only in states where his candidacy would not hurt Gore’s chances for victory. 

Nader denied ever making such a promise, and made plain he intends to press on with his campaign nationwide, if only to build a viable third party for the future. 

“This is a 50-state campaign,” he said. Nader offered rally-goers a glimpse of government under his leadership. 

“We’ve got to go back to the people of this country and build the civic power that we’ll (bring) back to Washington and take our government back and bend it to our will,” he said. 

Nader said the Democratic party assumes that its liberal base has “got nowhere else to go.” 

“That’s quite a choice for the American people, between the bad Democratic party and the worse Republicans,” he said. “I think we need a better choice than that.” 

A Field Poll earlier this month showed Gore leading Bush by 13 percentage points, with Nader drawing 4 percent. But more recent polls show the race tightening significantly. Democratic surveys in California show Gore leading by as little as 6 points.

OAKLAND – Oakland Fire Department Chief Gerald Simon credited hard lessons learned in the 1991 East Bay hills wild fire for today's quick and effective response to new fire threats. 

Speaking at a news conference at the department this evening, Simon said by 10:30 a.m. reports from residents of branches blown into wires by the wind prompted officials to open the city's emergency operations center. 

By 11:05 a.m he said the center was fully operational and ready to handle a report nine minutes later of a fire on Wisconsin Street at 11:14 a.m. 

Soon after, at 11:32 a.m., he said a second fire was reported in the Oakland hills, near Claremont Avenue and Harbord Drive, that charred 10 acres of land. 

But no structures were damaged today, the chief said, and no one was injured. 

Simon said that from the city of Oakland alone, 150 people were on the scene dealing with the fires.  

He also praised mutual assistance teams, which he said were alerted early on that their aid could be needed because of lessons learned in the October 21, 1991 fire, in which 25 people died and 3,000 homes were destroyed in Oakland  

and Berkeley. 

Today's story could have ended far worse, because similar dry, windy conditions held the potential for another “disaster-type event,” the chief said. 

Simon said that at one point the fire was moving up a slope and, if it had jumped a small fire break or embers had blown across, could have reached within 35 feet of striking distance to homes. 

Crews will remain on duty all night to ensure that the fire does not flare up again. 

Extra staff members are being called in, in addition to some mutual aid that is being retained. 

The 1991 fire was believed to be a rekindling of a fire from the previous day that had not been thoroughly extinguished. 

Simon said firefighters will continue to monitor the area until there is a significant decrease in wind activity. Helicopters will be used for monitoring the area. 

Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb said the forestry division had been deferring maintenance on trees for a number of years, and the city will need to address that area. He said more resources will be put into forestry and vegetation maintenance.

SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers say they’ve discovered what’s draining 10 percent of the electricity in homes in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world. 

Vampires. 

Also called power supplies, vampires are the chunky, two-pronged plugs that power everything from refrigerators to cellular phone chargers.  

But long after household appliances such as stereos, computers and bread machines are turned off, vampires continue draining standby power from the electrical grid – at an average cost of $80 a year per household. 

“You know they are working when you’ve turned off your appliance and you touch that vampire and it’s still warm,” said Alan Meier, a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

A recent study by Meier and J.P. Ross of the University of California, Berkeley, found that standby power represents 67 watts, or 10 percent, of an average Bay Area home’s electricity use per year.  

With power rates expected to rise, every extra watt adds up, Meier said. 

Standby power use has become an international concern as more household appliances and electronics add features such as clocks and computerized displays that require a continual flow of power. 

Studies in Japan, Germany and the Netherlands have also found standby power accounts for as much as 10 percent of national residential electricity use.  

The quickest solution is unplugging the vampires, though Meier calls that unrealistic.  

He said the best solution is to convince manufacturers to use newer, energy efficient vampires for their products.  

The state recently gave the California Energy Commission $50 million to launch a campaign to cut power use by next June. 

State energy commission director Arthur Rosenfeld said under one proposal manufacturers would get a 50 cent rebate for each energy efficient vampire sold over the next year.  

The commission also proposes to provide funding for cities and other groups to install energy-efficient appliances and equipment. 

A growing number of portable devices charged by vampires, such as handheld computers, cellular phones and laptops makes cutting back on standby power imperative, says Craig Hershberg, manager of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy’s Energy Star program.  

At the federal level, the Energy Star program has given recognition to energy efficient products since 1992. 

Such programs have driven companies, such as Sunnyvale’s Power Integrations, Inc., a maker of power supplies, to incorporate energy efficiency into their product design, said Mike Matthews, director of strategic marketing. 

Their power supply design replaces traditional weighty iron and copper transformers with silicon chips and electronic components.  

This makes the power supply lighter, more energy efficient, and compatible with voltage around the world, Matthews said. 

Palo Alto’s Sun Microsystems, Inc., a network computing services provider, won an award this year from Energy Star for producing energy efficient products and workspaces. 

And Mountain View’s Cobalt Networks, Inc., also a computer networking services company, produces a server that uses only 30 watts of electricity, generates less heat and requires less work from cooling systems. 

Refrigerators, laptop computer chargers and set-top boxes for cable or satellite television are among the hungriest standby power appliances, the study said. 

Some appliances use more power in standby mode than when they are in use: A 1999 New Zealand study revealed that more than 40 percent of microwave ovens consumed more electricity in the standby mode than when heating food. 

On the Net: 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy’s Energy Star program: http://www.energystar.gov 

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Web site about Leaking energy sources: http://eetd.lbl.gov/standby 

California Energy Commission: http://www.energy.ca.gov 

Power Integrations, Inc.: http://www.powerint.com 

Cobalt Networks, Inc.: http://www.cobalt.com 

Sun Microsystems, Inc.: http://www.sun.com

Trees around school playgrounds do more than shade kids after a fast-round of keep-away. If enough playgrounds and parking lots are shaded, the whole city will stay cooler. 

Changing black roofs and parking lots to white also can help, federal scientists say. 

Those nice, cool colors, green and white, are the keys to using information which NASA provided two years ago in infrared photographs pinpointing the hottest spots in Louisiana’s capital of Baton Rouge. 

Sacramento, Atlanta, Baton Rouge and Salt Lake City were pilot cities in a NASA-Environmental Protection Agency project that has since spread to Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Phoenix. 

The object: reducing urban heat islands where asphalt, concrete and steel hold and intensify heat. Cities can be 2 to 8 degrees hotter than the area around them. That, in turn, intensifies pollution. 

The first flights were over Atlanta in May 1997. NASA researchers reported this year that Atlanta’s heat creates nighttime thunderstorms when the sky outside the metro area is clear. 

Baton Rouge, Salt Lake City and Sacramento were heat-mapped two years ago. 

Baton Rouge architect Coleman D. Brown is already convinced that white roofs are best for the commercial buildings he designs. Helping the city is a bonus. 

He replaced the coal tar roof at Brown & Brown Architects five years ago with an insulated white roof. His air conditioning bills fell from about $2,500 a month to $1,800 to $2,000 a month. 

“Here’s the kicker,” he says: the roof cost much less than a coal tar roof. It won’t last as long, but the air conditioning more than makes up the difference. 

Fran Stewart, an environmental scientist at the Department of Environmental Quality, reports to NASA and EPA this week on what the city-parish is doing to get out of the blacktop. A committee is rewriting the landscaping ordinance. 

“I’d like to see pretty much all shade covering all parking areas,” said Peggy Davis, education director for Baton Rouge Green, a group dedicated to planting trees in the city. “I’m hoping for 60 percent.” 

Sacramento already requires new parking lots to include enough trees to shade at least half of the parking lot after 15 years. 

In January, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District plans to offer the nation’s first incentive for white roofs on both homes and commercial buildings, said Ray Tretheway, executive director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation. 

“They’re projecting they’ll rebate 20 cents a square foot if you go to a cool roof,” he said. 

The Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory has said that doubling the space shaded by trees and adding several square miles of light surfaces would cut Sacramento’s smoggy days in half, he said. 

In Baton Rouge, turning every roof and every street and parking lot in the city from black to white would get the city halfway to its total air quality goal, said Hashem Akbari, head of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory’s urban heat project. 

It’s a long-term goal. 

“A lot of roofs are being changed every 10 years. And pavements also need to be resurfaced every seven to eight years. So we are hoping within 10 to 15 years, we would get to that objective,” he said. 

Salt Lake City isn’t changing its landscape ordinance, said Meryl Redisch, Executive Director of TreeUtah. 

She said she thinks it’s more important to work directly with developers and councils to get them to include cool community strategies. In the Highland community, she said, one of the architectural and landscape architecture firms is adding more trees in parking lots and more landscaping in general. 

Baton Rouge Green isn’t just working outside the schools, but teaching the children inside them. 

Both its tree planting and education programs were started well before the EPA’s urban heat initiative. Baton Rouge Green has been planting trees at 10 schools a year since 1992. 

The NASA data shows which schools need them most, Morris said. 

Architects in the city also began using white roofs before the project began, Brown said. A survey of the city’s biggest contractors found that they had installed 3.1 million square feet of white roofing — enough to cover the Superdome more than six times — over the past three years. The figure probably can be doubled to include all contractors, he said. 

A new roof isn’t always needed. Brown said one of his friends cut the temperature in his Houma boathouse by about 10 degrees just by painting the metal roof true white instead of off-white. 

——— 

On the Net: 

NASA: http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/urban/ 

Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory: http://EandE.LBL.gov/HeatIslands/ 

EPA: http://www.livablecommunities.gov/toolsandresources/sg—heat.htm 

Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory: http://eetd.lbl.gov/HeatIsland/ 

Baton Rouge: http://www.batonrougegreen.com/ 

Sacramento: http://www.energy.ca.gov/coolcommunity/index.html 

Salt Lake City: http://www.treelink.org/treeutah/flyover.html 

OAKLAND — Oakland police have arrested an administrator with the city’s Office of Parks and Recreation on suspicion of embezzling more than $12,000 to pay for school supplies and a trip to the Virgin Islands. 

Lenora Hameed, 44, is the first employee of the office to be arrested as a result of a three-month police probe of the department. 

Hameed was arrested Friday morning as she left the Alhambra Academy School of Science and World Cultures, a school she co-founded. 

She was arrested on a $30,000 warrant charging her with two felony counts of embezzlement of public funds. 

Police believe the alleged embezzlement took place over the past year. 

Hameed has worked at the parks department since 1989. She has been on administrative leave from her position as administrative services manager since shortly before the new head took over the department in May.

LOS ANGELES — Southern California’s booming economy has pushed rents up so high that most apartments are far out of reach for lower-income families.  

And that’s contributing to a growing trend: entire families living – permanently or semi-permanently – in motels. 

“What’s different is that the people who are staying here are no longer the unemployed,” said Jim Parkin, owner of the Covered Wagon, a 70-unit motel in Anaheim that relies almost entirely on locals.  

“There’s no one here collecting cans.” 

The average apartment now goes for nearly $1,100 a month in Orange County and $838 in Los Angeles County.  

Rents are still climbing and the few new apartment projects under way are generally high-end. 

“We are reaching an unparalleled crisis in our housing,” Gary Squier, a consultant and former head of the Los Angeles Housing Department, told the Los Angeles Times. 

While there are no precise statistics on motel dwellers, motel owners in Anaheim, Long Beach and Van Nuys told the Times they’ve seen dramatic increases in the number of long-term motel residents. 

One such resident is 31-year-old Stephanie Hosey, who has lived since April at the Covered Wagon . 

Hosey earns little more than minimum wage answering phones at a nearby moving company and can’t afford an apartment in the area.  

All she can manage is a room in a roadside inn like the Covered Wagon, where she pays $161 a week. 

“If there wasn’t a place like this, I couldn’t stay in Anaheim,” Hosey said. 

In recent years income has soared for those in higher brackets.  

The more affluent have bid up home prices, locking out more of the middle class and, in turn, helping drive apartment rents to stratospheric levels. 

In few places are the working poor’s housing needs more acute than in Southern California, housing experts say. 

In Orange County, Southern California’s tightest housing market, monthly rent for a typical two-bedroom apartment has risen 26 percent over the last three years, according to Marcus & Millichap, a Palo Alto real estate brokerage. In Los Angeles County, rent for the same unit has jumped 20 percent. 

There are now four families for every low-income unit available in Southern California – the worst ratio in the nation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank.  

With land prices soaring, low-income homes have become difficult to build without government assistance, and housing needs far surpass available public resources. 

In the last decade, the population of the city of Los Angeles has grown by 300,000, but the total number of housing units has risen by only 31,000, according to city figures. More families are doubling or tripling up. 

Helen Dunlap heads Project Dignity, a Garden Grove group that aids motel families.  

She wishes more of the grants her organization gives would be used to pay for move-in costs. But they’re not, she says, because affordable apartments are so scarce.  

“There’s just nothing available.”

Carl’s Jr. and Shell Oil team up to develop complex in area where few services are available 

A group of West Berkeley neighbors who have spent years improving their community are now taking on Shell Oil and Carl’s Jr. The two giant corporations are planning to raze the gas station at the corner of Ashby and San Pablo avenues and rebuild a gas station-mini mart-fast food complex. 

“We fought every day to change this neighborhood and now they want to ruin it with another liquor store and 24-hour fast food place,” said Daniela Wooton, a mother of four who moved to the neighborhood five and half years ago into what she said had once been a crack house.  

ARC Inc., an architectural firm based in Benicia, has requested permits from the city for a 10,000 square-foot building on the site of the existing gas station and the empty lot at Carrison Street and San Pablo Avenue. 

Residents who live on Carrison Street, a quiet, tree-line street with rows of well-kept single family homes, say the proposed development will erode the quality of life they have worked hard to create. Mike and Vicki Larrick and their two children moved into the neighborhood eight and half years ago when the street was overrun with drug dealers and prostitutes.  

The Larricks began the fight to take the neighborhood back and now, almost nine years later, Vicki Larrick said she doesn’t get her life threatened so often. 

“We’ve worked very hard over the years to improve things and they are finally getting better,” Larrick said. “Now families are moving in here and there’s more concern for the neighborhood.” 

Neighbors pointed out that within three blocks of the proposed project site, there are already three liquor stores, one at San Pablo Avenue and 65th Street, one at San Pablo and Haskell Street and one at San Pablo and Murray Street. 

Residents said there are enough liquor stores and burger joints in the neighborhood already and that any more would deteriorate the quality of the neighborhood with garbage, traffic and customers with no connection to the community. 

“If you put in a phone booth down there it will attracts scum bags,” said Mike Larrick. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what it’s going to turn into with an all-night store.” 

The architect for the project said he has withdrawn the plans after getting input from city planners and the community and that he will try to make changes to the design that will be acceptable, although he did not know at this time what those changes might be. 

“We’re not sure what we need to do but it’s clear we weren’t ready to submit the plans,” said Timothy Boe, one of the ARC partners. “We’re limited on what changes we can make because my clients are a gas station and quick service restaurant.” 

There is already a moratorium on fast food restaurants in the downtown area and special restrictions for fast food restaurants along sections of University, Shattuck and San Pablo avenues.  

The moratorium along San Pablo, however, does not extend south of Dwight Way, about nine blocks north of the proposed site. 

A recommendation is coming to the City Council to extend the prohibitions against fast food restaurants along San Pablo to the Oakland border, which would include the proposed site.  

District 2 Councilmember Margaret Breland said she is concerned with the health ramifications of fast food consumption. The recommendation is currently being reviewed by the Planning Department and the Health Department after which the council will vote on it. 

“There’s so many things that could put on the site that would encourage small businesses and be a real benefit to the neighborhood,” said Cynthia Scheinberg, who just moved into the house directly across the street from the site with her husband Eliahu Klein and newborn baby. “They shouldn’t make this the fast food strip for all the businesses nobody else in Berkeley wants.”

Saturday, Oct. 21

Child Safety Seat Check-Up 

9a.m. -noon (drop-in) 

Alta Bates Staff Parking Lot 

2525 Shattuck Avenue at Dwight 

Sponsored by the City of Berkeley 

Call Dina Quan, 665-6839 or 

dquan@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

A Day on Mt. Tam 

9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Come play and hike in San Francisco’s beloved playground. This outing is part of a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance. 

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

AHIMSA Eight annual  

Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International House, Great Hall 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

The AHIMSA is a nonprofit foundation whose goal is to encourage dialogues and public forums which bridge spiritual, scientific and social issues. This years conference is titled “Violence! Scientific and Spiritual Perspectives.”  

Admission is free 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Taste a whole farmers’ market’s bounty of fall fruit varieties. 

Free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 2 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. The second of three classes. The last is scheduled for Oct. 28 during the same timeslot. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 22

Run for Peace 

United Nations Association 

10K run and 5K run/walk 

9 a.m. Berkeley Marina 

$20 849-1752 

A Taste of the Greenbelt 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Presidio’s Golden Gate Club 

Greenbelt Alliance brings the farm to the city in this celebration of the Bay Area’s agricultural and culinary bounty. Featured are samples from over 40 local restaurants, farmers, wineries, microbreweries. Also featured are live music and local artwork. The event benefits Greenbelt Alliance’s ongoing efforts to protect Bay Area farmlands and open space.  

$45 per person 

1-800-543-GREEN, www.greenbelt.org 

An Evening with Alice Walker 

7:30 p.m.  

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St. (at Grant) 

free parking 

Join internationally loved novelist, poet and essayist Alice Walker in celebrating her new book of autobiographical stories, “The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart.” Benefits Berkeley EcoHouse and KPFA Radio, 94.1 FM.  

Tickets: $10 advance, $13 door 

Tickets available at independent bookstores 

More info: 848-6767 x609 

From Bahia to Berkeley 

11 a.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison St. 

A benefit brunch and auction with food, music, dance and culture to bring Brazilian folkloric dance group Nicinha Raizes from Bahia, Brazil to the Bay Area.  

428-0698 

Take a Trip to the Oakland Ballet 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organized by the Senior Center to see “Glass Slippers.”  

Tickets: $6 each 

644-6107 

A Buddhist Pilgramage in  

India 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

June Rosenberg brings to life, through slides and lecture, her pilgrimages in India. Free. 

Call 843-6812 

University Avenue Indian Business Community 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Kirpal & Neelum Khanna, owners of the Bazaar of India, tell about the steps they took from spice and food retailing to today’s Bazaar, and the nuances and features of the Indian business community on University Avenue. One is a series of walking tours sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. 

$10 per person 

Call 848-0181 for reservations 

Monday, Oct. 23

“Dealing With Rommate  

Problems” 

2000 Tenants’ rights week 

hourly 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

ASUC/Rent Board booth at Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. 

644-7714 

“Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin,”  

through Oct. 28. Guess the correct weight of the pumpkin and bring it home in time for Halloween. 

Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington.  

(510) 524-3043.

What was really said 

Editor: 

In your October 18th coverage of the Berkeley School Board race I am quoted as saying: "Studies show that minority kids are strong in math and science, but weak in reading". This statement does not accurately reflect what I actually said, and I would like to clarify it. 

During the interview I talked about my plans to expand our literacy plan because of my belief that reading is the gateway skill. In order for all students to succeed they need to have strong reading skills. When we look at the achievement gap we can see that many of those minority kids not performing well have great potential but their reading skills are below grade level. 

We have seen data from our district which showed a group of minority students that had high scores in the math standardized test but low scores in reading/language arts. This group of students were not performing at their maximum potential because their reading skills were not at grade level. What I cited was an example based on this limited data from our district; not a generalization of all minority students. 

This shows that if we are serious about closing the achievement gap we need, among other things, to continue our focus on literacy to ensure that all students in our system read at grade level. That is why, as a first step in this effort, I am proposing an expansion of the literacy plan. I have been working on this subject for the past four years and, to continue working on this is my commitment to our community. 

Joaquín Rivera 

School Board President 

Candidate for School Board 

Unprofessional criticism 

Dear Editor: 

I was disappointed to read that Berkeley police officers attending a City Council meeting criticized Carrie Sprague for her efforts to enforce residential permit parking in the MAGNA neighborhood next to City Hall. 

I’ve always had the impression that one of the unspoken rules of American law enforcement is to avoid publicly attacking citizens by name (convicted felons an exception). Confidence in the police depends on both presumption and evidence that they will act impartially. When individual police officers publicly criticize even one citizen who has broken no laws, that faith is undermined. It’s worse when that citizen is actually trying to get the city to enforce one of its own laws. 

I’m also personally sympathetic to the frustrations of the MAGNA residents like Sprague, since my own Berkeley neighborhood is similarly sandwiched between large traffic-attracting facilities. That said, it’s probably a good thing that the City Council is hearing complaints about parking from public employees because it brings home the reality facing all public agencies in Berkeley. The Council is quick to criticize the University and other big local employers for traffic and parking impacts, but if statistics were to be calculated on who drives to work and who doesn’t, City employees – and perhaps even a majority of city councilmembers – may be among the least “transit friendly” groups of commuters in Berkeley. 

I saw this attitude first hand while working on a committee helping to plan future renovations to Civic Center Park. From the point of view of almost all of the citizen participants, removal of the little City Council / city staff parking lot just behind City Hall was an unquestionable benefit for the community. Land would be added to the park, and the park and City Hall would be reconnected. If the parking “needed” to be replaced, it could be done in the City-owned garage half a block up the street. But time and again some City staff kept raising the issue of carving out a new parking lot from another part of the green space. 

In this area the City could learn something from the University, which has consistently pursued policies to reduce single-driver commuting. You almost literally have to win a Nobel Prize to get a free parking space on campus.  

Parking spaces are set aside for carpools. Recently, the university and students negotiated with AC Transit to arrange the “Class Pass” which allows students to ride the bus without paying fare, in exchange for a surcharge on their registration fees.  

How about it, City Council? Will you consider “acting locally” with city owned development sites downtown – to directly address affordable housing issues for those who police Berkeley’s streets, teach its children, maintain its parks, and staff its government offices? 

Steven Finacom 

Berkeley 

Striker scores two more goals, leads Pac-10 

Striker Laura Schott scored two goals in less than two minutes to lead the Cal womens’ soccer team past Arizona State 3-0 Friday afternoon at Edwards Stadium. 

Twenty-five minutes into the match, forward Kyla Sabo lofted a pass that landed in a crowd in front of the goal that included Schott and three ASU defenders. Schott muscled the ball through the tangle of legs and slid the ball past goalkeeper Erin Reinke for her 19th goal of the season. Sabo was credited with her team-leading eighth assist on the goal. 

“She just keeps pulling them out,” Cal head coach Kevin Boyd said. “The first goal, I don’t even know how she came up with the ball, let along come out with it and put it away.” 

Schott came through with a solo effort as soon as play restarted, as she stripped the ball from ASU’s Jaclyn Clark, who was the last defender on the play. Schott calmly fired the ball past Reinke for her 20th goal, which leads the Pac-10.  

The sophomore now has 41 points on the year, tied for third-most in Cal history. With four games left in the regular season, slong with any possible post-season play, Schott is within striking distance of Joy Biefield’s school record of 54 points in a season, set in 1987 by the current U.S. National Team stalwart. 

Boyd praised midfielder Brittany Kirk for her play Kirk had one assist and controlled the midfield for most of the match. 

“She’s becoming our field general, which is a lot to ask of a sophomore,” he said. “She’s the one that tries to control the rhythm of the game.” 

Kirk roamed the midfield, knocking the ball forward to Sabo and Schott for numerous offensive opportunities, and showed good touch on the ball as ASU defenders looked a step slow all game. 

“I was trying to make an effort to keep possession of the ball and move it around, and to set up our forwards at the same time,” Kirk said. 

The final Bears goal came when a Sun Devil accidentally knocked the ball into her own net off of a Gretchen Vanderlip cross in the 67th minute. 

The starting Cal defense was impenatrable, giving up just one shot on goalkeeper Maite Zabala, who recorded the one of the easiest shutouts on record, extending her school-record total to 25.  

“Maite saves us so many times, it’s only natural that we do our best to help her out by not letting people get good shots,” said senior sweeper Tami Pivnik. 

The only tough Cal save on the day was made by backup Gabby Ronick, who came on in the 78th minute as Boyd removed several starters with a three-goal lead.

Berkeley High is both a microcosm of, and a model for, America. It is through this one simple sentence that Meredith Maran explains the premise of her book “Class Dismissed: A Year in the Life of an American High School, a Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation,” recently released by St. Martin’s Press.  

All Berkeley citizens know that Berkeley High has amazing qualities. It sends more students to UC Berkeley than almost any high school in the country, its students are among the most politically active of any their age, there is a nationally recognized jazz ensemble, its newspaper has been named the best high school paper in the country, and the list doesn’t stop there. 

However, everyone also knows that Berkeley High has its share of deep-rooted financial, social, and cultural problems. The achievement gap is more apparent than ever; roughly one-third of African-American students either fail out or drop out. The administration is ever changing – BHS now has its third principal in the last four years. The school boasts a superior high school college counselor, yet doesn’t have a reading specialist on campus even at a time when an estimated one in five students read below grade level. 

Class Dismissed took on the task of addressing the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

The book is based on the lives of three seniors: Jordan Etra, Autumn Morris, and Keith Stephens. Maran shadowed these three students through their daily routines for one entire school year. And although the focus is on the individuals, the clear protagonist throughout the pages is Berkeley High itself. 

“I think there are two different philosophies (about Berkeley High),” Maran said during a reading of her book Thursday evening at Cody’s Bookstore on Telegraph Ave.  

“The first is ‘Life is just a bowl of cherries.’ Berkeley High has so many good things about it that it is easy to ignore the bad. But oftentimes people get caught up in the ‘Everything is going wrong and BHS sucks’ view. The point of the book is that you can’t separate one from the other.” 

Roughly 200 people were on hand at Cody’s to hear Maran read from her book, which soared to number seven on The Chronicle’s Bay Area bestseller list after only five days in stores. They came from every area of Berkeley life, from the BHS teachers and students to UC professors to curious citizens who do not affiliate with the school at all, yet are interested to understand what really goes on behind those chain link fences. 

Berkeley senior Niles X’ian Lichtenstein opened the evening with a poem that Cody’s owner Andy Ross described as “the most eloquent and accurate description of Berkeley High that I have ever heard.” 

“(BHS) is like a TV evangelist- reborn every year,” Lichtenstein pronounced, drawing laughter and cheers from the audience. “Some find elevation, others are tucked into shadows (…) We’re not just building a school; we’re creating a culture.” 

BHS English teacher and newspaper adviser Rick Ayers introduced Maran with a poignant speech reflecting on his years of teaching. “In this profession you see a dozen miracles a day and a dozen tragedies a day,” Ayers said. “But we’ve never had a witness. Last year, Meredith was our witness.”  

Maran took the stage to applause and supportive cheers from the BHS students and staff who got to know her last year. “I wrote this book so that people can first see the problems that exist and then begin to solve them,” she said. “Just as Berkeley High led the nation as the first school district to voluntarily desegregate in 1968, the school now has the opportunity to serve as a model for public schools and for the country in taking steps to solve these problems.” 

The book excerpts Maran chose to read displayed the variety of experiences she had while at BHS. One of the first stories was from the chapter based on October 1999, focusing primarily on Keith Stephens, a stereotypical academically-troubled, athletically-talented African-American student. 

Keith sat in the front row of the audience laughing with friends as he remembered getting ready for senior pictures last fall. He fell silent, however, as Maran read her account of Keith and some friends being beat up by the police as they shot dice in an alley. 

“The cops throw (Keith) to the ground face down, hog-tie his ankles and start kicking him in the back,” Maran wrote. “Not just two cops now, but a bunch of them, all of them white (…) They wrestle him into a body bag. A cop holds Keith’s mouth open, pulls out his gold teeth.” 

The passage brought understanding nods from the Berkeley High students at Cody’s. They know the story; they’ve heard these stories of students being beat up by police officers over and over. Some of the older adults in the room, however, murmured with concern. 

“That doesn’t happen in Berkeley, does it?” one woman whispered. 

“They should be shocked,” Keith said afterwards. “These people don’t get it that this shit is happening every day!” 

The readings were broken up by a series of poems by Berkeley High students and alumni. BHS graduate Cassandra Tesch gave a particularly touching reflection of dealing with daily life. “I’m supposed to be grown now, at 17,” she explained to the crowd. 

Both Keith and Autumn spoke for a short time about their reactions to the book during Maran’s question period. The third student, Jordan Etra, is at college at UC Santa Cruz, and couldn’t come to the reading because of this week’s midterms. 

“It’s hard to look at yourself through an outsider’s point of view,” Autumn said. “It’s weird to see everything that I did, and everything that I didn’t do, from somebody else’s perspective.” 

The celebration continued with book signing, and Cody’s copies quickly sold out. People milled around, some lining up to talk to Keith and Autumn, while Berkeley students and teachers clustered in groups. 

“This is my wildest dream come true,” Maran said about the reading. “I’m completely stunned by the interest in the community and the hunger around Berkeley High to feel good about what they have.” 

Megan Greenwell is a junior at Berkeley High School and writes for the student newspaper, the Berkeley High School Jacket. 

Home is where the wins are for the Cal men’s soccer team this season. Playing at Edwards Stadium for the first time in more than a month, the struggling Bears upset No. 7 UCLA 1-0 Friday. 

The victory ended a month-long winless streak in which Cal lost six of its seven games—the only bright spot being a tie with Oregon State on Oct. 6—while being outscored 20 to 2. 

Cal’s record improves to 3-9-1 on the year (1-2-1 Pac-10), and the Bears have won each of the three games the team has played in Berkeley. The Bruins, meanwhile, after being ranked No. 1 earlier in the season, lost its second straight game and dropped to 9-3 (1-3 Pac-10). 

Bears’ forward Austin Ripmaster scored the game’s only goal at the 85th minute on an assist from Chris Roner. Ripmaster’s lined up from 25 yards out and sent a strike past a diving UCLA keeper D.J. Countess and into the left corner of the net to record his first goal of the season. 

The goal ended Cal’s two-game scoreless streak and also marked the Bears’ first shutout since its season-opener victory over UC Santa Cruz.  

“We’re searching for things to work for,” said Cal keeper Brian Walker, who recorded five saves against UCLA. “We have a goal of upsetting top teams and that’s what we did today.” 

Walker said that Cal’s ball control and time of possession contributed to the win. In previous outings, the Bears routinely played a solid first half only to squander opportunities in the second period.  

“We’ve been inching our way closer to a great performance,” said Cal coach Kevin Grimes. “Sunday versus Stanford we played an outstanding first half. Today we turned 45 minutes of magic into 90 minutes of magic.” 

Heading into Friday’s game against the Bruins, Cal had been outscored 34 goals to nine this year, including 10 unanswered goals prior to Ripmaster’s shot. 

“I’d be happy to win games 1-0 all the time,” Ripmaster said. “We’ve been here before with the nation’s elite and we have no doubt that we can play with them.” 

The Bears’ defense frustrated UCLA attacks throughout the game, but especially in the first half when the Bruins were denied repeatedly when they held the ball inside Cal territory. 

“We finally got everyone healthy,” defender Leo Krupnik said. “It seems that after the team scores their first goal we lose it. Today we got the break we deserved.” 

Grimes said he reminded his players at halftime that they’d been in the same situation before where they’d lost the game in the second half.  

“It seems like every second half we come on the wrong end of a W,” he said. “At halftime each guy had something to say and we were able to walk the walk.” 

“Coach promised us that if we gave our full effort in the second half we’d come out on top,” Ripmaster said. “And that’s what happened.” 

Following Sunday’s contest at St. Mary’s, Cal returns to Edwards Stadium for five of the team’s last six games of the season.  

“It’s nice to be home,” Walker said. “All the other teams look at us now and even though we’re 3-9, we’ve beaten UCLA so teams know anything can happen.”

Nearly 200 students, health care activists and professionals lit candles Thursday evening at Sproul Plaza on the university campus and spoke out against the widespread lack of health insurance . 

The vigil, sponsored by the American Medical Student Association, was part of a week of nation-wide activities intended to raise awareness of those without healthcare benefits. 

In Berkeley alone, more than 10,000 people have no health insurance, according to the city’s Health Department. 

People in southwest Berkeley are more likely to die 20 years earlier than the more affluent living in the hills, said Marty Lynch, chief executive officer of Lifelong Medical Care, a clinic that serves the uninsured. 

“Isn’t it outrageous that in a city like Berkeley, where people spend $400,000 to $500,000 on a house and people are working at dot-coms, that 10,000 people don’t have health insurance?” he said. 

Lack of health insurance is a lethal problem, said Dr. John Shearer of the California Physicians Alliance.  

Studies have shown that people without health insurance have a 20 percent greater chance of dying than those with insurance.  

Uninsured patients often come to the emergency room with advanced illnesses, he said, because they could not get preventive care covered by health insurance. 

This results in added costs to the patient and the hospital, he added. 

Gregg English of the Physicians Organizing Committee said 7,000 people go bankrupt each year due to healthcare bills. 

In California, 7 million people are without health insurance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means one in five people are uninsured compared to one in six nationwide. 

Of these 44 million uninsured Americans, 25 percent are children. 

“It’s shocking,” said Chris Hamerski, coordinator of the vigil. “We’re the only developed nation that doesn’t have universal healthcare.” 

Lack of insurance is not a problem for just the jobless. Nationwide, 42 percent of the uninsured are employed, according to the bureau. 

“When you think about people who make minimum wages,” said Mayor Shirley Dean, “How do you afford (health care when you’re) making under $6 an hour?” . 

Besides health insurance, many at the rally pushed for better access to medical care that universal healthcare would provide. 

“We want medical care for everyone in the country, with no exceptions,” she added. “It ought not to be available only to those who can pay for it.”

Bone crushing tackles? Check. Bruising runs? Check. Showstopping plays? Check, check, check. When the dust had settled on Berkeley High’s 40-14 domination of the Richmond Oilers, the Yellowjackets ran off more checks than Bill Gates on a shopping spree. Berkeley won its third straight game to remain undefeated league play (3-4, 3-0 ACCAL) before a showdown next week with Pinole Valley that will, according to senior running back Ramone Reed, “test how really good we are.” 

Eight different Yellowjackets rushed for a Berkeley offensive attack that piled up 288 rushing yards. The top ballcarrier, as always, was Reed, who followed up last week’s 3 touchdown performance at Encinal with 11 carries for 134 yards and 4 scores. Fullback Joey Terry-Jones pounded out 77 yards on eight carries and a touchdown, and Leon Ireland rounded up the Yellowjacket scoring barrage with a 10-yard punt return for a score.  

Reed further noted that Berkeley’s turnaround of three wins after four season opening losses is really a result of “everyone getting more focused... we’ve just dedicated ourselves.” In doing so, they sent an Oiler team to their fourth loss in the ACCAL and their sixth loss in seven games. Reed dedicated himself to excelling at every facet of the game. In additon to his four touchdowns, Reed blocked a punt, deflected two passes, racked up a sack, and pooched a 49-yard punt of his own. 

Berkeley roared out of the gates with a 61-yard opening drive in just under three minutes that culminated in a one-yard TD run by Terry-Jones. Reed’s block and Ireland’s recovery of an Oiler punt put the Yellowjackets up by 14 before a 28-yard touchdown run by Reed with 1:57 left in the first quarter capped off a 20-point Berkeley first quarter. The Yellowjacket offense scored in every single quarter thanks to their dominating rushing attack. 

As for Berkeley’s defense, the Yellowjackets held all-league fullback Roderick Chocklin to just eight rushing yards on five carries and six receiving yards on three receptions.  

The ’Jackets were strong in the air as well, as Richmond quarterback Lewis Montgomery was sacked five times and completed just seven of 17 pass attempts. Corey Anderson’s bobbling 67-yard touchdown reception and Tanzil Wagin’s 16-yard touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter were the only scores for Richmond. 

The one downside to Berkeley’s performance were its penalties. Last week at Encinal, second-year coach Gary Weaver harped on his team’s penalties, noting that “if we can get it together mentally, we’ll be a good team.” This week saw little improvement as most of Berkeley’s eight penalties for 55 yards came on false starts.  

Berkeley hopes to remain undefeated in conference play next Friday at Pinole Valley.

SANTA ROSA – Correctional officers who responded when an inmate became ill at the Sonoma County Jail last month are not talking to Santa Rosa police investigating the man’s subsequent death. 

The eight officers have invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to give information in a criminal investigation, according to Santa Rosa Police Commander Scott Swanson of the homicide investigation unit. 

“It does prove problematic when those persons closest to the event choose not to speak with us. It’s proving difficult,’’ Swanson said Friday morning. 

Assistant Sonoma County Sheriff Mike Costa says the officers’ refusal to give statements to Santa Rosa police may create suspicion in the public’s mind. 

“It really impairs the investigation and the system as a whole,’’ Costa said. 

Costa said other corrections officers throughout the state have for the past 15 years taken similar stances, particularly in Southern California. 

“This is not unique to Sonoma County. It’s just the first time it’s happened here,’’ Costa said. 

Santa Rosa police are investigating the death of Paul Raymond Daniel, 51, on Sept. 28. He was pronounced dead at Sutter Medical Center about an hour after being taken there from the jail. 

Police say Daniel was brought to the jail after his arrest in Petaluma on a warrant at 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 27. He failed to report to breakfast the next morning. Guards found him sick in his cell and he became combative when restrained, according to police. During an exam by a jail nurse, he began vomiting and was taken to the hospital, police say. 

Santa Rosa police are investigating the incident rather than the sheriff’s department, which runs the jail, as part of police protocol. 

The corrections officers are required to cooperate with any internal investigation by their employer, the sheriff’s department, Swanson said. 

But Costa said statements given in that investigation cannot be used in any criminal proceeding. 

An autopsy failed to determine a cause of death, toxicology results are pending, and Daniel’s brain has been sent to Florida for forensic analysis, Swanson said. 

It was the third death at the jail this year. One inmate sliced his throat with a razor and another died of pneumonia while in prison. 

News of the correction’s officers’ silence coincides with an appearance in Santa Rosa tonight of two former police chiefs critical of police conduct nationwide. 

The forum, entitled “Transforming Police: What’s It Going to Take?’’ includes addresses by Penny Harrington, the first female police chief of a major U.S. city, and Ron Hampton, director of the National Black Police Association and a former Washington D.C. police officer.

Prosecution, defense agree that Peter Bradley had a rare reaction to encephalitis, are working on settlement 

SAN FRANCISCO – A man who broke into the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight yelling “I’m going to kill you!” and lunging for the controls was suffering from an extremely rare reaction to encephalitis. 

That’s the conclusion of both prosecutors and the defense attorney for Peter Bradley, 39, who were working Friday to negotiate a settlement in the case. 

“Sounds to me like he has a very good defense attorney,” said a noted encephalitis researcher, Dr. Ian Lipkin at the University of California, Irvine. “Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it likely? I’d have to review the data.” 

The medical mystery took experts hired by both the prosecution and defense weeks to unravel, said Bradley’s attorney Jerrold Ladar. Bradley has no memory of the cockpit attack, he said. 

“In the combined 50-plus years of criminal prosecution and defense work, neither of us has seen the sort of effort that was needed to track down the medical cause of the problem,” Ladar wrote in court papers filed Wednesday. 

Doctors hired by both sides of the case agreed “wholeheartedly” on the diagnosis, Ladar wrote. “Two highly qualified neurologists ... concur that Mr. Bradley was in a delirious state as a result of encephalitis — the defendant did nothing to bring it on.” 

Flight 259 was enroute from Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco on March 16 when Bradley, who was returning from a family reunion, began babbling incoherently, stripping off his clothes and wandering from seat to seat. 

His agitation gradually increased, passengers say, until he broke into the cockpit, threatened the pilots and grabbed for the controls. 

The pilot momentarily lost control of the jet as the co-pilot fended off the 6-foot-2, 250-pound Bradley with an ax. Passengers tackled and restrained him. 

Bradley faces federal charges of committing a violent act likely to endanger an airplane and assaulting a flight crew. Both charges are punishable by as many as 20 years in prison. He remains free on $100,000 bond. 

Bradley, a self-employed carpenter from Blue Springs, Mo., has returned to his job and family since being released and has suffered no subsequent outbursts. 

“When he read the reports from the passengers about what happened he was horrified,” Ladar said. 

Doctors and lawyers, friends and family were mystified by Bradley’s behavior. He had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system, no history of psychiatric problems and his only previous run-ins with law enforcement were two traffic violations in 1979. 

“He’s an American-as-apple-pie kind of guy,” Ladar said. 

What finally prompted doctors to consider encephalitis was a high protein count in Bradley’s spinal fluid, his lawyer said. Normal range is between 15 and 45 milligrams; Bradley’s was 60. 

Bradley’s condition — he had been suffering from headaches for almost a month — was worsened by lack of sleep and the changing air pressure in the plane. 

“A unique combination of wind, sun, breathing apparatus, function, hypertension medication and air pressure combined to cause the delirium,” Ladar said. 

Independent neurologists told The Associated Press such a phenomenon is possible, though highly unusual. 

The most common symptoms of encephalitis include fever, headache and fatigue. When behavioral changes do occur, they are usually “lethargy and confusion more than agitated delirium,” said Dr. Richard Price, chief of neurology at San Francisco General Hospital. 

Dr. Diane Griffin at Johns Hopkins University called Bradley’s “a plausible scenario,” adding that people have been admitted to psychiatric hospitals before doctors realized they were suffering from encephalitis. 

“If somebody had an infection in their brain and it was affecting the parts of the brain that causes behavior ... then the person is not responsible for their behavior,” she said. 

Ladar said the best-case scenario would be to dismiss the case. 

“In this situation he’s unconscious because of the delirium,” Ladar said. “Criminal law says that’s a defense to these charges.” 

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hall acknowledged in court Friday that doctors from both sides had agreed on the encephalitis diagnosis. But Hall pushed for a finding of temporary insanity, and disagreed that the charges should be summarily dismissed on the grounds that the crime resulted from a medical, rather than mental condition. 

The judge said he would rule next month on that point. Meanwhile, settlement talks continue, and Bradley is expected in court Thursday to give permission for a psychiatric evaluation.

Proposal could help avoid price spikes seen in San Diego following industry deregulation 

FOLSOM – California regulators want electricity suppliers to make pricing commitments to avoid the rate spikes San Diego power users experienced this summer. 

Terry Winter, CEO of the California Independent System Operator, filed a proposal Friday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that, if approved, would require power generators to sell 70 percent of their power anywhere from one day to five years in advance to keep wholesale rates lower for utilities. 

Right now, California allows power suppliers to charge no more than $250 per megawatt hour. Under the proposal, those that refused to sell 70 percent of their power in advance would be allowed to charge no more than $100 per megawatt hour. 

ISO officials say that requiring advanced sales would allow utilities to buy power when rates are low. 

“If you need 100 megawatts and you wait until a minute before, the market says you’re going to pay more,” Winter said. “If you’re willing to plan, the prices ... will be lower.” 

The lower wholesale prices would result in lower rates for residential and business customers, Winter said. 

It would also provide a more stable electricity market for the next two to three years, while more power plants come online and increase the supply of electricity, he said. 

Utility rates doubled and in some cases tripled this summer for customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Co., the first utility in the state to deregulate under a 1996 state law and buy power on the open market. 

The San Diego utility filed its own request with the FERC on Friday, asking regulators to implement emergency, temporary wholesale market price caps of $100 per megawatt hour until the market is competitive. 

Spokesman Art Larson of San Diego Gas and Electric said the utility’s proposal would last at least through March. 

“We believe the emergency measure should eventually be replaced with a refined formula, something that’s more inline with the cost of generation,” he said. 

Tom Williams, spokesman for Duke Energy North America, said his company, which generates about 4 percent of the state’s power, isn’t opposed to temporary price caps. 

“We don’t like caps, but if you need one for a temporary time period to solve a problem and it’s a piece of the equation, ... that needs to be part of the mix,” Williams said. 

A number of generators already sell at least 50 percent of their supply ahead of time, said Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers. 

“I think that as a general matter, the generators are against price caps and over-intrusiveness into the market by the ISO,” said Smutny-Jones. 

State Sen. Dede Alpert, D-San Diego, called both proposals “interesting,” and said she would like the FERC to approve any plan that cuts wholesale rates. 

“If we’re going to get to a place where deregulation is going to work, maybe these are the tools to get us through the transition while still encouraging people to build new supplies,” Alpert said. 

The Folsom-based Independent System Operator controls the grid that transmits about 75 percent of the state’s power. The ISO’s authority to cap prices will end Nov. 15, unless the FERC extends it, said Roger Smith, senior regulatory counsel for the ISO. 

Since a cap on wholesale prices might discourage construction of new power plants, the plan would exempt new generators, Winters said. 

The ISO was created to control the last-minute demand, usually the last 5 percent of the power market, but that plan hasn’t worked, both Winters and Smutny-Jones said. 

“We’ve had days this summer where 25 percent to 30 percent is in the ISO market. That’s when reliability becomes jeopardized,” Smutny-Jones said. 

Calls to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission offices in San Francisco were referred to the Washington D.C. office. Messages left at the Washington D.C. office were not immediately returned.

Two deaths in two days at Fresno County Jail 

FRESNO – A prisoner died in the Fresno County Jail on Thursday, the second person to die in custody there in two days. 

Shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday, the inmate, a 45-year-old man, told guards he was ill and was sent to the jail infirmary, Lt. Nelson Beazley said. 

Some time later, he collapsed and stopped breathing. Staff members performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation but could not revive him. 

The man’s name was being withheld pending notification of relatives. 

Details about the inmate, including charges against him and how long he had been in custody were not made public. An autopsy will determine the cause of death. 

On Wednesday, Jessie Soliz died during a struggle with guards. 

Soliz was in a cell by himself when he became irate and began throwing things and hitting walls, sheriff’s spokesman Daniel Cervantes said. 

When deputies went into the cell to restrain Soliz, he began to fight with them. Three correctional officers were injured in the struggle. 

Deputies used pepper spray in an attempt to subdue Soliz and as he was being put into restraints, he stopped breathing. Jail and nursing staff tried unsuccessfully to revive him. 

Sheriff’s detectives, the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office and the Coroner’s Office are investigating the men’s deaths. 

Group calls for end to Yosemite sewage spills 

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK – A statewide recreational fishing group is seeking a federal court order to end Yosemite National Park’s sewage spills into the Merced River. 

United Anglers of California filed suit this week against the National Park Service in U.S. District Court in Fresno, alleging violations of the federal Clean Water Act over the past five years. 

After more than a dozen sewage spills since 1999, the group says it is time for Yosemite to clean up its system. No court dates have been announced. 

Park officials refused to comment, saying they had not seen the lawsuit. 

Yosemite already is under order from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to stop the contamination or face a $10,000 fine for each day the river violates water standards. 

But lawyer Allen Beavan, representing the 10,000-member United Anglers, said his client does not believe the state’s action is enough. 

“It’s an awkward situation for the state to be ordering the federal government to comply with federal law,” Beavan said. “We want the court to order that they bring their sewage plant into compliance.” 

Yosemite is following the regional board’s order, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. He said officials already have filed changes to the park’s spill-prevention plan with the regional board. 

Big rig overturns, bursts into flames  

BAKERSFIELD – A big rig burst into flames when it overturned on state Route 99 south of Bakersfield on Thursday morning and spilled 7,400 gallons of diesel fuel. 

There were no reports of injuries in the single-vehicle accident, Kern County fire Capt. Chuck Dickson said. 

The truck was headed north when it drifted onto the right shoulder near Copus Road. 

The driver, Jerry Harvey Jr., 29, of Bakersfield, apparently overcorrected and ended up in the left shoulder, where the trailer overturned. 

The entire truck turned over in the center divider and caught fire. 

The accident was reported just before 7:30 a.m. 

Flames and plumes of thick black smoke billowed from the crash site, about five miles north of the Interstate 5 interchange. 

A strip of the highway was closed to traffic for nearly five hours as firefighters and hazardous materials crews worked to control the flames and mop up the fuel.

Former provost announces billion-dollar fundraising campaign for undergrads 

STANFORD – John Hennessy vowed to make undergraduate education a high priority as he was inaugurated Friday as the 10th president of Stanford University. 

Standing before an amphitheater audience of some 7,000 people, the computer science pioneer and former university provost announced the launch of a five-year $1 billion fund-raising campaign for undergraduate education programs. 

“This goal makes it the largest campaign devoted exclusively to undergraduate education ever undertaken by a university,” he said. 

Hennessy, 48, was named president of the elite university in April and in September assumed the post held for the past eight years by Gerhard Casper. Casper, a 61-year-old constitutional law scholar, announced his retirement last year. He will serve as co-chair of the new undergraduate education campaign. 

Hennessy was the university’s provost for the past year and the dean of the School of Engineering before that. He has been a member of the faculty since 1977. 

Internationally known and respected for his work in computer architecture, Hennessy is credited with starting a successful Silicon Valley microprocessor production company, MIPS Computer Systems Inc. The company was bought out by workstation giant Silicon Graphics and is now called MIPS Technologies Inc. 

Shortly after being named president, Hennessy said his three primary goals would be to improve the undergraduate experience, build on the success of technology and business, and strengthen arts and humanities.

PHOENIX – Arizona legislators, meeting in a one-day special session Friday, imposed an immediate one-year moratorium on the state’s runaway subsidy program for vehicles burning alternative clean fuels, a program now projected to cost at least 140 times what was first expected. 

The program allows residents to use rebates and tax credits to purchase alternative-fuel vehicles at about half the price of conventional cars or to convert their cars. It was initially estimated to cost $3 million. Projections now say it will cost taxpayers $420 million or more if not stopped. 

“This is what I would call a budget obscenity,” said Sen. Chris Cummiskey, D-Phoenix, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday. “We’ve got a situation here where we’re on the verge of bankrupting the state.” 

The Legislature voted Friday afternoon to pass the moratorium bill, which would cover contracts signed beginning Friday to buy alternative fuel vehicles or convert conventional cars. Gov. Jane Hull signed the bill two hours later. 

In hearings Thursday, lawmakers questioned how the program could have been so far off the mark. 

The Legislature’s budget director said it wasn’t clear last spring how popular the generous tax credits and incentives would become. 

“We did not step back and say what was the overall effect,” said Richard Stavneak of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee staff. “We found out the magnitude of the problem at the same time as everyone else.” 

A Hull aide said the surge in interest did not become apparent until late August and that action was taken once the trend was confirmed in September. 

But some senators said lawmakers should look in the mirror before second-guessing, noting the bill was rushed through in the closing days of the session. 

“When we do these things ... we run the risk that these types of things will slip through,” said Republican Sen. Ed Cirillo. He said he was “extremely embarrassed” by the legislation and its problems. 

Hull and lawmakers said they hope to use the one-year moratorium to craft changes in the loophole-riddled program to salvage it, in hopes of getting clean-air benefits. 

Some of the changes being discussed would require subsidized vehicles to actually use alternative fuels – they aren’t now – and would limit subsidies to the manufacturers’ suggested retail prices, excluding expensive add-ons such as leather seats and stereos that now are subsidized.

OAKLAND – Saturday marks the nine-year anniversary of the 1991 fire storm that swept through the Oakland hills, caused almost $1.7 billion in damage and killed nearly two dozen people. 

In order to prevent a similar event from happening, neighbors who survived the fire want to create an educational pavilion in the fire storm area. Friday, the Weyerhauser Company Foundation announced the donation of a $4,500 grant toward the completion of the project. 

The exhibit center will serve as both a memorial to those who died in the fires, and as an emergency preparedness center, which will hold educational displays instructing visitors on fire safety. It will be located at the interchange of state roads 13 and 24, where the fire storm began. 

Members of the North Hills Landscape Committee, who are developing the project, wish to be able to dedicate the pavilion on the fire’s tenth year anniversary in 2001.  

The project is being funded through donations, and gifts of tubular steel, as well as corporate sponsors for the actual displays are still being sought. 

When finished, the pavilion would be owned and maintained by the City of Oakland, and would be available for use by groups and individuals.

Company will hold graffiti contest despite mayor’s protest 

SAN FRANCISCO – Sega of America says it will go ahead with its “Graffiti is Art” contest in San Francisco tomorrow despite Mayor Willie Brown’s disapproval that the company’s message is inappropriate. 

Sega’s event is to promote its new street action game which features, among other things, graffiti art.  

Brown’s press secretary P.J. Johnston said, “Sega’s message is irresponsible, especially since the city spends $25 million a year removing graffiti and tries to turn kids away from it.” 

Sega’s event will take place at about the same time and just blocks away from the city’s street-cleaning effort “Stamp Out Trash and Graffiti.”  

“The timing is bad that way,” Johnston said. “Or maybe it is good and will shed more light on our event.” 

Johnston said the city granted Sega the permit for the mural contest to take place at Justin Herman Plaza. 

“As long as you get the proper permits, you can hold your event. We don’t have to agree with you, but you can still hold the event,” he said. 

Sega spokeswoman Gwen Marker said today that the company has invited the City of San Francisco to be involved in the event and a city representative will likely attend.  

“We have a space reserved for them to give out information on vandalism and have arranged for them to speak. ... We support them in all their graffiti eradication efforts,” Marker said. 

City officials have expressed interest in working with Sega, she added. 

Davis approves school-to-career grants 

Gov. Gray Davis Friday announced more than $18 million in grants to benefit School-to-Career partnerships throughout California, including programs in six greater Bay area counties. 

The partnerships are designed to expose students to career options and an academic curriculum that will prepare them to meet high educational standards. 

Davis said, “School-to-Career connects what kids learn in the classroom with real world experiences like job shadowing, internships and student-run businesses.” 

The funds are provided for investments in educational reform and to help strengthen the relationships between students, schools, businesses and labor by developing mentoring programs, internships, staff development and business-related courses. 

Striking Safeway workers urge store boycott 

SAN FRANCISCO – Workers on strike from the warehouse that supplies Safeway stores distributed leaflets here Friday asking would-be shoppers to boycott the chain. 

“Please don’t shop at Safeway today” read leaflets that Teamsters Local 439 workers handed out at as many as 40 Safeway stores across the San Francisco  

Bay area. The workers are at odds over a new labor contract with their employer, Summit Logistics, which supplies 245 Safeway stores in northern California, Nevada and Hawaii. 

“We’re just asking them to boycott Safeway to support us,” said Reeves Milton, a truck repairman who was one of 20 workers passing out leaflets in front Safeway’s Market St. store. “It’s not about the money. It’s about the safety and the long hours.” 

He said the Teamsters want to slow down sales so that Safeway will pressure Summit to restart negotiations. 

Safeway was distributing a leaflet of its own, which told shoppers that picketers in front of stores do not work for Safeway — and that Summit had made a fair offer to the workers. 

Although some shoppers at the San Francisco Safeway said they supported the workers, others said they would shop at Safeway for want of alternatives. 

“Safeway is about the only game in town,” said shopper Beau Long of San Francisco. “It’s not like the ’burbs where you’ve got Safeway and Albertsons and Ralphs.” 

The Teamsters started passing out leaflets Thursday and said they’ll continue to do so for as long as it takes to negotiate a fair contract. 

Muni workers approve new contract 

SAN FRANCISCO – Transportation workers approved a four-year contract Friday night, according to a spokeswoman for the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency. 

Muni spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said members of the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A approved the contract by a large margin, but she did not immediately have a final tally. Union members – some 2,000 city railway bus, trolley, cable car and light rail drivers – had already rejected to prior contract offers. 

Lynch said she could not discuss details of the contract until Saturday afternoon, when the Muni board of directors will formally receive it. She said that the seven member board must wait for 30 days of public comment before voting on the contract. 

The deal will be retroactive to July 1, Lynch said. 

Under the city’s charter, operators’ pay is mandated to be the second highest in the nation, which means they were eligible to get a 5.5 percent raise to $22.44 an hour. 

U.S. marshals arrest 63 Bay Area fugitives 

SAN FRANCISCO – The chief of the U.S. Marshals Service for Northern California announced in San Francisco that a joint federal and local task force arrested 63 Bay area fugitives over three days ending today. 

U.S. Marshal James Molinari said those arrested were wanted for various types of violent crimes, gang membership or drug trafficking on federal or state charges.  

Most of those arrested were apprehended in San Francisco or the East Bay, including San Leandro, Hayward, Fremont, Union City, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo, Molinari said. 

The Fugitive Apprehension Strike Task Force, or FAST, is made up of representatives of 35 city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

LOS ANGELES – The inside story of the 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army shootout is not relevant to the defense of former SLA fugitive Sara Jane Olson, a judge ruled Friday in denying her access to 25-year-old files. 

Superior Court Judge James Ideman rejected a defense argument that records on the shootout investigation could explain why Olson fled, changed her identity and disappeared after the shootout. 

Defense attorney Shawn Chapman argued that disclosure of records could show that the SLA members were targeted by police and that Olson fled because “she felt so in fear of her life.” 

“If there was evidence that they were targeted and it was a homicide, that would support Ms. Olson’s claim,” Chapman said. 

But Ideman said there was no way that Olson would have been privy to inside information at the time and thus the records would have no relevance to her state of mind. He said there was ample evidence including TV footage of the shootout to supply what the defense needs for the trial. 

“I don’t see where going into details of the shooting is necessary,” the juige said. “There was a shootout and people were killed. What happened happened.” 

The prosecution is expected to argue that Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, was motivated to leave by consciousness of her own guilt in trying to bomb police cars. She denies any involvement in the crimes. The bombs never went off. 

Ideman delayed ruling on other motions until Nov. 17. But he said he had privately reviewed personnel records of a former police officer who is scheduled to testify against Olson and believes that his civil claims against her are unsupported. 

James Bryan sued Olson after he claimed to have a belated recall that she was involved in an attempted pipe bombing of police cars in 1974. He said the event was so stressful for him that he had to take a disability retirement from the Police Department. 

The judge said that if Bryan testifies, the defense would have the right to confront him with formal statements that he made to police years ago in which he failed to indicate the attempted bombing had anything to do with his alleged disability. 

“Olson must have an opportunity to confront him with his inconsistencies,” Ideman said. But he said he would not release records unless the witness takes the stand. 

Meanwhile, the judge said he will tolerate no more delays in the case. 

“We’re going to go to trial on January 8. That’s as set in concrete as can be.”

‘West Wing’ actor Martin Sheen speaks out against California’s Proposition 36 

OAKLAND – Actor Martin Sheen joined Alameda County officials in Oakland Friday to speak against Proposition 36, a measure supporters say would put an end to prison sentences for non-violent drug users in California. 

Prop. 36 would allow those charged with drug-related offenses to join drug treatment programs. Once the programs are completed by the suspect in question, the charges would be dropped. 

Sheen says the proposition is misleading and allows drug users to go through relaxed treatment options that do not necessarily lead to sobriety. The actor claims his own life has been affected by drugs first-hand. 

“It purports a very simplistic solution to a very, very complex problem,” Sheen said about the proposition. “It cannot possibly work ... it has nothing to do with recovery, it has a lot to do with legalizing certain drugs.” 

According to Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Iglehart, the proposition would, perhaps unintentionally, “wipe out” drug courts, which in Alameda County have reportedly helped thousands of people to achieve sobriety since they were first instituted in 1990. 

Earlier Friday, Iglehart presided over the latest class of graduates from Alameda county’s four drug diversion programs. 

The ceremony, which Iglehart described as a “spiritual” experience, included skits, confessional testimony from the participants about their personal road to recovery and even a group sing-along that had everyone in the room – including the judge – shuffling from side to side and clapping along to the beat. 

The completion of the program leads to dismissal of charges or the sealing of records, Iglehart said. But although that sounds similar to what the proposition promises, he said, the proposition lacks the strong commitment to sobriety that the court system has shown. 

That commitment includes rigorous urine tests and the threat of incarceration if the tests turn out “dirty,” access to twelve-step programs and job assistance. It is only through the constant enforcement of these means that the recovering addicts are kept from relapsing, he said. 

Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff also joined in the protest against the proposition, which he said would take away the judge’s ability to impose sanctions to keep the recovering addicts in check. 

“(Under Proposition 36) if you mess up treatment, you know what you get? You get a different treatment,” Orloff said. If that were to fail, he added, it would be followed by a court hearing to determine if the person is unaffected by treatment. 

If that were determined, the person would serve only a month’s sentence. “Then you’re all done, and you’re out of the system, and you start all over with your next arrest,” he said. 

A handful of the proposition’s supporters also attended the conference in order to present their views. 

Daniel Abrahamson, one of the proposition’s drafters, said Prop. 36 would add to the powers of the current judicial system, and would be available to everyone in the state, unlike the drug courts which only treat a small percentage of the population. 

“(The proposition) does not do away with drug courts,” Abrahamson said. “It expands treatment and adds another layer of supervised, responsible treatment.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The Hearst Corp. and the union representing press operators at the San Francisco Examiner have agreed to settle their dispute through arbitration, the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. 

The San Francisco Web Pressmen and Prepress Workers’ Union Local 4 contends that Hearst should have required the new owners of the San Francisco Examiner to honor the union’s contract when it transferred the paper to the Fang family in August. 

The Fangs are scheduled to begin publishing the new Examiner Nov. 22. The family has said it will use its own nonunion presses or contract with other printers. The union tried to block the Examiner deal with a federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco. It soon dropped its request for an injunction, asking for arbitration instead. 

The Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle have also had difficulty lately getting their papers to customers. 

About 40 of the papers’ 2,000 carriers refused to deliver the San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle and Monday’s papers in an effort to win higher pay. As a result of the walkout, on both days 13,000 subscribers received their papers late, said Stephen Johnson, vice president of circulation for both papers. 

Throughout the week, the papers have hired about 23 replacement workers, Johnson said.  

Even so, on Thursday about 4,000 subscribers were still receiving their papers late, he said. 

The carriers are independent contractors and are not employees of either paper. Less than 10 have returned to their routes, Johnson said. 

The Independent Delivery Carrier Association is asking for a 30 percent pay hike and a reduction in the weight of the newspapers, according to its picket-line literature. 

The joint paper’s Sunday circulation was 579,000, according to a September 1999 audit by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 

San Francisco nonprofit organizations are not alone in their quest for reasonable rents and adequate space to run their programs – and creative arts such as dance, music and theater are not the only ones in danger of extinction as a result of the booming economy and subsequent rent hikes and evictions. 

Here in Berkeley an important social service nonprofit program will be in jeopardy if it doesn’t find a new space soon.  

“The market is so volatile right now that as soon as we find a place it’s either gone or we’re outbid, sometimes by as much as $300,000,” said Ronald Fick, executive director of the Association for Retarded Citizens. 

ARC, which has been operating out of their 6,000-square-foot facility for almost 32 years, helps adults with severe developmental disabilities learn basic life skills such as how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and how wash their hands and faces.  

The facility has become like a second home to about 42 mentally and physically disabled adults ranging in age from 22 to 59, many of who have been enrolled in the program for more than 15 years. 

The building, located at 1007 University Ave., was donated to ARC to help aid the mentally retarded in 1969 by The Mobilized Women of Berkeley. 

The ARC organization sold the building to adjacent Amsterdam Art for $800,000 in October 1999. Fick cited major electrical and plumbing problems, poor access and lack of adequate parking as reasons for the sale. 

“The building is old and it just isn’t meeting our current needs,” Fick said. 

Mark Rhoades, current planning manager for the city, said ARC and many other nonprofit organizations in the area are going to be hard pressed to find space in the current market. 

“Everybody is looking for space now and it’s coming at a premium. It’s not only scarce but it’s financially prohibitive, especially for nonprofits. Vacancy rates in the East Bay are at historic and unhealthy lows and people with marginal income will continue to get squeezed out.” 

The fact that the ARC program is state funded and licensed and, as such, must meet a certain criteria won’t make it any easier. The new facility must be able to accommodate six toilets and six sinks and have 4,000 to 6,000 square feet of space on one floor. In addition Fink said they need eight parking spaces and several offices. 

“We’re exploring all possible options. We’re willing to pay upward of $800,000 for a new space and we’re working with several Realtors,” Fick said. 

Rene Minneboo, owner of Amsterdam Art, has given Fick and the ARC program until March 2000 to find a new facility and said that if they don’t, he will be faced with “a real moral dilemma.” 

He said if they can’t find a space it will be a huge problem for him because he is in the midst of expanding his business as well as launching a Web site. 

“The future of my business depends on getting into that space but alternatives like eviction . . . I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror let alone face the community. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come down to that.” 

Friday, Oct. 20

“The Ballot Issues” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Fran Packard of the League of Women Voters speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.  

Luncheon: $11 

Call 848-3533 

Human Nature 

8:30 p.m. 

New College Cultural Center 

766 Valencia 

San Francisco 

The X-plicit Players present this idyllic nude ritual. Watch or participate: Be led blindfolded through body tunnels, into body streams while sensing psychic/body qualities through touch. Also presented on Oct. 21.  

$12 admission 

Call 415-848-1985 

Broken Spirits - Addressing Abuse 

8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Brookins African Methodist Episcopal Church 

2201 73rd Ave. 

Oakland 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center’s Health Ministry program presents a free workshop on the impact of domestic violence on our community.  

Call for info, 869-6763 

Opera: Don Carlos, Part 1,  

1 p.m. 

Old and New Poetry with Bob Randolph, 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Saturday, Oct. 21

A Day on Mt. Tam 

9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Come play and hike in San Francisco’s beloved playground. This outing is part of a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance. 

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

AHIMSA Eight annual  

Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International House, Great Hall 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

The AHIMSA is a nonprofit foundation whose goal is to encourage dialogues and public forums which bridge spiritual, scientific and social issues. This years conference is titled “Violence! Scientific and Spiritual Perspectives.”  

Admission is free 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Fall Fruit Tastings 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Taste a whole farmers’ market’s bounty of fall fruit varieties. 

Free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 2 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. The second of three classes. The last is scheduled for Oct. 28 during the same timeslot. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 22

Run for Peace 

United Nations Association 

10K run and 5K run/walk 

9 a.m. Berkeley Marina 

$20 849-1752 

A Taste of the Greenbelt 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Presidio’s Golden Gate Club 

Greenbelt Alliance brings the farm to the city in this celebration of the Bay Area’s agricultural and culinary bounty. Featured are samples from over 40 local restaurants, farmers, wineries, microbreweries. Also featured are live music and local artwork. $45 per person 

1-800-543-GREEN, www.greenbelt.org 

An Evening with Alice Walker 

7:30 p.m.  

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St. (at Grant) 

free parking 

Join internationally loved novelist, poet and essayist Alice Walker in celebrating her new book of autobiographical stories, “The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart.” Benefits Berkeley EcoHouse and KPFA Radio, 94.1 FM.  

Tickets: $10 advance, $13 door 

Tickets available at independent bookstores 

More info: 848-6767 x609 

From Bahia to Berkeley 

11 a.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison St. 

A benefit brunch and auction with food, music, dance and culture to bring Brazilian folkloric dance group Nicinha Raizes from Bahia, Brazil to the Bay Area. The group will tour in January 2001.  

428-0698 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Take a Trip to the Oakland Ballet 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organized by the Senior Center to see “Glass Slippers.”  

Tickets: $6 each 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

A Buddhist Pilgramage in India 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

June Rosenberg brings to life, through slides and lecture, her pilgrimages in India. Free. 

Call 843-6812 

University Avenue Indian Business Community 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Kirpal & Neelum Khanna, owners of the Bazaar of India, tell about the steps they took from spice and food retailing to today’s Bazaar, and the nuances and features of the Indian business community on University Avenue. One is a series of walking tours sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. 

$10 per person 

Call 848-0181 for reservations 

Monday, Oct. 23

“Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin,”  

through Oct. 28. Guess the correct weight of the pumpkin and bring it home in time for Halloween. 

Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. (510) 524-3043. 

Berkeley Chinese Community Church Turns 100 

6 p.m. 

Nov. 4 

Silver Dragon Restaurant 

835 Webster St. 

Oakland 

Reservations: $30 per person 

More info: 548-5295 

Public Schools Parent Information Night 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Parents, principals and other administrative staff from 11 elementary schools will speak about their schools. Sponsored by Neighborhood Parents Network.  

Admission: free to members, $5 non-members 

527-6667 

Parks & Recreation Board Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Solid Waste Management Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St. 

The Changes Happening with HMOs 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Oct. 24

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

2 p.m. - 7 p.m.  

Derby St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Come taste a bounty of fall fruit varieties for free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Blood Pressure 

Alice Meyers 

9:30- 11 :30 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Thursday, Oct. 25

International Jewish Video Competition Winners 

7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

Screening of the four winners in the Museum’s seventh annual competition.  

Call 549-6950 

Low vision support group 

1:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Civic Arts Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Halloween Puppet Show with Hazel Jazel 

3:30 p.m.  

San Pablo Library, 1555 International Marketplace, San Pablo. (510) 374-3998. 

Free. 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar 

Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 MLK Jr. Way 

Planning Commission 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Thursday, Oct. 26

“A Contemporary Food Fight: GM Foods in the market place” 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

International House, Homeroom 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

A discussion with Dr. Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbiology at UC Berkeley, and Dr. Petra Frey from Switzerland, of the scientific basis for biotechnology, it’s risks and benefits. 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

From Morgan to Modern 

Julia Morgan and Hearst Castle:Designing and American Country House 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10 or $35 for series that continues through November. 

841-2242 

East Bay Science & Arts Middle School 

Noon  

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Middle school students perform dances of folk, swing, and Cuban rueda styles. Free.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway, 549-2230 

Proposition Brown Bag 

Noon - 1:30 p.m.  

Institute of Governmental Studies 

109 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Hear presentations about and discuss the eight propositions on the California ballot.  

Call 642-4608 

Tai Chi 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Friday, Oct. 27

“Transporation: What’s in Store?” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Larry Dahms, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Council speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon is served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 

Luncheon: $11 

More info and reservations: 848-3533 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107  

Saturday, Oct. 28

California Shakespears Festival’s annual costume and garage sale  

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, props, and set pieces from previous productions. Free. 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-3422 ext. 120. 

Community Workshop to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Berkeley High School  

9 a.m. - noon 

Florence Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School 

Students, parents, teachers, business owners, neighbors, and others are invited to a discussion on that will help set the course for future school improvements and provide the basis for accreditation review. 

Iris Starr, AICP, 540-1252 

tinstarr@earthlink.net 

“Halloween Mask Making” 

Tilden Regional Park 

2 p.m. 

Come learn the origins of Halloween and make a plaster-gauze mask. Registration required. $4. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more.  

Call 649-3943  

“The 3rd annual Habitot Halloween” 

Habitot Children’s Museum  

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

A not-too-spooky Halloween event for young children with entertainment, parades, games, magic and songs. Come in  

costume. Registration strongly suggested. $4 general; $6 for the first child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

647-1111 

“Not Very Scary Halloween Celebration” 

10:30 a.m. at La Pena  

Betsy Rose performs songs and activities to celebrate the harvest season and the ancestral spirits. Children are invited to come in costume. $4 general; $3 children. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2572. 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 29

“Almost Halloween Hike,”  

Tilden Regional Park 

10 a.m.  

Explore the nature of Halloween folklore on the trails.  

“Wake the Dead: A Music Concert”  

Celebrate the Celtic “Day of the Dead” (Halloween) with folksong artists Paul Kotapish and Danny Carnahan.  

2 to 4 p.m.  

(510) 525-2233. 

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

An Evening with The Professor 

5 - 9:30 p.m. 

Mambo Mambo 

1803 Webster St.  

Oakland 

Berkeley resident Geoffrey A. Hirsch, better known as the Tie Guy from the “How Berkeley Can You Be” parade got his start in comedy in 1996. A professor in real life, Hirsch tell the story of how he became a funny guy.  

$5 for show only, $10 for show and dinner 

Call Geoffrey Hirsch at 845-5631 to reserve tickets 

Monday, Oct. 30

Fun with Oragami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

“BYOP: Pumpkin Carving By Porch and Hearth,” 

Tilden Regional Park 

4 to 7 p.m. “Bring your own pepo” 

Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak  

Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equip,emt. fundamental climbing techiques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

7:30 p.m., 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Monday, Nov. 6

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

“Time Across Cultures” 

2 - 4 p.m. 

St. Clements Church 

2837 Claremont Ave.  

The annual Roselyn Yellin Memorial lecture with a slide-illustrated panel discussion. Also a tour of the “Telling Time” exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum followed by a reception at the museum, 4 - 5 p.m.  

More info: 549-6950 

Buddhism & Compassion 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Psychiatrist and teacher Bobby Jones on “Healing through Compassion.” Free.  

843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 13

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s works include “Animal Dreams,” “High Tide in Tucson,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Prodigal Summer” 

free parking $10 in advance, $13 at the door 

Benefits KPFA and Urban Ecology. 

848-6767 

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Take a Trip to the Steinbeck Museum and 

Mission San Juan Bautista 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organzied by the Senior Center.  

$40 with lunch, $25 without  

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Thursday, Nov. 16

Reminiscing in Swingtime 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Library  

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

George Yoshida, author and jazz drummer, presents a multi-media program recounting the big band experience in the Japanese American internment camps. The presentation will be capped with a set of live jazz by the George Yoshida Quartet. 

Call for more info: 644-6850 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Saturday, Nov. 18

S.F. Stairs and Peaks 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Begin the day with a visit to the farmer’s market, then meander up the stairways and streets of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Then up Russian Hill, descending to Fisherman’s Wharf for a ride back on the new historic streetcar line. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival 

11 a.m. - 1 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Fourteen hours of free concerts, workshops, jam sessions and to top it off a Saturday night dance. The fifth annual Folk Festival will feature Shay & Michael Black, Spectre Double Negative & the Equal Positive, Larry Hanks, Wake the Dead and many others. Sponsored by Charles Schwab and the City of Berkeley.  

More info or to volunteer: 525-5099 

Sunday, Nov. 19

Mt. Madonna & Wine  

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Hike through evergreen forests and visit the remains of a 19th century estate, then finish the day with a visit to Kruse Winery. One of many free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: (415) 255-3233 for reservations 

“Drawing Marathon”  

Merritt College’s Art Building 

Live models, group poses.  

$12 for half a day, $20 for a full day, senior and student discounts available. No cameras or turpentine. 

523-9763 

Tuesday, Nov. 21 

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center, Maffly Auditorium 

Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Call D.L. Malinousky, 601-0550 

Saturday, Dec. 2  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Storyteller Kellmar draws from her African-American roots with stories that touch the heart and the funnybone. For childen aged 3-7. 

Call 649-3943  

Thursday, Dec. 7 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Thursday, Dec. 21

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

ONGOING EVENTS

Sundays 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

6 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be the countywide new Measure B transportation sales tax. The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Mondays 

Baby Bounce and Toddler Time 

10:30 a.m. 

Oct. 16 - Dec. 11 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

For children ages 6 to 36 months. Get those babies off to a good start with songs, rhymes, lap bounces, and very simple books. 

649-3943  

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

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. 

531-8664 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free 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. 

644-8511 

Wednesdays  

10:30 a.m. 

Preschool Song and Story Time 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Music and stories for ages 3-5.  

649-3943 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

Rhyme and Reason Open Mike Series 

2:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. 

The public and students are invited. Sign-ups for the open mike begin at 2 p.m. 

234-0727;642-5168 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Friday, Oct. 20

“The Ballot Issues” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Fran Packard of the League of Women Voters speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.  

Luncheon: $11 

Call 848-3533 

Human Nature 

8:30 p.m. 

New College Cultural Center 

766 Valencia 

San Francisco 

The X-plicit Players present this idyllic nude ritual. Watch or participate: Be led blindfolded through body tunnels, into body streams while sensing psychic/body qualities through touch. Also presented on Oct. 21.  

$12 admission 

Call 415-848-1985 

Broken Spirits - Addressing Abuse 

8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Brookins African Methodist Episcopal Church 

2201 73rd Ave. 

Oakland 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center’s Health Ministry program presents a free workshop on the impact of domestic violence on our community.  

Call for info, 869-6763 

Opera: Don Carlos, Part 1,  

1 p.m. 

Old and New Poetry with Bob Randolph, 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Saturday, Oct. 21

A Day on Mt. Tam 

9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Come play and hike in San Francisco’s beloved playground. This outing is part of a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance. 

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

AHIMSA Eight annual  

Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International House, Great Hall 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

The AHIMSA is a nonprofit foundation whose goal is to encourage dialogues and public forums which bridge spiritual, scientific and social issues. This years conference is titled “Violence! Scientific and Spiritual Perspectives.”  

Admission is free 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Fall Fruit Tastings 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Taste a whole farmers’ market’s bounty of fall fruit varieties. 

Free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 2 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. The second of three classes. The last is scheduled for Oct. 28 during the same timeslot. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 22

Run for Peace 

United Nations Association 

10K run and 5K run/walk 

9 a.m. Berkeley Marina 

$20 849-1752 

A Taste of the Greenbelt 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Presidio’s Golden Gate Club 

Greenbelt Alliance brings the farm to the city in this celebration of the Bay Area’s agricultural and culinary bounty. Featured are samples from over 40 local restaurants, farmers, wineries, microbreweries. Also featured are live music and local artwork. $45 per person 

1-800-543-GREEN, www.greenbelt.org 

An Evening with Alice Walker 

7:30 p.m.  

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St. (at Grant) 

free parking 

Join internationally loved novelist, poet and essayist Alice Walker in celebrating her new book of autobiographical stories, “The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart.” Benefits Berkeley EcoHouse and KPFA Radio, 94.1 FM.  

Tickets: $10 advance, $13 door 

Tickets available at independent bookstores 

More info: 848-6767 x609 

From Bahia to Berkeley 

11 a.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison St. 

A benefit brunch and auction with food, music, dance and culture to bring Brazilian folkloric dance group Nicinha Raizes from Bahia, Brazil to the Bay Area. The group will tour in January 2001.  

428-0698 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Take a Trip to the Oakland Ballet 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organized by the Senior Center to see “Glass Slippers.”  

Tickets: $6 each 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

A Buddhist Pilgramage in India 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

June Rosenberg brings to life, through slides and lecture, her pilgrimages in India. Free. 

Call 843-6812 

University Avenue Indian Business Community 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Kirpal & Neelum Khanna, owners of the Bazaar of India, tell about the steps they took from spice and food retailing to today’s Bazaar, and the nuances and features of the Indian business community on University Avenue. One is a series of walking tours sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. 

$10 per person 

Call 848-0181 for reservations 

Monday, Oct. 23

“Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin,”  

through Oct. 28. Guess the correct weight of the pumpkin and bring it home in time for Halloween. 

Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. (510) 524-3043. 

Berkeley Chinese Community Church Turns 100 

6 p.m. 

Nov. 4 

Silver Dragon Restaurant 

835 Webster St. 

Oakland 

Reservations: $30 per person 

More info: 548-5295 

Public Schools Parent Information Night 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Parents, principals and other administrative staff from 11 elementary schools will speak about their schools. Sponsored by Neighborhood Parents Network.  

Admission: free to members, $5 non-members 

527-6667 

Parks & Recreation Board Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Solid Waste Management Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St. 

The Changes Happening with HMOs 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Oct. 24

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

2 p.m. - 7 p.m.  

Derby St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Come taste a bounty of fall fruit varieties for free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Blood Pressure 

Alice Meyers 

9:30- 11 :30 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Thursday, Oct. 25

International Jewish Video Competition Winners 

7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

Screening of the four winners in the Museum’s seventh annual competition.  

Call 549-6950 

Low vision support group 

1:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Civic Arts Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Halloween Puppet Show with Hazel Jazel 

3:30 p.m.  

San Pablo Library, 1555 International Marketplace, San Pablo. (510) 374-3998. 

Free. 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar 

Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 MLK Jr. Way 

Planning Commission 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Thursday, Oct. 26

“A Contemporary Food Fight: GM Foods in the market place” 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

International House, Homeroom 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

A discussion with Dr. Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbiology at UC Berkeley, and Dr. Petra Frey from Switzerland, of the scientific basis for biotechnology, it’s risks and benefits. 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

From Morgan to Modern 

Julia Morgan and Hearst Castle:Designing and American Country House 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10 or $35 for series that continues through November. 

841-2242 

East Bay Science & Arts Middle School 

Noon  

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Middle school students perform dances of folk, swing, and Cuban rueda styles. Free.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway, 549-2230 

Proposition Brown Bag 

Noon - 1:30 p.m.  

Institute of Governmental Studies 

109 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Hear presentations about and discuss the eight propositions on the California ballot.  

Call 642-4608 

Tai Chi 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Friday, Oct. 27

“Transporation: What’s in Store?” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Larry Dahms, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Council speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon is served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 

Luncheon: $11 

More info and reservations: 848-3533 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107  

Saturday, Oct. 28

California Shakespears Festival’s annual costume and garage sale  

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, props, and set pieces from previous productions. Free. 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-3422 ext. 120. 

Community Workshop to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Berkeley High School  

9 a.m. - noon 

Florence Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School 

Students, parents, teachers, business owners, neighbors, and others are invited to a discussion on that will help set the course for future school improvements and provide the basis for accreditation review. 

Iris Starr, AICP, 540-1252 

tinstarr@earthlink.net 

“Halloween Mask Making” 

Tilden Regional Park 

2 p.m. 

Come learn the origins of Halloween and make a plaster-gauze mask. Registration required. $4. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more.  

Call 649-3943  

“The 3rd annual Habitot Halloween” 

Habitot Children’s Museum  

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

A not-too-spooky Halloween event for young children with entertainment, parades, games, magic and songs. Come in  

costume. Registration strongly suggested. $4 general; $6 for the first child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

647-1111 

“Not Very Scary Halloween Celebration” 

10:30 a.m. at La Pena  

Betsy Rose performs songs and activities to celebrate the harvest season and the ancestral spirits. Children are invited to come in costume. $4 general; $3 children. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2572. 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 29

“Almost Halloween Hike,”  

Tilden Regional Park 

10 a.m.  

Explore the nature of Halloween folklore on the trails.  

“Wake the Dead: A Music Concert”  

Celebrate the Celtic “Day of the Dead” (Halloween) with folksong artists Paul Kotapish and Danny Carnahan.  

2 to 4 p.m.  

(510) 525-2233. 

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

An Evening with The Professor 

5 - 9:30 p.m. 

Mambo Mambo 

1803 Webster St.  

Oakland 

Berkeley resident Geoffrey A. Hirsch, better known as the Tie Guy from the “How Berkeley Can You Be” parade got his start in comedy in 1996. A professor in real life, Hirsch tell the story of how he became a funny guy.  

$5 for show only, $10 for show and dinner 

Call Geoffrey Hirsch at 845-5631 to reserve tickets 

Monday, Oct. 30

Fun with Oragami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

“BYOP: Pumpkin Carving By Porch and Hearth,” 

Tilden Regional Park 

4 to 7 p.m. “Bring your own pepo” 

Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak  

Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equip,emt. fundamental climbing techiques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

7:30 p.m., 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Monday, Nov. 6

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

“Time Across Cultures” 

2 - 4 p.m. 

St. Clements Church 

2837 Claremont Ave.  

The annual Roselyn Yellin Memorial lecture with a slide-illustrated panel discussion. Also a tour of the “Telling Time” exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum followed by a reception at the museum, 4 - 5 p.m.  

More info: 549-6950 

Buddhism & Compassion 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Psychiatrist and teacher Bobby Jones on “Healing through Compassion.” Free.  

843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 13

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s works include “Animal Dreams,” “High Tide in Tucson,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Prodigal Summer” 

free parking $10 in advance, $13 at the door 

Benefits KPFA and Urban Ecology. 

848-6767 

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Take a Trip to the Steinbeck Museum and 

Mission San Juan Bautista 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organzied by the Senior Center.  

$40 with lunch, $25 without  

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Thursday, Nov. 16

Reminiscing in Swingtime 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Library  

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

George Yoshida, author and jazz drummer, presents a multi-media program recounting the big band experience in the Japanese American internment camps. The presentation will be capped with a set of live jazz by the George Yoshida Quartet. 

Call for more info: 644-6850 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Saturday, Nov. 18

S.F. Stairs and Peaks 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Begin the day with a visit to the farmer’s market, then meander up the stairways and streets of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Then up Russian Hill, descending to Fisherman’s Wharf for a ride back on the new historic streetcar line. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival 

11 a.m. - 1 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Fourteen hours of free concerts, workshops, jam sessions and to top it off a Saturday night dance. The fifth annual Folk Festival will feature Shay & Michael Black, Spectre Double Negative & the Equal Positive, Larry Hanks, Wake the Dead and many others. Sponsored by Charles Schwab and the City of Berkeley.  

More info or to volunteer: 525-5099 

Sunday, Nov. 19

Mt. Madonna & Wine  

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Hike through evergreen forests and visit the remains of a 19th century estate, then finish the day with a visit to Kruse Winery. One of many free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: (415) 255-3233 for reservations 

“Drawing Marathon”  

Merritt College’s Art Building 

Live models, group poses.  

$12 for half a day, $20 for a full day, senior and student discounts available. No cameras or turpentine. 

523-9763 

Tuesday, Nov. 21 

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center, Maffly Auditorium 

Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Call D.L. Malinousky, 601-0550 

Saturday, Dec. 2  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Storyteller Kellmar draws from her African-American roots with stories that touch the heart and the funnybone. For childen aged 3-7. 

Call 649-3943  

Thursday, Dec. 7 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Thursday, Dec. 21

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

ONGOING EVENTS

Sundays 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

6 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be the countywide new Measure B transportation sales tax. The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Mondays 

Baby Bounce and Toddler Time 

10:30 a.m. 

Oct. 16 - Dec. 11 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

For children ages 6 to 36 months. Get those babies off to a good start with songs, rhymes, lap bounces, and very simple books. 

649-3943  

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

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. 

531-8664 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free 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. 

644-8511 

Wednesdays  

10:30 a.m. 

Preschool Song and Story Time 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Music and stories for ages 3-5.  

649-3943 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

Rhyme and Reason Open Mike Series 

2:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. 

The public and students are invited. Sign-ups for the open mike begin at 2 p.m. 

234-0727;642-5168 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Using several bench players throughout the match, the Berkeley High girls’ volleyball team dominated the De Anza Dons Thursday, winning 15-2, 15-2, 15-4. 

Berkeley coach Justin Caraway rotated his reserves with his starters constantly in all three games of the away match, using a match he expected to win easily to try different combinations of players. 

“We thought we’d have a pretty easy time of it today,” he said after the match. “We needed to see what we could do with different people on the floor.” 

That need is immediate, as the team will play in the Moreau Tournament this weekend and will be missing several players who will be taking the SAT. In addition, star middle blocker Desiree Young has been out of action for the past two games. With Young unavailable, the ’Jackets have been spreading the ball around more, and outside hitters Hannah Lawler, Lizzi Akana and Caitlin Everett have been playing well, a trend that continued against De Anza. 

The ’Jackets (11-6, 7-0 ACCAL) got off to a fast start against the outmanned Dons, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first game before the home team knew what hit them. De Anza’s only point of the game was on a mishit by Berkeley outside hitter Hannah Lawler, and the Dons struggled to even return most of the Berkeley serves. When they did get the ball back over the net, it was hammered right back at them by Akana and Everett, who each had four kills in the game. 

Starting setter Danielle Larue returned after missing the match against Encinal last week, and she looked shaky on several plays. But she gave enough good service to her hitters to give her team a big advantage in kills. 

The second game started much the same as the first, with Berkeley tallying seven points before the Dons were able to get on the scoreboard. Again, it was an unforced error by a Berkeley player that gave De Anza their first point, this time by middle blocker Lena Stahlschmidt. But after scoring two points, the Dons wouldn’t score again in the game, as kills by Lawler and Akana combined with solid serving by senior Helene Skau and junior Ferron Salniker to run off another seven-point run by the ’Jackets to put the game away. 

The final game of the match was the most competitive, although the final score didn’t show much difference. The Dons were able to force many changes in service possession, and their blockers even managed to stop Lawler and Akana several times. But Berkeley’s power was too much to overcome, and Everett ran off seven straight service points on the way to a truly dominating victory.

Bulbouts: a dangerous idea in the name of safety 

Editor: 

The City of Berkeley is considering some traffic plans – presumably to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians.  

In spite of these good intentions, some very dangerous ideas have surfaced. The new traffic “bulbouts” at some intersections, which force cars and cyclists into the same space at an intersection, are notorious examples. 

Another poor idea is the proposed traffic “circle” at California and Channing.  

It’s not a true traffic circle, like the Marin Circle, but, instead, a round barrier in the middle of a right-angled intersection. 

California St. presently has Class II bicycle lanes. It is one of the few streets in Berkeley where there is sufficient space for a cyclist to ride a safe distance from the parked cars and for moving cars to still pass unimpeded. 

The proposed “circle” extends across both car lanes and into both bike lanes. It forces two lanes of traffic – one for cars and one for bikes – not one lane in the middle of an intersection, the place where most bicycle collisions occur. It defeats the very purpose of a Class II bike lane – adequate space for bikes and cars. 

I encourage cyclists and motorists to view this intersection and the temporary markers that designate the new “circle” and observe how it squeezes cars and bikes into a narrow space. Then let your councilmember know what you think of this idea. The Transportation Committee meeting was to hear it yesterday.  

There are many excellent ways to encourage and facilitate safe cycling.  

Palo Alto has a Bicycle Boulevard with mid-block “filters,” barriers which allow only bicycles and emergency vehicles through.  

Stop signs are turned so that this becomes a through street for cyclists. Almost no street parking is lost to the filters. Berkeley should adopt this safe, proven approach instead of these other dangerous ideas. 

Ric Oberlink 

Berkeley 

Transit first, and not parking should be city’s priority 

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Mayor Dean and Councilmembers: 

It has come to my attention that at Tuesday’s Council meeting the issue of parking for city and school employees came up.  

I was astonished to see Mayor Dean quoted in Tuesday’s Daily Planet urging the council to recognize that “parking for city employees is our priority.” Thank you Kriss for encouraging the City to prioritize encouraging public transportation and alternative modes of transportation.  

If the city doesn’t even work to promote alternative means of transportation among city staff-- how can the city expect Berkeley residents to begin to think about driving less? What city employee will be encouraged to take the bus if a “Class-pass-type” pass ever materializes for Berkeley residents if they know they have a free parking spot at work waiting for them?  

I feel this matter at hand has huge implications for the livability of our City. What direction do we want to move in in Berkeley?  

Back to the 1950s, where we accommodated the car at the expense of everything else, or into the next century where we work together to create viable, safe transportation alternatives to the automobile?  

At the recent Transportation, Housing, and the Environment Election Forum, which the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition co-sponsored – each candidate’s answer to the question “What is the worst thing you do in your daily life for the environment?” was the same: “I drive my car.” The candidates seemed to be seriously apologetic, but also conveyed the message that it was a innocent enough vice, because after all everyone else is driving everywhere too.  

The city has been right on in supporting eco-friendly businesses like Pedal Express to reduce reliance on the automobile.  

I hope that Berkeley will extend this common sense to the matter at hand.  

It would be great if the city did a pilot program on “Parking Cash-Out for Employees.” Each month, employees would be given a check from the city which equals the amount the city incurs providing their usual parking spaces. Then the employees have the option of using the money to pay for parking, or for using the money to buy a bus pass, or for pocketing the money and deciding to walk or bike instead.  

Parking Cash-Out opportunities get the message across that parking is not free, and let employees make informed decisions about how they want to get to work.  

In addition, the city could implement a “Guaranteed Ride Home” program which involves contracting with a local taxi service to ensure employees can catch a taxi if necessary.  

The Daily Planet article also has Mayor Dean stating that no city has ever achieved a 100 percent transit policy. I don’t think that is what Kriss Worthington was proposing. There is a lot of middle ground between providing free parking for all city employees and insisting that 100 percent of employees will take transit to work.  

As far Mayor Dean’s concerns for women employees who “will have to walk many blocks in the dark” – I was also a little perplexed. Most city employees work near downtown Berkeley, correct? Downtown Berkeley is pretty darn safe to walk through (except for the speeding deadly cars), in my opinion – and one never has to walk too many blocks to get to the bus stop or BART station.  

I personally feel much more in danger walking in a parking garage at night than I do on the street or riding my bike.  

I support the Maio/Spring/Worthington alternative to wait for the release of the Trafic Demand Management Study on Tuesday’s council agenda. 

I encourage any other citizens who share my feelings to attend next Tuesday’s Council meeting.  

Sarah Syed  

Berkeley 

Safe Routes to School Project Director  

Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition  

Measure Y could cost owners $4,500 to go home again 

Editor: 

Thank you for covering Berkeley’s District 2 candidates (Oct. 16). 

In the past few months our organization has reached out to City Councilmembers to seek common ground, mend fences and attempt a dialogue that could lead to a solution to Berkeley’s housing crisis. 

We contacted Councilmember Margaret Breland, the District 2 incumbent, currently being challenged by moderate Betty Hicks. At the meeting with Ms. Breland, I first raised my concern about the results of rent control on Berkeley’s housing stock.  

Ms. Breland commented: “I thought rent control was over.” I was shocked to hear this from a member of the City Council, given that they were soon to decide the fate of what became to be known as Measure Y, a draconian modification of Berkeley’s eviction ordinance. 

Here we have a city council person who is totally unaware of the current status of a law she is about to amend. As expected, Ms. Breland aligned herself with the BCA and cast one of the decisive votes placing Measure Y on the November ballot.  

Measure Y should deeply concern all Berkeley voters. It is billed as a device to protect elderly and disabled tenants from being driven out of their homes. the Measure paradoxically contains a loophole exempting owners from this portion of the measure if they own three or fewer units. Clearly these would be the most desirable properties as risk for owner occupancy.  

Measure Y gives no eviction protection to elderly and disabled tenants living in buildings of fewer than four units. 

However, this provision was no concession to small property owners. It was not part of the original text considered by the council. 

Measure Y covers all owner occupancy evictions, not just those in rent controlled buildings.  

What if you went on vacation, a sabbatical, or took a temporary job out of the area, rented your home to a young able bodied person who refused to leave when you returned? Under Measure Y you could be liable for paying the tenant a $4,500 relocation fee; and if you lost the owner move-in eviction action on a technicality, you would be compelled by Measure Y to pay the tenant’s attorney’ fees as well. 

You would not be awarded anything if you prevailed, however. 

Measure Y’s prohibitions, penalties, and legal traps to thwart owners to move into their own properties are not targeted at big landlords.  

They affect middle income folks - many of them tenants themselves - who cannot afford the price of a single family home; people like teachers, policemen and firemen who must settle for purchasing a small rental, occupy a unit and have the rents from the other apartments help out with the mortgage.  

Measure Y is specifically designed to prevent middle income renters from becoming homeowners in today’s overheated economy. 

Berkeley does not need laws that further deplete its housing stock and put people in the streets; it must strive to find inclusive solutions to its housing problems that involve the entire community.  

It also needs leaders that are well versed with the issues and are creative enough to chart a course for Berkeley that works, rather than emulating San Francisco’s failed housing policies. 

Robert Cabrera 

President 

Berkeley Property Owners Association 

(CHECK LAST LETTER) 

Subject:  

letter to the editor 

Date:  

Thu, 19 Oct 2000 10:21:59 -0700 

From:  

“Steve Finacom”  

To:  

opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Dear Editor: 

I was disappointed to read that Berkeley police officers attending a City 

Council meeting criticised Carrie Sprague for her efforts to enforce 

residential permit parking in the MAGNA neighborhood next to City Hall. 

I’ve always had the impression that one of the unspoken rules of American 

law enforcement is to avoid publicly attacking citizens by name (convicted 

felons an exception). Confidence in the police depends on both 

presumption and evidence that they will act impartially. When individual 

police officers publicly criticize even one citizen who has broken no laws, 

that faith is undermined. It’s worse when that citizen is actually trying 

to get the City to enforce one of its own laws. 

I’m also personally sympathetic to the frustrations of the MAGNA residents 

like Sprague, since my own Berkeley neighborhood is similarly sandwiched 

between large traffic-attracting facilities--in our case, a public school, 

and a hospital--which attract endless numbers of staff and visitors who 

“must” drive, and who circle the adjoining residential streets looking for 

parking. 

That said, it’s probably a good thing that the City Council is hearing 

complaints about parking from public employees because it brings home the 

reality facing all public agencies in Berkeley. The Council is quick to 

criticize the University and other big local employers for traffic and 

parking impacts, but if statistics were to be calculated on who drives to 

work and who doesn’t, City employees--and perhaps even a majority of City 

Councilmembers--may be among the least “transit friendly” groups of 

commuters in Berkeley. 

I saw this attitude first hand while working on a committee helping to plan 

future renovations to Civic Center Park. From the point of view of almost 

all of the citizen participants, removal of the little City Council / City 

staff parking lot just behind City Hall was an unquestionable benefit for 

the community. Land would be added to the park, and the park and City Hall 

would be reconnected. If the parking “needed” to be replaced, it could be 

done in the City-owned garage half a block up the street. But time and 

again some City staff kept raising the issue of carving out a new parking 

lot from another part of the green space--parking that would have been 

reserved for free for Councilmembers and senior City employees. 

In this area the City could learn something from the University, which has 

consistently pursued policies to reduce single-driver commuting. You 

almost literally have to win a Nobel Prize to get a free parking space on 

campus (in contrast, I’ve been told that many City employees have free 

parking guaranteed by their union contracts). Nearly two decades ago the 

University pioneered the Berkeley TRiP program which promotes and provides 

transit alternatives. Parking spaces are set aside for carpools and van 

pools. Recently, the University and students negotiated with AC Transit to 

arrange the “Class Pass” which allows students to ride the bus without 

paying fare, in exchange for a surcharge on their registration fees. 

Thousands of students now regularly use that option. 

Even with transit options, however, there will still remain an issue of 

public employees who have to drive because they have odd schedules or live 

in distant places not well served by public transit or have physical 

disabilities. That’s a legitimate need. One way to address it would be 

through the development of affordable housing in Berkeley for those who 

work in public agencies. 

The City could take the lead in this area. In downtown Berkeley the City 

owns two large tracts of land--the surface parking lots at Oxford and 

Allston, and on Berkeley Way between Shattuck and Milvia. Instead of 

emphasizing the income that it could earn by leasing those sites to private 

developers to build for-profit housing above parking, perhaps the City 

should look at ways to develop the housing components on those sites as 

affordable apartments and limited-equity condominiums that would rent or 

sell to public employees like police officers and firefighters and public 

school teachers who can’t currently afford to live close to their 

workplaces. (This could be similar to UC’s University Terrace faculty and 

staff condominiums which are, ironically, located just a few blocks west of 

City Hall). 

This is not a new concept. Many public agencies in the Bay Area are going 

in this direction. Every month I read of another school district or 

municipality looking at ways to develop this sort of housing. Why not 

Berkeley? There are even non-profit developers, such as BRIDGE Housing, 

that specialize in affordable housing for the middle to lower income 

workforce in the Bay Area. Groups like those could be invited to Berkeley 

to help structure a program. 

How about it, City Council? Will you consider “acting locally” with the 

resources you have on hand--City owned development sites Downtown--to 

directly address affordable housing issues for those who police Berkeley’s 

streets, teach its children, maintain its parks, and staff its government 

offices? 

Sincerely, 

Steven Finacom 

2308 Russell Street 

Berkeley, California, 94705 

(510) 845-3203

Bulbouts: a dangerous idea in the name of safety 

Editor: 

The City of Berkeley is considering some traffic plans – presumably to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians.  

In spite of these good intentions, some very dangerous ideas have surfaced. The new traffic “bulbouts” at some intersections, which force cars and cyclists into the same space at an intersection, are notorious examples. 

Another poor idea is the proposed traffic “circle” at California and Channing.  

It’s not a true traffic circle, like the Marin Circle, but, instead, a round barrier in the middle of a right-angled intersection. 

California St. presently has Class II bicycle lanes. It is one of the few streets in Berkeley where there is sufficient space for a cyclist to ride a safe distance from the parked cars and for moving cars to still pass unimpeded. 

The proposed “circle” extends across both car lanes and into both bike lanes. It forces two lanes of traffic – one for cars and one for bikes – not one lane in the middle of an intersection, the place where most bicycle collisions occur. It defeats the very purpose of a Class II bike lane – adequate space for bikes and cars. 

I encourage cyclists and motorists to view this intersection and the temporary markers that designate the new “circle” and observe how it squeezes cars and bikes into a narrow space. Then let your councilmember know what you think of this idea. The Transportation Committee meeting was to hear it yesterday.  

There are many excellent ways to encourage and facilitate safe cycling.  

Palo Alto has a Bicycle Boulevard with mid-block “filters,” barriers which allow only bicycles and emergency vehicles through.  

Stop signs are turned so that this becomes a through street for cyclists. Almost no street parking is lost to the filters. Berkeley should adopt this safe, proven approach instead of these other dangerous ideas. 

Ric Oberlink 

Berkeley 

Transit first, and not parking should be city’s priority 

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Mayor Dean and Councilmembers: 

It has come to my attention that at Tuesday’s Council meeting the issue of parking for city and school employees came up.  

I was astonished to see Mayor Dean quoted in Tuesday’s Daily Planet urging the council to recognize that “parking for city employees is our priority.” Thank you Kriss for encouraging the City to prioritize encouraging public transportation and alternative modes of transportation.  

If the city doesn’t even work to promote alternative means of transportation among city staff-- how can the city expect Berkeley residents to begin to think about driving less? What city employee will be encouraged to take the bus if a “Class-pass-type” pass ever materializes for Berkeley residents if they know they have a free parking spot at work waiting for them?  

I feel this matter at hand has huge implications for the livability of our City. What direction do we want to move in in Berkeley?  

Back to the 1950s, where we accommodated the car at the expense of everything else, or into the next century where we work together to create viable, safe transportation alternatives to the automobile?  

At the recent Transportation, Housing, and the Environment Election Forum, which the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition co-sponsored – each candidate’s answer to the question “What is the worst thing you do in your daily life for the environment?” was the same: “I drive my car.” The candidates seemed to be seriously apologetic, but also conveyed the message that it was a innocent enough vice, because after all everyone else is driving everywhere too.  

The city has been right on in supporting eco-friendly businesses like Pedal Express to reduce reliance on the automobile.  

I hope that Berkeley will extend this common sense to the matter at hand.  

It would be great if the city did a pilot program on “Parking Cash-Out for Employees.” Each month, employees would be given a check from the city which equals the amount the city incurs providing their usual parking spaces. Then the employees have the option of using the money to pay for parking, or for using the money to buy a bus pass, or for pocketing the money and deciding to walk or bike instead.  

Parking Cash-Out opportunities get the message across that parking is not free, and let employees make informed decisions about how they want to get to work.  

In addition, the city could implement a “Guaranteed Ride Home” program which involves contracting with a local taxi service to ensure employees can catch a taxi if necessary.  

The Daily Planet article also has Mayor Dean stating that no city has ever achieved a 100 percent transit policy. I don’t think that is what Kriss Worthington was proposing. There is a lot of middle ground between providing free parking for all city employees and insisting that 100 percent of employees will take transit to work.  

As far Mayor Dean’s concerns for women employees who “will have to walk many blocks in the dark” – I was also a little perplexed. Most city employees work near downtown Berkeley, correct? Downtown Berkeley is pretty darn safe to walk through (except for the speeding deadly cars), in my opinion – and one never has to walk too many blocks to get to the bus stop or BART station.  

I personally feel much more in danger walking in a parking garage at night than I do on the street or riding my bike.  

I support the Maio/Spring/Worthington alternative to wait for the release of the Trafic Demand Management Study on Tuesday’s council agenda. 

I encourage any other citizens who share my feelings to attend next Tuesday’s Council meeting.  

Sarah Syed  

Berkeley 

Safe Routes to School Project Director  

Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition  

Measure Y could cost owners $4,500 to go home again 

Editor: 

Thank you for covering Berkeley’s District 2 candidates (Oct. 16). 

In the past few months our organization has reached out to City Councilmembers to seek common ground, mend fences and attempt a dialogue that could lead to a solution to Berkeley’s housing crisis. 

We contacted Councilmember Margaret Breland, the District 2 incumbent, currently being challenged by moderate Betty Hicks. At the meeting with Ms. Breland, I first raised my concern about the results of rent control on Berkeley’s housing stock.  

Ms. Breland commented: “I thought rent control was over.” I was shocked to hear this from a member of the City Council, given that they were soon to decide the fate of what became to be known as Measure Y, a draconian modification of Berkeley’s eviction ordinance. 

Here we have a city council person who is totally unaware of the current status of a law she is about to amend. As expected, Ms. Breland aligned herself with the BCA and cast one of the decisive votes placing Measure Y on the November ballot.  

Measure Y should deeply concern all Berkeley voters. It is billed as a device to protect elderly and disabled tenants from being driven out of their homes. the Measure paradoxically contains a loophole exempting owners from this portion of the measure if they own three or fewer units. Clearly these would be the most desirable properties as risk for owner occupancy.  

Measure Y gives no eviction protection to elderly and disabled tenants living in buildings of fewer than four units. 

However, this provision was no concession to small property owners. It was not part of the original text considered by the council. 

Measure Y covers all owner occupancy evictions, not just those in rent controlled buildings.  

What if you went on vacation, a sabbatical, or took a temporary job out of the area, rented your home to a young able bodied person who refused to leave when you returned? Under Measure Y you could be liable for paying the tenant a $4,500 relocation fee; and if you lost the owner move-in eviction action on a technicality, you would be compelled by Measure Y to pay the tenant’s attorney’ fees as well. 

You would not be awarded anything if you prevailed, however. 

Measure Y’s prohibitions, penalties, and legal traps to thwart owners to move into their own properties are not targeted at big landlords.  

They affect middle income folks - many of them tenants themselves - who cannot afford the price of a single family home; people like teachers, policemen and firemen who must settle for purchasing a small rental, occupy a unit and have the rents from the other apartments help out with the mortgage.  

Measure Y is specifically designed to prevent middle income renters from becoming homeowners in today’s overheated economy. 

Berkeley does not need laws that further deplete its housing stock and put people in the streets; it must strive to find inclusive solutions to its housing problems that involve the entire community.  

It also needs leaders that are well versed with the issues and are creative enough to chart a course for Berkeley that works, rather than emulating San Francisco’s failed housing policies. 

Robert Cabrera 

President 

Berkeley Property Owners Association 

(CHECK LAST LETTER) 

Subject:  

letter to the editor 

Date:  

Thu, 19 Oct 2000 10:21:59 -0700 

From:  

“Steve Finacom”  

To:  

opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Dear Editor: 

I was disappointed to read that Berkeley police officers attending a City 

Council meeting criticised Carrie Sprague for her efforts to enforce 

residential permit parking in the MAGNA neighborhood next to City Hall. 

I’ve always had the impression that one of the unspoken rules of American 

law enforcement is to avoid publicly attacking citizens by name (convicted 

felons an exception). Confidence in the police depends on both 

presumption and evidence that they will act impartially. When individual 

police officers publicly criticize even one citizen who has broken no laws, 

that faith is undermined. It’s worse when that citizen is actually trying 

to get the City to enforce one of its own laws. 

I’m also personally sympathetic to the frustrations of the MAGNA residents 

like Sprague, since my own Berkeley neighborhood is similarly sandwiched 

between large traffic-attracting facilities--in our case, a public school, 

and a hospital--which attract endless numbers of staff and visitors who 

“must” drive, and who circle the adjoining residential streets looking for 

parking. 

That said, it’s probably a good thing that the City Council is hearing 

complaints about parking from public employees because it brings home the 

reality facing all public agencies in Berkeley. The Council is quick to 

criticize the University and other big local employers for traffic and 

parking impacts, but if statistics were to be calculated on who drives to 

work and who doesn’t, City employees--and perhaps even a majority of City 

Councilmembers--may be among the least “transit friendly” groups of 

commuters in Berkeley. 

I saw this attitude first hand while working on a committee helping to plan 

future renovations to Civic Center Park. From the point of view of almost 

all of the citizen participants, removal of the little City Council / City 

staff parking lot just behind City Hall was an unquestionable benefit for 

the community. Land would be added to the park, and the park and City Hall 

would be reconnected. If the parking “needed” to be replaced, it could be 

done in the City-owned garage half a block up the street. But time and 

again some City staff kept raising the issue of carving out a new parking 

lot from another part of the green space--parking that would have been 

reserved for free for Councilmembers and senior City employees. 

In this area the City could learn something from the University, which has 

consistently pursued policies to reduce single-driver commuting. You 

almost literally have to win a Nobel Prize to get a free parking space on 

campus (in contrast, I’ve been told that many City employees have free 

parking guaranteed by their union contracts). Nearly two decades ago the 

University pioneered the Berkeley TRiP program which promotes and provides 

transit alternatives. Parking spaces are set aside for carpools and van 

pools. Recently, the University and students negotiated with AC Transit to 

arrange the “Class Pass” which allows students to ride the bus without 

paying fare, in exchange for a surcharge on their registration fees. 

Thousands of students now regularly use that option. 

Even with transit options, however, there will still remain an issue of 

public employees who have to drive because they have odd schedules or live 

in distant places not well served by public transit or have physical 

disabilities. That’s a legitimate need. One way to address it would be 

through the development of affordable housing in Berkeley for those who 

work in public agencies. 

The City could take the lead in this area. In downtown Berkeley the City 

owns two large tracts of land--the surface parking lots at Oxford and 

Allston, and on Berkeley Way between Shattuck and Milvia. Instead of 

emphasizing the income that it could earn by leasing those sites to private 

developers to build for-profit housing above parking, perhaps the City 

should look at ways to develop the housing components on those sites as 

affordable apartments and limited-equity condominiums that would rent or 

sell to public employees like police officers and firefighters and public 

school teachers who can’t currently afford to live close to their 

workplaces. (This could be similar to UC’s University Terrace faculty and 

staff condominiums which are, ironically, located just a few blocks west of 

City Hall). 

This is not a new concept. Many public agencies in the Bay Area are going 

in this direction. Every month I read of another school district or 

municipality looking at ways to develop this sort of housing. Why not 

Berkeley? There are even non-profit developers, such as BRIDGE Housing, 

that specialize in affordable housing for the middle to lower income 

workforce in the Bay Area. Groups like those could be invited to Berkeley 

to help structure a program. 

How about it, City Council? Will you consider “acting locally” with the 

resources you have on hand--City owned development sites Downtown--to 

directly address affordable housing issues for those who police Berkeley’s 

streets, teach its children, maintain its parks, and staff its government 

offices? 

Sincerely, 

Steven Finacom 

2308 Russell Street 

Berkeley, California, 94705 

(510) 845-3203

Ebony Museum of Arts 

The museum specializes in the art and history of Africa.  

Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.  

30 Jack London Village, Suite 209. (510) 763-0745. 

Habitot Children’s Museum 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

“Back to the Farm.”  

Ongoing 

An 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 more.  

Cost: $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under.  

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.  

647-1111 or www.habitot.org 

Judah L. Magnes Museum 

2911 Russell St.  

549-6950 

Free 

Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

“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. “Second Annual Richard Nagler Competition for Excellence i Jewish Photography” 

Nov. 5 - Feb. 2001. 

Featuring the work of Claudia Nierman, Jason Francisco, Fleming Lunsford, and others.  

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley 

Wednesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Open Thursdays til 9 p.m.  

“Hans Hoffmann”  

Through Jan. 16, 2001: Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks.  

The Asian Galleries  

“Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery,” open-ended.  

A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection.  

“Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. 

“Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. 

“Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

642-0808. 

UC Berkeley Museum of  

Paleontology 

Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley 

“Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing.  

A 20-foot tall, 40-foot long replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. 

“Pteranodon”  

A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. 

California Fossils Exhibit, ongoing. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

642-1821. 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst  

Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College  

Avenue, 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.  

“Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended.  

This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history, including the role of Phoebe Apperson Hearst as the museum’s patron, as well as the relationship of anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie to the museum. 

“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. 

This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. 

$2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

643-7648 

Mills College Art Museum 

5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland 

“The 100 Languages of Children,” through October.  

An exhibit of art by children from Reggio Emilia, Italy. At Carnegie Building Bender Room. 

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. 

430-2164 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

“Math Rules!” Ongoing. A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. 

“Within the Human Brain” Ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning  

experiments. 

“In the Dark,”through Jan. 15, 2001. Plunge into darkness and see amazing creatures that inhabit worlds without light.  

“Saturday Night Stargazing” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza.  

“Grossology,” LHS Family Halloween Party, Oct. 28, 6:30 - 9 p.m. Featuring the creation of “gross” stuff with household products and ChemMystery, a hands-on crime lab for kids.  

$12 for adults; $10 for kids 12 and under.  

Call 643-5134 for tickets  

Open daily, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

$7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4 

642-5132 

Holt Planetarium  

Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. 

“Moons of the Solar System,” through Dec. 10. Take a tour of the fascinating worlds that orbit Earth and other planets out to the edge of the Solar System.  

“Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18;  

$3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Centennial Drive, University of California,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

The Oakland Museum of  

California 

1000 Oak St., Oakland 

“Secret World of the Forbidden City” Through Jan. 24, 2001. A rare glimpse of over 350 objects which illustrate the opulence and heritage of the Chinese Imperial Court Under the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 - 1911. For this exhibit: $13 general, $10 seniors and $5 for students with ID.  

For museum: $6 general; $4 seniors and students; free children age 5 and under; second Sundays are free to all. Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; first Friday of the month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

(888) OAK-MUSE or www.museumca.org. 

TRAX Gallery 

1306 3rd. St., Berkeley 

Mary Law “Altered Ceramic Pots”  

through Oct. 21 

For more information or to sign up for the workshop call 526-0279 or e-mail to cone5@aol.com 

Music 

Downtown Berkeley Association 

Lunchtime Concert Series 

Every Thursday through October 

noon - 1p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

1 hour free parking available in Center Street Garage 

Oct. 26: East Bay Science & Arts Middle School will perform folk, swing and Cuban rueda dances 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo 

Oct. 27, 9 p.m., Sam Mangwana (Congolese rumba, world) 

Call TicketWeb, 594-1400 or Ashkenaz, Tuesday through Sunday during showtimes, 525-5054 

Oct. 31, 9 p.m. A Reggae Halloween Party with Ras Kidus and guests, An evening of soca, calypso and reggae music featuring Haf Breed, Jah Flyy, Pode Vill Crew and DJ Jah Bonz. $9 

924 Gilman St. 

All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted 

$5; $2 for a year membership 

525-9926 

Oct. 27: Elliot, The Jazz June, Lovelight SHine, Killing Independent 

Oct. 28: Haloween show includes From Ashes Arise, Born Dead Icons, Time in Malta, $5.  

Freight & Salvage Coffee House 

1111 Addison St. 

All music begins at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:30 p.m.) 

Oct 20: The Campbell Brothers with Katie Jackson (guitar gospel music) 

Oct. 21:Dick Gaughan and Brian McNeill (Scotish traditional) 

Tickets for most shows $15 - $20 

Oct. 22: Bob Brozman and Takashi Hirayasu (slide guitar teams with Okinawan Lute master) 

Call 762-BASS or 601-TWEB for advance tickets 

For additional info call Ashkenaz showline, 548-1761 

Cal Performances 

Oct. 21, 8 p.m.: Hamza El Din (world music), $16 - $28.  

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley (Bancroft at Telegraph) 

Oct. 29, 3 p.m.: Ian Bostridge, Tenor, performs music of Schubert and Hugo Wolf, $28 - $48.  

Nov. 5, 3 p.m.: Julia Fischer, Violinist, performs music of Tartini, Beethoven and Cesar Franck, $28 - $48.  

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley (Bancroft at College) 

For tickets and info for these events call 642-9988 

Yoshi’s 

Oct. 23, An Evening with pianist Jon Jang to benefit the Asian Women’s Shelter of San Francisco. Call 415-751-7110 for tickets and additional information.  

Oct. 31, 8 p.m. Halloween Salsa Dance Party, With Jesus Diaz y su QBA. The dance floor will be open. $14 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or (510) 762-BASS. 

The Jazzschool/La Note 

2377 Shattuck Ave. 

Oct. 29, 4:30 p.m., Mimi Fox Trio 

$12; $10 students/seniors; $6 for Jazzschool students and children under 13 

Reservations: (510) 845-5373. 

Live Oak Concert Series 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m., Donna Lerew, violin, Skye Atman, piano perform Mozart, Shubert, Korngold and others.  

Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m., The Horizon Wind Quintet 

$10; $8 for members; $9 for students and seniors; Children under 12 admitted free 

Eli’s Mile High Club 

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 

(510) 655-6661 

Doors open at 8 p.m. 

Beginning Oct. 26, Funk & Soul with DJs Styles, Kendread and special guests. Ongoing Thursdays.  

Oct. 28. Halloween party featuring Takezo. Doors at 8 p.m.  

Films 

University of California,  

Berkeley Art Museum 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Neo-Eiga: New Japanese Cinema” 

Oct. 21, 7 p.m. : “Don’t Look Back (1999), directed by Akihiko Shiota, US premiere; 8:45 p.m. : “Sasayaki” (1999), directed by Akihiko Shiota (who will appear in person at the screening), US premiere. 

Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m. : Judah L. Magnes Museum Presents: 

International Jewish Video Awards Screening featuring “Shylock” by Pierre Lasry, “Brooklyn Trilogy” by Madeline Schwartzman, “Village of Idiots” by Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove, and Arnie Lipsey’s “Almonds and Wine.”  

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

Theater 

The Gate Theater of Dublin Present 

“Waiting for Godot” 

by Samuel Beckett 

Zellerbach Playhouse 

UC Berkeley 

Directed by Walter Asthmus 

Oct 20 & 21, 2 p.m.; Oct. 22, 3 p.m. 

Post-performance discussions Oct. 20 & 22 

$34 - $48 

Call 642-9988 for tickets  

“The Green Bird”  

by Carlo Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs through Oct. 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

Impact Theatre Presents: 

“Impact Briefs 4: Impact Smackdown!” 

Oct. 20 - Nov. 18 

Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.  

$10, Students $5 

Call 464-4468 for tickets & reservations 

La Val’s Subterraniean  

1834 Euclid 

“Fanny at Chez Panisse” 

Julie Morgan Theatre 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley 

Musical based on the book with opening proceeds going to the Verde Partnership Garden in Richmond. 

Through Oct. 29 

Runs Wednesday - Sunday, 7 p.m.  

$26 - 34  

1-888-FANNY06 

“Moonlight”  

by Harold Pinter 

A Last Planet Theatre production 

Potrero Hill Playhouse 

953 De Haro 

San Francisco 

Pinter’s most recent play features a man named Andy who is dying and his wife, Bel, who can’t get their two sons to pay them a visit. A story of infidelity, sibling rivalry, marital combat and moonlight and memory.  

Runs Thursday - Saturday, through Oct. 28. All shows at 8:30 p.m. No show Oct. 26.  

$20 opening night, $10-15 regular run, $5 preview 

More info and tickets: 845-2687 

Berkeley Rep School of Theatre 

“Sundiata” 

Martin Luther King, Jr. High School 

1781 Rost St.  

The world of premiere of Edward Mast’s tale of Djata, a handicapped boy who discovers he is the lost son of the murdered king of the Mali Empire. As the empire’s last hope, he is called upon to reclaim his heritage as the Lion King.  

Nov, 4, Noon 

Free to the public, but reservations are encouraged. 

Call 647-2972  

“Dinner With Friends” 

by Donald Margulies 

Nov. 10 through Jan 5, 2001 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St.  

845-4700, www.berkeleyrep.org 

Dance 

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company  

“You Walk?” 

Oct. 27-28, 8 p.m. 

$20 - $42 

“Past Forward”  

White Oak Dance Project Present:  

Nov. 1 - 4, 8 p.m.  

Mikhail Baryshnikov and company celebrating the influence of post-modern choreographers.  

$36 - $60  

Zellerbach Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Call for tickets, 642-9988 or try TicketWeb.com 

Exhibits 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

California College of Arts and Crafts  

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

Kala Gallery 

Kala Art Institute 1999 Fellowship Awards Exhibition Part II through Oct. 31. Features work by Margaret Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and David Politzer.  

Tuesday through Friday, Noon - 5 p.m. or by appointment. 1060 Heinz Ave. Call 549-2977. 

Berkeley Historical Society  

“Berkeley’s Ethnic Heritage.” An overview of the rich cultural diversity of the city and the contribution of individuals and minority groups to it’s history and development.  

Thursday through Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m. Admission free.  

1931 Center St.  

Call 848-0181 

Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery 

Paintings by Timothy Buckwalter, Hilary Harkness, and Jerry W. King, Through Oct. 28. 

Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.  

942 Clay St., Oakland. Call 625-1830 for more info. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

Early Bird Holiday Art Fest. Oct. 25 - Nov. 11. Shop early for unique gifts made by local artists. Free opening reception, Oct. 28, 1 - 4 p.m. featuring live music and artist demonstrations.  

Gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

461 Ninth St., Oakland. Call 763-9425  

Ames Gallery 

“Left Coast Legends: California Masters of Visionary, Self-taught, and Outsider Art,” featuring the work of Dwight Mackintosh, Alex Maldonado, A.G. Rizzoli, Jon Serl, and Barry Simons, Through Dec. 2.  

2661 Cedar St., Call for more info: 845-4949 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

Alan Leon: Hebrew Calligraphy and Illuminations, Nov. 1 - Dec. 15. Opening reception, Nov. 4, 1 - 3 p.m.  

Gallery hours: Tuesday - Thursday, 1 - 7 p.m.; Saturday, Noon - 4 p.m. and by appointment.  

3023 Shattuck Ave., Call 548-9286 x307 for more info 

The Oakland Museum of California 

“La Flor y la Calavera: Altars and Offerings for the Days of the  

Dead,” through Nov. 26.  

The 7th annual exhibit in observance of Dias de los Muertos featuring ofrendas, altars and artworks created by artists, community groups and students in observance of Mexico’ s Day of the Dead. $6 general; $4 seniors and students; free children age 5 and under; second Sundays are free to all. Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; first Friday of the month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 1000 Oak St., Oakland.  

(888) OAK-MUSE or www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Rhyme and Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive 

2621 Durant Ave. 

2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. 

Includes featured readers and open mike poetry. Free 

2 p.m. sign-up. Program runs from 2:30 - 4 p.m. 

Oct. 29: Fernando Brito, Lara Dale 

234-0727 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series 

8p.m., Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall 

For more information call 653-2439 

Nov. 1: John Yau and Garrett Caples, books include “Forbidden Entries” and “My Symptoms” 

Nov. 7: Marie Howe and Brian Glaser, “The Good Thief” and “What the Living Do” 

Cody’s Books 

2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852  

& 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500 

Telegraph events (all begin at 7:30 p.m): 

Oct. 21, 3 p.m., Dale Hope discusses “The Aloha Shirt-Spirit of the Islands.” 

Oct. 23, Paisley Rekdal reads from “The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In.” 

Oct. 24, Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair discuss “Al Gore: A User’s Manual.” 

Fourth St. events: 

Lunch Poems: A Noontime Poetry Reading Series 

Morrison Room, Doe Library 

UC Berkeley 

12:10 - 12:50 p.m.  

Call 642-0137 

Under the direction of Professor Robert Hass, this is a series of events on the first Thursday of each month. Free.  

Nov. 2: Goh Poh Seng  

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National  

Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Oakland Historic walking tours 

Runs through October.  

The tours cover downtown Oakland and its historic waterfront. All tours begin promptly at 10 a.m. and last between an hour and an hour and a half.  

Free. Call for reservations. Oakland. (510) 238-3234. 

University of California at Berkeley Botanical Garden 

The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. 

Botanical Garden Tours, Saturday and Sunday, 1:30 p.m. Meet at the Tour Orientation Center for a free docent tour. $3 general; $2 seniors; $1 children; free on Thursday. Daily, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Botanical Garden, Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley. (510) 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/ 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours 

Oct. 22 - University Avenue Indian Business Community led by Kirpal & Neelum Khanna 

Nov. 5 - What’s Happening Downtown? led by Debbie Badhia 

More info call 848-0181 

Early one morning in May, Leo Stegman, an AmeriCorps volunteer, was resting on a bench in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Park. He was waiting for a nearby agency that serves low income and homeless people to open up so that he could distribute fliers about a job training program. 

Stegman never made it to the office. Minutes before it opened, he was arrested by Berkeley police.  

An officer “came up to me and he said ‘No sleeping in the park,’” said Stegman. “He asked me my name and I said, ‘For what? Am I being detained or arrested?’ He said ‘I want to know.’” 

But Stegman knew his rights. “Since I’m a paralegal and I have some understanding of the law, I said ‘I don’t have anything to say to you, we have nothing to talk about,’” Stegman said. The officer continued to question Stegman, insisting that he tell him his name. Then he arrested Stegman for resisting, delaying or obstructing a police officer in the official performance of his duty. 

Stegman, who is black, thinks he was a victim of racial profiling. “You catch a lot of African-American men being stopped under very tenuous circumstances,” he said. “If you fail the attitude test, the incident escalates.” Stegman calls his case of injustice merely an “inconvenience.” He said that many incidents with police quickly turn from verbal harassment to physical assault. 

Berkeley police did not return calls for comment. 

This Sunday, Stegman will join thousands of people at a protest against police abuse. The march and rally will take place in San Francisco’s Mission district. For the fifth year in a row, October 22 is the national day of protest “to stop police brutality, repression, and the criminalization of a generation.” 

Trac Brennan, of the October 22 Coalition, said the day has become a rallying point for addressing injustice in law enforcement. “It’s a powerful day of expression of people’s outrage,” she said. “We want to see change.” Brennan sees police brutality as a unifying issue. “This is one of the many types of injustice in the country, but it’s one that can bring together people of different political persuasions,” she said. “Anyone who stands up against any type of repression is going to encounter police brutality sooner or later.” 

Though the number of people killed by Berkeley police is relatively low, lawyers, activists and victims of police abuse maintain that Berkeley police engage in excessive force and racial profiling.  

John Burris is an Oakland lawyer who represents victims of police abuse. He has handled many cases against the Berkeley Police Department. Burris said that people of color are overwhelmingly targeted by police. “It’s always been a feeling in the African-American community that police have treated them in a discriminatory fashion,” he said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t get a call from someone who’s been brutalized by police. The problem is widespread wherever there are officers policing African-American or Hispanic communities.” 

Danielle Storer, of Berkeley CopWatch, said that communities need to make police accountable for their actions. “It’s really a vital issue for security and democracy,” she said. “Police (should be) controlled by elected officials and not by themselves.” 

Barbara Attard, an officer at the Berkeley Police Review Commission – a city agency that investigates complaints of police abuse – said that Berkeley’s police department is less abusive than those in other Bay Area cities such as Oakland and San Francisco. 

“The fact that there was just one officer-involved shooting in nine years is significant. The numbers (in Berkeley) are low, even for general use of force,” she said. 

Attard said the Berkeley Police Review Commission receives about 50 complaints a year for its 200 officers, while San Francisco averages about 1,000 complaints a year and has about 2,000 officers.  

Attard also said that the number of cases that go to the Berkeley Police Review Commission is only half of the total number of complaints filed with the internal affairs office. In 1999 Berkeley’s internal affairs office received 117 complaints of police abuse.  

Formed in 1973, Berkeley’s Police Review Commission is the oldest civilian oversight committee in the United States. Attard said that most of the cases the commission receives now are complaints of racial profiling. Attard calls the Berkeley review process “very important.”  

She said, “This is the one place where anyone from the public can observe, the one place where complainants can question the officer involved.” 

Brennan of the Oct. 22 Coalition said the resident review boards are not an effective way to curb police abuse. “My experience is that they serve as a rubber stamp for police brutality,” she said. “It channels anger but fundamentally won’t change anything because they don’t have hiring and firing power.” 

Storer said review boards need to be well funded.  

“When the police department budget increases, so should the civilian review board’s. If they’re getting more cops, we should get more investigators,” she said. 

Storer also maintains that each person in a community can help curb police violence. “Everyone should stop and watch when they see the police. If everyone is involved and everyone is a witness, that will be a deterrent to police abuse,” she said. 

Burris said the only way to combat police abuse is to create a system of discipline. “Officers need to be held accountable for their misconduct and be effectively and efficiently punished,” he said. 

INFO BOX: 

· Sunday October 22nd: National Day of Protest 

· Events in San Francisco: 

· 11 am protest at 24th and Mission 

· noon march 

· 1-5 pm rally at Dolores Park, with speeches by 

victims of police brutality and family members of 

those who have been killed by police. Also, theatrical 

and musical performances. 

· Wear black.  

· More information: 415-864-5153 or 510-464-4563 

After 20 years packaging chocolates at See’s Candies Ltd. in South San Francisco, Maria Teresa Rubio wants a pension she can live on and a guarantee that she won’t have to work more than 40 hours a week.  

She and four other factory workers passed out leaflets at the Berkeley’s See’s store on Shattuck Avenue for the second day Thursday. Workers at See’s South San Francisco and Burlingame factories have been on strike since Sept. 21.  

“We’re all together,” said Rubio, who came to picket on her day off from a part-time job she began Monday.  

The See’s company says candy is being made and distributed as usual. “We do not foresee any problems in providing product to our customers either now or in the upcoming holiday season,” See’s wrote in a press release. A small staff of replacement workers is working in the factories. 

Gretel Duong, manager at the Berkeley See’s store for 14 years, said she doesn’t have her usual stock. “We’re not getting everything we usually get.”  

She said she doesn’t have enough boxed chocolates.  

“And the candy is not coming from South City. It’s coming from L.A.,” she said.  

Duong also said only about 280 customers entered the store on Wednesday, a 20 percent decrease from the usual 350 customers. The picket was only half the day, so many of the customers – and those picking up free samples – did not cross the picket line. 

Other outlets, such as the wholesale store in San Leandro, have lost even more customers, Duong said.  

The strike is See’s first in 79 years of operation. The company’s contract with Local 125 workers expired last July. Negotiations between See’s officials and Local 125 broke down soon thereafter.  

Federal mediator Ruth Carpenter has been appointed to help find a resolution, but no negotiations are currently underway. 

See’s President Charles N. Huggins did not return repeated phone calls from a reporter. Nor did See’s Human Resources Director Donna Arevalo. 

According to the company’s statement workers are well-paid, noting they are eligible to receive $12.47 an hour after 800 hours of work. But Randy Roark, a spokesman for Local 125, said many See’s employees work only at holiday rush times, so it could take years to build up 800 hours. 

The statement from See’s said a four-day, 10-hour-a-day work week will help it to operate “most efficiently.” But workers want guarantees that they will not be forced to work longer than 40 hours a week under the 10-hour-a-day plan, Roark said. 

Over the summer See’s increased senior workers’ wages 50 cents, to $15 an hour. Starting salaries went up 75 cents, to $6.50 an hour. But Rubio and the other women protesting said no one can support a family on $6.50 an hour. “It’s not enough,” Rubio said. 

Workers are not accorded senior status until they clock 1,000 hours in a 12-month period. “I have a friend who’s worked there 10 or 12 years and doesn’t have medical insurance,” Rubio said.  

The South San Francisco factory is See’s main plant, producing 60 percent of all See’s candy. It employs 300 permanent workers a year, with another 300 seasonal hires. Women, mostly Asian American and Latina, form 80 percent of the Bay Area factory workers. 

After a month on strike, Rubio worries about how she will continue to pay rent and support her four children. “I need my job,” said Rubio. 

Some 1,000 high school students from 38 cities in Northern California today attended a youth empowerment forum, making their voices heard on the issues of the day. 

Hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union at the University of California at Berkeley, the forum gave students – most of whom are below voting age – a chance to speak out on Proposition 38, the school voucher initiative, and the upcoming presidential election.  

Shayna Galender, event coordinator and first-year student at Oakland’s Mills College, said the teens were united in their opposition to the ballot initiative that would give parents $4,000 state vouchers to send their children to private schools. 

“The youth voice is in consensus against the proposition, which would tear students out of public schools,” Galender said. 

“Many spoke today about not wanting kids to be turned into dollar signs.” 

The participants called on the government to provide more funding for public schools, instead of making them compete with private institutions, some of which have discriminatory application processes, Galender said. 

Although teens are often characterized as apathetic when it comes to voting, those who participated today are everything but, Galender asserted. However, she added that many are wary of the two-party system and looking for alternatives.  

“They are disillusioned,” Galender said, “but not apathetic.” 

This is the 10th year that the ACLU has held the event, which last year focused on voter-approved Proposition 21, which lets prosecutors decide whether to charge juveniles as adults.  

The day-long event has workshops, performances and presentations aimed at informing the participants about their rights. 

Also discussed today were the role of gay clubs in schools, and the targeting of certain groups of students by school officials after the Columbine school slayings. One workshop taught participants about their rights in confrontations with police.

SACRAMENTO — Then-Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush abused his discretion and may have broken the law in his handling of several settlements with insurers, a state audit released Thursday says. 

Quackenbush reached dozens of settlements with insurance companies accused of wrongdoing rather than fining them, and may have broken the law by agreeing to keep some of the settlement terms confidential, the Bureau of State Audits report says. 

“These practices misled the public,” the auditors said. “The department prevented policyholders and consumers from obtaining critical informatnt Insurance Commissioner Harry Low said Thursday that the state will cover the attorney bills Quackenbush accumulated during civil investigations of his activities by the attorney general and Legislature. 

Low said Quackenbush would have to tap his own pocketbook to cover any legal fees if he is charged with a crime. 

“The department will not provide any present or former employee with a criminal defense,” Low said. 

So far, the Insurance Department has received just over $300,000 in bills from attorneys for Quackenbush and other department officials stemming from the civil probes, department spokesman Scott Edelen said. 

He said department officials couldn’t guess how much the ultimate total would be, but he said the civil investigations “seem to have mostly concluded.” 

The Legislature’s inquiries focused on his decision to let a half-dozen insurers accused of mishandling claims filed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake escape up to $3 billion in potential penalties by giving about $12 million to a fund he created. 

Quackenbush was accused of using about $6 million of that on ads featuring him and on other spending that benefited him politically, rather than on the earthquake research and consumer aid the fund was supposed to finance. 

The Bureau of State Audits said it looked at 96 agreements that Quackenbush reached with insurers between Jan. 1, 1996 and May 31, 2000 to settle alleged violations of the insurance code. 

Some of the early settlements included fines, cease-and-desist orders and “outreach payments” from insurers to nonprofit organizations. 

Starting in 1997, the department “began a trend of negotiating away its enforcement powers on particular cases,” the report said. 

It also increased the use of outreach payments and reduced the use of fines. 

In 1997, outreach payments amounted to 60 of the total of fines and outreach payments. By 1999, they made up 87 percent, the auditors said. 

A 1997 memo from two department attorneys indicates the increased use of outreach payments was a “deliberate attempt to circumvent the state’s fiscal controls,” the audit said. 

The attorneys concluded that state law requires legislative approval for the department to spend money derived from reimbursements and fines. 

To get around that requirement, the attorneys recommended that the settlements involve direct payments from the insurers to the nonprofits. 

The attorney general’s office issued an opinion in July that said the commissioner could include payments to a nonprofit organization as part of a settlement but the money has to be used in a way that’s related to the violation. 

Quackenbush, who moved to Hawaii, has said he is innocent of any wrongdoing. 

State lawmakers dropped their investigations after Quackenbush announced his resignation. State and federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the matter. No charges have been filed. 

Other findings by state auditors include: 

— Quackenbush allowed insurers to draft some settlements. 

— Keeping some provisions of settlements secret prevented insurance regulators in other states from finding out about unfair practices or code violations committed by the companies. 

— Allowing insurers to make payments directly to nonprofits prevents the departments from determining if the correct amounts are paid. 

The report recommends several changes in department operations, including a requirement that companies that commit serious violations be fined and issued a cease-and-desist order. 

Auditors also said the department should take other steps to improve its enforcement actions, including setting up an integrated tracking system and promptly assigning and resolving open cases. 

Low said he would implement the recommendations. 

He also said that he would abide by an earlier decision by acting Commissioner Clark Kelso, who served between Quackenbush’s resignation and Gov. Gray Davis’ appointment of Low, not to pay Quackenbush’s expenses from the Fair Political Practices Commission’s inquiry into the timing of insurer contributions to Quackenbush’s campaign. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Read the audit at http://www.bsa.ca.gov/bsa/index.html 

When it’s time for some interior decorating in your period home, think paint. Not only is interior painting an easy way to make a room look clean and fresh, it’s relatively inexpensive too.  

Thanks to the many fine companies that offer historical paint lines, old-house owners won’t sacrifice authenticity when making this choice. 

Of course, like everything else, paint and the way it’s made has changed over the years – for the better. Some paint companies base their historical paint lines on documentary research.  

Usually this includes old color cards, product information and books. Some go a step further and base a historical paint color on physical research conducted on existing period buildings.  

Layer after layer of old paint is carefully removed until the original coating is found.  

Samples are taken of this original coating and through laboratory analysis a reproduction color, based on its pigment, is duplicated in a modern paint. 

You must remember, though, that our tastes today aren’t necessarily the same as those of our ancestors.  

With this in mind, some companies have modified period colors to appeal to the modern eye. Unfortunately, many suppliers don’t tell you when they’ve done this, so if you’re striving for a museum-like reproduction in your home, you’ll have to study the color cards carefully. If not, these slight adaptations shouldn’t matter. 

Paint has changed through the ages. Prior to 1700, whitewash was a popular interior paint used in the Colonies.  

An inexpensive and easily available mixture of slaked lime and water, it resembled liquid plaster. (You can still find whitewash paints in some historical lines.)  

Easy to use, whitewash was a way to make things look clean and neat. One problem with whitewash, though, was its impermanence.  

It didn’t last long and washed off easily with water. 

Another early paint that goes back to the founding of this country is milk paint. Often preferred for interior work because it didn’t have an unpleasant odor – like the also available oil-based paints – milk, as its name implies, was used as the water and binder. 

No matter what type of paint you’re talking about, if it was made before the onset of the commercial paint industry (around 1860-1870), it was hand-mixed. So you didn’t see the uniform consistency that we take for granted today – it had a different texture and was a bit streaky. 

The coloring agents or pigments used in early paints were largely earth-based. For example, some reds came from iron oxide, yellows from ocher, black from lamp black, and blues from cobalt. Because of this you never got the same color twice. 

So a painter had to prepare a big enough batch of paint to complete the job on hand to ensure uniformity of color. Many old-house restorers long for the rather uneven look of old, milk-painted walls.

LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of airliners headed to or from the Southwest were grounded Thursday because of repeated failures of air traffic control radar, leaving airports gridlocked and thousands of passengers stranded or delayed. 

“I’ve got a grandma dying in New Mexico and I can’t get there,” said a frustrated Davis Hill of Boise, Idaho, as he waited for a connecting flight at Los Angeles International Airport. 

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jerry Snyder said a “national ground stop” was ordered after the computer in southern California handling air traffic control radar failed for a second time.  

The order meant airliners bound for the Southwest were stopped from taking off at their originating point. 

A backup system took over and there were no safety problems for aircraft in the air, Snyder said. Controllers at the Los Angeles Center, where the failure occurred, guide flights over a 100,000-square-mile area from Nevada and Utah out to sea 250 miles. 

The radar failure was the result of a computer software upgrade Wednesday night. 

“When the systems were being brought back up on line, it failed. It’s not accepting the software,” Snyder said. “It’s worked for 17 other systems but it’s not working in this one.” 

There were tense moments for FAA controllers. At one point, there was no more room on the ground at Los Angeles International Airport and flights from Australia, for instance, were sent to Las Vegas. 

“It’s been pretty crazy,” said Garth Koleszar, local vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “Every flight in and out of our sector was affected.” 

Asked if there were any safety concerns, he said: “Any time you use a system that isn’t the best that we have, I feel there is a degradation.” 

The backup system doesn’t have the automatic feature that passes off planes from one regional controller to another, and requires a controller to manually type the flight information and pass along information by telephone. 

The first main computer outage lasted from 6:50 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and led to what was called a Tier 1 ground stop, meaning Southern California-bound aircraft west of the Mississippi couldn’t take off. 

The computer went down again at 9 a.m. and a Tier 2 ground stop was ordered, halting planes on the ground nationwide. 

The computer was restored again at 11:15 a.m. using the old software program, and the FAA ordered the Tier 2 ground stop lifted incrementally throughout the day to meter the flow of aircraft. 

The radar system at the FAA’s Los Angeles Center, 60 miles north of downtown in the Mojave Desert community of Palmdale. 

“This was a standard upgrade. It was new software. Something is corrupting the system,” Snyder said, adding, “There was nothing wrong with the old software.” 

Southwest Airlines canceled 70 flights, airline spokesman Melanie Jones said from Dallas. Other flights experienced delays of up to four hours. 

San Francisco International Airport spokesman Ron Wilson said about 20 flights were grounded there during the first outage. 

United Airlines canceled at least 32 flights into and out of San Francisco.

SACRAMENTO — Federal and state environmental officials announced a settlement that could generate more than $800 million in new cleanup money for the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund site near Redding, home to what scientists say is the world’s worst water. 

The settlement with Aventis CropSciences USA Inc. – formerly known as Rhone Poulenc Inc. – will ensure that 95 percent of the highly acidic water coming from the defunct copper mine will be treated before it reaches the top of the Sacramento River system, said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials. 

The site is one of the nation’s most toxic Superfund sites. It is also home of the world’s most acidic water, according to scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey. 

“As recently as five years ago, this site dumped the equivalent of 150 tanker cars full of toxic metals into the Sacramento River each day during winter storms,” said Felicia Marcus, regional EPA administrator in San Francisco. 

Aventis, which is based in Stasbourg, France, has agreed to pay $160 million now for an insurance policy that will pay up to $300 million in cleanup costs over the next 30 years if it is needed, plus a final $514 million payment in 2030. 

In addition, the company has agreed to drop efforts to recover $150 million it already has spent on cleanup since 1989, said Tom Bloomfield, an EPA attorney. 

“When you add in the past costs they won’t seek to recover, the settlement approaches $1 billion,” Bloomfield said. It is the largest settlement in the EPA region that includes Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada, he said. 

With the agreement, the company is released from future liability, Bloomfield said. 

The Iron Mountain Mine, located about three hours north of Sacramento in an unpopulated area, was an active copper mine for more than 100 years and contains miles of tunnels, said Bloomfield. 

“If you took all the buildings south of Market Street in San Francisco, they would fit within the area that was mined out below Iron Mountain,” he said. “It was a big operation.” 

Those tunnels expose iron sulfate in the pyrite deposit below the mountain, which reacts with oxygen in the air and water to form sulfuric acid, scientists say. 

The neon green water that flows out of the mine’s portals has a pH level of 0.5 – the most acidic water found on the planet. Scientists say the closest previous measurements were found in volcanic lakes, but those were created naturally, while the mine’s water is the result of mining. 

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts discovered earlier this year that the mine is also host to a microbe that thrives in the highly acidic conditions. 

Scientists say the microbe speeds up the dissolution of iron in the water, compounding the pollution problems.

GLENDALE — Many of the men dressed in suits and hunched over backgammon boards at the Victory senior center were not registered to vote a month ago. Neither were the women chatting in Armenian. Most are now. 

As swing voters in a congressional race pivotal to which party will control the next Congress, Armenians in the Los Angeles suburbs of Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena are emerging as a key political force. They are being courted aggressively by candidates — with Armenian-language ads, speeches in Armenian and appearances on Armenian cable channels — and signed up to vote in record numbers. 

“We’re taking this election very seriously,” said Agavni Baroyan, 75. “It’s a very important campaign and I think it’s very important to raise my voice.” 

Republican Rep. James E. Rogan, who became a national figure as a House manager of President Clinton’s impeachment trial, and his challenger, state Sen. Adam B. Schiff, are running the most expensive House race in history, with a combined $9.5 million raised so far. 

That means vigorously pursuing members of the area’s Armenian community, at 75,000 the largest outside Armenia itself and 8 percent of the registered voters in California’s 27th House district. 

“Democrats are for Schiff solid, Republicans are for Rogan solid, so you’re looking for niche votes,” said Jim Hayes, president of Political Data, a Burbank firm that sells voter information to candidates.  

“The Armenian community is pivotal because it doesn’t appear to have any allegiances.” 

Rogan made what many viewed as a grab for those votes recently, working with House leaders to schedule a floor vote on a resolution that would recognize as genocide the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. 

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered as part of the Ottoman Empire’s campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey. The Turkish government says the death count is inflated and the people were killed as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest. 

The Ottoman Empire became Turkey in 1923. Armenia, which borders Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran, was one of the 15 independent republics that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

The measure is of supreme importance to Armenians. It also has angered the government of Turkey, a key U.S. ally in NATO, and is vehemently opposed by the Clinton administration. 

So much so that President Clinton wrote Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., on Thursday urging him “in the strongest terms” not to bring the issue up to a vote.  

Otherwise, he said, there could be “far-reaching negative consequences for the United States” and its interests abroad. 

A Rogan campaign spokesman denied the timing of the effort was political. But both campaigns are going to lengths to reach out to Armenians.

HELENA, Mont. — A golden eagle that was kept in a small cage for 41 years, and frequently beaten, has died of a lung ailment it apparently developed during captivity. 

Henry Thomas, a falconer from Washington state, rescued the bird from its Montana captor in September and named it Star. He said the female eagle had appeared to be improving as recently as Sunday, but it was psychologically as well as physically damaged and showed little will to live. 

Thomas said the bird contracted what he thought was a cold during the 18-hour trip with him to his facility near Arlington, Wash., but it turned out to be a more serious ailment known as Asperigillosis, a mold-like infection of the lungs.  

The eagle died Tuesday night. 

“Star had become infected in the unclean cage of her prior owner, where the mold lay dormant in her lungs until stress from the interstate move activated the disease,” Thomas said. 

A medical exam just before the bird’s death revealed lung disease, brain damage, an eye injury and a poorly healed broken wing. 

Thomas said the bird’s captor took it from its nest as a fledgling in 1959.  

It was kept for 41 years in a small cage and frequently taunted and beaten. It probably acquired its fatal lung infection from unsanitary conditions of the cage, Thomas said. 

Thomas has declined to name the man who kept the bird, saying only that he lived north of Helena and that his widow gave up the eagle after her husband’s death. 

FWS agent Rick Branzel of Missoula, Mont., said golden eagles acquired after Oct. 24, 1962, are protected under the federal Eagle Protection Act. Star, captured in 1959, was not covered by the law. 

Tempers flared Tuesday night when 20 off-duty Berkeley police officers attended the City Council meeting to complain about what they said is woeful lack of parking for police department employees. 

They were responding to an item the mayor had placed on the agenda recommending that the city explore creating new parking for city employees. 

The officers, all members of the Berkeley Police Association, the department’s union, wore blue baseball caps with BPA emblazoned on the front.  

At each City Council meeting 10 members of the public are chosen by lottery to address the council for three minutes. Three BPA members were chosen. 

One officer called the city’s transit-first policy a “Polly Anna” viewpoint, then singled out an individual who lives near the police station, who has frequently complains about police employees illegally parking near her home. 

“You need to tell Carrie Sprague to take her clipboard and go home,” Randy Files, president of the BPA said during his address to the council. 

BPA members said Sprague is known to write down the license numbers of cars violating Residential Parking Permit laws near her home. Many of the cars belong to on-duty police officers. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that for a police officer to single out a resident is inappropriate behavior. “It’s not good when the BPA muscles other people with intimidation just to get approval for something that will have serious long-term impact on the community and the environment,” he said. 

The officers said they sometimes have to walk six to eight blocks to get to work because of residential parking permit laws. The situation, they said, is especially dangerous for female employees walking to their cars after late-night shifts. 

“You give us hypocritical thanks and then you slap us in the face,” Files said, referring to the council’s praise of the police department’s handling of the looting that occurred on Telegraph Avenue early Sunday morning. 

The mayor, concerned about greater parking pressure when city employees move back into the newly retrofitted City Hall in late January, has recommended the City Council regard the matter as a priority and she wants the city manager to move expeditiously to solve the problem by determining how many new spaces would be reasonable and then trying to find them among existing parking spaces. 

Worthington said the city should take long-term impacts into consideration when deciding what to do on this issue. He said there’s a Transportation Demand Study due in several weeks and the city should wait to review it before overreacting.  

“This needs to be looked at in the whole context,” he said. “There are several dozen spaces that may solve the problem, for example the 40 spaces that Patrick Kennedy’s construction crew are using temporarily.” 

The BPA made their position on additional parking very clear at the meeting. Officer Andrew Greenwood demanded the board take immediate and decisive action about what he called an “absurd” situation. He went on to say the problem is being created by a small group of residents. “We are being pitted against a very small vocal group, maybe five people.” 

Files addressed the Council last. “You have to stop this Polly Anna viewpoint that your going to eliminate cars,” he said. “If you bury your head in the sand somebody’s going to get hurt and it will be on you.” 

Dean said the city has never had a policy of eliminating cars because there will always be a need for some people to drive.  

After Files addressed the council the BPA members left the chambers en masse. A heated verbal exchange in the hallway ensued between Sprague and several of the officers.  

After the heated argument, the BPA members, apparently taking a page from Berkeley demonstrators, marched down the stairs, chanting: “What do we want? Parking!” 

Sprague said she was shocked by the officers’ behavior. She said there’s an ongoing problem with parking in her neighborhood and it’s very difficult to get the police to enforce the existing Residential Parking Permit laws. She said parking is tough for everybody. “I come home late at night sometimes and I have to walk over a block and without a gun. (The police) have guns.” 

The mayor’s recommendation to explore building parking for city employees was removed from Tuesday’s consent calendar and will be discussed at next week’s meeting. In the meantime the City Manager’s Office is putting together a report that will attempt to determine what would be a reasonable solution to the parking problem for all city employees.  

Grace McGuire, assistant to the city manager, said there is no money in the budget for the construction of new parking facilities such as a garage and any new parking for city employees would mean taking parking from some other users. “The most likely spaces will be taken from public parking such as one of the three city-owned garages on Berkeley Way and Center and Oxford streets,” she said. 

Worthington argued that a number of organizations, including the Sierra Club, Urban Ecology and the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition opposed adding parking structures downtown. He added that he found the BPA’s chanting outside the council chambers amusing. “Usually it’s the liberals who use those tactics,” he said.

Safety problems not fixed nine years after hills fire  

The ninth anniversary of the most destructive urban/wildland forest fire in the 20th century will occur on October 20th. Just nine years ago, in 1991, the fire took 25 lives and more than 3,000 homes were lost.  

Yet, despite all the excellent measures taken by the cities of Berkeley and Oakland as well as by the East Bay Regional Parks, the potential for a similar disaster to occur is extremely high. 

Vegetation management in the Berkeley Hills is not under control. We need more fire inspections.  

In response to the 1991 Firestorm, the cities of Berkeley and Oakland set up Fire Assessment Districts, however, both have expired.  

Oakland tried to establish another, but the voters said “no”, and because of Proposition 218, Berkeley didn’t try to renew it.  

Under the Assessment District concept, much was accomplished.  

In Berkeley “green dumpsters” and “chippers” were made available to dispose of fuels which had been removed from around homes of residents living in the “High Hazard Area.” In addition, inspectors were made available by the Fire Department to inspect more than 8,000 properties.  

As long as the inspectors were available, there was effective compliance with common-sense fire prevention rules.  

However, with the loss of the inspectors, financed by the Assessment District funds, the only properties which are currently inspected are adjacent to the Buffer Zone (the fire-safety boundary between the wildland fuels and residential areas). Fire Department Inspectors are able to visit only about 1,000 homes.  

This of course, leaves about 7,000 properties uninspected except after a complaint is filed with the department. Thus, most of the 7,000 properties have not been inspected for about 3 years, and compliance is inadequate.  

Unfortunately, the fuels situation is probably much worse in the Berkeley Hills than it was in 1923 when 584 structures were destroyed within a 2-hour period on September 17th.  

Sad to say, most Berkeleyans do not view vegetation as fuels. But, ALL vegetation will burn under dry East Wind conditions which occurred in October 1991, December 1980, September 1970, and September 1923.  

Will another similar disaster strike Berkeley in the near future? The answer is YES, unless EVERY resident in the Berkeley Hills performs ALL the fuel hazard reduction which is necessary to protect his home and his neighbors from destructive fire.  

It is deplorable that compliance can’t be assured unless the property is inspected on a regular basis. Inspections can’t be assured unless “professional” Inspectors are made available through the Berkeley Fire Department.  

These inspectors, needed for the 7,000 uninspected properties, are not currently available.  

This means that additional funds are urgently needed to employ, train, and provide support for at least three full-time inspectors.  

Another weak link in the management system which protects Berkeley and Oakland residents from destructive urban/wildland fire exists in Claremont Canyon, the highly flammable boundary between the two cities.  

It is common knowledge among fire experts that it would be virtually impossible to make a stand in the canyon under dry East Wind condition.  

This places residents of both cities in jeopardy.  

Because of politics and environmental concerns, major fuel management activities in Claremont Canyon have been suspended until further notice – or until the next wildfire.  

We need more Fire Inspectors and vegetation inspections in the Berkeley/Oakland hills to prevent another major disaster such as the one which killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 in 1991. We need them NOW!  

Juliann Beckendorf is vice chairperson of the Berkeley Fire Safety Commission and Carl Wilson is a member of the Berkeley Fire Safety Commission

Thursday, Oct. 19

The Promise and Perils  

of Transgenic Crops 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

International House, Homeroom 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

A discussion with Dr. Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbiology at UC Berkeley, of the scientific basis for biotechnology, it’s risks and benefits. 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

Candlelight Vigil For  

the Uninsured 

6 p.m.  

Steps of Sproul Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Join the American Medical Student Association, Berkeley Pre-Medical Chapter in a vigil for those without health insurance. Speakers from various medical organizations will discuss ways to improve our health care system.  

Call Chris Hamerski, 845-1607 

Berkeley Metaphysic  

Toastmasters Club 

6:15 - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Rafael Mariquez Free  

Solo Concert 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library, South Branch 

1901 Russell St. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This Chilean folksinger and guitarist presents his original settings of selections by Latin American poets. 

Contact: 644-6860; TDD 548-1240 

Vocal Sauce 

Noon 

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Shattuck Ave. at Center St. 

The JazzSchool’s vocal jazz ensemble perform award-winning arrangements by Greg Murai.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway, 549-2230 

CLGS Lavendar Lunch 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Kyle Miura, Pacific School of Religion alumnus and Director of the GTUs Pacific and Asian-American Center for Theology and Strategies speaks on being “Queer and Asian.”  

Call 849-8239 

Performance Poetica 

7:30 p.m. 

ATA Gallery 

992 Valencia St. 

San Francisco 

Video and verse by Illinois Arts Council/Hemingway Festival poet and filmmaker Rose Virgo, with special guest Judy Irwin.  

$3  

Movie: “Intermezzo” 

with Leslie Howard 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

“Pain - Ways to Make It Easier” 

1 - 2:30 p.m. 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Ashby Campus, Dining Rooms A & B 

3001 Colby 

Maggie van Staveren, LCSW, CHT and Christine Bartlett, PT, CHT will demonstrate ways to let go of pain due to arthritis, injury and illness. RSVP requested. 

Call 869-6737  

Design Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Transportation Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Fair Campaign  

Practices Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

644-6380 

Friday, Oct. 20

“The Ballot Issues” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Fran Packard of the League of Women Voters speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.  

Luncheon: $11 

Call 848-3533 

Human Nature 

8:30 p.m. 

New College Cultural Center 

766 Valencia 

San Francisco 

The X-plicit Players present this idyllic nude ritual. Watch or participate: Be led blindfolded through body tunnels, into body streams while sensing psychic/body qualities through touch. Also presented on Oct. 21.  

$12 admission 

Call 415-848-1985 

Broken Spirits - Addressing Abuse 

8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Brookins African Methodist Episcopal Church 

2201 73rd Ave. 

Oakland 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center’s Health Ministry program presents a free workshop on the impact of domestic violence on our community.  

Call for info, 869-6763 

Opera: Don Carlos, Part 1, 1 p.m. 

Old and New Poetry with Bob Randolph, 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Saturday, Oct. 21

A Day on Mt. Tam 

9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Come play and hike in San Francisco’s beloved playground. This outing is part of a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance. 

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

AHIMSA Eight  

annual Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International House, Great Hall 

UC Berkeley 

2299 Piedmont Ave.  

The AHIMSA is a nonprofit foundation whose goal is to encourage dialogues and public forums which bridge spiritual, scientific and social issues. This years conference is titled “Violence! Scientific and Spiritual Perspectives.”  

Admission is free 

Contact Maribel Guillermo, 642-9460 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Taste a whole farmers’ market’s bounty of fall fruit varieties. 

Free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 2 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more.  

The second of three classes. 

The last is scheduled for Oct. 28 during the same timeslot. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 548-2220 x223 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Sunday, Oct. 22

Run for Peace 

United Nations Association 

10K run and 5K run/walk 

9 a.m. Berkeley Marina 

$20 849-1752 

A Taste of the Greenbelt 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Presidio’s Golden Gate Club 

Greenbelt Alliance brings the farm to the city in this celebration of the Bay Area’s agricultural and culinary bounty. Featured are samples from over 40 local restaurants, farmers, wineries, microbreweries. Also featured are live music and local artwork. The event benefits Greenbelt Alliance’s ongoing efforts to protect Bay Area farmlands and open space.  

$45 per person 

1-800-543-GREEN, www.greenbelt.org 

An Evening with Alice Walker 

7:30 p.m.  

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St. (at Grant) 

free parking 

Join internationally loved novelist, poet and essayist Alice Walker in celebrating her new book of autobiographical stories, “The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart.” Benefits Berkeley EcoHouse and KPFA Radio, 94.1 FM.  

Tickets: $10 advance, $13 door 

Tickets available at independent bookstores 

More info: 848-6767 x609 

From Bahia to Berkeley 

11 a.m.  

Capoeira Arts Cafe 

2026 Addison St. 

A benefit brunch and auction with food, music, dance and culture to bring Brazilian folkloric dance group Nicinha Raizes from Bahia, Brazil to the Bay Area. The group will tour in January 2001.  

428-0698 

Take a Trip to the Oakland Ballet 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organized by the Senior Center to see “Glass Slippers.”  

Tickets: $6 each 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

A Buddhist Pilgramage in India 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

June Rosenberg brings to life, through slides and lecture, her pilgrimages in India. Free. 

Call 843-6812 

University Avenue Indian Business Community 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Kirpal & Neelum Khanna, owners of the Bazaar of India, tell about the steps they took from spice and food retailing to today’s Bazaar, and the nuances and features of the Indian business community on University Avenue. One is a series of walking tours sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. 

$10 per person 

Call 848-0181 for reservations 

Monday, Oct. 23

Berkeley Chinese Community Church Turns 100 

6 p.m. 

Nov. 4 

Silver Dragon Restaurant 

835 Webster St. 

Oakland 

Reservations: $30 per person 

More info: 548-5295 

Public Schools Parent Information Night 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Parents, principals and other administrative staff from 11 elementary schools will speak about their schools. Sponsored by Neighborhood Parents Network.  

Admission: free to members, $5 non-members 

527-6667 

Parks & Recreation Board Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Solid Waste Management Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St. 

The Changes Happening with HMOs 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Oct. 24

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit Tastings 

2 p.m. - 7 p.m.  

Derby St. at MLK Jr. Way 

Come taste a bounty of fall fruit varieties for free. 

Info: 548-3333 

Blood Pressure 

Alice Meyers 

9:30- 11 :30 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Thursday, Oct. 25

International Jewish Video Competition Winners 

7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

Screening of the four winners in the Museum’s seventh annual competition.  

Call 549-6950 

Low vision support group 

1:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Civic Arts Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar 

Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 MLK Jr. Way 

Planning Commission 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St.  

Thursday, Oct. 26

From Morgan to Modern 

Julia Morgan and Hearst Castle:Designing and American Country House 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10 or $35 for series that continues through November. 

841-2242 

East Bay Science & Arts Middle School 

Noon  

BART Plaza, Downtown 

Middle school students perform dances of folk, swing, and Cuban rueda styles. Free.  

Contact Carrie Ridgeway, 549-2230 

Proposition Brown Bag 

Noon - 1:30 p.m.  

Institute of Governmental Studies 

109 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Hear presentations about and discuss the eight propositions on the California ballot.  

Call 642-4608 

Tai Chi 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Friday, Oct. 27

“Transporation: What’s in Store?” 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Larry Dahms, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Council speaks at 12:30 p.m. Luncheon is served at 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 

Luncheon: $11 

More info and reservations: 848-3533 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst 

644-6107 

Saturday, Oct. 28

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more.  

Call 649-3943  

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

Sunday, Oct. 29

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

An Evening with The Professor 

5 - 9:30 p.m. 

Mambo Mambo 

1803 Webster St.  

Oakland 

Berkeley resident Geoffrey A. Hirsch, better known as the Tie Guy from the “How Berkeley Can You Be” parade got his start in comedy in 1996. A professor in real life, Hirsch tell the story of how he became a funny guy.  

$5 for show only, $10 for show and dinner 

Call Geoffrey Hirsch at 845-5631 to reserve tickets 

Monday, Oct. 30

Fun with Oragami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equip,emt. fundamental climbing techiques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

7:30 p.m., 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Monday, Nov. 6

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Sandwiching two lackluster efforts around a stellar second game, the St. Mary’s girls’ volleyball team lost to the visiting Albany Cougars, 15-8, 16-14, 15-6, on Wednesday afternoon. 

Led by the monster spikes of Alison West, the Cougars dominated the first game of play. St. Mary’s never really got going, and several unforced errors led to a 15-8 Albany win. 

But the second game was a real barn-burner. After falling behind 7-2, the Panthers came back to win the next four points as Ronice Sweet put together two blocks and a kill to get her team back within striking distance. Several kills by West and Rachael Loomen put the Cougars back up at 13-7, but once again the Panthers showed resiliency. 

St. Mary’s rolled off seven straight points as outside hitters Kristina Shapona and Jazmin Pratt hit winner after winner over and through the Albany blockers. The streak was finished by Kamaya Warren’s well-placed dink, and the Panthers had a chance to win the second game and make it a real contest. 

“We’ve had trouble putting teams away,” Albany coach Natalie Cabezud said after the match. “We want to play every point like it’s the last one.” 

But several mishits by St. Mary’s players put the game back in Albany’s hands, and West took control once again. After a kill to win a side out, she hit a spike down the line to give her team the game, 16-14, and take the spirit from St. Mary’s. 

The final game of the match was tied at 5-5 when the Cougars began pulling away. Two consecutive aces by Loomen started a long run of Albany points. The Panthers gave it a last gasp effort at 11-6, forcing eight side-outs in a row, but the power play of West and the tactical strikes by her teammates overwhelmed St. Mary’s, and the Cougars scored four straight to put the match away.

After listening to 35 people speak in favor of landmarking the West Berkeley Shellmound, the City Council unanimously voted to grant the site historic landmark status at Tuesday night’s council meeting.  

The shellmound is believed to be a repository of ancient Native American artifacts and human remains.  

“This is great,” said Stephanie Manning who wrote the 75-page application for the city’s Landmarks Commission to review. She said that radio carbon dating of material found on the site show that there was human habitation there in 3700 B.C.  

“That means that there were Native Americans living at the site at the mouth of Strawberry Creek before the Egyptians built the first pyramid,” she said.  

“It was a community where people lived, raised their children, fished, hunted and buried their dead.” 

The newly approved historic landmark covers the area bound by Interstate 880, to Fourth Street between University and Hearst avenues.  

The three-block area has a number of owners including Frank Spenger, Richard and Charlene DeVecchi, White West Properties, Cal-Trans and the City of Berkeley. 

The DeVecchis had appealed the Landmarks Commission’s designation of the area as a historic landmark to the City Council. 

The designation means that any development on the site that requires a permit will have to be reviewed by the Landmarks Commission. However, if the commission denies the permit application, the applicants can appeal to the City Council, which could reverse the commission’s decision.  

Landmarks Commission board member Lesley Emmington-Jones said that Manning deserves most of the credit for the site’s designation. “She has led the way on this and has really sustained all of us throughout the process,” Emmington-Jones said. “She is really kind of a living treasure herself.” 

Manning, who lives around the corner from the site, said when she heard Spenger’s was closing and that the site might be developed she remembered an archeology student telling her 20 years before that there was a Shellmound underneath the Spenger’s parking lot. 

She enlisted the help of Archeology Mapping Specialist Christopher Dore who was able to pinpoint the site. Once the location was established Manning realized she could write the application. 

Manning said the project was a labor of love and that some of the most exciting moments were when the site was being drilled by the Spengers in an attempt to verify the existence of a Native American Shellmound. The site was drilled in 29 locations and evidence of the Shellmound was found in six of the locations.  

“It was exciting to watch the purplish colored shells fall from the threads of the drills,” she said. 

Manning, chairperson of education for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, describes herself as a lifelong preservationist and has been promoting historical education about the Shellmound through the existing third grade program called “Know Your Town,” in which students study aspects of their town’s history. Manning said the designation might make it easier to secure educational grants to establish the Shellmound as a integral part of the state’s historical education system.

In a game usually filled with trash-talking and boisterous personalities, Nnamdi Asomugha stands out. Not for his woofing or his antics, because he doesn’t do much of that. Asomugha is known for his quiet leadership, big hits and dependable play from his safety position for the Cal football team. 

After an outstanding game against UCLA last Saturday, in which he returned an interception for a touchdown, made seven tackles and deflected a Bruin pass in the end zone to save the game for the Bears, Asomugha was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Football Writers Association of America. In addition, he was named the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week by the conference office. 

Asomugha’s outstanding game not only earned him accolades, but helped the struggling Bears break a four-game losing streak and get back some pride that was lost along the way. 

“He played a very good game, returned an interception for a touchdown, had a bunch of tackles and good hits, and he made a saving play in the end zone,” said Cal head coach Tom Holmoe. “He provided great defensive leadership.” 

Asomugha is one of six Cal players with Nigerian heritage, a group that includes cornerback Chidi Iwuoma and tailback Joe Echema, who is Asomugha’s cousin. The group is known for being a quiet bunch, at least around the general public. 

“Nnamdi’s quiet unless he’s with people he knows,” said Bears tight end Brian Surgener. “He’ll be in the locker room, dancing and joking with us like everyone else.” 

Holmoe said the Nigerian players are different from his other players. 

“I think the Nigerian kids have an emotional side to them, but they also have a very quiet, reflective side,” Holmoe said. “I know that they learn a lot from their parents about who they are and who they should be.” 

Asomugha’s parents raised him in Los Angeles, where he attended three different high schools. His mother, Lilian, is a pharmacist who runs her own company, and education was her first priority for her children. 

“I was raised with academics being number one from day one,” Asomugha said. “Sports weren’t really important, just something to keep us active. Being from L.A., it was something to keep us away from all the bad things going on.” 

But despite the emphasis on school, Nnamdi and his older brother, Chijioke, who plays football for Stanford, shone on the football field. Nnamdi was one of the nation’s most highly-recruited players in 1999, with several teams wanting him to play wide receiver and others wanting him as a defensive back. He says he knew he wanted to play defense in college, and only visited the schools that wanted him as a safety. 

“To me, football is all about defense,” he says. “The defense really intiates the contact, which is what I like. I like hitting people.” 

Asomugha chose Cal over such football powers as Michigan, UCLA and Notre Dame. And it’s no coincidence that all of his visits were to schools with good academic reputations. 

“My mom had separate piles of recruiting letters, one for good academic schools. It was pretty obvious which pile she wanted me to pick from,” he says. 

It didn’t hurt Cal that Chijioke, also a defensive back, was already enrolled at rival Stanford. 

“We didn’t want to go to the same school, we wanted to play against each other,” Asomugha says. “There’s always some trash talk between us on the phone.” 

A sophomore, Asomugha graduated from Norbonne High School with a 3.7 GPA and plans to major in business at Cal. 

Asomugha played mostly on special teams his freshman year, learning the intricacies of the safety position in practice, before breaking his ankle against USC and sitting out the remainder of the season. 

“He was an offensive player, and it’s a tough transition to go from being an athlete in high school to a full-time defensive player,” Holmoe said. “At first he was a little slow, but he came on pretty strong and showed the potential to be a really good player when he got hurt. It was a pretty bad injury.” 

Asomugha spent the rest of the season and most of spring practice rehabilitating his ankle, and he came into this season as a favorite to win the safety spot. But he was still favoring the ankle during fall practice, and ended up sharing time for the first two games. But he has come on to lead the team in tackles with 47 and quietly become a leader in the secondary. 

“UCLA was his best game of the year, not necessarily in stats but in effort and heart,” Holmoe said. “He’s set a standard for himself. That’s the ballpark where he’s got to be every game.”

Religious protesters waved banners and sang songs outside the Berkeley Marina Radisson Hotel at a candlelight vigil Tuesday night. East Bay labor activists and members of religious groups organized the event to show support for the hotel workers’ new union. The union chapter, recognized in June, is now negotiating its first contract. 

“This is a religious issue,” said Susan Starr, a Unitarian minister from Oakland. She said churches haven’t led the fight for civil rights in decades. “The church needs to be in the world, in the real world on the side of justice.” 

More than 100 people gathered at dusk in the gravel lot across from the hotel. After dark, they marched along the path beside the Bay, behind the Radisson and sang “We Shall Overcome” just outside the windows of the hotel-restaurant.  

Later, five church leaders met with Radisson General Manager Brij Misra inside the hotel, just to let hotel management know the churches were still involved, said union organizer Nicole Lee. The alliance of about 40 churches has honored a union-led boycott of the hotel. 

The union entered its third round of negotiations with hotel management Tuesday afternoon. Misra said the negotiations were cordial, but would not comment on any offers made. Union representative Stephanie Ruby said the two parties were “far, far apart.”  

“They have a long way to go,” Ruby said. “They basically brought an offer to the table that kept things the way they are.” 

While not commenting on the progress of negotiations, Misra said the hotel would follow the city’s mandate to pay its workers a “living wage.” 

“We follow the law,” he said. “Whatever the law comes to be, we’ll abide by it.” 

The Radisson leases its location between Cesar Chavez and Shorebird parks from the city. The City Council decided last month to require all businesses operating on city land at the Marina to pay a living wage, joining other businesses who rent property from the city or contract with the city. After a year of deliberations, the city determined that a living wage is $9.75 per hour, plus $1.63 per hour for health benefits. That comes to about $20,000 per year before taxes, and $260 per month for health care. 

“I think it’s pretty obvious you can’t survive on that in this area,” said Ruby. But she said the workers can use the Living Wage Ordinance as a bargaining tool.  

“It puts them in a good position,” Ruby said. “It sends a strong message to the Radisson that the city of Berkeley wants the employees to get a decent wage and health care.”  

Even so, Starr said the fight is long from over. She said the union’s next battle is enforcing the contract once it’s signed. “But every time I go to one of their meetings, I remember that the people united won’t be defeated,” she said.  

Starr said she feels compelled as a religious leader to be involved in the fight. “Their cause is righteous,” she said. “It’s all about dignity.” But she said the workers are the ones who impress her. “These people know about sacrifice. They know about commitment and loyalty. It’s really very inspiring.” 

Cal head coach Tom Holmoe announced Wednesday that Marcus Fields would not play the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury and has elected to apply for medical redshirt status and return for the 2001 campaign.  

Fields was Cal’s starting H-Back at the beginning of the season and contributed three catches for 24 yards plus one run for four yards in the Utah opener, before suffering a shoulder fracture in that game. He has been undergoing rehabilitative work during the past several weeks, but the shoulder is not recovered enough for him to return in full health to date. Holmoe said earlier this week that if Fields could not play against Washington this weekend, the running back would redshirt the season. 

Fields said he was both disappointed in not being able to play this year and excited about the opportunities next fall. “It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to try and rush back if the shoulder isn’t quite ready,” said Fields. “However, I’m really looking forward to being a part of this offense next year. I think we’re beginning to show what we can do on offense and we’re only going to get better next year. I’m excited to be able to return and be a part of that.”  

Fields, who started at tailback in 1997 and ‘98, said he will probably postpone a potential graduation this coming spring or summer until the fall semester. He is majoring in American Studies with an emphasis on Education.  

Holmoe indicated he was pleased to have Fields back in the fold for next year. “It’s hard for me to look that far ahead, because we’re right in the middle of our season, but his skills and leadership will be a big factor for our team next season,” he said. “Marcus wanted to finish up his Cal career the right way and this will give him that opportunity.”

Alleging that Citibank is “the world’s most destructive bank,” members of the Rainforest Action Network led a protest outside the bank’s Shattuck Avenue branch Tuesday. 

Carrying props that included a papier-mâché pig with the words “Spank the Bank” written on it, some 30 protesters urged passers-by to boycott the bank. 

Similar demonstrations were being held simultaneously in San Francisco and 50 other cities across the country. Protesters challenged the bank’s practice of lending money to businesses, such as logging companies, which they claim hurts the environment. 

A Citibank spokesperson did not return calls for comment. However, the website of the bank’s parent company, Citigroup, shows that the financial institution has an Environmental Affairs Unit. According to the website, the company has an Environmental Policy Review Committee, which evaluates environmental and human rights issues that may affect its business, and then takes appropriate action. 

“Citigroup believes that working to conserve and enhance the environment is good business practice,” the website said. 

Ilyse Hogue, a member of Rainforest Action, said Citibank is funding “environmentally and socially destructive” projects all over the world. “From South Africa to south Bronx, they’re driving people out of their homes and destroying the life support systems that we depend upon,” she said. 

Hogue said that Citibank should be held accountable for what its borrowers do with the bank’s money.  

“Citibank is providing the money that goes to these logging companies that go into the rainforest,” said Hogue. “Without this capital, these companies would not be able to go in and destroy the forests that we need so desperately. And not only are they funding it, but they’re profiting from it.” 

Some 25 protesters in San Francisco marched at noon through the city’s financial district and urged a boycott among the lunch crowd. Office workers watched with amusement as the group performed a mock funeral for the planet Earth.  

Citibank employees watched through glass windows as the group, wearing green dollar bill masks, stopped in front of the branches on Battery and Sacramento streets. 

SAN FRANCISCO — In a move that may lead to an expansion of vehicle seizure laws around the state, the California Supreme Court declined Wednesday to review a ruling that local governments can seize the vehicles of people suspected of dealing drugs or soliciting prostitutes from a car. 

The high court upheld a 1997 Oakland ordinance allowing such seizures even if the suspect is not convicted or is acquitted. The law applies even if the owner wasn’t in the car and did not know of or support the crime. 

Following Wednesday’s closely watched ruling, comparable seizure laws are expected to be adopted by cities and counties across the state.  

Sacramento, for one, already has a similar law. San Francisco lawmakers shelved the idea last month after concluding it was unconstitutional. 

Without comment, a majority of the high court’s justices declined to review the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge of the Oakland law. The ACLU claimed among other things that similar laws would proliferate with cities viewing them as money making ventures. 

Only justices Stanley Mosk and Joyce L. Kennard voted to review the case. 

The city has seized about 300 cars under the law and keeps the profits from their sale. 

After a state appeals court ruling in July upheld the so-called “nuisance abatement” law, nearly a dozen California cities contacted Oakland to learn how they could enact their own similar seizure law, said Oakland Deputy City Attorney Pelayo Llamas. 

“The impetus for the City Council was really complaints from certain communities which were essentially drive-thru sex-and-drug bazaars,” Llamas said. “People were sick of having lines of cars in their streets with this activity going on.” 

Oakland’s ordinance is harsher than state and federal forfeiture laws.  

The Legislature allows for the forfeiture of a vehicle used in drug sales and prostitution, but forbids seizures if the owner was not aware of the crime or if  

the car was a family’s only mode of transportation 

The state law applies only when large quantities of drugs are involved. Oakland’s ordinance allows seizures when a person is caught selling any amount of drugs.  

Congress this year added a so-called “innocent owner” provision protecting owners of vehicles used in crimes without their knowledge. Oakland seizes vehicles even when owners don’t know about the crime. 

“It’s an extraordinarily harsh statute,” said Nina Wilder, a lawyer for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, which had urged the justices to nullify the ordinance. “There is something un-American about this that hey can take your car without you doing anything wrong.” 

Last year, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill that sought to stop the seizures. The bill, AB662 by Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, would have barred forfeitures in cases not involving criminal convictions. 

The ACLU challenged the case on behalf of Oakland resident Sam Horton, who sued as a taxpayer. His vehicle was not involved in any criminal wrongdoing. Horton was unable to challenge the ordinance on constitutional grounds because his rights were not affected. 

Instead, the suit centered on the claim that Oakland was not free to enact the ordinance because it conflicted with the California Legislature’s laws on vehicle seizures. 

The case is Horton vs. City of Oakland, S091145. 

TRACY — About 1,600 workers at a massive warehouse supplying Safeway supermarkets in three states went on strike Wednesday and blocked trucks from entering. Warehouse officials responded by bringing in replacement workers. 

Violence ensued, with seven people injured mostly as a result of rocks and bottles being thrown at vehicles carrying replacement workers. Some of the injured had glass in their eyes after a windshield was broken. 

Workers are demanding higher wages and safer conditions at the facility, which serves 245 Safeway stores in northern California, Nevada and Hawaii. They walked out after talks between union leaders and management broke down. 

“We’d rather lose our jobs than continue to work under these conditions,” said Antonio Camacho, who has worked for two years loading pallets with groceries. “My back is hurting so bad that I’m having trouble meeting my production standards.” Martin Street, president of Summit Logistics that runs the giant warehouse for Safeway, said the company would bring in up to 1,650 replacement warehouse workers and drivers – and vowed there would be no disruption to deliveries. 

“I’m hugely disappointed. Each time we felt we got close to a deal, it’s been thrown back in our faces,” Street said. “We will continue to operate the site (with replacement workers) for as long as it takes. At the end of the day, we will be delivering to the stores.” 

Mike Padilla, a spokesman for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s department, said several people were injured when a rock or brick was thrown through the windshield of a vehicle carrying replacement workers into the warehouse. 

A security guard who was videotaping pickets also was injured when he got into a scuffle with a striking worker. And Padilla said a cement truck driver who was going past the warehouse was injured when he was pulled out of his truck by strikers. 

Padilla said no arrests had been made. 

The strike began after an hour of talks between leaders of Teamsters Local 439 and Summit officials. Workers immediately walked off their jobs and drove outside the complex, where several hundred set up a picket line. Trucks trying to get in to the warehouse were turned away at the gate by pickets as sheriff’s deputies and state highway patrolmen stood nearby. 

Earlier in the day, about 300 workers – some carrying picket signs and others rallying around a huge American flag – blocked trucks from leaving the warehouse and tried to prevent union leaders from getting inside.  

The workers kicked and pounded on a pickup truck carrying Ed Speckman, the union’s chief negotiator, as it headed toward the warehouse. Speckman and other union officials finally got through to the warehouse. 

In addition to picketing at the warehouse in Tracy, about 65 miles east of San Francisco, union members plan to distribute leaflets in front of as many as 42 Safeway stores – primarily in the San Francisco Bay area – urging consumers to boycott the chain. 

The contract between the union and Summit expired Sept. 27. Members of Local 439 voted overwhelmingly Saturday to reject a final proposal from Summit. 

Unsafe working conditions and low wages are the chief complaints of the union, which represents warehouse workers and truck drivers. Workers also want a say in establishing production standards. 

Street rejected claims the warehouse is unsafe, saying Summit has reduced the accident rate significantly in the three years it has owned the facility. 

“That’s why I find it so appalling that they keep mentioning safety, but they won’t be specific abut what the safety issues are,” Street said. 

The union also is upset by the company’s insistence that its 500 drivers be paid per delivery and not an hourly rate. 

Workers voted Oct. 3 to reject an offer from Summit that would have given them a 4.8 percent pay raise every year for the next five years, a 10 cent-an-hour hike in pension benefits and a guarantee that health insurance costs stay level for five years. 

Street said the company rejected two counteroffers from the union during the eight weeks of negotiations, including its latest for a 20 percent across-the-board wage increase. 

Street said the union also wanted production standards that would drive overall labor costs up by about 20 percent, costing the company $60 million in the first year alone. 

Under the current contract, Teamsters drivers make $18 an hour, and warehouse workers earn $11 to $13 an hour. 

ST. LOUIS — Al Gore and George W. Bush traded parting debate shots, the vice president calling the governor an ally of big business, the Republican nominee retorting that Gore stands for more federal spending and Washington power. 

With that, the contestants in a White House race rated dead even headed into the final dash to the Nov. 7 election, urging their supporters to the polls and trying to win over uncommitted voters like those chosen to question them Tuesday night in the closing debate. 

“This is going to be a close election. Nobody should take anything for granted,” Bush told supporters at an airport rally in Eau Claire, Wis., urging them to spread the word about differences between himself and Gore emphasized by the debate. 

Bush mocked Gore’s assertion that as president, he wouldn’t increase the size of the federal government. “Now there’s a man who’s prone to exaggeration,” Bush said. 

He was taking a positive message to the TV airwaves, with a new ad featuring a black teacher talking about education and another starring his Hispanic nephew. The Democrats, meanwhile, planned ads suggesting Bush’s proposals would bankrupt Social Security, a point Gore hammered in the debate. 

“He was not able to answer the question,” Gore told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He was campaigning later in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Each man praised his own performance. “I was able to speak plainly,” Bush said, while Gore stepped on his own message by “attacking somebody all the time.” 

Gore compared his three debate showings to Goldilocks: “The first was too hot, the second was too cool. The third one was just right,” he said in the ABC interview aired Wednesday. 

Two instant network polls of debate watchers rated the final match about even. A third called it narrowly for Gore. 

To demonstrate confidence in Gore’s performance, campaign officials said Wednesday they were asking the Commission on Presidential Debates for permission to rebroadcast the entire 90-minute forum in small cable markets in battleground states. Debate rules prohibit candidates from using excerpts in campaign commercials. 

“If it’s feasible ... we’d love to do it,” said Gore strategist Carter Eskew. 

After the debate, Bush warned that an energy crisis and economic recession might be looming and said his tax-cut plan would serve “as an insurance policy against an economic slowdown.” 

“The biggest threat to economic growth is a huge federal government,” Bush told NBC’s “Today” in an interview aired Wednesday. 

Gore planned to concentrate in the final weeks on promoting himself as the steward of a strong economy, giving an economic address Thursday in New York before starting a “Big Choice: Prosperity for all” tour, stopping daily at homes or work places. He will travel by bus and boat. 

Bush and Gore both canceled their post-debate rallies out of respect for the memory of Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, killed Monday in an airplane crash as he campaigned for the Senate. 

Gore and wife Tipper hugged Jean Carnahan on the steps of the governor’s mansion Wednesday before meeting inside with the widow, her children and grandchildren for about 45 minutes. The Carnahans’ son Roger also died in the crash. 

The debate began with a moment of silence for Carnahan, followed by 90 minutes of hard argument, the candidates striding the red carpeted stage to face their questioners and at times, to confront each other. 

“Here we go again,” Gore said after Bush had pledged to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly. “If you want someone who will spin a lot of words ... and then end up supporting legislation that is supported by the big drug companies, this is your man.” 

For his part, Bush said Gore wanted federal spending programs “three times bigger than what President Clinton proposed. ... This is a big spender.” 

The questions, selected by moderator Jim Lehrer, came from among 100 uncommitted voters who submitted them in writing. 

And they triggered the sharpest exchanges of the debate season — on affirmative action, and the question of racial quotas in hiring, for example. “If affirmative action means quotas, I’m against it,” Bush said. 

“With all due respect, governor, that’s a red herring,” Gore replied. “Affirmative action isn’t quotas. ... They’re against the American way.” And on Social Security. Gore said Bush has promised $1 trillion out of the Social Security trust fund to cover the initial cost of his plan to use part of the system’s taxes for individual retirement accounts. He said Bush has promised “the same trillion dollars” to protect the benefits of current recipients. 

“Which one of those promises will you keep and which will you break, Governor?” Gore asked. 

Bush said Gore was attacking with “an old high school debating trick” and said the trillion dollars would come out of budget surpluses. 

Gore and the Democrats weren’t accepting that. The Democratic National Committee said it will purchase $2 million in TV ads to run in 10 swing states, raising the same question Gore did. “Which promise is he going to break?” 

Bush’s new ad in 10 states features Houston teacher Phyllis Hunter, who has worked with Bush on state reading programs and praised the governor in a film aired at the Republican National Convention. She calls Bush a leader in education. 

The Bush campaign is also bringing back a Spanish-language ad featuring Bush’s nephew, George P. Bush, the son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his Mexican-American wife, to air in New Mexico and three Florida markets: Miami, Orlando and Tampa.