Work has halted on the skateboard park near Fifth and Harrison streets following a Friday morning emergency meeting among city officials and skate park enthusiasts. 

Last week, the carcinogen chromium 6 was found in ground water seeping up into the deepest bowls carved out in the skate park’s construction phase. The City Council authorized $100,000 to pump the water out of the skate bowls and into tanks and to hire an independent toxicologist. 

But Friday, city officials decided to change course somewhat and discontinue pumping out the contaminated water. 

Chromium 6 or hexavalent chrome is an odorless chemical whose uses include hardening steel and making paint pigments. The known carcinogen is dangerous when ingested, city officials said, noting, however, that it does not enter the drinking water supply.  

The source of the skatepark contamination is thought to be a years-old “plume” – ground water with the contaminant – originating at Western Roto Engravers Color Tech at 1225 Sixth Street.  

Lisa Caronna, director of the Parks and Waterfront Department and Nabil Al Hadithy, division head for toxics, met on the skateboard site Friday morning with skatepark enthusiasts to contemplate next steps. 

Filling tanks with contaminated water and hauling them away at $14,000 each is not practical, they decided Friday, so the department is trying another tack.  

“We will turn off the pumps so the ground water can rise in the (two deepest) bowls,” Al Hadithy said. These bowls will be filled with gravel. 

The gravel allows the bowls to maintain their shape and at the same time acts as a deterrent for animals and children who might be attracted to the hole. 

If a child’s ball goes over the fence into the gravel pit, for example, it will disappear behind the gravel, so that a child will not attempt to go after it, Al Hadithy said, noting also that there will be a security guard posted at the site at all times. 

The three shallower bowls will be filled with concrete, so that they maintain their shape, while the city is deciding the skatepark’s future, Al Hadithy continued.  

After filling the bowls with concrete and allowing the water to rise in them, the chrome 6 must be filtered out of the water. The city has hired two different firms to explore ways of doing that. 

The 6.4 acre site at Fifth and Harrison streets, that includes a soccer field, was purchased from UC Berkeley last year for $2.8 million. The city tested the groundwater but did not find contaminants at that time.  

“The preliminary testing did not go to the lower threshold,” Caronna said Friday. 

Asked why the city could not build the skateboard higher, above the groundwater level, Al Hadithy said the plan was to make the park completely visible to Berkeley Police Department officials who can ride by and see what is happening there at a glance. Were the park built higher, the skaters would be less visible, he said. 

At this point, it is not known who will foot the bill for cleaning up the property – the city, the company thought responsible for the contamination, or the university which sold the property to the city. The question could end up in the courts. 

What the skateboarders want to know is when their park will be ready for them. 

The toxicologist should be putting out a comprehensive statement next week after which city officials may have a better idea of what the future holds. 

“The goal is to complete a skatepark,” Caronna said, adding that the city will take a conservative and safe approach. 

Asked if she believes the park will be built, Caronna answered, “I do – in some form.” 

Saturday, Nov. 25

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612 

Create the City of Your  

Fantasies 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening features DJ’d “Candlelight Massage Circles Salon.”  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Children’s Benefit Concert 

11 a.m. - Noon 

College Ave. Presbyterian Church  

5951 College Ave.  

Oakland  

A concert to benefit Lillian Wamalwa, who would like to go to Kenya to help her sister, who has AIDS, and her four children.  

$6 suggested donation 

Call 925-376-3543 

Papersong Grand Opening Celebration 

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Swan’s Marketplace 

936B Clay St.  

Oakland 

Featuring free musical performances by Big Brother & The Holding Co., Caravan of All Stars Revue, The Charles Dudley Band, and Jane DeCuir.  

Call 436-5131 

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences to strengthen the marriage.  

$360 per couple  

Call 704-7475 

Sunday, Nov. 26

The Value of Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Joleen Vries, director of the Nyingma Institute in the Netherlands for over five years, will discuss how to maintain a regular meditation practice. Free 843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 27

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

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 

Parks & Recreation Board 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Solid Waste Management  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St.  

Zoning Adjustment Board  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

Educational Philosophies  

Roundtable 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

At this roundtable, Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, parents will learn about the following educational philosophies: Developmental, cooperative, Montessori, bilingual, Waldorf, religious, homeschooling, and charter schools.  

Free to members; non-members, $5 Call 527-6667 or visit  

www.parentsnet.org  

Tai Chi Chih with Ben Levitan  

1 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Tuesday, Nov. 28M

Blood Pressure for Seniors 

9:30 - 11 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Read a Play Together Salon 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Lavender Lunch 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 100 

PSR adjunct faculty member Mark Wilson and PSR alumna Lynice Pinkard will speak on “Heterosexism and Racism.”  

Sponsored by PSR’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. Free 

Call 849-8206 

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences to strengthen the marriage.  

$360 per couple  

Call 704-7475 

—compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of  

Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it.  

Call 843-3533 

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

Membership Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Discussion of how the election results will affect the Gray Panthers.  

Call 548-9696 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 MLK Jr. Way (at Derby) 

Challenges of Parenting Adolescents  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

This workshop focuses on the challenges facing parents and teens. Learn how to avoid triggering and pushing each other’s buttons. Runs three consecutive Wednesdays, through Dec. 13. Led by Kathy Langsam, MA, MFT, JFCS Teen Services Coordinator.  

$60 

Call 704-7475 

Thursday, Nov. 30

Pro Arts Juried Show  

Reception 

6 - 8 p.m.  

Pro Arts 

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

With the work of 70 artists, this annual show features the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The show runs through December 30. See A&E calendar for details.  

Snowshoeing Basics  

7 p.m . 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional snowshoe guide Cathy Anderson-Meyers gives basic instruction on how to get out and experience Tahoe’s winter terrain on “shoes.”  

Call 527-4140 

Art for Sale 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute  

1060 Heinz Ave.  

Over sixty artists affiliated with the Kala Art Institute exhibit works ranging from traditional wood block prints to works in digital media. During the reception, artists will offer 10 percent off the sale of their prints.  

549-2977 

Oakland Museum Trip for Seniors 

(trip on Dec. 8) 

A trip to the Oakland Museum to see the Imperial Palace of China Exhibit. Organized by the North Berkeley Senior Center 

Call Maggie, 644-6107 

Let Your Chi Flow Freely 

6 - 7 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway Ave. 

Oakland 

Share peace and tranquillity communally and regain harmony and balance.  

Call Idris Hassan, 835-4827 x31  

Witness In Our Time 

7 p.m.  

105 North Gate Hall 

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 

Center for Photography 

Kerry Tremain moderates a conversation with Wayne Miller, Ken Light, Matt Heron and Michelle Vignes. Followed by a book signing for “Chicago’s South Side” by Wayne Miller and “Witness in Our Time” by Ken Light. 

Call 642-3383  

Friday, Dec. 1

Spanish Book Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books  

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

A discussion of “Dona Barbara” by the Colombian writer Rumulo Gallegos. New members welcome. The group meets the first Friday of each month.  

Call 601-0454  

Taize Worship Services  

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.  

Loper Chapel  

Dana St. (between Durant & Channing) 

Call 848-3696 

Basic Electrical Theory 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Redwood Kardon, retired City of Oakland building inspector and author of the Code Check book series.  

$35 

Call 525-7610 

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  

Whymsium Anniversary Party 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This annual party features a talent show, games and a dance.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

UC Botanical Holiday Plant Sale 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

You’ll find a selection of orchids, ferns, rhododendrons, cacti, hardy herbs, and house plants galore for yourself or gardening friends.  

Call 643-2755 

Native American Flute  

5 - 6 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Celebrating the release of his CD “Spirit Within,” Berkeley resident and flutist Walter Ogi Johnson performs.  

Finding a Way In 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Offering a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender jews to express personal concerns and to find a place to belong in the Jewish community.  

$5 with pre-registraiton; $7 at door  

845-6420 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office  

2022 Blake St.  

Learn what your rights are in dealing with the police. Learn how to monitor the police safely.  

Call 548-0425 

Publish Your Own Book 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St. 

Mark Weiman of Regen Press presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publishing.  

$60 per person 

Call Mark Weiman, 547-7602 

Friends of Berkeley Youth Alternatives 

Wine Tasting  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Rosenblum Cellars 

2900 Main St.  

Alameda 

All proceeds benefit the children and families served by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 

$25 

Call 845-9010 

Alternative Building Materials 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architects Dan Smith and John Fordice. 

$75  

Call 525-7610 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Christians’ role must be examined 

Editor: 

In your November 16 opinion piece “Perspective,” the faculty of the Pacific School of Religion decry the ghettoization (though they avoid using the word) of Palestinians by Israelis, and call for support of PLO diplomatic positions. Many may agree with these sentiments. But coming from a European Christian seminary, this perspective needs acknowledgment of the Christian role in creating the situation. The Crusaders’ atrocities on Moslems, Jews and Eastern Christians exceed all massacres worldwide since the Second World War. In particular, their trashing of the Jewish Temple facilitated later construction of the mosque that is the recent flash point. Unless you have edited out their acknowledgment, their position reeks of ignorance at best, and the old race-hatred at worst. 

Mark Tatz 

Berkeley 

Mom continues to pray for son 

Editor: 

Last week, my son Jeffrey Schilling spoke over Radio Mindanao. I am thankful to know that he is still alive and that he still has some small measure of hope. However, I am distressed that he is still being held captive and that he has so many health problems. He is coughing up blood and he has a swollen leg from an infection. I pray that the people holding Jeffrey will let him go so he can receive proper medical care. I thank everyone who has been praying for Jeffrey and for his wife Ivy. Please continue your prayers. 

Carol Schilling 

Oakland 

Horrified at police comment 

Editor: 

We were horrified to read Lt. Lopes’ comments that the alleged junior-high gang rape victim possessed “some type of mental capacity that allows her to be duped into these situations... She makes the same mistakes over and over again.” To see a police officer perpetuate the myth that the victim must have somehow asked for it is an outrage. When this attitude is expressed by the spokesperson for the police department, its effects are particularly harmful: seeing her experience belittled will surely deter other men and women from reporting abuse. Our police must challenge the history of oppression which blames the victims of violence. Nobody, no matter how short her skirt, asks to be raped. 

Ben Harvey, Amy Hofer, Nik Putnam, Sara Tolley 

Berkeley 

New coach Horstmeyer starts 0-3 with Bears 

First-year head coach Caren Horstmeyer’s career at Cal has gotten off to a rocky start. The Bears extended their losing streak to three to begin the season, falling to the Alabama Crimson Tide 76-63 in the opening round of the University of Illinois at Chicago Thanksgiving Tournament Friday night at UIC Pavilion. 

The Tide were led by Shondra Johnson, who scored a game-high 29 points. She was helped by Sparkle Johnson’s 14 points and 10 rebounds, with Beth Vice scoring 13 and Joni Crenshaw 10. Alabama improved to 3-0 with the victory. 

Alabama roared out of the gate to open a 16-5 lead just five minutes into the game, keyed by Vice’s two three-pointers. Cal responded with a 9-1 run of their own. But the Bears were held scoreless for seven minutes after that run, allowing the Tide to widen its lead back to 10 points, leading to a 32-21 halftime lead. 

Horstmeyer’s squad came out strong in the second half, cutting the deficit to six in less than five minutes, but Alabama refused to let them back in the game. 

“We need to be able to get over the hump and be more mentally tough,” Horstmeyer said. 

The Tide increased its lead back up to its halftime lead of 11 the next two minutes and its biggest lead of the game of 15 at 57-42 with 7:43 on the clock. The Bears then cut the lead to seven points on several occasions, with the last being after a Brook Coulter three-pointer at 4:12 that made the score 59-52, but they could get no closer and went quietly into the Chicago night. 

The Bears lost despite a career-high 27 points from guard Courtney Johnson, who also had two rebounds, two assists and four steals in the game. Her all-around effort portends good things for Cal; if Johnson can control the game from point guard, it will free up shooting guards Kenya Corley and Becky Staubes to snipe away from the outside.  

But the Bears lack of an inside presence showed against the Crimson Tide, with Alabama out-rebounding the Bears 39-32 as Cal forwards Amber White and Ami Forney pulled down seven rebounds apiece. 

The rough start doesn’t seem to worry Horstmeyer, however. She seems more intent on getting the team ready for the conference season. 

“We’ve opened the season with three difficult games,” Horstmeyer said. We’re hoping the tough schedule will pay off comes the Pac-10 season.”  

Cal faces the loser of the Illinois-Chicago vs. South Alabama game tomorrow at 1 p.m.

For two weeks John Christian has been sitting in front of the downtown Berkeley BART station on Shattuck Avenue each day, asking for change. And so far, the people of Berkeley have come through. 

Christian said he is so impressed with the city’s generosity and tolerance that he has sought out the media to pass along his public message of thanks. 

“The people here in Berkeley have been so good to me,” said the 40-year-old Christian. “I’ve panhandled in lots of places, but the people in Berkeley are loving, caring, sharing people.” 

Modesto Fernandez is one of the people who stops and chats with Christian on Friday and gives him a McDonald’s gift certificate. 

In addition to feeling a moral responsibility toward the homeless, Fernandez is also a Vietnam veteran and the two share their experiences of the war. Fernandez is angry with the lack of respect people show for homeless veterans. 

“It really upsets me. I could be where they are,” he said. “If you’ve ever been out there in the field, on the streets and you know what it feels like to walk around in wet socks, you can appreciate dry socks.” 

Christian is actively seeking a job as a bus driver and one day hopes to qualify as a BART engineer. For now, he’s content to hold up a felt-penned cardboard sign looking for a little generosity to see him through. 

“I feel this is no way to go through life but right now I have no choice,” he said. 

In Berkeley, Christian averages $30 to $40 a day in “tips,” which is good considering he only makes about $7 a day in San Francisco. In addition to food and medicine, he uses the money he gains from panhandling to support a three-pack-a-day cigarette habit. 

Christian came to the Bay Area two months ago looking for work.  

Lifelong bouts with depression and diabetes have made this search difficult and as a result, he’s been staying at the City Team Ministries’ homeless shelter in Oakland. 

Everyday he must sign in to receive a bed for the night. If none are available, he simply sleeps underneath a bridge somewhere or tries another shelter in the area. 

Christian said police officers in Oakland suggested he panhandle in Berkeley, saying the city was more tolerant of homeless. A person who answered the phone at the Oakland Police Department, however, denied this was their method of eradicating the homeless in their city. She did not give her name. 

Christian said he finds Berkeley a pleasant change from his experiences in Oakland where he’s been robbed several times. He’s especially impressed with the police in Berkeley and refers to them as “dignified” in the way they deal with the homeless. 

Ethridge Marks, a BART police officer who was in the area on Friday, agrees that the police in Berkeley seem to be more tolerant of the homeless population. 

“There’s probably more compassion in the city of Berkeley,” Marks said. “I think it should be the duty of every police officer to be compassionate to the people they serve. Just because a person is homeless doesn’t mean you shouldn’t serve them.” 

Christian was born in Connecticut in 1960 and joined the Army in 1978. Eventually, he was honorably discharged because of his flat feet, which hindered his ability to run. Over the years, he’s worked as a charter bus and taxi driver and at one point owned his own parcel delivery business before making his way out to the West Coast. 

He went on disability in 1991 due to back problems and depression, something he’s dealt with all his life. He was scared on the first night he spent in a homeless shelter in 1996. He was concerned about sharing such little space with so many strangers and the possibility of diseases spreading. But he’s learned to adjust because there are “certain things in life that you have to do.” 

Christian easily totes around his worldly possessions in a medium-sized piece of luggage. In it he carries various legal documents, a pillow and two of the three shirts he owns. He wears his only pair of pants along with a pair of 20-year-old cross country ski boots on his feet. At 297 pounds, he says it’s hard to find clothes that fit him at thrift stores. 

His curly, black hair is peppered with gray, which he says has increased over the last three years due to stress. 

“My age is coming on very fast right now,” he said. 

However, Christian fears earthquakes more than he fears death and lives a simple life, needing little more than the generosity of Berkeley’s community. 

“Homeless vet needs your help,” he calls out to the passing crowd adding, “That’s my favorite line.” 

The University of California women’s volleyball program has signed Mia Jerkov to a National Letter of Intent, it was announced by Golden Bear head coach Rich Feller.  

Jerkov (pronounced her-cove), a 6-3 outside hitter from Split, Croatia, is Cal’s most highly touted signee since Feller became the Bears coach in December of 1998. She attends the High School of Language-Pula and plays volleyball for coach Boris Brescic of the Pula-Istarska club team.  

Jerkov has also been a member of the Croatian Junior National Team since 1998 and was a member of the Croatian Senior National Team in 2000. She has competed in several Junior World Championships and competed in this past summer’s World Cup in Japan. Jerkov was named the Best Under 18 Attacker for Croatia in both 1999 and 2000. Her father, Zeljko, is a former player on the Croatian National Basketball Team.  

“Mia brings with her years of high level international experience,” said Feller. “Although only 17 years old, she has played volleyball in several World Championships for the Croatian National and Junior National Teams. Mia is talented and intelligent. Her goal is to become one of the best volleyball players in the world. Mia told me that she believes that a college education will give her additional lifelong tools and help her accomplish that goal. She will not only add her volleyball skills to our team, but will bring with her cultural and competitive experiences that will benefit Cal’s program in many ways. We are very pleased to have Mia Jerkov joining the Golden Bear family next year.”

A long-time Berkeley resident and public transportation user is more upset than a baby’s stomach after eating hot links. And that’s all Candice Etter said she wanted – hot links.  

Instead she said she endured a nightmarish experience on Berkeley’s Alameda Contra Costa Transportation system Nov. 4 that she said made her sick to her stomach. 

“The only place around here that sells Terrible Toms Hot Links is Albertsons up by Rockridge,” Etter said. “That’s all I wanted but that’s not all I got.”  

Etter says she and a handful of other flatland dwellers waited on University Avenue and Sacramento Street for 40 minutes for a No. 51 bus that never came. 

Finally a No. 52-L came and dropped her and five other angry riders off at Shattuck Avenue. She waited there for almost an hour. 

“It was awful that wait. It was cold and there was a busload of people all standing outside the BART station, waiting for a (No.) 52.” 

When the bus finally pulled up Etter said that people were pushing and shoving to get aboard and that within a few minutes it was filled to capacity and she along with several others were left standing on the curb. 

“Along came a (No.) 7 bus so I got on that one hoping to get a little further along. What a mistake that was.” 

Unfortunately, there was a University of California at Berkeley football game that day and the No. 7 bus got caught in traffic. 

Etter said she finally reached her destination at about 6 p.m., three and a half hours after she locked her front door and stepped onto Sacramento Street. 

The following day she called AC Transit to complain and said she was met with indifference. 

“I spoke with the superintendent and he didn’t even apologize and then said that it was too bad and there was nothing he could do.” 

A sentiment AC Transit Supervisor Ben Davis reiterated to the Daily Planet Friday. 

“Anytime there is a game, traffic backs up on University. I’ve been here for 30 years and the buses have always run extremely late on those days.”  

Davis also said that it was unfortunate but that there aren’t any viable alternatives. 

“Obtaining special permits so that buses can take short detours through residential areas on game days would never fly with residents. In addition, it would mean getting special permits from the city – a very lengthy process.” 

The Cal women’s crew team received two important commitments during last week’s early signing period for the National Letter of Intent. Two of the top recruits in the country, Shaina Kennedy and Laura Terheyden, signed NLI’s and will be joining the Golden Bears next fall.  

Coxswain Shaina Kennedy of Seattle, WA led the Green Lake junior boys crew to victory at last June’s US Rowing Youth Invitational, which is regarded as the junior national championship regatta. Recognized as the best coxswain in the country, Kennedy went on to cox the U.S. junior women to a fourth place finish at the world championships in Zagreb, Croatia.  

Her experience coxing the boys at Green Lake combined with her international racing make well suited to lead the Cal women in the years ahead. Kennedy chose Cal over Washington and Brown.  

“Everyone is thrilled that Shaina will be joining us next year. She has a terrific attitude and spirit, and I expect her to play a significant role in the years ahead,” said head coach Dave O’Neill.  

Laura Terheyden of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius H.S. has also committed to join Cal next fall. Terheyden is the cornerstone of the SI program, which has won the last two state championships and placed third at this year’s Youth Invitational.  

Along with Shaina Kennedy, Terheyden competed at the world championships in the U.S. junior women’s eight, which placed fourth. She chose Cal over Michigan, Virginia, and Washington.  

“Laura is not only one of the strongest women in the country but also a fine technical rower,” said O’Neill. “Her positive outlook and terrific work ethic have made her one the best junior rowers in the country, and our program is the perfect fit for her.”  

With the commitments of Kennedy and Terheyden combined with current Cal frosh Teresa Oja, the women’s crew will have one third of the 2000 junior women’s national team eight.  

“We are committed to recruiting the best to our program, and the addition of Shaina and Laura already makes next year’s recruiting class a great one. Cal women’s crew will be fast for years to come,” said O’Neill.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. received 56 percent of the total number of consumer gas and electric complaints filed statewide between 1997 and 1999, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. 

PG&E received more than three times the number of customer complaints as its southern counterpart, San Diego Gas and Electric, during the same time period, a San Francisco Chronicle analysis found. 

PG&E got the bulk of complaints even though it only has 39 percent of gas customers and 46 percent of electric customers served by the state’s regulated utilities. 

Nearly three out of four customer complaints filed involved billing problems. 

PG&E spokesman Ron Low said the high percentage of complaints is attributed to tougher terrain and harsher weather in northern California, which leads to more downed power lines and outages. 

The utility’s service stretches north to the Oregon border and east to the Sierra Nevada. San Diego Gas and Electric serves a more compact urban area around the city. 

Many of the consumer complaints also are linked to collection of delinquent bills, Low said. PG&E has increased its efforts to collect on unpaid bills and it is now often requiring deposits from customers with bad credit. 

The utilities commission received more than 17,000 complaints for PG&E out of an analysis of more than 30,000 from 1997 to 1999, the Chronicle found.

Got canned food? 

The John Muir Elementary School is looking for contributions for its 2000 Holiday Food Drive for the Alameda County Food Bank. Those who haven’t already done so, can drop off a can of meat, fruit or vegetables, soup, stew or other non-perishable goods that they’ve been squirreling away in their cupboards for a rainy day. 

The address is: 2955 Claremont Avenue or call 649-1496 for more information.

The magnitude 5.2 Napa-Yountville earthquake in September 2000 caused $50-$100 million of damage. When a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurs on the Hayward fault, we expect over 150,000 housing units to be made uninhabitable, over 350,000 people to be forced from their homes, and over 110,000 people to require public shelter.  

Contractors, builders and city,county building inspectors can help reduce these numbers by ensuring that Bay Area homes are appropriately retrofitted.  

A workshop entitled Earthquake Retrofit of Wood-Frame Homes will be held on Saturday, December 2, 2000 at the Napa County Landmarks Building in Napa, and again on Saturday, January 20, 2001 at the MetroCenter Auditorium in Oakland. 

The full-day course includes training in earthquake basics, housing damage statistics, proper shear wall and cripple wall construction, connections, foundations, nonstructural items, safety issues, and minimizing liability exposure. 

After each workshop, from 6 pm-8 pm, ABAG will offer help to homeowners on initiating the retrofit process.  

The workshop is supported in part with funding from the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).  

The East Bay training is also supported by Berkeley’s Office of Emergency Services and Project Impact, and Oakland’s Project SAFE. Cost for the workshop is $125 including a 220 page workbook and meals; discounts can be obtained through www.abag.ca.gov/abag/events/retrofit, the ABAG Web site.  

For information, call Michael Smith at ABAG, 510-464-7948.

SAN MATEO — The federal Drug Enforcement Administration approved a program Wednesday that will allow San Mateo County to give away government-grown marijuana to 60 AIDS patients as part of a first-of-its-kind study to assess the potential benefits of the drug. 

The 12-week study could begin as early as January. One county supervisor hailed approval of the study. 

“What we could end up with is scientific proof that this is a medicine that should be prescribed by doctors,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin. 

In 1996, Californians passed Proposition 215, which allows possession, cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.  

Implementation of the measure has proven difficult, however, as lawmakers struggle to agree on guidelines for prescribing and distributing the drug. 

In addition to DEA approval, San Mateo’s marijuana study had to pass muster with the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and the Food and Drug 

Dr. Dennis Israelski will oversee the study in which marijuana will be given to HIV and AIDS patients who suffer from neurological disorders. 

Those in favor of the study hope it will provide new insight to marijuana and determine whether it relieves pain and increases appetites as many users claim.  

Dr. Donald Abrams of the University of California at San Francisco recently concluded a study of medical marijuana and found that 20 AIDS patients who smoked the drug for three weeks gained 7.7 pounds more than 22 others who smoke a placebo. 

Believers in marijuana’s benefits say the drug also settles the stomach, builds weight and steadies spastic muscles. They also speak of relief from PMS, glaucoma, itching, insomnia, arthritis, depression, childbirth and attention deficit disorder. 

Participants in San Mateo County’s study will get their stash from the San Mateo County Health Center. If the study is successful, follow up trials for cancer and glaucoma patients would likely follow. 

“We hope this is just a beginning,” said Margaret Taylor, the county’s health services director. 

Supervisor Nevin opposes decriminalizing marijuana, but said the medicinal value needs further evaluation. 

“To disallow the drug to people who need it is a crime,” Nevin said.

STANFORD — Nestled at the base of oak-studded foothills, Stanford University attracts some of the country’s brightest minds to a place where the high-tech firms that drive Silicon Valley are mere minutes from hiking and horseback riding. 

But the future of those foothills is unclear. The university has agreed reluctantly to protect them for the next 25 years, while a Santa Clara County supervisor wants them to remain undeveloped for the next 99 years. Environmentalists are demanding permanent protection of 1,000 acres of serene grassland, home to the threatened tiger salamander. 

Stanford officials worry that if the campus cannot expand, some of the university’s 14,000 students and 1,640 faculty will be priced out of the area. Although university officials say they have no plans to build on the surrounding hillsides, the current housing crunch adds pressure to expand. 

In nearby Palo Alto, the average price of a house is almost $460,000. The university wants to build more than 3,000 additional low-cost housing units on campus in the next decade to ease the strain on students and staff. 

“We are at a competitive disadvantage with our peer schools – the Dukes, the Northwesterns - because people can’t afford the rents here,” said Andrew Coe, Stanford’s director of community relations. 

Stanford’s 10-year growth plan includes adding two more stories to two-story graduate student housing and building more housing and academic facilities on open areas within the campus boundaries. 

Santa Clara County supervisors are reviewing the 10-year plan and will vote on it Monday. 

The university proposes protecting up to 1,000 acres for 25 years, though the university could protect less space if it constructs under 2 million square feet of new buildings. Stanford owns a total of 8,180 acres. 

Supervisor Joe Simitian, whose jurisdiction includes the university, said he will oppose the plan unless the university protects 1,000 acres for the 99 years. Stanford has threatened to sue the county if the supervisors opt for the 99-year period. 

“We cannot accept that,” said Larry Horton, Stanford’s director of government and community relations. “We don’t believe that we can, with any accuracy at all, predict the future 99 years from now. We think it’s irresponsible to think that we know what our needs and the needs of our society are (in the future).” 

Other supervisors disagree with Simitian’s 99-year plan. Chairman Don Gage has said the board and the university can reach other compromises. Supervisors report receiving letters evenly divided in support of the 99-year protection plan and in support of Stanford. 

“Stanford’s plan will have a tremendous impact on our community. There will be a lot of traffic; there will be noise,” said Peter Drekmeier of the Stanford Open Space Alliance. “There are 17 intersections in the surrounding community that will be heavily impacted. You have degradation of air quality. Many people are worried about storm runoff in San Francisquito Creek.” 

This is the first time Stanford has had to submit a detailed growth plan in its 115 years, and Drekmeier said it is receiving preferential treatment. 

“Permanent preservation is not a new concept,” he said. “The message here is if an applicant complains a lot and threatens a lawsuit, they’ll get their way, and that’s a terrible precedent to set.” 

Drekmeier said the university’s plan could see county officials readjust the protection boundary if Stanford runs out of space set aside under the 10-year plan. If county officials approve it, Stanford could then build on adjacent hillsides before the 25-year protection expires, said Drekmeier – a scenario environmentalists want to prevent. 

But Stanford officials say they are following the same rules everyone else is, noting that local officials review every piece of open space set aside by any developer. 

The expansion would let Stanford house 70 percent of its student body, and would allow the university to build academic buildings, including an eagerly awaited facility that will house researchers studying the intersection of biology and other disciplines like physics and engineering. 

SAN JOSE — Three out of every four would-be California drivers flunked the state’s written driving test on their first attempt after the state overhauled the exam last summer. 

“I don’t think people are stupid,” said Scott Masten, a Department of Motor Vehicles researcher who helped revamp the state’s exams.  

“People just aren’t reading the handbook.” 

The overhaul was, in part, a response to the rise in failure rates over the past 14 years. 

From 1986 to 1999, the proportion of California’s first-timers who flunked the written driving test more than doubled, from 32 percent to 67 percent. 

The test should be a snap, DMV officials say, if test-takers memorize the rules in the California Driver Handbook.  

Last year. 3 million  

people passed. 

But for Donna McCullough, who had studied the handbook for half an hour, the quiz was not so easy. 

Sitting in her car in the parking lot of the Mountain View DMV office recently, McCullough said she had missed 10 items out of 36, five more than what’s allowed. 

“You could study this book for two months and still fail,” said McCullough, who recently moved to California from Georgia.  

“Who has time to study for two months for a stupid driving test? I’m an educated person. I’m a teacher.” 

“It’s not an issue of how smart you are,” said Robert Hagge, a DMV research manager.  

“You don’t have to be a college graduate to do well on it. What you have to do is read the handbook.” 

California’s DMV has a national reputation for taking the written and driving tests seriously, said Charles Butler, director of safety services for the national American Automobile Association.  

However, failure rates are not available from other states because many don’t record the data. 

Over the years, California’s tests, available in 34 languages, have been continually tweaked to reflect changing state laws and new road rules, DMV spokesman Evan Nossoff said. 

Because of the unexplained increase in the failure rate, DMV officials put Masten and his research team to work on a yearlong project to rewrite the tests from scratch. 

“What we wanted to find out is, is this lack of knowledge or poor testing?” said DMV’s Nossoff. 

Pilot tests were distributed at 20 field offices statewide this year.  

The DMV declined to release the tests’ failure rates until the San Jose Mercury News filed a request under the state’s public records act.  

The newspaper reported the results Friday. 

And those results were: 77 percent of test-takers flunked the pilot tests on their first try. And 56 percent of those renewing their licenses, presumably experienced drivers who know road rules, failed. 

DMV officials still hope that as people adjust to the new tests the failure rate will drop.

SAN DIEGO — The city could be fined up to $25,000 a day unless officials devise a plan to keep runoff from a heap of polluted dirt from getting into a creek and Mission Bay. 

The city has violated California’s water code by dumping 63,000 cubic feet of dirt without notifying the state of plans to accept the dirt near Kearney Mesa Community Park and for not developing a plan to prevent rain runoff from carrying some of the soil down a creek and into the bay, the Regional Water Quality Control Board said. 

City officials were given until Monday to submit a report to the water board. 

“We became concerned because dumping that dirt on about 10 acres is tantamount to a construction site, and there was no evidence of statewide or city of San Diego permits, both of which require measures to prevent storm-water runoff from carrying silt and pollutants off the site,” said Art Coe, assistant executive officer of the water board. 

City officials contend that materials in the dirt won’t harm humans. 

“The soil was found to be nonhazardous, but there are some heavy hydrocarbons, such as old diesel fuel, and they would limit the areas where we could relocate and/or dispose of the soils,” said Ted Medina, deputy director of the city’s coastal parks division. 

The dumping has upset environmentalists. 

“This is typical of the city’s disregard for the Clean Water Act grading and commencing a project without public input, leaving the public out of the equation and just sort of doing what they want to do,” said Donna Frye, founder of the group STOP, or Surfers Tired Of Pollution.

A state appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling imposing a gag order on attorneys, police and witnesses in a kidnapping case involving an 8-year-old Vallejo girl. 

The Court of Appeal in San Francisco last week said it would uphold Solano County Superior Court Judge Allan Carter’s ruling to protect the rights of defendant Curtis Dean Anderson.  

That decision was contingent on Carter modifying his order to allow public statements by potential witnesses who have not been subpoenaed. 

Anderson is charged with molesting and kidnapping the girl as she was walking home from school. She escaped two days later from her abductor’s car in Santa Clara after freeing herself from shackles. 

The San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee and the Vallejo Times-Herald all challenged the judge’s restrictions, saying they interfered with news coverage. They also argued it was unnecessary to protect the defendant’s rights.  

Anderson’s attorney requested the gag order after police told the media they were investigating Anderson for possible connections to other kidnappings, including the disappearance of a 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild girl last December.

MARKLEEVILLE — The federal Environmental Protection Agency has formally told Atlantic Richfield Co. to assist in the cleanup of the Leviathan Mine, recently designated a Superfund environmental site. 

Arco is a former owner of the mine in Alpine County, about 25 miles southwest of Gardnerville, Nev. 

Leviathan has been leaking a mixture of acids and dissolved metals into creeks that drain into the Carson River for years, discoloring the streams and making portions of them incapable of sustaining life. 

The EPA designated the mine a Superfund site in May, putting it on a sordid list of the nation’s most polluted places. 

The designation lets EPA order potential responsible parties to help with the cleanup. Los Angeles-based Arco joins the current owner, California’s Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board on the list. 

The water board has spent millions of dollars over the years to try to contain the toxic stew. 

“The regional board did a great job at performing stopgap work this past summer.  

Now it’s Arco’s turn, Keith Takata, director of the EPA Superfund program in San Francisco told the Reno Gazette-Journal. 

Harold Singer, the Lahontan board’s executive director, said his agency had done the short-term work and the longer-range solutions now are up to Arco. 

“It helps from a financial perspective and their expertise as well. They’re involved in cleanups like this all over the country,” Singer said. 

His agency has built evaporation ponds to catch the runoff and hold the sludge, but they can’t hold everything and millions of gallons of polluted water drains into the creek annually. 

The mine was developed in 1863 and used into the 1870s as a source of copper sulfate. It produced sulfur as recently as the 1950s and was shut down for good in 1963. 

BRAWLEY — A portion of a popular off-road vehicle playground was closed for the holiday to protect a rare plant, and prevent accidents. 

About 100,000 people converge on the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, just east of Brawley in Imperial County, every Thanksgiving weekend. A judge signed an order earlier this month shutting down 40 percent of the recreation area to off-roaders to preserve Peterson’s milk-vetch, a federally protected plant. 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will have 60 federal officers patrolling the area to enforce the order.  

Anyone who doesn’t abide by it will be cited, said Doran Sanchez, a BLM spokesman at the bureau’s Riverside headquarters. 

One of the agency’s chief rangers said off-roaders have been unruly in the past, and there are as many as 360 accidents over a long holiday weekend. 

“These little punks come out here, think they can handle their liquor and they cause all sorts of accidents,” said BLM chief ranger Robert Zimmer. 

Last month, a 38-year-old Riverside woman was killed when she was hit by another off-road rider. Authorities said alcohol apparently was not a factor. 

Off-road riders fear the closure will cram visitors into a smaller area and increase the number of accidents.

The Associated Press 

TRACY — Striking workers at a warehouse stocking Safeway goods plan to step up their action Friday by picketing outside the grocery chain’s stores rather than simply encouraging shoppers to boycott the grocer. 

Many of the 1,600 Teamsters have not formally picketed Safeway because they have no problem with the Pleasanton-based grocery store chain itself.  

They are striking against Summit Logistics, the company that runs the warehouse where they work. 

All sides had said it would be illegal for union members to picket outside Safeway stores.  

But Teamsters Local 439 Vice President Sam Rosas gave the green light for the strike Wednesday, saying Summit and Safeway are linked closely enough to allow workers to picket outside stores. 

Rosas said the decision came after meetings with legal counsel and members of the Teamsters international organization. 

“They’ve tried that argument before,” said Martin Street, president of Summit Logistics. 

Safeway officials said the union has no right to picket, and the grocer may ask the courts to block the picket. 

“Safeway views this as a rather desperate ploy here to revive what really is a failed strike against Summit and a failed boycott against Safeway,” said David Faustmas, senior vice president of Safeway’s labor relations. 

Picketing could not only deter more shoppers from buying from Safeway, but it also could keep unionized suppliers from delivering goods and unionized store employees from going to work. 

However, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1179 has not sanctioned the strike. Union members were informed Wednesday not to honor the picket line, said Phil Tucker, union press secretary. 

Summit’s 400 drivers and 1,200 warehouse workers went on strike Oct. 18, alleging unsafe working conditions, unrealistic productivity standards and a problematic pay system governing drivers.

PASADENA — A NASA spacecraft on a seven-year mission to collect comet dust survived a blinding zap from an enormous solar flare this month. 

For a while, the Stardust spacecraft had too many stars in its eyes after it was hit Nov. 9 by a storm of high-energy particles that was 100,000 times more intense than usual, according to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. 

Protons from the solar wind electrified pixels in Stardust’s star cameras, which it uses to control its orientation, and produced dots that the spacecraft interpreted as stars. 

The spacecraft processor normally compares the 12 brightest images in its field of view with patterns in its star catalog, but with hundreds of false star-like images the spacecraft could not recognize its attitude in space. 

Stardust automatically put itself in standby mode with its solar panels pointed toward the sun to ensure plenty of power and waited for communication from Earth.  

In the meantime it tried switching to a second star camera but got the same result. 

Flight controllers, who had been concerned about the solar flare’s effect, were unable to communicate with Stardust the next morning and suspected it was in standby mode, which meant it would send a signal to Earth within 24 hours. 

Scientists left the spacecraft in standby mode to allow the proton stream to diminish, and on Nov. 11 sent commands to reset the first star camera and turn it back on. 

The last images taken before the spacecraft went into standby mode were retrieved, revealing hundreds of false images. 

The spacecraft was put back in normal operation several days later. Images taken after the flare subsided showed the camera fully recovered from the proton hits. 

Stardust was 130 million miles from the sun when it was hit by the fourth largest solar flare since 1976, NASA said. 

Built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, was launched Feb. 7, 1999, on a mission to intercept the comet Wild 2 in 2004, collect dust flying off its nucleus and return to Earth in 2006 to drop off the samples in a parachute-equipped capsule. 

On the Net: 

Stardust mission: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov

LOS ANGELES — Ten months after the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to abandon the Belmont Learning Complex because of environmental contamination concerns, the future of the nearly completed high school remains unresolved. 

Now supporters of the school, badly needed to serve the city’s most crowded neighborhood, plan to step up pressure on the board to perhaps complete the $200-million project. 

Next week, members of the citizens committee that oversees the district’s $2.4-billion school construction bond are expected to threaten to withhold funds from other school projects if the board does not reconsider its Belmont decision. 

The strategy is being closely watched by a broadening coalition of politicians, activists and lawyers who have concluded that the board should re-evaluate its position. 

But a majority of the seven board members say they will not budge from their conclusion that environmental contamination on the site just west of downtown makes it unsuitable for a school. 

Whether the committee could prevail in a showdown with the board isn’t clear. 

A judge has ruled that the board cannot act on bond funding issues without a review by the committee, created by voters when they approved the Proposition BB school bond in 1997, but once the committee has made its recommendation the board is free to ignore it.  

In the past, however, the board has almost always followed the committee’s recommendations. 

Conflict over Belmont is hardly new. The project’s unraveling last year over inadequate investigation of its environmental problems led to lawsuits and contributed to three incumbents losing in a school board election and to the ouster of then-Superintendent Ruben Zacarias. 

Meanwhile, the 4,500 students the school was meant to serve are still crammed into the original and much smaller Belmont two blocks away or riding buses to other parts of town. 

The bond oversight committee, which will meet Wednesday, has asked the board to complete studies to answer three key questions: Can Belmont be made safe, how much would that cost and how long would it take? 

Robert Garcia, chairman of the Proposition BB committee, said members need answers to those questions because they are being asked to fund new schools that would replace the Belmont complex.  

The district has proposed five sites that would serve Belmont students. 

Some on the committee favor a complete suspension of the district’s massive school building program until the board reviews Belmont, Garcia said.  

Others support denying funds just to the five proposed projects that would draw from the Belmont attendance area. 

New Superintendent Roy Romer has said he too hopes Belmont can be opened as a school, but he criticized the committee’s proposal, saying it would hold schools hostage. 

However, he concedes he’s grasping for a solution to a problem that can seem intractable. 

“I am trying to figure out how to put together a proposal which can get four votes (on the board),” he told the Los Angeles Times. 

“To date I don’t have the right package.”

LOS ANGELES — A computer mistake on key evidence used to convict three Rampart officers of framing gang members may have misled jurors, defense attorneys claimed, and a judge said it was an important issue. 

The controversy centers on a police report that mistakenly exaggerated the injuries of officers and may have led to the Nov. 15 convictions. 

The report should have said the officers were victims of assault with a deadly weapon by means “likely” to produce great bodily injury.  

Instead, a software program incorrectly printed, “ADW w/GBI,” giving the impression the officers were claiming serious injury. 

The officers never claimed they were seriously injured but some jurors said they relied on the computer-generated report to convict Sgt. Edward Ortiz, 44, Sgt. Brian Liddy, 39, and Officer Michael Buchanan, 30, of conspiracy and perjury for fabricating charges against the gang members. 

“I am troubled,” Superior Court Judge Jacqueline A. Connor said Wednesday when the issue was raised during a hearing about possible juror misconduct. “This is not a small issue.” 

The convictions were the first in the city’s police corruption probe at the Rampart station. A fourth officer was acquitted by the panel. 

Buchanan and Liddy alleged in the police report that gang members hit them with a pickup truck in an alley during a July 1996 gang sweep.  

Defense attorneys told the court Wednesday that three jurors have said they couldn’t agree on whether the officers were actually hit by gang members. 

It was a literal interpretation of a line in the report, which said the officers were victims of assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily harm, that led jurors to conclude the officers were lying, the lawyers claimed. 

“They were deciding a false issue. These officers were convicted on what a computer spit out,” defense attorney Harland Braun said. 

No one caught the mistake during the monthlong trial. 

Connor, who ordered a Dec. 15 hearing, asked defense attorneys to get an affidavit from at least one juror confirming that the computer mistake led them off track during deliberations. 

Deputy District Attorney Laura Laesecke argued unsuccessfully that the defense claim was based on hearsay and a hearing wasn’t needed. 

“We should not be putting the jury on trial,” the prosecutor said. 

Police testimony during the trial indicated the claimed injuries were minor. 

Ortiz, the sergeant in charge, said he saw that Buchanan’s knees were bloody and his pants torn, but the officer asked to continue working.  

Ortiz also said he talked to Liddy, who also wanted to continue working. Both officers were later examined at a hospital.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Ask 9-year-old Thomas Hemsing what he’s thankful for this holiday season, and he doesn’t hesitate: 

“That we have a home for us to live in, just for now,” said the fourth-grader. “For all the cool things I’ve gotten for free, all the donations.” 

The holidays have been bittersweet in Los Alamos, where 400 families were uprooted by raging fire in the spring. Snow has made the scorched hills look even bleaker. 

Rita and Billy Hemsing often take son Thomas and 12-year-old daughter Renee to the spot where their house of 23 years turned to blackened rubble. As they make do in a rented home, they dream of the future. 

“I’m glad we’re rebuilding,” Thomas said. 

He thinks it will be “kind of neat” to have two bathrooms – the old house had one – and he likes the idea of bigger windows planned for the front. 

Renee puts a higher premium on an intangible feature of the new home: “The same security we had at the old place, because we’re all there.” 

Making do has not just meant deferring dreams of new closet space for Thomas and Renee but also enduring a 35-minute bus ride to Mountain Elementary School, about twice as long as before. 

The school district allowed displaced children to stay at their old school, rather than making them transfer near temporary homes. So, buses weave through neighborhoods, picking up kids scattered like ashes by the fire. 

“This was really all they had left,” said Rosine McGhee, a counselor at Mountain Elementary School, where more than 70 students lost homes. 

Renee and Thomas keep up straight As. Like their classmates, they work at restoring a routine and being optimistic, the counselor said. But overall the kids have more trouble concentrating and are more easily frustrated. Some still can’t sleep soundly. 

“I think, in general, people are just more on edge,” McGhee said. 

The fire may have died but it lingers in indelible memories, “always talked about” among students, according to Renee. 

“Some kids are doing science fair projects on it. And we’re studying the rebirth of plants after fire,” said Renee, whose family has been staying across town from the edge of the forest where they once lived. 

At the new Hemsing home, seasonal changes bring fresh, new reminders of what was lost. 

The roasting pan for Thanksgiving turkey. File boxes full of recipes, including one for Christmas bread. Wrapping paper, bows and gift tags. Red felt Christmas stockings, embroidered with the children’s names. 

But the kindness of strangers has acted as a salve. 

A local church gave away free Nativity scenes and Christmas ornaments. A card store donated recipes, decorations and other holiday items.  

Someone made dozens of quilted Christmas stockings for the schoolchildren. 

Meanwhile, Rita grapples with the loss. She has “virtual reality” dreams in which she glides through each room of the old house, noticing every detail.  

She is saddened every time she looks up at the mountains, with their “black skeletons” of trees. She has been ill more frequently than usual. 

She catches herself becoming embittered and thinks better of it. 

“We have what we need,” she said. “And the kids are fine.” 

On the Net: 

Los Alamos County: http://www.lac.losalamos.nm.us 

Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce: http://www.losalamos.com/chamber

COLUMBIA, S.C. — They say hospitality is the Southern way, and once again Charleston tops the nation’s most mannerly cities list released Friday by etiquette expert Marjabelle Young Stewart. 

“Charleston is the role model for the rest of the country,” said Stewart from her home in Kewanee, Ill. “One woman said, ‘I make sure I visit there once a year to see a gentleman in action. All I have to say to my husband is, ‘Oh, I miss Charleston,’ and he’ll put down his paper down.” 

Charleston, which has a reputation of hospitality, kindness and politeness, has been on the list all 24 years and has topped it seven times, including last year. 

Stewart, author of “Common Sense Etiquette,” bases her list on thousands of letters and faxes, many of which come from executives and others who have taken her etiquette courses in the United States and abroad. 

The Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois was second. Milwaukee was third, and though it is more known for being gaudy and raucous, Las Vegas was fourth. Stewart said visitors told her they noticed the hospitality hotels in that city showed toward their children. 

“More families said they were making an effort to welcome them and show great respect to their children,” she said.  

“It’s a good happy, place to be welcomed.” 

Savannah, Ga., last year’s runner-up, was seventh this year. 

John Graham Altman, a Republican who represents Charleston in the South Carolina House, said he wasn’t surprise the city was atop the list again. 

“It’s a whole Southern custom to be polite to folks, even though you disagree with them. It doesn’t cost anything to say please, excuse me and thank you,” he said. “There are so many bad manners in the world. If we can be an oasis of decent manners, so be it.” 

Stewart said five people told her they wanted to move to the Quad Cities of Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Ill. 

The cities have “instructed taxi drivers how to greet guests and make guests feel welcomed,” Stewart said, noting that those who wrote her “loved to do business there.” 

Seattle ranked sixth, though a few visitors said people there had bad cellular telephone manners. 

“People looked like aliens,” Stewart said, quoting one writer. “They have terrible timing. They took over my space, even while walking.” 

But Stewart said all cities on the list should show pride for their efforts. 

“Tell each of these cities, to take a bow. No, tell their mothers to take a bow,” quoting Stewart from one letter-writer. “They raised some really nice people.”

TUCSON, Ariz. — Rep. Jim Kolbe was asked not to volunteer at a Tucson homeless shelter’s Thanksgiving dinner because he’s a homosexual. 

“This decision is based on your publicly announced sexual orientation that is diametrically opposite to admonitions in the Bible,” Gospel Rescue Mission board member Evelyn H. Haugh wrote in a faxed memo.  

“This mission is founded on biblical principles, and we cannot give a public forum to a public official who is blatantly flaunting those principles.” 

Kolbe, the only openly homosexual Republican congressman, downplayed the snub but said biblical teaching “tells us that no people should be made to feel smaller than others.” 

“It would undermine the very essence of Thanksgiving if the good works of the Gospel Rescue Mission and others were eclipsed in controversy,” Kolbe said. “The mission has provided noble service to (the) community and I wish it only the best in its efforts to feed and clothe the downtrodden.” 

Kolbe, a seven-term congressman who acknowledged his sexual orientation in 1996, helped serve meals at the shelter’s Thanksgiving dinner last year. 

Skip Woodward, board vice president, said Kolbe had been allowed to serve because “he just showed up and took us by surprise.” 

“Kolbe’s very public stand on homosexuality is inconsistent with our beliefs,” Woodward said. “We wouldn’t want anyone who advocated adultery to serve either.” 

Arizona Gov. Jane Hull expressed disappointment at the mission’s revoked invitation to Kolbe, saying “hunger sees no sexual preference.”

The following Associated Press Article was originally published in late October. 

LOS ANGELES – A panel of scientists urged state officials to toughen standards for chromium 6 in water, stating there is compelling evidence that it causes cancer. 

In testimony Oct. 24 during a joint hearing of state regulatory agencies, toxicology professor John Froines of the UCLA School of Public Health said studies have shown chromium 6 to be a carcinogen when inhaled through air, which makes it a likely carcinogen when ingested through water. 

The state should quickly take action to purge water supplies of the chemical, even though scientists and regulators are still debating its risk, said Froines, chairman of the advisory board for the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. 

“You can take the political, legal and economic argument (against the tougher standard), and it will go on for 10 years,” Froines said. 

“We should assume the correctness of the state’s public health goal for chromium 6 and begin from there.” 

Froines was among nearly two dozen experts, regulators and citizens who testified before the joint hearing of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee and the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safe and Toxic Materials. 

The hearing, which was attended by about 200 people, was called by state Senators Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, and Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles. 

Schiff called on the state Department of Health Services to issue an “action level” directive, which would not have the force of law, but would urge local water agencies to meet a chromium standard as quickly as possible. A scientist with the state’s health hazard office two years ago recommended reducing the standard for chromium from 50 to 2.5 parts per billion. 

Officials with the state Department of Health Services say it could take five more years to implement a new standard, which prompted the Oct. 24 hearing. The agency has urged public water systems to test for chromium 6 and was drafting emergency regulations to require testing by the end of the year, said David Spath, the department’s drinking water chief. 

It was unlikely that the department would issue an emergency regulation, because chromium 6 is not an immediate public health threat, Spath said. 

“This is not a case of acute toxicity,” he told the joint committee. Chromium 6 has been suspected of causing cancer in several high-profile lawsuits. In a 1996 case made famous by the Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich,” residents of the San Bernardino town of Hinkley won a $333 million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric because the company’s underground tanks leaked chromium 6 into ground water. 

Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation earlier this month that gives the state Department of Health Services until January 2002 to determine the threat of chromium 6 throughout the state and to issue a report to the governor and Legislature. 

It was time. 

Councilmember Diane Woolley said formal good-byes to her council colleagues at Tuesday night’s meeting.  

Leaving is a relief, she said Wednesday. “Six years is enough. I’m smiling.” 

The six-year District 5 councilmember opted not to run for re-election Nov. 7. AC Transit Director Miriam Hawley was elected in her place. 

Fresh from a trip to the East Coast, Woolley said she looks forward to a new life with a broader perspective. 

“My focus was getting so narrow,” she said. “Whether or not we get the (living wall), it’s not the biggest thing in the world.” The councilmember was referring to the unique sound wall the city has worked on for years, hoping to have the state transportation agency install it between the freeway and Aquatic Park. 

Woolley’s had tough battles to fight and, unlike her council colleagues who generally line up with either progressives or moderates, she’s been a maverick on the council. Elected with the blessing of moderate Mayor Shirley Dean, Woolley has generally sided with moderates on fiscal matters and voted with progressives on social issues. 

“I get a lot of pressure from both sides,” she said. 

At Tuesday evening’s meeting, the mayor got her last dig in and at the same time praised her colleague. “You have always stood up for what you believed in and sometimes you were a real pain in the neck, but no one worked with more passion on issues related to the waterfront,” she said. 

Woolley won’t miss the battles. “In the big things you need five (votes),” she said. She will, however, miss the help she’s been able to get for individuals in her district, especially when they’ve had problems with the city’s aged sewer lines. 

Woolley has been a constant voice speaking out for upgrading the sewers. “If I say I come from a city where every winter sewage runs into the creeks and the Bay, where would you say I’m from?” Woolley asks, rhetorically. 

She points to specific issues where she mustered five votes and made an impact. She helped stop the salt water pipeline, proposed for fighting fires. “I saved the city $30 million,” Woolley said.  

And “the sea scouts were a big thing.” Woolley helped get the scouts removed from their free berth at the Marina. Their affiliation with the Boy Scouts and the scouts’ anti-gay stance was the reason behind their ejection. 

“I fought off a (new) hotel at the Marina,” Woolley said, warning that she believes a similar proposal will come back to council again. 

But now, Woolley says it’s time for her to step back. She’s not making large plans for the future. “I plan to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation. “We’ll see what comes next.” 

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

Quarterback: Sophomore Kyle Boller took nearly every snap this season, and he showed some progress, moving around the pocket more comfortably and throwing the ball away to avoid sacks. But he once again completed less than half of his passes, and he regressed in the season-ending Big Game, throwing four interceptions, three of which he threw up for grabs into double coverage.  

The struggles in the passing game don’t all rest on Boller’s shoulders, however, as his receivers dropped an awful lot of passes, and freshman Geoff McArthur in particular seemed to break off routes early.  

Grade: C 

Running backs: The triple threat of tailbacks Joe Igber, Joe Echema and Saleem Muhammed combined to provide a solid running game for most of the season. Igber is a constant threat to break a huge run, as his jitterbug moves can shake defenders anywhere on the field. His 181 yards against ASU was a season-high for the Bears, and he also put in solid efforts against Washington, USC and Oregon State. Echema provided a good change-up for Igber early in the season, and Muhammed finished strong against Oregon and Stanford. All three should return next year, so the battle for playing time should be fierce. 

Fullback Ryan Stanger ran the ball sparingly, but is a solid blocker and will also return. Senior H-back Keala Keanaaina was a surprising threat in the passing game, catching 15 balls, mostly off of play-action fakes, and will be missed, but the return of Marcus Fields from injury should offset the loss. 

Grade: B 

Wide receiver: The combination of inexperience (freshmen McArthur and Chase Lyman) and juco transfers (Charon Arnold, Derek Swafford and Chad Heydorff) never really came together to give Boller consistent targets. Swafford led the team with 25 receptions and three touchdowns despite playing only the last six games, and McArthur and Lyman showed potential with 20 and 19 catches, respectively. Arnold played well before missing the final seven games with an injury, and Heydorff never fully recovered from a training camp injury and never made an impact.  

But every one of those players dropped a few balls during the year, and Boller never looked truly comfortable with any of them.  

Grade: D 

Offensive line: This unit was supposed to be a team strength, but injuries caused so much shuffling that the line never got set. As a result, the running game never saw consistent holes, and Boller felt a lot of pressure from pass rushers. Lone senior and unit leader Reed Diehl started at three different positions (center, left guard, left tackle) and was a true warrior, playing through numerous injuries.  

The only player to start every game was right tackle Mark Wilson. Left guard Brandon Ludwig missed three games, right guard Scott Tercero two, and huge left tackle Langston Walker missed the final seven games. Reserves Robert Truhitte, Chris Chick, Marvin Philip and Nolan Bluntzer all played adequately, and the experience they gained gives the line a lot of depth for next year. 

Grade: C 

Defensive line: Clearly the best unit on the team, the defensive line held up in just about every game. Probable top-10 NFL pick Andre Carter tallied 13 sacks and was a force in every game, drawing double-teams and opposing offenses’ focus. Fellow senior Jacob Waasdorp did his damage from the inside, bullying running backs and creating havoc in his reckless style. Although tackle Daniel Nwangwu was a disappointment, failing to step up as expected, redshirt freshman Josh Beckham stepped into the starting lineup and made some big plays. The battle between sophomore Tully Banta-Cain and senior Shaun Paga for the other end spot went back and forth all year, with Paga making an impact early and Banta-Cain coming on strong at the end, including a dominating Big Game, and finishing with 5.5 sacks and 13 tackles for loss. 

Grade: A 

Linebacker: Scott Fujita was the only full-time starter in the linebacking corps, and he had a solid year playing behind stalwart Carter. Undersized inside guy Matt Nixon made big plays, but was pushed by John Klotsche and Chris Ball. Klotsche is a good run-stuffer, while Ball lives to blitz the quarterback. Senior Jason Smith made some plays in his part-time role, as did J.P. Segura, and Calvin Hosey was never healthy enough to have an impact. With all but Smith coming back, this group should be better next year. 

Grade: C 

Defensive backs: This is a hard group to evaluate. This group made very few big plays, and gave up a lot of big ones. But individually, they didn’t play too badly. Cornerbacks Chidi Iwuoma, Jemeel Powell and Leshaun Ward provided solid coverage the majority of the time, although their tackling was a bit suspect. Powell in particular looked like a future star, and Ward has a ability if he can tame his emotions.  

Safety Nnamdi Asomugha had several big games and provided solid run support, but needs work in coverage. The weak link was safety Dewey Hale, who missed tackles and didn’t do much in coverage. Senior cornerback Harold Pearson lost his starting job early and never got it back. 

Grade: C 

Special teams: Spoiled by the big plays of Deltha O’Neal in 1999, the Bear special teams didn’t produce much in the way of returns in 2000. No touchdowns from kick returns and just one punt returned for a score (although that score by Jemeel Powell helped beat USC).  

But the real failure was in the punting game. Nick Harris was once again spectacular when he got good snaps and had time to get his punts off. But blocked punts led directly to losses to Washington State, Washington and Stanford. That’s the difference between 3-8 and going to a bowl game with a winning record. 

Grade: F 

Coaching: Watching a Cal game was like watching two different teams play the same opponent. The defense always came out fired up, looking to make plays and be aggressive. Defensive coordinator Lyle Sentencich and the position coaches must be commended for keeping their unit in games even when the offense was giving them no help. But the offense was tentative and disorganized. Receivers ran the wrong route, the offensive line had trouble opening holes, and Boller looked unsure of himself about half the time. No consistent strategy emerged: were they a passing team or a running team? Did they want to spread the field with four or five receivers, or use a traditional set? There’s something to be said for variety, but when you can’t do the basics well, why try so many complex things? The firing of offensive coordinator Steve Hagen this week was a step in the right direction. Holmoe needs to bring in someone with a proven track record who will give the offense an identity. Someone who could get Boller and his receivers on the same page would also be ideal. 

Grade: Offense – D Defense – B

Friday, Nov. 24

“Yoga Poems”  

7:30 p.m. 

Piedmont Yoga Studio 

4125 Piedmont Ave. 

Piedmont 

Leza Lowitz will read from her new book, which contains over 60 poems inspired by different yoga poses, and do a yoga performance. Free. 

Call Miki, 558-7826 

Saturday, Nov. 25

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612 

Create the City of Your  

Fantasies 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening features DJ’d “Candlelight Massage Circles Salon.”  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Children’s Benefit Concert 

11 a.m. - noon 

College Ave. Presbyterian Church  

5951 College Ave.  

Oakland  

A concert to benefit Lillian Wamalwa, who would like to go to Kenya to help her sister, who has AIDS, and her four children.  

$6 suggested donation 

Call 925-376-3543 

Papersong Grand Opening Celebration 

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Swan’s Marketplace 

936B Clay St.  

Oakland 

Featuring free musical performances by Big Brother & The Holding Co., Caravan of All Stars Revue, The Charles Dudley Band, and Jane DeCuir. 436-5131 

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family  

& Children’s Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences. 

$360 per couple 704-7475 

Sunday, Nov. 26 

The Value of Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Joleen Vries, director of the Nyingma Institute in the Netherlands for over five years, will discuss how to maintain a regular meditation practice. Free 843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 27 

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

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 

Parks & Recreation Board 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Solid Waste Management  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St.  

Zoning Adjustment Board  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

Educational Philosophies  

Roundtable 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

At this roundtable, Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, parents will learn about the following educational philosophies: Developmental, cooperative, Montessori, bilingual, Waldorf, religious, homeschooling, and charter schools.  

Free to members; non-members, $5 527-6667 or visit www.parentsnet.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 28  

Blood Pressure for Seniors 

9:30 - 11 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

44-6107 

Read a Play Together Salon 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. $3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Lavender Lunch 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave. Mudd 100 

PSR adjunct faculty member Mark Wilson and PSR alumna Lynice Pinkard will speak on “Heterosexism and Racism.” Free 849-8206 

—compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences to strengthen the marriage.  

$360 per couple  

Call 704-7475 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of  

Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it.  

Call 843-3533 

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

Membership Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Discussion of how the election results will affect the Gray Panthers.  

Call 548-9696 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 MLK Jr. Way (at Derby) 

Challenges of Parenting Adolescents  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

This workshop focuses on the challenges facing parents and teens. Learn how to avoid triggering and pushing each other’s buttons. Runs three consecutive Wednesdays, through Dec. 13. Led by Kathy Langsam, MA, MFT, JFCS Teen Services Coordinator.  

$60 

Call 704-7475 

Thursday, Nov. 30

Pro Arts Juried Show  

Reception 

6 - 8 p.m.  

Pro Arts 

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

With the work of 70 artists, this annual show features the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The show runs through December 30. See A&E calendar for details.  

Snowshoeing Basics  

7 p.m . 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional snowshoe guide Cathy Anderson-Meyers gives basic instruction on how to get out and experience Tahoe’s winter terrain on “shoes.”  

Call 527-4140 

Art for Sale 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute  

1060 Heinz Ave.  

Over sixty artists affiliated with the Kala Art Institute exhibit works ranging from traditional wood block prints to works in digital media. During the reception, artists will offer 10 percent off the sale of their prints.  

549-2977 

Oakland Museum Trip for Seniors 

(trip on Dec. 8) 

A trip to the Oakland Museum to see the Imperial Palace of China Exhibit. Organized by the North Berkeley Senior Center 

Call Maggie, 644-6107 

Let Your Chi Flow Freely 

6 - 7 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway Ave. 

Oakland 

Share peace and tranquillity communally and regain harmony and balance.  

Call Idris Hassan, 835-4827 x31  

Witness In Our Time 

7 p.m.  

105 North Gate Hall 

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 

Center for Photography 

Kerry Tremain moderates a conversation with Wayne Miller, Ken Light, Matt Heron and Michelle Vignes. Followed by a book signing for “Chicago’s South Side” by Wayne Miller and “Witness in Our Time” by Ken Light. 

Call 642-3383  

Friday, Dec. 1 

Spanish Book Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books  

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

A discussion of “Dona Barbara” by the Colombian writer Rumulo Gallegos. New members welcome. The group meets the first Friday of each month.  

Call 601-0454  

Taize Worship Services  

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.  

Loper Chapel  

Dana St. (between Durant & Channing) 

Call 848-3696 

Basic Electrical Theory 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Redwood Kardon, retired City of Oakland building inspector and author of the Code Check book series.  

$35 

Call 525-7610 

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  

Whymsium Anniversary Party 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This annual party features a talent show, games and a dance.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

UC Botanical Holiday Plant Sale 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

You’ll find a selection of orchids, ferns, rhododendrons, cacti, hardy herbs, and house plants galore for yourself or gardening friends.  

Call 643-2755 

Native American Flute  

5 - 6 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Celebrating the release of his CD “Spirit Within,” Berkeley resident and flutist Walter Ogi Johnson performs.  

Finding a Way In 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Offering a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender jews to express personal concerns and to find a place to belong in the Jewish community.  

$5 with pre-registraiton; $7 at door  

845-6420 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office  

2022 Blake St.  

Learn what your rights are in dealing with the police. Learn how to monitor the police safely.  

Call 548-0425 

Publish Your Own Book 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St. 

Mark Weiman of Regen Press presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publishing.  

$60 per person 

Call Mark Weiman, 547-7602 

Friends of Berkeley Youth Alternatives 

Wine Tasting  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Rosenblum Cellars 

2900 Main St.  

Alameda 

All proceeds benefit the children and families served by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 

$25 

Call 845-9010 

Alternative Building Materials 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architects Dan Smith and John Fordice. 

$75  

Call 525-7610 

Sunday Dec. 3 

Connecting with Nature 

1 - 3 p.m.  

Rotary Nature Center  

600 Bellevue Ave. (at Perkins) 

Oakland 

Children aged six to twelve, accompanied by a parent, are invited to explore nature with all their senses. Cathy Holt, author of “The Circle of Healing” will lead the event. Free 

Call Stephanie for reservations, 238-3739 

Transcending Limits on Knowledge  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place 

Lee Nichol on Tarthang Tulku’s “Time, Space, and Knowledge.” Free 

843-6812 

Richmond Holiday Arts Festival 

Noon - 4 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center 

2540 Barret Ave.  

Richmond 

A silent auction, craft sale, gifts and services auction, and hands-on art projects. Proceeds benefit the Richmond Art Center. Free  

620-6772 

Kitka’s “Wintersongs Holiday Tour” 

7 p.m. 

Lake Merritt United Methodist Church 

1330 Lakeshore Ave. 

Oakland 

In it’s first annual winter holiday concert, this women’s vocal ensemble will perform Eastern European seasonal songs.  

$15 - $20 

444-0323 

Winterfest 

Noon - 4 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

A celebration of winter family traditions like music, dance, craft activities, and food. Included in museum admission. 

$6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Joe Raskin & David Slusser’s  

Improv Derby 

7:48 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Joe Raskin/George Cremaschi Duo & David Slusser’s Improv Derby. Part of ACME Observatory Contemporary Music Series.  

$8 suggested donation 

Call 444-3595 

Monday, Dec. 4 

Personnel Board Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Permit Center 

2118 Milvia St.  

First Floor Conference Room 

Youth Commission 

6 p.m. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Center 

1730 Oregon St. 

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkely Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Peace and Justice Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Keeping Parents Sane 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services  

of the East Bay 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

If your child(ren) are defiant and oppositional and you don’t know what to do, try this workshop led by Liz Marton, MFT.  

$20 

Call 704-7475 

Criminalization of Youth 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St.  

Angela Davis, educator, activist, and former political prisoner speaks at this benefit lecture for the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library.  

$5 

Call 595-7417  

Make a Wreath 

7 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Dr.  

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran wreath-maker, join Nancy Swearengen and Jerry Parsons and learn to use some unusual materials.  

$27.50, including materials 

Call 643-2755 

Furniture Making for Women 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Finish carpenter Tracy Weir teaches this hands-on, four day workshop, culminating with each attendee building her own cabinet unit with drawer and shelf. Runs through Dec. 8.  

$475  

Call 525-7610 

Tuesday, Dec. 5 

Design the Perfect School  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

Jewish Book Club 

7:30 - 9:15 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center  

1414 Walnut St.  

Join in a discussion of Brian Norton’s “Starting Out in the Evening.” Free 

848-0237 x 127 

Get the Lead Out 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Center 

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Learn how to prevent lead poisoning in your home. Taught by expert staff, this course offers techniques property owners can use to safety paint and remodel their homes.  

Call 567-8280 

Make a Wreath 

7 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Dr.  

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran wreath-maker, join Nancy Swearengen and Jerry Parsons and learn to use some unusual materials.  

$27.50, including materials 

Call 643-2755 

City Council 

7 p.m. 

Old City Hall  

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Wednesday, Dec. 6  

Task Force on Telecommunications 

7 p.m. 

1900 Addison  

Third Floor Conference Room 

Citizens Budget Review Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Board of Education 

7:30 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers 

Fire Safety Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

Fire Department Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

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 

Women’s Travel Book Club 

6:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books 

1730 Fourth St.  

Join a discussion of M.F.K. Fisher’s “Two Towns in Provence: Map of Another Town & A Considerable Town.” New members are always welcome. The group meets the first Thursday of each month.  

Call 482-8971 

Make a Wreath 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Dr.  

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran wreath-maker, join Nancy Swearengen and Jerry Parsons and learn to use some unusual materials.  

$27.50, including materials 

Call 643-2755 

Prepare Meals in a Snow Kitchen  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Chuck Collingwood of the Sierra Club will present a slide lecture on how to survive overnight in the snow.  

Call Jason, 527-7377 

Let Your Chi Flow Freely 

6 - 7 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway Ave. 

Oakland 

Share peace and tranquillity communally and regain harmony and balance.  

Call Idris Hassan, 835-4827 x31  

Lunch Poems Reading Series 

12:10 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.  

Morrison Room, Doe Library 

UC Berkeley  

Featuring the first three authors in the UC Press’s California Poetry Series. Featured poets will be Fanny Howe, Mark Levine, and Carol Snow. Free  

Call 642-0137  

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

Public Works Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Friday, Dec. 8  

PC Users Group 

7 p.m. 

Vista College 

Room 303  

2020 Milvia St.  

A groups of PC users who help each other solve problems. They introduce their members to new software, hardware, and invited speakers and technicians from various PC related companies. Meet the second Friday of each month.  

Call Melvin Mann, 527-2177  

Trunk Show with Art Quintanna 

4 - 7 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes Gallery 

1573 Solano Ave. 

Hailing from New Mexico, Quintanna specializes in older “dead pawn” Indian jewelry.  

An Evening Under the Stars 

5 - 8 p.m. 

Courtyard at Swans Marketplace 

Ninth St. between Washington and Clay St. 

With jazz standards playing in the background, discover the work of local artists and find a unique holiday gift. Sponsored by East Bay Galleries for Art and Cultural Development.  

Call 832-4244 

WomenSing  

8 p.m. 

Valley Center for the Performing Arts 

Holy Names College 

3500 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

In the first concert of their 35th anniversary season titled “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,” WomenSing perform music of Irving Berlin, Holst, and others.  

$20 general, $18 seniors/students, $10 18 and under 

Call 925-798-1300 

Saturday, Dec. 9  

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Class Dismissed  

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.)  

Kensington 

Meredith Maran discusses her book “A Year In the Life of an American High School, A Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation,” the result of her following the lives of three Berkeley High students. Free 

Call 559-9184  

Farmers’ Market Craft Fair 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Civic Center Park  

(Center at MLK Jr. Way) 

Local craftspeople will be selling a variety of handcrafted gifts. Also live music, massage, and hot apple cider. Free 

Call 548-3333 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St.  

Interviews, musical performances and a live radio play broadcast to a hundred cities worldwide. This show features the Magniolia Sisters, Alex DiGrassi, Tata Monk and author Malachy McCourt.  

Call 415-664-9500  

Trunk Show with Art Quintanna 

10 a.m. -6 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes Gallery 

1573 Solano Ave. 

Hailing from New Mexico, Quintanna specializes in older “dead pawn” Indian jewelry.  

Sunday, Dec. 10 

Parenting Book Club 

11 a.m.  

Cody’s Books 

1730 Fourth St.  

Take part in a discussion of “Mothers Who Think” edited by Camille Peri. New group members always welcome. The group meets the second Sunday of each month.  

Call 559-9500 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

Ancient Buddhist Tales 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Rima Tamar, storyteller and Dharma Publishing sales director, tells some classic Buddhist stories. Free  

843-6812 

TOCAR with David Frazier 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool/La Note  

2377 Shattuck Ave.  

$6 - $12  

Reservations: 845-5373 

Tibetan Nyingma Open House 

3 -5 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

A free introduction to Tibetan Buddhist culture, including a Tibetan yoga demonstration and a meditation garden tour.  

Call 843-6812  

Baroque Choral Guild  

7:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2345 Channing Way 

Performing the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo, Giovanni Croce, and others.  

$20 general, $15 seniors and students  

Call 408-733-8110 

“From Swastikas to Jim Crow”  

10:30 a.m.  

Jewish Learning Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Donald and Lore Rasmussen of Berkeley, and Jim McWilliams of Oakland, discuss their experiences and the experiences of others who fled Nazi Germany and ended up teaching in African-American colleges in the segregated south. Admission includes brunch.  

$4 BRJCC members; $5 general  

Call 848-0237 x127 

Weird Rooms 

3 - 5 p.m.  

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Mal and Sandra Sharpe discuss people who collect unusual things and how their collections take over their rooms.  

Black Images in the White Mind 

6:30 p.m. 

Walden Pond Books  

3316 Grand Ave.  

Oakland  

Jan Faulkner will give a slide show presentation of about her book, “Ethnic Notions.”  

Call 832-4438 

Wednesday, Dec. 13 

Oakland Preschool Fair 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Piedmont Avenue Elementary School 

4314 Piedmont Ave.  

Oakland 

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, this panel discussion allows parents the opportunity to speak with representatives from local preschools. 

Free to NPN members, $5 general 

Call 527-6667 

Thursday, Dec. 14  

Ultimate Alpine Climbing  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Join veteran alpine climber Kitty Calhoun in a slide presentation of her 20-year climbing career.  

Call Jason, 527-7377 

Saturday, Dec. 16 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Farmers’ Market Craft Fair 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Civic Center Park  

(Center at MLK Jr. Way) 

Local craftspeople will be selling a variety of handcrafted gifts. Also live music, massage, and hot apple cider. Free 

Call 548-3333 

Sunday, Dec. 17  

Benefits of Kum Nye and Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Miep Cooymans, Nyingma Institute meditation instructor lectures and demonstrates this gentle, self-healing system. Free 

843-6812 

The Disputation 

2 - 4:30 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Call 848-0237 

Hanukkah Happening 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Cantor and recording artist Richard Kaplan will lead attendees in seasonal music. 

Call 848-8443 

Tuesday, Dec. 19 

Planning for the Future 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

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 

Saturday, Dec. 23  

Farmers’ Market Craft Fair 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Civic Center Park  

(Center at MLK Jr. Way) 

Local craftspeople will be selling a variety of handcrafted gifts. Also live music, massage, and hot apple cider. Free 

Call 548-3333 

Friday, Jan. 5  

Zen Buddhist Sites in China 

7 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Andy Ferguson, author of “Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings,” presents a slide show of Zen holy sites in China. Ferguson will read from the book and engage the audience in a brief meditation session. Included in museum admission. 

$6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Thursday, Jan. 11 

Toni Stone and the Negro Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball Legue in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Saturday, Jan. 13 

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184 

Sunday, Jan. 14 

Teaching Chinese Culture in the U.S.  

2 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Educators from Bay Area Chinese schools explore issues related to teaching Chinese culture and language. Included in museum admission.  

$6 general; $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

Berkeley, 1900  

3 - 5 p.m. . 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Richard Schwartz gives an oral history of Berkeley at the turn of the century.  

A-Singin’ and a Chantin’ 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Pagan recording artist DJ Hamouris shares some songs and chants. 

Call 848-8443 

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 

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 

ACAMBARO, MEXICO – When one of the United States executes a high-profile prisoner, Mexico shudders with indignation. 

If the prisoner happens to be a Mexican national, the indignation is deafening and usually laced with a healthy dose of nationalism. 

Days before the execution, the Mexican media and the country’s political leaders join to blast American society for supporting capital punishment. 

Progressive newspapers, such as La Jornada, will suddenly portray the declarations of their staple political targets as the noble efforts of human rights heroes. 

There is a pervasive sense that Mexican society is better than its American counterpart on this one defining issue, leading many Mexicans to ask, “Who is more civilized?” 

The death penalty was effectively abolished in Mexico in 1929. Mexican nationals executed in the U.S. are almost treated as martyrs, for they have died at the hands of a nation that is viewed as ever-imperialist, ever-cruel. 

Ironically, the possible use of the death penalty to combat skyrocketing crime rates in Mexico is gaining support. Mexico’s homicide rate is more than twice the U.S. rate, and in the country’s larger cities, especially Mexico City, violent crime has become painfully common. 

Drug war-related violence and high-profile kidnapping rings that prey on the country’s well-to-do and middle class have recently made the death penalty a more frequent subject in newspaper opinion pages and on radio talk shows. 

Conservative politicians, unable or unwilling to deal with the primary roots of Mexico’s crime problem – an economy that keeps two thirds of the population in poverty – are asking that Mexican society at least discuss the possibility of bringing back the death penalty. 

During the recent election cycle, a popular campaign slogan used by some gubernatorial candidates suggested the intolerance that is gripping Mexico: “Human rights are for humans, not rats (thieves).” 

Indeed, were it not for the aversion Mexicans feel when one of their compatriots is executed in the U.S., capital punishment might very well enjoy greater popularity. 

Public indignation, of course, gives Mexico’s leaders plenty of room for moral posturing. The most recent example came Nov. 9 with the Texas execution of Miguel Angel Flores, convicted of an 1989 murder and rape. 

Flores was the fourth Mexican national to be executed in the U.S. since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment after a brief four-year ban. Currently, 19 of the 446 prisoners on death row in Texas are Mexican nationals, according to Richard Ellis, an attorney for Flores. (Amnesty International calculates that 44 Mexican citizens are on death row nationwide.) 

The day before the execution, Mexico’s president-elect Vicente Fox Quesada asked Governor George W. Bush for clemency, telling a reporter for that he was fundamentally opposed to the capital punishment. 

Fox also said he was greatly troubled that Flores had not been told of his right (under the 1936 Vienna Convention) to contact Mexican consular officials at the time of his arrest. The Mexican consulate did not learn of the case until July 11, 1991, a full 10 months after Flores was sentenced to death. 

Mexican government officials have said they would have provided expert counsel to Flores had they known of his arrest. But in a recent report, the Mexican Human Rights Defense League claimed that the Mexican government has not provided sufficient help to Mexican nationals sentenced to death in the U.S. and that officials become involved only when public opinion forces them to do so. 

The Texas execution of Flores is unlikely to strain political relations between Fox and Bush. Fox is widely considered an ally of Texas big business, and his call to Bush was an obligatory act of diplomacy. 

The next day, the same evening that Flores was executed, Fox was delivering an upbeat keynote speech at the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s 26th Annual Los Angeles Dinner. He made no mention of Flores or the many Mexican nationals on death row in the U.S. 

Pacific News Service commentator Martin Espinoza reports from Guanajuato, Mexico.

The City Council adopted an emergency item on its Tuesday evening agenda, approving $100,000 for the immediate removal of groundwater contaminated with the carcinogen chromium 6 discovered at the west Berkeley skate park construction site.  

Though city officials are saying the contaminant poses no health risks, Berkeley’s Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy requested the council take the emergency action so the city can immediately treat and dispose of the polluted groundwater. The emergency funds were approved unanimously by the council. 

Pending results from a private toxicologist, the city is yet to determine if work will be allowed to continue on the skate park at the corner of Fourth and Harrison streets. On Wednesday afternoon workers were landscaping the area around the skate park. 

The skate park is located next to the recently developed Fielding Soccer Field which is used by the Alameda Contra Costa Youth Soccer League. When the toxin was discovered the soccer fields were closed down for work on the fields and are not scheduled to reopen until February. 

Groundwater from the site is being pumped into 20,000 gallon portable water containers. Once the containers are full they are hauled away by a private company which filters the chromium 6 from the water. The cost of hauling each container is $14,000. Currently one container per day is being hauled away. 

“We thought is was only going to cost $7,000 per container,” Al-Hadithy said. “But there were some complications and now it costs twice that.” 

The containers are a short-term emergency solution. The city is negotiating with several companies which specialize in on-site treatment facilities to handle the groundwater there and release it possibly into a storm drain if the levels of chromium 6 can be satisfactorily reduced.  

“The other option is closing up the hole and discontinuing construction on the site until the problem can be otherwise remedied,” said Al-Hadithy 

The source of the contamination is suspected to be Western Roto Engravers Color Tech on Sixth Street about two and half blocks from the construction site. Al-Hadithy said the contaminant is part of a plume which originates at the engravers and has been carried by groundwater to the west in the shape of a tear drop. The plume is estimated to be about 700 feet in length. The Berkeley Toxics Management Division has known about the plume for at least two years and has been working with the engraving company to take care of the problem. 

Stephen Hill, the chief of the Toxics Clean Up Division at the Regional Water Quality Board said the company responsible will likely be charged the clean up costs. “In California we have a polluter pays policy,” Hill said. “We fully expect them to pay for the clean up and if they fail to do the work we’ll refer them to the attorney general.” 

The final cost to clean up the area could be $500,000 or possibly much more. 

There was no one available to answer questions at the engraving company on Wednesday. 

Chromium 6, or hexavalent chrome is an odorless chemical put to a variety of uses including hardening steel and making paint pigments. It is commonly used in aeronautic manufacturing and in electroplating shops.  

Medical experts say chromium 6 is a carcinogen in numerous animals and humans that should not be present in water at all. However, both federal and state governments classify chromium 6 as a carcinogen when inhaled but not ingested through drinking water.  

According to city officials between 1.3 and 2.1 milligrams of chrome 6 has been detected per liter of tested groundwater. 

Al-Hadithy stressed that there is no “path of exposure” connecting the chromium 6 to humans. The written discussion presented to the council said the groundwater is not potable and there are no ground wells in the area. The discussion also said the toxin “should not pose any human health impacts.”  

But it is unclear if the toxin has found its way into the soil that is being excavated and thereby becoming airborne and creating a greater risk of inhalation. Al-Hadithy said a private toxicologist is studying soil samples from the site and should have the results by early next week. 

It was only last Thursday that Berkeley’s Toxics Management Division discovered chromium 6 in water being pumped out of excavation sites at the park that are intended to be skating bowls. The nine-foot deep bowls have been filling with about a foot of water since a drainage system was installed beneath the site weeks ago.  

Al-Hadithy said the toxics management personnel had a meeting with the engraving company to discuss more aggressive measures to clean up the plume and decided it would be a good idea to test groundwater being pumped from the nearby construction site. When the toxin was discovered the toxics division took immediate action to contain the groundwater.  

When the city purchased the property from U.C. Berkeley two years ago it spent $25,000 on environmental tests to satisfy the requirements of a Environmental Negative Declaration that showed the site was safe. Groundwater was drawn from three random locations on the 6.4 acre site and none showed the presence of chromium 6. 

The city also relied on tests that were performed by the university which declared the site was safe. 

Two councilmembers, Diane Woolley and Kriss Worthington voted to not approve the declaration at the time. Worthington said they thought there had not been enough tests done and that the proponents, who primarily associated with the soccer league, were very anxious to get the field approved.  

He added that it was a very unpopular stance for him and Woolley to take. “They thought we were being obstructionist, but what we were doing was making sure that our efforts to help the kids wouldn’t hurt them.” 

Following a season of near misses and poor execution, Cal offensive coordinator Steve Hagen was officially let go Monday, head coach Tom Holmoe announced. 

Hagen’s job has been a source of speculation nearly the entire season, as the Bears never seemed to get on track offensively. Hagen was also the Bears’ quarterback coach, and sophomore Kyle Boller never made the breakthrough many expected. 

Cal finished ninth in the Pac-10 in total offense, averaging 317.5 yards per game, only a slight improvement over their last-place finish in 1999 (250 ypg), Hagen’s first year as offensive coordinator. 

Apparently the decision was left up to Holmoe by Cal Athletic Director John Kasser. The head coach said that while the offense was on the upswing at the end of the year, it just wasn’t enough improvement to justify Hagen’s return. 

“I saw some progress in the direction of our offense over the last half of the season, but not enough to convince me we were on the right path to take our offense to the next level,” he said. “Steve is a man of character. He’s good with the players and that made the decision difficult. However, we need to do what’s best for the program and for our players and I believe a change is essential at this time.”  

Holmoe said he had been contemplating Hagen’s status for the last month and came to a final decision on Sunday, following the conclusion of Cal’s 36-30 loss to the Stanford Cardinal to wrap up a disappointing 3-8 season.  

Holmoe indicated he had met with Hagen Monday morning and informed him of the decision. He said he would immediately begin a search for a new offensive coordinator and expected to have a replacement in December.  

Holmoe has definite qualities in mind for the new offensive coordinator.  

“I definitely plan to hire somebody with considerable experience as an offensive coordinator at the Division I level,” said Holmoe. “This has to be somebody who can come in and inject a spark on our offense.” 

“It’s also critical that we get a coach who has a proven track record in developing quarterbacks. Basically, this is somebody who can help us get on track right now. With nine starters back on offense, we’re not in a rebuilding situation. We expect to win right now.”  

Holmoe said that he has targeted four prime candidates and would begin discussions immediately with one or more of those coaches.  

“Since several of the candidates will be involved in bowl games, our final announcement of a coordinator may be delayed until sometime in late December, but I have every confidence that we’ll be able to land the coach we want,” he said.  

The Cal head coach also indicated that he would recommend to the new coordinator that he retain some of Cal’s current offensive coaches, but that the new coordinator would have the final authority on setting his offensive staff.

Neighbors of the Allston Way Corporation yard are asking for peace and quiet. More than a dozen residents gathered at the yard Tuesday to voice concerns and discuss solutions to problems surrounding the city’s operations center – they want less traffic, pollution and noise.  

The community group submitted a list of demands to the yard manager and the group’s leader, L.A. Wood, took city officials and nearby residents on a tour of the facility to point out the changes they hoped to achieve. 

The Corporation Yard, located at 1326 Allston Way, adjacent to Strawberry Creek Park, is used by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, the Berkeley Police Department and road and sewer maintenance crews. The yard houses city utility trucks, a fueling station, old park benches, gravel and dirt, and many other maintenance and repair items used on a regular basis. 

Resident Toni Horodysky, who has lived across the park from the yard for more than 25 years, complained that the yard is too noisy, creates too much pollution and houses too many large trucks. 

“We’re long suffering here. We’ve been hashing and rehashing these issues for years. It’s time to take action.” 

The three-page wish list of changes residents presented to officials includes the construction of new landscaped walls along the entire perimeter, noise reduction, elimination of long-term storage of rusted, rotten and unusable material, and a semi-annual yard cleanup.  

Residents also asked for safety measures such as adherence to established traffic flow patterns, reduction of “driving in reverse” which produces a loud beeping noise from most city trucks and consolidation of hazardous waste materials, which includes cleaning solvent. 

Yard manager Patrick Keilch agreed with most of the recommendations the residents made but said he was confused and concerned with the way they approached the meeting. 

“The thing that disturbs me is that people are not focusing on the facts. That takes away from what we really need to get done.” 

During the course of the tour Wood a longtime yard watchdog, made several allegations that the yard had recently been cited by the District Attorney’s Office for hazardous waste violations. He also suggested that the underground storage tanks were not in compliance with city and state regulations and suggested that they pose a serious risk to the neighborhood and city at large. 

Keilch asserted, however, that no charges were filed against the yard for noncompliance with city and state laws. 

“As for the storage tanks, those are doubled-walled state-of-the-art tanks. They’re as good as or better than any tank anywhere in the U.S.,” Keilch said. 

In addition, he said that he felt unprepared for the meeting that was organized by Wood. 

“I had no knowledge that Wood had canvassed the neighborhood with fliers or contacted the media. I had to scramble at the last minute to get staff together to help answer questions and if I had known I would have prepared a fact sheet.” 

Keilch added that he has an open door policy and that he welcomes suggestions and comments. 

“We should all be open and up front about what’s going on.” 

Keilch said that many of the problems could be addressed at a fairly low cost and that he is willing to work with the city and community. 

“This is the first I’ve heard that there were concerns. I haven’t had a call regarding any of these issues in two years. I want to get these issues taken care of,” he said. 

Conflicts in the west Berkeley neighborhood between the yard and residents began prior to 1992. Since that time the city has constructed a partial wall with landscaping and cleaned up the yard considerably, but neighbors say that is not enough. They are asking the city to re-address many of the same issues brought up nearly 10 years ago, such as noise control and traffic. 

Wood is calling for the creation of a review board to ensure that complaints and possible violations are monitored and addressed in a timely manner. 

“What we need is an environmental management and review board or committee to ensure that the city follow through on every single complaint and possible code violation,” he said. 

Keilch said that he would like to build a wall around the entire facility as well as address the noise issue and will be taking steps to make improvements in that direction. 

But, he was less confident that he could reduce the number of vehicles stored at the site because city-owned space is limited. 

“There is a silver lining to all of this. We may have a better chance of getting the resources to do some of this stuff with Wood and the residents behind us.”

A 50-year-old city ordinance that restricts obscene dancing and lewd behavior at indoor entertainment events has been replaced with one that addresses more pressing concerns: police security and fire safety.  

The City Council Tuesday night approved an ordinance that regulates parties of more than 150 people held in buildings, such as residences, which are not certified to accommodate crowds. For events involving alcohol, the ordinance requires sponsors to notify the fire marshall and chief of police at least five days prior to the event, provide a fire safety checklist and hire an appropriate number of security guards. 

“This mainly affects people who want to sponsor parties of over 150 people in their home,” said Assistant City Attorney Zach Cowan, who helped write the ordinance. Such parties have resulted in incidences of property damage, minor fires and public disturbances, according to Cowan. The ordinance also applies to raves held in residences or other locations not approved for use as entertainment venues.  

Deputy Fire Chief Debra Pryor said raves have been increasing in popularity around the state. “We are concerned with the life safety and fire protection issues around these kinds of events,” Pryor said. The department is concerned that the buildings may become overcrowded and may not have adequate egress. 

“The fire department brought to our attention that there have been a number of parties that constituted a fire hazard and they haven’t had the explicit authority to shut them down,” said Cowan. The ordinance requires those responsible for the parties to give the fire department advance notice when such events are going to occur, and allows the department access to the space beforehand so they can review it for safety.  

“The ordinance gives us the ability to work with whoever is hosting an event so they can know our expectations, we can educate them about the necessary safety requirements, and we can hold them accountable if they don’t meet those standards,” said Pryor. 

The ordinance also sets guidelines for security, requiring that event sponsors provide security of up to one guard per 25 event-goers. According to Cowan, such requirements could mitigate occurrences like the riot and looting that ensued after a Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity party spun out of control Oct. 14. After the party overflowed from UC Berkeley’s Pauley Ballroom onto Telegraph Avenue, some 1,200 revelers took to the streets, smashing windows, looting shops, robbing pedestrians and inciting brawls. “If you have more security, you might have less drinking, more care to keep people from doing what they’re not supposed to do and for acting in an orderly manner,” observed Cowan. 

Rave DJ Omero Mendoza, who has been involved with the staging of numerous raves around the East Bay, expressed concern that the ordinance could make it more difficult to hold the dance parties. “Big promoters are used to dealing with the city,” said rave DJ Omero Mendoza. “But for smaller, underground parties the ordinance would change things. It could benefit the scene in that it would make it more safe for kids to have a good time and it would be better, if anything bad happened, for the police know about the event in advance.” But, he said, he worried police might keep the events from happening if they learned of them in advance. He also expressed concern that the costs of hiring additional security guards could make the cost of staging raves prohibitive. 

Asked if the ordinance would prevent some events from happening, Pryor said, “that is certainly not our intention. The intent of this ordinance is to ensure the safety of events, not to limit them.” 

The ordinance was pulled from the council calendar in May due to objections by the Associated Students of the University of California, which contended that it would restrict fraternity, sorority and co-op events. In response to the ASUC’s concerns, the ordinance was rewritten to allow large membership organizations to have private parties of up to 500 people without having to comply with the restrictions. “We certainly want to encourage young people to have parties and have fun,” said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “We just want to make sure it is done safely.” 

The ASUC has also called the ordinance’s recommended security standard of one guard for every 25 people “too harsh,” according to Andy Katz, director of the ASUC Commission on Student Life. “The ordinance would triple or quadruple the cost of having an event.”  

ASUC had recommended a ratio of one guard per 75 participants. The City Attorney’s Office has called this “inadequate,” referring to the events of the Kappa Alpha Psi party as proof of needing greater security. The ordinance, however, allows the police chief to approve a lower security presence.  

The Indoor Events Ordinance follows regulations the City Council enacted this summer governing outdoor events held in parks. Large outdoor parties had resulted in numerous problems with traffic blockages and neighborhood complaints about noise, particularly around the San Pablo and Codornices parks, according to Don Coykendall, Berkeley community services manager. The Park Events Ordinance requires gatherings of 50 or more people over the age of 12 to obtain permits for their events. It also allows the city to asses damages of up to $10,000 for parties that get out of control and to deny permits to people with a history of causing complaints.  

Following is a proclamation honoring environmentalist David Brower, approved by the City Council Nov. 21: 

Whereas great men are rare, and Berkeley’s native son David Brower was an indisputably great man; and 

Whereas David Ross Brower was born in Berkeley on July 1, 1912, and died here on November 5, 2000; and 

Whereas David Brower was a visionary environmentalist who changed the world in ways that will earn the gratitude of generations to come, pressing on all of us some essential lessons that we will ignore to our peril: that the Earth is our only home, and that the very survival of life on Earth depends on our learning to cherish it and to reverse and repair the damage we have inflicted on our beautiful home just in recent decades; and 

Whereas David Brower fought for the health and protection of the Earth for over half a century, serving as the first executive director of the Sierra Club for 17 years, during which time the club grew from 2,000 to over 77,000 members; and 

Whereas David Brower was a pioneering outdoorsman, climber, and skier, who made some 70 first ascents of significant American mountains, and as a wilderness guide led thousands of people into – and out of – remote regions; and 

Whereas David Brower had a profound impact on the protection of America’s wild lands, helping to create national parks and seashores in Kings Canyon, the North Cascades, the Redwoods, the Great Basin, Alaska, Cape Cod, Fire Island, the Golden Gate, and Point Reyes; and in protecting primeval forests in the Olympic National Park, and wilderness on San Gorgonio; and 

Whereas David Brower played a major role in keeping dams out of Dinosaur National Monument, the Yukon, and the Grand Canyon, in establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System and the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, and in developing plans for a National Land Service to protect and restore both public and private lands in the United States: and 

Whereas David Brower was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and played an essential role in raising environmental awareness worldwide, in part through his creation of the popular genre of exhibit format photographic books on conservation themes; and 

Whereas David Brower in 1969 co-founded the League of Conservation Voters and founded Friends of the Earth, an international environmental organization now operating in 68 countries, and in 1982 founded Earth Island Institute to link the causes of peace, social justice, and environmental protection, taking a leading role in opposing nuclear power, leading delegations to aid in the protection and restoration of Lake Baikal in Siberia, co-founding the Ecological Council of the Americas, and developing plans for the creation of a National Biosphere Reserve System; 

Now, therefore be it resolved that the City Council of Berkeley does hereby declare that July 1, the anniversary of his birth, will hereafter be David Brower Day in Berkeley and that the City will encourage activities to honor and perpetuate David Brower’s profound legacy to the Earth. 

In a dizzying turn of events, Florida’s largest county abruptly stopped recounting votes Wednesday, sending Al Gore’s lawyers scrambling back to court to keep a ballot-by-ballot fight for the White House grinding away. George W. Bush asked the Supreme Court to shut down all the recounts or risk a constitutional crisis. 

“I won the vote in Florida,” Bush said – a point that could hardly be more in dispute. He accused the Democrats of monkeying with laws to reverse the election’s “legitimate result.” 

Stretching into a third seesawing week, the presidential race reached new levels of unpredictability. 

Bush was temporarily reeling from a Florida Supreme Court ruling late Tuesday night that said manual recounts could continue until Sunday in the state that will determine America’s 43rd president. Bush is clinging to a 930-vote lead out of 6 million cast. 

Standing in front of a presidential-blue backdrop, the Texas governor accused the state Supreme Court of overreaching, and he had choice words for Democrats, too. “I believe Secretary Cheney and I won the vote in Florida. And I believe some are determined to keep counting in an effort to change the legitimate result,” he said. 

“If we were not witnessing, in effect, the stealing of a presidential election it would be laughable,” said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, whose district includes part of Miami-Dade County. 

Bush’s fortunes shifted with stunning speed. Within two hours of his news conference, a three-member elections board in predominantly Democratic Miami-Dade voted to scrap its recount. If the decision stands, Gore’s presidential dreams would rest with two other southeast coast counties – Palm Beach and Broward – where his advisers feared there were not enough votes to catch Bush. 

“We hope the counts continue,” said Gore campaign chairman, William Daley. 

Gore appealed the Miami-Dade decision, but a state appeals court refused Wednesday night to force a return to recount work. Democrats said they would appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. 

Seniors advisers said the vice president’s slimming prospects depended upon the two remaining counties broadening their standards for validating votes, no sure thing, or a court forces Miami-Dade to recount – also a longshot. 

Also in the day’s swirl of events: 

— Bush’s lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, accusing the state’s high court of allowing “selective, arbitrary and standardless” recounts. Without a decision by the high court, “the consequences may well include the ascension of a president of questionable legitimacy, or a constitutional crisis,” the appeal said. 

—Bush filed suit in a Florida court asking 13 counties with heavy military populations to count overseas ballots. Hundreds of ballots, many from military outposts, were rejected last week when Democratic lawyers urged country boards to scrutinize them. Both sides believe Bush lost more votes than Gore in the rejected ballots. 

—A Palm Beach County judge said officials must consider “dimpled chad” punchcard ballots — those that show an indentation but no perforation. However, Judge Jorge Labarga said elections officials can reject the questionable ballots after trying to determine the voters’ intent. Elections board chief Charles Burton said both sides will be able to make their case Friday, but on first glance he didn’t think the ruling would change the way his board has judged ballots, a bad sign for Gore who wants the county to loosen its standards. 

—Florida’s GOP-majority Legislature considered trying to select the state’s 25 electors and award the White House to the candidate of its choice, regardless of who wins the state’s popular-vote contest. “The Legislature may have to step in and select those electors,” the House GOP leader said. Bush’s team has held open this possibility as a last-ditch way of claiming the White House. 

—House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Republican leaders would be prepared to contest the outcome of Florida’s recount if it does not appear to be legitimate. Under the Constitution, members of the House and Senate can object to acceptance of electoral votes, subject to a vote of the entire Congress. 

Bush holds a 930-vote lead in Florida, not counting the results of manual recounts initiated by Gore in the three counties, where 1.7 million of the state’s 6 million ballots were cast. 

Gore had picked up 129 votes on the recounts, forcing Bush’s lead to 801. Gore would have cut much deeper into Bush’s total if Miami-Dade’s hand counts were added — 157 for Gore before counting was suspended. 

The board, one Democrat and two members who don’t list a party affiliation, cited the court’s Sunday deadline for its reversal. “It would be a minor feat and miracle for us to do it” by Sunday, said canvassing board chairman Lawrence King. 

The turnabout followed a raucous morning at the vote-counting center. Well-organized Republicans protested the board’s decision Tuesday to turn its attention exclusively to an estimated 10,000 ballots that were not punched through cleanly on Election Day. 

In a scene carried on national TV, security officers jostled with protesters outside the counting room. “Cheaters! Let us in!” the demonstrators yelled. 

Both sides believed those 10,000 ballots would boost Gore’s totals, and possibly allow him to overtake Bush. Republicans cried foul, saying GOP precincts — and potential Bush gains — would be ignored. 

After the vote to stop counting, Florida GOP chairman Al Cardenas said, “Finally, we’re getting some semblance of the rule of law here.” 

Democrats blamed the protests for the board’s about-face, saying the three board members were rattled by the events and lurched to an ill-advised decision. 

Bush, meanwhile, criticized the recount process and the Supreme Court justices, all seven of whom were appointed by Democrats. 

“Voters who clearly punched preferences in other races on the ballot but did not do so in the presidential race should not have their votes interpreted by local officials in a process that invited human error and mischief,” he said. 

“Make no mistake, the court rewrote the laws,” Bush said. “It changed the rules and did so after the election was over.” 

He said the ruling invites political “mischief” in vote-counting rooms, where Republicans believed the race was slipping away until Miami-Dade reversed itself. 

Bush gave his top lawyer, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, authority to file the Supreme Court brief after several meetings that culminated Wednesday afternoon. Some advisers had worried about the political implications of raising the state dispute to the nation’s highest court, but the campaign felt the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling left Bush little wiggle room. 

Though Gore was dealt a setback by Miami-Dade County officials, the Bush forces were concerned the Democrats would win on appeal to a friendly judge — and the recounts would pick up speed again. Even without Miami-Dade in the mix, Bush’s vote counters said Gore could overtake them, which would make the rejected overseas ballots a critical factor. 

The recounting continued in Broward County, where Gore had gained 137 votes thus far. County election officials planned to work Thanksgiving Day to meet the Sunday deadline. 

In just one-fifth of Palm Beach’s precincts, Democrats believe they would gain about 300 votes on Bush if the standard was lowered. Their best estimates suggest an additional 400 votes could get picked up in Broward. 

Miami-Dade was supposed to be Gore’s treasure-trove, where Democrats predicted he could pick up 500 votes and some Republicans feared the number could climb to 1,000. Without the state’s most populous county, Gore’s chances of overtaking Bush were slim, several senior advisers said. 

Still outstanding were hundreds of overseas absentee ballots challenged successfully by Democrats. An unknown number of ballots from military outposts were tossed out, drawing criticism to the Gore camp from Republicans and the Clinton administration’s own defense secretary, former Republican Sen. William Cohen. 

Gore running mate Joseph Lieberman appeared to back away from the controversy Sunday, saying county officials should “take another look” at the ballots. But with the race so close, Democrats were in a fighting mood again Wednesday. 

LOS ANGELES — The foreman of the jury that convicted the first three officers to go to trial in the city’s police corruption scandal told a judge Wednesday that he did not engage in misconduct that could void the verdict. 

An alternate juror claimed that foreman Victor Flores told her and another alternate before testimony in the trial that he already thought the officers were guilty. 

California Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor ordered the special hearing to determine whether the jury improperly discussed the case. 

Flores confirmed he had lunch with the alternate jurors, but denied he made remarks about the case and said he kept an open mind throughout the trial, reaching a verdict only during deliberations. 

He said they talked about their food and what each one did for a living. 

The alternate juror, who has been identified as Wendy L. Christiansen, 30, did not testify Wednesday. She has said that other jurors repeatedly expressed negative opinions about the defendants and their attorneys. 

Jurors are forbidden to talk about cases until they are ordered to deliberate, and then only during deliberations. 

Connor said she could not determine who was telling the truth in the conflicting testimony of Flores and Christiansen. She had not been able to contact the third juror present at the lunch. 

The judge said she would continue trying to reach the third juror, and set another hearing on the matter for Dec. 15. 

Defense attorneys maintained that the convictions must be overturned if the other alternate confirms Christiansen’s account. 

On Nov. 15, the jury convicted Sgt. Brian Liddy, Sgt. Edward Ortiz and Officer Michael Buchanan of conspiracy to obstruct justice and other crimes involving the framing of gang members. Officer Paul Harper was acquitted of all charges. 

The trial was the first stemming from allegations of corruption in an anti-gang unit at the Police Department’s Rampart station. More than 100 criminal convictions tainted by the allegations have been dismissed and nearly $30 million in settlements have been reached. Estimates suggest it could cost the city as much as $125 million. 

During the Wednesday hearing, defense attorney Barry Levin also questioned whether the jury was confused by a police report they later determined was fabricated. 

The report alleged that two gang members intentionally struck Liddy and Buchanan with a pickup truck. The gang members, Levin said, were charged with attempting to inflict bodily injury. 

Defense team interviews with jurors indicated they thought the officers, who were not hurt, tried to charge the gang members with inflicting actual injuries. 

Connor said she found that claim “troubling” and urged the defense team to provide more details at the next hearing. 

SACRAMENTO — The state’s top election official on Wednesday proposed several election-system changes, including a proposal to give counties $230 million for better voting technology. 

Secretary of State Bill Jones said that while no major problems were evident in California’s election, Florida’s ongoing recount of votes for president shows the need for a strong set of election procedures. 

“Think of the thousands, and thousands, and thousands of elections in California where nobody has said a word. We have a good system, but it can get better,” Jones said. The $230 million package is less than the $300 million proposed Tuesday by Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg. 

The money would likely buy touch-screen computers that voters can use to cast a ballot electronically. 

Proponents of the computers point out the computers are not networked and have a smaller chance of being struck by viruses or hackers. 

Touch-screen computers were used in early voting programs in eight counties during the November election. 

Those counties were San Mateo, Marin, Trinity, Tulare, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Alameda and Monterey. Riverside County used the computers on Election Day in every precinct. Alameda County Registrar of Voters Brad Clark said some counties are still using 50-year-old technology because little state money is available for upgrades. 

“When it is the choice between a new voting system that may only be used once every so many years and the police force– you understand the problem,” Clark said. 

Jones acknowledged that the $230 million upgrade would not solve technology problems, since one touch-screen computer can cost more than $2,000. Increased use of the computers and competition between suppliers could help bring down the price, he said. 

Jones also proposed that already existing guidelines used for recounts in all counties be adopted into law. That would also avoid legal problems like the ones surfacing in Florida, he said. 

Other proposed changes include: 

— Notifying voters if their absentee ballots are rejected; 

— Laws requiring voters to present identification at the polls; 

— Improving the process by which voters’ registration forms collected at the Department of Motor Vehicles; 

— $10 million for voter education projects highlighting registration deadlines and the voting process; and 

— A technology fair where vendors can show cutting-edge technologies to voters. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Secretary of State: http://www.ss.ca.gov 

SACRAMENTO — Political reform advocates who say Proposition 34’s campaign contribution limits are too weak are considering going to the ballot in 2002 or 2004 to try to strengthen the voter-approved measure. 

“Clearly we lost the battle, but we did not lose the war,” said Tony Miller, a former acting secretary of state and a leading opponent of the proposition. 

“We do need to need to lower the limits and we do need to close the loopholes. The timing of that is uncertain at the moment.” 

Proposition 34, placed on the ballot by the Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis, limits the size of donations to state candidates. It also allows candidates who accept voluntary spending limits to buy space for their statements in voters’ ballot pamphlets. 

The proposal got 60 percent of the vote on Nov. 7, despite opposition from groups like California Common Cause and the League of Women Voters. 

They complained that the candidate donation limits in 34 were too high, that the measure would allow unlimited “soft money” contributions to political parties and that it would supersede tougher limits in a ballot measure approved by voters in 1996. 

Proposition 34 puts a limit of $3,000 per election on donations to legislative candidates from most sources. Most contributors will be able to give up to $20,000 per election to candidates for governor and up to $5,000 per election to candidates for other statewide offices. 

Small contributor committees – groups of at least 100 people who chip in no more than $200 a year – can give twice those amounts to legislative candidates and statewide candidates who are not running for governor. 

The limits will be adjusted every two years for inflation. 

There are no limits on how much political parties can give to candidates. 

Contributors can give up to $25,000 a year to a political party to support candidates, but there are no restrictions on how much parties can take in “soft money” for voter registration, get-out-the-vote and other efforts that do not involve contributions to candidates. 

The limits take effect Jan. 1 for legislative candidates and after the 2002 elections for statewide contenders. 

There are no limits now except in races to fill midterm legislative vacancies, and critics say that gives too much clout to big contributors. Efforts to impose broader limits have been rejected by the Legislature or voters, vetoed by the governor or struck down by the courts. 

The tougher contribution limits in Proposition 208, approved by voters in 1996, were blocked by a federal court judge who said the donation caps were too low to allow typical candidates to communicate with voters. 

Passage of 34 assured that courts would not revive 208’s limits. 

Miller said the initiative being contemplated would lower the limits in Proposition 34 but probably not to the level in 208, which allowed donations of up to $500 to legislative candidates and as much as $1,000 to statewide candidates from most sources. 

The ballot measure would also bar 34’s unlimited soft-money donations to political parties, Miller said. 

The reform advocates are tentatively planning to meet in January to start talking about strategy and how to raise the $700,000 to $1 million needed to get enough voter signatures to put an initiative on the ballot in 2002 or 2004, Miller said. 

“There is a consensus that there is a need to fix the problems that were created by Proposition 34,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when something goes on the ballot.” 

But one of Miller’s allies, Trudy Schafer, program director for the League of Women Voters of California, said the league is still considering its options. 

“It takes a lot of grass-roots efforts to run an initiative campaign,” she said Wednesday. “We do not have big pockets of money. We can’t ask people around the state to work hard on something until we’re reasonably sure that it has the prospect of being the right answer and being successful.” 

Jim Knox, executive director of California Common Cause, said 34’s critics might be able to get some changes in the measure by going to court or lobbying the Legislature. But he said another ballot measure is inevitable at some point. 

“I think it’s clear that 34 is not going to be the resolution of campaign finance reform in California,” he said. 

————— 

On the Web: Read Proposition 34 at www.ss.ca.gov. 

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson proposed tighter price controls Wednesday on the California electricity market, to help combat skyrocketing rates that have plagued the San Diego area since summer. 

He urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap wholesale prices at the cost to generators for the next two years. This would contrast the current open bidding that fluctuates under a state-ordered cap of $250 per megawatt hour. 

Richardson also called for a broader investigation of pricing during recent months, to determine whether utilities cheated customers over the summer. FERC found no evidence of price fixing, after investigating from late August to November. 

“I am very concerned that California’s electricity markets continue to operate in a dysfunctional manner,” he said. 

Richardson’s nine pages of written comments to FERC are among many the agency will consider in trying to fix electricity prices that doubled and tripled for San Diego customers during the summer. Although FERC set a Wednesday deadline for comments, commissioners extended the date for their final order in the case to mid-December, giving Gov. Gray Davis a chance to submit a detailed proposal by Dec. 1. 

Richardson stopped short of urging refunds. But he appeared to side with California regulators, who have called for strict wholesale price controls and who believe FERC has the authority to order refunds. 

Later Wednesday, San Diego Gas and Electric Co. asked FERC to order refunds to customers and implement cost controls. SDG&E asked FERC to forego the idea of imposing a $150 per megawatt-hour cap on rates and instead proposed wholesale caps based on the actual cost of electricity to the generators. 

The state Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday said FERC has failed to intervene decisively in California’s electricity market. The PUC estimated there were $4 billion in excess wholesale electricity charges through the summer. 

Richardson’s comments come in response to FERC ruling Nov. 1 that prices were “unjust and unreasonable,” setting the stage for a federal order to help remedy the problems. Agency proposals include: 

• Creating a “soft cap” for auctions on electricity of $150 per megawatt hour. Prices below that figure would be accepted as usual, but companies bidding above that rate would have to file paperwork with FERC defending the higher price. 

• Requiring utility suppliers to buy 95 percent of their electricity from generators more than a day in advance, to blunt high costs. FERC would impose a fee of $100 per megawatt hour if a utility disobeyed. 

• Offering the prospect of refunds for exorbitant power costs between October 2000 to Dec. 31, 2002. 

Davis is pushing for refunds for summer costs, which FERC commissioners say they don’t have the authority to order. 

Richardson offered to mediate between Davis and FERC. Richardson agreed that FERC has no authority to order retroactive refunds. 

“It is time for the finger pointing to stop and for all of the parties to work together to put in place corrective measures as quickly as possible in order to ensure competitive markets,” Richardson said. 

Richardson said his auction proposal would result in lower prices than FERC’s “soft cap.” He said the Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid and coordinates distribution of about 80 percent of the electricity statewide, should audit generators to determine their costs. 

He argued that his plan would lower rates better than the $150 soft cap, which he said “may not establish sufficient price discipline on the market until new capacity is added.” 

“The department urges the commission to consider, as an alternative, a cap on bids from existing generators,” Richardson said. 

San Diego Gas and Electric Co., with 1.2 million customers, was the first to complete the transition to deregulation under a 1996 law.  

But as the cost of wholesale electricity climbed sharply over the summer because of inadequate supply and hot weather, the utility passed the costs along to customers. 

The state’s two largest power utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co., face a similar situation when they complete the transition to deregulation, perhaps as early as next year. 

Both utilities have filed suit in federal court seeking to recoup their losses, estimated at more than $5 billion between them. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.ferc.fed.us/electric/bulkpower.htm 

I know from personal experience that burglars and vandals have a field day when they come across an exterior door unprotected by a dead bolt.  

Even a door equipped with a high-quality lockset is an easy target because the latch might not extend far enough into the door frame to withstand a sharp kick.  

A well-placed boot will tear the strike plate loose and splinter the jamb, providing easy access to a house. Installing a dead bolt in addition to the lockset you already have solves the problem. 

When you buy a lock, don’t look for bargains. There might not appear to be differences between a $6 dead bolt and a $16 model.  

But there are. Stick with a name brand. I’ve had good luck with Baldwin and Schlage hardware. If you’re willing to spend an extra $10, you’ll get a dead bolt three times as strong as the economy model.  

Whichever brand you choose, look for a hardened-steel bolt that extends at least an inch into the doorjamb. 

For doors that contain glass or entries with sidelights, I stay away from locks with a thumb latch on the inside. A burglar can break the glass and unlock the door. 

For these cases, a dead bolt with a key inside and outside is my favorite, but this choice is controversial because it makes it harder to get the door open in a hurry.  

That is a concern in case of a fire, especially if you have young kids. In these cases, it’s a good idea to keep a key near the door but out of sight and reach of someone on the outside.  

Some building codes require that at least one entry have a thumb-turn latch on the inside. Bottom line: Check your local building code before deciding on which type to install. 

Even a top-quality dead bolt is only as good as the weak link in the chain, and that’s the doorjamb.  

Some manufacturers reinforce the bolt with a steel pocket that is mounted in the jamb behind the strike plate. I like to go one step further.  

When we install dead bolts, we add an extra piece of steel strapping to make sure the bolt won’t blow out the back of the jamb if it is kicked. We take off the door casing and install the strapping on the inside edge of the jamb, right behind the strike plate. 

Use 2-inch screws, and rout a small hollow in the back of the casing to accommodate the strapping.  

We use flat stock about3/4 -inch wide x1/8- inch thick x 6-to-8 inches long for the strapping; it’s usually available at hardware stores and home centers. Another tip: When installing the strike plate for the dead bolt, use 3-inch screws. These are long enough to penetrate the trimmer stud an inch.  

And while the casing is off, fill the void between the framing and the jamb with solid material. You’ll get a strong, worry-free connection that frustrates potential burglars while you sleep soundly.

For gardeners, Thanksgiving is a special holiday, a time to celebrate the harvest and put it on the table, just as the Pilgrims did hundreds of years ago. Most gardeners today grow some form of the traditional fare of corn, beans, or squash. But do you know anyone who grows cranberries? 

Even in areas of the country where cranberry is native, it’s found only in special habitats, where the soil is very acidic and boggy. If you did not want to re-create these conditions, you could still grow cranberries – one of the many other plants that have this name, even if they are not the real Thanksgiving cranberry. 

Easiest to grow would be highbush cranberry, similar to the Thanksgiving cranberry only in that both plants bear tart, red berries. Our Thanksgiving cranberry is a low, sprawling, evergreen shrub; highbush cranberry is a deciduous shrub growing 10 feet high. And highbush cranberry requires no special soil conditions. 

You can appreciate highbush cranberry well before Thanksgiving arrives and long after it passes. In spring, the plant is awash with clusters of white flowers, which are transformed by late summer into drooping umbels of bright, red berries. In autumn, leaves of this plant turn fiery shades of yellow and red. 

Once the seeds are removed, the berries cook into a glistening red jelly. Two cautions are worth mentioning, though. First, do not be put off by the awful smell of cooking highbush cranberries. The finished jelly should not retain any of that aroma. (And it is absent from berries harvested fully plump.) Second, do not confuse highbush cranberry with its look-alike, European cranberrybush.  

Fruits of the latter species taste horrible. 

If you want to grow something botanically closer to the true Thanksgiving cranberry, consider lingonberry, also known as mountain cranberry, cowberry, or foxberry. 

Fruits of this creeping, evergreen shrub are similar to those of the Thanksgiving cranberry, but a bit sweeter. Lingonberry is native to the northern rim of the Old World and Asia, enjoyed with sauteed reindeer in Finland, raw in Korea, and made into wine and pickles in Japan. To give lingonberry plants the cool summer weather they enjoy, plant them on a northern slope or in part shade.  

They need an acidic soil that is rich in humus, but a bog is not necessary. 

Lingonberry’s compact stems, densely clothed in what resemble miniature holly leaves, provide a perfect backdrop for the bright, red berries. 

Plants of the heath family – azalea, rhododendron, mountain laurel, blueberry, heather and heath – grow wild in the soils having the unique combination of being very acidic, rich in humus yet infertile and moist and well-aerated.  

You can grow these plants if you pay attention to their rather exacting soil requirements. 

First, test soil acidity either with a home test kit or by taking a sample to your Cooperative Extension office.  

Heath plants require a soil pH between 4.5 and 5.5.  

In very alkaline soils, where it may not be feasible to lower the pH and keep it there, replace the soil from a hole 18 inches deep and 2 feet or more in diameter with a mix of equal parts sand and acidic peat moss.  

Otherwise, just acidify existing soil with powdered sulfur, per soil test recommendations, spreading the material as far as the eventual spread of the roots. 

Supply humus by mixing a bucktful of acid peat moss or composted sawdust right into the planting hole. Peat moss and sawdust decompose slowly in the soil so their benefits are long-lived. 

With the soil prepared, open up a hole wide and deep enough to accommodate the plant’s root ball.  

Slide the plant out of its container and set it in the planting hole on a mound of soil so it is at the same level as it was in the pot.  

Backfill the soil, then give the ground a thorough soaking. 

An organic mulch, such as leaves, pine needles, straw, wood chips or sawdust, will provide the cool, moist conditions enjoyed by plants in the heath family.  

And as these mulches decompose, they will further enrich the soil with humus. 

Avoid manure as a mulch, though. It is too concentrated in nutrients for the delicate roots of these plants. 

Lay 3 to 6 inches of mulch on top of the ground. As with the sulfur, spread the mulch as wide as the eventual spread of the plant. 

Mulch is especially important following autumn planting. Mulch lessens alternate freezing and thawing of the soil so a young plant, as yet poorly anchored in the soil, is less likely to be heaved up and out of the ground during the winter.  

Mulch also delays freezing of the soil in autumn, so the plant can grow as many roots as possible before the first breath of spring brings on growth of new shoots.

The one thing you always seem to need more of is storage. 

If you have one or more closets each with only a single pole, you can hold off on adding space; you can, in fact, make the best of what you have by organizing your closet to maximize storage. Storage alternatives abound. 

We can’t believe how many different companies make shelving packages out of everything from wire to melamine-covered high-density particleboard planks. The folks that sell wire shelving boast “ease-of-installation” and lightweight construction that “breathes.” We tend to like solid shelving because it is sturdier. 

Our natural tendency as modern American home dwellers is to use that good old standby, “the single pole closet system,” to do the job of shelves, cabinets, drawers and hooks. We forget that wasted space usually results. The first and most important part of improving storage is to determine what needs storing. Ten dresses, two skirts and eight sweaters store differently than 12 pairs of shoes, six jackets and 11 pairs of pants. Make a list of what you need to store and estimate approximately how much space each item will require. Shirts take up less height than overcoats or dresses, and sweaters do better on shelves than hangers. 

Measure out how many linear feet of half-height hanging space you’ll need. Hang all of your half-height clothing and measure from one end to the other. Do the same with clothing that normally hangs full-height. Some prefer to hang trousers by the cuffs; others hang them folded in half. 

Consider clothing that is being dry cleaned or laundered. And, leave a little space for wardrobe growth. If you can organize shelving so that the shelves fit your laundering habits, you will be happier with the result. 

In areas where two poles are used, only one shelf will fit above. Thirty-four inches to 38 inches will be needed for half-height hangings. Tall folks will need a bit more space. Where single-poles exist, two shelves above will easily fit. 

Sweater shelves should be designed to a familiar width. However, the space between – which will range from 16 inches to 24 inches – should be fully adjustable. This way you can adjust as your wardrobe changes. 

Think carefully about the addition of drawers. For example: gloves, jewelry and scarves can be stored in very shallow drawers. Belts, socks, stockings and lingerie will need a slightly deeper drawer and men’s underwear, sleepwear, exercise clothing and the like will require an even deeper one. Gauge drawer height by what will be stored within. Optimizing space is achieved by minimizing wasted space. A pair of gloves in a 6-inch-deep drawer wastes 51/2 inches. 

Just about every closet system company offers a planning guide or technical assistance. Some provide computer drawings and a number-matched parts list.  

However, expect to pay more for this feature. Although the big box stores offer an endless selection of precut alternatives, we like the custom shops that will personally cut all parts to exactly match your design. Remember what we said about folding sweaters? Custom cutting is where the shelves are sized to your specifications. 

If you have a table saw you can have the best of both worlds. You can purchase a precut kit and then refabricate it to meet your specific needs.  

Wire shelves aren’t as strong as solid shelving, but are easy to install. Special hangers are used against the rear wall, with a different bracket used at end walls. With brackets in place all you have to do is snip the shelf to the desired length and lay it in place. Gravity does the rest. 

Wire shelving also allows clothes to be viewed from all six sides. Not a bad feature if your memory is as bad as ours. 

Whatever options you choose, carefully planning closet storage can double usable storage space. 

Grungy tile grout is considered by many people to be the scourge of mankind. It is ugly and a pain in the neck to clean. And, recent studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that certain types of mold can negatively affect one’s health. 

Appearance aside, tile grout serves an important purpose. It is a tiled surface’s first line of defense against infiltration by water. It’s the whole reason you installed tile in the first place – to protect the structural elements of your home from water damage. Although grout is only one part of the big picture, its job is important. Cracks and gaps in grout are a sure sign that water is doing its one-two punch on the substrata, which can be a real knockout on the pocketbook when it comes time to make repairs. 

While grout helps prevent water damage, it is not the only source of waterproofing. A top quality tile installation will consist of a layer of straight and solid framing, a layer of building paper, a layer of mortar (we prefer floated mortar although precast mortar board is acceptable for a do-it-yourself installation), and finally the tile, grout and sealer. Therefore, if the tile or grout should ever develop hairline cracks (often not visible with the naked eye) there is a layer of protection below that will prevent damage. It is for this reason that we are strongly opposed to tile installed directly on wallboard — even if it is classified as “water-resistant.” A shower constructed of tile glued directly to wallboard is, at best, a repair contractor’s dream come true and, at worst, planned obsolescence. 

Don’t be a victim. Take control and you’ll be money ahead. Start by keeping your grout clean. One of the safest means of doing this is to use a solution that consists of one part distilled vinegar and one part water. Mix the two in a bucket and apply with a small brass brush or a toothbrush. The vinegar is a safe mild acid that will break down hard water deposits. For stubborn areas, spray the walls with vinegar and then cover the area with plastic wrap to keep it moist. This might be tedious work for a long-neglected shower, but well worthwhile. 

If vinegar doesn’t do the trick, try using hydrogen peroxide (the same stuff used on cuts). Here again, a bit of scrubbing will help cut the grease. If mildew is the problem, use the following solution: one-third cup of powdered laundry detergent, one quart of liquid chlorine bleach and three quarts of warm water. Add the bleach to the water first, then the detergent, and mix thoroughly. Even though the solution is mild, wear rubber gloves, safety goggles and have plenty of ventilation. For large areas, put the solution in a spray bottle and spray it onto the surface. Allow it to sit until the black mildew stains turn white (usually 5 to 15 minutes), but don’t allow it to dry. Rinse with fresh water, dry and seal with a high-quality acrylic or silicone tile and grout sealer. 

Once clean, if cracks are obvious or the grout is stained, discolored or just plain ugly, it’s time to regrout. This process involves removing a small amount of the uppermost layer of grout and replacing it with a fresh new layer. Both appearance and waterproofing are improved. 

When we first wrote on this subject over a decade ago, we recommended that a beer can opener be used to scrape away the upper layer of grout. Those were the days when it was easier to use our backs than our heads. Some years later we discovered a nifty tool called a grout saw – a small hand tool about the size of a toothbrush that consists of a handle attached to a small flat piece of steel covered with carbide particles. It is much more effective than the can opener and requires far less elbow grease. Now, thanks to modern technology, there is a lazy man’s alternative – a power tool. A grout removal tool can be attached to a rotary tool to remove grout as effectively as your dentist grinds old fillings out of your teeth. Just be careful not to grind the edges of the tile. Once the upper crust has been removed – usually about an eighth of an inch, vacuum away all the dust and rinse with fresh water. Next, mix up a batch of new grout to a consistency of cake icing and apply it using a rubber grout float. Hold the float at about a 45-degree angle to the tile and, working in a diagonal direction to the tile, force the grout into the joints. Excess grout should be wiped off or “struck,” using a damp sponge and fresh water. Wring the sponge out frequently to keep the tile clean and free of wayward grout. In short order, the grout will begin to dry and a haze will develop on the tile. This haze can be polished away with a piece of cheesecloth. 

The final step – sealing the grout and tile – can’t be performed for about a week – until the grout has had time to cure and dry. Use a high quality tile and grout sealer. We like one with a silicone resin. 

Epoxy is the best and should be used for added water resistance where tile is glued directly to wallboard or where extra stain resistance is needed, such as with kitchen counters.

Painting woodwork can be a relaxing hobby.  

For things like quick touchups, use a small, inexpensive foam brush. Avoid the wide foam brushes because they tend to drip when loaded with paint. 

Consider brush shape when you’re buying your supplies. A sash brush with its bristles cut at an angle is designed for painting thin areas and getting into hard-to-reach corners. It’s your best choice for cutting in (painting up to a line) and painting windows. A square cut brush is best for painting door panels or wide trim. Brushes with a long pencil-style handle give you a good grip and provide balance. 

You should own at least three brushes: a 1-inch and a 21/2-inch sash brush and a 21/2-inch straight brush. Buy the best brushes you can afford. Properly cared for, they will last indefinitely. 

You can use a paint roller to work wide sections, such as flat doors. Use a roller with a nap length recommended on the paint can. 

Open paint cans by prying around the lid with a wide-tip screwdriver. Pour the paint into a paint pail or a clean paint can and stir it to make sure it’s evenly mixed.  

You can pour some of the paint back into the paint can and work out of that, or work out of the pail. If you use the can, don’t fill it back up right to the rim. It’s a messy and inefficient way to work. Also, puncture the lid of the can in several places using a 4d finish nail to help drain the paint back into the can. 

In preparing the woodwork, keep in mind that paint sticks better to a dull surface. One way to remove its gloss is with a chemical solvent deglosser. Rub on the deglosser with a clean rag. This is strong stuff, so allow plenty of ventilation. 

You can also use 120-grit sandpaper with a sanding block or an electric palm sander to dull a surface or smooth out chipped areas. Feather rough areas smooth. 

Remove several layers of deteriorating paint with heat guns or chemical strippers. Your paint store should have a variety of these strippers, among them low odor and water-soluble types. Stripping is a messy job, so protect the floor and surroundings with a dropcloth. Wear old clothes and protective glasses. 

Let the gun heat up and hold it about a foot from the paint. When the finish bubbles up, scrape it away with a paint scraper. Move the gun slowly forward, and you can keep the paint hot without burning it. Keep a fire extinguisher handy when using a heat gun, and never set it down on a flammable surface. 

Apply chemical strippers with an old paintbrush. When bubbles appear, use a scraper and steel wool to remove it. Clean off the residue on the scraper using the sides of a sturdy cardboard box.  

A second application is often required. Let the surface dry, then sand lightly. 

Most trim has some cracks and holes in it that should be filled with spackle or wood filler before applying paint. Spackle, premixed or 2-part fillers are applied with a small putty knife. Just overfill the hole or crack, smooth the filler and let it dry. Sand the filler flush, and it’s ready for paint. You might have to use two coats on large repairs as some fillers shrink. 

By John Angell Grant 

Special to the Daily Planet 

At age 27, Irish playwright Conor McPherson burst into the limelight in 1997 with his play “The Weir” that brought raves from critics and ran for two years in London’s West End theater district, winning the prestigious Olivier Award. A Broadway production followed in 1999. 

In something of a local theatrical coup, Berkeley’s skillful Aurora Theater Company has landed the rights to the Bay Area premiere of this play, opening a strong local production last week in the company’s intimate performing space in the Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club. 

“The Weir” is a bar play in which a handful of characters sit around a small rural pub gabbing and gossiping, until the topic turns to ghost stories.  

Then four of the five tell stories of personal encounters with the frightening supernatural. 

Hanging out after work in scenic designer Chad William Owens’ warm, wonderful, cheery small-town rural bar set, initially the male barflies buy rounds and trade blarney about horse racing, money, liquor, women, small town gossip and backbiting, and local history. 

There is portly gabby Jack (W. Francis Walters) who owns the local auto repair shop, simple Jim (Charles Shaw Robinson) who does handyman work around town, and wary young barkeep Brendan (Allen McKelvey). 

These men are bachelors who socialize mostly with men.  

They are concerned with prices that local real estate is fetching as the town threatens to gentrify, and with outside money that will be coming in from visiting Germans during a tourist season that starts in a couple of weeks. 

The three are especially interested in a young woman (Emily Ackerman) from the city who has acquired a house in the village, and the sleazy local realtor/hotelier (Julian Lopez-Morillas) who arranged the deal. 

When the two arrive at the pub, the conversation shifts almost magically into a telling of local fairy tales and ghost stories.  

The tone of the play changes as characters in turn share personal accounts of supernatural phenomena. 

These personal accounts are in the vein of “something on the stairs” in a quiet isolated house on a dark, cold night.  

The stories include unexplained knockings on the walls, mysterious deaths, grave digging and conversations with the dead. 

With the telling of these supernatural experiences, each person seems to be suddenly communicating a fear or need in their lives, from a time when something indefinable happened. Their abilities to understand these experiences are just out of reach. It makes for a magical story. 

In this world of Irish bachelors chatting with a young woman, the supernatural stories also may be a compensation for the unbalanced and incomplete connections between women and men. 

The weir, referred to briefly in one of the fairy stories, is a dam that was built in recent memory to create and regulate the town’s water power. 

Director Tom Ross’ wonderful production has many nice touches. 

Occasionally the play’s characters get excited, for example, and all talk at once – just like a real bar full of enthusiastic drinkers. 

The cast is excellent. Aurora, is a little theater gem sitting right in the middle of Berkeley.  

McPherson graduated from University College, Dublin, in 1991 with a degree in philosophy. For two years he taught ethics and moral philosophy, while writing plays in his spare time. He is currently writing a film for Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks, tentatively titled “The Actors.”  

“The Weir” is a lovely and mysterious play about lost and found dreams. 

It reaches out to try and grasp the spiritual and mystical needs of human beings that extend beyond the concrete moments of their everyday social interactions. 

Muses barfly Jack, thoughtfully, near the end of the play as they close up the pub, “We’ll all be ghosts soon enough.” 

“The Weir,” presented by Aurora Theater Company at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Wednesday through Sunday, through Dec. 17. Call (510) 843-4822, or visit www.auroratheatre.org.

Those who work and know her are saying if anyone can promote civil discourse on Berkeley’s City Council, it’s District 5 Councilmember elect Miriam “Mim” Hawley.  

Having morning coffee in a popular District 5 cafe, Hawley said she is concerned about the expectation that she will be able to create civil discourse on Berkeley’s sometimes contentious City Council. She said if she doesn’t have a mellowing effect on the council her election might be considered a failure.  

Co-workers and friends said she has a reputation for being level headed and fair minded and her presence on the council can only help.  

“She will bring an open mind to issues” said Anne Henderson, who has worked with Hawley at the League of Women Voters. “She really listens to people and after debates and disagreements people come away feeling as though they’ve at least been listened to and that’s important.” 

The only new addition to the council, Hawley faced four other candidates in the Nov. 7 election and took her district with 57 percent of the vote. She is considered a moderate and will be replacing Diane Woolley, a moderate who did not run for re-election. 

“District 5 is a moderate district and I will be a good representative,” Hawley said. “But I intend to work with each member of the council and vote issue by issue.”  

Hawley moved to Berkeley from Iowa in 1957 with her husband, Robert. They soon purchased a home on Hopkins Street where they continue to live. They had four children and while Hawley was primarily a stay-at-home mom she slowly worked toward her masters degree in history at San Francisco State University, which she received in 1972. 

Hawley worked part time, teaching a variety of university extension courses over a few years. Then at age 47 she plunged back into the work force by taking a job with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in Oakland. 

She worked on a five-year project that culminated in the publication “BART and the Bay Area,” of which she was the principal author. The publication was a wide-ranging document that studied regional effects BART had on travel and commute patterns, environmental impacts and development. 

“It was a very interesting five years, I learned a lot about BART and transportation,” Hawley said. 

She then worked as a transportation consultant for several years and at 59 considered retirement. “My life is a story of retiring and then changing my mind,” she said. 

Instead of retiring, Hawley just made a career change. She began working for the Contra Costa Suicide Intervention Service as a public relations representative.  

Three years later she did retire, or seemingly so. 

She became involved with the League of Women Voters and by 1993 became the president of the Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville chapter.  

In 1996 at the age of 68, Hawley ran for public office for the first time. She was elected to the AC Transit Board as a director. She will continue to serve at that post through Dec. 1. 

Now at 72, Hawley has just been elected to the Berkeley City Council and said with a smile that she doesn’t want to make any predictions about when she will retire next. 

Hawley said one of the issues she will be concerned with is traffic and parking. She said Berkeley needs a strategic parking plan and should first determine the best use of its existing garages before creating new parking. She added it’s important to have as much short-term parking as possible for shoppers.  

She is also concerned with development. South Berkeley is in need of revitalization that should include housing as well as shopping areas, she said. 

As an AC Transit director, Hawley worked on the 376 bus line in north Richmond. The bus line was designed to complement the welfare to work program in the mid 1990s which anticipated a greater need for access to job locations, education and medical facilities and shopping areas. 

She also worked with the City Council to develop the Class Pass Program, which allows all UC Berkeley students to ride AC Transit without cost, having paid a nominal fee as part of their registration fees. Some 22,000 students have taken advantage of the class pass, she said. 

Both moderate and progressive councilmembers say they are looking forward to Hawley’s arrival on board. Mayor Shirley Dean, who has worked with Hawley on transportation issues, said she expects her new council colleague to be a reasonable voice on the council. “She’s a very hard worker and a sensible individual who wants to get something accomplished,” she said. 

Progressive Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has known and worked with Hawley for 10 years, said he has a great deal of respect for her and expects she will have a calming effect on the council. “She will attempt to be a bridge builder and that will be a dramatic improvement,” he said.

Wednesday, Nov. 22

Tai Chi Chuen with Henry  

Chang 

2 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne,  

644-6107 

Disaster Council Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences to strengthen the marriage.  

$360 per couple  

Call 704-7475 

Friday, Nov. 24

“Yoga Poems”  

7:30 p.m. 

Piedmont Yoga Studio 

4125 Piedmont Ave. 

Piedmont 

Leza Lowitz will read from her new book, which contains over 60 poems inspired by different yoga poses, and do a yoga performance. Free. 

Call Miki, 558-7826 

Saturday, Nov. 25

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612 

Create the City of Your  

Fantasies 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whymsium  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening features DJ’d “Candlelight Massage Circles Salon.”  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Children’s Benefit Concert 

11 a.m. - Noon 

College Ave. Presbyterian Church  

5951 College Ave.  

Oakland  

A concert to benefit Lillian Wamalwa, who would like to go to Kenya to help her sister, who has AIDS, and her four children.  

$6 suggested donation 

Call 925-376-3543 

Papersong Grand Opening Celebration 

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Swan’s Marketplace 

936B Clay St.  

Oakland 

Featuring free musical performances by Big Brother & The Holding Co., Caravan of All Stars Revue, The Charles Dudley Band, and Jane DeCuir. 436-5131 

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s  

Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences to strengthen the marriage.  

$360 per couple 704-7475 

Sunday, Nov. 26

The Value of Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Joleen Vries, director of the Nyingma Institute in the Netherlands for over five years, will discuss how to maintain a regular meditation practice. Free 

843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 27

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

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 

Parks & Recreation Board 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Solid Waste Management  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St.  

Zoning Adjustment Board  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

Educational Philosophies  

Roundtable 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

At this roundtable, Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, parents will learn about the following educational philosophies: Developmental, cooperative, Montessori, bilingual, Waldorf, religious, homeschooling, and charter schools.  

Free to members; non-members, $5 

Call 527-6667 or visit www.parentsnet.org  

Tai Chi Chih with Ben Levitan  

1 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Tuesday, Nov. 28

Blood Pressure for Seniors 

9:30 - 11 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Read a Play Together Salon 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Lavender Lunch 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 100 

PSR adjunct faculty member Mark Wilson and PSR alumna Lynice Pinkard will speak on “Heterosexism and Racism.” Sponsored by PSR’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. Free 849-8206 

Making Marriage Work 

(event is 10 Wednesdays, Nov. 29 - Jan. 24) 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s  

Services 

of the East Bay, Berkeley 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

For Jewish and interfaith couples either considering marriages, engaged or recently married. Focusing on topics to improve the relationship and bridging religious and ethnic differences to strengthen the marriage.  

$360 per couple 704-7475 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of  

Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop  

& Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it. 843-3533 

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

Membership Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Discussion of how the election results will affect the Gray Panthers.  

Call 548-9696 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 MLK Jr. Way (at Derby) 

Challenges of Parenting Adolescents  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services 

of the East Bay 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

This workshop focuses on the challenges facing parents and teens. Learn how to avoid triggering and pushing each other’s buttons. Runs three consecutive Wednesdays, through Dec. 13. Led by Kathy Langsam, MA, MFT, JFCS Teen Services Coordinator.  

$60 

Call 704-7475 

Thursday, Nov. 30

Pro Arts Juried Show  

Reception 

6 - 8 p.m.  

Pro Arts 

461 Ninth St.  

With the work of 70 artists, this annual show features the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The show runs through December 30. See A&E calendar for details.  

Snowshoeing Basics  

7 p.m . 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional snowshoe guide Cathy Anderson-Meyers gives basic instruction on how to get out and experience Tahoe’s winter  

terrain on “shoes.” 527-4140 

Art for Sale 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute  

1060 Heinz Ave.  

Over sixty artists affiliated with the Kala Art Institute exhibit works ranging from traditional wood block prints to works in digital media. During the reception, artists will offer 10 percent off the sale of their prints. 549-2977 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Oakland Museum Trip for Seniors 

(trip on Dec. 8) 

A trip to the Oakland Museum to see the Imperial Palace of China Exhibit. Organized by the North Berkeley Senior Center 

Call Maggie, 644-6107 

Let Your Chi Flow Freely 

6 - 7 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway Ave. 

Oakland 

Share peace and tranquillity communally and regain harmony and balance.  

Call Idris Hassan, 835-4827 x31  

Witness In Our Time 

7 p.m.  

105 North Gate Hall 

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 

Center for Photography 

Kerry Tremain moderates a conversation with Wayne Miller, Ken Light, Matt Heron and Michelle Vignes. Followed by a book signing for “Chicago’s South Side” by Wayne Miller and “Witness in Our Time” by Ken Light. 

Call 642-3383  

Friday, Dec. 1 

Spanish Book Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books  

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

A discussion of “Dona Barbara” by the Colombian writer Rumulo Gallegos. New members welcome. The group meets the first Friday of each month.  

Call 601-0454  

Taize Worship Services  

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.  

Loper Chapel  

Dana St. (between Durant & Channing) 

Call 848-3696 

Basic Electrical Theory 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Redwood Kardon, retired City of Oakland building inspector and author of the Code Check book series.  

$35 

Call 525-7610 

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  

Whymsium Anniversary Party 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This annual party features a talent show, games and a dance.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

UC Botanical Holiday Plant Sale 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

You’ll find a selection of orchids, ferns, rhododendrons, cacti, hardy herbs, and house plants galore for yourself or gardening friends.  

Call 643-2755 

Native American Flute  

5 - 6 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Celebrating the release of his CD “Spirit Within,” Berkeley resident and flutist Walter Ogi Johnson performs.  

Finding a Way In 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Offering a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender jews to express personal concerns and to find a place to belong in the Jewish community.  

$5 with pre-registraiton; $7 at door  

845-6420 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office  

2022 Blake St.  

Learn what your rights are in dealing with the police. Learn how to monitor the police safely.  

Call 548-0425 

Publish Your Own Book 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St. 

Mark Weiman of Regen Press presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publishing.  

$60 per person 

Call Mark Weiman, 547-7602 

Friends of Berkeley Youth Alternatives 

Wine Tasting  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Rosenblum Cellars 

2900 Main St.  

Alameda 

All proceeds benefit the children and families served by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 

$25 

Call 845-9010 

Alternative Building Materials 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architects Dan Smith and John Fordice. 

$75  

Call 525-7610 

Sunday Dec. 3 

Connecting with Nature 

1 - 3 p.m.  

Rotary Nature Center  

600 Bellevue Ave. (at Perkins) 

Oakland 

Children aged six to twelve, accompanied by a parent, are invited to explore nature with all their senses. Cathy Holt, author of “The Circle of Healing” will lead the event. Free 

Call Stephanie for reservations, 238-3739 

Transcending Limits on Knowledge  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place 

Lee Nichol on Tarthang Tulku’s “Time, Space, and Knowledge.” Free 

843-6812 

Richmond Holiday Arts Festival 

Noon - 4 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center 

2540 Barret Ave.  

Richmond 

A silent auction, craft sale, gifts and services auction, and hands-on art projects. Proceeds benefit the Richmond Art Center. Free  

620-6772 

Kitka’s “Wintersongs Holiday Tour” 

7 p.m. 

Lake Merritt United Methodist Church 

1330 Lakeshore Ave. 

Oakland 

In it’s first annual winter holiday concert, this women’s vocal ensemble will perform Eastern European seasonal songs.  

$15 - $20 

444-0323 

Winterfest 

Noon - 4 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

A celebration of winter family traditions like music, dance, craft activities, and food. Included in museum admission. 

$6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Joe Raskin & David Slusser’s  

Improv Derby 

7:48 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Joe Raskin/George Cremaschi Duo & David Slusser’s Improv Derby. Part of ACME Observatory Contemporary Music Series.  

$8 suggested donation 

Call 444-3595 

Monday, Dec. 4 

Personnel Board Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Permit Center 

2118 Milvia St.  

First Floor Conference Room 

Youth Commission 

6 p.m. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Center 

1730 Oregon St. 

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkely Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Peace and Justice Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Keeping Parents Sane 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

Jewish Family & Children’s Services  

of the East Bay 

2484 Shattuck Ave., Suite 210 

If your child(ren) are defiant and oppositional and you don’t know what to do, try this workshop led by Liz Marton, MFT.  

$20 

Call 704-7475 

Criminalization of Youth 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St.  

Angela Davis, educator, activist, and former political prisoner speaks at this benefit lecture for the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library.  

$5 

Call 595-7417  

Make a Wreath 

7 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Dr.  

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran wreath-maker, join Nancy Swearengen and Jerry Parsons and learn to use some unusual materials.  

$27.50, including materials 

Call 643-2755 

Furniture Making for Women 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Finish carpenter Tracy Weir teaches this hands-on, four day workshop, culminating with each attendee building her own cabinet unit with drawer and shelf. Runs through Dec. 8.  

$475  

Call 525-7610 

Tuesday, Dec. 5 

Design the Perfect School  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

Jewish Book Club 

7:30 - 9:15 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center  

1414 Walnut St.  

Join in a discussion of Brian Norton’s “Starting Out in the Evening.” Free 

848-0237 x 127 

Get the Lead Out 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Center 

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Learn how to prevent lead poisoning in your home. Taught by expert staff, this course offers techniques property owners can use to safety paint and remodel their homes.  

Call 567-8280 

Make a Wreath 

7 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Dr.  

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran wreath-maker, join Nancy Swearengen and Jerry Parsons and learn to use some unusual materials.  

$27.50, including materials 

Call 643-2755 

City Council 

7 p.m. 

Old City Hall  

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Wednesday, Dec. 6  

Task Force on Telecommunications 

7 p.m. 

1900 Addison  

Third Floor Conference Room 

Citizens Budget Review Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Board of Education 

7:30 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers 

Fire Safety Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

Fire Department Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

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 

Women’s Travel Book Club 

6:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books 

1730 Fourth St.  

Join a discussion of M.F.K. Fisher’s “Two Towns in Provence: Map of Another Town & A Considerable Town.” New members are always welcome. The group meets the first Thursday of each month.  

Call 482-8971 

Make a Wreath 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Dr.  

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran wreath-maker, join Nancy Swearengen and Jerry Parsons and learn to use some unusual materials.  

$27.50, including materials 

Call 643-2755 

Prepare Meals in a Snow Kitchen  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Chuck Collingwood of the Sierra Club will present a slide lecture on how to survive overnight in the snow.  

Call Jason, 527-7377 

Let Your Chi Flow Freely 

6 - 7 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway Ave. 

Oakland 

Share peace and tranquillity communally and regain harmony and balance.  

Call Idris Hassan, 835-4827 x31  

Lunch Poems Reading Series 

12:10 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.  

Morrison Room, Doe Library 

UC Berkeley  

Featuring the first three authors in the UC Press’s California Poetry Series. Featured poets will be Fanny Howe, Mark Levine, and Carol Snow. Free  

Call 642-0137  

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

Public Works Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Friday, Dec. 8  

PC Users Group 

7 p.m. 

Vista College 

Room 303  

2020 Milvia St.  

A groups of PC users who help each other solve problems. They introduce their members to new software, hardware, and invited speakers and technicians from various PC related companies. Meet the second Friday of each month.  

Call Melvin Mann, 527-2177  

Trunk Show with Art Quintanna 

4 - 7 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes Gallery 

1573 Solano Ave. 

Hailing from New Mexico, Quintanna specializes in older “dead pawn” Indian jewelry.  

An Evening Under the Stars 

5 - 8 p.m. 

Courtyard at Swans Marketplace 

Ninth St. between Washington and Clay St. 

With jazz standards playing in the background, discover the work of local artists and find a unique holiday gift. Sponsored by East Bay Galleries for Art and Cultural Development.  

Call 832-4244 

WomenSing  

8 p.m. 

Valley Center for the Performing Arts 

Holy Names College 

3500 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

In the first concert of their 35th anniversary season titled “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,” WomenSing perform music of Irving Berlin, Holst, and others.  

$20 general, $18 seniors/students, $10 18 and under 

Call 925-798-1300 

Saturday, Dec. 9  

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Class Dismissed  

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.)  

Kensington 

Meredith Maran discusses her book “A Year In the Life of an American High School, A Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation,” the result of her following the lives of three Berkeley High students. Free 

Call 559-9184  

Farmers’ Market Craft Fair 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Civic Center Park  

(Center at MLK Jr. Way) 

Local craftspeople will be selling a variety of handcrafted gifts. Also live music, massage, and hot apple cider. Free 

Call 548-3333 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St.  

Interviews, musical performances and a live radio play broadcast to a hundred cities worldwide. This show features the Magniolia Sisters, Alex DiGrassi, Tata Monk and author Malachy McCourt.  

Call 415-664-9500  

Trunk Show with Art Quintanna 

10 a.m. -6 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes Gallery 

1573 Solano Ave. 

Hailing from New Mexico, Quintanna specializes in older “dead pawn” Indian jewelry.  

Sunday, Dec. 10 

Parenting Book Club 

11 a.m.  

Cody’s Books 

1730 Fourth St.  

Take part in a discussion of “Mothers Who Think” edited by Camille Peri. New group members always welcome. The group meets the second Sunday of each month.  

Call 559-9500 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

Ancient Buddhist Tales 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Rima Tamar, storyteller and Dharma Publishing sales director, tells some classic Buddhist stories. Free  

843-6812 

TOCAR with David Frazier 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool/La Note  

2377 Shattuck Ave.  

$6 - $12  

Reservations: 845-5373 

Tibetan Nyingma Open House 

3 -5 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

A free introduction to Tibetan Buddhist culture, including a Tibetan yoga demonstration and a meditation garden tour.  

Call 843-6812  

Baroque Choral Guild  

7:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2345 Channing Way 

Performing the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo, Giovanni Croce, and others.  

$20 general, $15 seniors and students  

Call 408-733-8110 

“From Swastikas to Jim Crow”  

10:30 a.m.  

Jewish Learning Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Donald and Lore Rasmussen of Berkeley, and Jim McWilliams of Oakland, discuss their experiences and the experiences of others who fled Nazi Germany and ended up teaching in African-American colleges in the segregated south. Admission includes brunch.  

$4 BRJCC members; $5 general  

Call 848-0237 x127 

Weird Rooms 

3 - 5 p.m.  

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Mal and Sandra Sharpe discuss people who collect unusual things and how their collections take over their rooms.  

Black Images in the White Mind 

6:30 p.m. 

Walden Pond Books  

3316 Grand Ave.  

Oakland  

Jan Faulkner will give a slide show presentation of about her book, “Ethnic Notions.”  

Call 832-4438 

Wednesday, Dec. 13 

Oakland Preschool Fair 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Piedmont Avenue Elementary School 

4314 Piedmont Ave.  

Oakland 

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, this panel discussion allows parents the opportunity to speak with representatives from local preschools. 

Free to NPN members, $5 general 

Call 527-6667 

Thursday, Dec. 14  

Ultimate Alpine Climbing  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Join veteran alpine climber Kitty Calhoun in a slide presentation of her 20-year climbing career.  

Call Jason, 527-7377 

Saturday, Dec. 16 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Farmers’ Market Craft Fair 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Civic Center Park  

(Center at MLK Jr. Way) 

Local craftspeople will be selling a variety of handcrafted gifts. Also live music, massage, and hot apple cider. Free 

Call 548-3333 

Sunday, Dec. 17  

Benefits of Kum Nye and Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Miep Cooymans, Nyingma Institute meditation instructor lectures and demonstrates this gentle, self-healing system. Free 

843-6812 

The Disputation 

2 - 4:30 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Call 848-0237 

Hanukkah Happening 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Cantor and recording artist Richard Kaplan will lead attendees in seasonal music. 

Call 848-8443 

Tuesday, Dec. 19 

Planning for the Future 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

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 

Saturday, Dec. 23  

Farmers’ Market Craft Fair 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Civic Center Park  

(Center at MLK Jr. Way) 

Local craftspeople will be selling a variety of handcrafted gifts. Also live music, massage, and hot apple cider. Free 

Call 548-3333 

Friday, Jan. 5  

Zen Buddhist Sites in China 

7 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Andy Ferguson, author of “Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings,” presents a slide show of Zen holy sites in China. Ferguson will read from the book and engage the audience in a brief meditation session. Included in museum admission. 

$6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Thursday, Jan. 11 

Toni Stone and the Negro Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball Legue in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Saturday, Jan. 13 

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184 

Sunday, Jan. 14 

Teaching Chinese Culture in the U.S.  

2 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Educators from Bay Area Chinese schools explore issues related to teaching Chinese culture and language. Included in museum admission.  

$6 general; $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

Berkeley, 1900  

3 - 5 p.m. . 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Richard Schwartz gives an oral history of Berkeley at the turn of the century.  

A-Singin’ and a Chantin’ 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Pagan recording artist DJ Hamouris shares some songs and chants. 

Call 848-8443 

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 

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 

Enforce council kiss and make up rule 

Volunteers who worked on Berkeley’s election have barely caught up on their sleep and already our two most notorious politicians are at it again. Kriss Worthington characterizes the election as a referendum on the mayor. Mayor Shirley Dean, in turn, accuses him of politicizing the School Board. The two are, in the words of Councilmember Linda Maio, completely dysfunctional when they’re in the same room together (and even when they’re not). 

I propose a new policy for the next Council session: whenever either Shirley or Kriss make a snide remark about one another they will have to adhere to an tried and true, family peace-making practice: kiss and make up (including apologies). Perhaps their abhorrence for one another will keep them in line so this “punishment” will not have to be invoked. 

Come on, Shirley, Kriss. Do something productive this session instead of the two of you trying to prove who hates the other more. 

Don Homer 

Berkeley 

Group decries project 

Ed. note: the council turned down an appeal of this development Nov 7. 

The Daily Planet received a copy of this petition submitted to the City Clerk before the council decision and signed by 31 persons. 

Honorable Mayor Shirley Dean and City Council: 

We urge you to reject the proposal for 95,000 sq. ft. of office space and 450 parking spaces at 1608 4th street. As you know, 1608 4th Street is the former Courtald’s paint factory, the entire block between Cedar & Virginia, 4th street to the railroad tracks. This is a large former manufacturing site in a manufacturing district. 

From a transportation perspective, this location is not a great place for offices, and this development is basically car-oriented freeway office development. Freeway intersections in this area are already at E & F levels of service (source: Fehr and Peers, 1999). In contrast to the City’s stated “transit-first” policy, this development is “car-first”. This development, combined with the proposal for a major corporate campus on the eight acre 

American Soils/LBL/Winery site, will create gridlock in West Berkeley and access problems for the entire city. 

The toxic cleanup plan for this site is based on the former owner’s plan, which did not include an underground parking garage. The Sierra Club opposes the 1608 4th Street project due to its inadequate toxic remediation plan and its inconsistency with Berkeley’s stated “transit first” policy. 

Also, the City seems to be much more eager to create office jobs then the housing necessary for all the new jobs. Berkeley has added 16,300 new jobs since 1980 and lost 115 units of housing, according to the Draft General Plan. Over 290,000 sq. ft. of office space was approved in the ten months prior to August 10 (source: City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development). This is space for 2,000 workers. Have we provided housing for these 2,000 new workers? No, we have not. We should learn from the cities of Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Mateo and Menlo Park, who are finally putting the brakes on more office development. They’ve learned the hard way that excessive office development out of balance with housing leads to gridlock traffic and sky-high, unaffordable housing. 

Everyone claims to love diversity in Berkeley, and yet diversity is being lost in this town. Office building in West Berkeley puts pressure on rents for low-income residents, small businesses, and artists, and creates momentum for full-scale conversion of West Berkeley to offices. Space for non-profits, artists and industries that employ a wide variety of people are being pushed out by the wholesale conversion to office space. Office workers have no shortage of jobs to choose from. Further development proposals in West Berkeley should focus on providing good paying jobs outside the office sector to existing residents. 

The current rush to remake West Berkeley like Emeryville flies in the face of the West Berkeley Plan and zoning code, which recognizes the need to maintain a diverse economic base. To approve this development, the City Council must make the finding that it is “unlikely, under reasonably foreseeable circumstances, to either induce a substantial change of use in buildings in the District from manufacturing, wholesale trade or warehousing uses.” Clearly, the Council cannot honestly make this finding. 

For these and other reasons, we urge you to reject the proposal for 1608 Fourth St. 

Rhiannon 

Stephen Swanson 

Terry Terteling 

Bruce Becker 

Christine Vida 

and 26 others 

all of Berkeley 

Thanks for S&W support 

Editor: 

By passing Measures S & W by an overwhelming majority, Berkeley’s voters have once again shown their solid support for our parks and playing fields, and have ensured that our park system will have adequate maintenance resources in the coming years. Because of this generosity, the partnership between the Parks Department and volunteer groups, such as Berkeley Partners for Parks and the Association of Sports Field Users, will continue to flourish. Thank you everyone! I’m proud to live in a city where voters care about their parks, libraries, schools, and services for people with disabilities. 

Nancy Carleton 

Chair, Support Our Parks, the Committee for Measures S & W 

Submitted by: 

Nancy Carleton 

3044-B Halcyon Court 

Berkeley, CA 94705 

644-0172 

Take time, choose the right man for the president’s job

Editor: 

The Republicans, the party of impeachment, had no reservations in tying up the affairs of Congress, the President, and the nation for a year. They can now wait a few days or weeks, if necessary, until the true outcome of the vote in Florida is determined.  

This is not a time to be claiming victory and planning transition but a time to respect the will of certain voters in 

Florida who have had their right to vote compromised no doubt affecting the 25 electoral votes in this historic election. If leadership is one of the most important qualities of being president, then let’s hope Messrs. Bush and Gore take pause and demonstrate that there is something much more important at stake here than the brass ring. Cooler heads must prevail. 

David Olson 

Berkeley 

Editor: 

The abuse of 19,000 ballots in Palm Beach County requires a re-vote of the Presidential race in that county. The next President’s ability to govern will be greatly hindered if the election is decided by voting irregularities in Florida. 

A re-vote could be avoided if the 19,000 ballots with double votes for President were counted toward the one major candidate included in the double vote. 

Bruce Joffe 

Oakland 

Editor: 

I’d suggest the proper federal body call a run-off election by around mid December and get on with getting on.  

Most people thought, “gee, isn’t it one person one vote in this country?” Never mind! We don’t have enough time, this time, to get rid of the electoral college good and proper, so.... Do a run off under the present laws. And on with life! 

But, having gone through part of what we are going through now and many of us leery of going through the rest of it and giving it to our children, let’s also call for a Continental Congress to look eyeball to eyeball at the changes the world has gone through in our dear nation and around the planet.  

Maybe in due deliberation, around 2003. There, we would almost certainly get rid of the Electoral College. Then we might like to extend rights to animals and plants in our extended Bill of Rights, recognizing how tenuous thousands of species very existence has become, add a Bill of Responsibilities mentioning “the seventh generation” idea from our first peoples as if our descendants will have rights, and check into proper political response to other things about today’s world that are definitely way different from the good-start semi-democracy of the “Founding Fathers.”  

This time maybe we could call it the “Refounding Parents.” I’m sure other people have a few ideas for some reassessments in the face of very different times. 

Richard Register 

Berkeley 

Berkeley Daily Planet Staff Reports 

Tuesday the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Juvenile Division, leveled new charges against five of the juveniles suspected in two separate cases of sexual assault on a 12-year-old middle school student, Berkeley police said in a news release. 

In the alleged Oct. 25 assaults at and around Willard Middle School, the DA charged an 11-year-old boy with one felony count of sexual assault. Two boys, 12, were charged with two felony counts of sexual assault and two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault. A 13-year-old was charged with two felony counts of sexual assault.  

The DA charged a 13-year-old boy involved in an alleged assault against the girl at King Middle School on Nov. 8. He was charged with three counts of sexual assault.  

Police said they arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the Willard incident. He was charged with three felony counts of sexual assault and has been released to his parents pending charges by the DA’s office. 

One unidentified suspect is being sought. 

Three suspects involved in the Willard incident remain in police custody. A 14-year-old is charged with seven counts of sexual assault, one 13-year-old is charged with 13 counts of sexual assault and another 13-year-old is charged with 14 counts of sexual assault.

The rainy weather on Tuesday washed several coats of paint off a building near University and Oxford streets and into nearby storm drains and gutters alarming nearby business owners and passersby. 

Jim Lee, manager of UC Berkeley’s Central Garage, said the roof of the building was painted white yesterday afternoon after extensive work was completed to repair several leaks. 

“We have been in the process of correcting some safety issues and the roof was the first step,” Lee said. “I guess we corrected the leaky roof but created a whole other problem.” 

The building is used to store the university’s shuttle buses and house several administrative offices.  

Emergency crews from the city’s toxics division, along with the Berkeley Fire Department and university workers threw sandbags down and began pumping up the contaminated water, but not before several hundred gallons of it emptied into two nearby storm drains. 

“There’s no way to stop it at this point,” Daniel Akagi civil engineer for the city said. “ It’s going straight into the bay.” 

According to Michael Vernon, manager of Blue’s Roofing Company, the acrylic paint is non toxic and is used for aesthetic reasons. Nabil Al Hadithy, head of the city’s toxics division, confirmed that the paint was not toxic, but noted, however, that the city has ordinances that prohibit dumping anything but water down storm drains. 

When asked if the university then would be fined for dumping, Al Hadithy explained that the university is not answerable to the city, but is under that direct control of the Bay Area Water Quality District.  

Had the district had sufficient personnel on hand, it would have overseen the clean up. Since it did not, the city stepped in, Al Hadithy explained. 

Vernon of the roofing company, explained that the paint needed 48 hours to dry and that his company had not known that it was going to rain. 

“It’s unfortunate that this happened. This is the price we pay for working in the (fall).” 

Vernon also said that the job was an “emergency type” of repair and that the university had called them at the last minute.  

Jim Lee of the Central Garage said that they had been told to make the repairs before the end this year or face a possible shut down. 

“I wish Blue’s Roofing would have used a little better judgment. They could have waited another day or two.” 

Vernon said that his company will have to re-do the roof when the weather clears and hopes that next time there won’t be any rain. “If people would take care of their roofs in the summer things like this wouldn’t happen,” he said. 

Beating the rains Tuesday morning, volunteers and Berkeley police began at about 6 a.m. to distribute roughly 250 holiday food baskets to needy families and organizations.  

The baskets, weighing in at between 35 and 40 pounds each and able to feed eight, were delivered to families nominated by beat police officers working in their neighborhoods.  

Ove Wittstock, director of the Berkeley Boosters Association, said additional baskets were also distributed to various shelters and housing organizations, mostly located in south and west Berkeley.  

Lieutenant Russell Lopes said Tuesday that money for most of the food is raised through an annual “turkey ride.” Started in 1984, the ride is a 216 mile bike trek from Berkeley to South Lake Tahoe.  

Money is raised through people pledging a given amount of money for each mile they ride. 

The turkeys were donated by well-known local chef Narsai David, food and wine editor of KCBS radio and president of the Berkeley Community Foundation. Additional donations were made by the Berkeley Rotary Club and the First Presbyterian Church. 

Over the course of 15 years, the program has distributed nearly two-hundred thousand pounds of food.  

The baskets given out Tuesday contained a turkey and all the trimmings, Lopes said. 

Identical food baskets will also be distributed about two weeks before Christmas. Anybody can ask for the baskets, which are given out according to need, Lopes said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Online music retailer EMusic.com is set to deploy a new technology to identify its songs that are being traded online by Napster users and demand that the free-for-all stop. 

EMusic announced Tuesday it will begin using “acoustic fingerprinting” to monitor the songs being shared on Napster that allegedly infringe on the rights of EMusic’s artist and label partners. 

EMusic president and CEO Gene Hoffmann said Napster balked at other solutions to stem the unauthorized trade of music, leaving the online retailer no choice but to crack down on the song sharing. 

“Over the past several months, EMusic has continually offered to work in good faith with Napster on this issue,” Hoffman said. “Napster’s unfortunate and inflexible response has been that EMusic’s only course of action is to request that offending users’ accounts be cut off completely.” 

With the new technology, Napster users caught trading songs obtained from EMusic would receive an “instant message” on their computer screens warning them of copyright infringement and giving a 24-hour grace period to stop distributing the music. 

“It seems Napster would rather shut down user accounts, than to deal directly with the problem of illegally distributed files,” Hoffman said. 

Calls by The Associated Press to Napster seeking comment were not immediately returned. 

In fact, Napster has been dealing with that very problem since its inception. Shortly after the song-sharing service launched last year, Napster was sued in federal court by major record labels for copyright infringement. That case is currently on appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court. 

Napster reached a tentative deal with Bertelsmann’s BMG music division to develop what the partners characterized as a new, secure membership-based distribution system that will guarantee payments to artists. The deal hinges on Napster’s compliance to overhaul its service – a move that has yet to happen. 

Napster claims to have 38 million registered users. 

EMusic has licensing agreements with more than 600 independent record labels and popular artists such as Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, Louis Armstrong and Kenny Rogers. EMusic allows sampling and purchases of music in the popular MP3 format. 

Online music sales such as EMusic’s are still an unproven entity. When Hewlett-Packard Co. agreed to pay online music retailer Emusic.com Inc. $3 million in a cross-marketing deal, the sum exceeded the aggregate sales of all music downloads, according to Aram Sinnreich of Jupiter Research. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.emusic.com 

http://www.napster.com 

OAKLAND— A woman was found guilty Tuesday of murdering her sister to steal her identity and her money, then stuffing her dismembered body into a freezer. 

The Alameda County jury of five men and seven women spent three weeks listening to testimony and three days in deliberations before returning the verdict against Sarah Mitchell, 50, who was charged with murder with the special circumstance of financial gain. 

Deputy District Attorney Terry Wiley argued that Mitchell’s plan was to impersonate her sister to withdraw money from her trust accounts. 

The court will decide between a penalty of life in prison without parole or the death sentence starting Dec. 4. 

In the summer of 1997, Mitchell began posing as Stevie Allman, 52, an anti-drug crusader. When the home they shared burned down, Mitchell claimed they had been the victims of a firebombing and blamed it on disgruntled drug dealers. 

Mitchell originally was charged with arson, along with murder, but the arson charges were not pursued. 

But Mitchell fooled others into thinking she was Allman, and that she was the victim of arson. She received $3,600 in sympathy checks, and then-Gov. Pete Wilson offered a $50,000 reward for information in the case. 

Police soon discovered Allman was really Mitchell.  

Then, on July 16 of that year, they found Allman’s body. She had been murdered, dismembered and stuffed into a freezer sealed with duct tape in the ruins of her home.

SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of illegal immigrants won a step toward legal residency Tuesday when an appeals court reinstated a lawsuit contending that an illegal Immigration and Naturalization Service policy barred their applications for legal status. 

The case involves the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 that made illegal immigrants eligible for amnesty, and legal residency, if they had lived in the United States since the start of 1981 without committing a serious crime. They were required to apply by May 1988 and some 2.7 million illegal immigrants were awarded residency, the first step toward U.S. citizenship. 

But an estimated 200,000 applicants were denied. 

The INS first interpreted the law to bar amnesty for anyone who had left the United States for even a brief period since 1981. Numerous amnesty applicants were turned away, and many others said they were discouraged from applying before the policy was ruled illegal in 1988 and replaced with one that allowed brief departures. 

On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its own 1999 decision, in which it ruled that illegal immigrants who claimed they were prevented from seeking legal status in 1987-88 missed the deadline to file their legal challenge. An 11-judge panel of the circuit ruled 7-4 that a Sacramento federal judge should hear the class-action suit because the filing deadline did not expire. 

“This is a big decision. This case has been going on for 14 years,” said Robert B. Jobe, an attorney with Immigration Lawyers Association in San Francisco. 

Russell Bergeron, an INS spokesman in Washington, said the agency declined to comment until it reviewed the 43-page decision. 

The case returns to U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence K. Karlton in Sacramento. No hearing has been set. 

Karlton had ordered the INS to give immigrants affected by its policy another chance to apply for amnesty. Hundreds of thousands applied, but the government won an appellate order excusing the INS from considering the applications while it appealed to the circuit court. 

Even with Tuesday’s decision, however, much legal maneuvering remains. 

Illegal immigrants, who filed the proper paperwork on time but were denied amnesty because they had left the country, will likely prevail, advocates said. The INS said Tuesday that it did not know how many immigrants fell into that category. 

But the immigration fate of untold thousands more is in question. 

Immigrants were turned way by the INS because they had exited the country, and they left INS offices without filing an application. Thousands more, according to the suit, were discouraged from seeking amnesty at an INS office because they knew they would be turned away. 

These two categories of immigrants must persuade Karlton to overturn a different 1986 federal law narrowing their litigation rights. Under that law, immigrants who did not file the INS application were barred from suing for amnesty even though the INS policy to exclude those who left the country was illegal. 

The case is Catholic Social Services vs. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 98-16269. 

SANTA ANA — Just two weeks after Orange County voters passed a measure directing that the county’s tobacco funds should go mostly for health care, the Board of Supervisors has decided to consider spending this year’s allotment to pay off government debt instead. 

Supervisors previously voted to divide this year’s $28-million share of the national tobacco settlement funds, with half going toward health care programs and the remainder toward paying down the county’s bankruptcy debt. 

Because Measure H, approved by 65 percent of the county’s voters on Nov. 7, doesn’t take effect until July, board Chairman Chuck Smith said Monday it is time to consider spending as much as possible now on debt reduction. 

“We agreed to that 50-50 split long before the election, so I think – in light of that – it’s fair to reconsider it,” Smith said, noting that supervisors have one opportunity to spend the money as they choose. 

“I’m not saying how much we should spend toward debt reduction,” he added. “We could make it 80 percent... But we need to fully look at this.” 

Health care advocates, who raised nearly $1 million to support Measure H, said they were angered and surprised by the supervisors’ actions. 

“They just don’t want to listen to the will of the people,” said Michele Revelle, spokeswoman for the Orange County Medical Association.  

“This is exactly why we went forward with getting Measure H passed. They voted to give us 50 percent earlier and we didn’t like it then and now it looks like they’re going to renege on it.” 

Supervisors on Monday also scheduled a closed-door meeting for Tuesday to debate whether they should go to court to fight Measure H.  

The county will receive $28 million in tobacco settlement money this fiscal year and as much as $35 million in annual installments over the next quarter-century. 

Measure H puts at least 80 percent of the money into health care programs for the poor.  

The supervisors countered with an unsuccessful competing ballot initiative, Measure G, which would have put 60 percent of the money in various public health programs and dedicated the remainder to reducing debt and building jails.

LOS ANGELES — Food bank officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties are preparing for Thanksgiving week with donation levels they say are at an all-time low. 

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has 1.3 million pounds of food – just half the amount it had at this time last year. 

“The problem is worse than I thought,” food bank spokesman Darren Hoffman told the Los Angeles Times.  

“We can make up some with food drives this month, but it will not close the gap. We’re hurting.” 

He said the shortage might not affect Thanksgiving meals, but will cut into reserves the food bank needs for leaner months and emergencies. 

Food bank officials say a big reason for the drop-off is a decline in supermarket donations. 

Supermarket mergers mean there are fewer companies to make donations.  

In addition, improved manufacturing and handling practices have trimmed the amount of food that grocers give food banks because of mislabeling, damage or expired labels. 

Some products that have been damaged are ending up in dollar stores instead of food banks. 

“This year, several grocery stores just stopped giving for a while. Until we hear otherwise, they’ve just stopped,” said Marcella Barba, development coordinator at Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. 

An official with the Food Marketing Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based supermarket association, said he could not immediately comment. 

Food bank officials said the problem has been exacerbated by federal Food and Drug Administration delays in distributing surplus cheese and other bulk goods. 

Second Harvest, which provides food to 350 local charities, has 650,000 pounds of food, compared with a million pounds at this time last year, Barba said. 

“This is a trend we have known about for awhile. But recently, it’s become more extreme,” she said.  

“We have been looking at alternatives, including food from restaurants and from local farms.” 

Like Second Harvest, the Community Development Council’s Orange County Food Bank has about a third less food that it did last year.  

But Director Mike Lowry said more people are in need because new welfare rules have taken people off public assistance but left them with low wages in high-rent areas. 

Second Harvest estimates that in any given month, 400,000 people are at risk of going hungry in Orange County.

LOS ANGELES — When Vijai Rajan’s parents applied six years ago to have her become an American citizen, they believed it would just be a formality. 

After all, they were citizens. So was their other child. 

But when their daughter’s application was denied because she suffers from cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, seizures and other ailments that made it impossible for her to take a meaningful oath of allegiance, her parents didn’t take no for an answer. 

They went to court. They knocked on politicians’ doors. 

Tuesday, their daughter became the first person granted U.S. citizenship under a new law that waives the oath for qualified immigrants with extreme disabilities. 

“We’re very pleased to be able to welcome Ms. Rajan as a citizen,” Thomas J. Schiltgen, director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service district office, said at a private ceremony. 

Vijai Rajan, who cannot speak and has the comprehension of a 2-year-old, clutched a small American flag and her parents accepted a certificate on her behalf. 

“Now, you are an American,” said her father, Sunder Rajan of Anaheim, a scientist and engineer with a telecommunications company. 

The 25-year-old woman, who requires 24-hour care, was born in India but has lived in the United States since she was an infant. Her parents are naturalized citizens and her sister was born in Ohio. 

“We have always treated her equally, believing she was entitled to the same things that we have,” her father said. “But she wasn’t treated the same by others. She didn’t have the same rights we did.” 

The family spent years pressing for a change in law so that she could become a citizen despite being unable to take the oath. 

The family gained national attention for their daughter when they filed a discrimination lawsuit this year to try to force the INS to grant citizenship. 

“Few Americans have to fight so hard for their citizenship, and I thank the Rajan family for never losing hope,” said Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who sponsored legislation after hearing about the family’s plight. 

President Bill Clinton signed the law this month that will give citizenship to about 1,000 immigrants a year whose disabilities prevent them from reciting the oath but who otherwise qualify. 

Caught up in her family’s excitement during the ceremony, Vijai Rajan giggled, laughed and smiled. She held a flag pressed into one hand until her grip failed and it fell. 

“I personally believe she understands and knows more than she can tell us. Does she understand the citizenship process?  

“No. But when we go on a trip away from home, she knows what home is,” her father said. “Now, she has one.” 

Rajan’s mother, Shakunthala, and her sister, Induh Rajan, 29, clutched her hands through the ceremony. 

“If you push her over in bed, she gets back up. She will fight you. She will never cry. She has taught us that – to fight,” her mother said. “We fought for her because she taught us that.” 

Asked if he believes people in the United States taken citizenship for granted, the father said: “In my language ... we have a saying, ‘Sometimes you have to stand in the sun to appreciate the shade.”’

LOS ANGELES — Dot-com heavy San Mateo County recorded the lowest percentage of people living below the poverty level in 1997, while farming-dependent Imperial County had the worst poverty figures in the state, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures. 

Overall, poverty among Californians declined between 1995 and 1997, but families continue to struggle in rural areas where jobs and affordable housing remain scarce. 

Income and poverty figures released Tuesday night by the Census Bureau offered poverty estimates for the nation’s 3,141 counties, including the state’s 58 counties. Imperial County had the highest poverty rate in California, with 41,065, or 30.3 percent of its population, living below the poverty level. 

In 1997, a family of four was considered poor if its annual income was below $16,400. The median family income in Imperial County was $23,359. 

Statewide, about 5.2 million people, or 16 percent of the population, lived in poverty in 1997, compared to 16.5 percent in 1995. The median family income in California was $39,595 in 1997, compared with $37,005 nationally. 

Farmers in Imperial County, east of San Diego County, have been hard hit in recent years, contributing to an unemployment rate of nearly 30 percent and consistently dropping wages, said El Centro City Councilman Jack Dunnam. 

“As a city and county we’re working as hard as we can with different agencies to get industry in here that may not be farm-related,” Dunnam said. 

City and county officials even recently lobbied the state to locate a new mental health hospital for sex offenders in Imperial County, but the bid failed and an estimated 2,000 jobs went elsewhere, said Wally Leimgruber, chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors. 

“We know we have the lowest per capita income in the state and the highest unemployment,” Leimgruber said. “We’re trying to bring this to the attention of state legislators for any kind of state programs that might be available. ... We’re trying to change it around.” 

Officials in San Mateo County, located in the northern end of Silicon Valley, had mixed reactions to the poverty figures. 

“What the Census figures don’t tell you is that folks living below the poverty level in our county are now living in more and more difficult circumstances,” said Richard Gordon, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. “We have three or four families living in a house together to make ends meet. They may be living in worse conditions than people who live below the poverty level elsewhere.” 

One of the county’s top priorities is to create more affordable housing for the poor and for government and service workers, Gordon said. 

Other California counties with low estimated poverty rates in 1997 include: Marin (7 percent); Placer (7.7 percent); Napa, El Dorado (8.8 percent) and Sonoma (9.1 percent). 

Counties with high poverty rates include: Los Angeles (20.5 percent); Kern (21 percent); Yuba (25.5 percent) and Tulare (27.9) percent. 

The Census Bureau updates its estimates every few years, instead of waiting for the official census every 10 years, because the numbers are tied to federal funding. 

The last report was conducted for 1995 and showed a decrease in poverty as the state’s economy began to prosper. Each estimate is based on a three-year average, meaning the 1997 figure represents the average of 1996-1998. 

The Census Bureau produced the state and county estimates by using its March 1998 Current Population Survey with aggregate data from income tax returns, records on food stamp program participation and 1990 census figures. The median incomes were not adjusted for inflation. 

On the Net: 

U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe.html

LOS ANGELES — A woman being deported to China jumped from a jetway at Los Angeles International Airport and was badly injured, authorities said. 

The 29-year-old woman, whose name wasn’t released, suffered head injuries and was in critical condition Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Roxanne Moster Yamaguchi. 

Two detention officers were escorting the woman about 12:30 p.m. Monday when she jumped from the jetway and fell about 20 feet to the pavement, said Sharon Gavin, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Los Angeles district. 

The jetway was going to be hooked up to a China Eastern Airlines plane bound for Beijing. 

The woman had failed to produce the required documents upon entering the United States in October, leading to a deportation order, Gavin said. 

“She didn’t want to go,” Gavin said. 

There has been an increase of Chinese immigrants recently attempting to enter the United States without documents, Gavin added. 

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE — Two Earth-monitoring satellites blasted into orbit on a Boeing Delta II rocket Tuesday on missions to monitor the planet’s atmosphere, forests, urban centers and oceans. 

NASA’s Earth Observing 1 and the multinational satellite SAC-C lifted off into clear skies at 10:24 a.m.  

The launch was delayed for several days because of discrepancies in preflight test documentation that turned out to be paperwork rather than system problems. 

Ninety minutes after blastoff, both satellites were in orbit and communicating with ground controllers.  

The 1,260-pound EO-1 was placed into a 438-mile polar orbit. The smaller co-payload was put in a 436-mile polar orbit. 

As part of NASA’s New Millennium Program, EO-1 will test several advanced technologies that, if successful, could be used on other missions. Among them is a land imager that is cheaper, lighter and more powerful than current equipment. 

The $193 million EO-1 will fly within two miles of the existing Landsat 7 and take the same images as the older satellite.  

Scientists will compare the pictures to determine how well the new imager is working, NASA officials said. 

The $45 million SAC-C carries 11 scientific instruments designed to study the Earth’s surface, atmosphere and magnetic field. It is a joint venture of NASA, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, France and Italy. 

One of the instruments will watch the migration of the Franca whale, which was nearly hunted to extinction early in the 20th century.  

The satellite will pick up the signals of transmitters being attached to the large ocean mammals. 

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On the Net: EO-1: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/eo1/eo.html 

SAC-C: http://www.conae.gov.ar/sac-c/ 

FRESNO — In time for Thanksgiving, the United Farm Workers union ended its 16-year boycott of Californa table grapes Tuesday, saying the original goals of UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez had been largely met. 

“Cesar Chavez’s crusade to eliminate use of five of the most toxic chemicals plaguing farm workers and their families has been largely successful,” said UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. 

In recent years the UFW has not focused any energy on the boycott and the table grape industry has continued to grow. 

“I think it makes sense for them to call it off,” said Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission. “Of course we’re happy to not have table grapes on any official boycott list.” 

Chavez called for the boycott on June 12, 1984, as a way of focusing on the spraying of dangerous pesticides. It was the third boycott of California grapes called by the UFW. 

The first boycott ran from 1967 until 1970, when growers signed their first contracts with the UFW. The second grape boycott began in 1973 and received more widespread support than the recent one. 

A 1975 Harris poll found 17 million Americans were boycotting grapes, according to the UFW. The boycott ended two years later, after the Agricultural Labor Relations Act was passed, allowing farmworkers to organize and bargain for contracts. 

As union membership dwindled and state oversight of agribusiness dropped off, however, Chavez launched the final boycott to bring attention to what he called “The Wrath of Grapes” – the threat from pesticides. 

In the final years of his life, Chavez fought passionately for the cause that inspired the 1984 boycott. At age 61 he conducted his longest public fast – the 36-day “Fast for Life” – and continued to press the boycott until his death five years later in 1993. 

“The fast was, finally, a declaration of noncooperation with supermarkets that promote, sell and profit from California table grapes,” Chavez said at a 1989 speech in Tacoma, Wash. “They are as culpable as those who manufacture the poisons and those who use them.” 

But as the latest boycott dragged out, it failed to gain a large following. Consumer studies for the grape industry have found fewer than 5 percent of consumers were aware of the boycott, Nave said. 

Rodriguez said he thinks Chavez, his father-in-law, would have made the same decision to end the boycott. The union is now focused on the more important goal of organizing and negotiating contracts in the fields. 

In a letter to the National Farm Worker Ministry in St. Louis, which mobilized support for the boycott among religious groups, Rodriguez said it was no longer fair to ask supporters to honor the boycott. 

The end of the boycott represents a significant shift in direction for the union that rose to power and national attention through its earlier grape strikes and grape boycotts. 

Today, the UFW, which has dwindled to 27,000 members from a high of 80,000 in 1970, only has one table grape contract. 

It has branched into the mushroom and rose industry in recent years and in August it signed its first contract with Gallo – the subject of an earlier boycott – to cover 450 vineyard workers in Sonoma County. 

Although it called off the boycott, the union said that should not be seen as an endorsement to buy table grapes. 

“Table grape workers continue to suffer poverty pay, poor working conditions and mistreatment on the job,” said UFW spokesman Marc Grossman.  

“We look forward to the day where table grape workers, too, can enjoy the blessings of organized labor.” 

On the Net: 

United Farm Workers of America: http://www.ufw.org

LOS ANGELES — The City Council approved a $15 million settlement Tuesday with a man shot in the back and paralyzed by police officers who then allegedly planted a gun next to him. 

It is the largest settlement stemming from the LAPD’s ongoing corruption scandal and the largest for police misconduct in the city’s history. 

Javier Francisco Ovando, now 23, agreed to settle because it eliminates the delays and uncertainty of a jury trial, said his attorney, Gregory Moreno. 

“This gives him very good compensation,” he said. “We were looking for a reasonable amount of money for him to get on with his life and put the pieces back together.” 

The award is nearly three times the amount given to 1991 beating victim Rodney King, who was awarded $3.8 million in damages and another $1.6 million for attorneys fees. 

The council approved the Ovando settlement 13-0, bringing to nearly $30 million the amount the city has agreed to pay victims of the corruption scandal. About 70 lawsuits are pending. 

Councilman Mike Feuer said settling with Ovando was the right choice because the city stood “very little chance of prevailing” in a jury trial. 

“And the key question won’t be liability,” he said. “The key question is likely to be simply how much.” 

Mayor Richard Riordan described the settlement as a fair resolution “to a terrible miscarriage of justice. 

“Now we must put this behind us, and look forward to the future by implementing police reforms that ensure this will never happen again,” he said in a statement. Ovando’s case came to symbolize the corruption allegations that centered on the department’s Rampart Division. 

The investigation into incidents between 1995 and 1998 has led to charges being dismissed or overturned in about 100 cases and the convictions last week of three officers. It also was a catalyst for an agreement that provides federal oversight of police department reforms. 

The scandal broke publicly in September 1999 after former officer Rafael Perez’s allegations of misconduct in the Ovando case surfaced. 

Perez said he and former partner Nino Durden were staking out a vacant apartment in October 1996 when they shot Ovando, then a 19-year-old 18th Street gang member. 

Perez has said Durden planted a .22-caliber rifle on Ovando as he lay bleeding from shots to his head and chest. He said the officers had seized the weapon about two weeks earlier. 

Durden has pleaded innocent to attempted murder charges and is awaiting trial. 

Ovando had served more than two years of a 23-year prison term for assaulting a police officer when his conviction was overturned and he was freed last year. His legs remain paralyzed. 

The portion of Ovando’s lawsuit against Perez is still pending, his attorney said. A separate lawsuit on behalf of Ovando’s 3-year-old daughter, Destiny, also is pending, Moreno said. 

City officials said liability for the corruption scandal could cost the city as much as $125 million. 

The Ovando settlement is likely to be the single largest amount the city will pay to an individual victim, Chief Assistant City Attorney Thomas Hokinson said. 

“His is the only one that involves serious injuries plus confinement,” he said. 

In a potentially more serious case of police abuse, Perez called “dirty” a 1996 police shooting that left 19-year-old gang member Juan Saldana dead and two others wounded. Investigators are looking into whether officers might have planted guns. 

The lawsuit by Saldana’s family was dismissed, however, because it was filed after the statute of limitations expired. That decision is now on appeal in federal court, Hokinson said. 

He said the remaining civil suits against the city could be resolved within 18 months, although not all are likely to end in settlements. 

“There are a number of cases we anticipate we will win,” he said.

SACRAMENTO — The state may need to find more money to implement the sweeping drug treatment initiative adopted by voters this month, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton said in a letter made public Tuesday. 

The ballot measure, Proposition 36, requires that those convicted of possessing or using drugs for the first or second time be sent to treatment programs instead of prison or jail. 

However, the $120 million allocated to treatment programs by the initiative may not pay for enough treatment or monitoring of drug offenders, nor will it pay for periodic drug testing, said Burton, D-San Francisco, who supported the initiative. 

“The voters of California have delivered a historic demand for change by approving Proposition 36,” Burton said in a letter to Gov. Gray Davis. He urged the governor to consider the funding shortfalls as Davis prepares the new state budget and looks toward the 2001 legislative session. 

The governor’s staff is reviewing Burton’s letter, and the requirements of the proposition, said Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean. 

Burton also said he will create a task force of criminal justice and drug treatment experts to oversee implementation of the measure and advise the Senate.

LOS ANGELES — Advocates for the homeless have sued the city of Los Angeles, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and the commander of the police department’s Central Division to stop the department’s recent practice of strictly enforcing loitering and other laws in the skid row area. 

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court late Monday, says the Los Angeles Police Department’s practice of citing the homeless in skid row for minor offenses is unconstitutional and amounts to harassment. 

The lawsuit contends that the possessions of numerous homeless people who were stopped for questioning by officers were seized and destroyed.  

Some homeless people were threatened with arrest if they objected, the suit says. 

Since September, the commander of the Central Division, Capt. Stuart Maislin, has ordered his officers to cite the homeless for blocking the sidewalk and jaywalking. Officers have also been rousing the homeless early in the morning, asking for identification and arresting people with outstanding warrants. 

In parts of skid row, a 50-block area east and south of downtown, entire streets have been cleared of vagrants. 

A recent increase in violent crime in skid row caused Maislin to change the division’s practice of generally ignoring the homeless, the Los Angeles Times reported.  

Violent crime has decreased since then, Maislin said. 

A spokesman for the Police Department declined comment to the Times late Monday on the suit. 

Attorney Carol A. Sobel of Santa Monica, one of several civil rights lawyers who prepared the suit, said papers would be filed Tuesday in an attempt to secure a temporary restraining order.

Al Gore’s ballot-by-ballot fight for the White House was given new life Tuesday night, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the “will of the people” demanded that manual recounts be added in the state’s election totals. Their work approved, weary election officials plowed through ballots into the night. 

“An accurate vote count is one of the essential foundations of our democracy,” the seven justices said. 

The unanimous decision came as election workers in three counties continued their counting of 1.5 million ballots, now facing a Sunday deadline to complete their task. 

“Twenty five years ago this court commented that the will of the people, not the hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in elections,” read the court ruling. 

Bush holds a 930-vote lead in the official, but uncertified vote tallies from Election Day, with overseas absentee ballots included. Gore has slowly been eating into that lead in recent days as recounts have proceeded at his urging in three Democratic counties. 

“I think we’ll be able to meet the deadline,” said Circuit Judge Charles Burton, head of the Palm Beach elections board. Televisions in the West Palm Beach counting room showed the Supreme Court spokesman releasing the decision, but the audio was turned off. Workers continued to hand count the ballots. 

It was unclear whether the ruling set standards for country election officials to determine the validity of ballots – a key issue as Gore scrambles for each and every vote. Democrats welcomed the decision, but privately worried that Republicans would slow down the recount process to make it difficult for Gore to overtake Bush before the deadline. 

“We view tonight ruling in the Florida Supreme Court as a victory for the people,” said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. “The hand counts will go forward and the will of the people will be reflected accurately and completely.” 

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was expected to respond for Bush, who was in Texas when the ruling was handed down. Gore was at his residence in Washington and planned a statement. 

In advance of the ruling, Republican lawyers prepared to take an emergency appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court in case the Florida court rules against them. 

Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican and Bush ally, who had refused to accept the hand counts, was not available for comment. 

Clay Roberts, Republican-appointed director of state Division of Elections and a member of the state canvassing board, said, “Certainly we will follow the orders of the Florida Supreme Court. Of course the Secretary of State is going to abide by the ruling on the highest court of the state. 

“I haven’t read their ruling so I don’t know whether to be disappointed in it or not. It’s really not our concern whether it’s a victory for Al Gore or George Bush. The secretary of state was presented with a statute that had some conflict and she interpreted it to the best of her ability according to the law,” he said. 

Gore had picked up 266 votes in recounts by late Tuesday, which if approved by the courts and added to official state totals would shave Bush’s lead to 664 votes out of 6 million cast. Bush has held his own in at least one of the counties, raising fears among Democrats that they will not overtake the Texas governor unless every possible ballot is counted. 

Democrats want three county canvassing boards to count hundreds of punch-card ballots with no holes poked out for the presidential race, giving Gore or Bush a vote when an indentation is found next to their name. With the Texas Republican clinging to a 930-vote lead, the vice president’s advisers said they almost certainly can’t win Florida and the White House unless county officials discern the intent of voters whose ballots were not properly punched. 

In Broward County, where up to 2,000 questionable ballots were set aside for review later, officials asked the Supreme Court to set a uniform standard for validating ballots. “It is imperative that it be resolved immediately,” the brief said. 

Both sides acknowledged Tuesday that Gore stands to pick up hundreds of votes — perhaps as many as 1,500 with the most liberal approval standards. The three counties conducting recounts are predominantly Democratic, and voters from Gore’s party historically cast more faulty ballots than their GOP counterparts. 

Republicans want the manual recounts stopped and, if not, they fear a broad standard for reviewing the ballots will tilt the race to Gore. Bush’s team has an ace in the hole: Hundreds of absentee ballots from military outposts that were rejected on technicalities. 

A senior Bush adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in advance of the ruling that Republicans were likely to sue to reinstate rejected absentee ballots from military outposts if the Supreme Court allows recounts to go forward. Democrats waged a county-by-county campaign to toss out the absentee votes, a majority of which were Republican, but rolled back on their objections to the military ballots after coming under heavy criticism. 

In recounting rooms across the southeast coast of Florida, the procedure varied little Tuesday: Gore ballots went in one pile; Bush ballots in another; questionable ballots, including some with dimples, in yet a third. 

Officials on both sides said that absent a court ruling, the questionable ballots may yet settle the nation’s presidential election — hundreds of cardboard punchcards, puzzled over by officials on three county canvassing boards. 

While awaiting word on the fate of their recounts, local officials have set their own often-shifting standards. 

In the state’s largest county, Miami-Dade, election officials are following the guidance of Gore’s allies and assigning votes whenever a voter’s intent could be determined by an indentation on the ballot. With a small fraction of the precincts counted, both sides said Gore was on pace to pick up about 500 votes by the time counting ends, about Dec. 1. 

A circuit judge rejected GOP requests to set standards in Miami-Dade for ballot review and search garbage cans for chads — scraps of paper that are dislodged when a ballot is punched. “I’m not going to manage the minutiae of each ballot,” Circuit Judge David Tobin said. 

Tempers flared in the vote-counting rooms. Republican observer Grant Lally asked to have Ivy Korman, the administrator of the elections department, removed from the counting room. 

“She’s been hostile,” he told elections supervisor Lawrence King. “She snapped at me at lunch.” 

“I have a one-hour lunch break. That was it,” Korman replied. “I ignored him and read my newspaper.” 

Up the coast in Broward County, all ballots with dimpled chads or just one corner of the chad detached are set aside to be reviewed by the canvassing board after all the other ballots are counted. 

Officials finished counting ballots that were not in dispute Tuesday night, and Gore had gained 118 votes on Bush. Senior Republicans and Democrats alike said Gore could net another 500 or so votes in Broward County alone if the dimpled ballots are allowed. 

Circuit Judge Robert Rosenberg, a Republican with Democratic ties, was named to the three-person county elections board to replace Jane Carroll, who abruptly quit Monday. 

Further up the coast, Palm Beach County is the key to Gore’s recount drive. The vice president had picked up only a handful of votes with one-fifth of the precincts counted, not nearly enough to overtake Bush, according to senior Democrats. Officials there are not considering any ballots with dimpled chads or with chads detached at one corer. 

Party lawyer Dennis Newman, overseeing the Palm Beach recount for Gore, said there were 557 “dimpled” ballots for Gore and 260 for Bush that hadn’t been counted as officials completed work on 176 of the counties 531 precincts. Those figures were not disputed by senior GOP officials. 

Democratic sources say they believe there may be hundreds more dimpled ballots in Palm Beach County once all the votes are reviewed, and Bush’s team doesn’t disagree. Democrats are asking a local court to force the canvassing board to apply a broader standard for accepting votes. 

The Associated Press 

Al Gore’s ballot-by-ballot fight for the White House was given new life Tuesday night, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the “will of the people” demanded that manual recounts be added in the state’s election totals. Their work approved, weary election officials plowed through ballots into the night. 

“An accurate vote count is one of the essential foundations of our democracy,” the seven justices said. 

The unanimous decision came as election workers in three counties continued their counting of 1.5 million ballots, now facing a Sunday deadline to complete their task. 

“Twenty five years ago this court commented that the will of the people, not the hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in elections,” read the court ruling. 

Bush holds a 930-vote lead in the official, but uncertified vote tallies from Election Day, with overseas absentee ballots included. Gore has slowly been eating into that lead in recent days as recounts have proceeded at his urging in three Democratic counties. 

“I think we’ll be able to meet the deadline,” said Circuit Judge Charles Burton, head of the Palm Beach elections board. Televisions in the West Palm Beach counting room showed the Supreme Court spokesman releasing the decision, but the audio was turned off. Workers continued to hand count the ballots. 

It was unclear whether the ruling set standards for country election officials to determine the validity of ballots – a key issue as Gore scrambles for each and every vote. Democrats welcomed the decision, but privately worried that Republicans would slow down the recount process to make it difficult for Gore to overtake Bush before the deadline. 

“We view tonight ruling in the Florida Supreme Court as a victory for the people,” said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. “The hand counts will go forward and the will of the people will be reflected accurately and completely.” 

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was expected to respond for Bush, who was in Texas when the ruling was handed down. Gore was at his residence in Washington and planned a statement. 

In advance of the ruling, Republican lawyers prepared to take an emergency appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court in case the Florida court rules against them. 

Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican and Bush ally, who had refused to accept the hand counts, was not available for comment. 

Clay Roberts, Republican-appointed director of state Division of Elections and a member of the state canvassing board, said, “Certainly we will follow the orders of the Florida Supreme Court. Of course the Secretary of State is going to abide by the ruling on the highest court of the state. 

“I haven’t read their ruling so I don’t know whether to be disappointed in it or not. It’s really not our concern whether it’s a victory for Al Gore or George Bush. The secretary of state was presented with a statute that had some conflict and she interpreted it to the best of her ability according to the law,” he said. 

Gore had picked up 266 votes in recounts by late Tuesday, which if approved by the courts and added to official state totals would shave Bush’s lead to 664 votes out of 6 million cast. Bush has held his own in at least one of the counties, raising fears among Democrats that they will not overtake the Texas governor unless every possible ballot is counted. 

Democrats want three county canvassing boards to count hundreds of punch-card ballots with no holes poked out for the presidential race, giving Gore or Bush a vote when an indentation is found next to their name. With the Texas Republican clinging to a 930-vote lead, the vice president’s advisers said they almost certainly can’t win Florida and the White House unless county officials discern the intent of voters whose ballots were not properly punched. 

In Broward County, where up to 2,000 questionable ballots were set aside for review later, officials asked the Supreme Court to set a uniform standard for validating ballots. “It is imperative that it be resolved immediately,” the brief said. 

Both sides acknowledged Tuesday that Gore stands to pick up hundreds of votes — perhaps as many as 1,500 with the most liberal approval standards. The three counties conducting recounts are predominantly Democratic, and voters from Gore’s party historically cast more faulty ballots than their GOP counterparts. 

Republicans want the manual recounts stopped and, if not, they fear a broad standard for reviewing the ballots will tilt the race to Gore. Bush’s team has an ace in the hole: Hundreds of absentee ballots from military outposts that were rejected on technicalities. 

A senior Bush adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in advance of the ruling that Republicans were likely to sue to reinstate rejected absentee ballots from military outposts if the Supreme Court allows recounts to go forward. Democrats waged a county-by-county campaign to toss out the absentee votes, a majority of which were Republican, but rolled back on their objections to the military ballots after coming under heavy criticism. 

In recounting rooms across the southeast coast of Florida, the procedure varied little Tuesday: Gore ballots went in one pile; Bush ballots in another; questionable ballots, including some with dimples, in yet a third. 

Officials on both sides said that absent a court ruling, the questionable ballots may yet settle the nation’s presidential election — hundreds of cardboard punchcards, puzzled over by officials on three county canvassing boards. 

While awaiting word on the fate of their recounts, local officials have set their own often-shifting standards. 

In the state’s largest county, Miami-Dade, election officials are following the guidance of Gore’s allies and assigning votes whenever a voter’s intent could be determined by an indentation on the ballot. With a small fraction of the precincts counted, both sides said Gore was on pace to pick up about 500 votes by the time counting ends, about Dec. 1. 

A circuit judge rejected GOP requests to set standards in Miami-Dade for ballot review and search garbage cans for chads — scraps of paper that are dislodged when a ballot is punched. “I’m not going to manage the minutiae of each ballot,” Circuit Judge David Tobin said. 

Tempers flared in the vote-counting rooms. Republican observer Grant Lally asked to have Ivy Korman, the administrator of the elections department, removed from the counting room. 

“She’s been hostile,” he told elections supervisor Lawrence King. “She snapped at me at lunch.” 

“I have a one-hour lunch break. That was it,” Korman replied. “I ignored him and read my newspaper.” 

Up the coast in Broward County, all ballots with dimpled chads or just one corner of the chad detached are set aside to be reviewed by the canvassing board after all the other ballots are counted. 

Officials finished counting ballots that were not in dispute Tuesday night, and Gore had gained 118 votes on Bush. Senior Republicans and Democrats alike said Gore could net another 500 or so votes in Broward County alone if the dimpled ballots are allowed. 

Circuit Judge Robert Rosenberg, a Republican with Democratic ties, was named to the three-person county elections board to replace Jane Carroll, who abruptly quit Monday. 

Further up the coast, Palm Beach County is the key to Gore’s recount drive. The vice president had picked up only a handful of votes with one-fifth of the precincts counted, not nearly enough to overtake Bush, according to senior Democrats. Officials there are not considering any ballots with dimpled chads or with chads detached at one corer. 

Party lawyer Dennis Newman, overseeing the Palm Beach recount for Gore, said there were 557 “dimpled” ballots for Gore and 260 for Bush that hadn’t been counted as officials completed work on 176 of the counties 531 precincts. Those figures were not disputed by senior GOP officials. 

Democratic sources say they believe there may be hundreds more dimpled ballots in Palm Beach County once all the votes are reviewed, and Bush’s team doesn’t disagree. Democrats are asking a local court to force the canvassing board to apply a broader standard for accepting votes. 

º 

AT A GLANCE 

COUNTING 

• Miami-Dade County: With 135 of 614 precincts recounted through Tuesday, Al Gore had gained 157 votes over last week’s official totals. 

• Broward County: With all the 609 precincts recounted plus more than 11,700 absentee ballots, Gore had gained 106 votes. About 38,000 absentee ballots and up to 2,000 disputed ballots remain to be reviewed. 

• Palm Beach County: With 103 of 531 precincts recounted by hand, Gore had gained three votes. The county did not release results from another 384 already counted. On Tuesday alone, 1,979 ballots were set aside as questionable. 

COURTS 

• Al Gore’s presidential hopes stay alive. The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the manual recounts in three counties can continue through Sunday or Monday. The court said that, in this disputed election, the most important issue is giving people a chance to vote. Gore now needs to find 930 votes in the recounts to wipe out the lead held by Republican George W. Bush to win Florida and the presidency. 

UPCOMING 

• A hearing is set for Wednesday in Palm Beach County on a Democratic motion to force the canvassing board to consider dimpled chads. 

One of the Bay area's most precious commodities – parking – is fast fading at Oakland International Airport this holiday season. 

But for the time being, spaces are still available, said airport duty supervisor Carolyn Anderson. 

“We still have quite a bit of parking left in our parking lot,'' she said. “Right now we still have a quarter of the space in our overflow.”  

She also warned, however, “Tomorrow, the space is gonna dwindle fast.”  

As of late afternoon Tuesday, the airport parking lot had 522 spaces available in its short-term section, 866 in its long-term section, and 747 in the economy section, Anderson said. 

“I’m sure all of this will change by noontime tomorrow,” she said.  

That’s when the real crunch begins, as the Thanksgiving celebrants begin their annual migration.

The most powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner in the country to be devoted solely to basic research on the brain was unveiled Monday at the University of California, Berkeley.  

The new $5 million brain imaging center launches an era of extraordinary neuroscience research at UC Berkeley. It brings together scientists from many disciplines – physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and computer sciences – to study the living brain with this state-of-the-art research tool. 

The MRI scanner will be officially launched today as part of the Henry H. Wheeler Jr. Brain Imaging Center, where the14-ton scanner, manufactured by Varian, Inc., of Palo Alto, was installed earlier this year. Inauguration of the center moves forward UC Berkeley's Health Sciences Initiative, a commitment to deploy the campus's rich intellectual resources across disciplines to solve problems of human disease and unlock the mysteries of the mind.  

“We are thrilled to officially welcome this new magnetic imaging scanner and the Henry H. Wheeler Jr. Brain Imaging Center to our campus,” said UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl.  

“Berkeley is proud to lead a new era of neuroscience research and to continue, through this important part of our Health Science Initiative, to study the brain in an unprecedented way and seek solutions to our most pressing health problems,” he said.  

Research using the new scanner will include studies of both normal and neurologically-impaired individuals, as scientists seek to understand the impact of aging on memory and attention, as well as how these functions are disturbed in people with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, and attention deficit disorder.  

“This is a very special facility, one of the few in the world which is used purely for basic research by neuroscientists, with collaboration from physical and chemical scientists who can push forward the frontiers of technology,” said Corey Goodman, who holds the Evan Rauch Chair of Neuroscience and leads UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, the parent organization of the Brain Imaging Center.  

“We want to integrate the neurosciences from one end to the other, from psychology and behavior to the nuts and bolts of genes and genomes,” said Goodman.  

Roughly three times more powerful than the 1.5 Tesla MRI scanners used for clinical purposes, this research scanner can visualize anatomical detail less than a millimeter in size.  

The smaller machines can visualize detail only in the range of a few millimeters – a major difference in terms of neural activity.  

More importantly, the machine is fast enough to support advanced work with functional MRI (fMRI), in which neuroscientists detect and display brain activity less than a second long.  

“Mental events last only a few milliseconds,” said Mark D’Esposito, M.D., UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology and director of the new Brain Imaging Center.  

“Only in the last few years have we been capable of capturing this level of brain activity, and each year our methods improve,” said D’Esposito. “The temporal and spatial resolution provided by this machine will give us a unique view of neural activity as it moves across the brain.”  

The non-invasive procedure carries no risk for the individual undergoing a scan.  

Detection of brain activity by the MRI depends on blood flow throughout the three-pound organ. Theoretically, the flow of oxygen-rich blood corresponds to changes in neural activity. Neurons use the oxygen, resulting in hemoglobin changes that are detected as radio signals by the MRI. As it turns out, deoxygenated hemoglobin has slightly different magnetic properties than oxygenated hemoglobin. Radio signals detected by the MRI can then be analyzed by computer and displayed as colored areas of the brain.  

Research already underway at UC Berkeley, using volunteers, has focused on the brain's frontal lobes, the area just behind the forehead that mediates so-called higher cortical functions such as memory, attention and concentration. This area also provides control of visual, spatial and motor activity. (See fMRI scans from a recent experiment) 

D’Esposito, a neurologist and the first of six faculty members to be hired by UC Berkeley’s neuroscience institute, has found that, during memory tasks, the frontal lobes function differently in young people (ages 18-25), compared to older people (ages 60-80).  

“Clearly, short-term memory declines with age, and we see the corresponding changes in brain activity using MRI,” he said. “We can show that the frontal lobes function differently in the two groups during a memory task. Differences in brain activity in the younger and older subjects was limited to one region of the frontal lobes. In this region, older individuals used more of the brain even though they were as accurate as the young during performance of the task.  

“This finding suggests that, for older subjects, using more of the brain in memory tasks has beneficial effects,” said D’Esposito, adding that there was a great deal of variation in performance within the group.  

“Why these differences in brain activity occur between individuals and age groups, and how this affects their performance, are clearly key questions we have to answer,” he said. “This research has only begun.”  

Other kinds of brain research with the MRI will involve subjects with certain kinds of neurological damage who have participated as volunteers in a wide variety of basic studies on visual perception, motor function, memory, language and attention. This research is being carried out by another neurologist, Robert Knight, M.D., a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.  

Knight, who came to UC Berkeley last year, was the first neurologist in more than a century to be hired by a psychology department anywhere in the nation.  

Goodman, the neuroscience institute director, said the campus’s acquisition of the new MRI scanner “exemplifies Berkeley’s commitment to health science and to integrating basic neuroscience with medical therapy for neurological and psychiatric disorders.” Many of the researchers involved in the new brain research are from the Department of Psychology, in the College of Letters & Science.

Although KPFA did not participate in a recent nationwide boycott of parent company Pacifica News Network, workers there fully support the effort because they say the radio station’s quality is suffering. 

“They’re mainstreaming and decreasing the quality of our programming,” said Matt Martin, KPFA programming coordinator. “They’ve made it difficult to do hiring and they’ve manipulated our resources.” 

Last Thursday, 20 radio stations from as far away as Portland, Maine, boycotted Pacifica programming for what they called, “the on-going crisis,” at the network. 

“[The protest] had a ripple effect that brought this more into the eye of the public,” said Cathy Mielo, one of the protest’s organizers. 

Mielo said Pacifica’s programming quality is much lower after a KPFA lock-out and protest over staffing and control of the station’s editorial content in 1999. KPFA produces shows such as Democracy Now! that offer different viewpoints than traditional mainstream media shows. The shows are broadcast at affiliated stations across the country.  

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! host, did not return a call for comment. 

Martin said the general consensus around the station is that Pacifica is making it hard to put out quality shows. 

“Everyday we live with their poor decisions,” he said.  

The protest had little effect, said Patricia Guadelupe, news director for Pacifica Network News. 

“I haven’t paid any attention to it,” she said. She then referred all calls to Steve Yiasko, national programming director for Pacifica Network News. Yiasko did not return a call for comment. 

In the meantime, Mielo said the affiliated stations are planning additional protests .  

“In each one of these efforts there’s a synergy involved with the other efforts,” she said.  

Even though KPFA reported last week’s protest, Martin said the station did not participate because of network threats. 

“We support it, but it was organized by affiliates and KPFA was not in the discussion. In fact, we didn’t know about it until the Friday before,” he said. “Also we’ve been told that PNN is a must-carry and we’ve had threats. 

“Unfortunately we didn’t do more to show solidarity with the people showing solidarity with us.”

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 

Environmental Solutions! 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

Soulful Improv Games 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening is a “Shamanic Journeying Salon.” 

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541 

Lesbians and Gays Get  

Together 

1:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Wednesday, Nov. 22

Tai Chi Chuen with Henry  

Chang 

2 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Disaster Council Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

Thursday, Nov. 23

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

Friday, Nov. 24

“Yoga Poems”  

7:30 p.m. 

Piedmont Yoga Studio 

4125 Piedmont Ave. 

Piedmont 

Leza Lowitz will read from her new book, which contains over 60 poems inspired by different yoga poses, and do a yoga performance. Free. 

Call Miki, 558-7826 

Saturday, Nov. 25

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612 

Create the City of Your  

Fantasies 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening features DJ’d “Candlelight Massage Circles Salon.”  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Papersong Grand Opening Celebration 

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Swan’s Marketplace 

936B Clay St.  

Oakland 

Featuring free musical performances by Big Brother & The Holding Co., Caravan of All Stars Revue, The Charles Dudley Band, and Jane DeCuir.  

Call 436-5131 

Sunday, Nov. 26

The Value of Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Joleen Vries, director of the Nyingma Institute in the Netherlands for over five years, will discuss how to maintain a regular meditation practice. Free 

843-6812 

Monday, Nov. 27

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

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 

Parks & Recreation Board 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Solid Waste Management  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St.  

Zoning Adjustment Board  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

Educational Philosophies  

Roundtable 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

At this roundtable, Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, parents will learn about the following educational philosophies: Developmental, cooperative, Montessori, bilingual, Waldorf, religious, homeschooling, and charter schools.  

Free to members; non-members, $5 

Call 527-6667 or visit www. 

parentsnet.org  

Tai Chi Chih with Ben Levitan  

1 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Tuesday, Nov. 28

Blood Pressure for Seniors 

9:30 - 11 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Read a Play Together Salon 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Lavender Lunch 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 100 

PSR adjunct faculty member Mark Wilson and PSR alumna Lynice Pinkard will speak on “Heterosexism and Racism.” Sponsored by PSR’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. Free Call 849-8206 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of  

Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it.  

Call 843-3533 

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

Membership Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Discussion of how the election results will affect the Gray Panthers.  

Call 548-9696 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 MLK Jr. Way (at Derby) 

Thursday, Nov. 30

Pro Arts Juried Show  

Reception 

6 - 8 p.m.  

Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St.  

With the work of 70 artists, this annual show features the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The show runs through December 30. See A&E calendar for details.  

Snowshoeing Basics  

7 p.m . 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional snowshoe guide Cathy Anderson-Meyers gives basic instruction on how to get out and experience Tahoe’s winter terrain on “shoes.” Call 527-4140 

Art for Sale 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute  

1060 Heinz Ave.  

Over sixty artists affiliated with the Kala Art Institute exhibit works ranging from traditional wood block prints to works in digital media. During the reception, artists will offer 10 percent off the sale of their prints. 549-2977 

— compiled by  

Chason Williams 

Oakland Museum Trip for Seniors 

(trip on Dec. 8) 

A trip to the Oakland Museum to see the Imperial Palace of China Exhibit. Organized by the North Berkeley Senior Center 

Call Maggie, 644-6107 

Let Your Chi Flow Freely 

6 - 7 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway Ave. 

Oakland 

Share peace and tranquillity communally and regain harmony and balance.  

Call Idris Hassan, 835-4827 x31  

Friday, Dec. 1

Spanish Book Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books  

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

A discussion of “Dona Barbara” by the Colombian writer Rumulo Gallegos. New members welcome. The group meets the first Friday of each month.  

Call 601-0454  

Taize Worship Services  

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.  

Loper Chapel  

Dana St. (between Durant & Channing) 

Call 848-3696 

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  

Whymsium Anniversary Party 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This annual party features a talent show, games and a dance.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541  

Finding a Way In 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Offering a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender jews to express personal concerns and to find a place to belong in the Jewish community.  

$5 with pre-registraiton; $7 at door  

845-6420 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612  

Know Your Rights Training 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch Office  

2022 Blake St.  

Learn what your rights are in dealing with the police. Learn how to monitor the police safely.  

Call 548-0425 

Publish Your Own Book 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St. 

Mark Weiman of Regen Press presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publishing.  

$60 per person 

Call Mark Weiman, 547-7602 

Friends of Berkeley Youth Alternatives 

Wine Tasting  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Rosenblum Cellars 

2900 Main St.  

Alameda 

All proceeds benefit the children and families served by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 

$25 

Call 845-9010 

Sunday Dec. 3

Connecting with Nature 

1 - 3 p.m.  

Rotary Nature Center  

600 Bellevue Ave. (at Perkins) 

Oakland 

Children aged six to twelve, accompanied by a parent, are invited to explore nature with all their senses. Cathy Holt, author of “The Circle of Healing” will lead the event. Free 

Call Stephanie for reservations, 238-3739 

Transcending Limits on Knowledge  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place 

Lee Nichol on Tarthang Tulku’s “Time, Space, and Knowledge.” Free 

843-6812 

Richmond Holiday Arts Festival 

Noon - 4 p.m. 

Richmond Art Center 

2540 Barret Ave.  

Richmond 

A silent auction, craft sale, gifts and services auction, and hands-on art projects. Proceeds benefit the Richmond Art Center. Free  

620-6772 

Kitka’s “Wintersongs Holiday Tour” 

7 p.m. 

Lake Merritt United Methodist Church 

1330 Lakeshore Ave. 

Oakland 

In it’s first annual winter holiday concert, this women’s vocal ensemble will perform Eastern European seasonal songs.  

$15 - $20 

444-0323 

Winterfest 

Noon - 4 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

A celebration of winter family traditions like music, dance, craft activities, and food. Included in museum admission. 

$6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Joe Raskin & David Slusser’s  

Improv Derby 

7:48 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Joe Raskin/George Cremaschi Duo & David Slusser’s Improv Derby. Part of ACME Observatory Contemporary Music Series.  

$8 suggested donation 

Call 444-3595 

Monday, Dec. 4

Personnel Board Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Permit Center 

2118 Milvia St.  

First Floor Conference Room 

Youth Commission 

6 p.m. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Center 

1730 Oregon St. 

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkely Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Peace and Justice Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Tuesday, Dec. 5

Design the Perfect School  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

Jewish Book Club 

7:30 - 9:15 p.m.  

Jewish Learning Center  

1414 Walnut St.  

Join in a discussion of Brian Norton’s “Starting Out in the Evening.” Free 

848-0237 x 127 

Get the Lead Out 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Center 

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Learn how to prevent lead poisoning in your home. Taught by expert staff, this course offers techniques property owners can use to safety paint and remodel their homes.  

Call 567-8280 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Bicyclists should follow rules of the road 

Editor: 

Jonathan Cass, a “Southside cyclist,” in arguing against traffic signals on Durant and Bancroft (“Southside Redevelopment to Focus on Traffic, Housing,” Friday, 11/17) is quoted as saying, “Traffic signals are a way to move automobile traffic. That area is dominated by foot and cycle traffic and that should be our first concern.” 

It is striking to me as a resident, property owner, and former teacher not unsympathetic to student concerns, that Cass views traffic signals as exclusively designed for automobile traffic and, therefore, unrelated to his cycling on Berkeley’s streets. It helps to explain, but does not excuse, the disregard which cyclists throughout the city show for traffic regulations, and the faith they appear to have that drivers will protect them from injury by being extra alert and obeying those regulations when the cyclists do not.  

Safety is my first concern when I drive, but not just for those on foot or on cycles. I want a city where we all protect each other by obeying traffic signals, signs, crosswalk conventions, and the courteous rules of traffic coexistence. Probably Cass does too, but his apparent assumption that the burden is exclusively on drivers needs to be given some thought.  

Charles Schiller 

Berkeley 

Associated Press homogenizes news coverage 

Editor: 

Eight years ago I made the acquaintance of a French graduate student in journalism who was doing a year of study abroad. One evening I performed the melancholy task of educating him about the nature of American newspapers. I sat him down with copies of the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, and showed him how most of their 'stories' were exactly the same wire service reports, and most of their space was devoted to advertisements. So much for the American free press. He was as amused as I was dismayed. (The situation is quite different in France, where quite a wide spectrum of views are represented in the national press.) 

I am writing to express my dismay at the recent proliferation of “Associated Press” stories in the Daily Planet. These reports (or “press releases,” as they should properly be termed) are to be found in nearly identical form in every ‘major American newspaper’ locally and nationwide. There is absolutely no reason for the Daily Planet to print them too. It is particularly disheartening to witness this incipient transformation when the Daily Planet was beginning to serve a valuable role as a local source of local news and as a forum for local discussion of local issues. Filling this ‘niche,’ you offer an important service to the community. Reprinting press releases you become one more organ of the American un-free press and serve no one. Please reconsider your course of action. 

Jim Powell 

Berkeley

Free speech is alive and well at King Middle School – thanks to a civic minded seventh-grader who has taken on the task of creating the school’s first student-run newspaper. 

The fledgling publication hit the school news stand in early November and appears to be off to a running start. 

“We’ve got some contributors, people from sixth, seventh and eighth grade. We’re also working with King Gay/Straight Alliance and will publish something from them in our next issue,” said creator and Editor-in-Chief Jacob Schneider. 

Schneider, 12, said he first had the idea for the paper last year when he was in sixth grade. 

“I just noticed that we didn’t have a paper, and I thought we should so I decided to act on it,” he said. 

Schneider said he began talking to teachers and school officials to try and generate some interest. He found a staff sponsor, English/history teacher Darren Pagtakhan, and began recruiting fellow students. 

“It took shape reasonably quickly,” Schneider said. “There are a lot of good writers in this school I just had to figure out where they were.” 

The paper has been so popular that it’s staff has swelled from a mere handful of interested students to more than a dozen people in under a month. Schneider has had to act fast naming a copy editor, entertainment editor and fielding suggestions for future stories. 

“I’ve also applied for a grant to get some money to publish our next issue,” Schneider said. “My parents helped get the first issue off the ground, and it was about $500 but we definitely need some alternative to that.” 

Staff writer and recently appointed copy editor Graham Heimley, 14, said one of the biggest hurdles for the new publication was deciding what to call it. 

“We came up with so many names. The Cobra Chronicle, Venom, Viper and a slew of other names relating to snakes like The Hiss and, of course, The Bottomless Pit of Terror so ... we voted and Cobra won,” Heimley said. 

The first issue, which coincided with election week, ran articles explaining the electoral college, the issues and positions of each candidate and a first person piece on volunteering for Ralph Nader as well as a survey, crossword puzzle and comic strip. 

Entertainment editor Ellen Cushing, 12, plans on reviewing “Charlie’s Angels” and the King Middle School Winter Concert for the next issue. 

“I like to write and was really excited because the response from friends has been really good. People didn’t think it was dorky, they liked it,” Cushing said. 

Other pieces slated for the next issue include a poem, brain teaser, an article on irrational things people do to make their bodies look better, how to manage anger and another student comic strip. 

Tonya Tyree, who has a daughter at King Middle School, said she hoped they would continue their good work. 

“[ The new publication] provides a voice for the ideas and thoughts of students,” she said. 

English and History instructor Darren Pagtakhan was named faculty advisor to The Cobra and said the students “literally made it happen.” 

“This is an example of how an idea can really come to fruition,” he said. 

The popular Berkeley Guides – a walking, talking resource for anyone who works, shops or hangs out on Shattuck Avenue – will be asking the City Council for more money tonight. 

At the request of Berkeley Guides’ Executive Director Ove Wittstock, Mayor Shirley Dean will ask the City Council to come up with an additional $42,117 in the midyear budget to maintain existing services and augment guide salaries, which the mayor said is inadequate for the current job market. 

Currently, there are five guides whose pay ranges between $11 for a new guide to $14.50 for a senior supervisor with five years experience. 

The Berkeley Guides, which is managed by the Berkeley Police Department, has been funded at $171,000 since the group was founded in 1995, as part of Measure O, which was designed both to clean up Shattuck Avenue and provide more homeless services. Wittstock said the organization has been spending an average of $3,500 over its budget since July. He is also asking for the increase to become permanent part of the group’s annual budget. Guides work Tuesday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 3 p.m. to midnight. If additional funding is not approved, Wittstock said hours might be cut and the level of service may suffer. 

The guides walk along Shattuck between University Avenue and Channing Way offering assistance and information to anyone who needs it. Guides check in with merchants on their route to see if everything is OK. They hand out information booklets to the homeless telling them where they can find a hot meal, clothing and shelter. If someone is in a bad state physically or mentally, they will call the Mobil Crisis Unit to come out and do welfare check. If a traffic jam snarls the downtown area, they do what they can to unsnarl it.  

Sgt. Alec Boga said the guides have become indispensable to downtown. “If you want to know what’s going on, the first person you go to is a Berkeley Guide,” Boga said. “They know everything that’s going on down there.” 

The Downtown Berkeley Association, a merchants organization, strongly supports the guides. DBA Executive Director Deborah Badhia said the guides provide a visible presence on the street and they constantly check in with merchants making them aware of crime suspects in the area or current crime trends.  

“They are always very professional and a very effective and compassionate follow up to whatever happening on the street,” she said. 

The guides don’t carry any weapons and have a strict policy of not getting involved in potentially violent situations. If a situation does appear to be going bad they contact the police on portable radios and try and maintain calm until they arrive. 

Dean said the guides have had a good effect on Shattuck.  

“We’ve had problems with aggressive panhandlers and their presence has given people reassurance and had a calming effect,” she said. 

Wittstock said when hiring guides they look for somebody who is mature and has good public relations skills. He said one of the best guides was a 55-year-old woman who had a good rapport with the Berkeley High School kids who hang out on Shattuck Avenue during lunch and after school.  

“She would just talk to then like she was their grandmother and they loved it,” he said.

The City Council will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. to hear public comments regarding the city attorney’s opinion that four members of the Zoning Adjustments Board should disqualify themselves certain decisions because of the appearance of a conflict of interest. 

After the public comment portion of the meeting, the City Council will go into closed session to confer with City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. 

The city attorney wrote the opinion because the ZAB will be hearing several matters specifically related to the proposed synagogue and school the Congregation Beth El wants to build at 1301 Oxford St. The city attorney said the commissioners, who are board members or staff on the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, should disqualify themselves because BAHA wrote a letter critical of the project’s Environmental Impact Report. 

The special meeting was called because Antonio Rossman said in an interview with the Daily Planet that he would sue the city on behalf of the four commissioners if the City Council insists the commissioners disqualify themselves. Rossman, along with other attorneys, will address the City Council during the public comments segment of the meeting. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington has asked that time be allowed for public comment on the issue during the regular City Council meeting. There is a possibility the Council will vote to reject or uphold the city attorney’s opinion afterwards. 

The four commissioners, Becky O’Malley, Lesley Emmington-Jones, Doug Morse and Carrie Olson, have so far refused to step down and said they will take the issue to court if need be. 

The special meeting will be held in the third floor conference room at 1900 Addison St. at 5:30 p.m.  

Regular meeting 

The City Council will vote on a bid from McNamara and Smallman Construction, Inc. to replace or repair 8,330 linear feet of sewer lines in south Berkeley. 

The $807,000 project is part of the city’s long-term, mandated Sanitary Sewer Capital Improvement Program. The eight streets that will be effected are Carleton, Derby, Ward, Walker, Ellsworth and Dana streets and Walker and Telegraph avenues. If approved, the contractor plans to start work in the area within a month. 

Berkeley is complying with a Regional Quality Control Board Cease and Desist Order to eliminate sewage overflows. The sewers with the project area are old and prone to blockages and over capacity problems. 

The City Council is expected to adopt the first reading of an ordinance repealing the vintage 1950s Municipal Code regulating indoor entertainment and replace it with code. 

The current ordinance is permit oriented and cost applicants up $450 to apply. If awarded a permit the event is subject to a list of regulations such as “no obscene dancing,” and “any place if entertainment in which dancing takes place shall be kept well lighted.” 

Under the new ordinance, the permit process is eliminated and the old regulations are replaced with health and safety requirements such as fire precautions such as emergency access, placement of fire extinguishers and controlling admissions so the occupancy limit is not violated. 

The new regulations will apply to any public event in which more than 150 people are expected to attend. 

The regular City Council meeting will be held in the City Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. The meeting will be broadcast live on KPFB Radio 89.3 and Cable B-TV (channel 25).

A Berkeley volunteer organization garnered national attention and was recently bestowed with the Daily Points of Light Award by the Knights of Columbus, the Corporation for National Service and the Points of Light Foundation. 

The volunteers, who have raised more than $3.5 million for the Berkeley Public Library, were recognized for making a commitment to service in their community and for meeting critical needs of children and youth. 

“Two years ago Berkeley had no library foundation,” said Library Foundation Executive Director Glen Gilbert.  

“Now we have a core group of 18  

volunteers with an additional 30 or so part-time helpers.” 

The Berkeley Public Library Foundation members volunteer their time, energy and dollars to ensure that the now closed library will re-open in spring 2000 and have the necessary infrastructure to make it a success. The library, located on the corner of Shattuck and Kittridge streets, has been closed since October 1998. A temporary library was set up around the corner. 

“The plan has been to restore the old library and expand it,” Gilbert said. “Residents approved a $30 million bond measure to do that but it specifically states that those funds cannot be used to furnish the library.” 

The foundation was created to raise money to buy desks, tables, chairs and computer equipment for the new library. 

The new facility, which will be twice as big as the original library, will feature a 150-seat community meeting Room, an expanded children’s room, a teen room, an activity room, 100 new computers and a digital classroom. 

The Points of Light Foundation searches for programs that meet community needs and lead to long-term solutions, effort that build connections between the community and that demonstrate measurable impact, said President and CEO Robert Goodwin. 

“For demonstrating volunteer service that meets the criteria, Berkeley Public Library Foundation is truly deserving of recognition as a Daily Point of Light,” wrote Goodwin in his congratulatory letter. 

The award was presented virtually  

and can be accessed at www.pointsoflight.org/dpol/AwardWinnerShow.cmf/AwardNum=1772. 

In addition to receiving the Daily Points of Light Award, the Library Foundation was also awarded the Kresage Challenge Grant earlier this year and hopes to raise the additional $200,000 needed in order to qualify for the prize – an additional $300,000. 

“We’re getting down to the wire,” Gilbert said. “I sure hope we can make it.” 

The foundation has until December 31, 2000 to raise the necessary money to qualify for the challenge grant, according to Gilbert.  

The Library Foundation can be reached at info@bplf.org or by calling 549-2943.

There are 1.5 million Californians who need mental health services, but aren’t getting treatment, mainly because the state lacks “a clear commitment to provide mental health services to people who need assistance,” according to a report released Monday by a state commission. 

The Little Hoover Commission report examined how the state handles services to the mentally ill and concluded that the state needs to invest more money in helping communities provide housing, employment, counseling and other services to the mentally ill. 

Currently, the state “rations care to only the most severely disabled. And even then we often turn people away because adequate resources have not been budgeted,” said Richard Terzian, chairman of the commission. 

The commission, an independent oversight board made up of elected officials and private citizens, recommended that lawmakers immediately take steps to ensure anyone who needs mental health services gets treated. 

“The question is, are we going to continue to muster the political will to build the system that was promised a generation ago?” said Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the author of several bills on community-based mental health systems. 

“The history is clear. About 30 years ago when the decision was made to close the state hospitals, there was a promise to pay for the community programs where people could live with dignity. It hasn’t been done,” he said. 

Counties are responsible for providing services, but only to the extent that they have the money to pay for it. 

Until the state makes more money available, the public will “continue to be frustrated with a fragmented, crisis-driven system where cost-inefficiencies mount and fewer people recover,” said Assemblywoman Helen Thomson, D-Davis, a former nurse. 

The state should invest more funds in community-based programs that use integrated service programs, the report recommends. Those programs, such as Project HOPE in Sacramento, provide a gateway to every service that the client needs – medical, counseling, drug rehabilitation, housing, food and clothing. 

“The goal is to have these integrated services in every county in California,” Steinberg said. “And not just the homeless. The same model of integrated services and outreach can apply to people who are living with their families.” 

Steinberg says in its first year of operation, Project HOPE and the other pilot programs in Stanislaus and Los Angeles counties cost the state $10 million, but saved $20 million by not taking the mentally ill to jail or to emergency rooms. The state is paying $55 million to expand those programs this year. 

The report also recommends that the governor establish a temporary commission that would conduct a public education campaign to overcome the stigma of mental illness, study what programs work and what is needed, and assess the costs of failing to provide appropriate care. 

Commissioners also suggest that the governor establish the California Council on Offenders with Special Needs, which would investigate approaches to treating the long-term needs of mentally ill prison inmates.

SACRAMENTO — The income of a single parent earning minimum wage falls far short of what’s needed to be self-sufficient in California, according to a report released Monday. 

Even those with jobs well above minimum wage are struggling to provide for their families, said researchers with Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency.  

The report sets a “self-sufficiency standard” for each county, showing the minimum hourly wage needed to pay for the cost of living in California. 

“What the standard tells us is that lower wage jobs – even though well above the minimum wage or the official poverty level – simply do not provide enough for a family’s needs, even at a minimally adequate level,” said Diana Pearce, the report’s author. 

The self-sufficiency report recommends two strategies to close the gap between income levels and what’s needed to make ends meet – raise wages and increase state aid for necessities such as child care and housing. 

The report looked county-by-county at the costs most families have to bear – health care, housing, transportation and child care costs, said Pearce. 

For example, a single parent with two children in Sacramento needs to make about $34,000 a year to make ends meet.  

That’s more than twice the federal poverty level of $14,000 a year for a family of three. 

As expected, the highest hourly wage needed to support a family is in the Silicon Valley.  

A single parent with two children in Santa Clara County needs to earn $25.55 an hour, Pearce estimated. 

Part of the problem is that lawmakers use the federal poverty guidelines when setting policy – a guide that was established in the 1960s and isn’t based on modern costs or situations, such as the increase in single-parent families, researchers said. 

And too often, welfare case workers encourage aid recipients to take the first job offered to them, rather than complete their education or get training that will allow them to get higher paying jobs, said Pearce. 

That’s not news to Domaniquie Toney from Los Angeles, or Leilani Luia of Oakland, two single mothers who spoke at the news conference announcing the report’s release. 

On welfare since she was 15 years old, Toney, a 24-year-old mother of four, said she is now trying to finish high school so she can get a job that pays more than her current position as an office clerk. 

But case workers are pressuring her to take any job, regardless of the salary, instead of going to school, she said. 

“I really think they need to stress education, but they put it on the back burner,” she said. 

Luia, 32, said education is helping her close the gap between living on welfare and working full-time in a job that supports her family by herself.  

Luia, the mother of two, is attending college and plans to become a social worker. 

“Women who have not gotten higher education, but have gone through the programs in the county, have ended up in low-wage jobs that do not allow mobility.  

“They end up staying in poverty and staying in jobs like housekeeping, low-end clerical work like filing and phone operator, and even fast food,” she said. 

The study’s authors say lawmakers and Gov. Gray Davis should use the self-sufficiency standard as a guideline to expand programs that help the working poor in California. 

They suggest additional state aid for child care, health care and tax relief – especially for those going from welfare to the job market. 

“A single dollar of support often multiplies itself in benefits to a family,” Pearce said.

LOS ANGELES — In order to rehabilitate thousands of juveniles in the state’s youth prison system, officials need to expand drug treatment, sex offender therapy and counseling programs. 

The suggestions were made by a panel of experts and were included in a 4-inch-thick volume of reform proposals presented last week for the California Youth Authority. 

But the experts say true reform of the 15-prison system, which houses about 7,4000 wards, will take strong leadership and more money. 

“These are some very troubling and troublesome young people and they need resources,” said Barry Krisberg, president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. “They have to be treated.” Krisberg said he believes some of the panel’s suggestions could offer immediate relief for the juveniles. 

Representatives for Robert Presley, secretary of the state Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, and Jerry L. Harper, director of the youth authority, said both men agree with the proposed measures and plan move ahead with implementation as soon as possible. 

After the Los Angeles Times reported several problems within some youth authority facilities last year, Presley convened the panel of some 100 experts, which, in turn, produced the report that became public last week. 

The Times review found that wards sometimes were ordered into special programs, such as drug rehabilitation, and then denied parole when those programs had no vacancies. 

It was also found that nearly 2,000 wards were waiting for drug rehab, while nearly 700 others could not get a bed in the special units for severe psychological disability or sexual deviance. 

The state office of the inspector general also had concerns. It discovered wards in several institutions were subjected to excessive force and received few of the programs they were promised. 

State Senate leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, cheered the reform proposals and said he will push a budget increase for the troubled agency. 

The legislative analyst’s office has suggested that it would take $25 million more a year to provide the special treatment programs that wards have been ordered to enter. 

Gov. Gray Davis vetoed an additional $6.4 million put into this year’s budget for such services, saying that the need for the funds was “unclear.” However, some officials are confident that Davis will back more spending for the reforms in the budget he is expected to announce for the coming year. 

LOS ANGELES — A judge, bailiffs, clerks and lawyers moved out of the courtroom and into a homeless shelter Monday to hold the county’s first “homeless court.” 

In less than an hour, Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan cleared a docket filled with outstanding warrants and nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, all while working from a makeshift bench set up at the Union Rescue Mission downtown. 

“The Superior Court isn’t just here to pound people,” Tynan said before homeless court started. “We’re also here to help people out, especially because they are already helping themselves.” 

Homeless court works by knocking down legal hurdles for those trying to turn their lives around.  

Participants must be enrolled in a rehabilitation program for at least six months before they can apply to the city attorney to have their charges cleared. 

“It is really a blessing in my life,” said Johnnie Briggs, 43, after Tynan cleared seven traffic violations from his record. “It’s removed an obstacle that’s been holding me back. 

Briggs said he was homeless for six years and an alcohol and drug abuser before joining New Directions, a nonprofit organization that provides services for homeless veterans.  

He’s now looking forward to applying for a driver’s license. 

Ted Schirmer, an attorney for New Directions, said Briggs, who works as a hotel handyman, would have faced traffic fines of about $2,000 in regular court. 

“This gives them a real boost and lets them know they’re on the right path,” Schirmer said. 

The homeless court, which cleared 37 cases involving 24 defendants Monday, currently handles only infractions that have occurred in the city. The court, which hopes to operate monthly, will be expanded to outlying areas of Los Angeles County, said Judge Victor E. Chavez, presiding judge of the Superior Court. 

Officials in San Diego have been holding a monthly, mobile homeless court since October 1999. The San Diego homeless court, which grew from a program for military veterans, already has served more than 200 people and cleared more than 500 cases, said Steve Binder, a deputy public defender who founded the homeless court. 

“By going to the people who are in the shelter, you’re serving a stronger sense of justice and bringing order to society,” Binder said. “Instead of pushing the homeless further outside of society, we’re fostering their reintegration back into society.” 

A homeless court also is being considered in San Francisco, but it has been heavily criticized because it does not include defense lawyers, said Adam Arms, a staff attorney for the Coalition on Homelessness.

A transfixed nation turned its eyes to Florida’s Supreme Court, where an army of lawyers for Al Gore and George W. Bush battled Monday over whether the marathon election should drag on. Weary recount workers pecked through ballots in three Democratic-leaning counties, wondering if their labor would be for naught. 

After 13 days of suspended political animation, lawsuits and countersuits, “chads” and “pregnant chads,” the presidential election may come down to this: Seven justices, all appointed by Democratic governors, will decide if the GOP secretary of state can certify Bush’s minuscule lead without accepting votes counted by hand. 

Bush’s official lead stands at 930 votes. Gore picked up 154 votes in manual recounts by late Monday, which if counted would reduce Bush’s margin to 776. Gore advisers were frustrated by their relatively small gains and worried that they would not overtake Bush; Bush’s forces cried foul in the county where the vice president gained the most ground. 

The historic Supreme Court hearing opened with a court marshal bellowing, “God save these United States,” and the justices got right down to business —– peppering lawyers with questions of law in a case riddled with political landmines. 

Chief Justice Charles Wells pressed both sides about how long the state might wait to certify its election results without jeopardizing its 25-vote stake in the Dec. 18 roll call of the Electoral College. His questions sketched a scenario in which recounts might continue, perhaps into December. 

“Tell me when Florida’s electoral vote would be in jeopardy,” Wells said again and again. “Why wouldn’t it be in this unique circumstance a better thing to do to wait” to certify vote totals. 

Justice Barbara Pariente asked whether selective recounts were unfair to voters who live in counties where the ballots were tabulated only once – a point that Bush has made in his legal filings. 

Gore lawyer David Boies said “there is going to have to be a lot of judgment applied by the court” to set uniform standards for approving ballots by hand, but he asked the court to do just that. GOP attorneys had their turn, which they used to suggest that Democrats were twisting Florida’s law for political purposes. 

“Federal law will not allow this court or the Florida legislature to change the rules of the election after the election has taken place,” Bush lawyer Michael Carvin said. 

The proceedings were carried live on the major television networks, providing Americans with a short course in constitutional and election law. 

A number of Bush’s political advisers were unsettled by the Supreme Court’s line of questioning, and feared the justices had laid the groundwork for giving Gore the right to hand counts. Those hand counts would turn the election Gore’s way, one senior Republican fretted; others cautioned against reading too much into the two-hour arguments. 

The GOP legal team expressed private concerns about the reception before the Florida Supreme Court, and pondered options that could include an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if the recounting is permitted to continue. 

Gore’s advisers were hopeful of victory, though pragmatic enough to tell fellow Democrats they likely would urge the vice president to give up without a protracted legal fight if the state Supreme Court rejects manual recounts. 

The court’s decision is expected Tuesday or later. 

Miles from the legal wrangling, hundreds of workers in three Democratic-leaning counties continued manual recounts that have yielded Gore surprisingly few new votes. In one county, at least, Bush appeared to be holding his own. “There’s been very little change,” in the margin between the two men, said Judge Charles Burton, the head of the Palm Beach County canvassing board. 

Down the coast, Broward County elections supervisor Jane Carroll, 70, said the long recount was taking its toll on workers. 

“I feel like I’m incarcerated,” she said, hours before quitting her post, “with lunch and dinner brought into me and six attorneys sitting across from me the entire day.” She was quickly replaced so counting wouldn’t come to a screeching halt when she took her leave. 

The candidates, too, are prisoners to the stalemate in Florida, where the winner gets 25 electoral votes and keys to the White House. Aides said the presidents-in-waiting were anxious, but focused on this critical legal step – with little discussion under way about what might happen if they lose the Supreme Court fight. 

“Feeling great!” the Texas governor told reporters summoned to the Capitol in Austin to watch him head to work. 

Gore opened a satellite address to a family-policy conference with a scripted glibness. “I appreciate this chance to speak to the Florida Supreme Court,” the vice president said. 

The conference was scheduled for the summer, but Gore moved it to avoid conflict with the campaign season. “I just assumed by November 20 the election would be over with,” he said with a forced chuckle. 

Trying to defuse a growing controversy, Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Gore ally, urged counties to reconsider discarded overseas absentee ballots from military personnel and seek a “clarifying opinion” from GOP Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Democrats were criticized over the weekend for aggressively challenging ballots that had no postmarks from military outposts; Butterworth’s opinion sought to throw the dispute to Harris, who has refused to lift the state deadline for accepting Democratic recounts. 

Polls show the public is divided on whether the turmoil in Florida would eventually produce a fair and accurate outcome. Still, more than 80 percent of Americans said they would accept either Gore or Bush as the “legitimate president” in the end. 

The Supreme Court case was focused on Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, where more than 1.5 million votes were cast, a majority by Democrats. Gore needs the Supreme Court to approve the recounts and give county officials wide latitude for determining the intent of voters who cast disputed ballots. 

In Broward County, the board had been setting aside any ballots that did not have two corners poked out of the chad – the scrap of paper in a punch-card ballot. But all three board members agreed Sunday to re-evaluate ballots with a slight indentation, just one corner of the chad poked out or other questionable chads. 

Berkeley police are looking for suspects today in an attempted murder case in which a man was shot twice while he waited for a red light to turn green. 

Lt. Russ Lopes said the victim was driving westbound on Ward Street toward Sacramento Street at about 8:50 a.m. While he was waiting at a red light, another vehicle drove up and a passenger fired four rounds, Lopes said. 

One shot hit the man in the left forearm while another went from his upper back to his chest. Lopes said that none of the bullets struck vital organs and the victim was able to drive himself to Alta Bates Medical Center. He was later taken to the trauma center at Highland Hospital in Oakland, and Lopes said he is in good condition. 

Lopes said the victim did not have time to see what kind of car carried the shooter. 

“He never did see the car,” Lopes said. “It came on him pretty fast, and the impact of the second round threw him upon the steering wheel, and he was pretty much on the floor after that.” 

Lopes said police are working with several witnesses. Police also activated a community alert system, which telephoned residents near the area asking them for information about the incident. 

Now that the TV news vans have left town, now that the shock of a tragic reoccurrence of rape has begun to recede, teachers, police and parents begin the struggle to understand how it happened. 

Police and school officials have said the two incidents of rapes involving one 12-year-old girl and 10 teenage boys at two middle schools were isolated incidents and that there is no need to be concerned about student safety. 

Last Friday, the news broke that a 12-year-old girl had been raped for a second time on Nov. 9, two days after she was transferred to a Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School where she was to start over. The incident occured just 15 days after the girl was raped after school at Willard Middle School. There were hints that the victim may have made herself vulnerable to the attacks, there were calls to jail the teenage suspects and teachers and school officials wrung their hands and talked about more and better sex education programs. 

Another 13-year-old boy was arrested and released to his parents. And the media descended on the town certain there is something uniquely wrong in Berkeley’s schools. 

Professor Thomas Spencer, of San Francisco State University’s Developmental Psychology Department said that in a situation like this you have to be careful before assigning blame. “You can’t point fingers unless you’re willing to look at society at large,” Spencer said. “The poor middle school, all those kids with surging hormones in one building.” 

Spencer said puberty is more difficult now than it was in years past because of a constant bombardment of sex and violence. “How often do you turn on the TV and not see sex, violence or both? It’s permeating our whole society and much of it is focused on young people.” 

He said that TV, music, the Internet and a plethora of corporations use sex and violence to sell and that teenagers are the most susceptible to these images. 

He said blaming the teenagers in this particular incident would not do anyone any good. “The problem is much larger than a single incident,” Spencer said. “To assign blame in one incident would accomplish little because it will only happen again somewhere else.” 

Berkeley Police Lt. Russell Lopes said there is a great deal of “high-hormonal sex play” in schools and that some of the teenagers involved don’t think they did anything wrong. “It becomes a very thin line between sex play and a sex crime,” he said.  

He added such situations can go bad quickly with the right amount of peer pressure, the right kind of victim and an opportunity. 

Stephanie Boris, who has a daughter in junior high school, said she knows about sexual horseplay at the schools but still believes they are fundamentally safe places for students. “I still drive up to the school every morning and drop my daughter off and I wouldn’t do that if I thought It was a dangerous place,” she said.  

Boris said the best place to avoid incidents like this is when children are young. “All these kids are going to get hit with a rush of hormones and the question is how they’re going react,” she said, “and it all depends on the type of example they have when they’re young.”

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. 

Rent Stabilization Board 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way. 

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. 

Environmental Solutions! 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent  

discussions on a wide range of  

topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are  

welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332.  

Soulful Improv Games 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening is a “Shamanic Journeying Salon.” 

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-554. 

Lesbians and Gay Get-Together 

1:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne,  

644-6107. 

Wednesday, Nov. 22

Tai Chi Chuen with  

Henry Chang 

2 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107. 

Disaster Council Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

Thursday, Nov. 23

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

Friday, Nov. 24

“Yoga Poems”  

7:30 p.m. 

Piedmont Yoga Studio 

4125 Piedmont Ave. 

Piedmont 

Leza Lowitz will read from her new book, which contains over 60 poems inspired by different yoga poses, and do a yoga performance. Free. 

Call Miki, 558-7826. 

Saturday, Nov. 25

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612. 

Create the City of  

Your Fantasies 

7:30 - 11 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies. This evening features DJ’d “Candlelight Massage  

Circles Salon.”  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541.  

Papersong Grand Opening  

Celebration 

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Swan’s Marketplace 

936B Clay St.  

Oakland 

Featuring free musical performances by Big Brother & The Holding Co., Caravan of All Stars Revue, The Charles Dudley Band, and Jane DeCuir.  

Call 436-5131. 

Sunday, Nov. 26

The Value of Meditation 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Joleen Vries, director of the Nyingma Institute in the Netherlands for over five years, will discuss how to maintain a regular meditation  

practice. Free 

843-6812. 

Monday, Nov. 27

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

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. 

Parks & Recreation Board 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way). 

Solid Waste Management  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

Solid Waste Management Center 

1201 Second St.  

Zoning Adjustment Board  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor. 

Educational Philosophies  

Roundtable 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

At this roundtable, Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents  

Network, parents will learn about the following educational philosophies: Developmental, cooperative, Montessori, bilingual, Waldorf, religious, homeschooling, and charter schools.  

Free to members; non-members, $5 

Call 527-6667 or visit www.parentsnet.org.  

Tai Chi Chih with Ben Levitan  

1 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107. 

Tuesday, Nov. 28

Blood Pressure for Seniors 

9:30 - 11 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107. 

Read a Play Together Salon 

7:30 - 10:30 p.m. 

Whimsyum  

1414 Fourth St.  

Described as something beyond dinner and a movie, the folks at Whymsium invite you to share your interests and explore your hobbies.  

$3 - $20 sliding scale 

Call 595-5541.  

Lavender Lunch 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 100 

PSR adjunct faculty member Mark Wilson and PSR alumna Lynice Pinkard will speak on “Heterosexism and Racism.” Sponsored by PSR’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. Free 

Call 849-8206. 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of  

Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop  

& Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it.  

Call 843-3533. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers  

Membership Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK  

Jr. Way) 

Discussion of how the election results will affect the Gray  

Panthers.  

Call 548-9696. 

Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 MLK Jr. Way (at Derby). 

Thursday, Nov. 30

Pro Arts Juried Show  

Reception 

6 - 8 p.m.  

Pro Arts 

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

With the work of 70 artists, this annual show features the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The show runs through December 30. See A&E calendar for details.  

Snowshoeing Basics  

7 p.m . 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional snowshoe guide Cathy Anderson-Meyers gives basic instruction on how to get out and experience Tahoe’s winter  

terrain on “shoes.”  

Call 527-4140. 

Art for Sale 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Kala Art Institute  

1060 Heinz Ave.  

Over sixty artists affiliated with the Kala Art Institute exhibit works ranging from traditional wood block prints to works in digital media. During the reception, artists will offer 10 percent off the sale of their prints.  

Call 549-2977 for information. 

Media makes its own news — Berkeley Daily Planet included 

Editor: 

Your 11/18-19 issue front page simply looks like that of a scandal sheet — three articles, all on the same subject and no other front-page articles. One of those articles is about newsies' behavior patterns. Must the news media increasingly make their own “news?” Perhaps this Berkeley Daily Planet response is a result of being scooped by the other papers on this middle-school problem. Who needs the rehash? 

As for the subject, the school system obviously acted poorly as to communication to the two schools' pupils' parents, and also it would seem that Willard has not acted alertly enough in detecting mini-gangs within its student body. I wouldn't think that task would be all that difficult at the middle-school level. 

As to all the facts in this series of events, whatever they actually are, related to incidents of certain students individually on their own — such activities arebound to occur to some degree. What is despicable about how our society deals with them is its use of inflationary, ambiguous language, both in the media and in its written laws (often only in the interest of getting a politician elected), and our newspapers steadfastly refuse to cite penal code sections, so that readers can at least try to find out the degree of offenses charged — where these mucked-up terms are used in both places. 

Often the worst abuse in a society is the abuse of language. If the Berkeley Daily Planet wants to write about the media, let it publish this letter. 

Raymond A. Chamberlin 

Berkeley 

It was a fitting end to a disappointing season. 

In the 103rd installment of the Big Game, the Cal Bears came within one or two plays of breaking the Cardinal’s current six-game winning streak. But in the end, the Bears’ inexperience and nervousness shone through, dooming them to yet another near-miss loss. 

After the Bears (3-8, 2-6 Pac-10) failed to score in their opening overtime possession, the Cardinal needed just two plays to find the end zone and end the game. Fullback Casey Moore faked a run up the middle, then broke free and took in a pass from quarterback Randy Fasani without a Cal player in sight, giving the Cardinal (5-6, 4-4) a 36-30 win and tying the longest winning streak in Big Game history. 

“When you go first and don’t score, you probably have to give them no yards or even back them up,” said Cal head coach Tom Holmoe. “It forced us to be in a risky defense, and that showed.” 

The Bears pulled off a remarkable comeback just to get the game into overtime. After making just about every offensive and special teams mistake under the sun through three quarters, Cal’s offense put up 17 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 30-30.  

“To get that close and then have the rug pulled out from under you, that makes the loss even harder,” Holmoe said. “We needed this win bad, and it makes the offseason that much harder.” 

But this was a game characterized by Bear failures far more than Stanford triumphs. 

Although sophomore quarterback Kyle Boller certainly led the way to the Bear futility with four interceptions in the game, he had a lot of help. There was wide receiver Philip Pipersburg fumbling away the ball and Cal’s momentum following the only Stanford turnover of the day; the Cal punt team allowing two blocks that led to 10 Stanford points; the offensive line being called for five false start penalties; and there was safety Dewey Hale, who watched a Stanford receiver run by him on the sideline without trying to push him out of bounds, then lost his coverage on fullback Casey Moore on the final play of the game, the easiest touchdown pass you’ll ever see. 

“You can’t expect to win the game if you turn the ball over five times,” Boller said. 

And despite all those huge mistakes, any one of which could have doomed the Bears, the game went into overtime. That’s pretty much how the entire Cal season has gone: overcoming mistakes to get within inches of a win. If these kids ever learn to cut those mistakes down a bit, they could surprise a lot of folks. But don’t count on it. 

As always, there were plenty of encouraging signs for the Bears. The defense held the Cardinal under 100 total yards until halfway through the fourth quarter. Boller looked comfortable in the pocket, and his main fault on the day was trying to do too much, throwing balls up for grabs that seemed to always come down in red and white gloves. And the one-two punch of tailbacks Saleem Muhammed and Joe Igber kept the Stanford defense on its heels for much of the game. 

But five turnovers and two blocked punts was simply too much for Tom Holmoe’s team to overcome. 

As they have in most games this year, the Bears came out and marched down the field on their opening possession, covering 76 yards in just seven plays. Boller completed all three passes he tried on the drive, and Muhammed pounded the ball into the end zone from one yard out to give the Bears a 7-0 lead. 

“When we go out there like we did on that first drive, then we can’t get anything going later, it’s real frustrating,” Boller said. 

But two three-and-outs later, Stanford safety Colin Branch came around the end to block Nick Harris’ punt and return it 20 yards for a touchdown. Cal tight end Brian Surgener bounced his first two long snaps back to Harris, and this one cost the Bears a touchdown. 

“We went ahead and changed the snapper, and it’s too bad we had to do that in the last game of the season,” Holmoe said. “It’s hard to give away those punt blocks and win the game.” 

Surgener was replaced by defensive tackle Jacob Waasdorp, but that didn’t help later in the half. Waasdorp got the snap to Harris but missed a blocking assignment, allowing Brian Gaffney to come untouched and block the punt, which linebacker Riall Johnson recovered on the Cal nine, and the Cardinal kicked a field goal to add to their lead. 

“We do everything we can during the week to prepare, but it just doesn’t come out on the field,” Harris said. “It’s pretty obvious when someone comes untouched that there’s a breakdown somewhere.” 

Boller looked strong in leading a 10-play, 63-yard drive that ended with a short touchdown pass to tailback Joe Echema at the end of the third quarter. Cal’s defense forced a punt right away, and a personal foul on Moore for hitting returner Jemeel Powell before he caught the ball gave the Bears the ball at the Stanford 37. The offense rode Joe Igber four straight plays, and he broke a draw 27 yards to pay dirt to give the Bears a 20-16 lead. Cal had outgained Stanford 271 yards to 97 at that point, and Stanford’s hopes of a sixth straight win looked bleak. 

But the dormant Stanford offense suddenly came to life, and Fasani drove his team down to the Cal two-yard line for a first-and-goal. Three straight running plays netted no yardage, however, and the Cardinal decided to go for a touchdown rather than settle for a field goal. Fasani found wideout DeRonnie Pitts for the touchdown and the 23-20 lead. The Bears answered with a Mark Jensen 27-yard field goal to tie the score with less than five minutes left. 

But that wouldn’t last long. A short pass from Fasani to Luke Powell turned into a huge play when Cal’s Harold Pearson missed the tackle on Powell. Powell tiptoed down the left sideline, and Hale let him go, thinking he had stepped out of bounds. But 75 yards later and with no whistles behind him, Powell had put the Cardinal back in the lead. 

“Everybody thought he was out,” said Cal’s Andre Carter. “When he kept going, that was a killer.” 

After Boller threw his fourth and final interception of the game, the Bears got the ball back at their own 41 with 1:49 left in regulation. A 15-yard facemask penalty on Stanford’s Matt Leonard moved the ball into Stanford territory. Boller hit freshman wideout Geoff McArthur with a lob over the middle to move the ball inside the 10, and Igber ran a draw into the end zone to tie the score and send the game into overtime. But Jensen missed a 42-yard field goal, and Moore’s catch ended a miserable Cal season. 

“We came back, and they came back. I think we just ran out of time,” Holmoe said.

According to several parents at last week’s community forum held at Willard Middle School, a Berkeley police officer, whose job it was to explain to students the nature and consequences of the recent rape of a 12-year-old girl — used explicit, graphic and inappropriate language in describing the incident. 

The officer was asked to speak at a special assembly held on Wednesday as part of a series of classes and lessons to help educate students on how to resist peer pressure, avoid sexual harassment and resist sexual assault. 

“I feel like the assembly added fuel to the incident,” parent Beverly Dimes said. “I’ve heard from my child and others that the officer used extremely inappropriate language to describe what happened to the girl and I find it unconscionable.”  

Police Captain Robert Miller admitted that inappropriate language had been used and apologized. 

“I am aware that the office in question became too explicit in his explanations and for that reason I apologize. We made a mistake by saying too much. We’re not perfect but we will learn from this process.” 

Several other parents also expressed anger at the city and school district for what they perceive as mismanagement of the incident. 

“Sex and violence are being put together in the minds of our kids not only here but throughout the country. Why after all the workshops the school has provided are kids coming away using foul language and taking sides,” parent Jenny Hearst said. 

Hearst said that her eighth-grade daughter came away from the workshops placing blame on the victim and she asked the school board why. 

“Rape is never okay. No matter what,” she shouted into the microphone as many parents clapped and shouted out. 

School therapist Pat Salaam fielded the question. Salaam explained that many times when children are faced with situations beyond their immediate control they search for a place to lay blame to ease their discomfort. Salaam urged parents to be patient and talk with their children about three things: What they think happened, Why they think it happened and how to prevent it from happening in the future. 

“Once you get past the first two questions you should begin to have a better sense of where exactly your child is coming from and hopefully be able to guide them to proper conclusions.” 

Salaam also noted that school therapists as well as many psychologists in the community have offered their services pro bono to students, parents and teachers to help resolve any tensions or problems related to this incident. 

For more information call Berkeley Mental Health Services at 644-8562 or Berkeley Unified School District at 644-6438.

Students — thin, fat, or neither — found that their life experiences belied Nobel Prize winner James Watson's theories that the thin are unhappy and more ambitious while the fat have more active sexual lives and are generally more content. 

“This guy's full of bullshit. I'm fat, I do have a good sex life, but I'm sure as heck ambitious,” said Cal student Zhaddi, eyes blazing under her black hat. 

Tall, thin Adam Windham, the angular man standing next to her, added, “She's my partner, so I'm going to have to support the sex life thing, but she's more ambitious than I am.” 

Watson, who won the Nobel for discovering DNA, made his comments last month when he gave a guest lecture at a class in Berkeley. 

Sandra, who identified herself as an overweight person and asked that her full name not be used, disagreed with other Watson statements as well. She said that when she was younger she was overweight and promiscuous. But she attributes her sexual activity to self-esteem issues and unhappiness, not to being fatter. 

Growing up half Mexican and half white, Sandra, said she's learned that feelings about weight are culturally specific. The white side of her family values the thin supermodel image; the Mexican half of her family appreciates “curvy,” “buxom” more “sensual” women. 

But, she added, Watson's research reinforces what popular culture tells Americans. “Look at Ally McBeal, she's thin and miserable and her roommate Renee is buxom, gets all the men, and seems quite pleased with herself,” she said. 

Big girls and little women alike chalked Watson's statements up to ignorance and prejudice-against people of all sizes. 

“As a country we have a tendency to split fat and thin into good and evil in a lot of ways, fat being evil,”said Judy Lightfoot, a marriage and family therapist specializing in issues surrounding weight and acceptance. “It's just another form of bigotry.”  

The thin agreed. 

“I think there's discrimination against people who are really thin,” said Iana Rogers, who works at UC Berkeley in the Writer's Project and has to eat constantly to maintain her 115 pounds. “There's this whole backlash against thin people right now because of supermodels. People feel very entitled to say whatever they think about your body.” 

In college, Rogers' professor assumed she had an eating disorder. “I found it very disrespectful,” she said, adding that the same professor equated mass with strength and theorized that the media idealizes thinness so women will lose weight and become weaker. 

Despite initial hesitation, Watson's credentials convinced some that there must be something to his theories. 

“I think it might be true with ambition, because you're so much more active,” said second-year student Vivian Lu. “I do know when I sit still I tend to eat.” 

Students racked their brains for a logical justification. 

“I have a feeling that if people have a good sex life they are certainly more relaxed and less neurotic,” said Mia Bjork Rimby, a public health student. She clenched her jaw and shook her hands, acting out neurosis as she said, “When you're neurotic you're more ambitious — you get really worked up.” 

Others were nonplussed by the Nobel Laureate. “It just means you can be a yahoo no matter how high your IQ is,” said Bettye Travis, president of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. 

George W. Bush and Al Gore marshaled their legal forces Sunday for a climactic state Supreme Court showdown, with GOP lawyers saying it would be unjust “to keep the state and the nation on hold” during interminable recounts. Democrats said the truth can’t be rushed, as jangled nerves and protests punctuated another painstaking day of south Florida vote-counting. 

With the long-count election stretching into a third agonizing week, the court strategy of both camps reached critical mass: Republicans hope to stop manual recounts that threaten Bush’s 930-vote lead out of 6 million cast; Gore wants the work to grind away, under rules most favorable to Democrats. 

The candidates kept a low profile as their lawyers prepared for a momentous two-hour court hearing Monday. Each went for a jog and to church. 

Calling these “extraordinary times,” Bush’s lawyers argued in court papers that Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris has the authority to certify election results without accepting hand counts. They also said allowing the recounts to continue in selected Democratic-leaning counties would violate the constitutional rights of voters elsewhere. 

“The selective manual recounts authorize county boards to engage in arbitrary and unequal counting of votes, and result in the disparate treatment of Florida voters based solely on where within the state they happen to reside,” Bush argued. 

In a separate brief, Harris tried to distance herself from both Bush and Gore, even as Democrats pointed to her GOP presidential campaigning as a sign of bias. All seven supreme court justices were appointed by Democratic governors. 

“It is clear, that for the Democrats and the Republicans, the object is to win, and that is understandable,” Harris’ brief said. “The stakes are very high.” 

In its paper reply, the Gore team asked the court to set a generous standard for officials to “ascertain the electorate’s will” when they punched ballots in the disputed presidential election. They said local election officials in close cases can “determine the voter’s intent.” 

Twelve days after America voted, the weekend tally of overseas absentee ballots lengthened Bush’s tiny 300-vote lead to a still-minuscule 930. 

With recounts under way in two Democratic-leaning counties and third set to begin, Gore had a net gain of 76 votes, which if allowed would cut Bush’s lead to 854. 

Gore narrowly won the national popular vote and holds a slight edge over Bush in the all-important Electoral College tally, though neither man can reach the required total of 270 electoral votes without Florida’s 25. 

The Texas governor spent the day with his family in Austin, Texas. In church, the pastor said, “We continue our prayers for the political process in this country and for those most closely governors by it. May your patience be their patience.” 

Gore canceled plans to attend a long-scheduled conference in Tennessee, the home state that deserted him for Bush on Election Day. About 100 pro-Bush protesters packed the sidewalks across from his official residence in Washington. “We want Bush!” they shouted. 

The identity of America’s 43rd president rests with the courts and in the ballot-counting rooms of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where more than 1.5 million ballots were cast, a majority from Democrats. 

“It seems to be that they’re doing everything they can to stop the recounting of votes because they’re slightly ahead and they fear that after the recounting they won’t be,” said Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, who conducted a rare tour of all five major news shows Sunday. 

Bush’s camp continued its assault on the Gore-backed recounts, depicting the process as riddled with human error and Democratic bias. “God only knows how many ballots have been altered,” Gov. Marc Racicot said on “Fox News Sunday.” He called the nation’s political standoff “a very tangled web.” 

Gore’s advisers were frustrated Sunday by small recount gains, particularly in Palm Beach County, where the election tempest first began when Democratic voters complained of a confusing ballot. 

The vice president’s team accused the local elections board of imposing a too-strict standard for approving ballots. 

In one Palm Beach precinct, Democrats said Gore picked up 11 votes in a sample recount conducted more than a week ago. When the same precinct was counted Saturday, Gore had lost 10 votes from the first tally. The board had actually counted 202 precincts, but only released totals where there were no disputed ballots. 

In Broward County, Gore’s count by midday Sunday showed a net gain more than 80. More than half the 609 precincts remain to be counted.  

Republicans accused the elections board of bowing to political pressure and reversing a decision to throw out ballots that did not have two corners poked out of the “chad” — the tiny pieces of paper in a punch-card ballot. 

“The Gore campaign now wants to lower the bar because it needs more votes,” said Ed Pozzuoli, chairman of the county GOP.

SAN FRANCISCO – Toxic mold, an unfinished apartment complex and the lure of dot-com dollars are all hampering enrollment efforts at San Francisco State University where students are struggling to find a place to live, college officials said. 

Dozens of students are said to have withdrawn from programs at the university, telling officials that affordable housing is too hard to find. Others are giving up on finding housing close to campus, relegating themselves to long commutes from surrounding communities. 

“If you don’t have car it’s even more stressful,” said broadcasting major Reagan Nolan, who commutes into the city from temporary dormitories on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. 

From the island, it takes Nolan an hour to get to campus and just as long to travel home, an exhausting commute says Nolan who often drives. 

“Now I get home, and if I’ve been sitting in traffic for an hour, I have no desire to do anything,” she said. 

The housing crisis started last spring semester, when toxic mold was discovered at a residential building on campus. More than 650 students were forced to evacuate the building and were left scrambling for dwelling alternatives. 

Then came the stalled opening of the Village at Centennial Square on-campus complex. It was to open in late August, but remains closed and 760 beds there are on hold until at least late January. 

Besides the housing crunch, university officials say some students are being lured away to well-paying high-tech jobs in the area, further sapping enrollment numbers. 

“It’s like this roaring economy has contributed to softer enrollment,” said university spokeswoman Ligeia Polidora. “We’ve been expecting something like this. I don’t know if we expected (the enrollment drop) to be quite this large.” 

Enrollment at the university dropped from 27,701 last year to 26,826 this fall, the lowest figure in five years. More than a third of the 23 campuses in the California State University system, contrastingly, are enjoying record enrollments this year. 

The decline is also affecting programs at San Francisco State University such as the dance department. Jerry Duke, chairman of the department, says he’s lost a tenured position and seven classes due to budget cutbacks stemming from low enrollment. 

The housing outlook is bleak for the university, Duke said. “I think it’s a terrible thing. But I don’t know what can be done about it.”

SACRAMENTO – Forty percent of California’s representatives to the Electoral College would alter or even eliminate the 213-year-old institution in which they will serve. 

Electors said in a telephone survey by The Associated Press that they fear the college will choose a president — namely, George W. Bush — who lost the popular vote when they meet Dec. 18. 

Democrat Al Gore was leading in the popular vote Sunday, but Republican Bush had an edge in the Electoral College, with Florida hanging in the balance. If Bush wins, he would become the first man to lose the popular vote but win the presidency in 112 years. 

California awards all of its 54 Electoral College votes to the state’s popular vote winner. Gore led in California Friday with 53.5 percent of the vote, with more than 400,000 absentee ballots still to be counted. 

“I’ve always thought it should be whoever wins the popular vote,” said Cathedral City Councilman Gregory S. Pettis, elector from the 44th Congressional District. 

None of 50 California electors interviewed last week would consider switching their Gore vote, though 31st Congressional District elector William K. Wong of Sacramento joked he might auction his vote on the eBay Web site. 

“Nobody’s offered me an ambassadorship to the Court of St. James, and even that wouldn’t do it,” said Roberts Braden of Chico, the elector from the Second Congressional District. 

Several suggested Bush electors in other states might face pressure to support the popular vote winner when Electoral College representatives gather in each state capitol next month. 

In telephone interviews, 10 California electors favored abolishing the Electoral College; 12 wanted to change it; 18 thought the college should be retained; and 10 weren’t sure. Four electors could not be reached despite repeated attempts since Monday. 

Those who wanted to abolish the college dubbed it an anachronism. 

“It was born during a time when there was a lot of elitism in our country, and there was no faith in the common people to make an informed choice,” said elector Richard Valle of Union City in the 13th Congressional District. 

Others argued the system gives less populous states disproportionate power by awarding each state as many electors as it has U.S. senators and congressmen. 

“It magnifies their influence, and most of the larger states are where you tend to have more minority voters,” said Amy Arambula of Fresno in the 20th Congressional District. 

U.S. senators also used to be selected indirectly, but now American voters directly elect every officeholder except their president, noted R. Stephen Bollinger of Westminster in the 46th Congressional District. 

He and others, however, said they doubt smaller states would ratify a constitutional amendment eliminating the Electoral College. 

Many of the electors who supported changing the system thought California should follow the lead of Maine and Nebraska. They divide Electoral College votes based on which candidate wins a majority in each congressional district. 

Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, on Thursday said he will introduce a bill to do the same in California. 

“That shows the true split of the popular vote,” said Sunil Aghi of Anaheim, founder of the Indo-American Political Foundation and the elector from the Third Congressional District. 

The largest group of electors said the Electoral College has worked for more than 200 years and shouldn’t be changed. 

“If you had it a popular vote, it’s possible for four or five big states to control the election, and that’s not fair,” said Larry Trullinger of Fresno, from the 39th Congressional District. 

Despite weighty questions of the nation’s future, many electors said they are enjoying the newfound notoriety. 

“I’m trying to swing a book deal out of it,” joked C. Craig Roberts of San Diego, the elector from the 49th Congressional District. “It’s the first time in my lifetime that America’s paid as much attention to the Electoral College as it does to the Super Bowl or the World Series.”

BERKELEY — A Nobel laureate’s provocative speech on sunshine and sex left some at the University of California Berkeley campus aghast. 

James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA, dumbfounded many at a guest lecture as he advanced his theories – complete with slides of bikini-clad women – that there is a link between skin color and sex drive. 

“That’s why you have Latin lovers,” he said, according to people who were there last month. “You’ve never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.” 

“I realized right away that this was inappropriate,” said Susan Marqusee, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. 

Watson also contended that fat people are happy and thin people more ambitious, showing a slide of waif-like model Kate Moss looking sad to illustrate that point. 

Marqusee said she walked out after a comment about men finding fat women sexually attractive. “There wasn’t any science,” she said. “These aren’t issues that one can state as fact.” 

Watson has been traveling and customarily does not comment on reaction to his lectures, said Jeff Picarello, spokesman for the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory, in Long Island, N.Y., where Watson is president. 

Picarello said Watson has given this lecture before to positive reviews and is known for mixing it up with audiences. Expounding on his theory that exposure to sunlight enhances sex drive, the mostly bald 72-year-old will announce that bald men have better sex, Picarello said.  

“He says this with a twinkle in his eye. It’s fascinating, but at the same it’s amusing.” 

Biology doctoral candidate Sarah Tegen said people were laughing at the beginning of Watson’s lecture. But the laughter turned nervous as he developed his theme – “There was a lot of looking at the person next to you and saying, ’I can’t believe he’s saying this.”’ 

The problem, says Tegen, was that Watson didn’t present the science to back up his startling presentation. 

“I think there’s a really important place in science for controversy. That’s how you overturn dogmas. But it’s got to be within a context of testable hypotheses,” she said. 

Watson, who shared a Nobel Prize for his role in discovering the structure of DNA in 1953, and who launched the Human Genome Project in 1990, was giving a speech called “The Pursuit of Happiness: Lessons from pom-C.” 

Pom-C is a protein that helps create different hormones – melanin that determines skin color, beta endorphins that affect mood and leptin, which plays a role in metabolism of fat.  

Watson talked about how these chemicals are enhanced by sunlight, leading to the supposition that people who are exposed to more sunlight have more of these hormones. 

He talked about an experiment at the University of Arizona where male patients were injected with a melanin extract.  

The test was designed to see if skin could be chemically darkened as a skin cancer preventive, but found that as a side effect the men became sexually aroused. 

Watson went on to talk about exposure to sun and sexual drive, at one point showing slides of women in bikinis and one of veiled Muslim women. 

Picarello said Watson’s theories are underpinned by biological fact. 

“He approaches life as a science and puts forth his science because that’s what he loves. I don’t think he’s afraid of public opinion. I don’t think he defers to public opinion and I think we’re all a lot better of if biology isn’t politically correct,” he said. 

James Allison, co-chair of the university’s department of molecular and cell biology, called the speech fallout a “tempest in a teapot. Jim’s a provocative guy. He certainly provoked people.” 

But some Watson supporters were concerned he went too far. 

“Doesn’t a guy like Jim Watson have the responsibility to make this not ugly?” Berkeley biologist Michael Botchan, a Watson protege who presided over the session, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Yes. But I cannot tell Jim Watson to change his ways.”

WASHINGTON — Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney had surgery Wednesday to open a clogged artery after suffering what doctors called a “very slight” heart attack, knocking George W. Bush off stride in his struggle to win Florida – and the presidency. 

Doctors at George Washington University Hospital predicted a hospital stay of a few days and a recovery of a few weeks for the 59-year-old former defense secretary, who has a history of heart disease dating to his late 30s. The illness added new uncertainty to a White House bid under a cloud ever since America voted, more than two weeks ago. 

Cheney suffered three heart attacks more than a decade ago and had quadruple bypass surgery in 1988 to clear clogged arteries. Doctors gave him a clean bill of health when Bush chose him as his running mate this summer, but Cheney has since refused to release his past medical records. 

Throughout most of the day, the Bush campaign and doctors at the hospital had insisted that Cheney had not suffered a heart attack, although he had suffered some chest pains in recent years. 

“Dick Cheney is healthy. He did not have a heart attack,” Bush told reporters in Texas – even as his running mate was undergoing surgery. Bush did not mention the surgery and called Cheney’s decision to go to the hospital “a precautionary measure.” Bush’s spokeswoman, Karen Hughes, said the Texas governor “had been told the secretary had not had a heart attack.” 

Doctors announced a news conference that Cheney had not had a heart attack. But new tests they had received two hours earlier revealed elevated levels of cardiac enzymes indicating a heart attack. Still, the doctors waited until well after 4 p.m. to correct the record. 

“There was a very slight heart attack,” said cardiologist Alan Wasserman. 

Doctors also revealed that the clogged artery causing Cheney’s chest pain was 90 percent blocked – meaning little blood was getting through that artery and reopening it was crucial. 

Cheney’s ordeal — he checked himself into the hospital – was the latest surprise to rock one of the most extraordinary election campaigns in American history. 

Under the worst circumstances, a vice president-in-waiting who becomes unable to take office can be replaced by the presidential candidate with the blessing of his party – as long as that happens before the Electoral College meets in December. 

But doctors foresaw nothing that would force Cheney from carrying out vice presidential duties should Bush and he prevail in Florida. 

Still, his condition could hamper already delayed efforts by Bush to plan for a government. Cheney has been Bush’s point man on transition. 

Bush and his aides brushed off questions about the stability of the GOP ticket and whether they were making contingency plans in case Cheney’s illness sidelined him from planning any White House transition or serving a new Bush administration. 

“Secretary Cheney will make a great vice president,” Bush said, before launching a more lengthy attack on Gore and the Florida justices for legal developments there. 

Asked whether it would be prudent to have a backup plan, spokeswoman Hughes replied: “No, it’s not.” She added that Cheney has had similar pains in recent years, but not since Bush picked him to be his running mate last summer. 

President Clinton said he hoped Cheney will be “well and fine.” 

“I need to call him and write him a note,” Clinton told reporters. 

Doctors said they did not think campaign-related stress was a factor in Cheney’s heart attack, which occurred only a few hours after Florida’s Supreme Court decided to permit manual ballot recounts in some Florida counties, a key victory for Gore. 

Cheney admitted himself to the hospital about 4:30 a.m. EST Wednesday with chest pains, his wife, Lynne, at his side. Testing two hours later revealed an artery that had narrowed since his last heart checkup in 1996, according to Wasserman. 

Through a blood vessel in his leg, doctors threaded a stent to prop open the narrowed artery, a minimally invasive surgical procedure that didn’t require putting Cheney under general anesthesia. It should prevent further symptoms, Wasserman said. 

“It would be exceedingly unlikely for him to undergo a repeat bypass operation,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Cheney’s personal physician, told reporters on Wednesday. 

Cheney has said he quit smoking, exercises regularly and takes medicine to lower his cholesterol. 

“It is possible that had he not come in something serious could have happened,” Wasserman said. 

Wasserman said Cheney would spend two to three days recovering but should have no restrictions after he leaves. 

However, stents do frequently reclog in heart disease patients, particularly those with a long history of the disease like Cheney’s. Patients with these conditions need to be monitored closely. 

Hughes did not provide details on how often Cheney had experienced chest pains that required medical attention. She said Cheney had not had any episodes since he was selected to be Bush’s running mate, but she did not say when Cheney’s last hospital visit had occurred. 

Reiner said earlier in the presidential campaign that cardiac stress tests “have been stable and unchanged for the past several years.” 

Cheney had a cold in the final weeks before the election but otherwise was in good health throughout a strenuous fall campaign. 

Cheney’s first attack, at age 37, was in 1978. He had a second in 1984 and a third in 1988. All were described as mild. In August of 1988, Cheney underwent the bypass surgery because of arterial blockages. 

SAN FRANCISCO — The stock of online auctioneer eBay Inc. plummeted by more than 20 percent Monday after a Wall Street analyst raised doubts about the company’s ambitious growth goals. 

The selloff, which wiped out $2.4 billion in shareholder wealth, illustrated investors’ increasing disillusionment with e-commerce stocks that enthralled them less than a year ago. 

Lehman Brothers analyst Holly Becker triggered Monday’s downturn by lowering her rating on eBay’s shares from a “buy” to a “neutral” after concluding the San Jose-based company’s collectibles business has peaked. 

Because she doesn’t believe eBay will be successful in its effort to list mass merchandise items, Becker doubts the company will be able to sustain the robust growth needed to deliver on management’s promise for $3 billion in annual revenues in 2005. 

EBay’s revenue this year is expected to range between $400 million and $450 million. As one of the world’s few profitable online businesses, eBay make its money by charging listing fees and commissions on auction sales on its site. 

“We are concerned that the company’s core business is slowing and that newer initiatives will take time and more money to build out” than previously estimated, Becker wrote in a three-page report. 

Becker’s bearish remarks rattled investors accustomed to seeing eBay’s revenues double from one quarter to the next as more people sell goods on the site. EBay’s shares dropped $8.94 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday to close at $34.50. 

Investors are worried most of eBay’s users are only interested in buying and selling trendy collectible products, such as Beanie babies. 

After the market closed Monday, eBay management reiterated its belief that the company will reach $3 billion in revenue in 2005. 

“We did a lot of homework before putting out that number. We still see a very robust business for us,” said Rajib Dutta, eBay’s vice president of finance. 

Ebay expects collectibles sales to account for just 15 percent of its projected $3 billion in revenue in 2005. The company said its site already accounts for the most online sales of toys, sports equipment and jewelry. EBay is aggressively branching into other big-ticket items such as automobiles and real estate. 

ABN Amro analyst Kevin Silverman said he believes eBay’s sales projections are realistic. He expects total sales of used consumer goods nationwide to hit $517 billion in 2005. If eBay’s site handles about 9 percent of that volume, Silverman estimates eBay’s 2005 revenues will be $3.7 billion. 

Silverman and other analysts characterized the Monday meltdown in eBay’s stock as a knee-jerk reaction by investors behaving as irrationally now as they did when they assigned mind-boggling market values to e-commerce stocks. 

As recently as March, eBay’s shares traded at $125, giving the company a market value of about $35 billion. The company’s market value is now below $10 billion. 

“A year ago if somebody said anything slightly positive about a stock, it would shoot up by 20 or 30 percent in a day. Now, we’re seeing just the opposite reaction with negative comments,” said Prudential Securities analyst Mark Rowen, who maintains a buy rating on eBay. 

Rowen estimated the auction site’s auction listings in the current quarter have increased by 13 percent from the previous quarter 

In her report, Becker said she was discouraged because eBay no longer shapes up as a likely acquisition candidate for two other e-commerce bellwethers, Yahoo! Inc. and America Online Inc. 

Becker said a recent flurry of stock sales by eBay insiders also raised red flags. 

During the final week of October, eBay management and directors sold about 2.5 million shares of stock at prices ranging between $50.35 and $56.55 per share, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. 

Dutta said the divestitures were part of a long-standing program designed to allow eBay’s insiders to sell a set percentage of their stock each quarter so they can diversify their holdings. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.ebay.com 

OAKLAND — California’s amusement park rides will get new regulations soon, but just how snug the new safety bar fits is central to a roller-coaster debate between ride operators and consumer advocates. 

Amusement park lawyers and ride safety advocates gathered Monday as the process approached its last hairpin turn – the release of final rules next year. 

The meeting before state Division of Occupational Safety and Health lawyers was the last public chance to lobby for changes to the new policies. Regulators expect to finalize the rules by March. 

Until this year, California inspected only rides at temporary carnivals.  

A string of recent accidents prompted state Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, to push for a new law, which took effect Jan. 1. 

The law remains largely unenforceable because the state still must adopt regulations that will outline safety standards, inspection procedures and how penalties should be assessed. 

State lawyers hammering out the law’s convoluted details also must decide when ride operators must report accidents, and that question dominated the hourlong meeting. 

Torlakson said regulators have softened his original language, allowing parks to ignore all but the most serious injuries. Those changes occurred as regulators fleshed out his original bill. 

“Obviously, this is not in keeping with what I felt is the strongest position to take,” Torlakson said in an interview after the meeting.  

“It’s more in line with what the industry wanted.” 

But that language still can be changed.  

State regulators must decide once and for all whether operators should report injuries such as whiplash – or whether mandatory reporting should be reserved for more gruesome incidents involving death and disfigurement. 

Park operators champion less stringent reporting rules, arguing that increased disclosure will not make rides safer.  

Safety advocates argue the opposite – they say reporting of all incidents would help riders, and their parents, decide what rides are safe. 

“Theme parks are under a lot of competing priorities and only one of those is safety,” said Kathy Fackler, a leading safety advocate whose son was injured in a roller coaster accident at Disneyland in March 1998.  

“It’s a political process and both sides have been lobbying heavily.” 

Boyd Jensen, a Santa Ana lawyer who represents amusement park interests, argued for language that would limit mandatory reporting to a well-defined set of conditions such as a broken bone or concussion. 

The two sides were able to find common ground on another lingering issue – training for ride inspectors.  

Both Jensen and Fackler agreed that inspectors need widely recognized training to be certified. 

On the Net: 

Division of Occupational Safety and Health: www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/ 

Ride Satefy Advocates: www.saferparks.org

SAN FRANCISCO – San Quentin death row inmate and Crips street gang co-founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams has been nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, a member of the Swiss parliament confirmed Saturday. 

Parliament member Mario Fehr nominated Williams and said the inmate changed the lives of others through his series of children’s books and international peace efforts. 

“I think he has done extraordinary work,” Fehr told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Saturday. “For these young kids that are in these street gangs, I think it is one of the only opportunities to get close to them. To get them out of the street gangs.” 

Williams was said to be surprised by the nomination. 

“He was positively stunned,” said Barbara Becnel, a journalist who edits Williams’ writings. “He was wide-eyed like a child and really excited and he was also very humbled by it.” 

She broke the news of the nomination to Williams in person on a recent prison visit. 

Williams, 46, and high school buddy Raymond Washington joined forces and created the Crips in 1971 as an alliance to combat rival gangs in east Los Angeles. 

Washington was killed by his street adversaries in 1979. Williams, “Big Took” to his gang buddies, continued his violent ways, imposing his 300-pound heft on those who dared stand in his way and transforming the Crips into a statewide urban threat. 

The lawless ways of Williams finally caught up to him in 1981 when he was convicted of killing four people. Now he spends his time behind bars authoring children’s books and coordinating an international peace effort for youths — all from the confines of his 9-by-4 cell. 

Williams dictates his writings in 15-minute phone calls to Becnel. His first book was published in 1996 and he has published seven since. 

His latest book is “Life In Prison,” a gritty first-person book targeted at sixth-graders. The work chronicles day-to-day life behind bars in San Quentin: 

— “I have been locked up nearly 20 years, and every day of my incarceration I have been homesick. ... My homesickness even makes me feel sick to my stomach.” 

— “It’s very humiliating to have guards watching us closely to make sure none of us is breaking the rules by touching, or being touched, too much.” 

Williams also created the Internet Project for Street Peace, which links at-risk California and South African youths together through e-mail and chat rooms allowing them to share their experiences and transform their lives. 

Abdulahi Mohamud uses the project in his work with Somali youths living in Switzerland. The Internet Project for Street Peace helps youths communicate with their counterparts in California who are trying to distance themselves from gang life. Mohamud applauded Williams’ efforts and was instrumental in getting him nominated for the esteemed prize. 

“He’s a great man. We are happy to nominate him,” Mohamud said. 

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela visited Williams last year and called the two hours she spent with the death row inmate the “highlight” of her trip to California. 

A five-member awards committee gives no hints and never releases the names of peace prize nominees, only the number — a record 150 this year. However, those nominating others for the award often divulge choices in advance. 

Members of national assemblies and governments, and members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union are among those persons entitled to nominate candidates. The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Dec. 10, 2001. 

Fehr said Williams’ violent past did not diminish his qualifications for the award.  

“Everyone can change his life, no matter what mistakes someone has done,” Fehr said.