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Man robs Wells Fargo bank, amount unknown 

A man claiming to be armed, robbed a Wells Fargo bank inside Andronico’s Market Tuesday. The incident happened about 3 p.m. at the store on University Avenue. Police said they do not know how much money the man was able to get. 

In a note passed to the teller the man claimed to have a gun and demanded money, said Lt. Russell Lopes of the Berkeley Police Department. Police were unable to confirm if the man was actually carrying a gun. 

Anyone with information about the robbery can call Berkeley Police at 981-5742. 

Superintendent search tops School Board agenda 

The Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education will hear a report on the search for a new superintendent at its regular board meeting today at 7:30 p.m. at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Also on the agenda for tonight’s meeting is a report on the district’s food services and a report on the First Estimated Fiscal Year 2002 Budget.  

In public hearings the board will consider whether a credentialed teacher ought to be granted an emergency permit to teach outside of her subject area, and whether the Interim Superintendent ought to request permission from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to hire teachers without “appropriate” teaching credentials.  

First winners in Berkeley recycling, sorting contest 

Berkeley's trash-sifting, prize-giving recyclers have found their first winners in Susan and Roy Bogas, who were awarded $500 this week for correctly sorting their trash.  

The Cash for Trash Contest, first introduced in 1988, is being brought back this year by the Ecology Center, Berkeley's curbside recycler for 27 years. 

Officials first selected an address at random and sifted through that house or apartment building's trash last week. The trash wasn't up to snuff, however, and the $250 prize rolled over to this week. Prizes are awarded if the trash cache is found to be properly sorted, with recyclables in the proper places. If so, the residents of the house or apartment win $250. If not, the money rolls over until next week, when a new address is chosen and those residents can win the full $500. 

UC professor wins science award for genetics work  

University of California at Berkeley Genetics Professor Gerald M. Rubin has been awarded a prize for his fruit fly research by the National Association for the Advancement of Science. Rubin, who works in the university's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, is being honored with the Newcomb Cleveland Prize for a review paper on the sequencing of the fruit fly genome published last year in Science.  

He was awarded the $5,000 prize, to be shared with about 100 co-authors of the paper, during the annual meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Science held last weekend in San Francisco. 

— Staff, wire reports 

“The collaborative effort by academic and industry researchers was considered by our committee to represent a landmark event in the effort to understand the organization of the hereditary material at the finest structural level,” according to a statement by the science association.