Allison Johnson, chairperson for the Berkeley High School English Department, remembers the first day the writing coaches came to her class.  

Suddenly, there they were: This neatly dressed cluster of nurses, accountants, carpenters, screenwriters, and other professionals, waiting patiently outside her classroom, wanting nothing more than to teach her students how to write. 

For Johnson, it was a dream come true. But for many of the students, it was more like a nightmare. 

“At first, they did not want to go [with the writing coaches],” Johnson said. “They were scared. They didn’t know what to expect.” 

Until recently, most Berkeley High students had a better chance of being struck by lightning than having to sit one-on-one with an adult for a full class period. But that was before Berkeley resident Mary Lee Cole, an expert in designing educational programs, launched the Writers’ Room program this past March. 

Emulating a program a New Jersey school district has used for nearly 10 years to tackle the racial achievement gap, Cole trained more than 50 volunteer writing “coaches” to work one-on-one with Berkeley High students once a week. 

Since March, the coaches have worked with some 300 students at the school, most of them freshman. Whenever possible, the same coaches meet with the same students each week, working to build a relationship of trust and respect. 

At a school where the average freshman English class can include everything from students who struggle with sixth grade level reading assignments to students prepared to write an insightful and cogent essay on, say, Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, Cole said the Writers’ Room program provides a unique opportunity to customize the education experience according to the needs of individual students. 

“We are in the business of personalizing the educational experience,” she said. 

Berkeley High teachers work to personalize education as much as they can, but they frequently complain that, in classes that range for 20 to 35 students, there is only so much one teacher can do. Johnson said when it comes to something as vital as writing skills, which impact the students performance in virtually every class they will take at Berkeley High, the extra help teachers can offer often isn’t enough to overcome the deficits students have when they arrive at the school. 

“I can look over their draft quickly, but I don’t have time to spend a whole period on one kid’s draft,” Johnson said. 

“The English department feels this tremendous pressure [to bring student writing skills up to par],” Johnson added. “We know what we do affects them in all their classes.” 

For some students, the Writers’ Room could be the extra help that keeps them from falling completely through the cracks, according to Johnson and Cole.  

“A lot of kids come to Berkeley High and they just get completely lost,” Johnson said. 

And if freshman year isn’t enough of a shock for those students who arrive at the school unprepared, the transition from freshman to sophomore year holds yet another cruel awakening, according to Cole.  

Since average class sizes jump from 20 to 35 between the two years, students who had difficulty getting help they need as freshman are likely to give up altogether as sophomores, she said. 

“If the kids are at risk at all, if they don’t have really strong skills … they just fade out,” Cole said. 

By sitting down with students and helping them work through writing assignments detail by detail, the Writers’ Room coaches offer the kind of academic advice and moral support that keeps students from giving up, Cole said.  

Many students already have a good start on the work by the time they meet with the coaches. In these cases, the volunteers help them correct grammar and spelling errors, or perhaps encourage the student to explore some ideas that he or she might not have come to on their own.  

With other students, the tutors must start at ground zero, helping them to understand the assignment and trying to get them interested in the work. 

Heather Skibbins teaches in Berkeley High’s Rebound program, created this January to give double period English and Math to some 50 freshman who had failed these core classes the first semester.  

Skibbins said she has seen some students go from ignoring assignments altogether to turning in neatly typed essays, all through the intervention of a Writers’ Room coach.  

“Some kids who didn’t even do [an assignment], [who] hadn’t engaged, … the next day they came to school with like a three page paper,” Skibbins said. “They are like, ‘Oh, I have a 100 things to say about this now, because this person has just made me realize all that I know about this.’” 

Cole said getting students to truly engage in their school work is a big part of what the program is all about.  

Many students have become convinced that they will always be poor students and that their homework is simply too difficult for them to even attempt, Cole said. But Writers’ Room coaches, through a casual conversation around the topic students have been assigned to write about, make it clear to students that they really do have a lot to say, she said. They help them get those difficult first sentences down on paper, and then a few more sentences, until suddenly the students are saying things like, “‘What? I wrote all that?’”  

In some cases, all it takes to get a kid started is having an adult sitting across from them who is clearly interested in what they have to say, according to Writers’ Room coach Debbie Reynolds, the parent of a Berkeley High freshman. 

“Our schools are somewhat like factories,” Reynolds said. “It’s not an environment where people are interested in what you’re saying or what you’re doing.” 

The Writers’ Room, on the other hand, offers a, Reynolds said, “very safe, non-judgmental interaction.” 

“Your finding the things that they do right. Your giving them a chance to do something they feel good about,” she said. 

Writing Coach Virginia Jardim volunteers at Berkeley High when she’s not working as an English teacher at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Jardim said Writers’ Room gets students out of classrooms where teachers are often struggling just to maintain control of the class, let alone getting students to absorb their lessons, and places them in a calm environment where they are truly free to focus on learning. 

Furthermore, Jardim said, students in class with their friends are often at pains to maintain an image of coolness or aloofness. Once removed from their peers, they can give school work their best effort without fear of being labeled nerdy or slow, she said. 

By all accounts, the Writers’ Room is already impacting the achievement gap at Berkeley High. English teacher Katherine Palau has seen her students raise the achievement by an average of one letter grade after working with Writers’ Room coaches. And the program’s popularity is on the rise with both teachers and students. 

“I’d rather do this than waste my time going to a tutoring program,” said Berkeley High freshman Brad Kelly. “They’re usually packed anyway. This is better, because it’s more one on one.” 

Cole said more and more teachers are clamoring to become involved in the program. She plans to train more writing coaches over the summer, including UC Berkeley students and some Berkeley High seniors. By next year Cole hopes to have 200 coaches volunteering an estimated 9,000 hours – enough to make Writers’ Room coaches available to all of Berkeley High’s 900 freshman and several 10th and 11th grade classes. She’s planning a Writers’ Room pilot program for King and possibly Willard middle schools. 

In a year of budget cuts, finding program funding hasn’t been easy. Cole began the program with small grants from the Berkeley Public Education Foundation and the Berkeley High School Development Group. Since then she’s roped in small contributions from the Berkeley school district, The Berkeley Rotary Club and the Dreyer’s Foundation, among others. 

But Cole said what makes the program possible is the simple fact that being a volunteer writing coach has vast appeal in a community like Berkeley, where there is no shortage of talented writers eager to help improve the public school system. 

When it comes to reforming education in California, Cole said, “It’s not enough to have a great idea, you have to have a sensible idea that you can follow through on.” 

To volunteer to become a writing coach, contact Wendy Breuer at 524-0249 or breuerw@aol.com. To contribute funds in any amount to the Writers’ Room program, send checks or money orders to the Berkeley High School Development Group (designating the Writers’ Room Program), at P.O. Box 5453, Berkeley, CA 94705-0453. 

Monday, June 11

Oakland Landmarks  

Preservation Advisory Board 

4 p.m. 

One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Hearing Room One 

Oakland 

The Board will meet and discuss the request to make the Claremont Hotel an official landmark.  

Berkeley School Volunteers 

3 - 4:30 p.m. 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in summer academic and recreation programs. 

644-8833 

Tuesday, June 12

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Cooking for BEFHP Women 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

BEFHP Women’s Resource Center 

2140 Dwight Way 

Come help the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project prepare, serve, and cleanup a hot meal prepared for Berkeley’s homeless women and children. Teens 16+.  

650-965-0242 

KPFA Advisory Board  

Community Meeting 

7 p.m. 

1724 Adeline at 18th St. 

Oakland 

658-1512 

Landmarks Preservation  

Commission 

8:30 a.m. - 10 a.m. 

Permit Service Center 

2120 Milvia Street 

Second Floor Conference Room 

Ad-hoc subcommittee special meeting, discussion of a proposal to conduct a comprehensive, citywide survey of potentially historic resources. 

705-8111 

Wednesday, June 13

Defining Diversity 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Different interpretations of biological and cultural diversity and how it’s used for very different purposes.  

548-2220 

Commission On Disability  

Hearings 

4 - 6 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Open forum, opportunity for public to present ideas and concerns about barriers for people with disabilities and accessibility of City facilities. Public comment on Berkeley’s proposed “Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan.” Also, naming I-80 overcrossing after Ed Roberts, requesting Congressional Representatives and Senators to add benefits for dental and eyeglasses coverage in Medi-Care. 

981-6342 

Lead-Safe Painting and Home  

Remodeling 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Free course on how to detect and remedy lead hazards in the home. 

567-8280 

“Illusions of the ‘New Economy’” 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Talk by professor and author Dick Walker. $5 donation requested. 

415-863-6637  

Claremont Elmwood  

Neighborhood Association  

General Meeting 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

2837 Claremont Blvd. 

Covers area of Berkeley south of Dwight Way and east of Collage Avenue. Presentations on neighborhood issues. 

549-3793 

Trees and Shrubs of  

California 

7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

John Stuart and John Sawyer will be speaking about and signing their new book, “Trees and Shrubs of California.” Free. 

643-2755 

Library Board of Trustees Meeting 

7 p.m. 

South Branch Library 

1901 Russell Street 

Regular meeting, including a building projects update. 

644-6095 

Police Review Commission Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Regular meeting with a recruitment update and continuing discussion on marijuana arrests. 

644-6716 

Thursday, June 14

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week Berkeley High Folklorico De Aztlan. 

Camping and Hiking Slide  

Presentation 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author Tom Stienstra gives a slide presentation on where to go hiking and camping this summer in the Sierra and Shasta region. Free. 

527-4140 

Berkeley School Volunteers 

10:30 a.m. - Noon 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in summer academic and recreation programs. 

644-8833 

Fair Campaign Practices  

Commission Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Street 

Special meeting to discuss and act upon, among other items, possible violations of the Berkeley Election Reform Act.  

981-6950 

Dog killer is  

a sick man 

Editor: 

Concerning the (ooops) who threw the little dog into the oncoming traffic: 

Personally, this unmerciful living specimen — if sentenced to a jail term — should have his cell surrounded with “LARGE” pictures of this little dog. Somewhere in his lifetime he will be reminded of this sick act. 

Alice Noriega 

San Pablo 

Reddy deserves more punishment 

Editor: 

You may know that the prosecutors in the Lakireddy Bali Reddy sexual slavery case have recommended to Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong that he receive the outrageously short sentence of only five to five and a half years of incarceration. Judge Armstrong on June 19 has the prerogative to sentence Reddy to a maximum of 38 years. Even this sentence is much lower than it should be were he being prosecuted for negligent homicide or for conspiring to murder 17 year old Chanti Prattipati and her 15 year old sister by failing to call an ambulance or paramedics to resuscitate them.  

This is not a mere Bay Area matter. It is or should be of national concern. Write to Judge Armstrong ASAP! Urge her to sentence Reddy to 38 years: 

Honorable Saundra Brown Armstrong  

Federal Building & Courthouse 

1301 Clay St. #400 South 

Oakland, CA 94612-5212. 

Phone her at (510) 637-3559.  

For further information and or materials for posting, contact Dr. Diana Russell at (510) 843-0680 or Marcia Poole at (510) 549-3345 or B J Miller at (510) 527-4582.  

Helen Rippier Wheeler  

Berkeley 

Beth El article missed two  

critical points 

Editor: 

Your article on the City Council’s hearing about Congregation Beth El’s plans to build a new synagogue said that about 440 people attended — a record high according to Mayor Shirley Dean. 

You did not point out that about 85 percent of the people present came to support Beth El. This crowd included Berkeleyans of all ages and ethnicities, representatives of many groups that benefit from Beth El’s community services, more than a dozen clergy of various faiths, and neighbors of the Oxford Street site who favor the synagogue’s plans. It was an unprecedented outpouring of support from a diverse group of Berkeley citizens. 

The Daily Planet’s article also mentioned and pictured signs displayed by opponents of the project. But it ignored the larger number of signs held by Beth El backers that read “For Kids and the Community — Congregation Beth El,” a statement of the congregation’s mission and priorities. 

Your article quoted a speaker expressing concern that the creek could never be daylighted if the project is built as designed. You did not, however, quote the expert who showed how the creek could be daylighted without changing Beth El’s building plan. 

I know it is difficult to include all pertinent information about such a complex subject, and your article was generally accurate and balanced. But it seems to me that leaving out the dramatic difference in the level of attendance by the opposing sides and the impressive presentation on daylighting were serious omissions.  

Michael Ferguson 

Berkeley 

Tritium will not harm Berkeley 

Editor: 

In two recent public meetings Berkeley citizens have heard the results of the latest safety evaluation of the Lawrence Lab Tritium facility. Mr. Bernard Franke, the principal investigator, reported that he found no evidence that tritium exposures have ever reached the safety limits for tritium set in the Clean Air Act. In a personal endorsement of the safety of the tritium lab, he said if he had children he would allow them to use the nearby Lawrence Hall of Science. He noted that reports of his comments on potential fire hazards had been exaggerated, and he praised LBL for their cooperation. 

Once again we are reaching the end of an investigation which has produced the same general results as the five preceding studies.  

McKone, Brand, and Shan (1997): the maximum yearly radiation dose to a member of the public from tritium is 0.13 mrem, less than the additional cosmic radiation received during an airplane flight from Oakland to Los Angeles. This is an insignificant fraction of the 200-260 mrem we get every year from background radiation in the Bay Area. This report was approved by the California department of Health, U.S. Public Health Service, and Environmental Protection Agency. 

Straume (1998): the risk of dying from tritium emissions for residents living near LBL is approximately one out of 10,000,000 per year, about half the risk of death from the bite of a venomous animal. For the rest of Berkeley, up to two kilometers from the lab, the risk is about one-tenth of that. 

U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances (1999): reported no excess health risk for nearby residents. They noted “no indication of an unusual occurrence of cancer cases among the population of the LBNL area” and no contamination of drinking water. Regarding infertility, they noted that the doses required to affect reproductive capacities were “several orders of magnitude higher than the radiation doses received from tritium released from LBNL.” 

National Center for Research Resources (1999): reported that risks were “exceedingly small. … the maximum lifetime dose, due to tritium emissions from the NTLF, to a (hypothetical) individual both living and working for his/her entire lifetime at the perimeter of the NTLF is less than 1 mSv. For comparison, the lifetime dose from natural sources (radon, cosmic rays, etc) is about 250 mSv.” 

Senes Center for Risk Analysis (2000): exposures were "far below dose and risk limits established for the protection of public health." One of the authors commented that in his entire career assessing radiologic risk he had never seen an instance where the concern was so high and the risk was so low. 

Thus, we have had six studies, all indicating that the operations of the tritium lab pose no threat to Berkeley. (This is my personal opinion; neither the Toxics department nor the Environmental Commission has taken a position.) The city has responded generously to the citizens concerned about tritium. Hundreds of hours of staff time have been expended by the Toxics department. The studies conducted by Straume and Franke were paid for by the city. In fact, Straume was hired to do his evaluation at the urging of the CMTW, the group opposing the lab. However, they were dissatisfied with his report and suggested another consulting firm; the Franke study was actually done by that firm’s sister organization. It appears that they are equally disappointed in Franke and, despite six negative studies, continue their efforts to close the tritium lab. 

Competent investigators from universities, risk analysis organizations, public health departments, the EPA, and the National Center for Research Resources have found no reason for Berkeley citizens to live in fear of the tritium labeling lab up the hill. Perhaps the time is coming when Berkeley can finally take tritium off its agenda. 

Elmer R. Grossman, M.D. 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” through May 2002. An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery.” A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 by 40-foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history. “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for year membership. All ages. June 15: Strike Anywhere, Missing 23rd, Crispus Attacks, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Deadlock Frequency; June 16: Nerve Agents, American Nightmare, Fields of Fire, Affront, Scissorhands. 525-9926  

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m. unless noted otherwise. 12: Mad and Eddie Duran; June 14: Keni “El Lebrijano”; June 19: pickPocket Ensemble. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473  

Anna’s Music at 8 p.m. June 11: The Renegade Sidemen; June 12: Best of Open Mike; June 13: Bob Schoen Jazz Quartet; June 14: Richard Kalman Combo. $2 weeknights, $3 weekends. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA  

Ashkenaz June 12, 7 p.m.: Bandworks; June 13, 9 p.m.: Red Archibald and the Internationals; June 14, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave; June 15, 9 :30 p.m.: Winston Jarrett with special guests; June 16, 9:30 p.m.: Amandla Poets; June 17, 6 p.m.: Ray Cepeda and the Neo Maya Experience. 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. June 12: Keith Little with Del Williams; June 13: Danu; June 14: Guy Davis; June 15: The Laurie Lewis Trio; June 16: Rova Saxophone Quartet. $17.50.1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. June 12, Ben Graves Trio; June 13: Crater; June 14: Beatdown with DJs Delon, Yamu, Add1; June 15: Steven Emerson; June 16: Nucleus. 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277 

La Peña Cultural Center June 15, 8 p.m.: TIJUANA NO! with Caradura and Prophets of Rage Dj La Viuda Negra. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org  

Veda Hille and Sini Anderson  

June 12, 7:30 p.m. Presented by the Rose Street House of Music, a concert/workshop space featuring women singer/songwriters. For location and ticket information, visit www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Jazzschool Recitals June 14, 8 p.m.: Adult Big Band; June 17, 4 p.m.: Jazz Combos; June 19, 4 p.m.: Jazz Groups; June 20, 4 p.m. Jazz Ensembles; June 21, 4 p.m. Jazz Combos. Free. The Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373  

WordWind Chorus June 15, 8 p.m. In celebration of the release of its first CD, the WordWind Chorus will perform a unique collaboration of music and poetry. $10 Tuva Space 3192 Adeline 530-7698 

Estradasphere and Warsaw June 15, 9:30 p.m. $7 Blakes 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Celebrating Um Kulthoum June 17, 7 p.m. A benefit concert for Palestinian Refugees, the Lammam Ensemble will perform some of legendary Arabic vocalist Um Kulthoum’s most cherished songs. $20. International House Auditorium 2299 Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft 415-648-1353 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Season Finale June 21, 8 p.m. Works by Shostakovich, Brahms, and Rohde. $19 - $35 Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

“More Matters of Life and Death” June 15 - 17, 8 p.m. The newest cycle of this series, “Iris, Blue, Each Spring,” tackles the joys and sorrows of growing older and is set to “Six Japanese Songs” by Margaret Garwood. Presented by The Ruch Botchan Dance Company in concert with The Mirage Ensemble. $12 - $15 Western Sky Studio 2525 Eighth St. 848-4878 

“Dance Mosaic: Celebrating Diversity” June 16, 8 p.m. and June 17, 2 p.m. The annual repertory concert for the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance features over 100 performers of dance and music from the South Pacific, India, Africa and the Middle East. $5 - $15 Juia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Kalanjali in Concert June 22, 7 p.m. Kalanjali concludes its celebration of its 25th year in Berkeley with a special recital. Experienced dancers and young students, with guests from India including dancer K. P. Yesoda and the musicians of Bharatakalanjali. $6 - $8 Juia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Cymbeline” Through June 24, Tues. - Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Opening of the California Shakespeare Festival features one of Shakespeare’s first romances, directed by Daniel Fish. $12 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

“The Laramie Project” Through July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepherd. The play is about the community and the impact Shepherd’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Romeo and Juliet” June 14 - July 14, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m. Set in early 1930’s just before the rise of Hitler in the Kit Kat Klub, Juliet is torn between ties to the Nazi party and Romeo’s Jewish heritage. $8 - $10. La Val’s Subterranean Theater 1834 Euclid 234-6046 

“A Life In the Theatre” Preview June 13. Opens June 14, runs through July 15. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. David Mamet play about the lives of two actors, considered a metaphor for life itself. Directed by Nancy Carlin. $30-$35. $26 preview nights. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant 843-4822 

Pacific Film Archive June 12, 7:30 p.m.: The Long Holiday; June 13, 7:30 p.m.: Bogus Biographies; June 14, 7 p.m.: Trial on the Road, 9 p.m.: Freeze-Die-Come to Life; June 15, 7:30 p.m.: A Long Happy Life, 8:50: Goodbye, Boys; Jun 16: 7 and 9 p.m.: Beau Travail; June 17, 5:30 p.m.: The Face of Another. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

East Bay Open Studios June 16 & 17, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jennifer Foxly: Oil paintings and 2-d mixed media works 3206 Boise St.; Lewis Suzuki: Scenes from California to the Philippines, florals to nudes 2240 Grant St.; Guy Colwell: Painted replicas and recent original work 2028 9th St. (open until 7 p.m.) 

Wosene Kosrof June 13, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Ethiopian-born Berkeley resident will be exhibiting and discussing his paintings. One piece will be up for auction, proceeds to benefit the YMCA. Free. Crystal Room, Shattuck Hotel 2086 Allston 848-9622 ext. 3541  

PASSING: The Re-Definition of Sex and Gender Through the Personal Re-Presentation of Self Through June 16, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Black and white photographs by Ann P. Meredith. Free. Reception with the artist June 7, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St.  

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Tyler James Hoare Sculpture and Collage Through June 27, call for hours. Party June 9, 5-9 p.m. with music by Sauce Piquante. The Albatross Pub 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ako Castuera, Ryohei Tanaka, Rob Sato Through June 30, Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Group exhibition, recent paintings. Artist’s reception June 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m. with music by Knewman and Espia. !hey! Gallery 4920 B Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349  

“Watershed 2001” Through July 14, Wednesday - Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. Exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture and installation that explore images and issues about our watershed. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

Rachel Davis and Benicia Gantner Works on Paper June 13 - July 14, Tues. - Sat., 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Watercolors by Davis, mixed-media by Gantner. Opening reception June 13, 6 - 8 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

“The Trip to Here: Paintings and Ghosts by Marty Brooks” Through July 31, Tues. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 1 a.m. View Brooks’ first California show at Bison Brewing Company 2598 Telegraph Ave. 841-7734  

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts and Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

“Queens of Ethiopia: Intuitive Inspirations,” the exceptional art of Esete-Miriam A. Menkir. Through July 11. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

“The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” chronicles the transformation of the city of Berkeley in this 10 year period. Thursday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. All events at 7:30 p.m. June 11: David Hajdu talks about “Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña”; June 12: Colson Whitehead reads from “John Henry Days”; June 13: David Sedaris reads from “Me Talk Pretty One Day”; June 14: Ana Menendez reads from “In Cuba I Was A German Sheperd”; June 15: James Ellroy reads “The Cold Six Thousand.” 845-7852  

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. All events at 7 p.m. unless noted otherwise. June 14: Stephanie Brill talks about “The Queer Parent’s Primer: A Lesbian and Gay Families’ Guide to Navigating the Straight World”; June 16, 4 p.m.: Chris Raschka presents a talk and demontration for children.

Kindertransport saved thousands during holocaust  

When Ralph Samuel’s parents put him on a plane from Nazi-occupied Germany to London more than 60 years ago, he thought it was the beginning of a great adventure. And in a sense, it was.  

In a story he told to people at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center yesterday morning, Samuel, spoke of being one of 10,000 children saved during World War II during an operation called Kindertransport. 

“All of us were under 17 and had no idea of where we were going. We were all very excited because the kids did not know what we were in for,” Samuel, 69, said.  

The children became part of foster families in Great Britain and many of them never saw their parents again.  

“Jewish parents in upper and middle class families were willing to put their children on a train, or in my case an airplane, with the absolute understanding that they would never see them again,” he said. “There was an understanding that they would survive with the knowledge that they themselves would not.” 

Nazi persecution of Jews began Nov. 9, 1938, on “Kristallnacht,” or Night of the Broken Glass, when mobs destroyed synagogues, smashed Jewish stores, and beat up and humiliated Jews.  

Soon after, the Refugee Children’s Movement began in London. That movement assured that thousands of Jewish children would be saved. At the age of 7, Samuel arrived in London from Dresdon, Germany in January of 1938 to stay with the family of Samuel Epstein. Samuel learned that Epstein selected him for sponsorship because his last name was Epstein’s first, and Ralph was the middle name of Epstein’s son Peter. 

“I came with a placard held with a piece of string around my neck to be collected by Mr. Epstein. I arrived like a package,” Samuel said.  

His mother was hired as Epstein’s maid in March of 1939 and soon stayed with him. The Epsteins were very traditional, and while Samuel was allowed to eat in the dining room, his mother had to eat in the kitchen because she was considered hired help and not family.  

Within three months, Samuel was speaking English. 

When Great Britain entered the war and the bombing of London began in September of 1939, Samuel was evacuated with 3.5 million other British children to Guilford. His mother soon followed and they stayed until after the war.  

In 1942, his father sent his last letter from a holding camp in Dresdon. In March of 1943, his father went to Auschwitz and was killed.  

Samuel’s mother did not tell him about his father’s death until after the war was over and he was 14.  

“It was very interesting. We got a Red Cross letter and I remember my mother calling me into my room. She said, ‘Your father has died. You have to be a good boy,’” he said. 

After the war, the other children went back to London, but Samuel stayed in Guilford with his mother. Until later, he lost contact with the Epsteins. 

In 1958, at the age of 27, Samuel came to the United States. He married and has two children. He worked in property acquisitions for Bay Area Rapid Transit and the East Bay Park system. He helped found the NorCal Chapter of the Kindertransport Association and has organized reunions.  

The majority of people who survived the holocaust because of Kindertranport have benevolent professions, Samuel said.  

“A very high percentage of kinder [German children] went into the helping profession. I did real estate but only for public agencies and when we have our reunions, everyone is a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker,” he said. 

For the past year, Samuel himself decided to begin recounting his experience to school and community groups so that other generations can learn. That connection, the Point Richmond resident said, is very important. 

“It’s absolutely vital because, as I tell the high school kids I talk to, you are the last generation to hear the story first hand,” he said. “World War II is not the same time of the dinosaurs. I was there and I lived it.”

Dueling Eco Pass recommendations on Tuesday’s city council agenda  

The City Council will consider competing transportation recommendations Tuesday that will, if approved, be the first significant step towards discounted public transportation for city employees. 

The proposed transit policy, known as the Eco Pass Program, would allow city employees to present a pass and ride AC Transit on any of its routes. The cost for the city-funded program has not yet been determined but supporters estimate it will be between $108,000 and $144,000 a year. 

A similar program known as the Class Pass has already been established for UC Berkeley students. 

There are two Eco Pass recommendations on Tuesday’s agenda. One is from progressive councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Linda Maio and the other from centrist Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Mim Hawley. 

The major difference between the two recommendations is one of procedure. The Worthington/Maio recommendation calls for the Eco Pass to be approved immediately on a one-year trial basis.  

“This is something we can do now,” Worthington said. “We’ve been talking about this for at least three years, it’s time we do something practical.” 

The Dean/Hawley approach is more deliberate. It requests the city manager research the possibility of including Berkeley Unified School District employees and issue a feasibility report to council on costs, estimated participation and effective methods of administration. 

“Nothing can happen immediately,” Hawley said. “We’re going to have to work out a lot of details with AC Transit, look at what will be the best way for the city to handle the program administratively and work out a the pass itself so there’s less chance of them getting passed around to people not employed by the city.” 

Worthington suggested employees use their city-issued identification cards as passes.  

“The simplest way is to use the city’s name badge that already has a picture of the employee on it.” he said. “The good thing about that is the city doesn’t have to create another.” 

Hawley said another issue AC Transit will have to work out is whether to add more buses to established routes during peak hours to handle increased ridership. She said if they do, it would affect the cost of the program. 

Hawley said the Class Pass model will be helpful in establishing a city employee program. The Class Pass allows UC Students to take AC Transit for approximately $10 per semester, according to Hawley. Students pay at the beginning of the semester and pick up a pass that allows them to board any AC Transit bus. 

“That program has been remarkably successful,” Hawley said. 

Several cities and counties, including Santa Clara County and Denver, have established successful Eco Pass programs  

Both Worthington and Hawley estimate the cost to be between $60 and $80 per employee each year. The city would pay for each one of its 1,800 employees whether they ride AC Transit or not. 

“That’s a great deal considering the adult pass costs $49 per month,” Hawley said. 

Ultimately the city would like to establish an employer-based Eco Pass program that would allow everyone who lives and works in Berkeley ride AC Transit and Bart at discounted costs. That program would likely be funded partly by Berkeley’s employers, partly by employees and partly by the city. 

“It’s important we get this program going for the city’s employees,” Worthington said. “We can’t very well go to businesses and ask them to start an Eco Pass program if the city isn’t willing to do it for its own employees. This will be a great example.” 

Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn said he has been pushing this program for four years.  

“This is an important idea that makes sense,” he said. “I just hope the councilmembers can work together to get it done.” 

Note: The actual portion of the Class Pass fee that goes to AC Transit is $10 though students pay $18 per semester. The difference goes to a several programs that are not related to transportation. Students pay that cost so the program is not free.

SAN FRANCISCO — Bay Area transportation officials decided Friday drivers should not have to hand over an extra buck at Bay Bridge toll booths. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission rejected a plan to charge drivers $3 to cross the Bay Bridge span. The commission’s decision came despite soaring cost estimates for building a new Bay Bridge eastern span. 

Ultimately, only legislators can institute a toll increase. Still, the commission pushed for several alternative funding methods. 0fficials planned to ask the state for more federal funds and a loan for seismic retrofitting. 

The motorists’ share would come from the permanent extension of the $1 seismic surcharge, which was set to end in 2007.  

The state’s part would come from federal money received for highway bridge repairs. That would bring the split cost for bridge repairs to $1.6 billion for motorists and $1.31 billion from the state. 

The Berkeley Public Library is sponsoring a summer reading program for high school students, its twelfth such program this year. The program, called Cover to Cover, will run from June 18 to August 18, and is open to teens ages 13 through 18. 

Cover to Cover has won a national award for promoting reading and writing among teens, according to a PTSA press release, who are required to read ten books or 1,500 pages in the three month program. Each student is to write a review for each book which must support the rating the student assigns to the book. 

Raffles, prizes, contests and potential publication in the annual Cover to Cover collection are among the incentives. The Berkeley Public Library offers teen reading recommendations at www.infopeople.org/bpl/teen/ but the students are also free to read anything of their choice. Teens can sign up or receive more information at any of the five Berkeley Public Library Locations.

SAN FRANCISCO – Stolen electricity accounts for more than $100 million in annual losses at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., an amount experts say is likely to increase with the ongoing power crisis. 

Utility officials will not say how the power theft affects its 13 million customers or whether the illegal practice has increased. 

“We have found that the more stories that are done on this issue, the more common it becomes and that puts our staff in danger,” said PG&E spokeswoman Staci Homrig. 

However, former PG&E revenue protection agent Howard Dean estimated annual losses range from $100 million to $400 million. 

Nationally, thieves tap into electric lines and steal up to $4 billion a year, according to the International Utilities Revenue Protection Association. 

Average monthly power bills are expected to increase 37 percent to coincide with a rate increase approved last month by state regulators, which add more power thieves. 

“As the utility price increases, the financial incentive for people to tamper with or try to reduce their electric bill through improper methods increase,” said Wayne Wohler, a board member of the Western States Utility Theft Association. 

Wohler said have been electrocuted while tampering while trying to steal electricity. He said some find ways to slow down logging devices on their meters or bypass the meter altogether.

CAMARILLO – Gasoline prices tumbled 3 1/2 cents per gallon in the past three weeks, easing concerns of a summer shortage, an analyst said Sunday. 

The average retail price of gasoline, weighted to include all grades and taxes, was about $1.73 on Friday, down 3.48 cents per gallon since May 18, according to the Lundberg Survey of about 8,000 gas stations nationwide. It was the first price drop since March. 

Prices dropped despite the Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer season when driving — and thus gasoline demand — reaches its peak. 

“There was never any gasoline ’crisis,’ and I still maintain that for this summer there will be none,” analyst Trilby Lundberg said in a statement. “Supplies appear sufficient to keep prices stable, or slightly lower, for the near future.” 

Prices soared in April, “but refineries completed seasonal maintenance work and cranked up production well in time for the first real pull on supplies by vacationing motorists,” Lundberg said. 

Prices fell around the country but the largest declines were in the Midwest, where they had been highest. The price of regular self-serve gas fell 15 cents per gallon in Chicago, which previously had the highest average price.

LOS ANGELES – As power bills soar throughout California, affordable housing advocates fear there could be a devastating impact on low-income housing developments and their private landlords. 

The problem could impact hundreds of thousands of rent-restricted housing units — nonprofit and for-profit alike, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. 

And it comes at a time when the state’s low-income housing shortage already has reached crisis proportions. 

“If something is not done quickly it’s going to affect the financial integrity of our projects,” said Ana Baiz-Torres, executive director of the nonprofit Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee Project in San Diego. “If you look a few years out, it’s potential catastrophe.” 

The organization owns the Mercado Apartments, which is subsidized housing where utility costs are factored into rents. The rents are capped and cannot be raised, forcing landlords to shoulder the burden of skyrocketing energy costs. 

State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who heads the state’s Tax Credit Allocation Committee, has asked his staff to study the problem and look for potential solutions. 

“These are very tough projects to put together, and this will make it tougher,” Angelides said. “What would be a tragedy would be to stand by and watch some good affordable housing projects not make it financially.” 

The state committee awards federal tax credits to low-income housing developers, who then partner with private investors. Those investors pump a one-time equity injection into the project and get a 10-year tax write-off in return. 

Already, the committee has added criteria to its selection process to give competitive advantage to energy-efficient projects. Angelides, however, said more radical measures may be necessary to stem serious damage to the industry. 

The energy crisis is affecting all areas of government-assisted housing, from tax-credit properties like the Mercado, to public housing projects, to the Section 8 federal subsidy program. State officials and housing advocates estimate the number of such units in California to be 300,000 to 350,000. 

“It becomes the worst of all worlds,” said Tim English, chief financial officer of Los Angeles-based Alpha Property Management, which manages about 2,500 units in Los Angeles County. “Here we are in a very regulated business and one of the key cost components is going to be deregulated. We’re stuck with fixed rents and unfixed utilities.” 

Some limited remedies are in the works. Last March, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded one-time emergency funds to certain housing authorities — including Los Angeles — to help cover higher energy costs at public housing projects. 

Another solution would be an appropriation of federal or state funding to help building owners meet operating costs, said Julie Bornstein, director of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. 

But some say the chances of such a bailout are dim. 

“This is like dealing with a cancer. There’s no good way to treat it,” said Jeffrey Burum, executive director of the nonprofit National Housing Development Corp.

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco Chronicle executive editor Phil Bronstein underwent foot surgery after being attacked by a Komodo dragon at the Los Angeles Zoo. 

Bronstein was on a private tour of the zoo Saturday when he entered the Indonesian lizard’s cage. The zookeeper had asked him to remove his white tennis shoes to keep the 5-foot-long reptile from mistaking them for the white rats it is fed, Bronstein told the San Francisco Chronicle. 

The reptile attacked Bronstein’s shoeless foot, crushing his big toe while thrashing its body around, said Bronstein’s wife, actress Sharon Stone, who witnessed the attack outside the cage. 

Bronstein was able to pry open the reptile’s mouth and escape through a small feeding door in the cage while the zookeeper distracted the dragon, Stone said. 

Bronstein was in stable condition Sunday at a Los Angeles area hospital after undergoing surgery Saturday to reattach severed tendons and to rebuild his big toe that was crushed by the dragon’s jaws, Stone told the Chronicle. 

He is expected to remain in the hospital until Monday, said Chronicle spokesman Joe Brown. 

“He sounded in good spirits,” Brown said Sunday. “He did say he’s fated not have a boring life.” 

The tour was arranged as a Father’s Day surprise for Bronstein, who had always wanted to see a Komodo dragon up close. 

“We’re very grateful for the professional care of the people at the hospital,” Stone said. “And we certainly don’t blame the people at the zoo.” 

The endangered dragons are not venomous, but are considered poisonous because several strains of septic bacteria are found in their teeth and saliva, said Los Angeles Zoo spokeswoman Lora LaMarca. 

Bronstein was given antibiotics and will be monitored for infections. The dragon was not injured in the incident. 

The aggressive lizard, which is known to kill members of its own species, is native only to Komodo Island and a few neighboring islands in Indonesia. It can grow up to 12 feet and weigh 300 pounds.

SANTA ANA – A Vietnamese refugee is under federal investigation amid allegations that he killed a fellow inmate while serving as trusty at a communist “re-education camp.” 

Thi Dinh Bui, 60, of Orange Grove, is a former South Vietnamese army captain who spent 1975 to 1981 in the Thanh Cam camp near Hanoi after the end of the Vietnam War. 

Another refugee, the Rev. Andrew Nguyen Huu Le, contends that Bui kicked him unconscious. The Roman Catholic priest also said in a signed affidavit to immigration officials that he saw Bui kill a man. 

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is investigating the allegations. 

Some want Bui deported if the allegations are upheld, but his fate would be unclear because the United States has no extradition treaty with Vietnam. 

Bui, a father of nine, came to the United States in 1994 and now delivers newspapers as an independent contractor for the Orange County Register. He admits that he struck inmates but denied severely beating or killing anyone. 

“The people I work with, how can I look at them in the face if I did? They know that I am a good man.” 

The prison guards “gave me the job — chose me — so I took it,” he said. “My method of working was to help everyone at the camp, and to help them return to their families as soon as it was possible.” 

He did confiscate food that prisoners smuggled back from field work, he said. 

“The reason a number of prisoners — brothers in the camp — didn’t agree with me or hated me is because of the inspections,” Bui said. “They would bring stuff, hide stuff, and I’d usually take it away.” 

The priest contends that in 1979 he and four cellmates chipped a hole in the wall and fled camp, but were caught the next morning. Bui kicked him until he passed out, he said in the INS affidavit. 

“Bui dragged me by my legs up the stairs to the solitary confinement room, banging my head against the steps,” the priest wrote. “He threw me into a room and left me there; he thought I was dead. He then proceeded to beat Maj. Tiep Van Dang to death. I personally witnessed this brutal murder.” 

Bui denies he hit anyone that day but only picked up the men that the camp guards had beaten, including the priest. 

“I wanted to carry him over my shoulder,” Bui said. “But the guards wouldn’t let me. And they yelled at me, ‘Why carry him? Drag him.’ So I dragged him.” 

Nine other former inmates told the Register that they saw Bui beat prisoners but not kill anyone. 

The priest met with Bui once in 1996 and they prayed together. The same year, Le wrote a memoir of his life in the camp that made the accusations against Bui. 

The memoir was sent to the priest’s friends and was circulated to refugee activists as e-mail. 

Last year, activist Thang Dinh Nguyen of Washington filed a complaint demanding Bui’s deportation on the grounds that he committed crimes against humanity. 

The sister of the man Bui allegedly killed also wants him deported. 

“He is a cruel animal, not a human being,” said Nham Dang, 58, of Arlington, Va. “Like with World War II, if those who killed Jews came to the United States, you wouldn’t accept them. I think (Bui) has done a similar crime.” 

The priest who allegedly witnessed the killing said he has struggled to forgive Bui. 

“If the court calls me, I will tell the truth,” he said. “But I will ask for a pardon for him, especially for his family.”

SACRAMENTO – Californians, like all Americans, go to pharmacists more than ever, but for more than a year the state’s regulators have not conducted the investigations needed to watch over the rapidly changing industry. 

That changes this month, as state regulators resume the undercover inspections they dropped them more than a year ago. These surprise visits, common practice in almost every state, should highlight careless pharmacists, overworked technicians and confused patients, Board of Pharmacy officials said. 

California must do more oversight, because more people go to pharmacists, said Frank Palumbo, director of the University of Maryland’s Center on Drugs and Public Policy. By 2004, Americans are expected to take 4 billion prescriptions, a 33 percent jump from current levels. 

After an October incident, Gertrude Krull, an 88-year-old resident of Chico, needs no study to tell her the state must inspect more. In October, Krull sent her daughter to get her prescriptions authorized by a new doctor. 

Krull took one pill, collapsed and was rushed to the emergency room. There, doctors determined she had taken Mysoline — a seizure medication — instead of her heart pills. 

Her chain drug store explained the pharmacist was filling two prescriptions for a Gertrude and assumed they were for the same person, although different last names were on the order. 

The great-grandmother spent seven hours in the hospital waiting for her body to expunge the drug. 

“Nobody should have to go through that. I’m thankful there are no after effects,” said the white-haired woman, who spends her spare time sewing stuffed rabbits for loved ones. 

“I’m afraid there is no safe place to go anymore.” 

In recent years, the Board of Pharmacy, the state’s investigator of pharmacies, has had a tough time doing its job. The renewed inspections come as the board has been hammered by bad performance reviews. A recent state auditor’s report cited a backlog of investigated complaints that was seven years’ deep in some cases. 

Investigators, the report said, had “gross inefficiencies” in resolving complaints about potentially dangerous pharmacies. It also accused the department of circumventing federal overtime laws. 

Last year, the board stopped the surprise investigations because it couldn’t keep enough investigators, spokeswoman Virginia Herold said. 

Investigators moved from surprise inspections to handle complaints, but low pay and the intense workload made it hard to keep and attract more investigators, Herold said. 

At one point, the corps of 23 investigators was almost cut in half, Herold said. Now, the board officials hope to have a full staff to tackle the backlog of complaints and do the undercover investigations of every pharmacy at least once every three years. 

That’s still less than what most states do. Many states inspect each year, while other visit every two years. 

Regardless of the timing of the inspections, there’s a consensus on what remains behind the problems: Too few pharmacists handling more prescriptions. 

To survive the managed-care shakedown of the 1990s, locally owned pharmacies took on more prescriptions, said Todd Dankmyer, spokesman for the National Community Pharmacists Association. 

The same applies to chain store pharmacies, which often find it hard to enough help, said Maryland’s Palumbo. 

Too often, patient consultations get dropped from the process, which is something investigators will look for when they start their visits. But, Palumbo said, “three years seems to be stretching it a bit. Within that period, you could have totally different personnel in a pharmacy and it obviously reduces the probability of seeing problems.” 

Regulators hope to do more frequent visits after they tackle the complaint backlog, which was 1,500 deep when the auditor investigated last year. Pharmacies with a history of more complaints against them can expect more frequent visits, Herold said. 

Even so, it’s hard to inspect without inspectors, particularly since experienced pharmacists can make much more in private industry. Some pharmacies lure beginners with $80,000-a-year salaries and signing bonuses, such as new sports cars. 

Now, state investigators make an average of $70,000 a year, which the state hopes to increase. 

“This is the board’s No. 1 priority now and it seems we have the political climate to make sure we’re able to do it,” Herold said.

SAN FRANCISCO – After slipping and sliding nearly out of sight just a few years ago, the company that gave the world the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop and the Hacky Sack is trying to regain its footing as a toy trendsetter. 

Wham-O, based in San Francisco, has come up with one of the top-selling toys during the industry’s traditionally sluggish summer season — a rejuvenated version of its once-popular Slip’N Slide product line. 

The entire Slip’N Slide inventory has already been shipped out to retailers, making the backyard water slide a success beyond the privately held company’s expectation. 

Wham-O is now on a pace for $50 million in sales this year, more than twice its revenue for 1997. That was the year a group of investors led by the New York-based Charterhouse Group bought the toy maker from Mattel Inc. for about $20 million. 

Charterhouse and its partners paid a bargain-bin price for a toy box full of classic creations that also included Superball, Boogie Board, Silly String and Water Wiggle. 

Despite its brands’ name recognition, Wham-O seemed to lose its punch under Mattel, which focused most of its efforts on much bigger and highly profitable product lines like Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels model cars. 

Its new management team set out to re-establish the popularity of the company’s best-known toys and then introduce updated versions of the top sellers. 

“This was a small business for Mattel, but we think we can build it into something much bigger with our more focused approach,” said Wham-O chief executive Mojde Esfandiari. “Our objective is to grow into a business with $200 million to $300 million in annual sales within the next few years.” 

To hit its sales target, Wham-O — named after the impact of a well-aimed slingshot, the company’s original product — expects to snap up other promising toy lines, much like company co-founders Rich Knerr and Spud Melin did in 1955 when they bought the Pipco Flying Saucer from inventors Fred Morrison and Warren Franscioni. 

After initially selling the discs as the Pluto Platter, Wham-O later renamed it “Frisbee.” The Frisbee and Hula Hoop helped establish Wham-O as one of the toy industry’s top fad factories. 

Mattel and Hasbro Inc. dominate toys today — together they have about 37 percent of the $23 billion industry. Wham-O’s plan is to establish itself as the No. 1 maker of outdoor toys. 

“It’s a smart strategy on Wham-O’s part,” said New York toy consultant Chris Byrne. “There is tremendous equity built up in some of their brand names. The challenge for them is to figure out a way to find new, innovative ways to get customers to buy more Frisbees and more Slip’N Slides.” 

The comeback of the Slip’N Slide — a popular product shelved in the early 1990s after a series of adult accidents — is an example of how Wham-O hopes to put some of the Baby Boom generation’s favorite toys on the wish lists of 21st-century kids. 

When Wham-O decided to revive it, the product was redesigned to add several new twists, including longer ramps, water tunnels and colorful archways. 

“We don’t want today’s kids to think of our toys as their Mom and Dad’s toys,” said Scott Masline, Wham-O’s senior vice president of marketing. “The nostalgia associated with our toys is nice, but in the end it’s all about product innovation.” 

Wham-O says the redesigned slides — labeled with prominent warnings against use by anyone above 11 years old — are perfectly safe. 

Oakland attorney Matthew Rinaldi, who negotiated a settlement for a man who broke his neck on the Slip’N Slide, also thinks the latest version is safe, but fears the product’s comeback will inspire some households to pull out the more dangerous old versions out of their garages. 

“We are very concerned,” Rinaldi said, “because it seem like the Slip’N Slide has an aura of being cool again.” 

During the next year, Wham-O plans to introduce 50 new products to its existing line of about 120 toys. Most of the new products are designed for winter use — an attempt to diversify a business now heavily reliant on summertime sales. 

Most of the new products will attempt to piggyback on established brands. For instance, the company will sell products such as the Frisbee Flyer, the Hula Hoop Saucer and the Slip’N Slide Snow Spinner to ride down snow-covered hills. 

For now, Wham-O is just hoping that its summer sales remain strong. The toy maker may be one of the few businesses based in blackout-prone California to be rooting for hot weather during the next few months. 

“I pull out the paper every morning and turn to the weather map,” Masline said. “When I see red all over the map, I know that means green for us.”

Racing across the blue Pacific like wild, white-maned horses, the curling breakers crashing down on California’s beaches are an iconic image of the Golden State. 

Berkeley grad Misha Cornes goes to the beach and sees something more: an energy source tailor-made for power-strapped California. 

Cornes and his colleagues at the Berkeley based start-up Sea Power & Associates think they’ve figured out how to harness the energy in waves. 

Their Wave Rider technology is a series of lightweight concrete floats that would sit one to two miles off shore. Floats are connected to a hydraulic pump that extends about 60 feet down to the ocean floor. The up-and-down motion of the waves creates pressure that drives the hydraulic pump, which then drives turbines to generate electric power. 

The design “seemed to be well thought out and I didn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work,” says David Navarro of the California Energy Commission. “There’s a lot out there. it’s just waiting to happen.” 

The notion of wiring the waves has been around for a few decades. The problem up to now is that few of the ideas have been tested — although some companies outside the United States have produced power from the ocean — and the cost has been considered prohibitively high compared to other renewable forms of energy such as wind and sun. 

“It’s estimated two-tenths of a percent of the energy contained in the ocean could power the whole world. It’s this energy source that’s totally untapped,” says Cornes. 

While Japan and Northern Europe have forged ahead with government-funded sea power schemes, research dollars in the United States dried up after an initial surge in the 1970s. 

In California, there were talks about trying a few ideas along the coast, but “when the deregulation came through there was no money for research. They all stopped. They all went away,” said Michael Champ, president of the Falls Church, Va.-based Advanced Technology Research Project and an early advocate of ocean power. 

Now, with California battling an energy crisis and a revival of interest in finding sources of energy that don’t come from decomposed dinosaurs, sea power advocates are hoping to see their field get a push. 

“Where we are is where wind was five years ago,” says Mirko Previsic, CEO and founder of Seapower & Associates, who has tested his ideas in wave tanks but needs to raise $3.4 million to build an oceangoing prototype. 

The total power of waves breaking on the world’s coastline could produce two to three million megawatts, Navarro said. In good locations, wave energy density can produce an average 65 megawatts per mile of coastline. One megawatt can power about 750 homes. 

“When you see a wave go by you think of it as the water moving. Well, it’s not the water, it’s the energy within the water that’s making it move,” says Navarro. 

The ocean can produce two types of energy, thermal energy from the sun’s heat and mechanical energy from tides and waves. 

There are three basic ways of converting the kinetic energy that drives a wave into power: 

— Tapered channel systems push the waves into reservoirs and then make the water flow through a turbine, similar to a hydroelectric dam. 

— Float systems use the rise and fall of the waves to drive hydraulic pumps. 

— Oscillating water column systems are fixed generating devices in which waves enter the column and force air up past a turbine. As the wave retreats, the air pressure drops, causing the turbine to turn. 

Last November, the world’s first commercial wave power station, which uses the oscillating water column system, began supplying power to the grid on the small Scottish island of Islay. It’s operated by Wavegen, a pioneer in ocean energy. 

Wave energy has the advantage over wind and sun in that it is constant. There are some concerns about getting permits to place the devices and they would also need to be marked for navigational purposes. View obstruction could also be a concern, although many of the devices sit far offshore and would not be visible from land. 

Sea Power & Associates’ target market is remote coastal communities and small islands which now have to rely on diesel generators, which are expensive and dirty. Ocean power would produce no greenhouse gases and Cornes and Previsic believe their system could be cost-competitive with diesel, which they said now costs 18 cents to 25 cents a kilowatt hour. 

Sea Power & Associates got a boost this spring when their business plan won the $10,000 grand prize at the Social Venture Competition held at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. 

The next order of business is trying to squeeze money out of an increasingly skittish venture capital pool. 

“They’re still working ... which is a plus,” says Navarro. “I have to give a lot of credit to Mirko for believing in what they’ve done and pushing it forward.” 

Champ, too, hopes sea power is on the rise. 

“It just really is a crime to see this die,” he says. “Even if it only put a light bulb on the end of the pier for people to fish off, it would have been valuable. It would have been a light in the dark that didn’t cost anybody anything.”

More than a month after the city and school district said they would move immediately to double Berkeley High’s safety officer force, there are still no new officers on the campus.  

A series of fights and assaults at Berkeley High earlier this spring, culminating in an incident that led to the arrest of five Berkeley High students, prompted the pledge that several new safety measures would be instituted at the school. 

Negotiations with a number of private security firms broke down early last week when the companies indicated that they were simply not comfortable having their personnel work on a high school campus, said Berkeley High Principal Frank Lynch. Lynch said the companies cited concerns about liability.  

“We’re going to try to explore other possibilities,” Lynch said. But he added that, with just a handful of days left in the school year, it may make more sense to “focus on next year.” 

At this point, Lynch said he would be happy to see just a few full-time people added to the school’s seven person safety staff next year. 

Berkeley Interim Superintendent Stephen Goldstone attributed the difficulties in finding more safety officers, in part, to a tight job market. 

“It’s been a great disappointment that we haven’t been able to secure the people we wanted to secure,” he said. 

At least one of the new security measures proposed in April has been implemented, Lynch said. Students can now call a 24-hour hotline to leave anonymous tips relating to incidents of violence at the school. The number is 644-6208. 

Lynch said school safety staff and police have completed an investigation into the assaults that occurred earlier this year. One of the students arrested in April pled guilty to charges of assault in court Thursday, he said, and two others are scheduled to appear in court soon. 

Lynch also said there have been no serious assaults on campus since April. “From the time that those kids were arrested, things have mellowed out,” Lynch said. “There’s still stuff, but nothing like that.” 

Saturday, June 9

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Celebrates original crafts, international diversity, and community life. One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live performances and a variety of food. Free admission.  

Call 986-9337 

The Bite of REI 2001 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Taste some of the best, lightweight backpacking food and energy snacks available. At 1 p.m. Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn with demonstrate how to turn your outdoor trips into gourmet adventures. Free 527-4140 

White Elephant Sale 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

1300 Shattuck Avenue 

Sale held by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. 

Sunday, June 10

Counteracting Negative  

Emotions 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Exercises presented by Sylvia Gretchen, Dean of Nyingma Studies. Free and open to the public. 

843-681 

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live entertainment and food. Free admission. 986-9337 

“Kindertransport: A Personal Account” 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Hear the moving story Ralph Samuel, who escaped Nazi Germany as the age of eight. Samuel was one of an estimated 10,000 children who were rescued through the efforts of the Kindertransport operation. $4 BRJCC members, $5 for general public. Admission includes brunch. 848-0237. 

Music and Meditation 

8 - 9 p.m. 

The Heart-Road Traveller 

1828 Euclid Ave. 

Group meditation though instrumental music and devotional songs. Led by Lucian Balmer and Baoul Scavullo. Free. 

496-3468 

Monday, June 11

(Oakland) Landmarks  

Preservation Advisory Board 

4 p.m. 

One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Hearing Room One 

The Board will meet and discuss the request to make the Claremont Hotel an official landmark.  

Berkeley School Volunteers 

3 - 4:30 p.m. 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in summer academic and recreation programs.  

644-8833 

Tuesday, June 12

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 548-3333 

Cooking for BEFHP Women 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

BEFHP Women’s Resource Center 

2140 Dwight Way 

Come help the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project prepare, serve, and cleanup a hot meal prepared for Berkeley’s homeless women and children. Teens 16+.  

650-965-0242 

KPFA Advisory Board Community Meeting 

7 p.m. 

1724 Adeline at 18th St. 

Oakland 

658-1512 

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

8:30 a.m. - 10 a.m. 

Permit Service Center 

2120 Milvia Street 

Second Floor Conference Room 

Ad-hoc subcommittee special meeting, discussion of a proposal to conduct a comprehensive, citywide survey of potentially historic resources. 

705-8111 

Wednesday, June 13

Defining Diversity 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Different interpretations of biological and cultural diversity and how it’s used for very different purposes. 548-2220 

Commission On Disability Hearings 

4 - 6 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Open forum, opportunity for public to present ideas and concerns about barriers for people with disabilities and accessibility of City facilities. 981-6342 

Lead-Safe Painting and Home Remodeling 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Free course on how to detect and remedy lead hazards in the home. 

567-8280 

— Compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

“Illusions of the ‘New Economy’” 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Talk by professor and author Dick Walker. $5 donation requested. 

415-863-6637  

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association General Meeting 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

2837 Claremont Blvd. 

Covers area of Berkeley south of Dwight Way and east of Collage Avenue. Presentations on neighborhood issues. 

549-3793 

Trees and Shrubs of California 

7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

John Stuart and John Sawyer will be speaking about and signing their new book, “Trees and Shrubs of California.” Free. 

643-2755 

Library Board of Trustees Meeting 

7 p.m. 

South Branch Library 

1901 Russell Street 

Regular meeting, including a building projects update. 

644-6095 

Police Review Commission Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Regular meeting with a recruitment update and continuing discussion on marijuana arrests. 

644-6716 

Thursday, June 14

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week Berkeley High Folklorico De Aztlan. 

Camping and Hiking Slide Presentation 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author Tom Stienstra gives a slide presentation on where to go hiking and camping this summer in the Sierra and Shasta region. Free. 

527-4140 

Berkeley School Volunteers 

10:30 a.m. - Noon 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in summer academic and recreation programs. 

644-8833 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Street 

Special meeting to discuss and act upon, among other items, possible violations of the Berkeley Election Reform Act.  

981-6950 

Adventures In Nature: Panama 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Avenue 

William Friar, writer for Contra Costa Times and author of a new travel guide to Panama, will give a slide presentation and talk on Panama’s wildlife, history and culture. Free. 

843-3533 

California’s oil crisis wafts away – maybe we can thank the Saudis 

By Franz Schurmann  

Pacific News Service 

For several months now Californians have been worried about rolling electrical blackouts and soaring energy bills. Then, suddenly natural gas prices tumbled and it turns out the “crisis” was only a very short nightmare. 

What happened? 

One clue is the news from the markets on June 5– “crude and heating oil futures rise on jitters about Iraq's suspension of petroleum exports while gasoline futures retreat to three month lows and natural gas falls.” 

But the key answer is found in the financial section of the Saudi newspaper As-Sharq al-Ausat (ASAA) of June 3, in a story headlined “Saudis are prepared to cover all shortages in world markets after Iraq halted oil exports.” 

This was apparently the first report of a Saudi commitment to assure adequate supplies to all oil markets, a capability they alone have among oil producing nations. 

Saudi oil minister Ali ibn-Ibrahim al-Na'eemi made the announcement June 4, on the eve of the formal OPEC meeting in Vienna. So the ASAA must be credited with a scoop. 

A fair part of the ASAA piece dealt with the timing of Iraq's action – how Iraq announced on June 2 it would halt all exports the following day, June 3. ASAA cited a Reuters report that all Iraqi oil had stopped flowing through the major Turkish oil port Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast which usually handles 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, some 85 percent of which is from Iraq. 

Did Saddam really cut the oil flow or only said he would? ASAA reported the Saudi oil minister al-Na'eemi as stating that “all members of OPEC” were in full agreement with the Saudis– though the Iraqi announcement was made before the Vienna conference opened. 

The piece quoted al-Na'eemi as saying that even Egypt supported the move – on June 3 he was in the Saudi capital Riyadh meeting with Egyptian prime minister Atef Obeid– but Egypt is not a member of OPEC. And when the ASAA reporter asked how many barrels a day the Saudi oil commitment could amount to, al-Na'eemi just kept saying “yes.” 

The apparent scenario, then, looks like this: Saddam the rogue threatens to strangle the West by cutting its oil flow. The Saudis, like Bedouin Sir Galahads, swoop in and promise to save Western motorists from an oil shortage like the one that shook them so badly in October 1973. 

ASAA explained Saddam's gambit as a way to show he was peeved at the Security Council for renewing the “food for oil” agreement for only 30 days rather than six months. 

But that explanation holds no water. Saddam knows the sanctions have been wafting away – not least because Secretary Powell, even before Bush's inauguration, said he wanted to do away with all U.S. or UN sanctions except for those involving weapons of mass destruction. 

In fact, halting oil exports would be a silly move and Saddam is not a silly man. He has nothing to gain from such an action. As for the Saudis, they loathe Saddam but are not letting him terrorize them. 

What really concerns King Fahd and Prince Abdullah is the U.S. posture in the Middle East. Washington holds the key– either to peace and profits in the world economy or a worsening war and plummeting profits. 

The Saudis have always opted for the former. And so the royal family has been close friends of U.S. oil companies for over half a century.  

Washington had seen Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak as an uncertain friend despite huge U.S. military aid. However, in recent weeks he has both consolidated his domestic power and moved to the forefront of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He is now a major peace process ally for the Bush administration. 

Maybe his prime minister Atef Obeid brought some news to Riyadh that convinced the overly cautious Saudi rulers that this time Washington is determined to end the Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed by forcing a decision on both antagonists. 

No matter how much we Americans may disapprove of about just everything Saudi, we can't do so for their oil as well. If we did we would have no more SUV's to drive– especially zooming ahead on freeways with only the driver at the wheel and the radio booming. If that's the American paradise then we'll have to thank the Saudis for it. 

Franz Schurmann, emeritus professor at UC Berkeley, has written on the politics of oil for over two decades, especially in his book “The Foreign Politics of Richard Nixon.” (Berkeley, 1987) 

Playing hardball at East Campus not good 

Editor: 

RE: A proposed hardball field at the East Campus site (Derby/MLK/Carlton/Milvia) 

I am opposed to this project. The quality of life in this dense area has already been severely compromised.  

Again, it is necessary to resume public meetings before unpopular and divisive decisions are made. Positive community development demands quieter, greener areas with gardens to encourage ecological studies, neighborhood participatory activities and perhaps, at the most, soccer or softball spaces. The street must not be closed. The old “temporary buildings” should be razed ASAP as they pose a danger to the health and safety in the area and are a visual blight. 

I am a longtime resident of Berkeley and my children did go through the Berkeley schools. With many of my neighbors I will continue to oppose this project. 

Jean Rowe Leiber R.N., N.P. 

Berkeley 

Take a hint from the wheelchairs 

Editor: 

Something good may come out of the spiraling cost of energy, regarding personal vehicles [am I seeing things or are there fewer SUV’s recently in Berkeley?]: smaller cars, more efficient cars, lighter cars, more thoughtful cars, reduced use of cars. 

In the 60’s, I advocated legislating smaller cars; my professor in urban planning irritable dismissed my idea as unworkable. [Grandmother gave me a VW so I could work while in college; “... all my friends had Porches ...”] 

By the eighties, a compact parking space was mandated for every few normal sized spaces for planning new projects, by counties and towns everywhere. 

But car-makers now make more on show-off, muscle, look-at-me, get-out-of-my-way vehicles; and now Detroit and fuel producers with handsome profits first in mind tell the public guzzling is good, if not god. 

Sixty percent of auto trips, according to a 70’s statistic that sticks in my mind, may be recreational, or at any rate, nonessential; folks do love to watch the landscape streaming past, etc. 

After seeing my friends who use motorized wheelchairs zip all around the area, it occurs to me most local trips could easily be made with personal vehicles little, if any, larger than those ingenious devices. Increasing their reliability, weather-protection, affordability and range would make them more attractive to the non-disabled; expanding the BART network would make mini-personal electric vehicles able to reach a huge proportion of the Bay Area. 

Let’s try. 

Terry Cochrell, Architect 

Berkeley 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” through May 2002. An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery.” A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 by 40-foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history. “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for year membership. All ages. June 9: Groovie Ghoulies, The Influents, Red Planet, Mallrats, Goat Shanty; June 15: Strike Anywhere, Missing 23rd, Crispus Attacks, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Deadlock Frequency; June 16: Nerve Agents, American Nightmare, Fields of Fire, Affront, Scissorhands. 525-9926  

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m. unless noted otherwise. June 9, 6 - 8 p.m.: Sauce Piquante, 9 p.m. - Midnight: Whiskey Brothers; June 12: Mad and Eddie Duran; June 14: Keni “El Lebrijano”; June 19: pickPocket Ensemble. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473  

Anna’s Music at 8 p.m. June 9: Robin Gregory and Bliss Rodriguez, 10 p.m.: The Ducksan Distone; June 10: Choro Time with Ron Galen and Friends; June 11: The Renegade Sidemen; June 12: Best of Open Mike; June 13: Bob Schoen Jazz Quartet; June 14: Richard Kalman Combo. $2 weeknights, $3 weekends. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA  

Ashkenaz June 9, 9:30 p.m.: Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers; June 10, 7 p.m.: Food Not Bombs with Goodbye Flowers and INKA; June 12, 7 p.m.: Bandworks; June 13, 9 p.m.: Red Archibald and the Internationals; June 14, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave; June 15, 9 :30 p.m.: Winston Jarrett with special guests; June 16, 9:30 p.m.: Amandla Poets; June 17, 6 p.m.: Ray Cepeda and the Neo Maya Experience. 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. June 9.: Danny Heines & Michael Manring; June 10: Roy Tyler and New Directions; June 12: Keith Little with Del Williams; June 13: Danu; June 14: Guy Davis; June 15: The Laurie Lewis Trio; June 16: Rova Saxophone Quartet. $17.50.1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. June 9, Om Trio; June 12, Ben Graves Trio; June 13: Crater; June 14: Beatdown with DJs Delon, Yamu, Add1; June 15: Steven Emerson; June 16: Nucleus. 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277 

La Peña Cultural Center June 15, 8 p.m.: TIJUANA NO! with Caradura and Prophets of Rage Dj La Viuda Negra. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org  

The Berkeley TEMPO Festival of Contemporary Performances June 9, 8 p.m. John Scott, John Abercrombie, George Marsh, Rich Fudoli, Mel Graves. $15 Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus www.tempofestival.org 

The Farallone String Quartet June 10, 7:30 p.m. Quartets by Haydn. $8 - $10 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 

World Harmony Chorus June 10, 2 p.m. Vocal music from around the world. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Veda Hille and Sini Anderson June 12, 7:30 p.m. Presented by the Rose Street House of Music, a concert/workshop space featuring women singer/songwriters. For location and ticket information, visit www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Jazzschool Recitals June 14, 8 p.m.: Adult Big Band; June 17, 4 p.m.: Jazz Combos; June 19, 4 p.m.: Jazz Groups; June 20, 4 p.m. Jazz Ensembles; June 21, 4 p.m. Jazz Combos. Free. The Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373  

WordWind Chorus June 15, 8 p.m. In celebration of the release of its first CD, the WordWind Chorus will perform a unique collaboration of music and poetry. $10 Tuva Space 3192 Adeline 530-7698 

Estradasphere and Warsaw June 15, 9:30 p.m. $7 Blakes 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Celebrating Um Kulthoum June 17, 7 p.m. A benefit concert for Palestinian Refugees, the Lammam Ensemble will perform some of legendary Arabic vocalist Um Kulthoum’s most cherished songs. $20. International House Auditorium 2299 Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft 415-648-1353 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Season Finale June 21, 8 p.m. Works by Shostakovich, Brahms, and Rohde. $19 - $35 Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

Sungugal Ballet June 10, 4:30 p.m. Featuring master percussionist Djibi Faye and West African Band with traditional West African dance. $6 - $12. Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

“More Matters of Life and Death” June 15 - 17, 8 p.m. “Iris, Blue, Each Spring,” tackles the joys and sorrows of growing older and is set to “Six Japanese Songs” by Margaret Garwood. $12 - $15 Western Sky Studio 2525 Eighth St. 848-4878 

“Dance Mosaic: Celebrating Diversity” June 16, 8 p.m. and June 17, 2 p.m. The annual repertory concert for the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance features over 100 performers of dance and music from the South Pacific, India, Africa and the Middle East. $5 - $15 Juia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Kalanjali in Concert June 22, 7 p.m. Kalanjali concludes its celebration of its 25th year in Berkeley with a special recital. Experienced dancers and young students, with guests from India including dancer K. P. Yesoda and the musicians of Bharatakalanjali. $6 - $8 Juia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Theater 

“A New Brain” June 9 and 10, 8 p.m. Catch the last weekend of the Shotgun Players’ first musical about an artist with dreams of writing an epic musical, who is stuck writing tunes for a children’s television show. $10 - $15 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 655-0813 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere Through June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“Cymbeline” Through June 24, Tues. - Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Opening of the California Shakespeare Festival features one of Shakespeare’s first romances, directed by Daniel Fish. $12 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

“The Laramie Project” Through July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepherd. The play is about the community and the impact Shepherd’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Romeo and Juliet” June 14 - July 14, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m. Set in early 1930’s just before the rise of Hitler in the Kit Kat Klub, Juliet is torn between ties to the Nazi party and Romeo’s Jewish heritage. $8 - $10. La Val’s Subterranean Theater 1834 Euclid 234-6046 

“A Life In the Theatre” Previews June 9, 10, 13. Opens June 14, runs through July 15. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. David Mamet play about the lives of two actors, considered a metaphor for life itself. Directed by Nancy Carlin. $30-$35. $26 preview nights. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant 843-4822 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive June 9, 7:30: Comic and Avant-Garde Shorts; June 10, 5:30: Pitfall, 7:25: Woman In the Dunes; June 12, 7:30 p.m.: The Long Holiday; June 13, 7:30 p.m.: Bogus Biographies; June 14, 7 p.m.: Trial on the Road, 9 p.m.: Freeze-Die-Come to Life; June 15, 7:30 p.m.: A Long Happy Life, 8:50: Goodbye, Boys; Jun 16: 7 and 9 p.m.: Beau Travail; June 17, 5:30 p.m.: The Face of Another. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“The Producers” June 10. Revisit this outrageous comedy classic, starring Zero Mostel and written by Mel Brooks. $2 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Exhibits 

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

East Bay Open Studios June 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jennifer Foxly: Oil paintings and 2-d mixed media works 3206 Boise St.; Lewis Suzuki: Scenes from California to the Philippines, florals to nudes 2240 Grant St.; Guy Colwell: Painted replicas and recent original work 2028 9th St. (open until 7 p.m.) 

Wosene Kosrof June 13, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Ethiopian-born Berkeley resident will be exhibiting and discussing his paintings. One piece will be up for auction, proceeds to benefit the YMCA. Free. Crystal Room, Shattuck Hotel 2086 Allston 848-9622 ext. 3541  

PASSING: The Re-Definition of Sex and Gender Through the Personal Re-Presentation of Self Through June 16, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Black and white photographs by Ann P. Meredith. Free. Reception with the artist June 7, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St.  

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Tyler James Hoare Sculpture and Collage Through June 27, call for hours. Party June 9, 5-9 p.m. with music by Sauce Piquante. The Albatross Pub 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ako Castuera, Ryohei Tanaka, Rob Sato Through June 30, Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Group exhibition, recent paintings. Artist’s reception June 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m. with music by Knewman and Espia. !hey! Gallery 4920 B Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349  

“Watershed 2001” Through July 14, Wednesday - Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. Exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture and installation that explore images and issues about our watershed. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

Rachel Davis and Benicia Gantner Works on Paper June 13 - July 14, Tues. - Sat., 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Watercolors by Davis, mixed-media by Gantner. Opening reception June 13, 6 - 8 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

“The Trip to Here: Paintings and Ghosts by Marty Brooks” Through July 31, Tues. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 1 a.m. View Brooks’ first California show at Bison Brewing Company 2598 Telegraph Ave. 841-7734  

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts and Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

“Queens of Ethiopia: Intuitive Inspirations,” the exceptional art of Esete-Miriam A. Menkir. Through July 11. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

“The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” chronicles the transformation of the city of Berkeley in this 10 year period. Thursday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. All events at 7:30 p.m. June 9: Richard Russo reads from “Empire Falls”, June 10: Irvine Welsh talks about “Glue”; June 11: David Hajdu talks about “Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña”; June 12: Colson Whitehead reads from “John Henry Days”; June 13: David Sedaris reads from “Me Talk Pretty One Day”; June 14: Ana Menendez reads from “In Cuba I Was A German Sheperd”; June 15: James Ellroy reads “The Cold Six Thousand.” 845-7852  

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. All events at 7 p.m. unless noted otherwise. June 9: For the younger readers, Lemony Snicket reports on “The Vile Village”; June 14: Stephanie Brill talks about “The Queer Parent’s Primer: A Lesbian and Gay Families’ Guide to Navigating the Straight World”; June 16, 4 p.m.: Chris Raschka presents a talk and demontration for children, and paints the store front window. 559-9500 

Simone Martel June 16, 2 p.m. Martel will read from her book “The Expectant Gardener: A Wise and Fun Guide to the Adventure of Backyard Growing” Barnes and Noble 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861  

Weekly Poetry Nitro Mondays 6:30 p.m. sign up, 7 - 9 p.m. reading. Performing poets in a dinner atmosphere. Featured poets: June 11, Ivan Arguelles; June 18: Katie Daley. Cafe de la Paz 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Conference will try to set guidelines for parents to follow 

ITASCA, Ill. – When a parent was seriously injured in a melee – hit between the eyes with a yard marker – at a football game in El Paso, Texas, Mayor Carlos Ramirez decided it was time to do something about the city’s growing sideline rage at youth sports events. 

Last fall, Ramirez started an anger management class for parents that was expanded into a 2 1/2-hour lesson, complete with a training manual, on sports parenting and child abuse in youth activities. About 15,000 parents have taken the course, and the lesson seems to be sinking in. 

“For the first time in many years there has not been one fight in our youth football season,” Ramirez said in an opening address Friday at a conference on how to curb violence in youth sports. 

Experts from across the country are meeting in this Chicago suburb this weekend, creating guidelines for parents and coaches. 

Fred Engh, who heads the National Alliance for Youth Sports – the sponsor of the conference – said every community will get a copy of the guidelines. 

“If communities don’t adopt this they should hang their heads in shame,” Engh said. 

The El Paso course will be the starting point for the guidelines the conference plans to develop. 

Daniel Wann, an expert on parent and spectator behavior at sporting events, said the problem with parental rage at games is the result of spectators’ natural tendency to identify with players on the field. 

“They don’t go to games to cause trouble, but they so identify with their children on the playing field they can’t get a grip,” said Wann. 

Across the country, enraged parents have attacked coaches, umpires and referees, each other, and even children. 

Some of the more notorious examples: 

– In Oklahoma in 1999, a coach had to be restrained after he starting choking an umpire during a tee-ball game for 5- and 6-year-olds. 

– In San Fernando, a father was sentenced to 45 days in jail last year for beating a coach who took his 11-year-old son out of a baseball game. 

– A parent in Reading, Mass., was beaten to death while supervising his son’s hockey pickup game last July. Authorities say another father, Thomas Junta, became upset at rough play and fought with Michael Costin, a single father of four. Junta was charged with manslaughter and awaits trial. 

In addition, violence against umpires and referees has prompted many states to get tougher. The Illinois Legislature recently passed a bill mandating penalties for people who assault sports officials, while 15 other states have similar laws.

Everyone in the School Board meeting room seemed excited about the new superintendent at the gathering Friday where district personnel turned out to meet and greet Michele Barraza Lawrence, the new superintendent. 

Except one, that is. 

“I can’t believe Northern California has stolen her away from me,” said the superintendent’s daughter Kimberly Barraza-Lawrence, a former high school Spanish teacher, now getting her doctorate in education at UCLA. The younger Barraza-Lawrence was accompanying her mother, helping her with house shopping in Berkeley. 

A crowd of administrators, city officials and parents lined up to meet and greet Lawrence, 53, who appeared to give undivided attention to each. Her first day on the job will be July 16, although she will be in and out of the district before that date. 

“She comes to us from a community that loves and respects her and honors her,” said Board of Education President Terry Doran in his formal introduction, going on to say that the people of Berkeley will be there for her. “Even if you don’t call on them, they will be there,” he promised, with a smile. 

Lawrence acknowledged that the move from Paramount in Los Angeles County will be a big one for her. “I’ve lived and worked within 20 miles (of where I was born) all my life,” said Lawrence, whose parents were both from Mexico.  

The crowd applauded when she spoke of her mission: “The children will always come first,” she said.  

Lawrence will be paid $185,000 annually and will receive $15,000 for relocation costs. Expenses such as travel, conferences or a car allowance, sometimes paid separately, are included in the annual salary. The previous superintendent earned about $170,000, including the various business expenses which were paid separately, Doran said. 

The school superintendent will remain the highest-paid official in the city. City Manager Weldon Rucker earns $154,000 annually.

St. Mary’s track stars head to national meet 

Four members of the St. Mary’s track & field team will take part in a national competition this weekend in Sacramento. 

The Golden West Invitational is an annual event held the week after the CIF State Championship Meet. The Invitational consists of individual competitions with just one heat in each event, and will be host to some of the top athletes from around the country. 

For St. Mary’s, Kamaiya Warren will throw the discus, Bridget Duffy will run the mile, Asokah Muhammed will take part in the triple jump, and Halihl Guy will run the 300-meter low hurdles. All but Warren finished in the top four in their event at the state meet. Warren failed to advance in the discus due to fouls in a regional meet, but finished second in the shot put at the state meet. 

“This is a hard meet to get into,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “You usually have to be nationally ranked to be invited. It’s a great opportunity for our kids.” 

The Golden West Invitational will take place on Saturday at American River College in Sacramento. 

Cal gets second early verbal commitment 

Richard Midgely, a junior for Modesto Christian, has verbally committed to attend and play basketball at Cal following his senior year. 

Midgely, a 6-1 point guard, averaged 19 points and five assists a game for Modesto Christian this season, leading the team to the Division I state championship game, where they lost to Mater Dei (Los Angeles). 

Midgely is the second highly-ranked junior to commit early to the Golden Bears. Earlier this spring, Derek Burditt, a 6-5 junior and the New Orleans Metro Area Player of the Year, gave a verbal commitment to the school. Verbal commitments are not binding until players sign a official letter of intent. 

Midgely, who is originally from London, was also recruited by Kentucky, UCLA and Utah. 

With Midgely and Burditt already committed, Cal head coach Ben Braun could have back-to-back top-10 recruiting classes. Next year’s crop of center Jamal Sampson and forwards Julian Sensley and Erik Bond is considered the best class Braun has gotten in his five years with the program.

La Peña Cultural Center is celebrating its 26th anniversary by throwing a benefit tonight to honor the work of Dolores Huerta and to help raise money for the labor leader’s medical expenses. 

“Dolores is a farm worker leader of remarkable courage,” La Peña spokesperson Fernando Torres said. “She is a woman of phenomenal strength and truly one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century.” 

The benefit will include music by Dulce Mambo and others, a slide show presented by Huerta’s daughter Camellia Chavez chronicling her mother’s family life and a talk by Huerta herself. Mayor Shirley Dean will also be on hand to declare June 9 Dolores Huerta Day in Berkeley. 

Mother of 11, Huerta, 71, devoted her life to community activism after coming in contact with the children of the poor and dispossessed while working as a grammar school teacher in the 1950s.  

She later co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez. According to a La Peña press release, Huerta has “worked tirelessly ever since to improve the lives of farm workers and for decades has worked to ban the use of toxic pesticides that threaten the health of farm workers, consumers and the environment.” 

Father Bill O’Donnell, who will introduce Huerta and offer a prayer, said Huerta is a true hero. “She comes out of a community that was the most powerless in California and she joined with Cesar Chavez to organize that community and they made tremendous sacrifices to achieve some hope for the people who harvest our food,” he said. 

O’Donnell said Huerta fought even within her own union for women’s rights. “In her union, there was a cultural bias against women that Huerta was not afraid to take on,” he said. “That’s why she’s so special.” 

Huerta is also known as a passionate speaker who has lobbied in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. 

She is the recipient of numerous awards for her work and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. 

Huerta has a rare medical condition known as Aortic Duodenal Fistula. She underwent surgery in November and was hospitalized for nearly two months. “She went through a lot but she’s steadily regaining her strength,” Camellia Chavez said. 

Torres said Huerta’s medical bills are close to $250,000, which is only partially covered by insurance. A large percentage of tonight’s proceeds will go to covering her medical expenses. 

The celebration will also benefit La Peña, a nonprofit which opened in Berkeley in 1975. Peña means gathering place in Spanish and La Peña is modeled after the peñas’ tradition of Chile and Argentina where peasants constructed temporary huts to form a communal space for celebrating fiestas and holidays. 

La Peña presents a variety of music, theater and dance events. Many of the artists reflect contemporary social issues from multicultural perspectives. La Peña also offers music and dance classes, some of which are free.  

The benefit celebration will be held at La Peña Cultural Center at 3105 Shattuck Ave. at 7 p.m. For ticket information call 849-2568. 

Berkeley Observed 

Looking back, seeing ahead 

Until the Bay Bridge opened in 1936, the only way of crossing the bay was by private boat or ferry.  

To facilitate travel to the ferry many roads cut a diagonal path to the Ferry terminal, called the Oakland Mole.  

The ferry terminal was located on “Long Wharf” which was near the present approach to the Bay Bridge. When the Berkeley Branch Line of the Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific) Railroad began running in 1876, the route from Oakland began its diagonal path along Stanford Avenue named for the man who owned the railroad, Leland Stanford.  

In the foreground of the photo are three freight cars located in the triangular island created by the diverging streets.  

Originally used for railroad operations, these parcels were later developed when the trains stopped running.  

These islands today are the location of a parking lot on the smallest section, a drug store in the middle section and a grocery store (Berkeley Bowl) in the largest section.  

The tall house in the middle right is still standing today at 2820 Adeline Street.  

Built in the 1890s, it remains as distinctive a building in its neighborhood as it did in 1906.  

Susan Cerny writes Berkeley Observed in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association

Fire departments training at Tilden Park 

East Bay fire departments will prepare for the early fire season with a training for wild land fires at Tilden Park today. 

At 9:30 a.m. the fire departments of Berkeley, Oakland, Moraga-Orinda, Contra Costa County, California Division of Forestry, East Bay Regional Parks, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab will come together at the Equestrian Camp off Wildcat Canyon Road. 

Although there will not be any actual fire, the drills will include hose development and communications and command tests for large scale incidents, according to a press release from the City Manager Weldon Rucker.  

Fire engines will be coming from various stations around the area and while their lights may flash for safety reasons, they will not be responding to actual emergencies. 

Volunteers needed for Meals on Wheels 

The city’s Meals of Wheels program is looking for summer volunteers to deliver hot, nutritious meals to some of the area’s homebound seniors. Every summer the program faces a shortage of volunteers as people take vacations, said Natalie Krelle-Zepponi of the Meals on Wheels program in a press release. Due to the high cost of producing the meals, volunteers are essential in keeping the program running. 

Volunteers are needed to help package and deliver the meals to seniors 60 years old and over in Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville. From 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. help is needed to package meals, and from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. the meals need to be delivered.  

A typical delivery route would take food to between eight and 20 seniors and would take between 45 and 75 minutes. For information or to volunteer contact Portable Meals at 644-8590.

Four major power suppliers to California have shown they can control prices in the wholesale electricity market and should have to refund excess charges, possibly up to billions of dollars, state grid officials said Friday. 

The Independent System Operator, keeper of the state’s power grid, also asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revoke the market-based rate authority for four generators – Duke Energy, Mirant, Dynegy and Reliant Energy. 

ISO analysts have estimated the state was overcharged about $6.7 billion between May 2000 and March 2001. That includes charges by generators other than the four in these filings, and ISO officials didn’t have an estimate on how much they were seeking from Duke, Reliant, Mirant and Dynegy. 

In order to escape charging cost-based rates, generators must prove to FERC that they don’t have market power — the ability to charge whatever price they want without consequence. Suppliers have to have that authority renewed by FERC every three years, and most are up for review this summer. 

ISO attorney Charles Robinson said the companies have exhibited they have market power and the ability to charge market-based rates should be revoked. The ISO asked FERC to act on their request by June 28. 

Tom Williams, spokesman for Duke Energy, said company officials were reviewing the filing and would respond soon. Richard Wheatley of Reliant Energy said the ISO order was “nothing but a rehashing of previous allegations that have been repeatedly rejected by FERC.” 

If FERC finds the companies do have market power, they could order them to use cost-based rates, which limit company profits to a percentage above the costs to produce power. 

“If there is a substantial change in the market, they have to make another filing with FERC. With the demise of the PX, the bankruptcy of PG&E, the financial difficulty of Edison – certainly that compelled the suppliers to file about those changes,” Robinson said. 

The Power Exchange, or the PX, was the state’s power market, but filed for bankruptcy after its largest customers, San Diego Gas and Electric Co., Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison, stopped purchasing power. The state now buys power for customers of those utilities directly from generators. 

The agency has already made similar requests regarding two other energy companies, Williams and AES. 

If the companies are found to have charged excessive rates, FERC can order refunds. 

But ISO officials said in their filing that “the potential for after-the-fact refunds is little comfort to the elderly consumer, who, because of outrageously high prices, was forced in the interim to forego air conditioning notwithstanding serious health implications, or to the small business that was forced to close its doors.” 

Though ISO estimates $6.7 billion has been overcharged, some of that comes from companies not under FERC’s jurisdiction, such as Canadian firms or municipal districts. 

FERC has ordered $125 million in refunds, saying it can only examine prices for power sold during Stage 3 emergencies, when reserves drop to below 1.5 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The California Independent System Operator: www.caiso.com 

MARTINEZ — Contra Costa County health officials ordered a recall Friday of certain medications following one man’s death and the infection of three others with a non-contagious form of meningitis. 

Doctors and other health-care providers who purchased injectable medication prepared by Doc’s Pharmacy in Walnut Creek were asked to immediately stop using the medication. 

The recall also includes opthalmics, or medications administered to the mucus membrane of the eye, that were purchased from Doc’s Pharmacy. 

Wendel Brunner, director of the county’s public health service, said officials ordered the precautionary recall because a batch of the steroid beta methasone prepared in mid-May by Doc’s Pharmacy was contaminated with bacteria. 

George Stahl, 47, of Concord, died from the infection on May 30, 24 hours after receiving a shot for lower back pain. An elderly man who received a shot May 31 also died within the last week, though doctors are not sure if it was from meningitis. Seven others have been hospitalized – six at John Muir Medical Center, spokeswoman Patricia Hefner said. 

Three are confirmed to have the meningitis, another two have symptoms but their problem is not yet known and one has a different blood infection, Hefner said. 

The seventh person was hospitalized at San Ramon Regional Medical Center with an undiagnosed infection. 

The bacteria is common and is only dangerous when it gets into the bloodstream or spinal fluid. 

“What’s fine on the hands, in the mouth and in the stomach could be deadly when injected into spinal fluid,” Brunner said. 

Robert Horwitz, a Doc’s pharmacist, told the Contra Costa Times that the pharmacy is being made a scapegoat. 

The Sierra Surgery Center in Concord, where the four people became infected with bacteria as a result of the injections, referred questions to attorney Rich Conti. 

“All I understand is the organism or bacteria they think is there has nothing to do with sterile techniques or anything (the doctor) would have done,” Conti told the Contra Costa Times. 

“Other than that, the issue is unknown as to why these people have gotten sick,” Conti said. “They received the same medication on the same day and that raises questions that need to be answered. The doctor is quite confident he did what he always does and followed sterile technique and is waiting to hear what happened.” 

This form of meningitis is not related to meningococcal meningitis — the contagious form of the illness transmitted through kissing, sharing drinks or other close contact — that is blamed for the recent deaths of two people in the Bay Area. 

OAKLAND — A former Oakland rookie cop testified Friday that a group of renegade officers known as “The Riders” pressured him to quit after he disapproved of their practices. 

Keith Batt, 24, was questioned for more than four hours Friday about his two weeks working the night shift on the streets of west Oakland. He said he quickly realized he didn't like the tactics of his trainer, Chuck Mabanag, and his fellow officers. 

Batt later reported the alleged behavior to police authorities, opening Oakland’s biggest police scandal in recent years. 

“I didn't want to go on doing the things we were doing,” said Batt, who is now a police officer in Pleasanton.  

“It was illegal. It was immoral. It was contrary to what I had been trained and what I believed was right.” 

Mabanag, Jude Siapno and Matthew Hornung faced Batt and their alleged victims in Alameda Superior Court for the past week during their preliminary hearing after which a judge will decide whether there’s enough evidence for a trial.  

A fourth accused officer, Frank Vazquez, is believed to have fled the country. 

The officers now face more than 60 felony and misdemeanor counts ranging from assault and kidnapping to falsifying reports and overtime slips. 

Batt has spent two days testifying that “The Riders” taught him to handcuff and search suspects before finding out whether they had done anything wrong. Suspects were rarely read their rights and were often beaten and threatened, Batt said. Reports were later concocted to cover the officers tracks. 

“I was afraid of what those officers were going to do next,” Batt said. After nine nights on the job, Batt told Mabanag he didn't like “the way they did things.” He said Mabanag got angry and told him “it was a major setback in my training.” 

Batt talked briefly to Vazquez, who declared he no longer wanted to work with him, and then talked for several hours with Mabanag who persuaded him to resign. At Mabanags suggestion, Batt said he wrote a short letter that said “the city’s too much for me. I'm not cut out to be an Oakland police officer.” 

He later reported the officers behavior to internal affairs, prompting a full-scale investigation. 

Defense attorney Mike Rains began his cross-examination of Batt late Friday. He asked whether he was aware that “The Riders” superiors were aware of their activities and were able to constantly monitor radio communications. He also implied that it was suspicious Batt didn't report the officers earlier. 

Batt appeared to grow increasingly impatient, smiling and rolling his eyes. 

“I didn't know what was to come,” he said. 

LOS ANGELES — California, here I go. 

That could be the theme song of a new Web site designed to help disgruntled residents flee traffic, pricey real estate and rolling blackouts. 

Hayward resident Randy Lee, 39, designs Web sites and created the “Leaving California” site partly as a marketing tool for his own business. 

Then friends and family urged him to publicize the site, which contains links to real estate brokers and visitor’s bureaus, polls, a message board and other information to help people learn about career and living opportunities outside the state. 

“I don’t promote that anyone leave who is comfortable here and likes it here,” Lee said.  

“I’m a native and I love California. What I don’t love is the overpopulation, the traffic. Now we have the rolling blackouts. That’s going to destroy the economy.” Rising housing prices, traffic congestion and the other problems Lee cites are not the result of people leaving the state, but moving here in droves. 

Census figures show that while residents left the state in the early 1990s as the state struggled with recession, drought and other problems, California’s population actually rose 13 percent in the decade. 

Lee has already decided he will leave the state within two years for personal reasons, partly pegged to the high cost of living in his San Francisco Bay community. “I have a 20-year old daughter and a niece out toward Modesto,” Lee said.  

“There’s no way they can even think of buying a house here. I can’t afford to live here anymore. It’s a sad realization when it hits you that you can’t afford to live in your home.” Lee’s Web site has been attracting visitors and even advertisers. Lee said about 20,000 people visited the site this past week and he is making a profit selling ads to real estate brokers and similar relocation companies. 

Paul White, an agent with Liberty Realty in Las Vegas, heard about Lee’s site through a client who is moving from the Bay area. He decided to buy an ad earlier this week. 

“There’s a lot of people leaving California for the Las Vegas area and I want to have as many of those people as possible contact me,” he said. 

White said the ad, which links people to his own Web site, hasn’t yet resulted in any  

solid leads. 

“Probably people are looking for information whether or not they’re actually making the decision to move,” he said. “I think they’re looking for alternatives, weighing their options.” 

Jim Manning, lives in Waco, Neb., and is trying to sell his 34-acre property with an ad on Lee’s site.  

He said he called Lee after a friend reported seeing the site. “If people are leaving your state as fast as they say they are, or thinking of leaving, maybe this would be the kind of place they would like to get out to,” Manning said. 

On the Net: 

http://www.leavingcal.com 

http://www.lasvegas 

homemarket.com 

http://www.nebraska-acreage.com

PASADENA — The Hubble Space Telescope has caught Saturn’s rings in full tilt, revealing new clues about the origin of the gossamer band that encircles the giant planet. 

The images, captured at approximately 12-month intervals from 1996 through last year, but only released this week, show the planet as its northern hemisphere swings from fall to winter. 

With each passing year, Saturn’s seasonal motion reveals more and more of its rings to Hubble’s view. The process is slow, since Saturn takes more than 29 years to complete one lap around the sun, making each “season” on the planet equal to more than seven Earth years. 

Since Saturn’s rings are only some 30 feet thick, they are practically invisible when viewed edge-on.  

The most recent image, however, captures Saturn as its tilt reaches its extreme, or winter solstice in the planet’s northern hemisphere. 

The image shows the rings of dusty water ice to be a subtle salmon color. 

“The color of the ring material can help tell us what the rings are made of and will help decipher their origin,” said Jeff Cuzzi, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist and member of the Hubble team, in a statement.  

The images were released this week at the 198th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena. 

Scientists think the pale red color comes from complex organic molecu-les mixed in with the ice.  

While Saturn’s seven icy moons do not share that color, many objects frozen in the deeper reaches of the outer solar system do. 

That leads them to speculate that the origin of the rings is not Saturn itself, but an object that traveled too close to the planet.  

Saturn’s gravity would have presumably torn the object apart and scattered the debris in orbit.  

The planet’s gravitational field constantly disrupts the chunks of ice, keeping them spread out and from forming into a new moon. 

Scientists will get a closer look at the rings of Saturn after the robotic Cassini spacecraft arrives at the planet in 2004.  

The Hubble telescope was launched in 1990. 

On the Net: 

Hubble Space Telescope: http://hubble.stsci.edu/ 

Cassini: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/ 

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge ruled two airlines were liable for an elderly asthmatic’s death because they refused to let the woman carry a bag containing her medication on board and then baggage handlers lost the bag. 

U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said Thursday that American Airlines and British West Indies Airlines were liable for the death of Caroline Neischer, 75, an Inglewood grandmother of 40 traveling from Los Angeles to Guyana for the wedding of a grandson. 

Neischer wanted to carry with her a bag with a special inhaler and medication she needed for her asthma, but a ticket agent forced her to check the regulation-sized bag and it wasn’t returned for two days, testimony showed. 

Both airlines were held liable even though it wasn’t clear whose agent forced her to part with the bag. An aviation litigation expert said it was the first time an airline had been held financially responsible for someone’s death because of mishandled luggage. 

“It should put all airlines on notice that medical equipment that is used in the active care of a passenger must be made sure to be at the right place at the right time,” said Ned Good, past president of the Consumer Attorneys of California. 

Neischer died Dec. 23, 1997, nine days after boarding a connecting flight from New York to Guyana. It was a trip she had made several times before, always carrying the same bag full of medication, court testimony showed. 

She was allowed to carry the bag on the flight from Los Angeles to New York, but an unidentified airline agent in New York forced her to check the bag, testimony showed. 

Neither the lawsuit nor court testimony gave any rationale for why an airline employee would have prevented Neischer from carrying her medication onto the flight with her. 

During the trial, lawyers representing the airlines said that Neischer had a preexisting condition that helped contribute to her death, and that she contracted a respiratory infection during the flight that the missing medication would not have alleviated. 

Lawyers for both airlines had no comment after the judge’s verdict. 

“Someone insisted she relinquish her bag, which she did, kicking and screaming. They promised her it would be there when she got to Guyana. When she arrived, all of her bags were missing, including the carryon,” said attorney Bruce Altschuler, who represented Neischer’s daughter, Florence Prescod, in the wrongful death suit. 

Neischer’s bag with the medication finally arrived in Guyana two days after her arrival, by which time she was already suffering from acute anxiety and breathing problems. She entered a Guyana hospital, where she died a week later. 

All claims stemming from international air travel are governed by the Warsaw Convention of 1929, which imposes a $75,000 per-passenger limit on liability. Families can seek more if the airline is engaged in willful misconduct. 

In her ruling after the nonjury trial, Snyder concluded that the two airlines were liable for Neischer’s death because they had been put on notice that she needed her medication to breathe and then ignored her requests before misplacing the bag. 

Had Neischer been allowed to take her bag on board, Snyder ruled, “it is probable that she would not have died on Dec. 23, 1997.” 

Neischer’s family was awarded about $170,000 based on her earnings and life expectancy of eight more years. 

SACRAMENTO — A federal judge has postponed the trial of a man accused of firebombing three Sacramento synagogues until October. 

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. ruled Friday that the trial of James Tyler Williams, 31, should be delayed after his lawyers said they needed time to analyze FBI tests of a pair of coveralls prosecutors claim links Williams to the crimes. 

Burrell did rule, however, that jury selection will begin as scheduled July 17. 

Williams and his brother, 33-year-old Benjamin Matthew Williams, are accused of torching Congregation B’nai Israel, Kenesset Israel Torah Center and Congregation Beth Shalom in June, 1999.  

They are also charged with the shooting deaths of two gay men in Happy Valley. 

They have been held in a Shasta County jail since their arrests July 7, 1999 in connection with the murders. 

Burrell delayed the trial owing to a pair of coveralls found during a July 1999 search of Williams’ parents’ home near Redding. 

The coveralls allegedly contained fragments of glass similar to glass found at one or more of the crime scenes. 

The FBI examined the clothing last August. Prosecutors presented the findings to defense lawyers Thursday. 

Williams’ lawyers told Burrell on Friday that the case against Williams is “circumstantial,” so any scientific evidence linking him to the arsons is “critical.”  

They said it will take two to three months to analyze the FBI test results and prepare to deal with this evidence at trial.

LOS ANGELES — A judge dismissed misdemeanor charges Friday against a lawyer for former SLA fugitive Sara Jane Olson after the city attorney’s office conceded she had nothing to do with the improper release of information in the Olson case. 

Shawn Snider Chapman said she was pleased to be exonerated but outraged that the charges were filed in the first place. 

She had been accused of releasing addresses and phone numbers of two police witnesses in the Olson attempted-murder case.  

The information was posted briefly on a Web site, but Chapman said from the beginning she was not involved. 

The three counts were filed under a penal code section that prohibits attorneys from releasing such information. Chapman could have faced up to a year in jail if convicted. 

Her co-counsel, J.Tony Serra, who remains charged, has said the information came from his San Francisco office and was inadvertently released. 

“We’ve received significant additional evidence,” Deputy City Attorney Edward Gauthier said at a hearing. ”... We’re convinced Ms. Chapman had nothing to do with this.” 

Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan dismissed the charges. 

Serra’s trial is set for July 30 before Ryan.  

The lawyer has said that if he is convicted he will step out of the Olson case due to conflict of interest. 

Meanwhile, the California State Bar continues to investigate both lawyers on the issue of the release of addresses and phone numbers.  

Chapman said the Olson case can’t proceed until that probe is resolved. 

Chapman and her lawyer, Dean Masserman, told reporters that the city attorney’s office never consulted them before filing the charges against her. 

“The fact that the charges have been dismissed shows that what I said was true, the charges were groundless,” said Chapman.  

“If the city attorney had contacted us before filing, they would have known this before dragging my name through the mud.” 

She said the charges damaged her professional reputation, dismayed her family and distracted her and Serra from preparations for the Olson trial. 

“This has thrown a giant monkey wrench into the Olson trial,” she said. 

Gauthier refused comment outside court. 

Chapman and Masserman said they suspected that the mayoral candidacy of City Attorney James Hahn affected the decision to file the charges. 

“I think the motive was to please these police officers,” said Chapman. “The timing was suspect because the trial was coming up and so was the mayoral election.” 

Hahn, who won the election Tuesday, was supported by the police union. His spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment. 

The Olson case has been plagued with delays and lawyer substitutions during the two years since her arrest on charges in a 1976 indictment. It is now scheduled for Sept. 4. 

Olson, 54, is accused of attempting to murder Los Angeles police officers by planting bombs under police cars in 1975 in retaliation for the deaths of six SLA members in a fiery shootout in 1974. The bombs did not explode. 

Indicted under her former name, Kathleen Soliah, she remained a fugitive until her 1999 capture in Minnesota.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge has set a deadline for the Walt Disney Co. to turn over a list of patrons who suffered brain hemorrhages after riding on park attractions. 

Judge Madeleine Flier ordered the company to turn over a detailed list by June 25 as part of a civil lawsuit that was brought by a San Diego woman who claims she was injured on the “Indiana Jones Adventure” ride at Disneyland and needed intensive medical care almost two years later. 

Flier imposed a $2,500 fine on Disney May 25, accusing the company of repeatedly hindering release of the information. It is the second time Disney has been sanctioned in the case for failing to provide adequate information. 

Deborah Bynum, 45, claims she developed an aneurysm and severe brain bleeding after going on the jarring, rattling ride in November 1998.  

Her attorney, Barry Novack, said the injury threatens to destroy her dream of becoming a math teacher. 

Bynum and her husband, Curtis, who’s in the Navy, are seeking unspecified punitive damages and reimbursement for medical expenses and loss of earning capacity. 

Disney gave Novack a list, with few details, of eight reports of brain hemorrhaging on rides – seven at Disneyland and one at Disney World in Florida.  

He said the list differed vastly from his research, which revealed Disney had received 313 report of various injuries on the Indiana Jones ride. 

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez conceded the list was incomplete, saying the company relied on computer searches of claims made at the theme parks in Anaheim and Orlando. 

He said the company is manually reviewing all the claims. 

Novack said he first asked Disney for the documents 10 months ago. In February, a judge sanctioned Disney $1,523 for failing to provide the information. 

Disney provided a list of eight incidents in May, but Flier issued the second sanction in May after calling Disney’s responses “too equivocal” and “very unimpressive.” 

“There must be an effort to look up what it is that you’re being asked to look up,” she said.

SACRAMENTO — Bills helping overworked nurses, nursing mothers, ferrets, shepherds, backpack-lugging students and supporters of an official state tartan have survived a major legislative deadline. 

Also still moving are measures that would require licensing of handgun buyers, set nursing home staffing standards, limit secret settlements of product-defect lawsuits and make kindergarten mandatory. 

But hundreds of bills will have to wait until next year for a chance to become law. 

Friday was the deadline for most bills to pass their initial house. A total of 1,660 made it; more than 1,300 didn’t. 

The deadline doesn’t cover emergency legislation, constitutional amendments and energy-related bills introduced in the special session that’s running concurrently with lawmakers’ regulator session. 

The bills that made it include measures that would bar mandatory overtime for nurses except during a government-declared emergency and require businesses to provide facilities and breaks to allow working mothers to pump breast milk. 

Another measure would allow Californians who owned a ferret before May 1 to legally keep it if it’s spayed or neutered. California is one of two states that bars the small, weasel-like animals as pets. 

A bill to improve working conditions for the state’s approximately 800 shepherds got out of the Assembly. It would require meal breaks and set housing standards for the shepherds, who now work “virtually as indentured servants,” according to the bill’s author, Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood. 

Another bill passed by the Assembly in the weeks leading up to the deadline would require a study to determine if carrying book-filled backpacks hurts students’ backs. Many schools have removed their lockers, forcing students to carry their books around all day. 

California has 23 official state things, including a flag, motto, dance and song.  

The Assembly thinks it also an official state tartan: a brightly colored plaid pattern like those used in Scottish kilts, to honor the contributions of Californians of Celtic heritage. 

Both houses approved different bills requiring handgun buyers to give a thumbprint and get a state license. Supporters say the measures would make it tougher for people with criminal records to buy guns. 

The two houses also passed different measures limiting confidential settlements of product-liability lawsuits.  

Supporters say the bills would keep companies from hiding product defects from the public, but critics say they could give business competitors access to sensitive information. 

About 95 percent of California children attend kindergarten, but it’s not mandatory. That would change if a bill approved by the Assembly becomes law.  

The measure’s supporters say all children should be attending to avoid falling behind their classmates. 

A bill setting nursing home staffing standards as tough as one caregiver for each five patients also made it out of the Assembly.  

The bill’s supporters say California nursing homes rank near the bottom of the country in quality of care. 

Among the hundreds of bills left behind were measures to ban the use of hand-held cellular telephones while driving, exempt drug possession charges from the state Three Strikes sentencing law, bar telemarketers from calling consumers on a state do-not-call list, and bar the access of minors to video games that contain graphic violence or explicit sex. 

This year’s regular legislative session is scheduled to end on Sept. 14. Bills not enacted by then can be approved in 2002. 

WHAT SURVIVED, WHAT DIDN’T 

Some of the bills that survived and didn’t survive the Legislature’s deadline for bills to pass their first house: 

The survivors include bills that would: 

• Require health insurance plans to cover treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. 

• Make medical patients and their caregivers immune from arrest on state marijuana-use charges if they joined a state registry designed  

to improve California’s medical marijuana law. 

• Require handgun buyers to give a thumbprint and get a state license. 

• Set nursing home staffings standards. 

• Limit confidential settlements of product-defect lawsuits. 

• Bar mandatory overtime for nurses except during a government-declared emergency. 

• Require banks and other financial institutions to get written permission from their customers before releasing information about them. 

• Expand the legal rights of gay and senior couples who register with the state as domestic partners. 

• Try to combat student obesity by limiting the fat and sugar in much of the food served at California schools. 

• Attempt to improve the state’s foster care programs, in part by reducing social workers’ child welfare case loads. 

• Extend the middle-school year by 20 days instead of the 30 suggested by Gov. Gray Davis. 

• Bar Internet gambling. 

• Reduce the sales tax on tractors and other farm equipment. 

Bills left behind include measures that would: 

• Ban the use of hand-held cellular telephones while driving. 

• Exempt drug possession from the Three Strikes prison sentencing law. 

• Bar telemarketers from calling consumers on a state do-not-call list. 

• Bar access of minors to video games that contain graphic violence or explicit sex.

RIVERSIDE — Jurors needed two hours to convict a Perris foster mother in the 1999 beating death of a 4-year-old boy. 

A Superior Court jury on Thursday convicted Theresa Barroso, 24, of murder, torture and assault of a child. Sentencing was set for Sept. 7. 

After the verdict, Judge Russell Schooling commended jurors for enduring explicit testimony and heart-wrenching photographs admitted as evidence. 

“This was a very difficult case for you, for the attorneys, and for me,” he said. 

A jury hearing a case against Barroso’s husband, Alvin Lee Robinson, 28, are set to hear closing arguments and will begin deliberations next week. 

“She completely maintains her innocence and states 100 percent that Alvin killed Andy,” said Barroso’s attorney Peter Scalisi. 

Andy’s death uncovered a flawed Riverside County foster-care licensing process that failed to uncover Barroso’s troubled marriage to Robinson and his misdemeanor conviction for vandalism. 

Gov. Gray Davis signed a law last September introduced by Assemblyman Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside, after Andy’s killing. It helps fund background checks from the state Department of Justice for potential foster parents. 

Andy was in Barroso’s care only two months. The boy had toilent-training setbacks and irritated the couple with his requests for drinks of water. The boy was kicked off a small blue chair by Barroso, who authorities said weighed about 300 pounds at the time. Andy later died when his head struck a dresser. 

Andy’s limp body and swollen scrotum were smeared with dirt to make it appear he had fallen while playing outside the house. He died Aug. 2, 1999. 

Andy lived in Hemet with his parents, Laura Utley and Thomas L. “Cowboy” Setzer as a 1-year-old. When social workers found filth and syringes in the apartment, Andy was removed from the home and was sent to live with a relative in Hemet and later lived with a Menifee couple, Mike and Lynn Henry, who wanted to adopt him. Social workers decided Andy would be better off elsewhere and sent him to live with Barroso and Robinson. 

BRADBURY— A couple of bears took off early from the forest Friday and headed into the city for dip and a bite to eat. 

The 300-pound black bears began wandering Los Angeles suburbs in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at midmorning and one paddled around a backyard pool before they separated and ambled back into the wilderness at midafternoon. 

“They are just roaming, looking for food,” sheriff’s Lt. Debra Lenhart said. “They come down at least once a month. We are so close to the mountains. And they like to cool off in the pools.” 

State Fish and Game workers monitored the bears and authorities asked residents to stay in their homes while the animals were in the area. Schools were also notified. 

Officials reminded people not feed any bears that come down from the mountains. 

Bears that repeatedly wander out of the 694,000-acre Angeles National Forest and find suburban amenities too alluring can face big trouble. 

A bear with a fondness for hot tubs in neighboring Monrovia faced a death sentence after his 1994 capture, but a campaign by children won a reprieve from the governor’s office. 

Dubbed Samson, the big bear became the star attraction of the Orange County Zoo until he was euthanized last month at age 27. 

Bradbury is 21 miles east of Los Angeles.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights approved a report Friday that found black voters’ ballots were disproportionately tossed out in Florida’s presidential elections and suggested widespread violations of the Voting Rights Act. 

The commission’s six-month investigation of the contested Florida vote found the election was plagued by faulty machinery, problems with access to polling places, faulty purging of voter rolls and a lack of attention by state and county officials to evidence that growing numbers of voters would overwhelm outdated systems. 

The commission adopted the report by a 6-2 vote, with both members appointed by Republicans voting no. 

“We will send this report to the attorney general, president and Congress,” said Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry. “We will request a meeting with the attorney general.” 

She said she hopes the report, which offered criticism of both Republican state officials and Democratic county officials, will spark a renewed interest in changing election laws and procedures. The commission will make specific recommendations to Congress after its next meeting. 

She said that since the disputed elections “one of the most disappointing things to me is that I thought there would be more interest in electoral reform.” 

The commission is asking the Justice Department to investigate the problems in Florida, determine whether the disparities were intentional and suggest what remedies might be needed. 

The department said it hadn’t received the request for a meeting, but has been investigating complaints about the Florida election for months. The department is still investigating about a dozen of these complaints, but has dealt with the others, said Dan Nelson, a spokesman for the civil rights division. 

The two members of the commission appointed by Republicans, Abigail Thernstrom and Russell Redenbaugh, said they didn’t accept the report’s findings and planned to offer a dissenting opinion later. 

“The evidence from the hearings does not support the findings of this report,” Redenbaugh said. 

Berry said she was pleased with the steps Florida has taken in ordering new modern equipment and setting aside money for voter education and poll worker training. But she said the state has not addressed access problems for the disabled, a lack of bilingual help for voters at the polls and a need for better monitoring of purges of voter rolls to remove felons. The report said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris ignored warning signs of problems and pleas for help from county officials. 

Bush and Harris responded earlier this week that they felt the commission report was the work of a partisan group. The commission has four Democrats, three independents and one Republican. Bush’s office had no immediate response Friday. 

The commission is considering what other states it should visit to examine election problems from last year, and plans to revisit Florida to see how changes are progressing. 

“We plan to stick with this through the 2002 elections,” she said, noting that she’s heard from members of Congress including Chris Dodd, the new chairman of the Senate Rules Committee who plans to push for federal action on election law changes. 

The commission heard from Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, who analyzed the Florida vote data for the commission — especially in three counties with some of the highest rates of discounted ballots — Duval County (Jacksonville), Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade County. 

Lichtman said there was a “tremendous disparity” between the rates at which black and nonblack votes were not counted. 

“I was quite amazed by what I found,” said Lichtman. For example, he said, in Duval County about one in five ballots cast by blacks was not counted. 

The rate of black votes rejected was sometimes as much as three times or more the rate of nonblack votes rejected. 

——— 

On The Net: Civil Rights Commission — http://www.usccr.gov 

WASHINGTON — Around the country, top organizers in Sen. John McCain’s failed presidential bid say they feel it’s very unlikely he would leave the Republican Party to run for president in 2004 as an independent. 

Political speculation went into overdrive last weekend about McCain, who sparked intense excitement among moderate Republicans, independents and some Democrats during the 2000 campaign. McCain had an extended visit at his Arizona home with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, at the same time as news reports that some supporters were talking informally about a possible McCain run as an independent. 

Some analysts still predict it’s more of a question of when McCain will do that, rather than if he will. But close friends and advisers from around the country aren’t convinced. 

“I just don’t think there’s a chance that John will switch parties,” said Deb Gullett, an Arizona Republican lawmaker who was a longtime McCain staff member. “He’s spent his entire career trying to broaden the base of the Republican Party. I just don’t buy it. He’s totally ingrained in the goals of the party.” 

McCain said last weekend he has no intention of leaving the party and running for president as an independent. Close advisers say their speculative discussions of his future plans were blown out of proportion by the media, which had just feasted that week on the defection of Vermont Sen. James Jeffords from the GOP. 

The flurry of interest about McCain struck a nerve, however. 

“When I heard it on the radio I was thrilled,” said Maureen Barrows, a McCain campaign organizer from Exeter, N.H. “I thought ... this is too good to be true.” 

Barrows drives around with her “McCain for President” bumper sticker and frequently gets a honk of appreciation from passing motorists. 

McCain won the New Hampshire primary last year before ultimately losing the GOP nomination to George W. Bush. 

“There’s certainly a huge constituency that would support him,” said the Republican, a county commissioner in Rockingham County. 

When a trailer featuring McCain talking about gun safety was shown at a Washington movie theater last weekend before “Pearl Harbor,” the audience broke into scattered applause and someone shouted: “McCain for President.” 

In Washington state, McCain supporter Ralph Monroe fielded calls from many Republicans over the weekend about the talk of McCain and the presidential race. 

“We had quite a number of calls to our home,” said Monroe, a businessman and former state co-chair with his wife for McCain. “They trust John McCain and realize he’s trying to move the Republican Party back to the middle.” 

Monroe said he believes McCain will remain the Republican Party’s power broker, but noted: “I think that John McCain has a very dedicated group of followers all across America, and wherever he wants to go, they will follow.” 

In Michigan, state Sen. John Schwarz said he thinks the recent McCain activity has been about pulling the GOP back toward the center, not a prelude to an independent run. 

“He has his pulse on where the majority of people are more than the party does right now,” said Schwarz, who was a co-chairman of McCain’s Michigan campaign. “The party would be well served to swing the turret more toward the middle.” 

While many McCain supporters said they don’t anticipate anything as dramatic as an independent presidential candidacy, former New Hampshire McCain chairman Peter Spalding said it’s impossible to rule it out. 

“It’s so dependent on what type of position President Bush is in a couple of years from now and what happens in the midterm elections,” he said. “If the Republicans hold their own, it takes some of the steam out of a candidacy by McCain.” 

An independent run for president just isn’t a good fit, say longtime McCain friends like Hank Brown, a former U.S. senator from Colorado who now serves as president of the University of Northern Colorado. 

“I know John McCain well and I think it doesn’t fit who he is,” Brown said. “I think it’s silly speculation by those who don’t know John McCain very well.” 

Autoworker Kenneth Taylor of Lansing, Mich., an independent who often votes Democratic, backed McCain in the Michigan primary and says he would love to see McCain try again. 

“He’s a determined enough individual he might just do it to prove to himself he could do it,” Taylor said. 

“He may have been the son of an admiral, but he made it through six years of prison and he didn’t fold,” Taylor said McCain’s POW experience in the Vietnam War. “I was attracted to that.” 

——— 

EDITOR’S NOTE — Will Lester covers polling and politics for The Associated Press. 

WASHINGTON — As President Bush prepares for a potentially contentious European trip, the White House and congressional leaders sought to soothe the environmental worries of allies Friday by promising more money for research and technology on global warming. 

Bush plans to commit the United States to combat the global warming problem and announce new money for research and technology aimed at reducing climate change, advisers said in advance of his Monday trip. Bearing similar goals, Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, proposed Friday to spend nearly $5 billion over the next decade to invent cutting-edge technologies. 

Senior White House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush will announce new money to advance scientific research and encourage new technologies to combat global warming. They would not say how much he was proposing,  

but said it was dramatically  

lower than the Byrd- 

Stevens package. 

That package would create “a major research effort to invent the advanced technologies that we will need to begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming,” Byrd said. 

“It is virtually indisputable that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are rising and that mankind is contributing to this rise,” he said. Global warming refers to a rise in the Earth’s temperature that many scientists blame on heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities. 

A report from the National Academy of Sciences that had been requested by the White House concluded that the Earth’s temperature is rising, mainly because of human activities, and dire climate changes could occur this century. Bush had expressed skepticism about global warming and requested the report to determine the science behind the phenomenon. 

Hours before leaving for a round of talks in Europe in the coming week,  

Bush will meet with his global warming task force to announce the proposal and commit the United States to helping to solve the problem, aides said Friday. 

Bush hopes to ease tension with U.S. allies by agreeing that there is a problem — even if his solution lacks the regulatory teeth of the international pact negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, requiring industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases by specified amounts. 

He and several Cabinet members last week were preparing a new position on global warming that, unlike Kyoto’s mandates, offers mostly voluntary initiatives and flexible emissions caps for polluters as an alternative to Kyoto’s mandates. 

“My expectation has been they would announce principles first,” said Kevin Fay, executive director of the International Climate Change Partnership, who has discussed the issue with the White House. “They’re looking to beef up what they can do domestically, then re-engage in the international process.” 

Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, which represents several multinational corporations that favor the Kyoto approach, said: “There is a lot of interest in having the president say something before he goes to Europe.” 

“My sense is nothing is off the table. There’s still a range of voluntary programs all the way to regulatory programs,” said Claussen, who also has been involved in White House talks. “The litmus test is really whether we’re going to do something that’s mandatory.” 

Five months before the 1997 pact was signed, Byrd and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., co-authored a Senate resolution saying any global warming accord mandating greenhouse gas reductions for industrial countries should also require them for developing nations. 

Now, Byrd and Stevens hope their legislation — focusing on emissions reductions, technology innovation, climate adaptation and resolving lingering scientific uncertainty — will help steer the administration. 

“This is a major positive step. It’s a powerful policy statement that these two senators aren’t going to watch President Bush fiddle while the planet burns,” said David Hawkins, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate Center. 

After backing out of an international climate change treaty and breaking a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, Bush’s job approval ratings fell and European allies were outraged. 

——— 

On the Net: 

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming 

National Academy: http://www.nationalacademies.org 

United Nations: http://www.ipcc.ch 

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Timothy McVeigh awaited transfer Friday to the windowless brick building where he will be put to death – a journey that will be his last chance to see the sky and breathe fresh air. 

The 33-year-old McVeigh abandoned all efforts Thursday to stave off execution for the Oklahoma City bombing after back-to-back defeats in court. 

He is set to die by chemical injection at 8 a.m. EDT Monday in the first execution carried out by the federal government since 1963. Prison officials said the chemicals that will be used for the execution have already arrived. 

McVeigh is expected to be moved from his cell to the death house no later than Sunday morning, 24 hours before the execution. Prison officials would not say exactly when he would be moved, citing security concerns. 

McVeigh has already instructed prison officials on what he wants done with his body, his money and any belongings.  

Prison officials and McVeigh’s lawyers would not say what will happen to the body other than that it will be turned over to a representative of the family. 

Before his original execution date a month ago, McVeigh had given away most of his belongings to fellow death row inmates, including a picture of himself inscribed with the words: “My head has been bloodied, but it remains unbowed.” 

A final meal of his choosing will be served at noon on Sunday. U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Dan Dunne said McVeigh has not yet selected his meal. 

One complication surfaced Friday, when a federal judge in Pittsburgh ordered the execution videotaped for a case alleging the death penalty violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But an appeals judge delayed the order Friday and a panel of judges later overturned it, blocking the videotaping. 

Also, one of the people McVeigh selected to witness his execution, author Gore Vidal, announced that he would not be coming to Terre Haute. Vidal is writing a story about McVeigh for Vanity Fair magazine. 

The magazine released a statement Friday saying that Vidal is unable to make the trip from his home in Italy because he didn’t have enough advance notice. 

Jim Cross, special assistant at the federal prison, said McVeigh had to submit his list of witnesses 30 days before the execution. He said it will be up to the warden whether McVeigh is allowed to substitute another witness. 

McVeigh was convicted of murder and condemned for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people in the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil. 

In Oklahoma City, about 300 survivors and bombing victims’ relatives will watch the execution on a secure, closed-circuit TV broadcast. 

“I’ve heard some people kind of plan to celebrate, and that’s up to every individual,” said Tom Kight, who lost a stepdaughter in the bombing. “I certainly plan no celebration.” 

For security reasons, government offices in and around Terre Haute will be closed on Monday, and the start of summer school was postponed for a day. 

McVeigh has been housed in the federal death row Special Confinement Unit — known as “Dog” unit because it was once the “D” wing of the prison — since July 1999, when he and the 19 other men facing federal death sentences were moved to Terre Haute. 

For the transfer to the death house, McVeigh will be shackled at the arms and legs and swiftly moved past the cells of several of the death row inmates he has come to know. He will step outside briefly, then enter a prison van where his view through the windows will be obscured by heavy metal grilles. He will not be visible to any of the 1,300 other prisoners. 

This carefully choreographed transfer, in which McVeigh will travel only about 500 yards, has been planned since 1993, practiced repeatedly so everyone knows where to be from the moment McVeigh leaves his cell until guards close the door on his 9-by-14-foot holding cell in the death house. 

“There’s a team of people who’ve been formulated for the purpose of this execution,” Dunne said. “They’ve been trained here, we’ve done mock exercises and we’re training this week, just to ensure that everything is done in a coordinated manner.” 

RYE BROOK, N.Y. — The stickiest problem at Ridge Street Elementary School this year wasn’t discipline in the classroom. It was peanut butter in the lunchroom. 

In a situation repeated in schools across the nation, families debated the right to safeguard a profoundly allergic child versus the right to eat a sandwich made with the all-American spread. 

“We were obligated, legally and ethically, to be responsive to this child’s needs,” Principal Roberta Kirshbaum said.  

“I would say 95 percent of our population became educated and supportive and the other 5 percent found it just didn’t fit with them.” 

The discussion at Ridge Street started when a 5-year-old girl, so allergic she could die if she licked peanut butter from a fingertip, entered kindergarten.  

Her parents alerted school officials in advance. 

“I approached them with my daughter’s medical history, and knowing what needed to be done to make her safe,” said the mother, who asked not to be identified to protect her daughter’s privacy.  

The girl couldn’t come into contact with peanut butter or anything with peanut oil. 

So the school stopped selling peanut butter sandwiches and other peanut products, set up a “peanut-free table” covered with medical-exam paper in the lunchroom, and urged parents not to pack peanut-based lunches and snacks. If kindergartners came in with peanut lunches, they were sent to a separate room to eat. 

Several parents objected, saying that their kids were being pressured into giving up peanut butter entirely and that they hadn’t had time to prepare. 

Caryn Furst said her daughter has a metabolic disorder, needs protein at every meal and would eat only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

“She had to have it,” Furst said. “A lot of parents are trying to be sensitive, but if you’ve got a child who wants peanut butter – that’s it.” 

Ultimately, all sides came to terms. “We did a lot of education,” Kirshbaum said, “and we tried to compromise to the extent that nobody got hurt.” 

Three million Americans are allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, and about 75 die each year from reactions that lead to anaphylactic shock.  

Thousands of kids now carry EpiPens – emergency doses of epinephrine in a spring-loaded injector – or store them with the school nurse. 

The importance of protecting allergic children was vividly demonstrated last month in Spokane, Wash., when a 9-year-old boy, known to be allergic, died after being given a peanut butter cookie during a field trip. 

Some other foods can kill, but nuts seem to be a prime danger. And it is peanut butter, long a favorite with kids and the adults who pack their lunches, that has put schools in the middle. 

“It’s the all-American sandwich,” said Carla Blaha of Ossining, who founded a support group for parents after her son was diagnosed.  

“You tell people, ‘This can kill my son’ and still it doesn’t click that actually something like peanut butter can kill someone.” 

Some schools have declared themselves “peanut-free,” though most are coming up with a more moderate policy. 

Schools that haven’t had a dangerously allergic pupil can expect one soon. 

“I think every school at some time will be affected,” said Joseph Rowe, principal of Stedwick Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Md., who was confronted two years ago with a severely allergic first-grader. 

Peanut allergies among schoolchildren were “barely on the radar” a decade ago, said Dr. Robert Goldman, a New York allergist and immunologist who specializes in pediatric cases. 

“Now I’m seeing a tremendous number of cases,” he said. “It seems like the incidence is really increasing. As to why, I don’t think anyone in the world could tell you for sure.” 

Among the theories offered: Modern agriculture has changed the peanut itself, or the human immune system is trying to find something to attack in an age of vaccinations.  

Skeptics suggest children are simply being taken to doctors and diagnosed more often. 

Some children are so sensitive that they react to vapors from peanut shells. Dr. Clifford Bassett, an allergist at New York University Medical Center, said one-five-thousandth of a teaspoon of a food containing peanuts is enough to kill some people. 

On the Net: 

American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology: http://www.aaaai.org 

American Peanut Council: http://www.peanutsusa.com 

Distributor of EpiPen: http://www.deyinc.com 

Family discussion board: http://www.peanutallergy.com/bbpage.htm

SAN JOSE — Network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc. said Friday it will cut its work force by as much as 9 percent, or about 100 jobs, as second-quarter earnings and revenue will fall well below Wall Street expectations. 

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper now expects revenue to range from $200 million to $210 million for the three months ending June 30.  

That’s down from original forecasts of $300 million to $330 million provided in its April earnings report. 

Earnings for the period will be 8 cents to 9 cents a share, sharply down from the 24 cents a share anticipated by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

The company said cost-cutting measures will include the job cuts and a one-time charge of up to $45 million. Juniper had 1,162 employees as of March 31. 

“Obviously we would prefer to be in markets that grow without hesitation or pause,” said Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper Networks.  

“However, we remain committed to and capable of running the business profitably and successfully under all conditions, including this current period of absorption.” 

Shares of Juniper were down 18 percent, or $8.38, to $38.14, in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Network equipment makers such as Juniper and Cisco Systems Inc. were hard hit as the economy slowed down and the Internet bubble burst last year. 

Demand for routers, switches and other tools of the Net trade fell sharply after big network rollouts were canceled, dot coms failed and established companies saw no reason to continue expanding. 

Unlike the microprocessor industry, which has recently showed some signs of life, there’s no indication network equipment manufacturing companies have hit bottom, said Ashwin Navin, an analyst at Epoch Partners. 

“Things seem to be getting worse,” he said, adding he does not see a return to growth until the middle of next year. 

Kriens said the source of the weakness is not a loss of market share or fierce competition. 

“We have not caused anybody else’s slowdown in this market nor has any other company caused ours,” he said. “We are all in a market where less is being spent, and the money that is spent is being parted with much more carefully.” 

On the Net: 

Juniper Networks Inc.: http://www.juniper.net

SAN JOSE — Intel Corp.’s revenue for the second quarter will be within forecasts, signaling a possible end to the months-long slide and a return to stability in the semiconductor industry. 

For the past three quarters, the world’s largest computer chip maker slashed its revenue estimates as demand for processors and other semiconductors declined amid an economic slowdown. 

But during Intel’s mid-quarter update Thursday, chief financial officer Andy Bryant said the company’s revenue, gross margins and expenses will fall within the low end of ranges provided in April. 

Intel said its core microprocessor business continued to show stability and is on target, while its smaller communications and networking segments are weaker than anticipated. The company reaffirmed its expectation of a stronger second half of the year. 

In April, Intel officials estimated revenue between $6.2 billion and $6.8 billion, a gross margin of about 49 percent and expenses between $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion. 

“The quarter is proceeding essentially as expected,” Bryant said. 

In recent months, high-tech companies including Intel have repeatedly warned that earnings and revenue expectations at the beginning of the quarter were not panning out toward the end. 

Intel’s latest announcement indicates that, for now, the company’s main businesses have stabilized enough to be predictable, Bryant said. 

Analysts and investors were anxiously awaiting Thursday’s report for any evidence of a turnaround or whether the slowdown would persist throughout the year. 

“It’s important because the keystone company in the sector is saying there’s no change in their outlook,” said Jonathan Joseph, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney. 

Shares of Intel rose $1.76 to $32.92 in after-hours trading after closing up $1.34 at $31.16 on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the outlook was released. 

Intel could still run into pitfalls. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is a stronger competitor than ever, and personal computer makers are lowering prices to attract customers. 

Also, computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co., an Intel customer, warned Wednesday demand is down in Europe, Asia and Latin America. That could lead to a lower demand for Intel’s products down the road. 

“Intel doesn’t sell PCs. They sell microprocessors,” said Dan Niles, a Lehman Brothers analyst. “It will take a while for them to see that because they’re one step removed.” 

Intel is scheduled to release its complete earnings July 17. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Intel: http://www.intel.com 

TEHRAN, Iran — Reformist President Mohammad Khatami headed for a landslide victory in Iran Saturday, a widely expected result that would lend powerful support to his drive to bring more freedoms to the Islamic nation, according to early voting results. 

Final results in Friday’s balloting from at least six voting districts and one province showed Khatami with vote tallies ranging from 75 percent to 95 percent, according to the government-run Islamic Republic News Agency. 

The vote, which was expected to continue it lopsided trend, will give Khatami a mandate to push forward with his challenge to the controls of Iran’s conservative clerics and their tight grip on power. 

The results reported by IRNA came from the final count in polling districts inside towns and cities in southeastern and northeastern Iran. In addition, the agency also said Khatami received between 88 percent and 93 percent of thousands of votes from Iranians who cast ballots abroad. 

Illam Province in western Iran gave Khatami 80 percent of the vote, according to officials at the Interior Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity. They added Qasr-e-Shirin, a town on the Iraqi border, went nearly 90 percent for Khatami. 

Khatami faced nine challengers who ranged from hard-liners to those seeking to fight corruption and improve the economy. 

Ahmad Tavakoli was running a distant second – with tallies ranging from 2 percent to 18 percent in the six districts and one province, according to IRNA. Tavakoli, an economist, had campaigned on pledges to improve the economy. 

Interior Ministry sources predicted that turnout from Friday’s election would surpass 70 percent – or 30 million of the 42.1 million Iranians who have reached the voting age of 16. 

In 1997, Khatami received nearly about 20 million votes, or 70 percent of those cast, en route to defeating a conservative opponent. 

Now, the real test begins for Khatami. 

Two potent forces – Khatami’s popular movement and the nation’s Islamic overseers – offer visions that seem difficult to reconcile and strike at the heart of how the country should be managed. 

Khatami sees an “Islamic democracy” with room for some Western-inspired rights, fewer social restrictions and better contacts with the West. Conservatives have reacted harshly against changes they fear could erode their enormous influence over nearly every aspect of life. 

But it’s unclear how far and fast can he integrate concepts of openness in a nation built upon the uncompromising values of an Islamic revolution 22 years ago. 

For reformists, the backdrop of the election was deeply symbolic and worrisome. Prominent activists and journalists languish in jail and dozens of publications remain banned. 

“It’s all about power and where it comes from – clerics or the people,” said a political analyst, Mohammad Hadi Semati. 

From sweltering Tehran neighborhoods to isolated mountain hamlets, more than 45,000 polling stations were set up. Helicopters carried ballot boxes to the most remote villages. Guards were given voting material for jailed dissidents and other prisoners, the Interior Ministry said. 

Voting tents were erected in desert outposts or in cemeteries for those taking part in the Friday ritual of visiting family graves. 

The most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, voted from his house arrest quarters in the holy city of Qom, the nation’s center of Islamic study. 

“Democracy and freedom have not been implemented,” Montazeri wrote in a communique sent to The Associated Press. 

Also at stake were 16 parliament seats and two seats on the panel that elects the supreme leader. 

The wild card is Khatami’s huge popularity, which has clearly shaken up the political status quo. 

“This vote should convince the unpopular hard-liners to stop standing against the people’s wishes,” said a Khatami supporter in Tehran, 18-year-old Hussein Dadi. 

Young women wearing makeup and brightly colored head scarves — a sign of the easing social rules under Khatami — came to watch him vote. 

“We love you,” they chanted to Khatami, a 58-year-old, mid-ranking cleric who once served as culture minister. 

Young people represent the bedrock of Khatami’s support and form an awesome front. About 60 percent of Iran’s 62 million people are under 25 years old — too young to have direct connection with the revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed monarchy. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.president.ir/ 

http://persia.org/khatami/ 

JERUSALEM — CIA chief George Tenet brought together Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs Friday in a high-level joint effort to stabilize a cease-fire and prepare the way for resuming peace negotiations. 

The three-way security meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah came a day after Tenet met separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and security commanders. 

Tenet’s mediation sparked angry rallies by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, during which the CIA chief was burned in effigy. Hamas accused Tenet of trying to pit Palestinians against each other amid Israeli demands for a crackdown on militants, and it vowed the intefadeh, or uprising, would not stop. 

U.S. mediator William Burns held talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after meeting earlier Friday with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres 

The European Union has also taken a direct role: placing security experts at two West Bank friction points to help keep the cease-fire, EU and Palestinian officials said. 

Israel has rejected the presence of any international observers, and EU officials were careful to say the experts were not observers. 

Twenty-four Europeans are working to guarantee the cease-fire, particularly in the West Bank town of Beit Jalla and the Gaza Strip areas of Nitzarim settlement and Rafah, a Palestinian political official said on condition of anonymity. The EU teams have met regularly with Palestinian security and reviewed patrols on the ground, where Palestinian police have been trying to keep gunmen from nearing flashpoints, Palestinian officials said. 

Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire on May 22.  

Arafat called for an end to violence June 1, after a suicide bomber killed 20 Israelis in an attack on a Tel Aviv beachfront disco. 

Violence continued Friday at a relatively low ebb. A roadside shooting near Ofra settlement outside the West Bank town of Ramallah injured an Israeli civilian, the army said. 

In the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, two Palestinians were wounded when Israeli soldiers fired bullets and tear gas at youths throwing stones after Friday prayers. Dr. Khalil Moussa of Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis said the two had been hit with live ammunition. Overnight, Palestinians fired mortar shells at an Israeli military outpost and a Jewish settlement in Gaza and set off an explosive near another base. 

About 2,000 Palestinians joined a Hamas rally in Ramallah, burning a U.S. flag, Tenet’s picture and a banner that read “Tenet go home.” A cardboard and paper model of site of the Tel Aviv bombing was doused with fuel and set ablaze. 

In the West Bank town of Nablus, about 500 people demonstrated, burning Tenet in effigy and urging him in chants “not to equate the killer with the victim.” 

Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said Tenet’s visit won’t stop the Palestinian uprising. 

“This man and his administration are trying to turn our struggle against the Zionist occupiers into a Palestinian-Palestinian struggle by inciting the brothers in the Palestinian National Authority against their own people,” al-Rantissi said. “This man will fail to do so.” 

Nabil Aburdeneh, an aide to Arafat, said further U.S. involvement is needed to bolster the cease-fire: “This a good opportunity, but it’s still like sand in the wind.” 

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer charged that radical Islamic groups, along with Arafat’s Force 17 guard unit are still carrying out attacks and planning more. He said Israeli intelligence has picked up more warnings about attacks in recent days than ever before, and he blamed Arafat. 

“If he wants, tomorrow morning (there will be) total silence,” Ben-Eliezer said. 

Palestinian Cabinet minister Nabil Shaath complained that even though Arafat took risks to declare a cease-fire, the Israelis keep criticizing him. 

“Since the cease-fire started, not even an encouragement by the Israeli leadership has been given. ... On the contrary. It’s always insults,” he said. 

In meetings with Tenet on Thursday, the Israelis handed over a list of several dozen Palestinian militants, demanding that Arafat’s police arrest them, said Raanan Gissin, a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 

The Palestinians refused to consider making arrests, saying they were responsible for their people’s security, not Israel’s. 

Palestinians have told Tenet that the security and political aspects of the conflict must not be separated, according to a participant, who insisted on anonymity. The Palestinians want Israel to commit to confidence-building measures, especially a freeze in Jewish settlement construction. Israel demands a full stop to the violence first. 

Since the fighting began on Sept. 28, 592 people have been killed. 

IKEDA, Japan — In 15 minutes of horror, a man brandishing a kitchen knife walked into an elementary school Friday and wordlessly began slashing at students, killing eight young children. 

The attack, during which the man made his way through four classrooms before being subdued by a teacher and a vice principal, was the worst mass killing in Japan since a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways six years ago. 

Fifteen people – 13 children and two teachers – were wounded, and eight remained in serious condition Saturday. The suspect, a 37-year-old unemployed man with what police said was a history of mental problems, was taken into custody at the scene. 

An unidentified schoolgirl, talking to Japanese reporters, said that during the attack one student somehow managed to get onto the school’s public address system. 

“There was a shriek,” the girl said. “Then I heard a cry for help.” 

A group of bloodied children fled to a grocery store across the street in the mostly residential suburb of Ikeda, outside Japan’s second-largest city of Osaka, 255 miles west of Tokyo. 

“I saw one of them, a boy, with blood all over his body,” cashier Ikiyo Iriye said. “He had been stabbed in the back.” The dead children º seven girls and one boy º were first and second grader, ranging in age from 6 to 8. 

On Saturday, National broadcaster NHK television reported that it appeared from the location of stab wounds to the back that some of the children were chased down as they fled and that interrogation would focus on the motive for the attack. 

An Osaka prefectural (state) police spokesman could not confirm the contents of the report. However, police did say they were intensifying their investigation. 

Japan has long enjoyed a crime rate much lower than that of other developed nations, but that is changing. The Japanese are asking themselves why, and wondering what can be done about it. Violent crime is on the rise, and strict gun laws mean most of the attacks are committed with knives. 

Friday’s slashing was the deadliest mass assault in Japan since a doomsday cult released sarin gas on the Tokyo subways in 1995, killing 12 people and sickening thousands. 

The attack came as children were anticipating a day off Saturday for the annual local iris festival. The festival was canceled and classes were suspended indefinitely. 

Police identified the attacker as Mamoru Takuma and said he used a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade. After his arrest, he was taken to a hospital with what were reportedly self-inflicted wounds, then turned over to police, a blue hood hiding his head, blood splattered across his legs. 

It was not clear what might have led to the attack. Police said the suspect told them he had taken 10 times the daily dose of an unspecified anti-depressant. 

Takuma told police he was “sick of everything” and wanted to be caught and executed, a police official in Osaka said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He told police he had tried to kill himself repeatedly but always failed, the official said. 

Authorities said Takuma told police he’d been having trouble sleeping and considered trying to kill himself Friday morning, but then got in his car, put a bag holding the knife on the seat next to him and drove into Ikeda from his home in nearby Mino. 

Takuma was arrested in March 1999 and accused of putting a tranquilizer in the tea of four teachers at a school where he worked as a janitor, but he was never prosecuted because he had psychological problems, said Nobuharu Sugita, a police official in Itami, near Osaka. 

Two of the children stabbed Friday died at the scene. The other six died at a hospital, Fire Department spokesman Tetsuo Higashimoto said. 

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the attack “heartbreaking.” 

Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota said authorities were sending psychiatrists to offer counseling to the children. “We’re doing what we can for them,” she said. “This is unforgivable” 

The bloodshed began when the attacker walked into a ground-floor classroom from a terrace during a break in the morning lesson, while students sat in rows at their desks, police said. 

He began slashing at the children in the back of the room, then moved into the hall without saying a word, and made his way through three more classrooms before being subdued. 

After the attack, hundreds of children in navy school uniforms sat in rows on the playground as fellow students received treatment on stretchers nearby. Later, frantic parents raced into the hospital where the wounded children were taken. 

The mother of a 10-year-old fifth grader said her son told her he and his classmates were taking a break after a lesson when they were rushed out onto the playground. 

“He can’t believe something like that could have happened,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “It’s almost like he was having a dream.” 

The elite school operated by Osaka Education University has nearly 700 students. 

“This kind of thing should never happen,” Education Minister Atsuko Toyama said. “Schools should be places where children can feel safe and secure.” 

The members of Jsac from the Jazzschool jam during a free concert at the Downtown Berkeley BART Station on  

Thursday in front of a crowd of about 100 people. The weekly Summer Noon Concerts are sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association.

As the only public school west of the Mississippi with a crew team, Berkeley High has a strong tradition that no other team in the area can boast. And now the ’Jackets are getting started on a new tradition: this weekend they will enter two boats in the U.S. Rowing Youth Invitational Championships in Cincinnati, their first trip to the national event since its inception. 

Thanks to their second-place finishes at the Southwest Regional Junior Rowing Association Championships at Lake Natoma three weeks ago, the men’s varsity four and men’s varsity double will race against the best the nation has to offer today and Saturday. The top two finishers from each of the nine regions in the country were invited to the event, and according to Berkeley’s coach, it didn’t take long for the ’Jackets to accept. 

“The kids were really excited about qualifying, and they asked immediately if we could go,” Eric Christiani, the boys’ third-year coach, said. “Their enthusiasm was very encouraging, because it’s not a position we’ve been in before. It basically comes down to three more weeks of waking up early and putting in the hard work.” 

But that hard work is just what one team member will remember the most. Matt Renner, the varsity four coxswain, said there was never a thought of turning down the chance to go to the nationals. 

“It’s exactly what I was wishing for,” said Renner, a senior who will be on the Cal team next year. “The hard work is one of the things I’m most proud of. Not everyone is willing to get up and practice six mornings a week, but I’ve never regretted a minute of it.” 

The varsity four boat will be manned by Eric Davidson, who will be Renner’s teammate at Cal next year, sophomore Jordan Bice, and juniors Yoshi Katsuura and David Gaber, with Renner at the helm. Katsuura and Bice will also row in the double boat.  

Renner and his oarsmen will have to adjust to using a different boat in Cincinnati. The boat they have used this season was brand new, purchased in large part thanks to a big fundraising effort by team member Brandon Caesar. The boat was named for Caesar’s father, Phillip, who passed away last year.  

But the team has no way of transporting the boat and will borrow one from a local club. In the Phillip Caesar, Renner sat in the bow; in the new boat, he will be in the stern. Renner said he didn’t know how big of a difference the new boat and the new position would make. 

With just two seniors among the five ’Jackets, Christiani hopes this won’t be a one-time visit to Cincinnati for the ’Jackets. 

“In some ways I’m approaching it as an important learning experience,” he said. “I hope we do as well as possible this year, but hopefully we’ll be back with an even larger team.” 

For Renner and Davidson, this will be their last race for Berkeley. Renner said it was a big goal for him to make it to nationals before he graduated. 

“I know a bunch of the alumni, and I think it’s great to be the first team in the school’s history to get to this point,” he said. “It seems like we’re always fighting from behind against the bigger private clubs, and it makes me proud because we’re so tough.”

As California and the nation mark the 20th anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS on June 5th, Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley) expressed concern that California is failing to do all it can to prevent new HIV infections among its residents, and urged support for Assembly Bill 1292, the Pharmacy Sale and Disease Prevention Act (Aroner), which would allow for the sale of syringes at licensed pharmacies without a prescription.  

“Studies show that broadening access to sterile syringes helps prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, and yet California continues to be one of only six states that require a prescription to purchase syringes,” stated Aroner, who Chairs the Democratic Caucus. “As home to the first reported AIDS cases, you might think that California would lead the nation, but in this regard, we are lagging far behind. Unfortunately, this failure to lead is costing lives.” 

AB 1292 would allow licensed pharmacies to sell sterile syringes without a prescription, and would also protect individuals from prosecution for possessing syringes, which is currently a misdemeanor crime in California. AB 1292 would also require that pharmacists provide information to consumers about safe disposal of syringes and would allow pharmacists to provide information about the availability of drug treatment, HIV testing and other services in the area. Participation in the program by state-licensed pharmacists would be voluntary.  

"This bill recognizes the important role pharmacists play in public health and disease prevention,” said Elizabeth Johnson, Pharm.D., Senior Vice President of the California Pharmacists Association, which endorsed the bill. “By participating in such a program, pharmacists would not only help prevent HIV and hepatitis C among injection drug users, but would also provide an important service to diabetics and others with health conditions that require them to obtain prescriptions.” 

A new national survey by the independent Kaiser Family Foundation shows that 61 percent of Americans favor allowing injection drug users to purchase clean needles from a licensed pharmacist in order to stop the spread of HIV. Support for this policy is particularly strong among those in the Western region of the country, where 65% favor non-prescription sales (compared with 58 percent, 59 percent and 62 percent in the Midwest, South and Northeast, respectively). (Complete results of this HIV public opinion survey can be found on the Kaiser Family Foundation’s website at: www.kff.org/docs/AIDSat20) 

“On the issue of syringe access, public opinion is clearly ahead of public policy,” stated Aroner. “It’s time for the Legislature to follow the lead and adopt this important disease prevention measure.” 

State law in five states (California, Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware and Massachusetts) and pharmacy regulation in one (Pennsylvania) prohibit the sale of syringes without a prescription. Though originally designed to deter drug use, there is no evidence to suggest that prescription laws have led to lower levels of injections drug use in these six states.  

In contrast, evidence from Connecticut -- which amended its state law to allow for over-the-counter sale of syringes in 1992 – shows encouraging results. Following the change in state law, the percentage of injection drug users (IDUs) who reported syringe sharing during the past 30 days decreased by 40 percent (52 percent before versus 31percent after). In addition, more IDUs reported having purchased a syringe from a pharmacy after the new law (19 percent before versus 78 percent after) and fewer IDUs reported obtaining syringes from the street (74 percent before versus 31 percent after). Since Connecticut’s action, New York, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Rhode Island have also amended their state laws to allow for the sale of syringes through pharmacies without a prescription.  

Currently, injection drug users must purchase syringes on the streets, where quality is uncertain and costs are high. If they live in a community that has a needle exchange program, they may exchange used, potentially contaminated syringes for new ones in order to protect themselves from disease transmission. However, needle exchange programs are not available statewide due to California law that requires the declaration of a local emergency in order to legalize syringe exchange. 

*** 

Since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first cases of AIDS on June 5, 1981, more than 120,800 Californians have been diagnosed with AIDS, the most advanced form of HIV disease, and nearly 74,000 have died. The California State Office of AIDS reports that 19 percent all AIDS cases were related to injection drug use with contaminated syringes. The link between injection drug use and HIV is particularly strong for women. In California, 37 percent of cumulative AIDS cases among women were IDU-related. 

City Manager Weldon Rucker has taken steps to organize the city’s traffic and pedestrian safety efforts after two traffic specialists from different departments recently quit.  

“The structure we had was feeding the conflict between the traffic engineer and the transportation planner,” Rucker said. “It’s not a conflict of personalities, but philosophy, approach and priorities.” 

When Joe Kott, the city’s first transportation planner, quit on May 25, three weeks after he started, Rucker took steps to consolidate and organize the city’s traffic staff. During an exit interview, Kott told Rucker that the priorities of the Planning and Development Department were different than those of the Public Works Department. 

Kott said, in an interview on Thursday, the two departments were not at odds but their different priorities made it difficult for them to work together. 

Traffic Engineer Jeff Knolls, quit last December after eight months because he was offered a better paying position that was closer to his home. But Director of Public Works Rene Cardinaux said that Knolls also cited departmental organization as a factor in his leaving the city. 

Advance Planning Manager Karen Haney-Owens said there is a cultural difference between the two departments. She said the Planning Department is used to the public process, listening to ideas and finding consensus and the Department of Public Works is used to looking at a project from a more practical and technological standpoint.  

Cardinaux said one difference between the two positions as one of mindset. “The transportation planner creates a plan and engineers try to solve the plan’s problems,” he said.  

Rucker said that when the city fills the two vacant positions, they will be working out of the City Manger’s Office temporarily, until a better organized system can be worked out. 

“We’re having a little marriage over here,” Rucker said. “We’ll be trying out different organizational models until we figure out which one works best.” 

Rucker said he has made traffic issues one of his priorities in light of pedestrian injuries and deaths and the general increases in traffic congestion throughout the Bay Area. 

Kott, who returned to his former job as a traffic planner for Palo Alto, said Berkeley has tremendous assets for innovative solutions to transportation problems. “There’s AC Transit, BART and good geography for cycling. There’s also an interested and creative community with good ideas,” he said. “Berkeley has a terrific opportunity to become a model city as far as transportation goes. But currently the city’s plans just aren’t coming online.” 

Kott said despite the good intentions of city commissioners, there is also a reluctance for the various traffic-related commissions to work together. 

Kott, who’s job description included implementing the Bicycle Master Plan and developing the Bike Boulevards, spoke very highly of the Transportation Commission. He said the commissioners are dedicated to making transportation safer and cleaner in Berkeley.  

“The problem is they are only one of 43 boards and commissions in Berkeley. They don’t have oversight on road paving, which is the domain of the Public Works Commission,” Kott said. “And, as anyone who rides a bicycle knows, the condition of the road surface is critical to biking issues.” 

Sarah Syed, the project manager for Berkeley’s Safe Routes to School program, said staffing problems and lack of coordination between the Department of Public Works and the Planning Department nearly lost the city a $450,000 grant from the state.  

The SRTS program examines traffic flow in the vicinity of Willard Middle School and LeConte Primary School and is mandated to create safe routes for students to walk and bicycle to school, according to Syed. 

“We are trying to improve crossings around the schools, provide cages for secured bike parking and develop walking and biking education programs,” she said.  

Syed said the program nearly lost its funding because plans that required input from the two departments weren’t sufficiently prepared to submit to the state. She said at the last minute, the Planning Department took the lead on the project, saving the grant, although the process was rushed.  

Syed said city missed a May 22 deadline to apply for another SRTS grant because the Planning Department was too short-staffed to have someone write the grant request. 

Rucker said it’s a bit of a trick to find the right kind of staff for city transportation jobs because of Berkeley’s well-known penchant for public participation.  

“Berkeley is a very engaging and participatory community,” Rucker said. “I try to convey during interviews not only the number of community meetings there are, but their intensity as well because not everybody is suited to work in Berkeley.”

Conflict not about good works 

This letter was addressed to the mayor and city council: 

The controversy regarding Beth El’s proposed synagogue, school, and community center is about Codornices Creek and those city policies and ordinances that protect creeks and neighborhoods from incursions by large, active institutions. Rather than address these issues, project supporters have chosen to portray criticism as an attack upon the goodness of Beth El and upon Jews generally. This is an attempt to silence critics and to intimidate decision-makers with the threat that they may be called anti-Semites. Many, like myself, who fault this particular design, are Jewish. Some are also members of Beth El. 

This project is controversial because it reveals contradictions between our values and the practice we would make of them. We do not value intimidation. We do value religious freedom, fairness, dissent, and the environment. The Jewish tradition of "Tikkun Olam" teaches us to heal and restore the world. This ancient tenet does not accept the bare minimum when we can do better. It is consistent with the spirit of modern environmental stewardship. Only against the image of a daylighted creek can the project’s true impact be appraised. The EIR evaded this responsibility. Now, however, The Urban Creeks Council has received a grant to plan the restoration of Codornices Creek. This grant provides a unique opportunity to correct the project’s ecological imbalance. 

Beth El has waged a media campaign that promotes the institution’s religious status to gain exemption from serious scrutiny. This deflects attention from the project’s true problems. Proponents have demonized project critics and attempted to silence dissent within and without the temple community. This is evidenced in Beth El’s newsletter which states: “The groups opposing the project are zealous and well organized” and, “Getting this permit is a relatively modest thing, compared to other battles Jews have fought throughout history with much higher stakes.” 

Further, Rabbi Raj has sought to link project criticism to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. He reminded the ZAB of Kristallnacht, and has said: “This is not the first time some people would blame the Jews for everything—America is different, but anti-Semitism is everywhere.” I, too, lost family in the Holocaust. Linking project criticism to it trivializes the suffering of those who perished and those who survived. 

Religious institutions are supposed to engage in charitable activities. In Judaism, Mitzvot (good deeds) are done for their own sake. Any expectation of reward, present or future, compromises the integrity of the act. Society recognizes this, among other ways, by the favorable treatment given to such organizations in the tax code. Yet, project supporters repeatedly commodify good deeds and suggest that Beth El has "earned" a use permit, regardless of the consequences to the natural and social environments. Concern for project impacts should inform discussion and decision-making, not the goodness of Beth El or of its works.  

In 1992 the ZAB protected Codornices Creek. It limited The Chinese Alliance Community Church’s development of the Landmark Byrne site to the site’s southern portion. ZAB also required 26 on-site parking spaces for a project that was less than one-fourth the size of Beth El. In March 2001, the ZAB reversed itself, violating city ordinances and policies including those for creeks, Live Oaks, and parking. Why did Beth El rate such unusual treatment? Did its deeds count more than those of the East Bay Chinese Alliance Community Church?  

Organizations and governments make mistakes. Credibility is lost when these are defended instead of corrected. The review of this project has already harmed the city as a whole. Another decision rooted in the expression of raw political power will only make this worse. The council needs to support a process of consensus problem solving and redesign that addresses the genuine dilemmas created by this project. 

Daniel Caraco 

Berkeley 

Save trees and reuse buildings 

Editor: 

After reading the description of the huge documents called the “ugly things” prepared for the Beth El project, I started to wonder how many trees have been cut down to print them all. It is quite ironic that large amounts of natural resources are being used in the name of protecting the environment.  

The other question is why does Beth El insist on building where there exists so much communityopposition? This is supposed to be a community center, but the community opposition is strong, so I suggest Beth El look for someplace less controversial. Has Beth El looked into buying an existing building? There are many churches in Berkeley that appear to be under-used. 

Andre Korpotsky 

Oakland, CA

The Berkeley school board approved the hire of three new principals Wednesday and expects to announce the appointment of two more early next week. 

The three appointments announced Wednesday were for Thousand Oaks, Rosa Parks and Jefferson primary schools. 

Jesse Ramos, currently vice principal at Shore Acres Elementary School in the Mount Diablo Unified School District, will take over for Kevin Wooldridge as principal at Thousand Oaks School.  

Ramos has taught English as a second language in San Francisco for the last six years. In 1997, he was voted Humanitarian of the Year by Contra Costa and Alameda County teachers unions for his work in helping to bridge cultural differences in local schools. 

Betty Delaney, who has served in Daly City’s Jefferson Elementary School District since 1992, has been appointed principal of Berkeley’s Jefferson School starting next year. She served as the first principal of the district’s new Susan B. Anthony school since 1998, helping to create policies for academics, discipline, safety and budgeting. 

At Rosa Parks, Alison Kelly, who came to the school six years ago to lead the school’s Dual Language Immersion program – today one of the most popular programs in the district – will replace Andrea Colfack. Kelly has been a key member of the school’s leadership for years, helping to implement the school’s early literacy program, its Federal Science Magnet grant and its innovative Family Resource Center. 

At a time when there is a national shortage of principals, the Berkeley District lured 22 candidates to apply for the five positions – a respectable number, said Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services David Gomez.  

The search began with committees of teachers and parents at each of the five schools working to determine what characteristics each school community would like to see in its next leader. Finalists were interviewed the week of May 28.  

Gomez and other district administrators visited the schools of each finalist to interview parents, students and others in an effort to make sure the individuals would be a good match with schools in Berkeley. 

School board director John Selawsky said the appointments have the added benefit of making the district’s administrative leadership more representative of Berkeley’s ethnic diversity. Both Ramos and Kelly are bilingual (Spanish and English). Delaney is African American. 

Child Nutrition Services Program under fire 

Also at the Wednesday meeting, the board’s last regular session of the school year, a citizens’ advisory committee delivered a sweeping criticism of the district’s Child Nutrition Services Department.  

In a report, the committee said a lack of coordination and leadership in the department has severely hampered the implementation of the district’s 1999 Food Policy, widely hailed as a model in the state for its ambitious goal of “(improving) the health of the entire community by teaching students and families ways to establish and maintain life long healthy eating habits.”  

The advisory committee report says the district’s breakfast program is not working as intended because buses deliver students to school just as their first class begins, allowing little or no time for students to eat the “healthy” food provided for them. 

The district’s lunch periods are so short that “large amounts of food is thrown away and wasted” because students simply don’t have time to eat it, the report said. The fact that students often have to wait in long lines for food compounds the problem, the report claimed, particularly at the high school. 

“There is no point pretending that lunch is offered to everyone if there is not enough time for everyone to eat or even purchase food,” the report concluded. 

On the positive side, the report noted that the passage of two new bond measures last year will provided funds to renovate the district’s kitchens, many of which are in terrible condition today. Furthermore it noted that a new grant from the California Endowment is financing the preparation of a business plan to determine how the district can do a better job providing food services for its students. 

BSEP says budget information unclear 

In a separate report Wednesday, another district oversight committee complained that the district’s failure to provide clear explanations for expenditures in next year’s budget has made it difficult for the committee to provide meaningful oversight. 

“We can’t play an oversight role if we’re not given the information,” said Carol Wilkins, a member of the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Project (BSEP) Oversight Committee, which reviews expenditures of parcel-tax funds.  

At issue is the question of whether the district is spending money specifically earmarked for class size reduction for that purpose. Wilkins said the committee would also like to see a clearer justification for the district’s decision to cut teaching staff at the high school next year, a move that Wilkins and others fear would lead to larger class size at the school. 

The BSEP committee report asked the school board to meet as soon as possible after the state passes its final budget this month, and after the BUSD business office has time to come up with more accurate budget information, to reevaluate the question of whether the high school’s teaching staff truly needs to be cut.  

Many board members have indicated a their eagerness to comply with this recommendation. 

“I think they’re asking questions that are serious, legitimate and very sophisticated,” said School Board Vice President Shirley Issel. “We have to be in a position to give them some answers, and currently we’re not.” 

While the growth of Berkeley’s Latino population may not be dramatic – the 2000 Census says there’s approximately 2,000 more Latinos (about 10,000 total) in the city today than 10 years before – a new faith-based movement of Hispanic families promises to make a profound impression on the local political scene. 

“Members of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley are uniting to demand that their Latino students, the majority of whom don’t graduate, will be made a top priority by the Berkeley School Board and high school principal,” according to a letter inviting the community to a meeting with two school board members at the church Monday. 

The new group organizing the meeting, Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action, is made up of 12 local religious congregations and is part of the Pacific Institute for Community Organization, a nationwide network of faith-based community organizations. 

Board of Education President Terry Doran and school director Joaquin Rivera promised to be at the meeting. 

Among the concerns parents have is that their children are placed automatically in remedial English classes at Berkeley High, where they miss studying other subjects. 

“Many children in the (English Language Learner) program have been speaking English since birth,” said Liz Fuentes, a parent of a graduating Berkeley High senior and teacher at Thousand Oaks School. “They have no business being in ELL.” 

How do they end up in these classes? 

Once parents write down on a school form that they speak Spanish at home, the child is shunted into the ELL program, Fuentes said. “It’s racism.” 

Judy Bodenhausen, who heads the ELL program, tells a different story. She says all students whose native language is not English are tested and placed in the program if their English skills are limited and if parents want their children in the program. “It’s up to the parents,” she said. Children whose English is strong enough can take classes outside the program, she said. Those whose skills are very limited might take classes such as typing, physical education or art classes outside ELL. 

When advised that some parents feel their children are wrongly placed in the program and that the program limits their children’s intellectual growth, Bodenhausen told a reporter: “I’m not talking to you about that.” The teacher then also declined to confirm the correct spelling of her name. 

Board President Doran, who said he has worked with Latinos Unidos, another group supporting Latino families in the schools., said he plans to attend the Monday meeting to hear the community’s concerns. He said he’s aware that people in the Latino community have doubts about the ELL program and that there is a need for more Latino and bilingual teachers.  

Fuentes said, in their organizing efforts, the Latino parents took as an example, the Parents of Children of African Descent, who put together the Rebound program for failing ninth graders.  

“The example of PCAD is a big factor in our movement,” Fuentes said, describing the newly organized parents as “a hopeful movement of grassroots awareness acting to change things.” 

The June 11 meeting begins at 6:45 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. For information call 658-2467. 

OAKLAND – Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi presented a $1.8 billion proposed budget to the Board of Supervisors Thursday. While bigger than last year’s, the budget reflects a lower growth rate because of the slowing down of the economy. 

The proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year includes an increase of $240.5 million, 15.2 percent over the budget for 2000–2001. 

The total projected expenditures include $557 million in public assistance, $445 million in public protection and $414 million in health care services, which account for 31 percent, 24 percent and 23 percent of the budget, respectively. 

The goals and objectives for the upcoming fiscal year include the completion of the construction of a critical care and clinic facility and the seismic retrofit of Highland Hospital; completion of the design and beginning of construction of the new Juvenile Hall facility in Dublin; and the construction of a parking garage at the Dublin BART station. 

Other budget priorities outlined by the administrator include the opening of a mental health unit in the Juvenile Hal, and a psychiatric emergency unit at Oakland Children’s Hospital; furthering the conversion of equipment into electronic, touch–screen voting; and the opening of the first of three emergency receiving centers for children who are removed from their homes. 

The difference between revenue and expenditures – $6.7 million – is larger than last year’s $5.8 million gap, which was the lowest in a decade. 

Muranishi proposed balancing the budget without cutting jobs by using $5.9 million from the Fiscal Management Reward Program, which is a one–time use of the last year’s unused funds.  

The use of departmental revenues is proposed to take care of the remaining $800,000 needed to close the funding gap. 

Muranishi suggested that the council continue to support legislation that provides for the return of property tax money to secure a stable discretionary revenue source for programs.  

The state took $187 million from the county this year for the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, or  

ERAF, which brings to more than $1.2 billion what the state has taken since the fund’s implementation in 1991–1992. 

The first public hearing on the budget will be Monday, June 18. Copies of the document can be obtained at libraries in the county.

Rep. Barbara Lee was recognized on Wednesday for her efforts to fight AIDS and HIV around the world. 

Lee, D-Oakland, was awarded the Congressional Service Award, which is given out by InterAction, a coalition of more than 165 U.S.-based relief, development and environmental agencies, which work throughout the world. 

Lee has worked to pass legislation to create multilateral international efforts to fight the spread of the disease. She was also co-author of HR 3519, the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton and would go on to give $1 billion to the combat AIDS worldwide. 

Lee has also introduced legislation that would increase the affordability of AIDS drugs and links debt relief to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. 

Commenting on the award, Lee said, “I am honored to receive this award, but the real recognition should go to the many organizations and people who are dedicated to international humanitarian, development and relief efforts.''  

“The support we receive from organizations, like those that are members of InterAction, is invaluable in our work to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic,'' she said.

Low-income ratepayers of California’s public utilities will save 5 percent more on their electric bills, state power regulators ordered Thursday. 

The Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to expand the low-income discount from 15 percent to 20 percent. Commissioner Carl Wood said the savings would help ease the financial worries of the state’s poorest ratepayers. 

“It is critical that we act to provide relief to these most vulnerable customers,” Wood said. The extra discount will cover customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas and Electric Co., Southern California Edison Co. and Southern California Gas. 

The PUC delayed action on a proposal to order the state’s two largest utilities to pay 15 percent of the more than $1 billion they owe small power plants throughout the state for past electricity deliveries. 

Money previously allocated by the Legislature to help low-income users would cover the cost of expanding the discount through the year, said Paul Clanon, executive director of the PUC’s energy division. 

To get the discount, low-income ratepayers usually have to apply by mail to the California Alternate Rates on Energy program. Many of those eligible haven’t signed up, and Wood and PUC President Loretta Lynch are looking at creating an automatic enrollment system. 

The PUC also approved a request from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and San Diego County to have SDG&E pay businesses to lower the state’s electricity demand by using diesel generators during power emergencies. 

The PUC lowered the payment from a proposed 35 cents per kilowatt hour saved to 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Those customers already avoid paying for electricity by running generators during those times, the PUC said. 

San Diego County representatives countered that it costs thousands to rent, buy and fuel generators, and say they are being good citizens by finding alternative solutions. 

The money to fund the program will come out of SDG&E rates, said Paul Clanon, director of the PUC’s energy division. 

Utilities also use money raised from rates to fund similar programs which “interrupt” businesses with blackouts in exchange for cheaper electricity or a promise to knock out power only for certain lengths of time. 

But financially troubled PG&E and Edison warn they’ll be overwhelmed by the cost of new interruptible programs recently approved the PUC. Clanon said both utilities filed last month for emergency surcharges to power bills, saying regular rates were not enough to cover all their costs. 

The PUC chose not to act on a proposal from Lynch that would have paid small power plants 15 percent of overdue bills owed to them by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. These plants produce up to a third of the state’s electricity supply. 

After the meeting, Lynch said she delayed action on the plan because of ongoing discussions between Edison and its power plants, as well as Friday’s decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali to order PG&E to free their plants from contracts or start paying off the millions it owes them for past power deliveries. 

On the Net: 

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO — The state school board, wary of possible legal challenges, Thursday set lower passing grades for the new state high school graduation test than those recommended by an advisory group. 

At the level of 60 percent for English and 55 percent for math, nearly a third of students who are just finishing ninth grade have already passed the tough exam. 

Gov. Gray Davis has made the exit exam a key part of his effort to improve public schools, and California is one of 22 requiring students to pass a test to graduate. 

The state Board of Education decided to lower the 70 percent scores recommended by an advisory group of educators because of the dismal results for minority and poor ninth-graders who took the test for the first time this spring. 

The Democratic governor and other state education officials also pledged resources for those students who need help to graduate. 

Kerry Mazzoni, Davis’ education secretary, said the administration wants to “close that gap” and help children in the lowest-performing schools. 

Davis’ proposed 2001-2002 budget includes $220 million for the state’s lowest-performing schools, which are also a focus of several bills being proposed by lawmakers.  

However, lower revenues caused by a slowing economy may jeopardize any extra money. 

While it approved lower scores this year, the board said it will increase the grades needed to pass as high school improve and students get used to the test, which state officials call the nation’s hardest. 

“We have a world-class high school exit exam here,” state board President Reed Hastings said. 

State Superintendent of Public Education Delaine Eastin’s department put test questions on its Internet site Thursday to show parents, teachers and students what the exam is like.  

Scores for schools and districts will be posted on the site in  

mid-September. 

The class of 2004, the students who are completing ninth grade, will be the first required to pass the test to graduate.  

About 378,000 of those 480,000 ninth-graders voluntarily took the test for the first time in March and May. 

At the passing scores approved Thursday, about 40 percent of students taking the test – about 32 percent of all ninth-graders – passed both math and English, Hastings said. 

Sixty-five percent passed English, and 45 percent passed math.  

Those who didn’t pass one or both parts have eight more chances before their scheduled 2004 graduation date and only have to take the part they didn’t pass. 

In the state’s lowest-performing high schools, however, only 32 percent passed English and 8 percent math.  

Only 23 percent of blacks and 25 percent of Hispanics passed math, compared to 71 percent of Asians and 64 percent of whites. 

If the passing levels had been set at 70 percent, only 1 percent of students in the lowest-performing schools would have passed math. 

Eastin recommended the lower passing grades and said flunking 99 percent of those students would have left the state open to lawsuits by parents who would say their children lacked a fair chance to learn. 

Courts in other states have ruled that students cannot be penalized on such high-stakes tests if they were never taught the subjects covered. 

California’s high school test includes algebra, which not all districts have previously required for graduation.  

A new state law, effective with the class of 2004, requires algebra. 

The test has already drawn one suit.  

A disability rights group last month sued the state in federal court, saying it failed to provide an alternate test or accommodate three dyslexic teens. 

State lawmakers have also been concerned about whether the class of 2004 is sufficiently prepared, since its students have not benefited fully from reforms of the past few years.  

The Senate last winter passed a bill, later withdrawn, that would have postponed the test for a year. 

A new bill moving through the Legislature and backed by Davis calls for the state board to decide by August 2003, after seeing results of an independent study, whether to postpone the test. 

Here are preliminary results from the state’s high school test, as given in March to about 378,000 ninth-graders: 

English Passing Score  

of 60 percent 

All students passing:  

65 percent 

Blacks: 49 percent 

Asians: 77 percent 

Hispanics: 48 percent 

Whites: 82 percent 

English learners: 30 percent 

Special education: 22 percent 

Lowest-performing schools:  

32 percent 

Poor: 46 percent 

Math Passing Score  

of 55 percent  

All students passing:  

45 percent 

Blacks: 23 percent 

Asians: 71 percent 

Hispanics: 25 percent 

Whites: 64 percent 

English learners: 17 percent 

Special education: 12 percent 

Lowest-performing schools:  

8 percent 

Poor: 26 percent 

English Passing Score of 70 percent  

All students passing:  

47 percent 

Blacks: 29 percent 

Asians: 61 percent 

Hispanics: 27 percent 

Whites: 66 percent 

English learners: 11 percent 

Special education: 11 percent 

Lowest-performing schools:  

15 percent 

Poor: 25 percent 

Math Passing Score of  

70 percent  

All students passing:  

25 percent 

Blacks: 9 percent 

Asians: 52 percent 

Hispanics: 9 percent 

Whites: 37 percent 

English learners: 6 percent 

Special education: 5 percent 

Lowest-performing schools:  

1 percent 

Poor: 11 percent 

On the Net:  

Read about the high school test and see sample test items at http://www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/hsee/hsee.html 

Read the bill, AB1609 by Assemblyman Thomas Calderon, D-Montebello, at http://www.sen.ca.gov

LOS ANGELES — Obese adults have more chronic health problems than smokers, heavy drinkers or the poor, according to a study released Wednesday. 

The report by the RAND institute in Santa Monica found that obese people have on average nearly twice the chronic health troubles of people of normal weight. 

“We didn’t expect this big difference,” said Roland Sturm, a RAND economist and lead author of the survey, which was published in the latest edition of the British journal Public Health. 

The study also found that smoking harms the health of women more than men, with female smokers having about 40 percent more chronic health problems than nonsmokers. The figure was 30 percent for men. 

Sturm said the survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, demonstrates that public health officials should intensify their fight against obesity to levels that at least match the public health campaign against smoking. 

The study found that more people are overweight or obese than are those collectively who smoke, drink heavily and live below the federal poverty line. 

The telephone survey, which was conducted in 1998, asked 9,585 adults about their weight, height, smoking and drinking habits, income and quality of life. They also were asked if they had any of 17 chronic health problems, including asthma, cancer, diabetes and heart problems. 

Obesity was determined by finding a respondent’s body mass index, a figure derived by multiplying a person’s weight in pounds by 703 and dividing that result by height in inches squared. 

People of normal weight have a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9; those considered overweight score between 25 and 29.9; obese people are between 30 and 34.9 and very obese people are over 35. 

The survey found that 59 percent of Americans are at least overweight — a figure that is in line with other recent studies. 

The study found that people of normal weight had an average of 1.1 chronic conditions. Overweight people had an average of an additional 0.2 chronic conditions, obese people had an additional 0.6 chronic conditions and the very obese had 0.9 more conditions. 

The study showed the obese tend to have slightly more health problems than people living in poverty and far more than daily smokers or heavy drinkers. 

——— 

On the Net: http://www.rand.org 

The contractor who Phil Smith hired for his addition last year is one of the best in Columbia, Mo. But every night after the contractor and his crew went home, Smith took out a flashlight, tape measure and the architect’s plans to inspect the work. Smith presented any questions at a twice-weekly meeting. When something looked really wrong, he called his contractor from work. And when Smith’s concerns resulted in a change from the original plans, a change order was written. The result? A job that went smoothly for homeowner and contractor. 

Questioning your contractor, as Smith did, makes a lot of folks uncomfortable. After all, the contractor is the expert. But your nonexpert status can give you the objectivity needed to catch such errors as missing switches, misplaced windows or delivery of the wrong model of an appliance. And because many projects involve several subcontractors, the framer might not have the latest window placements and the electrician might not know about the extra needed for your computer. 

That makes having an extra pair of eyes and ears not only welcome but essential for catching small problems before they get big and expensive. Although no two remodels are exactly alike, there are some specifics to consider for your next project.  

Carry a tape measure, flashlight (make sure the batteries are good) and notebook for any inspection. If you’re checking back against an architect’s plans, remember that there’s a separate plan for each of the following: foundation, framing, door and window schedule and finish schedule. You’ll often need to cross-reference the various plans to get a full picture of all the work being done. 

What to Look For 

• Foundation. Measure the distances between outside walls to be sure they conform to the foundation plan. You’ll find distances clearly marked on the plan, along with wall heights, wall thickness and slab thickness. It’s acceptable if lengths and widths vary by less than an inch. But because both walls and slabs are load-bearing, thickness for these components must be to spec. 

• Framing. Check ceiling heights carefully to be sure they’re as specified. For example, the framing crew might not have picked up that the ceiling height in the dining room is 9 feet, 6 inches instead of 8 feet. Also check the length and width of rooms. And if you’re building to accommodate a couch, bar unit or pool table, for instance, now is the time to be sure the item will fit. 

• Doors and windows. Center lines of doors and windows are also marked on the plans. Check the placement of each by measuring in from a nearby foundation corner to confirm its location. As the floor plan takes shape, note the direction of door swings – and make any changes before doors and jambs are installed. Also check that windows and doors align as planned to establish sight lines or to allow light and air to flow through the house. Doors or windows that are out of line are easy to fix at the framing stage. 

When windows arrive, check the model and type against what you specified. Manufacturers commonly ship windows with the wrong pane divisions, or light cuts. You might have ordered six-over-sixes and gotten four-over-fours. Also check doors for style and damage. If they aren’t what you expected or are dinged up, the contractor is responsible for replacing them. 

• Structural sheathing. Don’t panic if rough window openings are sheathed over; the plywood is cut away later to ensure a snug fit. But if you see drywall covering the rough opening, it’s probably a mistake. 

• Heating and plumbing. As the HVAC and plumbing contractors start work, check their plans against yours. Then ask some basic questions. For instance, in a bedroom, will a bed or bureau block heating and cooling vents? Re-position ducts if need be. And be sure water and drainpipes are roughed in at the right locations by checking against the plans. 

• Wiring. An easy way to check the electrical plan is to enter a room as if it were finished. Reach for light switches. Try to plug in a lamp. Are outlets and switches conveniently placed? Also determine whether you need three-way switches in rooms with multiple entrances and extra outlets in the kitchen, where several appliances will go. 

Then take note as workers install low-voltage wiring for cable or satellite TV, the alarm system, sound equipment and phones. Do you like the placement? Though replacing cables now isn’t expensive, rerouting them later is. Also ask workers to run extra cables you can activate later. 

• Hardwood floors. When installing this type of flooring, be sure the lumber spends at least two days out of its packaging in the house to prevent shrinkage gaps later. Also check that the planks are perpendicular to the floor joists and the installed flooring is covered with plywood or paper to protect it as other work continues. 

• Insulation. This important material is placed in the walls just before drywalling. Make sure it’s the R-value you asked for by carefully reading the insulation label and checking it against your specifications. For exterior walls, check that the insulation paper or foil is facing toward the room. Be sure spaces between studs and joists are entirely insulated, especially where joists end at exterior walls. Pay particular attention to the spaces around windows and doors; leaving even a small section uninsulated can cause drafts and heat loss. 

Some plans call for soundproofing interior rooms with insulation. If yours do, make sure the insulation goes in before drywall is installed. 

• Drywalling and paint. Be especially vigilant in these areas. Use a bright light held at an angle to pick up imperfections in the wall. If the drywall isn’t smooth enough, for example, point it out and have it redone. While painting and tiling are under way, make sure you’re available to approve colors for walls or floors. The same goes for grout. Then double-check grout after it has dried because the color tends to lighten. 

• Fixtures and fittings. If your addition includes a kitchen or bath, walk through the room and pay close attention to fixtures and faucets. Are they the right color? Do fixture finishes match? Also be sure metal finishes haven’t been scratched by plumbing tools and that everything works without leaking. 

Finally, be especially careful that custom-tile patterns match the approved layout plan, and that there are no gaps in any trim or molding joints. 

As the project moves into its final stages, don’t let your guard down. The finishing touches demand the most attention, so dig deep and muster up the last of your energy to see the job through to the very end. This due diligence will pay off.

Hot pink is an eye-catching color. That’s why seeds are dyed that bright hue to show they’ve been coated with a poisonous pesticide. 

Caution is needed when handling pesticide-coated seeds. Never let small children handle them and don’t touch your eyes, mouth, or food until you’ve finished planting and thoroughly washed your hands. 

Seed treatment goes back to the Middle Ages, when wheat was shoveled back and forth over the heat of a fire to rid it of smut, a disease that affects the mature plant. In the early 19th century, it was found that seed soaked in water in a copper bucket picked up enough copper to protect against smut. 

The pink seeds you see when you peel open a packet of peas, beans, or corn are treated to protect them from rotting in the soil rather than to protect the growing plants. Rot is a threat to any seed that does not sprout quickly enough once planted. Pesticide on treated seed kills micro-organisms nearby, increasing the chances of germination. Treating seeds to prevent them from rotting is a practice that dates back only a hundred years or so. 

Despite the benefits of treated seed, there are compelling reasons to choose untreated ones when they are available. Some of the fun in gardening is drained when you can’t just reach over to grab a bite of lettuce while planting corn, or if you have to refuse the help of your young child in the garden. Some seed companies only sell untreated seed, while other companies give you the option of purchasing either treated or untreated seeds. 

Some precautions are necessary when planting untreated seeds. Use fresh seed and plant in well-drained soil. If drainage is poor, enrich your soil with organic materials such as compost, leaves or peat moss. You might also want to plant in raised beds. Do not overwater your plants. 

In the beginning of the season, don’t plant until the soil has warmed adequately for the seed you’re planting. If you want to try to get a jump on the season, plant more seeds than necessary, in shallow soil. If needed, remove excess seedlings later on. 

Most precautions for handling untreated seeds are part of good gardening, anyway.

If you or a member of your family should become physically disabled, how “user-friendly” would your home be? How accessible is your home? When making home improvements, are you thinking ahead to your “twilight years”? Accessible design and construction is becoming increasingly important to American homeowners, as longevity increases. 

While accessible design and construction is growing in popularity, consideration for the physically disabled isn’t new. In 1990, the U.S. Congress established “a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability.” Among other things, this legislation, known as the “Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),” mandates that the design and construction in public buildings include elements that make the space accessible for people with physical disabilities. 

The ADA also provides non-mandatory design criteria that can be employed in private residences to make the space safer and more accessible for people with physical disabilities. While these design elements are many, a few examples include ramps, wider door openings, and kitchens and bathrooms that are accessible. 

Our first experience with such accessibility goes back nearly 40 years when our folks had a ramp built at our back porch for use by our grandmother who was a wheelchair user. While the ramp made Nana’s life easier, if we knew then what we know now, we are confident that her life could have been made more comfortable yet. 

Although a ramp is one of the more obvious, there are other elements that can improve the comfort and safety of people with physical disabilities: 

• Door openings that are wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through can make all of the space in a home accessible. The ADA suggests a clearance of at least 32 inches when a door is open at a 90-degree angle. 

• Provide smooth transitions between different types of flooring and limit carpet pile thickness to one-half inch. 

• Install grab bars at toilets, tubs and showers. The ADA provides specific criteria for the size and placement of grab bars. 

• Grab bars and waterproof seats are other popular safety and comfort enhancements that can be made to a tub or shower stall. For people who have difficulty stepping over and into a tub, a traditional tub or shower can be replaced with a molded prefabricated shower stall that is wheelchair accessible. These units come complete with grab bars and a fold-down seat. Some remodeling (wall relocation) might be required in order for your bathroom to accommodate such a unit. Several manufacturers produce prefabricated shower stalls (floor and walls) that do not have a “curb” at the front. That makes them more wheelchair accessible. 

• Install sinks no more than 34 inches above the finished floor with at least 27 inches of knee clearance below. Also, wrap all exposed plumbing pipes with a foam material to prevent leg injury. 

• The lowest edge of a mirror above a sink should be no more than 36 inches above the floor. 

• Provide a 60-inch wheelchair turnaround in a bathroom. 

• Install a toilet that is 17 inches to 19 inches above the floor (to the top of the toilet seat). 

• In the kitchen, counters should measure no more than 34 inches above the finished floor and should project out no more than 21 inches. Moreover, there should be at least 27 inches of under-counter clearance for wheelchair access. 

• Shelving height and closet rods should be no more than 48 inches above the floor. 

More information on accessible design can be obtained at the ADA website at www.uskoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm and at www.access-board.gov. 

In addition, an excellent book on the subject is “Building for a Lifetime: The Design and Construction of Fully Accessible Homes” by Margaret Wylde with Sam Clark and Adrian Baron-Robins; Taunton Press, December, 1993. 

To save cost, people are incorporating disabled-accessible features into their remodeling projects. What’s more, home buyers – especially empty nesters looking to downsize – have started asking builders to incorporate many of these features into their new homes.

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” through May 2002. An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery.” A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 by 40-foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history. “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for year membership. All ages. June 8: The Enemies, Pitch Black, The Fleshies, Supersift, Texas Thieves; June 9: Groovie Ghoulies, The Influents, Red Planet, Mallrats, Goat Shanty. 525-9926  

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m unless noted otherwise. June 9, 6 - 8 p.m.: Sauce Piquante, 9 p.m. - Midnight: Whiskey Brothers; June 12: Mad and Eddie Duran. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473  

Anna’s Music at 8 p.m. June 8: Anna and Susie Laraine and Sallie Hanna-Rhine, 10 p.m.: Bluesman Hideo Date; June 9: Robin Gregory and Bliss Rodriguez, 10 p.m.: The Ducksan Distone; June 10: Choro Time with Ron Galen and Friends. $2 weeknights, $3 weekends. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA  

Ashkenaz June 8, 9:30 p.m. Ali Khan with Bellydance Troupe Lunatique; June 9, 9:30 p.m.: Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers; June 10, 7 p.m.: Food Not Bombs with Goodbye Flowers and INKA. 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. June 8: Cats & Jammers Hot swing. $17.50; , June 9.: Danny Heines & Michael Manring; June 10: Roy Tyler and New Directions; June 12: Keith Little with Del Williams; June 13: Danu. $17.50.1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Peña Cultural Center “Cantiflas!” June 8, 8 p.m. Herbert Siguenza, of the critically acclaimed trio Culture Clash, stars in this bilingual work-in-progress about legendary Mexican comedian Marion Moreno. With guest performers Eduardo Robledo and Tanya Vlach. $16. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 www.lapena.org  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. June 8, Harvey Wainapel Quartet; June 9, Om Trio; June 12, Ben Graves Trio 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

The Berkeley TEMPO Festival of Contemporary Performances All performances begin at 8 p.m. June 8: Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players; June 9: John Scott, John Abercrombie, George Marsh, Rich Fudoli, Mel Graves. $15 Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus www.tempofestival.org 

The Farallone String Quartet June 10, 7:30 p.m. Quartets by Haydn. $8 - $10 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 

World Harmony Chorus June 10, 2 p.m. Vocal music from around the world. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra June 21. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

Dance 

Sungugal Ballet June 10, 4:30 p.m. Featuring master percussionist Djibi Faye and West African Band with traditional West African dance. $6 - $12. Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Theater 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere Through June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“Cymbeline” Through June 24, Tues. - Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Opening of the California Shakespeare Festival features one of Shakespeare’s first romances, directed by Daniel Fish. $12 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

“The Laramie Project” Through July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepherd. The play is about the community and the impact Shaper’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“A Life In the Theatre” Previews June 8, 9, 10, 13. Opens June 14, runs through July 15. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. David Mamet play about the lives of two actors, considered a metaphor for life itself. Directed by Nancy Carlin. $30-$35. $26 preview nights. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant 843-4822 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive June 8, 7:30: Aerograd; June 8, 9:15: The Letter That Was Never Sent; June 9, 7:30: Comic and Avant-Garde Shorts; June 10, 5:30: Pitfall, 7:25: Woman In the Dunes. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“The Producers” June 10. Revisit this outrageous comedy classic, starring Zero Mostel and written by Mel Brooks. $2 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Exhibits 

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

East Bay Open Studios June 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jennifer Foxly: Oil paintings and 2-d mixed media works 3206 Boise St.; Lewis Suzuki: Scenes from California to the Philippines, florals to nudes 2240 Grant St.; Guy Colwell: Painted replicas and recent original work 2028 9th St. (open until 7 p.m.) 

Wosene Kosrof June 13, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Ethiopian-born Berkeley resident will be exhibiting and discussing his paintings. One piece will be up for auction, proceeds to benefit the YMCA. Free. Crystal Room, Shattuck Hotel 2086 Allston 848-9622 ext. 3541  

PASSING: The Re-Definition of Sex and Gender Through the Personal Re-Presentation of Self Through June 16, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Black and white photographs by Ann P. Meredith. Free. Reception with the artist June 7, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St.  

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Tyler James Hoare Sculpture and Collage Through June 27, call for hours. Party June 9, 5-9 p.m. with music by Sauce Piquante. The Albatross Pub 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ako Castuera, Ryohei Tanaka, Rob Sato Through June 30, Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Group exhibition, recent paintings. Artist’s reception June 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m. with music by Knewman and Espia. !hey! Gallery 4920 B Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349  

“Watershed 2001” Through July 14, Wednesday - Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. Exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture and installation that explore images and issues about our watershed. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts and Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

“Queens of Ethiopia: Intuitive Inspirations,” the exceptional art of Esete-Miriam A. Menkir. Through July 11. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

“The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” chronicles the transformation of the city of Berkeley in this 10 year period. Thursday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. All events at 7:30 p.m. June 8: Scott Carrier reads from “Running After Antelope”; June 9: Richard Russo reads from “Empire Falls”, June 10: Irvine Welsh talks about “Glue.” 

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. All events at 7 p.m. June 8: For the younger readers, Eoin Colfer reads from “Artemis Fowl”; June 9: For the younger readers, Lemony Snicket reports on “The Vile Village.”  

Weekly Poetry Nitro Mondays 6:30 p.m sign up, 7 - 9 p.m. reading. Performing poets in a dinner atmosphere. Featured poets: June 11, Ivan Arguelles. Cafe de la Paz 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour. June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

SAN FRANCISCO — As the peak summer driving season shifts into high gear, several major oil companies are warning that California could face gasoline shortages and higher prices unless their refineries are shielded from the blackouts facing the electricity-starved state in the weeks ahead. 

Four oil refiners – Valero Energy, Tosco, Exxon Mobil and Equilon Enterprises – are petitioning the California Public Utilities Commission for blackout exemptions at facilities that produce about one-fourth of the state’s refining capacity of 2.3 million barrels per day. 

Meanwhile, California’s biggest refiner, Chevron Corp., has taken its exemption case directly to Gov. Gray Davis. The San Francisco-based company, which controls about 18 percent of the state’s refining capacity, told Davis the company will curtail production unless regulators or state lawmakers protect its two California refineries from blackouts. 

The industry’s arguments for a blackout exemption revolve around the elaborate — and dangerous – manufacturing process used to turn crude oil into fuel. 

If a refinery suffers a blackout, it would take at least two days to restore full production, according to industry officials. If equipment is damaged in an abrupt shutdown, it could diminish refining capacity for weeks – a loss that could lead to shortages in gasoline-guzzling California and increase prices. 

The California refiners had been excluded from the blackouts until early April, when the PUC narrowed its blackout exemptions to utility customers that would pose “imminent danger to public health and safety” if they lost power. 

Despite the change, none of the refineries lost power in early May – the last time that California’s electricity grid managers ordered rolling blackouts. 

Nevertheless, the PUC’s decision “threatens to expand our energy problems from the current electricity supply problem to problems with shortages of critical fuels – gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel,” Chevron CEO David O’Reilly advised Davis in a June 1 letter. 

Even a temporary shortage could increase California’s gasoline prices by as much as 25 percent, according to estimates made by the California Energy Commission. Millions of California households and businesses already face electricity rate increases on their summer utility bills. 

The oil refiners join a long line of businesses lobbying for blackout exemptions, with the PUC receiving more than 10,000 such applications. The PUC expects to make a preliminary decision on the exemption applications July 10, with a final decision scheduled for Aug. 2. 

Fearing grid managers might pull the plug before the PUC acts, the refineries also are lobbying state lawmakers to pass a bill that would provide blackout exemptions for businesses “engaged in the manufacturing and/or transportation of critical fuels.” 

The bill cleared the state Assembly by a unanimous vote, but is now stuck in a Senate committee. 

“We’re paralyzed right now,” said Scott Folwarkow, Valero’s environmental and regulatory manager at its Benicia refinery. “This isn’t just about us or a few other refineries. There would be huge ripple effects through the economy because so many things, including police and ambulances, depend on gasoline.” 

While the refineries have a compelling case for blackout exemptions, they also should be required to pay more for electricity when other customers are enduring power outages, said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California’s energy institute. 

“If the power is that valuable to them, then the state should probably say, ’OK, you won’t have to suffer blackouts, but you will have to pay extra for the electricity during shortages,”’ Borenstein said. 

Paying a little more for power wouldn’t represent a huge blow for oil companies because the industry’s profits have soared along with gasoline and natural gas prices. Chevron, for instance, earned $1.6 billion during the first three months of this year, 53 percent more than last year — when its profits set a company record. 

The state, in contrast, can’t afford to lose refining capacity for an extended period. 

Even when all the state’s refineries are operating at full capacity, the state traditionally needs to import about 10 percent of its summer gasoline supply, according to the California Energy Commission, which supports the refineries’ effort to obtain blackout exemptions. 

Based on recent accidents that forced California refineries to shut down in 1996 and 1999, gasoline prices would rise by as much as 50 cents per gallon if just one plant lost capacity for a few days, said Gordon Schremp, senior fuel specialist for the California Energy Commission. 

As it is, California motorists already pay some of the highest gasoline prices in the country. In May, California’s average gasoline price stood at $2 per gallon compared to the national average of $1.72 per gallon, according to surveys by the American Automobile Association. 

Providing the refineries with adequate electricity to supplement their internal power generation would reduce California’s electricity supply by 200 to 250 megawatts, Schremp estimated. That’s enough power for 150,000 to 187,500 homes. 

On The Net: 

http://www.chevron.com 

http://www.valero.com 

http://www.tosco.com 

http://www.exxon.mobil.com 

http://www.equilonmotivaequiva.com 

LOS ANGELES — Former bitter rivals NetZero and Juno Online Services, the two biggest providers of free Internet access, said Thursday they will merge in a deal that is expected to create the nation’s second-largest Internet connection company. 

NetZero of Westlake Village, Calif., and Juno Online Services of New York announced the deal after close of market. 

The two would share 7 million subscribers and would be larger than the online access arms of Microsoft, Earthlink and AT&T, company executives said in a statement. Only AOL would be bigger. 

Under the terms of the all-stock transaction, NetZero and Juno will become wholly owned subsidiaries of a newly formed company called United Online Inc. 

NetZero stockholders will own about 61.5 percent of the outstanding shares in United Online. Juno stockholders will own the rest, once the deal closes sometime before the end of the year. 

The new company is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol UNTD. 

The deal comes as free Net providers are striving to find new ways to make money and are increasingly dabbling in paid online access services. Traditionally, free providers have made their money through advertising. 

Such an experiment has not saved NetZero from widening quarterly losses. 

The company’s third-quarter net loss, announced in May, grew more than $66 million to $91.3 million, compared with the same period last year. That’s despite a new $9.95-a-month paid service that drew 116,000 customers during that same period. 

Juno, meanwhile, has been offering some paid services for three years. 

The two had clashed in court since late last year, when NetZero sued Juno on accusations of patent infringement. 

The California company alleged that Juno was using unique technology that combines pop-up ad banners and a navigational tool. 

A federal judge lifted a temporary restraining order against Juno in April, though a trial was expected later this year. 

Juno has also taken court action against NetZero. 

In a separate case, Juno filed a patent infringement case against NetZero and Qualcomm Inc. last summer over Eudora e-mail software. 

In that suit, which was also last reported as pending, Juno alleged the Qualcomm-developed program infringes on a patent it holds for software that allows it to continue to display advertisements connected to e-mail messages even when a user’s computer is not connected to the Internet. 

WASHINGTON — In a White House victory celebration, President Bush put his signature to the nation’s first across-the-board tax cut in a generation on Thursday and promised American families rebate checks in time to help with September school bills. 

He proclaimed the $1.35 trillion tax cut, most of which takes effect slowly over the next decade, the first achievement for a “new tone in Washington.” 

Such broad tax relief has happened just twice since World War II — President Kennedy’s tax cuts in the 1960s and President Reagan’s in the 1980s — Bush told a packed White House audience of near-giddy Republicans and some Democrats. 

“And now it’s happening for the third time,” Bush said. “And it’s about time.” 

Rebate checks, most between $300 and $600 will be mailed beginning July 20 to every American who paid taxes this year. Eventually, income tax rates will drop, the child credit will double and the estate tax, which Bush calls “the death tax,” will die. 

“Most families can look forward to a $600 tax rebate before they have to pay the September back-to-school bills. And in the years ahead, taxpayers can look forward to steadily declining income tax rates,” Bush said. 

Democratic opponents complained that the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers will reap more than one-third of the new law’s benefit. “For tens of millions of Americans, the check is not in the mail,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. 

Within an hour of the signing, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., opened up the possibility of rolling back some provisions in order to meet spending needs or accommodate any shortfall in the projected $5.6 trillion budget surplus that Bush is counting on to offset tax cuts. 

There were no second thoughts in the East Room. Republican leaders and the handful of Democratic lawmakers who helped push the bill through Congress – including Georgia’s Zell Miller, New Jersey’s Robert Torricelli, Louisiana’s John Breaux, and Montana’s Max Baucus – surrounded the president and grabbed for the 10 souvenir pens he had obligingly used to work through his signature letter by letter. 

The package was $250 billion smaller than the version Bush had campaigned for and made a must-pass centerpiece of his first six months in office. Nonetheless, the president claimed vindication over political foes who had said his tax cut proposal was too big. 

“Today it becomes reality,” he said. 

First lady Laura Bush, who is rarely seen when her husband conducts business, took a front-row seat, just one sign that this was a most special occasion for the young Bush White House. Three charter buses deposited members of Congress at the North Portico. Senior White House political strategist Karl Rove bounced through the East Room slapping backs and shaking hands two at a time. Vice President Dick Cheney, Bush’s chief operative on Capitol Hill, slipped into the ceremony unannounced but for the clapping of the first lawmaker to spot him. 

A grander ceremony planned for the South Lawn was chased inside by rain, so the dozens of guests who couldn’t fit in the East Room were seated before TV monitors in the Grand Foyer. A grinning Rick Lazio, who lost last year’s New York Senate race to Hillary Clinton, squeezed into the party that capped years of GOP frustration as former President Clinton blocked or vetoed several previous tax cuts. 

Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, the fourth-ranking House Republican, told colleagues in a memo that as the refund checks go out to constituents, Republicans should “take every opportunity to remind them who is working to give them more of their own money back to meet their own priorities, not Washington’s.” 

In addition to the refund checks and gradual income tax cuts — which include creation of a new 10 percent bottom rate — the measure eases the marriage penalty paid by millions of two-income couples, gradually doubles the $500 child credit and contains breaks for increased retirement savings and education. 

House Republican leaders said they will attempt to pass legislation this year to eliminate the “sunset” expiration date and make the tax cuts permanent. But the Democratic majority in the Senate, installed after Vermont Sen. James Jeffords’ switch from the GOP to independent, could make it difficult for that measure or any other House GOP tax cuts to pass this year. 

Bush renewed his efforts Thursday to cultivate good relations with key lawmakers. He had what aides called a cordial meeting in the Oval Office with moderate Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and had Daschle to dinner at the White House. 

———— 

On the Net: 

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov 

IRS Web site on advance payment program: http://www.irs.gov/ind—info/apinfo/index.html 

WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday she will hold three hearings on work-related injuries, and the findings will help determine how the Bush administration will pursue a new policy to protect workers. 

Democrats criticized the hearings as a delay tactic. 

“We don’t need more study. We need action – now,” said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., chairman of the Employment, Safety and Training Subcommittee now that Democrats have taken control of the Senate. 

The hearings on ergonomics-related injuries will be in Washington, D.C., on July 16, Chicago on July 20 and in California on July 24, though the city hasn’t been decided yet.  

The goal is to develop a universal definition of injuries caused by repetitive motion and stress. Chao will decide by September if she will pursue another government regulation or a voluntary policy. 

“Guiding principles will provide a vital starting point for evaluating the issue and a point from which we can decide a final course of action,” she said in a statement. 

An administrative law judge will conduct the hearings, which will allow public participation. 

Ergonomics is the science of adapting working conditions to suit individual employees. Critics have complained that there is not enough scientific evidence to justify employer regulations that were issued late in the Clinton administration, but repealed in March by the Republican-controlled Congress. Since then, Chao has been under pressure to say how she will address workplace injuries. 

Republicans praised the plan for hearings, saying study is needed about how such injuries occur and what the federal government’s role should be. 

Chao “has obviously reviewed some of the voluminous testimony from the last misguided attempt and has struck at the heart of the problem,” said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, which oversees the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

Business groups complained that the scope of the OSHA regulations was too broad and that compliance would be difficult and costly, estimating the price tag at $100 billion. The repealed rules would have required employers to change work stations or jobs for workers complaining of injuries, and pay for medical attention. 

OSHA said the rules would have cost businesses about $4.5 billion to comply, but would have meant in $9 billion in savings by reducing injuries. 

The rollback was a big blow to organized labor, which had fought for such protections for more than a decade. Labor argued that enough studies and hearings have been conducted to support the need for regulations. 

On the Net: 

Labor Department: http://www.dol.gov 

If all goes according to plan, the San Francisco Giants could have a serious Berkeley connection going at some point in the next few years. They drafted three players with Berkeley connections in Tuesday’s Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. 

With their third-round pick, the Giants took former Berkeley High player Julian Benavidez. Benavidez, a first baseman, has attended Diablo Valley College for the past two years. 

The sixth round saw the Giants taking Cal senior David Cash with the 196th overall pick. Cash, a right-handed pitcher, was an honorable mention All-Pac-10 pick this season. He finished the 2001 season 10-3 with four saves and concluded his Cal career with a 23-7 overall record with six saves. His 23 wins is fifth on the Bears’ career win list and his six saves is seventh on the Cal career save list. Cash is also eighth on the school’s career strikeout list (198). 

The Giants’ final Berkeley pick was Cal senior outfielder Rob Meyer. Meyer may have helped his draft status with a scorching postseason, going 6-for-12 with three home runs and seven RBI, and earning all-tournament honors. He was the Cal’s leading hitter this season with a .355 average and was honorable mention All-Pac-10.  

Other members of the 2001 Bears who were selected included senior first baseman Clint Hoover (14th round by the Houston Astros), junior left-hander Jason Dennis (14th round by the Anaheim Angels), and junior right-hander Trevor Hutchinson (20th round by the New York Mets). 

Hoover finished his Cal career fourth on the Bears’ all-time career RBI list (157), fifth on the career home run list (39) and eighth on the career doubles list (44). Dennis finished the 2001 season 5-3, including a 4-0 shutout of Stanford and a victory against Minnesota at the NCAA Tournament. Hutchinson was the Bears No. 1 starter this season, going 6-7 with a 3.85 ERA and 91 strikeouts in a team-high 114.6 innings. 

Cal head coach David Esquer said there weren’t any big surprises among the seniors taken. 

“I’m happy for all of them chance to go play pro ball,” he said. “I don’t think any of them are disappointed with where they were taken.” 

Esquer said he fully expected the two junior hurlers, Dennis and Hutchinson, to sign with the teams that drafted them rather than return to Cal for another season. 

“I can’t imagine they wouldn’t come to terms,” Esquer said. “With Trevor, I’m surprised he didn’t go higher. The Mets know what kind of talent they’ve got, I’d be surprised if they didn’t give him what he needs to sign with them.” 

Esquer also has to deal with uncertainty surrounding three of his signees for next season. 

Letter of intent signees Terry Jones, Tyler Adamczyk and Justin Nelson were all taken in the draft and could sign with their respective teams rather than play for Cal. Jones, a fourth round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies (110th pick), is a 6-2, 195 pound shortstop from Upland High School in Upland. Adamczyk is a 6-5, 180-pound right-handed pitcher/first baseman from Westlake Village who was drafted in the seventh round by the St. Louis Cardinals. Nelson is a 6-2, 210-pound left-handed outfielder/pitcher from Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista who was drafted in the 20th round by the Anaheim Angels. Esquer said all three are still considering their options. 

“I don’t think anything is very apparent with the high school kids,” Esquer said. “Jones is a concern, because he was drafted in a good position. But all these kids are aware of value of a college education.” 

Esquer said that college coaches always have to consider the draft status of a recruit. 

“Sometimes players are too good, and they end up getting a lot of money to go straight to the pros. But if you go after those guys, you know there’s a good chance you’re never going to see them,” he said. 

“With other guys it can be a little bit of a crapshoot. You can be looking at a kid early, and they can blossom and become a top-five round talent. There’s always a risk involved, but you do your homework and try and get kids who value a college education.”

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” through May 2002. An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery” A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history. “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for year membership. All ages. June 8: The Enemies, Pitch Black, The Fleshies, Supersift, Texas Thieves; June 9: Groovie Ghoulies, The Influents, Red Planet, Mallrats, Goat Shanty. 525-9926  

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m unless noted otherwise. June 7: Keni “El Lebrijano” Flamenco guitar; June 9, 6 - 8 p.m.: Sauce Piquante, 9 p.m. - Midnight: Whiskey Brothers; June 12: Mad and Eddie Duran. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473  

Anna’s Music at 8 p.m. June 7: Irrationals; June 8: Anna and Susie Laraine and Sallie Hanna-Rhine, 10 p.m.: Bluesman Hideo Date; June 9: Robin Gregory and Bliss Rodriguez, 10 p.m.: The Ducksan Distone; June 10: Choro Time with Ron Galen and Friends. $2 weeknights, $3 weekends. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA  

Ashkenaz June 2, 9:30 p.m.: June 7, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave; June 8, 9:30 p.m. Ali Khan with Bellydance Troupe Lunatique; June 9, 9:30 p.m.: Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers; June 10, 7 p.m.: Food Not Bombs with Goodbye Flowers and INKA. 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. June :7 Alice Stuart, Folk blues, $17.50; June 8: Cats & Jammers Hot swing. $17.50; , June 9.: Danny Heines & Michael Manring; June 10: Roy Tyler and New Directions; June 12: Keith Little with Del Williams; June 13: Danu. $17.50.1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Peña Cultural Center “Cantiflas!” June 7 and June 8, 8 p.m. Herbert Siguenza, of the  

critically acclaimed trio Culture Clash, stars in this bilingual work-in-progress about legendary Mexican comedian Marion Moreno. With guest performers Eduardo Robledo and Tanya Vlach. 

$16. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 www.lapena.org  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. June 7, Beatdown with DJs Delon, Yamu, Add1; June 8, Harvey Wainapel Quartet; June 9, Om Trio; June 12, Ben Graves Trio 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

The Berkeley TEMPO Festival of Contemporary Performances All performances begin at 8 p.m. June 8: Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players; June 9: John Scott, John Abercrombie, George Marsh, Rich Fudoli, Mel Graves. $15 Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus www.tempofestival.org 

The Farallone String Quartet June 10, 7:30 p.m. Quartets by Haydn. $8 - $10 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 

World Harmony Chorus June 10, 2 p.m. Vocal music from around the world. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra June 21. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800 

Sungugal Ballet June 10, 4:30 p.m. Featuring master percussionist Djibi Faye and West African Band with traditional West African dance. $6 - $12. Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere Through June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“Cymbeline” Through June 24, Tues. - Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Opening of the California Shakespeare Festival features one of Shakespeare’s first romances, directed by Daniel Fish. $12 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

“The Laramie Project” Through July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepherd. The play is about the community and the impact Shaper’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“A Life In the Theatre” Previews June 8, 9, 10, 13. Opens June 14, runs through July 15. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. David Mamet play about the lives of two actors, considered a metaphor for life itself. Directed by Nancy Carlin. $30-$35. $26 preview nights. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant 843-4822 

Pacific Film Archive June 7, 7:00: Viy; June 8, 7:30: Aerograd; June 8, 9:15: The Letter That Was Never Sent; June 9, 7:30: Comic and Avant-Garde Shorts; June 10, 5:30: Pitfall, 7:25: Woman In the Dunes. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“The Producers” June 10. Revisit this outrageous comedy classic, starring Zero Mostel and written by Mel Brooks. $2 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

East Bay Open Studios June 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jennifer Foxly: Oil paintings and 2-d mixed media works 3206 Boise St.; Lewis Suzuki: Scenes from California to the Philippines, florals to nudes 2240 Grant St.; Guy Colwell: Painted replicas and recent original work 2028 9th St. (open until 7 p.m.) 

Wosene Kosrof June 13, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Ethiopian-born Berkeley resident will be exhibiting and discussing his paintings. One piece will be up for auction, proceeds to benefit the YMCA. Free. Crystal Room, Shattuck Hotel 2086 Allston 848-9622 ext. 3541  

PASSING: The Re-Definition of Sex and Gender Through the Personal Re-Presentation of Self Through June 16, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Black and white photographs by Ann P. Meredith. Free. Reception with the artist June 7, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St.  

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Tyler James Hoare Sculpture and Collage Through June 27, call for hours. Party June 9, 5-9 p.m. with music by Sauce Piquante. The Albatross Pub 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ako Castuera, Ryohei Tanaka, Rob Sato Through June 30, Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Group exhibition, recent paintings. Artist’s reception June 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m. with music by Knewman and Espia. !hey! Gallery 4920 B Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349  

“Watershed 2001” Through July 14, Wednesday - Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. Exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture and installation that explore images and issues about our watershed. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts and Paintings Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

“Queens of Ethiopia: Intuitive Inspirations,” the exceptional art of Esete-Miriam A. Menkir. Through July 11. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

“The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” chronicles the transformation of the city of Berkeley in this 10 year period. Thursday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. All events at 7:30 p.m. June 7: Dr. Amit Goswami talks about “The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist’s Guide to Enlightenment”; June 8: Scott Carrier reads from “Running After Antelope”; June 9: Richard Russo reads from “Empire Falls”, June 10: Irvine Welsh talks about “Glue.” 

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. All events at 7 p.m. June 8: For the younger readers, Eoin Colfer reads from “Artemis Fowl”; June 9: For the younger readers, Lemony Snicket reports on “The Vile Village.”  

Weekly Poetry Nitro Mondays 6:30 p.m sign up, 7 - 9 p.m. reading. Performing poets in a dinner atmosphere. Featured poets: June 11, Ivan Arguelles. Cafe de la Paz 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour. June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

The morning after L.A.’s most hotly-contested mayoral election in more than three decades, my e-mail and voice-mail are full of messages from friends and colleagues and virtual people. They share one sentiment – “we” were robbed. We Latinos, that is. 

I can’t say I was happy about the results, but neither can I say I agree with these voices. One said the whites weren’t ready to “trust a Mexican” in the mayor’s office. Another said the black political leadership sold out Latinos and sided with whites (implying that blacks, too, do not 

“trust a Mexican”). Yet another prophesied racial division. 

Official election results and exit polls show the election divided Los Angeles along ethnic and racial lines. African Americans voted overwhelmingly for mayor-elect Jim Hahn, as did moderate and conservative whites, especially in the San Fernando Valley. Latinos and progressives, 

we are told, voted for Antonio Villaraigosa who, as the media reminded us for more than a year, would have been become the city’s first Latino mayor since 1872. 

But for me the race wasn’t about race. It was about a candidate from a working-class background, with a long history of labor activism, attempting to forge a new multi-ethnic coalition the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the days of former mayor Tom Bradley, the city’s first African-American mayor. 

Bradley was elected with backing from then mostly-black South Los Angeles and the largely liberal Jewish enclave of the West Side. That coalition went up in flames during the riots of 1992, paving the way for the election of Republican mayor Richard Riordan – a fuzzy, warm kind of conservative who nonetheless called for a vastly increased police force. 

Villaraigosa’s coalition was a newer and more progressive version of Bradley’s. A native son of East L.A., he banked on support from Latinos, of course, but he never played the race card. A labor activist never places race over class inequity – that would set too many demons loose. 

In labor struggles, the issues are wages and working conditions. The labor force may be all brown and the bosses all white or Asian, but that isn’t the point for labor – you never know when you’ll need the support of like-minded people from other racial or ethnic groups. It’s about 

class, not race. 

It is hard to remember that in L.A. these days. The language of race and ethnicity permeates discourse. In large part this reflects the 2000 Census, which shows Latinos nearing an absolute majority, whites dipping below 30, black population about the same and a surging Asian population. But by and large, L.A.’s new neighborhoods are mixed. What divides us 

most is not language, or skin color. It is class. 

L.A. has become a city of staggering wealth – and staggering poverty. The United Way documented this not long ago in a report titled “A Tale of Two Cities.” Only a handful of sectors in the local economy have grown over the last decade. Most jobs have not been in the film and music industries or in high-tech, but in the “service sector” – jobs which involve literally “serving” someone. Hotels and restaurants, landscaping and nannying – in these jobs, union representation is scarce, not to mention health benefits or even a “living wage.” To a great degree, L.A.’s up-and-coming majority, Latinos, fill these jobs. But there are many whites, blacks and Asians “serving” as well, and this is the L.A. Villaraigosa sought to represent. 

In the final weeks of the campaign, Villaraigosa’s opponent Jim Hahn played the race card, using advertising imagery and rhetoric not much different from the infamous “Willy Horton” ads used by George Bush Sr. against Mike Dukakis. 

The problem for Villaraigosa and for the city is not so much the ethnic demons that were set loose. It is the fact that those demons mask, as they always have, the true issue. We may live in a city of many colors and languages, foods and musics. But most of us live in one city or another: in the L.A. of the served or the L.A. of the server. 

Those are the cities that Jim Hahn will face as the new mayor of Los Angeles. 

PNS Associate Editor Ruben Martinez is a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail” (Metropolitan/Holt Books, September 2001)

Thursday, June 7

Berkeley Metaphysical  

Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Used book sale as a fund-raiser for the club, where public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. The club has regular meetings on the first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

Berkeley Unified School  

District 

Appreciation Dinner 

6 p.m. 

Berkeley Alternative High School 

2701 MLK Jr. Way 

Berkeley Unified School District Office of State and Federal Projects honors District Title I/State Compensatory Education, English Learner Advisory Committee representatives, and departing school principals. Guest speaker Dr. Mary Montle Bacon on “We Need to BE the Change We Want.” 

644-6202 

Free Writing, Cashiering &  

Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This session will be a community meeting.  

654-5486 

Skin Cancer Screening Clinic 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit Campus  

2450 Ashby Ave. 

Markstein Cancer Education Center 

Skin cancer screenings are offered only to people who, due to limited or no health insurance, would be able to have a suspicious mole or other skin changes examined. Appointments are required.  

869-8833 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly summer concert series. This week Advanced Jazz Workshop under direction of Mike Zilber. 

Community Environmental  

Advisory Commission Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia Street 

Among items to be discussed, Air Study and Chrome 6, TMD staffing, and arsenic, pentachlorophenol and creosote in playgrounds. 

705-8150 

Housing Advisory  

Commission Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

This meeting will include a status report and possible action on Masons’ decision not to seek housing tax credits for their 3132-3138 MLK Jr. Way Senior Housing Development Project. 

981-5411 

Public Works  

Commission Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Avenue 

Among other items on the agenda, there will be a report on the May 15 presentation to the City Council on the Sewer Fund and the Sewer Correction Program, as well as the following media coverage. 

981-6300 

Board of Library Trustees 

9 a.m. 

South Branch Library 

1901 Russell Street 

Special meeting ending with a closed session to evaluate candidates for the position of Director of Library Services. 

644-6095  

“Sepharad, Sephardim:  

A Journey through Jewish Spain” 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Avenue 

Slide presentation and lecture by Steven David Bileca. Free. 

843-3533 

Friday, June 8

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Backpacking Essentials 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Review the fundamental how-tos of selecting gear for a weekend backpacking trip. Free 

527-4140 

City Commons Club,  

Luncheon and Speaker 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

This week featuring Doris Sloan, Ph.D., on “Treasures Along the Silk Road Oases.” Come early for social hour. Lunch at 11:45 for $11-$12.25. Come at 12:30 to hear the speaker only for $1, students free. Reservations required for three or more. 

848-3533 

Women In Black Protests 

5 - 6:30 p.m. 

Montgomery and Market Streets 

San Francisco 

Part of a worldwide protest taking place in 103 cities, Bay Area women and men in black will protest 34 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Sponsored in part by Berkeley Women In Black and the Middle East Children’s Alliance. 

510-434-1304 

Berkeley Women  

In Black Protest 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph 

If San Francisco is too far to travel, stay on this side of the Bay and join the small group of Berkeley Women In Black who have been protesting on Telegraph every Friday since 1988. 

Saturday, June 9

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Celebrates original crafts, international diversity, and community life. One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live performances and a variety of food. Free admission.  

Call 986-9337 

The Bite of REI 2001 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Taste some of the best, lightweight backpacking food and energy snacks available. At 1 p.m. Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn with demonstrate how to turn your outdoor trips into gourmet adventures. Free 527-4140 

La Pena 26th Anniversary  

Benefit to Honor Dolores  

Huerta 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Music performances, slide show and raffle in honor of special guest Dolores Huerta, farm worker’s and women’s rights advocate. Huerta worked with Cesar Chavez to establish and lead the National Farm Workers Association in the 1960’s, and has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of farm workers for decades. Proceeds will go to La Pena and Huerta’s medical expenses. $20 - $25. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Sunday, June 10

Counteracting Negative Emotions 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Exercises presented by Sylvia Gretchen, Dean of Nyingma Studies. Free and open to the public. 

843-681 

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live entertainment and food. Free admission. 986-9337 

— compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

“Kindertransport: A Personal Account” 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Hear the moving story Ralph Samuel, who escaped Nazi Germany as the age of eight. Samuel was one of an estimated 10,000 children who were rescued through the efforts of the Kindertransport operation. $4 BRJCC members, $5 for general public. Admission includes brunch. 848-0237. 

Music and Meditation 

8 - 9 p.m. 

The Heart-Road Traveller 

1828 Euclid Ave. 

Group meditation though instrumental music and devotional songs. Led by Lucian Balmer and Baoul Scavullo. Free. 

496-3468 

Monday, June 11 

Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board 

4 p.m. 

One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza 

Hearing Room One 

Oakland 

The Board will meet and discuss the request to make the Claremont Hotel an official landmark.  

Berkeley School Volunteers 

3 - 4:30 p.m. 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in summer academic and recreation programs. 

644-8833 

Tuesday, June 12 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Cooking for BEFHP Women 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

BEFHP Women’s Resource Center 

2140 Dwight Way 

Come help the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project prepare, serve, and cleanup a hot meal prepared for Berkeley’s homeless women and children. Teens 16+.  

650-965-0242 

Wednesday, June 13  

Defining Diversity 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Different interpretations of biological and cultural diversity and how it’s used for very different purposes.  

548-2220 

Commission On Disability Hearings 

4 - 6 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Open forum, opportunity for public to present ideas and concerns about barriers for people with disabilities and accessibility of City facilities. Public comment on Berkeley’s proposed “Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan.” Also, naming I-80 overcrossing after Ed Roberts, requesting Congressional Representatives and Senators to add benefits for dental and eyeglasses coverage in Medi-Care. 

981-6342 

Lead-Safe Painting and Home Remodeling 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Free course on how to detect and remedy lead hazards in the home. 

567-8280 

“Illusions of the ‘New Economy’” 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Talk by professor and author Dick Walker. $5 donation requested. 

415-863-6637  

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association General Meeting 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

2837 Claremont Blvd. 

Covers area of Berkeley south of Dwight Way and east of Collage Avenue. Presentations on neighborhood issues. 

549-3793 

Trees and Shrubs of California 

7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

John Stuart and John Sawyer will be speaking about and signing their new book, “Trees and Shrubs of California.” Free. 

643-2755 

Thursday, June 14 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week Berkeley High Folklorico De Aztlan. 

Camping and Hiking Slide Presentation 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author Tom Stienstra gives a slide presentation on where to go hiking and camping this summer in the Sierra and Shasta region. Free. 

527-4140 

Berkeley School Volunteers 

10:30 a.m. - Noon 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in summer academic and recreation programs. 

644-8833 

Friday, June 15  

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Strong Women - The Arts, Herstory and Literature 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly cultural studies course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

City Commons Club, Luncheon and Speaker 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

This week featuring Edward Fox on “Regional Development Plans of The Wilderness Society.” Come early for social hour. Lunch at 11:45 for $11-$12.25. Come at 12:30 to hear the speaker only for $1, students free. Reservations required for three or more. 

848-3533 

Saturday, June 16  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Arts Festival Music Circus 

1 p.m. - 5 p.m. 

Shattuck Ave. between University Ave. and Channing Way 

The Music Circus will feature dozens of eclectic performances ranging from string quartets to blues and jazz. Free bus fare to and from the event offered by AC Transit. 665-9496. Free. 

Botanical Garden Spring Party 

3 - 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Celebrating the completion of the new Arid House and the renovation of the Southern African area. Food, wine and jazz. Fund-raiser for the Garden, $25 per person. 

643-2755 

Puppet Shows on Cultural and Medical Differences 

1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health 

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level) 

Two shows for kids of all ages and their families promote acceptance and understanding of cultural and medical differences. Free. 

549-1564 

Poets’ Corner 

1:30 - 4 p.m. 

Shattuck and Kittredge 

Ten poets will read on the downtown street corner as a kick-off event for the two-week Berkeley Arts Festival. 

649-3929 

Sunday, June 17 

Carefree/Carfree Tour 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Amtrack Station  

Foot of University Ave. 

Berkeley Arts Festival tour of coastlines installation guided by landscape architect Tom Leader. Walk culminates on the Berkeley Marina. 

486-0411 

Carefree/Carfree Tour #2 

1 p.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Ave. 

Bus and walk to: The Crucuble, workshop of arts and the industry; Bay Area Center for the Consolidated Arts; and the Juneteenth Celebration, annual street fair of African-American Roots with music, dance and food. 

486-0411 

The Discord Aggregate Intersection 

7 p.m. 

Gathering of local artists, poets, musicians, composers and others. Non-profit group meets every three to four weeks. For location and other information e-mail alemap@discord-aggregate.com 

Tuesday, June 19 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Intelligent Conversation  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

A discussion group open to all, regardless of age, religion, viewpoint, etc. This time the discussion will center on frugality, generosity, simplifying life, and dealing with money. Informally led by Robert Berend, who founded similar groups in L.A., Menlo Park, and Prague. Bring light snacks/drinks to share. Free  

527-5332 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

This will be a rap session.  

601-0550 

Wednesday, June 20 

Carefree/Carfree Tour 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Ave. 

Meet at the Gallery, take the bus to the Oakland Museum to take a tour with David Bacon of his exhibition “Every Worker Is An Organizer: Farm Labor and the Resurgence of the UFW.” 

486-0411 

Thursday, June 21 

Best Northern California Hikes 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author Matt Heid shares his favorite day hikes and overnight backpacking trips in Northern California. Slide presentation. Free. 

527-4140 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This session will be a “Pride Mass.”  

654-5486 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week Capoeira Arts Cafe. 

Friday, June 22 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Strong Women - The Arts, Herstory and Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly cultural studies course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

City Commons Club, Luncheon and Speaker 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

This week featuring Jeffrey Riegle, Ph.D., on “Historical Reasons for China’s Current Conduct.” Come early for social hour. Lunch at 11:45 for $11-$12.25. Come at 12:30 to hear the speaker only for $1, students free. Reservations required for three or more. 

848-3533 

Saturday, June 23 

“Feast of Fire” benefit for the Crucible 

10:30 p.m. 

The Crucible 

1036 Ashby Ave. 

Act III, The Flight of Icarus, will feature live music, and performances by several groups including Capacitor and Xeno. Price of admission benefits the Crucible, a multi-disciplinary community arts center. $20 at the door. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

Summer Solstice Celebration 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Center St. and MLK Jr. Way 

Farmers market plus crafts fair and live reggae and jazz. 

548-3333 

Sunday, June 24 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to fix a flat from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Uncle Eye 

2 p.m. 

Berkeley-Richmond Jewish 

Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. 

Come see Ira Levin, a.k.a. Uncle Eye, give a special performance as a fund-raiser for a television pilot to be filmed this summer. $7 - $10. 

848-0237 or www.uncle-eye.com 

Wednesday, June 27 

Conversations in Commedia 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The series pairs radical theater “elders” to share memories of their years in commedia. This week with former Mime Troupe actress Audrey Smith and Ladies Against Women character Selma Spector. $6 - $8. 

849-2568 

Thursday, June 28 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week Berkeley Opera performs pieces of Carmen. 

Friday, June 29  

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Strong Women - The Arts, Herstory and Literature 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly cultural studies course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Saturday, June 30 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Science of Spirituality 

5 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

2727 Collage Avenue 

Professor Andrew Vidich will speak on “Rumi: Mystic and Romantic Love, Stories of Masnavi.” Childcare and vegetarian food provided. Free. 

925-830-2975  

Berkeley High is often criticized for lacking diversity in its high level classes, particularly its Advanced Placement classes, but one group has tackled the problem head on. 

In a school that’s 37 percent African American, less than 1 percent of students enrolled in AP classes are African American.  

Students, parents, teachers and administrators have taken turns lambasting the lack of integration in Berkeley High’s AP classes for years, but whenever the discussion got around to how to solve the problem, consensus proved illusive. 

Students can earn college credit after taking AP classes, which are designed to prepare them for advanced studies. 

Lack of diversity in AP classes is a problem throughout the state, said Antwi Acom, a graduate student in sociology at UC Berkeley. In some school districts, Acom said, where the numbers of minority students has increased, AP offerings have declined overall, suggesting an institutional belief that such classes aren’t meant for blacks and Latinos. 

In Berkeley, the lack of diversity in high level classes is often listed as one more symptom of the achievement gap, where whites and Asians tend to outperform blacks and Latinos on standardized tests. Minority students are not prepared for high level classes when they reach Berkeley High, the argument goes. 

But some time last summer, a core group of Berkeley High parents and teachers got tired of the talk. The set out to systemically study the problem and, just as systematically, to solve it. 

The so-called AP Project began with the premise that there has never been a shortage of high-achieving and motivated students of color at Berkeley High to fill up AP classes – should they choose to do so. 

After months of surveying students, the AP Project leaders found that the top reason minority students were not signing up for AP classes was: The fact that minorities were not signing up for AP classes.  

In other words, few minorities wanted to venture into classes where they would very possibly be the only student of color in a class of 24 students. 

The project leaders also discovered a culture of peer pressure at the school, however, where minority students who did take AP classes tended to be disparaged by their minority peers.  

Furthermore, they found concerns among minority students themselves that perhaps they were not prepared for these high level classes, and to sign up for them would mean, among other humiliations, watching their GPAs take a dive. (AP classes are weighted more heavily than regular classes in calculating students’ GPAs). 

Enlisting the help of Berkeley High Principal Frank Lynch, the AP Project set out to woo minority students into AP classes. A select group of high performing minority students were invited to one-on-one meetings with Berkeley High counselors, where they discussed the possibility of signing up for AP classes. After meetings with the first 17 students, 15 agreed to go for it, according to Kristin Shepherd, president of the Berkeley High Parent Teacher Student Association. 

By the end of the year, the AP project had recruited 60 African American and Latino students to take AP economics, government and English next year. The goal, said Shepherd, is to have four AP classes where half the class is made up of minority students. 

On Tuesday night, the teachers who will teach the AP classes next year met with the parents of the African American and Latino students to hear concerns and give assurances. One after another the teachers said they were committed to helping these students succeed, and would find ways to get them any extra help they felt they needed. 

“I’ve been waiting a long time for an opportunity to do something like this,” said Berkeley High government teacher Steve Teel. 

“I think you guys really have an opportunity here to change the culture of the whole school,” said Alison Johnson, chairperson of the Berkeley High English Department. 

After the meeting, Berkeley High junior Regina Alexander, an African American student who plans to take AP English next year, said the prospect of taking an AP class is far less intimidating when she knows there will be many other students of color in the class with her. 

“I think a program like (the AP Project) would be necessary at any school,” said Regina’s father, Reginald Alexander. “It’s a means of getting all cultures involved.” 

New Cal athletic directory Steve Gladstone put his first stamp on the athletic department this week, firing two long-time employees and starting a search for five new associate athletic directors just four days after officially taking over his new position. 

The two employees who were let go, associate AD for communications and marketing Kevin Reneau and associate AD and senior women’s administrator Chris Dawson, had a combined 47 years of service to the school. 

“There’s no question that there is considerable emotion around change of any kind,” Gladstone said. “There is clearly a sense of concern and compassion for Chris and Kevin, and their years of service to Cal made the decision even more difficult.” 

Reneau had been with the Cal athletic department since 1977, when he graduated from school. Dawson’s 23 years on campus included 10 years as sports information director for women. 

“These decisions have been made to guide us in our specific mission to serve our athletes and programs and put them in the best possible position to succeed,” Gladstone said in a statement. “This reorganization gives us an opportunity to expand on good work already being performed. We are not starting from ground zero.” 

In addition to replacing Reneau and Dawson, Gladstone announced that he has also created three new associate AD positions, bringing to total to seven. He indicated that a national search for the new positions would begin later this week, and the spots would be filled by the time the fall term begins. 

As part of the re-organization, Bob Driscoll will be retained as an associate AD, as will Kevin Anderson. Driscoll served as interim AD until Gladstone was chosen last month, and was reportedly considering leaving Cal.

Editor: 

I am writing in response to a letter that appeared in the daily planet dated June 5, 2001 entitled “County School Board should support its Superintendent” from three locally elected members representing the Berkeley Community. 

As a 10-year member of the Alameda County Board of Education, I was disappointed by the lack of understanding by the three locally elected officials: Terry Doran and John Selawsky of the School Board and Derryl Moore of the Peralta Community College District relative to the budget development process of the County Board of Education. 

Prior to submitting the letter, neither person approached and/or called me to discuss the issues currently facing the County Office of Education. Those who know me as a long time resident/activist of the South Berkeley Community, know that I can be easily be reached. 

In fact, the Daily Planet publishes on a regular basis how the citizens of the community can get in touch with its locally elected officials. I was not contacted by any of these officials to have a “sit down” and discuss the issues facing the County Office of Education and how the County Board, under State law, has responsibility for adopting an annual budget. 

Let me take this opportunity to advise the people of Berkeley what the Issues are. This is clearly an issue around policy implementation of the budget and its expenditures consistent with County Board adopted policy. My concerns are and continue to be, how do we balance the services provided to school districts and meet the needs of students that are the most “at risk”, kids served by the County Office of Education directly. 

Those kids, for the most part, are kids of color. It is the Board's policy that the number one priority for funding in the county is to meet their needs. The issues between the Board and the Superintendent are philosophical differences on how best to expend County resources. 

It is not about personalizing the process; it not about politics.  

Let's talk about the implementation of the budget over the last two years under the stewardship of Superintendent Jordan. The facts are: 

1. To date the county superintendent has failed to produce a balanced budget. 

2. As documented by the most recent fiscal audit, the County Board's reserves are the at its lowest point in years. 

3. There have been expenditures of state lottery funds without County Board approval as directed by Board policy. 

4. There was a failure to submit to the state an evaluation of the juvenile court schools as mandated by the state. 

But more importantly, Superintendent Sheila Jordan has proposed a FY 2001/02 budget that projects a deficit in access of $1.1 million predicated on a 10 percent salary increase to all employees. In order to pay for this increase, Ms. Jordan is proposing to pay for it by eliminating substantially reducing student programs, eliminating the entire student program reserves along with staff reductions in student programs/services.  

I along with other members of the County Board find it unacceptable to “balance the deficit of the County Office on the backs on the students that are the most at-risk kids in Alameda County.” 

It is the board's position that Ms. Jordan reduce management/administrative positions projected to cost roughly $5.8 million or 20 percent of the total FY 2001/02 projected budget. It should be fully understood that one out of every four employees in the County Office of Education under the management of the County Superintendent Jordan is a director, manager or administrator. 

It is the position of the board that this ratio of total employees (66 out Of 259) is excessive and threatens the “future solvency” of the County Office of Education. 

In the words of Spike Lee, Doran, Selawsky and Moore have been “bamboozled.” But don't feel bad you are not alone. 

Jerome Wiggins,  

Trustee Area One, Alameda County Board of Education

The City Council opened the first round of what promises to be a long public hearing concerning a neighborhood land-use issue that has attracted citywide interest – the proposed synagogue and school at 1301 Oxford St. 

The council adjourned Tuesday night’s meeting at 11:30 p.m. after four-and-one-half hours of public testimony from nearly 60 supporters and opponents of the 32,000-square-foot project, proposed by the Beth El Congregation. Mayor Shirley Dean said there are still more than 100 people who have signed up to address the council when the hearing is continued on June 26.  

Speakers included neighbors of the proposed site, Beth El members and representatives from religious and environmental organizations. 

“I don’t think we have ever had this number of speakers,” Dean said on Wednesday. “Usually we are able to complete a public hearing in the course of one meeting.” 

Another public hearing, related to a Beth El appeal of the denial of an Alteration Permit, has yet to be scheduled.  

“We won’t be able to schedule that until we get a good idea when this hearing will finish up,” she said. 

A council decision on both appeals was scheduled for July 24, the last meeting before the council takes summer recess. Now, some councilmembers are saying that a decision isn’t likely until after September or later.  

“I’d be surprised if we are finished with this by Christmas,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong. 

The fire marshal closed access to the second-floor City Council Chambers a half-hour before the hearing began because the chambers were already filled beyond its 140-person capacity. The closure left more than 100 people in the building’s entrance way and nearly 200 people outside on the stairs and front lawn. Speakers were placed outside the building and a television was set up at the stairwell inside the building so those who couldn’t get in could follow the proceedings. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she has seen huge numbers of people come out for budget issues but has never seen so many turn out for a land-use issue. 

“I tried to get the hearing moved to the Berkeley Community Theater so we could accommodate everyone,” she said. “That way we wouldn’t have had to lock people out, which is so unfair.” 

Spring said the city manager discouraged use of the theater because the City Council Chambers were already set up for sound and video recording. 

The public hearing is part of a Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association appeal of the Zoning Adjustments Board’s approval of a use permit to build the synagogue. The appeal was filed by LOCCNA attorney Sharon Duggan. The appeal was signed by representatives from 10 environmental organizations including the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, The Golden Gate Audubon Society and the International Rivers Network. 

Project opponents are concerned about irreparable damage to Codornices Creek, the project’s size and traffic problems caused by school programs, religious meetings and social events that will take place at the synagogue. They are also concerned about alterations to the 2-acre site, which is a city landmark. 

Beth El members counter they have taken neighbors concerns and the design reflects a project that is sensitive to the creek, neighborhood and the historic status of the site.  

Religious leaders who spoke if favor of Beth El’s project included the Rev. Marvis Peoples from the Liberty Hill Baptist Church and the Rev. Dr. Frankie Moore, who read a statement from Mark Wilson, pastor of McGee Avenue Baptist Church. 

The City Council requested opposing sides work with professional mediator Peter Bluhon. The parties agreed and have already taken part in two meetings. A third meeting was scheduled for Wednesday.  

Bluhon said both sides have requested the results of the meetings remain confidential. “Both sides are doing something that’s a very important step in the mediation process,” Bluhon said. “They are clearly and completely describing the concerns, needs and goals they have for their respective interests.” 

Dean reminded council and the audience that if a compromise is reached during mediation, the entire public hearing process will begin again.  

The public hearing related to the LOCCNA appeal will continue on June 26, at the City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at 7 p.m.

Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, president pro-tem of the State Senate, plunged last week into the conflict between the Pacifica Foundation Board – the nonprofit holder of licenses to five radio stations including KPFA in Berkeley – and a number of the radio stations’ listener-sponsors and their paid and unpaid staffs. 

Last week Burton fired off a letter to David Acosta, chair of the Pacifica Board, saying: “The California Legislature continues to have strong concerns about actions by Pacifica Radio and the impact of those actions on its stations and listeners.” 

The letter asks Acosta, who did not return Daily Planet calls, to clarify three issues: the board’s “refusal to share KPFA’s financial information with KPFA management;” its use of listener donations for the board’s legal fees; and the board’s use of funds “to oppose union organizing.” 

David Landau, a journalist with KPFA’s news department and staff representative to the Local Advisory Board, went to Sacramento last week and, in his capacity as a LAB representative, spoke with Burton. David Adelson, interim chair of the KPFK (Los Angeles area) Local Advisory Board and Vic Bedoian, manager of the Fresno station that repeats much of KPFA’s programming, accompanied Landau. 

Landau said Wednesday the conversation with Burton included a discussion of the difficulty KPFA management has in gaining access to the money it has raised. “KPFA’s management doesn’t know its own balance sheet or what it can spend,” he said, adding, “Pacifica’s own board members can’t find out (about the finances).” 

Management must go to the board which signs every check, other than payroll, he said. 

Another issue is that Pacifica is spending an unknown amount of money fighting lawsuits brought by listeners, former employees and local advisory boards. 

On the question of the board opposing union activities, Landau said at WBAI, Pacifica’s New York station, the board fought an attempt to include volunteer staff in the employees’ union. “Pacifica spends a lot of money to try to thwart efforts at various stations,” he said. 

Dave Sebeck, spokesperson for Burton, said the legislature’s role was to assure that the mission of the California nonprofit is carried out. “Public broadcasting has a special place in the state,” he said. 

••• 

In other Pacifica Foundation-related news, the Congressional Progressive Caucus – made up of more than 50 progressive members of the U.S. House of Representatives and one senator – is meeting to talk about how to best follow up after its hearings on the conflict at the listener-sponsored stations. 

Andrew Sousa, spokesperson for Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who is vice chair of the caucus, said the caucus may decide to hold town-hall style meetings in a number of locations to learn more about the situation. They may “place (the conflict) in the context of free speech,” Soussa said, noting that Pacifica stations are among the few avenues progressive politicians have, on a national scale, to be heard.

More than 160 people signed up to address the City Council during a public hearing on the controversial Beth El proposal to build a synagogue and school at 1301 Oxford St. 

While time allowed for only 60 people to speak Tuesday, the others will have their turn June 26 when the hearing will be continued.  

Those who spoke on both sides of  

the issue raised concerns that have been debated since Beth El’s application process began two years ago.  

Members of the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association, which has taken the lead in opposing the project, raised concerns that Codornices Creek, which runs through the property, will never be daylighted if the project is allowed to be built at its current scale. They also spoke about traffic and noise problems and the concern that the property, a city landmark, will be altered. 

Alan Kay was the first LOCCNA member to address the council. 

“(Beth El) proposes for that site a massive building,” he said, “one that does not acknowledge or respect that site’s unique history, one that does not integrate gracefully into the neighborhood surrounding the site, and one that will flout the expressed wish of the citizens of Berkeley and the city’s own Creek Ordinance that (says) creeks (should) flow freely and be daylighted whenever possible.” 

Beth El member Harry Pollock was the first speaker in favor of the project. He told the council that the synagogue approached the neighbors during the design process and sought their feedback. 

“The process has worked this time,” he said. “We met with the neighbors and when we hired the architects, we instructed them to incorporate their concerns into the design.” 

The architect for the project, John Rubble of Moore, Rubble and Yedell of Southern California, then made a presentation to the council, showing the measures taken to reduce the scale of the project and to reduce its visual impact. 

“The buildings have been set back from Oxford Street,” Rubble said. “And there is little chance that passersby will be able to see the entire project from the street.” 

He also described how a children’s play area was surrounded by a low wall to muffle noise and how air conditioning allows Beth El members to keep the doors of the social hall closed, also reducing noise. 

Day dedicated to co-founder of farm workers’ union 

June 9 has been declared Dolores Huerta Day in Berkeley. A proclamation by Mayor Shirley Dean will be part of La Peña Cultural Center’s 26th Anniversary Celebration in honor of Huerta, who, with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. The organization later become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. 

Huerta, National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee, will be the guest of honor at the celebration which begins at 7 p.m. at 3105 Shattuck Ave. La Peña will provide live entertainment and proceeds will go towards Huerta’s recent medical expenses.  

Summer classes offered at Berkeley High 

Berkeley High School students who need to make up failed classes or receive some elective or physical education credits have opportunities to do so this summer. The BHS summer program runs from June 25 - Aug. 3, and late registration will take place June 20 - 21. The program is open to all BHS students, but cannot accept incoming freshmen. 

An Independent Study Program is also available for students who work or otherwise cannot attend school every week day in the summer. This program runs June 25 - Aug. 3, and students are required to meet with one teacher per subject once a week as well as completing 10 hours of work weekly. Students may also attend the College of Alameda, Merritt, or Vista junior colleges, whose summer sessions run from June 18 - July 28. Students must obtain concurrent enrollment forms from their BHS counselors.  

For more information call 644-6120 or 644-4578 or stop by the BHS administrative portable. For the Independent Study Program call 644-8592 or go to BHS G111. Vista College can be reached at 981-2800. For other junior colleges call 466-7368 or stop by BHS G111.

SACRAMENTO — Worrying about “an epidemic” of sedentary, obese and unhealthy students, the Senate voted Wednesday to limit the fat and sugar content in much of the food served at California schools. 

“The food we feed our children is killing them,” said one supporter of the limits, Sen. Steve Peace, D-El Cajon, who argued that fat-filled, sugar-laden food has done more harm to students than tobacco. 

But Sen. Ray Haynes, R-Temecula, said lawmakers should be more concerned about limiting students’ access to condoms, abortions and pornography and that restricting school menus would merely encourage older students to eat off campus. 

“I never thought we would be fast-food fascists,” he said. “This bill goes just a little bit too far. It’s a little bit too intrusive.” 

“What my children choose to eat is none of your business,” added Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge. 

By a 22-15 vote, senators sent the Assembly a bill by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Commerce, that would: 

• Ban, from a half hour before the start of school until a half hour after school, the serving of fruit drinks that include additional sweeteners, sports drinks containing more than 25 grams of sweeteners and carbonated beverages.  

• Require that no more than 35 percent of the calories in school snacks, sweets and side dishes come from fat and that no more than 10 percent of the calories in those foods come from saturated fat. 

• Allow sugar to make up no more than 35 percent of a snack, sweet or side dish by weight. The restrictions wouldn’t cover nuts, seeds, fruits or vegetables. 

• Limit drinks other than milk and bottled water to 12 ounces, ban the serving of jumbo-size entrees and require school snack bars and stores to offer fruits and vegetables as well as other items. Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, said the bill was a response to “an epidemic of sedentary children” who are overweight and increasingly suffering from diabetes, heart disease and other health problems. 

“These are children who will burden our health care system in the next 10, 20 and 30 years,” she said.  

Grocery Manufacturers of America, an association that includes food and beverage companies, condemned the bill as “a misguided attempt at addressing childhood obesity” by setting up “arcane rules.” 

“A better approach would be to increase the availability of physical activity programs and give school boards the resources they need to teach children how to make wise choices about proper nutrition,” said Kristin Power, GMA’s western regional director for state affairs. 

LOS ANGELES — A jury Wednesday awarded a cancer-stricken smoker more than $3 billion from tobacco giant Philip Morris, the largest judgment against a cigarette maker in a lawsuit brought by an individual. 

The Superior Court jury found against Philip Morris on all six claims of fraud, negligence and making a defective product. 

Richard Boeken, 56, of Topanga was awarded $3 billion in punitive damages and $5.5 million in general damages. 

“We thought that figure would hurt them, make them stand up and take notice,” juror Denise Key said of the punitive damages. “We want them to be responsible, to put on their product that the product will kill so when you smoke you smoke at your own risk.” 

It was the largest jury award won by an individual against a cigarette maker. The largest judgment against the tobacco industry in a class-action lawsuit was $145 billion awarded last year to thousands of sick Florida smokers. Philip Morris was one of five tobacco companies in that case. 

Boeken, who suffers from incurable lung cancer, smiled and gave a thumbs-up sign as the 18-page verdict was read. He declined to speak to reporters after the hearing. 

Philip Morris attorney Maurice Leiter said he will appeal. 

“We recognize Philip Morris is an unpopular company. It makes a dangerous product, but clearly, the evidence does not support this verdict,” Leiter said. 

He said the company believes Boeken ignored “a mountain of information” about the health risks of smoking and chose to continue his habit. 

Boeken’s attorney, Michael Piuze, said he did not know how the jury decided on the award. 

“I don’t know where it came from, but we’re pleased,” Piuze said. 

The award may not pass a new test adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court, some attorneys warned. 

“The punitive damage award has to bear some relationship to compensatory damage,” said attorney Michael Hausfeld, who sued tobacco companies in May, claiming they violated federal racketeering laws to hook children on cigarettes. 

“Clearly here the punitive award is an expression of total outrage and I’m not sure under the Supreme Court test for a single individual that kind of a differential would be upheld,” Hausfeld said. 

Boeken had sought more than $12 million in compensatory damages such as medical bills and lost earnings, and between $100 million and $10 billion in punitive damages. 

He was diagnosed in 1999 with lung cancer, which has spread to his lymph nodes, back and brain. He took up cigarettes in 1957 at age 13 and was smoking at least two packs of Marlboros every day for more than 40 years. Piuze said his client had kicked heroin and alcohol, but renewed his smoking habit after trying to quit several times. 

Piuze argued that his client was a victim of a decades-long tobacco industry campaign to promote smoking as “cool” but the company concealed the serious dangers of smoking. 

During closing arguments, Piuze said Philip Morris is “the world’s biggest drug dealer, something that puts the Colombian drug cartels to shame.” 

Attorneys for Philip Morris didn’t deny that smoking caused Boeken’s illness but argued that he ignored health warnings about the dangers of cigarettes and chose to smoke despite the risk. 

The jury began deliberations on May 22 but had to start over again two days later because a panelist was dismissed to take a long-planned vacation. 

Jurors during the 7-week-long trial were presented with a pile of evidence that included company memos and videotaped depositions from Boeken and clips of tobacco company executives’ 1994 congressional testimony. 

Key, the juror, said she viewed Philip Morris as simply a company trying to make money. 

“I don’t see them as corporate scum. I see them as a business,” Key said. 

Juror Ann Anderson revealed some of the thinking that went on in deliberations. 

“I think in the jury room a lot of people thought we wanted to punish Philip Morris,” she said. “It wasn’t to punish them. It was to make them stand up and take notice.” 

The verdict was the latest in a series of tobacco industry courtroom losses. Earlier this week, a Brooklyn, N.Y., jury found tobacco companies liable for deceptive business practices, ordering them to pay up to $17.8 million to treat ailing New York smokers. 

There have been six prior cases in which plaintiffs won individual awards since the mid-1990s, said Richard Daynard, a law professor and chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. 

But only one of those plaintiffs has actually received the money, a 70-year-old ex-smoker who received $1.1 million from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. as full payment plus interest on a 1995 jury award of $750,000. The company is appealing the verdict to the U.S. Supreme Court, but was ordered to make the payment. 

Shares of Philip Morris finished regular trading at $50, down 83 cents. In after-hours trading, shares fell $1.75 to $48.25.

SACRAMENTO — After a long emotional debate involving scripture and hardball politics, the Assembly approved a bill Wednesday that would give new rights to domestic partners. 

The bill would expand the legal rights granted to gay and senior couples who register with the state as domestic partners under a 1999 state law. 

The 43-29 vote came despite an intense campaign of television, radio and newspaper ads and mailed brochures by a conservative religious group aimed at pressuring 17 mostly minority lawmakers to oppose the bill. 

The Campaign for California Families’ campaign said the bill is part of the “radical homosexual agenda” and would undermine Proposition 22, the initiative approved by voters in 2000 that outlaws gay marriages. 

The campaign only angered several of the targeted lawmakers. 

“It does them no good to try to intimidate me because I do not get intimidated,” said Assemblyman George Nakano, D-Torrance. 

The two-hour debate included personal stories and religious lectures. Supporters said the bill was a matter of equal rights, while opponents said it was an attempt to get around Proposition 22. 

The current domestic partner law allows same-sex partners and unmarried straight couples over 62 to register with the secretary of state; 14,000 couples have done so. 

However, that law gave those couples only the right to visit each other in a hospital and get health benefits if one partner is a public employee. 

The new rights in the bill include the ability to adopt a partner’s child more easily, to get health and disability insurance coverage from private employers like married couples, to make medical treatment decisions for an incapacitated partner, to inherit if the partner dies without a will and to file wrongful-death lawsuits. 

The bill would also allow opposite-sex couples where only one member is over 62 to register as domestic partners. Current law allows only opposite-sex couples where both partners are over 62. 

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, one of the Legislature’s four open lesbians, had trouble at first talking about what she called an intensely personal issue. 

She told how her partner of 22 years was unable to adopt her son and how they had to scramble to find an attorney and witnesses when she suddenly was hospitalized and the hospital would not let her partner make medical decisions should she have become incapacitated. 

She admitted she could have gotten that power of attorney before she became ill. 

“Why should I have to? None of you do. You can be in your 14th marriage and each time you get what I can’t get after 22 years. Where is the justice in that?” said Goldberg, D-Los Angeles. 

“There is no other group in this room, however discriminated against in the past, however enslaved, that has to beg, ’Treat me like a human being,”’ she said. 

Many opponents, quoting from the Bible, said they could not support the bill because of their religious beliefs. 

“It has to do with me being obedient to my God. I don’t understand why God said the homosexual condition is an abomination,” said Assemblyman Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley. 

“This bill is a steppingstone to undermine marriage,” said Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia. 

“This is not about marriage. This is not about the church,” said the author, Assemblyman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, also an open lesbian. “This is setting forth some equitable benefits for people who are deserving of it.” 

The bill moves to the state Senate. 

Gov. Gray Davis signed the 1999 bill, but does not yet have a position on the new bill, spokeswoman Hilary McLean said Wednesday. 

On the Net: Read the bill, AB25, at http://www.sen.ca.gov 

See the CCF’s ads at http://www.savecalifornia.com  

Read the supporters’ side at http://www.calcape.orh

LOS ANGELES — His dad was known as the “pothole guy” – a gregarious pol who couldn’t pass up a chance to shake a hand, a man who also got things done for his constituents during 45 years in office. 

James Hahn is a different style of public servant. Gray-haired and reserved, he seemed to step out of character when he went so far as to pump his fists to celebrate his election as mayor early Wednesday. 

But even after two decades creating his own image in public office, Hahn is still known more for being son of the late Kenneth Hahn than he is for his work enacting gang injunctions as city attorney. 

On the campaign trail, voters often called him “Kenny,” remembering a city councilman and county supervisor who brought services to minority neighborhoods and emergency callboxes to the freeways. 

“My dad was known as the pothole guy, but let’s think about the vision that he had,” Hahn told reporters. 

The son’s vision is pragmatic, like the father’s. 

He campaigned on promises to beef up public safety, expand opportunities for children and help improve the city’s lackluster school system, though the mayor has little control over the schools. 

Hahn’s core of support was inner-city blacks who remember his father, the white politician who was the only elected official to meet the plane that brought the Rev. Martin Luther King to Los Angeles in 1961. 

Facing a charismatic Latino opponent in a city that’s increasingly Hispanic, Hahn added to his base by appealing to more conservative white voters with tough talk about crime. 

Analysts credited that combination, and Hahn’s long tenure in city government, for his 8 percentage-point victory over fellow Democrat and former state Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. 

The vote recalled the alliance that dominated city government during the elder Hahn’s heyday, a coalition of African-Americans and liberal whites held together by longtime black Mayor Tom Bradley. 

Joining the mayor-elect as inheritor of the Hahn dynasty is James’ sister, Janice, who won a city council seat on Tuesday. 

Some in the Villaraigosa camp blamed their man’s loss on old-style political hardball. Hahn supporters ran a barrage of TV ads with images of a crack pipe, reminding voters that Villaraigosa wrote a letter of support for a drug dealer who won a pardon from President Clinton. 

Hahn said the ad, like the rest of his aggressive campaign, could have been a page out of his father’s playbook. 

“My dad was a tough campaigner. He had some tough fights,” Hahn said.  

“I looked at some of his old campaign literature. My campaign would’ve been mild compared to that, so I’m sure he would’ve been proud of me, and my mom agrees.”

TRENTON, N.J. — Lucent Technologies Inc. is offering voluntary retirement buyouts to more than 10,000 U.S.-based employees in an effort to accelerate restructuring of the struggling telecommunications giant. 

The employees targeted for the offer – mostly middle-level managers but also a small percentage of nonunion clerical workers – will be notified Monday by their supervisors or through e-mail or memos, said Bill Price, a spokesman for Murray Hill-based Lucent. All of the employees are either eligible or nearly eligible for a pension. 

“Our top executives are not eligible for this,” Price said, because the company wants to retain the talent needed to execute the turnaround outlined by chief executive officer Henry B. Schacht in January. 

That won’t necessarily happen, analysts said. 

“They’ve lost a lot of talent already” and could lose more of their best people, said telecommunications analyst Steve Levy of Lehman Brothers. “This is sort of a risk that you run when you have to get your organization to the right size.” 

Stephen Koffler, an analyst at First Union Securities, agreed that buyouts often result in the good people leaving and the mediocre ones staying. 

“Maybe there’s certain safeguards they’ve put in to prevent that,” he said. 

News of the buyout offer comes a week after negotiations to merge with French telecommunications rival Alcatel fell apart. 

“The voluntary offer is part of our effort to accelerate the restructuring” because the market for Lucent’s fiber optic and communications gear has softened, Price said. “This is a good program for our employees and a good program for Lucent.” 

Earlier this year, Lucent announced plans to eliminate 10,000 other jobs as part of its restructuring and to remove another 6,000 from its payroll through the sale of factory operations. About 2,000 had been cut as of the end of March, leaving about 104,000 employees worldwide. 

Eligible employees will receive a formal buyout offer on Monday and will have until July 10 to respond. If they accept, their retirement would start the next day. 

Those accepting the offer will receive improvements in retirement benefits, including immediate vesting of stock options that would not have been vested for some time, although most are worthless now given the stock’s sharp tumble since Lucent’s financial problems became public in 1999. 

Under the offer, employees will be eligible to retire with full pension if they have at least 15 years of service and are age 50 or older. Normally, for an employee to get a full pension, their age and years of service must total at least 75, John Skalko, another company spokesman, said. 

Company sources predicted at least half of those getting the offers likely will take them and said the resulting payroll and benefit savings could total $100 million annually. 

That barely touches the $2 billion in annual costs that Schacht is aiming to trim, but Levy said it still was encouraging. 

“The whole idea of Lucent taking additional steps to reduce their costs, or “right-size,” is something that we’ve argued they needed to do,” Levy said. “When it comes to Lucent ... anything positive is worth noting.” 

Lucent reported a $3.7 billion loss on sales of $5.9 billion for the first three months of this year. 

In trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, Lucent shares closed unchanged at $8.49. 

CHOWCHILLA — When Tom Fry gets up in the middle of the night these days, it’s likely not for a snack or to check on his 3-year-old daughter. 

He’s probably trudging out into the dark fields surrounding his house looking to save a little money on his electricity bill. 

During those middle-of-the-night trips – sometimes two or three a night – he’s rearranging irrigation pipes so none of his fields or orchards gets more water than necessary, thereby cutting down on the need to run large pumps that gobble up expensive power. 

He’s even taken to irrigating more often at night because the evaporation rates during oppressively hot San Joaquin Valley afternoons require the pumps to work that much harder. 

“I don’t even look at my (electric) bill any more because I’m scared to,” said the fourth generation farmer. 

Consumers and businesses in California will have to dig deeper this month as a $5.7 billion electricity rate increase – designed to trigger conservation and pay skyrocketing wholesale power costs – takes effect. 

Economists say the higher bills won’t trigger a recession, but they are a step in the wrong direction for an economy that already is ailing following a dramatic slowdown in the high technology sector. 

“When you combine them with other factors affecting the state’s economy, it could become the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” said Brad Williams, senior economist in the California legislative analyst’s office. 

Williams said the rate hikes represent about 0.5 percent of California’s $1.1 trillion economy, which is larger than all but seven nations. 

About half of Southern California Edison’s 4.3 million residential and commercial customers and two-thirds of the 4.8 million served by Pacific Gas & Electric will see rate increases that average around 37 percent. Agricultural customers will pay 15 to 20 percent more under the plan. Small businesses say they will adjust to the higher electric bills, but can’t absorb much more in the way of increased energy costs. 

“Family-owned businesses, who exist on Main Street, don’t have the luxury of moving to states that are enticing business out of California,” said Martyn Hopper, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. 

Bill Pechstedt, president of Sanford-Lussiere, which manufactures hardwood molding in Huntington Park, said he’s not worried about being less competitive with other in-state companies because of higher electric rates. 

“But we do compete with people across the country and that certainly could have an impact,” he said. “It isn’t just power. Worker’s compensation rates have gone up. Gas prices are higher. It all comes off the bottom line and it all depends on how much of a bottom line you have.” 

At Pina’s Bistro, a 24-seat Italian eatery in Tustin, 40 miles south of Los Angeles, the little extras have helped make the family-owned restaurant a success — additional plates with butter and olive oil, clean linens, crisp cloth napkins. 

But as energy costs have gone up, the extras have gone down. 

“I’m a little embarrassed by it, but I’m trying to cut down on the number of dishes I use,” said owner Pina Gruner. “During lunch, I don’t offer the bread and butter plates. You get your bread with your salad. ... It eliminates three or four loads of dishes.” 

Gruner has also reduced use of the air conditioner, changed the kitchen’s exhaust system and begun shopping for a new energy-saving stove. 

She said she has seen a slight drop in business, perhaps reflecting customers’ worries about paying their own rising energy bills. 

“They order one glass of wine instead of two. They don’t order dessert,” she said. ” A couple of days ago, we closed early. We were all standing around. It made more sense to close than stay open.” 

In Chowchilla, 35 miles northwest of Fresno, closing early isn’t really an option for Tom Fry. Striding through a chirping forest of yellow turkey chicks, he echoes the angry complaints of many of his neighbors upset about the spiraling cost of doing business in the energy-starved state. 

Farmers are, of course, intensely bitter about rising energy prices. But almost more upsetting, he says, is the amount of time invested in becoming a power expert. 

“It’s just one more thing to do in a long list of things to do,” Fry said. “I’m trying to come up with backup solutions for power outages. It takes a lot of time to get around to all this stuff when you can’t depend on electricity.” 

He’s arranged for backup generators to run cooling fans in the turkey houses in case of rolling blackouts, turns off the turkey house lights at night and the feeders during certain times of the day. He’s switched from electric to mostly diesel irrigation pumps, and devised a scheme to let gravity move water from a nearby canal into his fields rather than pumps. 

“But in about three weeks we have to start pumping 24 hours a day for a whole month,” he said. “If I only had electric pumps, it would cost about $5,000 a month.” 

That would be bad enough if the state’s agricultural economy was doing better, but in a year when all Fry’s crops will only bring break-even prices or worse, it would likely push him into debt. 

NEW YORK — A warning from Hewlett-Packard about future growth and concerns about weakness in the banking sector Wednesday prompted investors to cash in profits following Wall Street’s four-session advance. 

Although investors know earnings and revenue in general will continue to be weak throughout this year, Hewlett-Packard’s warning served as another reminder to remain cautious, analysts said. 

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the session down 105.60 at 11,070.24. 

Investors also pulled back from the broader market. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15.93 to 2,217.73, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 declined 13.54 to 1,270.03. 

H-P fell $1.34 to $28.71, and weighed down much of the tech sector after chief executive Carly Fiorina said the company experienced soft sales in May, in part due to a global technology slowdown that is expanding beyond the United States and Europe. The company now expects revenue to be flat or down 5 percent for its fiscal third quarter that ends July 31. 

Other tech shares that posted losses were Dell Computer, down 96 cents at $25.26, and Cisco Systems, off 78 cents at $20.76. 

H-P’s announcement was akin to the litany of profit warnings earlier in the year that encouraged investors to unload shares or at least remain on the market’s sidelines. 

“We should be expecting it. We know that second-quarter earnings are going to be as bad as the first,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co, of the H-P news. 

But, “it is catching us off guard for some reason today,” he said. 

The effects of the slowing economy, which have been unforgiving in some sectors, dragged down financial stocks. Bank One slipped 9 cents to $38.96 after UBS Warburg downgraded its rating on the stock. 

J.P. Morgan Chase fell $1.66 to $46.84 after it acknowledged in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Committee that second-quarter business has remained weak, particularly for its investment banking operation. 

“It appears there are plenty of corporate earnings disappointments ahead. In fact, truly nice surprises in corporate earnings seem to be an endangered species,” said Alan Ackerman, executive vice president of Fahnestock & Co. 

In other blue chip sectors, such as oil and steel, profit taking was apparent. ExxonMobil fell $2.15 to $89.40, while oil services company Halliburton fell $2.40 to $45, giving up gains made Tuesday when OPEC agreed to leave its official oil output unchanged for the time being. 

— The Associated Press 

Likewise, steel stocks fell after soaring Tuesday when President Bush said his administration will seek approval for limits on steel imports. USX’s U.S. Steel Group fell 67 cents to $21.07. 

After a stock market advance that started Thursday, Wednesday’s downturn reflected how confused investors are. They are worried about how long it will take for business to rebound while hoping that the worst of the slowdown is over. 

Since late May, Wall Street has been bracing itself for the upcoming second-quarter earnings season, fearing weaker than expected results. Adding to investors’ wariness is the belief of analysts and corporate executives that the third quarter will be the year’s worst. 

Despite investors’ fears, they allowed their optimism to spark a huge spring rally in which the major market indexes made significant strides, including the Dow’s reclamation of the 11,000 level it lost in September. 

But some analysts say investors bid up the market too high and too soon. 

“The market’s recent rallying was based on momentum, rather than good earnings reports,” said Ackerman of Fahnestock. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancers slightly more than 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume was 1.27 billion shares, compared with 1.34 billion on Tuesday. 

The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, fell 3.90 to 512.58. 

Overseas makets were mostly lower Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei stock average slipped 0.1 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 and France’s CAC-40 were each off 0.3 percent, and Germany’s Germany’s DAX index fell 0.8 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 

Twenty or so residents met in one of the North Berkeley Senior Center’s more cozy, upper rooms Monday evening to share their views with the Parks and Recreation Commission about two ordinances intended to protect trees within the city.  

The first ordinance proposes limits on whether or not Live Oaks can be removed. A property owner who wants to remove a Live Oak with a diameter of 6 inches or more would have to get city approval. The approval would be granted if the tree presents a danger or infringes on a neighboring property.  

The second ordinance aims to protect all other trees of a 10-inch diameter or more. 

Juliet Lamont, a Berkeley resident with a doctorate in environmental planning, asked the commission for greater protection than is outlined in the draft ordinance. 

“A broader definition of the removal of oaks needs to be included in the ordinance as oaks are extremely sensitive to small changes in environment and conditions,” Lamont said. “The word ‘alter’ should be added to the ordinance prohibition in order to provide full protection. And this is because oaks can literally be killed by doing things like encroaching on the drift line. Relocating a mature oak is virtually impossible to do successfully.”  

Lamont and resident Fran Segal also expressed concern over the possibility that certain property owners might use one type of permit to bypass another.  

For example, a property owner might obtain a use permit for a driveway and clear the space of the driveway without regard to tree ordinances.  

Parks Director Lisa Caronna sought to assuage this concern by explaining that, though the ways in which tree ordinances will work along side zoning ordinances are “yet to be developed.” They will be developed, she said.  

“It’s just that (this question will) have to go through a separate procedure through the Planning Commission and the Zoning Adjustments Board as to what the criteria is when they weigh trees against public project bids, housing projects, shelter or school,” Caronna said.  

Charles Smith asked that the city develop some formal procedures to deal with hazardous trees.  

“We turned in a petition to have some horrendous, terrible eucalyptus trees in Indian Rock Park taken down and really worked on, and the City Council treated it like a letter to the council. The staff ignored it,” Smith said. (The city is currently operating under a temporary tree-cutting moratorium.) 

“I personally have been working to get a statewide, hazardous tree law. The City of Oakland has one; Berkeley doesn’t have one.”  

Other residents, like Harvey Sherback, urged the commission to pay more attention to the beauty lost to the city when trees are uprooted. 

“I’d like to talk about trees,” Sherback said.  

“North Shattuck Avenue used to have beautiful bottle-brush trees with beautiful flowers. They needed a little maintenance so (the city) took them all out, and now they put in what they call ‘low-maintenance, non-flowering trees,’” Sherback said. “It’s like a scam.” 

Tom Ashkenas came to speak on behalf of the rights of property owners. 

“I’m a developer, a landlord and all that nasty stuff,” Ashkenas said. “I think it’s outrageous that you have a law that property owners can’t decide what kind of trees they want for themselves. I don’t understand it. 

“I personally put in a number of fruit trees – I happen to like fruit trees – and the only thing to fall on my property, since I’ve owned it since 1971, are two oak trees,” Ashkenas said. “I don’t understand why property owners can’t just decide which trees they want. They’re not evil people. They love trees too. They like diversity.” 

Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Carol Thornton received applause when she questioned the second ordinance, which addresses all species of trees. The ordinance imposes tree-protection standards on dwellings with three or more units, but not on those with fewer than three units.  

“I feel like it is discriminatory to have it include only buildings with units of three or more. It should apply to everybody,” Thornton said.  

After the hearing, Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring spoke about a similar kind of discrimination that might arise from the tree ordinances.  

Resdients might need an arborist if, for example, they wanted to challenge their landlords’ decision to uproot a tree and low income people would not be able to do so. 

“This is really geared for wealthier individuals who have money to pay to get to court – money and time. I would think we should make a City of Berkeley parks mini-grant, which is $5,000, available so that there is money for low-income people to be able to pay arborists,” Spring said. 

A parks mini-grant would assist tenants in low-income areas, Spring said, “so that it’s not just something that more wealthy areas of town will be able to do. Really where we need it the most is in the flatlands where regular tenants do not have the means to pay for arborists.” 

During the first 30 minutes of the next Parks Commission meeting, Monday, June 11 at 5 p.m., the public will again have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion of the draft tree ordinances. It will be held at the Corporation Yard, 1326 Allston Way. 

Wednesday, June 6

Fishbowl: “Everything you  

always wanted to know about  

the opposite sex but were  

afraid to ask” 

7 p.m.. to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Find out what the other half really thinks! The Fishbowl is an interesting way to anonymously ask those burning questions. $8 for BRJCC members, $10 for general public. 848-0237 x127. 

South Berkeley Community  

Action Team Advisory Group  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Over 60’s Clinic 

3260 Sacramento, 2nd Floor 

All South and West Berkeley residents invited to the regular meeting. Among other agenda items, the planning of upcoming Town Hall meeting. Refreshments provided. 665-6809 

ASAP Open House 

5 - 8 p.m. 

2070 Allston Way, Suite 2 

Access to Software for All People is having its 6th annual open house and invites the public to welcome new Executive Director John Kittredge. Refreshments and presentations of ASAP Web Design and Data Management, as well as work by high school employees. 540-7457 

Thursday, June 7

Berkeley Metaphysical  

Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Berkeley Unified School  

District 

Appreciation Dinner 

6 p.m. 

Berkeley Alternative High School 

2701 MLK Jr. Way 

Berkeley Unified School District Office of State and Federal Projects honors District Title I/State Compensatory Education, English Learner Advisory Committee representatives, and departing school principals. 644-6202 

Free Writing, Cashiering &  

Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and  

register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This session will be a community meeting. 654-5486 

Skin Cancer Screening Clinic 

Alta Bates Summit  

Medical Center 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

Markstein Cancer  

Education Center 

Skin cancer screenings are offered only to people who, due to limited or no health insurance, would not otherwise be able to have a suspicious mole or other skin changes examined. Appointments are required. 869-8833 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly summer concert series. This week Advanced Jazz Workshop under direction of Mike Zilber. 

Community Environmental  

Advisory  

Commission Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia Street 

Among items to be discussed, Air Study and Chrome 6, TMD staffing, and arsenic, pentachlorophenol and creosote in playgrounds. 705-8150 

Friday, June 8

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Backpacking Essentials 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Review the fundamental how-tos of selecting gear for a weekend backpacking trip. Free 527-4140 

City Commons Club,  

Luncheon and Speaker 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

This week featuring Doris Sloan, Ph.D., on “Treasures Along the Silk Road Oases.” Come early for social hour. Lunch at 11:45 for $11-$12.25. Come at 12:30 to hear the speaker only for $1, students free. Reservations required for three or more. 848-3533 

Women In Black Protests 

5 - 6:30 p.m. 

Montgomery and Market Streets 

San Francisco 

Part of a worldwide protest taking place in 103 cities, Bay Area women and men in black will protest 34 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Sponsored in part by Berkeley Women In Black and the Middle East Children’s Alliance. 510-434-1304 

Saturday, June 9

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Celebrates original crafts, international diversity, and community life. One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live performances and a variety of food. Free admission.  

Call 986-9337 

The Bite of REI 2001 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Taste some of the best, lightweight backpacking food and energy snacks available. At 1 p.m. Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn with demonstrate how to turn your outdoor trips into gourmet adventures. Free 527-4140 

Benefit to Honor  

Dolores Huerta 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Music performances, slide show and raffle in honor of special guest Dolores Huerta, farm worker’s and women’s rights advocate. Huerta worked with Cesar Chavez to establish and lead the National Farm Workers Association in the 1960’s, and has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of farm workers for decades. Proceeds will go to La Peña and Huerta’s medical expenses. $20 - $25. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

— compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

Sunday, June 10

Counteracting Negative Emotions 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Exercises presented by Sylvia Gretchen, Dean of Nyingma Studies. Free and open to the public. 

843-681 

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live entertainment and food. Free admission.  

Call 986-9337 

“Kindertransport: A Personal Account” 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Hear the moving story Ralph Samuel, who escaped Nazi Germany as the age of eight. Samuel was one of an estimated 10,000 children who were rescued through the efforts of the Kindertransport operation. $4 BRJCC members, $5 for general public. Admission includes brunch. 848-0237. 

Music and Meditation 

8 - 9 p.m. 

The Heart-Road Traveller 

1828 Euclid Ave. 

Group meditation though instrumental music and devotional songs. Led by Lucian Balmer and Baoul Scavullo. Free. 

496-3468 

Murders in Nepal produce sorrow and deep suspicion 

By Mike McPhate 

Pacific News Service 

KATMANDU, NEPAL – Two sobbing men embraced as riots raged around them Monday afternoon. “What will we do?” one moaned. “We have lost our mother and father.” 

Sorrow followed news of the Nepalese royal family’s massacre Friday night. Virtually every shop in the capital closed, and has remained so. 

But grief turned to anger over the weekend. Young men stomped about and rode in fleets of motorcycles waving red Nepali flags and pictures of the deceased King and Queen chanting, “Hang the murderer,” “We don’t want fake democracy,” and “We don’t want foreign pressure.” 

And Monday, after three days of unsatisfactory government explanations, rioters played a nasty game of dodge ball using bricks and concrete with police who responded with tear gas and bullets. According to the Kathmandu Post, at least two protesters were killed and over 36 sustained gunshot wounds. 

Since then, an all-out curfew has effectively emptied the streets. 

The rioters, including many who shaved their heads in honor of the dead King, have been swarming foreign journalists, telling them that the massacre was in no way the result of a family spat, but a dirty conspiracy by a rival faction within the royal family. 

According to Nepalese officials, Crown Prince Dipendra was at the palace with his family and a few close relatives for their regular Friday evening dinner. An argument ensued over Dipendra’s choice of bride, Suprima Shah, a beautiful school teacher and daughter of the Queen’s chief bodyguard. 

Queen mother Aishwarya disapproved of the match and threatened to bypass royal succession and make his little brother, Nirajan, king if he went through with the marriage. Dipendra stormed away from the table and returned clad in army fatigues spraying the room indiscriminately with a semi-automatic rifle before turning it on himself. 

People in the street paint a more sinister scenario. They say the assassinations were part of a plot by the murdered King’s younger brother, Gyanendra, and his son, Paras, to capture the throne. 

As evidence, they point to the fact that Paras, who was present at the dinner, escaped unscathed while Gyanendra was conveniently out of town. 

Further, Dipendra is considered too nice a person to commit such an act. “He was like the guy next door,” said one observer. “Everyone liked him.” 

The government’s actions since the killings have only served to stimulate suspicion. 

First, they withheld news of the Friday killings until as late as Saturday afternoon. Government-run media implied the deaths had occurred normally, with reports only mentioning that several members of the royal family had “passed away.” 

Then, on Sunday afternoon, Gyanendra issued a laughable statement blaming killings on “the accidental firing of an automatic weapon.” He has since withdrawn that statement and promised to get to the bottom of things. 

In addition, on different occasions officials have provided different times for the death of Dipendra, who reportedly remained on life support until early Monday morning. This has stirred suspicion that Dipendra was killed outright, and news of his death delayed to stall public outrage before Gyanendra assumed the throne. 

“Gyanendra should be hung in public,” cried one rioter to the approval of onlookers. 

Allegedly involved in smuggling operations, Gyanendra has not been popular. Paras is downright loathed. 

He is rumored to be a murderer, and has had many run-ins with the law, commonly in nightclubs. In October, 1999, he allegedly jabbed a police officer in the face with the butt of a semi-automatic rifle. Later that year he was seen molesting a woman in a Katmandu nightclub and firing a gun into the air. Only months ago he is alleged to have murdered a prominent musician by running him over with his car. 

“Paras is a bloody fool,” said former Nepalese Ambassador to the United Nations, Rishikesh Shaha. “He needs to be spanked.” 

Some think the Maoist peasant uprising that has crept toward the capital from a few western districts over the last decade is involved. The Maoists met with political leaders in the weeks before the massacre, and two of the two highest ranking and most reclusive Maoist leaders – Prachanda and Babarum Battarai – had even met with Gyanendra. 

While it is too early to say with certainty what occurred on Friday night, the all-consuming loss will have a long-term effect on the hearts and minds of people in Nepal. 

Portraits of the royal family can be found in virtually every home in Katmandu. They have now been converted to shrines. For the Nepalese, the bloody removal of their King and Queen was more than the loss of a beloved first family. It was a cultural decapitation. 

“I’m not one who loses heart easily.” said the 81-year-old Shaha. “But I’m finding it difficult to cope. The whole world is different to the one I used to know.” 

Pacific News Service contributor Mike McPhate is a part-time reporter and copy editor for the Kathmandu Post, Nepal’s leading English daily. He is currently affiliated with a study abroad program in Nepal through the University of Wisconsin. 

And try BART 

Editor: 

Regarding the letter from the concord couple who had their new car damaged in a downtown garage, I offer the following: before entering any garage, find out what the monitor and damage-control policies are. Try parking in the outdoor lot behind Baskerville Hot Dogs, on Milvia Street between Addison and Center, where at least three people are on duty at all times.  

While I sympathize with your problems, it sadly is a fact of life in most downtown areas that vandalism will happen and it’s a risk we all take just by going out in public these days. 

The best solution i can offer is getting a ride to Concord BART, or parking there, and NOT driving all the way to Berkeley. It would save time, stress, and fuel. 

Cindy Wright 

Berkeley 

Toxics deserves more staff 

Editor: 

I write briefly in support of Jami Caseber’s effort (letter, June 1) to procure additional staff funding for the Toxic Management Division of the City of Berkeley. As a former Community Environmental Advisory Commissioner (and former chair for two years) I worked closely with Jami Caseber and with the staff of TMD. As Mr. Caseber has pointed out, the myriad environmental issues of the city, including chromium, dioxin, pesticides, lead, radioactive materials, particulate matter, hazardous waste, and West Berkeley air quality have, at times, overwhelmed the small city staff. Add to these the recent disclosures of arsenic in the wood components of playground equipment, stormwater issues at the Corporation Yard, and well surveying and monitoring (groundwater), and inevitably some of these potential threats (and assets, in the case of groundwater) do not get dealt with in a timely and comprehensive manner.  

It is my belief that an additional staff person in the TMD would help ensure more effective and complete monitoring and correction of potential hazards in our community. I urge the City Council and residents to support this endeavor. 

John Selawsky 

Berkeley 

Major Development Gaming 

First the applicant should cloak the development with a goodly name such as Gaia or Beth El (House of God). Get a politically correct mix of people to the hearing. Keep decision makers on an emotional plane with allusions to beloved children, the holocaust and potential bombings rather than descending to discussion of the actual context and relevant public policy. If pressed, use terms like a “handful” (of large events, diesel buses, whatever…) and “we don’t have any intention to…” instead of “we won’t…”  

Staff should facilitate the approval process by not checking any of the applicant’s representations; they may include misrepresentations, which would make the plan unacceptable. And staff should not review precedents as each applicant has a unique set of political contacts. If necessary, staff should be prepared to change the process for preferred applicants midway, such as shifting review by Landmarks Commission to an unnoticed once-over at the Design Review Committee. 

Applicant and staff should cooperate in delivering revised plans just before the hearing. These new plans should be incomplete and conceptual. Leaving specifics for staff to work out later allows key staff to apply their demonstrated creativity in accepting two extra floors of office as an “ancillary use,” labeling caretaker housing as “office” and rescinding creek restoration policy as well as the criteria of neighborhood detriment. Don’t worry if the last minute plans aren’t covered by the environmental review; instant “supplementals” can be thrown in.  

Flipping agendas to keep project opponents the midnight hour or at least keep them in the dark until the last possible moment is also part of the game. Allow for a little public theater. The “adults” will take care of business out of the eye of public process.  

It’s a great game for the winners. Too bad about the terrible consequences for public trust. Too bad for landmarks and living creek corridors. Who would have thought Berkeley would entertain paving the prime creek corridor by Live Oak Park so that kids could be dropped off and loaded into buses to go somewhere else for open space? What an absurd game! 

Horst Bansner 

Berkeley 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery.” A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history. “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for year membership. All ages. June 8: The Enemies, Pitch Black, The Fleshies, Supersift, Texas Thieves; June 9: Groovie Ghoulies, The Influents, Red Planet, Mallrats, Goat Shanty. 525-9926  

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m unless noted otherwise. June 6: Whiskey Brothers; June 7: Keni “El Lebrijano” Flamenco guitar; June 9, 6 - 8 p.m.: Sauce Piquante, 9 p.m. - Midnight: Whiskey Brothers; June 12: Mad and Eddie Duran. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473  

Anna’s Music at 8 p.m. June 6: Bob Schoen with Cheryl McBride; June 7: Irrationals; June 8: Anna and Susie Laraine and Sallie Hanna-Rhine, 10 p.m.: Bluesman Hideo Date; June 9: Robin Gregory and Bliss Rodriguez, 10 p.m.: The Ducksan Distone; June 10: Choro Time with Ron Galen and Friends. $2 weeknights, $3 weekends. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA  

Ashkenaz June 2, 9:30 p.m.: June 6, 9 p.m.: Aux Cajunals; June 7, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave; June 8, 9:30 p.m. Ali Khan with Bellydance Troupe Lunatique; June 9, 9:30 p.m.: Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers; June 10, 7 p.m.: Food Not Bombs with Goodbye Flowers and INKA. 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. June 6: Freight 33rd Anniversary concert series with Leni Stern, Jenna Mammina, Jill Cohn, Pig Iron. June :7 Alice Stuart, Folk blues, $17.50; June 8: Cats & Jammers Hot swing. $17.50; , June 9.: Danny Heines & Michael Manring; June 10: Roy Tyler and New Directions; June 12: Keith Little with Del Williams; June 13: Danu. $17.50.1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Peña Cultural Center “Cantiflas!” June 7 and June 8, 8 p.m. Herbert Siguenza, of the critically acclaimed trio Culture Clash, stars in this bilingual work-in-progress about legendary Mexican comedian Marion Moreno. With guest performers Eduardo Robledo and Tanya Vlach. 

$16. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 www.lapena.org  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. June 6, Lithium House; June 7, Beatdown with DJs Delon, Yamu, Add1; June 8, Harvey Wainapel Quartet; June 9, Om Trio; June 12, Ben Graves Trio 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

The Berkeley TEMPO Festival of Contemporary Performances All performances begin at 8 p.m. June 6: Shafqat Ali Khan, Pakistani Khyal vocals with David Wessel and Matthew Wright; June 8: Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players; June 9: John Scott, John Abercrombie, George Marsh, Rich Fudoli, Mel Graves. $15 Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus www.tempofestival.org 

The Farallone String Quartet June 10, 7:30 p.m. Quartets by Haydn. $8 - $10 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 

World Harmony Chorus June 10, 2 p.m. Vocal music from around the world. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra June 21. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

Sungugal Ballet June 10, 4:30 p.m. Featuring master percussionist Djibi Faye and West African Band with traditional West African dance. $6 - $12. Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere Through June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“Cymbeline” Through June 24, Tues. - Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Opening of the California Shakespeare Festival features one of Shakespeare’s first romances, directed by Daniel Fish. $12 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

“The Laramie Project” Through July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepherd. The play is about the community and the impact Shaper’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“A Life In the Theatre” Previews June 8, 9, 10, 13. Opens June 14, runs through July 15. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. David Mamet play about the lives of two actors, considered a metaphor for life itself. Directed by Nancy Carlin. $30-$35. $26 preview nights. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant 843-4822 

Pacific Film Archive June 6, 7:30: Prank and Parody; June 7, 7:00: Viy; June 8, 7:30: Aerograd; June 8, 9:15: The Letter That Was Never Sent; June 9, 7:30: Comic and Avant-Garde Shorts; June 10, 5:30: Pitfall, 7:25: Woman In the Dunes. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“The Producers” June 10. Revisit this outrageous comedy classic, starring Zero Mostel and written by Mel Brooks. $2 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

East Bay Open Studios June 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jennifer Foxly: Oil paintings and 2-d mixed media works 3206 Boise St.; Lewis Suzuki: Scenes from California to the Philippines, florals to nudes 2240 Grant St.; Guy Colwell: Painted replicas and recent original work 2028 9th St. (open until 7 p.m.) 

Wosene Kosrof June 13, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Ethiopian-born Berkeley resident will be exhibiting and discussing his paintings. One piece will be up for auction, proceeds to benefit the YMCA. Shattuck Hotel 2086 Allston 848-9622 ext. 3541  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Tyler James Hoare Sculpture and Collage Through June 27, call for hours. Party June 9, 5-9 p.m. with music by Sauce Piquante. The Albatross Pub 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ako Castue1ra, Ryohei Tanaka, Rob Sato Through June 30, Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Group exhibition, recent paintings. Artist’s reception June 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m. with music by Knewman and Espia. !hey! Gallery 4920 B Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349  

“Watershed 2001” Through July 14, Wednesday - Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. Exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture and installation that explore images and issues about our watershed. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts and Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

“Queens of Ethiopia: Intuitive Inspirations,” the exceptional art of Esete-Miriam A. Menkir. Through July 11. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

“The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” chronicles the transformation of the city of Berkeley in this 10 year period. Thursday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. All events at 7:30 p.m. June 6: Ralph Dranow and Carla Kandinsky read poetry; June 7: Dr. Amit Goswami talks about “The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist’s Guide to Enlightenment”; June 8: Scott Carrier reads from “Running After Antelope”; June 9: Richard Russo reads from “Empire Falls”, June 10: Irvine Welsh talks about “Glue.” 

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. All events at 7 p.m. June 6: Peter Mayle teaches “French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew; June 8: For the younger readers, Eoin Colfer reads from “Artemis Fowl”; June 9: For the younger readers, Lemony Snicket reports on “The Vile Village.”  

Weekly Poetry Nitro Mondays 6:30 p.m sign up, 7 - 9 p.m. reading. Performing poets in a dinner atmosphere. Featured poets: June 11, Ivan Arguelles. Cafe de la Paz 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour. June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

ALAMEDA — Jerry Rice put on the silver and black for the first time and couldn’t help but admire himself. 

“I look good in it, man,” the NFL’s most prolific receiver said as he donned a new uniform for the first time in 16 seasons. 

After a record-breaking career across San Francisco Bay with the 49ers, Rice ended months of speculation about his future Tuesday by joining the Oakland Raiders. 

“This is a beginning for me, and I hope this is going to jump-start my career all over again,” he said. 

Rice, a 12-time Pro Bowl selection who won three Super Bowls in San Francisco, was released by the 49ers Monday because of salary cap problems. 

On Tuesday morning, he caught a few passes from Pro Bowl quarterback Rich Gannon during an informal workout and took a moment to boast about his new uniform. 

“I hope it didn’t go over the wrong way,” he said, “because I just stood there and said, ‘Hey guys, look at me! I look good!”’ 

Later in the day, dressed in a black suit and sporting his trademark smile, Rice spoke at a news conference with Oakland coach Jon Gruden. 

“I’m not saying that I have to be the main guy, you know,” Rice said. “What I want to do is just come in here and do what I’ve been doing my entire career. That’s basically just being a little kid out there on the football field and doing something I love.” 

His contract with the Raiders was not disclosed, but it was believed to be up to a four-year deal that keeps Rice near his family and his new 15,000-square-foot mansion in Atherton. 

It also keeps Rice close to his fans, who might not like the idea of their hero leaving the 49ers’ family for the rough-and-tumble Raiders across the bay. 

“I think as long as I’m out there giving 100 percent on the football field, I have a chance at winning a lot of hearts,” Rice said. 

Noticeably missing from Tuesday’s workout was veteran Tim Brown, the Raiders’ marquee receiver for more than a decade. The session was voluntary, and Rice did not take offense at his new teammate’s absence. 

“I know what type of person he is, and I’m sure he’s behind me 100 percent,” Rice said. 

Still, questions remain about how Brown and Rice will mesh in the same offense. They have similar styles, and Gruden said their roles have not been determined. 

There also is the matter of Andre Rison, who joined the Raiders last August and helped them reach the AFC title game. Rison, who complemented Brown and fellow Raiders receiver James Jett, had not been re-signed by the Raiders as of Tuesday. 

“My initial thought is that it doesn’t look good for Andre,” cornerback Charles Woodson said. 

Even if Rison does return to the Raiders, there’s no telling how he would fit in with Brown and Rice: “It depends on those guys and their egos, you know what I mean? Those are three future Hall of Famers,” Woodson said. 

Although Gruden said talks continue with Rison, he quickly turned the conversation back to the Raiders’ newest star. 

The 38-year-old Rice holds league records with 1,281 receptions and 187 touchdowns. He was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 1987 and 1993 and the Super Bowl MVP in 1989. 

He has amassed 19,247 yards receiving, including at least one catch in his last 225 games, another record. 

Rice also holds records with 176 touchdowns on pass receptions; 12 seasons with more than 1,000 yards receiving; 1,848 yards receiving in a single season; and 22 touchdown receptions in a single season. 

Rice becomes the latest San Francisco great who will spend the twilight years of his career with the Raiders and owner Al Davis, who often clashed with the 49ers during the tenure of former San Francisco GM Carmen Policy. 

Over the years, the Raiders have lured Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig, Tom Rathman, Marquez Pope and others into the silver and black. Oakland signed Charlie Garner, the 49ers’ leading rusher the past two seasons, to a four-year contract in April. 

“He’s going to raise the quality of our play, no question.” 

” Garner said. 

Although it is expected that Rice will play two more seasons before retiring, on Tuesday he wouldn’t rule out sticking around a little longer. 

“I can see myself on a cane – still trying to run that go route,” he said. 

When Tom Leaf moved to San Francisco from Texas in 1988, he liked to drink beer. Then one day he took a trip to the wine country, tasted a Hop Kilm 1985 Reserve Zinfandel and had a revelation. 

“If someone told me when I was in Texas I would come to California and make wine, I would have laughed,” Leaf said “But that day I went wine tasting it was literally a light-bulb experience. I fell in love.” 

By 1991 Leaf, an environmental consultant, was making wine in the basement of his San Francisco home.  

By 1994 his wines were winning awards at state and county fairs throughout the Bay Area. 

By 1999 Leaf had won over 150 awards and his passion for winemaking posed a problem.  

“I was making more wine than I could use or give away to family and friends, so I had to cut back or become professional,” he said. 

Unwilling to cut back, Leaf decided to make a career change. He hooked up with another  

budding wine company to share space with and began looking around the Bay Area for a good facility to start a professional winery. After looking in Sonoma, Napa and Marin they found what Leaf described as the “perfect” location in a town not widely known as a wine center – Berkeley. 

“We knew right away this was the place,” Leaf said. “It had operated as a winery for 20 years so it had everything we needed, a good water supply, drainage and existing city permits.” 

In addition, Leaf said he is located a short drive from the Napa vineyard where he purchases his grapes. 

Leaf took his life’s savings “and then some” and opened Grapeleaf Cellars in 1999 in a building that was originally a meat-packing facility on Camelia Street. 

Leaf had become part of long and little known local tradition of winemaking. His also became the fifth operating winery in Berkeley. The others are Catalpa Creek (Leaf’s co-tenant), Rubissow Sargent Wine Co., Edmonds St. John and the largest, Audubon Cellars. 

Gale Bach, the cellar master for Audubon Cellars, said there has been both professional and amateur winemaking in Berkeley for many years. Bach, who began making wine with plums from his back yard 25 years ago, said Berkeley’s climate and location is good for winemaking.  

“It’s not too hot and not too cold,” he said. “You need a relatively cool and steady temperature and it’s easy to do that here in Berkeley.” 

Bach said other advantages include plenty of warehouse space in west Berkeley, easy access to vineyards in Napa and Sonoma counties and an enthusiastic environment created by the Bay Area’s well-known love of food and good wine. 

The Oak Barrel Wine Craft has been selling winemaking equipment to home winemakers and small wineries from its San Pablo Avenue store for nearly 50 years. Owner Bernie Rooney said he sells equipment all over the state but a large percentage of his customers are Berkeley residents who are making wine in their basements and garages.  

Rooney agrees the Bay Area food culture inspires many locals to make wine. “Berkeley and San Francisco are the center of the whole food and wine scene in the Bay Area,” he said. “People here like to try new and interesting things.” 

Leaf said his first vintage of chardonnays, pinot noirs, a zinfandel and a blended table wine were a success. He produced his goal of 1,000 cases and is beginning to market them. “I’ve been spending money for two years and am just now starting to get some back in,” he said. 

Standing among the 50 French oak wine barrels and three Italian blending tanks, Leaf said he would like to have a big presence in Berkeley and that he looks forward to operating his winery here. He also invited anyone who’s interested to tour his operation and taste his wares.  

Wine tasting and tours of Grapeleaf Cellars can be made by appointment by calling 527-1305 or e-mailing tom@grapeleaf.com

Just before folks crowded into and overflowed out of the Council Chambers Tuesday night to voice pros and cons of a development across the street from Live Oak Park, another highly controversial development proposal was quietly and temporarily derailed. 

A threat of a lawsuit by neighbors who oppose Panoramic Interests proposed project at 2700 San Pablo Ave. and a reported counter threat of a suit by Panoramic Interests’ developer Patrick Kennedy was to be discussed by the City Council in closed session at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. (Litigation or the threat of litigation is one of the legitimate subjects a government body may discuss behind closed doors.) 

But a letter to the city attorney by Kennedy’s attorney Michael Durkee made the council discussion unnecessary and sent the project back to the Zoning Adjustments Board. 

“...after much thought and consideration, our client believes that a new approval process before the ZAB will allow (the developers) a better forum to address the points raised by the opposition and will clearly reveal both how their project complies with applicable law and why it will be a remarkably positive addition to the community,” according to the letter. 

Howie Muir, of Neighbors for Responsible Development, said his organization of neighbors living near the proposed project, were reacting to the fact that the ZAB had approved one project, but when the Neighbors appealed it, a new project went before the City Council and was approved. 

The council-approved project is a four-story 35-unit complex that has four live-work units and retail on the ground floor. A development with 48 units, no live-work, the entire ground floor as retail and more parking spaces had been approved by the ZAB. 

Muir said, in the lawsuit, the Neighbors would have argued that, since the project presented to the City Council was a new proposal, it needed a fresh environmental study under the California Environmental Quality Act. 

In an interview Tuesday, Kennedy said although the lawsuit “lacks merit,” he would rather take his project back to ZAB than face a protracted lawsuit. “I want the record to show that the impact on the environment is less significant,” Kennedy said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she was happy the project was going back to ZAB. “I think there is a chance for modification,” she said. 

Neighbors have consistently said four stories is too high for the area, while Kennedy has argued anything less would make it infeasible for him to build. 

“I’m feeling fairly elated,” Muir said.

Some 500 parents and youth from Berkeley and beyond turned out for a screening of “Boys Will Be Men,” a film dealing with the difficulties of growing up male in America, at the Longfellow Middle School auditorium Monday night. 

The latest film by Berkeley filmmaker Tom Weidlinger, “Boys Will Be Men” premiered in San Francisco two weeks ago. Monday night’s screening was organized by the Berkeley PTA Council in response to what PTA member Cynthia Papermaster called “the deep need and  

yearning in our community to deal with these issues.” 

Papermaster said the prevalence of bullying, homophobia and outright violence at Berkeley Schools has reached a level where parents are desperately seeking explanations and solutions such as the ones offered in the film. 

“Boys Will Be Men” begins with experts describing how boys are often taught to be “tough” and to internalize emotions and feelings. The result, one expert argues, is that boys learn to express themselves by acting out rather than by verbalizing feelings as girls might do. 

In a line that drew laughter from the audience, the experts said boys spend their first years in school thinking to themselves “What is this place called school? It is a place run by women for girls and boys always getting into trouble.” 

The film visits a Berkeley elementary school teacher struggling to prevent hyperactive boys from becoming alienated at a school that seems designed for them to fail. Boys may have different needs than girls, but if they fail to keep up academically they risk developing an “achievement gap” that could haunt them for the rest of their lives, the teacher argues. 

Turning to adolescent boys – boys one expert describes as “tough, stoic and ready to fight at a moment’s notice” – the film follows a group of troubled teens through a wilderness program in Idaho.  

Working together to overcome a series of obstacles, the boys get a taste of pride and self-worth unlike anything they’ve experienced before. Before the ever-present eye of the camera they can be seen withdrawing from their shells of cynicism, becoming increasingly comfortable with sharing their feelings. 

“It’s an emotional experience to see those boys be inspired; kids that potentially would have so much trouble,” said Berkeley parent Craig McCaleb after the screening. 

The film offers “a wonderful explanation for how our little boys become the difficult teenagers they are,” said Berkeley parent Bill Tennant. 

In 25 years of making films for public television, Weidlinger said he’s “never seen a more immediate and universally positive reaction to one of (his) films” than the reaction to “Boys Will Be Men” in recent weeks. 

The film is scheduled air in more than 50 percent of the nations public television markets, Weidlinger said. It will air on KQED June 17 at noon. But Weidlinger said he hoped other communities would follow the Berkeley example and use the film to spark discussions and even reforms. 

After the screening Monday, the audience divided up into groups to discuss issues of male socialization in Berkeley elementary and middle schools and at Berkeley High, where incidents of violence have led to beefed-up security in recent months. 

Several in the audience asked if it wouldn’t be possible for schools to provide male youth with more of the self-esteem building activities depicted in the film. 

“Filling these kids up with knowledge isn’t enough,” McCaleb said. “(Teacher) training has to be more than the ABCs. Like it or not, teachers are thrust into this role, and they need to be trained.” 

As Weidlinger put it, “If you just punish kids for acting out, it’s really not solving the problem for them. If you don’t have kids comfortable with themselves, then that almost becomes a block to learning.”  

In a political climate that places increasing emphasis on standardized testing as a measure of school success, however, there may be even less time allotted for programs that address issues of socialization, Weidlinger warned. 

“The kind of initiatives that I’m talking about, which are less measurable in terms of test scores, may be a casualty,” he said.  

Javanne Strong, program manager for the Berkeley Unified School District’s Drug and Violence Prevention office, said the district is in the process of implementing a violence prevention program recently called “exemplary” by a U.S. Department of Education panel of experts. Many Berkeley teachers have already integrated the so called “Second Step” curriculum into regular classes, he added. 

Strong said the Second Step program trains teachers – and parents who want to become involved – to help kids confront and manage their emotions. Students are given a common vocabulary to help them discuss their feelings with teachers and with one another, Strong said. Through role playing, they learn appropriate and inappropriate ways to express anger and other difficult emotions in the context of school. 

Still, some in the audience Monday said parents face competing pressures that make it difficult to know what to teach their sons. They want their sons to be tough enough to face the inevitable bullying and competition they face in school, they said. But they don’t want to drive their children to become bullies themselves. 

“It’s such a hard thing to conquer,” said Michelle McMillan-Wilson, the parent of a three year old son and a social worker with the Alameda County office of Child Protective Services.  

“You don’t want to send them to school not prepared to deal with other kids, but you want to teach him that it’s OK to cry.” 

The Board of Education will hold a public hearing on its adopted budget tonight. 

Concerned residents will have a chance to review and comment on sweeping budget cuts approved last month, said Board President Terry Doran, although the board is not expected to make any changes to the budget. 

After a months-long search for candidates to replace five principals leaving the district at the end of this school year, the board will hear which candidates its staff recommends for the positions tonight.  

If satisfied with the selections, the board could name the new principals for Emerson, Jefferson, Rosa Parks, Thousand Oaks and Willard schools at tonight’s meeting, Doran said. 

The school board meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of the district’s administrative offices, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. It is broadcast on KPFB 89.3 and televised on BTV ch 25.

SACRAMENTO — California’s foster-care system for 115,000 children who can’t live with their own parents is broken, say state lawmakers who are pushing a $63 million package of bills. 

Half of the children never finish high school, a third end up in jail and a quarter become homeless, according to lawmakers and foster-care advocates. 

“The system is broken. What future do we give to these kids? What statement does it make as a society as to who we are?” Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, told the Assembly. 

The Assembly on Tuesday approved five bills in its 11-bill package aimed at improving housing and education for foster teens, training and money for foster parents and support for county child welfare workers. 

While the plan passed the Assembly, it faces trouble with the tight state budget.  

The Assembly’s budget plan contains the $63 million for foster care during the 2001-2002 fiscal year, but the plans from the Senate and Gov. Gray Davis do not. 

A six-legislator conference committee is writing a compromise budget no, but the committee has not voted on the foster-care proposal. 

Children who cannot remain with their parents because of abuse, neglect or other problems are put into foster care. If family members cannot be found, they are placed with a licensed foster family, which is paid by the state. 

However, when they reach the age of 18, they no longer get help. Every year, 2,500 foster youth are “emancipated,” meaning they reach the end of foster-care services, said Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley. 

Teens lead very structured, regulated lives in foster care and often are not allowed to visit friends or get a driver’s license, but then suddenly at 18 are expected to be independent, said Victoria Finkler, legislative and policy coordinator for California Youth Connection, a group of former and current foster children supporting three of the bills. 

“We think it’s pretty unrealistic to expect youth, especially when they’ve been so regulated, to be completely independent at 18,” Finkler said. 

Two of the bills approved Tuesday would extend housing assistance and training for foster teens until the age of 21. 

“We can’t expect 18-year-olds to be tossed off foster-care assistance and thrive in a world that is hostile and difficult for them,” said Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, author of the housing bill. 

Many foster-care children have psychological problems because of their turbulent family backgrounds, added Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. 

“Too many of these children with emotional problems who have not gotten the support they need and deserve turn 18 and have nowhere to turn. Too many of them end up on the street,” said Steinberg, author of a bill to increase the rates paid foster families by 5 percent a year at an annual cost of $5 million. 

All the bills approved Tuesday move to the Senate, where two other bills in the package are pending. The other four bills were scheduled for Assembly votes Wednesday. 

WHAT’S IN THE BILL 

Here are the foster-care bills approved Tuesday by the state Assembly and their votes: 

• Young adults up to age 21, instead of 18, could get $5 million in transitional housing help, AB1261 by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, 71-0. 

• Young adults up to age 21, instead of 18, could get $8 million for educational or training programs, AB1119 by  

Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, 72-0. 

• Child welfare caseloads for social workers would be reduced over five years at a cost of $12 million a year, AB364 by Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, 54-17. 

• A new $3.5 million program would help counties recruit and keep foster parents, AB557 by Aroner, 57-12. 

• The rights and responsibilities of children in foster care would be listed in law, AB899 by Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, 66-4.Foster-care bills scheduled for votes Wednesday: 

• Educational services for foster youth would be expanded by $15 million to cover all counties, AB797 by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, D-San Francisco. 

• Foster parents would be given child care when they work, AB1105 by Assemblyman Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. 

• Foster family rates would be increased 5 percent a year for four years at a cost of $5 million a year, AB1330 by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. 

• County welfare officials could reduce the money that families that take back their children after foster care are charged  

for the cost of that care, AB1449 by Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek. Foster-care bills previously approved: 

• Prospective adoptive parents would be given more information about the foster youth available for adoption, AB538 by Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, pending in Senate Judiciary Committee. 

• County child welfare agencies would be judged on the success of foster children and families, AB636 by Steinberg  

On the Net: 

Read about the California Youth Connection, an organization of current and former foster youth, at http://www.calyouthconn.org 

Read about the state’s program at 

http://www.childsworld.org/foster/index.htm 

LOS ANGELES — City Attorney James Hahn led Antonio Villaraigosa, a former state legislator hoping to become the city’s first Hispanic mayor in 129 years, in early returns in the race for mayor Tuesday. 

With 3 percent of precincts reporting, Hahn had 65,497 votes, or 62 percent. Villaraigosa had 39,387 votes, or 38 percent. 

The early returns were heavily weighted toward absentee votes. Hahn got more absentee votes than Villaraigosa in the primary, but Villaraigosa went on to emerge in first place, with 30 percent of the vote compared with 25 percent for Hahn. 

Absentee voters accounted for 7.6 percent of the total vote in the April primary. 

Hahn, city attorney since 1985, has won citywide office five times and enjoyed broad support from the city’s black community, which revered his late father, a four-decade Los Angeles County supervisor. 

Villaraigosa, an immigrant’s son and onetime high school dropout who rose to speaker of the state Assembly, would be the city’s first Hispanic mayor since 1872. 

The winner will replace Republican Richard Riordan, forced from office after eight years by term limits. 

Although both candidates are liberal Democrats, Hahn positioned himself as more moderate during the runoff. Some analysts cast the race as a contest between the city’s future and the status quo. 

“This is a city that is in transition. This election is a gut check,” said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, based in San Antonio, Texas. “Is L.A. ready to let new leadership assert itself, that happens to be Latino, that happens to represent the majority of the population?” 

Turnout among the city’s 1.5 million registered voters stood at 29.2 percent by 7 p.m., the city clerk’s office said. The pace of voting was slightly ahead of the same timeframe in the April 10 primary and the city’s last mayoral runoff in 1993. 

The final turnout in the primary was 33.5 percent. Hispanic turnout in the primary was a record 21.7 percent and experts said that would have to increase for Villaraigosa to win the runoff. 

In other high-profile races, former state senator and 1960s radical Tom Hayden trailed former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Weiss in the battle for the 5th District City Council seat, while Hahn’s sister, Janice Hahn, led in early returns for the 15th District council seat. 

State Sen. Diane Watson, a popular black Democrat, had a commanding lead in her bid to succeed the late Rep. Julian Dixon in the 32nd Congressional District race. Dixon, a Democrat, died in December. The battle between Hahn and Villaraigosa was the most fiercely contested mayoral race in decades. 

Villaraigosa’s campaign was considered a longshot when he entered the race, but the charismatic former legislator surged to a surprising first place in the primary on the strength of a broad coalition of Hispanics, labor, liberals and others. 

Hernane Ortiz, 27, of Boyle Heights joked that he was voting for Villaraigosa “because he’s Latino and I’m Latino so I gotta vote for him, right?” But he added that Villaraigosa more closely represented his views. 

“I just think he’s more in touch with me and with the things that are important to me,” he said. 

After the primary, the more reserved Hahn sought to portray Villaraigosa as soft on crime and overly liberal, keeping him mostly on the defensive. 

The last major poll before the election showed Hahn seven points ahead. 

Hahn, 50, frequently invoked the name of his popular late father, county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who represented the largely black neighborhoods of South Los Angeles that now constitute his son’s base. Hahn also was successful in attracting conservatives who had backed other candidates in the primary. 

Villaraigosa, 48, referred frequently to his personal history of rising from a broken home on the city’s rough east side to the highest post in the Assembly. He rejected the Hispanic candidate label, but his candidacy generated excitement among Hispanics, who now comprise 46.5 percent of the city’s population. 

The candidates sought to distinguish themselves from each other but ultimately resorted to attack ads as they burned through a combined $13 million in campaign funds. 

A Hahn ad used images of a smoking crack pipe and a razor blade cutting cocaine to slam Villaraigosa for writing a letter on behalf of a convicted cocaine dealer whose sentence was later commuted by former President Clinton. 

Villaraigosa, who was endorsed by Riordan, accused Hahn of running a “campaign of fear and smear” and sought to link him to out-of-town Indian gambling interests. 

The ads bothered some voters. Others dismissed them as typical of politics. 

“If it’s negative, it’s negative,” said Tom Capplen, 49, who was voting for Hahn because of his anti-crime stance. “What are you going to do? It’s always that way in this country at the elections.” 

FAIRFIELD — Parents rallied outside the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District office Tuesday afternoon to show their support for the teachers who are striking for higher wages. 

Organizers estimate that more than 1,000 people covered five blocks on either side of Pennsylvania Avenue which runs past the district’s office. But district spokeswoman Kathy Miller said no more than a “couple hundred” protesters were at the 1 p.m. rally. 

Nearly 96 percent of the district’s teachers continued to strike Tuesday, and less than half the district’s students attended classes. 

The strike began Friday afternoon, and no negotiations have been scheduled. 

Earlier Tuesday, as teachers picketed for an 11.7 percent raise outside district schools, the district held a news briefing, condemning what district spokesman Tom DeLapp called “aggressive” behavior exhibited by picketing teachers. Organizers have denied the claims. 

The district alleged picketers keyed and spit at cars and photographed substitute teachers and their car license plates with the implied threat of retaliation. The picketers are also accused of encouraging students not to attend class and to disrupt normal school activities. 

Teacher’s association president Liz Priest called the allegations “blatant lies.” 

DeLapp said the district had about 500 substitutes in place Tuesday. About 10,000 of the district’s 22,000 students attended classes.

SAN JOSE — San Jose police responded to a call Tuesday evening that several armed men took hostages at a Department of Motor Vehicles office. 

Police received a cell phone call at 6:01 p.m. from a woman who said men armed with rifles and wearing black bandanas entered the office, spokesman Rubens Dalaison said. 

More than two hours after the initial call, police had not yet established how many gunmen there might be, or indeed whether they were still in the building once officers responded. 

There were no initial reports of injuries. 

The woman said she was calling from a bathroom inside the office, where six other employees were huddled, Dalaison said. 

“We haven’t made contact with anybody inside,” Dalaison said. 

He said the incident might have started as a robbery. The office is located at 180 Martinvale Lane in an industrial area of south San Jose. 

DMV spokesman Bill Branch said the office closed at 5 p.m. 

Branch said that while robbers have hit DMV offices before, longtime department officials could not recall a hostage incident. 

“We have had robberies occasionally at DMV offices,” Branch said. “I have no idea how much cash would have been involved.” 

WASHINGTON — On the eve of a historic shift in power, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle pledged Tuesday to “reach out and create bipartisan coalitions” on health care and other issues when his party takes control for the first time in six years. Republicans said they would demand fair play for President Bush’s nominees and fight to keep his agenda at the forefront. 

“We should have a war of ideas, and we should have a full campaign for the Senate in 2002,” said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the outgoing majority leader. 

At the White House, President Bush welcomed a diverse group of lawmakers for a discussion of education. “We can still get things done” despite the switch, he said. 

Vermont Sen. James Jeffords, a Republican-turned-independent whose switch triggered the Senate upheaval, turned down a last-ditch appeal from one GOP senator to reconsider his move. Shortly before stepping into a closed-door Democratic caucus, he said he felt a “sense of relief that it is all over, that the final step has been taken.” 

Officials said that overnight Jeffords’ desk would be unbolted from its spot on the floor on the GOP side of the Senate chamber and reattached on the Democratic side – a move of only a few feet that signified a major shift in political power. 

The Senate convened for the last time in a tumultuous six-year period of Republican rule that began with the “Contract With America” and included the second impeachment trial in American history. The day’s legislation was an education bill, an item atop Bush’s agenda. Debate was desultory as both parties focused on the transfer of power, and lawmakers adjourned for the day without so much as a vote on an amendment. 

A committee of Republicans met with Daschle, D-S.D., late in the day to discuss organizational issues, including the size of committees and the ratio of seats for each party. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., emerged to say it had been a “cordial meeting. I think it was productive,” he added, with more talks expected on Wednesday. 

Under an expiring 50-50 power-sharing arrangement, Republicans held the chairmanships but there were equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats on each panel. 

Jeffords’ switch will create a Senate of 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent who sides with the Democrats for organizational purposes. That means Democrats get the chairmanships and a majority of at least one seat on each panel. 

Republicans conceded as much, but said they wanted fairness from the Democrats, particularly when it comes time to consider Bush’s nominees for the federal bench and other posts. 

“We’re looking for fairness, we’re looking for an opportunity for this body to function, for the president and the executive branch to be able to function. Just some assurances that there will be fairness with nominees from the president, both judicial and otherwise,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. 

It’s customary for the two parties to haggle over committee appointments and ratios at the beginning of each two-year Congress, and often the process takes three or four weeks or even more.  

Daschle and several of the GOP senators who were appointed to meet with him said in advance they doubted there would be an agreement by day’s end. 

Even without an agreement, Daschle, 53 and six years his party’s leader, becomes majority leader with the opening gavel on Wednesday.  

And in another sign of change, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., crossed the Capitol during the day to pay the Democratic leader a visit. An aide said the two men discussed health care and other legislation. 

Daschle told reporters he hoped to show a “real difference in both the direction we hope to take the Senate agenda, as well as tone.” He cited numerous topics that he said were important bipartisan issues, including education, a patients’ bill of rights, a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, an increase in the minimum wage and energy legislation. 

“So our hope is not necessarily to move a purely ideological agenda but one that enjoys bipartisan support and ideas right from the beginning.” 

Lott also spoke of bipartisanship, but took Democrats to task for comments made last week that were dismissive of elements of Bush’s agenda such as the national missile defense system. 

“I’ve got to make sure that the American people understand that the president’s agenda, the American people’s agenda, will be considered in the Senate,” he said. 

Lott has called Jeffords’ move a “coup of one,” and he issued a memo to GOP insiders last week that said the party must “begin to wage war today for the election in 2002.  

We have a moral obligation to restore the integrity of our democracy, to restore by the democratic process what was changed in the shadows of the backrooms in Washington.” 

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Democratic vice presidential candidate in the presidential election settled last year on a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court, laughed at those sentiments. 

“We’ve accepted the fact that George W. Bush is now the president of the United States. That’s the reality,” he said.  

“We respect it, and I think our Republican friends have to now accept the reality that Tom Daschle is majority leader, and they have to respect that, too.”

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department should investigate the possibility that minorities were intentionally denied voting rights in last year’s elections in Florida, the chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says. 

Mary Frances Berry said Tuesday that she plans to request a meeting with Attorney General John Ashcroft and will recommend to the commission Friday that the Justice Department be asked to look into problems outlined in a commission report. 

According to the report thousands of Floridians were deprived of their votes by outdated equipment, improper purging of voter rolls, language barriers and inadequate access to voting booths. 

Black voters were disenfranchised by a disproportionate margin, said the report, which has yet to be approved by the full commission. That vote is scheduled for Friday. 

“We are asking the Justice Department and Mr. Ashcroft to look at the facts in our report and look at the remedy he should pursue,” Berry said in an interview. “He should determine whether there was intentional discrimination.” 

Justice Department spokesman Dan Nelson said he could not comment on the commission’s report because he hadn’t seen it yet. 

“What happened in Florida is that there was bipartisan disenfranchisement – Democrats who were county supervisors did not do what they were supposed to do, and neither did the governor nor the secretary of state,” Berry said. 

The report said the state’s highest officials, singling out Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, were “grossly derelict in fulfilling their responsibilities and unwilling to accept accountability.” 

Charles Canady, general counsel for the governor, responded in a letter Tuesday that the report was biased and rife with errors. 

“The report grossly mischaracterizes the role of the governor and other state-level officials in overseeing the administration of elections in Florida,” Canady said. “Although Governor Bush has taken a leadership role in reforming our state’s election system, he clearly was not responsible for carrying out or overseeing the preparations for the November  

2000 election.” 

Bush said Tuesday he had not seen the report but the fact that it was leaked to the news media “points to the clear fact that this is a partisan group.” 

“They have admitted that there was no systematic effort to discriminate,” the governor said, adding that Florida has responded to the election problems by creating a model system backed by a lot of money. “So I’m moving on,” he said. 

The eight-member commission currently has four Democrats, three independents and a Republican. 

Fifty-four percent of votes rejected during the Florida election were cast by black voters, according to the report. Blacks accounted for 11 percent of voters statewide. 

“The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic,” said the report, the product of a six-month investigation. The commission held three days of hearings, interviewed 100 witnesses and reviewed 118,000 documents. 

The commission is charged with investigating possible violations of the federal Voting Rights Act and other civil rights protections. 

Florida officials and two members of the commission criticized the way the report was released. It was made available to three newspapers, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. 

The new Florida law requires that all counties have modern optical scan voting machines and stop using the punchcard machines that were the source of much controversy in the Florida vote recount. It also allows for provisional ballots for people who are not on voter lists but say they are eligible to vote. Election officials would later determine if the ballots were valid. 

Commissioner Russell Redenbaugh, an independent appointed by Republicans, was sharply critical of the report. 

“Without any doubt, there’s political motivation in this process,” Redenbaugh said Tuesday. “The way this has been handled and released reflects poorly on the commission and diminishes the impact it will have. 

“President Bush needs to act to produce new leadership on the Civil Rights Commission.”

WASHINGTON — Rates for cancer cases and deaths went down in the 1990s, led by declines for prostate, lung and colon cancer, according to combined government and private studies. More breast cancer cases were detected, apparently because of aggressive screening. 

“This is an optimistic report because overall cancer rates are tending toward a decline,” said Holly L. Howe, one of the authors of a report appearing Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 

The big four killer cancers – breast, prostate, lung and colon-rectum – accounted for 52.7 percent of the 1998 cancer deaths in the U.S., the study found. These diseases also accounted for 55.9 percent of all new cancers. 

Death rates for eight of the top 10 cancers were all level or declining. The exceptions were the death rates for female lung cancer and for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, both of which increased. 

Howe, a researcher with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, said prostate cancer rates have fallen dramatically, by about a third over six years, while rates for lung and colon-rectum cancers either decreased slightly or stabilized. 

The study compares the rate of cancer incidence and death in the United States from 1992 to 1998 with similar statistics from earlier years. It is the result of combined data and analysis from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the NAACCR. 

“This welcome news on declining rates underscores the incredible progress we’ve made against cancer, but it also reminds us that our fight is far from over,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. 

While cancer deaths declined across the whole population, the study found, overall cancer incidences declined only for men while women experienced increases, driven by breast and lung cancers. 

Female breast cancer rates have jumped by about 40 percent since 1973, when the incidence was 82.6 per 100,000. In 1998, the rate was 118.1. The average overall annual increase was 1.2 percent per year for the six years ending in 1998. 

The breast cancer increase, said Howe, “is driven by an increase in screening by the age group at highest risk. When you have more screening, you will pick up more tumors.” 

Most of the increase in breast cancer incidence was among women age 50 to 74, the age group at highest risk. 

Howe said it is expected that increased screening – principally through mammography – will eventually result in fewer breast cancer deaths. 

“As we detect cancers earlier, we would expect there to be a decline in mortality,” she said. 

The study found that breast cancer death rates declined by 2.4 percent annually from 1992 to 1998. 

Cancers of the lung, thought to be caused primarily by cigarette smoking, continue to be the most lethal of the cancers, accounting for 28.5 percent of all cancer deaths. 

The study found that lung cancer incidence among women is declining, but death from the disease among women is up slightly. New cases of the disease declined by 2.7 percent per year among men and by 0.2 percent per year among women between 1992 and 1998. 

Lung cancer death rates among men declined by 1.9 percent per year, but rose by 0.8 percent per year among women. 

Lung cancer death “is still increasing among women, but it is slowing down,” said Howe. In the 1970s and ’80s, the death rate among women was increasing by more than six percent a year, she noted. 

Howe said the lung cancer death rate among women is following the pattern seen earlier among men, where the death rate started dropping as older smokers died and fewer young people started smoking. 

“Since women started smoking at a later age, we are still approaching the peak of lung cancer” among them, said Howe. 

Colon-rectum cancer rates across the whole population dropped by 0.7 percent a year from 1992 to 1998, with a 1.3 percent per year decline among white men and 1.1 percent among black men. The decline was 0.4 percent per year for white women, 0.3 percent for black women. 

Death rates from colon-rectum cancer dropped dramatically for white men, by 2.3 percent per year, but less so for black men, 0.9 percent per year. Among white females, the colon-rectum cancer death rate dropped by 1.9 percent per year. For black females it was down by 0.6 percent per year from 1992 to 1998. 

Death from melanoma, which accounted for 1.4 percent of all cancer deaths, increased by 1 percent per year among white males, while remaining stable among white females from 1992 to 1998. New cases increased by 2.7 percent per year among white men and 2.9 percent among white females. Melanoma is a skin cancer linked to excessive sun exposure. 

————— 

On the Net: 

Cancer report: http://newscenter.cancer.gov/pressreleases/reportq&a.html 

National Cancer Institute: http://www.nci.nih.gov/ 

Cancer statistics: http://www.seer.cancer.gov 

American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/ 

North American Association of Central Cancer Registries: http://www.naaccr.org/ 

SAN FRANCISCO — Napster, the former music industry bad-boy, announced Tuesday it had struck a distribution deal with three major record labels that are launching a music subscription service this summer. 

The agreement between Napster and the members of MusicNet is the biggest step Napster has taken so far toward legitimacy. 

MusicNet is a venture between record label owners AOL Time Warner Inc., Bertelsmann and EMI Group, as well as Seattle-based RealNetworks, whose software allows users to listen to music and watch video via streaming technology over the Internet. 

The deal makes Napster the third distribution partner for MusicNet, joining AOL RealNetworks and America Online. The MusicNet subscription services is slated to be available to consumers by late summer. 

“We are pleased to be able to offer Napster members access to the MusicNet service,” said Napster’s CEO Hank Barry. He said the deal shows Napster’s commitment to “the Napster community – the world’s most enthusiastic music fans.” 

“Today’s announcement is great for consumers, for artists and for the recording industry,” added Rob Glaser, MusicNet’s interim CEO and as well as CEO of RealNetworks. 

Members of the new Napster Service who subscribe to the MusicNet offering through Napster will be able to share MusicNet content with other subscribers. But parties to the deal haven’t said whether people will be able to download, collect and trade MP3 files like they do on Napster, a popular activity that has infuriated music copyright holders. 

MusicNet’s online subscription music service will let music fans listen to songs piped over the Internet for a yet-to-be-determined fee. Napster has also said it hopes to roll out a new version of its service this summer that would ensure royalty payments to artists and labels. 

Napster, which is still being sued by the music industry for copyright infringement, has been trying to purge copyright-protected music files from its system under a court injunction. 

But a technical solution that satisfies the music industry’s copyright protection concerns has so far proved elusive. 

Warner Music Group issued a statement Tuesday indicating that there could still be serious hitches in the deal. 

“As previously announced, our content will not be available to Napster as part of the MusicNet service until we are reasonably satisfied that Napster is operating in a legal, non-infringing manner and has successfully deployed a technology that accurately tracks the identity of files on the service,” Warner said in a statement. EMI also said that Napster’s current technology was not quite ready for primetime, despite the pending deal. 

“EMI has always said that we’d be prepared to consider licensing our music to Napster, but only when certain critical conditions are met particularly in the area of copyright. Those conditions have not yet been met,” the label said in a statement. 

Napster has said it planned to use software that maps songs based on their sound pattern. 

Napster is still mired in a copyright infringement suit filed by the Big Five record labels, Warner, BMG, EMI, Universal and Sony. 

A deal between MusicNet and Napster was not expected to affect that suit and all sides continue to work closely with a court-appointed technical adviser in bringing the file-sharing service into compliance with a pretrial injunction mandating that Napster halt trading of unauthorized music. 

Bertelsmann has loaned Napster money and technical expertise to help it develop a legal version of its file-swapping service. In exchange, Bertelsmann has the right to take a majority stake in Napster if the new system wins approval in the industry. 

While Warner, BMG and EMI seek online music solutions with the MusicNet alliance, Sony Corp. and French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal formed a similar partnership called Duet, which promises to have thousands of songs on the Internet for subscription-based download by this summer. 

Napster’s attempts at screening for unauthorized songs has severely hampered usage on its service. A study released Tuesday by Webnoize, a digital media research group, showed the average number of files shared among Napster users fell from 220 in February to 21 in May — a drop of 90 percent in three months. 

Many of those music fans have migrated to other, decentralized file-swapping systems such as Gnutella, where usage grew by nearly 5 percent in the last week alone, according to analyst Phil Leigh, who tracks digital music for Raymond James and Associates. 

On the Net: 

www.napster.com 

www.musicnet.com

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Though more than 22 million people have died of AIDS and 36 million others are infected with HIV, the pandemic is still in its early stages, the United Nations’ top AIDS fighter said Tuesday as he marked 20 years since the first official report of AIDS. 

If the world does not act decisively now, AIDS could spread to countries that have so far avoided the worst of the disease, Dr. Peter Piot, the head of UNAIDS, told The Associated Press. 

“When you look particularly at Asia at Western Africa at Eastern Europe it is clear that we are really at the very early phases of the spread of HIV,” Piot said in an interview. 

More than 70 percent of the people with the virus that causes AIDS are in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world. Global health officials worry the disease could spread as rapidly through a country such as India, with a population of 1 billion, as it has through South Africa, where 11 percent of the country’s 43 million people are infected. 

Looking back, no one could have predicted the devastation that would be wrought by the disease first uncovered 20 years ago in a nine-paragraph write-up by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control about the strange deaths of five gay men, Piot said. 

In the early years of the disease, many predicted a quick cure – or at least a vaccine, Piot said. 

“I also thought that it would go away (as quickly) as it came up,” he said. 

Since then, an estimated 58 million people have contracted HIV. More than 22 million of them have died. A cure remains a dream for the infected. Efforts to find a vaccine continue. 

“This is now, without any doubt, the largest epidemic in human history, and we are certainly not at the end of it,” Piot told reporters Tuesday. 

The face of the disease has changed from that of a gay men or intravenous drug user in the United States, to that of millions of African men and women who contracted HIV through heterosexual sex and their babies, who got the disease simply by being born. 

The explosion of AIDS has proven how quickly a disease can spread across the globe in the newly connected world, Piot said. It has also taught the world a lesson in the devastation that can be caused when governments react too slowly. 

U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan has asked wealthy countries to contribute from $7 billion to $10 billion a year to a fund to help prevent and treat AIDS in the developing world, where the pandemic has hit worst. About half that fund will be earmarked to fight AIDS in Africa. 

The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a special session from June 25-27 to discuss plans for fighting the pandemic. 

“There is this enormous momentum that is building up and growing internationally,” Piot said. 

Piot hopes the meeting, the first special General Assembly session ever dedicated to a disease, will produce a detailed declaration of commitment signed by every country in the United Nations. 

The declaration would need to bind countries to work toward prevention, educate young people about the disease and destroy the crushing stigma surrounding AIDS, he said. The agreement should also commit countries to solving the complex web of problems preventing those infected from receiving AIDS drugs. 

Those problems include the poor healthcare infrastructure in many of the worst-infected countries, people’s refusal to get tested for HIV, the costs associated with caring for those infected and the price of the AIDS drugs, Piot said. 

“Unfortunately, I think the focus has been a lot on the price of antiretroviral drugs, reducing an extremely complex problem into something that is simple on paper,” he said. 

Many of the hardest hit countries have detailed plans for fighting the disease, plans that, if implemented, could signal a turning point in the pandemic, Piot said. 

But the worst infected countries in the world are also some of its poorest, and they need massive and sustained help from the developing world, he said. 

“There’s not a lack of ideas, of strategies of what to do, but there’s a lack of cash,” he said. 

On the Net: 

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, http://www.unaids.org 

Treatment Action Campaign site for AIDS in Africa, http://www.tac.org.za

JERUSALEM — Hamas cast doubt Tuesday on how long a fragile cease-fire can last when its spiritual leader said the militant group is not bound by Yasser Arafat’s call to end attacks on Israel. 

International pressure to keep the truce on track was growing, with CIA Director George Tenet expected to head to the region on Wednesday to promote Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation. 

Meanwhile, Israel announced the easing of some restrictions imposed after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in Tel Aviv Friday, killing himself and 20 other people, most of them Israeli teen-agers. 

The Israeli Defense Ministry said that borders would be opened to allow Palestinians to return home from Egypt and Jordan, raw materials would be allowed into and out of the Palestinian territories and Palestinian workers could return to their jobs in an industrial zone next to the Erez crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip. 

Scattered gunfire and clashes Tuesday injured several people in the West Bank, but marches marking the 34th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip, were generally peaceful. 

However, late Tuesday, a five-month-old Israeli baby was seriously injured when Palestinians threw rocks at a car in the West Bank. Doctors said the baby had a serious head injury. 

Israeli officials acknowledged the relative calm, but said Israel still wants Arafat to arrest those involved in planning suicide bombings and to put an end to anti-Israel incitement. 

“No doubt some positive steps have been taken, but I would say, necessary but insufficient,” said Raanan Gissin, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 

Arafat called the cease-fire on Saturday, leading Israel to hold off retaliation for Friday night’s suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv disco that killed 21 people, including the bomber. 

A joint statement issued late Monday in the name of the militant wing of Hamas and Arafat’s Fatah group said the cease-fire would be respected. But leaders of Hamas – whose support is seen as vital to a successful truce – quickly began disputing the idea. 

“When we are talking about the so-called cease-fire, this means between two armies,” Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’ spiritual leader, told The Associated Press. “We are not an army. We are people who defend themselves and work against the aggression.” 

Yassin joined 2,000 Palestinians marching peacefully in Gaza to mark the anniversary of the 1967 war. 

Demonstrators chanted, “The intefadeh will continue until victory,” using the Arabic word for uprising. A march in the West Bank town of Ramallah also was orderly. 

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, would not directly say if further bombings were planned. But, he said, “our strategy and our tactic is to continue resistance, the intefadeh, by all means and everywhere.” 

“The people,” he added, “are convinced that this will be an effective measure to persuade the Israelis to leave.” Hamas does not accept the existence of a Jewish state. 

Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst who attended a meeting with representatives of Hamas and Fatah, said participants “spoke in a way that expressed understanding of the circumstances that led Arafat to make the declaration.” 

Islamic Jihad, a militant group that did not attend the meeting, indicated it would give the cease-fire a chance. 

“We are respecting all the decisions taken by any Palestinian movement,” Islamic Jihad spokesman Nafez Azam said. 

West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said the cease-fire applies only to areas under full Palestinian control. Elsewhere, he said, “resisting occupation is a legitimate right of the Palestinians.” 

The Palestinians long have held they are responsible for security only in areas they control, in part to press Israel to hand over more land. Israel rejects the idea, especially when attackers come into Israeli-controlled areas from places under Palestinian control. 

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was in Egypt and Jordan seeking help to stabilize the cease-fire that followed his personal appeal to Arafat. 

Meanwhile, clashes continued despite the truce. 

North of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers opened fire Tuesday with rubber-coated steel bullets on Palestinian stone-throwers, Palestinian witnesses said. Ten Palestinians were injured. The army said it fired on 600 demonstrators to disperse them. 

In and near Hebron, at least three Palestinians, including a police officer, were wounded in clashes with Israeli forces. 

Also in the West Bank, Ashraf Mahmoud Bardawil, 27, a Fatah activist in the Tulkarem area, was critically injured in an explosion in his car. The cause of the blast wasn’t clear. 

UNITED NATIONS — On World Environment Day, the United Nations joined forces Tuesday with 1,500 leading scientists and a host of public and private organizations to launch the first major study of the health of planet Earth. 

Secretary General Kofi Annan said the four-year, $21 million study “is designed to bring the world’s best science to bear on the present choices we face in managing the global environment.” 

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment will examine the state of the world’s grasslands, forests, farmlands, oceans and fresh waterways and fill important gaps in the knowledge needed to preserve “the health of our planet,” he told a news conference launching the initiative. 

In a report last year to the U.N. Millennium Summit, Annan noted there had never been a comprehensive global assessment of the world’s major ecosystems. 

“The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is a response to this need,” he said. 

Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, which has provided $4 million to help fund the assessment, said the result will be “the first global report card on our environment” – and he predicted it would not be a good one. 

He noted the economic implications. 

“When the environment is forced to file for bankruptcy ... because its resource base has been polluted, degraded, dissipated, irretrievably compromised, then the economy goes down to bankruptcy with it – and so does everything else,” Wirth said. 

Pilot studies conducted by the World Resources Institute indicate that in many regions of the world, ecosystems are less able to meet human demand for food and clean water. Coral reefs are dying, forests are disappearing and fish stocks are being depleted. 

“From out-of-control forest fires in Southeast Asia to massive floods in China, Central America and Mozambique, natural events have been exacerbated by human degradation of ecosystems – and in every case it is the poor who have suffered the most,” said Mohamed El-Ashry, head of the Global Environment Facility. 

The assessment was designed by the U.N. Environment Program, the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, the Global Environment Facility – which is providing $7 million in funding – and other partners. 

On the Net: 

http://www.millenniumassessment.org 

In advance of a communitywide meeting on May 19 to consider a major overhaul in the way Berkeley High School delivers its academic programs, small groups of high school staff and parents have met weekly to ponder the question. 

At issue is whether the school could address chronic problems – truancy, violence, the achievement gap and high teacher turnover, to name a few – by dividing the school’s 3,200 students into a number of “small learning communities.” Such communities allow teachers to give students more individualized attention, the argument goes, so those with special needs are less likely to “fall through the cracks.”  

At a Thursday meeting at the North Berkeley Senior Center, about 25 people, mostly Berkeley High parents and staff, listened to an informal panel describe what Berkeley High was like in the 1970s, when the school launched a dozen short-lived small learning communities with the help of a $7 million federal grant.  

Most of the panelists either studied or taught at Berkeley High in the ’70s. 

“A school as large as Berkeley High has to be broken down into smaller schools,” said panelist Arnold Perkins, a Berkeley High parent, who taught at a couple of the experimental small-learning communities in the ’70s. 

“Something different has to be done at Berkeley High,” added Perkins. “It is not working. It is actually destroying (kids’) lives.” 

Perkins said the small learning communities of the ’70s gave teachers a unique opportunity to make classroom lessons more relevant to students. Through a program known as Black House, Perkins and other teachers worked to give African-American students a broader exposure to black history than they would have found in the school’s existing history classes. 

“If you think you don’t come from any place but slavery,” then there is a limit to how much American history you want to learn, said Perkins who is African American. 

Former Berkeley High teacher Susan Groves, another panelist, said student attendance problems in the ’70s were even worse than today, with up to a third of the school’s students skipping class regularly. Groves said she and other like-minded teachers got together on their lunch breaks and formed a radical plan to re-engage students by creating a small learning community. 

Such communities give teachers the flexibility they need to respond to students’ needs, Groves said, recalling how she and other teachers in the program created individual projects for students who were missing class to draw them back in. 

“We have to develop courses that both students and teachers feel is appropriate for this period in time,” Groves said Thursday. 

It was experiments in small learning communities that forced the high school’s curriculum to expand into new areas of particular interest to students in the later half of the 20th century, Groves argued, pointing to courses in black studies, women’s studies and environmental studies that were offered for the first time in the ’70s. 

“The feeling of being in a huge school but having a small community was really fantastic,” said another panelist, a woman who studied at one of Berkeley High’s former small learning communities .  

But she added an important caveat. 

“I’m not sure it actually gave us the best education,” she said. “I think it might have been a scramble for a lot of kids when they got to college.” 

The trick, according to Perkins, is create small learning communities that give teachers the freedom to innovate, but aren’t so amorphous that less disciplined kids lose focus altogether. 

“How do you not be so liberal (that) you let them do anything they want?” Perkins asked said. 

Groves said the communities have to be held accountable. School district administrators never supported the small learning communities in the ’70s, she said, with the result that no evaluation process was ever put in place to see where they were succeeding and where they were failing. 

The school district “has never really cared very much about evaluation,” Groves said.  

“It becomes anecdotal. How can we move ahead if we don’t have some kind of formal evaluation?...We forget what has already been tried (and) keep reinventing the wheel.” 

Rick Ayers, the Berkeley High teacher who is coordinating the discussions around small learning communities, said that today, unlike in the ’70s, both the school board and the teacher’s union have shown interest small learning communities and their potential. 

Still, Berkeley High parent Jahlee Arakaki wasn’t convinced Thursday. While she conceded that the school was in “dire need” of some reform, she said it was too early to say if the small communities offered a solution to existing problems. 

What happens, she asked, if “some kids get totally immersed in (a small community) and then others feel they can’t join?” 

Berkeley High teacher Judy Bodenhausen said specialized programs already in place at Berkeley High, like the Communication Arts and Sciences program (whose limited spaces are highly coveted by students each year) have already created a two-tier system at the school.  

If small learning communities are to be implemented, Bodenhausen said, they ought to be done in such that students can participate in some of a community’s offerings regardless of whether they are fully enrolled in that community.  

Ayers said small learning communities would be “a disaster” if certain programs were identified as the elite programs while others became “default” programs. But he said Berkeley High has historically had a two-tier system, with whites and Asians dominating the higher-level course offerings. Small learning communities could undo this segregation by actively recruiting students from different backgrounds and working to unite them in a common endeavor, he said. 

All community members are invited to weigh in on small learning communities at the high school at the May 19 meeting, scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Alternative High School, 2701 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. For more information contact Rick Ayers at 644-4586. 

Saturday, May 5

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult. www.cal-sailing.org  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Tooth Man! 

10:30 a.m.  

Berkeley Main Library  

2121 Allston Way  

Tooth Man, a.k.a. Matt Perry, returns by popular demand to fascinate children with his collection of teeth from animals large and small. 

649-3964 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St. (at San Pablo)  

Author of Adam Dagliesh mysteries, P.D. James, and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. 

Call 415-664-9500 for reservations 

Free Hearing Screening 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion, Cafeteria Annexes, A, B & C  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland 

Health Access/LifeSpan and Self Help for the Hard of Hearing (SHHH) are co-sponsoring free hearing screenings in recognition of Better Hearing and Speech Month. Free  

869-6737  

Women’s Evening at the Movies  

7:30 - 10 p.m.  

Pacific Center  

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Jennifer Tilly stars in “Bound,” as a mob man’s mistress who becomes lovers with a sexy handywoman. Join a great group of bi, lesbian, transgender and queer women to watch the flick and munch on junk food. $5 donation requested  

548-8283  

www.pacificcenter.org 

Owner as Contractor 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Legal aspects discussed by attorney Sterling Johnson. $75. 

525-7610 

Painting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

“Tricks of the Trade” taught by painting contractor Scott Perry. $75. 

525-7610 

Mediterranean Herbs 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Tour of herbs. Learn myths and legends, ideas for planting in home gardens. 

643-1924 

Path Wanderers 

10 a.m. 

Remillard Park 

Keeler and Poppy Streets 

Help Berkeley Path Wanderers Association weed and put new chips on Keeler Avenue Path. Bring gloves, weeding tools, shovels, wheelbarrows if you have them. 

848-9358 

International Conference 

Townsend Center 

220 Stephens Hall 

UC Berkeley 

9 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. 

“Cosmopolititanism, Human Rights and Sovereignty in the New Europe” is the topic. Alain Touraine of the University of Paris will speak at noon addressing the question, “Is it Possible to Create a European Citizenship?”. Continued from Friday. Free and open to the public. 643-5777 

Sunday, May 6

Cinco de Mayo Celebration 

10:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

MLK between Center and Allston 

Featuring live latin music and dancing, food and and arts and crafts. Free. 549-9166 

Reimagining Pacific Cities  

6 - 8:30 p.m. 

New Pacific Studio  

1523 Hearst Ave.  

“How are Pacific cities reshaping their cultural and environmental institutions to better serve the needs and enhance the present and future quality of life of all segments of their societies?” A series of ten seminars linking the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, and other pacific cities. $10 per meeting.  

849-0217 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

www.cal-sailing.org  

BAHA House Tour  

1 - 5 p.m.  

Live Oak Park  

Sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Tour will include the early work of architects Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck and Henry Gutterson.  

$25 - $32  

841-2242 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Open House  

3 - 5 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

A free introduction to Tibetan Buddhist culture including a Tibetan yoga demonstration, a talk on the relevance of Buddhism in today’s world, a prayer wheel and meditation garden tour. 843-6812 

Faith, Doubt and Refuge 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

What does this mean in the Buddhist tradition? Talk by Sylvia Gretchen, dean of Nyingma Studies at the institute. Free and open to the public. 843-6812 

Rhododendron Walk 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

See more than 200 species. $3 admission. Limited space, call for reservation. 

643-2755 

— compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

Monday, May 7

Beginning Bicyclist Workshop  

7 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA  

2001 Allston Way  

Community Room 1, Main Floor  

Jason Meggs and Zed Lopez will teach you how to keep yourself and your bike safe and even how to use your bike for shopping. Free  

Call Jason Meggs, 549-RIDE 

Words Hurt  

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Rabbi David Ordan will discuss the seriousness of gossip and it’s effects.  

$10  

848-0237 

Skin Cancer Screening Clinic 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit Campus  

2450 Ashby Ave. 

Markstein Cancer Education Center 

Skin cancer screenings are offered only to people who, due to limited or no health insurance, would be able to have a suspicious mole or other skin changes examined. Appointments are required.  

869-8833 

Rent Stabilization Board Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Council Chambers, 2nd floor 

Closed session “Hanerfeld v. City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board.” The rest of the meeting is open to the public. 

644-6128 

Tuesday, May 8

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Religious Identity for Interfaith Families 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Explore the process of choosing a religion for parents and children in interfaith families with a minister, and Rabbi Jane Litman.  

$5  

848-0237 x127 

Home Design 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St. 

Second Tuesday of workshop taught by architect/contractor Barry Wagner. Continues weekly through May 22. $150 for four evenings. 

525-7610 

Blackout Summer 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley’s Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Dwight) 

Bruno Henriquez is from Cuba, which experienced rolling blackouts for more than half a decade and has promoted conservation and alternative energy production. Henriquez is director of Cuba’s solar energy agency. 

548-2220 ext. 234 

Take the Burn Out of Heartburn 

Ashby Campus Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

12:30 - 2 p.m. 

Learn about gastro-esophageal reflux disease and surgery to correct the condition. Free. 

869-6737 

Four stories on San Pablo good for community 

Editor: 

Gregory Bateson wrote a book in the 1970s called “Towards an Ecology of Mind.” It influenced Gov. Jerry Brown enough that the Gregory Bateson Building was constructed in Sacramento on his watch, featuring as many “green” features as available at the time. 

Time to be mindful again of energy issues, pollution, transit, and infill housing for people of modest income. That’s precisely what the planned development of 48 low and moderate income apartments at 2700 San Pablo is all about. 

Time to transform environmentalists who want to support a better local and global environment into ecologists, that is, into people who see the interconnection of parts in living, whole systems as fundamental to healthy ways of living in our communities and building our communities. 

Time to take the quotation marks off “progressives” who oppose density in places that support housing for the people who need it and transform them into real progressives who support such housing. 

It sounds like news from Mars to a lot of people, but urban form stands at the foundation of either a healthy or dysfunctional way of urban living. 

By urban form, we who ponder such things and try to apply ecological thinking to our communities, mean thinly scattered automobile-dependent development is too expensive in every way imaginable: for low income people forced to buy cars and gasoline, for energy reserves, for the health of native plants and animals, for global climate stability. The urban form that works best on all those counts is pedestrian/transit centers oriented development of modest density - and the proposed 4 stories of the 2700 San Pablo fits well into such a density range. 

Higher density along transit corridors is an important interim step and a parallel development strategy that goes along with centers-oriented development. It will sound like a quibble to those who have not thought about urban form very much, but centers allow even more benefits than corridors, and make it possible to contemplate means to create more open spaces in our cities, such as enough spaces to imagine opening buried creeks and expanding community gardens and parks. But by being located on one of the city’s best AC Transit corridors, 2700 San Pablo takes us a long way in that direction. 

Ecocity Builders, in supporting this project, would prefer it if the building were car-free by rental agreement and did not have the 61 parking space for 48 units. This promotion of the automobile with all its detriments is crammed down the throats of developers and the ordinance that forces this out-dated means of damaging the planet should be overturned. However, while educating about that, we need to at least address the city’s poor housing construction record and build enough apartments to make a dent on the problem. And we need to put that housing in the right place to help build up efficient transit in a time of energy crisis. 

Richard Register 

Berkeley 

Four stories ‘good,’ but not for the developers 

Editor: 

Developers everywhere try to convince City Councils, to whom they have given money, that they know better what an area needs than the people who live there.  

Gordon Choyce II takes his home owner exemption on a lovely house, situated on a quiet cul-de-sac, in the El Sobrante hills, where there isn’t a 4 story building in sight. Patrick Kennedy rides down from his hill in Piedmont, an area not known for apartments or affordable housing.  

Together, they act in a paternalistic and patronizing fashion towards the neighbors, implying they know best what San Pablo’s future should be, and calling the neighbors of their pending project NIMBYs and worse. The neighbors, on the other hand are not fighting housing, affordable or low income, but are fighting density and height. They welcome housing and are realistic about its need. I hope our council will consider the impacted neighborhood when voting on the project. 

R. Vimont 

Berkeley 

‘Special interest’: saving the neighborhood 

Editor: 

Harry Pollack’s defense (4/30/01) of the ill-conceived and outsized development project proposed for the landmarked Byrne site at 1301 Oxford St. would be just another in the long PR campaign to defend an indefensible project were it not for a remarkable assertion he makes in his opening paragraph: that considerations of the size, siting and details of the project are being driven by “special interests.” Special interests?  

We’ve always understood that to mean political players that exercise undue influence because of their power and connections. Given how easily this development project has moved through the approval process, which of the players here might qualify as a special interest?  

Is Codornices Creek a special interest? Are Alameda Creeks Alliance, Friends of Five Creeks, Urban Creeks Council, Sierra Club (San Francisco Bay Chapter), Center for Biological Diversity, International Rivers Network, Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative, Eco-City Builders, Berkeley Eco-House, California Oak Foundation, and the Golden Gate Chapter of the Audubon Society, all of which have joined the neighborhood association in appealing the Use Permit to the City Council, special interests?  

The choice is not between the synagogue’s plan and the continued neglect of the site, which has been owned by Congregation Beth El for more than three years now. Applications are currently pending for funds to acquire access to and improve this site as a resource for all Berkeley residents, far beyond what the current development proposal will do. The synagogue’s own creeks expert has criticized its proposal. And it is possible to place a religious institution on the southern portion of the Byrne site while preserving the entire riparian corridor to the north.  

Is the maintenance of the residential neighborhood character of the neighborhood surrounding the Byrne site a special interest? For the applicants to suggest that characterization underscores the take-it-or-leave-it approach of the congregation’s leaders.  

To understand what’s at issue, stand at the Oxford Street gate to the Byrne property, and take in the planned building that currently is marked off by story poles. It is approximately a football field in length. Then walk over to the Safeway on Henry St. just south of Rose. The building Beth El is seeking to build is only slightly smaller in floor area than that supermarket. It will house not only the synagogue sanctuary but offices, a day care facility, classrooms for a number of programs, a large and expandable social space and a library. It will be in use, according to synagogue leaders’ testimony, from 7 a.m. until late into the evening, and unlike the current facility, will be used for large weekend parties. 

Count the number of parking spaces in Safeway’s lot, including the underground spaces. Or in the parking lot at St. Mary Magdalene, or St. John’s on College St., or at the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley. Then compare: to accommodate the many users of this building, the applicant will provide on the Oxford Street site all of 32 parking places, leaving the balance of the cars it attracts to be absorbed by the neighborhood.  

“Balance” is the mantra used by Beth El’s leaders since they first proposed this project. Their interest in balance appears to stop at both the boundaries of the Byrne property and the limits of the congregation’s interests.  

We cannot believe this is the balance Beth El’s congregants seek. If it is, there remains no question who the true special interest is in the case of 1301 Oxford St.  

Alan S. Kay, Carole Selter Norris 

Berkeley

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins, and become little “dump” workers. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” Through May 2002 An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

UC Berkeley Art Museum “Joe Brainard: A Retrospective,” Through May 27. The selections include 150 collages, assemblages, paintings, drawings, and book covers. Brainard’s art is characterized by its humor and exuberant color, and by its combinations of media and subject matter. “Ricky Swallow/Matrix 191,” Including new sculptures and drawings; Through May 27 $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; children age 12 and under free; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and Wednesday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley 642-0808 

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery” A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 by 40-foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history.“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing.This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge.“Within the Human Brain” Ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “T. Rex on Trial,” Through May 28 Where was T. Rex at the time of the crime? Learn how paleontologists decipher clues to dinosaur behavior. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership. All ages. May 5: Shikabane, Phobia, Harum Scarum, Vulgar Pigeons, Insidious Sorrow; May 11: Subincision, Next to Nothing, Fracus, Thrice, The Average Joe; May 12: The Sick, Impalid, Creuvo, Tearing Down Standards. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz May 5: 9:30 California Cajun Orchestra, 8:30 p.m. dance lesson; May 6: 7 p.m.: Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble; May 9: 9 p.m. Billy Dunn and Bluesway, 8 p.m. dance lesson; May 10: 10 p.m. Dead DJ night with Digital Dave; May 11: 9:30 p.m. The Mood Swing Orchestra, 8 p.m. dance lesson May 12: 9 p.m.The Johnny Otis Show; May 13: 9:30 p.m. Toyes, The “Smoke Two Joints” Band 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. May 5, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with author P.D. James and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser; May 5: R. Crumb 7 The Cheap Suit Serenaders; May 6: Terry Riley, George Brooks & Gyan Riley; May 8: Duck Baker and Tim Sparks; May 9: Rosalie Sorrels and Terry Garthwaite; May 10: Richard Shindell; May 11: Steve Seskin, Angela Kaset and Don Henry; May 12, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with authors Adair Lara and Janis Newman, and the acoustic Guitar Summit guitar quartet; May 12: Robin Flower and Libby McClaren; May 13, 1 p.m.: The Kathy Kallick Band; May 13, 8 p.m.: The Pine Valley Boy. 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. May 6: David Creamer Trio; May 13: Michael Zilber Group 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com 

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. May 5: J Dogs; May 8: The Rum Diary; May 9: Bitches Brew; May 10: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 11: Mood Food; May 12: Post Junk Trio; May 15: Chris Shot Group; May 16: Spank; May 17: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 18: Will Bernard and Motherbug; May 19: Solomon Grundy; May 22: Willy N’ Mo; May 23: Global Echo; May 24: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; May 25: The Mind Club; May 26: Netwerk: Electric; May 29: The Lost Trio; May 30: Zambambazo 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

La Pena Cultural Center May 5, 9 p.m.: Chicano de Mayo Celebration dance with O-Maya, Yaksi, DJ Corazon & La Viuda Negra, plus poets Leticia Hernandez and Robert Karimi; May 11, 8 p.m.: Erika Luckett, Irina Rivkin & Making Waves, Gwen Avery, Shelly Doty X-tet; May 12, 10:30 a.m.: Colibri; May 13, 4 p.m.: In the Cafe La Pena - Community Juerga; May 13, 3 p.m.: Juanita Newland-Ulloa and Picante Ensemble; May 17, 8 p.m.: Tribu; May 19, 8 p.m.: Carnaval featuring Company of Prophets, Loco Bloco, Mystic, Los Delicados, DJ Sake One and DJ Namane 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org  

Cal Performances May 5, 8 p.m.: Merce Cunningham Dance Company presents “Way Station,” “BIPED,” and “Rainforest” $20 - $42 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley; 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Live Oak Concert May 5, 7:30 p.m. Featuring Stephanie Pan, soprano, Mirta Wymerszberg, baroque flute, Karen Ande, viola de gamba, Meg Cotner, harpsichord performing the music of Vivaldi, Bach, Boismortier, and Ortiz. $8 - $10 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“The Children’s Hour” May 5 & 12, 8 p.m. and May 13, 4 p.m. The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Arlene Sagan will perform Julian White’s piece along with Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia and selections from Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, poems of Robert Frost set to music. Free St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison St. 528-2145  

Music & Dance of Bali May 5, 8 p.m. & May 6, 2 p.m. Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the Bay Area 45-member ensemble, will perform music and dance from Bali under the direction of Balinese guest artists I Made Subandi and Ni Ketut Arini. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

Music of the Big Band Era May 6, 2 p.m. Featuring the music of Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Stan Kenton. $15 Longfellow School of the Arts 1500 Derby St. (at Sacramento) 420-4560 

Francesco Trio May 6, 4 p.m. Performing works of Haydn, Brahams and Mel Powell. $10 / under 18 free Crowden School 1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 559-6910 or visit www.thecrowdenschool.org 

Young People Chamber Orchestra May 6, 4 p.m. Celebrating the music of J.S. Bach, J. Haydn, Mozart and others. St. Johns Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. 595-4688 

New Monsoon and Om May 6, 9:30 p.m. World-influenced jam rock and improv groove/jazz trio respectively. $3 cover charge. Blakes Bar 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 www.blakesbar.com 

“Three Tenors No Opera” May 7, 8 - 10 p.m. This Bay Area jazz septet with three-sax front line will deconstruct the tenor classics live on KPFA, 94.1 FM 

Apollo String Quartet May 10, 7:30 p.m. Composed of ninth grade students from Crowden School, quartet will perform Mozart and Bartok. Berkeley Public Library’s North Branch 1170 The Alameda 548-1240 

“MadriGALA” May 11, 7:30 p.m. The Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble presents a concert of chansons and madrigals from the 15th and 16th centuries. $5 - $10. Calvary Presbytarian Church 1940 Virginia St. (at Milvia) 237-2213 

Berkeley Opera Gala Concert May 12, 7 p.m. Berkeley Opera singers and special guest artists will be joined by Music Director, Jonathan Khuner and members of the Berkeley Opera Orchestra to provide entertainment highlighting the 2001 theme, “Opera Uncensored.” Also a silent auction, balloon raffle, champagne and more. $15 - $40 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Juanita Newland-Ulloa & Picante Ensemble May 13, 3 p.m. Romantic songs from South America. Luncheon served at 1 p.m. at the Valparaiso Cafe. $13 - $15 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

Mother’s Day Celebration May 13, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Albany Big Band will play from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. followed at 2 p.m. by Wine Country Brass. Picnic fare will be available fom Classic Catering, or bring food from home. Flowers for sale. 525-3005 

Tribu May 17, 8 p.m. Direct from Mexico, Tribu plays a concert of ancestral music of the Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Zapotec, Purerpecha, Chichimec, Otomi, and Toltec. Tribu have reconstructed and rescued some of the oldest music in the Americas. $12 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar May 19, 4 - 10 p.m. & May 20, Noon - 7 p.m. A fundraiser for the Berkeley Buddhist Temple featuring musical entertainment by Julio Bravo & Orquesta Salsabor, Delta Wires, dance presentations by Kaulana Na Pua and Kariyushi Kai, food, arts & crafts, plants & seedlings, and more. Berkeley Buddhist Temple 2121 Channing Way (at Shattuck) 841-1356 

KALW 60th Anniversary Celebration May 20, 8 p.m. An evening of eclectic music and dance that reflects the eclectic nature of the stations’ programming. Performers include Paul Pena, Kathy Kallick & Nina Gerber, Orla & the Gas Men, and the Kennelly Irish Dancers. $19.50 - $20.50 Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or www.thefreight.org  

Himalayan Fair May 27, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. The only such event in the world, the fair celebrates the mountain cultures of Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Ladakh, Mustang and Bhutan. Arts, antiques and modern crafts, live music and dance. Proceeds benefit Indian, Pakistani, Tibetan, and Nepalese grassroots projects. $5 donation Live Oak Park 1300 Shattuck Ave. 869-3995 or www.himalayanfair.net  

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra June 21, 2001. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

Dance 

Music and Dance of Bali May 5, 8 p.m., May 6, 2 p.m. Forty-five member ensemble Gamelan Sekar Jaya presents rhythms of Balinese gamelan in an orchestra of gongs, drums, flutes and bronze metallophones accompanied by several of Bali’s skilled dancers. $8-$16 Saturday, $5-$10 Sunday Julia Morgan Theatre 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Dance! The Soul Behind the Art” May 11, 8 p.m. The Attitude Dance Company presents jazz, hip hop, lyrical, street funk, modern and tap dancing. $6 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300  

Theater 

“Grease” May 5, 11, 12, 8 p.m. and May 6, 2 p.m. By Berkeley High Performing Arts Department. Rock-musical set in late 1950’s explores teen issues. A classic. $6 Little Theater Allston Way between MLK and Milvia 524-9754  

“The Oresteia” by Aeschylus Through May 6 Directed by Tony Taccone and Stephen Wadsworth, Aeschylus trilogy will be the first production staged on the Berkeley Rep’s new prosenium stage. Please call Berkeley Repertory Theatre for specific dates and times. $15.99 - $117 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. (at Shattuck) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Death of a Salesman” Through May 5, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. plus Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m. The ageless story of Willy Loman presented by an African-American cast and staged by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. $10 Live Oak Theater 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 528-5620 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

Shotgun Players “Slings and Arrows: love stories from Shakespearean tragedies” written and directed by Rebecca Goodberg and developed by the ensemble and “Blue Roses” conceptualized and directed by Christian Schneider. Discussions with the audience will follow each show. Thursday-Sunday, 7 p.m. through May 5. $10 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid Ave. 655-0813  

Interplay Fest! May 5, 3:30 - 8 p.m., May 6, 3 p.m. A full weekend of performances by Wing It! Performance Ensemble, Cultural InterPlay Ensemble, and the Art of InterPlay Ensemble. Weekend Pass: $15, Individual performances, $7 - $10 First Congregational Church of Berkeley 2345 Channing Way (at Dana) 814-9584 

“Planet Janet” May 11 - June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Musical Tree of India” May 13, 2 p.m. Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre present this legend from tribal India. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere May 18 - June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

The far side of the moon through May 5, 8 p.m. May 5, 2 p.m. and May 6, 3 p.m. A solo performance by Canadian writer, actor and director Robert Lepage with an original score by Laurie Anderson. $30 - $46 Zellerbach Playhouse Bancroft at Dana UC Berkeley 642-9988  

Films 

“A Ship with Painted Sails: The Fabulous Animation of Karel Zeman” May 5: 7 p.m. Journey to the Beginning of Time, 8:35 p.m. The Treasure of Bird Island May 11: 7 p.m. Zeman Shorts, 8:55 p.m. The Fabulous World of Jules Verne May 12: 7 p.m. Baron Munchausen, 9:10 p.m. Kraba - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice May 13: 5:30 The Thousand and One Nights, 7:05 p.m. The Tale of John and Mary. Admission: $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“Women’s Evening at the Movies” May 5, 7:30 - 10 p.m. Jennifer Tilly stars in “Bound,” as a mob man’s mistress who becomes lovers with a sexy handywoman. Join a great group of bi, lesbian, transgender and queer women to watch the flick and munch on junk food. $5 donation requested Pacific Center 2712 Telegraph Ave. 548-8283 or www.pacificcenter.org 

“Mirele Efros” May 13, 2 - 4:30 p.m. Jacob Gordin’s classic story set in turn-of the century Grodno. A classic study in family relations. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Exhibits 

“The Sands of Time” Arab/Muslim sculptures and ceramics of Khalil Bendib. Through May 5, Monday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. or call for appointment Mussi Artworks Foundry & Gallery 719 Heintz Ave. Space 10 644-2735 

Youth Arts Festival A citywide celebration of art, music, dance and poetry by youth from the Berkeley Unified School District. Featuring paintings, drawings, sculpture and ceramics by K-8 students Through May 12, Wednesday - Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St.  

“The Art of Meadowsweet Dairy” Objects found in nature, reworked and turned into objects of art. Through May 15, call for hours Current Gallery at the Crucible 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511  

“Scapes/Escapes” Ink, Acrylic, Mixed Media by Evelyn Glaubman Through June 1 Tuesday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. Gallery of the Center for Psychological Studies 1398 Solano Ave. Albany 524-0291 

“Watercolors and Mixed Media” by Pamela Markmann Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. A retrospective of 30 years’ work at Markmann’s Berkeley studio. Red Oak Gallery 2983 College Ave. 526-4613  

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Reception: May 2, 6 - 8 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show and Sale May 5, 6, 12, 13, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Fifteen artists open their personal studios to the public and offer pieces for sale. Berkeley Potters Guild 731 Jones St. 524-7031 www.berkeleypotters.com 

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse. Meet the artists May 18, 19, 20 (call for times). Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Opening reception May 3, 4 - 6 p.m. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts & Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby May 7 - August 24; Reception event May 7, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m,: Colby will give a slide-lecture using contemporary women’s art depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe to illustrate her dissertation research in Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies - Dinner Board Room; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

Quilt Show through May 12. M-Th, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri-Sat, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Twenty-second annual show displays over 60 quilts. Berkeley Public Library’s North Branch. 1170 The Alameda 644-6850 

“Tropical Visions: Images of AfroCaribbean Women in the Quilt Tapestries of Cherrymae Golston” Through May 28, Tu-Th, 1-7 p.m., Sat 12-4 p.m. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 8: Geling Yan reads “The Lost Daughter of Happiness” May 10: Ron Hansen talks about “A Stay Against Confusion; May 11: Terry Pratchett reads “Thief of Time”; May 12: Ike Oguine reads “A Squatter’s Tale”; May 14: Edie Meidav reads “The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon”  

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted May 7: Rachel Naomi Remen reads from “My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging”; May 10: Anchee Min reads “Becoming Madame Mao”  

Boadecia’s Books 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted May 11: Suzanne Gold will read from her novel “Daddy’s Girls”; May 12: Krandall Kraus will read “Love’s Last Chance: A Nigel & Nicky Mystery”; May 18: Melinda Given Guttman will read from “The Enigma of Anna O”; May 19: Jessica Barksdale Inclan will read from “Her Daughter’s Eyes” 559-9184 or www.bookpride.com  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 All events at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise May 10: Gray Brechin talks about “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin”; May 23: Jon Bowermaster discusses his book “Birthplace of the Winds: Adventuring in Alaska’s Islands of Fire and Ice”; May 29, 7 - 9 p.m.: Travel Photo Workshop with Joan Bobkoff. $15 registration fee  

“Strong Women - Writers & Heroes of Literature” Fridays Through June 2001, 1 - 3 p.m. Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program. North Berkeley Senior Center 1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 549-2970  

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. May 10: Jamie Kennedy with host Mischell Erickson; May 17: Gregory Listach Gayle with host Mark States; May 24: Stephanie Young with host Louis Cuneo; May 31: Connie Post with host Louis Cuneo Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

“New Draft Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA” May 9, 7 p.m. Take part in a discussion of this blueprint for fighting and winning a revolution in the United States. Revolution Books 2425C Channing Way 848-1196 

Paul Polansky and Voice of Roma May 10, 3 p.m. Polansky’s poetry gives voice to the Kosovo Roma and their plight in the aftermath of their plight in the aftermath of the 1999 war. Free Kroeber Hall Gifford Room Second Floor (at College and Bancroft in Anthropology Building) 981-1352 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike May 12, 6:30 p.m. An ongoing open mike series, featuring poet/artist Anca Hariton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour May 12: Debra Badhia will lead a tour of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Arts District; May 19: John Stansfield & Allen Stross will lead a tour of the School for the Deaf and Blind; June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Lectures 

California Colloquium on Water Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design speak about water resources and hopefully contribute to informed decisions on water in California. May 8, 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.: “What Makes Water Wet?” Richard Saykally, professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (refreshments served in 410 O’Brien Hall at 4:15 p.m.) 212 O’Brien Hall, UC Berkeley 642-2666  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. May 6: Sylvia Gretchen on “Faith, Doubt, and Refuge in Buddhist Practice”; May 13: Abbe Blum on “Tapping Into Creativity”; May 20: Miep Cooymans and Dan Jones on “Working with Awareness, Concentration, and Energy”; May 27: Eva Casey on “Getting Calm; Staying Clear”; June 3: Jack van der Meulen on “Healing Through Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga)”; June 10: Sylvia Gretchen on “Counteracting Negative Emotions” Tibetan Nyingma Institute 1815 Highland Place 843-6812 

“Hunting T. Rex” May 6, 2 p.m. A talk by Dr. Philip Currie, curator of dinosaurs, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. Currie asks the question: Was there social interaction amongst the Tyrannosaurs? $3 - $7 Lawrence Hall of Science UC Berkeley 642-5132 or visit www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

Berkeley 1900 May 7, 7 p.m. Richard Schwartz, author of Berkeley 1900, a book about life at the turn of the 19th century, will speak at the Friends of Five Creeks’ monthly meeting. Albany Community Center (downstairs) 1249 Marin 848-9358 

Peopling of the Pacific May 11, 8 p.m. Dr. Patrick Kirch, department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, will review results of archaeological research in the Pacific Islands, providing a current overview of Oceanic prehistory. 370 Dwinelle Hall UC Berkeley 415-338-1537  

Kopmar hurt in 3-0 loss; ACCAL title up for grabs 

The Berkeley Yellowjackets had to feel confident heading into Friday’s game against Pinole Valley at Cal’s Evans Diamond. They had a 1 1/2 game lead on the second-place Spartans, and they had ace Moses Kopmar, who had three-hit Pinole Valley earlier in the year, headed for the mound. But two hours later, they had taken a 3-0 loss that puts the league title back up for grabs, and Kopmar was sitting in the dugout after leaving the game with an injury. 

The Spartans (12-4 overall, 6-2 ACCAL), on the other hand, had just avenged the earlier loss to Berkeley (16-5, 7-2) and put themselves back in the hunt with a dominating pitching performance by Kirk Koehler. Koehler went the distance, giving up just three hits while striking out eight, seven of them looking. 

“I’ve been waiting for this game,” Koehler said afterwards. “After they beat us, I just wanted to pitch against them. This is what I’ve been practicing for.” 

Koehler only allowed one runner past second base, keeping the ’Jackets off balance by mixing his fastball with three different off-speed pitches. The Berkeley hitters looked alternately baffled and frustrated, summed up by shortstop Jason Moore’s ejection in the final inning for throwing his bat after being called out on strikes for the second time. 

“We just ran into a hot pitcher we couldn’t get to,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. 

Kopmar couldn’t duplicate his dominance over the Spartans, giving up four hits, including two doubles and a home run, in just three innings of work. Outfielder Marcus Maxwell hit him in the pitching arm with a line drive in the second, but Moellering said he took Kopmar out before the fourth because the pitcher had strained his groin. 

The Spartans were on Kopmar early, hitting the ball hard three times in the first inning, but Berkeley escaped with two nice plays by Moore. But Marcus Davis started the second inning with a ringing double. One out later, Maxwell hit Kopmar, scoring Davis. Designated hitter Tom Ruelas followed with a blast over the left field wall, earning an enthusiastic greeting at home plate by his teammates. Kopmar walked the next two batters and looked to be in trouble, but got out of the jam by blowing the ball by Spartan shortstop Tim Torres. 

Kopmar made it through the next inning, but something was clearly amiss with his delivery, and he was replaced by sophomore Sean Souders to start the fourth. The Spartans had a tough time adjusting from the fireballing Kopmar to crafty lefthander Souders, and managed just one run for the remainder of the game. Even that run was of the scratch variety, as Miguel Bernard reached first on a dropped third strike, was bunted to second, got to third on a wild pitch and scored on a swinging bunt by catcher Ryan Kiss. 

But that didn’t matter, as Koehler shut down the ’Jackets for the shutout. 

“We just came out here with nothing to lose,” he said. “We want to pretend we’re in last place, working our way to the top. It makes us play harder.” 

Moellering kept a smile on his face despite the loss of both the game and his star pitcher. 

“Well, this just makes the race more exciting,” he said. “It just means we have to win the rest of our games. I always thought we would be the top two teams, and it came down to it today.”

Four years ago Jim Cisney had a vision for the Northside Community Art Garden.  

The garden, located along side the BART tracks on Northside Street, needed a tool shed, and he was interested in building a non-traditional structure.  

“I was looking for something that was in my budget. I figured there’s nothing cheaper than dirt,” he said.  

With the design and commitment of Berkeley architect John Fordice and the volunteer efforts of nearly 100 community members, including Cisney, a sustainable earth wall building called Troth was presented to the community Sunday at a dedication ceremony and potluck.  

“What started as a dream became an obsession,” Fordice said. “Without the inspiration and energy of all those who came to help over the past three and one half years, this building would not have been possible.”  

The name Troth comes from the word betrothal. Fordice chose the name to represent humanity’s faithfulness and commitment to the earth. 

“It is dedicated to the spirit that we can do things in a way that is giving of ourselves to what the world really needs, rather than what we need,” Fordice said.  

The tool shed was Fordice’s first successful large-scale cob construction. Cob is a mixture of earth, clay-bearing soil, sand and straw that when mixed together creates a natural cement. It makes up the walls of the dedicated structure at Northside Community Art Garden.  

As an architect, Fordice says that although he enjoys his profession, it can be restrictive. This project provided a way for him to integrate art and eco-technology with his knowledge of architecture.  

In 1995 he attended a workshop on building with cob in Oregon. Since then he has worked on a few small projects and is scheduled to construct a cob greenhouse at Malcolm X Elementary School in south Berkeley.  

“Troth is the first full building that I was able to complete from the ground up,” Fordice said. “I want this to be accessible to everybody, but ultimately I want it to be accessible to me.”  

Fordice said his goal is to make a living building with cob. 

Atop the building’s sod roof, pink flowers bloom. Like welcoming, outstretched arms, two cob benches extend from the sides between which French doors swing open as the entrance into the shed. 

And though the cob building does serve a purpose for the garden, many people see it as much more than just an ordinary tool shed.  

“John has introduced cob into contemporary construction. Troth proves that shelter can be created out of the very earth upon which we stand,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Linda Maio. “I have a hard time calling this a tool shed because to me it’s a work of art.”  

Maio presented Fordice with two proclamations from the city, one in recognition of Fordice’s commitment to Troth and the other in honor of his role in “ rebirthing the art of cob construction.”  

The dedication program included an extensive thank you list of contributors. In addition to dirt, numerous materials and contributions from the community were needed to fund the project that took about three years to complete. Raw materials and resources were donated by dozens of local and bay area businesses, the city and dedicated members of the Northside garden.  

“I think Jim (Cisney)’s vision was that we all come together as a community in a big party. It was kind of a much longer haul than we expected,” said Eileen Theimer, project coordinator. 

What was initially anticipated to take a few months, stretched into a few years due in part to poor weather conditions on the weekends. It took half a year to get a third of the mud wall up according to Theimer.  

“This was a tremendous amount of work. Frankly, most of the gardeners got burned out. It was very demanding in terms of time and energy,” Cisney said. 

But the hard work did not go unappreciated. About 200 people attended the dedication ceremony and brought food to participate in the potluck.  

“The turnout was twice our expectations,” said Community Garden Commons Facilitator Karl Linn.  

The Northside Community Art Garden is one of three gardens contained within the greater HopPer Commons. Along with Northside, the Karl Linn Garden and the Peralta Garden are all located within walking distance of one another at the cross-streets Hopkins and Peralta. Open to the public, the gardens provide a community space that can be reserved for various functions and used for gardening, relaxation, workshops, celebrations and neighborhood meetings. 

Originally the property of BART, the city is currently leasing the land upon which the gardens exist. 

“I’ve watched this land be transformed from a ratty lot into this magical garden,” said Laura Paradise. Paradise lives within walking distance of the garden and plans to hold a yoga class and poetry reading there next month.  

More than 75 people hold annual memberships and share planter boxes throughout the three gardens. An annual membership is $15 per person.  

“What makes this place unique is that people feel free to express themselves creatively, to feel acknowledged and supported in their creativity,” Linn said.  

To volunteer, become a member, contribute art or plan an event contact Herb Weber, HopPer Commons Association coordinator, at 351-3075.  

Tuesday, June 5

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time  

548-8283 www.pacificcenter.org 

Intelligent Conversation  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

A discussion group open to all, regardless of age, religion, viewpoint, etc. This time the discussion topic is open and will follow the conversation. Informally led by Robert Berend, who founded similar groups in L.A., Menlo Park, and Prague. Bring light snacks/drinks to share. Free  

527-5332 

Bike for a Better City Action  

Meeting 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

1356 Rose St. 

www.bfbc.org 

Groundbreaking of ARTech  

Building 

9 a.m. 

ARTech Building 

2101 Milvia St. 

Computer Technologies Program celebrates the groundbreaking of its new offices in the ARTech building. 

Wednesday, June 6

Fishbowl: “Everything you  

always wanted to know about  

the opposite sex but were  

afraid to ask” 

7 p.m.. to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Find out what the other half really thinks! The Fishbowl is an interesting way to anonymously ask those burning questions. $8 for BRJCC members, $10 for general public. 848-0237 x127. 

South Berkeley Community  

Action Team Advisory Group  

Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Over 60’s Clinic 

3260 Sacramento, 2nd Floor 

All South and West Berkeley residents invited to the regular meeting. Among other agenda items, the planning of upcoming Town Hall meeting. Refreshments provided. 

665-6809 

ASAP Open House 

5 - 8 p.m. 

2070 Allston Way, Suite 2 

Access to Software for All People is having its 6th annual open house and invites the public to welcome new Executive Director John Kittredge. Refreshments and presentations of ASAP Web Design and Data Management, as well as work by high school employees.  

540-7457 

Thursday, June 7

Berkeley Metaphysical  

Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

Berkeley Unified School  

District 

Appreciation Dinner 

6 p.m. 

Berkeley Alternative High School 

2701 MLK Jr. Way 

Berkeley Unified School District Office of State and Federal Projects honors District Title I/State Compensatory Education, English Learner Advisory Committee representatives, and departing school principals. Guest speaker Dr. Mary Montle Bacon on “We Need to BE the Change We Want.” 

644-6202 

Free Writing, Cashiering &  

Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This session will be a community meeting.  

654-5486 

Skin Cancer Screening Clinic 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit Campus  

2450 Ashby Ave. 

Markstein Cancer Education Center 

Skin cancer screenings are offered only to people who, due to limited or no health insurance, would be able to have a suspicious mole or other skin changes examined. Appointments are required.  

869-8833 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly summer concert series. This week Advanced Jazz Workshop under direction of Mike Zilber. 

Community Environmental  

Advisory  

Commission Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia Street 

Among items to be discussed, Air Study and Chrome 6, TMD staffing, and arsenic, pentachlorophenol and creosote in playgrounds. 705-8150 

Friday, June 8

Strong Women - The Arts,  

Herstory and Literature 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” a free weekly cultural studies course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program. 549-2970  

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Therapy for Trans Partners  

6 - 7:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center for Human Growth  

2712 Telegraph Ave. (at Derby)  

A group open to partners of those in transition or considering transition. The group is structured to be a safe place to receive support from peers and explore a variety of issues, including sexual orientation, coming out, feelings of isolation, among other topics. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Backpacking Essentials 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Review the fundamental how-tos of selecting gear for a weekend backpacking trip. Free 

527-4140 

City Commons Club,  

Luncheon and Speaker 

11:45 a.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

This week featuring Doris Sloan, on “Treasures Along the Silk Road Oases.” Come early for social hour. Lunch at 11:45 for $11-$12.25. Come at 12:30 to hear the speaker only for $1, students free. Reservations required for three or more. 848-3533 

Women In Black Protests 

5 - 6:30 p.m. 

Montgomery and Market Streets 

San Francisco 

Part of a worldwide protest taking place in 103 cities, Bay Area women and men in black will protest 34 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Sponsored in part by Berkeley Women In Black and the Middle East Children’s Alliance. 434-1304 

Saturday, June 9

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Celebrates original crafts, international diversity, and community life. One hundred artists and craftsmakers display their work, with live performances and a variety of food. Free admission.  

Call 986-9337 

— compiled by  

Sabrina Forkish 

The Bite of REI 2001 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Taste some of the best, lightweight backpacking food and energy snacks available. At 1 p.m. Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn with demonstrate how to turn your outdoor trips into gourmet adventures. Free 

527-4140 

La Pena 26th Anniversary  

Benefit to Honor Dolores  

Huerta 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Music performances, slide show and raffle in honor of special guest Dolores Huerta, farm worker’s and women’s rights advocate. Huerta worked with Cesar Chavez to establish and lead the National Farm Workers Association in the 1960’s, and has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of farm workers for decades. Proceeds will go to La Pena and Huerta’s medical expenses. $20 - $25. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Sewer tax should flow to sewers 

Editor: 

RE: Art Goldberg’s Letter – concerning the Sewer Fund. 

Our forefathers (and mothers) dumped tea in the Boston harbor to express their displeasure at “Taxation Without Representation.” 

Berkeley’s City Council gives us “Taxation With Misrepresentation,” an even greater scandal. Any ideas about what we should dump and where to express our displeasure at the sewer tax flowing to the Engineering and Housing departments, gushing to the Corporation Yard and trickling to the First Source? 

Rosemary Vimont 

Berkeley 

Safeway-size structure best elsewhere 

Editor: 

As neighbors of 1301 Oxford Street, we implore the council to reject the current plan for the Beth El development. 

If you walk or drive around this property, you will notice an overwhelming number of signs in front of homes stating: “Save Live Oak greenbelt/Save Codornices Creek/Save our neighborhood/Redesign Beth El.” 

I would say about 90 percent of the neighbors surrounding the proposed site have these signs displayed. We really wish the neighbors and concerned members of various environmental groups would be heard on this issue regarding a plan laden with many problems. 

There is no protection for our (and I mean belonging to all of us in Berkeley) Codornices Creek. We know the mayor is working with UC Berkeley to restore and daylight the creeks. How can we permit a driveway and parking lot if not on top of the creek, but right next to it. Either way, this will destroy forever any chance of daylighting it. 

Live Oak neighborhood has some of Berkeley’s most beautiful and historic homes. It also has the Live Oak Greenbelt running from Shattuck Avenue three blocks up to Spruce Street. The beauty of this greenbelt is the creek and the open natural setting of park like land that has not been built up. Beth El plans to destroy the beauty of this property with a huge Safeway size building, which intends not only to function as a Synagogue, but for social events beyond the normal use for religious services. 

We realize that Beth El does good deeds in the community. Well, please be advised, that many of the neighbors against this project, also donate their time and money to many good causes. We are also good people. It’s important to remember that just because you are a good organization, it doesn’t justify a plan that doesn’t fit into the neighborhood. It doesn’t justify destroying the earth. We are also very upset that Beth El has only paid lip-service at the most to the neighbors’ numerous concerns and has not worked with us at all. We would hate to think that Beth El’s leaders didn’t heed our concerns because they knew they had the political influence with the City Council and the City of Berkeley. We have already seen extreme bias on the part of city staff (whose salaries we pay) in the way they handle themselves at meetings and seem to be pushing this plan through. We have seen the ZAB lawyer and staff give thumbs-up to Beth El leaders and they are on a first name basis with the Beth El leaders. The only city commission which really looked at this project objectively is the Landmarks who rejected it due to the overwhelming size of the project, which would destroy the historical setting as it has existed for the past 150 plus years. 

Also, the City Council voted to have a mediator appointed by our City Manager and yet before any mediation has taken place there is going to be an open hearing? Shouldn’t the open hearing be held after both parties have had time to go through the mediation process? 

The neighborhood has appealed the current Beth El plan and has been joined by many environmental organizations that we’re sure of whom you have the greatest respect. 

We urge the council to reject the current Beth El plan and have it dramatically down-sized as previous City Councils did when the Chinese Church owned the property. If Beth El needs a larger site to accommodate its 600 plus families for their expanding activities, maybe they should find a different property closer to a commercial area, and enable the city, along with environmental organizations to open Codornices Creek, and preserve this beautiful site for future generations. 

Jim Cassell and Valerie Bach 

Berkeley 

Save the open space on Oxford Street 

Editor: 

Please give the good people of Congregation Beth El city hall or anything else they want but save what little bit of open space we have left in Berkeley. Take the idea from the East Bay Regional Park District to buy up and preserve for future generations what natural resources there are.  

Catherine Willis 

Berkele 

County school board should support its superintendent 

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to the Alameda County Board of Education: 

We write and speak as elected educational officials with a commitment to continued Alameda County Office of Education services and support. It is time to come together around a budget that reflects the wishes of the County Superintendent. We believe the continuing internecine battles over Ms. Jordan’s budget will cause irreparable harm to our school districts and the students of Alameda County. The fact that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Delaine Eastin, threatened to withhold state funding for the County of Alameda Office of Education points out your neglect in carrying out your obligations to the voters, residents, and students of Alameda County, and tarnishes your roles as public servants and elected officials. 

Sheila Jordan was elected by the voters of Alameda County to bring fresh ideas and educational policies to the County Office of the Superintendent. In this capacity she has become more visible in our many communities, has improved services to our school districts, and has focused the resources of the office of the superintendent on improvement of educational services for the children in our respective districts. 

Ms. Jordan’s budget reflects the direction that the Alameda County Office of Education will go under her leadership, as endorsed and supported by the voters of Alameda County. 

By the continued attacks on Ms. Jordan and the threats of a vote of no-confidence by the County Board of Education, the County Board appears to be more involved with petty infighting than with the real concerns of the students of our county. It is time for the County Board to act as responsible public officials and support the efforts of the Superintendent to provide a budget that reflects the direction and emphasis to improve the functioning of the County Office of Education and its support of local school districts in the county. Anything less than a reasoned and quick agreement is unconscionable; the County Board’s present course risks voter disillusionment and state sanctions, as well as damage to county educational services. We urge your leadership and efforts for the good of all the students of Alameda County. 

Terry S. Doran, President 

Berkeley School Board 

John T. Selawsky 

Berkeley School Board 

Darryl Moore 

Peralta Community CollegeBoard of Trustees 

y.

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” through May 2002. An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 by 40-foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for year membership. All ages. June 8: The Enemies, Pitch Black, The Fleshies, Supersift, Texas Thieves; June 9: Groovie Ghoulies, The Influents, Red Planet, Mallrats, Goat Shanty. 525-9926  

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m unless noted otherwise. June 6: Whiskey Brothers; June 7: Keni “El Lebrijano” Flamenco guitar; June 9, 6 - 8 p.m.: Sauce Piquante, 9 p.m. - Midnight: Whiskey Brothers; June 12: Mad and Eddie Duran. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473  

Anna’s Music at 8 p.m. June 5: Open Mike; June 6: Bob Schoen with Cheryl McBride; June 7: Irrationals; June 8: Anna and Susie Laraine and Sallie Hanna-Rhine, 10 p.m.: Bluesman Hideo Date; June 9: Robin Gregory and Bliss Rodriguez, 10 p.m.: The Ducksan Distone; June 10: Choro Time with Ron Galen and Friends. $2 weeknights, $3 weekends. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA  

Ashkenaz June 5, 8 p.m.: Berkeley High Ki-Swahili Club Trip to Africa benefit, hip-hop/reggae dance party; June 6, 9 p.m.: Aux Cajunals; June 7, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave; June 8, 9:30 p.m. Ali Khan with Bellydance Troupe Lunatique; June 9, 9:30 p.m.: Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers; June 10, 7 p.m.: Food Not Bombs with Goodbye Flowers and INKA. 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. June 6: Freight 33rd Anniversary concert series with Leni Stern, Jenna Mammina, Jill Cohn, Pig Iron. June :7 Alice Stuart, Folk blues, $17.50; June 8: Cats & Jammers Hot swing. $17.50; , June 9.: Danny Heines & Michael Manring; June 10: Roy Tyler and New Directions; June 12: Keith Little with Del Williams; June 13: Danu. $17.50.1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Peña Cultural Center “Cantiflas!” June 7 and June 8, 8 p.m. Herbert Siguenza, of the critically acclaimed trio Culture Clash, stars in this bilingual work-in-progress about legendary Mexican comedian Marion Moreno. With guest performers Eduardo Robledo and Tanya Vlach. 

$16. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 www.lapena.org  

Jupiter All shows at 8 p.m. June 5, Alias Smith; June 6, Lithium House; June 7, Beatdown with DJs Delon, Yamu, Add1; June 8, Harvey Wainapel Quartet; June 9, Om Trio; June 12, Ben Graves Trio 2181 Shattuck Ave 843-8277  

The Berkeley TEMPO Festival of Contemporary Performances All performances begin at 8 p.m. June 5: Music of Edmund Campion with dancers; June 6: Shafqat Ali Khan, Pakistani Khyal vocals with David Wessel and Matthew Wright; June 8: Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players; June 9: John Scott, John Abercrombie, George Marsh, Rich Fudoli, Mel Graves. $15 Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus www.tempofestival.org 

The Farallone String Quartet June 10, 7:30 p.m. Quartets by Haydn. $8 - $10 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 

World Harmony Chorus June 10, 2 p.m. Vocal music from around the world. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra June 21. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

Sungugal Ballet June 10, 4:30 p.m. Featuring master percussionist Djibi Faye and West African Band with traditional West African dance. $6 - $12. Jazzschool/La Note 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

“Big Love” by Charles L. Mee Through June 10 Directed by Les Waters and loosely based on the Greek Drama, “The Suppliant Woman,” by Aeschylus. Fifty brides who are being forced to marry fifty brothers flee to a peaceful villa on the Italian coast in search of sanctuary. $15.99 - $51 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 

“Planet Janet” Through June 10, Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m. Follows six young urbanites’ struggles in sex and dating. Impact Theatre presentation written by Bret Fetzer, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7 - $12 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere Through June 10, Fri - Sun, 8 p.m. Berkeley-based Women in Time Productions presents this comic love story full of riotous wooing, venomous scheming and provocative dialogue. All female design and production staff. $17 - $20 Il Teatro 450 449 Powell St. San Francisco 415-433-1172 or visit www.womenintime.com 

“Cymbeline” Through June 24, Tues. - Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Opening of the California Shakespeare Festival features one of Shakespeare’s first romances, directed by Daniel Fish. $12 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

“The Laramie Project” Through July 8, Wed. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepherd. The play is about the community and the impact Shaper’s death had on its members. $10 - $50. The Roda Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“A Life In the Theatre” Previews June 8, 9, 10, 13. Opens June 14, runs through July 15. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. David Mamet play about the lives of two actors, considered a metaphor for life itself. Directed by Nancy Carlin. $30-$35. $26 preview nights. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant 843-4822 

Pacific Film Archive June 5, 7:30: From the East; June 6, 7:30: Prank and Parody; June 7, 7:00: Viy; June 8, 7:30: Aerograd; June 8, 9:15: The Letter That Was Never Sent; June 9, 7:30: Comic and Avant-Garde Shorts; June 10, 5:30: Pitfall, 7:25: Woman In the Dunes. Pacific Film Archive Theater 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

“The Producers” June 10. Revisit this outrageous comedy classic, starring Zero Mostel and written by Mel Brooks. $2 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

“Elemental” The art of Linda Mieko Allen Through June 9, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 www.traywick.com 

East Bay Open Studios June 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Jennifer Foxly: Oil paintings and 2-d mixed media works 3206 Boise St.; Lewis Suzuki: Scenes from California to the Philippines, florals to nudes 2240 Grant St.; Guy Colwell: Painted replicas and recent original work 2028 9th St. (open until 7 p.m.) 

Wosene Kosrof June 13, 7 - 8:30 p.m. Ethiopian-born Berkeley resident will be exhibiting and discussing his paintings. One piece will be up for auction, proceeds to benefit the YMCA. Free. Crystal Room, Shattuck Hotel 2086 Allston 848-9622 ext. 3541  

PASSING: The Re-Definition of Sex and Gender Through the Personal Re-Presentation of Self Through June 16, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Black and white photographs by Ann P. Meredith. Free. Reception with the artist June 7, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St.  

Ledger drawings of Michael and Sandra Horse Exhibit runs through June 18. Gathering Tribes Gallery 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038 www.gatheringtribes.com  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Tyler James Hoare Sculpture and Collage Through June 27, call for hours. Party June 9, 5-9 p.m. with music by Sauce Piquante. The Albatross Pub 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ako Castuera, Ryohei Tanaka, Rob Sato June 5 - June 30, Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Group exhibition, recent paintings. Artist’s reception June 9, 6:30 - 9 p.m. with music by Knewman and Espia. !hey! Gallery 4920 B Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349  

“Watershed 2001” Through July 14, Wednesday - Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. Exhibition of painting, drawing, sculpture and installation that explore images and issues about our watershed. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts and Paintings Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the past, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

“Geographies of My Heart” Collage paintings by Jennifer Colby through August 24; Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood) 

“Queens of Ethiopia: Intuitive Inspirations,” the exceptional art of Esete-Miriam A. Menkir. Through July 11. Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 ext 307 

“The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” chronicles the transformation of the city of Berkeley in this 10 year period. Thursday through Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. All events at 7:30 p.m. June 5: Timothy Ferris will read from “Life Beyond Earth”; June 6: Ralph Dranow and Carla Kandinsky read poetry; June 7: Dr. Amit Goswami talks about “The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist’s Guide to Enlightenment”; June 8: Scott Carrier reads from “Running After Antelope”; June 9: Richard Russo reads from “Empire Falls”, June 10: Irvine Welsh talks about “Glue.” 

Cody’s Books 1730 Fourth St. All events at 7 p.m. June 6: Peter Mayle teaches “French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew; June 8: For the younger readers, Eoin Colfer reads from “Artemis Fowl”; June 9: For the younger readers, Lemony Snicket reports on “The Vile Village.”  

Weekly Poetry Nitro Mondays 6:30 p.m sign up, 7 - 9 p.m. reading. Performing poets in a dinner atmosphere. Featured poets: June 11, Ivan Arguelles. Cafe de la Paz 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour. June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Public power advocates spoke out Thursday evening at a forum hosted by Assemblymember Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley. 

“Many people would tell you that we’re not having an energy crisis, but a financial crisis,” Aroner told the 40 people gathered in the City Council chambers.  

Referring to the massive payments going from Pacific Gas & Electric to Texas-based power generators to purchase energy, she quipped: “There’s been a transfer of funds from California to Texas.” 

The solution? Public ownership of power. 

But not municipalization. 

Aroner is calling for a Public Utilities Commission study on the possibility of an East Bay Municipal Utility District takeover of PG&E’s power-generating facilities on the Mokelumne River in the Sierra’s. She is backing Sen. Don Perata’s SB1008 which would require the study. 

Panelists appeared to agree. Public take over of private power distribution may not be as complex as it may seem. One does not have to start at zero. 

“EBMUD’s authority (already) includes the possible sale of electricity,” said Doug Linney, a director on the water board, who represents Alameda, San Leandro and parts of Oakland. 

In fact, the approximately 80-year-old water district is already generating some of its own electricity needs at its Pardee and Commache facilities. It generates about $3-4 million of the $8 million in electricity it uses annually, said EBMUD spokesperson Charles Hardy, in a phone interview Friday. 

Panelist Cynthia Wooten, a citizen advocate for public power, also called for the water district to take over some of the generation and distribution of electric power.  

“The truth is, PG&E has betrayed us,” she said, noting that the publicly-owned utility already has a trained and unionized labor force, as well as bonding capacity. 

The water district also asserts that it can do better than PG&E. “EBMUD can provide more power at a lower price than private operators, while reducing demand in its own water and wastewater operations,” says an EBMUD brochure. “Because it does not have to share money earned from power generation with stockholders, EBMUD can pass the savings on to California alacrity consumers.” 

A resolution from the California Municipal Utilities Association is even stronger. It says, in part: “Publicly owned electric utilities are not operated on a profit basis. Their role has always been to provide reasonably-priced electricity and services valued by the communities they serve.” 

“If there’s the will, we can get this done,” panelist Wooten said.  

Call it glorified batting practice. 

St. Mary’s coach Andy Shimabukuro said that his team’s 28-0 thrashing of St. Elizabeth’s Friday afternoon in Berkeley was a warm-up game for next week’s pivotal contest against Piedmont. 

Piedmont currently leads the Bay Shore Athletic League and with Friday’s win, St. Mary’s remains in second place (8-2 BSAL, 14-9 overall). The winner of next week’s matchup gets a first-round bye in the playoffs. 

“We took out all our starters in the second inning,” Shimabukuro said. “This was a practice for us, but we want to maintain our momentum going into next week and into the playoffs.” 

St. Mary’s momentum has carried them to wins in 12 of the team’s last 14 games, after the Panthers started the season winning just two out of its first nine. 

Friday’s game was called in the fifth inning, but still took nearly two hours and 45 minutes to complete. The St. Mary’s side of the first alone took nearly an hour to play. 

Panthers catcher Marcus Johnson led off the bottom of the first inning with a triple to right-center. It took just one more hit, a single by Jeremiah Fielder, to start the St. Mary’s scoring spree. 

St. Mary’s started the game with five straight hits and scored 17 runs in the first inning, led by Joe Starkey’s two-run double and Omar Young’s three-run double.  

The Panthers left the bases loaded at the end of one, but not before recording four straight two-out singles by Johnson, Brendan Hartoy, Mike Glasshoff and Dave Lawrence. St. Mary’s sent 23 batters to the plate in the first inning outburst. 

“I hope we can keep playing like this,” said Johnson, who went 4-for-6 and drove in two runs.  

Tom Carman threw three innings of one-hit ball for the Panthers. He struck out six and walked just one. Offensively, Carman drew two walks and drove in two runs in the third inning with a double.  

Steve Drapeau relieved Carman in the fourth and allowed no hits and one walk while striking out three Mustangs. 

After the monster first inning, St. Mary’s added another four runs in the second and seven in the third. St. Elizabeth’s retired the Panthers in order in the fourth inning when Eddie Russaw replaced Larry Allen on the mound. 

St. Mary’s drubbed St. Elizabeth’s earlier this season 13-3, which until Friday’s game was the Panthers’ highest run total this season, Johnson said.  

After starting the season poorly, the Panthers caught fire when basketball season ended and two-sport athletes Fielder and Chase Moore returned to the diamond. 

“We’ve been playing well as a team since the seniors came back from basketball,” Johnson said. “This was a little workout for Piedmont next week.”

After months of controversy, the City Council will hold the first of two public hearings tonight on a synagogue and school proposed for 1301 Oxford St. 

The 32,000-square-foot project, proposed by the Beth El Congregation, has pitted the congregation against a group of neighbors, organized as the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association, who have vigorously opposed the design and size of the synagogue.  

Tonight’s hearing is part of an appeal by LOCCNA of the Zoning Adjustments Board approval of the project. 

A public hearing on a separate appeal, filed by Beth El member Harry Pollock on behalf of the congregation, will be held June 26. This is an appeal of a decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to deny an alteration permit for the project. The LPC’s denial prohibits Beth El from altering the property, which includes disallowing the congregation the right to raze existing structures on the property. The site is the location of the Byrne Mansion that burned down in 1985. Despite the loss of the building the site itself is still a designated city landmark, which LOCCNA argues would be significantly altered by the development. 

According to a report from the city manager, both appeals are scheduled to be resolved by the council no later than July 24, the last meeting before the council’s summer break. 

An indication of how controversial the proposed project has been might be the size of the appeal report which cost the city $3,888 for 35 copies of the 2,600 pages of individual correspondence, exhibits and staff reports. The unwieldy document, the largest anyone in the City Clerk’s Office can remember seeing, inspired one city employee to call it “The Ugly Thing.” 

LOCCNA appeals ZAB decision 

Sharon Duggan, an attorney representing LOCCNA and 10 other environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Urban Creeks Council, the Golden Gate Audubon Society and the International Rivers Network, filed the appeal to the City Council, challenging the Zoning Adjustments Board’s March 8 approval of a use permit for the project. 

The appeal claims the project, as it’s designed, will preclude a culverted section of Codornices Creek from ever being daylighted, that events at the synagogue will cause traffic and parking problems and that the main structure is out of proportion to the rest of the neighborhood.  

“To me the creek is the most important issue,” said LOCCNA member Alan Gould. “And the creek is being negatively impacted by the project’s size.” 

Beth El will protect the property 

Pollock argues the project has been changed significantly since the beginning of the application process and that the congregation will landscape a property that has been neglected. He said the congregation would be respectful of the historic nature of the site. 

“This has been a lengthy process and the end result is a better project than we started with,” Pollock said. “The project that’s coming to council is one they can be proud of approving.” 

Beth El Congregation purchased the Oxford Street property because it outgrew its present site at 2301 Vine St. “We are doubled up in classrooms and meeting rooms,” Pollock said. “This will give us a chance to move into a more appropriate site in, frankly, a more beautiful location.” 

In May, the council requested the opposing sides meet with a mediator and attempt to find a compromise. Both sides agreed and there have been two meetings in recent weeks with a third scheduled for Wednesday. The meetings are confidential and neither side will comment on whether they’ve been fruitful. 

No decision will be made at tonight’s meeting. 

The hearing will take place in the City Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. They will be broadcast on KPFB 89.3 FM and B-TV, ch-25. 

In anticipation of a major earthquake that could isolate Berkeley for up to seven days, the City Council and the Board of Education are holding a joint meeting Tuesday to discuss a preparedness plan. 

A Disaster Council report estimates the city’s needs in the aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake. According to the report, an earthquake that size could render 25 percent of Berkeley residences uninhabitable leaving as many as 20,000 people without shelter.  

The Disaster Council calls for a partnership between the School Board and the city to prepare schools and neighborhoods for a major earthquake, an event most experts say could happen at any time. 

The council’s report says that the American Red Cross is woefully unprepared for a major quake. The ARC only has 10,000 cots in storage for  

the entire Bay Area, less than 

4 percent of the estimated 275,000 that will be needed.  

“The City of Berkeley is responsible for the care and shelter of its citizens following an earthquake or other disaster. We are obligated to prepare for that eventuality,” says the Disaster Council report. 

Associate Analyst of the Office of Emergency Services, Dory Ehrlich, said if there is a major quake on the Hayward fault, which runs through the UC Berkeley campus, the city will need enough tents, cots and blankets to shelter those who have lost their homes.  

The Disaster Council estimates the cost of properly preparing the city at $1.3 million. The funds have not been identified yet, but Ehrlich said the Disaster Council is hoping the city’s general fund would allocate the necessary funding for the various preparedness programs.  

The report recommends the city and School Board focus on three areas of readiness: preparing schools, stockpiling emergency supplies and citizen emergency training. 

The report suggests Berkeley stockpile emergency supplies in 20-foot-long metal storage containers. The containers would be filled with food, water, first-aid equipment as well as search and rescue supplies. The report recommends stashing the containers in schools. 

The schools have been seismically retrofitted and are expected to withstand a large earthquake. This makes them good candidates for emergency centers after an earthquake.  

Children are an especially vulnerable population in the event of a disaster and, according to the report, the city’s schools are not fully prepared. Emergency services are likely to be overwhelmed and the report suggests schools be prepared to care for students for up to seven days without outside help. 

The schools will face three tasks after a severe earthquake: sheltering and caring for children, rescue and emergency first aid, and switching to use as public shelter facilities. 

In order to accomplish these tasks, school employees will have to be trained and have access to emergency supplies. To date school employees have received very little training and only some schools have modest amounts of supplies, according to the report. 

The report suggests an increase in the Community Emergency Response Training budget of $3,750 to expand the CERT training program to Berkeley High School. The extra funding will cover the publication of 750 CERT training manuals and extra Office of Emergency Services training and support staff. 

The report warns that neighborhoods could be on their own after a major earthquake and neighborhoods should also be prepared for self sufficiency for up to seven days. 

It’s recommended the city step up its current citizen training. According to the report, 700 citizens have attended emergency training courses since August 1999. It is suggested the city continue to reach out to community groups such as Neighborhood Watch organizations and other groups to make them aware of the importance of being prepared.  

To accomplish these things the Emergency Council recommends the city hire a full-time emergency planner, a neighborhood coordinator, an emergency response trainer and office support staff. 

“The question is not whether we will suffer such an event, but when,” the report reads. “We are well on our way to being a prepared community. But now is not the time to falter, there is still much work to be done.” 

The joint City Council and Board of Education meeting will be convened on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.

“Stand up if you think students have the power to make this school a better place,” Berkeley High senior Maryan Katouli sang out over the PA system. 

Of the hundred or so students gathered in the school’s Little Theater for a three period presentation/discussion on school reform, slightly more than a dozen battled up from their chairs. A few more made it about half way up before they were defeated by the earth’s cruel gravitational pull. 

Most of the 50 or so African Americans in the room stayed firmly in their seats throughout. 

It wasn’t exactly a ringing affirmation for the idea of student-led education reform, but Katuoli and her companions up by the stage stood their ground. 

“You should all be standing,” admonished Berkeley High junior Nicole Heyman. “If we let adults make the changes, then they’re going to make the changes that suit themselves.” 

In a forum organized “by the students for the students,” Katouli, Heyman and several Berkeley High upper classmen explained the academic achievement gap in excruciating detail before offering their observations and recommendations for making Berkeley High a better school. 

To begin, one student did a Powerpoint presentation on the achievement gap. As statistic after statistic flashed across the screen, the increasing outrage in the audience electrified the air in the small auditorium.  

“It that makes you upset, then get involved in changing this school,” Heyman exhorted her classmates.  

But it wasn’t all outrage at the existence of an achievement gap so much as outrage at that these student leaders who would dare to “explain” the gap, when no one can attend Berkeley High and not know it is a place where many black and Latino students are not “performing” the way their teachers would like them to. (Last year 50 percent of Berkeley High’s African American students had a GPA of 2.0 or less, according to the students’ presentation.) 

To hammer away at the point was obviously offensive for many in the audience.  

“We know what (the achievement gap) is,” shouted one. 

“What’s you’re point,” called out another, as the hissing and catcalls continued to mount. 

The tension decreased as the day went on and different classes revolved in and out of the audience. Having finished their presentation, the student leaders began to engage the audience in a broader discussion about Berkeley High’s problems, soliciting solutions along the way.  

One African American girl complained that many minority students feel like the teachers focus on the white students and are dismissive of the minority students. When there is a substitute teacher of color in these classes, students of color all of a sudden begin to talk more than ever before, she said. 

Minority students end up thinking to themselves, “I’m not going to come to class if this teacher isn’t going to listen to me,” the girl said. 

Matt Chavez, one of the students leading the forum, said the school desperately needs more minority teachers “so students can see, you know, that we can be teachers and we can be professionals.” 

Chavez also recommended that teachers meet regularly with the parents of every student to keep them up to date on what their children need to do to get into college. To often, said Chavez, there is an institutionalized expectation that white and Asian students will go to college but African Americans and Latinos will not.  

At the end of the day, students who organized the forum said they hoped it would spark a debate and encourage students to become involved in discussions of school reform at Berkeley High.  

“We’re at a point where we can either go downhill or go uphill,” Katouli said. “It’s up to students right now to realize what we want our school to be.”  

Currently, an advisory committee made up of parents, teachers and some students is considering a reform plan that would divide Berkeley High into “small learning communities.” In small schools of about 500 students apiece, the argument goes, students could get more of the individualized attention they so clearly need. This is turn would help combat truancy, campus violence and the achievement gap, small learning community supporters say. 

Berkeley High teacher Tammy Harkins, who teachers a class on The Literature of Education Reform, said she has seen more student interest in school reform this year than at any time in here 11 years at the school. 

The time has come to recognize that schools are serving a different purpose today than before, and to reform educational programs to reflect this fact, Harkins said. It’s no longer enough serve up the traditional curriculum and expect kids to take it from there, Harkins said. 

“It’s almost as if the family has been shifted here,” Harkins said of Berkeley High. “Kids come here to be normalized, to have a relationship with adults.” 

Many students Monday said they like the idea of small learning communities, but had questions about just exactly how it would be implemented at Berkeley High. And they said the wanted to have a chance to critique any plans before they are implemented. 

“We can’t let the teacher decide what’s right for our school, because it’s our future,” said Berkeley High senior Kenyatte Davis. “It’s our lives that it really effects.” 

Berkeley Observed 

Looking back, seeing ahead 

Prominently perched on a steep hillside overlooking Spruce Street in north Berkeley, the Dempster House is an intriguing and distinctive mixture of Berkeley brown shingle and remnants of the Victorian era.  

A polygonal tower with a steep “witches cap” roof over the entrance is a legacy of the 1880s and 1890s.  

The house, however, is a simple rectangular shape with an open-gable roof with deep sheltering eaves.  

The large entrance porch repeats the shape of the tower and is sheltered by a polygonal- shaped roof supported by square posts and exposed beams and brackets. The house gives the appearance of being wrapped in porches.  

The Dempster House was designed by its owner, Roy R. Dempster, and constructed by the firm of Kidder and McCullough in 1908.  

The Dempsters had lost their house on Lake Merritt in the 1906 earthquake, so the house was designed to withstand earthquakes.  

Large structural beams were used and the house was bolted to the foundation. There is even a fire hose and hook-up on each floor. 

Roy Dempster graduated from the University of California in 1895 and had studied physics and philosophy. He managed the family’s interests in real estate, lumber and shipping.  

Descendants of Roy Dempster still live in the house and much of the furniture is original.  

Photos displayed throughout the house show older generations of Dempster family members sitting on chairs still used in the living room today. 

This house, and several other early 20th century homes designed by Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, and others, will be open on Sunday, May 6 for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage’s annual house tour. Call 841-2242 for information.

Known for her straight talk, determination and generous spirit, Barbara Ann Hicks Moscowitz died of natural causes at her Berkeley home May 24.  

Co-founder of Moe’s Books on Telegraph Avenue and founder of the Waldon School in Berkeley, Mrs. Moscowitz was 78 years old at the time of her death. 

“She was tough,” said Gene Barone, manager of Moe’s Books. “She was her own person.” 

Mrs. Moscowitz’s political activism in the realm of civil rights, rights for Central American refugees and women’s rights, stands out to those who knew her. “She was left wing, counter culture,” Barone said. “She had refugees at her home and gave them financial assistance.” 

Her political activism tied her to the group of people who created Pacifica Radio in 1949. The vision of these pacifists did not stop at founding a radio station. “The original idea of the Pacifica Foundation was to have a school,” said Marie Switkes, who works at Waldon School, the arts-focused school Mrs. Moscowitz founded in 1958. 

Less than one week before she died, Mrs. Moskowitz attended an event with jazz singers and arts and crafts sale at the school. “She came in a wheelchair and sat in the sun,” Switkes said. 

Mrs. Moscowitz leaves behind a son, Roger Stevens, and daughters Doris Moskowitz, Alison Booth and Katy Pearre. Memorial services were held on Saturday.

At age 4 Stephanie Huff’s parents were told she could possibly live until 11.  

After a valiant struggle with cystic fibrosis, Stephanie died at Stanford Hospital on March 25 at the age of 39. She had a remarkable resilience, discipline and persistence in dealing with the challenges of accessing medical care for her condition and patients’ rights in general. 

Motivation and enthusiasm for life kept her alive all these years, well beyond expectations. 

She was a member of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists where she sought a spiritual home. In 1999 she asked the Social Action Committee of the Fellowship for help in getting on the list at Stanford for a double lung transplant, having been turned down previously. The Committee brainstormed with Stephanie and petitioned Stanford in every possible way to reconsider but they declined to deal with the Committee. Then Judith Scherr of the Daily Planet wrote an excellent & touching article on Stephanie’s plight. This was followed by other media articles and likely persuaded Stanford to “reconsider,” but it may have been too late 

physically and she was turned down for the last time. But Stephanie was much more than her fight against the medical establishment and her “rage against the dying of the light.” (Dylan Thomas) Since her student days at Santa Cruz she had been involved with feminist, peace and justice and disability groups as well as Livermore Action Group and the San Francisco/Lesbian/Gay Chorus. Despite her failing strength, she remained vitally interested in her family, friends and current events. Till the end she drew inspiration from music, art and her devoted family. 

She is survived by her mother Carolyn Carpenter of Pt. Richmond, her father and stepmother in Hawaii and her brother and family in Massachusetts. 

A Life Celebration will be held Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall at 1924 Cedar St. The Hall is wheelchair accessible and all are welcome. Stephanie’s favorite Thai and Mexican food will be served after the Memorial Service. Donations can be made in Stephanie’s memory to the Richmond Art Center, 2541 Barrett Ave., Richmond, 94804. For further information call 528-5403. 

Obituary submitted by friends of Stephanie Huff at the Berkeley Fellowship.

BERKELEY — The building of the future will be able to keep standing even after a bomb blast knocks out first-floor supports, scientists say. 

How far into the future? About two weeks, it turns out. 

On Monday, University of California, Berkeley, professor Hassan Astaneh supervised the final test of the new technology, which uses cables embedded in the floors and encircling the building to act as emergency support if a supporting column is destroyed. 

The collapse of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more, was caused by a bomb that destroyed a single supporting column. 

The new technology – the same kind of engineering that keeps suspension bridges up – will be used at the new federal courthouse that is about to be constructed in Seattle. It also is expected to go into a new federal courthouse that will start going up in San Francisco in the next few years. 

“This is our confirmation,” said Willie Hirano, a structural engineer with the Government Services Administration in Seattle who observed the test. 

The design was originally developed by the structural and civil engineering firm of Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire of Seattle. 

Scientists at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had run a number of tests and simulations. But the test Monday went further, taking the fortified floor to the limit. 

First, a critical column supporting the floor, built about three feet off the ground, was taken away, leaving just the cables holding the floor up. 

“Five, four, three, two, one!” called out professor Hassan Astaneh as thousands of pounds of pressure were slowly exerted on the floor. 

For a few minutes, bolts snapped and steel girders groaned with the ominous sound effects of a disaster movie. 

“Eighty thousand pounds on the floor ... 130,000 pounds on the floor,” Astaneh said as the concrete slab sagged with a thunderous rumbling. 

“It’s holding – 190,000 pounds, it’s holding,” Astaneh said. 

The test stopped at 190,000 pounds because that was how much pressure it took to force the test floor down to the real floor below.  

The cables held and when the pressure was reversed the test floor slowly rose about 18 inches. 

Better design can’t save people who are next to a bomb when it explodes.  

An explosion creates 40,000 pounds of pressure per square foot; the worst storm in nature exerts 40 pounds per square foot, Astaneh said. 

But the cable should save lives by preventing upper floors from collapsing and giving people room to escape, Astaneh said.  

Cables could also make repair much simpler, allowing workers to jack up the floor and fix the bolts. 

Putting cables into new construction such as the federal courthouse adds about $2 a square foot to the regular cost of $200 a square foot, Astaneh said. They also could be used in retrofitting, probably for about the same cost, he said. 

“The next step is application,” he said.

In the 1970s, energy conservation was Jimmy Carter in a cardigan telling people to bundle up and turn down the heat. Today, it’s about using energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, computerized thermostats and motion sensors. 

To many Americans, California’s energy crisis is a problem isolated on the West Coast. Yet it has resurrected interest in conservation that hasn’t been heard since gas lines and the OPEC oil embargo more than two decades ago. 

President Bush on Thursday ordered federal agencies to cut power use in California where rolling blackouts have catapulted the debate over future energy supplies to the top of the national agenda. 

Bush’s conservation message came just days after Vice President Dick Cheney, who claims the whole nation could face blackouts like those in California unless it finds more oil, natural gas and coal, said America cannot “simply conserve or ration our way out of the situation we’re in.” 

Environmentalists maintain the Bush administration is using California’s electricity crisis – largely due to a failed attempt at electricity deregulation – to push through a broader energy plan to drill for oil and natural gas in now off-limits areas of Alaska and the West. Hardly any power plants run on oil, they note. 

And energy-conservation groups say if everybody made better use of the energy already being generated, America would not need many of the 1,300-plus power plants that Bush and Cheney say demand will require over the next 20 years. 

Nobody will have to sit in the dark, they say, if it were made easier for Americans to use less energy through more fuel efficient light bulbs, motors, automobiles, office buildings and homes. 

“In today’s world we are not asking people to not use their (air conditioning) – that is not today’s message of conservation,” said Rozanne Weissman, a spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy, a Washington-based nonprofit group. “What we need to do is look at using our energy more efficiently and using today’s technologies to help do it for us.” 

According to the alliance: 

• If each household in the United States replaced four regular 100-watt bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, the output of 30 medium-sized power plants (each with a 300-megawatt capacity) would not be needed. 

• If the Bush administration’s new efficiency standards for air conditioners and heat pumps improved energy use by 30 percent instead of 20 percent, the output of 138 of these power plants would not been needed during peak use times. 

Americans could even unplug idle appliances – TVs, VCRs, cable boxes, CD players and microwaves – when they go out of town. Some of these appliances continue to consume energy when switched off. The power keeps display clocks lighted and memory chips and remote controls working. The alliance says these electric leaks cost consumers more than $3 billion a year. 

Conservation does help, according to Alexandra von Meier, director of the Environmental Technology Center at Sonoma State University in California. She told a House energy subcommittee on Thursday that residential and commercial buildings use about 35 percent of the energy – electricity and fuels – in the United States. 

“This amount of energy can be cut in half, if not more, by implementing the things we already know about how to make buildings more energy efficient and, at the same time, more comfortable,” she said, explaining how Venetian blinds hung on the outside of the technology center keeps the glass from transferring heat. 

Howard Geller, former executive director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, told the committee about an Energy Department study in November 2000 that said increasing energy efficiency throughout the economy could cut national energy use by at least 10 percent by 2010 and by 20 percent in 2020. 

“Even though the United States is much more energy-efficient today than it was 25 years ago, there is still enormous potential for additional cost-effective energy savings,” said Geller. 

A conservation group plans to buy more than 30,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada from a timber company and make that land available for public use in the next two to three years. 

The first phase of the agreement involves the Trust for Public Land buying 6,100 acres along the North Fork of the American River from Sierra Pacific Industries, a logging company, for about $6 million. 

TPL officials said at a news conference Monday they eventually could buy up to 50,000 acres from SPI for preservation. 

“We have frequently crossed the Rubicon this year, and in years to come, we’re hoping to buy the Rubicon,” said Alan Front, senior vice president and director of federal affairs for TPL, referring to one of the rivers in the area to be preserved. 

SPI, the largest private landowner in California with 1.5 million acres, decided to make the parcels available to the organization after an inventory of its land, said Mark Emmerson, the company’s chief financial officer. He said it would be more economically viable to have the land in the public trust, rather than log it. 

“It wasn’t optimal for timber production,” Emmerson said. “We could have sold it for other uses, but we think this land is of greater use visually and recreationally.” 

The first 6,100 acres will be managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and future acquisitions that are part of the agreement could be handed over to the federal or state governments, or another nonprofit organization for public use, said David Sutton, director of TPL’s Sierra Nevada Program. 

Money for the first acquisition will come partly from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. TPL expects to raise the rest of the money from private donors. 

Some environmental organizations commended the agreement, saying it will help protect what they call “critical lands” in the Sierra Nevada. 

“We have been working on protecting the North Fork for 40 years,” said Eric Gerstung of the Sierra Club. “This means a great deal for the public and for our membership.” 

Jay Watson, regional director for the Wilderness Society, agreed. 

“The eventual public ownership of these lands will help provide long-lasting ecological integrity to these river ecosystems, as well as providing highly valuable outdoor recreation to the residents of the Golden State,” he said in a statement. 

On the Net: 

The Trust for Public Land: http://www.tpl.org 

Sierra Pacific Industries: http://www.sierrapacificind.com/ 

The Wilderness Society: http://www.wilderness.org

SACRAMENTO — Attorneys who argued against the state’s vehicle smog fees are unlikely to receive an $88 million fee an arbitration board once awarded them, a judge ruled Friday. 

Lawyers for the state called the decision a victory for taxpayers and said they expected the fee to eventually be cut to less than $18 million, adding at least $70 million to the state treasury. 

Representatives of the firms originally awarded the large fee by referred comment to their lawyers, who did not return calls seeking comment. 

The decision came two weeks after Sacramento Superior Court Judge Joe Gray’s tentative decision that said the three-member arbitration panel that awarded the fee exceeded its authority. 

The delay was requested by the attorneys who successfully argued that the state knowingly and unconstitutionally collected a $300 fee on out-of-state car registrations until 1999. The fee was intended to limit the entry of cars from states with less restrictive emissions policies. 

The Legislature decided to return the fee plus interest in as many as 1.7 million cases. 

Elwood Lui, a Los Angeles attorney who helped the state fight the fee, said he liked the judge’s decision but expected it to be appealed. 

In 1998, a superior court judge awarded the firms $18 million when he struck down the smog fee. But Gov. Gray Davis sought to have the fees set through binding, private arbitration, because he thought the panel would drive the fee even lower. 

Gray did not specify a fee, so the attorneys may receive the original $18 million. 

The case could be settled on appeal, another arbitration panel could be convened or the Legislature could pass a law paying the attorneys a set amount. 

The attorneys first asked for $100 million, or about 17 percent of the $665 million earmarked for the smog refunds. Instead, they were given 13.3 percent, or about $8,800 an hour. 

Another aspect of the arbitrated fee is to be decided next week. Board of Equalization chairman Dean Andal has sued to stop the award on the basis that the arbitration panel spent tax dollars, a legislative power. 

Andal’s attorney, Eric Norby, said the issue would likely be settled in higher courts, but added he was pleased with the judge’s decision Friday. 

“At this point $88 million more is going back to the general fund, meaning more money for schools, police, or to pay one day’s power at least” Norby said. 

An important part of the judge’s decision was that the five firms – Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, Weiss & Yourman, Blumenthal Ostroff & Markham, Sullivan Hill Lewin Rez & Engel, and Richard M. Pearl — should not be paid for lobbying the Legislature to order the refunds, Norby said. 

The original case, Jordan v. state Department of Motor Vehicles, ended October 1999, six months before the legislation passed. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Gray’s tentative ruling: http://www.saccourt.com/courtrooms/trulings/dept54/apr18d54.tr 

PASADENA — A new book that translates color images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope into tactile illustrations will allow the blind to touch the stars – as well as galaxies, planets and other astronomical objects captured by the orbiting observatory. 

The 87-page book is the first to pair actual images acquired by the 11-year-old Hubble with clear plastic overlays that render each in raised patterns the blind can read. Braille and large-print text descriptions accompany each of the book’s 14 images. 

“It allows people of varying visual ability to view the book together,” said Bernhard Beck-Winchatz, an astronomer at Chicago’s DePaul University who created the book with astronomer and author Noreen Grice. 

The book begins with a Hubble image of Earth and then moves outward into the universe, showing everything from Jupiter to the Eskimo Nebula. It ends with a widefield view of scores of galaxies billions of light-years away. “We can take people on a journey of discovery, starting at the Earth and to some of the deepest places seen,” Grice said during a press conference at the 198th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. 

Throughout the book, “Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy,” identical features are reproduced in tactile form by using consistent patterns or textures. Rings are illustrated with dotted lines, for instance, and curved ones represent gas currents like those that encircle Jupiter. “They can take this with their fingertips and paint an image inside,” said Benning Wentworth III, a science teacher at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, whose students helped develop the book. 

Beck-Winchatz said the idea for the book came when he won an outreach grant connected to his Hubble research on galaxies with black holes. He soon contacted Grice, who had already written a book on astronomy for the blind, but that did not include actual photographs. 

“I really liked the idea. What I didn’t like was it only used hand sketches, when there is such a wealth of real images out there,” Beck-Winchatz said. 

Working in the kitchen of her Connecticut home, Grice traced out each image on aluminum plates. The plates were then used to create the plastic overlays, which match perfectly the underlying color photocopied images. 

The entire book was then assembled by hand, all on a shoestring budget covered by the $10,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Grice said she expected the book would be prove popular with science classes for the blind. 

“This is the only way to touch something that is so distant,” she said. 

Only three prototypes exist now, but Grice and Beck-Winchatz hope to print 400 copies for sale beginning later this summer. Each should cost less than $40, or slightly more than it costs to produce. 

Although the tactile versions fall short of reproducing the intricate detail of many of the Hubble images, Wentworth said the overlays contain a powerful message for blind students of astronomy. 

“That there are objects, they are out there and they are very real and we can start painting them in our minds,” said Wentworth. 

LOS ANGELES — Baja California was wrenched from mainland Mexico 6 million years ago by a series of earthquakes, starting in earnest the peninsula’s 160-mile push to the northwest, a study says. 

Geologists have long known that movement along the boundary separating the North American and Pacific plates tore Baja California from the rest of Mexico, opening up what is now known as the Gulf of California. But the timing had been a question. 

The break separating the peninsula from the mainland is the southern extension of the San Andreas fault system that runs nearly the length of California. 

But whether the movement began in a gradual process as many as 12 million years ago, or more abruptly in more recent times, remained unknown. 

Michael Oskin, a graduate student in geology at the California Institute of Technology, said he has found and matched identical volcanic rocks on opposite sides of the gulf that allowed him to pinpoint the size, timing and rate of the movement between the two plates. The results are published in the May issue of the journal Geology. 

By correlating the different tie-points – now separated by the roughly 160 miles of slip that has taken place along the fault system, but closely joined in the distant past – Oskin said the study he co-authored shows that Baja California started pulling away 12.5 million years ago, but the bulk of the the peninsula’s movement has taken place within the last 6.5 million years. 

“We have now concrete evidence that the motion history of the gulf can be very well divided around this 6.5 million-year-old time interval,” Oskin said. 

One expert in the geologic history of Baja California said the study further refines the chronology of the peninsula’s evolution. 

“This is fairly important in that it’s by far the most accurate matching point across the gulf to date, and it’s certainly the youngest that you can come up with,” said Gary Axen, an assistant professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Continental rifting probably first opened up what is now the Gulf of California more than 12 million years ago when subduction off the shore of northwest Mexico ground to a halt. 

The Gulf opened even farther apart some 6 million to 7 million years after that, when Baja California shifted onto the Pacific plate from the North American plate and the San Andreas fault system plunged farther southward. 

If it weren’t for barriers, the Gulf of California would stretch farther north, reaching the depression now occupied by California’s Salton Sea, which is well below sea level. However, the troughlike depression is blocked by the delta of the Colorado River, which has steadily poured sediments into the Gulf of California over millions of years. 

LOS ANGELES — Tuesday’s mayoral election is more than just a choice between two popular Democrats in a city that has long been friendly to the politics of both. 

Former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, an immigrant’s son and former labor organizer, is trying to become the first Hispanic mayor since 1872 in a city that is rapidly moving toward a Hispanic majority. 

But he faces strong opposition from City Attorney James Hahn, whose voting bloc is anchored by another powerful, although diminishing, racial group, the city’s black voters. 

Los Angeles voters also will elect a new city attorney, five City Council members and a successor to the late 32nd Congressional District Rep. Julian Dixon. One of the City Council candidates is 1960s radical and former state legislator Tom Hayden, who is running against former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Weiss for a seat representing the city’s west side. 

Political observers have cast the mayor’s race as a contest pitting Los Angeles’ wave of the future against its status quo. 

“I categorize it as Jim Hahn’s experience versus Antonio Villaraigosa’s passion,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior scholar at the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development. “It is Jim Hahn who represents the civic establishment of Los Angeles, versus Antonio Villaraigosa, who represents the face of the future of Los Angeles.” 

Villaraigosa, 48, is the son of an immigrant father. A self-described street kid who flirted briefly with gang influences on the city’s tough east side, he once got into a brawl in a restaurant over an insult directed at his mother. He would turn his life around, however, returning to school and eventually earning a law degree. 

Elected to the state Assembly in 1994, he rose quickly through the ranks to become speaker, long considered the state’s second most powerful position behind governor. There, he built a reputation as a likable political negotiator who quickly built coalitions of varying political persuasions to get things done. 

His Assembly career was limited by California’s relatively recent term-limits law that restricted him to six years in office. 

Hahn, a four-term city attorney, also was forced to give up that job by Los Angeles’ new term-limits law. 

Like Villaraigosa, he jumped into the race to succeed Mayor Richard Riordan, a popular Republican moderate who is leaving office after eight years, also because of term limits. 

His late father, Kenneth Hahn, became a political legend as the white man who earned the love of Los Angeles County’s black community during the 40 years he represented it on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. 

It was said that no pothole went unpaved or public telephone unrepaired in Kenneth Hahn’s district, and the affection that record brought him has translated into rock-solid support for his son in the city’s black neighborhoods. 

Both candidates, meanwhile, are liberal Democrats, although Villaraigosa is seen as somewhat to the left of Hahn. 

Hahn has sought to use that to his advantage in the candidates’ battle for the moderate to conservative voters that the election is expected to turn on. 

He has accused Villaraigosa of being soft on crime during his years in the state Legislature and attacked him in political ads for writing a letter of support, as several other prominent Los Angeles officials did, in support of a convicted cocaine trafficker seeking a presidential pardon. 

That has given Hahn, among some observers, status as the candidate of the white status quo. That group, although no longer a majority in Los Angeles, still makes up a substantial portion of its voters. 

If Villaraigosa loses, “I think that the broader perception will be that Los Angeles is not yet ready for a Latino mayor,” Jeffe said. 

However Tuesday’s race plays out, with Los Angeles’ Hispanic population approaching 50 percent, it could be only a matter of time before the city elects its first Hispanic mayor since Cristobal Aguilar lost his bid for a fourth term in 1872 in what was then becoming a more Anglo-dominated city. 

“The old Los Angeles can only hope that when political change comes, it will come in the form of an inclusive and flexible candidate like Villaraigosa,” Los Angeles Times Associate Editor Frank del Olmo said in a commentary in Sunday’s paper. “The alternatives to him are a lot more nationalist about their Latino identity and will be a whole lot tougher to deal with when the time comes.” 

——— 

Associated Press Writer Erica Werner contributed to this report. 

SACRAMENTO — A federal attorney is suing the Immigration and Naturalization Service over the case of an illegal immigrant whom the agency has said it might sedate before deporting to China. 

A federal public defender filed suit in Sacramento that would prevent Chinese national Bao Hua Dong from “being forcibly drugged” before an INS deportation officer puts her on a plane. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Linda Harter, the assistant public defender who filed the suit. 

Harter said in the suit that the INS has threatened to sedate Dong, who is held nearby in a Yuba County jail, before agents again try to deport her. No date has been set for her return to China. 

Last November, the INS tried to put Dong, 26, on a United Airlines flight originating in San Francisco. But a gate attendant refused to let her aboard because she was hysterical, according to court documents. 

Dong tried to enter the country illegally at San Francisco International Airport in December 1998, using a falsified passport of a 40-year-old Japanese woman. 

A lawyer representing the INS said the agency would not sedate Dong without permission from a court. 

“Sometimes it is necessary to sedate an alien, but we always obtain a court order first,” Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Glyndell E. Williams told a U.S. District Court judge at a hearing Tuesday. Judge William B. Shubb ruled that he did not have jurisdiction over the matter. 

INS officials would not discuss the case in detail. INS spokeswoman Sharon Rummery told the San Jose Mercury News that though she does not know of such a case, “when the person is violent or will hurt themselves or others, then under supervision of a doctor ... it would be necessary.” 

SACRAMENTO — California health care plans would have to cover treatment for drug and alcohol abuse under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate. 

The measure, by Sen. Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, was sent to the Assembly by a 23-14 vote, despite a complaint by one Republican that it would boost health care costs and result in fewer employers paying for coverage. 

“If our goal is to make sure that the only health care anybody gets is a government health care program, we are well on the road to accomplishing that,” said Sen. Ray Haynes, R-Temecula. 

“The people that this bill will hurt the most are people who need health care coverage the most, those on the lower end of our economic ladder.” 

But Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Daly City, said California has the lowest health care premiums in the country and that the Chesbro bill would cost less than $1 per health care plan enrollee per month. 

“If we’re ever going to get someone off drugs or alcohol, it is because of the intercession by a health care professional...,” she said.  

“It’s worth the expenditure.” 

Chesbro said studies show the requirement in his bill would be cost-effective.

MONTEREY — Despite months of seeking solutions to the energy crisis, state officials are still preparing for blackouts this summer, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg said Friday. 

The state Office of Emergency Services will closely watch for any problems, and improved early notification programs are in the works so communities can prepare for when the lights go out, the San Fernando Valley Democrat said. 

Most importantly, the crisis is not a time for politics as usual and finger-pointing, he said. 

“This is war. This is so critically important,” he told a meeting of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and The Associated Press News Executives Council.  

“You can’t screw around with the small stuff. ... We’re trying to be problem-solvers.” 

Hertzberg pointed to how the crisis forced the Legislature to look beyond polls and focus groups for solutions. 

“We came up with a new paradigm of how we solve problems,” he said. 

When the scope of the problem became known in December, lawmakers were ill prepared, he said. Many members had been in office less than two weeks. 

The remainder feared repercussions from the deregulation law passed in earlier sessions. 

When Gov. Gray Davis called a special session, Hertzberg formed only one committee so that lawmakers could remain focused on finding solutions. 

The number of laws introduced also were limited in the first month of the special session. Joint caucuses of Democrats and Republicans worked together, he said. 

Hertzberg said lawmakers also sought the “biggest and best” experts, including lawyers and executives familiar with past cases of utility bankruptcies. 

“Away from the politics – no focus groups, no polling, none of that garbage – they told us the nature of the problem and how to solve it” he said.  

“Our job was to translate that.” 

In response to questions, Hertzberg defended the secrecy surrounding negotiations for long-term contracts.  

Enough information was disclosed to reassure the investment community, he said, adding that any more details could have affected the bidding process. 

Despite efforts to resolve the problem, it’s not clear whether the lights will stay on in California as summer nears, he said. 

The end of May and early June will be a critical time because many power stations are being shut down for maintenance and the state’s new long-term contracts have not taken effect. 

“I suspect we will have blackouts,” he said. “It’s not going to be good. None of this is good.” 

WHAT’S NEXT 

• The state Assembly could consider a bill Monday that would authorize $12.5 billion in bonds for power buys. Republican members have balked at financing that much money, suggesting that the state instead use some of its surplus to buy electricity for customers of three cash-strapped utilities. 

• Also Monday, a bill that would impose a windfall profits tax on electricity generators will be heard in a Legislative committee. 

• The governor meets Wednesday with the CEOs of several major energy suppliers to discuss the money they’re owed by the state’s two largest utilities, the state’s creditworthiness and how wholesalers can help the state during the energy crisis. Davis says he won’t be discussing any of the investigations into price manipulation in the wholesale market. 

• Davis’ representatives continue negotiating with Sempra, the parent company of San Diego Gas and Electric Co., to buy the utility’s transmission lines. 

The problem: 

High demand, high wholesale energy costs, transmission glitches and a tight supply worsened by scarce hydroelectric power in the Northwest and maintenance at aging California power plants are all factors in California’s electricity crisis. 

Edison and PG&E say they’ve lost nearly $14 billion since June to high wholesale prices the state’s electricity deregulation law bars them from passing on to consumers. PG&E, saying it hasn’t received the help it needs from regulators or state lawmakers, filed for federal bankruptcy protection April 6. 

Electricity and natural gas suppliers, scared off by the two companies’ poor credit ratings, are refusing to sell to them, leading the state in January to start buying power for the utilities’ nearly 9 million residential and business customers. The state is also buying power for a third investor-owned utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, which is in better financial shape than much larger Edison and PG&E but also struggling with high wholesale power costs. 

The Public Utilities Commission has raised rates as much as 46 percent to help finance the state’s multibillion-dollar power buys.

LOS ANGELES — Dr. Michael Gottlieb sent the researcher up to 5-East in the UCLA Medical Center. 

Scout the wing for interesting immunological cases, Gottlieb told him, and bring back something to discuss. 

The researcher did just that, returning with word of a young gay man had a low white blood cell count, strange fungal infections and a rare type of pneumonia normally found only in people with severely suppressed immune systems. 

It took just two more patients for Gottlieb to realize something was afoot. 

“It was clearly something new and something unique and the mystery was what was causing it.  

That was the burning question,” Gottlieb, now a 53-year-old immunologist in private practice, said in a recent interview. 

Some sleuthing found two more patients in the San Fernando Valley. Another at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. A Centers for Disease Control officer located a fifth. 

A report on the five cases was submitted to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.  

The bare-bones, page-and-half write-up appeared June 5, 1981, overshadowed by reports of dengue fever in American tourists returning from the Caribbean. 

Although it wouldn’t be isolated or named for another two years, AIDS had arrived after lurking undetected in infected humans for decades. 

Armed with the five Los Angeles cases, the CDC started looking in other cities with sizable populations of gay men. 

“Lo and behold, there were lots of cases,” said Gottlieb of the disease he would later be criticized for provisionally dubbing “GRID,” or Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease. 

In the first years, the number stayed small. By the end of 1981, there were fewer than 200 AIDS cases in the United States. 

“It appeared to be an outbreak, not an epidemic,” Gottlieb said.  

“In 1981, it’s a colossal understatement to say no one would have predicted 20 years later 34 million people around the world would be infected.” 

The death toll has been staggering. In the 20 years since Gottlieb and his colleagues tracked those first five cases, nearly 450,000 have died of AIDS in the United States alone.  

Worldwide, the number is 22 million. 

Gottlieb said his early patients were understanding of science’s ignorance of what was killing them, on average just nine months after suffering from the first opportunistic infections that were the disease’s hallmark. 

“They must have felt like astronauts returning to Earth with an extraterrestrial virus and no one knew what to do,” he said. 

Today, after two decades of working with AIDS patients, Gottlieb said he is afraid the mainstream population is growing tired of hearing about the disease, for which there is still no cure. 

New and powerful drugs, however, are allowing people with AIDS to live longer than ever before.  

While not a cure, it has allowed Gottlieb to continue working in the field. 

“With AIDS, there was the cumulative burden of having so many of my patients die,” said Gottlieb, who says he has lost hundreds of patients.  

“Even as a physician, you grieve.”

HUNTINGTON BEACH — State tax officials have raided the home and office of an Orange County business owner who has refused to withhold taxes from employee paychecks. 

The state Franchise Tax Board agents seized financial and employment records, coins and tax-avoidance books from George Jesson’s Huntington Beach electronics business and Fountain Valley home on Wednesday. 

According to a search warrant, Jesson is suspected of failing to withhold taxes from paychecks in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Jesson says he stopped withholding taxes only last year. 

In media interviews, he has repeatedly said there is no law requiring he withhold taxes from employee paychecks. He also recently said he is refusing to pay his own income taxes. 

“There’s nothing, absolutely no law, that applies to your personal wages,” Jesson was quoted in Friday’s Los Angeles Times. 

State officials declined to comment. 

Jesson and his No Time Delay Electronics are among two dozen businesses nationwide that publicly have defied government requirements that taxes be “paid as you go” through withholding, Social Security and other employment tax programs. 

The names of the businesses surfaced in news reports last year. Federal and state tax officials have said they are investigating a small number of the withholding cases. 

According to authorities, employers who fail to withhold taxes and turn them over may be required to pay up to double the taxes, plus interest, and can be prosecuted for felony tax evasion. 

Jesson has said he wants the case to go to court so he can “expose the corruption of the system.” He said he believes in “lawful taxes,” such as sales, property, export, import, alcohol, tobacco, firearms and utility taxes.

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Seriously ill patients should be able to use marijuana for medical purposes, Nevada lawmakers decided Monday, in a vote that puts the state on a potential collision course with the federal government. 

The Assembly vote on the last day of the legislative session also relaxes one of the toughest drug possession laws in the nation, downgrading the charge for possession of small amounts from a felony to a misdemeanor. 

The state Assembly concurred in Senate amendments to the medical marijuana-defelonization bill and sent the measure to Gov. Kenny Guinn, who is expected to sign it. 

“I think it’s time that Nevada closed the door on antiquated drug policies and reduced possession of an ounce or less to a misdemeanor and focused its efforts on prevention and treatment,” said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas. 

The bill lets seriously ill Nevadans have up to seven marijuana plants for personal use. A state registry would be created for patients whose doctors recommend they use marijuana for medical reasons. 

Other amendments allow the state to apply to the federal government for permission to sponsor medical research into whether marijuana helped ease pain, nausea or other symptoms of seriously ill patients.  

Also, the state Department of Agriculture could apply to the federal government for a seed lab. 

For people other than registered patients, possession of an ounce or less of marijuana would be a misdemeanor carrying a $600 fine, with escalating fines for subsequent offenses. Possession would not become a felony until the fourth offense. 

Under current law, regarded as one of the toughest of its kind in the nation, Nevada makes it a felony to possess an ounce or less of marijuana. Violations can lead to prison terms.  

In a minor marijuana case, probation is mandatory, but violating probation can lead to prison terms of up to four years. 

Nevadans voted overwhelmingly in 1998 and 2000 to amend the Nevada Constitution to authorize use of marijuana by those suffering from cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other painful and potentially terminal illnesses. 

The task of implementing the voters’ mandate was left to the Legislature. The lawmakers took action despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a California case that a federal law classifying the drug as illegal makes no exception for ill patients. 

The high court’s action leaves those distributing the drug for that purpose open to prosecution 

Besides Nevada, voters in Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Oregon and Washington have approved ballot initiatives allowing medical marijuana. In Hawaii, the legislature passed a similar law and the governor signed it last year. 

On the Net: 

Nevada Legislature: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/

CORCORAN— A federal judge has ruled that the government must pay farmers in the arid Central Valley for depriving them of irrigation water to protect endangered fish. 

Growers had argued that by using water they paid for to protect chinook salmon and delta smelt, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service effectively took fields out of production and took money from farmers. 

“It was water that was bought and paid for,” said Michael Nordstrom, a lawyer for Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District, which filed the suit.  

“The court has ruled they are clearly entitled to do it under the Endangered Species Act, but if they do it they have to pay for it.” 

The farmers sued in 1998, claiming the federal government took $25 million of water over a period of three years ending in 1994 by shutting down pumps that divert water south through the valley to Los Angeles from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. 

On Monday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge John Paul Wiese in Washington, D.C., ruled the farmers are protected under the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government from taking private property without paying for it. A hearing to determine what the government owes the farmers has not yet been scheduled. 

The ruling could have broad implications for farmers and urban water users in western states, where federal rules protecting wildlife are increasingly in conflict with water allocations. 

“For us as a grower it’s big,” said Fred Starrh, a cotton farmer in Kern County. “For the growers across the United States it’s big. If it stands, I think it could bring reasonableness to the process. We’ve just been sitting here getting hammered.” 

Interior Department lawyers were studying the opinion and planned to discuss it further next week, but do not believe it has wide implications throughout the West, said spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna. 

Starrh pays about $3 million a year to irrigate his 12,000-acre ranch. He pays the total by June for water that may never be delivered. 

This year he is idling 3,200 acres because he only expects a third of his contract. He said he will only get a partial refund for the water he doesn’t receive. 

The cost of maintaining a certain water level in the delta to protect species could easily amount to tens of millions of dollars a year for water users. In addition to water expenses, there are other factors such as lost production and lost wages – factors that hurt the state’s economy. 

“At least now they’ll have to look at what they’re doing and say it’s going to take X number of dollars to take this water,” Starrh said. 

California Trout, one of a raft of environmental groups that wrote briefs opposing the farmers, said the problem is that too much river water is allocated for other uses. 

“They’re dividing up water to the extent that they believe the water is all there and it’s not,” said Jim Edmondson, the group’s conservation director. “In their vernacular I don’t know how you get 40 pounds of potatoes in a 20-pound sack.” 

In the state’s complex water picture, divided into myriad districts by arcane rules and administered by the federal and state contracts, it was not immediately clear what impact the ruling would have on districts that supply households or those that get their water from the federal government. 

In many instances, federal water contracts may be outside the scope of the suit because users only pay for what they receive. 

“Our contracts are written in a way that allows us to short our contractors under certain circumstances,” said Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which supplies 20 percent of the water to irrigation districts and urban users in California and is the largest supplier of water in the West. 

Metropolitan Water District, which purchases half the water from the state project for 17 million users in Southern California, was not a plaintiff in the suit and did not expect to benefit from the decision. 

Steve Arakawa, manager of water resources, said the Los Angeles agency is trying to work with the state to ensure a reliable water supply while also protecting the environment. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Judge Wiese’s opinion: http://www.law.gwu.edu/fedcl/Opinions/Wiese/01/Tulare.pdf 

WASHINGTON — Texas jurors who sentenced a retarded killer to death did not get clear instructions about how to weigh the defendant’s mental abilities against the severity of his crime, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. 

The ruling overturned the death sentence of Johnny Paul Penry, whose lawyers claim their client has the mind of a 7-year-old and likes to play with coloring books. 

The case, sent back to a federal appeals court, does not answer a larger question about whether execution of the mentally retarded is constitutional. The court has agreed to use a different case to review that question next fall. 

The vote was 6-3 on the crucial question of the instructions, although the court was unanimous in ruling that a Texas court properly admitted evidence of Penry’s future dangerousness. 

Penry was convicted of murdering Pamela Moseley Carpenter in Texas in 1979. She was the sister of former Washington Redskins place-kicker Mark Moseley. 

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the majority, said the instructions to the jury were “constitutionally inadequate” to protect Penry’s rights. 

The Texas trial court did not follow previous Supreme Court guidance issued when Penry’s case reached the court before on the jury instruction issue. The earlier ruling by the high court overturned Penry’s death sentence and he was resentenced to die a second time. 

The second sentencing left no vehicle for jurors to express the view that Penry should get life, not death, based on mitigating evidence, O’Connor said. 

O’Connor wrote that jurors were asked to vote “no” to specific questions if they thought the death penalty was inappropriate – even if their answers to those questions would have been “yes.” 

“The jury was essentially instructed to return a false answer in order to avoid a death sentence,” O’Connor wrote. 

The Texas Legislature recently passed a bill banning the execution of mentally retarded persons. Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t said whether he will sign it. Texas leads the nation in executions. 

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, who sponsored the bill, has said six mentally retarded people have been put to death in Texas since the state resumed executions. State Rep. Juan Hinojosa says seven retarded inmates are on death row. 

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented in the court’s decision, joined by two fellow conservatives: Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia. 

“Without performing legal acrobatics, I cannot make the instruction confusing,” Thomas wrote. 

The Supreme Court made headlines last fall when it accepted Penry’s latest appeal, in part because death penalty opponents say juries too often get inadequate instructions and in part because of Penry’s own notoriety. 

Penry has been in the forefront of the debate over capital punishment almost from the moment he confessed to killing Carpenter. 

After a complicated and highly publicized passage through the Texas courts, the Supreme Court accepted his first appeal and in 1989 used his case to establish two related tenets of capital punishment practice. 

The court ruled then that execution of the mentally retarded is constitutional, but juries considering the death penalty must understand how to weigh retardation as a mitigating factor. 

Penry’s case returned to the Texas courts, where his lawyers claim the second jury that sentenced him to death got no better instructions than the first. 

That is the question the Supreme Court agreed to review in his case, but it soon became a sidelight. 

One day before the justices heard arguments in Penry’s case in March, they raised the stakes much higher by agreeing to hear a separate North Carolina case that asks the same question Penry did 12 years ago: Does executing the mentally retarded violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment? 

If the court reverses itself with that case and declares that the retarded must be spared, the issue of proper death penalty jury instructions would be irrelevant. 

At issue for the court this time was whether the Texas jury that imposed Penry’s second death sentence understood its options. Texas authorities claimed the instructions were clear, and that the jury knew it could impose a life sentence instead of death. 

Penry’s lawyers claimed the instructions failed the test the Supreme Court set out with its 1989 ruling in what has become known as Penry I. 

Texas resentenced Penry in 1990, using the same verdict form as in the first trial. The form asked whether Penry deliberately killed the woman, whether he was provoked and whether he was a continuing threat to society. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

SACRAMENTO — The number of California voters shunning political parties has nearly doubled in 10 years, but Democratic and Republican officials say they aren’t worried. 

“Election results, that’s where the real loyalty is to Democrats in California,” said Democratic Party spokesman Bob Mulholland. “The Democrats won big in California in 1996, 1998 and 2000. The voters left the Republican altar four years ago and haven’t been seen since.” 

Jim Camp, political director for the California Republican Party, said the GOP registered 25,000 new members in March and April and that the presence of President Bush in the White House would bring in more converts. 

“That’s one of my biggest goals, bring back the declines-to-state (a party),” Camp said. “With a president like George Bush we will bring them back.” 

The secretary of state’s office said Friday that nearly 15.6 million Californians were registered to vote in February, a record for the month and a 20 percent increase since 1991. 

Over the same 10-year period, the number of voters refusing to register with a political party jumped from 1.2 million to more than 2.2 million. 

Those so-called declines-to-state now make up 14.4 percent of California’s electorate, compared to 9 percent in 1991. The 14.4 percent is a record, said Alfie Charles, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. 

“In California, voters have consistently shown a propensity to base their decisions on individuals rather than political parties,” said Secretary of State Bill Jones, California’s top elections official.  

“These latest registration numbers help demonstrate that trend.” 

Democrats’ share of the electorate dropped from 49.5 percent in 1991 to 45.6 percent this year. Republican registration dipped from 39.3 percent to 34.8 percent in that period. 

At the same time, minor parties jumped from 2.2 percent to 4.4 percent of voters. 

Democrats had their highest share of the California electorate in 1942, when they had 60.2 percent of registered voters, Charles said. 

The highest Republican percentage — 67.9 percent — was in 1926. 

The state’s 15.6 million registered voters make up 72.19 percent of the adults who could vote if registered. The record is 96.2 percent in 1940. 

There are 1.7 million more Democrats in California than Republicans, but Republicans outnumber Democrats in 32 of the state’s 58 counties. 

The biggest Democratic counties are Alameda, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Sutter, Orange and Placer counties have the highest percentage of Republicans. 

WASHINGTON — Arizona and seven other Western states outperformed the rest of the country in economic growth during much of the 1990s while Hawaii and Alaska suffered the worst growth rates, the Commerce Department said Monday. 

Arizona led all other states during the 1992-99 period, turning in an average growth rate of 7.3 percent. Neighboring Nevada was not far behind with average growth of 7.0 percent, according to a new report on economic activity during what has become the country’s longest economic expansion. 

During the 1992-99 period, the national economy was growing at average annual rates of 4 percent. 

In addition to Arizona and Nevada, states that did significantly better than the 4 percent national average were Oregon, with an economy averaging growth of 6.8 percent, followed by Colorado, 6.6 percent; Idaho, 6.6 percent; New Hampshire, 6.3 percent; Utah, 6.3 percent; New Mexico, 6.2 percent; Georgia, 5.8 percent; Texas, 5.4 percent; and North Carolina, 5.1 percent. 

Most of the states enjoying high growth rates were seeing big gains in the manufacture and sale of computers and related products such as software programs. 

But at the other end of the scale, Hawaii turned in the worst economic performance during this period, with its economy actually shrinking on average by 0.3 percent. Government analysts said that the state had trouble emerging from the last recession, in 1990-91, and then was hard hit by the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis, which cut into the state’s tourism business. 

Alaska was next to last in the growth category with an average increase of just 0.5 percent during the eight-year period. Other states with weak performances were West Virginia, 2.4 percent average; Wyoming, 2.5 percent; North Dakota, 2.5 percent; Maine, 2.6 percent; Montana, 2.7 percent; Pennsylvania, 2.8 percent; New Jersey, 2.9 percent; Vermont, 3.0 percent; Maryland, 3.0 percent; and Rhode Island, 3.0 percent. 

In the 12 states with the weakest growth rates, gains in high-tech industries were offset by significant weakness in old-line manufacturing industries such as apparel and textiles and lumber and wood products. 

California, with the biggest economy, averaged growth of 3.9 percent during the eight-year period, just under the national average but far below many of its fast-growing Western neighbors. Its economy was slow to emerge from the 1990-91 recession, reflecting in part big cutbacks in federal spending on defense, which hit California particularly hard. 

On the Net: 

Bureau of Economic Analysis site: http://www.bea.doc.gov

The man found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl has had a lot to say to media representatives in the day following his conviction. 

The FBI has been working to find out where Curtis Dean Anderson was when three Bay Area girls, Michaela Garecht, Amber Swartz and Nikki Campbell, disappeared more than a decade ago. 

Anderson Defense attorney Carl Spieckerman said that Anderson “has a very good alibi where he was in custody someplace” when those disappearances happened. 

But Authorities say that may not be true. 

And in a phone interview from his jail cell, Anderson, 40, told KTVU reporter Rita Williams late Thursday evening that he, in fact, was not in custody at the time Scwarz and Garecht vanished.  

However, Anderson said he did not kidnap them. 

In another interview with KRON reporter Linda Yee, Anderson threatened late Thursday that, if sent to jail, he will perpetuate pedophile crimes from behind bars. 

He said he will effectively teach other inmates, especially those ready for parole, how and where to molest children. 

“I’ll send out people yearly to do what I can’t do no longer.” 

Anderson said he started molesting children when he was 10 years old.  

Then he made a statement apparently indicative of the fact that he believes pedophilia to be something not everyone views as illegal. 

“If I did it a hundred times and have only come to police attention once,” he said, “doesn’t that say to you that maybe the other people involved don’t think of it as a crime like you in society do.” 

Following Wednesday’s conviction, Anderson claimed he kidnapped and killed a 7-year-old in a high-profile case, and said he has snatched 10 other girls off the streets in years past. 

Anderson told Fairfield Daily Republic reporter Rowena Lugtu-Shaddox that he abducted and killed 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild, who disappeared from Vallejo in December 1999.  

Her skull was found in January on a rural road in the Santa Cruz Mountains. 

He said Thursday he has information about the girl’s disappearance, but that he won’t give any of it to investigators unless they cut him a deal. 

“I’m the only one who knows all of what happened to Xiana,” Anderson told the newspaper. “This is gonna go down like the Zodiac.” 

Anderson was referring to a series of five murders in California in 1969 and 1970 believed to be committed by someone calling himself “Zodiac” in letters to police and newspapers. 

Anderson claims to have kidnapped and sexually assaulted 10 other girls over the past 30 years, but has provided authorities with no evidence to directly link him to other crimes. 

“I was on a good roll for 30 years, enjoying my sexual preferences,” Anderson said.  

“It was a better way of working for 30 years. This is the first time I’ve been in a courtroom (for such a crime).” 

Anderson said that many of those girls returned home after convincing him that what he had done to them was “no big deal,” he said. 

When asked Thursday evening if authorities had Xiana’s killer in jail, Anderson said, “No comment.” 

He remains a suspect in the Xiana case, authorities say, but no charges have been filed. Police say they need credible information to link Anderson to that case. 

“A lot depends on evidence. It’s not necessary to have the body. It’s not essential,” said Vallejo Police Lt. JoAnn West. “It just depends on the information.” 

Anderson’s defense attorney, Carl Spieckerman, said he had no indication his client would make the statements about other abductions, and that doing so would endanger him in prison where pedophiles are treated harshly. 

“It seems like he’s got a death wish,” Spieckerman said. 

Anderson admitted he’s worried about his 250 year jail sentence, adding that if he’s not protected in prison, he’ll be murdered.

NEW YORK — Caution asserted itself on Wall Street Monday as investors, still nursing doubts about when the economy will improve, bought stocks but made few major commitments. 

Blue chips managed a moderate rally on gains in a handful of energy and technology issues, but the overall market was less robust in a choppy and unusually quiet session. 

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 71.11 at 11,061.52. 

Broader indicators had more modest advances. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 6.44 to 1,267.11, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 6.49 to 2,155.93. 

It was the third straight gain for all three indexes, but analysts weren’t impressed. The advances amounted to less than 1 percent on each indicator and volume was light. The New York Stock Exchange recorded its second slowest trading session of the year, while the Nasdaq Stock Market broke its low-volume record for 2001. 

“Overall, what you’re seeing here is a rally in a few high-priced Dow stocks, but not any kind of a broader, more powerful move on the larger market,” said Richard Dickson, technical analyst at Hilliard Lyons. “I think investors are still confused about the earnings outlook and what’s going on with technology. There are not a lot of compelling reasons to buy, but there are a lot of reasons to be cautious.” 

That reluctance spilled over to the technology sector, making for a mixed session. IBM rose 75 cents to $113.64, while Intel fell 24 cents to $28.50 on worries the chip maker will issue an earnings warning at a mid-quarter update scheduled for later this week. 

Oil and pharmaceutical stocks were stronger. ExxonMobil gained $1.88 to $90.83, rising with other oil sector stocks amid a meeting of the OPEC producing nations. Johnson & Johnson rose $2.14 to $100.14. 

Investors have been skittish in recent weeks on concerns that a widely anticipated fourth-quarter recovery for corporate profits might not happen. The market rallied strongly in April and early May on that hope, but a mix of conflicting economic data and earnings warnings since then have unnerved investors. 

Adding to those worries are the second-quarter earnings due out in a few weeks. Those results are expected to be disappointing, but the murky economy outlook has intensified worries that more companies than expected will have weak returns. The tech sector is considered especially vulnerable. 

“It’s the calm before the storm of second-quarter earnings and people are battening down the hatches,” said Tom Galvin, chief investment officer at Credit Suisse First Boston. “People aren’t expecting much in the way of good news, so that’s keeping buyers on the sidelines.” 

Wall Street appeared unsure of how to react to a statement by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that he was encouraged by signs that U.S. gasoline prices might decline, but that the Fed is keeping a close watch for signs of potential inflationary pressures. 

Concerns about inflation could prompt the Fed to be less aggressive in cutting interest rates; although the agency has cut rates five times already this year, investors are counting on more reductions to stimulate the economy. The Fed’s next meeting starts June 26. 

Advancing issues led decliners nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE. Volume came to 835.38 million shares, slightly ahead of the previous low-volume record of nearly 826.06 million set May 25. Consolidated volume came to 1.00 billion, compared with 1.18 billion shares Friday. 

The Nasdaq Stock Market volume was just under 1.32 billion shares, less than the 1.34 billion shares traded May 14. 

The Russell 2000 index rose 5.60 to 507.32. 

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.4 percent. Germany’s DAX index gained 0.9 percent and Britain’s FT-SE 100 rose 0.8 percent. France’s stock market was closed for a holiday. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors filed a potential death penalty murder case Friday against a man who allegedly shot a man and tried to get away by hijacking a bus that sped through downtown until a violent collision that killed a minivan driver. 

Carlos Ray Garcia, 40, of Reseda was charged with capital murder, attempted murder, carjacking, six counts of kidnapping for carjacking, robbery, attempted carjacking and evasion of an officer resulting in death. 

Acting Head Deputy District Attorney Patrick M. Dixon also alleged a special circumstance of murder during a carjacking, kidnapping and robbery.  

The complaint also alleged that Garcia used a handgun to commit the crimes. 

Garcia was held ld without bail because it is a potential capital case, but the district attorney’s office said the decision on whether to seek the death penalty would not be made until after the preliminary hearing. 

The counts filed against Garcia did not include a hate crime. 

Police said the shooting that led to the bus chase apparently was motivated by hate because Garcia allegedly told victim Anthony Lewis, 35, that he did not like black men associating with Hispanic women.  

Lewis remained in critical condition Friday. 

Lewis was shot Wednesday afternoon in the Rampart area near the offices of the city police union.  

Police quickly gave chase as Garcia allegedly jumped aboard the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus and forced the driver to speed off at gunpoint. 

The bus, carrying four women passengers and a 4-year-old girl, raced through downtown for five minutes before broadsiding the minivan, killing Guadalupe Arrevalos, 34, of Norwalk, and crashing into a parcel delivery truck and a row of cars in a parking lot. 

Authorities said Garcia jumped out of the wrecked bus and tried to carjack an automobile before he was swarmed by police and arrested. 

Police found the handgun. 

Prosecutors said Arrevalos, a Central Library worker and mother of three, was the victim in the counts alleging murder and evading an officer.  

Lewis was the victim in the attempted-murder count. 

Bus driver Ema Gutierrez, 48, and the five bus passengers were named as victims in the counts alleging kidnapping for carjacking. 

The carjacking and robbery counts also involved the commandeering of the bus.  

The attempted-carjacking charge involved the car Garcia allegedly tried to take after the crash.

Three people, who tried to change a flat tire in the left lane of Interstate 80, were sent to the hospital with minor injuries after the car they were driving was rearended by another. 

California Highway Patrol officer Levy Barnes said at 9:15 a.m., the Pontiac Sunbird apparently had a flat tire, which caused the driver to stop on the freeway just north of the Powell Street exit in Emeryville without pulling out of traffic. 

Shortly after the car stopped and the three occupants exited the car to inspect the flat front-left tire, a Ford Arostar ran into the rear of the Sunbird, which in turn pinned the three people against a concrete divider.  

The three people, a woman and two men, who were inspecting the tire were taken to the to the hospital. The woman, who is in her mid-50s has a broken leg, the driver also in his 50s was complaining of chest pains and the other male, in his 40s, had unspecified injuries. The driver of the Arostar was uninjured, Barnes said.

SPENCER, Ind. — In a fluorescent-lit barn 40 miles from a federal penitentiary, Glenda Breeden applies paint to 14-foot-tall papier-mache puppets of Uncle Sam and Jesus. 

Breeden and dozens of her friends plan to cart the garish puppets to the prison in Terre Haute for use in demonstrations against the May 16 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. 

For the first federal execution in nearly four decades, Uncle Sam will wear a banner that reads: “Stop Me Before I Kill Again.” A sign on the Jesus puppet will ask: “What Would Jesus Do?” 

“It’s something visible,” Breeden said, her hands dripping with plaster. “It gets a lot of people’s attention.” 

Similar preparations are happening elsewhere across the country as demonstrators get ready to descend on the U.S. Penitentiary. On execution day, 20 prison buses will transport demonstrators from city parks to the prison grounds, where McVeigh, 33, is scheduled to die by injection. 

Tents will be put up on the grassy field outside the prison to shelter demonstrators, and straw bales will provide limited seating. Warden Harley Lappin has met with state and national anti-death penalty groups, explaining detailed rules they must follow. Breeden’s puppets won’t be permitted on the grounds – only signs that can be rolled up are allowed. 

“The folks we’ve talked with have indicated that they plan to come here and be law-abiding, peaceful protesters,” Lappin said. “We realize what we’re facing. ... It’s the execution of someone who’s very high profile in nature.” 

Some death penalty opponents say McVeigh’s notoriety is not a factor – they would be protesting any execution. 

“For most of us, it’s really about public policy and should the government be in the business of killing people,” said Abe Bonowitz, director of the national organization Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. 

Bonowitz, who plans to lead a march in Terre Haute the day before the execution, said his organization is encouraging people nationwide to hold vigils and protests in their communities. 

Demonstrators in Massachusetts will take to Boston Common the night before the execution, passing out anti-death penalty fliers and holding a vigil. Around the same time, there will be a demonstration in front of the federal building in Fresno, and an interfaith prayer service in Tucson, Ariz. Similar events are scheduled in Florida, Washington, Missouri and Nebraska. 

In Oklahoma City, a small vigil is being planned near the Oklahoma City National Memorial, but no major anti-death penalty demonstrations have been discussed, said Bud Welch, who has been an ardent death penalty opponent since his daughter, Julie, was killed in the bombing. 

“It’s just going to be low-key,” said Welch, who plans to be in Terre Haute. 

While the prison will fence off equal-sized areas for pro- and anti-death penalty advocates, Lappin said he has not heard from any pro-death penalty groups planning to attend. 

Diane Clements, president of Houston-based Justice For All, said death penalty supporters don’t need to speak out – the courts have already spoken. 

“People don’t generally go out and have public demonstrations in support of the law,” Clements said. “The execution will move forward no matter who’s standing outside the gates.” 

The April 19, 1995, blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Building killed 168 people. 

Death penalty opponents acknowledge the nature of McVeigh’s crime makes it hard for some to protest his execution. For others, the fact that it’s a federal execution makes it all the more important to speak out. 

“Because it’s federal, some people who were never that active are saying, ’I finally have to do something, I have to do something now,”’ said Jill Farlow, an activist from Indiana. “Other people say, ’This was so heinous, I just can’t do this.”’ 

Breeden’s husband, Bill Breeden, who teaches a class on the death penalty at a Unitarian church in nearby Bloomington, sums up what he believes McVeigh’s execution will accomplish: “It’s really just giving him another fuse to light. We’re giving him exactly what he wants.” 

On The Net: 

Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty: http://www.cuadp.org 

Justice For All: http://www.jfa.net 

WASHINGTON — The ejection of the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission has infuriated lawmakers, and some are calling for withholding $650 million in payments to the United Nations. 

“This decision is ludicrous,” House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Friday.  

“What they’ve done is thrown out the world’s oldest democracy and put a country with the world’s worst human rights record in its place, Sudan.” 

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer called the U.S. ouster from the panel “a disappointment,” but said it “will not stop this president or this country from speaking out strongly on matters of human rights.” 

The panel itself has lost prestige, Fleischer indicated, as it “may not be perceived as the most powerful advocate of human rights in the world,” given its inclusion of Sudan and Libya, two nations the panel has accused of human-rights violations, and exclusion of the United States. 

The House is scheduled to vote next week on an $8.2 billion State Department authorization bill that contains $582 million in back dues for the United Nations – long a contentious issue in Congress. The bill also includes $67 million to rejoin UNESCO 17 years after the United States left over concerns about political polarization and mismanagement. 

Now, those payments could be in jeopardy. 

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said he and other lawmakers are “very seriously considering amendments that would reflect our dramatic loss of faith in the United Nations’ structure.  

“Withholding funds is the best way to reflect such a loss of faith.” 

And there’s “a real possibility” such amendments could succeed, said Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., former chairman of the House International Relations Committee. 

“I think there’s going to be a severe reaction in the Congress,” Gilman said. In addition to cutting U.N. money, he said, “someone approached me last night on the floor (of the House) about withholding aid from countries that voted against us.” 

Even Gilman’s own endorsement of paying back dues is wavering: “I’ve been supportive of paying the delinquency, but now I’m not too sure I want to rush into it.” 

The United States had held a seat on the human rights panel since it was created in the 1940s.  

It lost that seat through a secret vote Thursday in which France, Sweden and Austria were chosen for the three spots allocated to Western countries. 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, a frequent critic of the United Nations despite being an architect of the back-dues payment agreement, said, “The absence of the United States will mean that the victims of human rights abuses will no longer have a spokesman to defend their hopes for liberty and freedom.” 

Former Secretary of State and U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said the expulsion was a reflection of “short-term anger that has long-term effects, and I think it’s very unfortunate.  

It’s a serious blow, but it’s as much a blow to the U.N., ... which has sidelined itself on human rights issues.” 

To Kim Holmes of the conservative Heritage Foundation, the ouster was “an intentional slap at the United States.”  

A number of countries, including allies, he said, “are unhappy with the Bush administration and looking for a way to signal  

their displeasure.” 

Allies have expressed distress over the Bush administration’s rejection of the Kyoto global warming treaty and its decision to move ahead on a national missile defense system despite their opposition, among other things. 

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher demurred from that view, saying, “I wouldn’t throw this into an entire critique of U.S. foreign policy by everybody in the world or anything like that.”  

Instead, Boucher blamed regional solidarities and vote swapping.  

The United States campaigned “very actively for membership” and got more than 40 assurances of support before winding up with only 29 votes, Boucher said.  

“As far as who the dozen or so were that told us they would support us and didn’t vote for us, I don’t think we know at this point.” 

The latest dispute comes at a time when the post of U.N. ambassador in New York remains vacant.  

The White House announced nearly two months ago that Bush would nominate longtime career diplomat John D. Negroponte to the post, but the nomination has yet to be submitted to the Senate. 

Some administration critics have suggested the absence of an envoy at the United Nations may have contributed to a lack of vigilance in detecting that a move was afoot to deny the United States a seat. 

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will allow a ban on road-building in much of the nation’s federal forest lands to take effect next week but will propose changes to it in June, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Friday. 

The ban, a pivotal part of former President Clinton’s environmental legacy, ropes off 58.5 million acres – about a third of the federal forest land – from developers, loggers and mining companies. These industries have been lobbying to have the measure reversed. 

Veneman did not provide details on the changes that will be offered. But she said they will seek to ensure local input on individual forest decisions. She called the plan a “commonsense approach to roadless protection.” 

“Through this action we affirm the department’s commitment to the important challenge of protecting roadless values,” she said at a news conference. 

Clinton’s policy, announced Jan. 5, was supposed to take effect in March. The Bush administration delayed implementation until May 12 while it conducted a review. 

Veneman said the review showed a need to make sure the concerns of states, communities, Indian tribes and individuals are addressed. She said the proposed amendments next month “would lay out a process for local input on local decisions for local areas.” 

Once the amendments are proposed, a public comment period will begin, Veneman said. How soon a plan is finalized will depend on how many comments are received. 

Clinton’s plan generated 1.6 million public comments. 

The vast majority of roadless federal forests are in the West, including parts of Idaho’s Bitterroot range and Alaska’s Tongass, viewed by environmentalists as North America’s rain forest. 

Smaller sections are scattered across the country from Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest and Virginia’s George Washington National Forest to New Hampshire’s White Mountains. 

The Clinton administration began creating the rules about three years ago, but did not issue them until two weeks before President Clinton left office. 

The ban was praised by environmentalists as a way to protect the nation’s most pristine forest lands from developers and preserve critical wildlife habitats. Opponents, including the timber and mining industries, said the rules needlessly place valuable resources off-limits. 

The state of Idaho and timber company Boise Cascade sued in federal court in Boise seeking to block the rule from taking effect. The Bush administration had until Friday to file a brief with the court outlining its analysis of the rule. 

Veneman said the administration planned to tell the court it does not favor an injunction blocking implementation of the ban but will work on amending the plan. In an interim decision, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge rejected a call to immediately block the Clinton policy. But he said there was “strong evidence” the rule-making process was hurried, that the Forest Service was not prepared to produce a “coherent proposal or meaningful dialogue and that the end result was predetermined.” 

Prior to Veneman’s announcement, Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, said he would be disappointed if the Bush administration kept the ban in place while a new rule was created. Such a move could put forests in the West at risk to insects, disease and fire because the roadless areas will be inaccessible, he said. 

“What has us worried is what they are going to be doing in the interim,” said West, whose Portland, Ore.-based group represents timber interests. 

Veneman said as the administration works to come up with amendments, it will seek to ensure protection against wildfires, insects and other issues that could affect communities, homes and property. 

Marty Hayden, legislative director for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, said Thursday he was worried any changes would return the government to where it was three years ago — trying to maintain 380,000 miles of roads that have an $8.5 billion maintenance backlog. 

“They have chosen not to suspend it because they are feeling the heat of the public support that was behind the rule in the first place,” Hayden said. “But they are still heading down a path for undoing it.” 

WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 percent in April, reviving fears of recession as companies shed the largest number of jobs in a decade. The White House stoked that concern, suggesting that economic growth in the first quarter might be less than originally reported. 

The Labor Department’s report Friday reinforced worries that rising layoffs might cause consumers to cut back sharply on spending and tip the country into a recession. 

“How do you spell ugly? How about horrible? It doesn’t get much worse than this, I hope,” said economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. 

Just a week ago, the government reported that the economy grew at a surprisingly strong rate of 2 percent in the first three months of this year, raising hopes that the darkest days of the slowdown had passed. 

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday that first-quarter growth might have been slower than that, referring to projections being made by some private economists. 

“The president continues to be concerned about the strength of the economy and the slowness in the economy,” Fleischer said. “He believes that the best way to protect the economy and get it moving again is for Congress to take prompt action to pass the budget and to put his tax cut  

into place, especially on a retroactive fashion.” 

However, Wall Street investors saw a silver lining in the dismal news, believing it raised hopes that the Federal Reserve will aggressively cut interest rates and Congress will provide tax relief. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 154.59 points to finish at 10,951.24, the highest level since Feb. 6. 

Some private economists believe first-quarter growth could be revised down a bit, based on expectations of weaker business investment and consumer spending. Others, however, think growth might be a bit stronger. 

The government routinely comes out with three estimates of economic growth for a given quarter, each one based on more complete information. The next estimate of first-quarter growth will be released May 25. 

But the real concern among private economists is the performance of the economy in the current second quarter. Friday’s employment report for April provided analysts with a critical new piece of information and raised concerns that the worst of the economic slowdown is not over. 

“The April employment figures are recession-type numbers,” said First Union economist Mark Vitner. “The economy is losing momentum and ... the odds of recession have increased.” 

Last month, 223,000 people lost their jobs, the largest reduction since February 1991, when the country was still mired in its last recession. 

It was the second straight month of job losses. In March, 53,000 people were cut from payrolls, which actually was an improvement over the reduction of 86,000 the government had previously reported. 

Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said that the promotions, rebates and price cuts that helped to fuel consumer spending earlier this year cut into corporate profits and were now triggering layoffs. 

“The bottom line is that a profit recession is leading to a higher jobless rate,” Sohn said. 

The big loss in jobs boosted April’s unemployment rate to a 2-1/2 year high of 4.5 percent, a 0.2 percentage-point increase over March’s’ 4.3 percent rate. 

“The reaction of consumers to increased layoffs will be critical” in determining whether the country can dodge a recession, warned Lynn Reaser, chief economist for Bank of America Capital Management. 

She and other economists are still hopeful that aggressive action by the Fed will keep the economy afloat. The central bank has already cut rates four times this year and economists are looking for another half-point reduction at the Fed’s next meeting on May 15. 

April’s employment picture surprised analysts, who had forecasting a smaller 0.1 percentage increase in the unemployment rate. 

In Friday’s report, job losses were widespread, although retailers managed to hire 22,000 people, many of them at bars, restaurants and food stores. 

Manufacturing, which has been hardest hit by the slowdown, lost another 104,000 jobs last month, pushing total reductions since June to 554,000. Two-thirds of those job losses occurred in the past four months. 

Construction companies, which have been adding jobs over the last several months, cut 64,000 jobs in April, possibly reflecting the impact of heavy rains in some parts of the country. 

Employment in a variety of business services fell by 121,000 last month. Temporary employment services experienced another sharp decline of 108,000 last month, and have lost 370,000 jobs since September. 

There was some good news for workers in the report. Their paychecks continue to grow. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent in April to $14.22 an hour. That matched the gain in March. The length of the average workweek in April was unchanged at 34.3 hours. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Employment report: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Six months after Florida plunged the presidential race into chaos, lawmakers approved a sweeping election overhaul Friday that will banish the hanging chads and butterfly ballots that made the state a laughingstock. 

The $32 million measure now goes to Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to sign it as early as next week. 

“We took advantage of the scrutiny the state got and rather than trying to relive the past, we’ve been focusing on making sure 2002 looks a lot different,” Bush said. 

Since the November recount that put Bush’s older brother in the White House, Florida has passed the most significant election reform package in the country. 

The plan, approved 120-0 by the House and 38-2 by the Senate, will establish uniform guidelines for recounts in close elections. It will also eliminate mechanical lever voting and punchcard and hand-counted paper ballots. 

Instead, every precinct will have optical-scan ballot systems for the 2002 elections. The plan earmarks $24 million for counties to buy the equipment. 

“In one word, hooray!” said Deanie Lowe, the Volusia County elections supervisor. “I am just thrilled to death over what they’ve accomplished.” 

The legislation requires a machine recount if the margin of victory in any race is half a percent or less and a manual recount of the overvotes and undervotes – ballots where voting machines pick up multiple choices or no clear choice – if the margin is one-quarter of 1 percent or less. 

The secretary of state must also draft rules on how to read ambiguous ballots. During last fall’s recounts, counties used differing standards, creating disputes over hanging, pregnant and dimpled chads. 

Also, provisional ballots will be given to people who are not on voter rolls but say they are eligible to vote. Elections officials will later determine if the ballots are valid. Last fall, some voters, many of them black, complained they were wrongly denied the right to vote. 

“Florida led the country into a disastrous election morass, but now it’s showing the way out of the morass,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor who is conducting a nationwide elections reform study. 

“It’s much less likely Florida will ever be in that embarrassing position again. This could serve as model legislation for other states.” 

In Georgia, lawmakers have passed a bill that requires a statewide electronic voting system in place by 2004, but they did not include money to pay for it. Maryland lawmakers have voted to require all counties to use a uniform voting system, possibly as early as next year. 

Florida’s governor was eager to change the state’s maligned election system after recounts delayed his brother’s election for 36 days and left many Democrats believing Al Gore had won. 

The punchcard ballots were blamed for tens of thousands of uncounted votes. The final tally had George W. Bush winning the state by just 537 votes out of about 6 million cast. 

“Clearly, if what they passed had been in place a year ago, Al Gore would be in the White House and George Bush would be back in Texas,” Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe said Friday. 

McAuliffe has noted that manual recounts were supported by Florida Republicans after being opposed by Bush aides during the recount debacle. 

The new optical scanners read ballots on which voters fill in a bubble or complete an arrow. There will be no more recounts with elections workers squinting at chads. 

“This is a milestone piece of legislation,” said Hillsborough County elections supervisor Pam Iorio, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. “Out of a negative situation came very positive change.” 

Palm Beach County’s Theresa LePore, a Democrat vilified by both parties for designing the butterfly ballot blamed for confusing voters, said she was disappointed lawmakers didn’t make the supervisor of elections a nonpartisan position. 

Her canvassing board’s chairman, Judge Charles Burton, praised the plan and said every state should have uniform standards for manual recounts. 

“You should not leave it up to various boards when you’re making a partisan decision,” he said during a panel discussion on election reform in Boston. “We were counting dings, spit marks and drool marks.” 

On the Net: 

Florida Legislature: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/index.cfm 

WASHINGTON — Food companies reeling from recalls of biotech corn products say the government shouldn’t let genetically engineered crops go to market unless there are tests to tell those crops apart from conventional varieties. 

Last fall, the biotech industry was embarrassed when a type of genetically engineered corn that wasn’t approved for human consumption was found in taco shells.  

At the time, a sophisticated test for detecting a special protein in the corn hadn’t been developed. 

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons, that’s the bottom line,” Lisa Katic, director of scientific and nutrition policy for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, said Friday. 

“We need to know what’s in our products.” 

Officials with biotech companies say that testing methods will be made available to the government. 

Biotech soy and corn are found in foods throughout U.S. supermarkets because biotech and conventional crops are routinely mixed together. 

In a letter sent to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, the grocery manufacturers say they must be able to tell whether ingredients include gene-altered crops.  

Many overseas buyers don’t want foods made from biotech crops, and the European Union and Japan require such foods to be labeled. 

The agency is considering tightening up its approval process for biotech crops in response to consumer and food industry concerns. 

The agency has proposed a mandatory review process for new biotech products that will include posting scientific data on the Internet. FDA also proposed voluntary labeling guidelines for foods that claim either to be nonbiotech or to have special biotech ingredients. 

Genetic engineering in agriculture involves splicing a gene from one organism, such as a bacterium, into a plant or animal to confer certain traits, such as herbicide or insect resistance in plants. 

Monsanto Co. has created a herbicide-resistant wheat that may be ready as early as 2003. Biotech varieties of fruit, vegetables, fish and livestock are in various stages of development. 

“We believe that detection methods for biotech-derived food and feed that are traded globally should be available to regulatory agencies,” said Loren Wassell, a spokesman for Monsanto. 

The biotech StarLink corn that spawned the food recalls has since been removed from the market, and the Environmental Protection Agency has said it will not approve another biotech crop unless it is allowed for both animal feed and human use. 

StarLink was not approved for food because of unanswered questions about its potential to cause allergic reactions. It was supposed to be kept separate from food-grade corn, but many farmers weren’t informed about the restrictions, or else ignored them. StarLink has subsequently been found in both grain and seed supplies. 

Critics of biotech food say that while diagnostic tests are needed, FDA also should require new biotech crops to go through the more rigorous and lengthy approval process required of food additives.  

The grocery manufacturers, like the biotech companies, oppose that idea. 

“It sounds like GMA has the last half of the piece,” said Joseph Mendelson, legal director for the Center for Food Safety, an anti-biotech advocacy group. 

On the Net: FDA: http://www.fda.gov 

GMA: http://www.gmabrands.com 

ATHENS, Greece — Pope John Paul II arrived in Greece on Friday for a personal pilgrimage with much wider implications: trying to heal nearly 1,000 years of discord between the Vatican and Orthodox churches. 

John Paul is the first pope to visit Greece in nearly 13 centuries.  

His six-day trip – his first international voyage in a year – retraces the biblical journeys of the Apostle Paul through Greece, Syria and Malta. 

The pope, walking slowly off the plane, was saluted by an Air Force honor guard. No senior members of the Greek Orthodox Church turned out to welcome him – underscoring the delicate and potentially tumultuous nature of the pope’s visit. 

The pope hopes help close the deep estrangement between the Vatican and Orthodox churches. Christianity split into the two branches nearly 1,000 years ago in disputes over papal authority. 

The effort for greater contacts would receive a major boost if supported by the Greek Orthodox, one of the pillars of faith for the world’s more than 200 million Orthodox. 

The leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, is expected to make a public statement demanding a formal papal apology for the Crusades that led to the fall of the Greek Byzantine Empire and other perceived misdeeds against the Orthodox Church. Such a statement by the pope could help open an important ecumenical dialogue. 

But the Greek Orthodox Church also represent a hotbed of dissent.  

Its clergymen and followers have long looked upon the Vatican with suspicion that has often spilled into open hostility. 

The ill feelings draw from potent sources: religion, ethnic pride and a perception of historical injustice. 

“It is blasphemy to the memory of our saints to allow the pope in Greece,” said Athens University theologian Giorgos Metalinos at an anti-pope gathering Wednesday of more than 1,000 people. 

Protesters – from monks to parish priests – plan more rallies during the pope’s 24-hour stay. They promise to drape monasteries in black and ring church bells in a symbol of mourning. At some churches, Greek and ancient Byzantine flags were lowered to half-staff. 

Some zealots have threatened to block the papal motorcade from reaching Areopagus hill, the judicial center of ancient Athens where Paul made his sermons in A.D. 51. 

But the opposition appeared to fizzle just hours before the pope’s arrival.  

Some former protest leaders appealed for calm – apparently bowing to pressure from the government and mainstream church leaders. 

Security forces were taking no chances, setting up roadblocks and dispatching more then 5,000 police officers across the city. 

The demonstrators represent the Greek government’s worse fears: that they will steal attention from the pope and show the world that prosperity and modernization has not fully erased the nation’s anti-Western outlook. 

“These fringe groups are not the voice of Greece,” insisted Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis.  

And at the Greek parliament, the flag of the Holy See waved alongside the Greek flag. 

Still, most Greeks are raised to be wary of Roman Catholics. More than 95 percent of Greece’s 11 million people  

are baptized into the  

Orthodox church. 

School books blame the Crusaders for the fall of the Greek Byzantine Empire in the 15th century – the prelude for what Greeks consider their ultimate humiliation: nearly 400 years of domination under the Muslim Ottoman Empire. 

But that was better than bowing to the Roman Catholic West, most Greeks are taught, and everyone knows the anti-Vatican adage: “Better the Turkish turban than the papal tiara.” 

The pope has been to mostly Orthodox countries before: Romania and Georgia.  

But the Greek backlash is more intense. Greek Orthodox clerics portray themselves as guardians of both the nation’s ethnic identity and the original spirit of Christianity. 

Many still believe the Vatican seeks to infiltrate the Orthodox heartland, stretching from the Balkans to Russia.  

They particularly condemn Eastern Rite churches, which follow many Orthodox traditions but are loyal to the Vatican. An influential Eastern Rite cleric, Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, was dropped from the papal delegation after objections from Greek Orthodox leaders. 

The Vatican, in turn, has spoken about alleged discrimination against Greece’s 50,000 native-born Roman Catholics.  

There are also about 150,000 Catholic immigrants.

SAN FRANCISCO — Computer chip designer Rambus Inc. has lost a crucial round in its legal fight to enforce patent claims that could generate $1 billion in royalties. 

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday dismissed Rambus’ allegations that German chip maker Infineon Technologies infringed on patents for chip designs that help accelerate the speed of video game consoles and personal computers. 

The ruling represented a significant setback for Los Altos-based Rambus, which is pursuing a dozen patent infringement claims against Infineon, Hyundai and Micron. The chip makers are suing Rambus for breach of contract and seeking to invalidate Rambus patents. 

Investors reacted swiftly to the news, released shortly before the stock market closed for the week. The Nasdaq Stock Market temporarily halted trading in the stock. When trading resumed, Rambus’ shares plunged $3.55, or 19.6 percent, to close at $14.60. However, they regained some of those losses in the after-hours session, rising 92 cents. 

The outcome of the patent battles will have a huge impact on Rambus’ fortunes. If Rambus prevails, the company could collect $1 billion in annual royalties from chip sales, estimated Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Mark Edelstone, who downgraded Rambus’ stock on Friday’s news. 

Rambus is on a pace to generate about $100 million in royalties during its current fiscal year. 

The adverse ruling could force Rambus to lower the royalties charged its licensees, which include Samsung, Hitachi, Toshiba and NEC. 

“If the courts rule these patents are invalid, you have to wonder how long these other companies are going to want to pay royalties,” Edelstone said. 

Rambus earned $21.1 million on revenues of $66 million during the first half of its fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Royalties accounted for 77 percent of the company’s revenues during the period. 

Rambus intends to appeal Friday’s ruling. 

“Rambus will continue to fight to protect our intellectual property,” CEO Geoff Tate said. “Though Rambus is a relatively small company, we will not be cowed by the aggressive tactics of some industry giants who would take our innovations without any compensation.” 

The company, which holds more than 100 patents worldwide, will get its next chance to prove its case against Infineon in a European trial scheduled to begin May 18. 

Several chip patents recently issued to Rambus aren’t affected by Friday’s ruling, according to the company. 

Rambus’ unusually high royalty rates helped provoke the legal confrontation. In the Virginia trial, Rambus executives disclosed that the company charges a 3.5 percent royalty for one of its memory chip designs, about three times the industry average. 

The higher royalty expense can make the difference between a profit and loss for chip makers. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.rambus.com 

Popular assumptions can create vast misimpressions, such as the one that the typical American household has become a daring investor in stocks, devouring market data and trading aggressively. 

It isn’t so, or at least a careful study suggests that to be the case. The study goes even further, using words such as “passive” and “languid” in describing investors’ behaviorr, and stating that they respond “sluggishly.” 

If the study’s authors are correct, it demolishes an impression held by a vast number of people that Americans have become masters of their financial fate, daringly creating wealth like no others in history. 

It includes even some corporate chairmen, and stock brokers, market gurus, advertisers, new-age authors and book publishers, commentators and members of the media who have declaimed about the new American investor. 

They had good reason to believe they were right. Hard numbers, the sort of thing these types profess to believe in but do not always comprehend correctly, seemed to support their opinions. 

Federal Reserve figures, for example, showed household stock holdings grew from $2.6 trillion to $12.6 trillion in the 1990s. And stocks that had been just 13 percent of household assets in 1990 jumped to  

33 percent. 

Could the Fed have been wrong? It could have been, of course, but it wasn’t. 

The explanation comes from the latest study, this one issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which explains the vast distinction between aggregate and typical, and the dangers of confusing them. 

The Fed’s statistics for the 1990s are aggregates for an economic sector, the household sector. To simply divide the aggregate numbers by the number of households misconstrues and misinforms. 

If the aggregates were the result of enormous numbers of Americans changing their behavior of many years, it would represent a social change of huge proportions. But it was not so, the authors say. 

In a study for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Joseph Tracy and Henry Schneider found behavioral change appears to have played only a moderate role, as did demographic shifts and changing pension plans. 

“Despite intensive media attention to the stock market boom of the 1990s,” they write, “most households that owned some stocks during the period did not rush to buy more. Similarly, most households that held no stocks refrained from acquiring them.” 

The average household equity share rose in the 1990s “not so much because Americans were flocking to Wall Street’s party, but because those already attending decided to stay on.” 

By staying on, a rather passive approach, these existing investors enjoyed spectacular returns, realizing what Tracy and Schneider found was “an astonishing 26.3 percent average annual return from 1996 to 1999.” In short, Americans during the soaring market were hardly the daring venturers in financial space envisioned by so many, but the same old Milquetoasts of old. 

But now a word or two about the benefits of passivity: 

“One implication of our results is that the typical household may behave in similarly languid fashion if market returns over the current decade drop below their historical average,” Tracy and Schneider said. 

“In that event, the average household equity share is likely to fall, but by less than it would if households were racing for the exits.” In that sense, languidness serves as a stabilizer, an antidote to volatility. 

John Cunniff is a business analysts for The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Stocks moved higher Friday as more dismal economic news raised hopes that the Federal Reserve will aggressively cut interest rates. 

The Labor Department reported that the nation’s unemployment rate shot up to 4.5 percent in April, the highest level in 2 1/2 years. The figures also showed that businesses slashed their payrolls by the largest amount since the recession in 1991. 

At the White House, meanwhile, press secretary Ari Fleischer said President Bush “remains very concerned about the strength of the economy.” He added that the Bush administration believes it’s “entirely possible” that the government’s recent 2 percent reading for the nation’s first-quarter economic growth will be revised downward. 

Stocks rose on expectations that the economic news will prompt Fed policy makers to cut interest rates a half a percentage point when they meet May 15. Earlier, the odds had been on a quarter-point cut. 

Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist for Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in New York, said it was extremely rare for the White House to predict a revision in a key economic measure such as the 2 percent gross domestic product reading. He suggested the Bush administration “is positioning here for a quick passage of the tax cut” favored by the president. 

He said the employment figures “clearly indicate economic weakness is spreading to the consumer sector” and said that increased the likelihood of a half percentage point, or 50 basis point, interest rate cut by the Fed. 

Scott Marcouiller, a vice president and market analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons of St. Louis, concurred. 

“The odds of a 50 basis point cut increased dramatically in the last 48 hours,” he said. 

The size of the increase in the unemployment rate and the cut in jobs surprised many analysts. They were predicting the unemployment rate would rise to 4.4 percent and that businesses would add jobs during the month. 

— The Associated Press 

The figures worry investors because weakness in employment tends to depress consumer spending. That, in turn, could prolong the economic weakness that has been evident in the economy since late last year. 

Among those taking big hits in early trading were Wind River Systems Inc., with its shares dropping $2.47 to $23.71. The company late Thursday cut its first-quarter earnings projections to a range of 4 cents to 6 cents a share. It cited a significant slowdown in customer spending and said it will cut its work force by up to 15 percent. 

Advancing issues slightly outnumbered declining shares on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 477.98 million shares compared with 502.33 million at the same time a day earlier. 

The Russell 2000 index, which measures the performance of smaller companies stocks, was down 0.42 at 485.23. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — Tracking growth of the nation’s Hispanic population, the Cinco de Mayo holiday has become a bull’s-eye for businesses targeting a largely untapped market. 

Never mind that May Fifth is little hyped in Mexico, where re-enactments of a fleeting victory over French forces in 1862 are far more sober than the beer-soaked bashes that erupt in U.S. cities. 

“It’s a promotional opportunity for corporations, because basically marketers have invented Cinco de Mayo as a holiday,” said Carlos Santiago, founder of a Newport Beach-based multicultural consulting firm. 

Once the domain of food and drink suppliers, the holiday has become a shortcut for companies that seek access to America’s 35 million Hispanics. Credit card firms, retiree service groups and even corporate recruiters are joining the likes of Taco Bell and Corona beer for a chance to pitch the Hispanic market. 

Though it commemorates Mexico’s most famous military triumph, Cinco de Mayo has become both an expression of Mexican-American pride and a fiesta with crossover appeal to the entire country. This Saturday, places as far afield as Park City, Utah, and Rogers, Ark., will throw their first Cinco de Mayo festivals. 

They’re examples of how Hispanics – led by Mexican Americans – have fanned out from major immigrant states such as California, Texas and New York. Recent census data report that, nationally, the Hispanic population grew by 58 percent in the 1990s. 

Their purchasing power appears to be growing at least as fast. 

The disposable income of Hispanics jumped 118 percent during the 1990s to $452 billion in 2001, according to a study by the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth. That increase dwarfed the 68 percent rise in disposable income among non Hispanics. Nationally, the study pegged total disposable income at just over $7 trillion. 

More people with more money to spend – it excites advertisers, who are bounding toward a market that’s not yet overwhelmed by product jingles. 

Santiago estimates Hispanics should command about $16 billion of the estimated $200 billion spent on advertising each year. Instead, Santiago said, the total is around $2 billion. 

Groups such as the American Association of Retired Persons are looking to catch up. AARP spent about $100,000 paying for a performance stage and literature at Los Angeles’ Cinco de Mayo festival last Sunday. 

“I thought it was awesome,” said Nancy Franklin, the group’s director of membership development. “A lot of people are not aware of AARP in the Hispanic community.” 

Western Union will co-sponsor New York City’s Cinco de Mayo event this weekend. And Minnesota-based credit card issuer Metris Cos. plans to sponsor Cinco de Mayo festivals, part of its aggressive marketing to Hispanic customers. 

That’s not to say that traditional supporters of the holiday are beating a retreat. 

“It’s really a cornerstone of our annual marketing plan,” said Don Mann of San Antonio-based Gambrinus Co., the largest U.S. importer of Corona beers. “We’re promoting it to the general market. Some of these other companies that are new to it are focusing on the Latino market.” 

Cinco de Mayo also has become an occasion for companies to push not just their products, but their work environments as well. Federal Express set up a booth at the Cinco de Mayo festival in Fort Worth, Texas, and logged 300 job applications. 

And the schmoozing doesn’t have to take place at a street stall. 

On Wednesday evening, the Fox Entertainment Group sponsored an event at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. It attracted dozens of Hispanic professionals, who heard pitches from Fox as well as other companies such as Wells Fargo and Deloitte & Touche. 

“Right now there’s a big demand to recruit,” said Miguel Figueroa, president of the Los Angeles-area chapter of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, which organized the event. “The company gains exposure, they also gain talent.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Santiago & Valdes Solutions: http://www.santiagovaldessolutions.com/ 

AARP: http://www.aarp.org/ 

National Society of Hispanic MBAs: http://www.nshmba.org/ 

Fox Entertainment: http://www.fox.com 

NEW YORK — Wall Street has no doubt that the stock market and the economy will eventually regain the kind of strength they enjoyed for much of the last decade. 

The question is when. 

Investors and market observers won’t like the answer from this past week: Longer than they had thought, perhaps not even this year. 

A spike in unemployment and warnings from companies of weak second-quarter and full-year earnings bode ill for a near-term recovery. Indeed, analysts say, the economy could still be recession-bound and that stock prices might have further to fall. 

“Listen, we are in for a grind here,” said Charles White, portfolio manager at Avatar Associates in New York. “It doesn’t mean stock prices have to go materially lower, but it means that the catalyst for being off to the races is a ways off.” 

Investors were disturbed this past week by two labor reports that quelled some of their resurgent optimism and reawakened worries about recession. 

The market still managed to move sharply higher on Friday – with the Dow Jones industrials reaching a closing high not seen since early February – but only because investors believe the economy is so weak that the Federal Reserve will have no choice but to deliver a big interest rate cut when its policy makers meet May 15. 

The most troubling news about the economy came Friday when the Labor Department said the unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 percent in April, its highest level in 2 years. The report also said businesses cut their payrolls by the largest amount since the recession in 1991. 

The data followed Thursday’s news that first-time claims for jobless benefits reached a 5-year high the previous week. 

Employment reports are watched closely because consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the U.S. economy, is directly tied to whether Americans are working and feeling secure about their jobs. 

“We have known for some time that we were in a manufacturing (and technology) recession and a profits recession; now it threatens to spread to the consumer,” said Robert Stovall, market strategist for Prudential Securities. 

There’s no mistaking now, he added, that many companies have suffered as the economy has slumped. 

One example from the past week was Newell Rubbermaid, which warned of poor profits for the remainder of the year after missing first-quarter expectations. The housewares and consumer products maker also said it will slash 3,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce. 

The weak labor data and corporate warnings overshadowed a strong economic report the previous week, when the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2 percent in the first quarter. 

“The GDP report was just a false cue. It seemed to be an aberration of a trend,” said A.C. Moore, chief investment strategist for Dunvegan Associates in Santa Barbara, Calif. “The economy is pretty weakened here.” 

The White House acknowledged as much on Friday as press secretary Ari Fleischer said the Bush administration believes it’s “entirely possible” that the government’s recent 2 percent reading for the nation’s first-quarter economic growth will be revised downward. 

Friday’s rally aside, so long as there’s proof that the economy and business climate is quite weak, the market won’t be able to maintain its upward momentum, said White, the portfolio manager. 

“The market has been going up recently on the hopes and dreams of a recovery by the fourth quarter,” White said. “It was way too soon to discuss recovery.” 

If history repeats itself, however, stock prices could head higher in the second half. Traditionally, the market’s major indexes begin to show improvement six months after the Federal Reserve begins lowering interest rates. The central bank made its first cut just after New Year’s. 

History has even more to offer investors who need encouragement, said Moore of Dunvegan. 

“It’s been a bull market since the Dark Ages,” he quipped. 

Despite the continuing uncertainty, the market’s major indexes managed to end the week with healthy gains. 

The Dow finished the week up 141.19, or 1.3 percent, at 10,951.24 on a 154.59 gain Friday. That was the Dow’s highest close since it reached 10,957.42 on Feb. 6. 

The Nasdaq composite index rose 115.85, or 5.6 percent for the week. It closed Friday at 2,191.53 on a gain of 45.33. 

The Standard & Poor’s 500 ended the week up 13.56, a 1.1 percent change, after rising 18.03 to 1,266.61 Friday. 

The Russell 2000 index rose 7.24 Friday to 492.89, ending the week up 2.92 or 0.6 percent. 

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index — which represents the combined market value of all New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq issues — ended the week at $11.687 trillion, up $178 billion from the previous week. A year ago, the index was $13.385 trillion. 

SACRAMENTO – Industrial power users could soon get paid by the state for cutting back on power use when California’s electricity reserves are low. 

Gov. Gray Davis signed an executive order Saturday creating a voluntary “interruptible” program that will use up to $100 million in state money to pay businesses for not using electricity. 

The money is “going to be spent one way or another,” said S. David Freeman, the governor’s senior energy adviser. “We’ll either be buying power or buying power reduction. It’s a matter of what’s the most economic.” 

Davis said that since nearly 70 percent of energy use in California is by commercial users, the program will “help mitigate and even avoid blackouts.” 

The Independent System Operator, manager of the state’s power grid, will operate the program, and the state Department of Water Resources will back it financially. 

Participants, mostly large commercial users, will submit bids for reducing their power. Grid operators will then compare that price with the going price for power and choose the cheapest option, Freeman said. 

“We’d rather pay people in California to cut back than pay out-of-state generators,” he said. Paying people to reduce their power has the added bonus of decreasing the chances of blackouts, he added. 

The new program is designed to streamline existing programs operated by the Public Utilities Commission, the Independent System Operator and utilities. 

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison have similar programs that offer cheaper electric rates if participants curtail energy use when electricity reserves drop below 5 percent. 

Those programs, which account for about 1,400 megawatts that grid operators can cut if necessary, will probably continue, but participants could eventually be moved into the state-funded program, said Kellan Fluckiger, Davis’ energy adviser. 

Fluckiger said the size of the new program would depend on how many participants the ISO can recruit. 

The ISO releases information on bids for energy after a period of time, and will probably treat bids for cutting power the same way, he said.

When they see us coming, the birdies try an’ hide, 

But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide. 

The sun’s shining bright, 

Everything seems all right, 

When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park. 

— Tom Lehrer 

Poisoning them would not be PC. Not at all. 

But Bonnie Hughes and her crew over at the Berkeley Arts Festival storefront – the old Lee Frank Jewelry Store at Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way – would dearly love to find a solution for the pigeons, which seem to appear almost magically. Almost daily.  

“Poisoning them is out,” Arts Fest Director Hughes said. 

Assistant Festival Director Earl Bradbury thinks the birds come into the store through one or more of the nooks and crannies in the ceiling that leads to the space above, which is the Shattuck Hotel.  

Actually, the regular ceiling has been removed to permit installation of sprinklers.  

(The Arts Festival moves into unused storefronts for a month or so each year.) 

Someone from animal control came by with nets, Bradbury said, “but they couldn’t do anything.” 

The animal control officer advised that the winged creatures be enticed out of the store with bits of food. That’s good as far as it goes, Bradbury said, but new birds soon appear. 

“We spend an inordinate amount of our time cajoling pigeons. It is nerve wracking and frustrating and they are messy,” Hughes said in a note to the Daily Planet, further pointing out that the birds tend to perch directly above valuable paintings and a grand piano. 

Hughes is making an appeal to the public: “Despair threatens to darken our Festive Spirit and we need help,” she said.  

“If you know how to get rid of pigeons and stop them from sneaking in, please phone, e-mail or drop into our gallery headquarters.” 

You can reach Hughes and Bradbury at 486-0411, or by e-mail at fabarts@silcon.com or drop by the store at 2200 Shattuck Ave.

OAKLAND — A rookie cop who blew the whistle on a group of renegade Oakland police officers accused of beating suspects and planting evidence testified Thursday about his two-week indoctrination into “the dark side.” 

Keith Batt, who was a rookie officer on the “dogwatch,” or night shift, in Oakland for just nine working days, testified at the preliminary hearing for the officers – which is being held to determine if there is enough evidence for a trial. 

Batt said a group of officers who called themselves “The Riders” taught him to falsify police reports, subdue suspects and generally disregard what he had learned in the police academy. 

Chuck Mabanag, Jude Siapno and Matthew Hornung now face more than 60 felony and misdemeanor counts ranging from assault and kidnapping to falsifying police reports and overtime slips. 

Frank Vazquez, the alleged ringleader of the group, is believed to have fled the country. 

Batt, 24, who now works for the Pleasanton Police Department, testified all day Thursday. He wore his blue  

officer’s uniform, spoke without hesitation and looked frequently at the  

accused officers. 

His face became red when he was asked about the alleged beating of Delphine Allen. 

Mabanag, who was Batt’s trainer and immediate superior, seemed disappointed that Batt hadn’t participated more in the beating, Batt testified. 

“I told him that I had kicked Delphine twice,” Batt said. “He said, ‘Why only twice? Why did you stop?’ He said as a trainee I should be aggressive he had never seen a trainee hold back as much as I did. 

“I was young and he was old and he would get tired quickly,” Batt testified. “He said I should keep hitting him until he told me to stop.” 

Prosecutor David Hollister said Batt is the key witness in the case, and will be on the stand for two or three days. Batt resigned from the Oakland Police Department last summer, shortly after reporting the officers’ alleged activities and prompting an investigation against them. 

Batt testified that Siapno repeatedly asked whether he was ready for the dark side. 

“The dark side was illegal activity committed by police officers,” Batt explained. “Excessive use of force, lying on police reports, things of that nature.” 

Batt said he did whatever Mabanag asked him to do, even when he had to lie, because Mabanag had the power to get him fired. 

Batt testified that Vazquez told him, “If you’re a coward, I’ll terminate you. If you’re a snitch, I’ll beat you myself, and if you’re a criminal, I’ll arrest you and I’ll take you to jail myself.” 

Batt said “The Riders” routinely beat suspects, concocted police reports filled with lies and he suspected they planted drugs on or near their suspects. 

He testified that he once found drugs that a suspect had allegedly tossed when he saw police coming. 

“I remember feeling uneasy about saying, ‘Frank (Vazquez), look what I found,’ because I suspected Frank already knew what I would find,” Batt said in court. “I felt like he was using me as a pawn in his game.” 

Defense attorneys refused to comment on Batt’s credibility, but said they looked forward to his cross-examination, probably on Friday. 

While Californians are getting squeezed by electricity costs, they’re getting the best deal in the country on car insurance because of a unique state law, a new study by a consumer group shows. 

Auto insurance prices in California declined 4 percent between 1989 and 1998 while jumping an average 38.9 percent nationwide, according to the survey released Wednesday by Consumer Federation of America. 

Insurance premiums have increased the most in Nebraska (up 81.7 percent from 1989 to 1998), South Dakota (75.2 percent), West Virginia (65.8 percent), Kentucky (64.3 percent) and Arkansas (61.5 percent), the survey shows. They have increased the least in New Hampshire (up 2 percent), Pennsylvania (11.7 percent), Massachusetts (12 percent), Maine (13.2 percent) and New Jersey (15.8 percent). 

Consumers nationwide spend an annual average of more than $700 per vehicle and $1,500 per household, totaling $100 billion nationwide, according to Consumer Federation. 

California was the only state that showed a decline. At a news conference, Ralph Nader and other consumer advocates credited Proposition 103, passed by the state’s voters in 1988, which tightened insurance regulation. 

“California stands out,” said Robert Hunter, director of insurance for Consumer Federation, who prepared the study. He said Proposition 103 brought smaller rate increases, fewer uninsured drivers and more insurance companies to the state — as well as fatter profits for the companies. 

State insurance regulators around the country “should look to California for guidance about how to effectively regulate” insurance, said Hunter, a former Texas insurance commissioner. 

Proposition 103, among other things, required insurance companies to open their books to justify rate increases, gave drivers with clean records a 20 percent discount, allowed banks to sell auto insurance to stimulate competition and required the state commissioner to provide consumers with rate comparisons. 

An insurance industry official denounced Proposition 103 as “government price-fixing” and instead attributed the decline in California’s rates to improved highway safety and greater seat belt use, a crackdown on insurance fraud and legal changes making it more difficult and expensive to file lawsuits in car accidents. 

Insurance premiums around the country have declined since 1998 after several years of increases, for those same reasons, David Snyder, assistant general counsel of the American Insurance Association, said in a telephone interview. 

Hunter said state-by-state figures were not available for years after 1998. 

Nader, who led the campaign for Proposition 103, said insurance companies’ opposition to a similar law for other states is part of a new push by U.S. industry for deregulation, encouraged by the business-friendly Bush administration. 

“Deregulation spells death, disease and injury which could be prevented,” he told reporters, citing the deaths the government has linked to Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone tires. Nader has said weakened regulatory powers of the federal highway safety agency were a factor in the crashes. 

Consumer Federation and other groups, including Consumers Union, the Center for Economic Justice and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, are asking state insurance commissioners to consider adopting a California-style law. 

Spokesmen for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners had no immediate comment on the new survey. 

On the Net: 

Consumer Federation of America: http://www.consumerfed.org 

American Insurance Association: http://www.aiadc.org

SAN FRANCISCO — Random House Inc. has agreed to stop distributing copies of a philosophical memoir by Bryan Magee that accuses a noted lecturer, author and one-time confidant of Bertrand Russell of being a CIA operative. 

In “Confessions of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper,” first published in the United States in 1998, Magee says Ralph Schoenman was a CIA operative planted to spy on Russell, a noted 1960s opponent of the Vietnam War. 

He also called Schoenman “appallingly sinister” and “calculated and manipulative,” according to court documents. 

“He said I was like an evil dwarf out of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle,” Schoenman said Tuesday. “At 5-11, I’m probably the largest dwarf on record. 

“The passages ... were clearly intended to reinvent and incite prejudice and to create a climate of distrust of me and my relationship with Russell. This was a full-board attempt at character assassination and it had to be stopped,” he said. 

The settlement was reached with Random House May 15, according to Schoenman’s lawyer, Adam Belsky. 

“We are pleased that we’ve been able to resolve our differences,” said Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum, who added he was unfamiliar with the details of the settlement. 

The publisher agreed to stop distributing any copies of the book containing references to Schoenman and agreed to replace original editions in more than 700 universities and libraries with the new version published in January 2000. 

“This settlement has not only made certain that future editions of the book will now be accurate, but, by providing corrected editions to all libraries, ensures that the historical record will be corrected as well,” Belsky said. 

Additional settlement terms were undisclosed because of a confidentiality agreement. 

Magee’s book was originally published in England in 1997 by Orion Publishing Co. In August 1999, Schoenman, who said he’s never spoken to Magee, sued for libel after a friend alerted him to the offending passages. 

”(Magee) made no effort to contact me before, during or after the publication of the book,” said Schoenman, who was a close friend and colleague of Russell between 1960 and 1968. 

That case was settled in October 1999 after the author and the publisher acknowledged the statements about Schoenman were false and apologized for any damage they may have caused his reputation, according to court documents. They also agreed to pay Schoenman’s legal fees and $95,000 in damages. 

At about the same time, Random House was in the process of publishing the book in the United States. 

BERKELEY — Six years after capturing the national spotlight by dropping affirmative action admissions, University of California regents are poised to revisit the contentious topic. 

At issue are new policies that would replace the 1995 resolutions that effectively dismantled UC’s old affirmative action system. 

Regents can’t reinstate affirmative action because of Proposition 209, the 1996 state ballot measure that prohibited using race or gender as factors in state hiring, contracting or education. 

But supporters say approving the new policies, scheduled for a vote later this month, would send an important message to minorities. 

“We hopefully repair our reputation worldwide,” said Regent Bill Bagley.  

“Obviously, this doesn’t effect the return of affirmative action. But it certainly tells all of the academic world and all of the qualified minorities that the board of regents of this university is no longer the sponsor of this divisive movement.” 

The 1995 resolutions forbade considering race or gender in hiring, contracting or admissions at UC.  

They also decreed that at least 50 percent of all admissions be based on grades alone – up from the previous minimum of 40 percent – and included a statement committing the university to promoting diversity by, among other things, considering students’ individual hardships. 

The diversity statement has become the basis for a multimillion-dollar program aimed at getting more California public school students interested in and qualified for UC. 

The new policies would affirm the diversity commitment, note that Proposition 209 does away with the need for a separate UC policy on race and refer the question of how many students should be admitted by grades alone to a faculty committee for review. 

After race-blind admissions went into effect in 1998, admissions of blacks and Hispanics, traditionally underrepresented at UC, fell sharply.  

At flagship Berkeley, admission of black students dropped nearly 70 percent, from 515 in fall 1997 to 157 in fall 1998. 

Since then, the numbers have increased.  

Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians comprised 18.6 percent of in-state freshman admissions at all eight undergraduate campuses this fall, compared to 18.8 percent in 1997. 

Still, underrepresented minorities have yet to reach 1997 levels at the most competitive campuses. 

Repealing the 1995 vote would “reassert UC’s commitment to welcoming students from all backgrounds,” Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, an ex-officio regent, said in remarks prepared for a speech at UC Davis last month.  

“It would remove the UC as the ’poster child’ for the anti-affirmative action movement on America’s college campuses.” 

Regent Ward Connerly, who wrote the 1995 resolutions, did not return a telephone call to The Associated Press on Friday. 

The 1995 policies passed 15-10 on hiring and contracting and 14-10 on admissions (Bagley abstained from the admissions vote in return for getting the diversity statement added as an amendment). 

Since then the political makeup of the board has changed as members finished their terms and were replaced by the state’s new Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. 

Davis’ predecessor, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, an ex-officio regent, presided over the July 1995 vote.  

Wilson made repealing affirmative action a cornerstone of his brief run at the Republican presidential nomination. 

Davis, who was the state’s lieutenant governor in 1995 and therefore also an ex-officio regent, voted against dropping affirmative action. As governor, he has said he won’t go against Proposition 209; a spokeswoman said Friday he is reviewing the new proposal.

SAN JOSE — Trial begins this week for a former telephone repairman accused of an infamous act of road rage – throwing a woman’s little white dog into traffic after a minor accident. 

Andrew Burnett, 27, could face up to three years in prison if convicted of killing Leo, the bichon frise. Burnett pleaded innocent last month. 

The dog’s owner, Sara McBurnett, received supportive messages from animal lovers around the country after Leo was killed near the San Jose airport on Feb. 11, 2000. 

McBurnett said her car tapped the bumper of a black sport-utility vehicle that had just cut her off. When the driver approached her car, she rolled down her window to apologize. Enraged, the man reached in and snatched Leo, threw him into oncoming traffic and fled, McBurnett said. 

Initial hearings in the trial are scheduled for Monday, and prosecutor Troy Benson said he expects jury selection to begin Tuesday. 

Burnett was arrested in December on charges he stole thousands of dollars worth of equipment from his former employer, Pacific Bell, and lied to get out of a speeding ticket.