Medical experts, patients and legislators are supporting a bill by state Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, that addresses under-prescribed pain medication. 

Assembly bill 487, introduced by Aroner in February, would require the Medical Board of California to develop a protocol that investigates complaints of undertreatment of pain and tracks the disciplinary actions taken. It would also make it mandatory for new physicians to take courses on pain management. It passed the state senate appropriations committee July 9. 

At a public forum at the North Berkeley Senior Center Wednesday, participants said the under-presciption of pain medication has been an ongoing issue for decades and affects a large number of people in California. 

“The numbers are striking,” said Dr. Robert V. Brody, chief of San Francisco’s General’s Pain Consultation Clinic, referring to a 1997 study of the undertreatment of terminal patients. “Way more than half of the patients who were dying did not have their pain managed in the last period of their lives.” 

One of the main reasons for the persistence of this issue is cultural, Brody and other panelists said. Many in the medical community and the public, they said, tend to confuse pain management with drug abuse.  

“The reality is that the patient who needs the medication will not become addictive,” said Dr. Diana Sullivan Everstine, a clinical psychologist who calls for better education on the psychological consequences of pain. “People who are prescription-drug-seeking are trying to feel a little better. They’re not trying to get high.” 

Sue Hodges, chair of the Oakland Commission on Persons with Disabilities, emphasized how critical the treatment of pain is for the psychological well-being of those, like her, who experience it on a daily basis. 

Hodges used an analogy to explain how depressed and socially isolated individuals with severe pain can feel when they’re undertreated. 

“Visualize the lens of a camera, the lens that you use to focus to take a picture of life, and look at that lens closing and the light getting darker and darker,” she told the audience. “For those of us who live in chronic acute pain for which there is no relief, there is no resting, there is no day off ... pain management can relax the lens of that camera, and allow it to open up again.” 

Sleep depravation, lack of joy, inability to focus and decreased sexuality are only some of the symptoms of untreated pain that affects its chronic victims, Hodges said. 

Dr. Sharon Drager, a local surgeon and president of the Alameda Contra Costa Medical Association, said that one of the difficulties in treating severe pain is the fact that there is no concrete way to measure it. Physicians can only rely on what patients tell them.  

“Pain is not a real vital sign,” she said. “It’s not the same as temperature or blood pressure because you can’t get an independent verification.” 

The best way to address that problem, she added, is to take into consideration all the aspects of pain, including anxiety, and to give patients autonomy.  

“Pain is such a complicated issue,” she said. “It has to be addressed in a global fashion and not only with opiates.” 

Contra Costa County Supervisor Donna Gerber, also a member of the medical board, said that the bill will be reviewed by the board sometime this month. She anticipates that the board will approve it and that the legislation will soon reach the Senate for a vote.  

For additional information on California’s Medical Board visit the web site http://www.medbd.ca.gov/ 

Saturday, July 14

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Regular market plus annual peach tastings and compost give away. Free. 

548-3333 

Sunday, July 15

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn drive train maintenance and chain repair from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Buddhist Practice 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Mark Henderson on “Fearlessness on the Bodhisattva Path.” Free. 

843-6812 

Second Annual Wobbly High  

Mass 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck (@ Prince St.) 

Presented by Folk This! and friends, an evening of musical satire, subversion and sacrilege. This year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow,” a historical journey toward a future society without classes or bosses. 

$8 

849-2568 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Skronkathon BBQ 

1 - 11 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline 

The First Annual Transbay Skronkathon Barbecue. Dozens of Bay Area musicians will play “multi-conceptual-deconstructed-creative-music.” Charcoal provided, bring your own items to barbecue. Free. 

649-8744 

The Wizard School of Magic 

1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the LHS Top of the Bay Family Sundays, “Benny and Bebe and The Wizard School of Magic” is inspired by the Harry Potter stories. Learn what it takes to become a real wizard. Museum admission $3 - $7. 

642-5132 

PedalPower 

8:30 a.m. 

Lake Merritt Garden Center 

666 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland 

Bike ride and pancake brunch fundraiser for the Asian Domestic Violence Clinic which provides free or low-cost legal services for abused women and children in the East Bay. Fourteen mile ride from Lake Merritt to Portview Park and back. $5 - $25. 

415-567-6255 

Berkeley Town Hall Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

Cedar at Bonita Street 

Meeting to update listeners about the lawsuits against the Pacifica Board of Directors. 

658-1512 

Monday, July 16

National Women’s Political Caucus 

5:30 - 7 p.m. 

Florence McDonald Community Room 

Savo Island Cooperative Housing 

2017 Stuart Street 

Special guest Rosemary Stasek of Catholics for Free Choice addresses: Catholic Hospitals and Restrictions on Women’s Health Care. Ms. Stasek is a highly regarded expert on the subject of women’s reproductive rights. Everyone is welcome. Free. For more info and RSVP call Cynthia Wooten at 559-8707. 

Tuesday, July 17

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 best vacations, trips, and travel experiences. 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 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK) 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday morning. Call Ann, 655-8863 

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 Don, 525-3565 

Berkeley School Volunteers 

10:30 a.m. - noon 

1835 Allston Way 

Orientation for volunteers interested in helping in academic and recreation programs being held in Berkeley public schools this summer. 

644-8833 

Writing and Resistance  

In A Culture of Amnesia 

6 - 7:45 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue 

Classroom #2 

Part of a workshop series on concepts and strategies for resistance through the spoken and written word, taught by Joyce E. Young. $12. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Berkeley City Council Public  

Hearing 

7 p.m. 

Council Chambers 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

The City Council will consider extending the moratorium on the installation of wireless telecommunications antennas for cellular and other personal communications systems. For information on the moratorium call 705-8108. To submit comments or for other information call 981-6900.

NIMBYs are  

taking over the city we all love 

Editor: 

In over 12 hours of testimony on the Beth El project, of those in opposition, only five did not live within two blocks.  

We are now a town where NIMBYs are taking over.  

•We cannot implement a four-story housing project with 20 percent of the units at below market prices, on a transportation corridor zoned for four stories. 

•We cannot upgrade a long abandoned shop to support people with AIDS. 

•We cannot implement a softball field on existing open ground. 

What has happened to Berkeley? How can a city that professes to admire progress become so reactionary? 

We lampoon ourselves in the “How Berkeley Can We Be parade.” Lets examine this self-mocking as we look at the Beth El project: 

•It has been four years now.  

•It has been insufferable post midnight meetings. 

•It has been commissioners suing the city. 

•One commissioner actually bragged about “breaking into the site,” asking, “Why can’t we move them out of town?” 

How Berkeley Can We Be? 

They want to save the fish that can never reach the Beth El site. 

They say we should not pave over the creek. 

But every street in Berkeley paves over every creek it meets. 

They want a park to themselves. 

They want no change, no how, never, never, never. Not In My Back Yard!!! 

How Berkeley Can We Be? 

Beth El holds multiple workshops 

Initial concepts are changed & change again. 

Beth El, at its own expense, hires traffic, parking, creek, fish, tree experts, soil, structural and landscape experts. 

How Reasonable Can We Be? 

Beth El comes to the city with a project that is  

below the height, below the building footprint, beyond the setback, in excess of the parking requirements and in tune with the neighborhood. 

How Reasonable Can We Be? 

We lampoon our city because we all see how ridiculous it all is.  

Now is the time for the city council to declare, loud and clear: NIMBYs shall not rule.  

Now is the time to bring reasonableness back to the city, the city that we all love. 

Lloyd Morgan 

Berkeley 

School officials compromise  

student rights 

Editor: 

Thank you for your article covering the issues around Special Education. It will not be “okay to be a student with a disability” in Berkeley as long as it is okay for BUSD's special education administrators to compromise civil rights. 

Joann Biondi is quoted in your article as saying that disputes are resolved in mediation rather that formal hearing. Mediation is the first step in due process. That most issues are resolved there is because students can't wait to have the educational services and hearings take more time. Although services are compromised, at least they can begin to be provided if resolved in mediation. Also, despite what Biondi says, special education administrators DO take the adversarial approach to IEPs. If they didn't, parents and administrators would be working together rather than against each other. 

There are good things happening in Special Education. In particular, some full inclusion programs at the elementary level are very effective and professional despite lack of resources. Many of Berkeley's regular education teachers, principals and parents are smart and supportive. Special Education leadership should mirror their dedication, uncompromising respect for civil rights, and the appreciation for diversity. 

name withheld  

Cops who stop pedestrians for violations unfair 

Editor: 

On March 20 this year, I was stopped by a Berkeley police officer for walking across the street. It was at 3:15 p.m. Not a car was in sight in either direction. I was within the crosswalk. The problem,according to Hester, was that I was in violation of Berkeley municipal code 14.32.050. I had failed to pay attention to the signal. Indeed, the little red hand had begun to blink. 

I was stunned when the officer ordered me to stop and produce identification It doesn't help matters that when cars are around, I am often nearly run over by motorists when I am paying attention to the signals, whenever I wrongfully assume that they are too. Shortly after my incident, I even witnessed a car running onto a sidewalk and crashing into the restaurant where I was dining at, on University Avenue! 

Around about that time, I also spent a week vacationing in Tokyo. I was simply amazed at how polite the majority of the people were there. I was in the heart of Tokyo, all day every day, and I never saw a single auto accident. Just while walking to and from work along University Avenue in our little Berkeley, I see a vehicular mishap or near-miss (usually involving speeding) almost every day. 

It seems to me that the priorities of the police in this town are misguided. 

According to the Berkeley Police website, out of 29 beats, the area where I was cited accounts for about 10 percent of violent crime in Berkeley. It seems that the judgement of at least one officer is seriously in question. In this case, I was the victim. This citation may have been nothing more than a $103 nuisance, but it feels like the time that I was mugged in Chicago. 

In both cases, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was preyed upon by someone who did not have my best interests at heart. Are pedestrians and bicyclists being targeted as they are easier to stop than a speeding car? Perhaps. 

Martin Lane 

Berkeley 

Progressives can put their muscle behind Kriss 

Editor: 

At a time when so many politicians let their egos dictate their actions it is heartening to see Kriss Worthington put his constituencies interests first. Rather than engage in a divisive Assembly primary, Worthington willingly and openly deferred to such potential progressive candidates as June Jordan, Nancy Skinner, and Mark Friedman. Now that these leaders have bypassed the race, the progressive community can unite behind Worthington and avoid the divisive battles of the past. Voters will no doubt recall Worthington’s display of conscience and integrity in the selection process when considering their choice in the March 2002 election. 

Randy Shaw 

Berkeley 

Editor’s note: Nancy Skinner may, in fact, run for the office. 

Imagine a mystery novel sans middle aged lonely guy, hyper-femme perp or insanely effacing schoolmarm. In “The Big Nap”, the second novel in the “Mommy-Track Series” by Ayelet Waldman, we don’t even get a self-respecting set of four inch pumps. Don’t even think of asking for generic blood n’ guts n’ guns n’ cigarette smoke swirling into the blue. 

Here’s what you do get in “The Big Nap”: crackling sarcastic monologue, a breast-feeding instruction, an impressive South Park-like number of belches, a peek at the rarefied world of an ultra-orthodox Jewish community, and a sustained moment-by-moment travelogue of the privileged though stressful experience of a former Harvard Law School graduate named Juliet Applebaum, turned part-time sleuth and full-time mommy... Volvo station wagon and all.  

Berkeley resident Ayelet Waldman, whose first book, “Nursery Crimes”, launched the Mommy-Track Mystery Series, is herself a former Harvard Law School Graduate turned full-time mommy. She is married to Michael Chabon, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize in fiction.  

The postman does not ring twice in The Big Nap. The novel opens with the Fed Ex man at the door, delivering “yet another sterling silver rattle from Tiffany (that made seven),” and a bare-breasted Juliet Applebaum explaining the finer points of nipple care. Immediately we’re drawn into drama: Four month old “mutant vampire” Isaac won’t sleep and his mother is half out of her mind from fatigue.  

A solution presents itself in the form of gorgeous though virginal Fraydle Finklestein, a young ultra-Orthodox woman with baby-sitting prowess and the ability to drive handsome flat-stomached non-Orthodox 20-something former Israeli paratroopers wild. Fraydle baby-sits for Juliet one time... during which Juliet enjoys an entire two hours of sleep.  

Almost immediately the luminous Fraydle vanishes, her parents are unwilling to file a missing persons report with the police and exhausted heroine Juliet Applebaum is out of a baby-sitter and may never have the opportunity to nap again.  

Where is Fraydle? Was she kidnapped? Did she run off with the cute paratrooper? Could her disappearance have something to do with the fact that she’s just gotten engaged? (You know how dangerous marriage can be.) Juliet Applebaum’s curiosity is piqued. Or maybe it’s just that you don’t find baby-sitters like Fraydle growing on trees.  

Juliet Applebaum may go quite mad if she doesn’t get another shot at a nap … and so the race to find Fraydle is on. With her two kids in tow, Juliet Applebaum takes on the investigation, while in the background her workaholic husband, Peter Wyeth, seems to be spending entirely too much time with his lovely assistant, nicknamed “Maximum Mindy,” and the protagonist’s parents step in, here and there, to add touches of color.  

Like its namesake, The Big Sleep, a novel by Raymond Chandler which was turned into the classic film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, directed by Howard Hawkes, The Big Nap contains some stunning way-bigger- than-life Hollywood action, plenty of sizzling double entendre, and a vision of parenthood that is on the radical end of extreme. 

Ayelet Waldman will read from The Big Nap on Sunday, July 15, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books in Berkeley.

Ashkenaz July 14: 9:30 p.m., Paul Pena, Zulu Exiles, Tuvan throat singing and township jive. $12; July 15: 6 p.m., Food and Funk, Salsa dance and beginning Salsa lesson, Israeli food; July 17: 9 p.m., Rock n’ Blues with The Jennifer Will Band. $7; July 18: 9 p.m., Swamp boogie with Tee Fee, 8 p.m. dance lesson with Diana Costillo; July 19: 10 p.m., Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave. $5; July 20: 9:30 p.m., Steve Lucky and The Rhumba Bums play East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop. 8 p.m. dance lesson with Nick and Shanna. $11; July 21: 9:30 p.m., Balkan Night with Edessa and Anoush. Turkish dance lesson with Ahmet Luleci at 8 p.m. $12; July 22: 9 p.m., Wagogo, Heartpumping Miranda music from Zimbabwe. $10; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5099 www.ashkenaz.com 

Berkeley Art Center July 14: 7 p.m., Rhythm and Muse featuring Adelle and Jack Foley, open mike sign up at 6:30; July 15: Live Oak Concert with David Cheng, Marvin Sanders, Ari Hsu. 1275 Walnut Street 352-6643 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery July 22: 4 p.m., Pianist Jerry Kuderna performs the complete piano music of Arnold Schönberg. Suggested donation $10; 2200 Shattuck Ave. 665-9496 

Eli’s Mile High Club Doors open at 8 p.m. July 14: Mark Hummel; July 21: Little Jonny. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage July 13: Jeremy Cohen's Violinjazz Vintage string swing $16.50; July 14: 10 a.m. - noon, Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live featuring author Walter Mosely, Ray’s Vast Basement, The Waikiki Steel Works, hyperventilation by monologist and movie star Josh Kornbluth, pianist Gini Wilson, plus other surprise guests and audience true stories. $12; July 15: Carol McComb, Sterling originals $17.50 Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or 762-BASS or www.thefreight.org 

Jupiter July 13: UHF- Mod Rock from Portland. July 14: Fred Zimmerman Quartet- Local Piano and Jazz. July 17: Amaldecor- Combination of traditional Eastern European and French Swing. July 18: Cannonball w/ DJ Aspect- “hiphop-groove-latin-jazz-funk”. July 20: Koochen & Hoomen- local electronic. July 21: Orbit 4- hip-hop, drum ’n’ bass, breakbeat, jungle and jazz. July 24: Stringthoery- local jazz blues and rock. July 25: Suite 304- vocal harmany-based groove pop. July 27: Sexfresh- traditional American pop. All music starts at 8:00 p.m.www.jupiterbeer.com; or call the hotline: THE-ROCK (843-7625)  

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8 p.m., Word Descara Series with Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell, Elmaz Abindader, and others; July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descara Series with Mingus Amungus, Seeking, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino, and others; July 15: 3:30 p.m., Domingo do Rumba- Local aces of Rumba, Cuban rhythm and dance; 7:30 p.m., Laborfest- this year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow” a historical journey towards a future society without classes or bosses; July 19: 8:00 p.m., Rebecca Riots with Kim & Krista- Singer/songwriters from Berkeley; July 20: 8 p.m., Collective Soul- hip-hop, spoken word, 9:30 p.m., Mermelada’s Latin American music jam with Quique Cruz; July 21: 8:00 p.m., Family and Friends- Talent Showcase with soul, hip-hop and spoken word; July 22: 7 p.m., It Takes a Community to Raise a CD- Mary Watkins & Lisa Cohen, Gwen Avery, Avotcja, June Millington & the Slamming Babes, Blackberri and more; July 24: 7:30 p.m., Temp Slave, the Musical- Musical Satire from Madison, Wisconsin; July 27: 8:00 p.m., Raphael Manriquez- singer composer and guitar player celebrates release of new album; ; 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

La Note/Jazzschool July 15: 4:30 p.m., vocalist W. Allen Taylor; 5:30 p.m., jazz trio Michael Hauser Group; July 22: 4:30 p.m. Vocalist Nanda Berman; 5:30 p.m., David McGee Group; July 29: 4:30 p.m., vocalist Lily Tung; 5:30 p.m., Jazzschool Advanced Jazz Workshop. $5. 2377 Shattuck Avenue 845-5373. 

Rose Street House of Music July 13: 8 p.m. “Doria Roberts & Making Waves” Featuring special guest slam poet Aya de Leon; July 20: 8:30 p.m., “Divabands Unplugged” with Bern, Roberta Donnay, and Elin Jr. $8-20 donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. 594-4000 ext. 687 

Shattuck Down Low Lounge Every Tuesday: 9:30 p.m., Posh Tuesdays with DJ’s Yamu, Delon, Add1, and Tequila Willie. Shattuck at Allston. www.thebeatdownsound.com  

Starry Plough Pub Sunday and Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Drums and Tuba, Mega Mousse, $7; July 14: Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons, The John Shipe Band $7 3101 Shattuck Ave. 841-2082. 

“Joanne D. Carey and Brendan Carey” July 15: 4 p.m., A benefit for the Berkeley Arts Festival, the Carey’s perform original work. 2200 Shattuck Avenue 486-0411 

“Midsummer Mozart Festival” All shows at 7:30 p.m. July 20: Four pieces including the Overture to “The Abduction to the Seraglio”; July 28: Four pieces including “March in D Major”; . First Congregational Church 2345 Channing Way (415) 292-9620 www.midsummermozart.org  

“Emeryville Taiko” June 22: 2 p.m., Traditional Japanese drumming with American influence. $5 - $10. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

“The Great Sebastians” Opens July 13, 8 p.m., presented by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. Friday and Saturday evenings 8 p.m. through August 11, plus Thursday, Aug. 9. A tale about a mind-reading act touring behind the Iron Curtain. A communist general believes the act and “invites” the Sebastians to his villa where the humor and excitement follows. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman). For reservations call 528-5620 

“Romeo and Juliet” Through July 14, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m. Set in early 1930s 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” 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 

“Comedy of Errors” July 14 - 15, 21- 22: 1 p.m.: Free park performance of this Shakespeare comedy by Women’s Will, the Bay Area’s all-female Shakespeare company. July 14 and 15 at John Hinkel Park, Southampton at Somerset Place, July 21 and 22 at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Avenue at Berryman. 415-567-1758  

“The Laramie Project” Extended through July 22: Weds. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (After July 8 no Wednesday performance, no Sunday matinee on July 22.) 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 

“The Skin of Our Teeth” Through July 29: Tues. - Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Part of the California Shakespeare Festival, a Thorton Wilder play about a typical family enduring various catastrophes. $10 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 

“Orphan” July 13 through August 5 (no show on July 20): Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Lyle Kessler’s dark comedy about a mysterious stranger invading the home of two orphaned brothers. $15. The Speakeasy Theater, 2016 Seventh St. 326-8493 

“Iphegenia in Aulis” Through August 12: Sat. and Sun. 5 p.m. No performances July 14 and 15, special dawn performance on August 12 at 7 a.m. A free park performance by the Shotgun Players of Euripides’ play about choices and priorities. With a masked chorus, singing, dancing, and live music. Feel free to bring food and something soft to sit on. John Hinkel Park, Southhampton Place at Arlington Avenue (different locations July 7 and 8). 655-0813 

Opera 

“Carmen” Berkeley Opera takes a fresh look at George Bizet’s popular opera with a new English-language adaptation by David Scott Marley. Marley’s version restores many lines that had been cut from the familiar version, and includes additional material from the 1846 French novella the opera is based on. “It’s a little darker and sexier than the opera most people think they know,” says Marley. July 13, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. July 15 and 22 at 7 p.m. July 14 at 2 p.m.  

$30 general, $25 seniors, $15 youth & handicapped, $10 student rush. Julia Morgan Theater 2640 College Ave. 841-1903 

Films 

La Pena Cultural Center July 18: 7 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Resistance as Democracy” by Larry Mosque, “The International” by Peter Miller, “Songs of the Thai Labor Movement” by Wayne. $7 donation. July 29: 2:00 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Not in my Garden” by Video 48. $7. 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Pacific Film Archive July 14: 7 p.m., “You and Me,” 8:50 p.m., “Man Hunt”; July 15: 3 p.m., Family Classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; 5:30 p.m., “The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story”; July 17: 7:30 p.m., “Bangkok Bahrain”; July 18: 7:30 p.m., “Kiss Me Quick” , 9 p.m., “The Flesh Eaters”; July 19: 7:30 p.m., “Golem -- The Spirit of Exile”; July 20: 7 p.m., “Fires on the Plain”, 9:05 p.m., “Harp of Burma”; July 21: 7 p.m., “The Woman in the Window”, 9 p.m., “Scarlet Street”; July 22: 5:30 p.m., “Odd Obsession”; 7:30 p.m., “Nihonbashi”; July 24: 7:30 p.m., “In the Valley of the Wupper” and “In the Name of the Duce”; July 25: 7:30 p.m., “Spider Baby 2000”; July 29: Family Classic “A Boy Named Charlie Brown”; $4. Sundays, 3 p.m. New PFA Theatre, 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

“Street Scene” July 15: 2 p.m., This 1931 film explores themes of antisemitism and identity in New York tenements. $2 donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut Street 848-0237 

Exhibits 

“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” Through 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 

“Ames Gallery Artists” Through July 22: Thur. - Sun. Noon - 7 p.m., Temporary gallery as part of the Berkeley Arts Festival with works from Wilbert Griffith, Dorothy Binger, Julio Garcia, and Leon Kennedy. Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 2200 Shattuck Ave. 486-0411 

“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 

“New Visions: Introductions 2001” Through August 18: Wed. - Sat.: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Juried by Artist- Curator Rene Yanez and Robbin Henderson, Executive Director of the Berkeley Art Center, the exhibition features works from some of California’s up-and-coming artists. Pro Arts 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9425 

“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. Through September. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s 2454 Telegraph Ave. Readings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 14: Alexander Cockburn and John Strausbaugh discuss Cockburn’s book “Five Days That Shook the World” and Strausbaugh’s “Rock ‘Til You Drop” ; July 15: Jimmy Santiago Baca discusses “A Place to Stand”; July 16: “Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex,” a panel discussion; July 17: Ralph Berberich, MD, discusses his memoir “Hit Below the Belt: Facing up to Prostate Cancer”; July 19: Lonny Shavelson talks about “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System”; July 23: Brian Skyes reads “The Seven Daughters of Eve”; July 24: Susann Cokal reads from “Mirabilis.” $2 donation. 845-0837 

Cody’s 1730 Fourth St. Readings at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Joe Di Prisco reading “Confessions of Brother Eli”; July 20: Lynne Hinton reads from her second novel, “The Things I know Best”; July 25: Alice Randall reads from “The Wind Done Gone.” $2 donation. 559-9500 

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8:00 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Poets and musicians collaborate across cultures. Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell and more. $10. July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Mingus Amungus, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino and more. $12. 2105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Poetry Nitro Weekly poetry open mike. 6:30 p.m. sign-up, 7 p.m. reading. July 16: Featuring the Silicon Valley Slam Team; July 23: Featuring Jonathan Yaffe. 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  

Dance 

“Ganga-Ashtakam” July 15: 2 p.m., Indian Bharata Natyam classical dance celebrating the Indian river and goddess Ganga. Dancers Anuradha Murali, Shilpa Sejpal, and Gopitha Tharmalingam. $5 - $10. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Museums 

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  

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 will close its exhibition galleries for renovation on October 1. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until October 1, 2001: “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture.” “Sites Along the Nile: Rescuing Ancient Egypt.” “The Art of Research: Nelson Graburn and the Aesthetics of Inuit Sculpture.” “Tzintzuntzan, Mexico: Photographs by George Foster.”  

$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 or www.qal.berkeley.edu/~hearst/ 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Science in Toyland,” through Sept. 9. Exhibit uses toys to demonstrate scientific principles and to help develop children's thinking processes. Susan Cerny’s collection of over 200 tops from around the world. “Space Weather,” through Sept. 2. Learn about solar cycles, space weather, the cause of the Aurorae and recent discoveries made by leading astronomers. This interactive exhibit lets visitors access near real-time data from the Sun and space, view interactive videos and find out about a variety of solar activities. “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. Space Weather Exhibit now - Sept. 2; now - Sept. 9 Science in Toyland; 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  

The UC Berkeley Art Museum is closed for renovations until the fall.

Players attend workshops before every league game 

Before players start their first session of Twilight Basketball, they might think the summer league is a time to relax and goof around with their friends. But one meeting with Ginsi Bryant fixes that right away. 

Bryant, the program’s director, gives each team an orientation before its first game at James Kenney Park. With 14 rules written down and her forceful personality on display, she lets each and every kid know that she means business. 

“You should treat this league like a job,” Bryant says to a room full of 14- and 15-year-olds. “You get here on time, or you don’t play. That’s it. Don’t come crying to me with excuses if you’re not here.” 

Players don’t just have to be on time for their games. They must attend a “rap session” during the hour before their weekly game, with guest speakers expounding on topics such as drug use, street violence and study habits. Only then will they be allowed to play in a game with their team. 

Other rules include no loitering outside the gym, no food in the gym and absolutely no fighting. Bryant said that any fight would result in all three levels of the league being suspended for one week. The age groups are 11-13, 14-15 and 16-18. 

“People around here have been trying to shut this program down. We can’t give them any reason to complain,” she said. “So don’t be yelling down the street to Joe Blow just because you see him.” 

Bryant’s rules came into focus right away on Thursday, the league’s opening night. Only four members of Student Athletes showed up for the orientation meeting, so they were forced to play their game short-handed. One team member showed up at game time, but spent the game on the bench in street clothes, proving that Bryant means business. 

“Ginsi is a great coordinator, and we all respect her rules in this league,” said Sam Robinson, the coach of Student Athletes. “She teaches the kids to keep a schedule, that they are students first and athletes second.” 

Robinson, who is retired, said he put his team in the league for both the educational and athletic opportunities it provides. 

“It gives the guys a chance to continue to work out during the summer, which is good for their games,” he said. “But the workshops can be helpful if the kids will pay attention.” 

One of Robinson’s players, Marcel Edwards-Gray, played in the league last summer. He said the rap sessions were hit and miss. 

“We really only had one guest speaker last year, just some guy talking about his choices in life,” Edwards-Gray, 15, said. “Hopefully it’ll be more fun and more helpful this year.” 

Robinson’s team didn’t suffer too much being down to four players. They still managed to beat their opening night opponents, EODYC Hoyas, by six points. The basketball was hard and clean, with two officials keeping things fair. 

“It’s a good league, a competitive league,” Edwards-Gray said. “It’s a lot of fun to play here.”

Councilmember Kriss Worthington mailed his Candidate Intention Statement to the Secretary of State and officially threw his hat — or bicycle helmet — into the ring for the 14th state assembly seat. Worthington, a progressive member of the City Council, said he will launch his bid for the Assembly by conducting a bicycle campaign through the district which includes North Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, Richmond and El Cerrito.  

By John Geluardi 

Daily Planet staff 

The City Council has requested a report suggesting possible solutions to business owners’ complaints about the growing number of day laborers who gather looking for work in west Berkeley.  

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to have the city manager prepare the report, which will analyze the situation and propose possible solutions based on successful programs in other Californian cities. The council specified that the proposed solutions should address both the needs of business owners and day laborers.  

One business, Truitt and White Lumber Company, has complained to the mayor’s office that the labors are too aggressive in soliciting work from the contractors and homeowners who shop at the building supply store. 

Mayor Shirley Dean and other councilmembers have expressed concern that there are no accommodations such as a shelter or bathrooms for the workers who sometimes wait for hours in the area. 

According to the recommendation submitted by Mayor Shirley Dean, the numbers of day laborers has grown in recent months. Dean’s report estimates there are as many as 150 laborers at any given time in the vicinity of Hearst Avenue near Fourth Street. There are a number of upscale businesses near the area. 

The recommendation was first put on the council’s agenda on June 19 but was pulled by Councilmember Kriss Worthington who said he was concerned possible actions might be unfair to the laborers because the mayor’s recommendation was initiated by complaining businesses. 

Dean withdrew her original recommendation and resubmitted another clarifying her expectations that the laborers’ needs be taken into consideration. 

“In undertaking this request, the manager is specifically asked to meet with the day laborers, affected businesses, social agencies and to gather information from other cities with the same problem regarding what has worked and what has not worked,” the recommendation read. 

Despite Dean’s clarifications, Worthington asked the recommendation be further amended during Tuesday’s council meeting prior to approving the item. 

“I would like to add a section that makes it clear the City Council is in no way sending a message that we want a crackdown of any kind on day laborers. And also that the study be culturally sensitive and works with day laborers to empower them and improve their position in the community,” he said. 

Dean agreed to add the language to the amendment but quipped, “That’s exactly what’s in there anyway.” 

Dean said many cities have had to deal with the issue of day laborers and some have been more successful than others. She said San Rafael had as many as 300 laborers gathering at an intersection in the city’s Canal District.  

“San Rafael opened up a hiring hall that didn’t work so well because the laborers had little or no hand in organizing themselves,” she said.  

She added that the city of Concord instituted a successful program. Concord, she said, provided shelter for the laborers and they were able to organize their own hiring system, which outlined hiring order according to the types of jobs came available. She said if the laborers are able to organize themselves, they are more confident in the fairness of the system and thereby be more likely to participate in the program.

In what appears to be the most successful fundraising effort ever among a single graduating class of Berkeley High School alumni, the class of 1951 has raised $70,000 to endow a scholarship fund for graduates. 

The group hopes to raise $100,000 by the time its 50th reunion rolls around this September – enough to provide college scholarship money for one or two students a year.  

Tom Taylor, a co-chair of the class of 1951’s reunion committee, said the class has held together over the years. They used an annual letter circulated among the more than 400 members of the class to ask people to contribute to the scholarship fund. 

Taylor said many of the 1951 graduates have reached that stage in their life where they want to give away money. It’s just a matter of finding a good local cause to which to direct their money. 

“You either do it this way or you give it to Uncle Sam,” Taylor said. “Why send it back to Washington when you can do probably better in your own home environment?” 

Getting alumni of public high schools to contribute money to their alma maters is often difficult work, even for the most prestigious of institutions.  

San Francisco’s Lowell High School circulates a newsletter among 29,000 alumni.  

“We mail the news letter for every living alumni for whom we have a valid address,” said Lowell Alumni Association Secretary Terry Abad. 

But the Lowell Alumni Association only raises about $30,000 a year in donations for the school. Around 9 percent of alumni respond to the association’s annual giving request, Abad said, mailing in an average of $50 each.  

Lowell has other fundraising groups. The schools Parent Teacher Student Association pulls in about $100,000 a year. The Lowell Sports Foundation brought in $40,000-$50,000 with it’s first annual celebrity athlete banquet (a similar banquet run by Berkeley High supporters raised around $12,000 this spring). 

“As much as this sounds like a lot of money, its really just a drop in the bucket. The needs are just enormous,” said Abad. 

One obstacle to getting alumni to give more, Abad said, is the level of pessimism about public school funding in general. People might gladly give money to add an thrilling new program or a facility to the school, Abad said, but it is harder for them to get excited when they realize the money they give is more likely to be spent on, say, text books. 

“Too much of [the money people give] has to go to what most people see as basic,” Abad said. “People ask things like, ‘Gee, why is it that we’re being asked by the math department to pay for a dry erase board. Isn’t that what the school district is supposed to do?’ And we say, yeah, you’re right. The school district should pay for a lot of things. But the money isn’t there to do it.” 

In Berkeley, fundraising among the high school’s alumni is even harder. The Berkeley schools alumni association only have around 600 members. And other than reunions, the groups activities have been limited in recent years.  

Fundraising among Berkeley High has been limited to the occasional small gift given by one graduating class or another on their occasional reunion. But nothing is on the level of the class of 1951’s proposed gift. 

Of course, Berkeley High has long enjoyed broad community support: From the voters who approve bond measures by overwhelming margins; from the parents who give up hours of free time to clean the grounds, tutor students in need, and raise money for extra activities; and from numerous individual donors who’ve given donations of $10 to $1000 to the Berkeley High School Development Group. That group gave $221,754 to the school in 1999-2000 which was directed to the health center, the school library, academic department and arts programs, among other things. 

Some observers said they hoped the class of 1951s generosity could act as a model to get other alumni groups to join in giving to the school. Toni Sweet, Berkeley High class of 1954, is already working to get her class to commit to giving the school a gift on the occasion of their 50th reunion. 

“The most important things I learned in my life I learned at Berkeley High School,” Sweet said. 

Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, who also graduated from Berkeley High in the ’50s, said she though alumni could be persuaded to give more if they were presented with concrete and appealing proposals for how the money would be spent at the school. 

“People like to donate to a specific thing,” Dean said. “Citizens, when informed about a school need, will generally step up to it. But we don’t know exactly what we need to rally around.” 

Berkeley High principal Frank Lynch said scholarship money is a great place to start.  

“That has the greatest impact, scholarship money, because it goes directly into the hands of students,” Lynch said.  

Lynch also said he’s like to see “as much money as possible” directed towards the school’s new library, which will be completed in the next couple years as part of a $30 million construction project at the school. 

“When you go to a school, the first thing you want to do is go to the library and see what it’s like,” Lynch said. “because it’s usually a pretty good indication of what’s going on the rest of the campus.” 

In the early years of the 20th Century, Telegraph Avenue was a grand residential street lined with elegant homes. The two residences at 2740 and 2744 Telegraph Avenue were built by John Albert Marshall. They are the houses on the right side of the picture.  

Marshall was a building contractor who got his start as a cement contractor in the 1890s, and many of Berkeley’s sidewalks bear his imprint. Between 1895 and 1915 Marshall built at least six homes as his personal residences, each one more imposing and substantial than the last. 

2744 Telegraph Avenue 1900 was designed and built by John Marshall and the Cunningham Bros. construction company in 1900. It is a two-story shingle Colonial Revival house, which has rustic stonework on the first floor and two rustic stone chimneys. The hipped roof contains several hip-roofed dormers. There is a rounded bay at the southeast corner and several impressive stained glass windows. The covered front porch has square Ionic columns, turned balusters, and a mahogany door.  

2740 Telegraph Avenue was designed by architect C.M. Cook in 1903 and is a large Tudor Revival style house with two prominent gables on the street facade that are decorated with barge-boards, finials, and pendants. Rustic stonework is used for the siding on the first floor and entry, while on the second floor the house is half-timbered. The second story overhangs the first with projecting beam ends and the arched entrance is recessed. 

Surrounding both Marshall houses is a low concrete wall with posts and decorative concrete garden walkways. Both these houses are now used as an inn.  

On the far left of the picture is a large home designed by Julia Morgan for Joseph Mason, of the Mason-McDuffie Company. Like most of the homes on Telegraph Avenue it is no longer standing.  

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

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., today began pushing for a limit on the amount of alcohol airline passengers can consume in an effort to halt the rise of so-called air rage incidents. 

“In view of the 5,000 air rage incidents each year, I believe it is time for the airline industry to set standards voluntarily, or else congress may well step in. To that end, I am in the process of writing legislation that would limit each passenger to two drinks on domestic flights, regardless of the type of alcoholic beverage served,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to CEOs of the seven major domestic air carriers. 

Feinstein said she hoped the airlines would set in-air limits voluntarily, but added if they were unwilling, she would introduce legislation to limit alcohol consumption. 

“According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there is at least one occurrence of air rage each day and evidence suggests a majority of these incidents involve alcohol,'' said Feinstein. She said the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits the serving of alcohol to passengers who appear intoxicated, but have never set a drink limit.

After spending six months in precarious Middle Eastern waters, the Coast Guard Cutter Sherman – the first U.S. Coast Guard vessel to circumnavigate the world – will dock in tranquil Alameda today. 

The cutter and its crew were deployed to the Arabian Gulf to participate in a Middle East Forces Deployment that included the destroyers USS Paul F. Foster and USS Stetham. 

While it was there, the ship helped to enforce United Nations sanctions against Iraq, and tallied 219 queries, 115 boardings and five diverts in the dangerous waters. 

The Sherman was also involved in other missions, including a ship rescue that occurred off the eastern coast of South Africa.

Oakland racks up year’s 42nd homicide 

Oakland police have no suspects or witnesses in the city’s 41st and 42nd homicides, which took place Thursday evening, a result of two unrelated shootings. 

Police are revealing few details on the killings, which left two people – described only as black men – dead. Both were shot numerous times, police spokeswoman Cynthia Perkins said. 

Thursday’s first killing took place at about 6:30 p.m. at the intersection of Harmon and 62nd Avenue in East Oakland. 

Perkins said the victim, who died at Highland Hospital in Oakland, is approximately 22 years old. She added that his identity has not been released pending notification of the next of kin. 

Available information is also scant about the second homicide, which was reported at about 9:30 p.m. at the West Oakland intersection of 10th and Center streets, Perkins said. Police are investigating. 

Expert says 

BART riders can use buses 

OAKLAND – There’s a lot of interest in late-night service on BART. 

Rebecca Kaplan of the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition said BART must have time to maintain trains. But that doesn’t mean buses couldn’t fill the role of trains during the wee hours. 

Kaplan said riders could take the train into San Francisco. When they are ready to go home, they could return to that same station to find buses outside to take them across the bay to the station they used earlier in the day. 

The idea is to cut down on the number of cars being used. 

Oakland to pay $50K to slain man’s family 

OAKLAND – The city of Oakland has agreed to pay $50,000 to the family of a man who was shot to death by police after allegedly trying to run an officer down with his car. 

The payment brings the total the city has paid this year to settle suits against the police to $1.6 million. 

Nathan Hornes was shot once in the chest on Dec. 5, 1999, by Officer Steven Nowak after Hornes allegedly swung the wheel of his car to the left and stepped on the gas. 

The Hornes family sued in federal court in Oakland, accusing Nowak of using excessive force and making up the story he was in danger to justify the shooting. 

The City Council is expected to approve the settlement this month without admitting any wrongdoing by the officer. 

Listeners donate $303,000 to mauled boy 

SAN FRANCISCO – The family of the 10-year-old Richmond boy who was mauled by three pit bulls will receive a check for $303,000, donated by listeners to KGO radio. 

Shawn Jones, who earlier this week spoke his first words since the June 18 attack, has had his condition upgraded from critical to serious. 

The boy lost his ears and the muscles and skin on his face were shredded during the attack. He also suffered deep bite wounds on his arms. He was attacked as he was riding the bicycle his mother gave him for getting good grades. 

Shortly after the mauling, Shawn’s family was forced to move from their home because the owner wished to move in. 

Shawn still faces months of medical treatment, and plastic surgery that could go on for years. 

Two of the pit bulls have been found and are in custody in Martinez. 

The owner of the dogs, Benjamin Moore, faces trial on two misdemeanor counts of withholding evidence in the case. His trial has been postponed until July 30. 

If found guilty, Moore could face up to two years in jail. He is free on $30,000 bail. 

San Mateo Co. Supervisor gives karate lesson 

SAN MATEO – A teen-ager got a lesson in the martial arts when he allegedly broke into San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill’s garage. 

It was like a scene from a Chuck Norris movie – and 18-year-old Mark Harvin was on the losing end. 

Hill said he was walking out to his detached garage when he noticed a broken window and then spotted somebody inside rifling through a duffle bag. 

Hill, who has earned a black belt in karate, grabbed Harvin, spun him around and held him in an armlock until police arrived. 

Harvin was booked for investigation of burglary and vandalism after the Wednesday incident. 

East Palo Alto school finances under scrutiny 

PALO ALTO – The state superintendent of schools has ordered an investigation of an East Palo Alto school district’s finances. 

The superintendent of the Ravenswood City School District, Charlie Mae Knight, is already facing 19 felony conflict-of-interest charges. 

Prosecutors say that Knight stood to benefit when the school district gave loans to employees who rented from her or who owed her money. 

The San Jose Mercury News reported that the district spent extravagantly for travel, submitted fraudulent claims after a school fire, and inadequately documented the spending of millions in federal and state aid. 

Investigators are expected to begin in about a month. 

Smog levels down a bit 

SAN FRANCISCO – Smog levels in the San Francisco Bay area improved slightly over the first half of the year, despite being worse in California and the nation overall. 

The number of smog violations in Bay Area fell from two to one, but went up 36 percent in California as a whole. Los Angeles had a 31 percent increase, and the San Joaquin Valley had a 60 percent increase. 

A run of cooler weather helped the Bay Area keep its smog down. 

Experts say the dirtier air nationwide is a combination of higher temperatures, increased coal use for electric power and numerous sport-utility vehicles on the roads. 

The state Air Resources Control Board said smog in California exceeded federal limits for a one-hour period on 60 occasions, up from 16 for the same period last year. 

Smog, formed when nitrogen oxides, mostly from car and power plant emissions, mix with organic compounds, such as gasoline fumes and are heated by the sun.

MENLO PARK – Since there is no federal oversight of human embryonic stem cell research, the three U.S. companies working in the field are left to police themselves. 

Geron Inc., Advanced Cell Technologies and the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine have formed so-called ethics advisory boards comprised of religion professors and bioethicists. 

The boards are designed to help the companies establish policies such as how to recruit egg and sperm donors and how to dispose of embryos destroyed during research. 

The companies point to these advisers as proof they are operating above board in this highly polarized field. Critics of the research, who argue that destroying an embryo is akin to murder, say the boards are nothing but public relations fig leaves. 

Even some proponents of the research question the quality of the ethics advice. 

“There are lots of reasons to be concerned,” said Ronald Cole-Turner, a religion professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Center who supports stem-cell research, but believes it should be government regulated. 

“There’s at least the appearance that the companies are buying their ethics,” Cole-Turner said. 

Geron and Advanced Cell pay their board members a small per diem and expenses for each meeting. 

The companies aren’t bound by any of the recommendations, and only Advanced Cell’s board has written ethical guidelines. Chief executive Michael West said his shareholders would consider him irresponsible if he gave Advanced Cell’s 11-member board veto power over research. 

“It’s a matter of trust,” said Ronald Green, chairman of Dartmouth University’s religion department and the chairman of Advanced Cell’s ethics advisory board. He said his power is his ability to publicly protest if Advanced Cell breeches any of the board’s guidelines. 

Green wouldn’t provide The Associated Press with a copy of the guidelines. However, according to a brief synopsis he shared, the guidelines don’t provide answers to fundamental moral and metaphysical questions about the research. Instead, they appear quite specific, and mostly involve the handling of embryos. 

For example, they forbid using eggs bought from women for reproductive purposes, and say that embryos should be destroyed before they reach 15 days old. (Geron has a similar time limit). The timing is a matter of practicality as well as ethics: embryonic stem cells begin to grow into one of 200 specific human cells after two weeks, and are no longer as valuable to scientists. 

The chairman of Advanced Cell Technology’s ethics advisory board, Dartmouth University religion professor Ronald Green, summarized the board’s ethical guidelines for embryonic stem cell research: 

• Collection: Eggs are recovered at clinic by the medical and scientific team. Eggs are counted and numbered according to ovary of recovery. Eggs are transferred immediately to scientists from Advanced Cell Technology with documentation listing egg number and an initial estimate of maturity. 

• Security: Once the eggs arrive in the ACT laboratory, they are taken to a secure location and kept in this location at all times.• Tracking: Eggs are repeatedly counted, photographed and videotaped as they proceed through the research procedure. An exclusive laboratory notebook is used to record all steps. 

• Disposal: Starting six days after activation, the oocyte – an egg that has not yet undergone maturation – is monitored every 12 hours for signs of growth. By day 13, following any research activities, activated oocyte is properly disposed of and the experiment ended. Two researchers other than the one performing the protocol must witness disposal of the eggs and sign the laboratory notebook accordingly.

SACRAMENTO – About 30 percent of customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison qualified for rebates on their power bills in June – surprising state officials who thought only a fraction of the utilities’ customers would cut their energy use to get a rebate. 

In San Diego, 38 percent of San Diego Gas and Electric Co. customers qualified for Gov. Gray Davis’ 20/20 rebate program, which gives a 20 percent rebate to customers of the three utilities who cut their power use by 20 percent over last year. 

“We were hopeful that we would get between 10 percent and 20 percent participation. From the looks of it, Californians are exceeding those expectations,” said Roger Salazar, spokesman for the governor. 

Of the 1.5 million electric bills processed by PG&E so far this month, nearly 30 percent qualify for the rebate, said Staci Homrig, a PG&E spokeswoman. Early forecasts set that number at 10 or 20 percent. 

Conserving electricity saved residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customers of PG&E $7.6 million in credits. Residential users earned $3.7 million; the others $3.9. 

Edison customers saw rebates totaling $5.4 million. Residential users earned $2.5 million, commercial customers saw rebates totaling $2.8 million and agricultural customers earned $101,798. 

SDG&E customers saw $1.5 million in rebates on their statements – $1.1 million to residents and $400,000 to others. 

Salazar said the conservation efforts were higher, even though June temperatures were hotter this year. 

“There were 10 days last year where electricity load was over 40,000 megawatts. This year, we had zero days, even though it was hotter,” Salazar said. 

SDG&E customers had to trim their use by only 15 percent to qualify, because of high electric bills and conservation efforts from the previous summer. 

The rebates compare electric use from this summer to last summer, and are available to about 10 million homes and businesses who receive their electricity from PG&E, SDG&E or Edison. The rebate was intended to arrive at summer’s end but now appears on each monthly bill. 

“We continue to be impressed by the herculean efforts of Californians when it comes to conservation,” said Salazar. “But we need them to continue to save energy if we’re going to get through the summer.”

SACRAMENTO – State Controller Kathleen Connell canceled a $2 million payroll Friday for 2,000 legislative employees as the state budget stalemate reached its 13th day. 

Checks also stop next week for vendors who do business with the state, Connell said. Legislators, unable to pass a budget by a July 1 deadline, will have their pay stopped on July 31. The governor and other elected state officers, including Connell, will also find themselves docked at the end of the month. 

Connell said state law prevents her from writing payroll checks to these groups without a state budget. Legislative staffers are paid twice a month while the governor and legislators are paid monthly. 

“Each day the budget stalemate continues, more people, businesses and local programs are affected,” Connell said. 

Friday marked the fourth time since 1995 that Connell has withheld employee checks over a budget showdown. The legislature has passed only three budgets by July 1 since 1990. 

At least 262,0000 state employees will continue to be paid. 

Gov. Gray Davis, who signed the first two budgets of his administration on time, attacked Connell’s announcement as a “publicity stunt.” 

Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said, “It’s unfortunate that the state controller wants to create a sideshow when she should be helping the governor and the Legislature come to agreement on a budget.” 

A Republican legislative minority, opposing a planned quarter-cent sales tax hike this January, is blocking the budget in the state Assembly and Senate. The tax adopted in 1991 goes into effect automatically when state revenues fall. Republicans want to ax the tax hike permanently. 

Democrats say it will raise $1.8 billion desperately needed during the next two years if the economy continues to slow. 

Despite the standoff, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, scheduled a session on the budget for 4 p.m. Saturday. 

Jamie Fisfis, spokesman for Assembly Republicans, scoffed at Hertzberg’s plan, saying, “The speaker’s going to put us through a bunch of budget drills. We’d be better off negotiating.” 

The Senate is off until 3 p.m. Monday. 

Efforts all week to find a solution to the political entanglement proved unsuccessful. Davis met Wednesday with four legislative leaders to break the impasse. His office also held numerous conference calls where school, health, law enforcement officials argued to pass the budget. 

Despite Connell’s announcement Friday, most legislative staffers will not suffer any sudden lack of cash.

SACRAMENTO – The Legislature’s top Republicans on Friday sharply criticized a state commission ruling creating an exception to campaign contribution limits approved by voters last November. 

Minority leaders Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, said the decision “creates the absurd result that current officeholders ... can raise unlimited amounts for any purpose other than their own future election campaign.” 

“This will allow officeholders to raise money in excess of the Proposition 34 limits and transfer it to members of their own caucuses for candidate support, political parties for party building activities, ... other campaigns and ballot measures, or use it for general officeholder expenses,” they said. 

“We find this to be utterly inconsistent with the will of the Legislature that placed Proposition 34 on the ballot and the will of the voters who overwhelmingly approved it.” 

Proposition 34 put a $3,000-per-election limit on donations to legislators from most sources. There are higher limits for candidates for governor and other statewide offices. 

The state Fair Political Practices Commission said Monday that the limits don’t apply to donations raised by candidates’ campaign committees formed before the proposition took effect on Jan. 1. 

FPPC chairwoman Karen Getman said the commission decided the proposition’s fund-raising restrictions didn’t cover campaign committees set up for previous elections, “because those elections did not have any contribution limits.” 

But she said candidates who raised unlimited donations through pre-2001 committees could only spend as much of that money on their future campaigns as they could raise under Proposition 34. 

Getman also said the commission will be considering a regulation that would require candidates to phase out their pre-2001 committees after a reasonable period of time. 

Brulte, who heads Senate Republicans, and Cox, who leads Assembly Republicans, sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis asking him to join them in urging the FPPC to reverse its decision. 

Davis’ spokesman, Steve Maviglio, did not have an immediate response.

Dear Tom and Ray: 

Is my mechanic a crook? I had the timing belt replaced on my 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The morning after I drove it home from the mechanic, I noticed oil pouring out of the car. It turns out that the rear main seal was blown. Is it possible that my mechanic did this while replacing the timing belt, or is it just a coincidence? He says he was working on the opposite side of the engine, and there was no way he could have done this. But I've heard that if you tap too hard on the front, you can blow the rear seal. What's your opinion? — Jennifer 

TOM: It sounds like just an unhappy coincidence, Jennifer. There's really no way he could have blown your rear main seal by changing the timing belt. 

RAY: He's right that they're on opposite sides of the engine. The only thing that links the two is the crankshaft, and it's not supposed to move longitudinally more than a fraction of a millimeter. If it does, and tapping it in front pushes out the rear main seal, then your engine was in terrible shape to begin with (not an impossibility on an 11-year-old car). 

TOM: So you really can't blame this guy, Jennifer. It's like going to the doctor for a hemorrhoid treatment and complaining later that the doctor gave you a headache. Wait – that's a bad analogy. That actually happened to my brother once.  

••• 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

Can one have too hot an ignition spark? There are several aftermarket ignition systems available for older car engines, most claiming to produce more voltage than stock systems. But can you overdo it? Will too hot a spark wear out the spark plugs faster or cause any other problems? — Clyde 

RAY: It will wear out your spark plugs faster, Clyde. It'll also wear out the other parts of the secondary ignition system faster – the plug wires, rotor, distributor, etc. So you'll be buying new ignition parts more often, but it won't do any permanent damage to your engine. 

TOM: The idea is that a higher-voltage (or “hotter”) spark will do a better job of burning all of the fuel in the cylinders. And technically, that's true. But in reality, it only really helps if you suffer from excessive turbulence in your combustion chambers. 

RAY: My brother suffers from that, and we've been trying antacids ... with no luck so far. 

TOM: Turbulence inside the cylinders increases as the engine speed increases. And if your spark is not hot enough, the swirling gasoline-and-air mixture can blow out a weak spark, causing an occasional "miss" or "stutter" at high speeds. 

RAY: But if you're not experiencing that problem, you probably won't notice the difference a hotter spark makes. 

TOM: Of course, you're welcome to install a hotter ignition system anyway, Clyde. You won't do any harm. But let us know in advance so we can invest in some auto-parts stocks.  

••• 

Got a question about cars? E-mail Click and Clack by visiting the Car Talk section of cars.com on the World Wide Web.

LOS ANGELES – BMW officials traveled to one of the nation’s smoggiest cities this week to show off a fleet of luxury cars that run on rocket fuel but belch virtually nothing but water and steam from their tailpipes. 

Company officials said the hydrogen-powered cars are an important step in weaning the automotive industry from the oil that has nurtured it since the internal combustion engine first powered automobiles in the late 1800s. 

The silver 740hL sedans sport a new type of internal combustion engine that runs on clean-burning hydrogen — the most abundant element — instead of gasoline. 

“It’s the cleanest fuel there is,” said Burkhard Goschel, a member of the BMW Group board, during a news conference at Paramount studios. 

BMW has hauled the 10 cars from United Arab Emirates to Europe to Japan and now California to tout the benefits of hydrogen as a fuel source. 

The company will now continue to test the cars at its new research and engineering center, which opens Friday in Oxnard, Calif. Already, the fleet has covered more than 80,000 miles during tests. 

When burned, hydrogen packs a powerful punch — it helps propel the space shuttle to orbit. In the BMW models, it cuts tailpipe emissions by 99.5 percent. 

The 750hL features a 12-cylinder engine and can hit 141 mph. 

Running on hydrogen, stored in a liquid form in a pressurized tank, the car can travel about 200 miles — more if an auxiliary gasoline tank is tapped to fuel the car. 

But concerns about storing liquid hydrogen under high pressure have stymied its use in automobiles because of the risk of explosions and fire, experts said. A lack of a cheap and reliable means of producing hydrogen — and distributing it to consumers — has also hurt the marketing of such cars. 

Widescale commercial production may still be a decade or more away, although BMW hopes to introduce hydrogen-powered 7-Series models before then. The Ford Motor Co. is not far behind: it plans to unveil its own prototype hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine vehicle next month, spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said. 

“The challenge will be to create infrastructure and devise a way to store hydrogen on board,” said John Boesel, president of Calstart, a nonprofit group that develops clean transportation technologies. 

Hydrogen can be produced from water through electrolysis or, more commonly, from natural gas generated during the oil refining process. 

The methods are either energy-intensive or costly — or both — at present. 

“Hydrogen cannot compete with gasoline on a cost basis ... (but) we believe as usage increases, it can become competitive,” said Bob Malone, a regional president of oil company BP Corp. 

Goschel said the company has not calculated how much a hydrogen-fueled BMW 750 would cost compared to a conventional version, which sells for about $93,000. And hydrogen service stations may be still a decade away. 

“We’re a long way from putting hydrogen out there,” said Alan Lloyd, chairman of the California Air Resources Board. 

The automotive industry has yet to latch on to hydrogen or any other alternative to gasoline or diesel fuel. 

Many manufacturers, including General Motors, are looking at hydrogen, but only to power fuel cells to produce electricity. Honda and Toyota have both introduced hybrid models that pair gasoline engines with electric motors to boost fuel efficiency and cut emissions. Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler AG plan to introduce their own versions in 2003. 

California — where 40 percent of all air pollution is produced by tailpipe emissions — has mandated strict standards that should make the exotic vehicles more common. By 2003, for instance, 2 percent of all vehicles sold in the state by major manufacturers must be zero emissions. 

“We have a variety of fuels that can steer us on the road ahead,” Lloyd said.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Gary Condit took a lie-detector test arranged by his lawyer, and it showed he “was not deceptive in any way” in denying knowledge of what happened to missing intern Chandra Levy, the lawyer said Friday. 

But Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer called the test “self-serving.” He said the lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had not worked with police to come up with questions and agree on an expert to administer the test. 

Lowell said the test was administered by Barry D. Colvert, a polygraph expert who Lowell said teaches FBI officials how to administer the tests. 

Lowell declined to identify all the questions that were asked, but said Condit was deemed to have answered truthfully when he said “no” to the three most important questions: 

—Did the congressman have anything at all to do with Miss Levy’s disappearance? 

—Did he harm her or cause anyone else to harm her in any way? 

—Does he know where she can be located? 

“Congressman Condit has exhausted all the information he can provide, and the spotlight on his should be turned elsewhere,” said Lowell, who noted the congressman has given three interviews to police, allowed a search of his apartment and submitted a DNA sample. 

Washington police had wanted Condit to submit to a test given by someone from the FBI and with questions they supplied. 

Lowell declined to provide any more details about Condit’s relationship with Levy, a 24-year-old federal intern from Modesto, Calif., last seen April 30, including when he last saw and spoke to her. 

Levy’s mother first suggested Condit take a lie-detector test, saying she did not believe he had shared with police all he knows about her daughter. 

A police source has said the congressman acknowledged a romantic relationship with the former Bureau of Prisons intern, despite denials from his office. 

Meantime, police said they had searched more than 70 vacant buildings in the nation’s capital looking for Levy. 

Capt. Willie Smith said officers under his command were trying to get through 100 buildings in the neighborhoods near Levy’s apartment. “We just want to make sure all the bases are covered,” he said. 

Police conceded it was a lack of good leads, rather than specific information, that led them to look at abandoned properties as places where someone could have left a body. 

Police say they are pursuing four theories about Levy, either that was murdered, that she killed herself, that she went into hiding or that she has amnesia. However, police say they have all but ruled out suicide since so much time has passed and no body has been found. 

Authorities planned Friday to release simulated images of Levy with different hair styles.

SACRAMENTO – The California Coastal Commission, a state agency that regulates coastal development, is appealing a Sacramento Superior Court judge’s ruling that it violated the state constitution. 

The appeal was filed in the Third District Court of Appeal this week. 

The original ruling was handed down in April in a suit filed by the Marine Forests Society, which has experimented with artificial reefs off Newport Beach in an effort to attract sea life. The Coastal Commission ordered the group to halt the project in 1999 because it had not been issued a permit. 

In his ruling, Judge Charles Kobayashi said the commission is in violation of the principle of checks and balances because it performs legislative, executive and judicial duties. Because the state Legislature appoints two-thirds of the commission, it should only have legislative powers, Kobayashi ruled. 

Commission opponents say it must be reorganized to answer to voters, while supporters say its political freedom has helped it protect the coast. 

If the decision is upheld, the commission would be forced to alter its powers to meet constitutional requirements.

SAN JOSE – Andrew Burnett apologized for the death of a small dog he threw into traffic in a fit of road rage. But a judge called him a liar, and sentenced Burnett to the maximum three-year prison term. 

The courtroom erupted in applause Friday as Judge Kevin J. Murphy, who accused Burnett of a lack of remorse, imposed the sentence after saying the 28-year-old man was a danger to the community. 

Burnett, convicted June 20 of tossing a fluffy white bichon frise named Leo to his death following a fender bender with Leo’s owner, asked the judge for leniency. 

“What the defendant said is he was sorry. It was an accident,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t an accident.” 

The judge said Burnett lied about the events that occurred the rainy night of Feb. 11, 2000, when Sara McBurnett’s car lightly tapped the bumper of Burnett’s car at the San Jose airport. 

Witnesses testified during the felony animal cruelty trial that Burnett snatched the dog from McBurnett’s lap and tossed him to his death in busy lanes of traffic. Burnett’s attorney maintained his client merely acted reflexively after Leo bit him. 

“To describe his story as unbelievable is being polite,” Murphy said. 

Burnett’s attorney, Marc Garcia, said he expects his client to appeal the sentence within the next 60 days. 

“I can’t imagine that somebody who for 28 years had led a crime-free life, has been productive, has been responsible, could receive three years in prison on a first-time offense,” Garcia said. “It’s just something that is unprecedented.” 

Murphy seemed particularly troubled by Burnett’s lack of outward remorse, though he apologized to the court and the McBurnett family at sentencing. 

“I’m really sorry for what happened,” Burnett testified. “I’d like to say I’m sorry to the McBurnett family. If there’s anything I could ever say or do to bring back Leo, I would.” 

Burnett also expressed remorse for the incident when he was interviewed recently by Jennifer Daughenbaugh, the probation department worker who drafted a report recommending a one-year county jail sentence followed by probation. 

McBurnett and her husband both asked the judge to impose the maximum penalty allowable for Burnett. Patrick McBurnett said the defendant’s actions had taken the gravest emotional toll on his wife. 

“Words can never convey the depth of love I had for my dog Leo,” Sara McBurnett testified at the sentencing hearing. “His clear intent was to terrorize me in the fastest and clearest way he could under the circumstances.” 

The couple from Incline Village, Nev., clutched each other in the front row as Murphy imposed the sentence. Burnett’s mother and fiance looked on from across the aisle. 

Outside the courtroom, Sara McBurnett applauded the judge’s sentence and questioned the sincerity of Burnett’s apologies. 

“Statements made by a pathological liar mean nothing. Absolutely nothing,” she said. 

If Burnett is forced to serve his sentence on the felony animal cruelty conviction, he would be eligible for parole in July 2002. 

Burnett has been in jail since Jan. 4 and faces criminal theft charges for allegedly stealing equipment from his van when he worked as a telephone repairman. He faces trial on those charges next week. 

Judy Nemzoff, a spokeswoman for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in San Francisco, said the case sends a strong message that society will not tolerate the wanton mistreatment of animals. 

“We anticipate that society will demand that more and more offenders will be prosecuted to the extent of the law,” Nemzhoff said.

SANDPOINT – Six children who staged a days-long standoff with authorities following their mother’s arrest on child-neglect charges will remain in a foster home indefinitely, a judge ruled Friday. 

In an hour-long closed hearing, Bonner County Magistrate Judge Debra Heise decided not to allow JoAnn McGuckin to regain custody of her six minor children. 

A gag order prevented lawyers from either side to comment on specifics from the hearing. In the past, attorneys have said JoAnn McGuckin has medical problems, and also has no income and no home to take care of the children. 

Prosecutor Phil Robinson said the outcome of the hearing was exactly what he wanted. There is no timeline for reuniting the McGuckins, Robinson said. An automatic review will be held in 60 days. 

The six McGuckin children — ages 8 to 16 — have been temporary wards of the state since they surrendered June 2 after a standoff with police at their Garfield Bay home. 

When deputies went to collect the children after arresting their mother, the kids turned their pack of dogs on officers and holed up with five weapons inside the rural house. The standoff ended peacefully five days later and they have been in foster care since then. 

“We’re not trying to tell her how to raise her children or what her beliefs should be,” Robinson said. “But there should be some basic education. They shouldn’t be living in filth.” 

After the hearing, McGuckin said she was “hanging in there.” Earlier Friday, she had said her medical condition might prevent her from regaining custody of her children. 

“I’m too sick to physically take care of them anyway,” she said. 

JoAnn McGuckin has pleaded innocent to the misdemeanor neglect charge, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $300 fine. 

Family attorney Bryce Powell, who wouldn’t comment on McGuckin’s medical condition, was disappointed with the judge’s decision. 

“The state has a legal obligation to reunite this family as quickly as possible,” he said. 

The family has been apart — able to see each other only in court or foster homes — since McGuckin’s May 29 arrest on a charge of felony injury to children. The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor last month and she was released from jail without conditions. 

The six children are Kathryn, 16; Ben, 15; Mary, 13; James, 11; Fred,9; and Jane, 8. 

Kathryn and Ben McGuckin testified Monday at a closed custody hearing. Afterward, Heise ruled the children were covered by the state’s child protection act, giving her the power to decide their custody. 

Prosecutors said McGuckin, 46, is an unfit mother because she was raising her children in a filthy home that lacked basic utilities such as running water. Dog feces littered the house. 

They have also suggested that McGuckin has a drinking problem that contributed to the family’s troubles. 

Negotiations toward a custody agreement failed, Robinson said, because prosecutors insisted on some form of state oversight, while McGuckin wanted a guardian of her own choosing, with no oversight other than by the court system. 

The oldest daughter, 19-year-old Erina, left home last year to join the Navy. She returned in April and her complaints to Robinson initiated the arrest and subsequent standoff. 

Erina testified that family members ate rodent-infested food in a feces-covered house that had no running water and little heat. She said her mother spent much of the family’s scarce money on alcohol and instilled bizarre, paranoid notions in the children. 

Her testimony countered earlier testimony by Kathryn McGuckin, who acknowledged many of the problems, but attributed them to the poverty brought on by the illness of both parents. 

The children’s father, Michael McGuckin, died in May after a lengthy bout with multiple sclerosis.

KLAMATH FALLS – About 10 men used a crowbar to partially open a canal head gate at the Klamath irrigation project on Friday, the fourth time someone has tried to release water that is being held back by federal officials to protect endangered and threatened fish. 

A police car drove up to the head gate, but the officers took no immediate action against the men who had pried open a door of the head gate — even though those men were breaking federal law. 

“The only thing that we are going to investigate is any kind of violence. Outside of that, we won’t do anything. I’m just here to take a look,” said Sgt. James Hunter. 

A spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation indicated that federal officials worry that moving against anyone who tries to force open the head gate could lead to violence. 

“Once we feel we can send our bureau employees there without any potential concerns for their safety, we will move ahead” and close the partially opened head gate, said Jeff McCracken, public affairs spokesman for the BLM, which has authority over the head gate. 

He said the BLM had been in close contact with local, state and federal law enforcement about how to respond to Friday’s protest — which had been announced earlier in the week. 

In a sign of a split between the farmers, some had said they would protect the gate to conserve water for next year rather than waste it now on a symbolic act. 

Klamath Sheriff Tim Evinger said he had recommended federal authorities help these farmers protect the head gate. When no officials arrived, the farmers protecting the gate left, he said. 

“I am frustrated with federal officials who didn’t act as I had recommended,” Evinger said. 

Other farmers said they had planned to open the gate all along. Bennie Diaz, an 81-year-old alfalfa farmer, explained: “I was protecting it so I could open it later.” 

On Friday afternoon, people in the group near the head gate said a brief prayer, and then announced they were going to open the gates. 

One man walked behind a shack and picked up a crowbar. Then he and some others took turns using it to turn gears on one of six doors on the head gate. 

They were able to open the head gate door, and some water flowed through, but not enough to be of any relief to farmers’ fields.

If the potential for heart attacks and lung cancer doesn’t scare you off your cigarette habit (you may think those things just happen to other people), consider these other risks: 

• Young women who smoke are at risk for brain aneurysms, according to Dr. Thomas Kopitnik, professor of neurological surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Nicotine attacks the cerebral blood vessels,” he said. “This is really a silent killer.” 

• “There’s definitely an increasing body of evidence that smoking is bad for you from a bone point of view,” said Dr. Michael McKee, assistant professor of surgery-orthopedics at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto, in presenting research that found patients who smoked had less favorable outcomes after reconstructive surgery on their shinbones. “We found that the people who are smokers had a much worse outcome in a variety of different parameters, including the overall outcome, the quality of bone formed and the complication rate, compared to nonsmokers.” 

• The habit makes recovery and successful results from cosmetic surgery more problematical, says Dr. Rod Rohrich, chairman of plastic surgery at UT-Southwestern. “I won’t operate on patients who smoke because the procedure and the result will be compromised,” he says. 

Kopitnik says that the aneurysm risk is too little known, and he urges any young woman who smokes to check with her doctor about being screened for the condition. “The screening involves doing an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) of the brain, and it could save your life if an aneurysm is detected.” 

The challenge for a doctor is to surgically clip the aneurysm before it bursts, and the MRI can detect it before it reaches the average size of a burst aneurysm – about 7 millimeters. An aneurysm that ruptures requires longer and more dangerous surgery and longer recovery time and higher medical costs. 

Kopitnik and Dr. Duke Samson, neurological surgery chairman, have operated on about 1,800 patients with aneurysms over the past decade. About 70 percent of them were women. 

The patients studied for McKee’s orthopedic research had undergone Ilizarov reconstruction, a procedure in which a circular frame is put around the leg allowing the bone to be held rigidly without having to implant hardware. “The new formation of bone depends on an adequate supply of blood and oxygen reaching that area,” he said in reporting his research at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. 

The negative effects of smoking following Ilizarov reconstruction are so significant, he said, that he now insists candidates for the surgery must stop smoking first. “When someone comes to my office a needs a complex reconstruction of the tibia and they smoke, I tell them flat out, ’You need to stop smoking, and when you do, we will do your operation.” 

And in a recent edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Dr. Scott E. Porter and Edward N. Hanley provided an overview of articles published about the relationship between smoking and musculoskeletal diseases. 

Smoking has been shown to affect bone mineral density, lumbar disc health, the risk of hip or wrist fractures, and the dynamics of bone and wound healing, according to Porter, a research fellow in orthopedic surgery at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., and Hanley, chairman of the orthopedic surgery department at the center. 

Perhaps not as frightening but still frightful is a less than wonderful result from a facelift or other cosmetic surgery. 

If you can’t part with your cigarettes, you might as well skip it, says Rohrich. 

“By now everyone understands how the use of tobacco can adversely affect all aspects of an individual’s health. But smoking can be problematic in plastic surgery as well,” he says. 

Nicotine gets in the way of healing because it constricts blood vessels that supply oxygen to the skin – and this can result in loss of skin as well. Patients should consider if they’d be willing to give up smoking for at least four weeks, he says. 

“I encourage them to seek a healthier lifestyle prior to proceeding or in conjunction with an elective surgical procedure, especially cosmetic plastic surgery.” 

Ideas for spicing up your home 

Details count when making your house your home. They could be bibelots to excite the eye and imagination, or they could be the pretty things you use every day: 

• An important, big bowl is often the centerpiece for a table or mantel. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lismore, its most popular stemware pattern on both sides of the Atlantic, Waterford has introduced a series of Lismore centerpiece bowls of Irish cut crystal. The stemmed 13-inch Scalloped Boat Bowl ($1,500) is an light-catching gem; a slightly simpler design is the 13-inch Statement Centerpiece ($595), which is footed but without the stem. 

• Another spectacular centerpiece bowl, called Amazonia ($3,400), comes from Scottish glassmaker Caithness. This limited edition is handmade, standing 12 1/4 inches high on a graduated stem with a multicolor tropical orchid design within; the bowl is fluted with cut facets and a subtle cobalt blue edging. 

• The London Desk Clock ($750), designed by Pam Waters for Staffordshire Enamels, is both decorative and functional. London landmark scenes are enameled on each panel of this hexagonal piece, with a round clockface on top. There’s also a Golfing Desk Clock ($750) version, showing scenes from famous golf courses around the world. 

• At the table, the choice of fine china can be a treat for visitors or an everyday pleasure for yourself. Pagoda, a new pattern from Tiffany & Co. (September introduction), is hand-painted blue on creamy white French faience, reminiscent of a classic chinoiserie willow design. The line is variable, with simple blue rims or decorated styles, ranging in price from $15 for a bread and butter plate to $175 for a set of four decorated dinner plates. 

• Tiffany Moderne is another new introduction, scheduled for October. This Limoges porcelain is cleanly shaped and bordered with geometrically shaded rectangles in platinum or gold. Estimated price will be about $200 for a five-piece place setting. 

• It’s functional, an eye-catching museum copy — and a tad expensive ($7,200) — but the Gigogne Coffee Service from Christofle makes the after-dinner cup pretty memorable. An art deco design created by Christian Fjerdingstad in 1926 for the French silversmith, the stackable service of coffee pot, creamer and sugar bowl is in sleek polished sterling with round wood handles and lid knob. The original is in the company’s Paris museum; the copies are a limited edition available only in Pavillon Christofle stores. 

• A very different approach to the coffee and tea service is offered by Bulgari for Rosenthal, with its new Concerto and Le Rose patterns in pastel colors. A six-cup Concerto espresso set ($125) depicts various musical instruments on the cups, and the saucers are decorated with musical notations. Single-file blossoms peek over basketwork in the Le Rose pattern (also $125 for six espresso cups). 

• Something new for traditionalists is Wedgwood’s new Rococo pattern ($185 per five-piece place setting), a white bone china embellished with blue bands and gold scrollwork. Another introduction is Traditions ($105 per five piece place setting), a homey bone china entirely in white with embossed swirling scrolls; it’s a new take on Wedgwood’s classic Queens Ware. Both patterns are due this fall. 

• The new Cocoa casual dinnerware ($35.75 for a four-piece place setting) from Pfaltzgraff is like its name — dark and complex. The shapes are simple, but the light plays against alternating matte and gloss finishes. 

• The handpainted casual pottery pattern, Four Sisters (each piece priced separately, but expect to pay around $115 for five pieces) is a breezy design filled with blue-on-white sketches of hens punctuated by polka dots, daisies and the like. Created by Elizabeth Roache for Present Tense, it goes from oven to table. 

• Designer Anne McCracken pays homage to the tradition of saying grace at the table with Gracewords stainless flatware ($320 for eight place settings and four serving pieces). Inscribed on the handle of each piece is a different word meant to inspire prayer or conversation.

Wisteria, one of the most beautiful plants on earth, can last for 50 years and more. It can also, and has a reputation for doing so, drive you and your heirs nuts. 

To begin with, after you plant wisteria, years and years may go by before you see a first bloom. 

Also, unless you’re prepared to watch closely and prune ruthlessly, wisteria vines will take over whatever they cling to. If it’s the side of your house or a porch railing, beware. In some settings, wisteria gets treated as an environmental pest requiring rigorous measures of eradication. 

If you’re lucky to own a fieldstone fence, that’s a good place to grow wisteria because you don’t have to worry about it getting into woodwork. 

All this aside, a gardener with patience, determination and the skills to erect trellises, arbors or pergolas, can get to enjoy one of springtime’s loveliest sights — vines bearing large, hanging flower clusters that come in white and shades of pink, lilac blue and purple, and smell sweet. Lengths of rust-free copper or aluminum wire attached four inches from the wall make good supports. 

I bought a 5-foot-tall wisteria this spring planning to raise it as a small tree near a shed. I chose the site because I wanted to try a free-standing wisteria variety, needing no supports, that would still serve as an ornamental plant to hide the shed. The plant was healthy, not to say bursting with potential energy, and its sunny and sheltered location looked good. 

After planting, I noticed that some of the tendrils were really too close to the side of the shed. That prompted a vision of tentacles reaching out and strangling the shed. So I dug it up and planted it farther away. 

Growing it as a tree doesn’t mean I won’t have work to train it. The plant came already staked upright and with its top cut off. I must now allow side shoots to develop on the upper part but remove any lower down. Then I have to follow strict regimes of winter and summer pruning. 

At the end of all this I hope the tree will live up to the nursery tag on my plant which promises 8- to 12-inch grapelike bunches of white flowers in mid-May. 

I won’t be holding my breath for it to bloom next spring. That would be phenomenally fast for it to happen, and I’m resigned to waiting longer. Many reasons are given for delay or failure to bloom. To begin with, wisterias have a longer than average period of acclimatization. Plants that have been grown from seed may take as long as 15 years. Grafts or plants grown from cuttings will usually bloom earlier. 

Also, the site may not be sunny enough. Or, the nursery where you bought it may have given it too much nitrogen fertilizer, stimulating leafy growth but not blooms. Poor pruning is another factor. A harsh winter may have injured or killed flower buds. 

My daughter, who gardens in Maryland, says the only way she can get her wisteria to flower is to dig a trench near the roots each spring and fertilize with phosphate. 

Clearly, there are a lot of “ifs” to wisteria, but the plant is so good-looking that many gardeners are tempted at one time or another to try their luck with it. 

Two renowned kinds for the garden are Japanese (Wisteria floribunda) and Chinese (Wisteria sinensis). There is also a native American (Wisteria frutescens) once known as Kentucky kidney bean. 

For what it may be worth, vines of the Japanese variety twine clockwise around their host while the Chinese twine counterclockwise. Both varieties can reach heights of 25 feet and more. The Chinese flowers bloom before the foliage expands while the Japanese bloom and leaf out simultaneously. 

A Chinese cultivar named Alba produces fragrant white bloom. Two other featured Chinese cultivars are Black Dragon, with dark purple flowers, and Plena with rosette-shaped lilac flowers. A lovely Japanese cultivar is Longissima Alba with clusters of white flowers 15 inches long. Pale rose Rosea has purple tips and grows 18 inches long. 

Wisteria was named in honor of Caspar Wistar, a distinguished 18th century botanist who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, president of the Philosophical Society and a friend of Thomas Jefferson. The plant had flourished earlier in England.

As Bush ponders issue, three companies begin farming cells 

MENLO PARK – At least three for-profit companies are racing to develop large amounts of embryonic stem cells even as President Bush struggles to decide whether the government should foster or hinder such research. 

The stem cells hold the potential to cure diseases and ailments from cancer to spinal cord injuries. If this dream can be realized, these companies stand to reap millions – if not billions – in profits. 

Each company employs different but still controversial techniques to harvest embryonic stem cells. One buys leftover embryos from fertility clinics. Another is working to create embryos by way of a cloning method similar to the one used to make Dolly the sheep. The third pays men and women for their sperm and eggs, then creates embryos in the laboratory. 

Each company’s research involves plucking the coveted stem cells from 4- or 5-day-old human embryos, which must be destroyed in the process. 

Anti-abortion activists and others consider all three techniques unethical, saying they result in the destruction of human life. 

Proponents of such research argue that these days-old, undifferentiated cells cannot be viewed as human, and they stress that they have no intention of implanting them in a womb and producing babies. 

Since 1996, federal law has banned the use of tax dollars for research that destroys embryos. The Clinton administration decided federal money could pay for research as long as the stem cells were extracted with private money. 

Bush, who has come under pressure to reverse the Clinton policy and disallow any federal money for human embryonic stem cell research, appears to be searching for a compromise – possibly adopting a middle ground that imposes new restrictions but allows the research to move forward. 

“The work will go on, one way or another,” said Thomas Okarma, chief executive of Menlo Park-based Geron Inc., which funded the two scientists who first isolated human stem cells in 1998 and still dominates the field. 

Geron buys leftover frozen embryos from fertility clinics and cracks them open to obtain the stem cells. Geron owns the worldwide rights to this process and has filed about 30 new patent applications for the various techniques and technology it uses. 

Chief executive Thomas Okarma said he considers Geron’s technique ethically sound. 

“These things aren’t people,” he said. “These are all frozen excess and no longer needed by the couple. And they are either going to be thrown away or stored forever.” 

Eventually, Geron hopes to get stem cells without having to use embryos at all. It hopes to do this by finding and cloning the proteins in eggs that lead to the creation of stem cells. Then, Okarma said, “living cells will be tomorrow’s pharmaceuticals.” 

Across the country in Worcester, Mass., Advanced Cell Technology is working on another technique that it hopes will enable it to generate stem cells by growing human embryos without the use of sperm. 

Advanced Cell’s plan is to pay women to take fertility drugs to produce excess eggs. Researchers would then take an egg, remove its nucleus and genetic material and fuse it with a skin cell containing adult genetic material. With a jolt of electricity, the researchers then would coax the egg to replicate as if it had been fertilized with sperm. After a few days, stem cells would be ready for harvesting. 

So far, Advanced Cell has yet to obtain a stem cell with this technique. Chief executive Michael West, a Geron co-founder who left for Advanced Cell last year, said the company has not yet created embryos. 

Many scientists consider the results of Advanced Cell’s technique to be human embryos, since theoretically, they could be implanted into a womb and grown into a fetus. West himself has used the term “embryo.” However, his ethical advisers prefer terms such as “ovumsum.” 

“These are not embryos,” said the chairman of Advanced Cell’s ethics advisory board, Dartmouth University religion professor Ronald Green. “They are not the result of fertilization and there is no intent to implant these in women and grow them.” 

A third effort was announced this week by the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, a private fertility clinic in Norfolk, Va., that was responsible for the birth in 1981 of the nation’s first test-tube baby. 

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine said it believes the researchers there are the first in the United States to have created embryos expressly for stem cell research, using eggs and sperm from paid, consenting adults. 

“At one level, it’s cleaner” ethically than using leftover embryos, society spokesman Sean Tipton said. “There’s no question what you’re going to do with these embryos. You’re going to the individuals up front.” 

Only the Geron-generated cells would be eligible for federally funded research dollars under the Clinton administration guidelines, which called for using only surplus embryos from fertility clinics. The Advanced Cell and Jones Institute embryos would not pass this federal test.

Parents and administrators of a nonprofit Berkeley school are mobilizing against a play-equipment manufacturer, that allegedly failed to properly inform them about the risk of arsenic contamination of the play structure they acquired. 

New School, an environmentally conscious institution offering preschool and after-school day care to approximately 80 children at 1606 Bonita Ave., bought the structure in mid-May as part of a renovation project aimed at making its playground comply with recent safety laws.  

But only a few days after installing the play structure, the parents and school staff - alerted by a national report on the health risks that some wooden structures present – found out that the new toy was treated with a preservative made of chromium, copper and arsenic, commonly called CCA. According to a report by the Environmental Working Group and the Healthy Building Network, made public at the end of May, exposure to such chemicals can cause a number of diseases, including cancer.  

“We were really shocked and dismayed to find out that it was treated with this,” said Merlyn Katechis, New School’s administrative assistant. “It took us days to find in the catalogue any mention at all of this.” Katechis said that only one line printed in the manufacturer’s catalogue mentioned that its wooden structures were pressure treated with CCA. She added that when the school called the manufacturing company, Kompan, it was told that the equipment did not present any danger as long as it was coated with a sealant. 

But that was not enough to reassure the parents. 

“We are outraged,” said Joanne Welch, whose 5-year-old daughter is enrolled in the school. “Even if we seal the structure, the sand naturally rubs the sealant off. We have children constantly climbing on the structure so we would constantly be worried about arsenic (exposure).” 

The structure was immediately fenced off and after a series of meetings, parents and administrators decided to return the structure. The manufacturer, however refused to take it back, although it offered to help New School sell it to another institution, Katechis said. 

The management of Kompan was not available for comment on Thursday. 

The school community is now talking about more radical solutions. It recently uninstalled the play structure and is planning to put it on a truck and drop it off at the company’s distribution site in Forestville, Calif. Additionally, the school is working on solutions that would benefit the other institutions across the country that worry about the health risks of CCA-treated wooden playgrounds.  

The school administration has contacted several environmental groups to get advice and intends to initiate legal action against Kompan on the basis of California’s Proposition 65, legislation designed to limit public exposure to possibly hazardous chemicals by mandating consumer-product warning labels. 

The school may file a lawsuit independently, but it is more likely to join the effort of the Center for Environmental Health, an organization that recently filed a legal notice of its intent to sue 11 manufacturers of arsenic-treated wooden playground. 

“I think we should be part of the CEH lawsuit” said Welch, one of the parents. “There are a lot of other people involved and as a small preschool we don’t have the resources (to fight against that).”

Friday, July 13 

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. Free.  

Call 549-2970 

Friday the 13th Dance 

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Avenue 

Celebrating the success of this years Berkeley Arts Festival, supporters can dance to jazz, swing and slow songs at this Friday the 13th Dance: The post hoc ergo propter hoc Hop. “Just Friends” will provide the music. Admission by donation, to benefit the Festival. 

486-0411 

Community Environmental  

Advisory Committee 

9:30 a.m.  

Planning and Development 

First Floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia Street 

An Ad-Hoc Subcommittee on Environmental Enforcement will meet today and discuss TMD codes and enforcement procedures. 

705-8150 or 644-6915 (TDD) 

Saturday, July 14 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. Free. 

548-3333 

Sunday, July 15 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn drive train maintenance and chain repair from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Buddhist Practice 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Mark Henderson on “Fearlessness on the Bodhisattva Path.” Free. 

843-6812 

Second Annual Wobbly High  

Mass 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck (@ Prince St.) 

Presented by Folk This! and friends, an evening of musical satire, subversion and sacrilege. This year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow,” a historical journey toward a future society without classes or bosses. 

$8 

849-2568 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Skronkathon BBQ 

1 - 11 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline 

The First Annual Transbay Skronkathon Barbecue. Dozens of Bay Area musicians will play “multi-conceptual-deconstructed-creative-music.” Charcoal provided, bring your own items to barbecue. Free. 

649-8744 

The Wizard School of Magic 

1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the LHS Top of the Bay Family Sundays, “Benny and Bebe and The Wizard School of Magic” is inspired by the Harry Potter stories. Learn what it takes to become a real wizard. Museum admission $3 - $7. 

642-5132 

PedalPower 

8:30 a.m. 

Lake Merritt Garden Center 

666 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland 

Bike ride and pancake brunch fundraiser for the Asian Domestic Violence Clinic which provides free or low-cost legal services for abused women and children in the East Bay. Fourteen mile ride from Lake Merritt to Portview Park and back. $5 - $25. 

415-567-6255

You’d think that at the age of 68 I’d have something better to do than march in the streets of Genoa facing menacing Italian polizie armed with gas masks and truncheons and the even more menacing anarchists and revolutionaries seeking opportunities to destroy property before the cameras. 

But no, this time I don’t have anything better to do.  

Occasionally I am moved to use my body to stand for more justice in this world – to march arm in arm with like-minded, non-violent folks. That can happen when my outrage at official abuses and the financial means mesh into a trip someplace to demonstrate for right and against wrong. I don’t do this often, you know, especially where violence may be a part of the picture. (We did march in Selma and Montegomery with Martin Luther King, Jr. nearly 40 years ago and had some scary times.)  

The leaders of the wealthy G-7 nations meeting in Genoa this July will face thousands of demonstrators from many countries demanding that these powerful leaders change the world so peace and justice can prevail. Among these thousands will be those of us from the international Jubilee movement focusing on the cancellation of external debts of the world’s most impoverished countries. Under monitoring from international organizations and local civic groups, the money saved on debt servicing must be spent on education, health, and the environment.  

My husband Bill and I are active in our Bay Area chapter of Jubilee USA Network, the American expression of the international movement with groups in 60 countries. (The Jubilee name comes from the biblical injunction in Leviticus to cancel the debts of all every 50 years and give a fresh start to those enslaved because of it.) These groups from the North and the South are committed to getting the crushing debt of poor countries cancelled. What is exciting about this movement is that it has caused substantive changes to be made by nations and international financial agencies. Public credit for this has been given to the pressure on politicians and decision-makers from ordinary folks and a few world figures, like the Irish rock star Bono and Pope John Paul II. We can make a difference – and have done so. In the U.S., it was a cliffhanging bipartisan effort to get the initial funding approved for debt relief last November with support from Bill Clinton and a campaign pledge from George W. Bush. There’s lots more to be done, of course. 

Another incentive for involvement in this movement is a recognition that all our American generosity in sending tons of food and clothing and disaster relief funds and toilet kits to people in poor countries through local charitable organizations is offset by the millions and even billions of dollars their governments are required to send back to wealthy nations in debt payments.  

For every dollar sent to the poorest countries in aid, $1.30 flows back to rich lenders in debt service payments. With incentives, their governments could put these payments into medicines, textbooks, clean water and HIV/AIDS prevention programs for their own citizens. We can change this by lobbying our legislators to do more than take just the first step approved last year.  

California Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters with more than a dozen other co-sponsors have a bill before Congress now, H.R. 1642, “The Debt Cancellation for the New Millennium Act.” It urges the President to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to make several changes to improve the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative – an Initiative that all knowledgeable experts agree badly needs changes before it continues to worsen economic conditions in eligible countries.  

The more we learn from Jubilee and the United Nations about the unjust way debts were incurred generations ago in dictator-led countries and the onerous and dehumanizing conditions that are enforced today for debt payments by financial institutions on subsequent generations, the more outraged fair-minded people must become. None of the so-called industrialized countries followed these conditions during their years of economic development. Countries like Zambia, where life expectancy is now falling below 30 years old, cannot afford to spend $3.4 million each week repaying debts – and that is after receiving all the debt relief on offer from the wealthy nations. Nearly all the HIPC countries are expected to pay nearly a third of their annual revenues in debt servicing. Most of the time they borrow more money to meet the payments and with compounded interest, their burden increases beyond payable levels. If they do not also borrow capital, they cannot develop industries or maintain infrastructures in their countries. The financial picture for most of these economies has rightly been called a form of debt slavery. The powerful symbol Jubilee uses to identify this is an iron chain with a broken link; its slogan is to “Break the Chains of Debt.”  

So Bill and I will be marching in Genoa on July 21, adding our bodies to the masses equally incensed at the arrogance of powerful countries (especially our own) acting like Scrooges in the world. We’ll be wearing our black tee-shirts with “Drop the Debt” on the front and, on the back, a quote from the former President of Tanzania, the late and much revered Julius Nyerere: “Must we starve our children to pay our debts?”  

A. Jean Lesher is a Berkeley resident 

924 Gilman St. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Special Duties, Oppressed Logic, Violent Society, Zero Bullsh*t, Born Dead; July 14: Lonely Kings, Onetime Angels, Stay Gold, Thought Riot, Youth Gone Wild; July 15, 5 p.m.: Bobbyteens, Los Rabbis, Finky Binks, Off Balance; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 18: Whiskey Brothers; July 19: Keni “El Lebrijano.” 1822 San Pablo 843-2473 

Anna’s Bistro Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Anna and Susie Laraine; 10 p.m., Bluesman Hideo Date; July 14: Ed Reed; 10:30 p.m., Ducksan Distones; July 15: Tina Marzelle; July 16: Renegade Sidemen; July 17: Joe Livotti Jazz Duo; July 18: Bob Schoen Jazz Quartet; July 19: Jazz Singer’s Collective; 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA 

Ashkenaz July 13: 9:30 p.m., Tamazgha, lyrical North African guitar and Berber vocals. $10; July 14: 9:30 p.m., Paul Pena, Zulu Exiles, Tuvan throat singing and township jive. $12; July 15: 6 p.m., Food and Funk, Salsa dance and beginning Salsa lesson, Israeli food; July 17: 9 p.m., Rock n’ Blues with The Jennifer Will Band. $7; July 18: 9 p.m., Swamp boogie with Tee Fee, 8 p.m. dance lesson with Diana Costillo; July 19: 10 p.m., Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave. $5; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5099 www.ashkenaz.com 

Berkeley Art Center July 14: 7 p.m., Rhythm and Muse featuring Adelle and Jack Foley, open mike sign up at 6:30; July 15: Live Oak Concert with David Cheng, Marvin Sanders, Ari Hsu. 1275 Walnut Street 352-6643 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery July 22: 4 p.m., Pianist Jerry Kuderna performs the complete piano music of Arnold Schönberg. Suggested donation $10; 2200 Shattuck Ave. 665-9496 

Freight & Salvage July 13: Jeremy Cohen's Violinjazz Vintage string swing $16.50; July 14: 10 a.m. - noon, Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live featuring author Walter Mosely, Ray’s Vast Basement, The Waikiki Steel Works, hyperventilation by monologist and movie star Josh Kornbluth, pianist Gini Wilson, plus other surprise guests and audience true stories. $12; July 15: Carol McComb, Sterling originals $17.50 Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or 762-BASS or www.thefreight.org 

Jupiter July 13: UHF- Mod Rock from Portland. July 14: Fred Zimmerman Quartet- Local Piano and Jazz. July 17: Amaldecor- Combination of traditional Eastern European and French Swing. July 18: Cannonball w/ DJ Aspect- “hiphop-groove-latin-jazz-funk”. July 20: Koochen & Hoomen- local electronic. All music starts at 8:00 p.m.www.jupiterbeer.com; or call the hotline: THE-ROCK (843-7625)  

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8 p.m., Word Descara Series with Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell, Elmaz Abindader, and others; July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descara Series with Mingus Amungus, Seeking, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino, and others; July 15: 3:30 p.m., Domingo do Rumba- Local aces of Rumba, Cuban rhythm and dance; 7:30 p.m., Laborfest- this year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow” a historical journey towards a future society without classes or bosses; July 19: 8:00 p.m., Rebecca Riots with Kim & Krista- Singer/songwriters from Berkeley; July 20: 8 p.m., Collective Soul- hip-hop, spoken word, 9:30 p.m., Mermelada’s Latin American music jam with Quique Cruz; 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

La Note/Jazzschool July 15: 4:30 p.m., vocalist W. Allen Taylor; 5:30 p.m., jazz trio Michael Hauser Group. $5; July 22: 4:30 p.m. Vocalist Nanda Berman; 5:30 p.m., David McGee Group. $5. 2377 Shattuck Avenue 845-5373. 

Rose Street House of Music July 13: 8 p.m. “Doria Roberts & Making Waves” Featuring special guest slam poet Aya de Leon. $8-20 donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. 594-4000 ext. 687 

Starry Plough Pub Sunday and Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Drums and Tuba, Mega Mousse, $7; July 14: Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons, The John Shipe Band $7 3101 Shattuck Ave. 841-2082. 

“Opus Q” The East Bay Men’s Chorale premiere concert, July 13, 8:07 p.m. Under the direction of Jerry “J. R.” Foust and a repertoire including Copland, Bach, Handel, Bernstien, some Estonian, Latin and French. $11 general admission at University Lutheran Chapel (College and Haste), 664-0260 or www.opus-q.com 

“Joanne D. Carey and Brendan Carey” July 15: 4 p.m., A benefit for the Berkeley Arts Festival, the Carey’s perform original work. 2200 Shattuck Avenue 486-0411 

Theater 

“Romeo and Juliet” Through July 14, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m. Set in early 1930s 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” 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 

“Comedy of Errors” July 14 - 15, 21- 22: 1 p.m.: Free park performance of this Shakespeare comedy by Women’s Will, the Bay Area’s all-female Shakespeare company. July 14 and 15 at John Hinkel Park, Southampton at Somerset Place, July 21 and 22 at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Avenue at Berryman. 415-567-1758  

“The Laramie Project” Extended through July 22: Weds. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (After July 8 no Wednesday performance, no Sunday matinee on July 22.) 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 

“The Skin of Our Teeth” Through July 29: Tues. - Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Part of the California Shakespeare Festival, a Thorton Wilder play about a typical family enduring various catastrophes. $10 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 

“Orphan” July 13 through August 5 (no show on July 20): Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Lyle Kessler’s dark comedy about a mysterious stranger invading the home of two orphaned brothers. $15. The Speakeasy Theater, 2016 Seventh St. 326-8493 

“The Great Sebastians” Opens July 13, 8 p.m., presented by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. Friday and Saturday evenings 8 p.m. through August 11, plus Thursday, Aug. 9. A tale about a mind-reading act touring behind the Iron Curtain. A communist general believes the act and “invites” the Sebastians to his villa where the humor and excitement follows. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman). For reservations call 528-5620 

“Iphegenia in Aulis” Through August 12: Sat. and Sun. 5 p.m. No performances July 14 and 15, special dawn performance on August 12 at 7 a.m. A free park performance by the Shotgun Players of Euripides’ play about choices and priorities. With a masked chorus, singing, dancing, and live music. Feel free to bring food and something soft to sit on. John Hinkel Park, Southhampton Place at Arlington Avenue (different locations July 7 and 8). 655-0813 

Opera 

“Carmen” Berkeley Opera takes a fresh look at George Bizet’s popular opera with a new English-language adaptation by David Scott Marley. Marley’s version restores many lines that had been cut from the familiar version, and includes additional material from the 1846 French novella the opera is based on. “It’s a little darker and sexier than the opera most people think they know,” says Marley. July 13, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. July 15 and 22 at 7 p.m. July 14 at 2 p.m.  

$30 general, $25 seniors, $15 youth & handicapped, $10 student rush. Julia Morgan Theater 2640 College Ave. 841-1903 

Films 

La Pena Cultural Center July 18: 7 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Resistance as Democracy” by Larry Mosque, “The International” by Peter Miller, “Songs of the Thai Labor Movement” by Wayne. $7 donation. July 29: 2:00 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Not in my Garden” by Video 48. $7. 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Pacific Film Archive July 13: 7 p.m., “An Actor’s Revenge,” 9:15 p.m., “Conflagration”; July 14: 7 p.m., “You and Me,” 8:50 p.m., “Man Hunt”; July 15: Family Classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; July 17: 7:30 p.m., “Bangkok Bahrain”; July 18: 7:30 p.m., “Kiss Me Quick” , 9 p.m., “The Flesh Eaters”; July 19: 7:30 p.m., “Golem -- The Spirit of Exile”; July 20: 7 p.m., “Fires on the Plain”, 9:05 p.m., “Harp of Burma”; New PFA Theatre, 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

“Street Scene” July 15: 2 p.m., This 1931 film explores themes of antisemitism and identity in New York tenements. $2 donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut Street 848-0237 

Exhibits 

“Constitutional Shift” Through July 13, Tuesdays - Fridays, noon - 5 p.m. Permanence and personal journey link Hee Jae Suh, Ursula Neubauer and Marci Tackett. Korean-born Suh explores an inner psychological world with a dramatic series of self-portraits. Neubauer explores self-portraiture as a travel map of identity with multiple points of view. Tackett explores Antarctica’s other-worldly landscape in a series of stunning digital photographs. Kala Art Institute 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

“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” Through 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 

“New Visions: Introductions 2001” Through August 18, Wed. - Sat.: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Juried by Artist- Curator Rene Yanez and Robbin Henderson, Executive Director of the Berkeley Art Center, the exhibition features works from some of California’s up-and-coming artists. Reception July 12 from 6 - 8 p.m. Pro Arts 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9425 

“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. Through September. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s 2454 Telegraph Ave. Readings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 14: Alexander Cockburn and John Strausbaugh discuss Cockburn’s book “Five Days That Shook the World” and Strausbaugh’s “Rock ‘Til You Drop” ; July 15: Jimmy Santiago Baca discusses “A Place to Stand”; July 16: “Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex,” a panel discussion; July 17: Ralph Berberich, MD, discusses his memoir “Hit Below the Belt: Facing up to Prostate Cancer.”; Lonny Shavelson talks about the inadequacies of our current drug rehabilitation policies with “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” $2 donation. 845-0837 

Cody’s 1730 Fourth St. Readings at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Joe Di Prisco reading “Confessions of Brother Eli”; July 20: Lynne Hinton reads from her second novel, “The Things I know Best.” $2 donation. 559-9500 

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8:00 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Poets and musicians collaborate across cultures. Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell and more. $10. July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Mingus Amungus, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino and more. $12. 2105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Poetry Nitro Weekly poetry open mike. 6:30 p.m. sign-up, 7 p.m. reading. July 16: Featuring the Silicon Valley Slam Team. 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  

Dance 

“Ganga-Ashtakam” July 15: 2 p.m., Indian Bharata Natyam classical dance celebrating the Indian river and goddess Ganga. Dancers Anuradha Murali, Shilpa Sejpal, and Gopitha Tharmalingam. $5 - $10. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Museums 

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  

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 will close its exhibition galleries for renovation on October 1. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until October 1, 2001: “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture.” “Sites Along the Nile: Rescuing Ancient Egypt.” “The Art of Research: Nelson Graburn and the Aesthetics of Inuit Sculpture.” “Tzintzuntzan, Mexico: Photographs by George Foster.”  

$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 or www.qal.berkeley.edu/~hearst/ 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Science in Toyland,” through Sept. 9. Exhibit uses toys to demonstrate scientific principles and to help develop children's thinking processes. Susan Cerny’s collection of over 200 tops from around the world. “Space Weather,” through Sept. 2. Learn about solar cycles, space weather, the cause of the Aurorae and recent discoveries made by leading astronomers. This interactive exhibit lets visitors access near real-time data from the Sun and space, view interactive videos and find out about a variety of solar activities. “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. Space Weather Exhibit now - Sept. 2; now - Sept. 9 Science in Toyland; 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  

The UC Berkeley Art Museum is closed for renovations until the fall.

924 Gilman St. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Special Duties, Oppressed Logic, Violent Society, Zero Bullsh*t, Born Dead; July 14: Lonely Kings, Onetime Angels, Stay Gold, Thought Riot, Youth Gone Wild; July 15, 5 p.m.: Bobbyteens, Los Rabbis, Finky Binks, Off Balance; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

Albatross Pub Music at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 18: Whiskey Brothers; July 19: Keni “El Lebrijano.” 1822 San Pablo 843-2473 

Anna’s Bistro Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Anna and Susie Laraine; 10 p.m., Bluesman Hideo Date; July 14: Ed Reed; 10:30 p.m., Ducksan Distones; July 15: Tina Marzelle; July 16: Renegade Sidemen; July 17: Joe Livotti Jazz Duo; July 18: Bob Schoen Jazz Quartet; July 19: Jazz Singer’s Collective; 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA 

Ashkenaz July 13: 9:30 p.m., Tamazgha, lyrical North African guitar and Berber vocals. $10; July 14: 9:30 p.m., Paul Pena, Zulu Exiles, Tuvan throat singing and township jive. $12; July 15: 6 p.m., Food and Funk, Salsa dance and beginning Salsa lesson, Israeli food; July 17: 9 p.m., Rock n’ Blues with The Jennifer Will Band. $7; July 18: 9 p.m., Swamp boogie with Tee Fee, 8 p.m. dance lesson with Diana Costillo; July 19: 10 p.m., Dead DJ Nite with Digital Dave. $5; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5099 www.ashkenaz.com 

Berkeley Art Center July 14: 7 p.m., Rhythm and Muse featuring Adelle and Jack Foley, open mike sign up at 6:30; July 15: Live Oak Concert with David Cheng, Marvin Sanders, Ari Hsu. 1275 Walnut Street 352-6643 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery July 22: 4 p.m., Pianist Jerry Kuderna performs the complete piano music of Arnold Schönberg. Suggested donation $10; 2200 Shattuck Ave. 665-9496 

Freight & Salvage July 13: Jeremy Cohen's Violinjazz Vintage string swing $16.50; July 14: 10 a.m. - noon, Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live featuring author Walter Mosely, Ray’s Vast Basement, The Waikiki Steel Works, hyperventilation by monologist and movie star Josh Kornbluth, pianist Gini Wilson, plus other surprise guests and audience true stories. $12; July 15: Carol McComb, Sterling originals $17.50 Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or 762-BASS or www.thefreight.org 

Jupiter July 13: UHF- Mod Rock from Portland. July 14: Fred Zimmerman Quartet- Local Piano and Jazz. July 17: Amaldecor- Combination of traditional Eastern European and French Swing. July 18: Cannonball w/ DJ Aspect- “hiphop-groove-latin-jazz-funk”. July 20: Koochen & Hoomen- local electronic. All music starts at 8:00 p.m.www.jupiterbeer.com; or call the hotline: THE-ROCK (843-7625)  

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8 p.m., Word Descara Series with Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell, Elmaz Abindader, and others; July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descara Series with Mingus Amungus, Seeking, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino, and others; July 15: 3:30 p.m., Domingo do Rumba- Local aces of Rumba, Cuban rhythm and dance; 7:30 p.m., Laborfest- this year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow” a historical journey towards a future society without classes or bosses; July 19: 8:00 p.m., Rebecca Riots with Kim & Krista- Singer/songwriters from Berkeley; July 20: 8 p.m., Collective Soul- hip-hop, spoken word, 9:30 p.m., Mermelada’s Latin American music jam with Quique Cruz; 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

La Note/Jazzschool July 15: 4:30 p.m., vocalist W. Allen Taylor; 5:30 p.m., jazz trio Michael Hauser Group. $5; July 22: 4:30 p.m. Vocalist Nanda Berman; 5:30 p.m., David McGee Group. $5. 2377 Shattuck Avenue 845-5373. 

Rose Street House of Music July 13: 8 p.m. “Doria Roberts & Making Waves” Featuring special guest slam poet Aya de Leon. $8-20 donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. 594-4000 ext. 687 

Starry Plough Pub Sunday and Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Drums and Tuba, Mega Mousse, $7; July 14: Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons, The John Shipe Band $7 3101 Shattuck Ave. 841-2082. 

“Opus Q” The East Bay Men’s Chorale premiere concert, July 13, 8:07 p.m. Under the direction of Jerry “J. R.” Foust and a repertoire including Copland, Bach, Handel, Bernstien, some Estonian, Latin and French. $11 general admission at University Lutheran Chapel (College and Haste), 664-0260 or www.opus-q.com 

“Joanne D. Carey and Brendan Carey” July 15: 4 p.m., A benefit for the Berkeley Arts Festival, the Carey’s perform original work. 2200 Shattuck Avenue 486-0411 

Theater 

“Romeo and Juliet” Through July 14, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m. Set in early 1930s 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” 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 

“Comedy of Errors” July 14 - 15, 21- 22: 1 p.m.: Free park performance of this Shakespeare comedy by Women’s Will, the Bay Area’s all-female Shakespeare company. July 14 and 15 at John Hinkel Park, Southampton at Somerset Place, July 21 and 22 at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Avenue at Berryman. 415-567-1758  

“The Laramie Project” Extended through July 22: Weds. 7 p.m., Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (After July 8 no Wednesday performance, no Sunday matinee on July 22.) 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 

“The Skin of Our Teeth” Through July 29: Tues. - Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Part of the California Shakespeare Festival, a Thorton Wilder play about a typical family enduring various catastrophes. $10 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 

“Orphan” July 13 through August 5 (no show on July 20): Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Lyle Kessler’s dark comedy about a mysterious stranger invading the home of two orphaned brothers. $15. The Speakeasy Theater, 2016 Seventh St. 326-8493 

“The Great Sebastians” Opens July 13, 8 p.m., presented by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. Friday and Saturday evenings 8 p.m. through August 11, plus Thursday, Aug. 9. A tale about a mind-reading act touring behind the Iron Curtain. A communist general believes the act and “invites” the Sebastians to his villa where the humor and excitement follows. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman). For reservations call 528-5620 

“Iphegenia in Aulis” Through August 12: Sat. and Sun. 5 p.m. No performances July 14 and 15, special dawn performance on August 12 at 7 a.m. A free park performance by the Shotgun Players of Euripides’ play about choices and priorities. With a masked chorus, singing, dancing, and live music. Feel free to bring food and something soft to sit on. John Hinkel Park, Southhampton Place at Arlington Avenue (different locations July 7 and 8). 655-0813 

Opera 

“Carmen” Berkeley Opera takes a fresh look at George Bizet’s popular opera with a new English-language adaptation by David Scott Marley. Marley’s version restores many lines that had been cut from the familiar version, and includes additional material from the 1846 French novella the opera is based on. “It’s a little darker and sexier than the opera most people think they know,” says Marley. July 13, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. July 15 and 22 at 7 p.m. July 14 at 2 p.m.  

$30 general, $25 seniors, $15 youth & handicapped, $10 student rush. Julia Morgan Theater 2640 College Ave. 841-1903 

Films 

La Pena Cultural Center July 18: 7 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Resistance as Democracy” by Larry Mosque, “The International” by Peter Miller, “Songs of the Thai Labor Movement” by Wayne. $7 donation. July 29: 2:00 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Not in my Garden” by Video 48. $7. 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Pacific Film Archive July 13: 7 p.m., “An Actor’s Revenge,” 9:15 p.m., “Conflagration”; July 14: 7 p.m., “You and Me,” 8:50 p.m., “Man Hunt”; July 15: Family Classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; July 17: 7:30 p.m., “Bangkok Bahrain”; July 18: 7:30 p.m., “Kiss Me Quick” , 9 p.m., “The Flesh Eaters”; July 19: 7:30 p.m., “Golem -- The Spirit of Exile”; July 20: 7 p.m., “Fires on the Plain”, 9:05 p.m., “Harp of Burma”; New PFA Theatre, 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

“Street Scene” July 15: 2 p.m., This 1931 film explores themes of antisemitism and identity in New York tenements. $2 donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut Street 848-0237 

Exhibits 

“Constitutional Shift” Through July 13, Tuesdays - Fridays, noon - 5 p.m. Permanence and personal journey link Hee Jae Suh, Ursula Neubauer and Marci Tackett. Korean-born Suh explores an inner psychological world with a dramatic series of self-portraits. Neubauer explores self-portraiture as a travel map of identity with multiple points of view. Tackett explores Antarctica’s other-worldly landscape in a series of stunning digital photographs. Kala Art Institute 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

“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” Through 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 

“New Visions: Introductions 2001” Through August 18, Wed. - Sat.: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Juried by Artist- Curator Rene Yanez and Robbin Henderson, Executive Director of the Berkeley Art Center, the exhibition features works from some of California’s up-and-coming artists. Reception July 12 from 6 - 8 p.m. Pro Arts 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9425 

“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. Through September. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s 2454 Telegraph Ave. Readings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 14: Alexander Cockburn and John Strausbaugh discuss Cockburn’s book “Five Days That Shook the World” and Strausbaugh’s “Rock ‘Til You Drop” ; July 15: Jimmy Santiago Baca discusses “A Place to Stand”; July 16: “Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex,” a panel discussion; July 17: Ralph Berberich, MD, discusses his memoir “Hit Below the Belt: Facing up to Prostate Cancer.”; Lonny Shavelson talks about the inadequacies of our current drug rehabilitation policies with “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” $2 donation. 845-0837 

Cody’s 1730 Fourth St. Readings at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Joe Di Prisco reading “Confessions of Brother Eli”; July 20: Lynne Hinton reads from her second novel, “The Things I know Best.” $2 donation. 559-9500 

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8:00 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Poets and musicians collaborate across cultures. Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell and more. $10. July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Mingus Amungus, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino and more. $12. 2105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Poetry Nitro Weekly poetry open mike. 6:30 p.m. sign-up, 7 p.m. reading. July 16: Featuring the Silicon Valley Slam Team. 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  

Dance 

“Ganga-Ashtakam” July 15: 2 p.m., Indian Bharata Natyam classical dance celebrating the Indian river and goddess Ganga. Dancers Anuradha Murali, Shilpa Sejpal, and Gopitha Tharmalingam. $5 - $10. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Museums 

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  

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 will close its exhibition galleries for renovation on October 1. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until October 1, 2001: “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture.” “Sites Along the Nile: Rescuing Ancient Egypt.” “The Art of Research: Nelson Graburn and the Aesthetics of Inuit Sculpture.” “Tzintzuntzan, Mexico: Photographs by George Foster.”  

$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 or www.qal.berkeley.edu/~hearst/ 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Science in Toyland,” through Sept. 9. Exhibit uses toys to demonstrate scientific principles and to help develop children's thinking processes. Susan Cerny’s collection of over 200 tops from around the world. “Space Weather,” through Sept. 2. Learn about solar cycles, space weather, the cause of the Aurorae and recent discoveries made by leading astronomers. This interactive exhibit lets visitors access near real-time data from the Sun and space, view interactive videos and find out about a variety of solar activities. “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. Space Weather Exhibit now - Sept. 2; now - Sept. 9 Science in Toyland; 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  

The UC Berkeley Art Museum is closed for renovations until the fall.

Camps 

City of Berkeley Summer Fun Camps 

Through August 17 

Summer Fun Camps for children feature sports, games, arts and crafts and special events. Events and trips will be planned in and out of the Berkeley area. Supervised play and activities held Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for kids 5-12 years of age. Before and after care will be available at additional cost. Fees on a sliding scale. 

Sites: Frances Albrier, Southwest Berkeley – 644-8515; James Kenney, West Berkeley – 644-8511; Live Oak Park, North Berkeley – 644-8513; Willard Club House, Southeast Berkeley – 644-8517; MLK Youth Services Center, South Berkeley – 644-6226. 

P.A.L. Adventure Camp 3 

August 6-24 

Camp for ages 11-17. Three week camp will provide skills for overnight and wilderness camping. First two weeks include instruction on cooking, first aid, cleanup and low impact camping. Rafting, ropes course and daily hikes. Week three is five days in a California wilderness area using newly-learned skills. $180, limited scholarships available. Call 845-7193 for more information. 

Berkeley Tennis Club Kids  

Camp 

Sessions begin July 23 and August 6 

These camps are designed for the beginner to low advanced player aged 7-14. Each session is two weeks long. The first week emphasizes proper stroke and footwork techniques, conditioning and game play. The second week concentrates on competition on both an individual and team level. Students will be divided according to ability, so they progress at their own pace. Student-intructor ratio of 6/1. Clinics are 9 a.m. to noon. $250 for B.T.C. members, $300 for non-members. Call 841-9023 for information. 

Sports 

City youth Baseball 

Summer baseball program for boys and girls ages 5-15. The focus is on developing skills, sportsmanship and enjoyment rather than competitiveness. Leagues are structured to address both skill level and age group. Players are assigned to teams on a city-wide basis. Beginner teams (5-6 years) meet weekdays from noon to 2 p.m. All other teams meet from 3:30 to 7 p.m. weekdays or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. All players must participate. Playoffs and awards will follow the regular season in older leagues. Fees: $34 ages 5-8 ($70 non-resident), $40 ages 9-15($86 non-resident). For more information call 981-5153. 

City adult softball 

Leagues available for men, women and co-rec. Three levels of competition. Games played weekday evenings, Saturday afternoons and evenings. 10 games plus playoffs. $561 per team. Call 981-5150 for more information. 

City tennis lessons 

Three sessions throughout summer. 

Youth and adult lessons available for beginner, advanced beginner and intermediate. 10 one-hour lessons. $45 for youth ages 8-15, $65 for adults. Call 981-5150 for more information. 

Twilight basketball 

July 13-August 25 

The City of Berkeley Twilight Basketball Program is an educational sports program which offers youths ages 11-18 the opportunity to play in the competitive league and be exposed to educational workshops. Subjects include tobacco prevention, HIV/STD prevention, domestic violence prevention, academic improvement and youth violence prevention. All participants must attend a one-hour workshop before each game in order to play. Free, players recieve a jersey. Ten game season with playoffs at MLK Youth Services Center. For more information call Ginsi Bryant at 644-6226. 

City adult basketball 

Summer league 

Open, competitive league with games on Monday and Wednesday evenings at the MLK Youth Services Center. All games officicated by certified referees. Awards for top three teams. Teams already formed for summer, but some have openings. Interested players should show up and talk to coaches about playing. 

Programs 

City-Wide Playground  

Programs 

Through August 17 

Free supervised activities include arts and crafts, games, sports, special event days and local trips. Program hours are noon to 5 p.m. Proof of Berkeley residency required at registration. 

Sites: All Play Together – 981-5150; Rosa Parks – 981-5150; Malcolm X School – 644-6226. 

Summer Teen Program 

Through August 27 

Events include adventure trips, swimming, sports, games, cooking, educational workshops and special local events. Call your local center for details, registration and costs. Sliding scale. 

Sites: Frances Albrier, Southwest Berkeley – 644-8515; James Kenney, West Berkeley – 644-8511; Live Oak Park, North Berkeley – 644-8513; Willard Park Club House, Southeast Berkeley – 644-8517; MLK Youth Services Center, South Berkeley – 644-6226. 

P.A.L. Adventures in Sailing 

Overnight sails tour the San Francisco Bay. Visit the Bay Model, Angel Island, Treasure Island and Sausalito. Voyage dates: July 13-14 and 28-29, August 9-10, 16-17 and 23-24. $20 per voyage. Call 845-7193 for more information. 

Adult Tennis Workshops 

Session begins July 23 

These four-day sessions at the Berkeley Tennis Club are designed to five adults a chance to improve their game in just one concentrated week. Two levels offered – NTPR rating between 4.0-4.5 and 3.5-below. Both sessions will have a doubles strategy emphasis. $110 per session. Call 841-9023 for more details. 

P.A.L. Fishing Trips 

July 26, August 20, August 30 

Hands Extended will be having three fishing outings this summer for kids ages 7-15. The first one is at San Pablo Dam. Transportation, food and rods, reels and bait will be provided. Registration is required. Deadline to register is 07/12/01. Please call 845-3161. 

To submit information for the Berkeley Daily Planet Summer Sports Calendar, please e-mail information to sports@berkeleydailyplanet.net or send to Sports, 2076 University Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704.

A group of public housing residents complained to the City Council Tuesday of a rat infestation they said is threatening their children and keeping them up at night. 

“It’s appalling that this is going on,” Mayor Shirley Dean responded and asked City Manager Weldon Rucker what he could do to remedy the situation. 

The city had already been notified of the rat infestation, Rucker said, and had immediately dispatched the Environmental Health Division to assess the situation in the area of the 11 units of public housing on Ward Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

“We’re on top of the problem as we speak,” Rucker said Tuesday. 

Some of the residents who attended the council meeting carried handwritten signs, including one that read: “Public housing residents on Ward Street deserve to live in a community that is not infested with rats.” 

Four residents addressed the council during the public comment portion of the meeting. 

“I’m afraid and there are other single mothers with children who are afraid, too,” said tearful resident Lynetta Taylor, who shares a unit with three of her children and her one-year-old grandson. “Something has to be done before a child or an adult is injured.” 

Taylor added that she often stays up late into the night making sure her children are not bothered by the rats. 

Only one resident, Rose Flippin, who attended the meeting with her 3-year-old daughter, said she has seen evidence of rats inside her unit. Other residents said they have heard rats in the walls or have seen them in their backyards. “I can hardly sleep at night because I can hear the rats scratching and scurrying around,” Flippin said. 

Arrietta Chakos, the city manager’s chief of staff, said on Thursday the problem is primarily the result of two conditions, improperly contained debris and refuse in front and back of the housing units and overgrown grass and weeds on Berkeley Unified School District property to the north and east of the housing. 

The Berkeley Alternative High School and the King Early Childhood Development Center are adjacent to the Ward Street housing. 

Alex Schnieder, director of the Environmental Health Division, said those conditions have led to a “significant” rat problem in the vicinity of the townhouse-styled homes. “Our inspectors saw rats in the area during daylight,” he said. “That’s a sign of a significant problem because rats are usually night creatures.” 

Chakos said the city has put together an action plan that includes a coordinated effort with the school district to clean up debris and keep the school district’s lawns trimmed and weeded.  

Simultaneously Western Exterminator, a private company that contracts with the city, will strategically deploy rodent poison contained in food around the units and on the school district property. Chakos said rats that ingest the poison will usually die within 48 hours. 

“We have to make sure no tenants are hurt, so we are being rather assertive with the rodent extermination,” Chakos said. 

In addition, all of the units will be inspected to make sure any possible openings accessible by rodents are sealed.  

To avoid future problems, residents will be provided with additional containers for storing garbage and recycling until it can be hauled away, Chakos said. 

Taylor said the city has taken quick action on the rat problem and that she was pleased the city manager called her personally and asked her to call him if she felt the problem wasn’t being addressed. 

But Taylor said she has reported other maintenance problems in her unit to the Berkeley Housing Authority and it has sometimes taken months for a response. 

“I had a leak in my kitchen sink that was flooding the floor to the point of where we put a blanket on the floor and had to wring it out every morning,” she said. “I called the Housing Authority at least 11 times before I could get them to do anything.” 

Interim Housing Director Stephen Barton said a backlog of repair work was created because the maintenance company, hired by the city to take care of BHA housing, was irresponsible and that a new company was hired within the last two months. “At last the log jam is breaking up and we’re starting to get to some of these problems,” he said.

Editor: 

Unbelievable, just plain unbelievable! I never thought I’d read such idiocy as was penned in your “Letters to the Editor” on Monday, July 9th. The headline “Walking pit bulls off-leash is like carrying around a loaded gun” belies the thinking of the feeble minded. I’d have to add this phrase to MY collection of self canceling phrases. 

Why is the concept of animate objects (a dog) versus inanimate objects (a gun) so terribly hard to comprehend? Guns simply cannot shoot themselves. Yeah, okay, a dog can bite you without help from a human. The dog/loaded gun comparison is totally bogus and most simply isn’t the point. The point IS responsibility. 

When was the last time anyone ever thought to assume a modicum of personal responsibility. Oh no, that’s too hard! Let’s have the government pass another law. If we could just have one more law, we could all live in harmony and bliss. Hello! Just who do you think will be there to enforce the law? The police would be much obliged, however they can’t be everywhere, all the time. A watchful neighborhood could have been more though. 

The only thing that will save you and your precious need for security is accepting responsibility and helping others to do the same. Another state dog law would not have saved Shawn Jones from the horror he experienced and the paid he suffers now. A responsible dog owner obeying the existing leash law would have. 

If you want a safer more harmonious neighborhood; Stand up, step up, and be responsible. Above all stop whining for the government to solve all your problems. 

G. Seegmiller 

Berkeley

Music 

Berkeley Art Center July 14: 7 p.m., Rhythm and Muse featuring Adelle and Jack Foley, open mike sign up at 6:30; July 15: Live Oak Concert with David Cheng, Marvin Sanders, Ari Hsu. 1275 Walnut Street 352-6643 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery July 22: 4 p.m., Pianist Jerry Kuderna performs the complete piano music of Arnold Schönberg. Suggested donation $10; 2200 Shattuck Ave. 665-9496 

Freight & Salvage July 13: Jeremy Cohen's Violinjazz Vintage string swing $16.50; July 14: 10 a.m. - noon, Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live featuring author Walter Mosely, Ray’s Vast Basement, The Waikiki Steel Works, hyperventilation by monologist and movie star Josh Kornbluth, pianist Gini Wilson, plus other surprise guests and audience true stories. $12; July 15: Carol McComb, Sterling originals $17.50 Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 or 762-BASS or www.thefreight.org 

Jupiter July 13: UHF- Mod Rock from Portland. July 14: Fred Zimmerman Quartet- Local Piano and Jazz. July 17: Amaldecor- Combination of traditional Eastern European and French Swing. July 18: Cannonball w/ DJ Aspect- “hiphop-groove-latin-jazz-funk”. July 20: Koochen & Hoomen- local electronic. All music starts at 8:00 p.m.www.jupiterbeer.com; or call the hotline: THE-ROCK (843-7625)  

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8 p.m., Word Descara Series with Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell, Elmaz Abindader, and others; July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descara Series with Mingus Amungus, Seeking, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino, and others; July 15: 3:30 p.m., Domingo do Rumba- Local aces of Rumba, Cuban rhythm and dance; 7:30 p.m., Laborfest- this year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow” a historical journey towards a future society without classes or bosses; July 19: 8:00 p.m., Rebecca Riots with Kim & Krista- Singer/songwriters from Berkeley; July 20: 8 p.m., Collective Soul- hip-hop, spoken word, 9:30 p.m., Mermelada’s Latin American music jam with Quique Cruz; 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

La Note/Jazzschool July 15: 4:30 p.m., vocalist W. Allen Taylor; 5:30 p.m., jazz trio Michael Hauser Group. $5; July 22: 4:30 p.m. Vocalist Nanda Berman; 5:30 p.m., David McGee Group. $5. 2377 Shattuck Avenue 845-5373. 

Rose Street House of Music July 13: 8 p.m. “Doria Roberts & Making Waves” Featuring special guest slam poet Aya de Leon. $8-20 donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. 594-4000 ext. 687 

Starry Plough Pub Sunday and Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Drums and Tuba, Mega Mousse, $7; July 14: Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons, The John Shipe Band $7 3101 Shattuck Ave. 841-2082. 

“Opus Q” The East Bay Men’s Chorale premiere concert, July 13, 8:07 p.m. Under the direction of Jerry “J. R.” Foust and a repertoire including Copland, Bach, Handel, Bernstien, some Estonian, Latin and French. $11 general admission at University Lutheran Chapel (College and Haste), 664-0260 or www.opus-q.com 

“Joanne D. Carey and Brendan Carey” July 15: 4 p.m., A benefit for the Berkeley Arts Festival, the Carey’s perform original work. 2200 Shattuck Avenue 486-0411 

“Romeo and Juliet” Through July 14, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m. Set in early 1930s 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” 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 

“Comedy of Errors” July 14 - 15, 21- 22: 1 p.m.: Free park performance of this Shakespeare comedy by Women’s Will, the Bay Area’s all-female Shakespeare company. July 14 and 15 at John Hinkel Park, Southampton at Somerset Place, July 21 and 22 at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Avenue at Berryman. 415-567-1758  

“The Laramie Project” Extended through July 22: Tues. and Thur. -Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (No Sunday matinee on July 22.) Written by Moises Kaufmen and members of Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Moises Kaufman. Tectonic members traveled to Laramie, Wyo., after the murder of 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 

“The Skin of Our Teeth” Through July 29: Tues. - Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. Part of the California Shakespeare Festival, a Thorton Wilder play about a typical family enduring various catastrophes. $10 - $146. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit. 548-9666 

“Orphan” July 13 through August 5 (no show on July 20): Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Lyle Kessler’s dark comedy about a mysterious stranger invading the home of two orphaned brothers. $15. The Speakeasy Theater, 2016 Seventh St. 326-8493 

“The Great Sebastians” Opens July 13, 8 p.m., presented by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. Friday and Saturday evenings 8 p.m. through August 11, plus Thursday, Aug. 9. A tale about a mind-reading act touring behind the Iron Curtain. A communist general believes the act and “invites” the Sebastians to his villa where the humor and excitement follows. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman). For reservations call 528-5620 

“Iphegenia in Aulis” Through August 12: Sat. and Sun. 5 p.m. No performances July 14 and 15, special dawn performance on August 12 at 7 a.m. A free park performance by the Shotgun Players of Euripides’ play about choices and priorities. With a masked chorus, singing, dancing, and live music. Feel free to bring food and something soft to sit on. John Hinkel Park, Southhampton Place at Arlington Avenue (different locations July 7 and 8). 655-0813 

Opera 

“Carmen” Berkeley Opera takes a fresh look at George Bizet’s popular opera with a new English-language adaptation by David Scott Marley. Marley’s version restores many lines that had been cut from the familiar version, and includes additional material from the 1846 French novella the opera is based on. “It’s a little darker and sexier than the opera most people think they know,” says Marley. July 13, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. July 15 and 22 at 7 p.m. July 14 at 2 p.m.  

$30 general, $25 seniors, $15 youth & handicapped, $10 student rush. Julia Morgan Theater 2640 College Ave. 841-1903 

Films 

La Pena Cultural Center July 18: 7 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Resistance as Democracy” by Larry Mosque, “The International” by Peter Miller, “Songs of the Thai Labor Movement” by Wayne. $7 donation. July 29: 2:00 p.m., Laborfest- International Working Class Film & Video Festival. “Not in my Garden” by Video 48. $7. 3105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Pacific Film Archive July 13: 7 p.m., “An Actor’s Revenge,” 9:15 p.m., “Conflagration”; July 14: 7 p.m., “You and Me,” 8:50 p.m., “Man Hunt”; July 15: Family Classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”; July 17: 7:30 p.m., “Bangkok Bahrain”; July 18: 7:30 p.m., “Kiss Me Quick” , 9 p.m., “The Flesh Eaters”; July 19: 7:30 p.m., “Golem -- The Spirit of Exile”; July 20: 7 p.m., “Fires on the Plain”, 9:05 p.m., “Harp of Burma”; New PFA Theatre, 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

“Street Scene” July 15: 2 p.m., This 1931 film explores themes of antisemitism and identity in New York tenements. $2 donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut Street 848-0237 

Exhibits 

“Constitutional Shift” Through July 13, Tuesdays - Fridays, noon - 5 p.m. Permanence and personal journey link Hee Jae Suh, Ursula Neubauer and Marci Tackett. Korean-born Suh explores an inner psychological world with a dramatic series of self-portraits. Neubauer explores self-portraiture as a travel map of identity with multiple points of view. Tackett explores Antarctica’s other-worldly landscape in a series of stunning digital photographs. Kala Art Institute 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

“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” Through 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 

“New Visions: Introductions 2001” Through August 18, Wed. - Sat.: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Juried by Artist- Curator Rene Yanez and Robbin Henderson, Executive Director of the Berkeley Art Center, the exhibition features works from some of California’s up-and-coming artists. Reception July 12 from 6 - 8 p.m. Pro Arts 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9425 

“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. Through September. Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Wheelchair accessible. 848-0181. Free.  

Readings 

Cody’s 2454 Telegraph Ave. Readings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 14: Alexander Cockburn and John Strausbaugh discuss Cockburn’s book “Five Days That Shook the World” and Strausbaugh’s “Rock ‘Til You Drop” ; July 15: Jimmy Santiago Baca discusses “A Place to Stand”; July 16: “Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex,” a panel discussion; July 17: Ralph Berberich, MD, discusses his memoir “Hit Below the Belt: Facing up to Prostate Cancer.”; Lonny Shavelson talks about the inadequacies of our current drug rehabilitation policies with “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” $2 donation. 845-0837 

Cody’s 1730 Fourth St. Readings at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. July 13: Joe Di Prisco reading “Confessions of Brother Eli”; July 20: Lynne Hinton reads from her second novel, “The Things I know Best.” $2 donation. 559-9500 

La Pena Cultural Center July 13: 8:00 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Poets and musicians collaborate across cultures. Devorah Major, Babatunde Lea, Kash Killian, Richard Howell and more. $10. July 14: 8:30 p.m., Word Descarga Series- Mingus Amungus, Melissa Lozano, Grito Serpertino and more. $12. 2105 Shattuck Avenue 849-2568 

Poetry Nitro Weekly poetry open mike. 6:30 p.m. sign-up, 7 p.m. reading. July 16: Featuring the Silicon Valley Slam Team. 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  

Dance 

“Ganga-Ashtakam” July 15: 2 p.m., Indian Bharata Natyam classical dance celebrating the Indian river and goddess Ganga. Dancers Anuradha Murali, Shilpa Sejpal, and Gopitha Tharmalingam. $5 - $10. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 Collage Ave. 925-798-1300 

Museums 

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  

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 will close its exhibition galleries for renovation on October 1. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until October 1, 2001: “Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture.” “Sites Along the Nile: Rescuing Ancient Egypt.” “The Art of Research: Nelson Graburn and the Aesthetics of Inuit Sculpture.” “Tzintzuntzan, Mexico: Photographs by George Foster.”  

$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 or www.qal.berkeley.edu/~hearst/ 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Science in Toyland,” through Sept. 9. Exhibit uses toys to demonstrate scientific principles and to help develop children's thinking processes. Susan Cerny’s collection of over 200 tops from around the world. “Space Weather,” through Sept. 2. Learn about solar cycles, space weather, the cause of the Aurorae and recent discoveries made by leading astronomers. This interactive exhibit lets visitors access near real-time data from the Sun and space, view interactive videos and find out about a variety of solar activities. “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. Space Weather Exhibit now - Sept. 2; now - Sept. 9 Science in Toyland; 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  

The UC Berkeley Art Museum is closed for renovations until the fall.

Every wonder why Berkeley High – with all the graduates it sends to top notch universities, with its incredible roster of illustrious alumni – doesn’t have an endowment to rival that of a small liberal arts college? 

It sure isn’t because they don’t need one.  

The budget cuts have come in one disheartening wave after another in recent years, as the California legislators have failed to increase education funding to anywhere near the levels of other states. 

Whereas New York State funds its school at the rate of $10,000 per student per year, California antes up less that $7,000 per student per year, according to Berkeley School Board President Terry Doran. 

Just this spring the Berkeley Board of Education voted to cut a quarter of a million dollars out of Berkeley High’s budget, forcing the school to do without its on-campus suspension manager and the equivalent of 3.6 teachers. 

Berkeley High’s lack of funds has become something of a local legend, with parents pointing in disgust at the fact that the school can only afford one guidance counselor for each 500 students, or at the fact that in some classes the student/teacher ration tops 35-to-1. 

It’s not that Berkeley taxpayers haven’t been generous in their efforts to make up for the lack of state funding. Two big bond measures have passed with overwhelming support in the last decade alone, providing the dollars for the remodeling of the “G” and “H” classroom buildings, and the $30 million construction project underway today at the high school (adding a new library and media center, administrative offices, a student union, a cafeteria, and other much-needed facilities.) 

The Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Project (BSEP) parcel tax, which provides millions each year to reduce class sizes by paying for more teachers, and to fund other enrichment programs at various school sites, has been approved by voters repeatedly since 1987. 

And Berkeley High parents, current and past, are doing their part to raise money for athletic teams, field trips, arts programs and more, through bake sales, car washes, etc.  

Those involved in more formal and significant fundraising efforts for Berkeley High, however, say its an uphill battle at best. No matter how many doctors, lawyers and CEOs there are among Berkeley High alumni – and there are many – either the leadership has been lacking to get a full-fledged fundraising campaign off the ground, or those who would lead have grown weary of fighting a losing battle. 

Unlike Schools like San Francisco’s Lowell High School or Santa Barbara High school, the Berkeley schools Alumni Association (which includes graduates from any Berkeley school, although it’s made up mostly of Berkeley High graduates) is not a particularly well-organized concern to begin with, alumni say.  

Of the 600 or so members in the group today, around two-thirds of them graduated prior to 1960, said Bill Bailey, former president of the Alumni Association and Berkeley High class of 1945. Of these, the vast majority no longer live in Berkeley – Bailey now lives in Orinda. The quarterly newsletter hasn’t been published for the last 10 months.  

For the “ol’ timers,” there is a perception that Berkeley High today is not the school they remember, Bailey said. Part of this might stem from policies that have become more “lenient” since the ’60s and ’70s, he speculated. But more than that, Bailey said, there is a negative image of public schools in general these days that makes people hesitant to donate money.  

For this, Bailey places much of the blame on a sensational media. 

“Newspapers don’t help the school situation because all they write about is the bad things,” Bailey said, recalling how much coverage a shooting at the alternative high school received, compared to the rare mention of Berkeley High’s world-renowned jazz ensemble in local papers. 

When people try to raise money for Berkeley High, they first have to overcome negative stereotypes of people may have of the school, Bailey said – which makes for a lot of work. 

“We have to get the word out on a personal basis instead of just letters,” Bailey said. 

Negative media coverage aside, some argue that Berkeley High administrators themselves haven’t made it easy to sell the school to would-be contributors over the years. 

Since it was formed by concerned parents in 1990, the Berkeley High School Development Group has lead the way in fundraising efforts for the school. In the 1999-2000 school year the group raised $221,754 to support the Berkeley High health center, library, arts programs and athletic programs. 

But the development group has stopped short of attempting to spearhead a larger fundraising campaign, said the group’s president Terry Bloomsburgh, in part because there is a perception that Berkeley High can’t take good care of the things it already has.  

Lack of funding from the school district has prevented the school from receiving adequate maintenance in recent years, whether it be keeping bathrooms clean or keeping electrical equipment functioning, Bloomsburgh said. Four years ago, the development group volunteers had to spend a Saturday at the school just creating an inventory of existing electronic equipment, because no such inventory existed, Bloomsburgh added. 

“There isn’t a sense, like you have at a university, that physical things count for anything. We’ve replaced VCR’s like hot cakes at times,” Bloomsburgh said, concluding, “People are not going to come forth with significant money unless you’re going to take care of the property.” 

Or as Bailey put it, there are people who “Don’t want to give money directly to the high school because it goes down the rat hole.” 

Still, Bailey and others said Berkeley High alumni, by and large, feel strongly connected to their alma mater and are more than willing to help with fundraising efforts, if someone would just take the time to show them the way. 

For the last four years Bailey and other prominent alumni have helped organize a “celebrity waiter luncheon”, where Berkeley High Alumni who went on to be notable athletes in the NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball were invited to “wait” on local business people who paid $500 per table. The profits – more than $10,000 at the luncheon this March – going into a discretionary fund presided over by Berkeley High’s athletic director. 

“(The athletes) have been more than willing to participate,” said alumni Wayne Tarr, Berkeley High class of 1957. “But that’s not enough money.” 

Asked whether an effort could be launched to get alumni to contribute to an endowment for Berkeley High, Bailey expressed what seems to be a common sentiment: “I think that would be a great idea, but I don’t have the time to do it.” 

Berkeley High Principal Frank Lynch said an endowment “would make a huge difference” for the school. But, he added, the school doesn’t currently have the “luxury” of paying someone to organize an endowment fundraising campaign. 

“You’ve got to go out and court people,” Lynch said. 

For more information about Berkeley High fundraising contact the Berkeley High School Development Group at 649-1544 or e-mail bhsdgroup@aol.com.

Monday, July 16 

8 a.m. Sword of Fire, Armour of Light 

9 a.m. NASA TV NTV Video File & Television Gallery 

11 a.m. On the Move Dave Barr Follow Dre a.m.s 

11:30 a.m. Bible Reading 

Noon: The Sheila O Show #24 

12:30 p.m. Bay Area Musicians Showcase Jazz D' Elegance 

1 p.m. Gospel Search Studio A Replay from SATURDAY 

1:30 p.m. Wee Poets Supervising Jon Gioia 

2 p.m. NASA TV -Education File 

3 p.m. Magic Mouse Magazine #1 

4 p.m. A Boy and His Dog Video Central 

5 p.m. Live with Rick Sylvain 

5:30 p.m. Watch This! (previous week) 

6 p.m. Alexander Haig's World Business Review A 

6:30 p.m. Kaleidoscope #36 - Guest Chad Hanson 

7 p.m. Willard vs. Longfellow Basketball 

8 p.m. First a.m.endment Center - The Freedom Rides Revisited 

9 p.m. Lannan Literary Series Thom Gunn 

10 p.m. San Francisco Classical Guitar Society #53 

10:30 p.m. B-TV's Dating G a.m.e (2/01) 

11:30 p.m. Thrush TV - Finger Alive 

Midnight: The Dr. Susan Block Show - Orgasmic Ventures 

12:30 a.m. Frank Moore's Unlimited Possibilities #9 

Tuesday, July 17 

8 a.m. NASA TV - NTV Video File & Television Gallery 

10 a.m. Lannan Literary Series -Thom Gunn 

11 a.m. First a.m.endment Center The Freedom Rides Revisited  

Noon: Watch This! (previous week) 

12:30 p.m. People's Video Network -Moratorium for Texas 

1 p.m. Willard vs. Longfellow Basketball 

2 p.m. A Boy and His Dog Video Central 

3 p.m. Live with Rick Sylvain 

3:30 p.m. B-TV Dating G a.m.e (2/01) 

4:30 p.m. Trailer Trash Series #2 

5 p.m. San Francisco Classical Guitar Society #53 

5:30 p.m. Poetry Festival 2000 #11 

6 p.m. Universe of Yahweh #226 

6:30 p.m. Bay Area Musicians Showcase Jazz D' Elegance 

7 p.m. City Council Meeting LIVE 

Wednesday, July 18 

8 a.m. City Council Meeting Replay from TUESDAY 

1:30 p.m. Poetry Festival 2000 #11 

2 p.m. Who’s In My Kitchen BBQ with the Police Chief 

2:30 p.m. Universe of Yahweh #226 

3 p.m. Bay Area Musicians Showcase Jazz D' Elegance 

3:30 p.m. Free Speech TV #1 

5:30 p.m. Great Pets (previous week) 

6 p.m. It's Healing Time #14 

6:30 p.m. The Visitors - BCM Intern Show Express Studio 

7 p.m. First a.m.endment Center - The Freedom Rides Revisited 

8 p.m. Dominican University Festival of One Act Plays - Part One 

9:30 p.m. Berkeley High Track Te a.m. 

10:30 p.m. Frank Moore's Unlimited Possibilities #9 

1 a.m. Analog Rhythms 

Thursday, July 19 

8 a.m. Public Hearing -Mtg from Monday 7/16 @ North Berkeley Senior Center 

12:30 p.m. Dominican University Festival of One Act Plays - Part One 

2 p.m. Great Pets (previous week) 

2:30 p.m. It's Healing Time #14 

3 p.m. On The Move - Dave Barr- Follow Dre a.m.s 

3:30 p.m. Berkeley High Track Te a.m. 

4:30 p.m. Intrepid Berkeley Explorer - Kangaroo from Kakadu 

5:30 p.m. Boredom Theater - Bay Bridge Natural 

6 p.m. Alexander Haig's World Business Review B 

6:30 p.m. The Chat Room 

7 p.m. Gospel Search - Express Studio Live 

8 p.m. The Sheila O Show #24 

8:30 p.m. Video Feedback Hepatitis C 

9 p.m. Kaleidoscope #36 - Guest Chad Hanson 

9:30 p.m. Celebrate Life - Healing Hidden Hurts 

10 p.m. Sound Gallery 

10:30 p.m. Reality Check #227 

11 p.m. IVTV #9 

11:30 p.m. The Blue Lew Show - Invisible Green 

Midnight: Frank Moore's Unlimited Possibilities #9 

Friday, July 20 

8 a.m. Leela Foundation Find Out Who You Are  

9 a.m. Intrepid Berkeley Explorer - Kangaroo from Kakadu 

10 a.m. San Francisco Classical Guitar Society #53 

10:30 a.m. The Visitors - BCM Intern Show  

11 a.m. Celebrate Life - Healing Hidden Hurts 

11:30 a.m. Gospel Search Express Studio Replay from Thurs 7 p.m. 

12:30 p.m. The Sheila O Show #24 

1 p.m. Video Feedback Hepatitus C 

1:30 p.m. It's Healing Time #14 

2 p.m. On The Move Dave Barr- Follow Dre a.m.s  

2:30 p.m. Sound Gallery 

3 p.m. Magic Mouse Magazine #1 

4 p.m. NASA TV Education File 

5 p.m. Free Speech TV #2 

7 p.m. Who's In My Kitchen BBQ with the Police Chief 

7:30 p.m. Wee Poets Supervising John Gioia 

8 p.m. Boredom Theater Bay Bridge Natural 

8:30 p.m. Trailer Trash #2 

9 p.m. Alexander Haig's World Business Review A 

9:30 p.m. Alexander Haig's World Business Review B 

10 p.m. The Blue Lew Show Invisible Green 

10:30 p.m. The Dr. Susan Block Show - Orgasmic Ventures 

11 p.m. Thrush TV - Finger Alive 

11:30 p.m. IVTV #9 

Midnight: Reality Check #227 

12:30 a.m. Analog Rhythms 

Saturday, July 21 

8 a.m. Leela Foundation Find Out Who You Are  

9 a.m. Bible Reading 

9:30 a.m. Wee Poets Supervising John Gioia 

10 a.m. Trailer Trash #2 

10:30 a.m. NASA TV Education File 

11:30 a.m. Boredom Theater Bay Bridge Natural 

Noon: People's Video Network Moratorium for Texas 

12:30 p.m. Gospel Search Express Studio Replay from Thurs 7 p.m. 

1:30 p.m. The Chat Room 

2 p.m. Willard vs. Longfellow Basketball 

3 p.m. Berkeley High Track Te a.m. 

4 p.m. Magic Mouse Magazine #1 

5 p.m. Great Pets (previous week) 

5:30 p.m. Who's In My Kitchen BBQ with the Police Chief 

6 p.m. Video Feedback Hepatitus C 

6:30 p.m. Watch This (previous week) 

7 p.m. Universe of Yahweh #226 

7:30 p.m. The Visitors - BCM Intern Show  

8 p.m. Analog Rhythms 

9 p.m. Sword of Fire, Armour of Light 

10 p.m. A Boy and His Dog Video Central 

11p.m. Live with Rick Sylvain 

11:30 p.m. Reality Check #227 

Midnight: The Dr. Susan Block Show 

12:30 a.m. Thrush TV - Finger Alive 

1 a.m. NASA TV LIVE - Earth views till 3:00 a.m. 

Sunday, July 22 

8 a.m. Bible Reading  

8:30 a.m. City Council Meeting Replay from TUESDAY 

2 p.m. City Council Meeting Play from THURSDAY 7/19 

6 p.m. Intrepid Berkeley Explorer - Kangaroo from Kakadu 

7 p.m. Dominican University Festival of One Act Plays - Part One 

8:30 p.m. Celebrate Life Healing Hidden Hurts 

9 p.m. Leela Foundation Find Out Who You Are  

10 p.m. Sound Gallery 

10:30 p.m. The Chat Room 

11 p.m. Free Speech TV #2 

1 a.m. NASA TV LIVE - Earth views till 3:00 a.m.

Lee supports Department of Peace 

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland announced Wednesday that she is joining other members of Congress to introduce legislation to develop a U.S. Department of Peace dedicated to domestic and international peacemaking. 

A Lee spokesperson said the proposed department would promote democratic principles, strengthen non-military means of peacemaking and develop nonviolent dispute resolution.  

In a statement issued Wednesday, Lee said, “Just as we have trained soldiers to wage war in the past, we must begin to raise up a new generation of leaders committed to peace and justice.”  

The proposed Department of Peace would be a cabinet-level department in the executive branch of the federal government, the representative said, and would have a Peace Academy modeled after the military service academies. People attending the academy would receive a four-year concentrated peace education and would be required to serve a minimum of five years in public service programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution. 

“We confront new challenges every day in the quest for peace,” Lee said. “This proposal places that quest on an equal footing with the weapons of war.” 

Free compost at farmers’ market 

The Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative will be giving away compost on Saturday at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market as part of “Sustainable Agriculture “ Day. Berkeley residents can bring a bag or bucket to Center Street and Milvia to be filled with compost from their own yard debris that is collected by the city every other week. 

The compost is made in Modesto by Grover Compost Company. Most is sold, but by request of the city, 15 percent is returned to Berkeley. In past years the compost has been delivered to school and community gardens but will be offered to individuals for the second time this year. 

Wing makes dean’s list 

Teresa Wing of Berkeley was placed on the dean’s list at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Students must have a grade point average of 3.4 or higher to receive this academic honor. 

UCB scientists find new traces of ancient human life 

Scientists working in Ethiopia have found what may be the oldest known traces of human-like life – teeth and bones from up to 5.8 million years ago – in a discovery that challenges the long-held belief that man's earliest ancestors first emerged on the grassy plains. 

The remains are believed to be those of forest-dwelling creatures that walked upright. They are about million years older than any other known fossils definitively identified as those of hominids, the group that includes humans, the researchers said. 

The fossils come from a point in time tantalizingly close to the evolutionary split between the lineage leading to humans and the one that produced chimpanzees. Scientists believe that split took place between 5 million and 8 million years ago. 

“This evidence appears to be on the human line – one of the earliest human ancestors. Not only is the dating very solid, but what the report tells us about the environments of the time is really critical,” said Brian Richmond, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who was not connected to the study. “This is a windfall of information compared to what we've had.” 

The bones were found in a remote Ethiopian desert that was wet and forested – and rattled by volcanic eruptions – when the creatures lived there, the researchers reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. 

That discovery clashes with the widely held theory that the drying up of forests millions of years ago was critical to human evolution. This theory holds that early human ancestors learned to walk upright, and diverged forever from their apelike cousins, because their forests were gone and they had to survive on the treeless plains. 

Bernard Wood, a human origins professor at George Washington University, said it is not entirely proven that the creatures were hominids or that their habitat was really a forest. “But that doesn't diminish the importance of what they've found,” he said. 

The research team, led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie of UC Berkeley, made the discovery 140 miles northeast of Addis Ababa, and about 50 miles south of where the fossil “Lucy” was found about three decades ago. Lucy is some 3.2 million years old and is believed to be a member of the species from which all modern humans are descended. 

Haile-Selassie and his colleagues found 11 specimens, including a jawbone with teeth, hand and foot bones, fragmentary arm bones and a piece of collarbone. They represent at least five individuals, Haile-Selassie said. 

Dating was done by measuring trapped argon gas in volcanic ash that had been mixed in with the bones. It found the fossils to be between 5.2 million and 5.8 million years old. 

Haile-Selassie said the specimens revealed a primitive version of Ardipithecus ramidus, an early hominid species whose oldest known fossils were previously found in 4.4-million-year-old sediment in Ethiopia. 

He said with further research, the bones might turn out be a new species altogether. 

Civic Center Building wins award 

The Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Building at 2180 Milvia Street won this year’s Savings By Design Energy Efficient Integration award. The building, which was recently renovated by the ELS architectural firm, was honored for having the most energy efficient building design reviewed by the awards jury. The award is co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects California Council and California’s four largest utility companies – Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and Southern California Gas Company.

The flier said “in seven days”… I felt the excitement of the seventh-day itch. The six other itches intensified my state of utter turbulence. I was a little out of control, moving around my attic and basement creating more storage space. I dreamed of a warehouse, or an abandoned lot. 

I needed to explain my change in behavior to Martine, my very square guest from Buenos Aires, whom I was hosting on various local travels. I also wanted an accomplice. It makes life easier in the crime world. There’s a greater adrenaline rush when two bodies and minds are working on covert strategies and maneuvers. 

I showed Martine the brochure, when it came through the mail slot. It blared broadly across the top: 

2001 CITY OF BERKELEY  

ANNUAL CLEAN UP 

REUSABLE ITEM & BULKY WASTE PICKUP 

I didn’t know which word I liked the best. Was it “CLEAN UP” or “BULKY”? Somehow the words sounded like poetry to me. I felt a bulky, cleanup song spill out from my heart. Yes! this wonderful, glorious, generous, bountiful city would clean itself up in a most unique and fanciful way.  

Martine did not know what the heck I was talking about. But, he was my guest. If this was a tourist attraction, he was ready to partake.  

We prepared. We would take my car and his rental. We would approach the scene of the crime after the last rays of sun passed the Lawrence Labs. We would dress for BULKY – sure grip gardening gloves and rope and bungy cords around our waists. I dug out two high-powered flashlights from my earthquake kit. Too bad my neighbors did not list the items they were discarding. The hunting required discernment.  

We started out from College Avenue heading east on Webster Street. The blessing of the traffic barrier by the Elmwood Post Office permitted us to drive side by side. Martine’s territory was the south side of the street. I focused on the north. We would roll down our windows and discuss questionable items. 

Martine beamed his flashlight on a mundane white box. 

Que te parece la Chia Pet kit? Que es? 

That’s non-bulky waste! Forget that! Look at the cross-country skis up the street. Now that’s what I call reusable. Grab those, and throw them in. 

Look at that Thule shell. Let’s try to get THAT on top of the car. Martine can you give me a hand?  

Martine threw the gears into park, popped out, and ran over to help me lift the heavy shell, great for all the stuff I’d ever want to bring on car trips. As we were strapping down the last corner, the owner came storming out of his house hollering, “Hey buddy! That’s the Thule I just picked up on Oakvale! Get your own junk!” We all laughed while tossing the shell off the car to its “rightful owner.” 

Our cars became fuller. I found an old Brothers typewriter, a Blaupunct radio, a small kitchenette refrigerator, and an espresso machine. Martine chose a surfboard and a wetsuit, a CD of the Grateful Dead, (who he never heard of before), and a three-string banjo. Neighbors were out right and left rummaging. Molly had a shovel, pick, and rake, attached to the back of her “new” Schwinn circa 1936 2 1/2 speed lady’s bike. Carol had her body wrapped in throw rugs, curtains draped over her arms, and a Guatemalan basket on her head. The judge was out “window shopping” the left-out loot. It was carnival time and everyone was gleeful with their new freebies.  

It was junk exchanging at its best, organized by the brilliant folks in the recycling department of the city. Somehow my neighbors’ castaways became gems, at least for the time being. I wonder how much of it I’ll see at the white elephant sale for the Alta Bates Thrift Store.  

As the clock struck midnight, I remembered I had a paid job to go to in the morning. We headed towards home, sleepy and totally satisfied. 

Before he said buenas noches, Martine told me he was going to organize a bulky, reusable item pick up day in Buenos Aires. I fell off to sleep, planning future travels and travails with Martine. Maybe next, we will go to the Marin flea market.

SACRAMENTO – An administrative law judge mediating talks between the state of California and energy companies says the state is likely owed “hundreds of millions of dollars” in refunds, much less than the $8.9 billion the state wants. 

Judge Curtis L. Wagner Jr., in a recommendation released Thursday, said that while there are “vast sums” due for overcharges, California utilities, grid managers and the state agency purchasing power owe generators even more. 

Gov. Gray Davis and California officials who attended the 15-day talks held out for $8.9 billion in refunds, but Wagner said that amount “has not and cannot be substantiated. 

“That very large refunds are due is clear,” Wagner wrote, likely amounting to “hundreds of million of dollars, probably more than a billion dollars in an aggregate sum.” 

Davis said he hoped the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would reject the recommendation. 

“Californians have, by and large, gotten a raw deal from FERC during the past year,” he said in a statement. “Now the day of reckoning for the new FERC has come. I would like to believe the commission, with two new commissioners, will be more sensitive to California consumers and order all the refunds that are due.” 

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the recommendation “undermines the consumer protections that FERC is supposed to safeguard by law.” 

The differences between what the state wants and what the sellers believe they owe should be decided in a “trial-type, evidentiary hearing” that should be held in 60 days, Wagner said. 

The judge recommended a method for calculating refunds back to October. California’s estimate is based on figures from May 1, 2000. 

Peter Navarro, a University of California, Irvine economist who works on energy issues, called the recommendation “insulting” to California. 

The refund order should reach back until at least July, he said, when energy prices had spiraled to record levels and utilities were accruing billions of dollars in debts. 

“Setting it arbitrarily from October keeps billions and billions of dollars more in refunds from the state of California,” he said. 

In calculating costs, the judge recommends using the “heat rate” for the least efficient plant that sold power into the California market on each day. That plant’s costs to produce power will be the basis for setting a benchmark prices that day. 

Navarro said that’s unfair to California and basing refunds on each individual plant’s costs would be the best way to calculate what was overcharged. 

“By choosing that methodology, the judge limits the ability of California to recover what’s really owed to it,” Navarro said. “It reduces the total judgment by as much as 80 percent.” 

Officials with Reliant Energy, which participated in the negotiations, were still reviewing the order, but Melissa Kinch, a company spokeswoman, said they were “hopeful that with the formula, all the correct data will come out.”

OAKLAND – It was Keith Batt’s childhood dream to become a police officer. But after just nine nights patrolling the tough streets of west Oakland, his dream was shattered. 

What the 24-year-old saw last summer so shocked and frightened him that he quit the Oakland Police Department and complained to superiors, launching one of the biggest police scandal probes in recent years. 

Four officers were fired and now face multiple felony charges, and more than 70 cases have been dismissed as a result of their tactics. 

Judge Leo Dorado ruled Thursday that prosecutors presented enough evidence during a preliminary hearing to send the case to trial. Dorado also found three additional charges against two of the defendants. They are set to be arraigned July 26. 

Chuck Mabanag, Jude Siapno and Matthew Hornung are charged with more than 60 felony and misdemeanor counts ranging from assault and kidnapping to falsifying police reports and overtime slips. 

Hornung now faces charges of writing a false police report and conspiracy to false arrest. Siapno faces a charge of assault under color of authority. 

Frank Vazquez, the alleged ringleader of the group, is believed to have fled the country. 

The department insists the accused officers, who called themselves “The Riders,” were renegades. 

At the officers’ preliminary hearing in Alameda County Superior Court, Batt painted a disturbing picture of the officers’ “stop and grab” tactics in which suspects randomly were accosted on the street, handcuffed and put in the patrol car before they were questioned about their activities. 

Batt also hinted at a conspiracy of silence among the police brass who supervised “The Riders.” 

Batt, who’s now a Pleasanton police officer, was the prosecution’s key witness. He was calm and composed as he spent five days answering four lawyers’ often tedious questions. He showed only occasional flashes of emotion — mostly blushing and some eye-rolling when he admitted he cried or acknowledged he was teased because of his small size. 

All in all, Batt provided a rare glimpse into police culture. He talked about early morning breakfasts at the end of each shift, chats in the patrol car at the “light cave,” or parking lot where officers gathered, and hanging out in the locker room before work. 

He said he was taught to disregard lessons learned at the police academy about subduing suspects, to ignore probable cause requirements for searches and to make up facts to fit each case. 

“I didn’t want to go on doing the things we were doing,” Batt testified. “It was illegal. It was immoral. It was contrary to what I had been trained and what I believed was right.” 

But defense lawyers suggested that training inadequacies at Oakland’s police academy or a lack of clear guidelines or standard procedures may be responsible for the officers’ behavior. Oakland streets are tough and officers need to act aggressively to stay alive, they said. Batt also may have exaggerated his claims because he simply couldn’t hack it on Oakland’s streets, they claimed. 

“This field training process is designed to get them beyond the controlled environment of the academy... and start to expand their peripheral vision and see beyond the hood of the car,” said William Rapoport, Siapno’s lawyer. “The (training) program is designed to toughen you up a little bit and make sure you’re not going to get killed out there.” 

Michael Rains represents Mabanag, the rookie’s field training officer. He acknowledged his client was tough on Batt. 

“Chuck had his own brand of breaking in recruits and that could be likened to some sort of hazing,” he said. “The department didn’t have a set way for how (training officers) should treat new recruits. I think they tell them to train them in particular areas, but they allow them a great deal of latitude in how they do that.” 

But prosecutor David Hollister says the officers’ behavior was inexcusable. 

“I don’t recall martial law being declared in west Oakland,” he said. “A lot of Oakland police officers have tough jobs and do their jobs in compliance with the Constitution and penal code. I don’t think this ’whatever-it-takes’ attitude works.” 

Oakland Police spokesman George Phillips refused to answer questions directly related to the case, but City Attorney John Russo agreed that behavior described by Batt was unacceptable. 

“It’s not authorized,” Russo said. “It’s not within the course and scope of their work as officers. There’s nothing that says we’d like you very much to violate people’s Constitutional rights any more than running a household involves beating your kids.”

SACRAMENTO – A San Francisco charter school run by a for-profit company will reopen next month under state charter, ending three years of bickering with the local school board. 

The state Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to give a state charter to the Edison Charter Academy, a 500-student elementary school run since 1998 by Edison Schools Inc. of New York. 

While approving that school’s for-profit operators, the board unanimously rejected a Santa Cruz County district’s attempt to become the state’s largest all-charter district because of the district’s financial motives. 

Both votes show the state’s increasing involvement in overseeing charter schools. In 1992, California became the nation’s second state to allow local districts to approve charters schools, public schools allowed to operate largely free of most state regulations. Thirty-seven states now allow charters. 

California has about 300 charters out of 8,000 public schools with total enrollment of less than 3 percent of the state’s students. They are seen as a popular alternative to conventional schools for parents who want something different for their children. 

Edison Charter Academy parents told the state board Thursday the school had made a big difference for their children. 

“Edison’s charter breathed new life into a school that had previously known only failure and despair,” said parent Lupe Hernandez. 

Parents also said told the board that the company turned Edison Charter Academy, in San Francisco’s Noe Valley area, from one of the city’s worst schools to one of its best. 

The school is 40 percent black and 39 percent Hispanic, with 70 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. Its Academic Performance Index, consisting of state test scores, improved from 465 in 1999 to 552 in 2000, according to state records. 

The San Francisco Unified School District board granted Edison’s original charter in 1998. The board had been trying to revoke it because several board members oppose private corporations running public schools. 

The San Francisco board and school officials agreed last month to end the dispute by asking the state to take over the charter. 

A 1999 law allows backers who are rejected by the local boards to ask the state Board of Education to grant a state charter. The state board last December approved its first two charter schools; Edison is the first state charter that is essentially a renewal of an existing local charter. 

In approving Edison’s charter, the board ordered the company to submit detailed financial information and budgets before school opens in August. 

State school Superintendent Delaine Eastin, saying she was “not a big fan of for-profit charters,” said that requirement was essential because the company is getting taxpayer money. 

Edison vice president Gaynor McCown agreed to provide the information. 

The schools in the 4,200-student San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, which sought to become an all-charter district, are very different. That valley, between Santa Cruz and San Jose, is home to many Silicon Valley workers and the schools all scored high on state tests. 

State law allows districts to seek board approval to make all of their schools charters. But they must have the backing of more than half their teachers and provide alternatives for students who don’t want to attend charters. The state’s seven current charter districts are all small ones in the Central Valley and serve only a few hundred students. 

San Lorenzo officials said they wanted to turn all-charter to improve educational programs by making them more flexible. The acknowledged they would received $700,000 in extra state money because of the structure of the funding formulas. 

Board members disliked that reasoning, and executive director John Mockler said the district couldn’t balance its budget and just wanted a “financial bailout,” not to devise new or improved learning programs. 

Eastin’s staff recommended approving the San Lorenzo plan, saying the district could sue if denied. A San Lorenzo official said district officials are now considering their options.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved $135 million for California water projects Thursday. 

That includes $40 million for projects related to CalFed, the joint federal-state effort to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta east of San Francisco that is the core of the state’s water system. 

In addition to CalFed, the appropriation includes $22 million for Oakland Harbor renovation and dredging and $22.5 million for Sacramento flood control.

WASHINGTON – Federal authorities have opened an initial criminal inquiry into whether Rep. Gary Condit obstructed justice or encouraged perjury in the investigation of Chandra Levy’s disappearance, law enforcement officials said Thursday. 

Authorities specifically are looking at a flight attendant’s claim that Condit urged her to sign a statement denying a 10-month affair she says they had. Anne Marie Smith also said Condit told her she did not have to cooperate with FBI agents who questioned her. 

“It is in the preliminary stages, talking to witnesses and trying to determine if we should proceed further,” said one law enforcement official familiar with the matter, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. 

Condit has denied asking anyone to lie or not cooperate with investigators who are trying to figure out what happened to Levy, a former federal intern who was last seen April 30. He has not commented on any relationship with Smith. 

Marina Ein, a spokeswoman for Condit, repeated Thursday that he is cooperating with police in all aspects of the investigation. 

Smith, 39, was interviewed Wednesday and again Thursday by FBI agents and prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office. 

Law enforcement officials said the preliminary inquiry is routine when such allegations surface but prosecutors decided to join FBI agents in the initial interview of Smith because of the congressman’s profile. “What is on the plate is perjury and obstructing justice, and we must decide if these allegations have merit,” one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

The search for Levy was proceeding on several fronts Thursday, including a search of vacant buildings in the nation’s capital. 

“We have to explore the possibility that she may be dead and we’re looking for the remains,” said Terrance Gainer, the city’s No. 2 police official, said on CBS’ “The Early Show.” “So we’re looking at about one-seventh of the District of Columbia right now, at abandoned buildings. 

Gainer said investigators still are working on four theories in Levy’s disappearance: that she was a victim of foul play, committed suicide, walked away voluntarily or is wandering around not knowing who she is. 

Police also are negotiating with Condit’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, to set conditions under which the California Democrat would submit to a lie detector test. Condit, who police say is not a suspect in Levy’s disappearance, told authorities last week that he had a romantic relationship with the 24-year-old woman, police sources say. 

“The congressman’s attorney has suggested we can get to a polygraph” test, Gainer said. 

The Washington Post and CNN, citing police sources, reported police have asked three other men to take polygraph tests. One said he occasionally socialized with Levy, but the connection of the other two to Levy was not immediately clear. 

Several items taken from Condit’s apartment during a search that ended at 3 a.m. Wednesday were being turned over to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., said Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman. 

Condit voluntarily allowed the search to show his cooperation in the search for Levy, a constituent from Modesto, Calif., whom he has described publicly as a good friend. 

Meantime, the Post reported in Thursday’s editions that FBI agents have interviewed a Pentecostal minister who described an affair between his then-18-year-old daughter and Condit, who is 53 and married with two grown children. 

The minister, Otis Thomas, was quoted by the Post as saying Condit had told his daughter never to speak of the relationship. 

On Thursday morning, a handwritten note was posted on the door of Thomas’ home in Ceres, Calif. It was signed “Jennifer Thomas” and said, “I never met that congressman who’s involved in all this. ... I don’t even know how both me and my father got mixed up in this, we don’t know anything.” 

Betty Hoffman, who lives in an apartment below the Thomases, confirmed Jennifer Thomas is Otis Thomas’ daughter. Hoffman said she last saw Otis Thomas three days ago, and he told her the FBI suggested he leave town to avoid the media. 

Thomas told the Post his daughter is afraid to talk with the FBI and has gone into hiding, but Hoffman said Jennifer Thomas works at a local fast food restaurant and was home Wednesday. 

Thomas told the Post that his daughter met Condit at a political rally and ended the relationship about seven years ago. Thomas, whose church is in Modesto, did gardening work at the Levy home in Modesto, the Post said. 

Dr. Robert and Susan Levy, Levy’s parents, confirmed Thursday that they know Thomas, but declined to comment on the Post report. “We do appreciate his concern,” Dr. Levy said. 

Asked about that report, Gainer would say only that “the names and stories aren’t unfamiliar to us.” 

Ein said the Post report was “discountable – there’s no confirmation from the principal,” referring to the daughter.

If you thought the Berkeley Arts Festival was over, and that the busy schedule of musical events was burned out, flown by, finished, think again.  

There’s more to come, including a short but sweet concert Sunday afternoon. It will be a family affair, featuring compositions by Joanne D. Carey and her son, Brendan Carey.  

And one of Joanne Carey’s songs is based on a text written by her father-in-law, the painter Paul Carey, so three generations of the Carey family will be represented.  

The poem which provides the lyrics for the song “The Wetlands at Dusk” displays a painter’s eye for visual detail before giving way to meditative speculation and a tactile image in conclusion: When daylight softens gently into dusk/ and dusk is lost in shadowed night/ the stand of weeds that fence the trail/comes threateningly near. 

Joanne Carey’s rich harmonic palette paints a scene which glows in twilight serenity with light tints of clear insight. She does this with only a solo soprano and a piano. 

Her other two songs use an exotic synthesizer controller called a “radio baton.” This allows the performer in real time to alter the tempo and relative balance of the various parts of the score. Carey has created a complex soundscape of new sounds and emulations which adds up so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The Spanish texts are from poems by Pablo Neruda. 

Carey has set these poems to luscious scores to express the poem’s contrasting moods. 

This concert would be worthwhile simply for the chance to see Joanne Carey manipulate the radio baton, yet we also get to hear these beautiful compositions.  

And there is another reason to be at this event – a chance to hear the compositions of mother and son on the same program. 

Brendan Carey composed his two pieces under the heavy influence of J.S. Bach. They both display mastery of the forms of Baroque counterpoint and a delightful sense of melodic development.  

And why shouldn’t young Brendan Carey utilize pre-Classical style in this post-modern age? If poets can still write Shakespearean sonnets, why shouldn’t Carey write flashy contrapuntal pieces with fugues? Bach is a great river who continues to inspire concert-goers, singers, instrumentalists and even composers. 

Several of Paul Carey’s paintings of wetlands will be on display during the concert.

Here’s a malady homeowners want to avoid: The “while you’re at it syndrome.” 

It refers to the propensity to cast budget aside during major home remodeling and improvements. The result is sharply higher costs, leaving homeowners to ask themselves, “What happened?” 

What happens is a faulty budget process, inadequate bid review, and a lack of budgetary restraint, according to a project expert for the Home Service Store (HSS), a home maintenance, repair and improvement provider. 

To upgrade and add on after the project is started is often a big temptation. The additional cost of upgrading a faucet might not be much in the context of a $10,000 project, so it’s easy to say, “While we’re at it we might as well...” 

“Let’s say a contractor is remodeling a bathroom, he’s installing a vanity, and the budget is $12,000,” says Rod O’Dell, a construction expert. “Many times the homeowner will tell the contractor ’While you’re at it, why don’t you install a marble vanity in place of a porcelain model?’ They have just added hundreds of dollars to the costs. When you total the add-ons, the mid-job upgrades are budget-killers.” 

To building professionals, these requests are called “change orders” – midstream amendments often made at the whim of the homeowner. Item by item, change orders beef up the cost of the job. O’Dell recounts a bathroom project that went $3,200 over budget on hardware alone. The homeowner was stunned at the self-inflicted cost overrun. Most remodeling and improvement budgets exceed the intended amount by around 10 percent, with 30 percent to 60 percent overruns not unheard of. 

The problem, according to O’Dell, is that homeowners meander through home store aisles noting the cost of materials. Those cursory visits serve as budget guidelines but they miss key cost elements a contractor includes in bids. 

“Budgets frequently don’t meet with reality,” says O’Dell. “Homeowners don’t take into consideration what the contractor would take into account.” For instance, the homeowner sees a bathroom with sparkling new fixtures and features. The contractor sees a wall that needs to be moved 3 feet, a floor that needs reinforcement to hold a whirlpool tub, and wiring a 220-watt electrical circuit to handle the tub heater. O’Dell says a good way to get a general idea about the cost of a remodeling job is by using an online home-improvement cost calculator. 

Homeowners who automatically accept the lowest bid also invite a different kind of trouble, says O’Dell. 

“If there is a big disparity between bids, there has to be a reason,” says O’Dell. “Usually, the contractor is not including something, such as using lower grade materials or skipping inspections. It’s up to the homeowner to ask those questions. It’s not always a matter of the lowest price. Labor and material costs won’t vary widely enough to be the cause of most disparities if the scope of work and materials are the same. You have to ask, ’What’s missing here?”’ 

O’Dell counsels HSS customers to insist contractor bids be very specific in terms of materials used and construction steps to be taken. Better contractors will also include a detailed, written description of the job to include functions such as removing walls, reinforcing floors and other factors the homeowner might not be aware of. 

He also urges homeowners to set realistic budgets. “It’s fine to walk home stores to check material prices,” says O’Dell, “but if you do, be sure to account for all items. That’s what a good contractor will do.” Most budgets should include a 15 percent to 20 percent overage contingency for the unexpected – unseen damage or other conditions and change orders. 

“The more detail the homeowner knows, the better,” says O’Dell. “They need to watch out for all the little changes that can balloon costs. The only way to cure the ’while you’re at it syndrome’ is to make sure you set a realistic budget and stick to it.”

Comfort and ease evoke the spirit of today’s country look. Americans, spurred on by the nation’s bicentennial 25 years ago, continue to look to a simpler time to reduce stress on their daily lives. 

A book, “New Country Style” (Meredith Books, $39.95) by the editors of Country Home magazine, showcases 14 homes with that spirit. From city loft and renovated farmhouse to Southwestern adobe, today’s homes reflect the ingenuity of times past and of being able to mix old and new in today’s fresh approach. 

No longer cluttered in its approach, the new look of country allows for airy space to showcase heirlooms. It also encourages the mixing of vintage fabrics, flea market finds, wicker and painted furniture as cottage-style essentials. 

How do you put all these items together in your own space? In this case, it really is “all about you.” 

If you like several things, they play off your personality and, therefore, probably “go together.” It’s all about mixing items you collected on a recent trip with old family photos. It’s about draping vintage hand towels as cafe curtains. 

Or, perhaps it means mixing several styles of chairs but tying them together by similar shades of the same color. In another setting, it may be about pairing 1940s-style barstools with a 19th-century French whitewashed walnut table. 

For a truly eclectic mix of favorite pieces from parts of former lives, textures, colors and shapes play off a simple neutral adobe backdrop. In that setting, regional art, religious icons and flea market finds seem to harmonize. 

It’s an effortless blend of favorite collections that somehow fit together. These design strategies will help get you started: 

• Instead of placing two or three plates on a shelf, fill each shelf with a different set of dishes. 

• Anything of beauty is worthy of display, including wardrobe accessories, such as silver and turquoise jewelry on a gold tray. 

• Line up cowboy boots in a hallway, not at the back of a closet. 

• Use an old dough bough or a punch bowl to put photos or magazines on the floor, even under the coffee table. 

• Color can be the great unifier to visually tie items together. 

• Don’t be shy about mixing. It’s OK to mix animal prints and gingham, and an old table with a modern lamp. 

• Distinctive architectural salvage pieces can act as decorative elements. 

• Use framed black-and-white photographs as a sophisticated contrast to the warm tones of leather and leopard skin. 

• Mix Grandma’s glassware, silver and china with tag sale finds to set a table or create a display. 

• Use mismatched utensils or dishes just for fun. 

• Like the idea of a kitchen island, but don’t want to add something permanent? Use an old work table instead as a preparation area. 

• Use historic paint colors and milk paints to achieve authenticity, along with reproduction lighting fixtures. 

• Rely on painted pieces to warm a room. 

• Incorporate floral touches for a fresh look throughout the house.

SAN FRANCISCO – Oakland is a city on the rise and it just won’t take any more slights. No more references to it having “no there there.” No more stereotypes as a crime-plagued city. And, please, stop the unflattering comparisons to its famous neighbor across the Bay. 

San Francisco is not all that, after all. And to prove it, the city of Oakland has launched an ad campaign that points out the “ills” of its friendly rival. 

“Tired of living where the sun don’t shine?” asks an ad displaying the city of Oakland symbol atop a San Francisco cab. 

“San Francisco is the place to be ... overcharged for rent,” reads another ad at the Oakland airport. 

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek campaign that brings to light the virtues of Oakland,” said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. “San Francisco takes itself very seriously. We in Oakland don’t.” 

“San Francisco is a great city, I grew up there,” he added. “But they are the first to get the fog and the last one to get the sun.” 

Launched in March, the advertising campaign is expected to last a year. The ads are being published in local newspapers, spread throughout Oakland and displayed around San Francisco on taxi cabs. 

Oakland officials see the campaign as a way to compete for business, and as an opportunity to narrow the gap between how the city is perceived and its reality. 

“We hope to demonstrate to folks that Oakland has a lot to offer as a place to live, work and do business,” said Samee Roberts, Oakland’s marketing manager. 

In the past, Oakland has been identified as a city with high crime rates and unemployment. Author Gertrude Stein once said that Oakland — where she spent her childhood — was a city with “no there there.” 

Oakland has taken steps to become a bustling business center. 

The advertising campaign is part of a larger development plan the city put in motion in 1999 to attract investment, Roberts said. 

Among other things, Oakland is investing $1.2 billion in port development projects, $1.5 billion to expand its airport and an estimated $250 million to further revamp its waterfront. 

Oakland’s efforts are paying off. 

Census figures show its population grew by 7 percent in the 1990s, making Oakland the eighth-largest city in California. 

Its port is now the nation’s fourth busiest and, in the last couple of years, some 300 new companies moved to Oakland, bringing along 10,000 jobs. Forbes magazine this year ranked Oakland as the nation’s 10th-best place for “business and careers.” 

“Any time you are in the shadow of a bigger city you struggle to find your own identity,” Roberts said. “Sometimes you have to be a little bold to get your point across.” 

This time the boldness came courtesy of Young and Rubicam, a San Francisco advertising firm that is working for the city of Oakland pro bono. 

“We wanted to bring attention to the misperception that Oakland is a place to avoid,” said Stephen Creet, Young and Rubicam’s executive creative director. “We were not trying to be mean-spirited. It just seemed logical to get the attention of people who live in San Francisco first.” 

The next step will be to get the attention of a national audience. In October, the ads will appear in business magazines throughout the country. 

For their part, San Francisco officials are not worried and have not paid much attention to the sassy ad campaign. 

“We have not seen the ads,” said P.J. Johnson, spokesman for Mayor Willie Brown. “When another city has to point to your city to draw comparison, it’s really a form of flattery more than anything.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Napster escaped a legal mess Thursday when it settled a suit filed by heavy metal band Metallica, but the embattled song-swapping company still faces a federal judge’s order demanding the service remain offline until it prevents all unauthorized song trading. 

Napster promised to seek a stay from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel told the company to stay offline until its file-sharing software is perfected. 

Napster CEO Hank Barry called Patel’s edict from the bench out of step with an earlier appeals court ruling. 

“Napster will obey this order, as we have every order that the court has issued. We believe the judge’s order is inconsistent with the 9th Circuit’s decision and wrong on a variety of other grounds,” Barry said shortly after a closed door hearing before Judge Patel. “We will appeal to the 9th Circuit on an expedited basis.” 

“We will continue to work with the technical expert and explore other options for resuming transfers as soon as possible.” 

Metallica and rap artist Dr. Dre settled their copyright suits against Napster. Financial terms were not disclosed, but as part of the agreement Metallica will allow some of the band’s songs to be traded on Napster’s new system once a legal business model has been launched. 

“I think we’ve resolved this in a way that works for fans, recording artists and songwriters alike,” said Lars Ulrich, Metallica’s drummer. 

Napster has been offline since July 2, when the Redwood City-based company took down its computer servers after its upgraded audio fingerprinting technology failed to catch all of the copyright music being traded by online users. 

Napster was ready to restart its service, claiming it had retooled the screening software to block more than 99 percent of unauthorized song files. 

However, Judge Patel shot down the notion that Napster could quietly come back online without 100 percent effectiveness. She told the company not to restart the service until it could prove to her that no unauthorized song files would get through the system. 

It means a further delay for Napster’s return. Napster’s user numbers had already been in decline since it began employing strict song-sharing guidelines earlier this year to block access to prevent copyright songs. 

The number of Napster users and the songs shared among them fell drastically between February and June of this year. Many disgruntled former Napster fans have migrated to decentralized file-sharing networks made popular by software called Gnutella. 

Gnutella and other similar programs like LimeWire and BearShare allow users to access an ever-changing network of servers and download image files and software programs in addition to MP3 song files. 

As Napster users flock to alternative programs, the company has been buying time until it can launch its much anticipated paid subscription service, due this summer along with two similar services by the major record labels. 

The recording industry, which sued Napster in 1999 for copyright infringement, was elated with Patel’s words from the bench. 

Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, issued a statement late Wednesday in response to Patel’s order. 

“While we appreciate that Napster is attempting to migrate to a legitimate business model, its inability to prevent copyright infringement from occurring on its system has only hampered the development of the marketplace in which it now hopes to compete. It is difficult for the legitimate online marketplace to compete with free,” Rosen said.

SAN JOSE – Computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. barely beat Wall Street’s dramatically lowered expectations for its second-quarter earnings Thursday and gave a grim outlook for the current quarter. 

In the three-month period that ended July 1, AMD had a net profit of $17.4 million, or 5 cents a share, 92 percent lower than the earnings of $207.1 million, or 60 cents a share, in the comparable period of 2000. Sales slipped 16 percent, to $985 million from $1.17 billion. 

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting AMD to earn 4 cents a share this quarter. 

That estimate was 27 cents a share before AMD warned last week that it was being squeezed far more than expected by the weak demand for flash memory — used in devices like digital cameras and cell phones — and a price war with Intel Corp. in the market for personal-computer microprocessors. 

Perhaps believing that AMD had no more bad news to give, investors pushed its shares up $1.58, more than 7 percent, to close at $22.70 on the New York Stock Exchange before the earnings announcement. The stock was up another 55 cents in the extending trading session. 

Sunnyvale-based AMD found encouraging signs in the second quarter, including its record sales of 7.7 million PC processors. But AMD added that “PC industry unit growth for 2001 is less than previously forecasted, and the company now believes that industry unit shipments will be approximately flat for the year.” 

With demand also weak for AMD’s flash memory products in the communications and networking sectors, the company projects that sales could decline in the current quarter between 10 and 15 percent, leading to an operating loss. A return to “solid profitablity” should come in the fourth quarter, AMD said. 

Analysts were expecting earnings of 11 cents a share in the current quarter, down from 64 cents in the same period of 2000. 

For the first six months of 2001, AMD posted a net profit of $142.2 million, or 43 cents a share, on sales of $2.17 billion. That was off from last year’s marks of $396.5 million, or $1.17 cents a share, on revenue of $2.26 billion.

The City Council increased a loan Tuesday for the downtown library renovation project, which is four months behind schedule and an estimated $2 million over budget. 

At the request of the library board, the council voted unanimously to increase the original loan, approved in 1999, from $1.1 million to $1.3 million.  

According to Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the library has not yet used any of the city’s loan funds.  

He said the loan was originally approved as a backup in case the renovation and expansion project went beyond the original estimate of $30 million. 

The main source of funds for the Central Library, at 2090 Kittredge St., came from $49 million in Measure S bond money, approved by voters in 1996. Measure S funds also paid for the renovation of the recently completed Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center building and other improvements downtown. 

Despite delays and overruns, Public Works Director Rene Cardinaux said the project is going well and delays are, in part, expected because of unknown structural conditions that are usually discovered during a large renovation.  

But questions about project contractor Novato-based Arntz Builders’ ability to meet deadlines have spurred the council to ask the city attorney to review the competitive bidding clause in the City Charter, which compels the city to accept the lowest responsible bid for capital projects. 

Arntz Builders is also contracted for the $29 million project currently underway on Milvia Street at Berkeley High School. 

“We have a responsibility to spend the taxpayers’ money as frugally as possible and going with the lowest bidder does not always make the best economic sense,” said Councilmember Dona Spring, who added that she is worried that similar delays might occur at the high school. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said that when the city’s Capital Projects Division investigated Arntz Builders prior to entering into the contracts, they were unable to find any evidence of failure to complete contractual responsibilities on the company’s other projects. 

Cardinaux defended the contractor to the council saying there are too many unforeseen problems that arise in large renovation projects to accurately predict completion dates and cost overruns. 

According to library project manager, Elena Engle, the project, which began in April, 1999, is now expected to be completed by Nov. 3, about four months after the agreed-upon completion date. 

Engle said the Central Library, once completed, will have twice as much space as the original library. “The old library was about 50,000 square feet,” she said, “and the renovated library will have a total 100,000 square feet of additional space.” 

It will have a new community meeting room, a new Berkeley History Room, and three times more space for the children’s section and the art and music sections. The building will also be seismically upgraded. “The list goes on and on,” she said. 

Engle said the cost overruns were not unusually high for a renovation project and that the industry standard for calculating budget overruns is about 15 percent of the estimated cost, which in this case would be $4.5 million. 

“At an estimated overrun of $2 million, we’re in pretty good shape,” she said. 

But she said that some of the delays could possibly be the result of Arntz poor staffing of site managers. 

Cardinaux said the renovation experienced several unavoidable delays such as the discovery of inadequate foundations in adjacent buildings. “They had to put in extra underpinnings on the neighboring buildings and by the time that project was completed we were into winter, which caused additional, weather-related delays,” he said. “Then there were a series of smaller problems such as some asbestos removal and they had to take out some oil-contaminated soil where an old elevator was. These kinds of small things happen and they add up to weeks.” 

In addition there has been a painter and plasterers strike that has yet to be resolved. Cardinaux said that the labor issue may cause another delay of about a week.  

But Board of Library Trustees President Kevin James said the project completion date was moved back to June 25 to accommodate unexpected delays related to structural and weather conditions. 

“That date has passed and we think there have been times when management of the project has been understaffed and lax,” he said.  

Arntz Building Superintendent Brian Proteau said delays were unavoidable. “There’s always going to be problems on a remodel project like this and especially when the building is 75 years old,” he said, “For example it was a rough winter and we were trying to pour the new foundation and you just can’t do that in the mud.” 

On a lighter note, Engle told the council that fundraising for some of the interior amenities for the newly renovated building such as the library’s refurbished original furniture and computer equipment was going well. “The Library Foundation has been wildly successful in raising money,” she said, “thanks to the citizens of Berkeley.”

All-American will get a shot at more caps in Nordic Cup 

CHICAGO - All-American forward Laura Schott, who will be a junior on the Cal soccer team this fall, is one of 20 players selected to attend a three-day U.S. under-21 training camp in Rhode Island, July 17-19. Head coach Jerry Smith will then select 18 of those players to represent the United States at the 2001 Women’s U-21 Nordic Cup Championships, being contested in Norway from July 25-31.  

Schott has already made two trips with the under-21 national team this year. Representing the full national team, she played in a friendly against Italy and in the Algarve Cup in March and in May traveled to Mexico to play two exhibitions against the country’s full national team. 

Without a sanctioned FIFA championship for U-21 women, the Nordic Cup serves at the top competition in the world for this age group.  

The eight competing teams are divided into two groups of four, with first-round play consisting of round-robin matches within the group. The group winners will then play for the championship. The two second-place group finishers will play for third place, the third-place finishers for fifth and the last-place finishers will play for seventh. The USA will play in Group A with Iceland, Denmark and Germany while Group B features host Norway, Sweden, Canada and Finland. All the matches will be contested in and around the city of Gjovik, which is approximately 100 kilometers from Oslo.  

Last year, Jillian Ellis led the USA to a 1-0 victory over host Germany to capture the USA’s third Nordic Cup title in the last four years.

Thursday, July 12

Salsa Dance Classes 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Classes every Thursday with live percussionists, light refreshments, DJ playing Latin music. $10 or $15 for two. 

237-9874 

Faith and Public Life 

Reception, 6:30 p.m., event at 7. 

Pacific School of Religion chapel 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Conversations with Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourns magizine and Wilson Riles, candidate for mayor of Oakland 

849-8268 

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week East Bay Science and Arts Middle School evoke the sounds of Trinidadian Carnival with a steel drum performance. 

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide Presentation. 

Twenty years in the making, the 150-mile Tahoe Rim Trail is now complete. Tahoe Rim Trail Association board member Trena Bristol joins TRT through-hikers Steve Andersen and Art Presser for a slide presentation on great day hikes and backpacking trips on the TRT. Free. 

527-4140 

Quit Smoking Class 

6 - 8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

A six week quit smoking class. 

Free to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 or e-mail at: quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1902 Hearst Avenue 

A public hearing on AB 487, Remediation of Under Prescribing Pain Medication, with Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, medical experts, and patients. 

540-3660 

art.SITES SPAIN 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Avenue 

Sidra Stitch, author of “art.SITES SPAIN: Contemporary Art and Architecture Handbook,” will present a slide show and talk on the most recent trends in art and architecture in Spain. Free. 

843-3533 

Friday, July 13

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. Free.  

Call 549-2970 

Friday the 13th Dance 

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Avenue 

Celebrating the success of this years Berkeley Arts Festival, supporters can dance to jazz, swing and slow songs at this Friday the 13th Dance: The post hoc ergo propter hoc Hop. “Just Friends” will provide the music. Admission by donation, to benefit the Festival. 

486-0411 

Saturday, July 14

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. Free. 

548-3333 

Sunday, July 15

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn drive train maintenance and chain repair from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Buddhist Practice 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Mark Henderson on “Fearlessness on the Bodhisattva Path.” Free. 

843-6812 

Second Annual Wobbly High  

Mass 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck (@ Prince St.) 

Presented by Folk This! and friends, an evening of musical satire, subversion and sacrilege. This year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow,” a historical journey toward a future society without classes or bosses. 

$8 

849-2568 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Editor: 

There is a big problem with parking meters in Berkeley. A large number of the new “foolproof” meters the city installed with great fanfare in recent years are now perennially broken. 

I’ve noticed this in particular walking through the Southside / Telegraph Avenue area. On one block, 17 out of 29 meters are broken. On another block, 17 out of 21. On the south side of Bancroft Way, from Telegraph to Shattuck Avenue, a whopping 38 out of 57 meters aren’t functional. 

You can easily identify the broken meters because they flash “FAIL” (or, occasionally, “DEAD”). Working meters either display the amount of time remaining, or flash “0.00” indicating that time has expired. 

I would not be surprised if a comprehensive survey showed that in some neighborhoods such as the Southside fifty percent or more of the meters are persistently non-functional. 

The city is losing considerable amounts of revenue every day. In a busy neighborhood where every street parking space is used during the business day, every 100 meters produce some $75 per hour in revenue. If 100 meters are broken, the city is losing up to $675 per day, or more than $4,000 per week. 

Many meters have been broken, or re-broken, since mid-2000. I remember seeing dozens of broken meters along Bancroft Avenue last August and September, and they’re still broken. I know of people who parked at those broken meters all day for weeks and months, without ever receiving tickets. 

I haven’t seen or heard of any comprehensive city response. The city has almost literally been putting a bandaid on the problem by affixing stickers to the broken meters. The stickers admonish people that parking time limits are still enforced, whether or not the meter is broken. This is akin to reminding criminals in crime-ridden neighborhoods that laws are still enforced. One appreciates the helpful information, but would rather have more police around and more active law enforcement. 

Last year, readers may remember that the city declared victory over the previous meter problem (an epidemic of vandalized and stolen meters) with its purchase of new meters. If this is victory, I’d like to know what city officials think defeat would be like. In some respects the situation is worse than before because we’ve spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new equipment that apparently does not function well. 

We’re all owed some answers to some basic questions. 

Why are so many meters out of service? How long does it take to repair them (and why), and how many have actually been repaired? How much was actually spent on “solving” the problem last year? How much revenue is being lost because of broken meters on a daily and annual basis? 

Why are so many of the new meters broken? Was there a flaw in their design? If so, does the City have any recourse with the manufacturer? Finally, how have the City staff who spend their days collecting meter revenue and issue tickets for expired meters been spending their time in neighborhoods where a majority of the meters don’t receive revenue and have permanently “expired”? 

The situation also has import for transportation policy. The city is ceaseless in its advocacy of alternatives to cars. However, by having so many broken meters, the city is also de facto providing a considerable amount of free on-street parking in business districts and around major commute destinations such as the university. 

This has broad repercussions beyond the financial. For example, Telegraph Avenue merchants struggle with a lack of short-term shopper parking. No wonder, when many of the meter spaces in front of their businesses are occupied every day by commuters taking advantage of the free meters. 

Steven Finacom 

Berkeley

The Berkeley-based Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Wednesday morning against taxi services provider Friendly Cab Company, alleging that it discriminates against passengers who use guide dogs. 

DREDF, a national non-profit law and policy center protecting disability rights, filed the suit on behalf of two blind Oakland residents, Claude Everett and Constance Kelley, who claim that Friendly Cabs have repeatedly refused to serve them because they have guide dogs. 

According to DREDF, by doing so, Friendly Cab drivers violated the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, which requires all businesses to be fully accessible to people with disabilities, and the Public Accommodations Law that explicitly guarantees the right of people with guide dogs to take any kind of public transportation, including taxis. 

“Guide dogs are specifically authorized to accompany Mr. Everett and Ms. Kelley by California law, and Friendly as a California business should be very aware of the obligation,” said DREDF attorney Sherri L. Rita at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. 

Kelley and Everett said they complained to Friendly Cab on several occasions before turning to DREDF for legal assistance. But they said Friendly Cab, which is one of the largest taxi services providers in the East Bay, never responded to their complaints.  

Everett, who works in a nonprofit organization in Berkeley, said he decided to bring the issue to court in August, 2000, after he spent 45 minutes waiting for a Friendly Cab to pick him and his dog up in downtown Oakland. Everett said he had to call the company several times to ask when the taxi would arrive, until the dispatcher finally told him that the driver had refused to stop because he had a guide dog. 

“I felt so frustrated, humiliated about the situation and I tried to resolve it in other ways,” said Everett. “But I didn’t feel that it was being taken care of, so I decided to contact DREDF.” 

Kelley experienced the same kind of feelings. She used cabs three to four times a month to do grocery shopping, but endless waits for taxis often forced her and her dog to walk the two miles between the store and her house, carrying all the grocery bags in her only available hand.  

One of the reasons drivers refuse to take the plaintiffs and their service animals in their cars, a Friendly employee once explained to Everett, is that they are allergic to animals. But to the DREDF attorneys this is not a valid justification. 

“It is a personnel issue they have to work out among themselves to find out how they are going to comply with the law,” said attorney Rita, adding that her clients would be open to working with the company on a solution that takes into consideration this kind of concrete problem. 

The administration of Friendly Cab Company refused to comment on the dispute Wednesday afternoon. 

According to advocates for disability rights, Everett and Kelley are only two of the many people in California who are discriminated against because of their guide dogs. 

“This is a chronic problem,” said Thom Ainsworth, graduate services specialist of Guide Dogs for the Blind, a San Rafael-based organization. “There doesn’t seem to be a compassion or sensitivity toward people who have a disability and use guide dogs.” Part of the issue, Ainsworth added, comes from the general lack of awareness of the state legislation. 

Berkeley itself is no stranger to the problem. The Commission on Aging brought a recommendation to the City Council Tuesday that asks the city administration to adopt a Bill of Rights guaranteeing a number of rights to the senior and disabled citizens who benefit from a local taxi subsidy program. One of these rights is the obligation for the taxi companies participating in the program to take pets in carriers, guide dogs and service animals in the cabs. 

Through the lawsuit the plaintiffs seek damages for violations of their civil rights and a revision of the defendant’s policy, which they hope will contribute to the protection of disabled people’s rights. “The primary motivation is not to get a lot of money, it’s to get a systemic change,” said Rita. “We would like Friendly to change its policy and practices in order to comply with the laws.”

With Berkeley High headed for rebuilding seasons in both football and boys’ basketball, the last thing the Yellowjackets needed was to lose two veteran players. But that’s exactly what has happened, as rising seniors Mohammed Nitoto and Chevallier Patterson will transfer to McClymonds for the next school year. 

Both Nitoto and Patterson were expected to play key roles on both the football and basketball teams next season. Nitoto was the returning starter at quarterback on the gridiron and was in the running for the point guard’s slot on the court, while Patterson was the ’Jackets’ number-one receiving threat and a key wingman, respectively. 

According to Nitoto, changes in the athletic department and football staff were the impetus for his move, which he has planned since before the school year ended. He hopes to earn a college scholarship, and feels the program at McClymonds will help him get there. 

“The football coach at Mack (Alonzo Carter) has a lot of pull with scouts,” he said. “He sent like 10 kids to college on scholarship last year. That’s more than Berkeley has had in the last five years put together.” 

Several of the veteran players on the Berkeley football team were unhappy with the selection of former junior varsity coach Matt Bissell as next year’s head coach. Gary Weaver decided not to return next year after two years of coaching the ’Jackets. 

“My father felt like Bissell didn’t know what he was doing, especially when he hired a bunch of science teachers as assistants at first,” Nitoto said. 

Bissell did not return the Daily Planet’s phone calls yesterday. 

Nitoto said his father actually wanted to send him to McClymonds since his freshman year, but “I didn’t want to lose my friends at Berkeley.” But when it was apparent that Bissell was going to be the head coach next season, Mohammed finally agreed that transferring would be the best thing. 

“It’s a smaller school, so the teachers will be able to give me more help to get my grades squared away,” he said. 

Patterson said smaller classes was the biggest reason he will move to Mack. He said he had trouble getting into advanced placement classes at Berkeley, which has been a common complaint among minority students at BHS. 

“If it was just about sports, I probably would have stayed,” Patterson said. “If you compare Mack and Berkeley, Mack is better for getting into college, sports or not.”

Examples of work from the Young Writers’ Camp; see story on p. 1 

Ode to My Shoes  

By Terry Xiao, sixth grade, San Leandro 

Faint smelly odor drifts from you 

the creek on the tongue, 

downtown all over the heels 

Worn shoelaces that are so short 

we never worry about tying 

Splashes of rainbow colors 

jump out from the ankles from art class 

Dull brown and smug green 

caked on the bottoms from camp 

How can plain white tennis shoes bring out so much? 

O shoes, where art thou? 

Ode to my Bed 

by Michael Pruess, sixth grade, Berkeley 

Oh soft cotton, or so they said 

100% cotton covers my bed 

A feather pillow, blue pillow case 

Blue sheets to match the azure sky 

The bottomless lake on which I lie 

It makes me soar, it makes me swim 

The pattern of a road ploughs 

never ending route on the surface of 

My dark blue comforter, in blue and white, 

The sky, the clouds, as I take flight. 

Ode to letters 

By Ashly Graves, sixth grade, Oakland 

Ode to letters 

squiggly, shapely 

make me talk 

on a paper 

so blank until 

I blob some letters on it 

and I talk to my friends 

without using electricity 

without wasting my breath 

and all I need is a stamp 

Ode to letters 

squiggly and shapely.  

Ode to My Tennis Racket 

By Philip Chang, seventh grade, Albany 

Oh racket glittering in the sun 

slowly getting weaker 

Watching your strings crack 

You used to make a sharp sound but now you just make a thud 

You were patched up again and again 

Each time getting weaker 

You broke one day but you were too good to waste 

So now you act like a mirror reflecting my hobbies 

And the memories still linger with you 

Remember the time we came back in a game 

that our opponent thought he had won? 

Oh racket glittering in the sun. 

Colors 

By Naima T. Smith, fifth grade, Oakland 

Purple, a slit of royalty waiting to be crowned 

Orange, a show of dazzling performances 

Red, a life of danger, excitement and anger 

Green, a hunk of nature waiting to be grown 

White, a thin line of pureness 

Black, a breeze of mystery 

Yellow, a piece of happiness 

Blue, water rolling down cheeks 

Pink, just as sweet as candy. 

Some school officials are cautiously optimistic that the latest round of reforms proposed for Berkeley High’s ninth-grade curriculum will make being a freshman less overwhelming than it has been in years past – particularly for students who arrive at the school at risk of failing. 

Nearly 200 freshman were failing two or more classes at the end of the first semester this year. 

Under the curriculum change, world history, traditionally a ninth-grade class at Berkeley High, would move to the 10th grade. This would free up staff to create a new “freshman seminar” combining elements of the traditional ethnic studies and social living curriculums. 

While both ethnic studies and social living are part of the ninth grade curriculum under California’s statewide academic standards, world history is considered part of the 10th grade curriculum under those standards. 

But the shift proposed by Berkeley High School Principal Frank Lynch last week does more than bring the school into better alignment with state standards, said Berkeley school board president and former Berkeley High teacher Terry Doran. It allows ninth-grade teachers to redesign the freshman curriculum in a way that makes it easier for them to work together as a team. 

Under the new plan, the freshman seminar will be held back-to-back with a freshman English class. The classes’ curriculums will be made compatible, so that the study topics in one class relate to the study topics in the other during any given week.  

The hybrid formed by the blending of these two classes will be known as a freshman “core,” and each core will consist of 40 students (since the English and freshman seminar classes, at 20-to-1, will have lower student to teacher ratios than other freshman classes.) 

Within the core, it is hoped, teachers will work together more closely than ever before, assessing the progress of students on an ongoing basis, and hashing out strategies to help those students who are struggling.  

It is further hoped that students will come to relate to their freshman “core” as a kind of “home room” – a place where the teachers are looking out for them and working to ensure their overall success at the school. 

“It’s being designed almost like a homeroom, to allow teachers to play a role of mentoring and working with the students,” Doran said. “I see it as complimenting what (the school guidance counselors) are supposed to do.” 

Doran and others said the freshman cores, by creating a place where specific groups of students are closely monitored by specific teachers, goes a long way toward creating the more “personalized” education experience found in Berkeley High’s small learning communities, such as Common Ground and Communication Arts and Sciences. 

Plans for how the cores will work are not completely finalized, but Doran said it was his expectation that, if a student gets in trouble, academically or otherwise, core teachers would intervene immediately. They would work to improve a student’s study skills and refer the student to tutoring and mentoring services at the school for extra help. They might even hash out something like an “individual learning plan” for each of the kids in their core, spelling out clearly what they need to do to graduate, or what they need to do to be prepared for a specific career after graduation. 

Mary Lee Cole, the educational programs’ expert who launched the popular Writer’s Room volunteer tutoring program at the high school this year, said the opportunities for teachers to collaborate under the “core” system could make a significant difference in the way freshman experience Berkeley High School. 

Core teachers are already meeting over the summer, designing their core curriculums for next year, Cole said. This means “teachers will have a good working relationship” from the get-go next fall, Cole said, “which is vital if you’re going to identify kids who need help.” 

Also new at the high school next year, all English teachers will be trained in the latest techniques for teaching reading to teen-aged students, based on the assumption that 200 or more of 800 freshman who enter Berkeley High next year could arrive with reading skills far below grade level.  

“At risk” students will attend a second, “back-up” English class focused exclusively on racheting up their reading skills as quickly as possible, so they can engage more successfully in the rest of the freshman curriculum. 

Cole, who provided dozens of trained writing tutors to work one-on-one with Berkeley High students this year, said in many cases the tutors helped students complete assignments they simply could not do on their own because their reading and writing skills were insufficient. 

“I think this is really facing reality and seeing the problem clearly and beginning to respond to it,” Cole said of the school’s decision to make literacy a integral part of the freshman curriculum for many students next year. 

Taken together, Doran said the reforms Berkeley High Principal Lynch and his staff have proposed for next year are very substantial steps towards combating the racial “achievement gap” so often criticized at Berkeley High. 

“There are members of the community who say we are doing nothing, and it bothers me, because I think the professionals at the high school are really trying to do something,” Doran said.  

“Whether it’s enough is another question.”

Saulius Kuzminskas, 6-foot-11 forward, has elected not to return to the Cal basketball team, deciding instead to play professionally in his native Lithuania.  

Kuzminskas saw action in 14 games as a freshman last season, scoring six points in 23 minutes of action. He missed the first six games of the year with a knee injury.  

“We wish Saulius well,” said head coach Ben Braun. “We appreciate his contributions to our program, but certainly understand his desire to be closer to his family.”  

A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, Kuzminskas is training with the Under-20 Lithuanian National team this summer. 

Kuzminskas’ decision leaves the Bears with just three big men for next season. Center Nick Vander Laan decided to transfer for his senior season shortly after Cal’s first-round NCAA loss to Fresno State in March. Solomon Hughes will be the starter, with talented recruit Jamal Sampson and Hughes’ brother Gabriel vying for playing time off of the bench.

Teresa is reading her piece about her grandmother, Baby, who tries to ride a scooter but falls instead, head over heels; eight stitches are required to close up her burst-open chin. The audience cracks up when Teresa rolls her eyes and tells us this grandmother is a judge! 

Teresa’s a Berkeley student who asked that her last name not be used in this story to protect her grandmother. 

“Read another story,” the children beg when she’s done. And Teresa obliges. “Do you want the story about a flying headless chicken or the one about the woman in Ecuador who was buried alive?” The chicken story wins the vote and Teresa reads again from her collection of family stories. 

For the fourth summer, I’m teaching at the Young Writers’ Camp under the auspices of the Bay Area Writing Project at UC Berkeley. This summer is my favorite – every child but one really likes to write. It takes no urging from me to get them started.  

Michael Pruess, is writing a medieval fantasy that he’s decided to turn into an epic poem with rhyming couplets. A girl from San Leandro is composing riddles, and another student is working on a disparaging letter to President Bush. There’s a spate of ill feeling toward Bush, but that erupts into hilarity when someone brings in Bushisms found in a book at Pegasus Fine Books on Solano Avenue. “Rarely is the question asked, ‘Is our children learning?’” the student quotes from an alleged campaign speech.  

“We Is,” we reply. 

We’re meeting this year at Oxford school in the north hills area where I teach reading during the regular school year. Ashly Graves is a student here. She takes the bus from Oakland each day and walks up the Eunice Street hill to come to class. Her remembrance of a childhood game when she pretends to be a baker is the piece she reads aloud today. Then another child reads her account of being stuck in an elevator, with a voice on the intercom offering reassurances as she hangs between floors. Her real life account eases my claustrophobic horror. 

Forty six campers come each morning to write for three hours. The teachers, Grace Morizawa, Peggy Heathcock and I, are consultants for the Writing Project and credentialed classroom teachers. We present writing strategies and see our ideas put into immediate creative use by these fourth through eighth grade students. 

This morning we talk about character development. Terry Xiao has worn her pajamas to class and brought a pillow. She tells us of the character she invented after reading “Captain Underpants.” It’s “Pajama Kid”, a super kid who climbs into children’s dreams at night with Good Dream Tablets, Bad Dream Zappers and a Nightmare Shield to deliver satisfying dreams. 

Once a week we gather in a whole group for a round of Author’s Chair. Children clamor to read aloud. One boy reads a list poem of things he likes which goes from abstract – peace, hope – to concrete, skate boarding. Another boy reads a description of the emotion hatred. His just dyed hot red hair flames above his notebook that he holds shielding his face to combat a touch of embarrassment. Campers read past dismissal time and still the audience sits and listens. 

My students say they love this Young Writers’ Camp because the writing does not have to fit an assignment like it does at school. Here there is plenty of time to write about whatever is intriguing. Only rarely do they get to read aloud to an appreciative audience at school; here it’s a daily experience. And at school, though no one says it, I believe their interest and facility with writing can’t be so deeply shared. Here we understand each other; to us there’s nothing juicier than writing. 

Parents who’d like their children to attend next year’s Young Writers’ Camp can contact the Writing Project at 642-0971 and ask for Paul Cunningham who will put them on a mailing list. 

Mary Barrett is a freelance writer and teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District.

Senate subpoenas energy provider’s financial records for investigation 

SACRAMENTO – Enron Corp. is suing state officials to stop a Senate subpoena of its financial records in a dispute over alleged overcharges for its electricity sales to California. 

“They’ve sent two things to Texas — our money and these documents, and they’re saying we can’t get either one back,” said Laurence Drivon, special legal counsel to the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Market Manipulation. 

The suit came hours before the committee will consider asking the full Senate to cite the Houston-based company for contempt Wednesday. The other subject of possible sanctions, Atlanta-based Mirant Inc., appears to be cooperating, Drivon said. 

Committee chairman Joe Dunn, a Santa Ana Democrat, said the committee’s investigation will continue despite Enron’s “pure act of intimidation. We’re not going to back down.” 

Enron’s suit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, said the company’s financial papers are outside the committee’s jurisdiction because most of its operations and paperwork are outside California. 

That shouldn’t matter, Drivon said, citing last year’s successful subpoena of out-of-state documents during the investigation into the activities of former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush. Previous investigations have included documents subpoenaed from other nations, he said. 

Companies doing business in California cannot claim immunity from its laws or oversight, Drivon and Dunn said. Houston-based Reliant Energy made the same argument but then agreed to turn over 1,800 documents. 

Enron’s suit also says Dunn’s committee has not given the company a fair hearing, and the committee has not followed due-process protections before seeking sanctions. 

Not so, said Dunn and Drivon, adding that they negotiated with generators to give them time to comply with the subpoenas. Proof of that, they said, comes in the decision to give Williams, AES, Reliant, Dynegy, Duke and NRG an extra week past Tuesday’s deadline to turn over documents subpoenaed last month. 

In a letter to Dunn, Steven J. Kean, an Enron executive vice president, said several municipal districts were profiting from the power crisis. “Yet, remarkably, the committee has inexplicably chosen not to include these market participants in its investigations.” 

Enron officials are concerned the purpose of the investigation, Kean said, is to “create a convenient political scapegoat to shoulder the blame for California’s policy mistakes and changes in market fundamentals.” 

However, Enron has agreed to turn over some “non-confidential” documents at the Wednesday hearing, Kean said. 

The committee is on the verge of asking the full Senate to impose sanctions for the first time since 1929, when the Senate briefly jailed a reluctant witness during a committee investigation of price fixing and price gouging allegations involving cement sales to the state. 

There are no set penalties, Drivon said — by law, “the Senate can take such action as it deems necessary and appropriate.” 

Enron is one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies, with $101 billion in revenues in 2000. It owns 30,000 miles of pipeline, has 20,000 employees and is active in 40 countries. During the first quarter of this year, Enron’s revenues increased 281 percent to $50.1 billion. 

It is well connected politically. It has supported both President Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush. 

Last month the firm was a corporate sponsor at a congressional fund-raiser featuring the president, where contributors in tuxedos and gowns dined and drank around a giant gold “W” that reached to the rafters at the Washington Convention Center ballroom. 

Enron has also been tied to President Bush’s approach to the energy crisis. Company chairman Kenneth Lay is a friend and one of the largest campaign contributors to Bush and the GOP. Several prominent members of the Bush administration hold stock in the company. 

The company is one of several major GOP donors accused of meeting secretly with Vice President Dick Cheney as he drafted the Bush administration’s energy plan. 

Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was hit in the face by with a pie last month before speaking at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.

Gay and lesbian chorus sings music for social causes 

The premiere concert series of the men’s chorus Opus-Q will feature a wide array of musical styles, each handled with appropriate shifts of singing technique and tone.  

This well-trained and finely honed chorus presents great delights for any music fan.  

Their voices blend impeccably, meshing consonants cleanly to clearly express the songs’ texts while richly resonating vowels in service of the lush harmonies. The singers control dynamics keenly, rising and falling as a unit when that is called for, and clearly delineating contrapuntal lines when that is appropriate. These boys can sing! 

The most moving number, “For Brandon Teena” by Timothy Snyder, reflects on the post mortem fate of a woman brutally murdered for posing as a man. The story was the basis for the film “Boys Don’t Cry.” 

The homophonic passages unfold with dramatic urgency which is boldly shattered by an occasional stab of polyphony. The thick dissonant chords create a mood which is at once electrifying and chilling. Bring a handkerchief: you’ll need it. 

This overwhelmingly sad piece is thankfully flanked by silliness. Aaron Copland’s “I Bought Me a Cat” features singers in sodbusters’ straw hats strolling through the audience singing a cumulative rustic refrain which is sure to delight children of all ages. The pop classic tune “Up, Up and Away” concludes the first half on a bouncy note. This programming works well both to highlight and dispel the emotional charge of Snyder’s composition. 

The chorus shows it has mastered the Masters by presenting a piece each from Handel and Bach. This is not merely tokenism, for these pieces add a sense of breadth and create a serious context for some of the other lighter works. The chorus sings a snappy tune from the Estonian composer Alo Ritsling. So what if you can’t understand Estonian? You will be amused anyway.  

The concert also includes two of Copland’s arrangements of early American hymns, two songs from Leonard Bernstein (one of which features the chorus whistling a catchy tune), a well-known round and a romantic ballad Bing Crosby recorded during the ’40s.  

The evening concludes with the uplifting song “Something Inside So Strong” from the South African composer Labi Sassri. This incredible variety of songs offers something for everyone. 

The Opus-Q chorus is the newest member of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) which includes over 190 groups worldwide. They are also the newest group of singers performing this segment of the vocal repertory in this area. They are a welcome addition to the East Bay’s thriving music scene. The director J.R. Foust understands that a little bit of staging and thoughtful programming can go a long way in creating an experience which is more than just a vocal concert. Yet the music is still the basic reason to go to a chorus concert. Foust draws high levels of musicality from his singers. Opus-Q makes beautiful and touching music. 

Opus-Q:The East Bay Men’s Chorale – ‘Something Inside So Strong.’ 

University Lutheran Chapel at Haste Street & College Avenue. 

8:07 pm on Thursday & Friday, July 12 & 13. 

$11, $9 for members of other GALA Choruses.

CORNELIUS, Ore. – Turn left at the American flag. Follow the dirt road lined with yellow dandelions. Pass the old house with the wooden porch and the dark brown llama in the front corral. Park in the back, where the rooster is crowing and the air is rich with a mixture of animal dung and ripening fruit. 

This is Duyck’s Peachy-Pig Farm. Twenty years ago, this was just a typical pig farm. But then hog prices started falling, and farmer Gary Duyck got, as he says, “crippled up.” 

“It was pure economics,” Duyck said of his choice to open his Washington County farm to outsiders. And it has proved a profitable choice. 

On a recent Saturday, the rolling hills behind Duyck’s home and barn were dotted with folks who held white plastic buckets in one hand and plucked garnet-red raspberries with the other. 

Beginning next month, customers will be back to pick beans, peppers and yellow raspberries. Fall brings pumpkins and a miniature corn maze for the kids. Next year, Duyck plans a bigger maze as well as hay rides. 

With food processors closing and increased competition from growers outside the United States, Northwest farmers have turned to roadside stands, u-pick fields and farmers markets as a way to boost profits and, in some cases, simply to stay in business. 

They’ve discovered that urban dwellers are eager to spend an afternoon picking berries or pumpkins. And some parents are even willing to pay a few dollars so their city-bred child can feed a pig. 

In 1992, 4,263 Oregon farms sold at least a portion of their crops at roadside stands, farmer’s markets or u-pick fields. Five years later, the number had grown to 4,594 farms with more than $14 million in sales. 

When the Oregon agricultural census is taken again next year, Homer Rowley, a statistician with the National Agricultural Statistics Service, bets the number will have grown yet again. 

“Farmers are being squeezed,” Rowley said. “Many are either getting out of the business” or marketing their products directly to their customers. 

Chris Olson remembers picking berries as a kid and decided on a recent Saturday that it was time for her 3-year-old daughter, Amanda, to know the pleasure of popping a ripe raspberry right into her mouth. 

“We want her to know that they come from a bush and not a store,” Olson said at a field outside Sherwood. “It’s also just good to spend the day with the kids outdoors,” she said. 

With strawberry season nearly finished, most pickers had raspberry jam on their mind. At 90 to 95 cents a pound, they agreed picking the fruit themselves was far better than buying berries at the store. 

Farm visits have become popular for myriad reasons. 

“Some people like to talk to the farmer, that’s important to them. For retired or semiretired people, getting back onto a farm is a big deal,” said Don Bradshaw, who owns the Seven Oaks Farm and serves as president of the Pacific Northwest Farm Direct Marketing Association. 

Bradshaw farms 200 acres in Central Point, just north of Medford. He had a strawberry stand about 20 years ago but dropped it because it was too much trouble. And then came bigger trouble in the form of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other international trade treaties that opened the door to crops grown outside the United States. 

To survive a changing marketplace, Bradshaw said he reopened his farm stand a few years ago. He’s been surprised by sales that are growing 20 percent a year. 

“We’re quite enthusiastic about it,” he said. “We feel there’s growth there yet.” 

The Koch Family Farm in Tualatin started selling u-pick pumpkins in 1983. They opened u-pick strawberry fields five summers ago. Depending on the season, there’s u-pick beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and other crops. Children also come for school field trips and birthday parties. 

“This has been our busiest year,” Kay Koch said as customers crowded around her fruit stand. 

The Koch family first plowed this ground in 1938. Population growth has since brought housing subdivisions and a seemingly endless line of cars to the Tualatin-Sherwood Road, which passes by the farm. There are days, especially when her husband crosses traffic in his tractor, that Kay Koch wonders whether it would be best to sell out to a developer. 

But then come days with perfect weather and laughter coming from the u-pick fields. Then Koch thinks of what her husband always says: “This dirt is too good to cover up.”

HOUSTON – When Compaq Computer Corp. announced earlier this year it was restructuring, the company hoped natural attrition would allow it to shave thousands of jobs. 

But a sour economy, particularly in the tech sector, meant Compaq workers had no place to go. As a result, the Houston-based computer maker said Tuesday it plans to lay off 4,000 workers. 

“Given the weak worldwide economy, our attrition has been lower than expected, so we have accelerated the process by including these positions in the latest charge,” said Jeff Clarke, Compaq’s chief financial officer. 

The staffing cuts bring the total number of jobs Compaq plans to terminate this year to 8,500, or about 12 percent of its work force. 

Compaq had said earlier this year it planned to eliminate 7,000 jobs, with 4,500 coming through layoffs and the rest through attrition. On Tuesday, it said all cuts will be through layoffs. 

The announcement, made after trading closed on the New York Stock Exchange, came as the computer maker said second-quarter revenue would be down 17 percent from the year-ago period, to $8.4 billion. 

The computer maker blamed worsening economic conditions and intensifying price wars in Europe. 

Lehman Brothers analyst Daniel Niles called Compaq’s news, following warnings from chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and storage giant EMC, is troubling. 

“You hear from EMC, AMD and now Compaq, and it starts to call into question a second-half (economic) recovery,” Niles said. 

Compaq’s announcement boded much worse for the overall economy, and tech companies in particular, than for the company itself, Niles said. 

“In some senses Compaq’s results aren’t so bad, and the bottom line is coming in pretty much where it was guided to,” Niles said. 

Like the previous cuts, Clarke said the additional terminations are expected in Compaq’s personal computer business, supply chain operations and administration. 

Shares of Compaq rose 33 cents to $14.09 on Wednesday in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

More than 70 people showed up at North Gate Hall for a public hearing Monday night, to challenge UC Berkeley’s Northeast Quadrant Science and Safety Project.  

The precise subject of the hearing was the university’s recently-completed Draft Environmental Impact Report on the project, a document required by the California Environmental Quality Act.  

While the university asserts the NEQSS Project is necessary to satisfy its space and earthquake retrofit needs, many city residents at the hearing said the project was too large and would increase traffic and noise in the area. 

The project would: 

• Demolish and reconstruct two buildings, Stanley Hall and Davis Hall North 

• Add a new building next to Soda Hall 

• Remove the tennis and skateboard recreational space atop the Lower Hearst Parking Building, to add more parking spaces 

With this project, the university will seismically retrofit its science facilities, and in the process, it will also add 244,000 square feet and 400 new employees to these buildings. The opinions of the 25 or so people who spoke at the hearing were strong and unequivocal in their opposition.  

“I think those were great comments,” said Jennifer Lawrence, UC Berkeley’s principal planner for the project, in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I think the campus needed to hear them.”  

There were many challenges leveled against the way the NEQSS project has been carried out until now, from its publicity down to the timing of the hearing.  

“Is NEQSS or is it not the biggest-ever set of projects – in real dollars, or gross square feet – ever launched by the university under a single construction initiative?” asked Jim Sharp, who lives near the proposed project. “I think the public should know that it’s such a big to do,” he said. 

Community activist Clifford Fred suggested that the reason the NEQSS project seems so large is that it’s not, indeed, one project.  

“Allowing the bare minimum of only 45 days to comment on an EIR that encompasses four major projects is unfair to Berkeley residents,” he said. “We should be given ample time to review and comment on this very large and complex draft EIR.” 

Along with many others, Fred urged UC to grant an extended public comment period – something more than the 45-day-minimum required by CEQA. Karen Mena, who graduated from UC in May, argued that the student population is tremendously ignorant of the NEQSS project. 

“I urge that the comment period be extended to include the comments of those students and community members that are away during the summer period,” Mena said.  

Pamela Sihvola, co-chair of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, rang the alarm on how these new science buildings – combined with the Hayward fault and the other buildings in the vicinity – may have a potentially-hazardous, radioactive effect on the surrounding neighborhood.  

“We feel that such an immense project – which has great potential to release hazardous and radioactive materials routinely, accidentally or as a result of a major earthquake on the Hayward fault – would be much more appropriate if located in a less populated area, away from this active, earthquake fault,” Sihvola said. 

L.A. Wood agreed. 

“We’re going to have to decide whether we’re going to let bio-radiation/bio-tech dominate the campus or whether we’re going to scale it down and allow students to educate themselves there safely,” Wood said. 

There was also a very pronounced turn-out by those concerned over the demise of the tennis courts and skateboard recreational facilities on the Lower Hearst Parking Building. 

City Councilmember Betty Olds spoke on their behalf. 

“People may not know that the university decided not to build 200 parking spots in the (new Seismic Replacement Building at Oxford Street and Hearst Avenue) because it would cost so much money,” Olds said. “That alone means that, since you don’t have that added expense, you certainly should seriously consider replacing the tennis courts on top of the next floor of the parking structure of Scenic Avenue and Hearst.” 

Rob Lipton said he felt the tennis courts are representative of larger tensions between UC and the Berkeley community. 

“The tennis courts lead the way as one of the ‘canary indicators’ of what the university thinks of the public,” he said. “It’s not just a trivial, my-personal-issue-with-tennis situation. It’s the larger issue of how this can be generalized to all the other aspects of what these projects are doing and what UC generally is doing.” 

Luis Borrero spoke on behalf of the Newbridge house for recovering drug addicts, arguing that removal of the tennis courts is not just a statement about recreation, but a negative public health statement. 

Lawrence said the university is considering the residents’ comments. There’s a good possibility that replacement courts will be placed atop the new floor of parking, she said, noting that a study is already underway to help make the final decision about any replacements. It will be completed by end of summer. 

Greg Smith spoke from experience about how little he’s looking forward to the construction noise, noting in particular the use of truck backup beepers, jackhammers and delivery trucks. Even when the EIR designates quiet hours, the construction workers don’t seem to follow the rules, he said. 

He suggested 24-hour noise monitors, while Lara Bice, of Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson’s office, asked: 

“If a significant but unavoidable impact is the potential city of Berkeley noise violation,” Bice said, “what is the expectation that you will be granted permits by the city if even before construction you presume that you will violate (these conditions)?” 

Others pointed to the need for studying cumulative impacts: 

“This EIR is very deficient in terms of measuring cumulative impacts, especially with parking and transportation,” City Councilmember Dona Spring said. “You need to do more with your staff to use public transit. The students are paying for a transit pass; the university employees (should too).” 

But it’s not just sitting in traffic or waiting for a parking space, others added. The traffic construction these projects create can kill, and may again, as the death of pedestrian Jayne Ash a few months ago.  

“The university is very concerned about jaywalking, but as a fact we know that a woman lost her life,” Nancy Holland said. “It’s strange to have such a renowned university justifying it’s extension plans without being able to recognize a fact that we all know from the newspapers.” 

Final comments on he NEQSS project are due at the UC Planning Office by Aug. 1. 

Wednesday, July 11

What’s Cooking? 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the Lawrence Hall of Science Wednesday FUN-days. Fun experiments you can do in your own kitchen. Museum admission $3 - $7. 642-5132 

“Global Banquet”  

7:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue 

Part of the Anti-Globalization series. Tonight a presentation of “Global Banquet,” a look at farmers both local and in developing countries trying to survive in the global economy. Discussion led by Anuradha Mittal. Small donation requested. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Board of Library Trustees 

7 p.m. 

South Branch Library 

1901 Russell Street 

Regular meeting. Among items to be discussed are the ADA Renovation and Building/Expansion. 

644-6095 or 548-1240 (TDD) 

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Regular meeting with continued discussion on Marijuana Arrests. 

644-6480 pr 644-6915 (TDD) 

Thursday, July 12

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week East Bay Science and Arts Middle School evoke the sounds of Trinidadian Carnival with a steel drum performance. 

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide Presentation. 

Twenty years in the making, the 150-mile Tahoe Rim Trail is now complete. Tahoe Rim Trail Association board member Trena Bristol joins TRT through-hikers Steve Andersen and Art Presser for a slide presentation on great day hikes and backpacking trips on the TRT. Free. 527-4140 

Quit Smoking Class 

6 - 8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

A six week quit smoking class. 

Free to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 or e-mail at: quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1902 Hearst Avenue 

A public hearing on AB 487, Remediation of Under Prescribing Pain Medication, with Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, medical experts, and patients. 540-3660 

art.SITES SPAIN 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Avenue 

Sidra Stitch, author of “art.SITES SPAIN: Contemporary Art and Architecture Handbook,” will present a slide show and talk on the most recent trends in art and architecture in Spain. Free. 843-3533 

Friday, July 13

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. Free. Call 549-2970 

Friday the 13th Dance 

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Avenue 

Celebrating the success of this years Berkeley Arts Festival, supporters can dance to jazz, swing and slow songs at this Friday the 13th Dance: The post hoc ergo propter hoc Hop. “Just Friends” will provide the music. Admission by donation, to benefit the Festival. 486-0411 

Saturday, July 14

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. Free. 

548-3333 

Sunday, July 15

Hands-On Bicycle  

Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn drive train maintenance and chain repair from one of REI’s bike technicians. Bring your bike. Free 527-4140 

Buddhist Practice 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Mark Henderson on “Fearlessness on the Bodhisattva Path.” Free. 

843-6812 

Second Annual  

Wobbly High Mass 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck (@ Prince St.) 

Presented by Folk This! and friends, an evening of musical satire, subversion and sacrilege. This year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow,” a historical journey toward a future society without classes or bosses. $8 849-2568 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 654-6346 

Skronkathon BBQ 

1 - 11 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline 

The First Annual Transbay Skronkathon Barbecue. Dozens of Bay Area musicians will play “multi-conceptual-deconstructed-creative-music.” Charcoal provided, bring your own items to barbecue. Free. 649-8744 

The Wizard School of Magic 

1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the LHS Top of the Bay Family Sundays, “Benny and Bebe and The Wizard School of Magic” is inspired by the Harry Potter stories. Learn what it takes to become a real wizard. Museum admission $3 - $7. 642-5132 

— compiled by Sabrina Forkish and Guy Poole 

dalPower 

8:30 a.m. 

Lake Merritt Garden Center 

666 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland 

Bike ride and pancake brunch fundraiser for the Asian Domestic Violence Clinic which provides free or low-cost legal services for abused women and children in the East Bay. Fourteen mile ride from Lake Merritt to Portview Park and back. $5 - $25. 

415-567-6255 

Voter-mandated drug diversion plan shortchanged, may fail 

Last Nov. 7, California voters approved the “Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000,” which requires probation and drug treatment – not incarceration – “for those convicted of possession, use, transportation for personal use, or being under the influence of a controlled substance.” The act went into effect on July 1, but a survey of California counties shows little concern with just where and how these people are to be treated. 

By Lonny Shavelson 

Pacific News Service 

Starting July 1, California courts must direct those convicted of certain drug offenses to drug rehabilitation programs instead of jail. 

Counties have had seven months to prepare since the state's voters made this the law – as Proposition 36 – in last November's election. But across the state, their efforts have more often concerned booking and arraignment than treatment. 

It's time for our officials to pay attention to the rehab system where the addicts are heading – not the court system where they're coming from. 

My own two-year long investigation of that system shows that there is much to be worried about. 

If addicts are to stay free of drugs, they need help with more than drug issues alone. As Dr. Alan Marlatt, director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, says, “Putting people into drug programs without dealing with housing, education, job training, health problems, family and marital problems, and mental health issues, won't work any better than putting them in prison, where they didn't get those things either.” 

Yet in San Francisco, which is considered one of the better-prepared counties, there is no concrete plan for crucial services to aid addicts in anything other than getting off drugs. 

Not one of the 200 or so addicts I interviewed here could name his or her assigned case manager, and there is no plan on the table that would improve this. 

Other California cities and counties, financially strained even with additional Proposition 36 funds, are not likely to do better. 

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan says that paying for comprehensive services for the 17,000 people predicted to be eligible for the program would drive the county into debt. 

Consider, for example, mental health needs. At least 50 percent of drug addicts have problems with clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (often from childhood sex abuse), and other emotional illnesses. 

The standard “treatment” of such addicts is simple. Anyone appearing at a substance abuse treatment intake center with a “dual diagnosis” (substance abuse plus mental health disorders) is told to go to mental health services. 

“We can't get you off drugs,” the intake counselors say, “until you get your mental health problems under control.” 

At the mental health centers, they were told, “We can't deal with your mental health issues, until you're off drugs.” 

This will not change unless we train drug counselors and mental health workers to provide skilled care to people suffering from addictions and mental illnesses – and no such training is offered by Prop 36. 

Moreover, the majority of drug counselors now working in rehab programs lack significant experience and training, and there is no state licensing requirement. Most are ex-addicts whose predominant method is to repeat for others what worked for them. 

The vast majority of these ex-addicts-now-counselors came up through a system based on humiliation and abuse to shame and punish addicts until they give up drugs. 

“Many techniques are used to break through an addict's armor of defenses, including some that embarrass,” says Dr. Brian Greenberg of Walden House, which treats 10,000 addicts annually. 

But he readily agrees that such techniques can do more harm than good. 

“Some who have serious mental illnesses are as fragile as eggs, and may emotionally crack,” he says. “These individuals should never be engaged in a way that embarrasses or humiliates.” 

Yet these are the predominant therapeutic techniques, and counselors have virtually no education in distinguishing who might crack from an in-your-face boot camp approach. 

“Moving drug rehab programs from addiction into mental health issues has created a lot of anxiety for the counseling staff,” says Dave Seymour, a licensed therapist who worked at Walden House. “They're not ready for it, and they're not trained for it.” 

Is Prop 36 doomed to fail? Not necessarily. 

Proper drug treatment is highly effective in getting addicts off drugs, or substantially reducing drug use – and even more effective at decreasing the rate of robberies and mayhem attributable to drugs. 

Californians have to realize that they must augment Prop. 36 with resources for counselor training, mental health and case management In the end, this will save the state money – money now spent on robbery, child abuse, foster care, HIV disease, and more. 

Only if we succeed in changing the programs can we achieve what the voters demanded at the polls last November: that we rehabilitate addicts and help them stay drug free. 

Lonny Shavelson, a Berkeley physician and journalist, is the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 

Reddy’s paying, must his workers suffer too? 

Editor: 

Mr. Reddy has been sentenced. He's going to jail for a long time, and he will pay a big fine.  

I think it's time to stop punishing the Pasand restaurant and the innocent people who work there. It should now be OK for righteous residents of Berkeley to resume patronage. 

With the many restaurant choices in our town, it's a cheap shot to boycott one of them. Have people been vacating the Reddy apartments in droves?  

Steve Geller 

Berkeley 

Forget the stadium, retrofit the labs 

Editor: 

The ongoing activity to spend one hundred million dollars to “retrofit” the UC Stadium on the Hayward Fault exposes the poverty of the think class. 

Less than two minutes up the hill, the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs exist; thus, if one needs fixing doesn’t the other? 

My solution is this: play the first half at Berkeley and the second half at Golden Gate Fields, with University Avenue one-way to the bay at half time.  

Retrofit the Labs instead. 

George Kauffman  

Berkeley  

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision could make a Berkeley ordinance restricting tobacco advertisements near schools unenforceable, legal experts say. 

The Berkeley ordinance became vulnerable to legal challenge last month when the nation’s highest court struck down Massachusetts regulations that would have limited tobacco advertising inside or outside retail stores within 1,000 feet of schools, said Marice Ashe, program director of the Oakland-based Technical Assistance Legal Center.  

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled June 28 that a 1969 federal law requiring warning labels on cigarette packages also contained language prohibiting local and state governments from passing legislation that limits tobacco ads on billboards and in stores. 

“(The ruling) seems to be a devastating blow to all the community activists who’ve been working so hard to try to pass local ordinances that restrict tobacco advertising in areas where youth are present,” said Marcia Brown-Machen, project director for the city’s Tobacco Prevention Program.  

“My prediction is that it will not take long before we start seeing once again in Berkeley a lot more outdoor (tobacco) ads in areas where youth congregate,” Brown-Machen said. 

A spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the ruling Tuesday, other than to say the office is reviewing the Supreme Court decision and will bring its conclusions and recommendations to the City Council soon. 

After more than a year of advocacy by the Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Coalition, an ordinance prohibiting outdoor or storefront tobacco ads within 1,400 feet of schools went into effect in Berkeley in the summer of 1999. 

Similar laws have been passed in more than 30 California cities and counties in recent years, in a movement that gained momentum after internal tobacco industry documents released in 1998 (under court order) revealed that that tobacco industry advertisements have long targeted teenagers. 

According to a 1994 Surgeon General report, more than half of all smokers begin smoking before the age of 14, and 90 percent begin by the age of 19.  

“The fewer times that (youth) are told that smoking is great and wonderful, the better the chance that they won’t start in the first place,” said Tim Moder, a member of the Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Coalition who helped push for the advertising ordinance. 

Ashe said Tuesday storefront tobacco ads around Berkeley schools are likely to proliferate in the months ahead as a result of the ruling, although she pointed out that the ban on billboard advertisements of cigarette brands established by a 1998 settlement between tobacco companies and state governments is not affected by the ruling and will continue. 

A number of other local ordinances restricting tobacco sales are not impacted by last month’s ruling, Ashe said. These include bans on the use of vending machines, “self-service” displays and free samples to promote tobacco products. 

Furthermore, the city can do more, legally, to restrict tobacco advertising, Ashe said. An ordinance in Los Angeles says no more than 10 percent of a storefront can be covered with advertisements of any kind – in order to allow police and others a clear view into the building in case of an emergency. 

Because that law targets all advertisements, and not just tobacco advertisements, it is not impacted by the recent Supreme Court ruling, Ashe said. 

“We’re still assessing the impact of this (ruling),” Ashe said. “It is significant, but the primary message we want to give people is that there is still a lot that can be done.” 

Grassroots groups have been successful in persuading some Berkeley merchants to take down some of their indoor tobacco ads voluntarily, according to Brown-Machen. So, law or no law, some merchants could be persuaded to keep tobacco ads out of their store fronts, Brown-Machen said. 

Kamal Ayyad, owner of Fred’s Market on Telegraph Avenue – just blocks away from Willard Middle School – is one of those merchants.  

Ayyad said he used to make about $1,500 a year through contracts with tobacco sales people where he agreed to advertise their products inside and outside his store. 

“They’re constantly pushing you, you know,” Ayyad said of the tobacco sales people, recalling how they would sometimes visit his store twice a week just to make sure he had their advertisements in place.  

But about four years ago, Ayyad said no more. And after a plea from Willard Middle-schoolers this spring he took down his last tobacco ad – a Camel sign mounted on the wall above his cash register. 

“I can do without the incentive, you know,” Ayyad said Tuesday. “I sympathize with the kids more than the tobacco companies.”

Class helps older adults stay on their toes 

In the warmly lit ceramics classroom at the North Berkeley Senior Center, a group of older adults attentively watch as the instructor starts off a memory improvement class by writing three words and an abbreviation with no apparent association on the board. 

“SWIMS, NOON, MOW, SIS.”  

As soon as instructor Phyllis Pacin turns to the eight students and asks what the four words have in common, she is pelted with possible solutions to the riddle.  

“There are vowels in the middle of each word,” one person says. 

“Each word begins and ends with a consonant and the same letter...” another starts to say and then realizes she is almost right. 

Then after a short silence, and a bit of coaxing from Pacin, student Jeremy Batkin, 80, hits the nail on the head: “They spell the same words upside down as right side up.” 

The class is called Playing With Our Minds and is designed to keep older adults mentally active by increasing memory, verbal expression and visual awareness, according to a flier for the class that meets every Tuesday. 

According to the American Society on Aging, adults who are otherwise healthy can begin to experience memory lapses after the age of 50.  

Connie Lynch, a former microbiologist, who has instructed a mental exercise class at the El Cerrito Senior Center for the last 15 years, said that seniors who occasionally forget where they put the car keys or their best friend’s name while making an introduction can lose confidence.  

She said often their confidence is further eroded by younger adults who “treat them like they’ve lost it because they have a few gray hairs.” 

Lynch said that by staying mentally active, older adults can improve they memories. “Just like your muscles, you can make your brain better by working hard and solving problems and trying new things,” she said. 

Lynch said she was inspired to organize her class in 1986 when she read a UC Berkeley study that examined brain development in lab rats. The study compared rats who were kept in a stimulating environment that included ladders and tunnels to explore, and other rats to socialize with to rats who were merely fed and watered.  

The study showed the mentally stimulated rats not only had more developed brains, compared to the “couch potato” rats but they lived longer as well. 

Lynch said mental stimulation can include simple things like having to describe a paper clip using all five senses but without describing what its purpose is. “An exercise like that forces you to think in detail and in a different way than most of us are used to,” she said. “And the more detail you know about something the more you’ll remember about it.” 

She said these exercises help to heighten awareness which can be important to the safety of many seniors. “It helps you to pay attention to your environment which makes you less likely to trip on a crack in the sidewalk or over child’s toy tricycle or walk into the street against a traffic light.” 

Pacin said she engages her North Berkeley Senior Center class with creative projects designed to focus their attention, senses and creativity. “We will listen to music and discuss what the melody evokes or I’ll have them write about a place they’ve been that they liked or didn’t like,” she said. “And instead of simply saying ‘I just loved going there’ they’ll describe the place in a way that will bring the reader there.” 

On Tuesday the students were instructed to pair off and describe what they did on the Fourth of July. After about five minutes each student recounted to the class what their partner did. The exercise helped students listen actively and focus and remember details in order to communicate to the rest of the class.  

The exercise also appeared to stimulate a lively and interesting conversation. The group quickly covered a variety of topics that ranged from their Fourth experiences to Baptist weddings vs. non-traditional weddings on hippie communes to whether there is a God to a anecdote about a senior (who was not present in the class) smuggling a snake across the Canadian border in her hat. 

Pacin, who has taught ceramics to seniors for the last 10 years at Pleasant Valley Adult School in Oakland, said that part of the class is the social aspect.  

Marilyn Kessinger, 73, who was attending the class for the first time, said she really enjoyed the class. “It’s a very stimulating class,” she said. “I like the problem solving and Phyllis has a lot of energy and a good sense of humor.” 

For more information about the Playing With Our Minds class call the North Berkeley Senior Center at 510-644-6107. Classes are free and meet at 1 p.m. on Tuesdays. 

Teachers and parents of the Berkeley site of Hickman Charter School are increasingly concerned about the impact a state Senate bill restricting home-school funding could have on their children’s education. 

SB 740, which was introduced by State Sen. Jack O’Connell, D-Santa Barbara, and approved by the majority of the Assembly Education Committee at a hearing Tuesday, would cut state money for nonclassroom-based instruction by charter schools by 30 percent over the next three years. It would also require home-schooling charter schools to apply every fiscal year to the State Board of Education for the funding. Until now, these autonomously-run public schools received the same amount of state money as regular schools, regardless of whether they only provided resources to parents to teach their children at home, or whether they offered classroom instruction. 

This could directly affect Hickman Charter School. Based in the central valley, the school has a satellite office on Gilman Street, that serves about 100 students from kindergarten to eighth grade in the area. The office works mainly as a resource center for parents who teach their children at home. Parents and students must meet with the school’s teachers on a regular basis to work together on curricular goals, and the children can also benefit from special education services, such as speech therapy or psychological testing.  

O’Connell said he sponsored the bill to fight against charter schools that illegally keep state money meant for children’s instruction. “This bill is designed to eliminate the few bad charter school operators who are knocking the system,” the senator told the Daily Planet Tuesday afternoon. “We are aware of numerous situations where as much as $5,000 per student is going to creative entrepreneurs to run schools that do not exist.”  

O’Connell said the bill wouldn’t penalize schools not involved in fraudulent activities, since the State Board of Education would continue assigning them full funding as long as they prove to be efficient. But like many charter school advocates who attended Tuesday’s hearing, the administrator and teachers of Hickman Charter School say the legislation’s intent to fight the school operators abusing the system would discriminate against institutions providing quality education.  

“I would hope that (the Assembly Education Committee) would look for other ways, and if there are concerns with a few schools come out with solutions that will not negatively affect the schools that are doing a good job,” said Hickman Director Pat Golding in an interview before the bill was brought to the Assembly Education Committee. 

The main worry for educators at Hickman Charter School is that the state funding restrictions would force them to cut special education programs.  

“In our school many families that have students with special needs are looking for an alternative like ours,” said Golding. “You have to have money for all the special education services.” 

Another source of concern for charter school educators is the requirement to annually reapply for funding to the State Board of Education.  

“I find this especially frightening,” said Jane Stenmark, a teacher at the Berkeley site. “(The schools) wouldn’t know if they can stay at the same site. They would have to find a lease on a new site every year and teachers wouldn’t know from year to year if they would be working or not.” But more than about the uncertainty the legislation would bring to schools such as Hickman, Stenmark said she is worried about letting the Board of Education, an entity that does not necessarily support the charter schools, assess the quality of the education they provide. 

Parents are skeptical too. They feel that cutting the funding of nonclasroom-based charter schools may reduce the chance for their children to find the educational alternative that better fits them. 

“I think it’s really sad,” said Tina Rosselle, a mother of three. “Everybody has different needs and charter schools allow us to do what’s better for children on a daily basis.”  

Roselle’s eldest child has been a student at Berkeley’s Hickman Charter School for two years and her second child will be registered next fall. A former teacher, Rosselle wanted her children to be able to learn at their own pace and style and to have a say in their education. To her, home-schooling was the answer. 

“Every child learns in different ways at different times and you can’t accommodate all that in a classroom,” she said. 

The Legislative Assembly will have the final say. The Education Committee voted 10-1 Tuesday to send the bill to the Assembly members, who could vote on it as early as next month. 

A car fire atop a three-story parking building was extinguished by the Berkeley Fire Department in less than half an hour on Tuesday. 

Because the parking garage at 2999 Regent St. borders a seven-story medical building, the department reacted in force, calling out 24 fire fighters, five engines, two ladder trucks, an ambulance and a chief. 

The blaze was reported at about 2:40 p.m. and extinguished by about 3:15 p.m. 

Assistant chief David Orth said cars can catch fire without incident. 

He said, for example, it’s not that unusual for a fire to break out in a vehicle that has recently had mechanical work done to it. “When a carburetor is rebuilt (for example), that happens,” he said.

Parents of disabled children who attend Berkeley schools made an impassioned appeal to the school board last week to reform the district’s special education programs. 

Too often students in Berkeley do not receive timely assessments of their special education needs, are placed in classes with inadequately trained teachers or are denied services to which they are entitled under law, the parents argued last week. They represented more than 100 families who are part of the Berkeley Special Education Parents Group (BSPED). 

“In our district, they shut the door,” said BSPED parent Beth Fein. “They don’t want to recognize these kids and they don’t want to serve them. It’s an attitude of ‘we’re not going to do this unless you make us.’” 

The district has over 900 special education students, who have a range of disabilities, including speech problems, visual impairment, learning disabilities, mental retardation, autism and cerebral palsy. Depending on a student’s Individualized Education Plan, they might attend all regular classes or all “special education” classes. But by law, the district must provide “appropriate” special instruction without cost to the parent. 

In response to parent concerns, and in an effort to determine if the roughly $4 million the district spends on special education each year could be better spent, the school board has authorized two independent audits of its special education programs in recent weeks. 

“The issue of special education – the quality of our program, the best use of our personnel, the finances – have been an issue for this board for many years,” Board of Education President Terry Doran said at a school board meeting last week. 

Doran said in an interview that Berkeley’s special education programs have a good reputation overall and even tend to draw parents from outside the area to enroll their disabled children in Berkeley schools. 

“For a small district, we have a very high severely handicapped population,” said Joann Biondi, director of the district’s special education programs. 

Furthermore, said Biondi, although state and federal laws require school districts to provide “free and appropriate public education” to every student with special educational needs, the government only reimburses districts for a little over half their special education costs. And the costs are going up, Biondi added. 

“Statewide this is a very serious issue for school districts,” she said. 

But Fein said that, while Berkeley special education programs have some excellent teachers, the system has been dysfunctional for years.  

“The problem is, from the top down, they don’t have the system or even the right attitude to do what needs to be done,” Fein said. 

Virtually every BSPED parent has watched the district’s special education staff sign off on an Individualized Educational Program for their children – as they are required to do by law – and then fail to implement several pieces of the plan, Fein said. In some cases, the district has taken six months to a year just to complete IEPs, although the law says they must do so within 50 days from the time that a student’s needs are assessed, Fein said. 

Only through persistent advocacy – often with the aid of legal counsel – can parents ensure that their children’s needs are met, Fein said.  

And even for the most organized and determined parents, the burden of such advocacy can be enormous. 

Take, for example, the case of Ann McDonald-Cacho and her husband Bernard. 

“Twelve years ago, my husband asked the question, ‘Is it okay to be a disabled person in Berkeley?,’ Ann McDonald-Cacho told the school board last week, recalling how her husband appeared before the board to ask that it improve handicap accessibility to school facilities.  

“At that time the answer was ‘no,’” McDonald-Cacho continued. “Today, we ask the question again. Is it okay to be disabled in Berkeley?  

“No. Not yet.” 

In an interview, McDonald-Cacho said she has been fighting the Berkeley Unified School District’s Special Education Department for 12 years – since her son entered the district – to get it to comply with the law. 

This past year has been a particularly tough year.  

McDonald-Cacho’s son has cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic. He relies on a wheelchair to get from place to place. But when he began his freshman year at Berkeley High last fall, his parents discovered that there was no evacuation plan for him.  

In other words, there was no procedure outlining who would come to his aid if a fire or other emergency should occur while he was in an upper-level classroom.  

Not until eight months into the school year was a teacher trained to help him in an evacuation, McDonald-Cacho said; this at a school where there were upwards of a dozen fires in the 1999-2000 school year. And there are still unresolved problems with the evacuation plan, McDonald-Cacho said. 

For much of the year, however, McDonald-Cacho was just focused on getting her son to school – with or without an evacuation plan. That’s because, despite records going back 10 years indicating that her son is severely allergic to cats, the district hired a cat owner to work as her son’s “instructional aid” (an attendant who, in this case, needed to be at the boy’s side all day long, moving him from class to class, typing out his answers to teachers’ questions, and more). 

Faced with an alarming allergic reaction by their son, McDonald-Cacho and her husband asked that another instructional aide be hired to work with their son.  

It took the district four months to find a replacement, during which time McDonald-Cacho’s son remained out of school. In a crowning insult, the special education department did not provide him home schooling services during this period, as it was required to do by law, McDonald-Cacho said. 

Searching for the right words to express her frustration, McDonald-Cacho said simply: “It’s hard to take time out of your life when you’re supporting a disabled child and try to battle this stuff.” 

While McDonald-Cacho and other BSPED parents are ecstatic with the school board’s decision to authorize audits of it special education programs, they also plan to file a group complaint with the State Board of Education this summer to bring additional pressure to bare. 

They want to know, among other things, how much money the district spends paying attorneys in its attempt to deny services to special education students. 

Biondi maintained that while the district has a strong financial incentive to find reasonable ways of limiting special education services, special education staff do not take an “adversarial” approach to parents as BSPED members allege. In the vast majority of cases disputes are resolved through simply mediation, rather than through a formal hearing process, she said. 

“A parent comes in and wants the best for a child, and rightly so,” Biondi said. “However, the best is not what we can offer.” 

Still, McDonald-Cacho and others wonder how things might be different if the district and special education parents alike could direct the money they spend on lawyers into special education services instead. 

And as for the need for greater government funding, said McDonald-Cacho: “They should be embracing families and saying, ‘Can we work together, will you advocate with us?’” 

Tuesday, July 10

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 Don, 525-3565 

Writing and Resistance  

In A Culture of Amnesia 

6 - 7:45 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue 

Classroom #2 

Part of a workshop series on concepts and strategies for resistance through the spoken and written word, taught by Joyce E. Young. $12. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

Derby Street at MLK Jr. Way 

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. 

548-3333 

Wednesday, July 11

What’s Cooking? 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the Lawrence Hall of Science Wednesday FUN-days. Fun experiments you can do in your own kitchen. Museum admission $3 - $7. 642-5132 

“Global Banquet”  

7:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue 

Part of the Anti-Globalization series. Tonight a presentation of “Global Banquet,” a look at farmers both local and in developing countries trying to survive in the global economy. Discussion led by Anuradha Mittal. Small donation requested. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Board of Library Trustees 

7 p.m. 

South Branch Library 

1901 Russell Street 

Regular meeting. Among items to be discussed are the ADA Renovation and Building/Expansion. 

644-6095 or 548-1240 (TDD) 

Police Review Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Regular meeting with continued discussion on Marijuana Arrests. 

644-6480 pr 644-6915 (TDD) 

Thursday, July 12

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week East Bay Science and Arts Middle School evoke the sounds of Trinidadian Carnival with a steel drum performance. 

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide Presentation. 

Twenty years in the making, the 150-mile Tahoe Rim Trail is now complete. Tahoe Rim Trail Association board member Trena Bristol joins TRT through-hikers Steve Andersen and Art Presser for a slide presentation on great day hikes and backpacking trips on the TRT. Free. 527-4140 

Quit Smoking Class 

6 - 8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

A six week quit smoking class. 

Free to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 or e-mail at: quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1902 Hearst Avenue 

A public hearing on AB 487, Remediation of Under Prescribing Pain Medication, with Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, medical experts, and patients. 540-3660 

art.SITES SPAIN 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Avenue 

Sidra Stitch, author of “art.SITES SPAIN: Contemporary Art and Architecture Handbook,” will present a slide show and talk on the most recent trends in art and architecture in Spain. Free. 843-3533 

Friday, July 13

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. Intake process required. Meeting Fridays through August 17.  

$8 - $35 sliding scale per session  

Call 548-8283 x534 or x522 

Friday the 13th Dance 

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Avenue 

Celebrating the success of this years Berkeley Arts Festival, supporters can dance to jazz, swing and slow songs at this Friday the 13th Dance: The post hoc ergo propter hoc Hop. “Just Friends” will provide the music. Admission by donation, to benefit the Festival. 

486-0411 

Saturday, July 14

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street  

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. Free. 548-3333 

Sunday, July 15

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn drive train maintenance and chain repair from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free 527-4140 

Buddhist Practice 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Mark Henderson on “Fearlessness on the Bodhisattva Path.” Free. 

843-6812 

— compiled by Sabrina Forkish and Guy Poole 

Second Annual Wobbly High  

Mass 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck (@ Prince St.) 

Presented by Folk This! and friends, an evening of musical satire, subversion and sacrilege. This year’s theme is “Reclaiming Tomorrow,” a historical journey toward a future society without classes or bosses. 

$8 

849-2568 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Skronkathon BBQ 

1 - 11 p.m. 

Tuva Space 

3192 Adeline 

The First Annual Transbay Skronkathon Barbecue. Dozens of Bay Area musicians will play “multi-conceptual-deconstructed-creative-music.” Charcoal provided, bring your own items to barbecue. Free. 

649-8744 

The Wizard School of Magic 

1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the LHS Top of the Bay Family Sundays, “Benny and Bebe and The Wizard School of Magic” is inspired by the Harry Potter stories. Learn what it takes to become a real wizard. Museum admission $3 - $7. 

642-5132 

PedalPower 

8:30 a.m. 

Lake Merritt Garden Center 

666 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland 

Bike ride and pancake brunch fundraiser for the Asian Domestic Violence Clinic which provides free or low-cost legal services for abused women and children in the East Bay. Fourteen mile ride from Lake Merritt to Portview Park and back. $5 - $25. 

415-567-6255 

Corporation stole local weekly weekly 

By Becky O’Mally 

The latest installment in the continuing saga of The Dumbing Down of Practically Everything showed up in East Bay free boxes last weekend. The almost-august and certainly respected East Bay Express, a reliable source of information and occasional good writing, has been transmogrified by its new corporate masters into a clone of the multiple cheap tacky tabloids that form the New Times chain.  

It now looks just like the SF Weekly, itself previously changed from an interesting alternative paper into a loud-mouthed throwaway vehicle for sex ads. We didn’t need this. 

As the weekend progressed, I got reviews from everyone. In Berkeley, everyone’s a critic, and they can be merciless. Civic gadfly Jim Sharp: “In a word, yuck!”  

Several friends noticed the prominent play given to letters praising high-rise development in Berkeley, with no balancing letters from opponents which had certainly been received by the old Express. That’s the same tack the SF Weekly takes, leading one commentator to suspect that the whole New Times chain is actually a front for real estate interests.  

An interesting theory, but I can’t confirm it, though the headline “Rent Stalinization Board” on a snippy story about rent control is telling. 

It doesn’t quite explain the other change that several people pointed out: coverage of classical music in the calendar listings has just about vanished. Unless it’s all part of a giant plot to replace us over-intellectual Berkeley fogies with brainless yahoos. It all fits together – first they shrink our brains, then they take our homes.  

Just like in “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” My science nerd friend, in support of this theory, complains that Cecil Adams, the entertaining answer man who writes about a variety of factual topics, has been replaced by SF Weekly’s Dan Savage, who writes about kinky sex. 

You can also tell a lot from the in-house ads. The new slogan, repeated in various display boxes, is: “...look’n good East Bay Express” (sic). Can’t even spell their feeble attempts at dialect slang. Also: an ad for a managing editor, “no phone calls or e-mails, please,” asking for replies to a Denver P.O. Box. One qualification: “a firm grasp of investigative reporting,” which in cheap throwaways frequently means, in the words of an experienced reporter of my acquaintance “start with a premise, then prove it by any means necessary.” 

Don’t get me wrong.  

I was once, in my callow youth, an investigative reporter myself. In fact, I wrote an investigative piece for the original authentic New Times (no relation, as far as I know), a short-lived seventies magazine that broke some important stories. And I even worked for the Bay Guardian for a while. But that’s how I know that, even though Bruce Brugman was sure right about PG&E, low-budget quick-and-dirty investigative reporting all too often produces more newsstand headlines than substantial documentation of real scandals.  

It would be nice to see some genuine investigative reporting coming out of the Express, but I’m not holding my breath. I’ve read the SF Weekly. 

And the format re-design by a “noted New York designer” and “the New Times design team”? Small print, big headlines, incomprehensible pull-quotes superimposed on fuzzy “arty” photos, much less space devoted to content... It speaks for itself: loud, brassy and incoherent. 

Wearing my mid-life entrepreneur’s hat, however, I see in the demise of the Express as we knew it the chance for a new publication to fill its market niche.  

The Daily Planet has done a great job of creating a newspaper for grownups in Berkeley, and there’s a parallel opportunity for re-creation of a middlebrow weekly with some pretensions to culture and substance.  

If the publishers of the Planet want to take it on as a magazine section, more power to them. Past local attempts at magazine/calendar publications for the Berkeley-Oakland audience could not compete with the successful East Bay Express, but now that New Times has bought the goose that laid the golden egg and killed it, someone should try again. 

Beth El builds community, needs Oxford space 

The Daily Planet received the following letter addressed to Mayor Shirley Dean: 

I write to urge you to support the decision of the Zoning Adjustments Board to grant Congregation Beth El a use permit for a new synagogue and school at 1301 Oxford St. 

Our modern west is the most individualistic society history has ever seen, and (to paraphrase the Gettysberg Address) it remains to be seen whether a society this individualistic can long endure.  

Its working premise is: go out into the world to fill your milk pail, and then retire into the privacy of your home to watch television or whatever.  

If a school, church, or synagogue creates more traffic and fewer parking spaces for me, all other considerations go by the board.  

This overlooks the profound contributions that institutions make to the building of communities. 

I am familiar with Beth El, having served as their Scholar-in-Residence a few years ago and through knowing several of their congregants.  

This lovely institution plays an important role in creating our quality Berkeley community. Its situation in the heart of our neighborhood and its many community outreach programs provide us a living, vibrant resource that enriches all our lives.  

Beth El and other institutions like it are the antidote to the ills of a self-centered world. 

Huston Smith 

Thomas J Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of  

Philosophy, Emeritus  

Syracuse University 

Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, Retired 

University of California, Berkeley 

Berkeley High School Truancy Policy 

Editor: 

Thank you very much for your coverage of Thursday’s Berkeley Unified School District board meeting and of the discussion of the proposed truancy policy at Berkeley High School.  

Ben Lumpkin’s article of Monday, July 9th thoroughly presented Youth Together’s proposed Peer Advocacy Program. However, I would like to clarify my statement that “People who are already used to not going to class probably will keep not going to class.” 

I intended for the statement to include “...without the help of the Peer Advocacy Program.” A major priority of Youth Together’s proposed Peer Advocacy Program is to encourage all students to attend class regularly. 

Thanks for keeping the community informed about this important issue. 

Immanuel Foster  

student, Berkeley High 

The San Francisco Mime Troupe brings its new musical play “1600 Transylvania” to Berkeley next weekend with Saturday and Sunday afternoon performances at Cedar Rose Park.  

This is the company’s 40th year performing free shows around the Bay Area. “1600 Transylvania” is one of the best Mime Troupe productions I’ve seen.  

With interesting story twists and turns, it’s a thoughtful and timely moral fable about economic compromise – about getting one’s principles bought out. 

Set in and around today’s White House,” 1600 Transylvania” – written by Michael Gene Sullivan and Ellen Callas – borrows from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and some complicated political analysis of court decisions that used the 14th Amendment (1868) to the Constitution to give corporations the same legal rights as individual citizens. 

Director Sullivan, the acting ensemble and the band have put together a terrific production – funny and tight (a 70-minute running time with no intermission), with suspense in the story right up to the very end. 

“1600 Transylvania” interweaves several story strands. At the top, reporters at a White House Press conference explain to the new guy Renfield (Conrad Cimarra) why it is not acceptable procedure to ask the tough questions – such as why is the president’s top advisor in the energy business? Or what are the vice president’s connections to power company Enron. 

When Renfield persists with the tough questions, he’s rewarded with a high paying job working for the president – at the same time that a vampire bat bites him. 

In a parallel story, young high tech entrepreneurs Shamina (Velina Brown) and Lucy (Anastasia Coon) pitch their new product which switches televisions to low power during commercials. 

But the vice president doesn’t like it because his political cabal has discovered that the route to power lies in lulling citizens to inaction through the lifestyle fantasies communicated in television commercials. 

One of the women is bought off, and the entrepreneuses’ business taken over by a company that manufactures gasoline-powered air conditioners in Tierra del Fuego. Says one observer, “There’re some little girls down there who really need the jobs.” 

Meanwhile, hospital researcher Professor Van Helsing (Victor Toman) tries to track down a strange epidemic that turns “normal people into servants of evil.” He traces it to a mutation of bloodsuckers that emerged in the wake of 14th Amendment court decisions. 

And so it goes. Practically everyone is co-opted by the money/vampire sickness. 

The comedic acting is terrific, in vintage, broad Mime Troupe style. Conrad Cimarra is funny as the tough journalist Renfield, turned tortured mind-controlled presidential goon. 

As the vice president, Ed Holmes is a striking Dick Cheney look-alike, both physically and in his body carriage, with hands folded in that manner of Cheney’s that is both benign and threatening.  

This vice president promises the country “a genetically altered chicken in every pot.” 

Brown is great as naïve dot-commer Shamina, looking for love, and not quite getting it. Coon is a house afire as her brassy sold-out partner. 

Amos Glick plays the young president with a Texas accent who promises to put our country’s trust “in the corporate community.” 

The show’s short song and dance numbers are great, with music by Jason Sherbundy, and funny, pointed political lyrics by longtime Mime Trouper Bruce Barthol of Country Joe and the Fish fame. 

Dot-commer Shamina (Brown) sings a sweet love ballad “Guy Named Gene” about falling for Renfield. Her business partner Lucy (Coon) stirs up sexy evil with her ode to money and power, “The Winning Side.” 

Though still broad in typical Mime Troupe fashion, “1600 Transylvania” is a more complicated, thoughtful and interesting script than I’ve seen from the company in recent years. And, as always, a very timely one. 

It opened July 4th in San Francisco’s Dolores Park to a captivated audience numbering in the thousands, who gave the company a rousing standing ovation at the end of the show. 

For the Berkeley shows this weekend, get there early with your blanket and picnic if you want a good spot up close. And don’t forget the hat and sun block. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for “American Theater,” “Back Stage West,” “Callboard,” and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@yahoo.com. 

Mayor Shirley Dean has put a new recommendation on the City Council’s agenda that asks the city manager to undertake a study of the growing number of day labors that congregate on Hearst Avenue in west Berkeley looking for short-term work. 

Dean put a similar item on the council’s June 19 agenda but it was removed by Councilmember Kriss Worthington who said he was concerned about the day laborers being treated unfairly, because the recommendation was generated by a letter written by business owners. 

Dean has since removed the original item and has submitted a second recommendation with new language.  

Dean says in her recommendation the number of day laborers is growing along Hearst Avenue where they gather in hopes of finding work from contractors and home owners who buy supplies at Truitt and White Lumber Company located at 642 Hearst Ave. 

“Many of these men seeking work may be undocumented,” Dean’s recommendation reads. “There are currently no accommodations (bathrooms, shelter, supervision) established to cope with this number of people (estimated as up to 150 in a given hour)... and many store owners and customers are reporting problems caused by the current lack of accommodations.” 

Dean asks that the city manager meet with the laborers, business owners and social agencies to gather information about the situation and that he meet with representatives from other cities that are experiencing the same phenomenon to find out which solutions have worked and which have failed. 

Dean says in her report that $8,000 is available in the Economic Development division’s budget to perform a comprehensive study. 

The North Shattuck Business Improvement District 

The council will hold a public hearing on the establishment of a business improvement district that will consist of about eight square blocks along Shattuck Avenue north of Delaware Street to Rose Street. The district will also include some properties on Delaware, Vine and Walnut streets. 

Depending on property use, there will be a varying tax assessment to provide services to the newly formed business district. Each year, retail businesses will pay about 13.5 cents per square foot, offices 10.75 cents a square foot and residencies 8 cents per square foot. 

The assessment is expected to generate $162,000 a year for the life of the organization, which is proposed for 10 years, according to a staff report from the Economic Development Division. 

Services to the district will include maintenance such as regular sidewalk sweeping, tree planting, watering and trimming and graffiti removal. There will also be increased lighting and a safety policy which is described in the Management District Plan as “dealing with homeless.”  

According to the Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994, a public hearing is required before property in a proposed Business Improvement District can be assessed. If protests are received from property owners who will pay 50 percent or more of the assessment, no further action on the proposed district will be taken for a period of one year. Written protests are being accepted by the City Clerk’s Office. 

Transportation consolidation confusion 

As an example of the confusion and conflict that usually occurs in Berkeley over the traffic issues is the attempt to reorganize and consolidate transportation planning with traffic engineering. 

The council will consider several recommendations from three commissions calling for different solutions to ongoing traffic problems, including unsafe intersections, increased traffic congestion and a shortage of parking. The Transportation Commission suggests the immediate consolidation of Transportation Planning, with Traffic Engineering under the Planning and Development Department’s roof. 

But the Public Works Commission recommends holding off until a thorough study is completed that considers all potential options and the Commission on Disability recommends the consolidation of the two traffic functions take place under the Public Works Department roof. 

The city recently lost its head traffic engineer and its chief traffic planner (who quit after just three weeks). Both cited poor organization and municipal inertia as reasons for their departure. 

Other items 

The council will likely consolidate and approve two items that call for support of $12 million county pilot program that will provide all middle and high school students who qualify for the free or reduced lunch program with bus passes for all AC Transit lines. 

There is also a BART to ART recommendation that will discount $2 off all theater tickets for patrons who can present a BART ticket at the box office. 

The council will also consider a Sunshine Ordinance that was first on the council’s agenda in March. The ordinance calls for increased access to all public records and better posting of all public meetings.  

And now, it seems, there’s four candidates for the local State Assembly race. 

Unless anyone else jumps in. Or out. 

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, attorney Charles Ramsey, Oakland City Councilmember Jane Brunner and David Brown, chief of staff to Oakland Supervisor Alice Lai Bitker – are candidates for the 14th Assembly District seat to be vacated by term-limited Assemblymember Dion Aroner. 

In an interview Monday, Worthington said he had finally made a decision - just that morning – to plunge into the race. Before announcing the decision, he had waited for the other potential candidates who share his progressive politics to make up their minds – poet/professor June Jordan, El Cerrito Councilmember Mark Friedman, environmentalist and former Berkeley Councilmember Nancy Skinner and Berkeley Councilmember Linda Maio all decided they would not seek the post. Worthington had said he would not run against any of them. 

On the other hand, Brunner confirmed she’s in the race. “I’m definitely running,” she said Monday. She’s been getting endorsements and she’s been fundraising, but declined to say how much money she’s raised before she has to report it to the state. She’s not without endorsers with deep pockets – Mayor Jerry Brown and Supervisor Don Perata among them. 

And Brunner’s got deep ties to labor, which generally means money and active phone banks. As a teacher in Berkeley, she was a member of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers negotiating team and, when she became an attorney, she worked for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. 

A good chunk of Brunner’s funds will likely go to pay for the services of her high-priced campaign consultant, Larry Tramutola. 

Worthington, an unabashed progressive who’s in the middle of his second city council stint, said he’s not afraid of Brunner’s fundraising ability. He said he’s always won his campaigns on the work of foot soldiers and expects to raise about half of the $400,000 he estimates Brunner will raise. 

Worthington said stepping into the role of assemblymember will allow him to work on various questions – including senior, disabled, school and labor issues – on another level. Is David Brown a threat? “I’ve never heard of him,” Worthington said, adding that if Brown’s a cross between June Jordan and Franklin Roosevelt, he’d pull out of the race. 

Dave Brown said he is almost definitely running. “I’m in the process of talking to people,” he said. Brown, who lives in Oakland, was born in Berkeley and raised in El Sobrante. He attended Stanford University where he said he was a student activist, working to promote multi-cultural education. 

He’s experienced in running campaigns for others, including Assemblymember Wilma Chan’s supervisoral campaign. He said he expects she will endorse him. Brown said he also worked on the national Jesse Jackson campaign. 

In an interview Monday, El Cerrito City Councilmember Mark Friedman said he decided not to make the grueling run in order to continue the work he’s doing with the Alameda County Children and Families Commission, distributing Proposition 10 (tobacco tax) funds. “I figure I could do more good continuing to do the work I’m doing now,” Friedman said. 

While he said he believed he could win the race, Friedman said the task of fundraising was daunting and term limits meant that almost as soon as he got into office, he’d be looking around for another job. 

John Delrymple, head of the Contra Costa Central Labor Council, has reportedly also pulled out of the race. He was unavailable on Monday. 

Richmond resident Charles Ramsey, who could not be reached Monday, announced his candidacy several months ago. His supporters at that time included Richmond Councilmembers Irma Anderson and Tom Butts, as well as moderate former Berkeley Councilmember Mary Wainwright. A member of the West Contra Costa School Board, Ramsey says he has promoted “progressive” labor practices in the district, including his support for domestic partner benefits. 

A great unknown is whether the 14th Assembly District will be redesigned as a result of the 2000 census. The district runs from North Oakland through Emeryville and Berkeley, up through ALbany and El Cerrito, to San Pablo and Richmond. The district is heavily Democrat and most observers see the Democratic primary in March 2002 as the race to be won. 

Candidates were to appear Monday night at Contra Costa Central Labor Council endorsement interviews. The labor organization’s decision will likely be finalized in several weeks.

The City Council is expected to approve funds tonight for completion of the High Efficiency Traffic Signal program that will govern the city’s intersections with signal lights that burn cheaper, longer and brighter. 

The switch from inefficient, incandescent lights to light emitting diodes began in late 1999 and is already saving the city as much as $120,000 a year, according to a staff report. The city has already changed the red lights at all 126 intersections and the green lights at about 32 intersections. The city’s energy officer is now asking the council for $120,000 to complete the transformation to LED lighting. 

The upfront cost will be offset by a PG&E rebate of $40,000 and an estimated $33,000 in energy savings over the first two-and-a-half years the lights are in use.  

“The up-front investment is significantly higher,” De Snoo said. “The cost of a traditional, incandescent light is about 50 cents and the LED fixture costs about $100.” 

But De Snoo said the savings are huge once energy savings are factored in. LED lights use about 85-90 percent less energy than incandescent lights use to illuminate traffic signals. In addition they have an average 10-year life span compared to incandescent lighting, which has an average life-span of 13 months. 

According to the staff report recommendation, the LED lighting will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, from electric generation plants, by as much as 156 tons annually. 

De Snoo said the lights will be changed by the Department of Public Works as part of the regular traffic signal maintenance. He said the remaining 94 intersections should be converted to LED lighting during the next 12 months. Currently there are no plans to change yellow traffic lights because they are illuminated for an insignificant amount of time.  

Caltrans spokesperson Jeff Weiss said the state has been using LED lighting in traffic signals since 1995, soon after the technology became available. “The state has saved millions of dollars in the last few years,” he said. “Caltrans maintains thousands of traffic signals throughout the state and with 85-percent savings in energy costs it adds up awful quick.” 

De Snoo said the main difference between incandescent and LED lighting is that LED “glows cold.” 

“Incandescent lights work on a heating coil, once the coils are hot enough they glow,” De Snoo said adding that only about five percent of the energy used to light an incandescent bulb is actual light. “So really what you have is a little electric heater that glows.” 

LED lighting, which is used in cellular phones, Palm Pilots and other battery-operated devices, emits a photon that is generated when energy connects with a chemical compound in the fixture. The photon that comes out as light is already colored so there is no need for shaded lenses.  

In addition to cost efficiency, the LED lighting is also safer according to De Snoo. Since the lights are less likely to fail - only one of the LED red lights that were installed in 1999 has failed so far - there is less chance of drivers becoming confused, which often occurs when traffic lights fail. Also city crews will be less likely to be called out to repair failed lights during dangerous high-traffic conditions. 

According to the official web site of the City of Scottsdale, Ariz., which switched to LED traffic lighting three years ago, there is less chance of “phantom illumination” which can occur from lens reflection when the sun is low. 

“Everything about these lights is good,” said Energy Commission Vice Chair Susan Ode. “The city has been very careful about testing the red lights and it’s clear they are a very smart thing to do.” 

De Snoo said LED lighting for the home is not yet available because the technology for white light has not yet been refined. “Only a narrow band of colors are available right now,” he said. “But it’s only a matter of time before LED lighting is available for the home.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Online grocer Webvan Group Inc. closed Monday and said it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The decision will lay off 2,000 employees and terminate the Foster City-based company’s service to 750,000 active customers in seven markets – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and Portland, Ore. 

Launched in mid-1999, Webvan had been one of the Internet’s highest profile businesses. Promising to revolutionize the supermarket industry by taking orders online and delivering groceries to customers’ homes, Webvan had raised about $800 million from venture capitalists and Wall Street. 

The company never came close to making money, losing $830 million since its inception. 

“We are very proud of what we accomplished,” Webvan spokesman Bud Grebey said in an interview Monday. “We do believe we had a brilliant concept. We were just ahead of our time.” 

Webvan’s board voted to close the company Friday, Grebey said, but didn’t start closing its distribution centers until Sunday. Webvan also pulled the plug on its Web site Sunday. 

Each of the company’s hourly workers will receive their earned wages, accrued vacation plus a $900 gift from an anonymous donor, Grebey said. Salaried workers will receive their bonuses for the first half of the year, as well as earned wages and accrued vacation. 

Although Webvan had pledged to weather the dot-com downturn, the company’s collapse didn’t come as a surprise. The company has pulled out of three markets – Atlanta, Sacramento and the Dallas area – in an effort to conserve its dwindling cash reserves. 

Webvan had warned that it needed an additional $25 million by March 2002 to stay open, but a downturn in customer orders during the past three months forced the company to burn through even more money than management anticipated. 

As of June 30, Webvan estimates it had $38 million to $40 million in cash, down from roughly $100 million on March 31. 

The company plans to file for bankruptcy in the next week or two, Grebey said. Under the supervision of a bankruptcy judge, Webvan will draw up a plan for repaying its creditors. 

Webvan listed liabilities totaling $96.5 million as of March 31 in its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Webvan dealt with 75 distributors and 500 vendors, according to its SEC filings. 

The company’s list of unsecured creditors will include Webvan’s former CEO George Shaheen, who resigned in April, triggering a clause in his contract that required the company to pay him $31,250 per month for the rest of his life. With the bankruptcy, Shaheen “will have to get in line with the rest of our creditors,” Grebey said. 

To pay its creditors, Webvan plans to sell its remaining assets. The company had invested heavily in a network of huge distribution centers to support its delivery service. The largest centers, spanning roughly 350,000 square feet, are in Carol Stream, Ill., Suwanee, Ga. and Oakland, Calif. 

The bankruptcy represents a final blow for Webvan’s devastated shareholders. The company’s market value has plunged by $7.2 billion since Webvan’s November 1999 initial public offering at $15 per share. The stock peaked at $34 shortly after the IPO, but has been stuck below $1 per share all of this year. The stock’s last trading price Monday was 6 cents per share. 

In a sign of the company’s desperation, Webvan’s shareholders last month approved a 1-for-25 reverse stock split in a last-ditch effort to boost the shares above $1 and avoid being delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

The company Monday said it will abandon the reverse stock split, resulting its ouster from Nasdaq. 

On The Web: 

http://www.webvan.com 

NEW YORK — Bargain-hunting and news of an unsolicited bid for AT&T’s cable TV business helped revive blue chip and technology stocks Monday, pushing the major indexes higher after a weeklong slump. 

The gains were moderate, though, reflecting investors’ unwillingness to make any big moves ahead of upcoming second-quarter earnings reports. 

“People are waiting because they’re worried. There’s a lot of fear there could be more slowness in the economy,” said Ronald J. Hill, investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. 

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 46.72 at 10,299.40, according to preliminary calculations, its first advance in a week. 

The broader market was also higher, with the Nasdaq composite index rising 22.55 to 2,026.71, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gaining 8.19 to 1,198.78. 

The Dow’s biggest gain came from AT&T, which rose $1.98 to $18.70 on news that Comcast made an unsolicited $41 billion bid for its AT&T Broadband cable TV unit. Comcast fell $2.98 to $39.30. 

AT&T’s price was adjusted at the start of Monday’s session when its wireless unit was spun off. AT&T Wireless ended the session lower, down 59 cents at $16.56. 

Some light bargain-hunting in technology stocks after last week’s selloff also helped. EMC rose 72 cents to $22.32, while Advanced Micro Devices gained 40 cents to $21.20. Warnings from both companies helped precipitate the Dow’s 227-point decline Friday. 

Analysts put little stake in the gains, however, noting that investors remain rattled after warnings from more than 720 companies that second-quarter results will fall below expectations. 

They say that before many investors will make a substantial commitment to the market, they must see real proof that the economy and company earnings are indeed turning around. That means better earnings — and more concrete predictions of when business will improve. 

“What starts to wear on the psyche of the market, are all these warnings about business not getting any better. That gets people questioning whether the recovery is coming,” said Charles White, portfolio manager for Avatar Associates. 

Indeed, earnings warnings stressed the market again Monday. NCR, a maker of cash registers, tumbled $6.07 to $38.70 after announcing it will miss second-quarter earnings expectations by as much as 22 cents a share. 

Still, there is some optimism that second-quarter earnings won’t be as bad as feared, especially since so many companies have lowered their forecasts and their stocks have already sold off in response. 

“I think you’ll see that earnings aren’t quite as gloomy as many have been expecting,” said Hill, the Brown Brothers Harriman strategist. “I think many companies will meet, or even beat, expectations.” 

Advancing issues narrowly outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 1.042 billion shares, up from 1.039 billion Friday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which measures the performance of smaller company stocks, rose 2.72 to 485.98. 

Overseas markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei stock average closed down 0.5 percent. Germany’s DAX index rose 0.1 percent, France’s CAC-40 gained 0.6 percent, while Britain’s FT-SE 100 lost 0.2 percent. 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

WASHINGTON — ETrade Securities, one of the largest online brokerage firms, has been fined $90,000 by a self-policing brokers’ group for allegedly violating advertising rules by making misleading claims. 

ETrade neither admitted to nor denied the allegations by NASD Regulation in a settlement announced Monday. NASD Regulation, the disciplinary arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers, said ETrade violated the group’s advertising rules in an August 1999 newspaper ad for its technology index mutual fund and in two direct-mail marketing campaigns in 1999 and 2000. 

The direct-mail ads were sent to 9.8 million prospective investors, NASD Regulation said in a news release. 

The group’s rules prohibit advertising that makes exaggerated claims for returns on investment, or is misleading or deceptive. 

NASD Regulation, which also censured ETrade, also alleged that the company violated supervision rules by failing to require its compliance officials to obtain a final version of advertising material for review. 

But there was no determination made that ETrade intentionally violated any rules or regulations, said John Metaxas, spokesman for the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company. 

“There has not been any finding that anyone was harmed by the advertisements or that anybody relied on the advertisements to their detriment,” he added. 

Regulators have been giving some types of financial advertising increased scrutiny since the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Levitt, publicly criticized online brokerage advertising in 1999. He likened some of the ads to commercials for the lottery, luring investors with the implied promise of quick riches and no mention of risk. 

During the heyday of online trading before the market’s tumble last year, ads for online brokerage firms seemed to be everywhere: on prime time, wrapped around big sports events, including the Super Bowl, and in newspapers. Some of the ads were aggressive, edgy or humorous. 

NASD Regulation has reviewed ads and even had some of them killed, both by online and traditional brokerages. 

The brokers’ group has been investigating the advertising practices of ETrade for some time. The company disclosed last August that both NASD Regulation and the SEC were examining the practices. 

The SEC dropped its case after it found that ETrade’s advertising hadn’t violated anti-fraud rules, The Wall Street Journal reported last month, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the investigation. 

In the NASD Regulation case, the group said: 

—In the newspaper ad in August 1999 introducing its technology index mutual fund, ETrade said the fund’s objective was to match, before fees and expenses, the total return of the stocks making up the Goldman Sachs Technology Index. The ad also said the new mutual fund was ranked by mutual fund analyst Morningstar as the lowest-cost tech-index fund, but in fact Morningstar had not ranked the ETrade fund. 

The ad also referred to the 62.4 percent return rate of the Goldman Sachs fund, but failed to disclose that the ETrade fund was a new one with no performance history and to clearly distinguish between the two. 

—ETrade’s “Check Coupon Direct Mailers,” sent to 6.6 million prospective investors between July 1999 and April 2000, had a check-style coupon made out to the recipient offering a $75 bonus to people who opened a brokerage account with ETrade. The bonus would be credited to the account immediately, the mailers said, but in fact it could actually take several weeks. 

The mailers also inaccurately portrayed the $75 as a guaranteed return on investment rather than a bonus for opening an account. 

—The company’s “Prequalified for Margin Direct Mailers,” sent to 3.2 million investors between October 1999 and April 2000, said the recipient had been selected to receive a margin account based on his or her credit history. In fact, ETrade’s approval for margin accounts did not include a review of credit history. 

Investors buy stocks on margin by borrowing part of the purchase price from their brokerage firm and putting up the securities as collateral for the loan. 

—— 

On the Net: 

NASD Regulation: http://www.nasdr.com 

ETrade: http://www.etrade.com 

Securities and Exchange Commission: http://www.sec.gov 

Mr. Confetti, the marionette, kicked and danced and even spun on his hands, moving to the beat of a group of animated Taiko drummers; juice from fresh-picked peaches poured down shirt fronts as market-goers strolled in the sun; connoisseurs fingered hand-made quilts and looked longingly at Elaine Pruitt’s sparkling “wearable art.” And even in the stress-free environment of Sunday’s first-ever West Berkeley Market, there were folks ready to enjoy a “quickie” massage. 

Dave Cohen, founder of Berkeley’s much-celebrated Pedal Express - the folks who deliver packages and such by bike – was there with a new venture: importing “tricycles” from Denmark. They’re actually much more than simply three-wheeled bikes. One on display at the market was an electric trike made for transporting very large packages. Another was a person-powered three-wheeler, on which Cohen had transported his twin nephews down to the market at the foot of University Avenue. The pre-schoolers rode in an enclosed box in front of the bike, rather than behind as is often the case in other bikes made to carry kids. 

Not far from Cohen, another Berkeley resident, Katya Madrid, was concentrating on her project – drawing an elaborate henna tattoo on David Page’s shoulder. Nearby, Darrie Bennett, who lives just over the Oakland border, was thoroughly enjoying a demonstration of a plastic massage tool. His smile told it all. 

There was something for everyone, with the kids grinning as story teller Madame Ovary told tales with her egg-like props such as eggloos that open up to show play people or animals inside. She also used her ingenuity to transform a piece of old industrial waste into a sparkling crown. 

JoJo La Plume from San Francisco not only makes her marionettes – it took her a couple of months to make Mr. Confetti, whose costume included tiny beads – but puts on a show that drew applause from people of all ages who had stopped at her booth at the market. 

The Taiko Drummers from Emeryville filled the block-long “mercado” with their vibrant rhythms, only overpowered by the roar of an Amtrack train. While the beating rhythms filled up the market place in sound, the smell of popcorn popped on a huge wood-fired kettle permeated it on another level.  

And if popcorn was not what the customer wanted, she could step to the booth next door and sample a somosa from Quick-n-ezee Indian Foods, a San Leandro-based kitchen. 

In all, organizers, who’ve worked for three years to get the market up and running on University Avenue between Third and Fourth streets, called their first day a success. “It’s wonderful,” said Willie Phillips, president of the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation, sponsor of the market. 

Phillips says he’s ready for more. While vendors had come Sunday from Oakland, Piedmont, San Leandro, Benecia and as far away as Monterey, there were few West Berkeley vendors involved. Among the goals of the WBNDC, is to involve more local vendors, especially low income people. People interested in booth space can call 654-6346.

Monday, July 9

Draft Environmental  

Impact Report for UC Berkeley Northeast Quadrant project 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

105 North Gate Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Northeast Quadrant Science and Safety Projects, which will replace old, seismically poor research facilities with modern, safe structures. 

642-7720 

Tuesday, July 10

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 Don, 525-3565 

Writing and Resistance  

In A Culture of Amnesia 

6 - 7:45 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue 

Classroom #2 

Part of a workshop series on concepts and strategies for resistance through the spoken and written word, taught by Joyce E. Young. $12. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

Derby Street at MLK Jr. Way 

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. 

548-3333 

Wednesday, July 11

What’s Cooking? 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

UC Berkeley 

Part of the Lawrence Hall of Science Wednesday FUN-days. Fun experiments you can do in your own kitchen. Museum admission $3 - $7. 

642-5132 

“Global Banquet”  

7:30 p.m. 

La Peña Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue 

Part of the Anti-Globalization series. Tonight a presentation of “Global Banquet,” a look at farmers both local and in developing countries trying to survive in the global economy. Discussion led by Anuradha Mittal. Small donation requested. 

849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Thursday, July 12

Summer Noon Concerts 2001 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

Shattuck at Center St. 

Weekly concert series. This week East Bay Science and Arts Middle School evoke the sounds of Trinidadian Carnival with a steel drum performance. 

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide Presentation. 

Twenty years in the making, the 150-mile Tahoe Rim Trail is now complete. Tahoe Rim Trail Association board member Trena Bristol joins TRT through-hikers Steve Andersen and Art Presser for a slide presentation on great day hikes and backpacking trips on the TRT. Free. 

527-4140 

Quit Smoking Class 

6 - 8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

A six week quit smoking class. Free to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 

Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1902 Hearst Avenue 

A public hearing on AB 487, Remediation of Under Prescribing Pain Medication, with Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, medical experts, and patients. 

540-3660 

art.SITES SPAIN 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Avenue 

Sidra Stitch, author of “art.SITES SPAIN: Contemporary Art and Architecture Handbook,” will present a slide show and talk on the most recent trends in art and architecture in Spain. Free. 

843-3533 

Friday, July 13

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. Free.  

Call 549-2970 

Friday the 13th Dance 

7:30 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery 

2200 Shattuck Avenue 

Celebrating the success of this years Berkeley Arts Festival, supporters can dance to jazz, swing and slow songs at this Friday the 13th Dance: The post hoc ergo propter hoc Hop. “Just Friends” will provide the music. Admission by donation, to benefit the Festival. 

486-0411 

Saturday, July 14

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Regular market plus annual peach tastings. Free. 

548-3333 

Sunday, July 15

Hands-On Bicycle Repair  

Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn drive train maintenance and chain repair from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

AC Transit holiday service doesn’t get it done for poor and disabled 

Editor: 

At a time when traffic in the East Bay is congested and people are offered incentives from their employers to get out of their cars, I find it hard to imagine why AC Transit makes it so hard for people to attend holiday events by public transportation. Is it because the poor and disabled people who can't afford to or are'nt physically able to drive don't matter? Isn't it possible that some commuter might be “testing the system” to try out a new route? 

Because it took more than an hour to leave the fireworks last year, I suggested that my friend drive to my house and park, and then we could take the 72/73 bus to Jack London Square. I have a monthly pass. If he paid $1.60, he could get a transfer good for the return trip two and a half hours later. What could go wrong? 

The fireworks were awesome. They were synchronised to several pop tunes, and the Star Spangled Banner at the end. The crowd was huge, but curteous and friendly. It was worth the trip, or so I thought.... 

We shuffled with the crowd down to 12th and Broadway, the first place with a bus sign where the traffic flowed through in our direction. We stood and waited....and waited...and waited. 

It was over 50 minutes before a 73 came. This bus we had to run a block to, and the bus filled quickly. Fortunately, the driver accepted the long expired transfer. It was almost midnight when we got home So much for watching the TV news. 

When there are holiday events, BART runs extra trains. 

When heading to the Marina for Fireworks, one used to be able to walk down there, unless one wanted to stay for two and a half hours after the 7 p.m. bus. Somehow I remember walking back from the Fireworks in the past, and remember worrying about finding a seat on a rock. 

The 72/73 bus would have worked well if there had been shuttles to the Square to and from the nearest bus stop. This could work for the Marina, too, as it works for the Stroll and is done in Emeryville malls. Local businesses could sponsor them. 

Want to get people out of their cars? Treat them with kindness and courtesy and they'll follow you anywhere. 

Edith Monk Hallberg 

Berkeley 

Walking pit bulls off-leash is like carrying around a loaded gun 

Editor:  

Your headline last week, “Friendly Pit Bull,” gave me another addition to my collection of self-canceling phrases, like: Religious terrorist, Rap artist, and Islamic democracy.  

Walking a pit bull off-leash in public is like carrying a load gun in a neighborhood.That's why most insurance companies will not insure homeowners with a liability policy if they own a pit bull. On a related matter, I am skeptical of people who feel they need a pit bull for protection. I suspect it's more of a macho thing to intimidate the neighbors or to bolster a fragile sense of self-esteem. This history of this canine breed confirms its menancing reputation.  

President Teddy Roosevelt owned a pit bull named “Pete.” His claim to fame was tearing off the trousers of the French Ambassador in the White House during an official reception.  

We haven't changed our state laws dealing with vicious dogs since 1872 and we are long overdue. Our Assemblywoman, Dion Aroner, is working on a bill which will be sent to our legislature which will bring us into the 21st century. Let's encourage our Governor to sign it into law as a tribute to ten-year old Shawn Jones as he struggles to survive the brutal mauling which cries out for restitution.  

Dennis Kuby  

Berkeley 

Beth El construction will conserve a landmark and provide space for more services  

Editor: 

I support Temple Beth El's proposed new construction at the Cordonices Creek site, bounded between Spruce and Oxford, and Eunice and Rose Streets.  

I have been an active member of Temple Beth El since 1995, and my family and I have resided in the 700 Block of Spruce Street since 1997. In addition, over the past twenty years while employed as a liscensed Plumbing Contractor, I have participated in the rennovation and construction of countless homes and businesses in Berkeley. I am well known in the Berkeley community as the President of The Lunt Marymor Company, and formerly, as the President of Leigh Marymor Plumbing. 

I am a great advocate of the preservation of historic and cultural spaces. As Co-Founder of the Bay Area Rock Art Research Association, and as Chairman of the Conservation and Protection Network Sub-committe of the American Rock Art Research Association, I have advocated for the protection of Native American cultural resources in the Bay Area and Northern California for a period spanning nearly 20 years. I have been a strong voice for the protection of the Ring Mountain petroglyphs in Tiburon, the petroglyph sites in Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond, the petroglyphs and cultural resources at Chitactac Adams Heritage Park in Gilroy, the Vasco painted caves at the Altamont Pass, and many other conservation efforts. I am comfortable, proud and pleased with the sensitivity that the Beth El design has shown to the historic significance of the Codornices site, and I look forward to the honoring of the early African American presence in Berkeley and of our early ranching history. 

I see the construction of the Beth El project as an act of cultural and religious life preservation. The Reform Jewish Community at Beth El is a cultural and religious asset to the City of Berkeley, as well as, a good neighbor, and an active participant in the social welfare of our community.  

After many years, the congregation has outgrown its home at Rose and Vine Streets. There are many reasons why a new home is required, but crowding and lack of space for our variety of religious and educational activities is foremost among them. 

I believe the Cordonices Creek project will be an asset to my Spruce Street neighborhood, as well. The scale of the construction is appropriate to the site, the project has been designed by world class architects, and the existing park like setting has been respected. Certainly the scale of this project does not begin to approach the scale of the recently completed Cragmont School, which sits just a block and a half from my house. Cragmont School dominates the intersection of Spruce and Marin, sees hundreds of children come and go everyday, with attendant car and bus traffic. Kids, dare I say it, actually play outside, and are heard at times to laugh out loud and have been seen, at times, to scuffle about in the neighborhood. I like having the school in the neighborhood. I like the kids. I like the parents who come into my neighborhood for the sake of their kids. And, I like the look of the school buidling itself, it's beautifully designed. A real neighborhood asset. In all, it's not at all unlike the proposed Beth El project, except Beth El is, ofcourse, much smaller. 

Leigh Marymor 

Berkeley

Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer winner is first play by contemporary writer at the California Shakespeare Festival 

California Shakespeare Festival shifted into a new gear Saturday night, for the first time in the company’s 28-year history opening a play by a modern writer. The show at hand is a rich and bizarre production of Thornton Wilder’s difficult 1942 Pulitzer winner “The Skin of Our Teeth.” 

Wilder is a fitting choice for the company’s first venture into modern drama, I suppose, since the playwright lived in Berkeley as a youth and attended Emerson School before graduating from Berkeley High in 1915. 

And Cal Shakes itself began life in 1974 as the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, performing its outdoor summer shows at John Hinkel Park before moving to the larger Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda ten years ago. 

“Skin of Our Teeth” won Wilder a third Pulitzer after opening at the Plymouth Theater in New York in November of 1942, directed by Broadway legend Elia Kazan and starring Fredric March, Montgomery Clift and Tallulah Bankhead. 

The show ran 355 performances. A London production directed by Lawrence Olivier opened in May of 1945. 

Despite this strong pedigree, “Skin of Our Teeth” is an infrequently performed play. A mix of solemn, absurdist allegorical comedy, didactic speechifying, and cartoony family melodrama, the script makes it hard to find a workable mix of humor and drama in its staging. 

Further, the characters themselves are two-dimensional, so it’s really up to the actors to flesh them out credibly as real human beings in performance. 

The good news is that director Richard Hamburger and the Cal Shakes performers have pulled it off. They have put together an intriguing evening, and as rich and interesting a production of this play as you are likely to see. 

“The Skin of Our Teeth” presents a cartoony version of human anthropological and religious history as told through a quirky, “Father Knows Best” type of domestic melodrama. 

The Cal Shakes production opens on scenic designer Narelle Sissons’ striking yellow, green and red living room set where George Antrobus (Paul Vincent O’Connor) comes home to his suburban middle class New Jersey dwelling after a long day at the office inventing the alphabet and the wheel. 

His wife Mrs. Antrobus (Berkeley’s Lorri Holt) has been bickering in the living room with the maid Sabina (Kathleen McNenny), who also serves as George’s mistress since he captured her in battle. The family has a pet dinosaur–and a hairy mammoth that they keep for milk. (Hilarious performances by Michael Chmiel (sic) and Michael Brusasco.) 

Soon an iceberg moving south brings refugees into the living room – including Homer, Moses and three muses. 

In the second act, George is elected president of the mammals at an Atlantic City convention. After 5,000 years of marriage, he abandons his wife for a beauty queen. A sudden flood puts selected species on an ark. 

In the final act, back in New Jersey, the family tries to put its life together in a bombed out living room, in the aftermath of a terrible war. 

Oh, yes. The whole story is structured as a play within a television show – with a director, stagehands and techs floating around the edges of the production. Occasionally, actors break the fourth wall in frustration and complain about the play to the audience. 

This was avant-garde theater in 1942, when “Skin” was produced in the middle of World War II. Cubist painting influenced Wilder. His magpie-like collection of social debate fragments from the 1940s can be seen as a cubist attempt to tell multiple facets of a story simultaneously. 

Despite the two-dimensional characters, the didactic speechifying, and the childish—almost infantile—level of discussion among Antrobus family members, Cal Shakes and director Hamburger have staged the play thoughtfully. They have added density to the story by creating a lot of subtext, humor and backstory that bring the two-dimensional tale to life. 

The acting is terrific across the board. O’Connor is a quintessential American father – self-absorbed, gruff, violent, paternalistic, narcissistic. He discovers some of his limitations by the end of the evening. 

McNenny vamps in the sexy and histrionic role of maid/mistress Sabina, played on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead. She gives the stock character an interesting range, chafing at the edges of her sexual identity. 

Lorri Holt is great as the put-upon 1940s suburban housewife Mrs. Antrobus. Angry, patient, funny, resigned, philosophical, driven, aware, she gives the character a wide range of depth, intelligence and humor. 

Charles Dean has some funny moments as the quirky, pressured television show director, suffering in the third act at having to rehearse amateurs when seven actors come down with food poisoning. 

Luis Oropeza has some nice comic relief moments in smaller roles, as a telegram delivery boy with a poor memory, and later as a substitute actor who rises powerfully to his mission. 

In “Skin of Our Teeth,” Wilder is saying that we have met the enemy – and he is us. The Cal Shakes staging is a superb opportunity to catch a thoughtful, elaborate and intriguing production of a rarely performed work by Berkeley’s most famous playwright. 

“The Skin of Our Teeth,” by Thornton Wilder, presented by Cal Shakes at Bruns Amphitheater, Shakespeare Festival Way off Highway 24, Orinda, Wednesday through Sunday through July 29. Call (510) 548-9666 or visit www.calshakes.org. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for American Theater, Back Stage West, Callboard and many other publications. E-mail him at jagplays@yahoo.com.

Berkeley Junior Giants short on volunteers 

With the whole summer off of school, lots of kids look to sports to give them something to do besides watch television and play video games all day long. But one organization that lets kids play baseball for free is struggling to find enough coaches to keep their program going. 

The Junior Giants is a summer program that lets kids ages 8-13 play on organized teams with no entry fee. The program, founded in 1991 by the San Francisco Giants Community Fund, is in its fourth year of operation in Berkeley. Last year’s league had 150 players on six teams, but the league may be forced to shrink if no more volunteer coaches can be found. 

“It’s such a great thing for the kids, it would be a shame to have to downsize,” said Catherine Jamison, the league’s co-commissioner. “The kids have so much fun, and it’s rewarding work.” 

One of the first coaches to sign on for this summer was Drew Remiker, a student at Berkeley High. Remiker, 15, grew up in Berkeley, but played most of his baseball in Albany because the Berkeley leagues “weren’t as competitive.” 

“I’d like to think that by coaching kids in Berkeley, it will help keep kids here playing,” said Remiker, who played on the Berkeley High freshman baseball team last season. 

The Junior Giants program started with leagues in 18 cities around northern and central California, and has since grown to over 500 teams in more than 40 cities. The Giants Community Fund provides jerseys, hats and equipment to players, as well as tickets to Giants games for the group. The organizers say the games stress teamwork and sportsmanship over winning and losing. 

“We use baseball as a form to get the kids into a constuctive environment,” said Vida Blue, the Giants’ community representative in charge of the Junior Giants program. “They talk about lifestyle choices, which helps create integrity and confidence and leadership. Our games are very competitive, but they’re not life or death.” 

“I think basically we just want to make sure they’re having fun,” Remiker said. “We want them to have a good time when they’re on the field.” 

Games are played at three Berkeley parks: Frances Albrier, James Kenney and MLK Youth Services Center, with two teams based at each park. 

But the players aren’t the only ones who benefit; the volunteer coaches get training from Giants coaches and help run baseball clinics for the kids.  

“The pros can teach the coaches how to teach the kids,” said Blue, who pitched for the Giants from 1978 to 1982, and again in 1986 to finish his career. “A lot of them are giving up themselves and their valuable time. We want the coaches to know the proper way to instruct the kids.” 

According to Blue, the older leagues constantly have former players who volunteer to coach the local teams. 

“What is so cool is to have a lot of the kids who volunteer as coaches, kids who played in the program that turn around and coach,” he said. “It gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside when kids stop me on the street and let me know that they are or were members.” 

For more information on playing or coaching in the Berkeley Junior Giants program, call 1-877-JRGIANT.

Concerned about the constant challenges Berkeley’s large disabled community faces when it participates in special events, the Commission on Disability is currently working on a new set of guidelines for the accessibility of city-funded events. 

Under the city’s current procedures, festivals and fairs must follow the so-called “Rules for Special Events Permits,” which mandates that the organizers provide at least one accessible portable toilet and that applicants sign a non-discrimination agreement. 

But to the members of the commission’s Disability Awareness and Outreach Subcommittee who met Friday to discuss accessibility issues, these requirements are not sufficient. 

“If the city does sponsor a public entity then things are supposed to be accessible unless it costs too much or is not feasible,” said Karen Craig, chair of the subcommittee. “In other words there is always a way around (the current guidelines).” 

The subcommittee is preparing a draft document that suggests a number of changes in city procedures. The key elements underlying these modifications, the document says, are the need to educate the public on accessibility issues and to make the language used in the permit application process more precise. 

“Right now all we require is that the event sponsors sign an agreement that they won’t discriminate. What that means is what we have to explain to them,” said disability services specialist, Eric Dibner. “(We have to) educate people on how to carry on an event in an accessible way.” 

In the draft of the new policy for event accessibility, the subcommittee is recommending, among other things, to have city staff distribute to event organizers material explaining what the non-discrimination agreement means concretely, and to require organizations getting city funding to give guarantees that the event will be accessible. It also proposes a number of guidelines. For instance, event organizers should follow a strict traffic and pedestrian circulation plan for maintaining accessibility for disabled people, and at least 5 percent of the portable toilets installed at an event should be accessible. 

Although the concept of what the new policy should include is clear, the subcommittee still needs to address a number of issues before submitting its final recommendations to the full committee, then to the City Council. One of the main questions that remains unanswered is the definition of what is considered the city’s “financial contribution.” 

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Berkeley is not required to provide accessibility for events that are not part of the city’s program. The commission, however is trying to establish new rules that would make a greater number of activities accessible to the 17 percent of Berkeley’s population that is disabled. 

“If it’s something that really isn't a function of the city, the fact that we add our name to it is not the same thing as being our event,” said Dibner. “Or the fact that we give money to something does not make it our event and that’s why the commission is working on the rule.” 

This question is particularly complicated for the large number of events organizers who rely on the city to help fund them. While Craig said city staff was proposing that the guidelines consider only donations of $500 or more as financial contributions, some on the commission believe any kind of contribution should make the city responsible for guaranteeing accessibility.  

Another important issue the members of the subcommittee raised was the question of the accessibility standards that special events should meet. The members generally agree that indoor special events should take place in buildings with accessible bathrooms. But they still have to determine what the code should be in terms of accessible emergency exits, for example. 

Rodney Wong, an architect who attended Friday’s meeting, suggested that the commission consult the health, fire and police departments on safety issues before deciding what accessibility standards the guidelines will adopt. 

The discussion around these issues will continue at the subcommittee’s next meeting on Aug. 3, at 1 p.m. It will take place at Civic Center Building, on 2189 Milvia St. The meeting is open to the public.

The school board chugged through a busy agenda Thursday, at its last regular meeting until Aug. 15. It reviewed summer construction plans, discussed new policies proposed for next year and approved plans for independent audits in key areas of district operations.  

At the behest of concerned parents, the school board agreed Thursday to add nearly $1 million to modernization plans for Jefferson and Franklin Elementary schools – enough money to give the schools seismic upgrades. 

It also agreed to replace two 50-year-old “bungalows,” still used at classrooms at Jefferson until this year, and overhaul a third. 

Unlike most Berkeley schools, Jefferson and Franklin have not received seismic upgrades since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, according to Interim Superintendent Stephen Goldstone.  

As school board President Terry Doran put it Thursday: “Both are schools that are old and did not get the kind of construction support that other (schools) in our city received.” 

Under the modernization plans The City of Franklin magnet school, which will expand to become the district’s only k-6 school next fall (on its way to becoming a k-8 school), will receive more than $5 million worth of code upgrades and mechanical and electrical system upgrades. Floors, ceilings and lights will be replaced, and a new “flex” room will be added to the cafetorium. 

In thanking the board for approving the work Thursday, Franklin Principal Barbara Penny-James commented, “Poorly maintained buildings and grounds does have an effect of the ability of a school to recruit students.”  

Jefferson’s modernization plans are nearly identical to those of Franklin, although the total cost at this smaller site is expected to come in somewhere under $3 million. Most of the work at both schools will be covered by money from last year’s $116.5 million bond Measure AA. 

Board supports truancy policy 

At a first reading of a new truancy policy proposed for Berkeley High next year, school board members gave their support to the plan Thursday. 

Under the new policy, increasingly aggressive interventions would be triggered when students miss three, five and seven full days of classes.  

In response to students’ urgings, the plan comes at the problem of truancy largely from the angle of providing additional support services to students who miss class, however. Only when students fail to respond to repeated appeals for them to change their behavior would they be subject to automatic failing grades or possibly removal from the school. 

It is through friendly outreach, rather than draconian punishments, that students who are not engaging in school can be brought back into the academic community, student members of Berkeley High’s Youth Together group argued before the school board Thursday. 

Berkeley High senior-to-be Immanuel Foster, one of four students to present to the board, said afterwards that truancy happens when students are placed in classes that bore them, either because of poor teaching or an inappropriate curriculum. He described the difference between his American Literature class, where the students are predominantly white, and a literature class taught next door, with mostly African-American students.  

While his class churns out numerous essays and engages in focused discussions of texts, in the class next door students are permitted to spend class socializing and otherwise playing around, Foster said. 

Foster and the other students emphasized the importance of a Peer Advocacy component included in the proposed truancy policy. As envisioned, 25 Peer Advocates – junior and seniors at Berkeley High – would help spread the word to students that a new truancy policy is taking effect. They would then be called upon to work closely with those students who run afoul of the policy.  

Through a series of casual meetings that, it is hoped, would be less intimidating than meetings with adult authority figures at the school, Peer Advocates would demonstrate their sympathy for the truant students’ plight. They would also remind students of the consequences of missing class, both short term and long term.  

Finally, they would share their own Berkeley High survival strategies, gleaned from years of experience at the school. They would offer to help students resolve conflicts with specific teachers. And they would refer students to appropriate tutoring, counseling and other support services at the school. 

The Youth Together students proposed Thursday that the district set aside $30,000 to pay Peer Advocates for their work. Board President Doran said if Peer Advocates are successful in cutting down on truancy, they might eventually pay for themselves, since the school district’s allotment of state education funds is based on the number of students that attend its schools each day. 

For his part, Foster said he would work with or without pay.  

“Overworked counselors (Berkeley High has roughly one on staff for every 500 students) don’t have enough time to give needed attention to underachieving students,” Foster said. “Myself, I would do (peer advocacy) without pay, simply because I think it’s something that’s been lacking at the school for a long time, and I think it’s ridiculous that it’s not already there.” 

Furthermore, said Foster, the proposed new policy represents a “drastic” change that could affect a lot of students. 

“People who are already used to not going to class probably will keep not going to class,” he said.  

Berkeley High Principal Frank Lynch agreed. 

“We need to have something, whatever it looks like, because there is still a feeling at Berkeley High that attendance is optional,” he told the board Thursday. 

Energy audit could save money 

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board authorized staff to proceed with an “energy audit” that, it is hoped, could save the district more than $200,000 a year by showing where and how it can cut its energy consumption. 

With the audit, the board has “turned the energy crisis into an opportunity to do something that might not necessarily have been considered,” Doran said. 

The board also approved an independent audit of it special education services, aimed at determining if the district is meeting the needs of its more than 900 special education students as required by law.  

The Berkeley Special Education Parents Group has contended that the district is not only out of compliance, but downright stingy when it comes to meeting these students’ needs (see full story in Tuesday’s edition of the Daily Planet). 

“It’s a good idea for us to really have an objective look at our programs and how the money is being spent so once and for all we can say, ‘Okay, these are the facts,’ and then proceed from their,” board Director Joaquin Rivera said in an interview Friday.

CHICO – Curtis Scott is a 45-year-old prison guard who really wants to teach third grade. 

So he’s spending several weeks this summer in California State University, Chico’s Flex plan, which allows him to take to take evening, weekend, Internet or summer classes and get a teaching credential while still working at High Desert State Prison in Susanville. 

It is one of dozens of programs created in recent years as the state struggles to put fully trained teachers in every classroom. 

Using everything from cash bonuses to recruiters in bright-yellow sports utility vehicles, California public schools and colleges are attempting to find new teachers and keep the ones they have. 

So far, they seem to be working. Recent statistics show encouraging signs, although the state’s poorest schools still remain the worst off. 

— A total of 20,116 potential teachers sought first-time full teaching credentials in the 1999-2000 school year, the latest figures available from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. That was up from 19,451 the year before. 

— The number of people taking the basic-skills test all prospective teachers must pass increased to 98,272 in 2000-2001 from 91,950 the year before, according to the CTC. In addition, a record 22,216 people took the test last month. 

— The number of people teaching on “emergency permits,” meaning they don’t have full credentials, fell to 34,670 or 11.5 percent in 2000-2001 from 37,266 or 12.8 percent the year before, according to the Department of Education. 

However, state records show the less-than-fully qualified teachers still tend to be in schools with high poverty levels and low test scores. 

The 1,337 public schools with the lowest 20 percent of 2000 test scores had an average of 21 percent of teachers on emergency permits; 113 of those schools had 40 percent or more unqualified teachers, according to Department of Education records. 

By contrast, the 1,361 schools with the highest 20 percent of 2000 test scores had an average of only 5 percent of teachers on emergency permits; 465 of them had none. 

Despite the improvements, California still needs more teachers. In May, school board members from around the state met and told of how they competed with each other for the small pool of credentialed teachers and even for those with emergency permits, said Phillip Escamilla, a consultant for the California School Boards Association. 

It’s a national problem. The U.S. Department of Education estimates school districts will need to hire more than 2 million new teachers over the next decade, mostly because of a growing student population and the aging of current teachers. 

California needs about 300,000 new teachers over the next decade, or about as many as are teaching now. First warnings of the impending shortage came in the late 1980s, but little was done, particularly during the recession of the early 1990s. 

Demand for teachers exploded with the popular decision in 1996 by Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature to cut class sizes for the lowest four grades. 

That sent the number of elementary teachers on emergency permits jumping from about 6,000 in 1995-1995 to nearly 20,000 by 1998-99, CTC records show. 

The state responded. California State University, which produces nearly two-thirds of the state’s teachers, set a goal of increasing its output of teachers by 25 percent by 2000. It raised the number of teachers ready for full credentials from 7,352 in 1996-7 to 2,500 by 2002-2003, a 41 percent increase, said CSU spokesman Ken Swisher. 

The University of California, criticized by lawmakers for a declining production of teachers, has set its own goal of increasing teachers ready for credentials from 1,100 in 1997-98 to 2,500 by 2002-2003, says spokesman Charles McFadden. 

Private colleges, many of which offer evening classes for working people, are also seeing increases. National University, the state’s largest private producer of teachers, has seen its teacher enrollment increase from 4,636 in 1995-96 to 8,901 in 1999-2000, says spokesman Hoyt Smith. 

State colleges, such as CSU Chico, are taking lessons from private colleges and offering more flexible programs to make it easier for prospective teachers to graduate and get a full credential. 

Since 1972, the traditional path to teaching has taken five years in a state college, four for a bachelor’s degree and another for teacher classes and student teaching. 

The Flex program targets students with degrees who can’t afford a fifth year, people with emergency permits or in district internship programs and the Curtis Scotts of California, who want to change careers. 

Half of the students in Scott’s social studies curriculum class have emergency permits and are working for the full credentials. 

Another student, Jenni Josifek, 23, taught kindergarten last year at Oster Elementary School in the Union School District in San Jose on a district internship credential, which allows her to teach while taking classes. A 2000 Chico graduate, she ran out of money, took a job and decided to get her full credential through Flex. 

Chico has also started an experimental Integrated Teacher CORE program that combines a bachelor’s degree, teacher classes and student teaching in four years. Its first class of six graduated this spring. 

“The numbers are increasing,” says education professor Cris Guenter. “We’re finding that we’re getting quality people who want to be teachers and they’re bringing in a wealth of experience and that’s exciting.” 

To boost its recruitment efforts, the state in 1998 opened the California Center for Teaching Careers or CalTeach, a one-stop information and referral service. Its state-funded budget was $11 million in 2000-2001; the pending budget for this year contains the same. 

Since its opening three years ago, CalTeach has gotten 16.6 million hits on its Internet site and has registered 53,565 potential teachers, some of whom have submitted 13,885 job applications online through CalTeach to California school districts, says codirector Kris Marubayashi. 

CalTeach also dedicated $2 million toward recruiting teachers in other states. Ads touted California’s “better lifestyle,” and CalTeach sent five recruiters to visit 97 colleges in 18 other states to persuade students to teach in California. 

More than 3,000 out-of-state students have showed some interest in teaching in California, although the state does not yet know how many have actually applied and gotten jobs, said Marubayashi. 

Last year, a booming economy allowed Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature to approve $488 million in various incentives aimed at luring teachers. 

The “Teaching As a Priority” grant program dished out $119 million for districts with low-performing schools to attract credentialed teachers, including offering salary hikes, bonuses or housing subsidies. 

The Grant Joint Union High School District in north Sacramento received a $402,866 TAP grant. It is offering signing bonuses of up to $2,000 and moving costs of up to $3,000 plus $260 for classroom supplies to new credentialed teachers, says David Karell, assistant superintendent of human resources. 

He’s been busily recruiting teachers all around the state and in New York. Last year, 89 of the district’s 700 teachers were on emergency permits; this year he hopes to have only about 20, all of them in the particularly difficult areas of math and special education. 

“We’ve made a real turnaround,” he said.

Plan would trim hundreds of millions from price 

SACRAMENTO – A new plan to rescue Southern California Edison unveiled by several lawmakers Friday would trim several hundred millions dollars from the price Gov. Gray Davis has proposed paying for the utility’s transmission lines. 

The bill significantly alters the rescue deal Davis crafted to keep the embattled utility out of bankruptcy. 

Davis offered $2.76 billion, or 2.3 times book value for the 6,000 miles of transmission lines. The bill, by Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and three other lawmakers, would offer Edison twice book value for the lines. 

“That’s less than market value for the transmission lines,” said Paul Hefner, spokesman for Hertzberg. 

Brian Bennett, Edison vice president of external affairs, estimated that would be $2.4 billion, of which $1.2 billion would go to retire the utility’s debts against the transmission system. 

Despite the changes, Davis said he was glad to see the “flurry of activity” in the Legislature concerning a proposal many consider politically dangerous. 

“I am optimistic that some modifications to the Edison Memorandum of Understanding will be approved, perhaps as early as next week,” he said. 

The bill’s other authors are Democratic Assembly members Fred Keeley of Boulder Creek, John Dutra of Fremont and Jackie Goldberg of Los Angeles. 

The plan costs much less than the governor’s plan, Keeley said. 

“It proposes to buy the transmission system for less money and it creates a mechanism for reducing the amount that’s paid to generators,” Keeley said. 

The bill uses Davis’ deal with Edison as a framework, but alters it in several ways, including creating a trust that would pay Edison’s power debts at 70 cents on the dollar. 

Money in the trust would come from a loan Edison would take out against the transmission lines, while the sale to the state was pending. The trust to repay the generators would be operated by the state and the Public Utilities Commission, which will review all claims by generators and then offer them 70 percent, Keeley said. 

The bill would also: 

— Establish an account to allow consumers to benefit as power costs fall. The governor’s plan has a similar account, but Keeley says this bill would require that any surplus be returned to utility customers. 

— Require power suppliers selling into California’s market to increase their “green” energy profile. Keeley says this will lessen the state’s dependence on natural gas. 

— Let the state retain long-term oversight of electricity rates for residential and small-business customers. 

— Allow commercial users to buy power in a competitive market, and bypass utilities if they can get lower rates. In return, those customers repay “the preponderance” of Edison’s debts if they leave the system. 

“Our proposal protects those who deregulation has hurt most — consumers — and ensures that California never sees a crisis like this again,” Hertzberg said. “It holds accountable those who have taken advantage of us.” 

Assembly Republican Caucus spokesman Jamie Fisfis said the Democrat’s plan wouldn’t gain needed bipartisan support because of the direct access clause. 

“How can you shift the entire load to big business?” he said, adding that business will “flee the state” if that is approved. 

Bennett said there are still additional details the utility would want to see before endorsing the plan, including how much the company could issue in bonds to repay the rest of their debts. Those bonds, which are also included in Davis’ plan, would be repaid by consumers over a decade. 

Consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield said “not one more penny” should be charged to residential consumers. 

“Residential users have been the piggy bank for the utilities for five years,” Rosenfield said. 

If lawmakers approve a plan that further hikes rates, “there’ll be hell to pay on election day,” he said. “Voters will hold accountable individual lawmakers who vote to make ratepayers pay more so Edison executives and shareholders can enjoy their summer vacations.”

SAN FRANCISCO – State power regulators are poised to protect consumers from a problem they don’t yet confront — phone companies trying to shut down their service because they haven’t paid for all the sodas, pizzas, and lattes they used their cell phones to buy. 

Cellular service providers in other countries — notably Japan — have rigged their phones to bill some goods, and U.S. companies are eager to catch up. 

But once they get around to offering such services, cellular providers in California won’t be able to disconnect subscribers whose fast-food gluttony lands them with fat bills they can’t pay. Not if the state Public Utilities Commission has its way. 

The PUC is scheduled to pass that “first-in-the-nation” consumer protection at its Thursday meeting. 

What the PUC will not be addressing is a plan to save much-needed electricity by slightly reducing the juice to common household appliances. That plan was shelved by a misunderstanding between the PUC and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. 

Lynch said the PUC was set to approve the conservation measure at Thursday’s meeting, but will postpone action due to PG&E’s “last-minute concerns” that make the plan less attractive than advertised. 

Under the proposal, the state’s three largest utilities would reduce the voltage from 120 volts to about 117 volts. While that would have little effect on individual lights and appliances, bundled together the savings would reach hundreds of megawatts — in a pinch, enough to avert rolling blackouts. 

PG&E officials said they think the plan is a good one and were baffled why the PUC postponed debating it. 

PG&E promised hundreds of megawatts in savings within a month, but in papers submitted late Tuesday reduced those expectations to 40 megawatts over a three-month span, said Robert Kinosian, energy adviser to PUC President Loretta Lynch. 

“Every sort of thing in implementing this was more problematic than before,” Kinosian told reporters Wednesday. “I thought that everybody was working on the same page, until yesterday.” 

Lynch blamed PG&E for taking the shine off what appeared to be a sparkling way to reduce electricity demand with little downside. 

But Lynch misunderstood PG&E’s comments, according to Les Guliasi, the utility’s director of regulatory relations. He said PG&E would happily reduce voltage to save the 40 megawatts — enough to power about 30,000 homes. 

“I think she should read over the comments,” Guliasi said. “We’ve been very up front and forthcoming in these discussions.”

Proposition 34’s contribution limits effectively waived by new regulation, reform advocates say 

SACRAMENTO – Campaign finance reform advocates charged Tuesday that state regulators have opened a loophole in voter-approved Proposition 34 by allowing incumbents to raise as much money as they want. 

In unanimously adopting a regulation Monday, the Fair Political Practices Commission in effect waived the initiative’s contribution limits for legislators and other state officeholders who established fund-raising panels by Jan. 1. 

The ballot measure voters approved in November limited the amount a single contributor could give to a candidate. Donations were capped at $3,000 per election for legislative candidates, $5,000 for statewide office and $20,000 for gubernatorial candidates. The measure made an exception for candidates who had debt left from the 2000 election, putting no limits on the amount of money they could raise to retire the debt. 

But the commission said the contribution limits should not go into effect until after the 2002 elections, drawing criticism from reformers. 

“This is just an astounding interpretation that makes no sense at all,” said Jim Knox, executive director of California Common Cause. “Proposition 34 is riddled with loopholes, and I think the public may have been sold a bill of goods.” 

Commission Chairwoman Karen Getman defended the action as a reasonable way to shift from the previous unlimited-contribution system to the restrictions of Proposition 34. 

Because the measure allowed incumbents to raise unlimited amounts of money for two months between the election and Jan. 1, when the initiative took effect, they decided to allow unlimited fund-raising for campaign committees that related to the 2000 election. 

While incumbents face no contribution caps, they will still be restricted in how they can spend the money in the 2002 election under the regulation. A legislator, for instance, could raise $50,000 from a single contributor, but could only spend $3,000 on his or her 2002 primary campaign and $3,000 on the general election campaign. The rest would have to be transferred to other candidates or parties within applicable contribution limits.

Herbert George Baker, a professor of Botany and Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley for 33 years, died July 2, at Piedmont Gardens in Oakland after a long illness. He was 81.  

A pioneer in the field of ecology, he authored numerous articles and books, including four editions of “Plants and Civilization,” which was translated into at least five languages. 

Those who knew him will remember the Sunday salons, during which, for at least two decades on the last Sunday of every month, he and his wife opened their home to students, faculty and friends for informal discussions. He was a friend to several generations of students. 

From 1957 to 1969 he was director of UC Berkeley’s Botanical Gardens. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award and when he retired in 1990 he received the University Citation.  

He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Association for Tropical Biology, the American Institute for Biological Science, the International Association of Botanic Gardens, the Society for the Study of Evolution (former President), and the Botanical Society of America (former president).  

Born in Brighton, England in 1920, Baker received a bachelor’s degree from the University of London in 1941 and his doctorate in 1945. He came to the United States in 1957. 

He was preceded in death by Irene, his wife of 44 years, in 1989. He is survived by his daughter Ruth Grimes of Berkeley; his grandson Michael Grimes of Houston, Texas; and his sister Evelyn Baker of Brighton, England.  

At his request no funeral services will be held.

MODESTO — The mother of missing federal intern Chandra Levy pressed Rep. Gary Condit on Monday to take a lie detector test. 

Standing at the door to her home, Susan Levy urged Condit “to come ahead and take the polygraph test and to help us find our daughter and bring her home, back to us alive and unhurt. 

“I’m not accusing anybody of anything,” she added, “but I think there is truth out there and someone knows the truth.” 

Chandra Levy, 24, was last seen in Washington, D.C., on April 30. Over the weekend, a source speaking on condition of anonymity said that the 53-year-old Condit, in his third interview with police and the FBI, told investigators for the first time that he had had a romantic relationship with Levy. 

In Washington, Condit attorney Abbe Lowell sought to portray the congressman as cooperative with police and willing to go further. 

Lowell said Condit would allow police access to his apartment if they wished, provide them telephone and cellular phone records and would make his staff available to investigators. 

“The congressman will provide whatever additional information or material he can to police,” Lowell said. 

He said that if the police ask about a lie detector test he would discuss it with Condit, but he expressed doubt about the general usefulness of polygraphs. 

The Levys’ attorney, Billy Martin, said at a Washington press conference that the missing woman’s family had specific questions for Condit. 

Martin said he sent a letter to Condit’s attorney asking for answers to numerous questions about Condit’s relationship with Levy, including when he last saw her, how they met and the nature of the relationship. 

Earlier, in an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Martin said Condit’s credibility is “suspect” but the family was not accusing him of anything. 

“We have no information, no evidence at all to say that Congressman Condit has done anything wrong,” Martin said. “What’s troubling to the family is that he’s not been helpful.” 

Washington police have said Condit is not a suspect in Levy’s disappearance. 

In his home district, support for Condit waned among some constituents while others continued to back him. 

“He’s let me down,” said Elaine Tindle, 67. “He was really so good and I had confidence in him. He’s lost my confidence.” 

Each morning, Tindle and three other women walk laps at a mall as they discuss the news of the day and whatever else is on their minds. Lately the hot topic has been Condit, and the group thinks the six-term Democrat ought to resign, Tindle said. 

“I feel like he’s got nothing to do with her disappearance, but all this other stuff coming out has put a black mark on him,” she said. 

Some see the story as an attempt by the media to bring down a local hero. 

“I think they ought to find something out before they start persecuting him,” said Jim Pilchard, an 84-year-old from Condit’s hometown of Ceres. “I think the press should keep their noses out of everybody’s damn business.” 

Some voters were bitter when Condit snubbed the local Fourth of July parades where he has been a fixture for years, but many said they were taking a wait-and-see approach before judging him. 

Condit said later that he missed the parades because he was flying back to Washington so his wife, Carolyn, could be interviewed by investigators. 

In this city of 189,000 that still has a small-town feel, voters say they are upset over the thought that Condit may have had an affair and lied about it. 

Still, some stand behind Condit. 

Todd Knutson, a 25-year-old who went to high school with Levy and has voted for Condit, said he supports the man once considered a “shining star for this area.” 

But Knutson also said he is a realist, and as far as Condit’s future is concerned, he said: “I think he’s done.”