There she stood, at the same spot she’s been at for decades, with stop sign in hand and wearing the obligatory fluorescent orange cap, vest, and gloves that are supposed to – but don’t always – alert drivers to her presence. 

“As loud as I dress they still don’t see me!” she chuckles. 

Wednesday was the first day of school, not only for some John Muir Elementary School students, but for crossing guard Lena Hedge. Actually, it was Hedge’s 34th first day of school and she wasn’t taking any chances. 

Up early and out the door, she was at her post where Claremont Crescent meets Claremont Avenue to make sure both wide-eyed kindergartners and the veteran fifth-graders made it safely across. 

Hedge rules her patch of road and sidewalk with love and discipline and it works: she’s made it more than three decades without a single accident involving a student under her supervision. 

“I have my rules and ain’t nobody been hurt yet.” 

At the age of 79, Hedge is far and away the most senior of the 21 crossing guards and one alternate employed by the Berkeley Police Traffic Bureau. 

Stand with her for 15 minutes and you can see what a neighborhood institution she is. Ten cars don’t pull out of Claremont Crescent on to Claremont Avenue without a smile and a wave. 

A man rides by on his bike and calls: “Hi Mrs. Hedge, good morning!” 

She waves back and comments: “I crossed his kids, they’re lawyers now.” 

Hedge, who is African-American, has been at the same crosswalk since 1968 when the Berkeley Unified School District became the first district in the United States to voluntarily use buses to integrate its school system. She was reassigned to John Muir, from Washington Elementary, to help ease the transition of integration. 

Even in a city as apparently liberal as Berkeley was in the late ‘60s, that transition wasn’t an easy one for some people. 

“Oh yeah, at first I got called names, people threw some things at me like orange peels, but it stopped,” she said. 

Growing up, “smack dab in Atlanta,” Hedge lived in the same neighborhood as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and attended the very church where his father preached. 

“We were playmates,” is how she remembers the young Dr. King. 

That made Thursday, April 4, 1968, the day King was assassinated, all the harder. Recalling that day, Hedge solemnly pointed to the sidewalk and said, “That was a hard day ... I was right here.” 

Although Claremont Avenue regulars now adore Hedge, traffic hasn’t changed much. 

Despite city police traffic statistics that say there’s been only one auto accident near her crosswalk in the last year, Hedge believes that Claremont Avenue traffic is just as dangerous as it was when she started. 

“It’s all the same as far as I’m concerned,” she says above the din of road construction and honking horns at the Ashby/Claremont intersection just down the street. “People are still in a hurry.”

Saturday, Sept. 1

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanies by an adult. www.cal-sailing.org  

Healthful Building Materials 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar conducted by environmental consultant Darrel DeBoer. $35. 525-7610 

Sunday, Sept. 2

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

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 

LesBiGay Prospective Parenting Group 

10:30 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Adoption issues, new members welcome. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Monday, Sept. 3

Intensive Production Urban Gardening Training 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar & Grill 

1310 University Ave. 

Learn ways to intensively and organically grow produce for your own use or for an urban market garden. A hands-on training in the garden located behind the restaurant and potluck lunch at 1 p.m. Free community training, meets the first Monday each month. 841-1110 

Potluck Picnic and Poetry 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

Walnut and Rose streets 

Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts a Labor Day potluck picnic followed by an open poetry reading. All are welcome to bring food and poetry to share. 527-9905 poetalk @ aol.com 

Rainbow Berkeley Brunch 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Celebrate Berkeley’s LGBHTQI community at the 3rd Annual Brunch. $10 donation. 548-9235 gspprng@tksvc.com 

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy: A Labor Day Hearing 

11 a.m. 

North Gate Hall Room 105 

University of California at Berkeley 

East Bay’s crisis of working poverty to be investigated at the hearing. Featuring a panel and audience of East Bay political, religious, labor and community leaders, including: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and others. 893-7106  

Tuesday, Sept. 4

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 friendships: deep, superficial, and what their obligations are. 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 computer class for seniors 

9:30 - 11:30 a.m. and 1 - 3 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited, call ahead for a reservation. 

644-6109 

HVAC for Beginners 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Seminar taught by contractor/ engineer Eric Burtt. $35. 525-7610 

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. 525-3565 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Editor: 

If the Students for Justice in Palestine wish to start a movement to end the most vicious racism seen in the Middle East, rather than demanding the university divest from Israel they should call for an end to our government’s funding of the Palestinian Authority. 

After all, Yassir Arafat and his morally bankrupt supporters refused Barak’s most reasoned proposal for a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem, advocating instead violence in the guise of an “Intifada” whose real aim is nothing short of forcing all the Jews out of the Middle East. To any fair observer, if this were not true, why did Arafat refuse Barak’s terms ... indeed what more could Barak have offered? 

Instead, our government continues to send money to the real genesis of ethnic hate, Arafat and his authoritarian authority. I mean what could be a more blatant manifestation of “apartheid” than the indiscriminate blowing up of Israelis, simply because they are Jews? Arafat not only knows who plans this, but condones their activity by giving them the freedom sans even the smallest iota of criticism to continue their barbarically murderous acts of ethnic, religious and political bigotry.  

In sum, I hope those who truly oppose hate as the Students for Justice in Palestine say they do will join me in calling for an end to all support to Arafat and his thugs. No one is a bigger obstacle to a Palestinian homeland than its chief supporter, the Palestinian Authority. 

Daniel C. Spitzer, Ph.D. 

Berkeley 

The Sixth Annual Watershed Poetry Festival comes to Berkeley’s Civic Center Park Sept. 8, noon to 5 p.m. 

This free family-friendly community gathering features a day of poetry, music and more. Artists such as poet Robert Haas, writer Maxine Hong Kingston and musicians Grito Serpentino will be complemented by River Village exhibits and interactive events for the entire family.  

Watershed Festival brings together citizens and artists to apply our imagination to the problem of environmental despoiling. To highlight connections between literature and place, celebrate poetry, form a partnership between literary and environmental communities. 

Berkeley itself is a watershed. Strawberry Creek runs down from the Contra Costa Hills to the bay. Beginning at 10 a.m. at Oxford and Center poets and others will walk three blocks to the Watershed Festival stage, taking the route of the creek as it tunnels beneath downtown Berkeley. 

In this symbolic “daylighting” of Strawberry Creek poets and others will discuss plans to open the creek to daylight. 

What we have done with Berkeley’s watershed, this place where we live, is analogous to what we are doing with many things in our lives, putting them away, trying to bury them. 

But they’re there. The nuclear waste radiates away, the creek winds its way to the bay. 

In our symbolic opening up of Strawberry Creek, we call attention to it, to our connection to it. We release our trapped spirits.

924 Gilman Sept. 7: Carry On, Champion, Breaker Breaker, Saturday Supercade, Fields of Fire; Sept. 8: Lab Rats, Relative; Most shows $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless noted. 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Albatross Pub Sept. 1: David Widelock Jazz Trio; Sept. 5: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 6: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 11: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Sept. 13: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 19: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 20: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 22: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet; Sept. 27: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Free. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub @mindspring.com  

Café Eclectica Sept. 8: 8 p.m. SF Improv, Free. 1309 Solano Ave. 326-6124 www.sfimprov.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. Sept. 10: Lucy Lang Day; Sept. 17: Marc Hofstadter (book party); Sept. 24: Jim Watson-Gove; All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Sept. 6: 8 p.m. King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, $20 - $32; Sept. 16: 7 p.m. Tania Libertad, $18 - $30; Sept. 30: 7 p.m. Kronos Quartet, David Barron, $30; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@ calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Sept. 1: Ancient Future, $16.50; Sept. 7: Tom Russell w/ Andrew Hardin, $16.50; Sept. 8: The House Jacks, $17.50; Sept. 9: Erika Luckett, $16.50; Sept. 11: Don Walser, Slaid Cleaves, $16.50; Sept. 12: Andy Irvine, $17.50; Sept. 13: Piper Heisig birthday revue and fund raiser w/ Kate Brislin, Sylvia Herold, Tony Marcus, Carlos Reyes, and Radim Zenkl, $16.50; Sept. 14: Ray Wylie Hubbard, $16.50; Sept. 15: Vocolot, $17.50; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www. freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Sept. 4: Beth Waters Band; Sept. 5: Presidents Breakfast; Sept. 6 Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 7: Crater; Sept. 10: Ben Graves Trio; Sept. 11: Len Patterson Trio; Sept. 12: Bitches Brew; Sept. 13: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 14: Carlos Washington & Giant People Ensemble; Sept. 15: Kooken & Hoomen; Sept. 18: The Goodbye Flowers; Sept. 19: New Monsoon; Sept. 20: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 21: Netwerk: Electric; Sept. 22: New Garde Philosophers; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer. com  

La Peña Cultural Center Sept. 11 & 12: 8 p.m. Irakere, $22; In the Cafe, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Alice Arts Sept. 8: 7:30 p.m. Benefit concert for freedom of U.S. political prisoners featuring Fred Ho (solo) and The Eddie Gale Unit. $12; 1428 Alice, Oakland, 539-0050 www.thejerichomovement. com/teardownthewalls 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church Sept. 15: George Brooks and Shweta Jhaveri with Uttam Chakraborty on drums. $18 - $25; 2727 College Ave. 843-9600 www.harmoniventures.com 

Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live Radio Show Sept. 1: Rita Moreno, has won Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards for her work on stage and screen. Mark Wing-Davey, director of “36 Views,” opening at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Kent Nerburn, author of “Road Angels.” The Shotgun Players open a window into their show: “Winesburg Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave.; Sept. 29: Nancy Miford, author of “Savage Beauty.” West African folk music with The Nigerian Brothers. Blues roots piano by Caroline Dahl. The Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison St. All shows 10 a.m. - noon. 252-9214 www. wcl.org 

“Song of the Lakitan Bird” Sept. 2: 2 p.m. Kulintang Dance Theatre communicates the beauty and refinement of the Southern Philippine culture. $10 Adults, $5 Children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Goddesses” Aug. 31, 8 p.m.; Sept. 1, 8 p.m.; Sept. 2, 3 p.m.; A play by Dorotea Reyna. A poetic drama concerning one mortal woman’s struggle to control the six extraordinary goddesses in her psyche. Based on “Goddesses in Everywoman” by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen. $10. Live Oak Theater, Live Oak Community Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 883-0536 rlcouture@earthlink.net 

Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” Sept. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9. All shows 8 p.m. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s and Gabrial Pascal’s “Pygmalion.” Directed by James Schlader, choreographed by Harriet Schlader, under the musical direction of Mark Hanson. $15 - $27. 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, Oakland. 531-9597 www.woodminster.com 

Squelched.com Presents “Jim Short” Sept. 11: 8 p.m. Jim Short is an Australian expatriate who grew up in Texas. Also appearing: Rob Cantrell, Luke Filose and Sean Keane. Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 show@squelched.com 

“Hecho En Califas Chicano-Latino Teatro Festival” Sept. 6 - 9, 14 - 15; 8 p.m. Original members of El Teatro de La Esperanza. Chicano Theater began out of the need to express the realities of the fields and barrios of Aztlán in the Chicano-Latino community. $10 - $20 La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, 849-2568, www.lapena.org  

“Winesburg, Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque” Sept. 6 through Sept. 16, Wed. - Sat. 8:30 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players and Word For Word team up for a production of Sherwood Anderson’s deceptively simple tale of neglected souls who fade into the shadows around us. $22, Wednesdays are “Pay What You Can.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers. org 

“The Secret Garden” Sept. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, at 8 p.m. Sept. 16 & 23 matinees. The Alameda Civic Light Opera’s fifth summer season ends with the musical of Frances Hodson Burnett’s classic story of life, death, purpose and hope. Adults $22, Students 18 and under $14. Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave., Alameda. www.aclo. com 

“36 Views” Sept. 12 through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www. berkeleyrep.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

Dance 

Cal Performances Sept. 8: 8 p.m. & Sept. 9: 3 p.m. - Dance, the Spirit of Cambodia, $20 - $32; Sept. 19 - 20: 8 p.m. American Ballet, “Bruch Violin Concerto,” “Jabula,” “Gong,” and “Black Tuesday.”; Sept. 21: 8 p.m., Sept. 22: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sept. 23: 3 p.m. American Ballet, the full-length 19th Century “Giselle” $36 - $64; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Sept. 1: 7 p.m. “M,” 9 p.m. “Liliom”; Sept. 4: 7:30 p.m. “The Man with a Movie Camera”; Sept. 5: 7:30 p.m. “Driver 23,” “The Atlas Moth”; Sept. 7: 7 p.m. “Rebels with a Cause,” 9 p.m. “Is This Desire?”; Sept. 8: 7 p.m. “Rendan: Quartet for Two,” 9:10 p.m. “Unloved”; Sept. 9: 7 p.m. “In Search of Home”; General admission $7, The New PFA Theatre 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

The Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Cinema Sept. 1: “Breakfast Club”; Sept. 2: “Pretty in Pink”; Sept. 8: “Dr. No” (come as your favorite Bond character); Sept. 15: “Harold and Maude”; Sept. 22: “Airplane”; The Outdoor Cinema features cult classics projected on a large screen in the open-air brewery parking lot. $5 donation. Movies start at 7 p.m. 901 Gilman St. 206-682-8322 x237 www.pyramidbrew.com 

Exhibits 

“Debbie Moore’s Autobiographical Paintings” Through Sep. 30 at Good Vibrations. Portraits of the artist’s sensual explorations spanning 25 years and reflecting changing ways of intimacy and body play. 2504 San Pablo Avenue 848-1985 

“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.  

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” Sept. 5 through Oct. 13, reception Sept. 6, 6 - 8 p.m.; Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Asian Pacific Islander American artists in roughly the demographic proportions indicated by the recent census. Free. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9470  

“Ten Years Here” Exhibit celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Turn of the Century Fine Arts. Through Sept. 14, Sat & Sun 1-5 p.m. 2510 San Pablo Avenue 849-0950 

“The Political Art of: Diego Marcial Rios” Through Sept. 20, Addison Street Window Gallery, 2018 Addison St. hdrios@msn.com 

Women’s Cancer Resource Gallery “Catastrophe, Crisis, and Other Family Traditions” The photography of Jessamyn Lovell. Aug. 25 through Sept. 26; “The Arthur Wright and Gerald Parker” Reception Sept. 8, Aug. 25 through Sept. 26; Tues. - Thurs. 1 - 7 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m. 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 x307 www.wcrc.org 

“Squared Triangle” Through Oct. 5: noon - 6 p.m. A minimalist art exhibit featuring three Bay Area artists working in different mediums while achieving the same elegant simplicity. The Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.com 

“Inside Editions” Sept. 6 - Oct. 12: Nine printmakers exhibit their work. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tue. - Fri. Free. Kala Art Insitute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 kala@kala.org 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Sept. 5 through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Opening Reception Sept. 5: 6 - 8 p.m. open to the public; Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Sept. 15 through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Opening reception Sept. 15, 5 - 8 p.m. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“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 Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Sept. 8: 7:30 p.m. Simone Martel reads from “The Expectant Gardner,” Joan Drummond Miller, Julie Houy, and Carolyn Livingston, “Beyond Bingo;” Sept. 14: 7:30 p.m. Marny Hall, “Queer Blues: The Lesbian and Gay Guide to Overcoming Depression;” Sept. 15: 2 p.m. Kimeron Hardin, “Queer Blues: The Lesbian and Gay Guide to Overcoming Depression;” Sept. 15: 7:30 p.m. Kathleen Jacoby, “Vision of the Grail;” Sept. 21: 7:30 p.m. Deborah Kesten, “The Healing Secrets of Food;” Sept. 22: 7:30 p.m. A special All Poetry Dyke Open Myke, to participate call 655-1015 or feroniawolf@yahoo.com; All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Lunch Poems Series Kick-Off Sept. 6: 12:10 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. UC Berkeley campus figures from a wide variety of fields read and discuss their favorite poems. Free. In the Morrison Library in the Doe Library at UC Berkeley. 642-0137 www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems/ 

Spasso Sept. 3: Theme: dignity of labor; Sept. 10: Sharron Jones-Reid, Fruit of the Spirit poets, acoustic musicians, comedians, rappers, performance artists, writers. All welcome; 6021 College Ave. Free admission. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library Sept. 1: 3 - 5 p.m. Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading. 1901 Russell St., 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Art and Soul Festival presents “Literature without Borders” Sept. 2 & 3: 2 - 5 p.m Sun. - Readings by the African American Shakespeare Company and others. Mon. - The prose, music, and poetry of emerging Bay Area authors, actors and musicians. Dalziel Building Lobby, 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Free. 525-3948 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Sept. 8: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. An environmental poetry festival with a day of poetry, music and environmental activism featuring Gary Snyder, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Haas, Francisco X. Alarcon, and Earll Kingston as John Wesley Powell. Strawberry Creek Walk at 10 a.m. Oxford and Center. Festival at Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Center Street. Free. 526-9105 www.poetryflash.org 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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  

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 foot 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. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until Oct. 1 : “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 Avenue. 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  

Oakland Museum of California “Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett,” through Sept. 2; “After the Storm: Bob Walker and the Art of Environmental Photography,” through Sept. 16; “Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks,” through Sept. 23; Wednesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, noon - 5 p.m., Closed Monday and Tuesday. $6 general; $4 youths (6-17), seniors and students with ID. Free for museum members and children 5 and under. Free admission the second Sunday of the month. 10th & Oak streets, Oakland. 238-2200 www.museum.org 

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

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Cal’s men’s basketball hopes took a nosedive on Thursday, as top recruit Julian Sensley was ruled ineligible for next season by the NCAA. 

Sensley, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound small forward, fell short of the minimum SAT score to play Division I sports. Cal appealed to the NCAA for Sensley to be eligible because of a documented learning disability, but were turned down. 

Sensley, ranked as the best small forward in the 2001 recruiting class by ESPN.com, was expected to jump directly into the starting lineup in departed star Sean Lampley’s spot. 

Sensley issued a statement following the NCAA ruling declaring his intent to file a personal appeal. 

“My goal is to pursue all avenues available to me to become eligible and be at Cal,” said Sensley, who will not be enrolled at Cal this fall because the school does not accept partial academic qualifiers. 

Cal guard Donte Smith won a similar appeal three years ago. Smith didn’t win his second appeal until January, however, and chose to redshirt the 1999 season. 

A native of Kailua, Hawaii, Sensley spent the past two years at St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Conn. 

Cal head coach Ben Braun is still hopeful that his star recruit will be able to play this season. 

“Julian has not wavered on his commitment to Cal and he intends to pursue his options to become a full qualifier,” Braun said in a statement.

The Water Transit Authority held a second meeting at Berkeley City Hall Friday to discuss an evolving plan to link San Francisco Bay communities with an expanded ferry service.  

According to Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the WTA held a previous meeting on Aug. 10, attended by approximately 15 ferry supporters. Worthington said he called Friday’s meeting so environmentalists could air concerns about potential impacts of ferry terminals in Berkeley and other locations around the San Francisco Bay.  

“The WTA didn’t notify environmental organizations for the previous meeting,” Worthington said. “And I wanted to make sure they heard a wider range of opinions.”  

The California Legislature created the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority in 1999 for the purpose of developing a long-range plan to relieve traffic congestion by expanding ferry service. The project was funded with $12 million out of the State Transportation Funds in 2000. 

Four WTA representatives, including Chief Executive Officer Tom Bertken, presented the working plans for the expanded ferry system. Currently they are studying the possibility of adding as many as 23 ferry terminals to the nine that already service the Bay Area. In addition to Berkeley, some potential East Bay sites include Martinez, Benicia, Crockett and the Oakland Airport. 

The WTA began presenting the working plan to city officials and citizens groups in Bay Area cities in late July.  

Friday’s meeting was attended by 12 people, including former El Cerrito Mayor Norman La Force, who is now chairman of the Sierra Club’s East Bay Public Lands Committee. Those who attended the meeting mostly had questions about the environmental impacts of a ferry terminal at two possible locations in Berkeley, the end of Gilman Street and the Berkeley Marina. 

The Berkeley Marina was the temporary site of a ferry terminal during a BART strike in the 1970s and eight months in 1989 after the Loma Prieta Earthquake. 

The attendees expressed concerns about the impact of dredging the shallow waters at the Gilman Street location, the potential construction of a parking garage at the Berkeley Marina and possible negative impact on existing public transportation. 

Bertken and WTA Planning Manager Steve Castleberry stressed during the meeting that the working plan is in the early stages and is being evaluated primarily by potential ridership. Castleberry said once the potential locations are determined to be viable, each specific site will undergo a thorough environmental review.  

The WTA has a deadline of Dec. 12, 2002, to submit an operations plan, which will recommend priorities for ferry routes, types of vessels and required facilities. The plan will also present estimated costs and suggest funding sources. 

“The biggest thing right now is finding out if anybody is going to ride these things and if they’re not then there’s no need for environmental studies,” said Castleberry pointing to a map of proposed ferry routes and terminals. “These are routes we are studying and not what we will be recommending to the Legislature.” 

But several attendees said environmental issues should be considered at all stages of the plan’s development. La Force was concerned about the impact of traffic at the East Bay Shoreline State Park.  

“People worked for 40 years to create a place to enjoy the peace and serenity of the Bay and you can’t have that if car after car and bus after bus are bringing people down to the waterfront to catch the ferry,” he said.  

Steve Geller, who is on the board of directors of the Alliance for AC Transit and Bus Riders Union, said he was worried the proposed ferry system would take riders away from existing public transportation systems. 

“Water transit should do something to improve current traffic congestion by getting people out of their cars and not off of AC Transit and BART,” he said. “If it doesn’t do that, then why bother?” 

Worthington said taking money away from existing public transportation would not achieve the goal of reducing automobile traffic.  

“If they take money from the highway funds that would be cool,” Worthington said. “But the danger is they will take money away from AC Transit and then we’d have worse service, which would result in a net loss of people using public transit.” 

WTA Public Affairs Officer Heidi Machen said no funding sources have been identified, but said possibilities include federal and state funds and possibly raising bridge tolls. She said diverting money from existing transportation sources had not been ruled out.  

“One reason why we are holding these meetings is to get public input, which will affect how we proceed,” she said.

Editor: 

Perhaps many read over the quote from Hillel member Scott Newman, (Campus activists call for end to ‘Israeli Apartheid’, Aug. 31) about the Zionist workshops recently held which left a few students feeling “a little undereducated”. However, as a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, one workshop title proved to be quite disturbing. This workshop, titled “Dealing with Muslim and Palestinian Groups on Campus” is shockingly prejudiced, and simultaneously reflective of the double standard nature of media towards Zionism. Neither am I a Muslim, nor am I Palestinian, however, I sincerely take offense at the topics on which the Hillel members are being trained, and the black and white nature in which it is being presented. 

The overly simplistic view presented in the article of Jew vs. Muslim is strategically misleading from the real issues: the denial of the Right of Return for thousands of Palestinian refugees for over 53 years, the U.S. funded Israeli warplanes bombing Palestinian villages, hundreds of Palestinian schools being shut down,...the list goes on and on. And yet the Hillel continues freely naming their workshops “Dealing with Muslim and Palestinian Groups.” Had Students for Justice in Palestine titled one of their workshops “Dealing with Jewish Groups on Campus,” what would the reaction be? Their would be a mad outcry of anti-semitism, and rightfully so. However, does that mean that prejudice and ignorant generalizations towards Muslims deserve no name? 

My participation in Students for Justice in Palestine is not to fight a religious battle, nor to win a battle of “how to answer” this or that organization. I am a part of this movement because I refuse to deny the rights of the blatantly oppressed society of Palestinians, as with so many other colonized societies. 

'Shabnam Piryaei 

UC Berkeley student' 

Kevin Boyd said his team would be strong on the attack. It looks like he was right. 

Boyd’s Cal Bears started their season with a bang, as four different players scored goals in a 4-0 win over Pacific in the first round of the Cal Invitational. Midfielders Kim Yokers and Kim Stocklmeir each had two assists in the victory. 

“With four players scoring goals, I think it shows that we have great depth in terms of scoring,” Boyd said. “We need to spread the scoring around more this year.” 

The need for more threats up front this year isn’t a knock on last year’s top scorer, junior Laura Schott. But Schott, who scored 23 goals last season, is going to be a marked woman all year as teams try to shut her down. So Sabo others must make teams pay for lavishing so much attention on their All-America teammate. 

“Laura is going to be a marked player this year, so we need other players to score to take the pressure off of her,” Boyd said. 

Schott had several opportunities to score just before and after halftime on Thursday, but didn’t manage to find the back of the net until the 68th minute, scoring the final goal of the game. Midfielder Kim Yokers played a beautiful through ball to Schott, who burst past a defender to collect the ball, then dribbled around substitute goalkeeper Cassandra Kaeding and slotted the ball into the open net. 

“I was a little frustrated for a while, but they can’t all go in,” Schott said. 

The game started slowly, as both teams shook off the offseason rust. The crowd of 300 at Edwards Stadium didn’t see much offense early. Cal forward Krysti Whalen had the best scoring chance, clashing with Pacific goalkeeper Megan Pickering for a ball and sending it out of bounds 20 minutes into the match. Schott created a shot for herself a minute later, beating two defenders, but Pickering saved her long shot easily. 

Soon after that shot, the Tigers started hammering Schott, as Pickering crashed into her legs after the whistle. Seconds later, Schott took an elbow to the mouth from Pacific defender Angela Allgaier. The Cal star was on the receiving end of a lot of hard shots on Thursday, a pattern that will likely continue well into the season as teams try to slow her down. 

The Bears finally broke through for a goal in the 27th minute, and it came from a surprising source. Defender Ashley Mueller put a long ball into the Pacific box, and midfielder Kassie Doubrava hit a glancing header past Pickering for first career goal at Cal. Doubrava had come into the game just seven minutes earlier for Whalen, giving Boyd a quick payoff on his first substitution of the season. 

Sabo quickly put the Bears ahead by two goals with a cracking shot from just outside the box into the top of the net in the 30th minute. 

Pacific had their best scoring chance early in the second half when Cal goalkeeper Mallory Moser punched a Tiger cross along her own goal line. But a Cal defender cleared the ball off the line to preserve the shutout. 

Moser, a freshman from Branson High in Marin County, looked tentative at times in her first college match, deferring to her defenders several times instead to taking charge. But Moser is very athletic and looked comfortable in the net, making two saves in the game. 

“Mallory was solid, and she didn’t make any mistakes, which is what we need from her,” Boyd said. 

The Bears third goal came from a corner kick, as Yokers put the ball just over Pickering’s reach in the goalmouth. The ball bounced off of two Tigers before Cal’s Lucy Brining knocked it into the net for her second goal as a Bear. 

Overall, it was a fairly easy win for the Bears, who broke in three new starters on defense as well as Moser in the net. 

“We were more organized than I thought we would be,” Boyd said. “Our defense was obviously a concern with the new players, but it was quite good today.” 

The Bears play Michigan at 4:30 on Sunday to close out the tournament. The Wolverines fell to Loyola Marymount, 3-2, in the tournament’s opening game. Loyola Marymount and Pacific will play at 2 p.m. Sunday.

A federal district court judge decided Friday that the lawsuit brought by two environmental activists against the FBI and the city of Oakland for false arrest will be decided on “narrow grounds.” Lawyers for Darryl Cherney and the estate of Judi Bari, Mendocino county Earth First! activists, will not be allowed to mention historical “dirty-tricks” campaigns conducted by the FBI. 

The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.  

The plaintiffs will also be barred from using the FBI’s investigation of an Arizona Earth First! group as evidence that the Bureau was actively seeking to discredit the environmental activists and their movement. 

On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb exploded in Bari’s car while she and Cherney were driving through downtown Oakland. The two were the principal organizers of “Redwood Summer” – a series of demonstrations against the logging industry in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. The Oakland Police Department initially charged Bari and Cherney with knowingly transporting the bomb, but the Alameda County District Attorney later dropped all charges. The person who placed the bomb in the car is still unknown. 

Judi Bari died of cancer in 1997. 

Ruling from the bench, Judge Claudia Wilken said that plaintiffs will not be able to use the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) as evidence that a “pattern of practice” within the Bureau led to Bari and Cherney’s arrest. COINTELPRO was a secret FBI program to discredit social activists – including Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Panther Party – in the 1960s and 1970s. 

The plaintiffs had hoped to call upon Howard Zinn, a popular historian and author of “A People’s History of the United States,” to testify during the trial as an expert witness on FBI history and practices. Wilken ruled that Zinn’s expertise on the FBI was limited to “books anyone can read,” and disallowed his testimony. 

Asked if the he could still conduct the case without referring to past FBI misdeeds, Dennis Cunningham, lead attorney for the activists, was confident. 

“It’s going to be tougher,” said Cunningham, “but the main thing is what (the defendants) did. They used false evidence, they vilified our clients in the press.” 

In another matter, Judge Wilken ruled for the plaintiffs by denying the scientific validity of a reconstruction of the bombing conducted by the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force report, which partially validated the Oakland police department’s initial arrest of the activists, was commissioned by the Justice Department, which is representing the FBI in the suit.  

“To me, it’s a big thing that we knocked out the Air Force test,” said Cunningham. 

There will be one more hearing, a pretrial conference on Sept. 1, before the trial begins. The plaintiffs are reportedly seeking $20 million in damages.

Editor: 

In the August 14 Planet, the leader of the group opposing the tritium lab challenged some of what she termed “so-called facts” in my letter of July 27th. At the risk of prolonging the debate past the patience of readers, I would like to respond. 

I had quoted the investigator recently hired by the city of Berkeley to evaluate the lab as saying that the amount of tritium in trees and groundwater is small. My critic said “Franke’s draft study did not find that the tritium inventory in trees and ground water is small.” In fact, in his February 23, 2001 short version executive summary Mr. Franke said precisely that: “The overall tritium inventory in trees and also groundwater is small; it amounts to less than 1 curie.”  

She alleges that the tritium lab operations have been “minimal” since December 1996 in an attempt to delude the EPA. In fact, except for about six months in 1996-7 while they developed a better method of handling waste, the tritium lab has continued to be a busy place. Tritium emissions have gradually decreased since 1990 as more advanced procedures have been developed; there is now better recovery of tritium from waste, and the lab scientists have devised methods using smaller quantities in the experiments. 

She asked why independent soil and vegetation testing has not yet taken place. In fact, the lab does quality assessment of its own analyses by submitting split samples to outside labs. This has been done with tritium in air (two independent labs), surface water, soil, and water sediment. 

Finally, concerning the safety of the air at the Lawrence Hall of Science: Mr. Franke, the most recent investigator of the lab, commented that if he were a Berkeley father, he would happily take his children there. As a Berkeley father of 4 and grandfather of 6, I concur, and we are frequent visitors. 

Elmer R. Grossman, M.D.  

Clinical Professor of  

Pediatrics, Emeritus 

School of Medicine, UCSF 

The Berkeley Municipal Rose Garden was dedicated in September 1937 after four years of construction. The building of the garden was a Civil Works Administration project. It was among the many public parks projects sponsored by the federal government to provide employment during the Depression.  

The garden was designed by Vernon M. Dean and construction was supervised by Charles W. Cresswell of the Berkeley Parks and Recreation Department.  

The main section of the rose garden is designed like an amphitheater with wide stone terraces facing magnificent views of San Francisco Bay. A semicircular redwood pergola, which extends the full width of the amphitheater, provides not only visual definition to the site, but a structure for climbing roses and shaded benches. The planting of 2,500 rose bushes was planned by the East Bay Counties Rose Society under Charles V. Covell. The roses were arranged one color per terrace, from shades of red at the top through bronze and pink to yellow and white at the bottom.  

The location of the Rose Garden is in a deep canyon named El Valle de Los Codornices (Valley of the Quails) by Don Jose Domingo Peralta in the 1840s. Early entrepreneurs of Codornices Canyon and its creeks were Henry Berryman and Felix Chappellet, who began selling water from the creeks in 1877. 

As residential development moved farther north into the upper hills, the Cragmont Improvement Club extended streetcar service into the Cragmont subdivision by building a streetcar trestle across the canyon. The trestle was removed and a land bridge built in the 1920s.  

On the east side of the land bridge, the neighborhood Codornices Club had built a park and club house in 1913. The west side of the land bridge however, remained unimproved until the Rose Garden was built.  

Susan Cerney writes “Berkeley Observed” in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

SAN FRANCISCO — BART directors have presented a proposal to workers’ unions, offering a wage and benefits increase of about 20 percent over the next four years, but union members said Friday it’s not enough to keep them off the picket lines. 

“This offer will not settle a contract,” said Robert Smith, president/business agent for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, one of three unions in negotiations with BART as the Tuesday strike deadline nears. 

Tim Reagan, spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 790, said the union presented a counteroffer to BART on Friday. 

BART officials say they hope their offer will avert a strike so that “people don’t have to face the anxiety about coming back from (Labor Day weekend) not knowing” if BART is operational, said BART Director Dan Richard. 

BART President Willie Kennedy said she is prepared to further negotiate with the unions. 

The four-year-contract offer provides workers with a 4.5 percent wage increase each year for the first three years. In the fourth year, BART would offer a 3 percent increase in the beginning of the year and a 2 percent increase by midyear. 

“The offer protects employees from health care increases, maintains existing employee benefits, and increases contributions to the pension-savings plan,” Kennedy said. 

Smith said a number of issues were still left to be settled, including work rules and the pension fund. 

BART spokesman Mike Healey said management is prepared to negotiate through the weekend, and that if the unions give the go-ahead, Tuesday’s deadline can be extended. 

But as talks continue, BART commuters are looking at alternatives. 

“This will really affect my commute — I’m thinking about sharing a ride with a friend,” said Krys Upstil, who rides BART between the East Bay and San Francisco. “I’ll be looking at AC Transit, but that will probably be really crowded.” 

Matthew Mitchelson, who commutes from Concord to Oakland, where he attends Laney College, said he will likely take his car. 

“I’d have to leave my house at 5 a.m.,” Mitchelson said. “It usually takes 45 minutes driving when BART is running, but will probably take two hours with BART shut down.” 

Bankruptcies decline 

SAN JOSE — For the 12-month period that ended July 31, the number of bankruptcy filings in the Northern District of California declined 12.7 percent when compared to the same period the previous year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. 

But bankruptcy filings nationwide — by both businesses and individuals — were up 8.6 percent in the 12-month period that ended June 30. If bankruptcies continue to increase at this pace, the year ahead will surpass the record-breaking year of 1998, when 1,429,451 new cases were logged. 

Experts, who specialize in bankruptcy or commercial insolvency cases, believe the number of regional filings are down for a variety of reasons. Among them, Bay Area homeowners can sell their homes to pay off debt. Non-homeowners facing bankruptcy, may move elsewhere for a job, and if they do eventually declare bankruptcy, they may file in their new location. 

Many dot-coms and other tech companies that failed had few if any assets, thus had no reason to file for bankruptcy. 

The Northern California District includes courts in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Rosa and has jurisdiction from the Oregon border to Monterey County. 

Dog attack suspect pleads not guilty 

OAKLAND — An alleged drug dealer arrested while out on bail for charges stemming from the dog attack of a Richmond boy in June, pleaded innocent Friday to federal drug trafficking charges. 

Benjamin Moore is in custody at the North County Jail in Oakland. His girlfriend, Jacinda Knight, and Albert Malborough also pleaded innocent before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wayne D. Brazil. 

Moore, Knight, and Malborough, were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to distribute base cocaine and possession of the drug for distribution among other drug-related charges. 

The defendants were arrested Aug. 15. Moore also faces two misdemeanor offense charges in Contra Costa County Superior Court for allegedly concealing evidence in connection with the mauling of 11-year-old Shawn Jones, who was attacked by Moore’s three pit bulls. 

Malborough has been placed in a halfway house, and Knight is not in custody. 

* * * 

MARTINEZ — A Lafayette couple who say they paid too much for a $4.25 million property once owned by Oakland A’s owner Ken Hoffman have asked that their property taxes be reduced. 

Linda and Ken Mandel asked a county appeals board Thursday to reduce $1.1 million of the assessed value of their property. That would save them $11,000 a year in property taxes. 

The three-member Contra Costa County Assessment Appeals Board gave them a $250,000 reduction, exactly what they paid over the asking price when they bought the house in May 2000. 

Linda Mandel told the appeals board the couple realized soon after they moved in that they paid too much for their property, which includes a two-bedroom house, two guest houses, a pool and a tennis court. 

“Whether or not we paid the right price or not, it didn’t matter,” she said. “We thought the market was going to keep going up.” 

Mandel said they did not have the property appraised, on the suggestion of their real estate agent. 

* * * 

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield-Suisun School District students who spent the final two weeks of last school year dealing with confusion and substitute teachers face the possibility of another teacher walkout Tuesday, when school begins again. 

Teachers and Fairfield-Suisun School District leaders have not been able to resolve their differences over the summer. 

The school district is offering teachers a 10 percent pay raise for the last school year and a 5.4 percent raise this school year. Teachers want 10 percent for last year and 7.5 percent this year. 

In an effort to understand and overcome institutional racism in Berkeley, the League of Women Voters plans to host a series of “conversations on race” beginning in early October. 

Whether it’s in the area of education, health care, housing, employment or city government, the opinions and needs of people of color are not given the attention they deserve in Berkeley, said Marissa Saunders, chair of the League of Women Voters’ Education Committee and the person who came up with the idea for the meetings. 

“I’ve been talking to people and going to all these meetings and realizing that the underlying problem was racism,” said Saunders, who is African-American. “Flat-out racism was happening, but no one would say it was that. 

“I’m seeing how divided this city is becoming,” Saunders continued. “It’s the blacks, the browns and the whites, and the whites have all the power.” 

A number of community leaders welcomed the idea of the meetings as a way to identify what racism looks like in Berkeley today – and come up with strategies for confronting the issues. 

“I think it is always timely to have a conversation on race,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Miriam Hawley, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters.  

“Really it is an opportunity to have people tell us when racism is happening and how we can do better,” Hawley added. “We need to move ahead with our efforts to be a more inclusive city.” 

“It’s a very positive move forward to focus on the areas of inclusion where we’ve failed in the past,” said Mark Coplan, former president of the Berkeley PTA Council.  

“We’re Berkeley. We’re progressive. We totally believe that. But are we inclusive?” 

In discussions about school issues, too often complaints from parents and students of color are pushed aside with remarks like “you’re overreacting,” or “why are you making a big deal out of nothing?” Coplan said. 

White parents and school leaders need to understand why certain actions are viewed as racist said Coplan and others. 

“There is a point of view out there that is trying to claim that there is no such thing as racism any more,” said Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. “I’m of a very different opinion. We need to continue examining and addressing (these issues).” 

Fike said it is particularly important to raise awareness of these issues in school districts like those in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, where the majority of teachers are white and the majority of students are students of color. 

Race is a particularly sensitive issue in Berkeley schools, because of the profound gap in the academic achievement of white students and students of color that begins in the early grades and widens as the students move on to high school. 

In 2000, Berkeley High’s African-American students’ standardized test scores earned them a score of 516 on the state’s academic performance index, well below the state median score of 675. Taken together, Berkeley High’s white population scored 894, in a year when only 5 percent of high schools in the state scored above 800. 

“Once African-American students leave the fifth grade, something dramatic happens to them,” Saunders said. “The test scores show it, the attendance shows it, the suspensions show it.” 

And yet, after years of recognizing and quantifying the problem, the school district has yet to make notable headway in addressing it, Saunders said. 

School district officials say they are just as concerned about the lack of progress as parents, but they say much is being done to address the problem. An early literacy program initiated in the last four years is helping to close the gap in student literacy skills by the time they reach third grade – so all students will be equally prepared to succeed in the higher grades. 

The high school has launched a number of initiatives in the last few years, including tutoring, mentoring and – new this year – intensive literacy instruction, to help students who begin ninth grade with crippling academic deficits. 

Still, said Board of Education President Terry Doran, there is a strong perception in the Berkeley Unified School District, and in urban school district’s around the country, the low test scores by students of color are a symptom of unequal opportunity – schools failing to meet these students’ needs.  

In the African-American community especially, there is indignation that school officials did not do more to see their input when creating programs to address the achievement gap. Had they done so, the programs would have been more successful, said Saunders and other African-American parents. 

“Nothing has worked,” Saunders said. “This community has to start from the bottom, all over again.” 

Doran said he hoped a series of discussions on race like the one proposed by the League of Women Voters would “break down barriers to talking about race in constructive ways.” 

Those planning the meeting say they will accomplish this by creating a “safe environment” for people to talk about race without pointing fingers at one another. The first meeting in October – at a date yet to be determined – will begin with poetry and skits aimed at illustrating instances of racism in Berkeley. There are plans to use humor to diffuse what might otherwise become a tense situation.  

A comedian might talk about how certain words and phrases, used in the right context, are interpreted in different ways by whites, blacks, Latinos, etc. The hope is that such activities will create a comfortable environment, preparing people to separate into small groups to talk about race. 

“It could make it comfortable for people to say things that in other circumstances they might get attacked for saying,” Doran said. 

Saunders said she learned important lessons about how to have a discussion about race during an earlier attempt, organized at Washington Elementary School a few years ago. On that day, participants in the meeting divided up into groups based on race and them came back to share their findings with one another. Instead facilitating interacial communication, the meeting only helped the racial groups become more firmly entrenched in their differences, Saunders said. 

At the first League of Women Voters meeting in October, participants will be divided into groups at random Saunders said, so people from different racial and economic backgrounds can work to sort out common miscommunications.  

Furthermore, there will be the knowledge that this in the first of many meetings, so people will have a real incentive to learn to work together, Saunders said.  

The first meeting will be used to develop strategies for community actions that reduce both the perception and the reality of racism, Saunders said. Later meetings will be used to follow up on the plans and see that they are implemented. 

Saunders is looking for volunteers to help with the planning of the meeting and serve as facilitators of the group discussions. She also needs donations of food – and a meeting space. She can be contacted at 898-7625.

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Sunday is the deadline for community college students to apply for one of 11,250 state scholarships. 

The Cal Grants provide up to $1,551 that students can use for books and living expenses during the new school year. Current community college students must have at least a 2.0 grade-point average to be eligible. 

To apply, students must fill out a federal college aid form, known as the Free Application for Federal Aid or FAFSA. Forms are available on the Internet, in college and high school financial aid offices and in libraries.  

Students must also get their community college or high school, if they are incoming freshmen, to send their grade-point average to the California Student Aid Commission. 

The Cal Grants for community college students are part of the state’s expanded college financial aid program. It guarantees full tuition for high school seniors who meet grade and family income requirements. 

The program also includes 22,500 grants for community college students. Half of them have already been awarded and the other half will be given to students meeting the Sept. 2 deadline. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The Cal Grant federal aid application is at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov 

The Student Aid Commission is at http://www.csac.ca.gov 

SACRAMENTO — Democrats trying to recapture control of the House of Representatives may not get much help from a redistricting plan unveiled Friday by California legislators. 

The plan appears to give Democrats only the one additional seat awarded the state because of population growth revealed by last year’s federal census. 

The plan reconfigures the district currently held by Rep. Gary Condit, the Ceres Democrat plagued by scandal following the disappearance of Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy. 

Condit’s district picks up a large number of new Democratic voters, but many of them have never voted for the 12-year House veteran. Analysts said many would be unlikely to vote for someone they know mostly through controversy. 

Democrats hold 32 of California’s current 52 seats, but national Democratic leaders were hoping that redistricting would produce two or three more California seats that Democratic candidates could win. 

The party needs to pick up at least six seats nationally to end eight years of Republican majorities in the House. 

Democrats control redistricting in the nation’s most populous state because of their majorities in the Legislature and the presence of Democrat Gray Davis in the governor’s office. 

But California Democrats point to their gain of five seats in the state in the 2000 elections and warn that trying to create several more Democratic congressional seats here could backfire by spreading loyal party voters too thinly. 

“For all kinds of reasons, I think this was about what the traffic would bear,” said Rep. Howard Berman, D-North Hollywood. 

But he said the plan would still give Democrats a “higher percentage of the California delegation than we’ve ever had before.” And it’s still possible that Democrats could win more than 33 seats, he said. 

“You never know in politics,” he said. “We now hold seats we never thought we would hold five or 10 years go.” 

Republicans like the plan, even though it would significantly alter some of their districts and cut up the Long Beach area seat now held by Republican Steve Horn. 

“We are happy that the good faith effort that Republicans and Democrats had with one another seems to have been fruitful,” said Brad Smith, a spokesman for Rep. David Dreier of San Dimas, the chairman of the state’s Republican delegation to the House. 

Horn’s seat would be replaced by a strongly Republican district in the southern San Joaquin Valley. 

Democrats would presumably pick up the new 53rd District, which would be based in the Lakewood-Lynwood-Southgate area of Los Angeles County and would be heavily Democratic and Hispanic. 

Mark Nevins, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the plan could help Democrats nationally by shoring up several incumbents who now represent marginal districts, including including Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara. 

Her narrow new district would hug the central coast from the Monterey County line to Oxnard in Ventura County, turning it from a district with slightly more Republicans than Democrats into one in which Democrats would outnumber Republicans by more than 41,000. 

Similarly, Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who now represents a San Francisco Bay area district that has slightly more Democrats than Republicans, would get 30,000 more Democrats under the plan. 

But she has criticized the changes, claiming they would take away familiar territory and voters in retaliation for not supporting a Californian, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, for minority whip. 

Tony Quinn, a political analyst and former Republican consultant on redistricting, said Democrats could have created several more Democratic-leaning districts “but they would have had to sacrifice some of their sweetheart seats.” 

He said the plan was good for Republicans because it took away the Horn seat, which they might have lost in next year’s elections, and gave them a strongly Republican seat to replace it. 

Many of the new districts take quirky twists and turns, including the new district that includes Condit’s hometown. It features a chicken-neck-like extension that would stretch it up into heavily Democratic precincts in Stockton. 

Condit was considered a shoo-in for re-election until the Levy disappearance. 

While the partisan breakdown seems aimed at preserving the delegation’s current balance, some Republican incumbents face new districts that put them in new territory. Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, would get a district that stretches from Sacramento to the Nevada line, while his current district stretches north. 

The plan was drafted for the Democratic members of the congressional delegation and will be introduced in the state Senate. Assembly Democratic leaders have said they may also introduce a congressional redistricting plan. 

State legislators are required to approve new congressional and legislative districts to reflect population shifts revealed by last year’s federal census. 

SACRAMENTO — Since its inception four years ago, California’s payday loan industry has tripled each year and now makes 1 million transactions a month from 3,400 storefronts. 

But consumer activists say the industry, with its high-fee, high-interest loans, unfairly taps poor people who can’t afford to go elsewhere. 

That’s why, said first-year Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, he wrote a bill to reform the industry. 

“I think we need to engage in regulation of this industry,” Frommer said. “While it provides a valued service for many people, there have been abuses and we want to make sure people aren’t being taken advantage of.” 

But Frommer’s bill was largely written by an industry lobbyist. An Assembly legislative analyst, one of a group known for their often-bland descriptions of proposed legislation, called Frommer’s bill “specious” and with consumer protections that should “be ensconced in the Code of Illusory Benefits.” 

Also, payday lenders have given generously to Frommer, contributing to his campaign and key Assembly Democratic leaders who in turn funneled more money to Frommer. 

With Frommer’s bill on the table, the Assembly derailed another one by state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, that had already passed the Senate and had the support of consumer groups. 

Now both bills are in “study” in the Assembly, and California’s chance to join other states in reforming the industry has faded away for another year. 

“The result is California consumers are stuck holding the bag for another year,” said Shelly Curran of Consumers Union. 

With a payday loan, a customer writes a check for $300, gets $255 in cash and the lender agrees not to deposit the check until the customer’s next payday. 

Industry officials said they provide a necessary financial service to poor urban and rural areas abandoned by traditional banks. 

Consumer advocates, however, call it predatory. Trudy Robideau, a former customer turned consumer advocate, said customers often don’t have the cash to pay off the loan come payday and end up renewing it — adding up to annual interest rates of 400 percent or more. 

Perata’s bill, which Curran and Robideau supported, would allow customers to pay off their loans in installments over three months. That would keep borrowers from having to roll over their loans. 

Last year, a Perata bill passed the Senate but died in the Assembly. He weakened some parts of his plan this year, where it again passed the Senate. This year, he and consumer activists thought, they had a chance. 

But as the industry has grown, so has its political influence. 

And although some payday lenders like Frommer’s bill — primarily Carson, Calif.-based Nix Check Cashing — most companies like neither, said John Rabenold of Check ’n Go of California. “These bills are telling consumers they don’t know enough for themselves, and the government is going to make these decisions for them.” 

Rabenold and Tom Nix, owner of Nix Check Cashing,, cite a Georgetown University study, sponsored by a national check-cashers association, that found a majority of customers were happy with the service. 

But a 1998 report by the Consumer Federation of America said borrowers often “become mired in debt and renew cash advance loans every week or two. Payday loans are structured to make it difficult for consumers to pay in full at the end of the loan period.” 

That, Perata said, is one of the reasons he pushed his bill. 

Study, Perata said, is “tantamount to killing” his bill. He said he’s stunned that Democrats representing districts with high unemployment rates and low incomes were responsible. 

“I just don’t get it,” he said. “Normally, you come up here to protect the interests of those who sent you here and you advocate for them. This turns that on its head. It’s a testament to how much money they’re making.” 

That money has spread to some of the state’s leading politicians. Since the beginning of 2000, the industry gave $165,800 to political funds led by Frommer; Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater; Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys: and Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Culver City. 

Two of the largest recipients of industry money are Cardoza and Wesson, who is considered the odds-on favorite to be the next speaker. 

An additional $92,000 was contributed to PACs directed by Cardoza, Hertzberg and Wesson. Those funds gave more than $17,000 to Frommer’s campaign last year. 

When the Assembly Business and Professions Committee voted to send Frommer’s bill to an interim study, Wesson and Cardoza were among the votes, though Cardoza doesn’t sit on that committee. Wesson also voted two months later to defer action on the Perata bill. 

Study hearings will forge a compromise between the two bills, Frommer said. Committee chairman Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, said the bills will be heard in January. 

Perata said his bill has already had eight hearings. 

But Frommer said the extra time gives lawmakers a chance to figure out the industry’s proper “niche” in California. 

“We’re trying to help people who have chronically abused this to get out of debt,” said Frommer, who also defended the industry he’s trying to reform. “When the money’s tight, it’s cheaper to get a payday loan than to bounce a check.” 

Robideau disagreed, saying the industry “preys on desperation.” 

Nix and Rabenold said most of their customers have full-time jobs and checking accounts and only use the service occasionally for unforeseen emergencies. Plus, further regulation will just lead lenders to partner with nationally chartered banks able to charge unlimited interest rates. 

Whatever the Legislature finally does, Robideau said, she’ll keep pushing for the state to rein in the industry. 

“You can’t get them out of California,” she said. “They’re here, you can’t eradicate them. But you can eradicate the greediest behavior.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Read the bills, SB898 by Perata and AB1581 by Frommer, at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov 

SAN JOSE — In another blow to financially troubled Excite@ Home, two major cable companies said Friday they will terminate their partnerships with the high-speed Internet provider. 

Meanwhile, negotiations continued between Excite@Home and an investment firm that arranged emergency funding for the company last spring and had demanded a $50 million payment by Friday, according to a source close to the talks. 

Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. said they will exercise the right to exit from their agreements effective June 4, 2002. 

The end of the deals does not mean the companies’ cable modem customers will lose access. Rather, Comcast and Cox are likely to take over some operations themselves and find new partners for others. 

“We want this to be a Cox-managed network,” said Cox spokeswoman Laura Oberhelman. “We will have a greater amount of control over our network and assuming a lot of the responsibilities that sit with Excite@Home.” 

Steve Burke, president of Comcast Cable, said exercising the exit provision was in the best interest of customers and shareholders in light of reports of Excite@ Home’s financial condition. 

Both Comcast and Cox also are in discussions with Excite@ Home about forming new, more limited agreements. 

“That being said, we will have 950,000 customers by year end and we need to ensure that they continue to be well served,” Burke said. 

But it remains to be seen whether Redwood City-based Excite@Home will survive into next year. The once high-flying company said in August that its independent auditors expressed doubt about its viability. 

The latest crisis was the result of $100 million in convertible notes sold by Excite@Home in June to stave off another cash crunch. Promethean Investment Group LLC, which bought half the notes, later said Excite@ Home misrepresented its financial condition and how long the money would last. On Monday, Promethean demanded a $50 million payment by Friday. 

“We don’t think there’s merit in this call for the loan,” said Stephanie Xavier, an Excite@ Home spokeswoman. “We’re not paying the money today, and we’re in active discussions with them about the call.” 

Still, the $50 million is just a fraction of the $1 billion debt load carried by the company. 

AT&T Corp., which is both a cable partner and controlling shareholder, has not made its intentions known. AT&T did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Some analysts believe AT&T or another investor may make a last-minute bailout. 

Excite@Home announced Friday that it will hire an investment banking firm as a financial and restructuring adviser. The firm will assist the company in “exploring its options related to its financial position,” according to a statement. 

AT&T, Comcast and Cox are the three largest of the 21 cable systems that use the service. Excite@Home currently has 3.7 million subscribers nationwide, Xavier said. 

The company, which also operates the Excite Web portal, has been hard hit by the downturn in Internet advertising and questionable management decisions. 

Excite@Home provides e-mail, some content and the network backbone for cable modem users. 

In addition to the $100 million in notes, ExciteAtHome raised another $85 million in June by restructuring the lease of its fiber-optic network from AT&T Corp. Even so, the company said in July that it needed more cash to stay in business in 2002. 

The company’s stock was down 19 percent, or 10 cents, to close at 42 cents a share Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.  

It was trading at more than $100 at the time of the Excite merger. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.home.net 

The Cal Bears head into the 2001 season with nearly the same cast of characters that fashioned last year’s 3-8 disappointment. Star players Andre Carter, Nick Harris and Jacob Waasdorp are gone, as is offensive coordinator Steve Hagen. But head coach Tom Holmoe is back, as are 17 starters from last year’s squad. 

“In the past, we had young guys coming in who played right away, and not neccesarily because we thought they were ready. They had to play because there wasn’t anyone else,” Holmoe said. “That’s not the case this year. Those freshmen and sophomores are juniors and seniors now, with playing experience. That alone should make us a better team.” 

New offensive coordinator Al Borges comes with six years of Pac-10 experience. Whether or not the Bears can master his complex offense quickly will be the key to this make-or-break season for Holmoe. 

“We’ve taken a look at just about everything we’re going to do by now, but we’re going to scale it back quite a bit for games,” Holmoe said. “But Al will give us a chance to win every game. It will come down to who executes better on game day.” 

QB: Junior Kyle Boller came to Cal as one of the top quarterback prospects in the country. Signing him was a coup for Holmoe, that one special player who was supposed to be the difference-maker. He jumped into the starting lineup as a true freshman in the Pac-10 opener, and led the Bears to a 24-23 win over Arizona State. He struggled for the rest of that season, but showed marked improvement last season, upping his completion percentage from 38.6 to 46.7 and cutting his interception ratio from one in every 17 pass attempts to one in every 26. This season will be his first under a real quarterback coach in Borges. Former coordinator Steve Hagen was more of a receivers coach, so a quantum leap in Boller’s game could be in the offing. 

Junior college transfer Eric Holtfreter will be the backup. If Boller goes down, Holmoe and Borges are comfortable with Holtfreter running the offense. Redshirt freshman Reggie Robertson, third on the depth chart, offers a more athletic option but isn’t ready to play. 

Grade: B 

RB: What was supposed to be a position with tremendous depth and experience suddenly dried up when tailback Joe Echema was ruled ineligible by the NCAA two weeks ago. The junior was to be the No. 2 guy behind classmate Joe Igber, but the NCAA’s ruling leaves Igber as the only tailback with any college carries. 

Before Echema’s benching, Borges had already made it clear he wants Igber to get the lion’s share of carries, as opposed to last year’s rotation of Igber, Echema and Saleem Muhammed (who transferred to Portland State this summer), so the game plan doesn’t change much. Redshirt freshman Michael Sparks, who is nursing a shoulder injury, and true freshman Terrell Williams are only other tailbacks available.  

“You don’t really want a true freshman at number two, but that’s how it shook out,” Holmoe said. 

If Igber gets hurt, it would likely force senior fullback Marcus Fields, a former tailback, to switch positions. Fields has gained 30 pounds since his days as a tailback, so it would be a tough transition. Out of the fullback spot, Fields is a multi-dimensional threat, as he can carry the ball, catch the ball out of the backfield and even split wide on occasion. Backup Ryan Stanger is more of a traditional blocking back. 

Grade: B+ 

WR: The lack of a game-breaking wideout is the one key missing ingredient in the offense, and a luxury Borges has had for the past few years at UCLA. He’ll have to adjust his offense to account for the lack of a defense-stretching threat unless sophomore Geoff McArthur or senior Derek Swafford can show more than they have in the past. Swafford was expected to be a starter for the opener, but missed most of fall camp with nagging injuries. He will be replaced, at least against Illinois, by Charon Arnold, who had six catches for 68 yards and two touchdowns in Champaign last year before going down for the last seven games with a stress fracture.  

“Charon gives us an added dose we didn’t have for most of last year,” Holmoe said. 

Former walk-on Sean Currin has been earning heaps of praise from the coaching staff, but is too slow to have much of an impact, while Chad Heydorff will miss at least the opener with a hamstring injury, and sophomore Chase Lyman could be out for the year after an appendectomy. True freshman Christian Prelle will get some playing time, and walk-on freshman Burl Toller will get time on special teams. 

Grade: C- 

TE: This spot has been a black hole for the Bears during Holmoe’s tenure, and there doesn’t appear to be any change this year. Junior Tom Swoboda has been named the starter, with gigantic Terrence Dotsy his backup. Neither player has caught a pass for Cal, but Dotsy could be an effective blocker with his 6-foot-4, 285-pound frame. Swoboda showed good hands in spring practice, and Borges is known for using his tight ends in the passing game, but until something actually happens in a game, there’s no reason to believe there will be anything for opponents to worry about. True freshman Jordan Hunter was highly regarded out of Albany, Ore., and could be the starter as soon as next season. 

Grade: D 

OL: The offensive line will be one of the conference’s best this season, provided the starters can avoid injuries. Three starters were nicked up in Turlock, with tackles Langston Walker and Mark Wilson and guard Scott Tercero all sitting out some portion of camp. But the line should be complete against Illinois, so there should be ample time for Boller and holes for Igber. 

Walker and Wilson are both NFL prospects, and should provide excellent bookends. Walker is massive at 6-foot-8, 345 pounds, one of the nation’s biggest linemen. The senior broke his left ankle in the fourth game last season, ending his year prematurely. The bright side was that it put Wilson into a trial by fire at left tackle as a redshirt freshman, earning him All-Freshman honors. He will move back to the right side this year and should be a steady influence. With four-year starter Walker on the other side, the Bears won’t have to worry much about edge defenders. 

Brandon Ludwig spent last season as one of the Pac-10’s top guards, but the coaches decided to move him to center for his senior year. Ludwig resisted the move initially, but has grown into the position and has meshed well with Boller. His size (6-foot-4, 285 pounds) and agility should make him an excellent center. Nolan Bluntzer was in the running for the position before Ludwig’s move, but will instead move over to Ludwig’s right guard spot. Bluntzer was adequate as a center last year, but may be a bit undersized for guard. Scott Tercero, on the other hand, enters his third year as the starting left guard, although he was banged up last year and never really got on track. If he’s healthy, Tercero should be a force in the running game. 

Grade: A 

DL: The defensive line is bound to go through an adjustment period after losing All-World end Andre Carter and scrappy tackle Jacob Waasdorp. But with nine linemen ready to play, the Bears have better depth to combat opponents. 

The starters against the Illini will be Tully Banta-Cain at rush end, where he came on strong at the end of last season. But without Carter drawing constant double-teams, Banta-Cain will not have the luxury of having just one blocker to beat on every play, so he could struggle. Junior college transfer Josh Gustaveson will be at Carter’s old spot, with fellow juco transfer Tom Canada and redshirt freshman Tosh Lupoi backing up both ends. 

Daniel Nwangwu was supposed to join Carter and Waasdorp in dominating defensive lines last year following an impressive freshman season. But instead he gained 30 pounds and was rarely heard from. Nwangwu is back to his old playing weight of 290 pounds, and will have to be more of a factor this year, as he has some young guys just waiting for an opportunity. Sophomore Josh Beckham showed excellent run-stopping ability last year and has claimed the other starting spot on the inside. Redshirt freshman J.D. Cafaro is ready to play, and Lupoi can move inside if needed. But the real story might be true freshman Lorenzo Alexander from St. Mary’s High in Berkeley. The Bears’ top recruit, Alexander has impressed his coaches with his quickness and technical ability and could force his way into the starting lineup. Defensive line coach Bill Dutton has compared Alexander favorably to a young Andre Carter, who ended up a four-year starter for the Bears. 

Grade: B- 

LB: This group will be led by senior Scott Fujita, a major success story for Holmoe’s walk-on program. Fujita has gone from a skinny scout-team safety to one of the top outside linebackers in the nation, a potential first-round NFL draft pick. He will, however, have to get used to shedding more blockers this year, as he won’t be lining up behind Andre Carter for the first time in his career. But Fujita should be the playmaker for the Cal defense. 

The two inside spots in defensive coordinator Lyle Setencich’s defense are mostly run-pluggers, and the two best appear to be juniors John Klotsche and Matt Nixon. Klotsche took over a starting spot midway through last season and led the Bears with three fumble recoveries, including a touchdown return against Washington. Nixon is undersized (220 pounds), but showed a knack for stuffing the run with 15 tackles for loss last year. They will be pushed by senior Chris Ball, a good blitzer, and athletic redshirt freshman Wendell Hunter. 

Grade: B- 

DB: The cornerback spots are the most hotly contested for the Bears, as four candidates vie for the two starting assignments. Juniors Jemeel Powell and Leshaun Ward were both spectacular at times last season, but both struggled through spring and fall practice with injuries. That gave sophomores James Bethea and Atari Callen the opening they needed, and the younger players are now at the top of the depth chart. Bethea showed promise as a nickel back last year, and is a steady performer. Callen is back after a redshirt year to get his academics in order. The De La Salle graduate was a highly-regarded prospect two years ago and has the speed to run with receivers. 

But Powell, if healthy, has the potential to be one of the top corners in the nation, with the size, speed and leaping ability NFL teams look for. He outleaped UCLA’s 6-foot-5 wideout Brian Poli-Dixon for an end-zone interception to clinch Cal’s overtime victory over the Bruins last year. But after a groin pull and two off-season surgeries, it could well take him some time to get back in the swing of things. Likewise, Ward is a superior physical specimen with play-making ability, but a scar y internal injury took him out for the end of last season, and a hamstring injury has slowed him this fall. If these two are healthy, the Bears will boast talent and depth at cornerback that few teams can match, as well as formidable nickel and dime packages. 

“The secondary is still up in the air. (Defensive backs coach Randy Stewart) really hasn’t decided on the starters yet,” Holmoe said. “But you’ll see all four guys early, and they all will play.” 

The safety spots are easier to figure out. Free safety Nnamdi Asomugha made huge strides last year, including a Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week effort against UCLA, and has a stranglehold on his position. The junior from Los Angeles is effective in both pass coverage and supporting the run. Dewey Hale and Bert Watts share the strong safety duties, just as they did last season. 

Grade: B+ 

Special Teams: Many fans bemoan the loss of All-America punter Nick Harris, the NCAA record-holder for career punts and punt yardage, but if the punter is as important this year as last year, the Bears are already sunk. More important is the punt protection, which cost the Bears possible victories against Washington State and Stanford when Harris had punts blocked. The hiring of a special teams coach, LeCharls McDaniel, should help the protection scheme greatly. Sophomore Tyler Fredrickson doesn’t have Harris’ booming leg, but should be adequate. 

Mark Jensen is an accurate kicker from inside 35 yards, but the junior has never hit a field goal longer than 40 yards at Cal. Fredrickson could be called upon for longer kicks. 

Powell can be spectacular punt returner, but again, his health is a question. Holmoe has decided to use him on special teams to start the season, but he could be pulled if he gets nicked up. Callen, Bethea, Arnold and cornerback Ray Carmel will split the kick-return duties. 

Grade: C+

It took traveling halfway around the world for Berkeley actor Svetlana Couture to go full cycle, and return to her youthful love of theater. Couture opens tonight in a short, three-performance run at Berkeley’s Live Oak Theater in Bay Area playwright Dorotea Reyna’s show “Goddesses.”  

Inspired by the female archetype work of well-known Bay Area Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen, the play tells the story of one particular woman’s wants and needs, as her desires are expressed at different moments of her life through the particular goddess influencing her behavior. Couture plays the character of Aphrodite. 

The 35-year-old Couture moved to Berkeley in 1989. She was born in a small town in the eastern part of Ukraine, where she attended Cherkassy State University, studying to be a teacher of English and German. 

In local amateur theater productions in Ukraine, Couture played the lead in Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” performed in other community shows, and was part of a college comedy group that wrote and staged political humor skits for invited audiences in private homes. 

In 1988, during the Gorbachev era of glasnost and perestroika, Couture participated in a 30-day international peace walk in the Soviet Union attended by 250 visitors from the United States, Japan and Australia. 

On this walk she met Berkeley radio programmer Ray Couture, who was reporting on the march via satellite phone for KPFA. They became friends, and when he invited her to Berkeley the next year, they fell in love and married. 

After immigrating to Berkeley in 1989, Svetlana Couture considered pursuing an acting career, but was told by an entertainment agent that at 5 feet, 1 inch tall, she was not the right size. Instead, she earned a law degree at New College and began working for a local insurance defense firm. 

But Couture became disillusioned with her lawyering work. “I woke up one morning and realized I was wasting my life,” she said. “I couldn’t see spending my life defending insurance companies. With this job, I had the feeling I might be doing more damage than help.” 

About the same time, Couture played hooky from work one afternoon and saw the Kevin Spacey movie “American Beauty,” the story of a disillusioned corporate worker undergoing an identity crisis. 

“I never reacted to a movie like that before,” said Couture. “It made me think about my life. I realized that I wanted the satisfaction of knowing I did something good for someone, even if it’s tiny, as opposed to these terrible massive things that lawyers do, especially in defense situations.” 

“When you work for insurance defense,” continued Couture, “you develop this hard steel, cold being inside you. You don’t want to think what will happen to these people (on the other side) if I do this and that, because the clients want you to feel that way.” 

“I became disillusioned about the ideas of justice and human rights, the things I cherished during law school,” she added. “Those things sort of disappeared one by one. By the end of the insurance defense job, I was empty.” 

In the process of analyzing her life, Couture decided she needed to get back to what she really enjoyed, and that was performing. 

She signed up for classes in acting, speech, voice and singing at A.C.T. in San Francisco. She got publicity photos made, and did some extra work on television’s “Nash Bridges” and the film “Bedazzled.” 

Recently Couture was cast in an independent film called “Bar,” currently shooting at the Albatross Pub in Berkeley. In that film she plays a Russian bachelorette having a good time at the bar, who gets involved with a man interested in mail-order brides. 

In addition, Couture and her husband have started a production company called Haute Couture. They are developing a cooking show pilot for television, and considering a television series of interviews with prominent people in the human potential movement. 

“All of my youthful theater activities came to a screeching halt when I came to this country,” said Couture. “Somehow I thought I had to become practical and businesslike. Now that I am acting again I feel alive and happy. I get high with the energy acting produces. It is very exciting.” 

Daily Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for “American Theater,” “Backstage West,” “Callboard” and others. Email him at jagplays@yahoo.com. 

A push to debate India's caste system at the U.N. Summit on Racism set off a heated debate in India. Ironically, the same week that Indian pundits were protesting the inclusion of caste-based discrimination on the summit agenda, the dean of a university medical faculty in my home town of Nagpur was fired for submitting a fraudulent caste-certificate with his job application. 

Upper-caste columnists of Indian newspapers used the incident to argue that economic intervention – not political action – will eliminate the mistreatment of low-caste minorities in India. Lower-caste activists used the news story to highlight that only a small fraction of India's castes are benefiting from quotas established under affirmative action programs for university admissions and government appointments. 

“Scheduled” castes are a category that receives protections under India's constitution, formulated after the country's independence from British rule in 1947. Under the precepts of the Hindu religion, to which a majority of India's population adheres, there are four major groups, or castes, arranged by trade or profession: Brahmins or priests, Kshatriya or warriors, Vaisyas or farmers, and Kshudras or laborers. Each group is further divided into sub-castes. The untouchables – or Dalits – are the outcasts who perform the most degrading, menial tasks. 

The issue of India's presence at the U.N. conference recently came up for discussion in India's parliament, where members of the Bahujan Samaj Party, representing the “scheduled” castes, made a strong case for including caste-based discrimination. The Brahmin majority, on the other hand, ruled against the proposition, arguing that race is a biological classification, not a social rank. 

On close examination, the opponents' arguments hold little validity. If caste distinctions have been perpetuated through centuries, they should have the same biological basis as race. After all, race is no more biologically based than caste, in the sense that there is no Chinese or African gene. All races have the same blood composition and the exact same DNA. We all are descendants of one human somewhere in Africa or China, the scientific theory goes, so in that sense we are all related to one another. Race or caste distinctions have evolved only over time. 

Opponents point out that race is based on physical attributes, whereas caste is not. But this argument, too, falls short when one realizes that there are many African-Americans who are whiter than whites, and Indian-Americans who are darker than Africans. 

Another popular observation is that over the millennia, races have evolved according to geographic boundaries – Japanese, Chinese, African, Indian – while castes have not. All castes in India, for example, can be found throughout the country. But this argument also appears to be flawed, because with globalization people are rapidly moving across national boundaries and race is increasingly defined through self-determination. 

It is on this last point that caste differences do in fact diverge from those based on race. While in recent decades people in general – and people of multiethnic backgrounds in particular – have been able to define their own race, historically, a Dalit or an untouchable could never escape into a higher caste of his or her own free will. This is because most people in India do not possess caste certificates, but are simply known as belonging to certain groups based on their last names and ancestry. No doubt, the very existence of a certificate led the authorities to suspect the Nagpur doctor. 

If the Indian government has indeed triumphed over the problem of caste discrimination, it would gladly proclaim its success at the U.N. summit. The U.N. has little clout in ordering its member states to intervene in social problems such as racial discrimination, sex trade of minority women, or slave labor – topics listed on the summit agenda. But a discussion of such issues is nevertheless vital for raising global awareness and discussing remedies. 

The Indian delegation should be allowed to address the issue of caste discrimination at the summit without fear, and to present the progress India has made so far, as well as address the problems that still remain. As India's Poet Laureate Ravindranath Tagore once said: “Where the mind 

is without fear and the head is held high; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; into that haven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” 

PNS contributor Sarita Sarvate is a nuclear physicist and writer for India Currents and other publication. 

Friday, Aug. 31

Start a Writing Group – and Keep It Going 

10 a.m. - noon 

North Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Dr. Kathy Briccetti will host a workshop on How to Start and Maintain a Writing Group. This free workshop requires pre-registration by Aug. 29. 

644-6850 www.infopeople. org/ bpl/ 

James Joyce’s Ulysses 

Reading Group 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

All are welcome, plus the wonderful new tapes. 644-1172 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie on Emma Goldman followed by discussion. 549-1879 

ILGA Global Gay Summit - RejuveNation 

7 p.m. 

McGee Avenue Baptist Church 

1640 Stuart St. 

$7 663-3980 www.eastbaypride. org 

Saturday, Sept. 1

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanies by an adult. www.cal-sailing.org  

Healthful Building Materials 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar conducted by environmental consultant Darrel DeBoer. $35. 525-7610 

Sunday, Sept. 2

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least 5 years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

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 

LesBiGay Prospective Parenting Group 

10:30 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Adoption issues, new members welcome. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Monday, Sept. 3

Intensive Production Urban Gardening Training 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar & Grill 

1310 University Ave. 

Learn ways to intensively and organically grow produce for your own use or for an urban market garden. A hands-on training in the garden located behind the restaurant and potluck lunch at 1 p.m. Free community training, meets the first Monday each month. 841-1110 

Potluck Picnic and Poetry 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

Walnut and Rose streets 

Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts a Labor Day potluck picnic followed by an open poetry reading. All are welcome to bring food and poetry to share. 527-9905 poetalk @aol.com 

Rainbow Berkeley Brunch 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Celebrate Berkeley’s LGBHTQI community at the 3rd Annual Brunch. $10 donation. 548-9235 gspprng@tksvc.com 

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy: A Labor Day Hearing 

11 a.m. 

North Gate Hall Room 105 

University of California at Berkeley 

East Bay’s crisis of working poverty to be investigated at the hearing. Featuring a panel and audience of East Bay political, religious, labor and community leaders, including: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and others. 893-7106  

Tuesday, Sept. 4

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 Friendships: deep, superficial, and what are its obligations. 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 computer class for seniors 

9:30 - 11:30 a.m. and 1 - 3 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited, call ahead for a reservation. 

644-6109 

HVAC for Beginners 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Seminar taught by contractor/ engineer Eric Burtt. $35. 525-7610 

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. 525-3565 

— compiled by Guy Poole 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

ILGA Global Gay Summit - Pride Brunch 

11 a.m. 

Cafe de La Paz 

1600 Shattuck Ave. 

Pride Brunch, $10 - $15 donation. 663-3980 www.eastbaypride.org 

Wednesday, Sept. 5

Berkeley Communicator Toastmasters Club 

7:15 a.m. 

Vault Cafe 

3250 Adeline 

Learn to speak with confidence. Ongoing first and third Wednesdays each month. 527-2337 

Advisory Council Agenda 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Arts Access, Commission on Aging. 644-6107 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/seniors/NBSC/NBSC.htm 

Birthday Party 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The center will host a birthday party for elderly people whose birthdays fall in Sept. Belly dancer Carrie Schwalbe will perform. 644-6107 

A Taste of the World: Cultural Understanding Through Food 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Enhance your cooking skills and experience the cuisines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Israel with Chef Daniel Herskovic. All classes are “hands on.” Class includes meal and cooking lesson. $25. Every Wednesday through Nov. 1. 655-8487 

Socratic Circle Discussions 

5 - 6 p.m. 

1309 Solano Ave. 

Cafe Eclectica 

Does your brain need a work out? All ages welcome. 527-2344 

Femme Rising 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Ongoing discussion on sex, gender identity, politics, nail polish, and other weighty matters. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Timber Framing, Ancient and Modern 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar presented by contractor/ Timber Framer Guild Member Doug Eaton. $35. 525-7610 

Thursday, Sept. 6

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

Butch Time 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

A discussion/ social/ support/ activity group for self-defined butches. Tonight: Butches grow older. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Sahara Sojourn: Following the Ancient Routes of the Salt Caravans of Niger 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide presentation from the heart of the Sahara along the ancient routes of the salt caravans of the Tuareg. Free. 527-4140 

Women’s Health Issues 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Two nurses from the city will launch a series of talks on women’s health issues, beginning with the bladder. 644-6107 

Friday, Sept. 7 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie, Song of the Lark followed by discussion. 549-1879 

Reception for Jackie Y. Griffin 

Director of Library Services 

4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

City Council Chambers 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, 2nd Floor 

Community Leader reception. RSVP by Aug. 31, 644-6095 x 10; yvg2@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Saturday, Sept. 8 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Center Street 

A free environmental poetry festival with a day of poetry, music and environmental activism featuring Gary Snyder, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Haas, Francisco X. Alarcon, and Earll Kingston as John Wesley Powell. Strawberry Creek Walk at 10 a.m. Oxford and Center. 526-9105 www.poetryflash.org 

Youth Arts Studio 

2 - 5 p.m. 

All Souls Episcopal Parish 

2220 Cedar St. 

Demonstration classes for after school program in visual arts, creative writing and dramatic arts for students ages 10 - 15. Free. 848-1755 

Luna Kids Dance Open House 

10 - 11 a.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

Free open house and Parent/ Child classes. Designed to give families a shared dance experience that connects body, mind, and soul. Children will have a chance to play fun dance games, refreshments and register for Fall Session. 525-4339 www.lunakidsdnace.com 

Pack Right, Travel Smart 

1 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Eagle Creek Rep will give you tips on how to best organize your gear and clothing for your next adventure. Free. 527-4140 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

812 Page St. 

Earthquake Retrofitting class. Free to anyone 18 or older, who lives or works in Berkeley. 644-8736 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire.oes.html 

Sunday, Sept. 9 

Solano Stroll 2001 

8 a.m. - 7 p.m. 

Solano Ave. 

27th Annual Berkeley / Albany Festival. 11 a.m. Parade; 8 a.m. pancake breakfast; merchants, entertainers, food, craft alley, game booths, silent auction, climbing wall, bicycle stunt show, ponyrides, giant slide, dunk tank, hot air balloon rides. Free. 527-5358 www.solanostroll.org 

Salsa Lesson and Dance Party 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa lesson and dance party with professional instructors. Israeli food. Novices welcome and no partner required. $12. RSVP 237-9874 

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  

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. Tools are provided. Free  

527-4140 

Monday, Sept. 10 

FTM Book and Discussion Group 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire, and Catalina DeErauso by Sherry M. Velasco. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

CubScout Information Night 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Epworth Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

A program that offers outdoor and leadership skills. First through Fifth Grade boys and parents. Free. 525-6058 

Jewish Genealogy: Finding Your Jewish Family History 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Learn basic techniques and resources to trace your family history. 848-0237 

Berkeley Folk Dancers 

7:45 p.m. - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

1301 Shattuck 

New Fall classes starts. Mondays through Oct. 29; $20 

http://geocities.com/bdancers 

Tuesday, Sept. 11 

Ecology of Mediterranean Climate Streams 

5:15 - 6:30 p.m. 

U.C. Berkeley  

212 O’Brien Hall 

Part of the California Colloquium on Water lecture series. Vincent H. Rash, Professor of Entomology and Parasitology will give a lecture including questions and answers. 642-2666 lvida@library.berkeley.edu 

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. 525-3565 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Dateline: Israel 2001: A middle East Update 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Informative and timely presentation on the current situation in the Middle East with Professor Ze’ev Brinner. 848-0237 

Nutritionist 

11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

City Nutritionist Natalie Krelle-Zepponi willspeak about farm-fresh foods. 644-6107 

Freedom From Tobacco: A Quit Smoking Class 

6 - 8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Free to Berkeley residents and employees. 644-6422 quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

The city is constructing a bridge spanning Interstate 80 for bikers, pedestrians and persons using wheelchairs as an alternative to walking along the freeway’s University Avenue onramp. Construction began in  

January and is scheduled to be completed in December. 

924 Gilman Aug. 31: Remains of the Day, They Live, No Time Left, Skolastic Deth; Sept. 7: Carry On, Champion, Breaker Breaker, Saturday Supercade, Fields of Fire; Sept. 8: Lab Rats, Relative; Most shows $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless noted. 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Albatross Pub Sept. 1: David Widelock Jazz Trio; Sept. 5: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 6: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 11: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Sept. 13: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 19: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 20: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 22: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet; Sept. 27: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Free. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring.com 

Anna’s Aug. 31: Anna sings jazz standards; 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Free. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted. 1801 University Ave. 849-2662  

Ashkenaz Aug. 31: 9:30 p.m. Wawa and the Oneness Kingdom, The Calypsonians, $10; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com  

Café Eclectica Sept. 8: 8 p.m. SF Improv, Free. 1309 Solano Ave. 326-6124 www.sfimprov.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. Sept. 10: Lucy Lang Day; Sept. 17: Marc Hofstadter (book party); Sept. 24: Jim Watson-Gove; All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Sept. 6: 8 p.m. King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, $20 - $32; Sept. 16: 7 p.m. Tania Libertad, $18 - $30; Sept. 30: 7 p.m. Kronos Quartet, David Barron, $30; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Sept. 1: Ancient Future, $16.50; Sept. 7: Tom Russell w/ Andrew Hardin, $16.50; Sept. 8: The House Jacks, $17.50; Sept. 9: Erika Luckett, $16.50; Sept. 11: Don Walser, Slaid Cleaves, $16.50; Sept. 12: Andy Irvine, $17.50; Sept. 13: Piper Heisig birthday revue and fund raiser w/ Kate Brislin, Sylvia Herold, Tony Marcus, Carlos Reyes, and Radim Zenkl, $16.50; Sept. 14: Ray Wylie Hubbard, $16.50; Sept. 15: Vocolot, $17.50; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761, wwwfreightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Aug. 31: Realistic CD Release Party; Sept. 4: Beth Waters Band; Sept. 5: Presidents Breakfast; Sept. 6 Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 7: Crater; Sept. 10: Ben Graves Trio; Sept. 11: Len Patterson Trio; Sept. 12: Bitches Brew; Sept. 13: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 14: Carlos Washington & Giant People Ensemble; Sept. 15: Kooken & Hoomen; Sept. 18: The Goodbye Flowers; Sept. 19: New Monsoon; Sept. 20: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 21: Netwerk: Electric; Sept. 22: New Garde Philosophers; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

La Peña Cultural Center Sept. 11 & 12: 8 p.m. Irakere, $22; In the Cafe, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Alice Arts Sept. 8: 7:30 p.m. Benefit concert for freedom of U.S. political prisoners featuring Fred Ho (solo) and The Eddie Gale Unit. $12; 1428 Alice, Oakland, 539-0050 www.thejerichomovement.com/teardownthewalls 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church Sept. 15: George Brooks and Shweta Jhaveri with Uttam Chakraborty on drums. $18 - $25; 2727 College Ave. 843-9600 www.harmoniventures.com 

Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live Radio Show Sept. 1: Rita Moreno, has won Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards for her work on stage and screen. Mark Wing-Davey, director of “36 Views,” opening at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Kent Nerburn, author of “Road Angels.” The Shotgun Players open a window into their show: “Winesburg Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave.; Sept. 29: Nancy Miford, author of “Savage Beauty.” West African folk music with The Nigerian Brothers. Blues roots piano by Caroline Dahl. The Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison St. All shows 10 a.m. - noon. 252-9214 www.wcl.org 

“Rose Street Cabaret” Aug. 31: 7 - 11 p.m. East Bay Pride and Rose Street House of Music present "Rose Street Cabaret" as part of "Pride Park." Shelley Doty, Katharine Chase of Kindness, Laura Chandler, Making Waves, Green, Kristi Martel, and Jill Knight. Unitarian Church of Oakland, Starr King Room, 1685 14th Street. rosestreetmusic@yahoo.com 

Editor: 

I appreciated your recent article about the scent issue and MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity), but want to make a few points. 

First, the language asking people not to wear scents at public meetings is referred to as a "warning." The word warning implies punishment or danger. The language is polite, uses the word please, and really amounts only to a request.  

Second, the city manager says that there was "extensive discussion" prior to the adoption of the present language, and therefore there is "no pressing need to re-open the discussion." For those of us who originally opened up the discussion because our health is compromised by the presence of these fragrances, there is a need to re-open it. The current language does not do what we need, which is to protect our health.  

Third and most importantly, I was quoted as saying that "those who suffer from (MCS) have little doubt that it exists," with no further elaboration. It is unfortunate that my words were not quoted in full. As cited, they might be seen as lending credence to the anti-MCS view that the condition is "all in our heads," which is the last thing I would in any way want to support.  

In fact, MCS is currently recognized as a legitimate disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and by other entities including the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the U.S. President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, the U.S. National Council on Disability, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), among others.  

And there are both many physical findings which corroborate the existence of a medical condition, and many research studies which substantiate its existence. For more in-depth information on this, check out the Chemical Injury Information Network at http://www.ciin.org/. 

Carol David 

Berkeley

A movement born on the University of California campus last spring will spread across the nation this fall, if local Palestinian activists have their way. And Berkeley, as usual, will be ground zero. 

Students for Justice in Palestine are planning a series of events designed to draw attention to the “al-Aqsa Intifada,” the Palestinian uprising that started almost a year ago, and to ask the UC regents to withdraw their investments from companies that do business with the state of Israel. A similar divestiture drive is aimed at the city of Berkeley.  

SJP and allied groups will host a nationwide gathering of campus activists Oct. 12-14, they’re calling: “Holding the University Accountable: Divesting from Israeli Apartheid.” Organizers of the conference hope to spread the campaign which aims at getting the UC system and other universities to divest from Israel. People involved with the campaign, which began last year, liken it to the divestment drive against apartheid in South Africa that helped bring democracy to that country in 1991. Others disagree. 

“I do believe that the equation of apartheid in South Africa and the state of affairs in Israel is specious,” said Adam Weisberg, executive director of Hillel Jewish Student Center, on Bancroft Way, near the UC Berkeley campus. He cited several differences between apartheid-era South Africa and the current political situation in Israel: Palestinians are allowed to participate in politics, even holding membership in the Israeli Parliament, and are not taxed differently from Jews, as South African blacks were.  

Snehal Shingavi, an SJP member, defended the analogy. “What apartheid was, fundamentally, was a series of laws and geographic relationships, backed by military and police forces, designed to separate two populations. One population was allowed to live with the best kind of resources – the best schools, health care, meaningful jobs, etc. The other population was left to shantytowns and townships. That’s what makes the comparison appropriate,” he said. 

The SJP conference will include workshops on “Media Acitivism,” “Learning from the South African Campaign” and “Zionism.”  

“I believe incredible progress has been made, but the real boost will be the national connections forged at this conference. This campaign is becoming more than a campaign – it’s becoming a movement,” said Will Youmans, another SJP member. 

Youmans is also involved in a coalition of groups, including the San Francisco chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee that is planning to ask the city of Berkeley to deny contracts to businesses that trade with Israel.  

In a meeting held Aug. 19 at the Unitarian Church at Cedar Street and Bonita Avenue, citizens discussed the possibility of adding Israel to the city’s “Oppressive States” list, instituted in 1990. The list bars the city from doing business with companies that have economic relations with countries deemed to deny human rights and the fundamental freedoms of its citizens. Currently, the only region on the list is Tibet. 

“We should have very strict ethical standards about who we do business with – as a country, as a city and as individuals,” Youmans said. “The purpose of the city’s ‘oppressive states’ ordinance is an attempt to meet those standards, and Israel, we believe, qualifies as an oppressive state.” 

SJP and other campus organizations are planning to mark the first anniversary of the al-Aqsa Intifada Sept. 22-29, by holding “Intifada Week,” a seven-day commemoration of the uprising and protest against Israel.  

Last March, SJP gained media attention after a series of demonstrations on the UC campus. Thirty-two protesters were arrested when they blocked access to Wheeler Hall, which they had declared “occupied territory” for the day. Earlier, the group had organized “checkpoints” at Sather Gate, where passers-by were divided into “Israelis” and “Palestinians.” “Israelis” were allowed to pass through the Gate unmolested, while “Palestinians” were asked for identification papers and had their backpacks searched. 

“Intifada Week” will combine this type of street theater with speakers and teach-ins. Some of the events scheduled are a mock trial of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, art installations and a conference on international law. 

Critics of “Intifada Week” argue that the tone of the event will be an echo of the Intifada itself – an insurrection, they say, marked by its embrace of violence as a political solution.  

“I think it’s misguided,” said Randy Barnes of the Israel Action Committee. “The most productive thing that we, as student leaders, can do, is to work together, through dialogue, toward peace.” 

“I’m concerned from the outset, because the current Intifada has been incredibly violent,” said Hillel’s Weisberg. “I don’t think that it’s something we should be celebrating. ‘Intifada Week’ doesn’t seem like an exploration of issues – it’s more a call to arms.” 

The Israel Action Committee will be out during “Intifada Week” and the rest of the semester, talking to people and handing out pamphlets, Barnes said, underscoring that there will be no counter-demonstrations. 

“I'm confident that through interaction with people, we will be able to let them know the facts,” he said. 

Scott Newman, a member of Hillel, attended an international assembly of Jewish student leaders last week, to learn effective ways to spread their points of view. This year, for the first time, the annual gathering included a day of workshops called “Defending Israel on Campus.”  

Newman attended workshops called “The Birth of Palestinian Nationalism” and “Dealing with Muslim and Palestinian Groups on Campus.” 

“I had felt a little undereducated about what I could do on campus,” he said. “I got some information there about what I could tell people about Israel.” 

Newman says he, too, believes that dialogue is of primary importance, but that true communication between opposing groups is hard. In the past he has tried to organize meetings between Muslim and Jewish students to discuss the issue of Palestine, but was disappointed by the results. 

“It was difficult because both sides are so far apart on the issues,” he said. “I didn’t get much out of it, and I don’t think they got much out of it.”  

Students for Justice in Palestine can be reached at 551-7643 or 

http:// justiceinpalestine.org. 

Berkeley Hillel can be reached at 845-7793 or http://www.berkeleyhillel.org/ 

In an effort to understand and overcome institutional racism in Berkeley, the League of Women Voters plans to host a series of “conversations on race” beginning in early October. 

Whether it’s in the area of education, health care, housing, employment or city government, the opinions and needs of people of color are not given the attention they deserve in Berkeley, said Marissa Saunders, chair of the League of Women Voters’ Education Committee and the person who came up with the idea for the meetings. 

“I’ve been talking to people and going to all these meetings and realizing that the underlying problem was racism,” said Saunders, who is African-American. “Flat-out racism was happening, but no one would say it was that. 

“I’m seeing how divided this city is becoming,” Saunders continued. “It’s the blacks, the browns and the whites, and the whites have all the power.” 

A number of community leaders welcomed the idea of the meetings as a way to identify what racism looks like in Berkeley today – and come up with strategies for confronting the issues. 

“I think it is always timely to have a conversation on race,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Miriam Hawley, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters.  

“Really it is an opportunity to have people tell us when racism is happening and how we can do better,” Hawley added. “We need to move ahead with our efforts to be a more inclusive city.” 

“It’s a very positive move forward to focus on the areas of inclusion where we’ve failed in the past,” said Mark Coplan, former president of the Berkeley PTA Council.  

“We’re Berkeley. We’re progressive. We totally believe that. But are we inclusive?” 

In discussions about school issues, too often complaints from parents and students of color are pushed aside with remarks like “you’re overreacting,” or “why are you making a big deal out of nothing?” Coplan said. 

White parents and school leaders need to make more of an effort to understand why certain actions are viewed as racist, said Coplan and others. 

“There is a point of view out there that is trying to claim that there is no such thing as racism any more,” said Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. “I’m of a very different opinion. We need to continue examining and addressing (these issues).” 

Fike said it is particularly important to raise awareness of these issues in school districts like those in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, where the majority of teachers are white and the majority of students are students of color. 

Race is a particularly sensitive issue in Berkeley schools, because of the profound gap in the academic achievement of white students and students of color that begins in the early grades and widens as the students move on to high school. 

In 2000, Berkeley High’s African-American students’ standardized test scores earned them a score of 516 on the state’s academic performance index, well below the state median score of 675. Taken together, Berkeley High’s white population scored 894, in a year when only 5 percent of high schools in the state scored above 800. 

“Once African-American students leave the fifth grade, something dramatic happens to them,” Saunders said. “The test scores show it, the attendance shows it, the suspensions show it.” 

And yet, after years of recognizing and quantifying the problem, the school district has yet to make notable headway in addressing it, Saunders said. 

School district officials say they are just as concerned about the lack of progress as parents, but they say much is being done to address the problem. An early literacy program initiated in the last four years is helping to close the gap in student literacy skills by the time they reach third grade – so all students will be equally prepared to succeed in the higher grades. 

The high school has launched a number of initiatives in the last few years, including tutoring, mentoring and – new this year – intensive literacy instruction, to help students who begin ninth grade with crippling academic deficits. 

Still, said Board of Education President Terry Doran, there is a strong perception in the Berkeley Unified School District, and in urban school district’s around the country, the low test scores by students of color are a symptom of unequal opportunity – schools failing to meet these students’ needs.  

In the African-American community especially, there is indignation that school officials did not do more to see their input when creating programs to address the achievement gap. Had they done so, the programs would have been more successful, said Saunders and other African-American parents. 

“Nothing has worked,” Saunders said. “This community has to start from the bottom, all over again.” 

Doran said he hoped a series of discussions on race like the one proposed by the League of Women Voters would “break down barriers to talking about race in constructive ways.” 

Those planning the meeting say they will accomplish this by creating a “safe environment” for people to talk about race without pointing fingers at one another. The first meeting in October – at a date yet to be determined – will begin with poetry and skits aimed at illustrating instances of racism in Berkeley. There are plans to use humor to diffuse what might otherwise become a tense situation.  

A comedian might talk about how certain words and phrases, used in the right context, are interpreted in different ways by whites, blacks, Latinos, etc. The hope is that such activities will create a comfortable environment, preparing people to separate into small groups to talk about race. 

“It could make it comfortable for people to say things that in other circumstances they might get attacked for saying,” Doran said. 

Saunders said she learned important lessons about how to have a discussion about race during an earlier attempt, organized at Washington Elementary School a few years ago. On that day, participants in the meeting divided up into groups based on race and them came back to share their findings with one another. Instead facilitating interacial communication, the meeting only helped the racial groups become more firmly entrenched in their differences, Saunders said. 

At the first League of Women Voters meeting in October, participants will be divided into groups at random Saunders said, so people from different racial and economic backgrounds can work to sort out common miscommunications.  

Furthermore, there will be the knowledge that this in the first of many meetings, so people will have a real incentive to learn to work together, Saunders said.  

The first meeting will be used to develop strategies for community actions that reduce both the perception and the reality of racism, Saunders said. Later meetings will be used to follow up on the plans and see that they are implemented. 

Saunders is looking for volunteers to help with the planning of the meeting and serve as facilitators of the group discussions. She also needs donations of food – and a meeting space. She can be contacted at 898-7625.

Berkeley firefighter John Mason, heralded in several publications a year ago for rebuilding housing for thousands of Albanian refugees in war-torn Kosovo, recently discovered that a bureaucratic oversight has left him without the protection of medical benefits for the past year.  

Mason’s situation prompted Councilmember Kriss Worthington to submit a request to the City Council, asking for reimbursement of approximately $550 the firefighter will have paid for private medical insurance by November, which is when he can reapply for his health benefits. The council will consider the recommendation at its meeting on Sept. 11. 

“When city staff take a leave of absence to do such inspirational work, the city of Berkeley should send strong messages of support,” Worthington said. “If we can’t force the insurance companies and HMOs to accommodate the flexibility needed in the real world then the city has to do something,” 

Mason said when he returned from his leave of absence in September 2000, he asked his supervisor what he needed to do to have his benefits reinstated and was told they would be reinstated automatically when he was back on the payroll.  

But Mason said he recently found out that through an administrative error his medical benefits were not reinstated and that he would not be able to apply for them again until November. Mason said he was shocked to discover he had no health insurance. 

“I don’t blame the department,” Mason said and added he could not have accomplished as much as he did in Kosovo without the fire department’s support. “At one point I ran out of vacation time and could not have stayed in Kosovo if it hadn’t been for a number of people in the department who stepped up and worked my shifts for me.” 

Mason said the problem occurred because there was no comprehensive checklist that covered all the things he needed to do to re-enter the fire department after a long-term leave of absence.  

“This is a red tape issue,” he said. “The department’s re-entry process is difficult. You have to reapply for benefits, get relicensed and recertified, etc. but there’s no comprehensive checklist to guide employees.” 

Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz said Mason is not the only city employee in that situation. “We are limited by our contract with the medical insurance companies,” he said. 

Deputy Director of the Human Resource Department Nikki Spillane said the insurance companies insist new and re-entry employees sign up for medical plans within 30 days of being hired and then they are allowed to change plans or companies only during November. Spillane said she assumed the reasons for the restrictions are to prevent people from only signing up for insurance coverage when they have a serious illness. 

In 1999, Mason, a 10-year-veteran of the Berkeley Fire Department, was moved by televised images of Albanians displaced by the Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign. Compelled to action, Mason decided to take six weeks of accrued vacation time – he would eventually spend 13 months in Kosovo – and bought a plane ticket. 

Mason, who is also a carpenter, boarded a plane toting a handmade plywood crate with attachable wheels and loaded with hammers, saws and rulers and soon found himself in the mountains near the Kosovo-Serbian border. He wrote and submitted a grant request to the U.S. Department of Defense for funds to help rebuild three villages, Gadish, Sllakkofe and Kishnapole. The villages, each with a population of about 120, were more than 80 percent destroyed.  

After weeks of fighting the military bureaucracy for approval of the funds, building supplies were delivered to devastated villages just in time to rebuild 60 homes before winter set in. 

Mason’s success was written about in the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes and soon after he was contacted by the International Rescue Committee. They wanted him to manage the refurbishing of six buildings that would house 2,000 refugees. Mason returned to Berkeley, arranged a leave of absence from the fire department and accepted the job. 

“The provisional NATO Government had identified six buildings that were former government or school buildings that were basically empty shells,” he said. “I managed the refurbishing and once they were occupied we managed food supply, clothing, schooling for the children all the internal and external workings of the facility.” 

Mason said when he returned to duty at the fire department in September 2000, he was interviewed by several local and regional publications and the publicity was very good for Berkeley. 

Rick Guzman, president of the Berkeley Firefighters Association Local 1227, which represents local firefighters, said Mason’s situation was an “amazing” one. 

“The publicity Mason received for his work was good for the city, good for the fire department and good for the union,” he said. “It’s ironic that you have a guy the city used as a hero and now it seems like the city is turning their back on him.” 

For a detailed story about John Mason’s experiences in Kosovo go to the Berkeley Fire Department’s Web site www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Fire/bfdmason.html.

Berkeley astronomers may soon be able to get a better look at the stars thanks to the city’s Planning Department, currently working on an ordinance to reduce light pollution and make sky watching easier. 

The idea was born two years ago in the Parks and Recreation Commission. But it did not really catch the city’s attention until earlier this year, after the energy crisis hit the state. 

On April 17, the commission brought a recommendation to the City Council, asking its members to draft and adopt an appropriate nighttime outdoor lighting ordinance.  

“Many cities have already passed night lighting ordinances for two reasons,” said commissioner Yolanda Huang, who strongly supports the project. It promotes safety and also astronomy, she said. 

In its recommendation, the commission suggested the council look at safety, energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the preservation of night sky recreational activities, when discussing lighting. 

The City Council referred the project to the Planning Department, which is currently doing some preliminary work, such as looking into the project’s feasibility and cost, said Jay Kelekian, Parks and Recreation Commission secretary. 

Planning Department Interim Director Wendy Cosin did not return calls Thursday. 

No document has been drafted yet in Berkeley, but a model outdoor lighting ordinance that was part of one of the commission’s agenda packets gives an idea of the kind of changes such a regulation could bring. It would permit the redesign of outdoor lighting to focus the light on the ground. By controlling the way lights are installed, the document states, problems such as glare or excessive energy use can be avoided. The document regulates, for instance, the height at which different kinds of spot lights should be mounted, or the direction toward which the light should be distributed. 

Berkeley uses sodium vapor bulbs, an energy efficient type of bulb, for its outdoor lighting. But property owners often use inefficient bulbs. The ordinance, therefore, should regulate the use of outdoor light on private property, according to Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

“There are cases in Berkeley where neighbors have fights over lights,” he said. “If there is too much light or the wrong kind of light, then it’s a form of pollution.” 

But Alan Gould, who works as an astronomy educator at the Lawrence Hall of Science, says some of Berkeley’s public lights could also use some improvement. 

“The energy efficient bulbs are only part of the story,” he said. “If you have a light that (shines) half its light up and half its light down, all the light that goes up is wasted. It’s a squandering of energy and a destruction of a precious natural beauty.” 

Dozens of amateur astronomy associations in the Bay Area would benefit from the ordinance, Gould added. And the public would too. Right now he said, Berkeley residents miss the enriching experience of watching the sky. The Milky Way, for example, cannot be seen anywhere near the city, he said. 

Even for experts, watching the sky in Berkeley is not easy. Steve Dawson, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley’s department of astronomy, said that light pollution keeps him from seeing all he could distinguish through the department’s small telescope if the night were darker. 

“We can look at the planets, at clusters of stars, and nearby galaxies,” he said. “But you could see fainter objects if Berkeley turned down its lights.”

A new study by the American Medical Association says that binge drinking is up among American college students, with 44 percent of students reporting that they binge drink, and nearly one in four saying they binge frequently. 

At UC Berkeley, officials are concerned about excessive drinking, although the term “binge” in itself is not used there because of its vagueness, senior health educator Aida Cerda said today. 

Instead, Cerda said, the university focuses on “high risk” drinking, a more concise, person-specific definition that focuses on the effects of drinking irresponsibly, drinking to get drunk, or drinking to a point where there are unwanted consequences. 

- ranging from the next-day hangover to assaults of unwanted sex. 

Aided by an $180,000 over two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education,the university is working on a number of initiatives to add to its alcohol awareness programs. 

“We are very realistic that there are students who drink heavily,” Cerda said. “There are also students that don't (drink heavily) and there's also students who abstain from drinking.” 

Cerda said that because of the accessibility of alcohol, what's needed is a concerted effort to curb irresponsible drinking by diverse sectors of the community.  

That's why one of the programs that the school is launching this year targets members of the schools residential halls, fraternities and sororities, local vendors and alumni in an effort to curb with the effects of high-risk drinking. 

According to Cerda, while much has been written about the effects of second-hand smoke, the effects of second-hand drinking often go unnoticed as minor inconveniences: having to “baby sit” for a drunk friend, for example, or having to clean up vomit, or being insulted by a drunk. 

The university's program has developed a way of tracking and addressing these grievances. For example, Cerda said, when a person throws up in a residential hall, residents may agree to make the person clean up after their own mess. 

Or a Cal football player who shows up hung over for practice may be told that they can't practice that day. 

“We're not telling students to drink, or not to drink,” Cerda said. “What we're telling them is that they should be able to have fun without having the pain involved.” 

Cerda said the school's approach to alcohol safety includes advice targeted specifically to freshman students. Traditionally, Cerda said, it is these students, most of them away from home for the first time, who are most likely to engage in high-risk drinking. 

Especially, Cerda said, during the first three weeks of school, when increases in alcohol-related incidents-- such as unwanted sexual advances, fights and sexual assaults – are usually reported. 

Then there's the tragic incidents, like the death of 18-year-old California State University at Chico freshman Adrian Derek Heideman, a Palo  

Alto resident, who died from an alcohol overdose at the fraternity he was  

pledging at last October 

In an effort from preventing any incidents like these at UC  

Berkeley, school officials are launching an extensive education campaign and  

are also reaching out to the community - including the bars and nightclubs in  

the campus area - for help. 

“We're not there to close down their business,” Cerda said,  

noting that the bars are part of the Berkeley community and many of the  

university's students are over 21 and may choose to drink legally. 

“It's not that local vendors are the bad guys,” she said. “It's  

not about being good or being bad, it's about solving the problems.” 

For parents who may be concerned about their student's drinking  

patterns, Cerda said that she understands the concern, but added that what  

most studies often fail to mention is that a lot of students who drink do so  

in a responsible manner, and that the number of students who abstain from  

drinking altogether is often underestimated. 

The AMA's study is titled “A Matter of Degree: The National Effort  

to Reduce High-Risk Drinking Among College Students. The study was made at 10  

university campuses.  

It calls for alcohol abuse prevention efforts that focus not only  

on the individual, but on the rest of the college community, including  

college administrators, students, parents, law enforcement officials and bar  

owners. 

The study, which did not examine UC Berkeley, has these entities  

working together to change the advertising and marketing practices that occur  

close to college campuses attempting to change not only drinking beliefs  

among individuals, but also cultural beliefs and behaviors. 

SACRAMENTO — The area known as “Condit Country” would move north under a congressional redistricting proposal released Thursday, further threatening Rep. Gary Condit’s re-election chances. 

Sen. Don Perata, the Democratic chairman of the Senate elections committee, said Condit’s district would shift north and take in heavily Democratic areas in Stockton. 

The new district, Perata said, would still include Condit’s home in the Modesto suburb of Ceres and be one in which he could run for re-election if he wanted to. 

But Tony Quinn, a California political analyst and former Republican redistricting consultant, said such a new district would put Condit in unfamiliar territory among more liberal Democratic voters who wouldn’t support someone tarnished by scandal. 

“It kills him,” Quinn said. “They are voters that he doesn’t know and don’t like him.” 

The conservative Democrat’s political future, and whether he would have a friendly House district in which to run next year, have been subjects of intense speculation in the months following the May 1 disappearance of Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy. 

Under the map reviewed Thursday by Condit’s staff, he would gain new voters in San Joaquin County, but lose voters in eastern Stanislaus County, which has always been part of the district. 

“You never want to lose any of your base,” conceded Mike Lynch, Condit’s chief of staff. 

But he added that under the plan the proportion of Democrats would increase significantly, from 46 percent of the district to 51 percent. Republicans, meanwhile, would decline from 39 percent to 35 percent. 

“It’s a good thing for any Democratic candidate in the district, certainly it’s a good thing for Gary,” Lynch said. 

State Senate Democrats plan to unveil the congressional redistricting plan in the next day or two that would help Democrats hold on to embattled Rep. Gary Condit’s district, a key senator said Thursday. 

“It’s a perfectly fine district; it just moves north,” Perata said. 

Another Democrat, however, would appear to have a better chance of success in the new district, Perata said. 

Condit has admitted having a relationship with Levy, and the controversy surrounding it has eroded his political standing in his district. A weekend poll showed Condit’s constituents giving him high marks for his performance in office, but only 27 percent said they’d vote for him again. 

Forty-six percent of the voters in Condit’s current district are Democrats, and 39 percent are Republicans, but the district has a history of ticket splitting. 

Condit was re-elected with more than 67 percent of the vote last year, but President Bush carried the district with nearly 53 percent. It was the only Democratic-held House district that Bush carried in November. 

Perata characterized the changes in the Senate’s plan as a way of helping keep the district in Democratic hands whether Condit runs for another term or not. 

His district would have to undergo some surgery no matter what because the new districts must be nearly equal in population and Condit’s seat is nearly 7 percent over that ideal population figure now. 

Copies of the Senate’s plan were being sent to members of California’s congressional delegation and it could be made public Friday or Saturday, Senate aides said. 

Spokesman Kam Kuwata said Assembly Democrats may also propose their own congressional redistricting plan. 

Lawmakers are required to redraw legislative and congressional districts every 10 years to reflect population changes revealed by the federal census. 

Democrats are in control of the process this year because of their majorities in both houses and the presence of Democrat Gray Davis in the governor’s office. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal grand jury has indicted three executives of a Marin County electronics firm, accusing them of illegally selling gear to India that could be used to make nuclear weapons, prosecutors said Wednesday. 

The indictment charges that the executives of Berkeley Nucleonics Corp. of San Rafael conspired to sale and sold nuclear pulse generators to India without the federal government’s permission between 1999 and 2000. The generators emit electrical pulses and can be used to calibrate radar and nuclear instruments with military applications. 

Named in the indictment were company president David Brown, marketing director Richard Hamilton and Vincent Delfino, Berkeley Nucleonics’ former operation manager. Each were charged with one count of conspiracy and one count for selling. 

In an interview, Hamilton said the company did not know about the restrictions on exports to India, The firm is among a growing number of companies under fire for exporting to blacklisted countries. The list of export violators in recent years includes big-named companies like IBM, Dell Computers, Compaq, Gateway and Alcoa. 

Not long ago, export sanctions applied to just a small number of countries, but the list has broadened during the past five years to include 50 countries. India and Pakistan were added after they conducted nuclear tests in 1998. 

Named in the Marin County indictment were company president David Brown, marketing director Richard Hamilton and Vincent Delfino, Berkeley Nucleonics’ former operation manager. Each were charged with one count of conspiracy and one count for selling. 

In an interview, Hamilton said the company did not know about the restrictions on exports to India, which were imposed during the Clinton administration when India and Pakistan refused to agree to nonproliferation treaties. 

“We did not have the resources to know about it at the time,” Hamilton said. He said the company had a history of selling such devices to India. 

Steven Bauer, attorney for Nucleonics, declined to comment on the indictments. But he said the government changes which countries are banned from U.S. exports without notifying the public. 

“They’re changed, and nobody tells anybody,” Bauer said. 

Neither Brown nor Delfino were available for comment. A court appearance has not been set, said Matthew Jacobs, a Justice Department spokesman, who declined further comment. 

The government began building its case in 1999 after agents of the Commerce Office of Export Enforcement posed as exporters in a sting operation, according to court documents. 

The indictment accuses the company of shipping the devices to India’s Bhaba Atomic Research Center and the Nuclear Power Corp., both divisions of India’s Department of Atomic Energy. 

WASHINGTON — Long-distance mediation by Secretary of State Colin Powell helped Israeli and Palestinian leaders conclude a truce over a West Bank town. 

The State Department held out Powell’s telephone diplomacy as evidence the Bush administration was not just sitting on the sidelines in the 11-month Mideast conflict. 

“As we’ve always said, when we get a lot of these questions about personal engagement by the secretary, when he can be involved and help something happen, he will do so. He did,” Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said Thursday. 

The truce called for Israeli troops to withdraw from Beit Jalla and for the Palestinians to stop sniper activity from the town on Gilo, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. 

“We are encouraged.” Boucher said. He said he hoped it would lead to security cooperation between the two sides. 

But while calm prevailed in Beit Jalla, a series of bloody flare-ups elsewhere dimmed hopes the truce would spread to other areas. 

Technically on vacation, Powell spoke twice on Wednesday to Yasser Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and twice each to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Israel. 

“He talked to them about the need to maintain calm,” Boucher said. “He talked to the Israeli side about the need to withdraw.” 

Arafat wanted to make sure the Israelis would withdraw their troops, a position Powell has embraced. The Israelis wanted to make sure the Palestinians would stop shooting if they did. 

“The secretary was able to sort of pass the message that, ‘If you do this, he’ll do that. If you do that, he’ll do this,’ and helped reinforce the kind of understandings that they were reaching,” Boucher said. 

Powell also got involved in some of the details of the truce, the spokesman said. 

Crediting the Israelis and Palestinians with taking the initiative to seek an agreement, Boucher said it gave Powell an opportunity to intervene constructively. 

“To the extent we can be helpful, we will,” Boucher said. 

Powell was back on the telephone Thursday with Arafat, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher of Egypt, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany and Javier Solana, the chief foreign policy adviser to the European Union, seeking their help in trying to end the fighting. 

But in Paris, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said in an earlier interview with the Le Figaro newspaper that the United States was distancing itself from the conflict. 

“We’re waiting for them to engage themselves more, given their global responsibilities and the exceptional influence they have over the protagonists of the conflict,” Vedrine said. 

He compared the Bush administration to Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect whom Christians believe ordered the crucifixion of Christ. 

Boucher’s response was “the facts speak for themselves.” 

Meanwhile, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., met with Sharon in Tel Aviv and told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the prime minister said Arafat would act against Palestinian violence only under pressure. 

Sharon also said he would never negotiate the division of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, Engel said. 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Three Palestinians were killed and 30 wounded Thursday in clashes with Israeli troops, dimming hopes that a limited U.S-backed truce in one Palestinian town might spread to other areas of the West Bank. 

Also Thursday, an Israeli was gunned down by a masked man in a Palestinian village as he sat in a restaurant he helped a friend establish. 

Early Friday, an explosion damaged an apartment in a building in the West Bank town of Ramallah where a leader of a large PLO faction lives, but his apartment was not affected and he was unhurt. 

Israeli tanks and bulldozers moved into the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border early Friday and tore down at least two houses, Palestinians said. The Israeli military had no comment. 

In contrast, calm prevailed in the town of Beit Jalla after Israeli forces withdrew just before daybreak Thursday, ending a two-day operation aimed at stopping Palestinian gunfire at a Jewish neighborhood across a valley, in a disputed part of Jerusalem. 

In the divided West Bank city of Hebron, however, street battles erupted after the funeral of an officer in Force 17, an elite unit of Arafat’s security forces, who was killed in a clash Wednesday. 

Gunmen took cover behind buildings and fired at Israeli tanks in the Israel-controlled sector of Hebron, drawing return fire. A 50-year-old Palestinian doctor was shot and killed as he ran to retrieve his car. Palestinians said he was not involved in the fighting. 

The Israeli military said the exchanges of fire went on throughout the day. They denied a Palestinian claim that an Israeli tank entered the Palestinian section of the city. Most of Hebron was handed over to Palestinian control in 1997, but Israel still controls the center, where about 500 Jewish settlers live in three enclaves among tens of thousands of Palestinians. 

Another firefight broke out in the northern part of the West Bank. One Palestinian was killed and nine wounded in the clash, Palestinian doctors said. 

Earlier, Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians near the camp. Palestinians said they were members of the radical Islamic Jihad, and that Israel had targeted them. 

for killing. The Israeli military would not confirm this, saying only that they were planting a bomb. 

In Gaza after nightfall, a Palestinian policeman was killed and four wounded when Israel shelled a Force 17 post in retaliation for mortar shelling of a Jewish settlement, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military said its forces opened fire on a group of armed Palestinians who were firing at a Jewish settlement in Gaza. 

In all on Thursday, 30 Palestinians were wounded, doctors said. 

The 60-year-old Israeli was gunned down in a restaurant in the Palestinian village of Naalin as he waited to be served. The owner, a Palestinian, told Israel radio that the victim was his friend and had helped him open the restaurant. 

Since fighting erupted last September, 597 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 164 on the Israeli side. 

Jerusalem police said Thursday they captured a Palestinian armed with two automatic weapons who was planning a gunfire attack in a Jerusalem neighborhood. They surrounded a house where police said his accomplice escaped. 

In Gaza, Israeli soldiers lifted a blockade on a main road after cutting it for two days. Earlier Thursday, soldiers refused to let a senior U.N. official pass through. 

Palestinian security officials were investigating the explosion early Friday in the Ramallah apartment building where Quyes Abu Layla of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine lives. 

The officials did not accuse Israel of involvement. Neighbors said a member of the militant group Hamas was injured and speculated he may have been making a bomb in his apartment. On Monday, Israel killed the leader of the PFLP, Mustafa Zibri, in a missile attack in Ramallah. 

Despite the persistent violence and harsh Palestinian criticism of the latest incursion, Peres remained hopeful. He has been promoting the concept of a staged cease-fire to end the fighting, starting in areas where Arafat has the strongest control. 

He hoped that the agreement over Beit Jalla would lead to talks next week on widening the truce, Israeli media reported. 

Arriving Thursday in Durban, South Africa for a U.N. conference on racism, Arafat said, “We are trying our best” to arrange a cease-fire. 

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called the Beit Jalla incursion a success, because after nearly a year of gunfire at Gilo, Arafat “agreed to take upon himself the obligation to do everything to ensure quiet there.” 

However, several Israeli Cabinet ministers, including Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, criticized the decision to pull the army out of Beit Jalla. Landau said Arafat had no intention of permanently stopping the fire at Gilo, built on land Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed to Jerusalem. 

Back in the ’80s we built a 4,200-plus square-foot home for our cousin. It had every imaginable feature and convenience: Multiple furnaces, a 400-amp main electrical service, a built-in intercom system, built-in ice maker, indoor barbecue, upscale everything. You name it, this house had it. About five years ago lightning struck, and everything in this magnificent home got cooked: televisions, radios, the computer and appliances — even the built-in intercom system. 

There are things that you can do to help prevent the same thing from happening to you. Lightning isn’t the only form of electricity that can damage appliances and electronics. Blackouts, brownouts and surges of power associated with them can be equally devastating. Even small surges or spikes eventually can destroy or affect the performance of expensive electronic equipment such as computers, phones, faxes, television sets, VCRs, stereos and microwaves. 

Damage can occur instantaneously or over time; smaller surges cause the gradual deterioration of sensitive circuitry. The common use of microprocessor chips has increased the need for surge protection because these chips generally are highly susceptible to voltage fluctuations. 

Surges and spikes result from an increase in “normal” electrical line voltage. This often is caused by a sudden change in or demand for more electricity, such as turning on a large appliance, garbage disposal, a/c, washer/dryer, etc. A surge typically measures less than 500 volts and lasts less than two seconds. A spike, on the other hand, is much shorter in duration — less than one-1000th of a second — but can measure into thousands of volts. 

Either event can damage electronics beyond repair. Besides change in demand for electricity, everyday electric utility company switching and maintenance can produce damaging electrical surges on your power line. Lighting, blackouts and brownouts are only part of the problem. 

Surge protectors act like an electrical sponge, absorbing dangerous excess voltage and preventing most of it from reaching your sensitive equipment. And like a sponge, surge protectors have a limited capacity. Once the capacity is reached, the unit no longer is protecting your equipment and it should be replaced. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) rates surge protectors by amount of voltage protection. The lower the rating, the better the protection. The lowest UL rating for this voltage known as “clamping voltage” is 330 volts. 

A few things to look for — and look out for — when purchasing a surge protector: 

• Three-line protection — Surges can occur between hot, neutral and ground lines. Choose a unit that protects along all three lines. 

• A fuse or circuit breaker — Stops the flow of electricity when a circuit is overloaded. and is not related to surges or spikes. 

• Cheaper surge protectors are not designed to handle the higher voltage variety of spikes. 

• Response time — Find out how fast the surge suppressor can react. The faster the better. 

• Cable line protection — Coaxial cable lines can carry surges and spikes. For complete protection of your television/VCR, you should protect the cable line as well as the power line. To protect this equipment, select a surge protector with coax line protection. 

• Digital satellite line protection — Digital satellite lines can also carry surges and spikes. These lines, however, cannot be connected to standard coax cable jacks. Choose a surge protector with specially designed digital satellite jacks. 

• Phone line protection — Surges can occur on telephone lines. Phones, answering machines, fax machines and modems can be damaged from surges on phone lines. To protect this equipment, select a surge protector with phone-line protection. 

A joule is a measurement of energy. The joule rating on a surge protector indicates the amount of energy or “over voltage” that that device is capable of handling. The higher the joule rating, the better the unit and the longer it will last. The joule rating is determined by the total number of MOVs (metal oxide varistor). An MOV is a component in surge protectors that absorbs excess electrical energy and holds the voltage to a safe level. The more MOVs the better. 

As computers get smaller and electronics become more pervasive in our homes, the need for spike and surge protection increases exponentially. Whether it’s lighting or a glitch at the power plant, you don’t want outside forces damaging your property. 

For more home improvement tips and information visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com. 

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SAN FRANCISCO — Unable to lure its skittish customers back into the stock market, Charles Schwab Corp. said Thursday it will cut up to 2,400 more jobs as the leading online brokerage continues to dismantle its feverish expansion of a year ago. 

The latest job cuts follow a recently completed purge that dumped 3,400 workers. After the latest reductions, Schwab will have approximately 20,000 workers — about 25 percent fewer than at the start of the year. 

In this wave of cost cutting, Schwab will lay off 1,600 to 1,900 full-time employees and 200 contractors by the end of October. The company expects to eliminate 200 to 300 more jobs through attrition by the end of the year. 

Schwab also plans to unplug many of the computer servers bought last year to handle a boom in online stock trading that was spurred by a bull market, as well as the enticing ads of brokerages across the nation. 

Much of Schwab’s technology equipment is unnecessary with the brokerage’s trading volumes 50 percent below the levels at the start of the year. 

Some of the computer servers may be sold and others may be kept in storage until Schwab’s business improves, said spokesman Glen Mathison. 

With fewer employees and less equipment, Schwab will reduce its administrative office space, most likely in San Francisco, Pleasanton, Denver, Phoenix, New York and Jersey City, N.J., Mathison said. Few, if any, of Schwab’s 400 retail branches are expected to be closed. 

Schwab will absorb a third-quarter charge of $225 million to pay for the overhaul, which is expected to save the company about $260 million annually. The company recorded a second-quarter charge of $117 million to pay for the previous restructuring, which is supposed to save Schwab about $180 million annually. 

Schwab is trying to reverse a dramatic slide in its earnings this year. The company earned $199 million through the first half of this year, a 54 percent drop from the same time last year. 

The slump has devastated Schwab’s stock. The company’s shares fell 15 cents Thursday to close at $12.05 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is down 58 percent so far this year in a plunge that has wiped out $23 billion in shareholder wealth. 

The latest reorganization will almost completely unravel a hiring spree that Schwab undertook last year as the brokerage scrambled to handle investors eager to buy stocks on the Internet. Schwab entered 2000 with 18,100 employees. 

The stock market’s steep decline over the past year has hurt brokerages across the country, but none have been slammed as hard as Schwab, said industry analyst Mark Constant of Lehman Brothers in San Francisco. 

Even as the stock market began to wilt last spring, Schwab forged ahead with its expansion, bolstered by profits that continued to rise until the bottom dropped out late last year. 

“In hindsight, they got carried away, but you can’t really blame management. For a time, there were a lot of people that thought there was free money to be made out on the Internet,” Constant said. 

Like many brokerages, Schwab helped foster the gold-rush mentality with an advertising campaign that touted the benefits of online trading. The company spent $332 million on advertising and marketing last year, more than double its $155 million budget of 1998. 

Schwab curbed its spending on advertising by 20 percent through the first half of this year. Hoping to revive its business, the brokerage recently launched a new campaign featuring its CEO, Charles R. Schwab, advising investors not to fret about the stock market’s turmoil. 

CUPERTINO (AP) — Apple Computer Inc. said Thursday it has cut an undisclosed number of sales jobs, but that the overall headcount in its sales and retail departments continues to grow. 

The computer-maker, like others in the industry, has been struggling with slumping demand for personal computers in the weak economy. Still, Apple had not previously announced job cuts during the current economic downturn. 

In a statement, the company said new staff have been added as the company opens retail stores and places salespeople in some CompUSA stores. 

“While some sales positions have been reassigned or eliminated during the normal course of business, the overall headcount in our sales and retail groups is growing,” the statement said. 

An Apple spokeswoman would not disclose how many positions were cut. 

Despite record low prices, the PC industry is expected to see its first-ever drop in sales this year. Business is not expected to recover until next year or early 2003, according to analysts. 

Other computer-makers, including Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc., have cut thousands of jobs in recent months.

Dave Lyons, president of the Rosa Parks Elementary School PTA, thought he was ready for the first day of school. 

Lyons took his twin daughters along for a school clean up session over the weekend so they would have an opportunity to meet their new teacher before the first day of school. Both are entering the first grade this year. 

In their father’s presence, the girls didn’t seemed the least bit fazed by the change in classrooms and teachers, Lyons said. But Wednesday morning, just minutes after the first day of school had officially begun, one came running to Lyons where he stood greeting people at the front gate to the school. Tears streamed down her face. 

“She couldn’t find Room 14 and she didn’t know where anything was,” Lyons said a half-hour later, after the crisis had been resolved. 

“As a parent, you have a scenario all worked out,” Lyons said. “But you’re not 7, and you do not know what it’s like to be 7!” 

After a summer spent hanging out with friends, visiting family across the country, and attending summer camps, more than 9,000 Berkeley K-12 students headed back to school Wednesday. Parents and guardians gathered at schools throughout the city to usher children into school – and assure themselves that all was well.  

Frances Van, 72, and Sue Brown, 68 – both great aunts of students entering Rosa Parks this year – met for the first time as they waited in front of the school to see that the children arrived safely on the bus. 

“I let her ride the bus for the first time, so I decided to come here and make sure she made it,” Van said. 

“This has been a new start for the both of us,” Van added, explaining that her own daughter is now 38 years old and it’s been a while since she’s gone through the whole first-day-of-school experience. 

Brown said the children she’s responsible for are not only new to Rosa Parks, but new to Berkeley, having just moved here from Oregon. But Brown said she wasn’t too worried about the adjustment they would have to make. 

“I’ve heard good reports about Rosa Parks,” Brown said. 

Mira Santos, a “parent advocate” in Rosa Parks’ Family Resource Center and the mother of two students at the school, said her children could hardly wait to get back. 

“My kids are way ready,” Santos said. “Summers are great, but I think the routine and structure of the school day, for my kids, works pretty well.” 

Fourth grader Corey Cisney and Alex Stevenson greeted each other in front of the school Wednesday after summers spent traveling in different parts of the country. They said they were glad to be back among their friends at Rosa Parks. But Stevenson confessed to being a little nervous about the start of fourth grade. 

“They start piling up the homework, because you’re about to go into middle school,” Stevenson said. “I think it’s going to be harder.” 

Flawless opening at Willard 

Over at Willard Middle School Wednesday, they were having one of the smoothest first days of school in recent memory, according to John Williams, a student safety officer at the school for nearly 20 years. 

With a new principal and vice-principal, and a whole cast of new teachers, there is change afoot at Willard, Williams said. 

“There are a lot of new faces, and a lot of new energy,” he said. “The change is good.” 

Willard English and History teacher Doug Dohrer, a new teacher at Willard hired just a few weeks ago, said he spent the first day of school just trying to get to know his students.  

Middle school students have a tendency to spend the first day of school in “stunned” silence, Dohrer said. So he organized a game where they would have to go from desk to desk introducing themselves to each other.  

The first homework assignment for Dohrer’s students is to write a letter to their new teacher, giving him some biographical information, likes and dislikes, etc. 

“Things like, ‘Don’t ever call in me in class because I’m shy,’” Dohrer said, only half joking. “I need to know those things.” 

Best-dressed meet city’s finest at BHS 

And at Berkeley High School Wednesday, teenagers sporting the latest in youth fashion arrived on campus to find police stationed near the school’s entrances. A rumor had circulated that the first day of school could be marked by a shooting, said Principal Frank Lynch. 

“Once you have that information, you have to plan for it like it’s going to happen,” he said. 

Far from dealing with any violence Wednesday, however, Lynch spent part of his afternoon chasing students into class after they returned late from lunch period. 

“Perfect attendance this year,” Lynch exhorted one group of students. “No tardies.” 

Lynch has launched a new truancy policy at the school this year that spells out clear consequences for what will happen when students miss class repeatedly. The absence of such a policy led to lax enforcement of attendance, according to many Berkeley High parents and staff. 

When Cal women’s soccer coach Kevin Boyd is asked about his biggest concern heading into the 2001 season, he has a hard time coming up with something he’s really worried about. But ask him about the team’s biggest strength, and an answer is immediate. 

“Our attacking potential is just great,” Boyd said Tuesday. “We’ve been playing exceptionally well up front, with our attacking midfielders really doing some great work. We’re just loaded offensively.” 

But although Boyd may be excited about his midfielders, the real optimism comes from having Laura Schott and Kyla Sabo up front. Schott, a junior from Wilsonville, Ore., was named first team All-America last season after leading the Pac-10 in points (47), goals (23) and game-winning goals (9). She spent the summer traveling with the U.S. under-21 national team, scoring her first international goal against Norway, and should be even more of a force this year. 

“”The biggest improvement for Laura has been tactically,” Boyd said. “She reads the game better, and she’s more assertive.” 

Schott needs 21 goals this year to tie the team record for career scores, held by Joy Biefield-Fawcett. 

Slightly overshadowed by Schott’s breakout season was Sabo’s steady play. Starting all 21 games last season, Sabo led the team with eight assists and scored six goals. The senior works well with Schott, as six of her assists led to goals by her strike partner. She was a steadying influence up front, a nice contrast to the explosive All-American. 

Boyd said he will likely play with three forwards this season, with junior Krysti Whalen and sophomore Kassie Doubrava competing for the third spot. But according to Boyd, there are even more options up front for the Bears. 

“Even behind (Doubrava and Whalen) we’ve got some pretty lethal players,” he said. 

Boyd is now in his fifth year with Cal, and this year’s team is the most highly regarded to start the season during his tenure. Most pre-season polls have the Bears in the top 15 nationally, with Soccerbuzz.com ranking them fifth. But that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference for the coach. 

“We’re not looking at the rankings yet. Pre-season rankings don’t mean a hill of beans. It’s where you finish that matters,” Boyd said. 

The biggest question marks come in the back for Boyd’s team, as four-year starting goalkeeper Maite Zabala and two starting fullbacks are gone. While the defensive slots are covered with veterans Kathleen Cain and Kim Stocklmeir, there is a fierce battle taking place for Zabala’s spot in the net, with four candidates bucking for the starting nod. Senior Gabby Ronick would seem to be the front-runner, as she was Zabala’s understudy last year, but true freshman Mallory Moser, from Branson High in Marin County, has looked impressive and could earn significant playing time. 

“It was easy before, as Maite was clearly the strongest goalkeeper we had,” Boyd said. “But competition can be a very healthy thing, make everyone work even harder.” 

Boyd is leaning toward playing with four fullbacks, rather than last year’s three-woman defense. Departed Tami Pivnik was a natural at sweeper, taking control over the defense and cleaning up mistakes, but none of the current defenders can fill that role. Instead, they will play a flat four in back, with sophomore Lucy Brining joining Cain, Stocklmeir and lone returning starter Ashley Mueller. 

The midfield should be a strength, with junior Brittany Kirk and sophomores Kim Yokers and Ashley Valenzuela all holding onto their starting positions. The Bears lost stalwart wing Natalie Stuhlmueller, but will play with three midfielders rather than the four from last season. Kirk was third on the team with 13 points last year, including overtime game-winning goals against Missouri and USC, while the fiery Valenzuela was the team’s Freshman of the Year while starting 19 games.  

But Yokers could be the best of the three this year, as Boyd considers her to be on the verge of a breakout season. An excellent defender, Yokers is much stronger this year and could control the flow of the game from her central position. 

Other players who will compete for playing time in the midfield include junior Lee Ann Morton, one of the team’s fastest players, and freshman Kacy Hornor from University High in San Francisco.

Albatross Pub Sept. 1: David Widelock Jazz Trio; Sept. 5: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 6: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 11: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Sept. 13: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 19: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 20: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 22: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet; Sept. 27: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Free. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring.com 

Anna’s Aug. 30: Christy Dana Quartet; Aug. 31: Anna sings jazz standards; 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Free. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted. 1801 University Ave. 849-2662  

Ashkenaz Aug. 30: 9 p.m. Samite, Forward Kwenda, $10; Aug. 31: 9:30 p.m. Wawa and the Oneness Kingdom, The Calypsonians, $10; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com  

Café Eclectica Sept. 8: 8 p.m. SF Improv, Free. 1309 Solano Ave. 326-6124 www.sfimprov.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. Sept. 10: Lucy Lang Day; Sept. 17: Marc Hofstadter (book party); Sept. 24: Jim Watson-Gove; All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Sept. 6: 8 p.m. King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, $20 - $32; Sept. 16: 7 p.m. Tania Libertad, $18 - $30; Sept. 30: 7 p.m. Kronos Quartet, David Barron, $30; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Sept. 1: Ancient Future, $16.50; Sept. 7: Tom Russell w/ Andrew Hardin, $16.50; Sept. 8: The House Jacks, $17.50; Sept. 9: Erika Luckett, $16.50; Sept. 11: Don Walser, Slaid Cleaves, $16.50; Sept. 12: Andy Irvine, $17.50; Sept. 13: Piper Heisig birthday revue and fund raiser w/ Kate Brislin, Sylvia Herold, Tony Marcus, Carlos Reyes, and Radim Zenkl, $16.50; Sept. 14: Ray Wylie Hubbard, $16.50; Sept. 15: Vocolot, $17.50; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Aug. 30: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; Aug. 31: Realistic CD Release Party; Sept. 4: Beth Waters Band; Sept. 5: Presidents Breakfast; Sept. 6 Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 7: Crater; Sept. 10: Ben Graves Trio; Sept. 11: Len Patterson Trio; Sept. 12: Bitches Brew; Sept. 13: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 14: Carlos Washington & Giant People Ensemble; Sept. 15: Kooken & Hoomen; Sept. 18: The Goodbye Flowers; Sept. 19: New Monsoon; Sept. 20: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 21: Netwerk: Electric; Sept. 22: New Garde Philosophers; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

La Peña Cultural Center Sept. 11 & 12: 8 p.m. Irakere, $22; In the Cafe, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Alice Arts Sept. 8: 7:30 p.m. Benefit concert for freedom of U.S. political prisoners featuring Fred Ho (solo) and The Eddie Gale Unit. $12; 1428 Alice, Oakland, 539-0050 www.thejerichomovement.com/teardownthewalls 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church Sept. 15: George Brooks and Shweta Jhaveri with Uttam Chakraborty on drums. $18 - $25; 2727 College Ave. 843-9600 www.harmoniventures.com 

Sedge Thomson’s West Coast Live Radio Show Sept. 1: Rita Moreno, has won Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards for her work on stage and screen. Mark Wing-Davey, director of “36 Views,” opening at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Kent Nerburn, author of “Road Angels.” The Shotgun Players open a window into their show: “Winesburg Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave.; Sept. 29: Nancy Miford, author of “Savage Beauty.” West African folk music with The Nigerian Brothers. Blues roots piano by Caroline Dahl. The Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison St. All shows 10 a.m. - noon. 252-9214 www.wcl.org 

“Rose Street Cabaret” Aug. 30 & 31st: 7 - 11 p.m. East Bay Pride and Rose Street House of Music present "Rose Street Cabaret" as part of "Pride Park." Aug. 30: Velvet Janes, Duval-Speck, Littlebird, Melissa Dougherty, Christie McCarthy, Bern, Irina Rivkin, and Helen Chaya; Aug. 31: Shelley Doty, Katharine Chase of Kindness, Laura Chandler, Making Waves, Green, Kristi Martel, and Jill Knight. Unitarian Church of Oakland, Starr King Room, 1685 14th Street. rosestreetmusic@yahoo.com 

“Song of the Lakitan Bird” Sept. 2: 2 p.m. Kulintang Dance Theatre communicates the beauty and refinement of the Southern Philippine culture. $10 Adults, $5 Children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Goddesses” Aug. 31, 8 p.m.; Sept. 1, 8 p.m.; Sept. 2, 3 p.m.; A play by Dorotea Reyna. A poetic drama concerning one mortal woman’s struggle to control the six extraordinary goddesses in her psyche. Based on “Goddesses in Everywoman” by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen. $10. Live Oak Theater, Live Oak Community Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 883-0536 rlcouture@earthlink.net 

Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” Aug. 31, Sept. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9. All shows 8 p.m. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s and Gabrial Pascal’s “Pygmalion.” Directed by James Schlader, choreographed by Harriet Schlader, under the musical direction of Mark Hanson. $15 - $27. 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. 531-9597 www.woodminster.com 

Squelched.com Presents “Jim Short” Sept. 11: 8 p.m. Jim Short is an Australian expatriate who grew up in Texas. Also appearing: Rob Cantrell, Luke Filose and Sean Keane. Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 show@squelched.com 

“Hecho En Califas Chicano-Latino Teatro Festival” Sept. 6 - 9, 14 - 15; 8 p.m. Original members of El Teatro de La Esperanza. Chicano Theater began out of the need to express the realities of the fields and barrios of Aztlán in the Chicano-Latino community. $10 - $20 La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, 849-2568, www.lapena.org  

“Winesburg, Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque” Sept. 6 through Sept. 16, Wed. - Sat. 8:30 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players and Word For Word team up for a production of Sherwood Anderson’s deceptively simple tale of neglected souls who fade into the shadows around us. $22, Wednesdays are “Pay What You Can.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“The Secret Garden” Sept. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, at 8 p.m. Sept. 16 & 23 matinees. The Alameda Civic Light Opera’s fifth summer season ends with the musical of Frances Hodson Burnett’s classic story of life, death, purpose and hope. Adults $22, Students 18 and under $14. Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave., Alameda. www.aclo.com 

“36 Views” Sept. 12 through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

Cal Performances Sept. 8: 8 p.m. & Sept. 9: 3 p.m. - Dance, the Spirit of Cambodia, $20 - $32; Sept. 19 - 20: 8 p.m. American Ballet, “Bruch Violin Concerto,” “Jabula,” “Gong,” and “Black Tuesday.”; Sept. 21: 8 p.m., Sept. 22: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sept. 23: 3 p.m. American Ballet, the full-length 19th Century “Giselle” $36 - $64; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Film Archive Aug. 31: 7 p.m. The Makioka Sisters, 9:35 p.m. A Woman’s Testament; Gen. Adm.. $7, The New PFA Theatre 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

The Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Cinema Sept. 1: Breakfast Club; Sept. 2: Pretty in Pink; Sept. 8: Dr. No (come as your favorite Bond character); Sept. 15: Harold and Maude; Sept. 22: Airplane; The Outdoor Cinema features cult classics projected on a large screen in the open-air brewery parking lot. $5 donation. Movies start at 7 p.m. 901 Gilman St. 206-682-8322 x237 www.pyramidbrew.com 

“BACA National Juried Exhibition: Works on Paper” Through Aug. 31: Wed. - Sun. Noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“Debbie Moore’s Autobiographical Paintings” Through Sep. 30 at Good Vibrations. Portraits of the artist’s sensual explorations spanning 25 years and reflecting changing ways of intimacy and body play. 2504 San Pablo Avenue 848-1985 

“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.  

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” Sept. 5 through Oct. 13, reception Sept. 6, 6 - 8 p.m.; Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Asian Pacific Islander American artists in roughly the demographic proportions indicated by the recent census. Free. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9470  

“Ten Years Here” Exhibit celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Turn of the Century Fine Arts. Through Sept. 14, Sat & Sun 1-5 p.m. 2510 San Pablo Avenue 849-0950 

Women’s Cancer Resource Gallery “Catastrophe, Crisis, and Other Family Traditions” The photography of Jessamyn Lovell. Aug. 25 through Sept. 26; “TheArthur Wright and Gerald Parker” Reception Sept. 8, Aug. 25 through Sept. 26; Tues. - Thurs. 1 - 7 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m. 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 x307 www.wcrc.org 

“Squared Triangle” Through Oct. 5: noon - 6 p.m. A minimal art exhibit featuring three Bay Area artists working in different mediums while achieving the same elegant simplicity. The Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.com 

“Inside Editions” Sept. 6 - Oct. 12: Nine printmakers exhibit their work. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tue. - Fri. Free. Kala Art Insitute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 kala@kala.org 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Sept. 5 through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Opening Reception Sept. 5: 6 - 8 p.m. open to the public; Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970’s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Sept. 15 through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Sept. 15, 5 - 8 p.m. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“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. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Lunch Poems Series Kick-Off Sept. 6: 12:10 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. UC Berkeley campus figures from a wide variety of fields read and discuss their favorite poems. Free. In the Morrison Library in the Doe Library at UC Berkeley. 642-0137 www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems/ 

Spasso Sept. 3: Theme: dignity of labor; Sept. 10: Sharron Jones-Reid, Fruit of the Spirit Poets, Acoustic Musicians, Comedians, Rappers, Performance Artists, Writers All Welcome is located at 6021 College Ave. Free admission. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library Sept. 1: 3 - 5 p.m. Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading. 1901 Russell St., 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Art and Soul Festival presents “Literature without Borders” Sept. 2 & 3: 2 - 5 p.m Sun. - Readings by the African American Shakespeare Company and others. Mon. - The prose, music, and poetry of emerging Bay Area authors, actors and musicians. Dalziel Building Lobby, 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Free. 525-3948 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Sept. 8: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. An environmental poetry festival with a day of poetry, music and environmental activism featuring Gary Snyder, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Haas, Francisco X. Alarcon, and Earll Kingston as John Wesley Powell. Strawberry Creek Walk at 10 a.m. Oxford and Center. Festival at Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Center Street. Free. 526-9105 www.poetryflash.org 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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  

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. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until Oct. 1 : “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  

Oakland Museum of California, Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett, through Sept. 2; After the Storm: Bob Walker and the Art of Environmental Photography, through Sept. 16; Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks, through Sept. 23; Wednesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, noon - 5 p.m., Closed Monday and Tuesday. $6 general; $4 youths (6-17), seniors and students with ID. Free for Museum members and children 5 and under. Free admission the second Sunday of the month. 10th & Oak Streets, Oakland. 238-2200 www.museum.org 

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

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694. 

SAN FRANCISCO – On a cable car over Nob Hill the other day, I overheard a blonde, middle-age tourist whisper this confidence to her companion: “It sure ain’t Texas, I can tell you that much.” “No kidding,” mumbled the burly man in a Hawaiian shirt as he continued filming the city with his camcorder. 

The Texan couple’s sense of displacement stems, at least in part, from San Francisco’s unmistakable Oriental twang. For the tourist’s camcorder is sure to capture, amid the city’s Victorians and scenic hills, images that confirm San Francisco’s central place in the Pacific Century: Young Asian students spilling out of grammar schools, video stores displaying the latest Hong Kong thrillers, karaoke bars and sidewalk stalls filled with string beans, bokchoy, ginger, and bitter melons. 

San Francisco is now part of a statewide trend that has resulted in majority becoming minority, with minority continuing to surge and multiply. The latest census showed that whites have slowly shrunk to 41 percent of the population in San Francisco, becoming another minority in a city that has no majority. 

The city’s Asian population, on the other hand, has risen above the 30 percent mark. That is, one in three San Francisco residents has an Asian face. And within a few years, according to demographers, Asians will become San Francisco’s largest ethnic group, surpassing whites and joining Honolulu as the only major U.S. cities with an Asian majority. 

But what does it mean when the city’s compass is pointing increasingly toward the Pacific? For one thing, there is an enormous shift in the cultural landscape. What were once considered private and esoteric passions and practices have, like the bokchoy and string beans, spilled irrevocably into the public domain. 

Take Feng Shui. An architect friend went to Hong Kong recently to take Fengshui lessons. Why? Since many of his clients believe in this art of geomancy, he has to seriously study the Chi, the flow of energy as perceived by Taoist priests, in order to build suburban houses that suit many of his buyers. 

Or take yoga. Yoga studios are enjoying the highest attendance ever, and, in the spirit of full disclosure, I will gladly admit that I am an enthusiast. Every few days or so, I go to sweat and stretch with a diverse group of young practitioners. While the instructor tells us to “find your inner peace” and “breathe, breathe, breathe,” a picture of a smiling yogi from India smiles benevolently at us from above. 

And I breathe in, breathe out. 

But I am also thinking: How things have changed. Arriving as a Vietnamese refugee to San Francisco a quarter of a century ago, I grew up thinking that incense smoke, gongs and Confucian dramas were the private preoccupations of an Asian immigrant. For a while, I resigned myself to the idea that public and private cultures in America would never meet. 

But that old assumption has eroded, giving way to the forces of globalization, which, as far as the San Francisco Bay Area is concerned, involves, in large part, the rising influence of the Far East. 

After all, three decades ago, who would have thought that sushi, raw tuna, salmon, ginger and wasabi would become an indelible part of American taste? Or that Vietnamese fish sauce would be found down aisle three at Safeway? Or that HMOs would accept acupuncture as legitimate therapy? Or that Fengshui would become a household word? 

But perhaps the biggest result in the changing demography is this: An Asian teenager growing up in San Francisco these days does not see himself or herself as a minority in any sense of the word. If anything, they see themselves playing a central role. Since Asians already outnumber whites among the school-age population, the high school football star and homecoming queen are likely to be Asians. Asian students know, in fact, that the West is increasingly relying on the Far East for its sources of inspiration and entertainment, be it Thai food, Tibetan Buddhism or Hong Kong movies. 

Besides, one of the biggest museums here is the Asian Art Museum in Golden Gate Park. It’s among the largest in the Western world, with more than 11,000 artifacts from more than a dozen Asian countries. Two daily newspapers here are in Chinese. And the Examiner, a newspaper once owned by William Randolph Hearst, is now owned by an Asian family named Fang.  

A closer look at the Asian population in America will reveal that almost three out of four are immigrants. And while previous generations of Asian immigrants may have felt the pressure to assimilate, shaving the accent from their tongue, hiding their grandparents’ joss sticks, the reverse seems true with the latest newcomers. For the new Asian immigrants are not just bringing their ambition to America, they are also carrying their civilizations as well. 

And they come at a time when being ethnic is chic, and movement and communications back and forth across the Pacific Ocean are the norm. Also, Asia has in the last three decades begun to shrug off the weight of colonialism, and its inferiority complex to the West, and assert its cultural identity on a global stage. 

An Asian immigrant to the Bay Area does not feel pressure to give up his or her cultural heritage but, in fact, takes pride in keeping it. By sheer dent of living, this immigrant challenges the status quo and changes the Californian landscape. 

Writer Richard Rodriguez once observed that each new wave of immigrants brings changes as radical as Christopher Columbus did to the Indians. This seems quite true if you take into account what I saw one Sunday in Golden Gate Park: a group of middle-aged, white and black Americans doing Tai Chi on the grass, led by an old Chinese woman. Watching them, it occurred to me that the Far East has come very near San Francisco and is beginning to subvert the age old black-white dialogue about identity and race, infusing it with even more complex model -- one informed by a trans-Pacific sensibility. 

PNS Editor Andrew Lam (lam@pacificnews.org ) is a short story writer and journalist. 

Thursday, Aug. 30

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 

Landmarks Preservation  

Commission - Special Meeting Announcement 

9 a.m. - 10 a.m. 

Transaction Offices 

2065 Kittredge St., Suite A 

Ad-hoc Subcommittee meeting. Structural Alteration permit for modifications to a city landmark: The Hinks/ Shattuck Hotel. 705-8111 

Lost in the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Jason Flesher, a Search and Rescue member for almost 20 years, will share his nine rules for surviving in the wilderness. Free. 

527-4140 

Kensington 55+ Activity Center 

9 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Social Hall of Arlington Community Church 

52 Arlington Ave. 

Conversation, Apple II computer instruction, massage therapy, German conversation group, meditation and relaxation techniques, watercolor art class, tea and coffee. Special 11 a.m. program: Music, Hugh Kelly plays harmonica and leads sing-along. 526-9146 

Attic Conversions 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architect Andus Brandt. $35. 525-7610 

Friday, Aug. 31

Start a Writing  

Group–and Keep It Going 

10 a.m. - noon 

North Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Dr. Kathy Briccetti will host a workshop on How to Start and Maintain a Writing Group. This free workshop requires pre-registration by Aug. 29. 

644-6850 www.infopeople.org/bpl/ 

James Joyce’s Ulysses 

Reading Group 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

All are welcome, plus the wonderful new tapes. 644-1172 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie on Emma Goldman followed by discussion. 549-1879 

ILGA Global Gay Summit  

– RejuveNation 

7 p.m. 

McGee Avenue Baptist Church 

1640 Stuart St. 

$7 663-3980 www.eastbaypride.org 

Saturday, Sept. 1

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. Sat., Sun. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club gives free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult. www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Sept. 2

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 

LesBiGay Prospective Parenting Group 

10:30 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Adoption issues, new members welcome. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Monday, Sept. 3

Intensive Production Urban Gardening Training 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar & Grill 

1310 University Ave. 

Learn ways to intensively and organically grow produce for your own use or for an urban market garden. A hands-on training in the garden located behind the restaurant and potluck lunch at 1 p.m. 841-1110 

Potluck Picnic and Poetry 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

Walnut and Rose streets 

Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts a Labor Day potluck picnic followed by an open poetry reading. All are welcome to bring food and poetry to share. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Rainbow Berkeley Brunch 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Celebrate Berkeley’s LGBHTQI community at the 3rd annual Brunch. $10 donation. 548-9235 gspprng@tksvc.com 

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy: A Labor Day Hearing 

11 a.m. 

North Gate Hall Room 105 

UC Berkeley campus 

East Bay’s crisis of working poverty to be investigated at the hearing. Featuring a panel and audience of East Bay political, religious, labor and community leaders, including: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and others. 893-7106  

Tuesday, Sept. 4

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 Friendships: deep, superficial, and what obligations? 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 computer class for seniors 

9:30 - 11:30 a.m. and 1 - 3 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited, call ahead for a reservation. 

644-6109 

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. 525-3565 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

— compiled by Guy Poole 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

ILGA Global Gay Summit - Pride Brunch 

11 a.m. 

Cafe de La Paz 

1600 Shattuck Ave. 

Pride Brunch, $10 - $15 donation. 663-3980 www.eastbaypride.org 

Wednesday, Sept. 5

Berkeley Communicator Toastmasters Club 

7:15 a.m. 

Vault Cafe 

3250 Adeline 

Learn to speak with confidence. Ongoing first and third Wednesdays each month. 527-2337 

Advisory Council Agenda 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Arts Access, Commission on Aging. 644-6107 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/seniors/NBSC/NBSC.htm 

Birthday Party 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The center will host a birthday party for elderly people whose birthdays fall in Sept. Belly dancer Carrie Schwalbe will perform. 644-6107 

A Taste of the World: Cultural Understanding Through Food 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Enhance your cooking skills and experience the cuisines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Israel with Chef Daniel Herskovic. All classes are “hands on.” Class includes meal and cooking lesson. $25. Every Wednesday through Nov. 1. 655-8487 

Socratic Circle Discussions 

5 - 6 p.m. 

1309 Solano Ave. 

Cafe Eclectica 

Does your brain need a work out? All ages welcome. 527-2344 

Femme Rising 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Ongoing discussion on sex, gender identity, politics, nail polish, and other weighty matters. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Thursday, Sept. 6 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

Butch Time 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

A discussion/ social/ support/ activity group for self-defined butches. Tonight: Butches grow older. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Sahara Sojourn: Following the Ancient Routes of the Salt Caravans of Niger 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Slide presentation from the heart of the Sahara along the ancient routes of the salt caravans of the Tuareg. Free. 527-4140 

Women’s Health Issues 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Two nurses from the city will launch a series of talks on women’s health issues, beginning with the bladder. 644-6107 

Friday, Sept. 7 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie, Song of the Lark followed by discussion. 549-1879 

Reception for Jackie Y. Griffin 

Director of Library Services 

4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

City Council Chambers 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, 2nd Floor 

Community Leader reception. RSVP by Aug. 31, 644-6095 x 10; yvg2@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Saturday, Sept. 8 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Center Street 

A free environmental poetry festival with a day of poetry, music and environmental activism featuring Gary Snyder, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Haas, Francisco X. Alarcon, and Earll Kingston as John Wesley Powell. Strawberry Creek Walk at 10 a.m. Oxford and Center. 526-9105 www.poetryflash.org 

Youth Arts Studio 

2 - 5 p.m. 

All Souls Episcopal Parish 

2220 Cedar St. 

Demonstration classes for after school program in visual arts, creative writing and dramatic arts for students ages 10 - 15. Free. 848-1755 

Luna Kids Dance Open House 

10 - 11 a.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

Free open house and Parent/ Child classes. Designed to give families a shared dance experience that connects body, mind, and soul. Children will have a chance to play fun dance games, refreshments and register for Fall Session. 525-4339 www.lunakidsdnace.com 

Pack Right, Travel Smart 

1 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Eagle Creek Rep will give you tips on how to best organize your gear and clothing for your next adventure. Free. 527-4140 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

812 Page St. 

Earthquake Retrofitting class. Free to anyone 18 or older, who lives or works in Berkeley. 644-8736 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire.oes.html 

Sunday, Sept. 9 

Solano Stroll 2001 

8 a.m. - 7 p.m. 

Solano Ave. 

27th Annual Berkeley / Albany Festival. 11 a.m. Parade; 8 a.m. pancake breakfast; merchants, entertainers, food, craft alley, game booths, silent auction, climbing wall, bicycle stunt show, ponyrides, giant slide, dunk tank, hot air balloon rides. Free. 527-5358 www.solanostroll.org 

Salsa Lesson and Dance Party 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa lesson and dance party with professional instructors. Israeli food. Novices welcome and no partner required. $12. RSVP 237-9874 

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  

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. Tools are provided. Free  

527-4140 

Monday, Sept. 10 

FTM Book and Discussion Group 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire, and Catalina DeErauso by Sherry M. Velasco. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

CubScout Information Night 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Epworth Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

A program that offers outdoor and leadership skills. First through Fifth Grade boys and parents. Free. 525-6058 

Jewish Genealogy: Finding Your Jewish Family History 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Learn basic techniques and resources to trace your family history. 848-0237 

Berkeley Folk Dancers 

7:45 p.m. - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

1301 Shattuck 

New Fall classes starts. Mondays through Oct. 29; $20 

http://geocities.com/bdancers 

Tuesday, Sept. 11 

Ecology of Mediterranean Climate Streams 

5:15 - 6:30 p.m. 

U.C. Berkeley  

212 O’Brien Hall 

Part of the California Colloquium on Water lecture series. Vincent H. Rash, Professor of Entomology and Parasitology will give a lecture including questions and answers. 642-2666 lvida@library.berkeley.edu 

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. 525-3565 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Dateline: Israel 2001: A middle East Update 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Informative and timely presentation on the current situation in the Middle East with Professor Ze’ev Brinner. 848-0237 

Nutritionist 

11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

City Nutritionist Natalie Krelle-Zepponi willspeak about farm-fresh foods. 644-6107 

Freedom From Tobacco: A Quit Smoking Class 

6 - 8 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Free to Berkeley residents and employees. 644-6422 quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Free Legal Workshop 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

“Too Sick to Work: Cash Assistance and Health Insurance if Cancer Prevents You from Working.” This workshop will provide information about State and Federal disability programs that provide cash benefits and health insurance to people unable to work due to a serious health condition. 601-4040 x303 

Wednesday, Sept. 12 

Women’s Group 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Will discuss “In the Name of Salome” by Julia Alvarez. New members welcome. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Fishbowl: Everything You always Wanted to Know About the Opposite Sex But Were Afraid to Ask 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Dating, relationships, religions, sexuality and values. An opportunity to ask anonymous questions in a confidential and supportive environment. Social and Single. $8. 848-0237 

Socratic Circle Discussions 

5 - 6 p.m. 

1309 Solano Ave. 

Cafe Eclectica 

Does your brain need a work out? All ages welcome. 527-2344 

A Taste of the World: Cultural Understanding Through Food 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Enhance your cooking skills and experience the cuisines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Israel with Chef Daniel Herskovic. All classes are “hands on.” Class includes meal and cooking lesson. $25. Every Wednesday through Nov. 1. 655-8487 

Thursday, Sept. 13 

Help Save the West Berkeley Shellmound 

2 p.m. 

U.S. Post Office Building 

201 - 13th St., Oakland 

Bring as many people as possible to make a statement before the Court in Oakland in defense of protective landmark status to the oldest dated mound site in the Bay Area. Landmark status is currently being contested by the industrial property owners who originated this lawsuit against the city of Berkeley. Time and place may change, call ahead to confirm: 841-8562  

Orangutans in the Wild: Travel in Borneo 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Professional photographer and writer Christine Krieg will give a slide show of her travels to the Tanjung Puting National Park on the south coast of Central Kalimantan. Free. 527-4140 

Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater 

1930 Allston Way 

Renowned Vietnamese poet, peace activist and Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn will give a public lecture. 433-9928 

Friday, Sept. 14 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: women’s humor. 549-1879 

Yiddish Conversation Group 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 15 

Bonfire of Reflection 

6:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Marina  

An evening of reflection by the fire. Come for Havdalah. Bring something to burn as a way of letting it go. Share your voice as we sing of seasons, remembering and change. Come with food, drink, and musical instruments. 

Follow signs to the Olympic Circle Sailing Club on Spinnaker Way. At the sign of the Sailing Club, turn left into the parking lot and seek a fish windsock. 848-0237 

The 2001 International Coastal Cleanup 

9 a.m. - noon 

Beaches and waterways 

Every year, volunteers of all ages spend three hours combing beaches and shorelines for trash that pollutes waters, harms marine life, hampers tourism, and poses health risks for beach-users. Over 850,000 volunteers hauled in more than 13.5 million pounds of trash last year. 1-800-262-BEACH www.oceanconservancy.org 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - 11 a.m. 

997 Cedar St. 

Basic Personal Preparedness. Free to anyone 18 or older, who lives or works in Berkeley. 644-8736 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire.oes.html 

Sunday, Sept. 16 

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 

K’tanim, A Celebration of Jewish Learning for Families  

with Young Children - Birth to 3 Years Old 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Nurture your child’s joy of Jewish learning. Learn about Jewish ritual and celebration through family activities, songs, stories, crafts and discussion. $10 per session. 549-9447 x104 

Healing Into the New Year: An Experiential Workshop on the Psychological and Mystical Dimensions of the High Holidays 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using Hassidic teachings and stories, music, and guided meditation, participants will be guided through an inner journey of healing and renewal in preparation for the High Holidays. 848-0237 www.lehrhaus.org 

Monday, Sept. 17 

Women’s Classics Book Group 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

A new group will discuss “The Golden Notebook” by Doris Lessing. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Tuesday, Sept. 18 

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. 525-3565 

Berkeley Fibromyalgia Support Group 

12 - 2 p.m. every 3rd Tuesday 

Alta Bates Medical Center  

Maffly Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

“Natural approaches to FM” with Dr. Julie Orman, Network Chiropractor. 

601-0550 www.arthritis.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Wednesday, Sept. 19 

Berkeley Communicator Toastmasters Club 

7:15 a.m. 

Vault Cafe 

3250 Adeline 

Learn to speak with confidence. Ongoing first and third Wednesdays each month. 527-2337 

Support Group for Family/Friends  

Caring for Older Adults 

4 - 5:30 p.m. - 3rd Wednesday of each month 

Alta Bates Medical Center  

Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

3rd floor, Room 3369B (elevator - B) 

The group will focus on the needs of the older adult with serious medical problems, psychiatric illnesses, substance abuse, and their caregivers. Free. 802-1725 

Gay/ Bi Men’s Book Group 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Will discuss “Bastard Out of Carolina” by Dorothy Allison. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Socratic Circle Discussions 

5 - 6 p.m. 

1309 Solano Ave. 

Cafe Eclectica 

Does your brain need a work out? All ages welcome. 527-2344 

A Taste of the World: Cultural Understanding Through Food 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Enhance your cooking skills and experience the cuisines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Israel with Chef Daniel Herskovic. All classes are “hands on.” Class includes meal and cooking lesson. $25. Every Wednesday through Nov. 1. 655-8487 

Thursday, Sept. 20  

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Women’s Consciousness Raising Group for the New Century 

7 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Cross-generational group and discussions of everything from race, age, class, and sexism to the various waves of feminism in the past.  

559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Friday, Sept. 21 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie, Beloved, followed by discussion of Toni Morrison. 549-1879 

Saturday, Sept. 22 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - noon 

997 Cedar St. 

Disaster Mental Health. Free to anyone 18 or older, who lives or works in Berkeley. 644-8736 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire.oes.html 

Sunday, Sept. 23 

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 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to adjust your brakes from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike, tools are provided. Free. 527-4140 

Monday, Sept. 24 

Free Legal Workshop 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

Find out about the Family Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disability Act, and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Laws protect you from termination during an experience with cancer or other serious medical condition. 601-4040 x302 

Tuesday, Sept. 25 

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. 525-3565 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Wednesday, Sept. 26 

A Taste of the World: Cultural Understanding Through Food 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Enhance your cooking skills and experience the cuisines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco and Israel with Chef Daniel Herskovic. All classes are “hands on.” Class includes meal and cooking lesson. $25. Every Wednesday through Nov. 1. 655-8487 

Socratic Circle Discussions 

5 - 6 p.m. 

1309 Solano Ave. 

Cafe Eclectica 

Does your brain need a work out? All ages welcome. 527-2344 

Thursday, Sept. 27 

Friday, Sept. 28 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: feminist influence on children. Discussion of Judy Blum’s books for girls. 549-1879 

Saturday, Sept. 29 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class 

9 a.m. - noon 

997 Cedar St. 

Disaster First Aid. Free to anyone 18 or older, who lives or works in Berkeley. 644-8736 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire.oes.html 

Sunday, Sept. 30 

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 

Tuesday, Oct. 2 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Thursday, Oct. 4  

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

Friday, Oct. 5 

Saturday, Oct. 6  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Oct. 7  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

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 

Tuesday, Oct. 9 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 531-8664 

Thursday, Oct. 11 

Friday, Oct. 12 

Tuesday, Oct. 16 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664  

Thursday, Oct. 18  

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Friday, Oct. 19 

Sunday, Oct. 21 

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 

Tuesday, Oct. 23 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Thursday, Oct. 25 

Friday, Oct. 26 

Sunday, Oct. 28 

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 

Tuesday, Oct. 30 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Friday, Nov. 2 

Saturday, Nov. 3  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Nov. 4  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org 

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Thursday, Nov. 8 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Friday, Nov. 16 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

644-6109 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Thursday, Nov. 22 

Tuesday, Nov. 27 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Saturday, Dec. 1  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Dec. 2 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Friday, Dec. 7 

Friday, Dec. 21 

ONGOING EVENTS 

Sundays 

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  

Mondays 

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails (?) 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.co 

m/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Wednesdays  

Thursdays 

Free Anonymous HIV Testing (?) (?) 

5:15 - 7:15 p.m. 

Check in 5 - 7 p.m. 

University Health Services 

Tang Center  

2222 Bancroft Way 

Drop-in services and limited space is available.  

Call 642-7202  

Fridays 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org August 4 & 5, September 1 & 2, October 6 & 7, November 3 & 4, and December 1&2 

The first day of Berkeley High School’s new student ID policy was far from a booming success, with many students not receiving their identification cards and most of the others disregarding the policy even though they had their tags. 

Last year’s policy said that all students simply had to have their student identification with them at all times. Students were rarely asked for their IDs for reasons other than dances or discount sports tickets. 

This year all students and faculty will be required to wear their identification cards where they can be easily seen. 

Although the policy won’t officially be in effect until Sept. 6, many students said they wouldn’t wear the new cards anyway. 

“The only people who are wearing them are the freshman who haven’t caught on yet,” said junior David Chernicoff. “The new system isn’t going to work because none of the students are going to respect it.” 

According to Principal Frank Lynch, the student ID policy was changed because there were a lot of problems caused last year by non-Berkeley High students who were on campus and couldn’t be identified as non-Berkeley High Students. 

“We found out that we had people on campus who didn’t belong here,” said Lynch, “and the only way we could stop that from happening would be if we could identify them immediately.” 

However, many students who do attend Berkeley High do not like the idea of keeping their ID cards visible. 

“No one is going to want to wear their IDs. They don’t match clothing,” said sophomore Rachaell Castro. “They’re ugly; they’re put on funky little chains; they’re inconvenient.” 

According to Lynch, students who don’t have their ID cards will be treated as non-students – they will be sent off campus and asked to go home to retrieve their identification. 

About 50 law enforcement officers and 24 cadets attended an all-day seminar and training at Oakland City Hall to become more familiar with issues related to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community. 

Organizers said the seminar’s goal was to train officers to better respond to LGBT issues including hate crimes, domestic violence and the transgender community. The training sessions were given by Bay Area law enforcement officers. 

The seminar was presented by the nonprofit East Bay Pride, and the Berkeley and Oakland police departments. The training sessions were held in conjunction with the 21st World Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, which began in Oakland on Aug. 24 and ends Sept. 3. 

“We sent out 99 invitations to police and sheriffs’ departments in 10 Bay Area counties and got a good response,” said Berkeley Police Officer Kelly Gordon, who helped organize the voluntary seminar with Oakland Police Officer Becky Campbell.  

Gordon also helped develop the first-ever, mandatory LGBT training for the Berkeley Police Department.  

“Berkeley’s claim to fame is we were the first Police Department, probably in the world, to mandate LGBT sensitivity training for all department employees both sworn and non-sworn officers, from the chief to the meter maids,” she said.  

Gordon and Campbell were scheduled to be presented with the East Bay Pride Community Service Award at Wednesday’s Lighting of the Lake, an outdoor concert and Enlightenment Ceremony during which the three miles of white lights that surround Lake Merritt are changed to pink. 

Gordon said the three main goals of the seminar were to update police officers on new laws that pertain to the LGBT community, inspire officers to reflect on their respective departments to measure whether they are “gay friendly” and to humanize the LGBT community. 

“Most people either know and quite possibly love someone who is gay or lesbian,” she said, “and it’s important we better understand the LGBT community,” she said.  

In the morning, Sgt. Robin Heinemann, of the Concord Police Department, familiarized the officers with LGBT terms and then presented a cursory overview of LGBT history dating back to the 1940s.  

Heinemann talked about a variety of issues including the extermination of gays and lesbians in Nazi concentration camps, the forming of the first gay rights organization in the 1950s, the Stonewall riots in New York and the impact of AIDS on the LGBT community during the 1980s and 1990s. 

“It was during the stonewall raid that gay patrons said ‘uh uh, no more,’” and a riot ensued,” Heinemann told the audience. “And the anniversary of the riot, which occurred on June 29, 1969, is the date of gay pride parades in San Francisco, New York and several other cities.” 

In the afternoon the officers attended seminars on legal updates, transgender issues and procedures when responding to same-sex domestic violence calls. 

Peter King, founder and president of East Bay Pride, said the seminar would help the attendees be better police officers. 

“It’s an opportunity to work with the police to help them understand that all people should be treated fairly and with understanding and compassion,” he said.  

Oakland Police Officer Brad Miller said the seminar would help him with his duties as a patrol officer. 

“I will be better able to respond to same-sex domestic violence calls,” Miller said. “For the first time I learned of the Pacific Center in Berkeley, a community resource I can now refer victims of domestic violence to,” 

The Pacific Center for Human Growth is a nonprofit organization that provides a variety of community services to the LGBT community. 

Lt. Richard Ridgeway, a 19-year veteran of the San Francisco Sheriffs’ Department, said the most amazing thing about the LGBT seminar was the fact that there was a LGBT seminar. 

“I know that 10 years ago the idea of this seminar would have been laughed at,” Ridgeway said. “This is just excellent.”

By Daniela Mohor 

Daily Planet staff 

As fall approaches, the demand for childcare services traditionally increases in Berkeley. But this year, more people than ever are trying to place their children – and once again childcare providers wish the state were more supportive. 

At this time, dozens of Berkeley families are waiting to hear that slots have opened up for their children in one or another preschool.  

Twenty names are on the Berkeley Hills Nursery School’s waiting list, two dozen are on the Dandelion Cooperative Nursery School list, and 10 families are hoping their kids can get into New School, just to mention a few examples. 

“The demand is higher because we had several places closing last year,” said Suzanne Hagen, Director of New School, a non-profit institution offering preschool and after-school day care in North Berkeley. “So the spaces are fewer for children of age 2 to 5 than there has been in the past.” 

In the span of one year, Berkeley lost four childcare providers, including Dragonfly Preschool, which closed its doors for  

financial reasons last February and Grizzly Peak Childcare. This resulted in the loss of 66 preschool slots and 30 infant-toddler slots. 

However, the shortage of childcare services is not new to Berkeley. It has been an ongoing problem for years that affects the state as a whole. 

“It is a challenge statewide,” said Diane Hirshberg, a researcher at the Policy Analysis for California Education, a think tank based at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. “You’ve got to create spaces that parents can afford.”  

Affordability is indeed the most critical issue, above all in the Bay Area where the cost of living is so high, experts said. 

“When we started in 1973, child care was a family’s first expense,” said Betty Cohen, director of Bananas, a childcare referral and advocacy agency in Oakland. “Now it’s the second after housing.” 

Like Cohen and many childcare service providers in Berkeley, Bananas program director Arlyce Currie believes that the state and federal governments should assign additional funds to early education programs. 

“Parents are paying as much as they can. We need a third payer in order to create more child care and to support the system,” she said. “We need spaces, people to work in them, and we need good quality or training. Right now we’re just struggling to keep up.”  

According to Alameda County childcare coordinator Angie Garling, the county currently has $150 million a year for child care subsidies. It also has a stipend program, the Child Development Corps, funded by Proposition 10 or tobacco-tax money. The program provides a stipend to childcare workers. The purpose is to retain qualified professionals in the field. But these initiatives, said Garling, are not enough. 

“Across the county we have thousands of children and families who are waiting to receive subsidized child care but cannot receive it because there is not enough money,” said Garling. “The funding increased significantly when welfare reform occurred and it has slightly increased over the past five years, but it’s not even close to serve all the families who need it.” 

Garling also said she worried about governor Gray Davis’ intention to reform the state’s subsidized child care programs. 

“One of the possibilities,” she said, “is reducing the amount of money that providers get paid for subsidized care, which would severely threaten the quality of care that children will receive.”  

To Hirshberg, addressing the shortage of child care services is a matter of time. While public schools have existed for more than a century, she said, the United States started realizing the importance of early childhood education for school readiness only three decades ago. It may therefore take some time until this realization is reflected in decision-making. 

One lawmaker stuffed spinach in his milk carton. Another recalled “barfaroni” with distaste. A third learned to love liver. 

Recalling their own school food experiences, Assembly Education Committee members Wednesday approved a bill that attempts to limit junk food served to elementary and middle school students. 

The bill by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Commerce, originally would have established nutritional standards for all food served in elementary, middle and high schools. However, strong opposition led Escutia to change the bill so it only affects elementary and middle schools. 

Beginning in 2004, the bill would allow elementary schools to sell only full meals at breakfast and lunch, because backers say children are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables and less likely to drink sodas. 

It would also require snacks sold in elementary schools during breaks to meet nutritional standards, such as no more than 35 percent of calories from fat or 35 percent of weight in sugar. 

Carbonated beverages could not be sold at middle schools until after lunch. 

The bill would also increase state funds for meals for poor children from 13 cents to 26 cents, also beginning in 2004. High schools that chose to participate in the bill’s restrictions could also get the funding increase. 

Supporters said recent studies have shown that more than 30 percent of California youth are overweight. 

“It’s tough to teach kids when they’re not eating right,” said Bill Collins of the California Teachers Association. 

“Parents need to count on the state not to subject their elementary and middle school kids to junk foods,” said Michael Butler of the California State Parent Teachers Association. 

Schools, however, have had to rely on selling “a la carte” items beyond meals to raise money, said Gary Conover of the School Food Service Association. The state reimbursement has stayed the same since 1980 and should be 45 cents a meal, he said. 

And Bob Achermann of the California Nevada Soft Drink Association opposed the restrictions on soda sales in middle schools. 

“We don’t think it’s fair to demonize soft drinks in this debate,” he said. “Soft drinks can be part of a balanced diet.” 

Assemblyman Mark Wyland, R-Escondido, said he usually prefers letting local school districts make such decisions, but nutrition in schools is “out of control.” 

Schools serve pizza and hot dogs day after day, he said, recalling his own school days of being forced to eat spinach and hiding it in his milk cartons. 

Assemblyman Tom Calderon, D-Montebello, said districts need to serve nutritious yet appetizing meals that teachers will eat to set an example. 

“They’re still serving that ’barfaroni’ they served when I was in school,” he said. 

Assemblywoman Lynne Leach, R-Walnut Creek, opposed the bill, saying districts should be allowed to make the decisions themselves. 

Leach, who didn’t vote on the bill, recalled a talented cafeteria manager in her school days who turned her into “a liver lover in high school.” 

The bill was sent to the Appropriations Committee by an 11-0 vote. 

On the Net: 

Read the bill, SB19, at http://www.sen.ca.gov 

Read about school nutrition programs at http://www.cde.ca.gov/nsd

SAN FRANCISCO — Nine unions representing workers at Safeway and Albertson’s stores in Northern California are in negotiations with the companies regarding new contracts – with a possible strike looming in the background. 

The supermarkets have put up signs advertising for help in the event of a strike, which could involve as many as 22,000 workers in stores from Fresno and San Francisco to the Oregon border. 

“We are preparing for a possible labor dispute,” said Debra Lambert, Safeway’s national spokeswoman. “We’ve posted signs in stores for temporary replacement workers.” 

United Food and Commercial Workers’ officials said they are requesting wage increases of a minimum of $1 an hour to offset the area’s high housing costs, as well as the maintenance of pension and health benefits. 

“Economics are a huge part of the negotiations,” said union spokesman Ron Lind.  

“The stores have been touting a recent contract agreement which had a 50-cent (per hour) wage increase. That type of increase isn’t going to be enough.” 

The high cost of living in the Bay Area and other parts of Northern California is a major concern for the workers, according to union consultant Phil Tucker. 

The union also is requesting that some part-time jobs be turned into full-time jobs, Lind said. 

Lambert would not discuss details of a possible contract proposal, but said prior settlements, such as the 50-cent agreement recently reached with Local 588, do “typically set precedent.” 

In 1997, the Local 588 contract was ratified by Bay Area unions, Lambert said.  

Northern California unions did not ratify the most recent Local 588 contract, which was agreed upon in July. 

Current contracts expire Sept. 1, but Tucker said the deadline could be extended indefinitely. depending on when the companies present proposals and when the unions vote on them. 

“Negotiations are ongoing,” said Lind. “A strike this weekend is unlikely. But we are prepared if the stores’ proposals are unsatisfactory.” 

SACRAMENTO — Democrats proposed new districts Wednesday that would probably allow them to maintain their overwhelming majority in the state Assembly for the next decade. 

But the plan would also strengthen the GOP’s hold on its seats. 

“What you are going to find is this cements in place essentially the (results) of the 2000 election,” said Tony Quinn, a political analyst and former Republican consultant on redistricting. “It reduces considerably any competitive districts. 

“It certainly is an incumbent plan. It has a lot of bipartisan characteristics.” 

The Assembly plan is the first of a series of redistricting proposals that lawmakers are expected to unveil this week. Plans for the state Senate and California’s congressional delegation could be released Thursday. 

Lawmakers are required to draw new districts for the Legislature and the congressional delegation every 10 years to reflect population changes revealed by the federal census. 

Democrats currently hold 50 of the Assembly’s 80 seats, and the plan released Wednesday would create 50 districts with Democratic pluralities or majorities, including an open seat covering Imperial County and part of Riverside County that was recast to favor Democrats. 

“I think we will retain 50 seats in the immediate future,” said the chairman of the Assembly elections committee, Democrat John Longville of Rialto. “It’s certainly possible to forecast (beyond that). Whether those predictions are accurate is something else again.” 

Democrats could conceivably win 51 seats next year if they can take the new Riverside-Imperial district and retain a San Diego-area district that is split almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats. 

That San Diego seat is now held by Democrat Howard Wayne, who is barred from running for re-election by term limits. Assembly Minority Leader Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, said Republicans were still analyzing the plans, but Longville predicted that most Republican lawmakers would end up supporting it. 

“We attempted to take into account the expressed concerns and wishes of members of the Republican Party,” he said. 

Democrats would need the votes of at least four Republicans to pass the plan with a two-thirds majority and prevent the GOP from asking voters to overturn it. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, said the plan was still open for negotiations, calling it a “work in progress” that could be modified after the Assembly holds hearings on it next week. 

Kathay Feng, an attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, said groups representing Asians and Pacific Islanders might challenge the plan in court if there are no changes. 

She said the plan was a “good first step” but that some districts in the San Francisco and San Diego areas should be altered to avoid splitting up voters of Asian or Pacific Islander heritage. 

“We are willing to work with the Assembly before this map goes to votes to see how many of our concerns are addressed...,” she said. “If there’s absolutely no change, there are some significant communities that will be forced to consider legal action.” 

Amadis Velez, redistricting coordinator for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said his group also might go to court if there are not changes in the plan bolstering the political clout of Latino communities. 

Groups representing Hispanics and Asians and Pacific Islanders have proposed their own plans for redrawing Assembly districts. 

Democrats control redistricting this year because of their big majorities in the state Senate and Assembly and the presence of Democrat Gray Davis in the governor’s office, and they could use that clout to try to draw districts that increase their numbers in Sacramento and Washington. 

But they said that tactic could backfire by spreading loyal Democratic voters too thinly and increasing chances of Republican gains. 

Longville said many districts had to be changed significantly because of uneven growth in the state in the last decade and because of requirements of federal law to maintain minority voting power. 

Under the Democrats’ plan the biggest change apparently would take place in Southern California and involve the 64th District, now a Republican stronghold in western Riverside County represented by Assemblyman Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside, who is termed out next year. 

The Democrats want to move that district to the south and east to include all of Imperial County and the most of eastern Riverside County, including Palm Springs and Indio. 

Democrats would make up just over 47 percent and Republicans about 35 percent of the new district’s voters. In the current district, Republicans have nearly a 46 percent-to-38-percent edge. 

Nearly 35 percent of the new district’s voters would be Hispanics. 

———— 

On the Net: Read the plan at www.assembly.ca.gov/erca 

Patients rate hospital stays statewide 

WALNUT CREEK — A survey of more than 21,000 patients, who had spent at least one night in one of 113 California hospitals from August through October 2000, measured their perceptions of how well caretakers handled their pain, education and emotional support. 

Of the 17 East Bay’s hospitals in the survey, only ValleyCare in the Tri Valley and the San Ramon medical center scored above the survey’s average. 

Kaiser hospitals in Hayward, Oakland and Walnut Creek, as well as Contra Costa County Regional Medical Center in Martinez, scored below average. Alta Bates Medical Center, Eden Medical Center, Kaiser’s Richmond hospital, St. Rose Hospital, Summit Medical Center, Sutter Delta Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System received average scores. 

Only the opinions of surgery, maternity, and general medical patients were assessed. The results are to be posted on the Internet at www.chcj.org. 

The survey was conducted by the California Institute for Health Systems Performance and the California HealthCare Foundation. Hospitals participating in the survey did so voluntarily and represented about 30 percent of California’s acute care hospitals. 

Residents want more time to speak out on cleanup 

CONCORD — Residents asked the Environmental Protection Agency and the Navy on Tuesday night to allow more time for public comment on a federal pact signed recently by the two agencies for the cleanup of the Concord Naval Weapons Station. 

The agreement sets up a regulatory framework and enforceable deadlines for the Superfund cleanup of the 13,000-acre site. By law, the pact can only be finalized when a 30-day public comment period ends. 

Some of the work includes capping an old landfill, cleaning ground water and removing contaminated soil. The property’s soil, sediments and surface water are contaminated with pesticides and heavy metals such as zinc, arsenic, copper and lead, according to the EPA. The weapons station was designated a Superfund site in 1994. 

EPA officials said they would grant a 30-day extension on the public comment period – originally scheduled to end Sept. 10 – but added that such an action only delays the EPA’s ability to light a fire under the Navy’s cleanup efforts. 

The Navy has been cleaning up the site since 1980. The work has cost $49 million, according to the Navy. About $10 million to $15 million more is needed to complete and monitor future cleanup of the site. 

School board members recalled in vote 

EMERYVILLE — Residents voted Tuesday night to recall three school board members who presided over the debt-ridden district before the state stepped in this month. 

Two leaders of the recall initiative, Art Hoff and Forrest Gee, as well as social worker Valerie Patton, will replace Emery Unified School trustees Barbara Krzywicki, Gladys Vance and Donald Dorsey, according to the Alameda County registrar of voters. 

Although the results will not be certified until Tuesday, each of the trustees was recalled by at least 85 percent of the voters who turned out. 

The newly elected trustees will serve in an advisory role to a state-appointed administrator overseeing the state’s $2.3 million bailout of the district. 

With only 900 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, Emery Unified is one of the smallest school districts in California.

WASHINGTON — At least 40,000 federal tax returns and payments involving $810 million were either lost or destroyed at a Pittsburgh processing facility. 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Wednesday a previous estimate of 1,800 lost or destroyed payments was “only a small fraction” of the actual total now acknowledged by the Internal Revenue Service. 

“It may be six months or more before the scope and magnitude of this problem is fully known,” Baucus said. 

The tax returns and payments were sent by taxpayers in New England and parts of New York this year to a Pittsburgh lockbox run by Mellon Bank under a contract with the federal government. Earlier this month, Mellon lost its contract to run the facility following what the bank’s chairman called “gross disregard” and failure to follow company policy by some employees. 

The IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration are investigating the incident, which Baucus said appears to be confined to the Pittsburgh facility. IRS officials declined comment Wednesday on the probe but said they are working with taxpayers to address any problems. 

It remains a mystery exactly what happened to the returns and payments or whether the incident was deliberate or a mistake. All that investigators or Mellon Bank will say publicly is that it does not appear to be a case of identity theft, stolen checks or disclosure of sensitive taxpayer information. 

Mellon’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Martin McGuinn, said in an e-mail that “several” bank employees were fired after an internal probe found taxpayer submissions that were “hidden, and in some cases, destroyed.”  

Loss of the contract resulted in layoffs of 106 other employees. 

The investigation began after taxpayers began contacting the IRS when their payment checks had failed to clear. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the agency has now received 22,000 complaints of uncashed checks. 

Affected taxpayers submitted tax returns and payments this year to the Pittsburgh lockbox from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and parts of New York outside of New York City and Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties. 

Also potentially affected were taxpayers from those areas who submitted estimated tax payments and those who made payments along with a request for an extension to file their returns. 

Baucus said “an untold number” of taxpayers likely aren’t even aware that their returns and checks were lost or destroyed. He recommended they review bank records to determine if any check sent to the IRS failed to clear. 

The IRS has already set up a special unit to handle these cases. Taxpayers who suspect they may be affected should call the agency at 1-800-829-1040. The IRS is asking them to stop payment on the uncashed check and send a new return and check to the IRS service center in Andover, Mass. 

The IRS will treat a replacement check and return as filed on time from affected taxpayers, meaning they won’t owe any penalties or interest. Taxpayers can also get reimbursed by the IRS for any bank fees by filing IRS Form 8546. ———— 

On the Net: 

IRS: http://www.irs.gov ———— 

Affected taxpayers can contact the IRS directly by mail: 

Internal Revenue Service 

Post Office Box 9936 

Andover, MA 01810 

Attn: Nancy Green, Stop 321 

WASHINGTON — Help is coming for the Tumbling Creek cavesnail, relegated to a single cave in Missouri; for Washington state’s showy stickseed herb; for the Mississippi gopher frog, found only in the state’s Harrison County; and for the remaining dozens of pygmy rabbits. 

The Interior Department said Wednesday it has negotiated a deal to avert a legal challenge from three conservation groups by speeding up federal protection for those four species and 25 other rare creatures and plants. 

Under the agreement, Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service will review three species immediately – the cavesnail, pygmy rabbit and the Carson wandering skipper butterfly, found only in California and Nevada – as emergency candidates for the endangered and threatened species lists. 

The agency said it will make final decisions on 14 other species and map critical habitats for another eight species, including the Gila chub in New Mexico and Arizona, and for four freshwater snails in New Mexico. The fate of the Gila chub, a small fish, already is the subject of a lawsuit. 

In addition, the agency promised to issue findings within a year on four other species that groups have petitioned to have listed as endangered or threatened and their critical habitats defined. 

“I hope this can be a model for future agreements,” said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Her department includes the Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees protection programs for inland fish and land species. 

The preliminary agreement would head off expected lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity, Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project and the California Native Plant Society. 

A final settlement must be approved by a federal judge acting on advice from Interior and Justice Department officials. 

According to Fish and Wildlife, all the species for which final listing decisions are promised face significant threats. Others among them are: 

• Ohlone tiger beetle of California, found only in Santa Cruz County and thinning due to urban growth and nonnative vegetation. 

• Spalding’s catchfly herb of Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington and British Columbia, Canada, a carnation dwindling because of habitat loss and trampling by livestock. 

• San Diego ambrosia of southern California, a perennial threatened by highway construction and trampling by horses and humans. 

—Mountain yellow-legged frog of southern California, mysteriously disappearing from 99 percent of its former mountain habitat possibly due to predation by trout introduced to the area or by air pollution. 

—Coastal cutthroat trout of Washington and Oregon, nearly extinct in two rivers and facing habitat loss, hatcheries and overharvesting. 

—Buena Vista Lake ornate shrew of California, of which only about 40 have been sighted, near Bakersfield; it is endangered by agriculture, altered stream use and possible selenium poisoning. 

—Chiricahua leopard frog of Arizona and New Mexico, populations few and scattered and threatened by loss of wetlands and disease. 

—Scaleshell mussel of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, found only in 13 streams along the Mississippi River basin and facing poor water quality, sand and gravel mining, reservoir construction and river dredging. 

—Vermilion darter of Alabama, a small fish just 3 inches long and surviving in just 7.2 miles of creeks in Jefferson County due to altered stream use and pollutants. 

—Golden sedge of North Carolina, limited to two counties and endangered by industrial development, mining and agriculture. 

—Holmgren milk-vetch and Shivwits milk-vetch herbs of Utah and Arizona, found in just two counties and disturbed by urban growth, off-road vehicles and livestock grazing. 

——— 

On the Net: Fish and Wildlife endangered species program: http://endangered.fws.gov 

Center for Biological Diversity: http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/ 

NEW YORK — Investors sent stocks tumbling Wednesday for a third straight session on a government report showing the economy eked out only a slim gain in the second quarter, its weakest performance in eight years. 

While the economy fared better than expected – some analysts had feared it would be flat or even decline – investors weren’t comforted. After weeks of dismal earnings and negative forecasts from the nation’s biggest companies, Wall Street took the report on the gross domestic product as just another reason not to buy. 

“There is no faith that things are about to improve anytime soon,” said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Legg Mason of Baltimore. 

Investors were clearly disappointed by the Commerce Department’s report that the GDP – the country’s total output of goods and services – inched up just 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter. 

The resulting selling was spread across the market as frustrated investors stayed away from stocks on worries that business would remain weak for the immediate future. 

Caterpillar fell 97 cents to $51.17, while Gap slipped 60 cents to $19.70 after Banc of America Securities reduced its rating on the retailing stock. 

Pessimistic outlooks from two technology bellwethers intensified the market’s bad mood. 

Chip stocks slipped after Advanced Micro Devices warned that revenue in the current quarter would likely fall about 15 percent from the last quarter, compared to previous projections of 10 to 15 percent losses. AMD fell 66 cents to $14.20, a 4 percent loss. 

Networking stock Nortel Networks fell 25 cents to $6.52 after WorldCom’s announced that it would cut its 2002 capital spending to $6 billion. WorldCom, which fell 53 cents to $12.44, is one of Nortel’s most important customers. 

Also Wednesday, Microsoft lost 45 cents to $60.29 on news that the Justice Department had asked the new judge in its antitrust case against the software company to discuss a schedule for moving the case along. 

There were a few modest winners. Among them was Gateway, which inched up 19 cents to $8.79 after announcing a restructuring plan late Tuesday.  

The computer maker plans to cut 25 percent of its global work force and shutter operations in Asia. 

Women’s clothing retailer Talbots also advanced, rising 89 cents to $37.94. 

But analysts said Wednesday’s session mostly reflected the ambivalence that has come to characterize Wall Street amid unending indications of weak business and a struggling economy. 

All three indexes remain well below where they started 2001: the Dow down 6 percent, the Nasdaq off 25 percent and the S&P off 13 percent.  

And the market’s attempts to rally have fizzled as investors, unconvinced that tough times are over, have cashed in their profits after every advance.  

After months of being burned by stocks that can’t seem to hold their gains, many investors are simply staying out of the market. 

Two announcements after the market closed gave them little incentive to act otherwise. Fiber optics manufacturer Corning said it was cutting 1,000 jobs because of a seen a sudden slowing in orders across all fiber product lines. The stock was down 78 cents, or 5.3 percent, to finish at $13.82 in extended trading, after a regular session loss of 79 cents. 

And Sun Microsystems said it is unlikely it will break even in the first quarter because of soft business. The maker of computer storage and other products dropped 83 cents in the Nasdaq’s late session to finish at $12.60, after a 13-cent decline during the day. 

“We still have just no real reasons for people to be aggressive here,” said Todd Clark, co-head of trading at WR Hambrecht, who also attributed some of the slack to low volume ahead of the Labor Day holiday. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancers nearly 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.17 billion shares, compared with 1.18 billion Tuesday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of smaller company stocks, fell 0.86 to 473.34. 

Overseas markets were mixed Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei stock average finished the day down 1.9 percent. Germany’s DAX index was down nearly 0.1 percent, France’s CAC-40 rose 0.4 percent, and Britain’s FT-SE 100 declined 0.3 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 

WASHINGTON — The nation’s economy inched ahead in the spring at the slowest pace in eight years. Still, the fact that there was any growth at all fueled hope that the economy may be ready to begin climbing again – without tipping into recession. 

Gross domestic product – the country’s total output of goods and services – grew at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter, according to revised figures released by the Commerce Department Wednesday. That’s a lower estimate than the 0.7 percent growth rate the government reported a month ago. 

Even so, the second-quarter performance was better than most analysts were forecasting. Some predicted the economy would stall, while others thought it would slip into reverse, possibly signaling the start of the first recession in the United States in 11 years.  

A recession is usually defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinking GDP. 

“We stayed on the right side of the ledger,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services. “I think ... that we’re more likely to find our way back to safer ground than we are to tumble over the edge.” 

But on Wall Street, the slim gain didn’t cheer investors. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 131.13 points to close at 10,090.90. 

Many analysts believe the second quarter will prove to have been the point that the economy showed the greatest danger of dipping into a recession. They predict the economy will rebound to around a 2 percent growth rate in the current quarter and to around 3 percent to 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter. 

Private economists and the Bush administration are counting on nearly $40 billion in tax rebate checks and the aggressive credit easing by the Federal Reserve to lift the economy to higher growth rates in the second half of this year. 

“I’m optimistic — there are some good signs out there,” said Commerce Secretary Don Evans, adding that consumer spending and the housing market have held up during the yearlong slowdown. 

To fight off a possible downturn, the Fed has slashed interest rates seven times this year, with the most recent cut coming last week. Economists believe the Fed might reduce rates again in October. 

One of the main reasons for the lower estimate of second-quarter GDP is that companies did a better job liquidating their inventories than previously estimated. Inventory reduction was valued at $38.4 billion in the second quarter, the biggest decline since the first quarter of 1983. That subtracted 0.4 percentage point from GDP. 

While inventory reduction subtracts from GDP, economists say excess inventories must be whittled before companies can ramp up production, something that would bode well for economic growth down the road. 

“Most of the required inventory liquidation is now behind us, and as a result, the economy now is in a better position to recover over the next several months,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Banc of America Capital Management. 

Another reason for the downward revision was that the trade deficit was slightly worse because exports fell more than previously thought, reducing second quarter GDP by 0.3 percent percentage point. 

Still, much of the overall weakness in the second quarter continued to come from companies cutting back sharply in their investment in plants and equipment in the face of weak sales and plunging profits. 

U.S. companies reduced such investment in the second quarter at a rate of 14.6 percent, the worst showing since the second quarter of 1980. The new estimate was weaker than the 13.6 percent rate of decline previously estimated. 

The reduction in spending on computers and software in the second quarter was an even sharper rate of 15.1 percent, versus the 14.5 percent rate of decline initially thought. 

Spending on new factories and office buildings fell at rate of 13.4 percent. 

Wednesday’s report also showed that after-tax profits of U.S. corporations fell by 2 percent in the second quarter, an improvement over the 7.8 percent decline in the first quarter. 

Consumers were the primary force keeping the country out of recession. Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity, rose at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the second quarter, stronger than the 2.1 percent rate originally estimated. 

Also helping was a 5.8 percent rate of increase in residential construction, a sector that has remained strong, helped by falling interest rates. 

While second-quarter growth remained positive, the rate of expansion was the weakest since a 0.1 percent rate of decline in the first quarter of 1993, and it trailed the 1.3 percent growth rate posted in the first three months of the year. 

“The economy stayed out of negative territory, and, if anything, that should have some positive psychological impact for consumers and businesses,” said Ken Mayland of ClearView Economics. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Commerce Department GDP report: http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn1.htm 

Nearly 200 people gathered outside KPFA Tuesday morning to show support for “Democracy Now!,” the popular news magazine that recently reheated the crisis within the Pacifica group of listener-sponsored radio stations. 

Listeners from Marin, Oakland, and San Francisco joined Berkeley residents in front of the station at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way to protest the Pacifica Foundation’s recent decision to stop airing the show. 

“We’re pissed, no shit. We want Democracy now back,” the crowd shouted repeatedly, while cars passed the station honking in support. 

“Democracy Now!” is one of the most popular shows aired by Pacifica, the organization that holds the license to five community radio stations across the country, including KPFA. But in recent weeks, tensions have escalated between the show’s host Amy Goodman and Utrice Leid, the interim station manager at the New York Pacifica station WBAI.  

This has resulted in WBAI’s refusal to air Goodman’s new shows, which are produced outside the New York Pacifica  

station. These shows are broadcast only on KPFA, while reruns are played on the other Pacifica stations. Leid and others have allegedly harassed Goodman and her staff to the point that they decided to produce the show from the alternative studio.  

Pacifica has reportedly suspended the “Democracy Now!” team without pay. Goodman’s union, which first told her to go back to producing the show at the station, now supports her decision to work away from WBAI. 

To the people gathered outside KPFA, the refusal to air new “Democracy Now!” programs is just the latest expression of Pacifica’s ongoing efforts to move community radio towards mainstream programming. 

Tuesday speakers invited the public to fight to protect the network and to participate in a phone bank. By the end of the morning 55 people had used to station’s phones to call Pacifica Board members, to complain about the way Goodman is being treated, and eventually to ask them to resign. 

“We have to do this together,” KPFA reporter Dennis Bernstein told the protesters. “We’re fighting back and we’re going to expand the support for Amy.” 

Bernstein and many others strongly criticized WBAI management for verbally attacking the “Democracy Now!” team. One person, Bernstein contended, threatened physical harm to one of the show’s producers. 

Neither Pacifica executive director Bessie Wash, nor board members were available for comment Tuesday afternoon. However, Deborah Hayes, a spokesperson for Pacifica, said that the Foundation was currently investigating the allegations. “Once the investigation is completed, we will take the appropriate action,” she said. “We look forward to the return of Amy Goodman and her staff.” 

During the demonstration, numerous local activists and community leaders praised Goodman for her work, her ability to ask challenging questions and go deeply into controversial issues. 

“We all look at Amy as a model,” said Linda Rudman, Women’s Desk Director at the National Radio Project, a nonprofit organization that produces public affairs programming. “There are a lot of activist journalists but there aren’t enough of us who are willing to force ourselves to be sharper about our analysis.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington praised “Democracy Now!” for being an alternative to mainstream news shows. He also complimented the community for standing against Pacifica. If a similar situation took place in a corporate network, he said, the owners of the station would fire the person who had taken the most popular show off the air. Listeners, he said, are therefore right to ask Pacifica’s board members to resign. 

“I am delighted that you, who are the owner of this corporation, are doing what any responsible corporate agent would do,” he said. 

Similar demonstrations were held Tuesday in different parts of the nation Tuesday, including Houston, New York, and Washington, D.C. 

Wednesday, Aug. 29 

Section 8 Resident Council 

6 - 8 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave. 

First Annual Speak Up. You can effect change, but you must speak up. Refreshments provided. 548-4040 

Bay Area Eco-Crones 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Discussion, ritual, project planning, education. Call for location and directions: 874-4935. 

Socratic Circle Discussions 

5 - 6 p.m. 

1309 Solano Ave. 

Cafe Eclectica 

Does your brain need a workout? All ages welcome. 527-2344 

Thursday, Aug. 30 

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 

Lost in the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Jason Flesher, a Search and Rescue member for almost 20 years, will share his nine rules for surviving in the wilderness. Free. 

527-4140 

Kensington 55+ Activity Center 

9 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Social Hall of Arlington Community Church 

52 Arlington Ave. 

Conversation, Apple II computer instruction, massage therapy, German conversation group, meditation and relaxation techniques, watercolor art class, tea and coffee. Special 11 a.m. program: Music, Hugh Kelly plays harmonica and leads sing-along. 526-9146 

Attic Conversions 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architect Andus Brandt. $35. 525-7610 

Friday, Aug. 31 

Start a Writing Group 

–and Keep It Going 

10 a.m. - noon 

North Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Dr. Kathy Briccetti will host a workshop on How to Start and Maintain a Writing Group. This free workshop requires pre-registration by Aug. 29. 

644-6850 www.infopeople.org/bpl/ 

James Joyce’s Ulysses 

Reading Group 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

All are welcome, plus the wonderful new tapes. 644-1172 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie on Emma Goldman followed by discussion. 549-1879 

ILGA Global Gay Summit - RejuveNation 

7 p.m. 

McGee Avenue Baptist Church 

1640 Stuart St. 

$7 663-3980 www.eastbaypride.org 

Saturday, Sept. 1  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult. www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Sept. 2  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club gives free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

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 

LesBiGay Prospective  

Parenting Group 

10:30 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. 

Adoption issues, new members welcome. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Monday, Sept. 3 

Intensive Production Urban Gardening Training 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar & Grill 

1310 University Ave. 

Learn ways to intensively and organically grow produce for your own use or for an urban market garden. A hands-on training in the garden located behind the restaurant and potluck lunch at 1 p.m. Free community training, meets the first Monday each month. 841-1110 

Potluck Picnic and Poetry 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

Walnut and Rose streets 

Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts a Labor Day potluck picnic followed by an open poetry reading. All are welcome to bring food and poetry to share. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Rainbow Berkeley Brunch 

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Celebrate Berkeley’s LGBHTQI community at the 3rd Annual Brunch. $10 donation. 548-9235 gspprng@tksvc.com 

East Bay Alliance for a  

Sustainable Economy:  

A Labor Day Hearing 

11 a.m. 

North Gate Hall Room 105 

University of California at Berkeley 

East Bay’s crisis of working poverty to be investigated at the hearing. Featuring a panel and audience of East Bay political, religious, labor and community leaders, including: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and others. 893-7106  

Tuesday, Sept. 4 

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 Friendships: deep, superficial, and what obligations? 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 computer class for seniors 

9:30 - 11:30 a.m. and 1 - 3 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited, call ahead for a reservation. 

644-6109 

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. 525-3565 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

— compiled by Guy Poole 

Setting the record straight on Open Paw 

Editor: 

It was with some irritation that I read your reporter’s lead in to my comment about the Open Paw program in the Berkeley Daily Planet (8/27). I did not say that I had serious concerns about the training techniques of Open Paw. What I said was that I was concerned that their approach excludes any other volunteering opportunities (with dogs) at the Berkeley Animal Shelter. That it was ‘their way or no way.’ 

Open Paw is a great concept - but it does not run the volunteer program at the Berkeley Animal Shelter, and its attempts to tell Director Kate O’ Connor and Volunteer Co-ordinator Amelia Funghi how to do their jobs is what irks many people. 

That the Berkeley Humane Society fully endorses Open Paw is no surprise – their volunteer program has been ineffective for years and given the condition of its facility, and the current state of its hospital – closed – it must be nice to have something to feel good about. 

Open Paw is a fantastic piece in an overall approach to many issues facing Berkeley’s municipal animal shelter including: 

• How to cope with a dog population which is usually 60 -70 percent pitbull or pitbull mix. The organization Bad Rap has begun a program at the Berkeley Shelter, training volunteers how to work with and assess which pitbulls are adoptable and which may have to be euthanised. 

• How to co-ordinate a foster program whereby dogs, pups and underage kittens with minor health or behaviour problems can go into temporary homes to bring them to full health prior to adoption. 

• How to breathe new life into a shelter which until recently was run by the Police Department with enforcement, not adoption as its primary focus. 

• How to build a cohesive program of volunteer involvement for animals other than dogs (far more cats than dogs are killed in municipal shelters). 

• How to persuade the public and politicians alike that Berkeley requires a new facility where the drains aren’t blocked by dog excrement, where bird droppings don’t create a health hazard to employees, where the building environment encourages adoptions and where the kennels are designed so that dogs are less likely to get into arguments with their neighbors. 

Wouldn’t it be great if Berkeley Humane would enter into a fully co-operative agreement with the Berkeley Shelter along the lines of the SF SPCA and SF animal control? Under new director Lisa Fine, hopefully this will happen. 

The possibilities at the Humane are limitless – their hospital could become the city vet, offering low cost spay/neuter to all needy citizens, entering into a contract with the city to provide medical care for shelter animals (currently shelter animals are spayed and neutered at low cost vets in Contra Costa county), and they could offer reduced rates for nonprofit animal organizations. At the moment our shelter does not even have the capability of providing rabies vaccines for dogs. 

Open Paw, whether it likes it or not, is caught up in the politics of the Berkeley Humane Society and the problems this venerable institution faces as it attempts to reform itself. 

At the Berkeley Animal Shelter the euthanasia rate has plummeted in recent months because of increased volunteer participation, ‘rescue’ agreements with organizations like Oakland SPCA, Pets In Need, Bad Rap, and Home At Last Rescue and because of director O’ Connor’s resistance to kill except where necessary. 

For Open Paw’s supporters to imply that the Berkeley Shelter is part of a ‘resistance to change’ is self serving and inaccurate. 

Jill Posener 

Paws For Thought 

Landmark Gaia right now 

Editor:  

I am amused by the controversy over the Gaia Building. It is easily the most attractive building in the neighborhood at this point, drawing admiring glances from all who pass by.  

Clearly, in a few years everyone will be proud that this building will help define downtown Berkeley, so why not just declare it a landmark now? Why wait until it is endangered?  

And that way the preservationists could take a positive position for once, and applaud a thoughtful addition to the urban landscape, instead of quibbling.  

Sarah Stadler 

Berkeley 

Accolades for Patrick Kennedy 

Editor: 

I read Michael Katz’s letter regarding the Gaia building and I just had to reply. I believe that we owe a debt of gratitude to Patrick Kennedy and his crew for the construction of this magnificent building.  

The beauty of this building is that it is not just wonderful to look at, but it is constructed in a thoughtful and deliberate manner.  

It has a steel beam foundation that really should be a requirement for any new building in this earthquake area.  

The management has provided 3 electric cars for the use of the tenants that live there, thus reducing the need for people to own and use traditional vehicles. They have installed stacked garages and have utilized the street level space for a café and theater.  

Furthermore, Mr. Kennedy has doubled the required occupancy of low income, disabled or elderly tenants to 20 percent. I personally know of his offer to help seniors who had faced evictions by assuring them of a place in the Gaia building and of his help to those who found themselves in distressing circumstances. Where would Mr. Katz place these people who were without homes? 

The Gaia building, in my eyes, is a magnificent building that combines beauty, quality, innovation, and care.  

I am proud to see it in the center of Berkeley and I hope it will act as a beacon to other builders to rise to such quality. 

Marcia Poole 

Berkeley 

Tribune editorial appealed to very worst in us 

Editor: 

The Berkeley Daily Planet received this letter addressed to the editor of the Oakland Tribune. 

The Tribune Editorial attacking Berkeley City Councilman Mr. Kriss Worthington appalls me, and the timing of the attack appalls me. The editorial writer may be frightened of someone or something, but it couldn’t be Kriss or Kriss’ work in Berkeley. If the Editorial writer ever met or worked with Kriss, I doubt if the harsh words could have issued. 

This brand of journalism that attempts to destroy public figures by appealing to our worst emotions rather than the record and reality, strikes me as essentially foreign to what this country is all about, and strikes me as despicable. 

Terry Cochrell 

Berkeley 

Albatross Pub Sept. 1: David Widelock Jazz Trio; Sept. 5: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 6: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 11: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Sept. 13: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 19: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 20: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 22: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet; Sept. 27: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Free. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring.com 

Anna’s Aug. 29: Bob Schoen Jazz Quartet; Aug. 30: Christy Dana Quartet; Aug. 31: Anna sings jazz standards; 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Free. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted. 1801 University Ave. 849-2662  

Ashkenaz Aug. 29: 8 p.m. Earl White Oldtime Band, Bluegrass Intentions, plus clogging lessons. $10, Kids under 12 Free; Aug. 30: 9 p.m. Samite, Forward Kwenda, $10; Aug. 31: 9:30 p.m. Wawa and the Oneness Kingdom, The Calypsonians, $10; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com  

Café Eclectica Sept. 8: 8 p.m. SF Improv, Free. 1309 Solano Ave. 326-6124 www.sfimprov.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. Sept. 10: Lucy Lang Day; Sept. 17: Marc Hofstadter (book party); Sept. 24: Jim Watson-Gove; All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Sept. 6: 8 p.m. King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, $20 - $32; Sept. 16: 7 p.m. Tania Libertad, $18 - $30; Sept. 30: 7 p.m. Kronos Quartet, David Barron, $30; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Sept. 1: Ancient Future, $16.50; Sept. 7: Tom Russell w/ Andrew Hardin, $16.50; Sept. 8: The House Jacks, $17.50; Sept. 9: Erika Luckett, $16.50; Sept. 11: Don Walser, Slaid Cleaves, $16.50; Sept. 12: Andy Irvine, $17.50; Sept. 13: Piper Heisig birthday revue and fund raiser w/ Kate Brislin, Sylvia Herold, Tony Marcus, Carlos Reyes, and Radim Zenkl, $16.50; Sept. 14: Ray Wylie Hubbard, $16.50; Sept. 15: Vocolot, $17.50; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Aug. 29: Secession; Aug. 30: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; Aug. 31: Realistic CD Release Party; Sept. 4: Beth Waters Band; Sept. 5: Presidents Breakfast; Sept. 6 Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 7: Crater; Sept. 10: Ben Graves Trio; Sept. 11: Len Patterson Trio; Sept. 12: Bitches Brew; Sept. 13: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 14: Carlos Washington & Giant People Ensemble; Sept. 15: Kooken & Hoomen; Sept. 18: The Goodbye Flowers; Sept. 19: New Monsoon; Sept. 20: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 21: Netwerk: Electric; Sept. 22: New Garde Philosophers; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

La Peña Cultural Center Sept. 11 & 12: 8 p.m. Irakere, $22; In the Cafe, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Alice Arts Sept. 8: 7:30 p.m. Benefit concert for freedom of U.S. political prisoners featuring Fred Ho (solo) and The Eddie Gale Unit. $12; 1428 Alice, Oakland, 539-0050 www.thejerichomovement.com/teardownthewalls 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church Sept. 15: George Brooks and Shweta Jhaveri with Uttam Chakraborty on drums. $18 - $25; 2727 College Ave. 843-9600 www.harmoniventures.com 

“Rose Street Cabaret” Aug. 30 & 31st: 7 - 11 p.m. East Bay Pride and Rose Street House of Music present "Rose Street Cabaret" as part of "Pride Park." Aug. 30: Velvet Janes, Duval-Speck, Littlebird, Melissa Dougherty, Christie McCarthy, Bern, Irina Rivkin, and Helen Chaya; Aug. 31: Shelley Doty, Katharine Chase of Kindness, Laura Chandler, Making Waves, Green, Kristi Martel, and Jill Knight. Unitarian Church of Oakland, Starr King Room, 1685 14th Street. rosestreetmusic@yahoo.com 

“Song of the Lakitan Bird” Sept. 2: 2 p.m. Kulintang Dance Theatre communicates the beauty and refinement of the Southern Philippine culture. $10 Adults, $5 Children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Goddesses” Aug. 31, 8 p.m.; Sept. 1, 8 p.m.; Sept. 2, 3 p.m.; A play by Dorotea Reyna. A poetic drama concerning one mortal woman’s struggle to control the six extraordinary goddesses in her psyche. Based on, Goddesses in Everywoman by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen. $10. Live Oak Theater, Live Oak Community Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 883-0536 rlcouture@earthlink.net 

Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” Aug. 31, Sept. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9. All shows 8 p.m. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s and Gabrial Pascal’s “Pygmalion.” Directed by James Schlader, choreographed by Harriet Schlader, under the musical direction of Mark Hanson. $15 - $27. 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. 531-9597 www.woodminster.com 

“Hecho En Califas Chicano-Latino Teatro Festival” Sept. 6 - 9, 14 - 15; 8 p.m. Original members of El Teatro de La Esperanza. Chicano Theater began out of the need to express the realities of the fields and barrios of Aztlán in the Chicano-Latino community. $10 - $20 La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, 849-2568, www.lapena.org  

“Winesburg, Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque” Sept. 6 through Sept. 16, Wed. - Sat. 8:30 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players and Word For Word team up for a production of Sherwood Anderson’s deceptively simple tale of neglected souls who fade into the shadows around us. $22, Wednesdays are “Pay What You Can.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

Squelched.com Presents “Jim Short” Sept. 11: 8 p.m. Jim Short is an Australian expatriate who grew up in Texas. Also appearing: Rob Cantrell, Luke Filose and Sean Keane. Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 show@squelched.com 

“36 Views” Sept. 12 through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

Cal Performances Sept. 8: 8 p.m. & Sept. 9: 3 p.m. - Dance, the Spirit of Cambodia, $20 - $32; Sept. 19 - 20: 8 p.m. American Ballet, “Bruch Violin Concerto,” “Jabula,” “Gong,” and “Black Tuesday.”; Sept. 21: 8 p.m., Sept. 22: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sept. 23: 3 p.m. American Ballet, the full-length 19th Century “Giselle” $36 - $64; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Film Archive Aug. 29: (free screenings) 7:30 p.m. The Horror of Party Beach, 9:15 p.m. The Crater Lake Monster; Aug. 31: 7 p.m. The Makioka Sisters, 9:35 p.m. A Woman’s Testament; Gen. Adm.. $7, The New PFA Theatre 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

The Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Cinema Sept. 1: Breakfast Club; Sept. 2: Pretty in Pink; Sept. 8: Dr. No (come as your favorite Bond character); Sept. 15: Harold and Maude; Sept. 22: Airplane; The Outdoor Cinema features cult classics projected on a large screen in the open-air brewery parking lot. $5 donation. Movies start at 7 p.m. 901 Gilman St. 206-682-8322 x237 www.pyramidbrew.com 

“BACA National Juried Exhibition: Works on Paper” Through Aug. 31: Wed. - Sun. Noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“Debbie Moore’s Autobiographical Paintings” Through Sep. 30 at Good Vibrations. Portraits of the artist’s sensual explorations spanning 25 years and reflecting changing ways of intimacy and body play. 2504 San Pablo Avenue 848-1985 

“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.  

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” Sept. 5 through Oct. 13, reception Sept. 6, 6 - 8 p.m.; Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Asian Pacific Islander American artists in roughly the demographic proportions indicated by the recent census. Free. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9470  

“Ten Years Here” Exhibit celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Turn of the Century Fine Arts. Through Sept. 14, Sat & Sun 1-5 p.m. 2510 San Pablo Avenue 849-0950 

“The Political Art of: Diego Marcial Rios” Through Sept. 20, Addison Street Window Gallery, 2018 Addison St. hdrios@msn.com 

Women’s Cancer Resource Gallery “Catastrophe, Crisis, and Other Family Traditions” The photography of Jessamyn Lovell. Aug. 25 through Sept. 26; “TheArthur Wright and Gerald Parker” Reception Sept. 8, Aug. 25 through Sept. 26; Tues. - Thurs. 1 - 7 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m. 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 x307 www.wcrc.org 

“Squared Triangle” Through Oct. 5: noon - 6 p.m. A minimal art exhibit featuring three Bay Area artists working in different mediums while achieving the same elegant simplicity. The Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.com 

“Inside Editions” Sept. 6 - Oct. 12: Nine printmakers exhibit their work. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tue. - Fri. Free. Kala Art Insitute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 kala@kala.org 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Sept. 5 through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Opening Reception Sept. 5: 6 - 8 p.m. open to the public; Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970’s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Sept. 15 through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Opening reception Sept. 15, 5 - 8 p.m. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“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. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Black Oak Books Aug. 29: Sylvia Brownrigg reads from her new novel, “Pages For You”; All shows at 7:30 p.m. free of charge. 1491 Shattuck Avenue 486-0698 

Cody’s Books - Poetry Flash Aug. 29: The New Now Millennium Anthology Reading with Editor H. D. Moe; All are a $2 donation. Readings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-0837 

The Humanist Fellowship Hall  

Aug. 27: 7:30 p.m. “The Ghosts Have Cameras” by H. D. Moe. A reading performance. Free. 390 27th St. 528-8713 

Lunch Poems Series Kick-Off Sept. 6: 12:10 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. UC Berkeley campus figures from a wide variety of fields read and discuss their favorite poems. Free. In the Morrison Library in the Doe Library at UC Berkeley. 642-0137 www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems/ 

Spasso Sept. 3: Theme: dignity of labor; Sept. 10: Sharron Jones-Reid, Fruit of the Spirit Poets, Acoustic Musicians, Comedians, Rappers, Performance Artists, Writers All Welcome is located at 6021 College Ave. Free admission. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library Sept. 1: 3 - 5 p.m. Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading. 1901 Russell St., 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Art and Soul Festival presents “Literature without Borders” Sept. 2 & 3: 2 - 5 p.m Sun. - Readings by the African American Shakespeare Company and others. Mon. - The prose, music, and poetry of emerging Bay Area authors, actors and musicians. Dalziel Building Lobby, 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Free. 525-3948 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Sept. 8: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. An environmental poetry festival with a day of poetry, music and environmental activism featuring Gary Snyder, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Haas, Francisco X. Alarcon, and Earll Kingston as John Wesley Powell. Strawberry Creek Walk at 10 a.m. Oxford and Center. Festival at Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Center Street. Free. 526-9105 www.poetryflash.org 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

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  

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. It will reopen in early 2002. On View until Oct. 1 : “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. “How Big Is the Universe?” Aug. 1 through Aug. 24. Learn how to determine the distance of celestial objects, one of the purposes of the Hubble Space Telescope. Daily, 2:15 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, 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 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  

Oakland Museum of California, Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett, through Sept. 2; After the Storm: Bob Walker and the Art of Environmental Photography, through Sept. 16; Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks, through Sept. 23; Wednesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, noon - 5 p.m., Closed Monday and Tuesday. $6 general; $4 youths (6-17), seniors and students with ID. Free for Museum members and children 5 and under. Free admission the second Sunday of the month. 10th & Oak Streets, Oakland. 238-2200 www.museum.org 

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

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694. 

In a special budget workshop Monday night, Alameda County education officials told the Berkeley school board that its 2001-2002 budget will probably not be approved by the state due to a number of errors and inconsistencies. 

“We wanted to make sure that the board understands the seriousness of (the situation),” said Mike Lenahan, county associate superintendent for business services, in an interview Tuesday. 

Lenahan said the budget information provided to the county by the district is so limited and problematic that it is impossible to tell if the district is bankrupt, breaking even or running a surplus. 

Under the state education code, the county office of education will give the Berkeley school district until Sept. 8 to revise its budget before making a recommendation to the state on whether or not the budget should be approved. But Berkeley Superintendent of Schools Michele Lawrence said Tuesday that the deadline simply cannot be met because of continuing problems with the district’s budget information. 

Lawrence said the state is unlikely to approve the district’s budget, which would trigger the intervention of a panel of experts appointed by State Superintendent of Schools Delaine Easton. But far from representing the end of the world, Lawrence said such intervention is something the Berkeley school board and community should welcome. 

“If this is going to happen, then it’s certainly good that it’s happening now, so we can really do an in-depth analysis and not continue to limp along with speculations,” Lawrence said. 

Depending on who you ask, the problems with the district’s budget information are traced to a history of poor record keeping, turn over in the business office, continuing computer woes, or a deadly combination of all three. 

In the Berkeley school district, Y2K struck with a vengeance, even if it wasn’t at the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve. When district staff told a computer to tally expenditures carried over from the 1999-2000 budget to the 2000-2001 budget last summer, the computer couldn’t process the code references to the year 2000. The error resulted in a horrendous jumbling of data that the district’s business staff have been struggling to untangle ever since.  

Board of Education President Terry Doran said Monday that consultants working with the district to fix the problem say it could be another full year before it’s completely resolved.  

Part of the problem, according to Jerry Kurr, one of the consultants helping the district, is that the district lost its in-house software engineer around the time of the Y2K problem. This put them in the position of having to hire a contractor to come in to study the software system and, in essence, tell them how it worked. 

The situation has been further complicated this month by the departure of district Associate Superintendent for Support Services Cathy James. After 11 years in the district, James was the reigning expert on district finances. 

Superintendent Lawrence told the school board Monday that one of the things the district will need to do to avoid a repeat of its current situation is to institute cross-training so that critical expertise about district operations never comes to reside with one individual alone. Otherwise, Lawrence said, “that person wins the lottery and leaves and you’re up the creek.” 

Lawrence said part of the short-term solution to the district’s budgeting woes will also be getting the manpower in place in the business office to do data entry and other work needed to re-assemble reliable accounting information.  

In the long term, however, Lawrence said the district must move to put policies and systems in place that help clean up the whole budgeting process. 

The district must do more to keep accurate attendance records, Lawrence said Monday, since its state education funding is based on attendance statistics. 

“That’s our bread and butter, and we’re pretty lax in that area,” Lawrence said. 

Another problem, said Lawrence, is a tendency the Berkeley school board has to overspend, in part because it reacts to political arguments for program funding on a case-by-case basis. Instead, Lawrence said, the board needs to create clear, top-down priorities that guide how the district’s money is spent from year to year. 

In a remark that drew applause from the public gathered at Monday’s budget meeting, Lawrence said the district needs to create more accountability for employees, both to boost moral and to make sure that important work is done on a timely basis. 

“There are far too many people who aren’t celebrated for their achievement, nor are they documented for their deficiencies,” Lawrence said. 

Lawrence said she will see that every district employee is given an evaluation by the end of this year, unless prohibited by contract. 

Although some were dismayed by the condition of the school district budget, as revealed at the Monday night meeting, both the school board and members of the public seemed ready to accept Lawrence’s argument that the situation should be viewed as an opportunity. 

Board Director John Selawsky said Monday that he’s been worried about the quality of the district’s budget since he came on the board almost a year ago. “It’s troubled me to no end. And I am really, really gratified that it’s being addressed here,” Selawsky said. 

“I believe we can get this resolved, and we will get this resolved,” he added. 

Board president Terry Doran said he was surprised by the seriousness of the district’s budget problems, as they were presented Monday. 

“From my point of view, it’s a tremendous amount to digest,” he said. “It’s alarming.” 

Doran said the board has been struggling with problems in the district’s budget office for over a year and he had hoped to see the situation resolved by now. 

“I really believe that, as a board, we did respond to many problems that were brought to us by our staff,” Doran said after the meeting. “It’s just that we, in hindsight, were overly optimistic.” 

According to the county officials, there is a possibility that the district will discover in the months ahead, after pulling together more accurate budget information, that it is several million dollars in the hole. If that’s the case, the school board could end this year much as it began it – figuring out how to make program cuts to balance the books. 

This was a gloomy prospect for many in the audience Monday. 

“If it turns out our balance was lower that we thought when we made all those hard cuts (in the spring), then we have to make more hard cuts,” said Nancy Riddle, a member of a citizen advisory committee on the district’s budget and the chief financial officer for Monster Cable Products. 

“We’re not going to find out about them until pretty far in the year, and that’s pretty scary,” Riddle added. 

Touting the resurrection of the commercial nuclear energy industry, Dr. Denis Beller, told a group of 20 people Monday night at UC Berkeley that nuclear power is now safe, clean and affordable.  

Beller, a nuclear engineer and a member of the technical staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory, told the group, comprised mostly of nuclear engineering students, that recent technological advances, safety features and the commitment of the Bush Administration will result in an increase of nuclear-generated energy during the next century. 

The presentation was organized by UC Berkeley engineering student Lance Kim, a member of the Berkeley Student Section of the American Nuclear Society. 

Beller’s claims were challenged by several anti-nuclear activists including retired nuclear engineer Ernest Goitein, who did not attend the presentation, but said on Tuesday that there have been very few advances in nuclear safety in the last 10 years and the industry still has not been able to solve its “biggest problem,” which is how to dispose of the radioactive waste produced by nuclear plants. 

Much of Beller’s hour-long presentation, entitled “The Need For Nuclear Power,” named after an essay he co-wrote with Richard Rhodes for Foreign Affairs magazine, focused on the resurgence of the commercial nuclear industry. 

“There are many people who still think commercial nuclear production died at Three Mile Island and it’s not true,” Beller said. “A nuclear renaissance has begun in the United States.” 

Three Mile Island in Harrisburg, Pa. was the site of a nuclear power plant accident in March, 1979. During the accident, 700,000 gallons of radioactive cooling water escaped from the reactor system of which 400,000 gallons spilled into the Susquehanna River.  

In addition, an unknown amount of radioactive gasses escaped into the atmosphere, some radioactive material passed through four-foot thick walls and a large bubble of hydrogen formed in the reactive core. Had the bubble ignited, the resulting explosion would have cast large quantities of radioactive material for hundreds of miles. 

The result of the accident was increased public concern and heavier regulation of the nuclear power industry. After the accident, Beller said many anti-nuclear organizations thought the end of the nuclear power industry was at hand. 

But Beller said in his essay that despite the claims of anti-nuclear organizations, the industry is alive and well citing that many nations now rely on nuclear power for a significant percentage of their energy. According to his essay, France generates 75 percent of it energy from nuclear power, Belgium 58 percent, Sweden 47 percent and the United State comes in at 20 percent. 

Beller also criticized other energy sources as environmentally harmful or unreliable. Coal is the worst offender spewing 100 million tons of coal ash, which contains arsenic, mercury and chromium, into the atmosphere each year in the United States alone, he said. 

He also criticized renewable sources of energy such as wind farms and photovoltaic solar technologies as expensive and unreliable. 

“Billions have been spent in research and development and there has been very little benefit,” Beller said. “Solar and wind generated power still represents less than one-half a percent of energy worldwide.” 

In contrast Beller said that the process of producing nuclear energy through nuclear fission does not require the release of any toxins into the atmosphere.  

Goitein, who was awarded the Conservationist of the Year Award by the Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation, argued that Beller glossed over the environmental hazards of mining uranium, which he said has caused birth defects and cancer among the Navaho Indians who lived near uranium mines in Arizona and New Mexico.  

But Goitein said major problem Beller didn’t properly address is the problem of what to do with the 72,100 cubic feet of radioactive waste the 103 active nuclear energy plants produce each year.  

Currently most radioactive waste is stored on-site at nuclear plants. To remedy this situation, the U.S Government has spent $6 billion to create a 70,000-metric-ton nuclear waste depository in Yucca Mountain about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The facility has not yet been completed and the government has yet to certify the safety of the depository. 

Goitein said the project experienced a setback when Chorine 36, a radioactive isotope that has been present in rain water since atmospheric nuclear bomb testing in the 1950s and 1960s, was found in the tunnels, which means it is not a sealed environment. He said once the facility is in use it will likely be invaded by water which will become contaminated and seep into the groundwater. 

“The discovery of Chorine 36 means that the Yucca Mountain facility is not a hermetically sealed enclosure as the government would like us to believe,” he said. 

Audience members had mixed reactions to Beller’s presentation. Chemistry major Param Dhillon said she was impressed with the information. “I didn’t know much about the subject before,” she said. “I thought he presented a balanced and convincing argument.” 

Berkeley resident Pam Sihvola said the presentation was unbalanced an pro-nuclear. “I thought it was pure nuclear propaganda,” she said. “It did not go into any type of detail about the decades of negative environmental and health impacts related to nuclear power production.” 

Nuclear engineering and chemistry major Charles Yeamans said the presentation contained some good information but thought Beller glossed over a lot of information that should have been presented in more detail. 

“At one point he used the word ‘cavalier,’ which I thought described some of the presentation.” 

After a summer of overnight sailing adventures and educational voyages on the San Francisco Bay, the 11 graduates from the Pegasus Lifeskills Project celebrated the completion of their program with a barbecue Friday night at the Berkeley Marina. 

The final ceremony was held at The Nautilus Institute, which organized the program along with the Berkeley Boosters and the Shorebird Nature Center. Now in its sixth year, the program is dedicated to exposing local low-income youth to the art of sailing and the science of the San Francisco Bay. 

Peter Hayes, Director of the institute, grew up sailing in Australia and has been behind the project since if first began. 

“There are a lot of skills you have to learn in order to survive out on the water,” said Hayes. “You have to learn discipline, teamwork and many other physical and mental skills.” 

Over the summer, students participated in five over-night voyages and learned to sail on The Pegasus, the 51-foot sail boat belonging to The Nautilus Institute. The boat comfortably seats seven and carries a full complement of the latest safety features. The Pegasus crew takes great pride in the boat’s reputation as one of the safest on the Bay. “We take the fact these parents are entrusting their kids’ lives to us very very very seriously. We are sort of safety crazy,” said Mark Caplan, captain and safety officer of the Pegasus. “We consider ourselves one of the safest boats on the Bay because everyone is in a lifejacket, everyone is on a tether and there’s crew constantly with the kids.” 

Caplan said that this is a great opportunity that all youth should be able to experience, but parents are often wary of letting their children go through with it. 

“Although sailing is inherently safe, a lot of parents are convinced that sailing is dangerous,” he said. “We are trying to reassure them that sailing is not dangerous.” 

The program is active year-round, teaching Berkeley Booster volunteers how to sail from September through December.  

The Boosters that are trained then assist with the younger sailing students during the summer.  

“This is a fabulous program because the kids get the chance to learn about the Bay,” said Berkeley Boosters Executive Director Ove Wittstock.  

“They learn about sailing, ecology and navigation. For the kids, it’s applied history and geography.” 

For all its years of existence, the Berkeley Boosters have supported the Pegasus Program by providing youth volunteers from among their ranks. 

“It’s a wonderful opportunity that the Nautilus Institute makes possible for us,” said Wittstock. “It was an ideal marriage, they have the boat and we have the kids.” 

From January through June 30 students from schools are taken out every day on all-day trips where they are taught a downscaled version of the program’s summer curriculum. 

All of the students graduating from this year’s summer session said they truly enjoyed the sailing experience, many of them for very different reasons. 

“I liked shooting off the water cannon on the fire boat,” said Breck Shattuck. 

“I liked going to Angel Island and seeing all the different animals,” said Lacretia Ferguson. 

Annaka Pettit liked the socializing: “I'm glad I got to meet some new people,” she said, “and I liked raising the sails.”

HOPLAND — A man accused of starting a campfire that burned out of control and led to the death of two air tanker pilots was charged with two counts of murder Tuesday by Mendocino County prosecutors. 

Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman formally filed charges against Frank Brady, 50, of Redwood Valley, Calif. for his suspected role in starting a fire two pilots attempted to put out from the air when they clipped each other and fatally crashed. 

Brady also was charged with attempting to manufacturer methamphetamine after evidence of a drug lab was found near the scene where the fire began, Vroman said. Brady was to be arraigned Wednesday. 

A second man, Richard Mortensen, 43, of San Pablo, was arrested on warrants from a series of drug and weapons charges. 

“We do have (Mortensen) placed with Brady,” Vroman said. The prosecutor was unsure if Mortensen was tied to the alleged drug operation. 

Both suspects declined requests for interviews from The Associated Press. 

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department booked the suspects after two air tanker planes collided Monday evening near Hopland, about 100 miles north of San Francisco. 

The two pilots killed were retired Navy veteran Larry Groff, 55, of Santa Rosa and Lars Stratte, 45, of Chico, both employed by San Joaquin Helicopters, a Delano, Calif.-based company. 

Hopland-area resident Jeff Anderson saw the planes collide from the deck of his home. 

“They looked like they were closing in on each other,” Anderson said. “You could tell immediately that they hit.” 

One plane broke into pieces and plummeted straight down, exploding into flames upon impact, Anderson said. The other crippled plane continued on briefly and crashed less than a quarter-mile away. 

The pilots were flying alone in their Korean War-era Grumman S-2 airplanes when they clipped each other during a pass over a 250-acre brush fire. 

Doug Baker, a fellow pilot with 22 years experience flying the S-2, said one pilot was circling the fire waiting to drop his load when the other flew into the same airspace. 

“We are supposed to know where everybody is,” Baker said. “We are a very close-knit group.” 

The cause of the collision remained under investigation. 

The pilots were attempting to douse flames that had destroyed 12 structures and threatened more than a dozen others, according to the California Department of Forestry. It was 60 percent contained early Tuesday. 

The National Transportation Safety Board lists six accidents since 1995 involving aircraft operated by San Joaquin Helicopters.  

Of those six accidents, two involved minor pilot injuries and one 1998 crash resulted in an air tanker pilot death. 

Jim Josephson, president of San Joaquin Helicopters, expressed his condolences in a statement released Tuesday. 

“They were highly trained, professional pilots who were dedicated to the firefighting mission,” Josephson said. Each pilot had years of experience in aerial firefighting, he added. The company confirmed that the NTSB was investigating the accident. 

Nine aircraft were being used to fight the blaze at the time of the collision, said Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Ron Welch. However, Anderson, who witnessed the crash, told The Associated Press he saw no other planes in the sky at the time of the accident. 

In Southern California, an 1,800-acre brush fire was 80 percent contained Tuesday morning in the hills north of Los Angeles, just west of Interstate 5. No arrests had been made but fire officials were investigating whether an arsonist started the blaze. 

The fire destroyed three structures, including at least one house, and burned to the doorsteps of several luxury homes. Residents were urged to evacuate. 

Elsewhere, Montana crews battling a 23,500-acre wildfire between Livingston and Yellowstone National Park got help Monday from about 200 members of the state’s National Guard, boosting the number of firefighters to roughly 900. 

At Montana’s Glacier National Park, officials closed four campgrounds and banned backpacking trips in the western part of the park as firefighters battled a 14,000-acre blaze that burned just west of Glacier and forced the evacuation of a dozen homes. 

Three large Idaho fires covering about 14,000 acres still were burning Tuesday. The most serious was the 10,500 acre Rough Diamonds fire burning about 70 miles south of Boise that blazed to the edge of a forest road. 

If the blaze crosses the road, it will threaten the historic mining town of Silver City. 

Fires also crackled across parts of several other states in the West, including Nevada, Washington and Wyoming. All major fires burning in Oregon were contained Tuesday. 

——— 

On the Net: 

National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov 

SACRAMENTO— HealthNet of California plans to drop Sutter Health from its Medicare HMO network, and will stop paying for Seniority Plus subscribers’ care from Sutter’s hospitals or doctors after Jan. 1. 

The decision could affect about 25,000 seniors using Sutter’s 26 hospitals and 5,000 doctors, said HealthNet spokeswoman Lisa Kalustian. 

Kalustian said HealthNet regrets ending the service, but has been unable to negotiate a new contract with Sutter Health for non-Medicare patients. The company decided to drop Sutter to allow the Seniority Plus subscribers to have time to change insurers before year’s end, Kalustian said. 

“It is based on the necessity to keep health care affordable,” Kalustian said. 

Sutter spokesman Bill Gleeson said the company was disappointed by HealthNet’s decision, which he said could affect other negotiations with the company. 

If Seniority Plus members want to keep their doctors, they will have to change insurance companies or go with a  

more expensive Medicare policy  

from HealthNet. 

“I’ll have to change health plans,” William McCormack, told the San Jose Mercury News. 

McCormack, a retired director of international education at the University of California, Berkeley, wanted to keep seeing his internist of eight years. 

“I’m experiencing feelings of helplessness. The decisions are outside of my own control,” McCormack said. 

HealthNet is not the first insurance company to drop a Medicare HMO as they grow less profitable. 

In some counties, PacifiCare no longer accepts new subscribers to Secure Horizons, the only other Medicare HMO accepted by Sutter. PacificCare also has said it wants to pull out of its managed-care plan in Mariposa, Merced and parts of Madera counties because costs are too high. If it receives approval from the state Department of Managed Health Care, PacifiCare will withdraw its coverage starting Jan. 1. 

Aetna Inc. also recently announced that it intends to withdraw from 11 counties, including Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants to ensure that a U.N. conference on children does not proclaim support for abortion, officials said Tuesday. It was the latest sign of a prickly relationship between the United States and the United Nations, which already are at odds over a racism meeting. 

The government plans to send a Cabinet-level delegation to the special U.N. General Assembly session on children next month in New York, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. 

In contrast, Secretary of State Colin Powell will not attend a U.N. conference on racism that begins Friday in South Africa because of a planned declaration that accuses Israel of racist policies against Palestinians. The administration has not decided whom, if anybody, to send. 

Boucher insisted the disputes over language before the children’s conference are just part of a regular give and take. “We have every expectation that we can work them out, and that we can be there, and that we will be there at a high level,” Boucher said. 

The administration wants language that “does not support or advance the idea of abortion. So we’re not against family planning language,” he said. 

U.N. officials insisted the draft documents do not address abortion. 

“It is not about abortion; none of the documents refer directly, indirectly or any other way to abortion, and never have,” UNICEF spokeswoman Liza Barrie said. 

The draft document includes a line that says nations should “promote and protect the right of the adolescent to sexual and reproductive health education, information and services in order to ... avoid unwanted or early pregnancies.” 

The two tussles with the United Nations come at a time when many of America’s allies have criticized President Bush’s decision to withhold support for several international treaties and have worried he is moving the United States toward isolationism. 

In Austria, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the United States would decide to attend the racism conference but said the decision is “the sovereign right of each country.” 

Bush will address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 24, as presidents traditionally do. His advisers insist the United States is not withdrawing from the world but merely practicing “a la carte multinationalism” — joining allies and participating in global meetings when it suits U.S. interests. 

“Thus far you have to conclude that they’re anorexic, because they haven’t found any dishes that they like,” said Antony Blinken, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Clinton administration official. 

Since taking office, Bush has rejected the Kyoto climate-change treaty, pushed forward with a missile-defense shield and abandoned talks on enforcing a 1972 treaty against germ warfare. The administration also opposes other treaties, including one to create an international criminal court, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal. 

Others believe that it makes sense for the administration to avoid U.N. conferences it opposes as long as it provides alternatives. 

“If you’re bailing out of everything, it reduces the political value of bailing out of things in particular,” said Timothy Crawford, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Studies. 

For its part, the United Nations still resents that the United States has not paid $460 million in back dues, yet still seeks American input, said Richard Falk, an international law professor at Princeton University. 

“There’s a broad recognition that despite the criticism of the United States, the U.S. is a necessary participant in any kind of effective U.N. undertaking,” Falk said. 

The summit on children would be the largest gathering of world leaders this year with 75 heads of government. It will focus on issues such as child health, child soldiers and child labor. 

On the Net: 

Racism conference: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/index.htm

The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON — The government Tuesday approved a groundbreaking new therapy for thousands of congestive heart failure patients, a novel pacemaker-like device that could help their struggling hearts beat more normally. 

Medtronic Inc.’s InSync system works by boosting the heart’s pumping power. The technique is called cardiac resynchronization, and cardiologists estimate it could help some 650,000 advanced heart failure patients who can’t be helped by today’s best medicine. 

“It’s a big breakthrough,” said Dr. David B. DeLurgio, an Emory University cardiologist who helped test the device for Medtronic. “It’s not for every heart failure patient, but a proportion could definitely benefit.” 

Almost 5 million Americans have congestive heart failure. It’s not a heart attack or sudden heart stoppage. Instead, a heart weakened by age, damage from a survived heart attack or some other disease gets flabbier as it struggles to push blood out to the rest of the body. 

Eventually, patients are pressed even to walk across a room. Fluid seeps into their lungs, blocking breathing. Just half survive five years or more. When medications fail, a heart transplant is the only option, but many patients are too old to qualify. Enter the new therapy. 

Pacemakers are widely used to zap hearts that beat too slowly or irregularly into a normal rhythm. Medtronic’s souped-up pacemaker works another way, boosting the beats of weak hearts. Medtronic beat two competing companies to get the device to market. 

Up to half of heart failure patients have hearts whose main pumping chambers, the left and right ventricles, don’t beat simultaneously, sapping the heart’s power. The InSync pacemaker delivers an electrical impulse – from a small pulse generator in the chest down three wires implanted in the heart — that makes the ventricles pump together. In a study of 579 patients, those using the pacemaker experienced significant improvement, Food and Drug Administration reviewers concluded in approving the device. 

One standard heart failure test measures how far patients can walk in six minutes.  

Those whose pacemakers were turned on could walk, on average, 58 more yards than patients in a comparison group whose pacemakers were turned off. 

By another measure, 68 percent of pacemaker patients reported improved quality of life, as opposed to 38 percent in the comparison group. 

The study lasted just six months, and didn’t measure whether the device had any effect on prolonging life. But doctors say that for these patients, improving quality of life in the short term is a big goal. 

“It’s not a new heart but it’s an improvement,” said FDA medical reviewer Dr. Bram Zuckerman. 

InSync is only for advanced patients unaided by the best medical therapy, he said, cautioning that it’s not a replacement for medications. 

Because InSync is different than standard pacemakers, with an additional wire snaked into a different part of the heart, the FDA is requiring Medtronic to specially train cardiologists before doctors can begin implanting the device. 

But Minneapolis-based Medtronic is prepared to begin selling the device to trained physicians immediately, and says the operation should cost between $10,000 and $12,000. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov 

Medtronic: http://www.medtronic.com 

BEIT JALLA, West Bank — Israeli troops seized parts of this Palestinian town and fortified positions with sandbags Tuesday as Israel said it was settling in for an indefinite stay – a first in 11 months of fighting. 

The U.S. government urged Israel to withdraw and the Palestinians to stop shooting at Israeli residential neighborhoods. 

Barely 10 miles away, tens of thousands of Palestinians crying for revenge flooded the streets for the funeral of a senior PLO official killed in an Israeli missile attack a day earlier. 

Despite the Israeli operation to stop Palestinian gunfire from Beit Jalla at the nearby Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, sporadic gunfire continued. A machine gun bullet hit an Israel TV truck, the first time Palestinians have aimed heavy weapons at the Jewish neighborhood. 

Also, three mortar shells fired from Beit Jalla exploded in the neighborhood, causing some damage but no casualties 

In other fighting Tuesday, a member of the Palestinian security forces was killed in a gunbattle with Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Dura. 

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli tanks entered Palestinian territory near the city of Dir al-Balah early Wednesday, according to Palestinian security officials. Requesting anonymity, they said dozens of gunmen opened fire on the tanks. 

Residents said the bulldozers leveled farmland and destroyed greenhouses and a building. The Israeli military said it was cheking. 

In Rafah, near the Gaza-Egypt border, an 18-year-old Palestinian was shot in the head by Israeli gunfire after nightfall and died later in the hospital, Palestinian medical staff said.  

Witnesses said the youth was in a group of people near one of 14 houses torn down by Israeli forces Monday night and was hit by a bullet fired from a nearby Israeli army post. The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire on an armed man planting an explosive device. 

But the deserted streets of Beit Jalla and the seething West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinians held their rally, were the focal points of an escalating conflict marked by increasingly tough Israeli military responses to Palestinian attacks. 

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called on Israel to pull its forces out of Beit Jalla. 

“The Israelis need to understand that incursions like this will not solve the security problems. They only make the situation worse,” he said at a briefing. But, he added, “the Palestinians need to stop the shootings and attacks against Israelis in Gilo and elsewhere.” 

The latest Israeli actions have pushed the Mideast crisis into uncharted territory, raising the possibility of urban combat. 

But in Beit Jalla, Israeli forces were hunkering down in armored vehicles and atop Palestinian apartments, while Palestinian security forces were lurking only a block or two away on Virgin Mary Street. 

The Israelis also took over a Lutheran Church compound that includes an orphanage with 45 children, ages 6 to 16. The children, who like most of Beit Jalla were placed under curfew, took cover from gunfire in a basement.  

Troops set up a machine gun position on the roof of an adjacent five-story church hostel under construction, witnesses said. 

“We demand that the army immediately withdraw from our church premises,” said Munib Younan, the Lutheran bishop of Jerusalem. 

The army, which wanted the church hostel because of its strategic location and panoramic view, pledged to ensure the safety of the children. 

“Beit Jalla has become a sniper’s nest, and our forces entered in order to clean it up in order to stop the fire,” said Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner. “They will stay there as long as is needed to get the security back.” 

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat charged that Israel is attacking sites holy “not only to Palestinians but to Christians all over the world.” 

Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel was not planning to reoccupy Beit Jalla, but would do so if there was no other way to stop Palestinian attacks. Israel withdrew from Beit Jalla and most other Palestinian communities in the West Bank in 1995, ending 28 years of military rule. 

For months, Palestinian gunmen have fired at night from Beit Jalla’s hilltops, across a small valley, hitting the Israeli neighborhood of Gilo on the southern edge of Jerusalem. Gilo was built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it as part of a future state. 

Thirty-one Israeli apartments and a synagogue in Gilo were hit Monday night, prompting the army send in tanks, armored personnel carriers and jeeps early Tuesday. One Palestinian was killed and 11 wounded in fierce gunbattles throughout the night. 

Israeli troops have staged multiple incursions into Palestinian territory following Palestinian bombings and shooting attacks. But in all the previous cases, Israel quickly withdrew after knocking down Palestinian security buildings or outposts used by gunmen. 

In Ramallah, tens of thousands of Palestinians thronged to the funeral of Mustafa Zibri, 63, the highest-ranking Palestinian slain in a monthslong Israeli campaign of targeted killings of suspected militants. 

Amid cries for revenge, masked pallbearers bore Zibri’s body through the streets while gunmen shot round after round of automatic-weapons fire into the air. 

Palestinian refugees also staged angry demonstrations Tuesday in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon to protest the killing of Zibri and U.S. support Israel. 

Thousands staged a one-day strike at Syria’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, al-Yarmouk, five miles south of Damascus. 

Zibri – who headed the second-largest PLO faction, the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – was killed Monday when Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into his office while he was sitting at his desk. 

Israel said Zibri had a long history of organizing bomb attacks against Israel. 

SAN DIEGO — Struggling personal computer maker Gateway announced Tuesday it is laying off about 5,000 employees – 25 percent of its global workforce – as it tries to cope with an increasingly bleak market. 

About 15 percent of the company’s U.S. workforce will be cut under the plan, which the company said will help it save $300 million annually. 

The company plans to close customer service and sales centers in Hampton, Va.; Vermillion, S.D.; Salt Lake City; and Lake Forest. It also plans to close an assembly plant in Salt Lake City. 

The company, with 19,000 employees worldwide, also said it will immediately close all of its company-owned operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  

Earlier this month, Gateway announced plans to close its European headquarters in Ireland. 

“We don’t have to be a global business to succeed,” Gateway founder, chairman and chief executive officer Ted Waitt said in a conference call to analysts Tuesday. “We know we can succeed in the U.S.” 

The computer maker said it will take a one-time charge of $475 million due to the restructuring and layoffs and expect to become profitable again in the fourth quarter of 2001. 

Tuesday’s announcement came after the end of trading as shares of Gateway closed at $8.60, off nearly 88 percent from a 52-week high. 

Eric Rothdeutsch, a computer industry analyst for Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, said he recommends investors “sit on the sidelines” until Gateway has demonstrated it can move away from its core hardware business and into services. 

The restructuring is the equivalent of “changing the company charter,” Rothdeutsch said. 

“I think the jury is going to be out for quite a while until they start to show some results,” he said. 

The layoffs follow an earlier wave of job cuts and a management shake-up which saw Waitt, the son of a cattleman, return to the company he and friend started in 1985 in a farmhouse in Sioux City, Iowa. Gateway’s costs ballooned last year after it opened 100 new Country Stores, with their trademark cowhide spots, in the United States and expanded internationally. In January, Wait returned from semiretirement and the company cut about 3,000 employees. In the spring, it closed 27 – about 10 percent – of its stores. 

Waitt said the layoffs are part of the company’s strategy to diversify its product line and return to profitability by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2001. 

“We feel pretty good about the strategic steps we are taking,” Waitt said. 

In July, Gateway said it planned to move beyond PC sales. Waitt said Tuesday Gateway would aggressively work to grow “beyond the box” by marketing home networks, training, software applications and financing packages for consumers, schools and small businesses. 

The PC industry has been hit hard by the slowing economy and saw its first-ever drop in sales this year. Some analysts predict it won’t recover until next year or early 2003. 

Gateway, the nation’s fourth-largest computer maker, has focussed heavily on the U.S. computer market, leaving it vulnerable to deteriorating domestic sales. 

Gateway had total global revenue of $9.6 billion in 2000.

NEW YORK — Consumer confidence dropped for the second consecutive month in August, a sign of growing concern about a lack of jobs and unemployment, a private research group said Tuesday. 

The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index eroded to 114.3, down from a revised 116.3 in July. The drop followed gains in May and June and put the index at the lowest level since it hit 109.9 in April. 

“The deteriorating U.S. job market dampened consumer spirits this month,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “The nation’s employment and unemployment numbers now bear watching, since continued weakness could translate into slower consumer spending.” 

The news sent stocks lower; the Dow Jones industrial average was down 116 points in afternoon trading. 

The Conference Board index, based on a monthly survey of some 5,000 U.S. households, is considered a key indicator because consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity. The index compares results with its base year, 1985, when it stood at 100. 

The August index includes 14.9 percent of consumers rating business conditions as “bad,” compared with 14.6 percent in July. 

The survey found 15.9 percent saying jobs were “hard to get,” up from 14.1 percent in July. The number who said jobs were “plentiful” fell from 35.6 percent to 33.4 percent. 

Layoffs have driven the nation’s unemployment rate from a 30-year-low of 3.9 percent last October to 4.5 percent in July. Many economists are predicting the jobless rate will continue to rise later this year and could surpass 5 percent. 

The downturn in confidence threatens consumer spending, which has been surprisingly buoyant and has kept the economy from sinking into recession, said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist with Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis. 

“If consumers decide to bail out, the economy could go into a recession,” he said. “However, I am hoping that consumer confidence will rebound as the tailwinds, including the tax cut, the effect of lower interest rates and the cheaper cost of energy, help the consumer to move forward.” 

Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity. 

Trying to avert a recession, the Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates seven times this year. 

Sohn said he was encouraged by an uptick in consumer optimism about future business conditions, with 18.9 percent saying they expect an improvement in the coming six months, up from 17.2 percent in July. 

On the Net: 

http://www.conferenceboard.org

LOS ANGELES — Jury selection began Tuesday in what was expected to be a mammoth court battle between two partners who helped spawn the biotechnology revolution. 

The nonprofit City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., is suing biotech giant Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco for what attorneys say could amount to $500 million in unpaid royalties. 

Opening arguments were expected to begin next week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The trial could last three months, attorneys said. 

The suit involves Genentech’s 1978 funding of two City of Hope researchers, Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura. Some credit them as the first to synthesize human insulin through techniques that since have been used to create some of the building blocks of biotech, including human growth hormone and a hepatitis B vaccine. 

For nearly two decades, Genentech and City of Hope have had a revenue-sharing contract that granted Genentech the patents on the human insulin development technique. City of Hope gets a 2 percent royalty on sales of certain products stemming from those patents. 

But in its suit, City of Hope says Genentech has been bilking the charity out of millions of dollars. 

Genentech withheld information about lucrative deals that were only revealed through the lawsuit, Glenn Krinsky, City of Hope’s general counsel, said Tuesday. 

“We do believe we have been cheated,” Krinsky said. 

Because the money was never paid, City of Hope has been unable to afford free or subsidized treatment to an undetermined number of poor people, Krinsky alleged. 

The lack of payments also threatens the progress of City of Hope researchers, who spend $1 million to $2 million every week, Krinsky claimed. 

Genentech, whose sales reached $1.7 billion last year, counters that it has paid everything it owes and argues that City of Hope is misreading the deal. 

“We have been very open and candid in our interpretation of the agreement for 20 years,” said Sean Johnston, vice president of intellectual property for Genentech.  

“The contract language is clear.” 

Legal experts say the $500 million figure is large — even for the multibillion-dollar biotech industry — but it isn’t unreasonable. 

They also say to expect more battles over royalties as ivory tower researchers grow savvier about the profit-conscious world of business. 

Before the 1980s, most researchers got money from the government and didn’t have to keep an eye on royalties or licenses, said Rochelle Seide, a partner in the intellectual property department of the New York law firm Baker Botts. 

“But things changed in the ’80s, when government funding dried up,” said Seide, who used to represent Genentech as an outside attorney. “Then people became more patent-conscious. The biotech industry really changed that.” 

UC Berkeley students face an easier housing search this fall than last in the wake of the dot-com bust, according to city and university housing officials and local rental agencies – but not necessarily a less expensive one. 

“A lot of people are leaving the Bay Area, and students are no longer competing as much with Silicon Valley and San Francisco computer employees,” said Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board member Paul Hogarth, who graduated from UC Berkeley last year. “That’s put the pressure for newly vacated units slightly down, but the talk about rents going down is a little overly optimistic.” 

Rents rose sharply throughout the Bay Area in the late 1990s, largely due to an influx of technology-industry employees. On Jan. 1, 1999, a state law ended vacancy control in Berkeley and landlords were free to raise rents to market levels when apartments turned over. (Under vacancy control, landlords were allowed to raise rents in Berkeley only as much as the Rent Stabilization Board permitted for the year, whether the apartment was vacated or not.) 

“We saw rents for newly-vacated apartments jump 40 percent in one year” as a result, Hogarth said, “and 2000 was worse.” The impact, he said, fell disproportionately on students, who move frequently. 

This year, however, rental experts say the trend appears to have turned around. Leah Summers, customer service director at Ehousing.com, a rental agency serving the East Bay, said the agency had about 1,200 current listings compared to 400 six months ago. “There are studios

Tuesday, Aug. 28

Rally to support “Democracy Now!” 

8:30 a.m. 

KPFA studio 

1929 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

As part of a nationwide day of action supporting Pacifica’s news-magazine host Amy Goodman who has accused Pacifica management of physical and psychological harassment, the community will rally in front of KPFA studios. 

Berkeley High Freshman Orientation 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater 

Corner of Allston Way and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Incoming ninth-graders take a tour of campus, get student I.D. cards and lockers, and learn about extracurricular activities available at Berkeley High. Students with last names beginning with A-L attend from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Students with last names beginning with M-Z attend from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

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. 525-3565 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

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

Poetry Through Time II 

7 p.m. - 8 p.m. 

Judah L. Magnes Museum 

2911 Russell St. 

Bay Area poets Opal Palmer Adisa, Phyllis Koestenbaum, Reuven Goldfarb, and Martha Evans will read. A brief open reading will conclude the program. 549-6950 www.magnesmuseum.org 

Community Health Commission 

6:45 - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for Alta Bates Expansion. 644-6109 

Wednesday, Aug. 29

Section 8 Resident Council 

6 - 8 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave. 

First Annual Speak Up. You can effect change, but you must speak up. Refreshments provided. 548-4040 

Thursday, Aug. 30

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 

Lost in the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Jason Flesher, a Search and Rescue member for almost 20 years, will share his nine rules for surviving in the wilderness. Free. 

527-4140 

Kensington 55+ Activity Center 

9 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Social Hall of Arlington Community Church 

52 Arlington Ave. 

Conversation, Apple II computer instruction, massage therapy, German conversation group, meditation and relaxation techniques, watercolor art class, tea and coffee. Special 11 a.m. program: Music, Hugh Kelly plays harmonica and leads sing-along. 526-9146 

Attic Conversions 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architect Andus Brandt. $35. 525-7610 

Editor: 

The Green Party of Alameda County urges everyone to join a nationwide  

Day of Solidarity in support of the Pacifica news program “Democracy Now!” 

Nationwide protests today will include a gathering at 8:30 a.m. in front of KPFA Radio (94.1 FM), 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Participants who have cellular phones are asked to bring them for calling Pacifica board members. 

“Democracy Now!” hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Amy Goodman, is a beacon of light in an otherwise dreary wasteland of radio news coverage. The program, Pacifica's only nationwide production besides the milquetoast daily headlines show, covers the progressive issues other media ignore or skim over.  

Environmentalists, justice activists, advocates of women's right and civil rights, disarmament advocates, the Green Party, and organized labor all owe much of their success to the ground-breaking coverage provided by “Democracy Now!” 

After “Democracy Now!” staff members were threatened with bodily harm and even assaulted by other staff members at New York's WBAI Radio, the program moved to a safer production studio outside the beleaguered Pacifica radio station. Incredibly, while taking no action against those who made the threats and have hurled racist invective against the program on the air, Pacifica management suspended the entire “Democracy Now!” crew without pay and has refused to carry the program on its network. Only KPFA among the five Pacifica-owned stations is carrying the program now; the others are airing reruns. 

We also encourage everyone write letters to the Pacifica governing board defending “Democracy Now!” This irreplaceable treasure must be preserved. An easy way to do this is to visit www.progressiveportal.org. 

Leslie Bonnet, Dana Engen, John Selawsky, B Soffer 

Green Party of Alameda County Council 

Parents and professionals  

are ready to lend a hand 

With students going back to school Wednesday, the Berkeley School Volunteers Office has begun recruiting and training the hundreds of volunteers who lend a hand each year in classrooms, gardens and libraries – both during and after school. 

A partnership between the school district, which provides office space, and the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, which provides the funding, the Berkeley School Volunteers program was launched in 1991, after school administrators decided it was time to take a more proactive role in recruiting volunteers from the community. 

These volunteers aren’t the parents of students in the Berkeley Unified School District, who typically offer their services by approaching their own child’s teacher. Rather, Berkeley School Volunteers are local professionals and retirees, UC Berkeley students and professors, and others who want a break from the weekly routine and a chance to make a difference in kids’ lives. 

“This is direct service with kids, and that’s what most volunteers want to do,” said Berkeley School Volunteers Director Barbara Bowman. “They don’t want to go in and run a Xerox machine all day.” 

Depending on their preference, and how much time they can commit each week, volunteers might assist teachers in the classroom, tutor students after school, exchange letters with a student once a month, or drop in one day a year to read to kids during Berkeley’s popular Drop Everything and Read Day. 

“The idea is to have something that fits everybody, not a one-size-fits-all program,” Bowman said. 

One of the fastest growing volunteer programs is the so-called Writers’ Room, where volunteers are trained to work one-on-one with high school and middle school students, helping students who have a hard time getting words on paper come up with strategies for completing their homework assignments. 

Last year more than 1,200 volunteers helped out in the Berkeley schools, with nearly half of them opting to help out in the classroom of a specific teacher during the day. For a few hours a week, “classroom tutoring” volunteers might sit in with a group of students during group exercises, or read one-on-one with students who need a little extra reading practice. Volunteers are assigned only to classes where the teacher has requested them, Bowman said. 

“The welcome mat is out when our volunteers go,” Bowman said. “I know our teachers want them.” 

At King Middle School, it’s a great big welcome mat, according to King Resource Specialist Teri Gerritz. 

Editor: 

A new state law lets Berkeley set lower speed limits. 

Until recently, cities had to set the speed limit based on the prevailing speed on a street. On streets where drivers habitually drive at unsafe speeds, such as Claremont Ave., the city could not use the speed limit to slow traffic down. 

This law was changed by AB 2767. Now cities can set lower speed limits on streets where it is necessary to protect pedestrians or bicyclists and on streets that meet minimum density requirements. Most streets in Berkeley meet these density requirements. 

For more information about this law, see 

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/99-00/bill/asm/ab_2751-2800/ab_2767. 

Now we can set a speed limit of 25 mph on Claremont Ave., and we can send the police there to enforce it until drivers get accustomed to going more slowly. What are we waiting for? 

Charles Siegel 

Berkeley 

Proponents of strengthening a warning against wearing chemical fragrances at public meetings say the city’s current admonition, printed on public meeting agendas, is vague and arbitrary. The council will consider stronger wording when it meets Sept. 11. 

The warning now reads: “Attendees at public meetings are reminded that other attendees may be sensitive to various odors, whether natural or manufactured, in products and materials. Please help the city respect these needs.” 

In 1996 the council adopted the current language after much discussion among city staff, fragrance industry representatives and those who suffer from multiple chemical sensitivities, an allergic condition that can be aggravated by chemical scents often found in perfume, cologne and aftershave. 

A recommendation asking the council to strengthen the fragrance warning was unanimously approved by the Commission on Disability in February. 

Proponents want language that states clearly that fragrance products such as cologne and perfume may cause “serious harm” to some meeting attendees.  

Fragrance industry representatives, however, say strengthening the language would unfairly single out manufactured scents while ignoring other triggers for allergies. They also contend MCS is a controversial medical condition that is not accepted by most doctors.  

Arguing that the current language is clear, the city manager recommended in a July 24 report that the council not change the admonition. The manager also pointed out that prior to the adoption of the present language, there was “extensive discussion” and that the council considered more than over 265 pages of material.  

“Today there is no pressing need to reopen the same discussion,” the report says. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who suffers from MCS, said she supports making the language more explicit. “We get sick when we’re exposed to strong perfume,” Spring said. “This has been an issue for years and has never been resolved.” 

People who suffer from MCS can have a variety of reactions to chemicals commonly found in fragrance products. Reactions include dizziness, severe headaches and breathing problems.  

Some of the chemicals most often found in fragrance products include acetone, camphor and ethanol, all of which were described as toxic in a 1996 report by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety.  

Berkeley resident Carol David, who also suffers from MCS, said the current language is unclear. She added that some who read the warning might misinterpret “odors” to mean body odor and could splash on more of the same body scents that the warning is meant to reduce.  

“That language says nothing,” she said. “It’s basically been watered down so it won’t offend the fragrance industry.” 

David proposes the following language, which she said is clear and understandable. 

“Please refrain from wearing scented products (perfume, cologne, aftershave, etc.) to these meetings, as there may be people in attendance who are allergic and can be seriously harmed by exposure to these products.” 

Jon Kaufman, executive vice president of corporate affairs for Solem and Associates, a public relations firm that represents the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, said the language is too specific and unfairly singles out a particular industry. He said if public meeting notices mentioned perfume and cologne, they should also mention other allergy sources like flowers and peanuts. 

He added that there is also little evidence that MCS is a real health condition. 

“(MCS) is a very controversial concept,” he said. “There is no conclusive medical evidence it does exist.” 

David, who said she experiences a sore throat and breathing difficulties when exposed to some fragrance products, conceded that the subject of MCS is controversial, but said those who suffer from MCS have little doubt that it exists.  

Councilmember Miriam Hawley said she is concerned about changing the fragrance warning language. “If we start enumerating fragrances will it end there? It seems to me we have to make sure it’s not an exclusive list.” 

Editor: 

Good luck to the new “Transportation Czar”. Berkeley has a poor track record for sustaining and retaining transportation professionals. 

Instead of playing off one group against another, we need leadership. 

The goal of creating “efficient, environmentally friendly and economically sound transportation” is worthwhile, but the process of achieving the goal is guaranteed to make a lot of people unhappy. This is because we in Berkeley are inconsistent in what we want. 

We want fewer cars on the road, but we don't want to change our “car first” habits. 

We want safer streets, but some of us don't like having speed laws enforced. 

We want plenty of public transit, and things like UC's class pass, but only for “other people” to use. 

The city government itself sets a bad example. Union contracts require provision of reserved parking spaces. Even the City Council has reserved spaces. 

I think I'll apply for the Transportation Czar job. 

If I had the job, I would: 

• Get rid of all the reserved parking spaces for city staff, except for people who use their cars for work during the day. 

• Block out a smaller number of city-paid parking spaces, near city buildings, for staff to use when they have to come to work hauling baggage. Some spaces could be reserved for large car pools and people with some kinds of disabilities. 

• Set up an Eco-Pass arrangement by which any city staff person who asks for it, would get a bus pass for free. 

• Make an “insurance policy” arrangement with a taxi company, to provide a guaranteed ride home. This policy could be sold cheaply to interested staff. 

• Encourage all Berkeley businesses to follow the city's lead. Give the businesses a reduction in taxes if they implement the plan: Eco-Pass, guaranteed ride and the above parking rules. 

• Get the School District going on the same plan. 

• Make getting on the plan a requirement for nonprofit status. 

• Privatize all the parking lots. 

If downtown businesses want lots of parking, let them form a parking corporation to provide it. No subsidies. 

• Ban on-street parking on College, Telegraph, Euclid and other places where parking clogs traffic. 

• Give AC Transit some kind of bonus if their bus lines run on-time over some period; deduct from the bonus every time they are more than 15 minutes late, or miss a run. 

• Build speed bumps on any street that needs “calming”, but find some way to allow a very slow-moving vehicle to bypass the bump (i.e. not lurch when carrying a disabled person). Ideas include “bypass slots” near the curbs, or diagonal “pass slots” in both lanes. 

• Identify any popular trips that create congestion, but are difficult to take using transit, and either get AC Transit to provide the service, or set up a Berkeley-run shuttle van. 

• Give zoning benefits to “car free office buildings.” These would have minimal parking – only shipping/receiving, salespeople and maybe a few carpool slots. The building would be on a bus line, or the management would operate a shuttle. Zoning benefits could be anything from expedited approval to actual money subsidies. 

• Block off sections of downtown as “car-free pedestrian malls”. Encourage sidewalk shops, cafes and such. A good place to start would be over by the Gaia Building. 

• Promote “transit to the arts” at night, by stationing pleasant young people at the BART station to greet theater patrons, and guide them to the show. After the show, guide people back to BART. 

• Promote transit-oriented patronage of shopping districts like Fourth Street. Tell people to leave their cars in Walnut Creek, ride the BART, then take the 9, 65 or 51 bus down to Fourth Street. Look into jump-starting delivery service for customers who come by transit. 

The list goes on... 

Well, am I hired? 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley 

A weekend riot at UC Berkeley has prompted school officials to ban all dances at the school’s main dance hall for the semester, the university announced Monday. 

But some city representatives and business leaders are wondering whether the incident could have been prevented, especially since it shares some similarities with a similar event that happened after police disbanded an overcrowded party held by a different organization last October. 

Police say the most recent disturbance happened at about 2 a.m. Sunday morning, and capped an otherwise benign dance that the Iota Phi Theta fraternity had thrown Saturday inside the Pauley Ballroom, at the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way. 

According to police Lt. Cynthia Harris, after the dance ended, some 300 people spilled out onto the street. Some of them then went out of control, vandalizing four businesses in the area near the campus. Cars were also vandalized, and some of the looters broke down doors and rushed into the private residences of people who live nearby. 

In response, university officials Monday announced the creation of a task force that will be charged with finding ways to improve the auditorium’s operations, and to find better access into the venue, which has a 1,000 people capacity. 

But Councilmember Kriss Worthington, in whose district the incident occurred, wondered whether the incident shows a lack of communication between the university and city police departments. This and other questions are the same as those raised after looting happened last fall. 

“These are not new questions,” Worthington said. “I think we’ve been asking these same questions for years, and the UC people are always blaming somebody else.” 

Worthington criticized the campus police department, saying that it has a policy of “dumping” partygoers from the ballroom unto city streets after events. He also wondered whether the campus police notified city authorities promptly once they realized the situation was getting out of hand. 

Worthington said business owners along Telegraph Avenue are dismayed about what happened, and added that the city manager’s office is working to coordinate a meeting among all of the affected parties. 

No one from the university’s police department was available to comment on Worthington’s allegations. Both city and university police are investigating the incident. 

Editor: 

Regarding your Forum story on: how some are using their tax refunds: 

For one thing this is NOT a rebate. It is an advance on what you will get when you file next year. Your refund next year will be “what ever you got” less, or if you owe it, will be that much more. Bush wanted you to have this money NOW for an economic stimulus. Don’t blame the IRS, blame Congress and President Bush. 

Richard Lewis 

Ex-Berkeleyian 

Elyria, Ohio

The National Institutes of Health announced Monday that the University of California at San Francisco is among 10 organizations worldwide that are eligible to receive federal funds for stem cell research. 

Scientists have been eagerly awaiting the list of selected groups since earlier this month when President George W. Bush announced that the federal government would finance research on the human embryonic stem cell lines, or cultures, already in existence by the Aug. 9 deadline. 

In order to qualify for the funding, the research organizations had to derive stem cells from an embryo that was created for reproductive purposes, but was no longer needed. They also had to receive the donor's consent, but could not pay the donor for the embryo. 

NIH administrators say they are implementing the president's new policy and hope that researchers will take advantage of the opportunity to explore the possibility of producing breakthrough therapies.  

The national organization announced that four U.S. laboratories and six others in Sweden, Australia, India and Israel were able to derive cell cultures from a total of 64 embryos by this month's deadline. The NIH reports that the organizations will make information about the stem cell research available to the scientific community at the discretion of the individual laboratories. 

Of the four American labs selected, two are in California. UCSF has derived two stem cell lines, while CyThera, Inc. in San Diego has created nine lines. 

Supporters of the research say the potential benefits include possible cures for Alzheimer's Disease and spinal cord injuries and argue that throwing away thousands of in vitro embryos is a waste of research material. However, opponents of the research say that destroying embryos to develop a stem cell line is equivalent to the taking of a human life.

SAN FRANCISCO — Florence Vangay was once a refugee in search of opportunity. Like thousands of Hmong, she fled her native Laos to escape persecution after the Vietnam War, and eventually settled in California’s Central Valley. Now she has joined a growing wave of Southeast Asian immigrants again on the move, looking for a better life. 

Vangay, 38, left Merced two months ago for St. Paul, Minn. — a path many Hmong have taken over the past decade, according to analysis of recent census numbers. 

“I wanted to find a place for my children ... (where) after they graduate they can find jobs easily,” she said. “After that, we can stay together.” 

California still has the country’s largest populations of Laotians and Hmong, a hill tribe that received refugee status after helping the CIA fight communism in Southeast Asia. But welfare reform and job competition have driven many Hmong to other states, primarily Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Carolina. 

It’s a secondary migration that is reshaping some parts of America. 

Ramsey County, Minn., which includes St. Paul, is now home to the country’s biggest Hmong population. With 24,389 Hmong, during the 1990s Ramsey County overtook Fresno County and its 22,371 Hmong. 

California began the 1990s as home to more than half the country’s Hmong. It now has less than 40 percent. Minnesota and Wisconsin now jointly share 45 percent of the country’s Hmong population. Even so, Census 2000 showed a 39 percent increase in California’s Hmong population totaling 65,095. 

Five years ago, Congress overhauled welfare to require that many aid recipients find work. Denied the same level of public benefits, some Hmong migrated to places with lower costs of living and better job prospects. 

“I think what we saw after 1996 was a secondary migration of people who left California or urban cities to go to places where they could find jobs and affordable housing,” said KaYing Yang, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center in Washington, D.C. “The Hmong left the San Joaquin Valley to seize opportunity.” 

Like many Hmong who live in tight-knit clans, Vangay already had several family members living in Minnesota, making the transition easier for her four children. The Hmong also have a long history of migrations ever since being expelled from China hundreds of years ago. More recently, they scattered across the United States when they began arriving after the Vietnam War. 

Many Hmong eventually came to California’s Central Valley to farm. Laotians also congregated in California from the cities where they were first settled. 

But that trend also began to reverse during the 1990s, census data show. 

The Laotian population in California dropped 4 percent from 58,058 to 55,456 over the decade.  

It has grown primarily in Minnesota, Washington, North Carolina and Illinois. 

“It’s becoming more difficult for people to find good jobs here,” said Khammany Mathavongsy, board member of United Laotian Community Development in Oakland. “People do not have high-tech skills to begin with. They’re moving to the East Coast ... where there are more assembly line jobs.” 

The census counted Southeast Asians from eight groups — Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Indonesian, Laotian, Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese. 

Yang said she believes there was an undercount. Even the Vietnamese population, which grew by about 300,000 to nearly 1 million nationwide, is probably low, she said. She attributed the numbers to language barriers and an ingrained fear of submitting personal information to the government. 

“One of our board members had heard an elderly person saying, ’Oh no, they’re counting us again the way the Khmer Rouge counted us just before they started killing us,”’ Yang said. “You never get rid of those kind of fears.” 

Yang’s organization says about 1.3 million Laotian, Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees entered the United States between 1975 and 1998, and estimates that there are 1.5 million living in America today. The 2000 Census puts that population at 1.3 million. 

In California, the Vietnamese population grew 60 percent, with numbers in Orange and Santa Clara counties nearly doubling. 

Unlike the Hmong, many Vietnamese are familiar with urban areas. 

“The Vietnamese are from cities and knew what to expect,” said Leonard Andaya, who teaches Southeast Asian history at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. “The Hmong faces the biggest disadvantages of all refugees.” 

Cambodians increased by 3 percent in California to 70,232, but Yang said that number also is probably low. California, Washington, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have the largest Cambodian populations. 

Malaysians were the only other group besides Laotians to lose population in California, dropping from 2,204 to 1,948 people. 

Andaya said many Malaysians who come to America are of Chinese descent and often stay only long enough to get an education. 

“The Malaysians have a good economy and a nice lifestyle,” Andaya said. “There were probably economic reasons why many would rather stay in Malaysia.” 

———— 

On the Net: 

http://www.census.gov/ 

http://www.searac.org/ 

Open Paw seeks another ‘doggy’ first 

Over the deafening sound of 60 barking dogs at the Berkeley Animal Shelter, internationally-known animal behaviorist Dr. Ian Dunbar was coaching a volunteer trainee as she entered a cage with Riba, a 50-pound pit bull. 

“Remember, there’s nothing wrong with the doggy,” Dunbar yelled in a thick English accent as he closed the gate behind the trainee, “It’s just too friendly.” 

Dunbar, whose long résumé includes a doctorate in animal behavior from UC Berkeley’s Psychology Department, has founded a nonprofit organization, Open Paw, that intends to launch a nationwide campaign to modify the behavior of kenneled dogs to make them more adoptable.  

“We are going to change kennels from being simple animal warehouses to doggy universities,” Dunbar said. 

According to Dunbar, who has written several books on dog training and hosted popular British television series “Dogs with Dunbar,” dogs are often surrendered to kennels because they have minor behavioral problems like barking when left alone, digging up the backyard or chewing furniture. 

Dunbar said kennels often unintentionally contribute to poor behavior. 

“In most kennels dogs are fed twice a day and usually after they’ve been jumping up and barking for three hours,” Dunbar said. “What does that tell the dog?” 

Dunbar has been working with several associates and volunteers to develop inexpensive and effective training techniques that can be applied within the kennel environment. They are largely based on rewarding good behavior in individual dogs with “a bit of kibble.” 

The re-training program includes volunteers going into the kennels twice a day and individually hand-feeding the dogs to encourage good behavior. 

The volunteers are trained to recognize good behavior, which at first could be as simple as not barking or jumping, and then feeding the dog a single piece of food for each demonstration of good behavior.  

“We’ve been designing training techniques that will have the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time,” said Open Paw trainer Kelly Gorman. “A dog’s first choice is always going to be barking, jumping or swinging from a chandelier, but through rewarding good behavior we’re going to shift their priorities pretty quickly.” 

But to change animals’ behavior, Dunbar said Open Paw must first change kennel policies. The kennels must agree to altering the animal feeding patterns and also persuade a host of other volunteer organizations to adhere to Open Paw’s theories.  

“Animal issues can be very emotional issues,” said Citizens Humane Commissioner Sharon Melnyk, who is also on the Open Paw Board of Directors. “We’re asking people to change their way of doing things and people can be quite resistant to change.” 

Berkeley animal activist Jill Posner said she has serious questions about the training techniques Open Paw is promoting. “There are a lot of people who just want to help the animals and they shouldn’t have to be required to go through a 20-hour training course,” she said. “They should just be able to show up and take a dog who has been shut in all day for a walk.” 

Lisa Fine, the East Bay Humane Society’s director, has fully embraced Open Paw training practices. But the Berkeley Animal Shelter will apply the techniques along with several others, according to BAS Director Kate O’Conner. 

Dunbar said volunteers who are unfamiliar with Open Paw training techniques can unwittingly undo behavioral gains if the dogs are fed or taken for walks on a non-reward basis. 

“I understand these people are well-meaning,” Dunbar said. “But they are doing the dogs more harm than good.” 

Melnyk said the changes Open Paw is suggesting will not be harmful to kennel animals and will only improve their chances of being adopted. “It truly perplexes me why some people would resist a program into which so much thought has been put.” 

Dunbar said if Open Paw’s innovative theories are successful in Berkeley’s two kennels he will present the results at a national conference of kennel directors, dog rescue organizations and animal welfare groups this November. 

Berkeley is nationally known for establishing the first public dog park and the first puppy training organization, founded by Dunbar in 1980.  

“This could be another doggy first for Berkeley,” Dunbar said. 

To date, Open Paw has 75 volunteers who have become familiar with kennel training through a four-level instruction course devised by Open Paw.  

Kelly McGuinness, a volunteer coordinator at the East Bay Humane Society, said people volunteer for a variety of reasons. “A lot of volunteers can’t have animals in their apartments,” she said. “A lot of them are students who had to leave their pets back home.” 

Berkeley architect Dana Carder said she decided to volunteer when she accompanied a friend who was adopting a cat.  

“I saw so many animals in desperate need of attention.” she said. “I couldn’t adopt one because pets are not allowed in my apartment, so here I am.” 

Bob Pool, who already owns three dogs, two of which he adopted from animal shelters, said he is volunteering because the job is very rewarding. “I just keep coming back for more.” 

For more information about volunteering for Open Paw call the East Bay Humane Society at (510) 845-7735 ext. 11.

Monday, Aug. 27

Berkeley School Board Holds Special Budget Session 

6:00 p.m. 

District Administrative Offices, Second Floor 

2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Informational meeting to update school board and public on problems with district’s budget for 2001-2002. 

East Bay Heritage Quilters 

7:30 p.m. 

First Unitarian Church 

1 Lawson Road-Moeser Lane @ Arlington, Kensington 

Lecture: On the Road to Quiltmaking, a Personal Journey  

Non-members $3. 834-3706 

Tuesday, Aug. 28

Berkeley High Freshman Orientation 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater 

Corner of Allston Way and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Incoming ninth graders take a tour of campus, get student I.D. cards and lockers, and learn about extracurricular activities available at Berkeley High. Students with last names beginning with A-L attend from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Students with last names beginning with M-Z attend from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

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. 525-3565 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

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

Poetry Through Time II 

7 p.m. - 8 p.m. 

Judah L. Magnes Museum 

2911 Russell St. 

Bay Area poets Opal Palmer Adisa, Phyllis Koestenbaum, Reuven Goldfarb, and Martha Evans will read. A brief open reading will conclude the program. 549-6950 www.magnesmuseum.org 

Community Health Commission 

6:45 - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Environmental Imapct Report (EIR) for Alta Bates Expansion. 644-6109 

Wednesday, Aug. 29

Section 8 Resident Council 

6 - 8 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave. 

First Annual Speak Up. You can affect change but you must speak up. Refreshments provided. 548-4040 

Thursday, Aug. 30

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 

Lost in the Wilderness 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Avenue 

Jason Flesher, a Search and Rescue member for almost 20 years, will share his nine rules for surviving in the wilderness. Free. 

527-4140 

Kensington 55+ Activity Center 

9 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Social Hall of Arlington Community Church 

52 Arlington Ave. 

Conversation, Apple II computer instruction, massage therapy, German conversation group, meditation and relaxation techniques, watercolor art class, tea and coffee. Special 11 a.m. program: Music, Hugh Kelly plays harmonica and leads sing-along. 526-9146 

Attic Conversions 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architect Andus Brandt. $35. 525-7610 

Friday, Aug. 31

Start a Writing Group—and Keep It Going 

10 a.m. - noon 

North Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Dr. Kathy Briccetti will host a workshop on How to Start and Maintain a Writing Group. This free workshop requires pre-registration by Aug. 29th. 

644-6850 www.infopeople.org/bpl/ 

Even Stronger Women 

1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Free weekly cultural discussion class. This week: movie on Emma Goldman followed by discussion. 549-1879 

Saturday, Sept. 1

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Sunday, Sept. 2

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

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 

SAN JOSE, CA. — “‘Til death do us part,” that age-old marriage vow, has always sounded a little, well, non-committal to Confucian ears. In Vietnam, for instance, where I come from, death is not the end of relationships, it only deepens them. 

A traditional Vietnamese worships his ancestors. He talks daily to ghosts. Every morning, every night, he lights incense and offers food and drinks to the spirit of his ancestors, prays for protection and asks for advice. If he claims to have seen his grandfather’s ghost the night before, few would question him. More likely they would help decipher the meaning of the visitation. 

If you travel along rural roads in my homeland, you will see rice fields full of old graves rising above the water line. In the gardens of some houses, people are buried among patches of vegetables and bamboo groves, where children play. 

Life and death co-exist in close proximity in the Confucian cosmology — an intimate dance. 

Though we have spent a quarter of a century now in California, my family and I are still trying to live out some of these Confucian ideals, especially when it comes to the business of burials. This was most evident when we buried our grandparents on my mother’s side in San Jose, California. 

My grandfather died and was buried in Saigon in 1972 — at the height of the war. My grandmother, on the other hand, died recently at the age of 98 in Silicon Valley. 

If grandma had a single wish, it was to be buried side by side with her beloved husband. When grandfather died, she bought a plot of land next to his grave in a cemetery in the center of Saigon called Mac Dinh Chi. On his tombstone she wrote this poem which, translated into English, goes something like this: 

Suddenly the zither’s string broke and disrupted our sweetest harmony yin and yang — apart in one stroke ’lone, alone, trills the nightingale her bitter threnody. 

As a child I had memorized this poem and could recite it on command. I remember it well because almost every Sunday I would go with grandma and my mother to tend grandpa’s grave. There we would set new flowers in a vase, wash the marble tombstone, then light incense and burn paper offerings to grandpa. I also remember helping grandma weed the empty plot next to grandpa's as she prepared it for her final rest. 

Unlike most in their generation, my grandparents’ marriage was a love match — evident in the volumes of poetry they wrote to each other during their 50 years together. One of my favorite childhood memories is of sitting on a cool tiled balcony of their villa with my cousins and siblings during the Autumn Moon festival in Saigon. Grandpa and grandma would recite their favorite poems to one another as they drank tea. 

Alas, grandma’s wish to be buried with her husband was interrupted when communist tanks rolled into Saigon. Grandma was adamant about staying — “who will attend your grandfather's grave if I leave,” she kept asking. 

In perhaps the most Confucian moment of their lives, my mother, uncles and aunts all got down on their knees and begged her to come along. 

Grandma’s love of the living finally won out over her yearning for the dead. At the last hour, before the airport closed, she grabbed her purse and a few dresses and stuffed them in a plastic bag and came along with her children to America. 

The years here for my grandmother were years of longing and regret. She regretted leaving Vietnam, and she missed the Sunday rituals of tending to her husband’s grave. Exile for her was a spiritual amputation — a tearing of her soul. 

Worse, in America, grandma no longer dreamed of grandpa the way she did when she was living in Vietnam. As senility began to show, she often wondered aloud whether ghosts could cross the ocean and, if they could, why grandpa hadn't visited her in her dreams. “Is the ocean too big,” she'd ask? “Has he gone to nirvana? Has he forgotten me?” 

When news arrived from relatives in Saigon that the communists were about to raze the cemetary where grandpa was buried, we hid it from her. Full of southern elites, the cemetary was an eye sore to the northern rulers who wished to erase all memories of the previous regime. Our entire clan pooled together a large sum of money and sent it to a cousin still living back home to have grandpa's remains cremated and placed in a Buddhist temple. When the Cold War ended, we sent yet another cousin in California back to Vietnam to bring grandpa’s urn to the U.S. In another Buddhist temple in Sacramento, grandpa’s urn sat, waiting for my grandmother to live out the rest of her days. 

When she finally died earlier this year, their two urns sat on a Buddhist altar amidst wafting incense smoke and chanting monks in San Jose. At the cemetary pulsing with birdsongs where we buried them, we cried. But we were inwardly glad, too. The dead are now together, and the living had performed their filial duties. 

Finally, grandma’s nightingale can sing a happier melody. 

Pacific News Service Editor Andrew Lam is a short story writer and journalist. 

Albatross Pub Sept. 1: David Widelock Jazz Trio; Sept. 5: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 6: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 11: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Sept. 13: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 19: Whiskey Brothers; Sept. 20: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Sept. 22: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet; Sept. 27: Kenji “El Lebrijano” Flamenco Guitar; Free. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring.com 

Anna’s Aug. 27: The Renegade Sidemen; Aug. 28: The Interface Ensemble; Aug. 29: Bob Schoen Jazz Quartet; Aug. 30: Christy Dana Quartet; Aug. 31: Anna sings jazz standards; 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Free. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted. 1801 University Ave. 849-2662  

Ashkenaz Aug. 28: 9 p.m. Gerard Landry and the Lariats, $8; Aug. 29: 8 p.m. Earl White Oldtime Band, Bluegrass Intentions, plus clogging lessons. $10, Kids under 12 Free; Aug. 30: 9 p.m. Samite, Forward Kwenda, $10; Aug. 31: 9:30 p.m. Wawa and the Oneness Kingdom, The Calypsonians, $10; 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com  

Café Eclectica Sept. 8: 8 p.m. SF Improv, Free. 1309 Solano Ave. 326-6124 www.sfimprov.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. Sept. 10: Lucy Lang Day; Sept. 17: Marc Hofstadter (book party); Sept. 24: Jim Watson-Gove; All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Sept. 6: 8 p.m. King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, $20 - $32; Sept. 16: 7 p.m. Tania Libertad, $18 - $30; Sept. 30: 7 p.m. Kronos Quartet, David Barron, $30; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Sept. 1: Ancient Future, $16.50; Sept. 7: Tom Russell w/ Andrew Hardin, $16.50; Sept. 8: The House Jacks, $17.50; Sept. 9: Erika Luckett, $16.50; Sept. 11: Don Walser, Slaid Cleaves, $16.50; Sept. 12: Andy Irvine, $17.50; Sept. 13: Piper Heisig birthday revue and fund raiser w/ Kate Brislin, Sylvia Herold, Tony Marcus, Carlos Reyes, and Radim Zenkl, $16.50; Sept. 14: Ray Wylie Hubbard, $16.50; Sept. 15: Vocolot, $17.50; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Aug. 28: Big Lou and Polka Casserole; Aug. 29: Secession; Aug. 30: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu and Add1; Aug. 31: Realistic CD Release Party; Sept. 4: Beth Waters Band; Sept. 5: Presidents Breakfast; Sept. 6 Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 7: Crater; Sept. 10: Ben Graves Trio; Sept. 11: Len Patterson Trio; Sept. 12: Bitches Brew; Sept. 13: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 14: Carlos Washington & Giant People Ensemble; Sept. 15: Kooken & Hoomen; Sept. 18: The Goodbye Flowers; Sept. 19: New Monsoon; Sept. 20: Beatdown w/ DJs Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Sept. 21: Netwerk: Electric; Sept. 22: New Garde Philosophers; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

La Peña Cultural Center Sept. 11, 12: 8 p.m. Irakere, $22; In the Cafe, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Alice Arts Sept. 8: 7:30 p.m. Benefit concert for freedom of U.S. political prisoners featuring Fred Ho (solo) and The Eddie Gale Unit. $12; 1428 Alice, Oakland, 539-0050  

www.thejerichomovement.com/teardownthewalls 

“Song of the Lakitan Bird” Sept. 2: 2 p.m. Kulintang Dance Theatre communicates the beauty and refinement of the Southern Philippine culture. $10 Adults, $5 Children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” Aug. 31, Sept. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9. All shows 8 p.m. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s and Gabrial Pascal’s “Pygmalion.” Directed by James Schlader, choreographed by Harriet Schlader, under the musical direction of Mark Hanson. $15 - $27. 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. 531-9597 www.woodminster.com 

“Hecho En Califas Chicano-Latino Teatro Festival” Sept. 6 - 9, 14 - 15; 8 p.m. Original members of El Teatro de La Esperanza. Chicano Theater began out of the need to express the realities of the fields and barrios of Aztlán in the Chicano-Latino community. $10 - $20 La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, 849-2568, www.lapena.org  

“Winesburg, Ohio: Tales of the Grotesque” Sept. 6 through Sept. 16, Wed. - Sat. 8:30 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players and Word For Word team up for a production of Sherwood Anderson’s deceptively simple tale of neglected souls who fade into the shadows around us. $22, Wednesdays are “Pay What You Can.” Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Sept. 12 through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

Cal Performances Sept. 8: 8 p.m. & Sept. 9: 3 p.m. - Dance, the Spirit of Cambodia, $20 - $32; Sept. 19 - 20: 8 p.m. American Ballet, “Bruch Violin Concerto,” “Jabula,” “Gong,” and “Black Tuesday.”; Sept. 21: 8 p.m., Sept. 22: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sept. 23: 3 p.m. American Ballet, the full-length 19th Century “Giselle” $36 - $64; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Film Archive Aug. 28: 7:30 p.m. Doodling; Aug. 29: (free screenings) 7:30 p.m. The Horror of Party Beach, 9:15 p.m. The Crater Lake Monster; Aug. 31: 7 p.m. The Makioka Sisters, 9:35 p.m. A Woman’s Testament; Gen. Adm.. $7, The New PFA Theatre 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

The Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Cinema Sept. 1: Breakfast Club; Sept. 2: Pretty in Pink; Sept. 8: Dr. No (come as your favorite Bond character); Sept. 15: Harold and Maude; Sept. 22: Airplane; The Outdoor Cinema features cult classics projected on a large screen in the open-air brewery parking lot. $5 donation. Movies start at 7 p.m. 901 Gilman St. 206-682-8322 x237 www.pyramidbrew.com 

“BACA National Juried Exhibition: Works on Paper” Through Aug. 31: Wed. - Sun. Noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“Debbie Moore’s Autobiographical Paintings” Through Sep. 30 at Good Vibrations. Portraits of the artist’s sensual explorations spanning 25 years and reflecting changing ways of intimacy and body play. 2504 San Pablo Avenue 848-1985 

“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.  

Two years ago, the Pac-10 was a national joke. Last year, three teams tied for the conference title, had big bowl wins and finished in the top 10 nationally. So with expectations raised sky-high for the conference leaders this season, can Oregon, Oregon State and Washington replicate their super seasons? Or will the league be hit with another down cycle? With eight teams returning their starting quarterbacks and a couple of early Heisman candidates in Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington and Oregon State tailback Ken Simonton, this could be the year that establishes the conference back in the nation’s elite. Here are our predictions for the upcoming season. 

1. Oregon 

Q: Can the Ducks live up to the pre-season hype? 

Head coach Mike Bellotti has led the Ducks to a Pac-10-best 49 wins in his first six seasons in Eugene, but has never faced the expectations he will this year. After finishing last season with a 35-30 Holiday Bowl win over Texas and a No. 7 ranking in the AP poll, the hype coming from the Northwest is deafening. Oregon boosters paid $250,000 for a billboard in Times Square promoting Harrington’s Heisman candidacy, and there is an Oregon football billboard just off of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. 

With eight starters back from last year’s high-powered offense, all the pieces seem to be in place. Harrington led the Pac-10 in total offense last year and threw for 20 touchdowns, and four of his top five receivers are back, as is tailback Maurice Morris, a junior-college transfer who ran for 1,106 yards, and four-fifths of the offensive line. 

The Ducks’ defense is a different story. Just one of the front seven return, end Seth McEwen, and questions abound about who will fill the other six spots. The secondary should be solid with All-Pac-10 cornerback Rashad Bauman and safety Rasuli Webster. How the defense holds up will determine whether Oregon will repeat last year’s performance. 

2. UCLA 

Q: Will all of the Bruins’ talent finally produce some wins? 

Head coach Bob Toledo’s squad heads into the 2001 season once again as one of the most athletically talented teams in the country. But a 10-13 record in the last two seasons indicates a disturbing lack of heart in Los Angeles. 

Toledo presents a myriad of options on offense, which Cory Paus will try to stay healthy enough to run. Paus has separated both shoulders, bruised his ribs and broken his collarbone in his first two years with the Bruins, and backup Ryan McCann led the team to wins over Alabama and Michigan last year. But Paus is clearly Toledo’s guy, so his health is of utmost importance. Tailback DeShaun Foster finally lived up to his reputation last season, rushing for 1,037 yards and being named All-Pac-10. With flashy Freddie Mitchell gone the NFL, wideout Brian Poli-Dixon can step into the spotlight. The gigantic (6-foot-5) senior caught 53 balls for 750 yards last season; look for his production to jump as the number-one guy. 

UCLA returns the entire defensive line, backed by Butkus Award nominee Robert Thomas. If the Bruins can find a cornerback to bookend with Ricky Manning, they could have a dominating defense. Their matchup with Oregon on Nov. 10 could decide the Pac-10 title.  

3. Washington 

Q: How do the Huskies replace Marques Tuiasosopo? 

Well, the straightforward answer is with junior Cody Pickett. After sitting behind the remarkable Tuisasosopo for two years, Pickett has beaten out City College of San Francisco transfer Taylor Barton for the opening-day job. But although Pickett is athletic and has a nice arm, there is no way he can step right into his predecessor’s big shoes. 

Luckily, head coach Rick Neuheisel has a twin threat at tailback to take some pressure off of his new quarterback. Senior Willie Hurst and sophomore Rich Alexis both averaged more than six yards per carry last season. Alexis’s emergence has led to junior Paul Arnold moving to wideout, where he joins Todd Elstrom, Chris Juergens and super freshman Reggie Willams to give Pickett a plethora of targets. 

The Huskies’ defense will revolve around tackle Larry Tripplett, who passed up the chance to be a first-round pick in the NFL draft to return for his senior year in Seattle. The team’s leader in sacks and tackles for loss last year, Tripplett may be the most feared defensive player in the conference. He is joined on the line by fellow senior Marcus Roberson, who had six sacks last year. The rest of the defense is a questionmark, with several players vying for time at nearly every position. 

4. Oregon State 

Q: Are the Beavers the Miami of the West? 

Although Oregon State had the best season in school history last year, what with tying for the conference title and blasting Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl, the Beavers pranced and preened around the field against the Irish, racking up five unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. With former Miami head coach Dennis Erickson in charge, some are reminded of the lawless Hurricanes of the early ’90s, rife with drugs, guns and rumored NCAA violations. 

Despite the new image, Erickson has clearly made the Beavers into a national power with speed and aggressiveness. But the two keys to the team’s success are two smallish, understated players. Simonton, who stands just 5-foot-8, is a Heisman candidate, having gained more than 1,000 yards in each of his first three seasons, and former walk-on quarterback Jonathan Smith has made himself into a leader despite standing just 5-foot-11 in an era when quarterbacks are supposed to be supersized. 

But no Pac-10 team has to replace more starters than the Beavers’ 14, including seven on offense. The line that cleared the way for Simonton last season returns just two starters, and the top three wideouts are gone. Erickson’s offense depends on speed and timing, so Smith could struggle early as he acquaints himself with his new receivers. 

5. USC 

Q: Can Pete Carroll bring the Trojans back to their former glory? 

Carroll, who was run out of head jobs by the New York Jets and the New England Patriots, is taking his first crack at running a college program. But the laid-back attitude that infuriated NFL fans in the northeast could prove effective at Southern Cal. 

Carroll’s first task will be to turn the Trojans from a track team into a football team. Boasting the fastest group of athletes this side of the Olympics, USC finished dead last in the Pac-10 last year. Carroll must figure out if track athletes necessarily make good football players.  

It would also help if quarterback Carson Palmer cut down on an outrageous 18 interceptions last season. Palmer has the size and arm to be one of the top signal-callers in the country, but struggled mightily last year. Carroll is counting on quarterback guru Norm Chow, who earned his reputation at BYU, to turn Palmer around. 

The defense could benefit from two fresh faces, one old and one new. Cornerback Antuan Simmons was an elite player two years ago, but missed last season after having surgery to remove abdominal tumors. If he can play up to his old standard, it will give the Trojans a lift. The new face is defensive end Shaun Cody, the consensus top prep lineman last year. Cody could step right into a starting spot. 

6. Stanford 

Q: Can the Cardinal defense stop anyone? 

Stanford gave up at least 30 points five out of their last six games last season, and has since lost seniors leaders Willie Howard and Riall Johnson. Seven starters return, but is that a good thing? They will struggle to get to the quarterback without Pac-10 sack leader Johnson, and Howard was the backbone of the defense. Linebacker Coy Wire is back to throw his 215-pound body into the fray, and cornerback Ruben Carter was solid last year. But unless true freshman Michael Craven can step into Johnson’s shoes, the Cardinal will have trouble keeping the opposing teams from lighting up the scoreboard. 

Quarterback Randy Fasani has the potential to be an all-conference player, but missed three games with injuries and was forced to leave two others. Backup Chris Lewis is mobile and led the team to a last-minute win over Texas when Fasani was hurt, but is erratic. The tailback position is deep with Kerry Carter and Brian Allen both capable of starting, but neither is a game-breaker. The offensive line should be outstanding, with all five starters back, as well as talented sophomore Kwame Harris pushing for playing time. 

7. California 

Q: Is this Kyle Boller’s breakout year? 

Junior quarterback Boller should be helped greatly by new offensive coordinator Al Borges, lured away from UCLA with the promise of more responsibility. Borges is known for his innovative, multiple-set offense. If Boller can grasp the new looks, and get some touch on his short passes, he could emerge as a premier quarterback. 

A big obstacle in Boller’s improvement is the lack of a game-breaking wide receiver. Lacking a deep threat last year, the Bears often faced defenses with seven or eight men at the line of scrimmage, putting pressure on Boller to make decisions under pressure. If senior Derek Swafford, junior Charon Arnold or sophomore Geoff McArthur can stretch the field, it will give Boller more time, as well as open more holes for tailback Joe Igber. With four starters back on the offensive line, those holes should come more ofter for the diminutive Igber, who ran for 901 yards last year. 

Cal’s defense will have to deal with the loss of linemen Andre Carter and Jacob Waasdorp, two irreplacable players. But defensive coordinator Lyle Sentencich always seems to find new stars, and has a couple of possibilities in linebacker Scott Fujita and cornerback Jemeel Powell, along with as many as 10 linemen to work in and out of games. 

8. Arizona State 

Q: Will the Sun Devils score enough points to win? 

New head coach Dick Koetter brings a reputation for aggressive offense from Boise State, but the Sun Devils don’t have an abundance of talent on that side of the ball. Former walk-on Jeff Krohn was the starter at quarterback last year, but was alternately ineffective and fragile, while junior Matt Cooper and redshirt freshman Andrew Walter were impressive in spring practice. Whoever ends up behind center should have a multitude of receivers to throw to in Koetter’s offensive scheme. The return of tailback Delvon Flowers, who missed last season with a knee injury, should help out. 

On defense, ASU returns seven starters, but lost leader Adam Archuleta to the NFL. Koetter is installing a new defense that includes five defensive backs, so the defensive line will have to get a good push to keep teams from running all over them. End Terrell Suggs, a first-team All-Freshman last year, should be a force.  

9. Arizona 

Q: Will John Mackovic revive the Wildcats? 

The ’Cats were stagnating under former head coach Dick Tomey, but bringing in former Texas head man Mackovic is anything but a sure thing. Not exactly known for his offensive innovation, Mackovic won’t have much to work with in the way of playmakers, as Arizona hasn’t had a banner recruiting class in years. 

The good news is that the Wildcats will bring their always-punishing defense to the field. Larry MacDuff was the original engineer of the Flex-Eagle defense that led Arizona to national prominence in the early ’90s, and has returned to the school after leaving for two years. The defense, led by linebacker Lance Briggs and cornerback Michael Jolivette, will have to bring back the glory days if the ’Cats are to make a bowl bid. 

10. Washington State 

Q: Can Mike Price engineer an upset this season? 

Price, the Pac-10’s senior head coach, is entering his 13th year at the helm of the Cougars. But since Ryan Leaf led the team to the Rose Bowl in 1997, there has been little joy in Pullman. Price has enjoyed just three conference wins in the last three years, and the feeling is that he’s fighting for his job this season. But with three overtime losses in the conference last year and 17 starters returning, WSU could surprise several teams this year. 

The key to the Cougars’ hopes may depend on who wins the quarterback job. Jason Gesser was the starter for nine games last year until suffering a broken fibula against Oregon. But sophomore Matt Kegel stepped right in and led the team to a win over USC in Los Angeles in his first start. While the mobile Gesser knows the offense well, Kegel is the classic pocket passer Price has had success with in the past (see Drew Bledsoe and Leaf, Kegel’s first cousin). Gesser is the nominal starter as of now, but Price has indicated he may play both quarterbacks during the season. 

The Cougars return nearly their entire offense, with only their receivers gone from last year. The defense returns eight starters, but that might not be good news, considering the unit gave up 4.3 yards per rush last year and had just 23 sacks.

Lamont is nervous. A police officer has stopped him and is asking for his identification. But Lamont refuses to produce his wallet or the I.D that is inside. And the police officer looks like he is getting mad.  

“It’s well known that Cal students come to People’s Park to buy drugs,” says the police officer as his reason for having stopped Lamont. But Lamont knows his rights. He questions the basis of the officer’s suspicion and refuses to have his backpack searched. After a few minutes of tense discussion, the officer lets him go. 

But Lamont wasn’t stopped by a real police officer. The tense interaction between Lamont and the police officer was really a role playing exercise to train new volunteers for Berkeley’s Copwatch this past Saturday. But it was enough to remind him of the bad experiences he’s had in the past. 

Now, thanks to the training, he knows how to protect himself, and others, when police abuse their authority. 

Created in 1990 in response to escalating tension between homeless people and police in the Telegraph Avenue area, Copwatch is a non-profit organization fighting against police brutality. Volunteers document police behavior by bearing witness and filming situations with a video camera.  

Copwatch members say this is the best way to hold police accountable for their actions. 

“We don’t want to exaggerate,” said Andrea Prichett, a Copwatch co-founder. “We only want to expose police misconduct. We really want to talk about what we see to influence the City Council and educate people.” 

Copwatch strategies, Prichett explained, are based on one fundamental principle: first, do not harm. While they never want to contribute to worsening the situation, the volunteers on Saturday were also learning how to hold police accountable to the letter of the law. 

According to the California penal code, citizens are allowed to observe police intervention as long as they do not interfere. Prichett explained a few of the techniques. First, she said, Copwatchers, as the volunteers are called, should always speak directly to the police officers they are only observing. 

They should never approach a policeman from the back or have their hands in their pockets, because it might give the police the impression they are armed. A Copwatcher’s main task on the scene is to write down and videotape as many details as possible, such as the officer’s badge number, the officer’s name, their precinct, the location and time. 

As well, in the case of something going wrong, volunteers are trained to be on the lookout for possible witnesses, who would be willing to speak up and go on record if it is necessary to file a complaint. 

Prichett says it is paramount for the general public to be aware of their rights if stopped by police. The first thing to do when stopped by the police, Prichett said, is to ask the officer whether or not you are free to go. By law, they can detain someone if they have reason to believe that person has broken the law. Prichett said if someone is detained, they are not required by law to give their name and address, but she added, at that point they may want to cooperate.  

Providing any information beyond that is not recommended. Likewise, Prichett pointed out to the 20 trainees that while police are allowed to do a pat search, they are supposed to obtain consent from the detainee in order to search pockets, purses, and backpacks. If someone is placed under arrest, Prichett advises to not say anything until a lawyer or public defender is present.

The Berkeley Daily Planet received this letter addressed to United States President George W. Bush. 

Stem Cell research can lead to a cure for many thousands of paralyzed republican voting architects and other productive consumers and investors — and their wives, voting republican relatives, friends, and contributors. 

Please sneak in a few gigabucks for stem cell research. You’ll be glad you did. This is a real and growing need as millions of Republicans and others grow older and begin to have health problems. 

Many valuable embryonic cells are discarded that could be used. Let us not waste valuable resources like this. It’s a sin to waste, my grandmother used to tell me and my numerous strong, well-to-do Republican uncles. Would you argue with my grandmother? I hope not. 

Terry Cochrell 

Berkeley

For reading 275,462 pages over six months last year – on their own time – John Muir Elementary School students will be awarded $5,000 from the state.  

In the second year of the Governor’s Reading Award Program, John Muir is one of 800 California elementary and middle schools to receive an award. 

Participating schools ask students to keep a weekly log tallying up all the reading they have done at home. Kindergarten and first grade students can count the number of pages that parents or others read to them each night. 

“Students are encouraged to read anyway, but this program got people excited about exceeding that,” said John Muir Principal Nancy D. Waters. “Some students were even reading during recess. 

“We would talk about it in assemblies. We’d say, ‘Even if we don’t get the money, look what we’re going to get for ourselves.’” 

A committee of parents, students, teachers and other school staff will be formed to decide what to do with the $5,000 award. Waters said the money would probably be used to support the school literacy program in one way or another. 

Waters said John Muir students will be encouraged to continue to keep reading logs in the years ahead, as an incentive to read on their own time. 

“We really want out students to be reading, because that opens up the world to them,” Waters said. 

“The students are here.” 

The phrase can be heard, mumbled under the breath, as Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley once again begins to brim with blue and gold, and backpacked figures make their way across campus, lumbering through Sproul Plaza on their way to Sather Gate. 

It’s getting close to the start of the new school year at the University of California at Berkeley. For most of this year's 31,500 students, classes begin today. 

But the arrival of the students, a tradition as true as the yearly return of the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, is already evident. 

You can tell that the students are here by the way that around campus and environs, moving trucks are double parked, and the dwarf refrigerators — staples of college life — have begun to make their annual appearance. 

You can tell, too, by the longer lines at Blondie’s and Fat Slice, two by-the slice pizza shops just a block apart from each other along Telegraph Avenue. 

Elias Haro, manager at Fat Slice Pizza, has no doubt that the migration has begun. 

“It gets really busy,” Haro said. “You see just by looking out into the sidewalks that they're here.” 

Over on Bancroft Avenue, at Ned's Berkeley Bookstore, Todd Roe has been experiencing the bustle of it all for five years. A college textbook store is a good barometer of the students’ return, and over the years, Roe has become an expert reader. 

It’s a cycle, he explains, which starts a week before classes begin. The freshmen come in and pick up their books first. There’s only a few of them in the initial days, then toward the middle of the week, the bulk of them come and then fade by Friday. 

The lull is not lasting because it is followed by the “mad dash,” when the rest of the students return and scramble to find the books they need for their classes during the first week of class, Roe says. 

After a couple of weeks, when the book returns and exchanges are complete, the influx is done, and except for the occasional stragglers who decide to wait to look for their books until they need them for midterms, it all slows down, Roe said. 

“Right now we are basically at the bottom of the trough,” Roe said Friday, sounding like a man piling sandbags in preparation for a storm.  

“We’ve finished with the freshmen — about 75 percent of them — and we’re getting ready for the other 75 percent of the students.'' 

This year’s freshman class is made up of 3,955 first-year students, 1,728 transfers and 2,590 students pursuing graduate degrees. 

For a second year in a row, a majority of the first-year students — or about 55 percent — are women, a record-breaker that began last year, and which hadn’t been broken since World War II. 

The youngest incoming student is 15 years old. The incoming class also boasts a 69-year-old woman, who is a transfer student, as well as a 68-year old man, who is also transferring to Cal. 

All of the freshmen students who requested on-campus housing have been offered spaces in the residence halls. 

For returning students who are living off-campus, there is good news on the housing front. 

Finding a place to live will be easier this year than in the recent past. The days of sleeping on friends’ couches and living out of boxes and suitcases because of the tight market seem to be over. 

“[House Hunting] is certainly easier than it was last year,” said Becky White, assistant director at Cal Rentals, the university’s housing referral and counseling center.  

“A lot of it is due to the demise of so many young startups, whose employees were in direct competition with our students for housing.” 

In addition to the lack of competition, prices, too, have gone down, White noted.  

The average student apartment, which was going for $981 a month in July, now rents for $955. One-bedroom apartments, which went for $1,375 rents on average last month, are listed at $1,256. 

By this point, with classes so near, the majority of this year’s students have already secured a place to live. School officials, however, are working to make sure that those dwellings are safe. 

In an effort to prevent any deaths from fires, like the ones that took the lives of two of the university’s students last school year, university officials are making sure that all student housing units — both on and off campus — have working smoke detectors. 

The Berkeley Fire Department is providing the potentially life-saving devices free of charge for students living in the city. It is also providing free window bar testing.

CARLSBAD – Straddling a longboard, Kim Kennis scanned the incoming waves, searching for one packing enough height and force. 

A week earlier, she had stepped off an airplane from Rochester, N.Y., with one goal in mind: Ride a wave just like the women she had seen in the surfing magazines. 

For five days, she had listened, practiced and shared the frustration that came with learning a new sport. Kennis and 20 others are enrolled in Surf Divas, a camp for women. 

Now in the water, the 35-year-old antiques dealer bobbed on her surf board as she looked at the waves rolling in to South Carlsbad State Beach. Then she saw it, a soft swell building in the distance. 

“This isn’t the end — you know, a come-to-California-and-learn-to-surf vacation, and then go home and forget it,” she said later on the beach. “This is the beginning. This is a sport I’m learning, I’m going to continue, and I’m going to invest in.” 

That’s the attitude, industry analysts said, that a growing number of women have been expressing about the sport in recent years. In response, surfing companies increasingly cater to women, sponsoring weeklong camps and clothing lines. 

Analysts point to the rising number of women with disposable incomes, the adventure sports movement and the success of targeted advertising by mainstream retail giants, such as Nike. 

“Suddenly, in the summer of 2001, the climate is just right for a lot of these women to take that step and get out there,” said Elizabeth Glazner, founder and co-editor of Wahine, a women’s surfing magazine. 

“It’s not because somebody created a board short for women. It’s because people have been out in the sand for years watching their kids, their boyfriends, their husbands do it and finally asked, ’Why can’t I do it?”’ 

The Surf Industry Manufacturing Association reported at its annual meeting this spring that the number of businesses offering surfing products for women and girls had increased nearly 75 percent from 1997 to 2000. There are no estimates available on the number of women taking up the sport. 

It also found that major surfing retailers, such as Billabong and Reef, had made significant marketing changes to target women. 

The babes in bikinis who dominated advertisements in the 1980s and 1990s have been replaced by professional and amateur athletes. Most visible are world-ranked competitors such as Lisa Anderson, who became the first female professional surfer with a signature shoe line. 

“Honestly, I think the success of mainstream companies outside of the surf industry has had an effect,” said Jessica Trent, a marketing manager for Billabong. “Using real athletes, real women works. You don’t have to have a cookie-cutter girl.” 

As a result, companies are seeing increased sales. 

Reef, which introduced its women’s footwear line in 1999, expected female sales to surpass its popular men’s line by the end of this fiscal year, said Reef spokeswoman Heather Bensen. 

Christina Shires, 29, of Seattle, is among the women targeted by businesses. A year ago, she had never held a surf board. Today, she owns one. 

“A lot of people asked if I was going through a mid-life crisis,” she said with a laugh. 

While large companies are riding the wave of success, a growing number of women-owned small businesses also is finding a place in the industry. 

At the recent Surf Summit, the surfing industry’s annual gathering in Mexico, more than 70 percent of the businesses represented were owned by women, according to Glazner. 

“There were a lot of stores, companies owned by men who were selling what they thought a woman should buy. Women know what women want to buy, what they need,” said Isabella Califano, co-owner of Chickabiddy, a small surf clothier. 

But perhaps the greatest indicator is the proliferation of women-only surf clinics and camps. 

Five years ago, Surf Divas was one of the only surf schools offering individual instruction, clinics and weeklong camps for women. Today, more than a dozen such schools have popped up around the nation. 

“It’s like trying to learn driving from your dad. There’s no patience” involved, said Isabelle Tihanyi, co-owner of Surf Divas. “These kinds of schools offer patience, that nurturing that’s needed.” 

There are no men at Surf Divas. “Men and women are different. The way they learn is different. Their bodies are different. The way they surf is different,” Tihanyi said. “Surfing by itself can be intimidating. If you throw men in the mix, it can become overwhelming for some women.” 

For about $600 a week, Surf Diva participants receive two three-hour surfing sessions a day with instructors, use of a board and wet suit, and room and board — a tent and outdoor cookouts at South Carlsbad State Beach. 

Cat Beagan-Gorlick, a 30-year-old Web designer from Queens, N.Y., had always heard that surfing was for guys. But by day 4 at Surf Divas, she was ready to do it herself. 

As she popped up on her board, Lesley Gregory, a 46-year-old elementary schoolteacher from Temecula, Calif., cheered her on. Later, Gregory got up on her board to cheers from others in the water. 

“The support the women give each other is important, I think, to the experience. You don’t want to feel alone out there,” she said. 

The camp also teaches surfing etiquette, lingo and fashion do’s and don’ts 

Bikinis, for example, are a no-no. “The wave will just take it right off,” Tihanyi said. Board shorts and wet suits with rash guards, which protect the skin from salt abrasions, are recommended. 

“Our goal is to pass the stoke on,” Tihanyi said. Stoke, she explained, is surf lingo for excitement. 

Kim Kennis, feeling that excitement and finally spotting her wave, turned her board back toward the beach and paddled furiously. 

As the wave caught her, she first raised her upper body, then pulled her legs underneath and pushed herself up. 

For a moment, she was standing. Then she was not, losing her balance and disappearing under the wave’s white water. 

Moments later, she was back on her board, paddling out toward the incoming waves.

WASHINGTON — The share of HIV infections that are drug-resistant will jump to 42 percent in San Francisco by 2005, according to a team of researchers. 

Estimating the current rate of drug resistance at 28.5 percent, the group used a mathematical formula to calculate its likely increase over the next few years. 

HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, is the agent that causes AIDS. 

The work of the team, led by Dr. Sally M. Blower of the University of California at Los Angeles, is published in Friday’s issue of the journal Nature Medicine. 

The scientists calculated the increase in drug-resistant HIV since 1997 and used that to extend their forecast into the future. 

The primary reason for the increase, they said, is the development of drug resistance in the virus during treatment. The transmission of drug-resistant strains remains low, they said, estimating that it will account for just 16 percent of new HIV cases by 2005. 

“The good news is that transmission of drug-resistant HIV will not become a major public health problem,” Blower said in a statement. “The bad news is that the prevalence of drug-resistant HIV is already high and will continue to substantially increase.” 

A complex combination of drugs is used to treat the disease, but this therapy demands a complicated dosage regimen that is difficult to maintain and often causes severe side effects. 

According to the researchers, some physicians may unwittingly contribute to the drug-resistant epidemic if they don’t recognize the risks associated with incorrect use of the medications. 

“These drugs are as dangerous as chemotherapy,” said Dr. James Kahn of the University of California at San Francisco, a co-author of the paper. “General practitioners should not be using them. You really need a skilled HIV specialist to prescribe the medications and closely monitor the patient’s adherence and response to treatment.” 

In a commentary on the paper, Andrew Phillips of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London said the findings shed light on a troublesome issue “and strategies must be developed and applied now if we are to preserve AIDS therapies for the future.” 

In their paper, the California team recommends steps to minimize drug-resistant HIV. 

• Delay drug treatment as long as possible in order to maximize the medical benefit and reduce side effects and the likelihood of developing drug resistance. 

• Create clinical centers of excellence for HIV/AIDS treatment to ensure proper use of drugs and limit the rate of acquired resistance. 

• Develop therapies that are more effective for treating patients with drug-resistant viral strains. 

Reduce the amount of time a drug-resistant patient is on ineffective treatment. 

Police and fire officials in Berkeley say that a small fire at a University of California fraternity on Tuesday was caused by lights that were being used to grow hydroponic marijuana. 

According to Debra Pryor, deputy chief of the Berkeley Fire Department, the fire was reported at about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday at the Zeta Psi fraternity, at 2728 Bancroft Way. 

The fire started in a second story closet. It activated the sprinklers and caused $10,000 in water damage. Pryor said all of the building's occupants got out safely and there were no injuries reported. 

The cause of the fire has been determined to be electrical in nature, Pryor said, from the lights that were being used to grow the plants. 

Police spokeswoman Lt. Cynthia Harris said several marijuana plants were found inside the closet, but would not comment further on the case.  

Police have identified a suspect, but the name is not being released, Harris said, and added that the matter was sent to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office earlier this week for possible charging.  

Janet Gilmore, spokeswoman for the UC Berkeley, said she couldn't  

provide specific details about the case, but noted that the student code of conduct prohibits drug use, manufacture and growth. 

She added that this case has been referred to the university's judicial council for review. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal grand jury has indicted three executives of a Marin County electronics firm, accusing them of illegally selling gear to India that could be used to make nuclear weapons, prosecutors said Wednesday. 

The indictment charges that the executives of Berkeley Nucleonics Corp. of San Rafael conspired to sale and sold nuclear pulse generators to India without the federal government’s permission between 1999 and 2000. The generators emit electrical pulses and can be used to calibrate radar and nuclear instruments with military applications. 

The firm is among a growing number of companies under fire for exporting to blacklisted countries.  

The list of export violators in recent years includes big-named companies like IBM, Dell Computers, Compaq, Gateway and Alcoa. 

Not long ago, export sanctions applied to just a small number of countries, but the list has broadened during the past five years to include 50 countries. India and Pakistan were added after they conducted nuclear tests in 1998. 

Named in the Marin County indictment were company president David Brown, marketing director Richard Hamilton and Vincent Delfino, Berkeley Nucleonics’ former operation manager. 

In an interview, Hamilton said the company did not know about the restrictions on exports to India, which were imposed during the Clinton administration when India and Pakistan refused to agree to nonproliferation treaties. 

“We did not have the resources to know about it at the time,” Hamilton said. He said the company had a history of selling such devices to India. 

Neither Brown nor Delfino were available for comment.  

A court appearance has not been set, said Matthew Jacobs, a Justice Department spokesman, who declined further comment. 

The government began building its case in 1999 after agents of the Commerce Office of Export Enforcement posed as exporters in a sting operation, according to court documents. 

The indictment accuses the company of shipping the devices to India’s Bhaba Atomic Research Center and the Nuclear Power Corp., both divisions of India’s Department of Atomic Energy. 

SACRAMENTO — This year’s California high school graduates thinking about college increased their scores slightly on their college-entrance tests in English skills, but dropped in math. 

The average SAT I scores for California students in the class of 2001 remained below the national average in verbal skills and above it in math, according to scores being released Tuesday by the College Board. 

However, a higher percentage of California students took the test than the national average – and considerably more minority students and those from families where English is not the first language or with parents who did not finish high school. 

The average 2001 scores for California students were 498 verbal and 517 math. Those compare with 497 verbal and 518 math in 2000. The national averages this year were 506 verbal and 514 math, up one point in verbal and static in math. 

About 51 percent of California high school graduates took the SAT I, one of two major college-entrance exams and one used by California’s public universities. That compares with 45 percent of students who took the test nationwide. 

The new SAT results are similar to other mediocre test scores this year for high schoolers, as the state begins to turn its school-improvement focus to upper grades. Many of the state’s efforts in recent years have been targeted at primary grades and scores on the state Standardized Testing and Reporting exam have improved. 

Not so in high schools. The 2001 STAR test scores released this month showed only 35 percent of ninth-graders and 34 percent of 10th-graders scored at or above the national average in reading, the same as 2000. In math, 45 percent of 10th-graders were at or above the national average in math, down one point from last year. Eleventh-graders dropped two points to 46 percent. 

High school students beginning with the class of 2004 must pass a new high school exam to graduate. That new test was given for the first time last spring. 

As in other tests, SAT I scores were lower for minority students. Black students averaged 436 verbal and 431 math. Mexican-American students averaged 441 verbal and 452 math. In California, 58 percent of the students were nonwhite, compared with 34 percent in the nation. 

Students who learned English as a second language had average scores of 447 verbal and 504 math. Twenty percent of the California test takers learned English as a second language, compared with 9 percent of the national group. 

Scores were also directly related to the education level of the parents. Those whose parents did not graduate from high school had average scores of 404 verbal and 438 math. On the other end, students whose parents had bachelor’s degrees had averages of 522 verbal and 542 math. 

State school Superintendent Delaine Eastin said Tuesday she is pleased that more California students from diverse groups are taking the test, but is concerned that scores for minority groups continue to lag behind. 

“These differences are a powerful reminder that there is much more work to do in California to provide our minority and low-income students with greater access to high-quality education,” she said. 

The new SAT results are similar to those released last month for the other major college-entrance exam, the ACT Assessment. 

The average score for members of the class of 2001 who took the ACT test was 21.4, the same as 2000 and just above the national average of 21.0. Only about 12 percent of California graduates took the ACT. 

California students who took the SAT I had the largest number of their scores sent to University of California and California State University campuses. 

However, UC President Richard Atkinson last winter proposed eliminating the SAT I as an admissions requirement, saying the test is perceived by many as unfair, and can have “a devastating impact on the self esteem and aspirations of young students.” 

The College Board said 161,975 California students took the SAT I test, up from 156,145 who took it in the class of 2000. 

On the Net: 

The College Board is at http://www.collegeboard.com

LOS ANGELES — Steaming, swamp green and topped with whipped cream, the chocolatey “o-cha mocha” drink is the brainchild of Japanese executives hoping to do for green tea what Starbucks has done for coffee. 

Japanese firm Imagene Corp., whose parent owns a Coca-Cola bottling franchise in Tokyo, has plunked down $1 million to finance a flagship Green Tea Terrace store in Westwood that could pave the way for a nationwide chain of shops. 

Set to open next month, Green Tea Terrace will feature dreamy murals with floating cursive writing, baristas serving tea-based espressos and lattes; prepackaged teas to go; and snacks — in this case, Asian-inspired food like sushi, soybean pods and red bean shakes. 

“This store has been my intention since 20 years ago,” said Japanese-born Hiroshi Maeda, who conceived the idea and is partnering with Imagene. 

But industry experts warn that while the ambitious plan may work on either coast, middle America probably isn’t ready for milky green drinks that will cost up to $6.50 each. 

“In major metropolitan areas, there is probably room for these types of things because of the magnitude of the Asian communities,” said Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Counsel of the USA, a group representing the $4.5 billion American tea industry. 

“Whether it’s right for Kansas City, I would say no, not yet,” he said. 

Americans are more familiar with green tea than it might seem. The market now stands at $120 million a year compared to just $200,000 four years ago, Simrany said. 

“People’s tastes are changing,” he said. “Once you taste green tea ... many people like what they taste.” 

Imagene hopes to cash in on that growing popularity and the fact that Americans have proven they’re willing to pay a steep price for their caffeine. 

Seattle-based Starbucks Corp., the nation’s No. 1 specialty coffee retailer, typically charges about $3.50 for a mocha or latte and has seen sales skyrocket 66 percent over three years to reach $2.17 billion in 2000. 

Starbucks has grown so confident that it’s opening 1,200 stores a year — roughly three new locations every day, said spokeswoman Audrey Linkoff. 

Maeda grew up in a family of green tea importers in the Japanese port town of Nagasaki. His mother was well versed in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, an elaborate ritual that involves a powerful blend of green tea called macha that must be whipped into a froth and sipped from a bowl with both hands. 

Maeda said green tea consumption in Japan has suffered since the end of World War II, when the nation got its first taste of Coca-Cola. 

His ultimate goal is to make his special blend of green tea drinks so popular in America that they will also sell in Japan as a result of that nation’s fascination with Western culture. 

“Japanese culture is very deep, and breaking a culture from the inside is hard to do,” he said.