Economist George Akerlof took used cars and came up with a new model demonstrating how buyers and sellers interact, becoming one of three Californians to win a Nobel Prize Wednesday. 

Akerlof shared the prize with Michael Spence of Stanford University and Joseph E. Stiglitz at Columbia University. The third California winner, K. Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, shared the chemistry prize. 

Akerlof was cited for his work analyzing the market for used cars. He determined that the problem was asymmetric information – sellers knew more about the cars than buyers, who worried they were getting stuck with a “lemon.” The result was that the market price tended to be set at “lemon” levels, ultimately driving sellers of good cars out of the market. 

“This prize is not a prize for me. It’s a prize for the economics profession,” said Akerlof, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. 

His research has since been broadened into other areas, such as health insurance, where the opposite situation exists – buyers have more information than sellers about their health, forcing rates up. 

The economics winners laid the foundation in the 1970s for a general theory about how players with differing amounts of information affect financial markets. 

Their contributions “form the core of modern information economics,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a written announcement. 

Sharpless, 60, won half of the chemistry prize for research that opened up a new pathway to create medicines, including some that help treat Parkinson’s disease. The other half of the award was shared by William S. Knowles of St. Louis and Ryoji Noyori of Nagoya University in Japan. 

The discovery came when Sharpless and Noyori found that by using a chemical made of tartaric acid and titanium they could isolate one-half of a molecule. 

“It was a eureka moment,” he said. 

At a news conference, Akerlof said he was “totally thrilled,” but still a little stunned by the honor. He began his remarks by thanking his wife, Janet Yellen, sitting in the front row of the audience, who has been “wonderful ever since the very first day I met her.” 

Yellen is also a UC Berkeley professor, and was on President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. 

Akerlof, 61, was the second consecutive Berkeley winner of the economics Nobel, known formally as the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences. Last year, Berkeley professor Daniel McFadden shared the prize. 

“This is becoming a habit,” Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl said. 

In keeping with tradition, Akerlof will get a reserved parking spot, a coveted honor on the crowded Cal campus. 

Akerlof said when he first got the phone call saying he’d won, “I didn’t know if it was a joke or not.” 

Spence was on vacation in Hawaii when he received the news. 

“It’s very exciting. I think all of us in the academic world do what we do for the fun of it,” he said. “It’s really wonderful to have the work recognized.” 

The three economics winners, who share a $943,000 prize, all know each other and kept in close contact while they were working, Spence, 58, said. 

“We were all working on different facets of the same problem, but we talked to each other all the time. Academics do that,” he said. “I was very excited about the work they were doing.” 

Sharpless and his family celebrated with morning champagne at their home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 

“It feels very good,” he said. “It’s been a lot of years since the discovery was made — Jan. 18, 1980. To be honest, for the last 20 years, I’ve been teased by my colleagues” about when the work might be recognized. 

Berkeley has had 18 Nobel Prize winners and Stanford has had 21. 

The Nobel Prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, and were first awarded in 1901. The economics prize was established by the Central Bank of Sweden in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel. 

The prizes are always presented to the winners on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. To mark the 100th anniversary of the prizes, all living laureates have been invited to the ceremonies this year, with some 150 expected in Stockholm and 30 in Oslo. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Nobel site: http://www.nobel.se 

Akerlof’s home page: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/akerlof/ 

Spence home page: http://gobi.stanford.edu/facultybios/bio.asp?ID156 

Noyori: http://www-noyori.os.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp 

Sharpless: www.scripps.edu/chem/sharpless/kbs.html 

Thursday, Oct. 11

Community Health  

Commission Meeting 

6:45 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Commissioners will brainstorm to determine major issues of concern regarding Alta Bates. 644-6109 

Resident Advisory  

Board Meeting 

4 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave 

Review Discussion and Possible Action on Draft Agency Annual Plan Update and thirty minutes of public comment. There will be refreshments. 

Free Depression Screenings 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

University Health Services, Tano Center 

2222 Bancroft Way 

Screenings will include a written self-test followed by an interview with a counselor. Referals for follow-up evaluation and treatment will be provided. 

Commonwealth Club:  

John Dean, Former Counsel  

to President Nixon 

5:30 p.m. 

Radisson Hotel 

200 Marina Blvd. 

Author of The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trial of Clinton and spearheaded the decision to shut down the Florida recount of the 2000 Election. $5 Students, $20 non-members.  

Paradise Restored? California After the Boom 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Faculty Club 

Peter Schrag, long-time columnist for the Sacramento Bee, will discuss his research on California’s economic boom and its consequences. $35  

540-5678 www.berkeleyfacultyclub.com  

Berkeley Democratic Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

UC Berkeley Professor of Political Science Bruce Cain will speak on the future of the Democratic Party after September 11th. The topic: A New Political Landscape: The Response to Terrorism and the Future of the Democratic Party. 843-3214 

Copwatch: Forum  

on Civil Liberties 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

145 Dwinelle Hall 

Due to September 11, our civil liberties are being challenged in Congress. Come find out what you can do. 548-0425 www.berkeleycopwatch.org 

Friday, Oct. 12

Will Star Wars Make Us Safe 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens 

2951 Derby St. 

Panel of speakers will discuss President Bush’s proposed Missile Defense Program. The public is invited to contribute to this discussion. Sponsored by Women for Peace. 849-3020  

Saturday, Oct. 13

Shelter Operations 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Farmers’ Market  

Fall Fruit Tasting 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center St and Martin Luther King Way 

Free samples the whole range of fall fruit. There will be a wide variety of apples, pears and persimmons at a central location for taste-testing. 

548-3333 

Pow Wow and Indian Market 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Enjoy Native American foods, dancing and arts & crafts in Berkeley’s tenth annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, this year honoring Mille Ketchesawno. 

595-5520 

Optics Fair 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Explore the world of the unseen at the first-ever LHS Optics Fair featuring a variety of microscopes, binoculars, and hand lenses to try out and compare. Parents, teachers and children age 6 and up. 642-5132 

Sunday, Oct. 16 

Donna Lerew’s  

70th Birthday Concert 

8 p.m. 

Unitarian Universalist Church  

One Lawson Rd., Kensington 

The distinguished Bay Area violinist celebrates her 70th birthday with a retrospective concert featuring Musica Viva String Quartet and Rose Trio. $10.  

Free parking. 525-0302 

Monday, Oct. 15

Rite of Christian Initiation  

for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask.  

526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism,  

Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Tuesday, Oct. 16

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

There is a certain madness that strikes the human species from time to time, and its presence has been strongly evident since Sept. 11. 

It is a delusion born out of a combination of two fixed ideas: One, a dream of a perfect, pure society – usually a return to an imagined golden age of the past. Two, a conviction that a specific group of “others” stands in the way of achieving that ideal. Out of this, a simple and powerful fantasy is constructed: the drama of the final solution. Eliminate the group that stands in the way, and the pure land will be attained. 

Adolf Hitler, not so long ago, persuaded a civilized, modern country to follow him in acting out that kind of a political fantasy. That time the dream was the creation of a pure and powerful Aryan nation, rooted in the eternal verities of blood and soil. Those standing in the way were of course the Jews and other minorities, such as Gypsies and homosexuals. We know what form the final solution took, and how much death and destruction and suffering resulted as the drama played itself out. 

This time Americans witnessed another kind of massacre, in the flames, dust and death in New York City. The players were different, the actions and the results were different, but the underlying psychological dynamic was strikingly similar. This time the fantasized pure society is an uncorrupted Islam, of a sort that has never existed in reality – untainted by secularism, deviance, inner dissent or foreign influence. 

The obstacle in the way of its achievement is America and, to a lesser extent, Israel. 

That kind of madness has spurred countless religious wars, but it can as easily fuel a more secular fantasy of “ethnic cleansing,” as happened recently in Serbia. It has a powerful appeal to human minds – especially in turbulent and confusing times – because it is clear and simple. It resolves our uncertainties and tells us what must be done. 

And at this point we should ask ourselves if we are immune to it. It would be easy to believe that we are. After all, America was instrumental in ending the Nazi nightmare, took on ethnic cleansing in Serbia and is now doing battle against the pure-land fantasies of Osama bin Laden. So it might seem to follow that we are the good guys – and the sane guys – ever on guard against such political pathologies. But it’s not that simple. 

In the current time of drawing together against such malevolence, we walk always on the edge of becoming its mirror image. We are tempted by the fantasy of a pure America, a safe and secure homeland that existed once and can be brought into being again, providing the evil Others can be eliminated. Listen to the lyrics of “America the Beautiful,” the song that seems to have caught the spirit of the times. The words are lovely and moving, but they also invite us to fantasize an America that never was – a land of gleaming alabaster cities, undimmed by human tears. A pure land that we might find again if only we could stamp out the Other: eliminate bin Laden, Al Qaida, all terrorism everywhere. 

But of course we can’t do that, any more than the terrorists can achieve their angry dream – and for the same reason: The world has not gotten kinder or wiser, but it has gotten smaller, and we are all stuck with one another – fundamentalist and secularist, East and West, North and South, rich and poor. 

For the first time in human history, we all live in the whole world. It may be a world full of hate, but it is more connected now than it has ever been, and it will be more connected next year than it is today. It is wrapped together by communications systems, economic activities, political relations, personal ties, and – although this seems to have slipped the media’s mind for the past few weeks – problems without 

boundaries such as AIDS and the threat of climate change. 

This confusing, mobile and hyperlinked world allows many different ways for people to live, but it has no space for pure lands. 

And there are many ways we can deal with the problems it presents – but we can expect no final solutions. 

PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is the author of “The Future of the Self” (Tarcher Putnam, 1997) and “Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be” (W.H. Freeman 1996).

924 Gilman Street Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Ashkenaz Oct 11: Grateful Dead DJ Night; Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Cal Performances Oct. 12 - 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $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. 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 

Jupiter Oct. 11: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.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 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” 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 

“Faye Sings Lady Day” Oct. 13: 8 p.m. & 10 p.m., Benefit concert for the Black Repertory Group in Berkeley. $10 - $15. Black Repertory Group, 3201 Adeline St. 849-9940  

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

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

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; 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  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” 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. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” 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. 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 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate; Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Studs Terkel reads from “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and hunger for Faith; Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 12: Elizabeth Royte examines “The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rainforest”; Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Susan Griffin Oct. 12: 7 - 10 p.m. Presents slide show and discusses her latest book “The Book of Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues”. $10 refundable with book purchase. Gaia Arts and Cultural Center, 2116 Allston Way 848-4242  

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  

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. 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.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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. 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  

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

At a Tuesday evening question-and-answer session on the Common Ground school’s ill-fated Yosemite trip of last week, parents, teachers and students of the program soundly rejected blame and finger-pointing as responses to the alleged misbehavior that cut short a planned two-day series of classes out in nature. 

Instead, while admitting responsibility for overstepping “common sense,” by taking too large a group and making other misjudgments, the school’s leaders sought to emphasize the lessons learned and set the record straight on the misadventure’s root causes. 

“My biggest disappointment is in the press,” said Dana Richards, the teacher who co-leads the small “school” within Berkeley High School, criticizing what he termed a “culture of negativism and hype.” 

“The whole thing kind of fell apart from the get-go with Curry Village’s incompetence,” said Tammy Harkins, the school’s other co-leader, referring to the large tent city where the students stayed. 

The Common Ground leaders cut their planned two-day trip short on Oct. 1, after concluding that the group was too large to manage in a setting that did not lend itself to keeping proper track of students. Between 9 and 10 p.m. that night, Curry Village staff received numerous complaints from other guests, which a spokesperson for the park’s concession company said included vandalism, rock-throwing, shoplifting, noisiness and rowdiness. 

“I apologize to you as parents who care so much about the security and safety of your students,” Richards said Tuesday. “I can also honestly say that nothing happened at Yosemite that doesn’t happen every day at Berkeley High.” 

A spokesperson for Yosemite Concession Services, which runs Curry Village, said last week that “about 30” of the  

students had behaved inappropriately, out of a group of 330. 

Richards and Harkins distributed a letter explaining the events at last Thursday’s Back-to-School night, and said an unexpected change in the check-in time from last year’s smaller, smoother Common Ground trip had forced the sudden rearrangement of the students’ afternoon itineraries that Sunday. This and several other inconveniences caused by the Curry Village organization, they wrote, led to an after-dark check-in at tents scattered throughout the village, after which the complaints came in. 

Among the lessons Richards and others cited for future trips were to keep the student-teacher ratio at a maximum of 8-to-1, to work harder on identifying students’ interests to better place them in their activities, to include parents more fully in the planning, and to choose a more appropriate destination. 

Harkins also added that it had been a mistake to wait until 12:30 p.m. on the Monday to contact the high school administrators about the decision, made more than 12 hours earlier, to bring the students home a day early. Above all, the trip leaders said, they would not attempt to take such a large group on an overnight trip again. 

A discussion on marijuana use took up a long period of the meeting. Harkins said it had been “widespread,” and that trip leaders had considered turning the buses around on the way up after faculty on one bus saw smoke being blown from the back of another. Maliyah Coye, a junior who had been on the trip, suggested a double standard was at play. 

“I don’t know why it’s such a big deal, people smoking weed in Common Ground,” because “people smoke weed all the time” on the Berkeley High grounds, she said. 

A parent then rose and expressed concern that his ninth-grade daughter be given a clear signal that drug use was not tolerated. 

“I have not heard a defined drug policy,” the parent said. “Forget about Berkeley High, what about Common Ground?” 

The trip leaders said that drug use was not tolerated and that they were waiting for the facts to emerge more fully before considering any disciplinary action. 

“There will be consequences,” said Harkins. 

Principal Frank Lynch, who attended the meeting, said any response to misbehavior was “going to come up from Common Ground and their discussions.” 

“Since they were up there and we weren’t, they’re going to tell us what needs to be done,” Lynch said. 

Board of Education Vice President Shirley Issel, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the board and the administration needed to help the small schools with policies on discipline, field trips and the like. 

“Some teachers feel they can’t turn to the administration because they feel it is either too overwhelmed or doesn’t have the capacity to meet their needs, so they try to do it themselves,” Issel said. “But as we can see, it really can’t work.” 

Two parents suggested the trip might have been scheduled for the end of the year rather than the beginning, in order to exclude those who had not “earned” participation with their behavior. But Coye disagreed.  

“As a community, as Common Ground, as parents we need to get together to help those students,” she said. Later in the meeting, the audience applauded when she added: “I think it’s good that this came out early in year. These people are students, and their problems are everyone’s problems.” 

Lynch also praised the small school for its attempt to bring everyone to Yosemite. “Their whole intent, because Common Ground is a small learning community, was to be able to give the opportunity to all students instead of singling out who could go and who could not go,” he said. “So their heart was in the right place.” 

Several students and parents also said the students had a good experience at Yosemite on the abbreviated second day. 

“We basically did everything we set out to do,” said Wendy Ellen, a world dance teacher. 

“I enjoyed myself highly,” said Michael Cochran, Ellen’s son, a student on the trip.  

Another teacher, Ellen Bracken, said “a lot of growth” came out of Tuesday’s forum. “Instead of some teachers saying, let’s get this person and kick them out, they were looking for some more long-term solutions.” 

At the end of the meeting, a parent congratulated Richards, saying, “Thanks for not making our kids into snitches.”

Editor, 

John McDougal(Forum Oct. 8) mis-stated purpose of Representative Barbara Lee’s vote. What she was voting against was giving up the responsibility of Congress to decide issues of war and peace. 

It was irresponsible of Congress to give the Chief Executive a blank check, unlimited ability to do whatever he saw fit, both abroad and at home, to wage war on amorphous “terrorists.” Representative Lee knew this, even apparently John McDougal does not. 

Which answers his last question whether Representative Lee would have voted differently for a different Chief Exec. No, her vote would be the same, were the Exec Gore, God, or John McDougal. 

Adam David Miller 

Berkeley 

When Bette’s Oceanview Diner considered opening a “Bette’s To Go” branch in the sleepy neighborhood of Northbrae, many people who live in the community rose up against the plan.  

They wrote impassioned e-mails to the city’s planning staff, and attended the Sept. 13 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board to denounce the proposal. 

The majority of the opposition feared that because Bette’s would sell pastries in addition to meals, the popular Fourth Street diner would overwhelm the Hopkins Street Bakery, a local favorite.  

“It makes no sense to allow a proprietor (whose only motive is sheer profit) to potentially displace a much-loved established,” business wrote neighbor Katie Wenc. 

“It would be a terrible loss to the community if (Hopkins Street Bakery) were forced out of business,” said David Tepper. “Let (Bette’s) stay where they are – on Fourth Street – and leave this area free of them.” 

Bette Kroening, the owner of Bette’s Oceanview Diner, eventually withdrew her application to the Zoning Adjustments Board. In an interview Wednesday, she said that “it was a painful process,” and that she did not want to cause division in a neighborhood that she loved. 

Now, with the Bette’s project dead, it appears that a different establishment will go into the vacant storefront Kroening had wanted. 

Another bakery. 

On Tuesday, Jeff Dodge of La Farine, an upscale bakery on College Avenue in Oakland, filled out papers with the Planning Department on the site formerly occupied by Made to Order, a small takeout grocery. 

La Farine, which has been at its College Avenue site in Oakland for 25 years, will sell not only pastries, but tarts, cakes, cookies and specialty breads – an offering very similar to that of the Hopkins Street Bakery.  

City planning officials said that because La Farine’s scope of operations are similar to Made to Order’s, their application is “by right” – it does not require any additional approval by planning staff or the ZAB. However, the ZAB may choose to hold hearings on La Farine’s proposal to expand the site’s hours of operation.  

Made to Order’s permit allowed it to operate from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; La Farine would like to be open between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday. 

ZAB member Mike Issel said that the he was struck by the irony of the situation. Issel said that too often, neighbors and ZAB members try to engage in “zoning by intimidation.” 

“I hope that citizens in the future, will take a more practical approach to answering their fears,” he said. “We often see problems like those raised at the hearing on Bette’s, and they can often be worked out through dialogue between the parties.” 

Reza Jahansouz, owner of the Hopkins Street Bakery, had harsh words for his probable new neighbor. 

“I’m going to put them out of business,” he said. “Our customers are very loyal, and if I have to lose money for a while I will. I know their bakery – they’re not as good as we are.” 

Kim Criswell, a Northbrae resident, said that she wrote the city planning staff an e-mail in support of the Hopkins Street Bakery when she saw a sign in its window asking customers to aid it in its battle against Bette’s. Criswell said that while she loved both the bakery and Bette’s Oceanview Diner and didn’t want to take sides in the matter, she was concerned about the threat to an established business. 

Now, she said, she was saddened to hear about La Farine’s designs on the sight. 

“It seems to me to make more sense to locate a new store in a neighborhood that needs it, rather than right next to an existing establishment,” she said. 

Jeff Dodge of La Farine could not be reached for comment. 

When Bette’s Oceanview Diner considered opening a “Bette’s To Go” branch in the sleepy neighborhood of Northbrae, many people who live in the community rose up against the plan.  

They wrote impassioned e-mails to the city’s planning staff, and attended the Sept. 13 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board to denounce the proposal. 

The majority of the opposition feared that because Bette’s would sell pastries in addition to meals, the popular Fourth Street diner would overwhelm the Hopkins Street Bakery, a local favorite.  

“It makes no sense to allow a proprietor (whose only motive is sheer profit) to potentially displace a much-loved established,” business wrote neighbor Katie Wenc. 

“It would be a terrible loss to the community if (Hopkins Street Bakery) were forced out of business,” said David Tepper. “Let (Bette’s) stay where they are – on Fourth Street – and leave this area free of them.” 

Bette Kroening, the owner of Bette’s Oceanview Diner, eventually withdrew her application to the Zoning Adjustments Board. In an interview Wednesday, she said that “it was a painful process,” and that she did not want to cause division in a neighborhood that she loved. 

Now, with the Bette’s project dead, it appears that a different establishment will go into the vacant storefront Kroening had wanted. 

Another bakery. 

On Tuesday, Jeff Dodge of La Farine, an upscale bakery on College Avenue in Oakland, filled out papers with the Planning Department on the site formerly occupied by Made to Order, a small takeout grocery. 

La Farine, which has been at its College Avenue site in Oakland for 25 years, will sell not only pastries, but tarts, cakes, cookies and specialty breads – an offering very similar to that of the Hopkins Street Bakery.  

City planning officials said that because La Farine’s scope of operations are similar to Made to Order’s, their application is “by right” – it does not require any additional approval by planning staff or the ZAB. However, the ZAB may choose to hold hearings on La Farine’s proposal to expand the site’s hours of operation.  

Made to Order’s permit allowed it to operate from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; La Farine would like to be open between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday. 

ZAB member Mike Issel said that the he was struck by the irony of the situation. Issel said that too often, neighbors and ZAB members try to engage in “zoning by intimidation.” 

“I hope that citizens in the future, will take a more practical approach to answering their fears,” he said. “We often see problems like those raised at the hearing on Bette’s, and they can often be worked out through dialogue between the parties.” 

Reza Jahansouz, owner of the Hopkins Street Bakery, had harsh words for his probable new neighbor. 

“I’m going to put them out of business,” he said. “Our customers are very loyal, and if I have to lose money for a while I will. I know their bakery – they’re not as good as we are.” 

Kim Criswell, a Northbrae resident, said that she wrote the city planning staff an e-mail in support of the Hopkins Street Bakery when she saw a sign in its window asking customers to aid it in its battle against Bette’s. Criswell said that while she loved both the bakery and Bette’s Oceanview Diner and didn’t want to take sides in the matter, she was concerned about the threat to an established business. 

Now, she said, she was saddened to hear about La Farine’s designs on the sight. 

“It seems to me to make more sense to locate a new store in a neighborhood that needs it, rather than right next to an existing establishment,” she said. 

Jeff Dodge of La Farine could not be reached for comment.

Editor: 

The claim that “Gridlock is here to stay” is erroneous. The ‘solutions’ to traffic congestion exist and lack the will to implement them within Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The reason that the MTC’s Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is now aimed more toward transit is that the RTP had formerly been badly out of balance favoring highways and BART, with little attention to many of the basic traffic problems. But in the last regular three-year Recertification Process, mandated by the Federal government to assure that the limited funds are being placed the right places, the MTC tried to hold the public comment session secret.  

The word got out and a mass of well-informed persons showed up and spoke their minds. The resulting instructions to the MTC were to provide better access to a more representative section of transportation users. That’s why this RTP gives transit more now than before, with even BART’s design problems getting the needed serious attention to prevent misapplication of funds. 

The ‘solution’ to congestion lies in a freeway bus rapid transit system, which does not need expensive new right of way (which BART needs) and is based on a well-functioning, integrated, area-wide bus network, which should have existed before BART was ever built, and on the most heavily-traveled bus routes. 

A system of comfortable, frequent buses that is within walking distance of nearly all residences and destinations, with one overall electronic ticket system, with convenient transfers that provide nearly direct service would wipe out traffic congestion. (A bus transfer facility should be built at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza.) 

For instance, before BART, AC Transit was carrying 58 percent of the persons crossing the Bay Bridge during morning peak hours, with 300 buses per hour that used only 1/6th of a lane which normally carries 1,800 vehicles per hour.  

Those buses were 12 seconds apart, far safer than automobiles which travel about two seconds apart. 

Ridesharing has much more potential than is now being realized for persons who work regular hours and commute long distances.  

The way to determine the persons who are making the same long trips could be based on a survey and continually-updated reporting system maintained by the Postal System, which could keep track of the major trips taken by each household and could keep people in touch with each other from the changes of address forms routinely filed when people move. 

Car pools and van pools should be integrated with each other and then with the bus network, so that buses could eventually provide service to the persons making the most trips to any one destination. 

These are persons who are now sitting in congested traffic, wasting their depreciated time, breathing polluted air, who have the notion that more highways would solve their commute problems. 

About 20 percent of the commuters work regular hours, most of whom could be candidates for transit service.  

But somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of all the people, the elderly, the children, the handicapped, the poor, and non-drivers are transit dependent. 

The HOV diamond lanes should be primarily for buses, with a lane each for local and express buses.  

There should be feeder buses and bus pickup sites at each freeway interchange (as there are on 101 in Marin). Autos in the other lanes would have free flowing traffic. Trucks would have some restrictions, put into effect with their willing cooperation. 

All of the above ways to make the existing system work better, without major new investments are known as Transportation Systems Management (TSM). TSM includes flexible hours, staggered working hours, four-day weeks with staggered weekends, telecommuting and much more. 

One thing the highways do need is to require the contractors to guarantee their work so that the highways last much longer, as they do in France. 

Charles L. Smith 

Berkeley 

The Domestic Violence Oversight Committee credited a 17 percent decline in domestic violence with a partnership between the police department and a victims’ advocacy organization. 

Committee members, from the Family Violence Law Center, Berkeley Police Department and the city’s Health and Human Services Department, presented their report to the City Council Tuesday. 

According to the report, the number of incidences of domestic violence in Berkeley declined from 446 cases reported in 1997 to 374 cases reported in 2000. Committee members pointed to the joint efforts of the police department and the Family Violence Law Center. 

“The benefit to the victims is that they are presented with a variety of choices,” said Melinda Shrock, a victim advocate with the Family Violence Law Center. “They are given options of law enforcement, community services, children's’ counseling and in some cases emergency financial assistance.” 

The Berkeley Domestic Violence Prevention Program was formulated as a result of the city’s 1996 Report on Domestic Violence by a city task force consisting of Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Dona Spring, Polly Armstrong and then-councilmember Mary Wainwright. The task force was assisted by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque and Police Chief Dash Butler. 

Shrock said a key feature of the program is intensive police training that gives officers a variety of tools to use when responding to domestic violence calls. She said one of the most effective tools is the Emergency Protective Order. 

The EPO is a five-day restraining order that officers can put into effect by contacting an on-call judge who is available 24 hours a day.  

When the program began in 1997, the Berkeley Police Department issued EPOs in 22 percent of domestic violence calls. During 2000, they issued EPOs in 69 percent of calls.  

“The EPO is one of the most important tools the police have,” Shrock said. “It’s easy to obtain and it gives everybody a chance to cool down.” 

Shrock said domestic violence victims will often refuse to press charges against their batterers even though they may still be in physical danger. Officers are trained to use their own judgment by examining domestic violence scenes for probable cause to make arrests or enact an EPO.  

She said officers will look for injuries, make note of the condition of furniture and check for a history of domestic violence. 

“One of the first things they will look at is the telephone,” Shrock said. “The telephone is often the point where the batterer loses control because the victim is reaching out for help,” she said. “If the phone cord is pulled out of the wall or is damaged in some way it’s a serious indication of trouble.” 

In addition to taking action at the scene of a crime, officers also refer the victim to a domestic violence prevention team that consists of a police officer and a victim advocate who can offer follow-up assistance. Follow-up assistance can include a variety of counseling programs, help with petitions for long-term restraining orders or safe housing. 

“Berkeley has really been a leader in the Bay Area with this program,” Dean said. “The 1996 study we put together led to a federal grant and now the program has shown some results.” 

Dean added that the program’s success is in large part due to Chief Butler’s responsiveness to the issue. 

And Butler complimented Berkeley police officers for their execution of the program, noting that follow-up assistance is an important new feature to police protocol.  

“Treating a domestic violence call as a beginning rather than an end is critical to helping victims take the first step out of a bad situation.” he said. “Anything you can do to reduce domestic violence means that everybody in the community is better served.”

SACRAMENTO — State officials summoned two commissions Wednesday to review California’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg promised “a top to bottom review” of state laws and security measures by his new Task Force on the Impact of Terrorism on California, which had its first meeting Wednesday. 

And Gov. Gray Davis issued an executive order to his existing State Strategic Committee on Terrorism, asking the committee to make recommendations to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks. 

“Our number one priority, bar none, is to keep Californians safe from further terrorist activities,” Davis said. 

He ordered the committee to examine potential threats involving the transportation and storage of hazardous materials, the agriculture industry, the state’s transportation systems, its medical facilities and its computer networks. 

Davis also ordered the creation of a subcommittee on the Protection of Public Health to look at the public health system’s preparedness for biological and chemical threats. 

The subcommittee will include representatives from the University of California, medical and health care associations, public health organizations, law enforcement, and state agencies and departments. 

Davis also directed the state agencies to provide education materials on the state’s preparedness to the public. 

Both the legislative and executive committees are to examine the potential for a terror attack in California, and the state’s readiness to prevent it and respond should one occur. 

Hertzberg said the goal of his talk force is “to make sure California is as safe as it is possible to be in a free and open society.” 

The bipartisan committee almost immediately went into a secret session to hear from the heads of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, California National Guard, California Department of Justice, and FBI, as well as the Sacramento police chief and county sheriff. 

Twenty assemblymembers from 10 committees were required to sign nondisclosure statements before the closed-door briefing. 

On Monday, the task force meets in Los Angeles for a public session on the impact of the terrorist assaults on California’s economy. The daylong session is scheduled to feature Los Angeles’ police chief and sheriff, as well as panels of economists. 

Meanwhile, two Assembly members were in Washington, D.C., Wednesday and Thursday to coordinate California’s efforts with congressional and Bush administration proposals to beef up security. 

That includes reviewing possible protections that can be installed at the state Capitol, where temporary security precautions have been in place since the Sept. 11 East Coast attacks. 

Californians can make suggestions to the Assembly task force by calling: 1-800-977-SAFE. 

On the Net: 

Read about the Assembly task force at www.californiasafe.ca.gov.

SACRAMENTO —Downtown areas will be preferred sites for state office buildings across California under an executive “smart growth” order signed Wednesday by Gov. Gray Davis. 

The action inserts one of the state’s biggest real estate players into local campaigns to revive and preserve the state’s urban cores. 

The governor said Wednesday that consolidating far-flung leases into downtown office locations cut costs, make it easier for people to find state offices and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. 

The act is modeled on a similar order used by the federal government’s General Services Administration. Cities frequently cite the order to keep government buildings downtown or keep them from leaving. 

“It formalizes something we started doing some time ago,” said state Department of General Services spokesman Rob Deignan. 

Davis signed the order after vetoing for the second straight year a similar, but less flexible bill passed by the Legislature.  

Davis called its goals laudable, but said rigid standards could have unintended consequences, invite lawsuits and jeopardize real estate negotiations. 

Andrea Jackson, aide to the bill’s author, Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s done via the Legislature or executive order. Whatever leads to better use of state buildings in urban cores, that’s what we’re after.” 

The State of California owns 40 offices statewide containing about 12 million square feet of space, Deignan said. The state also has 2,100 leases for 16 million square feet. 

Davis’ order is not mandatory, but aims to ensure that state architecture and siting decisions are environment-friendly, convenient to transit and affordable housing. Plans also are expected to explore a mix of uses in the same building and be consistent with local government initiatives to promote smart growth. 

WASHINGTON — California Rep. Nancy Pelosi won the race Wednesday for the No. 2 House Democratic leader and will become the top-ranking woman ever in Congress. Her election sparked debate over whether she will help or hinder her party. 

Pelosi, a liberal eight-term veteran from San Francisco, outpolled rival Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland by 118-95 in a closed-door, secret ballot vote. She will take the post of Democratic whip on Jan. 15 when Rep. David Bonior steps down from that job and concentrates on running for governor of Michigan. 

Both candidates claimed to be best positioned to lead their party back to the House majority it last held in 1994. Pelosi, 61, said she sought no votes on the basis of her gender, but clearly many of her colleagues felt it was time for a woman to enter the leadership circle. 

“This is difficult turf to win on for anyone, but for a woman breaking ground here it was a tough battle,” Pelosi said after the vote. “We made history. Now we have to make progress.” 

Pelosi’s triumph brought praise from groups that traditionally support Democrats. 

“We don’t get to break a glass ceiling in Congress very often,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. 

Supporters said Pelosi presents Democrats with an appealing package. 

Her base is in one of the country’s more affluent areas, and supporters praised Pelosi’s abilities as a fund raiser. Aides said she has raised $1.6 million for Democratic candidates this year. 

She also is being counted on to enhance the party’s ability to attract women. 

“Most campaigns run on the energy of women,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who helped run Pelosi’s leadership campaign. “This is a major, major step for the future of this party.” 

Other lawmakers from both parties wondered whether Pelosi could overcome the label of being a San Francisco liberal. 

“It makes me feel good as a liberal,” said Rep. James Moran, D-Va., who supported Hoyer. “But I’m not sure it does a lot for our future.” 

“She’s very appealing to the liberal base of her party,” said Ed Gillespie, a Republican consultant who once worked in the House. “But her liberal votes are not likely to be very appealing to the vast majority of the public.” 

Pelosi dismisses such arguments, saying of the San Francisco liberal tag: “When people pose that, they’re thinking in old ways.” 

In private, several Democrats said they worried that Pelosi would push House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., into a more confrontational stance with President Bush and congressional Republicans. The two parties have struggled lately to present a united front following last month’s terrorists attacks. 

These Democrats said Pelosi’s supporters cast her as the voice of Democrats upset with Gephardt for cooperating too much. They cite Gephardt’s agreement to exclude aid for workers from a bill that provided $15 billion for the troubled airline industry. 

Pelosi denied making Gephardt’s work with Republicans an issue and said he has “earned the respect and confidence of the country.” Gephardt took no public position in the contest. 

Even so, she told reporters that Democrats must not completely drop their differences with Bush and Republicans on the economy and other issues. 

“Where we can find common ground, we must find it and embrace it. But we must stand our ground” when we disagree, she said. 

Aides said Pelosi’s winning coalition consisted of overwhelming support from the House Democrats’ 32 Californians, 44 women, 38 blacks and 18 Hispanics, as well as the backing of other Western lawmakers and liberals. 

She also won enough votes from Democratic centrists and conservatives to outflank Hoyer, an 11-term lawmaker from just outside Washington with a slightly more moderate voting record than Pelosi. 

Because of the importance of Californians to Pelosi, her victory was seen as a bow to that state’s power in Congress and in national politics for Democrats. 

California’s 52 House seats – 53 in January 2003 to conform with the new census – make it by far the largest delegation in the House. Also, the state has become crucial to any Democratic presidential candidate’s chances of winning a general election. 

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices used the case of a kitchen worker, fired after a seizure on the job, to argue with each other Wednesday about the government’s role in combating discrimination when workers sign away their right to sue. 

Lawyers for Waffle House Inc. and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission didn’t do much of the talking during an hourlong oral argument.  

Instead, justices who are typically ideological opposites argued among themselves over the ramifications of letting the EEOC do for an employee what  

the employee could or would not do for himself. The case involves the intersection of arbitration agreements, an increasingly common condition of employment, and the traditional role of the EEOC in rooting out workplace discrimination. 

The agency takes a small number of cases to federal court, where it tries to make an example of discriminators by winning money or other damages.  

The government maintains it has a duty to do that even if an alleged victim is among the 10 percent of American workers covered by binding arbitration agreements. 

Waffle House, backed by business groups, counters that a binding arbitration agreement should be just that. 

Eric Scott Baker agreed to arbitration when he applied for a job in Columbia, S.C., but he went to the EEOC when he was fired in 1994.  

The agency sued in federal court for an alleged violation of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. 

Ignoring the particulars of Baker’s case, Justice Antonin Scalia prodded the government lawyer to explain what would happen if an employee already had gone through arbitration and settled a discrimination complaint. 

Would the EEOC still have power to come in and essentially force a do-over in federal court?  

Yes, Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement managed to reply after  

several interruptions, but that is not the situation here. 

“Wow,” Scalia said under his breath. 

Scalia was in the conservative five-member majority when the court ruled in March that employers can force workers to take job-related disputes to arbitration rather than to court. 

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority decision in that earlier case, continued posing what-ifs to Clement.  

The government lawyer repeatedly tried to return to Baker’s situation, but an unusually curt Kennedy cut him off. 

“We’re asking what the logical consequence of your proposition is,” Kennedy said. “That’s why we’re asking about a harder case.” 

In March, the court found no broad exception to a federal law governing arbitration agreements. The court could use the Baker case to go a step further by ruling that the same Federal Arbitration Act precludes this kind of suit by the EEOC. 

Critics of arbitration clauses say workers often don’t read the legal fine print and don’t realize what rights they are signing away. 

Business groups generally champion arbitration as a cheaper, fairer alternative to the courtroom. Both sides make arguments to an outside arbitrator, whose decision is supposed to be final. 

When it was Waffle House lawyer David Gordon’s turn at the podium, a relative liberal on the court had hypothetical questions of his own. 

What if a wronged employee was too lazy, or cowed, or indifferent, to press a discrimination claim, Justice Stephen Breyer asked. Wouldn’t the EEOC be free to sue anyway, if winning the case would serve the public interest? And what would it matter, then, if the uncooperative employee had earlier agreed to arbitration? 

Scalia swooped in to answer that it did matter. 

Justice Clarence Thomas was head of the EEOC during the Reagan administration and thus has the court’s most direct experience with this kind of case. He followed his custom of saying nothing during the argument session. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

For the appeals court ruling in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Waffle House: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html and click on 4th Circuit. 

SKOPJE, Macedonia — A Western envoy in Macedonia raised doubts Wednesday about a government-declared amnesty for ethnic Albanian rebels, saying it was not in line with a Western-brokered peace accord. 

Macedonia’s president, Boris Trajkovski, and his cabinet on Tuesday pardoned all ethnic Albanian rebels who battled government troops earlier this year but later surrendered their weapons to NATO. 

But Trajkovski said the amnesty did not apply to those who might have committed war crimes during the six months of clashes. 

The Western envoy, speaking strictly on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the declaration’s wording showed “considerable difference” from that agreed on under the Western-brokered deal. 

“An acceptable amnesty is critical to the peace process,” the envoy said. “And the one we saw yesterday is subject to broad legal interpretation.” 

Trajkovski stressed that the amnesty will also not apply to those who committed criminal acts during fighting in five specific villages. 

This phrase – “criminal acts” in five villages – is particularly misleading, because it could be broadly interpreted, the envoy said. 

The comments came after other Western diplomats here initially welcomed the declaration as part of the fragile peace process meant to upgrade minority rights of the ethnic Albanians who make up a third of Macedonia’s population of 2 million. 

The amnesty – endorsed by most members of Macedonia’s multiethnic government – was the first sign of progress in weeks toward implementing the peace deal to end six months of fighting. 

Ethnic Albanian officials have also objected to the declaration, demanding stronger, legislative guarantees that the recently disarmed militants would not be prosecuted. 

Justice Minister Idzet Memeti, an ethnic Albanian, said that only a special law passed in parliament could guarantee the former rebels freedom from prosecution. 

In persisting tensions, an explosion early Wednesday damaged a Macedonian-owned cafe in Prilep, 50 miles southwest of capital Skopje, injuring no one. 

The new, German-led NATO force numbering 1,000 troops in Macedonia saw action Wednesday when its de-mining team destroyed an arms cache in the village of Otlja, 10 miles northeast of Skopje. 

About 2 1/2 tons of ammunition, explosives and anti-tank mines were destroyed, said Col. Peer Schwan, chief of the mission code-named Amber Fox. 

The Macedonian parliament has still not passed 15 crucial constitutional amendments to upgrade ethnic Albanian rights – a key part of the accord. Ethnic Albanian deputies accuse Macedonian lawmakers of attempting to undermine the deal’s intention to put ethnic groups on an equal footing.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Americans William S. Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless won the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Ryoji Noyori of Japan on Wednesday for molecular research used in making medicines. 

Knowles, 84, of St. Louis, Mo. and Noyori, 63, of Nagoya University in Japan shared half of the $943,000 award. Sharpless, 60, of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., won the other half. 

Their research deals with the fact that many molecules appear in two forms that are mirror images of each other, just like the left and right hands. 

Cells generally respond to only one of these forms, while the other form might be harmful. Drugs often use such mirror-image molecules and the difference between the two forms can be a matter of life and death. 

The research has led to ways of making only the proper form of these mirror-image molecules.  

The technology has led to methods of creating medicines like antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and heart medications, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation. 

The economics prize was to be announced later Wednesday. 

The science prizes have been awarded on the same day for decades, but the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to break with tradition after deciding the chemistry prize was often forgotten in the excitement of the earlier physics announcement. 

The coveted prizes were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite and were first awarded in 1901. 

Nobel gave little guidance other than to say the chemistry prize should go to those who “shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” and “shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement.” 

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established separately in 1968 by the Swedish central bank, but it is grouped with the other awards. 

The physics award went Tuesday to Americans Eric A. Cornell, 39, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado; Carl E. Wieman, 50, of the University of Colorado; and German scientist Wolfgang Ketterle, 43, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

They were cited for creating a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate that could lead to ways to make ever tinier electronic circuits and more precise measurements. 

Scientists say the condensates and atom lasers could lead to smaller and faster electronic circuits laid down by tiny beams of atoms. 

The Nobels, which celebrate their centennial this year, started Monday with the naming of physiology or medicine prize winners American researcher Leland H. Hartwell and Britons Tim Hunt and Paul Nurse for work on cell development that could lead to new cancer treatments. 

The literature prize will be announced on Thursday and the peace prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway. 

The prizes are always presented to the winners on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. 

To mark the 100th anniversary of the prizes, all living laureates have been invited to the ceremonies this year, with some 150 expected in Stockholm and 30 in Oslo. 

Last year’s chemistry prize went to Alan J. Heeger and Alan G. MacDiarmid of the United States and Hideki Shirakawa of Japan for the discovery that plastic conducts electricity and for the development of conductive polymers. 

The economics prize was won by Americans James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden for their work in developing theories to help analyze labor data and how people make work and travel decisions. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Nobel site, http://www.nobel.se 

How timely the award of the Nobel prize in economics for research on how information and the lack of it can affect markets. In stocks, for example, the lack is almost unprecedented. 

“We have focused our eyes and ears on the opinions offered by some of the sharpest financial and economic minds in the world,” says Gerald Perritt, himself one of the sharper analytical minds in the business. 

“However,” he concludes, “we know that none of these people actually know what the future will behold.” The bare truth, he says, “is that there is no precedent for what happened Tuesday, September 11, 2001.” 

Ultimately, says Jim Griffin, economist with Aeltus Investment Management, “it gets back to faith after all, even for hardheaded analysts.” Sept. 11, he adds, “was and is a challenge to that faith.” 

That faith is based in the historical record showing the U.S. stock market always rises from the worst of times, often reaching a joyous peak that elicits comments about it being the best of times. 

The “best of times” for most of today’s investors are of recent, painful memory, having occurred just a couple or so years ago, and faith is being tested as it never has since World War II. 

But for those of great faith, rays of hope can be spotted in a flood of investment commentary, most of which typically and adroitly avoids taking an unequivocal stand, one from which there is no retreat. 

Robert Morrow, a Bradenton, Fla. private forecaster who works mainly by institutional clients, and whose views have sometimes been uncannily correct, states boldly that the Standard & Poor’s 500 index will double by midyear 2002. Such a rare, clear stand can break a forecaster. 

While urging caution, and as usual limiting himself to facts, Perritt, editor and publisher of “Gerald Perritt’s Mutual Fund Letter,” does take special note that investors have about $2 trillion “sitting” in cash. 

“During times of financial turmoil,” he says, “it pays to sit on your hands.” But as the economy begins to improve, which many economists expect will be next year, he expects much of that money will return to stocks. 

Meanwhile, writing in “The Babson Staff Letter,” analyst Lance James refers to the recent return to leadership of small-cap stocks as “heartening and justified” in spite of the so many doubts overhanging the market. 

The resurrection of smaller stocks has tended to be overlooked amid the collapse of so many larger issues, but it is measurably real and likely to continue. That’s the history of so-called small-caps: When they start moving up, they continue rising for a run of several years. 

Small-caps did well from 1979 through 1983, and for more than three years beginning in 1991. But by the turn of the century, James states, the small-caps suffered from an unprecedented bias for larger stocks. 

Then, as the overall market began its plunge, the smaller companies began their ascension, an event unsighted by many smaller investors still licking their wounds and, importantly, lacking investment information. 

These companies, explains James, are “less adept at providing information to investors.” You may have to do your own research. But it is this very lack of information that makes that homework pay off – and big. 

Larger investors, and the institutions that provide them with information, generally concentrate their efforts on large-capitalization companies on which there is already a glut of information. 

Moreover, institutional investors deal in investment sums too large to be accommodated by the smaller companies. 

Still, small companies often grow, and information about them spreads, and then the big investors move in. 

In short, the lack of information, especially today, can give small investors in small-cap stocks an advantage over the big guys. 

John Cunniff is a business analyst for The Associated Press

SAN JOSE — Yahoo! Inc. met Wall Street expectations for its third-quarter earnings Wednesday and only slightly reduced its targets for the current quarter, leading investors to send its shares up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading. 

However, Yahoo’s chairman and chief executive, Terry Semel, said the company is examining its 44 business units for a realignment that might lead to further job cuts. In April, Yahoo imposed the first layoffs in its six-year history, cutting 420 jobs – 12 percent of its work force. 

The earnings report was being studied closely because it was one of the first from a major Internet company since last month’s terrorist attacks. Online advertising already has been slumping for nearly a year and is expected to get even worse along with the overall economy. 

In the three-month period ending Sept. 30, Yahoo had its fourth straight quarterly net loss: $24.1 million, or 4 cents a share, on revenue of $166.1 million. In the same period last year, Yahoo showed a net profit of $47.7 million, or 8 cents per share, on revenue of $295.5 million. 

Excluding investment losses and other one-time events, Yahoo said it would have earned $8.4 million, or 1 cent per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting to see 1 cent per share and $170 million in revenue. 

Shares of Yahoo, which gained 77 cents, or 8 percent, to $10.93 in regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, rose another 37 cents to $11.30 in extended trading following the release of the report. 

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said it expects to see between $160 million and $180 million in revenue in the current quarter and break even or earn up to 1 cent per share, excluding charges.  

Analysts were expecting $190.8 million in revenue and earnings of 1 cent per share. 

The reduction in the revenue estimate includes between $5 million and $15 million in sales expected to be postponed or lost because of last month’s attacks, said Susan Decker, the chief financial officer. 

“This economic climate is unprecedented,” Semel said on a conference call with financial analysts. “If we found it hard to read the economic picture even before this, now the picture is even more obscured.” 

Executives said they had filled key management holes, and touted the company’s healthy balance sheet, with $1.7 billion in cash. Yahoo said it now has 210 million registered users, 80 million of whom actually logged on to the site in September. 

With consumers so far cool to Yahoo’s new subscription-based offerings, Semel said Yahoo would soon roll out packages with several services bundled together, for better value. Yahoo hopes premium services can help continue to reduce the company’s reliance on advertising, which makes up about 80 percent of revenue. 

Semel said details of the company’s restructuring, and resulting job cuts, would be announced at the company’s meeting with analysts Nov. 15. 

“I think we’ll be tighter, leaner, easier to run,” he said in an interview. “We’ll all see where we’re going much more readily.” 

Like most businesses, Internet companies had a rough time after the Sept. 11 attacks. Yahoo was one of several popular sites that pulled some advertising. 

Nielsen/NetRatings said U.S. Internet usage dropped in September. Fewer people went online, and those who did spent an average of 17 hours surfing the Web, down from more than 18 hours in August. 

“It’s a tough backdrop for the best of companies,” said American Express analyst John Faig, who believes Yahoo stock remains too expensive despite its long slide. “There clearly have been better times in history to reboot your business.” 

In the first nine months of 2001, Yahoo lost $84.1 million, or 15 cents per share, on revenue of $528.5 million. In the first three quarters of last year, Yahoo earned $168.6 million, or 27 cents per share, on revenue of $799.3 million. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.yahoo.com 

Officials from Berkeley High and De Anza High will meet today to sort out the ramifications of Friday’s cancelled football game between the two schools. 

Friday’s game was cancelled when no officials showed up for the 7 p.m. varsity kickoff. According to a source close to the situation, Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League officials botched the scheduling of officials. De Anza then compounded the problem by not checking with the league before the game, as is customary. 

One possible outcome is for the game to be made up on Nov. 16. But in order for that to happen, the North Coast Section first round of playoffs, scheduled for that weekend, must be postponed. The Fremont Athletic League has already requested that the playoffs be moved back due to the cancellation of games after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The FAL cancelled all games that weekend, although most other games in Northern California went ahead as planned. Berkeley High, for instance, played James Logan High on Sept. 14. 

“(The request) does create some challenges trying to re-schedule the whole playoffs,” NCS commissioner Tom Ehrhorn said. “All of that stuff the board has to consider. Our job is to make it work no matter what.” 

Moving the playoffs back would also mean moving the date of the championship games from Nov. 30 or Dec. 1 to Dec. 7 or 8. That would take football, a fall sport, even further into the winter sports schedule, a serious inconvenience for student-athletes who play both football and a winter sport. 

Berkeley High does have its league bye week coming up on Oct. 19, but head coach Matt Bissell scheduled a non-league matchup with Emery for that day before the season started. In addition, De Anza already has a league game scheduled for that day. Berkeley’s last regular season game is against Pinole Valley on Nov. 8, leaving no open date before the NCS playoffs are scheduled to begin. 

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bissell said Wednesday. “No determination has been made what will happen if the game isn’t made up, and unless the NCS pushes the playoffs back, I don’t see how that will happen.” 

If the game isn’t made up, it is possible the game will be ruled a forfeit in Berkeley’s favor, since De Anza was the home team and didn’t check with the league about officials. But that would be punishing De Anza for what is essentially a league office mistake.

Cal is 0-4 and are ranked 113th out of 116 Division IA teams for scoring defense. Oregon is 5-0 and are ninth in scoring offense. But if you listen to the teams’ head coaches, they make it sound as if the Ducks have been lucky, and the Bears simply the victims of plenty of bad breaks. 

“Watching Cal, they’re the best 0-4 team I’ve seen,” Oregon’s Mike Bellotti said this week. “Cal is a quality team that hasn’t gotten any breaks yet. If they do, watch out.” 

Cal head man Tom Holmoe looks at his team’s -13 turnover ratio, dead last in the Pac-10, compared to Oregon’s +11, best in the conference, and he sees opportunities slipping through his players’ fingers. 

“We haven’t gotten the breaks,” Holmoe said. “The ball’s been on the ground, but we haven’t recovered it.” 

Holmoe isn’t blind to the fact that his team has been plain sloppy with the ball, however. Eleven fumbles in four games isn’t just unlucky, it’s a lack of concentration and commitment to holding on to the ball. When a team like the Ducks has coughed it up just twice in five games, it’s obvious that something has to change. 

“I don’t know if there’s a curse or a snakebite or what. Every game, we just don’t get the breaks,” Cal wide receiver Charon Arnold said. “But you don’t want to think about not fumbling, because you don’t want to get thoughts like that in your head.” 

The Bears need to get something in their heads, and it would help if it involved taking the ball away from the opposition. They have forced just one turnover this season, an interception by cornerback LeShaun Ward against Washington State. 

Perhaps Holmoe’s players can pick up some tips while watching game films of Oregon’s 63-28 pounding of Arizona last week. The Ducks proved to be masterful at converting turnovers into easy points, turning all five Arizona mistakes into touchdowns. 

While the Cal offense has improved under new coordinator Al Borges, averaging 382 yards per game (up from 317 ypg last season), it hasn’t turned into points or wins yet. That could be because the Bears have started just two drives on their opponent’s half of the field, while allowing opponents to start on the easy side of midfield 13 times. 

“When you can get a short field, that usually translates into points,” Holmoe said. “We just haven’t been able to get turnovers.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Barry Bonds hit it and Alex Popov may have caught it, but Patrick Hayashi emerged from a scrum of Giants fans to become the happy owner of the ball the San Francisco slugger smacked Sunday for his 73rd homer.  

Hayashi was grinning at the time, but he’s tight-lipped now about what he’ll do with the ball, valued at perhaps $1 million.  

“I am just savoring the moment,” Hayashi, 36, said in an e-mail that has served as his only public comment.  

Instead, Popov’s doing the talking. Television footage shows that Popov, a health-food restaurateur from Berkeley, gloved the ball but was mobbed by a crush of clawing fans. Someone ripped the ball from his mitt and it ended up in Hayashi’s hands.  

Now the catcher on the fly is brandishing a videotape and a lawyer, saying that if Hayashi doesn’t give back the ball he will seek criminal charges.  

Giants officials aren’t swayed.  

“Once Major League Baseball identifies the individual with possession of the ball, that’s the end of that,” said Jorge Costa, Giants senior vice president of ballpark operations.

Berkeley police are reporting several cases where phony $100 bills were passed. 

On Monday, a young man – “probably a juvenile” – went into Mail Boxes, etc. at 2342 Shattuck Ave., and asked the clerk to change a $100 bill, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley police. When the clerk turned him down, he went outside and approached a man, about to enter the business, asking him for change. The man, a UC Berkeley professor, obliged. But when he went into the store to spend his new bill, the clerk, who had seen the transaction outside, notified police who confirmed that the bill was phony. The professor was not charged. 

Police think that on Monday someone may have tried to pay for a $30 pasta at Pasta Shop Fine Foods, 1786 Fourth St., with a counterfeit $100. The suspect first tried to pay for the pasta with an old-looking $100 bill, which the clerk said looked phony and would not accept. Then the suspect pulled out a second $100 bill which, again, appeared counterfeit to the clerk. The customer finally pulled out a $100 bill, which was verified as real, paid for the pasta and left. 

Police are also looking into another incident on Monday at Longs Drugs, at 1451 Shattuck Ave., where someone may have attempted to pay for goods with a phony $100. And they are investigating an incident on Sunday at Carniera Don Jose, 2056 San Pablo Ave., where police said a suspect paid for three packs of tortillas with a counterfeit $100 bill. 

••• 

On Oct. 5, a man was shot twice, once in the left leg and once in the right calf, at San Pablo Avenue and Channing Way. “The victim said he doesn’t know who shot him,” and could not give police a description, Miller said. 

Berkeley High School held its breath Tuesday over the prospect of losing its latest principal – after only 13 months on the job. 

The school newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket, broke the story Tuesday that Frank Lynch is one of two finalists for the superintendent’s job in the Del Norte County Unified School District, at the state’s northwestern tip. 

“I really hate it if he’s going to leave,” said Cassandra Powell, an administrative clerk who works just outside Lynch’s office. “He’s the only principal I’ve seen who really cares about the students and lets them know he cares about them.” 

Lynch’s door was open as usual Tuesday afternoon, and he told the Daily Planet a consultant for the Del Norte district had sought him out a month and a half ago and that he had applied as a career move. 

“I love it here, it’s just that (Del Norte) is not only a school district, it’s a county district,” he said. “The professional opportunity is the only reason I applied there.” 

Lynch said he would take the new job if offered it, but that he would also not mind staying if he was turned down. 

“I can’t lose,” he said. “This is a great school, with great kids.” 

Alan J. Newell, Del Norte’s interim superintendent, confirmed that Lynch was among two finalists, but said the school board would not make its decision before a Thursday evening meeting.  

“I would contemplate that the result would be known on Thursday evening,” Newell said. 

Lynch started work on Aug. 8, 2000. He took over from Teresa Saunders, who served for two years. Before that, Lawrence Lee, currently the executive vice principal, served as interim principal for three years. 

“It’s probably one of the hardest jobs in the city of Berkeley,” Lee said, “in that no matter what you do, you’re always going to be disagreed with by somebody.” 

Lee said nobody on the administrative staff wanted to be the new principal, but the board would probably have to depend on the other top administrators to fill in during the search for a replacement. 

“Only if they ask me to do so will I consider it, but I’m not throwing my hat into the ring,” Lee said. “Most of us in the administrative team are old hands at Berkeley. If we are pressed into service in that capacity that’s fine, but I don’t think anybody’s throwing hats into the ring as a career choice.” 

“Obviously we’d have to do an extensive principal search” if Lynch left, said Board of Education Director John Selawsky, “and I think we’d have to take our time on that.” 

“In general, he’s been a great communicator and he has the support of the parents, staff, and kids. The kids all respect him which is important. If we lose him, it’ll be a loss.” 

At lunchtime Tuesday, some students joked laconically that the school’s buildings would all come crashing down without Lynch at the helm. Others were more earnest. 

“I think I’ll be really sad because he really cares about us,” said senior Natasha Mark. “If Lynch leaves not only will Berkeley High School fall apart, but the whole school will be sad.” 

“I think it’s going to make things more confusing,” said junior Greg Halabey.

Wednesday, Oct. 10 

PRC Meeting 

The meeting of the Police Review Commission scheduled for Oct. 10 has been canceled. Regular PRC meetings will resume on Oct. 24. 

Fear and Stress Workshop 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Betty Goren will speak about how to control your fear, anxiety and stress. 

Amendment to Zoning  

Ordinance Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The Planning Commission will consider an amendment to the zoning ordinance to prohibit the conversions of existing building space from any other use to office use and the development of new office uses of 5000 square feet or more in the mixed use-light industrial zoning district. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov. 28. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Thursday, Oct. 11 

Community Health  

Commission Meeting 

6:45 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Commissioners will brainstorm to determine major issues of concern regarding Alta Bates. 644-6109 

Resident Advisory  

Board Meeting 

4 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave 

Review Discussion and Possible Action on Draft Agency Annual Plan Update and thirty minutes of public comment. There will be refreshments. 

Free Depression Screenings 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

University Health Services, Tano Center 

2222 Bancroft Way 

Screenings will include a written self-test followed by an interview with a counselor. Referals for follow-up evaluation and treatment will be provided. 

Commonwealth Club: John Dean, Former Counsel  

to President Nixon 

5:30 p.m. 

Radisson Hotel 

200 Marina Blvd. 

Author, The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trial of Clinton and spearheaded the decision to shut down the Florida recount of the 2000 Election. $5 Students, $20 non-members.  

Friday, Oct. 12 

Will Star Wars Make Us Safe 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens 

2951 Derby St. 

Panel of speakers will discuss President Bush’s proposed Missile Defense Program. The public is invited to contribute to this discussion. Sponsored by Women for Peace. 849-3020  

Saturday, Oct. 13 

Shelter Operations 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit  

Tasting 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center St and Martin Luther King Way 

Free samples the whole range of fall fruit. There will be a wide variety of apples, pears and persimmons at a central location for taste-testing. 548-3333 

Pow Wow and Indian Market 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Enjoy Native American foods, dancing and arts & crafts in Berkeley’s tenth annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, this year honoring Mille Ketchesawno. 595-5520 

Optics Fair 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Explore the world of the unseen at the first-ever LHS Optics Fair featuring a variety of microscopes, binoculars, and hand lenses to try out and compare. Parents, teachers and children age 6 and up. 642-5132 

Monday, Oct. 15 

Rite of Christian Initiation  

for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Tuesday, Oct. 16 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

— compiled by Guy Poole 

By Walter Geist 

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the devastating Oakland-Berkeley hills firestorm. It is appropriate to remind the citizens of Berkeley of the danger posed by another firestorm and the promised protection implied with the passage of Measure G. 

On July 21, 1992, Michael Brown, city manager, presented for council action the "Fire Protection Bond Measure.” The recommendations submitted to the full Berkeley City Council were based upon the findings of a council committee that included current Mayor Shirley Dean, who was at that time a council member. The recommendations included a proposed new fire station that “…could be built on property owned by the East Bay Regional Park District located at Grizzly Peak, Centennial and Golf Course Road. This would provide for a quick emergency response into the Wild land/Urban intermix areas of Berkeley, Oakland, (UC Berkeley) property, and EBRPD.” The proposed new station would provide for, among other facilities, “Storage for 9-10 emergency vehicles…offices for Fire Prevention Inspectors…staging area for Mutual Aid resources and a helicopter landing site.”  

The Fire Protection Bond Measure was approved by the full City Council and was submitted to the voters on Nov. 3, 1992 in the form of Measure G. 

The text of Measure G: “Shall the City of Berkeley incur general obligation bonded indebtedness of $55,000,000 principal to increase the level of fire protection by constructing a jointly funded, multi-jurisdictional fire station, seismically retrofitting city buildings which house public safety personnel and equipment, replacing water mains throughout Berkeley, seismically retrofitting other City buildings if feasible and paying bond issuance costs?” 

The ballot argument in favor of Measure G started off as follows:“Just imagine how Berkeley would look today if the wind had shifted. Last year the Oakland/Berkeley hills were laid to waste by a devastating firestorm. Over 3,000 homes were lost in Oakland and 69 were lost in Berkeley. 

Those numbers could have easily been reversed if the wind had shifted toward the north.” 

Measure G passed overwhelmingly. 

While both the wording of Measure G and the initial argument in favor of it seem to stress the importance of the new fire station, less than 4 percent of the $55 million was allocated for the new fire station in the proposed Fire Protection Bond Measure approved by City Council. Over 70 percent of the funds were allocated to the repair and replacement of water mains, which, while necessary, isn’t as easy to sell to the voters as an increased level of fire protection in light of the Oakland-Berkeley Hills firestorm. 

Now, the current administration proposes to use the Measure G funding to replace the existing hills Fire Station No.7 with a new station to be located approximately three blocks from the existing station. The location of the replacement station was allegedly determined based upon response times to the perimeters of the area currently serviced by the old station and not response times to potential wild land fires. The new station will be staffed with the same 3-person crew. The location of the new fire station, its staffing and size are designed to deal with the same threats as the existing station. This solution does not adequately address the very real danger of wild land/urban intermixed fires and does not provide a material increase in the level of fire protection.  

One would like to assume that the council committee’s recommendations in 1992 were based upon a need and not a whim. The purpose, location and magnitude of the station as recommended by the council committee in 1992 and as described above clearly were intended to address the potential danger of another Oakland-Berkeley Hills firestorm. 

At a public meeting on Sept. 19, Fire Chief Reginald Garcia characterized the magnitude of the fire station as recommended by the council committee in 1992 as a “pipe dream.” This may or may not be an accurate characterization; however the citizens of Berkeley voted funding for Measure G to the tune of $55 million or approximately $500 for every man, woman and child in the city of Berkeley, largely on the basis of a need for wild land fire protection. That’s what we voted for and that’s what we want. Anything less is totally unacceptable. 

Walter Geist 

Berkeley 

924 Gilman Street Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Ashkenaz Oct 10: Billy Dunn & Bluesway; Oct 11: Grateful Dead DJ Night; Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Cal Performances Oct. 12 - 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $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. 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 

Jupiter Oct. 10: Cannonball with DJ Aspect; Oct. 11: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.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 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” 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. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

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

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; 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  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” 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. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” 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. 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 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate; Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Studs Terkel reads from “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and hunger for Faith; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 12: Elizabeth Royte examines “The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rainforest”; Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Susan Griffin Oct. 12: 7 - 10 p.m. Presents slide show and discusses her latest book “The Book of Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues”. $10 refundable with book purchase. Gaia Arts and Cultural Center, 2116 Allston Way 848-4242  

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.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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. 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  

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

Neighbors of a proposed fire station in the north Berkeley hills are charging that the city is inappropriately using money earmarked to build the station for a multi-jurisdictional wildfire “command center.” 

They say the city should not use bond revenues from 1992’s Measure G – which called for a “jointly funded, multi-jurisdictional fire station” to battle wildfires in the hills – to replace the aged Fire Station No. 7 at 2931 Shasta Rd. 

The city, led by Councilmember Betty Olds, has long been planning to move Station No. 7 from its current location up the hill to the corner of Shasta and Park Hill roads. 

The group bristled at recent reports in the press, and comments from city officials, that their true motive is to stop construction of the new fire station, which will be located closer to many of their homes. 

“That is flatly not true,” said Russ Henke, one of the people still fighting for a larger, joint command station.  

Henke’s neighbor, Louise Larson, added that the group “will not fight a new fire station – not at all. We just want the station that was promised to us.” 

Measure G, approved by 78 percent of Berkeley citizens, was put on the ballot after the devastating Oakland-Berkeley hills fire in 1991. Its intent was to prevent similar catastrophes by building a command center staffed by many agencies, including the Berkeley Fire Department, the Oakland Fire Department and the firefighting forces of the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

But after years of study, Berkeley and Oakland could not agree on the location of the center. Eventually, Oakland, which had passed its own version of Berkeley’s Measure G, pulled out of the project and built its own station near Claremont Canyon. 

Now, with the new Station 7 proposal, Berkeley wishes to do the same. According to Olds, the new station – which would be built with Measure G money – would include facilities for the parks district firefighters, and would be ready to fight wildfires. 

“Measure G’s intent was to build a multi-jurisdictional station, and we have fulfilled that by bringing in the Parks District,” she said. 

“It’s a front-line defense. We have a wildfire truck that’s going to be stored there. In the summer, during the critical times, there will be three Park District personnel stationed there.” 

In an interview Tuesday, Peter Cukor, a resident in Olds’ hills district, disagreed with the council member’s assessment of the proposed station. He said that several factors, including the lack of facilities for firefighting helicopters, would make a real response to a 1991-style fire from the new station inadequate. 

“This location clearly could not support what Measure G intended to do,” he said. “For instance, given the terrain up here, a helicopter is an essential element of fighting this kind of fire. This plan doesn’t give us one.” 

“Our concern is that the city of Berkeley made a promise to us – to protect us from wildfires – and they haven’t fulfilled it.” 

To assure that the new station is in compliance with Measure G, the city, after the approval of the City Council, will seek a “validation action” in the Alameda County Superior Court. Olds said that the action – asking the judge to say it is OK for Measure G monies to be spent on the project – would make impossible any potential lawsuit against the city that might seek to deny Measure G funds for the fire station. 

Assistant Fire Chief Dave Orth said Tuesday that the battle plan for large hills fires has evolved considerably since Measure G passed, and that the department was happy with the plans for the new station. 

Currently, said Orth, the hills in Alameda and Contra Costa counties are served by a number of Mutual Response Areas, in which several jurisdictions may respond quickly to reports of fire. 

“After the fire, one of the early concepts was to put more forces up here so we can respond quickly,” he said. “We still have that powerful force, but it’s responding from a lot of different areas.” 

“These things didn’t exist at the time the joint station was being discussed.” 

Orth said that fire bombers can reach the East Bay from San Jose and Santa Rosa in 20 minutes, if they are needed.  

Olds said that given Oakland and Berkeley’s competing interests in finding a site, the joint-command station was a “pipe dream,” and in any event has proved unnecessary. 

“Remember, this was right after the fire,” she said. “We overreacted, like people do after the emergency.” 

The draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed station is scheduled to be presented at the October 25 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board, after which the public will be invited to comment on it. The City Council will make a decision on whether to seek a “validation action” after the final Environmental Impact Report for the station is approved. 

Americans can’t sit still in face of terror 

Editor: 

In your (10/8) story “Bombing strikes home” you quoted Mecca Hassas as saying “Just imagine sitting in front of the TV and seeing your country bombed.” 

While I hate to be the one to have to point out the obvious – just what is it that she thinks went on in this country on Sept. 11, 2001?  

I woke up and watched on live television as terrorists, previously harbored in her home country, crashed hijacked jet-liners into the twin towers targeting approximately 50,000 civilians and killing approximately 6,000 in an act of pure hatred.  

I can appreciate her, and the other anti-war marchers’ distaste for war and the bombing in Afghanistan. I hate the idea that it’s being done. Still – I don’t think that America should have to sit still and not seek justice on behalf of the people who lost their lives that Tuesday morning. It is the government’s job to ensure the safety of its citizens, and if that means that a terrorist organization in Afghanistan has to be dismantled this way then in my estimation, it has to be done. I pray it will be done with minimal loss of human life.  

Y. Marchante  

Albany 

Youth need a voice 

Editor, 

The anti-war protest that took place on Oct. 8 in front of Sproul Plaza was a perfect example of how youth in America are not being heard. Many individuals, mostly UC Berkeley students, gathered around Sproul Plaza in a sense of unity to stand up against the government as the president sent in troops to bomb Afghanistan. The community of Berkeley does not agree with the government’s method of dealing with the September 11 event and I, as a representative of the youth population, certainly do not agree with the booming attacks. 

As I took a look around me, faces of concern, anger, and disappointment were everywhere, as the government today has stood as low as the terrorists themselves. There must be an easier way for us to voice our opinions and stand up for our rights other then presenting ourselves once again as the stereotypical youthful radicals. There are many organizations within and around the notorious UC Berkeley campus that would certainly help the students and youth today to voice their thoughts and concerns. 

One of which is called Youth Vote as it is the largest California based youth coalition ever created and are spread out across the nation as well. The purpose of the California Youth Vote coalition is to bring in more political awareness to students and politicians; in essence creating a communication bridge between the two diverse groups of individuals. Youth Vote is working extremely hard to make the voices of youth stand out and presenting debates and Q&A sessions with our senators and governor. As a member of this exceptionally well organized assembly, I can say that I am proud of what the organization has done for us UC Berkeley students.  

Joe Yang 

Berkeley 

Bombing better than sanctions 

Editor: 

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and a coalition of western nations put together a war to eject them and restore peace in the region. The first part of the war went quickly, with fewer deaths than predicted on both sides. A large part of the public didn’t support an invasion of Iraq, however, and the coalition shied away from removing the Iraqi government from power. Unfortunately, evidence uncovered by the United Nations proved that Iraq had chemical weapons, and that their project to create nuclear weapons was close to success. This was a promise of future disaster that could not be ignored. Faced with an intransigent Iraqi government, and with little support for additional military action, economic sanctions were put in place to prevent an Iraqi military buildup. These have only been partially effective, and have resulted in hardship and death for the civilian population. 

Can we learn from this history? Would the people of Iraq have been better off if the military action had continued and their government replaced? Military action in Afghanistan by a western coalition has started, with the goal of removing terrorist organizations. Demonstrations in Berkeley and elsewhere have also started, with the goal of stopping the war. Have we really thought that through? 

The war is certain to cause civilian death and injury. But, if it stops, what is the alternative? It is clear that the west cannot go back to ignoring the risk of terrorism, and that something will be done. Without military action and the replacement of the Taliban government, what is the alternative? Economic sanctions would be ruinous; without the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid from the United States and other countries, a huge number of Afghani people would starve.  

But the west clearly can’t continue that aid while the terrorists and supporting government remains.So progressives must face hard questions: What will happen if we stop the war? Are we willing to be responsible for the costs? Or would a western military victory actually be a good thing? 

Bob Jacobsen 

Berkeley 

Friday, the Arts Access Network held a preview exhibition of a festival set for next year that will present work by disabled artists as well as offer opportunities for the disabled to be creative. 

Held on the sixth floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Building, the exhibition featured the paintings, crafts and poetry of 12 disabled artists including Carla Toth, Philip Martin Chavez and Mark Hendrix. The show was a preview of the Arts Access Festival, which will take place in October 2002. 

The goal of the festival is to increase opportunities for creativity in the disabled community, which has traditionally been denied access to galleries, studios and stages, organizers say. 

“We believe everyone, no matter their abilities, should (have the opportunity of) participating, creating and enjoying art,” said Curtis Billue, co-chair of AAN. “The right to communicate thoughts and feelings and dreams to another person is a right like no other.” 

Arts Access Network, formed last year, is a nonprofit collective of 14 organizations from four Bay Area counties. Participating organizations include the Center for Independent Living, Center for Accessible Technology and the city’s Civic Arts Division. The AAN currently publishes a quarterly newsletter that provides information about accessible art exhibitions, workshops and classes. 

The organization’s mission is to promote arts participation, representation, and integration by people of all abilities. 

AAN co-founder Elias Katz, president of the National Institute of Art and Disabilities in Richmond, said disabled people often experience limited access to not only the enjoyment of art but creating it as well. 

“We want disabled people to have access to the creative arts wherever possible and we don’t just mean ramps and sign language, but the ability to be creative as well.” 

Director of Integrated Arts Dmitri Belser said the problem of inaccessibility to art programs usually begins in school.  

“Traditionally people with disabilities haven’t had access to the arts because most schools don’t make arts classes accessible for those kids, because art is viewed as unimportant,” he said. 

Belser said the booths planned for next year’s festival, will exhibit a variety of art forms, including painting, clay work and textile printing. Creating art will be on the agenda, with a host of adaptive tools available, so those with creative impulses can try them out. 

Artist Mark Hendrix, who presented his graphic arts work at the preview exhibition, said it’s important for disabled artists to stay current on technological advances that help the creative process. 

Hendrix said many artists have interns or helpers carry out most of the actual work and that disabled artists should not rule out having other people or technology help them as well. 

“A lot of people, when they look a piece of art, think that it was created by a lone person but that perception often isn’t justified,” he said. “Anyone who wants to can be creative with the help of tools.” 

Hendrix said another artist who showed at the exhibit, Philip Martin Chavez, presented paintings that were executed entirely with the use of voice-activated software. 

AAN Festival organizers are currently signing up businesses, organizations and artists that are interested in sponsoring booths at next year’s event. For more information about receiving the AAN newsletter or participating in the festival, call 841-1466 or visit http://www.icomm.ca/iarts.

A City Council super-majority refused to hear a motion Tuesday that would have placed the city on record, asking their representatives in Congress to “cease the bombing of Afghanistan (and) seek a legal, nonmilitary resolution” to the conflict there. It also called for the council meeting to be “closed in memory of the innocent civilians in Afghanistan being harmed and made refugees due to the bombing.” 

In reaction to the military action that began Sunday, Councilmember Dona Spring tried to place the resolution on the agenda as an “emergency item.” Such items require six votes to pass. Spring had only the five “progressive” votes on the council that included Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, and councilmembers Margaret Breland, Linda Maio, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington. 

The resolution will be before the council next week, when a simple majority will be required to pass it. 

••• 

California Peace Action, based in Berkeley and Los Angeles, issued a statement Monday condemning the United States’ air strikes on Afghanistan. 

The group said its members are praying for the safety of members of the American military and for the people of Afghanistan.  

They are calling on the president to cease military action and not to launch a ground war, which, they said, could lead to international involvement. 

“The goal of the attacks of Sept. 11 was to provoke a U.S. military reaction that could polarize the Islamic world,” said the group’s executive director, Peter Ferenbach. 

“U.S. military action carries with it the very real possibility of launching a civil war in Pakistan, a nuclear armed nation,” Ferenbach added. 

While decrying the Sept. 11 attack as a “crime against humanity,” the group says that continued military strikes would risk the lives of American soldiers and Afghans. The group wants the United Nations Security Council to establish an international tribunal, and have the United States submit its evidence against terrorist suspects. 

••• 

The Downtown Berkeley Association celebrated the success of the first annual Guinness and Oyster Festival at Beckett’s Irish Pub in downtown Berkeley on Tuesday. Volunteers, business and civic leaders, including Mayor Shirley Dean, came to celebrate in a post-production party, according to a DBA press statement. 

DBA President Rauly Butler presented a $3,000 check to the Red Cross and a $3,000 check to Mayor Dean for the New York Fallen Firefighters Fund. The festival raised a total of $12,800 for the New York relief efforts. 

On Sept. 22, over 12,000 people came to downtown Berkeley to enjoy the festival, according to the DBA. This first time event raised close to $30,000 which will be reinvested downtown. 

—Daily Planet staff, Bay City News

As more than 400 anti-war protesters faced off with a smaller group of war-supporters on UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Monday, the professors and students who study peace and conflict at the university were divided about which group to join. 

Professor Jerry Sanders, whose peace and conflicts studies class met just as the protest began, canceled class. Instead, he asked his students to attend the protest and form their own opinions about the validity of either of the two sides. 

August Hoppler, a first year student in the class, knew which side she would stand with. “America deserved the attack” of Sept. 11, she said, a sentiment echoed by some of the anti-war protesters. “We’re blind to what is going on in the world.”  

As for a response to the attacks, Hoppler feared that a military retaliation would lead to a widening of the war. “I see that as useless,” she said. In her view, America’s response should be increased safeguards at home, not retaliation abroad. 

Daniel Durazno, another first year student in the class, was less certain. Military action is sometimes necessary, he said carefully, but not the bombing of civilians. “Until (Sunday), I was proud of how (the United States) had reacted.” Now he’s not so sure. 

A different kind of uncertainty was felt by some professors. 

“Is this war?” asked Beth Simmons, an associate professor in the political science department at UC Berkeley. Simmons felt more comfortable calling it a “defensive war,” and suggested that different moral standards may apply to a war fought in self defense.  

As for the protesters’ demand to stop the bombing, she said that much of it was “naïve.”  

Sanders also found fault with some of the protesters’ claims. He called their description of the war as racist a “misnomer.” “Just because they happen to be Arab doesn’t make it a racist war,” Sanders said. In response to protesters’ characterization of the war as rich against the poor, he pointed out that Usama bin Ladin came from a wealthy, elite background. “We like to think about things like commandments and absolutes, but the truth is there is a gray area,” Sanders said.  

One of those gray areas was whether the bombings were in violation of international law. 

According to Sanders, the United States is within its legal rights to attack if it does so in a “proportional manner.” Purposefully targeting civilians would be clearly illegal, he said, yet the incidental killings of civilians does not necessarily violate the law.  

With little or no firm information about the effect the on-going bombings, Sanders said on Monday he believes it’s too early for both the protesters and those in favor of attacks to pass judgment.

SACRAMENTO — A teacher who burned a flag in front of his sixth-graders and referred to the nation as “United Snakes” in what he called an example of “revolutionary teaching” could lose his job. 

The classroom incident, which occurred a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has infuriated school district officials and parents, who said Tuesday that he should be fired. 

“He shouldn’t even be working in the school district if he’s going to be thinking like that,” says Myeshia Dunson. “That scares the kids. It’s not good.” 

Second-year teacher Kory Grant Clift, 25, described by some parents as an excellent teacher who showed poor judgment, has apologized for the Sept. 18 incident in which he partially burned an American flag in front of 30 students. 

Clift allegedly set fire to a corner of the flag and said, “I can’t burn it all, because that’s illegal.” He also told his students, “Babylon is burning,” according to officials at Del Paso Heights Elementary School District. 

Carl Mack, the district’s superintendent, announced Tuesday that he has notified Clift that he had come to a decision about his career status that will take effect in 30 days, and that Clift can appeal to the school board. 

Clift’s future remained shrouded Tuesday as the school district and its attorneys declined further comment, citing “confidentiality.” The California Teachers Association provided him with an attorney, Carolyn Langenkamp, who also declined comment. 

This is the second time this year Clift has been on administrative leave with pay. Last spring, he was placed on leave for placing a child in a closet for disciplinary reasons, district officials said. 

Clift did not return messages left at his home Tuesday. In a statement released by a friend, he said he was sorry about the negative attention the flag-burning brought to his school district. He also said it remains his goal to teach. 

The U.S. Supreme Court often has ruled that flag burning is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

But many parents believe he should lose his job for making such a statement in a classroom at North Avenue Elementary School. 

“If he really did that on purpose, then what is right needs to be done,” said Jimmy Yang. 

The teacher is also on probation for a 1998 run-in with a Sacramento police officer. Court records show he pleaded no contest in April 1999 to a misdemeanor count of using threats and violence to deter a policeman from performing his duties. He received 240 days of community service and three years of probation. 

He is a 2000 graduate of California Sate University, Sacramento, but has no teaching credential, according to the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing.

The Associated Press 

SACRAMENTO — For the third year in a row, Gov. Gray Davis has vetoed a bill that would have required employers to tell employees in writing if they monitor their workers’ e-mails. 

The Democratic governor on Tuesday also turned down several bills he said the state couldn’t afford in the face of a potential multibillion dollar budget shortfall. 

But he signed dozens of other measures, including a bill that authorizes an income tax credit for individuals and small businesses that buy and install solar or wind-powered generators. 

Davis said the e-mail bill would have placed “unnecessary and complicating obligations on employers” and could have led to lawsuits by employees alleging that the notice was never provided. 

Employers have the right to monitor office e-mails since they could be held liable for illegal conduct by their workers, and employees “in today’s wired economy” know that e-mails can be monitored, Davis said. 

But the bill’s author, Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, said Davis had missed “the larger point of a person’s right to, and expectation of, privacy.” 

“Just because employers own the computers and pay for the Internet access doesn’t mean they have the right to spy on their workers any more than owning the telephone and paying the phone bill allows them to monitor or record their workers’ personal phone conversations without telling them,” she said. 

A written notice to each employee would discourage them from using computer e-mail for personal reasons, Bowen said. 

The senator rejected amendments proposed by Davis, which a Bowen aide said would have required employers only to post a monitoring notice in the employee break room. 

Davis also vetoed bills that would have: 

• Provided grants to public libraries for after-school youth programs. 

• Authorized scholarships and grants for students who agreed to practice in the fields of geriatrics or gerontology for three years after graduation. 

• Provided additional funds to help school districts in colder areas of the state pay for snow removal. 

— Required the Department of Education to publish a report on the Internet each year revealing the distribution of uncredentialed teachers in California schools. 

In each case, Davis cited the cost of the bill, the slowing economy and a $1.1 billion revenue shortfall through the first three months of this fiscal year. 

The alternative energy bill, by Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, will allow individuals and small businesses to take a state income tax credit to cover part of the cost of buying a photovoltaic or wind-driven power system with a generating capacity of up to 200 kilowatts. 

The credit will be equal to 15 percent of the purchase price or $4.50 per rated watt of the generator, whichever is less, for the 2001 to 2003 tax years and half that amount for the 2004 and 2005 tax years. It will expire on Jan. 1, 2006. 

Brulte said the measure will help ease future energy shortages. 

OAKLAND – The political tug-of-war over the size of a juvenile detention facility in Alameda County shifted Tuesday once again in favor of those who advocate the construction of a larger facility in Dublin. 

Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker moved the board reconsider a vote she placed last month, which moved the county away from plans to build a 450-bed facility in Dublin. 

Members of a coalition that includes the youth advocacy group Books Not Bars, the Friends of Dublin and the Vote Health group advocating in behalf of renovating the Fairmont Hospital, praised Lai-Bitker’s swing vote at the time. 

But their support quickly dissipated Tuesday morning, as they heard Lai-Bitker change her vote and then introduce a proposal to raise the number of beds up to 420. 

Lai-Bitker’s proposal directs staff to plan the juvenile facility keeping a 420-bed capacity in mind.  

However, the proposal also calls for a contingency structure, which could provide for an additional 30 beds. 

Lai-Bitker said such a capacity would allow the county to meet its juvenile detention needs not only for the immediate future, but also in the long run. 

“We will only open (the juvenile hall) with the beds we need in 2005. I hope we can open it with less than 420,” Lai Bitker said. “The (420-bed capacity) may well be meeting our needs in the next quarter century.” 

Lai-Bitker’s proposal passed 3-2, with supervisors Nate Miley and Keith Carson, who represents Berkeley and parts of Oakland, opposing it. Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Gail Steele voted to approve the proposal.  

Lai-Bitker also challenged and defeated a study she helped approve last week, which directs staff to look at building two facilities, one in Dublin and another in the current location. 

Opponents of the Dublin site say that it puts juvenile offenders too far away from their families, in essence cutting them off from their society. 

Another concern of those who oppose a larger facility say that the size of the facility would dictate the way the county deals with issues of youth discipline. A larger building, they say, would lead to higher detention rates. 

Opposing the 420-bed facility, Miley said he couldn’t support it because he is not convinced that the county is committed to lowering the number of juveniles that it puts away. 

“I just don’t feel that the county has a policy that is directed toward detention alternatives,” Miley said.

SAN DIEGO — A school board president who sent an e-mail suggesting two colleagues be shot for prolonging meetings with debate stepped down from the presidency but rejected demands that she resign from the board. 

Sue Braun announced her decision as she made a public apology Tuesday at a meeting of the San Diego Unified School District. Braun said she was stepping down as president “in the best interests of the district and the students we serve.” 

Her decision did not satisfy the two members who she said should be shot after a contentious board meeting that lasted nearly eight hours. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, which lasted five hours, the two sought to have the board adopt a resolution calling on her to resign but it failed on a 2-2 vote, with Braun abstaining. “Mrs. Braun’s apology is accepted. Her excuses are not,” board member Frances O’Neill Zimmerman said.  

In her e-mail sent last month, Braun expressed frustration about Zimmerman and fellow board member John de Beck. The note, sent to several district officials but not the two board members, asked for suggestions for avoiding delays at future meetings. 

“The only other idea I have is to shoot the both of them,” Braun wrote, according to a copy of the e-mail provided by the district. 

“I was thinking of a way to get them both with one bullet, but now think they are each too heavy for that to work.” 

Criticism of the message comes amid heightened concern about school violence following two shootings at San Diego-area campuses this year. 

With prayers and flickering candles, to the sound of bagpipes and police sirens and patriotic hymns, Americans by the millions will break from their routines Thursday to mark the passage of one month since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. 

Houses of worship will hold special services, including extra hours for confession at Roman Catholic churches. Thousands of restaurants will donate a share of the day’s profits to aid families of the victims. Many communities will observe moments of silence or conduct candlelight vigils. 

“It’s hard not to do something,” said Chuck Ruoff, deputy mayor of Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J., where an evening vigil is planned. 

“We’re still in a semi-depression state. It will take a long time to get over this.” 

In Columbus, Ohio, police officers not handling calls will park their cruisers and simultaneously run their sirens and lights for one minute in honor of firefighters and police officers killed in New York. Church and school bells will ring in unison in San Luis Obispo, Calif. 

At the urging of the Alliance of North American Pipe Band Associations, bagpipers across the United States, and as far away as New Zealand, will play in memory of the victims. 

Bert Heyvaert, a piper from Belgium, said he would play at the American memorial in Ypres, site of a devastating battle in World War I. 

“My respects to the (New York) rescue workers and all those who have not given up hope in their wounded city,” he wrote in a message to the pipers’ association. “I’ll be proud to honor all of you.” 

At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, charities and child-advocacy groups are sponsoring a concert and rally to honor the attacks’ victims and proclaim support for the world’s children. Ambassadors from dozens of countries have been invited; more than 1,000 children are expected to participate. 

Colleges and universities will mark the day with services at their chapels, and symposiums on issues raised by the attacks. 

At the University of Washington, all classes will be suspended for what’s being called a Day of Reflection. It will include lectures, workshops and performances. 

Poetry readings and music are planned at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore as part of an event promoting tolerance toward Arabs and Muslims.  

“We want to help people bridge their divides,” said Laurie Bezold, one of the organizers. 

Catholic Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, Del., is helping churches in his diocese prepare for a day of prayer and remembrance. 

“All of us, deep down inside, have that need to be a part of some kind of peacemaking effort,” Saltarelli said Tuesday. “People need to feel at peace with God, their neighbors and themselves.” 

The National Restaurant Association said nearly 7,000 establishments will join in Thursday’s Dine for America campaign, pledging to donate profits to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. 

“It gives us a way to put our money where our mouth is,” said Jim DeSimone, a spokesman for Darden Restaurants, whose holdings include Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants. 

At Marti’s Place, a steak-and-seafood restaurant along the Kankakee River in Hebron, Ind., the staff is bracing for a busy evening. 

“We’re just wondering if we’re going to have enough food for the Saturday and Sunday crowd,” said owner Ron Klauer. “We might have to serve hot dogs and potato chips on those days.” 

Some places are earmarking donations to the Windows of Hope fund for the families of restaurant workers killed in the World Trade Center. Unlike New York police and firefighters, many restaurant workers had no employer-provided pensions or insurance. 

In Sacramento, Calif., officials chose to hold observances Tuesday, marking four weeks since the attacks. Police vehicles and fire trucks from across California paraded through downtown to the state Capitol while a flag-waving crowd looked on. 

“We are in a war and we are all sticking together,” said Vinny Olson, a Vietnam veteran and state employee, as he watched the procession. 

——— 

On the Net: 

National Restaurant Association: http://www.restaurant.org 

Bagpiper memorial: http://www.anapba.org/memorial.htm 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Embarrassed by anti-U.S. protests, Yasser Arafat’s government took two unprecedented steps Tuesday: it closed Gaza City’s universities to silence Islamic militants and barred foreign reporters from the Gaza Strip to prevent coverage of the events. 

The clampdown by the Palestinian Authority came a day after the deadliest internal Palestinian fighting in years, triggered by the militants’ show of support for Osama bin Laden. Two civilians were killed and dozens of police and protesters hurt in a clash with guns, stones, clubs and tear gas. 

Meanwhile Tuesday, Nabil Shaath, cabinet minister for international cooperation, sought to distance the Palestinian cause from remarks by bin Laden that were broadcast Sunday, saying “Palestinians are not prepared to be responsible for whoever says that for security to be achieved for the Palestinian people, one must strike not only America but everyone living there.” 

Referring to bin Laden, the Palestinian minister said, “If he thinks that he serves the Palestinian cause this way, then let him be responsible for his remarks. We will not be.” 

Shaath, in Doha for an Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting that starts Wednesday, said Palestinians did not reject bin Laden’s linking of American security to Palestinian security. 

Palestinians do reject their cause being used as justification for the killing of innocent people in the United States, however, he said. 

“We do not want to be an excuse for anyone,” he said. “Our cause is just and we want to achieve it justly. Because the Israelis are the terrorists.” 

The fighting pitted the Palestinian Authority against its longtime rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas, which has been behind the rallies in support of bin Laden following the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. 

Arafat is trying to persuade Hamas to abide by a Sept. 26 truce with Israel, and could be using the clampdown to force it into compliance. 

In recent weeks, Arafat had shied away from open confrontation with Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group, even though both had defied his orders to stop attacks on Israelis. 

Palestinian analyst Ghassan Khatib said it was easier for Arafat to crack down on the militants over the pro-bin Laden rallies than over the cease-fire, which is largely unpopular. 

Many Palestinians are dismayed by bin Laden’s attempt in a televised address this week to create a link between the Palestinian cause and his war against the United States. 

“The statement that represents average Palestinians and their feelings about bin Laden’s speech is to respond: ‘Leave us alone,”’ Khatib said. 

The response was vastly different a decade ago, just before the outbreak of the Gulf War, when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein presented himself as the Palestinians’ savior, mainly in hopes of fracturing an international coalition against him. 

At the time, Arafat embraced Saddam and Palestinians cheered Iraq’s promises to drive Israel out of the Middle East. 

Palestinian officials later acknowledged it was a mistake. It led to the uprooting of tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gulf states, including Kuwait. 

In the current crisis, Arafat has been careful to show support for the United States from the start, including Washington’s efforts to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian truce that would make it easier for Arab and Islamic states to support a military strike against terrorism suspects. 

Israel has accused Arafat of doing too little to curb the militants, and violence has persisted, with 35 Palestinians and seven Israelis killed in fighting in the past two weeks. 

But Israeli officials say there has been a shift in recent days, with the Palestinian Authority issuing public exhortations to honor the cease-fire. 

Islamic militant leaders also said Monday they were summoned by the Palestinian Authority and warned there would be a tough response if they went on attacking Israelis. 

Three suspected Islamic militants were arrested in the West Bank over the weekend — but Israel insists that the Palestinians arrest 108 suspects, and has handed over a list of names. 

“We will have to see if this will be a sustained effort,” said Raanan Gissin, adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 

Tuesday marked the first time since the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 that Gaza City’s Islamic University and Al Azhar University were ordered closed. 

The order was issued Monday by Palestinian police chief Ghazi Jabali, although on Tuesday, administrators of both universities ran newspaper ads suggesting it was they, not Arafat’s government, who decided on the closure. The schools are to stay closed through the week. 

The Palestinian government also barred nearly a dozen foreign reporters, including two for The Associated Press, from the Gaza Strip. 

A Palestinian official at the Israel-Gaza border cited security reasons. He would not give his name. 

An AP photographer was barred from entering the Palestinian-controlled area around the West Bank city of Nablus, where about 1,500 students marched to protest against the shooting of the Gaza students and the U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan. 

No Palestinian Authority official was willing to comment on the restrictions. Arafat’s security forces have repeatedly tried to prevent reporting on pro-bin Laden marches. 

On Monday, journalists were chased away from the Hamas rally in Gaza City. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a BBC radio correspondent collecting reaction to the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan had her tape confiscated. 

WASHINGTON — The United States hit Afghanistan with a third day of airstrikes, crushing Taliban air defenses, radars and airports to the extent that American warplanes can fly virtually unchallenged night and day, the Pentagon said Tuesday. “The skies are now free,” President Bush said. 

The administration pushed for the surrender of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and the ouster of the Taliban regime that shelters him. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Afghan dissidents to “heave the Al-Qaida and the Taliban leadership ... out of the country.” 

On Wednesday morning, jets dropped three bombs near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar in the second straight morning of daylight raids, Taliban sources said. 

Bin Laden’s spokesman called for a holy war against U.S. interests and praised the hijackers who flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11. “The storm of airplanes will not stop,” Sulaiman Abu Ghaith said. 

In a home-front scolding, Bush accused Congress of leaking information about the global investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. 

“You have a responsibility, and some members did not accept that responsibility,” Bush said. He warned lawmakers not to talk about troop deployments, either. 

In the skies over Afghanistan, U.S. bombs streaked day and night toward sites connected with the ruling Taliban. Sources inside the Taliban said bombs struck around Kandahar, the militia’s headquarters, and the northwest city of Herat. Anti-aircraft fire and the roar of jets rattled the capital, Kabul. 

Four security workers for a United Nations-affiliated mine-clearing operation were killed during Monday night’s strikes. Rumsfeld said it wasn’t clear whether U.S. bombs or Taliban anti-aircraft fire killed the men. 

In an appeal to the United States, U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said: “People need to distinguish between combatants and those innocent civilians who do not bear arms.” 

Bush was unapologetic. “There is one way to shorten the campaign in Afghanistan and that is for Osama bin Laden and his leadership to be turned over so he can be brought to justice,” he said. 

Four weeks after terrorist attacks killed more than 5,000 and staggered the U.S. economy, Americans were still on edge. 

The FBI pressed its anthrax investigation in Florida, convinced that foul play rather than environmental sources infected one man and exposed a co-worker. 

Bush called the death an isolated incident. “We’re on high alert on the governmental level, but the American people should go about their business,” he said. 

Rumsfeld declined to identify the targets of Tuesday’s assaults, but said meager Taliban defenses were in shambles. Bush called the mission a success so far. 

“We believe we are now able to carry out strikes more or less around the clock as we wish,” Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon. 

Rumsfeld said, however, some risk remains to coalition pilots from helicopters, a small number of fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles. 

Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers opened their news conference with before-and-after pictures of Taliban targets. Each grainy aerial shot of a terrorist camp or military site was followed by second — the target now cratered or smoke-streaked. 

The home of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, about nine miles outside Kandahar, was struck for the third time, Taliban sources said. 

There was a dwindling number of targets left to strike in the Taliban’s paltry military or bin Laden’s network, a fact that increased speculation about Bush’s next move. Rumsfeld said Bush has not ruled out the use of ground forces; Bush would not would not say whether he was considering them. 

U.S. officials said the administration will aid the various anti-Taliban militias, broadly suggesting opposition forces could get American air cover. Special forces, already at work in Afghanistan, could be used to support opposition forces, the officials said. 

As if to underscore that strategy, fighting between the anti-Taliban northern alliance and regime forces intensified on the third day of U.S.-led strikes. The clashes occurred along the Pyandzh River separating Tajikistan from Afghanistan. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who lent his forces in Sunday’s initial raids, said, “We are obviously closer to achieving our objectives.” 

In Pakistan, Afghanistan’s neighbor and a fragile player in Bush’s coalition, the government tightened security in the capital and arrested three Muslim clerics who organized anti-American demonstrations. Four people, including a 13-year-old boy, died in new violence. 

On the death of the U.N.-affiliated workers, Rumsfeld said America regretted the loss of lives, but he did not apologize. 

“If there were an easy way to root terrorist networks out of countries that harbor them, it would be a blessing, but there is not,” he said. 

“It’s just one of those things that happens” in war, said Sen. John Warner of Virginia, top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

The Taliban claim dozens of civilians have been killed in U.S.-led raids. Bush ordered the strikes after repeated warnings to turn over terrorists including bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Bush was asked if he wanted bin Laden dead or alive, a phrase he has used in the past. He smiled and said, “I want there to be justice.” 

In other action: 

—Bush named two new staff members to his gathering anti-terrorism team, former Gen. Wayne A. Downing as deputy national security adviser on terrorism, and Richard Clarke as chief of cyberspace security. 

—Bush formally notified Congress of the military action Tuesday and said he couldn’t predict “the scope and duration of the deployment.” There are 30,000 U.S. troops in the region. 

—The government released new rules to quickly strengthen cockpit doors. Four planes were hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks. 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Three U.S.-based scientists shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for creating a new state of matter: an ultra-cold gas that could aid in developing smaller and faster electronics. 

The award went to Americans Eric A. Cornell, 39, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo. and Carl E. Wieman, 50, of the University of Colorado along with German scientist Wolfgang Ketterle, 43, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Their creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995 could lead to ways to make ever tinier electronic circuits. The new technology could eventually be used to draw computer circuits by depositing a stream of atoms on a circuit board. 

Other potential applications include extremely accurate clocks and distance-measuring devices. The technology could also be used in quantum computers, which are expected to be much faster than today’s computers. 

“Revolutionary applications ... appear to be just round the corner,” according to the citation by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 

Cornell and Wieman also work at JILA, a research institute in Boulder formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics. Ketterle worked independently of them in Germany before coming to MIT in 1990. The three will share a $943,000 prize. Wieman said he learned about the win from his brother, who read about it on the Internet and called him at 4 a.m. 

“I discovered that I’m not nearly as excited about winning the prize as I was about seeing the Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time,” he said. “In seeing how I reacted, the discovery was just more significant.” 

Ketterle was greeted with hugs from students when he arrived at the MIT physics department Tuesday morning with his two sons, Jonas, 15, and Holger, 9. 

“The biggest reward is to make discoveries, the thrill of seeing new glimpses of nature. Of course, it’s nice to be recognized,” Ketterle said. 

The term Bose-Einstein refers to Indian physicist S.N. Bose and Albert Einstein. As early as 1924, Bose did statistical research on light particles called photons and sent his work to Einstein, who extended the theory to other particles. 

Einstein predicted that when particles slow down and approach each other, they produce a new state of matter. Other states of matter include solids, liquids and gases. 

The academy noted that more than 20 groups are conducting experiments with Bose-Einstein condensates but add that the laureates “have maintained their lead and many interesting new results have been presented.” 

Erling Norrby, head of the academy, noted it took 70 years to turn the Bose-Einstein concept into a reality. 

“A lot have tried before that but it took a number of technical developments to track atoms,” Norrby said. “The time was mature.” 

Keith Burnett, a physics professor at Oxford University, said the achievement took “an enormous amount of courage (and) hard work.” Burnett recalled that at a meeting of scientists in 1993 “there were many people who thought it was just impossible.” 

This year’s Nobel awards started Monday with the naming of three physiology or medicine prize winners. American researcher Leland H. Hartwell and Britons Tim Hunt and Paul Nurse were cited for work on cell development that could lead to new cancer treatments. 

The chemistry and economics prizes will be awarded Wednesday and the literature prize on Thursday. On Friday, the winner of the peace prize will be announced in Oslo, Norway. 

Last year, the physics prize was awarded for research that led to the pocket calculator, microchips and satellite communications. 

The prizes always are presented to the winners on Dec. 10. To mark the 100th anniversary of the prizes, all living laureates have been invited to the ceremonies this year, with some 150 expected in Stockholm and 30 in Oslo. 

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On the Net: 

Nobel site, http://www.nobel.se 

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s largest utility is finding that the state Public Utilities Commission remains among the tallest of obstacles standing between it and a speedy resolution of its bankruptcy woes. 

Lawyers for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. met in court Tuesday with a federal bankruptcy judge, state representatives and lawyers representing thousands of creditors to craft a timeline of the process by which the utility could emerge from bankruptcy and pay its debts. 

During the nearly three-hour meeting, critics of PG&E’s bankruptcy plan repeatedly asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali to delay allowing the utility to file a disclosure statement — an explanation of how it plans to pay debts and restructure its company — until it is clear whether the utility must wait for state approval before moving forward. 

Organizations such as The Utility Reform Network, the PUC and the city and county of San Francisco told Montali that, without more time, parties would file objections to a case that could be overhauled if Montali allows the state to have a say in PG&E’s reorganization. 

“People are being asked to review very quickly something that would be a dramatic change,” said Steve Johnson, an attorney with the office of the U.S. Trustee, which oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases. 

“I don’t want to waste people’s time sending out a disclosure statement on a plan that is not lawful.” 

PG&E released its reorganization plan nearly three weeks ago, calling for the utility to break itself up and transfer its hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants and natural gas pipelines to a federally regulated subsidiary. 

Critics say the utility is trying to remove much of the company from state regulation, allowing it to charge more for electricity it now sells at low prices. 

PG&E says moving its assets to PG&E Corp., its parent company, will allow it to issue bonds and raise $13.2 billion in cash and loans – enough money to pay every creditor. 

PG&E attorney Jim Lopes said the utility does not need PUC approval of its plan. He told Montali that speed is key to making the utility healthy, and said the court shouldn’t wait for a resolution with the PUC before having parties begin filing possible objections. 

“They only way we’re going to know what they are is to have people file pleadings,” Lopes said. 

In June, Montali refused to overrule a PUC decision ordering PG&E to make accounting changes the utility said prevented it from collecting the full cost of power from customers, which would have helped it avoid its debt. PG&E filed for federal bankruptcy protection April 6. 

On Tuesday, Montali refrained from saying whether he would overrule the PUC and other state officials who say PG&E’s plan violates a recent state law that prohibits utilities from selling their power plants. 

Without Montali’s approval to preempt state law, PG&E’s proceedings could stall as it wrangles with the state for the right to rearrange its holdings, forcing diverse creditors such as the state of California, banks, power sellers, restaurants and tree trimmers to wait still longer before their bills are paid. 

The utility now plans to issue a disclosure statement in late December, which will explain the reorganization plan as it then stands and how it will affect parties involved. Creditors then will vote on the plan. 

Montali also gave PG&E his blessing to sell a power plant in Kern County to a company that can take over operations and resume sending 180 megawatts of electricity to the state’s power grid. 

Gov. Gray Davis publicly approved the sale earlier this summer, calling for all available power plants to pump out electricity and help the state avoid rolling blackouts. The PUC objected, and PG&E now must work with the PUC before the deal can go through. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Federal bankruptcy court: http://www.canb.uscourts.gov 

PG&E: http://www.pge.com 

Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov 

WASHINGTON — A 2001 Pontiac Aztek got four of five stars in the government’s rating of rollover risk, the best score given yet to a sport utility vehicle. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the last of its ratings for the 2001 model year and the first for 2002 on Tuesday. 

The ratings are based on an arithmetic formula using the vehicle’s center of gravity and width. The more stars, the lower the rollover risk. SUVs and pickup trucks are more top-heavy and thus more likely to get low marks than a car or van. 

Real world accident statistics also show pickups and SUVs are more likely to roll over. More than 60 percent of fatalities in SUVs and more than  

40 percent of deaths in pickups happen in rollovers. By comparison, 22 percent of car deaths involve rollovers. 

Until the Aztek 4X4 earned four stars, no SUV had gotten more than three. The Aztek 4X2 got a three-star rating earlier this year. 

Most of the other SUV ratings released Tuesday were three stars, including the 2001 Subaru Forester 4X4 and 2002 models of the Ford Explorer 4X4, Chevrolet Trailblazer 4X2 and 4X4, GMC Envoy 4X2 and 4X4, Mercury Mountaineer 4X4 and Oldsmobile Bravada 4X2 and 4X4. 

Two stars went to the 2001 Nissan Xterra 4X2 and 2002 models of the Explorer 4X2, Mountaineer 4X2 and Jeep Liberty 4X2 and 4X4. 

The Dodge Dakota extended cab 4X4 pickup got three stars, as did the GMC Safari 4X2 van. 

The 2002 models will be the last rated by the mathematical formula. Under a new law, NHTSA must begin conducting rollover driving tests for the 2003 model year. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov 

http://www.pontiac.com/aztek 

HOUSTON — Texaco Inc. is selling its interests in two gas stations and refinery joint ventures to Shell Oil Co. and another partner for about $2.1 billion, paving the way for completion of Texaco’s $38.6 billion sale to Chevron Corp. 

Under the deals disclosed Tuesday, Shell and Saudi Refining Inc. are buying the Texaco stake in the joint ventures and would assume responsibility for about $1.7 billion in debt and other liabilities. 

The deals would give Houston-based Shell sole ownership of Equilon Enterprises LLC, which operates about 4,500 Shell stations and 4,500 Texaco stations, primarily in the western United States. 

Equilon, formed in 1998, also operates four refineries, a lubricants business and a pipeline and terminal network. 

The other divestiture would give Shell and Saudi Refining Inc., a subsidiary of Aramco Services Co., equal interest in Motiva Enterprises LLC. 

Motiva, likewise formed in 1998, operates mostly in the east and includes nearly 4,800 Shell stations and about 8,200 Texaco stations, four refineries and a network of terminals. 

The Federal Trade Commission required the sale of Texaco’s stakes in the joint ventures as a condition of its recent approval of the Chevron-Texaco merger pact, which was announced a year ago. 

San Francisco-based Chevron and White Plains, N.Y.-based Texaco completed their merger Tuesday after both companies’ shareholders approved the deal. The new company will be known as ChevronTexaco Corp. 

ChevronTexaco is the second largest U.S. based energy company behind Exxon Mobil Corp. and the fifth largest in the world, with some 25,000 retail outlets on six continents, revenues of nearly $117 billion and gas and oil reserves totaling more than 11 billion barrels. 

Chevron shares rose $1.94 to close at $90.89 on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Texaco rose $1.42 to close at $69.75. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Chevron site: http://www.chevron.com 

Shell site: http://www.shellus.com 

WASHINGTON — Microsoft Corp. lost a longshot appeal to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, and all sides said they will focus on settling the government’s long-running antitrust case against the software company. 

The court opted to stay out of the case for now, ending Microsoft’s hopes for a fresh start as it tries to avoid penalties for anti-competitive behavior. That leaves the case in the hands of a federal judge who has told the company and the government to settle out of court. 

“It’s back to settlement,” said Robert E. Litan, a former Justice Department antitrust chief. “This was Microsoft’s long ball that didn’t get completed.” 

Microsoft had asked the high court to hear its complaint that the original federal judge who handled the 78-day Microsoft antitrust trial was biased and all of his findings should be thrown out. 

A federal appeals court upbraided U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson earlier this year, threw out his order that Microsoft be broken into two companies and removed him from the case. But the appeals court agreed with Jackson that Microsoft had broken antitrust law, and should be punished. 

The federal appeals court handed the case over to one of Jackson’s colleagues, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, to set that punishment. She may yet do so, but has made clear she wants the two sides to save her the trouble. 

Last month, Kollar-Kotelly set a deadline of Friday to appoint a mediator if the two sides don’t make progress. 

Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said the company is disappointed but not surprised by the high court’s action. 

“We’ll continue to move forward with the case on the district court level, and we’ll comply with the court order to work with the government to settle this case,” he said. 

The Justice Department released a brief statement: “We’re pleased with the court’s decision. We’ll continue our progress in the district court.” 

The department and 18 states sued Microsoft in 1998, alleging the Windows software maker wielded its dominance in the market to stifle competition and harm consumers. 

“We are not surprised the Supreme Court did not take up the matter, because the decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals was unanimous and very well-reasoned,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a leader of the state coalition. 

The Supreme Court did not comment in rejecting Microsoft’s appeal, and the court’s action does not indicate how the justices view the merits of the Microsoft case.  

The court could referee part of the antitrust case if settlement talks fail. 

The Supreme Court’s action came a couple of weeks before the company plans to release the newest version of Windows, called Windows XP. Critics say the product raises the same antitrust issues Jackson found compelling in ruling against the company. 

The Supreme Court had not been expected to take the case at this point, mostly because the matter is still in flux in lower courts. The high court typically likes to wait until it has a clear legal field before stepping into a case. 

So long as the possibility of winning a further delay existed, Microsoft had less incentive to bargain, Litan and other antitrust experts said. 

Windows XP, and the extent to which the Justice Department may try to win changes to it, will probably be the centerpiece of the settlement talks, antitrust lawyers said. 

In its Supreme Court appeal, Microsoft argued that Jackson’s comments to reporters about the case were an ethical breach that tainted his rulings against the company. 

Microsoft said Jackson should have been disqualified from the case when he gave his first interview. If that had happened, Jackson’s entire final verdict would have been thrown out. 

The federal appeals court dismissed that argument in June, and Microsoft appealed to the Supreme Court. 

This is the second time the justices have turned away the antitrust case. After the company appealed Jackson’s ruling last year, the court rejected the Justice Department’s request to take over. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com 

WASHINGTON — Less than 6 percent of the 2002 model cars and trucks arriving in showrooms get better than 30 miles per gallon, and new cars on average get slightly less gas mileage than the 2001 models. 

America’s love affair with gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and pickups again held down the overall numbers for the 865 cars, trucks and vans listed in the annual fuel economy statistics released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Just 48 models, led by two hybrid gas- and electric-powered vehicles, get 30 mpg or better in combined city and highway driving. More than a third – 330 models – get less than 20 mpg. The majority – 487 models – get between 20 and 30 mpg. 

Overall, new passenger vehicles average about 21 mpg. Last year’s weighted average, based on sales for all new passenger cars and trucks, was 20.4 mpg – a 21-year low. 

While touting the need for fuel-efficient vehicles to decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, two top Bush administration officials were reluctant Tuesday to embrace changing government standards to require that vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas. They said safety must be paramount in any such decision. 

Average fuel economy for the 491 cars is 23.9 mpg, a slight decrease from 24.2 mpg in 2001. That compares with 17.9 mpg for 374 models or variations of SUVs, vans and pickup trucks, a modest increase from 17.3 in 2001. 

The hybrids, the two-seat Honda Insight coupe and five-seat Toyota Prius sedan, topped the list of fuel misers for the third straight year, at 64 mpg and 48 mpg, respectively. They are followed by four Volkswagen diesel cars, the Honda Civic HX and Toyota Echo, all 37 mpg or better. By class, the best achievers are compact cars at 25.8 mpg, followed by small station wagons and subcompact cars at almost 25 mpg and midsize station wagons at 23.7 mpg. Cargo and passenger vans and standard-size four-wheel drive pickup trucks are the fuel spendthrifts at 16 mpg. 

Among midsize cars, the Mazda 626 and Honda Accord reported the best combined city-highway mileage of 28 mpg. The worst in that category is the luxury Bentley Arnage, at 13 mpg. Most cars in the category are in the low- to mid-20s mpg. 

Three similar minivans from General Motors – the Chevrolet Ventura, Oldsmobile Silhouette and Pontiac Montana – again have the best mileage, 22 mpg combined, in the passenger van category. The Kia Sedona has the worst at 17 mpg. 

King-size SUVs such as the Cadillac Escalade, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator account for 13 of the 35 vehicles on the list with the worst gas mileage, all 14 mpg or less combined. 

The luxury sport import Lamborghini L-147 Murcielago is the biggest guzzler, at 10 mpg, followed by the Ferrari 360 Modena/Spider, at 12 mpg. 

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said more fuel-efficient vehicles could save owners more than $1,500 a year.  

An increase of just 3 mpg industrywide could reduce carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming by 140 million metric tons, EPA said. 

But the agency reported last week that the fuel economy of new passenger vehicles is as poor as it’s been in the past 20 years because automakers are trading mileage gains for larger, more powerful vehicles. 

In August, the House rejected by a 269-160 vote a proposal to make SUVs attain the same fleet average of 27.5 mpg that the government requires of automobiles.  

Both the fleet auto standard and requirement that SUVs, vans and light pickups have a fleet average of 20.7 mpg have been unchanged since 1975. 

The Bush administration has taken no position on whether fuel efficiency standards should be changed. 

“We’re seeing now a voluntary stepping up of car manufacturers to increase the gas mileage and fuel efficiency of vehicles,” Whitman said Tuesday. She said the 2002 models strike a balance by incorporating new technologies that “do not compromise safety at all” through reductions in size and weight. 

“Conserving fuel by driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle is one way for all of us to help cut oil consumption,” said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. “Energy efficiency is a security issue just as much as it’s an issue of conservation.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

U.S. Department of Energy: http://www.fueleconomy.gov 

Berkeley High football coaches call him “Mr. Everything.” It’s hard to argue with them. 

In a single game against El Cerrito earlier this season, Nick Schooler, 17, ran the ball at fullback, defended the pass at strong safety and even punted after the ’Jackets’ starting kicker left the game with an arm injury. 

And if it weren’t for Raymond Pinkston transferring to Berkeley High from Detroit earlier this year, Schooler might be taking snaps at quarterback as well. 

“Every year I start as a potential quarterback,” Schooler said. “I show up every day during the summer and pick up on the offense pretty well.” 

He’s never been Berkeley’s primary passer in an actual game, but did play quarterback in a scrimmage earlier this season, so it could be Schooler’s next position.  

But then again, any position could be Schooler’s next position. 

“He knows his position and everybody else’s,” said Matt Bissell, Berkeley head coach. “He picks up stuff much quicker than other players and seems to always know what he’s doing.” 

Schooler’s intelligence and instinct allow him to read defenses and see plays happen before the opposing team even runs them. “He’s sort of a coach on the field,” Bissell added. 

This year Schooler learned an entirely new offense under first-year coordinator Clarence Johnson just in time to switch to the other side of the ball after the ’Jackets’ starting strong safety, sophomore Chris Watson, became sidelined with a shoulder injury. 

“A lot of guys just know what they’re supposed to do out there,” Johnson said. “But he sees the whole picture and plays extremely smart football.” 

In Berkeley’s first four games of the season Schooler split time at fullback with Roger Mason and Aaron Boatright. He also filled in for two injured ’Jackets, Watson on defense and Jason Goodwin as punter. 

“In emergencies we’ll put him in at receiver,” Johnson said. “I’m sure we could put him on the line if we needed to.” 

Although he’s only 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, Schooler would likely get the call if a hole on the line needed to be filled. He played inside linebacker on the junior varsity squad as a sophomore and an outside linebacker on the varsity team last year. 

It’s now clear how versatile Schooler is on the football field, but that’s only the half of it. 

In the spring, Schooler picks up a lacrosse stick and plays – you guessed it – both offense and defense as a midfielder for a Berkeley High team that’s missed the playoffs by just a single game each of the last two seasons.  

Lacrosse, which he started playing in the sixth grade, is Schooler’s first choice of sports to play. When asked about the similarities between football and lacrosse, he noted that they’re both full contact and as an aside said, “Jim Brown’s second-best sport was football. He played lacrosse first.” 

At the collegiate level, big-time lacrosse is mainly an East Coast sport. Schooler’s interested in staying in California and possibly playing for a Division I school such as UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego or Stanford, which all field club teams. Williams College, a Division III school in Massachusetts, has recruited Schooler for its team. 

As for football, Schooler’s family was instrumental in making him a two-sport athlete. His father played in high school and Schooler’s brother, Ben, played inside linebacker at Berkeley and was named all-league twice.  

“He’s got me beat at football,” Schooler said of his older brother. “But I’m working on the lacrosse part and I pretty much have him beat there.” 

Off the field, Schooler maintains a 4.0 grade point average while taking such classes as advanced placement statistics.  

“I just put everything else aside during the week,” he said. “It’s just football and school.”  

In the precious free time that Schooler does manage to find, he turns to photography, a hobby that began while he was a freshman. As an amateur photographer, he enjoys taking pictures of people and his chocolate Labrador, Hershey. 

Back to the football field, Bissell said that a couple games were lost last year because athletes were overexerted. For that reason – and the fact that Berkeley fielded a larger team this year – just a handful of ’Jackets will see playing time on both sides of the ball.  

Schooler, however, will continue to play more than one position because he’s well conditioned, Bissell said. In addition, the Berkeley coaches are quick to recognize just how important a smart player can be to the success of an entire team. 

Still, even for a player as athletically sound as Schooler, he admitted that Berkeley’s 32-29 league-opening win over El Cerrito took a lot out of him. He ran for 25 yards on the ground, caught a touchdown pass with under a minute left in the first half, recorded his first career interception as a defensive back, and pinned the Gauchos deep in their own territory with a key fourth-quarter punt. 

“It was kind of tiring,” Schooler said. “I was sore for the first time after a game.”

Aurora Levins Morales’ cousin died in the World Trade Center attacks, but the poet told a crowd of about 500 people outside the downtown BART station late Monday afternoon that she refused to vent her rage on the Afghani people. 

“I can’t (ask for the lives) of those who are being bombed now,” she said, before reading parts of a poem she had written after the WTC attacks. 

The “BART alert” – the downtown BART has become a gathering place of sorts for activists over the years – was the second anti-war rally of the day in Berkeley. An earlier one had been held on campus. 

A sea of signs calling for “peace” and saying “war is not the answer” served as a backdrop for speakers who climbed up onto the bed of a blue pick-up truck that had been moved onto the plaza. The crowd heard 90-year-old Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek say: “War has never solved anything; we must negotiate at the table.”  

Middle East Children’s Alliance Director Barbara Lubin told the crowd she mourned the lives of those lost at the World Trade Center. “It was horrible,” she said underscoring, however, that to understand the whole picture, “You have to look at the politics in our country.”  

And KPFA-radio activist Jay Imani said: “I don’t stand with people who kill innocent people anywhere in the world. We oppose terrorism and rely on the strength of the people to set us free.” 

In one tense moment, about half-way through the short list of speakers, singers and poets, a man forced his way onto the pick up bed and demanded to speak. “I want my free speech rights,” he called out into the crowd. He was quickly surrounded by a group who convinced him to come down. One of those who surrounded him later said the man appeared sincere – he was an ardent person who passionately believed that war was right and wanted to have a turn to speak to the crowd. 

Other pro-war advocates were not apparent in the crowd, that began chanting while the interloper was debating those surrounding him – “One, two, three, four, we don’t want your racist war.” 

Once the last of the speakers had climbed down from the flat-bed stage, a large portion of the crowd filed behind a banner reading “Stop Bombing Afghanistan Now!” and began marching down Shattuck Avenue toward University Avenue with Berkeley police on motorcycles and bikes leading the way and directing traffic. 

With drums pounding and American flags with peace symbols instead of stars waving, it was more like a parade than a march. The demonstrators waited obediently at University until the light turned green, then proceeded to march west. The procession stretched for more than a block. 

Driving her electric wheelchair out in front of the banner, Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring said the march reminded her of a similar one in 1989. It was when then-mayor Loni Hancock led a march to the freeway in protest of the Gulf War, she said. 

“It’s not often we have the numbers to march down University,” Spring said, adding “It happens every decade at least.” 

People hanging out of their windows cheered the crowd on, commuters stuck in traffic because of the march honked in approval and wait-staff from Cafe Venezia came out of the restaurant to yell encouragement to the marchers. 

Then, as the demonstrators closed in on the University overpass, the three or four people at the helm consolidated everyone and made sure that the people holding the banner were out in front, “to look strong and united,” one of them said. 

There didn’t seem to be a plan, with Lubin asking someone, “Are we going take the freeway?” 

Nearly 30 Berkeley Police in riot helmets with batons in hand were there to prevent the procession from doing just that. The officers lined up and blocked off University in both directions as the marchers came close to the overpass, at the Sixth Street intersection.  

Several police cars, lights flashing, came up over the overpass and closed it off behind the police. For 10 tense minutes, police and protesters stood across the white lines of the crosswalk from each other. There were chants of “Whose street? Our street!” and police yelling forcefully for the demonstrators to step back. But with several people urging restraint on both sides, the crowd turned around and headed peacefully back up University without any arrests or clashes with police.  

Asked if she was afraid of the march turning violent, demonstrator Adrianne Aron of Berkeley laughed and remarked, “No, I was more afraid that as lemmings we were about to march into the Bay.” 

Forest Schmidt, an organizer of the event and a member of the International Action Center said he didn’t think there was ever a risk of violence. 

“I don’t think people were up to breaking through a police barrier.” 

The procession continued back up University, with chants of “FBI CIA Terrorists Made in the USA” to the BART station where it all began mare than two hours earlier. The dissipating crowd took over the intersection at Center Street and Shattuck for twenty minutes as those with bullhorns encouraged people to attend more protests in the days ahead.

Tuesday, Oct. 9

Fighting for human rights  

in Haiti 

12:30 p.m. 

Boalt Hall, room 13 

UC Berkeley Campus 

Brian Concannon, Jr. has been helping the Office of International Lawyers in its aim of prosecuting human rights violators from Haiti’s 1991-1994 dictatorship. He will discuss Haiti’s experience in coming to terms with its brutal past. 

Volunteer Training 

4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

1835 Allston Way 

Training Workshop for volunteers interested in helping in Berkeley public school classrooms and after school programs. 644-8833 

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 

Town Hall Meeting 

4 - 6 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

The Affordable Housing Advocacy Project presents a discussion on the Berkeley Housing Authority Howmeownership Program. 548-5803 

Wednesday, Oct. 10

PRC Meeting 

The meeting of the Police Review Commission scheduled for Oct. 10 has been canceled. Regular PRC meetings will resume on Oct. 24. 

Fear and Stress Workshop 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Betty Goren will speak about how to control your fear, anxiety and stress. 

Amendment to Zoning  

Ordinance Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The Planning Commission will consider an amendment to the zoning ordinance to prohibit the conversions of existing building space from any other use to office use and the development of new office uses of 5000 square feet or more in the mixed use-light industrial zoning district. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov. 28. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Thursday, Oct. 11

Community Health  

Commission Meeting 

6:45 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Commissioners will brainstorm to determine major issues of concern regarding Alta Bates. 644-6109 

Resident Advisory Board Meeting 

4 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave 

Review Discussion and Possible Action on Draft Agency Annual Plan Update and thirty minutes of public comment. There will be refreshments. 

Free Depression Screenings 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

University Health Services, Tano Center 

2222 Bancroft Way 

Screenings will include a written self-test followed by an interview with a counselor. Referrals for follow-up evaluation and treatment will be provided 

Saturday, Oct. 13

Shelter Operations 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit  

Tasting 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center St and Martin Luther King Way 

Free samples the whole range of fall fruit. There will be a wide variety of apples, pears and persimmons at a central location for taste-testing. 

548-3333 

Pow Wow and Indian Market 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Enjoy Native American foods, dancing and arts & crafts in Berkeley’s tenth annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, this year honoring Mille Ketchesawno. 

595-5520 

Rep. Lee says minimize deaths  

In response to the U.S. led military strikes on Afghanistan, Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement: 

I pray for the safety and the well-being of the brave men and women in our armed forces who find themselves in harm’s way. 

We can only hope that the loss of life of innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan is minimized as much as possible and that the military action will not reach widespread proportions. 

We will have to fully assess the implications and impact of these efforts in the coming days, weeks and months of this conflict.

School Superintendent Michele Lawrence told parents and community advocates of Latino students that she opposes the breakup of Berkeley High School into small schools within the 3,400-student school. 

“I’m a little hesitant to open another system when I see this one so in need of repair,” Lawrence said to the group of about 80 people who gathered at Rosa Parks Elementary School on Sunday for a forum organized by local Latino organizations. Lawrence also cited possible budget cuts as one of the reasons she hesitated to begin the process of rearranging the high school. 

The superintendent, herself a Latina, met informally with leaders of a number of Latino organizations before the larger meeting to discuss some of the most pressing concerns for Latino parents, particularly the high drop out rates and lack of preparation for college.  

Mercedes Sanders, a guidance counselor at Berkeley Alternative High School and member of Chicanos/Latinos for Academic and Social Success, said the forum was intended to inform parents about Lawrence’s vision for the Berkeley schools.  

“The large high school is our concern,” Sanders said. “Students are getting lost because they don’t feel comfortable, they’re alienated and they choose to leave.”  

Lawrence said that although smaller schools create a more intimate atmosphere for students, they do not guarantee quality teaching.  

“Unless you look and make certain that we have effective teachers who are well-trained and delivering good information, whether it’s big or small it has to be effective teaching,” she said.  

Lawrence said the focus should be on the California High School Exit Exam, which students from the class of 2004 will be required to pass in order to receive a high school diploma. The legislature approved a bill last month that would allow the State Board of Education to postpone that date, and the bill is awaiting the governor's signature.  

The superintendent said she is opposed to giving out different types of diplomas to different students, something that has been suggested by some educators as a way of providing challenging requirements to students with different abilities.  

“I think that’s going to be bad for minority children,” she said. “I think what we really have to do is make certain that we have Saturday programs, after school programs and summer school to make certain that these students are staying on track.”  

One parent expressed concern that minority students in the district are being neglected. Her daughter, a freshman at Berkeley High School who is in the Spanish for native speakers’ class, said students in the class had been without textbooks since the first day of school. Lawrence said that she would follow the issue up on Monday. 

Lawrence said she is particularly concerned about school attendance, noting that Berkeley High does not do a good job alerting parents about student attendance because of its inefficient system. Nonetheless, she told parents it is up to them to make sure their children are at school and that they should call the attendance office at least once a month to check on their child’s attendance.  

“Don’t let your child fall through the cracks while we’re fixing the system,” she said.  

Lawrence told the groups that she and the board had set five goals for the school district: security and safety of students, communication, accountability, school maintenance and understanding of the school district budget.  

Lawrence said she is investing lots of time in reviewing the budget because the majority goes to pay personnel.  

“You must know where those people work, who they are and what they get paid,” she said. “We’re very sloppy; records have just not been kept up.”  

The superintendent said budget cuts are likely in December. “It’s not awful but it is serious and we’ll be (spending) time on the budget,” she said.  

Lawrence said she hopes that once the five goals she has set have been accomplished, the district will be able to look at more specific problems.  

“We can’t get diverted from the five things,” she said. “We must build upon those five things so that all the children in this school district can achieve much better than they are now. And I think we can do this together.”

2000 Common Ground trip got A+  

Editor: 

It's too bad your reporter, and vicariously your readership, wasn't present at last year's Common Ground field trip to Yosemite. Here's some of what I observed as my two students with developmental disabilities fully participated with their peers: young people exploring the flora and fauna of the Valley floor while recording observations intermittently in their field notes; urban youth taking formidable hikes in challenging weather to the various heights of the Valley and returning with an appropriate sense of awe of their surroundings and their own achievements; midnight photography classes; students awaking me at 5 am for the chance to go out and view by telescope the now visible planets just before a glorious sunrise; in short, a shared sense of exploration, discovery, and community. Such experiences direct further student engagement at BHS and in the local community throughout the school year.  

This is the essence of Common Ground, which merits further exploration, and appreciation, in your pages. 

Bill Joyce 

Berkeley

One day after Afghanistan became the first military theater of the Bush Administration’s “war on terrorism,” hundreds of UC Berkeley students took to Sproul Plaza to denounce the American and British bombing campaign, while a few dozen dissenters held  

lags, chanted support for the men in uniform and sang the national anthem. 

An unidentified person vandalized the Berkeley College Republicans’ megaphone. “That is not an action we support at all,” said Jose Palafox, a member of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, which sponsored the rally.  

The megaphone’s demise left war opponents with the majority of the crowd and the only functioning loudspeakers. 

More than one speaker pointed out that the reverse situation prevails in the rest of the country. 

“We do not live in a climate where it is easy to oppose this war,” said Snehal Shinyavi, a student and the main spokesman of the Berkeley Stop the War Committee. “Even the Democrats don’t do it... (the media) are pumping up as much hysteria as they can.” 

Anti-war speakers described U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere, stretching back decades, as comparable in criminality and violence to the Sept. 11 attacks. They criticized not only the present bombing campaign – which most termed racist and akin to state-sponsored terrorism – but also the new political climate within the United States. 

“Bush is telling us that criticism of government policy is tantamount to terrorism,” said Ameena Ahmed, a recent graduate who spoke for Students for Justice in Palestine. Drawing a parallel between the conservatism of the U.S. administration and of the Muslim fundamentalist Taliban, which rules Afghanistan, she added, “The choice we make is to refuse to be caught in the crossfire between right wing and right wing.” 

Eventually, some 500 to 600 people packed the plaza, according to U.C. Police Lieutenant Adan Tejada. Anti-war cheers grew impassioned as the large group advocating support for the military campaign advanced as far up the Sproul Hall steps as police would allow and competed with chants of “U.S.A.” and “Support Our Troops.” Green armbands, Palestinian checkered kefirs, and tie-dyes competed for attention with flag-emblazoned shirts and bandannas. 

“I think a vast amount of the student body is siding with President Bush and the United States,” said Trevor Buckingham, a senior in electrical engineering and computer science. He held a sign that said, “Terrorize Terrorism.” 

“We believe our country is a peaceful country and we’re going to stand by it,” said Robb McFadden, the Berkeley College Republicans president. 

As the gathering stretched past 1 p.m. with no signs of flagging, students faced off in heated arguments. A half-dozen university police kept watch over people in heated discussions, poking their fingers in the air.  

“Someone comes up and punches you, then sticks a knife in you – wouldn’t you defend yourself?” said a young male student in the pro-war camp. “Yes,” an older man responded, “and that’s why this country spends billions every year on intelligence services.” 

Over at the microphone, Karen Folger Jacobs, a visiting lecturer in the African American Studies department, directly addressed the nucleus of flags amidst the sea of peace signs.  

“I support America and I think we should feed people,” she said. “I support the troops – let’s have them all give out food. Let’s feed the people of Afghanistan.” 

After her speech, she looked over at the counter-demonstration and said, “It doesn’t look that big and it looks from here like it’s all white men.” 

Over at the counter-demonstration, Soodtida Tangpraphaphorn, a molecular biology senior holding a small flag, said such an assumption was “the most racist thing I ever heard. And they’re the ones throwing around the race card.” 

Tony Banks, a sophomore in the pro-military camp, described himself as a “Christian male” with white, African-American, and Native American blood but no particular political orientation. 

“No country is perfect and there are things in the U.S. I disagree with, but now is not the time for that because there was a strike against our country and we need to unite as a people and do what we need to do,” he said. 

Most of the rally’s speakers, however, drew explicit links between the new “war against terrorism” and anti-immigrant sentiment. “Not one of those terrorists was an immigrant,” said Carlo Petroni of the Movement for the Rights of Immigrants. “They were issued visas by the consulates in their countries. Why don’t the media tell us the truth?” 

Hoku Jeffrey, a senior in ethnic studies and a member of the Campus Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary, said he hoped the revulsion at the disregard for human life represented by the Sept. 11 attacks would be “translated into anti-war and anti-racist sentiment.” 

As the rally ended, the debates at the Sproul steps grew into a cacophony of voices, with only shreds of arguments audible above the din. 

“What if they do it again?” 

“What evidence do you have?” 

“You cannot have a war without casualties...”

Article didn’t tell whole story 

Editor:  

Your paper has lost complete credibility with me over the article you printed about the Berkeley High School Yosemite trip. Your standards for journalism obviously are of the poorest quality. The article was purely gossip and shows no effort whatsoever to research the facts. Following that article I will no longer read your paper as a source of credible news.  

What is worse, as yellow journalism always does, you have given a misdeserved negative impression of the school, its students and the highly dedicated, hard working and incredibly effective people who are diligently and impressively educating our students.As someone who works in education as well as a mother of one of the students, I wonder where are articles which point to what is being done well by underpaid and dedicated professional educators.  

If there was one program which deserved positive press, it is the Common Grounds program and instead you printed gossip and misimpressions about their work. It is a credit once again to these teachers that they have taken the experience and made it a positive learning for our students at this critical and vulnerable time in their life, just as they are launched into adulthood.  

I as a parent, will also impart to my son a valuable lesson I learned from my Junior year English teacher: always look at the source of your news. Are they credible? A lesson I have taken with me ever since with much gratitude.  

October 7 we began a war, I for one look for many sources of information and do not buy at face value any of it. So I listen to it all and decide for myself. If nothing else I thank you for the timely piece that allows me to impart that lesson to my son who was on the field trip, who handled himself with honor and can compare his own experience with what you wrote.  

Suzanne Dove  

Berkeley 

The City Council will consider taking advantage of a new state law that allows sharing information between the Franchise Tax Board and city to make sure that local businesses are paying their full share of taxes.  

Current state law allows only limited exchange of information between state and municipal tax collectors.  

Proposed legislation, AB63, would open up the lines of communication. The law was approved by the state Senate on Sept. 13 and is awaiting the governor’s signature.  

According to the recommendation, submitted by Mayor Shirley Dean, there are businesses that avoid paying city taxes by failing to file tax returns with the city auditor or underreporting their earnings. By sharing information with the Franchise Tax Board, the city would be able to crosscheck state records for accurate and consistent tax filings.  

Crime rates 

In light of an annual FBI report and Census 2000 information that Berkeley (including the university campus) has the second highest number of crimes per person committed in the state, the council will consider asking the city manager to prepare a detailed crime report that includes the UC Berkeley campus.  

The FBI Crime Index reported that there were 7,731 crimes committed in Berkeley during 2000, equal to 70 crimes per 1,000 people. The only other city with a higher number of crimes per person is Fresno, which experienced 76 crimes per 1,000 people. The crimes include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft and arson for California cities with populations of 100,000 or greater. 

When UC Berkeley is taken out of the mix, the city’s crime rate drops from the previous year. In 1999 there were three murders, the same as 2000 and the numbers of robbery, larceny and theft all declined. But the occurrences of aggravated assaults more than tripled from 416 in 1999 to 1,364 in 2000, according to statistics included in a report from the mayor’s office. (The report does not indicate the mayor’s source.) 

To get a larger picture of the scope of Berkeley crime and possible solutions, the council will consider asking for a report that includes detailed information about crime on the UC campus. 

Flagpoles 

The council will consider a recommendation by the mayor that flagpoles be installed in front of the Public Safety and Civic Center buildings.  

Dean’s office was inundated with angry telephone calls from around the county two weeks ago when talk show host G. Gordon Liddy falsely accused the mayor on his nationally syndicated radio program of temporarily removing American flags from the city’s fire trucks. Liddy also broadcast Dean’s office telephone number. 

“In conjunction with recent events, many constituents have inquired about the absence of flagpoles outside the Civic Center and Public Safety Building.” Dean’s recommendation reads. “These items were omitted from the construction budgets during the recent renovations in an effort to hold down costs. I think it would be appropriate to reconsider this decision.” 

Earthquake repairs evaluated  

The City Manager’s Office has concluded an investigation of homeowner allegations of substandard, state subsidized repair work in the wake of the Loma Prieta Earthquake. 

The report found that the majority of work was up to industry standard, although there was some shoddy work done. 

After the quake on Oct. 17, 1989, the California Natural Disaster Assistance Program distributed $87 million in quake damaged regions to homeowners who needed low-interest loans for quake damage.  

CNDAP issued 53 loans to Berkeley homeowners for a total of $3.3 million at an interest rate of 3 percent. The city administered the loans and hired contractors to complete the repair work, most of which was carried out in the mid-1990s.  

But in Oct. 1999, after a group of 15 homeowners complained to the City Council that much of the work was faulty and caused either more damage or the need for additional repair work, the council asked the city manager to investigate.  

The city hired the George Hills Company, an independent insurance adjuster to investigate the claims.  

Homeowner complaints included unfinished work, leaky roofs and substandard patching and painting. 

According to the George Hills Company report, which was completed in July, many of the complaints were unfounded. 

“Without question the majority of approved/funded repairs were completed to the satisfaction of homeowners and appeared to reflect quality to the industry standard,” the report read.  

“This investigation also revealed some legitimate complaints and problems among a minority of the homes viewed.” 

The city manager’s report pointed out that homeowners have missed the six-month time limit for filing lawsuits but added “Any decision to compensate or rectify problems would be the policy decision made by the Berkeley City Council.” 

Other matters 

• The council is expected to approve the Downtown Berkeley Business Improvement’s 2002 annual report and announce its intention to levy renewed assessment for the district to pay for streetscape improvements and downtown business promotion. 

• The council is expected to authorize the city manager to participate in a working group of county law enforcement agencies to discuss the feasibility of building a crime laboratory. The group will discuss the location of the proposed laboratory, funding sources and what to look for in a laboratory director. 

• The Family Violence Law Center and the Berkeley Police Department will submit a report to council detailing trends in domestic violence.  

• The council is expected to direct the Public Works Department to make a serious effort to clean dead leaves and other debris form the city’s catch basins.  

The recommendation, from Councilmember Polly Armstrong, says that early action could prevent problems. 

“If the Public Works Department could take on a proactive role here, and clean out these catch basins before the rains arrive in November, storm runoff could run through the city’s gutters and our streets would be flood free,” the report reads. 

Executive session 

The City Council will hold a closed session meeting at 2180 Milvia St. in the Sixth Floor Conference Room at 5:30 p.m. to discuss 66 public and general liability issues. There will be 10 minutes allotted for public comment prior to the closed session.

Setbacks are not necessary 

Editor: 

I was amazed to hear that a member of the Zoning Board want the proposed hotel on Milvia and Bancroft to be set back from the sidewalk, making it impossible to include retail. 

The best way to create interesting, pedestrian-friendly streets is by building retail right at the sidewalk. Berkeley has actually required developers to do this in some places -- an example is Cafe Expresso at Shattuck and Hearst -- and it has made the street much more inviting. It is the storefronts facing the sidewalk that make traditional shopping streets, such as College Ave., so inviting. 

The rule that requires this developer to get a use permit to build to the sidewalk is a relic of 1950s suburban design. Many cities now have zoning codes that require developers to build to the sidewalk in downtowns and on commercial corridors. New Urbanist planners, such as Andres Duany and Victor Dover, made these codes popular, and now they are spreading widely. 

Berkeley should catch up by changing its zoning laws so developers in downtown and on major commercial corridors must build to the sidewalk unless they show they have a special reason for needing a setback. I hope this hotel is approved without a setback and with retail facing the sidewalk. It is badly needed to enliven a bleak and dull part of downtown. 

Charles Siegel 

Berkeley

After last week’s stormy session where the council narrowly approved, in concept, the city’s controversial new council districts, the City Council will have its first reading of the ordinance that sets the districts at tonight’s meeting.  

The moderate faction on the council was outraged last Tuesday when progressives approved new council districts that moderates say was fashioned behind closed doors and is a poorly disguised attempt to unseat moderate Councilmember Polly Armstrong by loading her district with students. 

The progressives approved the proposed new district boundaries by a 5-4 vote. 

The progressives deny that there was a hidden agenda in the proposed plan and said it was the one that most closely adhered to City Charter requirements. 

A large part of the problem was a blunder by census takers who apparently undercounted thousands of people in districts 7 and 8. 

According to the city clerk, census takers missed nearly 4,500 people. Despite the undercount, which called for drastic boundary shifts, the city is bound by the charter to approve new districts with equal populations by Dec. 31. 

The new district boundaries, drafted by residents David Blake and Michael O’Malley, closely resembles the geographical shape of the old districts but shifts large numbers of people into new districts citywide.  

Boundary changes 

District 1, northwest Berkeley, Councilmember Linda Maio 

According to a city report on the redistricting, 1,064 people are moved out of District 1. The district does pick up a significant number of residents and business where the new boundary is moved one block west from University Avenue to Addison Street between 2nd and 10th streets. District 1 also loses several blocks along its eastern border. 

District 2, southwest Berkeley,  

Coucilmember  

Margaret Breland 

Loses 1,337 people in boundary shifts mostly where District 1 moves south one block from University Avenue. District 1 also loses blocks on eastern boundary where the line moves west from Sacramento Street to Edwards Street between Dwight and Bancroft way. 

District 3, south central Berkeley, Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek 

Loses 1,265 residents mostly on its eastern boundary where the new line is moved west one block from Ellsworth Street to Fulton Street between Derby and Dwight streets. But District 3 gains residents by moving west from California Street one block to Sacramento Street between Ashby and Parker streets. 

District 4, central Berkeley, Councilmember Dona Spring 

Loses 2,132 people mostly along northern border by moving one block south from Vine Street to Cedar Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Shattuck Avenue.  

It picks up several blocks along the western boundary where the line is shifted from Sacramento Street one block west to Edwards Street between Dwight and Bancroft ways. 

District 5, north central Berkeley,  

Councilmember Miriam Hawley 

Loses 1,195 people mostly along its eastern border where the boundary line is shifted one block west from Spruce Street to Oxford Street and from Craigmont Avenue to Santa Barbara Street. 

District 6, northeast Berkeley,  

Councilmember Betty Olds 

Loses 1,194 people by shifting primarily along its southern border where both districts 7 and 8 now jump the UC Berkeley campus past Hearst Avenue to Le Conte Avenue.  

District 6 picks up a long stretch of blocks along its western border where the boundary moves one block west from Spruce Street to Oxford Street. 

District 7, south-of-campus, mostly student area,  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington 

Picks up several blocks by moving west from Ellsworth Street one block to Fulton Street between Haste and Derby streets. 

And loses several blocks along its northeastern border where it moves one block west from College Avenue to Bowditch  

Street between Dwight and  

Bancroft ways. 

District 8, southeast Berkeley, Councilmember Polly Armstrong 

Because District 8 had to gain the most residents, it also lost the fewest, 156.  

The district picked up the most new residents by moving its northwestern boundary line west form College Avenue one block to Benvenue Street between Derby and Stuart streets and two blocks from College Avenue to Hillegass and Bowditch streets between Derby Street and Bancroft Way.

AIDS needs funds 

Editor: 

With no champion of global AIDS in their midst, Senate Democrats are set to deflate the Global AIDS Fund during budget deliberations in the next two weeks. Present Senate recommendations are less than the paltry $200 million sum proposed by George Bush. This should be a matter of great concern to everyone on the planet. 

Every day 10,000 people, mostly African, die of AIDS. There are 16,000 new HIV infections daily. This is a global cataclysm on the scale of the Holocaust, major plagues, and world wars. With the death toll approaching 23 million, Africa is facing it's own Hiroshima on a weekly basis. 

As a solution U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and scientific experts have called for a $9.2 billion annual Global Health Fund to seriously treat AIDS, malaria and TB. To date only $1.6 billion is pledged. Ironically $1.6 billion is Africa's debt service to developing countries in seven weeks. The rock group U2, a major champion of the "drop the debt" movement, has organized a global AIDS fundraiser CD due out this fall. 

According to Annan the US contribution to the Fund should be $2-3 billion as we account for 30 percent of the global economy. George Bush dismayed everyone, including Colin Powell, when he set the bar low at a $200 million donation, 67 cents per American. Norway pledged $25 per person, Sweden, $7 per person. Nigeria pledged $1 million, a significant amount from a country which can afford to treat only 15,000 of over 2 million infected by purchasing bulk generics from India. 

Senate Democrats pledged $50 to $100 million for next year. The bipartisan House leadership of Barbara Lee and Jim Leach is asking for up to $750 million. Full $2 billion funding has been endorsed by the National Council of Churches, the AFL-CIO, Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders. 

What is to be done? Call Senators Boxer, Feinstein, and Speaker Tom Daschle at 202-224-3121. Say you want them to champion a $2 billion donation to the Global AIDS Fund. Also tell them you want the Fund to buy generic drugs at the lowest world price. This will treat four to 40 times more people than would buying at US pharmaceutical market prices. 

Sign Oxfam's on line petition: www.oxfam.org.uk/health, which calls on the World Trade Organization to recognize that public health emergencies take precedence over patent rights. Fifty one developing countries plus Norway have endorsed this idea. The United States and Switzerland are actively proposing support for pharmaceutical manufacturers' patent rights and obscene profit margins. For 20 years the pharmaceutical industry has been the most profitable industry in the world according to Fortune Magazine. 

Your Senators need to know how you want tax dollars spent. Every $300 to purchase generic AIDS, malaria and TB treatments will alleviate the suffering of one person and hold out hope to millions. 

John Iverson 

San Leandro

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis is expanding California’s efforts to battle the threat of bio-terrorism as fears of deadly germs rise across the nation. 

Davis said Monday he will call on scientists from the University of California, other universities and the private sector to advise him on the state’s preparedness for a potential attack using biological or chemical weapons. 

“We are just preparing for the worst but hoping for the best,” Davis said during a series of interviews with broadcast media across the state. 

The announcement comes as fears of a bio-terrorist attack are surging following the death last week of a Florida man from Anthrax disease and the discovery of spores of the potentially deadly bacterium in one of his co-workers. 

Davis said a task force has been preparing for potential bio-terrorism attacks for two years in California. Since Sept. 11, state officials have held seminars to train medical personnel to spot and treat Anthrax and other diseases and are testing California’s water system daily. 

The California Highway Patrol also has stepped up patrols across the state from aqueducts and bridges to amusement parks and nuclear power plants, Davis said. 

“We are moving on all fronts to envision any contingency and to prepare for it,” he said. 

Davis said he will “assemble the best scientists we have” to analyze what more should be done. 

California has been mentioned as a likely target for further terrorist strikes, and Davis said Attorney General John Ashcroft warned him that Hollywood film studios could be at risk. 

Still, Davis said authorities have found no credible threats to California so far, and he urged the state’s residents to “summon up the personal courage” to go about their lives without fear. 

“We just have to live our lives, otherwise the terrorists win,” Davis said. 

WASHINGTON — There were problems with address lists and some people were counted without proof they were there, but last year’s national census was “well executed in many respects,” the National Research Council said Monday. 

Several innovations proved successes in the count, including paid advertising, aggressive recruitment of enumerators for follow-up operations, data operations and the redesigned questionnaire, according to the Council’s report. 

The Council is a division of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent organization chartered by Congress to provide scientific guidance to the government. 

Post-census studies indicate that fewer people were missed in 2000 than a decade earlier, reducing the undercount from about 4 million in 1990 to 3.3 million last year, the study said. 

This reduction was particularly true for groups that have been harder to count in the past, including children, minorities and people who rent their homes, the Council said. 

However, the study said a large part of the reduction in people missed resulted from what the statisticians call imputation — listing of people in the census even though they did not return a form and could not be reached for follow-up. 

Census 2000 included 5.8 million people who were imputed, the report said, up from 1.8 million in 1990. 

In many cases, information on the number and characteristics of a family can be obtained from neighbors. 

However, the Council also found “a much more problematic group,” of some 1.2 million people in last year’s census “who were imputed into the census when there was no information about the size of the household or, in some instances, whether it was occupied.” 

People who were imputed into the census were disproportionately likely to be minorities, renters and children, the panel noted. 

The panel urged the Census Bureau to investigate the factors leading to this type of imputation. 

The study also found fault with the effort to develop a master address file. While the concept was good, it said there were problems in execution that may have led to duplicate or erroneous counting. 

An initial study of the returns found some 6 million people who may have been duplicated.  

After study, 3.6 million of them were deleted and 2.4 million were reinstated in the count. 

On the positive side, the mail response rate in 2000 was the same as in 1990, hailed as a success in light of the declines of recent years. 

Census officials had launched their first paid advertising campaign in hopes of stemming the declines in mail returns and the report found that effort to be one of the count’s success stories. 

The redesigned form and a new mailing strategy also encouraged response, the study said. 

It also praised the use of improved technology for collecting data from the census forms and contracting out for data services. 

——— 

On the Net: 

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

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov 

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The FBI on Monday took over the investigation into the anthrax death of a Florida man after the germ was found in the nose of a co-worker and on a computer keyboard in their office. Hundreds of people who worked near the men lined up to get medical tests. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the case could become “a clear criminal investigation.” 

“We don’t have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not,” he said during a news conference in Washington. 

The FBI sealed off the Boca Raton building housing several supermarket tabloids, including The Sun, where both men worked. Agents donned protective gear before going inside. 

How the bacterial spores got into the newspaper’s office remained under investigation. Federal investigators handling the cases have eliminated the obvious environmental sources of anthrax, said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. 

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said CDC officials told him that “human intervention” was the likely cause of contamination. 

Health officials insisted there was no public health threat, but there was unease among some of the 500 people waiting for antibiotics and anthrax tests at the Palm Beach County health agency Monday. 

“I feel nervous. I’m worried for everybody,” said David Hayes, an editor for the Star tabloid who works in the building. Test results are expected to take days or weeks in some cases. 

Anthrax cannot be spread from person to person, but all 300 people who work in the building – and anyone who spent more than an hour inside since Aug. 1 – were advised to visit health officials. 

Antibiotics can treat anthrax, though the form that killed Sun photography editor Bob Stevens is particularly lethal. Stevens, 63, died Friday of inhalation anthrax, the first such fatality in the United States since 1976. 

The anthrax exposure case reported Monday involved a mailroom employee identified by co-workers as 73-year-old Ernesto Blanco.  

Health officials said he had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages, but he has not been diagnosed with the disease. 

Blanco was tested for anthrax because he happened to be in a hospital for what co-workers said was an unrelated heart problem. 

He was in stable condition at a Miami-area hospital, authorities said. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs. 

Reynolds said authorities may never know whether he actually had anthrax because antibiotics may have killed it before it was detected. 

Anthrax can be contracted from farm animals or soil, but the bacterium is not normally found among the wildlife or livestock in Florida. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman and gardener. 

“When you have two cases in the same building and a positive sample from the environment in that building and no wool sorters or animal hides in that building, it lowers the likelihood of it coming from the environment,” Reynolds said, reading a statement from CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan. 

State epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said tests will help determine whether the anthrax found in the second victim was natural or genetically engineered. Health officials have said the bacteria in Stevens’ blood responded to antibiotics, indicating that it was natural. 

He and other health officials said there was no reason for alarm. 

“The risk is low,” said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health. He said the sample of anthrax that was found in the building was taken from Stevens’ computer. 

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have raised fears of bioterrorism across the country, and focused particular concern on the origin of the anthrax here. 

Stevens lived about a mile from an air strip where flight school owner Marian Smith said suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta rented planes. Several suspected hijackers also visited a crop-dusting business in Belle Glade, 40 miles from Stevens’ home in Lantana. 

David Pecker, chief executive of the tabloids’ publisher, American Media, said he did not believe the company was being targeted by terrorists because of how the papers have covered the attacks and suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. 

Newsweek magazine reported on its Web site Monday that the office received a “weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez” a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. Inside was what was described as a “soapy, powdery substance” and a Star of David charm. The letter was handled by both Stevens and Blanco, according to unidentified workers cited by Newsweek. 

Bennet Bolton, a senior reporter for The National Enquirer, told The Associated Press on Monday about a “cryptic” e-mail sent to the staff in late August or early September by an intern who worked in the newsroom this summer. 

“It intrigued us that he left such a cryptic farewell,” Bolton said. “It was rather neutral and then he said, ’I left you a surprise for you to remember me by. Ha ha, just kidding.”’ 

He said federal investigators were told about the e-mail. The FBI did not return several phone calls seeking comment about it. 

Only 18 cases of inhalation anthrax were reported in the United States during the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. Without treatment, 90 percent of victims die within days. More common is a less serious form of anthrax contracted through the skin. 

Federal officials are sending Florida 100 cases of antibiotics to back up the local supply. The antibiotics came from a federal stockpile that holds enough to treat 2 million cases of anthrax. 

An injectable anthrax vaccine has been around since the 1970s, but it limited to military use. It is reportedly not in production. 

——— 

On the Net: 

CDC: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Anthrax/Anthrax.asp 

BERLIN — European nations threw their support behind U.S.-British attacks on Osama bin Laden and the Afghan rulers who protect him, but the military strikes sparked protests and sharp criticism across the Muslim world. 

In the Gaza Strip, anti-American demonstrations ended with a gunbattle between Palestinian police and student protesters that left two Palestinian bystanders dead. 

Thousands of Taliban supporters in Pakistan burned buildings, including a U.N. office, battled police and demanded holy war against America. One person was killed and 26 were hurt in the city of Quetta, a doctor said. 

In Europe, NATO and the European Union underlined their support for the military effort. 

“There is no lack of enthusiasm for this campaign,” NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said. The alliance agreed to send five early-warning planes and crews to the United States to free up U.S. surveillance aircraft for use against bin Laden’s network. 

Across Europe, anti-war demonstrators gathered for mostly small marches that ended without violence. 

Outside the U.S. embassy in Athens, Greece, protesters burned U.S. and European Union flags and chanted “American murderers of the peoples” and “Bush you are the terrorist.” 

A small group of anarchists chanted slogans in favor of the terrorist attacks in the United States. 

In Brussels, about 300 protesters waved red flags and what appeared to be out-of-date Gulf War posters proclaiming “No war for oil” outside the U.S. Embassy. About 250 people gathered for a peaceful protest in the German city of Hamburg. 

In Istanbul, Turkey – NATO’s only Muslim member – a small leftist party held an anti-U.S. protest while about 400 Muslim worshippers chanted anti-American slogans at the end of afternoon prayers. 

The U.S. European Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, said it was stepping up security at all its installations to the second-highest alert level, known as Charlie. 

The European Union’s foreign ministers said in a statement that bin Laden, the chief suspect behind the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, his al-Qaida movement and the Taliban regime that sheltered him “are now facing the consequences of their action.” 

Meeting in Luxembourg, they appealed to the United Nations to install a broad-based government in Kabul. Italy and Spain expressed their readiness for an increased military role, joining France and Germany. 

Canada announced it was contributing six navy ships, six transport and surveillance aircraft and a special forces unit to the U.S.-led military campaign. 

Across the Middle East, many accused the United States of applying a double standard by seeking to punish those responsible for terror strikes on U.S. soil while ignoring Israeli actions against Palestinians. 

Jordan, a moderate voice in the region, said in a statement that it “supports the international efforts to combat terrorism.” However, it added, the world needs to deal with “the primary reasons which are causing frustration in our region and this means a just solution to the Palestinian problem.” 

King Abdullah and visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad stressed that “Arabs and their causes should not be held responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States.” 

The attacks drew criticism in Iran, Sudan, Lebanon and Malaysia, among other countries, and protests in Muslim nations from Egypt to Indonesia. 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asserted America’s “real objective ... was domination and expansionism.” 

Sudan condemned “this war on Afghan land,” and its students took to the streets in Khartoum, shouting, “Long live bin Laden!” and “Down with America!” 

In Gaza City, two Palestinians, aged 13 and 21, were killed and 45 injured after Palestinian police opened fire on Islamic University students protesting the strikes. It was the worst internal fighting in several years. 

Hundreds of people protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on Monday amid new threats against Westerners living in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation. 

In rallies in Dhaka, Bangladesh, people shouted anti-America slogans and burned effigies of President Bush. There were no reports of violence and the demonstrators dispersed peacefully. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strikes on Afghanistan were justified, asserting the terrorists “did not expect such a unity of humanity before the common enemy.” 

Communist Cuba said the military action was “a cure worse than the disease.” 

The Communist Party daily Granma said the military operations would make terrorism “much more complicated and difficult to eradicate.” 

JERUSALEM — Islamic militant leaders said Monday they were summoned by the Palestinian Authority over the weekend and warned there would be a tough response if they did not stop attacks on Israelis. 

The Islamic Jihad group said it would defy the orders, while the larger Hamas faction suggested it would abide by a truce with Israel, at least temporarily. 

In the latest attack, a 17-year-old Islamic Jihad supporter blew himself up Sunday near an Israeli car, killing himself and the Israeli driver. The assailant was the 100th suicide bomber sent to attack Israeli targets since 1993, Israel said. 

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been trying to enforce a Sept. 26 cease-fire with Israel, but has been unable to stop attacks on Israelis. 

Arafat also faced with the worst internal Palestinian fighting in years Monday when protesters opposed to U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan waged a gunbattle with police at the Islamic University in Gaza City. Two bystanders were killed and 50 people injured. 

Israel has accused Arafat of doing very little to rein in militants, despite his promises. Three suspected Islamic militants were arrested in the West Bank over the weekend, but Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he expected more. Israel insists that the Palestinians arrest 108 suspected militants, and has handed over a list of names. 

“I have confirmation of a very small number of arrests, certainly not the long list of 108 ... not even 10,” Ben-Eliezer told Israel radio Monday. 

In weekend meetings, Islamic militant leaders were told by Palestinian security forces that “the cease-fire this time is very serious,” said Abdel Halim Izzedine, the Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank town of Jenin.  

Izzedine said Islamic Jihad representatives told security officials they would not honor the truce. 

Hamas suggested it would not challenge the Palestinian Authority openly. 

“One of the important things ... is to maintain national unity,” said Taysir Imran, a Hamas leader in the West Bank town of Nablus. “I think that a cease-fire is like a cloud and it will soon pass.” 

In response to Sunday’s suicide bombing, Palestinian police arrested two Islamic Jihad supporters, Izzedine said. 

Israeli security sources said that since 1993, 100 suicide bombers have been sent to attack Israeli targets — 66 by Hamas and 34 by Islamic Jihad. Seventy-five assailants were killed during their mission, while 25 were intercepted, the Haaretz daily said. 

In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinian militants were shot and killed by Israeli troops on Monday as they tried to lay an explosive near the Karni crossing, the Israeli army said. Palestinian security did not immediately comment on the incident, which took place in an Israeli-controlled area. 

Earlier, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire near an Israeli army post in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian police said. Palestinian officials said they were contacted by the Israeli army and asked to pick up the body. The army had no immediate response. 

In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a flashpoint throughout the year of fighting, Israeli troops fired from heavy machine guns mounted on tanks, Palestinian witnesses said. The Israeli army said it fired from machine guns not mounted on tanks in response to Palestinian fire at its forces. It was not immediately clear if there were injuries. 

Also in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli motorist was seriously wounded in a roadside shooting attack, the army said. 

NEW YORK — The stock market greeted news of U.S. military attacks on the Taliban in Afghanistan quietly Monday, with prices falling moderately as investors tried to discern what the action would mean for the country and the economy. 

While tech shares eked out a tiny gain, investors mostly locked in profits from last week’s rally. 

The market was worried that the United States will suffer more terrorism as American and British forces conducted a second day of missile attacks in Afghanistan, retaliating for the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults in New York and Washington. Investors are also concerned about how long and how much the weakened economy will suffer following the attacks. 

Monday’s mild pullback was expected given the political uncertainty and last week’s rally, which was spurred by the Federal Reserve’s ninth interest rate cut of the year and a push by President Bush for an economic stimulus package worth $60 billion. 

“The market is attempting to stabilize,” said Alan Ackerman, executive vice president of Fahnestock & Co. 

Analysts were encouraged by the Nasdaq’s narrow gain and that blue chip selling wasn’t greater. 

“Markets have historically recovered from catastrophes with a decent relief rally. It appears we are in one of those right now,” Ackerman said. 

Still, Monday’s session was fairly lackluster as the market flipped between minor gains and losses. Trading volume was lighter than normal, which could be attributed partly to traders’ caution, as well as the Columbus Day federal holiday. There also were no major third-quarter earnings reports due to be released. 

“This is a combination of things. There is some concern on the part of some investors about the retaliation. There is also some ordinary profit taking from the extraordinary strong run,” said Bill Barker, investment strategy consultant for Dain Rauscher in Dallas, who also noted the holiday. 

“Actually, the market is holding better than you might expect given those things,” Barker said. 

Losses centered on companies whose business prospects remain poor.  

The nation’s three big automakers fell on a report in the Financial Times that Ford Motor, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are slashing production by a further 196,000 vehicles before the end of the year. Ford fell 38 cents to $17.29, General Motors lost 71 cents to close at $41.65, and DaimlerChrysler slipped 25 cents to $33.87. 

But stocks fell across sectors, indicating investors’ unwillingness to bet on the success of any business. Banker J.P. Morgan Chase fell 97 cents to $32.44, while Wal-Mart declined $1.29 to $51.11.  

Fast-food chain Wendy’s stumbled 66 cents to $26.54 after issuing a third-quarter profit warning. 

The tech sector fared a little better, posting narrow gains and losses for the most part. Dell Computer rose 56 cents to $23.12 and Cisco Sytems inched up 11 cents to $15.05. Both companies contributed to last week’s rally by affirming their earnings forecasts. 

But Nextel Communications fell 80 cents to $7.94 after Merrill Lynch reduced its rating on the wireless networker’s stock. 

Analysts expect the market to fluctuate in a narrow range throughout the week as investors continue to trade carefully during the U.S. military action. 

“My feeling is, if there are no significant casualties on the U.S. side and the strikes continue with no difficulties, the market will be quite and stable with more of a wait-and-see attitude,” Barker said. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancers more than 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.17 billion shares, well below the 1.57 billion shares traded Friday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of smaller company stocks, fell 2.79 to 412.18. 

Overseas markets were narrowly mixed Monday. Germany’s DAX index inched up 0.2 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 slipped 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 advanced 0.2 percent. 

Japan’s markets were closed for a holiday. 

STAMFORD, Conn. — A federal court has reinstated a suit by Xerox Corp. charging that Palm Inc. infringed its patent in the development of the handwriting recognition system for the Palm handheld computer. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on Friday reversed a lower court dismissal of the case, representatives of both companies said Monday. The litigation now returns to federal court in Rochester, N.Y., where it had been dismissed. 

“It’s a huge victory for Xerox,” said Bill McKee, a company spokesman. “The U.S. Court of Appeals agrees there is enough evidence to proceed in a litigation that there is a patent infringement.” 

The suit alleges that Palm’s Graffiti handwriting recognition software infringes a Xerox U.S. patent relating to computerized interpretation of handwriting. In June 2000, the district court issued an order dismissing Xerox’s claims. 

Palm Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., confirmed that the court reversed the lower court dismissal, but said the court also rejected a motion for summary judgment brought by Xerox. Xerox said the court did not rule on the summary judgment request. 

Federal courts were closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday. 

“Palm continues to believe that the Graffiti software does not infringe the patent and that Palm has other defenses supporting its stance,” said Carl Yankowski, Palm’s chief executive officer. “Palm intends to continue to vigorously defend itself.” 

Xerox contends that its scientists invented the “Unistroke” software that recognizes one-stroke motions as characters. Xerox went to court in April 1997, four months after receiving a patent for handwriting recognition. 

The technology in dispute allows users to make simple, one-time strokes to enter letters and numbers in Palm computers. If successful in court, Xerox could force Palm and other companies to pay a license fee for each of the handheld organizers sold. 

Xerox has moved aggressively to defend against what it sees as technology pilfered from its labs, especially after letting go of inventions such as the computer mouse and laser printer. 

Xerox stock closed Monday on the New York Stock Exchange at $7.62, up 26 cents. Palm stock closed on the Nasdaq Stock Market at $1.49, down 6 cents. 

On the Net: 

http://www.palm.com 

http://www.xerox.com

SAN JOSE — Intel Corp.’s chief executive urged chip-makers Monday to continue innovating and competing despite the sour economy and pressure to fall back on industrywide standards. 

Being fast and first are still the best ways to drive technology forward, Intel chief Craig Barrett told the International Symposium on Semiconductor Manufacturing. 

“The concept of an industrywide technology standard I think is crazy,” he said.  

“It will stifle innovation. We need competition to move forward. You don’t get competition via committee.”  

This year, Intel is spending $7.5 billion on capital expenditures and about $4 billion on research and development.  

Barrett has repeatedly said companies such as Intel cannot save their way out of a recession. 

“Technology continues to move forward,” he said. “If you stand still from a technology standpoint, it’s like trying to sell brown bananas.” 

Barrett declined to comment on Intel’s current financials in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Several rivals, including Sun Microsystems Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices, have issued warnings. 

Intel is scheduled to post its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 16. 

——— 

On the Net 

Intel Corp.: http://www.intel.com 

Mecca Hassas of Oakland, 20, woke up Sunday morning to the news of the military strikes against Afghanistan, her homeland.  

“Just imagine sitting in front of the TV and seeing your country bombed,” she told the hundreds of people who came to downtown San Francisco Sunday to protest the military action. 

Hassas said that several of her family members were stuck in Jalalabad, one of the cities targeted by the bombing, and that she feared for their safety. 

The demonstration at Powell and Market streets was a peaceful event attended by 450 people, according to San Francisco Police Sgt. Kurt Brunneman. Protest organizers placed attendance at closer to 1,000 people. 

Standing on milk crates, Richard Becker of the International Action Center, one of the organizers of the event, criticized the air strikes and the humanitarian aid that the U.S. government is also dropping on Afghanistan. “They say they are going to drop food, but pallets of food are nothing more than bombs, when they’re dropped from 15,000 feet,” he said. 

Malalai Arsalai, 22, Afghani-American student, told demonstrators that despite the fact that United States officials have said that this is not a war against

Editor: 

The tragedy that hit us on September 11 was clearly a devastating blow on the nation as a whole. The economy, the culture, and even the lives of people have been destroyed, but the thing is to look away from the negative and focus in on the positive of the whole situation. This positive is the WORLD UNITING! 

People, especially the youth of America (18-24 years), have come together to donate blood, volunteer their time, and even protest war. These issues, such as war, affect our lives. We, as the youth of America need a voice and the Youth Vote Coalition of California will give us that voice we so desperately need. They help inform the youth about issues that coincide with their lives and they demand politicians to begin to pay attention to youth issues. The exclusion of the youth of America is a dangerous trend that will definitely hurt the nation in the long run. Democracy is diminishing without the voices of the youth and with the aid of the Youth Vote Coalition of California, the youth can get their ideas heard and issues solved. Thank you to “Youth Vote” for their everlasting efforts to help the future of America. 

Sumant Chakravart

924 Gilman Street Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Anna’s Oct. 8: Renegade Sidemen, Calvin Keyes; Oct. 9: Open Mic; All shows begin at 8 p.m. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA www.annasbistro.com 

Ashenaz Oct 10: Billy Dunn & Bluesway; Oct 11: Greatful Dead DJ Night; Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Cal Performances Oct. 12 - 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $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. 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 Oct 8: All Nation Singers, Walter Ogi Johnson, Thunder; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Oct. 9: Hydeus Kiatta Trio; Oct. 10: Cannonball with DJ Aspect; Oct. 11: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.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 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” 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 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Inside Editions” through 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 

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; 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  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. 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 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” 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 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man” ; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: how to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scard, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate”; Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Mike Munoz is fast becoming an impact player for the Cal men’s soccer team. The freshman leads the team with six assists on the season, and on Sunday he scored a spectacular overtime goal, giving the Bears a 1-0 overtime win over Santa Clara. 

Munoz had just come on the field as a substitute in the 103rd minute of the game. One quick throw-in and pass from teammate Troy Roberts later, he was the hero. Taking the ball at the left corner of the Santa Clara box, he lofted a left-footed shot over Bronco goalkeeper Brenton Junge and into the upper right corner of the goal. Munoz stood stunned for a moment, then joined his teammates in a wild celebration. 

“That’s the biggest goal I’ve ever scored,” a grinning Munoz said after the clamor had died down. “Coach (Kevin) Grimes told me when he put me in to score a goal for him, and I did.” 

Grimes, along with every other spectator in at Edwards Stadium, was duly impressed by the strike. 

“That was just a world-class goal,” Grimes said. “That was one of the top five goals I’ve ever seen in college soccer, and probably the best in overtime.” 

The goal gave the Bears their fifth win in their last six games, with the only blemish in the run a 1-1 tie with Fresno State. It also gave them a huge push heading into their first Pac-10 matchup of the season, as they head to UCLA on Friday. 

“We’ve been building momentum for the last 2-3 weeks, and our confidence level is really high right now,” Grimes said. “We look at each game as a learning process, and we’re growing up fast.” 

Sunday’s win was especially sweet for the veteran Bears who were present at a 5-0 shellacking by the Broncos last season in Santa Clara. Munoz, who is one of seven freshmen receiving significant playing time this year, said the upperclassmen made it clear that this was a big game. 

“They told us about last year, and that made us young guys want it more,” Munoz said. “We have both youth and experience on the team, and that combination is unstoppable right now.”

The City Council will hear an information report tomorrow from the city manager about what the Community Environmental Advisory Board calls selective enforcement of the city’s environmental laws. 

In light of what appears to be favorable treatment of city departments and large and influential businesses over smaller businesses, the CEAC has asked City Manager Weldon Rucker to establish a clear enforcement policy that would ensure equal enforcement of code violations.  

The city manager’s Chief of Staff Arrietta Chakos said that the commission and City Manager’s Office are “of one mind” on the issue. She also said that a policy is currently in the works to spell out enforcement policies as well as include an educational element that will hopefully help all city businesses and agencies avoid unnecessary enforcement. 

In 1997, Alameda County gave Berkeley enforcement authority to implement the California Health and Safety Code. Those code enforcement is carried out the Toxics Management Division of the Planning and Development Department. 

In an October report, the CEAC said that some agencies and large businesses have been given excessive amounts of time to correct environmental code violations, while smaller businesses have been taken to court. 

According to the report, the Department of Public Works and the Berkeley Unified School District have flouted repeated requests to comply with environmental regulations without any consequence. In addition, CEAC Commissioner LA Wood said in a letter to the Alameda County District Attorney that businesses like Bayer and the Berkeley Repertory Theater have also avoided regulation compliance while smaller businesses like Jettco, a transmission repair shop in west Berkeley, was prosecuted by the district attorney’s office.  

“The city’s Public Works Corporation Yard has been violating storm water runoff regulations since 1995 and was only issued a Notice of Violation in May,” Wood said. “That was after years of ignoring notices of corrective action.” 

Chakos agreed it is critical city agencies follow the same policies that it expects city businesses to follow.  

“We want our own public works staff to make sure that we live by the same standards we enforce,” she said.  

Editor:  

Here’s another viewpoint on Barbara Lee’s vote against use of force. It did not require much, if any, political courage. The last election she carried the district by about 80 percent of the votes cast for representative in her district in Alameda County. She could lose 25 points from that total, and still win reelection easily. Secondly, the vote was not a close party line vote in which she defied the discipline of party whips. Lastly, she probably calculated that public response would turn out much as it has, with even those who disagreed with her conclusion on the issue praising her independence. The unfortunate result has been to shift the focus of local debate to herself from the more important question of mobilizing to respond to the outrages in New York and Washington, and preventing future attacks. If Al Gore occupied the White House, he would have asked Congress to approve the identical, or a very similar, measure. Would Barbara Lee have embarrassed a Democratic president by voting against the resolution?  

John McDougall  

Berkeley

SAN FRANCISCO - Sixth-ranked California surrendered a 3-1 second half lead in a 3-3 double overtime tie against unranked San Francisco Sunday afternoon at Negoesco Stadium.  

“We’re not getting a sustained effort for the entire time,” said Cal coach Kevin Boyd. “We gave up sloppy, ugly goals. That’s effort. We’re just not getting continuous efforts from all of the players out there.”  

It was a difficult weekend for the Bears (8-2-1). Friday, Cal lost to No. 21 Saint Mary’s in overtime, 1-0.  

“It was a bad weekend,” Boyd added. “Friday was a little bit unlucky because we played well enough to win, but we didn’t. There’s something to be said for that. We’re not finishing. We’re letting teams in. Today’s the same thing. We played well enough to win without a doubt. But why don’t we?”  

All-American forward Laura Schott gave the Bears a 1-0 lead with a goal in the fifth minute. Midfielder Brittany Kirk directed a free kick to the far post, which Schott headed in for her 10th goal of the season.  

USF forward Meghan Daly evened the score at 1-1 in the 30th minute when she knocked in a ball that squirted free on a long free kick by the Dons.  

Schott sent the Bears into the locker room with a 2-1 advantage by converting on a penalty kick in the 33rd minute. The penalty kick was awarded when Cal midfielder Kim Yokers was fouled near the right baseline of the penalty area.  

The second half began with an early Cal goal. Yokers received a long pass from forward Krysti Whalen and proceeded to notch her third goal and 10th and 11th points of the year.  

Dons midfielder Stacey Caro then scored two unanswered goals in the 56th and 72nd minutes against a tentative Cal defense to send the game to overtime.  

Each team had one great chance to win the game in the first overtime period. Cal goalkeeper Mallory Moser’s clearance went off Bear defender Lucy Brining’s head towards the Cal net. But, defender Kim Stocklmeir was there to make a game-saving clearance.  

Later in the first overtime, Yokers had a one-on-one opportunity with USF goalkeeper Jennifer Orantes. Instead of taking the shot herself, Yokers slotted the ball to forward Kyla Sabo on the far post, but Sabo’s shot went off the post.

The city’s Planning Commission will again open hearings Wednesday on a controversial plan to temporarily halt the conversion of industrial space to office space in parts of west Berkeley. 

Earlier this year, the commission had recommended that the City Council approve a one-year moratorium on office conversions in area zoned for mixed-use/light-industrial purposes in the West Berkeley Plan. But after city planners said that they had not properly notified the public about the commission’s meetings on the topic, the City Council, on June 12, told the Planning Commission to start the process over. 

At least one major office conversion in the MU-LI zone is currently in the works. Publishers Group West, at 1700 Fourth St., wants to take over space now used by its neighbor, clothing manufacturer Tom Tom. 

The West Berkeley Plan, which was instituted in 1993, is designed to preserve manufacturing in the city. In an interview last week, Planning Commissioner Zelda Bronstein said that the moratorium is necessary if the intentions of the plan are to be fulfilled 

“The word diversity still means something in Berkeley — that includes diversity in the economic sense, and in the social sense,” she said. “We want to provide good, well-paying blue collar jobs.” 

But the rules of development in the MU-LI zone, which are at the heart of the current moratorium debate, do include certain provisions for industrial space to offices. Over 160,000 square feet in buildings zoned MU-LI were converted to offices between 1997 and 2000. 

Bronstein laid much of the blame for the current weakness

Editor: 

Pam Reynolds’ excellent front-page article in the Friday, October 5 Planet, “Town prepares to battle university over growth plans,” errs in two important details about the construction planned for UC Berkeley's Northeast Quadrant (NEQSS). 

Her claim that “the construction, planned for 2002 to 2005, would add 244,000 square feet and 400 new employees to the area” significantly understates the numbers proposed. 

In fact, the NEQSS Draft EIR (pages 2-25, 2-28 & 3.4-19), gives considerably higher numbers: approximately 360,000 square feet (i.e., 8-9 acres) and 544 new employees (by headcount).  

Moreover, the NEQSS projects are expected to draw some 895 existing employees from elsewhere on the UC Berkeley campus. What the Draft EIR doesn’t discuss is the “backfill” of additional employees who will eventually occupy those 895 newly empty spaces. 

Daniella Thompson 

Berkeley  

Cal men’s water polo team, currently ranked fifth in the country, chalked up it’s fifth win of the season and second in conference play today, soundly defeating tenth-ranked Pacific, in Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley.  

Joe Kaiser and Mike West each scored two goals to lead the Bears (5-1, 2-1 MPSF), who never trailed after scoring the first goal less than two minutes into the game. Six other Cal players put up points against Pacific to ensure Cal’s second win over Pacific this season. The Bears’ goalie rotation of Tim Kates and Russell Bernstien went largely untested by the opposition, notching a mere three saves between them.  

While the Bears’ goalies were left alone, Eric Bahneman, the Tigers’ net-minder, faced 20 shots on the day, saving ten. Nic Hepner and Chris Nowak scored two each of Pacific in the losing effort.  

Cal’s next action comes at the NorCal Tournament, which will be played next weekend at Stanford.

Denisee Chabarria, 16, sat at home on a blue couch late last month with her 1-year-old son Randy in her lap, and tried to explain to him that they would be going to school together.  

“I don’t think he understands yet,” she said.  

Chabarria is one of 18 teenage mothers who returned to Berkeley High School this fall and dropped their babies off at the Vera Casey Center, the free childcare center nearby. While Randy is watched, Chabarria, who puts math at the top of her favorite subjects, is finishing school.  

Last year, 23 teenagers from Berkeley become mothers. Only 15 of them joined the Vera Casey Center.  

Although Chabarria is a mother, she’s also 16 and like other students, Chabarria, spent the days before school preparing her school bag, filling it with a new notebook, organizer, calculator and a funny, duck shaped pen.  

“I am excited to go back,” she laughed, unconcerned that her life in the studio apartment near the Ashby BART station is very different from other Berkeley High students.  

Chabarria became a mother when she was still a sophomore and she now lives with her boyfriend — Randy’s father, 29-year-old Ricardo. 

“I didn’t think twice when I found out I was pregnant,” she said. “I decided I want to keep my baby.”  

Ricardo accepted her decision, but her parents felt that their daughter, who excelled in math, was too young to become a mother.  

“My mom was mad,” she said. “We arrived from Mexico only four years ago and I did so well at school. She said, ‘now you are going to know what it is like to be responsible for someone else.’”  

She has, but she also stayed at school. When she was pregnant, she studied at home with the help of her math teacher and returned to school when Randy was eight months old.  

The Vera M. Casey Center, which enabled Chabarria to return to school, was established in 1972 as part of the school age parent infant development program. Last year, the center, which generally has 25 to 34 babies (not all of them teen's babies), joined the Cal Safe program, a state wide program.  

Cal Safe is designed to increase the availability of support services necessary for students who are pregnant or who already have children. Its programs aim to improve academic achievement and parenting skills and to provide a quality child care/development program for their children.  

“It appears there is an increase of teenage pregnancies this year but the mothers are at least older students,” said Greba Jackson, director of the center for the last 20 years.  

Jackson expects at least eight new teenage mothers in her program during the next few months.  

Dr. Jose Ducos, the epidemiologist with the Berkeley Public Health Department said the number of teenage mothers has actually dropped since 1990 when 58 Berkeley teenagers become mothers. The numbers include young women 19 and under, some of which have already left high school.  

Getting school work done and taking care of Randy are only part of the challenges Chabrria and her boyfriend face. The young couple pays $950 a month in rent and lives on what is left from the $1,400 Ricardo earns at a car wash in Oakland.  

“It is hard,” said Ricardo. “But we are doing fine.”  

At 7 a.m. on the first day of school, Chabarria, dressed in a violet outfit, and her son – in matching shirt and pants – were ready to go. Almost. Chabarria tried to give him a last minute bottle, but the boy refused. 

“I think he understands now,” Chabarria said.  

Half an hour later, Denisse’s mom, Leticia Chabarria, 34, picked mother and son up for a special, first-day-of school ride. The next day, Denisse will have to take the bus.  

When they arrived at Berkeley High, at least 10 other young mothers were there and the good-byes between child and mother were as full of tears and angst as they might be anywhere.  

But 10 minutes later, Chabarria and the other young moms joined the lines outside of Berkeley High gymnasium to get their schedules. And a few days later, both mothers and babies would be used to the new arrangement.  

“I felt so strange leaving my baby over there,” said Linda Elizabeth Gutierrez, a 17-year-old junior. “I am so used to having her with me all day long.”  

Between classes, Gutierrez returned to the center to hug her 6-month-old daughter.  

School does not scare Chabarria, who said that she got As in math and geometry last year, but she is concerned about getting her homework done.  

“Randy is already walking,” she said.  

While Jackson understands these fears, she’s not worried.  

“Those mothers are very dedicated to their studies,” she said. “I am sure they will finish high school.”  

“Not all the teenage mothers in Berkeley use this opportunity,” said Gutierrez. “It is sad, that other young mothers just stay at home and feel like their life is over. They should bring their kids to the center as well and finish high school.”  

Jackson said that the program is open to anyone 18 and under, even non-residents.  

The Vera Casey Center can be reached at 644-6954; “Nurse of the Day” — a free health information service is available at 644-6500.  

Editor: 

I was very glad to read of Councilmember Dona Spring’s commitment to affordable housing (in your article Oct. 5: “Plan calls for more housing....”) when she said, “It is my highest priority to provide affordable housing to people who are really struggling to get by.” I hope school teachers are included in the plan to build “deeply affordable housing,” as I am really struggling to get by as a teacher in Berkeley. Your article says that developers are encouraged to“set aside 20 per cent of their units to those who earn 80 percent of area’s average income.” 

Could you please specify what exactly is the “area’s average income?” 

What year and by whom was that calculated? The annual income figure that I have heard quoted in the past was not one that has been adjusted to accomodate the severe discrepancy between the going rate for decent,affordable housing, and the reality of an average net monthly income. 

Since I moved here three years ago, my rent on my apartment I recently had to vacate increased to $1,600 month, which was 60 percent of my net salary. The increase in rent from when I arrived was 140 percent, while my salary increased by only 11percent. 

Most landlords require that one’s rent should be one-third of one's net income. That would mean my rent should be $900/month. It takes only a glance at rental ads to see that that is way below the current market rate. Add to that expenses for children, student loans, and if there is only one wage-earner in a family, etc., and one quickly joins the ever growing pool of full time working people who are “really struggling to get by.” 

A realistic way to figure rental affordability, needs, etc., is to chart net monthly income and divide by three. It would be interesting to see how many full-time workers in a variety of Berkeley occupations, in addition to schoolteachers, fall into the need for affordable housing, who are currently shut out from assistance because of an unrealistically low income requirement, and a very expensive, inadequate housing supply. 

Anyone who has come to live and work in Berkeley since the end of rent control finds themselves in an economic situation where a disproportionate amount of one's salary is going towards rent. I have had to abandon my hope of ever being a house owner as a teacher, or even a house renter in Berkeley. 

I hope that Councilmember Spring, and the whole Berkeley City Council, will continue to work to provide affordable housing for all the workers in Berkeley who find themselves in need, and re-examine mathematically what is considered “low-income.” 

Susan Graubard Archuletta 

Berkeley

The Associated Press 

FREMONT — Residents of the nation’s largest Afghan community reacted to news of the bombings with a blend of joy and apprehension — Osama bin Laden is hated here, but many Afghan immigrants fear relatives in their homeland will suffer during the conflict to come. 

News of the bombings circulated quickly in “Little Kabul,” a strip of markets and restaurants that is the heart of Fremont’s Afghan community. It is named after the Afghan capital that was the first target of Sunday’s bombings by U.S. and British forces. 

“My reactions are good and bad,” said Homayoun Khamosh, owner of the Pamir Food Mart. “The good thing is I am happy they have started. And the bad thing is I don’t want civilians dead for nothing.”

SAN FRANCISCO – The $36,500 that John Reese earns annually checking and stocking groceries at an Albertson’s supermarket in San Jose makes him one of the best-paid retail clerks in the country. 

But Reese and thousands of other Northern California grocery store workers making similar money also live in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. 

“It’s so bad that some of my co-workers have used food stamps when they come through the checkout line,” said Reese, 35, who has worked at Albertson’s the past five years. “We don’t want to be greedy. We just want a chance to live the American dream.” 

Boise, Idaho-based Albertson’s Inc. and Pleasanton-based Safeway Inc. run Northern California’s two largest grocery chains. The companies say they can’t afford to pay store workers much more because they have to remain competitive with discount chains such as Costco, Wal-Mart and Target that are expanding their grocery businesses. 

The conflicting financial pressures facing the supermarket chains and their store employees could culminate in a strike as early as Monday. That’s when the labor unions representing 27,000 employees working in 294 Safeway and Albertson’s stores will announce the results of a vote on the “last, best” contract proposal from the grocers. 

The chains say they pay their San Francisco Bay area store workers an average of $15.50 per hour. That is 52 percent more than the average wage of $10.18 per hour paid to retail clerks in the region, according to 1999 estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

“We have to take into account what our competitors pay,” said Safeway spokeswoman Debra Lambert. “We don’t want to expand that gap any more.” 

The companies are offering most workers a $1.50 per hour increase over three years. That translates into a 10 percent raise, based on the average wage of $15.50 per hour. The lowest-paid workers now start at $7.75 per hour while the top-paid workers, including Reese, receive $17.58 per hour. 

Seeking a raise of $2.40 per hour over three years, labor leaders recommend that workers reject the proposal. Management, meanwhile, is conducting interviews with potential replacement workers to ensure the stores will remain open if there is a strike. 

In complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board and federal court, labor leaders and supermarket management have accused each other of unfair tactics during the voting process. 

A strike would be the first by Northern California grocery store workers since a nine-day walkout in 1995. A year ago, a 47-day strike at a Safeway’s Northern California grocery distribution center cost the company about $66 million in profits. 

The San Francisco Bay area’s astronomical housing prices are the main sticking point in the current dispute. Despite a deep slump in the technology industry, the area’s cost of living preoccupies almost everyone who didn’t cash in on the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. 

“The cost of living and doing business in the Bay Area is becoming a real competitive disadvantage,” said Tapan Munroe, chief economist for Applied Development Economics in Berkeley. 

Since the Northern California workers signed their last contract in 1997, the cost of a mid-priced home in the Bay Area has increased 66 percent to $476,000, according to the California Association of Realtors. During the same period, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment climbed 53 percent to $1,449 per month, according to RealFacts, a Novato research firm. 

In a report released this month, the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that a full-time worker needs to make $33.60 per hour — nearly $70,000 annually — to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco metropolitan area. The supermarket chains say their offers already factor in Northern California’s housing costs. That’s why Safeway’s Northern California workers make about 5 percent more than their Southern California counterparts and as much as 50 percent more than the workers at some of the chain’s other stores, Lambert said. Safeway operates 1,759 stores in 20 states and the District of Columbia. 

Earlier this year, store workers in Sacramento accepted a nearly identical offer now on the table in the San Francisco Bay area. A one-bedroom apartment in Sacramento — roughly 90 miles from San Francisco — rents for an average of $707 per month, a 34 percent increase from 1997, according to RealFacts. 

Labor leaders argue that the supermarket chains are making more than enough money to help San Francisco Bay area workers defray the region’s high costs. 

Through the first nine months of its current fiscal year, Safeway made $900 million, a 14 percent increase from the same time last year. Excluding one-time charges and expenses related to its $9.1 billion takeover of American Stores in 1999, Albertson’s posted a $370 million profit during the first half of its fiscal year ended Aug. 2 — a 15 percent decrease from last year.

About 150 people attended the Vista Community College Teach In on Friday that provided alternative perspectives of the events of Sept. 11 as well as better understanding of potential impacts of any future U.S. military actions. 

“As an education community we need to respond to the events of Sept. 11 by providing information that will allow people to think critically and to start dialogue where people with different perspectives can be heard,” said Joan Berezin, a Vista history instructor who was an organizer of the event. “Most importantly we need to take a stand against racism and intolerance and do what we can to build a hate-free community.” 

Vista, which is one of four community colleges in the Peralta Community College District, began organizing the event, entitled Teach In, Speak Out, three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Teach In was open to the public but was primarily attended by Vista students. 

An impressive list of 21 speakers – including Vista instructors, civil rights attorneys, journalists and authors – were scheduled to speak at the Teach In which began at 2 p.m. and was scheduled to end at 10 p.m. Food Not Bombs provided participants with a free dinner. 

Speakers covered a wide range of issues related to the attacks, including how civil liberties might be affected, the threat to immigrants’ rights and a historical perspective of Afghanistan and its ruling government, the Taliban. 

History and political science teacher Michael Mills said it’s important for people to attempt to understand the mindset of Middle Eastern countries and their relationship with the United States. He said Americans should try to understand why some Arab nations are reluctant to support the United States as it prepares to take military action against Osama bin Laden and possibly the Taliban. 

“We often think that as Americans our needs or interests are paramount,” Mills said. “We tend to discount that these countries have needs as well.” 

Mills added that the relationship between Arab states and the United States has often been characterized by tension because of different perspectives of history. 

Philosophy and Religion Instructor Kyle Dupen explained to a standing-room-only crowd the origins, tenets and practices of the Islam faith. Much of his talk was geared toward dispelling myths and misunderstandings about the widely practiced religion. 

“Many people believe that Muslim is synonymous with Arab,” he said. “The origins of Islam come from the Arabic culture but in fact, it is practiced by millions of people, many who are not Arabic.” 

Dennis Bernstein, journalist and host of the KPFA program Flashpoints, was scheduled to discuss how the media is demonizing South East Asians and the poor media coverage of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. 

“I will also be talking about the question that mainstream media refuses to ask, which is ‘why did this happen?’” he said Friday morning before his talk at the Teach In. “People should pursue alternative sources of information so they have the broadest perspective possible.” 

Bernstein said some good alternative publications are The Progressive, The Nation and In These Times. He added that if readers prefer mainstream news sources such as the New York Times, they should also read the London Independent to add a European perspective. 

Among handouts given to participants was a list of standards to non-credible information sources on the Web. The handout advised Web surfers to pay attention to the background of Web authors, to make sure the site contained contact information such as an e-mail or regular mail addresses or phone numbers. In addition any organizations connected to Web stories should be credible. 

Vista student Erin Palmquist, said the most important thing that people could take away from the Teach In will be tolerance. 

“The main thing that should be accomplished today is a hate-free environment at Vista College,” she said.

Saturday, Oct. 6

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, gives free rides on a first come, first served basis 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 accompanied by an adult. Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Fire Suppression 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading. 527-9905 

Sunday, Oct. 7

Animal Blessings 

10 a.m. 

All Souls Episcopal Parish 

2220 Cedar St. 

Celebration of the Feast of St. Francis allows pets to gather in the courtyard. Following the service, the public is invited for refreshments and a children’s zoo with a pony, chickens, rabbits and ferrets in the courtyard. 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Avenue, between Third and Fourth Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce and specialty foods. 654-6346 

Forum for Latino Community with Superintendent 

4 - 6 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary 

920 Allston Way 

A chance for the Latino community to meet the new superintendent of schools. 524-7300 

Monday, Oct. 8

Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi.  

848-5232 

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 

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 

Town Hall Meeting 

4 - 6 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

The Affordable Housing Advocacy Project presents a discussion on the Berkeley Housing Authority Howmeownership Program.  

548-5803 

Wednesday, Oct. 10

PRC Meeting 

The meeting of the Police Review Commission scheduled for Oct. 10 has been canceled. Regular PRC meetings will resume on Oct. 24. 

Amendment to Zoning  

Ordinance Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The Planning Commission will consider an amendment to the zoning ordinance to prohibit the conversions of existing building space from any other use to office use and the development of new office uses of 5000 square feet or more in the mixed use-light industrial zoning district. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. Every Wednesday through Nov. 28. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free.  

524-3034 

Thursday, Oct. 11

Community Health Commission Meeting 

6:45 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Commissioners will brainstorm to determine major issues of concern regarding Alta Bates. 644-6109 

Between 1895 and 1915 Berkeley established itself as a city with a distinctive architectural character. As Mission Revival is to Santa Barbara, and Pueblo Style is to Santa Fe, in the early decades of the 20th century, unpainted wood shingles were identified with Berkeley.  

The use of unpainted wood shingles as exterior siding was Berkeley’s most popular means of expressing the philosophy of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Although other exterior siding materials were also used, they were used less frequently. A simple design, which blended with nature was advocated by the Hillside Club and became so popular that Berkeley became known as a city of brown-shingled buildings.  

The Hillside Club was the principle force in spreading the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Berkeley. It was formed in 1898 by the wives of architects Bernard Maybeck, Almeric Coxhead and John Galen Howard, developer Frank M. Wilson, photographer Oscar Maurer and Charles Keeler to “encourage artistic homes built of materials complementing the natural beauty of the Berkeley Hills.” In 1902 the men were invited to join the club to lend political clout to the woman’s cause. Charles Keeler, a naturalist, writer and poet, became its spokesman, advocating an artistic and spiritual life-style lived in a “simple home” which he described in his book The Simple Home, published in 1904.  

The large three-story brown shingle home at 1820 Scenic Ave. was built for the university’s eighth president Benjamin Ide Wheeler in 1900 and designed by Edgar A. Mathews. University benefactor Phoebe Apperson Hearst built her home and a reception hall next door; all three houses survived the 1923 fire and are still standing.  

When Wheeler moved into the new president’s house on campus in 1911, he sold the house to Edgar Bradley, who hired Lewis Hobart (architect of the Steinhardt Aquarium and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco) to remodel the structure.  

The house has grand proportions with a hipped-roof dormer in the center, classic details, and an elegant portico. The garden, also designed by Hobart, was behind the brick wall to the south; it is now a school playground, but still has a woodsy garden-like atmosphere. The tall old palm trees that line Scenic Avenue in front of the house can be seen from many locations in Berkeley.  

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

Editor: 

Regarding: “Hospital chief: Alta Bates not a public service” Oct. 1. 

Overall and in conclusion what health care needs in the East Bay, specifically at both Alta Bates and Summit Medical Centers, is not Corporate Warren Kirk…but Star Ship Captain James T. Kirk - a man who will boldly go where no corporate person will ever go: seeking out new perspectives and new ways of speaking, and exploring strange new ways of financial thinking, by cutting out excessive executive pay and management performance bonuses from the top on down to service-line and department managers, then analyzing the financial bottom line. 

Rob Valentine 

Berkeley

Three thousand miles away from the smoldering ruins that were once the World Trade Center, and the talk of war and terrorism in Washington, DC, Bay Area poet, Ishmael Reed, reminded a rapt Berkeley audience on Thursday that even in a time of crisis, it is OK to laugh at political absurdity.  

Reed, this month’s featured poet at UC Berkeley’s lunchtime poetry series, read to the standing-room only crowd from his most recent collection, The Reed Reader, and shared an as yet unpublished piece, “America Unite,” written in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  

The poem lampooned media pundits, politicians, capitalists and flag waving, describing New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani as the “king of racial profilers” and poking fun at the constant renaming of the U.S. plan for military retaliation.  

“I thought it was an amazing poem,” said Zack Rogow, who organizes the monthly poetry series. “It’s a very tough thing to say at this time because there’s a lot of pressure to just kind of fall into line with what’s happening politically. I think that was a very brave and thoughtful poem.”  

Reed, who lives in Oakland and has taught in the English department at UC Berkeley for 20 years, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and raised in Buffalo, New York. He has written novels, poetry, essays, plays and songs and is well-known for his commentary on racial politics in America. 

After the reading, as Reed sat in a blue armchair next to the podium, he explained that he wrote “America Unite” to add a black voice to the discourse that has followed the terrorist attacks, something he said has been missing. 

“The images we see of African Americans are nurturing, hugging people and singing. We’re sort of like the station break stuff after the serious conversation of the wealthy white men who got us into this situation in the first place.”  

The poetry reading delighted long-time fan Suzanne Morse, a visiting UC faculty member from Bal Harbor, Maine. “I’ve heard of him for years and years,” said Morse. “What I am impressed by is his ability to walk into any situation and be very frank to whoever is there and not just taking one position or side.”  

Reed’s other poems addressed the black experience in America, including one about an aging couple in his Oakland neighborhood who could not afford proper medical care, and another about the closing of bank branches that serve black neighborhoods. He said that government moves to tighten security and expand surveillance in the wake of the terrorist attacks may be the first inkling most Americans have of what it is like to be black in the United States.  

“(Blacks) have a different point of view,” said Reed. “Somebody from the Chicago Tribune called me up and asked me if I thought there would be a tightening on civil liberties. I said, well, you know, we’ve been living in a police state for 300 years, it’s nothing new for us, so get used to it.” 

Three thousand miles away from the smoldering ruins that were once the World Trade Center, and the talk of war and terrorism in Washington, DC, Bay Area poet, Ishmael Reed, reminded a rapt Berkeley audience on Thursday that even in a time of crisis, it is OK to laugh at political absurdity.  

Reed, this month’s featured poet at UC Berkeley’s lunchtime poetry series, read to the standing-room only crowd from his most recent collection, The Reed Reader, and shared an as yet unpublished piece, “America Unite,” written in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  

The poem lampooned media pundits, politicians, capitalists and flag waving, describing New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani as the “king of racial profilers” and poking fun at the constant renaming of the U.S. plan for military retaliation.  

“I thought it was an amazing poem,” said Zack Rogow, who organizes the monthly poetry series. “It’s a very tough thing to say at this time because there’s a lot of pressure to just kind of fall into line with what’s happening politically. I think that was a very brave and thoughtful poem.”  

Reed, who lives in Oakland and has taught in the English department at UC Berkeley for 20 years, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and raised in Buffalo, New York. He has written novels, poetry, essays, plays and songs and is well-known for his commentary on racial politics in America. 

After the reading, as Reed sat in a blue armchair next to the podium, he explained that he wrote “America Unite” to add a black voice to the discourse that has followed the terrorist attacks, something he said has been missing. 

“The images we see of African Americans are nurturing, hugging people and singing. We’re sort of like the station break stuff after the serious conversation of the wealthy white men who got us into this situation in the first place.”  

The poetry reading delighted long-time fan Suzanne Morse, a visiting UC faculty member from Bal Harbor, Maine. “I’ve heard of him for years and years,” said Morse. “What I am impressed by is his ability to walk into any situation and be very frank to whoever is there and not just taking one position or side.”  

Reed’s other poems addressed the black experience in America, including one about an aging couple in his Oakland neighborhood who could not afford proper medical care, and another about the closing of bank branches that serve black neighborhoods. He said that government moves to tighten security and expand surveillance in the wake of the terrorist attacks may be the first inkling most Americans have of what it is like to be black in the United States.  

“(Blacks) have a different point of view,” said Reed. “Somebody from the Chicago Tribune called me up and asked me if I thought there would be a tightening on civil liberties. I said, well, you know, we’ve been living in a police state for 300 years, it’s nothing new for us, so get used to it.” 

924 Gilman Street Oct 6: Tight Brothers from Way Back When, Smash Your Face, Cherry Valence, Bare Bones; Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 

Anna’s Oct. 6: Ed Reed, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; Oct. 7: Danubius; Oct. 8: Renegade Sidemen, Calvin Keyes; Oct. 9: Open Mic; All shows begin at 8 p.m. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA www.annasbistro.com 

Ashkenaz Oct. 6: 9 p.m. Tom Rigney and Flambeau, $11; Oct. 7: 7 p.m. Singer/Songwriter Showcase, $6-8; Oct 10: Billy Dunn & Bluesway; Oct 11: Greaful Dead DJ Night; Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotes; Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Oct. 12 - 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $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. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Oct 6: The Limeliters; Oct 7: Eddie From Ohio; Oct 8: All Nation Singers, Walter Ogi Johnson, Thunder; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Oct. 6: Crowsong; Oct. 9: Hydeus Kiatta Trio; Oct. 10: Cannonball with DJ Aspect; Oct. 11: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

La Peña Cultural Center Oct 6: 10:30 a.m. Gary Lapow, $4 Adults, $3 Children; Oct 13: 10:30 a.m. Derique- the high tech clown, $4 Adults, $3 Children; 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 7: Tom Rose and Miles Graber; Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

“The Complete Shostakovich String Quartets--Part One” Oct. 20: 10 a.m. Quartets V & VI. Performed by the prize-winning Alexander String Quartet with Robert Greenberg, $ 30. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave.  

845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org. 

Laszlo Varga & Friends Oct. 7: 4 p.m. Solo cello and chamber music. $10 general admission. Free under 18 and cellists. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-$23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.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 

“Twelfth Night” through Oct. 7, Tue. - Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. California Shakespeare Festival presents William Shakespeare’s comic tale of romance, loneliness, love and glory. Directed by Jonathan Moscone. $12 - $41. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, Highway 24, Gateway Exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. 548-9666 www.calshakes.org 

“Swanwhite” through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can.” Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, directed by Christopher Herold. $6-$12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus, 642-8268. 

“Approach” through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” 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 

Fine Arts Cinema through Oct. 9 “Battleship Potemkin,” directed by Sergei Eisenstein; 2451 Shattuck Ave 848-1143 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mockumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Inside Editions” through 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 

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; 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  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501  

www.adaptgallery.com  

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” 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 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“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 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Sept. 16 through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“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. 21: Deborah Kesten, “The Healing Secrets of Food;” Sept. 22: A special All Poetry Dyke Open Myke, to participate call 655-1015 or feroniawolf@yahoo.com; Sept 28: The Return of Gaymes Night; Sept 29: Ellen Samuels and other contributors to “Out of the Ordinary: Essays on Growing Up with Gay, Lesbian & Transgender Parents”; Oct. 5: Mark Pritchard reads from “How I Adore You”; Oct 6: Terry Ryan reads from “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 words or Less”; Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Sept. 20: 7 p.m. Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef, “The Naked Chef Takes Off”; Sept. 22: 10:30 a.m. Cody’s for Kids, Walter the Giant Storyteller; Sept. 25: 7 p.m. Nancy London has been cancelled; Oct 5: 7 p.m. Glen Davis Gold reads from “Carter Beats the Devil”; Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: how to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scard, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate; Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Studs Terkel reads from “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and hunger for Faith; Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Sept. 17: Aldo Alvarez describes “Interesting Monsters”; Sept. 18: Clarence Walker discusses “We Can’t Go Home Again: An Argument About Afrocentrism; Sept. 19: Douglas Coupland reads “All Families Are Psychotic”; Sept. 24: Theodore Roszak discusses “Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders”; Sept. 25: Ken Croswell discusses “The Universe At Midnight: New Discoveries Illuminate the Hidden Cosmos” with a slide show presentation; Sept. 27: Bill Ayers talks about “Fugitive Days”; Oct 1: Urdsula K. Le guin reads from “The Other Wind”; Oct 2: Jonathan Franzen reads from “The Corrections”; Oct 4: Eric Seaborg looks at “Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington”; Oct 5: Victor Villasenor reads from “Thirteen Senses”; Oct 9: Christine Finn describes “Artifacts: An Archaeologis’s Year in Silicon Valley”; Oct 12: Elizabeth Royte examines “The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rainforest”; Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Cody’s Other Venues - Sept. 20: 7:30 p.m. Cody’s presents an evening with Margaret Atwood in conversation with professor Robert Alter. $12. First Congregational Church 2345 Channing Way; Sept. 28: 7:30 p.m. Cody’s presents a Community Forum on Race and the Achievement Gap at Berkeley High School. Little Theater, Berkeley High School; Oct 7: 7 p.m. Coleman Barks- The Soul of Rumi First Congregational Church of Berkeley 2345 Dana 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Sept. 29: 7 p.m. Kip Fulbeck reads from his first novel, “Paper Bullets”; Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Sept. 20: 7:30 p.m. Antarctica & The Nature of Penguins, An evening with Jonathan Chester; Oct 2: 7:30 p.m. “Dancing with the Witchdoctor: One Woman’s Adventure in Africa” by Kelly James. 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Lunch Poems reading Series Oct 4: 12:10 p.m. Ishmael Reed; Morrison Libary in Doe Library at UC Berkeley. Free 642-0137 http://www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems/ 

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

Michael Parentini Oct 4: 7:30 p.m. Discusses and signs copies of his latest book “To Kill a Nation” at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 6501 Telegraph Ave 595-7417 

Oct 10: 7:30 p.m. Lucille Bellucci, authorof “The Year of the Rat” visits Barnes & Noble Booksellers. 2352 Shattuck Ave 

Susan Griffin Oct. 12: 7 - 10 p.m. Presents slide show and discusses her latest book “The Book of Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues”. $10 refundable with book purchase. Gaia Arts and Cultural Center, 2116 Allston Way 848-4242  

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/ 

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summer-long seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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 “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 

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

Cal women’s soccer head coach Kevin Boyd wants his team to be the best in the country. But on Friday afternoon, they weren’t even the best in the county. 

No. 21 St. Mary’s of Moraga came into Edwards Stadium with an upset on their minds, and that’s just what they got when Gael forward Jennifer Barbera scored a goal in the first minute of sudden-death overtime to win the game, 1-0. 

“This is a huge win for us,” St. Mary’s head coach Paul Ratcliffe said. “We’re so close, we have a natural rivalry, and we’re just trying to catch up with them and stay close.” 

The game’s only goal came when St. Mary’s forward Lucianna Crenshaw slid the ball across to Barbera at the top of the box. Barbera lofted her shot over Cal goalkeeper Mallory Moser and off of the inside of the left post. 

The sixth-ranked Bears (8-2) lost despite a scintillating second-half stretch of play during which they had a penalty shot and three breakaways. Cal striker Laura Schott kicked off the run with a beautiful through ball for midfielder Kim Yokers, but St. Mary’s goalkeeper Ruth Montgomery came off of her line and blocked Yokers’ shot with her trailing leg.  

After two nice counter-attacks by the Gaels (9-0-1), Yokers returned the favor, putting Schott through one-on-one with Montgomery. Schott pushed the ball past the sliding keeper at the top of the box, and Montgomery took the All-America junior down for a penalty kick. But Schott, who scored on a PK a week ago against Fresno State, only put the ball two yards to Montgomery’s left, and the keeper deflected the ball outside the post. 

Minutes later, freshman sensation Kacy Hornor slid the ball across the box for midfielder Brittany Kirk, but Kirk put her one-time shot wide of the goal. Kirk then put Hornor through right down the middle, but Montgomery again came up huge, coming off her line hard and blocking Hornor’s shot. 

“We should’ve put the game away right there in the second half,” Cal head coach Kevin Boyd said. “The keeper made some good saves, but when you’ve got a one-on-one you have to put it away.” 

The Bears were never able to get into their usual style of possessing the ball in back and building an attack, instead resorting to hitting ball after ball up long up the middle. St. Mary’s midfielder Katie Sticinski dominated the middle, distributing the ball and bottling up Cal’s Brittany Kirk, one of the key play-makers for the Bears. Up front, freshman Katie Frattone and sophomore Lucianne Crenshaw made things hard on the Cal defenders, refusing to back off and let the Bears play the ball to each other with ease. 

“(St. Mary’s) played very hard today, maybe harder than us,” Boyd said. “This was certainly a chance for them to prove they should be getting recognition.”

The owners of the Berkeley Motel, who wish to replace their small building with a three-story hotel, received rough treatment at the hands of the Zoning Adjustments Board Thursday night. 

Sudha Patel, who has owned the little motel at 2001 Bancroft Way for over 20 years, has submitted plans to demolish the motel, which was built in 1925, and construct a 30-unit hotel with retail space on the side of the building that fronts Milvia Street. 

The city’s Design Review Committee had approved architect Kava Massih’s drawings for the proposed new building on Sept. 20. Nevertheless, the ZAB, on which two interim members sat Thursday evening, called several aspects of the design “inadequate,” and sent the plan back to the DRC for the third time. 

The motel is located across the street from Berkeley High School, and is at the southwest corner of the giant “Library Gardens” project, which appears to be headed for easy approval at the ZAB’s next meeting on Oct. 11. 

Paul Schwartz, a Berkeley attorney whom Mayor Shirley Dean has appointed to the ZAB on a temporary basis, while board member Rosemarie Pietras is on leave, called the proposed motel “ugly.” 

“Berkeley deserves better,” he said. 

Patel and Massih had asked the ZAB for a permit to place the new building right up against the sidewalk, with no “setback” from pedestrian traffic as is often required in residential areas. Many ZAB members voiced their concern about the effect on pedestrians of a building not set back on that corner. 

Schwartz said that his principal concern was that the building was too “massive.” He said he would have preferred to see fewer than 30 units in the new building, which he and other members said should be set back from the sidewalk. 

The board said that if it were forced to vote on the project during that night’s meeting, it would most likely be denied and Patel would have to appeal the decision to the City Council. However, the board gave her the option of waiving her rights under the Permit Streamlining Act – which requires city planning agencies to approve or deny projects within six months after their applications are completed – so that the DRC could look at the project again. Patel’s architect chose to waive his PSA rights. 

In an interview on Friday, Massih said that the setback requirement was inappropriate for an urban area. 

“Where are we – In Irvine, or in Berkeley?” he asked. “This is a totally suburban move.” 

“With these setbacks, the commercial space we worked so hard to provide for the neighborhood is going to have to be sacrificed.” 

The site of the motel itself is in a zone that permits building with no setback requirement, but because it is bordered on two sides by neighborhoods zoned residential it required a no-setback permit from the ZAB. 

David Blake, who is a member of both the ZAB and the DRC but was absent from Thursday’s ZAB meeting, was surprised by the decision. 

“It’s unusual not to grant a use permit for no setback, particularly with Library Gardens going up next door,” he said. “But DRC will have to look at it to see if this project can be effectively built without a setback.” 

Blake said that while the DRC was not completely enthusiastic about the proposed motel, it did think that it would pass muster at the ZAB. 

“I don’t think that Design Review loved the way it looked, but considering the limitation of their budget, we thought it was acceptable,” he said. 

Schwartz said on Friday that he did want to see a new building at that site, given that “the current building is a bit of an eyesore,” but that the prominence of the site called for caution. 

“It’s a very sensitive site, in my mind, being right across from the high school on a prominent corner,” he said. 

“I really appreciate the fact that the applicants are trying to improve the corner. I would just like it to be a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the current design.” 

Massih said that in light of his recent experiences, the Permit Streamlining Act seems somewhat irrelevant – and he thought the city suffers. 

“The planning department had set up these deadlines, just so that things don’t get dragged on so long,” he said. “What’s the point of that, if you can threaten me with killing the project or taking it before the council?” 

“Every time the process gets dragged on, it costs the project something. The cost ends up coming out of the product – the building. By dragging it out, you end up getting cheaper buildings – and I don’t think that that’s what the city really wants.”

Editor: 

In regard to the tragic events of September 11, I would like to take this opportunity to point out a very positive outcome. All across the country, young people have been coming together to aid the relief effort in a huge way. By donating blood, money and food to victims on the east coast, young people are showing that we are not an apathetic generation. College students are voicing their opinions about war with a loud voice as well. Demonstrations and vigils on many campuses have proven that young people do indeed care about critical issues such as national safety, U.S. foreign policy and most importantly peace. 

Many youth organizations are helping to facilitate and amplify the perspective of young people. One organization that should be commended in particular is the California Youth Vote coalition, which is pushing for politicians to include the voices of 18-24 years old in a way like never before. Youth Vote is asking that next year’s Governors race include youth debates in which young people can have the opportunity to address politicians and make them hear our concerns. 

Currently, politicians are doing a great job of excluding the voices of young people with regards to the terrorist attacks. We, as the leaders of tomorrow and the citizens that will have to endure the consequences of what politicians decide, must be allowed to be a part of the debate. 

Sarah Joye 

Berkele

MacFarland runs for 235 yards in Spartans’ victory 

Despite an inspired effort and some big plays, the depleted St. Mary’s High football team couldn’t quite finish a fourth-quarter comeback on Friday night, falling to Pinole Valley 35-27. 

The Panthers (1-4) overcame a 14-0 deficit to tie the score at 14-14 at halftime, but Pinole Valley (4-1) rode the back of running back D’Andre MacFarland a 35-14 second half lead. The senior ran for 164 of his 235 total yards in the second half to go with three touchdowns. 

St. Mary’s got big days from tailback/defensive back Trestin George, who ran for 140 yards and made several big defensive plays, and quarterback Steve Murphy, who threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns. Murphy’s second touchdown pass, a nine-yard strike to Chase Moore, brought the Panthers within eight points with just 2:20 left in the game, but the Spartans recovered Jack Beran’s onside kick and MacFarland picked up a first down to run out the clock. 

“I’m real proud of all my guys,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “We played well all the way through the end. No one gave up, and we kept coming back.” 

Pinole Valley is the favorite to win the Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League, and many expected them to run all over the Panthers after scoring 78 points in their last two games. Throw in the fact that St. Mary’s had four starters out due to injuries, and it looked like the setup for a rout. But even when MacFarland’s final touchdown, a three-yard run, gave the Spartans a 35-14 lead with 10 minutes left in the game, the Panthers kept on hitting. George carried the load on the ensuing drive, taking a screen pass 25 yards to the Pinole Valley 32-yard line. A Spartan personal foul put the ball at the 17, and George broke through the left side of the line and took it to the house on the next play. The drive took less than a minute off the clock, and the Panthers had found inspiration. 

“Coming into this game, everyone outside of St. Mary’s was waiting for us to get our butts kicked,” Lawson said. “But we always believed we could play with them.” 

Although the next St. Mary’s drive stalled at the Pinole Valley 40, the Panthers got the ball right back when MacFarland coughed it up on the next play. St. Mary’s caught a break when Pinole’s Anthony Jones dropped an easy interception, and they made the Spartans pay. Murphy hit Ryan Coogler on an inside screen for 17 yards, and the officials tacked on 12 more yards for a roughing the passer penalty. That set up the final touchdown pass to Moore, but the Panthers couldn’t stop MacFarland and get the ball back. 

“They rallied and hung tough,” Pinole Valley head coach Jim Erickson said of the Panthers. “We made some stupid plays to help them out, and they made some nice plays.” 

The Panthers should get most of their injured players back next week, with the exception of linebacker Omarr Flood, who is out for 5-6 weeks with a separated shoulder. With a full complement of players and the experience earned during a tough non-league schedule, the St. Mary’s players are confident they can run the table in the Bay Shore Athletic League. 

“I think we’re extremely ready,” George said. “We’ve been growing up a lot. You have to crawl before you can walk, and we’re ready to start walking.” 

Murphy set a season-high for passing yards, and spread the ball around nicely, hitting five different receivers. The Panthers were led by Coogler’s 75 yards, including a 54-yard gain on a wide receiver screen in the first half that led to a 3-yard touchdown run by Murphy for the Panthers’ first score. 

Tight end Moore had two touchdown catches, including a spectacular 17-yarder in the first half that tied the score at 14-14. Murphy rolled right, then threw a screen back to the left to Moore, but tossed the ball high. Moore made a leaping, one-handed grab, then shook off two defenders on his way to the end zone, scoring with just 18.7 seconds on the clock. 

Murphy, who is playing quarterback for the first time this season, thinks the improvement in the passing game the Panthers have shown the last two weeks will carry into the league season. 

“I’m finally getting used to playing a new spot after five games,” he said. “We’re going 5-0 from here out. We’re not losing no more games.” 

The Spartans’ second touchdown came under questionable circumstances. They drove the ball down to the St. Mary’s 6, and on the next play quarterback Adrian Smith rolled out to his left. It looked as if Smith would take the ball in himself, but he changed his mind and tossed a pass to Erwin Hoskin in the end zone despite being well past the line of scrimmage. But none of the officials seemed to notice, nor did the St. Mary’s coaching staff, and the play stood, giving the Spartans a 14-0 lead.

A proposal by District Superintendent Michele Lawrence to put her stamp on the Berkeley Unified School District’s maintenance procedures has sparked concerns that last November’s Measure BB funds, earmarked for maintenance, could be diverted to uses not approved by voters. 

Measure BB, approved in the last elections, will funnel almost $4 million in city taxes annually to the school district over 12 years. Its wording specifies that the money is for maintenance, a budget category that has often borne the brunt of revenue shortfalls. 

“That is the only reason people voted for this,” said Yolanda Huang, chair of the Maintenance Oversight and Planning Committee, which the text of Measure BB designates as its official public watchdog. “Because the history is, whenever there was a shortfall, they cut maintenance to patch another fiscal hole.” 

The district’s financial consultant announced this week that state budget constraints and anticipated shortfalls in this year’s problem-plagued budget may indeed necessitate belt-tightening by the end of the year. The maintenance budget, however, is now almost entirely funded by Measure BB funds – $3,849,000, plus $168,000 from a food service concession and the rental of the Hillside School. 

Last May, in the wake of Measure BB, the school board approved a maintenance plan that had been two years in the making, with input from two consultant firms that cost the district $70,000. 

At Wednesday’s school board meeting, Lawrence, who took office this summer, formally announced that she had put that plan’s implementation on hold to explore making several changes. 

“It may well appear that it is hubris on the part of a new superintendent” to alter the maintenance procedures, she said, “but I am concerned about the pieces that I believe the board is holding me accountable for.” 

“The superintendent had no input into the plan that the committee put together because she wasn’t here, yet she’s going to be held accountable for the results of the plan,” said board president Terry Doran. “So I think it’s perfectly legitimate for her to review the plan, and where she feels there are ways to improve it, that’s her responsibility to make those suggestions.” 

However, current and past leaders of the oversight committee strongly protested to the board against delaying implementation of the current plan, warning that further delays endangered public trust and safety. 

“They gave us this money, and if the high school looks the same next June as it does now, we’re going to have a problem,” said Stephanie Allen, former chair of the committee and now its secretary. 

Lawrence’s proposal calls for a “more comprehensive long-term strategic plan” that can “serve as a service delivery model for the various aspects of facilities, which are not just limited to maintenance.” It would enlarge the administrative boundaries of the plan to include “construction, community use, rental agreements, and ancillary educational programs.” Plant security, waste disposal, and disaster readiness “need also be considered” in the maintenance plan, the proposal said. 

“That isn’t what we promised the voters, and that isn’t what the measure says,” Allen said. “I’m hoping the board is going to exercise its fiduciary responsibility to prevent that from happening.” 

The proposal further calls for changing the supervisory model, currently based on a single custodial inspector, because “individuals accountable for tasks must be empowered to supervise employees assigned to their site or department.” 

“That red flags it for me immediately, because that means that she’s then going to ding BB to pay for principal salaries,” Huang said. 

Superintendent Lawrence did not return calls – made over two days – for comment. Gene Le Fevre, the district’s maintenance director, told the Daily Planet that Lawrence had forbidden him to speak to the press and that she was the sole spokesperson for the district. 

Board of Education President Terry Doran, however, expressed confidence in Lawrence’s proposal, which will come back to the board for further discussion next month.  

“I think these are legitimate concerns of any oversight committee, that the funds are legally spent,” Doran said. “They’re my concerns as well. I’m not concerned that the superintendent is suggesting that in her plan.” 

Aside from the issue of proper use of BB funds, the committee members also said the imposition of a new plan would delay vital maintenance. Huang said the interruption of lengthy hiring processes could set back the district’s maintenance activities several months. At the board meeting, she said that only three additional workers had so far been hired to fulfill Measure BB’s call for a doubling of the maintenance staff to 46.7 full-time positions. 

“The way the Berkeley school system works – which (Lawrence) can’t change with the twinkle of a wand – it’s going to be March at best before she can bring anybody on board to start working,” Huang said. She noted that the more maintenance is deferred, the costlier it gets. “We cannot spend another $20,000 to fix dry rot this year,” she said. 

Doran, like Lawrence, framed the proposal as a long-term strategy. “The benefit of this further review will outweigh any further delays and in the long run put us in a better place,” he said. 

Lawrence’s proposal also calls for streamlining the maintenance department by seeking workers with broader skill areas rather than “trade specialists.” (Allen, the former committee chair, told the board that the district was not able to pay enough to attract such people.) 

The superintendent would also change work schedules so that maintenance would no longer be limited to classroom hours and eliminate time-consuming multiple work orders on single projects like installing a new door.

Editor: 

I still can’t believe what I witnessed at the City Council meeting last night. After months of public input, countless hours of work by city staff and numerous pledges to consider all of the redistricting plans based on specific guidelines laid out in the City’s Charter, five members of the council: Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring, Maudelle Shirek and Margaret Breland, pushed through a redistricting plan that they admitted had been put together behind closed doors and had been released to the other council members only minutes before they were expected to vote on it. Even worse, whereas all of the other plans had careful, exhaustive review from city staff to best inform the council and the public, this new “Amended Blake-O’Malley” plan was presented to the rest of the council only in the form of a map and was not presented at all to the public. Maudelle Shirek’s motion to approve the plan included only census block numbers. There was no mention of street names and without a map, I’m not sure how the public was supposed to understand the changes or make any comment on them, but then again, I have a feeling that was exactly the point. 

As someone who has diligently followed the public discussion on redistricting for weeks, I find it hard to describe the anger and betrayal that I feel. The Council majority talks about Sunshine Ordinances and open government, but when the chips are down, they don’t give a damn about public input. We are clearly under the regime of a political machine in Berkeley and I just hope this process opens the eyes of voters throughout the city. Maybe those five members will be more interested in the public’s input on Election Day. 

Susan Levine 

Berkeley

SAN FRANCISCO - Junior midfielder Patrick Fisher kicked a rebound of a shot by teammate Carl Acosta seven minutes into the second half to lift California (5-3-1) to a 2-1 nonconference victory over San Francisco Friday night at Negoesco Stadium.  

The Dons (5-3-1) took an early lead when Gabe Sturm scored his second goal of the season off a passing combination by Raji Ananda and Chris Roden.  

Although the Bears were unable create many scoring chances, they were able to score off their first shot of the game. Cal’s Angel Quintero tried to cross the ball into the box, but after it was blocked he struck a wild shot off a loose ball that found the net at 12:29.  

The Bears got the winning goal after USF keeper Conor McNulty made a save at the top of the box only to see Fisher alone with the loose ball at the near post. He just kicked it in to give Cal their fifth win of the season.  

“Carl Acosta hit a pretty decent shot and it deflected off the goalie and it was just an opportunistic shot,” explained Fisher, who notched his second goal of the season. “I was just in the right place at the right time. Credit goes to the build up of the play and Carl for getting the shot off.”  

USF appeared to get the tying goal late in the game, but Josh Hansen’s shot failed to cross the line after hitting the crossbar.  

Cal extended its five-game unbeaten streak with Friday’s win.  

“I think it was one of our better performance of the year for a full 90 minutes,” said coach Kevin Grimes. “Our players played well on both sides of the ball against a very good USF team on the road.”  

After struggling at the outset of the 2001 one campaign, the Bears are starting to gel just in time for conference play.  

“There was definitely a different attitude after the game,” said Fisher. “A confidence that will carry us into the next game. It was a big momentum builder for Sunday and also showed the country that we’re for real.”  

The Bears play host to Santa Clara on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Edwards Stadium.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Oil continued to spew like a geyser from the trans-Alaska oil pipeline for a second day Friday, the result of a bullet hole shot in the line. 

Crews were working on a plan to plug the hole and were cleaning up the estimated 280,000 gallons of oil that had spilled by Friday evening, but the work was proceeding slowly due to explosive vapors at the site, said Brad Hahn of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. 

“You have to try to suppress the vapors with the fire suppression foam and you have to use large fans to blow the explosive vapors away from the work area,” Hahn said. 

Oil under high pressure was sprayed through a small hole onto about two acres of trees, brush and tundra. Regulators said there was no evidence that any wildlife has been oiled by the spill. 

The shooting occurred Thursday afternoon about 75 miles north of Fairbanks. The pipeline was quickly shut down, but oil remained under high pressure in the section of the line that was pierced by the bullet. 

The suspect, Daniel Carson Lewis, 37, was arraigned Friday in Fairbanks Superior Court and was being held on $1.5 million bail. 

According to charging documents, Lewis, who has an extensive criminal background, had been drinking before shooting the pipeline with a .338-caliber rifle. He is charged with driving while intoxicated, weapons misconduct, felony assault and criminal mischief. 

When the bullet penetrated the pipe, Lewis fled on an all-terrain vehicle, according to charging documents. His brother, Randolph Lewis, remained at the scene and explained to pipeline security officers what had happened. 

Randolph Lewis told investigators his brother had threatened him with the gun. But Daniel Lewis told Alaska State Troopers he was asleep at his home at the time of the shooting and had not been with his brother. 

Gov. Tony Knowles called the incident “a hare-brained act of violence.” 

Knowles said state officials would be taking another look at security along the 800-mile pipeline. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which operates the line, had beefed up security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

“Clearly the fact that one person with a rifle can do this much damage is a point of concern in terms of vulnerability,” Knowles said. 

About 420 miles of the pipeline is above ground and runs through remote wilderness. The rest is underground. 

Alyeska officials were considering using a crane to install a hydraulic clamp over the line to cover the hole. But the flammable vapors in the area made the operation dangerous. 

“There’s concern about the safety of the workers there. It is a very delicate operation with large machinery in a volatile environment,” Woolston said. 

On Friday, company officials said they hoped to have the operation completed by evening. But, by late afternoon, that timetable had been scrapped and it was not known when the operation would take place, Woolston said. 

Workers had built a series of dikes to contain the spilled oil and keep it away from the Tolovana River, about a mile away. More than 15,000 gallons had been collected by vacuum trucks and was being stored in tanks near the site, Woolston said. About 420,000 gallons of oil remained in the section of line that was leaking. 

“Cleanup crews are now, at this point, keeping up with the spill rate, so the damage to the environment is limited to what’s been done,” Woolston said Friday evening. 

Woolston said it was not known when the line would be restarted. 

The pipeline has been dented by bullets in the past, but Thursday’s incident marked the first time a bullet had ever pierced the line. The 48-inch pipe is protected by an outer layer of galvanized steel and nearly four inches of insulation. The steel wall of the pipe is about a half-inch thick. 

An act of sabotage on the pipeline in 1978 resulted in a spill of 670,000 gallons of oil. A hole was blasted in the line with explosives at Steel Creek, near Fairbanks. No one was ever arrested in that attack. 

The University of California women’s volleyball team won its first Pac-10 match of the season, defeating visiting Oregon, 3-0 (30-23, 30-23, 32-30), Friday evening at Haas Pavilion.  

The Bears (5-5, 1-3) were led by sophomore Gabrielle Abernathy’s 12 kills, senior setter/outside hitter Candace McNamee’s eight kills and seven kills apiece from Reena Pardiwala, Leah Young, Camilla Leffall and newcomer Mia Jerkov. Jerkov, a standout player from Croatia, played her first match for the Bears after playing for the Croatian National Team for most of the fall. She also finished with seven digs and one block solo after coming in the match midway through game two.  

Leffall, a freshman middle blocker for the Bears, had an impressive .538 hitting percentage for the match (seven kills, no errors, 13 attempts). Oregon (8-7, 0-6) was led by junior Stephanie Martin’s 11 kills.  

Cal now has a five-match winning streak over the Ducks.  

The Bears controlled the first two games, but had to battle in game three. Oregon came back from a 26-17 deficit to tie the game at 28-28. The contest went back and forth from that point, with Cal finally prevailing when the Ducks Katie O’Neil had a service error and Leffall and McNamee finished the match with block assists.  

The Bears will next host Oregon State on Saturday and No. 7 ranked Arizona on Monday, with both matches beginning at 7 p.m. at Haas Pavilion.

DETROIT — A judge refused Friday to force a Ford Motor Co. employee to hand over confidential human resources documents the automaker says he stole. 

In March, a letter was written on behalf of John Kovacs by his attorney to Ford chairman William Clay Ford Jr. asking him to discontinue what he called the company’s policy of using race and gender in employment decisions. 

Attached were several confidential documents that included minutes of human resources committee meetings and other sensitive information regarding specific employees. 

The letter and attachments were later made part of the public court record in a lawsuit filed by Kovacs against Ford for suspending him with pay shortly after the letter was sent. Excerpts from some of the documents appeared in news stories. 

Kovacs was later transferred to work in the company’s library. 

Ford attorney Thomas Kienbaum accused Kovacs of stealing the documents and Fett with publicizing them to the media and on a Web site. 

Fett said the company wants to keep the documents secret for other reasons. 

“The documents are very embarrassing,” he said. “They show they have quotas and show they have a policy of not promoting white males.” 

Wayne County Circuit Judge William Giovan refused to order Kovacs to surrender the documents, saying he doesn’t yet know enough about the case. He said he may change his mind after another hearing. 

Ford faces at least two class-action suits and several other individual suits from current and former managers. They claim the company’s evaluation system favored younger, so-called “diversity” candidates. 

In July, Ford said it would change its evaluation system. 

The Berkeley High football team was supposed to play a game at De Anza on Friday night, but the officials never showed up, forcing the teams to cancel the game. 

“I don’t know what happened. I’m not sure who’s at fault,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said. “There were just no refs there.” 

Bissell said no one is quite sure what will happen to the game. The Yellowjackets have no open dates on their schedule until the end of the regular season, and playoffs start the next week. Berkeley does have one non-league game left on its schedule, an Oct. 19 date with Emery. 

“I don’t think there’s much of a protocol for this. Nobody really knows where to go from here,” he said. “Legally, you can’t play more than one game a week.” 

“It’s unfortunate for the kids, because you only get 10 games, and this was one of them.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stevie Wonder’s ex-girlfriend has filed a $30 million palimony lawsuit accusing the singer of giving her a sexually transmitted disease. 

Angela McAfee says she discovered last year that she had contracted genital herpes from Wonder, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Superior Court. She also accused Wonder of breaching his promise to provide her with lifetime financial support even if their relationship ended. 

Wonder’s attorney, Laura Wasser, said the action is without merit. 

“The only breach that has been made is one of Stevie’s trust in someone he had heretofore called a friend,” Wasser said. 

The attorney also suggested in a statement that McAfee may have contracted the venereal disease from someone else. 

“Since he does not have herpes, one can only wonder where she contracted the disease,” Wasser said. 

McAfee’s lawyer, Edi M.O. Faal, declined to discuss the lawsuit. 

The action claims Wonder, whose real name is Stevland Morris, sought a relationship with McAfee for more than a decade, persuading her to quit working as a wardrobe consultant in August 1996 and move into his estate. 

The couple verbally agreed five years ago that he would be the sole income earner and she would remain at home, the lawsuit said, adding they lived together until February. 

During that time, McAfee said, she helped the 51-year-old blind singer with medical and personal problems, including redesigning his home with Braille inscriptions. 

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Only 44 percent of doctors’ groups met state solvency standards in the first three months of this year, an indication that many are struggling financially. 

“Some are doing well and some are not, but now we have a clear picture,” said Daniel Zingale, head of the state Department of Managed Health Care. 

“There’s clearly a serious problem of too large of a percentage not meeting the criteria.” 

The standards include whether the group’s working capital exceeds its claims, tangible assets top liabilities, the group tracks unpaid claims and whether claims are paid on time. 

Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive of the California Medical Association, which represents about half of California’s physicians, said the groups’ financial problems are mainly caused by “woefully underfunded contracts with for-profit, investor-owned health plans.” 

Zingale said most of the problems are caused by “reimbursement problems or mismanagement or a combination of both” but that the amount of reimbursement was sometimes the cause. 

He said the department is bringing HMOs and doctors’ groups together to try to resolve the problems and is beginning to develop more formal plans to fix problems. 

The more than 200 doctors’ groups provide medical care under contracts with HMOs. 

“Some of them are loose networks of doctors,” Zingale said. “Some of them are actual medical group establishments that own a building and operate as an independent entity but act as a subcontractor for HMOs.” 

The California Nurses Association and consumer groups supported release of the information but many doctors’ groups objected, saying it was old and could be misinterpreted by patients. 

“We were extremely close to meeting the working capital standard in the first quarter and, as of today, we meet the standard,” said Gloria Austin, chief executive officer of Brown & Toland, San Francisco’s largest doctors’ group. 

Meanwhile, more than 13,500 seniors in three San Francisco area counties — Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano — are facing their own health care financing problems. They’re losing their HMO coverage. 

The announcement by PacificCare Health Systems that it would discontinue the coverage by the end of the year mirrors a national trend that insurers say has been created by rising medical costs and declining federal Medicare reimbursements. 

Blue Cross also sent out notices to about 150 people in the three counties terminating their coverage. 

The HMO plans are popular among seniors because they often include prescription drug coverage and other benefits not available through Medicare. 

The PacificCare and Blue Cross announcements mean that seniors will have to rely on Medicare or try to find another HMO that may charge more and provide fewer benefits. 

“Generally, once there’s less competition, the ones that are left do raise rates,” said Earl Lui, senior attorney for Consumers Union. “HMOs are finding that this line of business is less profitable than they thought.” 

LOS ANGELES — Southern California Edison said Friday it hopes to pay all its creditors by February after a federal judge approved a settlement agreement designed to keep the state’s second-largest utility out of bankruptcy. 

Consumer groups were quick to criticize the agreement between Edison and the California Public Utilities Commission, which forces customers to continue paying higher rates imposed last May for at least two more years. 

The deal also would require Edison shareholders to forego $1.2 billion worth of dividends over three years. 

At a court hearing, U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew said the agreement was “fair, adequate and reasonable to the parties, the shareholders and to the public and is not a bailout by any means.” 

Lew rejected arguments by a consumer’s group and Los Angeles County, which had asked for more time to comment on the proposed settlement. Edison and the PUC announced the agreement Tuesday, just one week before the Legislature was set to convene a third special session to consider an Edison rescue plan. 

Michael Strumwasser, an attorney for The Utilities Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group, said the organization would appeal what he called “this incredible incursion of federal jurisdiction on state regulation.” 

The agreement, which was secretly negotiated between lawyers for the utility and the PUC, settles a lawsuit filed by Edison last fall. It’s designed to let Edison pay off an estimated $3.3 billion of its more than $6 billion debt. Edison will use its available cash and the canceled dividend payments for the next three years to satisfy the remainder of its debt. 

Edison said Friday it believes it will accumulate enough cash and gain financing by the middle of the first fiscal quarter of 2002 to pay its debt to banks, bondholders and power generators. 

“We’re looking for a big bang in terms of paying everybody in the first quarter,” Ted Craver, Edison’s chief financial officer, said in the 71st conference call with creditors since the state began paying for power in January. “I don’t think it will take that long to work through the remaining issues.” 

Some of the remaining issues include how and when power generators will be paid. 

Smaller power generators said Friday Edison has pledged to honor an earlier agreement to pay them 5.37 cents per kilowatt hour for the next five years. 

“Edison has every intention of honoring the deal and the other fundamental aspects of the agreement,” said Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers. 

Smutny-Jones said he was called Thursday by Edison chief executive officer Stephen Frank and other company officials who pledged to work with generators to develop a repayment plan. 

Larger power generators said they are still waiting to hear details from Edison. 

“We’re disappointed in this rush to judgment when this complex secret agreement was made public only a few days ago,” said Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for Mirant Corp., one of two major generators who objected to the settlement because it didn’t specify how and when they would be paid. Edison owes Mirant about $110 million, Dorinson said. 

“Edison’s actions will have to speak louder than their words,” Dorinson said. 

Michael Florio of TURN vowed to fight the court ruling. 

“This is not just a bad decision by the PUC, this is gross incompetence and dereliction of duty,” he said. 

The deal was negotiated over 10 days to keep the Rosemead-based utility from following Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest utility, into bankruptcy. 

PG&E and Edison blame their financial woes on California’s 1996 deregulation law that prevented them from passing on skyrocketing wholesale power costs to ratepayers. The state stepped in, buying billions of dollars in power for the credit-starved utilities. 

Earlier this year, the PUC approved a $5 billion electricity rate hike, the biggest in California history. Regulators then boosted rates by as much as 80 percent for residential customers who use the most power. 

Gary Cohen, a lawyer for the PUC, said the ruling was fair to ratepayers and should allow Edison to pay its debt by the end of 2003. 

The ruling also allows the commission to retain authority over Edison in contrast to a reorganization proposed by PG&E to cope with its financial troubles, he said. 

“What we’re doing is trying to get SoCal Edison financially healthy so it can resume purchasing power for its customers and we can get the state out of the power-buying business,” Cohen said. 

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Friday she is prepared to drop her call for a six-month suspension of foreign student visas after worried education officials promised to do a better job of working with immigration authorities. 

In a letter to Feinstein on behalf of 18 organizations representing colleges, universities and educators of foreign students, David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, pledged that schools would provide the Immigration and Naturalization Service with more information about their foreign students and act quickly to tell INS when a student who is expected does not enroll. 

One of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks apparently entered the country under the pretext of taking English language classes at a school in Oakland. He never showed up at the school. 

“The actions we propose will result in a much higher level of security,” wrote Ward, whose council includes most major U.S. colleges. “By adopting such steps, we believe it will be unnecessary to pursue more far-reaching actions.” 

Representatives of public and private California universities delivered a similar message in a meeting with Feinstein on Tuesday, said Chris Harrington, a spokesman for the University of California’s Washington office. 

Feinstein said she is willing to put the educators’ promise to the test. “If we can get cooperation from schools with regard to student visa reporting requirements, the moratorium will not be necessary,” she said in a statement. 

Feinstein will hold a hearing on student and other visa issues on Thursday in her Technology, Terrorism and Government Information subcommittee, spokesman Howard Gantman said. 

The proposal to bar temporarily new foreign students from the United States drew protests from college officials, international student and educator groups and directors of intensive English programs. The latter said their industry would be crippled by the moratorium. 

But Feinstein said INS needed time to implement a tracking system to curb what she said were widespread abuses in student visas. 

After the first World Trade Center bombing, in 1993, Congress ordered the INS to create a system to track the 514,000 foreign students in this country. When in use nationwide — expected by 2003 — it will give law enforcement officials electronic access to information about students’ names, universities, dates of attendance and academic majors. 

Educational groups have toned down or dropped their criticism of the program — particularly civil liberties and academic freedom questions — since the attacks. Feinstein is calling for $32.3 million to fund the program and eliminate educators’ concern that foreign students would be charged a $95 fee.

OAKLAND — Two former vault manager for Loomis, Fargo & Co. pleaded innocent Friday in U.S. District Court to charges they stole $12.7 million. 

Bryan D. Rosenquist, 39, and Michelle E. Serrao, 41, both of Vacaville, were indicted Thursday on federal charges of embezzlement and conspiracy to embezzle during the time they worked at a company vault facility in Richmond. 

The FBI said Rosenquist worked as the vault manager and Serrao worked as the vault cash manager supervisor. 

Prosecutors say that from September of last year to this August they took $12.7 million from Bank of America. Only $2 million of the missing money has been accounted for, according to prosecutors. 

The FBI said they also discovered a joint checking account opened at the Federal Credit Union in Vacaville on Dec. 1998. According to bank records obtained by the FBI, more than $2.3 million was deposited into the account between January 2000 and September this year. 

*** 

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants have installed 24 defibrillators to treat sudden cardiac arrest at Pacific Bell Park. 

Defibrillators provide an electrical charge to the heart, which stops pumping blood during cardiac arrest. If they are used within four to six minutes of the onset of cardiac arrest, they are 75 percent successful, said Abbie Yant, director of the park’s health services. 

The defibrillators were provided by Philips Medical Systems and paid for by the Giants Community Fund, said Mario Alioto, the team’s vice president for corporate marketing. 

No one has suffered sudden cardiac arrest at Pac Bell since it opened last season, Yant said. 

Catholic Healthcare West has trained 100 Giants employees, ushers and event staff in how to use the defibrillators, which are spread out in dugouts, locker rooms and throughout the 40,000-seat stadium. Anytime a device is used, it will automatically call the ballpark’s 911 system to summon authorities to the scene. 

The Giants’ program is modeled after one established in Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway international airports, which have achieved a 68 percent survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest. 

*** 

SACRAMENTO — Governor Gray Davis signed a bill Thursday that could save plans to build a $300 million dollar cruise ship terminal in San Francisco. 

The bill exempts the terminal from some waterfront development restrictions, and allows approval of offices, shops and restaurants that would otherwise be prohibited. 

Officials with the Port of San Francisco and the San Francisco Cruise Terminal had said development would have been stalled without such provisions. 

State Lands Commission and Bay Conservation and Development Commission regulate waterfront development. The agencies had questioned the legality of building such a terminal. 

The terminal is planned for Piers 30 and 32. 

*** 

MARTINEZ — PacifiCare Health Systems announced Tuesday it will drop more than 10,000 seniors in Contra Costa County from their Medicare HMOs by the end of the year. 

Along with more than half its Contra Costa membership, PacificCare will also drop 3,500 enrollees in Alameda and Solano counties. 

Blue Cross also sent out notices to about 150 people in the three counties that it was dropping their memberships. 

The dwindling number of choices available in the East Bay to Medicare recipients mirrors a national trend brought on, insurers say, by a climate of rising medical costs and declining federal reimbursements. 

Nationwide, 58 Medicare health plans will drop or cut services in January, affecting roughly 560,000 people. 

Last year, about 934,000 people were dropped from their Medicare health plans, according to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

The Medicare health plans have been increasingly popular with seniors because unlike the traditional Medicare insurance plan, HMOs often include prescription drug coverage and other benefits to members. 

Seniors can enroll in the few remaining plans, but face rising co-payments and reduced benefit packages. 

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A structural engineer examining the twisted bones of the World Trade Center said Friday he has tentatively concluded the towers collapsed because of intense fires fanned by jet fuel. 

The interior steel remained supportive after the crash, only buckling when the fire exceeded 1,000 degrees, Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl said. 

“The impact did nothing,” Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl said, pointing to a massive interior column from the south tower that he believes remained standing even after three-quarters of it was sliced away by a jet part. 

He expects that research will examine whether a tougher skin for future skyscrapers might be useful in deterring similar assaults. A steel-concrete composite exterior, for example, might crumple a plane and keep more fuel outside, he suggested. 

“This building could not fight. It was just innocently standing there and somebody shot it,” said Astaneh-Asl, a professor of structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Pieces of one of the planes — the largest the size of a business envelope — were found imbedded in steel facade columns of one tower on the opposite side from where they entered, Astaneh-Asl said. 

“The airplane did not do much damage,” he said, showing bolts and fasteners that suggest to him the towers were well designed and well constructed. 

Once beams supporting the floors began to buckle in the fire, the floors pancaked and that brought the towers down, he said. 

Astanah-Asl, under a grant from the National Science Foundation, plans to build a computer model of the towers from data gleaned in the mounds of steel at ground zero and at a massive scrap yard in New Jersey. 

The computer model will examine if the buckling could have been prevented and whether additional fireproofing would withstand even a fully fueled airliner, he said. The steel had protection for about three hours of an office fire, he said. 

“All scenarios will be looked at,” Astaneh-Asl said. 

Workers at the Hugo Neu Schnitzer East yard in Jersey City, just a mile across the Hudson River from the Trade Center, saw the towers fall. 

They have now been trained to alert Astanah-Asl to possible clues as they labor around the clock with torches and heavy machinery, cutting into steel panels up to 6 inches thick. 

Eventually, nearly all of the estimated 310,000 tons of Trade Center steel will be diced and sent to mills, where it will be melted and forged again, Hugo Neu general manager Robert A. Kelman said. 

The south tower interior column with a chunk missing was probably hit by the jet’s nose or an engine, and was between floors 47 and 78, he said, adding that the location will eventually be pinpointed. 

The hollow rectangular column has four sides (16 and 32 inches wide), composed of steel 1.5 inches thick. Analysis of the sheared face would help determine how fast the jet was traveling at that time, Astaneh-Asl said. 

Astaneh-Asl, 53, led a team that studied damage to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge after the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, and has investigated methods to make buildings bomb resistant. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Dozens of armed California National Guard troops were deployed Friday at Los Angeles and San Francisco international airports to strengthen security and reassure travelers returning to the skies in the aftermath of last month’s terrorist attacks. 

Soldiers in battle dress fatigues and carrying M-16 rifles took posts in the early morning at San Francisco International Airport and at midday at Los Angeles International Airport, some standing behind baggage screeners, others watching passengers go through checkpoints. 

“I think it’s wonderful they are here,” said traveler Bonnie Rader of Huntington Beach. “It should have been done a while ago.” 

But others thought the show of force was too much. 

“I’m not sure it will do a lot for national security,” said Craig Guenther, who flew from Orange County to San Francisco for a one-day business trip on Friday. “It gives people a sense of well being and safety, even if it’s a false one. 

“This is something you usually see in a third-world country. It’s a shame it’s come to that.” 

Army Sgt. Joe Barker said in San Francisco that the national guardsmen will patrol the airports and supervise X-ray machine checkpoints leading to the gates, but will not search bags unless something is awry. 

The initial deployment to the state’s two largest airports will expand to nine other airports within a week and to 30 airports by Oct. 19, Gov. Gray Davis told a press conference at Los Angeles International. 

The Guard members are “experienced, seasoned professionals who know how to keep the peace and provide peace of mind to the traveling public,” Davis said. 

“It’s good to have them here,” said Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Bernard Wilson. 

Most airline passengers echoed that view. 

“I truly believe they could have prevented the attacks. Maybe they would have scared them off,” said Karrie Miller, 22, as she headed from Los Angeles to Sacramento. 

The Guard members, trained by the Federal Aviation Administration in terminal screening procedures and conflict resolution, will support civil authorities, said Lt. Col. Charles “Terry” Knight. 

The troops will act as “another set of eyes ... real, trained soldiers that are going to be functional,” he said. 

The governor and other officials emphasized that the National Guard was joining a multilayer security team and is not taking over airport protection. 

“They are not here to replace anyone,” Davis said. “They’re to provide an additional layer of security, to be there in case something goes wrong, and to be a deterrence to anyone who might want to do something wrong.” 

The governor acknowledged the disruption of lives caused by the Guard call-up. 

“I’m very proud of these men and women because they’ve put their lives on hold to perform this mission. Many people left young children at home,” he said. 

Seventy-eight Guard members were deployed to Los Angeles International. In San Francisco, about 20 guardsmen will be on duty at any given time. 

Sgt. Edward Morris, a full-time guardsman from El Centro, said he received notice Monday, arrived in Los Angeles the next day and trained until 9 p.m. Thursday. 

“Being a single parent it’s tough to be here, but it’s my job. I signed a contract and this is what it means,” said Morris, who left his teen-age daughter and son with a friend. “I’ll be here as long as I’m needed.” 

Sgt. Javier Zamora, 34, a full-time guardsman who normally works as an aircraft refueler, had to leave his wife and three children in Hemet for the Los Angeles deployment. 

“This is a new thing for us,” Zamora said. “We’re providing a service. Giving the public a sense of security. I’m here and I’m glad I’m here.” 

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada’s new medical marijuana law took effect on Monday — and since then the state has received only one completed application. 

Officials are blaming the mail system for the sluggish start. 

Cecile Crofoot, administrator of the program for the state Department of Agriculture, said the lone applicant has submitted all paperwork, including a doctor’s recommendation and a fingerprint card from a police agency. 

If the individual, who wasn’t identified, clears a background check, Crofoot will send the applicant the documents that go the state Department of Motor Vehicles, which will issue a card authorizing marijuana use. 

The agriculture department began sending out applications on Sept. 24. Crofoot said they were processed through the state mail system and were handled as third-class mail. 

Crofoot said she got several calls from individuals who hadn’t received their applications, so she’s resending the applications by first-class mail. 

Nevada’s medical marijuana program enables people with chronic and debilitating diseases, such as AIDS and glaucoma, to use pot for pain relief. 

SAN JOSE — An attack helicopter used during the Gulf War is up for sale on eBay, with bids starting at $800,000. 

The Bell Cobra helicopter was used by the U.S. Army and comes equipped with a 20-mm cannon and two rocket pods, according to the seller. No munitions are included, and the armament is said to be non-functional. 

Ebay spokesman Kevin Pursglove says sale of the helicopter, once capable of delivering a deadly payload, does not violate company policy since the rocket launchers and cannons have been deacitivated. 

“These things get bought and sold quite regularly,” Pursglove said. 

Refrigerators that diagnose their own ills and microwaves that download recipes and cooking instructions from the Internet? Ready or not, here they come. 

Features that have been talked of or shown in prototype for years are now on their way to retail stores, with introductions set for the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002. 

Manufacturers in the vanguard are betting that a significant segment of the public will pay extra for an appliance that can access the Internet, offering opportunities for remote diagnostics, access to food facts and recipes, ability to exchange e-mails and digital photos — all while the user is eating breakfast or cooking dinner. 

Consumers could gain convenience and in some cases dollar savings from Internet features. “For example, a dishwasher could negotiate with the power company on its own without the homeowner having to get involved to run the machine when rates are lowest — maybe at 3 a.m.,” says Joseph McGuire, American Home Appliance Manufacturers Association (AHAM) president. 

With remote diagnostics, a dealer or manufacturer could tap into the appliance and do some troubleshooting so that the repair person arrives with the right part. 

Thanks to the barcode reader that will be incorporated into some refrigerators, reminders that foods are outdated, automatic shopping lists and computerized ordering of foods may also be possible. 

Samsung, LG Electronics and Whirlpool Corp. are among companies readying Internet-enabled kitchen appliances for introduction by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year. 

Samsung, for example, will market a microwave oven with a removable cartridge that accesses the Internet at a home computer and then goes back to the microwave with up to 15 recipes at a time (scrolling will be required to read the complete recipe) along with step-by-step cooking instructions. 

Samsung looks to introduce the microwave in the last quarter of 2001. Pricing is not set, but the model should be only a little more expensive than a comparable model without the cartridge, a spokesman says. 

Both LG Electronics, a leading Korean company, and Whirlpool Corp. will introduce Internet-ready refrigerators in the United States in 2002. They will not require any special hookups beyond a phone modem and a standard electric plug. 

A version of LG’s refrigerator already sells for about $10,000 in Korea. The fridge has its own touch screen and electronic pen for messages and reminders as well as a videophone and digital camera. It can be used to surf and shop the Internet, download recipes, watch TV, listen to music, and more. 

The company also is working on Internet-ready microwave ovens, air conditioners and washing machines, but sees the refrigerator as key. “In the future, everything in the house will be tied together through the refrigerator, since it’s the only appliance on 24 hours a day,” says Sonny Marak, vice president of sales for home appliances at LG Electronics USA. 

Whirlpool’s refrigerator will have a built-in bar code reader to keep track of foods that pass their expiration date. Moving beyond individual appliances, in 2002 Whirlpool also will introduce to builders only a package of Internet-ready appliances with broadband connections, either through high speed DSL telephone lines or cable wiring. The package includes a refrigerator, dishwasher, cooktop and microwave oven. 

“A suite of products would allow a higher level of home management control and broadband gives far more access to multimedia files and quick downloading,” says Tom Kline, a Whirlpool spokesman. “Consumers could gain access to a live video demonstration of the very meal they are trying to prepare.” 

The reason for restricting its suite of products to builders is that only houses already outfitted with high speed lines will be suitable to make use of the appliances. Getting broadband connections into the kitchen as a retrofit is too costly and difficult, according to Kline. Costs have not yet been set for the new products. 

Of course, for different appliances to work together they need to communicate. AHAM has set up a committee of 20 interested companies to develop standards for interconnectivity. The goal is to set a standard by the end of 2001. 

Meanwhile, a number of products already available communicate in new ways, thanks to computerized intelligence. As an example, Whirlpool’s Calypso washing machine doesn’t require the user to indicate the size of the wash load. The machine knows how much water to provide based on a sensor that “knows” how much laundry is in the tub. A companion dryer measures moisture in clothing and turns itself off when the sensor “realizes” the clothes are dry, which might save as much as 20 minutes of drying time. 

A central air conditioner by Carrier makes use of multiple sensors that control the output of cooling to a number of different areas of the home depending on what the actual temperature is in that particular area. This is an improvement on the typical central system with one sensor at a single location. 

An electric control system marketed by Cutler-Hammer includes a smart circuit board and special light switches. These are used together to program house lights to variable levels. The system also protects appliances against power surges and lightning strikes and monitors how much electric power various appliances are using. 

While the bells and whistles of Internet connection and other so-called smart appliances may initially attract consumers, what is perhaps more important is that these are early examples in a new way of thinking about the home as a total internal and external communications system. 

In this new world of total connectivity, appliances will be part of a home network that includes a home computer, television and telephone as well as indoor and outdoor lighting, home security, and heating and air conditioning systems. 

It could become commonplace to control many home functions by telephone or computer screen, turning them on and off via remote control commands. 

Whether the world of total connectivity will appeal to consumers is not entirely clear. “Intel’s research indicates retirees with time on their hands are getting hooked on connectivity of all kinds. The key is to make connectivity extremely user-friendly,” says Larry Wethje, vice president of technical services, AHAM. 

“Energy management already interests consumers, but remote control features may need more education” says AHAM’s McGuire. 

ALBUQUERQUE — Documents unsealed in the Wen Ho Lee case reveal that his plea bargain with the government last year nearly fell apart when his lawyers disclosed he actually copied more tapes than prosecutors had believed. 

But the initial documents among those sought by the San Francisco-based Chinese for Affirmative Action contained nothing to show that Lee, 61, a Taiwanese-born naturalized citizen who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 20 years, was a victim of ethnic profiling or selective prosecution. 

The government has denied it engaged in racial profiling and agreed to the release of the censored documents. 

Much of the material Lee’s lawyers had hoped to obtain about alleged profiling and selective prosecution was never delivered to the court after the plea deal was reached in September 2000. 

Attorney Roger Myers, who represents Chinese for Affirmative Action, said earlier this week he still hopes to retrieve those documents through the Freedom of Information Act. 

Six of the 20 documents unsealed by U.S. District Judge James Parker on Tuesday were made public Thursday. Parker kept two of the requested 22 documents secret, one because of national security concerns and the other at the request of Lee’s lawyers. 

A security review of the remaining documents was completed Friday, said Patricia Chavez, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Albuquerque. It was not immediately clear when those papers would be available, she said. 

Lee, who had been charged with 59 counts of breaching national security, pleaded guilty to one count in September 2000, admitting using an unsecured computer to download a defense document. The government dropped the other counts and he was freed after nine months in solitary confinement. 

According to the unsealed documents, lawyers from both sides began talking about a plea deal, believing Lee made seven tapes containing sensitive information on U.S. nuclear research at the northern New Mexico weapons lab. 

However, about an hour before the deal was to go before Judge Parker on Sept. 11, 2000, Lee’s lawyers told the government he made up to seven copies of the seven tapes. 

U.S. Attorney Norman Bay said in an affidavit he was shocked when he learned a half hour before the hearing on the plea deal that up to 14 tapes existed. 

“I was dumbfounded, then outraged,” he said in the affidavit. 

Government prosecutors called the disclosure “a bombshell” and asked Parker to scrap the deal, although they already had signed it. 

The government said Lee’s last-minute revelation of extra tapes undermined the entire plea deal and indicated he may be withholding other information from his attorneys, the court documents said. 

The government said it was difficult to believe Lee and his lawyers never discussed whether the tapes had been copied “more than nine months after Lee had been placed in solitary confinement because of concern about his ability to communicate information about the missing tapes.” 

Lee’s attorneys said the plea agreement never referred to copies of tapes, which was why the issue did not come up earlier, the court documents said. 

Once they found out about the copies, Lee’s attorneys drafted a declaration from Lee that said he had destroyed the extra copies at the same time he had destroyed the original seven tapes, the court documents said. 

Lee’s attorneys said in the documents that the prosecution obtained assurances all the classified tapes had been destroyed and had not been passed to anyone. 

“It would be grossly unfair ... to permit the prosecution to keep the benefit of its bargain but to deny Dr. Lee the benefit of his,” the documents said. 

A few days later, both sides agreed to a second deal and Lee was freed. He agreed to make himself available to FBI questioning for a year so the government could find out exactly what happened to the missing tapes. The one-year period ended last month. 

Lee said he threw the tapes into a Dumpster at the weapons laboratory. The FBI dug up sections of a nearby landfill that received lab trash around the dates Lee said he disposed of the tapes, but found nothing. 

Also released was a Sept. 3, 1999, letter to defense attorneys from the Justice Department, which said Lee had copied classified and unclassified information onto tapes. 

The government wanted to know why the tapes were made and who had access to them. The government said the kind of tapes Lee downloaded the information onto were outmoded and slower than accessing material directly from his computer, raising questions about why Lee wanted portable copies. 

“We know that the tapes were of no practical use to Dr. Lee in his day-to-day work,” the letter said. 

Defense attorneys have said the tapes were part of Lee’s routine work at the lab. 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I'm planning to take a trip. The only thing holding me back is that I can't get a straight answer about how much weight my car can handle while towing. Please help me find out if I will be having the time of my life, or if I will be rolling backward down the Cascade mountains!  

I own a 1991 Volvo 240. I am interested in a trailer that will weigh 3,000 pounds by the time my gear is included. The owner's manual says the car can tow 3,300 pounds, yet the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating on the side of the car door says it can handle 4,030. Does this mean I can only handle 700 pounds more than the trailer, or is the tow weight different from the GVWR? Is towing a trailer on the Volvo asking for trouble or just lots of fun? -- Jocelyn 

TOM: Well, I think this is a pretty lousy idea, Jocelyn, but let's start by sorting out the terms. 

RAY: The towing capacity and the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating are two different things. The GVWR is the total amount of weight you can rest on those tires, including the weight of the car itself, your passengers, their cargo and the tongue weight of the trailer. 

TOM: The tongue weight of the trailer is the vertical weight with which the trailer pushes down on your rear bumper or towing hitch. 

RAY: So, since this car itself weighs about 3,000 pounds and your GVWR is about 4,000 pounds, you can, for example, carry two mothers-in-law. Or one mother in law, 400 pounds of her luggage and a trailer with a 100-pound tongue weight for the rest of her stuff. 

TOM: Then there's towing capacity. Towing capacity is how much the car can safely PULL without either croaking the engine, frying the brakes, getting pushed off the road or pulling the chassis off the frame. 

RAY: So you still need several pieces of key information, Jocelyn. You need to know the tongue weight of the trailer. And then you'd need to be sure that the tongue weight plus any passengers and cargo you're planning to carry IN the Volvo don't push you over your GVWR. 

TOM: And then, finally, you need to call your Volvo dealer and ask how much it will cost to rebuild your transmission ... and get towed in from the Cascade mountains. And make sure you have that much room on your credit card. 

RAY: The Volvo can, theoretically, tow 3,300 pounds. But if you're towing almost that much up and down mountains, you're really taking a serious risk. Not only are you risking the key components of your car -- the engine, transmission and brakes -- but you're also risking your life. I'm assuming you're not a trailer-towing expert. And to start with a trailer that's pushing the very limits of your car's ability on, of all things, mountain roads, is kind of foolish. Don't you think, Jocelyn? 

TOM: So I'd recommend that you throw a tent and a camping stove in the back of your Volvo and rough it. But if you absolutely must do this, look into renting a tow vehicle (a truck or SUV) with a much higher towing capacity. And get some instruction and some practice in before you hit the mountains, OK, Jocelyn?  

*** 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

A friend of mine has a boyfriend who is very knowledgeable about cars (apparently, he was an auto mechanic at one time). He told her that, as much as possible, she should avoid using Reverse. According to my friend, her boyfriend says that using Reverse is very hard on the transmission. So whenever I ride in my friend's car, she always searches for a "pull through" parking space, or she will back into a space to avoid having to use Reverse when the transmission is "cold." I was visiting my own family recently, and I told them about my newfound knowledge. Of course, they pooh-poohed this notion and suggested I write to you guys. So can I use Reverse, safe in the knowledge that I'm not harming my car? -- Ann 

RAY: Power to the people, sister! Use R! 

TOM: I guess the key word in your letter is "apparently." As in "apparently, he was an auto mechanic at one time." And if he was, wacko theories like this are probably what got him drummed out of the business. 

RAY: He's nuts, Ann. The transmission couldn't care less whether it's in Drive or Reverse. And your poor friend is wasting precious hours of her time on Earth searching for unnecessarily divine parking spaces. And I don't even want to know how much she spent on her circular driveway. 

TOM: Of course, what CAN hurt the transmission is shifting directions while the car is still moving. So if you're still rolling forward when you shift into Reverse (or vice versa), then you can do damage. But other than that one situation, Reverse is a perfectly useful and productive gear. So tell your friend to stop this wanton discrimination. It's blatant "gearism," plain and simple. And we won't stand for it in this day and age. 

RAY: We're here! Drive Rear! Get used to it!  

SACRAMENTO — State departments were paring down budgets. Dot-coms were doling out pink slips. And a statewide power crisis left consumers nervous about spending their extra cash. 

Then came Sept. 11. 

The aftermath of the terrorist attacks have further cut into the faltering California economy and forced already-strapped state departments to plan for the toughest times in years. 

“Clearly, a wide variety of state programs are going to be at risk for significant cutbacks next year,” said Brad Williams, senior economist for the California legislative analyst’s office. 

States across the nation are re-examining their budgets because of an already-weak economy compounded by the terrorist strikes. 

But in California, a complex convergence of events — from financing the power crisis to the fallout from the attacks — has put the state in its most fragile fiscal position since the recession of the early 1990s, officials agree. 

Before the strikes, state revenues already were sagging below forecasts by hundreds of millions of dollars. At the end of July, Gov. Gray Davis’ Department of Finance braced department heads to prepare for up to 10 percent budget reductions across the board. 

The collapse of the high-tech industry was damaging the fiscal stability of California, which enjoyed massive infusions of income tax and capital gains revenues during the technology boom of the past four years. 

Even before the attacks, economists say, California was on the brink of a recession. 

Now, budget watchers are trying to determine what the attacks will do to the state’s economy. 

“It’s too soon to really know, but we can be certain that it won’t be positive,” said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, has created a task force to examine the toll on the state economy. 

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, an Arleta Democrat who chairs a special budget committee, said he will call legislative budget hearings before the session begins in January. 

Davis said he will hold an economic summit with business and labor leaders to discuss a possible economic stimulus package for the state. Davis already has been urging residents to start flying again and he has set aside $5 million for radio, television and newspaper ads to encourage Californians to travel throughout the state. 

And the governor has vetoed several bills in the past two weeks because they would increase spending. 

California’s economy depends largely on taxes of sales, income and corporate profits — all of which have plunged from post-attacks decreased travel, tourism and airline industry layoffs. 

Also, the attacks could spell trouble for two major California industries: agriculture and entertainment. 

Hollywood studios have stepped up security amid fears they could be targeted. Crop dusters were grounded for two days after warnings that some of the suspected terrorists may have inquired about the agriculture airplanes. 

Plus, law enforcement and other state agencies will spend more to increase security at state buildings, power plants, water projects and landmarks. 

Beyond the attacks, an impasse over repaying the money the state spent for electricity this year led officials to predict dire budget consequences. 

California spent $6.1 billion from its general fund to buy power on behalf of three cash-strapped utilities, which must be repaid by June 2002, the end of the current fiscal year, or the money will have to be cut from the budget. 

Friday, a major credit rating agency said it may downgrade the state’s bond rating for the second time this year because of the uncertainty surrounding the bond deal. 

Even if the energy costs are repaid, the $2.6 billion reserve in the $103 billion 2001-02 budget will likely disappear in a few months. 

Already the first three months of the fiscal year, July through September, showed revenues $1 billion below forecasts, according to the legislative analyst’s office. 

That will mean cuts of some kind, either hiring freezes, spending reductions, borrowing or possibly higher taxes. 

“These are big numbers and you don’t fix problems like this by trimming,” said Sen. Steve Peace, an El Cajon Democrat and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. 

But Department of Finance Chief Economist Ted Gibson said he and others are hopeful the problem will not drag into the long-term. 

He doubts the state’s economic fortunes will plunge to the depths of the early-1990s recession, partly because of an ironic twist to the tragedies. 

The response could help boost some key sectors in the state, from defense contractors to biotech firms aiding in new efforts to prevent bio-terrorism. 

But a major economic question remains. What if California is hit by a terrorist attack? 

Davis — who said authorities have warned him the state could be a target — has launched a statewide anti-terrorism effort including a database for information on threats and suspected terrorists. 

A strike here could cripple the already-uncertain economy, state Controller Kathleen Connell said. 

“All bets are off if we have a terrorist act that impacts California directly,” Connell said. “Then our best economic projections are going to be voided.” 

SAN JOSE — Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to cut 3,900 jobs and said Friday its quarterly losses will be wider than expected in part because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Semiconductor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which announced 2,300 layoffs and plant closings last week, also warned of wider losses in the quarter ended Sept. 30. 

Despite marginally positive news from other high-tech companies earlier this week, analysts say Friday’s announcements show not everyone in the tech sector has hit bottom. 

Last month’s attacks further weakened demand for high-tech equipment, and the effects of diminished customer spending and confidence will ripple through tech companies for months to come. 

“It’s pretty bad in the near term,” said Daniel Kunstler, a J.P. Morgan analyst who covers Sun. “Nobody’s spending any money, and Sept. 11 is a further inhibitor of money being spent.” 

Sun, which until Friday had kept its ranks intact during the economic slump, will cut 9 percent of its work force. The layoffs will not affect sales or research, said Scott McNealy, Sun’s chief executive. 

The company also said revenue in its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30 was in the range of $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting revenue of $3.3 billion. 

Sun said its loss for the quarter was in the range of 5 cents to 7 cents per share. Analysts were expecting a loss of 4 cents a share. 

A large percentage of Sun’s business takes place in the final month of any quarter. Before the Sept. 11 attack, Sun had warned that it would lose money because of soft demand for its products in Japan and Europe. 

“Our business nearly ground to a halt in the two weeks following that tragic day,” said Michael Lehman, Sun’s chief financial officer. 

In addition to the job cuts, Sun said it will consolidate excess facilities and take a charge of about $500 million in the second quarter. 

Both Sun and IBM Corp. recently launched high-end servers that could help spur recovery once companies start buying again, analysts said. Sun expects to return to profitability in the June quarter. 

Sun, which designs its own chips and software for its computers, was a Wall Street darling during the Internet boom. But its stock has lost about two-thirds of its value over the last year as dot-coms and other companies stopped buying equipment. 

On Friday, shares of Sun were lower before gaining 27 cents to $9.56 in late-afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said its losses for the quarter ended Sept. 30 will range between $90 million and $110 million, or 26 cents to 31 cents per share. Analysts were expecting a loss of 12 cents per share, excluding one-time charges. 

Third-quarter sales totaled $766 million, a 22 percent dropoff from the previous quarter. 

AMD lays much of the blame on its battle with Intel, which has been slashing processor prices to attract customers. 

AMD Chairman Jerry Sanders claimed that Intel’s “aggressive pricing and large, cash-backed marketing program” is part of an effort to overcome “performance deficiencies” of its Pentium 4 chip. 

Industry analysts said Intel is using its financial muscle and cost savings in its chip production to steal market share from AMD. 

AMD also is a major player in the flash memory chips that are used in wireless phones, a segment where sales also are slowing. 

“AMD is getting hit with a doubly whammy,” said analyst Tim Mahon of Credit Suisse First Boston. “And there is no catalyst out there where you can see these conditions changing for the next three to six months.” 

AMD’s stock fell 15 cents to $8.85 during trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

The past weeks have carried a mixed bag for tech companies. Big names such as Dell Computer and Cisco Systems affirmed their outlooks. Others such as Gateway, Compaq and JDS Uniphase have warned. 

Eric Rothdeutsch, an analyst at Robertson Stephens, said he does not expect a big rally for the tech industry any time soon. 

“I don’t think the fundamentals of the technology companies are such that the market is going to take off from here,” he said. “I think it’s still going to be very choppy, with lots of volatility.” 

f 

After two-and-a-half years of public hearings, workshops, and roundtable discussions, the final draft of the Berkeley General Plan has been sent to the City Council for one last round of public comment before approval. 

The General Plan is a document of goals, objectives and policies that govern a variety of city polices on issues such as land use, transportation and environmental management.  

The Planning Commission sent the document to the council in early July. Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn, Senior Planner Andrew Thomas and Housing Director Stephen Barton presented an overview of the plan to the council on Tuesday. 

Berkeley’s General Plan has not been updated since 1977 and Thomas said many of the goals of the 1977 plan remain in the new draft although they reflect updated methods, concepts and theories. 

The council will hold two General Plan public hearings, one on Oct. 30 and another on Nov. 6, after which the council is expected to approve the plan.  

The plan sets an ambitious goal to create 6,400 permanently affordable housing units over the next 20 years through acquisition of existing housing and new construction. Currently there are 1,600 units of affordable housing in Berkeley. The plan also reaffirms policies of dense infill development in the downtown area and along transit corridors.  

The plan requires a two-year moratorium on creating new downtown parking and requires better use of existing parking. The plan also promotes traffic calming design features such as sidewalk bulb-outs for residential neighborhoods. 

The plan set height limits of seven stories in the downtown core, an area bounded by University Avenue and Milvia, Kittredge, and Oxford streets. Other downtown areas are limited to five stories. The Civic Center area is limited to four stories. 

Thomas said, with the exception of two elements, the plan was unanimously approved by the nine-member Planning Commission.  

“Parking and rent control would have held up the entire plan if the commission had not voted on them separately,” he said. 

A recommendation that the city be required to maintain the existing level of parking in the downtown area failed by a vote of 4-4, with one abstention. And a recommendation to strike a clause making it city policy to support the repeal of Costa Hawkins, a state law that weakened rent control laws, was retained in the plan by a 5-4 vote. 

The council first authorized work on the plan in February, 1999. Since then, 12 city commissions, seven outside agencies and hundreds of citizens have participated in the development of the plan.  

Wrenn said Berkeley’s commissions and residents have a wide range of opinions that required the plan be adjusted and modified to accommodate as many perspectives as possible.  

“A lot of issues were discussed in the development of the General Plan and there were a lot of compromises on most of those issues,” Wrenn said.  

Parking, which business interests say is vital to the health of the downtown economy, is expected to be the most contentious issue discussed during the coming public hearings.  

“I’ve always believed we need to do three things downtown,” said Mayor Shirley Dean, “strengthen transit, better manage existing parking and build new parking.” 

Parking opponents, however, argue that creating more parking is expensive, creates more traffic and takes up valuable space that could be used for housing. 

Dean proposed a controversial plan for a 500-space parking garage underneath Martin Luther King Civic Center Park at her State of the City Address in May. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who opposes new parking, said city money that goes into subsidizing parking garages should be rerouted to public transportation. 

“For the cost of destroying Civic Center Park with an underground parking garage you could provide the major employers with bus and BART passes for all their employees including university employees,” he said. 

Wrenn said one solution might be to encourage long-term parkers, such as people who park in garages near the university and downtown, to take public transportation, which would free up space for short-term parkers who drive downtown to frequent businesses. 

“One way to do that is to increase the cost of long-term parking,” Wrenn said. “When you get up to about $13 -14 a day to park, you start to think the bus isn’t so bad or maybe it might be nice to ride a bike to work once in a while.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she wants the plan to encourage affordable housing development by allowing higher buildings and denser construction for those who build deeply affordable housing. The state already gives density bonuses to developers who set aside 20 percent of their units to those who earn 80 percent of area’s average income. Spring said she would like to add even more density for developers who set aside units for families earning no more than 60 percent of the area’s average income. 

“It is my highest priority to provide affordable housing to people who are really struggling to get by,” she said.  

Councilmember Miriam Hawley said the city has to be careful where the money comes from to build or acquire new affordable housing. She said if tax payers are too heavily burdened, the cost will be passed along to Berkeley residents, which would make the area even more expensive to live in. “We have to be careful how many times we go to the well,” she said. 

Worthington said he would like the plan to add stronger language to encourage the university to build more student housing. He said university officials promised they would create hundreds of units in a long-range plan that was drafted in the 1980s. 

“We have to demand the university keep its word and the current language of the Draft General Plan doesn’t appear to go far enough to that end.”

Friday, Oct. 5

Lecture on Islam 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

100 Wheeler Hall 

Yusmarni Djalius, Head of American Studies at Universitas Andalas speaks about Indonesia: the worlds largest Islamic country. 

Saturday, Oct. 6

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, gives free rides on a first come, first served basis 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 accompanied by an adult. Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

Fire Suppression 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading. 527-9905 

Sunday, Oct. 7

Animal Blessings 

10 a.m. 

All Souls Episcopal Parish 

2220 Cedar St. 

Celebration of the Feast of St. Francis allows pets to gather in the courtyard. Following the service, the public is invited for refreshments and a children’s zoo with a pony, chickens, rabbits and ferrets in the courtyard. 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Avenue, between Third and Fourth Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce and specialty foods. 654-6346 

Monday, Oct. 8

Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi.  

848-5232 

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 

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 

Town Hall Meeting 

4 - 6 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

The Affordable Housing Advocacy Project presents a discussion on the Berkeley Housing Authority Homeownership Program. 548-5803 

Wednesday, Oct. 10 

Amendment to Zoning Ordinance Meeting 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The Planning Commission will consider an amendment to the zoning ordinance to prohibit the conversions of existing building space from any other use to office use and the development of new office uses of 5000 square feet or more in the mixed use-light industrial zoning district.

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to the mayor and City Council: 

That the City of Berkeley should consider suing the University of California with regard to development of the Berkeley campus’s “northeast quadrant” is at the same time encouraging and disheartening. 

Encouraging because the university is a juggernaut that, if not stopped, will have swallowed Berkeley whole.  

We’re all aware of the problems that accompany successful and growing institutions and the consequences to the City. Not least of which is the loss of tax revenue as more and more property is bought and leased.  

Costs in services that the city must provide and its taxpayers must bear are well known. Costs to residents in loss of quality of life may be considered by some too petty to mention, but they are considerable enough for many to consider leaving Berkeley. For these reasons, the threat of a lawsuit to enjoin the university from undertaking this latest assault on a large section of the town is encouraging. 

Yet it is disheartening because existing state law, as we have seen time and again, virtually assures defeat of any challenge to the university on issues related even distantly to land use. 

It is past time that the city recognize the threat to control of its fiscal future that is posed by the university’s exemption from taxation and local land-use regulations.  

It is time that the city of Berkeley reach out to and join hands with other jurisdictions similarly affected by university campuses in their midst: Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Davis, West Los Angeles... Together a state-wide coalition can and will exert the influence needed to change state law and eliminate the university’s immunity that is such a heavy and destructive burden on us as a city. 

Yes, the threat of a lawsuit may bring a few mitigations for the current project. But only changing state law can bring permanent relief.  

There are thousands of individuals waiting for the coalition leadership needed. I pray that our City will provide it.  

Sharon Entwistle 

Berkele

Rumitones, Stamenphones and Orbitones have no place alongside violins, trombones and tympanis in a traditional orchestra or band. Yet these experimental instruments, the creative offspring of sound sculptor Ela Lamblin, play their own strains of beautiful music. 

With a cello bow, Lamblin can elicit seven octaves of haunting musical tones from the strings of the Stamenphone. Lamblin and his wife and collaborator, choreographer Leah Mann, incorporate the instruments into performances that include dance, music and theater. For instance, “Siddhartha” features the Stamenphone, Mann and Lamblin suspended from the ceiling in an aerial dance. 

Lamblin and Mann will show off their unique brand of performance art at Oakland’s Open Arts Circle Friday and Saturday nights. The show, entitled “Rattle,” is billed as “whimsical movement theater to rattle your senses.” The two Seattle artists will share the stage with two longtime friends and choreographers. Oakland-based artist Cherie Carson will perform two pieces, including “Kiting,” an aerial bungee dance. Dana Marschalk of Moving in the Spirit Dance, which she founded with Mann, will also perform.  

Lamblin traces his musical odyssey to his childhood in the mountains of Southern Oregon, where he was home-schooled by his artist-teacher parents. His father told him that while he wouldn’t buy him any toys, he would help him build whatever he wanted. Though Lamblin admits that his father’s ban on store-bought toys didn’t last long, the seed of creativity was planted. 

Even today, his instruments and performances are playful and fanciful. The Pandemonium, a large metal sculpture that resembles a crude sailboat with a bare mast, is rocked back and forth by three dancers dressed like clowns. Ocean drums recreate the sounds of rolling waves, while a pump organ stands in for a boat motor. 

Yet these quirky creations do more than make joyful noise; they create soaring pieces of music worthy of any traditional instrument. That marriage between whimsy and serious art creates a happy surprise for audiences, Lamblin said. 

“A lot of these contraptions are very whimsical and funny looking; and a lot of them are even absurd,” Lamblin observed. “So, to be moved on this amazing musical level, it kind of catches people off guard. We owe a lot of our success to that; the ability to really surprise people.” 

Like the Stamenphone, many of Lamblin’s creations are inspired by nature. His giant Rumitone resembles a flower that is just beginning to open. According to Lamblin’s unique etymology, a Rumitone is a spinning percussion instrument. As it turns, he can play the different parts with mallets, bows, or his own breath. The giant Rumitone has a metal platform at its center big enough for two dancers. As it spins, the metal tubes that were once standing upright open outward like flower petals to reveal Mann and Lamblin like bumblebees in the middle. 

Their residency in the Bay Area is sponsored by the East Bay Community Foundation, which brought the pair down from Seattle to teach and perform. Earlier this week, Lamblin shared his expertise with students at the Crucible in southwest Berkeley. 

Lelavision, Mann and Lamblin’s performance troupe, has gained a following in Europe, where they have performed in Scotland’s popular Fringe Festival, among other venues. 

“The basis of fun and whimsy just leads itself to this approachable and enjoyable art that is certainly appealing and appropriate for people of all ages and backgrounds, not matter what country they’re from or what language they speak.” 

924 Gilman Street Oct 5: Subincision, Gary’s Agenda, Eugene (+ tba); Oct 6: Tight Brothers from Way Back When, Smash Your Face, Cherry Valence, Bare Bones; Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 

Anna’s Oct. 5: Anna sings jazz standards, 10 p.m. Hideo Date Blues; Oct. 6: Ed Reed, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; Oct. 7: Danubius; Oct. 8: Renegade Sidemen, Calvin Keyes; Oct. 9: Open Mic; All shows begin at 8 p.m. 1801 University Ave. 849-ANNA www.annasbistro.com 

Ashkenaz Oct. 5: 9 p.m. Obeyjah, Winton Jarrett, Village Culture, $10-20; Oct. 6: 9 p.m. Tom Rigney and Flambeau, $11; Oct. 7: 7 p.m. Singer/Songwriter Showcase, $6-8; Oct 10: Billy Dunn & Bluesway; Oct 11: Grateful Dead DJ Night; Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Café de la Paz Poetry Nitro, performance showcase with open mike. All shows free, 7 - 10 p.m. 

Cal Performances Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $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. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10. Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Oct 5: Golden Bough; Oct 6: The Limeliters; Oct 7: Eddie From Ohio; Oct 8: All Nation Singers, Walter Ogi Johnson, Thunder; All shows start at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.com 

Jupiter Oct. 5: The Opinions of Dr. Abecus; Oct. 6: Crowsong; Oct. 9: Hydeus Kiatta Trio; Oct. 10: Cannonball with DJ Aspect; Oct. 11: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

La Peña Cultural Center Oct 6: 10:30 a.m. Gary Lapow, $4 Adults, $3 Children; Oct 13: 10:30 a.m. Derique- the high tech clown, $4 Adults, $3 Children; 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 7: Tom Rose and Miles Graber; Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

“The Complete Shostakovich String Quartets--Part One” Oct. 20: 10 a.m. Quartets V & VI. Performed by the prize-winning Alexander String Quartet with Robert Greenberg. $ 30. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org. 

Henry Clement & his Gumbo Band and Posse Oct. 5: 9:45 p.m. A mixture of zydeco, blues, New Orleans rhumba-boogie, funk, and swamp-rock sounds. Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Oakland 

Laszlo Varga & Friends Oct. 7: 4 p.m. Solo cello and chamber music. $10 general admission. Free under 18 and cellists. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St.,  

559-6910 

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.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 

“Twelfth Night” through Oct. 7, Tue. - Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. California Shakespeare Festival presents William Shakespeare’s comic tale of romance, loneliness, love and glory. Directed by Jonathan Moscone. $12 - $41. Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, Highway 24, Gateway Exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. 548-9666 www.calshakes.org 

“Swanwhite” through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can.” Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Oct. 5 through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 Eighth St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” 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 

Fine Arts Cinema through Oct. 9 “Battleship Potemkin.” Directed by Sergei Eisenstein; 2451 Shattuck Ave 848-1143 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“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” through 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 

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; 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  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27, Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” 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 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“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. 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 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free.  

644-6893 

“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 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 5: Mark Pritchard reads from “How I Adore You”; Oct 6: Terry Ryan reads from “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 words or Less”; Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside;” All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on Fourth Street Oct 5: 7 p.m. Glen Davis Gold reads from “Carter Beats the Devil;” Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: how to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate;” Michael Chabon talks about “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay;” Studs Terkel reads from “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for Faith;” Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small;” 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Avenue Oct 5: Victor Villasenor reads from “Thirteen Senses;” Oct 9: Christine Finn describes “Artifacts: An Archaeologis’s Year in Silicon Valley;” Oct 12: Elizabeth Royte examines “The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rainforest;” Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses “The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World;” Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets;” Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta and Micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood;” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave.  

845-7852 

Cody’s Other Venues Oct 7: 7 p.m. Coleman Barks- The Soul of Rumi First Congregational Church of Berkeley 2345 Dana. 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Sept. 29: 7 p.m. Kip Fulbeck reads from his first novel, “Paper Bullets”; Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Sept. 20: 7:30 p.m. Antarctica & The Nature of Penguins, An evening with Jonathan Chester; Oct 2: 7:30 p.m. “Dancing with the Witchdoctor: One Woman’s Adventure in Africa” by Kelly James. 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Lunch Poems reading Series Oct 4: 12:10 p.m. Ishmael Reed; Morrison Libary in Doe Library at UC Berkeley. Free 642-0137 http://www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems/ 

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

Michael Parentini Oct 4: 7:30 p.m. Discusses and signs copies of his latest book “To Kill a Nation” at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 6501 Telegraph Ave 595-7417 

Oct 10: 7:30 p.m. Lucille Bellucci, authorof “The Year of the Rat” visits Barnes & Noble Booksellers. 2352 Shattuck Ave 

Susan Griffin Oct. 12: 7 - 10 p.m. Presents slide show and discusses her latest book “The Book of Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues”. $10 refundable with book purchase. Gaia Arts and Cultural Center, 2116 Allston Way 848-4242  

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/ 

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summer-long seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “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 “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 

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

Prep of the week 

Bridget Duffy – St. Mary’s 

One of California’s top high school cross-country runners ran the first mile of her career at an unlikely place – volleyball practice. 

It began three years ago when Bridget Duffy, then a St. Mary’s High freshman, sprinted past her volleyball teammates at an early-season workout. Her coach at the time, Bill Boselli, tipped-off the cross-country coaches to Duffy’s speed and nudged her into trying out for the team. 

It didn’t take much coercing. Even though Duffy, now 17, knew nothing about cross-country running at the time, she thought it must be better than spending every afternoon in a hot gymnasium.  

“I didn’t even like volleyball,” she says. “I just wanted to play a sport.”  

Shortly after her unofficial tryout, a St. Mary’s cross-country coach ran with Duffy, saw the freshman’s potential and asked her to be a part of the team.  

“It’s turned out better than I could have imagined,” Duffy says.  

She soon focused her full attention on St. Mary’s fledgling girls’ cross-country program. In 1999, its fourth year of existence and Duffy’s sophomore season, the team captured the North Coast Section title. That same year, Duffy placed first in the NCS competition and was runner-up at the state championship meet. 

Last season was a proverbial rebuilding year for St. Mary’s after the team lost four of its varsity runners. Duffy continued to dominate as a junior, however, winning her second straight NCS title and this time taking first at state with a time of 18:15. 

Now hundreds of miles removed from that first volleyball practice, Duffy is not only the defending state champion in Division IV cross-country but also one of the nation’s top high school prospects. 

Although Duffy’s college plans are still undecided, Division I schools such as Cal, Duke, UCLA and Oregon are recruiting her. She’d like to attend a school with a strong cross-country program, but it’s not essential. She’s more interested in getting her degree and a career in advertising or marketing. 

Despite her numerous athletic achievements, it was in Duffy’s very first race of her freshman year that St. Mary’s head coach Dennis Mohun saw the 5-foot-2 runner’s overwhelming competitiveness and team spirit. Earning the nickname “Bridget Toughy” for her strong mental attitude, Duffy’s first race included more than 150 runners. Duffy outran all but a handful. Even though she finished near the top of the field, she wasn’t satisfied. 

After playing traditional team sports such as soccer – and yes, even volleyball – while growing up in Oakland, Duffy didn’t immediately understand the rarity of her performance during that first race. 

“In other sports you only think of the winner,” she says. “But in cross-country, you can’t judge someone’s performance by asking them what they placed. It’s more about time and personal goals.” 

Personal accomplishments aside, Duffy’s favorite aspect of cross-country running is the ability to work together as a team. 

“I don’t think I’d be doing this sport if it was individual,” Duffy says. “You definitely need your team there and the group of girls I run with every day is great and it’s a lot of fun.” 

St. Mary’s is building on a foundation of three returning seniors – Duffy, Chelsea Torgersen-Bell and Amy Brennick – who understand that this year’s cross-country team is theirs to lead, says Mohun. The goals they set will not only benefit themselves but also the rest of the runners. 

“Bridget won state last year, but as a team we thought we could have been a lot closer (than 15th),” Mohun says. “So now we’re focusing on building team chemistry.”  

In addition to anchoring cross-country, Duffy also competes in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter events for St. Mary’s track team.  

If there’s pressure in being the defending state champion, Duffy doesn’t show it. She seems more concerned about not letting her team down than in proving her individual talent. This year Duffy’s desire for personal greatness is overshadowed by her hunger to see the team fulfill its potential and achieve its goals. 

“I don’t want to go out there and jog and disappoint my teammates,” she says. “I know they’re going to give me everything they’ve got, so I’ve got to do that for them too.” 

When she graduates, Duffy wants to be remembered as more than just a great runner. She wants to be known as a good teammate who helped establish a solid cross-country program at St. Mary’s. 

“Everything should be done with heart,” she says. “If you don’t put your heart into it, then you’re not going to get much out of it.”

Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Michele Lawrence told the school board Wednesday that staff layoffs or a hiring freeze may be necessary by the end of 2001 to protect the district’s finances from revenue shortfalls due to state budget constraints and deficits expected to be uncovered in this year’s trouble-plagued budget. 

“Christmas is not always the best time to talk about reductions,” the superintendent told the board, “but nonetheless, I think we have to start preparing the organization for the likelihood of that.” 

Jerry Kurr, one of two financial consultants to the district during a transition period between associate supervisors for business services, addressed the board and said the district would need to contemplate an overall budget reduction “as early as December” – and that the shortfalls driving this would be “in addition to the economic impacts” that threaten reduced education spending at the state and federal levels. 

The real state of the district’s finances have been obscured by an antiquated data-processing system that the board voted to replace Wednesday night with a $79,000 Hewlett Packard package.  

“What Michele Lawrence is preparing the board and the public for is that the budget we passed, which we thought was balanced may in fact not be,” said Doran. “The extent of the inaccuracy, we don’t know. But if it’s inaccurate, what it would mean is we would be dipping into our 3 percent reserve to pay ongoing bills. And the cuts would be made in order to keep our reserve, which the state says you have to do.”  

In a wide-ranging report on the district’s efforts to clear up the months-old turmoil in its accounting, Lawrence and Kurr also distributed a letter from the Alameda County Education Office, dated Sept. 28, that officially “disapproved” Berkeley’s 2000-2001 budget and called for intervention from a state-mandated oversight committee, the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team or FCMAT. 

“As of this date, (the county) continues to have concerns regarding the fiscal solvency of the District for the current and two subsequent years,” the letter said. 

The rejection notice was not a surprise. The district was first notified that its budget did not meet state standards on Aug. 15 and was given until Sept. 8 to rectify the problems. School administrators acknowledged at that time they could not meet that deadline and had negotiated with the county to bring in FCMAT rather than a group from Alameda County. FCMAT, a non-profit financial consultancy currently working in 16 California school districts, was set up under state legislation and is based at the Kern County Office of Education. 

“We thought they would have more expertise than the county,” said Dr. David Gomez, associate superintendent of administrative services.  

When asked what its services could cost the district, Tom Henry, the agency’s chief executive, said this would depend on the length and degree of its consultancy. 

“I’d just be guessing at this point,” Henry said, adding that the state appropriates $2 million to FCMAT and districts only pay their on-site costs.  

Gomez confirmed that the district anticipated lower revenues – due to higher energy costs and the probable absence of the state’s normal cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) – but that it was too soon to say where the budget cuts would fall because the district had just begun setting out next year’s priorities. 

He listed this year’s priorities as setting up the new business and accounting system, safety, communications, and accountability and evaluation of personnel. Next year’s priorities, he said, had not yet begun to take shape. 

“We probably have to make some hard choices for next year,” Gomez said.  

“I would think that not one board member would vote for a layoff, but it may mean a hiring freeze so that if people do leave, we don’t replace them,” said board president Terry Doran. 

“(Lawrence) is suggesting, based on the preliminary look at our budget, that we may in fact be in a better position if we start that process sooner.” 

On a more upbeat note, Kurr told the board that he expected to close the books on the 2000-2001 fiscal year by the end of this month, which would provide a clean slate upon which to build an approveable budget for the fiscal year currently in progress. He said the financial office would also have firm data on staffing placements by that time. 

“If you’ve got a good handle on that, you have a good handle on 85 to 90 percent of the costs in the district,” he said. 

“We’ll sort through and balance our budget,” said Shirley Issel, the board vice president. “We’re not going to have a takeover by the state, which is the really serious situation that you want to avoid.” 

Editor: 

I was saddened and dismayed to see the front page article of Wednesday’s Berkeley Daily Planet concerning Berkeley High’s Common Ground program.  

Saddened because, though Common Ground is filled with great kids who, along with their teachers are trying to do something incredibly positive and innovative for students at Berkeley High, the article presents the stereotypical Berkeley High student – loud and destructive.  

My experience with students in this program is quite different. I have witnessed the selfless giving of many of its students as they spend their lunchtimes and weekends planning for Common Ground events and activities.  

I have seen the blossoming of a beautiful organic garden on campus planned by the students and teachers of Common Ground where once there were only weeds and dirt. I have seen the exhilaration of students after they have returned from a six day snow camping trip in the High Sierras with the teachers of Common Ground.  

I have witnessed the development of young women and young men into thoughtful and caring citizens, aware of the world around them and their impact on it. This is my experience with the students of Common Ground. 

With very few resources and amazing dedication, the teachers in this new program are starting something very exciting and very special at Berkeley High School. The amount of time and energy that they spend with the students and with each other planning a new curriculum and a new way of learning is unbelievable. I have never seen a more dedicated group of teachers.  

Both of my children are students in the Common Ground program and I cannot imagine being a happier parent of two teenagers at Berkeley High. Though both attended private school for grades K-8, both of them have told me that the teachers in Common Ground are the best teachers they have ever had in school.  

I am thrilled to hear them talk about their experiences at Berkeley High in such a positive way. Yes, there have been some issues, but generally, I believe, they are a result of the newness of the program. Perhaps, if anything, the teachers err on the side of idealism. I would much rather have that than have them overcome by cynicism and hopelessness. 

I am also dismayed because, as a newspaper, it is your duty to provide information on a factual basis, not simply insinuations and allegations. The statement that “no arrests were made,” insinuates that perhaps the students were engaging in activities that might have required arrests. This stereotyping of Berkeley High students does nothing to promote support of our hardworking teachers and parents in this community, to say nothing of the students.  

There are several facts that definitely contributed to an already challenging situation. First, you can imagine what the scene must have been like for the entire group when they were told that they could not move into their cabins with their gear in the early afternoon as promised.  

I am sure that the entire plan for the afternoon had to be changed. Not an easy thing to do with 350 people. Then, they were told they were not going to be able to have their evening activity either, because the amphitheatre was not going to be available.  

Whatever the resulting behavior of the students was, I know that the circumstances must not have been easy.  

I hope that your next article concerning this program or Berkeley High in general presents a more balanced view of their students and teachers. Reporting only the negative does not serve to build community or support, two things that the Berkeley schools very much need. 

Felicia Woytak 

Berkeley High Parent

Hornets sweep doubles, stay undefeated in league play 

The Berkeley High girls’ tennis team took their first loss on Thursday, falling to Alameda, 5-2, at Scenic Courts in Berkeley. 

Although Berkeley’s number-one singles player, Megan Sweeney, easily defeated her opponent, the ’Jackets could only muster one other victory and fell to 1-1 on the year. Allison Headley won at number-three singles for Berkeley’s other win. 

Sweeney, a sophomore, is in her second season as Berkeley’s top player. She simply overpowered her opponent, Jessica Hanley, with her baseline game, winning 6-1, 6-3. Ranked 13th in Northern California in her age group last year, Sweeney is one of the top players in the ACCAL. 

Headley defeated Regina Leung 6-4, 6-1. 

The most surprising loss for the ’Jackets came at number-two singles, as Monique Le lost to Lisa Hathaway. Le was the aggressor for nearly the entire match, but was blowing hot and cold all afternoon. After dropping the first set, 6-0, thanks to a large number of unforced errors, Le came back to take a 5-1 lead in the second. But the momentum swung suddenly in the athletic Hathaway’s favor as Le started missing her shots again. Hathaway’s quickness and long reach allowed her to return most of Le’s shots, although with little power. Le fell apart, losing six straight games to lose the set at 7-5, giving Hathaway the win. 

“Monique started slow, but I thought she had it going in the second set. I don’t know what happened,” Berkeley head coach Dan Seguin said. “When she starts to go bad, she’s got to do something to slow it down, come talk to me or something.” 

Alameda’s Cynthia Lee beat Carly Kleiman at number-four singles, giving the Hornets (5-5 overall, 4-0 ACCAL) a split in the singles competition. That left the deciding matches up to the doubles teams, and Alameda had a distinct advantage. Berkeley is not a deep team this year, thanks to three seniors who chose not to play despite having success last season as juniors. 

“If I could get everyone out here who can play, we would win the league,” Seguin said. “But I lost two of my singles players, and that carries down to the doubles.” 

Alameda made quick work of the ’Jackets in the final three matches, winning them all in straight sets. Top team Lindsay Corica and Liz Lan beat Violet Leher and Adi Nevo 6-3, 6-2, while Amanda Hanley and Alice Gong clinched the win for the Hornets by defeating Gail Nipitnura and Lilly Schneider, 6-0, 6-1. The final match pitted Nicole Chang and Linda Leung against Berkeley’s Justine Osborne and Rachel Leibman, with the Alameda team winning, 6-1, 6-2. 

Alameda dealt the Jackets their only two league losses last year, going undefeated and winning the ACCAL. Seguin said the same scenario could play out this season as well.

•See related story, “Domestic Violence,” Page 3. 

Despite a spate of rumors to the contrary, Berkeley’s Family Violence Law Center will not be closing its doors. 

FVLC Executive Director, Julia Arno said on Thursday that she was concerned when she heard that many people thought the center would be moving to Oakland.  

“Rumors come and go, but the Family Violence Law Center is still in Berkeley, and will remain there,” said Arno. 

The center, which was founded in 1978, runs a number of programs to assist the victims of domestic violence, including help with acquiring restraining orders, regular support groups and an emergency hotline. 

Arno said that she suspected rumors about the center’s move began when people saw a moving truck outside their Berkeley office. Several weeks ago, the FVLC opened another, temporary office at the old Oakland Army Base and several staff members are now based there. 

But, she said, the new facility does not mean that the old one will close. The program, which has grown rapidly in the last few years, simply needs more room.  

“The only reason we’ve moved is that we outgrew our current space,” said Arno. “But we own the Berkeley building, and we are deeply committed to serving Berkeley. We will always have space there.” 

The FVLC said that in the year 2000 alone, it served 35 percent more families than it did in 1999. 

In addition to legal help, the FVLC also runs a number of innovative programs that focus on domestic violence prevention. The center is one of the partners in a coalition of agencies that teaches students in the Oakland public school system to recognize patterns and symptoms of domestic violence. 

The center also trains police officers in Berkeley and Oakland to deal more effectively in cases of domestic violence, and helps women who leave their abusers to find new employment and housing. 

In a pamphlet put out by the FVLC, one victim of domestic violence credits the organization with saving her from living on the streets. 

“At the time I sought the center’s help I was sleeping on the floor at the place where I worked,” she wrote. “I could not afford to maintain the cost of alternative shelter, nor could I return home, because I was terrified by the extent of my husband’s violence. If I had not been able to obtain help from the Law Center, I have no doubt that I would have eventually become homeless.” 

Miriam Wong, coordinator of the Latina Women's Domestic Violence Support Group, said that the services provided by the FVLC in Alameda county, and especially in Berkeley, are crucial – especially given the dearth of women’s shelters. 

“It’s very hard for women to get into shelters – there just isn’t enough space, especially in Berkeley,” she said. 

Wong, who still runs a weekly support group for Latina women at the Berkeley site, said that in many cases, shelters and hotlines alone cannot meet the needs of women who are victims of domestic violence. Often, a more in-depth approach, like that provided by the FVLC, is needed. 

She said that women who come to her support group often do so without their husband’s knowledge. They are continuing victims of violence, and it takes them time to realize that they have the power to end it.  

“We talk about domestic violence, about how it has affected these women, and we also talk about related issues, like child abuse and mental health,” Wong said. “After a while, these women form clans, and it gives them the strength to take action to break the cycle.” 

The Family Violence Law Center’s emergency helpline is 540-5354. Its regular business number is 540-5370.

Editor: 

So the City wants to ban the Bancroft food carts (article 10/2). 

What’s the matter with this town? We are dragging our governmental feet about affordable housing. Bus shelters are already up in much of the East Bay, but not in Berkeley. Now a ban on food carts. Are we trying to turn this town into some kind of corporate plastic enclave? 

On Sunday, we saw how Berkeley we can be, and it was great! But maybe this was just for show. With actual city government policy, we’re trying to stamp out individuality, let alone any “funkiness.” I just realized that Berkeley has two McDonalds, and actually three Starbucks. 

Can’t we have a few food carts? 

What’s next – shutting down the street booths on Telegraph? Can’t we just be Berkeley, even a little bit? Maybe that’s the reason for the long delay in putting up the Berkeley bus shelters. The city thinks bus shelters encourage all those funky people who ride the bus, instead of clog streets with their cars like they should, being corporate plastic citizens. 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley

When Jim Sharp moved into his home 13 years ago, its location two blocks from the UC Berkeley campus was part of its charm. Times have changed. Now his house is only one block from campus, and he speaks of the “blight” that university expansion brings to his neighborhood. 

Sharp has been one of the most vocal critics of UC Berkeley's plan to expand and renovate several buildings on the northeast corner of campus, called the Northeast Quadrant Science and Safety Project. At the urging of Sharp and other community members, the Berkeley City Council decided Tuesday to hire a lawyer to advise them on challenging the university's draft Environmental Impact Report for the project. 

The NEQSS project plans to replace seismically unstable Stanley Hall and Davis Hall North with larger facilities, and add a new building next to Soda Hall. The construction, planned for 2002 to 2005, would add 244,000 square feet and 400 new employees to the area. 

Community opponents to the project claimed that the draft EIR fails to address important environmental impacts of the construction and the new buildings. 

Marie Felde, director of media relations for UC Berkeley, denied that the draft Environmental Impact Report is deficient in the areas suggested. “We have worked very hard to address the potential impacts that the community has raised,” she said, “including extending the public comment period well beyond what is required by the state.” 

The new buildings will house offices, labs and teaching space, including portions of the new Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology and Quantitative Biomedical Research, a partnership with UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, and corporations such as Chiron in Emeryville. 

New labs cause concern 

The fact that the buildings will house science facilities, especially state-of-the-art new biotech research labs, is a cause for concern for many residents. Pam Sihvola, co-chair of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, cited concerns that the buildings are too near the Hayward Earthquake Fault. “There is a very, very real danger,” she said, “I think whole area should not be used for any kind of building, and certainly not for operations using hazardous and radioactive materials.” 

L.A. Wood, a commissioner on the Community Environmental Advisory Commission, is convinced that the new buildings will house hazardous and radioactive experiments performed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He referred to a “stealth lab” of LBNL operations performed on campus that are not governed by university and state regulations, and expressed concern that LBNL would be “coming down to Stanley Hall, making a mega-radiation complex like you couldn't imagine.” Wood wants the university to disclose exactly what the new facilities would be used for, how much space would be occupied by LBNL, and what chemicals and radioisotopes would be in use. 

What Wood, Sihvola, and others would really like to see is research labs using hazardous or radioactive materials relocated to remote facilities, away from urban and residential areas. 

Only 9 percent LBNL on campus 

Rich McClure, a Facilities Planner at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab said LBNL has no plans to have significant facilities in the new buildings. Currently 9 percent of lab space is on the university campus, mostly in Donner and Calvin Labs. 

Many of the opponents of the northeast quadrant expansion were also involved in the outcry against LBNL’s National Tritium Labeling Facility, which will close in December. 

Another major concern for project opponents is the size of the new facilities, which some neighbors said will strain an area already suffering from traffic congestion and noise problems. Sharp said that one neighbor wears earplugs and earmuffs to cut out the noise of current construction projects on Hearst Avenue. 

Mayor Shirley Dean noted that the NEQSS construction proposal is “one of the biggest projects that has come before the council, and there is rightfully some nervousness about it.”  

“We need to be very, very careful,” she said, “because of the size of this project, and because of things we hear are waiting around the corner.”  

One of those things is “Tidal Wave II,” the influx of 4,000 more students plus associated faculty and staff the university expects to see in the coming decade. 

University expansion has been a sore point in Berkeley for decades. Sharp, however, doesn't think this is just another one of the university's growing pains. “This is different,” he said. “It's lot more industrial research and development, it's like part of the university morphing into an industrial park.” 

Wood agreed. “I believe what they want to build toward is more like a biotech industrial complex,” he said, “I believe they've lost sight of the students.” 

Some call for legislative action 

The expansion project has led some opponents to advocate that the city seek state legislative action to block further university growth, as was done in San Francisco. That is something they city is talking about, commented Mayor Dean, but no action has been taken in that direction. 

“I think the problem is, the campus is maxed out - if it grows, the city shrinks. There are some people hoping the city of Berkeley would lead other cities who are impacted by institutional growth,” said Sharp, who supports legislative restrictions on university expansion. 

Sharp also suggested that the city needs to better monitor university impacts on city services, and reassess whether enough money is being collected for services the city provides for the campus. He proposed a neighborhood mitigation fund to compensate areas impacted by university growth, and more discussion of the livability of neighboring areas. 

“I'm hoping this is a wake-up call that we’re hearing from the council,” said Sharp, “but time will tell.” 

A spokesperson for the city attorney's office noted that the plan to hire outside counsel is still in its initial stages, and was unable to say who would be hired or what issues that person would be addressing. 

OAKLAND –  

Is someone you love hitting you? Hurting you? Threatening you? Putting you down? 

It is a crime for anyone to hit or hurt you. Domestic violence can occur between people who are married, separated, dating, have dated in the past or are living together. If not stopped, the violence tends to get worse and happen more often. 

That’s the message the Alameda-Contra Costa Public Health Coalition, a group of physicians and advocates working to prevent domestic violence, brought to a Thursday press conference at the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association on Claremont Avenue. 

New efforts to work with physicians and police are making a difference, according to East Bay shelter providers. A Safe Place in Oakland was one of the lead agencies that began outreach five years ago when the Alameda County Medical Response Project received a two-year grant. 

A Safe Place executive director Carolyn Russell said they went into hospitals and helped set up protocols for reporting and screening. “It has seriously increased the number of referrals we get,” Russell said, adding that help from hospitals and police departments is key to reaching battered women. 

“We’re working with medical facilities and law enforcement agencies because those are the institutions that victims tend to go to,” Russell said. “Most battered women do not come seeking shelter. They come seeking treatment.” 

Since 1996, Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley has screened emergency room patients for both physical and verbal abuse, according to Brenda Tiernan, a nurse at the hospital. 

“We have a protocol,” Tiernan said. “We do screening and ask certain questions.” 

Although physicians in California have been required to report incidents of domestic violence since it was mandated by the Attorney General in 1995, public health officials say many physicians still lack training to identify abuse. 

Many physicians don’t address the issue simply because they don’t know what to do and feel uncomfortable handling the situation, said Dr. Laurie Droughan, an internist at Mt. Diablo Hospital in Concord. 

The aim of the press briefing was to introduce a new tool kit to help physicians work with victims of domestic violence. The kit includes referrals to shelters and support networks and will be distributed to 2,200 physicians and 25 hospitals in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. 

“Law enforcement agencies and medical personnel are first line for these people,” said Droughan, herself a survivor of domestic violence. “If you don’t ask the right questions as a physician, you will never even know.” 

Many physicians tell Droughan they don’t see victims of domestic violence in their practices. But Droughan disputes this claim. 

“I can say to them, ‘Yes, you have seen these women, you just haven’t identified them,’” she said. 

The first initiative of the Alameda-Contra Costa Public Health Coalition, the tool kit includes educational posters to be placed in examination rooms, small resource sheets that can be discreetly given to victims, a screening guide for medical personnel, and a 16-page Domestic Violence Resource Guide. 

In 1999, more than 14,000 domestic violence related phone calls were made to East Bay law enforcement agencies, said coalition president Dr. Sharon Drager, citing reports from the California Department of Justice. 

“There is much anxiety on the part of both patients and caregivers to discuss the issue of domestic violence. But it is a public health concern that cannot be ignored,” said Drager. 

MANHATTAN BEACH — Gov. Gray Davis was on hand Thursday as National Guard troops trained for their mission protecting the state’s airports, and he told them their presence will restore the public’s confidence in flying after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

“We can never again let American planes be used as a tool of terror,” Davis told the guard members training to protect Los Angeles International Airport. 

“Secondly, your presence at California airports will restore confidence in the traveling public, and we need to get on with our lives.” 

The approximately 120 military personnel were completing two days of training in conflict resolution and baggage inspection on the eve of taking up assignments at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. 

The program will initially place California National Guard members at Los Angeles and San Francisco international airports beginning Friday, expanding to 28 other airports across the state over the next three weeks. 

Their primary duties will be to assist regular airport security personnel and serve as back up, handling any emergencies that may arise, said Maj. Victor Shermer. 

“This is their job. They’re all fully trained to help wherever they’re needed,” he said. 

The guardsmen are expected to remain at the airports for four to six months. 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 63-year-old Florida man lay near death Thursday with an extremely rare and lethal form of anthrax that could be a weapon in the hands of terrorists. U.S. health officials said there was no evidence of terrorism, but the FBI and CDC were called in to investigate. 

“There’s no need for people to fear they are at risk,” said Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He and others emphasized that the disease is not contagious and there is no evidence yet of other people infected. 

But he said a deliberate release of the germ by terrorists is one of several possibilities under investigation. “We have that on the list,” he said. 

The man, Bob Stevens, photo editor of the supermarket tabloid The Sun, was hospitalized Tuesday with what was diagnosed as inhalation anthrax and was reported to be gravely ill. The Lantana, Fla., man’s identity was released by the tabloid’s publishing company. 

“We’re praying that he pulls through,” said Rita Stevens, a daughter-in-law who lives in Tallahassee. She said the family did not know how he contracted the disease. “We’re devastated.” 

Anthrax has been developed by some countries as a possible biological weapon. But the disease can be contracted naturally, often from livestock or soil. Officials said the Florida man is an avid outdoorsman. 

The most recent previous U.S. case of anthrax was earlier this year in Texas. But that was the more common skin form, not inhalation anthrax, an especially lethal form in which the disease settles in the lungs. 

“We will develop a very intense investigation of this case,” Koplan said. “We are in a period of heightened risk and concern in this country. It’s our responsibility to make sure people know what is going on and we control it as quickly as possible.” 

CDC investigators were dispatched to both Florida and North Carolina, since Stevens was said to have visited Duke University in Durham, N.C., about a week ago. The FBI is also investigating. 

“We will be checking on a day-by-day basis where he was, what he did, where he stayed, and looking for risks,” Koplan said. 

But the CDC already has canvassed hospitals and health departments in those states and found no one else with similar symptoms, the CDC chief said. 

“There’s no person-to-person spread of this disease. Individuals in contact with this sick person wouldn’t have caught it from him,” Koplan said. “There is no evidence of other cases within the communities this gentleman has been in.” 

Symptoms of inhalation anthrax typically start within seven days of breathing in the bacterial spores. Dr. Steve Wiersma, a Florida Health Department epidemiologist, said authorities are certain the man contracted the disease in Florida. 

Koplan said the patient has no digestive ills that would indicate the anthrax came from drinking contaminated water, and no skin symptoms from direct contact with the germ. But as for the possibility that he got anthrax from deliberately contaminated air, Koplan said: “We are aggressively investigating this case.” 

At a news conference at the White House, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson declared: “This is an isolated case and it’s not contagious.” He, too, said there was no evidence the case resulted from bioterrorism. 

Fears that terrorists may have been planning an airborne chemical or biological attack were raised last month when it was learned that a group of Middle Eastern men — including one of the hijackers in the attack on the World Trade Center — had been asking a lot of questions about a crop-duster at an airfield in Belle Glade, about 40 miles inland from Lantana. 

Because of those fears, the government grounded all crop-dusters across the country for a few days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

The men who visited the airfield had asked employees of a fertilizer company about the range of the airplane, how much it could haul in chemicals, how difficult it was to fly and how much fuel it could carry. 

During the 20th century, only 18 cases of inhaled anthrax were reported in the United States, the most recent in 1976. 

In North Carolina, Debbie Crane, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Service, said: “Anthrax occurred before Sept. 11. And it will occur in the future. The presence of a case of anthrax does not necessarily mean that some evildoer has done something horrible.” 

Koplan said the disease may actually be more common but goes undetected. The latest case may have come to health officials’ attention only because of heightened concern about its use as a possible weapon of mass destruction, he said. 

“What might have been tossed off as an undetermined bacterium was sent on to a state lab, where people recently received training in detecting anthrax,” he said. “It is a possible answer, which is an improved detection system.” 

Anthrax causes pneumonia, and patients are treated with antibiotics. There is also a vaccine to prevent the spread of the disease, but it is available only to the military now. 

Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious-disease specialist at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, said the patient there was on a ventilator. “He’s critically ill. Hopefully he’ll respond to treatment,” Bush said. 

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush had been notified of the anthrax case by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. He said HHS has been working on plans for years in case of an outbreak, and “a series of protections have been put into place.” 

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. terror investigation that has hauled in hundreds of Middle Easterners is being conducted with closed court hearings and sealed documents on a scale legal experts say may be unprecedented. 

As part of what Attorney General John Ashcroft has called the biggest criminal investigation in U.S. history, federal authorities have detained more than 500 people without releasing the paperwork that usually accompanies nearly any type of court proceeding. 

A combination of federal laws and legal precedent allows authorities to detain witnesses, seal search warrants and close hearings on national security grounds or to protect grand jury investigations — the two primary reasons cited for the judicial secrecy since the Sept. 11 attacks. 

“It’s not new,” said Charles LaBella, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego and New York. “But on this scale, it’s unprecedented.” 

While little is known about the secret proceedings, some have dealt with immigration issues, and others have been hearings to determine if some people can be detained as material witnesses to ensure they give testimony to a New York grand jury investigating the attacks. LaBella said evidence hearings related to the attacks may also have been kept secret. 

Among the proceedings that have been closed to the public was a hearing last week in San Diego to determine whether three college students could be held as material witnesses in the terror case. The judge cited national security, but sealed even his order justifying the secrecy. 

The secrecy has raised civil liberties concerns in some quarters. 

“One of the things that this secrecy deprives you of knowing is just how far and energetically the government is biting into constitutionally protected activity,” said Terry Francke, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition. 

A lawyer for the three men held in San Diego likened their detention to the sweeps for communists and sympathizers during the Red Scare of the 1920s. He complained that he was not even told where his clients were being held and was not permitted to contact them. 

“I’m not even allowed to say whether they were in court,” said lawyer Randall Hamud. 

But experts said the government so far remains on firm legal ground. 

The legal underpinning for much of the secrecy is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which allows the government to permanently seal warrants for national security reasons with a judge’s consent, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and legal scholar at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. 

Some defense attorneys who normally would be quick to criticize the government have been cautious. 

“I think we should have a healthy concern about what’s going on, but it should be tempered by the fact that we still don’t know the facts about the events of Sept. 11,” said Mario Conte, executive director of Federal Defenders, which represents poor defendants in San Diego. 

Investigators may also be using secrecy to trace e-mail via a host of Internet service providers. In Silicon Valley, home to many Internet companies, the government has filed about three dozen sealed legal filings since Sept. 11. 

In the past few years, various aspects were kept secret in the case of Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial and the spy investigations of Aldrich Ames, George Trofimoff and Robert Hanssen. 

But Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in constitutional law, could think of no other time in American history when the government had used so much judicial secrecy in a criminal investigation. 

“What’s different here, so far as we can know, is the scale of the operation, the number of people involved,” he said. 

Jonathan Lurie, a professor of history and law at Rutgers University in New Jersey, agreed, but added: “This is a unique moment in our history and to expect that the old standards of due process are going to apply is naive.” 

LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for Southern California Edison and the state Public Utilities Commission filed papers Thursday urging a federal judge to approve a settlement designed to keep the utility out of bankruptcy. 

U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew was expected to rule on the matter Friday. 

The agreement lets Edison pay off an estimated $3.3 billion of its more than $6 billion debt by forcing its customers to continue paying higher rates imposed last May for at least two years. It also requires Edison’s shareholders to forego $1.2 billion worth of dividends over three years. 

The deal, secretly negotiated over 10 days and announced Tuesday, would settle a lawsuit filed by Edison last November and is designed to keep the Rosemead-based utility from following Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest utility, into bankruptcy. 

In separate filings to Lew, both parties responded to criticisms of the settlement filed Wednesday by The Utilities Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group, and the Los Angeles Office of the County Counsel, which were both allowed to intervene in the case. 

Lew scheduled a hearing Friday morning on the issue, after which he is expected to rule. 

Shareholder-owned utilities in the state started amassing debt last year because they were unable to pass along skyrocketing wholesale power costs to ratepayers. The state’s 1996 deregulation law imposed a price cap on energy rates paid by customers, which was the focal point of Edison’s lawsuit against the PUC. 

Lawyers for TURN and Los Angeles County, which is one of Edison’s largest customers, complained in their Wednesday filings that Lew had given them only 24 hours to offer comments on the proposed settlement. 

TURN, in its filing, also said the PUC had violated state law by secretly deciding regulatory issues without public hearings. 

The PUC, in its reply, said it was “sensitive” to the objection, but noted that state law allowed the agency to consider litigation in closed session. 

If the proceedings had been public, Edison likely would have been forced into bankruptcy and the PUC and its attorneys would not have had frank discussions about the settlement, court documents said. 

Reliant Energy Services and Mirant Corporation, which are owed more than $260 million by Edison for power purchases, also filed a joint objection Wednesday to the proposed settlement. 

The wholesale power providers said the agreement “is utterly silent about the mechanics of payment to creditors” and asked the court for more time to study the proposed settlement to determine its effects. 

The filing also stated that Edison has not made any payments to either Reliant or Mirant in nine months. 

TURN, in its objection to the settlement, said approval would make the court the “ultimate regulator,” deciding retail utility rates for the next few years. 

Edison responded by saying TURN itself was trying to have the court assume the role of “super-regulator” by urging Lew to reject the PUC’s determination that the settlement was in the public interest. 

The proposed settlement also was receiving mixed reviews outside of court filings. 

“If this is agreed to, the power crisis has just entered another phase,” said Douglas Heller, a consumer advocate for the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. “This is the pay-now-ask-no-questions-later phase of the power crisis in which the government is effectively giving up its rights to challenge Edison’s unrelenting demands for more money.” 

The proposed settlement would be beneficial for the state’s economy if it keeps Edison out of bankruptcy, but it could end up hurting ratepayers, said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. 

“Both residential and business ratepayers have seen a huge spike in their energy costs,” Kyser said. “The business community already has been saddled with increased costs of doing business as we move into a recession.” 

Kyser warned that natural gas prices and supply still need to be watched since it is the fuel of choice for power generators. 

Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, said the proposed settlement had several shortcomings, but “the fundamental virtue is that it avoids a bankruptcy, which I think would be awful for consumers.” 

MOJAVE — A rocket-powered plane with famed pilot Dick Rutan at the controls soared over the Mojave Desert Thursday in the first major flight for an aerospace company developing engines for orbital launches. 

XCOR Aerospace’s EZ-Rocket, powered by twin 400-pound thrust rocket engines, soared to an altitude of 6,200 feet and then glided to a landing at Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center. 

The powered portion of the flight lasted 96 seconds. The entire flight lasted just under 5 1/2 minutes. 

“It ran just as advertised,” said Rutan, the retired Air Force pilot who flew the experimental Voyager aircraft on a nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world with co-pilot Jeana Yeager in 1986. 

The EZ-Rocket first flew on July 21, traveling a few hundred feet down a runway. 

The plane is a modified Long-EZ, a rear-engine propeller plane developed by Rutan’s brother, Burt, who designed Voyager. 

On the EZ-Rocket, the conventional engine and propeller have been replaced by twin rocket engines fueled by isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. 

The plane serves as a “test bed” for developing safe and reliable rocket engines before progressing to the higher performance needed for orbital launch vehicles. 

XCOR President Jeff Greason termed the flight a significant technical achievement. 

“First, once you get two engines working in combination it significantly easier to cluster more engines for larger vehicles,” he said in a statement. “Second, we were able to keep the engine and fuel flow running smoothly during the flight.” 

LOS ANGELES — Victims of hate crimes arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have a new hotline for help in California. 

Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council said the campaign by the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing was timely because Muslims and others continue to be the victims of backlash violence and harassment following the attacks. 

“We have seen a backlash of violent incidents against American Muslims and those who appear to be Muslims,” Al-Marayati said during a press conference at the Islamic Center of Southern California, which is under police guard. 

“We saw the backlash spike immediately after the (attacks) and that was expected,” he said. “We have seen it come back up again probably because now there are people again on the attack trying to defame Islam.” 

The hate crime initiative includes a new toll-free telephone number (866-460-HELP) that gives victims immediate access to Fair Employment and Housing counselors who can tell them of services available and refer them to local district attorneys, if necessary, said Dennis Hayashi, director of the state agency. 

“We can set up appointments in two to three minutes for people who call our hot line,” Hayashi said. “We feel strongly that there needs to be a sense of urgency for these types of incidents.” 

The campaign also includes training sessions for attorneys to teach them the intricacies of hate-crime laws. 

The first training session will be held Tuesday in Los Angeles and will be followed by one in Sacramento, said Roland Coleman, president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. 

The training is important because the litigation of hate crimes is a specialized area of law and in some situations victims will be entitled to monetary damages, Coleman said. 

In an existing program, victims of hate-crime violence who file complaints with the Fair Employment and Housing agency can be awarded damages up to $150,000 for emotional distress, property damages, lost wages and medical expenses. The agency also can seek restraining orders and civil fines up to $25,000. 

Al-Marayati, who also is a member of the Islamic Center, said about 100 Muslims have called to complain of being harassed and intimidated since the attacks. Most of the calls deal with Muslim women being harassed for wearing a headscarf and children being taunted at school. 

He also noted the recent attack on a Hispanic man in Lancaster by two men who have been charged with hate crimes. The men allegedly chased home 47-year-old Gerard Pimentel, kicked in his front door and shouted anti-Middle Eastern slurs as they beat him. 

An Arab-American convenience store owner in Fresno County also was shot and killed last weekend in what his family believes was a hate crime. 

The Fair Employment and Housing agency also is translating information on the new toll-free number and state laws regarding hate crimes into Middle Eastern and South Asian languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Punjabi. 

SACRAMENTO — Seven California counties are not requiring drug testing for offenders who avoid jail under the state’s sweeping drug treatment program, according to a new report. 

However, most counties are finding ways to work around what had been foreseen as problems with Proposition 36, the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs said. The initiative that took effect July 1 requires treatment instead of jail for first- and second-time nonviolent drug users. 

Counties are generally requiring drug tests for Proposition 36 clients despite a ban on using drug initiative money for that purpose. And they are devoting the bulk of their state money to treatment rather than law enforcement, the department found in a review of all 58 counties’ treatment plans. 

Larry Brown, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association, said he is concerned that seven counties are not requiring drug testing, which he said “is integral to effective treatment and holding offenders accountable.” 

But he was encouraged that 51 counties were requiring the tests despite the uncertainty over funding. The remaining seven counties were not identified in the report or by department officials. 

“I’d be surprised if ultimately drug testing isn’t part of the regimen in all counties,” Brown said. 

Proposition 36 opponents had worried there would be no way to test drug users because the initiative approved by voters nearly a year ago specifically banned using any of the $120 million distributed to counties for treatment programs. 

Now, most counties are counting on Gov. Gray Davis to sign a bill that would contribute an additional $18 million in state and federal money for drug testing, said William Demers, president of the County Alcohol and Drug Administrators Association of California. A Davis spokesman said the governor likely won’t decide whether to sign the bill until next week, days before his Oct. 14 deadline. 

Some counties also are using county money and client fees to pay for the tests, according to the study compiled for the state by Washington, D.C.-based Healthy Systems Research Inc. 

Eleven of the 12 largest counties, seven of the nine medium-sized counties and 33 of the 37 smallest counties plan to make drug testing mandatory, the researchers found. 

The 12 largest counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Ventura — contain 77 percent of the state’s population and together anticipate sending about 46,000 drug offenders to treatment programs during the fiscal year that began July 1. 

The nine medium counties — Kern, Monterey, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Solano, Sonora, Stanislaus and Tulare — include 13 percent of the state’s population and expect about 15,500 Proposition 36 offenders in the program’s first year. 

The remaining 37 least populated counties include about 10 percent of the population and expect to send more than 9,000 clients to treatment this year, the report found. 

The bulk of state funds is going to treatment, despite treatment providers’ fear that too much would be siphoned off to probation departments and other law enforcement groups, the report found. 

The 12 largest counties plan to spend an average 77.5 percent on treatment and services like literacy and vocational training and family counseling, ranging from 95 percent in San Francisco to 57 percent in San Bernardino. 

The nine medium counties plan to devote an average 85 percent of their money for treatment, ranging from more than 91 percent in San Joaquin and San Mateo to 76.5 percent in Santa Barbara. 

The 37 smallest counties expect 80 percent of their money will go to treatment. They have both the state’s highest and lowest percentage going to such services: 100 percent in Nevada County and 51.5 percent in Tuolumne. 

Counties should spend at least 83 percent on treatment, contended Whitney Taylor of the Lindesmith Center, a Proposition 36 proponent. But Sacramento County Alcohol and Drug Administrator Toni Moore, said her county decided to split its budget 60-40 with law enforcement to foster a “partnership” with police, judges and probation officers. 

The smallest counties are anticipating a massive increase in treatment programs to handle the influx. 

Nine of the small counties plan to more than double their existing programs, and two counties — Plumas and San Benito — said they would have an increase in treatment programs. 

SANTA CRUZ — A Santa Cruz middle school student who used his home economics skills to bake brownies for a school trip added an extra ingredient — marijuana. 

“The recipe is probably not something he found in Martha Stewart,” said Santa Cruz police Sgt. Steve Clark. 

The Sojourn Charter Middle School student brought chocolate brownies cooked with marijuana to a Sept. 25 school outing and passed them out to six unsuspecting students and his teacher. 

Clark said the teacher, who was aware the 14-year-old boy had past problems with marijuana, jokingly asked for one of the “pot brownies.” The boy gave her one, and she ate it. 

When the teacher started to feel dizzy and confused, she called police. Some students in the class complained of similar symptoms and said they felt sick. 

Paramedics were called as a precaution, but all the kids were fine, according to school principal Marilyn Armstrong. She would not say whether the boy was suspended, citing his age and student confidentiality. 

The boy told police he was trying to get the class stoned, Clark said. His case has been forwarded to juvenile hall. 

Autumn is the perfect time for renewing your home, because it’s so easy to do it in a natural way. Take a walk in your yard and gather the materials to get started. Leaves, berries, and late-season flowers are perfect for adding natural detail. 

Go on a ride in the country and come home with pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn from a market, a roadside stand or a pumpkin patch. Have fun decorating indoors and out with the bright colors of the harvest season. 

Add seasonal touches to your dining table. Make a coaster of photocopied leaf images by arranging pressed leaves in various shapes and colors on a sheet of paper. Use a glue stick to secure leaves to the paper, then make color copies. With spray adhesive, attach copies to heavy paper, then cut out the leaves. Arrange them under plates or make coasters. Use spray adhesive to secure them to one another. 

It’s easy to give your rooms an autumn look by turning to nature. Colors and textures of harvest time — brilliant red and orange for leaves and rich brown for bark — bring a warm comfort indoors. Add early fall flowers like mums, gladiolas, and sunflowers from a market to add to the colorful look. 

Other ways to add an autumn look: 

—Take up the summer sisal rug and put back the rich Oriental rug. 

—Store summer slipcovers until next year. 

—Add baskets and wooden bowls to your decor for a touch of texture. Fill them with apples from an orchard or gourds from a farmer’s market. 

—Fill a large pottery bowl with an assortment of seasonal vegetables (turnips, rutabagas, yams and a variety of winter squash) for interesting shapes, colors and textures. 

—The same idea works for bowls of nuts. 

—For an autumn glow at a party or dinner, fit miniature pumpkins with small votive candles. Cut a hole large enough to hold a tea light, scooping out the flesh so the candle edge is even with the opening. This subtle glow also works well on a mantel or coffee table. 

Autumn is the perfect time for renewing your home, because it’s so easy to do it in a natural way. Take a walk in your yard and gather the materials to get started. Leaves, berries, and late-season flowers are perfect for adding natural detail. 

Go on a ride in the country and come home with pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn from a market, a roadside stand or a pumpkin patch. Have fun decorating indoors and out with the bright colors of the harvest season. 

Add seasonal touches to your dining table. Make a coaster of photocopied leaf images by arranging pressed leaves in various shapes and colors on a sheet of paper. Use a glue stick to secure leaves to the paper, then make color copies. With spray adhesive, attach copies to heavy paper, then cut out the leaves. Arrange them under plates or make coasters. Use spray adhesive to secure them to one another. 

It’s easy to give your rooms an autumn look by turning to nature. Colors and textures of harvest time — brilliant red and orange for leaves and rich brown for bark — bring a warm comfort indoors. Add early fall flowers like mums, gladiolas, and sunflowers from a market to add to the colorful look. 

Other ways to add an autumn look: 

—Take up the summer sisal rug and put back the rich Oriental rug. 

—Store summer slipcovers until next year. 

—Add baskets and wooden bowls to your decor for a touch of texture. Fill them with apples from an orchard or gourds from a farmer’s market. 

—Fill a large pottery bowl with an assortment of seasonal vegetables (turnips, rutabagas, yams and a variety of winter squash) for interesting shapes, colors and textures. 

—The same idea works for bowls of nuts. 

—For an autumn glow at a party or dinner, fit miniature pumpkins with small votive candles. Cut a hole large enough to hold a tea light, scooping out the flesh so the candle edge is even with the opening. This subtle glow also works well on a mantel or coffee table. 

It’s among the worst surprises to confront homeowners: a contractor files a lien to collect unpaid money on a home improvement or remodeling job. 

Whether the claim is valid or not, the resulting court action can add hefty legal bills to home improvement projects that already are stressful enough. 

The chief legal counsel for the nation’s largest home improvement services company describes liens as “a legal and financial minefield,” yet homeowners can — and should — take steps to protect themselves and their property. 

“The homeowner first needs to find a reputable contractor,” says attorney Hans Huessy of the Home Service Store (HSS), “and second, they should weigh all the options to head off a dispute before it leads to a lien.” He says liens are necessary because homeowners often refuse or neglect to pay legitimate invoices. 

Huessy suggests prior to selecting a contractor, pay a personal visit to the candidate’s last few jobs followed by a call to the Better Business Bureau to learn if the contractor has any history of customer complaints. 

Most liens filed in local or county land records against homeowners are mechanics liens, where the contractor pursues money allegedly owed for labor or materials. Most liens must be filed within a few weeks or months, or at most a year, after work is completed. Once a lien is filed, the contractor has a certain amount of time to bring an action to enforce the lien. The amount of time varies widely by jurisdiction and if a court docket is packed, a case can drag on for years. 

In some instances, Huessy says, “sleazy contractors hold a homeowner hostage by filing spurious liens, a sort of ’low grade extortion.”’ The problem for homeowners is that unresolved liens might jeopardize a credit rating and can hold up the sale or refinancing of a home. They might also put the homeowner’s mortgage in default. 

Issues related to the lien — length of time before it must be filed, where and how it must be filed, paperwork, etc. — vary widely from state to state. 

Liens can also be filed by materials suppliers or subcontractors hired by the general contractor. Huessy says because it’s common for contractors to pay suppliers and subcontractors, the homeowner must be diligent in managing project purse strings. It’s a mistake, he says, to pay a contractor the full amount in advance of the project, or even before all the work is completed and inspected. Often, the contractor won’t manage the money appropriately or won’t use the funds to pay off suppliers or subcontractors. Jilted workers and suppliers have the legal right to seek payment from the homeowner. In the worst-case scenario, a homeowner can be ordered to pay for the same work twice, once to the general contractor and, if the GC fails to pay the subcontractor, again to the sub. 

Huessy recommends homeowners adopt a pay-as-you-go stance with contractors. Once work is completed to the homeowner’s satisfaction, funds are then disbursed to the general contractor to pay for materials and subcontractors. As will be explained in the next column, a homeowner can avoid most of the worst lien problems by insisting on lien waivers from all contractors involved in the project. 

Hydrotherapy dates back to the Roman Empire. In the beginning, pools filled with warm water were crafted of stone. 

It has been only about 40 years since hot tubs were nothing more than wooden barrels filled with hot water. Then they got bigger, and were equipped with water jets and air jets. Later they were made of molded plastic instead of wood. When that happened a new industry developed almost overnight. 

As spa industry growth continues, the consumer is left with the “how-do-I-choose-the-right-one” question. We can help. 

The spa experience is without a doubt enjoyable and therapeutic. According to Jeff Kurth, chairman of the National Spa and Pool Institute (NSPI) and CEO of Marquis Spas, “A spa provides buoyancy that eliminates 90 percent of the force of gravity on the human body. Heat dilates blood vessels and increases the flow of nutrients to damaged muscle tissue while flushing out toxins that make you feel sore. The hydrotherapy part also helps to massage the toxins out of the muscles.” 

Kurth further commented: “Depending on the size, number, type and location of the jets, various types of massage can be achieved.” 

We agree that you really can feel the results. And the stress relief is pronounced. 

Why get a fancy spa as opposed to one with fewer or smaller pumps and fewer jets? The more options, the better your chance of finding comfort and satisfaction for the whole family. Not every jet pattern in every location of a given spa will please everyone. Some will feel only OK; others will work wonders. Someone else in your family might find the greatest comfort in the position you like the least. The more options you have, the better served you and your family will be. 

Today spas are available with up to three motors — just to pump water through the jets. Multiple controls and multiple compartments make it possible for one person in the family to have a vigorous massage while others can enjoy other options. Possible features: 

—An airtight spa cover. A good one reduces energy loss when the spa isn’t in use. Our favorite is vinyl-encased foam with a tapered top. Make sure it is an ASTM listed locking safety cover. A locking top will keep energy in and toddlers out. 

—Solid insulation between the spa and the skirt. Fully insulated units are more energy-efficient. 

—A built-in ozonator can reduce the amount of chemicals needed to kill bacteria in the water. If you are allergic to chlorine or bromine, an ozonator can be used in conjunction with silver, which is a natural bactericide. 

—Two filters are better than one. Units with multiple filters clean faster and better. 

—Measure the horsepower of the pumps, the number of jets, the number of controls and the number of stations. These are key elements to comfort in a spa. 

—Check with your doctor and your insurance carrier. Some insurance companies will cover the cost of a home spa. If you have no insurance coverage, check with your accountant to see if you can deduct all or part of the cost of your spa from your income taxes. 

—Spas, like swimming pools, can be used year-round. But as we know, swimming pools are best on hot days. This is not necessarily so with spas. We think spas are most fun when it’s cold. There is nothing like sitting in a spa on a cool fall or winter early morning looking up at the stars. 

The National Spa and Pool Institute helps set safety standards, and Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) tests spas for safety. Only those products approved by UL should be used. Folks with a heart condition or high blood pressure should check with their doctor before using a spa. 

FRESNO — More than 300 people attended Thursday the funeral of a slain Arab-American shopkeeper whose relatives believe was the victim of a hate crime. 

Abdo Ali Ahmed, 51, was shot and killed Saturday at his convenience store in nearby Reedley. Family and friends believe he was killed as part of the backlash against people of Middle Eastern descent following last month’s terrorist attacks. 

The Fresno County Sheriff’s office and the FBI are investigating whether the killing was a robbery or a hate crime. 

“There’s a real appearance of that, but we don’t know what transpired in that store, we don’t know what was said,” said Sgt. Toby Rien, who heads the county investigation. 

A few days before the killing, family members said Ahmed found a written death threat on his car at a grocery store, but threw the note out. Investigators can’t find that piece of evidence, which could prove crucial to determine the motivation for the crime. 

Ahmed came to the United States from Yemen 35 years ago. About 10 years ago, he opened Ahmed’s East Reedley Store. 

“He was peaceful, he was humble, he was down to earth and he hardly had any enemies,” said Imam Laluddin Bakri during the service. 

Friends, family and other members of the Arab-American and Muslim communities were among those packed inside a local mosque during Ahmed’s funeral. 

About 60 local Arab-American businesses have closed shop so their owners can attend the funeral, said Mansoor Ismael, the honorary Yemen consul in San Francisco. 

“Its a terrible tragedy, we are against anymore innocent victims being taken,” said Marla Ruzicka who drove to the services from San Francisco. 

Gov. Gray Davis announced Thursday a new initiative to offer cash payouts for Arab or Muslim-Americans who are victims of hate crimes to cover emotional distress or lost wages in addition to related expenses. 

Damages of up to $150,000 are covered under California’s Ralph Civil Rights Act, the governor’s office said. That figure includes losses due to property damage or medical expenses. 

NEW YORK — Investors newly enthusiastic about tech stocks extended the sector’s rally Thursday after Dell Computer became the second big high-tech firm in as many days to issue a positive earnings outlook. Blue chip stocks had a modest retreat. 

Dell’s news, along with a similar forecast from Cisco Systems on Wednesday, bolstered investors’ confidence that the economy will rebound after last month’s terrorist attacks. 

While the market finished well off its highs of the day as profit-taking set in, Wall Street maintained the positive tone that has defined much of this week’s trading. 

The focus on tech hurt the Dow Jones industrial average, which fell 62.90 to 9,060.88 after having been up as much as 63 points. But the Dow’s loss was small compared to the 173 points it gained Wednesday to close above the 9,000 level for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

The blue chips have regained 825 points, or 60 percent, of the 1,369 they lost in the first week of trading following the assaults on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

Meanwhile, the broader market was mixed Thursday. The Nasdaq composite index rose 16.50 to 1,597.31 after advancing 88 points Wednesday, its biggest daily point gain since the attacks. The tech-dominated index was up as much as 60 points Thursday before giving back some ground. 

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 2.65 to 1,069.63. 

Analysts said the tech advance wasn’t surprising given the overall market’s losses following the attacks. But they don’t expect the market to move much higher for the remainder of the year, or until it’s clearer when the economy will recover and how the United States will retaliate for the assaults. 

“This rally is basically about getting you back to where you should be — so long as nothing else terrible happens,” said Charles Pradilla, chief investment strategist for SG Cowen Securities. 

Among Thursday’s winners were the two tech bellwethers that affirmed their earnings estimates. Dell rose $1.68, or 8 percent, to $22.32, while Cisco advanced 47 cents to $14.42. 

Wall Street has rarely seen such positive outlooks even before the attacks, having had to grapple instead with profit warnings and layoff announcements. The market was especially encouraged that the upbeat news came from the tech sector, which has been hit the hardest by the slowing economy. 

The Dow’s winners were mostly technology stocks as IBM rose 36 cents to $97.31, Microsoft advanced 21 cents to $56.44 and Intel rose 32 cents to $21.55. 

Outside tech, the blue chips were mostly lower. Procter & Gamble fell $2.05 to $71.20, while Wal-Mart declined $1.23 to $51.50. 

Investors are becoming increasingly confident that the market and the economy will recover in the wake of the attacks. Analysts said Wall Street’s growing optimism could best be seen in its preference Thursday for tech shares over blue chips. 

While market watchers are encouraged by the market’s newfound strength, they cautioned investors against getting overly hopeful that stocks would be able to sustain the momentum. 

“There is not a huge amount of upside from here. We are just going to tread water until we see what the economy does,” Pradilla said. 

The tech sector could be particularly vulnerable, analysts said. 

“The problem you have with tech stocks is you just have a tremendous amount of sellers at every price point up. You are going to see a lot of people who want their money back, especially as tech companies still have problems with things like excessive inventory,” said Richard A. Dickson, a technical analyst at Hilliard Lyons in Louisville, Ky. “The impetus to take what you can get out of these stocks is going to be pretty strong.” 

Throughout the week, investors have been inspired by indications that the economy will improve despite the attacks. Buyers made Wednesday the market’s most upbeat day since the attacks, sending stocks soaring after President Bush urged Congress to approve an economic stimulus package that would be worth up to $75 billion. The market was also heartened by the Federal Reserve’s decision Tuesday to lower interest rates by half a percentage point and for the ninth time this year. 

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners nearly 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was nearly 1.90 billion shares, compared with the 1.96 billion shares traded Wednesday. 

The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, rose 3.82 to 417.04. 

Overseas markets were sharply higher Thursday with Japan’s Nikkei stock average finishing the day with a gain of 2.8 percent. In Europe, France’s CAC-40 climbed 4.3 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 rose 2.8 percent and Germany’s DAX index gained 2.1 percent. 

SAN FRANCISCO — It didn’t take long after Napster went offline in July for a crop of upstarts to fill the online song-swapping void. 

Now, like Napster before them, those companies find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit filed by the music and motion picture industries intent on keeping their valuable content off of file-sharing networks. 

On Tuesday, several major music labels and movie studios sued a few fledgling technology companies for copyright infringement. The labels allege the defendant companies distribute a Napster stepchild program that lets users freely trade pirated music, movies and software on the Internet. 

The suit was filed in Los Angeles federal court. 

The plaintiffs claim that a file-sharing program used by Grokster and MusicCity allowed those companies to develop and “control a network largely dedicated to the repeated and exploitative unauthorized distribution and reproduction of plaintiff’s protected works.” 

The software was originally developed by Amsterdam-based Consumer Empowerment BV, also known as FastTrack, and is licensed to MusicCity and Grokster. Consumer Empowerment BV is also named as a defendant. None of the companies being sued responded to phone calls and e-mails from The Associated Press seeking comment. 

MusicCity is based in Franklin, Tenn. and Grokster operates from the island of Nevis in the West Indies. 

Grokster and MusicCity license and distribute nearly identical peer-to-peer software that allows users to look for, trade and copy various computer files containing music, video and software content. MusicCity calls its version of the software “Morpheus,” while Grokster has named its version after the company. 

Each version of the software can communicate fluently with the other branded versions. 

The software has grown rapidly in popularity since Napster went offline in July. Webnoize research figures released Wednesday found and average of 1 million simultaneous users on the FastTrack network during September, up from 580,000 average simultaneous users in August. 

During September, users on the FastTrack-powered network downloaded 1.51 billion files. 

“The FastTrack network already is very close to the levels that Napster was at during its peak,” said Webnoize analyst Matt Bailey. He predicted that Morpheus and Grokster users would be difficult for the entertainment industry to stifle because, unlike Napster, they seldom log on to central servers at a company’s headquarters. 

Instead, FastTrack allows the users with high-speed Internet connections to serve as ’supernodes’ — personal PCs acting as a hub to connect file-sharing users to each other. Napster required users to log on to the company’s own servers, which were subject to a court-ordered shutdown. 

A quick look at the Morpheus network Wednesday morning revealed 539,211 users sharing everything from Shania Twain songs to unauthorized digital copies of the hit movie “Hannibal.” Also available on the network were full versions of Adobe Photoshop, the professional-quality image editing software that normally retails for more than $600. 

The suit comes at a time when the recording industry hopes to deflate the growing move toward unauthorized file-sharing by launching its own subscription online music services. MusicNet will offer content from the BMG, EMI and Warner labels while pressplay will offer EMI, Sony and Universal content. Both services are scheduled to launch later this year. 

The record industry in particular is showing little patience for would-be successors to Napster, which made trading MP3s popular, and the wide-open bazaar similar technology has spawned. 

“We cannot sit idly by while these services continue to operate illegally, especially at a time when new legitimate services are being launched,” said Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America. 

The suit seeks the maximum damages allowable by law, $150,000 for each infringed work. The suit also seeks a permanent injunction enjoining the defendant companies from directly or indirectly infringing on the copyright material in the future. 

LOS ANGELES — Airports around the country are halting or revamping billions of dollars worth of expansion plans because of fewer fliers and greater security concerns after the Sept. 11 hijacker attacks. 

From Boston to San Francisco, airports are delaying building runways and terminals or are reconsidering planned additions as passengers remain jittery about flying and airlines keep planes grounded. 

At Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, work has stopped on most of the airport’s $1.2 billion expansion, including preliminary work on a $650 million terminal to replace two existing ones. 

“The demand is just not there as it was before Sept. 11,” airport spokeswoman Suzanne Luber said. 

Since last month’s terrorist attacks, passenger volume is down 20 to 30 percent. Airlines have cut their capacity by 20 percent, laid off more than 90,000 employees and warned of multibillion-dollar losses well into 2002. Congress last month approved a $15 billion relief package, including $5 billion in cash and $10 billion in loan guarantees for the companies. 

Even before the attacks, air traffic was flat and revenue per passenger down 10 percent, said aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd. 

He forecast that 230 million fewer passengers will fly in the next five years than would have otherwise because of the attacks, and that demand will not fully recover until 2005 or 2006. 

Airports that have curtailed or are reconsidering expansion plans since Sept. 11 include: 

• Los Angeles International Airport, which scaled back its expansion plans to emphasize security over capacity. A revised plan would increase the airport’s capacity to 78 million passengers per year by 2015, instead of the 89 million previously envisioned. 

• San Francisco International Airport, which has halted plans to renovate a domestic terminal and build a new airport hotel but remains determined to change its status as the nation’s most delay-plagued airport by expanding its runways. Officials assume passenger traffic will return to pre-attack levels by the time the runway project is ready for construction. 

• Logan International Airport in Boston, where two of the airplanes hijacked on Sept. 11 originated, where officials will meet this week to decide whether to proceed with the final phases of a 10-year, $4 billion renovation, including the addition of a new runway. 

Airports and airlines also face the costs of increased security. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has suggested adding a building east of the airport itself to screen passengers and luggage. Passengers would use public transportation to proceed to gates. 

In Phoenix, officials had been considering fingerprint or eye scan systems to screen airport and airline employees who have access to secure areas. They say they now are looking at it more seriously. Halting expansion plans may mean having to look for new, harder-to-find financing later. And some airports, seeing a need for expansion even with the drop in traffic, are pushing ahead. 

“We’re still extremely optimistic about the future,” said Ken Capps, spokesman for Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth airport, which broke ground Sunday on a $2.6 billion expansion that includes a new international terminal and an automated people-mover system. 

“We think it’s a little bit like the stock market. It’s up and down and a little bit uncertain right now, but in the long term, we’re bullish,” he said. 

Two weeks after the terrorist attacks, officials in Michigan’s Wayne County voted to issue $900 million in bonds to add 25 gates to Northwest Airlines’ new terminal and renovate two existing terminals at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 

At Atlanta’s airport, the nation’s busiest, officials are still planning to build a $1.3 billion fifth runway despite renewed criticism over the cost and concerns about declining air traffic. 

And in St. Louis, the first phase of a $1.4 billion expansion plan, including construction of a 9,000-foot runway, will continue even though the airport has lost about $112,000 a day in passenger fees, parking receipts and concession income since Sept. 11. 

“All the money is in place and all the reasons that existed for the expansion still exist, and it’s important for us to continue forward,” said Michael Donatt, a spokesman for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. 

Opponents of the Lambert expansion are urging a second look. 

“The reductions we are seeing in the number of passengers is not a short-term event,” Airport Commissioner John Krekeler said. “It’s not something that’s just a blip on the screen. I think it’s going to have a long-term effect.” 

A large Texas energy company did not illegally drive up the price of natural gas in California during the height of the state’s energy crisis last year, a federal regulatory judge ruled Tuesday. 

However, El Paso Corp. of Houston, through two subsidiaries, violated federal rules governing the award of natural gas contracts, according to Curtis L. Wagner, chief administrative law judge of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

Wagner’s eagerly awaited ruling disappointed the California Public Utilities Commission and two investor-owned utilities that had complained that El Paso’s actions created an artificial shortage of natural gas, sending prices to unprecedented levels in California last year and early this year. 

Gas prices in Southern California plummeted after the El Paso contract expired at the end of May.  

But Wagner attributed the earlier higher prices to increased demand and an actual shortage of gas. 

“We see the two issues as interrelated,” said Harvey Morris, a lawyer for the PUC.  

“We thought the record was clear that there was an abuse of the standards and the exercise of market power.” 

Morris said the PUC probably would appeal to FERC, which can accept or reject the judge’s decision. 

Kevin Lipson, a lawyer for Southern California Edison, said his client planned to appeal. Officials with Pacific Gas and Electric, the other utility involved in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

El Paso welcomed the ruling by Wagner concerning price manipulation. 

“We’re gratified by the judge’s...finding that El Paso was not the cause of high gas prices in California,” said Norma Dunn, El Paso’s vice president for communications. “That’s been our position from day one.” 

In March 2000, El Paso Natural Gas Co., a pipeline company regulated by FERC, signed a contract with El Paso Merchant Energy, an energy marketing company, that gave Merchant the right to ship 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day through a pipeline from Texas to Southern California. 

That amount constituted nearly 20 percent of the state’s supply. 

The allegations against El Paso focused on two points — that the pipeline subsidiary unfairly favored the marketing subsidiary in the award of the contract, and that El Paso then withheld natural gas to drive up prices. 

Wagner dismissed the allegation that El Paso had illegally manipulated prices. However, he upheld the complaint about the subsidiaries. Dunn said the firm will appeal the aspect of the ruling. 

The PUC along with Edison and PG&E have claimed that El Paso’s actions added $3.7 billion to gas prices because other sellers of natural gas also benefitted. 

California wants FERC to order El Paso to refund at least $200 million, roughly equivalent to El Paso’s profits from the contract. 

—— 

On the Net: 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: http://www.ferc.fed.us/ 

El Paso Corp.: http://www.epenergy.com/ 

As lazy autumn days fade into chilly winter nights, one can almost hear the clicking of thermostats around the Bay. Last winter’s dearth of electricity and skyrocketing gas prices sent many consumers into shock when they opened their utility bills to find that their bills may have doubled, or even tripled. 

With winter coming, there is a temptation to use a seemingly cheaper source of heat that many homes have available – the fireplace. 

Burning wood may appear cheaper at first glance – wood can be gathered from a variety of sources, and provides a great deal of radiant heat for an evening.  

But there are a number of other costs associated with burning wood you may not know about. 

The process of combustion requires air. The air used by wood burning in a fireplace comes from inside your home – air that has already been heated, also known as “conditioned” air.  

The fire in a fireplace gives off radiant heat, so objects near the flames grow warm.  

Unfortunately, most of the energy in the form of heat goes straight up the chimney, taking with it heat from the rest of the house. This creates uncomfortable drafts from cracks around windows, under doors and even from electrical outlets. 

Once drafts start cooling down the rest of the house, the furnace’s thermostat will kick in to compensate.  

The net effect of using a fireplace is a loss for the user, as more fuel is used to warm the rest of the house. But there is greater environmental cost to burning wood for home heat. 

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (www.BAAQMD.gov) provides information on air quality in the Bay Area. According to their research, wintertime air pollution consists of carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter. Primary sources are, “…automobile exhaust, wood stoves and conventional fireplaces.  

Fine particulate matter can be suspended in the air for weeks at a time, and if inhaled can become embedded in lung tissue causing decreased breathing function as well as other systemic impairment over time.”  

The particulates and CO are most concentrated, and therefore most dangerous in early morning and late evening, when the region’s foggy climate often experiences a marine inversion, which keeps the pollutants concentrated near  

the ground.  

These are winter commute hours, and early evening is the most tempting time for lighting a fire in winter. 

So, how can you heat your home and still be both economical and environmentally responsible? Start with getting rid of places where drafts can occur – heat losses from infiltration are the easiest to fix, with weather-stripping under doors, at outlets, and around windows.  

Insulate your roof, walls, and crawlspaces. According to studies done by the U.S. Department of the Interior, “Each year the amount of energy lost through uninsulated homes in the United States is equivalent to the amount of fuel delivered through the Alaskan Pipeline.”  

That’s heat bought and paid for, lost to the atmosphere. 

Where possible replace any dry-rotted double hung single pane windows with insulated double pane windows, preferably wooden ones, which have a higher insulating value than vinyl or metal frames.  

Metal windows conduct heat out of your house in winter, and into your house in the summer, so they are not good for a lot of reasons.  

Rebates are available for high-performance windows. These steps will cut down on drafts and make your home more comfortable. 

Evaluate your heating system.  

Replace filters, insulated ductwork, and repair leaks.  

Insulate your hot water heater, and pipes, including the first five feet of the cold water pipe. The more insulation your home has, the less fuel you will use. Turn your thermostat down to 68 degrees Fahrenheit.  

These small steps will save considerable energy. 

And don’t forget to close the fireplace damper, or better still, permanently block the flue to stop the cold and drafts from coming in through the chimney. 

For personal comfort, wear layers of clothes, and maybe even use a hot water bottle for pre-warming the bed or those cold feet.  

Water has 3,000 times the heat-holding capacity as air. Visit the city’s Energy Office Web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ENERGY for more hints on energy conservation.  

Alice La Pierre is an energy analyst for the city. Her column appears on the first and third Tuesday of the month as a public service.

WASHINGTON – American and British forces unleashed a punishing air attack Sunday against military targets and Osama bin Laden’s training camps inside Afghanistan, striking at terrorists blamed for the attacks that murdered thousands in New York and Washington. 

“We will not waver, we will not tire,” said President Bush, speaking from the White House as Tomahawk cruise missiles and bombs found targets halfway around the globe. “We will not falter and we will not fail.” 

Under a campaign dubbed “Enduring Freedom,” the assault was accompanied by airdrops of thousands of vitamin-enriched food rations for needy civilians — and by a ground-based attack by Afghan opposition forces against the ruling Taliban. 

In a chilling threat, bin Laden vowed defiantly that Americans “will never dream of security or see it before we live it and see it in Palestine, and not before the infidels’ armies leave the land of Muhammad.” He spoke in a videotaped statement prepared before the attacks, but both he and the leader of the Taliban ruling council of Afghanistan were reported to have survived the initial action. 

In a fresh reminder of the potential for renewed terrorist attacks, the FBI said it was urging law enforcement agencies nationwide to “be at the highest level of vigilance and be prepared to respond to any act of terrorism or violence.” 

Bush ordered the strike on Saturday, less than four weeks after terrorists flew two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center twin towers and a third into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside after an apparent struggle between passengers and terrorists on board. 

Besides the Sept. 11 death toll — estimated at more than 5,000 — the attacks dealt a shuddering blow to Americans’ feeling of security, and propelled an already weakened economy toward recession. 

“I know many Americans feel fear today,” Bush said in his nationally televised announcement from the White House Treaty Room. Signs of heightened security concerns were evident, as officials took Vice President Dick Cheney from his residence to an undisclosed secure location, security was stepped up around the Capitol and government nuclear weapons labs were put on higher alert. The FBI said it was acting on the basis of “the possibility of additional terrorist activity occurring somewhere in the world.” 

Within hours of the attacks, Bush drew public support from foreign leaders around the world, as well as from congressional leaders and the American public. 

A crowd of 64,000 cheered the president’s words at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, where the beginning of a professional football game was delayed so the fans could view Bush’s appearance on the big screen scoreboard. Chants of “USA, USA” filled another stadium, this one in Atlanta. 

The initial strike involved 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched from American and British ships. Gen. Richard Myers said 15 bombers and 25 strike aircraft, both sea and land-based, also were involved. The assault came at 12:30 p.m. EDT — nighttime in Afghanistan. 

Myers, sworn into office as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff less than a week ago, said the attacks included B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers as well as ships and submarines that have been deployed in the region in the days since Sept. 11. 

The B-52s dropped at least dozens of 500-pound gravity bombs on al-Qaida terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan, one official said. 

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the strikes were designed to eliminate the Taliban’s air defenses and destroy their military aircraft. Afghanistan’s rulers are known to have a small inventory of surface-to-air missiles as well as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. 

Afghan sources in Pakistan said the attack had damaged the Taliban military headquarters and destroyed a radar installation and control tower at the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Smoke could be seen billowing from the high-walled compound of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, these sources added. 

One Pentagon official said that while highly visible attacks were being carried out, other operations would not be seen publicly. 

Roughly an hour after the first volley of cruise missiles, Taliban forces came under attack from the northern alliance, Afghan opposition forces who fired multiple-rocket launchers from an air base about 25 miles north of Kabul. 

A spokesman at the Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan, a nation that does not recognize the Taliban as rulers of Afghanistan, said that the opposition could make an attempt to enter Kabul, the capital. Asked when, he said perhaps in days or a week. 

Bush spoke less than an hour after the first explosion could be heard in Kabul, followed by the sounds of anti-aircraft fire. Power went off throughout the city almost immediately after the first of five thunderous blasts. 

The president said the military strike would be accompanied by the delivery of food, medicine and other supplies needed to sustain the people of Afghanistan. Pentagon officials said the yellow plastic packets are about the size and weight of a hardcover book. They have a picture of a smiling person eating from a pouch and a stencil of an American flag. “This food is a gift from the United States of America,” says the inscription, in English. 

Bush said the military effort was only part of a campaign against terrorism, “another front in a war that has already been joined through diplomacy, intelligence, the freezing of financial assets and arrests of known terrorists by law enforcement agents in 38 countries.” 

“We did not ask for this mission, but we will fulfill it,” he said. 

The administration has labored to build an international coalition of support for its offensive, and Bush declared, “We are supported by the collective will of the world.” He said Canada, Australia, Germany and France have “pledged forces as the operation unfolds,” and numerous other countries have granted air transit or landing rights. Still more nations are providing intelligence, he said. 

To help sustain the coalition, officials said Bush was sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to Pakistan and India in the next few days. Pakistan has emerged as a key ally in the war on terrorism. India, in turn, has expressed concern lest the United States begin to favor Pakistan in a long-term struggle over the disputed territory of Kashmir. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered strong support in a speech to his own nation. He said of the Taliban, “They were given the choice of siding with justice or siding with terror. They chose to side with terror.” 

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also expressed his support, and the Russian foreign ministry said all means must be used to fight terrorism. Russian President Vladimir Putin has become an important supporter of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, opening Russia’s airspace to U.S. deliveries of humanitarian aid and encouraging former Soviet republics in Central Asia to lend their backing. 

Administration officials said that Bush had telephoned Putin, and that Bush, Cheney and Powell had placed calls to more than a dozen foreign leaders in all. 

Congressional leaders, told in advance of the strike, issued a joint statement of support. “We stand united with the president and with our troops, and will continue to work together to do what is necessary to bring justice to these terrorists and those who harbor them,” said the statement by House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Senate Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt and Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott. 

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush was receiving regular updates about the military operation, and shuttling between the White House residence and the Oval Office. 

As the hour for the missile strikes approached, Fleischer said Bush had remarked, “I gave them fair warning and they chose not to heed it.”

On Tuesday, at about 12:30 p.m., a Shattuck Avenue bank was robbed, according to police.  

A man about 25 years of age, walked up to a teller at Citibank, 2323 Shattuck Ave., and allegedly gave her a note that instructed her to give him the money in her drawer or he would shoot her. He had one hand in his waist band, implying that he had a gun, Sgt. Kay Lantow said. 

After giving him the cash, the suspect grabbed the note and left the bank. He was last seen on Durant Avenue getting into an older, red Japanese vehicle, possible a Toyota, which may have been driven by a female. 

*** 

A man was arrested on Wednesday after pulling a knife on a clerk at an Adeline Avenue burrito shop, Lantow said. 

A man ordered a burrito at the Las Palmas Taqueria at around 6 p.m. When the clerk told him that his order was ready, and that it would cost $4.25, the man pulled everything out of his pockets and placed them on the counter, police said. Included in his possessions were a Swiss Army knife and only $2. 

According to the victim, the man picked up the knife, opened it, and began stroking its blade. He shouted at the clerk, “Give me my burrito!” The husband of the clerk called 911, at which point the suspect left the establishment without his dinner, police said. 

When police arrived on the scene, the suspect was still loitering in the area. One officer moved up behind him, and because of the reported weapon, took him to the ground. Police later found illegal drugs and paraphernalia. They transported the man to the county jail. 

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — State officials ruled Wednesday that adults at Orchard Elementary School improperly interfered with student exams to boost test scores and declared the small school ineligible for thousands of dollars in test-related bonuses. 

Orchard will not receive about $70,000 as a reward for improving its Stanford 9 exam scores in spring 2000. The 800-student school is also barred from receiving any cash incentives tied to this year’s testing. 

State investigators determined that answer sheets had an unusually high number of erased marks, and that many wrong answers were corrected. The decision doesn’t specify who is at fault for the irregularities, according to Bob Anderson of the state education department. 

The school contends that no adults tampered with tests and plans to write the California Department of Education to plead its case, said district lawyer Randy Erickson. 

Orchard was one of 51 schools in 43 districts flagged for investigation last year. Four others were in the San Francisco Bay area: Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley, Schafer Park Elementary in Hayward, R.O. Hardin Elementary in Hollister and Toler Heights Elementary in Oakland.