Saturday, Nov. 3

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Julie’s Healthy Café 

2562 Bancroft Way 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Robert Ewing Quartet performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Meet the Innovators of Tomorrow... Today 

8 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor 

MLK Student Union 

UC Berkeley 

Hear students present their original research projects in science, mathematics, and technology for the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition. (202)944-1940  

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Community and Family Contra Dance 

7 p.m.  

Grace North Church 

Cedar and Walnut 

With music by Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, come play and dance. Easy dances for all ages. $10. 482-9479 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands-on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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  

Sunday, Nov. 4

Re-Legitimizing Peace: 

Peace Making in the Middle East 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

International House Auditorium 

(Bancroft and Piedmont) 

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, will discuss her views on achieving peace in the Middle East and what role the United States ought to play. Free and open to the public. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes/text_only/ 

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m.  

The Village 

2556 Telegraph Ave. 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Rhythm Kitchen performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Day of the Dead: Dia de los Muertos Celebration and Commemoration 

1 - 5 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary School  

Multipurpose Room (Cafeteria) 

920 Allston Way 

Rosa Parks Elementary School invites the community to a multicultural event and exhibit featuring traditional altars; entertainment by Ballet Folklorico Juvenil de Berkeley and Cuahtli Mitotiani Mexica; and delicious traditional Mexican dishes. 237-2557 

“Sundays At Four” 

4 p.m. 

The Crowden School 

1474 Rose St. 

Benjamin Simon and Friends with sublime and ridiculous viola music. $10, under 18 violists free. 559-6910 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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 

Buddy Club Children Show 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Street 

Musical theater with Zun Zun. $7, $6 BRJCC members. 236-7469 

Family Musical Education 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A child-centered presentation for the whole family by local classical musicians to learn about rhythm and meter. $10 per family. 527-6202 

Monday, Nov. 5

RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) Speaking Tour 

5:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Dwinelle Hall Room 155 

Tahmeena Faryal (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) Presented by UC Berkeley Gender and Equity Resource Center and ASAP 

(Acting in Solidarity with Afghan People). http://www.berkeley.edu/ map/maps/CD34.html 

Editor: 

In her Nov. 1 letter pushing for more auto parking in Berkeley, Jenny Wenk said of people ages 45-60 that “It’s unrealistic to expect them to ride bicycles to Safeway or the Berkeley Bowl.” 

Ms. Wenk is dead wrong. I’m 75 years old and do a weekly eight-mile bicycle round-trip to the Berkeley Bowl for my staples. With two panniers, a backpack and a rear rack, I routinely bring home four bags of groceries. And three days a week I bike to the 24-Hour Fitness to pump iron and enjoy the cardio equipment. 

Just because us geezers are old, it doesn’t mean we’re all necessarily decrepit. I gave up my car when I retired in 1986 because (1) it was too costly to retain on a reduced income, (2) it would mean one less exhaust pipe spewing carbon monoxide and other pollutants into our environment, and (3) riding a bike and walking are conducive to maintaining top health. 

So, Berkeleyans of all ages, if possible, junk those gas-guzzling monsters and hop on a bike. 

Harry Siitonen 

Berkeley

Beginning in the 1960s artists set up studios in modest-sized industrial buildings in West Berkeley.  

During the 1970s the trend gained momentum as industrial buildings became available due to departing manufacturing in West Berkeley. The rent was cheap and the spaces large. A person could splatter paint or clay in these abandoned manufacturing spaces and no one complained as long as the low rent was paid.  

By the mid 1980s, many of these low-income spaces were redeveloped or physically upgraded. With reinvestment, rents were increased and many artists were forced to move elsewhere, often to Emeryville or Oakland.  

Manasse Block Tannery is one of the manufacturing complexes that has taken on a new life as a live/work space. Although the complex of seven buildings has been adaptively reused, it remains one of the oldest intact industrial sites in west Berkeley. It is located on the north portion of the block bounded by Third, Fourth, Gilman and Camelia streets. The oldest buildings are on the south side of the property along Third Street and are heavy post-and-beam construction with six-over-six light windows and rustic overlapping wood siding.  

The Manasse Block Tannery was founded by August Manasse and Leo Block whose families had leather-related companies already established in Napa and Oakland. They moved to Berkeley in 1905 taking over a building built in 1898 by the Raymond Tannery. The business expanded and new buildings were added until 1956. The company tanned cowhides that had been dried, salted, and sorted elsewhere. The leather was mostly used for shoes. The tannery remained in business and was operated by members of the founding families until it was closed in 1985. 

The tanning of leather was hard and dirty work. It was graphically described by Philip Roth’s book, “American Pastoral” “...the vast vat rooms were dark as caves...a filthy, stinking place awash with water...” 

There are only a few manufacturing plants still operating in West Berkeley today. The most notable complexes that are still standing but converted to other uses include the Heinz Building, on San Pablo and Ashby, Durkee Famous Foods on Heinz Street, and the Kawneer Building on Eighth Street. Other complexes such as Colgate Palmolive Peet and Philadelphia Quartz have been demolished.  

Susan Cerny is author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this series in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Marion Barry, former Washington, D.C. mayor and new Pacifica board member, came into the KPFA studios late Friday afternoon and declared to evening news reporter Mark Mericle the “war is over.” 

Barry and others representing the Pacifica National Board of Directors, which holds the licenses to five listener-sponsored radio stations around the country – including KPFA – had been in a 12-hour marathon mediation session Thursday with representatives of the plaintiffs of three lawsuits against the foundation. The suits claim the board has disregarded its own bylaws and acted in an undemocratic manner. 

Local Advisory Board Chair Sherry Gendelman, however, put a damper on Barry’s good news. Asked if the war was truly over, she quipped: “Maybe he’s talking about the war in Kosovo.” 

Mediators had been in negotiations for 12 hours.  

“At the end of the day, we do not have an acceptable agreement,” Gendelman said, explaining that because of a promise of confidentiality among the parties at the table, she could not go into detail.  

“The plaintiffs honored the (agreement) of confidentiality,” she said, taking aim at Barry who talked about the negotiations in the interview with Mericle. 

That interview, shared with the Daily Planet before it was to be aired on Friday’s 6 p.m. news on KPFA, was upbeat. 

“All parties are happy,” Barry said. Explaining the agreement, Barry said there would be a “transition of the board of directors to an elected board.” 

The transitional board would consist of some members of the present board, some people elected by the various stations’ local advisory boards and the plaintiffs in the lawsuits. 

Saturday, he said, there would be a wrap-up of the mediation in a telephone conference with Pacifica’s executive board members. 

Why did the board majority decide to go into mediation rather than waiting to go to trial in January? 

Barry pointed to $2 million the board had spent on the lawsuits. While he talked about the network’s worsening fiscal situation, he said: Pacifica’s “not bankrupt.” 

He noted, however: “We have a severe cash flow problem.” 

(One of the ongoing complaints of “dissident” board members – those in the minority some of whom are party to one of the lawsuits – has been a lack of access to the foundation’s financial information.) 

Barry also underscored that the board “was not even thinking of selling KPFA.”  

Ken Ford, the national board member who resigned Wednesday, was quoted recently by the San Francisco Examiner saying the sale of KPFA and New York station WBAI made good business sense. 

The KPFA interview ended on a high note.  

“Let’s work to support this foundation and this radio station,” Barry said.

Berkeley’s Aurora Theater opened its 10th season Thursday with a production of George Bernard Shaw’s “St. Joan” in the company’s brand new theater downtown on Addison Street, next to the Berkeley Rep. 

Most strikingly, the new space retains the basic look – and the U-shape, three-quarter seating – of the tiny, former Aurora space at the Berkeley City Club. The difference is that the new theater is two rows deeper, rising up around a slightly larger playing area. It also seats 150 people – nearly three times as many as before. 

Initially watching “St. Joan,” I missed the extreme intimacy of the old space, where all audience members were right on top of the action. But the seats are larger and more comfortable now, and it is rigged with better lighting and other tech equipment. It also has good air-conditioning.  

Shaw’s 1923 play about Joan of Arc propelled him toward the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925. 

“St. Joan” is a play about a religious visionary who takes up bloody participation in a political war against overwhelming odds, because God tells her to. It’s an unsettling story in light of recent events surrounding Sept. 11. 

Under artistic director Barbara Oliver, Aurora has given “St. Joan” an uneven production. Shaw’s script is a long, didactic play, divided into seven segments that are short playlets in their own rights. 

The staging quality of these individual playlets varies. Further, the full sequence of the segments hadn’t yet, by opening night, found its larger flow. 

Irish playwright Shaw loathed English playwright Shakespeare. Shaw’s play tells a different side of the war story from Shakespeare’s hyper-patriotic “Henry V” and its famous battle of Agincourt.  

In Shaw’s piece, Joan of Arc responds to Henry’s victories by trying to mobilize the French to kick the marauding English out of France. St. Catherine and St. Margaret give her advice. 

Eventually, Joan rallies the French Dauphin’s failing courage and motivates his fragmented supporters to victory. Then after victory, the country’s jealous political and religious institutions turn against Joan for attracting the hearts and minds of its citizens. 

The quality of the performances varies in this production. Emily Ackerman’s self-absorbed, manic Joan doesn’t capture the character’s charismatic effect on others. The magic doesn’t happen on stage between the players, which the script seems to call for. 

Paul Silverman is an intriguing Dauphin, heir to the French throne. Impish, bullied and withdrawing early on. But later, more arrogant from political success, his character progresses through an amusing arc of different forms of cowardice. 

Bay Area favorite L. Peter Callender is cast in two roles. Initially Callender plays a French battlefield commander stimulated to victory by his personal conflict with Joan. Later he is a fascinating, complex, sour visiting church inquisitor who is trapped in a crippled, painful body. He instigates devious political ploys at Joan’s excommunication trial. 

Soren Oliver has some chilling moments as the intelligent and dangerously single-minded English nobleman Warwick, trying to engineer Joan’s execution out of fear she will destabilize the establishment. 

Gabriel Sebastian Marin is striking in a smaller role as arrogant French courtier Bluebeard, sporting little blue chin whiskers. I found some confusion at times from the double-casting of selected actors in multiple roles in adjacent scenes. 

Truth be told, “St. Joan” is kind of a predictable, wooden melodrama. Joan’s inspiration from God and her repeated call to arms play many times over in the play, seemingly redundant. 

As director Oliver has staged the play, Joan’s injured and insistent self-defense at her trial seems out of character for one earlier transported by God. Here the politics of the hypocritical religious and political institutions make sense in the story, but the character of Joan does not. 

Much of Shaw’s story and many of his characters verge on simple political satire. This one-dimensional, satirical concept is mostly telegraphed in advance to the viewer, and then played out somewhat predictably, in the three-hour production. 

Like much of Shaw’s work, “St. Joan” is an interesting, but talky play – frequently a debate of ideas. But for me, the characters and stories were not humanized in this production as successfully as they were in the Aurora’s wonderful production last season of Shaw’s family-politics debate “The Philanderer.” 

924 Gilman St. Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring. com  

Anna’s Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; Nov. 11: Choro Time; Nov. 12: Renegade Sidemen with Calvin Keys; Nov. 13: Singers’ Open Mic #2; Nov. 14: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 15: Jazz Singers’ Collective; Nov. 16: Anna & Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 17: Vicki Burns & Felice York, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet; All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; Nov. 8: Ascension, $5; Nov. 9: Delfino, Boomshanka, $5; Nov. 10: Kofy Brown, J. Dogs, $7; Nov.11: Psychotica, $5; Nov. 12: All Star Jam Featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 13: The Photon Band, Ian Moore, $4; Nov. 14: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free. All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; Nov. 29: Les Arts Florissants, $24 - $46; 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 Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 7: John Hoban $15.50 - $16.50; Nov. 8: Ledward Ka’apana & Cyril Pahinui $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 9: The Harmony Sisters with Alice Gerrard, Jeanie McLerie & Irene Herrmann $16.50 - $17.50; Nov 10: Barry & Alice Olivier $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 11: Austin Lounge Lizards $16.50 - $17.50. All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m., matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep. org 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Nicholas Nickleby” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. The Young Actors Workshop presents a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby. $10 adults, $8 students and seniors. Performing Arts Center of Contra Costa College, corner of El Portal Dr. and Castro St., San Pablo 235-7800 ext. 4274 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; Nov. 30 - Dec. 2: Fri. - Sat.8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., The Suzuki Company presents a staged interpretation of the Greek classic, “Dionysus”, $30 - $46; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail.com 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

“Much Ado About Nothing” Nov. 20 through Jan. 8: Check theater for specific dates and times. Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy chronicles a handful of soldiers returning from a winning battle to be greeted by a gaggle of giddy maidens. Directed by Brian Kulick. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

Dance 

“México Danza Brings the Splendor and Pageantry of the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos to the Stage” Nov. 1: 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Compania México Danza presents a cast of 20 enchanting dancers, adorned in festive costumes. $10 Calvin Simmons Theatre, Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland. 465-9312 www.danceforpower.org 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 1: 7:30 p.m., Leslie Thornton Artist Workshop; Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Strange Fruit; 8:45 p.m., Facing the Music; Nov. 3: 7 p.m., Damnation; 9:25 p.m., Family Nest; Nov. 4: 3:30 p.m., I Loved You... (Three Romances); 5:35 p.m., The Making of the Revolution; Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4: 2 - 4:30 p.m., 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

“La Lesbian Film Festival” Nov. 9 - 11. La Peña Cultural Center presents La Lesbian at La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series. $8 Fine Arts Cinema 2451 Shattuck 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

Exhibits  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“Art Benefit for the Gabriel Sussman Rodriguez Education Fund” Nov. 11 - Nov. 16: Over 60 artists have donated work for this tribute to the memory of Wendy Sussman, a painter and professor of art practice and UC Berkeley, and contribute to the education of her son. Sun. - Fri. 1 - 6 p.m. Worth Ryder Gallery, Kroeber hall, UC Berkeley 415-665-6131 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Through Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“The Paintings of Bethany Anne Ayers and Sculpture of Alexander Cheves” Nov. 15 through Dec. 15: Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 roadway, Oakland. 836-0831 gallery709@aol.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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 1: Frederick Crews talks about “Postmodern Pooh”; Nov. 3: Ben Cheever looks at “Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (A Personal Odyssey)”; Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 1: Travel in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001: An Evening with Prominent Bay Area Travel Experts; Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

UC Berkeley, Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

“Berkeley’s World” Nov. 10 & 17: 8 p.m. Staged reading of a new play about five Berkeley emigres who form a career support group through an ad placed in the East Bay Express but find they can’t stand each other. Written by Andrea Mock. Free. Speakeasy Theatre, 2016 7th St. 841-9441 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., 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; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 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.

Championship game with Pinole Valley set for Thursday 

The players on the Berkeley High football team admitted it all week: they were looking past Friday’s opponent, Richmond, to a potential showdown for the league title with Pinole Valley next Thursday. And on Friday, the Oilers put up little resistance to the ’Jackets’ dismissal, handing Berkeley an early lead and falling 68-14. 

Berkeley piled up 516 total yards, including 442 on the ground, while holding Richmond to just 147 yards, most of them well after the game had been decided. Six different Berkeley players scored touchdowns in the rout. 

“We feel pretty good about tonight’s game,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said. “We did what we were supposed to do.” 

Berkeley is now 5-0 in league play, and Pinole Valley went into Friday night’s game against Alameda undefeated in the ACCAL as well. Assuming the heavily-favored Spartans won their game (the result was unavailable at press time), Thursday’s game at Berkeley High will decide the league title and an automatic berth in the North Coast Section playoffs. 

“We knew it would come down to us and Pinole all along,” said Berkeley’s Lee Franklin. “We started out rough (the ’Jackets were 0-3 to start the year), but we got it back on track.” 

Berkeley’s biggest challenge will be to slow down Spartan running back DeAndre McFarland, who is the fifth-leading rusher in Northern California, averaging more than 150 yards per game. 

“We plan on shutting (McFarland) down,” Berkeley linebacker Leonard Scarborough said. “Every time he gets over 150 yards, they win. So if we stop him, we’ll win it.” 

Berkeley’s defense certainly shut down the Richmond running game on Friday night, as the Oilers managed just 55 rushing yards in the game despite running a wishbone offense designed to pick up yards on the ground. Defensive tackle Robert Hunter-Ford set the tone early, stuffing the first two Oiler plays for a net of -7 yards. 

Hunter-Ford is playing tackle for the first time this year, having been moved inside when mammoth junior Jamal Lucas-Johnson went down with an ankle injury three games ago. The 300-pound Lucas-Johnson, who should be back for the Pinole Valley game, has been tutoring Hunter-Ford on interior play since his injury. 

“I can’t replace the big man. He’s taught me everything I know,” Hunter-Ford said. 

Friday night’s game turned into a laugher quickly. When their first drive died a quick death, the Oilers called on the punt team. But the snap was low, and Berkeley recovered the ball on the Richmond 14 yard-line. Three plays later, tailback Craig Hollis ran one in from four yards out, and the rout was on. 

The next Richmond drive resulted in another three-and-out, and this time the punt snap was good. But Scarborough broke through and blocked the punt, recovering the ball on the 1. Fullback Roger Mason plunged over the goal line for another Berkeley score on the next play.  

Berkeley would score two more touchdowns in the opening quarter to take a 27-0 lead, and the ’Jackets coaches began pulling their starters to rest up for next week’s big game. Quarterback Raymond Pinkston didn’t play in the second half, while starting tailback Germaine Baird sat after just nine rushes, although he did pile up 145 yards and two touchdowns. 

Second half highlights included two long touchdown runs by Mario Mejia, who has now scored all three times he has touched the ball this season, and a 36-yard reverse for a touchdown by speedy wideout Sean Young.

What is the difference between an office and a factory? 

The answer would seem to be self-evident, and, if forced to explain, one would probably speak of blue and white collars, the differing lengths of workers’ resumes or the amount of grime on their hands at the end of the day. 

However, it became evident at the Oct. 25 Zoning Adjustments Board meeting, that sometimes the distinction isn’t so clear.  

Publisher’s Group West, a Berkeley book distributor, asked the ZAB to approve its application to expand its current Fourth Street offices into a neighboring space, formerly occupied by the Tom Tom Clothing Company.  

PGW wished to move its subsidiary, Avalon Travel Publishing, into its building at 1716 Fourth St. Avalon, with 75 employees, is housed in Emeryville.  

The company asked ZAB for a variance from the strict codes that apply to the West Berkeley mixed-use/light industrial district, in which the building lies. The MU-LI codes prohibit conversion of manufacturing space into offices unless the ZAB determines that “exceptional or extraordinary circumstances” apply. 

The board eventually followed planning department staff’s recommendation and denied PGW’s request for a variance, but not without a great deal of agonizing over the state of the city’s historically important publishing industry and whether, in the end, book publishing is an office or a manufacturing use. 

MU-LI codes, which were developed after the city approved the West Berkeley Plan in 1993, specifically state that if publishers do not run their own printing press, they cannot occupy former industrial space. 

However, PGW CEO Charlie Winton and Avalon CEO Bill Newlin argued that though the Avalon staff does nearly all its work on computers before electronically shipping it to the printers, they should be considered manufacturers. 

“Everyone on our staff feels very engaged in the making of books,” Newlin told the ZAB.  

He said his employees physically proof the galleys of books in development, handle and gauge potential materials and do other tasks that result in a physical product – the book. 

In a letter to city staff, the applicants took this defense a step farther. 

“The nature of book publishing is the creation of books,” they wrote. “The Standard Industrial Code has always considered the creation of books a manufacturing designation.” 

But according to the authors of the Standard Industrial Code, the U.S. Census Bureau, that has not been true since 1997, when the SIC was rewritten and standardized by the United States, Canada and Mexico. 

Under the North American Industry Classification System, which superseded the SIC, publishing without printing is classified as an “information” industry, which is itself a subset of the services sector. 

Upon learning this, ZAB member Carrie Sprague said Friday her only surprise was that the federal government has finally caught up with the West Berkeley Plan.  

“They’re sitting there at computers,” she said. “Of course it’s an office!” 

But Sprague, who voted against granting PGW’s variance, nonetheless said she shared the concerns of those who voted for the variance – that the city should be helping to retain publishing and other book-related companies, which have historically played a major role in the city’s economy and cultural life. 

“The activities that (PGW) undertakes are ones that we should encourage in the West Berkeley area,” said Carrie Olson, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission who substituted for ZAB member David Blake at the meeting.  

“Berkeley loves our books, and we should be supporting the publishers that bring us those books. Personally, I would rather see the heavy manufacturing move out of West Berkeley.” 

ZAB member Lawrence Capitelli agreed, and said the incorrect information in PGW’s letter to the city was relatively unimportant. 

“It wouldn’t have influenced my decision,” he said. “Publisher’s Group West is the kind of business we should encourage in the West Berkeley area. It’s been here for many years” 

“This an industry we want to support. We’re a center for publishing nationwide, far beyond our numbers.” 

Capitelli also said in light of the damage the ruling may inflict on the company, the city should review policies like the West Berkeley Plan.  

“The other thing I think we have to do is look at the changing nature of business,” he said. “I know there are many people committed to retaining blue-collar jobs, but I think we need to look at how many of those the city can realistically attract.” 

The issue of conversion of manufacturing spaces in the MU-LI district has been a major controversy of late. The Planning Commission is studying whether or not it will recommend a one-year ban on conversion to the City Council.  

Though Winton and Newlin could not be reached for comment after repeated calls to their offices, Winton has in the past promised to appeal the ZAB’s decision to the City Council – where, he said, he “is told” he has the votes to overturn the ruling.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to TV talk-show host Bill O’Reilly:  

I disagree with your opinion that (the Berkeley City Council) resolution is indicative of the “mindless nonsense from Berkeley for more than 40 years.”  

Thank God, there are a handful of Americans and elected officials that remember that this country was founded on the principals of free speech.  

I, along with the City Council of Berkeley, condemn the terrorists responsible for the mass killings of innocent people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. But it is properly the purview of the United Nations and international tribunals such as the World Court or International Criminal Court to bring the terrorists to justice.  

A long time ago, citizens of the United States decided we wanted formal trial by jury of peers vs. vigilante justice for all crimes in this country. There are several international legal avenues available to the United States for recompense. As of this writing we have decided not to use them. 

I hope that you and others in the media will editorialize on means other than killing impoverished mothers and children in Afghanistan to bring justice and healing to the world. 

Deborah Hirsch 

Alpharetta, Georgia 

Hirsh also writes to the Berkeley City Council: 

I commend you on your vote on Oct. 16, 2001 calling for “bringing the bombing (of Afghanistan) to a conclusion as soon as possible.” I also appreciate your condemning the mass murders of Sept. 11, 2001, which has been overlooked in the media.  

Your courage in the face of certain backlash, for instance death threats, is a tribute to true patriotism. You spoke for me when you passed this resolution.

Cal freshman forward/center Amit Tamir, whose eligibility was called into question because he played with professionals as a member of the Israeli National Team, will have to sit out just eight games this season. The decision came after a vote Thursday by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. 

“I’m very happy for Amit,” said Cal head coach Ben Braun. “I’m extremely pleased that the Board of Directors supported the Management Council’s proposal to make a significant reduction in the number of games foreign players would have to miss. Anybody who is familiar with foreign players realizes that these players have done everything they could to secure their amateur status. Fortunately, the Board realized that. I’m not only happy for Amit, but for all players in his situation that wanted to pursue a college career.” 

According to the NCAA, the Board defeated a motion that would have overturned action taken Oct. 22-23 by the Management Council to set a new reinstatement policy for the Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Subcommittee as it considers violations of bylaws for student-athletes who competed on a “tier-one” professional team prior to initial eligibility, but are otherwise eligible under NCAA rules. The policy primarily affects international basketball student-athletes who have participated in international leagues. 

This action changes the existing policy of the reinstatement subcommittee, which specifies that student-athletes who participated in first-tier-level professional competition in a foreign country would be withheld from one intercollegiate game for each professional game played. 

As a member of the Israeli National Team, Tamir played a number of games both with and against professionals. Without Thursday’s decision, he likely would have had to sit out the entire season. Instead, Tamir will make his Cal debut Dec. 28 against Harvard in the first round of the Golden Bear Classic. 

“Amit has already worked his way into our rotation as one of our top players and will add to the depth on our front line,” said Braun. “He’s an older, more mature player that will help us considerably.” 

A 6-10, 250-pound post player, Tamir has already served a three-year commitment with the Israeli army before enrolling at Cal. The Jerusalem native led his high school team to the city championship, and he also represented Israel at the 1998 Under-22 European championships.

Every summer for the last few years, Rhoda Olkin had looked forward to a week at Berkeley’s family camp near Yosemite. It is a special time to share with her son.  

But when the child turned 10 years old, he no longer wanted to go.  

“I thought he didn’t want to be seen with me because of my disability,” said Olkin, who contracted polio when she was 1 year old and now uses crutches or a scooter to get around.  

“It turned out he just didn’t want to be seen with his mother,” she said. “ It was no longer cool to hang out with mom.”  

Olkin says she is one of 10 million parents nationwide with a disability. She has devoted much of her professional life to increasing awareness and knowledge of disabilities. Olkin is a professor of clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alameda and a staff member at Through the Looking Glass, a Berkeley-based nonprofit organization that provides direct services, information and referral to families in which one or more members have a disability,  

She recently wrote a book: “What Psychotherapists Should Know About Disability” (Guilford Publications, Inc., 2001). Now, she is spearheading a survey to learn more about the experiences of disabled parents raising teenagers.  

“Parenting is tough work,” said 48 year-old Olkin, a single mother who shares custody of her 11-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son with her former spouse. “But parents with disabilities feel that they have to be better than other parents just to measure up.”  

Paul Preston, co-director of the National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities at Through the Looking Glass, agreed and said parents with disabilities have special concerns.  

“A parent with a disability has the added issue of access to services,” Preston said. “If a school building is not wheelchair accessible, a parent can’t meet with her child’s teacher. If the school doesn’t provide an interpreter, a deaf parent can’t communicate.”  

At a recent back-to-school night, Olkin was appalled that the classrooms at her daughter’s middle school were not wheelchair accessible.  

“My daughter is at that age where she wants to be exactly like everyone else,” Olkin said. “So, I had a real internal struggle. What do I teach her? Do I stand up for myself? Or do I teach her to fit in? I don’t want her to be stigmatized by my disability.”  

In the end, Olkin wrote a letter to the school principal, and her daughter supported the decision.  

“I was really pleased that at the age of 11 she had a sense of justice,” Olkin said.  

“My kids see the bigger picture of things.”  

Olkin also said disabled parents feel guilty about how their condition affects their children.  

“When my son turned 14, I asked him to take out the garbage,” said Olkin. “ I worried that I was asking him because it was something I couldn’t do. I forgot that if I could do it, I’d ask him anyway.”  

According to Olkin, the three-year survey (conducted by Through the Looking Glass and funded exclusively through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education) is the first study to focus on disabled parents who have teenagers.  

“We wanted to find out what concerns parents and teenagers have so that we can develop programs to address these needs,” said Preston.  

“We wanted to hear their voices,” added Olkin, “and how they’ve incorporated disability into their lifestyles.”  

Olkin said the goal is to survey 300 to 500 parents and teenagers nationwide by September 2002. So far, the agency has surveyed between 60 and 80. And the response has been positive, she said.  

“People have been marvelous,” said Olkin. “No one asks the disabled about their experiences, but they want to talk about it. During the surveys, people talk to us longer than we thought they would.”  

Olkin, who trains therapists about disability issues, said that little information existed about disabled parenting when she was pregnant with her first child.  

“The only report I could find on a mother with polio focused on whether the mom had a healthy baby,” Olkin said. “There was nothing out there that could tell me about how pregnancy or childbirth would affect me.”  

After her son was born, Olkin, who used crutches since the age of 16, decided she needed a scooter.  

“I applied to the insurance company and they asked me all kinds of questions,” Olkin said. “Whether I could garden. Whether I could grocery shop. I could do all those things, but I couldn’t carry my child.”  

The insurance company denied Olkin’s request because as she explained, parenting was not considered an “activity of daily living.” But Olkin was relentless.  

“Three months later, I applied again and told them that I couldn’t grocery shop,” Olkin said. “And I got my scooter.”  

Olkin said one of her anxieties during those early years was the fear that her children would be taken away from her.  

“I was going to my car after grocery shopping and I had my 5-month old son, my crutches and my wagon,” she said, recounting a memory that still frightens her today. “A woman came up to me and asked if she could help. But instead of taking my crutches or helping me with my groceries, she took my baby out of my arms. I panicked. I really felt physically vulnerable.”  

Olkin’s fear is not ungrounded.  

According to a dissertation by Lisa Cohen, a California School of Professional Psychology at Alameda graduate and former student of Olkin’s, 10 to 15 percent of disabled parents surveyed had experienced active interference in their parenting, including pressure to have an abortion, tubiligation or excessive involvement by Child Protective Services.  

The fear of losing one’s children can persist even after the early childhood years, said Olkin. In divorce proceedings, Olkin said courts look favorably on able-bodied parents and that Through the Looking Glass receives four phone calls a week from disabled parents seeking assistance with custody issues.  

Though Olkin eventually got over her fears, she has faced many physical challenges since. One of the hardest tasks was getting her children into their car seats when they were younger.  

“Someone should really invent a car seat that is easy to get in,” she said. “As soon as my kids were old enough to crawl, I taught them how to crawl into those seats.”  

Although Olkin’s physical limitations made it difficult for her to keep up with her children’s energy levels, Olkin said there were benefits to her disability.  

“We developed our own pace for doing things,” she said. “We did a lot of projects at the table that focused on sharing and talking. Every year, for instance, we make Hanukkah decorations together. And because of that, we see a lot of our community projects around the house.”  

Olkin also said teenagers of disabled parents often display more tolerance toward others and have higher levels of empathy.  

“When we’re out on the street, my children are always pointing and saying there’s a curb cut here or there,” said Olkin. “They have different eyes without even knowing it. My son is particularly attuned to what’s going on with other people. He’ll notice when I’m using crutches in the house, which is something I don’t normally do, and acknowledge that I’m in more pain.”  

Olkin also thinks having a disabled parent can make children better problem solvers.  

“If there’s something my children really want to do but that I don’t have the energy for, they’ll figure out a way,” she said. “ If they want to go the mall, they’ll say you go to one store and we’ll go to the others.”  

But Olkin still has concerns about how her disability affects her children.  

“I worry about whether the kids feel like they need to protect me, or if they keep things from me because they think it will hurt my feelings,” said Olkin. “It’s not uncommon for children with disabilities to have parents who protect them. So it’s easy to think our kids are doing the same thing.”  

Olkin said the survey aims to examine unspoken issues like this as well as other challenges and benefits disabled parents and their teenagers face.  

The survey, conducted in writing or on the phone, can last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on format, disability and whether the respondent is a parent or teen. Teenagers are paid $5 for completing the survey. An online version will be available in three to four weeks.  

“The teenage years are difficult,” Olkin said, stressing the importance of having a support network of other disabled parents to lean on. “Teens are asserting their independence and testing limits.”  

But Olkin reminds disabled parents to maintain their perspective on the situation.  

“There are so many struggles that you have with your teens,” she said. “Many of them have nothing to do with the disability.”  

For more information about the survey contact Nancy Freed at Through the Looking Glass: 848-1112 ext. 174 or (800) 644-2666; TTY: (800) 

804-1616; or nfreed@lookingglass.org. 

Editor: 

Allegedly George Bush and the military have been given a “blank check” to stop terrorism. I wish someone would give ME a blank check. 

I am a low-income, single-parent mother who has put three out of four children through college and trust me when I say that I KNOW how to make an eagle scream  

You can bet your bippy that if I had three trillion dollars to play around with, terrorism would be a thing of the past – and it wouldn’t have taken me no four weeks of killing civilians in Afghanistan to do it! 

As a mother, I had to learn the hard way that the use of violence, humiliation and punishment is inefficient, ineffective and dangerous. 

Military might is COST-INEFFECTIVE. Punishment always leads to resistance. Humans all think alike. Adults are just kids that grew up. You want co-operation? You gotta use positive reinforcement! Ask any mom. Nothing else works. 

Jane Stillwater 

Berkeley 

After receiving several months of data from a year-long study at Harrison Soccer Fields, the Community Environmental Advisory Commission asked city staff to post notices of poor air quality around the popular field. 

The recommendation also asks the planning department to make sure parents have signed mandatory waivers before allowing their children to play at the field, located at Fifth and Harrison streets.  

Some commissioners thought the notices and waivers were critical because of the many youth soccer games at the field. According to the Alameda-Contra Costa Soccer League Web site, 137 soccer games are played at the field between Sept. 8 and Nov. 10. 

The commission approved the recommendation at its Thursday meeting by a vote of 6-1-2, with Commissioner Robert Clear voting in opposition and new Commissioner Sarah MacKusick and temporary Commissioner Dan Simon abstaining. Clear said he voted against the recommendation because he thought the commission did not have enough time to discuss the issue before voting. 

With Vice Chairperson LA Wood chairing the meeting while Chairperson Elmer Grossman is away, the commission requested the posting because preliminary results from an air study showed the level of Particulate Matter 10 exceeded state standards an average of five times a month since July 1, when the study began. The most recent test results show that during the first two weeks of October, the particulate matter level exceeded state standards four times. 

“I believe the city has an obligation to inform the public because Harrison Field was a very controversial project to begin with and the most controversial thing about it was its environmental quality,” Wood said. 

The sports facility was the site of another environmental controversy earlier this year when construction of the Harrison Field Skate Park, also located at Fifth and Harrison streets, was halted because of the discovery of the carcinogen Chromium 6 in groundwater during excavation of nine-foot deep skate bowls. Removing the groundwater, sealing the base of the bowls and redesigning the skate park added $365,000 to the city’s total cost of construction. 

Particulate matter is small airborne pieces of liquid or solid matter that originates from a variety of sources, but is most often associated with exhaust from automobiles, according to information posted on the Bay Area Air Quality Management Web site. 

The city contracted with Applied Measurement Science to conduct a one-year air study because of concerns about the widening of the Interstate 80 Freeway, which is adjacent to the field. In addition there are s several industrial manufacturing facilities and a waste transfer station nearby. 

The $40,000 contract was for a study that included Particulate Matter 10 (PM10), which are particles about 10 micrograms in size, and the even smaller Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5), which is 2.5 micrograms in size, or about one-seventh the width of a strand of hair, according to Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokesperson Ralph Borrmann. PM2.5 is considered by medical experts to be the more dangerous substance because its small size allows it to become deeply imbedded in the tissue of the lungs. 

So far Applied Measurement Science has been unable to produce any useable PM2.5 data because of equipment problems. But according to Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy, it is reasonable to assume that the PM2.5 has been exceeding the state Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended levels – .05 micrograms per cubic meter averaged over 24 hours.  

“The PM2.5 data could be available as early as next week,” he said. 

Al-Hadithy also cautioned it would be unwise to assume the preliminary test results mean there is an excessive health risk for people who use Harrison Soccer Field or live nearby.  

Dr. Eric Winegar, who is carrying out the study for AMS, said he will include a health risk assessment when the study is completed in June. 

“Generally speaking risk assessments are done over a long period of time,” he said. “Three to four months just isn’t enough.” 

Winegar said there was enough information to post notices at the field as long as they were not worded in an alarming way. 

The commission also asked the planning department to determine if soccer organizations that use the field have been fulfilling the requirement put into place with the site’s use permit, that parents sign a waiver. According to the use permit, parents and adults who use the field are required to sign a waiver stating they understand that field is in an industrial area and that traffic noises and odors in the area are “normal.” 

“I’ve asked to see these waivers, which Current Planning (a division of the planning department) is supposed to have on file,” Commissioner Wood said. “And I don’t think they exist.” 

For to-date test data from the Harrison Field air study go to www.airmeasurement.com/berkeley.html and for more information about particulate matter 10 go to www.baaqmd.gov/pie/pm10bacm.htm.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter written to the City Council: 

I live downtown. I walk to most things, including work. In the nearly eight years I have lived in downtown, I have seen it change dramatically from a place people avoided at night to a vibrant destination.  

Things happen all day in downtown Berkeley. It is more than commuters (whom the General Plan doesn’t like), downtown is shoppers, families, the regular “crazy locals”, the Berkeley High kids, Y members, seniors, diners, movie goers, theater goers, library users, and commuters. 

I’d like to see even more people use downtown, so the idea of greater density is a plus to my thinking. The idea of a parking moratorium, however, doesn’t sound like a good idea. Has anyone actually tried to park in downtown recently? The new time limited parking meters are already a major irritation for my friends when they visit. And, I cannot suggest that they take alternate transportation as many do not live near BART or AC Transit, and some are too fragile to bike. 

As I understand the grand vision of good intentions, more people will live downtown and they will supposedly receive incentives not to have cars (I suspect they will take the incentives and park in the neighborhoods). In this vision, the city with a derring-do rivaling that of the Flying Wallendas declares a moratorium on new parking just as the Kittredge garage comes down and Vista College takes its lot out of service to build its facilities. But the City Wallendas are fearless and want people out of cars. 

Something doesn’t line up here! Didn’t those of us who live in Berkeley agree to tax ourselves to improve downtown? Didn’t the Council give a loan or grant to Berkeley Rep to expand in order to develop the Arts District? Wasn’t the idea to encourage people to come to downtown? Did someone give BART and AC Transit pots of money? Did the Council fund a transit pass? Isn’t Cal planning on taking more students and thinking of a year round schedule? What have I missed? When did John Ashcroft approve the alternate transportation check points?  

After all is said and done, if the Council doesn’t change the General Plan, the grand vision of good intentions will make it impossible for current users of downtown services from doing anything but circling the area; viewing former garage sites; watching the parking Taliban issue tickets to the (un)lucky few parked at meters; and, if there is a space, parking in the neighborhoods.  

The boycott that didn’t happen in response to the Council’s Afghanistan resolution may just come about through frustration. 

Just as actions have consequences, so can overly zealous good intentions. And even the best of intentions. 

Bob Dixon 

Berkeley

What’s that? You want $200 off the rent? No problem. 

How about a free month’s rent if you sign a lease? Oh, and pets are OK too. 

Sound like a tenant’s dream? Maybe a reality in Idaho, or Wyoming, right? Never in the Bay Area, where sky-high rents are as famous as the Golden Gate Bridge.  

But Berkeley’s three largest housing referral services say they’ve witnessed a dramatic escalation of available rentals this season. During the last month, their phones have been ringing off the hook with landlords lowering prices.  

Vacancies are up more than 400 percent from last year, according to Allison Vogel, director of customer service at Homefinders, a Berkeley-based referral service.  

As of Oct. 24, Homefinders had 2,003 vacant East Bay listings, compared to 456 properties at this time last year. 

For months, no one’s dared to say the “R” word: Recession.  

Now, another phrase is perched on people’s lips: Renter’s market. 

“At our office, every other phone call is a landlord dropping their rent,” said Becky White, director of the UC Berkeley-based Cal Rentals. White said some landlords have to drop prices three or four times before a tenant moves in. 

“I’ve got a studio at Haste and Fulton, right near campus for $695,” said Leah Summers, director of customer service at eHousing, based in downtown Berkeley. “That’s ridiculous. It was a $1,000 unit a few months ago.” 

“It’s like, where did all the people go?,” said Vogel. “They must have left the Bay Area, because they’re not moving to the suburbs. Landlords in Walnut Creek can’t rent either.” 

Vogel and Summers can rattle-off a list of recent phone calls: landlords willing to cover rent until tenants are ready to move in; landlords lowering the deposit; landlords staunchly against pets calling to say they’ll allow a dog or cat this time around. 

“It’s a very unusual year. It’s unprecedented,” said Nancy Pfeffer, a research analyst with Cal Rentals. 

Pfeffer was staffing a table in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza last Friday as part of a university-sponsored “Tenant’s Rights Week.” She said some students had approached her to report they had been able to find an apartment in just two days. 

For home-seekers like Maya Spaull, that’s good news. She said she’s been looking for a two-bedroom house for two weeks, and “there’s a lot available.”  

Spaull said she’s seen a few things she’s liked, but she and her roommate want “ an ideal place, with lots of amenities,” so they’ve decided to keep looking. “We turned one down,” she said nonchalantly.  

The landlord offered one month free, but it was a duplex, and Spaull wants a single family home. 

It’s certainly a world of difference from last year, when landlords were the ones turning people down. Jobs were plentiful, but competition for scarce housing was fierce. 

Now it’s the opposite, said Spaull, a recent college graduate.  

“I’m having a harder time finding a job than a place to live,” she said.  

October and November are typically slow months for rentals, said representatives from all three referral companies. But the volume of vacancies is much higher than in years past.  

White said she began to see signs of a slowdown as early as June. Some rents were dropping in August, which is typically peak season as students return for the school year.  

“Eighteen years in this job, and I’ve never seen that happen,” said White. 

San Francisco has seen the impact of a softening market for several months. Postings to a housing forum on the web-based craigslist.org indicate that prospective tenants are successfully negotiating lower rents. Some existing tenants have also been able to ward-off rent increases. 

But some landlords responding to an e-mail query about the East Bay market said they wouldn’t consider lowering rents. 

“I won’t lower my asking price,” said landlord Kesete Yohannes, who said his outlook on the economy was optimistic. He said he rented an apartment in North Oakland last month just three hours after placing an ad. The price was $850 for a one bedroom, $100 below average area rents for September according to eHousing’s Summers. 

Meanwhile, the student-run newspaper, The Daily Californian, received numerous calls from landlords wanting to change the asking price listed in advertisements. And Albany-based K&S properties, which has 50 vacancies in the East Bay, has run ads offering a month’s free rent for tenants who sign a lease. In September, they offered a $200 discount for renters. 

Indeed, many properties have languished on the market for months. Chun-Xian Sung has had a vacancy in large two-bedroom apartment in posh North Berkeley for three months. The previous tenants paid $2,200. He’s lowered the price to $1,800 and said he would be willing to negotiate the deposit and terms.  

But he can’t get the place rented. Every time he’s held an open house, only two people show up. The 91-year old Chinese immigrant is worried; rent from the eight-unit building supports him in his retirement.  

Sung has advertised with Homefinders, eHousing, and Cal Rentals. These agencies said their phones are ringing off the hook from landlords, but not necessarily from tenants, whose subscription fees sustain their businesses. 

When the market is glutted with vacancies, tenants are less likely to use listing agencies So they’re offering specials, too. Homefinders has a 30-percent discount through the end of the month; eHousing is offering $20 off its fee for apartment-seekers. 

“We want people to know they really don’t have to pay such high rents,” said Vogel of Homefinders. “I know people are nervous about the economy, and might be afraid to move. But it’s not a bad idea, you might find something cheaper out there.” 

“If it doesn’t work out here, maybe I’ll go to S.F.,” said Jeff Curland, checking the listings at eHousing. 

“The world is turning on its head,” Curland said. 

Editor: 

I’m all for stopping the bombing of Afghanistan during the Moslem month of Ramadan out of respect for our Moslem sisters and brothers. How ‘bout also showing respect to our Christian brothers and sisters by continuing the halt from December 2, the beginning of the Advent preparation for Christmas, to January 6, the end of the Christmas season? Both Mohammed and Jesus, I am sure, would be pleased. 

Also, I’m glad to see American Christians remaining cool and relaxed, in view of the anthrax scare, by keeping in mind those words of Jesus (Mt. 10:28). “Do not be afraid of those (e.g., terrorists) who can kill the body. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being.” 

Ian Johnson 

Albany

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis’ warning that the Golden Gate and three other California bridges could be on terrorists’ Friday rush-hour hit list has renewed a debate over whether such disclosures do more harm than good. 

Just making the warning, rightly or wrongly, accomplished a terrorist goal, the disruption of normal life, said George Vinson, the special security adviser Davis named Thursday.  

“This is exactly what terrorism is all about. They release information, they make threats, they want to create anxiety among people.” 

But Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said there’s no “universal blueprint” for deciding whether to publicize threats. Because federal investigators released information about the threats to various West Coast law enforcement agencies, the information might have become public without Davis. 

Robyn Pangi, a domestic preparedness specialist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., said the public has received too many mixed messages since the Sept. 11 attacks and the more recent anthrax incidents from officials including President Bush, Ridge and Davis. 

“You’ve got one person saying, ’Go along with your lives,’ another saying ’Don’t cross a bridge,”’ she said. “People want to know what’s going on, but when you’re not giving them any advice, it’s not doing them any good.” 

Announcements, however, can make the public more vigilant, said University of California, Irvine political scientist Mark P. Petracca, who defended Davis. 

“I think they have a moral obligation to let people know, even if it increases anxiety,” Petracca said. 

Bush, a Republican, backed the Democratic governor Friday as he promised continued cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies despite the FBI’s fears that Davis might have compromised its investigation. 

“Part of the homeland defense is active and strong communications so that governors and/or local authorities can harden targets, respond to uncorroborated evidence and to protect their people,” Bush said during a Rose Garden appearance. 

As Ridge mentioned, some of the information was already leaking out, said San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau, adding that he was preparing to release the information himself Thursday after learning that East Coast corporations were already warning their western employees of the threat. 

Lau said he wanted to keep his announcement low key, because “we didn’t want to overreact and cause a panic.” 

Across the San Francisco Bay, Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer, Northern California’s liaison to state emergency officials, said Davis’ information was so nebulous that it just “scares people to death.” 

Davis on Friday again defended his decision, which he said was based on written warnings from three federal agencies. 

“This one was time-specific and location-specific and I felt it was appropriate to tell people what I was doing to prepare for that threat and to fully inform them,” Davis said at an economic summit press conference in Burbank. 

“We do have to find a way to balance the seemingly competing concerns of keeping people safe and restoring confidence so they can go about their lives. This is not an easy line to walk. There is no playbook to guide us,” Davis said. 

Despite the FBI’s concern for its investigation, disclosure could stop the attacks if terrorist know their plans are no longer secret, Davis said. 

“We don’t want to just clean up the dead and wounded, we want to prevent terrorism in the first place,” Davis told CNN’s “Larry King Live” Thursday night. 

Davis and California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick said their listing of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge, both in San Francisco, the Vincent Thomas Bridge at the Port of Los Angeles, and the San Diego Coronado Bridge as possible targets was only done to cite examples. 

They said they wanted to assure motorists extra care was taken and not to panic. 

Yet the governors of Washington and Oregon chose not to issue warnings, and Seattle’s mayor held a news conference to downplay the threat only after Davis’ announcement. 

The warning was sent Wednesday to law enforcement agencies not only in the three West Coast states, but to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Montana and Idaho. 

On Friday, traffic flowed normally across San Francisco Bay Area bridges during the morning commute, amid noticeably higher security. Several commuters who decided not to alter their plans said Davis overreacted. 

But Bechtel Inc., the engineering company that built the Bay Bridge linking San Francisco with Oakland, gave its 1,200 San Francisco employees the option of working from home or taking time off for the next few business days after Davis’ warning. 

Officials should limit the number of announcements they make to avoid crying wolf and diminishing their future credibility, said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat whose district includes the potential targets. 

“The purpose of terrorism is to instill fear,” said Pelosi, a top House Democrat and her party’s top member of the House intelligence committee. “They engage is disinformation and deception by throwing out more threats than they are capable of.” 

Despite Bush’s emphasis on constant communication, Plummer said California could be cut off from future warnings. 

“Do you think the FBI is going to tell the governor anything from now on?” Plummer asked. “I think he just burned his bridge.” 

SAN JOSE — Competitors complained Friday that Microsoft Corp.’s settlement with the federal government will do little to protect them or consumers from the software giant’s monopoly power. But they held out hope that state attorneys general could make the deal more restrictive. 

“My guess is that all Bill Gates could do was to suppress a big grin when he held his press conference this morning,” said Mitchell Kertzman, chief executive of Liberate Technologies, a rival provider of software for interactive TV. 

“This settlement doesn’t come close to matching the scope of the violations of antitrust law that Microsoft has been convicted of,” he added. “It was an inexplicably bad deal for the government.” 

Microsoft and the Justice Department presented the settlement to a federal judge Friday, saying it would end the antitrust case in a way that would help the sagging economy. 

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agreed to review it and gave the 18 states involved in the case until Tuesday to decide whether to accept the plan. 

Several competitors called on the state attorneys general to insist on making changes to the settlement. Sun Microsystems Inc.’s general counsel, Michael Morris, said the Justice Department was “walking away from a case they had already won.” 

“This agreement allows a declared illegal monopolist to determine, at its sole discretion, what goes into the monopoly operating system in the future,” said Kelly Jo MacArthur, general counsel for RealNetworks Inc., which makes music and video software threatened by Windows Media Player. “This is a reward, not a remedy.” 

Paul T. Cappuccio, the general counsel for AOL Time Warner Inc., said the settlement “does too little to promote competition and protect consumers, and can too easily be evaded by a determined monopolist like Microsoft.” 

The state attorneys general had been pressing for stiffer penalties, but on Friday, several said progress had been made. 

“Those of us in New York these days believe that good things happen in extra innings,” said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. “I think we’re now at the bottom of the ninth.” 

Several tech executives said the settlement was too focused on restricting Microsoft’s Windows monopoly, and not its broader business practices and new initiatives. 

“We’re quite disappointed. We believe there are a lot of issues that haven’t been addressed,” said Michael Mace, chief competitive officer of handheld computer maker Palm Inc., which makes an operating system that competes with one from Microsoft. 

For example, some rivals point out that Microsoft has kept secret key technical details of its Internet initiative, known as .NET, in hopes of making it the de facto standard system for Web transactions. Some competitors say .NET programs should be made to work with their own Web interfaces. 

IBM Corp., which makes business software that conceivably could benefit if .NET programs were opened up, wouldn’t comment. Neither would Oracle Corp., despite chief executive Larry Ellison’s fondness for needling Bill Gates, nor Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. 

One reason few large technology companies are willing to openly criticize Microsoft is that Microsoft is so far-reaching, even its competitors likely will need to work with it at some point. 

In fact, the industry has changed so much since the Clinton administration first sued Microsoft in 1997 — alleging that it unfairly forced PC makers to sell the Internet Explorer Web browser — that even formerly unabashed rivals now find themselves aligned with Microsoft. 

For example, Netscape Communications Corp. co-founder Marc Andreessen pointed out to The Associated Press in July that his current company, Web services firm Loudcloud Inc., “has a really close partnership with Microsoft.” Andreessen declined to comment Friday. 

——— 

AP Technology Writer May Wong contributed to this report. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.microsoft.com 

Coalition of competitors: http://www.procompetition.org 

SAN DIEGO — It took one of the world’s biggest gold-mining frauds to lead Yasin Al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman with suspected ties to Osama bin Laden’s terror network, to the board of a small California diamond mining firm. 

Bre-X Minerals Ltd., a Canadian mining firm once valued at $4.5 billion at its peak, collapsed in early 1997 when an independent survey revealed that its rich Indonesian gold deposit was a hoax. 

The Bre-X collapse caused mining stocks to dive, a market crunch that hit Global Diamond Resources Inc., a San Diego firm with mines in South Africa. Potential investors stopped buying Global Diamond, leaving the company with no way of financing a deal to tap a new mine in South Africa. 

“We were up a little creek,” recalled Johann de Villiers, Global Diamond’s chairman, an American citizen from South Africa who lives in San Diego. 

So, Global Diamond went looking for private investors, a search that led to Al-Qadi, one of 39 people and groups named by the U.S. Treasury Department Oct. 12 as providing financial help to bin Laden. 

The path between Al-Qadi and Global Diamond shows the challenge U.S. officials face in trying to untangle the complicated terrorist fund-raising network, experts said. Also, it illustrates how some accused of helping bin Laden can have legitimate activities while also allegedly backing terrorism. 

Global Diamond officials found the Saudi millionaire a charming, honorable businessman who filed the appropriate regulatory paperwork and provided essential financing. Behind the scenes, U.S. officials said, Al-Qadi ran a charity that financed terrorism. 

“That’s what makes it so difficult. It’s not about money laundering. A lot of this is clean money,” said Reyko Huang, a terrorism researcher at the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. “What makes it so difficult to track is all these things are happening behind the scenes.” 

With the help of a London-based investment firm, the company met in May 1997 with executives of the Bin Laden Group, a Saudi conglomerate. That December, the group invested $6 million in Global Diamond and installed three executives on the board. 

Owned by relatives of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al-Qaida terrorist organization, the Bin Laden Group has estimated revenues of $5 billion. It has also severed ties to Osama bin Laden, a man the Bush administration calls the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. No direct evidence has surfaced to tie the Saudi exile to the company. 

It’s uncertain if the Bin Laden Group knew of Al-Qadi’s alleged ties to Osama bin Laden. But it was through a Bin Laden Group executive that Al-Qadi joined the board, interviews and court records show. 

In 1998, despite the $6 million Bin Laden Group investment, Global Diamond still had financial problems. The board sought between $4 million and $10 million in new money, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego in a lawsuit filed against Global Diamond. 

Abu-Bakr Mood, Global Diamond’s vice chairman and also a Bin Laden Group executive, lined up two investors willing to invest $3 million each. One was Al-Qadi. 

Treasury officials say Al-Qadi’s Saudi-based Muwafaq (“Blessed Relief”) Foundation has funneled money from Saudi businessmen to Al Qaida. 

Peter Carter-Ruck, Al-Qadi’s London-based lawyer, said his client was “horrified and shocked” that his name has been tied to bin Laden. Al-Qadi “has never been involved with, supported or provided funds for any terrorist or extremist activities,” Carter-Ruck said. 

Al-Qadi told The New York Times the allegation was “nonsense.” 

However, it’s not the first time Al-Qadi’s name has been attached to money that allegedly supported terrorist activity. The FBI claims in court documents that part of an $820,000 loan Al-Qadi made in 1991 to the Quranic Literacy Institute in Chicago went to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. 

Steven Haney, Mood’s attorney, said his client knew little about Al-Qadi when he joined the Global Diamond and certainly nothing about any link to Osama bin Laden. Mood’s contact with Al-Qadi came through a Saudi business acquaintance, Ahmed Basodan. 

In December 1998, Al-Qadi agreed to buy 17 percent of Global Diamond, an investment that came through New Diamond Holdings, Al-Qadi’s shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands. Basodan and Al-Qadi joined Global Diamond’s board. 

Global Diamond records describe Al-Qadi as the chairman of the Saudi National Consulting Center and Qordoba Real Estate Co. based in Saudi Arabia. He also is listed as chairman of the Caravan Co., based in Turkey and a board member of both Himont Chemical of Pakistan and Kazakhstan’s Cariba Bank. 

In 1999, Haney said a Bin Laden Group representative forced Mood to resign from the Global Diamond board. Mood then sued the company, claiming the Bin Laden Group deprived him of his finder’s fee for attracting the $6 million investment. 

Mood claims the “Bin Laden Group controls and manages that company,” Haney said, an allegation de Villiers denies. 

Basodan and Al-Qadi have also split, de Villiers said. Basodan left the company’s board earlier this year. 

Al-Qadi remains on Global Diamond’s board, although the chances of him making any more investments in the company are dim. The Treasury Department froze Al-Qadi’s assets last month, something that de Villiers said will have little effect on his company. 

In 1999, Al-Qadi also invested $750,000 in a Canadian diamond exploration firm, MIT Ventures, which has mines in Ontario and Botswana, company records show. 

MIT Ventures’ attorney, William Schmidt, said its dealings with Al-Qadi went through Basodan. No one in the company has ever talked to Al-Qadi, he said. 

Schmidt and de Villiers said Global Diamond and MIT Ventures had no relationship, despite Al-Qadi’s investment in both. 

Other MIT Ventures investors include the Saudi multinational firm, Al Murjan Group, owned by the bin Mahfouz family. 

The Al Murjan Group was represented on the board by Dr. Abdullah Basodan, the uncle of Ahmed Basodan and a prominent Saudi businessman, Schmidt said. 

Sultan Khalid bin Mahfouz, chairman of the Al Murjan Group, is a former chairman of the Saudi National Commercial Bank, the nation’s largest, which was investigated in 1998 for allegedly transferring $3 million to Osama bin Laden, according to news reports. 

Mahfouz’s son, Abdul Rahman Khalid bin Mahfouz, was on the board of the Muwafaq Foundation. 

“They were interested in going into mining ventures,” Schmidt said of Al-Qadi. “This particular investment was part of their learning curve.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Global Diamond, www.globaldiamond.com 

MIT Ventures, www.mitventures.com 

SAN JOSE — Competitors complained Friday that Microsoft Corp.’s settlement with the federal government will do little to protect them or consumers from the software giant’s monopoly power. But they held out hope that state attorneys general could make the deal more restrictive. 

Microsoft and the Justice Department presented the settlement to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Friday. She agreed to review it and gave the 18 states involved in the case until Tuesday to decide whether to accept the plan. 

Several competitors called on the state attorneys general to insist on making changes to the settlement. Sun Microsystems Inc.’s general counsel, Michael Morris, said the Justice Department was “walking away from a case they had already won.” 

Kelly Jo MacArthur, general counsel for RealNetworks Inc., which makes music and video software threatened by Windows Media Player called the settlement “a reward, not a remedy.” 

Paul T. Cappuccio, the general counsel for AOL Time Warner Inc., said the settlement “does too little to promote competition and protect consumers.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Chalk up a legal victory for the computer geeks. 

A California appeals court ruled Thursday that using the Internet to publish software code that decrypts and copies DVD movies is protected by the First Amendment as an expression of free speech. 

The San Jose-based 6th District Court of Appeal found that Andrew Bunner’s published Web site, which links to software program called DeCSS, represented “pure speech” and was protected by the First Amendment. 

Thursday’s ruling by a three-judge panel overturns a lower court injunction that prevented the program from being published by the defendants, though it is still widely available on various Internet Web sites. 

SAN JOSE — A low-cost rural electricity system and solar-powered radios to bring AIDS education to people in Africa were among the projects that won the first Tech Museum of Innovation Awards. 

The $50,000 awards were given to five people and organizations Thursday night, selected from a field of 25. The awards recognize those who encourage the adoption of technological advances in health, education, environment, economic development and equality. 

The winners include Joseph DeRisi, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who worked at fighting malaria; the Audubon Center for Research and Endangered Species in New Orleans for reproduction technology to save threatened species. 

low-cost rural electricity systems; CZBioMed of Fayetteville, N.C., for making inexpensive prosthetic limbs; Freeplay Foundation in South Africa for wind-up and solar-powered radios distributed to spread education about AIDS to people in Africa. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.microsoft.com 

Coalition of competitors: http://www.procompetition.org 

http://www.thetech.org 

A group of first-grade parents at Washington Elementary School have been pressuring the district to close two bathrooms located in a “portable” building, which is accessible from the street, but invisible to teachers. They want new bathrooms built inside the classrooms. 

“Anybody on the street could walk into those bathrooms and use them and go into them when the children are in them,” said Pamela Springer, one of the parents. 

The district has already put out bids for a contractor to renovate and clean the existing bathrooms – a task another parent demanded. But Superintendent Michelle Lawrence said Wednesday that the question of their location offered no easy solution. 

“It is so incredibly crowded, so it’s not an easy issue of our just bringing in another portable and setting it someplace,” said Lawrence. “Relocating (the bathrooms) becomes a much more difficult issue.” 

The two bathrooms face McKinley Street, which is blocked off to traffic but easily accessible to the public. A five-foot-tall chain-link fence separates the building from the sidewalk, but a gate is open to the street 20 feet away. 

Rita Kimble, the school principal, said she installed that chain-link fence two years ago, when she began working at Washington. Parents had expressed concern at the time. 

“The way it was configured was to deter anybody from going into the bathrooms,” she said. 

On Wednesday afternoon, several first- and second-grade students bounded around the building in their Halloween costumes to use the bathrooms and lingered afterwards for a few moments on the stairs up to the doors, watching the sunny street. 

“It’s totally ridiculous,” said Linda Navidad Franco, who stood outside the portable structure. “(The kids) come along all the time, and we understand that the teachers can’t be with them all the time.” 

She said she told her daughter, a second-grader, never to use those bathrooms.  

“I tell her to hold it for when they go for recess or lunch,” Franco said. 

The parents started writing letters to Kimble, the first-grade teacher, Avis Minger and district administrators soon after the school year began. Aside from decrying the bathroom location, they also described the conditions inside the bathrooms in terms reminiscent of an underdeveloped country. 

“In the girls’ bathroom a door on one of the stalls in entirely missing, while in the other a long strip of rusted metal hangs off the stall door,” the parents wrote to Kimble.  

They cited flooding, lack of soap and paper, peeling paint, and faucets so tight that girls have had to ask boys to come in and help operate them. 

The bathrooms, they wrote, are “an accident waiting to happen.” 

“The health considerations are serious,” they wrote in another letter to Minger, “especially since first-grade children are still learning to wash after toileting.” 

In a letter responding to the parents, dated Sept. 11, Kimble wrote that she asked the maintenance department to “upgrade” the bathrooms last spring. She noted that flooring and painting work had already been initiated and said coded locks would be placed on the bathroom doors. 

“Children will be able to learn a simple code to enter,” Kimble wrote. “This will prevent anyone else from entering them.” 

Kimble also said she would ask teachers to take their classes to the bathroom as a group. But in a Sept. 5 letter, the begrudged parents said this idea “seemed impractical and impossible.”  

Kimble said on Thursday that the first-grade teacher was carrying-out this instruction. 

“One of the improvements (is) that actually the first graders are not going to the restrooms as frequently as they did,” said Kimble. 

Lew Jones, who has led the district’s maintenance department since last month’s departure of maintenance director Gene Le Fevre, said a bidding process was underway to hire a contractor to improve the existing bathrooms by painting and replacing the floors, doing minor carpentry, and perhaps, some plumbing. 

Jones estimated about $12,000 would be spent, but would not estimate how long the work would take. 

“I don’t think it’s that long a duration of a project,” he said. 

Franco, the second-grader’s parent, echoed many parents’ opinions on Wednesday. 

“What’s the point of fixing them when they’re still accessible to everybody?” she said. 

The bungalows were placed in their current location in 1995 as part of a two-year schoolwide renovation and seismic retrofit, said Stephanie Allen, who headed the school’s site committee during that period. The bathrooms were added within a year to handle the expanded school population, she said. 

“There is not any other place to put those bathrooms in terms of hookups, and they have to have bathrooms for the kids and staff,” Allen said. 

“These are the kinds of problems (you find) when you’re housing students and staff in portables.”

Friday, Nov. 2 

Lunch Poems Reading Series 

12:10 p.m. 

Morrison Library in Doe Library 

UC Berkeley 

Korean poet Ko Un reads selections from his poetry, short stories, fiction, criticism, essays, and children’s literature. 

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

City Commons Club Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Laura Nader, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, presents “Other Civilizations.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Saturday, Nov. 3

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m. 

Julie’s Healthy Café 

2562 Bancroft Way 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Robert Ewing Quartet performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Meet the Innovators of Tomorrow... Today 

8 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor 

MLK Student Union 

UC Berkeley 

Hear students present their original research projects in science, mathematics, and technology for the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition. (202)944-1940  

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Community and Family Contra Dance 

7 p.m.  

Grace North Church 

Cedar and Walnut 

With music by Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, come play and dance. Easy dances for all ages. $10. 482-9479 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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  

Sunday, Nov. 4

Re-Legitimizing Peace: 

Peace Making in the Middle East 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

International House Auditorium 

(Bancroft and Piedmont) 

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, will discuss her views on achieving peace in the Middle East and what role the United States ought to play. Free and open to the public. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes/text_only/ 

Celebrate Music on Telegraph 

2 - 4 p.m.  

The Village 

2556 Telegraph 

Shoppers and visitors to the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley will be treated to the joyful sound of music throughout the holiday season. Rhythm Kitchen performs, sponsored by the Telegraph Area Association. 486-2366 

Day of the Dead: Dia de los Muertos Celebration and Commemoration 

1 - 5 p.m. 

Rosa Parks Elementary School  

Multipurpose Room (Cafeteria) 

920 Allston Way 

Rosa Parks Elementary School invites the community to a multicultural event and exhibit featuring traditional altars; entertainment by Ballet Folklorico Juvenil de Berkeley and Cuahtli Mitotiani Mexica; and delicious traditional Mexican dishes. 237-2557 

“Sundays At Four” 

4 p.m. 

The Crowden School 

1474 Rose St. 

Benjamin Simon and Friends with sublime and ridiculous viola music. $10, under 18 violists free. 559-6910 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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 

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

Editor: 

How do we count the living spaces in the downtown? The the building boom – the bedroom, loft, and studio building boom – now underway should leave some public record of what it has accomplished. The General Plan on page 12 in its Land Use Element gives a beginning: a table of 10 residential mixed-use projects recently or nearly finished, each one listed with an address, the project type (rental, condo) and the number of units. But a living space is better measured by the bedroom than by the unit, and with the assistance this week of two diligent city planners (this information is not usually part of the necessary public record), the bedroom count for seven of the 10 can be given: for the seven projects, 300 units and 440 bedrooms (including lofts and studios). The other three still need research. 

Among the seven projects is the Gaia building, which led in both units (91) and bedrooms (146), but its leadership may be short-lived. On Oct. 11 ZAB approved a housing project for 2020 Kittredge St. Its developers want to call it Library Gardens, but with 176 units and – are you sitting down? – 320 bedrooms, it might better be called The Village. And Gardens or Village, it will be right next to the Central Library. 

All this may be news to you, particularly the size of the project, which has moved very quietly through the permitting channels, though it has taken a year and a half. The quietness is partly due to the noise elsewhere in the Berkeley construction scene involving Gaia. But it is also because the Central Library has been absent from its home on Kittredge since October, 1998. Without patrons and supporters coming daily to Kittredge, a developer (the Use Permit application for the project is dated May, 2000) might imagine that the library building is the library. Not so: only a library in residence is a library. And a library in residence is its own best – and I think only true – spokesperson. 

What effect will this huge project have on the Central Library?  

The project is part of the larger movement toward “infilling” the downtown with mixed-use residential, a process I see having no end, since one can always find underperforming property and work to convert it. 

But infilling implies filling – with people. The downtown will suddenly have a population it has not had, and that population will be first in line to use the new Central Library. If the demand is heavy enough, Central may unofficially become Downtown, though it has been redesigned to be Central – to all of Berkeley. 

Will the extra local demand require a future expansion? My guess is that it will, in 10 to 15 years. But also, if I understand the design of the project next door at 2020 Kittredge, no expansion will physically be possible. What a problem: pressure, and no way to release it. 

Is there a way to challenge The Village? The ZAB process allows only a short appeals period, which for this project expires at 5 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 6. Someone with more insight than me into the project and the appeals process might want to take up the challenge. But Yes or No, there is a challenge here for ZAB: it is time they televised their meetings. This project may be the largest one downtown since the trenching for BART in 1971, and with 420 people (my estimate, a low one, I think), will shift the center of people gravity significantly southwest. 

Televising ZAB meetings will allow both public scrutiny and the scrutiny of the process of public scrutiny. ZAB most certainly followed the procedures, but it would have been much better if more people could have been watching and commenting. And more should be watching and commenting now and in the near future as this great change of downtown to mixed-use residential is contemplated, planned and executed. 

Fred Lupke 

Former co-chair Measure R 

Oakland

“So, you want to know the story of our Rusalka?” begins an old woman, talking to a scholar of folklore who is recording the quaint beliefs held by those in these remote mountain villages.  

“Her voice was the sound of old paper, handled seldom, in a book carefully stored in an even older library: Thin, transparent, a whisper of what once had been,” writes Berkeley author Cenizas de Rosas (a pseudonym). Much of the description in “Rusalka Moon” has just this mixture of preciousness and precision. 

The folklorist begins notetaking, and this ornate floral-smelling tale of how a certain Rusalka came into being unfolds.  

This Rusalka, a mythical creature who lives in the river and leaves at certain times in order to fertilize crops, was originally a young virgin named Valasha, who was simply too sweet for this world. 

There are a few bluntly delicious descriptions: At one point Valasha’s intended, a farm boy named Vasily Andryef, forgets he is “standing in mud and pig shit up to his ankles,” so distracted is he by the lures of going to war. Vasily’s war experiences are portrayed in unflinching detail, especially when he’s off burning and bayoneting little children and grooming his superiors’ horses. The wry and witty jokes are lovely when they appear, and there’re other nice touches, such as a child named Masla, “pat o’ butter.” 

But these pleasures come with the requisite fantasy genre clichés: “sloe-eyed maidens” and the word “silky” doing double-duty as a mood enhancer and adjective. The ground is “dappled” and blossoms are everywhere. 

But I digress.  

There is wisdom in this book, a hard-edged 21st century awareness of that sad rag, human nature, in which individuals and groups just simply won’t stop making deals with the devil or, in this case, with the Vodany, the frenzied creepy corpse-like creature that, apparently, dwells under the local river and captures the fluttering quivering souls of the drowned in order to turn them into Rusalkas.  

At one point, the villagers try to pay off the Vodany with the sacrifice of a gleaming strong horse, that they tie up and drown in a quite vividly-described passage.  

But does this bribe work? 

Of course not. 

According to this novel: “It is said that at the end of all things, the tears of Faeries will heal the world.” We’ll just have to wait for that.

924 Gilman St. Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring. com  

Anna’s Nov. 2: Anna de Leon and Ellen Hoffmann, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 2: Shady Lady, Buffalo Roam, $5; Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; Nov. 8: Ascension, $5; Nov. 9: Delfino, Boomshanka, $5; Nov. 10: Kofy Brown, J. Dogs, $7; Nov.11: Psychotica, $5; Nov. 12: All Star Jam Featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 13: The Photon Band, Ian Moore, $4; Nov. 14: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free. All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; 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 Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

Theater 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m., matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail.com 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

Dance 

“México Danza Brings the Splendor and Pageantry of the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos to the Stage” Nov. 1: 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Compania México Danza presents a cast of 20 enchanting dancers, adorned in festive costumes. $10 Calvin Simmons Theatre, Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland. 465-9312 www.danceforpower.org 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 1: 7:30 p.m., Leslie Thornton Artist Workshop; Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Strange Fruit; 8:45 p.m., Facing the Music; Nov. 3: 7 p.m., Damnation; 9:25 p.m., Family Nest; Nov. 4: 3:30 p.m., I Loved You... (Three Romances); 5:35 p.m., The Making of the Revolution; Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4: 2 - 4:30 p.m., 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

“La Lesbian Film Festival” Nov. 9 - 11. La Peña Cultural Center presents La Lesbian at La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series. $8 Fine Arts Cinema 2451 Shattuck 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

Exhibits  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Through Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 1: Frederick Crews talks about “Postmodern Pooh”; Nov. 3: Ben Cheever looks at “Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (A Personal Odyssey)”; Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 1: Travel in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001: An Evening with Prominent Bay Area Travel Experts; Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

UC Berkeley, Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., 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; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 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.

Forney the lone returning starter  

SAN JOSE – Caren Horstmeyer expects her new–look Cal women’s basketball team to play small ball to start the season. 

The expected starting lineup doesn’t have much height, so the Golden Bears will have to rely on running and scrappy play to succeed. Cal got strong guard play last year from Courtney Johnson (15.2 points per game) and Kenya Corley (12.8 ppg), its two leading scorers who have exhausted their eligibility. But this year’s team will rely even more on its non–post players. 

“It might not be pretty, but the goal is, find a way to win,’” Horstmeyer said. 

The second–year Cal coach talked about her changing squad Thursday at Pac–10 Women’s Basketball Media Day at the Compaq Center in San Jose, where the conference’s teams gathered to preview the upcoming season. 

Last season, Cal had a 12–16 (8–10 in the Pac–10) record to tie for sixth in the conference. This year, Pac–10 coaches tabbed Cal to finish tied for eighth with UCLA. The media poll picked the Bears ninth. Stanford earned the top spot in both polls. 

The Bears return just one starter – forward/center Ami Forney – after losing seven seniors from last year. They bring in nine newcomers, but two of the brightest – sophomore center Olga Volkova and freshman guard Jackie Lord – enter the season recovering from ACL injuries.  

Volkova will help offset the loss of Lauren Ashbaugh, a forward/center who scored 7.8 ppg and pulled down 5.8 rebounds per game. Volkova, a 6–foot–4 Ukrainian center, injured her knee last year while playing for Merritt College in Oakland. If she does play in Sunday’s home exhibition against the Bay Area Pro Am team, she would come off the bench. 

“We know (Volkova) is an elite athlete that can give experience, smarts and then size, ability to score and good defense,” Horstmeyer said. “But right now, she’s limited to (practicing in a) half court (setting). We’re trying to get her back to full court. The status of her knee really right now is uncertain.” 

For the foreseeable future, Horstmeyer will operate with just one true post player – Forney – in the starting lineup. Horstmeyer’s other likely starters include forwards Amber White and Kiki Williams asdf

Funding would continue hotel’s emergency homeless aid  

Councilmember Linda Maio pulled a $100,000 contract to provide emergency housing off the City Council’s consent calendar Tuesday, saying she wanted to learn more about the program and its impact on the neighborhood. 

The council resolution would continue an emergency housing contract with the Flamingo Hotel, located at 1761 University Ave., to house up to 10 mentally ill homeless people. Generally, items on the consent calendar are approved unanimously in one vote, without discussion. 

“I checked with Health and Human Services to make sure the delay would cause no disruption to the program’s services,” Maio said. “But this one threw me a curve because I didn’t know what was being proposed.” 

Maio has scheduled a meeting with the Health and Human Services officials so she and neighbors of the hotel can learn more about the state program, formally known as Integrated Services for the Mentally Ill. 

The program, which provides counseling, drug rehabilitation, food and clothing to the chronically homeless, has been housing clients at the hotel since March.  

The council is now considering the contract because of a policy to approve all contracts once they go above $25,000. 

Harvey Tureck, manager of the Mental Health Division, said he is confident the contract will be approved because the program participants who use the emergency housing at the Flamingo Hotel are not troublemakers. “Mental health staff are on site every day and besides these people are mentally disabled and not likely to commit crimes,” he said.  

Tureck added that since the program began, none of the participants has been arrested. 

The recommendation was rescheduled for the council’s Nov. 13 meeting. 

If approved, the temporary hotel housing will continue to provide a much needed element in a unique $3 million program that is attempting to offer meaningful and lasting help to the most severely mentally disabled homeless, who health officials say are the hardest to reach. 

In September 2000, Gov. Gray Davis approved $56 million for similar programs in 26 counties. Berkeley received grant approval for $3 million last November to serve approximately 100 of the city’s most severely mentally ill homeless through November 2003. 

The Mental Health Division, which manages the program, has hired seven social workers who have mostly been working the streets to gain the trust of the mentally ill homeless. Tureck said trust building is essential because the people the program is meant to help are often mistrustful and wary of all government agencies. 

The need for housing this particular homeless population is especially great, because it brings some stability to what is often an otherwise chaotic existence, according to Tureck. He said the 72 clients currently being assisted by the program are now living in residency hotels, long-term care facilities and independent housing. 

Tureck said the Flamingo Hotel provides clients with much needed transitional housing until arrangements can be made for long-term housing, which is the primary goal of the program.  

“So far the results have been good,” Tureck said. “We’ve been able to move some clients into permanent housing around the county and we are currently negotiating to convert a boarding house in central Berkeley into housing for about 20 people.” 

The governor approved the bill based on three pilot programs in Stanislaus and Los Angeles counties and the city of Sacramento. 

The pilot programs cost $10 million to provide the mentally ill homeless with counseling, drug rehabilitation, housing, food and clothing but, according to organizers, it saved $20 million in other services such as emergency medical care and police services. 

Maio represents District 2, where the Flamingo Hotel is located. She said she expects the contract will be approved on Nov. 13. 

“My neighborhood has been supportive of affordable housing, which makes it a very tolerant and unusual place,” she said.

Editor: 

Unreal. 

First we get Richard Gere saying that we should love our Terrorists and now, another Democrat won’t support our President or the fight against Terrorism. What a shame.  

How dare Lee fail in her commitment to stand behind our country to fight the zealots that killed innocent men and women. I hope that the City Council in Berkeley is run out of town on a train as well as Lee, and for Danny Glover to support her is another one of the signs of how the Democrats got us into this position.  

President Bush would have never had to resort to war if the Democrats had started the man hunt and stopped Osama bin Laden when they bombed the foreign embassies. It seems that once again the Hollywood Democrats are on the wrong side of justice as well as environmental movement. Also, Democrats want their freedom, gold chains, metal cars and wooden million dollar homes but they don’t want to stand up to fight, allow miners and loggers to make a living or support our president in time of great need. Lee and the City Council should be ashamed and apologize to the families of missing loved ones and the men and women of the armed forces trying to give you back your comfort and freedom from terrorists. Don’t you understand that you are playing into the hands of Osama and the Taliban. They have no other source of weapon shipments to fight a sustained war so they are relying on the American people to fight amongst ourselves to stop the attacks. They hope to outlast us while they sit in their caves waiting for responses from people like Berkeley to cause in-house feuding, see, you are playing right into their hands.  

One last note, I sure won’t visit Berkeley ever again. Boycott Berkeley!  

Tim Barnett  

Salt Lake City, Utah

NEW YORK — Since Sept. 11, Americans by the millions have been reaching out to friends — real ones, and imaginary ones on television. 

The NBC sitcom “Friends” has unexpectedly become TV’s most popular show this fall. Rachel is pregnant, Ross is the dad, and viewers are anxious to share the experience. 

“Friends” is averaging 28.4 million viewers through five weeks, despite competing against “Survivor” for two of them. Guest shots by Sean Penn on Thursday and Brad Pitt later this month should keep those numbers up. Not bad for a show that many worried was creatively spent. 

“Nobody expects that in the eighth year of a series,” co-creater David Crane said this week. “It’s phenomenal.” 

Many suggest “Friends” is doing well because viewers crave the familiar in a time of stress — the comfort food theory. Crane believes that shortchanges the producers, writers and actors. 

“We have something to do with it,” he said. “We’re not just cozy.” 

The show does seem infused with a new energy. New York Daily News critic Eric Mink called the new season’s episodes “creative gems — funny, touching, crisply performed and produced and consistent with the characters’ long-established personalities.” 

Last spring, when a lackluster set of “Friends” episodes was beaten regularly in the ratings by “Survivor,” there were real questions about a comeback. 

“It kind of felt like the series was done — it had said what it had to say, it was good while it lasted but it was time to fold it up,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. 

And it was introducing two plot devices — marriage and pregnancy — that for many television series are signs of creative desperation, he said. 

Instead, viewers who have figuratively “hung out” with the six main characters in their carefree youth have chosen to watch them grow up. 

“They tapped into a story line back in May that was terrific, and that America clearly wanted to see,” said NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker. “We know that when Ross and Rachel hooked up for the first time five years ago that it was their single biggest year. Clearly, America loves the Ross and Rachel combination.” 

Does that mean the ratings-hungry Zucker will order that the characters played by Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer — currently on the outs romantically — get together again? He said he’s leaving it up to the creators. They’re not tipping their hands. 

“Friends” has never finished a television season atop the Nielsen Media Research ratings. Its peak was a second-place showing in 1998-99. The show was the fifth most-popular series during the last two seasons. 

For a series set in New York City, “Friends” has made only subtle references to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11: Joey wore a New York Fire Department T-shirt in one scene, and “I Love NY” was scrawled on a bulletin board in the background. 

Anything beyond that really doesn’t have a place on the show, Crane said. 

“If we had something fresh to offer, we would,” he said. “But there’s also something escapist about the show. It’s a half-hour where you’re laughing and not thinking about what’s going on in the world. That’s providing something, I think.” 

The program has always existed in a fantasy version of New York anyway, with impossibly beautiful friends living in impossibly large apartments. 

”‘Friends’ doesn’t really take place in New York,” Thompson said. “It takes place on another planet.” 

The Syracuse professor is curious about whether viewers will embrace a “married with children” “Friends.” It’s a rare show that can change its basic premise and thrive, he said. 

They may never get the chance. With the six stars’ contracts expiring after this season, it has been conventional wisdom that this would be the last year. 

Crane resists that talk. Zucker wants the show to continue. There’s some hope that Schwimmer, Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry — whose movie careers aren’t thriving and who may be enjoying the show’s new roll — would want to stay. 

The six actors banded together in past contract negotiations to demand more money. If they do it again, NBC might have a wrenching decision to make with the collapsing advertising market making money tight. 

Look for a real-life cliffhanger next May. 

“Could we do another year?” Crane asked. “Oh, yeah, in a second. If, for whatever reason, this is the last season, knowing we went out on top also feels really good.” 

Berkeley clinches 2nd ACCAL title 

Eventually, the Berkeley High girls’ volleyball team will lose an ACCAL match. But Thursday, they beat their toughest league opponent for the second time this year, extending their winning streak in league play to 24 games and clinching their second straight league title. 

The Encinal Jets took Berkeley to five games in their last meeting, but the ’Jackets simply overpowered them this time, winning in four games, 15-1, 15-8, 14-16, 15-2. Their only cold streak came in the third game, as they allowed the Jets to come back from a 14-3 deficit to win the game. 

Berkeley middle blocker Desiree Guilliard-Young didn’t win the statistical battle with Jackie Randolph, last year’s league MVP, but her team came out on top and she faced Randolph down several times, as three of her four blocks came on Randolph spikes.  

Guilliard-Young finished with seven kills, paling in comparison to Randolph’s 15 to go with three blocks, but the Berkeley star got much more help from her teammates. Outside hitter Vanessa Williams had 13 kills and 11 digs, while outside hitter Amalia Jarvis had eight kills. Encinal, on the other hand, had no player other than Randolph with more than three kills. 

“You just have to control Jackie when you can, and shut down everyone else,” Berkeley coach Justin Caraway said. “She’s going to get her points, but you can’t let anyone else beat you.” 

Randolph was virtually invisible in the first two games, managing just two kills and two blocks. But she did manage to ignite Encinal’s only big run, taking control of the third game with her team on the brink of being swept. She led her team back from 14-3 to 14-9 with several nice digs, then drove two kills to make the score 14-11. When Berkeley managed a side out, Randolph answered with another kill, then served the last five points of the match, including two aces. 

But the ’Jackets refused to let the collapse continue. Williams came through with three kills early in the final game as Berkeley jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back. 

Caraway said his team played its best game of the season on Thursday, passing and serving better than any game this year. He even declined to rip into his players for the collapse in the third game, chalking it up to some good serving from the Jets and bad communication on his team’s part. 

“The only thing that disappointed me was that we dominated all four games, but we lost one,” he said. “We outplayed them in every facet of the game, but we just got tentative and scared for a little bit.” 

The ’Jackets have yet to lose a match in league play since joining the ACCAL last season. Caraway admitted that going undefeated two years in a row would be an impressive feat, no matter how uneven the competition is. 

“We’re sitting pretty at 12-0 right now, but we want to finish undefeated,” he said. “Can I see us losing to either of the next two opponents (El Cerrito and De Anza)? No. But you never know what will happen on any given day.”

Gov. Gray Davis set off a flurry of mildly panicked inquiries Thursday when he told reporters that terrorists may be targeting California suspension bridges for a terrorist attack somewhere between Nov. 2 and Nov. 7. 

The announcement came at a press conference in Los Angeles, during which Davis presented FBI veteran George Vinson as his new special advisor on state security issues. Davis is in Los Angeles for an economic summit to be held in Burbank Friday. 

“We have received from several different sources threats that the law enforcement agencies in general believe are credible,” Davis said, immediately catapulting himself onto television screens across the nation as cable channels broke into regular programming to announce the new terrorist threat.  

Davis also appeared on Larry King Live Thursday night and said he received warnings from three separate federal agencies. 

Oakland mayor Jerry Brown said on CNN news that the threat warnings he had received were confused.  

“I’m going to drive across that bridge unless we receive a lot more credible information than what we got today,” he said. 

Brown was asked what the point of the governor’s warning was if vehicles were not going to be searched or the bridges closed. After several attempts to explain the difficulty in balancing warnings of danger with the need to continue daily life, the former California governor finally confessed: “I don’t know what the point was.” 

While polls nationwide have shown the public coalescing behind elected officials from the president on down to city council members, there has been no similar increase in Davis’ popularity. In a late September field poll, the governor’s approval rating among Californians dropped to 41 percent, the lowest since he took office. 

“As governor, he has to take the heat for the economic crisis and the downturn in the state’s economy,” said Democratic pollster David Binder of San Francisco. 

Nearly every government agency in the state was flooded with calls from reporters and worried citizens all afternoon. They seemed caught off-guard by the statement and much less concerned about the threat than the governor.  

Caltrans referred calls to a wrong number for the California Highway Patrol; the CHP took messages and promised to return calls. Even the governor’s office had no prepared statement or staff ready to respond to questions. 

A spokesperson for the CHP said there are no plans to close any of the bridges, or to search crossing cars. In a terse written statement, the FBI stressed that “the information presented was unsubstantiated, and the reliability of the source is unknown.” 

An FBI spokesperson in the agency’s San Francisco office appeared to struggle to maintain his professional demeanor and politely refused to comment on whether the governor’s decision to make the announcement was motivated as much by politics as by security. Asked if the Davis should have made the threat public, his composure snapped.  

“Well, it’s too late now,” he said. 

Coast Guard spokesperson Barry Lane said the Coast Guard has been on heightened alert since the Sept. 11 attacks.  

“As for preparing for a new threat, we’ve been preparing for any threat,” he said. He advised the public to “just rest assured that the Coast Guard and other government agencies have everything under control.” 

Davis said people have to decide whether or not to cross the bridges, just as they have to decide if it is safe for them to fly.  

“They’ll have to make whatever choices they think are best for them,” he said. “We want them to know, if they’re going to cross these bridges that we’ve done everything possible to ensure their safety, and we have.” 

According to Davis, the threatened bridges are the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, and the San Diego Coronado Bridge. An average of 270,000 cars cross the Bay Bridge each day, and about 125,000 use the Golden Gate. 

851-4561 

Editor: 

Since the 1980s I’ve noticed the apparent misuse of the word “tolerance.” We seem to have forgotten that “tolerate” means “to put up with.” In the words of educator Jane Elliot: “People don’t want to be ‘tolerated’ - they want to be accepted.” 

O.V. Michaelsen 

Alameda 

BOONE, N.C. - No. 4 seed Davidson (5-13) gave No. 1 California (11-4) a scare as the Wildcats pushed the 17th-ranked Golden Bears into double overtime. Sara Hunt’s goal at 7:14 rescued Cal from an upset-minded Davidson squad for a 5-4 win Thursday afternoon in the NorPac Postseason Tournament at Kidd Brewer Stadium on the Appalachian State campus.  

Cal went up 2-0 with goals from Michelle Wald and Danya Sawyers in the first half.  

Not to be outdone, Davidson came charging back after the intermission with two quick goals. Less than two minutes into the second half, the Wildcats’ Amanda Strickland scored to put her team on the board.  

A minute and a half later, the Wildcats scored on a penalty corner as Kathleen Fenn belted a shot from 15 yards out.  

At 25:46, the Bears regained the lead as senior Erin Robinson scored on a corner with assists from Sara Hunt and Wald.  

The same assist duo set up the next Cal goal, as this time, Nora Feddersen connected on a Bear penalty corner with 19:38 left in regulation for sophomore’s team-leading 10th goal of the season.  

Forward Strickland completed a hat trick for the Wildcats with two more goals to knot the score again, both from assists by Elizabeth Schoening. The second came with just three minutes left in regulation. 

Cal’s unblemished overtime record (4-0) stayed intact as senior Sara Hunt one-timed a Feddersen pass on the Bears’ 11th corner of the day in double overtime.  

“I think Davidson played a good game,” said head coach Shellie Onstead. “I’ve got to give them credit for keep coming back and I just feel like our team had, I guess, our first collective bad day. We had a hard time getting on track.”

Most visitors to the city’s Permit Service Center on Milvia Street probably only want to remodel a kitchen, get a permit for electrical or plumbing work or apply for a small business license. 

Everyone who passes through, though, is bound to notice a prominently-placed sign at the counter: 

“Attention! Important information regarding applications involving medical marijuana/medical cannabis.” 

“If you plan to cultivate, store, sell, barter, give away or otherwise distribute medical marijuana/medical cannabis, you must state that you plan to do so on your permit application, and provide documentation that your proposal is in full compliance with the city’s ‘Protocols for Medical Cannabis.’”  

Vivian Kahn, acting deputy director of planning, said on Thursday that the sign, which has been in place for the last few months, is there for a reason. 

“When we get an application for zoning approval, we normally don’t require the applicant to list every single thing they sell,” she said. “But in this case, even if (medical marijuana) is an incidental activity, we want to know.” 

“To my knowledge, no one has yet come in and said they wanted a permit for this.” 

Which just shows, according to critics, that the sign is fulfilling its purpose. 

The sign is the public face of the scrap of city policy that exists for the regulation of medical marijuana clubs. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said on Thursday that after the city passed the medical marijuana ordinance – which resulted in the “Protocols for Medical Cannabis” mentioned above – in March, there were no guidelines in place for regulating medical marijuana clubs. 

“The old city manager (James Keene) killed the Proposition 215 Implementation committee we had proposed to study the issue,” he said. 

Shortly after the passage of Proposition 215, the state referendum that permitted the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the city permits department started to receive a number of applications for “hemp and incense” and “herbal remedy” stores, which were approved. Only later did the city find out that the applicants were operating as medical marijuana clubs. 

After neighbors started to complain, the city briefly considered imposing a temporary moratorium on new clubs and developing rules in the city’s zoning ordinance for where new clubs could locate. 

However, that effort was suspended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that Proposition 215 did not invalidate federal laws, under which marijuana is an illegal drug. After the ruling, current city manager Weldon Rucker advised the council against the zoning changes, as the new ruling brought both the city’s ordinance and Proposition 215 into question. 

According to Kahn and Fred Medrano, director of the Health and Human Services Department, Matthew Orebic of the city attorney’s office developed the process now in place in the Permit Center.  

Orebic could not be reached for comment. 

Worthington said that regulation through the permits department was far from ideal, but still workable. 

“It’s a reasonably practical compromise,” he said. “In the sprit of Proposition 215 we’re allowing for some way for people to get their marijuana prescriptions filled. At the same time, it would cause a lot of controversy, and a lot of unwanted attention from the federal government, if we had 100 of these things in Berkeley.” 

Some medical marijuana advocates take a dimmer view of the method. 

Chris Conrad, a cannabis expert who has testified in many court cases involving medical marijuana laws, said that Berkeley was on the right track when it was looking at broader zoning regulations. 

“Regulation through zoning ordinances is fairly rare, though I do think it is a sensible way to do it,” he said. “But Berkeley has perverted the method, because they’re looking at it as a way to limit marijuana clubs rather than regulate them.” 

Conrad said a more equitable approach would be to designate certain districts in which clubs would be allowed to operate, and to develop other guidelines, including distance from schools. 

There are three medical marijuana clubs currently in operation in Berkeley – one on Shattuck Avenue, one on San Pablo Avenue and one on University Avenue.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to residents of Berkeley and the City Council, 

How proud I am of Berkeley again - for its recent City Council resolution on bombing and for its people’s support of Rep. Barbara Lee. I lived in Berkeley for a decade during the l980s and now farm outside Sebastopol in Sonoma County. Years later, when we look back on these dark times, Berkeley and Rep. Lee will shine in history for their bravery - as Rep. Jeannette Rankin and Sen. Wayne Morse do for their opposition to previous wars. 

Many of us here in Sonoma County and throughout the United States and the world look to Berkeley for leadership. Please don’t back down! Leadership is not always easy. Though there may be some short-term economic losses for Berkeley from this mild decision speaking for our country’s conscience and soul, it will accumulate long-term moral gains. We love you, Berkeley and Rep. Lee. 

Yea Berkeley! 

Shepherd Bliss 

Kokopelli Farm 

Sonoma County

Hornets take ACCAL cross country titles 

Berkeley High cross country lost to Alameda at the ACCAL league championship meet on Wednesday, although Berkeley’s Alex Enscoe won the boys’ race. 

Enscoe, a sophomore, beat Alameda’s Yoji Reichert by four seconds to win the boys’ race in a time of 16:09. Alameda’s Nicolas Bell came in third and the Hornets won with a team score of 25, with Berkeley second at 31. 

On the girls’ side, the Hornets won going away with 15 points, with Alameda’s Corrine Roberts winning the race in 19:22. Berkeley’s top runner, Grace Nielsen, was forced to quit the race with a leg injury, leaving Elizabeth Mendelson as Berkeley’s lone finisher. 

Cal golf finishes third in Hawaii tournament 

OAHU, Hawaii – The California women’s golf team finished third at the Rainbow Wahine Fall Golf Classic with a 911 after carding a 299 in the final round of the 54-hole tournament.  

New Mexico won the tournament at the par 72, 5900-yard Kapolei Golf Course with an 884, and Arizona was second at 905.  

Arizona’s Lorena Ochoa won the individual competition with a score of 218, two strokes ahead of two other golfers.  

Junior Vikki Laing led the Golden Bears, tying for fifth with a 223 after shooting a 73 in the final round. Cal’s next best golfer were senior Anne Walker and junior Ria Quiazon, who tied for 17th at 229. Sophomore Sarah Huarte tied for 22nd at 230, and sophomore Anna Temple shot a 249 to tie for 89th.  

The Bears don’t return to competition until the spring. 

Cal picked fifth by media 

The Cal mens’ basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-10 Conference this season at the conference’s annual media day Wednesday in Los Angeles. 

The 27 voting media members picked UCLA to finish first, with the Bruins getting 25 first-place votes. Stanford was picked second, USC third and Arizona fourth.

Sunday, Nov. 4 

• 1 p.m.  

Islam in the balance 

Toward a Better Understanding of Islam and Its Followers 

Bill Graham Auditorium 

99 Grove St. at Larkin, San Francisco 

A one-day symposium that includes: Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Rev. Cecil Williams, Hatem Bazian 

The event will include a performance by Hamza El Din. 

$5-10 – no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

466-5205 www.islaminthebalance.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

• 7 p.m. 

Dr. Hamid Mavani speaks on “Islam and Its Background” at a free lecture and discussion presented by the Berkeley Public Library. Dr. Mavani is the Religious Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, based in Oakland.  

The session is the first of a series of three events designed to inform the community about critical world issues. 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Friday, Nov. 9 

• noon 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Ameena Janadali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, will speak on “Women of Islam, at the Berkeley City Club. 

Luncheon, $11-$12.25; speaker only, 12:30 p.m., $1 

Saturday, Nov. 10 

• Community Conversation: Confronting racism, finding common ground 

Rosa Parks School 

9:30- 3 p.m. 

920 Allston Way 

The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who say: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, some of our fellow residents who may look Middle Eastern or Muslim have feared and some have experienced racist remarks or actions. This has strengthened our conviction that Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville need to confront all the different kinds of racism within our communities.” 

Sunday, Nov. 11 

• Understanding Islam 

First Unitarian Church 

14th and Castro Streets, Oakland  

2:30 - 5 p.m. 

The events of Sept. 11 and thereafter have added an element of urgency to the need for a concise educational program about Islam. The program will address whether religion itself is part of the cause of the current turmoil or whether, instead, religion is being invoked rhetorically as mythic clothing.  

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Coalition of Congregations and the People’s Nonviolent Response Coalition. 

Pre-registration is required: 433-9667 

• Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites the public on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland every Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Meet at the columns at the east end of the lake, between Grand and Lakeshore avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater. 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

7 p.m. 

Dr. Wali Ahmadi, associate professor in UC Berkeley’s near Eastern Studies Department, presents “The History of Afghanistan.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

7 p.m. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute will speak on “Civil Liberties and Conflict Resolution.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860.

Editor, 

It's sad to see Berkeleyans attacking their City Council for a desire to stop the violence - over here and over there. I grew up in New York. My mother still lives there. I went to school with people buried in the rubble. Of course, its a terrible thing. The question is whether cluster-bombing Afghanistan, supporting the Israeli occupation and denying Iraq medicine for curable diseases makes it more or less likely that it will happen again.  

People keep saying they don't want to understand why. But then the United States had better be able to defend ourselves a lot better than we have been able to so far, because I doubt the attacks will stop. New recruits to the Jihad are streaming across the Pakistani border every day. A generation of Afghans and Palestinians and Iraquis holds us directly responsible for the loss of their loved ones. They're not running out of suicide bombers.  

Me, I'd rather try to figure out what we can do the change the foreign policy of our government. I much prefer that to dying over it.  

Tracy Rosenberg 

San Francisco 

Editor: 

This is to express my gratitude and support for the very reasonable resolution the Berkeley City Council recently passed regarding Afghanistan. I can't understand why anyone would object to a simple request to seek lawful ways to bring the perpetrators to justice without bombing innocent civilians, or unnecessarily risking the lives of American military personnel. 

If other city councils – and elected officials in counties, states, and Congress – would follow the courageous and wise example of the Berkeley City Council, the benefits to the country and the planet would be incalculable. 

Tara Treasurefield 

Sonoma 

A.M. Fonda, an Emeryville mailman, poet and candidate for Emery Unified School District board election, was first at the mic during Monday’s poetry reading at Spasso Coffeehouse. His fellow poets had gathered to celebrate Halloween, Day of the Dead and the Celtic new year, but Fonda wanted to talk about modern politics and real-life terror.  

Sitting in a corner wearing a faded denim jacket and white T-shirt, he told one George W. Bush joke, which involved Bush, Bill Clinton, an attractive blond and a large woman. Then Fonda read his poem, “Midnighters,” in honor of a political activist recently killed in Afghanistan:  

“Midnight watch towers rise above low hanging fog/beneath a starry canopy,” he began. “Restless souls down on their luck/disturb birds/create a ruckus in their tree.” 

Fonda said he has no problem raising tough issues, whether he is composing poetry or campaigning for a spot on the school board in the struggling district. Like the other three candidates running for seats on the board, Fonda said he wants to improve school facilities and help restore financial stability to Emery Unified, a district that in August was $2.3 million dollars in debt. 

Fonda does have some distinct issues in his platform. He wants to bring poetry to all California schools, thinks students should be studying how to balance checkbooks, and believes Emeryville can help fight terrorism by protesting the recent Berkeley City Council resolution calling for a quick end to the bombing in Afghanistan. 

“I’ve taken a real stand on the issues. I’m the only candidate urging a boycott of Berkeley,” Fonda said, adding that Berkeley councilmembers may be able to redeem themselves if they change the resolution. “The City Council would be wise, I think, to redraft the whole thing.” 

Fonda said local media made Berkeley’s resolution sound more “condemning,” than it really was, but said the council’s actions encouraged American passivity. 

“As a people we have to stand up,” he said. “We can’t wait until the next thing comes along, so that these anthrax monsters, so they don’t have a sanctuary in Berkeley.”  

He said Emeryville needs to boycott its neighbor “until reason is restored to the City Council there.” 

His pro-boycott stance has earned him criticism from local political activists, like Dana Engen, a member of the Emeryville Green Party. 

“I think its very unfortunate that he would say something like that, if he intends to represent the city of Emeryville,” said Engen, who worked with Fonda on a campaign to recall former school board candidates. “It didn’t condemn the U.S. government, it asked that the bombing end as soon as possible. It really represents to me that he’s incapable of doing a good job on the school board.” 

Competing candidates said they feel there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed by the board. After the state take-over of Emery Unified in August, three former board members were recalled. The school board recall occurred less than a year after former superintendent J.L. Handy was arrested for misusing district funds. 

“The highest priority, of course, is to make sure the students are getting the best education,” candidate Josh Simon said. “And getting the financial accountability systems in order.” 

Fonda has had previous success organizing, and his current campaign is not his first foray into local politics. He campaigned to encourage term limits for the official California Poet Laureate, a position that had been a lifetime post. Gov. Gray Davis signed the poet term-limit bill into law on Aug. 30. Fonda said he is thrilled with his political success, and is urging the governor and senate to pick a California poet quickly. The seat is currently vacant. He has visions himself with teams of other poet laureates, teaching in schools all over the state, and around the nation. 

Fonda said he wants to balance kids’ poetry education with solid math skills. 

“The thing that really interests me is teaching money management to children,” he said. “It seems like education is somewhat disjointed from reality.” 

Mayor Nora Davis said she was thrilled to have four candidates running for three seats on the school board, and said she finds Fonda a “very interesting guy.” 

However, he is the only candidate she has not endorsed for school board. 

“I’ve worked with him on a number of issues,” Davis said. “And you know, he’s a poet. But the others have been very involved. I just don’t know what his interest is in the school board.” 

Other poets gathered at Spasso this week said Fonda seemed a natural choice. 

“I think he’d be terrific on the school board,” said Holly Goodwin, the poetry reading organizer . “He’s certainly literate.” 

Among the more light-hearted fashion and Mehndi tattoo stands and the cultural events of this week’s South Asian Awareness program on the UC Berkeley campus, stood a booth dealing with one of the most serious issues facing South Asian women – domestic violence.  

Lining Upper Sproul Plaza at lunchtime, the booths were set up as part of a week of events geared to inform the public about South Asian culture. 

A domestic violence booth was sponsored by campus volunteers from Narika, a community based nonprofit organization dealing that with issue in South Asian communities in the Bay Area. Located in Berkeley, the group supports women who come from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.  

Fliers at the booth included information on both domestic violence and hate crime awareness.  

“We decided to combine the topics because they both have the underlying theme of violence, especially against South Asians,” said Leena Kamat, a student volunteer for Narika and a senior at UC Berkeley. 

Kamat has been volunteering for Narika for more than a year now, and had joined the group with a desire to help other women.  

“Fortunately I have not been in a situation of domestic violence and I think others shouldn’t be either,” she said. 

She went on to explain the importance of recognizing that domestic violence goes beyond issues of country, race and ethnicity. South Asian women are especially at risk because of cultural attitudes about gender roles. Women are traditionally expected to be submissive and not struggle, especially with a husband. 

“We need to learn more about gender roles and how we’re socialized into believing a certain way,” Kamat said.  

She added that communication is important between partners. 

According to Narika’s experience with domestic violence in the South Asian community, women living in the United States with immigrant visas have been mostly at risk. These women are doubly jeopardized if they report incidents of domestic violence – they may be deported if their husbands abandon them and may not be accepted back into their own families after separation from their husbands.  

Because of the legal and social issues involved in such a situation, most women are reluctant to put an end to the violence, Kamat said.  

The issue of domestic violence is also not generally addressed in the South Asian community. “I think there is a lot of shame and denial surrounding this issue because sexuality and dating violence is something that is not talked about,” she said. 

The number of students, especially South Asians, stopping by the booth was limited, although many passed by and paused to either watch the dancers or to get a Mehndi tattoo.  

Kamat said this may be because there is still a lot of wariness in the South Asian community about domestic violence. 

Arti Agarwal, a third year UC Berkeley graduate student of South Asian origins, came by the booth interested in finding out more about the organization. She said she had not realized there were Narika student representatives on campus. 

“I think it’s great to have such a booth during South Asian Awareness week because it draws people and provides inspiration,” Agarwal said. She also expressed an interest in becoming involved with volunteering for the group. 

Jennifer Yin, a third-year student, commented on the importance of having such booths. This type of information is very necessary because Asian women in general don’t have many resources to deal with domestic violence, she said. She added that some communities make women feel that domestic violence is their fault.  

While there is more of an emphasis on fun during South Asian Awareness week, Kamat underscored that it is also important to let people know of the more serious issues facing the South Asian community.

BERKELEY — University of California faculty have endorsed a change in admissions policy that would look at students’ life achievements as well as their academic records. 

The systemwide assembly of the Academic Senate met Wednesday at UCLA and voted 42-0 in favor of the new approach, known as “comprehensive review.” There were three abstentions. 

The vote means the issue now goes to the university’s governing board of regents. The board is expected to vote later this month at its regular meeting in San Francisco. 

The change would not affect who gets into UC’s nine campuses. That is determined by eligibility, which depends on meeting minimum grade and test score totals or on graduating in the top 4 percent of one’s high school class. 

UC has a policy of finding a spot somewhere in the system for all eligible students. 

Where comprehensive review comes in is in deciding which student goes where, in particular, which students go to the highly competitive campuses such as Berkeley and UCLA. 

Campuses are now required to take at least 50 percent of their students based on academic factors alone. The remainder can be considered on grades plus four supplemental factors, which include such things as overcoming poverty or a difficult family situation. 

Comprehensive review would allow campuses to view all applicants on academic and supplemental factors. 

Regents set the 50 percent academics alone requirement in 1995, at the same time as they banned considering race or gender in admissions. In May, they repealed that ban. The vote didn’t restore affirmative action, banned by a state law passed in 1996. However, it did open the door to reconsidering the 50 percent requirement. 

Regents discussing the proposed shift to comprehensive review at their October meeting were wary of the change, saying they need assurance UC won’t lose its academic edge. 

“I accept the fact that we want well-rounded students, but we’re not the Rotary Club,” said Regent Ward Connerly. “We’re trying to select scholars.” 

Some have criticized comprehensive review as a backdoor attempt to reintroduce race-based admissions. 

After race-blind admissions took effect in 1998, enrollment of blacks and Hispanics dropped sharply. The numbers have since rebounded to affirmative action levels systemwide, but not at flagship Berkeley. 

But proponents counter that comprehensive review doesn’t look at race. 

Comprehensive review is the latest in a series of admissions changes or proposed changes at UC. 

In 1999, regents guaranteed eligibility to students who finished in the top 4 percent of their high school, based on UC-required courses.  

This year, they approved expanding that guarantee to the top 12.5 percent, provided students who fell in the latter 8.5 percent went to community college for the first two years, but that initiative stalled last month for lack of state funds. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson also has asked faculty members to consider dropping the SAT I achievement test as an entrance requirement. 

——— 

On the Web: UC faculty site, http://www.ucop.edu/senate/assembly/oct2001/oct2001viib.pdf 

CHICAGO — It’s a popular science exhibit that explores the slimy, the crusty and the scaly. 

But we’re not talking sea urchins, moon rocks and dinosaurs here. 

This one’s about “grossology,” the unapologetic and sometimes stomach-churning study of body functions and fluids that are rarely talked about openly — but that kids love to giggle and squirm at. 

“Throwing up, pooping and peeing — the combination of the three are what make it a hit,” says Sylvia Branzei, a science teacher from Garberville, Calif. She wrote the book that inspired “Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body,” a traveling exhibit now visiting Chicago, Singapore and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

The interactive exhibit is a veritable jungle of giant body parts and rude noises. 

Among other things, there’s a cave-like nose that sometimes sneezes on those who dare to enter; a burp machine that allows museum-goers to pump air into a stomach chamber and then release a loud belch; and a slide shaped like a giant gastrointestinal tract that ejects kids onto a “poo poo” mat. 

Each station also has factoids that explain how the body works — with plenty of grossness piled on to keep it interesting. 

Consider this morsel: 70 out of 100 people admit to picking their noses. 

Sisters Isabelle and Austen Friend aren’t about to confess their own nose-picking habits during a visit to the exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. But they’re more than happy to tell on each other. 

“I don’t eat my boogers. But she does,” 8-year-old Isabelle says, pointing at her little sister. 

“No, you do!” 6-year-old Austen shouts back. 

“No, you do!” Isabelle repeats — and so on and so on. 

A few feet away, at the “Y U Stink” station, Rickia Ballentine and others from her third-grade class hold their noses and wince when they get a whiff of scents they squeeze from plastic bottles. 

“Smelly feet, bad breath ...,” Rickia says, shaking her head in disgust as she  

lists off a few of them. 

Then she goes back to smell more. 

It’s just the sort of moment Branzei — who collaborated with Michigan-based Advanced Exhibits to create the show — expects. 

“Kids like the taboo of the whole thing. And our culture finds any body excretion to be taboo,” says the self-proclaimed “all-around grossologist.” 

Branzei got the idea for her book a few years back while cutting her toe nails and observing what was left behind. 

Where did it come from? And why do feet stink, anyway? 

Answering questions like those propelled her to success. Branzei’s book and exhibit have been so popular that she has written a sequel, which will soon become a second exhibit: “Animal Grossology.” 

Teachers who visit the first exhibit with their classes are raving about it. 

“There’s only so much you can do in the classroom,” says Heather Siegel, a Chicago teacher who brought her kindergarten class. “This is very hands on.” 

Not that her students always get it at first. 

When one boy  

slid onto the “poo poo” mat, Siegel asked if he knew he’d just slid through a make-believe colon. 

Hearing that, he let out a common cry at the exhibit: 

“Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!”

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. — “Variety’s the very spice of life,” said 18th century British poet William Cowper. The phrase, stale now, is still hard to beat. But statesman Benjamin Disraeli tried, calling variety “the mother of enjoyment.” 

In the garden, variety is the name of the game. Horticulture teems with countless varieties and breeders tirelessly come up with “new” and “improved” flowers and vegetables. True, some gardeners stick to the “old” and a veritable cult has sprung up on the nurture of “heirlooms.” But there’s no denying the attraction and selling power of novelty. 

Foremost in the sponsorship of new varieties, a non-profit organization called All-America Selections makes yearly awards based on nationwide trials. The winners are announced early in the fall and then featured in next year’s seed catalogs. Thirteen flowers and vegetables have been picked for 2002. 

Awards don’t often come in pairs, but this time two pumpkins and two petunias have made the coveted list. Other winners are a vinca, a geranium, a cleome, a pansy, a rudbeckia, a basil, a cucumber, a winter squash and an ornamental pepper. 

One of the pumpkins, called Orange Smoothie, aims at the child market. The dark orange skin is described as ideal for painting Halloween faces. It’s small enough for young hands, weighing five to eight pounds and with a strong, long handle. The fruit mature early, about 90 days after sowing seeds. Beyond decoration, Orange Smoothie has sweet meat for pies. 

The other pumpkin, Sorcerer, is a biggie, weighing 15 to 22 pounds, but it’s produced on a compact vine. Of course, they also can be carved and painted and used for pie filling. They mature about 100 days after sowing. 

With two pumpkins and one winter squash on the winner list, it’s a good year for that related family. Advance publicity for the squash, called Cornell’s Bush Delicata, says that butter and brown sugar are optional when eating this squash because it’s so sweet. The flesh is fine textured without coarse strings and it’s rich in Vitamin A. It takes about 100 days from sowing to harvest. 

One of the petunias, named Lavender Wave, was cited for “exceptional” performance. It bears large two-inch, lavender blooms on ground-hugging plants that spread up to four feet. This petunia was described as particularly suited for sloping gardens, hanging baskets and window boxes. 

The other petunia, called Tidal Wave Silver, sports silvery white blooms with dark purple centers. The grower can decide on the height of the mature plant. If spaced six inches apart and given trellis support, they will reach heights of two and three feet. Spaced a foot apart, they’ll reach 16 to 22 inches. They’re adaptable to container culture. 

Neither petunia needs pinching nor pruning to flower all season and both resist severe weather and the disease, botrytis. 

The geranium, called Black Magic Rose, boasts an unusual bicolor leaf pattern distinguishing it from other hybrid geraniums. Each leaf has a black center, creating an exceptional dark contrast to the bright rose florets, and each floret has a small white eye. 

The vinca, Jaio Scarlet Eye, bears a rose-colored flower that distinguishes it from all other vincas. It’s described as perfect for gardeners who want prolonged garden color with minimal care. 

A distinct bicolor design features the pansy, named Ultima Morpho after the Morpho butterfly, which is blue and yellow. In the pansy, the upper petals are midblue. The lower petals are bright yellow. Rays radiate from the center.  

Mature plants spread eight to 10 inches and attain a height of five to eight inches. 

Three feet tall, the cleome, Sparkler Blush, is smaller than most and thus is suited for gardens with less space. It flowers freely all season with pink blooms. Easy to grow, it is heat and drought tolerant and adaptable to most soil conditions. 

The rudbeckia, Cherokee Sunset, offers gardeners a blend of autumn colors — bronze, mahogany, golden yellow and orange — and it flowers profusely the first year with double and semidouble blooms. They are long-lasting as cut flowers when grown in full sun. 

The cucumber, called Diva, produces all-female flowers, giving it a potential for high yields. Maturing in 58 days, it has a tender skin, sweet flavor and crisp texture. 

Ornamental as well as edible, the sweet basil, Magical Michael, features uniform-sized plants that are reliably 15 inches tall and 16 inches to 17 inches wide. The clearly defined size and shape are rare in basils. The leaves may be harvested within 30 days of transplanting. 

The “heat” has been bred out of the ornamental pepper called Chilly Chili, making it safe for children who “explore their environment,” the announcement says. The petite, two-inch peppers make lively ornamental garnishes on salads. 

——— 

EDITOR’S NOTE: George Bria retired from the AP in 1981 after 40 years that included coverage of World War II from Italy. 

End advance for Thursday, Nov. 1, and thereafter 

LOS ANGELES — The parents of every child born in California will receive a free, bilingual parenting kit in an unprecedented statewide education campaign funded by a voter-approved tobacco tax. 

The effort, spearheaded by movie director Rob Reiner, is believed to be the first in the country, officials of the California Children and Families Commission said Thursday. It is expected to benefit as many as 500,000 babies a year. 

“I am unbelievably excited today to announce the single biggest parent education program in the history of this country,” Reiner, the commission’s chairman, told a news conference at a family center where the kits were unveiled. 

Each one includes a guide containing a list of organizations helpful to new parents, as well as information on such subjects as childproofing a home and finding quality child care. 

The kits also include a series of celebrity videos taped in both English and Spanish on topics such as child care, safety, nutrition and discipline. 

The videos, done by such celebrities as Gloria Estefan, Maria Shriver, Phylicia Rashad, Andy Garcia and Jamie Lee Curtis, are available in both English and Spanish. 

Garcia, who narrated a Spanish tape on safety, said he was proud to be part of the program. 

“What a noble thing to be doing,” he said. “If one life is saved, it’s worth it.” 

A pilot project showed 94 percent of parents who used the tapes found them helpful, with 74 percent reporting they would be “very likely” to use them again, commission officials said.  

Forty-eight percent of new mothers reported changing their thoughts on child-rearing as a result. 

Jessica Roosinisalda, who has a 1-month-old son, said she wished she had the information sooner. 

“Had I had the manual, it would have been a lot easier those first few days,” she said. 

The kits are being paid for by the 50-cents-a-pack tobacco tax voters approved in 1998. 

The commission has projected a first-year cost of $25 million, with $15.6 million dedicated to advertising alone. 

The campaign will include a series of television, radio and newspaper ads in 11 languages encouraging parents to get the kits. 

They will be distributed at family centers and hospitals throughout California in the weeks ahead. Close to 40,000 will be handed out in Los Angeles County alone in the coming weeks. 

Reiner, who spearheaded the campaign to pass the tobacco tax initiative, said the kits will fill a key need in building a solid future for children. 

“We know based on years of research that the earliest years are the most critical,” he said. “We need to get this information to parents and give them the tools that they need.”

A 50-state survey conducted over the last two weeks confirms the latest economic worries: state revenues are down, budget cuts are needed, and strains on government services are worsening. 

Adding to the gloom, the results don’t fully capture the economic damage following September’s terrorist attacks, the National Conference of State Legislatures said in the report released Thursday. 

“Policy-makers are bracing for the worst,” said Corina Eckl, one of the report’s authors. “What they’ve seen for the first few months is pretty bad...But the real question is how long and how deep this downturn is going to be.” 

The report said it found the “harshest fiscal conditions in a decade.” At the Federation of Tax Administrators, a group that monitors state economies, Executive Director Harley Duncan said 20 years might be more on target. 

The aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks adds a great deal of uncertainty to the fiscal outlook. “We really don’t have any experience with this kind of economic shock,” Eckl said. “This is new ground.” 

The conference contacted legislative fiscal directors in every state, trying to gauge the substantive ways states’ economies weakened in July, August and September — the first three months of most states’ fiscal years. A report a few months ago documented the softening that began last winter. 

The new report found: 

—Revenue growth continues to fall, with 44 states reporting their already scaled-back hopes were set too high. 

—Costs rose faster than expected, too, with 19 states reporting they were spending faster than their budgets anticipated, and an additional seven expecting overruns in some programs. Higher Medicaid costs were a big worry for many. 

—Budget cuts were passed or on the table in 28 states. 

That meant nearly $1 billion in cuts in Michigan; in Florida, lawmakers approved $800 million in cuts, a half-billion less than the shortfall. In Utah, the governor and lawmakers are squabbling over how to cover a $177 million shortfall. 

Colorado and Missouri both ordered widespread cuts to government programs, but spared K-12 education. In Idaho, education was cut, though not as deeply as other programs. 

Many states were worried that job losses would add to government demand for unemployment, welfare and Medicaid. 

A very few positive spots remained: Louisiana, Montana and Texas benefited from energy-related taxes. Alabama, Nevada and New Hampshire reported revenues in line with or above projections. 

To add to the overall worry, the new data didn’t reflect sales tax returns since Sept. 11 for most states — an important source of government funds for 45 states, and one that is very sensitive to weaker consumer confidence. 

“As more collection figures become available — especially post Sept. 11 data — the revenue picture is expected to get worse,” the report said. “Many states are waiting to see the effects of declining consumer confidence, widespread layoffs and corporate downsizing on state coffers.” 

Duncan, who before joining the tax administrators’ group worked on state finances in Kansas and South Dakota, said he hadn’t seen the new NCSL report, but it confirmed the other data he’d seen. 

And, he said, “the pace of deterioration that occurred between Sept. 11 and now — I’ve never seen anything go that far and that fast.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

National Conferences of State Legislatures: http://www.ncsl.org 

NEW YORK — Three major television networks are suing the maker of the first Internet-ready personal digital video recorder, saying the ReplayTV 4000 lets people make and distribute illegal copies of television programs. 

NBC, ABC and CBS filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in California against SONICblue Inc., claiming the ReplayTV 4000 would violate their copyrights by allowing users to distribute copies of programs over the Internet. 

The networks also complained that technology in the personal video recorder can automatically strip out commercials. 

In a joint statement, the networks said the device “violates the rights of copyright owners in unprecedented ways” and “deprives the copyright owners of the means by which they are paid for their creative content and thus reduces the incentive to create programming and make it available to the public.” 

The ReplayTV 4000 has not yet been released for sale to the public, and the networks are asking the court to prevent the device from coming to market. SONICblue, which is based in Santa Clara and acquired ReplayTV Inc. this year, was planning to begin sales in mid-November. 

SONICblue officials said they have not seen the lawsuit but stressed that they took precautions against a Napster-like unfettered distribution of television programming. 

The company limited the number of times — to 15 — in which a user could send a particular show to another ReplayTV 4000 owner, or so-called “TV buddy.” A recorded show could only be sent — or resent to another user — a maximum of 15 times. 

“I think we’ve treaded softly,” SONICblue’s chief executive Ken Potashner said. 

The product also supports a digital rights copy protection technology made by Macrovision, giving broadcast networks the option to use that technology to restrict consumers from sending copies of a show over the Internet. 

The ReplayTV 4000 is a souped-up version of digital video recorders which were first introduced to consumers in 1998 by ReplayTV and rival TiVo Inc. So-called DVRs allow consumers to store hours of TV offerings on built-in hard drives, and while watching live television, users can pause, rewind, even do instant replays. 

The networks, some of which have invested in ReplayTV, did not object to earlier versions of the ReplayTV recorder or devices by TiVo. Both allow users to fast-forward through commercials but — unlike the ReplayTV 4000 — do not include technology to automatically delete the ads or share the files of the recorded shows. 

“We do have an investment. However we never consented or would consent to the misuse of our copyrighted works,” said Michelle Bergman, a spokeswoman for Disney, also a plaintiff. “We made clear we expect the use of copyrighted materials to be licensed and this technology does not allow for that. We’re protecting ourselves.” 

Digital video recorders devices have yet to take off — there are only an estimated 750,000 users. 

Analysts say the lawsuit marks the broadcast networks’ pre-emptive strike against a technology that is expected to flourish and could raise the same kind of thorny piracy issues that plagued the record industry after Napster helped popularize the practice of song-swapping over the Internet. 

The ReplayTV 4000 “is not going to impact the revenues of networks today but they care about what the technology could do to them by 2003 and 2004,” said Carmel Group analyst Sean Badding. 

“The networks will have to figure out a way to adjust to it, or capitalize from it,” he added. 

SAN JOSE — Business software maker BEA Systems Inc. said Thursday it will lay off about 300 employees, or about 10 percent of its work force, by year’s end, joining the long list of Silicon Valley firms that have trimmed payrolls to offset declining sales. 

The San Jose-based company revealed the cutbacks in an announcement warning that its profit for the quarter ended Oct. 31 will fall shy of Wall Street expectations. BEA said its earnings from operations will be 5 or 6 cents per share, below the consensus estimate of 8 cents per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Until the tech slump of the past year, BEA was one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing companies. It provides a software platform that helps run applications more quickly and smoothly. 

BEA will record a charge of $15 million to $20 million to cover severance pay and other costs incurred in the layoffs. The company also said it will absorb a $110 million charge to account for the diminished value of past acquisitions and investments.

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Sun Microsystems Inc. will lay off about 250 people in Colorado as it cuts its global work force because of the soured economy. 

Almost all the cuts will be at Sun’s business park in Broomfield, Sun spokesman Prentiss Donohue said. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is cutting about 3,900 of its 43,000 employees overall. 

Donohue said the actual number layoffs in Colorado won’t be known until next week, but about 235 will come at the Broomfield office.  

Affected employees began receiving notices Tuesday, he said. 

Scores of technology firms in Colorado and across the United States have laid off employees in response to the economic downturn. The Sept. 11 attacks further hurt demand. 

Unlike many other firms, Sun refrained from layoffs until later in the year. But demand for its servers, storage and software programs declined through 2001. 

In mid-October, Sun reported a loss of $180 million on revenue of $2.86 billion, down sharply from net income of $510 million on revenue of $5.05 billion for the same quarter last year. 

Sun’s stock was trading at $10.64 on Thursday, up 49 cents, or 4.83 percent.

LOS ANGELES — A hearing was ordered Thursday to determine whether the guilty plea by a former Symbionese Liberation Army radical for a 1975 attempted bombing was valid, given her public declarations of innocence. 

The order from Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler came one day after Sara Jane Olson entered the plea. She then walked outside the courtroom and insisted she had done so because the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had made it impossible to get a fair trial. 

“I pleaded to something of which I’m not guilty,” she said. 

Fidler set the hearing for Tuesday. A court spokesman said he didn’t know whether the hearing would be private or held in open court. 

“I’ve never been in a situation like this before,” said Michael Latin, one of the prosecutors. “I’ve been in situations where a defendant comes back and asks to withdraw a plea, but that is not what’s happening here.” 

He said the prosecution had not asked for the hearing. 

Olson, 54, made no reference to the attacks as she admitted to possessing bombs and attempting to explode them under police cars in two incidents — one at the Hollenbeck Police Station in Los Angeles and another near a House of Pancakes restaurant in Hollywood on Aug. 21, 1975. 

Neither bomb went off. Prosecutors said one of them was one of the largest pipe bombs ever built in the United States and would have injured many people. 

Prosecutors dismissed three other charges in exchange for Olson’s plea, but did not guarantee her a specific sentence. Her lawyers said they expected her to get about five years in prison, but she could be sentenced to life behind bars Dec. 7. 

After the hearing, Olson said the esteem of law enforcement authorities has risen since the attacks and she had to consider the possibility of being convicted. She said her lawyers advised her that her chances of a lesser sentence would be better if she pleaded guilty. 

Defense lawyer Shawn Snider Chapman said Olson had been so ambivalent about pleading guilty that she did not make the final decision until just a few minutes before the hearing. 

The trial was to have provided an ending to the SLA’s violent history and perhaps a finale to a story which once riveted America. The SLA had gained national notoriety after the 1974 kidnapping of media heiress Patty Hearst. 

Olson, whose given name was Kathleen Soliah, was accused of targeting police officers in retaliation for the deaths of six SLA members in a 1974 shootout and fire at a Los Angeles house. 

She vanished a short time after the attempted bombings. She was indicted in 1976 but remained a fugitive until her June 1999 capture in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living under the assumed name she later adopted. She had built a life as a wife, mother of three children and sometime actress. 

Even before Fidler’s move, legal experts said Olson’s actions were surprising. 

“I don’t think it’s a very smart thing to do,” said Loyola University Law professor Laurie Levenson. 

“At minimum, she will get a tongue lashing,” Levenson said. “But the court is going to say, ’Ms. Olson, if you are innocent, let us do what we do best and give you a trial.”’

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The federal government has ordered Ohio and 13 other states to make their Megan’s laws stronger or risk losing millions in grant money. 

Making their laws consistent with the federal Megan’s Law is one of 17 requirements for states to receive a federal grant that pays for crime prevention and victims’ assistance programs in communities nationwide. 

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance notified the states in June that they would lose 10 percent of their annual grant beginning next year if they did not change their sex-offender registration laws by October. The National Criminal Justice Association, which is working with the states on the problem, said it is uncertain if any of the 14 met the deadline. 

For Ohio, which receives about $19 million a year, the loss would be nearly $2 million. 

“It might not seem like a lot, but communities are counting on this money for programs that have proven to be a success,” said Domingo Herraiz, director of the Ohio Department of Criminal Justice Services. 

Sheriffs and police departments can use the money to pay for task forces, community policing efforts, victims’ advocacy projects or treatment programs for drug- and alcohol-addicted offenders. 

All 50 states and the federal government have passed some type of sex-offender registration law since 1994 when 7-year-old Megan Kanka, was raped and murdered by a convicted sexual offender who lived near her family’s New Jersey home. 

States had until last month to change their laws to require sex offenders to register with local authorities for life. 

In some states, sexual offenders are required to register for only a certain length of time, not life, and can ask a court to terminate the registration order, which also is against the federal law. 

“Some states have faced difficulty because their Legislatures didn’t want to change the law. For the most part, that’s been the problem,” said Cabell Cropper, executive director of the National Criminal Justice Association. 

Besides Ohio, the states are Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington. 

Virginia said it believes its law was already in compliance. 

Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the state had made the necessary changes by the end of the legislative session in 1999. She said officials were trying to find out why the state is listed as non-compliant. 

In Ohio, only offenders labeled sexual predators are required to register for life, and they can petition a court to throw out that designation. Habitual sexual offenders must register with authorities for 20 years, and sexually oriented offenders for 10 years. 

Officials said the state is trying to round up support for the changes among lawmakers and sheriffs and has asked the government for more time. 

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gays may be entitled to the estates of partners who die without wills, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday. 

The decision came as the justices ordered a new trial for Frank Vasquez, who is claiming the $230,000 estate of his longtime partner. A lower court had found the claim invalid because same-sex marriage is illegal in Washington. 

“Equitable claims are not dependent on the ‘legality’ of the relationship between the parties, nor are they limited by the gender or sexual orientation of the parties,” Justice Charles Johnson wrote in the unanimous decision. 

Vasquez, 64, shared a house, business and financial assets with Robert Schwerzler until Schwerzler died without a will in 1995. 

Vasquez claimed the estate, which consisted mainly of the house, and was challenged by Schwerzler’s siblings. The siblings said they never saw the men display affection, that Vasquez was apparently a housekeeper, and that he did not accompany Schwerzler on trips. 

“They literally wanted to put Mr. Vasquez out on the street with nothing,” said Terry Barnett, Vasquez’s attorney. Vasquez is illiterate and disabled because of a childhood head injury, according to court records. 

Ross Taylor, an attorney for Schwerzler’s siblings, said he hopes to disprove Vasquez’ version of the relationship at the trial, thus avoiding the question of whether he is entitled to the estate. 

“My clients do not think their brother was a homosexual,” Taylor said. 

A trial judge ruled that Vasquez was entitled to the property under a legal concept that protects the interests of unmarried people in long-term relationships. An appeals court reversed the decision, saying the concept does not apply to same-sex couples because they cannot legally marry. 

The state’s highest court rejected that conclusion but ordered a new trial because some facts of the case are in dispute. 

“It’s a tremendous affirmation of one of the most basic principles,” said Jenny Pizer of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights organization 

NEW YORK — Geraldo Rivera is quitting his prime-time talk show on CNBC to become a war correspondent for Fox News Channel, saying Thursday he couldn’t bear to stay on the sidelines during a big story. 

Rivera’s last CNBC show after seven years will be on Nov. 16. He said he’ll be leaving for Afghanistan the next day. 

His legal affairs talk show is one of CNBC’s highest-rated programs, although down from its heights during the O.J. Simpson trials. His 10 years as a syndicated talk show host ended in 1998. 

Rivera, who exercised an exit clause in his NBC contract, said he wanted to do more reporting but it was difficult when he was committed to a talk show four nights a week. 

He was particularly frustrated recently when he asked to do a special for NBC on why Muslims hate America, and was told he couldn’t leave the country, Rivera said. 

“That’s when I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,”’ he said. “I’m a reporter, that’s how I see myself. And the war on terrorism is the biggest story of our times. I’ve got to get out there. And when you’re an anchor, you’re literally anchored. I had to break the chain.” 

It’s a coup for Fox News Channel, which has struggled to keep up with CNN in international coverage. Fox recently hired a former CNN correspondent, Steve Harrigan, to report from Afghanistan. 

Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes said Rivera “never got the respect he deserved as a newsman” at NBC. “He never was used in the way he should be.” 

Rivera did news specials for NBC and appeared on the “Today” show. But many in NBC News’ old guard were suspicious of Rivera’s tabloid TV days searching Al Capone’s vault and getting his nose broken during a chair-throwing brawl with white supremacists. 

Ailes nearly hired Rivera in 1997, but at the last minute he decided to stay at NBC. Rivera said his exit from NBC now was done in a “gentlemanly’ fashion.” 

NBC News President Neal Shapiro said: “We wish him all the best.” 

“Geraldo has had an up-and-down career,” Ailes said. “He wanted to, and decided to make money doing talk shows and other things. My own view is that does not destroy you as long as when you’re doing the news, you’re doing the news. 

“I don’t think anyone has ever questioned his ability to do news,” he said. 

Ailes said Rivera’s contract provides flexibility to use him for other things, perhaps as a talk show host again, but that’s not imminent. “Right now he’s coming in as our hot spot correspondent,” he said. 

CNBC said it will fill the sudden hole in its schedule by expanding its business programming into prime-time. 

Rivera planned to tell his viewers Thursday that he’s not the same man he was before Sept. 11, when “the maniacs tried to tear our heart out.” 

“I’m feeling more patriotic than at any time in my life,” he said. “Itching for justice, or maybe just revenge.” 

And this catharsis I’ve gone through has caused me to reassess what I do.”

Unable to agree on a compromise Tuesday, the City Council took no direct action on a recommendation from the Commission on Disability to change one of the Berkeley Free Folk Festival venues because of poor disabled accessibility. 

Instead, the council referred the matter to the city manager, who will develop an accessibility policy for all city-sponsored events. The council approved the referral by a vote of 7-1-1 with Councilmember Betty Olds voting in opposition and Councilmember Miriam Hawley abstaining. 

“It seems that the Berkeley Free Folk Festival was singled out from other city-sponsored events and that’s not good for anybody,” Councilmember Linda Maio said. “It’s better having a policy that is applied to everybody across the board.” 

The City Council does not have the authority to cancel or move the festival but it could have withdrawn its annual contribution of $3,000. It did not do so, however. 

The city manager will develop an accessibility policy for other city-sponsored events such as the Juneteenth, Earth Day and Cinco de Mayo festivals. 

The Commission on Disability unanimously approved a recommendation on Sept. 12 asking the council to move the folk festival, which is being held on Nov. 17 and 18, from the Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center on San Pablo Avenue. According to commissioners, Ashkenaz has poor accessibility at its entrance and bathrooms and no disabled access to the stage. 

The festival is also being held at the Freight and Salvage on Addison Street. 

The council first approved the referral to the city manager and then attempted to take specific action on the Berkeley Free Festival. 

“I am really concerned about this,” Mayor Shirley Dean said. “This has been a long-standing dispute that needs to be settled.” 

The festival, which began in 1996, was moved once before from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall for similar accessibility problems. 

In an attempt to find some resolution to the issue, Commissioner on Disability Marissa Shaw presented the council with a compromise that would allow the festival to go ahead as planned this year, but require it be held in a larger, more accessible venue, such as a school auditorium next year. 

But a series of miscommunications and disagreements resulted in the council taking no further action on the folk festival. 

The compromise was first moved by Hawley but moments later she removed the motion because there was a dispute about whether an amendment by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, which would have included funding for a sound system, had been accepted. 

Worthington then made two more motions requiring a new venue for the folk festival next year and funding for a sound system, but both failed. 

“I’m really dismayed and quite shocked the council did not approve the compromise,” Shaw said. “We knew there were not enough council votes to move the festival this year and that’s why we offered the compromise.” 

Maio said just prior to voting she couldn’t support the compromise.  

“This is too hastily done,” she said. “We have a year to work out something that is well-worded. I have a problem with the process.” 

Festival Director Suzy Thompson said Wednesday that “to move the festival to a larger and institutional setting like a school would alter the festival’s nature.  

“But we’re waiting until after this year’s festival to discuss any changes.” 

Worthington, who helped develop the festival six years ago, said on Wednesday that the Commission on Disability actually made progress on Tuesday even though the council did not approve its recommendation or compromise. 

“Twice in recent months motions to move the folk festival have been withdrawn at the mere suggestion of requiring it be moved to a more accessible venue,” he said. “Last night, even though the council couldn’t agree, there was a clear willingness to approve a recommendation to move the festival (next year).” 

Worthington said the community got a clear message that the festival should be moved and he was sure it would not be held at Ashkenaz next year. “I understand the commission is frustrated but they deserve a great deal of praise for their persistence.”

After missing Cal’s last two games due to a back injury, junior quarterback Kyle Boller has been allowed to return to the field by team doctors. But head coach Tom Holmoe said it isn’t a sure thing that Boller will start against Arizona on Saturday. 

“We think he’s back, but I don’t think it’s a great idea just to rush him back into it right away,” Holmoe said. “I’d rather see how things progress.” 

Holmoe said the key to Boller’s return would be a good showing in practice this week. Boller, who has been the starter for three years, usually takes a large majority of the snaps in practice, but redshirt freshman Reggie Robertson, who got his first career start last weekend against Oregon State, will take about half the snaps this week in case Boller isn’t ready to go on Saturday. 

Holmoe confirmed that Robertson has moved past senior Eric Holtfreter on the depth chart. Holtfreter started two weeks ago against UCLA but was ineffective. Robertson came in late in that game and looked impressive, leading to the freshman’s start against the Beavers. 

“Reggie’s had some good things happen the last two weeks and gives us enough cause to think that he can go play some of this game,” Holmoe said. “Then we have Eric Holtfreter available if need be.” 

Robertson was ineffective last week against Oregon State, completing just 12-of-32 for 120 yards and an interception while underthrowing several deep balls. But his struggles were somewhat mitigated by the poor playing conditions due to a downpour that made the ball slippery. 

“(Robertson’s) completion percentage wasn’t good,” Holmoe said. “But you’re dealing with a wet field, wet ball, receivers slipping, balls flying. It would be good to see him in another situation, nice weather.”  

Boller’s big arm presumably would be appreciated by new deep threat LeShaun Ward, who finally made the move to wide receiver from cornerback against Oregon State. Ward caught four balls for 55 yards against the Beavers, along with a 39-yard gain on a reverse, but Robertson underthrew the junior a couple of times when Ward was open deep, a problem Boller doesn’t have to worry about with his cannon. 

Ward is the fastest player on the Cal team, and having him as a threat should cause opponents to at least worry about the deep ball, which hasn’t been a factor without Ward playing offense. 

“One of the things in contemplating moving LaShaun over is that he would give us that big play threat,” Holmoe said. “We threw a couple more (long passes) at him. If anything, even if we didn’t complete them, at least it stretches the defense. It gives people a feeling now that we are going to do that.” 

Also in flux for the Bears is the tailback position. Starter Joe Igber is out for the season with a broken collarbone suffered against Oregon State, leaving Holmoe with just two healthy tailbacks on the roster, true freshman Terrell Williams and walk-on Michael Sparks. 

“Losing Joe is very tough,” Holmoe said. “To me, you lose one of your key ingredients on the team, and that’s a kid that everybody loves. We’ll lose him and that will be a big loss.” 

Williams has been a nice surprise so far this season, stepping into the backup role when Joe Echema was ruled ineligible by the NCAA. The freshman has played in every game, rushing for 266 yards on 63 carries. He ran for 104 yards last week after stepping in for the injured Igber in the first half. 

Another option at tailback is senior Marcus Fields, who has been one of Cal’s best weapons at the fullback position. Fields is second on the team with 20 catches. He was a tailback early in his career, rushing for 734 yards in 1998 as the starter, but moved to fullback after being supplanted by Igber the next season. Holmoe said Fields will likely see some time at both positions on Saturday, but expect Williams to get the lion’s share of carries. 

“Marcus will obviously help us,” Holmoe said. “You could see at the end of the game when Joe went out, Marcus was in there on a couple of plays as a single back.” 

Holmoe said the Bears may resort to the option to take some pressure off of the replacement players on offense. It’s a play they have rarely used this season, and Robertson is the only quarterback with much experience running it. 

“Reggie’s the guy that can run it better than the other guys, but Kyle has run some nice plays out of it and so has (Holtfreter),” Holmoe said. “In the next four weeks, it might be something that will play a little bit bigger role, knowing that we have to find a few other ways to compensate for the loss of (Igber).”

Thursday, Nov. 1

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College of Alameda Hosts 11th Annual Citywide College Night 

6:30 - 8:30 

College Gymnasium 

555 Atlantic Ave. 

College of Alameda hosts representatives from over 70 public and private colleges and universities for a night of information-sharing and inspiration.  

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Public Works Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Agenda includes drafting policy on naming of public facilities from the Parks and Recreation Commission. 981-6400 

Justice for Tenants Rally and  

Picket 

4 – 5:30 p.m. 

1942 University Ave. 

Lacking affordable housing, renters are being pushed over the edge.... Join the tenant fight back. Free food and music, 367-1225. 

Harris Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. 

642-4608 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First Floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia St. 

6 p.m., Presentation from Lawrence Berkeley Lab On Site Restoration. Procedure for CEAC Agenda and Council Reports, Green Business and Green Building positions. 705-8150 

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

Presentations and discussion of various proposals received for funding under the Housing Trust Fund Program. 981-5411 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Kayak Adventures on the  

Seven Seas 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Olaf Malver will share slides and stories of his sea kayaking adventures around the world: Turkey, Indonesia, Antarctica and more. Free. 527-4140 

Holiday Art Fest 2001 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

461 Ninth Street, Oakland 

There will be live music and refreshments to celebrate the start of annual exhibit and sale of unique gifts and specialty items designed by Bay Area artists. 

Friday, Nov. 2

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Lunch Poems Reading Series 

12:10 p.m. 

Morrison Library in Doe Library 

UC Berkeley 

Korean poet Ko Un reads selections from his poetry, short stories, fiction, criticism, essays, and children’s literature. 

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

City Commons Club Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Laura Nader, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, presents “Other Civilizations.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Saturday, Nov. 3  

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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  

Sunday, Nov. 4

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Re-Legitimizing Peace: Peace Making in the Middle East 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

International House Auditorium 

(Bancroft and Piedmont) 

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, will discuss her views on achieving peace in the Middle East and what role the United States ought to play. Free and open to the public. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, http://ias.berkeley.edu/cmes/text_only/ 

“Sundays At Four” 

4 p.m. 

The Crowden School 

1474 Rose St. 

Benjamin Simon and Friends with sublime and ridiculous viola music. $10, under 18 violists free. 559-6910 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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 

Family Musical Education 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A child-centered presentation for the whole family by local classical musicians to learn about rhythm and meter. $10 per family. 527-6202 

Editor: 

I am appalled by the vitriolic reaction to the Berkeley City Council’s decision to send a statement to President Bush opposing the bombing of Afghanistan, a decision widely condemned as unpatriotic. To me, this demonstrates insulting presumptuousness about the feelings and motivations of those council members who voted for the resolution and individuals who support it. You may passionately disagree with their reasoning, but condemning sincere and conscientious opposition to public policy as unpatriotic is dangerous and oppressive. Acting on one’s conscience shows integrity and does not equal lack of patriotism. A core value of this country is respect for and protection of minority views, no matter how unpopular. Let’s hope we get out of this mess with that value intact. 

Sonja Fitz 

Berkeley 

MUSIC 

924 Gilman St. Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring. com  

Anna’s Nov. 1: The Irrationals; Nov. 2: Anna de Leon and Ellen Hoffmann, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet; Nov. 8: Dreams Unltd; Nov. 9: Anna and Hyler T. Jones, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 10: Robin Gregory and Si Perkoff, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Sextet All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Blake’s Nov. 1: Ascension, $5; Nov. 2: Shady Lady, Buffalo Roam, $5; Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $18 - $30; Nov. 10: 7 p.m. & Nov. 11: 3 p.m., The 2001 Taiko Festival, $20 - $32; 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; Oct. 19: Little Jonny and the Giants; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 1: Si Kahn $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 1: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series Nov. 1: 8 p.m., Singer/songwriters Faith Nolan and Megan McElroy, $14; Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

Rose Street House of Music Nov. 8: 7:30 p.m., Jenny Bird and Melissa Crabtree, $5 - $20. 594.4000 x.687 www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presents Anthony Rapp and His Band” Nov. 13: 8 p.m. Anthony Rapp, currently starring in Berkeley Rep’s “Nocturne,” performs with his three-piece band. $12 - $25. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949 

THEATER 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m., matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep. org 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Works in the Works 2001” Through Nov. 18: 7:30. East Bay performance series presents a different program each evening. Nov. 3: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; St. Mary’s College Dance Company; Marin Academy. Nov. 4: Stefanie Renard and Britta Randlev; Somi Hongo; Dana Lee Lawton; Seely Quest; Cristina Riberio; Nadia Adame of AXIS Dance Company. $8. Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St., 644-1788 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30; Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail. com 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre. 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 

“Brave Brood” Nov. 8 - Dec. 16 Robert O’Hara directs Robert O’Hara’s searing tale of money, desperation, and the fight for survival. $20. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305 www.transparenttheater.org 

DANCE 

“México Danza Brings the Splendor and Pageantry of the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos to the Stage” Nov. 1: 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Compania México Danza presents a cast of 20 enchanting dancers, adorned in festive costumes. $10 Calvin Simmons Theatre, Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland. 465-9312 www.danceforpower.org 

FILMS 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Nov. 1: 7:30 p.m., Leslie Thornton Artist Workshop; Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Strange Fruit; 8:45 p.m., Facing the Music; Nov. 3: 7 p.m., Damnation; 9:25 p.m., Family Nest; Nov. 4: 3:30 p.m., I Loved You... (Three Romances); 5:35 p.m., The Making of the Revolution; Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Profit and Nothing But!; Nov. 6: 7:30 p.m., Dog Star Man; Nov. 7: 7 :30 p.m., Animal Attraction; Nov. 7 p.m., Exilée, Museum Theater; Nov. 9: 7:30 p.m., Friends in High Places; 9:15 p.m., Soldiers in the Army of God; Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Prefab People; 9 p.m., The Outsider; Nov. 11: 3:30 p.m., Born at Home and The Team on B-6; 5:40 p.m., The Creators of Shopping Worlds; Nov. 16: 7:30 p.m., Autumn Almanac; Nov. 17 & 18: 1 p.m., Satantango; Nov. 21: 7 :30 p.m., Macbeth; Nov. 30: 7:30 p.m., Werckmeister Harmonies; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4: 2 - 4:30 p.m., 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

Exhibits  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Through Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Nov. 1: Frederick Crews talks about “Postmodern Pooh”; Nov. 3: Ben Cheever looks at “Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy (A Personal Odyssey)”; Nov. 5: Jack Miles talks about “CHRIST: A Crisis in the Life of God”; Nov. 6: Royall Tyler presents his new translation of “The Tale of Genji”; Nov. 7: 5:30 p.m.: Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek talks about “Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation”; Nov. 8: Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz present “Kafka Americana”; Nov. 9: Sue Hubbell thinks about “Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes”; Nov. 12: Rabih Alameddine reads from “I, The Divine”; Nov. 13: John Barth reads from “Coming Soon!!!” All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore Nov. 1: Travel in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001: An Evening with Prominent Bay Area Travel Experts; Nov. 7: Jill Fredston reads from “Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge”; Nov. 8: Harry Pariser discusses “Explore Costa Rica”; Nov. 14: Gregory Crouch talks about “Enduring Patagonia.” All shows 7:30 p.m.; 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

UC Berkeley, Nov. 8: 7 p.m., Reading and book signing with Osha Gray Davidson, author of “Fire In The Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean.” Mulford Bldg., Rm. 132. 848-0110 www.publicaffairsbooks.com/books/fire.html 

“Rhythm and Muse” Nov. 10: 6:30 p.m. This event is supported by Poet’s and Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. Open mic evening open to all writers and performers. Features poet/musician Avotcja. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., 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; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 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.

The Berkeley Unified School District has won a second Magnet Schools Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which will spread $1 million among four schools. The award will help the schools buy equipment and materials based on a specialized theme of instruction that is integrated throughout the curriculum.  

“I’m very pleased that we could qualify for that money,” said Michelle Lawrence, the district superintendent.  

“I think it supports the creativity that is so much a part of our organization.” 

The grant serves four schools. It renews one school’s funding received in 1998, while the three other schools will receive new funds.  

Three other schools, selected in 1998, are not part of the grant. They have spent their grant funds and are now facing cut-backs. 

The grants bring the name “magnet” with the funding – Le Conte Science Elementary Magnet will make science the centerpiece of its studies; Thousand Oaks Arts and Technology Magnet will emphasize visual and performing arts; and Washington Communications and Technology Magnet will focus on communications and media. 

The City of Franklin Micro-Society K-8 Magnet, with renewed funding, will continue its centerpiece project – a model city, that teaches the art of citizenry.  

It is scheduled to hold an “election” next week. 

Irving Phillips, the district director of magnet programs, said it was a special honor that Berkeley was chosen again. 

“It’s tougher the second time, it really is,” he said, because a district not only has to demonstrate need, but to show success from the first time around. “Our grant application was about 350 pages.” 

In addition to City of Franklin, three other Berkeley schools had received funds from a three-year grant first awarded in 1998. Rosa Parks Environmental Sciences Magnet, Malcolm X Arts and Academics Magnet, and Longfellow Arts and Technology Magnet Middle School all hired instructors, trained staff, and bought equipment. 

Longfellow Principal Bill Dwyer said his school’s share went for computers and technology education, staff training “to use the arts as delivery of skills and concepts related to mandated state standards” and arts purposes. 

Theater props and a “follow spot” stage light purchased with grant money are being used in this year’s production of “Antigone,” Dwyer said. Last summer, five teachers received hands-on instruction in arts education from a program called the Lincoln Center Arts Integration Process. Another program taught students “how to legally and effectively access the Internet to improve both writing and research skills,” Dwyer said.  

Rosa Parks also received a $150,000 grant from the Bayer Corporation when the magnet schools grant came through in 1998, said Kathy Freeburg, the school’s curriculum coordinator. After a $50,000 splurge on a new computer lab, most of the money went to instructors, from science to gardening and cooking, she said.  

“The main thing is that the students are studying the same topics at the same time, so the teachers are collaborating more and it’s also being used in the language arts,” Freeburg said. 

So what happens to a magnet school when the magnet grant runs out? 

Dwyer and Freeburg both said while the nomenclature is here to stay, the money will be missed. 

“We are continuing to promote the program (because) the magnet focus of arts and technology is used in recruiting teachers who have backgrounds in our area of specialty,” Dwyer said. 

However, he said, “the key piece to it was we had four staff positions funded by the magnet grant, and all we were able to continue out of that with the district picking up the funding was a .6 position.” 

That part-time job has been filled by a voice and general music instructor, he said, “so despite the loss of funding for positions, we were able to move the choral music program ahead.” 

Rosa Parks’ money, Freeburg said, is also “gone,” but the school will continue to call itself a magnet. 

“It’s part of our name,” said Freeburg. “The whole idea of magnets is that you have a specialty that’s maybe not true at other schools.” 

Without the grant, Freeburg has gone from full-time to half-time in her coordinating position (she also teaches fourth grade), and a full-time computer instructor is also no longer around. 

“We’re trying to work on sustainability, not just writing grants but finding ongoing contributors,” Freeburg said.  

The federal government launched the Magnet Schools program in 1984. Its official goals are to reduce minority group isolation, raise achievement levels to close the “achievement gap,” develop an innovative curriculum, and promote early career awareness. 

Freeburg said the magnet program had helped the school become “a little more balanced ethnically and achievement-wise.” 

“We’ve had a lot of different programs, and I can’t say the science program did it all,” she said.

Cal basketball recruit Julian Sensley failed to get a qualifying score on his latest attempt at the SAT, the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week. 

Sensley, currently a part-time student at Diablo Valley College in Stockton, has one more chance to pass the SAT in time to enroll for Cal’s spring semester. Sensley will take the test on Nov. 10. If he passes, he can enroll and be eligible in time for Cal’s Dec. 21 game against Mount St. Mary’s. 

A native of Kailua, Hawaii, Sensley was rated the No. 6 prospect in the country by ESPN.com.

Editor, 

The Berkeley City Council’s next gesture should undoubtedly be a resolution calling for the immediate imposition of Rent Control in all Afghan towns and villages. Why? Because of that famous quote by Henry Spencer: “Rent control is second only to bombing as a way of destroying a city.” 

Leon Mayeri 

Berkeley

The fungus that causes Sudden Oak Death, a virulent disease which has killed tens of thousands of trees in northern California since 1995, was recently discovered on the UC Berkeley campus, school officials reported on Wednesday. 

According to Jim Horner, campus landscape architect, the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum was discovered to have infected a bay laurel tree, a buckeye and a rhododendron near the university’s Faculty Glade. 

The discovery, made by Dr. Matteo Garbelotto of the College of Natural Resources, is the first time the fungus has been found in the East Bay lowlands. In August, several live oak and bay laurel trees bordering Crow Canyon Boulevard, in the hills outside Castro Valley, were found to be suffering from the disease. 

Some experts fear that the discovery could mean the fungus is already widespread in the Berkeley area. 

“The fact that they found this on campus means that it’s most likely already in and around Berkeley – probably up in the hills there,” said Bruce Hagen, an urban forester with the California Department of Forestry who has studied Sudden Oak Death extensively.  

Garbelotto, one of the leading researchers on the disease, said he expected this to be the case. 

“The most likely explanation is that it’s widespread in the county but is not yet killing the oaks,” he said. “The other would be that this pathogen was introduced in particular spots, by birds or some other carrier, and the campus happened to be one of them.” 

In addition to oaks, the fungus can live and spread on a number of different species of trees and shrubs, including madrones, manzanitas, huckleberries and certain maples. 

Many of these species are not affected as severely as oaks by the disease. The fungus may just infect their leaves and not their trunks, as in the case of oaks. The campus’ infected plants on campus all showed symptoms in their leaves. 

Garbelotto said those species may manifest the symptoms of infestation long before it shows up in neighboring oak trees. Non-oaks may show signs of infection just 72 hours after exposure to the fungus, whereas the disease can gestate in oak trees for months or even years before any symptoms appear. 

Garbelotto said he expects to begin testing trees around the city very soon. 

“I have received some reports of suspicious trees in the Berkeley hills,” he said.. 

Many experts warned, however, that the disease is nearly impossible to identify on sight. Garbelotto said samples from the trees on campus were tested three times before a diagnosis was confirmed. 

“The thing about Sudden Oak Death is that there are many other diseases that look like it,” said Jerry Koch, a forester with the city. “That’s why you have to have a lab test to confirm that a tree has this particular fungus.” 

Local agencies involved with the disease have been preparing for an onslaught of Sudden Oak Death around Berkeley, but they have not developed a detailed plan to respond if it does strike.  

“We’re in the early stages of the research as to how this spreads and what we can do to slow it down,” said Koch, who had attended a seminar on the disease in September. 

Koch said the only immediate action the city could take is to determine if any trees are infected and isolate them. He said if more cases are found, the city would have to make sure that chips from removed or trimmed trees not be moved to a different location. 

Ned MacKay, spokesperson for the East Bay Regional Parks District, said coincidentally, a parks district workshop on Sudden Oak Death, which had been planned for many weeks, was held Wednesday at the Oakland Zoo. 

According to MacKay, the EBRPD had just issued a new policy to help contain Sudden Oak Death if it is found in the park system. The policy banned the cutting of downed logs into firewood, so that people wouldn’t be tempted to carry it off and unwittingly spread the disease. 

Lisa Caronna, director of the city’s Parks and Waterfront department, said her department had no immediate response to the discovery of the disease. 

“We’re going to be implementing whatever best practices that are recommended by the experts,” she said. 

Garbelotto said he would be hanging informational fliers around the campus, warning students not to take plant material from the campus into their homes.  

“Students need to be responsible and not to bring the pathogen into their neighborhood,” he said. 

Maggie Kelley, director of monitoring for the California Oak Mortality Task Force, said citizens should be on the watch for the disease in their communities. 

“The risk is pretty high,” she said. “Once this gets established in an area, it can spread pretty quickly. In Berkeley, the conditions are right, and the host materials are there.”  

“We always encourage people to look out, but we also want them to be educated about the look-alike diseases out there.” 

Concerned citizens may learn more about the disease on the Oak Mortality Task Force’s web site, www.suddenoakdeath.org. If you have a tree that you believe may be afflicted, read about the symptoms particular to that tree. If you still believe the tree might carry the disease, contact the Natural Resources Advisor for the UC’s Cooperative Extension program at (408) 299-2635. 

ditor: 

Here is another voice – and vote – in favor of being able to park a car in downtown Berkeley. At the very minimum the number of parking places should stay at the current level. A better solution is a prompt and professional study of the short term parking needs in all of Berkeley’s retail and commercial districts. 

That study should include an analysis of the changing demographics of Berkeley. The U.S. Census shows that between 1990 and 2000 Berkeley has had: 

• An 8 percent increase in the number of children under 5 years of age. Getting around Berkeley by bus or bicycle when you have an infant or toddler is at minimum difficult. It can be dangerous. 

• A 60.6 percent increase in the number of residents between the ages of 45 to 64 years of age. While some of these folks probably take public transportation regularly, it’s unrealistic to expect them to ride bicycles to Safeway or the Berkeley Bowl. 

• A 9 percent increase in the number of residents over the age of 65. These are people who know they are no longer as strong or vigorous as they were a few short years ago. Their increased concern about their physical safety can make a bus stop appear very dangerous. Yet these are the very people who are natural patrons of, and donors to, Berkeley’s Arts District.  

If you endorse the Planning Commissioner’s view of Berkeley you are voting to make life harder for all of the mothers and fathers of young children, all the seniors, all the disabled in our city. Or does our Planning Commissioner want a city made up only of 1) people young and healthy enough to ride bicycles everywhere and 2) people who have plenty of extra hours in their days so they can take the bus to the grocery store? 

The Parking Needs study should also take note of an increase in the population of Berkeley. These additional people are probably the reason so many of us find it harder to find parking places when we want to visit the YMCA, go shopping or eat in a restaurant in the downtown area. If the city government wants Berkeley residents to continue to buy their groceries, their medicines, their clothes, their books, and get their haircuts in Berkeley then it needs to recognize the genie is out of the bottle. And until there are millions of “extra” dollars to radically upgrade public transit in this area the genie will stay out of the bottle. 

Jenny Wenk 

Berkeley 

A new energy-efficient Berkeley Lamp was presented to the city Wednesday by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Charles Shank.  

Thirteen fluorescent desk lamps were donated to the city’s engineering offices and will be used in a pilot program where the lamps’ energy consumption will be monitored for one year. 

Based on four years of research and testing at LBNL, the Berkeley Lamp is a “Trojan Horse for energy efficiency,” said an enthusiastic Michael Siminovitch, one of the project designers. 

“Most office lighting is profoundly challenged, and people are very sensitive to their environment. User control and preference is the Trojan Horse for getting energy efficiency to the market place,” said Siminovitch. “Usually, energy efficiency means a penalty of either the amount of light or control.”  

The lamp is reported to be as bright as a 300-watt halogen torchiere and a 150-watt incandescent lamp combined at full power, but uses a quarter of the energy. 

The lamp’s efficiency lies in the control of the immediate environment. At the heart of the Berkeley Lamp is a patented Septum Dish, which looks like a metal cereal bowl, dividing two 55-watt CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps), sending light up and/or down. Two dimmer switches control either the torchiere or desk style of lighting.  

Siminovitch said the lamps were first designed to meet the needs of the hotel and residential market, but they are finding their place in the office, especially where there are no windows and the only light source is overhead fluorescent lighting.  

Berkeley Energy Officer Neal De Snoo led a tour of the city’s engineering office where the 13 Berkeley Lamps were the only source of light. 

“This office alone will save the city $915 per year,” said De Snoo. “This office produced 6 tons of carbon dioxide per year (using overhead fluorescent lighting). It will now produce 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide.” 

“The light is very nice, a much warmer feel,” said Wendy Wong, an assistant public works engineer who works in the office.  

She was not a fan of fluorescent lighting, but said she is a fan of the lamp.  

There are about 1,000 Berkeley Lamps currently in use in California. For more information see www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ energy.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter sent to the mayor and council: 

The loss of thousands of jobs in the dot com industry, a national recession, and high California electric prices were bad enough, so when tragedy struck this September 11th, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the economy would suffer.  

Whether or not a boycott in response to the Council’s resolution on Afghanistan would have been a significant factor, or would even have materialized, is an open question, but one thing is certain: by publicizing the threat of a boycott with inflammatory rhetoric, press conferences and appearances on national TV, the Mayor has guaranteed businesses will suffer more losses then would otherwise have been the case.  

Seeking publicity that can do nothing but hurt Berkeley means the mayor is either foolish or making a deliberate decision. As someone who has watched council business for years I can assure you that the mayor is not a fool. She has every right to publicly disagree, if she wants to, with a resolution that calls upon the United States to end the bombing “as soon as possible.” We can differ, respectfully, without grandstanding. 

But going to the media and talking up a boycott of Berkeley based on a political calculation that she can convince retailers to blame political opponents for what is likely to be a slow Christmas season should not be tolerated. FOR SHAME: seeking to exploit the grief and anger we feel over the tragic deaths of 5,000 people for cheap political gain. It is deplorable, it is indecent, and it crosses the line. 

Perhaps the mayor’s political calculation is correct, and people angered at the loss of business will blame their plight on those who supported the anti-war resolutions, but it seems obvious to me that the mayor of any city should be urging people to support its economy, rather than publicizing calls for a boycott of this fine city.  

The mayor owes us all an apology. She owes an apology to local merchants, who will lose income because of her efforts to publicize the idea of a boycott. But most of all, she owes an apology to the nation and to those who loved and cared for the 5,000 people who lost their lives, whose memory she has exploited by taking a cheap shot to achieve crass political gains.  

Elliot Cohen 

Berkeley 

Thursday, Nov. 1 

• 7 p.m. 

The first Bay Area Appearance of members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan 

Mills College 

Campus Chapel 

5000 Mac Arthur Blvd. 

Sunday, Nov. 4 

• 1 p.m.  

Islam in the balance 

Toward a Better Understanding of Islam and Its Followers 

Bill Graham Auditorium 

99 Grove St. at Larkin, San Francisco 

A one-day symposium that includes: Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Rev. Cecil Williams, Hatem Bazian 

The event will include a performance by Hamza El Din. 

$5-10 – no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

466-5205 www.islaminthebalance.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

• 7 p.m. 

Dr. Hamid Mavani speaks on “Islam and Its Background” at a free lecture and discussion presented by the Berkeley Public Library. Dr. Mavani is the Religious Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, based in Oakland.  

The session is the first of a series of three events designed to inform the community about critical world issues. 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Friday, Nov. 9 

• noon 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Ameena Janadali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, will speak on “Women of Islam, at the Berkeley City Club. 

Luncheon, $11-$12.25; speaker only, 12:30 p.m., $1 

Saturday, Nov. 10 

• Community Conversation: Confronting racism, finding common ground 

Rosa Parks School 

9:30- 3 p.m. 

920 Allston Way 

The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who say: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, some of our fellow residents who may look Middle Eastern or Muslim have feared and some have experienced racist remarks or actions. This has strengthened our conviction that Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville need to confront all the different kinds of racism within our communities.” 

Sunday, Nov. 11 

• Understanding Islam 

First Unitarian Church 

14th and Castro Streets, Oakland  

2:30 - 5 p.m. 

The events of Sept. 11 and thereafter have added an element of urgency to the need for a concise educational program about Islam. The program will address whether religion itself is part of the cause of the current turmoil or whether, instead, religion is being invoked rhetorically as mythic clothing.  

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Coalition of Congregations and the People’s Nonviolent Response Coalition. 

Pre-registration is required: 433-9667 

• Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites the public on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland every Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Meet at the columns at the east end of the lake, between Grand and Lakeshore avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater. 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

7 p.m. 

Dr. Wali Ahmadi, associate professor in UC Berkeley’s near Eastern Studies Department, presents “The History of Afghanistan.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

7 p.m. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute will speak on “Civil Liberties and Conflict Resolution.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860.

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to the Chamber of Commerce: 

In this time of agony and anger over the attacks on Sept. 11, it is truly moving to have the Berkeley City Council pass a resolution urging restraint of our overwhelming military attacks on the wretched of Afghanistan. 

I support and salute those council members and their citizen supporters who voted on the resolution. I will gladly make purchases in Berkeley. I will not support a boycott. 

Let’s not respond with Taliban-like zeal to events but, rather, look at the reality of our actions in the world. 

Michael Mora, 

Palo Alto 

SAN FRANCISCO — A spring frost and summer heat spikes led to a lower wine grape yield this year, but it also helped vines intensify the flavor in the grapes that survived the temperature extremes. 

The total statewide crop for 2001 is expected to be 3.1 million tons when harvesting wraps up.  

That’s down 6 percent from last year’s harvest of 3.3 million tons, a record high, despite 40,000 new acres coming into production this year. 

Abnormal weather damaged fruit, with little rain, a frost in April, hot weather in May and June and cool weather in July and August. But cool fall weather has helped balance out the flavor of the grapes, according to the San Francisco-based Wine Institute. 

And the glassy-winged sharpshooter, the insect that spreads the vine-killing Pierce’s disease that has affected Southern California vines, has been controlled with a wasp that lays its eggs in the sharpshooter’s eggs. 

“It’s gotten rid of about 85 percent of the eggs,” said Gladys Horiuchi, a spokeswoman for the Wine Institute. 

Consumers should benefit because there’s still an abundant supply of grapes and prices have gone down. That means wineries will be able to blend better grapes into their wines, Robert Smiley, dean of the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management, said in a recent survey.

LOS ANGELES — Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing bombs with intent to murder policemen during the violent era of the 1970s revolutionary group. 

Olson, however, immediately asserted outside court that she was innocent and only pleaded guilty because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. 

“I pleaded to something of which I’m not guilty,” she said, adding it became clear the attacks would affect a jury and were “going to have a negative effect on my trial.” 

With law officers gaining rising esteem, Olson said, she had to consider the possibility of being convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She said her lawyers advised her that her chances of a lesser sentence would be better if she pleaded guilty. 

The surprise plea came in an agreement which does not guarantee Olson a specific sentence. Her lawyers said they expected her to get about five years in prison, but the judge warned her that she could be sentenced to life behind bars. 

“Are you pleading guilty freely and voluntarily?” asked Deputy District Attorney Eleanor Hunter as she outlined the agreement in court. 

“I am,” Olson said in a strong voice during a brief hearing in open court. 

She specifically admitted possessing explosives devices and attempting to explode them in two incidents — one at the Hollenbeck Police Station in Los Angeles and another near a House of Pancakes restaurant in Hollywood on Aug. 21, 1975. 

In return, the prosecution dismissed three other charges. 

Defense lawyers and prosecutors had spent some four hours in the judge’s chambers before the agreement was announced. 

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said that most of the discussions centered on the difference of opinion between the two sides as to how much time Olson would have to serve in prison. 

The agreement calls for Olson to surrender to the California Department of Corrections on Jan. 8 with a recommendation from prosecutors that she be allowed to serve her time in Minnesota near her family. 

Her husband, Dr. Fred Peterson, her mother, Elsie Soliah, and her daughter Sophie Peterson, sat in the front row of the courtroom as the plea was entered. Earlier, her daughter had been in tears, hugging her mother as she entered the courtroom. 

The plea ended a court case which harkened back 26 years to the era of the revolutionary SLA which kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst. The case against Olson, 54, was resurrected with her arrest 2 1/2 years ago. 

The plea followed many delays in bringing the case to trial, and a recent failed defense bid to put the trial off until next year because of concern that jurors might be biased because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

A grand jury had accused Olson of attempting to murder officers in retaliation for the deaths of six members of the radical group who died in a shootout and fire in 1974. The bombs did not explode. 

She was indicted in 1976 under her given name, Kathleen Soliah, but remained a fugitive until her June 1999 capture in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living under the assumed name Olson. 

Her arrest came soon after the FBI offered a $20,000 reward on the 25th anniversary of the SLA shootout and her case was featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.” 

Olson vanished shortly after the attempted bombings. She maintained later that she had nothing to do with it and was not in the area when the bombs were planted. She also contended she was never a full-fledged member of the SLA, but was merely a friend of some of the revolutionaries. 

Her brother, Steven Soliah, was tried and acquitted in a related 1975 bank robbery in the Sacramento area. 

While a fugitive, Olson married an emergency room doctor, had three children and lived the life of a volunteer and community activist in Minnesota. 

She lived in an upscale neighborhood and did not avoid public attention. Her community theater roles even drew notice from local reviewers. 

The SLA, a violent band that used a seven-headed snake as its symbol, made a name for itself with the kidnapping of the then-19-year-old Hearst from her Berkeley, Calif., apartment in February 1974. 

Hearst soon joined the SLA and took the name Tania, and two months after her abduction was photographed holding a rifle during an SLA bank robbery in San Francisco. She was later arrested and imprisoned until President Carter commuted her sentence. 

In the meantime, six heavily armed members of the SLA, including its leader, an ex-convict who called himself Cinque, died in a May 17, 1974, shootout and fire that consumed a Los Angeles residence where police learned they were hiding. 

Hearst later wrote a book in which she implicated Olson in SLA crimes. She had been reluctant to come to Los Angeles and testify against Olson, saying she had put the days the SLA behind her and did not want to dredge up unhappy memories. 

The prosecution said it had plans to bring up every crime committed by the SLA, including the 1973 killing of Oakland schools Superintendent Marcus Foster. Olson was not charged with that crime or any others aside from the attempted bombings, but prosecutors maintained her association with the group showed her violent intent. 

East Bay tour operators who deal in the exotic say their clients, at least those still traveling, are sticking to destinations closer to home.  

“The focus is rediscovering America,” said Rick Snodsmith, sales manager at Berkeley-based Backroads. Snodsmith said his company has felt the sales crunch and, like others, Backroads is adding domestic trips and delaying foreign ones.  

“People think: ‘We were thinking of going to the Loire Valley, but we’re going to keep it close to home this year,’” he said.  

And to adapt to such thinking, Backroads has added three more Wine Country trips, each accommodating 40 to 50 guests on a bike tour through Napa and Sonoma.  

Backroads offered almost 1,000 guided trips last year, ranging in price from about $1,000 for a four-day biking and camping excursion around the San Juan Islands, to about $4,000 to hike, bike and raft through Nepal for nine days.  

But since the attacks, Snodsmith said many clients have stopped flying far, and he predicts trip sales for Backroads will follow the industry’s downturn, sliding 25 to 40 percent for the year.  

The American Society of Travel Agents, a nonprofit association with about 30,000 member travel agencies, reported that agencies lost $1.36 billion in commissions and fee income since the attacks. The organization estimated total revenue will plummet 50 percent between this October and December 2002 – an estimated loss of $4.4 billion for agencies around the nation.  

“People are scared,” said Robin Gorman, director of marketing for Mountain Travel Sobek in El Cerrito. And that’s coming from a company known for serving the more courageous travelers. They offer 21-day hiking trips through Tibetan villages to the 18,450-foot base camp of Mt. Everest ($3,500) and others that voyage around Antarctica for 21 days ($10,000).  

Though sales are down about 20 percent, according to Gorman, Mountain Travel Sobek is confident their clientele will continue to travel.  

“Every trip is going,” she said. “They may not be as full.”  

Even Mountain Travel’s 30-day Pakistan trip scheduled for July is still on. In fact, she said, since Sept. 11, three people signed up for the trek from Islamabad up to the base camp of K2 at 15,000-feet.  

“There’s no need to cancel,” said Gorman, “because it’s not happening for another eight months.”  

Others feel differently. Some companies are delaying or canceling trips. At Backroads, Snodsmith said he is comfortable holding off on some trips, like those to China, Nepal and India. He said they can make up the losses when clients book in other areas.  

Wilderness Travel of Berkeley has also canceled trips. They offer a variety of Middle East adventures, and have cut ones such as their “Iran Unveiled,” in which clients spend 18 days touring medieval and ancient cities like Bam and Esfahan ($3,900 - $4,200).  

Even Mountain Travel is promoting closer trips.  

“South America feels closer to home,” said Gorman, whose Mountain Travel Web site promotes mostly Latin American trips.  

Backroads and Wilderness Travel, another Berkeley retailer, have found sales increasing for this area too.  

Despite cancellations and lagging sales, customers will find few bargains among adventure companies.  

“You can’t entice people with money and discounts to travel who don’t want to travel,” Gorman said. “Discounting is not something we do.”  

Discounting only cheapens the brand, according to Yasmine Ahmed, president and CEO of The Adventure Collection, a group of eight luxury adventure travel companies, including Backroads. Staying away from discounts “may hurt our short-term business, but over the long term it will actually help the overall industry,” she said.  

However, according to Louise Smith, marketing manager at Wilderness Travel, clients independently might find discounts in airfare, which the tour operators exclude from their packages.  

But spending money is not the problem for their demographic, generally 35- to 60-year-olds who have discretionary income.  

“We’ve learned that customers say, it has nothing to do with price, it’s about: ‘Am I feeling good about leaving home right now?’” Ahmed said.  

Despite a lagging economy prior to the attacks, most of these travelers answered yes to that question, and sales are better than last year. Some customers fear neither the economy nor flying. Laura Harrison, a stockbroker in San Francisco, booked her biking excursion in Southern Tuscany after the attacks.  

“The food is great.” Harrison said. “The countryside is beautiful. The people are friendly.”  

It will be Harrison’s sixth trip with Backroads since 1994. “I wouldn’t be eager to travel internationally now,” she said, “but I think you need to get on with your life, and by May things will be fine.”  

Eventually, people will want to travel again, said Snodsmith, who saw a similar trend during the Gulf War. He said guests moved their trips to North America at the time, and many stopped traveling altogether.  

After a while, he said, “there was a huge growth spurt. They got tired of it and said, ‘Forget it, we’re going.’”

SAN FRANCISCO — NextCard Inc., the nation’s largest online credit card issuer, disclosed Wednesday that federal regulators clamped down on its operations as its loan losses mount, prompting the company to put itself up for sale. 

The crackdown occurred after regulators conducting a routine exam concluded NextCard doesn’t have an adequate financial protection against the trouble brewing in its $2 billion loan portfolio. 

The regulators declared NextCard as “significantly undercapitalized” — a scarlet letter that freezes the company’s growth and means management won’t be able to make major decisions without government approval. 

Unable to raise the $140 million it would take to satisfy regulators, NextCard hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to sell its credit card business, including 1.2 million accounts, to a “larger, more established financial institution.” 

Wednesday’s news devastated NextCard’s stock. The company’s shares plunged $4.48, or 84 percent, to close at 87 cents Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The stock peaked at $53.12 in late 1999. 

As of Sept. 30, NextCard’s book value was about $185.9 million, or about $3.50 per share, based on estimates provided the company. NextCard’s management also believes the company’s online databases and insights accumulated over the past four years also will raise the sale price. 

The company collected more than $300 million from investors in its initial and secondary public offerings in 1999. NextCard’s market value stood at $46 million Wednesday. 

Investors have little confidence that the company will fetch much in an auction, partly because the depth of its loan problems remains murky, said industry analyst Meredith Whitney of Wachovia Securities. 

“Regulators did this in such a rash manner that things have to be pretty bad,” Whitney said. 

“Right now, there is just no confidence that this company knew how to underwrite loans.” 

Regulators are forcing NextCard to tighten its underwriting standards as part of the new restrictions on the company. 

The doubts shadowing NextCard are similar to those dogging Providian Financial Corp., a major credit card provider that recently jolted investors by revealing a number of problem loans to customers with troubled borrowing histories. 

NextCard CEO John Hashman spent 11 years in Providian’s management and the company’s chairman and founder, Jeremy Lent, formerly worked as Providian’s chief financial officer. 

Some of NextCard’s loan problems may be tied to its Internet business model. Analysts have long feared that NextCard’s promise to quickly issue credit cards on the Web would limit the company’s ability to screen out unworthy borrowers and fraudulent applications. 

As part of the bank exam, regulators forced NextCard to reclassify some of its previous fraud losses as loan losses. 

NextCard also continued to grow rapidly even as the economy deteriorated, doubling its customer base in the past year. 

“The Internet is a good way to service financial products, but it has yet to be proven that it is a good way to originate financial products,” Whitney said. 

Wednesday’s developments turned NextCard’s third-quarter earnings release into a footnote. The company reported a loss of $53.1 million, or $1 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, up from $20.3 million, or 38 cents per share, last year. 

In light of the regulatory actions, NextCard said it will stop providing forecasts about its future results. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.nextcard.com 

Attention, customers: terror and germs are now in stock. 

After weeks of delay in receiving highly publicized books on the Taliban, Islam, biological warfare and terrorism, Berkeley booksellers are receiving their shipments and reporting strong sales. 

“This is all people are buying right now,” said Rose Katz, manager of Black Oak Books on Shattuck Avenue. 

Of Black Oak’s 20 bestsellers for October, seven are directly related to the Taliban, Islam or the Middle East. Ahmed Rashid’s “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia” is the store’s best-selling title, and Karen Armstrong’s “The Battle for God” is No. 2. 

“We’ve sold close to 200 copies of the Taliban book,” said new-book buyer Nick Setka, “and we’re selling 10 times as many (than usual) of the other books that we’ve gotten in.” 

In contrast to Black Oak and Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue – which are displaying a staggering 60 related titles on one table – tiny Collected Thoughts on Euclid Avenue has just a few titles immediately visible. 

“We don’t have the space for a comprehensive selection,” said manager Peter Palmquist.  

But a bigger problem for booksellers has been the wait for book orders. 

For four days after the Sept. 11 attacks, customers bought nothing but newspapers, Palmquist said. Owner Lorraine Zimmerman used that time to figure out what books she should have on hand.  

“I just closed the store one night and perused the history sections,” she said. “I took out everything I had and it went really quick.” 

Zimmerman and other booksellers used their own knowledge plus lists compiled by newspapers, book distributors and industry associations to create their orders. Customers listening to media reports came in with specific requests, too. 

But copies of books like “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” by Chalmers Johnson were nowhere to be found.  

“The stocks had just depleted from all the warehouses,” Palmquist said.  

Collected Thoughts was able to get in “Taliban” only by asking University Press Books for some of theirs.  

All 10 copies were sold within a week, Palmquist said, “which for us is pretty good.” The store has 40 more on backorder. 

One store that was prepared – if not with quantities, then with selection – was University Press Books on Bancroft Way. The store sells new and used scholarly books from 100 different university presses.  

“It’s not like we had to scramble to find something,” said manager Christine Creveling. “We just went upstairs and brought it down.” 

Rashid’s Taliban book is published by Yale University Press. Copies on hand were gone in a week-and-a-half, Creveling said, and the store made a rare request that its reorder be shipped directly from the bindery, instead of through a distributor.  

In all of 2000-2001, the store sold four copies of the book. Since Sept. 11, 31 copies have gone out the door.  

The store is having similar success with Mark Juergensmeyer’s “Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence,” published by the University of California Press.  

“We couldn’t give (that) away a year ago,” Creveling said. 

“At a time like this, people are really struggling for informed answers and that’s what these books are providing them with,” said Amy-Lynn Fischer, sales manager for the University of California Press. 

Unlike more mainstream titles that have print runs in the tens or hundreds of thousands, most scholarly books get printed in quantities of just a few thousand. The hardcover printing of “Terror in the Mind of God,” Fischer said, was just 2,000 copies. The first paperback edition – 5,000 copies, printed in August – sold out soon after Sept. 11, and another 12,000 copies were immediately reprinted and sold. The press already has “substantial backorders” for another 20,000. 

Jeanne Guillemin’s “Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak” is the publisher’s other “bestseller,” its initial 4,000-paperback printing giving way to a 12,000-copy reprint, of which, Fischer said, about 5,500 are already spoken for. 

“We don’t often see sales like this,” Fischer said. “It’s a whole new ear in bookselling; nobody really knows how to do this in university publishing. We’re not used to bestsellers.” 

Fischer said it was hard to get excited about book sales at a time like this.  

“I had a very hard time sending out that e-mail to all of our vendors,” she said. “To announce: ‘“Terror in the Mind of God,” it’s available and you should put it on your bookstore shelves.’ It’s a tough thing to feel like you’re taking advantage of in a way.” 

Clay Banes, manager of Pegasus Books on Shattuck Avenue, agreed. While the store, which sells mostly used books, is still waiting for copies of “Taliban” and Judith Miller’s “Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War,” it has purposely kept its Sept. 11-related offering small.  

“We didn’t want to just cash in,” Banes said. “We thought, ‘let’s do a little research and find out’” what’s good. “We wanted it to be something that we felt we could be behind.” 

“Germs,” “Taliban” and Yossef Bodansky’s “bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America,” are selling at Barnes&Noble. But not doing too well is John Pynchon Holms’s “Terrorism: Today’s Biggest Threat to Freedom,” a mass-market paperback with the World Trade Center’s twin towers on the cover. 

“That’s the only insta-book I’ve really seen,” said store manager Joe Battaglia, adding that “sensationalism and exploitation” of events surrounding Sept. 11 seem to be absent. “I think publishers are being respectful.” 

Other titles selling in Berkeley are on bestseller lists of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, but not necessarily on national lists. Pema Chodron’s “The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times” and Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames” are No. 4 and No. 7, respectively, on the association’s Oct. 22 list. Neither appears on the Oct. 29 bestseller list of the publishing industry’s trade magazine, Publishers Weekly. 

“We’re probably the strongest independent market in the country, and I think those books are selling better in the independents than they are in the chain stores,” said Hut Landon, the association’s executive director. “I guarantee you (the Hanh book) is on the list as a result of what happened.” 

Many booksellers said customers come into their stores as a way of coping with such tragic events. Creveling remembered one man who didn’t buy anything.  

“He said, ‘I just want to know that all of this is here,’” she said. “‘I can’t deal with it now,’ he said, but when he was ready, he would. 

“It was funny,” Creveling added. “We all understood.” 

Wednesday, Oct. 31 

Yoga for People with HIV/AIDS 

10:45 - 11:45 a.m. 

Center for AIDS Services 

5720 Shattuck Ave.  

Free Kundalini Yoga class for people with HIV/AIDS. Mats provided, you may bring a towel. Eating within an hour of class is not advised. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

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 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children 3 years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov 28. 

Volunteers Needed 

Ongoing 

Help the Berkeley Public Library get ready for the opening of the new Central Library branch. Cover, clean, and dust book jackets in anticipation of their shelving in the new library. 649-3946  

Thursday, Nov. 1 

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Public Works Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Agenda includes drafting policy on naming of public facilities from the Parks and Recreation Commission. 981-6400 

Justice for Tenants Rally and  

Picket 

4 – 5:30 p.m. 

1942 University Ave. 

Lacking affordable housing, renters are being pushed over the edge.... Join the tenant fight back. Free food and music, 367-1225. 

Harris Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. 

642-4608 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission 

7 p.m. 

Planning and Development 

First Floor Conference Room 

2118 Milvia St. 

6 p.m., Presentation from Lawrence Berkeley Lab On Site Restoration. Procedure for CEAC Agenda and Council Reports, Green Business and Green Building positions. 705-8150 

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

Presentations and discussion of various proposals received for funding under the Housing Trust Fund Program. 981-5411 

Kayak Adventures on the  

Seven Seas 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Olaf Malver will share slides and stories of his sea kayaking adventures around the world: Turkey, Indonesia, Antarctica and more. Free. 527-4140 

Holiday Art Fest 2001 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

461 Ninth Street, Oakland 

There will be live music and refreshments to celebrate the start of annual exhibit and sale of unique gifts and specialty items designed by Bay Area artists. 

Friday, Nov. 2 

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

City Commons Club Luncheon 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Laura Nader, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, presents “Other Civilizations.” $1 admission; 11:45 a.m. lunch, $12.25. 848-3533 

Saturday, Nov. 3  

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Pre-registration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 nonmembers, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Our School 

3 - 5 p.m. 

St. John’s Community Center 

2727 College Ave. 

Informative event for prospective parents. Learn their approach to education, meet the director, tour the school, and meet parents. 704-0701 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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  

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

Time for city teach-in 

Editor: 

As an inhabitant of the planet earth, a citizen of the USA and a resident of Berkeley I thank the Berkeley City Council most gratefully for their recent vote on stopping the bombing of Afghanistan.  

Now that the Berkeley City Council has garnered national attention I think they should go a step further and contribute to widening, or should I say surfacing, the public debate about the United States “war” on Afghanistan. I use the term “war” judiciously, in quotes, because being that we’re the richest country of the world bombing the hell out of one of the poorest countries of the world I think it could more correctly be termed a massacre. For all the defense department denials which assert that we are not inflicting significant civilian casualties I think there is enough credible independent confirmation that, in fact, we are killing many civilians – at least a number of whom are too poor and helpless to escape the bombing, including the elderly and children. It reminds me of another of our country’s most glorious moments where, in the Gulf “War,” our troops dispatched a decimated, retreating Iraqi army, in the words of one of our soldiers, “like shooting fish in a barrel.” Is there any question that our current strategy will bring anything more than further hatred and the likelihood of more violence toward our country? Our distinguished leaders tell us to expect this.  

I believe these are extraordinary times and as such they demand extraordinary measures and that this “war” does in fact have a direct bearing on the City of Berkeley’s day to day business. Each one of those not-so-smart bombs and missiles, all the fuel for those billion dollar bombers and dozens of navy ships, and all the other expenses associated with this endeavor are going to add up to quite a tab at the end of the “fun and games.” That is, if there is an end. With the Afghan winter fast approaching our military offense will become severely impeded there and from recent days’ news reports it appears Bush, Rumsfeld and Company are looking to keep the ball rolling by initiating military actions in the Philippines and very likely Iraq. While it may be argued that a certain number of our citizens will score big on newfound employment in the arms industry, I believe the cost of the “war” will have a dramatic negative impact on our nation’s ability to maintain and sustain its current standard of living. In all likelihood there will be severe cutbacks in federal subsidies to states and cities in the realm of housing, social services, education and infrastructure programs.  

Therefore it behooves the City Council to discuss this issue now and make their voice heard by the nation and federal government. 

I’d like the City Council to host a teach-in, town hall type meeting to broaden the public’s awareness about the “war” from the view of those educated persons who represent an anti-war sentiment and have pretty much been shut out of the mainstream media-which has become a cheering chorus for our government’s policy. I envision the format of a City Council meeting held at a very large capacity auditorium – I don’t think the Berkeley Community theatre will be large enough. It would be a one or two day event. The invited speakers would be given 20 to 40 minutes to present their views at the microphone (the podium of which would be turned around to face the audience). Then they would answer questions from the audience and the Council. Here are some of the people I’d like to see give their views: Ralph Nader, Howard Zinn, Retired Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll and others. 

I think it highly unlikely that the national media could ignore the event or distort the collective message. I really doubt the accuracy of recent polls saying 90 percent of the American public is willing to see its sons and daughters come home in body bags for a reckless military endeavor with no clear achievable goals. I think there is a vast sea of public opinion waiting to be guided by the a loud collective enunciation of good old fashioned American common sense. How about it Berkeley City council? 

Peter Teichner 

Berkeley 

Sanity in city 

Editor: 

Here’s my support for you in your passing of the Afghanistan resolution. At least one city could be sane. 

Ed Light 

Eureka 

Dreaming of democracy 

Editor: 

We need to start referring to George Bush’s war on terrorism as the “so-called war on terrorism.” Here are the facts. On September 13, Bush called for war on terrorism, bin Laden, and his organization. Bombing started on Oct. 7, as the CIA tracked the location of Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban. Omar wasn’t bombed. The CIA admitted (on Oct. 15) that they didn’t have the authority to kill him. 

Since then many bombs were dropped, inflicting major damage to “military targets” and also to Red Cross shelters and food storage warehouses (oops, Sorry!). Then, on October 23, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld back-peddled on the original reason for this war saying that maybe we won’t be able to get bin Laden after all. A day later (Oct. 24) Navy Rear Admiral Stufflebeem admitted that, gee, these Taliban are tougher than we expected. 

Now (Oct. 27), we learn that Afghan resistance fighter, Abdul Haq, called for CIA assistance as the Taliban were closing in on his fighters. The CIA didn’t come to his rescue. Future Afghan resistance fighters may well think twice about who is backing them up. Perhaps they should consult with the widows of the Kurd resistance fighters in Iraq who were similarly abandoned by Bush’s father during desert storm.  

Two conclusions can be drawn. First, the bombing is likely to stop soon because it is clear the Pentagon has run out of targets when (Oct. 27) they intentionally bombed the same Red Cross food warehouse for a second time. Starvation is now forecast for over 200,000 Afghanis. This, presumably, is the reprisal for 6,000 Americans killed on Sept. 11. 

The net result will be a massive increase of volunteers into the ranks of the Taliban. Second, this war, and our government, are being run by incompetent nincompoops. I wish we had a democracy where leaders were elected by the majority of votes. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

Halloween  

redistricted 

Editor: 

It was the time of year when a big pumpkin-colored moon rises up in the dark evening sky. And the cold nights cause apples to sweeten and crisp and smell delicious. When little goblins and angels anticipate their special day to “trick of treat.” But there are devilish details in this picture of Berkeley, October 2001. You can almost see the Cheshire cat smile lingering on while someone slips strangely shaped amphibians into a steaming brew. A gang of jolly pirate circles ‘round a big map of Berkeley, singing lustily:  

“Who put the gerrymanders in Blake/O’Malley’s cauldron?” 

Nobody answered, as the fun had just begun, 

They were carving up the city, 

As they sang this little ditty, 

“The gerrymander’s in Blake/O’Malley’s cauldron!” 

Note: They moved over 4,000 students into Council District 8 and then gerrymandered the entire city to their advantage!  

Merilie Mitchell 

Berkeley 

Council kudos 

Editor: 

I read about the City Council’s action to publicly renounce the U.S. crusade of violence. This is a rare occurrence and I applaud it! Thank you for your courage! 

Jon Fader 

Indianapolis, IN 

More council kudos 

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter sent to the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce: 

As a former Bay Area resident, I applaud the City Council’s courage in speaking out against the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. Please lend them your support. Thank you. 

John Wages 

Tupelo, MS 

Neighborhood store good for residents 

Editor: 

Regarding the article this past weekend about the ZAB meeting, I find that the proposed "solutions" to targeted problems surrounding Brothers Liquors miss the mark. I have lived one block from Brothers Liquors for just over a year. I find the establishment to be a convenient and friendly place to pick up a last minute grocery item or snack. 

I love this neighborhood and do not want it to be the victim of gentrification.  

Sure, I have walked by Brothers Liquors and seen people standing outside (though not visibly causing trouble).  

I also see people loitering in the two gas stations a block away at Shattuck and Ashby asking if they can wash people’s windshields. Each time I go to the Berkeley Bowl a couple of people try to sell me the latest issue of Street Spirit. Is there an outcry to shut down the gas station and the grocery store? 

Let’s not be hypocritical as a community. Shutting down a local market is not going to solve any problems.  

I am very disappointed in the city’s misguided efforts to "help" my neighborhood.  

Rather than blame the proprietors of the market for misconduct of people in the surrounding area, why can we not expect local law enforcement to make it safe and possible for them to conduct their legitimate business? 

Liz Gill 

Robert Mann 

Berkeley

Author Sandra Cisneros has a way of giving voice to adolescent angst or fervor. I remember, as a teacher, my earnest freshmen at Maybeck High School in Berkeley using chapters from Cisneros’ signature work “House on Mango Street” for journal topic ideas. Her protagonist, 11-year-old Esperanza Cordero, is wonderfully vibrant, spunky and encouraging to young writers, especially women.  

On Thursday, Nov. 1 her book, “The MacArthur Genius” (1985) will be featured in the Lunch Poem Series at UC Berkeley from 12:10 to 1 p.m. At the free reading at Zellerbach Playhouse, Cisneros will share her poetry – a voice she is perhaps not as well-known for, even though she has a master’s degree from the University of Iowa in poetry.  

Cisneros was a visiting fellow at Berkeley in 1988 and she hasn’t read on campus in quite some time.  

Her reading is cause for celebration too. The author has just completed a nine-year journey into a new novel, “Carmelo.”  

Cisneros credits her father for inspiring her to write because he did not understand why she didn’t want to marry someone who’d take care of her and have babies. 

She says: “When I wanted to study it was all right, he thought I would just study and get married. But when he saw that I was taking my career seriously, to the point of not marrying and quitting jobs to continue the writing and taking time off to write (he was convinced). He saw me packing up and making sacrifices that women make for husbands. I always called the writing my husband. I also call ‘him’ the wife-beater. The writing has been that, abusive and supportive and loving and also a very difficult marriage, and my father just couldn’t understand why I just couldn’t settle down with someone who’d take care of me, and have kids.” 

Cisneros was partly shaped as a writer by being the only girl out of seven kids, and because her Chicana mother spoke only English and her dad Spanish. 

“I started writing out some real place of impotence and I still do,” she said. “I go to my desk out of desperation. You know you read the paper and you think, ‘What are we doing bombing Afghanistan?’ and you feel so impotent. There are these foolish people making decisions for you, so there’s that feeling of impotence that follows you to the page if you’re honest. 

“I didn’t write because I wanted to become famous,” she continued. “I did the writing because it was the only way I was going to go to sleep.”  

Although best known for “You Bring out the Mexican in Me,” Cisneros says she feels closer to her second collection of poetry, “Loose Woman” because she never planned to publish it.  

“When you are not thinking about publication you allow the poem to take you where you need to go, so I still feel that poems need to come from that place,” she said. “That they are so dangerous you can’t publish them in your lifetime. I think that’s when you truly have left all of the censors. Poetry forces you to sort of sit down and think about what are your most important issues?”  

Cisneros is a diligent writer, and poetry is difficult and time consuming because she confronts private issues. She takes few breaks, and sometimes with a lot of guilt.  

“I’ve always said that writing a poem is like when you wash laundry and all the clothes get stacked up on one side and the buzzer goes off – to me that’s what a poem demands,” she said. “A spin cycle that has been put to a halt and the buzzer is going off and it’s an annoying buzzer and you have to attend to it immediately. Poems take you and you don’t even know what you are writing until you’re through. 

“(They are like) a smudge of emotion that clarifies itself with language,” Cisneros continued. “I haven’t a clue what it is that’s tugging at the end of it the fishing line. It’s just something that’s tugging. Prose has been my soapbox where I say what I have to say. Poems are much more personal to me.” 

Writing is so consuming for Cisneros, it takes her a while to change gears. She only just began preparing for the Nov. 1 reading in Berkeley. 

Thursday, Nov. 1 falls on the eve of the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Cisneros, who recently lost her father, said she plans to read essays on the topic as well as a poem.  

“My father’s death transported me (with) some of the most important spiritual lessons of my life. His voyage was made with this book, so Day of the Dead is especially significant to me right now.” 

The Lunch Poem series features two poets this month: Sandra Cisneros on  

Thursday, Nov. 1 and Korean poet Ko Un on Friday, Nov. 2, at Morrison Library of Doe Library near the Campanile. Thursday, Dec. 6, join Beat poet Gary Synder in Zellerbach Playhouse. Call (510) 642-0137 for information about the series.  

Football and soccer kept Rudy Vasquez running during his first few months at St. Mary’s High School. Before that it was roller and ice hockey, and even before that it was basketball. 

A track and cross-country coach caught a glimpse of Vasquez training for soccer as a freshman and convinced him to try a sport where running was the focus.  

“He told me: ‘You’re running’,” Vasquez remembered the coach saying. “I wanted to run track, but it wasn’t until he told me I was doing it that I finally did.” 

Soon, Vasquez began competing in the mile and two-mile events and became a tri-sport athlete his freshman year. During his sophomore year, Vasquez dropped football and added cross-country to his athletic resume. It wasn’t difficult for the comparatively small cornerback to realize he was better suited for other sports. 

“For me football was fun,” he said, “but I wasn’t thinking about playing another year. I just wanted to say I did it.” 

After a season of running track, Vasquez challenged the uneven-surface, 3.1-mile cross-country races in the fall. He immersed himself in the sport and said he’d spend two-thirds of his time either running, thinking about running or writing about running.  

“That’s what I write stories about in English,” Vasquez said. “About how I did at a certain race.” 

Vasquez finished second at the North Coast sectionals as a sophomore and qualified for state where he placed in the top 20. In the spring he returned to the track team and ran a speedy 4:29 mile. 

As Vasquez’s cross-country experience grew, his results kept improving. Last year as a junior he won an NCS title and placed 10th in state.  

Despite numerous individual honors, Vasquez said his thoughts while running often reflect upon the team aspect of cross-country racing and motivate him to move faster.  

“I’m thinking I need to run harder for myself and if I do that I’ll help the team improve,” he said. “You have to run for yourself first, but running better helps out the team. They go hand in hand.” 

Now that he’s a senior on a team filled with freshmen and sophomores Vasquez has become a leader that the younger runners look to for guidance and inspiration. 

“He brings experience and leadership to this team,” said Richard Boulet, St. Mary’s first-year cross-country coach. “I really count on Rudy because I’m not here all the time and I ask him to act as a coach.” 

Several universities have recruited Vasquez as a distance runner, and he’s narrowed it down to Western schools, particularly Cal, UC Irvine and Arizona. Vasquez wants to attend a school where he can study to become an engineer and where he can contribute to a top-ranked cross-country program. 

“I want to talk to the Cal coach a little more, but they have a highly rated school and their (running) program is pretty strong,” he said. “I haven’t talked to Arizona yet, but I’d like to see what they have to offer.” 

Vasquez began distance running three years ago, but with his extensive athletic experience he gathered long before his first cross-country race has helped him develop his skills as a runner. 

“A lot of people think that you run cross-country because you can’t do anything else,” Boulet said. “But the best runners are the ones who are the best all-around athletes.” 

The 5-foot-8, 128-pound senior’s raw talent combined with his dedication to the sport made him one of the state’s top cross-country runners last season. But Vasquez said there’s something more to his success. 

“It takes a lot of heart to be a good cross-country runner,” he said. “When it comes to running, it’s whoever has got the biggest heart, whoever wants it more and whoever has the desire to be a champion.” 

Three head coaches have led the St. Mary’s cross-country team since Vasquez started running. Even though their philosophies remained similar from year to year, Vasquez still had to adjust to three distinct coaching methods and personalities. 

“Rudy has adapted really well to each style,” said Dennis Mohun, who coached Vasquez last year. “He’s taken the best out of each coach and that’s just made him a great runner.” 

This season St. Mary’s is considered to be the second-best team behind Piedmont High School in the Bay Shore Athletic League. Defeating the Highlanders in head-to-head competition would be a bonus, but two other meets rate higher for the team. 

“I only care about two races – North Coast and State,” Boulet said. “But what I’ve told these guys throughout the year is that results matter, but what’s more important to me is the effort. I want to see them all spent at the end of the race.” 

Vasquez, who has been running in some fashion most of his life, gives a full effort in practice and during races but when the time’s right he enjoys resting his legs like anyone else. 

“The funny thing about being a distance runner is that you turn lazy when you’re not running,” he said. “People will ask me if I want to walk a couple blocks somewhere and they’ll look at me funny when I tell them no.”

Halloween is showing a less deadly face this year. 

Images of real-life death and destruction, along with taut nerves over everyday safety concerns, have dimmed the appeal of bloody costumes and spooky strangers in the night, some educators and parents say. 

“I think there does seem to be a more dampened nature to it,” said Dr. Matthew R. Mock, program supervisor of family youth and children services for Berkeley. He attributed this to the awareness that “people did actually die in a gruesome kind of way.” 

In an e-mail to the Berkeley High School community, co-principal Laura Leventer said students “should be respectful of September’s tragedy by avoiding scary costumes or pranks.” 

District-wide, said Leventer, “I think everybody’s putting something out about basically just being respectful.”  

She said on the block where she lives, “they put out a letter to everyone in the neighborhood to keep in mind the new tenor, not to scare people too much, that kind of thing.” 

Mock said some parents he had talked to were paying more attention to their teenagers this year than in the past. 

“There’s just a little bit more of being aware of their behaviors, being aware of certain partying or the things they might do,” he said. 

May Lynne Gill, the parent of a student at Cragmont Elementary, said the school had always disapproved of children carrying fake weapons on Halloween, but that “it’s specifically more so now.” 

“The kids aren’t responding the same way the parents are,” she said. “I think parents, when they see costumes with blood – personally, I’m appalled. I like it even less than I did in the past. But I don’t think the kids are affected. I think they’re still in their zone.” 

Mock said among kids he has observed – including his own daughter – this year’s costumes are “more on the good side: Firefighters, police, cheerleaders, and superheroes rather than two-headed or headless persons or something like that.” 

The two elementary schools that responded to the Daily Planet’s unscientific survey of Halloween plans indicated a determination to make the day fun, in spite of current events. 

“Our plans are the same,” said Brenda Stanford, the Berkeley Arts Magnet School secretary. “We’ll still have a parade unless it rains, in which case our kindergarten through third grade will parade inside our school building.” 

Malcolm X Elementary Principal Cheryl Chinn said Halloween would be exactly as it always was this year. And according to the district’s public information consultant, Marian Magid, Thousand Oaks Elementary plans to carry out its annual Halloween parade with special relish because it is the first time since the opening of the school’s new facility. 

Halloween has its origins in the Celtic belief that the dividing line between the physical and spirit world are suspended on Oct. 31, “All Hallow’s Eve,” otherwise known as All Saints’ Day. This rupture, the belief went, allowed the spirits of those who passed away in the previous year to come back in search of bodies to possess. The custom of wearing costumes arose as a way to ward off those spirits. 

At Halloween Headquarters on University Avenue Tuesday, midday shoppers kept the registers ringing with armfuls of plastic and polyester costume gear. Aisles were, as ever, outfitted with fire chiefs’ hats and facial-burn makeup kits. 

“My family’s more concerned about the fact that I’m going to a crowded place,” said shopper Marie Louise Cremer, a UC Berkeley graduate student in information management and systems. 

“It’s the idea of totally hiding your identity,” she said. “I guess there’s more suspicion around people who try to hide their identity at the moment.” 

Lauren Greenberg, the store’s assistant manager, said some people were more enthusiastic about Halloween this year – not to make light of the recent events, but “as a way of coping with it.” 

The sale of many American flags is “definitely a new thing,” she said. “There’s also a Statue of Liberty costume we couldn’t keep in the store,” she said. 

“I think at least in our family we are trying to make it the same as usual, even maybe a little more overboard, to kind of make up for” the current atmosphere, said Alan Mayer, an Albany resident who said he was helping build a haunted house at his son’s middle school. 

I guess there’s just more tension,” said Chinn. “People aren’t as relaxed about it anymore.”

The West Berkeley Shellmound, a city landmark, will shrink a little in November.  

Earlier this month, in response to a petition brought by landowners, Judge James A. Richman of the Alameda County Superior Court ordered the city to revise the Shellmound’s designated boundaries to exclude four properties west of Second Street. 

The City Council must remove the landmark status from the properties in question before Nov. 16.  

The petitioners, who included Richard and Charlene DeVecchi, White West Properties and the 620 Hearst Group, a consortium that owns the property at that address, charged that the archaeological map the city used to determine the area covered by the Shellmound – which now lies underground – was based on “arbitrary and capricious” data. 

The city’s own maps, they argued, showed there was no record of the Shellmound ever extending onto their properties on what is now the west side of Second Street. 

Richman’s ruling does not question the landmark status of the Shellmound as a whole, and it leaves the door open for the city to redesignate the four properties if more proof can be found. 

However, the principal forces behind the Shellmound may not mount a campaign to re-list the four properties. 

“I don’t think this a bad outcome at all,” said Becky O’Malley, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “It recognizes the commission’s authority to designate the Shellmound. It just means the boundaries on Second Street have to be fine-tuned.” 

“We’re going to have to give it a little thought and see if we want to fight for redesignation,” said Stephanie Manning, an activist who fought for the Shellmound’s landmark status. “It’s a time-consuming and costly process, and I’m not a rich woman.”  

The Shellmound was a center of Native American communities up until around 800 A.D. It served as burial grounds, landmarks and centers of villages. The remnants of the West Berkeley Shellmound, which was first built more than 5,000 years ago, mostly lie underneath Truitt & White Hardware and Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto’s parking lot, just west of the Fourth Street shopping district. 

More than 400 such sites, some up to 30 feet tall, are known to have existed around the San Francisco Bay in centuries past.  

Chris Carrigan, attorney for the petitioners, said he was pleased by the judge’s decision, and believed that it didn’t infringe on the Shellmound’s role as a cultural and spiritual resource. 

“I see this as a win-win case, and you don’t often see that,” he said. “All the important cultural resources are preserved, and the boundaries are still generous. 

“As a Native American myself, I think that’s the right decision.” 

O’Malley noted that if the petitioners do decide to build on their properties, they may still be required to verify that there are no archaeological resources on the site. 

Having just returned from a national security summit for civic leaders in Washington D.C., Mayor Shirley Dean and several top-ranking city officials held a press conference Tuesday to discuss preparation strategies for possible terrorist attacks. 

Joining Dean were Councilmember Miriam Hawley, Fire Chief Reginald Garcia, Police Capt. Bobby Miller and the city manager’s chief of staff, Arrietta Chakos. 

“Many people haven’t realized this yet but local police, fire and health departments are going to be the first responders in this war,” Dean said. “That was the big pow (of the summit).” 

Dean said the summit resulted in a National Action Plan to help communities across the country prioritize strategies for responding to local terrorist attacks.  

One of the most serious issues facing cities is the cost of increased security measures. Dean said city economies around the country are strained because of an economic downturn, which has been accelerated by the Sept. 11 attacks. Cities will require federal assistance to help pay for added security measures such as police and fire training, protection of water supplies and emergency response equipment. 

Dean said cities will have to lobby for the extra funds because so far the federal government has not allocated substantial funds for local agencies.  

“Of the $10 billion federal anti-terrorism budget identified by the Office of Management and Budget, only 4.9 percent is allocated to state and local first response activities,” Dean said.  

Berkeley does not have any obvious, high-profile terrorist targets such as the Bay Bridge or the Port of Oakland. But Dean said if there were terrorist attacks anywhere in the region, Berkeley’s financial contribution to mutual aid “could impact our budget seriously.” 

Locally, Dean said Berkeley still needs to be alert because of a jet fuel pipeline that crosses the western part of the city. There are also many industries that store large quantities of hazardous materials near residential areas. 

Garcia and Miller said there is currently no estimate on the cost of added shifts for police and fire personnel, nor other security measures, which have been implemented since Sept. 11.  

“The city manager’s budget department has been keeping track and there should be a report soon,” Garcia said. 

Miller said extra police costs to the city include a uniformed officer in the lobby of the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center as well as responding to 76 calls of suspicious letters or packages. Miller said 32 of those calls involved a suspicious substance or powder. He said none of the calls were determined to be serious. 

Dean said the city’s Health and Human Services Department will also have to be trained and prepared to respond to large-scale biological or chemical attacks. 

“Health is every bit as important in making our city safe as police and fire, so training for not just our Health Department employees but for our local medical personnel, emergency personnel and citizens is vital,” she said. 

Dean said the city’s Community Emergency Response Training program, which already provides residents with fire and earthquake training, will be expanded.  

“The public should also be educated in basic life saving techniques so that bystanders can provide assistance to those injured until help arrives,” Dean said. “Berkeley needs to step up its already impressive record in this regard.”  

Another aspect of the National Action Plan is local economic security for workers who have been effected by the economic fallout of the terrorist attacks. According to the NAP, the fallout has most effected the travel, hotel and restaurant industries. “The result is that busboys, dishwashers, maids, cleaning people and baggage handlers are the first to go,” Dean said.  

She went on to say that a proposed $60 million federal recovery package will not be adequate to help the unemployed because it relies too heavily on tax cuts. 

The NAP calls for direct worker assistance including expansion and extension of unemployment insurance benefits, funding for job training programs, free or low-cost health insurance for low-income families and health insurance subsidies for unemployed workers. 

On the home front, Dean said residents can prepare for a potential terrorist attack by storing seven days worth of food and water. Also it is important to be familiar with the addresses of neighbors who are disabled or elderly because they will likely be the first to need assistance in the event of an emergency. 

“These are things we’ve been saying all along,” Dean said. “Now we’re just saying it with more urgency.” 

For more information about the city’s Community Emergency Response Training call 644-8736 or visit the city’s Web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/cert.html.

On Sept. 12, Ahmad Esmatyar took down the sign in front of his food stall at the Emeryville Public Market, afraid the words “Afghan Cuisine” would hurt his sales. 

Customer Jon Zalon, a regular, noticed.  

“I felt sorry for them,” he said Thursday, digging into his lentils and rice. 

Other customers have too. Instead of a backlash, Esmatyar has seen an outpouring of support from customers, and a sales increase by 20 to 25 percent in recent weeks. 

The Afghani refugee had been nervous about business since Sept. 11, he said, wiping his apron with curry-stained hands. 

But his customers are “very kindly people,” he said, adding that old ladies coming from church on Sunday have brought him candies and flowers.  

Others have dropped-off flyers saying: “We are your friends. We wish you happiness and peace.” 

Two Jordanian-American customers said they chose to eat at Esmatyar's stall as a way to show support to the Afghani community.  

“We were debating Mexican, Japanese, Thai,” said Monadel Herzallah, who drove from San Francisco to eat at the market. But once they noticed the Afghani stall, it made “a lot of sense.” 

Pamir Afghan Cuisine is the closest restaurant to Berkeley specializing in Afghani food. But without the sign, and despite the giant TV screen blaring CNN coverage of Afghanistan, some customers at the Public Market don’t even know what they’re eating. 

Now, the stall is adorned with a listing of menu specials, and several American flags. The restaurant’s name is visible on only one easy-to-miss sign tacked to an inside wall.  

Some customers confuse it with the Indian food stall across the way; there are 14 stalls in the market, ranging from pasta to Korean barbecue. 

“I didn’t even know” it was Afghani food, said Keith K., from Richmond, munching on chicken curry. “I thought it was Indian. The food still tastes good.” 

The cuisine is similar to Indian food, but the names and some of the spices are different. At lunch hour, customers descend on the food stall to sample its spicy chicken curries, lamb kabobs and veggie karahis (stir-fried vegetables over rice). They wash it all down with a sweet purple Afghani tea.  

Many of the market’s customers are computer programmers and software engineers who work at nearby dot-coms. A group of young employees from IDB Systems, a local software company, shared a table. A few had plates from Pamir, but they didn’t know it was Afghani food. 

If they had, they might have saved themselves a trip across the Bay. A few weeks ago, the company went out to dinner at an Afghani restaurant in San Francisco to show their support, said Carolyn Jackson. 

Paul Thibault, who works for AT&T, said he knew the food was Afghani. But it was the samples of chicken kabab, not necessarily notions of consumer support for Afghanis, that drew him in.  

“The food looked good, and appetizing,” he said.  

Customer H. Sezen said he empathizes with the discrimination Afghanis may be feeling; as a Muslim, he’s been uncomfortable too.  

But he’s not going to eat more Afghani food just to show his support, he said, because you can’t just buy according to current events. Quality has to come first.  

“What if they don’t have good food?” he said. 

Esmatyar said he had heard of cases in which South Bay Afghani restaurants had rocks thrown through their windows. 

But Esmatyar says he has not received threats.  

“The situation is no good, but if we’re not safe in America, we’re not safe anywhere,” he said. 

“I pray with all my heart for the American soldiers, that their mission is successful,” he continued. “I want to write a letter to Bush and tell him he’s doing a good job.” 

Esmatyar said he thinks the U.S. action in Afghanistan is long overdue.  

“Afghanis have been suffering before Sept. 11,” he said, referring to the war fought with the Soviet Union, and the Taliban’s rule. 

Esmatyar came to the United States as a refugee 20 years ago, fleeing the Soviet invasion. He opened the restaurant 12 years ago, and has worked there seven days a week ever since. 

He loves this country, he said, because even though he has to work hard, he has everything he needs.  

“At 2 a.m., the shops are open, you can get milk. What other country does this?” he said. 

Esmatyar said his regular customers have been pressuring him to put the sign back up.  

“I’ll do it when I find out more about what’s going on,” he said, gesturing at the big screen TV. “I’m gonna do it.”

Halloween Night at Old East Campus 

6 - 9 p.m. 

1950 Carleton St. 

For children ages 5 - 12, accompanied by parent. Art and craft activities, games, and limited treats. Sponsored by Berkeley Recreation Programs Office and Young Adult Project. $1. 981-5147 

CarnEvil, A Haunted House in Berkeley  

7 - 10 p.m. 

1818 Fifth St. 

CarnEvil is a neighborhood haunted house with three floors of good, old-fashioned fright complete with scary clowns, freak show, evil fortune teller, a haunted midway and much more. 644-3305 www.berkeleyhauntedhouse.com

A gunman took over a College Avenue store Monday evening, robbing it and four individuals, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department. 

Around 6:30 p.m., a man entered the Ovation Clothing store at 3206 College Ave. carrying a dark-colored handgun. He ordered one employee to usher another employee and two customers to the back of the store, then he took money from the cash register. Afterward, he went to the victims and ordered them to hand over their money.  

The suspect then ordered the victims into the store’s bathroom and told them to lock it from the inside, after which he fled the store. 

The suspect is a dark-complected African-American male, with a muscular build, in his late 20s to mid-30s, between 5-feet, 9 inches and 6-feet 1-inch in height and between 170 and 225 pounds. He was wearing a black cap, black pants, a black leather jacket and a mustache. 

Anyone who may have been a witness to this crime or may have any other information is asked to call the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742. 

A Kensington man was robbed on Solano Avenue Monday evening, according to Harris. 

The victim was walking near the corner of Ensenada Avenue at 6:35 p.m. when a man walked up behind him and told him to hand over his wallet. The suspect simulated a pointed handgun beneath his jacket. The victim handed over his wallet, cell phone, checkbook and shoulder bag, and the suspect fled. He was later reported in an off-white, late-’80s-early ‘90s truck or SUV. 

The suspect is described as a dark-complected African-American male between the ages of 40 and 45, 5-feet, 8 inches tall and around 150 pounds. He was wearing a black jacket and dark pants. 

A man was robbed Sunday evening after his car overheated on Telegraph Avenue, according to Harris. 

The victim, seeing that his car was smoking, pulled into the Andronico’s parking lot at 2655 Telegraph Ave. around 8:15 p.m. When he got out to take a look, he was approached by a man who pointed a long-barrel revolver at him. The suspect told the victim to take everything out of his pockets. The victim complied, and the man took his money and fled on foot. 

The suspect is described as an African-American male, around 18 years of age, 6 feet, 3 inches tall and around 180 pounds. He was wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans and an American flag bandana. After fleeing, the suspect was seen in the company of five other African-American males who were not involved in the robbery. 

Police were called to the Habitot Museum on Kittredge Street Sunday afternoon after a pre-teen child was seen with a toy gun, according to Harris. 

A group of children were asked to leave the museum after running around and creating a disturbance. Upon leaving, one of the people in the museum reported seeing a gun in a child’s hand. Police arrived, determined the weapon to be a toy and took no further action.  

– Hank Sims

SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County has become the second California county to ask Gov. Gray Davis to halt all executions. 

The county’s board of supervisors passed the non-binding resolution 4-1 on Tuesday. The city and county of San Francisco has approved a similar resolution, as have the cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz. 

The supervisors are requesting that all executions stop until studies on fairness in sentencing and the risk of executing innocent people are completed. Supervisors said Santa Clara County’s increasingly diverse population prompted them to consider the number of minorities sentenced to death there. 

Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, said the way the death penalty is used “doesn’t work.” 

Supervisor Dan Gage cast the lone “no” vote. He said he understands that the way the death penalty is implemented may need modification, but said he is against a moratorium on the death penalty while it’s being studied. 

A recent Field Poll found that as many as 73 percent of Californians support a moratorium. Similar measures have passed in more than 30 cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

SAN JOSE — Nearly two dozen cattle killed by anthrax in a remote area of Santa Clara County do not pose a threat to the general public, and the deaths were not related to terrorism, authorities said. 

The 21 cows and bulls died Oct. 20-28, and about 120 cattle have since been vaccinated. State officials called it California’s worst outbreak in 17 years. 

Anthrax spores occur naturally in soil around the world, and animals contract the disease by ingesting the spores. The disease is not uncommon in animals, State Veterinarian Richard Breitmeyer said Monday in a written release. 

The Santa Clara cattle were exposed “by eating dirt, primarily,” said Greg Van Wassenhove, Santa Clara County’s agricultural commissioner. 

With pastures brown and parched, “The stubble is so short out there that cattle are ingesting soil,” he said. 

The state has regular procedures to handle cases of anthrax in livestock, but because of the incidents on the East Coast, the FBI has been notified. 

Four people at the ranch came into contact with the blood of the infected animals while assisting in a necropsy, and they have been given antibiotics as a precaution. Also, 10 employees of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, where the anthrax diagnosis was confirmed, also have been placed on antibiotics as a precaution. 

There have been 10 known cases of anthrax in the past 10 years in the state. In 1991, an anthrax incident killed 28 cattle in Contra Costa County, and in 1984, an anthrax incident killed 43 cattle and 135 sheep in San Luis Obispo County.

CONCORD — The only maternity ward in Concord, Contra Costa County’s largest city, has closed. 

Citing the birth center’s annual losses, including $4 million last year, the John Muir/Mount Diablo Health System board voted in June to close the unit based in Mount Diablo Medical Center. Since then, through a series of legal moves, the hospital survived five scheduled closure dates, until Monday. 

Ninety percent of Concord women have been delivering their babies at other hospitals, according to the private nonprofit system, which says that it lost $39 million last year. John Muir Medical Center and Mount Diablo Medical Center merged in 1997. 

For months, Mount Diablo supporters have said that closing the birth unit ultimately will lead to the death of the Concord hospital by choking off its supply of new patients. 

“We have no plans to close Mount Diablo Hospital,” said Steven Bauer, an attorney for the health system. 

SAN JOSE — The city’s redevelopment agency has abandoned its recommendation for underground structures as a solution to address the parking crunch in the downtown area. 

Executive Director Susan Shick said public support was limited. Preservationists also opposed the plan. 

Pat Curia, president of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose said they hated the thought of tearing up historic St. James Park and Plaza de Cesar Chavez for construction that would have lasted at least 18 months. 

Shick reached her conclusion after studying the latest downtown parking management plan, a 136-page report by Santa Monica-based Kaku Associates. 

The parking plan recommends the city build five garages for 4,130 cars and proposes specific locations for three: north of the Hotel De Anza, on the Greyhound bus terminal site, and behind the Tech Museum. 

Two other garages would be built through public-private partnerships with developers who pursue projects at two locations: near South Second and East Santa Clara streets, and near South Second and East San Carlos streets. The exact locations have not been determined. 

The five garages are estimated to cost $145 million, which would be financed through the sale of bonds. Those bonds would be paid off with revenue from the parking garages, redevelopment funds and parking rate increases.

UNION CITY — As news emerged last week that former Afghan guerrilla leader Abdul Haq was executed by the Taliban, his 16-year-old son and crowds of others began mourning half a world away. 

Abdul Majeed Arsala, a junior in high school in Union City, has been surrounded by hundreds of Afghans and others who have gathered to mourn Haq’s death, said Rona Popal, an organizer from the Afghan Coalition in Fremont, the nation’s largest Afghan community. 

Arsala has lived in Union City for the past two years with Haq’s nephew, Khushal Arsala. 

“This is not just my family’s tragedy, but the tragedy of the nation,” Khushal Arsala told The Oakland Tribune. “It is a loss for humanity.” 

Haq was hanged Friday at the Rishkore barracks near Kabul after sneaking into Taliban-held territory to rally Afghan tribal leaders and others to form a new government. He was a member of Afghanistan’s majority Pashtun tribe and did not belong to the northern alliance. He was seen as a key to U.S. efforts to persuade Pashtun leaders to abandon the Taliban. 

Haq, 43, had been a leader in Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union’s 1980s invasion. 

U.S. officials say they knew of Haq’s mission, but neither endorsed nor supported it. Washington has confirmed it ordered airstrikes to try to save Haq, but that they were too late. 

Abdul Majeed Arsala moved to the Bay Area after witnessing his mother and young brother being gunned down in their home in 1999. The assassins were aiming for Haq. 

Although suspicion for those killings fell on the Taliban, Haq at the time said he had no proof of who might have been behind the killings. 

”(Haq) is someone who we admire so much, it is just an honor to be in his family,” said Mohammad Arsala, Haq’s cousin in Hayward. “He gave every sacrifice he could for his country. He lost his foot, he lost his family and, most importantly, the ultimate sacrifice of his life.” 

A memorial will be held Sunday for Haq at a mosque in Hayward. Taliban officials initially told the family they would hand over the body for burial in Pakistan, but family members later were told Haq had been buried in his home village of Surkhrud.

SAN FRANCISCO — John Newton Rosenkrans, a San Francisco Bay area toy company executive and heir to the Spreckels sugar fortune, has died of heart failure. He was 73. 

Rosekrans died in Paris on Oct. 27. 

He was the great-grandson of Claus Spreckels, who founded a successful sugar company. Rosekrans himself went on to found Kransco Group Co. with longtime friend John Bowes in 1963. 

Kransco originally focused on making floating furniture for swimming pools, but by the 1990s had acquired several companies and branched out by selling Hula Hoops, Frisbees, Hackey Sacks and other toys.  

The men sold the company in 1994 to Mattel Inc. 

Rosekrans grandmother, Alma Spreckels, built the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and donated it to the city. 

Like his grandmother, Rosekrans was a patron of the arts. He and his second wife, Dodie, built an outdoor sculpture farm, named Runnymede, at a family property in Woodside. Runnymede has 140 works of contemporary art. 

Rosekrans spent much of his time in San Francisco, but frequently lived at his homes in Paris and on the Grand Canal in Venice. 

He is survived by his wife, two sons, John Rosekrans, of Mill Valley, and Peter Rosekrans of Woodside; two stepsons, John Topham and Ned Topham of San Francisco; two brothers and four grandchildren. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A state appeals court said Tuesday that San Francisco voting laws must a0llow for write-in candidates during runoff elections for mayor or other city offices. 

San Francisco currently allows write-ins only during city election primaries. The race for office goes to a runoff between the top two vote vote-getters if nobody from the primary field secures a majority of the vote. 

The 1st District Court of Appeal said San Francisco’s runoff practice violated the California Constitution and the federal First Amendment rights of speech for voters and write-in candidates. During runoffs, San Francisco provides no line for write-in candidates. 

A lower court had dismissed the suit stemming from the 1999 mayoral election, which Willie Brown won. The suit was brought by Michael Edelstein, a write-in candidate for the office. The case does not affect the election’s outcome. 

The court noted that the California Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that write-ins should be allowed during runoffs in San Diego municipal elections. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled otherwise in a Hawaii case in 1992. 

The 1st District urged the California Supreme Court to revisit its 1985 decision to clarify the conflict. 

The case is Edelstein v. Fado, A093007. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Salmonella-contaminated eggs may be identified within hours, rather than days or weeks, using a rapid-detection technique developed by germ warfare researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

The DNA-based detection system distinguishes a deadly salmonella strain from the many benign forms of the bacteria, according to a paper to be published Thursday in a scientific journal. 

Most large processors spray eggs with chlorinated water heated to around 110 degrees, which is hot enough to kill salmonella. Still, an estimated one in every 10,000 eggs on grocery store shelves is infected with salmonella enteritidis, a significant source of food poisoning that can cause diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, headache, nausea and vomiting when undercooked eggs are eaten. 

Approximately 1.4 million people nationwide fall ill each year due to salmonella, 300,000 of which are affected by the enteritidis strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Healthy people usually recover, but the disease can be life-threatening for children, the elderly and for people with weakened immune systems. The government estimates that a consumer eats undercooked eggs 20 times a year. 

Federal officials hope to cut salmonella food poisoning from eggs in half by 2005 and eliminate it totally by 2010 through the Egg Safety Action Plan, a joint effort of the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The plan includes safe handling warnings and new refrigeration requirements. 

Bacteria can be on an egg’s shell, since the egg leaves a hen’s body through the same passageway as feces. Many benign bacteria closely resemble the pathogen, including many strains of salmonella. Because of this, it currently takes at least two tests and several days for inspectors to determine if suspect chickens and eggs are truly infected with the pathogen. 

By comparing the genomes of the benign salmonella with the bad salmonella, lead researcher Gary Andersen and his team were able to pinpoint a tiny fragment of DNA unique to the pathogen. The scientists then dropped that unique DNA strand — a “DNA signature” — into a culture of suspected salmonella enteritidis to see if they would bind. Binding indicates the presence of the pathogen. 

“We’re making Caesar salads safe to eat,” joked Andersen, who is using the same comparative genomic methods to develop a similar test for anthrax, plague and other pathogens thought to be used in biological weapons. 

Lawrence Livermore is developing a handheld detector fueled by Andersen’s technology. The lab also has licensed the DNA signature technology to biotechnology company Cephied, which is developing its own germ warfare detector. 

Using DNA signatures, scientists are able to determine with one test and within hours if suspect eggs are contaminated. 

“It seems to work very well,” said Richard Walker, an inspector with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory. Walker said he’s been using Lawrence Livermore’s test alongside traditional tests in the field the last six months. 

Still, Walker said the detection technology would need to be evaluated and approved as an alternative to conventional testing by the FDA and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. 

The lab’s research is to be published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

LOS ANGELES — Laws making it a crime to bring false accusations against a peace officer but not anyone else are unconstitutional because they represent a selective prohibition that inhibits free expression, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday. 

The 2nd District Court of Appeal’s ruling speaks directly to California Penal Code sections 148.5, filing a false report of a criminal offense, and 148.6a1, knowingly filing a false charge of police misconduct. 

Shaun Stanistreet and Barbara Joyce Atkinson were convicted in 1998 of the two misdemeanor counts after they accused an Oxnard police officer of lewd conduct at a gathering of at-risk youth attending a Police Activities League meeting. The accusation was proved false. 

In overturning the convictions on a 3-0 vote, an appeals court panel ruled that Ventura County prosecutors did not establish “that officers lack effective means to rebut groundless complaints.” 

“Internal oversight procedures may quickly screen out spurious complaints such as those filed by Stanistreet and Atkinson,” the justices added. 

Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Michael Schwartz said prosecutors plan to appeal to the state Supreme Court. 

The appellate court acknowledged that law enforcement officers “confront the worst that society has to offer” and “risk their lives to provide citizens a safer and better place to live,” but concluded that isn’t a justification for limiting the public’s Constitutional right to free expression. 

“The importance of providing to citizens free and open access to governmental agencies for the reporting of suspected illegal activity outweighs the occasional harm that might befall a defamed individual,” the justices said. 

A similar case at the Solano Superior Court in Fairfield was dismissed two weeks ago. Two women driving to Reno, Nev., were stopped by a California Highway Patrol officer for speeding. Kimberly Joan Reed and Rita Lena Jamerson later filed a complaint that the officer was discourteous. 

Using a tape recording of the stop, the CHP said the officer had acted professionally and that the complaint was false.  

Criminal charges were brought against them. But Solano County’s judge said the charges against the women were unconstitutional. 

The state Legislature revised citizen complaint procedures about law officers after the Rodney King beating off March 1991. In response to a number of false allegations that came up as a result of the revisions, the Legislature put this section into effect.

LOS ANGELES — The Police Commission on Tuesday condemned a city councilman’s reference to Police Chief Bernard C. Parks as “Osama bin Parks.” 

“On Sept. 11, Chief Parks led the Los Angeles Police Department in assessing the threat of imminent danger from terrorist attacks and deploying city resources for the public good,” a commission statement said. 

“To compare him to a murderous madman like Osama bin Laden at a time of national crisis is insulting and offensive. The board of the Los Angeles Police Commission would like to state for the record that the chief does not deserve this type of vilification.” 

Third District Councilman Dennis P. Zine said Tuesday that Parks has not accepted his Oct. 22 apology, in which he wrote: “I would like to apologize. During a lighthearted fund-raising event, I made reference to your name and that of ’Osama.’ I did not intend any ridicule to you or your position as chief of police.” 

Zine was an LAPD officer for 33 years and a police union official before he was elected to the City Council this year. He has been a longtime critic of Parks, who has been on the force for 36 years. 

A Zine spokeswoman asserted last week that the councilman’s remark was a joke among a few friends. 

The remark came amid a flap involving the Police Department’s refusal to allow officers to wear any American flag lapel pins on their uniforms other than an approved pin honoring the DARE national anti-drug program. 

On Tuesday, the chief reaffirmed his refusal to accept Zine’s apology. 

“He should apologize to the 6,000 families who lost loved ones during the Sept. 11 attacks. That’s who Councilman Zine should apologize to,” Parks said at a news conference on an unrelated subject.

BILLINGS, Mont. — The use of American Indian mascots for sports teams can demean a culture still fighting discrimination and can be a barrier to learning, a panel of experts told a gathering of Indian educators Tuesday. 

“We ... have a multiethnic society, and we basically still are culturally illiterate,” Jeff Sanders, who teaches Native American studies at Montana State University-Billings, said. 

The chants and caricatures often associated with teams with Indian nicknames are distracting and humiliating for Indians, Charlene Teters said in a forum during the National Indian Education Association conference. 

To simply tolerate it, “you get sick,” she said. 

But fighting back means fighting strong opposition, with die-hard sports fans loathe to see the names of their favorite teams changed, and division even among Indians, experts said. 

Teters said she’s not afraid of the debate in Indian communities. “Ignorance continues to be our biggest enemy,” she said. 

Michael Jetty, an adjunct professor of multicultural education at Montana State University, said he roots against teams with Indian mascots, “because the bottom line for them is money. And if they’re losing, they’re not making money.” 

The issue is an important one, Jetty said. “It’s an issue of people treating people with respect.” 

Jetty said, however, some reservation schools continue to use such team nicknames. 

John Orendorff, a counselor at a high school in Los Angeles, said he and his son should not have to see derogatory signs if they go to local sporting events. Similar references to other groups of people would not be tolerated, he said. 

“My fear is that Indians are seen as less than human,” he said. 

The message sent by mascots and nicknames is a confusing one for Indian children, Orendorff said. 

If he roots against a team called the Indians, “what does that do to my son?” he said. “He’s wondering, Who’s an Indian?”

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. chairman William Clay Ford Jr. took over as chief executive of the struggling automaker Tuesday after the ouster of Jacques Nasser, becoming the first Ford in 22 years to run day-to-day operations. 

“We’ve been given an amazing legacy, and we’re going to build an even better one,” said the 44-year-old great-grandson of Henry Ford. 

Nasser’s fate had been the subject of widespread speculation as the world’s second-largest automaker lost sales amid the Firestone tire debacle and questions about the quality of its vehicles. 

Ford complimented his predecessor, saying Nasser “made many significant contributions to our business operations around the world, and we all appreciate his dedication.” He said the job “is not something I sought, but something the board thought was necessary.” 

Nasser, 53, earned the moniker “Jac the Knife” for his prodigious cost-cutting. He took over as CEO in 1999 when Ford was poised to overtake General Motors as the world’s top automaker. 

But last year, Ford was shaken by the news that people were dying in accidents when the treads separated from Firestone tires, most of which were installed on Ford Explorers. Federal authorities say there is no evidence the Explorer’s design was at fault, but the automaker has reportedly spent millions to settle more than 100 Firestone-related lawsuits. 

Just last week, Ford settled a lawsuit over allegedly faulty ignition systems for vehicles dating from 1983 to 1995. The plaintiffs said the settlement could cost Ford as much as $2.7 billion for repairs, a figure the automaker disputed. 

Nasser resigned Monday afternoon during a meeting with Ford. 

“This seemed to be the right time,” Ford said. “Outside events like Firestone weighed heavily on management distraction.” 

Ford stock was down 9 cents to $16.12 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the announcement. 

“Obviously management thinks it was the right thing to do,” said Jim Hall, vice president of AutoPacific, an industry consulting firm. “But it’s a tough time for any kind of shake-up. During economic times like these you want continuity.” 

The last time a Ford ran daily operations at the company was in 1979, when Henry Ford II resigned. 

Ford Jr. faces a rebuilding task. 

Ford’s market share is down, slipping during the first nine months of 2001 to 22.6 percent from 22.8 percent a year ago. 

Sales of Ford vehicles through September were down 11 percent from the first nine months of 2000, a record sales year for the industry. In the third quarter of 2001, Ford lost $692 million after earning $888 million a year earlier. 

Looking for ways to save money, Ford announced in August it would cut 4,000 to 5,000 salaried positions by the end of the year through voluntary buyouts or early retirement packages. More restructuring moves are expected. 

The management shake-up includes the elevation of North American group vice president Nick Scheele to chief operating officer. Known as “Mr. Fixit,” Scheele was brought in last July in the first sign that Nasser’s job was on the line. 

Nasser’s ouster ends a 33-year career with Ford.  

He was the executive out front, pleading the automaker’s case during the Firestone debacle that began last fall when Bridgestone/Firestone recalled 6.5 million tires and the safety of Ford’s most popular SUV was called into question. 

Nasser was convinced the tire maker was producing an inferior product, and he launched a $3 billion program in May to replace 13 million tires that were not part of Bridgestone/Firestone’s original recall. The tire maker responded by severing its nearly 100-year old relationship with Ford. 

The tire replacement program was viewed as a public relations coup for Ford, but its cost blew a hole in the automaker’s second-quarter earnings. Ford and its CEO took another hit when two influential industry reports showed the company losing ground in productivity and quality.

NASHVILLE, Tenn — Teen-agers may have outgrown their fear of ghouls and goblins, but health officials believe their haunted house has something far scarier: gonorrhea and genital warts. 

Hoping to combat one of the nation’s highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, city health officials have staged the “STD Free! Haunted House.” 

As visitors make their way through a dimly lit, S-shaped maze, they view startling, full-color photos of canker sores and genital warts on male and female genitalia infected with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. An empty casket at the end sends a message that death awaits anyone who does not practice safe sex. 

“We want to scare their pants back on,” said Elizabeth Frazier, a registered nurse at Tennessee State University’s health center. “We encourage abstinence. But if they can’t do that, then use protection.” 

Lynnette Whitlow, program specialist for the city health department, said some football players could barely get through last year’s haunted house. 

“Guys would come up and say nothing scares them,” Whitlow said, “then before they could get around the corner ... I could hear them screaming.” 

The haunted house was developed three years ago after Nashville reported the second-highest rate of syphilis in the country — 250 cases, or 45 cases per 100,000 people. 

Haunted house visitors are given “goody bags” filled with brochures on sexually transmitted diseases, and can get a free STD test once they complete the maze. 

Last year, more than 1,600 visited the haunted house and 60 students were tested for HIV and syphilis. 

“I think it will have a positive effect and deter freshman like myself from making mistakes,” said Jordan Williams, a freshman from Toledo, Ohio, who planned to take a tour when the house opened Wednesday. “I don’t know if it will make people abstain, but I do think they will consider using protection.”

WEST HOLLYWOOD — The most popular outfit at public Halloween bashes around the nation is expected to be a police uniform — but it won’t be a costume. 

After FBI Director Robert Mueller warned this week of the possibility of more terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials planned to increase their presence at public Halloween parties around the nation. 

More than 200,000 costumed revelers are expected to pack the city streets in West Hollywood on Wednesday night. Scattered among them will be 100 members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — “a deputy on every corner,” said Sgt. Gary Griffith. 

“Obviously, based on all the media and the announcement coming out of the federal government, we have increased the number of deputies working the assignment,” Griffith said. 

Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, fears of further violence have led police to focus on large gatherings of people, from airports to sporting events to shopping malls. 

In Miami, police planned to double their presence at the annual Coconut Grove Halloween block party, which draws as many as 15,000 people, said Delrish Moss, a police spokesman. 

Even that won’t be enough for some, said Chastity Medina, 27, who works in an accounting office at a Miami law firm. 

“None of my friends are going because they’re scared, and I am not going alone. They’re afraid some type of terrorist attack is going to happen,” Medina said. 

In New York, Halloween comes the same week as the annual marathon and the World Series. The Police Department said it will be security as usual for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, with 2,000 officers on duty. 

In San Francisco, city officials have tried to discourage partygoers from flocking to the Castro District. They have urged people to attend the city’s official Halloween event at the Civic Center instead. The predominantly gay Castro neighborhood’s Halloween festivities draw as many as 500,000 people. 

Terrorist threats won’t quench the Halloween spirit of Noah Bishop, a 22-year-old West Hollywood bartender. 

“The community has lived in fear of different, random stuff for so long, from gay-bashing to HIV. I think we’re over it,” Bishop said. “We’re just tired of living in fear.” 

Les Hall, a 27-year-old waiter who works nearby, said he isn’t taking any chances with his costume. He plans to wear a gas mask. 

“That way,” he said, “I’ll be ready for everything.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Pledging to make the next generation of consumers better educated about money than their parents, Wells Fargo Bank has introduced a financial literacy program aimed at students in fourth grade and above. 

The San Francisco-based bank, which developed the curriculum with the nonprofit group Operation Hope, plans to educate 100,000 students in classrooms across the country during the next year. 

In addition to sending 200 employees to teach the basics of money management, Wells also is dispatching 45-foot-long buses equipped with computer terminals that provide wireless Internet access to a new Web site devoted to the program, dubbed “Banking On Our Future.” 

The site features an animated money management primer for fourth and fifth graders, as well as more advanced sections for junior high and high school students. 

Wells CEO Dick Kovacevich described the project as the most ambitious financial literacy program undertaken by a major U.S. bank. 

“We know this is something that students are going to eat up,” Kovacevich said in an interview Tuesday. 

Although they agree schools need to do a better job educating kids about money management, consumer activists are leery of Wells’ involvement in the program. With $298 billion in assets and 5,400 branches, Wells is the largest bank headquartered west of the Mississippi. 

“It’s like the fox guarding the chicken coop when you send banks into the classrooms,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C. “We have seen banks all over college campuses trying to sell their credit cards, and now it looks like we are going to be seeing them all over our playgrounds.” 

Wells isn’t trying to promote its own products through the programs, Kovacevich said. 

“We have been doing this in a minor way for years,” he said. “We just thought it was the right time to put this together in a major way. It’s in everybody’s best interests if people are better educated about money.” 

The Wells brand appears on credit cards, checks and financial statements displayed as part of the online education program developed with Redwood City-based SmartForce. 

The bank’s self-promotion is troubling, said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a Portland, Ore., consumer group that has fought to keep corporate influence out of classrooms. 

“Financial literacy is a noble goal, but this program has no place in schools. This is just a Trojan horse for marketing credit cards and other products,” Ruskin said. 

Recent surveys have documented the financial illiteracy of most students when they graduate from high school. 

High school seniors scored 51.9 percent — a failing grade — in a money management test taken last year by the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. Last year’s results represented a decline from the average score of 57.3 percent — also a failing grade — in the previous test taken by the coalition in 1997. 

Only a handful states, including Idaho, Illinois and Pennsylvania, have introduced financial education into their curriculum, JumpStart said. 

With so much ground to make up, Wells’ project should be embraced instead of reviled, said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. The congressman hopes to include a financial literacy grant program in an education bill under consideration by lawmakers. 

“Adults aren’t doing a good job demonstrating their own financial aptitude,” Pomeroy said. “We can’t afford to live in an economy with low savings rates and high default rates (on credit card loans). Wells understands that an informed consumer is the best business plan of all.” 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.bankingonourfuture.org 

http://www.commercialalert.org 

ATLANTA — The Coca-Cola Co. is buying juice maker Odwalla Inc. in a $181 million deal that gives the world’s biggest soft drink company a stronger foothold in the market for noncarbonated beverages. 

Under the deal announced Tuesday, Odwalla will become part of Coke’s Minute Maid juice division. California-based Odwalla makes juice blends, smoothies and fortified health drinks and will retain its current management. 

Don Short, chief executive of Minute Maid, said acquiring Odwalla strengthens Coke’s opportunity for growth in new beverage categories. 

“Odwalla’s talented and proven people have built unique brands with loyal followings,” he said in a statement. “The innovation and expertise of the Odwalla team coupled with our innovation and logistics network are key to expanding the brands they have created and nurtured.” 

Odwalla, based in Half Moon Bay, Calif., markets its drinks under the Odwalla and Samantha labels. Its chief executive Stephen Williamson said he felt “the entrepreneurial spirit of Odwalla will be nurtured by the opportunity for growth that this new relationship presents.” 

Coke recently scrapped a deal with Procter & Gamble to market products such as Minute Maid juice and Pringles potato chips jointly. 

Odwalla posted $98 million in revenue for the first nine months of fiscal year 2001. It had revenue of $93 million for all of 2000. 

Coke will pay $15.25 a share in cash for all of Odwalla’s outstanding common stock. The boards of Atlanta-based Coke and California-based Odwalla approved the deal Tuesday. 

In morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Odwalla shares climbed 27.8 percent, or $3.29, to $15.12. Coca-Cola shares were down 77 cents at $47.84 on the New York Stock Exchange. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.cocacola.com 

http://www.odwalla.com 

SAN JOSE — Adobe Systems Inc. will lay off about 150 people, or about 5 percent of its worldwide work force, and lower its revenue and earnings targets for the current quarter and fiscal year 2002. 

The desktop publishing software maker said Tuesday it expects revenues for the fourth quarter ending in November to range between $275 million and $285 million, down from its previously lowered target of between $310 million and $320 million. 

Earnings per share for the quarter is now expected to be 20 cents to 22 cents, the company said. 

Before the announcement, Wall Street analysts were expecting the San Jose-based company to earn 26 cents per share for the quarter, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. 

“This is a much tougher year than we certainly expected,” Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen said at the company’s fall financial analyst meeting. “There isn’t as much revenue and not as much revenue growth as we have anticipated.” 

Chief financial officer Murray Demo cited continued weakness in Japan and the United States. Sales also slowed after the Sept. 11 attacks, making October the weakest month of the fiscal year for Adobe, he said. 

Chizen remained bullish on the company’s long-term growth opportunities but said the outlook for next fiscal year 2002 “will be as it as today — weak.” 

The company expects to incur up to a $10 million restructuring charge from the layoffs, which will start this week and continue over the next few weeks. 

Out of respect for its employees, the company said it was postponing a groundbreaking ceremony for a third office tower. The event was to take place Wednesday. 

Construction of the new building, however, will continue as planned, the company said. 

Shares of Adobe fell $1.59, or more than 5 percent, to $28.75 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In extended trading, the stock plunged $4.70 to $24.05. 

The company plans to release its fourth-quarter results on Dec. 14. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court temporarily has blocked a settlement between California’s second-largest utility and state power regulators that would keep electric rates at record highs for the next two years. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted a consumer advocacy group, The Utility Reform Network, two weeks to argue against the settlement. 

That settlement would help Southern California Edison pay $3.3 billion of its estimated $6 billion debt, by continuing to charge Edison customers higher rates imposed last May. 

The deal also would require Edison shareholders to forego $1.2 billion worth of dividends over three years and have Edison use its available cash to pay the remainder. 

Consumer groups, including TURN and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, say the deal unfairly makes ratepayers carry the burden of the utility’s debt, and that the Public Utilities Commission, members of Gov. Gray Davis’ staff and Edison lawyers should not have negotiated in secret. 

“This order confirms that there are substantial questions about the legality of what the CPUC has done,” said TURN Executive Director Nettie Hoge in a written release.  

“The appellate court wants to see ratepayers protected while those questions are answered.” 

But PUC officials said Tuesday the settlement likely will go forward despite the stay. 

U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew previously 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.”  

It is he who would have to overturn his previous ruling for the stay to become permanent. 

“The court has not decided anything on the merits of the stay, or the merits of the case,” said PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper. “TURN jumped the gun in appealing to the 9th Circuit. We are confident that the settlement agreement is the right thing for consumers, and that Judge Lew will make the appropriate ruling.” 

If the settlement goes forward, Edison has said 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. 

The PUC has said the ruling was fair to ratepayers and should allow Edison to pay its debt by the end of 2003. The ruling also would allow the commission to retain authority over Edison, in contrast to a bankruptcy reorganization plan proposed by PG&E to cope with its financial troubles. 

The Edison deal was negotiated over 10 days this fall 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 cash-starved utilities. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Southern California Edison: http://www.sce.com 

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

The Utility Reform Network: http://www.turn.org 

As dating and relationships become more common in the early teen years, Berkeley High students have been raising awareness about domestic violence by conducting peer education in middle school classes. 

At Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Monday, Kate Aughenbaugh’s seventh-graders heard how to recognize the warning signs of an abusive relationship, how to respond when a friend is in one, and what forms domestic violence can take – from physical to mental and emotional. 

“I see so many people who are in these situations and they need this, but they’re already in high school and they’re in the middle of it,” said Maeve McGovern, a junior who co-led the class with junior Molly Baldridge. 

Asking questions first, and then unfurling posters to explain the answers, the peer educators taught the class how to identify domestic violence, distinguish it from non-threatening arguments, and recognize that it takes many forms: Physical, verbal, mental, emotional and sexual. 

“It can also be where a lady batters a guy,” one boy offered, to nods of approval from the teachers. 

McGovern counted off the students from one to three, then asked everyone numbered one to rise. 

Now, one in three kids are at risk of being abused in a relationship by age 21,” she said. “How does that make you feel?” 

“Sad,” said one voice. 

Citing a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Family Violence Prevention Fund’s August newsletter said one in five of high school girls report being physically or sexually abused by a partner – with the incidence rate much the same across racial and ethnic lines. These young women experience higher rates of substance abuse, eating disorders, and other problems, the newsletter said. 

Leuckessia Herse, the teen program coordinator at A Safe Place, an Oakland nonprofit giving outreach to schools and public agencies, said teens are especially vulnerable to getting trapped in bad relationships for two reasons: They don’t always recognize they’re in them, and if they do, they don’t know where to turn. 

“A lot of teens out there are pretty frustrated, they don’t feel like they can express what’s going on with them, and they don’t feel like they can be understood and have some action taken behind it,” Herse said. 

Teens are having relationships earlier than they used to (in order) to make up for the attention and companionship that have missed because “between family, friends and community, something is falling short,” Herse said. 

“Having a lack of those things is causing a lot of the issues with violence,” she said. “People who have been abused are abusing back. It seems like it’s a part of the whole cycle of violence, which is another thing we try to talk to them about.” 

At the classroom presentation on Monday, the cycle of violence was illustrated as three stages on a circle diagram: During “tension-building,” the abusive mate gets angry over small things and may be jealous. “Acute battery,” the second phase, sees open abuse. Then comes the “honeymoon” – remorse, presents, promises. 

“Which two might fade away over time?” Baldridge asked. 

Most students responded correctly. Sometimes, only the abuse is left. 

Shannon Singleton-Banks, the peer education coordinator at Berkeley High, said her student volunteers taught seventh and eighth graders at Berkeley Alternative School, Longfellow Middle School, and King in the last few years, as well as at Berkeley High. 

At Willard Middle School, she said, teachers give domestic violence education.  

Banks’ biggest challenge, she said, “is to get the guys to come and be a part of this peer education thing,” Banks said. 

Debbie Arthur, who coordinates the domestic violence prevention program for the Berkeley Department of Health and Human Services, said peer education was especially valuable for domestic violence because “young people, as opposed to turning to adults for advice, sometimes turn to their peers.” 

“We’re basically talking about power and control, and how they can be used to intimidate people, and also about attitudes and beliefs that we have in terms of how we treat each other and how does that play out in the school community,” Arthur said. “Relationship violence often starts during the teen years and may continue into the adult years as domestic violence, and it’s this continuum that we really want to prevent.”

Tuesday, Oct. 30

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

Berkeley Organization for  

Animal Advocacy presents: 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

2305 Tolman 

Dr. J. B. Neilands, Cal Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, will discuss his involvement in the animal rights movement and provide insight on the alternatives to animal experimentation on campus. 

925-462-7927/ www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~boaa 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Classes 

6:30 -8 p.m. 

James Kenney Rec. Center 

1720 Eighth St.  

The city is offering low- cost Hatha Yoga classes for adults. Taught by certified instructor. Drop-ins are welcome. Bring a mat or towel. $6. 981-6650 548-3333 

California Politics Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Chuck Rund, President of Charlton Research. 

642-4608 

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 

Aids in South Africa 

7 p.m. 

150 University Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Zackie Achmat, a South African AIDS activist, will discuss the struggle of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa to obtain life-saving drugs. $ 5-10 Suggested donation. 415-621-6196  

Wednesday, Oct. 31

Yoga for People with HIV/AIDS 

10:45 - 11:45 a.m. 

Center for AIDS Services 

5720 Shattuck Ave.  

Free Kundalini Yoga class for people with HIV/AIDS. Mats provided, you may bring a towel. Eating within an hour of class is not advised. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

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 

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.November Out and About Calendar 

Thursday, Nov. 1

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Justice for Tenants Rally and  

Picket 

4 – 5:30 p.m. 

1942 University Ave. 

Lacking affordable housing, renters are being pushed over the edge... Join the tenant fight back. Free food and music, 367-1225. 

Harris Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. 

642-4608 

Kayak Adventures on the  

Seven Seas 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Olaf Malver will share slides and stories of his sea kayaking adventures around the world: Turkey, Indonesia, Antarctica and more. Free. 527-4140 

Holiday Art Fest 2001 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

461 Ninth Street, Oakland 

There will be live music and refreshments to celebrate the start of annual exhibit and sale of unique gifts and specialty items designed by Bay Area artists. 

Friday, Nov. 2

National Children’s Book Week 

3:30 p.m. 

North Branch Public Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Saturday, Nov. 3

Media “Wedge Kit” Training 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

The goal of the Media Wedge Kit Training is to help participants create and insert dynamic, witty, and irresistible new language like a wedge into the mainstream media wall. $15 non-members, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds, 548-2220 x233. 

National Children’s Book Week 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Branch Public Library 

2121 Allston Way 

3 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Public Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Theatre company “Word for Word” in a children’s performance of two stories: “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling and “Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti” by Gerald McDermott. Geared for children 4 years and up. Free. 649-3943 www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Gardening with East Bay  

Native Plants 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Class held offsite 

An Ecology Center sustainable living class. A hands on workshop in a local garden built from local native plants, restoration gardening, philosophy, ecology, design, local plant sources, and home propagation. Preregistration is required, 548-2220 x233. $15 non-members, $10 members, nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

Poetry Reading 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Branch Public Library 

1901 Russell St. 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition hosts an open reading. 527-9905 poetalk@aol.com 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served 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  

Editor: 

I am proud to live in Berkeley. I am proud to be a citizen of the city whose congressional representative resisted assigning unlimited discretion for war and peace to the president, and whose Town Council recommended stopping a brutal and largely gratuitous military exercise. 

I am not proud of the many, many leaders of this country who have labeled any analysis of the etiology of the nature of the events of Sept. 11, as condoning the attacks, and as disloyal. 

In her strikingly courageous refusal to follow the moment’s common will, Barbara Lee was the true and loyal citizen, at that moment the most loyal citizen of this constitutional democracy. She was the only one to show by voting that an undefined sequence of military commitments of such importance and complexity must be openly tested and discussed. Instead of publicly castigating the council “radicals” for their support of Lee and of continued bombing in Afghanistan, the mayor could well have shown respect for council resolutions with which she disagrees. 

Civil liberties, open discussion, a multitude of perspectives, opinions, voices, have been the essence, and, so far, the salvation of this country. The threat now is not book-burning, and scissors. The threat is more insidious - a total and freely offered submission of will. The will not to see. The will not to know. The will not to discuss. It extends from New York Times’ relative suppression of accounts, figures, or images of the assault on Afghanistan and its censorship of comments by bin Laden, to hysterical verbal whip-lashing of unpatriotic “traitors,” and to many instances of physical attack on Middle Easterners, any Middle Easterner. From Council to Congress, elected representatives must remember and support the principles of social and economic justice, protection of the environmental conditions of life, a fair and reasonable technical and social infrastructure both locally and globally, the freedom to think, talk, and criticize... They must continue to support the principles for which, presumably, they were elected. 

Now is the time for the concept and observance of The Loyal Opposition to be honored here. 

Ariel Parkinson 

Berkeley 

924 Gilman St. Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring .com  

Anna’s Nov. 1: The Irrationals; Nov. 2: Anna de Leon and Ellen Hoffmann, 10 p.m. Bluesman Hideo Date; Nov. 3: Robin Gregory and Bill Bell, 10 p.m. The Distones Jazz Quartet; Nov. 4: Danubius; Nov. 5: Rengade Sideman with Calvin Keys; Nov. 6: Singers’ Open Mic #1; Nov. 7: Bob Shoen Jazz Quintet All shows 8 p.m. unless noted. Free. 1901 University Ave., 849-2662 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., Bluegrass Benefit Concert for the NY Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund. Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Mike Marshall, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Bluegrass Intentions, Kathy Kallick Band, Detour; $20. 1317 San Pablo Ave., 525-5099 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blake’s Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Nov. 1: Ascension, $5; Nov. 2: Shady Lady, Buffalo Roam, $5; Nov. 3: Funk Monsters, Molasses, $5; Nov. 4: Lost Coast Band, Supercel, $3; Nov. 5: All Star Jam featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Nov. 6: Inner, Ama, $3; Nov. 7: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2, Hebro, free; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $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; Oct. 19: Little Jonny and the Giants; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 1: Si Kahn $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 1: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series Nov. 1: 8 p.m., Singer/songwriters Faith Nolan and Megan McElroy, $14; Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

The Stork Club Oct. 30: 9 p.m., Simple Things, Tombshakers, Ultrafiend, $5; Oct. 31: Oppressed Logic, Eddie Haskells, TBA, $5; 2330 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. 444-6174  

Yoshi’s Restaurant and Jazz Spot Oct. 29: 8 & 10 p.m., The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra, $10. 238-9200 www.yoshis.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Distaff Singers Annual Benefit Concert” Nov. 3: 8 p.m., Distaff Singers 64th Annual Benefit Concert for the Ida Altenbach Scholarship Fund. $10. Oakland Mormon Interstake Auditorium, 4770 Lincoln Ave., 658-2921 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 through Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m., matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep. org 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Oct. 30, 31: 8 p.m.; Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30. Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; 

UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail. com 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.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 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4:30 p.m. 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

“African Harmonies,” the artwork of Rae Louise Hayward Through Oct. 31: Hayward’s art celebrates the beauty of African culture: its people, sculpture, textiles, jewelry and music. Tues. - Thurs. 1 - 7 p.m., Sat. noon- 4 p.m. Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286/ www.wcrc.org 

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Through Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“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 

GTU Exhibit: “Holocaust Series” by Cleve Gray through Jan. 25: Comprised of 21 works on paper that constitute “a catharsis... for all of humanity.” Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. noon - 7 p.m.; Free. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 www.gtu.edu 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Oct. 29: Arturo Pérez-Reverte reads from “The Nautical Chart”; Oct. 30: Ruben Martinez recounts “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail”; Oct. 31: Barry Lopez reads from “Light Action In The Caribbean”; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

“Michael Moore” Oct. 29: 7:30 p.m. Author and film maker reads from his new book “Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation”. $12-15. Sponsored by Cody’s. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., 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; Oct. 25: A Storytelling Pajama Party, 6 - 7 p.m.; Oct. 27: 4th Annual Habitot Halloween; Oct. 28: Family Arts Day; Oct. 31: Sugar-Art Halloween Frosting; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 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.

The City Council will hold the first of two public hearings tonight on the Draft General Plan that, once approved, will govern city development for the next 20 years. 

City staff and planning commissioners expect some aspects of the draft plan to elicit controversy, including downtown parking, rent control and a proposed amendment by a nonprofit environmental development group that calls for the possibility of increased height limits downtown. 

The 191-page draft plan, prepared by the Planning Commission, is the result of two and a half years of public discussions and contains input from hundreds of Berkeley citizens and a variety of city commissions and boards.  

The council won’t weigh-in on the plan until after the second hearing on Nov. 6. The state requires the council to approve the General Plan by Dec. 18, the last council meeting of the year. 

The General Plan is a document of goals, objectives and policies, which govern land use, transportation and environmental management. 

Berkeley’s General Plan has not been updated since 1977, and Senior Planner Andrew Thomas said many of the goals of the old plan remain in the new draft although they reflect updated methods, concepts and theories. 

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the draft plan on July 11. But among the 600 policies approved, the commission was unable to agree on two issues: parking and rent control. 

The draft plan calls for a two-year moratorium on public parking studies, while seeing whether the city can make better use of existing parking.  

Business owners and arts groups in the downtown area believe a lack of new public parking will harm both existing businesses and the burgeoning Downtown Arts District. 

“We know that there is going to be more demand for short-term parking and the draft plan is asking: ‘Can we accommodate (automobiles) with our current parking supply before taking on the very expensive proposition of building more?’” Thomas said. 

Thomas added that the council may amend the draft plan to add a provision requiring that no downtown public parking is lost. 

He pointed to a city transportation report, the Transportation Demand Management study, which calls for getting traditional long-term parkers – usually people who work in the area – to take public transit or some other form of transportation, thereby freeing up parking spaces for theatergoers, shoppers and restaurant patrons. 

Another controversial issue might be a single sentence in the plan that supports the repeal of a 1995 Costa-Hawkins Bill. This state law allows landlords to increase residential rental rates when rental units become vacant. The policy in the draft plan would have no direct impact on the state law, but some city landlords object to its inclusion in the General Plan. 

Furthermore, Ecocity Builders, a nonprofit agency dedicated to creating open space in urban areas by increasing residential density along transportation corridors, is asking for four amendments to the plan. To support the proposed amendments, Ecocity Builders will submit a petition with more than 100 signatures from nonprofits, educational institutions and businesses, said Ecocity Builder President Richard Register. 

One amendment calls for establishing a Transfer of Development Rights policy. A TDR would allow developers to increase height limits in the downtown in exchange for purchasing and razing existing buildings in environmentally sensitive areas, over creeks for example, and then turning over the restored open space to the city. 

The draft plan sets a height limit in the downtown area for no more than seven floors. If the TDR amendment is approved, it would allow 10 or 11 story buildings Register said. 

“Biodiversity is extraordinarily important for the health of the Bay and for teaching our children how life systems work,” Register said. “If we are going to restore creeks we are going to need to remove occasional buildings and with a TDR policy you can also increase housing.” 

According to Thomas, the Planning Commission did not include the TDR policy in the draft because it did not want to create controversy by increasing height limits in the downtown area. 

“They didn’t want to get into the question of raising the height limits because the issue had been so controversial,” Thomas said. “This is the fourth draft of the plan and the first two recommended raising height limits but the public response against it was very strong. People came unglued.” 

The plan sets an ambitious goal to create 6,400 permanent affordable housing units during 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 in-fill development in the downtown area and along transit corridors.

When you pass a resolution you are assuming to speak for the citizens of your city. I can't imagine that an entire city is as blind to the truth as its elected representatives. 

In case you pull your head out of the sand in the near future, maybe you will realize that our enemies do not want to smoke a joint with you, or ask for your forgiveness, they want to kill us, all of us, you included, including your children and/or your grandchildren. Maybe you should go to New York City and witness the absolute carnage, to breathe in the smell of death, and help pickup the body parts of those that were murdered by our enemies. 

If you can't accept this and want to continue to be traitors to this country, maybe you will consider giving up your citizenship and try living in a country that will kill you simply for opening your stupid mouth. 

Charles Guion 

Baton Rouge, LA 

The number of assaults around Telegraph Avenue, south of the UC Berkeley campus, rose sharply last year, according to the latest available police crime statistics. 

While the city police department numbers point to felony rates dropping in parts of Berkeley, those same statistics reveal that the number of aggravated assault cases around north Telegraph Avenue nearly quadrupled between 1998 and 2000, doubling between 1999 and last year. 

Berkeley Police were unable to explain the sharp increase. 

“The figures are of deep concern (to us),” said Kathy Berger, executive director of the Telegraph Area Association, a grouping of residents and businesses. 

According to police department statistics, robberies, burglaries, and auto thefts have dominated crime in the neighborhood which is heavily populated by university students and encompasses Census Tract 28. Assault cases jumped to 104 in 2000 for that census tract from 50 in 1999 and 27 in 1998. The increase was sharper than in other census tracts of the city. Tract 28, which represents 6,407 people or 7.1 percent of Berkeley’s population, is bounded by College Ave., Oxford St. and Dwight Way.  

Last year, 7.6 percent of the city’s top eight major crimes took place in that area, a marginal increase from the previous year. This year’s overall crime rate, police statistics show, was identical to 1998: 7.6 percent. 

In the lexicon of criminology, “aggravated assault “ is one of those loosely defined terms where the crime can be treated as a felony or misdemeanor, depending on its gravity. 

Assault is not considered as serious as murder or rape. But the California attorney general’s office thinks it’s serious enough to rank it among the state’s top eight offenses. 

“If I say to you that I’m going to punch you in the face, and I move my fist toward your nose, and I hit you, that’s assault, “ said Susan Underwood, a legal expert with the attorney general’s crime prevention division. “If I say to you that I’m going to punch you in the face, and I move my fist toward your face but I stop myself from punching you – that’s still assault.” 

I am so proud of my city standing up in the face of the lockstep jingoistic insanity going on in this country. I feel glad that Berkeley is so far ahead of its time, looking so very many years into the future, when the rest of humanity catches up (if it survives) and learns that acting righteous and keeping one's boot on the neck of those born by some chance in another place isn't what gets us the most security. 

In Truth, Justice -- and the real American Way. 

Mandeep S. Gill 

U.C. Berkeley Graduate Student 

Palo Alto,  

Students and law professionals who attended the fifth annual National Latino and Latina Law Students Conference this weekend at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School agreed the field is hurting from a lack of Latinos. 

“There isn’t a level playing field in our courtrooms,” said Jessica Delgado, a public defender in Monterey. 

The situation is particularly dire in California, which has a population of more than 10 million Latinos. 

According to the California La Raza Lawyers Association, out of 1,600 superior court trial positions only 72 are held by Latinos. Furthermore, only 4 percent of the state’s attorneys are Latino. Therefore, clients who want a Latino lawyer have an especially small pool to choose from. 

Almost all who came to the conference expressed concerns that ranged from the number of Latino judges to universities’ admission policies. 

Margaret Montoya, a professor at University of New Mexico’s School of Law, said Latinos living in California make up one-third of its population and should expect to see a good representation of lawyers and judges they can turn to. 

“Supporters of legislation like Proposition 209 say that race is a proxy,” she said. “But we need to tell them that we are coming from a world view from which we understand the world and can help.” 

Gabriella Gallegos, 25, a student, said the university’s law school was once one of the most diverse schools in the country, and Proposition 209 has helped to change that. 

This year, only 17 of the program’s 299 enrolled students, identify themselves as Latino. 

But, Victoria Ortiz, an assistant dean, said the real problem of diversity in the school wasn’t admitting students. She said there was little money for scholarships to offer applicants. 

Out of 28 Latino students who were admitted but chose not to enroll, 27 went to Stanford, Ortiz said. Students chose Stanford over Berkeley because they received more scholarships to fund their education, she added. 

Yet, Delgado indicated that the issue wouldn’t be resolved by bringing in more judges and lawyers of Latin descent. She said there are many other challenges, which undermine the quality of representation the system offers clients. 

Delgado said she often sees Latino judges sentence clients more harshly than their white counterparts. 

“The benefit for the client whose case is being heard by a Latino judge is that the color of their skin and background should resonate with that judge,” she said. 

Delgado, who said she is often mistaken as an interpreter, also said the challenges she faces make the work of defending clients extremely difficult. She said she has had to convince judges, colleagues and even clients that a Latina could do the job. 

“I’ve had clients request a white male to be their attorney because they think a lawyer from that background will have better rapport with a judge,” said Delgado. 

Richard Paez, a judge with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, said he didn’t apply a different standard to determine decisions on cases brought against Latino clients. 

“When you take an oath at the federal level, you swear to judge the case that’s being advocated in your courtroom fairly,” he said. 

Nonetheless, he said, he can’t help but draw on his experiences and background to judge cases. However, he’ll use his knowledge to apply it on cases across racial and economic lines, he said.  

Panelists told students that forums like the weekend conference were important to bring about change. 

“Sometimes I feel like I’m a speed bump, but don’t misunderstand me,” Delgado told students. “I love what I do.” 

She said she feels elated when she wins small victories for a client whose rights have been trampled on. 

“You can affect people’s lives in a variety of different ways,” she told students. 

Valeriano Salcedo, a superior court judge in Tulare, said institutions of higher education needed to work on the K-12 grades, which can act as a “feeder system for students to enter competitive law programs.” 

Some professionals who attended the conference indicated that changing the status quo in law schools can impact the number of Latinos in those institutions. They said students are in a position to challenge university officials into changing the system. 

William Kidder, a researcher at Boalt Law School, said across the country there is a direct correlation with student activism and universities’ hiring of Latino professors and admission rates of Latino students. 

“The things that you do, at whatever school you’re going back to, can play a pivotal role in your school’s policy.”

Margo Shafer is right - the bombing of Afghanistan by U.S .government forces is our problem. I commend Councilmember Dona Spring for bringing this forward for debate. It is not true that it is happening “over there” so that it doesn’t affect us “over here.” Citizens must get good information in order to make good decisions and participate fully to ensure a democratic government. We are part of a global community, and should be informed and interested in government policy which does not directly affect us in our local community.  

The United States has hundreds of thousands of tons of depleted uranium piled in heaps outdoors at DOE facilities. It is 99.5 percent of what is left when the most fissionable isotope (one of three) is extracted from naturally occurring uranium. The extracted uranium is used in nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors. The 99.5 percent that is discarded cannot be put back into the mines it came out of because, after crushing and processing, the volume is greater than before it was removed from the mines. 

The Department of Defense got the bright idea of using DU in weapons because (1) it is very dense giving it greater penetrating power to destroy tanks etc. (2) it is pyrophoric – upon impact, it explodes into fire and smoke creating submicroscopic radioactive particles which travel great distances and can remain suspended until “rained out” of the atmosphere, (3) it is radioactive and will continue acting internally long after the battlefield has been cleared - with delayed effects which continue acting on soldiers and civilians the rest of their lives (4) it is cheap and passes the responsibility for disposal from DOE on to civilians (that means us) and the environment. The half life of uranium is 4.5 billion years - in 10 half lives radioactivity becomes an insignificant amount. In 45 billion years it will no longer be a danger. In other words - it’s “fun” for the DOD, it’s “cheap” for the arms manufacturers (at good profits), and “good riddance” says DOE. 

The United States has manufactured, used, tested DU in 39 states. The cleanup bill - just for the DU - at the Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana would be $7.8 billion. It has not been cleaned up, but DOD has closed it. Communities living near these test ranges will continue to be exposed and suffer health problems. The Sierra Army Depot in California, for 40 years, has burned millions of tons of old munitions – including 20 times more DU than used in the Gulf War. The radioactive ash full of heavy metals, phosgene gas and dioxins contaminated local communities as well as Native American communities downwind - especially the Pyramid Lake Paiute reservation. The health problems in those communities has been horrendous. The Sierra Army depot burned old munitions in open pits - and was the single largest contributor to air pollution in California - 17-23 percent. 

Did anyone in this city know that, or do anything to inform the citizens? I doubt that anyone was aware or informed. Several months ago I made a short presentation to the Peace and Justice Commission. Norman Harry, former Pyramid Lake Tribal Chairman, and Senator Harry Reid worked with others to shut it down. Less than a month ago Lassen County refused to renew the burn permit for the Sierra Army Depot - finally. 

The United States has used DU weaponry in the Gulf War, Kosovo, Serbia, Vieques Island, Torishima Island near Okinawa, Japan, and sold it to at least 23 countries. Israel uses it nearly daily on the Palestinians. It is in the arsenal the United States is using on Afghanistan. It can be detected on gamma meters in Greece and Bulgaria on windy days. It’s the weapon that “keeps giving”... 

Leuren Moret 

Berkeley 

Editor: 

I wanted to reach out. There have been losses lately. Four people I love and like have suffered deep personal losses in a matter of days. The country has suffered a loss, and the world trembles and shakes. My heart is heavy. I have lost my dream that there could be a solution of courage, of existential acts which would transform. We are bombing the life out of Afghanistan, a land of my youthful romantic visions shaped by the pages of Mitchner's “Caravans.”  

Killing is horrible, but doing it without intimacy, without the mindfulness of what we do, from the air where those ordered to go cannot touch or be touched, I feel that is obscene. And the men and women who send them are even more removed. I hate it. 

Where is our courage? It is not Afghanistan which threatens us, that is simply the place the Saudis have bought to attack us from, perhaps in the hope that they can free themselves before their oil runs out and we don't need them any longer. Perhaps to cover that there are powerful and controlling forces in their midst which hate us because we are not them. Perhaps both. After all, the Saudi Royal Family is large and has to prepare for its future. 

Osama bin Laden is a front man, formidable but a front. The corrupt and cruel regimes of the Middle East are interested only in their own wealth and power. It's different there you know. In the West our power seekers, though selfish, identify with the nation and it's institutions. In the Middle East the nation identifies with the Power Man, and they don't get to vote him out.  

We know this---but we satisfy our primitive talonic need by bombing Afghanistan. Bush said, Turn him and his lieutenants and his thugs over and we''ll stop what we're doing to your country. “To your country!” he said. I am ashamed. The most powerful most technologically advanced country in the world crushing to dust a country where they have mostly stones.  

I hope to hell that we give them what they need to rebuild. But now, right now we have dropped 650,000 single day food packs. Are we rushing to send vast ship loads of our surplus grain, which we have sometimes allowed to rot? Doesn't our American spirit demand of us that we feed hungry people dislocated by our warfare, as the winter’s ice looms. 

Where is our courage? We have been attacked ruthlessly and the best we can do is bomb Afghanistan and sneak around on the ground at night blowing up small arms and killing some more pawns, while most of the real terrorist supporters and most of the rest of the world applaud politely. And while the worst thugs in Iraq thumb their noses at us, and in Iran they smile hardly even up their sleeves, at our seeming impotence. And maybe they tremble secretly at our raw power and our willingness to use it ruthlessly.  

The Taliban are thugs but... Where is our courage? I have been sitting with this for days. It helps to write. I feel a little more angry and a little less blue. 

Leonard Schwartzburd 

Berkeley

Among the questions before the council tonight, is a $100,000 contract with the Flamingo Hotel to provide emergency housing for homeless people who are seriously mentally disabled.  

The funds will come from state grant money the city received last November. In the past the city’s Mobile Crisis Team has been able to house people at the Flamingo Hotel on an emergency basis. 

According to the report the contract with the Flamingo is stop gap measure until long-term housing is arranged. 

Homeless survey finds services lacking 

The council will hear a report on the status of homeless people residing in Berkeley. The report is based on a survey by Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter and services for the homeless in Berkeley and Oakland, of 100 homeless men and women. 

The report concludes that Berkeley’s estimated 1,200 homeless are regularly harassed by the police, have insufficient access to shelter, health services and education. 

Among the solutions suggested in the report are that the city add to the number of shelter beds, create a detoxification facility and designate a legal camping area in the city limits. The report also asks for greater investigation of the relationship between the homeless and the Berkeley Police Department. Chief Dash Butler will be present to respond to some of the conclusions in the report. 

Relocating the folk festival 

The Commission on Disability is requesting the council relocate Berkeley’s annual Free Folk Festival to a location more accessible to diabled people. 

According to a COD report, the stage of the current location, Ashkenaz, has an inaccessible stage and the entrance ramp is of an unsatisfactory design.  

The report also claims the venue’s bathrooms, though recently improved, are still awkward to use. Access to them is more difficult during events when the narrow hallway outside the bathroom is crowded with people.  

The report suggests that the current venue does not adequately accommodate the growing number of people who attend the popular festival each year. 

It suggests moving the festival to one of Berkeley’s schools as a possible solution. Some schools have accessible auditoriums and space for workshops and related festival activities. 

Traffic safety for school kids 

The council will consider a recommendation from Mayor Shirley Dean to review the school traffic safety plans. According to the recommendation, the council approved a proposal over a year ago that required each Berkeley school, public and private, to submit a safety plan for picking up and dropping off of children.  

But Dean said there is little evidence that the plans are in effect. The recommendation contends that a police officer, who once enforced a 10-minute parking limit on Ellis Street near Malcolm X School, is no longer there and children continue to cross Ashby Avenue at Ellis Street instead of walking one block west where there is a traffic signal. The report also describes a child struck by a car while crossing Ellis Street to reach a school yard.  

Public hearings 

The council will hold four public hearings, beginning with a proposal to increase parking fees at the Center Street Garage.  

The council will hear public comments on the formation and taxation of businesses in the Downtown Berkeley Business Improvement District. 

It will also hear an appeal of a declaration by the Zoning Adjustments Board that a property at 2507-09 McGee Avenue is a public nuisance.  

Finally, there will be a public hearing on the Draft General Plan and an Environmental Impact Report on the plan. Another public hearing will be held on the draft plan on Nov. 6. 

The council will also look at authorizing: 

• The acceptance of $800,000 in state grant money to construct the Berkeley Bay Trail. The additional funds will make the total state contribution to the project $3.5 million. 

• The city manager to develop a charter amendment to allow the redistricting process to occur after the decennial census is complete and any under or overcounts are adjusted. The recent redistricting process was marred by a Census Bureau undercount of nearly 4,500 people, mostly students in districts 7 and 8. 

• Six months of supplemental military leave benefits to employees called to active duty in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Berkeley Housing Authority 

The Berkeley Housing Authority, which is made of the City Council and two affordable housing residents, will meet in the Council Chambers at 6:30 p.m. just prior to the regular City Council meeting. The BHA will discuss a report detailing an increase of 17 rental units to Berkeley’s section 8 housing program over the last three months. In order for the program to remain viable and to avoid financial cuts by the Office of Housing and Urban Development, the BHA has to reach a goal of 1,620 section 8 leases. Currently there are 1,270. 

The BHA will also discuss a report on the status of Section 8 Resident Council and the Public Housing Resident Council. The council and board are made up of section 8 and public housing residents. According to the report, the effectiveness of the resident councils is impeded by an inability to work together. In addition many of the board’s and council’s meetings have been canceled because not enough members show up to legally take action on items on their agendas.  

Housing Director Stephen Barton will also ask the BHA to approve a $90,000 contract with AA-1 Construction to provide building maintenance for city-owned public housing. 

The meeting will be held tonight at 7 p.m. at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in the City Council Chambers. It will also be broadcast live on the KPFA Radio, 89.3 and Cable B-TV, Channel 25.

WASHINGTON — After meeting Monday with federal officials, Gov. Gray Davis said he hopes to get approval within 30 days to allow California Highway Patrol officers to serve as sky marshals on flights within the state. 

The governor also wants federal approval to expand the duties of National Guard troops at California airports to include random searches of checked baggage. Currently, they are limited to checking carry-on bags at security checkpoints. 

Davis met in Washington Monday with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey, whom he described as receptive to his ideas. 

“Both proposals were received with interest,” Davis said. 

Davis first made the sky marshal proposal a month ago, explaining that CHP officers take 7,800 work-related flights a year. The highway patrol officers’ union has raised questions about the idea, but has not voiced opposition. 

Davis described both proposals as essentially free. CHP officers would serve as marshals only on flights they already would be taking, and airports would not need more National Guard troops to expand the reservists’ duties. 

The governor headed from his meeting with transportation officials to tour the Pentagon crash site. He also will visit the World Trade Center site in New York on Tuesday. The itinerary for his East Coast trip also includes a visit to his mother in Florida and two campaign fund-raising events in New York. 

Davis was not the only California official on attacks-related business on the East Coast. 

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was in New York on Monday to testify before the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, and to present $244,305 to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. 

The money, for the survivors of the police and firefighters who died in the collapse of the Trade Center buildings, was raised by the sheriff’s department through the sales of memorial bracelets and bumper stickers. 

SAN DIEGO — Authorities detained 21 illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Monday. 

The men and women came in two groups at the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego and are being held while the immigration service decides whether any qualify to remain in the United States, INS spokeswoman Lauren Mack said. 

Because of privacy laws, the INS can’t disclose whether any in the group are seeking political asylum, Mack said. 

By far, most illegal immigrants caught at the border in San Diego are Mexican. Authorities occasionally stop people from other countries, but it is rare to encounter a large group from Sri Lanka in Southern California, she said. 

The Sri Lankans arrived on foot in two groups. Sixteen arrived Saturday and five more Sunday. 

They told authorities they traveled by plane from their South Asian island nation to Jordan, then came to Mexico by ship. Each paid between $19,000 and $31,000 for the journey. 

Last year, nine illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka who came individually or in small groups were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, Mack said. 

Sri Lanka has been plagued by an 18-year civil war in which at least 64,000 people have died. 

Militants among the 3.2 million Tamils of the island-nation off the southern tip of India are leading an often violent campaign for a separate homeland. They allege that Tamils are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who comprise 14 million of the country’s 18.6 million people.

LOS ANGELES — Napster won’t let the music play until some time next year. 

The embattled song-swapping service’s chief executive, Konrad Hilbers, told a technology conference Monday that the company must still license more major record label music before it can go back online. That will probably be in the first quarter of next year, he said. 

Napster has been off-line since July in an effort to comply with a federal judge’s order that the free music trade be halted. Hilbers said Napster will replicate its popular file-sharing service in a secure environment while pressing for licensing deals with major labels. 

He hopes a settlement of the suit his company faces can help Napster recreate the song downloading magic that brought the company 60 million users at its peak. 

“Music, I think, makes close friends of people with nothing in common but a shared love of Incubus or Jerry Garcia’s Grateful Dead,” Hilbers said. 

Whenever Napster’s new service does come back online, Hilbers reiterated that digital song downloads will include technology that prevents unlimited copying and free distribution. 

All five major labels have vowed to come out with subscription online music services before year’s end. Sony and Universal have partnered to form pressplay while MusicNet is the joint venture of Warner, BMG and EMI. 

Analyst Phil Leigh, of Raymond James and Associates, said even if Napster remains on hold until early 2002 it could possibly time its re-emergence successfully. 

Leigh said Music Net and pressplay could serve to warm up consumers to the idea of subscribing for online music, to the benefit of Napster’s relaunch. 

“It doesn’t hurt Napster if they come in later when the offering becomes more attractive,” Leigh said. 

Jim Griffin, cheif executive officer of Cherry Lane Digital, said at the conference that the online music industry is not quite ready for prime time. He said the industry still needs a large pool of money and a fair way of dividing those funds up among copyright holders and music publishers. 

He said subscription online music businesses and major record labels would need to ignore many of the traditional models that worked for the recording industry in the past. Whatever business models emerge, they’ll be worlds apart from their predecessors, Griffin said. 

“It will not be about control. It will not be about clinging to content,” Griffin said. 

He predicts that subscribers will pay by the month, not per song, for downloaded and streaming music.  

Griffin believes wireless broadband access is a key component to the success of online music, a notion that dovetails with the goals of Evolab, a company he founded that focuses on wireless media services. 

Listen.com is making another play at the changing music landscape. Once merely a directory of legally downloadable music, the service is about to be reborn and will launch a new streaming music platform called Rhapsody. 

Rhapsody, set to launch in about two weeks, is an application where users can store and access streaming song playlists for a subscription fee set by independent distributors. 

But the same problem exists for Rhapsody, as with many others — no big name content. So far, Listen.com only has signed licensing deals with 37 independent labels to provide music content to the Rhapsody service. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.napster.com 

http://www.listen.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — The top lawyer for the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance is at the center of an ethical controversy, and experts say the watchdog agency must be careful in its handling of the issue. 

Victoria Henley, the commission’s chief counsel and top administrator, is accused of having a conflict of interest when she handled disciplinary action against a judge her husband was suing. 

How the commission, which is responsible for disciplining judges, handles the controversy could affect its integrity, experts say. The commission has already requested that an independent investigator handle the case. 

“That was the right thing to do,” Steve Barnett, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall law school told the Los Angeles Times. “The commissioners should be commended for the speed with which they acted on this.” 

In December, Henley and her staff accused Sonoma County Judge Patricia Gray of unfair campaign practices during her 2000 re-election campaign and began disciplinary proceedings. The charges claim she unfairly accused her challenger, deputy public defender Elliot Daum, of condoning the actions of those he defended in court. Gray lost the election. 

The commission could bar Gray from serving as a judge again if it sustains the disciplinary charges. 

But Gray’s lawyer says Henley should have disqualified herself from the proceedings because her husband, Alameda County lawyer Michael Boli, filed a malpractice suit against Gray for a 1994 civil case she handled while still a lawyer. 

Boli had already filed the suit against Gray when the disciplinary proceedings were launched. The suit is still pending. 

Gray’s attorney accused Henley of using the disciplinary proceedings against Gray to enhance the outcome of the civil suit if it’s decided in favor of Boli’s clients. 

WASHINGTON — A new anti-viral drug is being added to the arsenal of anti-AIDS medications. 

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday it has approved Viread for use in combination with other drugs in fighting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. 

The drug blocks reproduction of the virus, the agency said. Its technical name is tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. 

AIDS survival rates have increased in recent years as combinations of drugs are used to battle the virus. 

FDA noted that the virus mutates rapidly, however, and often develops resistance to drugs. That makes development of new medications necessary. 

The FDA said it approved the new pill after two clinical trials on more than 700 people who showed increased HIV despite treatment with other drugs. They showed significant reductions in the amount of HIV in their blood during the trials, the agency said. 

The new drug is taken as a single pill once a day. Supplies should be available by the end of this week, according to the manufacturer, Gilead Sciences of Foster City, Calif. 

Gilead spokeswoman Amy Flood said a year’s supply of Viread would cost $4,135, but added that much of that probably would be covered by insurance. 

In clinical trials the most common side effects of Viread were moderate diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and flatulence. Viread is a type of drug known as a nucleotide analog. Its action is similar to nucleoside analogs, which the FDA said have been connected to some serious liver conditions.

Armed man killed 

SAN JOSE — An armed man who barricaded himself in his home Sunday afternoon and held police at bay for more then 10 hours as crisis negotiators tried to contact him, was shot and killed, San Jose police said Monday. 

According to police, the armed man left his house at about 3:25 a.m. Monday and walked about 50 yards toward a group of officers. He then raised his rifle and pointed it at the policemen. 

An officer fired a round from his rifle and struck the suspect in the chest, a police report said. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene. 

The wife of the man called police at about 4 p.m. to report her husband was on pain medication, was hallucinating and had fired at least two shots from a gun in the garage. 

The man refused to respond to negotiators trying to contact him by phone and a bullhorn, the police report said. 

The Homicide Unit of the San Jose Police Department is investigating the incident. The name of the officer, as well as the name of the suspect and his wife, have not been released. 

Adoptive parents, fathers eligible for  

extension 

STANFORD — The faculty Senate unanimously has voted to include adoptive parents and new fathers on the list of those eligible for tenure clock extension. 

If the changes are to be instituted next January, the board of trustees must approve the revisions during its next meeting in December. 

The current policy applies only to birth mothers, and has been in place for three years. 

Under the revised Faculty Tenure Policy clause, new parents would be able to apply for the extension for up to one year after the birth or adoption of a child.  

In cases of adoption, the child usually must be no older than 5. 

SAN FRANCISCO — More than one third of eligible utility customers answered Gov. Gray Davis’ call to cut electricity use by 20 percent and earned a 20 percent discount on their power bills, utilities said Monday. 

Combined, the customers will save millions of dollars on their electric bills, and by reducing their power use kept themselves from being charged record rate hikes passed by the state Public Utilities Commission in the spring. 

To get the discount, customers of all sizes had to trim their power use by 20 percent or more during any one of the four qualifying summer months — June through September. 

A third of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s 4.6 million electric customers saved a combined $120 million on their electric bills.  

At Southern California Edison, more than 373,000 customers saved a combined $855,956. About 374,000 San Diego Gas and Electric customers earned a combined $6.24 million. 

Californians slashed their power use so much they were lauded by state and utility officials as a chief reason the state weathered the summer heat without having to shut off the lights.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A leading bioterrorism expert has cautioned against the freewheeling exchange of scientific ideas, saying unfettered public access unwittingly could help terrorists. 

“We should be cognizant of the power of our own science,” Thomas Inglesby of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense told doctors gathered Sunday at the Infectious Disease Society of America Conference. 

Inglesby said the same biotechnology research used to create disease-fighting drugs could make it easier for terrorists to develop biological weapons. Scientists soon will complete the genetic mapping of flu viruses, and Ingelsby warned that such information should not be shared publicly on the Internet. 

Meanwhile, most of the doctors attending the four-day event in San Francisco were preoccupied with how to distinguish early onset of anthrax from normal colds and flu, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Julie Gerberding, acting deputy director of infectious disease control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, discussed the latest anthrax treatment guidelines via satellite hookup Sunday. 

The doctors were told that none of the patients with anthrax had a runny nose, a typical symptom of flu or cold. 

“Usually, inhalation anthrax shouldn’t cause runny nose or sinus congestion,” Northwestern University Medical School Professor Tina Stosor told the San Jose Mercury News, “but the verdict’s still out on that.”

SAN JOSE — Police are looking for a 22-year-old suspect in the shooting death of a rookie officer. 

DeShawn Campbell of San Jose likely will face murder charges in Sunday’s death of 24-year-old Jeffrey Fontana, according to San Jose Police Sgt. Steve Dixon. 

Police believe Fontana had stopped a vehicle in an upscale neighborhood in San Jose early Sunday and was shot while approaching it. 

Residents called to report an officer on the ground near his patrol car. Fontana was pronounced dead at the scene, Dixon said. 

Police said Fontana, who was working his regular beat, never called for help and there was no record of a traffic stop. 

Fontana had just finished his 16-week field training and had been patrolling on his own in the last two weeks before being gunned down.  

He had been a member of the force for less than a year. 

MARIPOSA — The triple murder trial of Yosemite killer Cary Stayner will be moved out of this tiny community, away from the rugged mountains where he allegedly preyed on women, a judge ruled Monday. 

Judge Thomas Hastings agreed with the defense and prosecution that extensive news coverage of the case — including Stayner’s confession to four killings — would make it difficult to find a fair jury in this Sierra Nevada foothills county. 

Stayner, who appeared in court Monday with his head freshly shaved, could face the death penalty if convicted of killing three Yosemite tourists who were staying at Cedar Lodge, where he worked on the outskirts of Yosemite as a handyman. 

He is accused of killing Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and friend Silvina Pelosso in February 1999. 

The parents of Carole Sund said they were surprised by Stayner’s scalped look. Carole Carrington said he looked crazy. 

Defense lawyer Marcia Morrissey said outside of court that Stayner has shaved his head throughout his life as a result of a chronic hair-pulling disorder. 

He has always appeared in court with a crop of thinning hair. 

“It was a just a shock,” Francis Carrington said. “It looked like a long-term convict or something.” 

Stayner, 40, already is serving a federal life sentence for murdering Yosemite naturalist Joie Armstrong in July 1999. 

Hastings, a Santa Clara County judge assigned to the case, set a hearing for Dec. 17 to consider where to hold the trial. 

Prosecutor George Williamson recommended Sacramento, Santa Clara and Colusa counties. Morrissey suggested San Francisco or Los Angeles because they have larger jury pools. 

Court administrators will confirm which counties have adequate security, staff and courtrooms available for a trial starting Feb. 25.  

The court then will notify lawyers of the possible sites so they can conduct telephone polls or other research to determine how widely known the case is in those counties. 

Morrissey also said she would be filing motions to dismiss the charges against Stayner, and would seek to suppress witness statements. 

Morrissey left the court without making further comment. She said in the past she would seek to bar evidence of Stayner’s lengthy recorded confession to FBI agents. 

The tape of the confession was played at a hearing in June, with Stayner describing the methodical killings in graphic detail. 

He said a longtime fantasy of killing came alive the night of Feb. 15, 1999, when he saw “easy prey,” the mother and two teens, through the window of Room 509. 

Stayner went to the door and said he had to check a leak in the bathroom. Once inside, he pulled a gun and tied them up. He strangled Carole Sund, 42, and Pelosso, 16, in the room and put them in the trunk of their rental car. 

“I had no feeling, like I was performing a task,” he said about killing Carole Sund, the first of his victims. 

After repeatedly sexually assaulting Juli Sund, 15, he drove her to a remote lake and slashed her throat. He abandoned the rental car and torched it. 

He said it was the first time he ever felt in control of his life. 

Stayner was caught six months later at a nudist colony, after investigators found the headless body of Armstrong in a creek near her cabin in the park. Stayner was arrested after confessing to all four killings.

SACRAMENTO — California will spend more than $1.1 million to boost security at the state Capitol in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks, legislators decided Monday. 

“Like it or not, the Capitol is a potential target,” said Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, chairman of the Joint Rules Committee that oversees security there. 

The state will spend $700,000 to install airport-style metal detectors and X-ray machines at four entrances to the building, eliminating public access at two additional existing entrances. The main and most ornate entrance to the Capitol will be reserved for tour groups. 

Officials said the new equipment will speed searches that have been conducted by hand since the Sept. 11 East Coast attacks, though it may be another two months before the machines are in place. 

In addition, an X-ray machine used to screen mail will be moved from its current location beneath the governor’s office to the California Highway Patrol Academy in West Sacramento, at a cost of $410,000. 

Legislators also are considering buying an irradiation machine that could kill anthrax and other bacteria in mail, but will first see what steps the U.S. Postal Service takes so as to avoid duplication, Cardoza said. 

Sixty large concrete flower planters already have been placed around the Capitol as a barrier to vehicles. The committee plans a public hearing Nov. 13 to consider whether they should be replaced by permanent metal posts or similar devices. 

The planters cost $10,000 to $15,000 but can be used at other state facilities if they’re not needed at the Capitol, said CHP Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick. 

Cardoza estimated the state is spending $5,000 to $10,000 on other security measures, though some are as cheap and easy as locking previously unlocked doors.  

All told, the committee considered 25 precautions at its four-hour closed door meeting, the remainder of which were not made public for security reasons. 

“We don’t want to let the bad guys know what our points of vulnerability are,” Cardoza said. 

The security precautions were endorsed by Assembly members of the Joint Rules Committee, while Senate members still must be polled for their approval. 

Meanwhile, Helmick said the CHP has spent more than $17 million since Sept. 11 on increased security statewide, including more flights over aqueducts, power lines and patrols of bridges and dams. 

To pay the increased cost, Helmick said he is cutting back equipment, travel and training, though most training was postponed anyway because the officers are needed for the beefed up security patrols. 

SALT LAKE CITY — National Guardsmen patrolling the airport with M-16s were not part of the original plan for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Then came Sept. 11, and the Salt Lake Games would never be the same. 

With the games scheduled to start 100 days from Wednesday, Olympic organizers who overcame scandal and financial problems now have just one overriding mission — protecting 2,500 athletes and the fans who come to watch them. 

Unlike the bloody history of the Summer Games, the Winter Olympics have never been disrupted by terrorist attacks. If they are in Salt Lake City, those who are running them know well that both the city and the games may be forever scarred. 

“If you don’t have a safe games, there’s nothing you can do to redeem yourself,” said Mitt Romney, who heads the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. 

About the only thing that will still be the same for 17 days in February is that the world’s best skiers, skaters and jumpers will be competing for Olympic gold. 

But getting in to see them will now take more patience, and new security measures will mute some of the festivities that normally surround an Olympics. 

Some residents who were once proud their city landed the games are now fearful that they will become a target. 

“There is an awful lot of people that if they can find a way to get out of town for three weeks are out of here,” attorney Bruce Baird said. “I think it is just dawning on people what it might be like.” 

Indeed, the enduring image of the Feb. 8-24 games for those attending may be one of tall fences topped with razor wire and standing in long lines to empty pockets and purses into large plastic tubs for security checks. 

At the downtown high-rise where Baird has his office, workers were evacuated last week in a pre-Olympic drill. 

“The attacks have changed people’s psyche. Nobody before thought it was possible,” said Robert Flowers, who heads the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command, the security umbrella for the games. “We weren’t talking about anthrax in Olympic venues before. Now we are. It caused us to take some things more seriously.” 

Before last month’s terrorist attacks, Olympic security officials thought they had built a strong, multifaceted plan at a cost of some $265 million. 

Now the tab is over $300 million, thanks to the addition of 2,000 National Guardsmen to help guard venues and materials and the need to buy more metal detectors, security fences and surveillance equipment. 

Some 10,000 security personnel will be on guard, outnumbering athletes 4-1. Another 5,000 SLOC workers will help guide ticket holders through metal detectors and other detection equipment and make sure they aren’t carrying backpacks or other items that might conceal a weapon. 

In the sky, U.S. Customs helicopters and radar planes will patrol, along with F-16s from nearby Hill Air Force Base. Extraordinary air security measures will likely include the closure of Salt Lake International Airport to air traffic during the opening and closing ceremonies and airspace restrictions at other times. 

On the streets, health officials will have stocked up on antibiotics, and portable decontamination units will be ready to speed to venues should suspicious substances be found. 

Experts will monitor the air for chemical and biological contamination, and thousands of volunteers have been trained to respond to any type of threat. 

“If there’s something found or spotted, we’ll have someone on the scene in minutes and we’ll know how to handle it and what to do,” Flowers said. 

The FBI will have 1,000 agents in Utah to investigate and respond to any threats. Last week, teams of Secret Service agents practiced for various scenarios in Salt Lake City. 

“The intent was to dial up the stress levels,” said Mark Camillo, Olympics coordinator for the Secret Service, which has overall responsibility for the games’ security. 

Indeed, organizers say about the only thing that hasn’t been planned is what to do if the games are canceled. SLOC has $150 million in cancellation insurance from an earlier policy, but Romney said nothing short of a world war could stop the games. 

SLOC has gone so far as to reserve charter planes to bring athletes to the United States should the world’s air travel system be in turmoil. 

“The circumstances that suggest you couldn’t go forward with the games are unthinkable in my view,” Romney said. “There is no Plan B. You proceed with the games almost regardless of the turbulence.” 

Organizers say they hope much of the security will be unobtrusive and barely noticeable, outside of the security fences and checkpoints and the bomb-sniffing dogs at competition sites. 

Much of the armed security will be in plain clothes to blend in with the crowds, while some 1,900 state and local police officers and 500 volunteer officers from around the country will be outfitted in yellow and black uniforms. 

With new plans in place, they’re now trying to convince both foreign governments and Olympic ticket holders that the safest place to be in February may actually be Salt Lake City. 

Romney said only 15 people asked for refunds in the wake of the terrorist attacks, and that the head of the Iranian Olympic committee wrote him a three-page letter congratulating him on the steps taken to protect athletes. 

At a security briefing Monday, Danish International Olympic Committee member Niels Holst-Sorensen said the plans are detailed and thorough. 

“Everything is very well in hand,” he said. 

The extensive plans, though, don’t stop security officials from fretting. A lone man was responsible for the Atlanta bombing that killed one and injured dozens of others, and they worry as much about that as they do about any large organized attack. 

“No one can have 100 percent security. It’s not possible,” Flowers said. “But if we feel we can’t give reasonable protection then we’d ask them not to hold the games.” 

Romney doubts terrorists would make the Olympics a target. 

“Attacking a group of young athletes from around the world doesn’t seem to be a good public relations move to me,” Romney said. “The terrorists didn’t attack the United Nations, they attacked symbols of America. I don’t think they would want to attack the Olympics.”

DETROIT — The company that runs the Dish Network is poised to become the nation’s leading provider of home satellite TV service after reaching a deal to acquire rival DirecTV from General Motors Corp. 

EchoStar Communications Corp. is buying Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV subsidiary from GM for approximately $25.8 billion. The deal, struck Oct. 28 during a weekend session of GM’s board, came after News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch abruptly pulled a longstanding offer for Hughes off the table. 

With 10 million subscribers, DirecTV is the nation’s largest provider of home satellite television service. EchoStar’s Dish Network is a distant No. 2 to with 6.7 million. The combined 16.7 million subscribers would be slightly fewer than those of AT&T Corp., the leading cable TV provider. 

The new EchoStar would control nearly all of the U.S. satellite TV market, but GM said the new entity would have 17 percent of the total pay TV market while cable companies control 80 percent. 

Charles Ergen, chairman and chief executive officer of EchoStar, told reporters and analysts Oct. 29 that the deal would create “a true competitor to cable.” 

Ergen also said the new company would be able to reduce costs by sharing satellite spectrum, bargaining for lower programming costs and having one standard for set-top boxes. 

The new company would retain the EchoStar name, and DirecTV would become a brand for its services and related products. The deal must be approved by federal regulators and GM shareholders. 

Under terms of the deal, GM would technically spin off Hughes and merge it with EchoStar. A majority of EchoStar’s shareholders already have given their approval. 

EchoStar is offering 0.73 EchoStar shares for each share of Hughes. Based on EchoStar’s closing stock price Oct. 26 of $25.26, the deal values each share of Hughes at $18.44 — a 20 percent premium to Hughes’s closing share price of $15.35. 

EchoStar is also offering a $600 million breakup fee to Hughes in the event that the deal is turned down by regulators. 

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2002, the companies said. Hughes will control 54 percent of the stock, while EchoStar shareholders will maintain a 36 percent interest in the new company. 

GM president and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner said the deal would provide “significant benefits to Hughes, EchoStar, millions of present and future DirecTV customers, and shareholders of both GM and EchoStar,” 

Ergen said consumers would benefit from the company’s ability to increase the number of markets served with local channels via satellite and more high-definition TV offerings. 

In midday trading Monday, GM Hughes shares fell 67 cents to $14.6,00378 on the New York Stock Exchange, where News Corp. stock was off $1.91 at $27.14. EchoStar shares slipped 18 cents to $25.08 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

Ergen will remain chairman and CEO of the new company. The board of directors will have nine members, five of whom would be independent directors. 

Aside from DirecTV, Hughes also provides high-speed Internet service through DirecPC and its PanAmSat unit distributes entertainment and information to cable television systems, TV broadcast affiliates, telecommunication companies and corporations. 

Opposition to the transaction is likely to come from consumer groups who fear domination of the home satellite TV market by one company. 

Last week, the president of the National Consumers League asked the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department to look into the possible implications of an EchoStar takeover of DirecTV. 

GM wanted to sell off Hughes in order to focus on its core automotive business. 

Murdoch and GM had been in talks for more than 18 months, but when the automaker’s board failed to make a decision Oct. 27, Murdoch ended his bid for the company. 

Murdoch coveted DirecTV as an adjunct to the satellite TV services News Corp. operates overseas. Acquiring DirecTV would have given him a global satellite television network. 

EchoStar came into the picture last spring. Over the summer the company proposed a stock swap and assumption of almost $2 billion in debt for Hughes. 

Despite its market-leading position with DirecTV, Hughes lost $227.2 million in the third quarter and $481.6 million through the first nine months of the year. The company announced plans in August to lay off 10 percent of its 7,900 workers. 

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On the Net: 

General Motors Corp.: http://www.gm.com 

EchoStar Communications Corp.: http://www.dishnetwork.com 

Hughes Electronics Corp.: http://www.hughes.com 

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SAN FRANCISCO — Mirroring the technology industry meltdown, venture capital investments and fundraising continued to evaporate in the third quarter, dissolving hopes for a turnaround early next year, an industry report said Monday. 

Venture capitalists invested $7.7 billion in start-ups in the three months ended Sept. 30, a 73 percent plunge from the same time last year when the industry reached its quarterly high-water mark of $28.5 billion, according to statistics compiled by industry research firm Venture Economics for the National Venture Capital Association. 

It marked the industry’s lowest investment amount since the first quarter of 1999, when start-ups received $7.2 billion. 

The about-face has been especially dramatic in Northern California, the Silicon Valley home of the nation’s most prominent venture capitalists. Northern California start-ups received $2.36 billion in the third quarter, down from about $10 billion a year ago. 

This year’s steep decline stems largely from the frenetic pace of venture capital investment in 1999 and 2000. During the previous two years, venture capitalists invested $161 billion as they chased after stock market jackpots. Despite the drastic slowdown, 2001 still will represent the venture capital industry’s third-largest investment year. 

But with the level of investment falling for the fourth consecutive quarter, venture capitalists are becoming increasingly somber as they gird for even more erosion in the months ahead. 

Most venture capitalists don’t expect the industry to bounce back for another 12 to 18 months, said John Taylor, research director for the National Venture Capital Association, the industry’s main trade group. 

“Anyone expecting a quick turnaround is sadly mistaken,” said Jim Breyer, managing partner with Accel Partners, a major venture capital firm in Palo Alto. 

In another sign of the industry’s retrenchment, venture capitalists raised $6.2 billion for future investments during the third quarter, a 78 percent decline from the $27.6 billion collected at the same time last year. It represented the lowest amount of venture capital raised since the third quarter of 1997, when $2.6 billion trickled in to the industry. 

Venture capitalists aren’t raising more money largely because they still have so much left over from last year, when institutional investors and other money managers turned over $106.8 billion to the industry. 

Venture capitalists still have an estimated $45 billion to $50 billion remaining from their past fundraising efforts, Taylor said. 

With the stock market turning a cold shoulder to tech companies, venture capitalists are spending most of their time and money nursing their existing investments. The triage is forcing venture capitalists to impose harsh expense reductions that frequently include layoffs, a process that is “emotionally difficult,” said Howard Cox, a general partner with Greylock Financial in Boston. 

“One of the new roles venture capitalists are taking on today is as outplacement (specialists) helping the former employees at their portfolio companies find new jobs,” Cox said. 

Venture capitalists also are expected to fall by the wayside if the technology industry’s carnage continues, as most analysts predict. 

“There will be a significant shakeout in the venture capital business, just as there already has been a significant shakeout in the companies that we have invested in,” Breyer predicted. 

Spooked by a slump that already has saddled the industry with its worst losses ever, venture capitalists are throttling back on their technology investments. Internet businesses accounted for 27 percent of the venture capital invested in the third quarter, down from 46 percent of investments last year, according to Venture Economics. 

Meanwhile, venture capitalists are becoming more intrigued with start-ups involved in biotechnology and medical products.  

These “life sciences” companies received 14 percent of venture capital in the third quarter, up from roughly 7 percent last year

SAN FRANCISCO — Stanford University attracted more money from private donors than any other U.S. school last year, according to a new survey by the Chronicle for Philanthropy to be released later this week. 

Stanford raised $580.5 million during the 2000 fiscal year, which university officials attributed to the then-robust stock market. The sum ranked Stanford eighth nationwide among hundreds of competing charitable organizations. 

Harvard University, the only other school in the top 10, raised $485.2 million. 

“Stanford had a phenomenal year,” said David Glen, associate vice president of the school’s Office of Development. “We are very pleased with the results.” 

The figures came from the Chronicle’s annual survey of the top 400 nonprofit fund-raisers. To make that list, a charity needed to raise nearly $31 million from individuals, corporations, foundations and other private sources. 

The Salvation Army ranked first for the ninth consecutive year, pulling in $1.44 billion. The rest of the top 10 were: 

— Fidelity Investment Charitable Gift Fund: $1.1 billion 

— YMCA of the USA: $812.1 million 

— American Cancer Society: $746.4 million 

— Lutheran Services in America: $710.3 million 

— American Red Cross: $637.7 million 

— Gifts In Kind International: $601.9 million 

— Stanford University: $580.5 million 

— Harvard University: $485.2 million 

— Nature Conservancy: $445.3 million 

Glen said Stanford, like any institution, has peaks and drops in donations from year to year, and said the $580 million reflected the school’s best year to date. He said the total was a combination of smaller gifts, not any one large gift in particular. Stanford was 19th in the previous year’s survey. 

Stanford’s 2000 fiscal year ran from Aug. 31, 1999, to Aug. 31, 2000. 

In May of this year, Stanford received $400 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the second-largest donation to an institution of higher learning. 

Over the weekend, Gordon and Betty Moore and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation gave the largest donation — $600 million over 10 years to the California Institute of Technology. Gordon Moore was a co-founder of Intel. 

Around the country, charities have raised more than $1 billion to aid victims and support recovery from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, undercutting charities not playing a direct role in the relief effort. 

Groups raising money for causes such as the environment or AIDS research are postponing fund drives and scaling back programs as a result. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.philanthropy.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Examiner editor and publisher Ted Fang has been ousted by his mother, who put her own name on the masthead of the Oct. 29 edition. 

Florence Fang issued a four-paragraph statement Oct. 26 saying she had taken over as the newspaper’s editor and publisher while Ted Fang “had been relieved of all his operating duties and responsibilities for the Fang family newspapers.” 

Those duties included publisher of the San Francisco Independent and its related newspapers, giveaway weeklies delivered to doorsteps in the city and some suburbs. She said her son will remain on the Examiner’s board of directors. 

“Ted will continue to have the opportunity to consult and advise us on strengthening our businesses, and at the same time be free to pursue other interests,” Florence Fang said in the statement. 

Florence Fang is chairwoman of the Examiner’s corporate parent and the family business, ExIn LLC. 

Ted’s brother James Fang remains publisher of AsianWeek, another family paper, and Examiner Editor in Chief David Burgin “is taking more of a role in the other newspapers,” said the Examiner’s executive editor, Zoran Basich. 

Florence Fang’s office said she would have no additional comment, and calls to Ted Fang were referred to the Examiner, who said he was unavailable. Calls to his attorney, Darrell Salomon, were not returned. 

The Fangs acquired the Examiner’s name and some other assets last year from the Hearst Corp. for a token amount. The deal also included a subsidy from Hearst of up to $67 million over three years. Hearst had to give up the paper it founded in 1887 to satisfy antitrust concerns raised by its purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Ted Fang vowed to preserve a “second daily newspaper voice for the city.” The Examiner, which has a staff of about 50, hasn’t had an official circulation audit. 

Recently, the Examiner’s general manager, advertising director, circulation director and chief financial officer have left. 

Also, seven construction companies that installed the paper’s newsroom in a Fang family-owned building say they haven’t been paid, and have filed more than $1.4 million in liens against ExIn LLC, the Chronicle reported. 

Basich, who edited the paper’s editorial page before he was promoted in September, said the contractor lawsuits are “completely unrelated” to the reorganization. 

+++++ Two advertisers pull out of New York Post in protest over cartoon 

NEW YORK (AP) — Two advertisers have pulled out of the New York Post, saying they were offended by an editorial cartoon depicting Mort Zuckerman, publisher of the rival New York Daily News, as sealing an envelope bound for the Post that contained anthrax. 

The cartoon appeared Oct. 20, a day after the Post revealed that Johanna Huden, an assistant at the paper’s editorial page section, had developed anthrax on her skin after handling a suspect letter. The Post said Oct. 24 that a mailroom worker had also developed symptoms, including a sore, that were consistent with skin anthrax. 

The first panel in the two-part cartoon showed Post editor Col Allan sitting behind a desk, with a chart behind him showing increased circulation, being asked by another man: “What sort of twisted sicko would send us anthrax???” The next frame shows Zuckerman licking an envelope addressed to the Post, with a jar labeled “Anthrax” on his desk. 

Charles Chalom, who owns five area car dealerships, said Oct. 24 he decided to pull his regular advertising from the Post, which amounts to about $250,000 a year. He said it was the first time in 30 years he has suspended advertising from the newspaper. 

“They took it too far this time. This is way out of line,” Chalom said. “You’re telling the public that he’s a terrorist. It’s a time to stand together and fight a common enemy.” 

Harold Bendell, who owns about a dozen car dealerships in the New York area, has also pulled his advertising from the Post, citing the same reason. He said he normally spent up to $1 million a year on advertising in the Post. 

Zuckerman, a real estate developer who also owns U.S. News & World Report, declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Post did not return a call seeking comment on the advertisers. 

+++++ WSJ editor who escaped collapse now in intensive care 

NEW YORK (AP) — A Wall Street Journal editor who was caught in dust and debris after the World Trade Center collapsed has been hospitalized for a week in intensive care with complications related to vasculitis. 

Rich Regis, 49, the deputy national editor, underwent surgery last week at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Westchester, said Journal spokesman Steve Goldstein. Regis has been treated for kidney failure, a perforated colon and sepsis, all apparently related to vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the blood vessels, Goldstein said. 

The hospital, in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., declined to give his condition but confirmed that he is a patient in the ICU. 

“We don’t know whether this could have been caused by anything he might have inhaled Sept. 11 or if this is a totally isolated case,” said Goldstein. “He was at the scene, but so were a number of other people who are doing just fine.” 

Regis originally sought treatment several weeks ago for swelling of the legs. He was diagnosed with vasculitis, which can be life-threatening if the blood vessels are located in vital organs. 

He arrived at the Phelps emergency room with additional symptoms last week. 

“He is doing better and we hope that he will continue to improve,” Goldstein said. 

Goldstein said anthrax has been ruled out. 

Journal employees were forced to flee their offices at the World Financial Center when the nearby twin towers collapsed, and many were caught in the choking ash and storm of debris as they escaped. 

+++++ Daily in Portland, Maine, ceases publication after 13 issues 

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Portland Morning Sun suspended publication Oct. 25 after 13 issues. 

Edward G. Pickett, the Morning Sun’s editor and publisher, said individuals who were expected to invest in the paper after it launched backed out because of the unstable economy. Without more funding, the paper could not make it through the initial startup period. 

The paper, which was published Monday through Friday and distributed for free, debuted on Oct. 8 with a circulation of about 5,000 in the Greater Portland area. It had local reporters and carried news stories from The New York Times and The Associated Press. 

The paper’s largest competitor was the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, which is owned by The Seattle Times Co. and has a daily circulation of about 75,000. 

Pickett, owner and publisher of the Portland Business Journal, said advertising revenue was increasing. He said the newspaper might return at a later date. 

+++++ Auburn students will no longer elect weekly’s editor 

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Students at Auburn University will no longer elect the editor of The Auburn Plainsman, one of the last major campus newspapers still choosing its editor by popular vote. 

The student senate and a communications board voted in recent weeks to quit electing an editor at the 22,000-student campus, turning the selection over to a committee instead. 

Ed Williams, a journalism professor and faculty adviser on the Board of Student Communications, said the board will meet next month to decide on the makeup of the committee, the standards for candidates and the process of selecting one as editor of the weekly. 

He said the decision to switch leaves the University of Texas as “the only major college newspaper that elects its editor.” 

The Auburn Plainsman has been critical of some members of the Auburn Board of Trustees in recent years. The Board of Student Communications, which includes student leaders and faculty members, voted three years ago to censure then-editor Lee Davidson for the paper’s coverage of trustee Bobby Lowder, a Montgomery banker accused of trying to micromanage the school, a claim he denied. 

Williams said the change, which the board approved Oct. 11 and the student senate made final Oct. 15 in a 23-5 vote, was not in response to the paper’s coverage of trustees. “That was never even mentioned,” he said. 

Williams said the issue was thoroughly researched and the main objective was to get the editor’s post out of the political arena so candidates “won’t have to walk around, wear T-shirts and ask for votes” in a campaign alongside student government hopefuls. 

The Auburn Plainsman has a circulation of 18,000 and a $400,000 annual budget that includes no financial support from the university. It has been well regarded over the years, winning a number of national Pacemaker awards from the Associated Collegiate Press, including one when Davidson was editor. 

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SANTA CLARA — EBay Inc. executives affirmed their aggressive long-term growth targets Monday and detailed plans to expand the sales of cars and other high-ticket items on the trading Web site. 

At the company’s annual meeting with financial analysts, chief executive Meg Whitman said she is even more confident than she was last year that revenue can reach $3 billion by 2005. 

One reason is that the company’s 24 international sites are not yet as profitable as eBay expects they will be in coming years. 

“We are really proud of the foundation we have built,” Whitman said. “It was in 2001 that eBay really hit its stride.” 

The chief financial officer, Rajiv Dutta, said he expects revenue to grow about 50 percent next year, to between $1.05 billion and $1.10 billion, with earnings per share of 70 cents to 73 cents. 

The average estimate on Wall Street was for earnings of 73 cents per share next year, excluding charges, on $1.03 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. 

“The long-term potential of this business ... is nothing short of outstanding,” Dutta said. 

EBay shares fell $4.48, nearly 8 percent, to $52.52 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares were down to $52.36 in the after-hours session. 

Executives said they will push to make eBay a more mainstream Internet shopping option, encouraging people to make the site their first choice for Web commerce rather than a place to turn mainly for hard-to-find items. 

They said they would concentrate on increasing auctions and fixed-price sales in key categories such as automobiles, computers and real estate. 

In hopes of becoming a “major player” in online auto sales, eBay will soon add a short-term warranty to cars bought on the site and make it easier for buyers to have roving mechanics certify cars, said Simon Rothman, head of eBay Motors. 

EBay already had said it would combine its separate Half.com site into eBay.com in the coming months to increase its listings of items at set prices. Executives said Monday that Half.com will be renamed eBay Express Buys. 

Analysts said they were impressed that the company was able to stick to its long-term targets while still taking a conservative approach to its finances. 

“It’s a cash machine,” said Jeetil Patel, Internet analyst for Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. “Despite the economy, these guys are able to grow on a global basis.”

SAN JOSE — Openwave Systems Inc., a leading provider of software behind Internet-surfing cell phones, met Wall Street’s reduced expectations in its fiscal first quarter but will cut about 300 jobs. 

The Redwood City-based company said Monday the job cuts are part of a plan that will save at least $20 million per quarter. The company has about 2,300 employees. 

Openwave, formed in last year’s merger of Software.com and Phone.com, has been hard hit as wireless carriers reassess plans to introduce next-generation features, such as high-speed Internet access and messaging. 

“Openwave is realigning our operations to navigate the unprecedented uncertainty of the telecommunications market,” said Don Listwin, the company’s chief executive. 

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company lost $170.5 million, or 99 cents per share, compared with a loss of $168 million, or $1.04 per share, in the same period a year ago. 

Excluding special items, the company lost $5.9 million, or 3 cents per share, which met the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

The company posted first-quarter revenues of $117.2 million, compared with $80.8 million in the same period last year. 

Officials also lowered their estimates for the second quarter. Per-share loss is expected to be between 6 cents and 19 cents. Sales are expected to be about $100 million, plus or minus 15 percent. 

Analysts were expecting the company to break even on a per-share basis in its fiscal second quarter. 

Shares of Openwave fell $1.02 to $8.99 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. After its loss was announced, it lost another $1.96, or 21 percent.

The Berkeley Unified School District’s two classroom technology coordinators have their work cut out for them. 

Under state law, they must write a detailed report by Jan. 1 explaining how the schools will spend public money on computers, digital cameras and related teacher training over the next three years. 

The problem is, with a big federal grant due to dry up at the end of the school year, they have to plan for things there may not be any money for. At the same time, they must not ask for so little that they miss out on some unexpected windfall. 

“How to ask for money without asking for money?” said Janet Levenson, who oversees the tech programs for the elementary and middle schools. “At this point I don’t think we can ask for anything that requires funding, so what we’re looking to do is sort of write it as a ‘plan to plan.’” 

The technology coordinators are on a tight timeline. They must draft the report by Nov. 26 and submit it for approval at the Dec. 5 school board meeting to meet the state’s Jan. 1 deadline. 

Ironically, as times change and the Internet craze of the 1990s seems like ancient history, Levenson and Carolyn Gery, Berkeley High’s technology coordinator, are also finding their mission hampered by the district’s recent success in rapidly bringing computers to every classroom. 

“Over the last year and half we’ve gotten completely wired and we’ve seen huge numbers of computers coming onto the campus,” said Gery. 

Now, Gery said, there is a minimum of two computers per classroom, plus myriad printers, scanners, digital video cameras and an instructional technician at each site to troubleshoot and help integrate the new technology into the curriculum. 

Statewide, 90 percent of schools were connected to the

Editor: 

Our City Council’s vote regarding current military action in Afghanistan is best understood as a further expression of self-righteous ideologues. Berkeley is dominated by a political machine rooted in the extremist politics of three decades ago. It is a politic that thrives on symbol versus content, and slogan versus thoughtfulness. Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring, Maudelle Shirek, Margaret Breland and Linda Maio are the predictable spokespersons for leftist and often anti-American views. They object to the “anti-American” characterization, asserting that, “dissent is an American value.” Indeed it is. However, their anti-Americanism is not revealed by mere dissent but rather by their fundamental and consistent framing of political events in a way that fixates on and exaggerates America’s errors and mistakes. They ignore our nation’s profound success, accomplishments and contributions to human kind.  

Even at a time when America has been brutally attacked by an enemy that intentionally targets innocent civilians, these symbolic grandstanders cannot resist the opportunity to make a statement contrary to the policy of our nation. They are more outraged by our efforts to defend ourselves than they are by the murder of nearly 6,000 innocent people in our capital and in the heart of one of our great cities. It is one thing for them to express their views as individuals but to arrogantly adopt an official city position is a profound affront to many of Berkeley’s citizens. Undoubtedly these elitists imagine themselves to be the moral conscience for the rest of us. In fact, they are simply ignorant or prejudiced, failing to grasp what the simplest and most ordinary person has understood: our enemy is unyielding, uncompromising and utterly intolerant of any view or culture other than their own. It is an enemy bent on killing anyone with whom it disagrees. 

This is not the time for further cultivation of the same old self-doubt and self-criticism of which the far left is so adept. For elected leaders to engage in such actions at so grave a period in our history is, at best, seriously irresponsible. If our City Council felt compelled to make some statement, it should simply have expressed support for our soldiers who are now in harms’ way, defending not only our rights but our lives. 

The extreme left fails to note that the United States provides more free food and medicine to the world than any other nation. They fail to note that it is the United States and its Western allies who have developed the technologies that allow for global communications, travel, the mass production of vaccines and medicines and the mapping of the genome. These extremists act as if all nations have a free educational system, walk-in emergency rooms, or curb cuts for people in wheel chairs. They forget that we were the first nation to create laws to protect endangered species and are one of only a handful of nations that even thinks about animal rights. We are a humane and self-critical nation that constantly struggles to be more tolerant and fair. Because of our stature, power and ideals we are called upon to participate in the world in a broader and more exposed fashion than any other country in human history. By our necessary broad participation we run the risk of more mistakes. But our City Council and the left in general fail to recognize this context, our risks, and ultimately our generosity. Instead, they behave as apologists for terrorists and the self-righteous critics of America.  

As a 20-year resident of Berkeley, a veteran of the anti-war movement, and a Democrat, I fully support our war efforts and am sickened by the pathetic action of our City Council. Perhaps it is time for a recall. 

John Koenigshofer 

Berkeley

924 Gilman St. Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring.com  

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., Bluegrass Benefit Concert for the NY Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund. Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Mike Marshall, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Bluegrass Intentions, Kathy Kallick Band, Detour; $20. 1317 San Pablo Ave., 525-5099 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blake’s Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $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; Oct. 19: Little Jonny and the Giants; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Nov. 1: Si Kahn $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Jupiter Nov. 1: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series Nov. 1: 8 p.m., Singer/songwriters Faith Nolan and Megan McElroy, $14; Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

The Stork Club Oct. 30: 9 p.m., Simple Things, Tombshakers, Ultrafiend, $5; Oct. 31: Oppressed Logic, Eddie Haskells, TBA, $5; 2330 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. 444-6174  

Yoshi’s Restaurant and Jazz Spot Oct. 29: 8 & 10 p.m., The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra, $10. 238-9200 www.yoshis.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“me/you...us/them” Nov. 8 though Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m., matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Oct. 30, 31: 8 p.m.; Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30. Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; 

UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail.com 

“Saint Joan” Through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.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

CORVALLIS, Ore. – As long as defenses keep zeroing in on Ken Simonton, Oregon State will keep throwing the ball to James Newson. 

And that might be just what the Beavers need to achieve their goal of qualifying for a bowl game, which can only be accomplished by winning three of their last four games. 

Newson had his second straight outstanding game, catching eight passes for a career-high of 166 yards as Oregon State prolonged California’s misery with a 19-10 victory Saturday. 

“We’re going to ride on his back for a while,” said quarterback Jonathan Smith, who completed 14 of 23 passes for 234 yards and a 14-yard first-quarter touchdown to Newson. “With the way they’re playing the run, we’re going to keep throwing it.” 

Simonton added 110 yards rushing for the Beavers (3-4, 2-3 Pac-10), but he fumbled at the end of a 55-yard gain in the third quarter, and otherwise Cal (0-7, 0-5) kept him under control. 

Terrell Williams, playing in place of injured tailback Joe Igber, gained 104 yards for the Golden Bears, who have lost 10 straight games dating to last season, when the Beavers started the skid in Berkeley. Cal has four games left to avoid its first winless season since 1897. 

“We’re just trying to finish this season,” freshman quarterback Reggie Robertson said. “I didn’t have a doubt in the world that we were going to win this game. I still believe that we should have, but we didn’t.” 

To make matters worse, Igber has a broken clavicle in his right shoulder and might be out the rest of the season; he was hurt before a 28-yard gain in the second quarter, the key play on an 80-yard drive that produced Cal’s only touchdown. 

With Kyle Boller sidelined for a second straight game with an injured back, Robertson got the start ahead of senior Eric Holtfreter. Robertson scored on an 8-yard scramble to pull the Bears to 10-7 in the second quarter, but he was just 12-of-32 passes for 120 yards and an interception. 

Cal also turned the ball over three more times, bringing its season total to 23. The Bears forced two turnovers, but still have the nation’s worst ratio at minus-18. 

Newson had eight catches for 112 yards in last week’s loss at Arizona State, and despite a steady rain, he came up with several big grabs Saturday. After his touchdown, he caught a pass over the middle from Smith for a 58-yard gain that set up a field goal, and he later had receptions of 16, 35, 16 and 31 yards. 

“I look forward to that kind of weather,” Newson said. “I think it’s kind of fun.” 

Oregon State gained 174 of its 364 total yards in the first quarter, and the Beavers’ defense – particularly the linebackers – did the job in the second half. 

Nick Barnett had 18 tackles, and Richard Seigler pressured Robertson into an intentional grounding from his own end zone for a 2-point safety and the game’s final score with 9:54 left. 

“My hat’s off to the D,” Simonton said. “They’re keeping us in games, period.” 

Simonton gained 100 yards for the 24th time in his career, but he had been averaging just 72.3 yards per game before Saturday. He was so happy to find some room to roam on his long run, he didn’t even worry too much about coughing up the ball. 

“It was a good high for me, even when I fumbled,” he said. “It felt good to get out and stretch my legs a little.” 

Cal entered the game with the conference’s worst defense, and the group seldom had anything go its way. So inept were the Bears that they managed to turn a fine defensive play into an Oregon State touchdown. 

With his team clinging to a 10-7 lead late in the second quarter, Smith threw into a crowd, and free safety Nnamdi Asomugha intercepted. But as he grappled with the intended receiver, Josh Hawkins, the Beavers’ Shawn Kintner came around Asomugha’s right side and stripped the ball from his arms. 

Kintner ran 10 yards for the touchdown and a 17-7 halftime lead. 

“It was our whole season wrapped into one 5-second play,” said Cal defensive coordinator Lyle Setencich.

Monday, Oct. 29

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 

Lecture - Discovery of  

Quilting 

7:30 p.m. 

First Unitarian Church 

1 Lawson Road, Kensington 

This is Dianne Hire’s own story, her personal expression of the intimate desires to create, to imagine and to express through the medium of quilting. $3 834-3706 www.hirealternatives.com 

Affordable Housing Advocacy  

Project 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Learn about the latest changes in affordable housing at the state and federal level. 800-773-2110 

Race, Immigration and  

American Politics Speaker  

Series 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

David Sears, UCLA, “Race, Religion, and Sectional Conflict in Contemporary Partisanship.” 642-4608 

Tuesday, Oct. 30

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

Berkeley Organization for  

Animal Advocacy presents: 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

2305 Tolman 

Dr. J. B. Neilands, Cal Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, will discuss his involvement in the animal rights movement and provide insight on the alternatives to animal experimentation on campus. 

925-462-7927/ www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~boaa 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Classes 

6:30 -8 p.m. 

James Kenney Rec. Center 

1720 Eighth St.  

The City is offering low- cost Hatha Yoga classes for adults. Taught by certified instructor. Drop-ins are welcome. Bring a mat or towel. $6. 981-6650 548-3333 

California Politics Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Chuck Rund, President of Charlton Research. 

642-4608 

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 

Aids in South Africa 

7 p.m. 

150 University Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Zackie Achmat, a South African AIDS activist, will discuss the struggle of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa to obtain life-saving drugs. $ 5-10 Suggested donation. 415-621-6196  

Wednesday, Oct. 31

Yoga for People with HIV/AIDS 

10:45 - 11:45 a.m. 

Center for AIDS Services 

5720 Shattuck Ave.  

Free Kundalini Yoga class for people with HIV/AIDS. Mats provided, you may bring a towel. Eating within an hour of class is not advised. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Beginners and drop-ins welcome. 841-4339 

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 

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. 

Thursday, Nov. 1

Latin Dance Class 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Salsa, Cha-cha, Merengue... $10, No partner necessary. All ages and levels welcome. 508-4616 

Justice for Tenants Rally and  

Picket 

4 – 5:30 p.m. 

1942 University Ave. 

Lacking affordable housing, renters are being pushed over the edge... Join the tenant fight back. Free food and music, 367-1225. 

Harris Seminar 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. 

642-4608 

Kayak Adventures on the  

Seven Seas 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Olaf Malver will share slides and stories of his sea kayaking adventures around the world: Turkey, Indonesia, Antarctica and more. Free. 527-4140 

Holiday Art Fest 2001 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery 

461 Ninth Street, Oakland 

There will be live music and refreshments to celebrate the start of annual exhibit and sale of unique gifts and specialty items designed by Bay Area artists. 

Tired of picking up the tab for UC Berkeley social events that go awry, the City Council will consider making the administration financially responsible for school-sponsored events that result in property damage or looting. 

At its Tuesday meeting, the council will likely ask City Manager Weldon Rucker to study the possibility of implementing a city policy that would require the university to reimburse any costs associated with school events that result in police action or clean up.  

The recommendation, put on the agenda by Mayor Shirley Dean, is the result of a widely publicized dance on campus at the Pauley Ballroom in August. The student-sponsored dance ended in looting spree of nearby businesses south of campus. About 200 of the 1,300 that attended the dance participated in the looting and according to organizers, none were UC students. In addition, several people who attended the dance broke into a residence and terrified four young women who lived there. 

The incident was the second time within a year that looting followed a campus dance. In October a large group of people who were unable to get into a Pauley Ballroom dance looted stores on Telegraph Avenue. 

“I am deeply disheartened that yet another incident of lawlessness occurred following a dance at Pauley Ballroom,” Dean wrote in a letter to UC Chancellor Robert Berdahl. “It was only a year ago that university officials assured the city, merchants and residents in the Telegraph area that the rules governing social events on campus would be changed to prevent further disturbances.” 

According to police, 23 officers responded to the area in an attempt to contain the crowd of

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to the Berkeley City Council: 

As our nation begins a new era of warfare that clearly shadows the destructive patterns of past administrations, the willingness to publicly renounce the American crusade against our enemies is a rare occurrence. After coming across a news article online I realized that I was not alone in my disapproval of the un-Christlike response to the events of Sept. 11. 

I am a member of the Church of the Brethren [http://www.brethren.org], a denomination which believes Jesus Christ’s central message is to respond to violence with nothing but the love of God. We try to “ask God to bless anyone who curses us, and pray for anyone who is cruel” (Luke 6.28 Contemporary English Version).  

The church has taught since its establishment in 1708 that “all war is sin.”  

Therefore, I support your decision to “condemn ‘the mass murder of thousands of people’ Sept. 11 and asking Congress to ‘break the cycle of violence’ and ‘bring the bombing (in Afghanistan) to a conclusion as soon as possible.” 

Although I can not come to Berkeley to pull the city out of the slump that may arise from the boycott, please know that I sincerely appreciate your statement. I do not support the individuals who attacked our nation, or anyone who has in the past, for the same reason that I do not support the American government’s agenda of revenge. God’s love was made clear by the life of Christ who healed, consoled and died for his enemies so that all may know what peace on earth is truly meant to be. 

I thank you for “calling on the U.S. to work with international organizations to bring the perpetrators of Sept. 11 to justice; and work with other nations' governments to address poverty, malnutrition, disease, oppression, subjugation and other conditions,” and “to lessen dependence on Middle East oil and commit to conversion to renewable energy sources such as solar and fuel cells within five years.” These issues are fundamental to reconciling the brokenness and outrage “that tend to drive some people to acts of terrorism” and drive others to acts of retribution.  

The Church of the Brethren continuously strives for constructive alternatives to violence in all its forms, and joins all who do the same in “seeking peace” in this present situation. May God’s blessings be with you all as you walk the path of the One who was also harassed, even killed, because of his belief that the only thing that will ever save our world is nonviolence. 

Travis E. Poling 

Hagerstown, MD

The Cal men’s soccer team continued their hot streak on Sunday, scoring three goals in the second half to beat Oregon State, 4-0, at Edwards Stadium. Senior midfielder Chris Roner scored the first and last goals of the game. 

The win was the second straight for the Bears, who beat No. 4 Washington, 1-0, on Friday. Cal is now 8-5-1 overall and 2-2 in Pac-10 play, which puts them in a good position to lay claim to a spot in the NCAA postseason tournament, which has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 this season. 

“I feel like if we continue to play like this, we should be able to win some more games and find ourselves in the tournament,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. 

Roner said the postseason is on all of the players’ minds as well. 

“Everybody really wants to make it,” he said. “This weekend should put us really close to getting there.” 

Roner scored the only goal of the first half off of a Mike Munoz corner kick. Midfielder Pat Fisher flicked the ball across the goal with his head right to the feet of Roner, who finished the easy opportunity. The Bears outshot the Beavers 10-0 in the first half as OSU resorted to hitting long balls out of the back to counter Cal’s attacks. 

Fisher got another assist on the second goal, which came in the 66th minute. Dribbling down the middle of the field, Fisher put a nice through ball for freshman Carl Acosta, who took two touches and slid the ball past Oregon State goalkeeper Peter Billmeyer for his first goal of his college career. 

The third goal was a stroke of luck for the Bears. Munoz, another freshman, put forward Austin Ripmaster through one-on-one with Billmeyer, but Ripmaster’s shot past the diving keeper was wide. Ripmaster lept over the prone Billmeyer and fell, and the referee called for a dubious penalty kick to the loud protests of the Beaver bench. Senior defender Leo Krupnik made the kick for a 3-0 lead. 

When asked whether Billmeyer had taken him down, Ripmaster responded with a smile. 

“Of course he did,” he said with a wink. 

Roner scored the final goal of the game in injury time, emerging from a tangle of players in the right corner with the ball. He dribbled along the baseline before sliding to hit a left-footed shot to the near post, somehow getting the ball past Billmeyer. 

Roner is one of just three seniors on a team that has eight freshmen seeing significant playing time. He said he doesn’t mind having such a young team in his final Cal season. 

“I think we have a good balance between us older guys and the young guys,” he said. “The definitely hold their own out there, and I just try to keep up.”

A coalition of parents, students and Berkeley High teachers launched the next phase of the movement to dramatically reorganize Berkeley High School on Saturday. 

The coalition, led in part by Parents of Children of African Descent, a community group that pioneered the short-lived REBOUND! program, met with elected officials and interested community members at Berkeley Alternative High School for a “stone soup” luncheon and a presentation on the coalition’s new goals. 

The goal of the coalition is to transform Berkeley High into eight to 12 small schools, which would continue to meet on the Berkeley High campus but would be organized and administered autonomously, each with its own curricular emphasis and teaching strategy. 

A few “small learning communities,” including the Communication Arts and Sciences program, the Computer Academy and the Biotechnology program,

You reported that at a rally in Oakland, people held signs that read, “Barbara Lee for President.” 

I assume that they meant President of the Taliban. 

Mark Johnson 

Berkeley

STANFORD - No. 22 Cal fought a strong battle against No. 6 Stanford but lost 2-1 Sunday afternoon at Maloney Field. The Golden Bears fell to 10-5-1 (2-3 Pac-10) after losing their third-straight game, while the Cardinal improved to 12-1-1 (5-0).  

Cal played the entire game without All-American striker Laura Schott, who is still suffering the affects of a concussion she sustained Oct. 19 against Washington. The Bears also lost starting left back Kim Stocklmeir in the first half with a right ankle injury.  

Without two key players for all or most of the game, the Bears kept the game scoreless until the 68th minute when the Cardinal capitalized on a Cal defensive miscue. The Cardinal dented the scoreboard at 67:09 when Callie Withers headed in a Marcie Ward corner kick. Stanford was awarded the corner kick shortly after Cal goalkeeper Mallory Moser threw an errant pass directly to a Stanford player.  

Less than three minutes later, another Cal defensive breakdown led to Stanford’s second goal. Bear defender Kathleen Cain headed a ball to forward Marcia Wallis, who beat Moser on a one-on-one opportunity.  

The Bears didn’t quit, as they put four players up top for the final 10 minutes of the game. At the 87:43 mark, forward Krysti Whalen took a pass from midfielder Brittany Kirk and fired it past Cardinal goalkeeper Carrie Walsh to avert the shutout. The goal was Whalen’s second of the season.  

Stanford outshot Cal, 15-5. Yokers led the Bears with three shots. Moser matched her career high with six saves.  

Cal will be faced with additional personnel problems in its next game against Arizona on Friday. Central midfielder Kim Yokers was assessed her fifth yellow card of the season today and must miss the game against the Wildcats.

The folk sounds of the Indian state of Gujarat resonated in the room as dancers and audience members came together to celebrate the vibrant dance of Raas Garba. Saturday night’s dance held in Pauley Ballroom led South Asian Awareness week to a rhythm-filled start. 

In keeping with relaxed South Asian time, the event began 45 minutes following the scheduled starting time. The feel of South Asia was palpable in the room as the traditionally-attired students walked in and mingled with the handful of older audience members.  

A kaleidoscope of color infused the dance floor as women in bright traditional clothing moved to the sounds. Participants moved in a circle, stepping in one direction while their hands coordinated the three claps of Raas Garba’s basic movement. 

The relatively long songs began slowly and increased in pace as they came to an end, with dancers accelerating the pacing of their movements. Each dance also gathered participants as the song progressed, making the circle of dancers wider and layered as movements increased. 

Tired dancers regained expended energy when the singers on stage took their breaks between songs.  

An audience member, a South Asian American not from the campus community, said that this was her first experience participating in UC Berkeley’s South Asian Awareness week. 

“I brought my daughter along because I wanted her to see the traditional dances,” she said. 

She also explained that Raas Garba, associated with the festival of Navratri — which means nine days — is a joyous amalgamation of culture and religion. 

Raas Garba is a traditional dance of Gujarat, which has its roots in folk tradition. It is said that the people of Gujarat work hard during the year to take nine days rest.  

These nine days, called Navratri, are looked forward to by those of every generation, because that is when they can put aside their work and begin dancing. 

The variations in the dancing come either through clapping while stepping to the beat or the use of the dandiya, or sticks. 

The music and singing to which the dancers move are mostly in praise of Hindu deities. Significant is the depiction of the Hindu deity Krishna and the gopis, or shepherdesses, with whom he was associated.  

Traditionally, the participants in the assorted variations of Raas Garba differ in sex according to the dance. While women mostly perform the dances in praise of the Goddess Amba, the Raas, which praises Krishna, normally includes only men.  

Saturday’s variations of the dance involved the participation of both men and women.  

Age, race, and cultural barriers were broken as a variety of audience members joined each other in celebrating the pure joy and energy of the music. 

Cultural ties were reinforced for those of Indian origin, while others, both observing and participating, were taken into a new world of South Asian culture.  

Although Gujerati in origin, student and audience participation in the dance proved that it went beyond India to a general appreciation of South Asian culture.

Stating that now is not the time, Oakland Vice Mayor Jane Brunner dropped her bid for Dion Aroner’s 14th District Assembly seat this weekend.  

Brunner’s campaign suffered a blow when the state Assembly redrew its district lines in September. The realignment excluded her Rockridge house of 25 years from the 14th District by less than two blocks.  

“The simple fact that my home and most of my council district were gerrymandered out of the 14th Assembly district contributed to my conclusion that this is not my time,” Brunner said in a prepared statement. “However, my highest priorities at this time are the revitalization of downtown Oakland, building affordable housing, promoting the restoration of our parks and creeks, continuing the improvement of Oakland schools and improving fire safety. These are issues best solved at the local level.” 

The race for the Democratic nomination is now wide open. Former Berkeley mayor Loni Hancock and Oakland attorney and Richmond resident Charles Ramsey are both running. Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington bowed out of the race to support Hancock. 

Aroner is also supporting Hancock. Former Alameda County supervisor Warren Widener, along with former Berkeley councilmember Mary Wainwright is supporting Ramsey.  

PALO ALTO – Parents of students at Jordan Middle School are upset after school officials asked them to buy their sixth-graders $2,000 laptops. 

Two weeks ago, more than 300 parents got a letter from the school principal and the district’s technology director asking them to buy the Apple iBook laptops with wireless Internet access as part of the school’s new technology program. 

Both the letter and school staff said the purchase is optional, but enrollment in the program, which also will rely heavily on a bank of school-purchased laptops to be kept at school, is not. 

“An optional program is never really optional,” said Steve Weinstein, a parent who started an e-mail campaign to halt the laptop program. “There are a lot of people who don’t have $2,000 to spend, but they are going to be forced into it because it’s the Palo Alto way: ’My kid might be disadvantaged if he’s four steps behind, so I’ve got to do what is necessary.’ ” 

Informational meetings were held last week in the school’s library and at the Apple retail store on University Avenue. 

“They need to open their eyes that not everyone in Palo Alto is loaded,” said Kathryn Varda, the mother of sixth-grade twins enrolled at Jordan. “There’s no way I could afford to shell out four grand right now. But do you really want your child to be the one who is hanging back and watching everyone else use a computer?” 

School officials say 35 percent of the parents have said they will not be buying an iBook, but 25 percent say they will buy one. The rest are unsure. 

Supporters of the program are quick to highlight the experiences of 51 Jordan sixth-graders who participated in a pilot laptop program last spring. 

Students borrowed laptops for 90 days. They typed their notes in class, stored them in virtual lockers and then accessed the notes at home for their homework. With the wireless connection, they could conduct research from class, at the library or at a park.

SAN FRANCISCO – Another round of low test scores has drawn more scorn for the Edison Charter Academy, the San Francisco public school managed by a for-profit company. 

Edison’s campus saw its state performance rating fall to 487 on a scale of 200 to 1,000, the lowest score of any school in town. 

Edison’s lagging test scores irk many in the community who have long railed against corporate managed public education. 

“It was at the bottom before privatization and it’s at the bottom still,” said Caroline Grannan, a San Francisco parent. 

Some parents with children at Edison’s San Francisco campus are satisfied with the school’s management, despite the lackluster test results. 

“There are people in San Francisco to this day who continue to wage a campaign to discredit us and harass us,” said Heather Mobley, whose two children are enrolled at Edison Charter Academy. 

“We’re trying to focus on our children and their success and ignore the naysayers as much as we can.”

FBI figures show big cities rates of violent and property crime drop 

Crime rates in California cities have plummeted more than in other parts of the country, according to the FBI’s latest per capita figures, knocking many of the state’s metropolitan areas down dramatically in the agency’s national crime rankings. 

The state’s best-known cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, all saw significant drops in their combined violent and property crime index, as did inland areas. While crime overall nationwide has fallen, the decreases in California were greater than those in much of the country. 

The combined violent and property crime index in four booming inland California cities was so high just a few years ago that they earned the dubious distinction of being among the nation’s 50 most crime-ridden metropolitan areas. All but one of those cities, Fresno, has dropped out of the top 50, according to the recently released figures in the FBI’s 2000 Uniform Crime Report. 

The news doesn’t surprise citizens like Danielle Prater, a Stockton mother of two who used to see drug dealers and prostitutes regularly roaming the streets in her city. Now, children in her neighborhood leave their bikes unattended outside without a second thought, and she is comforted by the frequent sight of police officers. 

“The whole town has gotten a whole lot better,” the prep cook said during a shift at Chuck’s Hamburgers, a cozy family-run restaurant that has packed in breakfast and lunch crowds for 41 years. 

“Five years ago, I was worried,” said Prater, 35. “Now, I don’t even lock my doors or roll my windows up.” 

The Stockton-Lodi area, along with the metropolitan areas of Fresno, Modesto and Sacramento, had the highest crime indexes among California cities in 1995. All of them have dropped significantly since then, with Fresno dropping from No. 10 to No. 44. 

Fresno was among the nation’s top five cities for motor vehicle theft in 2000, alongside Miami, Phoenix-Mesa, New Orleans and Detroit. It was the only California city to rank in the top five of any of the major crime categories. 

The Los Angeles-Long Beach area dropped out of the top 100 and was ranked just two notches above San Francisco in the year 2000 at No. 148. San Diego’s crime index declined markedly, too, sending it down to the nation’s 193rd slot. 

Stockton, a San Joaquin Valley city traditionally known for its vast farms, is one of several cities attracting hordes of new residents as housing markets in the crowded San Francisco and San Jose metro areas become too pricey for many workers. 

Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, suggested one reason for the dramatic drops in the growing Central Valley areas is that many of the new residents are “generally law-abiding,” although he cautioned that it’s impossible to know definitively why the rates have changed. 

“Anyone who tells you that they know why crime rates go up and down is lying,” he said. 

Malcolm Klein, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Southern California, agreed. 

“We don’t know to what extent it’s police activity, to what extent it’s the booming economy ... to what extent it’s the act of God,” he said of the declines. 

Several police officers across the state speculated that beefed up community policing programs, increases in the size of police forces and low unemployment rates contributed to the declines, along with things including parole intervention programs and outreach to schoolchildren. 

“We can’t take all the credit for it,” said Stockton Officer Doug Anderson. “It’s also the prosecutors, the schools and many other factors.” 

Anderson noted that the actual number of crimes — not just the per-capita rate — in his city has declined dramatically in the past five years, contradicting any suggestion that its criminal element has been diluted by the influx of new residents. 

Sacramento Police Sgt. Daniel Hahn credited the community with helping keep crime rates down by communicating with police to assist in apprehension of suspects. 

“No police department is going to do it by themselves,” he said.

SAN ONOFRE – Security has been boosted at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, but critics claim that government officials have not added extra protections put in place at other nuclear facilities after the terrorist attacks. 

Southern California Edison has added more private, armed security guards at the Southern California plant and the California Highway Patrol and Coast Guard have increased patrols. 

Though the plant is at its highest stage of alert, government officials have not taken added measures being taken at nuclear plants in the northeastern United States and in Central California. 

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts called out the National guard to protect nuclear power plants in their states. Gov. Gray Davis has not made a similar move at San Onofre or at the Diablo Canyon plant that is located on the state’s Central Coast. 

The Coast Guard is keeping boats from coming within a mile of Diablo Canyon, but vessels are not being restricted at San Onofre. Vessels can come right to shore at San Onofre and beachgoers can still walk on the strip of sand between the facility and San Onofre State Beach. 

Edison officials claim their increased security is adequate. 

Industry officials say a concrete- and steel-reinforced “hardened target” such as a nuclear power plant likely would not become at target for terrorists 

“The plant was never designed for the impact from a commercial airplane,” said Ray Golden, Edison’s spokesman for San Onofre, which is owned and operated by the private utility. “That does not mean we wouldn’t withstand it.” 

Officials said the plant was designed to withstand truck bombs set off on the nearby San Diego freeway or the attempt by a small group of terrorists to enter the plant. 

Steven Dolley, research director of the Washington D.C.-based Nuclear Control Institute, wants the government to install anti-aircraft weapons at nuclear power plants, including San Onofre. 

“No one can predict these attacks,” Dolley said. “That’s become apparent. If they can’t predict them, we need to seriously consider the deployment of anti-aircraft forces.” 

Dolley’s nonprofit group also has called on Gov. Davis to deploy the National Guard at the state’s two nuclear power plants. 

Deploying the National Guard would be a huge waste of money, since thousands of Marines are already posted at nearby Camp Pendleton, said Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Vista, whose district includes San Onofre. 

Though the Marines are not involved in plant security, they would be available if called, said Lt. Mamie Ward of Camp Pendleton.

Refinements helping Web sites stay current 

SAN FRANCISCO – Search engines have always been among the Web’s most popular destinations. Then came multimedia – and frustration. 

How do you find music with a keyword search? 

In a sunny San Francisco loft, a tiny company called Friskit Inc. has spent the last two years honing a search engine that scans the Internet for songs and music videos available to Web surfers for free but often difficult to locate. 

Other search sites also are seeking refinements they hope will make them indispensable in the multimedia age. As more and more Web users get broadband access, such tools are sure to become attractive. 

Google recently began offering searches of images on the Web, rather than just words. Google performs that feat not by analyzing an image itself but by reading the text labeling the picture. 

Researchers at the “Googleplex,” the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., also are looking for ways to more directly connect Web surfers to online databases – and to run voice-activated searches from wireless devices. 

With better search techniques over handheld computers, for example, someone in a grocery store pondering an unfamiliar item could instantly call up product information or compare prices, said Craig Silverstein, Google’s director of technology. 

“Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” Silverstein said. 

Friskit is based on the notion that many users want links straight to a certain experience – such as hearing a song – rather than to static information. 

Though analysts note that several other multimedia search engines have come and gone without leaving much of a mark, Friskit’s executives hope to cash in by licensing their technology to Web portals, music sites, record labels or companies that want to catalogue their multimedia presentations. 

“Whether you want to find a Moby track, a Steve Jobs interview or an Osama bin Laden interview, you should be able to find it with one click,” said Jeff Morgen, Friskit’s chief operating officer. 

Morgen and Aviv Eyal, Friskit’s co-founder and technology guru, are aiming at the rapidly changing market for online music, which gained prominence with the popularity of Napster but has been bogged down in legal squabbles over copyright protection. 

Rather than offering downloads a la Napster, Friskit believes it can stay out of the fray by connecting users to streaming content, essentially making it a customized Internet radio station. 

Bill Rose, who has researched the market as vice president and general manager of Arbitron Webcast Services, said a multimedia search engine offers Web surfers more choice and control than current Internet broadcast sites, which often have a more limited pool of available content. 

Friskit can lump songs by genre or by musician, so users don’t have to be precise in what they’re looking for. It also accounts for common spelling errors, so it will ask if you meant to hear The Beatles when you entered “Beetles.” 

But even with such thoughtful features, it appears certain that Friskit’s life will get helter-skelter. 

At least one competitor with similar multimedia search technology, Seattle-based Singingfish Inc., already has signed partnerships with RealNetworks Inc. and Inktomi Corp. and is pursuing deals with the big portals as well. 

Through its connections as a subsidiary of Thomson Multimedia, a French consumer electronics giant, Singingfish hopes to become the search engine for the next generation of wireless devices and home entertainment systems. 

Analysts believe those kinds of partnerships will be essential. 

Many people prefer music downloads to stand-alone streaming media sites, since downloads tend to offer better quality and can be transferred to portable devices, said Lee Black, an analyst with Webnoize Inc. 

Singingfish’s president and co-founder, Mike Behlke, envisions future search engines delivering several kinds of results at once: some links to documents, some pictures, some direct connections to relevant streaming media. 

Danny Sullivan, editor of the SearchEngineWatch.com online newsletter, makes the same prediction. But he believes that at least in the short term, companies like Friskit and Singingfish will have trouble getting many Web sites to pay for their technology. 

The reason: even the largest Web sites are pressed for cash these days. 

“They’ve got enough trouble saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got one single program you’ve got to have – will you shell out $9.95 for this single program?”’ Sullivan said. “People don’t pay for any kind of search at the moment.”

Before a highly-charged crowd of South Berkeley residents, the Zoning Adjustments Board declared Brothers Liquor, at 3039 Shattuck Ave., a public nuisance at its Thursday meeting, and imposed a restrictive set of regulations on its future operations. 

Neighbors allege the store is the center of serious criminal activity in the area.  

In a recent six-month period, the police department responded to more than 200 calls at or near Brothers Liquor. Nineteen of those calls resulted in arrests for crack cocaine possession or sales, prostitution, public drunkenness or creating a public disturbance. 

In her report to the ZAB, Victoria Johnson, the city’s senior zoning enforcement officer, presented the board with two possible solutions.  

The first allowed the liquor store to remain open with sharply curtailed hours of operation, the posting of security guards and the obligation to submit to ZAB review every three months. The second would shut the store down completely. 

The ZAB voted 7 - 2 for the first option, and added an extra conditions of its own. 

Board chair Carolyn Weinberger suggested the store be mandated to chain-off its parking lot when it closed its doors at 9 p.m. Board member Deborah Matthews added that the store should be required to clean and maintain its exterior. 

At the suggestion of Mark Rhoades, the city’s director of current planning, the board also put language into the declaration that would automatically trigger another public hearing on the store – one which would presumably result in its closure – if the Berkeley Police Department receives more than four calls having to do with store activities per month. 

Monsoor Ghanem, the store’s manager, said Friday that the charges against his store were unwarranted, and he would appeal the ZAB’s decision to the City Council. Members of the audience hissed and shouted when the board discussed the option of leaving the store open with restrictions. Several ZAB members addressed the crowd directly, assuring it that the conditions imposed on Brothers were very tough, and any deviation from them would be swiftly punished. 

“We’re giving them enough rope to hang themselves,” said Weinberger. 

Rhoades said city staff came up with the compromise declaration after consulting with the city attorney’s office. He said the imposition of conditions as a first step would bolster the city’s case if it were sued by the store’s owners. 

“The courts take a very dim view of cities closing businesses without giving them a chance to clean up their act,” Rhoades said. “But if, after three months, this business does not comply with the conditions, we can set another public hearing and the ZAB can close them down. You will already have declared them a public nuisance.” 

Board member, Gene Poschman, provoked applause from the audience when he said he favored putting the store out of business. 

“I want to revoke the thing,” he said. “I think the city attorney is being far too cautious. We’ve got six, maybe eight votes here for revocation here.” 

But, he said, the staff report had swayed him. 

“The staff is the reason we’re not revoking their business tonight,” he said. “That means there will be a special weight on staff to monitor this closely.” 

Matthews, a resident of South Berkeley, shared Poshman’s reservations, but she, too, voted for the compromise option. 

“I have a hard time accepting the recommendations of staff,” she said. 

“In the community of South Berkeley, in a five-mile radius we have probably 10 liquor stores, each of them with the problems we have here before us.” 

“It’s really important to me that we develop some kind of standard for identifying and dealing with these issues.” 

Rhoades told the board and the audience that the new restrictions – especially the police department “trigger” he had proposed – would assure that the store would be severely punished if the problems continue. 

“There’s 40 or 50 pairs of eyes and ears in this room tonight that will be monitoring this situation,” he said. 

“Do you hear that?” Weinberger asked the audience. “If three months from now it hasn’t improved, you come back to us and we will yank their business.” 

Only board member Paul Schwartz and Marie Bowman, who substituted for board member Mike Issel at Tuesday’s meeting, voted against the declaration. 

Schwartz said he was in favor of the restrictions on the business, but he wanted to vote for complete closure to expedite matters.  

“I don’t think they’re going to be able to stay in business with these restrictions, so they’ll probably end up shutting down anyway,” he said. 

At the end of the hearing, Rhoades thanked the board for voting for the staff’s recommendations. 

“I know it was a very difficult decision,” he said.

Saturday, Oct. 27

Bay Area Coalition to End the  

Sanctions on Iraq 

5 p.m. dinner, 7 p.m. program 

Berkeley Friends Church 

1600 Sacramento  

Speakers Hans Von Sponeck, former United Nations Assistant Secretary General, who resigned his position as humanitarian coordinator for Iraq to protest U.N. policies, and Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, who has taken 39 humanitarian aid trips to Iraq, call for an end to the U.S. led bombing and sanctions on Iraq. 538-0209 www.endthesanctions. org 

Greening Our City Centers 

9 a.m. - 10 p.m. 

The Gaia Building 

2116 Allston Way 

The Second Heart of the City Seminar celebrating the opening of Berkeley’s new showcase ecological building and the Gaia Cultural Center. Discussions will focus on strategies and tactics for generating awareness and implementing greener city centers. 649-1817 www.ecocitybuilders.org 

Saturday Morning Children’s  

Program 

10:30 a.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Charlie Chin presents traditional Chinese folk tales told in the “tea house” style. $4 adult, $3 children 

Berkeley Child Safety Seat  

Check-Up 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. (drop-in)  

Kittredge Street Parking Facility  

2020 Kittredge Street (the old Hinks Parking lot), 2nd Floor 

Trained child passenger safety technicians will inspect your safety seat installation, inform you of any recalls, and assist you in using your child safety seat properly. Free, sponsored by the Berkeley Public Health and Police Departments, 665-6839, dquan@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Targeting Civilians 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley Friends Church 

1600 Sacramento St. 

Former UN official Hans von Sponeck and Voices in the Wilderness’ Kathy Kelly will discuss the war on Iraq and the current bombing of Afghanistan. $10 Benefits Voices in the Wilderness.  

Raising the Bar: Latino and  

Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall 

Booth Auditorium 

An unprecedented gathering of Latino judges from across the country to celebrate and critically examine the contributions of Latinos on the bench. 643-8010 

Low-cost Hatha Yoga Classes 

9:30 - 11 a.m. 

James Kenney Rec. Center 

1720 Eighth St.  

The city is offering low- cost Hatha Yoga classes for adults. Taught by certified instructor. Drop-ins are welcome. Bring a mat or towel. $6. 981-6650 

Medical Mystery Festival 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Hall of Health 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

A Halloween celebration that introduces children to the field of medical science and health-related issues. 549-1564 

Disaster First Aid 

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 

Help Cerrito Creek 

10 a.m. 

Meet at El Cerrito's Creekside Park (south end of Belmont Street). 

Join Friends of Five Creeks in removing invasive non-natives to improve habitat on lower Cerrito Creek. Bring shovels and work gloves if you have them. 848 9358, www.fivecreeks.org 

Sunday, Oct. 28

Archaeological Institute of  

America 

1:30 - 3:30 p.m. 

Shorb House 

2547 Channing Way 

AIA Sunday Symposium: Reports from the Field — Dr. Ian Morris on the 6th century BCE site of Monte Polizzo in Sicily; Dr. Marian Feldman on prestige goods of the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean; Dr. Christine Hastorf on early architecture at Chiripa in the Titicaca Basin of the Bolivian Andes. 415-338-1537 barbaram@sfsu.edu 

Our Visual Heritage 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Ashkenaz 

1613 San Pablo Ave. 

Deaf and Hearing Project of Berkeley presents an ASL (American Sign Language) accessible event, in recognition of World and Domestic Violence Prevention Disability Awareness Month featuring, music, dance, information and more. $10, Children under 12 free. 644-2003, 644-2000 (TTY) 

Berkeley, Where Is It Going 

8 p.m. 

BTVU ch. 25  

Notable Berkeley neighborhood supporters give important informa 

tion about the General Plan that will be before the Council in Public Hearings on Oct. 30 and Nov. 6. 

Spirit Day at the West  

Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Avenue, between 3rd and 4th sreets  

Spirit Day will host an outdoor community alter to honor our elders and the people who have lost their lives since Sept. 11. Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 654-6346 

Vespers of St. Demetrios 

4 p.m. 

PAOI 

2311 Hearst Ave. 

A prayer service celebrating St. Demetrios, patron saint of the chapel of Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute. 649-2450 

Monday, Oct. 29

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 

Lecture - Discovery of Quilting 

7:30 p.m. 

First Unitarian Church 

1 Lawson Road, Kensington 

This is Dianne Hire’s own story, her personal expression of the intimate desires to create, to imagine and to express through the medium of quilting. $3 834-3706 www.hirealternatives.com 

Affordable Housing Advocacy  

Project 

3 - 5 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Learn about the latest changes in affordable housing at the state and federal level. 800-773-2110 

Race, Immigration and  

American Politics Speaker  

Series 

noon 

Institute of Governmental Studies 

UC Berkeley, 119 Moses Hall 

David Sears, UCLA, “Race, Religion, and Sectional Conflict in Contemporary Partisanship.” 642-4608 

– compiled by Guy Poole 

In 1877 John G. Wright, an Englishman, opened Berkeley’s first wholesale-retail bakery at 2026 Shattuck Ave., just north of where the Kress building stands today. The original bakery which is pictured here, was a two-story wood frame building that had tall storefront windows and a covered wood veranda in front. The owners, as well as their bakery workers and student boarders, lived on the second floor. 

The bakery produced 26 varieties of bread, twelve types of cakes and pies and also had a catering service, dining room and retail sales shop. By 1905 the business had grown so large that it had a fleet of 40 horse-drawn trucks and motor cars.  

Wright was active in organizing the bakers union which was formally established in 1904 at the Golden Sheaf Bakery. But unionization led to the demise of family run bakeries and the rise of large companies. In 1909 the Wright family sold their business to Wonderbread and the old bakery building was torn down.  

Around the corner at 2071 Addison St. is a remnant of the Golden Sheaf Bakery. The brick-sided building was constructed in 1905 as a storage building and loading area for the bakery. But despite its rather humble use, the building was designed by noted architect Clinton Day.  

It is a Classic-inspired, two-story red brick and terra-cotta building with a three-part composition. Four pilasters frame three vertical bays, which contain three sets of paired arched windows on the second story. Above the central bay there is a sign molded in brick-colored terra-cotta depicting a sheaf of wheat and under this, the bakery’s name. Molded terra cotta was also used for the bases and capitals of the pilasters and for the cornice. The terra cotta was made by the Gladding McBean Company. 

After the bakery was sold, the building served as offices and shops until 1927, when it was converted into a garage. On July 20, 2000 a dedication ceremony was held for the Nevo Educational Center of the Berkeley Repertory Theater. The remodeled bakery-warehouse building will provide space for the theater’s education program.  

Susan Cerny, author of “Berkeley Landmarks,” writes this series in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.

Conventional warfare questioned in fight against terrorism 

The missile camera films and the aerial photos of bombs hitting Afghanistan targets looks little different to me than the 8th. Air Force’s “precision” bombing of NAZI targets I saw from the waist window of our B-24 four engine Liberator from early April to May 9, 1944. That was the day our plane was shot down and six of our 10 crew members bailed out over Belgium. The tons of bombs we POW’s saw falling in our direction from Allied planes bombing nearby German targets looked and felt no different to us than is being experienced by Afghani civilians on the edge of Afghani military targets – it is breath stopping terror. 

Remarkably that same W.W.II aerial warfare strategy is paralleled by the high-tech bombing, satellite surveillance, night vision technology now being used in the Middle East. Another similarity is the claim that precision bombing avoids civilian casualties and the dichotomy that despite sixty years the U.S. bombing errors, over-runs, and “accidents” continue to occur. To understand why is to realize that the high-tech advancements in airplanes, armament, rocketry, and guidance systems has the primary purpose of protecting Air Force planes and air crews from casualties. Now the planes are bigger, faster, and carry larger bomb loads, and yet require fewer crew. During 1941 through 1944 the Royal Air Force and the American air crew losses were up to 50 percent, some of whom became POW’s. 

Today’s B-51 has a crew of four compared with ten men each in W.W.II’s B-17 and B-24 bombers. Although WW II bombers flew lower and slower making accurate bombing apparently easier, technical and human errors by navigators, bombardiers, and pilots, and the interference by enemy German ack-ack and fighters caused unintended bombing of residential areas, churches, hospitals, Red Cross trains and convoys, and even harmless villages regularly. The WW II press seldom learned about those tragedies, but there lies the “collateral” damage rational of the military mind. Similarly, ground forces face the same moral dilemma, every U.S. war has been shrouded with “unintended” civilian 

deaths. 

The common denominator in the above comparisons to today is they are all “conventional” wars. “America’s New War” has been referenced to the “crusades,” and a “campaign ” or an “action,” the terms used historically for incursions into other countries when “war” is not politically correct. In this war all the military and patriotic rhetoric that have been used in past wars are present again. Today’s military-industrial complex, inherited from W.W.II, is making full use of the hardware capacity accumulated from pork-barrel Defense Department budgets that focus on modern warfare technology, but conventional in concept: bomb “them” into submission, use minimal ground forces, and get out. 

We need a new strategy that incorporates a geo-historic-cultural-political-moral concern for civilians. The proposed “Department of Peace” may not be too late to save us from retaliations from other terrorist cells, loss of support from the Muslim world, and alienation from those who normally are our allies. The admonitions and cautions about fighting terrorism have been heard long before Sept. 11, and immediately following the W.T.C. attack we were reminded again: the “eye for eye, and tooth for tooth” avenging of our losses on 9-11 can not justify fighting world terrorism conventionally. 

Terror is a bitter pill, composed of fear, anger, hate, and the inevitable retaliation, and it never tastes good. War is for cowards – shoot if it moves, ask questions later. To do otherwise is to the disadvantage of the soldier. Our nation will better endure by exercising our power of social, economic, and environmental justice for all. The escalation of the war in Afghanistan is too close to reality to allow the “old guard” unquestioned power. There are alternatives, if we stop, look, and listen. 

Ken Norwood is a Berkeley resident. 

Robert L. Smith, a Berkeley resident since 1950, served as a medic in the 28th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1945. He aided the wounded in combat, helping to liberate Paris. Smith served approximately two months after the D-Day landings. 

Robert L. Smith’s new book, “Medic!” A WWII Combat Medic Remembers, chronicles his entry into the army, his plethora of experiences on the battlefield and some events he went through immediately after returning home – such as even though he was a discharged veteran with a Purple Heart, he was not yet 21 years old and too young to qualify for a California driver’s license.  

In the latter part of Smith’s book, he describes returning to Europe with his wife, Fran, in 1997-98. The Smiths travelled through many of the same areas he’d been half a century earlier. Fran’s photographs reference and counterpoint the fact-filled text.  

While the book reads, in part, like a really long post card, the story is riveting in parts and is almost always engaging.  

A quiet strength and steady bravery inform Smith’s voice. 

Smith’s comments about K rations, the combination of terror and tedium soldiers experienced and the forms of segregation he witnessed are sobering.  

Smith describes many of the individuals he came into contact with. 

Smith eloquently tells of the moral strength and honor shown by some American soldiers. For instance, Smith describes Caleb A. Converse, a litter bearer from Columbus, Ga.: “A slow, steady person who consistently was brave. Every night Converse carried out our critical cases on his back, one at a time, making three or four separate trips down the hill and across the fields and river to safety on the American side. He did something that none of the rest of us would do. Yet he did it voluntarily, never asking for help. He simply went on saving the lives of men who otherwise would not have survived.” 

Smith also describes the actions of some of the enemy soldiers and civilians he came into contact with. At one point an enemy soldier told Smith, in perfect English, that he is behind enemy lines and sent Smith in another direction, which probably saved his life.  

Smith’s perspective as a medic puts him in the center of both the physical and spiritual action. A medic’s job is to be heroic. As Smith explains: “Anyone else could yell for the medic, but I was the medic.”  

Smith portrays the challenges of trying to save lives in the heat of battle. Medics are called upon to provide immediate relief to injured soldiers during combat. The wounded call to them. Sometimes medics have the skills and materials they need to disinfect wounds and immediately affect the balance of life vs. death. At other times a medic’s skills and desire to bring relief are insufficient to remediate devastating damage.  

Smith writes: “I had gone to war full of conviction and came out having lost my naivete about some things that had previously been absolutes.” 

As we see in All Quiet On the Western Front, the classic WWI novel by Erich Maria Remarque, going to war is unlike any other human experience. And there are some stories only a warrior can tell. 

Sari Friedman teaches writing at local colleges and can be reached at literate2@earthlink.net 

924 Gilman St. Oct. 27: (Halloween show, $1 off if you’re in a (non-punk) costume!) Babyland, Tsunami Bomb, Scissor Hands, Dexter Danger; Nov. 2: Mood Frye, Manic Notion, Cremasters of Disaster, Bottles and Skulls, Lorax, Sociopath; Nov. 3: Cruevo, Nigel Peppercock, Impaled, Systematic Infection, Depressor; Nov. 9: Hoods, Punishment, Lords of Light Speed, Necktie Party; Nov. 10: Sunday’s Best, Mock Orange, Elizabeth Elmore, Fighting Jacks, Benton Falls; Nov. 16: Pitch Black, The Blottos, Miracle Chosuke, 240; Nov. 17: Carry On, All Bets Off, Limp Wrist, Labrats, Thought Riot; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

The Albatross Pub Nov. 3: Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Both shows 9 p.m. 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 albatrosspub@mindspring .com  

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Oct. 27: 9:30 p.m., Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, $11; Oct. 28: 1:30 p.m., Derique McGee and Jazz Design, $ sliding scale; 9 p.m. Itals, Ras Jacob, Kanawah, DJ Ras D, $12; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., Bluegrass Benefit Concert for the NY Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund. Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Mike Marshall, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Bluegrass Intentions, Kathy Kallick Band, Detour; $20. 1317 San Pablo Ave., 525-5099 www.ashkenaz. com 

Blake’s Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Nov 8: 8 p.m. Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance, $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; Oct. 19: Little Jonny and the Giants; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Oct. 27: Ginny Reilly & David Maloney $18.50 - $19.50; Oct. 28: True Blue with Del Williams $15.50 - $16.50; Nov. 1: Si Kahn $17.50 - $18.50; Nov. 2: Don Edwards $16.50 - $17.50; Nov. 3: Barbara Higbie $17.50 - $18.50; All Shows 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note Nov. 4: 4:30 p.m. SoVoSo, $15; Nov. 11: 4:30 p.m. Dave Le Febvre Quintet, $12. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts Oct. 27: 8 p.m., Empyrean Ensemble, $18, $14 children. 2640 College Ave. 845-8542/ www.juliamorgan.org 

Jupiter Nov. 1: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 2: Lithium House; Nov. 3: Solomon Grundy; Nov. 7: Go Van Gogh; Nov. 8: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 9: Xroads; Nov. 10: Post Junk Trio; Nov. 14: Wayside; Nov. 15: Joshi Marshal Project; Nov. 16: 5 Point Plan; Nov. 17: Corner Pocket; Nov. 21: Starchild; All shows 8 p.m. and free. 2821 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625/ www.jupiter.com 

La Peña Oct. 28: 7:30 p.m., Mezcla from Cuba, $15dr. 320 45th St., Oakland 849-2568 www.lapena.org 

La Lesbian @ La Peña: A Lesbian Performance and Film Series Oct. 25: 8 p.m., comedian Elvira Kurt, $16; Nov. 1: 8 p.m., Singer/songwriters Faith Nolan and Megan McElroy, $14; Nov. 4: 5 - 9 p.m., Salsa, merengue, cumbia from DJs Rosa Oviedo and Chata Gutierrez, $7; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., I Love Lezzie, 20 member comedy troupe, $14; 320 45th St., Oakland 654-6346 www.lapena.org 

MusicSources Oct. 28: Keyboardist David Buice; Nov. 18 Harpsichordist Gilbert Martinez. Both shows 5 p.m. $15-18. 1000 The Alameda 528-1685 

The Stork Club Oct. 23: 9 p.m., Earwig, Butch Berry, $5; Oct. 24: 9 p.m., Cruevo, Jumbo’s Killcrane, Brainoil, Life in a Burn Clinic, $5; Oct. 25: 10 p.m., Painted Bird, Tinman, Fenway Park, $6; Oct. 26: 10 p.m., Birdsaw, Wire Grafitti, Breast, $5; Oct. 27: 10 p.m., Oxbow, Replicator, 60 Foot Time, $6; Oct. 30: 9 p.m., Simple Things, Tombshakers, Ultrafiend, $5; Oct. 31: Oppressed Logic, Eddie Haskells, TBA, $5; 2330 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. 444-6174  

Yoshi’s Restaurant and Jazz Spot Oct. 29: 8 & 10 p.m., The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra, $10. 238-9200 www.yoshis.com 

Cal Performances Nov. 2: 7 p.m., Sightlines, Pre-performance discussion with guest artists. 8 p.m., “Music Before 1850,” with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr. $32. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Theater 

“The Odd Couple” Oct. 25 through Oct. 27: 7:30 p.m. The female adaptation of Neil Simon’s classic play. Directed by Antoine Olivier. $5 students, $7 adults. Bobby Barrett Theater, St. Mary’s campus, 1294 Albina. 981-1167 ruthcrossman@yahoo.com 

Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” Oct. 26: 8 p.m., Oct. 28: 3 p.m. Presented by the Oakland Lyric Opera, continuing the company’s opera showcase series of short, one-act operas and opera scenes, semi-staged concert performances. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. $25, $18 students and seniors, $15 children. 836-6772 

“Prometeh in Evin” Oct. 28: 8 p.m., A drama about political prisoners in Iran, performed by the brave and innovative Parsian Group. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. $25, Children, $15 2640 College Ave 845.8542 www.juliamorgan.org. 

“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 

“me/you...us/them”Nov. 8 though Nov. 10: Thur - Sat 8 p.m., matinee on Sat. 2:30 p.m. Three one-acts that look at interpersonal, as well as societal relationships from the perspective of the disabled. $10 - $25. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m., matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Tomas Carrasco of Chicano Secret Service” Nov. 15: 4 p.m. Performance by member of L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe that uses humor to tackle hot-button racial and political issues. Free. Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley 

“Lost Cause” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Three space travelers stranded on a forgotten colony, find themselves in the middle of a bloody civil war, and have to decide between what’s right, what’s possible, and what will save their lives. Written by Jefferson Area, directed by Sarah O’Connell. $7-12. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 464-4468 www.impacttheatre.com 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Cal Performances “The Car Man” Oct. 30, 31: 8 p.m.; Nov. 1: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Nov. 2: 8 p.m.; Nov. 3: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.; Choreographer and director Matthew Bourne and his company re-invent Bizet’s “Carmen,” spinning the tale of a mysterious drifter in a small mid-western town, who changes the lives of its inhabitants forever. $32 - $64; Nov. 7: 8 p.m., “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” more than 30 singers, dancers, and musicians present a musical synthesis of the authentic Roma styles. $18 - $30; Nov. 8: 11 a.m., SchoolTime Performance, “Gypsy Caravan 2: A Celebration of Roma Music and Dance,” $3 per student or chaperone, in advance only; Nov. 8: 8 p.m., “Orquesta Aragón,” $18 - $30. Nov. 11: 3 p.m., Recital - Angelika Kirschschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Donald Runnicles. “Wolf/ Die Italienisches Liederbuch,” $45; Nov. 16 - 17: 8 p.m., “La Guerra d’Amore,” director and choreographer, René Jacobs, conductor, Ensemble Concerto Vocale. Modern dance and early music from German choreographer Joachim Schlömer, $34 - $52; 

UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall. 642-9988/ www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Macbeth” Nov. 9 through Nov. 18: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. Presented by the Albany High School Theater Ensemble. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. 559-6550 x4125 theaterensemble@hotmail.com 

“Saint Joan” Oct. 26 through Dec. 2: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m. George Bernard Shaw’s epic of a young girl determined to drive the English out of France with only her faith to support her. Directed by Barbara Oliver. $26-35. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 www.auroratheatre.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 

Films 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Search” Nov. 4:30 p.m. 1948 drama of American soldier caring for a young concentration camp survivor in post-war Berlin, while the boy’s mother is desperately searching all Displaced Persons camps for him. $2 suggested donation. Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 

Exhibits 

“Photographs of Yosemite” by Richard Blair, Oct. 25: 5 - 8 p.m. Mr. Blair served as Park Photographer for Yosemite National Park in the early 1970’s and continues to photograph there often. Holton Studio, 5515 Doyle St., No. 2, Emeryville. 450-0350 www.holtonframes.com 

Panel Discussion on Documentary Photography Oct. 25: 7:30 p.m. Panelists include photographers Nacio Jan Brown, Jeffrey Blankfort, Cathy  

Cade, Ken Light and Michelle Vignes in discussion with moderator Scott Nichols. Free. UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, 120 North Gate Hall 644-6893/ www.berkeleyartcenter.org  

“First Annual Art Show” UC Berkeley Life Drawing Group Reception, Through Oct. 26: 7 - 10 p.m. Figure studies from the workshops at UC Berkeley. 1014 60th St., Emeryville. 923-0689 

“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  

“African Harmonies,” the artwork of Rae Louise Hayward. Through Oct. 31: Hayward’s art celebrates the beauty of African culture: its people, sculpture, textiles, jewelry and music. Tues. - Thurs. 1 - 7 p.m., Sat. noon- 4 p.m. Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286/ www.wcrc.org 

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.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 

“Architects of the Information Age” Through Nov. 10: A solo exhibit showcasing the works of Ezra Li Eismont. Works included in the exhibition are mixed media paintings on panel and assemblage works on paper and canvas. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland 836-0831 

“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 

“In Through the Outdoors” Through Nov. 24: Featuring seven artists who work in photography and related media including sculpture and video, this exhibit addresses the shift in values and contemporary concerns about the natural world that surrounds us. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St. www.traywick.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“Furniture Art” Through Dec. 7: An exhibit of metal and wood furniture that revisits furniture not only as art but as craft. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. The Current Gallery at the Crucible, 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511 www.thecrucible.org 

“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 

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” 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. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; Oct. Janell Moon will read from her new book, “Stirring the Waters: Writing to Find Your Spirit.”; Oct. 27: Pat Schmatz reads from “Mrs. Estronsky and the U.F.O.”; Oct. 28: 7 p.m., Poet Janet Mason will read from “When I Was Straight” and present her “Boobs Away.”; Nov. 3: Editor Danya Ruttenberg and contributors Loolwa Khazzoom, Emily Wages, Billie Mandel will read their selections in the new anthology, “Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.”; Nov. 9: Lauren Dockett will read from her latest book, “The Deepest Blue: How Women Face and Overcome Depression.”; 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 Telegraph Ave. Oct. 23: Michael Downing will talk about “Shoes Outside the Door: Scandals of Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center; Oct. 24: Anita Roddick returns with “Take It Personally”; Oct. 25: Eric Muller discusses “Free To Die For Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II”; Oct. 26 Sage Cohen & Mari L’esperance read their poetry; Oct. 27: Gregory Maguire reads “Lost”; Oct. 28: Christopher Hitchens with “Letters To A Young Contrarian”; Oct. 29: Arturo Pérez-Reverte reads from “The Nautical Chart”; Oct. 30: Ruben Martinez recounts “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail”; Oct. 31: Barry Lopez reads from “Light Action In The Caribbean”; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Oct. 25: Simon Winchester discusses “The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology”; Oct. 26: Alice Medrich delivers “A Year In Chocolate: Four Seasons of Unforgettable Desserts”; Oct. 27: 11 a.m., Addi Someckh and Charlie Eckert - The Balloon Guys, play with “The Inflatable Crown Balloon Hat Kit,” for young readers; Oct. 28: 4 p.m., Darren Shan with “Cirque Du Freak,” and “The Vampire’s Assistant,” for young readers; All shows 7 p.m. unless noted, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Nov. 10: 4 p.m. Ruthanne Lum McCunn reads from her novel “Moon Pearl”; Nov. 18: 4 p.m. Noel Alumit, M.G. Sorongon, and Marianne Villanueva read from their contributions to the anthology “Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Literature”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Ecology Center Oct. 22: 7 - 9 p.m. Toby Hemenway presents a slideshow and reads from “Gaia’s Garden: A guide to Home Scale Permaculture”; 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-220 x233 

“Michael Moore” Oct. 29: 7:30 p.m. Author and film maker reads from his new book “Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation”. $12-15. Sponsored by Cody’s. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

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 Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., 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; Oct. 25: A Storytelling Pajama Party, 6 - 7 p.m.; Oct. 27: 4th Annual Habitot Halloween; Oct. 28: Family Arts Day; Oct. 31: Sugar-Art Halloween Frosting; Nov. 3: Tales from the Enchanted Forest, 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.; Nov. 9: Living with the Earth; Nov. 17: Recycle that Stuff; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Oakland Museum of California through Nov. 25: Pasajes y Encuentros: Ofrendas for the Days of the Dead, highlights three thematic “passageways” that connect the dead with the living: tradition, humor and spirit. $6 adults, $4 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. noon - 5 p.m., 10th St., Oakland, 888-625-6873/ www.museumca.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. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 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.

After a heartbreaking loss to rival Kennedy last week, the St. Mary’s High football team needed a game to get out some aggression while keeping everyone healthy. A game with Albany was just what the doctor ordered. 

St. Mary’s jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead against the Cougars on Friday afternoon and cruised home with a 34-6 win. Tailback Trestin George ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns on just 12 carries and quarterback Steve Murphy threw for two scores to wide receiver Courtney Brown in the victory. 

“We knew if we played a good first half that we could get ahead of them,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “It’s nice to get an easy win once in a while.” 

The Panthers (4-4 overall, 2-1 BSAL) came into the game looking to put heat on Albany quarterback Harold Lueders, and they did just that. They sacked Lueders three times in the first quarter, including two by linebacker Omarr Flood, and knocked him out of the game early in the second quarter. His replacements, J.P. Koehn and Garin Hecht, were clearly in over their heads, completing just 6-of-23 for 83 yards with Lueders on the bench with a possible separated shoulder. Koehn, who played most of the second half, also threw two interceptions, including one that George returned 100 yards for a score. 

“We have better athletes in our secondary than they have at receiver,” Lawson said. “We thought our defensive backs could man up and let us get a lot of heat on the quarterback, and we did that.” 

Flood, who also had an interception to go with his two sacks, enjoyed the freedom to blitz for most of the game. 

“Being aggressive is the name of the game on defense,” he said. “We sent them a message that we weren’t playing out there.” 

Linebacker Julian Taylor got the ball rolling with a punt block on Albany’s (3-5, 0-3) opening possession, giving the St. Mary’s offense the ball on the 23-yard line. Two plays later, Murphy threw a quick pass to Brown, who juked one defender and found the end zone to open the scoring. 

George came up big on the next drive, running three times for 54 yards. In fact, the entire series was on the ground, as St. Mary’s ran the ball seven times for 78 yards. George finished the drive with a spectacular 19-yard touchdown run during which he broke five tackles and destroyed one Albany defender on his way to the end zone. In fact, it looked as if George was actually looking for defenders to hit instead of the other way around. 

“I was just hungry to run somebody over,” George said. “I lowered my shoulder, then put on a little shake. Then the last guy stepped up and I hit him as hard as I could.” 

Brown put on a show of his own early in the second quarter, taking a short pass over the middle and turning it into a 55-yard score, juking two defenders and racing up the right sideline to make the score 22-0, a lead the Panthers took into halftime. 

The second half was a slow-paced affair, with the Panthers looking to run out the clock and Albany unable to get anything going on offense. George took control early with runs of 19 and 20 yards on the first drive of the half, capping it with a nine-yard touchdown run. 

Albany answered back with a good drive, keyed by a screen pass to running back Michael Estis for 34 yards that put the ball inside the St. Mary’s 10. Estis scored from a yard out sson after for Albany’s lone score of the day.  

But the next Albany drive turned into George’s interception return, and it was clear there would be no comeback. All that was left was the self-destruction of the Albany offense, including an unforced fumble that St. Mary’s Jerrell Booker recovered and an easy interception by safety Jason Bolden-Anderson.

In the wake of Principal Frank Lynch’s departure last week, Berkeley High School’s vice principals will run the school as a team until a new principal can be found.  

“(We) built the model being optimistic that we could get someone by second semester, but if we couldn’t, it could certainly go through the end of the year,” Superintendent Michele Lawrence said. 

Vice principals Mary Ann Valles and Laura Leventer will be co-principals, vice principal Mike Hassett will primarily oversee the ninth-grade program, and Executive Vice Principal Larry Lee will oversee day-to-day operations and discipline. 

In addition, the district placed job announcements Thursday for two new deans, who will oversee student discipline and report to Lee. 

“We’ve had deans in the past, but it is a new position,” said Chris Lim, the associate superintendent for instruction. 

District administrators met with Berkeley High staff on Wednesday to unveil a detailed list of the duties for each of the vice principals. 

Valles, who led the San Francisco schools technology program until coming to Berkeley High last summer, will primarily look after attendance, grades, and student services. Among those are counseling and the Student Learning Center, which provides tutoring. She will also continue to act as liaison to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges as the school struggles to be renew its accreditation next fall. 

Leventer, the high school’s former math department chairwoman, will coordinate scheduling, field trips, the Web site and “E-tree,” assemblies, clubs, and relations with the Parent Teacher Student Association. She has been designated lead contact person for parents and the press. 

Hassett, a longtime English department chair before taking on his administrative post, will be the lead person on testing in addition to the ninth-grade retention programs, including the new Critical Pathways program, which is intended to remedy the “achievement gap” among African-American and Latino students. 

“Don’t be deceived by the short list of tasks he has,” Leventer wrote in a community e-mail Thursday. “This is probably the most challenging job there is and Mike is the most qualified for it.” 

Lee, who served as interim principal for three years before Lynch’s predecessor, Teresa Saunders, will manage the buildings and everything from disaster preparedness to relations with the Shattuck Avenue merchants and others in the surrounding community.  

Lawrence said she had decided against hiring an interim principal this time because she was “concerned... not to throw another variable into a school that has had so many over this period of time. And seeing how well the four administrators work together, I was convinced that that relationship could sustain the school.” 

Lawrence said during recent meetings with representatives of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which has demanded changes at the school before renewing its accreditation next fall, she has pared down the 11 areas of concern it cited last spring to five: Discipline and safety, attendance, decision-making processes and collaboration, retaining low-achieving ninth-graders and teacher training. 

These goals, she said, would be spread among the vice principals. 

“I felt that by more clearly aligning the responsibilities that each of them could shepherd through one of those important aspects of meeting the WASC requirements,” Lawrence said. 

The new plan also calls for a “shared governance committee,” made up of teachers, administrators, and small school leaders, with the power to vote on school policy and longer-term decisions. 

“There will be command decisions that will be made by the co-principals and vice principals, but a lot of decisions you want more input from staff members,” said Leventer. “There’s always been something where teachers felt they didn’t have a voice in administrative decisions and they wanted a sub-group. What we’re doing here is to pull that subgroup into the administrative body in order to be more focused.” 

The shared governance committee will have a representative from the School Site Council, mandated by the state to oversee staff development and the site plan. It will combine functions of an older shared governance committee that lacked decision-making power and another made up of department district chairs. 

Teachers are to elect three of their own to the committee: one representing the union, another the Parent Teacher Student Association, and another “at large,” Leventer said. 

“We actually want teachers to come up with the system to do that, since it shouldn’t come from administrators,” she said.  

A teacher who asked that her name not be used said the new plan suits the school better than having a single principal. 

“I think they’re working towards a model that we should look at as a permanent plan for administration,” the teacher said. “I think a cadre or team is a much better model for a school this size.” 

School Board President Terry Doran said the board and superintendent needed to look at the principal’s job in its current form and “ask what are the aspects of the job that are driving people away.” 

“We need to solve that and come up with some answers before we begin trying to find a new principal,” Doran said.

Editor, 

The loud groans heard across the East Bay last week were from local Green activists upon hearing Audie Bock announce for Congress. Though her departure from the Greens to the Democrats improved both parties, let there be no doubt; the local, state and national Green Party supports Barbara Lee and her brave vote against a blank check for war making. Audie Bock threw away the only constituency she ever had when she left the Green party and it was a slap in the face to a lot of hard working people. 

She obviously didn’t hear the voice of the voters when she failed to get re-elected, and like any other politician needing another campaign, she seems to think she can go to Washington on the back of a brave congessional leader besieged during troubled times. As one who groaned the loudest, I want to apologize to the voters of the 16th District for foisting Audie on them in the first place. In politics, sometimes you get a lemon. 

Hank Chapot 

Oakland

Playing the best they have all year, the Berkeley Yellowjackets destroyed Encinal on Friday night, forcing five turnovers and holding the Jets to 103 yards of offense in a 47-0 win. 

The ’Jackets (4-3 overall, 3-0 ACCAL) were a team on a mission against the Jets, and it showed in their pure aggression in all facets of the game. They scored on plays of 45, 29, 23 and 20 yards on offense, as well as getting their first defensive touchdown of the season, a 75-yard interception return by linebacker Leonard Scarborough in the third quarter. The Berkeley defense was flying all over the field, punishing the Encinal running backs every time they touched the ball and breaking up several passes with huge hits. 

“I can’t imagine it happening any better for us,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said. “One player makes a good play, and it’s contagious. Everyone wants to get it on it. It’s like a mob mentality.” 

The game was clearly out of hand by the second half, and the Encinal (3-4, 3-2) coaches waved the white flag by asking the officials to let the clock run before the fourth quarter began. 

The ’Jackets had their long passing game working on Friday, with quarterback Raymond Pinkston hooking up with wideout Sean Young for nearly identical touchdown passes of 45 and 29 yards, both fly patterns into the right corner of the end zone. Young, who runs the 40 in 4.5 seconds, has become the deep threat that the ‘Jackets need to keep teams from ganging up on their stable of running backs. 

“Raymond and I are just hooked up right now. We practice it all the time and now we’ve got it down perfectly,” Young said. 

The one-two punch of tailbacks Germaine Baird and Craig Hollis has become a potent one. Baird ran for 95 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, while Hollis crammed 72 yards and a score into just four carries. Throw in fullbacks Aaron Boatwright and Roger Mason, who each scored touchdowns themselves, and the ’Jackets piled up 228 yards on the ground. 

But while the offense has come to life in the last four games, the Berkeley defense really broke through with a big game against a tough opponent. Besides the five turnovers, the ’Jackets held Encinal’s senior running back, DeAndre Geen, to just 68 yards on 21 carries, and completely shut down the Jets’ passing game, allowing just five completions for 15 yards. 

Several Berkeley players said the game was a statement directed at ACCAL rival Pinole Valley, the league’s other undefeated team. The two will clash in two weeks in the regular season finale for both teams. 

“We want Pinole to look at this score and know we ain’t backing down,” said linebacker Akeem Brown, who had a forced fumble and a fumble recovery on Friday. “We want them to know we’re coming for them.” 

“It’s just between us and Pinole now,” defensive end/kicker Greg Mitchell said. “We thought this would be a big game, but now we know it’s all about the last game.” 

Bissell said he wants his players to concentrate on next week’s game against Richmond, but realizes that may be unrealistic. 

“Obviously we’ve got the Pinole game looming ahead of us, so it’s hard not to look past Richmond,” he said. “But we’ve got our eyes on the league title, and we have to take it one game at a time.” 

NOTES: The Berkeley-De Anza game postponed earlier this season will not be rescheduled, the league announced this week... In junior varsity action, Berkeley defeated Encinal 24-12 on Friday. 

Century-old trees diagnosed with Dutch elm disease 

Neighbors on quiet, tree-lined Elmwood Avenue are preparing themselves for the removal of the street’s namesake – 100-year-old American elm trees that have been diagnosed with the relentless Dutch elm disease. 

“We understand that the trees have to come down,” said neighbor Naomi Janowitz. “We’re just in mourning over them.” 

Residents on Elmwood Avenue, located in the southeast Berkeley “Elmwood District,” say they are concerned about what type of tree will be planted in place of the stately elms that have characterized the neighborhood for the last 90 years. 

Jerry Koch, the city’s senior forestry supervisor, said Berkeley is working with neighbors to try and determine what type of tree to plant in place of the elms. 

“We’re trying to work with the neighborhood to come up with a suitable species that will be resistant to disease,” he said. “We do have guidelines though, we are not going to plant a redwood tree in a two-foot plot.” 

Koch said whatever the new trees are, they will have to be compatible with the homes, utilities and sidewalks in the neighborhood. “We want to put in a beautiful tree that will be there for a good number of years.” he said. “But the city will be responsible for maintenance, trimming branches and repairing damaged sidewalks and utility wires, so we’re not going to get ridiculous about it.” 

Koch is meeting with a group of neighbors Sunday and says he will present them with a frontier elm, which the city has been planting in other sections of town. 

However, neighbors say they are not yet sold on the frontier elm, which only grows to 40 feet, much shorter than the American elm. They said they may consider the liberty elm, which grows as high as 100 feet, might be a more appropriate replacement. 

The American elms were diagnosed with Dutch elm disease last year. Caused by a fungus, the disease is transmitted by two species of bark beetles.  

Once the fungus is established within a tree, it spreads rapidly via its water-conducting vessels. The presence of the fungus damages the vessels, which causes the tree to wilt and eventually die.  

The first known case of Dutch elm disease was discovered in Ohio more than 70 years ago. It has now spread throughout North America and has destroyed more than half the elm trees in the northern United Sates. 

So far, only one tree has been felled on Elmwood Avenue. Janowitz pointed to a tree, marked with a blotch of red paint, across the street from her home.  

“That one comes down on Monday,” she said.  

The only elm tree not being cut down on Janowitz’s street is the one in front of her home. She said she is glad it is still healthy because her 10-year-old son, Noah, likes to watch the squirrels and hawks that nest in the tree from his bedroom window.  

Another neighbor, who declined to give her name, said she feared that whatever trees replace the American elms would be about five feet tall and grow at a rate of one foot or so a year. 

“In other words we’ll all be dead before we see trees like this again,” she said with an upward nod.

Editor: 

Though I support Barbara Lee's lone stand in Congress, I can understand that there are others who may disagree. I urge them to support an opposition candidate who speaks from principle rather than Audie Bock who, by her shameless exploitation of patriotism, war fever, and human tragedy, has once again shown herself to be a well-lubed weathervane that turns in the direction of big money. 

Gray Brechin 

Berkeley 

Ripmaster scores game’s only goal as Bears win upset 

The California men’s soccer team outlasted the fourth-ranked Huskies, 1-0, Friday afternoon at Edwards Stadium in its Pac-10 home opener.  

California drew first blood as senior Austin Ripmaster slipped past two defenders and launched a shot from 20 feet out at 18:28 for his team-leading fifth goal of the season. It turned out to be the game winning goal as the Bears went on to win, 1-0, against their sixth nationally ranked opponent this season.  

“We were pushing hard to make their defense give us the ball on the counter-attack,” said Ripmaster. “Angel (Quintero) and (Chris) Roner stepped up, played it to Carl who slotted it perfectly with me and the keeper for a one-on-one chance. I was able to slip it past him.”  

UW had two great opportunities in the half. The first came in the 29th minute as Seth Marsh took a shot that went just over the cross bar.  

The other chance came when a shot was misdirected, landing in front of Kyle Fukuchi just five yards from goal. Kyle Navarro came to the defense as Saunders dove in to salvage an otherwise sure score.  

In the second stanza, the Huskies came out strong, forcing Cal back on its heels. UW controlled possession for most of the first five minutes but the Bears staved off the initial wave of attacks and settled in allowing five shots on goal the rest of the way. The battle was at midfield in what ultimately turned out to be a defensive battle in the second half for both sides.  

“Washington came out strong in the second half and put a lot of pressure on us” said coach Kevin Grimes. “We weren’t able to capitalize on the counterattack but our defense played solidly and we came out with the win.”  

The Bears defeated a ranked opponent for the second time this season after edging No. 14 San Jose State, 3-2, on Sept. 16. Cal hosts Oregon State Sunday at 2 p.m. at Edwards Stadium.

SAN FRANCISCO – At Berkeley’s Alta Bates Medical Center – and at hospitals across the country – panicked people are showing up, wanting to be tested for exposure to anthrax. 

“There’s a lot of anxiety-mongering going on out there, and the media are fanning the flames,” said Carolyn Kemp, spokesperson for Alta Bates. “It’s a scary time, and there’s a lot of incorrect information out there.” 

Judging by the concerns of infectious disease experts gathered this week across the Bay, the problem is growing. 

Sunday is the last day of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s 39th annual meeting, which was held Oct. 25 - Oct. 28 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.  

Bioterrorism – previously scheduled as a small part of the conference – has understandably become the focus of this year’s event. 

A hastily-planned slate of events geared toward answering questions in the wake of the current anthrax scare started off Friday with a well-attended discussion led by two experts on bioterrorism. 

The question-and-answer session, which will be repeated this morning, was led by James Snyder, an anthrax expert from the University of Louisville, and Maj. Jon Woods, a doctor in the United States Air Force. 

As they took questions from the audience, it was apparent that many of those in attendance are under pressure from the public to administer anthrax tests and antibiotics – even when it is inadvisable. 

“Nasal swabs are not that productive except for epidemiological purposes,” said Snyder. 

Woods agreed. 

“(Nasal swabs) are really not useful for deciding who should receive treatment,” he said. “It’s foolhardy to use them to decide if a person is going to receive prophylactic (treatment).” 

But many in the audience said they are having a hard time convincing the public. 

One man, who works in Long Island, New York, said he is being pressured by unions. 

“Two of the unions in our area represent a lot of postal workers,” he said. “They are not asking but demanding to be given a nasal swab.” 

He said he explains to them the uselessness of the swab for disease detection, but “their response is: ‘Are you not going to know until the first person dies?’” 

The answer, at least for now, seems to be yes. 

“We don’t know who the future targets are going to be,” said Woods. “You can’t do swabs on 260 million people. So for now, that first person in a new group is unfortunately going to be very hard to save.” 

Many in the audience – most of whom never work with bioterrorism – attended out of curiosity. 

Suzanne Phelps, 33, of Alameda said the discussion of nasal swabs “did kind of surprise me. But it makes sense when I think about it. You don’t want to go give swabs to the whole state of New York, but you don’t want to make the search so narrow that you miss anyone.” 

Phelps works for an Oakland project which studies infectious diseases – but not anthrax. She said she understands the public concern but also sees how, in excess, it could itself become a problem. 

“You have to look at the risk of exposure, “ she said. “Right now, if you’re not in Florida, Washington, D.C., New York or New Jersey, you’re not at risk. And you’re just taxing important resources if you insist on being tested.” 

Kemp agreed. The Berkeley hospital instituted a bioterrorism response plan early last year, she said, and is prepared to deal with both real threats and panic. 

“If you come in and you’re worried that you feel sick, and you’re afraid the white powder next to the coffee machine might have made you sick, we need to find that out,” said Kemp. 

Editor: 

Having lived in Albany for over 70 years, my memories go back to old John Glavinovich, our Town Marshall prior to the new City Charter. He stood on the corner of San Pablo and Solano, directed traffic and escorted children across the street. In 1927, the new City Charter gave John the title of Chief of Police. He oversaw 3 persons, 2 of whom were motorcycle officers, without radios. Woe to the person who exceeded 25 miles per hour in Albany, as tough cop Frank Davis mercilessly gave out tickets. 

The Charter made the Chief's office elective, as did most small cities in those days. We in Albany have been fortunate to have had citizens living in Albany who had the qualities to head a small town department. As cities grew, most every city found that to obtain qualified chiefs, they had to select them from outside their boundaries. Only two cities in all of California still elect their Chief, one being Albany. To select a Chief for a modern department with all its complexities and problems, a city had to advertise the opening, demanding experience and qualifications, just as we do now for our Chief Administrative Officer, Public Works and Zoning Officers. 

By voting "YES" on Measure C, we do not give up any voting rights. After our present Chief retires, Measure C would allow our duly elected representatives on the Albany City Council to select a qualified experienced person from amongst a pool of applicants, who are screened and interviewed as to qualifications to head our department. Would we give up any rights as citizens if Measure C passed? A hearty NO! At present anyone having a non-police problem in the city can complain at weekly City Council meetings and have a hearing. If we have an unresponsive Council, we can elect new Councilpersons every two years, with persons who will listen to the citizens. On the other hand, at present, what citizen not satisfied with any action of the Police Department, would have the temerity to criticize the Police Department or its Chief should they have a problem. They would have to wait for four years to make any kind of change via an election. 

How long can we be so fortunate as to have qualified applicants for chief living in the city? The answer is to keep our Police Department out of politics and let our elected City Council and its Chief Administrative 

Officer handle the administration of every department of the city while allowing each Department Head to perform his or her duties. For Albany's future we must adopt Measure C by voting YES! 

Jerome Blank,  

former councilman and mayor 

Albany

STANFORD – The Cal women’s volleyball team lost to No. 4 ranked Stanford, 3-0 (30-16, 30-18, 30-20) Friday night at Maples Pavilion. The Bears were led by seven kills by sophomore Gabrielle Abernathy and six kills apiece from senior Candace McNamee and sophomore Jessica Zatica. Sophomore middle blocker Heather Diers added four block assists for Cal.  

Stanford, which outhit the Bears, .464 to .138, was led by junior Olympian Logan Tom’s 12 kills.  

In game one, Cal (7-12 overall, 2-9 Pac-10) jumped out to a 4-2 lead with the help of a McNamee kill, a service ace by sophomore Ashleigh Turner and a kill by junior Leah Young. That was the highlight for the Bears as Stanford (18-2, 10-1) broke away from a 16-12 lead by going on a 8-0 run for a 24-12 advantage, finally winning game one, 30-16.  

A highlight for Cal in game two was the Bears coming back from a 9-5 deficit to take a 10-9 lead behind two kills from Abernathy, two service aces from junior Reena Pardiwala and a kill by McNamee. However, Cal only had one more lead after that, 11-10 on another Abernathy kill, before falling 30-18. In game three, the Bears fell behind 5-0 early and were never really in the contest, losing 30-20. .  

Cal will next travel to Oregon Thursday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at McArthur Court, before facing Oregon State, Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. at Gill Coliseum.

SACRAMENTO — California voters will act on six ballot measures when they go to the polls for the March 5 primary election, state officials said Friday. 

The measures include five proposals put on the ballot by the Legislature and an initiative that would extend term limits to allow lawmakers to serve up to four more years. 

That proposal will be Proposition 45, the secretary of state’s office said. 

Also appearing on the ballot will be: 

— Proposition 40, a $2.6 billion bond measure to pay for park, clean-air and a variety of other environmental programs. 

— Proposition 41, which would allow the sale of $200 million in bonds to buy updated voting equipment. 

— Proposition 42, a constitutional amendment that would earmark gasoline sales taxes for transportation programs. 

— Proposition 43, which would create a constitutional guarantee that a voter’s vote will be counted. 

— Proposition 44, a measure to crack down on auto insurance fraud. 

The numbering of propositions for an election generally starts where the previous election left off, although legislators can designate numbers for the measures they put on the ballot. 

The numbering reverts to Proposition 1 every 10 years. 

———— 

On the Net: Read the legislation — AB1602, AB56, ACA4, ACA9 of 2001 and SB1988 of 2000 — at www.senate.ca.gov and the initiative at www.ss.ca.gov 

Editor: 

Those who are calling for a Berkeley city boycott, and others who oppose the Berkeley City Council resolution calling for an end, as soon as possible, to the bombing of Afghanistan should consider the following: 

Regardless of political persuasion, the people of the United States need to come to terms with the fact that the weapons in the U.S. arsenal are extremely toxic. They include depleted uranium, among other harmful chemicals, and the residues will continue killing the people of Afghanistan for generations to come. 

As in Iraq, the people of Afghanistan can expect high rates of cancer and birth defects as a result of these attacks. Doctors in Iraq report sharp increases in all types of cancer, especially childhood leukemia, and the hospitals around Basra report many babies born with birth defects. Of those babies, approximately two each day are severely deformed, such as babies born with no limbs or no recognizable facial features. The damage to the Iraqi gene pool is permanent, and the land can never be cleaned up. 

In addition to the environmental and genetic damage, the bombing in Afghanistan is creating a humanitarian crisis of immense proportion. Numerous international aid agencies serving Afghanistan are calling for a cessation in the bombing so that essential supplies can be delivered into the area before winter sets in. It is estimated that 7 million people, almost a third of the population, will perish without these supplies. Many of those who die will be children, as half of the population of Afghanistan is under the age of 16. 

As our nation mourns, we must question the wisdom of inflicting this horrific and lasting damage upon the people and environment of Afghanistan. 

Margo Shafer 

Berkeley

Editor: 

I have received several very angry e-mail messages lately, trashing Berkeley, and one even calling me a traitor for living in this city. I now have a standard reply, and here it is: 

A lot of very irresponsible and erroneous news stories about Berkeley have appeared in nationally known and respected newspapers since destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Contrary to what you may have heard or read: 

There have been no pro-bin Laden or pro-Taliban rallies in Berkeley! There are no stores in Berkeley with pictures of Osama bin Laden or Mohammed Omar (the head of the Taliban) in their windows. 

Berkeley is well-known for it’s left-wing politics. The people who run the government of Afghanistan torture and murder leftists, socialists, and communists. 

The domestic policies of the Taliban are universally despised in Berkeley. In Afghanistan, the penalty for teaching girls to read is death. Women are prohibited from working outside their homes, even if they are starving and work is the only way they can earn money to buy food. Flying a kite is punishable by death. (I don’t know why. I can’t figure that one out.) Homosexuals are publicly executed by dropping concrete blocks or collapsing walls on them. 

Anyone who thinks that policies like these are popular in Berkeley or that they are supported by anyone in Berkeley city government has absolutely no idea what Berkeley is really like! 

Also, despite claims to the contrary, there have been no fund-raisers in Berkeley for Osama bin Laden or the Taliban. Bin Laden is a millionaire many times over. Nobody is quite sure how much he is worth, but it’s more money than he’s going to spend in his lifetime. 

The Taliban controls and taxes opium production. Half the world’s heroin originates in Afghanistan, and the Taliban makes billions of dollars a year in opium taxes. 

Why would people in Berkeley (or anywhere else) hold fund-raisers for people like this?!? It’s utterly ridiculous! 

The attack on the World Trade Center saddens, angers, and frustrates us all. We don’t know who is responsible. The people who hijacked the airplanes on Sept. 11 are all dead and can’t be punished or even questioned. I don’t know who to blame either, but there is no point in blaming Berkeley. 

Mark Tarses 

Berkeley

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, two armed robbers held up the Office Depot store at 1025 Gilman Street, according to Berkeley Police Department Spokesperson Lt. Cynthia Harris. 

The men approached two employees as they closed the store for the night. They forced the employees back inside the store and made them hand over an undisclosed amount of cash. No merchandise was taken. 

The suspects are described as black males in their 20s, one around 6 feet tall and 170 pounds., the other around 5 feet 6 inches tall and 160 pounds. Both were wearing black, hooded, long-sleeve sweatshirts, baggy black jeans and black tennis shoes. Both carried handguns. 

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742. 

Three juvenile females robbed a purse from a woman near the corner of Shattuck and University avenues on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., according to Harris. 

One asked the woman for the time as she walked down the street. When the woman stopped to check her watch, another juvenile allegedly reached into a bag the woman was carrying and pulled out her purse. The three then fled on foot. 

Police have no suspects at this time. 

There were reports of shots fired Tuesday evening. 

Many neighbors near the corner of Derby and Milvia Streets reported hearing a series of gunshots around 9:40 p.m. One witness said he saw what appeared to be one male firing at another.  

Police were unable to find any suspects or victims in the neighborhood. 

– Hank Sims

Editor: 

We all seek peace, for ourselves, our families, our nation, and indeed, the world. Our nation is engaged in a national debate on how we achieve that peace. The City Council resolution asks that we work to break the cycle of violence and urges that we make an investment in our security, in achieving peace.  

The loss of innocent lives at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in the destroyed aircraft is a horrifying shock to people throughout the world. Our hearts go out to the victims, to their families, and to their friends, who have suffered so deeply. We are a nation in mourning.  

We need to ask how the perpetrators could have reached such levels of hatred and frustration. The explanation that they are brainwashed by a perverted leader who holds seemingly magical power over them has to be a dangerous simplification. Such anger can only have been constructed over time, through a combination of historical events resulting in a deep sense of threat and sustained exclusion. Our nation’s response has everything to do with whether we reinforce this alienation and thus provide the soil, seeds, and nutrients for future cycles of revenge and violence. Or whether it changes. 

Our enemies believe they are fighting an evil system that wishes to eradicate them and their people. We need to destroy this myth, not their people. Military action that attacks already vulnerable civilian populations will sow more hatred, confirming those who regard us as evil and nurturing yet another generation of recruits prepared to attack us at all cost.  

Monumental times require monumental change. Now is the time for a different, an unexpected, response from the United States. Countries like Pakistan, Tajikistan, and yes, Iran and Syria should be approached by the West, and especially by the United States, with a question of strategic importance: How can we help you meet the fundamental needs of your people? The single greatest pressure we can put on our enemies now is to remove the justification for their “holy” war. We can overcome terror by making it irrelevant. Let’s do exactly what our enemies do not expect. Let’s seek justice, of course, but at the same time work vigorously to create a different future, one that does not breed hatred and make the world unsafe for Americans everywhere. 

Our global challenge is how to engage others effectively to ensure a new kind of future, a future based on the life-affirming ethics that are present in every cultural tradition. Our challenge is to engage with people everywhere, deeply respecting their own traditions and religious beliefs, to help them meet their own fundamental needs. Such an effort will bequeath to the generation of our children’s children a legacy far more secure than could result from any amount of military might. The current situation poses an unprecedented opportunity for this to happen. Let us have the wisdom and strength to rise to it, to seize the opportunity to construct a better future for ourselves and, indeed, the world. 

We need to respond to well-organized, decentralized, self-perpetuating sources of terror by thinking and acting differently. Our enemies are now counting on us to strike back, harm the innocent, and create more desperate and lasting rage. Let us not fulfill their prophecy by providing them with the martyrs and justifications they need. They changed the face of war. They entered our lives by turning our own tools against us. We will not win peace, justice, or security with the traditional weapons of war. We need to change the terms of engagement.  

Linda Maio 

city councilmember 

with help from John Paul Lederach

SAN FRANCISCO — Transit officials will have to pay more than $1 million for stopping construction on a project near the airport while wildlife officials investigated a rare dead snake found at the site. 

In all, $1.07 million will be paid by Bay Area Rapid Transit to Tutor-Saliba/Slattery, the construction company that was working near San Francisco International Airport. 

Work on the BART extension project was halted for 18 days after an endangered San Francisco garter snake was discovered dead at the site. 

The pencil-thin snake, which has a turquoise blue belly and vivid red and black stripes, is listed as endangered by the state. It also is found in parts of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, where it lives primarily in ponds, creeks, marshes and meadows. 

State Department of Fish and Game sleuths were unable to figure out who was responsible for the snake’s death, so BART will pay the bill for stopping construction. 

“Nobody has ever been able to find out what happened to the snake,” said BART spokesman Mike Healy. “There was no evidence that the contractor or anyone was directly at fault.” 

BART already has spent close to $6 million to comply with environmental laws. The transit agency captured and relocated 77 snakes during construction near wetlands in San Bruno. Those snakes have been returned to their original habitat. 

New safety standards were set after the dead garter snake was discovered. The speed limit in the construction area was slowed to 10 mph and workers now arrive at the site by bus rather than in their personal vehicles to limit snake squishings. 

Extending the BART transit line to San Francisco Airport is estimated to cost $1.48 billion and be completed by December 2002. 

Editor: 

Whether the Berkeley City Council passes resolutions or not; whether we, as individuals, support or reject these resolutions; whether we are vocal or silent on the issue of the United States attacking or not attacking Osama bin Laden and the Taliban forces in Afghanistan ? What difference does it make? 

I am not a Christian, nor do I follow any religion. But I do believe in cause and effect, and so do the various scriptures. In the King James version of the Bible, in Galatians 6:7, it is written “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” 

What happened in New York on Sept. 11, 2001 was an effect. The bombing of Taliban forces in Afghanistan is also an effect. Whatsoever Osama bin Laden sowed, it is certain that he shall also reap. Whatsoever anyone of us sows today, that too shall he or she reap. 

It should be somewhat obvious, then, that every moment of our lives we are simply receiving our just harvest. And if this is true, then the issue at hand isn’t one of religion or politics, but rather of agriculture! We can be more careful what we sow. 

Carl da Costa 

Berkeley

OAKLAND — A San Francisco International Airport air traffic controller who had been struggling with a series of personal and financial problems pleaded guilty Friday to a bank robbery spree. 

Rick Lee Davis, 43, the president of the air traffic controllers’ union local, changed his plea after originally pleading innocent. He pleaded guilty Friday to six counts of bank robbery. 

Davis, nicknamed the Robust Robber because of his stocky build, was arrested Aug. 3 after a spree of nine Bay Area bank robberies over a 10-month period. Police say he made off with $40,000. 

He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 15. Davis faces a sentence of 120 years in prison. 

Davis had been working as an air traffic controller at SFO since 1998, earning $98,000 a year. In 1996, Davis was seriously hurt when his car hit a cow in Hawaii, where he had been living with his wife and two sons. Davis later divorced and filed for bankruptcy. 

Editor 

I am also against war and for quick conclusion to the problems instead of killing poor people and achieving nothing.  

I am with your city and will support you in all possible ways and I am very sure most of the Americans are also with your city. It’s just few crazy people trying to ruin the reputation of the city and trying to scare the people by saying they will boycott Berkeley. I am sure that not even they have the guts to boycott Berkeley because I am sure they will not survive without Berkeley.  

I am very proud of people of Berkeley and wish them to keep up the good work. 

Satnam Bains 

Yuba City

SACRAMENTO — Demand for electricity in California has been so low at times that the state has had to give away power and even pay utilities to take it, according to state financial records. 

The state lost a total of $26 million in its first three months of trading power on the daily wholesale electricity market as demand and prices declined, documents released this week show. 

“They’re selling electricity that taxpayers paid for at 10 cents on the dollar,” said Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. 

State officials say Gov. Gray Davis’ power-trading program averted blackouts this summer. 

The state began buying power in January but didn’t begin selling it until April when the daily scramble to meet power needs eased. 

State traders gave away a total of 1,414 megawatt-hours. 

A few times the state had to pay a utility to take the excess power in order to avoid paying penalties that the operator of the state’s power grid charges for dumping surplus electricity, said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the state Department of Power. 

DWR is the state department charged with managing the state’s power buys. The state stepped in to purchase power on behalf of three utilities in January, when high wholesale electricity prices led the companies to the brink of bankruptcy. 

Editor: 

In this time of intense patriotism, who among us is truly ready to risk death for our freedoms? I suspect that many people deeply believe that they are. But which freedoms will they risk death to preserve? The freedom of privacy? Of habeas corpus? Of speech? Of free assembly? Of free expression? The freedom from unreasonable search and seizure? Are we willing to risk death at the hands of terrorists as the price of these freedoms? 

I see many people waving our flag and – remarkably – at the same time proclaiming that we must give up our constitutional freedoms in order to be safer. I see members of Congress quick to legislate away our freedoms for our safety. Where is the courage and patriotism in that? 

Now that we must chose between safety and freedom, we must not flinch if our flag is to mean anything: The courage of our convictions is being tested by history. We should let our representative know that we are not so fearful as to have them legislate away the freedoms and privacies that other generations have died to give us. 

Dennis M. Burke 

Phoenix, Arizona  

SAN FRANCISCO — Hours after President Bush signed an anti-terrorism bill granting police unprecedented powers Friday, a former Ukrainian prime minister on trial here argued the new legislation proves he did not commit a crime on U.S. soil. 

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko is on trial for allegedly laundering millions of dollars in the United States with money obtained by extorting or bribing Ukrainian businesses, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed in July. 

In a court hearing Friday, Lazarenko’s attorneys urged a federal judge to dismiss the case. 

They argued that the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 broadens money-laundering crimes that were not expressly outlawed when Lazarenko was accused.  

That means he cannot be prosecuted because it was not a crime before Friday’s law was created, said Lazarenko’s attorney Dennis P. Riordan. 

Senate amendments to the bill for the first time include acts “for money laundering, the very conduct by a foreign official with which Lazarenko is charged in the pending indictment,” Riordan argued. 

Wearing brown jail smocks, Lazarenko sat quietly and listened to the two-hour proceedings translated through a Russian-language interpreter. 

Riordan argued that prior to the new law, money laundering was only a crime for foreign public officials in the United States if the money was obtained through extortion or drug deals — not bribery. 

The package Bush signed Friday changed that to also criminalize money obtained through bribery. 

Federal prosecutors said Lazarenko can still be prosecuted under the old law because he extorted millions from Ukrainian businesses. Extortion, the government maintained Friday, is the same as bribery. 

“For this case, Congress didn’t need to make the amendment,” argued Assistant U.S. Attorney Martha Boersch. 

But Lazarenko’s attorneys said the U.S. Supreme Court has outlined extortion as a “violent or terrorist act” for which Lazarenko is not accused. Some charges allege Lazarenko took money from businesses, which in return received government favors. 

U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins said he would rule on the dispute before Nov. 20. 

Lazarenko is a political centrist who fled his country for the United States in February 1999. He was named prime minister in 1996 by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, serving 13 months before losing a power struggle. 

He fled to the United States after the Ukrainian government accused him of stealing about $2 million. Lazarenko has maintained the accusations were part of an attempt by his enemies, including Kuchma, to silence political opposition. 

The U.S. government has accused Lazarenko of conspiring to transfer about $200 million in ill-gotten funds to U.S. bank and brokerage accounts to conceal their origin. 

Officials want forfeiture of Lazarenko’s 41-room home in Novato, north of San Francisco, and the laundered money. 

In February, meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors instituted a criminal case against opposition leader and former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko, who was dismissed by Kuchma in mid-January after prosecutors accused her of wide-scale corruption. She is charged with paying millions of dollars in bribes to Lazarenko. 

The case argued Friday is United States v. Lazarenko, CR-000284. 

OAKLAND — Attorneys for three former Oakland police officers accused of criminal misconduct said Friday they will seek to have their clients tried outside of Alameda County. 

Michael Rains, attorney for Clarence Mabanag, said pretrial publicity in the so-called “Riders” case would make it hard to seat a panel of unbiased jurors. 

A trial date for the former police officers, Mabanag, Jude Siapno and Matthew Hornung, has not yet been set. A fourth officer, Frank Vazquez, fled soon after the investigation began. 

The officers were fired by the Oakland Police Department after they were accused of beating suspects and falsifying police reports during a two-week period in June of 2000. 

About 25 activists from the community group PUEBLO, People United for a Better Oakland, held a rally outside of the Oakland courthouse and urged a more comprehensive investigation. 

PUEBLO claims that misconduct runs rampant within the Oakland Police Department and that the investigation should not be restricted to the four defendants charged. 

SAN FRANCISCO — The Exploratorium here hosted more than a dozen of the brightest minds in the world Friday as it marked the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize. 

Four Nobel laureates took time to discuss the impact of the Nobel Prize. Chemist Paul Berg and economist Milton Friedman were among those who described how they earned their awards and how the prize changed their lives. 

The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious award in science, and California’s universities and research facilities lay claim to more Nobel laureates than any other place in the world. 

On Saturday, the Exploratorium hosts a live event called “Stump the Scientist,” where Nobel Prize winners will try to explain some of the curious Exploratorium exhibits for members of the public in attendance. 

SACRAMENTO — California is sending inmates to prison at a far lower rate than just a few years ago, but the prisoners are serving longer sentences, figures released Friday show. 

The number of prison inmates is expected to drop in the next two years from the current 159,114 to as low as 155,720 in mid-2003 before beginning a slow climb to about 164,620 by mid-2007. 

That’s thousands fewer inmates than prison officials predicted just six months ago. 

However, the slumping economy could boost crime and convictions beyond projections, said California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Margot Bach. 

Prison population swings tend to be cyclical, she said, and it remains unclear if the drop in imprisonments is a long- or short-term trend. 

The trend stems largely from policy decisions and runs counter to California’s rapidly growing population, said Frank Zimring, a University of California, Berkeley law professor who has studied California prisons for more than 20 years. 

For instance, most of the slowdown is in minimum- and medium-security inmates, particularly women, in large part because of a state initiative that took effect July 1 requiring treatment instead of prison or jail for first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders. 

The drug initiative will cut the prisons’ population by about 5,440 next year and by more than 7,700 inmates by 2007, the department predicts. 

However, the state’s maximum security population, particularly inmates serving life terms and extended sentences under the three-strikes law, continues to grow, according to the department’s fall report now being reviewed by the governor’s office. Those inmates require higher security prisons and more supervision, Bach said. 

The number of inmates serving life in prison has grown from about 9,800 or 10 percent of the total population a decade ago to 20,429 or about 12.8 percent of the total today, Bach said. 

The state’s prison admission rate has also dropped significantly, from 293.5 felons per 100,000 Californians five years ago to 239.2 per 100,000 today. 

However, prison sentence length throughout the system has grown by 20 percent in less than a decade, from an average 47.9 months in 1993 to the current 54.6 months, the figures show. 

Actual time behind prison walls has grown from an average 23.6 months to 35.7 months when early release incentives and time spent in county jails prior to imprisonment are taken into account. 

That increase could partly be a function of weeding out inmates like drug offenders who would have served shorter sentences, Zimring said. 

The state’s prison population is expected to grow 6.3 percent over the next 10 years, Bach said, down sharply from the 14.5 increase in the number of inmates California saw during the 1980s. 

“California’s prison rate kept growing while the crime rate kept dropping,” said Zimring. “We were defying gravity until 1999. That’s when we stopped toughening up (anti-crime policies). That’s when the declining crime rate could catch up.” 

The 19,725 inmates who entered California prisons in the first half of this year is 4.5 percent lower than the number of incarcerations during the same period last year. 

The number of parolees returned to prison for parole violations is also fewer than projected by prison officials just six months ago. 

Bach said the drop was due to changes in police crime-fighting tactics, a state program to help recently released inmates succeed on parole, and an emphasis on keeping persons with two convictions from committing a third crime that would bring a far longer sentence under the state’s three-strikes law. 

Supervision of twice-convicted parolees was doubled so that one parole officer now oversees about 40 parolees instead of 70 or 80, Bach said. 

“We want to keep them from coming back for their third strike,” she said. 

. 

POMONA — Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by police led to the 1992 Los Angeles riot, pleaded guilty Friday to drug-related charges and was ordered to spend a year in treatment. 

King, 36, unexpectedly entered the pleas during a brief hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court. 

King admitted to three misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of PCP and one count of indecent exposure, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. 

He was ordered to spend a year in the American Recovery Center, a live-in drug treatment facility in Pomona. 

King, who was free on $7,500 bond, checked into the center after the hearing, defense attorney Antonio J. Bestard said. 

“I think he will be successful because he wants to get rid of this,” the attorney said. “He’s had a very bad time this year.” 

“I think this was the best result,” he added. “I think the court, particularly, was very understanding.” 

Prosecutor Thomas Gowen had sought a year in county jail for King, who could have faced more than three years in jail if he had gone on trial and been convicted. 

But district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons called the sentence acceptable. 

“It’s obvious that Mr. King needs some help and, hopefully, he’ll get it there,” she said. 

King was arrested earlier this month in Pomona for allegedly driving while under the influence of a psychedelic drug. 

On Sept. 29, he was arrested by Pomona police for allegedly being under the influence of PCP and exposing himself. 

And earlier last month, he pleaded innocent to another charge of being under the psychedelic drug, stemming from an Aug. 28 arrest by Claremont police at a hotel. 

His guilty pleas end all three cases, but he faces a Nov. 20 hearing in San Bernardino County for allegedly violating probation in a 1999 misdemeanor domestic abuse case. 

King’s 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police led to the 1992 riot when a jury acquitted four officers of most state charges and deadlocked on one count. Two officers were later convicted in federal court of violating King’s civil rights. 

King won a $3.8 million settlement in a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A recent study on more than 80,000 preschoolers demonstrates a new vaccine is highly successful in preventing the bacteria that causes meningitis, one of the co-authors of the study said Friday. 

Meningitis causes about 200 deaths in preschoolers nationwide each year, and more than 1 million deaths worldwide annually among infants and toddlers. 

A vaccine to protect older children and adults against pneumococcal infections, the principal cause of meningitis, has been available for 20 years.  

But a vaccine for children younger than 2 was just approved last year. 

The valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, or PNCV7, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in February 2000, but this study was the first of its effects in the general public, said Dr. Steven Black, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in Oakland and one of the study’s co-authors. 

Researchers say one of the most relevant findings of the study is a herd immunity effect, which means that vaccinated infants and toddlers seemed to be protecting those who had not been vaccinated. 

“It lowers the percentage of children who carry the disease in their throat,” Black said. “In fact, some evidence from the CDC shows adults are also being protected.” 

The pneumococcal bacteria can cause meningitis — an infection of the lining of the brain — which can lead to death, blindness, deafness, paralysis and learning problems. 

The bacteria also causes blood stream infections, pneumonia and middle ear infections. The bacteria is spread through close contact, including sneezing. 

“I would predict a decrease in the disease in the adult population as well,” said Black, a pediatrician with 25 years of experience, who explained that 20 percent of adults living with a young child contracts the disease — compared with only 5 percent of adults who don’t have any contact with preschoolers. 

The study will be presented Saturday during the 39th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in San Francisco. 

“The vaccine is highly effective, it is important not only for the U.S. but also for countries in the developing world,” Black said. 

No serious side effects to the vaccine were reported during the study, Black said. Common side effects are similar to those of other vaccines and include soreness and redness at the injection site, as well as fever. 

The FDA recommends all children up to 24 months of age be given the vaccine in four doses, at 2, 4, 6 and 12 to 15 months of age.  

Black said the vaccine already is available in some countries in Europe, South America and Australia. 

HAYWARD — Exploiting a lack of checks and balances, an accountant in the Cal State-Hayward fundraising department embezzled more than $150,000 over five years, regaling himself with gifts including a personal computer and home improvements, according to a university audit. 

The employee was fired over the summer, but not before he used a series of accounting tricks to take the money beginning in July 1996, the report by the Cal State system auditor said. 

The audit, which ran from May through late September, did not use the employee’s name. It said campus police were investigating the employee, but neither spokesmen from the campus nor the system’s headquarters returned calls abut the status of that probe. 

The employee worked for Cal State-Hayward’s Educational Foundation, an organization affiliated with the campus that solicits donations from alumni and grant makers. He was the primary accountant for the foundation’s vice president. 

According to the audit, which was dated Monday, the man forged documents to buy $5,200 in personal computing equipment and made more than 40 fraudulent disbursements to get cash and pay contractors remodeling his house and credit card bills. 

The report suggested the fundraising office implement a series of tighter accounting procedures.

SAN FRANCISCO — A significant rise in syphilis infections is being driven by gay men having unprotected sex with multiple partners, according to city public health officials. 

At 116 reported infections this year through September, the caseload may not be overwhelming — but the rise is precipitous. The city’s department of public health reported just 39 cases in 1998, 47 in 1999 and 71 in 2000. 

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can be treated with penicillin. The telltale sore often goes unnoticed, however, and over time, it can damage organs. 

The number of infections more than doubled among gay and bisexual men from 2000, according to a report city officials will deliver Saturday at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting in San Francisco. 

There have been 93 cases among gay or bisexual men so far this year, up from 47 last year. There were just 10 such reported cases in 1998. 

The study suggests the rise comes because gay and bisexual men are having unprotected sex with unfamiliar partners they meet in sex clubs and adult bookstores, and on the Internet. The 93 men reported having 1,225 sexual partners and could identify only 8 percent of them by name. 

Similar syphilis spikes have been reported in San Diego, Florida, Boston and Chicago, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.dph.sf.ca.us/ 

ANDERSON — The state’s largest timber company is shifting its logging practices from selective thinning of forestland to clearcutting, in order to help small trees grow big, it says. 

Sierra Pacific Industries says the shift also will cut down on fire danger, with new techniques making clearcutting more efficient and safer. But environmentalists and some neighbors charge that clearcuts are not good fire management tools. 

One thing is clear. With California’s fire season drawing to a close after more than 293,700 acres of wildland was burned, the issue of whether clearcutting is an effective fire management tool is heating up. 

“We try to design these along major ridge lines or roads so we can control fire better,” said Mike Mitzel, a district manager for Sierra Pacific Industries. 

Environmentalists say clearcuts eventually could lead to greater fire danger if the replacement trees are allowed to grow back too densely. 

“If you take everything away, a fire’s not going to burn effectively,” said Sierra Club organizer Warren Alford. “But in eight to 10 years, in a dense forest, that’s an increasingly dangerous fire opportunity.” 

The company plans to use a technique called “visual retention” on 70 percent of its 1.5 million acres, about 3.7 percent of forestland in California. Visual retention is a harvesting technique that leaves four to eight trees per acre in what otherwise would be a clearcut. 

Once the company completes the visual retention or clearcuts, it will go back to selective harvests, said Mark Lathrop, community relations manager for Sierra Pacific. That could take decades. 

On average, timber companies clearcut about 8,350 acres of the state’s 279,000 acres that are harvested in a typical year, according to the California Forestry Association. 

All agree that the Sierra forests where trees grow so thick that their trunks are inches apart and their branches are indistinguishable are not as healthy as those where the trees grow as much as six feet apart and the sunlight filters down to the forest floor. 

Fire is a natural, important part of a healthy Sierra Nevada forest — it leaves old, dead trees, called “snags,” for birds and other animals to nest in; it clears away small trees and leaves the large ones to provide habitat; it keeps the trees from crowding each other; it helps return nutrients to the soil. 

But the fires that consume unhealthy dense forests can burn so hot they burn up all the nutrients in the soil and make the ground as hard as concrete. Even water can’t penetrate it, and the water and ash run off into streams. 

Logging almost always increases fire danger, said Steve Pyne, professor and fire historian at Arizona State University. 

“All of the large fires in American history have followed logging or land clearing,” he said. “Because you’ve created a huge amount of fuel. A lot of material may be used, but a huge amount is left — branches, needles, small stuff or slash, that’s particularly vulnerable to fire.” 

And the trees planted to replenish the clearcuts are susceptible to fire because they are young and small. Older, bigger trees are more resistant to fire. 

But harvesting trees can be beneficial if they are properly maintained. 

“Where logging works as a fire protection measure is really kind of gardening,” Pyne said, “where you convert it to a garden and you intensively weed it and manage it and cultivate it.” 

That practice, however, can cost the forest biodiversity and ecosystem health, and it’s expensive and labor-intensive, Pyne said. 

The threat of intense, catastrophic fires has increased because the more frequent, cooler fires typical of the Sierra Nevada have been suppressed, and the forests don’t receive the fires’ restorative benefits. 

That’s where clearcutting comes in, according to Sierra Pacific Industries. 

“If you want to keep a system, you need disturbance,” said Cajun James, principal research scientist for the company. 

Sierra Pacific maintains the clearcuts or visual retention will provide the disturbance needed to let new trees grow to restore the health of the forest, and help prevent intense fires. 

“Nothing can stop a fire in these dense stands,” James said. “We’ve suppressed fires long enough that when they get that intense, they can’t fight them.” 

The Sierra Club’s Alford counters that clearcutting does not mimic a healthy fire in the Sierra Nevada. He said too much is taken out for a healthy forest to grow back in its place, and the herbicides that are put on clearcuts — to keep down the vegetation that might interfere with replanted trees — can be harmful to people. 

Clearcutting is controversial throughout the state. Even the U.S. Forest Service has significantly cut back on its clearcutting, cutting only a few acres at most and doing it rarely, said spokesman Matt Mathes. The Forest Service used to clearcut and sell the timber. It stopped the practice in 1992. 

“Society has made it fairly clear to us that they want to see less emphasis on timber harvesting,” Mathes said. “The laws of the land to protect wildlife and water quality have been factors in our move away from clearcutting.” 

Instead, the Forest Service thins the forests, taking out brush and small diameter trees, then finishes up with a “prescribed” burn, which means it sets controlled fires in the spring and fall to clear the rest of the fuel that could feed a catastrophic fire. 

The Forest Service owns 20 million acres — or one-fifth of the land in California. About 4.5 million acres of that is designated as wilderness and has no timber cutting done on it. Another 600,000 acres in river corridors are not cut either. 

According to the California Forestry Association, state loggers do a relatively low amount of clearcutting. There are 40 million acres of forest land in the state and 16.7 million of that is harvestable, the association says. 

Lumber from California in general brought in more than $1.6 billion in 1999, the latest year for which numbers were available, said Butch Bernhardt, director of information services for the Western Wood Products Association in Oregon. 

Fighting wildfires is costly for the state, consuming 90 percent of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s $450 million budget. 

END Advance 

So you finally found the ideal general contractor for your major home-improvement or repair job. The interviews went well. The background checks checked out. You really trust this person. 

But what’s with these new faces on the job? 

They’re probably subcontractors — specialists hired by the general contractor to perform specific jobs. According to an expert who shepherds home-improvement tasks for a living, homeowners should understand their relationship and responsibilities to subcontractors. 

“Subcontractors work indirectly for the homeowner because their contract is with the general contractor,” says Michael Christy, director of market development for the Home Service Store. “Some homeowners assume the general contractor performs all the work and are surprised when other workers show up at the front door.” 

The role of the general contractor is to coordinate the project. Dozens of tasks, such as drywall, plumbing, wiring and roofing are farmed (subcontracted) out to independent contractors, who specialize in a particular trade. Homeowners usually have no role in the selection of subcontractors. However, homeowners who have heard from friends and neighbors about the good work of a subcontractor can suggest names to the general contractor. 

Christy says general contractors “should be very clear with homeowners about the jobs and work schedules of subcontractors. Homeowners need to insist upon a work calendar that shows approximate time frames when subcontractors will be on the job. That’s the only way everyone stays on the same page and the job stays on track.” 

Subcontractors, or subs, are paid by the general contractor. The payments are often drawn against an amount of money the homeowner provides to the general contractor to pay for project costs.  

“Homeowners would do well not to make the advance payment one large, lump sum,” says Christy. “Instead, they should add money to the fund only when certain jobs involving subcontractors are performed.” 

Although subcontractors are not paid directly by the homeowner, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to make certain the general contractor makes payments on time. Christy says payments are due when the subcontractor is at a point when critical materials are needed or when the job is done. 

If the general contractor does not make payments, subcontractors can take action against the homeowner.  

These actions, often filed as liens, place the financial burden squarely on the homeowner’s shoulders. If liens aren’t taken care of quickly, work on the project can grind to a halt. “Worse still,” says Christy, “liens may show up years later when the home goes up for sale. No sale can be completed until past liens are resolved.” 

The working relationship with subcontractors is the general contractor’s job. He or she makes sure the quality of workmanship and materials by subcontractors is in line with project plans or homeowner expectations. 

The general contractor makes certain subcontractors have the necessary licenses and insurance. 

The homeowner can exercise some clout on subcontractor performance.  

Christy says “a cost of delay clause should be inserted into the contract with the general contractor. If the subcontractor doesn’t show for work, the general contractor can be held financially responsible.” 

If the homeowner believes subcontractor work is shoddy, Christy advises the homeowner to first bring the problem to the attention of the general contractor.  

If that does not yield results, the homeowner can seek arbitration between the parties. The last resort is litigation. 

In extreme cases, subcontractors can be removed from the job for failure to perform, argumentativeness or drug and alcohol abuse.

LOS ANGELES — Employment in the entertainment industry has hit a four-year low, as an already tumultuous year in Hollywood was made worse by the terrorist attacks. 

State employment figures show that  

September was the slowest month for movie, television and video production since June 1997.  

A total of 143,500 people were employed in the industry last month — down from 158,300 in November 1998, the high mark of the last four years. 

The latest numbers do not include the thousands of independent contractors who are also out of work. 

“This is a worse hit than anyone expected, and we really don’t know the full ramifications,” said Stephen Katz, an independent analyst who monitors employment in the industry.  

“There’s a trickle-down effect, and what’s so concerning is that these companies are laying off their full-time employees.” 

All across Hollywood, projects have been delayed or even canceled since Sept. 11, weakening the already fragile industry. 

The Entertainment Industry Development Corp. found that location shooting for feature length films in Los Angeles last month was half of the September 1999 total.  

Commercial shooting was down nearly a third from the same period. 

Alternately frenetic and stalled, the industry saw a rush to production in the past year, driven by fear of dual strikes by the actors and writers unions.  

Once they were averted, the industry had to deal with a minor slowdown caused by an excess of projects. 

Business was just starting to pick up when the terrorist attacks struck New York and Washington. 

“We were anticipating things would start back up again in September,” said Gabe Videla, president of Special Effects Limited. “And then all of the sudden the World Trade Center happened, and we got hit below the knees.” 

Industry officials have said production is unlikely to pickup until late winter or early spring 2002. 

LOS ANGELES — The Joint Strike Fighter program may be the single largest defense project in history, but its impact on California’s economy will be a far cry from what it might have been in the 1980s, when the state was the center of the national aerospace industry. 

Most of the work on the $200 billion fighter project will be done at the Lockheed Martin Corp. plant in Ft. Worth, Texas. 

Friday, the Department of Defense awarded Lockheed the contract to develop the next-generation, supersonic stealth fighter. Lockheed will be the lead contractor, working with Northrop Grumman Corp., based in Los Angeles, and BAE Systems of Great Britain. 

Northrop Grumman said the award will mean a total of 1,600 new jobs for the company across the nation, with 1,200 in California. Officials declined to estimate the financial impact of the award on the company. 

Most of the California jobs will be in El Segundo, where Northrop will design and assemble the plane’s center fuselage. 

Lockheed competed with Boeing Co. for the contract. But no matter which company received the lucrative contract, tech companies in California were expected to benefit from subcontracting work.  

Still, the impact will be nowhere near what it would have been a decade ago, when Southern California was heavily dependent on defense spending. 

“It seems likely this is the beginning of a very slow upturn, but not the beginning of defense dependence or anything like that again,” said Stephen Levy, an economist at the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. 

Levy said the 1,200 new jobs in the state must be seen in the context of the 280,000 defense jobs that left California in the 1990s. 

“Getting hotel occupancy back up again will have a far greater economic impact than this,” he said, referring to the current collapse of the state tourism industry. “But it should have some confidence-building impact in terms of Southern California remaining a place to do business for this kind of work.” 

Northrop Grumman is the last big defense contractor with headquarters in California. With a handful of other firms, it will likely benefit from a general increase in defense spending as the country fights its new war on terrorism. 

“We have ongoing expertise in military satellite capabilities and defense systems that might be part of a national missile defense system, which seems to have a head of steam now,” said Tom Lieser, senior economist for the UCLA Anderson Forecast. “The impact on the companies may be more significant than the impact on the economy.” 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

My son, who is a certified mechanic and sells lots of tires, tells me that if I go to a higher-profile tire on my '98 Chevy Cavalier for a softer ride, terrible things will happen: The computer will sizzle, gas mileage will drop to 4.3 miles per gallon and I will roll the car on the first lane change. He says he has been told this in his certification classes (he has stripes down his sleeve like a sergeant major). On the other hand, I have a couple of college degrees and a lot of experience, so I don't believe it. What do you clowns believe? – Richard 

TOM: Gee, Richard, I'm surprised your son didn't mention the rapid hair loss and the rash on your butt that will last a month. 

RAY: The kid does have a flair for exaggeration, Richard, but the truth is, he's right. He's right to discourage you from switching to a non-manufacturer-recommended tire size. 

TOM: Here's the story. When a car is designed, it's tested for handling and emergency-control characteristics with a certain size and type of tire. If you change that, you, by definition, alter the handling characteristics of the car. Enough to fry the computer? No. Enough to seriously alter your gas mileage? No. Enough to flip the car in a lane change? Probably not. 

RAY: But the problem is, nobody knows exactly what the new handling characteristics of the car will be, because the car has never been tested using higher-profile tires. 

TOM: Now, if you make a modest change in tire size in one direction or the other, chances are the car will still be safe. In fact, you probably won't even notice any difference; most cars probably have a reasonable safety margin built in. But if you're dealing with a sport utility vehicle or something else that already handles peculiarly, then changing the type or size of the tires can be very dangerous. And that's why your son is taught to recommend against it. 

RAY: And we're with him, Richard. 

How to break into a car 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

My dear, departed daddy told me that if you broke in a new car engine at slow speeds, it would always be slow and sluggish. Is this true? What's the real skinny? Is there a preferred break-in protocol? – Susan 

TOM: Great question, Susan. But since we never speak ill of the departed, we can't answer it. 

RAY: Actually, I'm sure your daddy was right about many OTHER things and was a superior human being in all other regards. 

TOM: But his story about break-in is an old myth, Susan. And we don't know how it got started. Probably by some teen-age boy who got caught racing his dad's new car. 

RAY: It assumes that the car somehow "learns" to go slow when it's young, and then it never knows how to go at normal speeds later on. Kind of like my brother at work. 

TOM: But it's just not true. There IS a legitimate protocol for breaking in a new vehicle. It varies slightly from car to car, but the main purpose is to allow the piston rings to "seat," or conform to the exact shape of the cylinder walls so that they make a tight seal. And most experts agree that the best way to do this is to keep the engine rpm below 3,000 and to vary the engine speed (i.e., don't drive at one constant speed for a long time). 

RAY: And the break-in period generally lasts anywhere from 500 to 1,000 miles. Or until your check clears at the dealership, whichever comes first. 

TOM: If the piston rings don't seat correctly, your car might burn oil later on. And nobody wants that. 

RAY: So the speed at which you break the car in might have an effect on how much oil it burns. But it has absolutely no effect on how fast or slow the car goes. 

TOM: Last time we checked, that was mostly affected by the position of your foot on the gas pedal.  

Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper, or e-mail them by visiting the Car Talk section of cars.com on the World Wide Web. (c) 2001 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Sunday, Nov. 4 

• 1 p.m.  

Islam in the balance 

Toward a Better Understanding of Islam and Its Followers 

Bill Graham Auditorium 

99 Grove St. at Larkin, San Francisco 

A one-day symposium that includes: Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Rev. Cecil Williams, Hatem Bazian 

The event will include a performance by Hamza El Din. 

$5-10 – no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

466-5205 www.islaminthebalance.org  

Tuesday, Nov. 6 

• 7 p.m. 

Dr. Hamid Mavani speaks on “Islam and Its Background” at a free lecture and discussion presented by the Berkeley Public Library. Dr. Mavani is the Religious Director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, based in Oakland.  

The session is the first of a series of three events designed to inform the community about critical world issues. 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Friday, Nov. 9 

• noon 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Ameena Janadali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, will speak on “Women of Islam, at the Berkeley City Club. 

Luncheon, $11-$12.25; speaker only, 12:30 p.m., $1 

Saturday, Nov. 10 

• Community Conversation: Confronting racism, finding common ground 

Rosa Parks School 

9:30- 3 p.m. 

920 Allston Way 

The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who say: “In the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies, some of our fellow residents who may look Middle Eastern or Muslim have feared and some have experienced racist remarks or actions. This has strengthened our conviction that Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville need to confront all the different kinds of racism within our communities.” 

Sunday, Nov. 11 

• Understanding Islam 

First Unitarian Church 

14th and Castro Streets, Oakland  

2:30 - 5 p.m. 

The events of Sept. 11 and thereafter have added an element of urgency to the need for a concise educational program about Islam. The program will address whether religion itself is part of the cause of the current turmoil or whether, instead, religion is being invoked rhetorically as mythic clothing.  

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Coalition of Congregations and the People’s Nonviolent Response Coalition. 

Pre-registration is required: 433-9667 

• Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites the public on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland every Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Meet at the columns at the east end of the lake, between Grand and Lakeshore avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater. 

Tuesday, Nov. 13 

7 p.m. 

Dr. Wali Ahmadi, associate professor in UC Berkeley’s near Eastern Studies Department, presents “The History of Afghanistan.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860. 

Tuesday, Nov. 20 

7 p.m. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute will speak on “Civil Liberties and Conflict Resolution.” 

South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library 

1901 Russell St.  

644-6860.

KPFA supporters welcomed the news that Ken Ford, a member of the Pacifica board majority they have battled for the last two and a half years, resigned on Wednesday. 

In a message on the Pacifica Foundation’s Web site, board president Robert Farrell said, “Ken Ford's years of service to Pacifica Foundation as officer, board member, and WPFW local advisory board member were of great value to the organization and are appreciated. We all wish him well as he takes his leave.” 

WPFW is a Washington, D.C. station, one of the five listener-sponsored stations in the network. 

Phil Osegueda, KPFA’s assistant station manager, said that in his resignation letter to board president Farrell, Ford wrote he was stepping down “for the betterment of the organization.” 

The departure comes one week after Bessie Wash, the network’s executive director, left under uncertain circumstances, amidst a worsening crisis in the network’s finances. 

Representatives of the Pacifica Board majority and KPFA were in mediation Thursday to resolve four lawsuits against the network: one was filed by members of four of the five stations’ local advisory boards, another by its listeners, a third by dissident national board members and a fourth by fired staff.  

The talks were expected to conclude late Thursday or on Friday. 

“We’d like an end to this struggle and we hope that (Ford’s resignation) is indicative of good faith discussions by both sides,” said Osegueda. 

The KPFA community last week voted to put off a decision on holding a fundraiser, partly out of concern that Pacifica might gain strength from it to fight the lawsuits. 

Immediately after Wash’s departure on Oct. 25, Pacifica agreed to bring those suits to mediation. 

Ford was one of a majority on the Pacifica board that supporters and staff of KPFA have battled for more than two years over control of the radio station.  

Two weeks ago, the San Francisco Examiner quoted Ford comparing those fighting to keep control of KPFA to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, which the government holds responsible for recent terrorist activities.  

Larry Bensky, a former KPFA station manager who now hosts the Sunday Salon program as a volunteer after being ousted from his paid position by Pacifica, said he did not think the resignation necessarily meant better times ahead. 

“I’ll be happy when the board changes to be controlled by advocates for free speech community radio,” he said. “This is the 13th director to resign over the last two and a half years, and yet the policies of the Pacifica central organization continue to be ruinous. Ford was certainly one of the most intemperate and nasty members of the board, but as long as they keep replacing the Ken Fords of the world with like-minded individuals, there can be no sense of victory or vindication.”

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter to the Berkeley City Council: 

To the honorable members of the Berkeley City Council,I would like to express my deepest thanks to you for your brave stand on the latest American military action against the wretched of the earth. Please send me a list of some Berkeley businesses that I can patronize online or through the mail to show my support. Thanks again. 

Nora Freeman  

Port Chester, NY  

The Drug Enforcement Agency raided a West Hollywood club last Thursday, and now local outfits fear that federal agents will turn their attention to Berkeley. Their No. 1 concern is not arrests, but the confiscation of patient medical records.  

“Our biggest concern is getting medication to patients,” said Dorrit Geshuri, coordinator for the Alliance of Berkeley Patients, a local medical marijuana advocacy organization. “The confiscating of records would be a big problem in reopening.”  

If medical records are confiscated, the clubs will not be able to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate patients, rendering clubs unable to sell marijuana to any registered buyer.  

“We’re definitely going to think of methods not to have the patients’ records available,” said Geshuri in response to a possible seizure. 

Medical marijuana advocates like Geshuri say federal agents confiscate the records for the sole reason of hindering pot sales.  

In the West Hollywood bust, no arrests were made. But the Los Angeles office of the U.S. District Attorney said the raid was part of an ongoing investigation, and agents were collecting evidence for possible future convictions. 

But activists say convictions are unlikely.  

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, the agency that officially registers local patients, said most Americans accept marijuana as legitimate medicine. According to Jones, agents know the federal government would lose a criminal trial and merely want to disrupt the club’s operations. 

Patients who want to purchase marijuana from one of the cannabis clubs in Berkeley must obtain a private doctor’s prescription and then get a registration card from the cooperative. Doctors prescribe marijuana as medicine for a variety of conditions, from AIDS and cancer to arthritis and glaucoma. Jones estimated that about 7,000 active members in Oakland and Berkeley get their medical marijuana from the clubs. 

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Geshuri said the local cannabis clubs are currently building their relationship with the city of Berkeley, and “some people on city council are supportive.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington agreed. In the event of a raid, he said, the council would take the side of the clubs.  

“Doing whatever we can do to strengthen the clubs would be a high priority because they’re providing a valuable service,” he said. “The progressives see this as a medical need and it’s been approved by the voters, so we should facilitate implementing it.” 

The city’s health department also respects the clubs.  

“There’s a mutual coexistence and understanding we have with the clubs with Berkeley,” said Fred Medrano, director of Health and Human Services. “We are not really in the business of regulating the clubs per se, but we are allowing them to coexist with us to provide medical marijuana under the provision of 215.” 

The Berkeley Police Department and the cannabis clubs do not have a formal relationship, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris. However, she said the local police avoids shutting down the clubs, only enforcing marijuana laws “as they see it.”  

Marijuana for any use, including medicinal purposes, is illegal under federal law. In May, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 in opposition to the medical use of marijuana.

SAN FRANCISCO — Some Northern California counties are hoping to win approval for a committee of government creditors in the Pacific Gas and Electric bankruptcy case. 

The only committee now representing PG&E’s thousands of creditors is dominated by energy traders. They have no incentive to stand up for the communities PG&E serves, according to a motion filed Wednesday by San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne. 

Joining San Francisco in the request are Alameda, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo and Siskiyou counties, along with the cities of Berkeley and San Jose. 

Renne’s office claims PG&E has negotiated a reorganization plan that favors energy companies whose soaring wholesale electricity rates drove the utility into Bankruptcy Court. Under the plan, released Sept. 20, PG&E would drop legal challenges against the prices charged by generators, who would receive full payment of about $9 billion. 

The 11-member creditors committee endorsed the PG&E plan two weeks after it was filed. Renne’s office says the committee, which includes seven energy trading companies, including Enron and Dynegy, has kept the majority of PG&E’s creditors in the dark. 

The counties hope want to draw up an alternative restructuring plan. 

SAN JOSE — Palo Alto police are looking for a man who they say conned a car dealership into handing over the keys to a custom-ordered Porsche valued at $125,000. 

The real owner of the gray 996 Turbo, who had waited two years for his special order, showed up 20 minutes later to claim it. 

The suspect, who called himself Steve, showed up Saturday morning at the Carlsen Motor Cars dealership dressed in a gray business suit and holding out his handheld computing device. 

He talked briefly with the sales clerk inside and then asked to look around the lot, police said. The man walked into the detailing shop where an employee was washing the new Porsche. 

According to police detective Dana de la Rocha, the general manager had just told the detailer to finish washing the car because the customer who ordered it was on his way. So when the man told the detailer that the Porsche was his, the detailer turned over the keys. 

The man was last seen heading north on Highway 101. The car had no license plates or dealer tags and still belonged to the dealership. 

Editor: 

There are more effective tools than war for stopping terrorism. War is what the hijackers wanted. The longer unilateral military intervention continues, the deeper and wider the suffering for all. This war will actually increase terrorism. This war could easily spread throughout the world. Happy Halloween. 

One probable result is the fall of the fragile dictatorship which we support in Pakistan. It would go to Taliban types. Pakistan has 30 to 50 nuclear weapons. Another probable result, if we don’t stop very soon, is the starvation of 7.8 million innocent Afghanis – according to the U.N. – who did not elect the Taliban and have nothing to do with terrorism. Trick or treat? 

Before we erode even more international support, we must stop killing innocent civilians and try to make amends for such deaths that we caused. 

Then we will get the near global solidarity that we need and deserve to bring the terrorists to justice legally, and to gradually root out terrorist cells worldwide through cooperative covert intelligence. We do not need to sacrifice civil liberties, which would be a victory for the terrorists. 

In foreign policy, we need to lead rather than impede international efforts such as the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, the UN Convention to Eliminate Discrimination against Women and the one on child abuse, the Land Mines Treaty, the biowarfare treaty, both anti-terrorism treaties, the International Criminal Court. We have been in the minority among industrialized nations in holding these up. We must respect the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Even if Star Wars could work, it will not protect us, as 9/11 proved. We must become the world’s hero. If we spent all the billions earmarked for Star Wars on a Marshall Plan for third world civilians and democratic governments, we would win the war on terrorism. 

We are the world’s largest exporter of weapons. The School of the Americas (new name, same game: torture) must be closed. We must work for worldwide justice, and not for just US. It would also be wise to stop exporting mostly the most vulgar and violent aspects of our culture. 

I am not coming off as the proud patriot that I am. I am so grateful to be American. Today we will call the Senate to stop the tax break for the rich that the House just passed. Some day we will become the greatest nation to ever grace the planet because we are a strong, free and caring people who will educate ourselves and rise to the challenge of creating a fair world. The movement for sustainable life on this planet will grow and flourish because it is so obviously just. When we are healthy and minding our own business except to help good people who want our help, we will be safe and we will rejoice with the world. 

Phoebe Ann Sorgen, Berkeley

As Attorney General John Ashcroft’s warning Monday of a new, “credible” threat of terrorism during the next week further heightened national anxiety, many Bay Area parents said the neighborhood ritual of trick-or- treating will be replaced today by more secure alternatives. 

Oakland resident Nakumba Jackson still hasn’t told her 5-year-old daughter she won’t be going out to trick-or-treat. Instead of taking their normal route through the Oakland Hills, Jackson said, this year they will do a candy hunt in their home. 

“She’ll be upset,” she said, flipping through kids’ spider costumes at Halloween Headquarters on University Avenue. 

Chris Chatmon, director of Oakland’s Eastlake YMCA, said he has encouraged concerned parents to come to the youth organization’s annual Halloween family night, with a haunted house, jumper gym and carnival games, as an alternative to trick- or-treating.  

“Given the buzz and us being at war. It does seem folks are a little apprehensive,” said Chatmon. “We’re providing an alternative.” 

“A lot of parents are using these events as an alternative to trick or treating,” said Eden O’Brien-Brenner, a Berkeley YMCA family program director. 

Erma Montgomery, director of the Oakland YWCA, said she planned to urge parents to stay away from trick-or-treating.  

“If you want your child to have candy; buy it yourself,” she said adding that she won’t hand out treats this year because of the threat of anthrax. 

While spokespeople from local school, police and fire agencies said they are taking normal precautions, some agencies advised parents to stay calm. 

“We don’t expect anything out of the ordinary,” said environmental toxicologist Mark Galvo, at the California Poison Control System, a poison exposure hotline. There have been no reports of anthrax exposure in California, Galvo said. “There’s no real concern.” 

“The public needs to be reassured that everything is going fine,” he said adding that parents should report anything unusual to authorities. 

But Montclair resident Anjuelle Floyd, whose three children won’t be trick-or-treating, said she was afraid copy cats would poison candy. 

“I’m quite pissed off they’re even having Halloween,” said Floyd, clutching a tiny Big Bird costume for her 2-year-old. “We need to wake up and smell the coffee.” 

San Leandro mothers, Tatsuki Hewson and Naomi Ito, originally from Japan, said they will go to their Japanese church for Halloween festivities for safety reasons, and because they are not accustomed to the American tradition. 

“We are always concerned about safety,” Ito said.

SAN DIEGO — An 18-year-old who admitted to a March shooting spree that wounded five people at his high school committed suicide early Monday, hanging himself in his jail cell. 

Jason Hoffman, who had a history of mental illness, was found dead at San Diego’s Central Jail shortly before 1 a.m., Deputy District Attorney Dan Lamborn said. He was alone in the cell and had been checked less than an hour earlier, investigators said. 

Hoffman left behind writings which indicated “he was displeased with the world,” said Lt. Jerry Lewis of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. 

The writings included doodles and a list of musical artists, which Lewis declined to name. They were not a suicide note in the usual sense, he said. 

“You can only theorize that he didn’t like being 18 and in jail with what he was facing,” he said. 

Last month, Hoffman pleaded guilty to six felony counts for the March 22 shooting at Granite Hills High School in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon. He was to be sentenced on Nov. 8 to 27 years to life in prison. 

“This was an obviously troubled young man and it’s a sad end to his life,” Lamborn said. 

Five people were wounded when Hoffman opened fire with a shotgun on the campus in an attack apparently aimed at the school’s dean of students. The motivation for the assault was never fully explained, according to Lamborn. 

Hoffman was stopped when a police officer shot him in the face, fracturing his jaw. 

The attack came two weeks after a shooting at a nearby campus, Santana High School in Santee, killed two students and left 13 people wounded. The alleged gunman in that attack was a 15-year-old freshman, Charles “Andy” Williams, who remains in custody pending trial. 

Hoffman’s attorney, William Trainor, has said his client took antidepressants before the shooting and had a history of mental problems, which he planned to detail if the case went to trial. 

It was unclear whether Hoffman had continued to take medication while in custody, Lewis said. 

Following his arrest, Hoffman was held in a padded “safety cell” due to concerns he might hurt himself. But a doctor later ruled he could be moved to the type of “administrative detention cell” where he was found dead, Lewis said. 

It was not clear when the transfer occurred, but Lewis did not believe it was recent. 

Hoffman was confined to the small cell, with only a small window in the door, for 23 hours a day. During a one-hour daily break he was allowed to exercise, shower and make phone calls. 

Early Monday, a deputy performing a routine check discovered Hoffman hanging from a vent screen from a torn bed sheet. Two deputies lowered him and found no pulse. Medical staff and paramedics were unable to revive him. 

He was pronounced dead at the scene just before 1:30 a.m. An autopsy was planned for Tuesday. 

SAN FRANCISCO – Rising from landfill across from Pacific Bell Park is the planned biotechnology research facility Genentech Hall, the city’s new economic hope. 

University of California, San Francisco officials on Sunday showed off Genentech Hall to reporters and other attendees of the annual American Medical Association Science Reporters Conference. They saw the skeletal exterior of a 430,000-square-foot building expected to be completed by the end of next year. When completed for an expected $223 million, the building will house some of the university’s biotechnology and medical research departments. 

“It is by far the largest such urban development of its type in the United States,” said Christopher Scott, UCSF assistant chancellor in charge of research. 

Genentech Hall will be the first of four buildings UCSF plans to erect on 43 acres in the city’s China Basin neighborhood during the next three years for an estimated $640.7 million. Officials said the four buildings are only the first phase of a planned 15-year, $1.5 billion expansion at the site. They hope ultimately to have 20 buildings and to spur a biotechnology growth in the city, which UCSF officials said is home to just a single biotech company. Most Bay Area biotechnology companies are clustered in South San Francisco around biotech giant Genentech and south into Silicon Valley. 

“UCSF is a primary player in the formation of the biotech industry,” Scott said. Scott said 63 biotech companies were launched by UCSF faculty or technology developed at the school. 

Most of the project’s funding will come from private donors and corporations as part of the university’s $1.4 billion fund-raising drive. 

“This is an ambitious effort by any stretch of the imagination,” UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop told a gathering of 300 of the school’s top donors during a glitzy dinner Wednesday formally announcing the drive. 

Despite the severe economic downturn and the events of Sept. 11, Bishop said he’s confident the school will meet its fund-raising target and complete the construction project. 

In fact, Bishop said the school has already received donor commitments of $740 million, more than enough to complete the project. The project’s finances were boosted by a lawsuit UCSF filed against Genentech that accused the giant biotech company’s scientists of stealing key intellectual property. Genentech settled the dispute in 1999 by paying the University of California and UCSF a combined $200 million, $50 million of which was used to help finance the building’s construction. In exchange, UCSF agreed to name the building Genentech Hall. 

Nearby, a five-story, 155,000-square-foot building is being built by Catellus, Inc. The developer is hoping to lure private biotech companies to its building, which is expected to be completed about the same time as Genentech Hall. 

Catellus donated most of the land to UCSF and owns nearly all the 303 acres in the formerly industrial area. Catellus plans to turn the area into a vibrant biotech center and residential neighborhood. Catellus hopes eventually to build 6,090 units of housing, 850,000 square feet of retail space and 5 million square feet of office space, mostly devoted to the biotech industry.

Editor: 

As a Citizen of Berkeley I am outraged and disgusted that Resolution No. 61,310-N.S. was brought before the Berkeley City Council. This is not a Viet Nam! The country is still reeling from the vicious terrorist attacks where 6,000 innocent U.S. citizens died, and more die daily due to possible bio-terrorism attacks currently being played out in Our Great Country. Every firehouse in NYC has lost at least one member of their brotherhood and some lost as many as 15 firefighters at some firehouses. This resolution creates the image of Berkeley as pithy, divisive, opportunistic and out of touch with reality and I don’t believe reflects the majority of Berkeley voters. 

Councilperson Worthington’s statement to the press regarding the proposal showed his nearsightedness: “This sort of proposal”, he said, “plays into the “Berserkeley” image that attracts national attention to the city and benefits the economy.” “Tourists come to Berkeley because of all the attention the bastion of liberalism generates.”  

Perhaps your progressive vision needs an adjustment in light of the Berkeley boycott now gaining steam in this country. 

Also Dona Spring’s comment to the press: “The U.S. is now a terrorist. According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks.” Dona, perhaps you should listen to the cries of terror from your oppressed Afghani sisters rather than the lies of Taliban thugs. The Taliban certainly didn’t avoid actions that could and would and have endangered the lives of innocent people in Afghanistan. 

Now, as a result of your short sighted view, you have brought suffering to Berkeley busineses. Grow up, wake up, and do the job you were hired for. 

Think Globally and act Locally - I will - at the next city elections! 

Timothy McCluskey 

Berkeley 

Editor’s note: Spring says the Daily Cal misquoted her.

Some local car dealers, who are experiencing a jump in business, are attributing this phenomenon to two main factors: zero-percent financing and patriotism.  

“Our whole product line is just taking off,” said Larry Stanfield, sales manager for Saturn in Oakland. “This actually started on the 12th of September.” 

Like many competing domestic car manufacturers, Saturn, owned by General Motors, has slashed its loans to zero-percent interest, which has significantly boosted sales.  

“I don’t know how long this is going to last, but I will ride the wave,” Stanfield said. 

According to a Federal Reserve Board report issued this week, zero-interest rates are boosting retail auto sales around the United States. 

Zero-percent financing has strengthened sales at Albany Ford-Subaru, according to John Nakamura, president of the dealership. For the month of October, Nakamura has already matched sales from 2000. With five days remaining, he expects to exceed last year’s numbers by at least 30 percent. 

Nakamura said some patriotic customers want to stimulate the economy.  

“A lot of our customers say they have planned to buy a vehicle in the next few months,” he said. But after the attacks, “they decided to do it now.” 

Sales in Subarus, the foreign brand sold at Albany Ford-Subaru, stayed consistent, according to Nakamura. “The domestic brand is higher,” he said, referring to Fords. “A lot of it might be the Pro-American sentiment.” 

Nakamura is fortunate. In a recent press release, Ford announced its domestic sales were down by nearly 10 percent for the month of September. 

Some East Bay dealers are feeling the pinch too. Sales slipped at Connell Chrysler in Oakland.  

“After our tragedy, we were down about 25 percent” for September, said sales manager Martin Muranishi.  

After joining the competition by offering zero-percent financing, they were able to close the gap; October sales are only 6 percent below last year’s figures. 

Sales have been slumping all year for some foreign auto dealers. According to Jason Kolesnikow, sales manager at Berkeley Nissan-Datsun, sales had been sinking 20 percent throughout 2001 prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. Despite offering zero-percent financing now, sales at Berkeley Nissan-Datsun remain down. 

Confident about his foreign brand sales, Ed Irving, a salesman at Doten Honda, said the company does not plan to follow others who offer zero-interest financing. Honda, he said, is not as worried as domestic manufacturers about the U.S. economy.  

Irving said for the first one-and-a-half weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, customers assumed that Honda wanted to sell its cars quick and cheap. They began coming in looking for bargains, up to $4,000 less than what the dealership paid.  

Irving leaned against a shiny blue showroom model.  

“People were asking for outrageous deals,” he said.