John Boss said he heard the crack around 8:00 a.m. -more-

Editor: -more-

The University of California women’s volleyball team defeated Auburn, 3-0 (30-19, 30-21, 30-15), Saturday afternoon at Haas Pavilion. -more-

OAKLAND – An Oakland airport terminal was evacuated Saturday after it was determined that passengers aboard a Southwest Airlines flight arriving from Seattle had passed through a broken metal detector. -more-

A psychologist from the University of California at Berkeley suggests that the best methods for waging the war against drugs are often overlooked, caught somewhere in the middle of the rhetoric of legalization and “zero-tolerance’’ plans. -more-

Angry airport security screeners at Oakland International Airport today rallied in protest of a clause in the new federal aviation security law that requires that the workers be U.S. citizens. -more-

Public transit extensions, solar power among issues -more-

SACRAMENTO – In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Don Detrich is on a mission to keep airline travel a little safer. -more-

Accidents abound on highways as harsh weather makes travel difficult -more-

SACRAMENTO — The group that promoted California’s medical marijuana initiative in 1996 wants to set up a showdown with the federal government with a ballot measure that would set up a state-controlled network to distribute the drug to patients. -more-

Company says new equipment will use less power -more-

American flags, firefighters used to attract customers, encourage spending -more-

Toll roads are holding back freeway work -more-

SANTA ANA – A Nebraska man who travels around to gun shows trying to sell his how-to book on germ warfare was banned from an exhibit this weekend at the Orange County Fairgrounds. -more-

Protests come fast and furious from religious and political groups -more-

OXFORD, Conn. – Less than a day after investigators swabbed Immanuel Lutheran Church for any signs of anthrax, about 250 people gathered there Saturday to remember the 94-year-old woman who is the nation’s fifth anthrax victim. -more-

Those who have worked with Dr. Rebecca Wheat would have to say she embodies the title of her new book “The Spirited Principal.” Becky Wheat’s spirit is indomitable. -more-

Saturday, Nov. 24

The Vine Street Pumping Plant is a modest, unobtrusive building, set quietly back from the street. It was built in 1930 by the East Bay Municipal Water District (EBMUD) and is part of a larger story about water rights, the commerce of water, water monopolies, and finally, the creation of the publicly owned East Bay Municipal Utility District in 1923. -more-

Editor: -more-

Berkeley Rep opened a stylish and visually rich production of William Shakespeare’s dark sex comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” on Tuesday in the company’s new Roda Theater performance space on Addison Street. -more-

21 Grand Nov. 29: 9 p.m., Lemon Lime Lights, Hillside, Moe! Staiano, $6; Nov. 30: 9 p.m., Fred Frith, Damon Smith, Marco Eneidi, Sabu Toyozumi Ensemble, Phillip Greenlief, $10; Dec. 1: 9 p.m., Toychestra, Rosin Coven, Darling Freakhead, $6; All ages. 21 Grand Ave., Oakland. 444-7263 -more-

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — California avoided its first winless season since 1897 and gave outgoing coach Tom Holmoe a going-away present by beating Rutgers 20-10 on Friday. -more-

Shoppers from around the Bay Area made the traditional post-Thanksgiving pilgrimage to the region’s retail outlets on Friday, and more than a few of them chose Berkeley’s Fourth Street shopping district as their primary destination. -more-

Editor, -more-

Once upon a time, long before the San Francisco SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) had the resources it has today, it had a special small fund reserved for the most pathetic of cases. -more-

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Recent rains have been a harsh reminder to local public transit users that 125 promised bus shelters are apparently bogged down in the city’s permitting process. It has been nearly a year since the city approved an agreement for their installation. -more-

Editor: -more-

DALLAS — Video-rental giant Blockbuster Inc. has canceled its annual awards show because it was uncertain how many viewers would watch in the post-Sept. 11 climate. -more-

The East Bay Sanctuary Covenant has been doing its good works for more than two decades – seeking asylum for refugees and planting trees in Haiti are among its projects. -more-

LONDON — Three people have been arrested on suspicion of cheating on the British version of the TV game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” -more-

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Pollio Italian Cheese Co. announced a recall of certain Polly-O ricotta cheese packages and some foodservice ricotta products because of potential contamination from Salmonella bacteria. -more-

LOS ANGELES — O.C. Smith, best known for singing a Grammy Award-winning rendition of “Little Green Apples, died Friday. He was 65. -more-

About 15 years ago, our company offices were located in a building that our grandfather built at the turn of the century. We first rented a small space in the rear and later, as our business grew, we moved to the front where we occupied several offices. -more-

Q. Olivia asks: What can I do to repair a small hole next to my hot water handle in my fiberglass shower? -more-

Here’s a great moneymaking scheme: advertise and sell a solar-powered shredder that is nonpolluting and low maintenance for the cost of a mere $75. This product would surely appeal to every gardener confronted this time of year with masses of old tomato and squash vines, corn stalks, and marigold plants needing to be reduced to a manageable size for composting. -more-

RENO, Nev. — Sierra ski resorts used a little snow and a lot of snowmaking to open a handful of runs in time for the holiday weekend as they anticipated the week’s second storm on Saturday. -more-

WASHINGTON — Unless someone really has to go, most drivers zip past interstate rest areas without a second thought. Why stop if there’s no gas, no burgers, no sweet icy drinks? -more-

ALTURAS, Calif. (AP) — All five people aboard a light plane owned by an East Wenatchee, Wash., aviation company were found dead Friday when the plane’s wreckage was located in the rugged Warner Mountain Range of northeast California. -more-

WOODBURN — An old woman in peasant clothes and a kerchief around her head stands in front of a Russian church that’s topped by gilded cupolas. The scene could be out of a century in the distant past — if it weren’t for a Ford pickup parked nearby and a TV antenna sprouting from a house. -more-

LOS ANGELES — From red, white and blue gift bags at one mall to New York firefighters lighting decorations on Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, stores made patriotic pitches Friday to jump start what is expected to be a slow holiday shopping season. -more-

SACRAMENTO —They were abandoned buildings in a forlorn part of downtown Santa Ana. Now they’re lively monuments to a shakeup in state investment strategy. -more-

Get this car some coffee! -more-

Parents pitched in Wednesday to serve some 60 Emerson School first graders a Thanksgiving feast. -more-

Thursday, Nov. 22

Many of us will contribute turkeys, canned goods, gift certificates and volunteer time to help prevent hunger among low-income families this Thanksgiving holiday. To achieve an end to hunger for these same families in the weeks and months ahead, we propose a supplement to this traditional menu of charitable giving. In the spirit of strong families, healthy children, and successful communities this holiday season California Food Policy Advocates recommends that the public and state policy makers choose at least one option from the following menu of opportunities to reduce hunger. -more-

It’s a historical drama without period costumes. An underworld crime story with nary a gunfight. A car salesman’s tale without any car chases. It is a tight little civic mystery thriller that’s too polite to raise its voice. -more-

21 Grand Nov. 29: 9 p.m., Lemon Lime Lights, Hillside, Moe! Staiano, $6; Nov. 30: 9 p.m., Fred Frith, Damon Smith, Marco Eneidi, Sabu Toyozumi Ensemble, Phillip Greenlief, $10; Dec. 1: 9 p.m., Toychestra, Rosin Coven, Darling Freakhead, $6; All ages. 21 Grand Ave., Oakland. 444-7263 -more-

The Berkeley High girls’ volleyball team had their season rudely ended on Tuesday night, falling in straight games, 15-11, 15-9, 15-5, to the San Benito (Hollister) Haybalers in the first round of the CIF state tournament. -more-

Ann Fagan Ginger, executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute and former member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, issued an activist’s impassioned call to arms Tuesday night. -more-

Editor: -more-

The University of California women’s volleyball program has signed local product Alicia Powers and Texas’ Jenna Brown to a National Letters of Intent, it was announced Wednesday by Golden Bear head coach Rich Feller. -more-

Community outcry and concern from neighboring cities about diminished fire service, has caused the Oakland City Council to rethink tearing down Fire Station No. 8 in north Oakland while a new station is built. -more-

Editor: -more-

Cal overcame a woeful shooting performance from three-point range and held on to beat Santa Clara, 67-60, Tuesday night in Haas Pavilion. With the win, the Bears are now 3-0 for the first time since 1995. -more-

Edward Treuting sat inside Point Richmond’s Hidden City Cafe, dipping a homemade sausage patty into his over-easy eggs and talked about his vision for the Emeryville stretch of San Pablo Avenue. -more-

Councilmember Spring, you were so very quick to “condemn” the actions of the Untied States government after the terrorist attacks that murdered 5,000 innocent civilians during the normal conduct of their daily lives. -more-

A mid-day fire at 2721 Garber St. on Tuesday caused about $75,000 in property damage, according to Deputy Fire Chief Debra Pryor. -more-

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District Wednesday adopted amendments that would reduce the number of smog-forming particles that are emitted by industrial paints. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco schools chief Arlene Ackerman said she plans job cuts in response to findings that voter-approved school repair and modernization funds were misspent and mismanaged. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — Pity the Thanksgiving turkey, selectively bred so fat for so long that simply walking can be a problem and sex is no longer possible. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — Dungeness crab season should be in full swing along the California coast, but most fishermen’s boats are docked as they protest the prices they have been offered for their catches. -more-

The Alameda County Housing and Community Development Department announced today that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $12 million in grants to county programs that help the homeless. -more-

BERKELEY – Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley say they are working to patent a design for aircraft wings that could dramatically cut the strength of wake turbulence. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — A six-month state probe of San Francisco’s November 2000 election has found “very unusual” ballot-counting discrepancies in a limited sample that could suggest a problem “large enough to affect the results of several contests,” Secretary of State Bill Jones said Wednesday. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — Before computer whiz Steven E. Brenner accepted his tenure-track research post at the University of California-Berkeley last year, he demanded that the school’s intellectual property police leave him alone. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — A judge denied a request to reduce bail for the man who kept two dogs that mauled a San Francisco woman to death, saying Wednesday he considers Robert Noel a flight risk based on alleged connections with the Aryan Brotherhood gang. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — Security screeners at San Francisco International airport are unhappy about the new airport security law, and they’re thinking of walking off the job during the year’s busiest travel weekend. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors considered Wednesday whether to appeal a federal judge’s ruling dismissing insider trading charges against a former chief executive of now-defunct Granny Goose Foods, Inc. -more-

SACRAMENTO — In a flash this fall, California’s power woes fizzled and a budget crunch took hold as the new crisis — and with that change came a new political challenge for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. -more-

LOS ANGELES — Filming bans at four city-owned airports since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are causing entertainment industry job losses that some in Hollywood fear could lead to more runaway production. -more-

Turkeys, cranberry sauce and automatic weapons. -more-

LOS ANGELES — If it weren’t for the intervention of local sheriff’s deputies, Tim Moore figures Indian security officers would have kicked him out of his Colorado River home years ago. -more-

LOS ANGELES — Ralph Burns, who won Academy Awards, an Emmy and a Tony as a music arranger after making a name for himself in jazz as a piano player in the Woody Herman band, died Wednesday. He was 79. -more-

NEW YORK — A California company partly funded by the CIA has discontinued a free service that allowed Internet users to bypass Web censorship by governments and corporations. -more-

HELENA, Mont. — The Christmas tree harvest at the Hardy Plantation near Creston is over for the season, and Janet Hardy figures there won’t be many more. -more-

SAN DIEGO — San Diego Gas & Electric Co. can raise electricity rates to recoup the $2 million cost of upgrading lines to Mexico, federal regulators said Wednesday. -more-

RIALTO — Jealousy may have prompted two Siberian huskies to maul an infant girl to death in her bassinet, authorities speculated. -more-

Californians frequently spend more than 30 percent of their incomes for home mortgages or rent. The following is a look at Census Bureau estimates of California cities with a population over 250,000 people. The first column is the city; the second column is the percentage of city residents with a home mortgage who spend more than 30 percent of their take-home income on the mortgage; the third column is the percentage of renters in the city who pay more than 30 percent of their take-home income on rent. -more-

LOS ANGELES — Some of the nation’s biggest car rental companies are selling wrecked vehicles without making the proper disclosures, endangering the public and harming consumers, according to lawsuits filed in California in recent months. -more-

LOS ANGELES — A man who was believed to be unhappy with his seat assignment was taken into custody Wednesday for kicking an airliner’s emergency exit door during a flight from South Korea to Los Angeles, authorities said. -more-

Claiming the university has violated an 11-year-old agreement to steadily reduce its student population, city officials reacted angrily at the high enrollment figures released Monday for fall semester enrollment at UC Berkeley. -more-

Wednesday, Nov. 21

Dear George W. Bush -more-

21 Grand Nov. 29: 9 p.m., Lemon Lime Lights, Hillside, Moe! Staiano, $6; Nov. 30: 9 p.m., Fred Frith, Damon Smith, Marco Eneidi, Sabu Toyozumi Ensemble, Phillip Greenlief, $10; Dec. 1: 9 p.m., Toychestra, Rosin Coven, Darling Freakhead, $6; All ages. 21 Grand Ave., Oakland. 444-7263 -more-

Even though St. Mary’s High School football team didn’t beat Pinole Valley, head coach Jay Lawson considers the Panthers’ Oct. 5 35-27 loss against the eventual Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League champion as the defining moment in his team’s season. -more-

The lunchtime crowd at the North Berkeley Senior Center is a tough audience for a performer. Dishes clatter, conversations continue, servers move among the tables trying to get food to hungry and sometimes impatient diners. -more-

Editor: -more-

Think regionally and act, well, regionally. -more-

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Student registration marks all-time high -more-

Editor: -more-

SACRAMENTO — The Nature Conservancy will use $35 million in state grants to purchase and improve a large wildlife sanctuary in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, it was announced Tuesday. -more-

SACRAMENTO — The scores of California students were among the worst in the country in a national science exam given last year to fourth and eighth graders, state officials said Tuesday. -more-

SANTA BARBARA — A jury found a 22-year-old man guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday for the killing of a 15-year-old boy who was kidnapped in Los Angeles and shot because of his half brother’s unpaid drug debt. -more-

OAKLAND — The Oakland International Airport’s troubled security system is getting an overhaul. -more-

SAN MATEO — Just in time for Thanksgiving, some 1,000 pounds of frozen turkeys and ham were stolen from a local community services agency that was preparing to distribute the food to needy families. -more-

OAKLAND — Three former Oakland police officers accused of beating suspects and planting evidence will face a March trial, a judge decided Tuesday. -more-

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PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge on Tuesday extended a court order that has temporarily blocked a move by the U.S. government to dismantle an Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide, the only one of its kind in the nation. -more-

RANDSBURG — Three old gold mining towns still stand in the dry hills south of Ridgecrest, but you can’t buy a restaurant dinner in any of them. The only gas station shut down years ago. The bank closed after World War I. There are no supermarkets or clothing stores, no movie theaters, no traffic lights. -more-

Call it the Imbruglia Imbroglio. -more-

SACRAMENTO — California power grid operators must stop giving the state’s energy traders advance notice of its electricity needs, unless it provides that information to all market participants, federal energy regulators ordered Tuesday. -more-

Global provider of wheelchairs to disabled launches prototype in town -more-

Tuesday, Nov. 20

I was happy to see Hank Sims’ article on the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources’ (CNR) proposal for developing the Gill Tract. Located on San Pablo in northwest Albany, the Gill Tract is the largest intact piece of agricultural land left in the Bay Area. The politics surrounding the CNR’s approach to agricultural research helps to understand their lack of interest in keeping the Gill Tract as a resource for conducting ecologically-based research. -more-

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The fight that’s raged between those who want a more democratic rule at the Pacifica Foundation and the majority of Pacifica Board of Directors inched closer to a positive end during the weekend, when the board adopted a plan to transition to a more representative governance. -more-

Tuesday, Nov. 20 -more-

Editor: -more-

University of California, Berkeley, officials released final enrollment figures Monday for fall 2001 undergraduate and graduate students. -more-

Editor: -more-

A power play article two weeks ago discussed using the sun’s energy to preheat water for a home or business. It is the fastest way to reduce energy bills – using the sun for the least initial investment – and requires the least amount of maintenance. But there are other ways to use the sun’s energy to reduce your energy bills. -more-

Editor: -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — With co-workers or even complete strangers, Californians love to pile into cars. Home of some of the nation’s longest commutes, the state has three of the nation’s top four cities where workers are most likely to carpool. -more-

OAKLAND — The Oakland Public Library is introducing a wireless local area network that will connect 120 computers in 17 sites. -more-

Last year, 2.5 million sub-Saharan Africans died from AIDS. -more-

A post-Sept. 11 fear of flying has some college students planning a rare Thanksgiving dinner away from home this year. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO — ChevonTexaco Corp. Monday said it will lay off about 500 more workers than management anticipated as part of the newly merged oil giant’s effort to save an additional $600 million annually in its combined operations. -more-

Feds see decline into first quarter of 2002 -more-

Former politician named vice chairman of LA financial services firm -more-

YAKIMA, Wash. — Washington wine grape growers are raising their glasses to a record harvest of 97,600 tons, up 9 percent from last year, largely because of more vines planted. -more-