An independent audit of last year’s school district finances points to a number of serious flaws. 

The audit, conducted by Bohren and Company of Martinez, and presented at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night, focuses on 10 areas of concern, including four serious “material weaknesses.” These weaknesses include: 

• Inadequate monitoring of the district’s self-insurance, adult education and cafeteria funds. 

• A failure to track student contributions to clubs and other student-funded activities. 

• An inadequate reserve fund. 

• A rejection of last year’s budget by the Alameda County Office of Education. 

Bohren’s audit manager, Sondra White, presented the document and spoke sternly to the board. 

“You have to have adequate reserves,” she said, in one of several pointed criticisms.  

But White said many of the 10 problems, including a failure to spend $450,000 in state and federal grant money that expired at the end of the year, are related, at least in part, to a faulty data system, which the district plans to replace by July. 

Board Vice President Joaquin Rivera said he was particularly upset that all six of the problem areas identified by Bohren for the 1999-2000 budget were again cited in the 2000-2001 audit. 

“I find it very disturbing,” Rivera said, addressing district staff. “What are the plans to make sure these issues are addressed?” 

Associate Superintendent of Business Jerry Kurr warned that some of the 10 items will likely be on the list next year. But, he said he is working hard to correct errors in several areas. 

“The audit is a tool,” Kurr said. “For me, it provides a road map for areas we need to work on.” 

Board rejects field trip ban  

The board, which voted unanimously to accept the audit Wednesday night, also rejected a resolution, put forth by the Peace and Justice Commission, to ban student field trips to the Lawrence Hall of Science on Centennial Drive.  

Commission members, students and activists from the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste raised concerns about the science museum’s proximity to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Tritium Labeling Facility. They said radioactive waste from the tritium facility, which is due to shut down permanently in a matter of weeks, could harm children. 

But Lawrence Hall staff and Rivera pointed to several scientific studies demonstrating the museum’s safety and accused activists of attempting to drag a long-standing political fight over the tritium facility into the schools. 

“This is just a move...to bring the school board into their political agenda...and I resent that,” Rivera said. “No evidence has been presented to me that will make me change my opinion.” 

Gene Bernardi of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste objected to the board’s decision in an interview with the Planet.  

“I think it’s disgusting,” Bernardi said, arguing that the board should operate on the “precautionary principle,” blocking student trips even if they are not sure about the risks involved.  

The vote against the resolution was three to zero, with two board members, Terry Doran and John Selawsky, abstaining. Doran and Selawsky, while raising concerns about tritium, said they did not have enough information to pass an immediate ban. 

Editor: 

Responding to Kristin Miller (Mar. 9-10), why shouldn’t we homeowners protect our turf? Who said we shouldn’t have a home with a backyard that children can play in, a yard where we can plant trees and harvest fruit and vegetables? 

And as to accommodating ever more requests for housing, any fool knows that the more places there are, no matter how dense the area, the more people will come to fill them. There are other places, there are open spaces, elsewhere. It’s a big wide world, after all.  

Kristin Miller may be happy with her closeness to Codornices Creek and the Karl Linn Gardens, but how do they service the high density housing she espouses elsewhere? 

Who, anyway, are Ecocity Builders? 

Dorothy V. Benson 

Berkeley 

cumentary explores the struggle of being gay and Jewish 

If there is such a thing as a kosher way to make a movie, documentarian Sandi DuBowski may have done it. “Trembling Before G-d,” opening today for a week-long run at the Shattuck Theater, is a film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their strict religious disciplines. DuBowski made the film in accordance with Talmud teaching. 

The G-d of the title is God, a word too sacred to be tossed about easily in secular print. Interview subjects in the film often lapse into Hebrew when describing their faith, and subtitles are provided to explain. Those subtitles also refuse to spell out G-o-d. 

Vignettes in the film depicting holy rites and celebrations could not be filmed on holy days because it is not permitted to use electricity during rituals, said DuBowski in an interview on KALX radio in Berkeley. So he staged religious ceremonies with willing participants shot in silhouette behind scrims on non-holy days. 

DuBowski’s respect for religious law matches his respect for his subjects, often interviewed in shadow or in silhouette, for whom “outing” would not only be an affront to their privacy but damning in their religion. 

The film is an attempt to create a dialogue regarding the often overlooked or outright ignored homosexual population in Orthodox communities, which expressly forbids homosexual behavior. These people have had to make an existential decision to identify themselves by their sexuality or their faith, and have chosen faith. But because their sexual orientation cannot be ignored, their own religion condemns them. 

It’s a tricky situation. For these Jews who regard the Talmud as the highest law, for whom the religious community is tantamount, they are not able to follow the example of more radical gay and lesbians who choose to escape and overthrow oppressive strictures. Their attempts to live as Torah-abiding Jews and bring up respectable families while harboring their sexuality leads to depression, ostracism and even suicide. 

The film is an ennobling look at a struggle between the sacred and the profane, with a deep respect for both. The subjects, in their various ways, are expressing a need to challenge Divine law so it can be interpreted to acknowledge it’s sinners. 

One of the film’s subjects tells a joke: two rabbi’s are walking down the street — one Orthodox and the other non-Orthodox. They see a man praying while greasing his wagon wheel. The non-Orthodox rabbi laments to God that the man as defaming prayer by doing it in an unclean fashion; the other rabbi praises God by showing him his children bring Him into their lives all the time, even when they are greasing their wagons. 

One of the central and more profound ideas in the film is the question of when are secular activities beneath religious consideration. DuBowski has said he wanted “Trembling” to be both a document and a catalyst for opening homosexual discussions among rabbis and yeshivas (religious schools). The film is a first significant investigation into this heretofore unvoiced population. 

Sexuality, the film suggests, is as mysterious, profound and sacred as Divinity. In a religious lifestyle which guards its secrets, this could hinder attempts to bring homosexuality into an open discussion.  

As one psychologist says in the film, “The more hidden something is, the more holy it is.” DuBowski may have found a way of filming holiness. By photographing religious ceremonies behind scrims and shooting discussions of sexuality in shadow he may have struck upon a method to gently bring the sacred and the sexual onto the same kosher level. 

By Peter Crimmins 

Special to the Daily Planet 

If there is such a thing as a kosher way to make a movie, documentarian Sandi DuBowski may have done it. “Trembling Before G-d,” opening today for a week-long run at the Shattuck Theater, is a film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their strict religious disciplines. DuBowski made the film in accordance with Talmud teaching. 

The G-d of the title is God, a word too sacred to be tossed about easily in secular print. Interview subjects in the film often lapse into Hebrew when describing their faith, and subtitles are provided to explain. Those subtitles also refuse to spell out G-o-d. 

Vignettes in the film depicting holy rites and celebrations could not be filmed on holy days because it is not permitted to use electricity during rituals, said DuBowski in an interview on KALX radio in Berkeley. So he staged religious ceremonies with willing participants shot in silhouette behind scrims on non-holy days. 

DuBowski’s respect for religious law matches his respect for his subjects, often interviewed in shadow or in silhouette, for whom “outing” would not only be an affront to their privacy but damning in their religion. 

The film is an attempt to create a dialogue regarding the often overlooked or outright ignored homosexual population in Orthodox communities, which expressly forbids homosexual behavior. These people have had to make an existential decision to identify themselves by their sexuality or their faith, and have chosen faith. But because their sexual orientation cannot be ignored, their own religion condemns them. 

It’s a tricky situation. For these Jews who regard the Talmud as the highest law, for whom the religious community is tantamount, they are not able to follow the example of more radical gay and lesbians who choose to escape and overthrow oppressive strictures. Their attempts to live as Torah-abiding Jews and bring up respectable families while harboring their sexuality leads to depression, ostracism and even suicide. 

The film is an ennobling look at a struggle between the sacred and the profane, with a deep respect for both. The subjects, in their various ways, are expressing a need to challenge Divine law so it can be interpreted to acknowledge it’s sinners. 

One of the film’s subjects tells a joke: two rabbi’s are walking down the street — one Orthodox and the other non-Orthodox. They see a man praying while greasing his wagon wheel. The non-Orthodox rabbi laments to God that the man as defaming prayer by doing it in an unclean fashion; the other rabbi praises God by showing him his children bring Him into their lives all the time, even when they are greasing their wagons. 

One of the central and more profound ideas in the film is the question of when are secular activities beneath religious consideration. DuBowski has said he wanted “Trembling” to be both a document and a catalyst for opening homosexual discussions among rabbis and yeshivas (religious schools). The film is a first significant investigation into this heretofore unvoiced population. 

Sexuality, the film suggests, is as mysterious, profound and sacred as Divinity. In a religious lifestyle which guards its secrets, this could hinder attempts to bring homosexuality into an open discussion.  

As one psychologist says in the film, “The more hidden something is, the more holy it is.” DuBowski may have found a way of filming holiness. By photographing religious ceremonies behind scrims and shooting discussions of sexuality in shadow he may have struck upon a method to gently bring the sacred and the sexual onto the same kosher level. 

By Peter Crimmins 

Special to the Daily Planet 

If there is such a thing as a kosher way to make a movie, documentarian Sandi DuBowski may have done it. “Trembling Before G-d,” opening today for a week-long run at the Shattuck Theater, is a film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their strict religious disciplines. DuBowski made the film in accordance with Talmud teaching. 

The G-d of the title is God, a word too sacred to be tossed about easily in secular print. Interview subjects in the film often lapse into Hebrew when describing their faith, and subtitles are provided to explain. Those subtitles also refuse to spell out G-o-d. 

Vignettes in the film depicting holy rites and celebrations could not be filmed on holy days because it is not permitted to use electricity during rituals, said DuBowski in an interview on KALX radio in Berkeley. So he staged religious ceremonies with willing participants shot in silhouette behind scrims on non-holy days. 

DuBowski’s respect for religious law matches his respect for his subjects, often interviewed in shadow or in silhouette, for whom “outing” would not only be an affront to their privacy but damning in their religion. 

The film is an attempt to create a dialogue regarding the often overlooked or outright ignored homosexual population in Orthodox communities, which expressly forbids homosexual behavior. These people have had to make an existential decision to identify themselves by their sexuality or their faith, and have chosen faith. But because their sexual orientation cannot be ignored, their own religion condemns them. 

It’s a tricky situation. For these Jews who regard the Talmud as the highest law, for whom the religious community is tantamount, they are not able to follow the example of more radical gay and lesbians who choose to escape and overthrow oppressive strictures. Their attempts to live as Torah-abiding Jews and bring up respectable families while harboring their sexuality leads to depression, ostracism and even suicide. 

The film is an ennobling look at a struggle between the sacred and the profane, with a deep respect for both. The subjects, in their various ways, are expressing a need to challenge Divine law so it can be interpreted to acknowledge it’s sinners. 

One of the film’s subjects tells a joke: two rabbi’s are walking down the street — one Orthodox and the other non-Orthodox. They see a man praying while greasing his wagon wheel. The non-Orthodox rabbi laments to God that the man as defaming prayer by doing it in an unclean fashion; the other rabbi praises God by showing him his children bring Him into their lives all the time, even when they are greasing their wagons. 

One of the central and more profound ideas in the film is the question of when are secular activities beneath religious consideration. DuBowski has said he wanted “Trembling” to be both a document and a catalyst for opening homosexual discussions among rabbis and yeshivas (religious schools). The film is a first significant investigation into this heretofore unvoiced population. 

Sexuality, the film suggests, is as mysterious, profound and sacred as Divinity. In a religious lifestyle which guards its secrets, this could hinder attempts to bring homosexuality into an open discussion.  

As one psychologist says in the film, “The more hidden something is, the more holy it is.” DuBowski may have found a way of filming holiness. By photographing religious ceremonies behind scrims and shooting discussions of sexuality in shadow he may have struck upon a method to gently bring the sacred and the sexual onto the same kosher level. 

924 Gilman Mar. 15: 90 Day Men, One Line Drawing, Division Day, The Reputation, SLOE; Mar. 22: Tsunami Bomb, No Motiv; Mar. 29: Limpwrist, All You Can Eat, The Subtonics, The Bananas, Sharp Knife; Mar. 30: 9 Shocks Terror, What Happens Next?, Phantom Limbs, The Curse, Onion Flavored Rings; All shows begin a 8 p.m. 924 Gillman St., 525-9926 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series Mar. 17: 8 p.m., Vorticella; the laptop duo of Kristen Miltner and Kendra Juul; $0 to $20, TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline. 649-8744, http://sfsound.org/acme.html. 

The Albatross Mar. 17: Bobby Nickels, Kyle Thyer, Cherlie, 8:30 p.m.; Mar. 18: Paul Schneider; Mar. 19: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Mar. 15: Sallie/Dave/Doug Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 16: Bob Crawford Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 17: Aleph Null; Mar. 18: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 19: Tangria; Mar. 20: Bob Schon Jazz Quintet; Mar. 21: Terence Brewer Jazz Trio; Mar. 22: Anna & Ellen Hoffman Jazz Tunes; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 23: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 24: Christy Dana Jazz Group; Mar. 25: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 26: Jason Martineau and Dave Sayen; Mar. 27: David Widelock Jazz Duo; Mar. 28: Randy Moore Jazz Trio; Mar. 29: Anna & Ellen Hoffman; 10 p.m. Hideo Date; Mar. 30: Robin Gregory; 10 p.m. Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Mar. 15: 8 p.m., Peter Rowan and the Bluegrass Intentions, $15; Mar. 17: 7 p.m., Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos; Mar. 19: 8:30 p.m., Peter Rowan and the Bluegrass Intentions, $15; Mar. 23: A Benefit for Forest Defense with The Funky Nixons, The Gary Gates Band, The Shut-Ins, $8 - $20; Mar. 29: Alpha Yaya Diallo; 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Mar. 15: King Harvest, First Circle, $5; Mar. 16: Omaya, $7; Mar. 17: The Lost Coast Band, The Real, $3; Mar. 18: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 19: Mind Go Flip, RLT, $3; Mar. 20: Hebro, $3; Mar. 21: Ascension, $5; Mar. 22: Shady Lady, View From Here; $6; Mar. 23: Mystic Roots, LZ & Ezell Funkstaz, $5; Mar. 24: Passenger, The Shreep, $3; Mar. 25: The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Mar. 22: 8 p.m., The Teethe, The Natural Dreamers, Yasi, $3; Mar. 23: 8 p.m., Guest DJs and MCs, $5; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344, Shows are All Ages.  

Cal Performances Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Gyuto Monks perform multiphonic chanting in accordance with the spiritual practices of Tantric Tibetan Buddhism. $24 - $36; Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Andras Schiff, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Apr. 7: 3 p.m., Murray Perahia, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin at an evening of poetry, music, and spoken word. $5-$10 donation. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898, pubsol@pacbell.net.  

Freight & Salvage Mar. 15: David Maloney performs Irish folk opera “The Great Blight”, $17.50; Mar. 16: The Black Brothers, $18.50; Mar. 17: Tom Russell, $16.50; Mar. 19: The Okros Ensemble, $17.50; Mar. 20: The Hot Club of Cowtown, $17.50; Mar. 21: Tish Hinojosa, $17.50; Mar. 22: Marley’s Ghost, $17.50; Mar. 24: Teresa Trull & Barbara Higbie, $18.50; Mar. 27: Paul Thorn, $16.50; Mar. 28: Old Blind Dogs, $17.50; Mar. 29: Jack Hardy, $16.50; Mar. 30: Faye Carol, $17.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Mar. 24: 4:30 p.m., Alegria, $6-$12; Mar. 30: 4:30 p.m., Dmitri Matheny Orchestra presents “The Emerald Buddha”; 2087 Addison St., 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

Rose Street House of Music Mar. 15: 8 p.m., Jamie Anderson and Wishing Chair; Mar. 21: 7:30 p.m., Rose Street on the Road/Indiegrrl Tour kickoff featuring Irina Rivkin, Making Waves, Francine Allen, Amber Jade, and Christene LeDoux, 594-4000 x687. 

The Starry Plough Mar. 15: 9:30 p.m., Moore Brothers, $6; Mar. 16: 9:30 p.m., St. Patrick's Celtic Meltdown, Blue on Green, Green Man Gruvin, $5; Mar. 17: 6 p.m., St. Patty's Day Celebration, Chameleon, Irish dancers & bagpiper, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

UC Men's Octet Annual Spring Show Mar. 14 and 15: 8 p.m., all-male a cappella group; $7 students, $12 general, UC Berkeley, Wheeler Auditorium, 301-2367 octoevents@hotmail.com. 

“Harmonica Ace and Band” Mar. 15: 8 p.m., 10 p.m., Carlos Zialcita and his band team up with guest vocalist Ella Pennewell for a blues concert. $12. Dotha’s Juke Joint, 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668 

“Expressionality” Mar. 13 through Mar. 16: Wed. 10:15 a.m., Thurs. 10:30 a.m., 7 p.m., Sat. to be announced. An opera created and produced by 4th and 5th graders. Wed. and Thurs. shows at Malcolm X Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Sat. show at Oakland Museum of Art. 644-6313 

“The Art of Disability” Mar. 16: 7 p.m., A showcase of performing artists with disabilities. $10 -$50 sliding scale. Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, hesternet@jps.net 

“Tribute to Oakland’s Gospel Greats” Mar. 16: 7:30 p.m., The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and Youth Choir will present a free tribute concert. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison St., Oakland, 839-4361  

“The Song of Songs” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Composer Jorge Linderman creates a musical setting for Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s translation of “The Song of Songs”. $32. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Mbira Concert” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Forward Kwenda, considered the “Coltrane of Mbira” performs with Erica Azim. $12 - $15. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 845-2605 

Celebration for the Trees Mar. 17: 7 - 10 p.m., Benefit for the Ancient Trees Coalition Education Effort with Making Waves, Green, Marca Cassity, Folk This!, and Hali Hammer. BFUU Fellowship Hall 1606 Bonita. 

“Chamber Music Series” Mar. 17: 4 p.m., Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of Kronos Quartet, gives a solo performance of both acoustic and electronic pieces. $10, free children under 18. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

Dance 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Persimmony Jones” Mar. 16: 12 p.m., Designed for a young audience, this is the story of a young girl trying to find her place in the world. As Persimmony travels through different lands on her search, she is forced to reexamine her own ideas about tolerance and acceptance. Free. Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., 647-2978 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 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. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 7: 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 5 p.m. Sun., The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. Mar. 16 - 31:Thrust Stage at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.; Apr. 4 - 7: UC Theatre on University Ave.; 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org. 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Mar. 11: A Star is Born, 3 p.m.; Flesh, 7 p.m.; Mar. 12: An eye Unruled: An Evening with Stan Brakhage, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 13: The Bicycle Thief, 3 p.m.; Daughter from Danang, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 14: The Student I, 7 p.m.; Mar. 16: Shaping Identities Through Community, 7 p.m.; The Wolf, 9:30 p.m.; Mar. 17: For the Love of It: Amateur Filmmaking, 5:30; Mar. 18: Cabaret; 3 p.m.; Carnal Knowledge, 7 p.m.; Mar. 19: Stranger with a Camera, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 20: Sunset Blvd., 3 p.m.; Chemical Valley, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 21: Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 22: A Thousand and One Voices: The Music of Islam, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 23: In a Lonely Place, 7 p.m.; The Big Heat; 8:55 p.m.; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Asian American Film Fest” Mar. 13: Daughter From Danang; Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

Exhibits  

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Works of Alexander Nepote” Through Mar. 29: Nepote was a 20th century artist whose medium is a process of layered painting of torn pieces of watercolor paper, fused together in images that speak of the spirit that underlies and is embodied in the landscape he views. Check museum for times. Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., 849-8272 

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: An exhibit of mixed media sculpture by Jim Freeman, and acrylic paintings on canvas by Krystyna Mleczko. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Journey of Self-discovery” Through Mar. 30: Community Works artist Adriana Diaz and Willard Junior High students joined together to explore gender stereotypes, advertising, and other influential elements in society in a project that culminated in two life-size portraits that explore self-identity. Free. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 845-3332. 

“West Oakland Today” Through Mar. 30: Sergio De La Torre presents “thehousingproject”, an open house/video installation that explores desire surrounding one’s sense of home and place. Marcel Diallo presents “Scrapyard Ghosts”, an installation that presents a glimpse into the process of one man’s conversation with the living past through objects of iron, wood, rock dirt and other debris unearthed at an old scrapyard site in West Oakland’s Lower Bottom neighborhood. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland  

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

“Portraits of the Afghan People: 1984 - 1992” Through Apr. 6: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Bay Area photographer Patricia Monaco. Free. Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400 

“The Zoom of the Souls” Mar. 23 through Apr. 13: An exhibit of oil paintings by Mark P. Fisher. Sat. 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Bay Area Music Foundation, 462 Elwood Ave. #9, Oakland, 836-5223 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Mar. 18 through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Expressions of Time and Space” Mar. 18 through April 17: Calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Julien Designs 1798 Shattuck Ave., 540-7634, RyNakasone@aol.com.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“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, www.atelier9.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Mar. 3 through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“Masterworks of Chinese Painting” Mar. 13 through May 26: An exhibition of distinguished works representing virtually every period and phase of Chinese painting over the last 900 years, including figure paintings and a selection of botanical and animal subjects. Prices vary. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-4889, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Suzan Hagstrom reads from her book “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chielnik,” chronicling the survival of one brother and four sisters in Nazi death camps. Free. 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Mar. 7: Carl Parkes, author of “Moon Handbook: Southeast Asia”, presents a slide show exploring his travels in the region; Mar. 12: William Fienne describes his personal journey from Texas to North Dakota as he follows the northern migration of snow geese; Mar. 14: Gary Crabbe and Karen Misuraca present slides and read from their book, “The California Coast”; Mar. 19: Barbara and Robert Decker present a slide show focusing on the volcanoes of California and the Cascade Mountain Range; Mar. 21: Stefano DeZerega discusses opportunities for study, travel, and work in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

GAIA Building Mar. 14: 7 - 9 p.m., Lecture with Patricia Evans speaking from her book, “Controlling People: How to recognize, Understand and Deal with People Who Are Trying to Control You.”; Mar. 19: Reading and slide show with Carol Wagner, “Survival of the Spirit: Lives of Cambodian Buddhists.”; March 21: 6 - 9 p.m., 1st Berkeley Edgework Books Salon; Mar. 22: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., Book Reading and Jazz Concert with David Rothenberg; All events are held in the Rooftop Gardens Solarium, 7th Floor, GAIA Building, 2116 Allston Way, 848-4242. 

Gathering Tribes Mar. 15: 6:30 p.m., Susan Lobo and Victoria Bomberry will be conducting readings from “American Indians And The Urban Experience.”; 1573 Solano Ave., 528-9038, www.gatheringtribes.com.  

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series Mar. 7: Marilyn Hacker reads from her most recent book, “Squares and Courtyards”. Free. Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Berkeley campus, 642-0137, www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems. 

University of Creation Spirituality Mar. 21: 7 - 9 p.m., Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, An Evening with Author Margaret J. Wheatley, $10-$15 donation; 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x29, darla@berkana.org. 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Mar. 3: Myung Mi Kim, Harryette Mullen & Geoffrey O’Brien; Mar. 6: Bill Berkson, Albert Flynn DeSilver; Mar. 10: Leslie Scalapino, Dan Farrell; Mar. 13: Lucille Lang Day, Risa Kaparo; Mar. 20: Edward Smallfield, Truong Tran; Mar. 24: Susan Griffin, Honor Moore; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading @ South Branch Berkeley Public Library Mar. 2: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. 1901 Russell St. 

Word Beat Mar. 9: Sonia Greenfield and Megan Breiseth; Mar. 16, Q. R. Hand and Lu Pettus; Mar. 23: Lee Gerstmann and Sam Pierstorffs; Mar. 30: Eleanor Watson-Gove and Jim Watson-Gove; All shows 7 - 9 p.m., Coffee With A Beat, 458 Perkins, Oakland. 526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat. 

Fellowship Café Mar. 15: 7:30 p.m., Eliot Kenin, poetry, storytellers, singers and musicians. $5-$10. Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., 540-0898. 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

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. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. 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. 

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. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

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, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science Mar. 16: 1 - 4 p.m., Moviemaking for children 8 years old and up; Mar. 20: Spring Equinox; “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below Grizzly Peak Blvd. 642-5132 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

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

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Changing Face of  

Disability Law in the 

New Millennium 

8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Booth Auditorium 

Conference exploring the evolving laws and emerging issues that define the status of disability rights in American society. Panel discussions addressing legal issues affecting disability rights. 643-8010, www.boalt.org/BDLS/conf.html. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

“Hooked” 

1:15 p.m. 

Alta Bates Hospital, Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

A talk and slide show from the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 763-0779, www.unhooked.com. 

Tax-Aid: Bay Area Free Tax Service for Low-income Taxpayers 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lincoln Recreation Center 

250 10th St., Oakland 

Tax-Aid offers free tax return preparation to Bay Area families with incomes of less than $32,000. Eligible families simply bring their W-2s, other proofs of income and tax forms. Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators are available.  

St. Patrick’s Day Community 

and Family Contra Dance 

7:45 p.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

7 p.m., Contra dance music teaching session. All levels welcome, easy dances for all ages. $10 adults, $5 kids. 482-9479. 

Special Education Workshop 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Navigating the System: Understanding Legal Responsibilities. Get a working sense of relevant special education law, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Learn to advocate for your child in assessments and IEP meetings. 558-8933, sandstep@earthlink.net. 

The Effect of Sept. 11

on Working People 

noon 

Albany Library 

1247 Marin Ave. 

LaborParty—East Bay with speakers: Ethel Long-Scott, Mario Santos and Warren Mar. 273-9219. 

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and  

Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The  

Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Stagebridge’s 11th Annual 

Family Matinee Theatre and 

Ice Cream Social 

3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church 

2501 Harrison, Oakland 

Premiere of Linda Spector’s “Chicken Sunday and Other Grandparent Tales,” followed by an old fashioned ice cream social. $8 general, $4 children. 444-4755, www.stagebridge.org.  

Fundraiser 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

A fundraiser benefiting Bay Area Classical Harmonies and the Berkeley Art Center. $20. 219-5400, sarahfinley@hotmail.com.  

Monday, March 18

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will discuss the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction of Daniel A. Seeger. Also a reading and discussion of Seeger’s pamphlet, The Seed and the Tree.  

Berkeley Gray Panthers Home 

Owners Committee 

1:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Office 

1403 Addison St. 

Finding good repair people, good tenants, locating resources for low and middle income home owners. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com. 

Thwarting the Next Energy Crisis 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School Room 7 

1222 University Ave. 

Learn to install your own basic home weatherization measures. Class will cover selection of materials and the proper installation of door weather stripping, attic insulation, duct tape, caulking and more. Lecture includes hands-on demonstrations. 981-5435, Energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Self Help Strategies and Techniques from Feldenkrais and Pilates 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates, Auditorium — Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Arthritis Foundation Northern California Chapter fibromyalgia support group. 644-3273.  

The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Tilden Room, 5th Floor of  

Martin Luther King Jr. Student 

Union Building  

Second symposium of the annual Breaking the Cycle, Mending the Circle Conference: Contemporary Issues of Genocide. This particular symposium is entitled The Destruction of Land and People: The Industry of Genocide. 642-4270.  

Wednesday, March 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Cealo is Coming 

7 - 9 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

Fireside Room 

2727 College Ave. 

Gayuna Cealo is a Burmese monk who’s mission is to lead people to their true selves. $10 donation. 525-6472. 

Community Prayer Breakfast 

7:30 a.m. 

H’s Lordships Restaurant 

Berkeley Marina, 199 Seawall Dr. 

The 62nd year of the interfaith prayer breakfast celebrating spirituality in the community. $18. 549-4524, vicki@baymca.org. n 

– compiled by Guy Poole 

The St. Mary’s High track & field team got their first look at the competition in the BSAL, and it wasn’t exactly intimidating. 

The Panthers hosted a three-way league meet between Kennedy, Holy Names and Albany on Thursday, as St. Mary’s is one of only two schools in the BSAL with track facilities (Piedmont is the other). St. Mary’s entered most events, with their scores not counting, to get in a day of practice. Although many of the home team’s top competitors didn’t participate, the Panthers still established their dominance over the league, winning most of the events they entered. 

“We have fun out here, but it’s also a hard practice for us,” St. Mary’s senior Solomon Welch said. “But I know the coaches take it seriously.” 

But veterans like Welch, a state finalist in hurdles last season and on of the state’s top jumpers, weren’t really what the St. Mary’s coaches were concentrating on. Distance coach Dennis Mohun, who ran the event, said the league meets are a good chance for the younger athletes to get a taste of competition. 

“For some kids this is their first meet, and it’s a big learning experience,” Mohun said. “Our vets also get a chance to help the younger kids, which they can’t usually do at a meet.” 

But for the Panthers’ top athletes, Thursday was a chance to either rest or run some different events. Welch, not usually a sprinter, ran the 100- and 200-meter dashes along with the 110-meter hurdles, finishing second in each event. Three of the team’s top competitors, Trestin George, Courtney Brown and Chris Dunbar, didn’t even suit up for the meet, choosing to rest their legs after taking part in a national event in New York last weekend. 

Some of the stars did come out for St. Mary’s, however. Kamaiya Warren, a state hopeful in both throwing events, easily bested the field in the discus, with Leon Drummer dominating the boys’ side in the event. Junior Jason Bolden-Anderson won both hurdles events and finished third in the 100-meter dash, nipping Welch in the 110-meter hurdles and finishing just behind him in the sprint. 

“It’s fun to run against Solomon, since I see him every day in practice,” Bolden-Anderson said. “We get a chance to see where we’re at for real.” 

St. Mary’s senior Steve Murphy, who missed most of last season with pneumonia, came back with a vengeance, winning the long jump and the 100-meter dash. For Murphy, the league meets will be a chance to get his form back before regionals and possibly state. 

“I’m getting my legs back, and I know I have to train hard to get to the state meet in the 100,” Murphy said.

Who switched the tape? 

That is the mystery at the heart of a new student opera, written, produced and performed by fourth- and fifth-graders at Malcolm X Arts & Academic Magnet School. 

The opera, “Expressionality,” centers on a class of performing arts students – a painter, a poet, a dancer, a rapper, a comedian, a juggler and a jazz musician nicknamed “Poison Ivy.” 

Ivy, who has a reputation for being mean to the other kids, steps up to play a clarinet solo only to find that someone has switched the tape of accompanying music, foiling her performance. The rest of the opera focuses on the search for the culprit. 

The production is the brainchild of more than 50 Malcolm X students who have worked on the opera since September, serving as writers, composers, electricians, set designers and even public relations staff. The group calls itself “Lights Camera Opera!” 

The students performed once Wednesday and twice Thursday. The opera will run again this morning, in the Malcolm X auditorium and at the Oakland Museum Saturday at 4 p.m. 

Giselle Moreno, a fifth-grader who helped write the script, said the production has taught the students about cooperation. 

“(We learned) how to work together,” Moreno said. “These are fourth- and fifth-grade classes and we didn’t know each other well.” 

Malcolm X teachers Jennifer Adcock and Marilyn Hiratzka guided the production after attending trainings the past two summers with the New York-based Metropolitan Opera Guild. 

Last year, students under the direction of Adcock and Hiratzka wrote and performed an opera called “Treacherous Crossings” about the trip across the Mexican-United States border. 

This year, two more Malcolm X teachers, Candy Cannon and Tara Easley, will lead a group of students in putting up a May opera. 

“I think the biggest thing (the students) get out of this is a collective experience,” said Adcock, a fifth-grade teacher. “They learn, in tangible ways, that they are important as individuals, but far more powerful as a collective.” 

Hiratzka added that students learn about their own potential to write, build and produce something meaningful over time. 

“There’s a lot of discovery in the process,” she said. “What does it mean to start something, and six months later, have something else?” 

Students say they also learned practical skills in constructing sets and footlights.  

“We learned how to use rulers,” said fourth-grader Charles Wood, who served as a set designer. 

Hannah Miller, another fourth-grade set designer, talked about transferring set drawings from small pieces of paper to larger flats by making use of grids on both surfaces. 

It wasn’t always an easy process. Claire Engan, a fourth-grade scriptwriter, said that before they selected character names, students referred to the players as Characters A, B, C, and D. 

“It was kind of confusing,” she said. But, Engan added, it all worked out in the end. 

When a reporter asked the assembled cast and crew if they had fun putting “Expressionality” together, the answer was a resounding “yes.” 

Editor: 

For too long we have sat idly by watching the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine make Israel into their desired image. They display a picture of an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a Palestinian’s head but, they forget to mention the soldier had his family splattered against the walls of a disco two days prior. We can no longer be complacent, the covert and overt tide of the Bay Area anti-Semitism must come to an end. We must turn their foot hold in the moral majority into a hold in mire. 

Israel is our birth right and we cannot let Jews in name only give it away. We must show these militants for what they really are: self-hating Jews, uncle Issacs. The time for action is now, these uncle Issacs must no longer be able to protest without opposition or fear of reprisal. we can make a bringing the true intent of these pro- Palestinian groups to light. That is the annihilation of a Jewish sovereign nation.  

Gabe Kurtz 

Berkeley 

NEW YORK — Amazon.com will pull a listing that says a new J.D. Salinger book is due in November. No publication date has been set for “Hapworth 16, 1924,” a novella that appeared in The New Yorker in 1965 and was originally expected in book form five years ago. 

Several Web sites had repeated the information posted on Amazon, and even included links to the online retailer, raising hopes that a “new” Salinger work would be coming for the first time in 40 years. But both Salinger’s agent, Phyllis Westberg, and his publisher, Orchises Press, told The Associated Press that Amazon was wrong. 

“There’s enough uncertainty about when it’s going to be published that we’re going to remove the date,” Amazon.com spokesman Bill Curry said Monday. 

Curry said the source of the November date for “Hapworth” is uncertain, but that it likely came from a distributor’s catalog. He declined to say how many orders had been placed for “Hapworth,” which as of Monday afternoon ranked 25,106th on Amazon. 

The unpredictable fate of “Hapworth” has only added to the unpredictable image of Salinger, the author of “Catcher in the Rye.” 

In early 1997, Westberg confirmed rumors that a book version of “Hapworth” was coming out soon. Salinger presumably could have signed with any of the major publishers, but instead selected Orchises, a small imprint based in Alexandria, Va., and run by an English professor at George Mason University. 

The novella is an episode from Salinger’s famous Glass family saga, a purported letter from camp written by precocious, 7-year-old Seymour Glass. Anticipation was so high that New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani didn’t wait for a review copy, but tracked down the old New Yorker text and panned it as a “sour, implausible, and, sad to say, completely charmless story.” 

For reasons unclear — some speculated about the impact of Kakutani’s review — “Hapworth” didn’t appear. Salinger, of course, wasn’t talking. And Orchises was only slightly more accessible, saying that publication was still planned, but not giving a date. A spokeswoman for Orchises recently said that that status is unchanged. 

Even before removing the November date, Amazon had cautioned Salinger fans. 

“As one might expect with a J.D. Salinger title, there are some twists and turns,” reads a message posted on the page devoted to “Hapworth.” 

“There can be unexpected delays in the publication process, especially with a title that is generating as much demand as this one, and unfortunately such delays are beyond our control. ... (But) Orchises notes that all backorders will be honored and assures us the book is really being published. 

“Salinger has always refused to take the conventional route, and it looks like he’s running true to form with the publication of this book.”

NEW YORK — The clock sits frozen, forever recording a moment in time: 8:50 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001. 

Artist Edwin Class received the battered timepiece from a worker at ground zero shortly after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The first plane hit the tower at 8:46 a.m.; the clock somehow survived where so many people did not. 

The find is now part of a multimedia New-York Historical Society exhibit chronicling the emotions that washed across the city following Sept. 11. “Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning” opens to the public on Tuesday. 

The stopped clock, collected by Class while he worked as a volunteer after the attacks, is among the more disturbing exhibits. 

“I’m an artist, and this is just how I responded to what I saw,” explained Class, who collected dozens of items at the site. “I was just doing this to get it out of my system.” 

Class’ collection fits perfectly in the exhibit’s random style: photographs, video, pieces of impromptu memorials that cropped up around the city — about 150 items. 

Included is a Halloween costume from last year’s Greenwich Village parade, showing papier-mache twin towers adorned with wings and a halo. 

There are 15-foot rolls of butcher paper collected from Union Square Park, each filled with hand-scrawled messages of conflicting emotions. 

And there is a wooden firefighter carved by Dave Fontana of Brooklyn’s Squad One, who was one of 10 firefighters from the Park Slope firehouse killed when the towers collapsed.  

The statue stood for months outside the firehouse in tribute to the lost firefighters. 

The wooden firefighter, while hardly a typical museum piece, turned out to be perfect for this exhibit. 

“Two days after it happened, our president, Ken Jackson, brought the whole staff together and said we had to do something,” said Travis Stewart, a society spokesman. “We just didn’t know what.” 

They soon found out, creating a collection that mingles candles from street memorials, toy fire trucks, a teddy bear in firefighter’s garb, a John Lennon figurine. 

The wide-ranging artifacts display the scope of how people mourned and what artists produced after living through such a tragedy, Stewart said. The collection was assembled in conjunction with City Lore, a group of folklorists and artists. 

Some of the items are more uplifting and hopeful, like a photograph of a dust-covered fire truck with the words “BLESS YOU” rubbed in the ashes. There are also hundreds of messages left near ground zero, honoring the dead. 

Class used some of the items he found in lower Manhattan as an inspiration to make new art. He created a series of construction helmets painted with World Trade Center themes, and an American flag made from tiny bags of the ash that covered all of lower Manhattan for weeks following the attacks. 

The exhibit is designed to be a companion piece to an existing one at the Historical Society titled “WTC: Monument.” Conceived before the collapse of the towers, that exhibit details the remarkable efforts made to construct the World Trade Center. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The New-York Historical Society: http://www.nyhistory.org 

Prep scores 

Boys Volleyball – Salesian def. St. Mary’s 15-12, 15-9, 15-8 

The St. Mary’s Panthers are now 2-1 in BSAL play for the season.

As the City Council steps closer to finally inking the General Plan, 15-plus years in the making, some say there are still unresolved questions concerning density and how it will affect the diversity of the city’s population. Citizens will also likely vote on a height restriction ordinance in November, written by Martha Nicoloff. 

“I think many of these so-called progressive thinkers are going to have to resolve themselves with the fact that a lot of this no-growth rhetoric is going to leave us with a city of nothing but students and very rich white people,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who added that even she has a difficult time voting for increased density and affordable housing projects in the face of vehement neighborhood opposition. 

“One side of me says well OK, that’s fine. It is true. I would like to live in a city that is less crowded and with lower density. I too would like to enjoy some of the benefits of our hometown appeal,” she said. 

But without increasing the housing stock, through increased density or by other bold measures, Armstrong says the city will become even more victim to a socioeconomic divide that is driving low-income and moderate income minorities from the Bay Area.  

Councilmember Miriam Hawley agreed that it is very difficult for elected city officials to vote on issues about affordable housing when there is so much organized resistance from neighborhood groups. 

“The truth is the neighborhood preservation movement is very strong in this city right now. And it’s very hard for a city politician to say ‘no’ to an organized group of people who are saying ‘not in my backyard.’ ” 

What about the front yard? 

Richard Register of Ecocity states that much of the opposition in Berkeley to development is short-sighted and that the city does have to look outside of its traditional thinking to resolve the imbalance of housing and jobs that have been created over the last ten years. 

“We really do need to provide for people somewhere, and in our city’s front yards is the only place that makes sense because of the transit that is available,” said Register who envisions a Berkeley with dramatically increased density in its downtown corridors and more green space in its residential areas. 

“Because what happens is that people commute very far away to work here in Berkeley and you have traffic congestion and air pollution,” Register said. “So it’s ultimately a contradiction here. They claim to be progressive but they say they want lower density and they are simply excluding lots and lots of people. A lot of people are very proud and rightfully they should be because there a lot of social services here. But if you don’t have many people here that can use those great services, how great can they be.” 

And it’s also a contradiction when people say they are pro environment lock people into a low development pattern, because they are essentially locking the community into complete dependence upon their cars and long commutes,” he added.  

Becky O’Malley, however says she personally takes offense to that remark and does not believe that increasing the housing supply will benefit low-income families or people of color. 

“First of all, Berkeley is the third densest city in the Bay Area and the only way we are going to get more affordable housing is to be careful that the infil housing has a large percentage of affordability,” O’Malley said. “All development does not benefit people of color, and it’s a foolish myth to say a rising tide lifts all boats.” 

O’Malley went onto say that she does not personally want to live in a city that provides dormitory style living accommodations to single wage-earners but is an adamant believer in providing more affordable housing. 

At present, all residential developments in Berkeley (Berkeley has prioritized residential development over housing development) has a 20 percent set aside for below-market rents.  

O’Malley added that the real danger in not providing close oversight for residential development is “using up all of the supply on luxury housing and it leaves no space left for affordable housing.” 

“The only way we can keep the economic mix of cohabitants in Berkeley is if we structure our planning,” she added. 

Rob Wrenn of the Berkeley Planning Commission states that he personally believes the city has addressed the issue of density already, and has clearly stated that they want a moderate increase in density and do not want taller buildings. He also stated that simply increasing the stock of housing will not ensure that there will be additional housing for low-income people. 

The general plan said things are just right, and that’s the way we want to keep it. There are some areas where modifications should be made.” 

And ultimately according to Wrenn the majority of residents in Berkeley are simply not in agreement with Register’s view of environmentalism. 

“The majority of people in Berkeley don’t buy that particular version of environmentalism,” Wrenn said. “And the real key to the thing is affordability. The people who are driving in are people who can’t afford to live here. They are not going to be able to afford if we build a thousand luxury apartments downtown either. That’s why the real focus of the general plan is affordable housing.” 

If the city has made their statements known on the issue of density, November may also provide an opportunity for its citizenry to voice their opinions on various development subjects as Martha Nicoloff has authored a height restriction ordinance she wants placed on the November ballot.  

“The citizens of Berkeley are going to have a chance to voice their opinions now because this will be on the ballot,” said Martha Nicoloff. 

The Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhoods will be holding a meeting this Saturday at Live Oak Park at 9:30 a.m.  

“With friends like these, who needs enemies?” That is probably one of the many thoughts going through the minds of some the leaders of countries mentioned as nuclear threats (or targets) as well as some of the American people, who didn’t realize that ‘pushing the button’ could occur even if nuclear weapons were not being used. 

The leaked Pentagon report, called The Nuclear Posture Review (regarding American nuclear weapon contingencies), offers a frightening, possible “end-game” solution for the war on terror from rogue nation states. 

According the policy review, the United States has identified those nations as Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Syria. However, in that same leaked report, there are countries among which we have normalized relations (Russia and China). The question then is, who are our friends and who are our enemies? In the Bush administration, there seems an unyielding motto (ala The X-Files): “Trust, no one.” 

Late in the week, apparently an officer(s) at the Pentagon leaked the mostly unclassified report to the press by giving a partial copy to The Los Angeles Times and a full one to The New York Times (both left of center news institutions), but as the New York Times, with the full document, noted key portions were kept secret. Unfortunately for President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the world now knows of our nuclear strategic policy. And what is the significance of this leak? It is the apparent willingness of President Bush to steer the United States away from a Clinton-derived, coalition-driven, foreign policy and to an isolationist posture (i.e. the Cold War), acting only in response to threats that may jeopardize our strategic self-interests.  

In the military document, the Pentagon goes on to point out the three scenario in which nuclear weapons may be used: an Iraqi attack on Israel, a North Korean attack on South Korea, and a Chinese attack on Taiwan. In the case of Iraq and North Korea, it has not been proven (probably not) that they even have nuclear weapons. It is also a confusing signal for China after receiving ‘favorite nation’ trading status (despite continued human rights violations).  

On its face, such a plan appears to go against the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in which the United States would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states. The strategic threats the Pentagon identifies say simply “attacks,” not of what origin. Like breaking the ABM treaty with Russia, President Bush appears to have no qualms of re-establishing American imperialist objectives on contracts or agreements do not suit his administration’s goals. The only problem is what will the global, political atmosphere be when the President leaves office? 

In the eyes of the mainstream news media, the answer appears to be any nation that can solve the nation's insecurity about terrorism in place of not being able to capture Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With this secret plan revealed, we risk the developing world and our “former enemies” wondering whether our intentions are genuine or simply strategic in the war on terror (especially since the focus has moved on to a non-terrorist Saddam Hussein). 

There are three reasons why the Bush administration should not implement this plan: No. 1, its announcement will undercut Vice President Cheney’s diplomatic mission to the Middle East, in preparation of a possible military conflict with Iraq over the United Nations weapons inspections; No. 2, the plan will bring distrust among our European allies of American foreign objectives, precisely when the E.U. is formulating their own military strategy; No. 3, the document will raise doubts within Russia and China as to whether the U.S. has acted in good faith with current nuclear nonproliferation agreements. 

In short, the Nuclear Posture Review will lead to an unraveling of the notion of American goodwill in foreign policy, hampering our efforts to forge alliances with the Arab states in the war on terror, and asking Russia, China and (most importantly) the emerging European Union, to reevaluate strategic military posture in regards in the U.S.  

If the leaking of this Pentagon brief was to justify the President’s “axis of evil “ gaffe, the intention has backfired. 

Whoever leaked this report wanted the American people to know that our strategic nuclear interests have changed, not only do we distrust our new “friends,” but we are willing to annihilate our perceived enemies if it suits our best interests. For the first time, there may be fear of the unthinkable-again (Hiroshima). Let’s hope that doesn’t occur.  

Tommy Ates 

Friday 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. St. Joseph, 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School 

Boys Lacrosse – Berkeley vs. San Ramon, 4 p.m.  

at Berkeley High School 

Track – St. Mary’s at Distance Fest, 4 p.m.  

at Piedmont High School 

Saturday 

Men’s Rugby – Cal vs. Norwich, 1 p.m.  

at Witter Field 

Baseball – Berkeley vs. Bishop O’Dowd, 1:30 p.m.  

at San Pablo Park 

Baseball – St. Mary’s vs. Oakland Tech, 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School 

Sunday 

Men’s Rugby – Cal vs. TBA, 1 p.m.  

at Witter Field

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating letters received by Latino organizations this week containing ethnic slurs and a white powder purported to be anthrax.  

Four Berkeley-based groups, one on the UC campus, were also sent the mailings. A few dozen were received throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento. 

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft called the anthrax hoax letters “serious violations of federal law.” 

The powder in the letters tested negative for anthrax and was sent to FBI laboratories for further testing, Justice spokesman Dan Nelson said Wednesday. 

Gov. Gray Davis released a statement Thursday condemning the actions as cowardly and divisive and calling the senders “hate-mongers.” 

“We will not tolerate your acts of hate and when we find you, you will answer to the strongest anti-hate laws in the country,” he said.  

About three dozen people have been charged nationwide with perpetrating anthrax hoaxes. 

“Perpetrators of criminal acts, targeting Americans because of their race or heritage, will not be permitted,” Ashcroft said. “We are committed to identifying, tracking down and prosecuting domestic terrorists who threaten the lives and welfare of innocent Americans.” 

The FBI and the Justice Department’s civil rights and criminal divisions are investigating the mailings, authorities said. 

The letters were received Monday and Tuesday by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials; League of United Latin American Citizens; Aspira Association Inc.; and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, all in Washington. Other organizations that received letters include five offices of the National Council of La Raza in the Southwest United States, in Texas, and the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund in Sacramento, Calif. 

One of the letters also was opened Monday by a staffer at the California Chicano News Media Association in Los Angeles. 

“She didn’t notice the powder until she was preparing to make a photocopy of the letter, which tilted, spilling the stuff on the machine and her pant leg,” the association’s Executive Director Julio Moran said. 

“It was a generic letter, full of ranting and raving that was not addressed to us specifically — except for the envelope,” Moran said. 

Today is the 74th day of 2002. There are 291 days left in the year. This is “Buzzard Day” in Hinckley, Ohio. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 15, 1919, the American Legion was founded, in Paris. 

On this date: 

In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius. 

In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere. 

In 1767, the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, was born in Waxhaw, S.C. 

In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state. 

In 1875, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal, by Pope Pius IX. 

In 1913, President Wilson held the first open presidential news conference. 

In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical “My Fair Lady” opened on Broadway. 

In 1964, actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second. 

In 1975, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis died near Paris at age 69. 

In 1977, 25 years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television. 

Ten years ago: Democratic presidential candidates debated in Chicago, criticizing President George H.W. Bush’s handling of the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath, and clashing over economic issues. The United Nations officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia. 

Five years ago: President Clinton spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating from surgery for a partially torn knee tendon. Greek frogmen and U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania by that country’s descent into anarchy. 

One year ago: Chechen men wielding knives and claiming to have a bomb hijacked a Russian plane carrying 174 people after it left Turkey and forced it to land in the holy Saudi city of Medina. (Saudi special forces stormed the plane the following day; a flight attendant, a passenger and a hijacker were killed.) Actress Ann Sothern died in Ketchum, Idaho, at age 92. 

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Carl Smith is 75. Former astronaut Alan L. Bean is 70. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 69. Jazz musician Cecil Taylor is 69. Actor Judd Hirsch is 67. Rock musician Phil Lesh is 62. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys) is 61. Rock singer-musician Sly Stone is 58. Rock singer-musician Howard Scott (War) is 56. Rock singer Ry Cooder is 55. Actor Craig Wasson is 48. Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 47. Actress Park Overall is 45. Movie director Renny Harlin is 43. Model Fabio is 41. Singer Terence Trent D’Arby is 40. Rock singer Bret Michaels (Poison) is 39. Singer Rockwell is 38. Rock singer Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) is 34. Rock musician Mark Hoppus (Blink 182) is 30. Rapper-musician will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) is 27. Rock DJ Joseph Hahn (Linkin Park) is 25. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Home health care worker Claudia Arevalo says her life changed in 2000, when San Francisco enacted its living wage and her employer, which receives city funds, raised her pay. 

In 1998 she earned $6 an hour and to get by rented out a room in her apartment and worked 300-hour months which included night shifts as a janitor. Now Arevalo, 37, works a regular schedule. 

“I have more time for my family, for myself. I have a better life,” she said. “It’s the living wage that made the changes come.” 

Cities that mandate minimum wages be boosted well above the federal floor are adopting a policy that increases unemployment but ultimately benefits the working poor by reducing poverty rates, a new national study has found. 

More than 60 U.S. cities, counties or public agencies have adopted a “living wage” since 1994. But this movement has stumbled over criticisms that requiring firms to pay more than the federal $5.15-per-hour minimum leads to layoffs while benefitting only a fortunate few who keep their jobs. 

The new study, published Thursday by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, will encourage living wage advocates — not least because its author is a noted minimum wage critic. 

“Living wages actually reduce poverty,” said author David Neumark, an economics professor at Michigan State University. “If someone’s getting up on a soapbox saying these are a disaster, they may believe it, but there’s really no evidence.” 

Living wage ordinances often are not as radical as they sound. None of them applies to all workers in a city — most cover only city employees or private firms with significant government contracts. And Neumark said that the average pay raise equals around 3.5 percent, though it may be significantly higher for some workers. 

Still, the movement has been growing. 

California has at least 10 living wage cities, according to the study, including Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Baltimore passed the first living wage law, with Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Omaha and San Antonio among the large cities that followed. 

Urban poverty rates fell from 1996 through 2000, the span Neumark studied using Census Bureau data. But the living wage accelerated the drop in those cities, he said. 

Neumark concluded that cities where the living wage is 50 percent higher than the federal or state minimum see poverty drop 1.8 percentage points. 

There are losers, too. According to Neumark’s projections, the 10 percent of workers who earn the least in these cities would experience a 7 percent increase in unemployment. 

On balance, however, “it looks like the winners win more than the losers lose,” Neumark said. 

San Francisco’s living wage of $10 an hour is about 50 percent higher than the state’s $6.75-an-hour floor. Over a 2,000 hour work year, that could mean a $6,500 raise to $20,000 — and the difference between official poverty and a lifestyle less desperate. 

The government says a family of two adults and one child needs $15,020 a year to stay out of poverty, though that is low for a high-cost regions such as the San Francisco Bay area. 

Critics counter that there are better ways, such as the earned income tax credit, to help the poor. 

Workers who hover around the poverty line can lose valuable federal benefits if they earn just a few thousand dollars more, according to Richard Toikka of the Washington-based Employment Policies Institute. 

“It’s not the best way to go,” Toikka said. “The workers that are harmed are the ones that have the most serious skill deficits.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.ppic.org/ 

http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/ 

http://www.epionline.org/ 

By Justin Pritchard 

The Associated Press 

SAN FRANCISCO — Home health care worker Claudia Arevalo says her life changed in 2000, when San Francisco enacted its living wage and her employer, which receives city funds, raised her pay. 

In 1998 she earned $6 an hour and to get by rented out a room in her apartment and worked 300-hour months which included night shifts as a janitor. Now Arevalo, 37, works a regular schedule. 

“I have more time for my family, for myself. I have a better life,” she said. “It’s the living wage that made the changes come.” 

Cities that mandate minimum wages be boosted well above the federal floor are adopting a policy that increases unemployment but ultimately benefits the working poor by reducing poverty rates, a new national study has found. 

More than 60 U.S. cities, counties or public agencies have adopted a “living wage” since 1994. But this movement has stumbled over criticisms that requiring firms to pay more than the federal $5.15-per-hour minimum leads to layoffs while benefitting only a fortunate few who keep their jobs. 

The new study, published Thursday by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, will encourage living wage advocates — not least because its author is a noted minimum wage critic. 

“Living wages actually reduce poverty,” said author David Neumark, an economics professor at Michigan State University. “If someone’s getting up on a soapbox saying these are a disaster, they may believe it, but there’s really no evidence.” 

Living wage ordinances often are not as radical as they sound. None of them applies to all workers in a city — most cover only city employees or private firms with significant government contracts. And Neumark said that the average pay raise equals around 3.5 percent, though it may be significantly higher for some workers. 

Still, the movement has been growing. 

California has at least 10 living wage cities, according to the study, including Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Baltimore passed the first living wage law, with Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Omaha and San Antonio among the large cities that followed. 

Urban poverty rates fell from 1996 through 2000, the span Neumark studied using Census Bureau data. But the living wage accelerated the drop in those cities, he said. 

Neumark concluded that cities where the living wage is 50 percent higher than the federal or state minimum see poverty drop 1.8 percentage points. 

There are losers, too. According to Neumark’s projections, the 10 percent of workers who earn the least in these cities would experience a 7 percent increase in unemployment. 

On balance, however, “it looks like the winners win more than the losers lose,” Neumark said. 

San Francisco’s living wage of $10 an hour is about 50 percent higher than the state’s $6.75-an-hour floor. Over a 2,000 hour work year, that could mean a $6,500 raise to $20,000 — and the difference between official poverty and a lifestyle less desperate. 

The government says a family of two adults and one child needs $15,020 a year to stay out of poverty, though that is low for a high-cost regions such as the San Francisco Bay area. 

Critics counter that there are better ways, such as the earned income tax credit, to help the poor. 

Workers who hover around the poverty line can lose valuable federal benefits if they earn just a few thousand dollars more, according to Richard Toikka of the Washington-based Employment Policies Institute. 

“It’s not the best way to go,” Toikka said. “The workers that are harmed are the ones that have the most serious skill deficits.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.ppic.org/ 

http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/ 

http://www.epionline.org/ 

OAKLAND — The state transportation commission unanimously has approved more than $4 million in state grant funds for an intercity rail station at the Oakland Coliseum. 

The new station will be adjacent to the Coliseum Bay Area Rapid Transit station and will be served by Amtrak’s popular Capitol Corridor train service. This will allow Amtrak passengers to connect with AC Transit bus service, BART’s light rail network and the AirBART shuttle to Oakland International Airport. 

The new train stop also will give residents from Sacramento to San Jose greater access to Oakland’s professional sport teams, a concert arena and the airport. 

“The more we discover how convenient it is to take the train to events at the Coliseum the less we’ll suffer the headache of battling traffic congestion,” Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said in a statement. 

Stanford doctor pleads innocent to charges 

SAN JOSE — A Stanford Medical Center physician charged with embezzlement and elder abuse in connection with her grandmother’s death last year has pleaded innocent. 

Dr. Cheryl Walker, 43, an associate professor of gynecology, was ordered released on a $1 million bond Wednesday. Her mother, Janice, 72, also charged with manipulating the $500,000 estate of Mary Lee Koleber, 95, entered an innocent plea. Janice Walker remains behind bars in lieu of a $2.5 million bond. 

Cheryl Walker and her mother were jailed last month after being indicted on charges they looted Koleber’s estate before killing her by administering an overdose of painkillers. 

Stanford attorney Debra Zumwalt said Walker remains on administrative leave until the end of the month. 

Koleber was found dead May 10 inside the Walkers’ San Jose home, where they had brought her several weeks earlier from Florida. Both women told police Koleber had not been taking any medication. 

Cheryl Walker reported the cause of death as pneumonia. But just before Koleber was to be cremated, alarmed relatives called authorities alleging she had been secretly hustled out of South Florida. An autopsy revealed that Koleber had actually died after ingesting a deadly cocktail of prescription drugs, including morphine. 

Ikea moves in to East Palo Alto  

SAN MATEO — Furniture maker Ikea won last week’s ballot measure battle in East Palo Alto. 

A final total count showed that 1,562 residents in East Palo Alto had voted in favor of Measure C, while 1,419 voted against it, Elections Manager David Tom said Wednesday. 

The final tally took place with the presence of supporters and opponents who had demanded to observe the daylong process at the San Mateo County election office. 

Ikea opponents had hoped the remaining ballots might give them the advantage. 

Though disappointed, they said they have not given up. Opponents have complained to county election officials about alleged electioneering and other improprieties by Ikea supporters. The matter has been referred to the San Mateo County District Attorney. 

“These have to be checked out, and until they’ve been resolved there’s a cloud over this election,” said Peter Bagatelos, an attorney representing Ikea opponents. 

Bagatelos said opponents will decide whether to call for a recount.  

They could also contest the election and ask for a court hearing on the matter, he said. 

Measure C asked voters to approve zoning and other changes that would allow Ikea to construct a store in East Palo Alto. 

——— 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ended it’s national search for a new director, appointing Neal Benezra, deputy director and curator at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

“We’ve hired a person who is solid, bright, respected by all his peers, has Bay area roots, possesses great integrity and can boast of the managerial skills we need,” said SFMOMA board chairwoman Elaine McKeon. 

Benezra, 48, was a strong candidate since the beginning of the national search launched shortly after the abrupt departure of former director David Ross in August. Ross served for just three years, and the terms of his departure from SFMOMA were never made clear. 

Benezra was born in Oakland and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree from UC Davis and master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. 

Benezra said he tried and failed to get an internship at SFMOMA while in school. The museum’s search ended Wednesday with his return 20 years later. Benezra stressed SFMOMA’s ambition and history as attractions for him. 

Benezra, noted for his wide take on contemporary art and his inclusive taste, will assume his position Aug. 1. 

We recently built closet systems in our homes. Our wives helped with the installation and we wanted to share our experience with you. 

Prefabbed shelving systems are a bit more bulky than most individuals can handle, so enlist the help of a friend or spouse. 

Storeowners like to spruce up their displays with the most elaborate — and most expensive — combinations of products such as: pullout tie racks; pullout hampers; pullout belt racks; built-in ironing boards; raised panel doors; clear acrylic doors; drawer dividers, and more. 

Fancy finishes can make your new closet system look more attractive and can increase versatility. Experts told us that most folks buy systems with fewer features. It does take some imagination to figure out how to use all of those whistles and bells, but once in place, a well-appointed closet system can be a pleasure to use. So, keep these features in mind as you design your own system. 

The popular combination of items requested by more than 80 percent of closet-system purchasers include three basic elements: a single-pole section for long hanging; a shelf section for folded items, shoes, etc.; and a double-pole section to maximize hanging space for shorts, shirts, etc. 

Almost all prefabbed closet shelf systems have adjustable shelves. Again, experts tell us that when visiting past customers, they find most shelves are not moved after installation. Is this silly, or what? Adjustable shelving costs more, but isn’t taken advantage of? This is where we have to disagree with the experts. Although one might not adjust shelf placement later, having the ability to initially make adjustments can be extremely important to the novice who isn’t sure exactly what to plan for. 

Also, if needs do change, the adjustable closet system can change, too. We think that adjustability is an important feature and that adjustable shelving can reduce anxiety over how one’s garments eventually will fit within the new scheme of things. Experts suggest considerable savings can be realized by purchasing and using a fixed-shelving system. Sorry, but we found that the added versatility of an adjustable system reduced our anxiety which in itself was worth the cost. However, it’s your closet and your pocket book, so you get to decide. 

The neat thing about pre-drilled adjustable systems goes way beyond being able to simply change shelf positions. With these types of closet systems the shelves can be replaced with clothes poles. In this way, the same space can be used for either hanging or shelf storage. And later, the system can be modified — without the use of tools — as either hanging or shelving space. Simply slip out the shelves and slip in the pole. In our system each module came with shelves and a pole. We mounted the pole brackets in every unit whether it was going to be used for hanging or not. In locations where we decided to use shelves, we pulled the pole out (leaving the pole brackets in place) and stored the pole in the corner of the closet. Later, if we need more hanging and less shelving, we will be able to make the change in reverse just as fast. 

Experts tell you to plan in advance for what you will want to store in your closet. We agree, planning is smart, but no one can be absolutely sure of how a storage system will ultimately be used. Therefore, we feel it makes sense to leave yourself choices. Install a shelf system that can be used either for hanging or shelving. This way, you can’t go wrong. 

A couple of other tips: 

Be careful not to box in corners in walk-in closets by placing shelving so that clothing abuts the shelf face. This might be OK when the closet is only partially full, but once clothes poles are completely filled, getting to shelves in corners can be a real problem. Corner units are available that eliminate this problem. This is where spending slightly more can get you a big return on your investment. 

Yet, there are things that cost a lot that don’t improve storage, such as: 

—Chrome clothes poles (painted ones hold equally well). 

—Glass shelves (melamine ones are easier to keep clean). 

—Exotic lighting (the good old-fashioned fluorescent kind still is best). 

Bright lighting is a good investment in any closet. Not exotic lighting — bright lighting. Lighting that can help you differentiate between navy blue and black and between dark green and dark blue is helpful. 

Tie racks can be used for ties and suspenders too. Wire drawers can be used up high for drawer storage that you can see through. And don’t forget shoe racks, dirty clothes hampers and telescoping poles that pull out (called valets) where clothes can be hung perpendicular to the clothes poles. This makes it easier to see the front of the garment while using free hands to mix and match with other pieces. 

You will never have enough clothing storage. If you are satisfied with your closet system so that it makes you giggle in the morning while you are planning what to wear, then the rest of the day is bound to smile back at you. 

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

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Readers can mail questions to: On the House, APNewsFeatures, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020, or e-mail Careybro(at)onthehouse.com. To receive a copy of On the House booklets on plumbing, painting, heating/cooling or decks/patios, send a check or money order payable to The Associated Press for $6.95 per booklet and mail to: On the House, P.O. Box 1562, New York, NY 10016-1562, or through these online sites: www.onthehouse.com or apbookstore.com. 

Q. Mary asks: I recently had someone test my water. I learned that my water at this point is unsafe to consume. I am told that I have methane gas in my water and that some kind of release valve could be mounted on my tank to release this gas. Is this possible and, if so, how do I find the equipment or tools needed for the job? 

A. We don’t think that methane gas should be anywhere near ones home — it’s explosive! There are sleeves that can be added to your well that can remove air and other gasses from your water — before it gets to your home. Check with a well contractor for more details. This might not qualify as a do-it-yourself project. If you want to drink your well water, run it through a reverse osmosis filtration system. A small one that will supply drinking water to a family of four will run about $1,000 installed. 

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Q. John asks: There is a “slamming” when the toilet valve shuts off. I recently replaced floating arms in both our toilets with floating cup ball cocks. Now, when the water shuts off, the valve slams shut hard and it sounds like water hammer. What should I do? 

A. If it sounds like a water hammer it probably is. This is not uncommon when a new valve is installed. Open the valve by removing a few screws, lubricate the gasket and replace it. Do this on both valves. If rubber-gasket lube isn’t enough, install an air chamber (shock absorbers) at each of the toilet supply pipes. 

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Q. Gracie asks: The waste water from the clothes washer and kitchen sink drain onto the floor of the garage or into the backyard through a pipe on the exterior of the home-kitchen wall. This pipe was broken prior to moving in and remains open. Should I call a plumber? 

A. Waste water from your clothes washer and kitchen sink should not drain onto the garage floor or into the backyard. This waste should discharge into an onsite septic tank or a municipal sewage system. Anything less is unsanitary. 

We suggest you contact a reliable plumber or sewer and drain service in your area to make sure that the drainpipes are configured properly and draining freely. 

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Q. Bonnie asks: Our hot-water heater safety-pressure valve runs all the time and drains all the water out of the tank. Why? 

A. All water heaters have a temperature-and-pressure-relief valve that is designed to prevent the water heater from exploding. Some manufacturers suggest testing the valve every six months or so by raising and lowering the test lever on the valve. This should produce a sudden burst of hot water from the drain line connected to the valve. More frequent testing can reduce the chance of a leak caused by mineral and corrosion buildup. However, if a leak results immediately after a test, simply operate the test lever several times to free lodged debris that might be preventing the valve from seating properly. 

There are a few reasons why your valve is running all the time and wasting water and energy. The valve might be built up with corrosion. Try flipping the test lever up and down a couple of times and tap the stem using a hammer to seat the valve. If this doesn’t do the trick, check to make sure that the thermostat (located on the controller) hasn’t been turned up. It should be set on medium for the safest and most efficient operation. Excessively hot water will cause the temperature-and-pressure-relief valve to open. Test the temperature of the water by using a thermometer in a glass filled with hot water from the tap. The temperature should not exceed 130 F. 

Finally, excessively high water pressure can cause the temperature-and-pressure-relief valve to leak. Residential water pressure should run between 30 psi and 55 psi. Pressure exceeding 55 psi can potentially damage clothes washers, dishwashers, icemakers and other water-supplied automatic appliances. Most homes have a water-pressure regulator valve at the location where the water enters the building. You can test the water pressure by using a gauge available from the hardware store. Screw the gauge onto a hose bib and turn on the water. You can adjust the water pressure by turning a nut or screw on the pressure regulator. 

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For more home improvement tips and information, visit www.onthehouse.com.

Many gardeners get through winter by holding on tight to seed catalogs and perusing every page. Others do that, too, but they also live with the garden look all year round to keep them inspired. 

It doesn’t matter where you live — cottage, suburban two-story or high-rise apartment — you can warm your home with garden trappings, such as potted plants, floral prints and fabrics and aged outdoor furniture pieces. 

In some climates, there’s little distinction between indoors and outside, but in others, the weather creates a firm definition. If that’s your situation, picture in your mind what you love about the outdoors. Then work to bring it inside. 

That doesn’t have to mean a total, costly remodeling. Sometimes castoffs and found objects like small urns, metal gates or an architectural piece provide the just-right touch. Combine those pieces with botanical prints, floral fabrics, vintage pottery and garden-bright colors, and you’ve got a fresh look. 

Mixing the old and new will remind you of the relaxed charm of the garden you love. Decorate with your watering can until it is needed outdoors. Place a garden lantern inside at a strategic spot, or bring an Adirondack chair out of winter storage and make it your favorite reading chair. 

Enjoy this season as a time to browse thrift shops and antique malls for garden ornaments. Then try them out inside your home first; don’t wait for the garden. Visit garden shops when they’re not full of plants to see some interesting pieces that you might ignore when you’re shopping for bedding plants. Shop for vintage and new fabrics that might enhance the garden look in pillows or window valances. 

Some simple projects can add to the overall garden feel of your rooms. Need an extra bedside table? Add a folding wooden or metal chair and stack gardening books for bedtime dreaming. Hang a small wooden garden ladder horizontally on the wall and drape antique quilts from it for colorful display. 

Add leaf motifs to white bed linens in a guest room or be fanciful in a painted fern-patterned screen. Fill a small child’s wagon with plants. Plant some ivy in colorful pots. 

As temperatures allow, treat your deck, patio or sunroom as an outdoor room. Invite colorful patterns into the mix or give a floor cloth look to the wood floor by painting a geometric or floral pattern. 

Introduce texture wherever you can. Hang dried flowers, vintage tools, small wreaths or even a straw hat to help create a restful oasis. Display some vintage or reproduction floral prints to create a focal point in a neutral room, and include touches of patterned fabric. If bold isn’t your style, fashion a restful, quiet spot with soft backgrounds and painted white furniture. Many shades of white, taupe and soft green work well together in subtle rooms. 

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Better Homes and Gardens Garden Style and Garden Style Projects (Meredith Books, $34.95 and $24.95 respectively).

SAN FRANCISCO — The major record labels believe I ought to be very jazzed that MusicNet and pressplay have launched their online music services. 

So why don’t I care? 

For one thing, I can’t share music with others, the way I can lend a CD. 

I can only burn 20 percent of my downloads to blank CDs with pressplay, and none with MusicNet, constraining my ability to listen to music in the car. 

I can’t even keep the music if I decide to drop the services later — my songs simply become inaccessible from my “collection.” 

This is really more like rental radio for the PC. 

It’s a poor all-around effort by the major labels to unseat the likes of Gnutella, Morpheus, KaZaA and a host of other popular applications that allow users to trade stuff for free — sometimes illegally — over the Internet. 

Pressplay is the joint venture from Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group offering music from those labels as well as from EMI. 

I installed the application without a hitch. 

For $9.95 a month, I can download 30 songs onto my computer each month for listening anytime, as long as my subscription remains active. I also get 300 “streams,” where I can listen to songs without storing a copy (though listening to it again will cost me another credit). 

Other service levels weigh in at $19.95 per month (750 streams, 75 downloads, 15 CD burns) and $24.95 (1,000 streams, 100 downloads, 20 burns). 

Finding songs on pressplay’s interface is simple. I could search by artist’s name, album title or song title. 

I typed in Britney and got lots of Britney Spears tracks. I typed in Mariah and got a lot of Mariah Carey tracks. 

But when I went looking for “Windy” by The Association, pressplay returned results for songs by Earth, Wind and Fire and Steve Winwood. It turns out music from The Association is handled by Warner, a partner for the competing service MusicNet. 

Instead of The Association, pressplay did offer me downloads from fellow hippie-era rockers Sonny & Cher and The Mamas & the Papas. 

Songs take about 30 seconds to download from pressplay with a broadband connection. Those downloads happen much faster than any of the free peer-to-peer services available. 

Pressplay’s streaming feature offers a nice way to preview songs you might want to add to your growing bank of music. The sound quality of the streams and downloads is excellent. 

Overall, pressplay is a functional program limited by the absence of artists from Warner and BMG. I would have liked to transfer those downloads to my digital music player, but portable devices are not supported. 

On to MusicNet, the joint venture of RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group. It comes through RealNetworks’ new RealOne media player. 

Had I gotten the service to work, I would have received 100 downloads and 100 streams per month for $9.95. Other pricing plans are available, including $19.95 for an additional 25 downloads, 25 streams and a host of video content. 

But alas, I never got it to work. 

I signed up at work, downloaded the RealOne software and was told I needed a “RealOne music component.” When I tried to download it, my computer crashed. The problem stumped tech support at MusicNet and RealNetworks as well. 

Undaunted, I tried to install the software again at home. I went through the steps again and even paid RealNetworks another subscription fee — $14.95 for a higher-level service — under the silly impression that forking over more money might make it work. 

It didn’t. 

After another few sessions with tech support, they told me the problem appeared to be a firewall issue. 

Even after explaining my system setup, tech support still couldn’t help me make the service work. I’m 0-for-2, and $24.90 lighter. 

For those who can get MusicNet to work, it offers a catalog of more than 75,000 songs from thousands of artists and you can create your own custom playlists from your library. 

The service doesn’t support CD burning or transferring to portable devices. 

Isn’t there an easier way to get music than MusicNet? For me, that answer is, somewhat grudgingly, pressplay. 

Now if I could just bring myself to uninstall Limewire, the software for connecting to the free Gnutella network. Nah. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.musicnet.com 

http://www.pressplay.com 

GARDINER — For John Clawson, finding an elk antler in the woods after a long, difficult hike is exhilarating — a rush. 

“I look at it like Easter egg hunting, finding a nice surprise,” the miner from this tiny southern Montana town says. “No two are ever the same.” 

The mix of mountain air and nature awakening help draw antler hunters like Clawson to lands near Yellowstone National Park each spring, when elk in the region’s vast herds begin the natural process of shedding their antlers. 

For most antler hunters, it is a leisure activity conducted lawfully, usually in the region’s national forests. Families make it a favorite spring pastime, much as baseball outings are in other parts of the country. Boy Scout troops sometimes gather antlers as a fund-raiser. Antler buyers set up shop in parking lots where people returning from weekend outings can sell their bounty. 

“Ninety percent, I think, do it because they like the freedom and fresh air,” said Clawson, who likes to take his children hunting with him. “They get out in the wild, and it’s like you get a prize when you get an antler.” 

But for some, antler hunting has become a highly competitive and potentially lucrative. Shed horns are sold for use overseas as health or food supplements. Some in Asia consider powdered antler to be an aphrodisiac. In the United States, craftsmen turn antler racks into knives, chandeliers and even Western furniture that can sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. 

The demand worries law enforcement officers at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Antler collecting is forbidden within the parks; park resources, from obsidian rock to wild animals, are meant to be viewed and enjoyed — not taken or disturbed. 

But the temptation can prove too great for some, who will take the risk that park rangers will be too busy with other duties to try to track them through the vast ranges. 

“I think people are getting away with a lot of stuff here,” said Dan Kirschner, a special agent with Yellowstone. “There is no way for us to physically monitor the entire boundary.” 

“In places like this, you could make several hundreds dollars in a few hours if you know where to look,” added Brian Helms, a backcountry supervisor at Yellowstone. 

In Wyoming, state game officials are considering designating a gathering season on certain lands to help control the competition for elk antlers and prevent animals from being harassed. 

At Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge, shady antler hunters monitor the antler shedding as closely as game management officials. Officials try hard to pick up antlers as quickly as they are shed to deter poaching, but admit they are not always quick enough. 

And some poachers sneak into areas set aside as winter range for the elk and closed to people on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, near Jackson, Wyo. They stash antlers to be collected later in the spring, when the winter range reopens to legal access and the antlers can be retrieved without raising suspicion. 

“Some of these guys are real crafty. They will spend the night laying out under the bushes, just like somebody fighting a war, I guess,” said Shane Wasem, a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service. 

Catching them in the act or with antlers — not just wandering the restricted areas or looking suspicious — “is a pain in the keister,” he said. 

Though poaching of elk antlers is a concern each year, park law enforcement officials cannot say just how widespread the problem is. On average, just 1 percent to 10 percent of the people committing crimes in Yellowstone are caught, Kirschner estimates. 

“It’s a crime but not against a person. So who’s going to report it?” he said.  

“It is hard to detect (the crime) and apprehend the criminal, and the payoff is big.” 

Helms said plenty of folks are willing to risk getting caught in the park where, in one day, they could find the same number of antlers it might take two or three weeks to legally gather outside Yellowstone. 

Prices for antlers are about half of what they were even a few years ago, which antler hunters blame on a poorer Asian market. But even at $4 to $5 a pound, with a large antler weighing up to 10 pounds, walking the woods isn’t too bad a day’s work. 

“Everything gets picked over,” said Jim Darr, who began hunting antlers for fun 20 years ago and now sells some of those he finds near Gardiner. 

The trade consists of a widespread network of hunters, sellers and buyers. An auction of antlers gathered at the elk refuge near Jackson each year attracts people from around the world to the Western town. 

Antlers still are sent overseas for use as food supplements, said Don Schaufler, whose Montana business is a major buyer of antlers in North America. And the market among craftsmen remains strong as well. 

“They’re still worth something,” said Schaufler, who calls it a “sin” that the Park Service lets the antlers lie on the ground. 

Antlers shed on the park floors by migrating elk are considered part of the natural ecosystem. Rodents gnaw on them for nutrients and tourists who happen across shed antlers glimpse part of nature’s cycle, said Steve Cain, a senior wildlife biologist at Grand Teton. 

Park law enforcement officers say they have to work extra hard, with a limited number of rangers responsible for various jobs and budgets that are spread thin. Grand Teton has about 25 permanent law enforcement personnel; Yellowstone has roughly 50. 

“We’re definitely worried about falling behind,” Kirschner says. 

Colin Campbell, the chief ranger at Grand Teton, says detection devices or certain markings can be placed on antlers to help officials track them. Tips from the public, he says, are invaluable. 

Park officials have painted antlers bright orange — even cut them into bits — but poachers still snatched them up, Helms says. 

Officials at Yellowstone and Grand Teton decline to be more specific about current steps taken to deter — or catch — poachers. 

“Technology definitely helps us. But as we get more technologically advanced, guess who else does?” Kirschner says. 

Some unscrupulous antler hunters go to extremes to get what they want. Jason Anderson, a spokesman with Bridger-Teton, says there have been reports of elk being chased among trees where piano wire has been strung to knock off antlers, and attempts to shoot antlers free. 

Poachers at Yellowstone often find antlers by day, sneak them out by night. Some stow away antlers for pick-up later in the year, Helms says. 

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On the Net: 

Grand Teton National Park: http://www.nps.gov/grte/ 

Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell/ 

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp.’s approximately 1,600 San Francisco Bay area employees are in for a rude surprise this summer — a smaller paycheck. 

Beginning Aug. 1, the software giant will cut the “geographic differential” it pays its Bay Area employees by 40 percent, from 25 percent of their base salaries to 15 percent, spokesman Jim Bak said Thursday. 

The 10 percentage-point cut, announced in an e-mail sent to workers Feb. 4, affects employees working in Mountain View, Foster City and San Francisco, the company said. 

The bonus pay was introduced in February 2000 as a way to lure and retain employees in what was then highly competitive market, Bak said. It was originally set at 15 percent, then increased to 25 percent in November 2000 as demand for tech workers grew. 

Now, with the market in a slump, Bak said the company decided it didn’t need to offer such a strong economic incentive. Voluntary attrition at Microsoft’s Bay Area units has dropped from nearly 30 percent in the company’s fiscal year 2001 to just over 9 percent in fiscal year 2002, he said. 

Microsoft also pays a 15 percent geographic differential to its employees in New York City, Bak said, and hasn’t announced plans to change that. 

Shares in Microsoft fell 88 cents to close at $61.22 each in trading Thursday on the Nasdaq stock market. 

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On the Web: 

http://www.microsoft.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — “Liar! Liar!” came the voices from the crowd. 

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson stopped short, caught midsentence. He had started by saying: “Science has told us so far there is no medical benefit for smoking marijuana ...” 

Hutchinson pushed on with his message, reiterating President Bush’s newly aggressive anti-drug policy, which links casual drug use to terrorism and objects to state laws like California’s that allow the medicinal use of marijuana. 

Just hours before Hutchinson’s appearance Feb. 12, federal agents — with no help from police — seized more than 600 pot plants from a medicinal marijuana club. They also arrested the group’s executive director and three suppliers, including pot guru Ed Rosenthal, author of “Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don’t Get Busted.” 

The federal raids have angered and alarmed local officials in San Francisco. 

On the day Hutchinson spoke, a half-dozen city officials joined a boisterous street protest against the DEA. Even District Attorney Terence Hallinan grabbed a bullhorn and criticized the raids, as demonstrators, some in wheelchairs and on crutches, chanted, “DEA, Go away!” and pot smoke wafted through the air. 

Opponents of Washington’s stand on marijuana said the raids may be a precursor to showdowns in at least seven other states that have also passed laws in conflict with the federal ban on pot. 

“I think the goals here are to stomp out this emerging political movement once and for all,” said Keith Stroup, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The way they’re trying to do that is to come into San Francisco, at the heart of the legalization movement, and arrest, prosecute and jail the major players.” 

DEA spokesman Richard Meyers in San Francisco countered: “You know, personally my heart goes out to someone who has cancer or AIDS, and I’m sure they’re just trying to alleviate their pain, but federal law does not make a distinction between medical marijuana and marijuana, and the DEA has a commitment and duty to the public to enforce the law.” 

In recent months, federal agents have raided three other cannabis clubs in California, seizing a garden of marijuana grown for sick people in Hollywood and taking away the records of 5,000 medical marijuana users from a doctor’s office near Sacramento. 

But for nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that there is no medical exception to the federal law against marijuana, federal agents had avoided San Francisco. 

Now that the United States is facing unprecedented challenges to homeland security, Hutchinson said the time is right to crack down on drugs. 

“History teaches us that in a time of national emergency, and we have seen that since Sept. 11, a nation’s moral values are clarified,” he said during a recent debate with New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who advocates legalizing marijuana. 

Under a law passed by California voters in 1996, marijuana clubs can dispense pot to people with cancer, AIDS or other chronic illnesses to relieve pain and nausea. 

But the Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-drug laws supersede laws allowing medicinal marijuana in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. 

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said DEA officials are being “asinine and disingenuous” when they say they cannot back off the federal law. He has gathered 25 co-sponsors for a bill to give states the right decide their own medical marijuana policies. But he conceded there is little chance the bill will even make it out of committee. 

“It’s going nowhere because politicians are afraid of being seen as soft on drugs,” Frank said. “The people are way ahead of the politicians here.” 

As for Hutchinson, he said he was not surprised by his reception in San Francisco. 

“Maybe it is not such a bang-up idea to defend our nation’s drug policy in the city of San Francisco,” he said, “which has such an extraordinary tradition of toleration toward drug use, from the popularity of the opium dens of the late 19th century to the drug culture thriving in the Haight Ashbury district of the ’60s to the cannabis buyers club of the new century.” 

WASHINGTON — Muslim extremist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was indicted Thursday in the kidnapping and murder of reporter Daniel Pearl, the government pushing for quick U.S. criminal charges out of concern that Pakistani authorities might release the suspect. 

A federal grand jury in Trenton, N.J., indicted Saeed on charges of conspiring to take Pearl as a hostage and then kidnapping him. Since the Jan. 23 kidnapping resulted in the Wall Street Journal reporter’s death, Saeed could face the death penalty if brought to the United States and convicted. 

The charges were filed in New Jersey because Saeed is accused of sending e-mails, using the alias “Chaudrey Bashir,” to Pearl that were relayed electronically through the Journal’s computer network in South Brunswick, N.J., officials said. The kidnapping took place in Pakistan, where Saeed is in custody. 

Authorities said Pearl probably already was dead when his kidnappers threatened in an e-mail on Jan. 30 to kill him within 24 hours unless their demands were met. The exact date of Pearl’s slaying remains a mystery. A videotape showing him decapitated was delivered to U.S. officials in Pakistan and is being studied for clues by the FBI. 

Announcing the indictment, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Saeed “methodically set a death trap for Daniel Pearl, lured him into it with lies and savagely ended his life.” 

The indictment alleges that Saeed trained at Afghan military camps and also fought with Taliban and al-Qaida fighters last September and October as the war in Afghanistan was beginning. Prosecutors believe the kidnapping plot was hatched in January “to take hostage a journalist from a U.S newspaper in order to affect U.S. government policies,” according to the indictment. 

President Bush met with Pearl’s widow, Mariane, in the Oval Office on Thursday. White House aides did not release any details of the meeting. Ashcroft also met privately Thursday in his office with Mrs. Pearl, who is about to give birth to the couple’s son. The attorney general told her afterward, “The United States has not forsaken your husband.” 

“Where freedom is feared, men and women like Daniel Pearl will always be hunted, but where freedom is cherished they will be forever defended,” Ashcroft said. 

A spokesman for Dow Jones & Co., the parent company for the Journal, said: “This is a matter for the justice authorities in the United States and Pakistan.” 

The Justice Department also disclosed Thursday separate criminal charges against Saeed in Washington, where a grand jury indicted him in November 2001 on counts of conspiracy to take a hostage, taking a hostage and aiding and abetting. Those charges involved the October 1994 kidnapping of another American, Bela J. Nuss, during a tourist visit to India. Nuss was released after 11 days. 

The charges against Saeed in that case carry a maximum of life in prison. 

The decision to press forward with a U.S. criminal indictment in the Pearl case caps weeks of deliberations within the White House, Justice Department and State Department about how to proceed, even as Saeed faced criminal proceedings in Pakistan. 

U.S. officials have been in discussions with Pakistani officials about bringing Saeed and possibly others to the United States. The two nations have no formal extradition agreement, but Pakistan previously has sent suspects to the United States under a less-formal procedure known as “rendering.” 

Ashcroft acknowledged Thursday that his decision to obtain a U.S. indictment in the Pearl case was driven by concern that Saeed might be released in Pakistan. Authorities in neighboring India released Saeed in December 1999 after his arrest in the Nuss kidnapping in exchange for passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines jet hijacked to Afghanistan. 

“We think it’s important to have charges in place if, for some reason, he would be in any way released,” Ashcroft said. “We are collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interest. They have him in custody, and we don’t.” 

Asked whether Ashcroft was concerned about possible legal challenges claiming Saeed would face “double jeopardy” by being prosecuted for the same crime in Pakistan and the United States, the attorney general answered “yes” but did not elaborate. 

More than 5,700 residents and businesses in the southern and central portions of Berkeley lost power Wednesday afternoon when a splice connecting two underground cables at Bancroft Way and Fulton Street failed. 

The failure occurred at 12:42 p.m., according to Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. spokesman Jason Alderman. 

“We were able to reroute a lot of those customers ... within the hour,” Alderman said. But 2,600 customers, mostly in southeast Berkeley, remained without power after the rerouting. 

PG&E restored power to the remaining customers by 4:51 p.m., Alderman said. “That’s pretty good,” he commented. 

Alderman said there were probably sparks associated with the splice failure, but that neighborhood rumors of an underground “explosion” were exaggerated. 

The blackout came on the heels of a smaller outage Tuesday evening that left 56 customers without power for more than eight hours. That outage was due to an underground cable failure near Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street. 

“Whenever we have an outage, we regret the inconvenience to customers,” Alderman said.  

ALAMEDA – Having let Jon Gruden go to Tampa Bay, the Oakland Raiders replaced him with an assistant coach who has shadowed Gruden for the past seven years. 

Bill Callahan, who was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach, said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to change much of the system Gruden presided over during the last four years as Raiders coach. 

“Jon and I are very similar in a lot of respects – our work ethic, our intensity,” said Callahan, who has never been a head coach at any level. “The system itself will not change. The day-to-day functions will not change.” 

One thing that will change is the personality of the Raiders’ head coach. 

Gruden was theatrically intense on the sidelines, throwing tantrums and glaring at players and officials. Callahan, 45, who moved with Gruden from Philadelphia to Oakland in 1998, is studious and laid-back. 

By promoting from within the system, Raiders owner Al Davis appears to have reasserted control over the team he has guided for nearly four decades. Gruden came to the Raiders as an outsider, and his relationship with Davis was strained at times. 

As a sign of who now holds the real power on the Raiders, Davis sat on a silver and black armchair – which looked very much like a throne – during the news conference announcing Callahan’s promotion. 

Callahan sat on a black and white folding chair, as did Raiders executives Bruce Allen and Amy Trask. 

Callahan will be making a lot less money than his former boss is making now. 

Gruden signed a five-year, $17.5 million contract with the Buccaneers in February despite being in the final year of his deal with the Raiders. As compensation, Oakland got four draft picks and $8 million.

Editor: 

Berkeley residents have patiently considered the messages of prophets in the past. Erhart and EST, Raj-neesh and red clothing have come and gone and now, for all too long, Richard Register and his Ecocity Builders have been making noises. In his public announcements he has been smarting over the rejection of most of his amendments to the city’s General Plan, they considered neighborhood housing as under-utilized land-use. He has now started attacking a legitimate alternatives offered by others. (See March 9 Daily Planet, Opinion Page) 

The “Eco-Community” document, that Register’s partner describes as mockery, is a serious alternative to the vision of towers in the sky they have promoted repeatedly for the BART stations. The “Eco-Community” position paper outlining those alternatives will very soon be posted on the “Berkeleyparty.com” Web site. 

Register and his developer cohorts are probably gearing up for a new initiative, the Berkeley Height Ordinance, to appear on the November ballot.  

It will control out-of-scale development in the flat-lands and additions to existing buildings. The Berkeley Height Ordinance will give residents a chance to express their opinion about the bulky, up-to-the- sidewalk, 50-foot high projects that have caused many communities to assemble at countless public hearings. However, several new limitations on speech at these hearings have throttled the opportunity of citizens to have input. Many of us can remember the very large gatherings when the main auditorium at the high school had to be opened for public hearings, and so many speakers wanted to be heard that the hearing was continued for additional nights. 

We are all conscious of the five council seats that are on the November ballot, so it is urgent that neighborhood-friendly representatives be supported and elected. Even though the campaign against the initiative by developers will be fierce, I have no doubt that city residents will vote to support the Height Ordinance that will be in effect for 10 years. The Berkeley Height Ordinance is now finally complete and the city attorney has promised to pass it for publication before March 20, or sooner.  

Martha Nicoloff 

Berkeley

Thursday, March 14

Significance of March 5 Primary and Insights into Upcoming Nov. Election 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library,  

Edith Stone Room 

1247 Marin Ave.  

Speaker Anne Henderson, legislative director of the League of Women Voters for California, will speak about the Mar. 5 election and its significance. 843-8824. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble Imani Community Church. 

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Changing Face of  

Disability Law in the 

New Millennium 

8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Booth Auditorium 

Conference exploring the evolving laws and emerging issues that define the status of disability rights in American society. Panel discussions addressing legal issues affecting disability rights. 643-8010, www.boalt.org/BDLS/ conf.html. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

“Hooked” 

1:15 p.m. 

Alta Bates Hospital, Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

A talk and slide show from the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 763-0779, www.unhooked.com. 

Tax-Aid: Bay Area Free Tax Service for  

Low-income Taxpayers 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lincoln Recreation Center 

250 10th St., Oakland 

Tax-Aid offers free tax return preparation to Bay Area families with incomes of less than $32,000. Eligible families simply bring their W-2s, other proofs of income and tax forms. Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators are available.  

St. Patrick’s Day Community and Family Contra Dance 

7:45 p.m. 

Grace North Church 

2138 Cedar 

7 p.m., Contra dance music teaching session. All levels welcome, easy dances for all ages. $10 adults, $5 kids. 482-9479. 

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

A small, fragile woman with close cropped gray hair, Gloria Olivera, 65, quietly waits in line behind the bullet-proof glass at the check exchange on San Pablo and University avenues. Like the majority of check-exchange customers today, however, she is not there to cash a check. She’s there to get a loan.  

“My friends tell me, ‘Stay away! They’re stealing you’re money!’” she says. A cancer patient and retired teacher’s aid, she lives on $700 a month in Social Security. She has come to the exchange to get a $50 advance, or “payday loan,” on her Social Security check, so she can buy her medication, she said.  

Payday loans are small, short-term loans with annual interest rates of more than 400 percent. Prohibited in 19 states, in California they have been around since 1997 and have increasingly become a last resort economic resource for many of the state’s poor. 

Payday loans function as the simplest kind of loan. Customers must have a bank account and write checks for up to $300. The check exchange then loans the customer the money, deducting $15 for every $100 lent. After two weeks, the customer must repay the loan, or the exchange will deposit the check.  

“That averages out to be about a 450 percent annual interest rate,” said Berkeley Public Policy professor Steve Raphael. “The worst of the credit cards are lending for 20 to 25 percent.” 

Raphael sees payday loans as “a huge tax. It’s 20 percent of your take-home after taxes are deducted. It’s an incredible amount to pay,” he explains, “just to get your pay check two weeks earlier Pam Douglas first used the service in December “to cover some emergency expenses.” Since then, however, she has been unable to pay off the original loan and has had to take out an additional loan every two weeks to keep her bank account from dropping below zero. 

“I can’t seem to get myself out of the hole,” Douglas says. 

Payday loans were introduced in California in 1997 after fierce lobbying on behalf of the California Financial Service Providers Association, which represents 1,200 of the states 3,000 check exchanges. “One of the reasons we sought this legislation,” says Association president Jim Ball, “is because we knew our check cashing revenue would decline due to cuts in welfare and increasing reliance on direct deposit.” 

Both sharply reduced the numbers of checks being cashed. To head off the losses, the industry pushed for and won California state legislation, legalizing payday loans.  

The move proved very lucrative for the 2,000 check exchanges in California which provide the service. Previous to 1997, check cashing provided for the majority of industry revenues. Today it has shrunk to as low as 25 percent. Payroll advances in large part have taken up the slack. 

“We’ve seen a phenomenal growth in the product,” said Ball.  

Consumer groups including CalPRIG, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and Consumer’s Union, as well as legislators such as Oakland California State Senator Don Perata, meanwhile are organizing to put an end to what they see as exploitation of lower income people, who have little access to other means of credit.  

Unlike other forms of credit, such as credit cards, there are no payment plans available to consumers of payday loans. “If you can’t pay off the loan entirely at the end of two weeks, it flips over and you have to take out another loan,” says AARP’s Lupe de la Cruz. “The product is fundamentally flawed. It is designed to keep you in debt.” 

According to AARP research, the average income of people who take out these loans is $15,000. “These are products are targeting people living on fixed incomes”- retired people on social security, welfare recipients, or surprisingly, military personnel..” A 2000 AARP survey found that the highest concentration of payday lenders is around military bases. 

For the past three years, Senator Don Perata has attempted to reform payday loans through legislation, co-sponsored by the AARP and Consumer’s Union, which would set up payment plans to allow consumer’s to pay off their debt over a three month period.  

“But,” says Perata Chief of Staff Erin Niemela “We’ve faced serious opposition. Check casher’s are fighting it across the board.”  

The shorthanded Berkeley High baseball team couldn’t get much offense going without two of its top hitters as the ’Jackets fell to Mt. Eden, 8-5, on Wednesday at San Pablo Park. 

Mt. Eden cleanup hitter Rolando Fajardo hit a bases-clearing double during a four-run third inning, then the Monarchs tacked on three more runs in the fourth to pull away. 

Berkeley, on the other hand, managed to score only single runs in the first, third and fifth innings before putting up a couple of consolation scores in the seventh. The ’Jackets had baserunners in every inning, but just couldn’t put together a rally. 

“If we get a big hit, this is a different ballgame,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. “We got down too many early to start scratching for runs.” 

Moellering was short three regulars on Wednesday. Centerfielder Bennie Goldenberg is out with an injury, and heart-of-the-order hitters DeAndre Miller and Matt Toma rode the pine for breaking team rules. Toma is Berkeley’s only real power source, while Miller is a table-setter who usually hits second. 

One positive was a nice showing by Jeremy LeBeau in Toma’s cleanup spot. LeBeau had three hits, including a double, and scored two runs. Sean Souders, known more for his pitching than his bat, had a solid game with three RBIs out of the five-hole, and Chris Wilson, subbing for Miller at third base, also had two base hits. 

But the negatives outweighed the positives for the ’Jackets (1-3) on Wednesday. They committed three errors in the field, and three of Mt. Eden’s runs scored on wild pitches and passed balls.  

Berkeley catcher Sam Geaney just learned to play behind the plate this summer, and his handling of balls in the dirt left something to be desired, especially with Walker Toma on the mound. After starting pitcher Ethan Friedman lasted just three innings, the sophomore Toma brother (Matt is a senior) came in to finish the game. He looked in control early, but a scratch hit and a walk put two runners on. A wild pitch moved the runners up, then a passed ball by Geaney scored one run. A single and two more wild pitches plated two more runs for the Monarchs, and suddenly Berkeley was down 7-2. 

“(Walker) Toma had a rough inning, but he settled down,” Moellering said. “We know he’s going to be a great pitcher for us.” 

Toma got through the next two innings with relative ease, striking out four, but Fajardo led off the top of the seventh with a mammoth blast to left that cleared the temporary fence, a sidewalk and a stretch of grass. Toma walked the next batter on four pitches, but regained his composure to set down the next three in a row. 

Berkeley actually got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, as Mt. Eden reliever Javier Contreras loaded the bases with two walks and an infield hit before he got an out. Berkeley’s Cory Hong grounded out to first to score a run, and Geaney hit a single up the middle to cut the Monarchs’ lead to 8-5, bringing Wilson to the plate with two men on. But Wilson hit the first pitch to Fajardo at short, who tagged second base to force Geaney and end the game.

Editor: 

Mr. Register made light of the public process in his letter of Dec. 18, mocking “the same crowd of a dozen or so [who] turn up at planning and council meetings.”  

He forgets that Jane & John Q. Public have lives, jobs, children to care for and are not at liberty to pursue the defense of their city and neighborhoods with as much convenience as developers whose business interests make the promotion of big, profitable, self-glorifying buildings their full-time job. While supportive of a number of the ideals of the Ecocity amendment, I condemn most of its elements as proposed. Instead, I commend to the public what Kirstin Miller called a “mockery” (March 9), the perfectly viable Eco-Community alternative (available at http:// www.berkeleyparty.com), offering a process-oriented path to many of the same goals. The Ecocity Amendment offers a developers dream cloaked in fuzzy environmentalism. Mr. Register promotes it with with jargon-babble (March 9) that masks its internal contradictions and ultimate hypocrisy. 

Ecocity Policy No. 1 offers utopia without thought: requiring “the highest quality architectural and ecological design for new development projects” sounds good, but the “highest” quality literally would add enormous costs to housing — why not a more thoughtful “good?” Mr. Register is quick to suggest sites for construction of huge buildings (see the PUD and EDP proposals in Policy No. 3), but has not been so quick to offer plans for those ecological public spaces in “higher density city centers” — where, where will these be; where, oh, where, is the proposed ecological balance? 

I find Policy No. 2 downright agreeable, and then stumble on the peculiar implication that although Elmwood and Fourth Street are acknowledged as attractive examples along a continuum of city “centers,” the suggestion that they “should increase appropriately in density” rather begs the characteristics that made them attractive in the first place: their comparatively low height and humane scale. The Fourth Street development is no taller than Elmwood! With no definition of “appropriate” density, the implication is that Ecocity is happy to see the developmental intensity and height of all of the “centers” rise together on the glorious tide of environmentally friendly density. Meanwhile, congestion will tie Berkeley in knots.  

The goal of augmenting affordable housing articulated in Policy No. 3 is already well targeted by the Planning Commission’s draft of the General Plan, and already supported by the state Density Bonus Law and the city’s Inclusionary Ordinance — poorly managed by the city as the laws may be. What heights are Mr. Register’s taller buildings? Turns out they are at least 10 to 11 stories (his letter of Dec. 3). Policy No. 4, urging transfer development rights (TDRs), would push those heights even further. The draft General Plan’s public process has rejected this vision of downtown height. Mr. Register has already has his Ecological Demonstration Project (EDP): the Gaia Building — a project that is 33 percent short of the inclusionary units it owes the city (providing 12 instead of 18 inclusionary units) and a design that uses ecologically insensitive electrical heating, thereby generating three times the greenhouse gases that gas-heating would have. Thank you for the demonstration. It will prove costly to the tenants as well as our environment. Ecocity Builders need no special consideration for other such buildings. 

Ecocity Policy No. 4 packages the concept of TDRs in the heartwarming colors of “Funding Environmental Restoration.” Developers can buy a bit of land, then promise not to build on it in return for the privilege of adding highly profitable floors to downtown projects. Frankly, it recalls the medieval purchase of papal indulgences, buying a little advance forgiveness of sins. As ever, the devil dances in the details. One can, with trepidation, imagine who will compose the “multi-disciplinary group of experts” created to draft the rules! TDRs are a very complex mechanism, the efficacy of which has yet to be truly demonstrated — they look more like a developers’ plaything. 

At 9,823.3 persons per square mile, Berkeley is already the most densely populated city in the county and (for its size or larger) the third densest in Northern California. It is 37 percent more dense than Oakland! Under the General Plan, Berkeley expects to build 3,000 more housing units over the next 20 years, providing denser housing than any other place in California except San Francisco. The public already declined Mr. Register’s formulation of ecological balance and vastly increased density, and will not be pleased if the public stewards accept an end-run.  

Howie Muir 

Berkeley 

Steve Freedkin, a member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, leaves for an 11-day trip to Japan today in the latest exchange of Berkeley and Japanese activists. 

Freedkin, who hopes to help build an international “city-to-city network of peace and justice activists,” will speak at a peace conference in Osaka, meet with the mayor of Hiroshima and visit with “hibukasha,” survivors of America’s atomic bombing there at the end of World War II.  

Freedkin’s visit will mark the second time in a month that Berkeley peace activists have traveled to Japan. In February, Leuren Moret of the Community Environmental Advisory Commission and Robert Rose of the Peace and Justice Commission spoke at a peace conference in Tokyo and met with Japanese activists. 

Japanese politicians and activists have made three trips to Berkeley since November, and will arrive for a fourth visit later this month. 

Japanese activists initiated the exchange after Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, voted against the use of military force in Afghanistan in September, and the Berkeley City Council approved a resolution calling for a speedy end to U.S. bombing in October. 

“It’s been a very beautiful exchange,” said Councilmember Dona Spring, a key force behind the council’s October resolution. “We’re on two opposite ends of the world, but there is a strong alliance.” 

Freedkin, sponsored by a grassroots the Japanese peace group Linking Peace and Life, said he will discuss U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and Berkeley’s system of citizen commissions.  

Freedkin said Japanese activists are interested in the commission system because they want to learn more about how Berkeley politicians solicit public input before making decisions. 

“They really seem to view Berkeley as a model to be emulated, in many respects, and I can’t blame them,” he said. 

Freedkin said he also plans to collaborate with Japanese activists on a series of issues, including the proposed construction of a U.S. military installation in the Henoko section of Japan’s Okinawa island. 

In 1996, the United States, which houses thousands of troops on Okinawa, agreed to return the Futenma air base to Japan if the government provided an alternative location on the island. In 1999, local authorities settled on the Henoko site, but Japanese activists have raised a number of concerns, including the potential effect on a large sea mammal called the dugong. Freedkin said the dugong is considered a symbol of peace. 

Freedkin added that he will join Japanese activists to coordinate protests of the Hoya Corporation, a Japanese company with offices in Fremont that sells glass to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility.  

The facility is developing a 192-beam laser that will simulate nuclear weapons tests, according to Lab spokesperson Lynda Seaver. 

Julie Storms, spokesperson for Hoya Corporation, had no comment on Freedkin’s concerns. 

Steve Vogel, associate professor of political science at UC Berkeley said Freedkin’s trip comes at a critical moment for the Japanese peace movement. 

“I think it’s been going through a bit of a identity crisis the last five or 10 years,” Vogel said, arguing that the end of the Cold War has deprived a movement, which once focused on keeping Japan out of the U.S.-Russian struggle, of a central reason for existence. 

However, Vogel added, the peace and war debate has escalated in recent months as Japan has debated its proper role in the “war on terrorism.” Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, put in place after World War II, forbids the nation from participating in military conflict. But the government has provided transport, medical and other support services to the United States in its Afghan campaign.  

A week after Freedkin arrives in Japan, a delegation of 20 to 30 union activists, students and politicians, including two members of the Japanese Diet – the equivalent of the U.S. Congress – will arrive in Berkeley and participate in a March 23 peace conference in City Council chambers. 

During their visit, the Japanese activists will join with Berkeleyans in planning a larger, international peace conference, either in Berkeley or Japan. The conference should take place in the fall, according to Spring. 

Freedkin will return March 25, the day the Japanese delegation leaves. The two parties have arranged to meet at San Francisco International Airport.

Local gymnast wins Golden Bear Invitational 

Berkeley resident Marissa Tolero scored the highest score at her level in Northern California, winning the Golden Bear Invitational last weekend. Tolero, 12, won the bar with a score of 9.6 and the beam with a 9.5. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School student also took second on the floor and vault events. 

Tolero’s next challenge will be the Level 7 State Championships on April 13 in Visalia. 

Cal golf’s win streak ends 

MENIFEE – No. 16 California saw its tournament win streak end at two with its seventh-place finish at the Pioneer Electronics Bruin Classic, which concluded Tuesday at Menifee Lakes Country Club. The Golden Bears fired a final round of 310 to finish the 54-hole tournament with a 917.  

Pepperdine won the 16-tournament with a score of 876, including a tournament low of 284 in the final round. The Wave's Katherine Hull, the defending champion, won by seven strokes with a nine-under 207, highlighted by a course record round of 64 over the final 18.  

Host UCLA posted a 901 (299, 297, 305) for runner-up honors, while New Mexico (305, 301, 302) and Oklahoma (303, 295, 310) tied for third with 908, three strokes in front of San Francisco to round out the top-five in the elite field.  

Sophomores Sarah Huarte and Anna Temple led the Bears, tying for 10th with scores of 225. Huarte led Cal with a 73 in the final round. Unfortunately for Cal, Temple's scores didn't count towards the team score as she was competing as an individual.

Today is Thursday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2002. There are 292 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 14, 1743, the first recorded town meeting in America was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston. 

On this date: 

In 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry. 

In 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act. 

In 1923, President Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report. 

In 1939, the republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation. 

In 1943, Aaron Copland’s orchestral work “Fanfare for the Common Man” premiered in New York, with George Szell conducting. 

In 1951, during the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul. 

In 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy, the previous November. 

In 1965, Israel’s cabinet formally approved establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany. 

In 1967, the body of President Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery. 

In 1991, a British court reversed the convictions of the “Birmingham Six,” who had spent 16 years in prison for an Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released. 

Ten years ago: The Associated Press obtained the names of 22 of 24 of the worst offenders in the check overdraft scandal at the House bank; topping the list were former Rep. Tommy Robinson of Arkansas and Rep. Bob Mrazek of New York, both Democrats. 

Five years ago: Surgeons at Bethesda Naval Medical Center repaired a painful torn knee tendon in President Clinton’s right leg; the injury had been caused by a freak middle-of-the-night stumble at the Florida home of golfer Greg Norman. 

One year ago: Inspectors tightened U.S. defenses against foot-and-mouth disease a day after a case was confirmed in France. Doug Swingley won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska for the third straight year. 

Today’s Birthdays: Former astronaut Frank Borman is 74. Singer Phil Phillips is 71. Actor Michael Caine is 69. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 69. Former astronaut Eugene Cernan is 68. Movie director Wolfgang Petersen is 61. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 57. Rock musician Walt Parazaider (Chicago) is 57. Actor Steve Kanaly is 56. Comedian Billy Crystal is 54. Country singer Jann Browne is 48. Actor Adrian Zmed is 48. Prince Albert of Monaco is 44. Producer-director-writer Kevin Williamson is 37. Actress Megan Follows is 34. Actor Jake Fogelnest is 23. Actor Chris Klein (“American Pie”) is 23. Actress Kate Maberly is 20. Singer-musician Taylor Hanson (Hanson) is 19.

Every week, Gabriel Gutierrez, associate editor of the San Francisco bilingual paper, El Mensajero, does a “word on the street” column and on the afternoon of Sept. 11 he had no trouble finding immigrants who wanted to talk. Nowadays, readers are more hesitant to comment on the war. 

“They don’t want to talk, or don’t want their photo,” Gutierrez said. “And when they give me their name, it sounds like they’re thinking about it or making up a name and it could be for whatever reason.” 

The change underscores a growing concern among Latinos about legal status in the United States. In the days following Sept. 11, El Mensajero readers, were concerned about how terrorism was going to effect their safety. Now those readers worry about new immigration laws and losing their jobs. 

“Little by little, people began to realize that (the war) was going to affect immigration issues,” Gutierrez said.  

As a result, border issues have become the hot topics of the weekly paper that serves the Latino community in the San Francisco Mission District, but is distributed in areas as far north as Concord and south as San Jose. At Christmas, readers wanting to travel home for the holidays were concerned about getting back to the United States.  

Readers have also begun to focus on job loss because tourism in the city is down.  

“People tend to work in hotels or restaurants, service industry type of jobs,” Gutierrez said. “And were afraid they were going to lose their job. It was having a domino effect all the way down, whether they could cross the Golden Gate Bridge or if they’d have a job the next day.”  

Between increased security along the border and service industry jobs being lost, readers are paying more attention to policy meetings between President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox. The two are expected to meet on March 22, in Mexico.  

Many of the policy initiatives on the agenda the last time they met in early September, including amnesty for many living here illegally and a guest worker program have, Gutierrez said, gone “out the window.”  

“George Bush put it on the back burner,” Gutierrez said referring to the amnesty proposal, “and that’s one of the changes that people are directly feeling. If they had hope before, now they’re in limbo.” 

Many of his readers are also less interested in the war nowadays because the dangers of anthrax and a bomb on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge feel less imminent.  

Moreover, those readers from Central America look at the war against Afghanistan as somewhat mild compared to what they experienced in their own countries.  

“They didn’t think it was as bad as the media was portraying it because the bridge wasn’t being bombed, downtown San Francisco wasn’t being bombed, there wasn’t fighting in their backyard like some of the countries they did come from,” he said.

Livermore Lab employee wins  

sexual harassment suit 

ALAMEDA — A computer technician was awarded $1 million after an Alameda County jury concluded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory dismissed her for supporting a colleague’s sexual harassment claim. 

“I am hoping that by me going to court and going this far, other people will see you don’t have to fall to this pressure,” said Dee Kotla, a Livermore resident who now works for Santa Clara County. 

Lab officials have not decided whether to appeal Monday’s wrongful termination award. They maintain Kotla was legitimately fired for using her lab computer and phone to conduct unauthorized business. 

In the early 1990s, Kotla was a supervisor in the lab’s telecommunications department when one of her employees complained of sexual harassment by a higher-level manager. The worker, Kim Norman, later filed suit against the lab. 

Kotla, a 10-year lab employee, supported Norman’s sexual harassment claims in a deposition. During that testimony, Kotla revealed she occasionally worked for an outside company owned by a friend. 

Within two months of her testimony, Kotla was fired. 

Garcia’s guitar battle continues 

SAN RAFAEL — The fight over Jerry Garcia’s guitars hit another snag — this time over taxes — surprising even the judge who thought the ownership dispute was nearing an end. 

It’s the latest in the battle between Grateful Dead Productions and Doug Irwin, who built for Garcia the guitars known as Tiger, Wolf, Rosebud and Headless. 

When Garcia died in 1995, he left the guitars to Irwin. But the Novato-based production company that oversees the band’s affairs maintained the guitars belonged to the Dead, not Garcia. 

Collectors have estimated the guitars could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Both parties agreed to compromise and walk away with two guitars each. 

Marin County Judge Michael Dufficy was expected to sign off on the deal Tuesday. But Irwin’s lawyer argued that Tiger should pass through Garcia’s estate, meaning Irwin would not have to pay taxes on it. Dufficy will consider the conflict at a hearing scheduled May 14.

SACRAMENTO — Out-of-state students may have to pay 15 percent more for tuition at California State University campuses starting this fall, under a proposal by CSU officials announced Wednesday. The tuition boost would generate an extra $11.8 million for the 22 campuses. 

If approved by the Legislature, it would be the first increase in nonresident tuition in 10 years. 

University system officials said the proposal was driven by the state’s budget crisis and will go to the system’s Board of Trustees for a vote in May. If the trustees approve it, the proposal will move to the Legislature. 

Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for Gov. Gray Davis, said he doesn’t expect to raise tuition, although the budget does call for all parts of state government, including higher education, to cut spending. 

California faces a $14.5 billion budget shortfall brought on by sagging state revenues, the collapse of the high-tech industry and financial woes related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Davis’ $100 billion plan for 2002-03 uses spending cuts, deferred spending and loans to make up for the shortfall. The budget proposal includes $5.2 billion in spending cuts, including deep reductions to health and welfare programs and education. 

The proposed tuition increase would affect about 10,800 student, said Richard West, the system’s executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer. 

West said the board didn’t anticipate another increase for out-of-state students and that in-state tuition would not go up. 

“We had talked to students and said (an increase) was a possibility,” West said. “The last time we did was the last time we were in a crisis. I think it’s fair that citizens of the state get first treatment.” 

Not so, though, said resident Senka Filipovic, a Cal State University Sacramento sophomore and government major. 

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Filipovic said. “I think it’s just going discourage those from out of state to come to the California schools.” 

System trustees also voted Wednesday to allow more than $145 million in bonds to be sold. Bond revenue, West said, would give CSU campuses better credit ratings and help pay off bills. 

The bonds will allow the university to pool revenue from many programs, instead of specific ones, such as parking and housing. 

“This way there will always be a reserve that we can borrow from in case we need it,” West told the board. 

Each university will then repay its portion of the bond debt. 

The revenue sources pledged to this pooled program are fees from student housing, student union, parking, health center facility and continuing education. The bonds will not exceed $145.2 million.

SACRAMENTO — Fourteen new degrees will be added to 10 of the California State University campuses in the next five years, university officials announced Wednesday. 

During a Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday at California State University, Sacramento, officials said the 14 new programs will meet changing education needs. For example, California is trying to fill more than 20,000 teacher positions and several of the programs are aimed at teachers or prospective teachers. 

David Spence, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer, said the number of programs being added this year is down from 15 last year and 22 two years ago. 

The programs are: 

Bakersfield: MA, Economics 

Channel Islands: BA, Anthropology 

MS, Bioinformatics 

BA and BS, Chemistry 

BA, English 

BA, Fine Arts 

BA, History 

BA, Psychology 

Chico: BA, Music Industry and Technology 

Dominguez Hills: BS, Quality Assurance 

Hayward: Master of Social Work 

Maritime Academy: BS, Global Studies and Maritime Affairs 

Northridge: BA, Public Sector Management 

Pomona: BS, Computer Engineering 

BS, Integrated Earth Studies 

San Bernardino: MA, Child Development 

BS, Information Systems 

MA, Spanish 

Master of Public Health 

San Luis Obispo: MS, Agribusiness 

BS, Software Engineering 

SACRAMENTO — Republican congressmen investigating California’s energy crisis have accused Gov. Gray Davis of “stonewalling” their review. 

In a letter to Davis sent Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Davis’ office failed to submit documents requested by his staff and several House subcommittees. 

Tauzin had asked for documents relating to California’s power expenses, particularly the long-term energy contracts state officials signed last year. Critics say the contracts, totaling $43 billion, locked the state into a decade of high prices. Davis says they helped stabilize California’s volatile energy market. 

Davis’ press secretary said the letter, which included an outline of the information the committee says wasn’t received, was politically motivated. 

“Clearly they’re more interested in politics than in solving problems. They haven’t even done their basic homework,” said spokesman Steve Maviglio. “If they bothered picking up a newspaper, they’d get most of their answers.” 

Tauzin also asked the governor to provide detailed information on Davis’ energy consultants, their contracts and their statements of economic interest. 

He also requested copies of the state’s long-term energy contracts. Those contracts were made public in June, after Republican state legislators and several news organizations sued to get the details. 

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Tauzin’s committee, denied that politics were involved in the information request. 

“The Davis administration appears to be hiding critically important documents from us. Little of the information they provided answered any of our specific questions,” Johnson said. “This is not a game. Congress has made an official request for this information and one way or another we’re going to get it.” 

The committee has subpoena power “and we’ve shown we’re not afraid to use it,” he said. 

The letter asked Davis to provide the additional information and produce a representative to meet with Tauzin’s staff at the end of March. 

Some of the documents Tauzin requested “simply don’t exist,” Maviglio said. That includes statements of economic interest for energy adviser Michael Peevey, who worked for free and wasn’t required to file those papers, he said. 

Maviglio said the governor’s office sent four boxes of documents in response to the earlier request and would “continue to be cooperative with the committee on issues that address the problem at hand.” 

In the administration’s January letter that accompanied the documents, Davis adviser Nancy McFadden said some of the information requested wasn’t available to the governor or couldn’t be released. 

That included information on the state’s “ongoing efforts to renegotiate the state’s contracts,” she said. “These matters are obviously highly sensitive until the renegotiated terms are finalized.” 

Additionally, McFadden offered assistance “in any investigation you may be conducting of Enron Corp.” 

Maviglio said Tauzin’s staff has not contacted the governor’s office for that help. 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis has appointed U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, to a vacant slot on the University of California Board of Regents. 

Blum, 66, a financier, will serve a 12-year term as one of 18 regents appointed by the governor. 

Blum, who contributed to Davis’ gubernatorial campaign, was appointed Tuesday.  

Blum serves on several company boards including Northwest Airlines and Korea First Bank. He also has served as co-chairman of the World Conference on Religion and Peace. 

Some of Blum’s business interests in China have drawn conflict of interest criticism to Feinstein, D-Calif., during her votes on economic issues related to China. She has said her husband relinquished his Chinese holdings in 1999.

WASHINGTON — The Navy SEAL killed after falling from a helicopter during battle in Afghanistan has been awarded the Bronze Star. 

The medal honors the service of Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts, 32, who grew up in Woodland, Calif. Officials gave the medal to Roberts’ widow, Patricia, during a memorial service Monday, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Cutler. 

Roberts was among a group of special operations troops on a MH-47 Chinook helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade March 4. They were part of Operation Anaconda, a drive to capture or kill al-Qaida and Taliban forces in a 60-square mile area of eastern Afghanistan. 

Roberts fell out of the helicopter as it hurriedly left the scene of the grenade attack. Video from a remote-controlled spy plane showed him being dragged away by al-Qaida fighters, and troops who returned to the scene found his body. 

SAN JOSE — A Hewlett-Packard Co. director who heads a $769 billion investment company said Wednesday she was at first very skeptical that HP would be able to handle the complex absorption of Compaq Computer Corp., but is now convinced HP is up to the task. 

Patricia Dunn, chief executive of Barclays Global Investors, said she always thought buying Compaq would strengthen HP’s technology products for businesses, but worried whether HP could come up with an integration plan to “capture the prize that was clearly there.” 

She became sold after seeing how the 900 HP and Compaq employees planning the integration have studied what went wrong in failed mergers, and made clear decisions on which products and brands will survive and how the new HP’s sales and service organizations will work if the deal is approved. 

“It’s been: ’Make tough decisions, make it clear which way we’re going, and then get on with it,”’ Dunn said in an interview. “I think they can pull it off.” 

However, for the $22 billion deal to get to that point, it will require the approval of HP shareholders on Tuesday. Most analysts believe the race is too close to call. 

More than 21 percent of HP stock is publicly lined up against the deal, including Bank of America’s investment arm, which said Wednesday it will vote the 6.4 million HP shares it controls against the deal. 

About 8 percent of HP stock appears to be in the company’s camp, including the 3.1 percent held by Barclays. That firm put its vote in the hands of Institutional Shareholder Services because of Dunn’s HP connection. ISS blessed the deal last week. 

HP and the deal’s leading opponent, Walter Hewlett, both believe they will find sufficient support to win the proxy fight among the shareholders who have yet to announce their positions. 

“It’s unprecedented in a proxy contest for investors to be announcing their vote,” HP spokeswoman Rebeca Robboy said. “Remember, we have 900,000 shareowners. You’ve heard now from a handful, many with ties to the opposition. This is not a barometer of how all investors feel.” 

Dunn said she also has confidence in HP’s ability to combine with Compaq because its management learned a lot from the 1999 spin-off of Agilent Technologies Inc. out of HP’s scientific-equipment division. She said that process of subtraction was just as difficult as adding another company. 

Echoing comments made by other directors, Dunn said she would have a difficult decision about whether to remain with HP if the deal is rejected. 

She also urged investors to trust that the board has spent a great deal of time making certain that buying Compaq is HP’s best strategic option. 

“I believe in shareholder democracy,” she said. “But I also know that it’s very difficult for investors to replicate the process a board goes through in coming to a decision like this. I believe in this decision.” 

HP shares fell 45 cents, more than 2 percent, to $20.11 in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Houston-based Compaq lost 12 cents, 1 percent, to $11. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Pro-merger site: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Opposition site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

HOUSTON — While fire and brimstone are predicted at next week’s Hewlett-Packard Co. shareholder vote on its proposed purchase of Compaq Computer Corp., the atmosphere at Compaq has been comparatively serene. 

And where an HP management bloodbath and corporate turmoil are possible if investors nix the deal, Compaq and the analysts who cover it expect the Houston company to quietly continue restructuring and streamlining. 

In a message to employees this week, Compaq chairman and chief executive Michael Capellas said the company hopes the merger will pass, but it must focus on its own business just in case. 

“The most important thing we can do is to stay close to our customers and do the work necessary to deliver the quarter,” Capellas said. “Based on the outcome of the votes next week, we will communicate next steps.” 

Compaq shareholders are expected to favor the $22 billion acquisition overwhelmingly once the votes are tallied at a special shareholders’ meeting set for Wednesday. But massive opposition on the HP side of the equation, led by dissident director Walter Hewlett, has left Tuesday’s results in California too close to call in advance. 

If Hewlett and other investors torpedo the deal, he predicts a shakeup of company management. No such chaos is expected at Compaq, which turned a profit last quarter as it continues to restructure its businesses and reduce costs. 

Mike Winkler, a Compaq executive vice president, said the company hasn’t altered its strategies based on the possible acquisition by HP. 

“All the things we are doing today are things Compaq needs to do to be a strong stand-alone company or to be an excellent merger partner with HP,” Winkler said. 

Compaq, which grew from a small startup in the 1980s into a massive manufacturer and industry star in the 1990s, has struggled in recent years to overcome an expensive indirect distribution system, overexposure to the mature personal computer business and its 1998 purchase of Digital Equipment Corp. 

Compaq ousted former chief executive Eckhard Pfeiffer after the company revealed its first-quater results in 1999 would fall far short of expectations. That summer, the board surprisingly promoted Capellas, a former chief information officer. 

In Capellas’ 2 1/2-year reign, Compaq has focused on cutting distribution costs, refining its product line and expanding non-PC businesses, such as large-scale servers and computing services. 

Fallout of a failed merger could help Compaq if Hewlett, who has railed against Compaq’s still-heavy exposure to the PC business, gains influence at HP and causes it to shrink its share in the sector. 

“In the longer term that’s not necessarily bad for Compaq,” said Lehman Brothers analyst Dan Niles, noting that Compaq and Texas rival Dell Computer Corp. would have develop even more dominant market share in the PC business if HP scaled back. 

Niles also noted that Capellas’ background in information technology has helped Compaq connect with IT customers, saying Capellas “understand the mentality of those guys.” 

Carl Claunch, a research director at Gartner Inc., said a failed merger would leave Compaq to continue to grow its business computing business by itself, a job that would have been easier with HP as a partner. 

“They still have to address this challenge, just in a different way,” Claunch said. 

Richard Gardner, of Salomon Smith Barney, is another observer who believes Compaq has gotten well under Capellas and is healthy enough to survive on its own. 

“Our sense is that management finally sees the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel that Compaq entered into four years ago,” he wrote in a recent report. 

Though Compaq is promoting the merger, it also is girding for an independent future. For instance, Compaq is among the companies negotiating to rename the Houston Astros’ downtown baseball park. 

If the deal goes through, the Compaq brand will fade into HP and the new company’s headquarters will be in Palo Alto, Calif., though HP intends to keep a large manufacturing presence in Houston. 

As for the city, the nation’s fourth-largest, Niles said Houston should be fine regardless of what happens to its largest corporate citizen. 

“If Houston can survive the oil industry (collapse in the 1980s), I’m sure it will survive whether or not Compaq gets merged,” he said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — After Pacific Gas And Electric went bankrupt last year, the utility’s parent company rewarded 11 top executives with a total of $5.75 million in cash bonuses and stock grants now worth $24.8 million, according to documents filed Wednesday. 

PG&E Corp. paid $2.38 million to CEO Robert D. Glynn Jr., supplementing his $900,000 salary with $1.48 million in cash bonuses. 

The San Francisco-based company also gave Glynn the rights to 307,693 shares of company stock worth $6.4 million, based on the shares’ closing price of $20.91 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Glynn’s salary and bonuses in 2001 more than doubled his 2000 paycheck of $900,000. 

Gordon R. Smith, who runs the company’s bankrupt utility, also more than doubled his 2000 paycheck of $630,000. PG&E paid Smith $1.5 million last year, including $874,808 in cash bonuses. The company also gave Smith 179,488 shares of stock currently worth $3.75 million as of Wednesday. 

All told, PG&E distributed 1.18 million shares of free stock to the 11 top executives listed in the company’s shareholder proxy statement. The executives won’t gain full ownership of the stock until 2003 or 2004, the company said. 

The lucrative awards paid to PG&E’s executives outraged critics who believe the company pushed California’s largest utility into bankruptcy by siphoning billions of dollars from the business over several years. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is suing PG&E in a complaint that accuses the company of fraud. 

PG&E’s executive paychecks are “just off the charts. It’s astonishing,” said Mike Florio, a senior attorney for The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group fighting to overhaul California’s power market.  

“I think you could just walk down the street and find a lot of people capable of driving a company into bankruptcy and alienating an entire state in the process.” 

PG&E believes its executives deserved the rich rewards for guiding the business through a tumultuous year that began with rolling blackouts in Northern California and ended with the scandalous collapse of Enron Corp., once the nation’s largest energy trader. 

In between, PG&E suspended its quarterly shareholder dividend for the first time in 85 years as its credit rating deteriorated to junk status. 

Management blamed the utility’s woes mostly on state regulators for not allowing the company to charge its customers more for electricity during a long stretch when prices on the wholesale market soared. 

“It was an extraordinary year and we performed well under the circumstances,” said PG&E spokeswoman Renee Parnell. 

Despite its utility’s bankruptcy, PG&E earned $1.1 billion on revenue of $22.9 billion last year, reversing a loss of $3.4 billion on revenue of $26.2 billion in 2000. The company’s stock fell by 4 percent during 2001. 

PG&E’s rewards covered more than just its executives. The company said it gave $64 million in bonuses to 6,200 administrative employees for last year’s work, a 28 percent increase from 2000. Money collected from Pacific Gas and Electric’s customers paid for about 25 percent of the 2001 bonuses. 

“Ratepayers and shareholders ought to be steaming mad about this,” said Doug Heller, senior consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. “This is not a successful management team. They failed.” 

Most of the cash bonuses paid PG&E’s executives were tied to the company’s financial performance. The company also paid $1.07 million in retention bonuses to seven executives, including Glynn and Smith. PG&E won bankruptcy court approval to pay retention bonuses to discourage top executives from abandoning the company. 

Last year’s stock awards represented another piece of the company’s retention plan. 

The executives will gain full control of the stock at the end of 2003 if PG&E’s shareholder return ranks among the top 25 percent of its peer group in the power industry, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents. If PG&E’s shareholder returns don’t measure up, then the executives will have to wait until the end of 2004 to become fully vested in the stock awards. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.pgecorp.com 

Just days after the latest breakdown of contract negotiations between the Claremont Resort and Spa and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 2850, about 30 union supporters picketed outside the exclusive Tunnel Road hotel early Tuesday morning. 

“Claremont, Claremont, you’re no good, treat your workers like you should,” the protesters chanted, as passing drivers honked their horns in support. 

The union and management, who have been locked in a contract dispute since last summer, failed to reach an agreement during extensive bargaining sessions Thursday and Friday, their first talks since Dec. 14. 

“We are still a far ways off from a settlement,” said Stephanie Ruby, the secretary-treasurer of the union, which represents a wide range of workers, from culinary staff to housekeepers. 

Ruby said there are three main points of contention: health care, wages and the union’s desire to recruit 160 non-unionized spa workers.  

Employees currently receive free health insurance, Ruby said, but under the latest Claremont proposal for a three-year contract, they would be required to pay up to $200 per month for individual coverage and $300 for family coverage. 

Wages are also at issue. The union, which previously asked for a $1.50 an hour raise every year, for the next three years, reduced that figure to $1.30 last week.  

But, according to Ruby, management is offering some employees raises of two-and-a-half cents per hour. 

“With the economy of the Bay Area and increased rent costs, people need more than a two-cent raise,” she said. 

Finally, the union is asking for a “right to organize” clause in the new agreement, allowing it to go after the spa employees. 

If the clause were included in the contract, Ruby said, the spa workers could join Local 2850 if a majority signed union authorization cards. 

Claremont marketing director Denise Chapman said management would prefer the union to call for a standard vote on the issue. Under this arrangement, spa workers would decide whether to join the union by secret ballot. 

“We’re strongly protecting our spa employees’ right to vote,” said Claremont marketing director Denise Chapman, arguing that the out-in-the-open, card-signing approach preferred by the union would unfairly expose spa employees who oppose unionization. 

“That’s very disrespectful of any spa employee with a different point of view,” she said. 

Ruby acknowledged that the authorization card model would allow Local 2850 to better control the unionization campaign. But, she said workers can be trusted to make their own decisions.  

“When any worker signs a union authorization card and the worker is an adult, I think we should treat them as adults and respect them as adults,” Ruby said.  

Chapman said it would be inappropriate to discuss specific health care and salary proposals in the midst of negotiations, and would not confirm the numbers provided by Ruby. But she said the hotel has been negotiating in good faith. 

“At our Dec. 14 meeting, we put forth what we thought was a fair and comprehensive offer,” said Chapman. 

“I don’t know how you can call it fair when you stick people with a two-penny raise,” Ruby responded.  

Chapman said the hotel asked the union to return to the negotiating table 12 times after Dec. 14, before Local 2850 finally agreed to last week’s session. 

“We’re pleased that the negotiations are back on track,” she said during the Tuesday protest. “We’re a bit disappointed to see union representatives focusing on a media stunt rather than negotiations.” 

“The workers are here because they’re saying enough is enough,” Ruby responded, at the 6:30 a.m. picket. “People would prefer to be sleeping in bed, but they’re fighting for their families.”  

Many of the Cal baseball team’s 14 wins this season have been dramatic, come-from-behind affairs. But on Tuesday against USF, the Bears didn’t need any late inning heroics as they scored nine runs in the first four innings on the way to a 12-4 win at Evans Diamond. 

Second baseman Carson White led the Cal attack with two doubles and four RBIs. The Bears also got multiple hits from three other players, with leadoff hitter David Nicholson finishing with three singles and three runs scored. 

The Bears set a season-high for runs against the Dons, all without a major contribution from leading hitter Conor Jackson, who had two singles and scored a run. 

“We have to get production from everyone,” Cal head coach David Esquer said. “We can’t rely on one or two players for the bulk of our runs. We need the top and bottom of the order to produce runs, not just the middle.” 

Esquer’s team got their first five runs without hitting the ball very hard. Nicholson led off the game with a swinging bunt down the third base line that pitcher Peter Dunkle threw away, sending Nicholson to second base. Following a sacrifice bunt, White hit a nearly identical squibber that Dunkle couldn’t get a handle on, scoring Nicholson. Jackson walked, and catcher John Baker hit a grounder into the right-side hole to score White. In all, the Bears three hits went a total of perhaps 150 feet, but they got the job done for a quick 2-0 lead. 

The third inning was more frustration for Dunkle and the Dons. Nicholson bunted his way on before David Weiner and White grounded out. Jackson then dumped a popup just over the infield, and Baker knocked a single up the middle to plate Nicholson. Brian Horwitz looped a soft single into right for another run, then got caught up in a rundown that allowed Baker to score from third. 

“We’ve been hitting some hard outs lately, so maybe that will be the start of us getting some breaks,” Esquer said. “We were fortunate to get some runs early, and we kept our pitching and defense solid behind it.” 

Tuesday marked another two-inning start from Cal’s Ryan Atkinson as he makes his way back from an arm injury. The senior right-hander looked solid, giving up two hits in his two innings before giving way to Brent Hale. 

“We thought maybe (Atkinson) was ready to get farther,” Esquer said. “But that’s two innings out of the way for us, and he’s getting healthier and healthier.” 

Hale threw four innings to pick up the win on Tuesday, giving up three unearned runs on four hits. The freshman looked alternately overpowering and wild, striking out four but allowing one runner to score from second on two wild pitches. Blake Read and Creighton Kahoalii combined to finish the game for Cal. 

Cal freshman Justin Nelson continued his slugging ways, taking advantage of a start in centerfield to hit his fourth homerun of the season, the second-most on the team. With Jackson’s move to first base and Nicholson vacating center to play third base, Nelson could get some more at-bats in the outfield as the season wears on. 

“We might have to look at (Nelson) a little more,” Esquer said. “He does some immature things, as you would expect from a freshman, but we’ve also seen some good things. Four of them, actually.”

Editor: 

Re: Nancy Alexander’s letter, “Bush’s actions are not at all patriotic.” 

I was surprised and taken aback that the Daily Planet would print such a long, tedious, one sided laundry list of alleged atrocities perpetrated by the Bush administration without any attempt at a fair and balanced counter to her accusations. The letter was nearly half a page long giving the impression that it was actually a news article. I won’t answer the letter point for point but let me ask her and your readers this: 

Are you alarmed by the sudden, deadly, ferocious attack on our nation? Are you concerned that over 3,000 innocent people were murdered, the Pentagon attacked, and the world trade center completely demolished? 

You question Bush’s high popularity rating. Perhaps, unlike you, many clear thinking, knowledgeable Americans appreciate the fact that he is defending the United States, our Democracy, and yes Nancy, even your constitutional right to speak your mind.  

You rant about “Starving Afghan moms, dads, and children, a country in ruins, warlords and drug dealers reigning supreme.” Just add beating women for not wearing a burkha, denial of education and the daily beheadings at the soccer stadium and it sounds suspiciously like Afghanistan under the Taliban before we ever got involved! 

And those hundreds of human beings “kidnapped and caged,” you failed to mention that they were trying to kill our troops. How about “constantly reinforced fear of terrorist threats?” Finally, to paraphrase Nancy: “When is it appropriate to confront a terrorist?” 

There is nothing patriotic about spouting anti-US propaganda. 

There is nothing patriotic about twisting the facts to match your agenda.  

There is nothing patriotic about surrendering to fascism. 

Exercise your freedom of speech.  

Saul Grabia

Wednesday, Mar. 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss “Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land.” Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Lawrence Saez, professor of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley; “South Asia: Focus on India.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Big, Big, Big Houses 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

121 North Gate Hall, School of  

Journalism Library 

In 1949, the average size of a new home was 900 square feet and average family size was 4.2 people. In 2000, the average new home was 2,200 square feet and the average household size was 2.7. The Terner Series on Urban Development presents informal salon-style discussions with faculty, industry professionals, students, and community members invited to attend. 415-989-1111, dslarskey@bridgehousing.com. 

Thursday, March 14

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble Imani Community Church. 

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

“Hooked” 

1:15 p.m. 

Alta Bates Hospital, Auditorium 

2450 Ashby Ave. 

A talk and slide show from the author of “Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System.” 763-0779, www.unhooked.com. 

Tax-Aid: Bay Area Free Tax Service for Low-income Taxpayers 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lincoln Recreation Center 

250 10th St., Oakland 

Tax-Aid offers free tax return preparation to Bay Area families with incomes of less than $32,000. Eligible families simply bring their W-2s, other proofs of income and tax forms. Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators are available.  

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and  

Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The  

Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Monday, March 18

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will discuss the 1965 United States Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction of Daniel A. Seeger. Also a reading and discussion of Seeger’s pamphlet, The Seed and the Tree.  

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Self Help Strategies and Techniques from Feldenkrais and Pilates 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates, Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Arthritis Foundation Northern California Chapter fibromyalgia support group. 644-3273.  

Wednesday, March 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Cealo is Coming 

7 - 9 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church 

Fireside Room 

2727 College Ave. 

Gayuna Cealo is a Burmese monk who’s mission is to lead people to their true selves. $10 donation. 525-6472. 

Thursday, March 21

Still the Source of Grace?  

Reading the Bible as a Gay  

Christian 

5 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion chapel  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

With L. William Countryman, professor in biblical studies at 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and co-author with M.R. Ritley of “Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church.” Free and open to the public. 849-8206. 

Friday, March 22

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Robert Kruger, first vice-president, and Larry Miller, certified financial planner and senior vice-president, Solomon Smith Barney; “Investing in the Market Post 9-11.” $1. 848-3533. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

The Nature of Work: Joanna Macy and Matthew Fox in Dialogue 

7 - 9 p.m. 

University of Creation Spirituality 

2141 Broadway, Oakland 

Matthew Fox, Ph.D., founder and president of the University of Creation Spirituality, will engage in dialogue on the nature of work with Joanna Macy, Ph.D., an eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. $10-$15 donation. 835-4827 x29, www.creationspirituality.org. 

The number of Latino groups who have received hate mail and envelopes laced with white powdery substances grew to 30 Tuesday, which included an incident at the Center for Latin American Studies on the UC Berkeley campus.  

Like most of the letters received by other Latino organizations Monday, there was a white powdery substance found inside the envelope at the UC site. 

The two staff members who handled the mail were told to go home and take showers, and if they experienced flu-like symptoms, to check themselves into the hospital. 

The hate mail has targeted Latino social service agencies as well as attorneys in the greater Bay Area — going as far south as San Jose.  

Authorities said Tuesday there are several similarities with each piece of mail — which includes a form letter containing an “anti-Latino diatribe,” white powder and Oakland postmarks.  

The FBI said they may have localized some of the mail to Pleasanton, but very little else is being released about the ongoing investigation.  

Four of the 30 incidents have occurred in Berkeley. 

La Pena Cultural Center was one of the first sites reporting the suspicious mail at about 9:30 a.m. Monday. 

According to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Arriola, president of La Raza Lawyers Association of California, the mail has been addressed to the leaders and executive personnel of the agencies and firms. 

San Francisco police also say three of the letters were received Monday in the city by a downtown attorney, a Mission District community group and a newspaper.  

The white powdery substance collected at all locations has so far tested negative for anthrax. FBI and police officials are investigating this rash as hate crimes meant to induce panic and fear rather than physical harm. 

“We are investigating the matter as a hate crime,” said Andrew Black of the FBI. 

“If it weren't for affirmative action, you would probably all still be bean pickers and prostitutes,” the letters said. 

The letters also warn recipients to be wary of the powdery substance contained in the letter. 

In addition, all of the letters have not contained return addresses. 

Paul Chin, executive director of La Pena who opened one of the first letters on Monday morning said if he had one piece of advice in all this it is not to answer mail that does not come with a return address.  

“Everyone here is taking it pretty easy. But I think in the back of people’s minds are other situations that ended badly,” Chin said, referring to several New York State letter carriers who died late last year from exposure to Anthrax.  

“We’re in this business of bringing people together, so to think that there are people out there that twisted and with nothing else better to do with their time that they are doing this is disturbing,” Chin said. “But hopefully this won’t translate into anything violent.” 

Ultimately Chin said he thinks the entire anthrax element is a hoax and that the entire episode is just a vehicle being used by some sick person who has an axe to grind against Latinos. 

Panthers excel at NSIC meet 

The St. Mary’s High track & field team headed to New York for the National Scholastic Indoor Championships last weekend, with five Panthers finishing in the top 10 in their respective events. 

The most impressive showing for St. Mary’s was by senior Solomon Welch. Welch placed second in the triple jump with a personal-best mark of 47”11’, also setting a personal mark with a 22”11’ in the long jump, good for fifth place. 

Senior Tiffany Johnson also placed in two events, finishing seventh in the triple jump and eighth in the 60-meter dash. Kamaiya Warren set a personal best and school record with a shot put toss of 46”7-1/4’, and Danielle Stokes and Bridget Duffy finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles and mile run, respectively. 

Couglin a Sullivan finalist 

Natalie Coughlin, a sophomore swimmer at Cal, has been named one of the five finalists for the 72nd Annual AAU James E. Sullivan Memorial Award that recognizes the top amateur athlete in the nation.  

The Amateur Athletic Union announced the names of the five finalists – Michelle Kwan (skating), Mark Prior (baseball), Sean Townsend (gymnastics), Alan Webb (track and field) and Coughlin – who were selected based on their qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship and the ideals of amateurism in the year 2001. The recipient will be formally announced at the award's new presentation site, The New York Athletic Club, on April 9th, 2002.  

Over a five-day span earlier this winter, Coughlin won nine events and in the process set two world records, four American records and six meet records.

Editor: 

I understand that the Berkeley City Council has caved in to the university’s insatiable urge to grow ever larger. (In fairness to UC, much of the proposed growth is in response to pressure from Sacramento.) This is disastrous, not only to the City of Berkeley, but to the university itself. 

However, the situation is not hopeless. The following idea, suggested by the recent granting of “Landmark” status to the Claremont Hotel, might work. Simply declare the entire UC Campus, together with all its buildings, to be a National Landmark. Then, like the unhappy owners of the Claremont Hotel, the UC planners will not be permitted to cause any further growth, and there won't be a thing they can do about it. 

Paul R. Chernoff 

Professor of Mathematics 

University of California 

Berkeley

A group of local activists, including high school and university students and college professors, labeled the SAT racially-biased and urged the University of California system to drop the test as an entry requirement in a rally Tuesday afternoon at UC Berkeley. 

“The evidence is quite clear that the SAT, although it claims to measure intrinsic ability, in fact discriminates,” said Barrie Thoran, UC Berkeley professor of women’s studies and sociology. 

Activists cited the gap in SAT test scores between whites and minorities of similar economic and academic backgrounds as evidence of the racial bias. 

“That’s a charge that’s been debunked,” replied Chiara Coletti, vice president of public affairs for The College Board, which administers the test. 

Coletti, reached by phone, acknowledged that middle- and upper-class minority students have not fared as well on the SAT as their white counterparts, but said the test is not to blame. 

“There’s no racial bias in the SAT,” she said, arguing that the problem of poor minority achievement is a murky, cultural one about which academics can only theorize. 

Whatever the reasons for the SAT “achievement gap,” activists urged the University of California system to look elsewhere in determining which students to accept. 

“The best predictor of college grades are high school grades,” said David White of Berkeley-based Testing for the Public. 

A key UC academic committee, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, or BOARS, concluded in a report issued earlier this year that grades are in fact the best predictors of success.  

But, the study found that standardized tests do add significant “predictive value” in determining whether a student will fare well in the UC system. 

The report also found that tests focused on particular subjects are more useful than general aptitude tests, like the SAT-I, in predicting achievement. 

BOARS has recommended that the UC system abandon the SAT and develop a new testing regimen that reflects what is taught in California’s high school classrooms. 

The UC Board of Regents is discussing the BOARS recommendations this week in meetings at UC San Francisco, but is not expected to vote until the summer. 

Activists at the Tuesday protest said they planned to show up at the Regents meeting Wednesday.

Editor: 

I agree with both writers, Sennet Williams and Rob Wrenn, that UC must implement an Eco Pass for the faculty and staff and this should happen this semester. As the chair of the Improve Transit/Parking Subcommittee of the UCB Labor Coalition, that collaborates with other community groups, we have over 1,600 signatures on our petition showing the need for a free transit pass for staff/faculty. 

It is clear that UC has the money and needs to end the backward parking first “financial model” which prevents using parking funds for a free Eco Pass. UCLA is using parking funds for their free bus pass system. It is also clear that UCB may use California state monies for building parking or for alternative transportation, but these monies are not being utilized. Countless forward-thinking companies provide free eco-pass systems (The Chevron Company, provides free BART tickets to its employees). 

Many creative ideas for starting the Eco-Pass, carpool matching, a commuter “check” refund, more safe bicycle parking and paths would enable UC to be in the vanguard of alternative transportation. Starting with a free Eco-Pass, UC should definitely work with the City of Berkeley, which would support the Southside/Downtown TDM study and help mitigate the increase of traffic to the northern quadrangle. 

We all agree that if the City of Berkeley, UCLA and countless other forward-thinking employers provide free transit, why not UC this semester? 

Norah Foster 

Chair, Improve Transit/Parking 

UCB [Labor Coalition] 

Today is Wednesday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2002. There are 293 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

One hundred and fifty years ago, on March 13, 1852, “Uncle Sam” made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern. 

On this date: 

In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel. 

In 1868, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate. 

In 1901, the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis. 

In 1906, American suffragist Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, N.Y. 

In 1925, a law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution. 

In 1933, banks began to re-open after a “holiday” declared by President Franklin Roosevelt. 

In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module. 

In 1980, Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down. 

In 1980, a jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto. 

In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire on a class of kindergartners, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself. 

Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council stood firm in its demand that Iraq comply totally with Gulf War cease-fire resolutions, rebuffing an appeal for leniency from Saddam Hussein’s special envoy, deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz. 

Five years ago: A Jordanian soldier fired on Israeli junior high school girls on a field trip, killing seven of them. (The soldier, Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh, was later sentenced by a military court to life in prison.) In a southern Egyptian village, four masked militants shot and killed 14 people before escaping. 

One year ago: France announced its first case of foot-and-mouth disease, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend imports of livestock and fresh meat from the European Union. Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national who was arrested with a carload of explosives just before New Year’s Eve 1999, went on trial in Los Angeles on charges of plotting to bomb Seattle and other U.S. cities during the millennium celebrations. (He was convicted of terrorism the following month.) 

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Jan Howard is 72. Opera singer Rosalind Elias is 71. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 69. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 63. Actor William H. Macy is 52. Actor Fred Berry (“What’s Happening!!”) is 51. Actress Deborah Raffin is 49. Comedian Robin Duke is 48. Actress Dana Delany is 46. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 42. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 40. Actor Christopher Collet is 34. Actress Annabeth Gish is 31. Actress Tracy Wells is 31. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob) is 30. Actor Danny Masterson (“That 70’s Show”) is 26.

Editor: 

Our pitifully incompetent governor now demands that his gray photo be displayed on every state agency Web site “to create a universal look” of “consumer-friendly good government service.” This is not unlike the decreed ubiquity of photos of Chairman Mao, Emperor Mugabe, Maximum Leader Fidel and Uncle Joe Dzhugashvili.  

Such egomania by the nitwit whose rank ineptitude managed to turn a handsome surplus into a $17.5 billion deficit, and who has condemned Californians to outrageous energy costs for the next 30 years, is the kind of behavior that gives a bad name to weasels.  

Fielding Greaves

The City Council is considering reducing the speed limit to 20 mph for all residential streets. 

Berkeley’s pedestrian accident rate is higher than San Francisco’s, which is infamous, and is 72 percent larger than that of Los Angeles, known for its car culture, said Nancy Holland, chair of the city council’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Task Force. 

Using figures supplied by the city of Oakland, the task force found that Berkeley’s average pedestrian accident rate per 100,000 people was 137.4, compared with 136.9 for San Francisco, 85.6 for Oakland and 79.8 for Los Angeles, Holland said. 

Councilman Kriss Worthington said his proposal would not apply to main thoroughfares. 

Councilwoman Polly Armstrong called the idea “a waste of time and a waste of money” that “would give people a false sense of security.” 

The city would have to post signs on all affected streets. Under state law, an unposted residential street speed limit is 25 mph.

LOS ANGELES — Mauling trial defendant Marjorie Knoller denied under cross-examination Tuesday that her dogs were dangerous, refused to concede she ever lost control of the dog that killed Diane Whipple and insisted she tried to save her. 

Knoller was calm during more than three hours of questioning by Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer, unlike her tearful demeanor when she was questioned by her own lawyer about the violent scene in a hall of her San Francisco apartment building. 

“You said that you were in control the entire time,” Hammer asked. 

“I was trying to maintain control,” Knoller said several times. 

The defendant acknowledged, however, that during testimony to a grand jury she had said the dog “overcame my physical ability.” 

Knoller, 46 is accused of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and owning a mischievous dog that killed a person. Her husband, Robert Noel, 60, who was away at the time, is charged with the latter two counts. Both defendants are attorneys. 

Whipple was attacked by one of the couple’s two huge presa canario dogs, Bane, as she was bringing groceries into her apartment on Jan. 26, 2001. 

“Were you in control of Bane,” Hammer asked Knoller. 

“Bane was attached to me,” she said, insisting she held onto the leash throughout the attack. 

“That’s control?” the prosecutor asked. 

“He’s not running free,” she said. “He’s attached to me.” 

The prosecutor asked whether she remembered the expression on Whipple’s face. 

“I didn’t know her. She was a stranger,” Knoller said. 

“OK,” said Hammer, “This complete stranger. Did you ever say, ’I can’t control my dog. Get in your apartment.”’ 

“No,” said Knoller. 

“Not once?” asked Hammer. 

“Not once,” said the defendant. 

The prosecutor attacked Knoller’s claim that she put her body on top of Whipple while the dog attacked. Knoller was steadfast in her account. 

“I was in the middle of this the whole time,” she said. “I was putting my body on Ms. Whipple.” 

She cited the fact that she also was bitten, but Hammer noted that her bites were minor. 

She also acknowledged that she left the dying woman in the hallway and went into her apartment with Bane and the other dog, Hera, which had begun running loose. 

“I had to get Bane out of the hallway so he wouldn’t tear her apart more than he already did,” Knoller said. 

She also acknowledged that she came back out, walked past Whipple’s body and went into the victim’s apartment to look for her keys. 

Knoller frequently pleaded a poor memory, saying it “fades in and out because of the nature of the incident.” 

Prosecution witnesses who testified about frightening encounters with the couple’s dogs were “mistaken” or “inaccurate,” she said. 

The defendant denied one account by a building resident who claimed he was bitten by Hera.  

“My recall of the incident is Hera’s mouth and his butt were nowhere in proximity,” she said. 

The prosecutor also questioned her about a state prison inmate the couple adopted. She said she had no knowledge of a plan by the inmate to breed presa canarios for sale as aggressive guard dogs through a business called “Dog O’ War” 

Earlier, under questioning by her attorney, Knoller denied blaming Whipple for the attack. 

“I was angry at some of the things being said,” Knoller told the jury as she tried to explain comments she made to news media. 

“Do you blame Diane Whipple?” defense attorney Nedra Ruiz asked. 

“No, never have,” Knoller said. 

“Did you ever claim you were not responsible for what happened?” asked Ruiz. 

“I said in an interview I was not responsible but it was not in regard to the attack. It was in not knowing what he (Bane) would do,” Knoller said. 

Much of Knoller’s testimony focused on her own injuries, which she said were suffered in a “battle” that lasted between 10 minutes and 20 minutes. 

When it was over, she said, she knew Whipple was gravely injured and at one point applied pressure to the side of her neck while still trying to hold the dog. 

She said she finally decided it was more important to get the dog out of the hallway and into her apartment. She said she also was distracted by trying to locate Hera. 

The defense also called a Los Angeles emergency room supervisor, Dr. David Barcay, who examined two pictures taken the day of the attack and said Knoller’s injuries were identical to some bite marks found on Whipple. 

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is seeking to temporarily end habitat protections for 19 populations of salmon and steelhead in four Western states, which could open the areas to greater development. 

In a proposed settlement entered in federal court Monday, the National Marine Fisheries Service said it will eliminate and then revise the protections to settle lawsuits filed by the Association of California Water Agencies, National Association of Home Builders and 16 other groups of developers and local governments. 

Jim Lecky, the service’s Southwest regional administrator for protected resources, said the fish still will be protected under the Endangered Species Act while the habitat provisions are reworked, a process that could take roughly two years. 

The developers and local governments filed suit, arguing the protections were “excessive, unduly vague, not justified as essential” and “not based upon a required analysis of economic impacts.” 

Duane Desiderio of the homebuilders’ association said his group sees value in such habitat protection, but added: “We just want the government to do it right.” 

Environmentalists say President Bush is going against his campaign promise to help save the endangered fish and that the proposed settlement is part of a larger campaign to roll back environmental protections enacted under President Clinton. 

“It sounds like they are giving the home builders a pass,” said Nicole Cordan, policy and legal director for Save Our Wild Salmon. 

An environmental group, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, has asked to intervene in the case and planned to file an objection to the settlement on behalf of environmental and fishing industry groups. 

Critical habitat designations are one of the most controversial provisions of the Endangered Species Act. In some cases, they allow the National Marine and Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to limit or block activities in the areas if threatened or endangered species may be harmed. 

The critical habitat provisions for the salmon and steelhead were issued by the Clinton administration in February 2000. They outlined safeguards for populations of chinook, chum, coho and sockeye salmon and covered a wide swath of land, touching 150 watersheds, river segments, bays and estuaries in Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho, including metropolitan areas like Seattle and Portland. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service also said recently that it plans to review, and in some cases set aside, critical habitat designations for up to 10 other endangered species in the West. 

The government’s proposal to eliminate the protections stems from a decision in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals requiring the federal agencies to do a better job analyzing the economic impact of the critical habitat protections. 

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, based in the District of Columbia, will decide whether to grant the motion for settlement.

Prison’s target ranges closed 

SAN RAFAEL — Two target ranges at San Quentin State Prison have been closed after stray bullets thought to have been fired at one range struck a man more than a mile away. 

The 32-year-old man, who works for George Lucas’ special effects company Industrial Light & Magic, was standing outside his building Monday when a bullet bounced off the sidewalk and hit his forearm. A second bullet grazed the left side of his head and another hit a car. 

San Rafael Police Department spokesman Margo Rohrbaher said U.S. Park Police were training when the bullets went over a hill and crossed Interstate 580 before hitting the man at Industrial Light & Magic. 

“Based on how they were shooting in a prone position, the bullets left their guns and traveled up over the hillside,” she said. “If you look at a topography map, you’ll see it’s almost a straight line from the top of that hill.” 

At least 15 bullets were thought to have left the range. 

The man was treated and released from Marin General Hospital. 

Public transit fares increase 

SAN JOSE — Citing the weak economy for a drop in sales tax revenue, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has proposed hiking fares and reducing service across the board. 

The VTA says it will seek the changes to boost revenue and reduce operating costs. If the board approves the changes, fares for all riders, including seniors and disabled passengers, would increase in July, and the route reductions would begin July 8. It would be the first fare hike in three years. 

The board of directors, which typically follows VTA recommendations, is expected to vote on the plan at its May 2 meeting. 

For adults, a one-way fare would rise 15 cents to $1.40, a day pass would rise $1 to $4 and a monthly pass would rise $6 to $45.  

Youth fares would see the largest percentage bump in price: A one-way fare would rise 15 cents to 85 cents, a 21 percent increase, and a day pass would jump 75 cents to $2.50, a 43 percent increase. 

Of the 78 bus lines run by the VTA, 56 would face some service reduction. Passengers may have to wait longer between buses, and service may stop earlier in the evening and begin later in the morning, according to the agency. 

SAN RAFAEL — Winnfred Wright and the women who bore his 13 children have asked for more time before entering pleas on charges of second-degree murder and child endangerment in connection with the death of an infant and the alleged mistreatment of the other 12. 

Lawyers for Wright and the four women he lived with asked Judge Terrence Boren on Tuesday for more time to review court documents. Boren, meanwhile, continued to keep a tight lid on the case and ruled that a gag order on attorneys should remain in effect. 

Boren also refused to unseal the grand jury indictment, which is more than 900 pages. He said media accounts of such material would only serve to prejudice any potential jury that could be drawn from the small county of Marin. 

The case came to a head shortly after the 19-month-old infant, Ndigo Campisi-Nyah-Wright, was brought dead to a local hospital in November. A coroner concluded the baby died of malnutrition and neglect. 

Authorities immediately began investigating the cult-like family. The 12 remaining children have been placed in protective custody. 

The children lived in a home where they were lashed and force-fed chili peppers if they misbehaved, according to papers filed with the court. 

Officials also are investigating the death of Wright’s 3-month-old daughter in 1990. He brought the infant to a San Francisco hospital three days after she died, officials said. 

Wright, 45, and the three mothers — Carol Bremner, 44, Deirdre Wilson, 37, and Mary Campbell, 37 — remain in Marin County jail without bail. 

Kali Polk-Matthews, 20, who only joined the household months ago and did not bear any children, doesn’t face the murder charge. She was released from jail on $100,000 bail. 

At Tuesday’s hearing, attorneys for the five defendants urged the judge to keep important documents in the case, such as the grand jury indictment and search warrant documents, under seal to prevent sensational media coverage. 

John Posey, a lawyer for Polk-Matthews, said he would need more time to review all of the materials in the case and called any notion of unsealing those documents “premature.” 

Boren, granting that request, scheduled the next plea hearing for April 2. 

Nanci Clarence, an attorney for Wilson, said outside court that unsealing the grand jury indictment would “have a dangerous effect on the interests of the children and their privacy.” 

Boren also said he would not seal any documents in advance of their filing and would not conduct any hearings closed to the public or press.  

Lawyers for two newspapers have petitioned the court to lift the gag order and unseal the indictment. 

VALLEJO — A Catholic priest resigned as pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish after being accused of sexual misconduct with a woman. 

The Rev. Edward Lewis’ resignation was announced at all nine of the church’s Sunday services and came at the request of Bishop William Weigand, head of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento. 

In the statement read to parishioners, Auxiliary Bishop Richard Garcia said the diocese received a complaint Feb. 26 accusing Lewis of sexual misconduct with a woman. The statement also said the complaint does not involve minors. 

Diocesan officials would not release the details of the complaint, saying only that it was contained in a letter they received. 

Lewis, 44, has been placed on leave and will not be allowed to perform any duties as a priest. 

In a statement printed in the church bulletin passed out to parishioners at Mass Sunday, Lewis wrote: “This entire episode has raised for me concerns about my issues that are fundamental to me as a person.” 

This is the first complaint against Lewis, Rev. James Murphy, spokesman for the diocese, told The Sacramento Bee. 

The quick action by Catholic officials in Sacramento comes as dioceses across the country are under intense pressure to explain how they handle allegations of sexual misconduct against priests. 

In Boston, a former priest has been convicted in one case and is waiting additional charges of molesting other boys. 

In Palm Beach, Fla., the bishop who leads the diocese resigned Friday after admitting he inappropriately touched a minor more than 25 years ago. 

In Modesto, a priest faces criminal charges of molesting a teen-age altar boy. 

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, which represents more than 500,000 Catholics in 20 counties, is expected to release an updated policy later this month that will outline how it handles allegations of sexual misconduct. 

“This policy has absolutely nothing to do with the mess in Boston,” Rev. David Deibel, the diocese’s vicar episcopal for canonical affairs, told The Bee. He said the policy, put together with the help of local social workers and mental health professionals, will explain how the church will respond in certain situations. 

SAN FRANCISCO — An auction house on Tuesday called off the sale of an extensive collection of speeches, journals and notes attributed to the late civil rights leader Malcolm X. 

Butterfields will not go ahead with the planned sale March 20 in San Francisco because it received a letter from an attorney for several of Malcolm X’s six daughters and the estate of his wife, Betty Shabazz, that raised questions about the chain of ownership of the documents, said Butterfields spokesman Levi Morgan. 

The family attorney, Joseph Fleming, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. He said earlier the documents were sold at a Florida self-storage center and claimed they were the family’s property. 

Butterfields has said it cannot reveal who the owner of the collection is, only that it is not a family member.  

Morgan said the possible problems with ownership occurred before the auction by the storage center. 

“Our client has demonstrated to us clear title,” he said. “The irregularities preceded the auction by the storage center.” 

Scholars said the collection could significantly add to existing Malcolm X documents. It contained photographs, handwritten speeches, a Quran owned by Malcolm X and four journals he kept during travels to Africa and the Middle East in 1964, a year before he was assassinated. 

The collection was displayed to potential bidders in Los Angeles last week. The surfacing of the documents was a surprise — and raised questions about their origin — but many scholars believe they are authentic. 

“These documents give us insight into a singular individual,” said Abdul Alkalimat, director of Africana Studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio. 

The collection was expected to bring as much as $500,000 at auction. 

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, based in New York, was trying to raise money to acquire the collection. Many scholars had been concerned that the documents could be scattered among different private collectors, inaccessible to researchers. 

The documents are currently being stored by Butterfields. 

“We’ll just hold onto them until we’re instructed how to proceed,” Morgan said. 

The lettuce in Arizona should be ready for harvest, but it’s not. The lettuce in Central California won’t be ready for at least another four weeks. 

That leaves California facing one of its worst lettuce shortages and the highest prices in 15 years, according to state agricultural specialists. And when California has a shortage, the whole nation has a shortage. The result has been lettuce costing up to $3 a head. 

That’s because more than 50 percent of the nation’s lettuce comes from three California areas — the Imperial Valley in the southeastern corner of the state, the area centered around Huron in Fresno County and the area around Salinas in Monterey County, according to Jesus Valencia, farm adviser for the University of California system. 

The lettuce farms rotate harvests to maintain a year-round supply of lettuce. The Imperial Valley usually harvests in the late fall, Huron in the spring and Salinas in the late spring and summer. Vegetable wholesalers rely on Arizona, because of its warm weather, during the winter months. 

But a spell of unusually cold weather this year stunted most of Arizona’s lettuce crops, pushing back their harvest window, Valencia said. Imperial Valley lettuce also turned out to be weaker than expected, and Huron crops may follow suit. 

“Because of the cold weather, the crops didn’t get as big and we didn’t get as many,” said Eric Schwartz, president of operations at Dole Fresh Vegetables in Salinas. 

At the same time, the East Coast had an unusually mild winter, which kept the shipping routes open and the demand for lettuce high. 

The steady demand and diminished supply translates into skyrocketing prices for most of the country. Markets have seen record prices in Northern California, jumping from around $12 a carton to nearly $50. 

“Every once in a while, Mother Nature comes along and slaps us in the face,” said Henry Gong, owner of the Star Market in Salinas. In recent days, Gong and his competitors have had to charge up to $3 for a head of lettuce. 

Steve Skuba of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fruit and Vegetable Market News said he’s never seen prices this high in his 25 years as a market reporter. 

Cartons hit $40 in 1995 after the Salinas floods wiped out much of the region’s lettuce, he said, but those high prices didn’t last long. 

Some experts also attribute the rise in prices to a reduction in the amount farmers planted this year. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers planted 179,000 acres of lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage between January and March, down 6 percent from the same time last year. 

It’s unclear how long the current shortage will last, but most say it will be at least another four weeks. At that time, Huron farms should be ready for harvest. 

But that could set up the market for another problem, according to Valencia. If Arizona farms don’t harvest soon, the market may be flooded by a double harvest, driving down prices and hurting farmers. 

“The guys who have lettuce now are happy,” Valencia said. “But by the time the others get theirs harvested, there might be too much on the market. It might not even be worth harvesting.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

USDA Fruit and Vegetable Programs: http://www.ams.usda.gov/fv/mncs/ 

SAN FRANCISCO — The wine flowed freely but no one tasted a drop when a tanker truck tipped over on Highway 16 east of Petaluma on Tuesday morning. 

About 3,200 gallons of white wine flooded from a broken steel tank after the semitrailer’s driver lost control going around a slight curve and capsized about 7 a.m. 

“I think it was chardonnay,” said Shannon King, a spokeswoman with the California Highway Patrol. 

Traffic was slowed for more than an hour on the two-lane highway about 30 miles north of San Francisco. The driver was not injured. 

“He was just happy no one else was hurt,” said CHP officer Curt Lubiszewski. 

Lubiszewski said the semi-trailer, owned by Cherokee Freight Lines in Stockton, slid 600 feet after tipping on its side. One of the steel tanks broke open, bathing the highway in a river of white wine and forming small, pinkish pools in the neighboring pasture. 

“It just smelled like fermented wine,” Lubiszewski said, noting the strong aroma was earthy — rather than bold or fruity. 

Nearly 20 firefighters, highway patrolmen and Caltrans workers were on scene to tow the truck away. As for the wine, there was no salvaging to be done, although emergency workers joked that cows in the pasture might get drunk if they decided to conduct a tasting. 

Lubiszewski said the chardonnay could have been toxic to drinking water, but since it didn’t run into a stream or groundwater, posed no risk. 

Gladys Horiuchi, communications manager for the Wine Institute in San Francisco, said 3,200 gallons equates to about 16,000 bottles of wine. At a meager $10 a bottle, that could mean a loss of $160,000. 

Cherokee Freight Lines executives could not be reached for comment. 

“What a shame,” Horiuchi said. “I haven’t heard of wine getting dumped since Prohibition.”

CHICAGO — United Airlines announced Tuesday that it is increasing the number of daily flights from O’Hare International Airport by 15 percent and will recall hundreds of furloughed employees to make it happen. 

The plan calls for United to restore hourly service to 14 markets, including Boston, LaGuardia Airport in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Dallas-Fort Worth. Only five of the 77 additional daily departures will be operated by a commuter partner. 

The carrier is making the move as part of intensified efforts to recapture business lost from corporate travelers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

The airline slashed capacity by 23 percent and laid off 20,000 employees after the attacks but wound up losing a record $2.1 billion for the year. Still losing about $5 million a day, it hopes to jump-start its recovery by rebuilding from its Chicago hub with the 77 additional daily departures. 

“As we continue to implement the driving principles of our recovery efforts, we are aggressively focusing on targeting revenue in every market we operate,” said Jack Creighton, United’s chief executive officer. “Naturally, that effort is anchored here in Chicago — United’s hometown — where we will offer consumers more flights and more destinations than any carrier serving O’Hare.” 

American Airlines, which surpassed United last year as the world’s largest airline and also has a hub in Chicago, was considered likely to respond to United’s move. 

When the new schedule starts June 7, United will be offering 614 daily flights from O’Hare, up from the current 537 flights but still five fewer than before the attacks. 

United will be operating about 1,950 daily flights systemwide, down about 16 percent from a year earlier. 

To help attract travelers, United said its most recent round of fare cuts would be available through Sept. 30, a six-month extension. Under that plan, some tickets booked 21 days in advance can be obtained at 50 percent discounts from full fares in all domestic markets, according to Chris Bowers, senior vice president for marketing and sales. 

To accommodate the increased flights from O’Hare, United said it will use some planes for more hours each day and will take delivery of additional airplanes this year from Boeing and Airbus. 

The expansion means hundreds of the airline’s customer-contact employees, ramp workers and mechanics who have been laid off in Chicago and around the country will be recalled. 

SACRAMENTO — Calling it a project whose time has come, the state treasurer and a group of Democratic lawmakers proposed a $6 billion bond measure Tuesday to begin construction of a high-speed rail line linking California’s major cities. 

“This is going to happen in California. The question is whether it happens sooner rather than later,” said state Sen. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, the bond bill’s lead author. 

Sale of the bonds — if approved by lawmakers, the governor and voters — would generate about half the money needed to build a line linking Los Angeles and the San Francisco area with trains running at top speeds of more than 200 mph. 

The federal government and possibly private sources would provide the rest of the money, supporters said. Revenue from the first link would pay for extensions to San Diego and Sacramento. 

“We’re not going to finance this by ourselves, just as we have not financed the interstate freeway system by ourselves,” said Costa, pointing to signs that Congress is increasingly interested in helping fund high-speed rail. 

Completion of the system would avoid a repeat of the transportation disruptions caused by the Sept. 11 attacks and help meet the state’s needs as its population nearly doubles in the next 40 years, supporters said. 

“We need this for mobility,” Treasurer Phil Angelides said at a news conference with Costa, several other lawmakers and officials representing unions and environmental groups. 

“We cannot succeed just by building more lanes on freeways and expanding our airports,” he added, citing the cost and controversies that could be generated by such moves. 

Costa said European countries and Japan have demonstrated the value of high-speed rail, and Angelides said the state could afford the additional debt created by the bond sale. 

“I don’t think we can afford not to do this,” he said. 

California has been moving toward development of high-speed rail for several years. 

A state commission, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, has proposed a 700-mile system that would connect the Central Valley with Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay Area. The authority is in the midst of completing environmental studies needed before rails could be laid. 

The authority will decide the exact route later, but the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles line would generally run south from San Jose, through the Pacheco Pass to the San Joaquin Valley and then south to Los Angeles. Trains would share existing commuter tracks between San Francisco and San Jose. 

An express trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles would take about 2 1/2 hours. 

Costa’s bill will need two-thirds majorities to get out of the Legislature. That means it will need votes from at least a handful of Republicans. Costa said some Republicans have indicated at least a willingness to consider the project if the authority shows them it is feasible. 

But at least one Republican, Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, is highly critical of the proposal, saying the money would be better spent on more freeway projects.  

He calls projections that the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles line would produce enough revenue to pay for extensions to Sacramento and San Diego “happy thoughts and pixie dust.” 

Gov. Gray Davis hasn’t signed off on the bill either, although he is proposing that the authority receive $8.46 million in the coming fiscal year to complete an environmental impact report on the system. 

SACRAMENTO — The state of California spent $286 million to buy energy in February, the lowest monthly total since the Department of Water Resources started buying power on behalf of investor-owned utilities last year, the department announced Tuesday. 

DWR’s announcement comes a day after Attorney General Bill Lockyer sued four major energy companies of “gaming the market” by charging California millions for emergency generating capacity they never provided. 

Lockyer sued Dynegy Inc., Reliant Energy Inc., Mirant Corp. and Williams Energy Marketing and Trading Co. He is seeking more than $150 million in penalties. 

The state has a $10 billion power debt. 

DWR’s February costs were $40 million below January’s low of $326 million. 

It’s not just because February is a shorter month, said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis. 

In February, the state spent an average of $10 million a day, while it spent $61 million a day in February 2001 for a total of $1.726 billion. 

“Fortunately, we’ve been successful at increasing energy reliability as well as bringing prices under control, which was our main objective,” said DWR Deputy Director Pete Garris. 

During the energy crisis last summer, DWR spent $1.826 billion in May and $59 million per day. In July $761 billion was spent, averaging $25 million per day. 

Last month, Davis asked federal regulators to trim back the cost of long-term energy contracts the state scrambled to sign at the height of last year’s energy crisis. 

With the supply crunch seemingly passed and power prices plunging, Davis is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reduce by $21 billion the cost of 20-year contracts signed when prices were high. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Department of Water Resources 

www.water.ca.gov 

Antero Alli, the director of “Hysteria” was born in Finland and grew up in Toronto, Canada. He moved to the Bay Area at age 19 in 1972 and stayed for 10 years. Alli also resided in the Portland and Seattle areas before returning to the Bay Area in 1996.  

Prior to working with film, Alli wrote and directed plays that he toured with in Berkeley, San Francisco, Mendocino County and Sonoma County. Most recently, his two-act play, “Hungry Ghosts of Albion” played at the Noh Theater in San Francisco in 1999.  

Alli has created “exhibition films” (short run art house films) for 11 years, including “Tragos,” a cyber noir tragedy. In 2000, he screened “Tragos” to audiences in Seattle, Portland and the Bay Area at the Fine Arts Cinema in Berkeley and Cell Space in San Francisco.  

In addition to Alli, the key members of his film company, Vertical Power, include his wife, Sylvi Alli, who acts as a producer, composer, and sound editor; and Michael McWhirter, who does the special effects out of Austin, Texas. 

Their most recent project, “Hysteria,” Alli describes as a “a post-Sept. 11 suspense drama with moments of humor.”  

“Hysteria” is a completely independent film with absolutely no studio involvement.  

“I don’t really have commercial ambitions. I’m just an artist type, you might call it,” Alli explains. “I make movies that I want to make and then from there I go about the process of booking screenings.”  

Sometimes Alli will send his films to festivals, but mostly he’s been booking screenings himself. Because of his independent marketing, Alli’s films often end up at festivals where he will speak about his work, but they don’t get seen by large audiences. 

For instance, “Tragos,” his last feature, even though it received good reviews from upwards of a dozen film magazines, was only seen by a few thousand people. 

Hey said “Hysteria” may be a turning point for his career. His films are not necessarily “crowd pleasers,” he said, because they deal with unconventional, somewhat difficult material. And he thinks of himself as an experimentalist, though he sticks to the story, he added, 

“Hysteria” was inspired by the events that unfolded after Sept. 11. Alli wanted to make a film that explored hysteria in various contexts. He and his cast and crew felt an urgency to create a film that would capture their emotions in response to the nation's tragedy before they faded.  

They shot 14 hours of footage in the month of February and are now in their third week of post production. Alli anticipates that the completed work will be roughly 90 minutes. 

“Hysteria” takes place in Oakland in October 2001. The story begins when a young woman named Peri, traumatized by Sept. 11, decides to leave New York City and head to the West Coast. Peri, played by Anastasia Vega, moves in with her sister Marian, played by Atosa Babaoff, in Oakland. A Croatian amateur boxer and devout Catholic named Ikar, played by Jakob Bakulich, lives next door. Bakulich co-wrote the script with Alli. The suspense heightens as the sisters’ and Ikar’s lives radically change as a result of their encounters with each other in the post Sept. 11 world. In addition to exploring hysteria as a phenomenon, Alli also uses the film to question how the media disseminates mis/information: what is included and what is not.  

Although Alli claims that the film does not take a strong political position, he said he hopes it will breakdown stereotypes like the ones that led to the onslaught of hate crimes following Sept. 11. 

The film features music from local Bay Area bands, including Mark Growden and Lumen. 

Alli self-finances his films or he pools monies with the core crew from Vertical Pool. He does not rely on grants or outside producers, which he asserts “is fine with me because my main ambition is creative control, at this point.” 

Shooting in digital video allows him to keep his budget reasonable. Unlike many of his other works, for which he hired cinematographers, Alli opted to shoot more than 95 percent of “Hysteria” himself because the film is so personal to him. This is the first film he has done in response to an “external stimulus” and his feelings of being “part of a larger community.” 

For the past two-and-a-half years he has edited all his films using FinalCut Pro or rented out an S-VHS with an AB Roll system.  

Although I would argue that using shot lists, storyboards, and rehearsing can save a lot of time and money in the long run, Alli believes that “storyboarding is for wimps”.  

Instead, he elects to show up to the set and “react to the site specific shooting” with spontaneity. He admits that he may storyboard in the future and he does use a shot list to a certain degree. In general, though, he feels superstitious about “over rehearsing actors and over preparation” and declares that “problem-solving is very exciting to me”, so he tends to be “slightly under prepared.” 

“Hysteria” will screen at the Fine Arts in Berkeley on March 30 at 11 p.m. and at Cell Space in San Francisco on April 11 at 9 p.m. After these two initial screenings, the folks at Vertical Pool will either continue a release in Seattle and Portland or enter into a few festivals, possibly Sundance. Depending on audience reactions, Alli may re-edit the film. For more information about the cast and crew, and their projects, including “ Hysteria” access their Web site at www.verticalpower.com.  

It isn’t fun to face DaShawn Freeman on a basketball court. Even when you’re winning. 

Midway through the first quarter in a NorCal playoff game versus Oak Grove (San Jose), St. Mary’s High is trailing. Freeman’s opposite number, Oak Grove point guard Jade Davis, has already dropped a 3-pointer, and then another short jumper, over Freeman. 

But Freeman, looking much bigger than his 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds might indicate, is the one who is grinning.  

This is frightening. Freeman is brazen. Freeman is brash. Yes - and he is bearded. 

All beard and teeth now, Freeman is smiling at Davis. And talking to Davis – intensely – from close quarters. Between plays Freeman is all over Davis, trailing him. Touching him. Standing too close, jawing. Getting in his face. And Davis is starting to get rattled.  

After the game: What were you saying to him, DaShawn? 

“I can’t really say that [in the newspaper],” Freeman says. “I was getting in his head a little bit, seeing where he was at mentally. You do that. Guess I got to him, and after that he didn’t really play a part in the game.” 

Freeman’s attack goes on for several minutes. Then, shortly before the end of the half, Freeman is on the bench, catching a breather. His replacement, Tim Fanning, although he strikes a much less imposing figure than Freeman (his teammates call him “Babyface”), immediately continues Freeman’s mental assault on Davis. 

Waiting for an inbounds pass, Fanning stands so close to him that Davis’s face touches the hem of Fanning’s jersey. Freeman’s earlier intimidation has brought Davis to the boiling point, and now, with only slight provocation from the much smaller Fanning, Davis finally loses it – he shoves Fanning, thus drawing a technical foul. 

Freeman, after the game, laughs and says that he wasn’t watching when Davis shoved Fanning. “I missed that,” Freeman says. “I know he wasn’t trying to push me, though.” 

Indeed not. The baby-faced Fanning calmly converts both free-throws, and Davis departs the game shortly thereafter. Davis sees only limited action in the second half – he scores eight points before his technical foul and none thereafter – and St. Mary’s comes from behind to defeat the Eagles handily. Freeman has beaten Davis – and St. Mary’s has beaten Oak Grove. 

“[Davis] just couldn’t handle it,” teammate Simon Knight says. “He was getting too mad ... I guess DaShawn just scared him out there.” 

Freeman’s bravado is a perfect complement to his counterpart in the St. Mary’s backcourt, the businesslike John Sharper. But while Sharper and Freeman are equally capable of beating you on a basketball court, you would vastly prefer to be quietly dismantled by Sharper than abused, blatantly, by Freeman. 

“That’s because he’s DaShawn Freeman,” says St. Mary’s head coach Jose Caraballo. “He has that reputation. He’s a real ‘get after you’ type of player.” 

Beyond the intimidation, Freeman has a wealth of skills – watch him: bringing the ball across the mid-court line, bearing straight down on a retreating defense, Freeman lifts his lead foot forward, and up, somehow pointing at the defender: there is a slight hesitation in this position, a pose; and then a blur – the basketball flashes back and forth between the legs once, twice, more – and he is gone. 

A spin, and the defender is shaken, flying off in quite the opposite direction as Freeman. A drive, an acrobatic bucket. Two points. (He averages 11 per game.) 

Or: a slash through the middle, and a two-handed pass, backwards over his head this time, through a forest of defenders and into the waiting hands of Knight. Identical result: two points. (And an assist for Freeman – five per game on average.) 

Or: a Freeman steal (four per game), and then, on the break, just two steps across the center line, a one-handed baseball-style bounce pass - floating low, weaving between countless pairs of running legs, both offensive and defensive - right on the money to a streaking Sharper. Another two points. 

Freeman’s St. Mary’s High career ended Saturday night with a 72-57 playoff loss to powerhouse Oakland Tech, a well-fought game in which Freeman scored 10 points and had eight assists in the first half alone. 

Next stop, college. Freeman will be taking his considerable skills on the road. Where would he like to be? 

“I like medium-type weather,” he says. “Like it is here. I don’t like too hot or too cold.” 

Perhaps he’s in for a bit of a surprise as he heads east on I-80 this fall – Freeman is heading to the 110-degree summers and frosty winters of Sacramento State. 

I wanted to go to a school where I could play, and where I would be appreciated,” he says. “It’s a good school, too – they have good academics.” 

As the No. 1 recruit this season for a guard-starved Sacramento State team, Caraballo believes Freeman will start as a freshman. But Freeman, for all his audacity on the basketball court, is more reserved off-court. 

“Nothing’s given,” Freeman says. “Hopefully I will earn it. I’ve just got to work hard.” 

One gets the sense that he will do just that. Somebody better warn the guards around the Big Sky Conference – DaShawn Freeman is grinning already.

Editor: 

Recently there was an op-ed piece in a local newspaper advocating election study groups wherein people would organize on a local level and dedicate a certain amount of time to gather in each other’s homes to study the candidates and issues together before going out to vote. The idea is to help voters make more informed choices and, of course, to involve more people in the process. This is a well-intentioned idea, if only it would do what it is intended to do ... get people out to vote.  

Pardon my cynicism, but people are about as likely to foray out into their communities and initiate these groups as they are to participate in voluntary automobile moratoriums. Sadly, while we talk the talk, espousing our wondrous freedoms, expending billions upon billions of dollars and god knows how many lives in the name of “participatory” democracy, more than half our population can’t sacrifice an evening’s television viewing and a few minutes at the polls to participate in those freedoms and the responsibilities that should go with citizenship in a democracy. 

Our approach to voter participation is, in fact, as insidiously lackadaisical as our laissez-affaire political-economic corporate paradigm and will likely reap the same disastrous results if we don’t get serious about demanding awareness and engagement from all the people all the time, not just some of the people, some of the time. It is because we tolerate such an apathetic citizenry that disasters like Enron become possible, in the first place. Does anyone seriously believe that if there was a 90 percent voter turnout, these corporate clowns would be, in any way, as likely to attempt the ruse they did? Or, that George Bush, their conduit to power, would be sitting where he is today? Our self-righteous distortions about freedom (in the most passive sense of it) enables these avatars of avarice to remain so fiscally out of touch with everyday people and cavalierly dismissive of the consequences of their actions. 

The only way to bring the astonishing number of non-participants into the political process is to legislate that participation as part of continuing citizenship. We demand driver tests of some sort every so many years. Why not mandate voter education exams as well? Ultimately, isn't ignorance as lethal to a country and its communities as is recklessness behind the wheel? Multitudes of human beings have given their lives to support and maintain our democratic process. Citizens who are politically indifferent or too self-involved to engage in that process should be deported to countries where they do the voting for you. 

Marc Winokur 

Oakland

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo  

Walaza: The Burden of  

Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Women's Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Frankie Moore McGee, Avenue Baptist Church. 

Wednesday, Mar. 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss "Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land." Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Lawrence Saez, professor of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley; “South Asia: Focus on India.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Thursday, March 14

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Women's Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble Imani Community Church. 

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and  

Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The  

Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Monday, March 18

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will discuss the 1965 United States Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction of Daniel A. Seeger. Also a reading and discussion of Seeger’s pamphlet, The Seed and the Tree.  

Tuesday, March 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

1 p.m. 

The Berkeley Garden Club will hold its Benefit Spring Tea and Professional Floral Design Demonstration. Sakae Sakaki will create both Ikebana and Western style arrangements. $7.50, 526-1083, bgardenclub@aol.com. 

Wednesday, March 20

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Nunu Kidane, Epidemiologist, UC San Francisco; “AIDS in Africa.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

African Philosophy 

7 p.m. 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will interpret Nkrumah as a philosopher. Brief presentations followed by open discussion. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Thursday, March 21

Still the Source of Grace?  

Reading the Bible as a Gay Christian 

5 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion chapel  

1798 Scenic Ave. 

With L. William Countryman, professor in biblical studies at 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and co-author with M.R. Ritley of 

"Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church." Free and open to the public. 849-8206. 

Friday, March 22

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Robert Kruger, first vice-president, and Larry Miller, certified financial planner and senior vice-president, Solomon Smith Barney; “Investing in the Market Post 9-11.” $1. 848-3533. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Saturday, March 23

5th Annual Summit – Last  

Chance for Smart Growth? 

10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 

Laney College Forum 

900 Fallon St., Oakland 

Regional public agencies will soon hold workshops to select from among three alternative visions for regional growth and finalize one Bay Area vision. Summit participants will learn about these alternatives and provide input that will affect future government policy. 740-3103, robert@transcoalition. org. 

Jazz Clinic 

2 p.m. 

Longfellow School for the Arts 

1500 Derby St. 

Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra will be holding a jazz clinic. $5, 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net. 

Monday, March 25

Free Legal Workshop “Too Sick to Work: Cash Assistance and Health Insurance if Cancer Prevents You From Working” 

12:30 - 2 p.m. 

Highland Hospital 

1411 E. 31st St., Oakland 

Classroom B 

This workshop will provide information about State and Federal disability programs that provide cash benefits and health insurance for people unable to work due to a serious health condition. 601-4040 x302, www.wcrc.org.  

Wednesday, March 27

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Dan Kammen, professor of Energy and Resources Group and director of Energy and Science, UC Berkeley; “Energy and the Environment.” 

$5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Thursday, March 28

Seed Swap 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Bay Area Seed Interchange Library's annual Seed Swap. Bring seed and envelopes. A raffle for live plants. 823-4769. 

Friday, March 29

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Peter Hillier, assistant city manager, transportation; “Bringing About a Paradigm Shift.” $1. 848-3533. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Three Latino social service agencies were closed down Monday after their respective mail rooms received derogatory letters accompanied by a suspicious white powder. 

“This is an ongoing investigation, and we want to keep the content of the letters confidential,” said Assistant Fire Chief David Orth. “But it was derogatory, and it is being investigated as a hate crime.” 

The scare occurred at about 9:30 a.m. at three different locations, and a coordinated citywide team of personnel from the city manager’s office, the health department and police and fire departments responded to the situation. 

“They were all Latino community-affiliated organizations. One was located in the 300 block of Shattuck Avenue, the other in the 2500 block of San Pablo Avenue and the last one in the 1000 block of Carlton,” Orth said, refusing to disclose the organization’s name.  

Orth said preliminary testing indicated that the white residue left inside the envelopes is not anthrax, but it will not be known for sure what the substance is for 48 hours as it will take a full day to allow cultures to grow for further examination.  

The buildings were not evacuated. But all individuals who directly handled the mail were “properly decontaminated,” according to Orth, by being showered and having their clothes bagged up.  

Across the hall from Central Latino, the organization on San Pablo Avenue where the first letter was discovered, is the River of Words. And at least one person from that agency says she felt very uncomfortable with the handling of the situation.  

“It was handled very badly,” said Pamela Michael. “Without any information whatsoever, we were told that we could go back to work. And from what I understand it will be three days before the testing on the substance is conclusive, so why was it safe for us to go back to work within hours of this happening? Plus the mail room was accessible all day to people who did not know. And none of those people were tested.” 

Michael also stated that several employees were confused and concerned and were left with no one to call to answer their questions. After several attempts she said she finally got a hold of someone in the city of Berkeley’s Health Department who told her it was unlikely that the substance was indeed anthrax. Upon further investigation, Michael said she was informed that several Latino organizations in the area were being targeted. But none of that information was forthcoming earlier in the day.  

“No one knew who to call. It was a Hazmat team, that I knew,” Michael said. “ But I wasn’t even made aware who they were — we still don’t know whether it was federal or local. I don’t know how these things are usually handled but it was all very disturbing.” 

Orth said it was not necessary to evacuate the entire building due to the quantity of powder that was discovered as well as the physical configurations of the building. The mail room, he said, was well-divided from other areas of the building and there was such a small amount of powder discovered that any type of infection would have been very localized. 

According to Orth, it was more important that the public received information on how to recognize a possible illness at that point. 

“We didn’t think it was a good idea to evacuate the entire building and cause hysteria and now with the test coming back we know it would not have been a good idea,” Orth said. “At this point we are more concerned with the content of the letters.” 

The Berkeley Fire Department released mail-handling suggestions they hope will help the public identify and treat suspicious mail. 

Among a list of red flags is a lack of return address on letters. Due to the ongoing investigation, Orth would not say if the letters sent to the Latino agencies Monday were without a sender’s address 

He also stated that officials were investigating whether or not there is a correlation to this event and Monday being the six-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.  

“There investigating it but it’s too early to say if there’s a connection,” Orth said.  

He had no explanation as to why the Latino community was targeted but said that officials are now trying to get the message out to the Latino community that there is indeed a possible threat.  

“They are doing a notification throughout the Latino community to faith-based organizations and the releases we are putting out there are in Spanish. But there’s no phone tree to tap into the Latino community or anything,” he added.  

Orth said he believes this to be the only hate crime of this nature to occur in Berkeley in the last several years. 

Contact reporter Devona Walker at devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Editor: 

In your article entitled “BCA Still Silent on Mayor Race,” you quote Councilmember Spring who indicated that I might be interested in running for Mayor in Berkeley. While I find Councilmember Spring’s comments to be flattering I must state, unequivocally, that I have no intentions of running for the office of Mayor in Berkeley. 

Also, I thoroughly enjoy working for the City of Berkeley and would not want to end my tenure with the City. 

I am very pleased and rather busy serving as the representative in Area 4 (covering Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville) on the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees. I find this work to be challenging and most rewarding and I plan to continue since my term expires in 2004. 

Darryl G. Moore 

Vice President 

Peralta Community College  

Board of Trustees 

About 150 UC Berkeley students descended on the state Capitol in Sacramento Monday to speak to legislators about student housing, student fees and the University of California’s system-wide budget in the first-ever “Cal Lobby Day.” 

“The legislature can’t just vote on bills without knowing our perspective,” said Jay Bharadwa, a UC Berkeley sophomore. “These are the people who are going to be voting on our future.” 

But with the state roughly $15 billion in debt and cuts on the horizon, legislators warned students that higher education might take a hit. 

“We’re trying to hold the line wherever we can on education,” said Assemblymember Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, speaking to a group of three students who visited her office, “(but) everything is going to be affected in some way.” 

Students, who visited the offices of 108 legislators, focused on three major “talking points.”  

First, they asked representatives to support Gov. Gray Davis’s higher education budget, which holds steady on UC spending at $3.5 billion next year. They also called on legislators to keep student fees at their current levels. Finally, pupils asked the legislature to provide $15 million for student housing. 

Last month, the Assembly’s Appropriation Committee added $15 million for student housing to a larger, $2.1 billion housing bond authored by Sen. John Burton (D-San Francisco). 

The legislature and governor must sign off on the bond before it goes to California voters for an up or down vote in November. 

Students, urging legislators to support the measure, told stories of exorbitant rents, crowded living conditions and never-ending apartment searches in Berkeley. 

“I still have students who come to my office because they are sleeping on couches and sleeping in cars,” said Josh Fryday, vice president of external affairs for the Associated Students of the University of California, at a press conference on the capitol’s steps Monday afternoon. 

“It’s a question of access,” added Wally Adeyemo, student body president. Adeyemo said rents, often in excess of $2,000 per month for a two-bedroom apartment, prevent low-income students, particularly minorities, from attending UC schools. 

The problem is particularly acute, Adeyemo said, at “top-tier” schools in the system, including UC Berkeley, UCLA and the UC San Diego. 

The student housing money appears to have strong support in the legislature. A parade of Democrats, including Assemblymember Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley), who pushed for the $15 million addition, spoke in favor of the bond at the student press conference. 

Laura Zuniga, senior consultant for the Assembly Republican Caucus, said GOP support for the student housing money is also strong. But she said Republicans have concerns about other portions of the bond. 

The governor has raised general concerns about asking the voters for too much money all at once on the November ballot. In addition to the $2 billion housing bond, voters will likely face a school construction bond in excess of $10 billion. 

Aroner has asked students to “be vigilant” and ensure that the student housing money remains in the bond, despite Davis’s reservations. 

If the measure gets on the ballot, legislators told students, they should turn out in force to vote for it. 

“The place where you speak the loudest is at the ballot box,” said Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). 

Students plan to make “Cal Lobbying Day” an annual event.

Editor 

On March 7, discussions resumed after a one-year hiatus between the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Iraq’s Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. Mr Sabri described the talks as “a constructive and positive exchange of views” and Mr Annan's spokesman said they had made “a good start.” 

This should be a stepping-stone towards a dialogue between the United States and Iraq as well. 

It is not helpful that the US has dismissed dialogue out of hand. The nations have not held direct discussions since the cease-fire arrangement was imposed 11 years ago. 

US policy has been guided by threats and ultimatums - resulting in a narrowing of options for all parties and catastrophe for the Iraqi people. 

True leadership lies in accepting realities we may not like and accepting the challenge of engagement. 

Instead of continuing a policy of intimidation and condemnation, the administration of President Bush should negotiate based on principles of fairness, justice and peace. 

Valerie Jacobs 

San Francisco 

The wheelchair-bound Dede Dewey has been a precinct worker for the past 16 years. The Berkeley resident with short gray hair and eyeglasses, said she was the first disabled person in Alameda County to become a precinct worker. 

“I had to fight for the privilege of not only voting but working as a polling officer,” Dewey said.  

During the March 5 election, she was assigned to the polling station at the La Pena Cultural Center, which covers a South Berkeley block bound by Woolsey Street and Shattuck, Ashby and Deakin avenues. 

The area is predominantly lower-middle class and Democratic, said Robert Mann, another precinct worker there. 

It was a slow day. About 60 voters had turned out by 10:30 a.m., 20 to 30 percent of whom were African-American and the rest were white, Mann said. Roughly 50 percent were male and the other half female, he estimated. 

As a middle-aged man came in, Mann asked his name and got his signature on a blue roster. He asked the voter what kind of ballot he wanted.  

A Democratic one, the man said.  

Dewey’s job was tearing out ballot sheets for the voters. To ascertain the voter’s choice before handing him the ballot sheet, she offered, “Or Republican?” 

He stuck with his original choice. And the soft-spoken Dewey pleasantly said, “We just make it clear that you have a choice.” 

Mann said non-election years tend to be slow. During an election year, he said he would see a couple of hundred voters turn out at a polling station. For the 2000 primary election, the voter turnout in Berkeley was 46.6 percent, according to the Registrar of Voters. 

Even with the low turnout, Dewey said she feels she is participating in the political process and helping get people’s opinions heard, she said. 

As Dewey took a break, she reminisced about her years as a poll worker. For the more than a 12-hour shift, Dewey said she’d get paid $80. But there’s another motivation behind working precincts. 

“This is one form of community service,” she said. “That’s why I do it.”  

Dewey said when she first started working, at the stations she encountered difficulties as a voter. She said the polling stations just weren’t accessible. The doors weren’t wide enough for wheelchairs to pass through or the booths weren’t designed for disabled persons.  

And as a volunteer, “it was hard, when a disabled person came to vote, to convince my co-workers to let the disabled person vote,” Dewey said. 

“They would try to make the disabled person go to another precinct to vote. And that’s not right,” she said. “It happens much less today but it still happens.” 

The American Disabilities Act of 1990 requires all polling stations to be handicapped-accessible. That has greatly improved the situation, but it is still bad, Dewey said. She remembered a television campaign ad for Secretary of State candidate Michela Alioto. The ad mentions that there are about 1,000 polling stations in the state that aren’t handicapped-accessible. 

Dewey said she is also excited about another law on the books that will require precincts with 90-percent bilingual populations to have a bilingual interpreter.  

She remembers the struggles of communicating with a Spanish-speaking population when she worked at an Oakland precinct 10 years ago. 

“It was extremely difficult,” she said. “I could show them how to punch the ballot,” but other than that, she couldn’t help them. Dewey said those Hispanic voters were not as informed about their candidate choices as they should have been, because of the language barrier. 

Being a minority has made Dewey sensitive to other minorities’ needs. “I’m not required to speak Spanish , why should they be required to speak English? To me, that’s a form of discrimination,” she said. 

As a precinct worker, Dewey also stays abreast of the new laws or amendments in the voting procedures, such as voter registration deadline. It used to be that voters were required to register a month before the election. Now, it’s changed to two weeks, she said. 

“By being a precinct worker, I became a larger part of changing the system.”  

Today is Tuesday, March 12, the 71st day of 2002. There are 294 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 12, 1933, President Roosevelt delivered the first of his radio “fireside chats,” telling Americans what was being done to deal with the nation’s economic crisis. 

On this date: 

In 1664, New Jersey became a British colony as King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James, the Duke of York. 

In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts of America. 

In 1925, Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen died. 

In 1930, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi began a 200-mile march to protest a British tax on salt. 

In 1938, the “Anschluss” took place as German troops entered Austria. 

In 1939, Pope Pius XII was formally crowned in ceremonies at the Vatican. 

In 1947, President Truman established what became known as the “Truman Doctrine” to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism. 

In 1951, “Dennis the Menace,” created by cartoonist Hank Ketcham, made its syndicated debut in 16 newspapers. 

In 1969, Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman in London. 

In 1999, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. 

Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council stood firm in its demand that Iraq comply totally with Gulf War cease-fire resolutions, rebuffing an appeal for leniency from Saddam Hussein’s special envoy, deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz. 

Five years ago: Authorities in Los Angeles arrested Mikhail Markhasev as a suspect in the shooting death of Bill Cosby’s son, Ennis. (Markhasev, who later admitted his guilt, is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.) 

One year ago: A U.S. Navy jet mistakenly dropped a bomb on a group of military personnel at a bombing range in Kuwait, killing five Americans and one New Zealander. Abrasive, chain-smoking talk show host Morton Downey Jr. died at age 68. Spy adventure novelist Robert Ludlum died in Naples, Fla., at age 73. 

Today’s Birthdays: Former astronaut Wally Schirra is 79. Playwright Edward Albee is 74. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young is 70. Broadcast journalist Lloyd Dobyns is 66. Singer Al Jarreau is 62. Actress-singer Liza Minnelli is 56. Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 54. Rock singer-musician Bill Payne (Little Feat) is 53. Actor Jon Provost (“Lassie”) is 52. Author Carl Hiaasen is 49. Actor Jerry Levine is 45. Rock musician Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) is 45. Singer Marlon Jackson (The Jackson Five) is 45. Actor Courtney B. Vance is 42. Actor Titus Welliver is 41. Baseball player Darryl Strawberry is 40. Actress Julia Campbell is 39. Actor Aaron Eckhart is 34. Rock musician Graham Coxon (Blur) is 33. Actor Samm Levine is 20.

Hundreds of RNs met on new nurse-ratio law and demanded reform of Kaiser Permanente’s arbitration system, which restricts the ability of patients to challenge managed care abuses. 

The two-day conference, which began Monday, is hosted by the California Nurses Association, and is being held at the Sacramento Convention Center.  

The nurses will be lobbying Diana Bonta, RN, director of California’s Department of Health Services and Daniel Zingale, director of California’s Department of Managed Care. 

CNA is supporting a bill, SB 458 by Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Norwalk) that would give patients who are denied needed care or face delays the choice of whether to remain in the arbitration system or to be able to go to court to seek redress.

MENDOCINO — It took a lawn mower and a mild summer day for Jim McCummings to create a pathway to the Mendocino Bay Viewpoint and its sweeping vistas of the craggy Northern California coast. 

That was the easy part. The real work came in court when John Brittingham, the man who owns the viewpoint, sued McCummings’ Mendocino Land Trust, the nonprofit group authorized by the state to operate it. 

The trust won, convincing a judge that California law guaranteeing coastal access gives the public the right to walk across Brittingham’s backyard and gaze across the bay at the pastel perfection of Mendocino. 

Now, a similar fight is unfolding over a disputed trail across Hollywood producer David Geffen’s property in Malibu, a battle that could be a turning point for quasi-private beaches up and down the state. 

McCummings is in the position of having been there and done that. The Mendocino trail, he says, has been “fine. People are pretty respectful of it.” 

The issues playing out in Malibu now — the rights of private property owners vs. public beach-goers — are similar to those raised in Mendocino six years ago when the land trust opened the bay viewpoint. 

The pathway had been promised to the public in 1977 by the then-owner in return for a building permit under a coastal access program then in place. But like many of the 1,300 or so pathways granted under that program, the trail had never been opened because it had never been adopted by a public agency as required. 

A 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling effectively shut down the pathways-for-permits scheme, saying it amounted to extortion. Courts have upheld trails promised before then, but pathways expire in 21 years if not adopted, which means soon in many cases. 

In 1996, state officials tried something new, authorizing the Mendocino Land Trust to become the first nonprofit entrusted with one of the trails. 

In August, McCummings trundled his lawn mower from the property edge on state Highway 1 to the cliff, creating a recognizable path, and half the town turned out to celebrate the official opening with a wine and cheese reception. 

Then, Brittingham, who had bought the property in 1990, filed suit, claiming that public access would be harmful to the environment and disturb American Indian sites. 

A judge rejected Brittingham’s arguments in 1997 and the trust has continued to operate the viewpoint, along with a second pathway some miles north that leads to a nick in the coast known as Cantus Cove. 

Volunteers police the trails for trash and maintain signs marking where the public stops and the private starts. 

The Cantus Cove trail — marked by only a discreet sign at the property owner’s request — operates quietly. But Brittingham, who now spends most of his time in Florida and is trying to sell the Mendocino property, remains unreconciled to the pathway across his land. 

“It used to be a natural area and now it’s more like a little park. There’s a lot of cars there and people mistake the easement for my property so they go up to my house,” he says. “They think it’s a fort or they think it’s a restaurant. Even if you spell it out, “Private Property,” it’s like, well, what does that mean to people just roaming around or they’re drunk or who knows what.” 

Trust and state officials say there’ve been few problems. 

“It’s going very nicely,” says Linda Locklin of the California Coastal Commission, the agency that safeguards public access. 

Technically, California’s 1,100 miles of coast, from Mendocino’s surf-bitten bluffs to the broad, sandy shelves of Southern California, is owned by the public up to the mean high tide line. However, it’s often hotly debated by irate homeowners and towel-waving sunbathers exactly where that line falls. Meanwhile, just getting past the battalions of private homes that block some stretches of the coast often isn’t a walk on the beach. 

That’s the issue in Malibu, where Geffen’s beach-front home sits on a stretch of coast accessible to the public by only two pathways more than three miles apart. The path through his property is currently blocked by locked gates at the highway. 

Geffen spokesman Andy Spahn says he’s willing to talk about opening the pathway, but “there are a great number of public safety issues to be addressed.” For one thing, he says, the pathway opens onto the Pacific Coast Highway, which has fast cars and little parking. 

Other objections raised by property owners like Geffen are that officials aren’t making provisions for picking up trash or maintaining security. Even with the path closed, Geffen, whose low-slung house stretches across four oceanfront lots, has had to contend with an intruder in his living room. 

Steve Hoye, leader of Access for All, the nonprofit that has been approved by the coastal commission to open the Geffen pathway, is aware that Geffen has “definite public safety concerns. And I’m certainly, absolutely going to try to address those.” 

Geffen promised the pathway in 1983 in exchange for a permit to remodel his home on Carbon Beach. Over the years he also offered three horizontal easements behind his back patio in return for building a sea wall. Access for All has also been given the go-ahead to open those easements, but since they’re stretches of sand, they’re not as controversial as the main path. 

Hoye describes the beach behind Geffen’s home as “very white sand, beautiful crystal water. It’s a great piece of simple beach. You can see Malibu pier to the west, down coast, on a clear day ... you can see great views.” 

Hoye is considering installing a time-locking mechanism to close the Geffen gates at sunset. Still, he and other access advocates say homeowners’ fears are overblown. 

“These notions that somehow trails just drive down property values — it’s bogus,” says Richard Nichols of Coastwalk, a group trying to create an uninterrupted trail down California’s nearly 1,000 miles of coast. “A trail is an amenity; it’s not a negative.” 

Hoye sees coastal access as a vital link to a vanishing resource. 

“Our public lands in the United States, they really are the last chunk of wilderness left,” Hoye says. “People really want to go there.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Coastal Commission: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ 

Coastwalk: http://www.coastwalk.org/ 

The Berkeley Police Department is keeping tight-lipped about the arrest of the owner/operator of the Normandy Massage Studio for “suspicion of pimping, pandering and conspiracy.” 

They will say the business located in the 2300 block of Shattuck has been under surveillance for months and that search warrants have been served for the two residences of its owner Kathleen Phuong Que Chiem. 

A telephone call to the Alameda County Jail revealed that Phuong Que Chiem was arrested on Thursday and has since been released on bail. 

Heading the investigation for the BPD is Lt. Allen Yuen of the vice department. Yuen said the investigation was sparked by numerous complaints from neighbors and members of the community.  

BPD Lt. Cynthia Harris said Monday that a special enforcement team served a search warrant at the business on Thursday afternoon. Harris said she does not know if the establishment has since closed down. Several telephone calls made to the business went unanswered, and the doors remained locked all day Monday.

SAN JOSE — Two Hewlett-Packard Co. directors warned Monday that many board members and some of the company’s top executives might quit if shareholders reject the $22.6 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp. next week. 

If the acquisition fails, the eight HP board members who support the deal would have “personal conflicts” and “an important decision to make,” Phil Condit, the chief executive and chairman of Boeing Co., said in a conference call with analysts and reporters. 

“Each member of the management team will also have a personal decision to make,” he said. 

However, fellow board member Sam Ginn, the retired chairman of Vodafone AirTouch, said that if the deal dies and directors step down, they would not leave HP in chaos — nor put the boardroom solely in the hands of dissenting director Walter Hewlett. 

“I won’t walk away and pout,” Ginn said. “I will make sure if I decide to leave that I have a proper replacement before I walk out the door.” 

This is not the first time HP directors have threatened to leave if the acquisition is blocked. Chairwoman and chief executive Carly Fiorina also would be widely expected to move on if the deal crashes. 

But the subject is being renewed at a critical time, with HP’s March 19 shareholder vote appearing too close to call and many investors possibly on the fence. 

Walter Hewlett has said any implication that large numbers of directors and managers would leave is part of an attempt by HP to scare investors. He said Monday that Ginn and Condit actually affirmed his position that HP would remain stable. 

Ginn and Condit said they believe the integration of Compaq is being planned well and that they are confident the deal will dramatically improve the end-to-end technology “solutions” Hewlett-Packard can offer corporate customers. 

But while many big customers have offered glowing praise about the deal, others seem more circumspect. A Merrill Lynch survey of U.S. and European companies found that nearly half of those with HP or Compaq equipment oppose the deal. About one-quarter were in favor. 

Condit chalked that up to “familiarity and change,” and the usual ways suppliers have to win their customers over every day. He said both companies’ profitable recent quarters indicate that customers aren’t fleeing. 

He also said the deal is supported by a majority of HP’s 20 largest shareholders, but he would not offer specifics. 

Shares of Palo Alto-based HP rose 39 cents, nearly 2 percent, to $20.98 on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Houston-based Compaq lost 53 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $11.27. 

That widened the gap between Compaq’s stock price and the price HP would pay for the shares — indicating an increasing belief on Wall Street that the deal will be rejected. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Pro-merger site: http://www.votethehpway.com 

Anti-merger site: http://www.votenohpcompaq.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — The record labels blame online song swapping from services such as Napster for taking away valuable customers. In reaction, the labels have created their own legitimate online services for monthly subscribers. 

That move has left music retailers and distributors sitting on the sidelines, as the five major labels launched Musicnet and pressplay and made a beeline past store shelves, straight to consumer pocketbooks. 

Those music retailers gathered at the annual convention of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers on Monday to share their concerns over the digital distribution of music and how they might become more involved. 

Scott Young, who coordinates entertainment sales for BestBuy.com, sees digital music distribution as a promotional tool for CD sales. So do smaller retailers such as Joe Nardone Jr., who operates the 11-store Gallery of Sound chain in Pennsylvania. 

Nardone Jr. has partnered with Liquid Audio, a technology company that provides audio snippets to foster sales at his stores. 

“I think there’s a future there to market to our customers,” Nardone said of digital music downloads. But Nardone and another east coast retailer, Record Archive’s Alayna Hill-Alderman, expressed some reticence in expanding their online market presence as the labels appear to have gone forward without them. 

“I think people have become completely intoxicated,” with digital downloads, Hill-Alderman told fellow retailers during a panel discussion on online music. 

It’s uncertain if file-sharing networks have cost music retailers sales or lured even more customers into stores seeking CDs of music they discovered on the Internet. Statistics vary on the financial impact of Napster, Gnutella, Morpheus and the like, but one thing is certain — the sales potential of digital music distribution has everyone’s attention. 

The Recording Industry Association of America commissioned a survey of 2,225 music consumers and found that 23 percent of them bought less music in 2001 than the previous year because they found what they were looking for online — for free. 

With about $15 billion in annual U.S. music sales at stake, retailers are concerned about their position in the marketplace. Pam Horovitz, NARM’s president, says the major record labels are going in the right direction online, but retailers should be able to travel with them. 

“I think both Musicnet and pressplay are encouraging,” Horovitz said. “We would be happier if those first marketplace offerings from the record labels had involved more input from retailers.” 

In agreement with Horovitz was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who addressed the convention Monday, warning that change was on the horizon and promising Congress would do its part to make the process somewhat orderly. 

Hatch, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently held hearings on the music industry’s fight against Napster and similar services. While he does not support compulsory music licensing, Hatch said he is keeping a close eye on Musicnet and pressplay and their willingness to license music to competing services that retailers might want to launch. 

The entire music industry is shifting, Hatch said. 

“This is in many ways a vastly different environment in which to deal than many of you are accustomed,” Hatch told music retailers. “Change is inevitable.” 

Jupiter Media Metrix analyst Aram Sinnreich said the Musicnet and pressplay services need improvement. Those services limit the number of downloads and streams available to the subscriber, don’t offer a permanent music collection and have only limited CD burning capabilities. 

Sinnreich predicts the online market for music sales, both downloads and CDs, will reach $5.5 billion by 2006. He told retailers they should insist to labels that they be included in the mix. 

“I really think the record labels are getting away with bloody murder here,” Sinnreich said of their direct-to-consumer approach. “I think retailers absolutely need to rebel against these things.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.narm.com 

http://www.musicnet.com 

http://www.pressplay.com 

http://www.galleryofsound.com 

The Berkeley Police Department reports that a man was shoot twice early Saturday morning at the intersection of Channing Way and San Pablo Avenue. 

Lt. Dennis Ahearn of the Berkeley Police department said the station received a call around midnight reporting that shots were fired. 

When officers arrive on the scene they found a male, whose name is still being withheld, sitting in a parked car.  

Ahearn said the victim was reportedly yelling at a passing car when someone from the moving vehicle began shooting. The victim was hit in the ankle and buttocks, and was transported to Highland Hospital.  

The wounds do not appear to be life-threatening. It is unknown whether police have any suspects in this shooting. 

Editor: 

Rob Wren's statement (March 2-3) that the feared Underhill Garage will "add a huge amount of additional parking" is misleading, The increased neighborhood traffic from the garage may be huge, but the benefit for drivers needing to park will be negligible after construction, during which the project will of course make the parking mess worse.  

Current demand for parking, and planned expansion, will hardly be solved with a few hundred more stalls, even if U.C. keeps using every last dime for garages. The strategy is clearly not working and has no real hope of solving the mess, because thousands of commuters will still be without alternatives.  

Instead, parking funds could be used to relieve parking now, so that more garages may not even be needed. The easiest/first help should be providing campus staff with toll-free transit eco-passes like the ASUC, UCLA, City of Berkeley, and countless forward-thinking employers do .  

A broader strategy is also needed because Berkeley's historic transit alternatives have been lost since the encroachment of autos. Without a single light-rail/streetcar line to Cal, and without even one of the three historic rail stations still open, traveling to campus is more difficult than before autos were first brought here!  

To re-store Berkeley transit to pre-auto levels, U.C.'s influence will be the best help for the parking monster. Cal now lacks direct transit to the Emeryville and Oakland Amtrak, the airport, and even some nearby residential neighborhoods where buses can help. 

Restoring transit will help drivers the most, because streets AND parking will be less crowded. Fortunately, we will have a safer, cleaner, and friendlier future when U.C. starts supporting transit over traffic. 

Cal staff are now calling for alternatives to the current worsening mess, and Berkeley should join the crowd. 

Sennet Williams  

Solve Parking.Network 

Berkeley 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series Mar. 17: 8 p.m., Vorticella; the laptop duo of Kristen Miltner and Kendra Juul; $0 to $20, TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline. 649-8744, http://sfsound.org/acme.html. 

The Albatross Mar. 12: Mad & Eddie Duran; Mar. 14: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Mar. 17: Bobby Nickels, Kyle Thyer, Cherlie, 8:30 p.m.; Mar. 18: Paul Schneider; Mar. 19: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Mar. 11: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 12: Singers’ open mic w/ Trio; Mar. 13: Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet; Mar. 14: Rev. Rabia; Mar. 15: Sallie/Dave/Doug Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 16: Bob Crawford Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 17: Aleph Null; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Mar. 17: 7 p.m., Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos; 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Mar. 11 The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 12: Colonel Knowledge, Mega Babes, $3; Mar. 13: Karate High School, Auto Punch, Simplistic, $5; Mar. 14: Ascension, $5; Mar. 15: King Harvest, First Circle, $5; Mar. 16: Omaya, $7; Mar. 17: The Lost Coast Band, The Real, $3; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cal Performances Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Gyuto Monks perform multiphonic chanting in accordance with the spiritual practices of Tantric Tibetan Buddhism. $24 - $36; Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Andras Schiff, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 13: Irish Session; Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Downtown Mar. 13: Dave Mathews; 2102 Shattuck Ave., 649-3810 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Mar. 11: Ledward Ka’apana, $17.50; Mar. 13: Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band, $16.50; Mar. 14: Carol Denney, $16.50; Mar. 15: David Maloney performs Irish folk opera “The Great Blight”, $17.50; Mar. 16: The Black Brothers, $18.50; Mar. 17: Tom Russell, $16.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Mar. 24: 4:30 p.m., Alegria, $6-$12. 2087 Addison St., 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

The Starry Plough Mar. 11: Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music session), free; Mar. 12: 7:30 p.m., Open Mic, free; Mar. 13: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik, $7; Mar. 14: 9:30 p.m., Giant Value, Warm Fields, $4; Mar. 15: 9:30 p.m., Moore Brothers, $6; Mar. 16: 9:30 p.m., St. Patrick's Celtic Meltdown, Blue on Green, Green Man Gruvin, $5; Mar. 17: 6 p.m., St. Patty's Day Celebration, Chameleon, Irish dancers & bagpiper, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

UC Men's Octet Annual Spring Show Mar. 14 and 15: 8 p.m., all-male a cappella group; $7 students, $12 general, UC Berkeley, Wheeler Auditorium, 301-2367 octoevents@hotmail.com. 

“Harmonica Ace and Band” Mar. 15: 8 p.m., 10 p.m., Carlos Zialcita and his band team up with guest vocalist Ella Pennewell for a blues concert. $12. Dotha’s Juke Joint, 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668 

“Expressionality” Mar. 13 through Mar. 16: Wed. 10:15 a.m., Thurs. 10:30 a.m., 7 p.m., Sat. to be announced. An opera created and produced by 4th and 5th graders. Wed. and Thurs. shows at Malcolm X Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Sat. show at Oakland Museum of Art. 644-6313 

“The Art of Disability” Mar. 16: 7 p.m., A showcase of performing artists with disabilities. $10 -$50 sliding scale. Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, hesternet@jps.net 

“Tribute to Oakland’s Gospel Greats” Mar. 16: 7:30 p.m., The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and Youth Choir will present a free tribute concert. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison St., Oakland, 839-4361  

“The Song of Songs” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Composer Jorge Linderman creates a musical setting for Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s translation of “The Song of Songs”. $32. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Celebration for the Trees Mar. 17: 7 - 10 p.m., Benefit for the Ancient Trees Coalition Education Effort with Making Waves, Green, Marca Cassity, Folk This!, and Hali Hammer. BFUU Fellowship Hall 1606 Bonita. 

“Chamber Music Series” Mar. 17: 4 p.m., Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of Kronos Quartet, gives a solo performance of both acoustic and electronic pieces. $10, free children under 18. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global  

Warming, and How You Can  

Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and  

Odyssey of Mastery -- Polanyi,  

Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of  

Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of  

Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/ 

Conscientious Objection to  

War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will view the PBS documentary, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It, and discuss it.  

Meet the Artists of the  

ARTS Ed Resource Guide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

James Irvine Foundation Conference Center 

353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

Artists and arts organizations will deliver brief presentation about their program offerings and address questions posed by the audience. Free and open to the public. 208-0842, www.artsedeastbay.org. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Cheryl Kirk-Dugan Center for Women & Religion. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo  

Walaza: The Burden of  

Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Women's Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Frankie Moore McGee, Avenue Baptist Church. 

Wednesday., Mar. 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss "Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land." Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Lawrence Saez, professor of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley; “South Asia: Focus on India.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Thursday, March 14

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Women's Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble Imani Community Church. 

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women's Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment:  

Symbolism, Visualization and  

Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The  

Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Compiled by Guy Poole

Officials at the University of California at Berkeley are scheduling an open house today to answer questions and inform the public about plans for new student housing near the Southside neighborhood near campus. 

Architects and UC Berkeley planners will be on hand to discuss the master plan of the Underhill area, which will provide 1,200 beds by 2005, a new dining commons, a cafe, parking and recreational facilities. 

Officials plan to discuss the College-Durant project, which is scheduled to open for this year's fall semester, that will house 120 students in apartment-style units. The Central Dining and Office Facility, a four-story building east of Bowditch Street between Haste Street and Channing Way that will provide student food services, a coffee shop and house the administrative offices of residential service programs, will also be discussed. 

Editor: 

Thanks for the article last Friday about the closure of the library ("Library Switch-over"). It’s important that your readers know why the downtown library will be closed for five weeks. Similarly, it’s important that they realize this is not a "facelift," as your article suggested. Think instead "major new construction." Like an entirely new library office building…like a five-story library addition extending 100 feet to the west…like two new public levels…like earthquake retrofitting that involved sinking concrete piers deep into the ground. These are not mere cosmetic changes—which is why we’re calling it "New Central" not "Made-over Central." 

Diane Davenport 

Reference Services Manager 

Berkeley Public Library 

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced this week that scientists at the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories have completed two of the largest computer simulations ever attempted and created the first full-system, three-dimensional simulations of a nuclear explosion. 

Both of the simulations, which were achieved on the Advanced Simulation and Computing White supercomputer, were completed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which is responsible for maintaining the safety, security and reliability of the country's nuclear deterrent. 

The simulation is a milestone of the program, and applauded by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. 

“With this accomplishment the NNSA has advanced the state of the art in computer simulation,” Abraham said.  

Editor:  

In his letter (Daily Planet, 3/6), UC Director of Transportation Nadesan Permaul suggests that a bus-only Eco Pass transit pass might not be the answer for promoting transit use by UC employees.  

If UC wants a broader Eco Pass that includes BART, that would certainly be desirable and is also exactly what the City wants.  

The General Plan Transportation Element, adopted by the City Council last December calls for an Eco Pass program that includes both AC Transit and BART. The AC Transit Eco Pass program for City employees is only a first step. It is quite true that many people who commute to Berkeley by public transit take BART rather than riding a bus.  

Involving BART would certainly be a good idea. Right now, it costs more for UC employees who live in places like Concord or Hayward to commute by BART than to park in a UC lot. Why take BART when UC's below-market parking rates, even after recent increases, are less than the cost of a round-trip BART ride?  

However, there is no reason why UC shouldn't start with an AC Transit pass as the City has done. AC Transit has been willing to work with the City on Eco Pass and with UC on the Class Pass. BART may take longer to persuade, though hopefully they will get involved as well.  

Mr. Permaul suggests that it's too soon to tell whether Berkeley's Eco Pass program will be successful in reducing demand for parking. Evidence from existing Eco Pass-type programs in other cities and on other campuses shows that these programs have been successful in increasing transit use.  

UC shouldn't be afraid to give it a try.  

UCLA is now in the second year of a two year pilot transit pass program called Bruin Go. This program allows not just students, but faculty and staff as well, to ride Santa Monica's Blue Bus system for free. It is funded with parking fee revenues. Initial indications are that it has reduced demand for parking. If UC Berkeley tries Eco Pass for a couple of years and it proves unsuccessful, they can always discontinue it.  

Mr Permaul concludes that UC is going to work with City staff to achieve the goals of the Southside/Downtown TDM Study. One of the major recommendations of that study is to "Develop a City-Supported EcoPass Program".  

The TDM study suggests that Eco Pass costs be paid by employers and specifically calls for UC involvement. The TDM study has this to say about Eco Pass programs: "Almost all the prepaid fare programs implemented between employers and transit agencies have been successful,...".  

So, if UC is serious about implementing the TDM study and encouraging employee transit use, they should stop making excuses and move forward with Eco Pass.  

Rob Wrenn,  

Planning Commission  

Berkeley

Andrew Hintz, a UC Berkeley senior and member of Cal Democrats said, that recent casualties in Afghanistan hasn’t weakened his support for the war. 

“We’re fighting a war and part of war is casualties,” he said as he screamed at fellow students to go out and vote in Tuesday’s election. “I think that if you decide as a country to go to war, then you’ve decided to accept some casualties.” 

And he’s willing to accept as many casualties as necessary. “I don’t think there’s a threshold of a number of casualties,” he said.  

Today is Monday, March 11, the 70th day of 2002. There are 295 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 11, 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, vowing: “I shall return.” (He kept that promise nearly three years later.) 

On this date: 

In 1810, Emperor Napoleon of France was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. 

In 1861, the Confederate convention in Montgomery, Ala., adopted a constitution. 

In 1888, the famous “Blizzard of ’88” struck the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths. 

In 1930, former President and Chief Justice Taft was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 

In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis. 

In 1959, the Lorraine Hansberry drama “A Raisin in the Sun” opened at New York’s Ethel Barrymore Theater. 

In 1965, the Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died after being beaten by whites during civil rights disturbances in Selma, Ala. 

In 1977, more than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations. 

In 1982, protesting his innocence, Sen. Harrison A. Williams Jr., D-N.J., resigned after 23 years in the Senate, rather than face expulsion in the wake of his ABSCAM conviction. 

In 1985, Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko. 

Ten years ago: Members of the U.N. Security Council accused Iraq of playing a game of “cheat and retreat” from its promises to disarm and respect its people’s human rights; Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz lashed back, saying his country was complying with Gulf War cease-fire resolutions. 

Five years ago: In a startling turnaround, Senate Republicans agreed to a broader investigation of campaign financing that would include a look at huge “soft money” donations. Senate confirmation hearings for CIA Director-designate Anthony Lake began. Rock star Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 

One year ago: Masked Zapatista rebels urged passage of an Indian rights bill after riding triumphantly into the heart of Mexico’s capital in a march supported by the president and welcomed by 75,000 cheering supporters. 

Today’s Birthdays 

Actor Terence Alexander is 79. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is 71. ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 68. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is 66. Musician Flaco Jimenez is 63. Actress Tricia O’Neil is 57. Rock singer-musician Mark Stein (Vanilla Fudge) is 55. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 52. Movie director Jerry Zucker is 52. Actress Susan Richardson is 50. Singer Nina Hagen is 47. Country singer Jimmy Fortune (The Statler Brothers) is 47. Singer Cheryl Lynn is 45. Actress Alex Kingston (“ER”) is 39. Actor Wallace Langham is 37. Actor John Barrowman is 34. Singer Lisa Loeb is 34. Singer Pete Droge is 33. Rock musician Rami Jaffee (Wallflowers) is 33. Rock singer-musicians Benji and Joel (Good Charlotte) are 23. Actress Thora Birch is 20.

LOS ANGELES — Some 500 friends and relatives of Daniel Pearl remembered the slain journalist Sunday as intelligent and sometimes clumsy, but always generous and committed to changing the world. 

“That was really our agenda in our own way,” said Pearl’s wife, Mariane, who spoke at the memorial service inside the Skirball Cultural Center. Information about the invitation-only service came through a single pool reporter who was allowed to attend. 

Daniel Pearl’s parents, Judea and Ruth Pearl, his sisters Tamara, 40, and Michelle, 32, and about a dozen friends and relatives shared their memories of the Wall Street Journal reporter. 

Others at the service included Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger, John K. Bauman, the consul general for Karachi, Pakistan, and boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who had pleaded for Pearl to be freed after his Jan. 23 kidnapping. 

Pearl, 38, South Asia bureau chief for the Journal, was kidnapped while researching links between Pakistani extremists and shoe-bombing suspect Richard C. Reid. A grisly videotape received Feb. 22 by U.S. diplomats in Karachi showed Pearl dead. His body has not been found. 

“He was courageous and brave, but not because he was a journalist out there in the trenches doing things that were risky,” said Daniel Gill, 38, of San Francisco, who met Pearl met when both were fourth-graders at a San Fernando Valley elementary school. 

“He was courageous and brave because Danny, more than anyone I knew, had the courage to live, and live well. I think he lived more in his 38 years than I have and probably ever will,” Gill said at a press conference after the service. 

There was more laughter than tears as people recounted anecdotes from Pearl’s youth in Los Angeles, his college years in Stanford University and his professional career with the Journal and other newspapers. They also recalled his musical talent on the fiddle and other instruments. 

Members of one of the bands Pearl played in, The Clamp in Washington, D.C., played a song they had composed together called “The World is Not a Bad Place.” 

Mariane, who married Pearl in Paris in August 1999 and lived and worked with him in India, said that the couple drew up their own wedding contract that contained commitments “to always remain open to new cultures and new people, and to inspire others with our relationship.” 

“We felt we were really lucky to have met each other,” Mariane said. “The more time we spent together, the more we loved each other.” 

Mariane, a French free-lance journalist, said she and her husband traveled everywhere together, and she doesn’t understand why she wasn’t with him the night he met his ultimate captors. 

“Even death cannot separate us. I make the commitment to enable him to live throughout me, throughout our son,” said Mariane Pearl, who expects to give birth to the couple’s only child in May. 

Pearl’s father, Judea, and his friends talked about his uncanny ability to land on his feet and talk his way out of predicaments — like the time he convinced a cab driver to loan him his belt for a job interview. 

They said that after he was kidnapped, they held on the hope that he would be able to talk his way out of that as well. 

“He knew for sure that no matter how complex the situation, some good fairy would take care of him, and she did for 38 years,” Judea Pearl said. 

Pearl was born Oct. 10, 1963 in Princeton, N.J., and grew up in the San Fernando Valley in northwest Los Angeles, graduating with honors in 1981 from Birmingham High in Van Nuys. He graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with a degree in communications. 

SAN DIEGO — After Sept. 11, a wave of fear swept through this beach town, better known for its sun, surf and laid-back attitude. 

The FBI revealed that two of the hijackers on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon had lived in the area. Several Middle Eastern men who knew them were rounded up. Criminal hearings were held in secret behind locked courtroom doors. 

Monday marks six months after the attacks, and for most here, the panic and alarm of those days has subsided. But for Muslims, whose leaders unanimously condemned the attacks, the wounds of Sept. 11 remain fresh. 

Many Arab-Americans are struggling with what they perceive to be their new status as a persecuted minority. There is a widespread belief that their phones are being tapped, that the media has made them into an object of hate and that the FBI may come knocking at any time, with devastating consequences. 

The enduring lesson, many say, is the fragility of one’s rights. 

“It makes me remember my dad, how they used to feel where they were being interrogated by the local regimes in their countries,” said Mohammed Nasser, a Lebanese-American who serves as director of the San Diego chapter of the Muslim-American Society. 

Randall Hamud, an Arab-American attorney representing two men arrested as material witnesses in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he sees a steady erosion of civil rights. Attorney General John Ashcroft, he said, is “putting the jackboot of repression on my people.” 

“I have no doubt my conversation with you is being recorded,” Hamud told a reporter from his cellular phone earlier this week. 

Scores of Arab-Americans have been questioned by FBI agents in San Diego since the Sept. 11 attacks. A total of four Middle Eastern men were arrested as material witnesses in the days after the attacks. One was let go but three others remain in custody, charged with document fraud or lying to a grand jury. 

While the terrorism probe is no longer front page news, the investigation isn’t dormant. Just last week, an Algerian detained with a former roommate of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers who lived in San Diego was charged with immigration document fraud. 

Many Muslims wonder if they’re next. Poor connections on calls placed to relatives back in the Middle East during the recent Muslim holidays were blamed on eavesdropping. One Muslim leader placed a device on his phone line that showed, he claimed, that his line is tapped. 

Bill Gore, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego office, called the allegations of wiretapping “unfortunate.” He said the FBI does not arbitrarily tap phones. Such decisions, he said, are made with care and a judge must be shown probable cause before a tap can be installed. 

“We couldn’t do our job without the cooperation of law-abiding citizens in the Muslim community,” Gore said. 

Few know the feeling of scrutiny better than Abdussattar Shaikh, a Muslim and retired educator who rented rooms in his home in 2000 to Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, who allegedly hijacked American Airlines Flight 77. The FBI said he is not a suspect, and Shaikh harbors no bitterness toward the 15 to 20 armed agents who searched his home in the suburb of Lemon Grove. 

“I have no complaint at all,” he said Sunday. “I try to look at things from the government’s point of view.” 

Shaikh said his anger is directed at the two hijackers who took advantage of his generosity as a fellow Muslim. He also said he felt mistreated by members of the media who made him a prisoner in his home for three weeks. 

But Muslims say San Diegans in general have treated them well, aside from some coldness in the days immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. In fact, along with the ubiquitous reports of tapped phones are stories of unexpected acts of kindness. 

Omaran Abdeen recalled walking last month through a local mall with his wife, who wears a Muslim headscarf, when a fellow shopper approached them. 

“She came up to my wife and said ’I really admire your courage to come out with your scarf on and I want you to know we support you,”’ said Abdeen, the San Diego representative of the Council of American-Islamic Relations. 

officials divided on whether the war is winding down or taking shape 

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — Hundreds of weary U.S. soldiers descended from the Afghan mountains Sunday after a grueling eight-day battle against enemy holdouts. U.S. bombers pounded the caves where the remaining fighters were hiding. 

The Army said ground fighting was winding down but that Operation Anaconda would continue until the last of the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters had been killed or surrendered in the Shah-e-Kot mountains. 

About 400 U.S. troops returned to the Bagram air base north of Kabul on Sunday in wave after wave of CH-47 Chinook helicopters. It wasn’t clear when the remaining 600 would be out of the fighting zone. 

“We’re home!” the soldiers shouted, offering high-fives to elated colleagues. A few shook their heads in disbelief, grateful they had made it out alive. 

U.S. military officials in the United States and in Afghanistan characterized the state of fighting differently. 

Maj. Bryan Hilferty, the 10th Mountain Division spokesman, told reporters at Bagram that “the major fighting of the battle is over.” But Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of the war, took issue with that statement. 

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Franks said that while some U.S. troops have been moved out of the battle area, others would take their places. “I don’t know that I could characterize it as winding down,” he said. 

Operation Anaconda was launched March 2 to crush al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the mountains of Paktia province. U.S. officials said the operation would continue until the last of the enemy troops surrendered or died. 

While the mission was hailed as a success, U.S. soldiers on the front lines were disappointed with one glaring absence: Afghan troops. According to pool reports from Sahikot Valley, the original plan was for U.S. soldiers to pull out after a couple days and be replaced by Afghan troops led by commander Zia Lodin. According to U.S. troops, Zia’s unit never showed. 

“Who cares,” said one soldier in the battle zone, south of the town of Gardez. “I don’t think anybody here cares anymore. If Zia comes, great. If not, oh well.” 

In Gardez, an Afghan commander, Ismail, said al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the area were ”75 percent spent” and he expected a final push within the next two days. Coalition forces said they killed at least 500 fighters and that about 200 were believed left. Eight Americans and three of their Afghan allies died. 

Ismail said American officers told him to wait for more bombing to soften up the last of the enemy forces. Late Sunday, the roar of U.S. jets and the distant thud of explosions could be heard from the battle area. 

SAN FRANCISCO – J. Eugene McAteer High School, an educational dumping ground where poorly performing students often were assigned, will close permanently at year’s end. 

Enrollment at the campus has declined over the past five years and graduation rates have suffered as well, according to the school district. 

“It got a reputation over the years of being a school that was underperforming,” San Francisco schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman said Sunday. “I think, in the end, people who felt emotionally abut McAteer closing felt it was in the best interest of the children.” 

The school district’s Board of Education voted 4-1 in favor of the shutdown at its meeting held Feb. 26. 

The underlying performance numbers at McAteer tell the story of school where few students wanted to be and most of them failed to keep up academically: 

• Over the last five years, enrollment has declined more than 50 percent. 

• Over the last four years, the graduation rate dropped from 95 percent to 87 percent. 

• In each of the three years that the state has measured schools on their Academic Performance Index, McAteer received a rank of one – the lowest ranking on the ten-point scale. 

And the district acknowledges that many of the students at McAteer were placed there in the middle of a school year because of discipline problems at other campuses. 

Ackerman said it became a fairly common practice for other schools to funnel poorly performing students and children with special needs to the McAteer campus, rather than equally distributing those students to several campuses in the district. 

“We’re now looking at making sure every high school gets its fair share of all students, and students with special needs in particular,” Ackerman said. 

About 75 McAteer teachers also will be placed at other campuses within the district. No layoffs were expected. 

The school’s principal, Patricia Fioriello, said the decision to close McAteer was met with mostly heavy hearts around campus. 

“Emotionally, it has not been easy for some of our students and staff,” Fioriello said. “Emotions aside, we all know and for the most parts the students know, this decision will reap great educational rewards for our students, especially as we implement a plan for mentors and tutors for the students who need that support.” 

McAteer students were told to list three campuses they would like to attend for the 2002-03 school year and will be granted one of those choices, Ackerman said. 

The district considered keeping a special senior class together for one last year, but a survey of 174 juniors found that just 40 were in favor of such a plan. 

Of the 850 students currently enrolled at McAteer, only 15 percent originally listed the campus as their first choice to attend.

WALNUT CREEK – A Walnut Creek pharmacist will be forced to surrender his license at the end of the month, after his business mixed a batch of medicine linked to an outbreak of illness and three meningitis deaths in June. 

Robert Horwitz, 62, a pharmacist for at least 35 years, must also give up his permit for Doc’s Pharmacy, although he sold the business in November. 

Horwitz was well-known for mixing custom medications, a practice known as “compounding.” 

But an Alameda County administrative law judge had found that poor sterilization techniques and other substandard practices during compounding led to a tainted batch of injectable steroid. 

Up to 38 people received the contaminated cortisone shots, and of those, 13 were hospitalized following the injections. Five of those people contracted meningitis and three later died. 

The state’s decision to revoke Horwitz’s license supported the judge’s finding. 

Horwitz’s former partner, Jamey Sheets, and two pharmacy technicians will receive 90-day suspensions and five-year probations. 

Sheets also must go through remedial education and, under the terms of his probation, is prohibited from mixing injectable medications. 

The state said Horwitz did not supervise the technicians who prepared the batch of shots. 

Family members of those who died after receiving the shots, as well as some who received the injections, have filed 15 separate lawsuits.

SAN FRANCISCO – An African American deputy probation officer in Marin County was awarded $1.6 million in damages in a civil rights suit. 

Officer Lonnie Morris, 44, along with fellow officer Wilfred Broom, sued the county government in 1999, asking for $2 million and accusing Marin County officials of maintaining a hostile work environment for racial minorities. The suit named the county, the board of supervisors, the probation department and Chief Probation Officer Ronald Baylo as defendants. 

The U.S. District Court jury in San Francisco issued a verdict Friday in favor of Morris that included $1.1 million in damages against the county and more than $500,000 against Baylo for racial discrimination. It also found Baylo liable for $20,000 in punitive damages, but rejected Morris’ claim that he was not promoted because of racial discrimination.

LOS ANGELES – As The Walt Disney Co. struggles to rapidly resuscitate ABC, the entertainment giant is looking to use the muscle of its ESPN cable sports network to bolster its flagging media division. 

Since Disney acquired it in 1996, the sports channel has expanded into an international brand, putting its name on a magazine, restaurant chain and its first original movie, “A Season on the Brink,” which aired Sunday. 

It has become one of the few bright spots on Disney’s disappointing balance sheet, generating profits at a time when Disney’s flagship network ABC is losing money. 

ESPN was key in a multibillion dollar deal for the rights to air NBA games on the cable network and ABC. Disney also is using ESPN as high-priced leverage in negotiations with cable and satellite television operators as it tries to launch new cable channels. 

Disney is even using ESPN’s appeal to young males to lure late-night TV host David Letterman to ABC by offering to market the show on ESPN. 

Meanwhile, Viacom Inc., which owns CBS, is trying to keep Letterman with a plan to market the show on its youth-oriented MTV and VH-1 networks. 

Overall, profits at Disney’s media networks division, which includes ABC, ESPN and other channels, dropped 58 percent in the last three months of 2001 as revenue declined by 3 percent. 

A weak advertising market, poor ratings at ABC and the increased cost of news programing after Sept. 11 contributed to the decline. 

But profits from Disney’s cable operations jumped 6 percent on an 18 percent increase in revenue, due largely to subscriber income and the fees Disney is able to collect from cable and satellite operators on the strength of ESPN, The Disney Channel and Lifetime. 

“Up until 2001, ESPN has been probably the fastest-growing division with consistency among all the operating divisions at Disney,” said Jeff Logsdon, an analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison. 

Disney wants to spread that strength to other parts of the company, including ABC, which has found mixed results while trying to boost ratings. 

Ratings at ABC fell precipitously in 2001 after executives bet too heavily on the sustained success of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” which had helped ABC become the top-rated network in 2000. 

Overall ratings have also dipped at ESPN since 1997 as the network expanded into four cable channels, partly cannibalizing its own audience. 

But ESPN ratings have increased 24 percent in prime time since October. Executives are hoping a mix of original shows, exclusive rights to key games and a strategy to attract a variety of sports enthusiasts, including bass fishermen, will keep the brand strong. 

Disney used ESPN’s clout to wage a joint bid with ABC for the rights to National Basketball Association games for six years. ESPN is now the only network that features all four major sports leagues. 

“We estimate the deal is worth around $2.4 billion and think it reaffirms Disney’s ABC Sports and ESPN as leaders in sports programming through 2008,” Jill Krutik, an analyst for Salomon Smith Barney, wrote in a recent report. 

ESPN’s dominance has allowed Disney to wield the network like a hammer over the heads of cable and satellite companies. 

Disney commands the highest possible price for ESPN and enforces a maximum 20 percent rate hike each year, while using the network as leverage to force cable operators to accept a host of new channels. 

The strategy is alienating some cable operators and is at the heart of a dispute between Disney and EchoStar Communications Inc., which wants to drop the ABC Family Channel from its Dish Network service. EchoStar has already stopped airing ESPN Classic, a channel ESPN acquired in 1997. 

“Disney wants to dominate every market they have and charge the maximum price,” said Larry Gerbrandt, chief content officer at Kagan World Media, a media research and consulting firm. 

ESPN defends its prices and points to a recent study conducted by Beta Research Corp. showing that cable operators consider ESPN the most valuable network carried by their systems. 

“We deliver a valuable product to cable operators,” ESPN President George Bodenheimer said. “We’re very comfortable that we have struck a balance in the price-value relationship with the operators. They make money off of ESPN.” 

ESPN The Magazine launched in 1998 and lags behind its chief rival, Sports Illustrated. But the ESPN magazine’s circulation grew 20 percent in the last six months of 2001, to 1.4 million, while SI’s circulation has remained fairly steady at about 3.2 million for the past several years. 

AOL Time Warner, which publishes SI, recently brought in a new editor to revive the title.

Extension employees have been negotiating with the university for better wages during the past six months 

Their red shirts were red flags. Clerical workers at the UC Berkeley Extension rallied outside their building on University Avenue Friday to protest what they see as a skimpy contract proposal from the university. 

UC administrators are offering the Coalition of University of Employees a 1 percent pay raise and have taken away merit increases, which would raise salaries based on good performance reports. CUE has been negotiating with the university for the last six months, but now clerical workers at the Extension school are fed up. 

Holding signs that said, “Honk if you think clericals deserve a raise” and blowing whistles, the workers wanted to make sure the university heard their discontent. 

“We need more than the 1 percent raise,” said Sue Meux, an administrative assistant. “There are no merit increases and most of us got good reports and earned them last year. We’ve also had layoffs and they expect us to pick up the work load. But there’s no incentive.”  

“We’re out here to let the university know we’re watching them and we’re not happy,” said Meux. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington was also out supporting the workers.  

“I think it’s very unfair that the university keeps having top-heavy increases and refusing to give reasonable cost-of-living increases for employees,” said Worthington. 

“If the City of Berkeley made this offer to its unions like the university is making to this union, people would laugh at us. It’s not a serious negotiation tactic,” he said. 

The issue is important to students, too.  

“At a big state school, it’s important that students get as much attention as possible,” said Cal student Snehal Shingavi. 

Without clerical workers who organize the process, he said, students could get lost in the shuffle.  

CUE has been unhappy with the university’s compensation package for some time. Members also held a rally on campus last week to protest the transit subsidy program. 

Meux hopes that the university realizes how important it is to have happy, productive clerical employees. 

“Take away the clericals and the university comes to a standstill,” she said. 

Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell, who oversees business and administrative services, was out of town. Other human resources officials at the university could not be reached for comment.

Editor:  

Last year, I co-wrote a set of ecologically sustainable land use policies I hoped would be introduced into the General Plan Revision process called the Ecocity Amendment. The policies are based on the principles of ecological city theory and planning developed, in part, by Ecocity Builders, a Berkeley based NGO that works towards designing built human habitats that exist in balance with the surrounding biosphere. Over the course of several months, over 100 mostly local groups and businesses endorsed the polices. 

Additionally, both the moderates and progressives in the City Council submitted their versions of the amendments, as did the City Planning Department. Much of the policy language is now in the General Plan Revision, thanks to the support of our endorsers and the commitment of Council to ensure that the ideas were represented. 

Recently, it was brought to my attention that a new group calling itself The Berkeley Party had taken the text of the Ecocity Amendment and made a mockery of the document for their amusement, calling it the 'Eco-community Amendment', and posted in on their website. I was even more disappointed when I went to the members page and found that a few respected city officials had their names on the twelve person or so membership list. 

Strangely, while the Berkeley Party members call for more professional behavior from our elected officials, they quickly turn around and do something completely unprofessional themselves. 

But I guess maybe they think people who represent a break from the past aren't worthy of their respect. As a single parent living in a West Berkeley apartment, my way of living wouldn't be considered very 'livable' by many of the Berkeley Party anyway. They seem to believe that the only way to live a 'human scale' life is to own a single family home in a low density neighborhood. I am proud of the fact that I take up less energy and less land. I don't need a house or a bunch of stuff to have a good life, and although I don't have a front and back yard, I do have Codornices Creek three blocks away and the Karl Linn Community Gardens up the street. 

By refusing to build any significant housing in Berkeley for 30 years, we have created a car-swamped almost entirely gentrified city of incredibly expensive houses with a tokenistically small number of guilt-dispelling low income units that aren't really that low because the average price is so astronomically high in the first place. I wonder why?  

Well, if you go to the Berkeley Party website, you'll see that they have as their icon a picture of Berkeley from 1900. With this as their 'blueprint' for Berkeley, you can tell why we haven't come a very long way towards facing the realities, challenges and opportunities of the present. Let's make way for the future, and let's make it even better than Berkeley 1900. Let's plan for and create human habitats that will be equitable and healthy for both people and nature, not just for those who own single family detached homes and who are digging in their heels, closing their eyes and hears and pretending that returning to the past is the wave of the future. 

Kirstin Miller 

Ecocity Builders 

Berkeley 

Jewish music will take center stage in Berkeley for the next two weeks, but many people may be surprised by what they hear. 

The 17th annual Jewish Music Festival hits Berkeley today. The largest of its kind in Northern California, the 15-day festival presents and eclectic array of music that is not well known to local audiences, and is not typically viewed as traditionally Jewish. 

The Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center designed the festival to introduce Bay Area residents to the vast traditions and newest trends in Jewish music. From the centuries-old music of Central Asia to the latest innovations in Klezmer, the festival strives to present music that is both moving and relevant to music fans of all backgrounds. 

The specter of Sept. 11 and the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians factored heavily in selecting this year’s performers. The organizers wanted to show that Jewish music, including that forged in Muslim-populated lands, has never existed in isolation, but has absorbed and influenced the traditions of its neighbors. 

“We want this to be an antidote to the daily headlines so people can understand that there is a rich history of collaborations between Jews and Muslims” said Eleanor Shapiro, co-director of this year’s festival.  

Highlighting the festival’s theme, the Gerard Edery Ensemble will perform music from the Golden Age of Spain. That was a time when Jews, Muslims and Christians forged a common musical language. Also in the spotlight is Darma, an Israeli ensemble acclaimed for its fusion of Middle Eastern Jewish and Arab music with the sounds of Eastern Europe, Ireland and jazz, and Shashmaqam, the Bukharan Jewish Ensemble, whose members were reared in the musical traditions of Central Asia, where the native songs and dances are as at home in a Muslim wedding as they are at a Jewish festival.  

In the spirit of blending musical traditions and styles, Kitka and Davka, two of the Bay Area’s most renowned ensembles will make there collaborative debut March 23 at the Roda Theater. Daniel Hoffman, Davka’s violinist and composer will premiere a new work, inspired by the Nachman Bialik’s Hebrew Poem “At Twilight.” The composition will be supported by the voices of Kitka, an eight-woman a cappella group, which will stray from its traditionally Balkan and Slavic repertoire to sing in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino.  

Klezmer fans will have a chance to clap their hands and stomp their feet during a few special performances. On Sunday, March 17 Joshua Waletzky, a major force in the Klezmer revival, will perform at the Roda Theatre. The following Sunday at the International House, Michael Alpert hosts Soles on Fire, a community Klezmer dance party, featuring a band, which includes members of the acclaimed Klezmer ensemble, Brave New World. 

Shashmaqam will open the festival on Saturday, March 9 at the Wheeler Auditorium. Darma will perform at Wheeler on March 10, and The Gerard Edery Ensemble will perform on March 14 at the Roda Theatre.  

For a full list of events and ticket information call 925-866-9559 or visit www.brjcc.org 

The special historical connection between Jews and Muslims is getting extra attention this year, and fittingly, the festival opens with Shashmaqam, the Bukharan Jewish ensemble. The Bukharan Jewish Community has called the Central Asia home for centuries. The group’s repertoire 

924 Gilman Mar. 9: Not Flipper, The Sick, Lo-FI Niessans, Stalker Potential, Deficient; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series Mar. 17: 8 p.m., Vorticella; the laptop duo of Kristen Miltner and Kendra Juul; $0 to $20, TUVA Space, 3192 Adeline. 649-8744, http://sfsound.org/acme.html. 

The Albatross Mar. 9: Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet, 9:30 p.m.; Mar. 12: Mad & Eddie Duran; Mar. 14: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Mar. 17: Bobby Nickels, Kyle Thyer, Cherlie, 8:30 p.m.; Mar. 18: Paul Schneider; Mar. 19: Carla Kaufman & Larry Scala; Mar. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Mar. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Mar. 9: Vicki Burns and Felice York; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 10: Choro Time; Mar. 11: Renegade Sidemen; Mar. 12: Singers’ open mic w/ Trio; Mar. 13: Jimmy Ryan Jazz Quartet; Mar. 14: Rev. Rabia; Mar. 15: Sallie/Dave/Doug Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Hideo Date; Mar. 16: Bob Crawford Jazz Trio; 10 p.m., Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Mar. 17: Aleph Null; Music starts at 8 p.m. unless noted, 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center Mar. 9: 7:30 p.m., “In Song and Struggle,” 3rd annual music, dance and spoken word celebration of International Women’s Day and 12 years of Berkeley Copwatch, $10-$20, www.berkeleycopwatch.org; Mar. 10: 2 - 6 p.m., California Friends of Louisiana French Music, $8; Mar. 10: 7:30 p.m., Be Sharps - The 22-voice student choir from El Cerrito’s Windrush Middle School, $5; Mar. 17: 7 p.m., Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos; 1317 San Pablo Ave., 548-0425. 

Blake’s Mar. 9: Motherbug, $5; Mar. 10: Earl Zero & the 7th Street Band, DJ Baggo, $3; Mar. 11 The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee, $4; Mar. 12: Colonel Knowledge, Mega Babes, $3; Mar. 13: Karate High School, Auto Punch, Simplistic, $5; Mar. 14: Ascension, $5; Mar. 15: King Harvest, First Circle, $5; Mar. 16: Omaya, $7; Mar. 17: The Lost Coast Band, The Real, $3; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cal Performances Mar. 10: 3 p.m., The Petersen Quartet perform the works of Beethoven, Shostakovich and Ravel. $34; Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Gyuto Monks perform multiphonic chanting in accordance with the spiritual practices of Tantric Tibetan Buddhism. $24 - $36; Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Andras Schiff, classical pianist. $28 - $48; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Mar. 10: Blue Eyed Devils; Mar. 13: Irish Session; Mar. 20: Saul Kaye Quartet; Mar. 24: Lost Coast Jazz Trio; Mar. 27: Vince Wallace Trio; Mar. 31: Phillip Greenlief Trio; 3891 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 655-3349 

Downtown Mar. 9: Mad and Eddie Duran; Mar. 10: Duncan James, Ned Boynton Jazz Guitar Duet; Mar. 12: Aaron Greenblatt; Mar. 13: Dave Mathews; 2102 Shattuck Ave., 649-3810 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Freight & Salvage Mar. 8 & 9: House Jacks, $17.50; Mar. 10: Todd Phillips, David Grier & Matt Flinner, $16.50; Mar. 11: Ledward Ka’apana, $17.50; Mar. 13: Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band, $16.50; Mar. 14: Carol Denney, $16.50; Mar. 15: David Maloney performs Irish folk opera “The Great Blight”, $17.50; Mar. 16: The Black Brothers, $18.50; Mar. 17: Tom Russell, $16.50; 1111 Addison St., 548-1761, folk@freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Mar. 24: 4:30 p.m., Alegria, $6-$12. 2087 Addison St., 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

Jupiter Feb. 23: Brenden Millstein Quartet; Feb. 27: J Steinkoler Duo; Feb. 28: Spectraphonic; All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m., unless noted. 2181 Shattuck Ave., 843-7625, www.jupiterbeer.com. 

La Peña Cultural Center Mar. 1: 9 p.m., 2nd Annual Women in Salsa Celebration, $10; Mar. 2: 8 p.m., Aywah! Ethnic Dance Co., $16; Mar. 3: 3:30 p.m. -6 p.m., Domingo de Rumba in the Café; Mar. 6: 7:30 p.m., Students of La Peña's classes perform Josh Jones' Latin Jazz and Hip Hop/Funk Ensemble perform with guest artists from Joyce Young's Poetry, Resistance and Cultural Arts Workshops, and students from Merritt College high school. $8; 3105 Shattuck Ave., 849-2568, www.lapena.org. 

The Starry Plough Mar. 1: 9:30 p.m., Darling Clementines, Swingin' Doors, $6; Mar. 2: 9:30 p.m., Jon Dee Graham, Naked Barbies, $8; Mar. 3: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session led by Shay Black; Mar. 4: 7 p.m., Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music session), free; Mar. 5: 7:30 p.m., Open Mic, free; Mar. 6: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam $7; Mar. 7: 9:30 p.m., Bleachmobile, Grain USA, Knieval, $4; Mar. 8: 9:30 p.m., 5 Rue Christine Label Showcase, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Hella, Slim Moon Solo, $5; Mar. 9: 9:30 p.m., Gun and Doll Show, Visitor Jim, Anton Barbeau, $5; Mar. 10: 8 p.m., The Starry Irish Music Session led by Shay Black; Mar. 11: Dance Class and Ceili (traditional Irish music session), free; Mar. 12: 7:30 p.m., Open Mic, free; Mar. 13: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik, $7; Mar. 14: 9:30 p.m., Giant Value, Warm Fields, $4; Mar. 15: 9:30 p.m., Moore Brothers, $6; Mar. 16: 9:30 p.m., St. Patrick's Celtic Meltdown, Blue on Green, Green Man Gruvin, $5; Mar. 17: 6 p.m., St. Patty's Day Celebration, Chameleon, Irish dancers & bagpiper, $10; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

“Free Men! Free Women!” Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Wing It performs a new a combination of dance, song and story. $12. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, 814-9584 

“John Glennon and Erika March” Feb. 24: 5 p.m., A program of French music including the works of Francois Couperin, Chambonnieres, and Muffat. $15 - $18. MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda, 528-1685 

“Soukous Xplosion Tour 2002” Mar. 1: 9 p.m. Madilu Systems, Nyboma, Diblo Dibala & Matchatcha and special guest Daly Kimoko will make the sounds of Africa come alive. $25, $30 at door. California Ballroom, 1736 Franklin St., Oakland, 415-421-8497 

“Cosi Fan Tutte” Through Mar. 3: The Berkeley Opera will perform Mozart’s classic opera. $10 - $30. Call for specific dates and times. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 841-103, www.berkeleyopera.com 

“In Praise of Music: Berkeley Choral Festival” Mar. 4: 8 p.m., Several local choral groups will join the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in a benefit for the Musicians’ Pension Fund. $25 - $49, $12 students. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 841-2800 

“Chamber Music” Mar. 9: 3 p.m., Berkeley High School musicians perform their second annual chamber music concert, featuring the works of Gershwin, Ravel, McMichael, Maniet and Couperin. Free. Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, 981-6250 

“Splendors of Versailles and Madrid” Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Mar. 10: 7:30 p.m., Jordi Savall conducts the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as they perform works from the Royal Court composers of Spain and France. $34 - $50. First Congregational Church, Dana & Durant, 415-392-4400 

“Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Ensemble” Mar. 10: 8 p.m., An evening of traditional music and from Bukhara, Uzbekistan. $24. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley campus, 866-9559 

“The Glory of Past Empires - Music of Great Civilizations in Europe and Western Asia” Mar. 10: 8 p.m., Tim Rayborn and John Waller. $10, $8 students. Hausmusik, 1185 Solano Ave., PMB #146, Albany, 486-2803 

“Empyrean Ensemble” Mar. 10: 2 p.m., The classical group performs two world premiers for this family matinee. $10 adults, $5 children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., 845-8542 x301, www.juliamorgan.org 

UC Men's Octet Annual Spring Show Mar. 14 and 15: 8 p.m., all-male a cappella group; $7 students, $12 general, UC Berkeley, Wheeler Auditorium, 301-2367 octoevents@hotmail.com. 

“Harmonica Ace and Band” Mar. 15: 8 p.m., 10 p.m., Carlos Zialcita and his band team up with guest vocalist Ella Pennewell for a blues concert. $12. Dotha’s Juke Joint, 126 Broadway, Oakland, 663-7668 

“Expressionality” Mar. 13 through Mar. 16: Wed. 10:15 a.m., Thurs. 10:30 a.m., 7 p.m., Sat. to be announced. An opera created and produced by 4th and 5th graders. Wed. and Thurs. shows at Malcolm X Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Sat. show at Oakland Museum of Art. 644-6313 

“The Art of Disability” Mar. 16: 7 p.m., A showcase of performing artists with disabilities. $10 -$50 sliding scale. Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, hesternet@jps.net 

“Tribute to Oakland’s Gospel Greats” Mar. 16: 7:30 p.m., The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and Youth Choir will present a free tribute concert. First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison St., Oakland, 839-4361  

“The Song of Songs” Mar. 16: 8 p.m., Composer Jorge Linderman creates a musical setting for Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s translation of “The Song of Songs”. $32. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Celebration for the Trees Mar. 17: 7 - 10 p.m., Benefit for the Ancient Trees Coalition Education Effort with Making Waves, Green, Marca Cassity, Folk This!, and Hali Hammer. BFUU Fellowship Hall 1606 Bonita. 

“Chamber Music Series” Mar. 17: 4 p.m., Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of Kronos Quartet, gives a solo performance of both acoustic and electronic pieces. $10, free children under 18. The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org 

“Jazz Concert” Mar. 24: 2 p.m., Terry Gibbs and the Mike Vax Orchestra. $10 - $18. Longfellow School for the Arts, 1500 Derby St. 420-4560, www.bigbandjazz.net 

“Recital” Mar. 24: 3 p.m., Cal Performances presents pianist, Richard Goode, and vocalist, Randall Scarlata. $48. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus, 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Jewish Music Festival” Mar. 9 through Mar 24: Several performers will perform Jewish music and dance from across the world. Call Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for Acts, times and dates. 925-866-9559, www.brjcc.org 

Dance 

“Here..Now” Through Feb. 24: Tues. - Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., 8 p.m., Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs three distinct programs featuring the West Coast premiere of “Here...Now”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“Kusum Africa” Mar. 1 & 2: 8 p.m., Sixty artists and four dance companies representing the traditions of the Congo, Republic of Guinea, and Ghana adapt sub-Saharan dance-drumming to tell the story of the occupation of Accra, Ghana to protest British colonialism. $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

"The Healing Has Time" Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, a tribute in dance benefiting the Mother of Peace Orphanage Living with AIDS in Zimbabwe. $15-$30. Kaiser Convention Center - Calvin Simmons Theater, 10th St., Oakland, 278-2681, diamanoc@aol.com. 

“Risk of Falling” Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Mar. 10: 4:30 p.m., Julie Drucker has assembled troupe of dancers ages 24 to 83 to perform an intergenerational dance project that weds improvisational movement and personal storytelling to explore issues of trust, fear, aging and community. $12 - $15, $10 seniors. Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito, 286-7922 

“Our Neighbors Dance Their Dances: A Celebration of World Dances” Mar. 10: 3 p.m., The African Queens, Patricia Bulitt, Betty Ladzekpo and Mimi Prather & Rotrease Yates perform their respective native dances. $5, children free. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 981-5150 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

“Night, Mother” Feb. 23: 8 p.m., A drama exploring one young woman’s decision to take control of her life with one furious and heartbreaking act. Directed by Bahati Bonner. $12, $8 seniors. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 496-1269 x1950, nightmother@onebox.com 

“The Pirandello Project” Through Feb. 23: Check venue for specific dates, times and prices. An original presentation of three short works by the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Luigi Pirandello. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., 841-4082, www.pirandelloproject.org 

“Culture Clash in AmeriCCA” Through Mar. 3: Check theater for specific dates and times. The comic trio Culture Clash present their latest collection of political, ethnological and socialogical humor written for and about Berkeley. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Rhinoceros” Through Mar. 10: Check theater for specific dates and times. An absurdist tragic-comedy about a small provincial town whose citizens slowly but surely transform into large cumbersome rhinoceroses. Directed by Barbara Damashek. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2976 www.berkeleyrep.org. 

“Divine Comedy: The Dante Project” Mar. 1 through Mar. 10: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. A motorcycle and sidecar speeding over the Marsh of Styx, a flying bathtub touring the solar system, and a traveler passing through a wall of fire are some of the more spectacular moments in this comic twist on Dante’s poem. $6 - $12. Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9925, genturc@uclink.berkeley.edu 

“Women’s Voices, Then and Now” Mar. 15 through Mar. 24: Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., Voices from a 1915 graveyard blend with voices from 1982 to present a vivid depiction of the lives of American women. $10. Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington, 525-0302 

“Curtain Up” Mar. 22 through Mar. 24: 8 p.m., Musical theater veteran Martin Charnin and Broadway conductor/comoser Keith Levenson join forces to create a semi-staged version of Gershwin and Kaufman’s 1927 musical comedy “Strike Up the Band”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Impact Briefs 5: The East Bay Hit” Mar. 1 through Mar. 30: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., A collection of seven plays all about the ups and downs of in the Bay Area. $12, $7 students. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, 464-4468, tickets@impattheatre.com. 

“The Merchant of Venice” Mar. 9 through Mar. 31: Wed. - Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., Women in Time Productions presents Shakespeare’s famous romantic comedy replete with masks and revelry, balcony scenes, and midnight escapes. $25, half-price on Wed. The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 925-798-1300 

“Knock Knock” Mar. 8 through Apr. 14: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., 7 p.m., A comedic farce about two eccentric retirees whose comfortable philosophical arguments are interrupted by a series of strange visitors. $26 - $35. Aurora Theatre, 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. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 20: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. Directed by Patrick Dooley. $10 - $25. The Allston Street Theatre, 2116 Allston Way, 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Mar. 11: A Star is Born, 3 p.m.; Flesh, 7 p.m.; Mar. 12: An eye Unruled: An Evening with Stan Brakhage, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 13: The Bicycle Thief, 3 p.m.; Daughter from Danang, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 14: The Student I, 7 p.m.; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412 

“Asian American Film Fest” Mar. 8: 7 p.m., Obachan’s Garden; 9:30 p.m., Conjugation; Mar. 9: 7 p.m., Daughters of the Cloth; 9:20 p.m. E-Dreams; Mar. 10: 3 p.m., Chan is Missing; 5:30 p.m., Japanese Devils; Mar. 13: Daughter From Danang; Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

Contra Costa Jewish Film Festival Through March 7th. On wednesday Febraury 27th at 7:30p.m. 2736 Bancrfot Avenue - Love, Israeli Style will be playing. On Thursday, March 7th at 7:30 p.m. 2451 Shattuck Avenue - The Search for Peace will be playingg ($5).  

Exhibits  

“Adventures in La Land” Through Feb. 23: Installations by Suzanne Husky and Paintings by Amy Morrell. Tues. - Sat., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 4920 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, 428-2349. 

“Transformations: Through the Eye of a Needle” Through Feb. 23: Two-person exhibition by Rebecca Bui and Linda Lemon including procelain and fabric dolls and mixed media works on handmade paper. Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, www.artolio.com 

“Ton of Joy” Through Mar. 1: Group show of twelve painters and sculptors: Simone Anders, Susan Brady, Erin Fitzgerald, Karen Frey, Kei Hanafusa, Nancy Legge, Burke Rainey, Robin Sebourn, Kristen Throop, Clay Vajgrt, Whitney Vosburgh, Ann West; Mon. - Sat., 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Hollis Street Project, 5900 Hollis St., Emeryville. 

“Celebrating the African Diaspora” Through Mar. 1: A Black History Month Exhibit celebrating the contributions of Africans in America and throughout the Diaspora. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.; University of Creation Sprituality, 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x31 

“Trace of a Human” Feb. 28 through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography; Through Mar. 24: “Migrations: Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado,” over 300 black-and-white photographs of immigrants and refugees taken by the Brazilian photographer. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Feb. 16 through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Works of Alexander Nepote” Through Mar. 29: Nepote was a 20th century artist whose medium is a process of layered painting of torn pieces of watercolor paper, fused together in images that speak of the spirit that underlies and is embodied in the landscape he views. Check museum for times. Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., 849-8272 

“Trace of a Human” Through Mar. 30: An exhibit of mixed media sculpture by Jim Freeman, and acrylic paintings on canvas by Krystyna Mleczko. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Journey of Self-discovery” Through Mar. 30: Community Works artist Adriana Diaz and Willard Junior High students joined together to explore gender stereotypes, advertising, and other influential elements in society in a project that culminated in two life-size portraits that explore self-identity. Free. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 845-3332. 

“West Oakland Today” Through Mar. 30: Sergio De La Torre presents “thehousingproject”, an open house/video installation that explores desire surrounding one’s sense of home and place. Marcel Diallo presents “Scrapyard Ghosts”, an installation that presents a glimpse into the process of one man’s conversation with the living past through objects of iron, wood, rock dirt and other debris unearthed at an old scrapyard site in West Oakland’s Lower Bottom neighborhood. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland  

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

“Portraits of the Afghan People: 1984 - 1992” Through Apr. 6: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Bay Area photographer Patricia Monaco. Free. Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400 

“The Zoom of the Souls” Mar. 23 through Apr. 13: An exhibit of oil paintings by Mark P. Fisher. Sat. 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Bay Area Music Foundation, 462 Elwood Ave. #9, Oakland, 836-5223 

“Sibila Savage & Sylvia Sussman” Through Apr. 13: Photographer, Sibila Savage presents photographs documenting the lives of her immigrant grandparents, and Painter, Sylvia Sussman displays her abstract landscapes on unstretched canvas. Free. Wed. - Sun. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 64-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future” Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“Art is Education” Mar. 18 through Apr. 19th: A group exhibition of over 50 individual artworks created by Oakland Unified School District students, Kindergarten through 12th grade. Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 238-6952, www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Expressions of Time and Space” Mar. 18 through April 17: Calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Julien Designs 1798 Shattuck Ave., 540-7634, RyNakasone@aol.com.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“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, www.atelier9.com. 

“Quilted Paintings” Mar. 3 through May 4: Contemporary wall quilts by Roberta Renee Baker, landscapes, abstracts, altars and story quilts. Free. The Coffee Mill, 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-4224 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Mar. 17: 3 p.m., Suzan Hagstrom reads from her book “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chielnik,” chronicling the survival of one brother and four sisters in Nazi death camps. Free. 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237 x127 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Mar. 7: Carl Parkes, author of “Moon Handbook: Southeast Asia”, presents a slide show exploring his travels in the region; Mar. 12: William Fienne describes his personal journey from Texas to North Dakota as he follows the northern migration of snow geese; Mar. 14: Gary Crabbe and Karen Misuraca present slides and read from their book, “The California Coast”; Mar. 19: Barbara and Robert Decker present a slide show focusing on the volcanoes of California and the Cascade Mountain Range; Mar. 21: Stefano DeZerega discusses opportunities for study, travel, and work in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

GAIA Building Mar. 9: 3 - 7 p.m., Border Crossing Photos by Patrice Wynne; Mar. 14: 7 - 9 p.m., Lecture with Patricia Evans speaking from her book, “Controlling People: How to recognize, Understand and Deal with People Who Are Trying to Control You.”; Mar. 19: Reading and slide show with Carol Wagner, “Survival of the Spirit: Lives of Cambodian Buddhists.”; March 21: 6 - 9 p.m., 1st Berkeley Edgework Books Salon; Mar. 22: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., Book Reading and Jazz Concert with David Rothenberg; All events are held in the Rooftop Gardens Solarium, 7th Floor, GAIA Building, 2116 Allston Way, 848-4242. 

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series Mar. 7: Marilyn Hacker reads from her most recent book, “Squares and Courtyards”. Free. Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Berkeley campus, 642-0137, www.berkeley.edu/calendar/events/poems 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Mar. 3: Myung Mi Kim, Harryette Mullen & Geoffrey O’Brien; Mar. 6: Bill Berkson, Albert Flynn DeSilver; Mar. 10: Leslie Scalapino, Dan Farrell; Mar. 13: Lucille Lang Day, Risa Kaparo; Mar. 20: Edward Smallfield, Truong Tran; Mar. 24: Susan Griffin, Honor Moore; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Poetry Reading @ South Branch Berkeley Public Library Mar. 2: Bay Area Poets Coalition is holding an open reading. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Free. 1901 Russell St. 

Word Beat Mar. 9: Sonia Greenfield and Megan Breiseth; Mar. 16, Q. R. Hand and Lu Pettus; Mar. 23: Lee Gerstmann and Sam Pierstorffs; Mar. 30: Eleanor Watson-Gove and Jim Watson-Gove; All shows 7 - 9 p.m., Coffee With A Beat, 458 Perkins, Oakland. 526-5985, www.angelfire.com/poetry/wordbeat. 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

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. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. 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. 

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. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

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, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Auditions Live Science Demonstrations” A directed activity in which children “audtion” to be a dinosaur in an upcoming movie. They’ll learn about the variety of dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park exhibit as well as dress up, act, and roar like a dinosaur. Through May 12: Mon. - Fri. 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. 3 p.m. $8 adults, $6 children. Centenial Dr. just above the UC campus and just below

Saturday, March 9

Burma Human Rights Day 

6 - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship Hall 

1924 Cedar 

Benefit for women’s groups on the Thailand/Burma border. Burmese cuisine 6 - 7 p.m.; Min Zin, featured speaker, 7 - 8 p.m.; “Sacrifice,” feature film, 8 - 9 p.m.; $10-$20 sliding scale. 841-4824, www.badasf.org. 

Restore Hetch Hetchy 

5 p.m. 

MountainLight Gallery 

1466 66th St., Emeryville 

A short presentation describing the effort to obtain a “win-win” outcome for Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley and the Bay Area’s water and power users. 209-372-8660, www.mountainlight.com/. 

Train for the Eco-Challenge 

2 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff, veteran members of Team REI-Salomon, with a slide presentation on their recent Eco-Challenge events in New Zealand and Borneo. They will discuss how to train for a competition, select team members and prevent injury. 527-4140. 

Sunday, March 10

Oakland Civic Orchestra’s 

Children’s Concert 

3 p.m. 

Oakland Veteran’s Memorial Building 

200 Grand Ave., Oakland 

A concert for children of all ages. There will be a raffle and young members from the audience will have a chance to conduct the orchestra. Free. 251-8362. 

Storytelling Women 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Live Oak Center, Social Hall 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Women tellers telling about women who inspire their lives. 4 storytellers and a musician. Part of the annual women’s and girls’ tea party and storytelling ceremony held in Codornices Park. $30 suggested. 841-6612. 

The Labor Movement, Democracy and the Political Vacuum 

noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity 

411 28th St., Oakland 

Presentation by Steve Zeltzer. 451-5818, HumanistHall@yahoo.com. 

Tibetan Art: Entering  

the Realm of the Sacred 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Sylvia Gretchen, Dean of Nyingma Studies, will uses examples of Tibetan art to explore the meaning of “sacred.” 843-6812. 

Monday, March 11

The Science Behind Global Warming, and How You Can Reduce Your Impact 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

University Ave. and Bonar St. 

Susan Ode, Berkeley Energy Commission, will provide an update on the science and implications of global warming for the world, plus a practical list of actions you can incorporate in your life to protect the global climate and improve the quality of your life. 981-5435, energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

Odyssey of Conflict and Odyssey of Mastery – Polanyi, Pirsig, Zen, and the Art of Knowing 

3:30 - 5 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion, Mudd 206 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Lecture and discussion presented by Allen Dyer, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at East Tennessee State University, also former chair of the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association. Free and open to the public. 849-8285. 

Learning from The History of Government 

noon 

UC Berkeley 

Harris Room (119 Moses Hall) 

Positive Political Theory Seminar with Roger Myerson, University of Chicago. 642-4608, http://www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Conscientious Objection to War 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Friends’ Meetinghouse 

2151 Vine St. 

The Berkeley Society of Friends will view the PBS documentary, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It, and discuss it.  

Meet the Artists of the  

ARTS Ed Resource Guide 

6 - 8 p.m. 

James Irvine Foundation Conference Center 

353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

Artists and arts organizations will deliver brief presentation about their program offerings and address questions posed by the audience. Free and open to the public. 208-0842, www.artsedeastbay.org. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Cheryl Kirk-Dugan Center for Women & Religion. 

Tuesday, March 12

An Evening with Numfundo Walaza:  

The Burden of Forgiveness 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

An evening with Numfundo Walaza, director of the Trauma Center for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Capetown, South Africa. Walaza will talk about "The Burden of Forgiveness: Reflections from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa." $15. 204-0720, mkmorrison@cdsp.edu. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Frankie Moore McGee, Avenue Baptist Church. 

Wednesday, March 13

Trees Forum 

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. 

Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 

Tucson Common Room 

2451 Ridge Rd. 

Amahra Hicks of USFS, and Jeff Romm of UCB discuss "Just Forests Initiative: Faith-based Activism for Public Land." Free and open to the public. www.gtu.edu/StudServ/TREES. 

City Commons Club, 

Great Decisions Program 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Lawrence Saez, professor of East Asia Studies, UC Berkeley; “South Asia: Focus on India.” $5. 848-3533. 

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. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034. 

Thursday, March 14

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

Annual Flytying Festival 

7:30 p.m. 

Kensington Community Center 

59 Arlington Ave., Kensington 

Flytying demonstrations and tutoring for beginning through advanced. 524-0428. 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Lisa Garrett and Francis Tapon will share slides and highlights of their 111-day journey through 13 East Coast states covering 2,167 miles. 527-4140, www.sonictrek.com.  

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble Imani Community Church. 

Friday, March 15

City Commons Club 

12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Keith A. Russell, president, American Baptist Seminary of the West; “A look at Moral Issues.” $1. 848-3533. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Black History and Women's Months: Bessie Coleman, aviatrix. 232-1351. 

Women’s Week of Power 

7 p.m. 

St. Paul AMEC 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Speaker: Rev. Malvina Stephens Allen, Temple Baptist Church. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft and Telegraph Ave. 

Standing in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian women to urge an end to the occupation and push the peace process forward. 548-6310, wibberkeley.org. 

Saturday, March 16

76th Annual Poets’ Dinner 

11:30 a.m. 

Holiday Inn, Emeryville 

1800 Powell 

David Alpaugh will speak about “The Professionalization of Poetry,” followed by the reading of winning poems and prizes. 841-1217. 

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

Copwatch 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Copwatch 

2022 Blake St. 

Know your rights workshop. 548-0425. 

4th Annual Gay & Lesbian  

Family Night at the YMCA 

6 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA 

2001 Allston Way 

Open to all LGBT families and their friends. Pizza party, swimming, juggling demo and instruction, clowning, face painting, soccer, floor hockey, music, karate demo, and more for toddlers through teens. Free, donation requested. 665-3238, www.ourfamily.org.  

Sunday, March 17

Art of Enlightenment: Symbolism,  

Visualization and Mandalas 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Rosalyn White, art director for Dharma Publishing, will discuss Tibetan paintings and how they are used in meditation. 843-6812. 

Women’s Day 

9:30 a.m. 

St. Paul AME Church 

2024 Ashby Ave. 

Women Excelling in the Grace of Giving; Speaker: Dr. Sarah F. Davis, Pastor 

Bethel AMEC, San Antonio, TX. 

Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chmielinik 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish  

Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. 

Suzan Hagstrom will talk about her book, Sara’s Children, and host a discussion. 848-0237 x127. 

Compiled by Guy Poole

When the St. Mary’s High boys’ basketball team faces off against top-ranked Oakland Tech in a Northern California Division I semifinal game tonight, there aren’t likely to be many surprises on either side. 

Tech star Leon Powe, one of the top juniors in the country, played on the same AAU team, the Oakland Soldiers, as St. Mary’s backcourt duo DaShawn Freeman and John Sharper. The Soldiers were coached by St. Mary’s assistant Mark Olivier. Freeman and Tech point guard Armando Surratt have played against each other for years, and the teams met early this season at the Modesto Christian tournament, with Tech coming out on top, 93-77. 

“Oakland Tech is the biggest challenge we’ve faced yet as a program,” St. Mary’s head coach Jose Caraballo said Friday. “They’re more talented and have more weapons than any team we’ve faced in the past two seasons.” 

That’s saying a mouthful, as the Panthers beat powerful Crossroads High, which featured current University of Arizona player Isaiah Fox, for the Division IV state title last season. 

But Powe is enough to scare teams all by himself. The 6-foot-8 forward is a sometimes-unstoppable force, averaging more than 25 points per game in the postseason. 

“I don’t think anyone matches up with Leon,” Olivier said. “If you hold him under his average, you’ve done a great job. The key is to contain the other players.” 

Oakland Tech has more than just Powe, however. Surratt, one of the quickest guards in the state, is headed to Fresno State next season, and wingman Quentin Thomas is also highly regarded. 

Lurking behind the name players is 6-foot-4 Kenneth Smith. Known as “Deuce,” Smith has shaken off a serious leg injury suffered this summer to have a great season, doing the dirty work while Powe and Surratt garner the accolades. 

“Smith is the heart and soul of that team,” Olivier said. “He’s the one that establishes their toughness. He does all the little things, and he is one of the best on-the-ball defenders around.” 

With that type of talent all over the court, not to mention their 16-point win over the Panthers in Modesto, Tech is a considerable favorite in the game. But the Panthers aren’t used to losing big games. They have lost just one postseason game in the past two seasons, a 76-70 loss to De La Salle in last Saturday’s North Coast Section final. 

Many observers criticized Caraballo’s decision to move up to Division I for this year, saying the Panthers were too small for the bigger competition, but the Panthers have proven the naysayers wrong. They weathered Freeman’s absence at the start of the season due to a stress fracture and had won 21 straight games before the loss to De La Salle. In fact, St. Mary’s only losses this season have come to the three other Division I semifinalists (they lost to Oakland High in a tournament to start the season). 

“If we want to be the best, we have to beat the best,” Caraballo said. “No one thought we’d get this far. But my kids are battle-tested, and they know what it takes to win.” 

What it will take to win tonight will be everyone’s best game. Sharper has to hit from the outside early and often, post players Chase Moore and Simon Knight must hold their own on the inside with Powe, and the St. Mary’s press must prove more effective than against De La Salle, which committed just nine turnovers. 

“We’re not going to be afraid to do what we do,” Caraballo said. “We have to go to the basket, go straight at Leon and maybe get him in foul trouble. And we have to pound the boards.”

Berkeley teachers react to layoff notices 

Henry Viets, an elementary school music teacher, knew he was going to receive a layoff notice this week. But that didn’t prepare him for the way he would feel Tuesday when his supervisor served the documents. 

“You get this feeling of, yes, you truly are expendable,” said Viets, in an interview earlier this week. “Today, teaching was just horrible.” 

The Board of Education, strapped with a $6 million deficit rooted in financial mismanagement and state funding cuts, voted Feb. 27 to issue layoff notices to about 200 district employees, including more than 150 teachers. 

The board plans to rescind many of the notices in the next two months as a cloudy budget picture clears up. But by law, the district must inform certain classes of teachers and administrators by March 15 if they might be laid off next year. Most of the pink slips went out this week. 

“It’s pretty disheartening,” said Gurjeet Ahluwalia, an extended daycare teacher at City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School who received notice Wednesday. “They should have found some other way to (cut the budget).” 

“This is really, really difficult and puts us in a lot of distress,” said school board member John Selawsky. “Nobody wants to layoff teachers. ... But, because so much of our budget is personnel, it would be virtually impossible to make cuts without affecting personnel.” 

More than 80 percent of the district’s budget is tied up in salaries and benefits, said Selawsky, who added that the board has attempted to spread the cuts as much as possible, chopping $1.1 million in personnel at the central office. 

State law will determine which teachers actually get laid off in the end. The law prioritizes seniority, but makes exceptions for new teachers who have credentials in specialized areas held by no one else. 

Jody Sokolower, who teaches Identity and Ethnic Studies at Berkeley High School, said the district will suffer if it loses young teachers, particularly teachers of color. 

“For the kids, it’s really important to have teachers who are young and teachers who are non-white,” she said, arguing that some students find it easier to connect with these instructors. 

Kate Aughenbaugh, a seventh-grade science teacher at King Middle School who received notice Tuesday, said the loss of young teachers will also have an effect on staff chemistry. 

“You always need that balance between young idealism ... and the older, experienced veteran teachers,” she said. “Otherwise it gets stagnant.” 

Cynthia Allman, a kindergarten teacher at Malcolm X Arts & Academic Magnet School who received notice Tuesday, said the pink slips have an effect on teacher morale. 

“It’s hard to stay focused,” Allman said. “It’s hard to keep your optimism.” 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, said instructors, unsure about whether they will have a job in Berkeley next year, are facing a difficult decision about whether to search elsewhere. 

“As each week goes by here, it’s prime hiring season in other districts,” said Fike, noting that many teachers are asking the union what to do. “We can’t give them the answer. We’re really depending on the district to come up with that answer quickly.” 

Viets, the music teacher, said he is already looking elsewhere for a job. Even if he is not laid off, Viets said, some in the music department will not return, increasing the workload for the remaining staff, and making a job in the Berkeley schools less attractive. 

Allman said she will wait it out, hopeful that the board will rescind her layoff notice.  

“I love my job. I love my school,” she said. “I think the people of Berkeley are really commited to keeping young, well-trained teachers.” 

Editor: 

Thanks to Peter Teichner for his history lesson editorial on the term NIMBY.  

It isn’t often you learn something in Berkeley neighborhood development politics so it was interesting to hear that it all started with people defending their homes and lives against pollution at Love Canal. 

That’s definitely something I can agree with; I’m a NIMBY too: in fact I say “Not In My Berkeley Back Yard - but in my front yard, yes.” 

Urban back yards are the low density housing areas. Urban front yards are the lively streets and city downtowns and neighborhood centers. 

Berkeley’s back yards are the lower density neighborhood areas too - they should stay essentially that way; they should not be the location of larger new building, they should become even quieter and more peaceful, more “rural” as we expand parks, community gardens and stretches of our biologically rich waterways.  

In these areas we can remove houses occasionally, especially in car-dependent areas, as they become old and run down. (Historic gems should be preserved.)  

For the sake of convenience to lower income people, cheaper housing prices, energy conservation, pollution abatement, less car dependence, more efficient transit and bicycle access, safer streets, stable climate and so on, we should build in Berkeley’s front yards: the centers where transit serves us best, and especially Downtown. 

Thus it’s the Not In My Front Yards, the NIMFYs I have a problem with, those who want to freeze the whole city in the past, thus continuing the dependence on cars and the oil industry. 

Let’s look at the urban ecology of it all, the chains of causes and effects and the networks of interrelated parts. Teichner pointed out that it was the petrochemical industry that was killing people at Love Canal, giving rise to the NIMBY movement, and that the petrochemical companies twisted the term into a pejorative. Rings true to me! But, who buys the millions of gallons of gasoline the petrochemical industry sells in order to pursue its nasty agenda?  

The people driving cars, and they, all around the world and in Berkeley too, are most prevalent in the lower density areas where it is simply difficult to get around easily without a car. That’s why it’s an international truism that cars, low-density housing and the petrochemical industry go hand in hand. On the other hand, more compact and diverse transit/pedestrian centers go hand in hand with energy conservation of such high efficiency that solar, wind and other healthy energy systems become practical. After almost 100 years of auto dominance we are all stuck in the city built for the car, so it is often difficult to do much without it.  

Don’t feel guilty – do something about it! We can rearrange the city on into the future, gradually moving out of car dependent areas and into more compact pedestrian/transit areas. It takes flexibility, which isn’t the strong card of the Berkeley land use conservatives and reactionaries, and imagination and a little bit of courage, also scarce commodities there. And the city built for people instead of cars is not for everyone, but everyone is aging and young people will grow up with tastes unpredictable to us. That we can’t plan for. But we can plan for more independence from the Love Canal type results of auto/sprawl infrastructure by planning for cities built for people rather than machines, pedestrians rather than cars. That’s what higher density pedestrian/centers – and making the city’s back yards even quieter – is all about. Long live the NIMBYs! Down with the NIMFYs! 

Richard Register  

Berkeley

‘There are no risks for us in Hollywood. We deliver the bill or the dry-cleaning, do our karate chop and leave,” said actor Sung Kang at Thursday night’s opening of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. 

Say goodbye to pidgen-speaking sidekicks, chop suey slapstick and bad dubbing. This year’s festival is about valedictorians-gone-awry, thoughful politics and stylish craftsmanship. 

And it all started in Berkeley. 

The Bay Area’s first Asian American film festival took place at the Pacific Film Archives in 1982. The 13 films were part of a traveling show from New York’s Asian CineVision. 

This year’s series, produced independently by the National Asian American Telecommunications Association, features 135 films and videos. The festival plays not only at the Pacific Film Archives, but also at theaters in San Francisco and San Jose. 

Festival Director Chi-Hui Yang said this year’s 20th- anniversary event hopes to be a kind of Asian American Cinema 101 class. 

Playing on the 20-year theme, Yang said, “We’re trying to provide a 20/20 look into the past and the future of Asian American film.” 

The festival will dip into the archives – bringing back pieces like Flower Drum Song (1961) – and also is making room for up-and-comers like “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which features Kang as part of a young, hip cast. 

Directed by Justin Lin, “Better Luck Tomorrow” was one of the most talked about features at last month’s Sundance Film Festival. The neo-noir about clever high schoolers who are just as obsessed with getting around the rules as getting into college was also just picked up by MTV Films for nationwide distribution.  

Asian American filmmaking has come a long way since Wayne Wang’s “Chan is Missing,” the first Asian American film to make it big (relatively speaking). Wang’s film, which follows two Chinese Americans through San Francisco’s Chinatown in search of their disappeared business partner, premiered at the PFA in 1981.  

“It’s a breakthrough film both because it was ultra low-budget – he did it himself as an independent film – and also because of its subject matter, the Asian-American community,” said PFA staffer Shelley Diekman. 

Diekman said the PFA, which will be showing seven films this year, is proud to have a newly restored print of this landmark film to show again on Sunday. 

Berkeley residents – whether they are of Asian American descent or just foreign film lovers – seem to flock to Asian American movies, said Diekman. 

Next Wednesday’s showing of “Daugher from Denang,” produced and co-directed by Berkeley resident Gail Dolgin, is already sold out. The documentary, which follows one of the American-raised children involved in “Operation Babylift” at the end of the Vietnam War as she reunites with her Vietnamese mother 20 years later, won the highest prize for documentaries at the Sundance Festival. Good thing it will soon be showing on PBS television, said Diekman. 

In addition to Dolgin’s film, this year’s slate includes many films with local connections. Not only is there an entire program called “415/510 Local Calls” playing at the AMC Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco on March 9 and 12, but Berkeley resident Louise Lo’s documentary “The Floating World: Masami Teraoka and his Art” is making its world debut at the Kabuki on March 11. 

Lo said Berkeley has proved a creative environment for artists. “People like us gravitate to Berkeley,” said Lo, who works at KQED in San Francisco. “There are lots of grassroots arts – small galleries, galleries in people’s homes. It’s also a very literate community that has an emphasis on storytelling.” 

But, actually producing an Asian American film is another question entirely. When Lo first approached major funders for her documentary, she got a dismissive response. 

“They said he [Teraoka] was not well-known enough. It’s hard for Asian American artists to be treated like a Jackson Pollack or a Wayne Thibault even if they’re just as strongly represented in museums,” said Lo, who has also made documentaries on Thibault and Frida Kahlo. 

Lo’s film is a sensitive biography of Teraoka’s artistic development, starting with his “sketch boy” days during World War II when American soldiers stationed in Japan exchanged gifts for drawings of their girlfriends. Though Teraoka is best known for ukiyo-e works, in which geishas might be flourishing condoms or kabuki actors might be gawking at big-boned white women in bikinis, Lo follows the artist through to his current interest in looser forms and turn to a brooding, expressionist palette. 

Lo’s film, like Lin’s “Better Luck Tomorrow,” tries to describe the Asian American experience without having to throw in the standard exoticisms about East vs. West to tell the story. 

Participants in the festival hope that this can be a trend. Lin said Thursday he was glad that an Asian American film that was not about immigration or family issues á la “Joy Luck Club” could be made. And the actors were glad that they now have something to put on their preview tapes other than delivery boy roles. 

“The roles in this film were not one-dimensional, or a mold that they they made for us,” said Kang, whose character in “Better Luck Tomorrow” is both bully and bullied. “We could go in, work with the director, develop the character. It’s a dream come true.” 

LOS ANGELES – California improved by 34 points in a span of six days. It wasn’t nearly enough. 

Jason Gardner scored 25 points and Luke Walton added 20 Friday night to lead No. 15 Arizona to a 90-78 victory over the 25th-ranked Golden Bears in the semifinals of the Pacific-10 Conference tournament. 

The triumph wasn’t nearly as one-sided as Arizona’s 99-53 victory over Cal last Saturday in Tucson, Ariz., but that was the second-worst loss in school history and didn’t figure to be repeated, especially on a neutral court. 

The second-seeded Wildcats (21-9), who have won 20 or more games in 15 straight seasons, face No. 22 Southern California in Saturday’s championship game at Staples Center. 

The fourth-seeded Trojans (22-8) beat No. 9 Oregon, the tournament’s top seed, 89-78 in Friday night’s opener. 

The Pac-10 tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, although it’s a good possibility six conference teams will be invited for the first time. 

Arizona brings an 11-game Pac-10 tournament winning streak into Saturday’s game – the Wildcats won the competition from 1988-90 before it was disbanded until this year. 

Arizona has won seven straight and 10 of 11 over Cal including a 68-58 win at Haas Pavilion on Jan. 31 – the Bears’ only homecourt loss in 18 games – and the 46-point victory last weekend. 

Joe Shipp scored 25 points and Brian Wethers added 22 for the Bears (22-8). 

Three-pointers by Gardner and Walton sandwiched around a layin by Will Bynum gave the Wildcats a 61-46 lead with 13:45 remaining, and it was 74-63 after Walton made two free throws with 6:42 left. 

However, the Bears battled back, and two straight baskets by Shipp capped an 8-3 run, cutting Arizona’s lead to 77-71 with 3:35 to play. 

But that was as close as the Bears would get. Two baskets by Walton another by Bynum made it 83-72 with 1:58 remaining, and the Wildcats had more than enough points to win. Arizona outscored Cal 13-7 to finish the game.

Chris Kavanagh hopes that three times is the charm. 

Kavanagh, a middle school teacher, environmental activist and affordable housing advocate, has tried and failed twice to unseat moderate City Councilmember Polly Armstrong, once in 1996 and once in 1998.  

Now that Armstrong has announced she will not run for re-election in November, Kavanagh has joined a growing list of local activists who say they might run for the District 8 seat. 

“I’m interested,” said Kavanagh, who joins Gordon Wozniak of the Planning Commission, Becky O’Malley of the Landmarks Commission and UC Berkeley student Andy Katz as City Council hopefuls. 

Kavanagh, a Green Party member, cobbled together a coalition of students, renters and progressive homeowners in 1996, and lost by less than 1 percent of the vote. The close race surprised many in local political circles who considered District 8 a moderate bastion. 

Kavanagh attributes his 1996 success, in part, to aggressive, door-to-door campaigning. City Councilmember Dona Spring, who supported Kavanagh, agrees and says his interpersonal skills would be an asset if he ran this year. 

“He’s a very likable guy,” said Spring. “He really does the personal contact. That’s what he’s good at.” 

Spring said Kavanagh’s weakness, in 1996 and 1998, when he lost by a 58 to 42 percent margin, was a lack of organization. 

“He’s going to have to be more serious about raising money, and having a campaign manager, and doing what the manager wants him to do,” Spring said. 

But Armstrong said Kavanagh got close in 1996 because she ran a low-profile campaign. The 1998 results, she said, are more representative of his chances this time around. 

“I think he was very soundly rejected last time, when I ran a good campaign,” she said. 

Armstrong has thrown her support behind Wozniak, and other moderates are taking note. Mayor Shirley Dean,told the Daily Planet Friday, that she would be “very interested” in any candidate backed by Armstrong, and that she has been “very impressed” with Wozniak’s work on the Planning Commission. 

With moderates lining up behind Wozniak, progressives are beginning to worry that a growing field of liberal candidates may splinter the left. 

“I would hope and expect that liberal and progressive candidates would understand that splitting the vote is counterproductive,” said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “That’s how we got George Bush.” 

Worthington and Spring have both called for progressives in District 8 to come together and choose a single candidate. 

O’Malley and Katz have resisted the “progressive” label, casting themselves as bridges between the two sides.  

But both said they have concerns about candidates splitting the student vote, and other traditionally liberal voting blocs. 

If elected, Kavanagh said he would work to ease traffic in the district by pressuring UC Berkeley to provide its employees with transit passes and shuttle buses to and from local BART stations. 

He added that halting university expansion and ensuring proper disposal of radioactive waste at the university’s tritium lab, which will shut down for good in about a month, would be top priorities. 

Wozniak worked for years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which houses the tritium lab, and has defended the tritium operation against vocal opponents. 

Kavanagh said he would make Wozniak’s support for the lab a campaign issue. Wozniak described community concerns over tritium a “tempest over a molehill,” but said that, in his mind, the issue is a dead one anyhow since the lab is closing.

California scored four runs in the fourth inning against rival Stanford Friday afternoon at Evans Field, jumping out to an early lead in the opener of the non-league series. But the Cardinal responded with seven runs in the seventh inning, then eight runs in the eighth, pounding the Bears 15-4. 

California ace Trevor Hutchinson (4-2) faced the minimum amount of batters through the first six innings, allowing only three Cardinal baserunners and then promptly erasing them on two double plays and a caught stealing. But when second baseman Carson White bobbled an easy double-play ball in the seventh, the Cardinal erupted. 

“Getting two (outs) would have been great, but not getting one was big,” Cal head coach David Esquer said. “(The error) really changed the complexion of the whole inning.” 

Hutchison, who had been cruising, was visibly shaken by the error. The next batter, catcher Ryan Garko, took Hutchison deep to left-center for a three-run homer. Designated hitter Jason Cooper made it back-to-back jacks and a tie ballgame with a bomb to right. Three batters later right fielder Carlos Quentin chased Hutchinson with a two-run shot to left, and the rout was on. 

“You’ve got to play very well to beat them,” Esquer said of the Cardinal, Baseball America’s  

No. 1 ranked team in the nation. “I knew four wasn’t going to be enough to win - I just didn’t know it would take 16 to win.” 

The California bullpen gave up six straight hits to open the eighth inning, giving up four runs. Cooper, whose seventh inning solo home run had sailed deep onto the adjacent soccer field, then hit an even louder three-run shot - avoiding the soccer field by connecting dead-on about three-fourths of the way up the pole of a right field light standard. He finished the game 5-for-5 at the plate. 

The Cardinal rode seven strong innings from starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie (5-0), who is rated one of the top hurlers in the nation. Guthrie was the Pittsburg Pirates’ third-round draft pick last June, and is the highest-drafted player returning to the college scene this season. No less than fifteen scouts were seen raising and lowering radar guns on every Guthrie pitch in the first two innings. 

Guthrie leads a full complement of Cardinal stars returning from a team that was runner-up at last year’s College World Series. All nine players who started the championship game in Omaha last year remain on the Cardinal roster this season. 

Esquer, who starred at shortstop for the Cardinal from 1984 to 1987 under current Stanford head coach Mark Marquess, said that Friday’s loss wouldn’t get his team down. The Bears are the last team to defeat Stanford in a three-game series, taking two of three from the Cardinal at home last April. 

“We’ve got our work cut out for us in order to do it again,” Esquer said. “But we played them tough all year last year.” 

California faces the Cardinal again Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond.

Power has been restored to all but three buildings on the UC Berkeley campus after a blackout on Thursday. Etcheverry Hall, North Gate Hall and Soda Hall were still out of power Friday afternoon. 

At 5 p.m. Thursday, one of the university’s five electrical switching stations failed, causing a campus-wide outage, said Sandy Yang at the university’s Public Affairs Office.  

“So far we think it’s a water intrusion in an underground switching station near the Haas Business School,” Yang said. 

No injuries were reported, though several people were trapped in elevators, according to a press release issued by the university. They were cleared within two hours. 

Eighty percent of the buildings had their power restored by midnight Thursday, but several residence halls and other buildings did not have their power restored until 1:38 p.m. Friday. 

About 3,500 students living on campus made it through the night with the help of back-up generators and flashlights. Students in Bowles Hall, which did not have a back-up generator, were moved to other facilities. 

Alex Reese, who lives in one of the Foothill Dormitories on Hearst Street, said it was lucky she did not have to study Thursday night. But while she did not have to go to class Friday morning, she did have to shower. 

“There was no hot water, so it was very cold. Everyone was hunting for other places to take showers,” she said. 

The dining halls were open, but they had to stick to fruit and bagels for breakfast, sandwiches and lukewarm lemonade for lunch. 

But the blackout did have a more serious impact on students’ lab experiments. Alicia Cohn, Sarah Brownell and Laura McLaughlin were running an experiment in Etcheverry Hall that required a UV lamp. 

“I guess we’re not running it anymore,” said Cohn. 

They had been conducting their experiment since April, so one day’s loss of data did not severely set back their project.  

But Brownell said it was ironic that they had to take their weekly lunchtime meeting outside Friday.  

Their renewable energy lab actually has solar panels so it could theoretically generate electricity when conventional electricity is not available. 

“But we have no windows,” said Brownell. “We have to turn on the overhead light to get them to work.” 

The power outage was good news for one group, however. Friday was the deadline for applications to the undergraduate program at the Hass School of Business. Procrastinators now have until Monday.

Today is Saturday, March 9, the 68th day of 2002. There are 297 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On March 9, 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia (formerly Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va. 

On this date: 

In 1661, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis XIV in full control. 

In 1796, the future emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais. (The couple divorced in 1809.) 

In 1916, Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, N.M., killing more than a dozen people. 

In 1933, Congress, called into special session by President Roosevelt, began its “hundred days” of enacting New Deal legislation. 

In 1945, during World War II, US B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan. 

In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-Communism campaign on “See It Now.” 

In 1975, work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline. 

In 1977, about a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later. 

In 1981, Dan Rather made his debut as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.” 

In 1990, Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as surgeon general, becoming the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the job. 

Ten years ago: Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin died in Tel Aviv at age 78. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

Five years ago: Gangsta rapper The Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; he was 24. 

One year ago: A judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sentenced 14-year-old Lionel Tate to life in prison for killing Tiffany Eunick, a 6-year old girl. Tate, who had been convicted of first-degree murder, said he was imitating pro-wrestling moves. Attorney James St. Clair, who represented President Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal, died in Westwood, Mass., at age 80. 

Today’s Birthdays: Author Mickey Spillane is 84. Singer-actress Keely Smith is 70. Singer Lloyd Price is 69. Actress Joyce Van Patten is 68. Actor-comedian Marty Ingels is 66. Country singer Mickey Gilley is 66. Singer Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders) is 60. TV personality Charles Gibson is 59. Chess player Bobby Fischer is 59. Actress Trish Van Devere is 57. Rock musician Robin Trower is 57. Singer Jeffrey Osborne is 54. Country musician Jimmie Fadden (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 54. Magazine editor Michael Kinsley is 51. Newscaster Faith Daniels is 45. Actress Linda Fiorentino is 42. Actress Juliette Binoche is 38. Rock musician Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five) is 34. Actor Emmanuel Lewis is 31. Actress Jean Louisa Kelly is 30. Actor Kerr Smith is 30.  

Rapper Lil’ Bow Wow is 15. 

Thought for Today:  

For release Saturday, March 9 

Berkeley police officers investigated a suspicious package found on the second floor of a state office building located at 1947 Center St. at around 6:30 p.m. Friday.  

After going into the building with a bomb squad and x-raying the package, it turned out to be nothing more than a box of papers, said BPD Lieutenant Bud Stone.  

The area of Center Street between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way was blocked off for more than two hours after police arrived on the scene at 6:30 p.m. No one was hurt in the situation, though 10 to 15 people were evacuated from the building.

MIDWAY, Utah – Laughter erupts from down the hall in the direction of the medical room. Cross country skiers hoot and holler as they plunge into a natural hot spring to work on their “lung capacity.” An anxious athlete lets go of her fears and steels her resolve to compete with a reassuring “I know I’ll be OK.” 

It’s a safe bet that Dr. Cindy Chang is in the house.  

As the VIII Paralympic Winter Games are contested March 7-16 in Salt Lake City, the world will be focused on serious athletes engaged in serious competition. But in the midst of it all, there’s Chang whose best unprescribed treatment to health might be as simple as a joke or a reassuring hug. 

“She’s an extremely competent physician who demonstrates a great deal of caring for all her patients,” said Dr. Brent Rich, one of Chang’s colleagues on the U.S. Paralympic medical team. “And she’s pure high-energy.” 

Chang, the personable physician with the irrepressible smile, has taken a break from supervising the medical care of the 900-plus varsity athletes at UC Berkeley where she works as the head team physician, to tend to the medical needs of the nation’s elite cadre of athletes with physical disabilities. 

“When I was first approached to work at the Paralympics (for the 1998 Nagano Games), I was intrigued to be working with a population of athletes that I hadn’t had much experience with,” Chang said. “But I came away from Japan so moved and inspired by the athletes and their stories that I asked to be considered to help out in another four years.” 

It was a request the U.S. Olympic Committee was happy to comply with. Since Chang’s orientation with the Olympic medical staff in July 1996, she has been on their call list to assist at a number of national and international events. Due to her responsibilities as a doctor, clinical professor, wife and mother of two young children, however, it often became too hard to get away. 

“I know the Paralympics aren’t as high-profile as the Olympics, but I’m not doing this for any recognition on my part,” Chang said. “I just love the Paralympic athletes. They’re never disrespectful, they never complain, they’re very appreciative of the care they receive, and they’re very knowledgeable about their bodies and medical needs.” 

The Paralympic Games are the second largest sporting event in the world, conceding top honors only to the Olympics. The multi-sport competition showcases the talents and abilities of the world’s most elite athletes with physical disabilities in both winter and summer disciplines. Disability groups represented include amputees, blind or visually impaired athletes, athletes with cerebral palsy, athletes with spinal cord injuries and athletes who are affected by a range of other disabilities that do not fall into the aforementioned categories, such as multiple sclerosis or dwarfism. 

In Salt Lake, Chang is assigned to the U.S. Nordic Ski Team which is comprised of biathletes and cross country skiers who are visually impaired or use prosthetics or sit-skis to negotiate the hilly terrain of Soldier Hollow, the same venue used during the Olympic Games three weeks earlier. During that time, Chang will be staying in a home near Soldier Hollow with a majority of the Nordic ski team, a somewhat unruly bunch to say the least. 

“She takes a beating well,” joked Willie Stewart, a one-arm amputee and housemate. 

“Yeah, but she can definitely dish it back out,” chimed in Mike Crenshaw, another housemate and an amputee below his right knee. 

All joking aside, Chang’s personality and demeanor make her a perfect match for the team which let’s her do her job as a doctor even better. 

“We call her the ‘Question Lady’ because she wants to know everything about every little detail,” Crenshaw said. “But I think that’s what makes her such a great doctor.” 

“We all love her,” Stewart said. “She’s very fun and very charismatic.” 

And just as the athletes learn from Chang how to better treat their aches and pains, she learns from them about the world of adaptive sports and exercise – a knowledge she takes back to her patients in California. 

“When treating people with disabilities, it’s very important to keep them active in a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “Even though not everyone will become a Paralympian, they can still be involved in exercise in some way.” 

Chang also discusses her experiences with the Paralympics and adaptive sports movement with community organizations and the medical profession either at conferences or classroom lectures. 

“I think what these individuals accomplish as athletes is phenomenal, and what that means to all people, with or without disabilities as far as overcoming obstacles and leading healthy lives, is a message I want to share with the world,” Chang said. “To know that my involvement in their lives at these events help them come one step closer to achieving their goals makes me feel humble and proud all at the same time.”

SAN FRANCISCO — After three days of ballot counting, Harry Britt conceded the Democratic nomination for state Assembly to Mark Leno on Friday in a race that is expected to ultimately send the first openly gay man to Sacramento. 

“I guess I have (conceded),” Britt said, joking. 

Leno broadened his lead Friday with 1,246 votes. He had 43 percent of the vote to Britt’s 40 percent. 

About 10,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted along with about 4,000 provisional ballots, an elections department spokeswoman said Friday. It’s unknown when a finally tally will be reached. 

San Francisco is considered a safe Democratic district. If Leno is elected in November, he will fill the Assembly seat being vacated by Carole Migden, a lesbian. 

Leno and former Santa Cruz Mayor John Laird are set to become the first openly gay men in the California Legislature, joining three uncloseted lesbians in pushing an agenda that includes giving same-sex couples the same protections as married straight people. 

Laird ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the seat of Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Boulder Creek, who is being forced out by term limits. Laird will face Republican Chuck Carter, a Monterey real estate agent, this fall for what is considered a safe Democratic seat.

HALF MOON BAY — A body that washed up on shore Friday has been identified as one of two fishermen missing for nearly a week. 

The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office confirmed the body, found lying face-down on Redondo Beach, was one of the missing fishermen. 

The man’s identity was not released. 

The 24-foot fishing boat left Moss Landing Sunday and never returned as expected on Tuesday. A second crewman is still missing. 

Debris from the boat also washed up on the beach Friday.

Q. Volker asks: How do I change a leaking toilet tank? 

A. The first step in repairing a leaking toilet tank is to determine where the leak is located and what is causing it. There are several possible causes, the most obvious of which is a hairline crack in the tank — often virtually undetectable. Other possible causes are: the four factory penetrations at the bottom of the tank where connections are made to the water supply, where the tank is bolted to the bowl, and at the location where water flows from the tank to the bowl. 

Each of these locations has a rubber washer designed to ensure a watertight connection. Over time, the connections might become loose or the washers might deteriorate, requiring replacement. 

An easy means of determining the location of the leak is by placing a few drops of food coloring into the toilet tank. Wait about an hour and return to the scene to search for colored water at the outside of the tank. If the leak is at one of the factory penetrations, use a wrench or a screwdriver to tighten the connection. Dry the area and return in another hour to see if the problem has been solved. If it hasn’t been, try replacing the washers. 

Drain the tank by turning off the water supply and flushing the toilet. Disconnect the water supply and remove the two bolts that anchor the tank to the bowl. Clean the connections and openings with a soft dry cloth and install new washers. Also install a new washer where the tank discharges into the bowl. 

Before you tear out your toilet tank, be certain that your leak isn’t a sweating tank. This condition is caused by condensation that occurs on the outside surface of the tank due to the difference in temperature between the water in the toilet tank and the air in the room. If the problem is, in fact, condensation, it can be remedied in one of two ways — with a tank liner or a tempering valve. 

The tank liner consists of a rubber membrane that is installed in the interior surface of the tank as a layer of insulation. The tempering valve is a bit more complicated. It requires removing the existing water supply valve and replacing it with a model that mixes a small amount of hot water so that the water in the tank isnt so cold. This eliminates condensation. The former is a common do-it-yourself project, whereas the latter often requires a plumber. 

Q. Shirisha asks: I open any tap in my house and I hear train-like noises. It also feels as if air is being sucked into the tap! When we use two taps the noise disappears. Using two taps is not a permanent solution. So tell us what kind of problem we are facing and how to fix it. 

A. If faucets screech when you turn them on and pipes hum when water’s running, chances are you have a bad main-inlet valve or a bad pressure-regulator valve. Water enters a home at only one point. If all faucets groan and howl the same throughout the house, the main-inlet valve is bad where water enters your home. Over time, rubber gaskets can become brittle. Running water rushes in, passing over the gasket and acts as does a reed in a clarinet. Pipes carry the sound to every faucet and fixture, making it hard to pin down the source. In this case, check the main-inlet valve, but if it screeches at only one location, check the gasket of that particular faucet. Repairs can be done with basic tools. 

Q. Fran asks: I have well water in my home and of course the water smells. Someone told me if you take out the “rod” in the water heater, the water won’t smell anymore. But what rod is it and how do I get it out? 

A. The problem occurs when the metal rod in glass-lined water heaters (used to improve the life expectancy of the glass lining) combines with waterborne sulfate-reducing bacteria, resulting in the production of hydrogen sulfide. The water is not dangerous to consume, but is difficult to swallow. It smells like rotten eggs. 

Solution 1: Replace the magnesium metal rod (cathodic protection anode) with one made of aluminum (it might not be available for your brand of water heater). The aluminum rod produces 30 percent less current, and therefore generates less hydrogen gas while causing enough current to adequately protect the glass liner. 

Solution 2: Find the point of origin of the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), and eliminate it. SRB is most common in new-water supply pipes contaminated by soil during construction. The soil carrying the SRB eventually ends up as solids at the bottom of the water heater. A thorough flushing to remove the dirt, then a second flushing with a dash of chlorine, and finally a third flush — to clean — should do the trick. Hydrogen gas without the presence of SRB will go unnoticed. SRB is not so easy to remove if your water company pumps the bacteria into your home along with the water. This will often be the case as increasingly water districts are reducing or ceasing their use of chlorine. Sulfate-reducing bacteria are devastated by chlorination, but will thrive otherwise. 

It is possible to inadvertently contaminate your own water supply by allowing sulfate-reducing bacteria — not to mention other more dangerous bugs — to enter your water system at your own property. This can happen through your sprinklers if you’re not using anti-siphon sprinkler valves, which prevent backwash. Backwash could also result when a water main in your neighborhood is turned off while your garden hose is running in a muddy puddle. 

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

BEAVERTON, Ore. — The threat of terrorism has boosted military and corporate interest in high-tech security improvements at all levels, even turning something as simple as a chain-link fence into a sophisticated surveillance system. 

Fiber SenSys makes a virtually undetectable system of fiber optic cables that can withstand extreme climates, radio jamming, magnetic interference, harsh chemicals and flooding. 

After it is hooked up to a fence, the Fiber SenSys equipment can sense the slightest motion by an intruder, alert guards and pinpoint any attempted breach. 

Not surprisingly, the military came knocking at the Beaverton company’s door after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and recently awarded Fiber SenSys a $1.7 million contract to provide the high-tech security system for use by the U.S. Air Force. 

Fiber SenSys says it can’t reveal where exactly the equipment will be used or how. 

“We can’t associate individual locations with the technology for security reasons,” said Duane Thompson, vice president of sales and marketing at Fiber SenSys, which is based in Beaverton and is a subsidiary of CompuDyne Corp. 

Last November, the Pentagon put out the word it is interested in acquiring more high-tech surveillance equipment than it already had to help in the war on terrorism. 

“Because of the times, there is more interest in security,” said Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman. “The bottom line is they (the branches of the armed forces) all want high-tech stuff.” 

That interest is turning into orders for equipment by the military, utilities, big companies and others. 

Some of the top names on the Forbes magazine list of the nation’s wealthiest people are already using fiber optic systems to bolster security at their homes and estates, Thompson said. 

Much of the new security technology is coming from small companies that can quickly adapt the basic research of private inventors or universities to the market, said Ken Morse of the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

“Generally speaking, corporate America has outsourced innovation to the venture capital industry,” Morse said. “Except for Hewlett-Packard and IBM, I wouldn’t look for major innovation from big corporate America.” 

Morse said that as a result of Sept. 11, investment in security technology is likely to increase and bring in venture capital firms seeking another fast-growth industry to replace the dot-com bust. 

“It’s just got a booster rocket stuck on it right now,” Morse said of the interest in security technology. 

Debra Logan, an analyst for the Gartner Group, said efforts to improve security will drive changes in computer data transmission and personal identification, beginning with government agencies and the military. 

“The first wave of government activity will be matched by a corporate response as the civilian sector moves to protect itself and will pick up speed as economic conditions improve,” Logan said. 

Another small high-tech company in Oregon, FLIR Systems Inc., is among the firms getting more business after Sept. 11. 

In fact, says FLIR Systems spokesman Jim Fitzhenry, the war on terrorism has helped turned around the Portland-based company, which had been struggling. 

FLIR Systems makes thermal imaging equipment that can “see” through fog, smoke and darkness. FLIR has been selling the equipment to the military for years and it is probably being used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, although FLIR won’t say so for security reasons. 

“We can tell you that the U.S. Marine Corps is a very good customer of ours,” Fitzhenry said. “Their entire fleet of Huey helicopters is equipped with our technology for nighttime operations, search and rescue, and navigational safety.” 

FLIR systems have also been used on Blackhawk helicopters and P-3 surveillance aircraft. 

Last November, FLIR Systems announced it had landed $25 million in new military contracts from the air forces of Britain and Australia, along with other customers. 

Whether it is the military, an oil company, a county courthouse or even homeowners, security is only going to get tighter, said Martin Roenigk, chief executive of CompuDyne, the Maryland-based parent company of Fiber SenSys. 

“What we’re finding is that companies which used to be comfortable with grocery store level security — call in a guard service, put up some cameras and a fence — realize they have to move up,” Roenigk said. 

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On the Net: 

CompuDyne Corp.: http://www.compudyne.com 

FLIR Systems Inc.: http://www.flir.com 

By Sarah Freeman 

The Associated Press 

Laurel Perga knows that loyal customers will keep coming to her hair salon in Billings, Mont., even after the nearby Kmart is shuttered. But she’s worried about what will happen when shoppers start seeking bargains elsewhere. 

“It’s going to impact us big time, I think,” Perga said. “To build a new clientele, or to grow, that will make it more difficult.” 

Nationwide, business owners in retail centers anchored by soon-to-be closed Kmart stores say they’re worried about foot traffic once the discount retailer leaves. 

Kmart Corp. announced Friday that it will close 284 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, representing about 13 percent of its more than 2,100 stores nationwide. When the company filed for Chapter 11 on Jan. 22, it said it would close a number of unprofitable stores. 

Sixteen of those stores that will be closing are in California. 

The closing stores were chosen based on several criteria, including profitability, age and the amount of local competition, Kmart said. Stores will close in mainly rural and suburban areas, but some urban stores also will close. 

In South Sacramento, OnePrice! Fashions manager Yolanda Hernandez said many of her customers are from Kmart. 

“If they don’t find it at Kmart, they find it here,” Hernandez said. “We talked about it, my managers and I ... we don’t know what to do.” 

South Sacramento officials are already wondering how they’re going to fill four closed department stores and the boarded-up corner of a departed Oldsmobile dealer. 

“Every market is different,” said Robert Futterman, CEO of Robert K. Futterman and Associates. “There might be some (real estate) owners that will see this as a blessing in disguise, but for the most part, losing an anchor hurts.” 

Neil Jandron has owned Jandron’s Fine Jewelry at Westwood Mall in Marquette, Mich., for 14 years. Although the Westwood Kmart is on the closings list, Jandron is optimistic. 

“Personally, I think the mall is strong enough — we have enough of a mix of retailers where we’ll be all right,” Jandron said. “I’ve been in retail 33 years, it’s kind of how retail goes.” 

“We will stay (at the mall), there’s no doubt in my mind. If I was the last store in the mall, I’d stay,” he said. 

Jandron said he’s confident the landlord will work hard to secure a new tenant. 

That shouldn’t be terribly difficult, according to Ben Johnson, editor-in-chief of PRIMEDIA’s Shopping Center World. Shopping Center World is a trade publication that focuses on retail real estate. 

“If 284 boxes go dark, I don’t think it will take that long for them to find new tenants,” Johnson said. 

He said although Kmart has merchandising problems, the company has often made sound real estate decisions. He said that beside obvious replacement possibilities such as Target and Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, CostCo, and other warehouse clubs or home improvement stores may see real estate opportunities in closed Kmarts. 

“The market for value-oriented retailers is growing ... the list is long and getting longer,” Johnson said. “There’s also a ready-made labor force, already trained and ready to go.” 

Target employee Sandra Haney said she’s not sure that replacing Kmarts with other stores will keep customers coming back to the same shopping area. 

“To me, people went to Kmart if they wanted something particular from Kmart,” said Haney, 48, who works at a Livonia, Mich., Target that neighbors a closing Big Kmart. “And most of those shoppers will find another Kmart.” 

But Jody Brown, who manages a clothing store in Jacksonville, Ark., said he’s not worried about customers going elsewhere once the Kmart across the street closes. 

“I hate to hear they’re closing,” Brown said. “But it’s not going to hurt our business. I’m curious to see what comes in over there. That might even help us.” 

List of Kmart stores slated to close in California 

Kmart Corp. announced Friday it will close 284 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico as part of its restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Sixteen of the 164 Kmart stores in California will close, affecting 1,379 of the 18,615 people employed by Kmart in the state as of Jan. 16, 2002. 

Here are the stores affected in California: 

3362 Big Kmart 233 East Compton Blvd. Compton CA 

Big Kmart 520 Hwy. 101 North, Crescent City 

Big Kmart 2398 Jamacha, El Cajon 

Big Kmart 1013 Riley, Folsom 

Big Kmart 16111 Harbor Blvd., Fountain Valley 

Big Kmart 4987 East Kings Canyon, Fresno 

Super K 4080 W. Shaw, Fresno 

Big Kmart 1050 W. Olive Ave., Fresno 

Big Kmart 26655 Highland Ave., Highland 

Big Kmart 1600 East Foothill Blvd., La Verne 

Big Kmart 11507 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles 

Big Kmart 397 W. Los Angeles Ave., Moorpark 

Big Kmart 39626 10th St., Palmdale 

Big Kmart 6100 Mack Road, Sacramento 

Big Kmart 7908 Mission Gorge Rd., Santee 

Big Kmart 6433 Fallbrook Ave., West Hill

SACRAMENTO — A federal fisheries council recommended an indefinite moratorium Thursday on the use of longlines off the entire West Coast. 

A typical longline boat lays thousands of baited hooks over miles of ocean to catch tuna and swordfish. Environmental and recreational fishing organizations, along with federal regulators, say the practice frequently catches turtles, sea birds, marine mammals and protected fish. 

But they worry Thursday’s action by the Pacific Fishery Management Council may one day open the door to a commercial fishing industry proposal to let 10 boats experiment with longline fishing within West Coast waters. The council regulates the ocean from three to 200 miles off California, Oregon and Washington. 

California and Washington ban longline fishing, while Oregon is experimenting with longline fishing 25 miles off shore. 

The pending moratorium would be the first by one of the eight regional councils that manage fishing in U.S. coastal waters. The council’s plan, expected to receive final consideration in November, would have to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

Conservation and sport fishing groups want an outright ban on longlining. However, council members voted Thursday for a moratorium instead, with possible re-evaluation if researchers find ways to reduce the snagging of unintended fish, birds and turtles. 

The pending plan also would close a loophole that lets West Coast-based longliners fish in restricted areas off Hawaii. 

Thursday’s vote “keeps the door open for longlining,” said David Wilmot, director of the Ocean Wildlife Campaign made up of six national conservation organizations. “There’s a lot of time now for mischief to occur.” 

Commercial fishermen argue that longlining could snag fewer unintended species than the floating gill nets that still would be permitted in coastal waters. 

Objections from environmental and recreational fishing organizations “seem to be based more on emotion and politics than objective, scientific fact,” argued Chuck Janisse, manager of the Federation of Independent Seafood Harvesters (FISH). 

Trading gill nets for longlines “is like arguing that cyanide fishing on coral reefs is less damaging than dynamite fishing,” countered Wilmot. 

Supporters and opponents agree the council’s decision will have significan ce in the larger international debate over the use of longlines. 

Janisse said a West Coast moratorium or ban would be inconsistent with other regions where longlining is permitted. 

But the pending plan would end an inconsistency in regulations governing West Coast and Hawaii-based commercial fishermen. 

Large areas of the North Pacific have been closed to longlining to protect turtles and albatrosses. Vessels based on the West Coast are not currently bound by the Hawaii regulations, but would be under the pending plan. 

The plan is the subject not only of environmental, but economic debate. 

Deep-sea fishing operations say commercial fishing is hurting sport fish populations and what they say is a $2.5 billion annual sport-fishing industry in California alone. 

Commercial fishermen challenge that economic estimate, but say they’ve been outgunned by sport fishermen. 

“All we have is a token fishery here on the West Coast — particularly in California,” said Pete DuPuy of Ventura, a FISH director who spent 70 of the last 90 days at sea. “What they’re doing here is not going to do anything for the fish population. All it’s doing is hurting the fishermen and the consumer.” 

Because the fish migrate great distances to feed and breed, he argued commercial fishing should be regulated with international treaties, not geographic restrictions. 

Environmental groups, to the contrary, see the pending West Coast restriction — the culmination of what has been nearly three years of debate — as a prelude to outlawing longlining elsewhere in U.S. waters, and ultimately worldwide. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.pcouncil.org 

OAKLAND — Officials are eyeing a 13-acre parcel near the city’s downtown as a possible site of the new ballpark for the Oakland A’s. 

Representatives from the design firm leading the search were in Oakland to update public officials about four potential sites — three in Oakland, including the Telegraph Avenue site, and one in Fremont. 

Craig Meyer, principal architect for HOK Sport of Kansas City, said the Telegraph Avenue parcel near the Greyhound bus station “is clearly the most interesting to us.” 

“It is the site that says the most about Oakland, and to us that’s what the project is all about,” Meyer said Tuesday. 

HOK representatives also discussed problems associated with the other sites. Earl Santee of HOK told the Alameda County Board of Supervisors that two waterfront sites near downtown are trailing because they aren’t close to Bay Area Rapid Transit stations and have limited parking possibilities. 

Oakland officials expect to narrow down the search to one or two finalists within the next month and to unveil a financing plan within 90 days. The ballpark is scheduled to be open in 2006.

People have thrown rocks and yelled at her. They’ve tried poisoning her dogs. She even ended up renting a small house on a Castro Valley ranch without heat or running water because she couldn’t find another place that would allow pit bulls. 

And despite the trouble, Kristine Crawford will load her pit bull search-and-rescue dogs into her 4X4 truck at any hour to help find a missing person. Crawford owns three pit bulls trained in specialized search-and-rescue techniques such as cadaver and area search as well as trailing a specific scent. They are also trained to navigate boulders in the forest and rubble in the city, Crawford said.  

Crawford is a member of the California Search and Rescue Dog Association, a volunteer group of animal owners who are on call to help find missing persons anywhere in the state.  

Last month Crawford was called to Pacifica to help find an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease. At 2 a.m. Crawford had searched for an hour when another dog team found the man 600-feet down a ravine. Because it was 40 degrees outside, Crawford does not believe he would have made it through the night.  

However, the negative stigma attached to pit bulls causes Crawford to have her share of unpleasant moments as well. Once Crawford was helping a search-and-rescue effort in the Sierra Nevadas when a sheriff’s deputy pulled a gun on Dakota, her primary search-and-rescue dog.  

“He said, ‘That’s a vicious dog. You need to put him back in the car.’ Then another deputy who had worked with me told him to holster his weapon and thank his lucky stars because Dakota is one damn good search dog,” she said.  

In fact, Crawford said the characteristics that give pit bulls their bad reputation also make them good search-and-rescue dogs.  

“Whatever they do, they do they do to the best of their ability,” she said.  

Pit bulls are extremely focused, very obedient, agile and social, Crawford said.  

Scott Delucchi, spokesperson for the Peninsula Humane Society, said pit bulls are definitely a working dog and they can also be aggressive with other dogs. However, he said with the increased media attention, there’s a misconception that dog bites are on the rise. 

“In San Mateo County, bites are down, but they’re being reported more,” Delucchi said.  

Delucchi also said much of pit bulls’ reputation depends on their owners. 

“Different types of people want to have pit bulls,” Delucchi said. “Sometimes they have a macho mentality and they want to have an aggressive dog,” 

Crawford, a 40-year-old pet store manager who moved to the Bay Area from Minnesota 10 years ago, may be tough, but she’s anything but macho. Crawford has been training pit bulls for six years, ever since she saved Cheyenne from being euthanized. Crawford was fighting a severe illness at the time and adopted Cheyenne to help lift her spirits. Cheyenne, now 6 years old, learned to retrieve items for Crawford when she was sick.  

Now that Crawford has recovered from her illness, she wants to give back to society.  

“I decided to do more in my life. [As showdogs] if they do good, they’ll get a blue ribbon or a trophy. But now if they do good, they’ll save someone’s life,” she said.  

Crawford adopted the 5-year-old Dakota when she was 6 weeks old and part of a dog-fighting ring. Since then, Dakota has become the star of her crew. Her third dog is Tahoe, a 14-month-old who is the youngest dog in the group. All have undergone the search and rescue two-year training.  

Even though the dogs usually sport their “rescue dog” vests in public, Crawford said people have gotten so angry at her for having the breed that they have thrown rocks at her and screamed. Once, she discovered that someone had sprinkled rat poison in her car. Another time, she was training with Dakota on a golf course when a golfer hit the dog over the head with a golf club.  

“He said, ‘All I saw was a pit bull,’ “ she said.  

Crawford is committed to breaking the stigma attached to their breed and often brings all three dogs to schools, hospitals and nursing homes. The visits to schools are also important, Crawford said, because it can help children understand what to do if attacked by any dog.  

Most importantly, she said anyone should not run because that may provoke the predatory instinct. If attacked, Crawford said it’s critical to cover the neck and head. She added that most dogs will respond to the command, “No.” 

Visits to nursing homes can also benefit patients because they often go days without visitors. To the lonely, Crawford said it doesn’t matter if the dogs have a bad reputation.  

“They may not say anything, but you see the smile and know you made a difference,” she said.  

On Thursday upwards of 72 health care workers of the West Oakland Health Council went on a one-day strike opposing a 3.5 percent wage increase offered them by corporate management and today many are still waiting to be allowed to go back to work. 

“It’s pretty clear they’re doing this because they’re angry,” said psychiatric case manager Martin Rosen. “They are refusing to allow us to go back to work and compromising patient care because they are punishing us for asserting our constitutional rights. They have let some people go back to work with less seniority, and they have threatened to put others on administrative leave — those of us who have been more obvious and out in the open with this are being punished.” 

The health care workers have requested a 7.5 percent pay increase and say that management has been unwilling to budge on the 3.5 percent offer. 

Robert Cooper, director of the West Oakland Health Council did not return phone calls Monday for a comment. But union representatives say the official position of the clinic is that this is not a lock-out but that management is claiming there is simply a shortage of work that needs to be done to its nine area clinics.  

A late afternoon meeting between the health care union shop steward Rozalyn Taylor and the Council’s management did not go very far in securing the jobs of the striking workers.  

“They said they would start to think about letting some of us back to work,” Taylor said.  

According to Rosen the reality of this means that health care workers will go into work tomorrow and will be made aware at some point in the day whether or not they will be allowed to remain. 

“They’re trying to use divide and conquer and trying to use intimidation,” Rosen said. “Our union representatives are ready to go back to the bargaining table, but we can’t accept this ridiculous 3.5 percent wage increase.” 

Health workers at the council receive some of the lowest wages in the Bay Area, according to Sandy Mitchell a license vocational nurse with the clinic at the 900 Adeline Dr. location.  

Mitchell will be going back to work tomorrow, but says the fate of many of her co-workers is still uncertain and she feels that management is acting directly out of spite due to the Thursday walkout. 

“The most important thing is the hypocrisy in all this,” Rosen said. “They say that they are concerned with protecting patients, and here they are refusing to allow us to go back to work. Patients are being neglected, I had to cancel several appointments today. And this is health care.”

Latte looters plague Chicago 

CHICAGO – Chicago police are on the lookout for a band of latte looters. 

Since January, thieves have walked into six Starbucks coffeehouses and made off with brand new espresso machines. The latest theft happened Tuesday, just after police visited the store to warn employees. 

A man who appeared to be about 30 walked in and said he was waiting for someone, said Cassandra Clay, a “barista” who prepares drinks at the coffee bar. 

A little later, Clay said she looked up and saw the man walk out the door and hop into a car without license plates. Clay then noticed the display model of the machine — marked down from $399 to $299 — was gone. 

Police say they believe more than one person is at work, and while it’s possible the bandits are simply fans of a good cup of java, police don’t think that’s the case. 

Ark. Rep. welcomes 14th kid  

SPRINGDALE, Ark. Another year, another mouth to feed. 

Senate hopeful Jim Bob Duggar and his wife are looking forward to their fourteenth child in as many years. 

The state Representative’s wife, Michelle, made the announcement that she’s expecting to her family during a “praise report” while they gathered for weekend worship at home. 

“I paused and everybody looked at me. Jim Bob turned around and his eyes got real big,” she said. 

Duggar, 36, and his wife, 35, gave each of their children names that begin with the letter “J.” The oldest is 14, and they’ve had two sets of twins. 

Duggar is seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Tim Hutchinson, also a Republican.

Body advertising 

LAS VEGAS — Well-placed logos at boxing matches have moved a step closer to the action — right onto the boxers’ backs. 

A judge ruled that Nevada boxing authorities would be violating the right to free speech if they outlawed the use of temporary tattoos as advertisements. 

The Nevada Athletic Commission banned the ads in January, but online casino GoldenPalace.com went to court to get a temporary injunction that allowed super bantamweight boxer Bones Adams to wear the company’s Web site address on his back in a fight last month. 

District Judge Valerie Vega extended the injunction Wednesday. It will become permanent unless appealed by the Nevada commission. 

Middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins wore the first tattoo ad in his title unification bout against Felix Trinidad on Sept. 29 in New York. 

Are you a cop? 

CINCINNATI — A would-be robber learned an important lesson: You never know who might be a cop. 

Police Spec. Dennis Ficker wasn’t in uniform when a man approached from behind, stuck something sharp in his side and said, “Gimme your money!” Ficker told investigators. 

Ficker, a 30-year cop, couldn’t believe what he heard. He asked, “What?” 

The man repeated: “Gimme your money,” Ficker said. 

That’s when Ficker reached for his gun, and the man ran. 

Ficker said he chased David Joseph Moore for a couple of blocks until, knife still in hand, Moore got on the ground and gave up. 

As he was in pursuit, Ficker said it occurred to him that Moore fit the description of a suspect in a convenience store robbery a week earlier. He asked Moore, who allegedly admitted it. 

Will you marry me? 

FALKVILLE, Ala. — Town Council member Matt Stiles is known for speaking his mind. On Tuesday, he let his heart do the talking. 

After completing a department report, Stiles rose from his chair. “I’ve got something else, but I’ll have to be excused to take care of it,” he told Roy Coley, mayor of the north Alabama town of some 1,200 people. 

Stiles then walked over to a woman in the audience, dropped to one knee and popped the question to an obviously surprised Rene Smith. 

“Rene, you’ve brought a lot of love and joy and grace into my life,” Stiles said. “I would be honored if you would become my wife. Rene, would you marry me?” 

With a smile, she answered, “I will.” 

Stiles gave her a ring and two red roses, and the audience burst into applause. 

——— 

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police are on the lookout for a band of latte looters. 

Since January, thieves have walked into six Starbucks coffeehouses and made off with brand new espresso machines. The latest theft happened Tuesday, just after police visited the store to warn employees. 

A man who appeared to be about 30 walked in and said he was waiting for someone, said Cassandra Clay, a “barista” who prepares drinks at the coffee bar. 

A little later, Clay said she looked up and saw the man walk out the door and hop into a car without license plates. Clay then noticed the display model of the machine — marked down from $399 to $299 — was gone. 

Police say they believe more than one person is at work, and while it’s possible the bandits are simply fans of a good cup of java, police don’t think that’s the case. 

“It’s somebody who apparently wants to make some quick money,” said Francis Kehoe, commander of the city’s Belmont police district. 

——— 

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — Another year, another mouth to feed. 

Senate hopeful Jim Bob Duggar and his wife are looking forward to their fourteenth child in as many years. 

The state Representative’s wife, Michelle, made the announcement that she’s expecting to her family during a “praise report” while they gathered for weekend worship at home. 

“I paused and everybody looked at me. Jim Bob turned around and his eyes got real big,” she said. 

Duggar, 36, and his wife, 35, gave each of their children names that begin with the letter “J.” The oldest is 14, and they’ve had two sets of twins. 

Duggar is seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Tim Hutchinson, also a Republican. 

“We figure by November it will be a good election baby. We’ll win either way,” Michelle Duggar says.