A Berkeley teenager was charged in court yesterday with shooting a bullet into the shoulder of another teenager Sunday morning in south Berkeley. 

Melvin Davis, 19, was arrested in Oakland Thursday. 

Berkeley police said that Davis was charged with firing several shots at Ryan Arceneaux, 19, as he and three others sat in a parked car at the 1500 block of Alcatraz Avenue. No one else was injured. 

Berkeley police Lt. Cynthia Harris said no weapons were found at the scene or on Davis on Thursday. Harris had no criminal history record for the suspect. The investigation is ongoing. 

Sunday’s shooting plus the arrest of 20 people last week in south and west Berkeley on charges related to the sale of narcotics and for probation violations is fueling fears that violence and drug activity in the south and west are on the rise. 

According to Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, residents have complained that the drug activity that had been on the decline is back. 

“Neighbors have been extremely upset about the increase in drug activity,” Dean said. 

Last week’s sweep was the result of several months of surveillance by BPD’s Special Enforcement Unit formed in large part to slow increased drug activity in south and west Berkeley. 

Dean hopes that efforts such as last week’s sweep will show that the city is committed to fighting crime. “This was an important show by the city that we take this seriously. There was an extremely bad drug situation in the ‘80s and early ‘90s here but with increased effort that activity went down. Recently it’s again risen to a level of real notice and real concern,” said Dean. 

Officers, city officials and residents agree that more communication between the community and the police is needed to mitigate violence and drug activity.  

Dean notes that community watchgroups have in the past made strong efforts to share information with the police in an attempt to reduce crime. “We’ve got to make that communication once again a priority and make it stronger and better than it was even then,” said Dean. 

Meetings such as west Berkeley’s community forum at Rosa Parks Elementary School last week give residents a chance to express their concerns to the police and city officials. 

According to Dean, the Berkeley police will lose a number of officers in July due to retirement and as a result will lose valuable resources in the fight against crime. 

Dean says that with the retirements, the department will lose not only bodies, but experience, knowledge and understanding of the history of criminal activity in Berkeley. 

“A lot of the drug activity is located in certain city pockets. With these retirements we’re going to lose that information and that knowledge, the street information and experience,” said Dean. 

Upcoming budget cuts will also challenge the city’s ability to fight crime, according to the mayor. The cuts will eliminate funding for a number of neighborhood youth programs that are cited as important deterrents to drug activity among minors. 

According to Dean, the Healthy Schools Program, which provides money for a variety of extracurricular, counseling and athletic programs will soon lose funding. 

Dean says that the city needs to come together in protest of these cuts. 

According to Harris, efforts to track drug dealers and prevent crime will have to constantly change and evolve as criminals become more and more adept. “We have to always be flexible with our efforts. Drug dealers are always changing their patterns too,” said Harris. 

Harris says that patrols have increased in both south and west Berkeley and that the city and the BPD both plan to announce future community based programs in the coming days. 

- Contact reporter at 

Chris@berkeleydailyplanet.net

For many years the once impressive Art Deco styled Howard Automobile Company Building languished mostly unused and slowly deteriorating.  

Over the years there were several plans to use the large site at Durant and Fulton streets, but they did not include restoring the building. But a developer did come forth and has just completed a beautiful rehabilitation of the building. On May 23rd the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association presented awards to Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., owner, Greg Bunton and Associates, architects, and Rossi Builders, at its Annual Preservation Award Ceremonies.  

The building, which is a City of Berkeley Landmark, was designed by architect Frederick Reimers (1889-1961) in 1930. It is an example of the types of impressive showrooms built for the newly affluent and glamorous automobile industry. The one-story reinforced-concrete garage and showroom building is remarkable for its Art Deco style facade. Large display windows are separated by tall, cast-concrete pylons, tinted light brown. Each pylon is composed of three vertical geometric ribs which rise above the cornice and end in a three-part scroll design. Between the pylons the walls are infilled with a brick and concrete zig-zag belt-course pattern. Transoms above the showcase windows are divided into narrow vertical panes by metal mullions which have a scroll design on the bottom. All of this detailing has been carefully restored.  

The story of how this building is connected with Laura Hillenbrand's best selling book Seabiscuit begins in San Francisco in 1903. That is the year Charles Howard, who would later become the owner of the racehorse Seabiscuit, arrived in the city and opened a bicycle-repair shop where he also worked on automobiles. In1905, at the age of twenty-eight, Howard had convinced the owner of the Buick company (later to become General Motors) to give him the Buick franchise for San Francisco. Howard was ambitious, colorful and very successful.  

Howard had dealerships in many cities, and this building was constructed after he had made his fortune. From the late 1960s until the 1980s it was used by the Maggini Chevrolet dealership. For a brief period in the late 1980s baseball player Reggie Jackson operated a Chevrolet dealership here.  

The restoration and reuse of this building not only preserves an excellent example of an early twentieth century automobile showroom in the Art Deco style, it also perpetuates, in a tangible form, the rags to riches story of Charles Howard. On an other level it also contributes to environmentally responsible building practices (or "green architecture") by retaining and reusing the materials and embodied energy that was used to build the building initially.  

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

To the Editor: 

I can't help but feel that the recent measure passed by the Berkeley City Council banning overnight parking on University Avenue west of the freeway is out of step with the hospitable ethos and liberal spirit of Berkeley.  

Certainly, as one who loves the Environment, I can appreciate the concerns of the Council members regarding the aesthetic impact of trucks parked near a future park area. But shouldn't we also consider that this is not pristine wilderness; the area is adjacent to a 10-lane interstate? 

Even supporters of the ordinance note that overnight parking by the freeway is not a problem, they only fear it might become one.  

May I remind them that travelers have been parking in the area for the past 25 years without it becoming a problem. And this is a nighttime use of the area, and so conflicts only minimally with the daytime recreational use of the park by bikers, walkers, sailors and others.  

Only a few early risers are even aware that travelers sometimes park in the area. 

Most importantly, the criminalization of overnight parking near the freeway inconveniences and endangers two segments of the population. One is a vital segment of the work force: the truckers who bring us our food, clothes, bicycles, furniture and just about everything we purchase.  

Now our thanks to them is to say get out of town!  

The second segment is travelers who are too poor to afford a motel or too tired to find one. Since the Frontage Road is now closed to parking, can't we offer these people some other easily accessible place to park. 

Searle Whitney 

Berkeley

African Peace and Justice Tour 

7 p.m. 

Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. 

A discussion of issues concerning Africa, with speakers including Dr. Molefe Samuel Tsele 

Call (415) 565-0201, ext. 15 

Free 

Saturday & Sunday, June 8-9

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Live Oak Park Shattuck & Berryman 

Crafts & art, food, live entertainment with M.C. Wavy Gravy. Benefit for Camp Winnarainbow. 

(510) 898-3282 

Free 

History Workshop 

3 p.m.  

Berkeley Historical Society, 1931 Center St. 

Learn how to preserve and catalogue our history. 

(510) 848-0181 

Free 

Permaculture Principals, Hands-on 

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Christopher's Garder, 463 61st Street 

Fundamentals for creating sustainable human environments. 

(510) 548-2220, ext. 233 

$10 members, $15 non-members 

unday, June 9

Authors Susan Griffin and Margot Duxler converse 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club,1650 Mountain Blvd. Oakland  

Susan Griffin "The Book of the Courtesans: A  

Catalogue of Their Virtues" in conversation with Margot Duxler "Seduction:  

A Portrait of Anais Nin". Join in with your questions and thoughts. 

Free 

The Deep Politics of 9/11 

Noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. Oakland 

Edward Rippy leads a discussion of the role of engineered attacks in maintaining a permanent 

state of war.  

(510) 451-5818 or HumanistHall@yahoo.com 

Matthew Fox Lecture 

11 a.m. 

New Spirit Community Church Pacific School of Religion chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave.  

Spiritual innovator, theologian, author and founder of 

University Creation Spirituality 

(510) 849-8280 

admin@newspiritchurch.org. 

Free 

"Creativity and Emotion" 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place 

Psychology, Buddhism, Creativity, with speakers Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum 

510-843-6812. 

Free 

"Listening to Her Voice" 

1 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street  

Join Miki Raver in Sacred Circle to study Scripture, pray, dance, meditate and write for the soul's delight, and to connect with your foremothers and the feminine divine within. 

848-0237 x127 

$30/public, $25 BRJCC and members of co-sponsoring organizations 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

Open House Introduction to  

Tibetan Buddhist Culture 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute,1815 Highland Place 

Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum on "Creativity and Emotion" 

6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

(510) 843-6812 

Free 

Traditional Persian Music Concert  

Hossein Alizadeh and Madjid Khaladj 

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley 

7:30 PM 

925-798-1300, www.theatrebayarea.org. 

$22 

"Creating Peace through  

Non-Violence and Meditation" 

5 p.m. 

St. John's Church, 2727 College Ave. 

William Scotti's discussion on meditation on the inner Light and Sound. 

(707) 226-7703 

Free 

Monday, June 10

Partial Solar Eclipse 

Begins at 5:06 p.m., reaches its maximum at 6:16 p.m. and will be over at 7:10 p.m.  

Lawrence Hall of Science plaza 

LHS astronomers will be on hand to explain the eclipse and help the public with safe viewing techniques. Sun spotter telescopes provided and special viewing glasses for sale  

(510) 643-8980; lindas@uclink.berkeley.edu 

First 100 people will receive an energy efficient fluorescent light bulb - free 

Poetry Express -  

All Open Mike Night 

7 to 9 p.m. 

A community open mike welcoming all artists 

Berkeley Bakery & Cafe 

1561 Solano Avenue 

Free 

"All Grown Up: Living Happily Ever With Your Adult Children" 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street 

Author Roberta Maisel leads the mid-life parent through a series of thoughtful steps inherent in the process of learning how to let go. 

(510) 848-0237 x127 

Free 

Berkeley Parkinson's Group 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center, MLK and Hearst 

Speakers, exercise advice, good fellowship 

Caregivers and relatives invited 

Free 

Tuesday, June 11

Art for the Earth!  

6 to 8 p.m. special guests: Literacy for Environmental Justice 

The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave 

A celebration of Eco-Art opening and slide show with Julianne Skai Arbor, Julia Weaver and Mike Floyd 

(510) 548-2220 x233. 

Free 

Berkeley Camera Club  

Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers 

7 p.m. for dinner, 7:30 for meeting  

Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave.  

Beginners and 'wannabes' welcome to monthly meeting 

(510) 524-0428 

$4.00 for dinner, meeting free. 

Adopt A Special Kid (AASK) 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

7700 Edgewater Drive, suite 320, Oakland 

A workshop for singles or couples, gay and lesbian, experienced or older parents, interested in adoption. 

(510) 533-1747, ext. 12, or www.adoptaspecialkid.org 

Free 

Wednesday, June 12

Natural Highs: 

7:30 to 10:00 p.m.  

Sunrise Center, 45 San Clemente Drive, Suite C-200, Corte Madera  

Supplements, nutrition and mind/body techniques with Dr. Hyla Cass  

415-924-5483 orwww.sunrise-center.org 

$15 (Includes refreshments) 

Thursday, June 13

"Centering Prayer, An Introduction" 

7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish, 2005 Berryman St.  

Brother Bryan Dolejsi, OP, speaks on Catholicism 

(510) 526-4811, ext. 19 

Free 

Jack Ball Retirement Party 

King Middle School PE teacher’s retirement 

7 p.m., at Tilden’s Brazil room 

Former students, friends, faculty invited 

Call Teri Gerritz (510) 644-6377 

$48 for dinner, $20 for desert 

Freedom From Tobacco 

A quit smoking class 

5:30-7:30 Thursday Evenings, June 6-July 18 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street, (510) 981-5330 

QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Free 

Friday, June 14

Judaism Workshop 

7 to 8:30 p.m.  

The Ecology Center, 2530 SanPablo Ave  

Earth Traditions: Judaism Rooted in the Earth... Healing the World in Jewish Thought and Practice 

(510) 548-3402 

$10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned 

away for lack of funds. 

"The Million Dollar Question" 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Robert Osserman, Ph.D. from the Mathematical Science Research Institute 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

Berkeley Women in Black 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

Telegraph and Bancroft 

A vigil for peace for Palestine and Israel 

(510) 548-6310, or www.wibberkeley.org 

Saturday, June 15

Emergency Preparedness  

Classes in Berkeley 

9 to 11 a.m. 

997 Cedar Street  

Basic Personal Preparedness: Learn how to take care of yourself, your family and your home. 

981-5605 

Free 

The Great Rummage Sale 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth Street 

Household items, glassware, clothing, furniture for sale. 

(510) 845-7735 

Chu Ko's Late Afternoon  

Adventure in International Art 

4 p.m. 

Berkeley Public Library Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge 

Artist Chu Ko discusses his Chinese ink brush painting. 

(510) 981-6100 

Free 

Sierra Club Northern  

Alameda County Group Forum  

10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. a 

Berkeley Public Library 

Forum on the benefits and problems of urban density with Rachel Peterson, John 

Holtzclaw and Martha Nicoloff. 

Call Jonna Anderson at (510)848-0800 x312 to reserve space 

Free 

The Sierra Student Coalition  

A retreat and planning meeting at Point Reyes National Seashore for high school and college-age students working to address local environmental issues. Meet other student activists, exchange ideas, and become more involved. All East Bay students are welcome at this event. Space  

is limited.  

For Reservations, call Jonna Anderson at 510-848-0800 x312  

Sunday, June 16

Field Trip to Remnant East Shore Habitats 

Visit a selection of critically rare habitats in and adjacent to the new East Shore State Park 

Meet at 10 a.m. at El Cerrito BART, southwest corner of parking lot (towards Albany Hill), then carpool to various sites, returning mid-afternoon. 

(925) 372-0687, e-mail elainejx@mindspring.com 

Free 

Buddhism 

Lee Nichol on "Sacred Dimensions of Time and Space." 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free 

Restoration Clinic 

9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

1051 5th Ave. Studio C at E.11th St. 

Suigetsukan, a non-profit martial arts collective in Oakland, is raising funds for a new dojo. Massage 

therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other health professionals conduct yoga and stress management classes. 

(510) 452-3941 or www.suigetsukan.org. 

Food is the Earth's Way of Love 

Noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. Oakland 

Joy Moore, CoDirector of the Farm Fresh Choice program of Berkeley's Ecology Center 

(510) 451-5818 or HumanistHall@yahoo.com 

Monday, June 17th

Multiple Sclerosis  

Support Group 

Rockridge Library 

Self-help support group. Meets the third Monday each month 

(510) 521-2436, or Rickpete99@yahoo.com 

"An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust" 

Join Bernat Rosner, a Holocaust survivor as he reads from and discusses his counterpoint memoir co-authored with Fritz Tubach, the son of a German Army officer. 

7:30 to 8:45 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Street 

848-0237 x127 

Free 

Lesbian, Gay, Bi- Sexual,  

Transgender National Day to Honor loved ones lost on 9/11  

The LGBT National Day of Honor, about creating a Day when all Lesbian,  

Gay, Bi- Sexual, Transgender, & questioning people and our supporters,  

can come together to help further our fight against continued second class  

citizen treatment in the United States.  

For more information, call 802.859.9604 

Poetry Express - Nance Wogan, followed by open mike 

7 to 9 p.m. 

A community open mike welcoming all artists 

Berkeley Bakery & Cafe 

1561 Solano Avenue 

Free 

Tuesday, June 18

Arthritis Rap Session 

12 to 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium- Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

for more info: 644-3273 

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

"Part-time Parenting? A Career Networks Forum on Flexible Work Arrangements." 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  

Thousand Oaks Elementary, 840 Colusa, Berkeley  

Neighborhood Parents Network. Adults only. 

RSVP required: Amy Knowlden at knowlden@earthlink.net or (510) 526-4044.  

$5 NPN Members and $10 for Non-Members.  

Pride Mass 2002 

7 p.m. 

Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Parish, 2700 Dwight Way 

LGBT Catholics celebrate 10 years towards creating a more inclusive world. 

(510) 663-6302 

www.calnewman.org 

Free 

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Simplicity Forum 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Discussion on how to lead a more simple life 

(510) 549-3509, or www.simpleliving.net 

Free 

Senior Men's Afternoon 

Gay senior men discussion group, 2nd & 4th Thursdays. 

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave. 

510-548-8283  

Free 

Freedom From Tobacco 

A quit smoking class 

5:30-7:30 Thursday Evenings, June 6-July 18 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street, (510) 981-5330 

QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Friday, June 21 

Paramount Movie Classics-  

The Mummy, with Boris Karloff, 1932 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

"Understanding the Achievement Gap in the BUSD" 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Shirley Issel, MSW, president of the Berkeley Unified School District 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

Saturday, June 22

Celebration of Solidarity with the People of Afghanistan 

7:30 p.m. 

Trinity United Methodist Church, 2363 Bancroft Way 

Live music and slide presentation by Rona Popal. Benefits a widows project and orphanage in Afghanistan 

(510) 883-9252 

$10-$30 

Summer Solstice Celebration 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market, Center St. and MLK Way. 

Live music, crafts, and summer solstice ritual. 

(510) 548-3333 

Free 

Emergency Preparedness Classes in Berkeley 

Disaster Mental Health: Learn about disaster-related emotional reactions. 

9 a.m. to noon 

997 Cedar Street 

981-5605 

Free 

Town Hall Meeting 

9:30 a.m. to noon  

East Oakland Youth Development Center, 8200 International Boulevard 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee on affordable housing with housing specialists and bank representatives 

(510) 763-0370 for reservations 

Sunday, June 23

Debt Cancellation for Impoverished Countries 

Noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. Oakland 

Tony Littmann gives us a brief overview on the causes and effects of the Third World debt crisis 

(510) 451-5818 or HumanistHall@yahoo.com 

Monday, June 24

Shakespeare Festival Auditions 

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Rehearsal Hall, 701 Heinz Ave. 

California Shakespeare Festival is looking for people aged 14-18 to appear in The Winters Tale. 

(510) 548-3422 ext. 105, or www.calshakes.org 

Tuesday, June 25

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Magic School Bus Festival 

10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Video Adventures. Other events for kids take place every Wednesday through August 21. 

(510) 643-5961 

$8 for adults, $6 for ages 5-18, seniors and disabled, $4 for children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Thursday, June 27

The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland 

Preview new exhibit of resurrected 1961 spacecraft 

RSVP June 20, (415) 864-6397 or news@davidperry.com 

Friday, June 28

Paramount Movie Classics-  

The General (1927), starring Buster Keaton, a silent film with live Wurlitzer organ accompaniment by Jim Riggs, playing his original score. 

Doors at 7, Mighty Wurlitzer at 7:30, Newsreel, Cartoon, Previews, and Prize give-away game Dec-O-Win and feature Film 

2025 Broadway 

Oakland  

$5 

Politics in Sacramento 

11:45 for lunch. Speaker begins 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman 

$11.00/$12.25, students free. 

Saturday, June 29

Emergency Preparedness Classes in Berkeley 

Disaster First Aid: Learn to apply basic first aid techniques. 

9 a.m. to noon 

997 Cedar Street 

981-5605 

David Brower Day 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Stanford Jazz Festival, June 29-August 10

Early Bird jazz for kids and families with Jim Nadel & Friends 

10:30 a.m. kids 7 & under, 11:30 a.m. kids 8-12 

Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford Campus  

Free 

July 2

Adopt A Special Kid (AASK) 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

7700 Edgewater Drive, suite 320, Oakland 

A workshop for singles or couples, gay and lesbian, experienced or older parents, interested in adoption. 

(510) 533-1747, ext. 12, or www.adoptaspecialkid.org 

Free 

Saturday, July 13

Peach / Stone Fruit Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

15th Anniversary Derby Street Farmers Market 

Live music and & stone-fruit and peach tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Sunday, July 14

Family Health Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore health concerns in a family oriented environment 

Free 

Tuesday, July 16

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Saturday, July 20

Emergency Preparedness Classes in Berkeley 

Earthquake Retrofitting: Learn how to strengthen your wood frame home. 

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

812 Page Street 

981-5605 

Free 

Saturday, August 10

Tomato Tastings 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Tastings and cooking demonstrations  

Free 

Sunday, August 11

West Berkeley arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

Explore the many resident artists located in Berkeley 

Free. 

Tuesday, August 13

Tomato Tasting 

Tasting & cooking demonstrations 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Berkeley Camera Club Weekly Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share slides, prints with other photographers 

(510) 525-3565 

Free 

Saturday, August 24

Cajun & More 

Four Live Bands, crafts fair, Cajun food, dance lessons, micro-brewery beer & dance floor. 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Saturday, September 8 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Sunday, September 15

Heritage Day 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

4th and University Ave. 

International BBQ and beer festival 

Free 

Saturday, October 12

Indigenous People's Day Pow Wow, Indian Market & Fall Fruit Tasting 

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Tuesday, October 15

Fall Fruit Tasting 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way  

Free 

Saturday, October 26

Pumpkin Carving & Costume Making 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Sunday, October 27

Spirit Day 

11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

4th and University 

Construct altars in a day of reflection 

Free 

Saturday December 7, 14, 21 

Holiday Crafts Fair

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Saturday December 14

Holiday Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

Saturday December 21

Holiday Crafts Fair 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Free 

It would be an understatement to call Lewis Suzuki’s paintings of flowers, the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco’s Chinatown or the Manila slums known as Smokey Mountain watercolor meanderings.  

No. To get a greater sense of the 81-year-old artists work and to fully appreciate the vivid sensations he presents mainly through watercolors you have to let your mind wander over the multiple shades of color and let them draw you in. You have to let his watercolors move your mind from peace to anger with the stroke of a brush. Only then will you reach the core of Suzuki’s beautiful works. 

The public can see his work Saturday and Sunday at the ProArts East Bay Open Studios, in which artists from Berkeley and Oakland open their studios to the public. 

Suzuki, who was born in Los Angeles, studied art in Japan and at three schools in the United States including the Otis Institute of Los Angles, the Art Students League of New York and the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Museums at which his art and exhibitions have hung include the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition in New York. He has been at his current studio, which is attached to his home, since 1968. These days he concentrates on one painting at a time.  

Mixing gentle strokes reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy with vibrant hues, Suzuki transforms beautiful locales into extraordinary studies in human nature. For instance, his painting of a place in Manila called "Smokey Mountain" depicts throngs of people living in squalor and rummaging through a massive garbage heap. He and his wife, Mary, visited Smokey Mountain years ago. The painting shows both the horror and humanity of the people working to survive.  

Two other works that delve into the human condition are posters addressing the effects of the World War II bombing of Hiroshima. In one poaster an orange dove in the shape of an Origami cutout is framed by a tan outline. 

Superimposed over the dove is the quote "No more Hiroshimas/Repose Ye in Peace/For the Error Shall Never Be Repeated," which is from the inscription of the memorial tomb in Hiroshima. The second poster has the same quote, but at the bottom is the slogan "No More War" with the "O" replacing the peace symbol. These posters and the Smokey Mountain painting are his strongest political statements.  

Other painted locales include the "Seven Cranes," an ancient Guilin mountains of China that tower over the Li-Chang River. It’s a masterful work that evokes serenity. Other paintings not to be missed center around San Francisco’s Chinatown and the city in general. 

The works are for sale. Prices range from prints at $20, to lithographs for $200, to the original Smokey Mountain painting for $12,000, which took him 10 months to paint, he says.  

The studios will be open 11a.m. to 6 p.m. Suzuki’s studio is at 2240 Grant St., Berkeley. Call 510-849-1427 for details.  

Wednesday, June 12 

Norma Cole and Robin Caton 

Authors read from their poetry and prose 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody's Books 

2454 Telegraph Avenue 

845-7852 

$2 donation 

Saturday and Sunday, June 8 & 9 

Artists C.P. Fairburn &  

Donna Montgomery 

Painting & Jewelry 

2315 San Jose Avenue, #1 

Alameda 

814-9017 

ProArts East Bay Open Studios 

497 artists will open their studios to the public for this 20th annual self-guided tour 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 6th Street (b/w University and Hearst) 

705-8183 

Tuesday, June 11 

Art for the Earth! 

A celebration of Eco-Art opening and slide show 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Avenue 

548-2220 x233, www.ecologycenter.org 

Free 

Ongoing until July 14 

Focus on the Figure 

An outdoor show of contemporary figurative sculpture 

Wednesday - Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery  

1286 Gilman Street 

525-7621 

Thursday, June 6 

Our Spanish Heritage 

Music, History and Literature of the Middle Ages & Renaissance 

Presented by His Majestie's Musicians 

5 p.m. 

International House Auditorium, UC Berkeley 

Bancroft Way and Piedmont 

Reserve tickets at 528-1725 

$12 general, $10 SFEMS members, children free 

Friday, June 7 

Tropical Vibrations and  

Shabang with Harry Best 

A multi-cultural quintet playing a mix of Caribbean styles 

Doors at 8:30 p.m.; Show at 9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages all the time. 

$11 

Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party  

Every Friday, with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man.  

10 p.m. 

Eli’s Mile High Club  

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 

655-6661 

$10 

Free Early Music Group 

Singers needed for small group of 15th and 16th century music every Friday 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

Hearst at MLK Way. 

Contact Ann at 665-8863 

Saturday, June 8 

Kotoja 

Bay Area's leader in the World Beat and Afro-beat scene 

Doors at 8:30 p.m.; Show at 9:30 p.m. 

Dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages all the time. 

$12 

Sunday, June 9 

Band Works 

Student recital featuring members who range in age from 12 to 50 

Doors at 4:30 p.m.; Show at 5 to 10 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages. 

$3 

Saturday, June 8 

West Coast Live 

Radio Show marks Oakland's 150th Anniversary 

10 a.m. to Noon 

91.7 KALW San Francisco, 91.1 KRCB Sonoma 

Wednesday, June 12 

Cloud Nine 

Caryl Churchill's play about race, class, history and sex set in 19th century colonial Africa 

8 p.m. 

The Rhoda Theatre 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2015 Addison Street 

RSVP by Friday, June 7 

647-2917 

Ongoing until June 9 

Lisa Dillman's comedy about four  

30-something city dwellers 

Thursday, Friday,  

and Saturday at 8 p.m.,  

Sunday at 7 p.m. 

Transparent Theater 

1901 Ashby Avenue 

883-0305 

www.transparenttheater.org 

St. Mary’s College High has been fertile ground for college recruiters looking to fill holes on their track & field teams for more than a decade. But this year’s senior class has broken out of that niche to place student-athletes from six different sports on Division I college campuses next fall. In all, an amazing 14 of the school’s 147 seniors earned athletic scholarships. 

Of course, track & field still led the way for the Class of 2002, with seven members of the St. Mary’s program headed for NCAA competition next season. A quartet of senior girls are leaving St. Mary’s with the school’s first North Coast Section championship as well as an undefeated record in dual meets in their four years. Kamaiya Warren, Tiffany Johnson, Bridget Duffy and Danielle Stokes each have numerous highlights to put on their respective resumés as they disperse across the country. 

Likewise, a trio of male hoopsters took the Panthers to uncharted territory during their four years together. DeShawn Freeman, John Sharper and Chase Moore were starters on St. Mary’s first state-champion basketball team in 2001, as well as the 2002 version that moved up to Division I to play with the big boys and lost in the NorCal semifinals to eventual state champ Oakland Tech. Freeman and Sharper were the consensus “best backcourt in California,” while Moore showed off his terrific athleticism on the football and baseball fields as well, earning All-BSAL honors in both sports and being drafted this week by the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Two of Moore’s gridiron teammates, Trestin George and Courtney Brown, will don the pads once again this fall. George finished his career as the school’s all-time leading rusher, while Brown will parlay his speed into a dual role as a reciever and sprinter at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. 

Two athletes from outside the spotlight managed to draw attention all by themselves. Mikka Vrankovich has been pitching since she was 9 years old, and her years of work paid off with three MVP awards and a scholarship to St. Francis College in New York. Brian Haller started playing his chosen sport, golf, as a freshman at St. Mary’s, and his rapid ascent to NCS champion belied his meager experience. He’ll be heading down Highway 24 to Moraga as a St. Mary’s College Gael. 

Solomon Welch won the award for least-suspenseful, most-drawn-out signing process. He gained early acceptance to Stanford in the fall, but put off the official signing until the school year was almost out. He erased any lingering doubts by beating his best triple jump effort by nearly a foot at the last Northern California meet and is now officially a Cardinal. 

Chris Dunbar battled hamstring injuries all year and never really gained top form, but UCLA saw enough of his blazing speed in the 400-meter to offer him a scholarship. He will join Warren on the powerhouse Bruin squad. 

Rudy Vazquez is a three-time BSAL cross country champion and will soon be an Anteater. He signed with UC Irvine and will run track as well as cross country.

A case that began April 9 with the dramatic arrest of 79 pro-Palestinian protesters at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall ended quietly Friday morning with a brief court appearance, $2,900 in court fees and all charges dropped. 

“It’s a huge victory,” said Seth Chazin, lawyer for the defendants. 

“It’s a vindication of our First Amendment rights and an indication that the university shouldn’t have filed charges in the first place,” added Linda Sherif, another lawyer for the “Wheeler 79.” 

One of the 79 Wheeler Hall protesters was never arraigned, but the other 78 faced charges of obstructing or intimidating an employee of a public agency, which falls under the trespassing code. Seven also faced charges of resisting arrest and one, 23 year-old student Roberto Hernandez, was accused of misdemeanor assault and battery for allegedly biting a UC Berkeley police officer. 

Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle Eastern Affairs for the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council, defended the university’s actions, saying it followed procedure. 

“We feel very strongly about the right to free speech,” he said. “At the same time, we also believe in following the rules of the university and remaining in compliance with the law.” 

Hoang Phan, a leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus group that spearheaded this year’s Wheeler Hall takeover, said SJP is considering a lawsuit against the university for harassment.  

“They defend the right to free speech... but not for certain political positions and not for certain political groups,” Phan said. 

The April 9 takeover capped a day of protests against Israeli occupation of Palesinian territories and the University of California’s investment in Israel.  

Activists occupied the foyer of the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Hall on campus, demanding to meet about divestment with UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl and the UC Board of Regents. 

The event commemorated the April 9, 1948 massacre, by Israeli paramilitaries, of Palestinian townspeople in the village of Deir Yassin. 

Last year, police arrested 32 pro-Palestinian protesters, including 19 students, who occupied Wheeler Hall and made similar demands. 

Deputy district attorney Stuart Hing said his office made the right decision late in May when it offered to drop all charges and find each defendant innocent. 

“I don’t think it was worth going to trial on,” said Hing. “Something had to be done, but going all the way was not something that either side wanted.” 

Hing said the court fees – $25 for each defendant facing trespassing charges, $50 for those charged with resisting arrest, and $750 for Hernandez – are punishment enough. 

Earlier this week, lawyers for the defendants argued that the fees were administrative and should not be construed as fines. Chazin said Friday that the fees cannot be considered fines since the charges were dropped, but acknowledged that they were meted out in accordance with the charges each defendant faced. 

Shaffy Moeel, an SJP member, said she was pleased with the outcome. Moeel said the resolution is “in keeping with the Berkeley tradition” of respecting free speech. She said she hoped the case has helped to raise awareness among taxpayers that their dollars are funding the Israeli military in the conflict with Palestinians. 

Forty-one of the protesters arrested were UC Berkeley students and they all face possible disciplinary action from the university, ranging up to a year-long suspension. 

Chazin said he hoped the outcome of the legal proceedings would discourage the university from moving forward with student discipline. 

“A DA’s case is separate and apart from the student conduct cases,” replied UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore. “We’re proceeding as we have been.”  

Gilmore said letters informing protesters of the student conduct charges they face would go out Friday or early next week. Students will then have the opportunity to settle the matter in an informal meeting with staff or go to a full hearing. 

Gilmore declined to comment on the District Attorney’s decision to drop the criminal charges. 

- Contact reporter: scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

If the Affordable Housing Association's proposed Outback Senior Housing Project has 10 market rate units and is receiving 27 project based Section 8 vouchers, just what part of it can be called “affordable?” 

Project-based Section 8 allows landlords to set their rents as high as 120% of fair market rate but, with the current administration's cutbacks on services for people with low-income and special needs, there are no guarantees that this program will continue.  

If Section 8 is no longer provided will AHA be required to lower its rents to 30% of a tenant's income, and what is the city of Berkeley doing to ensure this continuing affordability?  

Berkeley is investing or guaranteeing over $3 million in this property which is valued at $650,000, and the City should do everything in its power to categorically secure the permanent affordability of these housing units.  

To protect its investments, Berkeley should also closely monitor AHA's performance in the maintenance and upkeep of this project. 

As a self certifying nonprofit organization, AHA's properties are not subject to annual inspection by the Housing Department.  

I live in a home that has been managed by AHA for well over a year, but because it is owned by the Redevelopment Agency, it has been inspected by the Housing Authority.  

Although the Agency has budgeted over $25,000 for property management, AHA has steadfastly refused to conduct any of the repairs needed to correct numerous violations of the HQS in these properties, despite repeated notices from the Housing Authority.  

Some of these violations are serious hazards and are causing structural decay. They have also refused to meet with the tenants as promised by the City nearly a year and a half ago.  

Our contracts with the Agency allow us to speak out about these violations, a freedom not granted the tenants of a self certifying management with project based Section 8. 

Those tenants risk not only eviction but loss of their housing subsidy, which stays with the property, if they complain about their living conditions or needed repairs. 

Perhaps one reason that few developers are willing to build new housing in Berkeley is the lack of incentives. With just a couple of organizations receiving multiple funding opportunities, the profits of a few are ensured, leaving little to entice others. This project alone guarantees AHA at least $35,000 a month in rent (not counting the commercial space) with no property taxes to pay.  

Nonprofit is not the same as not-for-profit, and these organizations, like any bureaucracy, exist in order to raise increasingly more money to keep themselves going. HTF loans are long-term and low-interest and are often soon forgiven or forgotten.  

As one of Berkeley's two self-certifying organizations, AHA can put off maintenance allowing their property to decay which guarantees the future approval of additional HTF funds for repairs. The project-based subsidies ensure that their tenants, face converted to limited equity coops so that tenants become owners with a stake in the upkeep of their homes and a shot at the American Dream.  

Give the community the same breaks that you give those who are supposed to serve them. 

Rhiannon 

Berkekely 

LOWDEN, Wash. – The best advice wine grape grower Patricia Gelles ever got on spitting was: “Practice in the shower.” 

Cellarmaster Robert Chowanietz offered this tried-and-true contribution: “Stay close and try not to splash.” 

Once the province of snoose-chewing loggers and major league ballplayers, spitting has joined swirling, sniffing and sipping as a smart part of tasting wine. 

“Otherwise, you get drunk, if you’ve got lots to taste,” said Gelles, a general partner at Klipsun Vineyards on Red Mountain, west of Richland. 

Still, if you were raised anyplace other than a barn, chances are spitting in full view of others or — heaven forbid — indoors, just doesn’t come naturally. 

“It sort of goes against the grain,” said winemaker Kay Simon, who owns Chinook Winery in Prosser. “You don’t taste food and spit it out.” 

Simon keeps on hand a collection of attractive ceramic crocks, which can serve as discreet individual spittoons. 

“Glass containers are sort of gross,” she said. “Opaque containers are good.” 

A lot of people are more comfortable spitting into a handheld cup than aiming for a communal bucket, and those sloppy distance shots rarely make friends anyway. 

“It’s probably a little more genteel to pick the spittoon up and spit into it, rather than standing back two or three feet and hope you make it,” said Terry Flanagan, who owns Ryan Patrick Vineyards in Rock Island. 

The pros almost always spit, even into clean drains or gutters on winery room floors, which can be hosed down. 

“They do make convenient spitting areas,” Flanagan said. “I know I’ve done it many a time myself.” 

At Woodward Canyon Winery in Lowden, west of Walla Walla, Chowanietz might taste 30 times in a single day, usually in the morning on an empty stomach, so there’s no flavor interference with his palate. 

“There’s no drinking involved at all,” he said. “You can’t do your job without spitting.” 

For those who don’t know spit about spitting, the wine world is awash with suggestions. 

Try it in the tub or the kitchen sink. Don’t be shy, and don’t drool. Purse your lips to avoid splatter, aim for the center of the spittoon and put some power behind it. But if the bucket’s full, watch out for splashback. For those iffy early attempts, wear a dark shirt. 

If you’re a musician, think about employing that embouchure, the method of applying the lips and the tongue to the mouthpiece of a wind instrument. 

Even genetics might play a role in successful spitting. 

“It’s all in the tongue shape,” Gelles said. “If it’s wide enough, you can make a sort of little valley.” 

Chowanietz has designed stylish spittoons with stainless steel sinks in old wine barrels to try to encourage the reluctant to give it a try. 

“We were getting kind of concerned about the big open-house weekends right along the highway (U.S. 12), and we were suggesting that people spit when they taste,” he said. 

Jeff Cutter, a prosecutor for the city of Yakima, which calls itself the gateway to Washington wine country, likes the idea of sober tastings. 

“I would just as soon not see those folks in here,” he said. 

If a spittoon isn’t readily apparent in a winery’s tasting room, don’t hestitate to ask, Simon said. 

Jamie Peha, the marketing and promotions director for the Washington Wine Commission, coordinates the state’s biggest wine and food event, Taste Washington, and knows all the ins and outs of accommodating sippers and spitters. 

“People want to taste the wines and keep a clear head while doing it,” she said. “A lot of people are educated that spitting is part of tasting.” 

With 110 wineries pouring for more than 2,500 people, Peha ordered 200-plus plastic spit buckets — which were actually pretty pastel wastebaskets — for the April charity event in Seattle. 

“They’re huge, with two handles on the side, which makes it easy to quickly exchange and empty them,” she said. 

Of course, there are those who contend that spitting is an unfortunate waste of good wine, in which case, a designated driver should probably be part of their tasting plans. 

xYOKOHAMA, Japan – David Beckham is back and carrying England’s World Cup hopes forward. 

After nearly two months recovering from a broken left foot — and four years remembering the sorry end to his last world championship tournament — Beckham’s penalty kick gave England a 1-0 victory over archrival Argentina on Friday. 

In the most-hyped game of the first round, Beckham fortified England’s hopes and dimmed Argentina’s. 

“We’re buzzing,” Beckham said. “As a footballing nation we’ve waited for this for so long.” 

Spain also has waited a long time to prove itself. Trying to shake its image as an underachiever, the country became the first team to reach the second round. Substitute Fernando Morientes scored two second-half goals in a 3-1 victory over Paraguay. 

In the day’s other match, Sweden beat Nigeria 2-1, eliminating the Africans. That left Sweden and England tied at four points each atop Group F. 

Argentina, among the favorites to win the World Cup, has three points and almost certainly must beat Sweden on Wednesday to advance. 

England and Sweden need ties. 

Because of his broken foot, Beckham’s availability was in doubt for the tournament. After the long layoff, he lasted just 60 minutes in England’s 1-1 tie with Sweden on Sunday, when his corner kick led to a goal. 

With his 44th-minute penalty kick, he gained a measure of revenge for 1998. That year, he was sent off in a game won on penalty kicks as Argentina advanced to the quarterfinals. 

After Michael Owen was brought down inside the penalty area, Beckham said the Argentines tried to rattle him before his shot. He ignored them. 

“You know we battled really hard, it’s a team game. That’s what it’s about,” he said. “The team has been brilliant, really for the whole 92 minutes.” 

England’s red and white colors filled at least two-thirds of the 42,500-capacity Sapporo Dome. Small pockets of Argentina fans banged their drums and waved their blue and white scarves. 

Thousands of police braced for trouble, but arrests reported before the game were not connected with hooligan behavior. Police said eight English supporters and one Argentine were arrested on charges such as theft and fraud, while one Briton found on a list of potential hooligans was handed over to immigration authorities. 

England erupted in wild celebrations over its first tournament victory against Argentina since 1966.

What do a former army captain, a marketing executive, a construction worker, and an executive search firm owner have in common?  

They’re all part of Open Studios 2002. 

This weekend and last, artists from across the East Bay open their doors to the public. And while the art is sure to impress, often the most fascinating things on display are the artists themselves. 

Open Studios is presented by ProArts, an organization that promotes and supports East Bay visual artists. Now in it’s 20th year, Open Studios 2002 will showcase the work of nearly 500 local artists.  

For artists, Open Studios offers an opportunity to expose their work and make sales in the East Bay’s crowded, competitive art market. The public gets something even more valuable – a chance not only to see and buy original art, but to talk intimately with the artist in a comfortable and casual setting. 

“There is this whole mystique about art, and gallerys are more into that end of things,” said Berkeley artist Jeanne V. Diller, who along with 17 other artists are sharing exhibition space in the West Berkeley Senior Center.  

“This is a lot less intimidating. At open studios its more my neighbor down the street who’s never been to a gallery.” 

Open Studios demystifies art by demystifying the artist behind the work. When talking to the artists they are not unapproachable or aloof, but interesting and multifaceted people who put their passion and experiences into their work. 

One such artist is Karla Stevens Wilson of Oakland. After undergoing a mastectomy in 1997, Wilson, a recently retired marketing executive, began making art to battle depression. “My mother said get out of the fetal position. Here’s a brush. You need a project.”  

For the past five years Wilson’s main project has been refinishing wood. She buys or sometimes makes wooden furniture and then uses resin, foil, and paint, among other items, to create ornate coatings on the flat wooden surfaces. 

Wilson’s battle with breast cancer invariably finds its way into her work, most prominently in her sketches.  

The sketches document Wilson’s own experience after her surgery. One sketch depicts a woman in a swimming pool with a prosthetic floating beside her. “When you dive into a pool, its easy to lose your prosthetics. I remember when it happened thinking, ‘Oh my god, that must be mine’,” Wilson joked. “I try to do it to honor breast cancer victims and make other women more comfortable and see that there is life after breasts.” 

A few booths over from Wilson sits Lila Wahrhaftig. Having gone to art school later in life, Wahrhaftig has made a career as a professional etcher and paper maker. She says her work is inspired by Judaism and nature, but anyone gazing at her art notices there are an inordinate number of chickens.  

“I grew up across the road from a chicken farm,” said Wahrhaftig. “We used to make bombs out of chickens and saw dust.”  

One picture features several chickens and roosters in various poses and postures. It turns out that each fowl represents a person close to the artist. “Chickens have a lot of personality, people do too, so they make good chickens,” Wahrhaftig said. 

The hospitality evident at the senior center can be found at studios throughout the East Bay. 

At the Wild West Berkeley Studios, which is artist Joyce Shon’s basement, the participating artists offer guests insights into their art, and tidbits about their lives that give added depth and meaning to their work.  

Shon was born and raised in Berkeley. She spent much of her career working for the city as a public works construction site operator. A ceramics artist who had dabbled in making Eskimo and Aleutian shamonistic masks, she now focuses primarily on this work because it offers her insight into her ordeal with cancer. The masks traditionally have small mouth and eye holes, which often conjure a look of surprise or fear. 

“The masks are amazing by what the reveal,” Shon said. “The mask was telling me what was wrong with me. Some part of me knew what was happening.” 

Among those sharing Shon’s studio are Julie Wong, a freelance graphic designer, who makes sterling silver and crystal jewelry, and Marca Lemore, a Berkeley-born painter who was raised overseas but returned after serving seven years as an Army Captain. 

Basement studios, like Wild West, are not uncommon in Berkeley. In a city with so many artists in a tight real estate market, sharing limited space has become the norm. So has fighting for limited gallery space.  

According to Shon, doing public relations work helps her and the other Wild West artists get into galleries. For these artists and many in the East Bay, Open Studios is a rare opportunity to introduce their work to the public. And artists such as Lemore are more than happy to show guests around. “There is a very loving feeling here,” she said. 

NEW YORK – Running a city is not particularly glamorous work. 

ABC News, wisely, doesn’t try to pretend otherwise in “Boston 24/7,” its six-episode series that premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. It can still inform and entertain television viewers, though. 

“Boston 24/7” is one of three nonfiction series the network is airing this summer, all of which use a narrative style. 

“We’re trying to experiment with formats and take them as far as we can,” ABC News President David Westin said. 

Each one, to a certain extent, is an outgrowth of the successful “Hopkins 24/7” series two years ago that followed doctors and patients at a Baltimore hospital over the course of several months. 

Later in June, the network will air “State v.,” another five-episode series that shows real-life criminal trials in Phoenix. The news drama includes footage of juries deliberating the fate of defendants. 

The third series, set for August, documents human stories at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. 

Boston was chosen as a series setting primarily because its mayor, Thomas Menino, offered the unfettered access that other cities under consideration — Baltimore, Washington and Chicago — would not. Menino agreed to have cameras trail him virtually everywhere for three months. 

Besides giving an inside view of what Menino’s job is like, the series trails his press secretary, a homicide detective, two prosecutors, a reporter and a principal at a tough city high school. 

“The legal folks said I shouldn’t do it,” Menino said. “Friends of mine in the media said, ‘Are you crazy?’ I thought it was important because it was about the people who make the city work.” 

ABC’s cameras watch the mayor and his staff as they prepare for a major snowstorm and strategize privately on how to deal with the media. His press secretary, Carole Brennan, goes toe to toe over the phone with a reporter and the screen shows the exasperated faces on both sides. 

The segments on police detective Danny Coleman are ugly. Cameras show the body of a drug overdose victim (obscuring the face) sprawled on the floor of a fast-food restaurant bathroom, and the bloody body of a store owner as paramedics try unsuccessfully to save him after he was shot. 

In another story weaved throughout the hour, prosecutor Kelly Downes works to raise the bail of an alleged sexual assaulter who sliced the body of his victim with a sword. 

Despite the gruesome aspect of their work, it’s depicted as just that — work. It’s more mundane than gripping, even if ABC keeps the viewer in mild suspense about how the cases play out. 

Menino seemed to enjoy the surveillance by a network news team — certainly more than the local reporters who cover his administration every day — even though he hasn’t seen ABC’s final product. 

“Some days they were a real pain in the neck,” said the mayor, who visited ABC’s New York offices recently to see a few video clips of the special. “I wanted to kill them. But other days we had real fun together.” 

With the three series, along with regular episodes of “Primetime Thursday” and ”20/20,” ABC is depending on its news division more than ever this summer for prime-time entertainment. The network is doing so poorly there aren’t many other options. 

But summer has become the best time of year for broadcast network news divisions to showcase long-form programming. In a sea of reruns and faux reality, newsmagazines and other news shows offer fresh, first-run alternatives.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Mike Tyson returns to the ring Saturday night for his biggest fight since he bit Evander Holyfield’s ears. As unstable as ever and just as unpredictable, he’s also just one big punch away from being the heavyweight champion again. 

The undisputed star of a spectacle that is more theater than boxing, Tyson fights Lennox Lewis in this city of Elvis and barbecue in a bout that could become the richest ever. 

For the first time in his career, Tyson is an underdog against a champion who outweighs him, can out-jab him and will tower over him. But Lewis also has a suspect chin, giving the fight an aura of uncertainty. 

“I’m just ready to get it on and crush this guy’s skull,” Tyson said. “I want to show them who the real world champion is — the best fighter in the era.” 

The fight will take place under extraordinary circumstances, in a city that won it almost by default. The two fighters won’t touch gloves and will have to pay the other $3 million if they commit a bad foul that ends the fight. 

For the 35-year-old Tyson, the bout is a chance to get out of a reported $15 million in debt and re-establish himself as a force. 

If his declining skills are exposed in a loss, though, it could be the end of multimillion-dollar paydays for a boxer who has fought sporadically against a collection of second-rate opponents since losing to Holyfield five years ago. 

Between those fights, Tyson served time in jail for punching two motorists after a fender-bender, punched out a promoter in London, bit Lewis at a news conference and was accused of raping three more women. 

“I’m scared of some things he does,” Tyson adviser Shelly Finkel said. “I worry about him after boxing.” 

Lewis is determined to make that time come soon, ready to secure his legacy in the sport that embraces him reluctantly as the heavyweight champion. 

Overshadowed by Tyson, Lewis (39-2-1, 30 knockouts) has tried to define the fight as a classic battle of good vs. evil — with plenty of help from Tyson every time he opened his mouth. He’s a 36-year-old three-time champion and chess player who wanted the fight so badly he stayed in it even after the melee at the news conference in New York City. 

“It’s very important for historians and my legacy, getting rid of the last misfit in boxing,” Lewis said. 

In Las Vegas, where boxing regulators rejected the fight, oddsmakers made Lewis a 2-1 favorite in the scheduled 12-round fight at the Pyramid Arena. The fight, which will be televised on pay-per-view, is expected to begin about 11:15 p.m. EDT. 

It could end soon after that, if both fighters stick to their game plans. Tyson (49-3-2, 43 knockouts) always comes rushing out at the opening bell determined to wreak havoc, while Lewis has studied the styles of the two fighters who beat Tyson and is determined to make him back up. 

“This fight has the ability to be a slugfest early or go into the late rounds,” said Lewis’ trainer, Emanuel Steward. “Mike has trouble with tall fighters and Lennox might have trouble finding Mike with his bob-and-weave style.” 

The fight, a joint promotion of the HBO and Showtime cable networks, could gross $100 million if the pay-per-view sales live up to expectations. But tickets were still available for the arena itself the day before the fight, in almost all price ranges up to $2,400 at ringside. 

“The top price may have been too high for this market,” Finkel conceded. 

Tyson had to agree to pay Lewis $335,000 out of his purse for biting him at the news conference, and if either fighter commits an “onerous foul” they have to forfeit $3 million. 

“Every possible outcome has been anticipated,” said Mark Taffet of HBO. 

Lewis, who stands 6-foot-5 and weighed 249 1/4 pounds at Thursday’s weigh-in, will be fighting in his 13th consecutive title fight since stopping Oliver McCall to win the WBC crown in 1997. 

He lost one, on a fluke punch by Hasim Rahman, and got a disputed draw against Holyfield. But he won the rest, although critics complain he fights too cautiously and is a reluctant combatant. 

“This is a fight that is important for this era of boxing,” Lewis said. “It would be disappointing to me if I didn’t box the best boxers of this era.”

Kid named after Red Wings arena 

DETROIT – The newest addition to the Arena family — and the Red Wings’ fan base — is a living legacy to the ice hockey team’s frosty home. 

Joe Louis Arena, 9 pounds, 7 ounces, was born at 3:44 a.m. Thursday at St. Luke’s Hospital in Maumee, to Sarah and Nick Arena. 

The happy parents said they had the name picked out five months ago, when they learned that their baby would be a boy. 

“Our first baby was a girl, so we didn’t get a chance then,” said Nick Arena.  

“Nick’s a big (Red Wings) fan, and he got me into it and it’s Red Wings all the way,” Sarah Arena said. “I like the name Joey.” 

The couple had plans to watch Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals — played, naturally, in Joe Louis Arena — from their hospital room Thursday night. 

Wireless sleuth  

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich – A wireless phone salesman became a high-tech sleuth when a friend’s car was stolen with his cell phone still inside. 

When musician and Web designer Eddie Kim had his car swiped in Chicago on Friday night, he called his friend Matthew Carney to help him cancel his phone service. 

Carney, who works for Sprint PCS in Traverse City, persuaded Kim to keep the phone activated so that he could monitor the calls and possibly locate the car. 

“I told him it may be the best tool he’s got working for him if he ever wants to see his car again,” Carney said. “It was just kind of a lucky break that the guy was dumb enough to keep using the car and keep using the phone.” 

Carney determined on Saturday morning that several calls had been made to a number in South Bend, Ind., by connecting it to a signal tower there. 

Kim went to a South Bend address he found by entering the phone number on a reverse telephone look-up Web site. 

Kim managed to persuade an off-duty police officer to help him just as he spotted his car driving away. A police chase involving a dozen patrol cars ensued and police eventually arrested an 18-year-old Chicago man. 

Kim’s car was recovered Saturday night. 

Cemetery plots for sale  

PASCO, Wash. – Leaders of the Franklin County Historical Society have an unusual problem — selling 84 cemetery plots that were donated to the Franklin County Museum. 

The plots at Desert Lawn Memorial Park in nearby Kennewick were given three years ago by a Connell woman who belongs to the society and asked not to be identified, said Jacque Sonderman, a society consultant. 

So far 11 have been sold, including six this year, through advertisements in the group’s newsletter and a free shopper called the Giant Nickel. 

“I haven’t been able to get the word out.”

Program was “on hold” earlier this week 

By David Scharfenberg 

Daily Planet staff 

The University of California, which put its fall 2002 study abroad program in India on hold earlier this week, has canceled it on the heels of a new strongly-worded travel advisory from the State Department. 

The university temporarily suspended the program Monday after the State Department issued a May 31 advisory warning of growing tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed state of Kashmir. At the time, UC officials said they might reinstate the program if the situation improved. 

But after the State Department ratcheted up its advisory Wednesday, warning that “tensions have risen to serious levels,” the university officially canceled its fall program. 

“The State Department issued a stepped-up warning,” said UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman. “In the wake of that we just though the safest thing to do was to go ahead and suspend the program.” 

The university will keep staff and insfrastructure in place at its two locations, Delhi and Hyderabad, to prepare for the eventual return of students. 

There are currently no students in India, but 15 were planning to travel to that country later this summer, including five from UC Berkeley. 

Eisenman said the university will allow the 15 students to take part in another study abroad program next semester or return to their own campuses. 

The State Department’s Wednesday advisory warned that “conditions along India’s border with Pakistan and in the state of Jammu & Kashmir have deteriorated” and strongly recommended that American citizens leave the country. 

“Tensions have risen to serious levels, and the risk of intensified military hostilities between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out,” it continued, adding that terrorist groups with links to al-Qaida are also operating in the area. 

“The safety situation is deteriorating,” said Eisenman.”I think (suspending the program) was a prudent thing.” 

UC suspended its study abroad program in Israel earlier this semester in the face of a growing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

In the past the university suspended study abroad programs in China after the Tiananmen Square uprisings, in the Middle East during the Gulf War and in Indonesia during the civil unrest of 1999. 

- Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

SANTA ROSA – Bankrupt Advanced TelCom Group spurned a $13.8 million bid to sell most of its West Coast telephone service to Integra Telecom and instead will try to work out a deal with other suitors vying for the company’s remaining assets. 

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Alan Jaroslovsky on Thursday reopened the auction for the Santa Rosa-based company’s assets in parts of California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington at the request of ATG, which filed for bankruptcy early last month. 

ATG is trying to sell pieces of its business without disrupting service to its 35,000 customers. 

Beaverton, Ore.-based Integra had submitted the highest bid to acquire the operations serving 22,000 of those customers, but couldn’t work out a deal acceptable to ATG, despite negotiations that lasted beyond a Tuesday deadline for closing the sale. 

“We ran out of time,” said Dudley Slater, Integra’s chief executive officer. “We were going hot and heavy, and we believed we delivered the offer we agreed upon.” Integra won’t submit another bid, Slater said. 

ATG is interested in meeting with five other bidders, said Michael Aherns, the company’s attorney. He didn’t identify the interested parties. 

CyberGate Nevada LLC had made the second highest bid in the initial auction, although terms of its offer weren’t disclosed in court documents. 

In a separate deal approved by Jaroslovsky earlier this week approved ATG’s sale of its operations in San Rafael and Concord for $500,000 to TelePacific of Los Angeles. The sale covered 1,100 ATG customers. 

Founded in 1998, privately held ATG burned through more than $500 million in venture capital and loans before landing in bankruptcy court. 

LOS ANGELES – Five customers of a digital video recorder sued the big TV networks and studios, arguing that consumer rights must be part of the unfolding battle between Hollywood and the Silicon Valley. 

The federal lawsuit filed Thursday contends that the entertainment industry is violating rights to free expression and privacy by trying to kill ReplayTV. 

The action follows a lawsuit filed by 28 entertainment companies last year against the ReplayTV recorder and its manufacturer, SONICblue. That suit alleged that the recorder contributes to copyright infringement by allowing users to store and trade large libraries of recorded TV shows without commercials. 

“We want the court to hear from consumers before they make a decision,” said Robin Gross, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the civil rights group representing the five consumers. 

For more than 20 years, consumers have been allowed to record programming, build personal libraries and skip commercials using a VCR, she said. 

“Just because products are now digital now does not mean our rights should be curtailed,” she said. 

“These Hollywood guys want to stop me from using my digital video recorder like I use my VCR,” plaintiff Craig Newmark said. “I want to give my nephews and nieces a break from the rampant consumerism on TV by using ReplayTV’s commercial skipping feature,” he said. 

“This complaint mischaracterizes the nature of the case against SONICblue and ReplayTV,” the Motion Picture Association of America said in a statement. “We have never indicated any desire or intent to bring legal action against individual consumers for use of this device.” 

Digital video recorders store TV programming on a hard drive instead of video tape. SONICblue’s ReplayTV 4000 series also connects to the Internet and allows users to send files ranging from personal photos to full-length copyrighted movies over the web.

VERNON – A company recalled 4,000 pounds of undercooked chicken used in salads sold in California, Nevada and Arizona. 

Undercooked chicken carries the potential for illnesses that can cause serious health problems or death. 

Huxtable’s, doing business as Huxtable’s Kitchen Inc., voluntarily agreed to recall the chicken products, which were produced on or before Thursday. 

They were distributed to stores throughout Southern California, in Arizona’s Pima and Maricopa counties and in Nevada’s Clark County. 

The recalled products are: 

—9.5-ounce trays of “Fresh Foods, chicken Cobb salad, with bacon,” bearing a use-by date code of ”61002” or lower. 

—9-ounce trays of “Trader Giotto’s caesar salad with chicken,” including a container of dressing and bearing a use-by date code of ”61102” or lower. 

Each package also bears “P-11079” inside the USDA seal of inspection.

BEVERLY HILLS – Actors Esai Morales, Penelope Cruz and Andy Garcia were named as winners of the annual Imagen Awards, which recognize positive Hispanic portrayals in the media. 

Morales, who stars in ABC’s “NYPD Blue,” PBS’ “American Family” and “Resurrection Blvd.” on Showtime, was named 2002 male entertainer of the year. Cruz, featured in the films “Vanilla Sky” and “Blow,” was leading female entertainer. 

The awards were to be presented Thursday night. 

Garcia, whose films include “Ocean’s Eleven,” received the creative achievement award. The lifetime achievement award went to journalist and talk show host Cristina Saralegui. 

The honors were given by the Imagen Foundation, which works to increase Hispanic representation by the entertainment industry. Here are the winners for the 17th annual Imagen (Spanish for “image”) Awards. 

Female entertainer of the year: Penelope Cruz. 

Male entertainer of the year: Esai Morales. 

Creative achievement award: Andy Garcia. 

Lifetime achievement award: Cristina Saralegui.

Placed under federal  

Homeland Security 

Faster than a nuclear chain reaction, word spread through Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that President Bush is planning to yank the center from the Department of Energy and place it under the auspices of a new Department of Homeland Security. 

“We just heard about this. It’s hard to imagine how this could be done completely, because the nuclear weapons role would have to remain within the Energy Department,” said Phil Duffy, a chemist who researches global warming in the California lab’s Atmospheric Science Division. 

Duffy said Friday that Livermore fits well in the Energy Department because teams like his can take advantage of its high-end computing facilities needed for nuclear research. 

Bush’s secretly developed plan to create a Department of Homeland Security, which he announced Thursday, shuffles dozen of federal agencies. By Friday morning, turf battles were already shaping up in Congress. 

But it was the fine print that sent reverberations through San Francisco’s East Bay on Friday. In the third paragraph of the fourth chapter of the White House’s proposal, came this: “The Department would incorporate and focus the intellectual energy and extensive capacity of several important scientific institutions, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.” A much smaller agricultural research laboratory was also mentioned. 

Former Livermore director Michael May was dubious. 

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I find this difficult to believe.” 

May, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, said he paid close attention to Bush’s commentary about the new office on Thursday, as well as Congressional reaction, and was quite confused. 

“Livermore does quite a bit of homeland security and wants to do as muc h as it can, obviously, but the major projects there are Department of Energy projects,” he said. 

Founded 50 years ago, Livermore started as a second nuclear weapons design laboratory — after Los Alamos National Laboratory — to find ways to design and stockpile nuclear weapons. Livermore’s research mission has since spread to include energy, biomedicine, and environmental science. 

The lab, which operates on about $1.5 billion a year, is managed by University of California, as are Los Alamos and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which does non-weapons, unclassified research. 

The Los Alamos and Berkeley labs aren’t mentioned in the Bush plan, and an Energy Department spokeswoman said she doesn’t believe the other labs will be involved in the reorganization. 

A spokesman at Los Alamos, which works closely with Livermore on maintaining the nation’s nuclear stockpile, said he couldn’t comment. 

UC spokesman Michael Reese said they were not consulted by the White House about the shift, but that they have a contract to run the lab and will wait for details about the proposed changes. 

Retiring lab director C. Bruce Tarter, who learned about Bush’s plans for Livermore from The Associated Press, said Friday that he hadn’t received any “official details” yet. 

“Over the past few years, our Lab and our sister NNSA laboratories have played important roles in the war on terrorism and we look forward to enhancing our future contributions to this cause,” he said. 

Elsewhere in the lab, researchers were also grappling with the news. 

Livermore chemist Philip F. Pagoria, who works in Livermore’s Energetic Materials Section, said he only heard about the proposed shift on Friday morning and hadn’t had time to think about it. 

“There’s always ways we can contribute to homeland security,” he said, “but I’m going to have to take some time to consider what this might mean.”

SACRAMENTO – The largest Catholic hospital system in the Western states has settled allegations that 13 of its hospitals made false Medicare claims. It agreed to pay the federal government $8.5 million to settle the whistle blower lawsuit, officials said Friday. 

It’s the second set of similar allegations against San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West and its affiliate Mercy Healthcare Sacramento, and the second settlement in little more than a year. 

Each time, the system admitted no wrongdoing. 

The hospital system agreed to pay $10.25 million a year ago to settle a whistle blower complaint that it inflated reimbursement claims at two clinics, Woodland Clinic Medical Group and MedClinic of Sacramento. 

Friday’s settlement concerns allegations that the system and its hospitals knowingly defrauded Medicare and other federal health insurance programs by filing false cost reports to obtain millions of dollars for costs which were inflated or not allowable. 

The hospitals kept two sets of books, federal prosecutors alleged: one for government auditors, and a second hidden set that showed the inflated and unallowable costs. The hospitals set up hidden reserve funds to repay the government if the overpayments were discovered, prosecutors said. 

William J. Hunt, the system’s vice president for operations, blamed the dispute on “complicated matters of accounting and reimbursement.” 

He said the cost reports “are governed by thousands of pages of highly technical, often confusing and ever-changing regulations. We believe we interpreted those regulations fairly and reasonably...and any errors were inadvertent.” 

He said the system cooperated in the investigation, is satisfied with the settlement, and is “pleased to put this matter behind us.” 

The federal government intervened in complaints involving four hospitals in the Sacramento area: Mercy General, Mercy San Juan, Mercy American River, and Mercy Hospital of Folsom. 

Friday’s settlement also ends claims by whistle blower Joseph A. Kimball involving nine other Mercy hospitals: Mercy Medical Center Redding; Mercy Hospital of Mount Shasta; St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco; Dominican Hospital Santa Cruz; Mercy Hospital Bakersfield; St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard; Saint Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nev.; St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz.; Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego. 

Kimball worked for Mercy Healthcare Sacramento as an accountant since 1984. He received more than $1.9 million under the settlement. The whistle blower in the first case, George Baca, also received nearly $2 million. 

Besides the repayments, the system entered into a “corporate integrity agreement” with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, designed to prevent future fraud. 

SAN FRANCISCO – A Minnesota doctor charged with stabbing her teen-age son to death represented herself in court Friday and pleaded guilty to first degree murder and attempted murder. 

Donna Anderson, 49, spoke directly to San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum in Redwood City. Earlier in the week he ruled she was entitled to represent herself in court. 

Anderson was accused of fatally stabbing her 13-year-old son, Stephen Burns, on Feb. 24 while he was visiting his father. She also was accused of stabbing her ex-husband, Frank Burns, in the leg as he tried to restrain her. She pleaded guilty to both counts and was scheduled to be sentenced July 5. 

Anderson, an obstetrician at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., explained to the judge Friday the series of events that day that led to the grisly stabbings. 

“I bought a knife at Albertson’s. I brought the knife into the house. I thought about some choices,” Anderson told the court. “But then I killed my son by stabbing him multiple times in the abdomen and he died. I used a knife to do that. I inflicted great bodily harm on him when I did that.” 

When the judge asked for her plea, Anderson replied calmly, “Guilty.” 

The prosecution has wrestled with the peculiar case from the beginning. Anderson had previously claimed a child pornography ring may have targeting her son and funding her defense against her will. 

She was able to convince the San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum to let her represent herself, a move that befuddled prosecutor Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney. 

“It has never happened in San Mateo County that a defendant has represented himself, or herself, and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder,” Wagstaffe said

GREEN VALLEY – Thousands of firefighters struggled Friday to contain a 23,500-acre wildfire that forced 1,500 people to evacuate rural communities north of Los Angeles and burned nine homes. 

Clouds of dark smoke blew through town as the fire crackled through thick, old brush and firefighters set controlled burns to clear out vegetation. Some 2,000 firefighters were on the lines, and 14 airplanes and six helicopters attacked the flames from the air. 

To the west in Ventura County, the state’s other huge blaze had burned 20,800 acres in Los Padres National Forest north of Ojai. 

Despite a swath of blackened hills nearby, most of Green Valley was still green after an overnight onslaught of flames that forced evacuation of some northern Los Angeles County communities in the Angeles National Forest. 

“The fire gods smile proudly on this place,” said resident Darryl Haddock, 39. 

The so-called Copper Fire was accidentally ignited Wednesday by a grinding tool and became California’s most dangerous wildfire Thursday evening when it suddenly quadrupled in size. Eight homes destroyed were lost during the expansion. 

Late Friday night it was 15 percent contained. 

The Ojai fire was 25 percent contained Friday night, and other smaller fires that had been burning since last week were either contained or under control.

ARE GAS-ELECTRIC HYBRIDS  

DANGEROUS TO TOW? 

I am an environmental regulator who lives and works in a semi-rural area in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. I have been really interested in getting one of the hybrid gas-electric Ford Escapes that are supposed to come out next year. Some other people I work with are in the same boat. We are all attracted to the idea of a rugged vehicle with enough ground clearance to handle local gravel roads, and that still gets really good gas mileage and has low emissions. But I heard somebody say that nobody wants to tow hybrid vehicles that have been in a crash or have broken down. Is this true? Are tow-truck drivers actually having problems with hydrogen emissions? Sparks? Shorts? -- Tom 

RAY: Well, my brother has had problems with shorts. But it's usually after I give him an atomic wedgie. 

TOM: The answer to your question is, we don't really know. There is obviously some danger. Gasoline-powered cars can be dangerous when they crash. And hybrids have both a gasoline engine AND a high-voltage electric motor.  

RAY: But from what we've been able to learn, and from what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tells us, the danger appears to be minimal. 

RAY: For example, the Toyota Prius has a 274-volt electric motor in addition to a small gasoline engine. But in order to get a shock from the electric motor, you'd have to strip the casing off of both the positive and the negative wires and touch both of them at the same time. And since they run through an enclosed tunnel in the center of the car's floor and are both encased in bright orange, that's not something an emergency worker is going to do by accident. 

TOM: And if the accident were severe enough to expose those wires, what are the chances that the electric motor would still be in a condition to be "on" and working? Probably low. So electrocution seems to be an unlikely scenario.  

RAY: The other reason the wires are buried in a tunnel in the floor is so that if someone were using a Jaws of Life on a door or on the roof, he or she would be nowhere near any live wires.  

TOM: As far as towing, there's really no danger at all to road-service folks. In the case of the Prius, the instructions for towing are the same as for any other front-wheel-drive car. And I suspect that will be true of the Ford Escape hybrid -- the same as for all-wheel-drive vehicles, in that case. 

RAY: Jump-starting also poses no additional risks, as far as we know -- unless you count having a burly tow-truck driver snicker at you for being a Birkenstock-wearing tree-hugger. The Prius has a separate, standard 12-volt car battery that's used to start the gasoline engine, and that's the one you'd use to get a jump-start. Road-service folks would have no contact with the larger battery pack at all.  

TOM: We know that Toyota makes these details available to emergency-response workers, and I'm sure Ford will, too. Chances are, there will be some folks who are nervous about working with these vehicles, but it'll probably be due more to unfamiliarity than to real danger.  

RAY: But it's a good question, Tom. And if we hear of any problems that DO come up, we'll certainly let everybody know.  

IS HER WATER PUMP REALLY WORN OUT? 

I am 87 years old. I need to use my car every day to visit my husband at the nursing home. I know nothing about cars. My dealer takes pretty good care of me, because he knows my situation. He said I need to have my water pump replaced. He said this the last time I was in, and he said "sometime in the next six months." How can I know if I really need a new water pump? I have a 1996 Toyota Camry with less than 30,000 miles. It is silver, since I know you guys ask the color of people's cars to stall for time. What symptoms should I have if I truly need a water pump, or is it one of those maintenance things I should do before I get symptoms? -- Carmella 

RAY: Well, you probably wouldn't notice the symptoms of a bad water pump, Carmella. There might be a humming noise or a slight leak, but it's not easy for the average person to detect.  

TOM: The question is whether your mechanic has noticed that something's wrong, or whether he's just basing his recommendation on the age of your car -- which is 6 years. 

RAY: So if I were you, I would just ask him about it again. You seem to have a decent relationship with the guy. Pretend you're old and you don't remember. If you need any tips on acting the part, ask my brother. 

TOM: Ask your mechanic to tell you again why he thinks you need a new water pump. If he says he noticed that it was noisy, or was leaking coolant from the weep hole, then, since you trust him, I'd take his word for it and let him change it. 

RAY: But if he says "It's just time," or something that implies that he's doing it based on a calendar, I'd tell him you'd rather wait. Even though your car is 6 years old, it only has 30,000 miles on it. And personally, I've never seen a Toyota water pump go bad at 30,000 miles. We routinely change them at 120,000 miles. 

TOM: So, based on our experience, your water pump might not need to be replaced until 2020, Carmella. Bring it to us then. We'll do it for free, and we'll buy you a coffee! 

FOR PETE'S SAKE,  

SECURE YOUR WEIGHTS 

I want to comment on a column you recently wrote about putting sandbags in the back of a pickup truck. Where I live in upstate New York, I've seen sandbags added to the beds of pickup trucks in winter -- as well as cast iron, concrete blocks and other creative alternatives. Please remind your faithful followers that any such weights should be secured to the bed of the truck -- and by something more substantial than a bungee cord. In the event of an accident or other sudden stop, that thin piece of glass behind your head will not prevent the old anvil from joining you in the cab. The gun rack might slow it down, but not by much. -- Rick 

TOM: You're absolutely right, Rick. We should have mentioned that any cargo in the bed of a pickup truck should be securely tied down. We didn't, and you were one of about 50 people who wrote to remind us (not all of them did it as politely as you did, Rick!). 

RAY: Whether you use sandbags or mothers-in-law, make sure they're secured to the bed with enough rope, cable or chain to keep them securely in place if you hit something -- and that's not very easy. An even better option would be to install one of those permanent tool/cargo boxes that bolt to the bed, and then put the additional weight in there. 

TOM: And if you think we're just being overly cautious, here's another reader's letter that might help convince you otherwise. 

Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper, or e-mail them by visiting the Car Talk section of cars.com on the World Wide Web.

SACRAMENTO – As California lawmakers scrape to fill a gaping $23.6 billion budget hole, critics are calling for Gov. Gray Davis to kill one of his pet projects. 

The Turning Point Academy in San Luis Obispo is a military-style reform school intended for teen-agers caught bringing guns to school. Davis has spent $12 million to develop it, and it costs $3 million a year to operate. But the halls, dorms and classrooms are mostly vacant, with only 25 students enrolled so far. 

Shuttering the academy is one of several suggestions offered Friday as legislative budget negotiators try to revive the state’s ailing fiscal health. 

Other possibilities by lawmakers and the Legislative Analyst ranged from paroling elderly prison inmates to eliminating the state’s embattled Department of Information Technology. 

Critics of the Turning Point Academy, who include one of Davis’ own appointees to the program’s advisory board, call it a good place to start. 

“Arguably, these few graduates are the most expensive students ever in the history of the state,” Davis appointee Julian Crocker, San Luis Obispo’s school superintendent and an advisory board member appointed by Davis. 

The cost averages $1 million for each of the academy’s 10 graduates, or nearly $500,000 for each of participants so far. 

“Admitting that a program does not work is a lot better than trying to put Band-Aids on an internal hemorrhage,” Crocker wrote in a memo reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Davis will fight to keep the $2.9 million he budgeted for the academy, said spokeswoman Hilary McLean.

xA debate between Peter Singer and Nigel M. de S. Cameron titled “What Does It Mean to Be Human” promised to touch upon on its implications on a number of topics including human cloning, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia and abortion.  

Singer believes that society should have the choice to determine whether people with certain handicaps should live. 

However, the focus of the debate and the theater of the evening revolved Singer’s proposition in his opening comments that the subject of the debate was more accurately described by the title “What does it mean to be one of us.”  

This came as no surprise to those in attendance who were familiar with Singer, many of whom were there to protest the event, based on views the professor of bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University has expressed in the past. Singer favors, among other things, embryo experimentation and the allocation of heath care resources. Groups representing the rights of people with cognitive disabilities and pro-life stances were among those outside the Calvin J. Simmons Theater carrying signs and chanting to make sure they were included somewhere in the “us” Singer spoke of.  

Carrie Lucas, representing We Are not Dead Yet, a national grassroots disability rights group, was among those who felt that the quality of life for people like her son, who has a cognitive disability, would be greatly compromised if Singer’s opinions affect decision-making in the arena of health care.  

“One of Singer’s points of view is that people with cognitive disabilities are not people. My kid is definitely a person. There’s no doubt about it,” said Lucas, whose child was with her to protest. 

Twice the debate was interrupted. Singer handled both incidents calmly and with poise. The second time, he replied to the disruption that he was not there to win votes but to make sure the audience was thinking critically about the subject.  

Singer’s debate opponent was Nigel M. de S. Cameron, a board member of “The Center for Bioethics and Culture” who along with the “Life Legal Defense Foundation” presented the event. The crowd heavily favored the less controversial viewpoint that Cameron defended. His condemnation of legal euthenasia in Netherlands and in the state of Oregon was met with applause. 

At the end of the debate, the floor opened for questions from the audience. One came from a man with cerebral pulsy who asked Mr. Singer to look him in the eye and tell him that he should not be alive. That stare-down marked the impass that was this debate.  

Oakland car bomb case jurors ask 

judge for verdict forms that allow choosing “undecided” for some counts 

OAKLAND – A jury completed the third week of deliberations without reaching a verdict Friday in the federal case of two Earth First! activists who accuse Oakland police and FBI agents of planting a bomb in their car. 

The jury did request of presiding Judge Claudia Wilken new revised jury verdict forms which would include an additional line for jurors to choose “undecided” for some counts. 

On Tuesday, the jurors apparently had concerns over their instructions and posed at least three hypothetical scenarios to the judge. 

The judge told lawyers for both sides that she did not have to answer the hypotheticals the jury posed and stressed that their job was to “try to reach verdicts and not try to predict what the outcome of those verdicts will be.” 

Wilken, nonetheless, said she would revise the verdict form and would provide it to the jury if they requested it. On Friday, they did. 

Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari were injured when a bomb exploded in their car while they were driving in Oakland in May 1990. Bari, who was at the wheel, suffered a crushed pelvis and Cherney received cuts from the blast. 

The two were arrested within hours, but no one was ever charged. 

Cherney and Bari sued investigators, alleging false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. Bari died in 1997.

LONG BEACH – A gunman may have staged a deadly grocery store rampage out of fear that someone was about to find his parents’ mummified bodies in his home, police said Friday. 

Antonio Pineiro, a 48-year-old schizophrenic who lived behind the market, detailed his plans in rambling journal entries that were found after he was shot to death by police last month. 

The mummified bodies of Maria Llufrio, 69, and Pineiro’s stepfather Antonio Llufrio, 68, were found on a bed, police spokeswoman Nancy Tabing said. 

A bloodstained carpenter’s hammer was found next to the bed and apparently had been used to kill them two years ago, police said in a statement. 

Investigators also found several Polaroid photographs of the decomposed bodies, dated April 2001, Lt. Bill Blair said. 

“The word ’macabre’ doesn’t do it justice,” Blair said 

Pineiro went to the Top Valu market on May 31 and opened fire with two handguns, killing a clerk and an 8-year-old girl and wounding four others before officers killed him in a shootout. 

In the journal, Pineiro indicated he planned to kill people at the market. Handwritten and typewritten notes stated: “The last day before the shooting, May 2002” and “The day of the shooting May 30, 2002, Top Valu.” 

He also used the term “balacera,” a Spanish term that loosely translates to “many shots,” the police statement said. 

Investigators believe Pineiro’s attack plans may have been “accelerated” by a pending fumigation of his building, the statement added. 

The fumigation had been planned for this week. 

“Each unit would have been inspected and would have resulted in the discovery of the bodies” of his parents, Tabing said.

Perot Corp. designed the computer system, accused  

of peddling information 

SACRAMENTO – A San Diego Gas and Electric Co. employee complained to state grid managers in 1997 that Perot Systems Corp. was peddling “insider information” about California’s energy market — a market for which Perot designed the computer system, a state senator said Friday. 

A computerized presentation by Perot Systems was found among documents turned over by Reliant Energy to the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation of the Wholesale Energy Market. 

Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana, the committee chairman, said Friday the presentation by the Plano, Texas-based firm went “far beyond the ethical line” by showing energy generators how to exploit “holes” in the state’s market. 

Perot Systems helped create the computer system for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid and real-time energy market. The software company was founded by former presidential contender H. Ross Perot, who is the company’s chairman. 

The 44-page presentation describes the California energy market and includes strategies that Dunn called a blueprint on how to game the energy market through the ISO and the California Power Exchange, the now-bankrupt day-ahead energy trading floor. 

“Perot Systems discovered a ’hole’ in the ISO’s protocols for buying, selling and pricing imbalance energy,” the presentation said, which “allowed strategies that would destabilize the market.” 

Some of the strategies outlined by Perot System mirror those in a recently disclosed Enron Corp. memo with names such as Fat Boy and Deathstar, Dunn said. He has asked several energy trade associations and Perot System to retain any documents relating to the presentation. 

Perot Systems didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment, but has strongly denied any wrongdoing. 

On Thursday, Perot Systems filed two versions of the presentation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those copies were “substantially” different than the one found in Reliant’s documents, Dunn said. 

Dunn said he believes that one version was the presentation that the former SDG&E executive, who was also an ISO and Power Exchange board member, complained of to the ISO. He said the second version was likely revised after the ISO objected. 

Dunn said he was most concerned about the pages found only in the document Reliant turned over, “particularly the example they show in the latter pages on how to game the system or how to exploit the weaknesses of the system.” 

Perot officials said the presentation to Reliant was based on publicly available information and merely explained California’s market. 

That may be true, said ISO general counsel Charles Robinson, but “we don’t know what was said during the slide presentation. 

“Were I management at the time, I would have been quite concerned that a prior vendor of mine was going outside to the market to show how to game my market rules,” Robinson said. 

On Thursday, Ross Perot denied a conflict of interest, saying his company had the written approval of California’s ISO to share information about the market with others. 

Dunn and ISO officials said that was not true. 

“Contrary to any impression that Perot Systems may have tried to make yesterday that ISO ’approved’ any version of the Perot Systems presentation — they did not,” Dunn said. 

Robinson said he was trying to find the ISO’s former CEO who complained to Perot in 1997 to determine if he had verbally approved the presentation, but hadn’t found any letters that had approved it. 

Perot told stock analysts Thursday that the company would cooperate fully with California officials. The state attorney general has subpoenaed Perot Systems for additional information about its services to energy companies accused of manipulating the state’s power market to boost profits. 

Gov. Gray Davis asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate Perot Systems’ role in California’s energy crisis, saying it appeared that the company offered “a seminar on how market participants could game the ISO and the PX.” 

NORWALK, Conn. – Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted Friday of beating Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley to death in 1975 when they were 15 — a crime that went unsolved for nearly a generation and raised suspicions his family connections had protected him. 

Prosecutors offered no eyewitnesses and no direct physical evidence connecting Skakel to the slaying. Instead, the case was based almost entirely on testimony from people who said they had heard him confess over the years. 

The 41-year-old Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, was handcuffed and led off immediately to jail. He faces from 10 years to life in prison at sentencing July 19. 

Skakel’s lawyer promised a quick appeal. 

“This is certainly the most upsetting verdict I’ve ever had — or will ever have — in my life,” defense attorney Michael Sherman said. “But I will tell you, as long as there’s a breath in my body, this case is not over.” 

The Moxley family wept at what her mother called “Martha’s day,” which finally came more than a quarter-century after her death. 

Martha’s battered body was discovered under a tree on her family’s estate in the wealthy community of Greenwich. She had been bludgeoned and stabbed with a golf club, later traced to a set owned by Skakel’s mother. 

Prosecutors contended Skakel had a crush on Martha and was upset because she seemed more interested in his older brother, Thomas. 

The prosecution’s case rested almost entirely on about a dozen people who said they had heard Skakel confess or make incriminating statements over the years. Several were former classmates from the Elan School, a drug and alcohol rehab center for rich kids in Maine. 

The defense argued that the Elan School witnesses were of dubious credibility. And family members all backed up Skakel’s alibi: that he was at a cousin’s home around the time of the slaying. His lawyers also sought to cast suspicion on a former family tutor, and pointed out that the tutor and Thomas Skakel were both early suspects in the investigation. 

Skakel did not take the stand. In a tape-recorded 1997 interview with an author that was played for the jury, Skakel said he went to the Moxley home, threw rocks at Martha’s window to try to get her attention, then masturbated in a tree and ran home. 

The jury deliberated for more than three days.

DENVER – The families of several Columbine shooting victims have settled lawsuits with the school district and sheriff’s department, with one attorney saying the time has come to “bring this to a close.” 

The lawsuits accused officials of failing to do enough to prevent the 1999 slayings at Columbine High School and botching the response afterward. 

The school district will pay an average $15,000 apiece to the families of seven students, said Bill Kowalski, the school district’s attorney. 

“Our view is that it is simply time to bring this to a close,” Kowalski, the school district’s attorney, said Friday. “The plaintiffs expressed the same desire and so it was one of the situations where both sides wanted the same thing.” 

The insurance company for the Jefferson County sheriff’s office also offered $15,000 to the families of 11 victims. Six have accepted and the other five were expected to, county attorney spokeswoman Jennifer Watson said. 

The two settlements leave no more lawsuits related to injuries or death from the shooting against the school district. Two cases are still pending against the sheriff’s office. 

Seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and wounded about two dozen more before taking their own lives. 

Families of victims have said the money was mostly symbolic. 

“We wanted answers, we wanted full disclosure of what the school district and the sheriff did that day and prior to that,” said Randy Graves, the father of Sean Graves, who was wounded and left partially paralyzed. “I think we accomplished that.” 

Graves said the $30,000 his son would receive — $15,000 from the school district and the same amount from the sheriff’s office — probably won’t cover the future costs of his injuries. 

“I’m not sure what his future needs are going to be and that’s what I feel my responsibility is — to help him for the future,” Graves said. 

As part of the settlements, the school district and sheriff’s office agreed to drop their demand for legal fees. The settlements will likely be entered in court next week, officials said. 

WASHINGTON – In a matter of hours, two private investigators with a rake found a foot-long bone believed to be Chandra Levy’s in an area scoured for a week by dozens of Washington police with high-tech equipment. 

That the investigators, employed by Levy’s parents, were in the company of a newspaper reporter only added to police embarrassment in a case that has been notable for investigative miscues. 

“The finding of a piece of evidence like this by private investigators who are former (Washington) police homicide detectives is a really ironic and sad development. It’s pathetic,” Joseph di Genova, the former U.S. attorney in Washington, said Friday. 

Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said detractors have the benefit of hindsight. But, he added, “I offer no excuses for the fact that some parts were not found.” 

Levy’s remains were found May 22 by a man walking his dog in Rock Creek Park, which police said had been searched thoroughly a year earlier. The find prompted what Ramsey described as a “typical grid search” using cadaver dogs, crime technicians, police cadets and a computer to draw a precise map of the search area. 

Searchers found about 85 percent of Levy’s skeleton, Ramsey said, and Dr. Jonathan Arden, Washington’s medical examiner, called the effort “a very thorough job of recovery.” 

Arden said he was not surprised searchers did not find every bone, considering the abundant animal life in the park and the many months during which Levy’s body apparently lay there. The bone found Thursday by the investigators showed “animal damage,” Arden said. 

Critics of the investigation said police have missed several opportunities that could have helped them solve the case. 

The most glaring problem was the failure to find Levy’s body when police searched the park shortly after she disappeared in May 2001, di Genova said. After saying they had scoured much of the park’s 1,754 acres, police admitted that they had not gone over the general area where Levy’s remains were found. 

“It’s a mistake from which you do not recover in an investigation,” di Genova said. 

Ramsey did not dispute that his investigators would have been helped by the prompt discovery of Levy’s body, but still he bristled at the criticism. “All of these critics — none of them knew where the body was,” he said. 

When Arden received Levy’s bones more than a year after she died, he could find no evidence about how she was killed. The bone found Thursday, probably Levy’s left shinbone, did not get him any closer to a determination, Arden said. Some hip and leg bones still are missing, Ramsey said. 

A twisted wire also found by the investigators will be analyzed to see if it might have been used in Levy’s death, Ramsey said. 

Among other lapses cited by critics, police failed to ask for videotapes from a security camera in Levy’s apartment building before the tapes had been used again.

Nevada sues, again, to stop  

Yucca Mountain project 

WASHINGTON – The federal government violated environmental and nuclear policy laws in selecting a Nevada desert mountain ridge as the burial site for the nation’s nuclear waste, Nevada alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday. 

With Congress likely to endorse President Bush’s recommendation of the Yucca Mountain as early as next month, state officials are increasingly focusing on the courts to try to stop the repository from being built 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

The new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington by Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, is the state’s second this year against the Yucca Mountain proposal. 

It challenges the validity of the Energy Department’s final environmental impact statement, issued just a day before Bush’s decision in February. 

Energy Department officials have said they expected legal challenges from Nevada and defended the selection of the site. 

The state is alleging that the environmental study is flawed because it lacks such important details as the design of the storage facility, the specifications of the containers that will hold radioactive waste and a transportation plan. 

The lawsuit says the study violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the law Congress wrote to guide the selection of a site and the construction of the facility. 

In a legal challenge filed with the same court in February, the state argued Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham’s recommendation of the site and Bush’s decision were based on flawed guidelines. That lawsuit is still pending. 

The state filed earlier lawsuits over Yucca Mountain water rights, radioactivity standards and the criteria on which Abraham made his decision. 

Archaeologists: Okeechobee-area canals oldest in North America  

ORTONA, Fla. – Archaeologists said Thursday they have discovered the longest and oldest canals ever found in North America, a sophisticated system of channels dug by Indians with wood and shell tools 1,800 years ago. 

The ancient canal system was discovered along with a sacred pond in this rural community near Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida. 

The two canals, seven miles in length altogether, represent the longest and oldest canals in North America and show evidence of greater complexity in native American society than previously suspected, said Robert S. Carr of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy. 

The canals were used for fishing and for transportation around rapids that used to exist in the Caloosahatchee River, which runs from the lake to the Gulf of Mexico at Fort Myers in southwestern Florida, archaeologists said. 

Carr estimated that hundreds of Indians lived in this area and used tools of wood and shell to dig out millions of yards of sand and soil. 

“This suggests one level of technological achievement that really has never been honored before,” Carr said. 

Previously archaeologists believed the canals were hundreds of years more recent. 

Man in jail in legal dispute  

over Web postings  

SEATTLE – A 70-year-old man has been in jail for more than three months for refusing to delete from his Web site addresses and other personal data of employees at the retirement home that evicted him. 

The jailing of Paul Trummel, a native of England who moved to the United States in 1985, has drawn fire from national and international writers groups that support his First Amendment claims. 

“Our concern is that he’s being punished for speech on the Internet that should be protected,” said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. 

Other groups that have questioned the jailing include the National Union of Journalists in London and Reporters Sans Frontieres of France. 

Trummel was jailed indefinitely on Feb. 27 for violating an anti-harassment order by King County Superior Court Judge James A. Doerty. Doerty ruled in April 2001 that Trummel had been abusive and stalked residents and administrators at Council House, a low-income retirement home in Seattle. 

Doerty ordered Trummel to remove from his Web site the home phone numbers, addresses and other personal data on employees at Council House, and imposed fines of $100 a day for failing to comply.

The Berkeley Police Department is investigating allegations of a sexual assault and an attempted sexual assault on the Berkeley High School campus, a department spokesperson said Thursday. 

Lieutenant Cynthia Harris said the attempted assault occurred May 30 and the actual assault reportedly happened Monday. She said she was unaware of any link between the two incidents. 

Harris said she was reluctant to provide any details when minors are involved, but said the department was aware of the individuals involved in the alleged Monday assault. 

“It’s under investigation and the charges are being taken seriously,” said Marian Magid, spokesperson for the Berkeley Unified School District, who declined to offer any more details. 

High school sources said they had heard conflicting stories about whether the sexual encounters were consensual or not. 

“I have confidence that the administration both at the site level and at the district level, and at the city level, will work cooperatively to investigate this matter and to take appropriate action based on their findings,” said Board of Education President Shirley Issel. 

“I would urge people to wait until we have the facts to react to,” she added. 

- Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Linking support for Palestinian human rights with divestment from Israel is devious and false. Supporting human rights does not equate with divestiture from Israel.  

No person in their right mind wants to deprive any Palestinian of their human or civil rights.  

However, when terrorists are threatening you daily with death and destruction, you have to respond. Whether the professors are naive, biased, or prejudiced is not clear. 

Israel deprives some Palestinians of rights because Israel is trying in an emergency situation to stop the many Palestinian organizations and individuals from carrying out their goal of murdering Israeli civilians and destroying the Jewish state of Israel. There is also some collective punishment that goes on, partly for the security reason that it is difficult to determine a terrorist from an innocent civilian because Palestinian terrorists try to blend in with the rest of Palestinian society, and partly because Israel becomes frustrated when the Palestinians who engage in murder and terrorism are cheered on by most of the rest of the Palestinians. 

If Palestinians stopped trying to kill Israelis, then their human rights would improve.  

The opposite is not true. When Israeli improved Palestinian rights and freedoms during the Oslo process, including giving Palestinians autonomy and self-rule in many West Bank and Gaza cities, Palestinians used their freedom to import weapons and increase terrorism. The response from the Palestinian leadership ranged from ineffectual actions against low-level militants to active engagement in terrorism against Israel. 

At about the same time that the Students for Justice in Palestine announced their anti-Israeli petition, 42 of 50 state governors signed a petition supporting Israel at this time when it is trying to survive in the face of Arab terrorism.  

The expectedly hypocritical response came from the Muslim Public Affairs Council: "It undermines America's responsibility to be a broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because it's blindly supporting one side in the conflict." I guess it's only okay to blindly support one side when you are pro-Palestinian. 

-Josh May 

Berkeley To the Editor: 

Linking support for Palestinian human rights with divestment from Israel is devious and false. Supporting human rights does not equate with divestiture from Israel.  

No person in their right mind wants to deprive any Palestinian of their human or civil rights.  

However, when terrorists are threatening you daily with death and destruction, you have to respond. Whether the professors are naive, biased, or prejudiced is not clear. 

Israel deprives some Palestinians of rights because Israel is trying in an emergency situation to stop the many Palestinian organizations and individuals from carrying out their goal of murdering Israeli civilians and destroying the Jewish state of Israel. There is also some collective punishment that goes on, partly for the security reason that it is difficult to determine a terrorist from an innocent civilian because Palestinian terrorists try to blend in with the rest of Palestinian society, and partly because Israel becomes frustrated when the Palestinians who engage in murder and terrorism are cheered on by most of the rest of the Palestinians. 

If Palestinians stopped trying to kill Israelis, then their human rights would improve.  

The opposite is not true. When Israeli improved Palestinian rights and freedoms during the Oslo process, including giving Palestinians autonomy and self-rule in many West Bank and Gaza cities, Palestinians used their freedom to import weapons and increase terrorism. The response from the Palestinian leadership ranged from ineffectual actions against low-level militants to active engagement in terrorism against Israel. 

At about the same time that the Students for Justice in Palestine announced their anti-Israeli petition, 42 of 50 state governors signed a petition supporting Israel at this time when it is trying to survive in the face of Arab terrorism.  

The expectedly hypocritical response came from the Muslim Public Affairs Council: "It undermines America's responsibility to be a broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because it's blindly supporting one side in the conflict." I guess it's only okay to blindly support one side when you are pro-Palestinian. 

-Josh May 

Berkeley

Filmmaker Finn Taylor will make special appearance at Shattuck Theater 

Nowhere is the heart more turbulent and fickle than in the 3-minute pop song. The catchy radio-friendly ditties can swoon and then sob to the drop of a minor key. When Gloria Jones sang "Tainted Love” as a 1964 soul-diva anthem, she and her loyal backup singers pointed the finger in accusation,”Once I ran from you, Now I run from you. This tainted love you given, I gave you all a girl could give you…” 

In the wildly popular 1981 Soft Cell remake using all the synthesized beats 80’s technology could muster, the electronic sheen gives the song a wimpier drive and a creeping insidiousness missing from the 1964 version. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but obsession is all ear. 

The soundtrack to the new film “Cherish” navigates the thrill of infatuation and the quagmire of love gone wrong with the relentlessly unforgettable songs of the 80’s, including hits you’d love to remove from your memory by Daryl Hall and John Oates, and The Human League. 

“There are songs which make you laugh when you hear them of the radio, but you also laugh at yourself because you don’t change the channel,” said the film’s Berkeley-based writer and director Finn Taylor, who admits some of the songs are guilty pleasures. “I wanted to shoot the film to reflect that pop music sensibility.” 

Both the movie and its music draw a very narrow line between infatuation and mania. The story is that of a socially awkward woman Zoe, played by Robin Tunney, with an office crush on a coworker played by Jason Priestly. She often lapses into daydream fantasies of Priestly shaking water out of his wet hair, or cuddling a puppy, or sailing a yacht to a tune by 10CC (“I’m not in love, so don’t forget it, it’s just a silly phase I’m going through…”). She in turn is the object of fantasy by a violently dangerous stalker with a penchant for Hall and Oates (“Private eyes are watching you, they see your every move…”). 

After the stalker frames Zoe for the vehicular manslaughter of a bicycle cop (while “Tainted Love” plays fittingly on the car radio), she is placed in an electronic bracelet program under house arrest enforced by an anklet which will alarm if she strays more than 50 feet from a designated modem. Bored and restless and hopeless to find the real killer, she spends a lot of time listening to the radio and flirting with the anal retentive deputy (Timothy Blake Nelson) who periodically checks up on the bracelet.  

When the short-sleeve-dress-shirt-with-tie deputy starts feeling warmly toward his caged bird the story closes around the triangle of obsession: the killer sends Hall and Oates songs over the cell phone, Zoe cranks up her Noe Venable on the boom box, and the tuneless deputy contents himself with sneaking a look into her police file. The soundtrack gives him the curiously ominous beat of “Happy Together” by the Turtles: “Imagine me and you, I do, I think about you day and night, it’s only right, To think about the girl you love, and hold her tight, So happy together…” 

“I’m always trying to walk the line between laughing at the juxtaposition of the song and having fun with the overblown-ness of it,” said Taylor. “The counterpoint is not as dark as what Quentin Tarantino [“Pulp Fiction”] would do, but not as head-on as what John Hughes [“The Breakfast Club”] would do.” 

“Cherish” juggles a few genres in the doomed romance of the prisoner and her keeper, in the thriller-pacing when Zoe races to find her stalker against a clock ticking toward an unforgivable deadline, and it’s also a straight-up comedy (heck, there’s even a crippled, gay midget living in the flat below). The soundtrack throws the sunny, fluffy songs into a contextual jumble, exposing their seedier undersides.  

Like the title track by The Association, singing, “…I don’t know how many times I wish that I could mold into someone that would cherish me as much as I cherish you…” The song hangs suspended between innocuous, top-forty Oldies fodder and an admission of ignoble intentions. 

“For me, when I hear in films pop songs being used in a totally earnest way without realizing of referencing the place it plays in our culture, I get bored,” said Taylor. “Film is so steeped in history, that to merely re-create another straight drama or straight thriller is not that interesting to me as a filmmaker. I want to acknowledge all the TV and film references that we’ve got in our minds when I’m making a scene that’s falling into a genre.” 

East Bay moviegoers might recognize the exterior of Zoe’s condo as one of the Lego-like condos across the parking lot from Home Depot in Emeryville. What moviegoers might not recognize is the interior to Zoe’s loft-space home prison which is a warehouse space on Shattuck avenue a few doors down from the Fine Arts Cinema. The 6,000 square foot space with 20-foot ceilings served as a mini movie studio, wherein an amazing 20 shooting sets were constructed.  

Although Taylor never bothered to get a permit to shoot in Berkeley, he said he feels strongly about using the Bay Area to shoot films. The Berkeley native has done the “L.A. thing” as a screenwriter but has returned, amidst the kicking and screaming of his producers down south. He said the Bay Area film crew community is a passionate lot, and “even the grips want to read the script before taking the work.” 

Local talent even turns up among the familiar tunes on the “Cherish” soundtrack. San Francisco singer-songwriter Noe Venable contributes two tracks, and the film’s original score was composed by former Soul Coughing keyboardist and Berkeley resident Mark De Gli Antoni. 

“This is going to sound extremely Berkeley-esque, so excuse me, but it’s the whole Ghandi concept of Swadeshi where you make things locally,” said Taylor. “My mom taught at Cal and when she couldn’t get a babysitter she’s let me wander the campus at five years old and the beatnik women would take care of me. So shooting and producing the film in Berkeley feels right.” 

Wednesday, June 12 

Norma Cole and Robin Caton 

Authors read from their poetry and prose 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody's Books 

2454 Telegraph Avenue 

845-7852 

$2 donation 

Saturday and Sunday, June 8 & 9 

Artists C.P. Fairburn &  

Donna Montgomery 

Painting & Jewelry 

2315 San Jose Avenue, #1 

Alameda 

814-9017 

ProArts East Bay Open Studios 

497 artists will open their studios to the public for this 20th annual self-guided tour 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 6th Street (b/w University and Hearst) 

705-8183 

Tuesday, June 11 

Art for the Earth! 

A celebration of Eco-Art opening and slide show 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Avenue 

548-2220 x233, www.ecologycenter.org 

Free 

Ongoing until July 14 

Focus on the Figure 

An outdoor show of contemporary figurative sculpture 

Wednesday - Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery  

1286 Gilman Street 

525-7621 

Thursday, June 6 

Our Spanish Heritage 

Music, History and Literature of the Middle Ages & Renaissance 

Presented by His Majestie's Musicians 

5 p.m. 

International House Auditorium, UC Berkeley 

Bancroft Way and Piedmont 

Reserve tickets at 528-1725 

$12 general, $10 SFEMS members, children free 

Friday, June 7 

Tropical Vibrations and  

Shabang with Harry Best 

A multi-cultural quintet playing a mix of Caribbean styles 

Doors at 8:30 p.m.; Show at 9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages all the time. 

$11 

Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party  

Every Friday, with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man.  

10 p.m. 

Eli’s Mile High Club  

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 

655-6661 

$10 

Free Early Music Group 

Singers needed for small group of 15th and 16th century music every Friday 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

Hearst at MLK Way. 

Contact Ann at 665-8863 

Saturday, June 8 

Kotoja 

Bay Area's leader in the World Beat and Afro-beat scene 

Doors at 8:30 p.m.; Show at 9:30 p.m. 

Dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages all the time. 

$12 

Sunday, June 9 

Band Works 

Student recital featuring members who range in age from 12 to 50 

Doors at 4:30 p.m.; Show at 5 to 10 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages. 

$3 

Saturday, June 8 

West Coast Live 

Radio Show marks Oakland's 150th Anniversary 

10 a.m. to Noon 

91.7 KALW San Francisco, 91.1 KRCB Sonoma 

Wednesday, June 12 

Cloud Nine 

Caryl Churchill's play about race, class, history and sex set in 19th century colonial Africa 

8 p.m. 

The Rhoda Theatre 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2015 Addison Street 

RSVP by Friday, June 7 

647-2917 

Ongoing until June 9 

Lisa Dillman's comedy about four  

30-something city dwellers 

Thursday, Friday,  

and Saturday at 8 p.m.,  

Sunday at 7 p.m. 

Transparent Theater 

1901 Ashby Avenue 

883-0305 

www.transparenttheater.org 

OAKLAND) — With six straight wins, Barry Zito says he’s just warming up. 

Zito overcame a first-pitch home run by Ichiro Suzuki and the Oakland Athletics went on to beat the Seattle Mariners 10-4 Thursday. 

“I don’t really feel locked it, per se, like I was last season. I’m still trying to get a feel for the season,” he said. ‘Once you get 120-130 innings in, that’s when things start clicking for me.” 

Zito, who has a 13-game regular-season winning streak at the Coliseum, went 11-1 in his final 13 starts last season, concluding with a nine-game winning streak. 

On Thursday, Zito (7-2) allowed three runs on eight hits over 6 1-3 innings with one strikeout. But things didn’t go his way at the start. 

Suzuki lofted a home run about 10 feet inside the foul pole in right field to open the game. It was his first home run of the season and his second career leadoff homer, with his other one coming at Los Angeles last July 6. 

Suzuki also extended his hitting streak to 15 games. The reigning AL MVP, who had a career-high 23-game hitting streak last season, is in the midst of his third streak of 11 or more games this season. 

“There are not many ways to get him out,” Zito said. “He doesn’t even fly out that much.” 

Suzuki, who is batting .384 to lead the majors, went 3-for-3, giving him a league-leading 17 multihit games. 

“If anybody’s got a chance to hit .400, he’s the guy who can do it,” A’s manager Art Howe said. 

Miguel Tejada homered and drove in four runs and Eric Chavez drove in three as Oakland split the four-game series. The Athletics have won 10 of their last 15 games. 

James Baldwin (4-5), who was 7-2 with a 4.06 ERA against the A’s coming into the game, lasted just 2 2-3 innings. He allowed five runs on five hits with three walks. 

Tejada tied it in the bottom of the first with an RBI grounder to score Randy Velarde, who doubled. 

The Mariners got a scare when right fielder Charles Gipson slammed into the wall in right-center while trying to snag Velarde’s double. Gipson appeared to injure his right arm, but he stayed in the game. 

Seattle went up 3-1 in the third on Bret Boone’s two-run single. 

The A’s reclaimed the lead in the bottom half. After Eric Byrnes hit a solo homer, Velarde reached on shortstop Desi Relaford’s throwing error and Scott Hatteberg walked — setting the stage for Tejada’s homer into the left field seats for a 5-3 lead. 

“Those guys go out there and swing the bats. You make one mistake and they punish you,” Baldwin said. “I tried to get the ball inside to Tejada and he hits it out of the park. That changed the momentum of the game.” 

Chavez hit an RBI single in the fifth, then added a two-run double in the A’s four-run seventh. Adam Piatt also hit a two-run double. 

Suzuki had a sacrifice fly in the ninth. 

Club had promised to limit amount of cash, marijuana stashed there 

Four men stole $1,500 and $3,500 worth of marijuana from the Berkeley Medical Herbs pot club yesterday after two of them were allowed on site without proper identification.  

The afternoon heist renewed concerns about the integrity of the club’s security and reignited some anger in the neighborhood. 

“I think it’s a public nuisance and I think it needs to be closed,” said City Councilmember Linda Maio.  

The incident marks the third time in a year robbers have stormed the medicinal marijuana club, located in a small brick building at 1627 University Avenue. 

The last robbery, in December, prompted a rash of concern from city officials about security at the club. Medical Herbs responded to that by closing at 4 p.m. so it would only be open during daylight hours. The club hired a licensed security guard, installed video cameras, and it agreed to limit the amount of cash and pot on the premises, among other measures.  

“They have made obvious changes but it’s just not enough because the word is out among unsavory circles,” said Maio, faulting Medical Herbs for advertising the club when it first opened. 

Maio said other clubs in the city have maintained a lower profile and avoided robberies. 

But Medical Herbs office manager Dorrit Geshuri said the club is determined to keep its doors open. 

“We’re really committed to staying here because there are a lot of sick people who need our help,” she said.  

Two Latino men approached the front gate on University Avenue Wednesday about 2:30 p.m., said Geshuri.  

The men failed to show the identification cards that are required of every patient but were let through the gate because they claimed to know owner Ken Estes. 

The security guard relayed the message to general manager Randy Moses, who opened the building’s main door to confirm the story, then closed the door without turning the lock, Geshuri said. At that point, one suspect pulled a gun and the other a knife, forcing their way into the building. 

The suspects told everyone to lie on the ground. They took the cash and marijuana and fled, Geshuri said. 

Geshuri said the club’s security cameras were out for repairs Wednesday. Police who had been scouting the premises to prevent robberies had left only minutes before the incident, Geshuri said. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the club needs to maintain working cameras. He also raised concerns about the success of the robbers’ ploy. 

“One of the questions that would concern me is, who cares whether they know the owner?,” Worthington said. “If they don’t have a card from their doctor, they don’t belong there.” 

One neighbor who did not want to be identified said he saw the two men meeting two other men waiting outside in a late model, tan vehicle in which they all got away. 

“The guys who robbed it ran out with a big satchel,” the neighbor said, adding that he disapproves of the marijuana club. “This is a very attractive place for other drug dealers to rob. It’s not something we want in our neighborhood.” 

Geshuri acknowledged that a few neighbors are opposed to the club, but said most of the residents support Medical Herbs in its mission.  

The had club pledged after the December robbery to keep no more than $1,000 and one pound of marijuana on site. But Geshuri said the robbers on Wednesday made off with $500 more than that and as much as a pound-and-a-half of marijuana.  

The witness opposed to the club said theft proves that management is not keeping its pledge to prevent robberies and ensure safety. But Geshuri said the incident was an aberration. 

“It’s rare that we have that much product on site,” she said, arguing that the club had just received a shipment and was in the process of dividing it up for patients. 

She said Medical Herbs keeps most of its supply off-site, at secure locations. 

- Contact reporter at  

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

The article (June 5) about the UC divestment petition (www.ucdivest.org) cited opponents as calling the measure “anti-semitic.” The press conference was small, occurring during a UC vacation, but 3 of the 7 faculty and student speakers were Jewish.  

A disagreement with Sharon's government is no more anti-semitic than disagreement with President Bush's policies is unpatriotic or anti-American, or opposition to South African apartheid anti-white. In fact, colleagues in Israel have urged divestment and boycott campaigns as a way of helping to change policies which are locked in violence. 

Insulting epithets are a tactic to silence criticism, and may explain why when we read the Israeli press we see more discussion of alternatives than in the American mainstream press. 

This is about peace, about establishing international borders for Israel for the first time, and about reducing the incentives for both Palestinian and Israeli Defense Force terrorism (assassinations and violent coercion of civilians under US Congressional definitions).  

Is it our business?  

Yes, because the US taxpayers spend about $3 billion annually on supplying Israel with unconditional force. Divestment worked before, why not now. 

Susan Ervin-Tripp 

Berkeley

The 10th annual Nomad Video Film Festival screened at the Fine Arts Cinema in Berkeley last weekend. The last NOMAD festival for two years, as described by founder Antero Alli, showcased new films, returning notables, experimental shorts, a film that featured gerbils and a hysterically disgusting close-up of everyone’s favorite bodily fluid– spit.  

"Spit" was a new entry this year by Ontario filmmaker Jeremy Drummond. For two and half minutes the viewer is treated to a close-up of a mouth blowing and sucking spit on a glass plate. The huge visuals plus uncannily accurate sound put this film over the top. For its entire length, no one in the audience was quiet – people were either gripped with paroxysms of laughter or disgust and were vocal about both.  

Not as gross as "Spit" but still humorous were entries "Chuck Makes a Woodcut," "Wustenspringmaus," and "Cat Fight Tonight." A returning entry, "Chuck Makes a Wood Cut" by Michael Houston and Joe Caterini chronicles the creation of a piece of art narrated in the stentorian tones of an action movie’s trailer. The deadpan aplomb of its voice-over was spot-on. "Wustenspringmaus" by Jim Finn from Chicago was a faux-serious look at the evolutionary rise of the school-children favorite: the gerbil. The dramatic range of their gerbil was considerable. "Cat Fight Tonight" by New Yorker Greg Pak was a sly portrayal of the end of a relationship and the custody battle over a pet.  

Some of the more series standouts were"Line-Up" by Julie-C. Fortier which followed the path of a fuse to start the festival,"Water From the Moon," by Jenny McCracken which used marionettes for a magical realism tinged story of a man with wings discovered in an old-woman’s bureau, and Vortex" by Michele Beck and Jorge Calvo, a surreal meditation on relationships featuring two heads wrapped in clear plastic packing tape, sticky side out, trying to kiss. Kudos especially to the sound on this piece. "Path" was a lush, moody dance piece by Clancy Dennehy that placed humanity firmly back in nature’s grasp.  

Antero Alli, a Berkeley resident and curator of the festival included two of his own pieces, "Fairy" and "Fears," based on the poems of Rimbaud and Rilke, respectively. Of the two "Fairy" was superior, a haunting dance piece of movement and shadow. 

The festival closed with a film tribute to September 11 titled "Overcome" by Steven Rosenbaum. This short consisted of a visual montage of images from before, during and after that day’s tragic events, set to the band Live’s song "Overcome." It was a moving piece but seemed to gather most of its power from the response of the audience filling in their own personal reactions to that day.  

Having left Berkeley, the Nomad Film Festival travels up the West Coast to Seattle with stops along the way. 

Visit http://www.verticalpool.com/ 

nomad.html for more details and complete site listing. 

Antero Alli’s feature length film "Hysteria" chronicling a personal aftermath to September 11 and featured at the festival can be seen the weekend of June 6th – 8th at the Danzhaus Cinema in San Francisco.  

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Everybody assumes there are only two sides to Mike Tyson. Bad. And worse. 

But what if there’s a sensitive side, too? 

What if the man who’s done time in prison for rape, beat up two old guys after a fender-bender, taken a bite out of opponents and assaulted dancing partners, parking-lot attendants and referees has changed? 

Rather than risk exposing a different side of Mike to reporters so close to the fight, his handlers canceled a scheduled news conference on Tuesday. But somebody in charge had a change of heart Wednesday, agreeing to let Tyson answer questions from a busload of schoolkids and radio-contest winners dropped off in the ballroom of a Tunica, Miss., casino. 

For 20 minutes, while pausing occasionally to wipe away sweat from a just-completed workout, Tyson patiently fielded questions, including a few from several reporters who managed to infiltrate the crowd. 

While the training session was short, it apparently lasted long enough for Iron Mike to unload that day’s physical and mental hostilities. As the queries flew, Tyson didn’t threaten even once to eat any of the children in attendance, stomp anybody’s private parts or perform frontal lobotomies free of charge. 

Question: “Mike, any distractions this week? 

Tyson: “No, unless you’re going to pop up with one.” 

This was not the first time this week that Tyson made a conscious effort to upgrade his image. On Sunday, a trio of demonstrators carried signs outside the gym where he was training, protesting against a litany of homophobic remarks Tyson has made in the past. 

As he was leaving the gym in an SUV, though Tyson ordered the car stopped and got out. Instead of slugging a demonstrator, he hugged one. 

“I’m not a homophobe,” Tyson said, conveniently forgetting that after biting Lewis’ thigh during a news conference last January, he stood on the stage in front of a crowd and offered to initiate several onlookers to the joys of prison sex. 

But that was the old Mike. When the new Mike drove to the gym the next day and found no demonstrators waiting outside, he remarked to pals, “Where are my homosexual friends?” 

To Francisco Garcia marijuana is a medicine that helps ease the pain in the Vietnam veteran’s aching leg.  

But to federal drug enforcement officials, smoking marijuana is a federal crime because pot is an illegal drug. 

Garcia was among demonstrators in front of the Oakland Federal Building yesterday who rallied for the freedom to use marijuana medicinally, like state law allows. 

"I'm here because I truly believe in my medicine,” Garcia said. “I don't see any harm in it. The marijuana helps the throbbing in my leg go away so I can get some rest and some sleep.” 

Medical marijuana supporters, patients and city officials demanded during the demonstration that the federal drug agency stop raiding local medical marijuana dispensaries.  

The demonstration was a part of a national protest at 55 DEA offices on “National Day of Action” for which participants had planned non-violent civil disobedience events to disrupt “business-as-usual.” 

Demonstrators in Oakland carried signs reading “DEA Go Away” and “No War On Patients,” while medicinal marijuana supporters and city officials criticized the tactics of the federal drug agency. 

“The law is on our side, the people are on our side and yet the government continues to be out of step. We will not have our people looking for medicine in the dark and dangerous alleys,” said Don Duncan of the Berkeley Patient’s Group.  

The Oakland rally was organized largely by Americans for Safe Access, a local grass roots coalition of medical marijuana patients, their friends, families and supporters.  

In November 1996, California voters passed the Compassionate Use Act, allowing marijuana use for medical reasons. The state law, however, conflicts with the federal law - the Controlled Substances Act - which says using, possessing and distributing marijuana is illegal. 

Thursday's protests doesn’t change that, said the DEA’s Richard Meyer, public information officer at the San Francisco’s office. 

"We support the right of every American to express his or her beliefs, they have that right,” Meyer said. “But the fact remains that marijuana is an illegal substance under the Controlled Substance Act." 

Tomorrow the U.S. District Court for Northern California is expected to determine that federal drug laws supersede state laws.  

According to Meyer, the protests do little to change the federal policy which contends that marijuana has no medical value. "We can't really have a dialogue because there hasn't been a change in federal law,” he said. “We view medical marijuana dispensaries simply as marijuana distribution centers.” 

Recent DEA raids of cannabis cooperatives in San Francisco and Wednesday's raid in Santa Rosa heightened an already tense debate over access to the leafy green plant.  

Jeff Jones, Director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative, a not-for-profit cooperative supporting patients who benefit from medical cannabis, says since the raids his organization changed the way it does business. 

The Oakland cooperative was a cannabis distribution center. Today its an advocacy organization that empowers patients with information they need to get utilize medical services. 

Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel supports the cause. "We need to make sure that access to every possible thing is available to patients,” Nadel said, adding that patients can contact her for help. 

Ed Rosenthal, author of “Why Marijuana Should Be Legal,” said the federal agency is committing an injustice by depriving patients of marijuana.  

"What we have here is theft on the grandest, highest level,” Rosenthal said, while shouting in the direction of the Federal Building. “We're putting you on notice. Your days are numbered. We are all tired of this."  

The DEA’s raids were legally, with warrants, Meyer said, adding that the raids are not high priorities. 

"These raids are not a priority but they are a responsibility," said Meyer. 

According to the DEA’s Web site, marijuana is harmful. The site says that more than 200,000 Americans have entered substance abuse treatment programs that are primarily for marijuana abuse and dependence. 

For Garcia, a medical marijuana user, Thursday's rally represented a chance to stand up for a cause he believes in.  

"I'm here because I truly believe in my medicine,” Garcia said. “I don't see any harm in it. The marijuana helps the throbbing in my leg go away so I can get some rest and some sleep.” 

Garcia, one of the patients who attended the rally, has lived in Oakland for 50 years. He is a Vietnam veteran. He says that no prescription drug provides the relief that marijuana does.  

"I really believe I'm not doing anything wrong,” Garcia said. “I think the federal government should change its policies. I've got to stand up and be counted.” 

According to Oakland resident Don Konecny, more than access to medical marijuana is at stake. 

"I'm here for a couple of reasons today,” Konecny said. “I love America and I love democracy. I want to see democracy served. This is not just about cannabis, it's also about democracy.” 

- Contact reporter at chris@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Asked to respond to the Daily Planet's interview with two young Israeli's who survived a suicide bombing, the SJP's Hoang Phan did what Palestinian propagandists always do when faced with that embarrassing topic.  

He changed the subject.  

Phan immediately countered with commentary about the alleged massacre in Jenin, a story which Human Rights Watch investigators have debunked as a fabrication. 

While these pages have seen innumerable letters of condemnation by Jews decrying the terrible toll Middle Eastern violence has taken on both sides, the editorial page of this and other publications has yet to see a single solitary letter by any pro-Palestinian denouncing the butchery of the suicide bombers.  

Mr. Phan and the SJP regularly allege that Israel is a “racist” state.  

I wonder what Phan and his ilk would term those who kill Israelis simply because they are Jews?  

But don't ask...Phan would only change the subject. 

Daniel C. Spitzer, Ph.D 

.Berkeley

Somewhere between home and work is the BART station, an area transit, a there that is not there. Today, it was the unlikely destination for over a hundred people who gathered around Brenda Boykin and her backup band to enjoy some blues and jazz in the sweltering afternoon heat.  

The event was presented by the Downtown Berkeley Association, and is part of free concert series that will bring music to the Downtown Berkeley Plaza every Thursday through July. Roy Ayer’s “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” would have seemed like a more appropriate number for the concert’s weather and setting, but Boykin sang Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Surprisingly, it worked every bit as well out of the dimly-lit night club that one would think is essential to establishing that song’s wan mood. 

It was this same element that made the performance enjoyable for Boykin.  

“There is something about playing outside where many people who don’t go to night clubs can drop by. They’re really enthusiastic, and it’s in the middle of the day and they’re giving you joy,” added Boykin, “For me it was beautiful.”  

The rest of the band, guitarist, Eric Swinderman, bass player, Brenda Boykin and drummer, John Hayes wielded their instruments with the same precision as Boykin did hers. An appreciative crowd gave a hearty round of applause as each soloed at different points throughout the performance. 

Those in attendance were a healthy mix of the young and the young at heart. Some people seemed like they planned on attending the event, and others obviously stopped while passing by. Some sat in the shade of the a large awning, others milled about, enjoyed weather and danced.  

Check for information on upcoming performances at www.downtownberkeley.org.

Twins 8, Indians 3 

MINNEAPOLIS — Torii Hunter hit a three-run homer in a five-run fifth inning to help the Minnesota Twins beat Bartolo Colon and the Cleveland Indians 8-3 on Thursday night. 

Jacque Jones was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs for Minnesota. 

Colon (7-4) had his shortest outing this season at 4 2-3 innings. He surrendered six runs, nine hits and a pair of walks while striking out five. 

After breezing through the first two innings, Colon gave up an RBI single to Jones in a three-hit third and had thrown 58 pitches by the end of it. 

Then came an arduous fifth inning he began with a 3-1 lead. The Twins sent nine to the plate against Colon before Chad Paronto entered to get the last out. 

A double by Jones brought the Twins within one, and a single by Doug Mientkiewicz tied it. After a walk to Corey Koskie, Hunter hit the first pitch over the giant right-field wall, making it 6-3. 

FRESNO – To help people breathe easier, air quality officials kicked off a voluntary program designed to cut pollution Thursday — much earlier than usual, and with a stricter monitoring scale. 

“We usually don’t have ’Spare the Air’ this early in the year,” said Josette Merced Bello, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. “It’s not a good indicator for the rest of the year.” 

Under Spare the Air, valley residents are asked to avoid unnecessary vehicle trips and avoid gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers in favor of equipment powered by electricity. 

Air quality officials originally planned Thursday as a drill but later designated it as an official day when high temperatures and a pressure system pushed over pollution created in the central and southern regions against the foothills, Bello said. 

Spare the Air also is being invoked this year when the valley reaches 151 on the air-quality index, a system that rates air from the healthiest at zero to hazardous at 300. 

The air pollution control district previously asked residents to cut back on pollution-causing activities when the index reached 170. 

Valley residents can expect as many as 30 Spare the Air days this summer. A typical season includes 10 to 15 restricted days.

Good deed saves cops job 

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. – An off-duty sheriff’s deputy in court on bad check charges saved his job when he chased and captured a jail prisoner who fled the courtroom. 

After the heroics, the prosecutor dropped all charges against the deputy, preserving his 20-year law enforcement career. 

Carter County Lt. Rocky Croy was in criminal court Tuesday to face two charges of writing bad checks worth less than $40 to a supermarket. 

While Croy in civilian clothes waited in the gallery for his case to come up, a prisoner bolted from the courtroom. Croy jumped out of his seat and ran after the fleeing man. 

“Go get him, Rocky,” Judge Lynn Brown shouted from the bench. 

Croy returned to the courtroom with 20-year-old Jerry Ray Oaks, who had been charged with aggravated burglary, attempted aggravated robbery, theft, felony evading arrest and felony reckless endangerment. 

Assistant District Attorney Ken Baldwin then asked the judge to dismiss the charges against Croy. 

“Your honor, this is the kind of person we need in law enforcement,” Baldwin told Brown. “He instinctively went after that man even though he was off duty.” 

Croy had already made restitution on the two checks. He said they were written from an account he and his wife closed when they thought all the checks had cleared. 

If the charges stood, Croy would have been dismissed from the department. 

“He had a lot riding on this day in court — 20 years of service,” Sheriff John Henson said. “Rocky has always been a good officer. I am glad he got it worked out.” 

Croy will be back on duty Thursday, the sheriff said. 

Burglar forgets  

‘key’ element 

SMELTERVILLE, Idaho – The alleged burglar of the Lookout Ski Shop in Kellogg forgot a key element that made the investigation easy, Shoshone County authorities said. 

He left behind the key to his post office box. 

Jesse W. Murphy, 21, was booked into jail Tuesday on a charge of burglary in the break-in early that morning, sheriff’s Detective Mitch Alexander said. 

A backpack left at the scene contained a set of keys, including one for the post office box. 

Alexander and Pinehurst Police Chief Brad Kitchen determined who had the box and headed to Murphy’s home in Smelterville. Alexander said the next clue was at their feet.

Five local emergency response teams at five sites yesterday conducted a terrorism preparation exercise dubbed “Berkeley Alert.” 

The scenario: A crop duster dumps agricultural pesticide on the city then crashes into a building downtown. The goals were to respond as if the situation were real. 

The City of Berkeley, the University of California, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Bayer Corporation all have conducted emergency response exercises like this, but yesterday’s was the first collective effort, said City Manager Weldon Rucker. 

First, each organization established an emergency operation center in a central location where duties were doled out. Then, teams went to work in their areas of expertise, meeting periodically to exchange reports.  

“We expect to learn a great deal from the Berkeley Alert exercise,” said Thomas Klatt, director of emergency planning and communications for the UC Berkeley Police Department. “Our goal is to examine the systems we have and make adjustments before there’s an emergency.” 

Many of the participants are veterans of the exercises, most commonly geared for earthquakes. Berkeley Chief of Staff Arietta Chakos said today’s drill showed “how important coordination and human contact are in a situation like this.”  

As part of legislation, in response to the Oakland and Berkeley firestorms in 1991, California Legislature enacted an effort to standardize responses involving multiple jurisdictions and multiple agencies.  

If the Standard Emergency Management System works, the agencies will use similar systems of emergency management.

SAN FRANCISCO – CBS won’t show a Charles Schwab television commercial drawing a sleazy picture of Wall Street stock brokerages at a time the industry is fending off charges of abusive sales practices. 

The derisive Schwab commercial, which other TV networks are airing, features an executive urging brokers at an unidentified firm to tell customers that a stock is “red hot” even though the fundamentals “stink.” 

After promising to reward whoever sells the most stock, the executive implores the brokers to “put some lipstick on this pig.” 

The derogatory language echoes descriptions used by Merrill Lynch analysts in e-mail discussions of stocks recommended as good investments to the firm’s customers. After the e-mails were passed on to New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Merrill Lynch last month paid $100 million to settle allegations it recommended troubled stocks to win lucrative investment banking fees. 

San Francisco-based Schwab said the commercial — part of an advertising campaign launched May 16 — wasn’t spurred by the early April revelation of the Merrill Lynch e-mails obtained by Spitzer. 

“It was not inspired by any particular firm,” Schwab spokesman Glen Mathison said. “It was inspired by the generally reported and documented practices of Wall Street brokerages.” 

The sales practices of other prominent investment banks also are under scrutiny. 

Some analysts said they suspect CBS’s refusal to air the Schwab ad has to do with the network’s finances. 

Merrill Lynch does more business with CBS than Schwab, a factor that probably led the network “to think like an investment bank — they went with the one paying them the most money,” said brokerage industry analyst Justin Hughes of Robertson Stephens. 

But CBS spokesman Michael Silver denied Merrill Lynch’s financial clout swayed the network’s decision. 

CBS rejected the Schwab commercial because it “impugns the motives of anyone who works for a big brokerage,” Silver said. “Our obligation is not to allow ads that unfairly disparage the competition.” 

The network is showing three other Schwab ads included in a campaign touting the discount brokerage as a way to buy stocks without commission-driven salesman. 

Several cable TV networks, including CNBC, CNN and Bravo, have already shown the ad rejected by CBS. 

The ad was scheduled to debut Thursday night on NBC during the broadcast of the popular drama series “ER.” It’s also supposed to be shown during NBC’s upcoming telecasts of the NBA Finals, Belmont Stakes and the French Open.

LOS ANGELES – After six years of nurturing high-technology companies, the University of Southern California is closing is incubator program known as EC2. 

The project helped more than two dozen companies get their start, including Womesnwire.com and GameWorld Technologies. It was funded by the school’s Annenberg Center for Communication, which also used the project to research the effect of communications technology on society. 

Executives at the incubator said the closing was prompted by failing investment yields as well as the collapse of the dot-com market, which made the project less relevant. 

EC2 stood for Egg Company 2, referring to the center’s hope of hatching new companies. It opened in 1995 and gave budding businesses work space and access to technology. 

The closing comes as high-profile, for-profit incubators have also shifted focus or collapsed after the companies they spawned failed on their own. 

Pasadena, Calif.-based Idealab is fending off a lawsuit filed by high-powered investors, just two years after its founder, Bill Gross, became a paper millionaire by helping to launch such Web companies as EToys. 

While Idealab’s investors can’t recoup the devastating losses of the past two years as companies such as EToys failed, they are trying to regain some of the money still left in Idealab’s coffers.

SAN JOSE – Citing a lower-than-expected demand for personal computer processors in Europe, Intel Corp. on Thursday scaled back its second-quarter revenue forecast. 

The chip-making giant expects sales for the period ending June 29 to be between $6.2 billion and $6.5 billion, down from the previous estimate of $6.4 billion to $7 billion. 

Analysts were expecting second-quarter sales of $6.7 billion and net earnings of 15 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. Last year, the company recorded sales of $6.3 billion and profits of 12 cents for the period. 

Santa Clara-based Intel blamed the shortfall on softening demand in Europe. The company also said sales of microprocessors are at the low end of the normal seasonal pattern. 

Enterprise, communications and mobile businesses, however, are in line with expectations, the company said. 

Intel also estimated its gross margin to be about 49 percent, compared to the previous forecast of 53 percent, due to a lower-than expected revenue and product mix. The gross margin is the ratio of gross income to sales. 

After the news was released, shares of Intel fell $2.63 to $24.37 in after-hours trading. Earlier Thursday, the stock closed down $1.18 to $27 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. 

“The real issue and the reason the stock is trading off is not the revenue — it’s the gross margin,” said Merrill Lynch analyst Joseph Osha. “The gross margin target is well below where people thought it was going to be.” 

The quarter is typically slow for Intel, as there are no major holidays or back-to-school events to boost sales. There also is little evidence of major increases in business computer sales after last year’s tech slump. 

“Our concerns here relate to the lack of visibility into the PC end market, particularly on the corporate side, rather than anything company specific,” Osha said in a research note before Intel’s announcement. 

Osha lowered his intermediate-term rating to “neutral” from “strong buy” but is maintaining a “strong-buy” rating for the long term. 

Early second-quarter sales may have been reduced by customers waiting for Intel’s May 26 price cuts, which averaged about 31 percent for desktop processors and 46 percent for notebook chips, said Jonathan Joseph, a Salomon Smith Barney analyst. 

“I think it shows greater expectations of weakness in the PC market,” he added. 

Another chip maker, National Semiconductor Corp., reported a surprise profit Thursday in its fiscal fourth quarter, citing strong demand for chips used in cellular phones and flat-panel monitors. 

For the three months ended May 26, National Semiconductor earned $17.1 million, or 9 cents per share — compared with a loss of $44.4 million, or 26 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Median home price jumps almost 30 percent compared to a year ago 

LOS ANGELES – With California home prices at a record high, housing affordability plummeted in April to 27 percent of households, down from 34 percent a year earlier, according to an industry report released Thursday. 

It’s now more than twice as difficult to afford a home in the state compared with the rest of the country, where on average 56 percent of households are able to own, according to the California Association of Realtors. 

“With the median price of a home jumping nearly 30 percent in April to $312,950 compared to a year ago, it’s no surprise that affordability posted a dramatic decline,” said Robert Bailey, the association’s president and the owner of three real estate offices in Santa Cruz. 

Low mortgage rates have not been enough to offset the increase in the cost of a single family home, he said. The affordability index in March was 29 percent of households. 

Choymae Huie is one of many Californians who regret not getting into the housing market last year, and said the only way to find affordable housing today may be to leave the state. 

The 57-year-old Alhambra resident held off buying a year ago because she didn’t feel she was getting enough value. With an inheritance from her mother and $20,000 in the stock market, she said she was prepared to pay up to $200,000 for a home. 

“Now I’m looking at prices again and I’m just shocked,” she said. “If I had bought a piece of property last year, I could have sold it for an extra $50,000 today.” 

Consumer anxiety about getting into the market before being priced out has been a major factor in rising prices, said Tom Lieser, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast. 

Near record low mortgage interest rates are also fueling prices. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages was 6.66 percent at the end of May, the Realtors association said. 

Any rise in interest rates will bring an end to the market frenzy, but prices will likely remain relatively high, Lieser said. 

The cost of real estate will have long-term implications for the state economy in terms of California’s ability to attract people and businesses, he said. 

The low rate of housing affordability is also pushing up rental prices. 

“It’s driving my market,” said Seth Polen, a broker specializing in working class rentals for the real estate investment firm Marcus Millichap. 

In the last two years, the price of an affordable one-bedroom in Los Angeles has risen to about $700 from $550. Two-bedroom affordable rentals have risen to between $850 and $1,000, up from the $650-$750 range, with landlords offering very few concessions, he said. 

“Too many people don’t like their housing situation, but they can’t really afford to buy,” Polen said. 

The least affordable counties in April were Contra Costa, San Francisco and Marin. The most affordable counties were San Bernardino and Fresno, the California Association of Realtors said. 

SANTA CLARA – 3Com Corp. plans to merge its Business Connectivity Co. unit into its Business Networks Co. unit in an effort to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. 

The maker of computer-networking equipment said Thursday that upon completion of the changes on July 1, the Business Networks unit will have three operating divisions, each focused on a different class of products. 

The connectivity division will focus on NIC and PC card products; the personal systems division will cover technologies linking users to networks, and the LAN infrastructure division will include enterprise switching, voice systems, security and small business systems. 

3Com said the Business Connectivity Co. has largely marketed NICs and PC cards, a declining market segment as connection capability moves into silicon. As NIC/PC card revenue has fallen, it was no longer cost-effective to maintain a separate infrastructure.

For 100 years anthropologists have recorded cultural 

memories of Indians  

BERKELEY – Quirina Luna-Costillas grew up thinking the language of her Mutsun ancestors was gone, lost in the flood of disease and destruction that ravaged California Indians. 

With the language went identity. Other children would ask her, with the bluntness of youth, “What are you?” She’d tell them and get a blank stare: “What’s that?” 

She later stumbled across a book by a Spanish missionary that listed hundreds of Mutsun (moot-SOON) phrases. 

It might as well have been Greek. 

Luna-Costillas turned detective, hunting for echoes of the almost vanished dialect. The trail was pretty cold; the last fluent speaker of Mutsun died in 1930. 

But there were clues to be found in the vast archives of the University of California, Berkeley, where for nearly a century anthropologists have been recording the cultural memories of Indians who survived the disasters of colonization and the Gold Rush. 

Six years after she began her quest, Luna-Costillas and a small group of other Mutsuns have scraped together a nodding acquaintance with their ancient language, putting together a dictionary with the help of a linguistic professor and translating the Dr. Seuss classic “Green Eggs and Ham” to read to their own children. 

This weekend, Luna-Costillas and fellow language detectives gathered in Berkeley to mark the 50th anniversary of the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, a project dedicated to saving the language of California’s past. 

“When people lose a language they lose, we all lose, a body of knowledge and a way of looking at the world that’s really important,” says Leanne Hinton, survey director. “To the participants themselves, language is a symbol of their identity and so it’s a symbol of survival against all odds.” 

The race to save dying languages is going on across the United States. Tribes are videotaping elders and, in a few cases, children are being taught their ancient tongue in immersion programs. 

In California, 85 California languages are believed to be endangered or dormant. 

It’s no mystery why. 

The ranks of native speakers were decimated as tribes were forced from their land, ravaged by Western diseases brought by immigrants and hunted down for bounties. Some estimates put the pre-European Indian population in California as high as 300,000. In 1900, census figures recorded fewer than 16,000. 

For survivors, Indian languages were taboo, stamped out as children were sent to live with non-Indian families or dispatched to boarding schools where they were punished for speaking anything but English. 

Berkeley has targeted 50 endangered languages, running weeklong language restoration workshops every other summer for the past 10 years.  

The workshops offer a crash course in linguistics and match language learners with a mentor, usually a graduate student. 

The workshops also show participants how to search through the stacks and stacks of field notes filed by Berkeley researchers over the years. 

The history of Berkeley’s Indian research is not without controversy. This is where Ishi, the man known as “The Last Wild Indian in America,” was taken in by pioneering anthropologist Alfred Kroeber in 1911. Ishi lived in a university museum for the four years until he died of what was believed to be tuberculosis. He had asked that his remains not be autopsied, but scientists did it anyway, sending his brain to the Smithsonian, where it remained in storage until California Indians reclaimed it two years ago. 

Hinton says it’s likely the earliest linguists and anthropologists saw their work as pure research. Their legacy is a nuts-and-bolts guide to the past for descendants of the people who talked to interviewers about everything from tribal myths to favorite recipes. 

“The notes did more for us than just the language. It connected us and it helped us culturally understand some of the things that our ancestors practiced on a daily basis,” says Lisa Carrier, a Mutsun working with Luna-Costillas on their recently formed Mutsun Foundation. 

One day, Luna-Costillas found her great-great-grandmother, named in the archives as one of the interview subjects. 

“It was wonderful,” she says. 

Luna-Costillas, Carrier and four other Mutsun Indians were in Berkeley this week for the fifth session, which leads into the weekend conference with participants presenting some of the things they’ve learned. 

The Mutsuns, with the help of their mentor linguist Natasha Warner, now a professor at the University of Arizona, are now working on a coloring book for children. 

In an interesting side note, their work was aided by a 1977 dissertation on Mutsun grammar by Marc Okrand, a Berkeley linguist who went on to create the Klingon language for TV’s Star Trek. 

The Mutsun Indians, part of the larger group of Ohlone, were among the many tribes that lost all their land; they are now petitioning the federal government for recognition as a tribe. 

That makes having a common language even more important, says Carrier. 

“I remember being in school and my friends — they were Aztec — we had show and tell and they could bring things. We didn’t have anything to share.” 

Luna-Costillas isn’t fluent in Mutsun, but she speaks phrases and tries to speak Mutsun to her four children as much as possible. “It gives them identity. They know they’re Mutsun.” 

Like many protective mothers, one of her mantras is “don’t touch,” which sounds like “ek-way ta-tay” in Mutsun. 

A few years back, she says, something extraordinary happened. 

Her third child, Jonathan, spoke his first word. 

It was “ta-tay.” 

WASHINGTON – The federal government spent $62 million on a building to store and treat low-level radioactive waste at a California nuclear weapons laboratory, then decided the structure wasn’t secure enough. 

So where is the waste kept now? Under tents. 

Hundreds of bright yellow, 55-gallon drums are stacked under the tents outside the building at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, east of San Francisco. 

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the area’s congresswoman, is incredulous. 

“You’re not trying to tell me that between the building and a tent, the tent wins?” asked Tauscher, a Democrat. “In a post-Sept. 11 environment, you’ve got to say to yourself, ’Let’s find a way to get that stuff in the building.”’ 

The barrels hold liquid and solid hazardous wastes, as well as articles of clothing that became contaminated through exposure to highly radioactive materials, said Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis. 

The waste, said Davis, “is stored safely and securely.” 

Terrorists’ use of airplanes against the World Trade Center and Pentagon have raised concerns about the ability of nuclear plants and storage facilities to survive similar attacks. 

Highly radioactive materials — spent fuel from nuclear reactors and other materials that emit dangerously high levels of radiation for thousands of years — are stored in other buildings at Livermore, Energy Department officials said. 

Low-level wastes, like those being kept outside under tents, typically decay in a matter of years. 

The Livermore building has been substantially complete since last June, but Tauscher said the Energy Department has refused to let Livermore workers begin using it. Tauscher said since January she has been given different explanations for why the building remains unused. 

Initially, she said she was told the building could not withstand a direct hit from an airplane. 

Then Jessie Roberson, the assistant energy secretary for environmental management, wrote Tauscher in May that the construction plans did not sufficiently assess potential hazards and risks — and what to do about problems that may arise. 

A third explanation came from Davis, the Energy Department’s chief spokesman in Washington, to whom calls to the laboratory were referred. 

“The building is still under construction,” Davis said. “If you use the facility to store waste, you can’t continue with the construction. We’re not going to compromise safety and security just to get it operating quicker.” 

Tauscher said no one, including Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, told her construction was ongoing. 

“We can’t even get a straight answer out of them,” said Tauscher, the top Democrat on a House Armed Services Committee panel that oversees the Energy Department’s reorganization, focusing on nuclear weapons programs. 

Under the department’s latest plan for the low-level waste, barrels of it would be stored inside beginning in September. Treatment wouldn’t begin until August of next year. 

The Energy Department has been trying since the mid-1980s to build a new decontamination and treatment facility at Livermore for low-level waste, fighting off objections from area residents.

LOS ANGELES – An immigrant with alleged ties to the Russian mob pleaded guilty Thursday to helping orchestrate a deadly kidnapping plot targeting wealthy businessmen whose bodies were found in a Northern California reservoir. 

Ainar Altmanis, 42, of the Sherman Oaks area, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit hostage-taking and three counts of hostage-taking resulting in death. 

Prosecutors indicated they would ask a federal judge to sentence Altmanis, who has been cooperating with investigators, to a maximum of life in prison and have him pay restitution to the victims’ families. If convicted, Altmanis could have received the death penalty. A sentencing date was set for June 2, 2003. 

Altmanis, a Latvian national, stood quietly in court, his hands shackled as he listened through a Russian interpreter to the prosecutor reading from a court document that detailed the kidnappings and killings. 

Altmanis was among a group of at least four men with roots in the former Soviet Union who are suspected of holding wealthy Los Angeles-area residents for ransom, then killing them. The others have been identified as Iouri Mikhel, 37, and Jurijus Kadamovas, 35, both of the Encino area, and Petro Krylov, 29, of West Hollywood.

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco couple convicted on charges related to the fatal dog mauling of their neighbor were scheduled for sentencing Friday, though a judge first was expected to rule on a bid for a new trial. 

Marjorie Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, were caretakers of the two large presa canarios that pounced on their neighbor, college lacrosse coach Diane Whipple, and mauled her to death at her apartment doorstep last year. 

Knoller was convicted in March of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that kills. She faces 15 years to life in prison. Noel was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter and mischievous dog charges, and could be sentenced to four years. 

Knoller is seeking a new trial on grounds she received ineffective counsel from her trial lawyer, Nedra Ruiz. 

In documents filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Knoller’s new lawyers, Dennis Riordan and Dylan Schaffer, argue to Judge James Warren that Ruiz’ poor performance during the trial in Los Angeles deprived Knoller of her right to competent representation. 

Knoller’s lawyers also argued her conviction should be dropped because a judge improperly allowed prosecutors to associate Knoller with the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, and that Knoller cannot legally be convicted of both murder and involuntary manslaughter. 

Noel and Knoller, both lawyers, last year adopted the dogs’ owner, Pelican Bay State Prison inmate Paul “Cornfed” Schneider, an avowed member of the white supremacist prison gang Aryan Brotherhood. 

“Had jurors been properly instructed, it is likely they would not have returned a verdict of murder,” Knoller’s lawyers said in documents supporting their client’s request for a new trial. 

Prosecutors said they were confident Warren will dismiss the motion.

xSAN DIEGO – A judge fined R.J. Reynolds Co. $20 million Thursday, ruling that the maker of Winston and Camel cigarettes violated terms of the 1998 tobacco settlement by running magazine ads aimed at teen-agers. 

The California attorney general’s office had sued the nation’s No. 2 tobacco company last year, demanding it be punished. 

The $206 billion settlement between the industry and 46 states does not specifically mention magazine advertising but bars tobacco companies from taking “any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth.” 

And Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager on Thursday found Reynolds violated that agreement. 

By advertising in magazines such as Spin, Vibe, Hot Rod and Rolling Stone, Reynolds reached teens as often as or more often than adults, the judge said. 

He said Reynolds saw itself losing market share to other companies and fought back with a more aggressive ad campaign “even though the likely effect of these efforts was to cause significant exposure to youth.” 

“It was, or should have been apparent to the skillful and bright people who managed RJR’s multimillion-dollar, sophisticated print advertising campaign that youth were exposed to tobacco advertising at levels substantially similar to targeted adult smokers,” Prager said. 

The attorney general’s office had asked judge to fine Reynolds $25 million and ban it from advertising in 50 magazines often read by teens. 

The judge did not go so far as to ban advertising in specific magazines but ordered Reynolds to take “reasonable measures” to reduce its reach to teen-agers. 

Reynolds said it will appeal. “We think it disregards the facts, the law and the master settlement agreement,” spokesman Tommy J. Payne said. 

Charles A. Blixt, Reynolds’ general counsel, said the ruling may violate the company’s First Amendment right to free expression. 

Reynolds denied deliberately targeting teens in its $200 million magazine ad campaigns for Camel cigarettes and other brands following the 1998 settlement. 

At Reynolds, company policy forbids ads in magazines with youth readership of more than 25 percent. However, Reynolds lawyers conceded that an unintended consequence of targeting young adults is that some teens are likely to see its ads. 

Deputy Attorney General Karen Leaf declared Thursday’s ruling “a victory for the teens in California.” 

Although it applies only to California, the ruling will force Reynolds to change its practices in magazines with a nationwide circulation, Leaf said. 

Reynolds had U.S. sales of $8.6 billion in 2001. It has about 25 percent of the American market, with brands such as Camel, Winston, Doral and Salem. 

TRUCKEE – Police searched a former priest’s vacation home Thursday for clues into the disappearance of a girl who was last seen jumping rope in her front yard 14 years ago. 

The former priest, Stephen Kiesle, 55, was arrested in May on three unrelated charges of child molestation dating back three decades. Police obtained a warrant to dig at his vacation home Tuesday after getting “hits” from cadaver-sniffing dogs, authorities said. 

Kiesle, who resigned from the priesthood in 1981, according to his attorney, had lived down the street from 7-year-old Amber Swartz-Garcia when she disappeared from Pinole in 1988. 

Amber was about the same age and looked similar to the three girls Kiesle is accused of molesting 30 years ago. 

“Those were a couple of coincidental things,” said Pinole police Cmdr. John Miner. “Those things raised our eyebrows.” 

Searchers digging around Kiesle’s vacation house in Truckee, near Lake Tahoe, found nothing Wednesday and continued the work Thursday. El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies also were searching for any evidence of another girl, Jaycee Dugard, 11, who has been missing from nearby South Lake Tahoe since 1991. 

Kiesle’s attorney, Bill Gagen, said police violated his client’s privacy without evidence. 

“I know of nothing that is ever going to signify he ever did anything violent to anybody,” Gagen said.

SACRAMENTO – California must be ready to vaccinate entire regional populations in the event of a bioterrorist attack, the federal government said Thursday. 

“The risk of a bioterrorist attack is recognized now to be significant and pressing,” Jerome Hauer, director of the federal Office of Public Health Preparedness, warned in a letter approving the state’s preliminary plans. 

While the federal government is preparing to respond, “success in dealing with an epidemic depends primarily on how rapidly and effectively local and state programs can respond,” Hauer told California Health Services Director Diana Bonta. 

That includes having detailed regional plans to obtain vaccinations or antibiotics from the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, and administer them to the entire regional population within three to five days. 

Hospitals in an area need to be ready to handle a sudden surge of 500 acutely ill patients. 

And each hospital needs to be ready to set up isolation areas in their emergency rooms for suspected smallpox cases. 

California has until Oct. 1 to detail how it will meet those requirements for handling “an acute epidemic,” Hauer wrote. 

George Vinson, a career FBI agent who now is security adviser to Gov. Gray Davis, said that with the preliminary approval, “now what we have to do is get down and drill a little deeper into the actual operational planning.” 

For instance, where will the vaccine stockpile be stored? “How are we going to secure it, and move it in a hurry if we need it?” Vinson said. Which hospitals will handle how many victims under what circumstances? 

Planning for 500 victims may unrealistic, he said: “We may have to be ready for more than 500 if you’re doing it in a populated area.” 

However, Vinson said a major goal is to quickly isolate any outbreak to keep the number of victims in check. 

Hauer’s approval of the state’s preliminary plans qualifies California for a $56.6 million federal grant to beef up its public health and emergency response systems to deal with bioterrorism threats. It follows $14 million released to the state in January after President Bush signed a $1.1 billion appropriation designed to help states improve their public health systems. 

Though Hauer approved California’s regional and statewide plans Thursday, he said the state needs to demonstrate that the various information and communication systems used in California can connect to each other and to the federal government. 

The state also needs to show that mutual aid agreements and other cooperative efforts are in place, particularly between Los Angeles and state agencies. 

Los Angeles, along with Chicago and New York City, are receiving separate grants. 

Los Angeles received $5.6 million in January and $3.6 million Thursday, but $9 million was withheld until the city provides more details on its plans to renovate space for a modern laboratory. That will likely happen quickly, said Bill Pierce, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

California was one of 24 states to receive full funding, as did Chicago and New York City, Pierce said. 

It’s the first time federal, state and local governments have come up with a plan to prepare for a terror attack, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in announcing the funding. 

The state is required to spend 80 percent of the money for hospital improvements. But the state can use portions of the grant for more planning, to improve its infectious disease monitoring and investigation, to help hospitals prepare to deal with a large number of casualties, and to improve reporting of disease reporting between hospitals and public health departments. 

Of the total $70.8 million coming to California under the program, nearly $10 million will go to create regional hospital plans to be used in the event of a terror attack. 

However, Thompson said both the regional hospital plans and the statewide plans will help in non-terror responses, for instance to a flu epidemic. 

SAN FRANCISCO – A man who helped rear a young boy since birth is his lawful father even though he is not the biological parent, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday. 

The unanimous decision upholds a line of cases that say men who establish themselves as parental figures with children may become legal fathers even if they did not help conceive the child. 

Thursday’s case was unusual in that there was only one man asserting legal fatherhood status, and it wasn’t the biological father. That man has never come forward in the custody dispute. 

The justices overturned a state appeals court ruling that the Southern California man had no legal right to the boy because he wasn’t the biological father. Other appeals courts faced with similar circumstances have sided with men seeking to be recognized as the father. 

Lawyers said the state Supreme Court’s narrow ruling applied only to men seeking legal fatherhood in the absence of a competing biological father. 

“What the court said is that, to the extent that people volunteer and assume the role of parent, their rights should be acknowledged,” said Francia M. Walker, the court-appointed attorney who represented the 7-year-old boy in the dispute. “It’s better for children to have fathers than not to have fathers — the ones that tuck them in at night and take them to ballgames.” 

The decision did not address circumstances in which the biological father and another man are competing for the legal right to be called dad. The court previously has ruled that, depending on a variety of circumstances including the relationship between the child and parental figure, biological fathers are not automatically entitled to be legal fathers. 

Even so, the case decided Thursday was another victory for men who perform the duties of fatherhood even though their seed was not used to conceive the child. 

The case concerns Nicholas, who has been living with his non-biological father, Thomas, in the Southern California city of Lakewood. Because the matter involves a custody dispute, the court withheld the last names of the people involved. 

Thomas started living with Nicholas’ mother, Kimberly, after she became pregnant with Nicholas by another man, and assumed parental duties. The couple, which since has split apart, had a rocky relationship, including spats of domestic violence aimed at each other. 

Kimberly was jailed for minor offenses. While the woman was in custody, the boy lived with Thomas’ mother and with Thomas under a temporary court order. When Kimberly got out of jail two years ago, she claimed Thomas had no legal right to the boy and that Nicholas should live with her. 

Now that the Supreme Court has recognized Thomas as the legal father, he will seek legal custody of the child, his attorney said. Nicholas has been living with Thomas while the case proceeds through the courts. 

But the mother’s attorney, Sheri Cohen, said Kimberly will seek custody of the child as well. 

Cohen said the court assumed that Thomas had established himself as a parental figure. Cohen, for example, said that the couple separated several times and when Nicholas was living with Kimberly, Thomas made no effort to financially support Nicholas. 

“We wanted the court to elaborate more on how you establish yourself as a parental figure. They didn’t do that,” Cohen said.

UPLAND – A small religious movement under attack for its followers’ devotion to faith healing and corporal punishment has backed away from those controversial tenets. 

The Church of God Restoration will allow members to bring sick children to medical doctors and encourage parents to discipline children without violence, said its founder, the Rev. Daniel Layne. 

“We want to show sensitivity to these issues,” he said. 

Followers of the fundamentalist church have long embraced prayer as the sole method for treatment of illness and used physical discipline on their children. 

Church adherents Richard and Agnes Wiebe of Rancho Cucamonga are facing trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse in the death of their daughter from treatable meningitis last year 

Church elders crafted a statement last week in response to the publicity generated by the Wiebe case and the removal of seven children from the home of an Aylmer, Canada couple amid allegations of excessive spanking and paddling. 

Among other things, the statement says the ministry shall allow parents of seriously ill children to seek “medical means for the child according to the law of the land.” 

Another section of the statement advises members to explore alternatives to spanking. 

The church’s approximately 400 members nationwide have fended off criticism and claims of child endangerment from law enforcement officials since the sect’s founding in 1989. 

BAKERSFIELD – An Amtrak train struck a pickup Thursday, hurling the driver 50 feet from his truck and breaking his leg. 

Robert Ray Scott, 47, of Bakersfield, was taken to a hospital for treatment after the 10:30 a.m. accident, California Highway Patrol Officer Greg Williams said. He was listed in critical but stable condition, he said. 

“He’s expected to make a 100 percent recovery ... he’s very fortunate,” Williams said. 

Scott drove past flashing lights at the train tracks, the officer said. 

The 83 train passengers and six crew members escaped injury, Williams said. The accident damaged the locomotive, Amtrak spokeswoman Liz O’Donoghue said. 

The northbound train had left Bakersfield for Oakland 15 minutes before the accident and probably was traveling at 79 mph, she said. 

SACRAMENTO – The 260,000 state employees whose financial information was accessed by a computer hacker will get help making sure their credit ratings aren’t affected, Gov. Gray Davis said. 

The state set up toll-free lines to credit bureaus, and will offer employee workshops, informational mailings, and a video on how to avoid identity theft, Davis said Wednesday. 

The moves come a day before a Senate panel holds a hearing on why it took weeks for the employees to be told a hacker accessed a computer system containing their personal financial information. 

“We think it’s just a beginning. There’s a lot more to be done here,” said Perry Kenny, president of the California State Employees Association. 

The state data center had the computer software patch that would have prevented a security breach, but hadn’t installed it, officials with the state controller’s office said Wednesday. 

The April 5 security breach at the Steven P. Teale Data Center may have exposed personal identity information, including Social Security numbers, of state employees. 

The agency had installed a security update on one computer that housed state employee payroll deduction information, but not the other, the controller’s office said Wednesday. 

Had the patch been installed, “that attack would not have been successful,” said Dave Dawson, a spokesman for the controller’s office. 

The Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Privacy Protection set up phone lines Wednesday solely for state employees to call the nation’s three major credit bureaus. Employees are being urged to place fraud alerts on their accounts to protect against the unauthorized issuance of new credit, and to order credit reports they can check for signs of identity theft. 

Within a few days, employees will be mailed letters with the toll-free numbers, instructions on how to read credit reports, how fraud alerts work, and other privacy protection tips. 

The Office of Privacy Protection will schedule privacy workshops for Sacramento employees, and distribute a video of the workshop to employees elsewhere in the state. 

Kenny said his organization is requesting that employees additionally not be penalized if they use state time to check their credit reports, that the state pay for reports, and that the state cover any losses traced to the computer breech. 

“I am extremely concerned,” said Doris Lavenberg, a technician at the California Lottery’s Santa Ana office who thwarted an improper address change on a credit card bill Friday. She worries identity thieves were using information from the state’s computer, because “I’ve never had this happen before in my life.” 

Sgt. James Lewis, spokesman for the Sacramento Valley High Tech Task Force that is handling the investigation, said no state employees’ identity thefts have been traced to the computer breech, leading investigators to hope the information hasn’t been used. The database included employees’ last names, first and middle initials, Social Security numbers and payroll deduction information. 

The state’s privacy office, the nation’s first, was created by legislation authored by Sen. Steve Peace, D-El Cajon, whose Senate Committee on Privacy plans a hearing Thursday into the hacking. 

Peace said his committee wants to know how a hacker or hackers could break into the state database, why it wasn’t discovered until May 7, and why employees weren’t notified until May 24.

SAN FRANCISCO – California’s power supply dwindled as temperatures soared into triple digits this week, prompting managers of the state’s electricity grid to order power plant operators to forego scheduled maintenance so they could keep generating needed megawatts. 

California’s reserve of power has dipped close to emergency levels several times over the past few days as customers around the state flipped on air conditioners, said Gregg Fishman, a spokesman for the California Independent System Operator. 

The agency typically shoots for a reserve cushion of 15 percent. A 7 percent reserve, which the state neared Thursday, triggers a Stage 1 power alert, two stages away from when ISO must launch rolling blackouts. 

Fishman cautioned the situation isn’t as dire as the numbers make it look, because supply consistently has outpaced demand. 

“What we’ve seen in this heat wave is indicative that our margin is still not thick enough,” Fishman said. “It looks like we’ll have enough to get through this summer but not enough to get through this summer easily.” 

So far, the ISO has avoided alerts because plants have stayed online and hydroelectric dams are producing more power than during last year’s drought, according to Fishman. And with new power plants pumping an additional 1,114 megawatts of power onto the grid since January, the state should be able to dodge a repeat of last year’s blackouts if Californians keep conserving energy, he said. A megawatt is enough electricity to power roughly 750 homes. 

Beyond the horizon of this summer, however, California’s future is unclear. The ISO recommends the state add 1,500 megawatts each year to keep up with growth, but developers have withdrawn or delayed several major power plant projects, with many saying the state’s regulatory environment is too unstable to build.

SAN DIEGO – American Red Cross officials voted Thursday to remove the entire board of the agency’s troubled San Diego chapter, hoping to put to rest questions over the handling of aid for victims of a 2001 fire. 

“We came to the difficult conclusion that nothing short of a fresh start would give the San Diego/Imperial Counties chapter of the Red Cross a chance to rebuild,” said Jim Topping, national chair of the chapter services network. 

The decision comes one week after national Red Cross officials removed Dodie Rotherham, the San Diego chapter’s chief executive officer for two decades. 

Rotherham and other Red Cross officials were criticized over how the chapter handled $410,000 in donations for victims of the January 2001 fire in Alpine, east of San Diego. Last year, a national audit found less than $25,000 had gone directly to victims. 

Red Cross officials in Washington said in a statement that the San Diego chapter had become “deeply paralyzed” over many issues. The executive committee of the Red Cross’ national board of directors also voted to suspend the San Diego chapter’s local bylaws. 

A local advisory committee will work with interim management to get the San Diego chapter back on its feet. 

The California Attorney General’s office has opened an investigation into the San Diego Red Cross, focussing on whether local officials have been raising and spending money appropriately. 

County officials also are investigating allegations of fraud in the nonprofit organization’s transportation program.

NEW YORK – The New York Archdiocese says its annual fund drive is closing in on a record this year despite the sex scandal that has rocked the church. 

The cardinal’s appeal campaign, which runs through June, had raised $13.44 million as of midweek, said archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling. Its goal of $15 million would be a record amount for the nation’s third-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, with 2.4 million members. 

“I think it will be the most successful cardinal’s campaign that the archdiocese has ever had,” Zwilling said. 

Last year’s appeal raised roughly $13.5 million. 

The scandal erupted in the Boston Archdiocese earlier this year when it was learned that priests accused of molesting children were simply moved from parish to parish. Nationally, at least 225 priests have resigned or been dismissed since the scandal broke. 

Several dioceses, including the three in and around New York City, have changed their policies on reporting sex allegations. New York Cardinal Edward Egan has agreed to notify prosecutors first. 

The archdiocese has also given prosecutors information on 35 years’ worth of sexual abuse cases and suspended several priests — among them, Monsignor Charles Kavanagh, the archdiocese’s chief fund-raiser for eight years. 

The effect of the scandal on fund-raising is difficult to gauge. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that parishioners and some big donors in areas hard-hit by the crisis may be holding back donations, or thinking about shifting them to Catholic causes that could not be tapped for lawsuit settlements. 

Deacon Ronald Henderson, president of the Diocesan Fiscal Managers Conference, said many dioceses around the country have not been hurt financially, “but you do see an occasion where there is a negative impact.”

HERSHEY, Pa. — Hershey Foods Corp. and negotiators for 2,700 striking factory workers reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday that could end a 42-day strike, a company official said. 

John Long, vice president of corporate communications, said they came to an agreement during a late-night meeting at the Hershey Hotel. 

Negotiators sealed the agreement with a handshake and a promise to try to put the strike behind them, said Robert Oakley, lead union negotiator. 

“It’s been a long journey and it hasn’t been an easy one,” he said. 

Oakley refused to provide details about the settlement but said the union members could vote on the proposal this weekend. 

Workers who picketed outside the company late Thursday night expressed wariness and wanted to see the details for themselves. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust the union. It’s just that I want to see it for myself. I’ll believe it’s a good contract when I see it for myself,” machine operator Sharon Kirby said. 

The members of Chocolate Workers Local 464 walked out of two Hershey plants April 26 after more than six months of negotiations had failed to dissolve an impasse over management’s insistence that employees contribute more toward their health care costs. The workers’ contract expired in November. 

The sides were hung up on a company demand that employee contributions to health care rise from 6 percent in the first year of the proposed contract to 12 percent in the fourth year. 

The company characterized the deal as similar to the one granted to the rest of the company’s approximately 11,000 employees. 

As the strike continued, the divide had become increasingly bitter. 

The company mounted a public-relations campaign accusing the union leadership of bargaining in bad faith. 

The workers derided chief executive Richard H. Lenny as an outsider and the symbol of a company that rewarded executives with big bonuses, but scrimped on worker benefits. 

Union members said that they would not object to a higher health care contribution if the company were struggling, but Hershey Foods has consistently recorded profits. 

The company’s board of directors — most of whom are not from Hershey — hired Lenny from Nabisco in March 2001 to help expand the 8 percent margins on company sales of $4.6 billion for 2001. 

The company’s cost-cutting has included $310 million to close three manufacturing facilities and eliminate 600 jobs, among other things, while it sells some of its peripheral brands like Luden’s cough drops. 

WASHINGTON — The man suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks is believed to have once attended college in North Carolina and, in 1999, visited the German city where chief hijacker Mohammed Atta lived, U.S. officials said Thursday. 

Officials suspect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti-born lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, met with Atta or members of his cell in Hamburg, but they have not received direct evidence of any contacts between them, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

Since Sept. 11, evidence has mounted that Mohammed was chief among the bin Laden lieutenants organizing the attacks, counterterrorism officials said. He provided some of the money used in the attacks, and Abu Zubaydah — another of the alleged organizers now in U.S. custody — has identified Mohammed as the organizer, they said. 

Mohammed is believed to have attended Chowan College in northeastern North Carolina before transferring to another U.S. university, where he obtained an engineering degree, a second U.S. official said Thursday, declining to provide further details. 

A spokeswoman at Chowan said a Khaled Al-Shaikh Mohammad attended the school in spring 1984, when it was a two-year institution. 

Mohammed — who is 37, according to Interpol — would have been of college age in the mid-1980s. 

Spokeswoman Melanie Edwards declined to provide further information about the student, including whether he transferred to another school in the state. 

Chowan College, which became a four-year college in 1992, is in Murfreesboro, N.C., near the Virginia border and about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh. 

Spokesmen at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they had no records of a student by that name — or any of the aliases listed for Mohammed on the FBI’s Web site — attending in the 1980s. 

Officials at North Carolina State University in Raleigh were unable to say immediately Thursday whether they had had a student by any of those names. 

U.S. counterterrorism officials believe Mohammed went to Afghanistan to join the mujahedeen fighters opposing the Soviet occupation in the late 1980s. He now has Pakistani citizenship, according to Kuwaiti officials and Interpol. The independent Al-Qabas newspaper in Kuwait reported that Mohammed worked for Abdul-Rab Rasool Sayyaf, an anti-American Afghan warlord who goes by “Professor.”  

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Endeavour closed in Thursday on the international space station, where three men eagerly awaited the arrival of their ride home. 

“Company’s on the way,” Mission Control told space station astronauts Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz. 

“We’re just doing some last-minute tidying up before guests come,” Bursch replied. 

Endeavour was scheduled to pull up to the 240-mile-high outpost on Friday, ending a two-day chase that began with a flawless launch. 

Bursch, Walz and their Russian commander, Yuri Onufrienko, have been living on the space station for the past six months. Endeavour is bringing their replacements as well as a new joint for the station’s balky robot arm. 

Thursday marked the 183rd day in orbit for the space station residents. By the time they return to Earth aboard Endeavour on June 17, they will have spent 194 days aloft, a U.S. record. 

Endeavour will spend just over a week at the space station. Its astronauts will conduct three spacewalks, one of them to repair the robot arm’s wrist.

The University of California announced this week that it is temporarily suspending its fall 2002 study abroad program in India in light of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. 

Currently no UC students are in India, but 15 were scheduled to attend programs in Delhi and Hyderabad this summer. Five of the students are from UC Berkeley. 

“When we send students overseas to study, the number one priority for the University of California has got to be student safety,” said UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman. 

The university made its decision after considering the U.S. State Department’s May 31 advisory to American citizens to leave India because of growing hostilities between India and Pakistan. The two countries are disputing the state of Kashmir. 

On Wednesday, the State Department issued an updated, more strongly-worded advisory. 

“Conditions along India's border with Pakistan and in the state of Jammu & Kashmir have deteriorated,” the statement read, urging U.S. citizens to leave the region. “Tensions have risen to serious levels, and the risk of intensified military hostilities between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out.” 

The statement noted that terrorist groups, some with links to al-Qaida, are operating in the area. 

“We have to take it seriously when the State Department (issues an advisory),” Eisenmann said. 

The university will leave the infrastructure and staff of its study abroad program in place and could renew the program. 

“We’re going to monitor the situation,” Eisenmann said. “If things improve, the program could still go forward.” 

Earlier this semester, the university recalled students from Israel in response to growing Israeli-Palestinian tensions. But because UC operates only a fall program in that country, it does not face the prospect of recalling students from India this semester. 

In the past the university suspended study abroad programs in China, after the Tiananmen Square uprisings; in the Middle East, during the Gulf War and in Indonesia, during the civil unrest of 1999.  

Contact staff reporter: scharfenberg@berkeledyailyplanet.net 

Getaway blocked by bullets 

SEATTLE – A bank robber caught a lucky break when his getaway was interrupted by a funeral. 

Dozens of officers were about to catch the robber at a fast-food outlet when shots rang out nearby. After racing to the scene, officers learned that the gunfire came from a military honor guard shooting blanks in a salute at a veteran’s funeral. 

The episode began Tuesday afternoon when a man passed a note demanding money to a teller at a Wells Fargo Bank branch at a Safeway store on Capitol Hill, police officer Deanna Nollette said. 

He did not show a weapon but took an undisclosed amount of the money, flagged down a taxicab and fled, Nollette said. 

As officers were being told the robber might have gotten out of the cab and entered a Jack In The Box outlet, they heard the gun salute from a funeral home down the block. 

“We all assumed this guy was cranking off rounds somewhere,” Nollette said. 

The misunderstanding was soon cleared up, and investigators found a discarded sweat shirt and pair of pants they believe had been worn by the bank robber. 

“Now we have a really good idea who he is,” Nollette said. 

Moose on the loose 

MENOMONIE, Wis. – The Moose Lodge is without its 400-pound fiberglass mascot after someone went to a lot of trouble to steal it. 

The bronze-colored moose statue, which is 6 feet tall and 7 feet long, was stolen over the weekend from Moose Lodge 1584, said Terry Tilleson, a lodge member and past administrator. 

The moose, valued at $2,000, has been bolted to the east side of the lodge for two years, Tilleson said. 

“They took the bolts out,” Tilleson said. “It took great effort to take it. They took the time to scope it out and knew what they needed for tools.” 

A ladder must have been used, police said. 

The lodge replaced the moose a few years ago after the statue’s head was ripped off in a theft, Tilleson said. 

“We’re terribly upset,” Tilleson said. “We’re going to have to replace it.” 

Lesson learned 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Taxpayers could end up paying thousands of dollars to accommodate some state senators who don’t like the way seats in the new Missouri Senate have been arranged. 

A resolution passed in the waning moments of the recently completed legislative session directs the state to change the Senate desks back to their traditional configuration, which could cost as much as $148,000. 

“I don’t think a lot of people who signed it realized what the cost was,” Senate Administrator Michael Keathley said.  

The resolution states that the seating changes were made without Senate consent which “compromises proper order, safety and decorum in the chamber.” 

One of those who backed the May 17 measure was Sen. Marvin Singleton. 

The committee could choose to spend the $148,400 for extensive changes or $6,600 to shift just a few desks. It could also choose to do nothing. 

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder said Tuesday that lawmakers did not have time to review the costs of the resolution before approving it.

To the Editor: 

Sedge Thomson wrote a June 5 letter advocating a 15 mph speed limit. Outrageously generous! Berkeley's property owners deserve to slow interlopers to even lower speeds. I propose a citywide limit of negative 15 (yes, minus-fifteen) miles per hour. 

If Berkeley is going to be backward - squandering a generation's gains in pollution-reduction technology by forcing vehicles to crawl at mechanically inefficient, gas-wasting, pollution-intensive speeds - I say we should force all vehicles within our city walls to literally move backward. Bikes, skateboards, and pedestrians too! 

If that sounds absurd...well, so is the City Council's notion of a 20 mph limit. This would require us to blight neighborhood streets with a forest of only-in-Berkeley "20 mph" signs. For the same money, we could far better protect public safety and the city budget by hiring enough traffic police to really enforce the statewide 25 mph "basic speed law." Shouldn't we do that instead? 

Thursday, June 6

Our Spanish Heritage 

Music, History and Literature of the Middle Ages & Renaissance 

Presented by His Majestie's  

Musicians 

5 p.m. 

International House Auditorium, UC Berkeley 

Bancroft Way and Piedmont 

Reserve tickets at 528-1725 

$12 general, $10 SFEMS members, children free 

Friday, June 7

Tropical Vibrations and Shabang with Harry Best 

A multi-cultural quintet playing a mix of Caribbean styles 

Doors at 8:30 p.m. Show at 9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible. All ages.  

$11 

Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party  

Every Friday, with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man.  

10 p.m. 

Eli’s Mile High Club  

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 

655-6661 

$10 

Free Early Music Group 

Singers needed for small group of 15th- and 16th-century music Fridays 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

Hearst at MLK Way. 

Contact Ann, 665-8863 

Saturday, June 8

Kotoja 

Bay Area's leader in the World Beat and Afro-beat scene 

Doors at 8:30 p.m. Show at 9:30 p.m. 

Dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages.  

$12 

Sunday, June 9

Band Works 

Student recital featuring members who range in age from 12 to 50 

Doors at 4:30 p.m. Show at 5 to 10 p.m. 

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center 

1317 San Pablo at Gilman 

Wheelchair accessible, All ages.  

$3 

Wedendsday, June 12

Norma Cole and Robin Caton 

Authors read from their poetry and prose 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody's Books 

2454 Telegraph Avenue 

845-7852 

$2 donation 

Saturday & Sunday, June 8 & 9

Artists C.P. Fairburn  

& Donna Montgomery 

Painting & Jewelry 

2315 San Jose Avenue, #1, Alameda 

814-9017 

ProArts East Bay Open Studios 

497 artists will open their studios to the public for this 20th annual self-guided tour 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 6th Street (University and Hearst) 

705-8183 

Tuesday, June 11

Art for the Earth! 

A celebration of Eco-Art opening and slide show 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Avenue 

548-2220 x233, www.ecologycenter.org 

Free 

Ongoing through July 14

Focus on the Figure 

An outdoor show of contemporary figurative sculpture 

Wed. to Fri. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery  

1286 Gilman Street 

525-7621 

Ongoing through June 9

What Cats Know 

Lisa Dillman's comedy about four 30-something city dwellers 

Thurs., Fri., & Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 7 p.m. 

Transparent Theater 

1901 Ashby Avenue 

883-0305, www.transparenttheater.org 

Wednesday, June 12

Cloud Nine 

Caryl Churchill's play about race, class, history and sex set in 19th century colonial Africa 

8 p.m. 

The Rhoda Theatre 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2015 Addison Street 

RSVP by Friday, June 7 

647-2917 

Saturday, June 8

West Coast Live 

Radio Show marks Oakland's 150th Anniversary 

10 a.m. to noon 

91.7 KALW San Francisco, 91.1 KRCB Sonoma 

Thursday, June 6

War Without End –  

Not in Our Name 

6 to 7 p.m. 

Martin Luther King Street at Center Street 

A national protest of the war on terrorism. An evening of art, unity, and protest to entertain, inspire and resist . Performers: Loco Bloco, Mystic Family Circus, others. 

Spoken Word Artist  

Paul Flores 

(510) 594-4076  

bayareapledge@yahoo.com 

Big Brother is Watching 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

The Independent Institute 

100 Swan Way, Oakland 

Speaker James Bamford, author of “Body of Secrets, anatomy of Ultra-Secret National Security Agency” 

RSVP 632-1366 

Cost: $35 includes the book, $14 lecture only, $10 members. 

Wilderness Press 35th Anniversary Celebration 

5 to 8 p.m. 

1200 Fifth St. Berkeley 

A short presentation honoring Tom Winnett and unveiling 8th edition of Sierra North 

1-800-443-7227 www.wildernesspress.com 

Friday, June 7

Judaism Workshop 

7 to 8:30 p.m.  

The Ecology Center,  

2530 SanPablo Ave  

Earth Traditions: Judaism Rooted in the Earth. Healing the World in Jewish Thought and Practice 

(510) 548-3402 

$10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, but no one turned 

away for lack of funds. 

Fundraiser for  

Common Ground  

7 p.m. 

St. Joseph The Worker School 

On the corner of Addison, (California and McGee) 

Featuring Julia Butterfly Hill, a renowned and inspirational environmental activist  

CGJuliaEvent@hotmail.com  

$7 students, $12 everyone else 

What Does It Mean  

To Be Human? 

10 Tenth Street, Oakland 

Debate between Princeton Professor and author Peter Singer and Chairman for Center for Bioethics & Culture, Nigel M. de S. Cameron. Moderated by host of KQED Forum, Michael Krasny 

Calvin Simmons Theater / Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium 

Register online at www.thecbc.org  

$25 in advance, $45 at the door 

Navigating the  

Investment Waters 

11:45 a.m. for lunch, Speaker starts 12:30 

Berkeley City Club,  

2315 Durrant 

Geetha Kumar from Charles Schwab & Co. 

$11.00/$12.25, students free 

Saturday, June 8

African Peace  

and Justice Tour 

7 p.m. 

Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. 

A discussion of issues concerning Africa, with speakers including Dr. Molefe Samuel Tsele 

Call (415) 565-0201, ext. 15 

Free 

Saturday & Sunday  

June 8-9 

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Live Oak Park Shattuck & Berryman 

Crafts & art, food, live entertainment with M.C. Wavy Gravy. Benefit for Camp Winnarainbow. 

(510) 898-3282 

Free 

Sunday, June 9

Authors Susan Griffin and Margot Duxler  

converse 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club,1650 Mountain Blvd. Oakland  

Susan Griffin "The Book of the Courtesans: A  

Catalogue of Their Virtues" in conversation with Margot Duxler "Seduction:  

A Portrait of Anais Nin". Join in with your questions and thoughts. 

Free 

The Deep Politics of 9/11 

Noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. Oakland 

Edward Rippy leads a discussion of the role of engineered attacks in maintaining a permanent 

state of war.  

(510) 451-5818 or HumanistHall@yahoo.com 

Matthew Fox Lecture 

11 a.m. 

New Spirit Community Church Pacific School of Religion chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave.  

Spiritual innovator, theologian, author and founder of 

University Creation  

Spirituality 

(510) 849-8280 

admin@newspiritchurch.org. 

Free 

“Creativity and Emotion” 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place 

Psychology, Buddhism, Creativity, with speakers Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum 

510-843-6812. 

Free 

“Listening to Her Voice” 

1 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street  

Join Miki Raver in Sacred Circle to study Scripture, pray, dance, meditate and write for the soul's delight, and to connect with your foremothers and the feminine divine within. 

848-0237 x127 

$30/public, $25 BRJCC and members of co-sponsoring organizations 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Open House 

Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Culture 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute,1815 Highland Place 

Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum on "Creativity and Emotion" 

6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

(510) 843-6812 

Free 

Traditional Persian  

Music Concert  

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley 

Hossein Alizadeh and Madjid Khaladj 

925-798-1300, www.theatrebayarea.org. 

$22 

Monday, June 10

Poetry Express - All Open Mike Night 

7 to 9 p.m. 

A community open mike welcoming all artists 

Berkeley Bakery & Cafe 

1561 Solano Avenue 

Free 

"All Grown Up: Living Happily Ever With Your Adult Children" 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center,  

1414 Walnut Street 

Author Roberta Maisel leads the mid-life parent through a series of thoughtful steps inherent in the process of learning how to let go 

(510) 848-0237 x127 

Free 

Berkeley Parkinson's Group 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center, MLK and Hearst 

Speakers, exercise advice, good fellowship. Caregivers and relatives invited 

Free

St. Mary’s High senior Chase Moore was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates during the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft on Wednesday. The Pirates selected Moore with the 1153rd overall pick, the first selection of the 39th round. 

Moore, a three-sport star, was the Panthers’ centerfielder and cleanup hitter this season, leading the team to the Bay Shore Athletic League championship game. In addition to being named to the All-BSAL team for baseball, Moore was also an all-league receiver in football and honorable mention for basketball. 

Coming into his senior year, baseball was considered Moore’s weakest sport, as he was a starter for the state-champion 2001 basketball team and a physical force on the football field. But the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Moore put in hours of work to improve his fielding and plate discipline, and it paid off with a stellar final baseball season that attracted more than a dozen scouts to St. Mary’s games. 

“I would say that going back to last year, Chase really started to work on his game and take baseball more seriously,” St. Mary’s baseball coach Andy Shimabukuro said. “It’s difficult playing three sports, but he even took time off during basketball season to do baseball stuff on the weekends.” 

Shimabukuro said Moore is the best overall athlete he has ever coached. 

“In terms of the all-around package, combining size, speed and strength, Chase has the most tools of anyone that I’ve had,” he said. 

St. Mary’s athletic director and football coach Jay Lawson said Moore set his focus for the future on baseball despite a promising season on the football field after a year out of the sport. 

“From talking to hime lately, he’s definitely putting all his energy into pursuing something with baseball,” Lawson said. 

Moore actually had an offer for a football scholarship from San Jose State, which signed teammate Trestin George. But Moore said his top choice right now is to play baseball in college, and he is hopeful that getting drafted will attract more attention from Division I schools. He has a tentative offer from Fresno State, but a coaching change at the school has delayed a decision from both school and player. 

“People have told me that a lot more offers will be coming in now,” Moore said. “I’m still looking at Fresno State. I definitely want to go to a four-year school and get my education.”

The last three months have been a “nightmare” for 24 year-old Israeli Roy Gordon. 

Gordon, who is in the midst of a Bay Area tour of community meetings and media outlets, was working as a bartender at the popular Moment Cafe in Jerusalem the night a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people and wounded more than 50 on March 9.  

The al-Aqsa Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, and the Islamic militant group Hamas both claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred just across the street from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence. 

“I was just bending down behind the bar, I was looking for a bottle, and there was a massive explosion,” said Gordon. “I understood immediately that it was a suicide bombing. 

“I stood up and I saw many horrible sights,” he continued, describing the mangled bodies on the ground. “We knew all of them – they were customers and friends... . For me, the last three months were a nightmare.” 

Gordon and 22 year-old Na’ama Harel, a Moment bartender who left the cafe just 10 minutes before the bombing and raced back after the explosion, arrived in the Bay Area on Monday. The trip was paid for by a Palo Alto Jewish couple who wants the story told in the United States. 

Gordon and Harel are scheduled to travel today to Sacramento and New York City. They have no firm date yet for returning to Jerusalem. 

Harel said the pair has no political agenda. 

“We think it is (important) that people who are not politicians or ambassadors or journalists come here and tell their stories,” said Harel. “We don’t want anything – we don’t want money, we don’t want help.” 

Both defended the Israeli government’s handling of the current conflict. Harel supports Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decree not to negotiate with Palestinians while the suicide bombings continue. 

“You can’t sit down and talk to people who are killing you,” she said. 

Gordon, a former paratrooper, made a distinction between suicide bombers who kill civilians and the Israeli military which, he argues, seeks out Palestinian terrorists and avoids civilian casualties. 

Hoang Phan, a leader of the UC Berkeley-based, pro-Palestinian group Students for Justice in Palestine, said that Gordon echoes the Israeli government’s voice that claims to avoid hurting civilians. But Phan said the Israeli military killed several Palestinian civilians in an April assault on the Jenin refugee camp, and he criticizes the Israeli government for blocking a UN investigation into the two-week siege of Jenin. 

“If they were so confident (that they were avoiding civilian casualties), they shouldn’t have had a problem with a UN-sponsored fact-finding mission,” he said.  

Harel is hoping that peace will eventually take hold in Israel and Palestine, but was disheartened by a suicide bombing Wednesday morning in Jerusalem that killed 17 people. 

“Yesterday, I was more optimistic,” she said. 

In the meantime, she has enjoyed her time in the Bay Area. 

“We came out here and sat outside at a cafe and it was so nice,” she said. “In Jerusalem, you sit inside and you watch where you sit.”  

Contact staff reporter: scharfenberg@berkeledyailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

When our neighborhood shoemaker’s wife started making shoes, the shoes didn’t fit right anymore… When my high school math teacher became ill and her husband came to teach us, somehow, although he did know math, he wasn’t as good of teacher as she was. 

So, I learned at a very early age that one can get much better results from people who have expertise, if one only let people do what they know how to do. To take their place one needs to become very determined, study, and work hard to become an expert himself. 

The action by some 140 University of California professors, including 68 from UC Berkeley who signed a petition calling on the university to divest from Israel, joining professors at Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Tufts University who have taken similar action, defies that simple but proven common sense. Yes, one can assume that these people are knowledgeable in their fields or, they wouldn’t become professors at these well-known universities, but expertise in biology or history or even in mathematics doesn’t make you an expert in investment or world affairs.  

We all know that these people want to bring peace to the Middle East However, the assumption that the effect of divesting from Israel will cause what they think it will, is way off.  

These professors assume that if Israel will give back to the Arabs what the Arabs lost when they tried to take it all, it will bring an end to this war.  

Israel withdrew from Lebanon, giving “land for peace”. It didn’t stop the Hezbollah from shelling Israeli towns from Lebanon. The exact opposite is true. When Israeli soldiers moved away, the Hezbollah could reach farther into Israel and ever since used this opportunity for a new menu of daily shelling which is about to bring a new war between Israel and Syria. 

What the Arabs are calling “a just and equitable peace” is a slogan that was designed to keep the “cause” in front of the eyes of the people who pay the money to keep running their terrorist organizations and keep its top operators happy and well fed.  

Unfortunately, some 140 University of California professors just got an “F” in “World affairs” and sadly also an “F” in Investment criteria. The good news is that they care and for that we should give them a C+ for trying.

The playfulness of the venue, the beat from a live DJ and the exuberance of the cast make Impact Theater’s "Love is the Law" light up into a true party. And playwright Zay Amsbury is smart enough to know that no party is complete without a little drama. Raver-boy Kenzie, deadened to the rave “love drug” ecstasy because of overuse, is ready to leave the party - until he meets Sarah, and they hit it off. That night Sarah drops a bomb: she’s with the Drug Enforcement Agency. She’s not there to shut the drug-laden rave down – or is she? It all depends on Kenzie. 

David Ballog is perfectly cast as Kenzie. Ballog has appeared in several of Impact’s productions and keeps getting better with each show. He brings the right amount of fluid angst and earnestness to Kenzie. And Bernadette Quattrone brings a touching haplessness to her rookie DEA role, but also imbues the agent with a real strength. They’re the core of this play and they do a great job.  

Kevin O’Malley plays Sarah’s DEA partner King, and nearly steals the show with his Texas drawl and lackadaisical manner. His teasing nature makes sure nothing comes across too seriously except when he wants it to. Lisa Hori-Garcia is as sexy and dangerous as a concealed handgun, playing Kenzie’s best friend Victoria Storm. Perry Smith commands the stage as Ann. 

Director Christopher Morrison makes the play pop. He’s taken a potentially talky piece and staged it with incredible energy and movement. He works against some of the more self-righteous elements in the script (ecstasy’s use as a "sacrament") and keeps things fun.  

The set and space are the first stage elements to hit the audience, and the two elements are truly remarkable. In the basement of LaVal’s Pizzeria, Chris Hammer has made what is perhaps the most difficult space in Berkeley in which to work and made it intimate, funky and hip. He’s wrapped the space in varying materials and textures so that onlookers forget where they are. With a deft, mini-disco ball touch he creates separate spaces in the small theatre. Blake Manship’s moody lighting aids in the transformation. Music permeates to great effect.  

Anne Marie Wilson’s costumes make the cast look exquisitely hip – except for those who are not supposed to look hip. Wilson’s costume for a girl called "rave utility belt" drew one of the first big laughs of the evening.  

One of the play’s overriding themes – drug use as a viable religious experience – seemed forced and patently false. This is ground that has been well-traveled by and is familiar to many living in the Bay Area. Kenzie’s dilemma with his drug use putting him and his friends in danger is dramatic on its own, without overtones of Jesus in the Garden of Eden preparing to sacrifice himself. When playwright Amsbury comes back from that conceit to focus mainly on the interplay between the characters, his sharpness as an author comes out and the play finds its footing again.  

Impact’s program refers to the show as a "rave romantic comedy." They’ve made it that and a great party with cool music, lots of laughs and even a random hook up or two.

YOKOHAMA, Japan – The U.S. team wasted no time rebounding from the bottom of the soccer world. 

The Americans scored in the fourth minute, led 3-0 by the 36th and held on for a stunning 3-2 victory over Portugal in the World Cup opener for both teams Wednesday. 

“We came out quick,” said Brian McBride, who scored the winner with a powerful header. “They are a very good team, so we put the pressure on them. We took advantage of our chances and when they came on strong, we held them off.” 

Portugal is ranked fifth in the world. The Americans were the worst team at the 1998 World Cup, and didn’t have offensive standouts Claudio Reyna and Clint Mathis, both injured, on Wednesday. 

But from the beginning at Suwon, South Korea, the U.S. team was the aggressor. With John O’Brien’s early goal, they already had matched their scoring total in ’98, when they lost all three first-round games, bickering all the way. 

They didn’t stop producing after O’Brien left-footed in a rebound from close range. In the 29th minute, a shot by Landon Donovan deflected in off a defender. 

Then McBride converted a cross from Tony Sanneh, and even the Americans were marveling at their lead. 

“I think Portugal was the same way,” said O’Brien, one of six American starters making their World Cup debuts. 

Portugal quickly got one back, then got a second-half own goal when defender Jeff Agoos deflected a cross past goalkeeper Brad Friedel. But the Portuguese ran out of gas and the folks back home who stayed up late or got up early to watch on television — the game began at 5 a.m. EDT — were rewarded. 

“I think this victory will grab the attention of a lot of people in the United States,” U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. 

Ireland grabbed some attention, too, with its last-minute goal for a 1-1 tie with Germany. The Germans seemed set to be the first team to advance to the second round, but Robbie Keane knocked home a backheaded pass from Niall Quinn after a long pass from Steve Finnan. 

Keane celebrated with cartwheels as hundreds of Ireland fans cheered wildly in the stands at Ibaraki, Japan. 

Ireland coach Mick McCarthy said, “We threw men forward and it paid off. I think we were the better side. The stats will back it up. We were the better team.” 

They certainly were the happier team. 

“I’m extremely angry and disappointed. When you’re 1-0 up with one minute to go and concede a goal, it hurts,” said German coach Rudi Voeller. 

Russia beat Tunisia 2-0 at Kobe, Japan, getting goals five minutes apart by Egor Titov and Valery Karpin, the second on a penalty kick. 

The two Americans and one Russian aboard the international space station were informed promptly of their teams’ victories. 

“During the radio communication sessions, flight controllers told the crew of all the latest developments. And since the crew is made up of real soccer fans, the news was received more than happily,” Viktor Blagov, deputy director of Russian Mission Control said. 

Brazil’s Rivaldo was fined $7,000 for faking an injury in the late stages of his team’s opening 2-1 victory over Turkey. 

FIFA cracked down on Rivaldo under its “simulation” rule — pretending to have been fouled. 

“I wasn’t worried about suspension,” Rivaldo said. “I was the injured party. I don’t even know why I was fined. 

“In soccer, you have to be sly. It happens a lot and it will happen a lot in this World Cup,” he added. 

In the latest effort to make it easier for fans to obtain tickets and boost attendance at first-round games, FIFA has decided to allow telephone sales. 

Tickets returned after overseas fans were being offered on the Internet, but high demand was swamping FIFA’s Web site. Half the tickets still available for games in Japan and South Korea will be sold by telephone. In phone sales for two games Wednesday and one Thursday in Japan, thousands of tickets were snapped up in minutes.

News of a 75 percent price hike at Shattuck Avenue Self-Storage has prompted Berkeley leaders to question a 10-year-old, city-funded program that pays for storage lockers for the community’s homeless. 

Rain jackets, newspapers and blankets are often stashed in shopping carts and makeshift lean-tos in other cities, but in Berkeley, 99 lockers provide its homeless with free storage space. Until now the city rented the units for less than $25,000 a year. The cost, though, has swollen to above $40,000. 

“When I found this out, I was alarmed at how much it was,” said City Councilmember Linda Maio. 

While Maio notes that the uncommon program offers a vital city service, she wants to be sure the city is getting the most for its money. Colleagues on the council joined her last month in a unanimous agreement to pay the higher locker fees. But, at the same time, the council directed city staff to reevaluate the program. 

“I’ve learned that the whole storage thing has not been properly handled,” said Maio. 

City officials concede that in the past this was true. 

Until about a year ago, at the storage lot on the corners of Shattuck and Ward Street, little was known about the people using city lockers or if the storage accounts were even active, according to Harvey Tureck, the city’s manager of Mental Health Services. But this has changed, he said. 

“We’re trying to bring more order to the process,” Tureck explained. “We’ve had to access all of the lockers and the people and evaluate their current needs.” 

The city’s 99 lockers, at 5 feet by 5 feet by four feet, now serve homeless who genuinely need storage space, Tureck said. 

“If you’re someone trying to get back on your feet and get a job, you’re going to have stuff and need a place to put it,” he said. “We’re certainly more careful now [about who uses the lockers].” 

Tureck and his staff are slated to update City Council on the status of the locker program at a July 23 meeting. 

As for the program’s 75 percent cost hike, city officials say the increase was a long-time coming and that rates charged by Shattuck Avenue Self-Storage are still below market. 

The locker program dates back to 1993 and, in addition to serving the homeless community, has been credited with improving the aesthetics of parks and other public spaces where homeless have historically left their belongings. 

“It has benefited the clients and the community,” said Eric Landes-Brenman, the city’s homeless coordinator who helped found the locker program. 

The program has helped people make the transition from the street to permanent housing, he said. 

The only apparent problem has been a recent complaint from neighbors of the storage who say they have had trouble with some of the locker users. 

The manager of Shattuck Avenue Self-Storage was not available for comment yesterday. 

Contact staff reporter: scharfenberg@berkeledyailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

Regarding the proposed project to demolish the Darling Flower Shop at 2008 University Ave. and build housing there, I think we’ve reached a point where, once again, Berkeley risks becoming the laughing stock of the Bay Area. Make no mistake: Designating the current building a "structure of merit," which the Landmarks Preservation Commission wants to do, is an obvious ploy to stop development. With two bus routes on the block and BART an easy walk away, the proposed 35-unit apartment building is clearly the best choice for Berkeley. 

What's especially troubling about the latest attempt of Berkeley's arch-conservative NIMBYs to stop any kind of progress in our city is that the particular structure in question is astoundingly ugly. Yes, there appears to be an old-ish house somewhere behind the bland 1950s façade. But even what's left of the house has been completely stripped of any architectural or visual appeal. The whole property should be labeled a "structure of demerit." Demolishing it would do all of us a favor. 

This time the NIMBYs are going too far. Saving one of Berkeley's most unattractive buildings in the name of historical and architectural preservation is a travesty. The emperor—in this case the Landmarks Preservation Commission—has no clothes, and it's not a pretty sight. 

Cal senior second baseman Carson White was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 23rd round of the 2002 Major League Amateur Draft.  

White, a first team All-Pac-10 pick in 2001 and an honorable mention All-Pac-10 selection this past season, batted .339 with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 32 RBI. He also had the game-winning RBI Feb. 17 versus Long Beach State and hit a game-winning home run Mar. 25 at Washington State. A transfer from Fresno City College, the 5-foot-8, 175-pound White finished his two-year Cal career batting .338 with 88 runs, 153 hits, 34 doubles, four triples, 15 home runs and 81 RBI.  

White joins senior right-hander Trevor Hutchinson and junior catcher John Baker as Cal baseball players selected in the 2002 professional baseball draft. Hutchinson was selected in the third round by the Florida Marlins and Baker was selected in the fourth round by the Oakland A's.

Warm weather and high winds caused the California Department of Forestry to declare fire season early this year. The wind has dried grass rapidly. The warm temperatures have also fueled the dangerous conditions, say California fire safety officials. 

“Our concern is always the whole state – virtually the whole state is at risk, ” said CDF Public Information Officer Karen Terrill. Officials are watching residential areas built on or near wildland. “We are most concerned when the urban lifestyle is mixed with the wildland. People move into areas like the foothills and attempt to continue to live the same kind of lifestyles they had in the urban areas.”  

Several common, modern conveniences, such as lawnmowers, are threats in the foothills and other wildland areas, fire officials said. Accidents with outdoor cooking appliances can cause fires. Barbecues, for example, can throw sparks into dry areas. 

The three counties CDF is most concerned about are in Southern California and are San Diego, San Bernadino and Riverside counties.  

“Those areas went on fire season in mid-April,” Terrill said. “We are already seeing burning conditions there that we don’t usually see until mid-September. It’s as dry kiln dry lumber, and it’s ready to burn.” 

The current alert in Northern California is moderate. 

Terrill said that concerned citizens can log onto www.nifc.gov/news/outlook_map.html to watch areas under fire alert. Also on the Web site is advice fire officials want citizens to follow to protect themselves and firefighters. 

“Generally speaking, create a defensible space around your property that gives our firefighters a chance to protect you and your house,” Terrill said about fire prepping the home. 

In addition, it suggests that rooftops be cleared of leaves, twigs and pine needs.  

“That just like having kindling over your head,” Terrill said. According to Terrill, most houses in California wildland burn from the roof down. 

People are also advised to trim tree branches away from the home and to plan emergency escape routes in case of fire. 

“We want people to live and enjoy California’s wildland, but we want people to be fire safe. If you live in the wild lands there are certain things you have to do that you wouldn’t if you lived in the city,” Terrill said. “The whole idea is to give our firefighters a safe places where they can set up and protect you.” 

Contact staff reporter: devona@berkeledyailyplanet.net

Berkeley’s library system will be doing its part to fight off summer doldrums. 

The newly renovated and expanded Central Library is ready to take on its first summer since reopening April 6. No longer cramped in the temporary confines of its Kitterage location, the Central Library has many events planned for what promises to be a healthy increase of patrons. Much of this effort will be directed toward children.  

The library is offering a summer reading program for those entering grades one through eight to help children maintain or improve reading skills they’ve worked on throughout the school year. The program starts June 14 and lasts until mid-August. A similar program targeted at teenagers called “Cover to Cover” starts June 17.  

“Just like playing a sport or musical instrument, reading is a skill that must be practiced regularly, or kids loose ground, “ says Linda Perkins, manager of Children’s Services. “Research has shown that children who stop reading on the last day of school in June will not be ready for the first day of school in September.”  

Children will be encouraged to read 10 books or 1,000 pages this summer.  

Beyond the reading program, the staff of the children’s section has many other ideas for parents who want to keep their children reading while school is not in session. Some suggestions include reading during family activities and providing children with reading material.  

Already underway, the library is hosting a children’s story time on the first Saturday of each month. A guest story teller will present each story. Traveling storyteller Joel ben Izzy, author of “Lights and Laughter,” will perform on Aug. 3. 

Some of the preformances, like the one this month that featured musician and songwriter Gerry Tenney, will be accompanied by music and a sing-a-long. Story time is aimed at children between three and seven, and includes games and other activities.  

In addition to regularly scheduled events, the children’s section will host a number of features and activities. The schedule includes magicians, puppet shows and performances by ventriloquists. 

On Aug. 6, the Fratello Brothers Marionettes will perform “The Vaudeville Follies.”

REDWOOD CITY – Worldwide semiconductor sales are expected to increase 3.1 percent in 2002 and jump 23.2 percent in 2003, according to a midyear forecast released Wednesday by an industry trade group. 

The Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents most U.S. chip makers, said the market is now in the initial phases of recovery after its most challenging year in history. 

“Our expectation is that the recovery will gain momentum in the second half of the year and continue with strong growth through 2003 and 2004,” said Dwight W. Decker, chief executive of Conexant Systems and a semiconductor association board member. 

Worldwide sales of all chips are expected to total $143 billion in 2002, $177 billion in 2003 and $213 billion — a 20.9 percent increase — in 2004. Another slowdown is expected by 2005. 

The growth will be fueled by increases in sales of cellular phones and personal computers as well as other digital consumer electronics equipment. 

The Asia Pacific market is leading the recovery. Sales are expected to increase 27 percent to $51 billion in 2002 — the only region that will see a year-over-year sales growth this year. 

The Americas, on the other hand, are expected to decline 4 percent to $35 billion in 2002 but grow 24 percent to $43 billion in 2003 and 22 percent to $52 billion in 2004. 

The Semiconductor Industry Association has represented U.S. chip manufacturers since 1977. Its members account for more than 90 percent of U.S. chip production.

SAN JOSE – Internet auction leader eBay Inc. is trying to fight fraud on the site with a new software program that scans for suspicious listings and alerts company investigators, chief executive Meg Whitman said Wednesday. 

The Fraud and Abuse Detection Engine, or FADE, quietly was deployed this spring to help the company crack down on con artists who misrepresent their merchandise or dupe buyers into paying for goods that never arrive, Whitman told investors at eBay’s annual shareholder meeting. 

Though Whitman said fraud makes up less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all transactions on eBay, the company worries that high-profile cons damage the site’s reputation. 

In the last two years, for example, authorities have arrested eBay users who sold a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting for $135,000 and a man who made thousands unloading baseball bats he claimed had been used by major league stars. 

FADE is programmed to raise alarms about listings with telltale signs of potential trouble. As an example, Whitman said a first-time seller in Romania offering a laptop computer starting at $1 would be a likely target. 

Once the system alerts eBay of a potential con artist, company staff examines the listing and the personal information the seller has provided. If the humans are as suspicious as the computer, eBay will call or e-mail the seller to verify certain information, Rob Chesnut, eBay’s deputy general counsel, said after the meeting. 

Chesnut said FADE already has helped prevent potential fraud, though he would not elaborate. He compared the program to systems used by credit card companies that monitor for suspicious spending patterns. 

During the sparsely attended shareholder meeting, which lasted less than an hour, Whitman reaffirmed earlier forecasts that San Jose-based eBay will earn 73 cents to 75 cents per share this year, though the consensus estimate on Wall Street is 76 cents. 

Separately Wednesday, a wireless-technology company called InPhonic Inc. launched a service that can alert eBay buyers on their cell phones when they’ve been outbid on an item and let them increase their bid by typing in a message on the keypad. 

There have been other wireless trading services for eBay users, but none has proven popular. 

Shares of eBay fell 14 cents to $55.01 in trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

SAN FRANCISCO – Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, say the state could see warmer temperatures and a smaller snowpack over the next half-century because of global warming, a change that could diminish water supplies in a state already familiar with drought. 

The researchers found that in 50 years, the San Francisco Bay area could see an average temperature increase of 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit over current norms, and the Los Angeles area could see an increase of 5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit. In the Sierra Nevada, that increase could be significantly higher — as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit in May. 

The study also shows the snowpack could decrease by half in the next 50 years, affecting California’s water supply. The snowpack acts as a reservoir, storing water during the winter and releasing it as it melts. 

The report is to be published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. It looks at the effects of doubling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from preindustrial times. 

State agencies have established a task force to assess how global warming will affect life in California. That includes how changes in precipitation could affect the state’s forests. Andrea Tuttle, director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, said one concern is the increased fire danger of drier forests. 

The UC Santa Cruz research team, led by Lisa Sloan, associate professor of earth sciences, used computer modeling to look only at California, instead of using more common global modeling systems. 

“The hope is studies at this level of detail can produce information for people who want to do something about global warming,” Sloan said. 

California’s ecosystems and people depend on the balance of snow and rainfall. 

“The snow is a very opportune storage medium in that it releases its water in the spring and summer after the real storminess has died down,” said Dan Cayan, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher and director of the Climate Research Division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 

With global warming, “there is going to be earlier and more runoff so we’re going to be in a situation that reservoir capacity isn’t going to be able to store everything,” Cayan said. 

Scripps has also done computer modeling to show that much of California’s precipitation would fall as rain instead of snow.

HANFORD– A priest accused of raping a 16-year-old girl who worked as a clerk in his parish will stand trial, a judge has ruled. 

Miguel Flores, 34, is charged with three counts of forcible rape and dissuading a witness. If convicted of all charges, the priest could face up to 26 years in prison. 

Prosecutors said Flores raped the girl in January at the St. Paul Church in Tranquillity and twice more in February at Hanford’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. 

Hanford police investigator Bruce Blodgett told the court Tuesday about an incident on Feb. 16 when Flores allegedly grabbed the girl after she was finished with bookkeeping and pushed her into the bedroom quarter in the church residence. 

Flores reportedly told the teen-age girl he had fallen in love with her and then raped her, Blodgett testified. He also said Flores threatened her, saying she would regret it if she told anybody what had happened. 

Defense attorney Richard Conway questioned the girl’s credibility. Conway said she failed to tell police in the first interview about two other alleged rapes at the Tranquillity and Hanford churches. 

Conway also wondered why the girl, if she had been raped, would follow Flores to the Hanford church after his transfer. Prosecutors said she was blackmailed into staying with Flores. 

Flores is scheduled to be arraigned June 20 in Kings County Superior Court. 

On Wednesday, police also searched the Truckee-area vacation property of Pinole resident Stephen Kiesle, a defrocked priest arrested in May on three counts of child molestation, for a possible connection to the widely publicized disappearance of Amber Swartz in 1988. 

Kiesle lived on the same street as Amber, 7, in Pinole when she disappeared, said Pinole police Commander John Miner.

LOS ANGELES – A dazzling solar eclipse will be on display across a broad swath of the western United States, Mexico, Canada and Asia on Monday, with as much as 99 percent of the sun obscured by the moon. 

One of the best U.S. views will be in San Diego where as much as three-fourths of the sun will be hidden. 

Other sections of the country will get a less dramatic sight. In Chicago, only one-fifth of the sun’s surface will be blocked. The Eastern Seaboard will miss the eclipse entirely because it will occur after sunset there. 

The early evening event is called an annular, or ring-shaped, eclipse. Because the moon will be farther from the Earth than during total eclipses, it will only partially cover the distant sun. It will be the last eclipse visible from the United States until 2005. 

In places such as the tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, the moon will darken all but only the glowing rim of the sun for about a minute, said Fred Espenak, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration astrophysicist and eclipse expert. The eclipse will begin at 5:13 p.m. PDT, with best viewing time around 6:20. 

“If you’re in the path, you’d see, instead of a typical sunset, an extremely thin ring — a ring of fire — setting into the ocean,” said Espenak, who plans to be there to watch. 

The moon’s shadow will follow an 8,700-mile path, racing eastward from Asia across the Pacific Ocean at 1,000 mph. In Asia, across the international date line, the eclipse actually occurs Tuesday. 

Because it’s a partial eclipse, the sun’s light will be only dimmed. 

“It’s like a light cloud passing in front of the sun,” said John Mosley, an astronomer at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles. 

Even though it’s a partial eclipse, Mosley warned against looking directly at the sun. 

Instead, he recommended peering through commercially available solar filters, which block all but a fraction of the sun’s light. Viewers also can use binoculars, not to look through, but to safely project the sun’s image onto an index card. 

A Dec. 4 total eclipse will be visible from southern Africa and Australia.

More than 140 University of California professors, including 68 from UC Berkeley, signed a petition calling on the university to divest from Israel, joining professors at Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Tufts University who have taken similar action. 

But critics say divestment would not help Israeli and Palestinian citizens suffering from conflict in the Middle East. The chairman of the UC Board of Regents indicated the university will not divest anytime soon. 

The professors unveiled the petition drive at a press conference at UC Berkeley’s Faculty Club Tuesday afternoon.  

“It is time for us unequivocally to side with peace and Palestinian independence in every possible way,” said Susan Ervin-Tripp, professor emeritus of psychology at UC Berkeley. 

The university has over $7 billion invested in companies that either produce or sell weapons and weapons technology in Israel or have subsidiaries or branches in Israel, according to Students for Justice in Palestine, a campus group that has helped coordinate the petition drive. 

The student group cites companies ranging from Cisco Systems, to General Electric, to Coca-Cola and AOL Time Warner.  

“As Students for Justice in Palestine, we believe this is completely unacceptable,” said UC Berkeley graduate student and SJP leader Snehal Shingavi. “The economic relationship between our university and the military dominance in Israel must stop.” 

Members of the Board of Regents, who would ultimately make a decision on divestment, did not return calls by the Planet’s deadline. But John J. Moores, chairman of the Board, issued a statement welcoming dialogue and downplaying the possibility of divestment.  

“Living thousands of miles away, members of the UC community seek practical ways to further the pursuit of peace in the Middle East,” the statement read. “The Regents value and welcome ideas of faculty, staff and students in exploring such opportunities, including issues of economic divestment.  

“The Regents also have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the security of the University’s pension and endowment funds,” the Moores statement continued. “Those investments currently provide benefits to thousands of UC retirees and support University scholarships and research efforts.” 

But Ervin-Tripp argued that divestment from South Africa in the 1980s did not hurt the University of California’s bottom line. 

“There are always economic alternatives to building stable pensions,” added Shingavi.  

Pro-Israeli voices on campus took issue with the divestment push. 

“It’s not actually helping the people on the ground who are suffering,” said Jenni Mangel, assistant director of Berkeley Hillel, a Jewish cultural center serving students. 

Mangel said university students and professors should concentrate on providing humanitarian aid to Jewish and Palestinian civilians affected by the conflict. 

“I find it particularly disappointing that university faculty would be underscoring the anti-Semitic atmosphere on campus,” added Chris Silver, a member of the Israel Action Committee, a UC Berkeley student group. 

The professors’ petition drive joins a 1 1/2-year-old student drive initiated by SJP. Student leaders say nearly 7,000 have signed the SJP document.

To the Editor: 

A 20 mph limit? Outrageous! It should be 15 mph!  

Since many drivers exceed limits by 20 percent or more, a 15 mph limit means we might actually get 20 mph on our streets.  

Any police officer will tell a speeder that the limit is based on conditions: It is not a mandate to go even at the limit, if conditions merit slower driving. I believe the safety of our residential streets, the quality of our our air and quiet, and our walking and biking safety merit slower driving. 

Visionaries who understand that Berkeleyans value streets without the assault of cut-through speeders and commute traffic have supported diverters, speed limits, and other slowing devices over the years.  

Without these protections, the population of UC-B, which according to CalTrans is the largest generator of car traffic in the Bay Area, long ago would have destroyed the city it helped create. 

If the Legislature helped legalize barriers years ago to protect the liveability of our streets and the safety of our lives, I say bravo, and encore.  

If Berkeley needs to seek help from the Legislature for this speed limit change, then onward! Berkeley is only following the trend of cities around the world to deal sensibly and actively to keep our cities inhabitable, not just as speedways for drivers on their ways to elsewheres. 

Sedge Thomson  

Berkeley

Thursday, June 6

War Without End – Not in Our Name 

6 to 7 p.m. 

Martin Luther King Street at Center Street 

A national protest of the war on terrorism. An evening of art, unity, and protest to entertain, inspire and resist . Performers: Loco Bloco, Mystic Family Circus,  

others. 

Spoken Word Artist Paul Flores 

(510) 594-4076  

bayareapledge@yahoo.com 

Big Brother is Watching 

Speaker James Bamford, author of "Body of Secrets, anatomy of Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

The Independent Institute 

100 Swan Way, Oakland 

RSVP 632-1366 

Cost: $35 includes the book, $14 lecture only, $10 members. 

Wilderness Press 35th 

Anniversary Celebration 

5 to 8 p.m. 

1200 Fifth St. Berkeley 

A short presentation honoring Tom Winnett and unveiling 8th edition of Sierra North 

1-800-443-7227 or www.wildernesspress.com 

Friday, June 7

Judaism Workshop 

7 to 8:30 p.m.  

The Ecology Center,  

2530 SanPablo Ave  

Earth Traditions: Judaism Rooted in the Earth... Healing the World in Jewish Thought and Practice 

(510) 548-3402 

$10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. 

Fundraiser for Common Ground  

Featuring Julia Butterfly Hill, a renowned and inspirational environmental activist  

7 p.m. 

St. Joseph The Worker School 

On the corner of Addison, b/w California and McGee 

CGJuliaEvent@hotmail.com  

$7 students, $12 everyone else 

"What Does It Mean To Be Human?" 

Debate between Princeton Professor and author Peter Singer and Chairman for Center for Bioethics & Culture, Nigel M. de S. Cameron. Moderated by host of KQED Forum, Michael Krasny 

Calvin Simmons Theater / Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium 

10 Tenth Street, Oakland 

Register online at www.thecbc.org  

$25 in advance, $45 at the door 

Navigating the  

Investment Waters 

11:45 a.m. for lunch,  

Speaker starts 12:30 

Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durrant 

Geetha Kumar from Charles Schwab & Co. 

$11/$12.25, students free 

Saturday, June 8

African Peace and Justice Tour 

7 p.m. 

Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. 

A discussion of issues concerning Africa, with speakers including Dr. Molefe Samuel Tsele 

Call (415) 565-0201, ext. 15 

Free 

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Live Oak Park Shattuck & Berryman 

Crafts & art, food, live entertainment with M.C. Wavy Gravy. Benefit for Camp Winnarainbow. 

(510) 898-3282 

Free 

Sunday, June 9

Authors Susan Griffin and Margot Duxler converse 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club,1650 Mountain Blvd. Oakland  

Susan Griffin "The Book of the Courtesans: A  

Catalogue of Their Virtues" in conversation with Margot Duxler "Seduction:  

A Portrait of Anais Nin". Join in with your questions and thoughts. 

Free 

The Deep Politics of 9/11 

Noon 

The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. Oakland 

Edward Rippy leads a discussion of the role of engineered attacks in maintaining a permanent 

state of war.  

(510) 451-5818 or HumanistHall@yahoo.com 

Matthew Fox Lecture 

11 a.m. 

New Spirit Community Church Pacific School of Religion chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave.  

Spiritual innovator, theologian, author and founder of 

University Creation Spirituality 

(510) 849-8280 

admin@newspiritchurch.orgFree 

"Creativity and  

Emotion" 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place 

Psychology, Buddhism, Creativity, with speakers Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum 

510-843-6812. 

Free 

"Listening to Her Voice" 

1 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street  

Join Miki Raver in Sacred Circle to study Scripture, pray, dance, meditate and write for the soul's delight, and to connect with your foremothers and the feminine divine within. 

848-0237 x127 

$30/public, $25 BRJCC and members of co-sponsoring organizations 

Tibetan Nyingma 

Institute Open House 

Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Culture 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute,1815 Highland Place 

Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum on "Creativity and Emotion" 

6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

(510) 843-6812 

Free 

Traditional Persian Music Concert  

Hossein Alizadeh and Madjid Khaladj 

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley 

7:30 PM 

925-798-1300, www.theatrebayarea.org. 

$22 

Monday, June 10

Poetry Express - All Open Mike Night 

7 to 9 p.m. 

A community open mike welcoming all artists 

Berkeley Bakery & Cafe 

1561 Solano Avenue 

Free 

All Grown Up: Living Happily Ever With Your Adult Children 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street 

Author Roberta Maisel leads the mid-life parent through a series of thoughtful steps inherent in the process of learning how to let go. 

(510) 848-0237 x127 

Free 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Ohio State standout Nick Swisher joined his father, former major leaguer Steve Swisher, as a first-round baseball draft choice Tuesday. 

“Me and the old man have something to share now,” the younger Swisher said. “I’m so excited, it’s ridiculous.” 

So was dad. He cleared out a sporting goods store’s entire supply of Oakland Athletics caps after Nick was taken by the A’s as the 16th overall selection. 

“They’re kind of different. They’re not the traditional A’s caps,” Nick Swisher said with a laugh during a family cookout Tuesday evening at his Parkersburg home. “I’m going to try to get my agent to get some.” 

Nick Swisher is accustomed to being different. His cowboy boots and West Virginia upbringing earned the ribbing of his Ohio State teammates. 

When he was introduced for each at-bat at home games, the public address system played “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” from the 1996 Clint Eastwood movie. 

Swisher is the highest pick under 15th-year Buckeye coach Bob Todd. The switch-hitter batted .348 this season with a team-high 52 RBIs and 10 home runs. The junior played 39 games in center field and 15 at first base. 

He started in all but three games in his three seasons and finished with a .323 career average. 

Steve Swisher hasn’t hesitated to chime in with advice from time to time, especially about the pros. 

“He has to keep everything on an even keel,” the elder Swisher said. “The highs can’t be too high and the lows can’t be too low. All the media attention in the world doesn’t make a difference on the field. You can hit the ball and have nothing to show for it. 

“As long as he keeps everything in perspective and works hard, he’ll do fine.” 

Steve Swisher was taken in the first round by the Chicago White Sox in 1973. He played nine seasons with the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres. He was an All-Star in 1976. 

Nick Swisher has come a long way since high school, when he garnered little statewide attention despite being selected all-state three times in baseball and twice in football at Parkersburg High. 

“Back in high school, nobody gave me the time of day,” he said. “It’s different now.” 

Swisher said he hasn’t discussed his immediate future yet with his agent, Joe Bick of Cincinnati.

Poor service prompted the change after 40 or so years 

Berkeley Unified School District clerical and paraprofessional employees have voted to change their union representation, dropping Martinez-based Local 1 in favor of the Council of Classified Employees, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers. 

Last month operations employees voted 70-42 to dump Local 1 in favor of AFL-CIO affiliated Local 39 in San Francisco. This week’s vote erases any Local 1 presence in Berkeley Unified, bringing an end to some 40 years of representation.  

“We’re disappointed in the outcome, and we wish the employees well,” said Charles Egbert, general manager for Local 1. 

CCE leaders said they won because members were sick of poor service and unreturned phone calls. Local 1 leaders said service has been strong and pointed to low voter turnout, suggesting that the tally did not truly represent the membership’s views.  

About half of the members of the paraprofessional “unit” of Local 1, which includes instructional assistants and librarians, cast ballots — voting 77-46 to bring in CCE. Fifty-one of 84 eligible voters in the clerical unit, which includes secretaries and office staff, cast ballots. Twenty-seven selected CCE, 22 voted for Local 1 and two ballots were void. 

“We’re really, really excited,” said Frank Oppedisano, CCE organizer. “The people have spoken. They wanted a change, and fortunately we were there to give it to them.” 

But Local 1 officials say they have concerns about a new leadership slate. The current contract is scheduled to expire at the end of June and they say new negotiators will not have the proper experience to deal with the district. 

“They will be starting from scratch,” said Barbara Singleton, a special education instructional assistant and president of the Local 1 paraprofessional unit. “They will have no knowledge of the district and I’m afraid the district will take advantage.” 

But Oppedisano said the new leadership drawn from the employees’ ranks will have years of experience in the district. Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, has also offered to help. And the CCE staffers who will take part have been negotiating contracts for years, Oppedisano added. 

“It’s not their first rodeo,” he said. 

Singleton said she was surprised by the vote. 

“I hadn’t prepared myself for a loss,” she said. Singleton noted that teachers often file complaints against instructional assistants and said she was startled that assistants would vote for a union with ties to the American Federation of Teachers. 

“This local is not going to be underneath the teachers,” replied Oppedisano. 

Oppedisano said service was the biggest issue in the campaign. 

“That’s originally why we came in here,” he said. “They weren’t getting the basic services they needed.” 

“I don’t think that’s been true the last couple of years, but that’s the perception,” replied Egbert. 

Local 1 leadership in Berkeley Unified is divided between district employees who serve as unit presidents and business agents in the Martinez office. 

Rick Spaid, president of the clerical unit, said the employee leadership has been strong, but argued that the Martinez office has not provided adequate service. 

“Those of us in the leadership have had our own frustrations with the leadership in Martinez,” said Spaid. “I said, ‘If we lose, it’s all on you.’” 

But Spaid was critical of CCE for “raiding” an independent union like Local 1 rather than organizing the unorganized. 

“Union membership is dwindling nationwide,” he said. “There’s a whole lot of people who need desperately to be represented.” 

“Our main interest is in providing service to classified employees,” responded Oppedisano. “When you have an independent union like Local 1...and they’re doing a subpar job of representing their classifieds, while at the same time making sure their dues are collected, it’s the employees’ right and job to get better representation.” 

“I was pleased with the outcome,” said Berkeley High School instructional assistant Walter Mitchell, who voted for CCE. “Now we can focus on the business at hand.” 

Perspective 

To the Editor: 

Affordable Housing Week is a chance to highlight the significant shortage of affordable housing in the Bay Area as well as celebrate the significant contributions of affordable housing to the lives of those who depend on it.  

Throughout my years as an Assemblywoman, I have seen this area's affordable housing crisis worsen. The number of housing units available to families with low to moderate incomes is negligible compared to the rising number of those in need.  

We must make significant progress to reduce the disparity between those who can and cannot afford housing. Our state is second to last in the nation in homeownership rates. A minimum-wage earner must work over 100 hours a week to be able to afford a one -bedroom apartment in the Bay Area. California has lost over 20,000 affordable housing units over the past five years, and there are over 360,000 homeless in California with the most rapidly growing segments of this population being seniors and families with children. 

However, California has made significant strides in providing more affordable housing. We are exploring new and creative incentives to encourage developers to construct affordable housing, government is putting more funds towards constructing affordable housing, and we are seeing better public policy around creating more affordable housing for California's families. I have supported the efforts of my colleagues in the State Legislature to ease the growing disparity between those who have housing and those who do not.  

Most notably, Senator John Burton's (D-San Francisco) $2.1 billion housing bond, if passed this November, will go far in addressing the affordable housing needs of this state. I fought to include close to $190 million for supportive housing, housing with built-in medical and social services assistance, and $15 million to fund housing for low-income UC and CSU students and staff. Affordable housing trusts, which already exist in a number of cities and counties throughout the state, are another example of what we can do to spur the construction of affordable housing units.  

These trusts are pools of money from various sources set aside for affordable housing.  

Affordable housing trusts must continue to be developed and supported.  

On May 29th, the State Assembly adopted my ACR 209, a resolution calling upon Californians to participate in Affordable Housing Week activities and work towards diminishing our state's housing gap. Affordable Housing Week is being celebrated between June 1st and June 9th and will be marked by grand openings of affordable housing developments, forums on increasing affordable housing, and rallies throughout the state. This is a chance for people to come together in observance of the progress made around affordable housing as well connect more families with affordable housing, particularly the most vulnerable members of our community — low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities.  

As California is faced with one of the most ominous budgets in recent history, it is incumbent upon all of us to come up with solutions with fewer resources, yet with greater resolve than ever before.  

Your participation in Affordable Housing Week is critical. It is an opportunity for all of us to be advocates, it is a call to leadership, a challenge that must be met on behalf of those who struggle daily to meet a need which most of us take for granted. 

Your efforts will be felt by thousands of families in your community. Your work can create rooftops! 

Affordable Housing Week events will take place between Saturday, June 1st and Sunday, June 9th. For more information, please contact the Office of Assemblywoman Dion Aroner at (510) 540-3660. 

Assemblywoman Dion Aroner  

Berkeley

The Cal baseball program had two players, senior right-hander Trevor Hutchinson and junior catcher John Baker, selected in the first four rounds of 2002 Major League Amateur Draft on Tuesday. 

Hutchinson, a third team Preseason All-American in Baseball America, was drafted in the third round by the Florida Marlins and was the 83rd pick overall. In 2002, he was 7-5 with a 3.38 ERA, two complete games and had a team-high 94 strikeouts and 117 innings. Hutchinson became Cal’s all-time strikeout leader with 284 strikeouts from 1999-02 and is second on the Bears’ career innings pitched list (370.7). He was the April 8 Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week after an April 5 victory over UCLA and was an honorable mention All-Pac-10 selection. 

Hutchinson was a 20th-round pick by the New York Mets in last year’s Amateur Draft but did not sign with the team. His agent is the notorious Scott Boras, who is known for driving hard bargains and encouraging players to hold out. Hutchinson played for the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod League, going 3-3 with a 1.47 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 43 innings. He is the brother of former Stanford pitcher and quarterback Chad Hutchinson, who is currently playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. 

Baker, who earned first team All-Pac-10 honors this season, was drafted in the fourth round by the Oakland A’s and was the 128th pick overall. He finished the 2002 campaign batting a team-leading .383 with 12 doubles, a triple, five home runs and 29 RBI, despite missing three weeks with a broken right hand. He also had a Pac-10 leading .516 on-base percentage, and a .456 batting average against Pac-10 competition

November elections may be months away, but Berkeley leaders are preparing to meet a June deadline for submitting a list of bond proposals for the voter ballot. Most plans involve basic repairs to municipal buildings and streets. 

Officials say the challenge will be asking voters for money during tight economic times. 

“People don’t want a lot of new taxes right now. They’re concerned about their job. They’re concerned about the economy,” said Mayor Shirley Dean. 

Subsequently, city leaders are burdened with the question of what to do about long overlooked maintenance issues such as cramped quarters at the city’s animal shelter, unfinished retrofits at old City Hall and insufficient lighting on many city streets. 

“We have to really focus on the bread and butter issues right now,” said Dean amid the millions of dollars in bonds up for consideration. 

The bond issues may not be sexy and easily sold to voters, but are desperately needed, city councilmembers have said at one time or another. 

Council has already ruled out the notion of floating a bond to fund seismic retrofits to the city’s Veterans Building; however, nearly a half dozen other projects that could benefit from a public cash influx remain on the table. 

“We can’t say yes to all of these. That would end up hurting them all,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington, noting that chances for failure increase with every additional bond that the city seeks. 

At the direction of City Council, the city manager’s office is studying possible 30-year bond financing for stormwater drains, a swimming pool for the school district, seismic retrofits for old City Hall, a new animal shelter and additional street lighting. 

The cost to a taxpayer with a home valued at Berkeley’s average assessment ranges from $12 a year for construction of a new animal shelter to $50 a year for stormwater improvements, city officials said. 

Taken together, all five capital projects under consideration would cost the average property owner up to $122 a year, adding to the $3100 that the average property owner now pays in property taxes. 

City hall retrofits would account for $35 a year, additional street lighting would account for $23 a year and a new school pool – which is already mostly funded – could cost $2 a year, according to city officials.  

City leaders are also considering a ballot measure that would make people who sell their property pay an additional 25 percent transfer tax. The tax would fund incentives for seismic improvements to private residential complexes and is being touted as a wide-reaching safety measure. 

Dean called the initiative, which she expects to bring $1 million annually to city coffers, part of a plan to prevent “the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in a major earthquake which we know is going to happen.” 

The decision about which city bonds will ultimately end up on the November ballot will be influenced by any additional bonds submitted from other tax-levying authorities, councilmembers have said.  

“The voters are not ATM machines,” noted Worthington. 

The council is expected to determine the ballot’s contents June 25. 

The school district and college districts are not seeking bond measures, and the park district, BART, and county government have not announced a definite decision, according to Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

City Council is scheduled to continue discussing potential bonds at its meetings this month. 

YOKOHAMA, Japan – South Korea was the biggest star on Asia’s biggest day at the World Cup. 

Playing in its sixth Cup finals, the co-host won for the first time Tuesday when it beat Poland 2-0 in Busan, South Korea. 

In a stadium awash in red and ringing with the chants and cheers of their fans, the Korean players put on a soccer display worthy of the world’s powerhouses. 

Striker Hwang Sun-hong, playing in his fourth World Cup, opened the scoring and Yoo Sang-chul provided the clincher for the team that now poses a major threat to keep the United States from advancing to the second round. 

Tuesday wasn’t quite as successful for the other co-host, although the Japanese were satisfied with their first World Cup point. They went 0-3 in 1998, but got a thrilling 2-2 tie with Belgium at Saitama. 

Japanese fans banged drums, clapped and chanted “Nippon, Nippon.” The national flag, the Hinomaru, was visible in every corner of the ground and huge banners, including one reading “Welcome to Blue Heaven,” fluttered over one stand. 

China, making its World Cup debut under ex-U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic, lost 2-0 to another of his former teams, Costa Rica. Ronald Gomez and Mauricio Wright scored second-half goals in Gwangju, South Korea.

University Avenue owner waits for preservation committee to decide 

Victor Touriel left Monday’s Landmarks Preservation Committee meeting disappointed and unsure of his financial future. 

Touriel has owned the Darling Flower Shop at 2008 University Ave. for about 40 years. The flower shop is attached to the late 19th century Victorian house in which he was raised. 

His plan to partner with a developer to demolish the existing structures and build a new multi-use structure has placed the small businessman in the thick of a battle between preservationists and developers who are arguing about Berkeley’s future cityscape. 

“I don’t understand it at all,” Touriel said after the commission passed a motion to refer the matter to its July 1 meeting. 

Touriel decided to develop his land primarily so that he could pass his business to his son and meanwhile provide for his own retirement. 

To achieve this, he needed some type of steady income. Thus he formed a partnership with Panoramic Ventures, a Berkeley real estate company headed by developer Patrick Kennedy. 

Under the plan the Touriels and the developer would own a stake in a new multi-use building that would include a flower shop and 35 units of housing. 

Tenants there would pay for Touriel’s retirement. His son could run the flower business. 

But the project was put in jeopardy when the Landmark Preservation Commission voted 5-2-2 in February to declare the Victorian a “Structure of Merit.”  

This classification, which can be overturned by the city council, means that the commission must grant approval to demolish or alter the outside of the building. 

The developers appealed the ruling to the council, which in a rare decision decided to remand the case back to the commission for further deliberations. 

The council’s decision was based on the developers’ claim that the vote was invalid, based on the fact that one commissioner who voted to designate the Victorian had neither attended the public hearings nor had access to related materials, and was thereby not prepared to make an informed decision. Because a five-vote majority is needed to designate buildings, the motion would have failed if the commissioner had not voted. 

This unusual set of circumstances clouded the debate at Monday’s meeting. The commissioners were confused about the legal implications of the council’s remand, and its obligations to the case.  

Several disagreed with the developers’ claims that the remand in effect nullified the February vote, and that the commission’s authority to designate the property ended July 3. The legal ambiguities convinced a 6-3 majority to request clarification from the city attorney then return to the issue next month.  

Legal issues were just one area of dispute between developers and several commission members who also clashed over the architectural and historic merit of the building. 

Tim Kelly, an architectural consultant hired by the developers, agreed with a previous historical resources report that said the Victorian failed to qualify as a “structure of merit” because it had undergone so many changes.  

“It’s history, but not significant history,” said Kelly, who pointed out that stucco had been laid on the building and that much of it had been rebuilt after a fire in the 1940s. 

Commissioner Becky O’Malley, on the other hand, said the renovations added to Victorian’s significance.  

“If you have a building that has changed over time, it in itself is part of the historical record,” she said. 

The historical significance of the Victorian’s builder and first resident John Doyle was introduced as another possible reason to protect it. 

Leslie Emmington, the commissioner who drafted the original application for designation, researched Doyle and found him mentioned often in the Berkeley Herald around the turn of the 20th century. From this she concluded that the key issue was not the building’s Victorian integrity, but whether it makes a valuable contribution to Berkeley’s architectural history. 

Patrick Kennedy insisted that the commissioner’s arguments were just a ruse. “Certain members of the LPC are anti-development masking as preservationists,” said Kennedy, who claimed that the LPC often uses delay tactics to hinder a developer’s ability to move ahead with projects. 

“Berkeley is the only city in Northern California that lost housing in the last 20 years,” said Kennedy. “ The evidence suggests that the LPC and others do well in preventing development.”  

O’Malley defended the commission’s rulings. “He [Kennedy] seems to have targeted historic sights,” said O’Malley who also argued that developers such as Kennedy are usually ultimately successful in getting their projects approved, even over the objections of the commission. 

“He gets what he wants partly from political connections,” O’Malley said. She added that Kennedy and his associates have a lot of influence in city council, because they make generous political donations. 

According to Chris Hudson, the project will continue to move forward while the designation remains unresolved. The project has been approved by Design Review and will go before the Zoning Adjustment Board this month. He is confident that if the commission again designates the Victorian, it will be overturned. 

For Victor Touriel the stakes are potentially high. The flower shop occupies the downstairs of the Victorian, while the upstairs is used for storage. If he is not permitted to develop the property, which also includes a small parking lot, its resale value may be affected. “I spent all my money on my family, now this was my retirement,” Touriel said. 

RANCHO SANTA FE –The schools are outstanding, there’s almost no crime and the sun shines 320 days a year. Only residents can join the community’s world-class golf club. 

“It’s a wonderful place,” said Annie Perez, who owns Bolero Mexican cafe in the tiny downtown area and lives nearby. “This is the best life.” 

But only the rich need apply. Rancho Santa Fe ranks as the nation’s wealthiest community with 1,000 households or more, according to Census figures released Tuesday. 

The per capita income of more than $113,000 puts Rancho Santa Fe ahead of the Bay Area enclaves of Atherton and Woodside as well as Palm Beach, Fla. and Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Census figures show. Indian River Shores, Fla., ranked No. 1 in 1990, was seventh in the latest survey. 

The average per capita income in the United States was less than $22,000 a year, according to the 2000 Census. 

Rancho Santa Fe was also the most expensive place to buy a house in the United States over the past year. The median single family home price is $1.7 million, according to DataQuick Information Systems of San Diego. 

But few residents are complaining about high home prices. 

“I consider myself lucky,” said Albert Plattner, who lives a short walk from his real estate office in Rancho Santa Fe’s two block downtown. “I think it’s the greatest place to live in the world.” 

What’s luring the wealthiest Americans? In a word, privacy. 

Rancho Santa Fe’s rural feel has been zealously guarded for 74 years by a strict set of rules, called the Protective Convenant. Most properties are a minimum two acres. All homes must meet the standards set by a design board that calls itself the Art Jury, which strives to ensure that even 18,000 square-foot homes blend into the landscape. 

“To buy a property up here you have to invest a lot of money,” said Keith Behner, Rancho Santa Fe’s planning director.  

“But once you invest a lot of money you don’t have to worry about a McMansion going up next door that’s flamingo red.” 

Only residents can join the community’s golf and tennis clubs or use the 26 miles of hiking and equestrian trails.

Return to sender 

CLEVELAND – The Republican Party mistakenly invited an Ohio prison inmate to a $2,500-a-plate fund-raising dinner with President Bush. 

The invitation, complete with a letter from Vice President Dick Cheney, was sent to Robert Kirkpatrick at the Belmont Correctional Institution in eastern Ohio. 

The letter asked Kirkpatrick to “join the president and Mrs. Bush for a private dinner here in Washington, D.C.” on June 19. 

Kirkpatrick, 35, was sentenced last year in Canton to nearly three years for drug possession and escape. 

“I’m going to tell him that I’d be happy to attend, but he’s going to have to pull some strings to get me there,” Kirkpatrick said. 

Spokesman Carl Forti of the National Republican Congressional Committee acknowledged Monday that the mailing was a mistake. 

Let the good times flash  

HAMLIN, W.Va. – For years, Lincoln County has had only one stoplight. Now it’s down to a single flashing signal. 

The traffic light at an intersection featuring the county courthouse, a flower shop and a tanning salon was replaced by the flashing signal, and the change will be permanent if the state Division of Highways receives no strong objections within two months, the division’s Bruce Kenney said. 

Sharrell Lovejoy, 80, remembers when the stoplight was built in the 1940s, just down the street from his Bobcat Diner. 

“I think we still need it,” Lovejoy said. 

Tractor-trailers and loaded log trucks were among the vehicles that hesitated at the new flashing signal Monday, uncertain which had the right of way. 

“They’re just going to have a wreck there,” Joseph Melkus, 17, said during a walk downtown for a corn dog. 

The new flashing light has prompted jokes among some residents. 

“What are we going to do for entertainment?” said Loren Smith, an Alum Creek physician. “When people say, ’What do you do for fun?’, we tell ’em that sometimes after dinner on Sunday, we’ll take a carload of people down to the intersection and watch that thing go up and down.” 

Rock on in Sin City  

LAS VEGAS – High-rollers in Las Vegas can now enjoy a condo fit for the Rat Pack. 

The Park Towers condominium, located right on the Strip, offers everything from an elegant piano bar to a spa. 

“If you want a bottle of Opus (wine) at 2 a.m., you’re going to get it,” said Cindy DellaValle, Park Towers sales director. “It’s a Four Seasons lifestyle that’s very private.” 

The condominium is one of a handful of new high-end places to live that have started to show up in Sin City. 

“We are selling a lifestyle,” said Jeffrey Soffer, developer of the $600 million Turnberry Place. 

What many perceived as a gamble — the first upscale high-rise community to be built in Las Vegas in nearly 30 years — is paying off. More than half the 740 units in the four-tower project have been sold, Soffer said. 

In a city known for 99-cent shrimp cocktails and free drinks for gamblers, luxury doesn’t come cheap. The condos start at a half million dollars.

Jurors in the federal Earth First! versus FBI and Oakland Police Department case did not report a verdict Tuesday as many had expected.  

Instead jurors in the controversial trial in which the prosecution says the FBI and OPD mishandled a 1990 car bombing investigation asked Judge Claudia Wilken questions, and for more time for deliberation. The jury started deliberations two weeks ago. 

One hypothetical question jurors asked: What would happen if the jury was undecided about the defendant accused of framing and abusing the civil rights of environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.  

Wilken told jurors that if a decision could not be made for a defendant, a new trial would determine that defendant’s fate. However, Wilken said, a decision of not guilty for one defendant would not result in a new trial. 

To aid the jurors, Wilken allowed them to use a new verdict form that includes a check box for an undecided status next to the names of each defendant. After the jurors left Wilken emphasized that she wanted a verdict, not a hung jury. 

Jurors on Tuesday presented their schedules to the judge. Deliberation time will run until Friday.  

The jurors must decide whether or not the defendants violated the First Amendment rights of plaintiff Bari and Cherney through false arrest and unlawful search, and whether there was a conspiracy on the part of law enforcement to violate these rights. 

The jury in the case faces a complex task requiring up to 167 separate unanimous decisions to decide all claims in favor of Bari and Cherney and award them damages.  

Cherney and Bari were injured when a bomb exploded in their car while they were driving in Oakland in May 1990. Bari, who was at the wheel, suffered a crushed pelvis and Cherney received cuts from the blast. 

The two were arrested within hours, but no one was ever charged. 

Cherney and Bari sued investigators, alleging false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. 

The FBI and Oakland police maintain they conducted a thorough and reasonable investigation. 

But two of the three Oakland police officers named in the suit filed by Cherney and Bari say they were heavily influenced by FBI agents who came to the scene of the 1990 bombing and told them the two victims were tied to domestic terrorism. FBI agents, meanwhile, maintain it was Oakland police who pushed for the swift arrests. 

Lawyers for Earth First!, including lead counsel Dennis Cunningham, have said that the long deliberation period is a good sign. The jury could have decided very quickly to find the defendants not guilty but a guilty decision requires more time and effort, lawyers said. 

According to J. Tony Serra, a member of the plaintiff’s legal team, 12 days is the longest jury deliberation he recalls among the estimated 800 jury trials in which he has taken part. 

During the deliberation period jurors requested copies of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution to clarify accusations of false arrest, unlawful search, and conspiracy to interfere with free speech made against the defendants. 

Lawyers for the FBI and OPD objected to the jury’s request but Wilken overruled them. 

Jurors also asked questions about probable cause for arrest, and whether the arrested parties should have been released. After hearing arguments from both sides, Wilken decided to tell the jurors to rely on written instructions already given. 

At one point during the deliberation period the defendants’ lawyers tried to have the case thrown out, claiming that lawyers for Bari and Cherney illegally influenced the jury with remarks made while jurors were present outside the courthouse. 

- The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Samuel Black is nervous now, but he won’t be once he gets on stage. 

At least, that’s what he keeps telling himself.  

That cool confidence has taken the Berkeley High senior and accomplished performer and choreographer to the finals of the first annual Beach Blanket Babylon $10,000 Scholarship for the Arts.  

Black was selected as one of three finalists in the dance portion of the Babylon competition after submitting a three-minute taped dance performaned to ‘You Are My Lucky Star.’  

Eight other Bay Area high school seniors also made the cut and will compete live at Club Fugazi on June 10th for the scholarship.  

One winner in each category — including dance, acting, and voice — will be presented a check for $10,000 for their college education. The competition is part of Beach Blanket Babylon’s first annual scholarship program dedicated to giving artistically gifted Bay Area high school seniors the opportunity to pursue a higher education. 

According to Jo Schuman Silver, producer of Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, the scholarship program hopes to give something back to the community. “Steve Silver always tried to help kids and give back to the community. This has been a dream of his,” said Schuman Silver. 

For Black the competition will not be his first.  

“I’ve always been into performing and dancing. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve wanted to make people laugh,” said Black. 

Whether tap dancing on ‘Good Morning America,’ and ‘BayTV’ or choreographing dance shows at Berkeley High, Black says the stage is the place he wants to be.  

“One of the things I love about performing is that once I’m on stage I feel like I’m on cruise control — I forget about being nervous, and I just enjoy it,” he added. 

Though the talented senior has always been attracted to performing, finding a focus in dance has been the key to his success. Black credits the help of dance instructor Katie Maltsberger for her mentorship through the years.  

“I definitely wouldn’t be in this competition if it wasn’t for her,” said Black. 

Maltsberger, according to Black, has done much more than just share dance techniques at her El Cerrito studio. “We’ve built a relationship through the years and she’s let me know how to be in the business,” says Black. 

Black also credits his parents for much of his success. “They’ve been nothing but supportive. I don’t think anyone knew what we were getting ourselves into with this competition, but they’ve always been there to drive me to auditions and to support me when I didn’t get an audition,” said Black. 

Black says that growing up in the artistically diverse Bay Area also been an important part of his development as a performer.  

The senior, who will attend the Conservatory of Dance at State University of New York at Purchase in the fall, lists Mikhail Baryshnikov as the one person he would most like to meet and also credits local performers Joanna Berman and Sascha Radetsky as significant influences. 

Next Monday’s competition will include a performance by the cast of Beach Blanket Babylon, the internationally acclaimed musical revue, and also an appearance by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Brown will introduce a film clip detailing the history of the musical before the nine finalists compete for the scholarship.  

According to Schuman Silver, hundreds of entries were submitted for the competition. “It wasn’t an easy task to narrow down the field. We looked at every tape over and over and didn’t look at the high schools before we selected the finalists,” said Schuman Silver. 

Schuman Silver says the show, in its 28th year, has become a San Francisco institution due to the talent and flare of the performers. “Steve created the most perfect show. It’s visually great, the performers are amazingly talented and the show is so topical,” said Schuman Silver. She says that most audience members return two or three times annually to watch the show. 

Black, a fan of Beach Blanket Babylon, says that now that he’s finished with finals he’s ready to perform. “I got my projects out of the way already and I’m really just coasting right now,” said Black. 

Though he’s been rehearsing a tap dance number called ‘The Hoofer’ for Monday’s competition 3 to 4 times per week lately, Black added that having fun is the most important part. “If I’m up their having fun, that’ll show during the competition,” says Black.

SAN FRANCISCO – An Afghan woman who suffered as a result of that country’s communist regime has received a scholarship to study law at a local university. 

Nasrina Bargzie, 21, was chosen from a list of international applicants to receive the scholarship presented by the San Francisco Bar Association and Golden Gate University. 

The Advancement of Afghan Women Scholarship was created last December to allow Afghan women who have been victimized by their native country’s government to study law at Golden Gate University. 

Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Bargzie, along with her mother and three sisters, fled the country in 1979 after the Afghan government executed her father. She arrived in New Hampshire at the age of 5 and has lived in Concord since 1986. 

Bargzie will study international law with an emphasis in human rights starting this fall. 

“I would like to do something that would affect Afghanistan,” she said.

SAN JOSE – Apple Computer Inc. has resurrected the cathode-ray tube for the retail desktop market with a new computer that was originally intended only for schools. 

Citing customer demand, on Tuesday Apple introduced an “eMac” model for consumers. It is similar to its education counterpart that was launched in April, featuring a 17-inch cathode ray tube monitor and 700 gigahertz G4 processor. 

A half year ago, the Cupertino-based computer company declared that bulky CRT monitors were history when it introduced a new iMac with a flat-screen liquid-crystal display. 

“We still think the flat panel is the future of our desktop line, but the costs of flat panels are still not as low as we’d like,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. 

In March, citing rising component costs, the company raised iMac prices by $100 — to a range of $1,399 to $1,899. 

The eMac — priced at $999 and $1,199 — was a lower cost alternative for the education market, and consumers have since “pounded on the table demanding to buy the eMac,” Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in a statement. 

Also Tuesday, Apple released a public preview of the latest version of its streaming media software, QuickTime 6. The software features MPEG-4, one of the newest video-compression technologies.

PALO ALTO – The financial reporting system needs change, and auditors should not bear the entire burden of disasters such as the Enron debacle, according to the former chief executive of the embattled accounting firm Arthur Andersen. 

In his first public appearance since his resignation from the accounting firm in March, Joseph Berardino was scheduled to speak late Tuesday before the Commonwealth Club in Palo Alto on how the Enron scandal forever will change accounting. 

“The process of giving investors financial information to make decisions is broken,” he was expected to say, according to an early copy of the speech provided to The Associated Press.  

“And all the change in the world won’t fix it if we continue to place the entire burden on the accounting profession.” 

Berardino’s speech comes as the trial of Andersen nears an end in Houston. Federal prosecutors indicted the once-venerable accounting giant — whose business crumbled due to fallout from the collapse of former client Enron — on charges of obstructing justice by destroying documents. Andersen has pleaded innocent. 

In his speech, Berardino, 52, does not speak specifically about Andersen, citing pending litigation. 

But Berardino discusses unabashedly what he considers fundamental flaws in financial reporting. Among them: “Like the tax code, we’ve made accounting a game of rules, loopholes and legalisms.”

The latest in company’s several recent acquisitions 

MOUNTAIN VIEW – Personal finance and small business software maker Intuit Inc. continued its expansion into new specialties Tuesday by announcing plans to acquire Management Reports Inc. for $92 million in cash. 

Cleveland-based Management Reports designs software for the landlords of commercial and residential property. The company employs about 300 workers in 13 offices. Intuit said it expects to retain “virtually all” of Management Reports’ employees, including its chief executive officer, Bob Lasser. 

The Management Reports deal, expected to be completed by July 31, is the latest of several recent acquisitions that Mountain View-based Intuit has made to diversify its business beyond its popular Quicken and TurboTax products. 

Intuit expects Management Reports to boost its revenues by $40 million to $50 million during its next fiscal year beginning Aug. 1. The deal also should slightly increase Intuit’s earnings next year, the company said. 

Intuit’s shares rose 40 cents Tuesday to close at $43.00 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

LOS ANGELES – The head of the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese will place full-page ads in three newspapers to reassure the public that he is doing all he can to prevent future abuse by priests. 

Cardinal Roger Mahony has written an open letter that will appear Thursday in editions of the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News of Los Angeles and La Opinion. 

“This is a trying time for all of us,” Mahony wrote. “An overwhelming sadness, along with a very real anger, accompanies the realization that people who serve the archdiocese have victimized all of us by betraying our trust.” 

The cardinal’s newly hired public relations firm, Sitrick and Co., is behind the ad campaign, believing that the cardinal “had a good story to tell” readers, said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. 

The archdiocese is trying to show that “we’re doing everything humanly possible to ensure that these situations do not occur again. Nothing from the past will be repeated again,” Tamberg said. 

In the open letter, Mahony stresses many of the themes he has engaged in media interviews. Among them is a zero-tolerance policy, which requires the dismissal of priests who abuse children. 

Mahony said he will urge bishops to adopt a national zero-tolerance policy next week at the U.S. Conference of Bishops in Dallas. 

In the ad, Mahony vowed that three steps will be taken immediately when allegations are made about existing clergy sexually abusing a minor. 

First, the proper authorities will be notified so an investigation can begin. Assistance will be offered to the person making the complaint and that person’s family, and the accused priest will immediately be removed from all active ministry. 

“If the allegation is found to be true, I will never return that priest to any active ministry or pastoral office,” Mahony wrote. 

He also notes in the ad that he is creating a clergy misconduct oversight board headed by a retired Superior Court judge. The cardinal is calling for fingerprinting and criminal background checks for all priesthood candidates in the archdiocese. 

In addition, before ordination, candidates for the priesthood will go through an evaluation period of nearly a year, when they will live in a rectory and work with priests, staff members and parishioners.

Accused Bush of allowing Sept. 11 attacks to  

boost political career 

SAN FRANCISCO – A U.S. Air Force colonel who called President Bush “a joke” and accused him of allowing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to happen because “his presidency was going nowhere,” has been suspended and could face a court-martial. 

The letter from Lt. Col. Steve Butler, who was vice chancellor for student affairs at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, was published May 26 in The (Monterey County) Herald. 

“He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism,” Butler wrote. “His daddy had Saddam and he needed Osama. His presidency was going nowhere. ... This guy is a joke.” 

Butler, who called Bush’s alleged silence “sleazy and contemptible,” was suspended from his position on May 29 pending the outcome of an investigation into his remarks, Air Force spokeswoman Valerie Burkes said Tuesday. He remains assigned to the Defense Language Institute. 

Butler, who entered active duty in April 1979, was a navigator during Desert Storm, Burkes said. His wife, Shelly, told The Herald that Butler plans to retire in a few weeks. 

Military law specifically prohibits “contemptuous words against the president” and other political leaders. 

The prohibition against anti-government speech goes back to 1776, when soldiers were forbidden from using “traitorous or disrespectful words.” The rules were updated several times and “traitorous or disrespectful” changed to “contemptuous.”

SACRAMENTO – A lawyer for a Sacramento landlady convicted of killing three of her tenants and burying them in the backyard claims there is no evidence the deaths were homicides and has asked a federal judge to release her from prison. 

Attorney Marc Zilversmit argued in papers that Dorothea Puente, 72, whose yard and garden yielded seven buried bodies in 1988, should have been prosecuted for fraud or theft, not murder. 

Puente was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no parole for killing three boarders at her Victorian house in 1987 and 1988. A jury could not resolve six other murder charges against her. 

Puente has said she collected Social Security benefits owed to seven men and women whose deaths she never reported — and tried to hide. 

In addition to the seven victims unearthed from the yard, Puente also was charged with killing a former roommate whose death was originally classified as “undetermined” and a former suitor who was found in a box on a riverbank. 

Zilversmit describes all the “suspected murder victims” as “very old and sick after lifetimes of alcohol and drug abuse,” in papers filed in U.S. District Court. 

Two of the men were in their early to mid-50s, one was 62 and three of the women were in their early 60s. Because of their advanced state of decomposition, coroners were not able to determine a precise cause of death. 

Puente had a criminal record of drugging people to steal from them, and drugs were found in many of the remains excavated from her property

LIVERMORE – Michael R. Anastasio will lead the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, regents for the University of California announced Tuesday. 

Anastasio, 53, currently is deputy director for strategic operations at Lawrence Livermore, and during his 22 years at the lab has been nationally recognized for his leadership in the design and safe stewardship of nuclear weapons. He will take office July 1, replacing C. Bruce Tarter. 

Anastasio graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor’s degree in physics and earned his master’s degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he also earned his doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics. 

He was the second person given the nod for the job by UC President Richard Atkinson. UC operates the laboratory, which has designed and developed such weaponry and technology as the U.S. Navy’s Polaris missile and speedy methods to identify salmonella. 

Ray Juzaitis, who leads nuclear weapons research at the national laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., recently dropped out of the running for director after being tabbed by Atkinson, saying his unwarranted link to the Wen Ho Lee debacle would have made it difficult to lead the lab. 

The Energy Department became concerned about Juzaitis’ perceived connection to Lee at the last minute, prompting UC to call off the announcement last month, according to university officials.

SACRAMENTO – Optimism was in short supply Tuesday as lawmakers delved into the grim task of carving $23.6 billion from the state budget. 

“There is no question in my mind that the outcome will be unhappy to virtually everybody,” said Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, who sits on a six-member panel working on a 2002-03 budget compromise. 

Tuesday marked the first day of intense marathon negotiations over Gov. Gray Davis’ election-year budget plan, which includes controversial proposals to raise car and cigarette taxes, cutting heavily from health care programs and borrowing from future revenues. 

Wednesday, the panel plans to take up deep cuts to health care programs proposed by Davis including an expansion to parents of the state’s health insurance program for poor children. 

The committee has less than two weeks to meet a seldom-observed constitutional deadline to reconcile the 400-page plan into a compromise that satisfies the state Senate, Assembly and Davis. Chairman Steve Peace, a Democratic Senator from El Cajon, said he intends to meet seven days a week if needed to meet the deadline. 

The task will involve painstakingly dissecting many state programs one-by-one to cut, borrow, shift or even add money. 

Eventually, the committee must tackle sticky issues including funding health care spending, paying for schools and ultimately how much, if at all, to raise taxes. But those issues are likely to come later in the process. 

On Tuesday morning, the two-house Budget Conference Committee waded through an array of items ranging from doling out $6.7 million to the Department of Justice for anti-terrorism efforts to debating the pitfalls of funding local mandates.

SAN DIEGO – The trial of the man accused of killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam opened Tuesday with prosecutors outlining new forensic evidence and the defense seeking to discredit the girl’s parents for giving false statements to police. 

Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek told jurors that investigators found Danielle’s hair in the house and motor home of David Westerfield, the neighbor accused of kidnapping and killing her in February. 

Dusek also disclosed that investigators collected fibers matching carpet in Danielle’s bedroom from inside Westerfield’s 35-foot motor home, where investigators also found the girl’s fingerprints and blood. 

Danielle was discovered missing on Feb. 2, when her parents went to awaken her. An intense search of the region surrounding their suburban home ended Feb. 27 with the discovery of her nude body along a rural road east of San Diego. 

“Somebody dumped her body like trash,” Dusek said. “The evidence will show you who that is.” 

Westerfield, 50, is charged with kidnapping and murdering the second-grade girl who lived two doors away. He also is charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography. He has pleaded innocent and could face the death penalty if convicted. 

Defense attorney Steven Feldman said the evidence would vindicate his client.

CHICAGO – One of the world’s leading medical journals has put itself and its competitors under the microscope with research showing that published studies are sometimes misleading and frequently fail to mention weaknesses. 

Some problems can be traced to biases and conflicts of interest among peer reviewers, who are outside scientists tapped by journal editors to help decide whether a research paper should be published, according to several articles in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Other problems originate in news releases some journals prepare to call attention to what they believe are newsworthy studies. The releases do not routinely mention study limitations or industry funding and may exaggerate the importance of findings, according to one JAMA study. 

Wednesday’s JAMA, devoted entirely to such issues, “is our attempt to police ourselves, to question ourselves and to look at better ways to make sure that we’re honest and straightforward and maintain the integrity of the journals,” said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, JAMA’s editor. 

The articles “underscore that the findings presented in the press and medical journals are not always facts or as certain as they seem,” said Rob Logan, director of the Science Journalism Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia. 

DeAngelis said problems are most likely to occur in research funded by drug companies, which have a vested interest in findings that make their products look good. 

Journal editors are concerned that manufacturers sometimes unduly influence how researchers report study results, and even suppress unfavorable findings. 

Many top journals require researchers to disclose any ties to drug companies, and Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, said editors rely on researchers to be truthful. 

“I imagine that from time to time we screw up” and fail to adequately mention drug company ties, but that is infrequent, Drazen said. 

One JAMA report found that medical journal studies on new treatments often use only the most favorable statistic in reporting results, said author Dr. Jim Nuovo of the University of California at Davis. 

His study reviewed 359 studies published between 1989 and 1998 in JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, the British Medical Journal and Annals of Internal Medicine. Only 26 studies reported straightforward statistics that clearly assessed the effect on patients. 

Most reported only the “relative risk reduction” linked to a specific treatment, which is the percentage difference between drug-treated patients and those in a placebo group. That figure is more misleading than the “absolute risk reduction,” which measures the actual difference between the treatment results compared with the placebo group, Nuovo said. 

For example, if 5.1 percent of placebo-treated patients had heart attacks compared with 3.7 percent of drug patients, the absolute risk reduction in the drug group would be 1.4 percent. But researchers could use the relative risk reduction to claim that the drug lowers the risk of a heart attack 34 percent — which sounds a lot more impressive.

CANON CITY, Colo. – Dozens of families headed back into the charred foothills Tuesday to search for remnants of their lives after a 4,400-acre wildfire destroyed more than 80 homes. 

Fire officials began allowing the residents into the area after cooler weather and scattered rain helped slow the fire. 

“They need to get back home. They need to have closure,” Fremont County Sheriff Ivan Middlemiss said. 

He warned the residents to prepare themselves emotionally, telling them: “This is not going to be the same area in your lifetime or my lifetime as when you left Sunday.” 

Some homeowners braced for the worst. 

“In bed last night, I was laying there thinking maybe it’s still there,” said Jan Freeman, who left her wedding ring behind in her haste to evacuate after the fire broke out Sunday. 

She and her husband, Cecil Freeman, were told by acquaintances that their two-story home with a view of Pikes Peak and grazing elk was gone, along with at least 82 others. They said they plan to rebuild. 

Hundreds of families were evacuated when the fire broke out in dry timber and brush west about 110 miles southwest of Denver. Besides the homes, the blaze destroyed a general store and several other structures. Royal Gorge Park closed temporarily but reopened Tuesday.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A federal judge on Tuesday acquitted Mayor Vincent Cianci Jr. on five of 17 corruption charges, but left intact more serious allegations that he headed a criminal empire run out of City Hall. 

U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres, ruling in midtrial, said prosecutors failed to prove Cianci extorted bribes from tow truck operators or urged a witness to lie to the FBI. 

Cianci still faces some key charges, including two counts of racketeering. 

The judge also acquitted former top mayoral aide Frank Corrente of taking bribes to get a man a job on the police force, and urging an official to lie to the FBI about a suspicious lease deal. 

Edward Voccola, a convicted felon and businessman, had both federal racketeering charges against him dismissed. Businessman Richard Autiello, did not have any of the seven charges against him dropped. 

The acquittals let stand other counts against the three remaining defendants, including racketeering and charges they extorted bribes for jobs, tax cuts and deals. 

Torres issued his ruling with the jury out of the courtroom. It came seven weeks into the trial.

SAN JOSE – A comeback attempt by the financially troubled San Jose Symphony has failed, forcing the 123-year-old orchestra to fall silent for up to a year and a half and almost certainly file for bankruptcy, the organization announced Tuesday. 

The symphony’s final performance is scheduled for Saturday, the last of four benefit concerts the orchestra had hoped would help fund its recovery. After that, the nation’s 11th-largest city will be the biggest without a working orchestra. 

“It’s probably not shocking to some who have watched this unfold for a few months, but it’s still sad nonetheless,” said Les White, the symphony’s interim chief operating officer. 

While the symphony’s leaders have not officially decided to seek bankruptcy protection, White acknowledged the step appears inevitable. 

The symphony has debts of more than $3 million and only the barest of assets — its sheet music, its acoustic shell and its office equipment, which even by liberal estimates are worth $300,000, White said. There is no endowment to speak of, he added. 

Believed to be the oldest orchestra west of the Mississippi, the San Jose Symphony struggled for years to keep expenses down and raise money, and saw subscriptions and attendance decline over the past decade. 

In October, the symphony canceled the 2001-2002 season, fired its office staff, dissolved its board and tried to craft a leaner administration and a shorter schedule. Former San Jose Mercury News publisher Jay Harris was hired to lead the transition. 

There were small signs of progress. The union for the symphony’s 89 musicians agreed to forgo $2.5 million they were owed for rehearsals and performances that were canceled, and agreed to play the four benefit concerts to fund future operations.

The Alameda County District Attorney has offered to drop charges against the 78 pro-Palestinian activists who occupied UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall April 9, the Planet has learned. 

“I think it’s a real vindication,” said Linda Sherif, a member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and lawyer for the protesters. “It was a peaceful political demonstration and charges shouldn’t have been filed in the first place.” 

“It just seemed fair given what was involved and their records and the message they were trying to send,” said, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Stuart Hing, about the offer. 

The defendants could accept the offer as early as Friday, during a court appearance at the Oakland branch of the Alameda County Superior Court. 

All 78 defendants currently face charges of obstructing or intimidating an employee of a public agency.  

Seven defendants also face charges of resisting arrest and 23 year-old student Roberto Hernandez is accused of misdemeanor assault and battery for allegedly biting a UC Berkeley police officer. 

The District Attorney has offered to drop all charges and issue an official “factual finding of innocence” for each defendant, requiring that all arrest records are sealed. 

“I’m pleased with the offer that’s been made,” said defendants’ attorney Seth Chazin. 

Chazin said lawyers have not yet contacted all the activists to confirm their acceptance of the District Attorney’s offer. But Hoang Phan, a leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus group that spearheaded the April 9 takeover, said the defendants will likely agree to the proposal. 

If they accept the offer, most defendants will have to pay court fees of $25 or $50, with Hernandez shelling out $750. Chazin said the fees are simply administrative payments. But Hing said the fees qualify as fines. 

Activists took over Wheeler Hall April 9 after a full day of protest, calling on the University of California to divest from Israel. Protesters chanted slogans for hours before UC Berkeley police ordered them to leave. When the activists refused to disperse, campus police arrested them one-by-one, dragging some of them away. 

After arraignment at the Berkeley branch of the Superior Court April 30, Judge Carol Brosnahan transferred the case to Oakland. The District Attorney’s Oakland office offered to drop the charges after a May 29 court date, according to Sherif. 

“It’s a really big legal victory,” said Phan, the SJP leader. “It’s also a really big political victory.” 

But Phan noted that the 41 students involved in the occupation still face possible disciplinary action, including suspension, from the university. 

“We’ve won the criminal charges, but the student conduct charges we take very seriously,” he said, noting that SJP will fight any disciplinary action. 

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said the university will send letters to the students this week notifying them of the charges they will face. She said it will then be up to the students to settle the matter in an informal meeting with staff or go to a hearing. 

Gilmore declined to comment on the offer to drop criminal charges until receiving direct confirmation of that offer from the District Attorney. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has been a vocal critic of the university and supporter of the students, said he was not surprised by the District Attorney’s offer. 

“I’ve been expecting it, because when you look at the police report, it is virtually unimaginable that they could be convicted,” said Worthington. “Any fair-minded District Attorney would probably come to the conclusion it’s not worth the enormous expense and staff time (to prosecute).”

Pretty in plastic 

LEE, Maine – With a dozen rolls of duct tape and more than 20 hours of creative hard work, Spencer Stacey and Samantha Braziller were outfitted for the Lee Academy senior prom. 

The pair’s home-tailored formal wear for the dance was made entirely from the heavy-duty tape often found in toolboxes and utility drawers. 

Stacey, a senior, had a three-piece black tuxedo with tails and a top hat, all trimmed in shiny silver. Every detail, down to the silver bow tie and red rose boutonniere, was made of duct tape. 

Braziller, a junior, chose a long, white gown with swirling lines of silvery, sequinlike details that could pass for satin from a distance. 

They estimate the cost at $75. 

Braziller figures her duct tape dress should really come in handy if it rains at the dance. 

“Everyone will be complaining and I can wipe the water right off,” she said. 

Show and tell 

MODESTO – A man landed in jail after his grandchildren showed up at school with $1,100 in counterfeit bills their grandfather had allegedly made. 

School officials called police after a 7-year-old girl showed a handful of $100 bills to classmates, Stanislaus County sheriff’s spokesman Tom Letras said. 

The second grader and her 5-year-old brother told police they took only a few $100 bills from the pile stored in grandpa’s van. 

Police said they found Jose Luis Landeras on Tuesday stuffing moneymaking material down his pants. 

Landeras, 42, was arrested on suspicion of making counterfeit money and spending it over the past seven months. Police said they confiscated $2,000 in phony bills. 

The boy originally didn’t want to talk to police because he thought he and his sister were in trouble for stealing. Police coaxed him into telling them about the money when they asked what games he and his grandfather liked to play. 

The boy said his favorite game was Frogger. And his grandpa’s? The “moneymaking game.” 

Freeze! 

RICHMOND, British Columbia – A Vancouver-area man had his early morning speed skating training session interrupted by a very cold naked man. 

The Richmond man said his 2 a.m. speed skating session at the Richmond Ice Centre was interrupted when he noticed a man in the buff approaching him on the ice, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

The nameless nude made an unsuccessful attempt to tackle the speed skater before fleeing the scene. 

The skater was “obviously stunned, but was able to deal with the situation,” said RCMP spokesman Constable Peter Thiessen. Police did not catch the would-be attacker.

To the Editor: 

Affordable Housing Week is a chance to highlight the significant shortage of affordable housing in the Bay Area as well as celebrate the significant contributions of affordable housing to the lives of those who depend on it. Throughout my years as an assemblywoman, I have seen this area's affordable housing crisis worsen. The number of housing units available to families with low to moderate incomes is negligible compared to the rising number of those in need. 

We must make significant progress to reduce the disparity between those who can and cannot afford housing. Our state is second to last in the nation in homeownership rates. A minimum-wage earner must work over 100 hours a week to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment in the Bay Area. California has lost over 20,000 affordable housing units over the past five years, and there are over 360,000 homeless in California with the most rapidly growing segments of this population being seniors and families with children. 

However, California has made significant strides in providing more affordable housing. We are exploring new and creative incentives to encourage developers to construct affordable housing, government is putting more funds towards constructing affordable housing and we are seeing better public policy around creating more affordable housing for California's families. I have supported the efforts of my colleagues in the State Legislature to ease the growing disparity between those who have housing and those who do not. Most notably, Senator John Burton's (D-San Francisco) $2.1 billion housing bond, if passed this November, will go far in addressing the affordable housing needs of this state. I fought to include close to $190 million for supportive housing, housing with built-in medical and social services assistance, and $15 million to fund housing for low-income UC and CSU students and staff. Affordable housing trusts, which already exist in a number of cities and counties throughout the state, are another example of what we can do to spur the construction of affordable housing units. These trusts are pools of money from various sources set aside for affordable housing. Affordable housing trusts must continue to be developed and supported.  

On May 29th, the State Assembly adopted my ACR 209, a resolution calling upon Californians to participate in Affordable Housing Week activities and work towards diminishing our state's housing gap. Affordable Housing Week is being celebrated between June 1st and June 9th and will be marked by grand openings of affordable housing developments, forums on increasing affordable housing, and rallies throughout the state. This is a chance for people to come together in observance of the progress made around affordable housing as well connect more families with affordable housing, particularly the most vulnerable members of our community - low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities.  

As California is faced with one of the most ominous budgets in recent history, it is incumbent upon all of us to come up with solutions with fewer resources, yet with greater resolve than ever before. Your participation in Affordable Housing Week is critical. It is an opportunity for all of us to be advocates, it is a call to leadership, a challenge that must be met on behalf of those who struggle daily to meet a need which most of us take for granted. 

Your efforts will be felt by thousands of families in your community. Your work can create rooftops!

Thursday, June 6

Freedom From Tobacco: 

A quit smoking class 

5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays,  

June 6 to July 18 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street,  

981-5330 

QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Big Brother is Watching 

6:30 to 8:30 p.m. 

The Independent Institute 

100 Swan Way, Oakland 

RSVP 632-1366 

Speaker James Bamford, author of “Body of Secrets, anatomy of Ultra-Secret National Security Agency.” 

Cost: $35 includes the book, $14 lecture only, $10 members. 

Friday, June 7

Fundraiser for  

Common Ground  

7 p.m. 

St. Joseph The Worker School 

On the corner of Addison, b/w California and McGee 

Featuring Julia Butterfly Hill, a renowned and inspirational environmental activist  

$7 students, $12 non-students else. 

CGJuliaEvent@hotmail.com 

Saturday, June 8

Live Oak Park Fair 

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 8 & 9. 

Live Oak Park 

Shattuck & Berryman 

898-3282 

Original fine crafts & art, tasty food, live entertainment including: Splash Circus, The Prescott Clowns, Jean-Paul Valjean (circus performance), Fat Chance Bellydance, Urban Harmony, Johnny Casino (children's lounge lizard), Zappo the Magician, with M.C. Wavy Gravy. Benefit for Camp Winnarainbow. 

Free. 

Sunday, June 9

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

Open House 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Introduction to Tibetan  

Buddhist Culture.  

6 to 7 p.m. 

Erika Rosenberg and Abbe Blum on "Creativity and  

Emotion." 

Both at Tibetan Nyingma  

Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Free. 

The 2nd Annual California Bluegrass Association MUSIC CAMP 

June 9-12 

Nevada County Fairgrounds, GRASS VALLEY, CA  

INSTRUCTORS: 

Banjo-- Pete Wreck and Avram Siegel, Fiddle-- Laurie Lewis and Jack Tuttle, Mandolin--John Reischman and Tom Rozum, Guitar-- Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce, Dobro-- Sally van Meter Bass--Trisha Gagnon, Old-time fiddle-- Bruce Molsky, Old-time, guitar-- Tom Sauber, Old-time banjo-- Evie Ladin, Autoharp-Ray Frank 

Beginner and intermediate instrumental classes; jam classes; electives including vocal harmonies, music theory, band rhythm, critical listening, clogging, and more. 

http://www.cbamusiccamp.org 

Monday, June 10

Poetry Express -  

All Open Mike Night 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Bakery & Cafe 

1561 Solano Avenue 

A community open mike  

welcoming all artists. 

Free. 

“All Grown Grown Up: Living Happily Ever with Your Adult Children” 

7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Street 

848-0237 Ext. 127 

Author Roberta Maisel leads the mid-life parent through a series of thoughtful steps inherent in the process of learning how to let go. 

Free. 

Saturday, June 15

Emergency Preparedness Classes in Berkeley 

9 to 11 a.m. 

997 Cedar Street 

981-5605 

Basic Personal Preparedness: Learn how to take care of yourself, your family and  

your home. 

Free. 

Sunday, June 16

Field Trip to Remnant East Shore Habitats 

10 a.m. 

El Cerrito BART, southwest corner of parking lot (towards Albany Hill). Then carpool to various sites, returning mid-afternoon. 

(925) 372-0687, e-mail  

elainejx@mindspring.com 

Visit a selection of  

critically rare habitats in and adjacent to the new East  

Shore State Park. 

Free. 

Buddhism 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

843-6812 

Lee Nichol on “Sacred  

Dimensions of Time  

and Space.” 

Free. 

Monday, June 17th

“An Uncommon  

Friendship: From  

Opposite Sides of  

the Holocaust” 

Join Bernat Rosner, a Holocaust survivor as he reads  

from and discusses his  

counterpoint memoir co-authored with Fritz Tubach,  

the son of a German Army officer. 

7:30 to 8:45 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Street 

848-0237 Ext. 127 

Free. 

LOS ANGELES – This might be a tough encore for the Los Angeles Lakers. 

After winning one of the most riveting series in playoff history, they still need four wins over the New Jersey Nets to earn their third straight title and a spot in the record books for their coach. 

But if ever the NBA Finals could possibly be considered an afterthought, it’s now. 

After all, the Lakers are 9-1 favorites over the upstart Nets after beating the Sacramento Kings in a series many believe determined the championship. 

One problem could be a letdown, at least early in the best-of-seven series. The Lakers were indeed tested by the Kings in the Western Conference finals and were left with little time to gear up for the Nets. 

“Deep, deeper than we’ve ever dug before,” Derek Fisher said after his team’s 112-106 overtime victory in Game 7 at Sacramento. 

“I would say that it was grueling,” Shaquille O’Neal said. 

The Lakers, who took Monday off to rest, were to practice Tuesday in nearby El Segundo. 

Game 1 is Wednesday night at Staples Center. Game 2 also will be in Los Angeles on Friday before the series shifts to New Jersey for Games 3, 4 and, if necessary, 5. 

The Lakers are making their 21st appearance in the NBA Finals and will be shooting for their 14th championship, including five in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles in 1960. 

The Nets, in the playoffs for the first time since 1998, will be playing in the finals for the first time. Their 10 playoff wins this spring are one more than their total since joining the NBA in 1976. 

“They have a nice little team,” Robert Horry said. 

“They play with a lot of emotion, they play with a lot of moxie,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We felt confident that the winner of this conference would win the series and we still believe it.” 

Confidence is never a problem for the Lakers. Even when they trailed the Kings 3-2 they were upbeat — from Jackson to the end of the bench. 

The Lakers’ fans even include some Nets. 

“I was rooting for the Lakers to pull it out because I wanted to go home and play them,” said Lucious Harris, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended Long Beach State. “It’s unbelievable to be going home and playing the champions.” 

Keith Van Horn, from nearby Diamond Bar, spent his childhood rooting for the Lakers. 

“First we beat Boston in Boston, now I’m going home to play LA in the NBA Finals,” he said. “I couldn’t have scripted it better.” 

The Lakers have appeared vulnerable at times during the playoffs, but now they are playing their best basketball of the postseason. 

“We still have the heart of a champion,” forward Rick Fox said. 

One of the main reasons the Lakers beat the Kings was O’Neal’s ability to ignore the pain from his arthritic right big toe and produce dominating efforts in Games 6 and 7. 

He had 41 points and 17 rebounds Friday night in a 106-102 victory and 35 points and 13 rebounds less than 48 hours later in Game 7. 

And he made free throws: 13-of-17 and 11-of-15 in the last two games. That’s 24-of-32 and 75 percent — far above his typical output. 

“Over the last couple of years now, when I’ve needed to hit them, I’ve hit them,” he said. 

Jackson has won a record 23 straight playoff series. If he makes it 24, he will have nine championships as a coach to tie Red Auerbach’s record and 156 postseason victories, one more than leader Pat Riley. 

New Jersey’s Byron Scott, meanwhile, is in his second year as an NBA head coach — both with the Nets, who were 26-56 in his first season. 

Scott played 11 of his 14 NBA seasons with the Lakers and was a starter on three of their five championship teams in the 1980s. 

“It’s one of the greatest organizations in all of sports,” he said. “I loved being there, playing there and now going back there as a coach. 

“I love this challenge. I’m going back to LA to coach in the NBA Finals. It’s a dream come true for me.” 

Several gun shots were fired at the driver of a car parked on the 1500 block of Alcatraz Avenue early Sunday morning, according to the Berkeley Police Department. 

The victim was taken to Highland Hospital after the 1:30 a.m. shooting where he was treated for multiple gunshot wounds to the shoulder and has since been released. 

According to BPD public information officer Lt. Cynthia Harris, the suspect in the shooting has been identified but remains at large. Police are withholding the name until Tuesday. Three other individuals were in the car during the shooting and were not injured. 

BPD squad cars appeared on scene in the south Berkeley neighborhood approximately 30 seconds after a report of loud noises in the area. According to Harris, the car involved in the incident sped from Alcatraz Avenue to Fairview Street, two blocks north, before being stopped by police. 

More than a dozen BPD squad cars followed within minutes of the shooting along with both an ambulance and truck from Berkeley Fire Department. 

A BPD squad car was also seen speeding east on Fairview Street moments after the shooting. 

According to Lt. Harris, no indication of a motive has been released. Harris did not comment as to whether or not the victim in the shooting knew the suspect. 

The shooting follows a series of community meetings between the BPD and residents concerned about increased violence and drug activity specifically in south and west Berkeley. The BPD released details last Thursday of the arrest of 20 individuals suspected of illegal drug trafficking. 

Sunday’s shooting is the most recent in a pattern of violence in the south Berkeley area. On January 22, Oakland residents Rammar Johnson and Noel Turner, Jr., were shot in the head while sitting in their car on 64th Street. The two later died as a result of their injuries. The perpetrator in that shooting is still at large. 

Berkeley resident Dwight Leeray and 25-year old Raymond Smith also died as the result of violent crimes in south Berkeley, in unrelated incidents, in March. Two suspects are behind bars for the death of Leeray.  

According to the BPD, patrols in south Berkeley have increased as a result of the recent homicides and other violence. Officers emphasize that residents must work with the police to reduce crime.  

Officers urge community members to call the BPD with any information at 981-5900 and also provide an anonymous tip line 843-2677 (THE-COPS).

To the Editor: 

Considering Mr. Worthington’s promotion of speed limits in Berkeley, I don’t dispute his observation that no other big city is doing this because it violates the California vehicle code (25 mph on residential streets but 15 mph near schools). But Berkeley is known for flaunting traffic laws. About 20 years ago, street barriers were installed which removed traffic from streets inhabited by “preferred” citizens, causing traffic jams and waste of fuel. Property values in the protected streets, including that of the subsequent “liberal” mayor and her husband, went up considerably. 

This scheme was clearly against provisions of the vehicle code and was instituted by an unholy alliance of the “centrist” Mayor Dean, who wanted to protect North Berkeley streets of political supporters and “liberal” City Counsel member Hancock, who wanted to close down traffic in the South campus area. The majority of citizens against this scheme had no political support. 

A popular lawsuit against the city took three years and the city lost the case in all instances, including the California Supreme Court, which ordered the barriers to be “removed forthwith.” But the city stonewalled the court decision until, three months later, a fly-by-night legal maneuver by Ms. Hancock’s husband, the venerable Tom Bates, managed to legalize the barriers ex-post-facto by promoting a slight technical change of the vehicle code in the Legislature. 

Many current Berkeley residents were not here then and they don’t know about these shenanigans that are well remembered by a refugee to Albany.

His body looks sculpted by Praxiteles, his thick blond hair is youthfully tousled, and he commands the stage like a star. 

He’s Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and he’s fifty-four years old.  

“Misha” seemed ageless in his appearance with the White Oak Dance Project at Zellerbach Hall last weekend – not that time hasn’t altered the golden glow of his youth to a mellower shade. His dancing isn’t as breathtaking as it once was, but it’s wiser, humbler, deeper. 

Baryshnikov is no longer showing off. He’s showing up, to tell us, with the authority of a master, what he’s learned.  

And that’s a lot. One thing he has learned is to be a thorough team player. He and Mark Morris co-founded the White Oak Project twelve years ago to showcase modern dancers and modern dance choreographers. They meant it to be a collaboration, and among the company of eight at Cal Performances, Baryshnikov displayed a winning grace in blending with his co-performers.  

It was dance, not the dancers, that mattered.  

Of course Baryshnikov had star moments; we’d be disappointed if he didn’t. The first was a bracing solo in Lucinda Childs’ “Largo.” If modern dance ranges from more “classical” modes to off-the-wall, Childs is a classicist, serving up relaxed but meticulously designed fare. An elegant exploration of space set to a lush interpretation of Corelli, “Largo” sent its protagonist on a journey of thoughtful turns and deliberately reaching arms, punctuated by stirring stillnesses as he girded himself to set out time and again.  

The work might be an emblem for Baryshnikov. In easygoing black jacket and loose Gene Kelly-ish pants, he offered exhilarating proof of undiminished grace.  

Next came Eric Hawkins classic 1961 “Early Floating,” in which a trio of men and a woman (Baryshnikov, Zane Booker, Roger Jeffrey, Emily Coates) make their moves under a colorful Calder-like stabile whose angles seem to be. 

a template for colorful abstractions. The crystalline lightness of Lucia Dlugoszeswki’s tinkly, percussive score spins wires of sound for charged calisthenics, bodhisattva poses and slo-mo rushes. “Early Floating” offers up 

relationships that are coolly self-possessed yet amusingly fresh, and if modern dance pioneer Hawkins, who died in 1994, was looking down, he was surely pleased at the homage.  

But how to describe what came next? Sarah Michelson’s “The Experts” tried so hard to be off the wall that it ended up falling flat. Performed on a giant sheet of bubble-wrap, its goofy moves were punctuated by a constant popping crackle, while a racecar kept whining overhead. The costumes were from cuckoo-land: one dancer in pedal pushers, another in butterfly wings, a third in a gauzy skirt, a fourth in a jock strap, a fifth looking like a bad-taste Bo Peep. Why? The music featured twittering birds, while the motley tribe on stage wiggled motorized hips and uttered longing cries. In one sequence their flopping arms attempted flight, but the poor things never come near getting off the ground. 

Fortunately the concluding work, Lucinda Child’s “Chacony,” got off the ground nicely, thank you. Six dancers – Miguel Anaya, Emily Coates, Jennifer Howard, Roger Jeffrey, Sonja Kostich and Rosalynde LeBlanc – held the stage for a quarter of an hour to a prickly Benjamin Britten score. They were a sextet of busily striding pedestrians who turned self-possessed into a cool transcendence as they peeled off from the crowd and turned and mingled in serene yet spirited combinations.  

At the end they left the stage to Baryshnikov, who performed a touching coda that featured tentative leaps, as if he’d lost his way. Not a chance, though. 

Last month’s Bay Area dance news may have been prima ballerina Joanna Berman’s retirement in her mid-thirties, but Baryshnikov spells out a different story. In his fifties he’s still going strong, and it’s a gift to watch him show us how dance is done.

SAN DIEGO – Marvin Benard had his first three-hit game of the season, including a three-run homer, then caught nothing but grief from teammate Shawon Dunston. 

Benard got the last word, though, following the San Francisco Giants’ 11-3 rout of the punchless San Diego Padres on Monday night. 

“You’re going to sleep like Tony Gwynn tonight. Be happy, Marvin,” Dunston said, comparing Benard with the retired Padres batting star. “Go ahead, enjoy it, you’re not going to play for another 10 days.” 

Benard’s retort? 

“I am going to sleep like Tony Gwynn, like a baby. I’ve been like Shawon Dunston — tossing and turning all over the place.” 

By going 3-for-6, with his first homer of the season and two doubles, Benard raised his average from .229 to .250. Dunston is hitting .135. 

Benard, who had started just nine games previously this year, got a half-hour’s notice from manager Dusty Baker that he was starting in right field and batting leadoff in place of Reggie Sanders, who had a bruised right middle finger. 

“When you don’t play every day, and all of a sudden you get a chance to start, and you know you’re starting that game, you start thinking about things,” Benard said. “And you get yourself in trouble because you overthink. 

“When things happened like they did today, there was no time to think. There was just time to go out there and react, which we should be doing all the time anyway, but it’s easier said than done.” 

Benito Santiago also hit a three-run homer for the Giants, who had a season-high 20 hits. After losing four games in which they scored a total of just five runs, the Giants have scored 20 runs in two games. 

Santiago’s homer highlighted a six-run third inning. Tsuyoshi Shinjo homered leading off the five-run eighth, and Benard went deep three batters later. Jeff Kent added an RBI double to finish 3-for-5 with three RBIs. 

The Giants batted around in the third and eighth innings. 

Every Giants starter had at least one hit and one run scored. Starting pitcher Russ Ortiz (5-4) had two hits and scored once while holding the Padres to three runs and five hits in six innings. 

The Padres kept Barry Bonds in the ballpark, but he walked and scored in the third. Bonds, who hit his 586th homer Sunday night to tie Frank Robinson for fourth on the career list, was 2-for-3 with two walks. 

The Padres have lost five straight and 14 of 18. They were coming off a weekend sweep by Milwaukee, which has the second-worst record in the majors.

A federal jury has reached verdicts on six of the seven FBI and Oakland police officers accused of framing and violating the civil rights of environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in the controversial 1990 car bombing, according to Earth First! officials. 

Lawyers for both parties are expected to meet with U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken to discuss jury deliberations at 8 a.m. on Tuesday in the Oakland Federal Building. 

It was not known at press time whether or not verdicts would be read following the morning’s scheduled meeting. 

OAKLAND–Freddy Garcia’s patience is being tested this season. 

“Every time I’ve been pitching it’s been a tight game,” he said. “I have to keep the game close and wait for us to score some runs.” 

Garcia kept it close Monday night, winning his third straight start as the Seattle Mariners held off the Oakland Athletics 4-1. 

Garcia (7-4) did not allow a run until the eighth inning, when John Mabry hit a solo home run with one out. The last five runs that Garcia has allowed have been solo homers. 

It was the first Oakland homer for Mabry, who came to the A’s on May 22 in the trade that sent Jeremy Giambi to Philadelphia. 

Garcia allowed the one run on five hits over 7 2-3 innings. He struck out five. 

“He’s just really good,” teammate Jeff Cirillo said. “When the weather warms up so will Freddy. I don’t think he’s pitched his best baseball.” 

Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched the ninth for his 13th save. 

The loss, in the first game of a four-game set between the AL West rivals, snapped the resurgent A’s three-game winning streak. 

A’s rookie right-hander Aaron Harang (1-1) wasn’t as sharp as he was in his major league debut May 25, when he combined with reliever Chad Bradford on a three-hit shutout against Tampa Bay. 

Harang allowed three runs on five hits over six innings. He struck out five. 

“I wish things had turned out the other way around,” Harang said. “Garcia was just on tonight. You can’t do anything about that.” 

With the game scoreless in the fifth, the Mariners loaded the bases with no outs. Cirillo hit a sacrifice fly, the first run allowed by Harang, and Mark McLemore added an RBI single to make it 2-0. 

The 11 scoreless innings to start his career surpassed the Oakland record of 10, set by John Henry Johnson when he started out in 1978. 

“He pitched well enough to win on a lot of occasions, but not tonight,” A’s manager Art Howe said. “He ran up against a tough customer.” 

Ruben Sierra’s grounder in the sixth scored John Olerud, who doubled and went to third on a passed ball. Mike Cameron added an RBI double in the seventh. 

Miguel Tejada’s single in the first inning extended his hitting streak to 13 games. 

Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single in the seventh. 

Notes: The last 12 homers that Garcia has allowed have been solo shots. ... Last year the Mariners took the season series against the Athletics 10-9, but Oakland was the only team to beat Seattle more than five times.

BERKELEY–The University of California temporarily is suspending its fall 2002 study abroad program in India, citing the military buildup and the threat of war with Pakistan. 

The decision, announced Monday, follows a State Department warning against traveling to India or Pakistan. 

No UC students currently are studying in India, but 16 had been scheduled to go there this summer. 

UC has study abroad sites at New Delhi and Hyderabad. It plans to leave infrastructure and staff in place and will consider reinstating the program if the situation improves. 

UC already has suspended its study abroad program in Israel because of conflict there. 

In past years, the program was temporarily halted in China following the Tiananmen Square uprisings, in the Middle East during the Gulf War and in Indonesia during the 1999 civil unrest there.

East Bay resident Anne Finger has had a hard time buying personal hygiene products at her local drugstore lately, and blames plastic blue storage bins that are stacked in the aisles, keeping her from reaching the retail shelves. 

While some might be inclined to move the bulky bins, Finger, 50, has a physical disability which requires her to use a wheelchair and limits her ability. 

The Berkeley-based Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. has joined Finger in filing a lawsuit against drugstore giant Walgreen Co., alleging that the retailer routinely blocks access to aisles and goods and thus fails to comply with California law requiring full and equal access to customers. 

One of the two East Bay stores cited in the suit is the Berkeley Walgreens at 2995 San Pablo Ave. The other store is at 5055 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. 

Finger said that her inability to access goods at the two stores is not intermittent, but chronic and that she’s raised the issue with store managers four or five times now. 

“They say the right things, but the next time you come in, it’s the same way,” she said. “They seem to have a policy of using the aisles for storage.” 

A lack of response from management prompted Finger to file the May 22 suit which could force Walgreens to make policy changes as well as award Finger a monetary sum. The suit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court. 

Ilinois-based Walgreens declined to comment on pending lawsuits and did not return phone calls requesting information about their access protocols. The retailer has one month to issue a legal response to the May filing. 

The nonprofit DREDF, which has also filed recent disability suits against corporations Chevron and Amtrak, says a lawsuit is its last-resort in seeking compliance from the company that has not addressed its complaints.  

“Our main goal in this suit is a policy change in the inventory management practices of Walgreens,” said DREDF attorney Linda Kilb. 

Kilb was optimistic that Walgreens would assent to the needs of the disabled. 

“We’re not talking about them having to rebuild things... Their architectural design is fine. We’re talking about them taking a different approach [to stocking merchandise],” she said, noting that the latter was a much less costly prospect. 

Despite access issues, Finger continues to shop at the two Walgreens stores near her home, about twice a month she says. 

“Being discriminated against doesn’t make me want to go away. It makes me want to try harder,” she said. 

Thousands of low-income Berkeley residents eligible for a 40 percent reduction in their electricity bills may not be taking advantage of the opportunity. 

Pacific Gas & Electric released statistics Monday showing that only 52 percent of Alameda County customers eligible for state-mandated reductions through the California Alternate Rate for Energy, or CARE, are taking part in the program. 

“We need to do more,” said PG&E spokesman Jason Alderman, noting that by comparison 78 percent of eligible Santa Clara County customers are enrolled in CARE. 

Statewide, according to PG&E figures, 600,000 customers have signed up, but another 400,000 who are eligible are not enrolled. 

Alderman said PG&E has not compiled Berkeley-specific figures, but he noted that there are about 40,000 customers in the city and roughly 10 percent are eligible for CARE. If the overall statistics for Alameda County hold true in Berkeley, some 2,000 eligible customers may not be enrolled. 

PG&E representatives and members of local community groups fanned out to Bay Area company offices Monday to sign up customers, who typically show up in large numbers on the first Monday of a new month. 

Georgina Aguila of the Spanish Speaking Unity Council, an Oakland advocacy group, was on hand to help with enrollments. 

She said her group can help get the word out to members of the local Latino community who may be uninformed or scared to enroll. 

“They’re afraid to apply,” said Aguila, noting that once they do, they can realize substantial savings. 

Alderman said the Unity Council is one of several community groups PG&E taps to get out the word about CARE. He said summer is a good time to enroll since people often make heavier use of air conditioners and electricity bills rise. 

New income requirements, set at 175 percent of the federal poverty line, went into effect yesterday making thousands more eligible statewide. 

Last year for example, a family of four making $31,100 or less was eligible for CARE. As of Monday, that figure is set at $32,000 or less. 

Plans for deeming the corner of San Pablo and University Avenues as an International Marketplace may soon become a reality.  

The marketplace campaign, supported by both city officials and local store and restaurant owners, hopes to promote awareness among the unique and ethnically diverse restaurants near and around the intersection. 

According to Mayor Shirley Dean the large concentration of Indian and Hispanic restaurants and stores makes the spot ideal for the international food district designation. In addition there are places that sell Thai, Spanish, French, Chinese and Pakistani foods.  

“I would really like to see it happen. People want an experience when they shop and dine. This would give them that experience, a taste of different things. That’s always been one of Berkeley’s strong points,” Dean said. 

According to Dean the city hopes to facilitate the growth of the district by producing brochures detailing the unique foods and spices at each restaurant, hanging banners in the area and placing maps of the district throughout Berkeley. 

With 11 unique and diverse restaurants within a block of each other, the intersection of University and San Pablo Avenues is a great location for an International Marketplace, Khanna said.  

City officials, local merchants and the UAA have gathered recently at a series of meeting to discuss Ideas for the Marketplace campaign. 

“At first not too many people attended the meetings, they thought we were just wasting our time. But as we go, our attendance is getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” Khanna said. 

According to Khanna, the International Marketplace would include businesses and restaurants as far north as Hearst Avenue, south to Allston Way and east to either 9th or 10th Street.  

“Once it gets going it’s going to be as popular as places like Jack London Square and the 4th Street area. We want to bring an awareness to the populous. We want people to try us out. We want people, when they ask where they’re going to eat in Berkeley to think of us,” said Khanna. 

“I think it’s a wonderful idea. We need to have a focus in this part of town. Each business here is unique, each one has it’s own specialty,” said Jorge Pena, owner of Pena’s Bakery on San Pablo Avenue.  

Mexican pastries and deserts, including flan and tres leches, a pound cake-like-mix made from three types of milk, set the bakery apart according to Pena.  

“Other places sell some of the pastries but we’re the only ones to make them from scratch,” Pena said. 

The campaign hopes to create greater advertising strength for the area by combining the efforts of the businesses which otherwise would not  

According to Steve Winston, owner of the Spanish Tables, a specialty store selling food and wine from Spain and Portugal, the area was a good fit when he opened in September.  

“I’m really excited about what’s going on. We want this to be an ethnic food shopping area,” said Winston. 

According to Winston the Spanish Tables attracts customers from all over the Bay Area and is a compliment to both the New World Spanish food and other specialty restaurants and stores in the area.

SEATTLE – A consumer-rights lawyer is seeking $1 billion in damages from some of the nation’s largest power companies, claiming they made billions from artificially created power shortages during last year’s power crunch. 

Class-action status is sought for the lawsuit, filed Monday in San Francisco Superior Court by Seattle lawyer Steve Berman. He seeks to represent hundreds of thousands of ratepayers in 21 of Washington’s 28 public utility districts. 

In a statement, Berman said his was the first legal action seeking damages for affected ratepayers outside California. California’s lieutenant governor and attorney general previously filed similar, separate lawsuits on behalf of California ratepayers. 

Berman’s lawsuit asks the court to force the defendants, who so far number 13, to return profits “wrongfully amassed” since January 2001 and make restitution to the ratepayers. 

“In our opinion, the fix was in, and Washington electric ratepayers were set up to be the losers,” Berman said. 

According to the complaint, the defendants own or control 19 gas-fired power-generating plants in California and conspired to create a cartel to withhold power from the market, creating artificial shortages and causing price spikes. It also contends the defendants engaged in transactions designed to inflate the cost of electricity. 

The impact was crippling on PUDs in the Northwest that were forced to buy power on the spot market, Berman said. 

“Most of the PUDs tried to absorb the rate increases the defendants engineered, but simply ran out of money,” he said. “They had no choice but to go to the ratepayers with higher rates” while the power brokers posted “obscenely huge profits.”

SACRAMENTO – A herd of 3,000 dairy cattle in Tulare County has been quarantined and 56 cows have been killed after a federal meat inspector found traces of bovine tuberculosis. 

The disease was suspected four weeks ago when an inspector noticed suspicious lesions on beef in a Hanford meat packing plant, Steve Lyle, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture said Monday. 

A test confirmed the disease and the Holstein cow was traced to the Tulare dairy. Further tests found dozens of cows were exposed to the disease. 

“We have 89 cattle that have tested positive for exposure. That’s a lot,” Lyle said. 

Lyle said 56 cows were killed Friday and 33 were scheduled to be killed Tuesday. 

Lyle refused to name the farm where the outbreak occurred, citing biosecurity concerns. He said farm employees and the milk processor that buys milk from the dairy have been notified. 

Under the quarantine, no cow can be moved from the farm until it is tested as free of the disease, Lyle said. 

Bovine TB is a deadly lung disease that has been found in Michigan and Texas and is commonly found in Mexico. The last known case in the state was in 1991. 

People can contract the disease by working closely with infected cows or by drinking raw milk or eating uncooked meat from infected cows. Nearly all milk sold in California is pasteurized and meat is inspected before being sold.

SAN FRANCISCO – Napster Inc.’s bankruptcy filing Monday won’t alter rulings by a judge and a federal appeals court that the Internet song-swapping service unlawfully violated the music industry’s copyrights. 

In the closely watched copyright infringement case, the music recording industry convinced U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Napster’s business model was illegal. 

Because it allowed millions of music fans to download and swap copyright music for free, Patel last year ordered the online service shuttered until it could guarantee none of the music it allowed to be shared was copyright. 

While the bankruptcy immediately halts that case, which has been in the pretrial stage for three years, Monday’s bankruptcy developments let stand the nation’s first precedential rulings outlawing Napster-like businesses. 

“Certainly, the rulings from the 9th Circuit and the court remain in effect,” said Harvey Dunn, a Dallas-based technology lawyer. “Any third party seeking to emulate Napster is going to face that same case law trying to do something comparable to what Napster was doing.” 

The Recording Industry Association of America, a legal trade group representing the big recording labels in the copyright case, has launched new suits at other firms with Napster-like models. In doing so, they are invoking precedents born in the Napster case. 

Still, the bankruptcy shields Napster from perhaps paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to the industry for violating its copyrights. 

But while the recording industry may not recoup all or any of its losses from copyright violations, experts said the recording industry was victorious nevertheless. By flexing its legal muscle, it trampled a business allowing 60 million Napster users to violate the industry’s copyrights with the click of a computer mouse. 

Indeed, Conrad Hilbers, Napster’s chief executive, said in a statement Monday that the bankruptcy filing was a legal maneuver to assist it in becoming a legitimate online music service.

DALLAS – Phone company SBC Communications Inc. and online giant Yahoo! Inc. have teamed up to launch an Internet service they hope will challenge AOL and Microsoft for dominance of the dial-up market. 

SBC and Yahoo plan to add a cobranded high-speed Internet access service this summer. SBC is a leading provider of faster, so-called broadband service. 

The companies did not disclose financial terms, but officials said SBC and Yahoo will share revenue from online advertising and commerce. In addition, Yahoo will receive a portion of every monthly subscription service, they said. 

The service, called SBC Yahoo Dial, will charge $21.95 per month; less for customers who order other services from SBC. 

Despite its relatively slower speed, far more U.S. households still use dial-up service instead of high-speed access through phone lines or cable modems. Jason Few, an SBC vice president working on the joint venture, said dial-up is not a dying technology. 

“I don’t see the dial-up business going away for quite some time,” Few said. “We have an opportunity to grow our share.” 

San Antonio-based SBC has 1.8 million dial-up subscribers, who will be folded over into the joint venture. 

The SBC-Yahoo partnership was announced in November, but the companies had not disclosed many details until Monday. SBC Yahoo Dial is being advertised online and by direct mail, with a radio and newspaper advertising campaign expected to begin in about two weeks. 

Frederick Moran, an analyst for Jefferies & Co., said the venture represented an attempt by Yahoo to barter its Internet name for subscription-service income. 

“It’s a sensible way for Yahoo to capitalize on their Internet name, but whether this will lead to additional profits remains to be seen,” Moran said. “The demise of Internet advertising is still a big overhang for Yahoo stock.” 

Yahoo claims a user base of 237 million people for its Web site. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company lost $93 million on revenue of $717 million last year, while SBC earned $7.2 billion on revenue of $45.9 billion. 

In trading Monday, shares of SBC fell $1.14 to $33.15, and Yahoo shares slipped 34 cents to $15.68. 

BEVERLY HILLS – Winona Ryder’s preliminary hearing on shoplifting and drug charges was interrupted Monday when a television camera bumped her on the way into court, and her attorney reported later that she suffered a broken right arm. 

Ryder arrived for the hearing late, in time for only brief testimony by a store security official before a lunch break. Further testimony was postponed when she returned to court complaining that she had injured her arm pushing through a crush of reporters and photographers on the way back from lunch. 

Her attorney was at her right side as she walked through the crowd, and television footage showed a sheriff’s deputy appearing to collide with a cameraman, who fell into the diminutive actress from the left. As the deputy stumbles, Ryder, who had been smiling, can be seen suddenly grimacing in pain. 

Ryder was cradling her left elbow after emerging from the group of reporters at the courthouse door, however, leading prosecutors to raise questions about which arm was really hurt, said Jane Robison, a district attorney spokeswoman. 

Her attorney, Mark Geragos, said later that she was “whacked” on her right elbow from behind. She was holding her left arm in order to elevate her right arm, which she had previously broken about a year ago while filming the upcoming comedy “Mr. Deeds,” he said. 

“She’s in a lot of pain,” Geragos added. 

When Ryder emerged from the judge’s chambers her coat was off and she had a large white bandage on her right elbow. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox said that Ryder would be seen by a physician and the hearing would be delayed. 

He asked Ryder if that was OK with her. 

“Yes, your honor,” said the actress, whose previous credits include “Little Women,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “Heathers,” “Beetlejuice” and “Reality Bites.”

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK – An injured rock climber was rescued by helicopter Monday after spending a night on a sheer granite wall. 

The climber was injured Sunday when loose rocks tumbled on him and he fell a short distance, said park spokeswoman Deb Schweizer. He injured a shoulder and elbow. 

The Colorado man, whose name was not immediately released, was attempting a challenging route on Cathedral Rocks, a dramatic peak across the valley from El Capitan. He was about 300 feet short of reaching the top of the 2,000-foot climb. 

A man and woman were killed last year climbing the same route, Direct North Buttress. A park investigation said falling rocks caused the deaths, Schweizer said. 

The stranded climber spent the night on a ledge with his partner until a team of rescuers reached him and hauled him to a place where he and a ranger could be lifted to safety by helicopter. 

He was taken to a medical clinic in the park for treatment. 

Berkeley leaders are taking the adage “being green” to the next level. The city plans to start sapping the sun's free and clean energy with planned implementation of solar panels atop the downtown Public Safety Building in 2004. 

Having already made city facilities more energy-efficient, going solar will help the city meet its stated goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent by 2010. 

"Converting municipal buildings to solar fits right in with everything we're doing," said Councilmember Linda Maio, who authored the recent proposal to use solar energy. "It's the cleanest and best renewable energy source there is. It would be so wonderful to convert to solar power.” 

Approximately 12 percent of the electricity generated in California comes from renewable resources. At one time, Californians had direct access to renewable energy, meaning they had the option of purchasing electricity from companies that guaranteed that half the power came from renewable energy—including solar power, wind power and geothermal heat. 

Since that option has not been available to consumers since the energy crisis in 2000, Berkeley leaders are now embracing their green momentum and taking measures into their own hands. 

While it was originally believed that the best solar project would include placing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of several city buildings, recent city research has revealed that a one-step-at-a-time approach will save time, money and energy in the long run. 

"Our research is showing that if we do several small projects, we'll pay more. So in order to make this cost effective we want to concentrate on one building," said Energy Planner Neal De Snoo, who said the Public Safety Building was selected because of its high level of energy consumption and the large size of its new roof. 

The project's first stage includes determining engineering specifications, taking the project to bid, selecting a contractor and solar voltaic panels and connecting the solar source to the broader electricity grid. The panels will tie into the building's main electrical supply, so when the amount of energy harnessed exceeds the amount consumed by the building, the energy usage dial will spin backwards, creating a net reduction in the amount of energy purchased from PG&E. 

The panels will be hidden from the view of pedestrians, lying flat on the roof of the building. They are designed by Berkeley-based PowerLight Corp., a brand currently used by Whole Foods. Most other makes of panels tilt upwards to face midrange spring and autumn sun exposure and are more visible. 

Funding issues surrounding the solar panel project will be included in next years' budget hearing which will go before the City Council early this month. The solar project will be phased in over two years, combining the budget for two fiscal years into one pool of money. Next year's funds will be allocated towards design and engineering work, with the actual placement of the panels coming once the 2004 funds are available. 

"We've gone pretty far in energy conservation and efficiency. It can be done quite easily and we’re doing that," said De Snoo. "So the next phase is to go to the next level of generating our own energy."  

Going solar is just one step in the city’s effort to step a little more softly. The energy retrofitting of city-owned buildings has saved tax payers $370,000 and more than 2.1 million kilowatt hours of electricity and has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1,200 tons, according to city officials. 

This was accomplished by removing incandescent lamps and installing compact fluorescent bulbs, replacing inefficient lamps with new lamps and electronic ballasts, installing occupancy sensors to turn off lights, upgrading heating and ventilation systems and improving building control systems.  

Similar upgrades are available to city businesses through the city's energy office, which offers free energy audits and provides financial assistance for projects under the Small Commercial Technical Assistance Program.  

Black Oak Books began the city's program eight months ago and has seen their utility bills drop by 35 percent, saving them hundreds of dollars, according to bookstore employees.

To the Editor: 

I was very pleased that the City Council last week voted to approve an affordable housing project at 2517 Sacramento Street (reported in "Embattled Housing Project Approved," 5/29/02). This project will provide 40 units of much-needed low-cost housing for seniors -- along a major transit route where the demand for parking will be limited. Affordable housing is desperately needed in Berkeley, and this project integrates all the important aspects of reasonable city planning. 

For a City Council that is chronically divided along party lines, the votes to approve this project transcended ideology. Progressives like Kriss Worthington and Linda Maio joined conservatives like Polly Armstrong and Mim Hawley to approve the project -- because it was common-sense. As Councilmember Maudelle Shirek said at the meeting, "I do not understand how people can oppose a much-needed, well-designed project." 

Sadly, Mayor Shirley Dean voted against it. By siding with a small but vocal minority of neighborhood residents who had already dragged the process for months, delaying the much-needed construction of the project and driving up its costs, Mayor Dean demonstrated her complete disregard for affordable housing in Berkeley. 

Unfortunately, this was no surprise. Throughout her career, Shirley Dean has always opposed good projects that create low-cost housing for those who need it the most. In 1995, she opposed a housing project on Rose Street for people with AIDS. Later that same year, she successfully blocked a project to build low-income housing at Haste and Telegraph -- on a lot that has been vacant since 1986. Seven years later, this lot still stands as an eyesore for the Southside community, and a monument to Mayor Dean's abysmal record on housing. 

Furthermore, Shirley Dean has also been a consistent opponent of tenants' rights. She opposed the original Measure in 1980 that created rent control -- and has allowed literally thousands of low-income people to stay in Berkeley. Two years ago, she opposed Measure Y -- that has strengthened eviction protections for our most vulnerable tenants. And in 1995, she lobbied the state legislature to pass the Costa-Hawkins Act, which has gutted our rent control system and has shot rental prices up into the outer stratosphere. 

As housing continues to be the most important issue facing Berkeley, Mayor Dean is dangerously out of step. 

We need a mayor who will support good development projects that create low-cost housing -- not one who will side with NIMBY's to block them. We need a mayor who believes in rent control and will fight to strengthen our ordinance -- not one who is in the pocket of landlords. Finally, we need a Mayor who is committed enough to affordable housing that they are willing to take political risks to do the right thing. 

I look forward to voting for a new mayor on November 5th. 

Paul Hogarth 

Rent Board Commissioner

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” Lysander famously notes in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. 

East Bay weather can supply a bumpy ride, too. The California Shakespeare Festival is one of the season’s most pleasant events, but Mother Nature takes a hand in the experience, and her fickle temper forced artistic director Jonathan Moscone to put the best face on the brisk wind buffeting his bundled-up opening night crowd on Saturday. 

“Welcome to this beautiful but volatile space!” he said. Everyone laughed. The space, with its rolling green backdrop, is beautiful, but none of us had climbed the slope to the Bruns Theater in the Orinda hills for good weather. We’d come for good theater, and Cal Shakespeare delivered “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” sunny enough to ward off any chill.  

Moscone has cast the play in a Victorian mode, the women in hoop skirts, the men in swallowtail coats. That may be a surprise, but it turns out to be remarkably fitting. 

In the scramble to reinvent Shakespeare, theater companies run the risk of overproducing his work. Berkeley Rep nearly flattened Much Ado about Nothing last fall, but as Moscone proved in his recent Twelfth Night, he has a light touch. He may nudge Shakespeare, but he nudges him in the right direction, and his decision to render this well-known tale against a milieu of Victorian rigidity, in which women are expected to do what men tell them or else, gives the production a jolt. 

Don’t forget, though “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a comedy, it begins when a king threatens to execute a disobedient girl. Of course that dire note soon fades in favor of a more playful one. 

The play is a seemingly impossible tangle of angry parents, desperate lovers, mistaken identities, kings, queens, fairies, magic, transformations, journeys that end in lovers’ meetings and even a play within a play, but part of its magic is how Shakespeare threads all these loose ends into a happy dance at the play’s close. 

Moscone’s production is itself a happy dance, with help from talented associates. Set designer Riccardo Hernandez lays out a rich grassy sward for royals, rude mechanicals, lovers and fairies to romp on, adding a huge crescent moon, on which Titania and Bottom dally, and a giant picture frame to set off trees strung with enchanted lights. Meg Neville sews up more than a dozen handsome costumes, from Oberon’s rich East Indian robes to 

Hippolyta’s severe black silk. Lighting man Stephen Strawbridge supplies bright Athenian sunlight and mysterious forest gloom, and Kristina Forester and Sarah Jo Zaharako punctuate the drama with discrete but evocative music. 

As for the actors, they range from good to outstanding. J. Peter Callendar is strong and sonorous as both Theseus and Oberon, and Nancy Carlin is a richly passionate Titania. Brian Keith Russell makes a nicely restrained Bottom, 

Susannah Schulman is a hot and flirty Helena, Andy Murray grins wryly as a Cockney Puck, complete with bowler hat and spats, Elia MacDougall winds Hermia as tight as a clock, Colman Domingo makes a dandy Lysander, and Sky Soleil is a sturdy Demetrius. As Peter Quint, Anthony Fusco manages his amateur actors with fitting comic restraint, and Liam Vincent’s Thisbe is the funniest drag act since Dame Edna.  

Though Samuel Pepys found “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” “the most insipid, ridiculous play,” audiences have loved it for 400 years, and Cal Shakespeare’s sharply conceived production reminds us why. It’s performed at 100 Gateway Boulevard, Orinda, until June 23 and will be followed by productions of “Macbeth”, “The Seagull”, and “The Winter’s Tale”. For tickets call 510-548-9666.

The No. 1 Cal men’s varsity eight won its fourth-consecutive Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, NJ, June 31. The winning time of 5:26.81 was just 3 seconds off the course record set by the Bears in 1999. In addition to the varsity eights success, the JV eight also brought home gold for the second consecutive year. For the record, it was coach Steve Gladstone’s 10th Varsity Challenge Cup title-second only to Charles “Pop” Courtney who won 11 titles between 1901-1915.  

In the varsity race Cal got up early and stayed up all the way down the course to the finish. The Bears led by three quarters of a length as the crews crossed the 1000 while Wisconsin and Washington battled for second place. Cal stayed in front and was ready to sprint to the line but never needed to use its last gear. The Badgers beat the Huskies to the line, while Oregon State came through Princeton to take fourth as Navy finished sixth.  

“It was a solid race,” said senior Scott Frandsen. “We picked up our start the last couple of weeks and we got off the line well today. We settled to a 37.5 and just hit a rhythm that was really, really solid.”  

“That was an oarsome race,” said stroke Jeffrey Nalty. “We took it from the start and got like four seats in the opening 20 strokes and we kind of had the race from there. Every move we had we moved away. We rowed with rhythm and we rowed with length and the other crews just couldn’t keep up. The level of collegiate racing in the U.S. has stepped up tenfold from last year and that’s what makes today’s win so satisfying.”  

“We weren’t down for one stroke of the race,” said coxswain Michael Vallarelli. “We executed our moves, stayed in the tube and found some really good swing today. Our plan was to not worry about the other crews and execute our race. It was nice that we didn’t have to come from behind against those crews, but so long as we executed our race, I think we’d probably get the same result.”  

The Cal JV eight also led it’s race from start to finish. Cal and Washington established themselves as the early leaders with Cornell and Princeton trying to join the fray. At 500 Cal led UW by a third of a length. Cal continued to grow its advantage with four crews battling for second at the 1000. Cal continued to pull away from the pack and outdistanced Cornell and Washington to the finish.  

After a excellent semifinal performance by the freshman eight, the Bears could not muster an encore on Saturday. However, the Cal freshman did finish off the season No. 4 in the nation.  

The Cal varsity four withstood a strong early push from Wisconsin and Cornell, but emerged with the gold. The Bears open four brought home the silver.

Just two blocks from the Fourth Street retail promenade, the operators of Berkeley’s newest monthly market have aspirations of doing more than just giving a space for local craftspeople to sell their goods. 

They want to give them the tools to be successful business people. 

The West Berkeley Open Air Market, in its second year, located in a parking lot below the Interstate 80 overpass at University Avenue, is organized by the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corp. The market is just one part of their effort to empower the residents of their neighborhood and greater Berkeley. 

“I don’t see this as just another marketplace but as a place to exchange ideas,” said Willie Phillips, president of the 10-year-old corporation, which receives funding from the city of Berkeley and private foundations.  

The market fosters cooperation between established vendors and part-time craftspeople who want to go into business for themselves. 

“It’s a super good idea. I try to get people into this business all the time,” said Michael Brady, a jewelry vendor for 20 years. But Brady admits that artisans starting out face greater obstacles than he did. 

“Twenty years ago this area was wide open. Now if you go to K-Mart, they have the same type of stuff that I sell. To start out now it’s tougher for sure,” he explained. 

For aspiring entrepreneurs in West Berkeley the obstacles are numerous. “People like this are invisible to banks and the Small Business Authority,” said Betsy Morris, the corporation’s secretary. “A lot of people here don’t have homes, and if you don’t own your home, you have [any] capital and can’t get money.” 

In addition to financial concerns, Phillips notes that new vendors also need business training and connections in order to have the chance to be successful. 

To help them in their endeavors, the corporation holds business training workshops. The programs are free, and offer interested parties counseling from successful vendors and small business people as well as access to agencies and organizations that provide financial, legal and logistical assistance. 

According to Morris, the country’s changing economy makes this program especially vital to local residents. “The whole economy is moving to self-employment. This is a pre-emptive effort for the community,” Morris said. 

For Phillips, who has lived in West Berkeley for 47 years, promoting economic self-sufficiency is not just attacking an isolated issue, it’s fighting a core ailment that has afflicted his neighborhood for years. 

“It’s really important to have creative ways to deal with the problems. Many people don’t connect the crime to economic issues,” said Phillips, who noted that the amount of money Berkeley allocates for economic development is minuscule in comparison with that earmarked for public safety. 

“We are trying to make that link, and create opportunity for people,” said Phillips. 

According to Bruce Williams, the market’s manager, there is already a success story. Last year an aspiring silk maker, set up shop at the market and took the seminar. He now owns his own shop in Oakland. 

Some vendors at Sunday’s market hoped that they too could make the transition to full-time businessperson. “I’d definitely be interested,” said Rhonda Hartzell a jewelry maker. “I think it would be a great thing to do.” 

To the Editor: 

After a major earthquake, highways and transit will be unusable due in large part to liquefaction and collapse of structures. The main forms of transportation will be walking, bicycles (which can be lifted over obstructions) and ferries. Fires in the cities may require mass evacuation. Planning now is needed to reduce the suffering and confusion when it happens. 

For those reasons, the availability of ferries is essential. A number of functioning ferries should be already in place and ready when needed. Landing piers at key locations should ready with at least minimum bus service right now. Whether those buses will actually be able to be used immediately after a quake is incidental, as clearing the bus routes connecting with the ferries should take top priority for people to escape. Piers should be built even in locations where ferry service is not currently provided. 

The more use of ferries that we can make now the better, and whether they make money is incidental to having them available when needed. The expansion of an existing basic ferry system and bus connections will be much simpler than starting from scratch during the turmoil after a big quake. 

Charles Smith 

Berkeley

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of the pre-Classical music scene or a curious newcomer, this week’s Berkeley Festival and Exhibition provides a wide range of opportunities to binge in gluttonous aural indulgence, or sample a new but ancient part of the musical palette. 

Fans of exotic instruments will be interested in several rarities to be heard during the festival. Of course the most common keyboard instruments will be harpsichords and organs. Plucked string instruments will be mostly lutes and 

theorboes, and recorders will be played by virtuoso musicians. 

The Artaria Quartet features the basset clarinet while performing several Mozart pieces. This will give the clarinet parts a warmer timbre than usual, and present a tonal blend closer to that which Mozart's audiences would have 

heard. Of course their bowed instruments have gut strings, further sweetening the blend. 

Other concerts will feature triple harp, archlute, hurdy-gurdy, viola d'amore, virginal, shawm, sackbut and a host of other delightful unusual instruments. 

Female composers play prominent roles in several of the festival’s programs. The brilliant baroque chorale and instrumental ensemble Magnificat will sing psalms and motets of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani. The ensemble Anima Fortis will perform works of Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda. The medieval quintet Heliotrope will feature compositions of female troubadors.  

The most unusual offering of the festival is an equestrian ballet. That's right-- dancing horses! "LeCarrousel du Roi" returns by popular demand after proving a smash hit at the 2000 Berkeley Festival. Some of the finest riders on the west coast will show off the artistic talents of their great noble beasts as dressage shades into dance. This fabulous spectacle is sure to convert many early music fans to lovers of equestrian arts and convince horse lovers of the joys of Renaissance music. These performances are the only ones which happen outside of Berkeley. They will take place in Walnut Creek at the Heather Farms Park. 

Much of the music presented in this Festival is vocal. Many listeners who feel that "classical" singing style is too artificial and unnatural will be pleasantly surprised by the subtle and sweet vocal technique employed by Renaissance and Baroque performers. These singers aim for beautiful, clear and poetic expression of the text, rather than the bombastic power which characterizes operatic technique. 

Those who perform early music will be especially delighted by the huge exhibition of music publishers and instrument builders. Craftsmen and scholars come from all over the world to display their wares. This exhibition will be open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall. 

Many of the Festival's performances are scheduled during the morning hours and afternoons, so the ambitious concert-goer can easily attend several performances daily. 

Although the Bay Area is one of the recognized centers of early music performance, there won't be a concentration of pre-Classical music again until the next Berkeley Festival in the summer of 2004. 

Some of the concerts that merit special attention are: 

• The local ensemble Baroque Etcetera performs Bach's Cantata #78, which KPFA listeners will recognize as an often-heard theme, especially on Sunday mornings. 

• Soprano Twyla Whittaker presents "The Amorous Nightingale: A Celebration of Baroque Birdsong Arias." 

• La Foolia: Comedy in Early Music. 

• Songs of Orpheus: Ayres of John Dowland. 

• Old Age meets New Age: "Afro-Baroque." 

For a complete schedule of all Festival events, stop by the visitor information center in Zellerbach Hall. For tickets call (510) 642-9988.

Welch second in triple jump 

Kamaiya Warren and Solomon Welch each won medals at the CIF State Championship track & field meet on Saturday in Norwalk. 

Warren pulled off the double for which she has waited three years, taking third in both the shotput and discus. After reaching Saturday’s final on her last throw of Friday trials, Warren clinched third on her final throw with a toss of 45’10 3/4”. The UCLA-bound senior didn’t have a discus throw under 147 feet, but her best throw of 158’09” was more than 15 feet short of the winner, Billie Jo Grant of Arroyo Grande. Warren scored 12 points for the Panther girls, who finished tied for ninth overall with 16 points. 

The other St. Mary’s points came from Danielle Stokes’ fourth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles. Stokes ran the race in 14.17, more than a quarter-second slower than her best time, and blamed her finish on contact with another runner. 

“I was making contact with (J.W. North’s Domenique Manning),” Stokes said. “We hit each others’ arm four times in the race.” 

St. Mary’s Bridget Duffy finished ninth in the 3,200-meter final, with Berkeley resident and Head-Royce senior Clara Horowitz winning the event. 

Welch was the only boy to score for St. Mary’s, taking second in the triple jump with a leap of 48’05 3/4”. The boys’ 4x100 relay team finished seventh.

With the fifth annual Berkeley Arts Festival just around the corner now, festival organizers have begun raising money to create the best possible event in a city they contend is letting its vibrant art scene slowly slip away. 

At yesterday’s garden party fundraiser, festival supporters and patrons of the arts gathered to enjoy the sunny Sunday and talk about the state of the arts in Berkeley.  

“The City of Berkeley could do a lot more for artists. For a city with our reputation we do very little,” said festival founder and organizer Bonnie Hughes. 

While the city has contributed $20,000 to the festival’s $40,000 price tag, Hughes said too often money allocated to the arts funds only highly visible projects, rather than the back-street creators who teeter between starting their artistic career and struggling for a space in which to create. 

“A lot of creativity is ignored. People who do more experimental and inventive work don’t get a lot of support,” said Hughes. “It’s those things that are tried and true and sure to bring in the dollars that the city supports. This takes away from the vitality of the art scene.” 

Hughes once curated the Berkeley Store Gallery, which has since closed its doors and been replaced by Kinkos. 

The Gallery was renowned for its ability to both harness and house the full spectrum of Berkeley artists. There, sculptors mingled with painters, and musicians with poets. Musicians from across the country and from around the world came to the gallery to perform. 

However, since its closing in 2000, Gallery artists have percolated into the relative isolation of their respective studios and left part of the art scene disassociated from itself. This is one reason why Hughes believes the festival helps resurrect Berkeley’s artistic community. 

“The festival provides visibility for a wide variety of artists and reminds people of the depth and breadth of activity out there in the art world. It’s a worthy thing to do,” she said. 

At yesterday’s garden party, few in attendance doubted that the festival would go on if it weren’t for Hughes’ dedication and her seemingly magical ability to organize and raise the much needed and hard-to-come-by funds.  

“It takes mavericks like Bonnie to make the event happen,” said Joshua Hayes, a patron of the arts and contributor to yesterday’s fundraiser. He added that Berkeley’s problem with supporting the arts is two-fold. 

First, Hayes contends that within the city there is a general apathy stemming from people too stressed and overworked to get involved with the arts. This leaves them with little time to make arts events happen. 

Secondly, he said, little space is set aside or made available for the arts. 

“The arts aren’t profit driven. They don’t make as much money as Kinkos. We [society] only create space on commercial potential,” he said. 

In an effort to diversify and enhance the festival’s artistic experience, Hughes solicited the support and participation of theater stalwart George Cotes. Hughes and Cotes worked together and successfully gained approval from UC theater owners to use their theater from June 5 through November 10. However, the city subsequently denied a use-permit, leaving Cotes’ theater production on hold. 

With fingers still crossed, Cotes and Hughes are hopeful that enough support can be mustered to make the production happen. 

Despite bumps in the road, Hughes remains focused and determined to make this year’s festival a success. There will be a strong focus on kids’ arts, with the participation of VALA (Visual Arts, Language Arts), a nonprofit groups that helps organize youth art projects ranging from painting to sculpture and poetry. 

Burgeoning artists also will be given the opportunity to display their work throughout the festival in galleries and in the streets.  

The festival will be held from August 10 to 25.

To the Editor: 

In response to your letter by Susanne K. DeWitt a few days ago, let me first strongly agree with one point: hate crimes are a dangerous thing and we should all be vigilant not to let a climate of mutual suspicion take root in our community. That much I agree with. 

However, to attack Councilman Kriss Worthington, who has always been at the forefront of the fight against hatred and injustice, and to claim that he's somehow fostering intolerance by doing so was a bit hypocritical and underhanded.  

While everybody agrees that the atrocities of the second World War were barbaric and terrifying, to always bring back the specter of a holocaust of 60 years ago in order to defend Israel's present-day atrocities amounts to little more than an attempt to shut down all voices of dissent and to assist Sharon's unspeakable war crimes. 

Please stop using the holocaust to justify Israel's unjustifiable murders of innocent civilians, and stop portraying people, Arabs, Jews and others, who protest those crimes as abettors of anti-Semitism and hate. By doing so, you are sullying the very memories of the holocaust victims you claim to mourn. 

The UC students currently being prosecuted have risked being deported for the simple exercise of their First Amendment rights, and that is why, if our country indeed stands for freedom, the resolution proposed by Kriss  

Worthington is so necessary. Non-violent civil disobedience is an honored tradition in our country, one that should not lead to such drastic consequences as deportation and a sudden end to one's education. 

Thank you, Mr. Worthington for your moral courage and honorable leadership in this matter! Berkeley is proud to always stand alone if need be for the values of justice and freedom. Please never let a vocal minority intimidate you by resorting to the same old tired, self-serving clichés. 

Khalil Bendib 

Berkeley

YOKOHAMA, Japan – Spain finally figured out how to start a World Cup with a victory. England still doesn’t know how to beat Sweden anywhere. 

The Spaniards broke a 52-year winless spell in World Cup openers, dating back to a 1950 victory over the United States. Goals from Raul, Juan Carlos Valeron and Fernando Hierro lifted the Spaniards over Slovenia 3-1 Sunday night (Sunday morning EDT) at Gwangju, South Korea. 

“It wasn’t easy, there are a lot of surprises and all games are very close at this level,” Raul said. “There is more to come.” 

England must hope there are no more meetings with Sweden ahead. A second-half goal by Niclas Alexandersson gave the Swedes a 1-1 tie and stretched their unbeaten streak against the English to 10 games – 3-0-7 – since 1968. FIFA does not recognize all of those matches. 

“It didn’t look good in the first half,” Alexandersson said of Sweden’s one-goal deficit at Saitama, Japan. “We showed a lot of fighting spirit in the second half, when we came back into the game. We could have won the match.” 

Also on Sunday, Argentina, the pretournament favorite, edged Nigeria 1-0 at Ibaraki, Japan, while Paraguay and South Africa tied 2-2 at Busan, South Korea. 

Gabriel Batistuta, a fixture in the Argentina lineup but questionable to start after a poor, injury-plagued season in Italy, sent an angled header into the net off Juan Sebastian Veron’s swinging corner kick in the 63rd minute. 

Batistuta moved into a tie for sixth place in career World Cup goals with 10 with the winner. 

“I am not thinking of any records, I don’t care about that,” he said. “But if I score goals, it means that Argentina gets closer every time to our goal, to win the World Cup.” 

At Busan, in a half-empty 53,926-seat stadium, South Africa rallied from two goals down against Paraguay. 

Quinton Fortune scored on a last-minute penalty kick after a controversial call by the referee. Fortune drove the ensuing kick into the top right corner after the referee judged that Paraguay goalie Ricardo Tavarelli pulled down Sibusiso Zuma. Replays indicated the goalie barely touched Zuma when the South African already was on the way down. 

Referee Lubos Michel handed out eight yellow cards, four to each team. 

Meanwhile, U.S. coach Bruce Arena indicated star striker Clint Mathis might not start in Wednesday’s opener against Portugal because of a slow recovery from a torn knee ligament. 

“It’s been a tough month for him because he was physically behind the other players,” Arena said. 

Arena added that Mathis needs to develop a better work ethic. 

The most publicized injury, the torn thigh muscle of French star Zinedine Zidane, is making good progress and the midfielder started running again this weekend. France dearly missed its playmaker in a stunning 1-0 loss to Senegal.

Julia Parker sometimes dreams of baskets. After 40 years of weaving baskets and serving as a cultural interpreter with the Indian Cultural Program at Yosemite National Park, Parker, a Kashaya Pomo, hopes others will continue to share her dreams.  

Sunday’s Family Day at UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum provided Parker and her daughter, Lucy, such an opportunity to share. The two demonstrated a hands-on approach to the art of native Pomo style basket weaving, told stories and played native games with an audience of both parents and children. 

Though the elder Parker did not originally speak the native Pomo language or know how to weave the traditional baskets, she researched her ancestors practices and quickly became an adept weaver. As a National Park Service ranger in Yosemite Valley, the elder Parker’s duties were to both weave baskets and speak with the public. 

“After a while they said put down your baskets, you have a lot to say. So I started and now I can’t quit talking,” said the elder Parker. 

At the event, Parker and her daughter explained both the practical techniques of weaving and the cultural context of the tradition, emphasizing the importance of patience and resourcefulness. 

“Putting together a basket is like putting together a house. We want it to last,” said the younger Parker. “We can’t go to K-Mart or Target to buy our things. So, it’s our responsibility to learn to take care of these materials, these plants.” 

According to the younger Parker, who is of Miwok, Paiute and Pomo descent, the materials for the baskets are mostly area specific. The younger Parker and her mother rely on red willow, a plant found on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas near Mono Lake, to construct their Pomo style baskets. While most native groups use willow for weaving material, sumac and various roots including bracken fern root and sedge root are also used. 

Constructing the native baskets, used for gathering supplies, preparing food or as toys for children, is a very personal experience according to the elder Parker. 

“Each basket tells a story. In our classes we can tell things about the people through their baskets, through the designs,” she said. 

The mother and daughter team have crossed the country sharing the history and techniques of their craft. The two hold workshops and camps throughout the year and are often invited to share their knowledge at cultural centers. 

For Barbara Takiguchi, coordinator of public programs for Hearst Museum, the mother and daughter represent a link between information and material culture. The cultural interpreters are a part of this year’s “regeneration theme” at Family Day, an event run by the museum for the past 12 years. 

“We were looking to make the collections come alive. Julia and Lucy are prime examples of that search. We wanted to provide access to and take the next step to present these objects and this history to the general public,” said Takiguchi.  

The four generations of the Parker family represent a strong example of the preservation of history through family.  

For the younger Parker, preserving history can be thrilling but also overwhelming. “We get very apprehensive, we want it right now. It’s so important for us to carry this on,” she said. 

Researching the traditional dance, games, clothing and weaving from three separate tribes has left the younger Parker well aware of the vastness of her ancestor’s cultural history and the importance of preservation. 

For the mother and daughter, teaching is the best way to preserve. “We can teach each other and the best way to learn is at home, to teach your family,” said the younger Parker. 

For Takiguchi, showing children the similarities of culture is a critical step in eliminating prejudices. “I always thought the program should show what makes us similar, what makes us human. With Family Day, when the children start to see that, they don’t form judgments, and that can be extremely valuable,” said Takiguchi. 

According to Oakland resident Janet King, much can be learned from the cultural presentation. “I think this is about time. We’re such a fast culture, we’re always worried about time. To take the time to do a basket, I think a lot of people will realize the prayers, the thoughts that go into this. It’s not about how fast you make it. It’s not about speed,” said King. 

Sunday’s presentation provided parent Burke Treidler an opportunity to expose his daughter to something she otherwise would not get the chance to see. “I wanted to find something cultural for the kids to do,” said Treidler. 

By the end of the presentation, the elder Parker led a circle of children in a traditional Native American gambling game played with dice made from walnuts. As Parker instructed the children on how to play the native game, she added “You know, we like to have fun every once in a while too. We aren’t always weaving baskets.”

Boy nearly hangs himself 

EAST PALO ALTO — An 8-year-old boy was recovering this weekend after he nearly hanged himself on a school jungle gym with a jump rope a day earlier. 

Police say the third-grader almost strangled himself Friday after tying a jump rope to the top of a playground climbing structure and then wrapping the other end around his neck before jumping. 

Three young classmates held his body up to keep the rope from tightening, police said. 

The boy lost consciousness and suffered a mild seizure after playground monitors loosened the rope and brought him down. He was resuscitated by a school aide who performed CPR, police said. 

San Mateo County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rick Yearman said the boy didn’t intend to harm himself and the incident is being treated as an accident. 

The boy was taken to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford where he was listed in good condition. 

Murder suspect grabbed in bridge chase  

SAN RAFAEL— A homicide suspect led authorities on a chase that reached 100 mph and crossed the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge before the man was run off the road and arrested Saturday afternoon. 

Acting on a tip, Contra Costa sheriff’s deputies spotted John Krause in El Sobrante around 4:15 p.m. — and the pursuit began. Krause was wanted for allegedly shooting a Vallejo man last May. 

Krause eventually wound his way through Richmond and onto the bridge, sheriff’s Lt. Larry Gregg said. On the other side, San Rafael police picked up the chase, which ended around 4:50 p.m. when cruisers pushed him off the road and boxed in his gray Honda. 

No one was injured, San Rafael Sgt. Erik Masterson said, though several patrol cars were damaged. 

Contra Costa deputies arrested Krause and will transfer him to Vallejo, Gregg said. 

New toll rate on Golden Gate  

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden Gate Bridge officials say they need to increase tolls to $5 — though $8 would be even better. 

Bridge District officials are considering proposals that would raise the toll from its current $3 per car to $5 to help reduce the $452 million budget deficit they expect in five years. 

Angry commuters who attended a special meeting Thursday suggested the district only needed the money to pad the wallets of bridge managers. 

Bridge officials explained the bridge is in poor shape financially, and that even a $5 toll won’t balance the budget — they said an $8 toll is what the bridge really needs. 

Spilled fish slow traffic  

SAN FRANCISCO — A messy spill of fish parts backed up traffic for hours on the Bay Bridge as commuters tried to escape the city Friday afternoon. 

The spill happened on the lower deck just west of Yerba Buena Island around 1:30 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. The driver continued on for several miles before stopping — officer Erika Winfield said he might not have realized what happened.

SAN FRANCISCO — At least 100 people were left homeless early Sunday after a fire ripped through a residential hotel. 

No one was seriously injured in the blaze, but 25 to 30 residents had to be rescued from fire escapes and the roof. Three people suffered minor smoke inhalation and were taken to San Francisco General Hospital, said San Francisco Fire Capt. Pete Howes. 

Fire officials were unsure what caused the three-alarm fire at the Baldwin Hotel just before 4 a.m. It started on a second-floor light shaft of the 200-room hotel and then spread to the roof and attic, Howes said. 

The American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter for those who were displaced by the blaze. It was unknown when residents would be allowed to return or how much damage was sustained, Howes said.

OJAI — A 700-acre wildfire burned out of control Sunday along the steep, brush-covered hillsides of Los Padres National Forest, destroying an abandoned building and prompting the evacuation of two campgrounds. 

Campers left Pine Mountain, about 12 miles northeast of Ojai in Ventura County, as firefighters battled the growing flames in windy, dry weather that included temperatures in the 80s. 

A stretch of scenic Highway 33 was closed and the flames threatened a nearby ranch, said Kathy Good, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Forest Service. 

Air tankers, water-dropping helicopters and about 800 firefighters attacked the blaze, which was reported on private land in the National Forest about 3 p.m. Saturday. The cause was under investigation. 

“We’re hoping to catch this fire in the next couple of days because of unfavorable weather predictions for later in the week,” said Joanne Guttman, a spokeswoman for the Forest Service. 

By Sunday afternoon, the fire had destroyed an abandoned building once used for pack horses, Guttman said. 

Officials had originally estimated 1,200 acres were on fire but revised that after taking new measurements Sunday morning. 

The last known wildfire in the area was one of the largest in California history — 1932’s Matilija Fire, which covered 219,300 acres, Good said. 

Meanwhile, a California Department of Forestry fire chief apologized to San Bernardino residents for losing control of a fire-training exercise that may have sparked a 2,650-acre blaze near homes in the San Bernardino National Forest. 

The blaze was 60 percent contained Sunday with full containment expected by Friday. 

“We should not have burned there,” Tom O’Keefe, San Bernardino unit chief for the Department of Forestry, told more than 130 residents during meetings Saturday in the mountain resorts of Running Springs, Lake Arrowhead and Crestline. “I am sorry. I can’t apologize enough.” 

“There was a very narrow window where we do this kind of training, and we exceeded that window ... There will be repercussions for this,” he added. 

The blaze began Friday near state Highway 18, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. It came within four miles of Lake Arrowhead and singed a wing of Arrowhead Springs resort, a 1930s hotel now used by a theology school. The fire also destroyed five outbuildings, but there were no evacuations 

Three firefighters sustained minor injuries, including heat exhaustion. 

The fire training exercise was designed to teach firefighters how to burn vegetation in the face of oncoming fire.

SAN FRANCISCO – The dot-com boom may be bust, but multimedia art still thrives on the Internet, where audiences hungry for authentic, uncensored creative content are clicking through “webisodes” in droves. 

Using Flash animation software, programmers can create original 5-minute cartoons, build fine art images or design games where people can pound Osama bin Laden bloody in a virtual boxing ring. 

A number of artists have attracted cult followings, and some are drawing enough of an audience to make money through advertising and subscriptions. 

Macromedia Inc.’s $500 Flash animation software isn’t the only multimedia tool available for building 3-D graphics, Internet art and high-end animation. But because it is so easy to use, Flash has become the industry standard. 

For artists exploring this medium, the Internet has obvious appeal. 

“Unlike being an unpublished novelist or underground painter, with tools like Flash, you can distribute your work to millions,” said Stewart McBride, president and founder of United Digital Artists in New York. “You can be a Vincent van Gogh of the Web and actually be known in your lifetime. With traditional media that is not always possible.” 

The audience for Flash toons is small — hampered somewhat by the slow growth in fast Internet connections — but has potential, since Flash player software comes installed on most personal computers. 

About 1.3 million copies of Flash have sold since 1996. During the dot-com boom, many corporations used it to give their Web sites some sizzle. Flash is used in online greeting cards, music videos, art museum installations, even the intro to the Rosie O’Donnell TV show. 

Much of that corporate money is harder to come by nowadays, but Flash artists are still out there, trying to revolutionize art, cartoons and online entertainment. 

“Some little broke artist with a computer, can dabble with art, music and movies now. That’s what’s happened,” said Joe Sparks, a former punk rocker and pioneering video game developer who dresses in black and wears his hair like Elvis. 

Sparks — who worked with entertainment site AtomShockwave.com — was laid off last summer like many other dot.commers, but not before making a big splash with “Radiskull and Devil Doll.” 

He whipped up the story as a demo and put the rock-n-roll toon — which he wrote, narrated, animated and composed — on a Web site, telling a few colleagues to check it out. 

Word spread and two weeks later Radiskull had 100,000 page views. His story line based on the pair of lovable demons was on its way to becoming an Internet hit. 

“I never got quite a visceral first reaction to anything I have ever done,” said Sparks, who created the breakthrough CD-ROM video games “Total Distortion” and “Spaceship Warlock” in the 1990s. 

Sparks says even he doesn’t quite understand the appeal of his 10-minute webisodes, in which Devil Doll rides a Harley too large for him, tries hard to be bad and smiles innocently when doing evil. 

“Joe has become kind of a cult hero for a lot of people,” said Scott Roesch, a vice president at AtomShockwave.com, which owns and makes ad revenue off Spark’s toon. 

In his apartment in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, Sparks works in a compact studio full of music mixers, computers and software manuals. He gets up to 50 e-mails a day from fans, as well as photos of their Radiskull and Devil Doll tattoos, Halloween costumes and children’s coloring sketches. 

The college students and cubicle dwellers who follow each webisode often recite lines from the show such as, “We’ll be back to kick it later.” In Japan, a company is planning to market hundreds of 10-inch stuffed Devil Dolls, candies and other merchandise. 

Flash toons create traffic for AtomShockwave.com. The Web entertainment spinoff of Macromedia now has about 45 employees, down from 170. But Roesch said the business is stabilizing as advertisers pay to reach subscribers who generate 18 million unique page views a month. 

“We have this kind of coffee break phenomenon where people take a break, watch a movie or animation and then go back to work,” Roesch said. 

Programmer Jonathan Gay began developing the product that would become Flash in 1993. He eventually sold his company, FutureWave, to Macromedia in 1996, where he still works. 

Flash has some depth as a multipurpose tool with its own programming language called Action Script, which developers use to improve features on corporate Web sites. Macromedia wants to market the software more toward those practical (translate: profitable) corporate uses, such as interactive online tours for car dealers. 

Meanwhile, Flash art has been recognized as its own category at South by Southwest and other film festivals, and there is an undercurrent of Flash artists determined to do their own, decidedly uncommercial thing. 

Sparks is gearing up this month to launch “Dickey and Jackie,” a toon exploring a simply drawn world of preschoolers against a backdrop of rock music. 

People may hate it — he won’t know until he puts it online for the world to see. Then again, popular appeal isn’t necessarily the point. 

“Hundreds of years ago, only kings could dabble in music and art,” said Sparks. “Now, there’s a lot of opportunity for people like me who are loners and like to chisel stuff out and share it with others.” 

Here’s a glimpse of two better-known Flash programmers: 

Name: Todd M. Rosenberg 

Location: New York City 

Site: http://www.oddtodd.com 

Specialty: Laid off by AtomShockwave last summer, Rosenberg created OddTodd, a Flash toon celebrating the life of a laid-off dot.commer. With more than a million hits and $10,000 donated to his tip jar, Todd had to return some of his unemployment benefits to the state of New York. 

What he does and why: “Somehow they know from watching a cartoon that others have had a tough time finding a job. ... Even if I get a job, I will keep the Web site and keep making cartoons.” 

——— 

Name: Joe Shields 

Location: Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Site: http://www.joecartoon.com/ 

Specialty: A former T-shirt designer and cartoonist, Shields sells advertising space and markets his toons and interactive games. Visitors can beat up Osama bin Laden and run cute frogs through a virtual blender. Shields — whose Humvee has splattered gerbils painted on the sides — is the master of road kill gimmicks, and the site is not for animal lovers. 

What he does and why: “Deep-seated anger over the loss of a puppy to Niagra Falls. His leash broke while I was joyously swinging him in a circular motion about my head. It was horrible ... I don’t wanna talk about it.”

STINSON BEACH – The surfer who was attacked by a shark at Stinson Beach was recovering over the weekend and talking about the toothy beast that nearly took him down for good. 

Speaking from his hospital bed Saturday, Lee Fontan, 24, of Bolinas, said he’s just glad to be alive. He spent much of the weekend watching World Cup soccer games on television and reflecting on the attack. 

“I saw the jaws of death ... right in front of my face,” he said. “I can’t believe he didn’t bite my hand off.” 

Fontan was in critical condition following the attack, but that was upgraded to fair on Sunday. He received 100 stitches during a one-and-a-half hour operation on his leg and shoulder. 

Fontan was attacked Friday about 300 feet off Stinson Beach, 20 miles northwest of San Francisco. He was plucked from his surfboard by a shark that witnesses said was about 15 feet long. 

Fontan told the San Francisco Chronicle that he never saw the shark coming until it was too late. 

“It grabbed me ... just like a freshwater bass will grab a frog,” Fontan said. Witnesses said the shark lifted Fontan high out of the water in its jaws. 

He plans to resume surfing once he fully recovers. 

Another shark attack occurred Friday when a shark bit the foot of a teen-ager swimming about 200 feet off Florida’s St. George Island, police said. 

The 16-year-old boy underwent three hours of surgery after attack and was recovering well, said Jay Abbott, chief of St. George Island Fire and Rescue. 

The boy was vacationing on the island with his family. He was released from a Panama City hospital Saturday, but his name was not released.

SAN FRANCISCO – Organizers of the California AIDS Ride said Saturday that a competing ride and a lawsuit claiming the event doesn’t give enough of its proceeds to research have cut by half the number of participants in this year’s trek. 

About 1,200 people have signed up for the grueling seven-day ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles along Highway 1, and organizers said they expect about two thirds of those will actually embark Sunday on the 575-mile trek. Last year, the AIDS Ride attracted 2,600 participants. 

One reason for the low turnout is that some riders participated in the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride, which took place two weeks ago, according to Craig E. Thompson, an AIDS Ride organizer and executive director of AIDS Project Los Angeles. 

“There is this group of ... people who do rides and now we have forced them to make a choice,” Thompson said. “We have forced a division, and that’s unfortunate.” 

The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation organized the LifeCycle Ride after claiming that not enough funds are going toward their programs. 

In 2000, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation received 65 cents of every dollar raised. Last year, spokesman Gustavo Suarez said, that went down to about 50 cents. Expenses generally should not exceed 35 cents per dollar, according to the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. 

A lawsuit filed by a Berkeley bicyclist in April made a similar claim that AIDS Ride organizers were taking too much of the money they raised. 

Mark Cloutier sued Los Angeles-based Pallotta Teamworks, alleging the AIDS Ride organizer has misrepresented and mismanaged the amount of money distributed to nonprofit agencies for research. Cloutier said Pallotta delivered less than one-third of the $28 million it received from its 2000 and 2001 Vaccine Rides to charities that conduct AIDS vaccine research.

SAN FRANCISCO – The Ravenswood school district is under fire from the state for its failure to improve its special education and the unethical behavior of some of its administrators. 

The California Department of Education wants to take over Ravenswood school district because, it says, its administrators have failed to serve disabled children. 

The state filed a takeover plan Friday that says it would appoint an administrator to replace the superintendent and the locally elected school board, the San Jose Mercury News reported. 

The state-appointed administrator would serve for two years and under his or her tenure progress reports would be submitted to the every three months. 

The Ravenswood school district, which serves East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, has been sued for its poor record in serving children with disabilities and last year a judge found it in contempt of a federal court order. 

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson gave its administrators a final chance to prove their competence before ordering a takeover. He also ordered the district to pay a $10,000 fine and to reimburse lawyers representing disabled students. 

Henderson will hold an evidentiary hearing on June 18 to determine the school district’s progress and to decide whether a state takeover should take place 

But report cards by a court-appointed monitor reveal Ravenswood has not made much improvement and now, one of its principals is under scrutiny for allegedly submitting bogus petitions to a federal court. 

In December, the district suspended Costano School Principal Marthelia Hargrove for her role in submitting signatures collected for other matters and turning them in under a new heading related to the special education case. 

Earlier this week, Superintendent Charlie Mae Knight submitted a sworn statement to the court saying the school board is “pursuing the dismissal” of Hargrove. 

Hargrove has denied any involvement with the fraudulent petitions.

SACRAMENTO – It was nearly 40 years ago that California set a national trend by creating a comprehensive Master Plan for Higher Education, a blueprint for the state’s public universities and community colleges. 

Now, state officials again are in the spotlight as they attempt to expand that plan to include preschool through high school. 

The ambitious and unprecedented project started in 1999 after the state Legislature created the Joint Committee for Master Planning, which is made up of nine senators and 10 assemblymembers. 

Now, the plan is almost complete and a rough draft was released in May. The final version is expected in August. 

The plan will serve as a roadmap for students as they enter preschool and make their way through college. It comes with recommendations that the Legislature will implement in coming years to try to unite the fragmented and troubled educational system. 

It will also try to smooth the transition for students as they leave high school and go to college or enter the work force. 

Navigating students through to higher education is hardly a new idea, says Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. 

“There’s a big effort going on in the country to close the gap between the various levels of education to make the transition for students better,” Callan said. “Different states have different strategies for how to do that.” 

Florida tackled the problem by consolidating all public education — schools, colleges and universities — under a single state board of education. 

More than a dozen other states already have K-16 councils. Maryland has set up a voluntary statewide council and Georgia is on its way to creating a mandatory council. 

Lora Weber, spokeswoman for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, said the Legislature has been trying for years to approve bills that would have combined the K-12 education department with the Higher Education Board. 

“We’re always doing things in joint efforts. We have the (preschool) through 16 Council, but it’s really just an ad hoc group,” Weber said. 

Stephan Blake, chief consultant for the joint committee, said the Legislature decided to redraft the plan to coordinate the attempts at education reform, which up until now have been disjointed efforts to improve only parts of the education system at any given time. 

“We really have been operating without any kind of vision or framework,” Blake said. “The higher education Master Plan not only laid out a framework that led to our success, but it also gave great stability to the policy arena, whereas there is no stability around K-12 policies.” 

The preliminary plan recommends a number of changes to the current system. In the initial phase of a child’s education, the plan suggests requiring full-day kindergarten classes and universal access to preschool. The plan also suggests increasing funding to screen children for developmental disabilities before they become barriers to learning. 

On the other end, as students prepare for college, it suggests creating a standard high school curriculum and coordinating it with the requirements to get into college. 

Other states, like Oregon, are also pushing to require public institutions to accept high school exit examinations in place of standardized assessment tests. 

At the state level, the plan says changing the education governance structure is necessary. It recommends making the Department of Education part of the governor’s cabinet. 

“We think that if we are going to have meaningful accountability we need to make changes in the alignment of the authority,” Blake said. 

The rough draft is the product of years of working with California educators, parents, education experts and business leaders to design a blueprint that state officials can work with, Blake said. Now that they have a working plan, they are asking for public input. 

Starting Monday, the committee will operate a two-week online forum, where people can discuss the various elements of the plan with the educators, business leaders and state officials who developed it. They will also hold hearings around the state this summer. The committee will make changes based on those comments. 

And when the time comes to adopt the final project, the committee expects education experts across the nation to be watching. 

“California is usually ahead of the curve on taking on these issues,” said Gordon Vanderwater, a researcher for the Education Commission of the States. “Everyone is going to be very interested. 

“But California is so big that other states may have a hard time relating,” he added. “California faces immigration issues, language barriers, diversity and urban issues. These issues aren’t unique, because other states face them too, but not on such a grand scale.” 

Whether the plan will improve the California education system is up to the politicians, according to Lance Izumi, director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Center for School Reform. 

“It’s a massive, massive plan,” Izumi said. “If the committees and Legislature get bogged down in minutia, it’s going to be overwhelming.” 

“This thing can be a reform document or something that just tinkers at the edges,” he said. “It’s up to the Legislature as to what kind of document they want to lead them in the coming decades.”

SACRAMENTO – A four-member disabled climbing team made history early Saturday, becoming the first paraplegic climbers to reach the 14,162-foot summit of northern California’s Mt. Shasta. 

The team of climbers, each disabled in previous skiing, car and climbing accidents, reached the snowcapped peak Saturday morning, said climber Muffy Davis, 29, of Sun Valley, Idaho. 

“We’re there. We’re on the summit calling from Mt. Shasta. We are on top of the world, said Davis, a medal-winning member of the United States Disabled Ski Team. Davis suffered back injuries during a 1989 ski accident. 

“We’re still celebrating,” she said by cellular telephone from the summit. “Everyone is just high in general.” 

The group and its support team, 20 members in all, ascended the mountain during a seven-day, 4.5-mile climb using “snow pods,” hand-cranked machines similar to mini-tractors. On a web site devoted to the climb, members called their Shasta expedition “the largest paraplegic attempt ever organized in the history of mountaineering.” 

The machines, developed by Peter Rieke, 48, of Pasco, Wash., a disabled climber on the Shasta ascent and owner of Mobility Engineering, are expected to open mountaineering to more climbers with disabilities. 

Rieke, who broke his neck and back during a 1994 climb, developed the snow pods with help of friends over six years. In 1998, he ascended Oregon’s 11,240-foot Mount Hood. 

Other climbers to reach the top of Mt. Shasta on Saturday included Mark Wellman, who has climbed El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, and Keegan Reilly, who reached the summit of Colorado’s 14,433-foot Mt. Elbert last summer. 

Davis said the team began its final ascent at 7 a.m. Saturday. The climbers, who carried messages of support from around the world, spent the night about 1,200 feet below the mountaintop.

Animal implanted with cloned cells hasn’t rejected new tissue; process could make organ transplants much easier 

SAN FRANCISCO – A cow implanted with cells taken from a cloned embryo didn’t reject the tissue, showing the potential of much-debated therapeutic cloning, researchers say. 

Cloning technology is controversial and opposed by many, including President Bush and Pope John Paul II, because it requires creating and destroying embryos. 

However, some scientists who oppose cloning humans say they believe therapeutic cloning should be pursued because it could supply healthy new tissue to fix a variety of illnesses. 

“While more work needs to be done, this demonstrates the potential use of this technology,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of tissue engineering at Children’s Hospital Boston and a co-author of the study published in the June issue of Nature Biotechnology. 

Using healthy cells cloned with the same DNA of a patient could make difficult organ and tissue transplants much easier, Atala said. 

In the study, researchers removed the nucleus from a cow egg and replaced it with a skin cell containing DNA from another cow. They then implanted the cloned embryo into a surrogate cow and let the embryo grow for about six weeks before removing it. They removed heart, skeletal and kidney cells from the embryo, grew them further in the laboratory — even creating mini kidneys — and implanted the cloned cells into the cow that donated the DNA. 

They removed the cloned cells after six weeks and found all were thriving. Another cloned set of cells was implanted into the same cow and were found to be functional after 12 weeks. Some of the mini kidneys even produced a urine-like liquid, the researchers said. 

“It was pretty spectacular and beautiful,” said co-author Dr. Robert Lanza of Worcester, Mass.-based Advanced Cell Technology. 

While still far from human use, experts say the latest advance demonstrates the disease-fighting potential of the method. 

“It’s a very important result,” said Robert Nerem, director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues. “Immune rejection is a very big problem in tissue engineering.” 

The report comes three months after other scientists used therapeutic cloning to fix genetic illness in mice. 

But the fact that an embryo was grown for six weeks in a surrogate instead of a test tube concerned even some therapeutic cloning proponents. 

“While the research in animal models shows that it may be possible to use cloning to generate tissues and eliminate tissue rejection, it’s important for the American public to understand that the methods used in this animal experiment should not be pursued in humans,” said Christopher Reeve, the actor who has become a patient advocate since being paralyzed in a horse riding accident. 

“Research involving the implantation of a human embryo into a woman, even to derive lifesaving cells, crosses a very important line and we need to pass legislation that would prohibit it,” he said. 

The authors of the paper said they too are opposed to recreating the experiment in humans. 

“We think it is ethically unacceptable to implant a cloned embryo in a woman for any purpose,” Lanza said. 

There are three competing bills pending in the Senate that address the issue of human cloning. One would ban all forms of cloning, while the others would outlaw cloning to create a baby but allow the technology for use in finding disease cures as long as the embryos were destroyed after a few days and never implanted in women. 

“The timing of this study could not have come at a better time,” said Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist who supports therapeutic cloning.

xLOS ANGELES – A lawmaker planned to unveil a bill Monday that would raise California’s smoking age from 18 to 21, making it the highest in the nation. 

The bill would make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase tobacco products, including cigarettes, in the state. All 50 states set a minimum age of at least 18 following a 1992 directive from Congress. In three states — Alabama, Alaska and Utah — the legal age is 19. 

State Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, said the goal is to cut smoking rates among kids in their teens, the age when most smokers pick up the habit. 

More than 400,000 deaths each year in the U.S. are attributable to tobacco-related causes, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The American Lung Association estimates about 90 percent of all smokers begin smoking before the age of 21. 

“Our highest calling is to do things that save lives and the best way to prevent smoking deaths is to prevent people from becoming addicted to tobacco in the first place. My bill is the best way to do that,” Koretz said. 

The move follows a February vote by the California Medical Association to push for the change in state law. 

Dr. Leonard Klay, a Santa Rosa obstetrician and gynecologist who introduced the measure at the association’s annual meeting, said a higher smoking age, along with peer pressure and the taxes that make cigarettes unaffordable for many teens, should cut smoking rates. 

“If you’re smoking by age 21, it’s very difficult to quit,” said Klay, 64, who smoked for more than dozen years after beginning at age 19. 

The American Lung Association initially was cool to the medical group’s proposal, saying it preferred to concentrate on enforcing current tobacco-related laws. 

On Friday, however, Paul Knepprath, a lobbyist for the American Lung Association of California, said the group would support the proposed legislation, despite what he called a lack of evidence that a hike in the minimum age would reduce youth smoking. 

Anti-smoking activists fear the bill could derail other tobacco-related legislative efforts, including continued pushes to boost taxes on cigarettes. 

Gov. Gray Davis has proposed tacking 50 cents on each pack of cigarettes to help close an expected $23.6 billion budget shortfall. The Lung Association and others are pushing to add an additional 15 cents on top of that to go to anti-smoking efforts. 

Brendan McCormick, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest tobacco company, said the company believes a better approach to curbing youth smoking is enforcement of existing laws, but that it would remain neutral on the bill. 

“We will be guided by whatever society says the minimum age should be for tobacco products,” McCormick said. 

University of Southern California student Rob Mariano, 21, said he didn’t think tighter access would prevent young people from smoking. 

“They can try all they want, but kids are going to find ways to get cigarettes,” said Mariano, who began smoking at 14. Mariano said he bought cigarettes from stores that didn’t ask for identification or had older friends buy them. 

Because the deadline for introducing new bills has passed, Koretz planned to amend an existing tobacco-related bill to seek the change in state law. 

That bill, AB 1453, would also ban ashtrays where it is illegal to smoke, require them in designated smoking areas and restrict the distribution of free tobacco samples. It has been stalled in the state Senate for the past year.

CHICO – An autopsy Friday could not determine for certain if the body of a young girl found buried in rural Butte County is the missing daughter of a man believed to have killed himself last week. 

The Butte County sheriff-coroner’s office said it will probably take a DNA test to show if the body found Wednesday is that of 11-year-old Jeanene Bonner of Altadena. 

Blood samples from the body and from Jeanene’s parents have been sent to the California Department of Justice for DNA comparison, with expedited results expected in about two weeks, the coroner’s office said. 

Dental records were inconclusive because Jeanene’s teeth had no notable cavities or fillings, and her most recent x-rays are about three years old. 

The autopsy found nothing to indicate the body is not that of the missing girl, the coroner’s office said. Authorities previously said the body matches Jeanene’s description. 

The girl apparently died of a single gunshot wound to the head, and there were no other notable injuries, the autopsy showed. 

Jeanene was reported missing May 27 to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office, after her father, Joaquin Garcia, picked her up at school a week earlier.

Approximately 275 antiwar demonstrators converged at Martin Luther King Jr. park yesterday evening to kick off a nationwide protest of all aggression and violence against civilians. The coalition, “Not in our Name,” stands against war, Israeli occupation of the West Bank, increased aggression between India and Pakistan and the U.S. extending military to aid to be used against all people. 

Snehal Shingavi, a UC Berkeley graduate student, and outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, said the illustrated the continued commitment of the people. 

Shingavi has been the subject of some controversy lately at the university over a class he teaches entitled The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance.” 

Shingavi, also a leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, included in the course syllabus, a statement that “conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections.” 

According to Shingavi there are conversations, debates and dialogues that can only happen within any given movement. But university officials said Shingavi was in violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of political beliefs.  

Shingavi has since removed the sentence at the university’s request.  

Shingavi recently learned that members of his group SJP were allowed back onto campus again, and that charges against them had been dropped by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. Yesterday’s rally, was additionally good news for him.  

“People come coming out again and again,” Shingavi said. “And saying none of this [U.S. military action abroad as well as financial support of the Israeli government] serves the interest of the people. And they say it is in the interested of safety that the U.S. government does this. When it is their actions day by day that makes the world more unstable and unsafe.” 

The coalition sited 13 other cities that were staging simultaneous rallies — including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City and Boston.  

But some present had different views on how quickly a national movement would take shape in the current political climate. 

“Essentially it’s a civil rights movement, and there’s always an ebb and flow,” said International Solidarity Movement member Rob Lipton. 

Lipton returned from Israel in mid-April where he was engaging in a civil disobedience protest that escalated into his essentially being a human shield in between armed Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians, according to Lipton. 

“It will grow as our civil liberties are more and more impacted. The concern will become greater and greater,” Lipton said. “This is basically the McCarthy era all over again, but we’re a lot smarter now.” 

The march began at 7 p.m. and ended near the UC Berkeley campus off Telegraph Avenue. It drew the attention of the Berkeley Police Department but was peaceful and there were no arrest. 

“This is more of a solemn march,” said Raiko, an organizer of the event. It was smaller, more organized and far less tumultuous than previous protest. And it was designed to appeal to a broad base, and reach out to people who might shy away from rowdier rallies. 

“Part of what we are trying to as people who live in this country is say ‘no,’ not in our name,” said Xochitl Johnson, a member of Not in Our Name who was charged with assaulting an officer at a previous protest down University Avenue. 

“We’re going to have to build this movement from a very broad base and bring in people who are not use to stepping up and speaking out,” Johnson said. 

She added that there is a clear correlation between what is happening today in the Middle East and what has happened in history with other groups who have economically oppressed.  

Another member of the group who spoke out was Jeff Paterson, a former U.S. Marines who at 19-years-of-age was stationed in the Gulf and expected to fight. Paterson was the first U.S. military personnel to take a stand against fight in the Persian Gulf and after the war spent two years trying to negotiate freedom for more than a 100 U.S. military personnel who were incarcerated for protesting the war. Paterson said it was his experience in the U.S. military that opened his eyes to the inherent racism that exist in U.S. military policy. 

In the next several months the coalition will attempt to establish as many national ties as it can.  

- Contact reporter at devona@berkeledailyplanet.net

LOS ANGELES – A 7-year-old boy whose body was found in a mansion pool days after he disappeared drowned accidentally, the coroner’s office said Wednesday. 

An autopsy determined that Paolo Ayala died about the time he was reported missing on Sunday, said Craig Harvey, chief of operations for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. 

The boy, who could not swim, was last seen alive at an afternoon pool party and was reported missing when his parents came to pick him up. 

The discovery of the body by a housekeeper on Tuesday following repeated searches of the wealthy Holmby Hills area. That initially led Deputy Police Chief Dave Kalish to suggest the possibility that the body may have been placed in the pool later. 

However, Harvey said Paolo died of asphyxia due to fresh water drowning, probably at the time he was first reported missing. 

“The death has been ruled by the coroner to be accidental,” Harvey said. “Anatomical findings show no evidence of the body having been removed from the pool prior to discovery. 

The ruling left the question of why the body had not been spotted by the 10 adults and 15 children at the party, as well as the many police officers who arrived later. 

Kalish said Wednesday that the body apparently was camouflaged by plaster from the degrading pool floor and walls that made the water milky and gave the illusion of seeing the bottom. 

“This has been an anguishing case for us,” Kalish said Wednesday. “We desperately wanted to find that child alive.” 

“Clearly, obviously we learned from this situation not to rely on what you think you see,” he said.

LOS ANGELES – African-Americans get more television turf than other minorities but pay a price: Black characters tend to be segregated in sitcoms and by network, a study released Tuesday found. 

“Despite the large number of African Americans on television, they continue to be ’ghettoized,”’ according to the study from the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Black characters were more likely to appear in comedies, with 39 percent of all black characters in sitcoms compared to 31 percent for whites, 23 percent for Hispanics and 21 percent for Asians. 

One of the least-watched networks, UPN, was the most likely to feature black characters, the study said. Blacks represent 28 percent of the characters on UPN series, compared to about 12 percent on other networks. 

More than half of all black characters who appeared on the screen for more than 10 minutes per hour of programming were on UPN and most appeared on two nights, Monday and Saturday. The latter is the least-watched TV night. 

CBS was the network with the second-largest percentage of all African-American characters, 17 percent.

LOS ANGELES – Police searched some of the most expensive real estate in the city Monday for a 7-year-old boy who vanished during a weekend birthday party in Westwood. 

Paolo Ayala disappeared from a home pool party in the tony residential area near Beverly Hills shortly before his parents arrived to pick him up at 5 p.m. Sunday, police said. 

The missing boy’s father, from Beverly Hills, said his son may have wandered to nearby Holmby Park. 

“He is very friendly,” said Franklin Ayala. 

He was last seen barefoot and shirtless, wearing only a pair of blue swimming trunks. 

Four separate teams of police dogs tracked the boy’s scent south after scouring the house and a nearby park and golf course, said police Sgt. John Pasquariello. The dogs picked up the scent about a mile from the home, Pasquariello said.

PALO ALTO – While unhealthy school meals are prompting legislators around the country to consider laws making them better, some California school districts are hoping to achieve that goal by going organic. 

The Palo Alto Unified School District is considering such a switch, following the lead of Berkeley schools that made the move more than a year ago. 

The Palo Alto schools held a tasting Friday to determine what organic foods students would eat. The idea is to offer chemical-free ingredients, and fresh, locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables to children. 

Alicia Michelson, a fifth-grader at Ohlone Elementary School where the tasting was held, tried the organic strawberries, macaroni and cheese, and rice. 

“I think it was better than what we usually have,” she said. “I think we should have more organic things, because it’s better for our health.” 

Students placed paper clips in one of three tubs marked “yummy,” “OK” or “yuck,” to let school officials know what they thought. Most of the votes for foods including burritos, pasta and chicken fettucine were “yummy,” but some, such as the chickenless nuggets, received mostly “OK” votes. 

Ohlone third-grader Catherine Volpe usually buys her lunch at school, and said that although she didn’t know what organic meant, she liked the food better. 

“It was delicious,” she said. “It just tasted a little better and a bunch of things were much more healthy.” 

Berkeley Unified School District decided more than a year ago to get many of its ingredients from local organic farmers or from its school gardens. 

Palo Alto Unified won’t be switching its meal provider. Instead, the district is working with Sodexho, the Maryland-based food service giant, to provide organic lunches to three elementary schools, and then possibly expanding it to 14 other district schools. Because Sodexho works in schools nationally, the district is hoping the change catches on. 

“This can happen everywhere if people support it,” said Jesse Cool, a member of Palo Alto’s Healthy School Lunches committee. “Hopefully, organic is not elitist any more. All kids deserve to have it.” 

But if the change to organic is made, kids may not see a drastic overhaul of lunch menus. They’ll still be able to get pizza and cookies. 

“We’re trying to do the food they’re used to eating, but maybe make it taste a little better and be a little healthier,” Cool said. 

The change could affect cost, said Alva Spence, area manager for Sodexho and food service consultant for the district. Currently, school lunches cost students about $2.20. The price of milk alone could rise about 50 cents for an 8-ounce carton when the move is made to organic, Spence said. 

That wouldn’t deter Kristi Vandivier, whose two sons attend second and fourth grade at Ohlone. Vandivier’s children bring their lunches, which she says are healthier than the meals the school already offers. 

“It’s worth it to me to pay the extra money,” she said.

Bush proposing  

Cabinet to oversee domestic security 

WASHINGTON — Stung by intelligence failures, President Bush called on Congress Thursday night to remake the government with a terrorist-fighting Department of Homeland Security, warning that “thousands of trained killers are plotting to attack us.” 

Congress welcomed the proposal, even as it intensified its inquiry into lapses before the Sept. 11 attacks, hearing from an FBI whistle-blower as well as the agency’s director. 

In a nationally broadcast address, Bush acknowledged that “suspicions and insights of some of our front-line agents did not get enough attention.” 

“We need to know when warnings were missed or signs unheeded — not to point the finger of blame, but to make sure we correct any problems, and prevent them from happening again,” the president said. Bush spoke to a national TV audience from a lectern placed in the threshold of the White House’s Blue Room, with Washington’s stormy evening sky visible through the window over his shoulder. On his lapel, was the small American flag pin he has worn since Sept. 11. 

FBI whistle-blower criticizes  

bureaucracy,  

says it impedes  

anti-terror effort 

WASHINGTON — The FBI is weighed down by bureaucracy, “make-work paperwork” and a culture that discourages risk-taking, an agency whistle-blower told Congress on Thursday, venting frustration with an organization she said could have done more to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

“Seven to nine levels (of bureaucracy) is really ridiculous,” Coleen Rowley, a lawyer in the FBI’s Minneapolis office, told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and a nationwide television audience. 

Rowley appeared after FBI Director Robert S. Mueller suggested that Congress expand surveillance powers that were put into law only seven months ago, and said his storied agency needs to be “more flexible, agile and mobile” if it is to prevent future terrorist attacks.

WASHINGTON — Investigators working for Chandra Levy’s parents discovered a human leg bone and twisted wire Thursday near the site where her remains were found in a Washington park. 

Dr. Jonathan Arden, Washington’s medical examiner, has determined it is probably Levy’s left shin bone, people familiar with the investigation said. But the bone yielded no clues about how Levy died, they said. 

Police spent a week searching the area of Rock Creek Park, employing cadaver dogs, crime scene technicians and cadets to look for bones and other evidence after a man walking his dog discovered Levy’s skull and other bones on May 22. 

Arden identified the remains as Levy’s using her dental records. He later ruled her death a homicide, but was unable to say how the former intern died. 

The bone found Thursday was about 25 yards from Levy’s remains and showed evidence that an animal could have moved it, said Cmdr. Christopher LoJacono of the Washington police forensics science division. 

But Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, already stung by criticism that police did not find Levy’s body when they searched the park a year ago, said, “It is unacceptable that these items were not located.” 

Two investigators found the items Thursday afternoon in their examination of the steep hillside where much of Levy’s remains and clothing were found. 

Billy Martin, lawyer for the Levy family, said it is “disturbing” that police didn’t find the bone and the wire during the search. 

Police are trying to determine if the wire was used to harm Levy, LoJacono said. The wire appeared to be the same kind used by the National Park Service to secure trees in the sprawling park, he said. 

Police said they would search the site again to see if they could find other overlooked evidence. 

Levy disappeared on May 1, 2001, shortly after she finished an internship with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and before she was to return to California to receive a graduate degree from the University of Southern California. 

Her case commanded national attention because of her relationship with Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif. Police sources said Condit admitted to an affair with Levy. He said he had nothing to do with her disappearance and police have said he is not a suspect.

NEW YORK — Monica Lewinsky was excused from jury duty Thursday after she tearfully said she could not serve. 

Lewinsky, 28, reported for duty to the Manhattan state Supreme Court building with other prospective jurors Thursday. She was questioned by attorneys choosing a jury for a personal injury lawsuit against the city, said Vincent Homenick, chief clerk of the jury division for Manhattan courts. 

When asked by an attorney if she could be fair, the handbag designer and former White House intern replied that she could not serve as a juror, Homenick said. Lewinsky became teary-eyed when one of the two attorneys continued to question her, Homenick said. 

The attorneys approached Judge Howard Bell, who had not been in the room during the questioning, and asked that she be excused. Bell excused her shortly before lunch, Homenick said. Lewinsky spokeswoman Lynn Goldberg did not immediately return a telephone message Thursday.

SPARKS, Nev. – The Environmental Protection Agency wants to hire more American Indians and consider changes in grant programs to improve understanding of cultural issues and better address tribal concerns, agency leaders say. 

“I’m very committed to diversity and Native Americans especially are underrepresented at EPA,” said Marianne Lamont Horinko, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. 

She’s among a number of EPA officials, including chief administrator Christie Whitman, addressing the Sixth National Tribal Conference on Environmental Management meeting in Sparks through Friday. 

“I am very committed to bringing in more Native Amercians to help integrate tribal concerns into our mission,” said Horinko, who oversees EPA work on Superfund sites as well as programs to clean up polluted industrial sites known as brownfields. 

Brian Wallace, chairman of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, said he’s noticed in recent years increased sensitivity on the part of the EPA in dealing with tribe’s social and cultural concerns while addressing various forms of pollution. 

“It’s consistently getting better. There’s more of a recognition of native people, indigenous issues and environmental issues,” Wallace said in an interview. 

“For us, history is more about place than it is about time. The wellness of these places is critical to our survival as a people,” he said. 

Jerry Pardilla, executive director of the National Tribal Environmental Council, said during a panel discussion with Horinko and others that EPA programs often are geared toward states and don’t work well for tribes. 

“The requirements for matching funds to do cleanup often pose a barrier to tribes,” he said. 

Horinko said some states too are having trouble coming up with matching funds for EPA grants, but acknowledged, “tribes are particularly uniquely challenged.”

NEW YORK – One of two men arrested with box cutters a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pleaded guilty Thursday to credit card fraud charges. 

Mohammed Azmath, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17 and could face eight to 14 months in prison. 

Lawyer Anthony Ricco said his client might qualify for sentencing as soon as July under a special program set up to quickly process Sept. 11 detainees who admit crimes unrelated to terrorism. 

Prosecutors said Azmath sold personal information to someone who obtained credit cards in his name, purchasing $58,747 in services and merchandise. Ricco said his client received only several hundred dollars for his part in the conspiracy. 

Ricco said he suspected Azmath will be deported to India rather than serve the sentence because he entered the country illegally in 1999. 

“He would like to stay, but he’s very happy to go home,” Ricco said of his client, who has a wife in Hyderabad, India. 

Azmath and Syed Gul Mohammed Shah, 36, boarded a plane in Newark, N.J., on Sept. 11 to go to San Antonio. They were stranded in St. Louis when their plane was grounded along with all other air traffic after the terrorist attacks. 

The men then got on an Amtrak train to Texas, where they were arrested after authorities found two box cutters, hair dye, a knife and several thousand dollars among their belongings.

EBENSBURG, Pa. – A judge fined 20 members of an Amish sect Thursday for refusing to put bright orange reflective triangles on their horse-drawn buggies, saying public safety overrides any religious objections. 

The plain-dressing Swartzentruber Amish had complained that the garish symbols violate their beliefs. 

Twenty members of the sect were hit with 27 fines of $95 each for failing to use slow-moving vehicle symbol. 

Their lawyer, Donna Doblick, said she will appeal. The Amish, who live near Nicktown, about 65 miles from Pittsburgh, have said they will leave Pennsylvania if they lose. 

Instead of the triangles, the Swartzentruber use a gray reflective tape and a lantern on the rear of their buggies. The gray tape is legal in nine states for use on slow-moving vehicles, including Ohio, where the sect lived until two years ago. 

But Judge Timothy Creany ruled that the state has a “compelling interest” in requiring the orange triangles — namely, keeping the Amish and other travelers safe on the road. 

Creany relied on testimony by state transportation experts who said the triangles are more visible than the tape during the day, when 61 percent of all vehicle-buggy accidents happen.