Trail to link city to miles of  

path along San Francisco Bay  

A segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail to connect Berkeley with hundreds of miles of vehicle-free roadway along the San Francisco Bay will likely be built by the end of summer, Berkeley officials said. 

Construction crews are finishing the layout of a 12-foot-wide strip of asphalt along the bay shore from Ashby Avenue to Virginia Avenue. At these endpoints, the Bay Trail runs north and south of Berkeley and allows bicyclists, skaters and pedestrians to travel outside the city, but leaves most of the Berkeley waterfront inaccessible. 

“This is a missing link,” said Deborah Chernin, senior planner for Berkeley’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Division. “Berkeley residents will soon be able to go to Emeryville and Richmond.” 

The new trail will offer an alternative to crossing Interstate 80 via Berkeley’s new pedestrian-bicycle overpass, which dumps eastbound traffic onto University Avenue. The new segment will meet the overpass trail and allow bicyclists and pedestrians to continue along the shoreline. 

“It’s been a mess there for years and very dangerous too,” said Hank Resnik, co-chairperson of Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition. “This is a blessing for bicyclists.”The California Department of Transportation is paying for the trail’s construction, part of a condition it agreed to when it widened I-80 last decade. The city of Berkeley hired Bauman Landscape, Inc. to do the job. 

Berkeley is one of 27 cities that has or is soon to have the Bay Trail pass through its borders. At present, 215 miles of the planned 400-mile trail have been built. Each city along the San Francisco and San Pablo bays has committed to building the trail within its boundaries, but in some of the communities funding is still being sought. 

Bay Trail Project manager Janet McBride expects the trail to be finished in 10 years. McBride works for the trail’s sponsor, Association of Bay Area Governements. 

“The trail offers not just the chance for recreation but for bicycle commuting, wildlife viewing and outdoor education,” she said. 

While city officials are hoping to see Berkeley’s Bay Trail segment completed in the next few months, they’re saying October at the latest. 

After finishing the stretch, Berkeley officials plan to start working on another stretch of nonvehicular trail. This one will run from the I-80 overpass to Berkeley Marina. 

“We’re phasing in pieces that will create a great bike network,” said city planner Chernin. 

Contact reporter at  

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net.  

To the Editor: 

In his latest diatribe (Darling Flower Shop is structure of "demerit"), Hank Resnik again raises the tiresome "NIMBY" cry we've been hearing so often from Patrick Kennedy and his beneficiaries. 

It's no coincidence that the structure Resnik calls "one of Berkeley's most unattractive buildings" is scheduled for replacement by Kennedy. 

It's also no coincidence that Resnik's Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition is the recipient of Kennedy's largesse, as reported in the BFBC's website. 

“We have gotten another $15,000 in grants —- including a $5,000 gift from Avi Nevo and $10,000 from Patrick Kennedy, $5,000 of which is a gift and $5,000 of which is a loan.” 

Kennedy knows where to spend his dollars, which assure him a vocal cohort of otherwise politically correct supporters willing to cry “NIMBY” on his behalf whether his cause merits it or not. 

Daniella Thompson 

Berkeley 

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

Democratic political activists 

Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley 

A political party for aggressive progressives with Democrats.com 

events@democrats.com or www.democrats.com 

Judaism Workshop 

7 to 8:30 p.m.  

The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo 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. 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 to 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Oprah's Book Club and showing of " The Color Purple" 

(510)232-1351 

"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

Berkeley Alliance of  

Neighborhood Associations (BANA)  

9:30 to ll:00 a.m. 

Fireside Room, Live Oak Park 

l30l Shattuck Ave. 

All welcome to network and 

share local information. 

(510) 849-46l9 or mtbrcb@pacbell.net 

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 

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. 

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

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

Free 

Buddhism 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

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

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 17

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" 

7:30 to 8:45 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Street 

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. 

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

Vigil Opposing the Sanctions  

Against the People of Iraq 

12 p.m. 

Oakland Federal Building,1301 Clay Street 

(510) 548-4141 

Carol Wagner: "Soul Survivors  

in Cambodia" 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel and Bookshop,1385 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley 

510-843-6725 

Arthritis Rap Session 

Noon 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 

Wednesday, June 19

"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.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil 

6:30 pm 

BART Station, Shattuck & Center 

Weekly candle-lit vigil and peace walk to raise 

awareness and gather support for opposition to the 'war on terrorism' 

vigil4peace@yahoo.com, (510) 528-9217 

Thursday, June 20

Robert Fisk 

7 p.m. 

First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way  

Middle East Correspondent of the London Independent, in a benefit to rebuild Jenin refugee camp  

510-548-0542.  

$20 at Codys, Black Oak, Walden Pond and Modern times, or at WWW.MECAFORPEACE.ORG. 

"Women in War" 

7 to 9 p.m. 

University of Creation Spirituality, 2141 Broadway, Oakland 

An evening with international women's rights activist Zainab Salbi 

(510) 835-4827 ext. 29 

Suggested Donation $10-$15 

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 

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave. 

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

510-548-8283  

Free 

Freedom From Tobacco 

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

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street  

A quit smoking class 

(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. 

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 

Katsuura, Bice take third at national sculling competition in Cincinnati  

For most of the Berkeley High crew team, the 2002 season ended on May 12 at the Southwest Regional Junior Championships, where the ’Jackets claimed three medals. But that wasn’t enough for Yoshi Katsuura and Jordan Bice, who immediately threw themselves into training for the U.S. Rowing Youth Invitational. 

Not only did the pair keep training, they entered into the sculling competition for the Invitational, held in Cincinnati at Lake Harsha last weekend. Unlike crew races, where each rower controls one oar, scullers have two, making timing even more crucial to a fast race. 

Katsuura and Bice, despite never rowing in a sculling speed competition before, finished third in the final, going up against teams that practice solely for sculling competitions. They finished second in their qualifying heat, not good enough to make the final but good enough to enter the repachage, from which the top two boats would reach the final. The won that race by nearly two full seconds, giving them some additional practice before the championship race. 

Katsuura and Bice have been training for sculling since last year, but were unsure how they would match up against national competition. After leading the Berkeley High team to a dominating season, the pair were in for a much tougher time in Cincinnati. 

“The races were much more competitive than the high school races,” Katsuura said. “Everyone’s fast and the field is very tight. You have to be focused entire time. At regionals if you’re good you win easily, but at nationals you have to have best race of your life just to compete.” 

Katsuura and Bice started sculling just for fun, but as the top two rowers at Berkeley High, they soon found themselves putting up outstanding marks, which led to their berth at the Nationals. 

“We started training really hard in the last month and a half, and I knew we were getting some serious boat speed,” Bice said. “But we were definitely surprised at how well we did. We had success right off the bat, and we were able to follow our race plan.” 

With his high school career now officially over, Katsuura will focus on his college career. He’s headed to Cal, where he will join a team that has won four straight national championships. 

Bice, on the other hand, has a year left at Berkeley High. He plans to concentrate on training for the school crew team, as he is losing his sculling partner. Bice said he may continue to train for the two-oar sport by himself, but finding a new partner is unlikely. 

“I’ll probably practice over the summer and see whether I can be competitive,” he said. “But it takes a long time to mesh with somebody new, and I wouldn’t have a lot of time to practice it.”

A jury awarded $4.4 million to Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, environmentalists who sued the FBI and Oakland Police for false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy. 

Lawyers for Bari and Cherney called the decision a huge success despite pending claims and a defeat on charges of conspiracy.  

“It’s really beyond our wildest dreams,” said Darlene Comingore, executive for the estate of Bari, who died of cancer in 1997. “The jury got the part that (the FBI and OPD) violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights. We hope all the people out there who think they can violate our civil rights will think again.”  

In May 1990 Cherney and Bari were injured when a bomb exploded in a car while they were driving in Oakland. 

Bari suffered a crushed pelvis.  

Hours later the two were arrested because investigators said the pair carried the bomb for use in an act of environmental sabotage.  

The jury Tuesday ruled that six of the seven defendants violated the First and Fourth amendment rights of Bari, including false arrest and unlawful search twice. However, the jury was undecided on the claim involving a violation of Cherney’s Fourth Amendment rights. The 10-member jury ruled that the defendants did not conspire to violate the First Amendment rights of either Bari or Cherney. 

The plaintiff and defendants have 10 days to appeal. An undecided verdict will likely generate an appeal, lawyers said. 

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken read the 18-page verdict that included compensatory damages and punitive damages on all claims. Tuesday marked the end to 17 days of jury deliberation and more than 12 years since the ordeal started. 

“This sends a message to the FBI to the extent that the American public understands that the FBI is an agency that can’t be trusted,” said Cherney. “After 90 years of political oppression by the FBI and the fact that our hands were tied in this case makes this even more incredible.” 

Cherney argued that important evidence involving the FBI’s counterintelligence program was not allowed in court and that the jury was prevented from hearing evidence of a conspiracy by the FBI. He said the case serves as an example in current and future investigations into the FBI. 

According to Cherney, if the defendants appeal he could be forced to wait two to three years before collecting damages. Cherney said that Bari pledged before she died to have half of any money awarded given to the Redwood Justice Fund. Cherney plans to use his money to further protect the environment. 

“I plan to use these funds for environmental non-profit organizations and for causes I think will make this world a better place,” Cherney said. 

Lead counsel for the FBI Robert Sher wanted to learn more about the jury’s verdict and its unresolved claims before deciding whether to appeal. 

“I’ve got to see how it breaks down,” Sher said. 

According to Dennis Cunningham, lead counsel for Bari and Cherney, his clients have more on which to base an appeal than the defense. “I think we have more to appeal than they do,” he said.  

Cunningham criticized the FBI. 

“This sends a message that the FBI has got to change their view, that they’re doing exactly the wrong thing. They’re not about fighting terrorism, it’s about suppressing dissent,” said Cunningham. 

Lawyer for the plaintiff’s Tony Serra said the case represents an important victory for civil rights advocates. “This case was a case of FBI falsity and FBI cover-up,” Serra said. “That can’t be tolerated. Our civil rights are more significant than that.” 

Dozens of supporters and members of the media gathered outside of the Oakland Federal Courthouse to greet Cherney and attorneys for the plaintiffs Tuesday afternoon. 

For Earth First! supporter Leuren Moret, Tuesday’s verdict is all the more surprising given the current wave of patriotism.  

“It’s amazing that they got this following Sept. 11th and all of the support of law enforcement and the broadening of powers of the government,” Moret said. “It’s a miracle that they came to all these unanimous decisions but it just goes to show how powerful the jury system is and how citizens have protected the constitution.”  

The original seven defendants were FBI special agents Frank Doyle, John Reikes, Phil Sena and Stockton Buck and Oakland Police Department Officers Michael Sitterud and Robert Chenault and Lt. Mike Simms.  

Contact reporter at chris@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

An article June 5 by Matt Artz covered the deliberations in the Landmarks Preservation Commission1s meeting on June 3 concerning Victor Touriel1s proposed development of his property at 2008 University Ave. Artz reported that in defence of the commission’s vote to designate the building as a Structure of Merit and thereby stop his project, Commissioner Malley said numerous alterations to the structure “added to the Victorian’s significance.” 

Malley said, “If you have a building that has changed over time, it in itself is part of the historical record.” 

Taking this statement to its logical conclusion, should we allow our historic buildings to be altered to enable them to acquire historical value over time?  

If Commissioner Malley’s statement represents the opinion of the commission, what does this policy mean for the future of historic preservation? 

Finally, if all the buildings 50 years and older having associations with the often mentioned names of their builders deserve to be recognized as Structures of Merit, will this action cheapen the currency of such designations to the point of making them valueless? These important questions deserve answers.  

Sally B. Woodbridge 

Berkeley

ALAMEDA – Darrell Russell’s lawyer says the woman who has accused the Oakland Raiders defensive tackle of videotaping her allegedly being raped by two of his friends actually consented to the act. 

Attorney Cristina C. Arguedas argued Tuesday in court that the woman, who testified she blacked out after being given a drink mixed by Russell, consented to the recorded sex. The 28-year-old woman gave her consent while riding to the house at which the alleged attack took place, Arguedas said. 

Russell, a former No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft, is charged with 25 felonies as an accomplice. 

Arguedas’ arguments came on the second day of Russell’s preliminary hearing in Alameda County Court. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Jeffrey Allen will decide whether there is sufficient evidence for a trial. 

If she blacked out during the car ride, Arguedas asked the 28-year-old woman, “How do you know you didn’t give consent?” 

“To my knowledge, I did not give consent,” the woman responded. 

On Monday, Arguedas accused the woman of being a “groupie” out for money. She got the woman to acknowledge that she plans to file a civil suit against Russell. 

“They go clubbing, they drink, they have sex,” Arguedas said. 

Russell’s accuser testified Monday she blacked out after Russell mixed her a drink and vaguely remembers later looking up at a video camera with “somebody on top of me.” 

The woman, who said she was dating Russell at the time of the alleged rape, was sometimes tearful and always guarded. She testified Russell called her and they arranged to meet at a San Francisco club the night of Jan. 31. 

She said she had been at the club for about an hour, and drank two complimentary cocktails — a Hurricane and a Long Island ice tea — when she spotted Russell with friends at a table. 

She said she was not feeling tipsy until Russell took a bottle of alcohol from the table and mixed her a “pinkish ... fruity” drink. 

Prosecutors have said they have evidence Russell drugged the woman. 

“I did not watch his every move of making the drink, but I know he did make the drink,” she testified. “I don’t recall anything much after that.” 

Until, she said, the following afternoon, when after waking up from a nap at work she had “a vision” of someone videotaping her. 

“The red light, the camera, and somebody on top of me,” she said.

Club aims to protect public, patients and marijuana as medicine 

\The University Avenue medicinal marijuana club that was robbed last week for the third time in a year closed its doors permanently Tuesday. 

“We wanted to make sure that we weren’t putting patients at risk, and we wanted to keep neighbors safe,” said Berkeley Medical Herbs office manager Dorrit Geshuri. 

The club, which has attracted a spate of negative publicity with the robberies, was closed also because the club wanted to protect the medicinal marijuana movement and the other four pot clubs in town, Geshuri said. 

The financial losses incurred in the robberies did not play a role in the closure, she said. 

“I think it’s a responsible decision,” said City Councilmember Linda Maio, who had vowed to shut down Medical Herbs after last week’s robbery. 

The heist took place Wednesday afternoon when two Latino men said they knew owner Ken Estes then forced their way into the club, brandishing a gun and a knife.  

The robbers told everyone to lie on the ground and made off with about $1,500 in cash and over a pound of marijuana, valued at $3,500. 

After a December robbery, neighbors and city officials raised concerns about security on site and the safety of residents. The club responded by shortening its hours of operation, hiring a licensed security guard and installing cameras, among other measures. 

The club was considering additional measures, Geshuri said, when the June 5 robbery occurred. 

The Medical Herbs ownership announced the closure in a weekly meeting of the Alliance of Berkeley Patients, an umbrella group for the dispensaries in town. 

Don Duncan, who operates Berkeley Patients Group, another marijuana club, welcomed the decision. 

“I think in this instance, it’s for the best,” he said, noting that he would normally be upset with the move because there is “safety in numbers” for a movement under constant political pressure. 

Duncan said he is pleased that the Medical Herbs management is committed to putting patients in touch with other clubs. 

“The patients will be taken care of,” he said. “That’s great.” 

“I am so grateful that the management of that group has decided to shut its doors,” said City Councilmember Dona Spring. “Public safety comes first.”  

Spring argued that the decision will serve the medicinal marijuana movement in Berkeley. By pre-empting new robberies, she said, the closure will help prevent neighbors of other clubs from becoming overly concerned. 

“My reaction is one of relief,” added Mayor Shirley Dean. “I think it was a good decision on their part, a responsible decision.” 

Several neighbors made efforts to close down the club in the wake of the robberies. But Geshuri said most have been supportive. 

Stan Eby, who manages a number of apartments on University Avenue, said a drug store and meat market that used to be in the neighborhood were robbed far more often than the pot club. He said he was sad to see Medical Herbs go. 

“It’s a shame that it’s closing up,” he said. “We need clubs like that.” 

Geshuri said the management of Medical Herbs may re-open as a “juice bar and herbal medicine establishment.” The new store would not sell marijuana, she said.  

Contact reporter at  

scharfenber@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To th Editor: 

Thank you for reporting on the nationwide protest of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as this agency has run amok and must be reigned in. The DEA's own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young ruled in 1988 that marijuana is 'the safest therapeutic medicinal substance known and should be made available to patients.  

The DEA overruled their own judge and continues the war on sick and dying people.  

If we as a nation are to solve the medical marijuana issue, which in nation wide polling show most (75 percent or more) Americans want, then the media must get more involved and report these important political actions. You have helped on this.  

These protest actions were carried out by sick, wheelchair bound, dying patients, giving their every ounce of energy to bring their need to the public's attention. 

Many were arrested, jailed and subjected to much distress.  

In Massachusetts our own medical marijuana research program cannot be implemented because the DEA refuses to provide the marijuana for research. But the head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, says marijuana needs more research. This is double talk, Catch 22 and pure politics at the expense of the sick and dying.  

Kim Hanna  

Worcester, MA

YOKOHAMA, Japan – No goals, no glory. No more World Cup for France. 

The defending champions needed to beat Denmark by two goals Tuesday to reach the World Cup’s second round. Instead, the Danes won 2-0 in Incheon, South Korea, and Les Bleus became the first champions to go scoreless through a first round. They’re also the first defending titlist to exit after the opening round since Brazil did so in 1966. 

“It’s the end of a beautiful story,” French striker David Trezeguet said. “That’s the law of soccer, you have to accept it. 

“We had lots of ambition and we wanted to do a lot better. It’s a real pity.” 

While the Danes won Group A, tournament newcomer Senegal rode three first-half goals into the next round. The Africans took a 3-0 lead and barely held on for a 3-3 tie against Uruguay in Suwon, South Korea. 

Denmark plays Saturday in Niigata, Japan against either England, Sweden or Argentina. Senegal plays Sunday in Oita, Japan against one of those teams. 

“I believe a small team can be big,” said Senegal’s El Hadji Diouf. “Today is a historic day for African countries.” 

Those two joined four-time winner Brazil, Spain, three-time winner Germany and Ireland in the round of 16. 

Germany, despite playing the final 50 minutes a man down when Carsten Ramelow was ejected at Shizuoka, Japan, knocked out Cameroon 2-0 on goals by Marco Bode and Miroslav Kohse, who now has five goals. The Germans will play Saturday at Seogwipo, South Korea against either Spain, South Africa or Paraguay. 

“We showed our dedication and commitment and deserved to win,” Christoph Metzelder said. “Our minimum target was to get to the final 16.” 

Ireland defeated already-eliminated Saudi Arabia 3-0 in Yokohama to finish second to Germany in Group E. The Irish, who had never scored more than one goal in a World Cup game, will oppose either Spain or South Africa in Suwon, South Korea on Sunday. 

The Irish went through even though their best player, Roy Keane, was sent home after a feud with coach Mick McCarthy before the tournament began. 

“We fight against doubters all the time, we fight against critics all the time,” coach Mick McCarthy said. We do it very well.” 

With 1998 World Cup hero Zinedine Zidane on the sideline with a thigh injury, France opened with a stunning 1-0 loss to Senegal and then tied Uruguay 0-0. Zidane returned for the Denmark game, but nothing helped the French, who saw two shots rebound off the crossbar. 

At the end, Zidane walked off the field with his head hanging down, followed by the rest of the French team. 

“I didn’t expect to go back home like that after the first round,” Zidane said. “We’re all very, very disappointed, but we won’t stop here. We will have to turn the page, turn over a new leaf.” 

Thousands of traveling Les Bleus fans fell silent, while Danish fans in the opposite corner of the stadium beat on drums and sang “Ole, Ole, Ole.” 

“We had a good day,” coach Morten Olsen said. “The team played with a lot of confidence and, especially, a lot of discipline.” 

Back in Paris, some reactions to the French loss were strong. 

“I’m disgusted. They are the defending champions, and for four years they bragged and did nothing,” said architect Alain Goust, 32, as he held a French flag — which he wasn’t waving. “When they arrive back at the Champs Elysees, they’re going to have tomatoes thrown at them.”

Berkeley police surrounded a suspect inside a south Berkeley home for several hours Tuesday after he allegedly robbed a nearby Church’s Chicken at gunpoint. No one was hurt.  

On Monday, blocks away from the San Pablo robbery, a couple walking were shot randomly at close range and taken to the hospital. 

Berkeley police are investigating the two incidents as unrelated crimes, but together they could indicate that a trend of violence is plaguing this usually quite, well-established neighborhood. 

At Church’s on Tuesday a suspect took an undisclosed amount of cash then fled to his home on Valley Street. Officers arrived to find the suspect released his grandmother – the only person believed to be home when the suspect arrived – from the home, but would not come out to face police.  

From about noon to 6:30 p.m. officers held their ground outside the house and barred public entrance to several blocks surrounding it. More than a dozen officers were on the scene, including Lt. Harris and Chief Dash Butler. A police negotiator tried several times to speak with the suspect. 

At approximately 4:30 p.m. the suspect’s mother, flanked by a police negotiator and two uniformed officers, was escorted toward the house to speak with her son. After several minutes the mother was escorted away from the home. 

The mother said she did not know why her son had locked himself inside the home but expressed some comfort that the suspect’s grandmother was OK. 

Neighbor Troy Floyd evacuated his home during the standoff. “My wife called me at work and told me what was going on, and I came home,” Floyd said.  

Floyd did not know the suspect by name but had seen him in the neighborhood. Nothing about the suspect seemed strange, Floyd said. 

Another neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said the recent, uncharacteristic violence has shaken some people. The area is predominately occupied by seniors and families. 

“I’ve lived here six years and haven’t seen anything like this,” the neighbor said. “There were some mugging a few weeks ago. Last night there was a shooting and now this. Things are getting to be pretty scary.” 

The neighbor had noticed more police patrolling the area lately, she said. 

The day before yesterday’s standoff ,about 10 p.m., a middle-age couple walking on Bancroft Way and Acton Street were shot at close range by an unidentified suspect. The shooting was not robbery-related and apparently was without a motive, according to police reports. The names of the victims — a married couple who live in the neighborhood — have not been released.  

“They were taking a neighborhood walk in the area, when the suspect faced them and shot them,” said Lt. Cynthia Harris. The female victim was treated and released from Highland Hospital. Her husband is listed in stable condition.  

Investigators are looking for a Latino male wearing dark-colored baggy clothing, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and approximately 18 years old. 

Employees at Church’s described the robbery suspect as 18 years old and of light complexion. He had a mustache and was wearing a beanie at the time of the robbery, witnesses said. 

Contact reporter at  

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net  

To the Editor: 

Over the past several months, the proposed multi-use project at 2700 San Pablo Ave. has gone through the normal review processes required by the Zoning Ordinance. There has been substantial public input and as a long time neighbor (Ninth and Grayson Streets) and an on-going advocate for renewal of the southern end of San Pablo Avenue I would like to add my two cents. 

I have lived and raised a family in Berkeley for about forty years, fifteen of those at my present location in the southwest corner of town, two blocks west of San Pablo Avenue. I have witnessed with concern some urban decay but have been encouraged as well by the gradual revitalization of parts of San Pablo Avenue such as at Dwight Way. Now there is a chance to encourage that same kind of rebirth farther to the south with this proposed project of residential units over street level commercial space.  

The primary criticisms of the project have been that it's much too dense for the neighborhood, that it will bring increased traffic, will disrupt bay views and will overshadow nearby residences. These criticisms from local residents are largely misdirected and unwarranted. 

The proposed mixed-use is certainly denser than the current use as a long abandoned gas station. However, I believe this increased level of density is being proposed for precisely where it belongs, on a wide, major arterial like San Pablo rather than on a small neighborhood street. This project is not too dense but should in fact become the standard to emulate in the future for San Pablo Avenue's long ignored southern end.  

There will not be a canyon of apartment buildings created by a long string of similar developments as suggested by opponents because there simply isn't a long string of contiguous parcels available for purchase and development.  

The need for pedestrian traffic is clearly essential for the success of street level businesses and what better source than local residents. We all would welcome more, smaller independent stores in Berkeley rather than larger chain stores as has been expressed so often by so many citizens at all levels (private and official) and in all venues. The typical needs of a neighborhood like markets, bookstores, cafes, medical or dental offices, etc. end up appearing where there are people.  

In addition, the already existing local businesses will benefit from the increase in local population. 

The height of the building is roughly the same as similar, local projects, successfully built on University Avenue, Shattuck Avenue at Hearst and in nearby Emeryville opposite the Home Depot to name a few. Because those projects are on very wide avenues, as is San Pablo, there is no sense of over-shadowing and they are on relatively flat land with few, if any, views of the bay to be disrupted.  

The perceived height for this project has been reduced by moving the uppermost floor back away from the street facade of the building and by providing more space between the building and adjacent homes. 

Please consider the future of all of Berkeley by encouraging the start of some meaningful development at this end of San Pablo.  

David Snipper 

Berkeley 

Owner fined for  

registering dog to vote 

LAFAYETTE – A man who successfully signed up his poodle to vote as a Republican pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor fraud charge and paid a $250 fine. 

Donald Miller, 78, registered his poodle Barnabas three years ago to protest the voter registration process. 

“It could have been a lot worse,” Miller said Monday after his court appearance in Contra Costa County. “I didn’t want jail time.” 

Miller estimates thousands of ineligible California residents are registered voters. To test his theory, he filled out a voter registration card for Barnabas and waited to see what would happen. 

Contra Costa County soon confirmed the poodle was a registered Republican. But prosecutors were not amused. 

“He violated the law, and he openly admitted it,” said Jim Sepulveda, senior deputy district attorney for the county. 

Miller said he never cast a vote in the dog’s name, though the dog did get a jury summons in March. 

Miller returned the summons with a written explanation of Barnabas’ reticence to participate in the civic process: “I have a short attention span, I have to go to the bathroom quite often and besides, I’m a dog.” 

Super Papa still ticking  

TACOMA – Just four days shy of his 100th birthday, Cecil Hill completed the 5-kilometer Sound to Narrows course in the middle of the pack. 

His fitness is testimony to the effectiveness of the regimen he adopted after quadruple bypass surgery forced him to retire 10 years ago. 

“I did just fine,” Hill said with satisfaction after Saturday’s race. “I stopped only once and that was just to blow my nose.” 

“Congratulations, Super Papa,” yelled some of the two dozen relatives who walked with him over the hilly course near Point Defiance Park. 

Hill walks 5 kilometers — more than 3 miles — every day near his assisted-living home or in its halls. His son, Doyle, says he’s a natural athlete who never smoked, and ate and drank moderately. 

“He says he’s going to live to be at least 105, and I suspect the way he’s going, he’ll make it,” Doyle Hill said. 

The former farmer, salt miner and parking-lot manager was one of those tapped to carry the 1996 Olympic torch when it passed through the Puget Sound area. And the longtime Mariners fan threw out the first pitch in a game several years ago. 

Girl Scout troops break through military barrier  

MINNEAPOLIS – Raising nearly $32,000 worth of cookies for U.S. soldiers in South Korea was easy for a group of Girl Scouts. Much harder was getting the treats to the troops. 

The cookies were stuck in Minneapolis for more than a month because of military schedules, security rules and the volume of cookies. 

The Girl Scouts contacted state Sen. Mark Dayton to see if he could help them get the cookies shipped and distributed to about 28,000 troops. 

After some wrangling — Dayton’s office contacted the Defense Department, the Marines, the Air Force and the Minnesota Air National Guard — Northwest Airlines agreed to carry the shipment. 

Northwest spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said the airline was honored to “bring a little bit of home to our service members in Korea.” 

Dayton joined 12 Scouts at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for Monday’s send-off. 

“The Girl Scouts not only had to raise thousands of dollars for the cookies, but then had to spend weeks working to cut through... barriers,” he said. “I applaud their efforts.”

Tonight the Board of Education will consider asking Berkeley residents for raises from $875 to $1,500 per month.  

Proponents say the boost is long overdue. But critics say that, while school board salaries come out of city coffers, the move could still appear unseemly given the district’s multimillion dollar deficit and the heavy staff and teacher layoffs on the horizon.  

School board stipends have not increased since 1988, when voters raised pay for board of education and city councilmembers from $300 to $875 per month. Since then, City Council pay has jumped to $1,800 per month but school board stipends have not moved. 

In order to raise pay the school board will have to approve the request tonight and the City Council must choose, at a later date, to place the matter on the November ballot. Berkeley voters would have the final say.  

Councilmember Dona Spring is also pushing a November ballot initiative that would raise City Council salaries by an as yet unspecified amount.  

School board member John Selawsky said a raise to $1,500 per month would help members, already forced to reduce hours at their “day jobs” to fully commit to the board. 

“We need people who can put the time in and are committed to the school community,” he said. “I see this as a full-time job.” 

School board President Shirley Issel is open to the idea, but is leaning against it. 

“I don’t think it ought to be a full-time undertaking,” Issel said, referring to the job of being a school board member. 

Issel was worried that full-time members might resort to micromanagement when a board should focus on setting policy and general direction. 

Board Vice-president Joaquin Rivera said he supports the concept of a raise, given the long hours that many members devote to the job. But he worries about the timing with the district’s deficit, which at last count stands at $2.5 million for next year. 

“I don’t know if people really understand that we get paid by the city, not by the district,” he said. 

“I think that’s a realistic concern,” said board member Terry Doran, who supports the raise. “But it’s been quite a few years (since the last increase).” 

Doran said he is hopeful that the increase would encourage people to run for the board who might not be able to afford it otherwise. 

But parent activist and school board candidate Nancy Riddle said she did not think the boost was enough to attract new people.  

Riddle said the attraction for her is a suggestion, by Selawsky, that board members could divert some of their increases to pay for a school board staffer who would return phone calls and conduct research for members. The board currently has no staff. 

Riddle said a staffer could allow the board to pursue issues that district headquarters may not have time to address. 

“The district has its priorities and time constraints and I think the school board members might have different interests that the district might not have the time to pursue,” she said. 

The City Council has mixed views on the school board pay hike.  

“I’m not adverse to it,” said Mayor Shirley Dean. But she said the city would have to see how the measure fits in with the city’s projected $3 million deficit. 

“We have to make cuts,” acknowledged Spring, who supports raises for both school board and councilmembers. “But one of the reasons we have a deficit is we try hard to pay our employees fair wages.” 

Spring said the City Council and school board work hard and should not be penalized simply because they are elected officials.  

Councilmember Betty Olds said she opposes raises for the council, but might support school board raises given that there is relatively little money involved – $37,500 over the course of a year. 

Dean added that she would like to learn more about salaries for school board members in neighboring cities before making a decision. An inquiry by the Planet revealed that Oakland board members make $750 per month. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Critics concerned future tests will threaten health 

With the threat of a lawsuit looming, officials with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced Tuesday night that they have completed their controversial study of a waste treatment process which released radioactive tritium 500 feet from UC’s Lawrence Hall of Science. 

Tritium is used in testing pesticides and drugs. 

Critics of the federally-operated lab have long charged that tritium and other emissions are a health threat to the college and community. The grassroots Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste urged the city to fund a lawsuit to stop waste treatment until an environmental study of the lab is done. 

Berkeley’s City Council on Tuesday, in response to the lab’s announcement, decided not to consider supporting a $15,000 lawsuit.  

The lab’s unexpected announcement came just minutes into the council meeting. Robin Wendt, the lab’s environmental, health and safety division deputy, said the timing of the study’s completion while legal pressure is building is a coincidence. 

Wendt and other lab officials have long bucked environmental criticism, saying that emissions at their facilities are within federal standards. 

During the lab’s handling of the tritium, emissions of the radioactive tritium isotope and other potentially hazardous substances become airborne. 

The lab prepares the substance for use by product researches who test the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals and pesticides. 

Though critics were happy to hear that the lab’s treatment study was over, they questioned the lab’s motives. 

“They’re doing this now just to avoid a lawsuit,” said Elliot Cohen, an outspoken critic of the lab and member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission. “When the publicity dies down, they might start doing it again.” 

Wendt told City Council that the lab, in addition to ending the current treatment study, canceled two other scheduled studies that were slated to test equally-contentious treatment technologies. 

However, Wendt would not say that waste treatment would be stopped entirely. 

“I can’t guarantee that we won’t do anymore treatability studies,” he said. 

Contact reporter at  

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net

Contra Costa Times dropped to 50-cent Sunday edition 

SAN FRANCISCO – Four Knight Ridder newspapers, including the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, have reduced their Sunday newsstand price during the past two months in a push to attract more readers and reverse a prolonged circulation slide at the nation’s second-largest newspaper company. 

The price cuts represent the most tangible evidence yet of San Jose-based Knight Ridder’s resolve to stop a slow but steady erosion in circulation that has occurred in recent years while management catered to investors by trimming expenses to boost profit margins. 

After engineering an 11 percent work force reduction that eliminated 2,200 jobs last year, Knight Ridder Chief Executive Tony Ridder made readership growth a top priority this year. 

To emphasize the point, Ridder tied a larger portion of management’s bonuses to circulation gains and last month appointed a new vice president of circulation, Arden Dickey. 

The papers that have lowered their Sunday prices by 25 cents to 50 cents since April are: the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota; the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek; the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio; and the Kansas City Star. 

Although that’s only a handful of Knight Ridder’s 32 daily newspapers, industry analysts believe the discounts will become more widespread. 

Ridder “is 100 percent focused on getting circulation growing again,” said analyst Peter Appert of Deutsche Bank Securities. “It’s refreshing to see a top industry executive so aggressively focused on the topic.” 

Contacted Tuesday, a Knight Ridder official declined to comment on the company’s plans, citing competitive reasons. 

Ridder told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in late April that the company intended to build circulation “through a combination of content improvement, increased promotion, more thoughtful pricing (and) discount strategies.” 

While declining readership has plagued the industry for decades, the problem has been more acute at Knight Ridder in recent years.

Free this month then 3 tiers of paid service available 

WALTHAM, Mass. – Internet portal Lycos announced plans Tuesday to launch a new paid subscription music service offering access to 10,000 albums with 150,000 songs. 

Lycos, a subsidiary of Spanish communications conglomerate Terra Networks SA, becomes the largest Internet partner of Listen.com, the San Francisco-based company that has agreements with four of the five major record labels to provide “streamed” CD-quality sound. 

The Lycos Rhapsody service will be offered free through this month. Then Lycos will offer three tiers of service: free radio service on 20 channels of FM-quality sound; access to more than 50 commercial-free radio stations with CD-quality sound for $4.95 per month; and unlimited streams of individual songs plus access to the 50 stations for $9.95 per month. 

Customers would not be allowed to save songs on their hard drives or record them on compact discs. 

Listen.com’s deals with BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music and Warner Music Group would give Lycos users access to artists including Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill, Bruce Springsteen and Simon and Garfunkel. 

Industry-sponsored sites MusicNet and PressPlay limit how many songs can be downloaded. 

Terra Lycos, which is trying to draw more users to subscription-based content, claims 115 million unique users per month. It has a presence in 43 countries.

LOS ANGELES – Worldwide sales of pirated music CDs nearly doubled last year to a record 950 million units, an industry trade group said Tuesday. 

Illegal shipments came from large manufacturing plants and small garage operations around the world, according to the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, which represents 1,400 record producers and distributors in 76 countries. 

Illegal recordings of music, meanwhile, which may have been put on CD or cassette, totaled nearly 2 billion in 2001, up just slightly from a year earlier. The figure means that two out of every five recordings sold worldwide in 2001 was an illegal copy. 

Illegal music sales outnumbered legal sales in 25 countries, compared with 21 countries a year earlier, the group said. 

China, Russia and Brazil led the world in piracy. Ninety percent of all music sold in China is pirated, according to the federation. 

Sales of pirated materials around the world amounted to $4.3 billion, up from $4.2 billion in 2000.

SAN FRANCISCO – Remnants of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima were auctioned for $167,500 Tuesday — but the federal government says the sale is a breach of national security and wants to block the buyer from claiming his purchase. 

Pending the outcome of litigation by the Justice Department, Butterfields Auctioneers Inc. has agreed to hold onto the arming mechanisms of the bomb dropped from the Enola Gay. The B-29 bomber dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, killing roughly 140,000 people. 

The Justice Department said in court papers Tuesday the internal configuration of the auctioned thumb-sized plugs — one of which was used to activate the real bomb — are classified. 

“Their design is classified as secret, restricted data, and has never been declassified,” said Steven Saltiel, a San Francisco federal prosecutor. 

The government is seeking a court order prohibiting a San Diego real estate developer from taking possession of the plugs. 

A federal judge has set a hearing for Friday and denied the government’s request on Tuesday to block the auction from Butterfields’ San Francisco office and over the Internet. 

Clay Perkins, who bought the two thumb-sized devices, said they have great personal and historical value. He said the idea of nuclear power inspired him to become a physicist. 

“They are arguably the most significant physical objects to come out of the 20th century,” said the 68-year-old real physicist-turned-real estate developer. “They are the only thing left of the first atomic bomb.” 

The government also said the so-called plugs are the government’s property, not that of Morris Jeppson, an Enola Gay crew member who put them up for auction. 

Jeppson, of Las Vegas, was unavailable for comment. 

A Butterfields spokesman, Levi Morgan, said the government’s case is “without merit.”

EUREKA – An Illinois railroad consultant has submitted a formal proposal to take over the North Coast Railroad and get it back in business within a year. 

Ted Niemeyer, a railroad engineering consultant with Niemeyer and Associates in Chicago, sent the proposal to the North Coast Railroad Authority, which requested it after hearing Niemayer’s offer earlier this year. 

Niemeyer wants to take over ownership, as well as the roughly $42 million restoration grant the authority has left from a state award two years ago. 

Niemeyer said he’ll have the entire northern end of the railroad up and running within one year, or would return ownership to the authority. 

North Coast officials said Monday they’re encouraged by the offer, but need answers to additional questions, including where he plans to get the rest of the money to restore the line. 

Some experts put the total cost at more than $100 million. 

It also isn’t yet clear whether the authority even has the right to sell the railroad. 

Niemeyer, a devout Christian, said his interest in buying the railroad came from a revelation he had earlier this year. 

“It’s worth exploring,” said Arcata City Manager Dan Hauser. “I think a lot of people have been afraid that someone would come in and liquidate it. Under this deal, that couldn’t happen.”

SACRAMENTO – After decades of largely unheralded state poets appointed by legislators, Gov. Gray Davis has named La Jolla poet Quincy Troupe, 62, as California’s first official poet laureate. 

Troupe, inheriting an honorary tradition dating to the English Middle Ages, will receive a $10,000 honorarium to make readings around the state and raise the profile of poetry, especially among school children. 

“Poetry is a very powerful, a beautiful and necessary and ancient art,” Troupe said. More than 15 poets and representatives of poetry associations applauded the moment and Troupe’s reading of “Flight,” a poem about flying above California’s coastline. 

Troupe, author of 13 books, including six books of poetry, is a professor of creative writing and American and Caribbean literature at the University of California, San Diego. Nominated for the post by San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art, his latest books are entitled “Choruses” and “Avalanche.” 

“Poetry humanizes people. It really humanized me,” explained Troupe, who said his mother read poetry to him as a child, and that he began writing while recovering from basketball injuries. Explaining how he writes, Troupe said, “Sometimes it doesn’t come. And sometimes it comes and it’s terrible. And sometimes it’s glorious. That’s what I live for.” 

California first lady Sharon Davis announced the selection Tuesday, citing Troupe’s “work as a writer and his accomplishments as an educator.” Gov. Davis picked Troupe among three finalists selected in March by a California Arts Council panel. 

Runners-up included poets Francisco X. Alarcon, 48, of Davis, and Diane DiPrima, 67, of San Francisco. 

Troupe is a New York City native and 11-year California resident. Touted by the arts council as California’s first official poet laureate, he succeeds five state poets appointed by the Legislature since 1915. The last was Fresno poet Gus Garrigus, who served from 1966 until his death in 2000. 

Troupe, accompanied by his wife, Margaret Porter Troupe, promised a “literacy through poetry” program for California schools. He also plans to bring poetry to corporations during lunch hours, to churches, community centers and the Legislature. 

“I intend to do a great job. I intend to bother people, seriously,” he said, referring to fund-raising to heighten poetry’s profile.

Agency says next wave  

of attacks could be divers blowing up ships 

SAN DIEGO — FBI agents have been contacting hundreds of dive shops around the country out of concern the next wave of terrorist attacks could be carried out by scuba divers. 

The FBI said it is looking into whether al-Qaida operatives have been taking scuba training in order to blow up ships at anchor, power plants, bridges, depots or other waterfront targets. 

Agents spent several days last week at Ocean Enterprises, one of the biggest dive shops in the country, checking customer files and sales of highly specialized scuba equipment, according to owner Werner Kurn. 

“They want to know if we have seen anything out of the ordinary,” said Kurn, whose shop is a few blocks away from an apartment complex where two of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived in 2000. “If you ask me where’s the best place to dive, that’s normal. If you ask me in a limited-visibility dive how do you maintain your bearings or how can I dive in the harbor, that’s not.” 

The possibility that members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network might have taken scuba training emerged from interrogations of people taken into custody in the U.S.-led effort to root out terrorism around the world, said John A. Sylvester, who heads the counterterrorism office in the FBI’s San Diego bureau. 

A warning of possible attacks by divers was issued by the government before Memorial Day. The Coast Guard also warned of the possibility last weekend, and security around ports and ships has been tightened as a result. 

Last week, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the world’s leading diving organization, gave the FBI a list of 2 million people the association has certified to dive over the past three years, Vice President Jeff Nadler said. 

Agents are contacting all U.S. dive shops to check the names of those who took scuba courses over the past three years, including those who dropped out without getting certified, Sylvester said. The United States has about 1,200 dive jobs, Nadler said. 

Also on the checklist are U.S. commercial dive schools that train students in underwater welding and repair. 

At Ocean Enterprises, agents have checked the infrequent sales of $5,000 rebreathers, devices that allow Navy SEALs to swim without producing a telltale trail of bubbles. Also of interest were sales of underwater propulsion vehicles that can tug a diver long distances and sell for as much as $8,000 each, Kurn said. 

In addition to California, dive shops in the Pacific Northwest, Florida and Ohio said they have been contacted. Dive shops in landlocked states, like Scuba One in Mandan, N.D., also are getting calls. 

The FBI said San Diego is a crucial part of the investigation. It is both a dive center and a major tourist destination. The area is home to a host of potential targets, from seaside nuclear plants to cruise ships and nuclear-powered Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. 

Some scuba experts said they are doubtful that a diver could do little more than make mischief underwater.

ETNA – Steep, rugged terrain near the Oregon border made it difficult for firefighters to combat a 600-acre wildfire that threatened homes and animals Tuesday, and officials said they don’t expect to contain the blaze until next week. 

Meanwhile, week-old blazes that have scorched nearly 45,000 acres of brush and forest land throughout the state are nearing containment. 

The blaze in rural Siskiyou County was burning about 30 miles south of the Oregon state line in treacherous mountain terrain that made it difficult to fight, said Tom Fields, a spokesman for the Oregon California Incident Management Team, which arrived Monday night to help fight the blaze. 

The fire started Sunday afternoon when a backyard debris fire burned out of control, said Penny Melum, a spokeswoman for the Klamath National Forest. Wildfire officials said containment is expected by next Monday. 

“It is human caused, and it just breaks my heart,” she said. 

About 500 firefighters worked in 80-degree heat Tuesday to battle the blaze, which was spread by high winds that pushed flames along 80-degree slopes. Calm winds on Tuesday were expected to help prevent the fire from spreading. 

The few homes in the area were not immediately threatened and no evacuations were ordered, but fire engines were stationed at each house. The fire did threaten the homes of bears, mountain lions, raccoons and rattlesnakes. 

To the south, a 1,100-acre wildfire that burned 60 miles northeast of Sacramento in Yuba County was contained Monday afternoon. It started Sunday when high winds knocked power lines into a tree, briefly prompting the evacuation of about 150 homes. 

In Southern California, a wildfire that burned 23,407 acres of brush in the Angeles National Forest destroyed nine homes and chased away more than 1,000 residents. It was 90 percent contained on Tuesday. 

Full containment was expected Tuesday evening, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Martin Esparza said. 

In Ventura County, a blaze that burned across 21,278 acres in the Los Padres National Forest north of Ojai was 65 percent contained Tuesday.

SAN DIEGO – The man accused of killing Danielle van Dam appeared nervous when he met with a police investigator two days after the 7-year-old girl vanished from her bedroom, the detective said Tuesday. 

“I noticed that he was sweating profusely from under his arms,” San Diego police Detective Johnny Keene testified in the trial of David Westerfield. 

Keene described the interview on Westerfield’s front porch, two doors from the van Dam home, on a cool Monday morning in early February. 

Westerfield told the investigator about his brief encounter with Danielle’s mother, Brenda van Dam, at a neighborhood bar on Feb. 1, the night of the girl’s disappearance. 

Westerfield, 50, is charged with murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography. He could face the death penalty if he’s convicted.

BOSTON – A judge Tuesday threw out one of nine charges against a man accused of trying to blow up a jetliner with explosives in his shoes, ruling that an airplane is not a vehicle under a new anti-terrorism law. 

The charge — attempting to wreck a mass transportation vehicle — was filed under the USA Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

U.S. District Judge William Young said that although an airplane was engaged in mass transportation it is not a vehicle as defined by the new law. 

Richard C. Reid still faces eight charges, including attempted murder and attempted destruction of an aircraft. He allegedly tried to light the explosives hidden in his shoes while aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami three days before Christmas. 

Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, declined to comment on the ruling. She said no decision had been made on whether to appeal. 

Reid’s lawyer, Owen Walker, did not immediately return a call for comment. 

The judge said he looked to a legal definition of vehicle drafted by Congress in an earlier law known as the Dictionary Act. That defines a vehicle as something used as a means of transportation on land. 

The USA Patriot Act was signed into law Oct. 26, giving the government broad powers to fight terrorism. Among other things, it expands the FBI’s wiretapping and electronic surveillance authority and gives police wide-ranging powers to search people’s homes and business records.

Supreme Court blocks 

Texas execution  

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A convicted murderer whose lawyers say is mentally retarded won a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, 3 1/2 hours before he was scheduled to be executed. 

Last month, the nation’s highest court halted two other executions after lawyers made similar claims. The court has been reviewing a Virginia case that challenges the constitutionality of executing the mentally retarded; a decision is expected at any time. 

Willie Modden, 54, was sentenced to die for stabbing to death a convenience store employee, 27-year-old Deborah Davenport, during a robbery. 

Modden’s first conviction was overturned because jurors were not allowed to consider his claims of mental retardation when they decided his sentence. 

He was tried again in 1992, convicted and condemned. At that trial, jurors were told his IQ was 64; an IQ of 70 is considered the threshold for retardation. 

NYPD rejects proposal  

for armed citizen patrols  

NEW YORK – The police commissioner says New York doesn’t need armed bands of citizens to protect its neighborhoods, flatly rejecting a proposal by a Jewish group to begin patrols next week. 

“The department will not tolerate anyone brandishing weapons under the guise of protecting others,” Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday. “Anyone attempting to patrol the streets armed with weapons will be arrested.” 

On Sunday, Rabbi Yakove Lloyd, president of the right-wing Jewish Defense Group, proposed armed patrols, citing comments a suspected terrorist made on CBS’ ”60 Minutes” about targeting certain Jewish neighborhoods. 

“Any move in this direction is counterproductive,” Kelly said. “The tenor of this is wrong. We don’t need this.” 

Lloyd said the patrols would go ahead. 

“What the police commissioner does not understand is that no matter what he says ... those who have the legal right to carry firearms can carry firearms,” he said. 

Government seizure upheld  

in fight over Islamic charity assets  

CHICAGO – A federal judge on Tuesday upheld the government’s seizure of money and records from an Islamic charity federal officials say is suspected of ties to terrorism. 

Attorneys for the charity, Global Relief Foundation, had argued that the order that froze its bank accounts was unconstitutional. 

But U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen wrote in a 48-page opinion that the government had “established probable cause to believe that Global Relief and its executive director were agents of a foreign power.” 

Global Relief attorney Roger Simmons said he would appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Global Relief, based in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, was raided by Treasury Department agents on Dec. 14 and its assets were frozen as part of the government’s post-Sept. 11 terrorism investigation. 

In preparation for his ruling, Andersen viewed secret evidence provided by the government but not shown to Global Relief attorneys. 

“We have reviewed materials furnished by the FBI to us and have concluded that they are relevant to the ongoing investigation and that their disclosure to Global Relief, while the investigation is pending, could undermine this investigation and others of national significance,” he said. 

Wildfire slows near Denver  

DENVER – Shifting wind and cooler temperatures slowed the advance of a wildfire bearing down on Denver on Tuesday, but yellow smoke still blanketed the area and officials asked 13,000 people to leave their homes south of the city. 

It was still too dangerous to allow firefighters in the path of the 77,000-acre blaze that started in the Pike National Forest, officials said. 

“There is such a tremendous amount of heat that you can’t put firefighters on the ground in front of it,” said fire information officer Tony Diffenbaugh. 

The change of wind direction had turned the fire back onto itself late Monday, but officials feared the wind would return on Tuesday, with gusts to 30 mph, and intensify the blaze again, said Diffenbaugh. 

Investigators were looking for the owner of a pickup truck seen leaving the area where the blaze was started by an illegal campfire Saturday about 60 miles south of Denver. Campfires had been banned in the area because of the drought. 

It was one of at least eight fires in Colorado, including a 10,000-acre blaze that destroyed 24 homes and sent residents fleeing in Glenwood Springs, near Storm King Mountain in western Colorado. 

In Glenwood Springs, most of the 3,000 residents forced to leave their homes were allowed to return Monday night. That fire was started Saturday by a long-smoldering underground coal fire. 

Gay-rights advocates infiltrate  

Southern Baptist meeting  

ST. LOUIS – The head of the Southern Baptists condemned homosexuality from the podium Tuesday as gay rights protesters shouting slog and marched through the convention hall and into the arms of police. 

Twelve protesters were arrested inside the hall, and 38 more were taken into custody outside, where riot police stood near the main doorway. 

The dozen protesters who infiltrated the annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination were charged with ethnic intimidation and trespassing. 

“Stop killing us! Stop the spiritual violence!” one man shouted as police dragged him behind the curtains at America’s Center. A woman from the group Soulforce, which claims Southern Baptist teachings lead to violence against gays, shouted: “God loves his gay children!” 

“You need Jesus!” shouted back the Rev. Robert Smith, a pastor from Cedar Bluff, Ala. Others hissed as protesters were led away. 

Spacewalking astronauts bolt down  

work platform for robot arm  

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two spacewalking astronauts wired up and bolted down a work platform Tuesday that will allow the international space station’s 58-foot robot arm to roam across the orbiting outpost. 

Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin, visiting from space shuttle Endeavour, connected eight power, data and video cables. Then, working 240 miles above Earth, they drove four bolts to secure the platform and installed a TV camera. 

Earlier this spring, 44 feet of track and a rail car were installed on the international space station for use in the later stages of construction. Tuesday’s work involved the bolting of a $254 million platform on the rail car. 

The platform will enable the robot arm and pieces of the space station to ride from one end of the space station to the other. A series of tests must be conducted over the next few weeks before the robot arm is commanded to climb onto the platform for a ride. 

Police: Investigation in case of missing Utah girl being refocused  

SALT LAKE CITY – The city’s police chief said Tuesday detectives are refocusing their investigation into the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart on those who know the 14-year-old girl, and vowed to the unidentified suspect: “We are going to get you.” 

“If you’ve got Elizabeth, you’d better release her now,” Chief Rick Dinse told reporters on the seventh day of the investigation. 

Despite checking out hundreds of tips, police have not been able to focus on any particular suspect, he said. 

“We believe that it is possible that we have already talked to, or will soon talk to, the suspect that is responsible for this crime,” he said. “My caution to this suspect, if he is listening, is, ’We are going to get you.”’ 

Investigators spent several hours in the Smart home early Tuesday, searching for clues to the girl’s June 5 disappearance. 

Investigators are now focusing on someone who had access to the neighborhood or the house, although not necessarily a family member, Dinse said. 

“We don’t have an identified suspect, but we do have some analysis of what this suspect is like,” he said. “While we have not located Elizabeth or identified a clear suspect, we have made progress.” 

Police said they have ruled out the possibility that the girl staged her own abduction and was a runaway. 

So far, police have received 6,000 leads, of which 600 were worthy of followup.

Jesse Silverman, a junior at Berkeley High School, says he won’t be so quick to cast blame on urban designers for a misplaced parking lot anymore. 

Silverman is one of 176 students in the high school’s Advanced Placement Economics and American Government course who is finishing a model urban planning program. 

The program was designed by UC Berkeley’s Fischer Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics and the San Francisco District Council of the Urban Land Institute, a nationwide non-profit focused on land use issues.  

High school students in Alameda and San Rafael went through the “urban plan” earlier this year. 

“We have more of an idea of how difficult it is to plan a city,” said Silverman. 

Berkeley High students worked in teams of five for three weeks creating development plans for Nahas Heights, a rundown part of town in the fictional city of Yorkville. 

Playing with a Lego model of the neighborhood and crunching numbers on laptop computers, students worked to balance a host of real-life, competing goals.  

Removing blight, generating tax revenue, preserving historic buildings, providing a mix of market-rate and affordable housing, and taking into account a mish-mash of neighborhood demands all come into play.  

Monday morning, several of the teams presented final plans to mock city councils at Berkeley High and district headquarters. The remaining teams are scheduled to present today. Each of the councils will pick a winning design. 

The council at district headquarters, composed of professional architects and economists who volunteered, peppered Silverman’s team with questions about the placement of a public park, the amount of affordable housing in their plan and the location of a series of parking lots. 

The team, which calls itself the Revitilization and Beautification Commission, said the questioning was tough. But members said they learned something from the project. 

“It puts some purpose into what we’ve been learning,” said Powell DeGange, a junior, discussing the role of politics and economics in urban planning. 

“I don’t understand anything that happens in Berkeley,” he continued with a chuckle, referring to the city’s unusual political culture. But DeGange said the project gave him some sense for how a development project might unfold in a typical American town. 

Steven Teal, an A.P. Government teacher who teamed up with A.P. Economics teacher Doug Powers to lead the program at Berkeley High, said students have learned lessons about bargaining and public speaking that they do not necessarily pick up in the lecture format. 

Teal said they have also learned some of the basics terms of urban planning – such as the “footprint” of a building. 

“Three weeks ago, they though it was something that Nike made,” he said. 

Paula Blasier, director of special projects for the Fischer Center, said the program has given students a taste for the competing interests in a city and is hoping it will make them better citizens. 

“We’re not trying to turn them into little developers,” she said. “We’re trying to turn them into citizens who understand the complexities of their environments.” 

Students said some kinks are still left to be worked out. Elise McNamara, a junior on the Revitilization and Beautification team, said the group needed more time to work on its project. Silverman said the format did not allow as much creativity as he would have liked. 

UC Berkeley and the Urban Land Institute will gather the student and teacher feedback and make revisions as they seek to go national. 

Blasier said she has received interested calls from Harvard, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

- Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

Name that chirp 

TRENTON, N.J. – Some unlikely tunes are leaping up the charts in New Jersey. 

A new CD featuring frogs croaking is selling so fast that state wildlife officials are having trouble keeping it in stock. 

“It’s pretty amazing,” Linda Tesauro, executive director of the Conserve Wildlife Foundation, said last week. “We never expected these to be as popular as they are.” 

Performers include the indigenous Pine Barrens Treefrog, the chirping Northern Spring Peeper, and the Carpenter Frog. 

Frog fans also are buying the accompanying book “Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of New Jersey.” 

Initial runs of 1,000 copies for each item sold out in 10 weeks — a record for the state Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Non-game Species Program. A second run of 2,000 is expected within days. 

The frog sounds were recorded in the woods and streams of the Garden State. The CD is meant to teach listeners to identify the calls and chirps of the tiny amphibians. 

The CD and book sell for $10 each or $18 for the set. 

Hello kitty 

CANON CITY, Colo. – Bill and Shirley Smith lost their cat in last week’s destructive wildfires here. Lucky for one lost kitty, they’re not too heartbroken to open their home again. 

The Smiths plan to adopt a frail and burned kitten found in the ashes. 

The wildfire, one of the worst in Colorado history, destroyed 88 homes, including the Smiths’, about 100 miles southwest of Denver. The Smiths saved their three dogs before fleeing but couldn’t find the cat, R.C. 

Tuesday night, Bill Smith’s daughter and son-in-Law, Linda and Jon Marsh, found the kitten while searching for R.C. 

“It wasn’t what we were looking for, but we saved something that was living and breathing,” Linda Marsh said. 

The dehydrated kitten had second-degree burns on its paws, ears and nose. A veterinarian at the Fremont Veterinary Hospital in Canon City bandaged its paws and administered antibiotics. 

It was expected to fully recover. 

Thief returns goods 

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. – A man’s plan to steal his neighbor’s car was foiled when the car broke down and he was caught pushing it back into the driveway. 

Michael Peterson allegedly broke into John Dailey’s home, took a set of car keys, helped himself to soft drinks from the refrigerator and stole a 1985 Honda Civic parked in the driveway, police said. 

Peterson and a male juvenile accomplice knew Dailey would be out of town, said state Trooper G.S. Petsko. 

As they fled, the car “began to malfunction and stopped in the roadway,” Petsko said. “Disgruntled, they pushed the vehicle back to the residence.” 

Dailey’s nephew spotted the men and eventually called police. 

Peterson, 23, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of burglary, destruction of property, receiving a stolen vehicle, larceny and unauthorized use of a vehicle. He was released on $5,000 bond. 

Peterson faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted. 

Petsko said the 16-year-old juvenile accomplice would face similar charges.

To the Editor: 

When a crime is committed, it is important to not blame the victim.  

Yet blame is exactly what seems to be happening to Medical Herbs, the medical marijuana dispensary that was robbed last Thursday and was then referred to as a “public nuisance.”  

As a marijuana activist and employee of Medical Herbs, I am dismayed that the voices of very few neighbors who cry “not in my backyard” are being put forth over the immense support we have in our community. We have collected numerous signatures from the people living around our facility saying that they “would like to see this establishment remain in our community as a resource to qualified patients.” 

This is not a game to us. We are here, knowing the risks involved, because we have a commitment to the patients that rely on us.  

Every day we serve dozens of patients with ailments varying from AIDS, cancer, epilepsy, anorexia, asthma and countless other life-threatening or debilitating illnesses.  

It says a great deal about the commitment of the employees at Medical Herbs that even after three robberies, we are only stronger in our desire to create a safe haven for qualified individuals to have affordable access to the medication they need. 

By some strange coincidence Medical Herb employees had just met on the morning before the robbery to discuss how to increase security above and beyond the procedures we worked on with the city earlier this year. The following are the improvements we decided on and will be taking place as soon as possible: 

• Installing higher quality surveillance monitors 

• Installing a “panic button” that will silently notify the police in case of problems 

• Installing a metal screen door that locks automatically and can be opened by a buzzer inside 

• Provide the security guard with communication equipment 

Our situation is tenuous enough with the Federal government attempting to overrule California’s Proposition 215 — which legitimizes dispensing marijuana to qualified patients.  

At this critical time, we ask the people of Berkeley to stand behind the brave caregivers who are risking their safety to serve the sick and dying in our community. 

Dorrit Geshuri 

Marijuana Activist 

Project Director, Medical Herbs 

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 

Wednesday, June 19

"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.  

Thursday, June 20

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. 

ALAMEDA — The woman who accused Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Darrell Russell of videotaping her being raped by two of his friends testified Monday that she blacked out after Russell mixed her a drink. 

The 27-year-old woman, who was dating Russell when she said the NFL player raped her on Jan. 31, also said she vaguely remembered looking up at a working video camera. 

The testimony came on the first day of a preliminary hearing. Russell is charged with 25 felonies as an accomplice in the attack. 

The woman said she arranged to meet Russell at a San Francisco club. She testified that she was at the club for about an hour and had two drinks before she spotted Russell and his friends sitting across the room. 

She said she was feeling fine until Russell took a bottle of alcohol from the table at which he was sitting and mixed a “pinkish, fruity” drink for her. 

“I did not watch his every move of making the drink, but I know he did make the drink,” she testified. 

“I don’t recall anything much after that,” she said. But she added that when she woke up from a nap at work the next day, she had visions of someone videotaping her the previous night. 

“All I could see was a red light,” she said. 

Police said they seized a videotape of the incident during a search of the Alameda house where Russell’s teammate, safety Eric Johnson, lived. 

Russell’s lawyer, Cristina C. Arguedas, tried to characterize the woman as someone who is out for money. Under cross-examination, the woman, who went out with Russell about six times, said she plans to file a civil suit against Russell, the former No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft. 

Arguedas also said that it was reasonable for Russell to think the woman was consenting to the act because she admitted to drinking and having sex separately with Russell and Johnson in the same night two weeks before the incident 

“They go clubbing, they drink, they have sex,” Arguedas said.

The newly-formed Hate Crime Emergency Response Team is getting impatient with the city’s handling of hate crimes and plans to funnel its frustrations at a rally on the steps of old City Hall today. 

“The city has not done anything,” said Osama Qasem, a member of the young coalition of ethnic groups, which was formed to urge the city to response to what Qasem calls a “rash” of post-Sept. 11 hate crimes in Berkeley. 

A number of proposals, ranging from $5,000 rewards for hate crime information to creating a police hate crime unit, were put forth at a heavily-attended City Council meeting last month. But wanting more information, council voted 5-3 to seek advice from the city manager before implementing the measures. 

Today’s 6 p.m. rally is dubbed the “6-11 Plan,” named for today’s date – nine months after the 2001 terrorist attacks. In a written statement organizers said that their effort “seeks to repair the fabric of the community torn apart by the drastic increase in hate crimes and fear since 9-11.” 

But members of the council majority who voted to study the measures are calling today’s rally a political ploy. They claim that their council colleagues are misrepresenting as opposition to hate crime policy their wish for more information. 

“Do you want to make headlines or do you want to solve problems,” asked Councilmember Polly Armstrong, saying that the manner in which the city should respond to hate crimes is now in the hands of the city manager, where it should be, and out of politics. 

“Dealing with people who have rallies and scream the loudest is not the way to address this issue,” she added. 

To the dismay of Armstrong – as well as Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Betty Olds, Polly Armstrong, Miriam Hawley and Maudelle Shirek who also voted to pass matters to the city manager – Councilmember Kriss Worthington has put forth another set of hate crimes measures for City Council to consider. These items are scheduled for discussion at tonight’s City Council meeting. 

Worthington’s proposal includes two ideas: holding a town hall meeting on hate crime and endorsing a federal hate crimes bill. The proposal includes two other proposals considered last month but were sent to the city manager for further consideration. The ideas were to offer money as a reward for hate crime information and to provide a diversity of hate training for police. 

“These are things we can do immediately. They don’t take time to study,” said Worthington, noting that council needs to act now and show the community that it takes hate crime seriously. 

“It’s been nine weeks since hate crime measures have been proposed and City Council has still not acted on anything,” he said. 

Councilmember Armstrong disagreed, claiming that city staff is working hard on the issue. He said that Worthington’s proposal means little. 

“Even though he’s been defeated, he’s bringing it back again,” she said in disbelief. 

Among the recent crimes that council is hoping to respond to include a March incident in which a brick was thrown through a glass door of the Berkeley Hillel, an April hoax in which phony anthrax letters were sent to members of the Hispanic community, and bomb threats made to each of the city’s Jewish temples. 

Contact reporter at kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net

Today is Tuesday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2002. There are 203 days left in the year. 

Today’s highlight in history: 

On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain. 

On this date: 

In 1509, England’s King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon. 

In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner. 

In 1942, the United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend-lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II. 

In 1963, Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. 

In 1970, the United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base. 

In 1977, a 20-day hostage drama in the Netherlands ended as Dutch marines stormed a train and a school held by South Moluccan extremists. Six gunmen and two hostages on the train were killed. 

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown. 

In 1978, Joseph Freeman Jr. became the first black priest ordained in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

In 1979, actor John Wayne died at age 72. 

In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, N.J., at age 31. 

Ten years ago: President George H.W. Bush’s stopover in Panama en route to the Earth Summit in Brazil was disrupted when riot police fired tear gas at protesters, preventing Bush from speaking at a rally praising the revival of democracy in Panama. 

Five years ago: The parents of Timothy McVeigh pleaded for their son’s life during the penalty phase of the Oklahoma City bombing trial. 

One year ago: Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. 

Today’s Birthdays: Opera singer Rise Stevens is 89. Actor-producer Richard Todd is 83. Author William Styron is 77. Actor Gene Wilder is 67. Actor Chad Everett is 65. Comedian Johnny Brown is 65. Former auto racer Sir Jackie Stewart is 63. Country singer Wilma Burgess is 63. Singer Joey Dee is 62. Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 57. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 53. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant (.38 Special) is 50. Actor Peter Bergman is 49. Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 46. Actor Hugh Laurie is 43. Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 36. Country musician Smilin’ Jay McDowell (BR5-49) is 33. Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 33. Actor Joshua Jackson is 24. 

Thought for Today: “Neither in the life of the individual nor in that of mankind is it desirable to know the future.” — Jakob Burckhardt, Swiss historian (1818-1897).

To the Editor: 

As an organization dedicated to the advocacy of sustainable, attractive, safe, and equitable transportation choices, Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation Coalition (BEST) must oppose the Berkeley Height Initiative. You may have seen people gathering signatures to get this initiative on the ballot in November. 

If passed, this initiative would stop smart growth and limit height and growth in Berkeley, thereby forcing new development into the outlying areas of the Bay Area, such as Tracy, Fairfield, and Castro Valley. Essentially, the initiative would significantly change the recently adopted 

General Plan, which represents a hard-won compromise that took years to achieve.  

The Height Initiative is a regressive measure that would put Berkeley in the forefront of NIMBY-ism. In doing so, it would encourage sprawl and guarantee the introduction of even more single occupancy automobiles onto already crowded streets and highways, including our own. 

The Height Initiative would worsen the job/housing imbalance and create even more traffic congestion, as new Bay Area residents would have no other option but to live in outlying areas and pollute their way through Berkeley neighborhoods on their way to work and school. 

Wouldn't it be better to allow growth to occur near jobs and existing public transit, such as the bus lines and BART? Wouldn1t it be better to allow the appropriate densities necessary to support public transportation and retail and job centers so as to make Berkeley a truly "walkable" city?  

To both questions the BEST Coalition answers emphatically "yes." The Height Initiative is a big step in the wrong direction. 

Marcy Greenhut  

BEST

For many local children, the start of summer is a time to relax and be carefree. However, for many other local kids the start of summer means an end to free meal programs at local schools.  

For the past 25 summers Berkeley has fed local children in need through its Summer Food Service. According to Madalyn Law, recreation program administrator for the service, the summer months mean a shortage of food for many local children. 

The Service, originated by the federal government, is coordinated through the city’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department. Trained staff provides lunch for children at 12 locations throughout Berkeley every day. 

“They came to the realization that once schools shut down for the summer there was still a need for food. Kids still need nourishment during the summer,” Law said. 

There is no application process for the kids or their parents. Children simply show up to a site and are given a free meal.  

The only requirement, says Law, is that the children stay on-site while eating.  

Berkeley’s Black Repertory Theatre, a program participant, provides youth from low-income families a chance to eat a free meal, and to check out a play.  

“There are two things you need to do,” said Vaughn Scott, executive director of the theater. “Feed them and expose them to the arts.” 

About 75 kids show up at the Theater each day for lunch during the summer. “This gives them a meal and a chance to find out if they like the arts. A lot of times there’s no where else to go for them,” Vaughn Scott said. 

The Theater’s performance is “The Whiz,” July 8 until Aug. 24. 

Though the program serves an important need, the government-issued lunches have been criticized. Some say the lunch contents could be more nutritious. Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean says the program ought to promote healthy eating habits, not just provide food.  

“I’m going to purchase one of these meals myself,” Dean said. “I want to experience it because I have the feeling it’s not very nutritious. We need to begin to change the focus and see if we can provide things like fresh fruits and vegetables with these meals.”  

Despite these concerns, the service hands out more than 1,300 lunches each day throughout the summer, said Lisa Corona, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. 

Locations such as the Youth Services Center on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, are chosen because they are near schools with more than 50 percent of students receiving free meal programs during the schoolyear. 

Law says that each site serves 100 to 150 lunches a day, and that no child younger than 19 is turned away. 

During the schoolyear, the Berkeley Unified School District provides both free breakfasts and free or reduced-price lunches to all income-eligible students. 

According to Lawrence Lee, executive vice principal at Berkeley High School, BHS provides applications for the program at its cafeteria.  

BHS, however, does not provide a meal program during the summer, even though many students attend summer classes. Lee is hoping the district will soon consider adding a summer program. 

According to Marian Magid, spokesperson for the Berkeley Unified School District, the city applied for a grant for school meal programs that “would be a major infusion of funds and programs related to school meals.”  

Many other local food programs offer children and adults free meals throughout the year. According to Steve Simms, chairman of the Outreach Committee at All Souls Episcopal Church, volunteers try to make those in need feel at home.  

“We think of people as our guests. Our objective is to make them feel at home, to play the piano and have buffet style meals,” Simms said. 

The food program at All Souls rotates its service with other churches and serves more than 100 people at each meal. 

“The volunteers really like to create a friendly and hospitable atmosphere. We have a lot of regulars,” said Simms. 

Other local food programs include the Berkeley Food Pantry, 2220 Cedar St., which distributes groceries to residents, and the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project, 2362 Bancroft Way. 

Contact reporter at chris@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

For the past ten years I have walked the North Berkeley streets every morning. I have jokingly told my adult children that I expect to die as a pedestrian. With inattentive drivers failing to stop at stop signs, plowing through red lights, and inching up on those walking in cross-walks, it is only a matter of time. What could change if the speed limit was lowered to 20 mph? 

Hey, I have an idea. How about ticketing the present law breakers? The only thing a new law will do is increase scoff-laws. Laws are worthless if the police do not enforce them. White flags for pedestrians-- don’t they mean surrender? I'm not ready yet! 

Donna Cummings

LOS ANGELES – Bugs is coming back, doc. 

Warner Bros. announced plans Monday to produce a new feature film starring Bugs Bunny and fellow Looney Tunes cohorts Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird and the scenery-chewing Tasmanian Devil. 

“Looney Tunes: Back in Action” will combine those animated characters and others with live-action backgrounds and performers, much like the 1988 Disney comedy “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” 

It’s the first feature film for Bugs and the gang since 1996’s “Space Jam” with basketball star Michael Jordan. 

Brendan Fraser, best known for “The Mummy” and its sequel, will star in the new film as a man who encounters the cartoon creatures in Hollywood, Las Vegas and Africa while searching for his missing father and an ancient treasure. 

“Gremlins” filmmaker Joe Dante has signed to direct the comedy. 

In addition, several new Looney Tunes cartoon shorts will be created to run before other feature movies, said Lorenzo di Bonaventura, president of worldwide production for Warner Bros. 

The studio started in the animated-short business in 1930, when it released the first Looney Tunes short, a parody of Disney’s Silly Symphonies titles, but in recent years the cartoons have been limited mainly to television.

Another day of warm weather and high winds elevated fire danger to its highest point of the year Monday — a level experts say is unusual for the month of June. 

“Unless the weather turns around quickly, we’re going to be in trouble early,” said Berkeley’s Assistant Fire Chief David Orth, noting that by August, East Bay residents could see wildfires more typical of September and October. This means a longer and potentially more dangerous fire season, he said. 

A state-issued Red Flag Warning went into effect for Alameda County Monday. This was the second high-danger warning of the year following Friday’s designation. 

Fire officials responded by shutting down several acres of park land in the East Bay Hills, where the threat was greatest.  

The backcountry of Berkeley’s Tilden Park was included in the closure. 

“And we can expect high fire danger for another couple of days,” said Ned MacKay of the East Bay Regional Parks District. Forecasts call for weakening winds and low humidity.  

Berkeley’s fire concerns are fueled by a rash of wildfires burning across the state and the nation. On the southwestern edge of Denver, a 61,000-acre blaze forced the evacuation of 40,000 people yesterday, and in California, thousands of residents fled homes because of fires from Yuba County to the outskirts of Los Angeles. 

“Activity in Colorado means less resources here should we have a local fire break out,” Chief Orth said. 

Two helicopters from the East Bay Regional Parks District hovered over the East Bay hills yesterday, keeping an eye out for flames. The Berkeley Fire Department called additional staff to conduct engine patrols. On the UC Berkeley campus, student groups policed wildlands. 

“The students can detect an ignition early,” said director of emergency planning with the UC Police Department Tom Klatt. “We depend on them.” 

East Bay fire officials say they are prepared for the hazards that a bad fire season presents – at least more prepared than they were in 1991 when the Oakland hills fire raged, killing 25 people and burning 3,000 buildings. 

“If there’s an ignition, 20 to 30 fire engines start rolling,” Orth said. “(Before) 1991, it was one.”  

The Hills Emergency Forum was born out of the 1991 disaster – adding tools to East Bay fire caches, standardizing equipment among agencies, and coordinating response protocols – promises greater security in the event of future fire, officials said. 

Contact reporter at 

kurtis@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

I'm appalled at Kurtis Alexander's use of “touts itself as a Jewish civil rights group” in describing the Anti-Defamation League, a prestigious organization which is a civil rights group, and not only a Jewish one.  

“Touts itself” is demeaning and shows that your writer hasn't done his homework. 

Renata Polt 

Berkeley

PHILADELPHIA – Feverishly ill and hallucinating, Frederic Chopin was staying on the island of Majorca in 1839 with his mistress, writer George Sand. It was raining, and he was trying to finish his preludes — 24 in all, one in each key. 

The Romantic piano composer tried in E-flat minor to convey his fraught state of mind by using a continuous trill in the left hand. He later abandoned that effort in favor of a different prelude in that key — but he saved his notes. 

Now, by transcribing Chopin’s shorthand, University of Pennsylvania music history professor Jeffrey Kallberg has resurrected the piece. 

It is not a perfect piece of music, Kallberg said, but it provides new insight into Chopin’s musical ideas and work process. 

“He had this vision of a kind of experimental prelude,” said Kallberg, 47. “He wanted to write it down as quickly as he could, so he used a kind of shorthand.” 

Directly translated, Kallberg said, the music makes little sense. Chopin didn’t mark clefs, so sometimes the positions of notes have to be adjusted. He also didn’t write in every note, so Kallberg had to fill in blanks. 

The result is a frantic 33 measures. Kallberg has nicknamed the piece “The Devil’s Trill” for its similarities to “The Devils Trill” Violin Sonata by Tartini, a likely influence on Chopin. 

The trill in the left hand is paired with rocking triplets in the right. It lasts for just 43 seconds in the version on Kallberg’s Web site, played by Jonathan Bellman, chairman of the music history department at the University of Northern Colorado. 

The piece is dark, turbulent and not at all typical of the composer. 

It “shows a degree of experimentalism we hadn’t known before,” Kallberg said. “At the same time, that’s why it doesn’t work. You’ve got the experimentalism in sound, but the chord progression isn’t that strange.” 

Bellman added, “This is another side to (Chopin) we didn’t know was there. Is this going to change anybody’s view of him in the larger sense? No. But for people who study him, you want to understand.”

UC Berkeley has announced new incentives for staff and faculty to carpool and take public transportation to work. In addition, the university has expressed interest in joining with other large Berkeley employers to obtain bus passes for its workers. 

The new developments mark a break in the ongoing feud between UC Berkeley and a group of employee activists over the university’s commitment to alternative transportation. But activists say they are not satisfied yet. 

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Norah Foster, a union activist and chair of the Improve Transit/Parking Coalition. 

The new incentives, scheduled to take effect July 1, include: 

• free, reserved parking spaces for cars transporting three or more people, marking a reduction $8 to $10 the monthly fees previously required of each car-pooler. 

• reduced payments for two-person carpools. 

• an expansion of a program providing tax-free public transit options. 

• a pilot plan, currently in development, that would provide bicycle lockers and showers at the university’s Recreational Sports Facility for people who bike to campus and want to clean up before work. 

“This campus has a commitment to encouraging people to consider options to driving alone,” said UC Berkeley Director of Transportation Nadesan Permaul, noting that only 51 percent of staff and faculty currently drive alone to campus. 

Foster said the new measures are helpful, but argued that the university will not make real progress until it secures transit passes for all its employees. 

“We feel those options are important, but not as significant (as passes) in reducing the number of cars coming to campus,” she said. 

Activists have pushed for AC Transit bus passes all year, staging a series of protests and press conferences to push the issue. They say the passes would provide low-income staff with an important economic benefit, and serve the environment by taking cars off the road. 

BART, which provides train service, has resisted calls for employer-based pass programs. 

Providing annual bus passes for 14,000 faculty and staff would be expensive, said Permaul. Berkeley pays $60 per pass for its employee program. 

Permaul also argued that most university employees who use public transportation ride BART rather than AC Transit. He said a “commuter check” program which would reimburse employees for any transit passes they purchase, no matter what the agency involved, would make more sense. But again, he said, the heavy costs for the university could get in the way.  

Despite his preference for the “commuter check” option, Permaul expressed interest in a proposal by City Councilmember Kriss Worthington to bring together some of the largest employers in Berkeley and work on obtaining AC Transit passes for all their employees. 

“We want to commend the City Councilmember for his proposal,” said Permaul, in a notable gesture to Worthington, who has sided with the employee activists in what has often been a bitter fight. 

Worthington warned Permaul not to frame as an “either-or” proposition the commuter check and the AC Transit Pass, noting that the city provides both. 

“What the city of Berkeley is doing is more logical,” he said. “We see them as quite consistent with each other.” 

Elisabeth Jewel, district director for Rep. Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, offered to take Worthington’s proposal and convene the employers in the coming weeks.  

Worthington said Bayer, Alta Bates and the Berkeley Unified School District are among the employers who will gather and push for seed money for the passes from the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency or the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 

Nichele Ayers, senior marketing representative for AC Transit, said the bus line was interested in sitting down with the employers. 

“Our most important priority is to increase ridership,” she said. But Ayers suggested that the fare reductions that come with large-scale pass programs can hurt the bus line’s bottom line, especially when increased ridership brings a need for increased bus service. 

Ayers said AC Transit normally charges $90 per month for a bus pass. The city of Berkeley is paying just $60 a year for each employee. 

- Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

LOS ANGELES – Members of the television industry, expressing concern about the impact of media consolidation on programming quality and diversity, has asked for a federal study of the issue. 

In a letter to FCC chairman Michael K. Powell, TV creators called popular culture among “our great national treasures” and one that is under assault. 

“The harm comes about as a direct result of the growing concentration of ownership. The consequences of this new factor in our industry are — and this is no exaggeration — potentially catastrophic,” the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors said in its June 7 letter. 

While new technology has increased the number of radio and TV channels available “there has also been an alarming increase in the number of corporate entities which own and control these systems,” the caucus wrote. 

“We believe the FCC needs to consider these implications and the results deregulation has had upon the public interest,” the letter said. 

A call seeking FCC comment was not immediately returned Monday. 

The approximately 150-member caucus bills itself as the “creative conscience” of the TV industry and the only group to represent the writers, directors and producers guilds. 

Caucus members include Fay Kanin, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, writer Lionel Chetwynd (“Kissinger and Nixon”) and producer Norman Lear (“All in the Family”).

On Friday morning a UC Berkeley maintenance crew accidentally discharged soapy water into Strawberry Creek, which runs through the campus. 

An employee of the university’s Office of Environment, Health & Safety found the spill. Using storm drain maps, officials traced it to the Spieker Aquatics Complex. 

Steve Maranzana, environmental specialist for the office, said maintenance crew members believed they were pouring soapy water into a sanitary sewer drain, not Strawberry Creek.  

Maranzana said the fish in the creek appeared unharmed. He urged anyone who discovers a creek spill in the future to call his office at 642-3073. 

“The more eyes we have on the lookout, the faster we can respond and minimize the environmental impact,” Maranzana said.

LOS ANGELES – The moon slowly passed in front of the sun Monday in a partial eclipse that dimmed skies in the western United States, Mexico, Canada and Asia. 

A howl went up from a crowd of 300 people on the lawn of Griffith Observatory above Hollywood when the eclipse reached its maximum in Los Angeles at 6:22 p.m. PDT. 

“It looks like someone took a bite out of it,” said George Baltakian, 10, of Burbank. 

“The drama that leads up to it is the thing,” said Paul Jose, 51, of Culver City, a construction worker and eclipse aficionado who photographed the event. 

“The temperature changes and the light changes, and I always enjoy it when I can take off my sunglasses. That’s when you know something is happening,” he said. 

In California, where San Diego offered the best view in the United States, the eclipse began about 5:15 p.m. PDT. At its maximum, three-fourths of the sun was eclipsed in San Diego. 

Edgar Moreno, 36, brought his family to Griffith Observatory to celebrate a sort of cosmic birthday. 

“My son was born in 1994 when this eclipse happened and now it’s happening again,” said Moreno. 

“It’s cool,” said his son, Edgar Jr. 

Danielle Ouwendijk, 25, drove from Camarillo with a friend to view the eclipse at the observatory. 

“It’s just something that’s rare,” she said. “It’s not like every day you can see it.” 

The eclipse came during Southern California’s “June gloom” season, but the overcast that pushes ashore daily from the Pacific burned off early in the day and stayed away as the event unfolded. 

“We’ve got great skies,” said John Downs, president of the Oceanside Photo and Telescope Astronomical Society, which drew a small crowd to an eclipse-watching party in Oceanside on the north San Diego County coast. 

“If you knew how rare they were you’d savor every one,” Downs said. 

The Exploratorium used the Internet to show the eclipse to computer users via its Web site. Skies were cloudless around San Francisco Bay. 

Astronomers said viewers in locations to the east and north would see less of the sun blocked. The Eastern Seaboard had no chance of seeing the event because the timing placed it after sunset there.

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Gray Davis launched a scathing attack ad against his Republican opponent Bill Simon on Monday, the first of what will likely be an onslaught of negative commercials in the five months until election day. 

The ad comes on the heels of two positive television ads the Democratic governor began airing Wednesday. Simon, a political newcomer whose fund-raising is dwarfed by Davis’ more than $30 million campaign treasury, has yet to run television commercials — considered key to reaching voters in sprawling California. 

Davis’ 30-second ad, seen in Los Angeles, Sacramento and the Central Valley, focuses on Western Federal Savings and Loan, a Simon family investment seized by the government in 1993 at a cost to taxpayers of more than $90 million. 

“Bill Simon inherited a fortune. But how has he managed on his own? When he directed a savings and loan, the thrift made bad loans, went belly up and was seized by the federal government. ... If he can’t run an S&L, how can he run California?” the ad asks.”

SAN FRANCISCO – After escaping serious damage in the early stages of the high-tech wreck, venture capitalists suffered even deeper financial wounds than stock market investors last year, according to industry figures released Monday. 

Venture capital funds plunged by an average of 27.8 percent in 2001, a gruesome about-face from the prior year when the average fund gained 28.6 percent, according to statistics complied by Thomson Financial/Venture Economics for the National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group. 

It marked the industry’s first calendar-year loss since the trade group began tracking fund returns in 1980. Before 2001, venture capitalists’ worst single-year performance came in 1984 when the average fund inched up by 1.3 percent. 

The venture capital community’s setback was even more severe than the Nasdaq composite index, the most popular benchmark for measuring the performance of publicly held tech stocks. The Nasdaq index fell by 21 percent during 2001, coming off a 39 percent loss in 2000. 

The Nasdaq’s prolonged funk has contributed to the dramatic deterioration in venture capital portfolios. 

With the stock market discounting the shares of technology industry giants such as Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems, venture capitalists are being forced to face up to the grim conditions and mark down the value of their holdings in industry startups. 

Some venture capitalists say they already have made most, if not all, of the painful adjustments to their portfolios. Many other venture capitalists, though, still haven’t fully recognized their losses on their books, something they likely will have to do soon unless the industry stages a surprising turnaround. 

That means venture capitalists likely will be showing losses through at least the end of next year and maybe even beyond, according to industry analysts and professionals. 

“The next two to four years are going to be tough sledding,” said San Francisco venture capitalist Chip Adams, a principal at Rosewood Capital. 

Last year ended with the industry’s fifth consecutive quarterly loss, dating back to late 2000. 

The average decline of 3.9 percent during the final three months of 2001 marked an improvement from a third quarter loss of 10 percent, but “that should not be seen as a sign of recovery,” warned Jeanne Metzger, a spokeswoman for the industry trade group. “We are not out of the woods yet.” 

The recent losses represent a sobering comedown for venture capitalists after registering a mind-boggling 167 percent gain in 1999, near the height of the dot-com boom. By comparison, the Nasdaq index surged by 86 percent in 1999. 

With the losses from the dot-com bust now piling up, some institutional investors want to cash out of struggling venture capital funds. But most venture capitalists say their investors are sitting tight and betting that the funds will deliver better long-term returns than the stock or bond markets. 

Despite the deep losses of 2001, venture capital funds posted an average gain of 49.3 percent over the past three years and an average increase of 35.9 percent over the past five years, according to Venture Economics. 

“Most institutional investors are used to weathering a storm like this,” said Philip Sanderson, general partner of WaldenVC. “If you think in terms of ’buy low, sell high,’ there has never been a better time to be investing venture capital.” 

LOS ANGELES – A jury awarded the City of Hope medical research center $300.1 million in compensatory damages Monday after finding that Genentech Inc. broke its promise to pay royalties on drugs based on City of Hope research. 

By a vote of 10-2 the Los Angeles County Superior Court jury also found that Genentech, a biotechnology giant, acted with malice or fraud. 

The jury reached its verdict after more than three weeks of deliberation. The panel will reconvene next week to determine punitive damages. 

“We’re going to ask for substantial punitive damages,” said Glenn Krinsky, in-house counsel for City of Hope. 

It was the second trial of the case. The first trial in the civil lawsuit ended in a mistrial last October when the jury failed to reach a verdict after eight days of deliberation. 

“We never lost our confidence,” Krinksy said. “We are elated and feel very vindicated.” 

Genentech, based in South San Francisco, was preparing a statement Monday afternoon. 

City of Hope sued Genentech in 1999, claiming the company concealed licensed sales of protein products such as hepatitis vaccines over a 15-year period that were worth about $16.7 billion. 

The Duarte, Calif.-based research center, which made the protein manufacturing discovery, contended it is owed 2 percent royalties on those sales, plus interest, or $457 million dollars, based on an agreement it signed with Genentech in 1976. 

Genentech claimed that the disputed sales by licensed third parties never qualified for royalty payments under the terms of the agreement. The company said it never concealed deals and paid the hospital everything it was due.

SACRAMENTO – An energy company could lose its permit to build a power plant if it didn’t start construction within two years under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate. 

Supporters said the bill would help the state plan its energy needs and discourage companies from holding on to permits to sell them when a shortage of electricity boosts their value. 

“There is no way we can have any certainty without putting a time limit on things,” said Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey. 

But opponents said the measure would discourage power plant development. 

“Why on earth would anyone want to build a power plant in the state of California with all the rules, with all the regulations?” asked Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside. “We make it next to impossible.” 

The bill, by Sen. Steve Peace, D-El Cajon, would require a company to begin construction of a power plant within a year after the getting a state permit. 

The company could get another year by agreeing to reimburse the state Energy Commission for the cost of licensing the project. 

The commission could revoke the license or impose fines if the builder couldn’t show good reasons for failing to meet construction milestones, and the state Power Authority could take over the project. 

State regulators could impose up to $150,000 in fines for failure to comply with conditions attached to a permit, up from the current $75,000.

SACRAMENTO – California could be the first state to allow workers to take paid leaves from their jobs to care for a seriously ill family member or a new child under a bill approved Monday by the Senate. 

The measure, by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, was sent to the Assembly by a 21-15 vote. 

California currently allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for themselves, a seriously ill parent, child or spouse or because of the birth or adoption of a child. 

But Kuehl said most workers can’t afford to take advantage of the program. 

Her bill would allow about 12 million workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent or domestic partner or to care for a new child. 

Workers taking part in the program would receive 55 percent of their wages, up to a maximum of $490 a week. The maximum payment would increase each year based on an inflation factor. 

Employers and employees would split the cost of the program, which is estimated to be about $42 a year per worker. Using that figure, an employer with 10 employees would pay $210 annually and each of the 10 employees would pay $21 into the leave fund. 

A doctor would have to verify that there was a seriously illness or a new child before an employee could take a leave. 

Nesty Firestein, director of the Labor Project for Working Families, a nonprofit group based in Berkeley, said no state has paid leaves, although legislation has been introduced in more than 20 states to implement such programs. 

She predicted it would save employers money by helping them retain employees. 

Sen. Ray Haynes, R-Riverside, complained that lawmakers were assured when they approved the unpaid leave program several years ago that it would never be turned into a paid program. 

“I hope this is a lesson for the next Republican governor or next Republican president before they sign this kind of bill,” he said. “Once Democrats control everything they are going to start raising taxes and raising benefits to pay for these screwball ideas. 

“A tax on a job eliminates jobs; this is a tax on a job.” 

But Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, said fewer and fewer families can afford to have one spouse work.

ETNA – A 600-acre fire raced through wilderness near the Oregon border on Monday, while week-old blazes that consumed nearly 45,000 acres throughout the state were finally on the way to being contained. 

The blaze in rural Siskiyou County started Sunday afternoon when a backyard debris fire got out of control, said Penny Melum, a spokeswoman for the Klamath National Forest. 

“It is human-caused, and it just breaks my heart,” Melum said. 

The fire was burning 30 miles south of the border in steep, treacherous mountain terrain that made it hard to fight, Melum said. 

High winds spread the flames along 80-degree slopes. 

About 350 firefighters worked in 80-degree heat. The few homes in the area were not immediately threatened and no evacuations were ordered, but fire engines were stationed at each house. 

The fire did threaten the homes of bears, mountain lions, raccoons and rattlesnakes. 

A little farther south, a 1,100-acre wildfire was contained Monday afternoon. No homes were damaged and no injuries were reported. The fire 60 miles northeast of Sacramento in Yuba County started Sunday when high winds knocked power lines into a tree. It briefly prompted the evacuation of about 150 homes. 

In Southern California, a wildfire that scorched 23,407 acres of brush in the Angeles National Forest, destroyed nine homes and chased away more than 1,000 residents was 90 percent contained Monday afternoon.

OAKLAND – A 4-year-old girl who suffered head injuries when she fell from a ride at Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo has been upgraded to fair condition. 

The girl, whom authorities would not identify, initially was placed in the intensive care unit of Children’s Hospital Oakland after the accident Saturday. By Monday, she was out of intensive care and doing well, said Susan Martinez, a spokeswoman for the hospital. 

The girl was the second person to fall off the whirling Starfish ride in two years. A 41-year-old woman had minor injuries after falling from the ride last May, prompting park officials to add a second lap bar restraint.

Betty Grey may be the latest victim of what many merchants are calling the “gentrification” of south Berkeley. 

In the historically struggling section of town centered at Adeline Street and Alcatraz Avenue, the 53-year-old owner of Alice's Relaxing Baths shop was served a 30-day-eviction notice last week. Neighbors surmise the eviction is part of the landlord's plan to remove tenants and sell the property to a high-paying commercial investor. 

Owners of the building could not be reached for comment, but South Berkeley's Merchant Association President Sam Dyke said local property owners were increasingly cashing in real estate and noted that a building void of tenants was worth much more than a rented building. 

While Adeline Street may not be the fertile investment ground that has marked the revitalized Fourth Street area of Berkeley and the newly redeveloped downtown, the south Berkeley neighborhood has similarly benefited from city cash influxes, going toward the creation of a more palatable climate for business. 

Elegant streetlights line the sidewalks, planting boxes and pedestrian benches add aristocratic charm, and storefronts have been tastefully upgraded as part of a city-subsidized maintenance program. 

Just last month, city banners were hung along Adeline Street celebrating the additions. The banners plug the neighborhood as a center of shopping, dining, and the arts and demarcate the area as the “Lorin Historic District.” Lorin was the self-governing city that existed in the 1880s, before Berkeley's annexation of the community. 

“We're really trying to help the business community here,” said Roger Asterino, Berkeley's community development project coordinator. The latest help, Asterino noted, came in the form of a $1.2 million federal grant which continues to fund upgrades to streets and sidewalks along Adeline Street. 

Some retail stores like music shop Univibe have taken well to the neighborhood changes, earning a steady clientele over the past few years. And eateries like Vault Café and La Bayou have succeeded in becoming anchors for a slowly-growing dining scene. 

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ADELINE/From Page 1 

Dyke, who runs an antique furniture store at 3258 Adeline in addition to heading the local merchants group, says recent changes are mostly beneficial but do have negative repercussions. 

“We're on our way to becoming a better place,” he said, noting the recent “gentrification.” “But once the gates [of economic development] are let open there's not much we can do… We're going to see mom and pop shops make way to bigger businesses.” 

And that's what Grey says is about to happen to her. Having run her small bath accessory business for 15 years, she pays $800 a month in rent for her 3228 Adeline Street space but knows it’s worth more. 

“It's a nightmare,” she said of her pending eviction. Grey noted that her shop relocated from nearby Alcatraz Avenue just two years ago and doesn't know if her business can survive another costly move. 

Her bath shop, which offers a wide array of bath salts and essential oils under the steady glow of an incense stick, began as a government-subsidized business program, aimed at promoting low-income entrepreneurs in the 1980s. This month, though, marks her eighth year of financial self-sufficiency. 

Grey says she is not about to give up her bath shop without a fight and points out terms in her lease which guarantee her the option of staying for another five years. Grey admits, though, that she may have trouble exercising that option because her ability to pay for a lawyer and advocate her rights is limited. 

Last Thursday afternoon, officers with the Berkeley Police Department showed up at Grey's shop responding to a complaint Grey had registered that morning. According to Grey, a real estate agent bringing potential buyers to her building had verbally harassed her because she was late in opening her store. Police took a report. 

Grey's next-door neighbor who runs a shop called Earl's Beauty Supplies, the second of the two retail tenants at the 3228 Adeline St. property, said that he had not received an eviction notice. He didn't want to comment further for fear of jeopardizing his tenancy. 

City officials, who know Grey as an active leader in the south Berkeley community, regret the pending eviction. 

“The loss of tenants is not a good thing,” said Asterino. The city wants to create better infrastructure for local businesses but in doing so risks losing tenants who can't compete in the changing marketplace, he explained. 

One city official said that efforts had been made to find financial aid to help Grey relocate but they hadn't been successful. Aid programs exist to help nonprofit groups, the official added, but since Grey's business is for-profit, little outside funding is available. 

While Grey might not be in business long enough to benefit from the Adeline corridor improvements, others seem to be relishing the perks. 

“The new trees are nice,” said Odell Lightner, who enjoyed an afternoon walk. However, Lightner who has lived in the community for 20 years doesn’t like all the changes, saying that he has missed some of the old shrubs and landscaping. 

Much of the brush that once existed along Adeline Street has been cleared in an attempt to eliminate turf for drug sales, said Merchant Association President Dyke. 

Recalling the neighborhood’s history of crime, Dyke hopes recent improvements will help curtail such incidents. 

“It seems to be removing a lot of the drug dealers because of the bright lights,” said Dyke. He is optomistic that the trend will continue so long as revitalization continues.

To the Editor 

The May 7 Berkeley City Council hearing on the proposed four-story building on Sacramento, near Dwight Way (formerly Outback clothing store), revealed inclinations which I find somewhat disturbing. The constant conflict between the need for additional housing in Berkeley, especially for low-income seniors, and the rights of current Berkeley residents to maintain a reasonable living environment is not new. My neighbors and I are especially aware of this because a five-story building has been approved for the corner of University Avenue and Acton, in the midst of primarily one-story houses one very short block away on Addison Street and Berkeley Way. The tendency to demonize as callous and uncaring residents who don't want their homes to be in shadow or to be unable to find a nearby parking place when they return home late in the evening is also not new, but appears to be increasingly mean. 

At last month’s hearing, David Stoloff, President of the Board of Affordable Housing Associates, stated, "While it is true there are no other buildings of this scale in the immediate vicinity, precedents like these are needed to encourage other appropriately scaled development along Berkeley’s avenues." This statement reveals two of my concerns: 1.) Apparently Mr. Stoloff considers a four-story building in a neighborhood of primarily one-story homes "appropriately scaled," and 2.) His "foot-in-the-door" strategy interferes with the City Council's intent to minimize the impact of new development on neighborhoods. Those of us near the Acton Courtyard are greatly concerned that it may be only the first of many tall buildings with inadequate parking on the University corridor, despite the residential neighborhoods on both sides of University. Additional tall buildings in our neighborhood will be no more appropriately scaled to our homes than the first one. 

The other concern came with the statement of Claude Harvey, who protested "undermining the over-extensive ZAB (Zoning Adjustments Board) and neighborhood-involved process, the General Plan, the zoning and the professional staff's assessment..." by having a public hearing. Was he really objecting to the opportunity for neighbors of the proposed four-story building to express their concerns to the elected governing body of their city? Does he really believe that the council and affected citizens should just accept without question the decisions of ZAB and the city staff? If having council members hear concerns of their constituency is causing some developers to "flee" Berkeley, as he says, then perhaps they shouldn't be developing projects in Berkeley. 

I was encouraged by the granting of a public hearing on the project, especially broadcast on Channel 78. A well-informed citizenry is crucial to the maintenance of the quality of life in Berkeley. We need to be constantly vigilant in the effort and I appreciate the existence of the Daily Planet and its contribution. 

-Honor Thompson 

Berkeley

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 

Costa Rica-Turkey tie puts Brazil into next round without playing 

YOKOHAMA, Japan – Japan’s victory over Russia set off jubilant celebrations in the co-host nation of the World Cup. It also set off the worst kind of reaction in Moscow. 

Russian fans angered by the 1-0 loss Sunday went on a rampage, overturning cars and setting them on fire in the center of the city. At least one man was killed, and the Interfax news agency said five music students from Japan were beaten. 

An Associated Press photographer saw a mutilated corpse lying on the street during the chaos, which erupted across a square from the Kremlin walls and lasted for more than an hour. 

Officials said 27 people were hospitalized. 

The scene was vastly different in the streets of Yokohoma, where the Japanese won a World Cup game for the first time. They were 0-3 in their debut four years ago. Drivers honked horns and pedestrians chanted “Nippon, Nippon,” waving flags and jerseys. 

Japan was cheered on at the site of the June 30 championship game by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. 

“I think we’ve changed the view people have of Japanese soccer with this victory,” said Junichi Inamoto, who scored the goal. “But we still have to advance to the next round.” 

That could come Friday if they tie or beat Tunisia. The Tunisians played Belgium on Monday at Oita, Japan. 

Spanish players partied, waiting for the rest of the World Cup to catch up with them. Spain was the first team to qualify for the second round. 

Brazil matched that Sunday and it didn’t even play — Costa Rica’s 1-1 tie with Turkey ensured its advance and eliminated China. 

When Mexico beat Ecuador 2-1 and Costa Rica tied, it improved CONCACAF’s record to 4-0-1. Long considered one of the weakest regions in FIFA, its spotless mark was on the line Monday when the United States played host South Korea in Daegu. 

South Korea President Kim Dae-jung was not scheduled to attend the game. FIFA spokesman Walter Gagg, in charge of stadiums and security, said security would be “much tougher than all the matches before. They will not be afraid, but they will be very, very careful.” 

Aside from possible terrorism, authorities want to head off protests against the United States. U.S. military bases in the country cause some friction, and Koreans still are upset over the Olympic short track speedskating race where a South Korean disqualification let American Apolo Anton Ohno win gold. 

South Korean organizers said Sunday they planned to sell 7,028 tickets for the U.S.-South Korea match to fans at the stadium hours before the game. About 3,600 tickets were leftovers allotted for fans outside the co-host nation. The rest were seats with obstructed views. 

Also Monday, Portugal played Poland in Jeonju, South Korea. 

Mexico won its second straight for the first time in a World Cup on Gerardo Torrado’s 57th-minute goal. But to reach the second round, it needs at least a draw with Italy, or help from Ecuador against Croatia on Thursday. 

” We are still hopeful we can win the final match against Italy and go on to the next round,” midfielder Joahan Rodriguez said. 

Costa Rica’s tie came on Winston Parks’ nifty left-footed shot in the 86th minute. 

“I was ready and just wanted to show why everyone has put so much confidence in me,” Parks said. “My family and girlfriend told me I’d have a chance and I’d take advantage.” 

Against Mexico, Ecuador’s Agustin Delgado headed home a cross from Ulises De la Cruz in the fifth minute, scoring newcomer Ecuador’s first goal in the World Cup. Mexico’s Jared Borgetti tied it in the 28th minute. 

“We’re just happy that our chances of advancing now depend on us,” said Mexico coach Javier Aguirre. “This was an even match and either team could have won.”

Weekend rally urges affordable units 

Affordable housing advocates and the arts community joined forces this weekend to celebrate a planned affordable housing development and to make a plea to the Berkeley community to continue providing housing, particularly for the city’s artists. 

Saturday's event was part of Affordable Housing and Open Studio Week which began May 31. The event was held on a sun-baked vacant lot at 1725 University Avenue, the future site of 27 family apartments for families with children with disabilities. The project is one of three developments of the nonprofit Affordable Housing Associates slated for Berkeley. There are six on the drawing board for Oakland. 

"This week we're celebrating the convergence of affordable housing and artists' communities," said Ali Kashani, executive director of the Berkeley-based AHA. Kashani noted that between 1997 and 2000, housing prices in Berkeley increased 40 percent, while there has been no significant rise in the city's medium income. "Nobody's income, especially low income people, has risen by that percentage amount. So there is a disproportionate ratio in the rise of housing costs and their income," she explained. 

This has left untold numbers of artists and low-income workers fleeing Berkeley and seeking refuge in nearby Oakland or cities outside the Bay Area. 

In an attempt to counter the exodus, Saturday’s event highlighted housing hopes on the horizon, and sought to redefine the public's bad associations with affordable housing. 

With AHA's recent purchase of a lot at 9th Street and Ashby Avenue, artists are scheduled to receive a much needed respite. The new site will include approximately 40 affordable artisan lofts and breaks ground this fall, to be completed sometime in late 2004. The city allocated $500,000 for this project, leaving AHA to come up with the rest. 

Poet and jeweler Anna Mae Stanely knows first-hand about what affordable housing means to artists. For more than 11 years she and her son have lived in the University Avenue Cooperative Homes. With subsidized rent, the pressure of making rent has subsided, she has been able to raise her son in a stable home environment, and she has improved the overall quality of her life, using time to produce art rather than rent. 

Affordable housing has allowed Stanley to stay in Berkeley, and therefore let Berkeley bare the fruits of Stanely's artistic passions. When time has passed, said Stanley, maybe hundreds of years from now, society will understand itself through its artwork. If there is no artwork, she said, what will people see? If the only people left here were middle and upper class – all with similar backgrounds – we wouldn't have a realistic picture of what the world is like as a whole, she added. 

In an effort to reverse the popular misconception surrounding affordable housing, East Bay Housing Organizations’ Executive Director Sean Heron, hoped Saturday’s event would re-shape the public's image of affordable housing. 

"People have misconceptions and think people who live in affordable housing might bring crime or drugs and lower property values," said Heron. “The affordable housing we're concerned about is built by nonprofit developers with the highest design standards and community and city involvement. When the buildings are done they're beautiful and people forget their misconceptions." 

If people's image of affordable housing can be changed, that leaves the acquisition of land and subsidies as the two major obstacles for affordable housing- obstacles voters can help eliminate this November when they have the option to vote for a $2 billion statewide housing bond. Half of the bond's funds will be allocated to help house low income and disabled individuals and families— the remaining funds will be spread over various programs including home ownership and farm worker housing programs. 

Affordable housing advocates are calling the bond the most exciting thing to happen in California housing in 20 years. Also in attendance at Saturday's event was Joyce Jenkins, editor and publisher of Poetry Flash, a popular poetry review and literary calendar. With Berkeley as its home for more than 30 years, Poetry Flash is bound to the city's literary history and institutions, Jenkins says, but despite deep ties, it has become bitterly difficult to stay in Berkeley. 

The rent for Poetry Flash’s live/work space was recently increased $750 a month with no foreseeable increase in their ability to pay. Jenkins hopes the community will rally to support affordable housing, to help house artists, and therefore help Berkeley remain a creative, meaningful place to live creative and meaningful lives. 

"We stay here in Berkeley because of our deep historical ties to the city and area, because this is where our core audience is," she said.

To the Editor: 

"The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex." -- Former U.S. General and Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, 1961.  

Eisenhower's now-famous "Military-Industrial Complex" speech is relevant to two of the items due to resurface at the Berkeley City Council meeting Tuesday night: tritium, a form of ionizing radiation found at Lawrence Berkeley, and microwaves, or non-ionizing radiation that emanates from the new Public Safety Tower. 

Both are an integral part of the "complex" that Eisenhower warned us about. One of tritium's uses is to make nuclear bombs. Are the "scientific technological elite" serving the citizens of Berkeley in exposing them to tritium radiation (and to terrorists), or are they, wittingly or otherwise, bowing to the god of the "military-industrial complex"? Microwaves are also used in weapons research.  

Although the Macro Corporation reported no biohazards in its study of our 'Safety' Tower, the tower hadn't yet been turned on, and worldwide research findings contradict this assessment. The city paid $50,000 for this report, and now Macro wants another $43,000 to study 'field strengths.' Where did the $50,000 go? Why did our council, save two, vote to turn on the controversial (put up without city permits) tower? It would seem a crisis situation had been created--backup generators didn't work, right before a council vote--and the council fell for it. Are our older towers worn out, or were the dropped calls reported by the police, which justified turning on the new tower, really a result of radio frequency interference from Berkeley's many other microwave sources? Telecom and public service providers do share the same waveband, causing dead zones. Read: "Sounds of Silence: Cell Phone Towers Are a Police Radio Nightmare," in the March l5, 200l issue of Law Enforcement News. 

Sattelites offer a safer and more reliable alternative to the Tower. They are less affected by weather and large-scale disasters, like earthquakes. In theory there are no dropped calls. Unfortunately, microwaves from satellites as well as ground-based transmitters, through a process called PLHR, are potentially a threat to the earth's magnetosphere, which protects us from the sun (Parrot and Zaslavski: "Physical Mechanisms of Man-Made Influences on the Magnetosphere," Surveys in Geophysics l7: 67-l00, l996). 

Eisenhower counseled that "we must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."  

Let us, the citizens of Berkeley, become, once again, that "alert and knowledgeable citizenry." Voice your concerns about tritium and the tower (distance is no guarantee of immunity) to the mayor and your City Council representative. Call your congresspersons and ask them to support the Jeffords-Leahy Microwave Bill in Washington.  

-Kate Bernier 

Berkeley

Natalie Coughlin, a 19-year-old sophomore swimmer at Cal, is one of five nominees for an ESPY Award as the Best Female College Athlete.  

Coughlin, who earlier this year was a finalist for the AAU James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete, is an ESPY finalist along with UConn basketball player Sue Bird, Arizona softball player Jennie Finch, UCLA softball player Stacey Nuveman and Southwest Missouri State basketball player Jackie Stiles.  

The 10th Annual ESPY Awards will be held Wednesday, July 10 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, the new home of the Academy Awards. Actor Samuel L. Jackson will be hosting the show and Coughlin will be along side some of the biggest names in sports, including Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, Jennifer Capriati and Annika Sorenstam. There are 35 different categories of ESPY Awards, ranging from Best Male Athlete to the Best Record-Breaking Performance.  

At the 2002 NCAA championships March 21-23 in Austin, Texas, Coughlin was spectacular in earning NCAA Swimmer of the Year honors for the second year in a row. She won three individual national titles, breaking NCAA, American and U.S. Open records in all three events. Coughlin won the 100 backstroke (49.97, first woman to swim under 50 seconds), the 200 backstroke (1:49.52) and the 100 butterfly (50.01). She also broke the NCAA, American and U.S. Open record in the 100 freestyle, swimming a time of 47.47 as the lead-off leg of the Bears’ 400 freestyle relay.  

In her brief career, Coughlin has now set two world records, 24 American records, is a two-time NCAA Swimmer of the Year, has won six individual NCAA titles and was named the recipient of the 2001-02 Honda Sport Award Winner for swimming April 3.

SAN FRANCISCO — The FBI, working covertly with the CIA and then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, spent years unlawfully trying to quash the voices and careers of students and faculty deemed subversive at the University of California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. 

After a 17-year legal battle to unearth FBI records, the Chronicle reported in a special section on its Web site and Sunday paper that documents show that during the 1950s and 1960s, the FBI schemed to kill the career of UC President Clark Kerr while aiding Reagan’s political career. 

Thousands of pages of documents were obtained by The Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act only after federal judges repeatedly ruled that the FBI had drifted unlawfully from intelligence gathering into politics. 

Experts said the FBI and CIA’s past activities involving the University of California provide a cautionary tale about potential dangers to academic freedom and civil liberties as President Bush commits more resources to domestic intelligence activities. 

“This ... raises a topic that we should be concerned about today: the balance between security and liberty,” said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, the CIA’s general counsel from 1990 to 1995 and current dean of the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. 

“We learned some painful lessons,” said Rindskopf Parker. “We certainly don’t want to see ourselves rolling back to this time.” 

FBI spokesman Bill Carter refused to comment on the bureau’s campus files. In its unsuccessful battle to keep them secret, the agency said its actions had been proper — that it had merely tried to protect civil order and national security during a time when the nation feared Communism and waged war in Vietnam. 

“Things are done a lot differently today,” Carter told the Chronicle. “The files speak for themselves.” 

The broad outlines of the illegal FBI campaigns became public in the 1970s as Congress held hearings that showed the FBI and CIA had monitored law-abiding citizens and organizations that engaged in legitimate dissent. The documents obtained by the Chronicle show just how extensive these activities were in California, how Kerr and others were targeted, and how eagerly Reagan worked to quash protests. 

Gov. Reagan’s administration intended to mount a “psychological warfare campaign” against subversives, bring tax evasion and building code violation cases against them, and to do anything else it could to restore moral order, Herbert Ellingwood, Reagan’s legal affairs secretary, told the FBI in a request for confidential information about people on campus. 

The records show FBI director J. Edgar Hoover agreed to provide such information from the agency’s files. 

“This has been done in the past,” the director said, “and has worked quite successfully.” 

The documents show that Hoover was incensed after the University of California included this essay question on its 1959 English aptitude test for high school applicants that read: “What are the dangers to a democracy of a national police organization, like the FBI, which operates secretly and is unresponsive to public criticism?” 

Hoover ordered a campaign to embarrass the university and force it to retract the question. He also ordered agents to dig up dirt on the 6,000 faculty members and top administrators. The resulting report in 1960 listed the professor’s political activities, and said many had engaged in “illicit love affairs, homosexuality, sexual perversion, excessive drinking or other instances of conduct reflecting mental instability.” 

Records show CIA Director John McCone also was involved, meeting with Hoover in January 1965 after the Free Speech Movement held its first sit-ins. The documents describe their plans to leak information to conservative UC Regent Edwin Pauley, who would “use his influence to curtail, harass and at times eliminate” liberal faculty members. Pauley had hoped to fire Kerr. 

The documents also show that the FBI blamed the liberal Kerr for allowing the campus protests to grow, and that Hoover himself wanted a crackdown at Berkeley before student protests grew nationwide. 

“If agitational activity at Berkeley can be effectively curtailed, this could set up a chain reaction which will result in the curtailment of such activities on other campuses throughout the United States,” Hoover said in a memo to his aides. 

When, to Hoover’s dismay, President Lyndon Johnson picked Kerr to become his secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the FBI background check included damaging information the agency knew to be false, and Johnson withdrew the nomination, the documents show. 

Reagan was elected California’s governor in 1966 after repeatedly consulting with the FBI while campaigning against “campus malcontents and filthy speech advocates” at Berkeley. One of his first moves was to fire Kerr, who never received another White House appointment. 

Kerr, whose own FOIA request was denied by the FBI, said he was unaware of the plots against him documented in the agency’s files. “Maybe I was too naive, but I never assumed they were taking efforts to get rid of me,” he told The Chronicle.

After 41 years of teaching in Berkeley schools, Barbara Hopkins has seen the children change, the district change, and parents change. But when she retires this week, there is one thing she will say has remained the same– her love for her students and how those students have appreciated her class. 

Nearly 150 faculty and alumni of Hopkins' kindergarten and first grade classes gathered in the Jefferson School auditorium Friday night to celebrate her almost half-century of teaching in the Berkeley Unified School District. A slide-show of her life, gifts and honors and even a serenade from parents ended in a standing ovation for Hopkins as she was awarded with the creation of “Barbara Hopkins” day, to be forever celebrated on June 7. 

“Mrs. Hopkins showed me just how much love children need and how you can't give too much praise and encouragement,” said Marguerite Hughes, another teacher at Jefferson. “She also showed me just how much love and support and encouragement parents need.”  

Using phrases like “get your cute little self over here” and “wonderful, wonderful,” Hopkins was able to be authoritative but kind, her alumni said. 

“She has that mothering approach and caters to every child,” said Belinda McDaniel, who was a kindergarten student of Hopkins in 1975. “And even though kids have changed over the years, she maintained that same style.” 

McDaniel experienced Hopkins class all over again when she sent her daughter to Jefferson in 1999. 

“The most surprising thing was that Mrs. Hopkins was exactly the same type of person, sweet and caring,” McDaniel said. 

In Hopkins own reflections, she has noticed striking differences between her first day in front of the class and her last, and can name the reasons why she stuck with the BUSD for so many years. 

“A lot of parents believe and participate in the public school system here,” Hopkins said. “Even if they have the income to go to private [school], they will still send their children to public schools.”  

Hopkins began her teaching career in 1961 with the intent to include parents in the classroom as much as possible. Since then, Hopkins has seen the families in Berkeley change from the nuclear setting to more diverse arrangements. 

Though more complex familiy lives have affected the children, Hopkins said she accommodated this by adhering to the same philosophy she had when she began teaching: To treat each child differently according to their individual needs.  

Hughes, Hopkins colleage, recalled an example of this teaching style when Hopkins told her about how she disciplines some of her students. 

“'This one,' she said, 'I have to look straight in the eye and say no. This one I have to count down for. This one I just gently suggest he stop, because otherwise he'll cry,'” Hughes remembered. 

Morris Norrisse, a director of an after-school program at Jefferson, noted how Hopkins individual attention extended to parents. He had been upset with his son who was struggling in school, “But,” Norrisse said, “Mrs. Hopkins said 'let me talk to him' and he's been as good as gold ever since.” 

Norrisse said Hopkins didn't stop there, and after she gave a talk to his son, she gave another talk to Norrisse, and taught him how to do what she did. 

Hopkins also lauded the Berkeley School District for its focus on teacher training. With the help of UC Berkeley, the district brings in experts to teach new and experienced teachers up-to-date methods, research and theories in education.  

“It is crucial for a teacher to learn different methods and then adapt them to make them work for you,” Hopkins said. 

Seeing Hopkins off on Friday, longtime friend Phyllis Goldston acknowledged Hopkins abilities to make children interested in school and her love for her profession. 

“I'm sure that Barbara in retirement will still be working on things that will make children the best they can be,” Goldston said.

REDWOOD CITY — This time, for a mother facing first-degree murder charges for the killing of her son, there was no mention of a mysterious child pornography ring, or a conspiracy by others to commandeer her defense strategy. 

Rather than blurt out her previous theories to the court, as she had done in past tumultuous hearings, Donna Anderson softly said one word that brought Friday’s court hearing to a swift close. 

When asked for a plea, she replied “Guilty.” 

The Minnesota doctor charged with stabbing her teenage son to death represented herself in court and pleaded guilty to first degree murder and attempted murder. 

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.” 

The prosecution has wrestled with the peculiar case from the beginning. Anderson had previously claimed a child pornography ring may have targeted 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.

MOONEY FLAT — About 150 homes were evacuated in Northern California on Sunday as winds fanned a 1,000-acre wildfire closer to structures. 

The Yuba County fire started about 3 a.m. after high winds knocked power lines into a tree, said JoAnn Cartoscelli, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. 

Winds were pushing the so-called Field Fire southeast in the direction of Mooney Flat, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, where the evacuation was ordered, she said. The fire was 30 percent contained Sunday evening, and about 100 structures were threatened. A shelter was set up at the Nevada Union High School in Grass Valley. 

A voluntary evacuation also was in effect for the Smartville area. The blaze was about a mile and a half away from that town Sunday evening. 

No injuries were reported from the 273 firefighters battling the blaze. Seven air tankers and a helicopter were called to drop water on the fire, Cartoscelli said. 

Meanwhile, a 2,000-acre fire in Butte County was 100 percent contained Sunday morning. No injuries or burned structures occurred during that fire located about five miles east of Chico. 

In Southern California, a wildfire that scorched 23,500 acres of brush in the Angeles National Forest and chased more than 1,000 residents from their homes was 80 percent contained Sunday evening. 

A weekend of cooler temperatures helped firefighters subdue the blaze, and full containment was expected by 6 p.m. Monday, said Kurt Schaefer, a spokesman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. 

“Things went very smoothly. We had some pretty heavy cloud cover here in Santa Clarita, which had the temperatures down,” Schaefer said. “We got quite a bit of work done today.” 

Meanwhile, to the west in Ventura County, firefighters were still working to extinguish a blaze that burned 20,850 acres in the Los Padres National Forest north of Ojai. 

That fire was 40 percent contained Sunday evening, but U.S. Forest Service spokesman Barry Peckham said firefighters were “cautiously optimistic” they would soon contain the wilderness blaze. It began June 1, but has not damaged homes or forced evacuations. 

Fire officials have not released an estimate for full containment. Some 1,600 firefighters were on the line. 

In the Angeles National Forest, about 300 firefighters were called off the so-called Copper Fire on Sunday, and 1,287 remained to finish the job.

Chevron gets go-ahead 

on new oil tanks 

RICHMOND — ChevronTexaco can build two new 30,000-gallon liquefied petroleum storage tanks without the extensive review sought by environmental groups, the City Council agreed. 

However, the council added a condition to a previous permit that requires the company to stop storing gasoline additives on rail cars at the site. 

That is “consistent with what we believe will occur with the new tanks,” company spokesman Dean O’Hair said. 

Environmental groups said they will now consider suing to block the project. 

Surveillance cameras to 

monitor graffiti sites  

SAN JOSE — Police are going high-tech in the fight against graffiti. 

Motion-detecting devices installed at graffiti-plagued sites flash a warning light, then play a tape recording that warns: “Stop. You’re trespassing. Your photo has been taken and will be used to prosecute you. Leave now.” 

The devices then quickly snap three photos. The city began installing the devices a year ago, and moves them according to need. Six are installed and four more are pending. 

Los Angeles and San Francisco also are using the cameras, San Jose police Sgt. Paul Spagnoli said. 

East Bay shooting  

OAKLAND — Two spectators at an Oakland “sideshow” were wounded by gunfire. 

The women, ages 19 and 21, were shot in the legs at about 1:45 p.m. Saturday but their injuries weren’t considered life-threatening. 

Police say they have found nothing to lead them to believe the women were the targets. 

Oakland police and other police departments have been trying to crack down on “sideshows,” in which drivers skid wildly around an area and some spectators let the cars narrowly miss them. 

Senator’s son leads rally 

for organic food  

SANTA ROSA — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged consumers Saturday to buy organically grown and raised food to promote clean water and support family farms. 

Kennedy, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, launched the Pure Farms-Pure Water campaign at the Health & Harmony Festival, along with George Siemon of Organic Valley, a national organic brand owned by a number of organic farmers across the country. 

Kennedy said many small family farms are turning to organic farming to stay alive. 

“The American landscape is now being transformed with a few large multinational corporations that are taking over produce production,” he said. 

Kennedy, an environmental attorney and son of the slain senator, said pesticides and fertilizers used by the corporations are finding their way into the country’s waterways. He hoped the campaign would encourage consumers to spend their money on organic food. 

To carry carry the “USDA Organic” label, food now must meet certain standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

The standards were to be implemented over 18 months beginning in February, 2001. They ban pesticides, genetic engineering, growth hormones and irradiation of organic foods, and require dairy cattle to have access to pasture. They replace a hodgepodge of state rules and private certification standards.

Somewhere between chuckling at Wavy Gravy's clown-nose antics and Karl Schroen's hand-forged knives, visitors to the 32nd Annual Live Oak Park Fair found time to peruse more than 112 artist booths, munch on Tibetan food, and just sit by the stream and enjoy the Saturday shade. 

Word on the street, and from the worldly jester and master of ceremonies Wavy Gravy, is that Gravy’s Ben and Jerry ice cream flavor has been taken out of production. Consequently, the $30,000 to $40,000 annual commission that Gravy made from his ice cream is gone, leaving less funds to run his popular youth camp. 

His commissions provided scholarships for economically-challenged kids to attend Camp Winnarainbow, and to make up for this shortfall, a portion of the fair's vendor's fee went toward the Camp Winnarainbow scholarship fund. 

"My flavor has been retired. It's the most complicated flavor in humankind [and] the oldest next to Cherry Garcia and chocolate and vanilla,” said Gravy. 

Even with the fair revenues, Gravy fell short of the scholarship goal. Still, his smile never once faltered as he introduced numerous entertainment acts such as the Jean Paul Valjean Comedian Contortionist, Baguette Quartette and Urban Harmony Chorus. 

The performers also gave out free smiles to the shoulder-to-shoulder audience as the young performers vaulted, juggled, tumbled and clowned around. 

Kathy Fagan, of Oakland, watched her daughter perform a comical acrobatic rendition of the fox trot with her troupe Splash Circus. Fagan's daughter, Alexis, began her performance career in gymnastics and took her skills to the next level at Camp Winnarainbow. “Camp let her wings spread and dry. It's a way to let her go away,” said Fagan. 

According to fair organizer Jan Etre, the goal of the Live Oak Fair is for artists to support themselves through their original work. Of the 112 booths, a handful were run by Berkeley natives. The rest of the vendors came from Sebastapol, to Napa, Arizona and Santa Fe. 

It was Karl Schroen's fourth year at the fair, an event where he proudly knives. Schroen learned his trade from his Grandfather, a blacksmith who sparked Schroen’s interest after taking him to San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum to see an exhibit on armor, swords and knives. Schroen and his grandfather subsequently made a knife together, hooking the younger Schroen for life. 

"A knife is a tool, and tools change over time. They evolve, and generally I try to make it simple," said Schroen. 

With similar elements and a different palette, Chanin Cook of Napa was enjoying her tenth year at the fair. Cook’s furniture, like Schroen's knives, exhibit an overwhelming precise unification. The simplicity of clean lines where the fossil of a Diplomystus fish, salvaged by one of Cook's friends along Wyoming's Green River, merges without a hint of division with its wood frame. The fossilized fish, replete with inlaid skeletal bones is framed by the silky smooth wood and snugly embedded in its iron base. 

"The specimen will dictate how the piece plays out. I like clean and simple lines so the materials speak for themselves,” said Cook. “They're always evolving from a design standpoint. We're keen observers of the world around us,” she added, pointing to a table inspired by watching a giraffe on the nature channel. 

Lisa Souza, of Lafayette, has sold her knitwear and dyeworks at the fair for 15 years. She has been knitting since childhood, perhaps one reason why she could hold a conversation while operating a pedal-operated portable, wooden loom. 

Souza's dyed blue Merino Wool slipped from its carted form onto the rapidly spinning bobbin. Souza is no longer what she calls a knitting purist. She has stopped raising her Angora rabbits for their coats and works for the joy of it– a sentiment reflected in the finely knitted dark colored sweaters, and home-spun yarn sitting in wicker baskets. 

Souza said that after the September 11 terrorist attacks she worried about how business would fare. Her worries subsided on September 12, after she received an order for a sweater from a woman in Manhattan. 

“Life goes on, and if [people in New York] were going to do it, the rest of us have to snap out of it and get busy,” she said.

LOS ANGELES – Last week at the box office, “Undercover Brother” struck a blow for truth, justice and the once prevalent notion that short animated shows created on the Internet could migrate successfully to a bigger screen. 

The movie, which began its life as an animated show on the Web, brought in $12 million in movie ticket sales and, in doing so, perhaps breathed new life into the notion that the Internet can be a proving ground for major TV and movie projects. 

Several years ago, a number of ambitious Web sites with names like DEN, Pop and MediaTrip hoped to create episodic entertainment that would draw people to the Web the way they are drawn to their favorite television programs. 

Those sites failed in part because of the slow rollout of high-speed Internet access, necessary for the smooth transmission of most video content. Some also aimed too high too fast and ran out of money around the time Internet stocks crashed and venture capital dried up. 

Some Web sites then retrenched, embracing the idea of using the Web as an incubator for ideas that might later become television shows or motion pictures. 

That strategy seemed to be paying off when, in 2000, Showtime licensed an animated show on Icebox.com, “Starship Regulars,” and planned to make it a live-action series for its 2001 season. Other properties were licensed or optioned for TV and movies, including “Lil’ Pimp” and a show on urbanentertainment.com called “Undercover Brother.” 

“We were going to pitch it, but we held off because we didn’t know if we had a story,” said John Ridley, the show’s creator and a producer of the “Undercover Brother” movie. “By that time, people had heard about it. People started putting in offers before they knew what it was.” 

The frenzy that resulted in several high profile deals cooled once the dot-com boom fizzled, however. 

“Starship Regulars,” created by Rob LaZebnik, a co-producer of “The Simpsons,” has stalled at Showtime, while LaZebnik has moved on to create a series called “Greetings from Tucson,” on the WB this fall. 

“Lil’ Pimp” was scheduled to be released last year by Revolution Studios. The animated film is in post production, a Revolution spokeswoman said, and is still scheduled to include the voices of William Shatner, Carmen Electra and others. 

The success of “Undercover Brother,” meanwhile, may prompt other studios to dust off projects acquired during the Internet gold rush. 

But the source of the material is of less consequence than its commercial appeal, according to industry observers. 

“I don’t think the studios will say, ’Undercover Brother’ is a hit, let’s go back and see what else we might have missed on the Web,”’ said Kevin Wendle, chief executive officer at IFilm, an Internet film site. 

But, Wendle said, the idea of creating compelling shows on the Web and developing an audience that will support a larger release has more possibility now as more homes have access to high-speed Internet connections. 

“I do believe the idea of Web series has a future and has a large future,” he said. “Those Web series will again give birth to big motion pictures and big television shows. This is the first taste of it.”

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Yahoo! Inc. is showing off a new look beginning Monday, with a redesigned home page and refinements on the shopping and e-mail sections as well. 

The new home page includes a “personal assistant” that informs registered users of new e-mails, and lists selected products available at Yahoo Shopping. The shopping page itself now makes featured brands more prominent, changes how products are grouped and informs users of the five most popular items in certain categories. 

With new colors, a cleaner appearance and drop-down menus, the e-mail page is getting its first significant makeover since it debuted in 1997, Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Lee said. Yahoo hopes the redesign makes the free service much easier to use. 

Yahoo claims to have more than 237 million registered users around the world. Many users won’t see the redesigned pages for several weeks.

OAKLAND – A four-year-old girl suffered head injuries after falling from a whirling ride at Vallejo’s Six Flags Marine World — the second parkgoer to tumble from the “Starfish” in as many years. The accident comes at a time when lawmakers are calling for tougher restrictions on amusement park rides. 

The girl, whom authorities would not identify, was in serious condition Sunday and was undergoing treatment at Children’s Hospital Oakland, said Vanya Rainova, a hospital spokeswoman. Jeff Jouett, a spokesman for the park, said all safety equipment was working properly. 

Recent deaths and mishaps around the country have prompted parents, lawmakers and federal officials to call for improved safety in the $9.6 billion amusement park industry. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics show the number of amusement park-related injuries treated in emergency rooms steadily climbed from about 7,000 in 1993 to roughly 10,500 in 2000. 

Industry analysts say consumers are demanding faster, more exciting rides, which operators increasingly outfit with computerized safety restraints. Despite high-rise drops and roller coasters that top 100 mph, The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a trade group, claims on its Web site that amusement rides remain among the safest recreational activities and disputes that rides have caused brain injuries. 

“Visiting a theme park today is far safer than bicycling, swimming, skiing, playing soccer and dozens of other recreational activities,” a statement said. 

All safety equipment was working Saturday, said Jeff Jouett, the park’s spokesman. The injured girl fell despite a pair of locked lap bars, and her mother still was locked in the ride after her daughter’s fall, he said. The girl exceeded the ride’s height requirement, posted at the entrance. And the ride is electronically programmed — as are many around the country — to stop if any restraints come unlocked. 

“We just don’t know at this point how the child got out of the ride,” Jouett said, adding the ride will be closed awaiting a safety inspection by the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

The incident was not the first at the Starfish, which Jouett described as a “moderate” ride that reaches heights of 12 feet and is frequented by families. A 41-year-old woman received minor injuries after falling from the ride last May, which prompted the park to add a second lap bar restraint, Jouett said. The woman has sued the park and the ride’s manufacturer, Chance Rides, Inc. of Kansas, he said. 

Last September, a 42-year-old woman died of a brain hemorrhage after riding the park’s spinning tea cup attraction. However, no autopsy was performed and state officials said there was no medical evidence to show the ride contributed to her death. Also five roller coaster riders sued the park last year after a ride malfunctioned, leaving them stuck nearly upside down for four hours in triple digit heat. 

The park has defended its safety record, saying it is among the nation’s best.

ST. HELENA – Sparkling wine flowed and “Hey, Big Spender,” belted out over the loudspeakers as 26 magnums of Napa Valley’s finest went to the high bidder of $320,000 in the celebrity-studded annual wine auction Saturday. 

“I really wanted the lot,” winner David Doyle said, a glass in his hand and a smile on his face as the software entrepreneur shook hands with people, including valley patriarch Robert Mondavi, who crowded around his table with congratulations. 

Saturday was the 22nd Napa Valley Wine Auction, billed as the world’s largest charity event. And although individual bids were a bit below the high-flying days of the Internet boom, the money was rolling in. 

Doyle’s lot had been one of the most closely watched because it contained a number of highly prized wines including bottles of the almost impossible-to-get Harlan Estate and Screaming Eagle. 

The auction was spread over four days, starting Thursday, but the big event came Saturday afternoon when people bid on bottles donated by members of the Napa Valley Vintner’s Association, the event’s sponsor. 

Celebrities in the audience included actor Rob Schneider and former San Francisco 49er Joe Montana. But the money was the real star. 

“Forty-five-fifty-five-sixty-five-seventy,” auctioneer Fritz Hatton whipped out, barely drawing breath as the bidding on Doyle’s lot jumped $30,000 in about 30 seconds. Seated at tables crowded under a big white tent, the smell of bruised grass mixing with wine, bidders held up yellow paddles to signify their intentions. Whistles blew to make sure they had Hatton’s attention. 

When the bid got up to $310,000, Doyle, from Newport Beach, “thought about it for 10 seconds. I looked at her (his girlfriend) and said, ’What do you think?”’ 

She nodded, which means they’re the owners of 26, 1.5 liter bottles of wine from various wineries in Napa Valley’s prime Oakville region along with tours, tastings, lunches, brunches and a plane ride. 

“One of the reasons the wine auction gets such incredible bids — it’s not just because of the wine, it’s because of the personal relationships that people have developed,” said Tom Fuller, of the vintner’s association which has been putting on the auction for 22 years. “You’re bidding on your friendship more than just wine in a bottle.”

SAN FRANCISCO – The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and now has plans to expand its chocolate empire. 

Founded in 1852 by Domenico Ghirardelli, an Italian immigrant, the chocolate company is one of the country’s oldest chocolate manufacturers. 

Ghirardelli started to make the chocolate that is now a household name after he failed to make it as a gold prospector during California’s Gold Rush. 

The company’s store at the waterfront has been a magnet for tourists visiting the city’s Fisherman’s Wharf for 60 years. 

The company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Co. in 1963, and then by the Quaker Oats Co. in 1986. Since 1998, it has been owned by Lindt & Sprungli, a global high-end chocolate company based in Switzerland. 

Ghirardelli’s management says it want a bigger share of the country’s $1 billion premium chocolate market, and CEO Kamillo Kitzmantel said the company plans to double the its domestic business in five years. 

The company wants to convince Americans that they don’t eat enough chocolate — about 12 pounds a year compared with Central Europeans’ consumption of about 25 pounds a year, Kitzmantel said. 

The company plans to add to its soda fountains and chocolate shops, develop more premium products and increase advertising.

Authorities worried about amphibious attack after reports of Taliban scuba training 

SAN DIEGO – The FBI is checking to see whether Werner Kurn’s dive shop and hundreds like it across the country hold the key to unraveling the next possible terrorist attack against the United States. 

Agents spent several days last week at Ocean Enterprises, one of the biggest dive shops in the country, checking customer files and sales of special equipment. 

“They want to know if we have seen anything out of the ordinary,” Kurn said. “If you ask me where’s the best place to dive, that’s normal. If you ask me in a limited visibility dive how do you maintain your bearings or how can I dive in the harbor, that’s not.” 

The inquiry stems from debriefings of detainees that found potential members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network might have taken scuba training, said John A. Sylvester, who heads the counterterrorism office in the FBI’s San Diego bureau. 

Last week, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the world’s leading diving organization, gave the FBI a list of 2 million people the Rancho Santa Margarita-based association has certified to dive over the past three years, Vice President Jeff Nadler said. 

Agents also have contacted 1,200 dive shops nationwide to check the names of those who took scuba courses over the past three years, including those who dropped out without getting certified. 

In addition to California, dive shops in the Pacific Northwest, Florida and Ohio say they have been contacted. Dive shops in landlocked states, like Scuba One in Mandan, N.D., also are getting calls. 

“They must have FBI agents around the country calling up little scuba guys like me,” said owner Randy Kraft, who offers trips to the Caribbean for the 50 to 100 customers he certifies each year. 

Also on the checklist are U.S. commercial dive schools that train students in underwater welding and repair work. 

“What we’re looking for is people who just took scuba for scuba’s sake — people who bounce from school to school to school and don’t finish the course,” Sylvester said. 

He said agents also are checking for large sales of highly specialized scuba equipment. 

At Ocean Enterprises, agents are checking the infrequent sales of $5,000 rebreathers, devices that allow Navy SEALs to swim without notice because they don’t produce a trail of bubbles. 

A recent customer, Kurn said, was a wealthy man from Utah who wanted to watch whales without disturbing them. The FBI also has been checking with companies that manufacture the devices. 

Also of interest are sales of underwater propulsion vehicles that can tug a diver long distances and sell for as much as $8,000 each, Kurn said. 

The FBI said San Diego is a crucial part of the investigation. It’s both a dive center and a major tourist destination. The area is home to a host of potential targets, from seaside nuclear power plants to cruise ships and nuclear-powered Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. 

The scuba warning, issued before Memorial Day, was part of a list of alerts about possible suicide bombers, subway and railroad attacks, suicide attacks using small planes, the use of weapons of mass destruction and assaults on nuclear plants and landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty. 

While an underwater terrorist attack might sound more like a James Bond plot than reality, Sylvester said the FBI is taking the threat seriously. 

“Before Sept. 11, flying planes into buildings was far-fetched also,” he said. 

Still, scuba experts are doubtful that a determined diver could do little more than make mischief underwater. 

“Is it feasible? It sure it is,” Nadler said. “Is it likely? It’d be kind of tough.” 

Blowing things up underwater requires far more skill than it does above ground. Navy SEALs, who have the most training of any U.S. special warfare group, must prepare for years before they are certified as combat swimmers skilled in the complexities of underwater demolition. 

“It’s well beyond the skill level of a scuba diver,” said Master Chief William Guild of the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, near San Diego. 

Scuba schools train people to dive in clear conditions with good visibility. But the water around bridges and ports — the location of many potential targets — is turbulent and cloudy. 

Underwater explosives are developed for military use. The Navy trains its SEALs to use limpet mines, which attach to a ship’s hull with powerful magnets and can blast a hole through a 3/4-inch thick steel plate, according to Jane’s Underwater Warfare Systems. 

To use such explosives, a terrorist would likely have to transport several a considerable distance underwater to avoid detection and without sinking. 

Still, San Diego’s scuba shops are happy to help the FBI. 

“I told my staff ‘Whatever we can do, we have to do it,”’ said Kurn, whose shop is only a few blocks away from an apartment complex where two Sept. 11 hijackers lived in 2000.

VACAVILLE – Tougher sentences are causing an unusual problem in state prisons – a steep and costly rise in elderly inmates. 

The number of inmates 55 and older has nearly tripled in a dozen years to 5,800, comprising 4 percent of the prison population. 

Prisoners are aging as the state reduces parole and increases sentences, notably through the “three strikes” law that makes repeat offenders eligible for terms of 25 years to life. 

Studies show older inmates are less violent and dangerous, while housing them may cost three times as much as the price of housing younger inmates. 

Health care is a major cost. Last year, the state spent $676 million on inmate medical care, nearly twice the figure of seven years ago. Officials can’t say how much of that went for elderly patients but conceded they are more likely to require expensive care for problems such as cancer and dementia. 

Ernest Pendergrass, 79, serving a life sentence at the Vacaville prison, has survived four types of cancer and a stroke. His daughter, a pharmacist, estimated that his 12 daily pills run $1,800 a month. 

Although California has the nation’s largest and most expensive penal system, with 33 lockups, it does not have a general rule for the handling of elderly inmates, who are mixed in with the regular prison population. 

It has not followed other states such as Louisiana, North Carolina and Ohio in providing special units or entire prisons for the elderly. 

The state did pioneer the concept in 1954 but that prison was later closed. 

Youth and Adult Correctional Secretary Robert Presley said change is “overdue” in how to handle the geriatric population. He told the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday that he wants to put old inmates in one prison. 

“We’re not talking about mollycoddling prisoners,” said Jonathan Turley, law professor and founder of the Project for Older Prisoners, a national advocacy group that has advised the New York and Illinois penal systems, among others. “It’s a matter of realizing your population is not homogenous and taking steps that can save a lot of money.” 

In addition to being costlier, elderly prisoners can be victims of younger, more aggressive cons, he argued. 

“We all know grandparents who complain they’re afraid to walk at night because of crime,” Turley said. “Imagine being a geriatric in a neighborhood where everyone is certifiably violent.” 

Another option, freeing old inmates, repeatedly has failed to win support. 

Assemblyman John Longville, D-Rialto, sponsored a 1999 bill to shift some inmates over 60 to nursing centers or home detention. It died in the Assembly. 

“A lot of people around here have no interest in letting anybody out of prison,” Longville said. “It’s almost a religious thing. It’s certainly not a pragmatic approach.” 

Assemblyman Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside, opposed the measure. He argued that it might have allowed leniency for convicts such as Sirhan Sirhan, 58, serving a life term for assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. 

“The thought that when someone reaches a certain age it excuses their previous criminal conduct is anathema to me,” Pacheco said. “It’s wrong morally.” 

National studies show that only about 2 percent of men paroled after 55 return to prison. 

“So the costs of imprisonment go way up at the same time the benefits of imprisonment, in terms of public safety, go way down,” said Franklin Zimring, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, law school. 

Keeping old cons locked up, he argued, “shouldn’t make us sleep any better at night.”

MONTEREY – Scientists with the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium hope to reel in a baby great white shark and become the first institution to successfully exhibit the ocean’s most-feared predator. 

The aquarium launched the three-year, $1.1 million effort last month, with four boats trolling the waters off California’s coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego. 

Biologists say great whites never have survived more than three weeks in captivity, largely because they won’t eat. Researchers hope to reserve the trend by making capture less stressful, by focusing on sharks younger than 1 year and by giving the shark a suitable home — a million-gallon, 90-foot-long, 35-foot-deep tank. 

“If it was easy, our researchers could have done it years ago,” John O’Sullivan, the aquarium’s curator of field operations, told the Los Angeles Times. 

Scientists plan to return next year during the animals’ birthing season to try again after an unsuccessful outing. Unusually cold and murky water kept sharks away from 8,000 mackerel-baited hooks, he said. 

Having a great white in captivity would help scientists pad meager knowledge of the shark’s habits and give aquarium-goers an up-close look at an animal that can reach 21 feet in length, weigh 7,000 pounds and have up to 3,000 teeth, each 3 inches long. 

“It would be a wonderful spokesman for the aquarium,” O’Sullivan said, adding the aquarium would tag and release the shark if it showed any signs of distress. 

Exhibiting a great white also could help the sharks overcome their reputation as vicious beasts with a taste for swimmers. Scientists now believe the sharks attack people when they mistake them for sea lions. 

There have been 82 great white shark attacks in California waters since 1950, eight of them fatal, McCosker said. 

“If Monterey succeeds, they won’t exactly humanize these creatures, but they will make people understand that they are not the rogue killers we knew from ‘Jaws,”’ said John McCosker, former director of San Francisco’s Steinhart Aquarium and currently chairman of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences.

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.

Today is Wednesday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2002. There are 202 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On June 12, 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y. 

On this date: 

In 1776, Virginia’s colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights. 

In 1838, the Iowa Territory was organized. 

In 1898, Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain. 

In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Miss. 

In 1967, the Supreme Court struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages. 

In 1971, Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden. 

In 1979, 26-year-old cyclist Bryan Allen flew the manpowered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel. 

In 1981, major league baseball players began a 49-day strike over the issue of free-agent compensation. (The season did not resume until Aug. 10.) 

In 1987, President Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” 

In 1991, Russians went to the polls to elect Boris N. Yeltsin president of their republic. 

Ten years ago: President George H.W. Bush, addressing the Earth Summit in Brazil, declared America’s environmental record “second to none.” In a letter to U.S. senators, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin said the Soviet Union had shot down nine U.S. planes in the early 1950s and held 12 American survivors. 

Five years ago: The Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant. Baseball began interleague play, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series. 

One year ago: President Bush arrived in Madrid, Spain, on his first official trip to Europe. A federal court in New York sentenced Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-’Owhali, a Saudi Arabian follower of Osama bin Laden, to life in prison without parole for his role in the deadly bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. 

Today’s Birthdays: Banker David Rockefeller is 87. Actress Uta Hagen is 83. Former President George Bush is 78. Singer Vic Damone is 74. Actor-singer Jim Nabors is 72. Jazz musician Chick Corea is 61. Sportscaster Marv Albert is 61. Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 51. Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 50.  

Thought for Today: “What intellectual snobs we have become! Virtue is now in the number of degrees you have — not in the kind of person you are or what you can accomplish in real-life situations.” — Eda J. LeShan, American educator.

Jurors on Monday reached a partial verdict in the Bari vs. FBI and Oakland Police Department trial and could reach a final judgment today.  

The 10-member jury in the case accusing the FBI and OPD of framing and violating the civil rights of environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, delivered the verdict to Judge Claudia Wilken who instructed jurors to try to agree on some unresolved issues. 

For 16 days the jury has tried to reach unanimous verdicts on the more than 160 questions. 

Wilken indicated that she would keep the jurors no later than 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday unless Wilken decides that additional time would allow the jury to reach a unanimous decision on the remaining issues.  

If no additional time is given, the verdict is expected to be read some time between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.  

Supporters of Bari and Cherney expect a large turnout for the verdict reading. A verdict today could mark the end of more than 12 years of events and controversy surrounding the 1990 car bombing of Bari and Cherney.

SANTA ANA — Orange County authorities are seeking out potential victims of abuse by priests rather than waiting for people to file police reports. 

Investigators have been digging through civil court cases, following up media reports and working with church officials to identify possible victims. 

Assistant District Attorney Rosanne Froeberg requested the increased efforts after numerous priest abuse claims were made in the media but never showed up as police reports. 

The concern is that some people may not understand that “filing a civil suit or reporting to the diocese does not automatically assure the police are going to be involved in their case,” she said Friday. 

Froeberg said four priests were under criminal investigation and at least five victims had been identified in the ongoing clergy sex scandal. 

Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jon Fleischman said the Diocese of Orange has been cooperating with investigators. 

Across the country, prosecuting agencies have stepped up probes of potential priestly abuse cases. 

In Los Angeles County, the district attorney’s office has threatened to call Cardinal Roger Mahony before a grand jury hearing unless the Los Angeles Archdiocese turns over records of priests accused of sexual abuse. 

The Los Angeles Police Department has 43 investigations involving about 34 priests, including some who are dead, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Saturday editions. Only one or two of the investigations involve recent sex abuse allegations. Many of the cases involve priests whose names were reported to law enforcement by the archdiocese earlier this year. 

To avoid problems with the statute of limitations, police must prove that an old case involved multiple victims and that there was substantial sexual contact, among other things, the Times reported. 

Archdiocese officials have said they are cooperating with authorities. 

Meanwhile, a Pomona priest has pleaded innocent to charges of molesting two girls.

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.

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.