Ready to get rid of that old mercury thermometer? You may want to hold off a bit. 

On Tuesday, City Council will consider asking staff to organize a thermometer exchange in which mercury thermometer owners can trade in their ancient instrument for a shiny new electronic one. 

Despite age-old fears that if a mercury thermometer breaks in your mouth you instantly die, the measure’s sponsor, Councilmember Kriss Worthington is more concerned about what happens when the thermometer is thrown away. 

“Mercury is very dangerous,” said Worthington. 

Once in a landfill, Worthington said, mercury – a potent toxin that has been shown to cause developmental disorders in babies – can leak into outlying areas contaminating water and soil. 

When the mercury is then consumed by humans, which happens most frequently by eating contaminated fish, it can infiltrate a human fetus, said Susan Lee, environmental health associate with the California Public Interest Research Group Charitable Trust (CALPRIG). Lee noted that one in 10 women of childbearing age have dangerous levels of mercury in their bodies. 

Fear of mercury exposure has prompted a recent rash of legislative action. 

In July, California banned the sale of mercury thermometers without a prescription, and in September the U.S. Senate passed an identical bill. Worthington’s measure would also ban the sale of mercury thermometers even with a prescription. 

Worthington acknowledged a thermometer exchange might cost the city thousands at a time when funds are tight, but said the idea has merit. 

“There could be thousands [of mercury thermometers] and this gets them out of use,” he said. Worthington envisions a city exchange site where a resident brings a mercury thermometer and a city official disposes it so that there is no danger of a mercury leak. 

He noted that the city currently runs similar exchanges for batteries and lead paint. 

The effort to close the chapter on mercury thermometers is the easiest battle in the fight against mercury contamination, said Lee. Several household products also contain mercury, including fluorescent lamps and laptop computers.  

Lee said that while mercury thermometer makers are primarily located in China and India and have little domestic clout, light bulb and computer makers have so far defeated efforts to reduce mercury use in their products.  

Complicating matters, Lee said, is that fluorescent lights are far more energy efficient than standard bulbs, so politicians are hesitant to call for a ban. 

“We think light bulb companies need to develop an energy efficient bulb that is less toxic,” Lee said. 

Worthington said the city should assist in CALPRIG’s efforts. 

“If we can strengthen statewide regulations and explore innovative ways, Berkeley can go beyond the state. We can provide a model for what a city can do,” he said.

To the Editor: 

I was truly disheartened to read in the Daily Planet (Oct. 11) that the Planning Commission may be convinced to lift the three-year old moratorium on new fast food restaurants in downtown Berkeley. This is outrageous. Not only should fast food continue to be banned in downtown Berkeley, the moratorium should be extended to all city limits.  

In addition, we read articles every day about the obesity of Americans. It is my opinion that persons from the lower economic classes suffer the most from choosing the option of fast food. On the surface, it appears cheaper and more accessible than non-processed and home-cooked meals. In the end, health is impaired and physical, mental and economic costs are higher for persons who succumb to the fast food diet habits.  

Berkeley must not sell out to those merchants who recommend lifting the ban on the basis of economics. Public health and welfare should be a much higher priority than profits, and the citizens of Berkeley should demand and support the local and very diverse variety of eateries already established in this town. Let’s not succumb to the big box fast food establishments that contribute to poor health, litter and boring food choices.  

I strongly urge the Planning Commission to support the continued ban on fast food restaurants in downtown Berkeley and to please consider taking that ban to the city limits. 

M. Breunig 

Berkeley

Wednesday, Oct. 16 & Nov. 14 

Hormone Replacement Seminar 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

204-4422 

Reservations required. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Home Remodeling Class 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Organized by the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 

567-8280 

Free 

“Alternatives to War on Terrorism: A Multicultural Perspective” 

7 p.m. 

Ethnic Studies Library, Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley 

Ethnic studies professor Ron Takaki, author of 11 books, will speak. 

Free 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

Speak Out: A Forum on Women’s Health Issues 

7 to 9 p.m. 

City Council Chambers 

Discuss issues such as domestic violence, disparities in health care, youth health issues, and alternative health care. 

981-5106 

Friday, Oct. 18 

“Ballot Issues for the Nov. 15 Election” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

A representative from the League of Women Voters will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Homecoming Rally 

9 p.m. 

Haas Pavilion, UC Berkeley 

Come rally with the Cal band, the dance team, the UC Men’s Octet, and more. 

388-4789 

Saturday, Oct. 19 

Ethics Forum 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 

Crew 24 invites all teen youth groups for a pizza potluck and conversation about the ethical decisions we face today. 

525-6058 

Bring a pizza to share. 

Sunday, Oct. 20 

Dog Wash Sunday 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Kutz for Mutz, 911 University Ave.  

Get your dog shampooed while helping out rescued dogs. Proceeds benefit Smiley Dog Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing abused or abandoned pups. 

(760) 924-3961 

$15-$30 depending on the dog. 

The Buddy Club Season Opener 

1 to 2 p.m 

The Berkeley JCC Theater, 1414 Walnut St. at Rose St. 

Audience participation shows for kids age two through twelve and their parents. 

236-SHOW 

$7 / under 2 yrs. free 

Monday, Oct. 21 

War in Iraq- Why? 

7 p.m. 

2951 Derby St. 

Women for Peace invites you to discuss war in Iraq, with an emphasis on women’s viewpoints. 

526-5094 

Tuesday, Oct. 15 

Open mic 

7:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough 

3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-2082, Free / 21 and over 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

Four minute mile and the avenue of the stars. 

8:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over 

Amy Rigby and Dwayne Jarvis 

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-2082 

$7 / 21 and over 

Steve Harris 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

An evening of acoustic soul and explosive poetry celebrating Harris’ CD and poetry release. 

849-2568 

$10 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Santo Soul, La Familia, and Marimba Pacifica 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Music, dancing, folkloric presentations, and a raffle. 

548-6914 

$15 

Ian Moore, Sonya Hunter ad Blu Sanders 

9:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. 

841-2082 

$6 / 21 and over 

Saturday, Oct. 19 

Charonson 

9:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center, 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Come get your groove on to this live salsa band. Dance class at 8:15 p.m. 

849-2568 

$12 / $15 with class 

Sunday, Oct. 20 

Madeline Eastman with  

the Matt Clark Trio 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

845-5373 

$10-$15. 

Please Pay Attention” 

Through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free. 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free. 

Misch Kohn - Celebrating  

60 Years of Printmaking 

Through Oct. 16.  

Tues.-Fri., Noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon to 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Arts Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

549-2977, kala@kala.org 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

The House of Blue Leaves 

Through Oct. 20 

Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater  

2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or 888-4BRTTIX 

$10-$54. 

The Shape of Things 

Through Oct. 20 

Aurora Theatre Company  

2081 Addison St. 

Play by writer/director Neil LaBute's spins a morality tale of a young art student, his art major girlfriend, and the Pygmalion-like changes that bring into question how far one should go for love. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26-$35. 

Escape From Happiness 

Through October 20 

Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus 

UC Berkeley’s department of theater, dance, and performance studies presents this dark comedy exploring the interactions of a highly dysfunctional urban working-class family. 

www.ticketweb.com or (866) 468-3399 

http://theater.berkeley.edu 

$8-$14 

Wednesday, Oct. 16 

Poetry Slam 

8:30 p.m. 

The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. 

Hosted by Charles Ellik, $90 in cash prizes. 

841-2082 

$7 or $5 students / 21 and over 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

“Rethinking the American Dream: Songs of the Simple Life” 

7 p.m. 

Central Community Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kitteredge St. 

Writer and bicyclist Tim Holt will give an informal talk based on his new book. 

981-6100 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Storyteller Nancy Schimmel 

Poets, singers, musicians and storytellers are invted. 

7:30 to 10 p.m. 

Fellowship Cafe, 1924 Cedar St. 

540-0898 

$5 to 10 donation. 

Tuesday, Oct. 22 

“Sara’s Children; The Destruction of Chmielnik” 

7:30 p.m. 

Barnes & Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 

Journalist Suzan Hagstrom will speak on her nonfiction book, which delves into the Holocaust. 

644-3635 

“A Language Older Than Words” 

7 p.m. 

2350 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

An evening with author Derrick Jensen, with music by Andrea Pritchett. 

548-2220 

$6-$10/ Sliding scale. 

Wednesday, Oct. 23 

An evening with Simon Winchester 

7 p.m. 

Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center, UC Berkeley 

Join the author of bestsellers “The Map That Changed the World” and “The Professor and the Madman”, along with Don George, global travel editor for Lonely Planet Publications, for an evening of lively conversations. 

893-8555 

Free 

Saturday Nov. 9, 16 

Alice Walker and Dorothy Allison appear in support of Boadecia’s Books 

8 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda at Solano 

559-9184 

$25, sliding scale. 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Working for the Mouse 

Fantasy about playing at Disneyland. 

8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. 

La Val’s Subterranean Theater  

1834 Euclid 

464-4468 

$12 general, $7 students. 

Saturday, Oct. 19 

Magic School Bus Video Festival 

10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

1 Centennial Dr. - Lawrence Hall of Science Auditorium 

Seven differen video adventures. 

643-5961 

$8 adults, $6 youth 5-18 & seniors, $4 children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Benefit screening for “Bums’ Paradise”  

8 p.m. screening followed by party with live music from Marc Black / Funky Sex Gods 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Film explores the story of the homeless men and women who turned the former Albany Landfill into a community. 

525-5054 

Sliding scale / All welcome

SAN FRANCISCO — At long last, Barry Bonds will get his chance. 

Kenny Lofton hit an RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning that sent Bonds to his first World Series as the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 Monday night to win the NL championship series. 

Bonds did his part in Game 5, hitting a tying sacrifice fly in the eighth off a determined Matt Morris. And now, in his 17th season, baseball’s biggest star will finally get a chance to play on baseball’s biggest stage. 

The first all wild-card World Series will start Saturday night at Anaheim when the Angels take on the Giants. 

Bonds, often criticized for being selfish and not interacting with his teammates, led the sprint from the Giants’ dugout to congratulate Lofton. The four-time MVP was the first player off the bench to reach him. 

“We played great,” Bonds said. “We’ve got a tough series ahead of us. The Angels have been playing great in the clutch. It’s going to be down to the wire with them. 

“We’ve got some gusty guys out here, just like the Angels,” he said. “Who would’ve thought two wild-card teams would make it? That’s just amazing.” 

The Cardinals, playing on emotion since the death of Darryl Kile in June, once again could not get a big hit when it counted. 

In the ninth, Morris retired the first two batters before David Bell and Shawon Dunston singled.

The University of California, pushing to conclude a year-old contract dispute with 18,000 secretaries, library assistants and childcare workers, has imposed an Oct. 31 deadline on the employees’ union to accept a two-year, 3.5 percent salary increase. 

University spokesperson Paul Schwartz declined to discuss the steps UC would take if the clerical workers, represented by the Coalition of University Employees, fail to meet the deadline. But if contract talks linger much longer, he said, the nine-campus UC system might declare an “impasse” in negotiations, sparking possible state intervention in the dispute. 

“If contract settlement doesn’t appear to be happening in the very near future, that may be the direction we’re headed,” Schwartz said. 

Union officials, who have asked for a 15 percent pay hike over two years, dismiss the Oct. 31 deadline as a “silly, idle threat.”  

Margy Wilkinson, chief negotiator for CUE, said the union’s board will formally discuss the university’s offer next week and will likely reject the 3.5 percent increase and issue a counter offer. She declined to speculate on whether the union will reduce its current request for a 15 percent pay hike. 

Wilkinson argued that, if the union rejects the 3.5 percent increase, the university would be ill-advised to declare an impasse. 

“We really have some bargaining to do and I think it’s irresponsible to go to impasse,” she said. 

Wilkinson said the union and university are far apart on wages, but argued that the two sides are close enough on workplace safety and layoff provisions in the contract to justify further negotiations. 

Schwartz had no comment on Wilkinson’s argument. 

Under California law, if the university declares an “impasse” the state’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which oversees contract negotiations between public employers and their employees, will decide whether there is truly a stalemate. 

If PERB agrees that talks have deadlocked, it may assign a state mediator. If the two sides are still unable to reach a resolution, a PERB panel makes a non-binding “finding of fact” and recommends a settlement. 

The parties can accept the PERB recommendation, or the university can impose the final contract offer it made before impasse proceedings. 

The two sides have been locked in difficult contract negotiations since May 2001, with wages and workplace safety serving as the primary stumbling blocks. 

UC Berkeley clerical workers, joined by lecturers and health center nurses, staged a strike in late August. Clericals on four other UC campuses began their own two-day strikes Monday. 

The local division of the Coalition of University Employees represents about 2,300 clericals at UC Berkeley and the Oakland offices of the UC president, Richard Atkinson.

To the Editor: 

May I briefly take exception to Mark Tarses’ letter (Forum, Oct. 11) on Berkeley's coffee debate? He notes correctly that Starbucks’ claim that it purchases organic, shade-grown and Fair Trade certified coffee is misleading, since “those purchases are just a tiny percentage of the total.” Tarses then concludes that “Starbucks would be doing itself a big favor by being more candid about the issue. People don't like the feeling that they are being played for suckers.” 

I believe, rather, that some people will welcome Starbucks’ half-truth, since the illusion that Starbucks is “doing the right thing” permits them to avoid taking responsibility for their coffee-consuming actions. Coffee is to Starbucks what oil is to U.S. oil companies, on whose behalf the Bush administration proposes to go to war. In both cases, propaganda – even if we sense that it is deceptive – is found acceptable if it promises to guarantee an uninterrupted supply of a commodity upon which our creature comfort seems to depend. 

Raymond Barglow 

Berkeley

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Giants have announced that tickets to possible World Series games between the Giants and Anaheim Angels at Pacific Bell Park will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday morning. 

Tickets will be available for purchase only at the Pac Bell Park ticket office, through the Giants Web site, www.sfgiants.com, or by phone at (510) 762-2277. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Wednesday on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Larry Baer, Giants executive vice president and chief operating officer, said there will be 14,000 total tickets for all three World Series games available for sale. 

World Series ticket prices range from $60 to $145, with most of the tickets available for sale in the bleacher and view reserved sections. 

Fans will be allowed to purchase a maximum total of four World Series tickets. 

Fans purchasing tickets in person may pay with cash or Visa, MasterCard or Discover. Those buying tickets via the Internet must pay using a credit card. No personal checks will be accepted. 

Approximately 7,000 tickets, 50 percent of the tickets available, will be sold in person through the Pac Bell Park ticket office at Third and King streets. Hundreds of fans have already begun lining up today, Giants officials said. A total of 1,750 wristbands will be distributed to fans in line. A random number lottery system will then be used to determine the order of the line. 

The remaining 7,000 tickets will be available for purchase through the Giants Web site or by phone. 

If the Giants advance to the World Series, San Francisco would host Games 3 and 4 and, if necessary, Game 5, on Oct. 22, 23 and 24. Fans would be refunded for any unplayed games.

Tom Bates’ campaign officials refuted allegations Monday that the progressive candidate for mayor accepted illegal campaign contributions financed by tobacco and logging interests. 

“It’s just absolute nonsense,” said campaign Treasurer Mal Burnstein. “Obviously [Dean] is so desperate she’s stooping to a new low accusing Tom of taking tobacco money.” 

Monday’s allegation was the latest in a series of back and forth claims of illegal fund raising between the two campaigns. 

The Dean campaign publicized a complaint filed by Berkeley resident Sam Herbert Monday that claims Bates’ financial reports show donations from fund-raising committees of state politicians which were funded in part by questionable corporate contributions. Herbert cited eight donations totaling $1,700 that she said violate Berkeley laws prohibiting the acceptance of campaign money from corporations. 

“It’s a straight-up violation,” Schwartz said. He explained that because campaign committee funds come from a number of donors, it is impossible to make sure that specific donations to Bates don’t come from a corporate contributor. 

Among the allegations, Schwartz notes that on June 5, 2002 logging company Sierra Pacific Industries, of Redding, Calif., gave $3,000 to the campaign committee of state Senator Wesley Chesbro of Humboldt County who, on Aug. 24, wrote Bates a $250 check from the same account. 

Had Chesbro written Bates a check from a personal account instead of from the campaign committee account, the donation would have been legal, Schwartz said.  

But Burnstein, who has worked on several Berkeley mayoral campaigns, said the Dean campaign has misinterpreted the law. 

“They’re wrong. All that has to happen is that [the contributor] has to say that the money [from a campaign committee] has come from a legal source, and they have,” Burnstein said. 

He noted that campaign committees such as Chesbro’s also receive private donations which can be legally transferred into a donation for Bates. 

As long as the contributor assures a Berkeley candidate that the donation is from a non-corporate source, the donation is legal, Burnstein said.  

Burnstein also refuted a claim filed by Berkeley resident Marie Bowman Friday claiming that Bates’ reports show he had received four illegal contributions of $500. Berkeley campaign law sets donation limits at $250. 

According to Burnstein, the $500 listed under the spreadsheet column “Per Election To Date” was the result of a computer glitch. He said the spreadsheet program erroneously added the totals of the two preceding columns into the “Per Election To Date Column,” giving the incorrect total. 

“None of those people gave more than $250,” Burnstein assured. 

Both Bowman and Herbert said they were motivated to file their claims in response to charges filed by Burnstein last month claiming Dean misclassified about $3,000 of campaign contributions as office expenses. 

“The Bates attack on Dean irritated me personally,” said Herbert. “It made me wonder if Bates was as squeaky clean by contrast.” 

In a separate charge against Dean, Berkeley resident Carrie Olson said that Dean had accepted between $550 and $700 of illegal campaign contributions from her 1998 campaign. 

The Fair Campaign Practices Commission ruled that Dean was in “probable violation” of the law, but Dean said that she was acting on the advice of the city attorney. 

The campaign commission is scheduled to hear Bowman’s complaint at a session this Thursday. Because city offices were closed Monday for Indigenous People’s Day the commission has yet to set a date to hear Herbert’s complaint.

To the Editor: 

“Recent immigrant” Beatriz Batungbakal says that it is “unforgivable” that we Americans are so “careless” in mispronouncing the names of certain Middle Eastern countries, and that we may indeed be “hurting their feelings” (Forum, Sept. 30). 

My parents emigrated to this country after World War II for more opportunities and a better life. They learned English, the language of their adopted country, started a small business and were very grateful to be here. 

Immigrants continue to arrive for the same reasons but many now come with an attitude that they are owed something somehow. Many don’t wish to learn English. Hospitals are financially obligated to provide 24-hour translation services to serve any languages that come through their doors. Just take a trip to the department of motor vehicles to note that learner manuals come in almost every language on earth. 

Saul Grabia 

Berkeley

ST. LOUIS — Marc Bulger had every reason to be jittery. 

The St. Louis Rams quarterback was making his first NFL start because of injuries to two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner and backup Jamie Martin. What’s more, he was facing the NFL’s lone unbeaten team in the Oakland Raiders. 

Well, the Raiders are unbeaten no longer. They lost 28-13 to St. Louis, which won for the first time this season after five straight defeats. 

Bulger threw for 186 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score and made no turnovers. His play complemented that of Marshall Faulk, who rushed for a season-high 158 yards against the defending NFC champions. 

“I want to keep things in perspective — we are still 1-5,” Bulger said. 

Bulger, a sixth-round draft choice out of West Virginia in 2000, completed 14 of 21 passes in his NFL debut. 

“I may not be the strongest arm in the world, but I have enough juice to get it there,” Bulger said. 

His first passes on the Rams’ opening series went 17 yards to Isaac Bruce and 50 to Torry Holt before his 7-yard TD toss to Bruce for a lead St. Louis never relinquished. 

“The guy is an amazing player,” said Warner, who is out with a broken finger. “I said it Day One, the guy has as much physical ability as anyone I’ve ever seen at the position. 

It was a great statement for him today, a big confidence boost for him and the team. 

“You can’t say enough about a guy who comes in in such a big game and plays with such poise.” 

The Raiders (4-1) entered averaging 40.5 points and 461.5 yards, tops in the league. 

“We felt coming in here that we had to answer their surge of energy,” Raiders coach Bill Callahan said. “We felt that they were a team that was desperate, that was on the ropes.” 

What Oakland got was a Rams team that played as many thought it would before staggering out of the gate. 

The Raiders pounced quickly, with Jerry Rice on his 40th birthday catching a 53-yard pass from Rich Gannon on the first play. That drive died at the St. Louis 3, when linebacker Tommy Polley stuffed Zack Crockett on fourth-and-1. 

“We wanted to jump on them very quickly to put doubt back in their game,” Callahan said, refusing to second-guess himself on that failed play.  

“It just didn’t work out that way.” 

Bulger immediately went to work, orchestrating a nine-play, 97-yard drive capped by his TD toss to Bruce. 

Rice finished with 133 yards on seven catches. 

Gannon threw for 332 yards on 30-of-45 efficiency, falling short of becoming the first NFL player to have at least 350 in four straight games. He connected with Terry Kirby for a 2-yard TD to get the Raiders to 28-13 with 8:05 left. 

Callahan said he wasn’t all that surprised by Bulger given that he got the bulk of playing time during preseason and understands the system. 

“We thought that with Bulger, they were going to have to lean on Marshall,” Callahan said. “I thought single-handedly, (Faulk) gave them hope and kept them alive.” 

Two special-teams mistakes by Oakland led to Bulger’s second TD pass.

A small group of union activists held a teach-in on the UC Berkeley campus Monday, supporting hundreds of lecturers and clerical employees striking at five other UC campuses over wages and job security. 

“They supported us during their strike and we’re supporting them,” said Claudette Begin of the Coalition of University Employees, which represents about 18,000 clericals on UC’s nine campuses. 

UC Berkeley clericals, lecturers and nurses held a strike in late August when fall classes began on that campus. Strikes at other campuses did not begin until Monday because UC’s eight other campuses are on a quarter, rather than a semester system, and classes only recently began. 

About 1,000 lecturers at UC campuses in Santa Cruz, Irvine, Davis, Riverside and Santa Barbara took part in strikes Monday. Clericals joined in at all the campuses except Irvine. 

The strikes will continue today and UC Berkeley unions plan to hold a large rally in support of the work stoppages at noon. 

Clericals are seeking 15 percent wage increases over the course of two years and improvements in workplace safety while lecturers are seeking greater job security. 

“We’re saying, as a policy, it’s really unacceptable to be treating faculty as disposable,” said Michelle Squitieri, UC Berkeley field representative for the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which represents the lecturers.  

University officials said they are working hard to resolve the issues at the bargaining table and accused the unions of engaging in illegal, counter-productive strikes. 

“Strikes are not going to serve anyone and they are probably going to frustrate and delay contract settlement,” said university spokesperson Paul Schwartz. 

Union officials say there are about 4,000 lecturers systemwide, including those who teach just one class, while the university puts the figure at 2,500.

To the Editor: 

Darcy Morrison (Forum, Oct. 7) rails against the proponents of “smart growth” because Berkeley is too small a portion of the total region to make “an impact on the housing market regionwide.” This is an argument against personal responsibility. If you apply Morrison’s logic to other endeavors you get conclusions that even Morrison presumably will eschew. Why conserve energy or water? Why recycle or use trash receptacles? Why not lie, steal or worse if you can get away with it? 

Any one person’s contribution to these activities makes little difference to their overall level. When enough people waste, litter, lie or worse, it is easy for the individual to get discouraged and feel that their effort and honesty are meaningless. The same holds for land use policies. Berkeley and the other urban areas of the region can make a major difference in land use if they act in concert. But if Berkeley drops out, there is less reason for other cities to act in a responsible manner. If enough cities drop out then we will indeed get the sprawl Morrsion and others are resigned to. 

The real discouraging part of this argument is that sprawl isn’t worth it. Elliot Cohen (Forum, Oct. 9) claims that growth in Berkeley will increase auto traffic, but his comparison is relative to no growth anywhere in the area. Unfortunately, until U.S. population stops growing we have to put it somewhere. The data that exists (see “Location Efficiency: Neighborhood and Socio-Economic Characteristics Determine Auto Ownership and Use - ...”, by Holtzclaw et. al. in Transportation Planning and Technology, Vol. 25(1),pp 1-27, March 2002) suggests that directing growth to Berkeley and other urban areas instead of rural areas will result in less overall regional auto ownership and use. It is not clear whether this will also result in less local traffic, but it is very clear that it will result in less traffic regionally, less air pollution, less habitat destruction and fewer traffic accidents and fatalities. Sprawl isn’t just ugly, it’s deadly. 

Robert Clear 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES — An Orange County man on a Bali surfing trip to celebrate his 41st birthday is missing after a bombing on the resort island, his family and friends said Monday. 

Steven Brooks Webster of Huntington Beach traveled to the Indonesian island with two friends. All three were avid surfers. 

He and friend Steven Cabler were inside a nightclub Saturday night when a car bomb ripped through the building, killing more than 180 people and injuring hundreds. 

Another friend, John Frederick Parodi Jr., left the club just before the blast. He has been trying to locate his friend, but Webster remained unaccounted for Monday. 

Parodi has searched hospitals, posted photos of Webster, handed them out to authorities and looked through body bags, said Webster’s best friend, Trent Walker, who has spoken by telephone to Parodi and Cabler. 

“He has been unable to locate him, either alive or dead,” Walker said Monday. 

Webster’s wife, Mona, said from the couple’s Huntington Beach home that she has contacted a hospital in northern Australia where severely injured victims were airlifted for treatment. 

“I’ve been on the phone with those people,” she said. “I’ve been faxing his pictures.” 

The three friends had gone out to dinner and then to the Sari Club, a popular surfer hangout, but Parodi left and returned to their hotel, said Walker, 40, of Newport Beach. Cabler was sitting next to Webster at the bar about a half hour later when the bomb exploded and the roof collapsed on them. 

Cabler was able to pull himself out of the rubble, but he never saw Webster again, Walker said. 

Cabler, 42, of Newport Beach, was treated at a hospital for third-degree burns. He was headed back to California on Monday. Parodi, 42, of Huntington Beach, was scheduled to return home Tuesday. 

“Before he leaves he wants to get closure as to whether Steve made it or didn’t,” Walker said. 

Webster, who has a 5-year-old son and teenage stepdaughter, also golfs, sails and enjoys deep-sea fishing. He had been on previous surfing trips to Mexico and Fiji, but had never been to Bali, said Stephen Quartararo, who co-owns a Newport Beach environmental consulting firm with Webster. 

The friends began thinking about the trip a few years ago. 

“When you hit 40 and you have this last big thing on your mind, you want to do it,” he said. “It was a big moment in his life. 

They were supposed to leave the island a day and a half after the bomb attack, he Quartararo. 

“We’re trying to get all the photos out and make everyone aware in the event that if they see his face, somebody will recognize him,” he said.

SAN RAFAEL — Marin County health officials and community groups soon will be polling residents as part of an effort to learn why the scenic, affluent region north of San Francisco is home to one of the nation’s highest rates of breast cancer. 

The Marin Cancer Project has scheduled 3,000 volunteers to travel door-to-door through Novato, Corte Madera and other cities on Nov. 9 to raise awareness of breast cancer’s prevalence there and ask residents for clues as to why rates have climbed. 

According to the Northern California Cancer Center in Berkeley, white women living in Marin have a 45 percent greater chance of developing breast cancer than women anywhere else in the country. A study released in July by the center found the rate increased 37 percent from 1990 to 1999 in Marin, but remained flat in the rest of the San Francisco Bay area and California’s other urban counties. 

The researchers focused on white, non-Hispanic women because fewer than 10 cases of breast cancer are found each year in Hispanics, blacks or other populations in Marin County, which is 80 percent white. 

While residents and researchers alike continue to search for an environmental cause, some scientists believe socio-economic factors contribute to the high rate. 

Marin County boasts a per capital income more than 200 percent the U.S. average, 44 percent of its adults hold at least a bachelor’s degree. 

The habits linked with such a lifestyle — bearing fewer children, having them later in life or taking estrogen and other hormones to alleviate the onset of menopause — may trigger cancer, researchers say. 

Judi Shils, founder of the grassroots Marin County Cancer Project, said the group hopes to talk with 100,000 people and collect at least $1 per person to fund an epidemiology map of cancer incidences based on 20 years of statistics gathered by the cancer center. 

“I’m watching so many of my friends getting breast cancer and so many people in our lives getting prostate cancer,” said Shils, a Marin County resident who said she founded the organization because she is tired of so many unanswered questions. 

“If there’s something we can do to move forward we have to do it.”

ARCATA — Officials planned a Town Hall meeting Tuesday to see how residents feel about a city proclamation opposing an attack on Iraq. 

City Council candidate David Meserve of the Redwood Peace and Justice Center raised the issue with the City Council last week. He told members the Veterans for Peace group will bring a proclamation to the council soon. 

The council said it would consider the proclamation, but only after a public hearing and debate. 

Berkeley, Santa Cruz and San Francisco have approved similar declarations. 

Arcata opposed the 1991 Gulf War and declared itself a sanctuary for draft and war resisters. That move was later rescinded after local criticism that the city didn’t get enough public input before voting.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE — The nation’s missile defense system was successfully tested Monday night as a Minuteman II missile was destroyed in the atmosphere by an interceptor missile. 

The test provided a colorful light show for much of California, with the launch of the Minuteman II providing a contrail that people as far north as the San Francisco Bay area and south to Los Angeles reported seeing. 

The modified Minuteman II, carrying a mock warhead and an unspecified number of decoys, was launched from this central California base at 7 p.m., sent on a 4,800-mile path toward the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. 

“This was a test of the interceptor missile designed for use against long-range missiles in the protection of our homeland,” said U.S. Missile Defense Agency Lt. Col. Rick Lehner in Washington, D.C. 

At 7:22 p.m., an interceptor missile was launched from the Kwajalein Atoll, and it hit the Minuteman six minutes later. 

“It directly collided with the Minuteman,” Lehner said. 

It was the seventh such test for the Missile Defense Agency and the fourth consecutive test to be successful, Lehner said. Of the seven tests, five in all have been successful.

Highland Hospital reports a man in stable condition Monday following a shooting in Oakland Sunday evening.  

According to a spokeswoman for the Oakland Fire Department, emergency crews responded to the 1700 block of 37th Avenue to reports of a weapons-related assault.  

Oakland police would not comment on the shooting.

MARTINEZ — The Martinez Police Department says a man was placed in custody Monday after he went on an alleged crime spree that included robbing a house, crashing a stolen vehicle into a police car and attempted carjacking. 

Police said the California Highway Patrol forwarded them a 911 call at 11:23 a.m. from a man in a residence at 2550 Franklin Canyon Rd. The man said he was being robbed and that the intruder was still inside the building with him. 

A Martinez officer arrived at the scene within one minute and spotted the suspect driving away in a stolen Ford pickup truck. Officers attempted to stop the suspect but police said he intentionally crashed the truck into a squad car and headed off on westbound state Highway 4. Nobody was injured in the crash. 

After a brief road chase, the suspect drove off McEwen Road and onto a fire trail where he was able to gain access to westbound Interstate Highway 80. 

Police said the suspect – who was by this time was being pursued by officers from Martinez, Richmond, the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office and the CHP – drove into Richmond from I-80 and crashed into a carport at an apartment complex on South Hampton Road. 

Following the crash, police said the suspect jumped out of the stolen truck and used a pistol in an alleged attempt to carjack a vehicle from a resident in the apartment complex. Police quickly apprehended the suspect and took him into custody. 

Police did not release the suspect's name.

HALF MOON BAY – An Oregon firefighter who grew a 1,173-pound pumpkin set a new West Coast record at the 29th Annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay Monday. 

Kirk Mombert, 49, of Harrisonburg, Ore., claimed the grand prize and was paid $5 per pound, for a total of $5,865. 

Mombert broke the West Coast record of 1,016 pounds set at the coastal event last year by Steve Daletas of Pleasant Hill, Ore. The world record is held by a New Hampshire resident who this year grew one that weighed 1,337 pounds. 

About 500 people came to watch Monday's contest to kick off the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. There were 63 entries, with growers hailing from throughout California, Oregon and Washington. 

“This was a good year,” event spokesman Tim Beeman said. “We had four pumpkins that weighed over 1,000 pounds.'” 

The runner-up was Napa resident Pete Glasier, whose pumpkin tipped the scales at 1,096 pounds. In third place was Jack LaRue of Tenino, Wash., with a 1,036-pound pumpkin. 

Ted Krueger won $500 for entering the largest San Mateo County-grown pumpkin, which weighed in at 684 pounds. Guadalupe Haro claimed the award given to largest pumpkin entered by a Coastside resident for growing a 437-pounder in Half Moon Bay. The last time a Half Moon Bay resident won the grand prize was in 1977, when Ray Chiesa entered one weighing 200 pounds, Beeman said. 

Only the first-place pumpkin will be on display at the festival this weekend, both in the annual parade and by itself so that visitors can have their pictures taken with it. 

“I'm excited to ride in the parade with it Saturday,” said Mombert, who has entered the contest eight times and has won twice before. “I broke my own personal best, so that was great.” 

Mombert drove 550 miles Sunday to come to the contest. The bed of his Ford pick-up truck had only two-inches of space left on each side after he loaded the pumpkin with a forklift he had specially delivered from Bend. 

The task of hauling the pumpkin to the Bay Area was nothing compared with the work it took to grow a giant pumpkin, though, Mombert says. He said he spent 30-40 hours a week tending to the pumpkin that now measures 38 3/4 inches tall, 58 inches wide, and has walls 9 inches thick. 

“I do it just for the love of growing things,” says Mombert, a firefighter with the Eugene Fire Department, who described a two-week period in August when his winning fruit put on about 30 pounds a day. 

He says the secret to growing a whale of a gourd is the right seeds, well-maintained soil, lots of manure and calcium, a lot of hard work and attention to detail. 

After the festival, Mombert plans to take his prize gourd back to Oregon so a friend can carve it into a jack-o'-lantern that will likely be displayed at a Portland mall for Halloween.

Sea lions attacked after release 

SAN RAFAEL — Officials at the Marine Mammal Center have been reviewing sea lion release guidelines after a couple of the mammals were attacked by sharks minutes after their release. 

“It was a hard thing to witness,” said Doreen Moser, assistant director of education at the Marin Headlands center. 

Two 3-year-old California sea lions were released near the Farallon Islands on Sept. 29 after being nursed back to health over several months. 

A male named Edog was released first, followed by a female named Swissy. 

“Usually they will bite and let the animal bleed and come back, but this was over quickly,” Mosar said. 

Parents crowd into church to discuss high school melee 

SAN FRANCISCO – A large group of parents and community members packed a San Francisco church Monday morning to discuss their reaction to a melee and ensuing police action at nearby Thurgood Marshall High School on Friday. 

Police responded to a series of fights on the Silver Terrace campus in midmorning and within an hour or so had evacuated the school and arrested three students and one teacher on an array of charges. 

"What happened on Friday and what has been happening?'' asked Kim Shree-Moufas at the front of the gathering of more than 200, before asking members of the media to step outside the Allen AME Church. She said she had invited reporters to attend, but some felt the discussion would flow more freely without a media presence. She offered to make a summary statement and answer questions after the meeting. 

Before the announcements got under way, about 40 students made their way to the front of the church with handmade banners bearing slogans such as "Books not Guns,'' "Stop Police Brutality,'' and "Where's (Principal Juliet) Montevirgen?''  

A flier being passed out to the largely African-American crowd, which also included Latinos, and Filipino- and Chinese-Americans, asked parents to lobby the school district to replace Montevirgen, who they said made many changes this year as she assumed office at the academically oriented high school. 

Giuliani campagins with 

Simon in San Francisco 

SAN FRANCISCO — Republican candidate for governor Bill Simon appeared with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani Monday morning at a San Francisco restaurant as part of Simon's campaign to unseat incumbent Gov. Gray Davis. 

"We're going to fight on and win,'' Simon told about 50 cheering supporters at Fior d'Italia in North Beach. "We are right in the issues. Everywhere we go people are pumped up.'' 

Simon has contended with multiple campaign controversies, the most recent of which involved an unsubstantiated accusation that Davis improperly accepted a campaign donation. 

Giuliani, who was escorted by six San Francisco firefighters, criticized reporters by saying, "What I think you're doing is spinning, spinning, spinning.'' 

Giuliani encouraged people to look beyond the controversies and to examine issues like Simon's proposals on how to turn around the state's economy and how to repair the state's energy sector.

LOS ANGELES — Bill Simon is sorry. 

He finally said so Monday morning, badgered into the admission by a talk radio host. 

The Republican candidate for governor spent the past week parsing his words carefully, saying he “regretted” wrongly accusing Gov. Gray Davis of illegal fund-raising, but never saying he was sorry. 

Simon’s aides insisted Davis owed Simon an apology for distorting his record in attack ads, not the other way around. They said Simon would never apologize to Davis. Maybe he still hasn’t. 

He didn’t say Davis’ name, but Simon broke down and did say the “s” word under nagging from KGO-AM host Ronn Owens, who insisted that a wife stood up by her husband on her anniversary wouldn’t accept “regret.” 

“To me regret and sorry are the same thing, Ronn,” Simon said. 

“Well if they’re the same thing then say I’m sorry,” Owens said. 

“I’m sorry,” Simon said, sounding more frustrated than contrite. 

“There you go. You apologize to the governor,” Owens said. 

“There you go,” Simon said. 

Simon last week accused Davis of illegally accepting a campaign check in the state Capitol. A day later he was forced to acknowledge the 1998 photographs he was using as evidence were taken in a Santa Monica home.

SAN FRANCISCO — As dockworkers finished their first weekend back to work, both the union and port operators agreed on one thing: It’s still slow going. 

Union officials blame the sluggish pace at the ports on the aftermath of the 10-day lockout, while port operators are keeping an eye out for an intentional slowdown. 

Meanwhile, in the interest of both sides, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Cal-OSHA, has been monitoring activity on the California ports over the weekend to make sure work is done safely and quickly. 

Shipping companies and port terminal operators said that longshoremen’s work was off about 25 percent Friday, and charged that the pace of work at the 29 major Pacific ports continued to be slow Sunday. 

“There’s no question that the ports are limping along and we are monitoring the situation and getting information together,” said Steve Sugerman, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association. “We expect we can report back on that (Monday).” 

The association has the option of taking its slowdown charges to a federal judge in San Francisco to ask for relief — but the courts are closed until Tuesday. 

Union officials blamed the slow pace on a lack of train cars in Seattle and Oakland. A shortage of truck chassis have also kept the ports clogged, said Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 10,500 longshoremen. 

“You can take the containers off the ships, but you can’t get them out of the ports,” he said. 

Also, he said, crowded conditions on the docks have made work very dangerous. 

“The problem becomes, where do these containers go?” Stallone said. “They just stack up in the yard. Now we’re piling containers on top of containers. Accidents have already started happening because of the congestion.” 

Port operators are more interested in documenting the supposed slowdowns by the union than clearing the docks, Stallone said. 

“We’re out there working. We’re out there risking our lives again. But all they can do is run around trying to document what we’re doing wrong,” he said. 

To make sure that longshoremen are working quickly and safely Cal-OSHA teams were deployed to Oakland’s port Friday and arrived at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach on Saturday to monitor work, said Hilary McLean, a spokeswoman for California Gov. Gray Davis. She said the decision was made by the state agency and that although Davis was notified, the directive didn’t come from the governor. 

“They want to make sure that safety is maintained while people try to work quickly to catch up on the backlog,” McLean said. 

McLean said Saturday it was too early to tell if there are violations. 

A federal judge approved President Bush’s request Tuesday to reopen the ports after the lockout, which was costing the U.S. economy $1 billion to $2 billion a day. An agreement was then reached to keep the docks open for 80 days, which ensures retailers will receive their merchandise during the busy Christmas season. 

Federal mediator Peter Hurtgen will talk next week with both sides about scheduling the next round of contract negotiations — the lockout came after a meltdown in contract talks. The union said it expected to talk to him starting Wednesday; association President Joseph Miniace said he wouldn’t meet with Hurtgen until next weekend. 

Atop Hurtgen’s list will be a thorny issue — how to modernize the West Coast waterfront with new cargo-tracking technology that could cost union jobs. The union says it can accept short-term cuts as long as future technology-related jobs fall under its control.

SAN FRANCISCO — While the battle between Microsoft Corp. and the open-source software movement dominates headlines, another phenomenon is shaping the marketplace — at least for servers used by businesses. 

It turns out the dueling approaches to software development are both gaining momentum at the expense of Sun Microsystems Inc. and other companies that customize hardware and develop unique flavors of the Unix operating system. 

Hewlett-Packard Co., for one, builds servers based on Unix, open-source Linux and Microsoft Windows, fulfilling the demands of customers who are often passionate about one choice or the other, said Rick Becker, HP’s chief technology officer for software. 

HP sees no conflicts in satisfying both camps as customers seek the lower cost and improving capabilities of industry-standard hardware. That spells trouble for makers of custom servers, including Sun and International Business Machines Corp. 

“People are leaving proprietary ... systems and moving to industry standards,” Becker said Monday in a presentation to technology writers and editors from The Associated Press. 

He was joined by Larry Augustin, chairman of VA Software Corp. and Doug Miller, director of Unix migration strategy in Microsoft’s server products group. 

Though the speakers agreed that industry-standard hardware is gaining strength, they disagreed on the merits of proprietary software such as Microsoft Windows over open-source Linux. 

In recent months, Microsoft has toned down criticism of open-source software, which is distributed with its programming code attached and often lets customers change it to their needs. 

Two years ago, chief executive Steve Ballmer likened it to cancer. Now, the software giant says it wants to ensure that its products play well with Linux and other open-source solutions based on standards. 

“When vendors agree to a particular standard, everybody wins,” Miller said. “It doesn’t matter what model you use. If you adhere to standards, it’s possible for everyone to get along very nicely and build a number of solutions that are compatible with each other.” 

Recent forecasts from the research firm IDC suggest both Microsoft and Linux can win over the long run. 

IDC predicts Linux hardware sales tripling to $6.5 billion in 2006 and Microsoft-based platforms increasing by nearly $5 billion to $19 billion. Still, IDC forecasts proprietary systems, such as Unix servers made by Sun, IBM and HP, will contribute about $27.7 billion. 

HP’s Becker said much of the migration to date has been in the area of low-end servers, such as those that power Web sites. 

Sun is not standing still. The Palo Alto-based company has begun selling Linux-based machines. IBM also is a major player in the Linux server business. 

“They’re trying to stop the bleeding,” Becker said. 

Linux is increasingly popular for businesses that have in the past run Sun’s Solaris and IBM’s AIX Unix operating systems. The reason is that Linux is a variant of Unix, with much the same feel and features. 

Microsoft’s Windows operating system attracts customers who want an established name in the industry, Miller said. 

“In these economic times, customers are taking a long-term view,” he said. “They can’t take risk. They need ... a platform that will be around for a long period of time.” 

Becker said Linux also is breaking into the highest-end servers — those that handle financial transactions for Wall Street and manufacturing systems for industries.

SAN DIEGO — Teams of security officers with the U.S. Coast Guard have surveyed a handful of ports nationwide to determine whether they are vulnerable to a terrorist attack, a newspaper reported Monday. 

Last month, Coast Guard officers visited harbors in San Diego; Portland, Maine; Corpus Christi, Texas and Boston, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. 

“These ports are vulnerable,” said Coast Guard Capt. Tony Regalbuto, acting director of port security. “We are focusing on prevention. We want to prevent someone from using our ports as a venue for terrorism.” 

The results revealed certain security deficiencies, but Regalbuto declined to elaborate, saying details of the report will be confidential. 

Regalbuto did say that some of the problems involved deployment of personnel for security purposes. 

Others relate to protective devices, including a lack of motion detectors, surveillance cameras and fortified fences. 

Security expert Thomas Sanderson said he was not surprised by the Coast Guard’s findings. 

Ports are far more accessible for terrorists than airports, he said. 

About 17 million containers enter U.S. ports annually, with less than 3 percent of them inspected, said Sanderson, deputy director of the Transnational Threats Initiative, a public policy think tank specializing in defense issues. 

To stem the terror threat from container traffic, the federal government is considering dispatching U.S. Customs Service agents. 

The agents will check containers at their point of origin, the Union-Tribune reported. 

Regalbuto said the Coast Guard will prepare a detailed report on security readiness at the ports within two months.

DENISON, Iowa — Up to 11 badly decomposed bodies, possibly belonging to immigrants who were being smuggled into the country, were found in a Union Pacific rail car parked at a grain elevator outside of town, authorities said Monday. 

All the victims boarded the train in Mexico, but their nationality was unconfirmed, said Jerry Heinauer, district director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for Nebraska and Iowa. 

Heinauer said he was told by the Mexican consul that the car left Matamoros, Mexico, in June. It was parked in Oklahoma before heading to Denison, about 60 miles northwest of Omaha, Neb. 

Jose Luis Cuevas, Mexican Consul for the Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska, said railroad officials had given him the impression that the bodies had been in the rail car at least four months. 

Cuevas and Heinauer said they didn’t know if the victims were men, women or children. 

“We have notified our government and they will advise if they have people whose whereabouts are not known and that might have been heading this way,” Cuevas said. 

Workers were opening up a long line of rail cars Monday and noticed bodies inside a covered grain car parked at a grain-handling facility, said Karla Miller, spokeswoman for ADM, a grain processing and food products company based in Decatur, Ill. She said the cars, which had been in storage for several months, were being cleaned and prepared for grain shipments. 

“As the workers were opening the cars up, they discovered several badly decomposed bodies,” Miller said. “As soon as the bodies were found, we called the authorities.” 

Crawford County Sheriff Tom Hogan said the bodies were left in the rail car, which would be shipped overnight to Des Moines for examination by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the state medical examiner. He also said it did not appear foul play was involved. 

Heinauer said authorities do not yet know whether the occupants were being smuggled but said it fit the pattern of smuggling operations. 

“Unfortunately it does happen occasionally that smugglers lead migrants into the United States and then they lock them in cars so that authorities wouldn’t check the cars,” Heinauer said.

SAN FRANCISCO — More than 1,000 lecturers at five University of California campuses picketed Monday instead of teaching their classes as part of a two-day strike they hope will pressure the administration to compromise on contract issues. 

The non-tenured lecturers have been working without a contract for more than two years and say it’s time UC begins bargaining in good faith, said Kevin Roddy, president of the University Council-AFT and a lecturer of medieval studies at UC Davis. 

“We would like to be recognized as participants in the system,” said Roddy, who’s worked as a lecturer since 1976. “The chief negotiator said lecturers do not have positions, they have classes — which allows them to get rid of us at will. That is prejudicial.” 

UC has said it is cash strapped because of the ailing state budget and cannot offer lecturers more. It also feels students are the ones suffering most from the walkouts. UC estimates there are 2,500 lecturers, while the union puts it closer to 4,000 by including those who teach just one class. 

“At this point, UC has pretty much done everything it can,” said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz. “The state’s view is that the appropriate place to resolve the differences is at the bargaining table, not on the street corner or at campus plazas.” 

Schwartz added that the university system also views the strikes as illegal, but said disciplinary action, if any, would be addressed on an individual basis at each campus. 

Lecturers waved signs and marched at campuses in Santa Cruz, Irvine, Davis, Riverside and Santa Barbara. Informational fliers were distributed at Berkeley and San Diego. 

The lecturers, who are part time and full time, teach about 30 percent of the system’s undergraduate courses. In addition to more money, they are asking for job security and equal treatment, such as being able to apply for grants and serve as department heads. Lecturers currently are hired on a year-to-year basis for the first six years.

LOS ANGELES — A study of 80 men — 40 who saw combat in Vietnam and their twins who did not — suggests the size of a region of the brain involved in storing memories can predict one’s vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Previous studies have found the region, called the hippocampus, is smaller than normal in the brains of veterans who suffer from the disorder, marked by flashbacks and sometimes overwhelming memories of traumatic experiences. 

The assumption has been that stress caused the region to shrink in volume. 

Now, a study that involved 40 sets of identical twins found the smaller volume is likely inherited and not a consequence of the trauma of combat.It suggests the hippocampus can increase one’s vulnerability to the syndrome’s effects. 

“That would probably be the most likely explanation of the results,” said psychologist Mark Gilbertson of the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Manchester, N.H., and co-author of a study appearing Tuesday in the electronic edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience. 

The study was sponsored by the Veterans Administration. 

Post-traumatic stress disorder has afflicted nearly 31 percent of all Vietnam combat veterans at some time, according to government estimates. 

In the new study, about half the 40 combat-veteran patients suffered from chronic, unremitting post-traumatic stress disorder. 

The other half had never been affected, nor had any of the 40 stay-at-home twins. 

In veterans who were affected, hippocampal volume was 10 percent smaller on average than in those who had never suffered from the syndrome, but who had seen combat. 

Twins of the combat veterans who reported problems also had smaller hippocampi, even though they had seen no combat. 

Most had served in the armed forces, however, Gilbertson said. 

Since identical twins have similar brain structures, the finding suggests those veterans suffering from the disorder had smaller hippocampi before they entered combat. 

The volume differences remained significant even when patients who reported childhood sexual or physical abuse were subtracted, further suggesting that a smaller hippocampus size increased vulnerability to the syndrome and was not caused by earlier trauma, Gilbertson said. 

Gilbertson cautioned that smaller hippocampus volume did not guarantee a combat veteran would suffer from the syndrome; the severity of the combat experience is still a better predictor of that outcome. 

Dr. J. Douglas Bremner of Emory University said it is still possible that environmental stresses caused the smaller volumes, ruling out a purely hereditary effect. 

Early environmental stresses were presumably shared by the twins, explaining the similarity in their hippocampus volumes. 

“It’s too early to say it’s totally genetic,” Bremner said. 

“That stress has no effect on that part of the brain,” Bremner said.

GARDEN GROVE — After weeks when nothing seemed to go right on the campaign trail, Bill Simon was finally playing to a friendly crowd: the Rip Roaring Republican Rally. 

“The people of California know what’s in my heart, they know I’m a regular guy, they know that I’m married to the greatest girl I ever could have imagined,” Simon told the gathering of mostly older women from an Orange County GOP organization. 

“The fact is this,” he continued earnestly. “We’re regular people, with a regular family and kids that say the darndest things. But our hearts are full of love ... for all of California.” 

The crowd cheered. Simon grinned in delight. But such approving audiences have been in short supply for the Republican gubernatorial nominee since his upset win in the March GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in November. 

His campaign has stumbled, and neither donors nor the moderate and independent voters who could help him to victory have responded as warmly as the Orange County Federation of Republican Women in early September. 

Simon’s younger brother, Peter, said the nominee has found the campaign trail tougher than expected. But Simon said he does not regret trading in his routine of family, faith, charity and business for the harsh spotlight of a run for California’s highest office. 

“If I don’t make it, I don’t have any idea what I’m going to do, because having once had the taste of something as exciting as this, I’m not sure that going back to the old way is going to be something that will be interesting and exciting for me,” he said recently during an interview in his Santa Monica campaign office. “It’s a great thrill for me.” 

Simon, 51, stepped into politics only recently, after years as an attorney, federal prosecutor and most recently co-chairman of his family’s New Jersey and Los Angeles investment firm, William E. Simon & Sons. 

Friends and family members said they were surprised — some said shocked — when he decided to run for governor of the nation’s most populous state, his home since 1990. 

Simon’s late father, William E. Simon Sr., was U.S. Treasury secretary under presidents Nixon and Ford. But friends said Simon never betrayed political ambition or even an interest in politics. As a youth, he wanted to be a doctor. 

“I’d almost say apolitical. I never heard a word” about politics from Simon, said John Newman, a friend from Simon’s high school days in New Jersey who’s remained close to the candidate. 

Simon grew up in suburban Summit, N.J., in the shadow of his forceful and mercurial father, who made millions as a leveraged buyout pioneer after he left government. When Simon Sr. died in June 2000, he left a fortune that had been estimated two years earlier at $350 million. 

Simon was the oldest of seven siblings who lived a Norman Rockwell childhood. Their father took the train to Manhattan each morning while mom stayed home with the brood. There were family dinners and church on Sundays. Neighborhood kids crowded into the family home on Prospect Hill Avenue. 

“Plain vanilla,” Simon calls it, but he never left it behind. With his exclamations of “golly” and “gee whiz!” he sometimes seems to inhabit the 1950s still. 

“I marched on Washington twice; I grew my hair pretty long. Bill looked pretty much the same throughout,” Newman said. “I can’t really say I ever saw him rebel.” 

Simon’s sister, Mary Streep, said their father had a standing offer for the siblings: Get to age 21 without smoking or drinking, and he’d give you $1,000. 

“Billy was the only one who made it,” she said. 

The dutiful son has become a dutiful campaigner, carrying around stacks of legal pads with careful notes on everything from the state’s water problems to a debate involving then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush that he watched on tape and wants to learn from. 

Simon has convened 16 task forces focused on various issues and regularly rolls out plans on education, transportation, housing and other topics. They’re ambitious, but the details sometimes remain vague. 

The nominee never released a plan to address the state’s $23.6 billion budget deficit, contending that was the governor’s job, not his. 

A turning point in Simon’s life was his divorce from his first wife in 1984, after a five-year marriage. Devastating for an observant Catholic, the divorce also pushed him outward, and he got involved with Covenant House, an organization that helps homeless children. Charitable work would come to play a major role in his life.

SACRAMENTO — With high-tech art and music studios, ballet and tap dance classes and a theater, the Natomas Performing and Fine Arts Academy in Sacramento looks more like a private university than a public school. 

Natomas charter school director Ting Sun said the school was created as a “way for community members to bring new life into the educational system.” 

Nearly a decade after California passed one of the nation’s first charter school laws, Natomas — one of the original charter schools — will participate in a first-of-its-kind accreditation program that joins the state’s largest charter school advocacy group and a major regional agency. 

Many school officials hope the new accreditation program will counter the bad image created by a few charter schools. 

“I hope it validates a lot of what charter schools are doing,” said Rick Piercy, chair of the charter school network’s accountability committee. “It never hurts to raise the bar.” 

The program partners the California Network of Educational Charters and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, one of six major regional accreditation agencies in the country. 

Charter schools are public schools run by private organizations, such as parent and teacher groups or nonprofit organizations. In exchange for promises of increased accountability, the schools are allowed to bypass many of the regulations that govern other public schools. 

However, a recent string of problems with a handful of charters has prompted a new law requiring the publicly funded schools to follow extra financial requirements and obtain additional charters when opening far-flung satellite campuses. 

“The charter school movement has changed quite a bit since it started,” said Sun. “Unfortunately, because of some abuses, it has become more difficult for the mom-and-pop charters to start up.” 

The program will require schools to pass through financial and curriculum assessments. Schools that don’t pass will be denied membership into the California Network of Educational Charters, which represents about 70 percent of the state’s 436 charter schools.

PHILADELPHIA— Dom Spatano, who runs a deli in the Reading Terminal Market downtown, said Monday he has changed what he puts in his kids’ lunchboxes because of the biggest meat recall in U.S. history. 

“I stayed away from the turkey,” Spatano said of a weekend trip to the grocery store. 

Pilgrim’s Pride voluntary recalled 27.4 million pounds of sliced deli poultry Sunday over concerns about possible listeria contamination. The parent of Wampler Foods announced its decision after a strain of the potentially fatal bacteria was found at a Wampler plant in suburban Philadelphia. 

The nationwide recall covers meat processed at the Franconia plant from May 1 through Oct. 11. The plant, which has about 800 employees, was expected to be closed for at least several days for cleaning and tests. 

Earlier this year, a listeria outbreak in eight Northeast states killed at least 20 people and caused 120 illnesses. Tests thus far have not linked the strain at the plant to the one that caused the outbreak. 

Much of the meat involved in the recall already has been eaten, officials said. 

Outside a stand in the terminal Monday, Jerry Hahn, a snow-shovel salesman, bit into a turkey sandwich with bravado. He said he had been assured the stand roasted its own turkey. 

“So I’m taking their word for it,” said Hahn, 55, of Monticello, Iowa. “But I’m also the type of guy that would have flown on Sept. 12.” 

The recall covers deli meat primarily sold under the Wampler brand, though it is also sold under Block & Barrel, Bonos, Golden Acre, Reliance and a variety of private labels. The products include poultry sold freshly sliced or made into sandwiches at deli counters, and sliced meat sold in individual packages. 

“It’s all about ready-to-eat product. It just happens to be that sliced deli turkey meat is a product that a lot of people eat,” said Steve Cohen of the USDA. 

Consumers were urged by the company to return any affected meat to the store or deli where it was purchased for a full refund. Because consumers might not have access to the meat’s original packaging, the best way to know if a product falls under the recall is to ask if it comes from a package that bears the plant number P-1351 inside the USDA mark of inspection. 

Listeria can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea, according to the USDA. It can be fatal in young children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems.

PHILADELPHIA— Dom Spatano, who runs a deli in the Reading Terminal Market downtown, said Monday he has changed what he puts in his kids’ lunchboxes because of the biggest meat recall in U.S. history. 

“I stayed away from the turkey,” Spatano said of a weekend trip to the grocery store. 

Pilgrim’s Pride voluntary recalled 27.4 million pounds of sliced deli poultry Sunday over concerns about possible listeria contamination. The parent of Wampler Foods announced its decision after a strain of the potentially fatal bacteria was found at a Wampler plant in suburban Philadelphia. 

The nationwide recall covers meat processed at the Franconia plant from May 1 through Oct. 11. The plant, which has about 800 employees, was expected to be closed for at least several days for cleaning and tests. 

Earlier this year, a listeria outbreak in eight Northeast states killed at least 20 people and caused 120 illnesses. Tests thus far have not linked the strain at the plant to the one that caused the outbreak. 

Much of the meat involved in the recall already has been eaten, officials said. 

Outside a stand in the terminal Monday, Jerry Hahn, a snow-shovel salesman, bit into a turkey sandwich with bravado. He said he had been assured the stand roasted its own turkey. 

“So I’m taking their word for it,” said Hahn, 55, of Monticello, Iowa. “But I’m also the type of guy that would have flown on Sept. 12.” 

The recall covers deli meat primarily sold under the Wampler brand, though it is also sold under Block & Barrel, Bonos, Golden Acre, Reliance and a variety of private labels. The products include poultry sold freshly sliced or made into sandwiches at deli counters, and sliced meat sold in individual packages. 

“It’s all about ready-to-eat product. It just happens to be that sliced deli turkey meat is a product that a lot of people eat,” said Steve Cohen of the USDA. 

Consumers were urged by the company to return any affected meat to the store or deli where it was purchased for a full refund. Because consumers might not have access to the meat’s original packaging, the best way to know if a product falls under the recall is to ask if it comes from a package that bears the plant number P-1351 inside the USDA mark of inspection. 

Listeria can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea, according to the USDA. It can be fatal in young children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems.

LOS ANGELES — Anthony LaPaglia hit an artistic high with the 2001 film “Lantana,” in which he created a striking portrait of a police detective in full-blown midlife crisis. 

It was such a fulfilling experience that the hardworking LaPaglia, at 42, toyed with the idea of giving up acting. He was lured back after a year off, however, by the CBS missing-persons drama “Without a Trace.” 

If that makes him sound like a dilettante retiree, forget it. He’s so candid in assessing why few projects equal “Lantana” — or even try — that a listener fully believes LaPaglia would walk away from his craft. 

“Sometimes I really get the chance to do something juicy and rise to the challenge. But, to be perfectly honest, by and large most stuff being made today has no substance whatsoever,” he said. 

“Lantana,” one of the recent rare films that assumed moviegoers might be older than 25 and willing to invest time in the complex emotional lives of grown-up characters, became a benchmark for LaPaglia. 

What’s changed? “Everything. Attitude,” LaPaglia says.

If the opening hearing for 32 students who took over a UC Berkeley campus building is any indicator, the total bill for the remaining hearings will be at least $400,000, according to estimates by university officials. 

The university already faces $12,000 in hearing costs from the first trial of Roberto Hernandez, one of the members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) who face possible disciplinary measures. The university’s costs include room rental, between 15 and 20 security officers to safeguard the hearings and legal fees. 

And though costs are sure to multiply as the hearings proceed, the price of not holding the hearings may be greater. 

Berkeley alumnus Alexander Ellenberg is outraged over the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus last spring and says he may no longer contribute financially to the university if they allow such behavior on campus. 

The 32 SJP students are among 79 protesters who occupied Wheeler Hall April 9, calling on the nine-campus University of California system to divest from Israel. 

Ellenberg, who has given $25,000 to the university, is not alone in threatening to withhold donations until the university addresses last year’s protest. 

Fariba Ghodsian, an alumnus of UC Los Angeles, wants to see the university “set a precedent that this [protest behavior] is not allowed on a campus.” 

“I would much prefer to make a donation to Harvard than the UC system,” she said. “Harvard has taken a stand that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.” 

Despite cries from faculty and student groups that the university should drop the hearings, particularly after the courts dropped charges against SJP members, the university seems intent on following through with the trials. 

Hernandez and the other 31 students were cleared in June by Alameda County Superior Court for charges relating to their participation in last April’s sit-in. The university, however, has charged them with violating the Student Code of Conduct. If found guilty, they face penalties ranging up to expulsion. 

In addition to the costs associated with 32 student hearings, the university will have to pay for further litigation in Alameda County Court. Last week, SJP lawyers filed a suit against the university, alleging that it is using illegal evidence and violating its own conduct code in the hearings. 

In court, the university is represented by UC’s general counsel office, which handles all UC litigation. At least three attorneys – Michael Goldstein, Jeff Blair and Chris Patty – have been assigned the case. 

Just last Wednesday, the cost of their salary for three hours of preparation and court time was roughly $350, according to university officials. In addition, the university brought in outside counsel, Robert Patton, from Patton Wolan and Boxer, to assist. Outside counsel costs anywhere from $200 to $350 an hour. 

“This is unusual,” said UC Assistant Chancellor of Legal Affairs Mike Smith. “This kind of case may happen every five to seven years, but this is not typical.” 

Smith said the university is up against almost a dozen lawyers including several from the National Lawyers Guild representing the students pro bono. 

Another cost is the police presence. The officers each day, guarding the perimeter of the hearing cost up to $5,000 per day, according to UC Berkeley police Captain Bill Cooper. 

And according to the university’s conference services, department room rental from Clark Kerr where the hearings are being held carries a price tag between $200 and $300 for four hours, adding about $800 to the trial costs each day.

To the Editor: 

I’m amazed at Lance Montauk’s self-profile as “activist” for “fundamental political rights.” His selective logic is head-spinning. His feel-the-world’s-pain cloak is offensive on multi-levels: 1) To women: Women don’t define ourselves as potential rape-victims. Our world is not a prison; 2) To humanitarians: Touting his stint for Amnesty International is shocking. Last time I looked, Amnesty’s mission includes...‘research and action focused on...ending grave abuses...[and] freedom from discrimination.’ Lance’s thoughtful plans for the district include “dropping special education students?” Where will the brave champion of human rights drop them? The dumpster? The institution? The locked closet?; 3) To defenders of civil rights: According to Lance, the “fundamental” U.S. civil right to an education can be ditched by a local school board. Not only special ed parents, but minority parents too take heed of this twist. Lance’s “so-sue-me” quote is particularly unwise. Litigation in the BUSD was highlighted by the county as one of the disturbing trends leading to waste of district resources. Lawsuits cost money, particularly when your position is patently unwinnable; 4) And to potential patients: Thank my lucky stars Dr. Montauk was not on duty when my son was born requiring emergency care. If the good doctor wants to “drop” this special education student now, would he have withheld care of my son’s neo-natal injuries then – when he had the opportunity to really make a fiscal difference? I shudder as he cavalierly draws his line on human worthiness. 

Amnesty International’s vision, embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Lance-the-activist needs to brush up on his homework. 

Ann McDonald-Cacho 

Berkeley

Tuesday, Oct. 15 

Fall Fruit Tasting 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

2 to 7 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Free. 

Berkeley Camera Club Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your prints and slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

525-3565 / www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Wednesday, Oct. 16 & Nov. 14 

Hormone Replacement Seminar 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

204-4422 

Reservations required. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Home Remodeling Class 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Organized by the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 

567-8280 

Free 

“Alternatives to War on Terrorism: A Multicultural Perspective” 

7 p.m. 

Ethnic Studies Library, Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley 

Ethnic studies professor Ron Takaki, author of 11 books, will speak. 

Free 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

Speak Out: A Forum on Women’s Health Issues 

7 to 9 p.m. 

City Council Chambers 

Discuss issues such as domestic violence, disparities in health care, youth health issues, and alternative health care. 

981-5106 

Friday, Oct. 18 

“Ballot Issues for the Nov. 15 Election” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

A representative from the League of Women Voters will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Homecoming Rally 

9 p.m. 

Haas Pavilion, UC Berkeley 

Come rally with the Cal band, the dance team, the UC Men’s Octet, and more. 

388-4789 

Saturday, Oct. 19 

Ethics Forum 

6 to 9 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 

Crew 24 invites all teen youth groups for a pizza potluck and conversation about the ethical decisions we face today. 

525-6058 

Bring a pizza to share. 

Sunday, Oct. 20 

Dog Wash Sunday 

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Kutz for Mutz, 911 University Ave.  

Get your dog shampooed while helping out rescued dogs. Proceeds benefit Smiley Dog Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing abused or abandoned pups. 

(760) 924-3961 

$15-$30 depending on the dog. 

The Buddy Club Season Opener 

1 to 2 p.m 

The Berkeley JCC Theater, 1414 Walnut St. at Rose St. 

Audience participation shows for kids age two through twelve and their parents. 

236-SHOW 

$7 / under 2 yrs. free 

Monday, Oct. 21 

War in Iraq- Why? 

7 p.m. 

2951 Derby St. 

Women for Peace invites you to discuss war in Iraq, with an emphasis on women’s viewpoints. 

526-5094 

Tuesday, Oct. 22 

Brown Bag Career Talk 

12 to 1 p.m. 

YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way 

Professional organizer Kathy Waddill hosts “Getting Paid to Help Other People Get Organized”. 

848-6370 

$3 

“What is it Like to Be a Robot?” 

8 p.m. 

145 Dwinelle, UC Berkeley 

Tom Sgouros and his robot, Judy, star in a sharp-witted “solo” theater piece in which they discuss stage magic, free will, imagination and other themes in this unique performance. 

www.sgouros.com 

Berkeley Camera Club Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your prints and slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

525-3565 / www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Wednesday, Oct. 23 

The Independent Institute 

7 p.m. 

Daniel Ellsberg unveils new book, “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.” 

Zellerbach Auditorium, Bancroft Way and Telegraph 

642-9988 

Berkeley Gray Panthers General Meeting 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

What’s what on the November ballot: A rundown of state and local ballot measures. Shirley Dean and Tom Bates will debate. 

548-9696 

Thursday, Oct. 24 

Communication Components Workshop 

State Health Toastmasters Club 

Noon to 1 p.m. 

2151 Berkeley Way 

595-1594 

Free 

“How to Access Health and Medical Information Through the Internet” 

7 to 9 p.m. 

Claremont branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Learn how to effectively use free scientific databases and do health-related research using the Internet. 

Register in advance: 981-6280 

Free 

Friday, Oct. 25 

“The Library: A Community Legacy” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Anna Rabkin will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Saturday, Oct. 26 

Math Made Fun - math games. 

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

1 Centennial Dr. - Lawrence Hall of Science  

Free with museum admission. 

Pumpkin Carving  

and Costume Making 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

Center Street at  

Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Free 

Lawrence Hall of Science Family Halloween Party 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

A Halloween bash with magicians, mad scientists, wizards, and a demonstration of how to make an elephant mask. 

Reserve tickets in advance: 642-5134 

$8-$12 

Gardening With East Bay Native Plants  

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

Hands-on workshop touching on many aspects of “restoration gardening”. 

Reservations required: 548-2220 x233 

$15 Ecology Center members, $25 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Spirit Day 

11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

Fourth Street and University Avenue 

Construct altars in a day of reflection. 

Free. 

West Berkeley Arts Festival 

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

University Ave. between 3rd and 4th Streets 

Fun for the whole family, with local and international arts and crafts, the Berkeley Youth Chess league, Technomania Circus, live music and more. 

845-4106 

Wednesday, Oct. 30 

Premiere of “Code 33: Emergency- Clear the Air” 

5 p.m. 

Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 

A one hour made-for-TV documentary on youth and public relations. Followed by a reception and refreshments. 

887-0152 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

Four minute mile and the avenue of the stars. 

8:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over. 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Santo Soul, La Familia, and Marimba Pacifica 

8 p.m. 

La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Music, dancing, folkloric presentations, and a raffle. 

548-6914 

$15 

Sunday, Oct. 20 

Madeline Eastman with  

the Matt Clark Trio 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

845-5373 

$10-$15. 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Larry Schneider 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Internationally performing saxophonist. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

“Please Pay Attention” 

Through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free. 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free. 

Misch Kohn - Celebrating  

60 Years of Printmaking 

Through Oct. 16.  

Tues.-Fri., Noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon to 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Arts Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

549-2977, kala@kala.org 

Nancy Salz 

Through Oct. 23, Tues.-Fri.,  

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Barbara Anderson Gallery, 2243 Fifth St. 

848-3822 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Reception Sept. 20, 6 to 8 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free. 

The House of Blue Leaves 

Through Oct. 20 

Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater  

2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or 888-4BRTTIX 

$10-$54. 

The Shape of Things 

Through Oct. 20 

Aurora Theatre Company  

2081 Addison St. 

Play by writer/director Neil LaBute's spins a morality tale of a young art student, his art major girlfriend, and the Pygmalion-like changes that bring into question how far one should go for love. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26-$35. 

Escape From Happiness 

Through October 20 

Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus 

UC Berkeley’s department of theater, dance, and performance studies presents this dark comedy exploring the interactions of a highly dysfunctional urban working-class family. 

www.ticketweb.com or (866) 468-3399 

http://theater.berkeley.edu 

$8-$14 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

“Rethinking the American Dream: Songs of the Simple Life” 

7 p.m. 

Central Community Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kitteredge St. 

Writer and bicyclist Tim Holt will give an informal talk based on his new book. 

981-6100 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Storyteller Nancy Schimmel 

Poets, singers, musicians and storytellers are invted. 

7:30 to 10 p.m. 

Fellowship Cafe, 1924 Cedar St. 

540-0898 

$5 to 10 donation. 

Tuesday, Oct. 22 

“Sara’s Children; The Destruction of Chmielnik” 

7:30 p.m. 

Barnes & Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 

Journalist Suzan Hagstrom will speak on her nonfiction book, which delves into the Holocaust. 

644-3635 

“A Language Older Than Words” 

7 p.m. 

2350 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

An evening with author Derrick Jensen, with music by Andrea Pritchett. 

548-2220 

$6-$10/ Sliding scale. 

Wednesday, Oct. 23 

An evening with Simon Winchester 

7 p.m. 

Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center, UC Berkeley 

Join the author of bestsellers “The Map That Changed the World” and “The Professor and the Madman”, along with Don George, global travel editor for Lonely Planet Publications, for an evening of lively conversations. 

893-8555 

Free 

LOS ANGELES – Sultan McCullough had the busiest day of any Southern California tailback in the last 15 years, and he didn’t mind a bit. 

“Somebody’s got to carry the load. It was me and I’m grateful,” McCullough said after rushing 39 times for 176 yards as the 20th-ranked Trojans rallied to beat California 30-28 Saturday. 

“I got tired, but the coaches had been saying all week, ‘Finish, finish, finish.’ And that’s what I had to do,” he said. 

Golden Bears linebacker Marcus Daniels was impressed by McCullough, a former Pac-10 champion in the 100 meters. 

“Sultan is a heck of a back. He reads and cuts well,” Daniels said. 

McCullough’s 2-yard touchdown run with 8:38 left in the third quarter gave the Trojans a 24-21 lead after they fell behind 21-3 early in the second quarter. 

Carson Palmer completed 25 of 39 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns for the Trojans (4-2, 2-1 Pac-10). 

Ryan Killeen, who missed two field goals and a critical extra point in USC’s loss to Washington State last week, kicked field goals of 34, 32 and 18 yards and was perfect on PATs. 

He did miss a 38-yarder in the third quarter, but his two field goals in the fourth proved to be the difference because the Bears came back to score a touchdown with 35 seconds left. 

Before that, the Trojans had shut down Cal (4-3, 1-2) since the Bears scored their third TD three minutes into the second quarter. 

“They dominated the second half,” first-year Cal coach Jeff Tedford said after the Bears lost to the Trojans in Los Angeles for the first time since 1994, a span of five games. “The way we win games is to get turnovers and capitalize. Today, we gave the ball away twice and had key penalties.” 

The 39 carries by McCullough, who won the conference 100-meter title with a 10.18-second clocking as a freshman in 1999, were the most for a Trojans tailback since Steve Webster had 40 in a game in 1987. 

The school record of 51 carries was set by Ricky Bell in 1976. 

Cal’s Kyle Boller went 20-of-30 for 211 yards, with two touchdowns. But he was just 6-of-19 for 87 yards in the second half. He threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Tom Swoboda with 35 seconds left, but the Trojans recovered the onside kick. 

McCullough’s 2-yard TD run gave the Trojans their first lead. He rushed eight times for 38 of the 68 yards USC covered on that third-quarter drive. 

The Trojans trimmed the deficit to 21-17 by halftime on a pair of scoring throws by Palmer, the first of which appeared to be a phantom touchdown. 

On third-and-goal from the Bears’ 6, Kareem Kelly made a diving catch in the back of the end zone, but the ball appeared to immediately slip from his grasp and bounce back into his arms. It was ruled a touchdown rather than an incompletion, however. 

“I’m still sticking with it was a good catch. Other than that, I have no comment,” Palmer said. 

Kelly explained: “I had the ball. The ground helped me secure the ball. I rolled over and the ref had his hands up.” 

That score at 5:29 of the second quarter came after Boller dropped the ball while scrambling and Trojans linebacker Matt Grootegoed fell on it to halt a Bears’ drive at the USC 34. 

On the Trojans’ next possession, Palmer engineered a 76-yard drive capped by his 21-yard pass to Mike Williams, who had six catches for 103 yards. 

Cal built its 21-3 lead on first-quarter touchdown runs by Joe Igber and Terrell Williams, and Boller’s 15-yard scoring strike to Jonathan Makonnen in the second quarter.

He’s the heir apparent. But he’s got a race on his hands. 

Planning commissioner Gordon Wozniak, one of four candidates vying for the 8th District City Council seat, has enjoyed the support of retiring Councilmember Polly Armstrong since the day she announced she would not seek re-election. 

“He’s very focused,” said Armstrong, one of four moderates pitted against the five progressives on City Council. “I’m more of an outgoing, press-the-flesh kind of person. He’s more of a get-the-facts, see-where-we-can-go-with-it kind of guy.” 

Wozniak, 58, a former senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, portrays himself in a similar light. 

“I’m a problem solver,” he said. “You’ve got to get into the nuts and bolts of things sometimes.” 

But, if Wozniak is focused on the mechanics of basic community matters like traffic and public safety, his position on the hot-button issue of rent control has raised some eyebrows among progressives and emboldened opponents. 

“It’s clear that Wozniak would roll back rent control,” said Andy Katz, a UC Berkeley graduate student and member of the Zoning Adjustments Board who is running for the 8th District seat and has the backing of leading progressive politicians in Berkeley. 

“I think rent control has not served the city well,” Wozniak said, arguing that small landlords have borne the brunt of locked-in low rents. 

Wozniak said he would not seek to revoke rent control for current tenants. But he has floated the idea of an income test for new renters. Low-income people would qualify for rent control, but wealthier renters would not. 

“Should we really be subsidizing all renters, or renters who really need it?,” he asked. 

Human rights consultant Anne Wagley, another candidate for the 8th District, said she opposes the proposal. 

“I’m wary of measures that threaten the limited affordable housing we have,” she said. 

Activist Carlos Estrada, the fourth candidate in the race, could not be reached for comment on the issue. 

Wozniak’s views on rent control are part of his appeal in a district, extending south of the UC Berkeley campus into the hills, that has traditionally voted on the moderate side of Berkeley’s political factions. 

With the backing of Armstrong and other leading moderates, some think Wozniak is the prohibitive favorite. 

“It really is like running against an incumbent,” said Wagley. 

But Wozniak has a history that belies the “moderate” label. Born in South Carolina to an alcoholic father, he grew up in Dubuque, Iowa in a family that struggled economically. 

One of nine children, Wozniak worked his way through Loras College in Dubuque before moving to Berkeley in 1966 as a graduate student and becoming involved in the anti-war movement. 

He met his future wife Evie Vetterlein in 1970 registering voters for Congressional candidate Ron Dellums, and in 1974, Wozniak got his Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley. 

At Lawrence Berkeley Lab, where he started as a graduate student and eventually accepted a job as a full-time scientist, Wozniak tangled with administrators over bringing local political candidates to the facility to speak to employees. In 1971 he won a law suit on the matter, filed in conjunction with a colleague and the ACLU, allowing candidates to speak to employees. 

Over the years, as he moved up the ranks, Wozniak said, he grew more moderate. But the Berkeley left, he said, moved at least as much as he did. 

“Berkeley’s left has become fragmented and gone in crazy directions,” he said. “They’ve changed as much as I’ve changed.” 

In recent years, Wozniak found himself facing off against some of the most strident activists in Berkeley over tritium emissions from Lawrence Berkeley Lab.  

Tritium is a radioactive isotope. Lab officials, backed by federal studies, said the emissions were minimal, but activists pressed to eliminate the use of tritium, arguing that caution was the best course. 

At a March 2001 meeting of the city’s Environmental Sampling Project Task Force, Wozniak kicked a chair after asking activist Barbara George to quiet down during a presentation on the issue. 

George filed suit earlier this year claiming that the chair struck her seat and caused injury, but lost in court. Wozniak says the suit was politically-motivated. 

Gene Bernardi of Citizens to Minimize Toxic Waste, which has battled the lab on the tritium issue, said the incident should disqualify Wozniak for office. 

“This is a man who gets out of control,” she said. 

But Wozniak dismissed the charge and said he does not believe the case will have a significant impact on his campaign. 

“This is a local district and one of the virtues of the district is it’s small enough that you can talk to most people in the district and they can vote for you and your program,” he said. 

So, Wozniak is walking the district every day, and talking about those bread-and-butter issues that, he hopes, will take him to victory Nov. 5.

To the Editor: 

One must ask oneself if Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo’s ideas for solutions to the growing number of California problems are so bad, so out of step with what the average Californian, why would Gray Davis go to such extremes to keep him out of the debate. Why is Gray yellow about Green? 

I have heard Camejo speak and he is offering ideas that make lots of sense. For instance, Davis bailed out the utilities for $12 billion while creating a paltry $10 million solar power fund to encourage people to put photovoltaic cells on their roofs. That’s a 1,200 to one ratio. Where would California be with $12 billion dollars of solar cells on our roofs? We would no longer have a power crisis. Camejo would invest in renewable energy sources to break our dependence on out of state blackmailers. 

Camejo is also pushing very hard for statewide instant runoff voting, so people will have the free speech right to vote for who they really like without felling conflicted. As long as we have an electoral system which only allows two parties, we will have corrupt politicians. The debate in this country must be widened.  

David Heller 

Berkeley 

Sophomore Mike Muñoz scored a dramatic overtime goal to lift the Cal men’s soccer team to a 2-1 win over Washington on Sunday. 

Muñoz took a cross from freshman forward Pieter Berger and nudged it off the right post and over the goal line in the 96th minute.  

“Certain players, when the game is on the line, they want the ball and to make a difference,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. “Mike is clearly one of those players.” 

Sunday’s game-winner was Muñoz’s third golden goal of his Cal career, the only three such scores Cal has recorded in that time. 

“It’s getting kind of old. It’s almost no fun anymore,” Muñoz joked. “But seriously, I totally whiffed on that ball. It went off the side of my foot because I was in a hurry, and it just went in off the post.” 

Muñoz’s goal gave the Golden Bears (9-2-1 overall) their eighth straight win, tying a school record, as well as a 2-0 start in Pac-10 play after beating Oregon State, 5-0, on Friday. That’s a big improvement over last season, when Cal started with two losses in conference play. 

The Bears took a 1-0 lead in the 74th minute. Freshman midfielder Nick Hatzke gathered the ball near midfield and made a run right down the middle of the field. All three Washington defenders dropped back with Cal’s forwards, leaving Hatzke an open shot from 25 yards out. Hatzke followed the advice of several of his bench-bound teammates and launched a missile of a shot into the upper right corner of the goal past Washington goalkeeper Daniel Waltman.  

It was the first career goal from Hatzke, who has yet to start a game for Cal but has played in 11 of 12 games this season. 

“We really have about 20 starters on this team,” Grimes said. “It makes us a better team when we have guys like Nick who can come off the bench and have a real impact on the game.” 

Washington (3-5-3, 0-2) tied the game just three minutes later. C.J. Klaas launched a free kick from the left side into the Berkeley area, and freshman Kevin Murray managed to get a flick past Cal goalkeeper Josh Saunders to tie the game. It was just the eighth goal allowed by the Cal defense this season and just the fifth since a 3-0 loss to Cal State Northridge in the season opener. 

“Our defense has been rock solid,” Grimes said. “They take pride in getting shutouts. That’s their goal every game.” 

The Bears have scored at least two goals in each of their last six games, a scoring surge that has come at just the right time with Pac-10 play just starting. Muñoz said he has just done the easy part in scoring a team-high seven goals this season. 

“I’ve just been getting great layoffs this season,” he said. “I’ve got the easy job out there.”

Where would you go if the Bay Area was attacked with biological weapons? Where would you turn for information or treatment?  

After receiving a $2.8 million influx of federal funds last month, UC Berkeley has begun working to provide these answers. With the formation of the Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness, UC Berkeley joins 17 other universities around the country preparing a national response to an epidemic health crisis, like small pox or anthrax infection. 

“The weaknesses of the nation’s public health infrastructure were made clear in last year’s anthrax attacks,” said Dr. Arthur Reingold, professor and head of epidemiology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.  

The center does not yet have facilities or office space, but staff have already begun addressing its mission to teach health and law enforcement workers how to respond to bioterrorism. Ultimately, officers will also be trained on early surveillance and detection of biological weapons. 

Despite good intentions, the development of the bioterrorism centers has had its critics. They say the scope of bioterrorism is so large that isolated centers will have little impact in preparing for a specific strike. 

“Too many people in Washington feel that by dispensing billions in the wake of September's horrors, they've done their bit and all is now well,” said George Poste, a board-certified pathologist and member of the Defense Science Board of the U.S. Department of Defense. “The challenge in formulating biodefense postures is that the spectrum of risk is so broad.” 

University researchers, though, say their efforts are worthwhile. 

“All steps forward, no matter how small, are steps in the right direction,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Sarah Yang. “Any training is better than none at all.” 

Stephen Shortell, dean of the School of Public Health, said that because of the university’s knowledge base and facilities, researchers are well situated to advance the nation’s defense effort. 

“This is a primary example of the school’s commitment to moving the knowledge base from publication of research to public action,” he said.  

The Berkeley team is composed of 10 researchers who are all experts in epidemiology, the study of disease in populations. Researchers from county health departments in San Francisco and Alameda counties, as well as staff from the Public Health Institute in Berkeley will also contribute. 

The center’s grant is part of a $3 billion bioterrorism initiative launched by President Bush earlier this year. The center, which has guaranteed funding for the next three years, plans to work closely with state and local health officials, as well as the California Highway Patrol, to identify training needs. All 18 academic centers will work collaboratively. 

Government efforts to prepare for bioterrorism will only be effective if the American people are proactive in keeping themselves informed and alert, said Poste. 

“It saddens me to say this, but the vast majority of Americans, even though they were shocked by the events of Sept. 11, are quickly reverting back to worrying more about whether Mr. Combs wishes to call himself Puff Daddy or P Diddy,” he said.  

“They have lost sight of the fact that America will almost certainly be bitten again by terrorist assaults. A comfortable, complacent society that is cocooned from risk is a great target for our enemies,” Poste added.

To the Editor: 

As president of the Black Property Owners Association, I have experienced many measures designed to help tenants and property owners. However, measures enacted in Berkeley that are similar to EE, the new eviction restriction measure now on the ballot in Oakland, have been a disaster for African Americans. As a result of these measures, Berkeley is the least ethnically diverse city in all of Alameda County’s 14 cities. In short, African Americans have been pushed out and if Oakland is not careful the same process will occur there. Measure EE reduces housing affordability by limiting the supply of housing units as has happened in San Francisco and Berkeley. Who do you think will suffer in a tight housing market? The poor, the elderly, people of color, the disabled and those on the margins of society. 

Frank Davis 

Berkeley 

LOS ANGELES - The fifth-ranked Cal women’s soccer team lost its second straight game on Sunday, falling 2-0 to No. 15 USC. The Bears fell to 0-2 in Pac-10 play (7-4-1 overall) after losing, 1-0, to UCLA on Friday. The Trojans improved to 6-4-3 overall, 1-1 in the Pac-10. 

Goalkeeper Julie Peterson did not register a save, but set a school record with her seventh shutout of the season.  

USC (6-4-3, 1-1) defeated its third Top 10 team of the season (Penn State and Santa Clara). The Women of Troy dominated the contest by recording a 19-7 margin in shots, including several shots in the first half that bounced off the post and crossbar.  

Mann scored her first goal of the season on a header in the 64th minute off a cross from the right side by Hillary Schwarzbach. Fennell scored her team-leading sixth goal of the season two minutes later on a blast from 15 yards out with an assist by Jocelyn Leche. 

Fennell moved into fifth place on USC’s all-time scoring list with 51 points, surpassing Carol Hatcher.  

“We did not make any mistakes and just played harder today,” said USC head coach Jim Millinder. “We were unlucky in the first half, but got some good goals from Amy and Ali in the second half. We want to make a run for the Pac-10 title. I know our team feels that if we train hard every day, we can reach that goal.”  

Forward Laura Schott returned to Cal’s starting lineup for the first time since the Aug. 30 season opener (a 2-0 win over Ohio State) and registered two shots.  

Bears goalkeeper Sani Post made a career-high seven saves in the losing effort.  

BALI, Indonesia — Terrified tourists tried Sunday to flee this island paradise that turned into an inferno, with the death toll from a pair of bombings climbing to 187 and fears growing that al-Qaida has taken its terror campaign to the world’s largest Muslim country. 

Many of those killed by the two bombs that tore through a nightclub district on Bali island Saturday were Australians as well as other foreigners from Canada, Britain, Germany and Sweden. Two Americans were killed, while three were among the more than 300 people injured. 

No one claimed responsibility for the bombings — the worst terrorist attack in Indonesia’s history — but suspicion turned to al-Qaida and an affiliated group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to establish a pan-Islamic state across Malaysia, Indonesia and the southern Philippines. It is accused of plotting to blow up the U.S. and other embassies in Singapore. 

In Washington, President Bush condemned the attack as “a cowardly act designed to create terror and chaos” and offered U.S. help in finding the perpetrators. 

“The world must confront this global menace, terrorism,” he said. 

The attacks were on the second anniversary of the al-Qaida-linked attack against USS Cole off Yemen that left 17 sailors dead and took place amid signs of increasing terrorist activity that had led to the closure of U.S. embassies and renewed terror alerts for Americans. 

The destruction started when a small homemade bomb exploded outside Paddy’s Discotheque in the maze of clubs and bars on Kuta Beach, a popular haunt with young travelers. Shortly afterward, a huge blast from a bomb in a Toyota Kijang, a jeep-like vehicle, 30 yards down the street devastated the crowded Sari Club, a surfers’ hangout. 

A third, smaller bomb exploded outside the U.S. consular office. No one was injured in that blast. 

The second blast ripped into the open-air bar, triggering a massive burst of flames that officials said was caused by the explosion of gas cylinders used for cooking. The explosion collapsed the roof of the flimsy structure, trapping revelers in flaming wreckage. The explosions and fire damaged about 20 buildings and devastated much of the block. 

Identification of the dead was slow, since some were burned beyond recognition. 

American Amos Libby, 25, felt himself lifted off his feet as he passed the Sari Club as the bomb detonated. 

“All the buildings in the vicinity just collapsed, cars overturned and debris from the buildings fell on them,” he said, without giving his hometown. “I have never seen anything so horrible. There were so many people, 18 to 20 year old, people in pieces all over the street.” 

New Zealander Lonny McDowell, 25, was at Paddy’s when the blast blew chairs and concrete through the bar. He said he saw a man with no legs and another with a cable stuck through his stomach. 

“Who knows if this couldn’t happen again? I really don’t want to go back to Kuta,” he said looking for his airline ticket home. 

Indonesian National Police Chief Gen. Da’i Bachtiar called the it “the worst act of terror in Indonesia’s history.” 

President Megawati Sukarnoputri flew to Bali and wept as she toured the wreckage. Asked about a possible link to al-Qaida, she said: “That will be continuously investigated to that this can be uncovered as soon as possible.” She promised to cooperate with other nations to fight terror. 

U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce told The Associated Press that it was not possible yet to pin the Bali attack on al-Qaida, but noted that increasing evidence in recent weeks has confirmed al-Qaida’s presence in Indonesia and reaching out to local extremists. 

“In recent weeks, we have been able to put an end to a year of speculation as to whether al-Qaida might be in Indonesia, or relocating to Indonesia, or using Indonesia as a base of operations, after the fall of Afghanistan,” Boyce said. 

The United States and Indonesia’s neighbors have urged Jakarta for months to pass an anti-terrorism law that has been languishing in the Parliament contending there is a strong al-Qaida presence here. Without the law, Indonesia says, security forces cannot arrest suspects without clear evidence they have committed a crime. 

While its neighbors have arrested scores of militants from Jemaah Islamiyah, Jakarta has done little and denied that it is a haven for terrorists. 

“This horrible incident has only made it that much more urgent that they find some way to deal with this problem,” Boyce said. “They (Indonesians) are in the middle of doing that.” 

The U.S. Embassy was considering scaling back staff, though no decision had been taken.

To the Editor: 

Darcy Morrison (Forum, Oct. 7), in reference to previous letters against Measure P, writes “we’re being asked to sacrifice for the supposedly greater good of smart growth.” While it is true that Berkeley is only a small part of the Bay Area population, if every city used the same argument, the only place for growth would have to be farther out. New California law (AB2292) was passed just to counter the sort of down zoning proposed in this measure, and could possibly be used to challenge Measure P, should it pass. Do we want to lead? Or drag our feet? 

Good things can happen to a city that allows clustered areas of higher density. If more people were living on lower University Avenue, for example, this senior citizen would feel a bit safer walking to local restaurants and taking the bus at night (which might run more often, a separate but related issue). 

And then, there are the social implications. When housing supply is tight, prices rise, and the mix of people living here shifts. Look at Palo Alto. If Berkeley becomes an enclave for the wealthy, much of the diversity and innovative energy that characterize this city will be lost. 

Pat Boyd 

Berkeley

No. 7 Oregon 31, No. 25 UCLA 30 

PASADENA – Quarterback Jason Fife found wide receiver Keenan Howry for the go-ahead 74-yard touchdown pass on the opening play of the fourth quarter and seventh-ranked Oregon held off 25th-ranked UCLA, 31-30.  

Howry also returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter and registered 171 all-purpose yards. 

No. 13 Washington State 36, Stanford 11 

PALO ALTO – Washington State’s Jason Gesser had an efficient day, passing for 297 yards and three touchdowns, as the 13th-ranked Cougars remained unbeaten in Pac-10 Conference play with a 36-11 victory over Stanford, which fell to 0-2 in conference play. 

No. 18 Washington 32, Arizona 28 

SEATTLE – Quarterback Cody Pickett threw three touchdown passes to Reggie Williams, including an eight-yarder with 2:03 remaining, to lift No. 18 Washington to a thrilling 32-28 victory over Arizona.  

Arizona State 13, Oregon St 9 

TEMPE, Ariz. - Oregon State quarterback Derek Anderson was sacked seven times, including two in the final minute, as Arizona State edged the Beavers, 13-9.  

After leading the Beavers down to the Sun Devils’ nine-yard line for a potential go-ahead touchdown, Anderson was dropped for losses of six and 17 yards. There were still 19 seconds left on the clock after the second sack, but the team inexplicably did not get a play off.

The suspicious briefcase found tucked under a mailbox on Shattuck Avenue Thursday night turned out not to be a bomb, police said. 

A bomb squad was called to inspect the briefcase at about 8 p.m. when it was discovered at the corner of Shattuck and Center Street, next to what appeared to be Arabic writing on the sidewalk.  

It is not known if the writing was connected to the briefcase. The briefcase turned out to contain personal papers, according to police. 

The block of Shattuck between Center and Allston Way was closed down for an hour and a half Thursday because of the scare.  

Field hockey wins Big Game 

The Cal field hockey team remains undefeated in conference play, capturing a 2-1 win over NorPac foe Stanford Saturday afternoon at Maxwell Family Field. The Golden Bears improved their record to 8-3 (3-0 NorPac) as the Cardinal took their first conference loss, falling to 4-1 in NorPac play, 8-8 overall.  

Cal capitalized on one of its two first half penalty corners four and a half minutes into the game to give the Bears the early lead. Sophomore Anita Reyes fired a shot pass Cardinal goalkeeper Emily Zander, assisted by Danya Sawyer and Michelle Wald to begin an early celebration for Cal.  

Just three minutes into the second period, Stanford was awarded a penalty corner. The corner was not completely stopped, but Christina Williams was able to gather the ball for the Cardinal, firing one by Knapp between the pipes, tying the game at one apiece.  

With just two minutes to go in regulation time, NorPac Offensive Player of the Week Nora Feddersen, who had been tightly guarded the whole afternoon, gained control of the ball in the midst of a scramble directly in front of the goal, and shot the ball past the crowded area to the back of the cage, for her sixth goal of the season to put Cal up, 2-1.  

Water polo downs No. 3 USC 

LOS ANGELES - Will Quist and Chris Lathrop scored two goals each as the No. 5 Cal Golden Bears defeated the No. 3 USC Trojans, 5-3, in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at McDonald’s Swim Stadium. The victory was extra sweet for the Bears, as the Trojans defeated Cal, 8-7, in triple overtime last weekend, ending the Bears’ NorCal championship bid.  

Cal (9-3, 2-1) held USC (12-4, 2-1) to two goals in the match until Jeff Larson netted a goal with 10 seconds remaining in regulation to bring the Trojans within two. But, there wasn’t enough time for the Trojans to mount a comeback however, as the Bears’ went on to win, improving its overall record to 9-3 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.  

Russell Bernstein played solidly in goal, tallying four saves for the Golden Bears. 

Cal spikers upset No. 20 Arizona 

TUCSON, Ariz. - The Cal women’s volleyball team (12-4, 3-4) upset No. 20 ranked Arizona (8-7, 3-4) 3-0 (32-30, 30-27, 31-29) Saturday night at the McKale Center. The Bears had lost 12 straight to the nationally-ranked Wildcats, not defeating Arizona since 1995. It was also the first nationally ranked opponent Cal had defeated since topping No. 19 Santa Clara, 3-2, Oct. 23 of last season.  

Sophomore Mia Jerkov was outstanding for the Bears, recording 26 kills with a .340 hitting percentage. Junior setter Caity Noonan added 34 assists and had a team-high 12 digs. 

The win over the Wildcats was especially sweet for Cal as it had squandered a 2-0 lead and lost a 3-2 match to Arizona State the night before in Tempe.  

“The disappointment in the desert turned into redemption, that was the word of the day for us,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “Every member of the team believed it. This shows how strong the Pac-10 is, considering that Arizona had defeated defending national champion Stanford the night before. This also shows how good we can be.”

OAKLAND – The Oakland police were investigating a homicide Sunday morning that took place on the 5900 block of Monadnock Way in east Oakland. 

Police say the victim died of gunshot wounds, but released few other details. 

The victim was taken to Highland Hospital at about 4:30 a.m. and was later pronounced dead, police said. 

The case marks Oakland’s 87th homicide of the year, a number that is significant because it equals last year’s total number of homicides. 

The incident follows a slaying last week by a 14-year-old boy who killed his mother’s ex-boyfriend with a butcher knife. 

According to police, the ex-boyfriend had attacked the mother and the boy acted in his mother’s defense. The boy was not charged. 

Last week’s slaying took place at the 1200 block of 62nd Avenue. 

n Suspended registration 

Police pulled over a Richmond man at Sacramento Street and Alcatraz Avenue Wednesday night for having an expired registration. Upon inspection, police found a pair of brass knuckles, two shaved skeleton keys – used to steal cars – and an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine. Police arrested Miguel Perez, 24, for possession of a dangerous weapon, drugs and burglary tools. 

n Assault 

An adult male punched another male in the face four times during a free breakfast at Trinity United Methodist Church Wednesday morning. According to police, the victim reached for the suspect’s oatmeal, so the suspect began throwing punches. A church worker intervened and the suspect fled the church, police said. The victim was treated for cuts to the mouth. 

The East Bay Municipal Utility District has completed construction of an 11-mile emergency pipeline that would let water flow between Castro Valley and San Ramon. 

Prior to completion of the pipeline, if the existing Claremont Tunnel line had been damaged, as in the case of an earthquake on the Hayward Fault, customers in Oakland and Berkeley could have been without water for up to six months. 

The $45 million southern loop project was a key element in EBMUD's $189 million, 10-year plan to seismically strengthen the district's water treatment, distribution and storage facilities. 

More than 90 percent of the district's water supplies are delivered from the Mokelumne River, flowing 90 miles away in the Sierra Nevada foothills, to treatment plants in Walnut Creek and Orinda. 

The treated water serves roughly two-thirds of the district's 1.3 million customers and is delivered through the Claremont Tunnel, an underground pipe running parallel to the Caldecott Tunnel. 

The new pipeline will allow the district to move water from both east to west and west to east during emergencies. 

EBMUD spokesman Charles Hardy said the district is currently working on an environmental impact report exploring options for upgrading the seismically vulnerable Claremont Tunnel. The alternatives, ranging from retrofit to replacement, would cost between $30 million and $50 million.

Bay Area Rapid Transit officials are scheduled to unveil the first of the transit system’s new fare gates and ticket vending machines at the Concord BART Station this week. 

The new ticket machines have an ATM interface and were designed and manufactured specifically for BART by Cubic Transportation Systems of San Diego. 

The new fare gates have been in service at the Concord station for the past several months. The gates feature improved programmable screens and are equipped with smart card targets for future use in the regional TransLink program. 

The new Automatic Fare Collection equipment includes ticket vending machines, fare gates and add-fare machines. The equipment will be installed throughout the BART system and on the four-station extension to San Francisco International Airport. 

The $99.5 million Automatic Fare Collection modernization program is part of BART’s 10-year, $1.2 billion system-wide renovation program.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lately quite a few large food companies have gotten into the organic food market, giving California organic farmers, often the foes of large agriculture businesses, something of a shock. 

Companies such as H.J. Heinz Co., General Mills Inc. and Frito Lay are getting into the organic market to take advantage of a new national law that will give organic products a stamp of approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

The logo means the item contains no genetically modified material, no irradiation, and few, if any, chemicals or products. The USDA will also be putting similar labels on wines made from organic grapes with little or no sulfites added. 

When the law goes into effect Oct. 21, it will be a victory for California farmers, leaders of the organic farming movement, but it will also be one that comes with skepticism. 

Some worry that offering more organic foods at cheaper prices will drive out small farmers, and others worry that the government may protect corporate agribusiness rather than smaller operations. 

“In early years, we were trying to woo bigger companies and they wouldn’t have anything to do with us,” Warren Weber, who started growing organic lettuce in Northern California in the 1970’s, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Now they’re embracing it, but you’ve got a lot of people who are very hostile to the industrialization of the organic farmer.” 

For big food companies the organic market means money. Last year, consumers spent $11 billion on organic foods and the industry has seen several years of near 20 percent growth. Now large companies want a slice of the organic pie. 

But attention should be paid to the wide range of companies vying for USDA-sanctioned organic status to see how good they are and how much they embrace farmers trying to do more than milk the latest profitable market, said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. 

Some organic farmers aren’t opposed to the national law. For one, Kelly Shea the director of Horizon Organic, a multimillion-dollar organic farm, isn’t worried. 

“We’re always most critical about that which we love the most,” Shea said. “All it says to me is that we were right all along.” 

Still, some farmers are encouraged but skeptical. 

“These are good standards that need to be monitored,” Weber said. “If we don’t, big corporations are going to walk away with the whole organic name we created, and we will be out in the cold.” 

Dead tree-sitter identified 

SAN JOSE – The Santa Clara County coroner’s office identified the tree sitter who died Tuesday after falling from his perch as a 25-year-old Salt Lake City man. 

Robert Bryan was an activist with Earth First! who had only been in the redwood tree in the Santa Cruz Mountains for about 12 hours when he fell. 

Since August, Earth First! has been staging tree-sit protests against logging company Redwood Empire’s operation in the Ramsey Gulch area about 20 miles south of San Jose. 

Investigators still weren’t sure how Bryan fell. 

Loggers who saw him on the ground said he was not wearing a harness. 

Officials at Earth First!, which plans an October 19th memorial for Bryan, were also puzzled. 

Manager killed in bank robbery 

BURLINGAME – Police released surveillance camera photos Saturday of three bank robbery suspects believed to have been responsible for Friday’s takeover hold-up in which one bank employee died. 

The three men can be seen, without masks or disguises, on the Wells Fargo bank camera footage. The general descriptions of the men were also released and they were said to have worn common street attire and casual sports caps. 

Police also identified the bank manager who died in the robbery as Alice Martel, 34, of Millbrae. 

Martel died at Stanford Medical Center after she was shot in the abdomen. Another bank employee, a male, was shot in the left shoulder and was in stable condition. His name was being withheld Saturday. 

Police said two or three men armed with handguns came in through the back door of the bank Friday. Martel was trying to close a door to protect herself when she was hit by gunfire, and the injured man was hiding behind his desk, said Police Chief Gary Missel. 

The masked men ran out the front door and fled through Burlingame’s business district on Burlingame Avenue. 

Arrest made in bomb scare 

SAN FRANCISCO – A San Mateo county woman has been arrested on suspicion of calling in a phony bomb threat, claiming an explosive had been planted on the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Anita Hanson, 43, of Pacifica, was arrested early Friday morning after police traced the call to her cell phone. 

“Anybody who calls in a crank call is going to be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Lt. Charles McLaughlin of the California Highway Patrol’s office in Corte Madera. 

Hanson’s cell phone was believed to have also been used an hour before the bridge threat to call in another bomb threat to the federal building in San Francisco. 

She was booked into San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of criminal threats and making a bomb threat, according to the CHP. Charges had not been filed on Friday and Hanson, also known as Anita Barbour, was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Marijuana advocate could get up to five years for growing 

SAN DIEGO – A prominent medical-marijuana advocate, who once smoked pot on the steps of City Hall here to draw attention to his cause, is facing at least five years in prison if found guilty of growing marijuana. 

Steven McWilliams, 48, pleaded innocent to federal charges Friday after being arrested by U.S drug enforcement agents. He was later released and pledged to pay a $50,000 bond if he fails to show up for court appearances. 

More than two weeks ago, federal agents uprooted 25 marijuana plants from the yard of McWilliams’ home. 

A Drug Enforcement Administration officer had previously delivered McWilliams a letter signed by interim U.S. Attorney Carol Lam warning him that he might be arrested if he did not stop growing marijuana. 

McWilliams and his partner operate a resource center and help sick and dying people legally obtain the drug under California’s Proposition 215. The state law conflicts with federal drug statutes, which prohibit the use, possession or cultivation of marijuana. 

UC Davis scales back housing plan 

DAVIS – Bowing to community pressure, the University of California, Davis is scaling back plans for a new campus housing development. 

After critics said the original project was too large, school officials released a new blueprint Friday for a compact, bike-friendly neighborhood for students, faculty and staff members. 

Officials said the new plan calls for construction of a 200-acre project on campus agricultural research land that would house 3,700 people. 

University officials have proposed the new development as a way to handle the surge of new students, faculty and staff expected in the next decade. 

University officials hope to present a final development proposal to the UC Board of Regents in November 2003. 

Housing is already a severe problem in Davis, where the rental vacancy rate hovers around 1 percent. 

Activist dies in car accident 

SALINAS – A colorful Monterey County political figure was killed when he was thrown from his car after it veered off Highway 1 near Big Sur. 

Campaign consultant Angel Garcia, 51, a former correctional officer, was a Latino Republican activist who managed numerous political campaigns through his Salinas consulting firm. 

He was the chief fund-raiser for the group fighting a Nov. 5 ballot measure intended to scrap the Salinas utility tax. Garcia also ran unsuccessfully for Assembly in 1988 and was the first Monterey County Latino to serve as a delegate to a national GOP convention — in Houston in 1992. 

California Highway Patrol officials say it is not clear what caused Garcia’s Volkswagen Beetle to swerve off the highway Friday. A witness reported seeing a motorcycle and two cars driving recklessly in the opposite direction moments before the accident. 

Investigators say Garcia was alone in the car and was not wearing a seat belt. The crash remains under police investigation. 

Pollution continues to rise 

LOS ANGELES – California has endured its worst air pollution season in several years, reversing what had been years of improvements to the state’s air quality. 

All of Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have experienced 49 days when ozone readings exceeded federal standards, according to data collected by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. That is a 36 percent increase over last year. 

Experts said smog levels were up across the state as a result of hot, dry weather along with a series of wildfires that polluted the air over formerly smog-free places such as Death Valley National Park and the eastern Sierra Nevada. 

In the Sacramento area, air violated the federal ozone standard on 10 days – more than three times as many violations as last year, officials report.

LOS ANGELES – Nearly one-fifth of the $64 million Gov. Gray Davis has raised for his re-election has been donated by people he appointed to state boards and commissions, according to a report published Sunday. 

At least 75 of the roughly 140 boards with statewide authority include at least one Davis donor, while many have a majority who are contributors and some are filled exclusively with political donors, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of campaign finance records. 

More than 240 Davis appointees have donated directly or through spouses, close business associates and corporate and union employers. In several cases, appointees have given Davis money within weeks or days of receiving their new post. In some cases, donations were reported on the same day Davis made the appointments, the Times reported. 

“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people who are active in politics are going to want to serve on boards and commissions,” said Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar. 

He dismissed questions about the timing of campaign checks and appointments. “It’s making a connection that doesn’t exist,” he said. 

Several Davis appointees said making contributions helped them to get noticed by the governor. 

“If you’re someone who has been financially supportive, they know who you are,” said Norm Pattiz, who was named to the Board of Regents last October. 

Most of the appointees get little or no pay, but the positions can provide prestige within their fields. In addition, part-time board members help oversee state agencies and departments, and many cast votes affecting how tax money gets spent. Some also decide which companies are awarded state contracts. 

“It’s dynamite,” said Hollywood nightclub owner Gene La Pietra, a former parks commissioner who gave $80,000 to the governor this year. 

“You get access,” he said. “You get things done. ... It is a prestige booster.” 

Although there is no estimate of the donations given to past governors by their appointees, Davis has received a substantial amount more from the UC Regents than former Gov. Pete Wilson. 

Wilson received $138,700 during his first term from six of the 13 people he nominated for the board. Davis’ appointees have donated nearly 10 times that sum, or $1.3 million, either directly or through affiliated companies, during his first term, the Times said.

LONG BEACH – A geologist searching for earthquake faults at a construction site found something even more earth-shattering: the 100,000-year-old fossilized remains of a North American camel. 

Thursday’s discovery by Robert Lemmer yielded four vertebrae — the sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae, the thoracic vertebra and a neck vertebra. On Friday, another neck vertebra was discovered in a trench dug to search for quake faults in the parking lot of a bowling alley. 

Fossilized bones were covered in a plaster solution by two paleontological preparers, Howell Thomas and Doug Goodreau, and transported to a laboratory at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. 

No more remains were found in the area. 

“That would indicate it was either the kill of a predator or scavenged by something after it died, and the animal dragged off the other parts leaving the vertebrae behind,” Thomas said. “Of course, that’s just a guess. There’s no way to know for sure. But it’s a reasonable explanation.” 

Thomas determined the exact species of the camel by comparing its bones with those of another camel at the museum. 

Camels originated in North America 15 million years ago, and as they died out on this continent, they spread to Africa and into the Middle East. 

“This really puts Long Beach on the map for something we’ve never had before,” said city geologist Don Clarke. “This is the first time we’ve ever found any large land vertebrates. It’s really kind of cool.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Longshoremen are back at work after a 10-day lockout, but who’s in charge on the West Coast docks? 

Historically, while other unions have withered, dockworkers in 29 major Pacific ports have stood strong against the shipping lines and terminal operators that transport more than $300 billion worth of cargo each year. 

The balance of power changed – at least temporarily – this week when President Bush ordered dockworkers back to the waterfront. 

Although it was a lockout by shipping companies and not a dockworker strike that Bush ended, his invoking of the Taft-Hartley Act gave employers the ability to drag the dockworkers’ union before a federal judge on charges of deliberately slowing the pace of work. 

It’s powerful leverage, given that Taft-Hartley’s 80-day “cooling-off’ period lets the shipping lines clear the cargo-choked docks during the all-important holiday import and fall harvest export seasons. 

In his Saturday morning radio address, Bush said he had to end the lockout, which he said was costing the nation up to $1 billion a day in lost business and jobs. 

“We simply cannot afford to have hundreds of billions of dollars a year in potential manufacturing and agricultural trade sitting idle,” Bush said in his Saturday morning radio address. “The action I took this week will help keep our economy moving and allow labor and management more time to resolve their differences.” 

More time, but surely less motivation for a union infuriated by federal intervention. 

Bush’s action compels the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to take part in federally mediated contract talks after a meltdown at the bargaining table over terms of a new contract led to the lockout late last month. Both sides said they expect to talk with mediator Peter Hurtgen in the coming week. 

But union officials say the government intervention has only stiffened their resistance to what they see as association attempts to shrivel their ranks by denying them jurisdiction over new jobs created by cargo tracking technology. 

The union might simply wait out the 80-day “cooling-off” period and react angrily once federal involvement goes away. 

Taft-Hartley has been used in West Coast waterfront disputes 11 times before, and has led to an immediate settlement only three times, according to David J. Olson, a political science professor at the University of Washington. 

“My guess is that instead of cooling off, things will heat up,” he says. “The animosity is going to increase, not decrease.” 

On the waterfront, longshoremen aren’t straining to pick up the pace – but they also appear to be doing enough to project the impression that they are trying, given how congested the docks have become. 

When the association said Friday that productivity was down around 25 percent, officials didn’t cite slow work rates, but rather said not enough workers showing up for some jobs. Union officials responded that they’ve asked employers to train more workers, which would swell their current ranks of about 10,500 members. 

Should the association press its case in court that longshoremen aren’t working “at a normal pace,” as required by the judge who implemented Bush’s Taft-Hartley request, union lawyers may have plausible a rebuttal. 

National labor groups say hard feelings over Taft-Hartley will invigorate their organizing for next month’s midterm elections. 

No West Coast contests are close enough for organized labor to target, said Steve Rosenthal, political director for the AFL-CIO. But he added that angry union supporters could affect elections in places as distant as Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone is in a tight race with Republican challenger Norm Coleman. Union members produced pamphlets targeting Coleman after he praised Bush’s use of Taft-Hartley. 

“You never like to say that something like this is a benefit and it certainly should never have happened,” Rosenthal said. “But do you try to make lemonade out of lemons? Sure.”

LOS ANGELES – California’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 6.3 percent in September from August’s revised figure of 6.4 percent, state officials reported on Friday. 

Despite the decrease, the jobless rate remained well above the 5.7 percent recorded in September 2001. 

It also was higher than the national numbers. Last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported the jobless rate fell to 5.6 percent in September. 

About 1.1 million Californians were unemployed last month, according to the California Employment Development Department. 

Of those unemployed, 650,000 were laid off, 88,700 left their jobs voluntarily and the rest were either re-entering the labor market or joining it for the first time, the EDD said. 

The largest job losses were in government, which showed a net loss of 16,000 positions on a seasonally adjusted basis. Local government led the way, losing 14,500 positions. 

Most of the 9,600 jobs added during the month were in health services, motion pictures and business services. 

“What we feel is a real positive is that the big drop was in government jobs and that private sector jobs actually showed a small gain,” said Michael Bernick, director of the EDD. 

Regionally, San Francisco and Los Angeles counties, at 6.7 percent and 6.5 percent respectively, had higher jobless rates than the state average. 

In Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, unemployment fell slightly to 7.7 percent. Santa Barbara and Orange counties posted two of the lowest rates in the state at 3.8 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively.

SAN FRANCISCO — Four congregation members were injured Sunday after a fellow member drove through the front doors of the church following services. 

Haddie Ridley jumped the curb after leaving the Cosmopolitan Baptist Church. Her car hit three church members standing outside before plowing through its doors, said the Rev. Alfred Ray Gentle. 

“I was in my office and it sounded like 9-11,” Gentle said. “Dust and everything just came right in.” 

Gentle said Ridley, who is in her 80s, most likely hit the accelerator instead of the brake. 

In theory, it is the quintessence of American democracy: citizens signing petitions to place grass-roots proposals on their election ballot. In practice, voter initiatives are provoking complaints from a growing number of skeptics. 

In some states, including initiative hotbed California, activist citizens say special interest groups and politically ambitious millionaires have hijacked the process. In others, legislators who resent being circumvented are erecting ever-higher hurdles for signature-gatherers, or, as in the case of Massachusetts, simply ignoring proposals that win public approval. 

“It takes a lot of money to use the process — it’s been taken out of the average voter’s hands,” said Dane Waters, executive director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute. 

Last fall, four initiative campaigns in Oregon each spent more than $750,000 — only to fall short with voters. In California, a coalition of civic leaders, developers and conservancy groups expects to spend up to $7 million this year on an initiative that would take $1 billion a year from car sales and devote it to transportation and conservation projects. 

Next month, voters in 38 states will decide on about 200 ballot measures, according to Waters’ Washington-based think tank. However, only 53 result from citizen petitioning; the others were put on the ballot by legislators. 

The number of citizen initiatives is down from 71 in 2000 and from an all-time peak of 93 in 1996, Waters said. He attributes the drop to increased regulation of the initiative process, and to worries by advocacy groups that their proposals will be struck down on technicalities. 

Citizen initiatives are allowed in 24 states. In several of them, legislators wary of ultimatums from the public have put measures on the Nov. 5 ballot that would make signature-gathering more difficult. 

The National Conference of State Legislatures formed a task force to study the initiative process. Its final report, in July, was largely negative. 

“The initiative has evolved from its early days as a grass-roots effort to enhance representative democracy into a tool that too often is exploited by special interests,” the report said. 

“Opportunities for abuse of the process outweigh its advantages,” said the task force, advising states without an initiative process to avoid creating one. 

Oregon has been the No. 1 practitioner of the initiative system, voting on more than 300 citizen-proposed measures since 1902, more than any other state. Even there, however, complaints are proliferating that initiatives rely too heavily on paid signature gatherers hired by special interests and have burdened the state with expensive, often conflicting policies. 

This year, Oregon has only seven initiatives on its ballot, the fewest since 1992 and a drop from 18 two years ago. 

One reason for the decline: an Oregon Supreme Court ruling two years ago that stores, shopping malls and other businesses could prohibit signature gathering on their property. 

One of the initiatives on Oregon’s ballot this year would make future initiative campaigns even harder. Groups seeking to get an item onto the ballot would be prohibited from making payments on a per-signature basis to people hired to collect signatures. 

Supporters of the measure say it would reduce fraud and forgery, including abuses by professional signature collectors from out of state. Critics say the measure would lead to hourly wages for signature gatherers, pushing the cost of petitioning so high that only unions or big companies could afford it. 

In Oklahoma, a legislative proposal on the Nov. 5 ballot would raise the number of signatures required to get an item on the ballot relating to hunting or fishing. Constitutional amendments in Montana, also proposed by lawmakers, would make it more difficult to get initiatives on the ballot and require more signatures from rural areas. 

In several states, initiative campaigns are flourishing primarily because they have wealthy patrons. 

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a possible future candidate for governor, has contributed $1 million to a California campaign to bolster before- and after-school programs. Rob McKay, a Taco Bell heir, is pushing a proposal to allow Election Day voting registration in California. Millionaire software developer Ron Unz is backing measures to eliminate bilingual education in Colorado and Massachusetts. 

Massachusetts has become a distinctive battleground in the debate over initiatives. Its citizens are entitled to put proposals on either statewide or district ballots, but the Legislature is not obligated to implement recommendations that win approval. 

Items on the Nov. 5 ballot in some legislative districts would decriminalize marijuana, halt U.S. support of Colombia’s army and oust the leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. But if the past is any guide, most measures that win approval will go nowhere.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Spacewalking astronauts worked on the outdoor plumbing of the international space station Saturday, hooking up new air-conditioning lines and installing clamps to prevent pressure buildups. 

It was the second spacewalk in three days for David Wolf and Piers Sellers, visiting from space shuttle Atlantis. 

The men immediately encountered stiff joints in some of the space station’s older pipes, which contained ammonia coolant. What’s more, the areas were hard to reach. 

With his long arms, Sellers managed to pry open the joints ever so slightly and install the specially designed, pressure-relief clamps. 

“It is quite possible you’re the only person in the astronaut office who could have done that task,” Pamela Melroy said from inside the orbiting complex. 

“I’m the second-longest armed,” Sellers replied. “The other guy, we know about him. He’s a primate for sure.” 

NASA designed the clamps after ground testing uncovered a potential pressure problem in the ammonia lines of the new $390 million girder, which was delivered last week by Atlantis. Older equipment, already in orbit, also was found to have vulnerable joints. 

Engineers feared that if ammonia leaked into the joints and pressure built up, the pipes might not twist apart if a component needed to be replaced in the future. So clamps were built to prevent increased pressure – and it was up to Wolf and Sellers to install almost 30 of them Saturday. 

As expected, pressure had already built up in some of the older lines. 

Wolf successfully snapped on his first clamp, after relieving the pressure. “I felt it burp,” he said. Sellers had more trouble. “I need another third hand, really,” he said. 

Mission Control was “flabbergasted” when Wolf discovered some missing pieces in the older plumbing. “Really good work catching that,” Melroy told him. 

Altogether, 100 clamps will need to be installed, with the job spread over three shuttle visits. 

Besides making those repairs, Wolf and Sellers connected cooling-system lines for the new 14-ton girder, which has three radiators and two ammonia tanks. 

They also released the brakes on the railcar that came up on the girder, along with a set of tracks. Future spacewalkers will use the railcar to travel the length of the framework as more girders – and more track – are added. 

As they completed the railcar work, Wolf and Sellers broke into song in honor of the two women helping them from inside. It sounded something like “A Bicycle Built for Two” and drew cheers from Melroy and Sandra Magnus. 

Just then, Melroy informed Sellers that they were flying over England, where he was born. “Oh, wow,” Sellers exclaimed. The views from the spacewalkers’ helmet cameras, showing the docked Atlantis, were just as stunning. 

Fortunately, the space station’s robot arm worked fine as a work platform. The crane malfunctioned during Thursday’s excursion, and the astronauts had to lug and plug in a TV camera by hand. On Saturday, Wolf noticed a sheared bolt on the camera assembly.

LAKEWOOD — Rep. Loretta Sanchez and her sister are working toward a historic goal, becoming the first sisters elected to Congress. 

Both are considered favorites to win their respective seats in neighboring Southern California districts in November. 

While the attention has been on their relationship, political analysts say their races have another significance, the success of women and minorities. 

“It’s not just sisters. It’s really raising the profiles of Hispanic American women,” said Nancy Snow, a professor of global media and political rhetoric at California State University, Fullerton. “I think it’s just a stamp of the future for politics for women and ... minorities.” 

Rep. Sanchez, of Garden Grove, is one of the nation’s most prominent Hispanic elected officials, transforming herself from a failed city council candidate to Democratic success story when she unseated Orange County Republican Robert Dornan in 1996 in the 47th Congressional District. 

Her sister, Linda Sanchez, is running in the newly drawn 39th Congressional District, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, Hispanic and blue collar. The district includes slivers of Los Angeles and Orange counties, including the cities of South Gate, Lynwood, Paramount, Lakewood and portions of Long Beach and Whittier. 

Voter registration in the 39th District is 55 percent Democrat and 28 percent Republican. Hispanics account for 61 percent of its residents. 

Recruiting Hispanic candidates is important to both parties, and the sisters both face Republican challengers who are Hispanic. 

“In the rest of the nation, in more homogenous areas, it might be seen as a watershed. But in California, it’s the future,” Snow said. 

Rep. Sanchez faces Jeff Chavez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita. Chavez has not been actively campaigning since shortly after his March primary win, when he said he would not be able to run because of undisclosed family problems. 

Linda Sanchez, 33, a labor attorney, is running against Republican Tim Escobar, a 36-year-old businessman and an officer in the Army National Guard. Neither has held elected office. 

Escobar, of La Mirada, has put up a fight in the campaign, labeling Sanchez an outsider who moved into the district just to run. 

“If it wasn’t for her sister, she would have no political qualifications,” Escobar said. “I think we have so many more important issues than a cute novelty issue to deal with in this district.” 

Rep. Sanchez, who is nine years older than her sister, played a highly visible role in her sister’s primary election but has since reduced her involvement to focus on her own campaign. 

NEW YORK — It’s become a cliched formula for radio success: bad taste equals good ratings. No outrage seemed too outrageous if the Arbitron numbers were up — until lately. 

This month, a Phoenix disc jockey was dismissed after an offensive call to the widow of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile. The firing came just weeks after a pair of New York shock jocks were dumped for encouraging listeners to have sex in church. 

Are the days of “anything goes” radio gone? Does FM now stand for “fire me”? 

Perhaps. Radio industry veterans believe DJs are getting more cautious with their words and more aware of their actions since the crackdown on crass behavior. 

“For the stations and the shows that do those kind of stunts, there certainly has been a re-examination of conscience, attitudes and guidelines,” said Scott Shannon, morning show host at WPLJ-FM and one of radio’s most influential programmers. 

Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio, has heard the same thing in conversations with disc jockeys. 

“They’re becoming more careful,” Taylor said. “There’s a thing in their heads, the self-censoring thing: ‘Should I do that?”’ 

That thing comes too late for some. 

Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia kicked off this bout of broadcast introspection with an August stunt that grounded their nationally syndicated afternoon show.

While most of the United States will celebrate Columbus Day this Monday, Berkeley will remember the consequences of colonialism. For the past 10 years, the city has designated the Saturday nearest to Oct. 12 – the date Christopher Columbus arrived in America – as Indigenous Peoples Day. Today, more than 100 Native American groups will gather at Martin Luther King Jr. Park to dance, sing and remember.  

“Most native people felt Columbus wasn't a hero,” said Shar Suke, organizer of the event. Suke wears moccasins, along with an approximation of her traditional Oneida dress from the early 1800's. 

She is a dancer and has danced at powwows, like today’s, since she was a small child. “My mother taught me to dance, and it sustains my spirit,” she said. “It connects me to the past and the future.” 

This year's powwow, a word that in the Algonquin language means “a gathering of people,” is centered around dancing, but kicks off with a foot race. The run begins at the 3,000-year-old Ohlone shell mound ruins near University Avenue and Fourth Street and goes to Berkeley’s downtown where the rest of the day's events take place. The Ohlone burial mound is now the site of a parking lot, but the native roots run deep here – in fact, 20 feet beneath the surface. 

This sort of buried history is one reason the powwow is not exactly a celebration, said organizer Suke.“This is a healing process for a lot of our people,” she said. “We carry the genetic memory of trauma to our ancestors.”  

The modern powwow's history is rooted in government-sponsored relocation of native peoples to reservations in the 19th century. 

Grass dance societies were an outcome of the displacement, and dances were one of the few traditions that were allowed in the natives’ new homes. 

There are many different dances, for different age groups and sexes, at powwows. Attendees today might see women perform Shawl, Cloth, or Jingle dances, while the men may dance the Straight, Fancy or Grass dances. Dancers are commonly judged by a panel of experts, and winners sometimes receive cash prizes. 

“We like to compete,” said Suke. 

Suke grew up in Oklahoma learning combined native traditions of her Oneida grandfather and Cherokee grandmother. Her grandmother used to make her elk skin moccasins, but in recent years Suke has learned the craft herself. 

“When you come to the circle, it becomes an extended family, so you learn from others,” she said. 

There's a permanent reminder of the holiday in Berkeley as well. The city's Turtle Island Monument at the park, designed by Potawatomi Lee Sprague, will be rededicated today. 

Berkeley is not alone in recognizing native peoples this weekend. The cities of Sebastapol and Santa Cruz also commemorate Indigenous People's Day, while the state of South Dakota calls the holiday Native Peoples Day. 

Berkeley is world renouned as a home of knowledge and learning. Our children deserve world-class schools that live up to Berkeley’s superb reputation. Our local school district does a good job with its limited resources. However, if we are serious about bringing a world-class education to every single child in Berkeley we need to make our schools a higher priority and enlist the help of the entire community as well as our county, state and federal officials. 

That is why I am want to take the experience and relationships built over the 20 years I served Berkeley in the state Assembly and put them to work to help improve Berkeley’s schools. Within my first 100 days as mayor I will convene an education summit. It will bring together parents, teachers, principals, school administrators and school board members along with educational leaders from federal, state and county government, and the private and non-profit sectors. Some who have already agreed to attend include: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congressman George Miller (Ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee), Senator Jack O’Connell (Candidate for State Superintendent of Education), Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (Chair of the Assembly Education Committee), and Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, Assemblywoman-elect Loni Hancock, President Clinton’s Regional Representative for the US Department of Education and Alameda County Superintendent of Education Sheila Jordan. 

The Berkeley Education Summit will be organized around three goals. First to get an overview of what our school district is currently doing – what is working well, what needs to be improved, and where there are gaps that a school-community partnership can help fill. Second, to look at policies and programs from the best school districts throughout the state and country for ideas that can improve our schools. Third, to call on the innovation and creativity of Berkeley people to join in a sustained effort to help every child succeed. 

Tom Bates is a progressive candidate for mayor of Berkeley.

Toward the end of the 1930s Berkeley High School undertook an extensive building program to replace older buildings and build new ones. The shop and science buildings, the Florence Schwimley Little Theater and Berkeley High School Community Theater were designed in 1938 by architects Henry H. Gutterson and William Corlett, Sr. They are the only planned ensemble of Art Deco-style buildings in the city and are significant examples of the style in the Bay Area. 

The shop and science buildings are located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and extend the entire block between Bancroft and Allston ways. The theater buildings face Allston Way. The group of buildings forms an L shape around the academic building, constructed in 1920 and designed by William C. Hays, creating a courtyard on the interior. 

The Art Deco-style buildings are reinforced concrete finished in stucco. The term Art Deco comes from a 1925 Paris fair titled "Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes," which first exhibited art, architecture and the decorative arts influenced by new machines such as the automobile, the airplane and the ocean liner. The streamlined angular, curvilinear, and zig-zag forms did not have historical or classical references. New building techniques, such as reinforced concrete, made traditional cornices, pitched roofs, window moldings and emphatic corners obsolete.  

Decoration on the Berkeley High buildings includes bas-relief murals, lettering and stripes carved into the concrete-stucco exterior surfaces, stepped setbacks, fluted pilasters and columns, rounded bays and corners, stainless steel lettering, large deeply recessed multi-paned windows and glass block windows, curved overhangs and concrete- and brick-faced planter boxes. 

The bas-relief murals are works of art by the notable sculptors Jacques Schnier and Robert Howard. At the corner of Allston and Martin Luther King, Jr. there is a large T-shaped bas-relief by Jacques Schnier of St. George slaying a dragon. Next to the relief are the words, "You Shall Know The Truth And The Truth Will Make You Free." 

The exterior of the theater buildings and some of the landscape features have had little modification or alteration. The shop and science buildings were retrofitted and the interiors reconfigured in 1996. At that time the original cream-colored window frames were replaced with black metal frames and the cream-colored stucco was painted white. 

The work was funded by Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, commonly known as the WPA, created during the Depression. 

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

Ask any musician what kind of music his band plays. You’re likely to get “it’s hard to categorize” followed by some long dizzying string of styles like post-punk-rockabilly-surfer-metal. Even if resisting musical definitions weren’t de rigueur, most musical categories fall short in their attempt to help listeners navigate the CD bins of today’s music stores.  

The Tin Hat Trio is one of the harder musical groups to brand. Hailing from the Bay Area, this instrumental trio is as likely to pack a home crowd at the folk-friendly Freight and Salvage as it is to set up camp at New York’s Tonic, a Lower East Side haven for avant-garde improv. With the trio’s newest release “The Rodeo Eroded,” on Philadelphia-based Ropeadope Records, the trio digs into American roots music while retaining their edgy unpredictability.  

Tin Hat has built coast-to-coast success in part through its ability to satisfy the appetites of a wide range of listeners. Jazz and jam band lovers get their grooves and love the live finger-tickling virtuosity. World-music and folk lovers get theirs kicks through old-time instrument twang, tangos, country, bluegrass and acoustic blues. Alt-country fans find the right balance of rock attitude and classic Americana. 

Like Bill Frisell’s more recent work, Tin Hat dips into an imaginary American past without falling prey to white washed nostalgia. Frisell, a well respected contemporary jazz guitarist, is given tribute in the opening cut of Tin Hat’s CD. Ennio Morricone, the great Italian composer of western movie soundtracks, is also saluted in the song “O.N.E.O.” Five of the disc’s 15 tracks feature other Bay Area musicians as well as such stars as Willie Nelson, Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin and Wood) and Jonathon Fishman (Phish). 

Originally conceived as an evocation of southwestern saloon music, “The Rodeo Eroded” could just as easily pass for what Bill Laswell might have done if he were the first to get his hands on the lost cowboy film soundtracks of a forgotten Piazzolla/Morricone collaboration. Tin Hat’s CD centers around the talents of violinist Carla Kihlstedt, keyboardist Rob Burger and multi-instrumentalist Mark Orton. Orton composes nine of the CD’s fifteen pieces and his dobro, steel-pedal guitar and tenor banjo style consistently forms the rootsier fabric for the musical mischief. 

If “O.N.E.O” evokes the rickety shuffle of a saloon tack piano somewhere near Sedalia, Mo., “Happy Hour” imagines southern Spanish-tinged music. “Under the Gun,” on the other hand, invites you to a low-down hip groove – check Kihlstedt on the ragamuffin dance hall style – before fiddling whips up a faster hillbilly bounce. It is little surprise that this quirky, more bombastic piece is composed by Kihlstedt. Kihlstedt is a mainstay in Bay Area experimental music scenes and is a founding member of theatrical metal-noise outfit Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.  

The trio wears their experimental tendencies on their sleeves as impressionistic textures (“Mammoth,” “Nickel Mountain,” “Sweep,” “Interlude”) and angular composition (“Holiday Joe”) but they are also thrown off the cuff in raucous get-downs such as “Under the Gun.” 

But many will savor this album for its delicious folksy lyricism, where modernist mischief merely haunts Americana dreams and colors pop pleasures. Orton’s lush arrangement of the Tin Pan Alley-era “Willow Weep for Me,” featuring tasty singing by Willie Nelson, evokes the shimmering studio gloss of a 1930s Hollywood film. Vincente Minnelli would be proud. Orton’s gorgeous “The Last Cowboy” and “Mammoth” both mask tight dissonant clusters in simple forms and sensuous lyricism.  

Tin Hat is a tight band but still leaves room for each player’s talent to be heard. If they sound unclassifiable, somewhere between today and some cinematic southwestern yesterday, you can label them yourself when they take to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Halloween night as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

Saturday, Oct. 12 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series 

8:15 p.m. 

3192 Adeline - TUVA Space 

German saxophonist Frank Gratkowski with local percussionist Marco Eneidi. 

649-8744 

$0 to $20 - sliding scale. 

Indigenous Peoples Day 

7:30 a.m. 

Shellmound run to the Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow - 1st Annual Run 

615-0603 

Free 

Autumnal Equinox Picnic 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

“Big Leaf” field in Tilden Park 

East Bay Atheists host this day of fun, food, and games. 

652-8350 

$5 donation 

“Challenging the Legacy of Columbus”: Indigenous People’s Day Brunch 

10 a.m. 

Ecology Center 

2350 San Pablo Ave. 

William Trujillo, campaign coordinator for the most powerful national campesino federation in Ecuador, will speak. 

548-2220 x233 

Sliding scale: $0-$50 

“Toward Realizing Our Dream: Overcoming the Obstacles to Korea’s Peaceful Reunification” 

1 p.m. 

Morrison Room, Bancroft Library  

UC Berkeley 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee speaks,  

followed by guest speakers and a reception. 

See Elephants Fly 

Noon to 5 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science,  

Centennial Drive above the UC Berkeley campus. 

A day of special activities and events about the Asian elephant and the Asian cultures where these remarkable beasts live. 

643-5961  

babcock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

$8 adults. $6 youth 5-18. $4 for 3-4. 

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 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet  

1 p.m. 

Hs Lordship’s Restaurant,  

199 Seawall Dr., Berkeley Marina 

531-1729 

$40 reservations required. 

Celebrate the Lives of Photographers Galen Avery Rowell and Barbara Cushman Rowell 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way 

Speakers include Conrad Anker, Kathryn Fuller, Bob Hansen and more, with special messages from Tom Brokaw and novelist Barry Lopez 

644-8957 

Berkeley Historical Society Slide Lecture 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Center  

1931 Center St. 

Daniel Alef, author of “Pale Truth”, will give a slide lecture entitled “Historical Fiction: Telling California’s Story Through a Novel”. 

848-0181 

Free / Donations welcome 

Ursula Sherman Community Day 

10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Music, theater, dance, art, stories, cooking, and Yiddish games. 

848-0237 

Bring a donation of towels, warm blankets or travel-sized toiletries. 

October Swimfest 

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

Willard Pool, 2701 Telegraph Ave. 

Come out to swim, laugh, float and make a splash, while showing support for keeping Willard Pool open year-round. 

981-5150 

$4.20 general / $1.50 seniors and children 

Tuesday, Oct. 15 

Fall Fruit Tasting 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

2 to 7 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Free 

Berkeley Camera Club Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your prints and slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

525-3565  

www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Wednesday, Oct. 16  

Hormone Replacement Seminar 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

204-4422 

Reservations required. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Home Remodeling Class 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Organized by the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 

567-8280 

Free 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

Rilo Kiley (saddle creek) and Arlo (subpop) 

5:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over 

Kira Allen 

6:30 p.m. Open mic sign-up 

7:00 p.m. Reading 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 

Presented by Rhythm & Muse 

527-9753 

Free / donations accepted 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

Jenna Mammina and Andre Bush 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Jazz standards, obscure cover tunes and original compositions. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

“Please Pay Attention” 

Tuesday, Oct. 8 through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

See Elephants Fly at the Lawrence Hall of Science  

Saturday, Oct. 12 

1 Centennial Dr.  

Activities and events about the Asian elephant and Asian cultures. 

643-5961 

$8 adults, $6 youth 5-18 & seniors, $4 children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free. 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work 

Though Oct. 13 

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way 

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.  

642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

$7. $5 BAM/PFA members.  

$4 UC Berkeley students. 

Misch Kohn - Celebrating  

60 Years of Printmaking 

Through Oct. 16. Tues.-Fri., Noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon to 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Arts Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

549-2977, kala@kala.org 

Nancy Salz 

Through Oct. 23, Tues.-Fri.,  

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Barbara Anderson Gallery, 2243 Fifth St. 

848-3822 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Reception Sept. 20, 6 to 8 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Oct. 6 through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 

Through Oct. 12 

Thurs. through Sat. 8 p.m. 

LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre  

1834 Euclid Ave. 

234-6046 

$10. 

The House of Blue Leaves 

Through Oct. 20 

Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater  

2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or 888-4BRTTIX 

$10-$54. 

The Berkeley High Yellowjackets continued to run roughshod over their opposition on Friday, using a 48-point first half to propel them to a 57-0 win over Encinal High. 

Berkeley wide receiver Sean Young had 244 total yards and three touchdowns, while tailback Craig Hollis ran for 116 yards and a touchdown in the rout. Encinal (0-5 overall, 0-2 ACCAL) gained just 144 yards on offense, while Berkeley (5-0, 2-0) racked up 356 in the first half alone. The Jackets gained only 121 yards in the second half thanks to a running clock that reduced the number of plays that were run. 

The Jackets forced seven turnovers in the game, including five interceptions of Encinal quarterback Drew Dozier, who was constantly throwing on the run. Middle linebacker Owen Goldstrom and safety Chris Watson each had two picks, with Goldstrom’s coming in the span of six plays on nearly identical routes. 

“We got some real easy interceptions because of our defensive line,” Watson said. “They kept hitting the quarterback and making him throw the ball up for grabs.” 

Indeed, Dozier was constantly under heat, with Berkeley defensive end Robert Hunter-Ford recording two sacks. Hunter-Ford also got a second-quarter blindside hit on Dozier that forced the ball to pop out right to Emeka Echebelu, who ran 34 yards untouched into the end zone. That play came just after Goldstrom’s interceptions, the first of which he ran back for an apparent score, only to be called back on a clipping penalty. 

Berkeley needed just two offensive plays to score their first touchdown. After Hollis ran a sweep for 15 yards, Young took the ball on an end-around and raced 50 yards for the first touchdown of the game. Young was explosive on Friday, running the ball three times for 116 yards in the first half, including a 44-yard touchdown, and catching two passes for 89 yards. Young’s second catch was a simple slant play with 30 seconds left in the first half, but the lightning-quick receiver split the safeties and went 66 yards for a touchdown. 

“Sean’s speed was devastating today,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said. “He’s become an integral part of the offense.” 

Berkeley quarterback Dessalines Gant completed just two other passes before giving way to Jeff Spellman in the second half. Gant’s numbers were unspectacular, as he completed 4-of-10 passes for 139 yards, but his accuracy and control over the offense were greatly improved since his first start a week ago. It looks as if the Jackets’ quarterback controversy is over, at least for now, as Spellman didn’t throw a pass in the second half. 

“Dez has looked really good,” Bissell said. “We’ll give him the nod next week.” 

Berkeley had only two mishaps against the overmatched Jets. On a pitch play in the first half, Encinal lineman Jason Walker knifed through the line and picked off the pitch, returning it to the Berkeley 25-yard line. But Goldstrom made his second interception shortly afterward to snuff Encinal’s best scoring chance. 

Berkeley’s second turnover was cause for some laughter on the Jacket sideline. On an Encinal third-and-long late in the third quarter, the Berkeley coaches sniffed out a screen pass and dropped massive defensive tackle Jamal Johnson-Lucas back into coverage. Dozier tossed the ball right into Johnson-Lucas’ hands, not surprisingly the 300-pounder’s first career interception. Johnson-Lucas kicked it into high gear, trucking over an Encinal defender while lumbering toward the end zone. But diminutive Encinal running back Gary Mason hit him from behind and knocked the ball loose, with the Jets recovering for a very strange first down. 

“I just broke down and tried to score,” Johnson-Lucas said. “I wasn’t paying attention to the people behind me.” 

After the game Johnson-Lucas’ teammates made sure to find Mason and pat him on the back for having the courage to go up against a player who outweighs him by 180 pounds. Johnson-Lucas will surely hear about his fumble during the next week of practice. 

Berkeley will face ACCAL newcomer Hercules next Friday. The game will be played at Hercules High, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. 

Notes: Berkeley’s junior varsity fell to Encinal, 12-0.

Berkeley Native Americans celebrating Indigenous People’s Day Saturday say they don’t have to look far to remind themselves that their struggle for respect is not yet won. 

The Emeryville Shellmound – considered one of the 10 most sacred Ohlone Indian burial sites in California – is being ravaged by a new commercial development, said Kathy Perez, the Native American monitor of the project. She said construction of Bay Street, a new residential and commercial development, is causing the desecration of Ohlone burials, nearly 2,500 years old. 

“When you saw the machinery they were using to build the project – pile drivers, crawlers – you knew that the bodies beneath the surface would be crushed,” she said. 

The project, just north of Ikea on Shellmound Street, has sparked several Native American demonstrations, calling for the development to cease. But work continues at the site, which will open its first stores in November. 

Shell mounds, made from dirt and shells, served as the burial ground and sacred meeting place for Ohlones living in the Bay Area, said Stephanie Manning, who authored the measure that granted historic “landmark” status to a shell mound at Fourth Street in Berkeley.  

The Emeryville Shellmound is actually a collection of several mounds nearly all of which were leveled by development during the early 20th century. Since excavations began in the 1900s, more than 1,000 Ohlones have been found buried at the site, Manning said. 

The developer, Madison Marquette, did not return telephone calls to the Daily Planet, but Emeryville’s city manager said the city has followed all state regulations and spent additional money to protect the remains at the shell mound. 

“We worked as best we could with Kathy to protect the remains,” Flores said noting the city opted to spend money on an archeologist to remove and clean bones so they could be used for further study. 

Under California law, Native Americans cannot halt developments above ancient burial grounds. However, they must be consulted on such projects and can have monitors present at the site to safely remove the remains of ancestors to be reburied later. 

When Emeryville decided to redevelop the shell mound in 1999, the Native American Heritage Commission, in accordance with California law, assigned Perez to supervise the reburial of the buried Ohlones. 

But Perez said there were problems from day one. 

The shell mound had previously been home to paint companies that polluted the soil with arsenic, lead and acid. During the initial cleanup, Perez said that bodies of several Ohlones were so contaminated that instead of reburying them at the shell mound, the city had them burnt at toxic waste dumps. 

Flores confirmed Perez’ claim, but noted that burning was only done to remains found on the more heavily polluted northern section of development. “It was the only way we could do it,” Flores said. “It was so polluted no one could go there except in a moon suit.”  

The site, now being developed by Madison Marquette, continues to generate conflict. 

According to Perez, construction workers have used pile drivers to dig 70 feet into the ground, inevitably crushing the remains of Ohlones. She added that Native American overseers had witnessed workers recklessly removing pieces of skeletons without using proper equipment, and disrespecting the site. 

“They don’t realize they’re working at a cemetery,” said Perez. “We are not going to accept the disrespect of workers spitting out tobacco or dumping food scraps inside a burial hole.” 

Native Americans also remain at odds with Emeryville as to how the Ohlone legacy will be memorialized at the development. The current plan calls for the project to include an Ohlone mural on one of the buildings, a community room with copies of Ohlone artifacts, a city-run web site explaining the history of native Californians, an educational display outlining the history of shell mounds and preservation of a small mound. 

Perez characterized the planned testimonials as window-dressing.  

“They think they need to do a mural so they appear like they’re working with Native Americans and everything is hunky-dory,” she said. “But they’re not willing to give the Indian community any scholarships or start programs to service the Ohlone.” 

Flores, though, noted that the city was not required to build a memorial, but chose to spend roughly $2 million on the project. 

Ohlones are divided on the development, according to Manning. Of the several bands of Ohlones in the Bay Area, she said some want to make the site a memorial, others favor using it for archeological research, and others support development as long as the remains are properly reburied. 

After what Perez considers repeated violations of trust by the city and developer, she said she would like for the development to stop. “I’d like to see that whole place just vanish off the face of the earth.”

To the Editor: 

Apologists for Berkeley’s coffee initiative – mandating organic, shade-grown, and Fair Trade coffee at retail establishments – keep digging themselves in deeper. Mark Tarses’ letter (Forum, Sept. 26) claims the initiative is OK because it will raise the cost of brewed coffee by only a few cents a cup. But how can you put a price on liberty? Mr. Tarses may value his at only 2 cents a cup – but the real issue is that this misguided initiative would deny consumers our right to make our own decisions about what to consume. 

And the intitative would backfire, by punishing many ethical coffee producers and vendors. Much of the specialty coffee brewed in Berkeley is already produced in exactly the environmentally-friendly and worker-friendly ways that politically correct coffee certifiers seek to promote. Yet its indigenous growers can’t get formal organic, shade-grown, or Fair Trade certification because of technicalities: language or cultural barriers, remote locations, inability to pay for inspections, or certifiers’ quotas. 

By excluding their beans from Berkeley’s charmed circle of allowable coffee, we would punish the very coffee growers and habitats we want to protect – while accomplishing absolutely nothing positive. Rick Young’s letter (Forum, Sept. 30) compares his initiative to banning leaded gas. That’s appropriate only because the hasty transition to unleaded gas was one of the environmental movement’s worst blunders. Advocates let oil companies substitute benzene, a volatile carcinogen, just when consumers began pumping their own gas. Who knows how many excess cancer cases that’s caused? When regulators’ recent oxygenated gas recipe finally eliminated the benzene, it let oil producers add MTBE -- another carcinogen, which lurks in groundwater for years. 

If you want PC coffee just ask your favorite coffee brewer to offer it. You can readily get preprinted request cards explaining why PC is good. If your coffeehouse turns you down, go elsewhere, and explain why. Rational free choice works, and exercising it can help us build a better world. But ham-handed, short-sighted restrictions hurt everyone – including their intended beneficiaries. To paraphrase many Berkeley residents’ response to an earlier government overreach: Keep your laws off my coffee. 

Michael Katz 

Berkeley 

One running back piling up yards the St. Mary’s High defense was able to handle. Two running backs piling up yards the defense was almost too much for the Panthers to handle. 

Oakland Tech High’s Marshawn Lynch rushed for a 146 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries in the first half, then gave way to backup Virdell Larkins. Larkins rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries in the second half for Oakland Tech, which scored 20 unanswered points over the final nine minutes to tie St. Mary’s 32-32. 

“Oakland Tech has some outsanding athletes that can score anytime they touch the ball and they never gave up,” said St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson, who said his team played their best game of the year. 

The Panthers (1-3-1) came close to losing the game when the Bulldogs prepared for an extra point to break the tie with 2:50 left in regulation. It took a meeting of three referees, who did not make a signal immediately after the kick, to decide that the extra point sailed wide.  

St. Mary’s senior Ryan Coogler said his stomach was in knots as the referees huddled to decide the fate of the game.  

“I had outside containment so I had a good view. It might have been good,” Coogler said. “One (referee) said that he thought it was no good and the other two said they had a bad angle.” 

St. Mary’s capatilized on Oakland Tech’s mistakes throughout, controlling most of the game as they built 32-12 lead. A Bulldogs mishandled punt and two interceptions led to 17 points for the Panthers.  

Coogler had one of his team’s interceptions and a 49-yard touchdown catch two plays after Oakland Tech (3-1-1) attemped an onside kick to open the second half. 

“They tried to follow me with their best athlete [Lynch], but anytime there is bump and run and no safety they know to look for me,” Coogler said. 

The touchdown pass to Coogler was one of two from senior quarterback Steve Murphy, who played all but five snaps behind center. Lawson said the two series he substituted sophomore Scott Tully in was because he wanted “to give a different look. They put guys off the ball and on our receivers and so we wanted to run the ball.” Tully has been splitting time with Murphy this season in an effort to jumpstart the St. Mary’s offense, but Murphy was excellent on Friday night, completing 5-of-10 passes for 152 yards. His first touchdown pass was a 12-yarder to Will Reid. 

Murphy, who led the Panthers to a Bay Shore Athletic League title last season, echoed the sentiments of other players on the team that the tie was a moral victory. 

“We tried to make a statement. Nobody expected us to get this,” Murphy said. “We should have came away victorious though.” 

St. Mary’s got rushing touchdowns from Fred Hives and Chris White in the first half to build their lead. 

The Panthers open BSAL play next Saturday at home against Kennedy. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

Forty-six anti-war protesters were arrested Friday morning as they tried to block workers from entering the Federal Building in San Francisco, authorities said. 

The protest came hours after Congress approved the use of U.S. military might against Iraq. Both the House and Senate passed, and sent to the White House, a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force. 

Forming picket lines around the Federal Building’s entrances at 7 a.m., about 500 protesters, mostly from sponsoring groups like Not In Our Name, Berkeley Stop the War and Global Exchange, chanted slogans like “We want peace on foreign soil – no blood for oil.” 

Their efforts succeeded in keeping most federal workers out of their offices until the protesters dissolved the lines just after 10 a.m., declaring victory. 

Many of the demonstrators had been at the Federal Building since the Congressional vote Thursday, staying in tents and sleeping bags and calling for the Bush administration to avoid the use of military action. 

Philip Batchelder, 33, a landscaper and self-described social activist from Berkeley, carried a U.S. flag with corporate logos taking the place of stars.  

“It’s supposed to signify who this war is being orchestrated for,” he said. “Killing is not the answer.” 

As federal employees started to arrive Friday morning, police officers lined up behind metal barricades. 

“I’m amused by this behavior,” said an employee of the U.S. General Services Administration who didn’t want to give his name. He called the protester actions counterproductive, saying, “they don’t go anywhere doing this.” 

After 10 a.m., some of the activists marched to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco headquarters. Feinstein , D-California, voted in favor of the war resolution. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, did not. 

Bay Area representatives voted overwhelmingly against the bill. Only 2 of the 13 representatives, Tom Lantos , D-San Mateo and Ellen Tauscher, D-Contra Costa County, supported it. 

Organizers of the San Francisco rally insisted there was still a reason to speak up. 

“We’re protesting the whole deal,” said Aimara, a member of Not In Our Name. “People look to the Bay Area to set the precedent in resistance. If we don’t do it, they will think there is nothing to protest about.” 

“A lot of people here are very angry,” added Starhawk, an organizer and a member of Women's Preemptive Strike for Peace. 

Authorities said 44 of the arrested were to be cited and released later in the day and will be fined $25. Two others arrested were charged with assaulting a federal prosecutor and were being detained, said Esther Timberlake, a spokeswoman with the General Services Administration. 

The building houses federal courts and government agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and FBI. 

Anti-war organizers said they have a much bigger rally up their sleeves for Oct. 26. They expect that the event, coordinated with a similar one in Washington, D.C., will bring as many as half a million people to San Francisco. 

-The Associated Press 

contributed to this story

To the Editor: 

We at The Berkshire appreciate your printing the Police Briefs on page 3 of the Daily Planet. We recently became members of the Neighborhod Watch Program and are able to integrate the briefs into our crime-prevention program. This brings our 90+ residents into closer contact with the activities of the Berkeley police and thereby gives us a better understanding of the nature and scope of the problems in our neighborhood. We feel there should be more news of this type in your paper.  

Phil Guba 

Chairman, Berkshire  

Residents’ Council

When Cal has the ball 

The ground game 

As usual, USC has one of the fastest teams in the country, which could give the Bears some trouble. Joe Igber’s game is based on making people miss, something that may not do him much good against the swarming USC defense. Trojan defensive tackle Shaun Cody is a monster and could get a lot of pressure up the middle to force Igber outside.  

In the trenches 

The Bears need guard Jon Geisel healthy and ready to go, as he is a big improvement over replacement David Hays. Cal has been exceptional guarding Kyle Boller this season, giving up a conference-low seven sacks. If they can continue that kind of protection against the Trojans, who are not known for their pass rush, the Bears could have a big scoring day behind Boller’s strong right arm. 

Taking to the air 

While USC leads the Pac-10 in defensive pass efficiency, they were exposed as vulnerable in last week’s loss to Washington State. Darrell Rideaux is adequate at one corner, but freshman William Buchanon should see plenty of passes thrown his way, as he hasn’t proven his coverage skills. The Bears have used trick plays with great success this season, something that could work against the attacking USC defense. One possible snag is the hamstring injuries to starting wideouts Geoff McArthur and Jonathon Makonnen. If neither is 100 percent, the Bears could stumble. 

When USC has the ball 

The ground game 

For a team with so much speed and talent, USC is remarkably bad at running the ball. The Trojans barely average 100 yards per game and run for less than three yards per carry. Tailback Sultan McCullough is explosive and has sprinter’s speed but has never been a consistent threat, while backup Malaefou MacKenzie is more of a threat as a pass-catcher. Unless the Bears leave gaping holes in the line, don’t look for the Trojans to do much damage on the ground. 

In the trenches 

USC has a fairly pedestrian offensive line, with the headliners being true freshman Winston Justice. Meanwhile, the Bears are on a roll after racking up five sacks against Washington last week and will look to tee off on USC quarterback Carson Palmer. End Tully Banta-Cain should be able to speed rush around massive left tackle Jacob Rogers, and the Bears have been improving their push in the middle 

Taking to the air 

Palmer has never been at his best when under pressure, so if Cal can get a pass rush going he can be rattled into mistakes. While wideout Kareem Kelly gets most of the headlines, Palmer spreads the ball out to his back and tight ends very well. Freshman Mike Williams, a 6-foot-5 specimen, has breakout potential but has had butterfingers so far this year. Big receivers have given Cal trouble this season, so Palmer should look for Williams early and often. 

A month into the school year, opinion is sharply divided on Berkeley High School’s controversial move from a seven- to a six-period day, and a looming teacher’s union vote threatens the very existence of the new schedule. 

Supporters of the six-period day, in place since September, say the new schedule has saved the financially-troubled district money, increased class time for students and substantially reduced gaps in pupils’ schedules, which cuts down on the number of students roaming the hallways and streets of downtown Berkeley. 

“I see a calmer campus than I did last year,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence, who pushed the Board of Education to approve the six-period day in February. 

But critics say the increased class time has taxed overworked teachers. They also argue that the move to six periods, which eliminated hall duty for instructors, has actually increased the number of students wandering school buildings. 

“The hallways are certainly not as clear as they were,” said science teacher Aaron Glimme. 

But Lawrence said the move to take teachers off hall duty and boost their time in the classroom ultimately serves students. 

“I would much rather pay these well-trained people to impart their knowledge [than to monitor the hall],” she said. 

This summer, six months after the board approved the shift to a six-period day, an independent arbitrator ruled that the district could not unilaterally implement the change without consulting the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, or BFT. 

In six grueling sessions that concluded Oct. 7, the district and the union came to an agreement that included BFT acceptance of the six-period day. 

But if rank-and-file members of the union do not approve the deal during a two-week voting period from Oct. 14 to Oct. 25, the high school will have to return to the traditional seven-period day in the spring semester. 

District officials warn that the move to a seven-period day would be costly and present significant scheduling difficulties. 

In an informal poll this week, Berkeley High teachers approved of the deal by a narrow 62-46 margin.  

BFT President Barry Fike said some of the opposition is rooted in general concern about the six-period day. Other teachers, he said, simply have problems with the labor agreement, arguing that the union did not win enough in exchange for its support of the six-period day. 

Last year, as the board weighed the shift from a seven- to a six-period day, several community critics said they were concerned that the move would significantly reduce the number of electives available to students. 

But, according to district numbers, the shift has had a minimal effect.  

“We have more electives this year than we did last year,” said Berkeley High co-principal Laura Leventer. 

According to the district, Berkeley High has increased the number of classes available in six areas – creative arts, ceramics, beginning photography, acting, computer art and computer programming. 

Leventer said the high school has eliminated two courses altogether, a chorus offering and a multimedia course, and cut one class in five separate areas: production and acting, African-American journalism, beginning Swahili, word processing and jazz band. 

The co-principal said the high school made the reductions based upon students’ class choices, cutting when there was not enough demand to justify a class. 

But Robert McKnight, chair of the African-American Studies department, disputes district numbers. He said that, in addition to the African-American journalism and Swahili cuts, his program lost classes in three other areas – black psychology, black male-female relations and black economics. 

McKnight said the impact on students has been significant. 

“I think anytime you narrow down the classes that are available to a student, you have an impact,” McKnight said. 

Critics also raised serious concerns, last year, that the move to a six-period day would harm the high school’s successful double-period science program. 

Students attend science labs less frequently this year, but Glimme, the science teacher, said the change has been manageable. 

“I think things are going OK. It’s clearly not as good as it was last year,” he said. “But it’s a system that’s workable.” 

Students interviewed Friday did not have any major complaints about the switch to a six-period day. But tenth-grader Maya Cohn-Stone said the longer classes are not as effective as they could be because student concentration begins to wander after 20 or 30 minutes. 

Lawrence said most high schools in the state have a six-period day and urged the community to be patient during the transition and ride out the kinks. 

“I just encourage everyone to give this time and it will be getting better next year,” she said. 

But Board of Education candidate Derick Miller, who has been a vocal critic of the six-period day since last year, argued that just because the system works elsewhere, Berkeley should not necessarily adopt it. 

“We have a different community here, a different set of values,” he said. 

In the next two weeks, Berkeley teachers will decide whether they agree with the critics or supporters, and their vote will determine the ultimate fate of the new schedule. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — A man filling up his car at a Virginia gas station was shot to death Friday in what may have been the most brazen attack yet by the Washington-area sniper, committed as a state trooper investigated an accident just across the street. 

The trooper heard the shot and saw the victim fall. The gunman vanished into the gray drizzle. 

“Obviously we’re dealing with an individual who is extremely violent and doesn’t care,” Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Maj. Howard Smith said. 

Authorities did not immediately confirm the shooting was the eighth slaying committed by the sniper over the past 10 days. But like the other attacks, witnesses described a single shot, fired apparently at random at someone going about his everyday activities. And three earlier attacks occurred at gas stations. 

“The shooting certainly looks similar,” said Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Charles Moose, who sent investigators to the scene. 

Added Smith: “Any time we get a shooting right now we’re going to treat it as if it is connected to this case until it’s proven differently.” 

The Washington Post, in a story on its Web site Friday night, reported unidentified law enforcement sources said ballistic evidence linked Friday’s shooting to the sniper. 

The Spotsylvania County sheriff’s office, when asked about the newspaper report, said analysis of the ballistic evidence would be announced Saturday. A spokeswoman for Gov. Mark R. Warner said more bullet fragments were recovered here than from the other attacks. 

Citing witness reports of a white van carrying two people, authorities immediately blocked traffic on nearby highways and checked vehicles. The roadblocks turned stretches of Interstate 95 into a virtual parking lot, backing up traffic for miles on the eve of the Columbus Day holiday weekend. 

The roadblocks were lifted, but Smith said officers continued to pull over white vans into the night. A similar lead cropped up last week after the first rash of slayings. 

Col. W. Gerald Massengill, superintendent of Virginia State Police, cautioned the public not to focus only on white vans. 

“We don’t want preconceived notions out there, but certainly you have to play the hand that you’re dealt and the information that has come to us is white vans,” Massengill said. 

Bruce Bingham, who works at a gas station across from the Exxon station where the shooting happened, said he heard a single shot and saw an unmarked white van driving away from an intersection. Bingham said the light turned green right after the shot and he speculated that someone in the van might have timed the shooting to coincide with the light. 

The FBI identified the victim as Kenneth H. Bridges, 53, a father of six who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was co-founder of a marketing distribution company.

Lion at S.F. zoo dies 

SAN FRANCISCO — The oldest lion at the San Francisco Zoo has been put to sleep. 

Sandy, a 23-year-old female African lion, was euthanized on Tuesday because she had an acute mass in her left rear leg that was inoperable. Sandy was also being treated for arthritis, and the zoo says her quality of life was deteriorating. 

After Sandy’s death, veterinarians found that the diseased mass in her leg had weakened the bone so much that she had a fracture in her ankle bone. They also found a large mass in her liver. 

Sandy was the last in a long line of zoo lions dating to 1939. African lions typically live 10 to 15 years in the wild and up to 24 years in captivity. 

The zoo has three other lions and is working to breed them to start a new pride. 

High school melee  

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police have arrested a teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School for allegedly inciting a riot, resisting arrest and battery on a police officer. 

Anthony Peebles, 29, was arrested along with some students at the school in the riot that broke out Friday morning. Conflicting reports from police said either two or three students were also arrested. 

Police believe a fight broke out between a group of about 30 black and Asian students, though they did not know the exact cause. The fight spilled out of the school, with about 400 students following the conflict onto the street. 

Police in riot gear responded and students were sent home. 

There were no injuries. 

Police spokesman Jim Deignan said officers stepped up patrols in the area and were keeping a watch out for more trouble. 

Bridge belly up 

SAN FRANCISCO – The financially strained Golden Gate Bridge District has got its hand out to bicyclists and pedestrians. 

Beginning next spring, cyclists and pedestrians wanting to cross the landmark bridge will be able to make voluntary contributions. 

The donations are part of a plan, approved Friday by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District Board of Directors, that aims to lessen the impact of the district’s projected $296 million budget deficit in the next five years, said spokeswoman Mary Currie. 

The voluntary donations have been approved for a one-year trial basis, Currie said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials, union leaders and the city of San Francisco hope to match hundreds of soon-to-be displaced airport screeners with jobs elsewhere in the security industry. 

Officials with San Francisco International Airport and the federal Transportation Security Administration said at a news conference Friday that the program could set an example for other airports staffed with large numbers of workers who are not U.S. citizens. 

“We all know how dedicated and hard-working (screeners) are,” said Edward Gomez, federal security director at SFO. “They are talent waiting to be tapped.” 

Under the federal Transportation Security Act of 2001, all passenger screeners at the nation’s airports must have U.S. citizenship, pass a series of skills tests and have been trained by the TSA by Nov. 19. All baggage screeners must meet the same criteria by year’s end. 

Of the nearly 1,500 passenger and baggage screeners at SFO, up to half lack citizenship and will be displaced, Gomez said. Those who already are U.S. citizens must pass the same tests as new applicants to qualify for re-hiring. 

To help workers through the transition, Local 790 of the Service Employees International Union is holding job training classes. Airport officials and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown have set up job fairs to help connect outgoing screeners with security firms including Allied and Guardsmark. 

And airport officials are tracking a group of about 70 screeners who are on the cusp of citizenship to make sure they apply for jobs. 

Regardless, times are stressful for screeners, especially those who hail from overseas, said Erlinda Valencia, a screener and shop steward for Local 790 of the SEIU. 

San Francisco is one of five airports nationwide — including Kansas City International, Greater Rochester (N.Y.) International Airport, Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Airport and Tupelo (Miss.) Airport — participating in a two-year federal pilot program allowing hiring of private firms to provide passenger and baggage screening. 

The remaining 424 commercial airports will continue to be staffed by federalized screeners trained and deployed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. 

SFO has contracted with Illinois-based Covenant Aviation Security to handle screening duties. Under the arrangement, Covenant has guaranteed all qualified screeners a job, even if that means overstaffing the airport, said Michael T. Irwin, deputy federal security director at SFO. 

But Valencia, who has held her job at the airport for more than 15 years, said she’s waiting to see how the new company runs things before she decides whether to trust the promises. 

“I know nothing about how this company treats employees, so it remains to be seen,” she said at the airport Friday, adding that regardless she was glad to hear of Covenant’s efforts to retain as many former screeners as possible. 

Irwin said Covenant, which won a $71 million one-year contract to run security at both SFO and Tupelo, impressed SFO officials with its commitment to security and its plans to have Seattle-based department store chain Nordstrom pass along its customer service skills to its employees.

The reopening of West Coast ports brought little relief to the Ross Glove Co., which has 70,000 pairs of leather gloves stitched in the Philippines still stuck on a ship in the Long Beach, Calif., harbor. 

Andy Ross, owner of the Sheboygan, Wis.-based company, doubts he can get his gloves — by rail and then by truck — into the hands of retailers such as L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer in time for the Christmas shopping season. 

“People think it’s all over, but it’s not,” Ross said. “It’s not just about getting the containers off the boats. Now it’s the infrastructure of America that’s going to be congested.” 

Whether the nation’s transportation network becomes as gummed up as Ross fears remains to be seen. But as ports from Los Angeles to Seattle crawled back to life this week after a 10-day lockout, rail and trucking officials said logistical challenges would stymie the eastward flow of goods for days to come. Experts said it would take anywhere from one to two months to empty — and reload — the ships. 

“We’ll be able to squeeze more through the system than normal, but it’s still going to take us a while” to work through the backlog, said Paul Bergant, president of the intermodal division at J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. Intermodal transportation refers to the movement of freight by both truck and train. 

Dockworkers were under scrutiny Friday for delays in unloading ships, raising concerns that the labor unrest remained strong. As a mountain of cargo was hauled ashore, misplaced freight and equipment-related delays added to the confusion. 

Dockworkers, whose contract negotiations had been stalled, were locked out on Sept. 29 after the Pacific Maritime Association accused them of a deliberate work slowdown. The shutdown cost the U.S. economy more than $1 billion a day by most estimates. The ports were reopened, at least temporarily, by order of a federal judge Wednesday night. 

Rail companies say the biggest hurdle will be avoiding snags when sorting containers at the ports. They’re also concerned about maintaining a smooth flow of eastbound traffic so that empty trains can be brought back to the West Coast efficiently. 

Trucking companies said they were largely at the mercy of dockworkers, too. Industry officials said the waterfront congestion could be alleviated more quickly if the government were willing to temporarily loosen up on regulations that restrict the number of hours drivers can work. 

But the going has been slow so far. 

Truckers said their job was taking twice as long as usual. And the nation’s largest rail company, Union Pacific, said it was carrying 40 percent less freight than normal. 

Port officials said the goal is to get containers with military equipment and perishable goods onto trains and trucks first. 

But that may be easier said than done: Containers packed with materiel belonging to the Department of Defense are mixed in with non-military cargo on commercial liners. 

“If it’s down in the middle of the ship, it ain’t coming out so easily,” said Bill Wanamaker, director of intermodal operations at the American Trucking Associations, a Washington-based industry group.

SACRAMENTO — Household International Inc., one of the nation’s largest lenders, will pay $484 million to settle illegal lending allegations by state attorneys general and state financial regulators, California officials said Thursday evening. 

The settlement includes $90 million to California. An announcement by state officials from “close to two dozen” states is planned for 9 a.m. Friday in Chicago, though more states were considering joining the settlement Thursday, officials said. 

Prospect Heights, Ill.-based Household International is the parent company of the Household and Beneficial finance companies. Household spokeswoman Megan Hayden had no immediate comment Thursday evening. 

The settlement is larger than the $215 million Citigroup Inc. agreed earlier this year to refund in order to settle federal charges of deceptive lending. That settlement was the largest in the history of the Federal Trade Commission.

Fast food lovers tired of the same old grub may soon have a few more options downtown. 

A central Berkeley merchants group asked the city’s Planning Commission Tuesday to recommend lifting a three-year-old moratorium on new fast food restaurants on University Avenue between Oxford Street and Martin Luther King Junior Way. And some city officials agree. 

“It doesn’t seem like fast food proliferation is a problem anymore,” said Ted Burton of the city’s office of economic development. 

City Council adopted the fast food moratorium in 1999 amid concerns of local restaurant owners that fast food and take-out restaurants were increasing in number and threatening to drive out their businesses.  

There are about three fast food restaurants, according to city officials, on the disputed section of University Avenue, including national chains and independent shops.  

Burton says the local business climate has changed markedly since 1999. He noted that the city has no pending applications for fast food restaurants downtown and that the Burger King on Shattuck and University avenues recently closed. 

Planning commissioners, however, said they want more information about the moratorium before making a recommendation to City Council to life the restriction. They decided to schedule a public hearing on the matter, at an undetermined date. 

Several commissioners expressed concern that lifting the moratorium would result in an influx of chain restaurants in the downtown. 

“The balance of business is one of the wonderful things about this city,” said Commissioner Zelda Bronstein, noting that Berkeley’s General Plan calls for Berkeley to limit the development of chain stores. 

Burton, however, said the city was prohibited from discriminating against any applicant and that he could not promise that chain restaurants would be excluded if the moratorium ended. 

Although the Downtown Business Association, run by local merchants, supports lifting the moratorium, several University Avenue restaurant owners said they could not afford more competition. 

“A lot of restaurants are going out business because there are too many,” said Manuche Fany, operator of Round Table Pizza. “The moratorium supports restaurant owners and helps us keep stores open and paying taxes to the city.” 

Mehdi Kashef of Au Coquelet Cafe said that without a moratorium the city would fail to bring in different types of retailers. “It’s not in the public’s interest to have 10 shops serving the same thing on different plates,” he said. 

The merchants have allies in City Council, which voted unanimously for the moratorium in 1999. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who represents downtown Berkeley, said that lifting the moratorium would unfairly blight University Avenue, while other major thoroughfares maintained strict limits  

“Why should University Avenue become the dumping ground for fast food,” she asked, noting that College and Solano Avenues have quotas on the number of allowable fast food restaurants, and San Pablo Avenue has an outright ban. 

Burton insisted that lifting the moratorium would not signify a city endorsement of fast food restaurants, but would only return fair market conditions to a thriving section of town.  

“The quality of restaurants in the downtown has substantially improved,” Burton said.

To the Editor: 

On Oct. 4 an article in the Daily Planet reported that Lakireddy Reddy’s attorney, Ted Cassman, is petitioning the court to lighten his sentence by nearly two years on the grounds that an interpreter allegedly encouraged four of six of Reddy’s sex slaves to embellish their testimony against him. Shockingly, the attorney for the prosecution, Steve Corrigan, has agreed to Cassman’s request.  

Judge Claudia Wilken is expected to rule any day on Cassman’s proposal. There is reason to believe that without a speedy protest by many individuals, Judge Wilken will accede to the lighter sentence. Many of you may recall that Judge Armstrong, who presided over the Reddy cases until November 2001, argued forcefully that, as a result of the probation officer’s report, she believed that Reddy deserved a longer sentence than the six years agreed to by Reddy’s attorneys and the prosecuting attorney. 

Women Against Sexual Slavery and many others shared our outrage and denunciation of the very light eight-year sentence that Reddy received in June 2001. After a scandalous plea bargaining process, the charge that Reddy had been guilty of raping his underage sex slaves was dropped. He had also raped numerous other young sex slaves over a period of 15 years.  

Even more significantly, Reddy might well have been guilty of murdering 17-year-old Chanti Pratipatti by the delay he caused in her admittance to hospital. In addition, Reddy became rich by illegally importing numerous Indian workers to labor in his Pasand Restaurant and other businesses for next to nothing. Nevertheless, the plea bargain agreed to drop any charges against Reddy for Chanti’s death.  

On behalf of Women Against Sexual Slavery, we urge you to write to Judge Claudia Wilken as soon as possible to exhort her to deny Cassman’s request to lighten Reddy’s sentence. Write to her at the following address: Federal Building & U.S. Court House, 1301 Clay Street, Suite 400 South Oakland, CA 94612-5212, or call 637-3559.  

No fax number or e-mail address for Judge Wilken is available to the public. If you decide to hand deliver your letter, be sure to remember to take picture ID with you in order to gain entrance to the court house (situated between 12th and 14th Streets). The security personnel will inform you where to deliver your letters. 

We know that in the past, Judge Armstrong read and counted the letters sent to her about the Reddy case because she referred to them in court. They also become part of the official record of the case. Please take the time to try to keep Reddy in prison for the pitifully light eight-year sentence that he obtained. 

Women Against Sexual  

Slavery

It is said that our natural gravitation toward music comes from the first sounds we ever hear – the rhythmic beating of our mother’s heart. If this is true, world-renowned percussion master John Santos must have heard his mother’s heart beating loud and clear. Tonight, the founder and director of the critically acclaimed Machete Ensemble will take his band to the stage of La Pena Cultural Center. In collaboration with four Bay Area poets, the 10-piece group will perform a truly unique combination of Afro-Cuban music and spoken word. 

“We are simply part of the movement to bring more recognition to the growing Latin jazz scene in San Francisco,” said Santos. And in many ways, the group has already achieved this, frequently being hailed as one of the few groups outside of Cuba to perform this type of music with such creativity and expertise. 

The message of tonight’s show parallels the title of the band’s new CD “SF Bay:” celebrating art by local San Francisco performers. Sparked by a similar program La Pena Cultural Center put on last year combining the works of musicians and poets, Santos conceived of the idea to collaborate again with four local spoken word talents more than six months ago. The performers have since created a show with political, educational and emotionally expressive undertones. The diverse troupe of poets that joins the band tonight includes Piri Thomas, Genny Lim, Bamuthi Joseph and Paul Flores. 

The show not only marks the Machete Ensemble’s 17th anniversary as a group, but as being annual performers at the cultural center as well.  

“People love [John Santo’s] group. Because [Santos] is from the Bay Area, people know him as a homegrown artist. He has had a solid public following locally, as well as nationally, since his teenage years,” said Sylvia Sherman, development director of La Pena Cultural Center. 

Santos, the leading man of the collaborative show, demonstrates his expertise in Afro-Cuban music as an ethnomusicologist, historian, musician, teacher, and lecturer on stage and on the new CD. 

“All our recordings are original, allowing the group complete freedom of musical expression,” said Santos. “Since we are all from different backgrounds, our music is a conglomeration of jazz, folk, Afro-Caribbean styles of music.” 

Santos and the Machete Ensemble came together almost two decades ago, when Santos wanted to form a group to perform Afro-Cuban Latin jazz music. Among those he chose are musical greats, such as John Calloway and Wayne Wallace. Together, they have taken Afro-Cuban music, which once existed only in Cuba and Puerto Rico and transformed it into their own explosive, contagious sound, which resonates with an intricate montage of drum sequences, instrumental riffs and genius improvisations.  

Santos was raised in a family of musicians. His grandfather would often play music of his homeland Cape Verde with his friends. He recruited Santos to play the Congas professionally in his group when the young boy was 13 years old. This later led him to experiment and play in many other groups and eventually form a couple of his own. Santos graces performance stages all around the world, from the birthplace of Latin music, Cuba and all across the United States. 

“All of the musicians are teachers,” said the percussionist extraordinaire. In hope of educating the public about the “real roots” of Latin jazz music, Santos and the Machete Ensemble take their knowledge to the road, educating students around the U.S., from the elementary to the university level. “It is little known that that Afro-Caribbean music has significantly influenced the jazz music, America’s national art form,” exclaimed Santos. 

Since it’s inception, the influence and artistry of Machete has risen to great heights. It is a much applauded and frequently the most highly anticipated act in numerous jazz festivals, including the San Francisco Jazz Festival and Mellon Jazz Festival in Philadelphia. 

Fore more information, 

visit www.JohnSantos.com.

Friday, Oct. 11 

Celebration of completion of the “Channing and Popai Liem Archival Collection” 

6 p.m. Reception 

7 p.m. Program begins 

Morrison Room,  

Bancroft Library  

UC Berkeley 

UC Berkeley’s first Korean American archive has been completed. 

“Still Stronger Women” 

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

232-1351 

“Iraq and the Looming War” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Professor Bruce E. Cain, PhD, department of political science at UC Berkeley will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series 

8:15 p.m. 

3192 Adeline - TUVA Space 

German saxophonist Frank Gratkowski with local percussionist Marco Eneidi. 

649-8744 

$0 to $20 - sliding scale. 

Indigenous Peoples Day 

7:30 a.m. 

Shellmound run to the Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow - 1st Annual Run 

615-0603 

Free 

Autumnal Equinox Picnic 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

“Big Leaf” field in Tilden Park 

East Bay Atheists host this day of fun, food, and games. 

652-8350 

$5 donation 

“Challenging the Legacy of Columbus”: Indigenous People’s Day Brunch 

10 a.m. 

Ecology Center 

2350 San Pablo Ave. 

William Trujillo, campaign coordinator for the most powerful national campesino federation in Ecuador, will speak. 

548-2220 x233 

Sliding scale: $0-$50 

“Toward Realizing Our Dream: Overcoming the Obstacles to Korea’s Peaceful Reunification” 

1 p.m. 

Morrison Room, Bancroft Library  

UC Berkeley 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee speaks,  

followed by guest speakers and a reception. 

See Elephants Fly 

Noon to 5 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science,  

Centennial Drive above the UC Berkeley campus. 

A day of special activities and events about the Asian elephant and the Asian cultures where these remarkable beasts live. 

643-5961  

babcock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

$8 adults. $6 youth 5-18. $4 for 3-4. 

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 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet  

1 p.m. 

Hs Lordship’s Restaurant,  

199 Seawall Dr., Berkeley Marina 

531-1729 

$40 reservations required. 

Celebrate the Lives of Photographers Galen Avery Rowell and Barbara Cushman Rowell 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way 

Speakers include Conrad Anker, Kathryn Fuller, Bob Hansen and more, with special messages from Tom Brokaw and novelist Barry Lopez 

644-8957 

Berkeley Historical Society Slide Lecture 

3 to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Center  

1931 Center St. 

Daniel Alef, author of “Pale Truth”, will give a slide lecture entitled “Historical Fiction: Telling California’s Story Through a Novel”. 

848-0181 

Free / Donations welcome 

Ursula Sherman Community Day 

10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Music, theater, dance, art, stories, cooking, and Yiddish games. 

848-0237 

Bring a donation of towels, warm blankets or travel-sized toiletries. 

October Swimfest 

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

Willard Pool, 2701 Telegraph Ave. 

Come out to swim, laugh, float and make a splash, while showing support for keeping Willard Pool open year-round. 

981-5150 

$4.20 general / $1.50 seniors and children 

Tuesday, Oct. 15 

Fall Fruit Tasting 

Berkeley Farmers' Market 

2 to 7 p.m. 

Derby Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Free 

Berkeley Camera Club Meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your prints and slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 

525-3565  

www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Wednesday, Oct. 16  

Hormone Replacement Seminar 

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

204-4422 

Reservations required. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Home Remodeling Class 

6 to 8 p.m. 

Berkeley South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Organized by the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 

567-8280 

Free 

Friday, Oct. 11 

Takacs Quartet 

Pre-concert talk 7 p.m. / Concert 8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 

One of the world’s premier string quartets will perform Mozart and Schumann with Russian pianist Maxim Philippov. 

642-9988 

$24-$48 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

Rilo Kiley (saddle creek) and Arlo (subpop) 

5:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over 

Kira Allen 

6:30 p.m. Open mic sign-up 

7:00 p.m. Reading 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Presented by Rhythm & Muse 

527-9753 

Free / donations accepted 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

Jenna Mammina and Andre Bush 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Jazz standards, obscure cover tunes and original compositions. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

“Please Pay Attention” 

Tuesday, Oct. 8 through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

See Elephants Fly at the Lawrence Hall of Science  

Saturday, Oct. 12 

1 Centennial Dr.  

Activities and events about the Asian elephant and Asian cultures. 

643-5961 

$8 adults, $6 youth 5-18 & seniors, $4 children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free. 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work 

Though Oct. 13 

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way 

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.  

642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

$7. $5 BAM/PFA members.  

$4 UC Berkeley students. 

Misch Kohn - Celebrating  

60 Years of Printmaking 

Through Oct. 16. Tues.-Fri., Noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon to 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Arts Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

549-2977, kala@kala.org 

Nancy Salz 

Through Oct. 23, Tues.-Fri.,  

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Barbara Anderson Gallery, 2243 Fifth St. 

848-3822 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Reception Sept. 20, 6 to 8 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Oct. 6 through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 

Through Oct. 12 

Thurs. through Sat. 8 p.m. 

LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre  

1834 Euclid Ave. 

234-6046 

$10. 

The House of Blue Leaves 

Through Oct. 20 

Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater  

2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or 888-4BRTTIX 

$10-$54. 

The Shape of Things 

Through Oct. 20 

Aurora Theatre Company  

2081 Addison St. 

Play by writer/director Neil LaBute's spins a morality tale of a young art student, his art major girlfriend, and the Pygmalion-like changes that bring into question how far one should go for love. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26-$35. 

Escape From Happiness 

Through October 20 

Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus 

UC Berkeley’s department of theater, dance, and performance studies presents this dark comedy exploring the interactions of a highly dysfunctional urban working-class family. 

www.ticketweb.com or (866) 468-3399 

http://theater.berkeley.edu 

$8-$14 

Friday, Oct. 11 

Beth Glick-Rieman 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadacia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave.  

at Colusa Circle 

Glick-Rieman shares her findings on the status of women around the world, reading from her book, “Peace Train to Beijing and Beyond”. 

559-9184 

Free. 

The St. Mary’s High girls volleyball team, down two games to none against Salesian High on Thursday, pulled off a tremendous comeback that might just have saved their season. 

With their dramatic 10-15, 13-15, 15-12, 18-16, 15-13 win over the Chieftans, the Panthers evened their Bay Shore Athletic League record to 3-3, matching Salesian’s record and staying in the playoff picture. 

The Panthers certainly kept things interesting, throwing away big leads in both the fourth and fifth games before claiming wins. 

St. Mary’s went up 14-10 in the fourth game, and it looked like they would get a fairly easy win. But after fending off game point five times, Salesian came back to tie the score at 15-15. Both teams committed several service errors down the stretch, and only a Brittney Murrey block saved the Panthers from losing both the game and the match. But an ace by Martha Ryan and a Jazmin Pratt kill provided the winning points for St. Mary’s, and the match headed to a final, rally-scoring game. 

With the score knotted at 10-10, the Panthers took control and went up 13-10. But Nicole Senegal brought the Chieftans back with two kills to tie the score again, and the Panthers needed some heroics.  

They came from an unlikely source: middle blocker Natalie Bogan, who had committed 12 errors in the game and been outplayed by Salesian middle blocker Chandra Johnson. Bogan slammed down a kill to reach game point, then blocked Johnson’s spike for the winner. 

Bogan’s main emotion after the game was weariness. 

“I mostly just wanted to go home,” she said. “But this was for the playoffs, and I knew we needed to win. I just made the plays at the end.” 

The first two games were all Salesian. An eight-point run in the first game propelled them to an easy 15-10 win, and they overcame a 13-11 deficit to take the second game and put the Panthers on the ropes. Salesian is the BSAL’s best serving team, and for a while it seemed as if St. Mary’s would never get the ball in attacking position. 

“The first game was just a warmup, and we fell asleep in the second game,” St. Mary’s head coach Cherise Revell said. “But we woke up in plenty of time to win.” 

Co-captains Pratt and Ryan led the Panthers back, combining for 25 kills in the match. The explosive Pratt also had a game-high 16 digs, mostly on spikes from Senegal and Johnson. 

the stretch, and only a Brittney Murrey block saved the Panthers from losing both the game and the match. But an ace by Martha Ryan and a Jazmin Pratt kill provided the winning points for St. Mary’s, and the match headed to a final, rally-scoring game. 

With the score knotted at 10-10, the Panthers took control and went up 13-10. But Nicole Senegal brought the Chieftans back with two kills to tie the score again, and the Panthers needed some heroics.  

They came from an unlikely source: middle blocker Natalie Bogan, who had committed 12 errors in the match and been outplayed by Salesian middle blocker Chandra Johnson. Bogan slammed down a kill to reach game point, then blocked Johnson’s spike for the winner. 

Bogan’s main emotion after the game was weariness. 

“I mostly just wanted to go home,” she said. “But this was for the playoffs, and I knew we needed to win. I just made the plays at the end.” 

The first two games were all Salesian. An eight-point run in the first game propelled them to an easy 15-10 win, and they overcame a 13-11 deficit to take the second game and put the Panthers on the ropes. Salesian is the BSAL’s best serving team, and for a while it seemed as if St. Mary’s would never get the ball in attacking position. 

“The first game was just a warmup, and we fell asleep in the second game,” St. Mary’s head coach Cherise Revell said. “But we woke up in plenty of time to win.” 

Co-captains Pratt and Ryan led the Panthers back, combining for 25 kills in the match. The explosive Pratt also had a game-high 16 digs, mostly on spikes from Senegal and Johnson.

The Berkeley Unified School District and Berkeley Federation of Teachers have reached a tentative agreement solidifying the controversial six-period day at Berkeley High School. 

But if the rank-and-file membership of the teacher’s union rejects the agreement in the coming weeks, the high school, which moved to the six-period schedule in September, will have to revert to the traditional seven-period day in the spring. The switch, said district officials, would create significant scheduling and staffing problems. 

“It would be quite difficult,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. 

In a straw poll Thursday, Berkeley High teachers approved of the district-union agreement by a narrow majority, with 62 in favor, 46 opposed and one abstention. 

The vote is not official. But the union’s executive committee was set to weigh the results Thursday evening, after the Daily Planet’s deadline, and decide whether to recommend approval or rejection of the agreement to the districtwide membership. 

Teachers at all schools, including Berkeley High instructors, will formally vote on the deal over a two-week period, from Oct. 14 to Oct. 25. 

Berkeley High teachers opposed to the six-period day have raised a number of concerns. 

They have complained about an increase in the length of class time from 45 to 55 minutes per period, a reduction in electives for students and the elimination of hall duty for teachers. Hall duty, they argue, increases student safety and provides instructors with time to catch up on their work. 

Supporters embrace the extra class time with students and say the shift from a seven- to a six-period day has eliminated gaps in student schedules – reducing the number of students wandering the campus and improving safety. 

The Board of Education approved the switch from a seven- to a six-period day in February, arguing that the move would save money for the cash-strapped district, which faces a $3.9 million budget shortfall, and eliminate gaps in students’ schedules. 

But the union argued that the district could not unilaterally approve the switch to a six-period day without going into contract negotiations. In August, an arbitrator sided with the union and required the district to go to the bargaining table. 

In a set of six difficult negotiation sessions that concluded Monday, the union agreed to the six-period day in exchange for a number of concessions. 

Under the terms of the agreement, the length of most classes would decline from 55 to 54 minutes, while the “passing time” between periods will increase from six to seven minutes. 

Other parts of the deal call for three shortened school days over the course of the year, with teacher-led staff development in the afternoon, and a $1,000 bonus for any teachers who inform the district by Feb. 7 that they intend to retire at the end of the year. 

Fike said the union was unable to get all the concessions it sought. BFT, for instance, could not win greater protections for teachers seeking short-term leave. 

But, he said compromise is part of the negotiations process and added that he is generally pleased with the deal. 

“Overall, if you add up the different pieces of the package, we feel positive,” he said. 

But Fike acknowledged that many teachers have raised concerns about the agreement and the six-period day in general, and said he simply doesn’t know whether the rank-and-file membership will approve the deal in the end. 

Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

I would like to reply to the criticism of my letter to editor from Gerry Argue, Regional Director of Starbucks Coffee Co., that appeared in the Daily Planet on Oct. 9. 

Mr. Argue’s letter is factually correct, but I feel, very misleading. Mr. Argue re-stated Starbucks official company position on P.C. coffee. He concluded with: “As part of Starbucks commitment to origin countries, Starbucks purchases of organic, shade-grown and Fair Trade certified coffees all contribute to the greater social, economic, and environmental sustainability of coffee production.” 

Yes, Starbucks does buy organic, shade-grown, and Fair Trade coffee but Mr. Argue failed to mention that those purchases are just a tiny percentage of the total. Most of the coffee beans purchased and sold by Starbucks are not organic, shade-grown or Fair Trade. 

Whenever Starbucks states it’s company position on this issue, it always fails to mention this fact, and it always leaves the reader with the impression that most or all of their coffee is organic, shade-grown and Fair Trade which it is not. I am not anti-Starbucks (although there are plenty of people in Berkeley who are.) 

There are good things to be said about Starbucks. For example, the most common criticism of fast-food chains is that they drive local independent restaurants out of business with low prices. McDonald’s and Burger King are both selling hamburgers right now for 99 cents. Few, if any, independent restaurants can compete with that price. However; this criticism cannot be made of Starbucks. Starbucks usually charges more for a cup of coffee than local independent coffee shops. If a small coffee shop loses it’s business to Starbucks, it’s never because Starbucks lured away it’s customers with low prices. That is a point in Starbucks favor, and I think a big one too. 

Starbucks would be doing itself a big favor by being more candid about this issue. People don’t like the feeling that they are being played for suckers. 

Mark Tarses 

Berkeley

NEW YORK — Frank Gorshin may best be known as The Riddler of the 1960s “Batman” television series, dishing out short, corny verbal puzzles aimed at stumping his superhero nemesis. 

In his current role, he is still playing a crafty fellow whose bread-and-butter is one-liners. But Gorshin has traded in TV for Broadway, and his comic book villain for the persona of George Burns. 

Gorshin’s one-man show, “Say Goodnight Gracie,” which opened Thursday at The Helen Hayes Theater, is a mixed bag. A must-see for fans of Burns, it’s likely to hold only marginal appeal for other theatergoers. 

Still, there’s no faulting Gorshin for what is an astonishingly believable portrayal of the gravelly voiced entertainer, who died at age 100 after a legendary career. 

With his neatly combed gray hair, big round eyeglasses, orange turtleneck and sport coat, Gorshin, as Burns, first appears on stage as mist floats in. He says it reminds him of a gray place where nothing seems to be happening — it’s either a state of limbo, or maybe it’s Buffalo. 

That’s the first of many wisecracks that keep the audience either laughing or groaning for most of the 90 minutes. Humorous or not, the lines are delivered perfectly by Gorshin with the slow self-assurance that was Burns’ trademark. As the play pushes on, it becomes eerily easy to forget that the cigar-chomping character on stage is not really Burns. 

Beyond the jokes, the play’s narrative offers a fairly straightforward look back at Burns’ life. 

It begins in New York City’s Lower East Side, where Burns, aka Nathan Birnbaum, grows up quickly after the early death of his father. There’s the discovery of his fondness for show business. His first cigar. His first lunch date with Gracie Allen, who would become Burns’ partner and great love. His close friendship with Jack Benny. 

Burns, who died in 1996, often joked about his advancing age and once said he had “reached the point where I get a standing ovation for just standing.” He would likely have another quip for “Say Goodnight Gracie”.

Go ahead, call her “Wrong Way” Gabriela Rios-Sotelo. You can also call her a winner. 

Rios-Sotelo, a St. Mary’s High sophomore, took two wrong turns on the cross country course at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland but still managed to win the girls varsity race on Thursday. It was the second week in a row that Rios-Sotelo took a detour in a Bay Shore Athletic League race, and she’s won both races. 

“I just get in race mode, and I block everything out,” Rios-Sotelo said. “I know the course, and I’m used to that route. I just wasn’t thinking.” 

Rios-Sotelo’s first wrong turn wasn’t completely her fault, as the race monitor at the main junction neglected to point her in the right direction until a group of Piedmont runners had taken the correct route.  

That slipup put Rios-Sotelo, usually the front-runner, into the middle of the pack. She made her way out front again in preparation for the last mile of the race, but again fell back when she forgot to turn off of the main drag on the third lap, making it all the way to the finish line before  

realizing her mistake and doubling back.  

With much of the remaining distance a single-lane trail, the St. Mary’s coaches feared their star would get stuck behind slower traffic, but she broke into the clear for the home stretch and won by a wide margin. 

St. Mary’s head coach Denis Mohun said Rios-Sotelo’s frustration over her gaffes may have helped her win the race. 

“If anything, I think it gave Gabby more fuel,” Mohun said. “She got upset and took it out on the course.” 

Piedmont has one of the strongest girls teams in the state, and its depth overcame Rios-Sotelo’s individual excellence. The next three finishers were all Highlanders, with St. Mary’s Emily Olsen finishing fifth, and Piedmont won the day comfortably. 

The boys’ race was much closer, with the Highlanders winning by a single point, 27-28. Although St. Mary’s appeared to be in control after two miles, with seven of the top 10 runners, Piedmont came back to make it a much more competitive race.  

“We surged on the first hill, but we just died on the second hill,” St. Mary’s Tino Rodriguez said of the race. “I don’t know why we all let down at the same time.” 

The Highlanders’ Sandino Moya-Smith won the race, pulling away from St. Mary’s Scott Howard and Martinez, who finished second and third respectively. Piedmont took the next two places, and when Ricky Griffin edged St. Mary’s freshman Tommy Vasquez for seventh place, it gave the Highlanders the victory. 

“I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but that’s the best I’ve ever seen the Piedmont boys run,” Mohun said. “We competed extremely hard, and this was the first time any of our boys have run this course. They’ll learn how to handle the hills.”

Bay Area activists took to the streets of San Francisco and Oakland Thursday evening to show their opposition to the House of Representatives’ 296-133 vote giving President Bush broad authority to use military force in Iraq. 

Waving banners and chanting, “Congress says war, we say peace,” a march of about 200 people left the Montgomery BART station in San Francisco and marched to the Federal Building, where the crowd had swelled to more than 500.  

Madea Benjamin of Global Exchange, one of the protest organizers, rallied the crowd: “We’ve got to take back our government offices,” she said. “Just because Congress says yes to war doesn’t mean there will be a war in Iraq.” 

Benjamin called on those present to build a strong grassroots anti-war movement and reminded them that they were part of a worldwide protest. “We have the majority of the world’s communities on our side,” she said, going on to thank the 11 out of 13 Bay Area members of Congress who voted against the measure. 

Only Ellen Taucher, D-Contra Costa County, and Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, voted for it. 

“Let’s feel good about the people in California that have said no to war,” Benjamin said, singling out the opposition of Rep. Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland and Berkeley. 

Lee had introduced an alternative resolution, defeated 355-72, that would have committed the United States to the United Nations’ inspections process, but not authorized unilateral force.  

The resolution that passed would allow the president to act without going through the United Nations, although it encourages him to exhaust all diplomatic means first and requires him to report to Congress every 60 days if he does take military action. 

Later Thursday night, the Senate approved a similar resolution 77-23, delivering the Bush administration final victory in its push for war powers. 

Berkeley resident Xochitl Johnson, an organizer with Not in Our Name, one of the sponsoring organizations, was in the crowd. 

“I refuse to allow my government to wage war in Iraq,” she said. “This has nothing to do with Sept. 11.” 

Meanwhile, about 60 people from the People’s Non-violent Response Coalition walked through Oakland’s Chinatown and Jack London Square, passing out leaflets and making their protest visible with their signs. 

“People honked and waved,” said Ying Lee, a Berkeley resident and former aide to Lee.  

Among Berkeley residents there are about 5,000 registered Republicans, while there are about 40,000 Democrats and 5,000 Greens. Dr. Lance Montauk, who is running for the non-partisan school board, is among them.  

While he opposed the Vietnam War, Montauk says the impending war in Iraq is different. 

“It’s a dangerous situation,” he said, noting that a positive outcome of Sept. 11 was that it “awakened us” to the possibility of a nuclear attack from Iraq. 

- The Associated Press 

contributed to this story

To the Editor: 

In response to Doug Fielding’s comment about needing to develop more playing fields, hooray for the Berkeley City Council if they are delaying a commitment in order to resolve these issues. 

The current ball field use is highly mismanaged. Berkeley parks and rec told me they only had five playing fields available for little league games this summer, when in fact their own Web site lists 10 such fields. A number of them were empty all summer while others, such as Ohlone Park field – which has a no-league-play policy – was way overbooked, destroying the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood. 

Berkeley is an over-built city and there is a limit to the number of ballparks this town can hold. If there is money available as Mr. Fielding suggests, why isn’t parks and rec making use of its friendly partnership with the school district and developing better fields on school sites? The space is already there and marked for team sports. Schools such as Malcolm X with a shameful excuse for a ball field would greatly benefit. 

Nobody is minding the store. Today in Ohlone Park, there was organized (league) football in the soccer field and soccer in the softball field. Nobody uses the volleyball court because volleyball players do not play on asphalt. They bring their own nets and set up in grassy areas. What the City Council needs to do is have an audit of the use and misuse of parks in this city. They would be shocked. 

Carolyn Sell 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES — Viacom Inc. will use its vast media holdings, including the Paramount studio, CBS and MTV, in a global anti-AIDS campaign, the company said Wednesday. 

Working with the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, Viacom plans to distribute AIDS and HIV awareness messages through its TV and radio programming, online properties and in public service announcements. 

In the United States, AIDS story lines and references will be included in TV series including “Frasier,” “Star Trek: Enterprise” and “The District.” Syndicated talk shows and cable channels including BET and Nickelodeon will be part of the campaign, Viacom said. 

Ad placements valued at $120 million have been pledged for 2003, the company said. The U.S. campaign begins Jan. 6, with the international effort expected to start in the second quarter of 2003. 

“HIV/AIDS is killing millions of people young and old all over the world, yet it is 100 percent preventable,” said Viacom chairman and chief executive officer Sumner Redstone. 

His company is joining the fight against the “ignorance, apathy, and inaction that allows the epidemic to spread,” Redstone said in a statement Wednesday. 

An estimated 40 million people worldwide, including more than 1 million in the United States, are infected with AIDS-causing HIV virus, with most new infections among people under age 25. More than 20 million people have died. 

“Global AIDS is the greatest health challenge of our generation and the media can be a powerful tool in educating people about the disease,” the Kaiser foundation’s president, Drew E. Altman, said.

Girls Tennis – Berkeley 4, Alameda 3 

The Yellowjackets (7-1 ACCAL) avenge an earlier loss to the Hornets (7-1) by winning all four singles matches on Thursday. Megan Sweeney, Clara Mattei, Alison Headley and Gail Nipitnorasate all win for Berkeley High.

Two weeks after Mayor Shirley Dean was found in violation of the city’s campaign finance law, her challenger in the November election faces similar charges. 

Berkeley resident Marie Bowman filed a complaint with the city’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission Thursday, alleging that mayoral candidate Tom Bates accepted $1000 in illegal contributions. 

According to Bowman, four contributors gave Bates $500 during the latest election cycle. City campaign law allows individual contributions of only $250 during that time span.  

Bates could not be reached for comment. 

Last month, Bates’ campaign treasurer Mal Burnstein charged Dean with wrongly classifying $3000 of campaign contributions as office expenses. 

In a second charge, Berkeley resident Carrie Olson claimed that Dean accepted between $550 and $700 of illegal contributions in her 1998 run for mayor. 

City commissioners found the mayor in “probable violation” of both charges and have asked her to accept responsibility. 

“It’s just a matter of sorting out some record-keeping stuff,” said Dean’s campaign manager Bryan Schwartz. 

Members of the Fair Campaign Practices Commission, nor Bowman could be reached for comment.

Friday 

Men’s Soccer - Cal vs. Oregon State, 2 p.m. at Edwards Stadium 

Football - Berkeley vs. Encinal, 7 p.m. at Encinal High 

Football - St. Mary’s vs. Oakland Tech, 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Tech High 

Sunday 

Men’s Soccer - Cal vs. Washington, 2 p.m. at Edwards Stadium

The Board of Education sharply criticized President Bush’s sweeping “No Child Left Behind” legislation, which could lead to a significant shake-up at two Berkeley schools, during its bi-weekly meeting Wednesday night. 

“I’m just appalled,” said board President Shirley Issel, after hearing a staff presentation on the law Bush signed in January. 

Under a provision in the “No Child Left Behind” legislation, schools that do not meet standardized testing goals can eventually face replacement of large portions of staff and even state takeover. 

Two Berkeley elementary schools, Washington and Rosa Parks, are currently in the early phases of the law’s “program improvement” process because they failed to reach targets on California’s Academic Performance Index, or API testing system, for two years in a row. 

The API combines results from a nationwide test, the SAT-9, and the California Standards Test in English Language Arts, tailored to California-specific curriculum standards. 

Washington is in its first year of a four-year improvement process and, as required by law, has put a plan in place which includes increased professional development. 

Rosa Parks is in its second year of the process and must provide struggling students with tutoring and academic enrichment programs this year to help them improve. 

It is possible to be in the second year of the process, even though “No Child Left Behind” is only 10 months old, because the new federal law dovetails with a similar state law that was already in place. 

Carla Bason, manager of state and federal programs for the school district, said she just received a list of acceptable tutoring and enrichment programs for Rosa Parks students last week. She said the list included an after school program that is already up and running at Rosa Parks and several other district schools. 

Rosa Parks parents will have an opportunity to choose the after school program or any other program on the list. 

If Rosa Parks does not meet goals for improved scores, the district will have to pick one of several significant reforms to put in place next year. Replacing large chunks of staff or bringing in new management are two of the possibilities. 

The following year, if targets are still unmet, the possible remedies are more sweeping, including state takeover and contracting with a private management firm. 

The district will get new API scores Oct. 17. If Rosa Parks and Washington meet testing goals, they will stay where they are in the “program improvement” process. Rosa Parks, for instance, would not have to undergo significant reform next year. 

If the schools meet targets two years in a row, they will no longer have to take part in the “program improvement” process. 

“I believe they will make significant headway,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence, predicting improved scores for Rosa Parks and Washington. 

Contact reporter at Scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

SAN FRANCISCO — A man with the environmental activist group Earth First! has died after a fall of more than 50 feet from a redwood tree, raising concerns about the dangers of tree sits, often used to stop logging operations. 

The man, whose identity hasn’t been released but went by the forest name “Naya,” had only been in the tree for about 12 hours on Tuesday evening when he fell, according to Dennis Davie of the Santa Cruz contingent of Earth First! 

“Santa Cruz Earth First! is deeply saddened by this tragic event, we never like to lose an activist,” said Davie. “This was a young man in his first tree-sit.” 

Earth First! has been staging tree-sit protests against logging company Redwood Empire’s operation in the Ramsey Gulch area about 20-miles south of San Jose since August. Naya had just come to the area to join the protest on Monday night and had climbed into his tree Tuesday morning, Davie said. 

On Tuesday night, for an unknown reason, he fell out of the tree and was taken by helicopter to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where he was soon pronounced dead. The county coroner’s office had not determined the cause of death or the man’s identity Thursday. 

The man isn’t the first to be injured in a tree-sit protest. In April, 22-year-old Beth O’Brien of Portland died after falling from a tree in Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon. In September 1998, David “Gypsy” Chain became the first California Earth First! activist to be killed during a tree-sit protest when the Humboldt County tree he was living in was felled by a logger. 

“They think they’re on a mission and they don’t consider the risks involved,” said Jim Branham, a spokesman for Pacific Lumber Co., which has about six tree sitters currently on its logging property in Humboldt County, 30 miles southeast of Eureka. “I do think they view their actions as being somehow heroic, instead of dangerous or illegal.” 

Davie said he acknowledges that tree sitting is dangerous and that there is a heroic nature to putting one’s body on the line to protect something. But he said that all Earth First! protesters, including Naya, are given training on how to remain safe and healthy during tree sits. 

Davie said Naya came to the Earth First! camp saying that he had rock climbing experience and after talking with other members of the group for several hours they determined he was capable of climbing the tree. He was also given some training on the ground before going up. Normally, tree sitters are given two days of training. 

“They believed he climbed well, but it still was his first tree sit,” Davie said. 

Earth First! activists have protested logging operations in the Ramsey Gulch area for more than two years. Although protesters and Redwood Empire have been at odds at times, the logging company issued a statement Wednesday saying its employees were saddened by the death. 

Tree sitters can spend months camped on platforms in old-growth trees, hoping to call attention to the environmental effects of logging. In perhaps the most famous incident, Julia “Butterfly” Hill spent two years 180 feet up in a 1,000-foot redwood in Northern California to save it from being cut down for lumber. 

She came down in 1999 after Pacific Lumber Co. agreed to leave the tree standing in return for $50,000 to make up for lost logging revenue

SACRAMENTO — A Northern California Indian tribe has declared a “state of emergency” over fish kills on the Klamath River, and asked Gov. Gray Davis to issue a similar declaration for the tribe’s reservation. 

The Yurok Tribal Council said the recent death of an estimated 30,000 salmon on the lower Klamath, and reductions begun Thursday in Klamath River flows, is creating a crisis for the tribe’s fishery. 

Downstream tribes are planning a rally Friday at the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Falls, Ore., office, reminiscent of the protests last year by Klamath Basin farmers upset that irrigation water was curtailed to protected endangered fish. 

“Last summer it was farmers, this summer it’s Native Americans,” said Steve Pedery of Portland, Ore.-based WaterWatch. 

The bureau nearly doubled the flow of water from its Iron Gate Dam two weeks ago in an attempt to break up a logjam of fish that was making the congregating fall-run salmon more susceptible to disease. 

The bureau began shutting down the water Thursday, however, and over several days will reduce it to the level required under its guidelines to sustain endangered species. 

That’s not enough water, tribal representatives, coastal commercial fishermen, environmentalists and state officials said Thursday. 

Reducing the flow will create the same conditions as caused the recent die-off, the Yurok council said. The tribe’s narrow reservation stretches 45 miles inland from the Klamath River’s mouth.

Members of a gay and lesbian community center say they were shocked to find the find the word “Fag!” and a swastika scribbled on their outdoor bulletin board earlier this week, as reported in the Daily Planet Oct. 8. 

“This is the first hate graffiti we’ve ever had,” said Frank Gurucharri, executive director at the Pacific Center for Human Growth. “We rarely even get any hate phone calls.”  

Gurucharri said he and other members first spotted the nine inch black ink letters at about 9:30 a.m. Monday. Police believe the center was vandalized sometime Sunday night, but they don’t have any suspects. 

The center is located on the 2700 block of Telegraph Ave. 

Since the initial shock of the incident, Gurucharri said he has been comforted by kind words from local residents. 

“The police took the call very seriously,” he said, adding that owners of neighboring businesses also expressed their outrage at the crime. 

In response to the incident, the Pacific Center and the office of Councilmember Kriss Worthington held a candlelight vigil outside the center at 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening. 

Contact reporter at 

matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net

Police are searching for suspects in a string of northwest Berkeley residential burglaries and a spate of prowling cases in northeast Berkeley. 

Police believe that at least 10 recent burglaries since mid-September are the work of one suspect, described as a black male about 6 feet tall, weighing between 190 and 240 pounds and with short hair.  

According to police, the suspect usually enters a home by smashing a window or entering through an unlocked window or door. Once inside, he usually steals small electronic equipment such as laptop computers. 

Police are also searching for a man accused of peeping into women’s bedrooms. According to police, five northeast Berkeley women have filed complaints about a man staring at them through their windows.  

The suspect is described as a stocky white male about 5 feet, 8 inches tall. 

Police ask that anyone with information on either case call the police at 981-5900.

Theodore Allen “Ted” Dungan, a chemical engineer, architect, civic leader and conservationist, died at age 93 on Sept. 28 of natural causes. 

Dungan was born in 1909. He graduated from Berkeley High School and went on to major in engineering, with a minor in architecture, at UC Berkeley. 

After graduating Dungan and his first wife, the late Jayne Gilmer, ran the Cinnabar Mine, a small mining operation in northern California. In 1935 he joined Gay Engineering in Phoenix where he designed and engineered some of the first industrial air-conditioning units in the country. 

He spent the winter of 1944-45 in France helping stimulate production in French war plants and received the French Legion of Honor award. After World War II, Dungan moved to San Jose and joined what is now FMC Corp., developing large-scale automatic food freezers where he earned the name “father of frozen foods.” In 1952 he joined Bechtel Corporation where he worked as project engineer for a pilot plant producing fuels for the U.S. Air Force.  

One of Dungan’s passions was flying, and he told friends that among his proudest moments was the day he received his pilot’s license. 

Dungan married his second wife, the late Ellen Stern, in 1967. He is survived by his sons Jay and Michael, his daughter Betsy, his grandchildren Catherine Cimperman, Carolyn Jayne Hanesworth and Richard, and his great-grandchildren Jacob and Hanna Jayne Cimperman, and the twins Isabella Jayne and Ana Elisabeth Hanesworth. 

Dungan felt strongly about protecting the environment. Contributions in his name can be made to Forests Forever, 973 Market Street #450, San Francisco, CA 94103, www.forestsforever.org. 

- Compiled from staff reports

Assault with pick axe 

An adult male attacked a pedestrian with a pick axe after the pedestrian inadvertently touched the suspect’s pick up truck with the tip of his umbrella at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. According to police, the victim was trying to cross the intersection at Sacramento Street and Berkeley Way and stuck out his umbrella to draw the attention of passing motorists. The suspect, driving a beige pickup truck, jumped out of his vehicle with a pick axe and said, “Why did you touch my car bitch?” The suspect swung the pick axe at the victim, hitting the victim’s umbrella and breaking the handle. The suspect then ran back into his truck and drove off. He is described as a white male in his 40s or 50s about five feet nine inches with brown hair and a medium build. 

Stolen cars 

A Mazda Miata, license 4BIK759, was reported stolen from the 2400 block of Parker Street at 6:46 a.m. Wednesday. 

A grey Nissan Sentra, license 4EXJ749, was stolen from the 2900 block of Durant Avenue at 12:35 p.m. Wednesday. 

Budweiser heist 

A man stole a 12-ounce can of Budweiser from a convenience store on the 2500 block of Hearst Street at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday. According to police, the clerk saw the suspect leaving the store with the beer in his back pocket and proceeded to chase him down the street before the suspect was able to escape onto UC Berkeley property.

SAN FRANCISCO — A third mediation attempt to resolve the legal tug-of-war over San Francisco Giants’ star Barry Bonds’ 73rd home run ball has failed. 

Retired Bay Area Judge Coleman Fannin tried in vain to get both sides to settle out of court Wednesday, but lawyers for Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi said in a joint statement that the difference of opinion would have to be resolved at trial. 

“Parties had extensive confidential conversations but were unable to resolve or settle today. All were very pleased with Judge Fannin, but we are now proceeding to trial,” the statement read. 

The trial over the ball is set to begin Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, with Judge Kevin McCarthy presiding. 

Popov claims to have caught Bonds’ record-setting home run hit on Oct. 17 last year, only to have it wrestled from his grip by a surging crowd of fans and end up in the hands of Patrick Hayashi. 

Both sides have spent much of the week in and out of court, bickering over money, baseball, and ownership in a war of words that spilled over into the hallway outside of the San Francisco Superior Court of Judge Ronald Quidachay Monday. 

Hayashi said earlier this week he’s not willing to part with the ball without a court fight. 

“I value the ball just as much as he does,” Hayashi said. “If it goes to trial, that’s what will happen. I will be the owner of that ball. 

The ball remains under lock and key in a safe deposit box, based on a court order.

OAKLAND — The city of Oakland could become the West Coast headquarters of United Airline’s fuel purchasing and supply subsidiary, United Aviation Fuels Corp. 

Officials with the city and the airlines said the potential deal would benefit both parties. City Council members could consider the matter next week. 

Oakland would collect an estimated $3 million a year in sales-tax revenue from the fuel business — and would return nearly $2 million to United headquarters in “business inventive payments.” 

United spokesman Jeff Green said Oakland seemed a logical choice for the West Coast purchasing headquarters because of its significant maintenance operation and future airport expansion plans.

Date-rape coasters hot item 

SAN JOSE — Colleges around the country are buying millions of coasters that test for “date-rape” drugs in drinks. But some experts say the coasters are ineffective and could lead to more assaults by creating a false sense of security. 

The manufacturers — who also make fake snow and party foam — say the 40-cent paper coasters are 95 percent accurate. 

The coasters have test spots that are supposed to turn dark blue in about 30 seconds if a splash of alcohol contains drugs often used to incapacitate victims. 

In tests at the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, however, the coasters failed to react clearly to drinks spiked with gamma hydroxybutyrate, a major date-rape drug known as GHB, said forensic scientist Anne Gierlowski. 

“We tested red wine, cola, whiskey and orange juice and because three out of the four have color already, it was very hard to decipher a color change,” she said. 

Plantation, Fla.-based Drink Safe Technologies Inc. has sold about 50 million of the coasters since March.. 

Murder charge follows crash 

MOSS BEACH – A Foster City man who drove his family off a 150-foot cliff on the San Mateo County coast Sunday has been booked on three charges of murder, authorities said this morning. 

Eddie Rapoza, 35, was arrested after investigators determined that the van he was driving was deliberately driven off a Moss Beach cliff, according to San Mateo County Sheriff's Office spokesman Bronwyn Hogan. His pregnant wife, Raye Rapoza, 34, died at the scene. 

Their daughter, 4-year-old Tehani Rapoza, succumbed to her injuries at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Monday.  

“After reviewing the evidence at the scene , and thoroughly inspecting the vehicle for mechanical problems, we have determined that this was a deliberate act,'' Hogan said. 

Authorities say Eddie Rapoza was traveling at a high rate of speed when at about 9:15 Sunday morning he drove the family minivan down Bernal Avenue, through 25 feet of shoulder vegetation and off the cliff. 

There were no signs of braking.

Fishermen caught 

MOSS LANDING — Three fishermen were fined almost $25,000 for illegally catching sablefish. 

Thao Van Phan of Moss Landing was fined nearly $10,000. Bao Tran Quoc Dang of Moss Landing and Dung Van Ngyen of Los Angeles were fined $7,500 each. 

Investigators with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration say the men told regulators a haul of sablefish was caught on three boats, but was hauled in by one of the boats. 

The incident occurred in September 2001, but the men were not charged until July. 

Authorities say the men filed false catch reports with the state Department of Fish and Game. 

California teachers stay home 

SACRAMENTO — Higher pay and incentive programs make California an attractive place for teachers, state officials said Thursday. 

A report by the Commission of Teacher Credentialing and the Employment Development Department found that 84 percent of California teachers are still in the classroom after four years compared to 67 percent nationally. 

“At the heart of our landmark school reform is putting a qualified teacher in every classroom,” Gov. Gray Davis said. “It’s nice to know that compared to other states, California is still at the head of the class.” 

State officials have attributed the higher retention rates to incentive programs, including teacher tax credits, as well as grants and bonuses for teachers in low-performing schools. 

“The programs are paying off, and they are paying off with big dividends,” said state Secretary of Education Kerry Mazzoni, adding that the retention rate “really outpaces the rest of the nation.” 

State officials have said California will face a teacher shortage of 195,000 during the next decade. However, the state may revise that estimate due to the higher retention rates. 

The state has also become more reliant on alternative credentialing programs that make it easier for teachers to get into the classroom. Around 40,000 teachers in California have emergency credentials.

LOS ANGELES — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon expressed his “sincere regret” on Thursday over his now-disproven allegation that Democratic incumbent Gray Davis illegally accepted a campaign check in the state Capitol. 

But Simon did not apologize to Davis and did not directly accept responsibility for making the false claim. 

“I find it necessary to express to everyone my sincere regret for the way this matter was handled,” Simon said in a noon speech at Town Hall Los Angeles. “You may have seen my last commercial where I say I am not perfect, and that’s indeed true. And now we know of course my campaign is not perfect.” 

Simon continued to defend himself for making the allegation after a debate with Davis on Monday. The claim was based on photographs released by California Organization of Police and Sheriffs. 

The photos showed Davis, then lieutenant governor, taking a campaign contribution. COPS and Simon contended the transfer took place in Davis’ Capitol office in Sacramento. It is illegal to give or receive a campaign contribution in a state building. 

It became clear almost immediately, however, that the pictures were not taken in the Capitol. 

COPS later retracted its allegation as Simon sought to contain political fallout from having turned the claim into a campaign issue. 

“It now appears that our original belief was erroneous,” COPS said in a statement issued late Wednesday. 

Davis had called on Simon to drop out of the race after his opponent accused him of illegally accepting the campaign check during his first run for governor in 1998. Simon’s aides said he’ll remain in the race. 

The Davis camp disclosed Wednesday that the photos were taken at a fund-raising breakfast in the Santa Monica home of Davis backer Bruce Karatz, chairman and CEO of KB Home. Karatz no longer owns the house but a spokesman for KB Home confirmed it was the setting of the photo. 

Al Angele, the former executive director of COPS who was shown giving Davis a check in the photograph, held a press conference Thursday at the exact spot where the photos were taken — just inside the front entrance of Karatz’s former home.

SACRAMENTO — More students passed the state’s high school exit exam than originally reported, state Department of Education officials announced Thursday. 

A computer glitch caused the state to underreport the aggregate number of high school students that passed the math and English portions of the high-stakes exit exam. Starting with the class of 2004, students are required to pass the test before they can graduate from high school. 

When the results were released last month, the department reported only 64 percent of the students set to graduate in 2004 passed the English language arts portion and 53 percent passed the math section.

SAN JOSE — After 13 weeks of hearing about Yosemite killer Cary Stayner’s tormented mind and methodical killings, a death sentence was the logical conclusion, a juror said Thursday. 

The day after deciding that Stayner should die for his crimes, three jurors returned to the scene of the verdict and explained their decision. 

“The evidence to me was that he was a cold-blooded killer,” a 50-year-old social worker from San Jose told the Bay City News Service. “The crime to me was raping and killing innocent children along with two innocent, productive, healthy adults.” 

The three men spoke to reporters in front of Santa Clara County Superior Court on condition they not be named. 

Stayner, 41, was convicted by the same jury of murdering Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend, Silvina Pelosso, 16, during a trip to Yosemite National Park in February 1999. The panel also ruled that he was legally sane. 

In the final stage of trial, prosecutors presented evidence about the murder and beheading of nature guide Joie Armstrong, 26, for which Stayner is already serving life in prison without parole. 

At each stage of the 13-week trial, it took jurors less than six hours to reject lengthy testimony of Stayner’s mental problems, evidence that defense lawyers presented to spare his life. 

The fact that Stayner was a predator outweighed evidence of his deformed head, mental illnesses and troubled childhood, jurors said. 

Despite the relatively short deliberation periods, one juror said the verdicts were not arrived at on a whim. 

“That six hours wasn’t fast in that room,” said a 47-year-old federal employee from Sunnyvale. 

Stayner, 41, who will be formally sentenced Sept. 12, was in his jail cell in the Santa Clara County Jail on Thursday. He refused an interview request by The Associated Press. 

While jurors gave high marks to the lawyers and the judge in the case, at least one felt that the defense was unfairly prevented from presenting some evidence to spare Stayner’s life. Judge Thomas Hastings curtailed some testimony because of prosecution objections and overruled numerous defense objections. 

“The man was on trial for his life,” the Sunnyvale man said. “I wanted to say, ’Let the people finish.”’ 

Defense lawyer Marcia Morrissey, who will appeal the verdicts, the sentence and ask for a new trial, said Stayner received an unfair trial because of rulings by Hastings. 

“There were limitations imposed on us that I was amazed at,” she said Thursday. “I’m gratified to know that somebody noticed that we were being stymied at every turn.” 

The cornerstone of the prosecution was Stayner’s lengthy tape-recorded confession to all four killings, in which he described how he plotted for months to bind young girls to sate his sexual fantasy. He matter-of-factly described the sexual assaults and killings, saying that strangling Carole Sund was like performing a task.

OAKLAND — As West Coast ports creaked back into motion after a 10-day lockout, dockside managers said disarray was the rule, but it did not appear longshoremen were staging a deliberate work slowdown. 

Mountains of cargo greeted dockworkers, and in some cases containers had been misplaced or equipment wasn’t available to move them smoothly off the docks and onto trucks or trains. However, data from shipping companies and terminal operators did not document a slowdown at the 29 major Pacific ports affected. 

“While there were some digressions, the operations were adequate,” sad Steve Sugerman, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association. “There were no orchestrated work slowdowns as far as we can see.” 

If that assessment changes, the association could quickly go to federal court on allegations longshoremen are violating the order that reopened the ports. 

The 10-day lockout ended Wednesday night, the day after U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the ports reopened at the request of the Bush administration. 

Alsup’s original order was to expire Oct. 16, when he would review the case and determine whether to extend it into an 80-day “cooling-off period” under the Taft-Hartley Act. On Thursday, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and government lawyers agreed to extend the order for the 80 days without going back to court, a spokesmen for the union and association said. 

Alsup’s order requires that work resume “at a normal pace.” 

Officials at the 10,500-member union have promised to work as hard as they can without sacrificing safety. 

A union spokesman said Thursday that though dockworkers are laboring in good faith, he expected the association would seize on statistics from the least successful port reopening and run to court with claims of a slowdown. 

“They’re still analyzing production figures, right?” union spokesman Steve Stallone said. “What they’re doing that for is to come up with something they can use to press the case.” 

By any measure, the return to work came in fits and starts. 

One trucker in Los Angeles reported moving nine containers overnight — but then spent most of Thursday morning waiting for his next dispatch. In Portland, the port reopened Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night owing to a previously scheduled monthly dockworkers’ meeting. 

Even under ideal circumstances, it will take weeks to uncork the bottleneck in the domestic supply chain. Perishable cargos have first priority, but then it will be a free-for-all among importers and exporters vying to get their products in motion during the always-congested holiday import season. 

By some estimates, the shutdown cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion per day. Despite the reopening, the initial blow continues to shiver through the economy. 

On Thursday, Gap Inc. became one of the first major retailers to reveal the impact when the clothier reported shipping delays could shave as much as $60 million from its holiday season profits. Officials at a Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Ill., said production would remain suspended through at least Friday as workers await key parts. 

In Los Angeles, truckers who queued up at terminals Thursday morning faced a turnaround time of around five hours — nearly double the norm, said Joe Nievez, president of Vernon-based Qwikway Trucking Co. Some kicked around a soccer ball as they waited in a 25-deep line at one pier where two cranes servicing three ships were unloading containers. 

He said it was too early to tell if the delay was caused by the flood of truckers who rushed to the terminals or by the pace of longshoremen’s work. 

“Everyone is anxious to get in and pick up cargo. There’s a lot of pressure from clients,” Nievez said. “If the terminal workers are slowing down or not working at full maximum, that will add to the delay.” 

Similar lines clogged the roads that crisscross the Port of Oakland. 

While those two ports resumed operations Wednesday night, Portland’s docks opened Thursday morning. 

“Terminal operators don’t even know where cargo is. They put trains everywhere they could. Containers are piled up on top of each other. It’s a mess,” said Leal Sundet, an official with the local union chapter. 

Work at Washington state’s major ports was humming along nicely, spokesmen said. 

“They’re getting the work done,” said Mick Schultz, spokesman for the Port of Seattle. “The productivity level is good. The pace of the work here is good. It’s at or very close to normal.” 

Meanwhile, there was no word that the two sides had made plans to meet with a federal mediator to hash out the contract dispute that led to the lockout in the first place. The longshoremen’s contract expired July 1, although it had been extended several times before Labor Day. The sticking point in negotiations is whether jobs created by new technology will be unionized.

NEW YORK — Two executives who oversaw WorldCom’s financial record-keeping pleaded guilty Thursday to charges stemming from a federal probe of the company’s multibillion-dollar accounting scandal. 

Betty Vinson, the former director of management reporting, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. Later in the day, Troy Normand, the director of legal entity accounting, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud for his part in the same scheme. 

Normand, 35, and Vinson, 47, were top executives in WorldCom’s general accounting department. 

Both were also sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday for their roles in the telecommunication company’s $7.2 billion accounting debacle. 

During her plea, Vinson said she was ordered by her bosses in October 2000 to misstate $800 million on WorldCom’s ledgers. 

“I was very concerned about the order to make the adjustment,” Vinson told Judge Andrew J. Peck. 

Over the next year and a half, she carried out similar orders to transfer huge sums in expenses in a scheme to hide WorldCom’s financial woes from the investing public, she said. 

Outside court, her lawyer Joseph Hollomon said Vinson had protested the changes but was overruled by her supervisors. 

Hollomon said his client rarely had contact with former CEO Bernard Ebbers, but he wouldn’t say if she could provide evidence against him. Ebbers has not been charged with any crime, and he has denied wrongdoing. 

Vinson faces up to 10 years in prison on the most serious charge, securities fraud, but may get substantially less for providing testimony in the case. 

Vinson’s admissions come three days after her immediate boss, Buford Yates, admitted guilt to his role in the scheme as part of a deal to cooperate with prosecutors. Yates’ direct supervisor, ex-Controller David Myers, has also pleaded guilty.

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — Hispanic voters can be found working anywhere from the Microsoft campus in Redmond to the ladies’ wear department in the Sunnyside Wal-Mart. 

Some were born in this country. Others had to apply for citizenship. 

They are Republican, Democrat and independent, and they often vote for the candidate who puts the greatest emphasis on education — regardless of party affiliation. 

Across the country, Democrats and Republicans are trying to attract the fast-growing Hispanic vote and finding it a challenge because of the diversity among this particular ethnic group, which can be any race, with roots all over the world, from Spain to Guatemala to Puerto Rico or Peru. 

“There is not one person who speaks for all of the Hispanic people in this state, just like there isn’t for the Caucasian or black or Asian population,” said state Rep. Mary Skinner, R-Yakima, one of two Hispanic legislators in Washington. 

A new national survey of registered Latino voters shows that while about half identified themselves as Democrats, they were not necessarily yellow-dog loyalists, and that ambivalence spells opportunity for both parties. 

“The Latino vote has been a huge battleground in our state. We see this as an essential vote in places that have been traditionally voting Republican,” said Washington Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt. 

Washington Republican Chairman Chris Vance said: “We want everyone, and the biggest emphasis is on Latino voters.” 

The rewards at the ballot box are potentially great — the Hispanic population in Washington more than doubled between 1990 and 2000 to 441,509, and 264,099 were over 18. 

Washington is not alone. Across the West, the minority population is increasingly Hispanic. In California, almost one-third of people identified themselves as Hispanic in the 2000 Census, with almost 7 million of voting age. Twenty-five percent of Arizona’s population is Hispanic, with more than 800,000 in the over-18 category. Colorado is 17 percent Latino, with almost 477,00 people over 18. 

But as varied as Latino voters’ ancestry, income and life experiences may be, there seem to be some generally unifying issues in politics. 

In a new national survey by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation, 58 percent of nearly 3,000 registered Latino voters said education was one of the most important issues in determining their vote. Thirty-nine percent said the economy and 23 percent said health care and Medicare. 

“There are kind of three big areas of interest,” said Pedro Celis, 43, of Redmond, a Microsoft software architect and state chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, which serves as a bridge between the GOP and Latinos. 

“First, education ... the great equalizer,” said Celis, a native of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in Mexico. “Another one is opportunities for economic development. 

“Having the opportunity to work hard is very important to Hispanics. They need to be able to work and give their children a better life. 

“And the third one is immigration. ... When people talk about deportation, they get very concerned.” 

Education is the top issue for Deana Castro, 34, a ladies’ wear department manager at the Wal-Mart in Sunnyside. 

“I’d like to see more teachers and more grants for minority kids so they can go to college,” said Castro, a Sunnyside native.

JERUSALEM — The United States will give Israel three days notice before attacking Iraq, a senior Israeli official said Thursday, giving the country time to prepare for a possible Iraqi strike. 

With Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scheduled travel to Washington to meet President Bush Oct. 16 for discussions about the possibility of a U.S. attack on Iraq, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Israel was satisfied with preparations and coordination with the United States. 

The senior official would not give specifics, declining to comment on the possibility that in the case of an Iraqi missile attack, Israel would receive real-time information from U.S. military satellites, as reported in Israeli media. 

Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported Sunday that the United States had agreed to give Israel the satellite intelligence, but didn’t cite any sources. According to reports in Israeli publications, intelligence sharing was limited during the 1991 conflict. 

In Israel, many fear that Saddam would seek support from the Arab world by firing Scud missiles at Israel, as in the Gulf War, when Israel was targeted with 39 Scuds that caused damage and injuries, but no deaths. 

All Iraqi missiles in the Gulf War had conventional warheads — but the main fear now, as then, is the possibility of a nonconventional attack, including biological and chemical war heads. 

The Patriot missile defense batteries, built by the United States as an anti-aircraft system and modified to guard against incoming missiles, had only partial success against the Scuds in the Gulf War. 

With assistance from the United States, Israel spent the past decade developing the Arrow system, designed to intercept a Scud missile at high altitude early in its flight, before reaching Israeli airspace. 

A Patriot can knock out an incoming missile only as it nears the end of its flight. 

Israel has already deployed one Arrow battery at the Palmachim Air Force Base, south of Tel Aviv, the military said. 

Sharon has said if an Iraqi attack caused many casualties, Israel would have to strike back. 

After a summer of silence, al-Qaida leaders are back on the Mideast air waves, framing their latest anti-American message around a possible war with Iraq. 

Experts say the terrorist network is on a renewed public relations campaign aimed at keeping itself in the public eye and associated with events which could turn the Arab public against the United States. 

U.S. counterterrorism officials believe the tapes — coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan — are a sign of al-Qaida’s leadership asserting it is still viable to its rank-and-file followers. 

The recent taped statements prompted the FBI to issue a new warning to state and local law enforcement agencies that a new al-Qaida attack on the United States has been approved by the terror network’s leadership. But the agency said it did not have any specific information detailing where and when an attack may occur. 

On Thursday, the State Department followed suit, issuing a worldwide caution to Americans abroad to alert them to “the continuing threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians.” 

Last month, the al-Jazeera network aired voice recordings of Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida operatives. The CIA authenticated bin Laden’s voice, but officials said the recordings probably weren’t made recently. 

U.S. officials have not verified bin Laden’s whereabouts this year and say a previously aired videotape of him having dinner with his associates in early November in Afghanistan is the last absolutely certain sign he was alive. 

Those thought to be alive because of their recent recordings include bin Laden’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, and his spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. 

A U.S. official said this week that a recent recording from al-Zawahri appears to be genuine and made in the last few weeks. 

The recording, obtained by Associated Press Television News, was produced by a shadowy production company behind previous al-Qaida videotape. But the format of the al-Zawahri recording is entirely different from the videos released in April which were crude, 30-minute compilations of violent images strung together with Quranic verses and old footage of bin Laden. 

The latest disc features snapshots of al-Zawahri and news footage of anti-American protests while he is heard answering an interviewer’s questions about America’s aims in the region and its future. 

The interview runs for a brief five minutes and ends abruptly with the juxtaposition of two images: the collapse of the World Trade Center and Israeli bulldozers destroying a Palestinian home. 

Speaking about Iraq, he accused Washington of seeking to subjugate the Arab world on behalf of Israel — America’s strongest supporter in the region. 

“The campaign against Iraq has aims that go beyond Iraq into the Arab Islamic world,” al-Zawahri is heard saying. “Its first aim is to destroy any effective military force in the proximity of Israel. Its second aim is to consolidate the supremacy of Israel.”

SACRAMENTO — These are gifts to die for. 

Start with $100 million to run light rail from downtown to the airport. Add millions more to expand a capital railroad museum, improve a river parkway for bicyclists and deck a freeway to reconnect downtown with a revitalizing waterfront. 

Throw in new school buses for the city’s children and the question becomes: What’s not to like? 

Yet all these attractions are causing a terrific headache for Sacramento’s establishment. Like counterparts across California as the Nov. 5 election approaches, leaders are divided between so easily enhancing the region’s quality of life and the growing storm over the means of doing it: Proposition 51. 

At Sacramento’s Regional Transit District, which aims by 2010 to push light rail 10 miles north to Sacramento International Airport, customer services chief Mike Wiley says, “Passage of 51 gives additional momentum to the project that would support the aggressive schedule we are now on.” 

The $100 million is key, he says, to winning critical federal funding for a $350 million project. 

Yet even as RT remains one of Proposition 51’s earliest backers and biggest fans, the Sacramento region’s own transportation planning agency opposes the initiative. 

“From a transportation point of view, it certainly is attractive,” says Joan Medeiros, deputy director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. “The measure provides a lot of money for transportation projects that are obviously critically needed. On the other hand, a majority of the board members felt this is an irresponsible way of making policy.” 

Such differences illustrate the choices facing officials, and ultimately voters across the state, who will choose between highly desirable regional projects and a political process that state legislators, many newspapers and opponents call shortsighted, an abuse of California’s 1911-era initiative process and even corrupt. 

As Sacramento voters are tempted with a light rail line, the ballot measure also gleams with a “great park” in Orange County, more transit in Los Angeles, improvements to Golden Gate Park and Fort Mason in San Francisco, highway construction in San Diego County and an enhanced San Joaquin River Parkway in Fresno. 

In Sacramento, the city council easily endorsed Proposition 51 for the improvements it will bring to the capital. But The Sacramento Bee’s editorial pages call environmentalists behind the measure “morally bankrupt” and repeatedly dub their measure “California’s most corrupt initiative.” In the aftermath of such blasts, and threats by Senate leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, to ban environmentalist backers from his office, a longtime group of Sacramento rail advocates, Friends of Light Rail, maintains a distance from the proposition, neither endorsing or opposing it. 

Proposition 51, the Traffic Congestion Relief and Safe School Buses Act, aims to steer nearly $900 million yearly from the state budget into specific projects to expand transit, save open space and relieve some of the nation’s worst traffic congestion. The amount represents 30 percent of sales taxes paid on new- and used-car buying in California every year. 

The initiative, proposed by the Planning and Conservation League, a 20,000-member environmental coalition, has drawn fire for big contributions from land developers — many directly benefiting from transit and highway projects in the measure. Last week the PCL reported raising $3.9 million for the campaign so far. 

The PCL defends this so-called “pay to play” practice, citing a 1995 court ruling declaring it legal. 

PCL chiefs, having endured a withering blast of criticism in legislative hearings, maintain it’s the Legislature that’s irresponsible for long neglecting the state’s infrastructure. 

“Doing nothing about these problems is what is irresponsible,” says Eddy Moore, who directs the PCL campaign. 

Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson agrees. 

Dickinson, who represents Sacramento’s fast-growing northern suburbs — where a rail line extension would serve a fast-growing airport trying to expand its passenger base to Modesto, Napa and Sonoma counties — says, “If it was a perfect world, I think that we would do this differently. But we don’t have a perfect world and we do have very great needs.” 

Moore says the PCL included the $100 million to help fund Sacramento’s north light rail line because it is “the best single transportation project to benefit the whole region.” 

Dickinson, a major backer of the new line, helped the PCL coax Sacramento’s leading land developer, AKT Development, to contribute nearly $200,000 last spring to help launch Proposition 51. The firm, which calls itself the region’s leading philanthropist, plans to develop land in the rail line corridor of 44,000 people, which is expected to grow to 106,000 by 2025. 

AKT President Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis says, “We were called and they said, “Look, we’re trying to get funds to put it on the ballot. We’re short. We don’t have time to do extensive fund-raising. This is how much we need and we know you people support good things.” 

She says the firm considered gains for Sacramento from the PCL initiative — the light rail extension, parkway funding, railroad museum and freeway decking — and wrote a check.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Gene therapy that seems to cure an often fatal immune disorder also likely gave a French toddler a leukemia-like illness, but U.S. scientists want the genetic experiments restarted anyway — calling the risk too low to deprive desperate children of treatment. 

The Food and Drug Administration called an emergency meeting of its scientific advisers Thursday to decide whether three U.S. gene therapy experiments recently suspended because of the French boy’s illness should resume. France also suspended the experiment. 

The disorder often known as “bubble boy disease” — formally called severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID — is the only disease where gene therapy has ever worked. 

The toddler is the first recipient of gene therapy for any disease to suffer a cancerous side effect. But scientists have long warned that cancer is a possible risk if the virus used to deliver new genes into a patient’s body slips into the wrong place. 

The evidence “is pretty convincing” that now that has happened, said Dr. Philip Noguchi of the Food and Drug Administration, after French researchers showed evidence the virus they used affected a cancer-promoting gene in the boy’s body more than a year after it cured his SCID. 

It took another year and a half before the boy developed leukemia-like symptoms. Chemotherapy appears to be working, and tests soon should tell if the 3-year-old is in remission, Paris’ Dr. Alain Fischer told the FDA meeting. 

Still, there is only one report of gene therapy-linked leukemia — while some popular chemotherapies carry a 10 percent risk that in curing today’s cancer the patient will get leukemia years later, cautioned Dr. Crystal Mackall of the National Cancer Institute. 

“You can be doing harm when you withhold a promising treatment,” added Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg of Duke University, echoing a woman who told the panel that the experiment is her 10-year-old grandson’s last hope. 

The FDA advisers ultimately recommended that gene therapy experiments be reopened to SCID patients who don’t have the option of a bone marrow transplant from a well-matched donor, today’s best treatment. The FDA usually follows its advisers’ recommendations. 

But some panelists worried that the leukemia finding’s implications go beyond SCID to every gene therapy experiment that ever used a retrovirus, a kind of virus that permanently invades cells. 

“We owe an extra measure of regard to all the people still alive who volunteered for gene therapy. They should be told about this risk and check for it,” said Abby Meyers of the National Organization for Rare Disorders. 

She angrily noted that eight years after Congress ordered the FDA to create a registry of gene recipients in case long-term side affects ever appear, the agency hasn’t done so. The FDA still is working to ensure survivors of all 150 retroviral gene therapy studies ever done are notified of the French case, Noguchi said. 

People signing up for future retroviral gene therapy for any disease must be more strongly warned that leukemia is a risk — with specific discussion of the French case, the advisers added. 

Babies with SCID are born without the ability to produce disease-fighting immune cells. The best known victim was David, Houston’s famous “bubble boy” who lived in a germ-proof enclosure until his death at age 12 in 1984. 

There are some SCID treatments, including bone marrow transplants that can allow patients to live normal lives. But transplant success varies widely, and many children still die young. 

So Fischer generated great excitement when his gene therapy apparently cured nine of the 11 children he treated, all with the most severe type of SCID-type, called X-SCID, that afflicts only boys. 

Similar U.S. studies poised to begin have been put on hold. 

Fischer took bone marrow from the boys and culled from it skin cells that are supposed to create blood cells. He mixed in a retrovirus containing the immune-creating gene their bodies lacked, and reinjected the stem cells, which in nine boys started working properly. 

Intricate molecular studies of the toddler who got the leukemia-like illness three years after his gene therapy found the virus that delivered the SCID-curing gene also inserted itself into numerous other spots on cells, including a leukemia-promoting gene. 

That alone likely wasn’t enough to sicken him, several scientists said, but may have been the final piece of bad luck on top of a family predisposition to cancer and other still unknown factors. 

Something’s missing at the new Sun Valley Charter High School in Ramona, Calif. There are no textbooks, only computers. 

That means students there don’t have to lug heavy backpacks — a familiar ritual for many young Americans who carry books from class to class and home at day’s end. 

Growing back pain complaints prompted a new California law limiting textbook weight. But some say assignments drawn from the Internet, “e-books” or CD-ROMs will be the real solution. 

“It’s not the wave of the future; it’s the wave of the present,” says David Tarr, executive director — instead of principal — at Sun Valley High, a public school near San Diego. 

Officials there used money normally spent on textbooks for computers. The new school’s first students — about 60 incoming freshmen — get assignments from such services as Cuestia.com, an online library, and Interactive Mathematics, curriculum on computer CD. 

It sounds nice, but unrealistic to Monika Rohall, a 15-year-old Chicagoan. “What about kids who don’t have fast-running computers at home?” she asks. 

A freshman at Chicago’s towering Lane Tech High School, she’s stuck navigating four flights of stairs with all her books because she has no time to get to her locker between classes. Back pain from her overloaded pack has caused her to quit the volleyball team. 

Such health problems are increasingly common, says Grace Walker, a registered physical therapist in Orange, Calif. 

Each year, she and other practitioners say they’re seeing more young people with backpack-related pain. In severe cases, it can lead to curvature of the spine. 

Some students have found solutions. 

Megan Brychcy, a high school senior in Perry, Ga., says a different kind of book bag — one with a single padded strap intended for one shoulder — helped her. 

Walker’s 12-year-old son uses a rolling backpack, dragged on wheels behind him. His mom also buys extra textbooks to keep at home. 

“Fortunately, I can afford to do that,” Walker says. “Most people can’t.” 

That’s not an issue at Sun Valley High, the California school. Sometimes, students there print out assignments to take home. And if homework requires a computer, they can use the schools’ machines after school. 

Still, in some lower-income districts, textbooks — let alone computers — are already scarce. 

Elementary students in some Chicago Public Schools, for example, aren’t allowed to take textbooks home for fear they’ll get lost or stolen. Students often copy assignments out of textbooks. 

Such funding shortages make CD-ROMs and desktop computers seem unattainable. 

“Clearly, electronic delivery will make this problem go away. But I think we’re a number of years away from that,” says Stephen Driesler, executive director of the Association of American Publishers’ school division, a trade organization for textbook publishers. 

Still others believe that, with wider use, high-tech devices will be cheaper than costly-to-print textbooks. 

That’s why, last spring, Richard Bellaver asked his graduate students at Ball State University to test e-books, hand-held devices that present electronic text and pictures. He says the average scores of students who studied only with e-books and those who used traditional textbooks were virtually the same.

SACRAMENTO — Saying the energy crisis no longer threatens Californians, an anti-tax group sued Gov. Gray Davis Thursday to end the state of emergency the governor declared nearly two years ago. 

The declaration of a state of emergency gives the governor extraordinary powers, and the National Tax Limitation Committee said there’s no longer any reason for Davis to have that authority. 

“In January of last year, the governor declared an energy emergency. Now that energy crisis and emergency has long since disappeared,” said Lewis Uhler, the group’s president. 

Uhler said his organization had asked in a letter for Davis to “rescind his energy declaration and frankly, the incredible and unilateral powers granted the governor under that emergency.” 

The governor has not called off the energy emergency because the state is in a transition period as it prepares to exit the energy business, said Davis.

Vista Community College wants a home, and soon, the 28-year-old Berkeley school should have one. 

Vista, which serves 4,500 students per semester, currently rents three crowded, sometimes stuffy buildings in downtown Berkeley at an annual rate of $1.1 million. 

But on Oct. 23 the school, one of four colleges in the East Bay’s Peralta Community College District, will break ground on a new $65 million, state-of-the art, six-story downtown campus at 2050 Center St. 

“I think it’s going to have a profound impact,” said Daryl Moore, vice president of the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees. “For once, Vista Community College will have a permanent residence.” 

Vista spokesperson Shirley Fogarino said the new campus will improve the student experience and provide space for lectures, film festivals and other community events that the current facilities can’t accommodate. 

“The students are packed in every hour of the day from eight in the morning to 10 at night,” Fogarino said. 

The October groundbreaking will be largely symbolic. Vista, the only Peralta college without a permanent home, has not yet hired a construction firm and work is not slated to begin until late next year. But, officials expect the project to be complete in the fall of 2005, with a spring 2006 move-in date. 

The new building has its roots in the intense “de-annexation” controversy of the mid- to late-1990s. 

At the time, local politicians and activists, including current mayoral candidate Tom Bates, argued that the Peralta district was neglecting Vista and pushed for secession. Opponents said the move would only harm Vista and the larger district. 

The de-annexation battle eventually made its way up to the state level in 1998, when the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges directed Peralta and the de-annexation petitioners to reach a settlement. 

The final agreement included a pledge to hire two new faculty per year for 10 years, getting Vista on par with the other Peralta colleges, and constructing a permanent home for the school. 

The district will draw $51.5 million from three separate construction bonds approved by Peralta district voters in the past ten years to fund most of the project.  

Officials hope to win the remaining $13.5 million through passage of Proposition 47, a statewide, $13 billion school construction bond on the ballot in November. Fogarino said the college has a “plan B and plan C” if California voters reject Proposition 47, but did not provide details. 

Officials said they have enjoyed significant community support for the project, but acknowledge that a lack of parking on site has raised concerns in the congested city. 

Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier said the city is currently in preliminary talks with Vista about providing cash payments to Berkeley in lieu of parking.  

Fogarino said the absence of parking lots should spur use of public transportation with BART and AC Transit lines only a few blocks away. 

Tom Patterson of Ratcliff, the Emeryville architecture firm working on the project, said constructing an entire campus in one downtown building poses challenges around creating a sense of community. 

In an effort to foster campus life outside the classroom, Patterson said, Ratcliff designed a full-height, sky-lit atrium at the heart of the complex as a meeting space for students, faculty and staff. 

An administrative wing will sit on one side of the atrium and a larger academic wing will sit on the other side. The building will also include a library and a 250-seat assembly space. 

Patterson said Ratcliff has designed the building such that Vista can adjust the facility as its educational needs change over the years. 

Michael Mills, a long-time political science and history teacher at the college, said he is looking forward to leaving Vista’s current tight quarters behind. 

“It’s remarkable that students come to Vista at all considering where we teach,” he said. 

“All I really want is an environment for students that has adequate ventilation and isn’t cramped,” Mills continued. “We’re not asking for much.”

To the Editor: 

The Berkeley City Council has shown wisdom and foresight in unanimously passing a pro-peace resolution which supports Representative Barbara Lee’s “Alternatives to War” amendment (Daily Planet, Sept. 9). Members of the council have now added their voices to the global outcry against a pre-emptive strike on Iraq; they join Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the World Council of Churches, the California Federation of Teachers, most of the Bay Area’s congressional representatives, as well as statesmen and diplomats around the world who have expressed grave concerns about the imminent threat of war. As Congress debates this issue, Americans need to ask themselves what kind of future we are creating. Do we want the United States to work cooperatively, as a member of the world community, acting through the United Nations to seek solutions for the problems of poverty, violence, terrorism, global warming, and environmental pollution which confront us all? Or, do we wish to dominate and control the rest of the world through aggression and intimidation, ignoring international law, breaking treaties and agreements, departing from conventional codes of morality and making corporate profit the basis of our foreign policy? Since the combined nuclear arsenals of the world can now easily annihilate all human life, shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to prevent war and promote mutual disarmament? Let’s lead the world in seeking peaceful resolutions to conflict instead of preparing for endless war. 

Diana Perry 

Berkeley

A photography exhibit in downtown Berkeley, commissioned by the Alameda County Community Food Bank, will present startling images of the many faces of hunger throughout the month of October. The 40 photograph exhibit titled “Hunger: What Will You Do About It?” by Berkeley-based documentary photographer David Bacon, will be held at the Civic Center at 2180 Milvia St., and in the Police Review Commission lobby at 1900 Addison St.  

The images in the exhibit show the poor clients and hard-working volunteers of the food bank, which distributes millions of pounds of food each year to the East Bay hungry. 

“The whole idea of the show was to document the programs and to show the people who were trying to [make] change,” said Bacon. 

Captions below the photographs add information and statistics. 

“In half of client households with children, either a parent or child, or both, experience hunger,” reads one caption. “Fresh fruit and vegetables are costly and difficult for food bank agencies to provide, yet vital to proper health,” reads another. 

The photographs were commissioned for an emergency food report, called “Hunger, the Faces and Facts.” 

As part of a national study coordinated by America’s Second Harvest, a network of community food banks across the country, the Alameda County Community Food Bank surveyed a random selection of its clients in 2001. Not surprisingly, the results show that with the many economic fluctuations of the last five years, the numbers of clients requiring emergency food has risen. 

A large portion, nearly 43 percent, of food bank recipients are children, the report states. Executive Director Susan Bateman said parents are usually reluctant to admit that their children go to bed hungry, but the study found many parents confessing to a lack of food in their homes. 

Likewise, a sense of shame often prohibits senior citizens from asking for food said Bateman. Often the poor, due to the financial strain of illness and rising Bay Area rents, find it “hard to say they need help,” she said. “Many seniors have worked their whole lives.” 

The Community Food Bank is not a government agency, meaning it does not distribute food stamps or welfare money. It is a charitable non-profit organization distributing food to soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters throughout the East Bay. 

Despite common misconceptions, the Food Bank’s clients are not just the homeless and jobless. The report states that 37 percent of households who receive emergency food have at least one employed adult.  

The report also describes the inequality of wage increases for lower-income workers. According to the report, between 1990 and 1999, wages for college-educated workers increased 5 percent, while those without a degree had an average wage decrease of the same amount.  

“One of the things that bothers me is depicting these people as victims,” said photographer Bacon. 

The pictures show smiling kids sitting at soup kitchen tables, families reclining on couches in their homes, and volunteers unloading cans of pinto beans and bagging crackers for distribution. 

Mounted next to some photos are printed stories behind selected people, like Katherine McGrue, a single mother of two, part-time worker and full-time student, who was denied food stamps, and client Vivien Hain, who traveled to Sacramento on Hunger Action Day to speak with government representatives. 

The show has a notable lack of images of shockingly thin people in ramshackle squats or the kind of grotesque dead-eyed hollowness in a Sally Struthers’ television ad. 

“I’m trying to get away from what seems manipulative,” said Bacon. “Hunger is not an individual problem. It’s a problem with society.” 

Bacon, who has documented poverty in the Philippines and farmworker’s rights struggles in California, said questions of hunger are as much for the general public’s consciousness as they are of public policy. 

“Even the people at the food bank will tell you they will not be able to end hunger by organizing food banks,” said Bacon. 

To meet America’s Second Harvest’s goal of ending hunger in American, the Alameda County Food Bank’s report makes recommendations to support sustainable wages, increase affordable housing and offer basic health care to low-income families. 

Both Bacon and Bateman said they hope the show’s placement in the 1900 Addison St. and 2180 Milvia St. buildings, where it will be seen mostly by city officials roaming the hallways, will have an affect on public policy.  

To see the photos in the Civic Center, you must sign in at the lobby, take the elevator to the third floor, then ask the receptionist to escort you to the door of the Rosebud conference room. 

The photography exhibit will remain in the Police Review Commission office and the Rosebud conference room until Oct. 30. It then is scheduled to be displayed in Emeryville at the new Bay Street urban village for the holiday season.

Thursday, Oct. 10 

Public School Finance Discussion League of Women Voters 

Noon to 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 

843-8824 

Free 

Natural Building and Permaculture Slide Show 

7 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

Slide show and presentation by Kat Steele and Erin Fisher. 

548-2220 x233 

Free 

Grandparent Support Group 

10 to 11:30 a.m. 

Malcom X Elementary Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Rm.105A 

644-6517 

Free 

Come and Take a New Look at the Catholic Church 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

Norton Hall at St. Mary Magdalen Parish, 2005 Berry St.  

For those feeling alienated from the Catholic Church, combined teams from four parishes offer this opportunity to ask questions and talk.  

653-8631 

Friday, Oct. 11 

Celebration of completion of the “Channing and Popai Liem Archival Collection” 

6 p.m. Reception 

7 p.m. Program begins 

Morrison Room, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley 

UC Berkeley’s first Korean American archive has been completed. 

“Iraq and the Looming War” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Professor Bruce E. Cain, PhD, department of political science at UC Berkeley will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

Indigenous People’s Day 

7:30 a.m. 

Shellmound run to the Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow - 1st Annual Run 

615-0603 

Free 

Autumnal Equinox Picnic 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

“Big Leaf” field in Tilden Park 

East Bay Atheists host this day of fun, food, and games. 

652-8350 

$5 donation 

“Toward Realizing Our Dream: Overcoming the Obstacles to Korea’s Peaceful Reunification” 

1 p.m. 

Morrison Room, Bancroft Library  

UC Berkeley 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee speaks,  

followed by guest speakers and a reception. 

See Elephants Fly 

Noon to 5 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science,  

Centennial Drive above the UC Berkeley campus. 

A day of special activities and events about the Asian elephant and the Asian cultures where these beasts live. 

643-5961  

babcock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

$8 adults. $6 youth 5-18. $4 for 3-4 

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 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet  

1 p.m. 

Hs Lordship’s Restaurant, 199 Seawall Dr., Berkeley Marina 

531-1729 

$40 reservations required 

Celebrate the Lives of Photographers Galen Avery Rowell and Barbara Cushman Rowell 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way 

Speakers include Conrad Anker, Kathryn Fuller, Bob Hansen and more, with special messages from Tom Brokaw and novelist Barry Lopez 

644-8957 

October Swimfest 

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

Willard Pool, 2701 Telegraph Ave. 

Come out to swim, laugh, float and make a splash, while showing support for keeping Willard Pool open year-round. 

981-5150 

$4.20 general / $1.50 seniors and children 

Thursday, Oct. 10 

M Headphone w/ Lowrise 

8:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

Rilo Kiley (saddle creek) and Arlo (subpop) 

5:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over 

Kira Allen 

6:30 p.m. Open mic sign-up 

7:00 p.m. Reading 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Presented by Rhythm & Muse 

527-9753 

Free / donations accepted 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

Jenna Mammina and Andre Bush 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Jazz standards, obscure cover tunes and original compositions. 

845-5373 

$10-$15. 

Thursday, Oct. 17 

Four minute mile and the avenue of the stars. 

8:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Santo Soul, La Familia, and Marimba Pacifica 

8 p.m. 

La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Music, dancing, folkloric presentations, and a raffle. 

548-6914 

$15 

Sunday, Oct. 20 

Madeline Eastman with  

the Matt Clark Trio 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Larry Schneider 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Internationally performing saxophonist. 

845-5373 

$10-$15 

“Please Pay Attention” 

Through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

"Balancing Acts" 

Through Oct. 10 

Gallery 555, 555 12th St., 

Oakland City Center 

Oakland's 'Third Thursday' art night  

features Ann Weber's works  

made of cardboard. 

http://www.oaklandcitycenter.com.  

Free 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work 

Though Oct. 13 

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way 

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.  

642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

$7. $5 BAM/PFA members 

$4 UC Berkeley students 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Oct. 13 through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free 

Misch Kohn - Celebrating  

60 Years of Printmaking 

Through Oct. 16. Tues.-Fri., Noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon to 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Arts Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

549-2977, kala@kala.org 

Nancy Salz 

Through Oct. 23, Tues.-Fri.,  

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Barbara Anderson Gallery, 2243 Fifth St. 

848-3822 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Reception Sept. 20, 6 to 8 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Oct. 6 through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free 

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 

Through Oct. 12 

Thurs. through Sat. 8 p.m. 

LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre  

1834 Euclid Ave. 

234-6046 

$10 

The House of Blue Leaves 

Through Oct. 20 

Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater  

2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or 888-4BRTTIX 

$10-$54 

Thursday, Oct. 10 

Daniel Wilkinson 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Wilkinson, author of “Silence on the Mountain” will present slide show. 

843-3533 

Free 

Friday, Oct. 11 

Beth Glick-Rieman 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadacia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave.  

at Colusa Circle 

Glick-Rieman shares her findings on the status of women around the world, reading from her book, “Peace Train to Beijing and Beyond”. 

559-9184 

Free 

Monday, Oct. 7 

Documentary Film - “Of Rights and Wrongs: The Threat to America’s Freedoms” 

12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Law School Center for Social Justice - 100 Boalt Hall 

642-4474 

Free. 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

“Antarctica and the Breath of Seals” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadacia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave.  

at Colusa Circle 

Lucy Jane Bledsoe presents a slide show based on travels in Antarctica. 

559-9184 

Free 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Working for the Mouse 

Fantasy about playing at Disneyland. 

8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. 

La Val’s Subterranean Theater  

1834 Euclid 

464-4468 

$12 general, $7 students 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Benefit screening for “Bums’ Paradise”  

8 p.m. screening followed by party with live music from Marc Black / Funky Sex Gods 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Film explores the story of the homeless men and women who turned the former Albany Landfill into a community. 

525-5054 

Sliding scale / All welcome 

“Behind the Bandbox” 

2 to 4 p.m. 

Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way 

This raw, controversial film, directed by Claire Bunch, spans ten years in the lives of three Berkeley street survivors. 

849-0153 

Free

The Cal Golden Bears have made themselves a most unwelcome guest so far this season, and they hope to keep up their rude ways on Saturday against USC. 

Cal has gone into two of the most hostile environments in college football, Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich. and Husky Stadium in Seattle, and come away with convincing wins each time. While the Bears have also managed two home victories, they have saved their best performances for the road in taking down then-No. 15 Michigan State and then-No. 12 Washington.  

Including last season’s finale at Rutgers, the Bears are riding a three-game road win streak, and have won their last three games when traveling to play USC. The No. 20 Trojans will be the third straight nationally-ranked road opponent for Cal, as tough a travel schedule as any in the country. 

The Bears’ road success may be linked to their miniscule home crowds. When coming from a laid-back Memorial Stadium crowd of less than 30,000, it’s understandable that the excitement outweighs the trepidation when playing in front of 70,000-plus crazed fans. With the Los Angeles Coliseum expecting a crowd in excess of 60,000 for Saturday’s matchup, the Bears will once again be surrounded by a sea of opposition fans. 

“Even when the crowd’s going against you, it still gets you juiced,” Cal senior cornerback Jemeel Powell said. “I love playing at home, but when we go away, it’s just a different atmosphere.” 

There’s little question that any college football player would rather play in front of a huge, loud audience than a scattered, sometimes distracted one. 

“Playing in front of that big crowd, that’s what you want every week,” senior wide receiver LaShaun Ward said. “It’s what you used to think about and dream about.” 

A whole bunch of the Bears will have even more motivation on Saturday against USC. Approximately half of the Cal players hail from southern California, with several of them choosing Cal over the Trojans. Although players like Powell and Ward are happy in Berkeley, they know there will be some extra attention on them come Saturday, both from the stands and the other sideline. 

“A lot of times you have old teammates or friends on [southern California] teams, and it makes for a more competitive atmosphere,” said Powell, whose mother bought 37 tickets for the game. “We don’t want to get beat by people we know. It’s worse than being beaten by strangers.” 

Other key Cal players from the bottom of the state including quarterback Kyle Boller, safety Nnamdi Asomugha and wide receiver Geoff McArthur. Boller expects a similar crowd to that of last year’s game at UCLA, where he had more than 100 friends and family in the stands, so there should be at least a smattering of blue and gold in the swarm of red at the Coliseum. 

The Bears have played both USC and UCLA tough in the past few years, including sweeps of the SoCal schools in both 1999 and 2000. While Cal suffered blowouts at the hands of both last season, the recent resurgence under new head coach Jeff Tedford undoubtedly has drawn attention from the rest of the Pac-10. Teams are taking the Bears seriously. 

“It’s just an extraordinary story what Tedford hs been able to do in such a short time,” USC head coach Pete Carroll said this week. “He’s got that team playing very well in all phases of the game.” 

So the Bears aren’t likely to sneak up on the Trojans, who will be in a bad mood after losing to Washington State in overtime last week. Both teams are 1-1 in conference play, and the winner of Saturday’s game will be headed in the right direction toward a bowl game while the loser will be facing a tough climb to the top of the standings. 

And for the Bears, there’s the possibility of seeing yet another huge crowd filing out of the stadium in silence, perhaps even before the final whistle with their team hopelessly behind on the scoreboard. 

“When you can shut them up, all those people, it’s just a great feeling,” Ward said. 

Notes: Boller was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against Washington. The senior threw for a career-high five touchdowns against the Huskies... Starting wide receivers Geoff McArthur and Jonathon Makonnen are both day-to-day with hamstring injuries. McArthur took part in just two plays against Washington after straining his hamstring in practice last week, while Makonnen suffered his injury during the game. Junior Vincent Strang filled in for McArthur and caught two passes, including a 55-yard touchdown... Junior guard Jon Geisel is questionable for Saturday’s game. Geisel missed the Washington game, with David Hays filling in... Tedford praised true freshman Donnie McCleskey for his play at rover against Washington. “Donnie gives 100 percent every single snap,” Tedford said. “We don’t lose much with him in there.” The usual starter, Nnamdi Asomugha, played cornerback for most of the game to match up with huge WR Reggie Wiliams... USC safety Troy Polamalu, who Carroll calls his team’s “best football player,” is questionable for Saturday’s game after suffering an injury against Washington State last week. Tedford said he expects Polamalu to play.

Berkeley’s lofty goal of recycling 75 percent of its waste might be in jeopardy. But city officials will soon have a chance to do something about it. 

The property where a two decade-old recycling center sits, on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Dwight ways, is for sale. Realtor Peter McNally says that after shopping the property for eight months, he is prepared to offer the 8,700-square-foot lot to the city at the asking price of $485,000. 

McNally said a city purchase is the best chance to preserve the property as a recycling center. 

The recycling center accepts roughly 100 tons of recyclables every month – about one-tenth of the city’s total – and is crucial to Berkeley achieving its stated recycling goals said Dave Williamson of the Berkeley-based Ecology Center. 

“It would definitely hamper the effort to reach 75 percent,” he said. “It’s a vital disposal option for people who have too many recyclables for curbside recycling.” 

The center, operated by nonprofit Community Conservation Center (CCC), is one of two Berkeley recycling facilities operated by the group. However, south Berkeley residents say the other facility at Second and Gillman streets is too inconvenient for them to get to.  

“I don’t know if I would bother to go all the way to Gillman,” said Andrew Hwang, who added that the recycling bins at his apartment complex were usually full or used for garbage by neighbors, forcing him to recycle at the south Berkeley center. 

Jeff Belchamber, general manager for CCC, said he has broached a possible purchase with city staff, who said that they would consider the option. 

He noted that because the recycling center pays only about $1,000 in monthly rent, a private buyer would be unlikely to renew the center’s month-to-month lease. 

The property came up for sale recently, Belchamber said, after the longtime owner died. 

Belchamber said he hoped the city might be able to negotiate a lower sale price, considering the poor state of the economy and environmental problems at the site stemming from an old gas station. 

“We don’t think a developer is going to invest a half million dollars [on a polluted property],” he said. He noted that a previous deal to sell the lot to a developer of lofts fell through after soil samples showed contamination, requiring costly cleanup. 

Both Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Kriss Worthington said Tuesday they were not aware that purchasing the lot was an option for the city. 

If the lot is sold to a private developer, Belchamber said the recycling center is not likely to find another south Berkeley home. 

“Were not a revenue generator, so it would be difficult to find another location,” he said.

To the Editor: 

There are those who believe that Berkeley’s City Council should not get involved in foreign policy/national/international issues. I am not one of them. Although I am a resident of Berkeley, I am also a citizen of this nation and a member of the international community. As individuals, and as a community, we are affected by world events and government decisions occurring outside our local boundaries. 

I am proud that Dona Spring and the other progressive council members have had the courage for years to speak out and to express to the nation that our city government and the citizens it represents are concerned citizens who not only care about our own community but also care about the lives of others. I have heard repeatedly from friends throughout the nation how inspired and envious they are of our community and how they wish their own local governments had the courage and concern to do the same. 

Now, Polly Armstrong and Miriam Hawley have finally recognized the importance of our foreign policy concerns as a community by following in the footsteps of their progressive colleagues by co-sponsoring an item on the council’s agenda in hopes of avoiding war (Forum, Sept. 3) and I applaud their efforts. 

Steve Mackouse 

Berkeley 

He’s 22 years old. He’s a graduate student at UC Berkeley. And he could be your next City Councilmember. 

Andy Katz, one of three candidates vying for retiring Councilmember Polly Armstrong’s 8th District seat, has been a politician since high school, when he served on the San Mateo Union High School District school board. 

Katz spent his undergraduate years at UC Berkeley working on community issues and pressing the flesh. And now with Election Day a month away, he has lined up more than 1,000 endorsements – essentially, a who’s who of progressive politicians in Berkeley. 

“He has a stunning record of achievement for someone his age,” said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who appointed Katz to the Zoning Adjustments Board last year and has endorsed the student’s candidacy. “He’s been very actively involved in housing and transportation and public safety issues.” 

Progressives, who currently hold a 5-4 edge over the moderates on City Council, see Katz’s candidacy as a boon to their side. 

Katz, who would be the first student to win a seat on the council since Nancy Skinner in 1984, touts the backing of liberal figures like Worthington and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. He also takes a strong stand on progressive issues like the environment and tenants’ rights. 

But he resists the “progressive” label and insists that he has broad appeal in the district, which stretches south of the UC Berkeley campus through the hills. The district has repeatedly elected moderate candidates like Armstrong to office. 

“I’m much more concerned about issues than labels,” said Katz. “There’s a lot of people who care about the issues like I do.” 

Katz said he just wants to make Berkeley work, and he talks fluidly about the ins and outs of bread-and-butter issues like traffic, housing and public safety. 

Planning commissioner Gordon Wozniak, who will face off with Katz and human rights consultant Anne Wagley for the 8th District seat next month, said there has been a lot of overlap on the issues on the campaign trail. 

But, he said there is a fundamental difference between Katz and himself. 

“I have a lot more experience,” said Wozniak, who has the backing of moderates. “I’ve lived in the district for more than 30 years.” 

Katz brushes off questions of experience, arguing that he has done real work on district issues. In 1999, Katz notes, he helped to negotiate AC Transit bus passes for UC Berkeley students. The passes, he said, have helped reduce traffic in the neighborhood. 

Katz said his record has helped dispel voter concerns about his age. 

“When I tell voters about my experience working on city issues and let them know how I’ve worked with city leaders... I overcome those barriers very quickly,” he said. 

But Armstrong, who is supporting Wozniak, argued that Katz’s electoral base is among students and predicted that he will have trouble mobilizing support. 

“On Election Day, it’s really hard to get students organized to vote in big numbers,” she said. 

Katz said he is working hard to enroll student voters and get them to the polls. But, he said that he is meeting with community groups throughout the district and argued that his appeal goes beyond the UC Berkeley campus. 

Armstrong also predicted that Katz and Wagley will split the progressive vote in the district and Wozniak will march to victory. 

But Wagley, who has focused much of her campaign on issues of open public process, argued that she falls outside the traditional “progressive” and “moderate” camps and rejected Armstrong’s prediction. 

Katz also took exception with the council members’ view.  

“There’s three candidates running,” Katz replied. “I’m looking to take at least 45 percent of the vote.” 

“I think the conventional wisdom would be because Gordon has so much money and moderate endorsements that he’s the one to beat,” said Worthington. “But Berkeley is not always as predictable as it could be.”

To the Editor: 

As a math teacher, Mr. Demery (Forum, Oct. 5-6) should understand that in mathematical terms, “act of war” is a subset of the larger set “terrorism.” All terrorism is not an act of war (read the definition of terrorism). Creating intense fear in any situation is an act of terrorism. Fire alarms certainly create intense fear in some if not many. I applaud Ms. Leventer (Berkeley High co-principal) labeling the malicious act of setting off fire alarms as an instance of terrorism. Ms. Leventer, an experienced, respected and successful teacher of mathematics before becoming a Berkeley High administrator, understands that those who have been through previous fires certainly experience intense fear when faced with repeating that event. 

Clif Erickson 

Berkeley

City Council took its first step Tuesday to ban smoking within 20 feet of any doorway or air intake vent on public buildings. Council unanimously passed the first reading of the anti-smoking ordinance. 

The measure requires owners of office buildings and shops to put up signs telling smokers not to light up outside their premises. Any smoker found to violate the ordinance would be subject to a $100 fine. 

Proponents say that workers are often exposed to dangerous secondhand smoke from coworkers who smoke outside their workplace. 

Under the pending ordinance, a smoker would still be allowed to walk past a public building with a lit cigarette but could not stop and smoke near a doorway. 

Several Bay Area cities have adopted similar ordinances. 

A second council vote is scheduled for Oct. 15. If the measure is passed then, the ordinance will take effect Nov. 14.

To the Editor: 

I often buy a rice cereal that has the words “Wheat-free” on the carton. It never occurred to me that this implied wheat was bad for people, only that some people are allergic to it and want to know which foods are safe for them. I think the biotech folks are being hypersensitive when they demand that Spectrum and others stop putting “GMO-free” on their labels (Daily Planet, Oct. 5-6). After all, people allergic to a certain food need to know that genes from that food have not been inserted into a food that was otherwise safe for them. This is the difference between biotech and traditional selective breeding methods, as the FDA very well knows.  

Nancy Schimmel 

Berkeley

SAN JOSE — Convicted Yosemite murderer Cary Stayner should die for his crimes, a jury decided Wednesday, rejecting defense pleas to show him mercy because of a traumatic childhood, mental illness and an inability to control his urges. 

The Santa Clara County Superior Court jury, which also sided with the prosecution in two earlier verdicts, deliberated less than six hours in the third and final phase of Stayner’s 13-week trial. 

The courtroom was silent as the decision was read, and Stayner showed no reaction. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12. An appeal in the case is automatic, and his lawyer said one of the main issues will be that Stayner’s parents weren’t allowed to detail his troubled upbringing. 

The killings terrorized communities along the rugged Sierra Nevada in 1999 and left a frightening human imprint on one of the most dramatic and serene landscapes in America as they went unsolved for more than five months. 

Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend, Silvina Pelosso, 16, vanished without a trace on a trip to Yosemite National Park in February 1999. The elder Sund, who once honeymooned at the park, took the girls there as a treat before Pelosso returned home. 

In snapshots taken the last day they were seen alive, the three posed happily beside snow-dusted meadows in Yosemite Valley, beneath granite monoliths and in front of cascading waterfalls. 

That night, Feb. 15, 1999, Stayner dashed plans for the future after noticing them through an open curtain in Room 509 in a remote corner of Cedar Lodge, where he worked as a handyman. The mother was reading a book, the girls were watching a videotape and according to his confession, Stayner saw “easy prey” to fulfill a longtime sexual fantasy that had turned violent. 

Carole Carrington, the mother of Carole Sund and grandmother of Juli, said she felt the verdict did not end their grief but marked the end to “part of the problem.” 

“Condemning Cary Stayner to death is not happy for anybody, but it’s justice,” she said. “I think there is definitely something wrong with Cary Stayner. I don’t think anyone kills four people that doesn’t have something very seriously wrong with them. But I don’t think he was insane, and I do think he knew what he was doing.” 

Stayner’s defense conceded at the outset of the trial in July that prosecutors had the right man, but they claimed he didn’t deserve to die because he was crazy, acting in the throes of a major mental illness. 

At each phase of the trial, new layers of Stayner’s psychiatric problems were revealed by expert witnesses and corroborated by friends, relatives and acquaintances who spoke of his lifelong hair pulling, his obsession with a bigfoot creature and the voices he said he couldn’t get out of his head. 

Stayner never testified, but the prosecution relied on his own words as its strongest evidence, using his lengthy tape-recorded confession each step of the way to show he was cunning, methodical and went to great lengths to cover his tracks. 

Stayner, 41, blocked his ears as the tape was played, as if he couldn’t bear to listen to his own voice calmly describing the violent acts. 

Stayner said he tricked his way into the tourists’ room by pretending to check for a leak and then pulled a gun and said he was a desperate man needing money and a car. 

He bound them with duct tape, and, with the girls in the bathroom, strangled Carole Sund and stuffed her body in the trunk of her rental car. 

He strangled Pelosso in the bathroom after she wouldn’t comply with his sexual demands and then spent the rest of the night molesting Juli and trying unsuccessfully — because he was impotent — to rape her. 

In the early morning, Stayner drove Juli to a scenic overlook at Don Pedro Lake and carried her “like a groom carrying a bride over the threshold” to a grassy hillside, where he sexually assaulted her one more time, told her he loved her and then slit her throat. 

After covering her body with brush, he drove the car miles away and abandoned it along a logging road. He returned later and torched it.

UC Berkeley lawyers agreed Wednesday to postpone student conduct hearings for 32 pro-Palestinian activists until the Alameda County Superior Court rules on a lawsuit filed by the students against the university. 

The suit, filed Monday, seeks to block the use of UC Berkeley police videos and reports in the hearings, which could yield punishments ranging up to expulsion. Superior Court Judge James Richman has scheduled a hearing on the suit for Oct. 28. 

The 32 students are among 79 activists who took over UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall April 9, demanding that the nine-campus University of California system divest from Israel. 

The Alameda County district attorney dropped criminal charges against the 79 protesters in June, but the university pursued separate student conduct charges against the 41 pupils involved.  

Nine of the 41 students have accepted a “stayed suspension,” essentially a one-semester probation, leaving 32 to face formal hearings. 

Lawyers for the students asked Judge Richman for an initial ruling in their favor Wednesday, but Richman said the issues, according to lawyers on both sides, were too complex for an immediate decision. 

Instead, Richman asked the students and university to come to a mutual agreement on a short-term solution before the Oct. 28 hearing. The university then agreed to hold off on hearings until a ruling is made on the suit. 

One student, Roberto Hernandez, is in the midst of his hearing. No other students have started proceedings yet.

Two Berkeley High School teachers may face disciplinary action for their role in a student’s detonation of a dry ice bomb on school grounds Wednesday afternoon. 

The bomb was made in a one liter Coca-Cola bottle and exploded outdoors next to the G Building on campus. Nobody was hurt in the explosion, said police information officer Mary Kusmiss. But, she noted that the force of such an explosion is strong enough to blow off a hand and the fragments from the shattered bottle could take out an eye. 

When dry ice, a gas, is mixed with a liquid in a sealed container it becomes volatile and eventually explodes. 

According to Kusmiss, a physics teacher gave students dry ice for a lab experiment and explained the science behind a bomb. 

A student then took his dry ice to a different teacher and asked if he could set off the bomb. The teacher gave permission and the student proceeded to set off the bomb out of doors at 2:34 p.m., Kusmiss said. Police were not sure if the second teacher was aware of the severity of the potential explosion. 

Police officers have spoken to both teachers, and the incident will be forwarded to the school district, Kusmiss said. Discipline for the student will also be left to school administrators.

n Grand Theft 

A musician had more than $10,000 in electronic equipment stolen from a rental pick-up truck parked on the 1900 block of Ashby Avenue Monday afternoon. According to police, the burglar was able to pry open the locking plastic cover above the truck bed. 

n Car theft 

A white, 1986 Porsche, license 3VGH696, was reported stolen at 4:06 a.m. Tuesday morning from the 2500 block of College Avenue.

Black, Hispanic and American Indian enrollment rose sharply at the University of California’s medical and law schools this fall, although the numbers still were below affirmative action levels. 

University officials say better recruitment, stronger outreach programs and the declining cost of housing in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles probably account for the increases. 

Preliminary figures released Wednesday show that 94 black, Hispanic or American Indian students — the three groups considered “underrepresented minorities” at UC — enrolled at the system’s five medical schools, comprising 16.5 percent of the overall class. That was a 38 percent increase from 2001 when there were 68 underrepresented minorities representing 11.9 percent of the overall class. 

The medical schools, at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco had a combined incoming class of 570 students. 

At the law schools of Berkeley, Davis and UCLA, 125 underrepresented minorities enrolled, comprising 16.2 percent of the class. That was a 39 percent increase over last year when 90 underrepresented minorities accounted for 11 percent of the class. In all, 772 students enrolled this year compared to 871 last year. 

Under the old affirmative action system, which ended in 1997, underrepresented minorities consistently made up more than 20 percent of law and medical school enrollments.

OAKLAND – A 14-year-old Oakland boy killed his mother's ex-boyfriend with a butcher knife on Monday as the man was attacking the boy's mother and sister, police said. 

The confrontation occurred on Monday at about 8:30 p.m. in a residence in the 1200 block of 62nd Avenue, when Mandi B. Coleman, 32, a barber from Pinole, showed up at his ex-girlfriend's home, according to police. 

“[Coleman] was very angry and assaulted her and grabbed her by the hair and was pulling her head back,” homicide Lt. Brian Thiem said. 

At that point, the woman's 12-year-old daughter jumped in and poked at Coleman with a broom in an attempt to stop the attack. 

Police said that Coleman hurled the girl to the floor and stomped on her face. 

The mother then grabbed the phone in an effort to call 911, but Coleman yanked the phone cord from the wall, police said. 

The woman's 14-year-old son then went to the kitchen and retrieved a butcher knife, police said. 

“While [Coleman] was engaged once again in assaulting the woman, the boy stabbed Mr. Coleman in the back,” Thiem said. The identities of the woman and her two children were not released. 

The woman then grabbed the children, fled from the residence and called the police from a payphone down the street. Coleman staggered from the home and ultimately fell to the ground and bled to death, police said. 

Thiem said homicide investigators spent the entire evening of the slaying interviewing the woman, her children and neighbors. After reviewing the case with a deputy district attorney by phone in the middle of the night, police decided not to seek prosecution of the boy. 

“We basically patted the 14-year-old boy on the head and told his mother to take him home,” Thiem said. “At this time everything points to a justifiable homicide.” 

Thiem would not talk about whether Coleman had a criminal history although he said the man was “known to police.” 

The slaying was the city's 86th homicide this year, police said.  

The city recorded 87 homicides in all of last year.

SAN FRANCISCO — A third mediation attempt to resolve the legal tug-of-war over San Francisco Giants’ star Barry Bonds’ 73rd home run ball failed Wednesday as both men claiming ownership of the historic shot could not reach a settlement. 

Retired Bay Area Judge Coleman Fannin tried in vain to get both sides to settle out of court, but lawyers for Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi said in a joint statement that the difference of opinion would have to be resolved at trial. 

“Parties had extensive confidential conversations but were unable to resolve or settle today. All were very pleased with Judge Fannin, but we are now proceeding to trial,” the statement read. 

Popov claims to have caught Bonds’ record-setting home run hit on Oct. 17 last year, only to have it wrestled from his grip by a surging crowd of fans and end up in the hands of Patrick Hayashi. 

Both sides have spent much of the week in and out of court, bickering over money, baseball, and ownership in a war of words that spilled over into the hallway outside of the San Francisco Superior Court of Judge Ronald Quidachay Monday. 

Hayashi said earlier this week he’s not willing to part with the ball without a court fight. 

“I value the ball just as much as he does,” Hayashi said. “If it goes to trial, that’s what will happen. I will be the owner of that ball.

Oakland car tricks continue 

OAKLAND – A Highland Hospital spokesman said a young man is in stable condition Wednesday after a south Oakland sideshow accident in which his car spun out of control, knocked down a small tree and then smashed into a telephone pole. 

The accident occurred only a few hours and a few miles apart from a separate incident in which alleged sideshow participants fired upon, but missed, a police officer as stopped their car for traffic violations. 

Water system on the brink 

SAN FRANCISCO — If a major earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay area and harms the Hetch Hetchy water system, the region could face an economic loss of more than $28 billion, the Bay Area Economic Forum reported. 

The report released Tuesday said the Hetch Hetchy system’s service disruption could leave customers without water or with severely rationed supplies for as long as two months. 

The group, which is an umbrella group of local government, business, labor and education representatives, encouraged adoption of a proposed $3.6 billion project to rebuild and expand the Hetch Hetchy waterworks that brings water to Bay Area residents. 

The Hetch Hetchy system, completed in 1934, is a 167-mile network of pipelines that collects and transports Tuolumne River runoff to the Bay Area. In 2000-01, it delivered nearly 260 million gallons of water per day to 29 water districts and 2.4 million residents and business customers.

SAN JOSE – Colleges around the country are buying millions of coasters that test for “date-rape” drugs in drinks. But some experts say the coasters are ineffective and could lead to more assaults by creating a false sense of security. 

The manufacturers – who also make fake snow and party foam – say the 40-cent paper coasters are 95 percent accurate. The coasters have test spots that are supposed to turn dark blue in about 30 seconds if a splash of alcohol contains drugs often used to incapacitate victims. 

In tests at the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, however, the coasters failed to react clearly to drinks spiked with gamma hydroxybutyrate, a major date-rape drug known as GHB, said forensic scientist Anne Gierlowski. 

“We tested red wine, cola, whiskey and orange juice and because three out of the four have color already, it was very hard to decipher a color change,” she said. “It’s a nice idea, but it’s probably a nicer idea for the people selling them because they’ve probably made a lot of money.” 

Plantation, Fla.-based Drink Safe Technologies Inc. has sold about 50 million of the coasters since March, mostly to colleges and convenience stores, said president Francisco Guerra. 

Guerra likens the coasters to condoms: While not 100 percent safe and effective, they are a good prevention tool. 

“I’ve had 100 people say this saved them from getting raped,” said Guerra, a former magician. “Before me, there was no way to detect it. It’s nice to be able to do something about it.” 

A federal task force recently estimated that college drinking leads to an estimated 70,000 sexual assaults or rapes annually. 

Yasmine Timberlake, a sophomore at San Jose State University, was grateful for the coasters handed out by the YWCA at a bar near campus. 

“We’re girls, and we’ve got to be careful,” she said, putting a handful in her purse. “That’s all we can do.” 

And students are now openly talking about date rape at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which bought 800 coasters to pass out to freshmen. 

“That’s the purpose: to educate them and to make them more aware,” said Donnie Jeffrey, who runs St. Mary’s alcohol-awareness program. 

The coasters’ labels promise they will help “identify the presence of illicit drugs in beverages.” But in response to questions from The Associated Press, co-inventor Brian Glover, a New York dentist who dabbles in chemistry, acknowledged that the coasters can identify just two of the many date-rape drugs – GHB and ketamine. 

There are 36 drugs on the street classified as date-rape drugs, too many for police field tests to detect, said Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles detective who is an authority on GHB. 

“I’m horrified to think people are actually buying it and passing it out. I think it will do more damage than it will ever do good,” said Porrata, a board member of Project GHB, a prevention and education organization. “If it was that simple, we could shut down all of our crime labs.”

LOS ANGELES – The Bush administration weighed in Wednesday on the contentious battle over California’s efforts to clean its air, joining automakers in arguing a state mandate that seeks to curb tailpipe emissions is pre-empted by federal law. 

In a friend of the courts brief, the Justice Department maintained that federal law overrides any state effort to regulate fuel economy for cars and trucks. 

In its 37-page filing with a federal appeals court in San Francisco, the department lawyers argued that California’s zero emission mandate impinges on what is solely a federal responsibility. 

“The Energy Policy and Conservation Act provides that when a federal fuel economy standard is in effect, a state or a political subdivision of a state may not adopt or enforce a law or regulation related to fuel economy standards,” the department argued. 

A spokeswoman for California state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the move dashed hopes the administration would cooperate with the state in its efforts to meet federal clean air standards. 

“It’s disappointing we have the Bush administration choosing to attack California instead of working with California to clean up our air,” said Lockyer spokeswoman Sandra Michioku. 

The 12-year-old zero-emissions mandate requires an increasing percentage of new cars and trucks sold in California emit no or extremely low levels of pollution. Under its provisions, automakers can partially meet the requirement by selling hybrids – fuel-efficient vehicles that pair a gasoline engine with an electric motor. 

General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler and several auto dealers sued the state in February over the mandate. They won a preliminary injunction in June delaying enforcement of the law, which was to have entered effect Jan. 1. They argued the mandate related to the setting of fuel economy standards, which only Congress can do. 

The state appealed the case, with environmental groups and others joining its cause. 

On Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. and U.S. Attorney John K. Vincent took the side of the plaintiffs in arguing the state was attempting to regulate fuel economy standards. 

The zero-emissions rule allows automakers to earn credits by selling more hybrids. The number of credits granted for each vehicle sold is decided by its fuel efficiency, according to the zero-emissions mandate.

SAN FRANCISCO – A lawyer for the California Department of Transportation argued to a federal appeals court in San Francisco Wednesday that the agency has a constitutional right to allow private citizens to hang American flags but not other kinds of banners on freeway overpasses. 

Caltrans attorney Daniel Weingarten told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “It’s a legitimate government practice to display the flag. This is our property.” 

Weingarten continued, “It is legitimate for a third party to display the flag as well.” 

The highway agency is appealing an injunction issued in January by San Jose U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte in a lawsuit filed by two Santa Cruz women whose banners were torn down from an overpass by police last year. 

Cassandra Brown and Amy Courtney hung the banners saying “At What Cost?” and “Are You Buying This War?” on a chain-link fence on a state Highway 17 overpass in Scotts Valley on Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 last year. The banners were hung in response to American flags placed on the fence by other citizens during the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. 

Scotts Valley police officers removed their banners but left the flags because Caltrans’ policy was to allow American flags but not other types of displays. 

Whyte’s injunction, granted in a free-speech lawsuit filed by Brown and Courtney in December, requires Caltrans to treat flags and banners equally. 

The two women said outside the courthouse Wednesday that that they considered the flag and banner displays to be a free-speech exchange of views on U.S. actions in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  

Brown and Courtney, who work on an organic farm in Santa Cruz County, said they have no objection to the flags, but contend the Constitution requires Caltrans either to allow both flags and banners or to ban both. 

Weingarten told a three-judge appeals panel that Caltrans has a longstanding policy of allowing flag displays but not other banners on overpasses. He argued that allowing citizens to place flags on Caltrans property is an extension of the agency’s own free-speech right to display flags on its property.tional feelings about flags,” Wheaton told the court. “The flag is pregnant with meaning.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — West Coast dockworkers headed back to work under court order Wednesday, facing a huge backlog of cargo that built up over 10 days but could take more than two months to clear. 

“Simply put, it’s more complicated to fix something than to break it,” said John Pachtner, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators. 

The 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were expected to begin reporting to work at 6 p.m., ending a lockout that shut down 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle and cost the nation’s fragile economy up to $2 billion a day by holding up exports and imports. 

President Bush intervened on Tuesday, obtaining an injunction to end the shutdown. 

Among the first cargo to be shipped will be perishables like seafood, meat and produce in refrigerated containers aboard some of the more than 200 ships anchored off the coast. After that, shipping companies will set their own priorities based on their customers’ needs and demand for cargo. 

The critical challenges will be lining up transportation on trucks, trains and planes, and finding enough longshoremen for what could be round-the-clock work, Pachtner said. 

“We need the ILWU to provide as many able-bodied people as possible who are fully productive,” he said. “That’s what will unclog the pipeline as soon as possible.” 

The lockout began after the maritime association accused union members of an illegal slowdown during contract talks. The dispute centers on the use of new waterfront technology that the union believes would eliminate jobs. 

On Tuesday, Bush became the first president in a quarter-century to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which allows a president to ask a federal court to stop a strike or lockout that imperils the nation’s health and safety. A federal judge in San Francisco issued the injunction. 

Dockworkers said they would go back to work, though many were unhappy about it and cited safety concerns, given the pressure to move items quickly. 

“We’ll work under our contract and under our safety book,” said Del Bates, vice president of ILWU Local 19 in Seattle. “I would think we shouldn’t blow through stop signs and shouldn’t have injuries and deaths.” 

The maritime association said employers would be looking for hundreds of additional workers. But even if all available workers labored at record pace, it could take up to 10 weeks to clear the backlog, association president Joseph Miniace said. 

Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad, sent extra cars to West Coast ports and opened a 24-hour “war room” in its dispatch center to give priority to eastbound shipments. 

Manufacturers hoped to get parts in time to avoid layoffs and shutdowns. 

“As soon as the (port) gates open, we think we can resume truck production by Friday morning,” said Michael Damer, a spokesman for New United Motor Manufacturing in Fremont. 

New United — the only major auto assembly plant west of the Rockies — had closed its assembly lines last week after exhausting its supply of parts usually shipped into Oakland. It resumed car production Monday using parts delivered by air from Japan. 

Some truckers said they would wait until the docks were working again before deciding how to proceed. “A lot of drivers aren’t going to go because it will be backed up,” said Stephanie Williams of the California Trucking Association. 

The truckers are a key link in the transportation chain because they haul cargo between the waterfront and inland storage points. 

After learning of the court order, trucker Juan Lopez, 44, drove five hours to the Port of Los Angeles from El Centro, hoping to drop off a load of hay bound for Japan. 

However, when he got to a berth in San Pedro, he was told no new containers were being accepted because the area was full. He turned around and went home, planning to return Friday. 

“Fortunetely hay won’t go bad,” he said. 

AP writers Justin Pritchard in San Francisco and Kate Berry in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday its financial recovery picked up steam in the third quarter as its popular Web site persuaded more visitors to pay for online services. 

The Sunnyvale-based company earned $28.9 million, or 5 cents per share, in the three months ended in September, reversing a loss of $24.1 million, or 4 cents per share, at the same time last year. 

The results were a penny better than the consensus estimate among analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. 

Yahoo’s third-quarter revenue totaled $248.8 million, a 50 percent improvement from last year. Excluding the boost that the company received from a jobs listing site acquired earlier this year, Yahoo said its third-quarter revenue rose 36 percent. 

One-third of Yahoo’s third-quarter revenue came from subscriptions and its employment listings service, HotJobs, an encouraging sign for a management team trying to make the company less dependent on advertising. 

The $83.1 million that Yahoo collected from fees and listings during the third quarter more than doubled from a year ago. Subscriptions accounted for about 66 percent of that gain, Yahoo said. The company ended the quarter with more than 1.5 million subscribers. 

“It is clear Yahoo is benefiting from the strategy and plan we laid down nearly a year ago and that our efforts to position the company for sustainable, profitable growth are paying off,” said Terry Semel, who became the company’s chief executive last year. 

Staggered by the dot-com meltdown that obliterated online advertising, Yahoo had suffered six consecutive quarterly losses before registering a profit during the spring. 

The turnaround efforts still haven’t won back investors who once made Yahoo one of Wall Street’s hottest stocks.

LOS ANGELES — A group that accused Gov. Gray Davis of illegal fund-raising retracted the allegation Wednesday as Republican opponent Bill Simon sought to contain political fallout from having turned the claim into a campaign issue. 

“It now appears that our original belief was erroneous,” the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs said in a statement issued late Wednesday. 

Davis had called on Simon to drop out of the race after Simon accused him of illegally accepting a campaign check inside the state Capitol in 1998 during his first run for governor. 

Simon’s evidence turned out to be two photos released Tuesday by COPS, one of his main backers, that he claimed showed then-Lt. Gov. Davis taking money in the lieutenant governor’s office. It is illegal to give or receive a campaign contribution in a state building. 

It became clear almost immediately, however, that the pictures were not taken in the lieutenant governor’s office. 

They were taken in a private home in Santa Monica, the home’s then-owner confirmed Wednesday. 

“We regret the impact this erroneous information has had in the Simon campaign and on the distraction of their message to the voters of California,” COPS said. 

Simon issued a short statement late Wednesday describing the confirmation by the owner of the Santa Monica home. 

“I accept this explanation. It now appears that the complaint of the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs was unfounded,” the statement said.

FREMONT – The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced today that a Fremont couple has been charged with 22 felony counts in connection with an allegedly fraudulent contracting company they owned and operated. 

Prosecutors say 59-year-old James Bray, also known as James Graves, and 56-year-old Martha Ortiz, also known as Martha Bray, are facing charges including grand theft, illegally using another's contractor license, worker's compensation insurance fraud, tax fraud and money laundering. 

According to the district attorney's office, the couple owned and operated a roofing company called Roofing Unlimited in Santa Clara County from 1997 to 1999. During that time, their company was allegedly operating under a fraudulently obtained contractor's license number while doing business. 

The alleged fraud came to light when roofing customers experienced leaks in their roofs, but were unable to contact or locate Roofing Unlimited to have repairs performed under the 10-year warranty provided by the defendants.

If you’ve driven on Interstate 80 and wondered about the scrawny statues in the waters off Emeryville and the Red Baron plane off the Berkeley coast, Tyler Hoare can explain. 

“As I was driving to Oakland I’d see these posts and thought they needed something on them,” said the Berkeley artist. With his 1975 San Francisco art show coming to a close and having no place to put up his work, he decided he would let the bay be his canvas. 

“I was bringing work back from the gallery and I knew I didn’t want to put them in storage,” Hoare said. “I figured if I put them on a post, a lot of people will see them and I’d have a lot of fun doing it.”  

Last weekend, Hoare was at it again. 

At age 62, with a full gray beard and loose fitting jeans and appearing as though he could hop a freight train as competently as he scales a wooden post, Hoare made his way to sea to replace his weather-worn statues. 

After his captain fastened the boat to the wooden posts off the East Bay shore, Hoare scaled the wood planks and hammered in his newest creations: three 6-foot, all white human statues made entirely of biodegradable cloth and wood. 

Although increasing frailty of the posts has forced him to opt for lightweight human statues, Hoare is most famous for a string of 14-foot long World War I-era planes that graced the wooden posts in the bay between Ashby and University avenues. 

To The Editor: 

As a Green Party member, Democratic Party operative Bill Mulholland’s remarks (Forum, Sept. 26) regarding Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo display not only smug arrogance but an utterly breathtaking contempt for California’s voters. 

As Mulholland confirms, Governor Gray Davis refuses to appear in any formal debate with Camejo and Republican Bill Simon together on the same stage. Davis’ behavior stands in stark contrast to that of his fellow Democratic Party statewide candidates seeking the offices of Secretary of State, Controller and Insurance Commissioner. Unlike Davis, all three of these Democratic candidates have agreed to scheduled debates with their respective Green and Republican party counterparts. This fact alone speaks volumes about Davis’ calculated cynicism and disrespect for California’s voters.  

What is Davis afraid of? Can’t he defend his record before the voters with or without Camejo on the same stage? 

Despite what can only be described as a mainstream media blackout of Camejo’s day-to-day campaign events and policy positions, Camejo, nonetheless, has achieved a breakthrough in receiving a 9 percent statewide vote according to a recent poll (as reported by the Daily Planet). If the state-level Democratic Party of California tolerates this, it should be ashamed. To find out more information about Peter Camejo’s campaign, visit www.votecamejo.org 

Chris Kavanagh 

Berkeley

Wednesday, Oct. 9 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival Tour 

3 p.m. 

Meet at Malcom X School  

1731 Prince St. 

Join the Berkeley Free Folk Festival for a tour of possible festival locations. 

649-1423 

Free. 

Thursday, Oct. 10 

Public School Finance Discussion - League of Women Voters 

Noon to 2 p.m. 

Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 

843-8824 

Free. 

Natural Building and Permaculture Slide Show 

7 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way 

Slide show and presentation by Kat Steele and Erin Fisher. 

548-2220 x233 

Free 

Grandparent Support Group 

10 to 11:30 a.m. 

Malcom X Elementary Arts & Academics School, 1731 Prince St. Rm.105A 

644-6517 

Free. 

Come and Take a New Look at the Catholic Church 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

Norton Hall at St. Mary Magdalen Parish, 2005 Berry St.  

For those feeling alienated from the Catholic Church, combined teams from four parishes offer this opportunity to ask questions and talk.  

653-8631 

Friday, Oct. 11 

Celebration of completion of the “Channing and Popai Liem Archival Collection” 

6 p.m. Reception 

7 p.m. Program begins 

Morrison Room, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley 

UC Berkeley’s first Korean American archive has been completed. 

“Iraq and the Looming War” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon, 12:30 p.m. speaker 

City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Professor Bruce E. Cain, PhD, department of political science at UC Berkeley will speak. 

526-2925 or 665-9020 

$11.50 or $12.50 luncheon 

$1 speaker only / students free 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

Indigenous Peoples Day 

7:30 a.m. 

Shellmound run to the Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow - 1st Annual Run 

615-0603 

Free 

Autumnal Equinox Picnic 

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

“Big Leaf” field in Tilden Park 

East Bay Atheists host this day of fun, food, and games. 

652-8350 

$5 donation 

“Toward Realizing Our Dream: Overcoming the Obstacles to Korea’s Peaceful Reunification” 

1 p.m. 

Morrison Room, Bancroft Library  

UC Berkeley 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee speaks,  

followed by guest speakers and a reception. 

See Elephants Fly 

Noon to 5 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science,  

Centennial Drive above the UC Berkeley campus. 

A day of special activities and events about the Asian elephant and the Asian cultures where these beasts live. 

643-5961  

babcock@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

$8 adults. $6 youth 5-18. $4 for 3-4. 

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. 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet  

1 p.m. 

Hs Lordship’s Restaurant, 199 Seawall Dr., Berkeley Marina 

531-1729 

$40 reservations required. 

Celebrate the Lives of Photographers Galen Avery Rowell and Barbara Cushman Rowell 

3 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way 

Speakers include Conrad Anker, Kathryn Fuller, Bob Hansen and more, with special messages from Tom Brokaw and novelist Barry Lopez 

644-8957 

October Swimfest 

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

Willard Pool, 2701 Telegraph Ave. 

Come out to swim, laugh, float and make a splash, while showing support for keeping Willard Pool open year-round. 

981-5150 

$4.20 general / $1.50 seniors and children 

Thursday, Oct. 10 

M Headphone w/ Lowrise 

8:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over. 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

Rilo Kiley (saddle creek) and Arlo (subpop) 

5:30 p.m. 

Bear’s Lair Brewpub 

704-4492 

$5, 18 and over. 

Kira Allen 

6:30 p.m. Open mic sign-up 

7:00 p.m. Reading 

Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Presented by Rhythm & Muse 

527-9753 

Free / donations accepted 

Sunday, Oct. 13 

Jenna Mammina and Andre Bush 

4:30 p.m. 

Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 

Jazz standards, obscure cover tunes and original compositions. 

845-5373 

$10-$15. 

“Please Pay Attention” 

Tuesday, Oct. 8 through Oct. 25 

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall 

UC Art graduates feature drawings, video, etc. 

DepartmentofArtPractice 

"Balancing Acts" 

Through Oct. 10 

Gallery 555, 555 12th St., 

Oakland City Center 

Oakland's 'Third Thursday' art night  

features Ann Weber's works  

made of cardboard. 

http://www.oaklandcitycenter.com.  

Free. 

Ceramics - Opening Reception 

Through Nov. 17 

3 to 5 p.m. 

A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. 

525-7621 

Free. 

“Hunger: What will you do about it?”  

Through Oct. 30  

Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Civic Center Building 

2180 Milvia St., 5th floor 

Featuring 40 photographs  

by Berkeley artist David Bacon. 

834-3663, Ext. 338,  

uchanse@secondharvest.org 

Richard Misrach, Berkeley Work 

Though Oct. 13 

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way 

On view in Gallery 2, presents two photographic series by this internationally recognized Berkeley-based artist.  

642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

$7. $5 BAM/PFA members.  

$4 UC Berkeley students. 

“Recent Acquisitions” 

Oct. 13 through Dec. 14 

Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 

848-0181 

Free. 

Misch Kohn - Celebrating  

60 Years of Printmaking 

Through Oct. 16. Tues.-Fri., Noon to 5:30 p.m.; Sat., noon to 4:30 p.m. 

Kala Arts Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

549-2977, kala@kala.org 

Nancy Salz 

Through Oct. 23, Tues.-Fri.,  

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Barbara Anderson Gallery, 2243 Fifth St. 

848-3822 

Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya 

Through Nov. 1  

Reception Sept. 20, 6 to 8 p.m. 

Gathering Tribes Gallery  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Acrylic/air brush paintings  

by this Native American artist.  

528-9038 

Threads: Five artists who  

use stitching to convey ideas 

Oct. 6 through Dec. 15, Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

Information: www.berkeleyartcenter.org, 644-6893 

Free. 

Alarms and Excursions 

Nov. 15 through Dec. 22 

Aurora Theatre Company,  

2081 Addison St. 

Michael Frayn's comedy about  

the irony of modern technology. 

843-4822, www.auroratheater.org for reservations 

$26 to $35. 

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 

Through Oct. 12 

Thurs. through Sat. 8 p.m. 

LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre  

1834 Euclid Ave. 

234-6046 

$10. 

The House of Blue Leaves 

Through Oct. 20 

Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater  

2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or 888-4BRTTIX 

$10-$54. 

Thursday, Oct. 10 

Daniel Wilkinson 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 

Wilkinson, author of “Silence on the Mountain” will present slide show. 

843-3533 

Free. 

Friday, Oct. 11 

Beth Glick-Rieman 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadacia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave.  

at Colusa Circle 

Glick-Rieman shares her findings on the status of women around the world, reading from her book, “Peace Train to Beijing and Beyond”. 

559-9184 

Free. 

Saturday, Oct. 12 

“Antarctica and the Breath of Seals” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadacia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave.  

at Colusa Circle 

Lucy Jane Bledsoe presents a slide show based on travels in Antarctica. 

559-9184 

Free. 

Friday, Oct. 18 

Working for the Mouse 

Fantasy about playing at Disneyland. 

8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. 

La Val’s Subterranean Theater  

1834 Euclid 

464-4468 

$12 general, $7 students. 

Sunday, Oct. 27 

Benefit screening for “Bums’ Paradise”  

8 p.m. screening followed by party with live music from Marc Black / Funky Sex Gods 

Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Film explores the story of the homeless men and women who turned the former Albany Landfill into a community. 

525-5054 

Sliding scale / All welcome. 

MINNEAPOLIS — Fifty-five thousand screaming fans on their feet, rocking the Metrodome and waving their Homer Hankies. Excellent pitching, timely hitting and a tense one-run game. 

The Minnesota Twins aren’t going to go away. 

They even grounded the high-flying Anaheim Angels, the team that broke all those offensive records last week against the New York Yankees. 

“Just so much energy, so much enthusiasm,” Joe Mays said after limiting Anaheim to four singles in eight innings and leading Minnesota to a 2-1 win Tuesday night in the opener of this improbable AL championship series. 

“Wow, that was just ... wow!” catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. 

The team that wasn’t supposed to make it to opening day isn’t a surprise anymore. Even Bud Selig knows that. After trying to kill off the team, the baseball commissioner showed up and saw Minnesota move within three wins of its first World Series in 11 years. 

“I’m glad he came out to give us some support,” Twins outfielder Torii Hunter said. “We won’t fault him for all of that that happened. Bud was just doing his job.” 

Signaling the time has come to forget the Yankees, Braves and other big spenders who have dominated the playoffs in recent years, the Twins showed just how dominant they are in the Metrodome, improving to 13-2 there in postseason play. Game 2 is in the dome Wednesday night, with Rick Reed pitching for the Twins against Ramon Ortiz. 

The Metrodome was festive and loud for its biggest baseball game since Oct. 27, 1991, when Jack Morris’ 10-inning shutout beat Atlanta 1-0 in Game 7 of the World Series. 

This was another tight one, with Anaheim’s Kevin Appier almost matching Mays. The Twins got just five hits and the Angels four, and the crowd was on its feet shouting during key points and throughout the ninth inning. 

“This is the game we play against Anaheim every time,” Pierzynski said. “One run, one way or the other, one pitch decides it. It’s exciting baseball. You can’t ask for much more as a fan or as a player.” 

Baseball owners had tried to fold the Twins along with the Montreal Expos last offseason, but were blocked by the Minnesota courts. Since then, the Twins have seemed intent on banging the gavel on all of baseball, wanting to force Selig to hand them the World Series trophy. 

“Contract-ula-tions Twins for a superb season/All the way for Bud’s sake” read one sign behind home plate. 

“I think the place had a lot of electricity in it. Obviously, the fans were into it,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “They looked like they were reacting to every pitch. I thought it was a great atmosphere.” 

Anaheim, too, is a surprise to be here. The Angels are seeking their first World Series appearance since joining the major leagues in 1961. 

Mays, hit hard by Oakland in Game 2 of the five-game division series, shut down the Angels, who hit .376 in their four-game victory over the four-time defending AL champion Yankees — the highest average by a team in any postseason series. 

“He had everything tonight,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He went right at the hitters and made them swing the bats.” 

Mays allowed only four hits and an unearned run caused by an error by shortstop Cristian Guzman. Mays, who threw 68 of 98 pitches for strikes, called it “the game of my career” and described the atmosphere as “overwhelming.” 

“There was just so much energy, so much enthusiasm in the crowd,” he said. “To go out there and give them a good game to watch — I think that gives them the reward.” 

Mays, who struck out three and walked none, came out after the eighth inning. He retired his final 13 batters but tightened up a little after the eighth and told his manager he wouldn’t mind if Eddie Guardado finished. 

“I would have given him the ball. He had the option to go back out there in the ninth,” Gardenhire said. 

Guardado struck out Darin Erstad leading off the ninth, then walked Tim Salmon. After Garret Anderson flied out, he threw a called third strike to Troy Glaus, who glared at plate umpire Ed Montague. 

“I asked him if it was down. He said ’No, it was a good pitch.’ I came back and looked at it on the film, and it was a good pitch,” Glaus said. “He was right.” 

Anaheim, whose .282 regular-season batting average led the major leagues, didn’t get a single leadoff man on and hit .129 (4-for-31). Last week, the Angels batted .361 against the Yankees with two-strike counts. They were 0-for-14 with two strikes against the Twins. 

“Everything was on the black,” said Adam Kennedy, who scored Anaheim’s only run. “We just didn’t pressure them tonight.” 

Appier, winless in four postseason appearances gave up two runs and five hits in five innings, but it wasn’t enough. 

Minnesota went ahead in the second when Hunter doubled, advanced on a wild pitch and came home on Pierzynski’s sacrifice fly. 

Anaheim tied it in the third on singles by Kennedy and David Eckstein, and the error by Guzman on a grounder by Erstad that stayed down on the slick artificial surface. Minnesota had the fewest errors in the major leagues during the regular season (74) and Anaheim (87) was second in the AL.

At least 3.000 cases of theft have occurred since December on Berkeley streets. That’s what city officials discovered last week when they reported missing and presumed stolen all of the bright orange flags intended for safety-wary pedestrians to brandish as they cross dangerous intersections. 

“You’d see them waving those flags like they’re a kid in a parade or something,” said Keith Tower, whose front door is only steps away from one of the city’s flag receptacles – now empty – at the corner of Russell Street and Claremont Avenue. 

The flags were put at intersections last year by city officials who hoped people would carry the flags across busy streets to alert cars of their presence and avoid accidents. But all over town, the flags have been thrown into trees, pitched into front yards and even taken home by children as playthings, city officials report. 

With nearly 3,000 flags missing from a total of four intersections, a second batch of 3,000 flags has been ordered and three additional flag-friendly intersections will be established. 

Traffic studies on Berkeley have shown conflicting reports on pedestrian safety, but one sobering fact is undeniable: Cars have injured 66 pedestrians this year and killed one, according to police. 

With the flag program the butt of many only-in-Berkeley jokes and with the city unable to keep the flags from being taken, many wonder why the program is being continued and even expanded. 

“I think it’s a little bit silly,” said Katy Bybel, manager of Elements clothing store, near the flag crossing point on College Avenue between Ashby Avenue and Russell Street. “It seems like people use [the flags] for fun and not because they make them feel safer.” 

The manager of the project says he will likely recommend that City Council shut down the program after the next set of flags disappears. 

“I see this as too labor-intensive,” said traffic engineer Reh-Lin Chen, referring to the fact that city crews must continually monitor and replenish the flags.  

At $6,000, not including labor and the second set of flags, Chen says that the flag project is a reasonable experiment, but is probably not cost-effective. 

The three new flag sites – University and Shattuck avenues; Shattuck Avenue between Cedar Street and Vine Street; and College Avenue and Russell Street – will be used to collect data on the effectiveness of the flags, he added.  

The city, though, is not pinning all its hopes on flags. A crosswalk with embedded, flashing lights is being planned at Ashby and Piedmont avenues, similar to one installed two years ago on Claremont Avenue at a cost of $25,000. The city also recently approved $50,000 for 25 intersections worth of signal lights that count down crossing time for pedestrians. 

In addition, Measure L on the November ballot calls for a 10-year property tax to pay for a slew of pedestrian safety devices, from old-fashioned traffic circles to high-tech lighted crosswalks. 

While officials are optimistic that the Measure L safety proposals will prove effective, the flags remain a subject of debate. 

“As a safety tool, I think it’s of slight value,” said Wendy Alfsen of the pedestrian advocacy group Berkeley Walk and Roll. Alfsen added that, at their best, the flags are somewhat useful educational tools. 

At their worst, the flags are nothing more than novelties. 

Children, like 2-year-old Ashlyn Aske, have been some of the most frequent flag users. “One time she wanted to keep the flag,” whispered Ashlyn’s mother, Tiffany. “We almost had a meltdown over that.” 

One parent who apparently was unwilling to deal with a potential meltdown let her child carry away one of the few remaining flags, according to a woman who did not want to give her name. 

The missing flags are among the least of law enforcement’s worries. The over-burdened police traffic division is primarily concerned with catching reckless drivers and parking meter vandals, said Sgt. Michael Holland of the Berkeley Police Department. 

In the last year, the eight-person traffic division has conducted seven pedestrian stings, handing out $104 tickets to more than 200 drivers who didn’t yield to undercover police officers in crosswalks. 

But the police can’t watch every intersection. So some people favor the flags because they let the pedestrians take a proactive about approach toward safety. 

Sierra Carter, who works at Bistro Liaon on the corner of Hearst and Shattuck avenues where flags were used, said she thinks the program is worthwhile, particularly for seniors and children.  

“Everyone’s in a hurry,” she said. “It’s horrible.” 

She admits, though, she never used the flags herself. When asked why, she smiled, realizing the irony of her explanation. 

“I guess I’m in too much of a hurry,” she said.

To the Editor: 

We would like to clarify the information in a letter written by a reader (Forum, Sept. 26). Mr. Tarses stated that chain coffee shops, like Starbucks and Peet’s, buy “green coffee” directly from growers and importers at an average price of 76 cents per pound. In actuality, as part of Starbucks long-standing commitment to farmers in origin countries, Starbucks pays on average $1.20 per pound, excluding freight, for the majority of our coffee. In addition, 74 percent of our green coffee has been purchased at outright prices in 2002, helping to ensure a stable price for farmers that is independent of the low prices in the coffee commodity markets. Also, in 2002, 59 percent of our coffee has been supplied directly from farms and co-ops, thereby eliminating “middlemen” and ensuring that farmers receive more of the purchase price we pay. 

As part of Starbucks commitment to origin countries, Starbucks purchases of organic, shade-grown, and Fair Trade certified coffees all contribute to greater social, economic and environmental sustainability of coffee production. 

Gerry Argue 

East Bay Regional Director 

Starbucks Coffee Company 

ST. LOUIS — Kirk Rueter’s smile just won’t go away. 

As a boy growing up across the Mississippi River rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals, he worshipped players like Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee. 

And now, the San Francisco Giants pitcher has to try to beat the team he favored for so long — albeit with different faces — in the biggest start of his life. And in the ballpark where his baseball obsession began. 

Rueter can barely keep up with the slew of ticket requests from his friends, a.k.a. “The Shed Boys,” and family. Even mere acquaintances are begging for a chance to see him play in his adopted hometown. 

Rueter has been running around frantically in the Giants’ clubhouse asking all his teammates for any extra tickets for Games 1 and 2 of the NL championship series Wednesday and Thursday at Busch Stadium. 

“I have to see how many friends I’ve got on the team,” he said. 

He’ll be on the mound for the opener of the best-of-seven series Wednesday against St. Louis right-hander Matt Morris. 

“It’s always good to be back,” said Rueter, who grew up about 45 miles to the east in Nashville, Ill., and now lives in nearby Hoyleton, Ill., a tiny town about 45 minutes from the stadium. 

“Just to get to sleep in my own bed and go see my shed and get to see all of the family and friends that I don’t get to see for eight months out of the year of the baseball season.” 

Ah yes, his shed. 

That would be “Woody’s Shed,” the place Rueter hangs with the “Shed Boys.” They throw big parties there. 

Giants manager Dusty Baker is convinced part of the reason Rueter pitches so well here is because of the Shed Boys. 

“He’s had a very good record, successful record here, and part of it was because the Shed Boys come to watch him,” Baker said. “I don’t know if you guys heard of the Shed Boys, but that’s a wooden shed that looks like a mansion. It’s a place where all of the sports stuff is. 

“All of the guys that go over to the shed, The Shed Boys, they come to watch him. And if he doesn’t pitch good, those Shed Boys give him stuff all winter.” 

The 31-year-old Rueter, a 14-game winner the past two seasons, is making his third career postseason start. He has been darn near dominant against the Cardinals. 

The left-hander has a 9-3 career record vs. St. Louis and an impressive 2.72 ERA. He’s been even better at Busch — 5-0 and 2.28.

Board of Education members Shirley Issel and Terry Doran traded jabs with four challengers over the school district’s financial management and high school reform efforts during a debate at Berkeley High School Monday night. 

Candidate Nancy Riddle, chief financial officer for Monster Cable of Brisbane, suggested that the board, which slashed millions last year and still faces a $3.9 million budget shortfall this year, has taken a haphazard approach to cuts. 

She said members must demand detailed budgets and a range of cost-cutting options rather than “highly summarized budgets” and a few recommendations for cuts from the superintendent’s office. 

Riddle also said the board needs to engage in long-term financial planning, rather than year-to-year cuts, if it hopes to get out of a constant cycle of financial crises. 

But Doran said the board has made important strides toward solving the district’s financial woes. 

“We are now, I believe, on the road to financial solvency,” he said, noting that the board has replaced most of the district’s top management in the past year and put a new data processing system in place that, he argued, will help the district erase the $3.9 million budget shortfall. 

Derick Miller, president of the PTA Council, an umbrella group for all the PTAs in the district, said the board should put an independent, internal auditor in place to watch the books. 

“We need good information,” he said. 

“I disagree that an [internal] auditor is going to help us,” Issel replied, arguing that annual audits by outside firms have pointed to district problems in the past. She said “capable leadership” on the board is the best way to steer the district out of its financial straits. 

The most pointed fiscal criticism came from physician and candidate Lance Montauk, who used a series of yard sticks to illustrate what he deemed out-of-whack spending priorities in the district. 

“I want to show you where these people have been spending your money,” he said, arguing that the district spends too much on administrative salaries and not enough on teachers and books. “I think it’s shameful.” 

Montauk also took a strong stand against Measure K, which will appear on the November ballot. Passage would increase school board members’ monthly salaries from $875 to $1,500. 

Supporters say the raise, which would come from city coffers, is long overdue and argue that board members could divert the increase to pay for a low-cost, likely part-time staffer. The board currently has no staff to conduct research or answer constituents’ calls. 

Montauk suggested that members do not deserve a raise given the current state of the district. 

Candidates also raised concerns about the shift from a seven- to a six-period day at the high school this year. Miller said the move has limited student choices and hasn’t saved the district a significant amount of money. 

“Making change without thinking carefully... is pretty stupid,” he said. “But we’ve been doing a lot of this lately.” 

Miller, who warned against the shift to a six-period day last year, called for greater community input in future budget-cutting decisions.  

District officials and school board members have long contended that last year was a special case because the district did not learn about the extent of its budget woes until January and had to move quickly on cuts. They say the public process will improve this year. 

The six candidates who took part in the Monday night debate, sponsored by the Berkeley High School Parent Teacher Student Association and the League of Women Voters, are vying for three slots on the five-member board. 

Candidate Sean Dugar, who graduated from Berkeley High last year, said he would bring youth to the board, appoint more community advisory committees and boost the high school’s ethnic studies programs. 

Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

To the Editor: 

I’m wondering about the City of Berkeley’s legal exposure because of the City Council’s refusal to turn on the already-installed traffic signals at the intersections of Stuart and Telegraph and Russell and Telegraph. These signals have been in place since before the start of school on August 28. There has been a contentious debate over the configuration of the traffic light sequences, and the City Council has decided that the signals will remain inoperative until the full deliberation process has been completed. 

In the meantime, scores of Willard Middle School children struggle to cross Telegraph Avenue each morning and each afternoon under very dangerous circumstances. The traffic is relentless, and many drivers are very aggressive and drive at excessive speeds. There is no question that the intersections could be made much safer for children and other pedestrians by turning on the traffic signals and using a temporary lighting sequence until the public decision-making process can agree on a permanent sequence. This is certainly the opinion of Peter Hillier, the city’s traffic engineer. 

Putting the decision-making process ahead of increased safety for children seems to me both a terrible mistake and morally wrong. I also believe that the City will be vulnerable to charges of gross negligence if a child or other pedestrian is injured or killed crossing either of those intersections. The City has the absolute capacity to make those intersections safer immediately and has deliberately chosen not to do so. 

My own son, Casey, was hit by a car eighteen months ago crossing Telegraph in a crosswalk on his way to Willard. He is in the eighth grade there this year, and he still has to cross Telegraph in fear. 

Bob Laird 

Berkeley 

To the Editor: 

I’m wondering about the City of Berkeley’s legal exposure because of the City Council’s refusal to turn on the already-installed traffic signals at the intersections of Stuart and Telegraph and Russell and Telegraph. These signals have been in place since before the start of school on August 28. There has been a contentious debate over the configuration of the traffic light sequences, and the City Council has decided that the signals will remain inoperative until the full deliberation process has been completed. 

In the meantime, scores of Willard Middle School children struggle to cross Telegraph Avenue each morning and each afternoon under very dangerous circumstances. The traffic is relentless, and many drivers are very aggressive and drive at excessive speeds. There is no question that the intersections could be made much safer for children and other pedestrians by turning on the traffic signals and using a temporary lighting sequence until the public decision-making process can agree on a permanent sequence. This is certainly the opinion of Peter Hillier, the city’s traffic engineer. 

Putting the decision-making process ahead of increased safety for children seems to me both a terrible mistake and morally wrong. I also believe that the City will be vulnerable to charges of gross negligence if a child or other pedestrian is injured or killed crossing either of those intersections. The City has the absolute capacity to make those intersections safer immediately and has deliberately chosen not to do so. 

My own son, Casey, was hit by a car eighteen months ago crossing Telegraph in a crosswalk on his way to Willard. He is in the eighth grade there this year, and he still has to cross Telegraph in fear. 

Bob Laird 

Berkeley 

MISSOULA — Troy Murphy had 16 points and 12 rebounds Tuesday night, leading Golden State past the Seattle SuperSonics 84-75 in the first exhibition game for new Warriors coach Mike Musselman. 

Mike Dunleavy, the Warriors’ No. 1 draft pick out of Duke, scored five points in 17 minutes as a reserve. Jason Richardson led the Warriors with 18 points while Desmond Mason paced the Sonics with 14. 

The 37-year-old Musselman is the youngest head coach in the NBA. The league’s second-youngest coach, is Seattle’s Nate McMillan, 38. 

The Sonics played without $60 million off-season acquisition Rashard Lewis, who strained his left shoulder in Monday night’s loss in Spokane, Wash. Lewis did not travel to Missoula. 

Golden State was without guard Bob Sura, who has a strained right calf. Seattle point guard Gary Payton had the night off. Kenny Anderson started in his place, scoring 8 points. 

Seattle tied it at 68-68 with 7:39 remaining, but Golden State pulled away at the foul line.

Lawyers for UC Berkeley pro-Palestinian activists filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court Monday, seeking to block the use of police reports and videos in student conduct hearings for 32 protesters who participated in the April 9 takeover of the university’s Wheeler Hall. 

The suit also alleges that UC Berkeley has violated several sections of the student code of conduct during the hearings, that could result in disciplinary action ranging up to expulsion. 

University lawyers call the suit baseless and premature and say they will fight it in court. Legal proceedings are scheduled to begin today. 

The 32 students were among 79 protesters who occupied Wheeler Hall in April, calling on the nine-campus University of California system to divest from Israel.  

The “Wheeler 79” faced criminal charges ranging from disturbing the peace to, in the case of one student, assaulting an officer. But the Alameda County District Attorney agreed to drop charges in June and issue a “factual finding of innocence” for all the accused. 

University officials decided to proceed, however, on a separate track, with student conduct charges against the 41 students involved in the takeover. Nine of the 41 accepted a one-semester “stayed suspension,” essentially probation, while the other 32 elected to go to hearings, according to the university.  

Students face penalties ranging up to expulsion, although the Office of Student Life has recommended nothing stiffer than suspension. 

The first hearing, for graduate student Roberto Hernandez, began last week, and university officials made use of police reports and videos.  

But student lawyers contend that the agreement reached with the district attorney, in the criminal proceeding, requires a sealing of all the defendants’ “records of arrest” – including the police reports and videos. As a result, they say, the reports and videos cannot be used in any setting, not even the student conduct hearings. 

However, Deputy District Attorney Stuart Hing, who approved the deal, said he never intended to sign an agreement that would inhibit the student conduct proceedings. 

Furthermore, UC Berkeley Assistant Chancellor for Legal Affairs Michael Smith, who is a lawyer, said the students’ attorneys are misreading the law. 

Smith said sealing any “records of arrest” simply means deleting any direct mention of arrest in the evidence. The university, in the midst of the Hernandez hearing last week, deleted any direct reference to his arrest in the police report and other documents. Smith, however, said other portions of an activist’s police report, describing the protester’s behavior, can remain as evidence. 

“That’s crap,” said defense attorney Dan Siegel, arguing that a police report and a video depicting students dragged away by police officers are clearly records of arrest. “If the university’s contention was correct, the law wouldn’t mean anything.” 

University attorney Jeff Blair acknowledged that there may be a “gray area” as to what constitutes a record of arrest, but said the student lawyers are going too far. 

“Their view is you have to light a match to every record that exists,” he said. 

Lawyers for the students are also claiming that the university has violated several sections of the student code of conduct: providing Hernandez with a belated notice of a change of venue for his hearing, refusing to grant the student an open hearing, providing an improper committee to hear the case and denying the defense’s right to a copy of the audio tape of the proceedings. 

Assistant Chancellor Smith said the students will be hard-pressed to show that shifting the site of the hearing two days before it began had any effect on the outcome. He also pointed to a section of the student code of conduct that allows the university to deny an open hearing to preserve order. Smith said the university had received word of student plans to disrupt the hearings. 

Siegel replied that it is inappropriate to speculate on a disruption before it happens. 

Blair, the university attorney, said the suit is premature. He said the defense, according to the law, must exhaust all “administrative remedies” before going to court. In other words, he said, the defense must give the university time to correct any of its alleged violations of the student code of conduct before taking the case to a judge.  

Blair also said the defense must let the hearings play out to determine whether any of the alleged violations actually had an impact on the outcomes. Only then, he said, could the defense pursue remedies in court. 

But Siegel said he will argue that some of the students’ rights, such as the right to a public hearing, cannot be remedied after the fact and that the judge should take immediate action to fix the problem. 

Students’ attorneys, in a more far-flung appeal, will also ask Superior Court judge James Richman to invalidate the hearings altogether since protesters were found innocent of similar criminal charges.  

But university lawyers say the student conduct hearings are completely separate from the criminal proceedings, with different standards of proof and cannot be compared. 

“I think that’s an arguable position,” Siegel acknowledged. “That’s something for a judge to decide.” 

To the Editor: 

Coming from Manhattan, I find nothing wrong with clustering tall buildings around BART stations. What is wrong is a City Council that ignores citizens and allows developers to defraud the city. 

In return for promises to save Gaia bookstore and provide 18 affordable units developers were permitted to exceed height limits. When the developer failed to provide the promised book store, and six of the affordable units, the City Council did nothing, and recently rewarded the developer by approving two new projects. 

The City Council has proven it is unwilling to address corruption, and it therefore should not be trusted with discretion. Measure P, the height initiative, remedies that. Opponents mistakenly claim it will prevent the construction of affordable housing. By this logic the absence of measure P until now means there should be plenty of affordable housing. Where is it?  

Under Measure P to add another floor one must provide the affordable units. A far better solution than doing nothing when developers fail to provide what they promise. 

Opponents mistakenly believe urban density reduces automobile traffic and preserves open space. Almost all of Manhattan’s two million residents use the subway instead of automobiles, yet millions of cars still clog Manhattan streets. The reason is simple: The more people living in a city, the more cultural activities, restaurants, services and shopping opportunities the city offers. These benefits draw people like a magnet. Those people come by cars. Eventually, people seeking proximity to those conveniences settle near by, increasing suburban sprawl. 

A serious commitment to preserve open space requires legally enforceable agreements to preserve land or the purchase and setting aside of land for that purpose. Anything less does nothing to protect open space. Urban density harms the environment by increasing automobile traffic and demands for water, electricity, sewer service and construction materials. 

Don’t let slogans about affordable housing and open space trick you into supporting development. Measure P protects us from corrupt processes by preventing abuse of discretion. Measure P expires in ten years, assuring ample time to craft legislation that guarantees affordable housing, open space and a fair and honest process. 

Elliot Cohen 

Berkeley 

KUWAIT — Two Kuwaiti gunmen in a pickup truck attacked U.S. forces during war games Tuesday on an island in the Persian Gulf, killing one Marine and wounding another before they were shot to death by U.S. troops. Kuwait called the assault a “terrorist act.” 

The Pentagon said the assailants pulled up to a group of Marines conducting urban assault training on Failaka, an uninhabited island off Kuwait’s coast, and opened fire with small arms. They then drove to another site, stopped and attacked again before being killed by Marines, the Pentagon said. 

Marines later found three AK-47s and ammunition inside the vehicle, according to a statement released in Washington by the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet. It said the injured Marine was hit in the arm. 

In a brief statement, the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry condemned the attack and identified the assailants as Anas al-Kandari, born in 1981, and Jassem al-Hajiri, born in 1976. It said both were Kuwaiti civilians. 

U.S. intelligence has not determined if the attackers had any terrorist links, said an intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 

An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the two men as fundamentalist Muslims. More than 30 of their friends and relatives were detained for questioning, he said. 

“The ministry announces that this is a terrorist act,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. “It will not allow anyone to undermine the country’s security.” 

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Daniel Hetlage said the Marines returned to their ships shortly after the attack, but would resume exercises on the island Wednesday. 

Failaka Island, about 10 miles east of Kuwait City, was abandoned by its inhabitants when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and Iraqi forces heavily mined it during their occupation. 

After a U.S.-led coalition liberated Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the government compensated islanders for their property and resettled them on the mainland. The island has since been cleared of mines and many Kuwaitis fish there on weekends. Some former residents visit occasionally. 

The shooting attack was unprecedented in Kuwait, a Washington ally since the Gulf War. More than a decade later, most Kuwaitis remain supportive of the close relationship. 

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said the two Marines were taken to the Armed Forces Hospital in Kuwait City, where one of them died of his wounds. Their names were withheld until relatives were contacted. 

The military exercise, dubbed Eager Mace 2002, involves Kuwaitis at some stages. However, the Pentagon said the attack happened during an exercise that only involved U.S. forces. 

The war games started Oct. 1, after the amphibious transport ships USS Denver and USS Mount Vernon arrived in Kuwaiti waters and began unloading 1,000 Marines and their equipment. The men and women are from the 11th Marine Expeditionary unit based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. The vessels’ 900 sailors were also taking part in the maneuvers. 

The U.S. military has carried out exercises in Kuwait since the Gulf War as part of a defense agreement the small oil-rich state signed with Washington. The Pentagon has said the current war games were routine and not related to any possible war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. 

Kuwait opposes any unilateral action against Iraq and fears retaliation with non-conventional weapons if the United States attacks Baghdad. However, it has said the United States could use its land for an attack if the war is sanctioned by the United Nations. 

City Council stepped back into the realm of foreign policy Tuesday, voting unanimously for President George W. Bush to seek a diplomatic solution to the current stand off with Iraq. 

Council’s vote proclaimed support for a House resolution introduced by U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. House Concurrent Resolution 473 calls on the president to work with the United Nations to assure that Iraq complies with weapons inspections. 

Lee’s resolution failed in a congressional committee Monday. 

The Iraq issue has galvanized council, as members of the moderate faction who often refrain from delving into international issues joined the call for action. 

“A first strike by the United States may well lead to greater destabilization in the Middle East, erosion of relationships with our Muslim allies and a derailment of our efforts against terrorism,” wrote councilmembers Polly Armstrong and Miriam Hawley declaring their support for Lee’s resolution. Councilmembers Linda Maio and Maudelle Shirek introduced an identical resolution in support of Lee. 

Tuesday’s action marks the second time this session that council has unanimously opposed the Bush administration, 

On Sept. 10, council expressed its distaste for sections of the Patriot Act, which council members say violates numerous civil liberties. 

Contact reporter at 

matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net

OAKLAND — The first 88 federal baggage screeners at Oakland International Airport took their posts at 4 a.m. Tuesday. 

They will work in the airport’s north terminal as part of a phased-in transition that will likely last until Nov. 19, the deadline for which all screeners must be federal employees. A total of 220 screeners work at Oakland’s airport. 

The screeners, who were sworn in during a brief ceremony Monday, will earn between $28,000 and $42,000 annually. 

Veteran screeners who are U.S. citizens will start testing for the new federal positions in Oakland. 

The federalization of airport screeners was one of the earliest responses by Congress to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. So far, federal screeners have taken up their posts at 142 of 429 airports nationwide, said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the federal Transportation Security Administration. 

Federal screeners also started Tuesday at airports in Los Angeles, Fresno and at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. 

San Francisco International is one of five airports nationwide that will use private screeners as part of a test to compare government screeners with their private-sector counterparts.

OAKLAND – An Oakland police sergeant testified in Alameda County Superior Court Monday that some of the aggressive stop-and-frisk tactics allegedly used by a group of former officers known as the 'Riders' were improper. 

Sgt. Anthony Banks Sr., a 20-year police department veteran, is testifying as a prosecution witness today in the Oakland courtroom of Judge Leo Dorado. Banks is assigned to the traffic enforcement section but worked previously in the training section as a coordinator of the Police Academy and Field Training Program. 

It was in that capacity, Banks testified Monday, that he got to know a young rookie named Keith Batt. 

Batt, 25, now a Pleasanton police officer, is a key prosecution witness in the trial of three former officers accused of criminal misconduct. 

His resignation from the Oakland Police Department on July 4, 2000, midway through his 10th shift on the force, led to an Internal Affairs investigation and the dismissal of the officers now on trial. 

Clarence “Chuck” Mabanag, 37, Matthew Hornung, 30, and Jude Siapno, 34, are charged with filing false police reports and conspiring to hide their transgressions over a two-week period in June and July 2000. 

They have pleaded innocent to the charges. 

A fourth defendant, Francisco “Frank” Vazquez, fled to avoid prosecution. 

Batt said that while working graveyard shifts patrolling the streets of west Oakland with the clique of former officers known as the Riders, he was instructed to falsify police reports and witnessed the men use unjustified force. 

Banks, a brawny and articulate motorcycle officer, recalled under direct examination today his first impression of Batt. 

“[Batt was] a little scrawny kid, real small,” Banks said.

STANFORD – Stanford University's Linear Accelerator Center last week celebrated 40 years of research into fundamental particle physics and synchotron radiation with a special anniversary event this month. 

More than 1,300 people, including SLAC staff, governmental representatives and research scientists from around the world, gathered Oct. 2 to commemorate the laboratory's accomplishments and contributions to science. 

Founded in 1962, the center is a national laboratory operated by Stanford for the U.S. Department of Energy. Its mission is to design, construct and operate state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for use in high-energy physics and synchotron radiation research. 

These have been good years for SLAC and I am delighted that this great laboratory is positioning itself today for decades more of outstanding work at the very foundations of physical science,'' said the event's keynote speaker Jack Marburger, III, chief science adviser to President Bush and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. 

“ The comprehension in human terms, and the interpretation in human metaphors, of a decidedly unhuman universe is the ultimate justification for institutions such as SLAC. It is fitting that we celebrate them on occasions such as this.” 

The anniversary celebration included a series of speeches that highlighted the center's historic contributions to scientific research. 

“ Our 40th anniversary is a tremendous milestone for science,” said SLAC Director Jonathan Dorfan. 

“It's a day for looking back on our accomplishments while enthusiastically embracing the future and looking ahead to expanding our horizons,” he said.

OAKLAND – A Florida man accused of stalking a former college classmate over a nine-year period and burglarizing her home has been bound over for trial in Alameda County Superior Court. Daniel Barbalace, 27, of Boca Raton, was arrested Sept. 7 and is charged with one count of stalking and two counts of burglary. 

Barbalace has pleaded innocent to the charges. Deputy District Attorney Mark McCannon said that Barbalace was held to answer to the three counts following a preliminary examination that began Friday afternoon and concluded Monday. 

A preliminary hearing is held to determine if a person charged with a felony should be tried for the crime. Barbalace is scheduled to be arraigned on the information contained in the charges on Oct. 21. 

McCannon said that Barbalace and his alleged victim first met in 1993 as freshmen at a college in Rochester, N.Y. Since then, an alleged pattern of harassment and stalking emerged. 

Over the next nine years, Barbalace allegedly followed and harassed the victim in hope of establishing a romantic relationship, McCannon said. The woman repeatedly spurned his advances. 

Several years after college, the woman moved to the Bay Area.  

Barbalace tracked her down, McCannon said, finding out where she lived and worked. 

Then on Sept. 2, he flew in from Florida and contacted the woman on the street. He also allegedly broke into her residence and stole several items. 

Barbalace then flew back to Florida but returned to the Bay Area several days later and was arrested. 

LIVERMORE – The recent disappearance of a teenage Livermore girl took an ominous turn when her car was found engulfed in flames in the middle of the night outside a remote tavern in rural Alameda County, authorities said Monday. 

Firefighters were called just after 2 a.m. Monday to the Mountain House Bar on Grantline Road, where Jenna Simons' 1989 Ford Mustang was fully afire in the parking lot of the roadhouse, which was closed for the night. 

Simons, also known as Jenna Nannetti, is a 17-year-old emancipated minor who has been missing since Sunday night, when she told a relative in Livermore she was going to Concord. She has not been seen or heard from since. 

“It's very suspicious and we're very concerned for her safety,” Alameda County Sheriff's Lt. Kevin Hart said. 

Hart said Simons did not say whom she was going to see in Concord, and it is unknown if she ever got there. Despite her age, Simons was known at the tavern where her car was torched. 

“It's kind of a close-knit group of people that frequent that bar,” Hart said. 

The Mustang was completely destroyed in the fire and the authorities did not find anyone nearby. The cause of the fire has not been determined. 

Investigators from the sheriff's office and the Livermore Police Department have been conducting interviews and searches, but they don't have much to go on.

SAN FRANCISCO — A retired judge agreed Tuesday to mediate the dispute between the two men, each of whom claims to be the rightful owner of Barry Bonds’ record-setting 73rd home run ball. 

Lawyers for Alex Popov, the man who says he caught the ball, and Patrick Hayashi, the scrambling Giants fan who ended up with it, said retired Judge Coleman Fannin would oversee a settlement conference Wednesday. 

So far, little has been settled, and the ball remains in a safety deposit box pursuant to a court order. 

Hayashi said Monday the ball is his, and he’d like to sell it. Popov maintains he is the rightful owner and said he wants to keep it. 

Martin Triano, Popov’s lawyer, said if the issue is not resolved with Fannin’s aid Wednesday, they’ll head back to San Francisco Superior Court Thursday to explain why to Judge Ronald Quidachay. 

The case is Popov v. Hayashi, 400545.

Pot sold at drive-through 

SAN RAFAEL – A Vallejo man accused of selling marijuana from a KFC drive-through window appeared briefly in Marin County Superior Court. 

Carlos Lionel Ayala was arrested last month on suspicion of selling marijuana at a Mill Valley restaurant. When a customer ordered extra biscuits, he received two bags of pot, instead. The customer returned the bags, got his biscuits and called police. 

A restaurant manager said Monday that Ayala no longer works there. 

Ayala, 26, showed up for a felony arraignment, but Commissioner Greg Jilka informed him that no charges have been filed yet. 

Deputy District Attorney Judith Brown said she’s reviewing a report by the Marin County Major Crimes Task Force before making a decision. 

San Jose murder motive unknown 

SAN JOSE — Police are still unsure of the motive, but they now believe a San Jose man shot his wife and two children before turning the gun on himself. 

Luis Silveira, 40, his wife Sandra, 32, and their two children ages 1 and 2 were found shot to death in their East San Jose home Monday, San Jose police spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon said Tuesday. 

Investigators are still interviewing family members and friends to determine what could have prompted the slayings. 

A gun found on the scene is being processed at the crime lab, Dixon said. 

Authorities believe the bodies had been there for at least 24 hours before being found. The two adults were found on the floor, and the boys were found in a crib and on a bed. 

Damages in South Bay fire greater than expected 

SAN JOSE — Losses at a shopping and apartment complex that suffered a disastrous fire two months ago could hit $90 million, the developer told investments analysts. 

Officials with Federal Realty Investment Trust, the firm building Santana Row, expect to file an insurance claim for $70 million to $90 million to cover the damage, lost revenue and other unspecified costs from the Aug. 19 blaze. 

The nine-building project has already received $1 million from insurance claims and expects an additional $15 million to $20 million in the next few weeks to help cover expenses. 

The total number of shops and restaurants expected to open next month is still unclear. 

LOS ANGELES— A group allied with Republican Bill Simon released two photos Tuesday purporting to show then-Lt. Gov. Gray Davis illegally accepting a campaign contribution, but the veracity of the photos was quickly questioned. 

The California Organization of Police and Sheriffs claimed the photos show Davis taking a check in his Capitol office, in violation of state law. 

But the man pictured holding a check at Davis’ side denied he ever set foot in Davis’ office and an Associated Press inspection found no resemblance between the existing lieutenant governor’s office — which has not moved or been significantly altered — and the room shown in the photos. 

Davis aides also strongly denied the charge. 

“This is a bogus charge, this is a trumped-up charge and this is not the lieutenant governor’s office,” said top Davis strategist Garry South. “There’s nothing in this office that was in the lieutenant governor’s office. Not the artwork, not the doors, not even the carpet. Bogus,” he said. 

South said Davis was not even in Sacramento when the photos were purportedly taken but at an event with then-Vice President Al Gore in Pacoima — a claim born out by a newspaper report from the time. 

Simon made the original accusation of illegal fund-raising by Davis on Monday, causing a stir after the gubernatorial candidates met for their first debate when he told a crowded press conference he had evidence. 

The evidence turned out to be a letter from COPS, one of his main backers, to the state’s political watchdog group, and the photos released Tuesday. 

At a campaign stop in North Hollywood on Tuesday afternoon, Simon at first stood by his claim. 

“Gray Davis and his staff are not dumb. They knew they were accepting a campaign check in a government office that was against the law,” he said in prepared remarks. 

Under questioning by reporters he backed down. 

“We’ll let the (Fair Political Practices Commission) decide. They make the findings. I’m not the tribunal here,” he said. 

The nearly identical photos are date-stamped Jan. 31, 1998, when Davis was running for his first term as governor. They show Davis in an office standing next to Al Angele, then executive director of COPS. Angele and Davis are both holding a corner of a $10,000 check COPS donated to Davis. 

Monty Holden, current executive director of COPS, which broke bitterly with Davis to back Simon, told reporters Tuesday that the office Angele and Davis are in is the lieutenant governor’s office at the Capitol. 

California law makes it a crime to deliver or receive a contribution in state office buildings. The statute of limitations is four years for criminal prosecutions and five years for fines by the Fair Political Practices Commission. 

“We believe Gov. Gray Davis has broken the law,” Holden said. 

Angele denied that the photos, which he said he hadn’t seen, were taken in Davis’ Capitol office. 

“I don’t have to see it to tell you it was not the lieutenant governor’s office. I’ve never been in the lieutenant governor’s office,” said Angele, now a Davis appointee to the state Board of Prison Terms.

The attorney for Yosemite killer Cary Stayner asked jurors Tuesday to look beyond ignorance and cause for vengeance by showing mercy and kindness to spare his life. 

“I’m pleading that we overcome the cruelty of Cary Stayner’s acts with understanding, mercy and love,” defense lawyer Marcia Morrissey said in her closing argument. “I’m pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty and revenge did not control our hearts.” 

She told the jury — which previously rejected her arguments by convicting Stayner of first-degree murder and finding him sane — that they stood between the past and the future in showing that crimes driven by mental illness deserved some leniency. 

The case went to the jury Tuesday morning to decide whether Stayner will receive a death sentence or life in prison. 

Stayner, 41, was convicted in August of murdering Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, by the same jury that now must decide whether he will endure the same fate. 

The three were murdered in February 1999 while staying at a lodge just outside Yosemite National Park where Stayner worked as a handyman. 

He is already serving a life sentence for the murder of nature guide Joie Armstrong, 26, in July 1999. 

On Monday, Morrissey said a fatal combination of obsessive compulsive disorder and sexual disorders collided in 1999 when visions and voices Stayner had reported for years escalated to the point where he lost touch with reality. 

“The struggle to keep the images inside himself are being lost,” she said. 

But prosecutor George Williamson told jurors that Stayner was a predator, not a man driven by mental health problems. 

“There is no substantive or compelling evidence that when he committed these three murders he was mentally or emotionally screwed up,” Williamson said Monday in a packed courtroom that included Stayner’s mother and father and members of the victims’ families. “There is no evidence that he was so emotionally whacked out or under such mental foment that he didn’t know what he was doing.” 

Morrissey said Stayner led a peaceful, crime-free life for 37 years — until the four killings in a five-month period. She said the sensational kidnapping of Stayner’s younger brother and his molestation by an uncle should also be considered as factors to give him the lesser sentence. 

“It doesn’t excuse it, doesn’t make it nice,” Morrissey said. “It does mitigate it.” 

Williamson said Stayner’s entire defense was that he wanted jurors to feel sorry for him and “throw him a bone” of life behind bars. 

“Is his life so tragic that he’s deserving of your sympathy and forgiveness?” Williamson asked the jury, as he recounted the litany of sexual abuse and degradation forced upon the two teenage victims after Stayner strangled the elder Sund with a rope.

WASHINGTON – President Bush asked a federal court Tuesday to reopen West Coast ports and impose a cease-fire that would end a caustic 10-day labor lockout, which has cost the fragile economy as much as $1 billion a day. 

“This dispute between management and labor cannot be allowed to further harm the economy and force thousands of working Americans from their jobs,” Bush said in a hastily arranged announcement outside the Oval Office. 

Bush’s politically charged decision made him the first president in a quarter-century to intervene in a labor dispute under the Taft-Hartley Act. His speech, which was moved up 15 minutes, coincided with an announcement by the dockworkers’ union agreeing to an 11th-hour truce proposed by Labor Department officials to return to work for 30 days under terms of the expired contract. 

Shipping companies and terminal operators had not agreed to reopen the docks, however, after locking out workers 10 days ago. Their refusal forced the Bush administration to seek the court’s help. 

“We needed to reopen the ports, and we needed both parties to agree,” said a White House official close to negotiations, who insisted the timing of Bush’s announcement was not changed to scuttle an agreement. “We only had one side agreeing.” 

The petition asked for an 80-day “cooling-off period” and was signed by five of Bush’s Cabinet secretaries. Bush wants the court to require work at the ports to “resume at a normal pace.” 

In papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the Justice Department said an injunction should be granted because “the president of the United States has determined that the labor standoff between the defendants ‘has resulted in a lockout that affects a substantial part of the maritime industry.”’ 

The Justice Department filing said “the result of the ongoing lockout has been the halting of virtually all trade handled by ILWU workers on the West Coast. ... The continuation of the ongoing lockout at the West Coast ports threatens to imperil both the national health and safety.” 

A court-ordered truce would keep the ports open during the crucial Christmas season, when retailers rely on imported goods to stock their shelves. 

“After a lot of discussions, we have been unable to bring the two parties together. Therefore, stronger action is required,” Bush said. “Because the operation of Western ports is vital to our economy and to our military, I have determined that the current situation imperils our national health and safety.” 

White House advisers welcomed the chance to deflect questions about Bush’s handling of the economy. Polls show a growing number of voters want Bush to spend more time talking about the economy than Iraq. His economic policies have either stalled in the Senate or have failed to jump-start the economy. Now he has an economic cause to promote. 

At the same time, Bush’s intervention was expected to energize organized labor, traditionally a Democratic ally, just four weeks before midterm elections. Democratic candidates depend on heavy turnout from union workers, and some presidential advisers fear Bush’s intervention will drive angry labor voters to the polls. 

“No president has ever been on this side of management this overtly,” said Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. 

Bush encouraged the two sides to settle their differences before the cooling-off period. 

“I expect both sides to put the concerns of our national health and safety first and work in good faith to resolve their differences as quickly as possible,” Bush said with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta at his side. 

Bush made his decision after an inquiry board hand-picked by the White House reported that the standoff was unlikely to end soon. “We have no confidence that the parties will resolve the West Coast ports dispute within a reasonable time,” the panel declared. 

After a fact-finding hearing in which it heard from the shipping companies and the union, the board said, “We believe that the seeds of distrust have been widely sown, poisoning the atmosphere of mutual trust and respect which could enable a resolution of seemingly intractable issues.” 

The administration was likely to prevail should it decide to ask a federal court to impose an 80-day truce, labor experts said. Just twice have courts denied such requests: in 1978, a court refused President Carter’s request for an 80-day cooling-off period in a coal miner’s strike, but ordered miners back to work under a temporary restraining order; in 1971, a court refused to intervene in a labor dispute involving 200 grain elevator employees. 

“I would think that particularly in a time of war, they would not have that hard of a time” convincing the court, said Scott Witlin, a labor lawyer in Los Angeles with the firm Proskauer Rose. 

Unions complained that the White House orchestrated the inquiry board’s determination by appointing and flying in members to San Francisco even before negotiations broke down, while officials publicly said they were reluctant to intervene. 

“I think it’s tough to say they were reluctant,” said Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer for the AFL-CIO. 

Businesses nationwide have complained that they were starting to feel squeezed by the shutdown and pressed the White House to step in to help end the stalemate. 

Mitsubishi Motors Manufacturing of America announced Tuesday it was halting auto production because it had run out of engines and transmissions. Production was to be suspended at the start of the first shift Wednesday, although employees still were expected to report to work, spokesman Dan Irvin said. The plant in Normal, Ill., can produce 850 cars a day. 

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, locked out 10,500 members of the longshoremen’s union last week, claiming the dockworkers were engaging in a slowdown.

NEW YORK — The U.S. abortion rate dropped significantly during the second half of the 1990s, particularly among teenagers, and experts attribute the decline to better awareness of contraception and a fear of disease that has cut down on sexual activity. 

The rate fell 11 percent between 1994 and 2000, from about 24 abortions for every 1,000 women of childbearing age to 21, the nonprofit Alan Guttmacher Institute reported Tuesday. The rate among girls ages 15 to 18 declined a dramatic 39 percent, from 24 abortions per 1,000 girls to 15. 

At the same time, researchers were surprised by a sharp increase in abortions among poorer women, or those who earn less than twice the federal poverty level of about $17,000 for a family of four. 

“Their abortion rates were increasing while they were going down for everyone else,” said Rachel K. Jones, who led the study, which was based on questionnaires completed by more than 10,000 women who had abortions. 

Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, noted that the drop in abortions was accompanied by a decline in teen sex, teen pregnancies and teen births during the late 1990s. 

“This signals a deep and profound and robust change in adolescent sexual behavior in this country,” she said. “I think it’s cause for — I don’t know if ‘celebration’ is the right word — but certainly our full attention.” 

Analysts have credited a broad set of factors for those trends, including fear of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and more open discussion with youngsters about sex. 

“People are really aware, and we talk more about abstinence and staying away from it altogether,” said Shannon Kilcoyne, 18, a high school senior from Greenville, S.C. Kilcoyne was not aware of the study, but said the findings about teenagers reflect concerns of sexual activity among her peers. 

“It’s more a fear of STDs,” she said. “People always talk about how you have to know someone well enough to find out their past history and who they’ve had sex with.” 

Researchers said more funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs has probably improved awareness and access to contraceptives. Similarly, they said that less money for family planning programs for poor women could be one factor for the increase in their abortion rate. 

For women below the poverty line, the abortion rate rose 25 percent. It climbed 23 percent among women making less than twice that level. 

“There have been more and more restrictions on funding for abortions and in some instances, family planning and contraceptive services,” said Kathryn Kolbert, a legal expert on reproductive rights at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. 

The Guttmacher institute receives some funding from Planned Parenthood, but its abortion statistics are generally regarded by both anti-abortion groups and abortion-rights supporters as accurate. 

Laura Echevarria, a spokeswoman for the National Right to Life Committee, questioned whether the increase in the abortion rate among poor women had anything to do with a lack of access to contraceptives. 

“I’d like to see what their educational levels are, how many of them have access to educational material, how many of them understand childbirth,” she said. 

WASHINGTON— A House committee approved a bill Tuesday designed to reduce the threat of wildfires, but key Democrats withdrew their support and left prospects for wildfire legislation this year uncertain. 

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., joined Republicans last week in endorsing the legislation, which Republicans had hoped would help move the bill through the Democratic-controlled Senate, where other fire-treatment plans have stalemated in partisan battles. 

But after intense negotiations Tuesday, Miller and DeFazio backed out. They said the proposal was too sweeping. 

Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., the bill’s sponsor, said he believes he is close to agreement with his Democratic colleagues and committed himself to continuing negotiations. 

“We came very close to an agreement. I hope at some point we will be able to get that,” McInnis said. 

Drought and overgrown forests led to one of the most severe fire seasons on record this year, with more than 6.5 million acres charred. 

House and Senate Republicans have joined President Bush in demanding speeded-up projects to cut excess trees that fuel wildfires. Democrats and environmentalists argue their proposals undermine environmental protections and would benefit timber companies. 

McInnis’ proposal would seek to expedite logging in overgrown forests by streamlining environmental studies, requiring the government to look at fewer alternatives, and tightening deadlines for administrative and judicial appeals. Seventy percent of the forest treatment projects would have to be focused on areas where the federal land abuts homes or water supplies. 

After the bill was put into writing, the Democrats grew uneasy about some of its provisions. 

Miller said he was unsatisfied with how the bill defined acreage where the expedited review would apply, and he wanted more public involvement. DeFazio said drafts of the bill still did not include language he wanted that would protect old-growth trees and clarify the judicial appeals process. 

All sides said they would continue negotiations, but time is running out on the congressional session. 

“I don’t think this thing is over yet,” said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., adding that Wednesday would be critical for the future of the fire legislation.

SEATTLE — Say you’re so hooked to your mouse, keyboard and computer monitor you can hardly tear yourself away from your terminal. 

You don’t have to. You can wear your computer. 

Thad Starner, a computer science professor at Georgia Tech, has been walking around with his for nearly 10 years. 

“Most people who stand in line at the airport are just waiting there, bored. I’m writing the next chapter of my book or reading e-mail,” Starner said Tuesday at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers at the University of Washington. 

Starner’s gear, which costs about $4,500, includes a micro-optical monitor hooked to his glasses, a cell phone-shaped keyboard he straps to the back of his hand and a small black bag that holds a 1 1/2-pound computer more powerful than many desktop models. 

“We’re going through another computer revolution,” said Starner, who, as a student, founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Wearable Computing Project in 1993 and is now part owner of Charmed Technology Wireless Eyewear, based in Santa Monica, Calif. “Just like the change from the mainframe to the minicomputer and ... the minicomputer to the PC, we’re going to have a switch to wearable, which is going to completely change the way people think about computing.” 

One company, San Jose, Calif.-based Infineon Technologies, has designed a jacket with a built-in MP3 player controlled by voice recognition and a flexible keyboard sewn into the sleeve. 

Another — Microvision, Inc., based in Bothell northeast of Seattle — markets a personal display system called Nomad. It’s a headset with a two-dimensional display window that hangs in front of one eye. 

Surgeons are beginning to use it during image-guided operations like hip replacements. Normally, they’d have to turn their heads to watch a television monitor showing them where they’re supposed to cut. When they wear a Nomad, the images they need to see are right in front of their eyes, superimposed on the patient. 

Some small-plane pilots use the devices so they can keep their eyes on the sky and their gauges at the same time. 

“They’re retailing at $10,000, which obviously you and I can’t buy,” Microvision spokesman Matt Nichols said. “But with volume, you’ve got a product where the components are only $40 or $50.” 

The sixth annual symposium, sponsored by the Institute of Electoral and Electronic Engineers, runs through Thursday. 

Tuesday’s lineup included a fashion show where models showed off MP3-wired jackets, arm-mounted keyboards, jackets that monitor your heart rate and various head-mounted display systems. 

Some concepts aren’t yet ready for the marketplace, but to wearable computer gurus, ideas can be as exciting as actual products. 

Imagine, for example, a system that would help firefighters storming into a smoky building pinpoint the source of the blaze by linking up with electronic heat sensors installed throughout the building. 

Or, say, a battalion chief with a computerized display of a burning building’s layout guiding firefighters as they rush through hallways. 

“He says, ’No. 3, you need to go there,’ and No. 3 sees an arrow telling him where to go,” said Tom Furness, director of the UW’s Human Interaction Technology Lab. 

Sounds sci-fi, but Furness said it’s no pipe dream. 

“It’s really mainly a repackaging of a lot of technology that already exists” Furness said. 

With the prevalence of cell phones, personal digital assistants and global positioning systems, some argue the only challenge left is figuring out how to sew them all into shirts and pants. 

“Wearable computing is inevitable,” said Mark Billinghurst, director of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory in New Zealand and chairman of this year’s conference. “Over the last decade, we’ve seen computers migrate from the desk side to the desk top, then to the lap and to the hand. It won’t be long before the computing power of today’s handhelds will be embedded into clothing.” 

LOS ANGELES — Two new lawsuits have been filed against tobacco giant Philip Morris and other defendants just days after a jury ordered the cigarette maker to pay a cancer-stricken Newport Beach woman a record $28 billion in punitive damages. 

The lawsuits, filed late Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and made public Tuesday, also named R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, The Liggett Group and the Council for Tobacco Research as defendants. 

The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants “knowingly and willingly” participated in the making of tobacco products they “knew to be dangerous and hazardous.” 

One lawsuit was filed by Anna Bonner, a Los Angeles woman who said she began smoking at 16. Bonner said she developed lung cancer that spread to her brain after smoking mostly Marlboro cigarettes. 

The other lawsuit was filed by Cynthia Green on behalf of her late husband, Mack Green, who she said started smoking as a 9-year-old boy. He preferred Benson & Hedges cigarettes, developed lung cancer and died in May 2000, she said. 

“The company takes every case very seriously and we’ll defend them very vigorously, but we’ll need to take a look at it before we provide any analysis on it,” said Michael York, a litigation spokesman for Philip Morris. 

Telephone calls to R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and The Liggett Group were not immediately returned. 

Last week a Superior Court jury awarded former smoker Betty Bullock, 64, of Newport Beach, $28 billion in punitive damages in her lawsuit against Philip Morris. The same jury the previous month had award Bullock $750,000 in economic damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering. 

Bullock started smoking when she was 17 and was diagnosed last year with lung cancer that has since spread to her liver. 

Philip Morris has said it will ask a court to set aside or reduce the punitive damages. 

Before Friday’s record verdict, the largest jury award to an individual against a tobacco company was $3 billion won in June 2001 against Philip Morris by Richard Boeken, a former heroin addict with cancer who died in January 2002. That judgment was later reduced to $100 million and is being appealed. 

On Monday Merrill Lynch downgraded its outlook for Philip Morris from “buy” to “neutral” in response to the California jury award and the current trend of litigation against the industry. 

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The longest lull yet in the Washington sniper’s killing spree brought little relief Monday as jittery residents flooded police with calls upon hearing car backfire, firecrackers or breaking glass. 

“Everyone is edgy,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who is heading the investigation. “People are hearing things that may normally be overlooked.” 

President Bush said the “cold-blooded” attacks have made him sick to his stomach. “I weep for those who have lost their loved ones,” he said. “The idea of moms taking their kids to school and sheltering them from a potential sniper attack is not the America that I know.” 

Four police squad cars rushed to a Silver Spring car dealership Monday after the window of a customer’s BMW shattered when he closed the door. The man dialed 911, thinking a bullet broke the glass. 

“He had no idea what happened — he was just freaked out,” said David Earhardt, the dealership’s service manager. 

“People hear a noise, they’re going to call — they want to put an end to this just like we do,” said Prince William County, Va., Detective Dennis Mangan, whose department brought in a helicopter to search the woods before determining a reported gunshot was just a car backfiring. 

Authorities in Baltimore, meanwhile, seized a white van and found an assault rifle, sniper manual and ammunition similar to the .223 bullets used in attacks that have killed eight people and wounded two others, WBAL-TV reported. 

The van’s owner was being questioned by police Monday night. 

“At this time, the task force believes this is not related to our sniper incidents,” said Louise Marthens, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman. 

Also, FOX News Channel showed video of police in Washington, D.C., towing an abandoned white box truck from near the Sousa Bridge. The truck had a rear fender dent similar to one in a composite image that a task force investigating the shootings released Saturday. It also appeared to have a fresh coat of paint, FOX said. 

“There is nothing at this time to indicate it had anything to do with anything,” said a Washington police spokesman, Sgt. Joe Gentile. 

Monday marked the sniper’s longest break — two days and counting — since the killing spree began on Oct. 2. The sniper has shot 10 people in all.

OAKLAND — The Police Department has fired a veteran narcotics officer for alleged misconduct stemming from a 2001 case involving several hundred dollars worth of cocaine. 

The department on Friday fired John Gutierrez after a probe concluded he falsified a report about finding cocaine during a search and was untruthful about the matter in court testimony. 

The same internal affairs investigation cleared Gutierrez of allegations in other cases, including taking money and tampering with evidence, the Oakland Tribune reported. 

Gutierrez’s attorney, Rocky Lucia, said he plans to appeal the dismissal, which he called “an excessive and insupportable overreaction.” 

While Gutierrez has been on administrative leave, the department has dismissed several cases he investigated. Last October, just before his troubles began, the department named Gutierrez officer of the year. 

Police officials also transferred four other officers in an attempt to reform the narcotics unit.

Tuesday 

G Tennis - Berkeley vs. Hercules, 3:30 p.m. at Hercules High 

Water Polo - Berkeley vs. Hercules, 3:30 p.m. at Willard Middle 

Girls Volleyball - St. Mary’s at St. Patrick, 5:15 p.m. at St. Patrick High, Vallejo 

Girls Volleyball - Berkeley vs. Alameda, 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley High 

Thursday 

Water Polo - Berkeley vs. De Anza, 3:30 p.m. at Willard Middle 

Girls Tennis - Berkeley vs. Skyline, 4:30 p.m. at King Middle 

Girls Volleyball - St. Mary’s at Kennedy, 5:15 p.m. at Kennedy High, Richmond 

Friday 

Women’s Soccer - Cal vs. Oregon, 3:30 p.m. at Edwards Stadium 

Football - Berkeley at Hercules, 7 p.m. at Hercules High

Stolen flowers 

Two neighbors had their hydrangea flowers stolen from their yards Wednesday morning. A woman on the 2800 block of Prince Street reported that hundreds of her hydrangeas were clipped from her front lawn. A woman on the 2700 block of Prince Street said that her hydrangeas were clipped from both her front and back yards. She added that it was the fourth time in two years that her flowers had been stolen. 

Berkeley High School’s safety and evacuation procedures are under the microscope after a pair of student fights made headlines in the opening weeks of school and a spate of false fire alarms rattled students and staff in late-September and early-October. 

The high school’s entire administrative team appeared before the board Wednesday night to report improvements in discipline and intervention procedures and to discuss a new fire evacuation plan. 

“Our mission is to make sure that our students can succeed and be safe,” said Dean of Students Meg Matan, who handles disciplinary matters. 

Matan said Hal Thomas, a new administrator of the high school’s on-campus suspension program, known as the intervention center, has made great strides in working with disruptive students and getting at the root of their difficulties. 

“He’s extremely kind with the students up there,” Matan said. “He’s focused.” 

High school officials also touted a system of gate closures that, they say, has improved order on campus. But Andy Turner, the student representative on the board, said strict closures have led to frustration among his peers. 

“There are a lot of students who are occasionally tardy, including myself,” he said. The gate closures, Turner said, extend a two-minute tardiness into a 15-minute tardiness by requiring students to walk all the way around to the other side of campus. 

Turner called on administrators to provide better notification to students about which gates are closed at what times so they can get to class more swiftly. 

School administrators also said a new fire evacuation plan is in place and praised students for dealing patiently with an increasingly bothersome number of false alarms in recent weeks. 

A series of roughly 10 false fire alarms began Sept. 26 and stretched through the middle of last week. Berkeley High has apprehended and suspended eight students involved and administrators plan to pursue expulsion in at least some cases. 

The Berkeley Police Department arrested six of the eight students who pulled alarms, according to department spokesperson Officer Mary Kusmiss. The students will likely face verbal counseling with Officer Roosevelt “Rosie” Brown, assigned to the high school by the department. 

Contact reporter at 

scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net

About 300 protesters filled UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Wednesday, toting anti-war signs and banners and chanting “stop the war on Iraq.”  

The crowd gathered at noon in front of Sproul Hall to hear a lineup of speakers and performers voice resistance to possible U.S. military action against Iraq.  

Although attendees found turnout to be smaller than expected, speaker Laura Wells, of the Green Party, was optimistic about the power of protest. 

“We can make the ‘60s look like it was preschool,” she said. 

Third year political science major Eric England, who waved a blue flag containing an image of the earth, agreed. 

“Every act of resistance builds momentum, and the bigger the momentum, the better humanity will become,” he said. 

Congress is expected to vote today on President Bush’s war resolution. The resolution, if passed, will allow the use of force in Iraq. 

The rally was organized by the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition and sponsored by the Free Iraq Foundation. 

Further anti-war demonstrations are scheduled in San Francisco today.

MOSCOW — President Bush’s call for greater pressure on Iraq won guarded support in Asia and Australia on Tuesday, but his threats failed to overcome widespread skepticism in Europe, where most nations are deeply concerned by the prospects of war. 

Iraq said Bush’s address Monday night aimed to justify an “illegitimate” attack on it. Iraqis and other Arabs said the speech showed Washington’s determination for war, but the Egyptian and Jordanian governments said they were pleased by Bush’s statement that war was not “imminent or unavoidable.” 

Britain was the exception in Europe to the prevailing lack of enthusiasm for Bush’s tough line. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he shared “the same analysis” of the threat posed by Iraq and that both countries wanted the United Nations to make clear its determination to disarm Iraq. 

Bush’s speech Monday night rounded up much of the administration’s case for an assault on Iraq, with Bush calling Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein a “murderous tyrant.” He said Saddam may be planning to attack the United States with biological or chemical weapons and could have a nuclear bomb in less than a year. 

Bush said he would “act with the full power of the United States military” against Saddam unless declare and destroy all of its weapons of mass destruction, end support for terrorism and cease persecution of its civilians. 

The speech was seen in part as an attempt to rally reluctant allies abroad. Russia and France, which like the United States hold veto powers on the U.N. Security Council, underlined that they still oppose Washington’s efforts for a U.N. resolution imposing strict demands on Baghdad for weapons inspectors and threatening use of force against Iraq. 

In Russia, Deputy Foreign Ministry Yuri Fedotov, although not reacting directly to Bush’s speech, told the Interfax news agency that the resolution proposed by the United States was disingenuous.