Almost 4,000 Bay Area health care workers are prepared to hold a one-day strike Thursday unless federal mediators can negotiate a settlement between union officials and hospital management tomorrow. 

But the only thing workers and management seem to agree on is that an agreement does not appear to be close. 

The strike would affect patients at 10 hospitals, eight of which are operated by Sutter Health and Catholic Healthcare West: Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center and Eden Medical Center in the East Bay, and St. Francis, St. Mary’s and Seton Medical Center in San Francisco and Daly City. 

Sutter’s Solano Medical Center and Lakeside Hospital and independently operated Alameda Hospital and Children’s Hospital Oakland would also be affected. 

The likely strike would include receptionists, food service workers, nursing assistants and respiratory therapists. 

Service Employees International Union Local 250 says the two health care giants have refused to address issues vital to workers, such as the quality of patient care, improvements in staffing and worker safety and security, according to spokeswoman Christy Hawkins. 

Hospital officials, meanwhile, disputed claims that management has stalled negotiations and attacked the union for its tactics. 

“This is an irresponsible act by the union,” said spokeswoman Carolyn Kemp of Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center. “Patients are not bargaining chips.” 

Kemp said Alta Bates-Summit has prepared steps to minimize the potential impact of a strike, including reducing non-essential services and canceling elective, out-patient procedures that would unnecessarily crowd the hospital during a work stoppage. She stressed, however, that the impact of a strike would stretch beyond each individual facility. 

“This puts health care at risk in our entire community,” Kemp said. 

Union representatives, meanwhile, said that open letters to Sutter and CHW from clergy, community groups and elected officials showed widespread support for their efforts. The letters criticize the organizations for posting substantial profits while patients “face threats to quality as resources shift from direct care staff and services to administration and marketing, mergers and acquisitions.” 

There was one piece of good news this week in union-hospital relations: Members of the California Nurses Association have ratified a new contract with Alta Bates-Summit. The two-year contract, which covers some 1,700 nurses, is the first registered nurse contract approved since Berkeley’s Alta Bates Medical Center and Oakland’s Summit Medical Center merged last December. 

According to the CNA, the key component of the agreement is the creation of four “Quality Care Liaison” positions. Each of the hospitals will have two such liaisons, who will act as watchdogs, investigating and evaluating safety concerns at the hospitals. They will work half of their time performing the duties of the position and the other half working as registered nurses. 

Kemp said that the hospital hopes nurses remain on the job Thursday. 

“We’re hoping that the nurses don’t let Local 250 dictate what to do,” Kemp said. “We need our nurses and we hope they’ll be here on Thursday.” 

Wednesday, July 5

Monthly birthday party 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Asia FantAsia!” 

1 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC Berkeley Campus 

Storyteller Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo helps you explore various Asian cultures using music and theater to act out a variety of traditional folktales. This is part of the Summer Science Fundays series at the Hall. 

510-642-5132 

BUSD school board meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Board/Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Thursday, July 6

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“Meeting Life Changes” 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Summer Lunchtime Concert Series 

Noon-1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART plaza 

This concert series features musicians from two unique schools in Downtown Berkeley, The Jazzschool and Capoeira Arts Café. This week, the Capoeira Arts Cafe will feature professional music artists and performers from Brazil, who will offer a Brazilian Music and Dance Show. This concert is free. This event is co-sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association, Berkeley Daily Planet, Korman & Ng, and BART. 

510-549-2230 

The Snake Man 

2 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Vincent Seymour will be the featured guest. This is part of the Summer Program Series at the Berkeley Public Library. 

510-644-6860 

Friday, July 7

“Living philosophers” 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“In Needin’ of Feedin’” 

3:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Learn what it takes to care for the animals at the Little Farm. 

510-525-2233 

Saturday, July 8

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

West Coast Live 

10 a.m. 

Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison St. 

Join the studio audience as Sedge Thomson hosts musical guests, authors and others for his live radio broadcast. This week’s scheduled guests include Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre, Dr. Science, Ian Shoales, Karl and Carl, Vagabond Lovers, Erik Tarloff. Tickets are $12. 

415-664-9500 

“Sushi Workshop” 

11 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Learn the natural history of many plants and animals used in the making of sushi while preparing and tasting seven different types. Registration required. Admission is $25 to $29 general; $20 to $22 seniors; $15 to $17 children.  

510-636-1684 

San Francisco Mime Troupe 

2 p.m. 

Cedar Rose Park, 1300 Rose St. 

The troupe presents a performance of a musical satire titled “Eating It.” Admission is a donation. 

www.sfmt.org 

The Second Annual Fire Arts Festival 

6 p.m. 

The Crucible, 1035 Murray St. 

The Crucible presents a fund-raiser featuring hands-on projects, a faculty exhibition, demonstrations, dance performances, live music, and more. Tickets are $10. 

510-843-5511; www.thecrucible.org 

Sunday, July 9

Berkeley Hiking Club Mini-Hike: Joaquin Miller Park 

9:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will reconvene at the ranger’s station on Joaquin Miller Road. The walk will ramble along five miles of shaded trails. 

510-234-3436 

Berkeley Hiking Club: Urban Hike in San Francisco 

9:30 a.m. meet at Civic Center BART station 

This walk will travel seven to eight miles. Bring your own lunch, or eat at a restaurant. 

510-663-0263 

“Tilden Toddlers” 

10 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

A hike for the little ones – age 2 to 3. 

510-525-2233 

“The David Story” 

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

This free presentation, part of the Authors’ Series in the Library, will featured Robert Alter discussing a new translation of the two books of Samuel. 

510-848-0237, ext. 236 

San Francisco Mime Troupe 

2 p.m. 

Cedar Rose Park, 1300 Rose St. 

The troupe presents a performance of a musical satire titled “Eating It.” Admission is a donation. 

www.sfmt.org 

“Butterfly Basics” 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Learn what makes a butterfly a butterfly and how it differs from a moth. For age 5 and older. 

510-525-2233 

Rhyme and Reason Open Mike Series 

2:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. 

The public and students are invited. Sign-ups for the open mike begin at 2 p.m. 

510-234-0727; 510-642-5168 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

6 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be the countywide new Measure B transportation sales tax. The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418

THEATER 

ACTORS ENSEMBLE OF BERKELEY 

“Murder At The Vicarage” by Agatha Christie, July 14 through Aug. 12. Performance of the classic whodunnit. $10. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Aug. 10, 8 p.m. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 528-5620. 

AURORA THEATRE 

“Split” by Mayo Simon, June 1 through July 2. A mordant clear-eyed view of an older couple's love affair. $25 to $28. Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE 

“Closer” by Patrick Marber, through July 9. A funny, touching and unflinchingly honest examination of love and relationships set in contemporary London. $38 to $48.50. Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; May 27, June 1, June 3, June 10, June 15, June 24, June 29 and July 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-4700 or (888) 4BRTTIX. 

CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, July 1 through July 22. Shakespeare probes the shadowy corners of the human psyche in this dark, compelling tragedy of vengeance, madness and murder most foul. 

$21 to $38 general; $19 to $38 seniors; $10 to $38 children. Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4 p.m.; July 11 and July 18, 7 p.m.; July 22, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Bruns Memorial Amphitheatre, Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit on state Highway 24. (510) 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

LaVal’s Subterranean 

Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Yoni Barkan. The play will run from June 8 to July 8, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. each night. 1834 Euclid Ave. (510) 234-6046. 

MUSIC VENUES 

ASHKENAZ 

Tropical Vibrations, July 7, 9:30 p.m. $11. 

Edessa, Anoush, The Toids, July 8, 9:30 p.m. $11. 

Lisa Silva and Voz Do Samba, Maria Sousa and Aquarela, July 9, 8 p.m. $8. 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau, July 11, 9 p.m. $8. 

Billy Dunn, July 12, 9 p.m. $8. 

Babatunde Olatunji, July 13, 9 p.m. $11. 

Tamazgha, July 14, 9:30 p.m. $11. 

Kotoja, Akimbo, July 15, 9:30 p.m. $11. 

Resin, Caesar Myles and Dreaded Truth, Rebecca Riots, Famous Last Words, Erika Luckett, Liz Anah, July 16, 4 p.m. $8 to $25. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Roy Rogers and Shana Morrison, July 7. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Mighty Prince Singers and Talk of da Town, July 8. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Hosea Leavy and Harmonica Slim, July 9. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre, July 10. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Dan Crary and Beppe Gambetta, July 12. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Bill Evans, Avram Siegel, Marty Cutler, July 13. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Juan-Carlos Formell, July 14. $14.50 to $15.50. 

The Laura Love Band, July 15. $17.50 to $18.50. 

Pat Donohue, July 16. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Atahualpamantab, July 7, 8 p.m. $10. 

The Soul of Black Folks, July 8, 9 p.m. $10 general; $8 students. 

Domingos de Rumba, July 9 and July 23, 4:30 p.m. Free. 

War!, July 12, 7 p.m. $10. 

Jon Fromer and Friends, July 14, 8 p.m. $8 to $15. 

Ray Cepeda, July 15, 9:30 p.m. $10. 

Dya Singh, July 16, 8 p.m. $18. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

Dead and Gone, Catheter, Hog, Laughing Dog, Jeno, July 7. 

El Dopa, Dystopia, Scratchabit, July 8. 

Attitude Adjustment, Wolfpack, Men's Recovery Project, Axiom, July 14. 

MU330, Alkaline Trio, Link 80, Venice Shoreline Chris, Blue Meanies, Lawrence Arms, Honor System, Dan Potthast, Mike Park, July 16, 4 p.m.  

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Gun and Doll Show, Chub, July 7. $6. 

Soldier of Fortune Cookie, Stikman, July 8. 

Cadillac Angels, Rip Carson and the Twilight Trio, July 13. $5. 

Tempest, Azigza, July 14. $8. 

Plus Ones, The Cables, Luminar, The Fitsners, July 15.  

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

OPERA 

THE BERKELEY OPERA 

“Beatrice and Benedick” by Hector Berlioz, July 14 through July 23. A joyous evening of wit, deception and romance based on William Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing.” Jonathan Khuner conducting. Sung in English. 

$16 to $30 general; $24 senio rs; $15 youths age 17 and under. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (925) 798-1300 or www.juliamorgan.org 

MUSEUMS 

Berkeley Historical Society 

"Berkeley's Ethnic Heritage." May 7 through March 2001. The exhibit examines the rich cultural diversity of our city and the contributions of individuals and minority groups to our history and development. The exhibit look at the original native tribelets in the area and the immigrants who settled in Ocean View and displaced the Spanish/Mexican landowners. It also examines the influence of theUniversity of California, the San Francisco earthquake, and World War II on the population and culture of Berkeley, and subsequent efforts to overcome discrimination. Curated by Linda Rosen and the Berkeley Historical Society Exhibit Committee. Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Admission free. 

Berkeley Historical Society located in the Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center Street, Berkeley. 510-848-0181 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

UC BERKELEY ART 

MUSEUM 

“Doug Aitken/MATRIX 185: Into the Sun,” July 9 through Sept. 3. An exhibit of works primarily in video and film, using the interplay of art and media to evoke deserted landscapes. Artist’s Talk, July 9, 3 p.m. Doug Aitken discusses his installation. In Gallery 1. 

Rodin and His Contemporaries,” through August. An exhibit of 11 bronze maquettes on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in Los Angeles. The bronzes range in style from the artist's classically inspired “Torso of a Woman” to the anguish of “The Martyr.” Some of the maquettes were cast during Rodin’s lifetime, others have been cast fairly recently under the aegis of the Musee Rodin which alone is authorized to cast his sculptures posthumously. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students ages 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 1 1 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. 

HALL OF HEALTH  

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level), Berkeley 

A hands-on community health education museum and science center sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland and Alta Bates Medical Center. 

“Good Nutrition,” ongoing. This exhibit includes models for making balanced meals and an exercycle for calculating how calories are burned. 

“Draw Your Own Insides,” ongoing. Human-shaped chalkboards and models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their bodies. 

Free. For children ages 3 to 12 and their parents. 

(510) 549-1564 

LAWRENCE HALL 

OF SCIENCE 

“Experiment Gallery,” through Sept. 10. Step inside a giant laboratory and experiment with concepts surrounding sound, light, mechanics, electricity, and weather. 

“Math Rules!” ongoing exhibit. A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. Make mathematical ice-cream cones, use blocks to build three dimensional structures, make dodecagon pies from a variety of mathematical shapes and stretch mathematical thinking. 

“Within the Human Brain,” ongoing installation. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. 

$6 general; $4 seniors, students and children ages 7 to 18; $2 children ages 3 to 6; free children under age 3. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

PHOEBE HEARST MUSEUM 

Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley 

“Modern Treasures from Ancient Iran,” through Oct. 29. This exhibit explores nomadic and town life in ancient and modern Iran as illustrated in bronze and pottery vessels, and textiles. 

“Pana O’ahu: Sacred Stones – Sacred Places,” through July 16. An exhibit of photographs by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. 

“Phoebe Hearst Museum-Approaching a Century of Anthropology,” a sampling of the vast collections of the museum, its mission, history, and current research, with selections from ancient Egypt, ancient Peru, California Indians, Asia (India), and Africa. 

“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” Ishi, the last Yahi Indian of California, spent the final years of his life, 1911 to 1916, living at the museum, working with anthropologists to record his culture, demonstrating technological skills, and retelling Yahi myths, tales, and songs. 

Wednesday through Sunday 10 am -4:30 pm; Thursday until 9 pm (Sept-May) 

(510) 643-7648 

HABITOT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

A museum especially for children age 7 and younger. Highlights include “WaterWorks,” an area with some unusual water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library. 

Exhibit: “Back to the Farm,” open-ended. This interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and much more.  

Admission is $4 for adults; $6 child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child.  

Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

(510) 647-1111 

JUDAH L. MAGNES 

MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season,” through May 2002.  

An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. Highlights include treasures from Jewish ceremonial and folk art, rare books and manuscripts, contemporary and traditional fine art, video, photography and cultural kitsch. Through Nov. 4: “Spring and Summer.” 

Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

(510) 549-6950. 

GALLERIES  

KALA INSTITUTE 

“Markings/Imprints,” through July 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part I, featuring works by Susan Belau, Liliana Lobo Ferreira, and Jamie Morgan. 

Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-2977. 

TRAYWICK GALLERY 

Rachel Davis, Samantha Fisher, Benicia Gantner, Cherith Rose, June 21 through July 22. An exhibit of new work by the four artists. 

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1316 10th St., Berkeley. (510) 527-1214. 

“Yangtze River: in the Dragon’s Teeth” 

Carol Brighton's poured paper paintings of the Yangtze River gorges, through July 31. Six-foot paper pieces in the long format of a Chinese scroll. This artwork is done in support of the International Rivers Network campaign to save the Yangtze River. The full impact of these beautiful compositions can even be viewed from across the street. 

Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St., Berkeley 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). 

Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. 

Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information.

Berkeley has been designated as a Project Impact/Disaster Resistant Community since December and in May the city hired a coordinator for the project that’s to be formally launched Friday. 

Carol Lopes, a Berkeley resident, is the new Project Impact Coordinator. Previously she was Executive Director of Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster, based in Oakland. 

She said Oakland was the first city in California to be designated a Project Impact city by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

Berkeley Is recognized as a “model in proactive seismic preparedness,” by FEMA, she said, because of the city’s tax incentives for homeowners to upgrade their homes. 

And additionally the city is recognized for passing the bond measures for seismic upgrades of the schools and major public buildings. 

FEMA gave Berkeley a $300,000 grant for the project that Lopes said will allow the city to create a small staff to start building a collaborative process for disaster preparedness. 

Although she said the project was “multi-hazard,” and would include responses to fires and chemical releases, the primary focus is mitigating the effects of an earthquake.  

The city is taking the project to the public with formal document signing ceremonies beginning at 11 a.m. Friday in City Council Chambers. 

The signers will be pledging to work together to identify risks in the community and they will provide resources and support and promotional material to reduce those risks. 

The signers include IBM, Home Depot, Orchard Supply, The Berkeley Alliance, VISA-USA, Berkeley Rent Board and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. Government, neighborhood and community groups are other partners in the collaboration. 

Following the signing and a luncheon, Lopes and officials and signatories will walk to Buildings G and H on the Berkeley High campus where they’ll get a demonstration illustrating how easy it is to anchor large objects and make them “quake-proof.” 

This “mitigation project” will be the first of many that Lopes will coordinate in Berkeley to show homeowners how they can bolt, strap, brace or buckle furniture and appliances that could otherwise crash and cause harm.  

At Berkeley High a work team headed by the Community Energy Service Corporation will be anchoring computers and other equipment. The nonprofit organization operates home repair programs and has been active in protecting homes from earthquake damage. 

“We need to do first is create the processes for getting the community involved on setting the vision for what constitutes a disaster,” Lopes said.  

In practice, she said she works with government and community-based organizations to bring volunteers with a variety of skills together. 

“We train them in a few hours and we can do up to 20 homes in a day.” Lopes was referring to the plan to make showcase presentations of non-structural earthquake mitigation techniques to community groups.  

She said teams are expected to make presentations at block parties and in public buildings like senior centers and recreation centers. 

Later this month a series of public forums will begin to educate the community about Project Impact. 

Headquarters central for one of the most original magazines to hit the racks in recent years is a small garage in the backyard of a house on Eighth Street. 

“Bark, The Modern Dog Culture Magazine” is the brainchild of Claudia Kawczynska and Cameron Woo, a married Berkeley couple who began an activist newsletter that has turned into a glossy publication with a literary bent in less than four years. 

With its 11th issue this spring, the quarterly magazine has landed advertising on its back cover from Saab USA, and hundreds of manuscripts from writers who want to talk about dogs. 

“It’s all because of Claudia,” said Woo, who credits his wife as the inspiration behind the publication which now claims a readership of 70,000 across the United States and in Europe. 

Chairperson of the Waterfront Commission, Kawczynska and her husband are also members of The Friends of Cesar Chavez Park, a group of 250 people who advocated to establish a northern portion of the park as an off-leash area for dogs. 

Last year 17 acres of undeveloped land in the northern section of the 90-acre Chavez Park a former city dump with scenic vistas of Golden Gate Bridge, legally became off-leash dog territory on a trial basis. The City Council recently made that decision permanent. 

The publication that began as the Berkeley Bark newsletter to publicize the Friends’ bid for the off-leash area, has evolved from a black and white newsletter to a tabloid-sized publication to a full-color magazine that can now be found in magazine stands. 

“We started as a political action movement for off-leash recreation in public spaces” said editor in chief Kawczynska, who wears the company’s “Dog is my co-pilot” motto on her T-shirt. “Now in every Bark, we do an article on dog parks.” 

Woo is the publisher and creative director and designs the pages. He also acts as one of the publication’s advertising reps. Before going full-time at the magazine, he was a marketer for Autodesk, the software giant that makes products for architects and engineers. 

He said his wife brought him into the dog world, and it was reinforced by the corporate style of Autodesk, which he described as a dog-friendly workplace. 

Woo said in the Berkeley Bark newsletter they added advertising, with one motivator being that the Berkeley City Council would take the Friends more seriously (and approve the off-leash area) if local merchants purchased advertising. 

The 80-page spring 2000 issue, printed with soy ink on recycled paper in Denver, still carries a lot of local advertising, but Woo flew to Atlanta to talk to Saab. The Swedish automaker produces a pet-friendly station wagon with safety restraining gear for pets reviewed by the Humane Society. Woo told them his readership is 100 percent dog lovers, whereas others such as Esquire can only claim a portion of their readership in that category. 

“We’ve created a brand, a unique identity,” said Woo, who is proud of the magazine’s grassroots origins and its own self-marketing as opposed to starting up by hiring a marketing firm. 

Clearly the magazine aims for a well-read audience. Vastly different from other dog magazines that talk about shows and grooming, many of Bark’s and illustrators are nationally known for their work in other established publications. 

“We’re intelligent, quirky and humorous,” he said. “It’s a Berkeley magazine, we’re a little bit irreverent.” 

Kawczynska said the best part is that the couple found people who love dogs, love to write about them and love to read about them. 

The couple work about 20 hours a day on the magazine, with some staff help, and in doing so they “wear many hats,” enjoying interruptions by their three unpedigreed pooches who seem to be very lucky dogs. 

There’s Nellie, a black and white border collie who was 6 years old when they got her; a larger brown dog, Callie, 13; and Lennie, the “little guy,” a terrier mix they picked up at the pound. They also have several cats. 

Included in Bark’s spring issue are articles about celebrities and their dogs, Darwin and dogs, a dog sanctuary in Utah, book reviews, and an interview with a biochemist who discusses perceptiveness in animals, plus cartoons and photographs. 

Dogs are definitely a hot topic. The have a genome project now, and research shows they can provide health benefits for their owners. 

That’s in addition making friends for their owners, and just watching. 

Kawczynska said the empty nest syndrome accounts for many adults buying dogs. She said a lot of single women have a dog in their lives for companionship. 

“We have distanced ourselves so much from nature and dogs are a way for us to connect back to nature. More people are finding out how good dogs are to have in their lives,” she said. 

Berkeley police are continuing to investigate a rape that occurred around 6:30 a.m. Monday near the North Berkeley BART station. 

The female victim was out for her regular morning jog when she was attacked by someone from behind, according to Police Capt. Bobby Miller. The man pulled her into the pushes, where she was sexually assaulted. 

After the man left the scene, the woman got to the hospital, where a worker notified police of the rape.

Communication. It’s the buzzword of the 21st Century. 

Our top city bureaucrats made it a priority, having designed an elaborate scheme for “improved communication between staff and community.” 

It includes a million-dollar phone system and new bureaucrats. (OK – recycled old ones at higher pay. “Read my lips, no new bureaucrats,” one of the managers is said to have said.) 

While our six-digit management team trumpets a passion for communication and goes to bat for the funds to pay for it, the buzz was smacked in the stinger last week by what appears to be a countervailing policy: 

Bureaucrats, except tiptop department heads, may not talk to reporters unless they’ve got clearance from the city manager, the buzz learned. The policy’s been in place for years, Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the buzz Friday. 

Here’s how the buzz flew smack dab into the policy’s sticky web. 

I was doing a story about Santa Rosa lights – you know, those flickering things embedded beside crosswalks to remind drivers not to kill pedestrians. 

Some councilmembers, it seems, thought the state was going to cough up $30,000 or so for the lights across Ashby Avenue, but This story might not be among the Buzz’s most brilliant investigative Pulitzer Prize winning pieces. But street safety is something Ashby Avenue area folks care about. So I thought it was worth reporting. 

Along with others contacted for the story, I made a call to the city’s traffic engineer to ask how Berkeley’s making Ashby Avenue safer, since the state wasn’t paying for the Santa Rosa lights. 

The question was not one of those intended to ferret out any of the city’s deep dark high-security mysteries. Cross my antennas. 

Late that afternoon, the engineer, with whom the Buzz has held multiple interviews, returned the call. It seems he couldn’t talk until he had permission to do so. He was waiting for that.  

The story went to press Thursday evening sans traffic engineer comments. 

Then, Friday morning, someone from Public Works, where the engineer works, called to say she was working on getting permission for the traffic engineer to talk to me. 

This really grabbed the Buzz’s attention. 

The public works official said she was going through Deputy City Manager Weldon Rucker and as soon as he returned her call, the Buzz would get to talk to the traffic engineer. 

Well, the Buzz herself called Rucker to see what the deal was and learned he, the city manager, the manager’s communications specialist and others were out of the office at a conference or something. 

And Rucker was taking a vacation day Monday, as the Buzz knocked out this column. So, needless to say, we haven’t heard from the engineer yet. 

I’m sure, once we get the million-buck phone system, it’ll all be worked out. 

And the Buzz even has a humble suggestion to offer our fine bureaucrats on how they and not taxpayers can pay for the system: start a rent-a-Berkeley-manager program. Aim it especially at the University of California labs. The city’s loaned-out managers would set up systems to guard against lab workers’ release of state secrets to the Enemy. 

• • • 

Speaking about communication – remember those hefty wage hikes the upper echelon got a few weeks ago? Well, 4 percent is 4 percent, a staff report said. If the rank & file gets 4 percent, so should the big boys (and a few girls – oh yes, in case you’re counting, among the highest-up management team, there are some seven women and 12 men). 

The Buzz reached back into her fifth-grade math and calculated the raise. The 4 percent gives a $40,000/year person a $1,600 raise and a $100,000/year person a $4,000 raise. Just thought you might want to know. 

The funny thing about these raises is, after the Planet wrote about them, one of those close-to-six-digit guys called and said we’d got the story wrong. He and his fellow fellows were not getting automatic raises. The Buzz humbly flapped its wings in apology. 

An hour or so later, however, the guy called back to say he was getting a raise. “My wife will be happy,” he said in a voice-mail message. 

It makes you kind of wonder – if the bureaucrats didn’t know they were up for raises, WHO was pushing them? 

• • • 

And speaking of state secrets. Did you know Deputy City Manager Weldon Rucker was named interim city manager? The mayor said she was “appalled” that councilmembers let the secret out of closed session. What if the communists find out? 

• • • 

More secrets could lie ahead. One of the proposals for selecting a new (permanent) CM is to choose a committee of patriots – oops, maybe they said stakeholders; can’t you picture them with their stakes, or is it steaks; mistakes? – who would interview candidates and make recommendations to the council. The committee would be chosen by the City Council behind closed doors and their deliberations would be secret too. 

• • • 

Speaking of secrets, do you know the one about the café in City Hall? Seems that most the council didn’t. But if you’ve got to get your lattes somewhere, might as well go to City Hall. It’ll make it more fun for the Buzz, sipping java while trying to crack the city’s code of silence.

Recycling and being conscientious can pay off when it comes to the bottom line, say business owners recently honored for their environmentally friendly practices. 

The Alameda County Green Business Program has recognized the efforts of five Berkeley businesses in recent months, awarding them Green Business Awards: Patti’s Auto Care, Ackerman’s Servicing Volvos, Grandma’s Garage, Consolidated Printers Inc., and Griffin Motor Works. 

And at a recent meeting of the Economic Development Alliance For Business, the Stop Waste Partnership recognized Bayer Corporation and UC Berkeley for their commitments to improving environmental performance. 

Stop Waste is a program of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Recycling Board in San Leandro. Stop Waste participates along with other agencies as part of a team that evaluates the environmental practices of small businesses before they can be certified and recognized. 

Pamela Evans, coordinator for Green Business, said the awards let the public know where they can spend their dollars on environmentally friendly businesses. 

The nonprofit program is administered by the East Bay Small Business Development Center and funded local, state and federal government agencies. 

Since 1997 when Green Business began the awards, the program has recognized 10 Berkeley businesses. The previous five recipients are Art’s Automotive, Bob’s Volvo/Toyota Specialists, Britoil Ltd., Jim Doten’s Honda and Weatherford BMW. 

Evans said criteria for certification include environmental compliance with laws, pollution prevention or good housekeeping practices, energy and water conservation and solid waste. 

She said Green Business pulls together representatives from utilities and conservation agencies for an on-site inspection that is completed in less than two hours. 

For its size Berkeley has a “pretty healthy number” of businesses that are recognized by her program, said Evans, and Berkeley residents tend to patronize such businesses. 

“It does seem that in the northwest part of Alameda County and especially in Berkeley, that there is more consumer interest in green business, “ said Evans. 

Patti Critchfield, owner of Patti’s Auto Care, said achieving certification was not difficult – she knew the requirements from past practice. 

She painted the floor of her automotive business with epoxy paint making it easy to pick up oil spills with a squeegee and a dustpan. Then they put the oil in a waste oil tank and the remaining oil is wiped up with rags that go to the laundry. 

In a lot of cases, she said, brakes are made of asbestos, but the mechanics in her shop are not endangered by breathing its particles, she said. She uses an aqueous system of hot water and special soap, and the mechanics wash a braking system before taking it apart so the asbestos particles are dampened down. 

It’s easier being green, said Critchfield, because it saves money and clean-up time for employees and it’s healthier. 

Bruce Goddard, a spokesman for the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, said its Stop Waste Partnership program exemplifies the county waste management’s mission to “keep all material out of landfills.” 

With the larger corporations like past award recipient Alta Bates Medical Center, and with Bayer and UC Berkeley, Stop Waste found the components like energy, water and solid waste reduction are intertwined and could not be addressed separately. 

Stop Waste enters the picture to help large companies that face a host of regulations, and to improve their performance and implement necessary changes. 

“We have recognized some of them that have done very well, “ said Goddard. He said Bayer and UC Berkeley made commitments to change their own practices to become more sustainable. 

Thomas Malott, Principal Environmental Specialist at Bayer Corporation, said he had worked with Stop Waste for several years. 

The county brought in consultants from Scientific Applications International Corporation, he said. The consulting firm dived into Bayer’s dumpsters and rummaged through the waste to determine what percentage of it could have been recycled. 

Currently, said Malott, Bayer is recycling 40 percent of its solid waste. The plant recycles paper, aluminum, glass, plastic, iron and asphalt, and the company donates food from its cafeteria to a homeless shelter, he said. 

Bayer bought the dilapidated Colgate-Palmolive property next door and in the process of demolition, almost everything is being recycled, he said. Concrete is going into re-usable road base, rebar (steel for reinforcing concrete) and structural steel and bricks all are being recycled. 

He said Stop Waste has provided the company with continuing assistance, including weighing rebar and concrete, and working with Bayer’s contractor to insure that its diversion rate or the amount of “waste” that can be recycled, is as high as possible. 

The partnership has been a “win-win” proposition, he said. 

“By conserving you save money and you protect the environment,” Malott said. 

Monday, July 3

Urban Garden Training 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar and Grill, 1310 University Ave. 

This free community training, held on the first Monday of each month, is designed to inform people on intensive production urban gardening. The day begins with hands-on training in the garden, and includes a potluck lunch in the afternoon. 

510-841-1110 

Movie: “The Thin Red Line” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Tuesday, July 4

Fourth of July holiday 

City offices and most businesses will be closed for the holiday. 

Fourth of July celebration 

11 a.m.-10 p.m. 

Berkeley Marina 

A full day of free family entertainment, with food, activities and entertainment in the south shore area will be offered. At 11 a.m., Adventure Playground opens with art projects and storytelling for kids. The picnic lasts from 1 to 4 p.m., as do free sailboat rides and an egg puppet show by Madame Ovary. Other entertainment throughout the day includes wacky art cars at 4 p.m., Troupe Tangiers Belly Dancers from noon to 1 p.m., Capoeira Performing Arts from 6 to 7 p.m. and a community drumming circle from noon to 3 p.m. Musical entertainment begins with Zambombazo at 3 p.m. and continues throughout the afternoon with MotorDude Zydeco, Ray Cepeda & Friends, Southbound and the Berkeley High Pep Band. The firework display begins at 9:35 p.m. 

“Kill your TV, free your mind” 

2 p.m. 

People’s Park 

Organizers say participants should bring their own smashing gear: televisions and monitors, sledge hammers, gloves and goggles. Wear red white and blue, of course. Free food. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

Wednesday, July 5

Monthly birthday party 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Asia FantAsia!” 

1 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC Berkeley Campus 

Storyteller Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo helps you explore various Asian cultures using music and theater to act out a variety of traditional folktales. This is part of the Summer Science Fundays series at the Hall. 

510-642-5132 

BUSD school board meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Board/Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Thursday, July 6

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“Meeting Life Changes” 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Summer Lunchtime Concert Series 

Noon-1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART plaza 

This concert series features musicians from two unique schools in Downtown Berkeley, The Jazzschool and Capoeira Arts Café. This week, the Capoeira Arts Cafe will feature professional music artists and performers from Brazil, who will offer a Brazilian Music and Dance Show. This concert is free. This event is co-sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association, Berkeley Daily Planet, Korman & Ng, and BART. 

510-549-2230 

The Snake Man 

2 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Vincent Seymour will be the featured guest. This is part of the Summer Program Series at the Berkeley Public Library. 

510-644-6860

Some folks smash cars to challenge university policy. That’s what a Boalt Hall student did a couple of months ago to protest, in his way, a university plan to put a parking structure, a dining commons and offices on a university-owned block bordered by College Avenue, Channing Way, Bowditch Street and Haste Street. 

Some 60 people staged a very different protest Thursday evening. 

These more genteel folk didn’t carry sledge hammers or protest signs. Under the leadership of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, the group took a walking tour of the Anna Head Historic District. Their point, like the car-bashers, was that the Underhill Area Project, now in its environmental review stage, would blight a historic district, comprised of a number of significant structures. 

“The Underhill Area Plan...currently calls for new construction and new land uses, which, in total, would seriously impact the surviving landmark structures,” says a pamphlet distributed to tour participants. 

The university plan calls for the demolition of the Fox Cottage, which BAHA calls “the smallest architectural jewel that survived the university expansion” of the 60s. 

The cottage was one of the stops along the way for the tour group. On the steps of the cottage, BAHA member Carrie Olson made a plea to the crowd to help save the 1930s “Mother Goose-style” structure, with its wavy brickwork and wavy windows. 

“Why not keep (the cottage) as a cafe. Why knock it down?” Olson asked. 

The group trooped across the street to Putnam Hall, where the dining commons is slated for demolition under the Underhill Plan and new housing is to be built. Susan Cerny said the dining commons should not be discounted and that the residence halls have a place in the history of the area. 

She pointed to the nearby square of open space and said it must be preserved. 

“One thousand people live on this block,” she said. “This is their common ground, an oasis in the middle of the complex.” 

The tour began at the Anna Head School, on the west side of Bowditch, near Channing Way. Mary Lee Noonan talked about the history of the more-than-100-year-old former girls’ school. Noonan turned her attention to the problems of today. 

“This building is the victim of neglect and the survivor of neglect,” said Noonan, standing on the steps in front of the school now owned by the university and used for offices. 

The building, the first known as Berkeley “brown shingle,” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Berkeley Landmark. 

It hasn’t been painted in decades, the roof hasn’t been replaced and visible dry rot is evidence on the structure. “It’s what they call demolition by neglect,” said one member of the group as they walked around the building and into the inner courtyard. 

“Ask yourselves how you can encourage the university to do the right thing,” Noonan said. 

Reached Friday at the UC Berkeley planning office, Planning Director Tom Lollini took exception to BAHA’s point of view. 

“The plan we’re doing is building back the neighborhood,” he said. He pointed to the “big hole” on the Underhill block and said the university’s projects there would bring back life and therefore enhanced safety to the otherwise deserted area. 

The project will include a jogging track and will not be bordered by the unfriendly chain-link fence that rings the surface parking lot today. The dining facility will include a late-night cafe that will serve area residents. Lollini pointed out that 9,000 of the 11,000 people living in the area are students. 

The planning director argued that the architects for the new housing at the residence halls have taken the need for open space into account. Dormitory entrances will be on the street, with open space in the center, he said. 

The new public space at the residence halls will be more usable than it was previously, he added. 

The university is looking at alternatives to demolition of the Fox Cottage, Lollini said. Part of the structure might be re-used, he said, conceding that the cottage is likely to be impacted by the dining commons and offices planned on the site. 

Lollini also addressed the critics who say the university is allowing the Anna Head School to deteriorate. 

“That’s not our perspective or our intent,” he said, noting that there are competing funds for uses of the university’s capital funds, in particular, the seismic upgrading of many of the buildings on the campus proper. 

“The lion share of the university funds have to go to life safety,” he said. 

The university is not, however, ignoring the problem and is considering several solutions. One answer would be to seek gifts to restore the structure. Another would be to partner with a developer to turn the structure into student housing or a conference center, he said. 

A 27-year-old Berkeley man arrested in March for possession of 10 pounds of marijuana appeared in Superior Court on Friday as supporters from a medical marijuana group rallied in his defense in the hallway outside. 

Leaders of Oakland-based First Hemp Bank say the defendant, Michael Fenili, who is also known as “Freedom Om,” was distributing the marijuana to gravely ill patients. Lawyers for Fenili and a co-defendant say their clients are protected by Proposition 215, the 1996 Compassionate Use Act. 

The state is charging Fenili and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Celina Perez, with felony possession of marijuana with intent to sell. The defendants are currently free on bond awaiting trial. 

“There is not any evidence of intent to sell,” Jamie Elmer, Fenili’s attorney, said Friday. “They intended to transfer (the marijuana) to people in the necessary line to get it to the patients that need it.” 

Assistant District Attorney Colleen McMahon was unavailable for an interview Friday. In a telephone message to the Daily Planet, McMahon declined to speculate whether her office would continue to prosecute the case, if the defendants establish that more than a dozen bags of marijuana found in Fenili’s van were intended for medicinal use. 

First Hemp Bank has leapt to the defense of Fenili, a slender six-footer with a shock of curly red hair tucked in a bun. 

“He was doing his work for the network and had obtained the medicine necessary to keep our members safe and healthy,” said First Hemp Bank co-founder David Clancy. “If you are sick and dying you don’t have the energy to grow and cultivate (marijuana),” he said. 

Clancy has gone so far as to intervene in the criminal case to argue that the seized contraband actually belongs to him, not the defendants. 

Under the Compassionate Use Act, “patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes” are not subject to criminal prosecution. According to Clancy, about 30 East Bay residents with cancer, AIDS, chronic pain, arthritis and other illnesses receive marijuana from First Hemp Bank. The organization is licensed by the city of Oakland. 

But defense lawyers say Fenili’s arrest demonstrates the practical limitations of operating under the 1996 law. 

“People who need marijuana are finding they are having a hard time fighting their way through red tape and finding safe harbors,” said Perez’s attorney, Dirk Newberry. “The Act does not clarify how someone who needs marijuana may obtain it and how those who want to distribute it compassionately are supposed to do so. So it remains subject to prosecution.” 

Police arrested Fenili and Perez near People’s Park in Berkeley around midnight on March 26, after questioning Fenili on an unrelated traffic charge. According to police, a search of Fenili’s 1974 van turned up 19 bags of marijuana weighing a combined 10.4 pounds. Police say they also found a scale and 44 .25-caliber cartridges. 

Dressed in a green plaid shirt and baggy blue jeans, and wearing a light beard, Fenili stood at least a foot taller than co-defendant Perez in the cramped second-floor courtroom in downtown Berkeley. Friday’s court date had been set for a preliminary examination, but Superior Court Judge Jennie Rhine rescheduled that hearing for Aug. 9 because of other pressing court business. At that hearing, the judge will decide whether the prosecution has the evidence necessary to go forward with the case. 

Fenili, Perez and Clancy are each separately represented by counsel and supported by a colorful band of marijuana activists, patients, and volunteers. After Friday’s hearing a dozen people, many infirm or disheveled, gathered around the parties’ and their lawyers for an impromptu strategy session outside the courtroom. 

The legal merits of the defense case, however, are unclear. 

“A question arises whether the network and the people are caregivers” as the 1996 law defines that term, concedes Fenili attorney Elmer. 

“It is certainly our contention that they are. Otherwise people would be limited to growing it themselves. The network is the only realistic way to make this happen,” he added. 

But in two cases decided in 1997 by the California appellate court, the caregiver argument did not succeed. Three years ago the court ruled that San Francisco’s Cannabis Buyers’ Club could not qualify as a “primary caregiver” simply by having thousands of marijuana purchasers designate it as such. A contrary finding, the court said, “would entitle any marijuana dealer in California to obtain a primary caregiver designation from a patient before selling marijuana, and to thereby evade prosecution.” 

The court also declined that year to extend the protection of the Compassionate Use Act to the case of a Kensington resident arrested in 1994 for possession of two pounds of marijuana. 

Defense lawyers will try to show that Fenili and Perez fit the law’s definition of a primary caregiver as someone “who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of (the patient).” 

Attorneys for the defendants indicated Friday they plan to establish a medicinal marijuana defense by calling patients to testify. The DA agreed in court Friday to keep a proposed witness list confidential pending the defense filing a protective order based on the proposed witness’ medical privilege. 

Fenili’s backers say this is a test case that may set an important precedent for medicinal marijuana groups. 

But that could prove difficult. Commented Fenili attorney Elmer: “It’s just amazing what certain government bodies have done, including courts, to get around these marijuana initiatives and keep it a crime.” 

One source of confusion in the case could be a statement Fenili made to police following his arrest. Asked about his occupation, Berkeley police say, Fenili responded, “I sell herbs.” But Fenili told the Daily Planet that he was referring to a medicinal herb booth he operates at street fairs, not his work for First Hemp Bank. 

Fenili says he sells herbal products bearing such names as Good Health Smoke and Sexual Happiness Tea. He views himself as a shaman, he said, and therefore does not attempt to turn a profit from his business. 

“Cases like this will be forefront cases,” he said of his marijuana prosecution. 

“(The DA’s office) might want to challenge the ten pounds, they might want to challenge that we can actually have it in a vehicle. But how does marijuana get from the fields to the Hemp Bank?” he asked. “It has to be transported.” 

Fenili says he is prepared to stick with the case as far as necessary to make a point. 

“It’s a pioneer (case),” he said after Friday’s hearing. “But it needs to be done and other people down the road are going to be very thankful for this case.”

A. Richard Newton, a Silicon Valley innovator and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) at UC Berkeley, has been named to succeed Paul R. Gray as dean of the College of Engineering. 

Newton, a prominent researcher in the design of electronic circuits and systems, was scheduled to assume the deanship on Saturday. The appointment is pending approval by the UC Board of Regents. 

“Rich Newton is the ideal candidate for our new dean of engineering,” UC Berkeley Vice Provost Nicolas P. Jewell, who is stepping down from his post to return to the classroom, said in a statement last week. “He has an outstanding academic record in research and is a superb classroom teacher. He also has the ability to continue leading the college forward in exciting new directions, particularly through his visibility among high technology leaders and others in Silicon Valley.” 

Newton, 48, will become the 11th dean of the engineering college, which descended from three of the original colleges of the University of California. 

Born in Australia, Newton received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1978. He also holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering science from the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

“This is a critical time for engineering as a profession, as we come to grips with what it really means to be an engineer in a world where recent developments in new materials, information technology, nanoscale systems and the biological sciences are reshaping our approach to almost everything we do,” Newton said in a statement. 

Newton joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1979. He served as vice chairman of the EECS department from 1985 to 1988, and as chair in the 1999-2000 school year. 

Paul R. Gray, who became UC Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor and provost on Saturday after four years as dean of the engineering college, said Newton “brings tremendous energy and a creative, entrepreneurial spirit to the job of leading the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley.” 

Newton is the founding director of the MARCO/DDR&E Gigascale Silicon Research Center, a nine-university, industry/government-funded research consortium charged with undertaking the long-range research needed to keep the United States competitive in the design of complex integrated electronic systems. 

He is also a member of the Technical Advisory Board to Microsoft Research Laboratories and has acted as a venture partner with the Mayfield Fund, a high-technology venture capital partnership. 

He has helped found a number of design technology companies, including SDA Systems and PIE Design Systems (both now are part of Cadence Design Systems), as well as Simplex Solutions and Synopsys, where he rejoined the board of directors in 1994. 

He was also a founder and director of Crossbow Technology, Inc., a leading producer of MEMS-based embedded measurement sensor and control subsystems, and was acting president and CEO of Silicon Light Machines, which is bringing to market a number of display systems based on a new technology of micromachined silicon light-valves. 

A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Newton has published extensively in his field and received numerous awards and honors, including best paper awards from the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, the International Conference on Computer Design, the European Solid State Circuits Conference and the IEEE Transactions for Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems.

Lawrence Hall of Science will exhibit a rare collection of kites from Indonesia from July 15 to Aug. 20. 

The Kites and Culture exhibit features a colorful Balinese kite with a 200-foot tail draped from the ceiling as a canopy. It is so large it takes 10 people to launch. Other kites include delicate Sulawesi bamboo and leaf kites used for fishing and kites in the sail shape. 

The kites are works of art and technology, as well as windows to understanding the various religions, traditional and contemporary influences within the huge nation of Indonesia. In Indonesia, kites are an expression of the kite maker’s artistic and spiritual inspirations. 

Kite flying is an individual recreational experience in Indonesia. Kites are also used as ritual objects, musical instruments and tools for fishing and catching bats. 

The opening day of the exhibit will feature kite-making activities and Indonesian coffee from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

The weekend of Aug. 19 and 20, Lawrence Hall of Science will host an Indonesian cultural festival. It will feature the first U.S. appearance by Indonesian kite makers demonstrating their kite building and flying skills. 

The first day of the festival will include Indonesian food, building and flying of Indonesian-style kites and performances by Balinese dancers. The second day a Javanese gamelan orchestra will perform. 

Lawrence Hall of Science is located on Centennial Drive, above the UC Berkeley campus. The Hall is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults; $4 for children 7-18, seniors and students; and $2 for children 3-6. For information, call (510) 642-5132 or visit www.lhs.berkeley.edu.

UC Berkeley officials took a step back in a meeting Thursday evening with Memorial Stadium neighbors, conceding that the university’s initial rendering of the proposed permanent lights was not a faithful depiction. 

Neighbors have been outraged at the university’s proposal for FOX-TV to install permanent lights at the stadium. The lights and their poles will destroy the ambiance of the neighborhood and lead to increased use of the venue, they argue. 

In an interview Friday, University Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty underscored that although the rendering was inaccurate, she could not say if the dimensions as stated in a report on the lights were inaccurate. 

“The neighbors felt the figures were inconsistent,” she said. 

Planners will check the numbers, then call a second meeting with stadium neighbors, she said. Although there is no date yet for the meeting, Hegarty said it will be in about two weeks. 

“We will bring back corrections to the initial study,” she said. 

That study concludes that the university does not have to conduct an Environmental Impact Report on the light structures, because they are only a minor addition to an existing structure.  

Neighbors disagreed strongly, saying the light structures would impede the flow of people at the stadium and pose an even greater seismic hazard in an already hazardous area. They said the lights illustrate yet again the ways in which they feel the university is encroaching upon their neighborhoods. 

FOX, which plans to broadcast four to six football games at the stadium this season, has offered to pay the $1 million cost for the light installation. University spokespeople argued that temporary lights presently brought in for televised games are difficult to manipulate and take time to adjust. 

They argued that the temporary lights cause greater disruption to the neighbors than the permanent structures would. University officials said that the televised games would make the hundreds of thousands of alumni scattered throughout the country feel a closer connection to their alma mater, and help support athletic programs at the university. 

Michael Kelly lives near the stadium and spoke in opposition to the lights, calling the inaccuracies in the study “huge deficiencies.” 

“You need to update the photographs (published) on the (university) web site and publish a statement saying that the previous visual simulations were wrong,” Kelly said. 

The residents, organized as Neighbors of Memorial Stadium, brought an enormous tarp that stretched almost the entire length of the conference room. They had painted 36 lights on it, illustrating the actual size of the light cages, which house the lights. 

“We now know that this is one of the medium-sized ones,” Kelly said. The largest cages will contain 45 lights. 

NOMS offered a variety of creative solutions, including holding televised games at the Oakland Coliseum, or allowing the Raiders to play a game or two at Memorial Stadium annually to increase the revenue needed to pay for temporary lights. The Raiders’ games had been restricted by the university in the past, in an effort to preserve the stadium for university athletic use only. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who represents the immediately affected area, reminded the university representatives that the city had asked for an Environmental Impact Report. 

“It just simply does not make sense to subject the neighbors to this environmental degradation 365 days a year for four to six televised football games a year,” Armstrong said. 

Armstrong said that she felt that the neighbors who came to the meeting were “well-informed, articulate, and passionate” about the project and praised them for offering solutions. 

“I felt the university had some serious holes in its initial study,” Armstrong said. 

Hegarty moderated the discussion that became emotionally charged at points. 

“I did expect there would be strong feelings,” she said. “I thought the meeting was well attended. Clearly there is information that needs to be gathered together for the next meeting, such as how the visual simulations were done. 

Hegarty said she would take the comments from the meeting to university administrators. She added that she was looking into extending the time the public can comment on the report by another 30 days. If it were not extended, the period for formal comment on the lights would end July 17. 

Bill Manning, senior associate athletic director for the university, stated that in the past the university has complied with wishes that the stadium only be used for university athletic events. 

“The use of the stadium has been extremely limited because we have severely restricted ourselves,” Manning said. “When we first brought this to you, we wanted to use the lights more, for evening practices. But we restricted ourselves.” 

Manning called on the neighbors for cooperation. “Try to respect us as we restrict ourselves in an effort to respect you.” 

Neighbors expressed concern that the university had gone against their wishes and had broken promises in the past. They said that they wanted the university’s word that they would be informed every step of the way in this process. Examples of past intrusions included a concert at the stadium which shook the neighbors’ windows, and increased use of the Greek Theatre to include pop concerts. 

Mayor Shirley Dean, the last to voice her opinion on the lights, expressed disappointment and anger with the university for its mismanagement of the project. 

“That this item has come under this amount of controversy just shows that it’s a bad project,” Dean said. 

“No amount of meeting and discussion is going to cure that fact. The university needs to own up to it, and cut their losses.”

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Civic Center Park, downtown Berkeley 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Pedestrian “Bike-In” Movie Night Party and Protest 

9 p.m. 

Underhill parking lot (Channing and College) 

This week’s feature: “Terminator,” plus video activist shorts. Help transform a parking lot into a paradise every Saturday night this summer in protest of the University's plan to build a parking lot on the site, instead of student housing. 

510-CREW-CUT; 

www.geocities.com/rickisyoung 

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Civic Center Park, downtown Berkeley 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Pedestrian “Bike-In” Movie Night Party and Protest 

9 p.m. 

Underhill parking lot (Channing and College) 

This week’s feature: “Terminator,” plus video activist shorts. Help transform a parking lot into a paradise every Saturday night this summer in protest of the University's plan to build a parking lot on the site, instead of student housing. 

510-CREW-CUT; 

www.geocities.com/rickisyoung 

Sunday, July 2

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Berkeley Hiking Club Mini-Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Point Reyes, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Five Brooks Staging Area. This will be a hike of about five miles, along trails that roll up and down terrain through the tall woods. 

510-843-5738 

Berkeley Hiking Club Main Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Mt. Tamalpais, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Rock Springs. Participants will make a hike of seven to eight miles, with a scenic view along the loop. 

510-532-6379 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Willard Park, Derby and Hillegass 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Monday, July 3

Urban Garden Training 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar and Grill, 1310 University Ave. 

This free community training, held on the first Monday of each month, is designed to inform people on intensive production urban gardening. The day begins with hands-on training in the garden, and includes a potluck lunch in the afternoon. 

510-841-1110 

Movie: “The Thin Red Line” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Tuesday, July 4

Fourth of July holiday 

City offices and most businesses will be closed for the holiday. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333  

Sunday, July 2 

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Berkeley Hiking Club Mini-Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Point Reyes, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Five Brooks Staging Area. This will be a hike of about five miles, along trails that roll up and down terrain through the tall woods. 

510-843-5738 

Berkeley Hiking Club Main Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Mt. Tamalpais, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Rock Springs. Participants will make a hike of seven to eight miles, with a scenic view along the loop. 

510-532-6379 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Willard Park, Derby and Hillegass 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Monday, July 3

Urban Garden Training 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar and Grill, 1310 University Ave. 

This free community training, held on the first Monday of each month, is designed to inform people on intensive production urban gardening. The day begins with hands-on training in the garden, and includes a potluck lunch in the afternoon. 

510-841-1110 

Movie: “The Thin Red Line” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Tuesday, July 4

Fourth of July holiday 

City offices and most businesses will be closed for the holiday. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333

In downtown Berkeley, in the midst of heavy traffic, loud road construction and pedestrians rushing to and from places, there is a narrow walkway that leads you between two buildings. At the end of the walkway, there is a calm, quiet place to take a break. 

What was once an empty asphalt lot behind the Multi-Agency Service Center (MASC), a homeless agency, at 1931 Center St. has slowly been converted into a rich garden filled with fruit trees, medicinal herbs and perennials for Berkeley’s homeless population to enjoy. 

“It’s this beautiful little spot in downtown Berkeley that not many people know about,” said Tom Wegner, a social worker for the Men’s Homeless Drop-In Shelter who has been in charge of the garden for over a year. “It’s kind of hidden, you have to know how to get into it.” 

Surrounded on all four sides by buildings, the Solid Ground Garden has a circular walkway and benches for people to sit on and socialize. During the morning, the place is hopping with people getting away from the city surrounding them. One-third of the garden consists of medicinal herbs, which makes it a healing center of sorts. 

“We are bringing that vitality back to an urban center,” Wegner said. 

The Men’s Homeless Drop-In Center is located in the basement of the Veterans Building on Center Street between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Several agencies share the space, which is managed by the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project. 

During the day, MASC operates the drop-in center. It allows homeless people to take showers, cook food and use the telephone to look for jobs and housing. An average of 160 people visit the shelter every day. 

Five days a week Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous hold meetings in the basement. At night a different agency comes in and operates a 50-bed men’s homeless shelter. 

“The garden acts as a gateway into this place,” Wegner said. 

Four years ago, the lot was nothing but concrete. In 1996, AmeriCorps volunteers tore up the asphalt and created small garden with seeds they purchased at a Longs Drug store. 

“We had a crew of 25 people from AmeriCorps pick and ax the cement,” said Judy Radke, a case manager at the drop-in center who was a member of the Americorps group. “The first garden we ever had out there were sunflower seeds. We threw the seeds into the ground and we had beautiful sunflowers out there. Thousands of them.” 

However, after the volunteers left there were no expansions to the garden for several years. 

“It was still a big vacant lot, with a little strip of color on one side,” Wegner said. 

Then students from UC Berkeley began coming in to work on the garden, a semester at a time. Over two years, the students slowly turned more of the cement ground into restored earth with plants and trees. But the students only worked for a few months at a time and their projects rarely overlapped. 

“What was happening from semester to semester was when one person was done with theirs and then the next person started, those two projects didn’t really overlap very well,” Wegner said. “There was a lot of hit and miss and there wasn’t a lot of coordination between the projects. We were getting a lot of things here and there but no real cohesion.” 

Then Wegner, who had been working for the agency for just over one year at the time, became involved in the garden. Since he had very little experience in gardening beforehand, the whole process has been a learning experience. 

“I’ve definitely got a whole workload down here and so that garden is just kind of a side project,” he said. “It’s just something that when I started here I just watched from afar. It was just happening and I was seeing where change could be made. I just stepped forward and started running with it.” 

Wegner works on the garden during his lunch break, after his work hours and on weekends. He has been helped by volunteers and clients of the drop-in center. 

“Three years ago I came into the courtyard and I saw some people doing the gardening,” said Yukon Hannibal, a client of the homeless agency. “I’ve always been interested in gardening, but I never had a shovel in my hand long enough to do really substantial work until I came here. I just got intrigued by it.” 

In the last three years, Hannibal has been one of the most involved gardeners. 

Boy Scouts of America installed two tables with checkerboards on them. UC Berkeley students from the Architecture Department built benches to go along with the tables. The City of Berkeley has also helped. 

What is impressive about the Solid Ground Garden is that is has been built with no funding. Supplies and plants have been donated and workers have budgeted their own time. 

There is still a large amount of work that can be done on the garden. Future plans could include a mural to be painted onto one of the four walls that surrounds the garden to add more color. Wegner said he hopes to build a perennial garden that is easy to maintain and that clients of the drop-in center can enjoy year-round. 

“Somehow something starts blooming where I didn’t even know things were planted, and that’s exciting,” Wegner said. “And every season it becomes thicker and more lush.” 

Organizers are looking for people with gardening experience or resources to help. To get involved in the garden project, contact Tom Wegner at 510-843-6800 extension 116 or 510-704-0729.

Maio’s proposal is intriguing 

As a shopkeeper in Berkeley, I appreciate efforts to encourage local shopping. I read the article in last week’s Daily Planet (June 24) concerning Councilmember Linda Maio’s proposal. Several comments/suggestions come to mind. 

1) Setting criteria would be a major dispute. Besides that, who or what committees will set the criteria? 

2) Fourth Street is a wonderful place to shop because of the atmosphere (clean, neat and with pleasant architecture and plantings) and the variety and quality of merchandise. It does not depend on government issued validation stickers. 

3) Downtown needs a better atmosphere and a wider variety of merchandise. New sidewalks, trees and lampposts will help, but what is in and on the buildings is more important. 

4) Please enforce existing laws before spending $25,000-70,000 on another program. Laws are on the books to limit window usage to a percentage of its square footage - not enforced. People living in stores and operating without a permit was not enforced recently. The tenant was subsequently arrested on an unrelated charge and is in jail. 

5) Maintenance of storefronts and buildings should be encouraged (not necessarily with gifts) if not required, of merchants and property owners. 

6) Please talk to us (merchants) more frequently. The DBA should not be our only direct/indirect interface. I hope this reaches your attention. I will be interested. 

Carl Pearson 

Berkeley 

Some merchants expect too much 

The co-owners of Nfusion Inc. (Letters, June 30) took exception to Carol Denney’s letter in last Tuesday’s issue of The Daily Planet for suggesting that she didn’t want her tax dollars handed out to Berkeley merchants to promote their businesses. I couldn’t agree more with Ms. Denney, but I am not surprised that Ms. Lee and Ms. Siador believe that their gourmet tea emporium deserves money from the city at a time when summer jobs programs are being defunded and people are living on the street for lack of decent housing. This is a curious merchant mindset – that somehow owning a business is more virtuous and of greater service to the community than simply working for a living. 

These two purveyors of gourmet teas complain that they have a zero budget for promoting their products. They bemoan the fact that they must provide employee training and wages – but I notice they didn’t mention health insurance or other benefits for their workers. Perhaps they have forgotten that in a free enterprise system the advertising budget and other expenses come out of pre-profit income. Perhaps they will have to raise the price of their gourmet teas in order to convince consumers that we should be drinking more of their product. 

I think the two owners of Nfusion need an infusion of reality. Myself, I’m on a budget so I don’t believe I’ll be buying much gourmet tea in the near future. Likewise, I don’t enjoy subsidizing their businesses with my tax dollars. 

Joe Cadora 

Berkeley 

Promoting shops is misuse of funds 

While the owner’s of Nfusion and other small businesses may appreciate the large sums of money that the City regularly hands them for promotion, many of us see this practice as a misuse of public funds (Letters, June 30). Does the City expect to recover this money if and when these businesses profit? Are we to assume that any business given this money does not also enjoy a profit simultaneously? Is it a matter of the profit not being large enough? 

The federal government is also notorious for this practice; subsidizing the meat and dairy industries to the tune of billions of dollars per year (otherwise your hamburger would cost roughly $79). Without this subsidy, both industries would clearly fail (and they should). More times than not, businesses fail, not only because of the high costs associated with operation and promotion, but because there is simply not enough demand to support the product or service they provide. So, instead of realizing this fact, government has created an artificial market of businesses and industries (at our expense) which could not, in today’s world, exist on their own. As a natural foods cook and free-lance musician, I have not been offered one cent from the City to help me with my “business.” I don’t expect the City to prop me up; others shouldn’t either. 

Michael Bauce 

Berkeley 

Suggestion was not organic 

I was glad to see your article about composting in the June 30 edition. However, your suggestion to add a layer of 10-10-10 fertilizer over the top of the rotting matter is not in the spirit of composting, which is to use organic materials and let ages-old natural processes unfold. For organic gardeners, this would create a product we wouldn’t want on our crops. 

Carol David 

Berkeley

After one of the most tumultuous years in the school’s history, Berkeley High Principal Theresa Saunders may leave her post to be reassigned to a district position. 

“This has been a difficult year, and we’re trying to reassess and determine what needs to happen for the high school to be successful,” Saunders told the Daily Planet on Friday. 

“No real decisions have been made yet, and what’s happening is that we’re looking at the school to figure out what needs to happen for this thing to function properly – whether I’m here as principal, or someone else, and whoever comes in and whoever stays.” 

A final decision on whether Saunders remains principal or moves into a district job likely will be made by the middle of next week. If she is reassigned to the district office, she would oversee continued development of Berkeley Unified’s music program and would assist in developing strategies for closing the “achievement gap” between white students and students of color. 

Wednesday’s school board agenda includes a request from Superintendent Jack McLaughlin to appoint Darrel Taylor, a retired principal and superintendent in other California school districts, as the “Berkeley High School Fire Recovery and Transition Team Leader.” 

The board’s closed session agenda includes discussion of the employment contracts for McLaughlin, the district’s three associate superintendents and Saunders, during which time school board directors might discuss their feelings about any possible reassignment for the principal. 

Since assuming Berkeley High’s top job two years ago, Saunders has earned a reputation as a hard-working administrator – she frequently works 18-hour days – who’s committed to closing the achievement gap at BHS and making the campus a more functional institution. 

But she’s also drawn criticism from teachers, students and community members who blame her for many of the problems Berkeley High has experienced over the last year, including a high level of administrative turnover, scheduling conflicts at the start of the fall semester, the use of a police wagon to round up truant students and non-functioning clocks and intercoms around campus. 

Critics have said that Saunders’ leadership style too often ignores the comments of people around her, creating too much of an authoritarian approach to directing the school. At last week’s school board meeting, a series of teachers and parents complained about the initial proposal to kill the Chicano Studies program at BHS, as part of staffing reductions at the high school brought about by necessary budget cuts. The decision was reversed, after the superintendent and the school board intervened, but the teachers and parents said the principal approached the entire situation poorly. 

Her supporters rebut that assertion by noting that Berkeley High, while producing some of the top students in the country, is too dysfunctional of a campus. Saunders, they say, is the first person in a long time to finally tackle the problems that plague the school. 

McLaughlin, for one, agrees with that assessment. 

“I think she’s done an amazing job of creating some amazing changes,” he said. 

But this year’s long list of struggles – including the April arson fire that caused $2 million in damage to the B Building – have taken their toll on Saunders’ “quality of life,” as she puts it. And through a series of discussions with other administrators and the board, Saunders has become more open to the possibility of reassignment. 

“It has been a really tough year at Berkeley High,” said Board President Joaquin Rivera. “We’ve really felt that changes may be needed in order to have a good, successful school year this fall.” 

If Saunders is reassigned, the BUSD would begin a search for a new principal. Even though Taylor will serve in a leadership role over the next few months, he would not be considered an interim principal. 

“Berkeley High is a challenging place, but it’s also one of the most widely known high schools in the state and the nation, a place that be appealing to a lot of people,” McLaughlin said. 

For some, summer sun means barbecues and bucolic vacations. But for others, summer is the time to gear up for fall elections. 

That’s what Carol Hughes-Willoughby is doing. The southwest Berkeley resident has filed papers with the city clerk, allowing her to form a campaign committee and raise funds for a run for the District 2 City Council seat. 

She’ll be facing off against incumbent Margaret Breland, who was unavailable for an interview Friday. Hughes-Willoughby does not sound much like a politician when she talks about her rival for the seat. 

“Margaret Breland has a heart. I don’t have anything against her,” said the Berkeley native, who is pastor and founder of New Life Ministries in Oakland. 

“I think I’m a little more energetic. I’m not a rubber-stamp person,” she said, noting that she had conversations with former District 2 Council member Mary Wainwright, who lost to Breland four years ago, but had not yet begun to seek formal endorsements. 

Vice chair of the Human Welfare Commission, Hughes-Willoughby said she decided to take a stab at political life when the commission was sifting through funding requests from nonprofit agencies. She said she found very little proposed for youth age 17-25 and that the city has not done enough to fill the void. 

As councilmember, she says she would focus her work on young people and seniors. Hughes-Willoughby, who has been clean and sober for 14 years, says her work helping people has been informed by her years addicted to drugs and alcohol. She said she has been homeless and knows what that is like.  

An instructor at an after-school program at Malcolm X School, Hughes-Willoughby says her religious beliefs have been an important part of her recovery. 

Breland’s aide, Calvin Fong, confirmed Breland is planning to run again for the office. She was elected for her first term in 1996. 

All the other City Council incumbents said they are throwing their hats back into the familiar ring, including Maudelle Shirek, who has been councilmember for the south Berkeley flatlands District 3 since 1984, and Diane Woolley, who has been councilmember for District 5, the north central part of the city, since 1994. The fourth race will be in District 6, Betty Olds’ north hills district. Olds has been in office since 1992. 

Hughes-Willoughby is the only challenger to have established a campaign committee. The incumbents all have active committees. Formal nominations for the City Council, two School Board seats and four Rent Stabilization Board seats will open on July 17 and close August 11.  

Election day is Nov. 7. For several weeks before the elections, voting by computer will be offered in the city clerk’s office at 1900 Addison St. 

Information on running for office is available at the clerk’s office and on line at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/clerk/Election/eintro.htm. 

While a series of recent and ongoing construction projects in downtown Berkeley will ultimately bring improvements to the area’s appearance, it has left store and cafe owners with mixed feelings. 

Some say their businesses are losing up to 80 percent of their customers, while others consider road and building work just a slight inconvenience. 

The City of Berkeley is in charge of some construction projects and several private businesses are currently constructing their own buildings in the downtown area. 

The city’s downtown improvement projects includes work on Shattuck Avenue, Addison Street and University Avenue, where workers are replacing and fixing benches, sidewalks and street lamps. 

“The idea is to clean up the sidewalk and make it more attractive for pedestrians,” Deborah Badhia of the Downtown Berkeley Association said. 

Road construction last week closed off one lane of eastbound traffic on University Avenue and took away parking spaces on the block between Milvia Street and Shattuck Avenue while trench work was done. 

Daisy Dhillon, manager of House of Futons on University Avenue, complained about the noise that street construction makes outside the store. “They closed off the front part of our store that is a white loading zone, and normally people are able to park there and come in and purchase what they need,” said Dhillon, who estimated the store is losing about 30 percent of its customers during construction. “I think that now the construction is limiting that. A lot of people just drive by.” 

Bea Dong, owner of Eastwind Books on University Avenue, said the construction is not affecting foot traffic, it is just causing an inconvenience for people who normally park in front of the store. 

However, some businesses have seen an upside to construction. 

The construction at the Berkeley Repertory Theater on Addison Street directly across from the Capoeira Arts Cafe has been going on for about eight months, but has not hurt business, says manager Dae Beck. 

“Most of out business is foot traffic, so it has not affected us,” Beck said. “Actually, some of the construction workers have been patronizing the cafe, so if anything the construction is helping us.” 

Vic Touriel, owner of Darling Flower Shop on University Avenue, added that while walk-in customers have decreased almost a third in the last week, the city construction workers are working fast. 

“This group of construction workers is very efficient, and there’s nothing we can do about (loss of customers),” Touriel said. “I think it’s going to move all right.” 

Mike Talai, owner of Au Coquelet Cafe at the corner of University Avenue and Milvia Street, said that his main concern is that the road work on University only lasts as long as the contractors said it would. 

The construction is scheduled to last only three to four weeks for each block, with one week already complete on the first block. When finished, the sidewalk will be wider and restaurants will be able to put tables outside, similar to the present setup of Center Street between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street. 

The City of Berkeley is also currently in charge of construction of three downtown buildings. The Public Library at the corner of Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue is being renovated. It is expected to open by the spring of 2001. 

The Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Building at 2118 Milvia Street is under renovation. Construction should be completed by the end of the year. 

Construction of the Public Safety Building, next to the city courthouse, has closed off one lane of traffic for a block. The building should be finished in the next month or two. 

However, there are no stores adjacent to any of these buildings that are affected by the work. The only result of these projects is a loss of curbside parking spaces. 

Businesses are losing customers because of fewer parking spaces; however, they have no choice but to wait for street construction to finish. 

“Sometimes you have to go through some pain for progress,” Dong said. “But hopefully it will get better.”

At a luncheon last week, the Kiwanis Club of Berkeley awarded 12 local graduating high school students with $32,000 in scholarships. 

Rebecca Falik, who graduated from Berkeley High School in June, received the $10,000 George Whitehead Scholarship, which she will be using to attend Yale in the fall. 

Falik looked into several scholarships but said she wasn’t expecting to win this one from the Kiwanis Club. 

“This one seemed to be up my ally,” she said. “I was very pleasantly surprised.” 

The 11 other winners, who each received a $2,000 scholarship, are Angela Rothschild from Aerosmith; Elizabeth Mullarkey, Richard Pilara and Danski Perez from St. Mary’s High School; Victor Tsai and Andrea Gottlieb from Albany High School; Benjamin Hoss, Gary Yu, Jenny McNight and Amy Heidersbach from El Cerrito High School; and Eleanor Kung from Berkeley High School. 

The Kiwanis Club began issuing scholarships almost 10 years ago, and the number of students that receive the awards has grown from three to 12. The money comes from interest from a memorial fund as well as contributions from club members. 

“Community service is a big aspect of the awards,” Kiwanis Club member and scholarship chair Sharon Silveira said. 

“All these kids have gone out of their way to do community work. They are really incredible in what they did.”

Shambhala Booksellers, the 32-year-old Berkeley bookstore that was a pioneer in offering titles in Eastern and other religions of the world and their sacred traditions, may be forced to close its doors. 

Shambhala has long filled a niche in Telegraph Avenue’s booksellers row, but ironically it is threatened by the recent mass popularity of so-called “new age” books that the store always sold to its clientele, owner Philip Barry said. 

“The subject matter we specialize in is more popular than ever. Now we have the Dalai Lama on the New York Times bestseller list,” said Barry. “ That never used to happen. We are the victim of success.’’ 

The book chains expanded their inventory to include the best selling “new age” books, wrote Barry in a letter to his customers, and that meant fewer sales for Shambhala. The Internet booksellers have posed similar challenges. 

“We’re in a crisis situation,” said Barry, adding that the store may continue operating for only a few more months. “When you can’t maintain the quality of the store, that is the beginning of a downward spiral, and it’s a very The neat shelves along the walls in the small bookstore are labeled in a range of categories that include the world’s religions, Oriental medicine and Celtic studies. Robert Dreyfuss, a longtime customer and practitioner of Oriental medicine, said the store is unique. 

“It offers so much in the realm of spirituality that is so concentrated, so broad spectrum,” he said. 

Barry said he still is able to purchase inventory, but not as much as he would like to buy. 

“We always paid our bills and had a good credit rating, and we have now started to hit the point where we have trouble paying bills,” he said. 

Sales plunged 15 percent in 1998 but the store recovered 3 percent of that in 1999, but then after November sales dropped 5 percent, falling below the 1998 level. 

“We’re looking for an investor,” said Barry, who employed 13 full-time workers in 1987 and now employs a three part-time staffers besides himself. The store is open seven days a week. 

Dan Liebowitz, used book manager at Moe’s Bookstore at 2476 Telegraph, said the two stores have a symbiotic relationship. Moe’s sells used books in the same “very Berkeley” categories that Shambhala sells new, and customers can shuttle between both stores. 

He said Moe’s deliberately keeps its section of new books on Eastern religions, metaphysics and spirituality small so it doesn’t interfere with Shambhala’s trade. 

Liebowitz said that Shambhala’s owner “is a very discriminating buyer. It means a ton, and it rewards people who come into the store looking for that thing.” 

Shambhala was founded in 1968 by Samuel Bercholz and Michael Fagan in a tiny space in Moe’s Bookstore where a sign read: “Now Entering the Kingdom of Shambhala.” In Tibetan mythology the word means an elevated or happy place. 

“The store was cutting edge and it grew from there,” said Barry. 

Moe Moskowitz lent Bercholz money to move the store in 1969 to its present location at 2482 Telegraph, which had been a Christian Science reading room. 

“If I do get an investor, we’ll expand without leaving our spot,” said Barry, who began working as a clerk at Shambhala 21 years ago. 

The store’s business model no longer works, and he said he would seek a broader market without changing Shambhala’s emphasis on inventory categories. 

He would like to bring in authors and musical performances and make physical improvements in the space. On the positive side, he said, the woman who owns the building is “extremely generous.” He has an “amazing” 35-year lease signed 15 years ago. 

Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, of which Shambhala is a member, said “the thing we have to do is market ourselves better.” 

A bookstore owner himself, Landon said the college students in the Telegraph Avenue area are lured by the appeal of Amazon.com, a company “that has spent millions branding itself,’’ as opposed to advertising books. 

He said his association has to remind potential customers that there are alternatives to buying books on the net and in book chains. 

“There are things offered by stores like Shambhala that they can’t get on the Internet. It’s our job and Shambhala’s job to try to figure out ways to reach those people,” Landon said.

Thursday, June 29

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“A European Defense Identity: What Does It Mean for America?” 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Peter Gooderham, counselor of Politico-Military/European Affairs, British Embassy in Washington D.C., will be the featured lecturer. Gooderham joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1983. The main focus of his career has been on defense and security issues. Before taking up his position in the Washington Embassy, Gooderham worked at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 1999. Prior to joining the British Diplomatic Service he completed a Ph.D. thesis at Bristol University in modern Russian and Soviet history. This free, brown-bag talk is sponsored by the Institute for Governmental Studies. 

510-642-4608; www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880 

Movie: “Birth of the Blues” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Memorial Stadium lights public meeting 

7-9 p.m. 

Hall of Fame Conference Room, Memorial Stadium, UC Berkeley campus 

This community meeting will present and discuss the findings of the initial study that describes the project and identifies its potential environmental effects. 

510-642-7720 

“Exploring the Trinity Alps” 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Stew Winchester of Diablo Valley College will present a slide lecture introducing the wilderness area 200 miles north of San Francisco. Free. 

510-527-4140 

Friday, June 30

Commission on Disability’s Disability Outreach Subcommittee 

11:30 a.m. 

Public Works Office, 2201 Dwight Way 

Among the items to be addressed are obstacles on sidewalks around town. 

Opera: “The Merry Widow” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; www.pacificcenter.org 

Sunday, July 2

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418

Monuments are worthy legacy 

I enjoyed reading Tom Elias’ piece about President Clinton and the national monuments (Opinion, June 28). I am happy that Clinton has chosen this way of perpetuating his memory. Corporations who log, mine and graze the lands we own are well represented in Congress. Also, the influential American Recreation Coalition represents resorts, theme parks and petroleum companies. Fee “demonstration” projects and public-private partnerships sponsored by these America Inc. groups were “forced” by cuts in the budgets of the United States Forest Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Each agency then designated between ten and fifty sites that are or are to be part of the program. Popular areas near urban centers will generate fees, leaving remote areas struggling to survive on their meager allotments. 

This is a reversal of the concept of a public good. Youth, the elderly, and poor people with children will bear the greatest burden. 

Bureaucratic czars in Smoky the Bear garb have become free of Congressional control. That’s why I waved a sign in front of the Disney store kitty-corner from Union Square (in San Francisco) a couple of weekends ago. 

Richard Thompson 

Berkeley (summer resident) 

Keene provided leadership 

I believe the City of Berkeley has benefited from City Manager James Keene’s leadership in the difficult job as City Manager. I think that I am a better councilperson for having worked with him. I have learned much from his management style. Even though our respective roles sometimes brought us into conflict, I valued the fact that I could be direct with him and he would patiently help with the big as well as small issues. 

The job as City Manager is a tough and often thankless one. The position becomes a lightening rod for whomever takes it. People’s criticism and frustration build up when decisions regarding government do not go their way. It takes a strong and poised person to handle all the flak. 

Mr. Keene is an articulate communicator and I think he has been generally liked by most in the community and will be missed. Personally, I will miss his sense of humor, especially when he hummed “Give peace a chance” at the city council meetings. 

Dona Spring 

Berkeley City Councilmember

After 14 years in jail, Laura Whitehorn is the star of a movie. And she’s not happy about it. 

“I tried talking them out of it,” said Whitehorn of Berkeley-based filmmakers Rhonda Collins and Sonja de Vries. Whitehorn, a lifelong activist-turned-violent agitator, is at the center of the filmmaking duo’s new work, “Out: The Making of a Revolutionary.” 

De Vries, whose documentary “Gay Cuba” won accolades at film festivals in 1995, and Collins, whose “we don’t live under NORMAL CONDITIONS” packed the Fine Arts Cinema last year, are premiering “Out” at San Francisco’s Castro Theater tonight as a benefit for a handful of prisoner support organizations. 

Whitehorn was incarcerated for planting a bomb in a U.S. Capitol building in 1983. The film uses her as an anchor in describing the revolutionary underground of America since the Civil Right’s Movement. A history which, for many, inevitably, includes prison. 

Whitehorn admitted on the telephone from New York that the film gave her a tempting platform to talk as much as she wanted about her political passions. But after dedicating her life to mobilizing people and aligning herself with activist collectives, to be portrayed as an individual revolutionary feels awkward. 

The problem is more than vanity versus martyrdom. The problem is representation, and it touches the essence of documentary filmmaking: how to present a subject to an audience, while staying true to the material? Activism is a collective effort, not a maverick one. 

But every story needs a main character, and if you can’t get Che Guevara, Whitehorn’s story is nonetheless engaging. Collins said she and de Vries faced a crucial decision early in the project. 

“We as filmmakers had an objective to tell the story of this one person so we could have an identification with the audience,” Collins said. 

“We hope this provokes thinking for people. Particularly for people who may have never been introduced to this history, and if they are, never really understood why certain people made the decision that they made.” 

Collins is referring to the decision to move from mass, (so-called) peaceful demonstrations to violently aggressive acts. In the film Whitehorn says the gesture of bombing a federal building was an act of “armed propaganda,” in response to the U.S. involvement in Granada and Lebanon. It came after a lifetime of petitioning, marching, and organizing. 

Hers was an act not dissimilar to that which we will be celebrating this upcoming fourth of July. For Whitehorn, the course of human events was nigh. 

Her act, also, did not come forth from a vacuum. “Out” offers a few highlights of America’s late-20th century activism. Fred Hampton, the charismatic chairman of the Chicago branch of the Black Panthers, who was assassinated, is featured prominently in archival films speaking urgent inspiration. We see image montages of police confrontations scored with protest songs. Contemporary footage of demonstrations to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, on death row in Pennsylvania, bring the film up to date. 

Whitehorn is careful not to get lost in extolling these personalities and newsreel-ready events of civil rights activism. She said she was inspired by “the courage of people who were not politicians or speakers, but people who were going about living their lives and then had to take on the water cannons and bullwhips.” 

The film has a few compelling images of Southern justice to the Civil Rights Movement’s uprising, circa 1965, but the quieter, calmer pictures reveal the sacrifices made. A lawyer, reading from documents and newspaper clippings, said Whitehorn’s sentence was the result of a plea bargain to lessen the jail time of an incarcerated comrade sick with cancer. 

Whitehorn agreed to participate in the film as a way to speak about political activism happening behind bars. Along with her fellow activists she created an HIV/AIDS educational program for inmates which was eventually shut down by prison officials. Having AIDS support groups in prison is next to impossible because it involves admitting to one of two highly illegal activities in prison: having sex and taking drugs. 

Collins and de Vries were at the Dublin facility with their cameras when Whitehorn was released, but the newly freed prisoner had turbulently mixed feelings and refused to talk. Her grief over her personal and political intimates still inside conflicted with her elation. 

Her emotions have calmed somewhat since then. 

“I have enormous amount of joy everyday at being free,” Whitehorn said on the phone last week, “but there’s a real pain that never leaves my heart."

THEATER 

AURORA THEATRE 

“Split” by Mayo Simon, June 1 through July 2. A mordant clear-eyed view of an older couple's love affair. $25 to $28. Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE 

“Closer” by Patrick Marber, through July 9. A funny, touching and unflinchingly honest examination of love and relationships set in contemporary London. $38 to $48.50. Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; May 27, June 1, June 3, June 10, June 15, June 24, June 29 and July 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-4700 or (888) 4BRTTIX. 

CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, July 1 through July 22. Shakespeare probes the shadowy corners of the human psyche in this dark, compelling tragedy of vengeance, madness and murder most foul. 

$21 to $38 general; $19 to $38 seniors; $10 to $38 children. Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4 p.m.; July 11 and July 18, 7 p.m.; July 22, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Bruns Memorial Amphitheatre, Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit on state Highway 24. (510) 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

LaVal’s Subterranean 

Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Yoni Barkan. The play will run from June 8 to July 8, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. each night. 1834 Euclid Ave. (510) 234-6046. 

MUSIC VENUES 

ASHKENAZ 

Martin Fierro and Legion of Mary, June 29, 10 p.m. $9. 

“Rattle The Cage!!!” June 30, 8:30 p.m. Featuring Rebecca Riots, Green, Copperwimmin, Helen Chaya, Anna and Eileen, Women Walking Tall. $8 to $15. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

BLAKES 

Ripe, Orquestra D, Soul, June 29. $4. 

Blue Marmalade, Molasses, June 30. $5. 

For age 18 and older. Music at 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886. 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Judy Henske with Craig Doerge, June 30. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Cats and Jammers, July 1. $15.50 to $16.50. 

The Copper Family, July 2. $15.50 to $16.50. 

John Miller and John Reischman, July 6. With Tammy Fassaert. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Roy Rogers and Shana Morrison, July 7. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Mighty Prince Singers and Talk of da Town, July 8. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Lila Downs, June 29, 8 p.m. $14. 

Jaranon y Bochinche, June 30, 8:30 p.m. $12. 

Zion I, July 1, 9 p.m. $8 general; $6 students. 

Quetzal, July 5, 8 p.m. $6. 

Atahualpamantab, July 7, 8 p.m. $10. 

The Soul of Black Folks, July 8, 9 p.m. $10 general; $8 students. 

Domingos de Rumba, July 9, 4:30 p.m. Free. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

The Cost, The Hi-Fives, Maurice's Little Bastard, Merrick, June 30. 

Midnight Lazer Beam, The Convocation Of..., Heart Of Snow, July 1. 

Dead and Gone, Catheter, Hog, Laughing Dog, Jeno, July 7. 

El Dopa, Dystopia, Scratchabit, July 8. 

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Human Life Index, June 29. $4. 

Kirby Grips, Applesaucer, The Chantigs, June 30. $6. 

Charming Hostess, July 1. 

Noche de Flamenco, July 5, 9:30 p.m. $5. 

Giblet Dribblers, The Bellyachers, July 6. $4. 

Gun and Doll Show, Chub, July 7. $6. 

Soldier of Fortune Cookie, Stikman, July 8. 

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

MUSEUMS 

Berkeley Historical Society 

"Berkeley's Ethnic Heritage." May 7 through March 2001. The exhibit examines the rich cultural diversity of our city and the contributions of individuals and minority groups to our history and development. The exhibit look at the original native tribelets in the area and the immigrants who settled in Ocean View and displaced the Spanish/Mexican landowners. It also examines the influence of theUniversity of California, the San Francisco earthquake, and World War II on the population and culture of Berkeley, and subsequent efforts to overcome discrimination. Curated by Linda Rosen and the Berkeley Historical Society Exhibit Committee. Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Admission free. 

Berkeley Historical Society located in the Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center Street, Berkeley. 510-848-0181 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

UC BERKELEY ART 

MUSEUM 

“Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition,” May 20 through July 2. The 13th annual exhibit of work by candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree. 

“Doug Aitken/MATRIX 185: Into the Sun,” July 9 through Sept. 3. An exhibit of works primarily in video and film, using the interplay of art and media to evoke deserted landscapes. Artist’s Talk, July 9, 3 p.m. Doug Aitken discusses his installation. In Gallery 1. 

Rodin and His Contemporaries,” through August. An exhibit of 11 bronze maquettes on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in Los Angeles. The bronzes range in style from the artist's classically inspired “Torso of a Woman” to the anguish of “The Martyr.” 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students ages 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 1 1 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. 

HALL OF HEALTH  

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level), Berkeley. A hands-on community health education museum and science center sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland and Alta Bates Medical Center. Free. For children ages 3 to 12 and their parents. 

(510) 549-1564 

LAWRENCE HALL 

OF SCIENCE 

“Experiment Gallery,” through Sept. 10. Step inside a giant laboratory and experiment with concepts surrounding sound, light, mechanics, electricity, and weather. 

“Math Rules!” ongoing exhibit. A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. Make mathematical ice-cream cones, use blocks to build three dimensional structures, make dodecagon pies from a variety of mathematical shapes and stretch mathematical thinking. 

“Within the Human Brain,” ongoing installation. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. 

$6 general; $4 seniors, students and children ages 7 to 18; $2 children ages 3 to 6; free children under age 3. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

PHOEBE HEARST MUSEUM 

Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley 

“Modern Treasures from Ancient Iran,” through Oct. 29. This exhibit explores nomadic and town life in ancient and modern Iran as illustrated in bronze and pottery vessels, and textiles. 

“Pana O’ahu: Sacred Stones – Sacred Places,” through July 16. An exhibit of photographs by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. 

Wednesday through Sunday 10 am -4:30 pm; Thursday until 9 pm (Sept-May) 

(510) 643-7648 

HABITOT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

A museum especially for children age 7 and younger. Highlights include “WaterWorks,” an area with some unusual water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library. 

Admission is $4 for adults; $6 child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child. Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

(510) 647-1111 

JUDAH L. MAGNES 

MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season,” through May 2002.  

An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. Highlights include treasures from Jewish ceremonial and folk art, rare books and manuscripts, contemporary and traditional fine art, video, photography and cultural kitsch. Through Nov. 4: “Spring and Summer.” Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (510) 549-6950. 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information.

The City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday night requiring pet owners to spay and neuter their animals or pay for the right not to. 

The vote was 6-2, with Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and Councilmember Diane Woolley voting in opposition, Councilmember Margaret Breland absent and the others supporting the ordinance. 

A last-ditch effort urging the council to forget the ordinance and focus its time and energy on improving the animal shelter, went down in defeat. The substitute motion, proposed by Woolley and Shirek, suggested that the council wait about five or six weeks to pass an ordinance until a shelter director was named, and enlist the help of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Shelter Medicine Program to help improve the operation of the animal shelter. 

Woolley’s motion was defeated by a 4-3 vote, with Councilmember Polly Armstrong and Shirek joining Woolley in favor of the proposal and Councilmembers Dona Spring, Linda Maio, Betty Olds and Mayor Shirley Dean voting against it. Councilmember Kriss Worthington abstained and Breland was absent, having left the meeting early due to illness. 

The new ordinance, which Armstrong said has been misrepresented as mandatory, will require dog and cat owners to pay a $30 annual fee if they choose not to spay or neuter their animals. The fee cannot be raised for two years. Licenses for altered dogs will be $7.50. Altered cats will not require a license. 

Under the new ordinance, if a dog is caught running at large or is a dangerous animal, the citation will be $100. But this amount will be forgiven if the dog is altered within 30 days. If the dog is on the “bad dog” list, meaning it has been picked up before, the license will cost the owner $60 if the dog is unaltered. 

The new law also makes feeding and harboring feral cats a public nuisance unless the person doing so is working with an animal agency or working to have the cats spayed or neutered. 

Low-income residents and those over 65 years old are exempt from paying licensing fees. 

Proponents of the ordinance, which has been discussed in various forms for five years, said they are relieved that action has been taken on behalf of Berkeley’s animals. 

“I feel very good that council has taken a giant leap for animals here in Berkeley,” Spring said Wednesday. Spring served on the animal task force that hammered out the ordinance. 

“There was so much misinformation put forth – it was painful to see the tactics put forth to beat this mild-mannered ordinance,” Spring said. 

She called the ordinance “mild-mannered” in comparison to cities such as Los Angeles, which requires its pet owners to pay a $100 licensing fee for unaltered animals, and an additional $100 breeders charge if owners wish to breed the animal. 

Spring noted that in San Mateo a spay and neuter program reduced the number of animals killed by over 35 percent and, in contrast, Oakland built a new animal shelter without a spay and neuter program and it was full the day after its completion. 

Lee Ann Assalone, a former animal shelter worker in Santa Cruz, supported the ordinance and pleaded with the council to increase education in conjunction with it. Assalone said she had the unfortunate responsibility of euthanizing unwanted animals. 

“Everyone knows the right thing to do,” she said. 

The staff estimates that the cost to put the ordinance in place will be $57,000 for the first year and $20,000 for subsequent years. The $37,000 start-up cost includes $25,000 for a staff person to set up the unaltered license program and $12,000 for computer upgrades. The money will be taken from a surplus of $52,500 allocated to the council’s animal task force in last year’s budget. The funds were not spent because of the time taken to implement the ordinance. 

Opponents of the law, and even some supporters, believe that it is too bureaucratic, complaint-driven and punitive. 

“I think we have taken a good idea and created a bureaucracy that I don’t think will work,” said Armstrong. “It seems we could have done it in a much easier way.” 

Woolley said the ordinance has caused bad feelings among animal activists. 

“This has caused a split in the community when we should be working together for the animals. It’s become counter-productive,” she said. 

“The fix-or-be-fined notion becomes punitive. The idea that you can legislate compliance is nuts.” 

Sharply divided along traditional faction lines, the council approved a spending plan for the $3.5 million – the “little fringe at the end” of the budget, as Councilmember Polly Armstrong described it – the council is authorized to disburse. 

The rest of the city’s $215 million budget is already allocated to fixed personnel and capital costs for the fiscal year that begins Jul. 1. 

At the well-attended Tuesday night meeting, the five liberal/progressive councilmembers – Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and Councilmembers Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring, and Margaret Breland – approved a list of some three dozen items, which addressed job creation, homelessness, the environment, business needs and city government needs. 

Led by the mayor, the four moderates called for the council to put off approving $1 million in spending and approve only the city manager’s $2 million list of recommended expenditures. 

The mayor argued that the remaining $1 million should not be spent until a more rational process for doling out the money has been put into place. 

“We have before us tonight a budget proposal...that continues the same flawed process that we have experienced in the past,” Dean said, reading from a prepared statement. 

“Each year council actions encourage more and more requests for new, undefined concepts and programs, some of which don’t even exist at the time funds are allocated. These requests create a frenzy of activity in which previous commitments and priorities are pushed aside, work plans are ignored, and staff is pushed to the point they cannot perform even basic duties adequately.” 

But Maio, who led the progressives’ allocation efforts, accused the mayor of ducking the hard questions. 

“Some choices had to be made,” Maio said. “We just don’t have enough money.” 

Armstrong countered Maio and backed the mayor’s stance. 

“I appreciate the mayor’s intelligent overview,” she said, acknowledging the realities of being aligned with the minority faction. “We have a disadvantage of not being on the majority. The (allocations) were worked out by the people who have five votes.” 

Armstrong went on, however, to applaud some of the content on the progressives’ list. “Much of it is wonderful,” she said. 

But a “major complaint” she offered was the absence of $150,000 for sidewalk repair and $250,000 for street repair, which the city manager had requested. 

Shirek agreed that it is important to fill up a pothole or repair a street. But she questioned the council minority’s priorities. 

“Which is more important, (street repairs or) education and caring for our youth?” she asked, rhetorically. 

Maio reminded the others that street and sidewalk repair is included as fixed costs elsewhere in the budget. The funds requested by the city manager would have accelerated the street and sidewalk repair process. 

The council majority included $150,000 in its budget for needs relating to the animal shelter and animal rescue. Woolley, however, contended that no funds should be spent on animal care issues – hiring a volunteer coordinator, upgrades to the shelter, advertising for pet adoption, funding low-cost spay and neuter programs and more – until a permanent animal shelter director is hired. That will be in about six weeks, staff said. 

“Directing the funds before we get the director in place, that’s backwards,” Woolley argued. 

During the public comment session at the beginning of the meeting, a number of citizens lined up to underscore the need for the $200,000 the council majority had proposed to improve health in the African-American community in South and West Berkeley. 

“We’re beginning to address the health disparity,” Worthington said, referring to the study that showed the chasm between the health of the largely Caucasian Hills community and the flatlands’ African-American community. 

Worthington did not miss a chance to take a swipe at the city manager: The progressive budget “reflects values not sufficiently addressed in the city manager’s budget.”

Police found a man sleeping in a gutter about 6:30 a.m. Saturday at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Ridge Road. When an officer came up next to him and tried to wake him, he was slow to awaken, but finally shook his head and got up, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

Police officers identified him, and they learned there was a parole warrant for his arrest and another warrant for the misdemeanor of driving with a suspended license. 

When they searched the suspect they found an unidentified substance they believed to be half of a gram of methamphetamine in his pocket. They also found what appeared to be burglary tools, keys and other tools with the edges filed off to make them useful in breaking open locks. 

Douglas Floyd Parker was arrested on charges of parole violation and driving with a suspended license.

A man who gained entrance to a residential hall at 1777 Euclid Ave. Sunday night was thwarted in his burglary attempt. 

Around 11 p.m. Sunday, the man entered a second-floor room where the occupant, a UC Berkeley student, was away and the suspect stole her camera, wallet, laptop computer and cassette disks. 

Carrying all these items he walked down into the common living room area and one person there began talking to him, thinking he was a relative of one of the students. Then another resident, a 24-year-old man, noticed what the suspect was carrying, and asked him who he was. 

With the inquiry, the suspect turned and ran. The witness chased him and almost caught him, said Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller. 

In the chase the suspect dropped the stolen property, and it was recovered by the witness. 

The suspect was described as a Caucasian male in his 20s or 30s, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, around 200 pounds. 

At the time of the incident, he was wearing a dark vest, a short sleeve shirt and blue jeans.

This year’s annual Solano Avenue Stroll Sept. 10, in addition to the food, entertainment and crafts fair, silent auction and a parade, will highlight the 26-year-old Stroll’s recognition by the Library of Congress. 

The popular regional event draws about 100,000 people to the Solano Avenue shopping district, as the biggest and oldest free street festival in the East Bay, said Lisa Bullwinkel, Executive Director of the Solano Avenue Association. 

The Solano Avenue Stroll was selected by the Library of Congress for its Local Legacies Project initiated by the library to celebrate its bicentennial, she said. 

She said the library developed Local Legacies to ensure that future generations will be able to learn about the traditions of local communities as they were played out in cultural events at the millennium. 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee nominated Berkeley/Albany’s Solano Avenue Stroll along with Oakland’s Black Cowboys Parade, Dia de Los Muertos, and The Festival of Greece. All four events were chosen for the Local Legacies collection. 

The Stroll is represented in the library’s folk section with copies of 25 years of Stroll scrapbooks kept by the Solano Avenue Association, and with historical Stroll posters. 

Also included are 28 8-inch by 10-inch color copies of photographs, taken in the last five years, that are representative of the Stroll. The Association was required to historically document them, correctly identifying all the people in the photos. 

Taking Local Legacies one step further for this year’s Stroll, the Solano Avenue Association’s theme is Local Legacies on Parade. 

Celebrating the contributions of community members, the Association is requesting nominations of local people who are “cultural icons, quirky and wonderful,” said Bullwinkel. “You know them when you see them.” Nominees must be residents of Berkeley, Albany, Kensington or El Cerrito. 

To nominate a person who may be a local legacy, the association requests a minimum 25-word description. Nominators are requested to include their own names and addresses and telephone numbers along with the same information for the nominee. 

Bullwinkel said a tentative deadline for nominations is July 15. The nominators and their local legacies are invited to ride together in the parade that begins at the top of Solano Sept. 10. To nominate a local legacy, mail information to The Solano Avenue Association, 1563 Solano Ave., #101; Berkeley 94707. The e-mail address is lbullwinkl@aol.com

Barbara T. Christian, an acclaimed professor of African-American Studies at UC Berkeley, and a pioneer of contemporary American literary feminism, died Sunday at her home in Berkeley from cancer. She was 56. 

The author and editor of several books and almost 100 published articles and reviews, Christian was best known for her landmark study, “Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition,” which appeared in 1980 following the rediscovery of the work of important women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen. She was among the first scholars to focus national attention on such major writers as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. 

“She was a path-breaking scholar,” Percy Hintzen, chair of the department of African-American studies at UC Berkeley, said in a statement released by the university. “Nobody did more to bring black women writers into academic and popular recognition.” 

Christian was known for her critical presence in the growing debates over the relationship between race, class and gender. Her widely cited article, “The Race for Theory,” challenged the increasing domination of African-American literary study by theorists who seemed to displace both writers and their writing. 

Christian received a doctorate from Columbia University in 1970. A year later, she was appointed to UC Berkeley as an assistant professor. Previously, she had spent six years as an activist and teacher at New York’s City College. 

At UC Berkeley, Christian soon became central in establishing the African-American Studies department, where she taught from 1972 until her death. She served as chair of that department from 1978 until 1983 and went on to chair the campus’s new Ethnic Studies doctoral program from 1986 to 1989.  

Christian was the first African-American woman at UC Berkeley to be granted tenure (1978), the first to receive the campus’s Distinguished Teaching Award (1991), and the first to be promoted to full professor (1986). 

This year, she was awarded UC Berkeley’s highest honor, the Berkeley Citation. 

A beloved teacher, her courses attracted large numbers of students of virtually all ethnic backgrounds.  

“Fighting the backlash against affirmative action, which decreased the presence of students of color in higher education, remained one of her central passions,” said Dr. Gabrielle Foreman, one of Christian’s former graduate students.  

Christian’s home was an extension of the intellectual activity, diversity and warmth that had characterized her classroom. 

She also was committed to community education, helping to found the University Without Walls, a community-based alternative college for people of color. 

Her work establishing the college is but one example of her dedication to progressive politics and social justice, friends note. 

Christian, who was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, is survived by her daughter, Najuma I. Henderson of Berkeley; her parents, Judge Alphonso A. Christian and Ruth Christian of St. Thomas; her siblings, Reubina Gomez of St. Thomas, Alicia Wells of Philadelphia, Delano Christian of San Francisco, Cora Christian of St. Croix, Alphonso Christian II of Washington D.C.; her ex-husband, David Henderson of New York; and by her stepson, Imetai Malik Henderson of New York. 

The African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley will hold memorial services this August. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions should be sent to the Barbara T. Christian Scholarship Fund, c/o Marvina White, Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.

An attempted robbery was foiled about 6 a.m. Monday after three would-be robbers gained entry to rooms at the Ramada Inn at 920 University Ave. 

The suspects went into the motel and told the desk clerk they had come to visit a guest staying in one of the rooms. Instead they went into several rooms, finding some of them unlocked. The suspects were able to enter some occupied rooms, where they demanded money from the guests. 

In one room, as the suspects accosted one of the guests, he screamed loudly that he was being robbed. The victim’s screams attracted attention to the robbers, who had no weapons, and they left the motel. Police were alerted before the suspects left the motel, and found them running away near Addison and Eighth streets. 

Three people, all Berkeley residents were arrested by police: two juveniles, and John Wilson, 19, of Berkeley, who was arrested on charges of attempted robbery and possession of cocaine. 

An attempted robbery was foiled about 6 a.m. Monday after three would-be robbers gained entry to rooms at the Ramada Inn at 920 University Ave. 

The suspects went into the motel and told the desk clerk they had come to visit a guest staying in one of the rooms. Instead they went into several rooms, finding some of them unlocked. The suspects were able to enter some occupied rooms, where they demanded money from the guests. 

In one room, as the suspects accosted one of the guests, he screamed loudly that he was being robbed. The victim’s screams attracted attention to the robbers, who had no weapons, and they left the motel. Police were alerted before the suspects left the motel, and found them running away near Addison and Eighth streets. 

Three people, all Berkeley residents were arrested by police: two juveniles, and John Wilson, 19, of Berkeley, who was arrested on charges of attempted robbery and possession of cocaine. 

Walter D. Knight, professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and an innovative researcher in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance, died Wednesday, June 28, at his summer home in Marlborough, N. H. The cause of death was heart disease complicated by end-stage Alzheimer’s disease. He was 80. 

Knight, who retired in 1990, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a former dean of the College of Letters & Science at UC Berkeley. He came to Berkeley in 1950 as a young scientist at the forefront of the then-new field of nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique for studying details of the atomic nucleus. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has since been applied to many fields, including magnetic resonance imaging in medicine. 

In the words of his colleagues, Knight was “a consummate experimentalist” who concentrated on the study of the physical properties of metals. He discovered a new NMR phenomenon – what his colleagues dubbed the “Knight shift” – which was a significant development in the understanding of the electronic properties of metals. He pioneered the use of electric quadrupole resonance as well as magnetic resonance as sensitive probes in studying structural and other changes in metal crystals. His research also played a crucial and unique role in understanding the electronic properties of metallic alloys and superconductors.  

Later in his career, he initiated ground-breaking work on the physics of small metal clusters, now referred to as nanoclusters. He discovered their electronic shell structure and traced the development of metallic properties as clusters increase in size. This field has blossomed in the past 20 years, attracting chemists and engineers as well as atomic and solid state physicists.  

He played a major role in building the field of solid state physics at UC Berkeley, yet he relished teaching introductory physics courses, in particular those for pre-medical and liberal arts students. His abiding interest and concern for students led him to get involved in campus administration.  

“He was a very caring, conscientious person who was extremely supportive of his students and of the university,” colleague Alan M. Portis, professor emeritus of physics at UC Berkeley, said in a statement released by the university. 

Amid turbulent times in the 1960s, he assumed the position of dean of the College of Letters & Science, winning the praise of many for his handling of difficult issues involving students and faculty alike. He was once forced to barricade himself and his staff in Moses Hall overnight to protect confidential faculty and student files from rampaging students until police could rescue them. 

Born in New York City on Oct. 14, 1919, he graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1941 and obtained his M.A. in 1943 and his Ph.D. in 1950 from Duke University. His education was interrupted by two years as a radar officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he received a grounding in electronics that subsequently proved useful in his experiments. From 1946 until he received his Ph.D. in 1950, he taught on the faculty at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. He joined the UC Berkeley physics faculty in 1950 and became a full professor in 1961.  

Knight served as assistant and then associate dean of the College of Letters & Science from 1959 until 1967, when he was appointed dean. The college is the largest at UC Berkeley, and he soon realized it was too large to be overseen by one person. Before he returned to teaching in 1972, he split the unwieldy job among four new deans – one each for the humanities and the physical, biological and social sciences – and relinquished his job to a new position of provost. 

He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He held two honorary degrees, from Middlebury College and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.  

Knight is survived by his wife of 28 years, Sara Pattershall Knight, of Berkeley; their son Nathaniel Knight of Berkeley; two children from a previous marriage, Margaret Knight of Washington, D.C., and Jonathan Knight of El Cerrito.; a stepson, Eric Blanpied, of Berkeley; and a sister, Paula Knight Jeffries, of Washington, D.C. and Marlborough, N.H. He also leaves five grandchildren.  

Burial will be in New Hampshire on July 17. A memorial service is planned for the UC Berkeley campus sometime in September. His family requests that donations in his memory be made to the Department of Physics, MC 7300, University of California,

About 10: 20 p.m. Thursday a woman walking alone in the 1500 block of Woolsey Street was approached by a man who was walking in front of her and abruptly turned around. 

He faced her holding a silver semi-automatic pistol, and demanded she give him her purse. 

Her response to the threat was to spray him with pepper spray, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

The suspect grabbed her purse despite the spray, and then fled, and the victim screamed. 

Neighbors heard her scream and responded, but they did not catch the suspect by that time joined by another man who had been walking behind the victim. 

The suspect who stole her purse is described as an African-American male, 20 to 30 years old, 6 feet tall, with a slim build. 

He wore a red sweatshirt with a hood and dark pants. 

The second suspect is about the same age range, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, medium build, and he was wearing a black sweatshirt and light brown pants cut off at the knees.

Phone repairs taking time 

SAN BRUNO – Pacific Bell officials said Wednesday they expect it will take at least two weeks to restore service to 25,000 phone lines affected by a fire which severed 27 cables in a San Bruno communications vault. 

Spokesman Rodd Aubrey said damage from Monday’s fire was more extensive than originally thought, adding that the procedure for repairing the cut cables requires splicing and testing each line one by one. The small space surrounding the vault has further complicated matters. Only two workers could fit into the hole surrounding the vault until Tuesday, when the company brought out a backhoe to enlarge the work space. Seven splicers are now on the scene working around the clock to repair the lines, he said. 

The fire was apparently caused by sparks from BART workers welding steel pillars at a nearby construction site for the agency’s airport extension project. BART spokesman Ron Rodriguez said the transit agency is still in the process of conducting an investigation into the fire’s origin. 

Emergency 911 service has been restored to parts of the Peninsula that lost the service for more than five hours Monday evening as a result of the blaze. 

Murder trail delayed 

REDWOOD CITY – Attorneys agreed Wednesday to delay setting a trial date in the case of Mohammed Haroon Ali, accused of murdering his girlfriend, the daughter of former Oakland Raiders great Fred Biletnikoff. 

The 24-year-old Ali is accused of strangling Tracey Biletnikoff in February 1999, then dumping the 20-year-old’s partially clad body near a parking lot at Canada College in Woodside. The pair had been dating for several months when the killing occurred. 

Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe agreed to postpone the hearing until Sept. 22, which would allow Buenaventura to resolve matters in the other case. Ali is being held without bail at the San Mateo County Jail. 

Child porn arrest made 

HAYWARD – The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Alameda County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force have arrested a Hayward man on charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. 

Postal Inspector Linda Joe said Chester Eric Gossett, 24, allegedly contacted an Internet bulletin board in February this year, advertising teen and preteen sex videos. Joe said Gossett allegedly corresponded with agents via e-mail, expressing interest in some videos. In exchange he sent, via U.S. Mail, computer diskettes with 149 images of minors in sexually explicit poses. During the arrest Tuesday, a search of Gossett’s residence resulted in the seizure of photographs, videotapes, a computer and computer equipment, according to Joe. 

– Bay City News Service