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News

AC Transit pact still in limbo

By Josh Parr Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday September 13, 2000

For years, AC Transit employees have worked through thick and thin with management to keep service on the streets. Claudia Hudson, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 192, representing over 1800 AC Transit workers, says their dedication has not been rewarded. Already working since June without a contract, bus operators, maintenance workers and clerical workers represented by Local 192 voted 940-299 to reject AC Transit’s newest contract offers last Tuesday. 

“We also voted to authorize a strike, which is normal,” Hudson said .  

The strike authorization “sends a message to management to come back to the table with another package, and gives our executive board the ability to declare a strike in case negotiations break down.” 

Such negotiations will resume Oct. 6, when Christine Zook, union president, returns from vacation. 

When asked for AC Transit management’s position on the negotiations, Mike Mills, public information manager said, “There is no public statement. We do not negotiate contracts in the press. All deals are done behind closed doors.” 

Such deals, says Hudson, have always ended up unfavorably for AC transit employees. 

“We are the seventh largest transit organization in the nation, and we rank 26th in income. When you consider that the Bay Area has one of the highest living costs in the nation, it’s easy to see why the union rejected this contract.” 

Hudson, who has worked for the bus company for 21 years, said negotiation history shows salary increases that don’t add up to the higher demands of living in the East Bay. She herself had to move to Vallejo to own a home and live on the wage she was given. 

In 1989, the union received an 8 percent increase only for bus operators, and created a two-tier wage scale in maintenance, dividing the union’s members. In 1992, a two year freeze limited wages to those 1989 levels. 1994 negotiations lead to a 9 percent increase until 1997, when a 75 cent increase was negotiated. 

Now, with the 1997 contract elapsed, management brought a 20 percent raise over the next three years to the table. 

The timing of the possible strike is also important. Measure B is on the November ballot. If the voters approve the measure, it would extend a half-cent sales tax that will go, in part, toward expanding AC Transit services.  

Since 1986, Measure B has allocated $11 million annually to AC Transit operations. Renewing the measure would increase that amount to $21 million, an increase of $10 million a year, which Mills says would, “maintain today’s levels of service and open up new levels of service.” 

Very little of this money, however would go to the workers, Hudson said. 

“This money is going to the daily costs of running operations. Not even a fourth of it would go to employees,” she said. 

Already, proposals to add service to the Berkeley-Oakland-San Leandro corridor have been drawn up, along with “street car” services along San Pablo Boulevard, Mills said. 

“These would help develop neighborhoods along the line, and increase service along what are already very busy corridors.” 

Should Measure B fail to pass, however, “the picture wouldn’t be as optimistic” Mills said. 

“It would amount to a $10 million decrease in operating expenses.” While Mills did not say that job cuts would result, “changes can’t be determined. But it’ll have a substantial impact.”


Calendar of Events & Activities

Wednesday September 13, 2000


Wednesday, Sept. 13

 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Last town hall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

 

Commission on Disability 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The commission will discuss Project Impact disaster funding, I-80 overpass amenities, removal of obstacles from the sidewalk and more.  

 

Second annual  

Bertram Gross Award 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The campaign to abolish poverty/full employment Coalition presents the second Annual Bertram Gross Award. Gross, 1912-1998, was the chief author of the Roosevelt Full Employment Act, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act and the current full employment legislation HR1050. 

Award recipients are Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Amaha Kassa, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy and Pat Ford, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. 

Music by Barbara Dane. $10-$15; nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

 

Berkeley Energy Commission 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Among the topics for discussion will be a report on renewable energy and a report on residential energy consumption. 

665-3486 

 


Thursday, Sept. 14

 

Eugene O’Neil House,  

Mt. Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

 

Environmental Sampling Project Task Force 

6:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

Agenda items include public comment time and sampling reviews 

486-4387 

 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

What next for Haiti? 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue, 

What is the true story behind the recent elections in Haiti? What’s the real impact of the global economy on Haiti? 

483-7481  

please call to reserve childcare 

$5-10 

Community Health  

Commission 

6:45 - 9:45 p.m. 

Mental Health Clinic 

2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way 

Among topics to be discussed are medical marijuana and genetically engineered/modified foods and Berkeley high school lunch issues. 

644-6500 

 


Friday, Sept. 15

 

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

“Lift the Sanctions from Iraq” 

Interfaith Brunch & Community Gathering 

Talk by Denis Halliday, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General 

10:30 a.m. -noon 

Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento 

(510) 527-8370 

Saturday, Sept. 16 

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Seabreeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

Call: 848-9358  

 

Shoreline cleanup 

9 a.m. 

Behind Sea Breeze market at West Frontage Rd and University Ave. or at Aquatic Park playground 

Bring gloves, sunscreen and hat and help clean up the shoreline. 

644-8623; TDD 644-6915 

Sunday, Sept. 17 

Berkeley Citizen’s Action  

Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

To include local and state endorsements. Please place this upcoming event in your listings. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 

 


Thursday, Sept. 21

 

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room San Francisco (415) 749-4965 

 


Friday, Sept. 22

 

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

 


Saturday, Sept. 23

 

From Capitalism to Equality 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. at Alcatraz 

Why have the conditions of work become more difficult and the 

rewards more unequal since 1973? Join author Charles Andrews to 

discuss these issues and solutions for them. 

$5 admission includes $10 discount coupon the book, “From Capitalism to Equality” 

535-2476 

 


Sunday, Sept. 24

 

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using both story-telling and generational techniques, Dr. Lois Silverstein will offer beginning steps to rediscovering family heritage and traditions.  

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 

848-0237 

 

5th anniversary party and film festival 

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Fifth Birthday 

6-8 p.m. party 

film: 8:30-10:30 p.m. 

Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Movie Theater 

1901 Gilman St. 

The event is to honor five years of BFB bike advocacy. Films will include: “Pedalphiles and Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels” 

Bring something to sit on. 

Free to members; $10-$20 sliding scale to non members.  

549-7433 

 

“How Berkeley Can You Be?” 

11 a.m. on University Avenue and California Street, culminating at Civic Center outside Berkeley High School 

Festival in the park starts at 12:30 p.m. 

849-4688, www.howberkeleycanyoube.com 

 

Monday, Sept. 25 

Open forum on affordable housing 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Sean Heron of the East Bay Housing Organizations will talk about building a campaign for affordable housing. Sponsored by the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project. 

1-800-773-2110 

 

Wednesday, Sept. 27 

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Business” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework promoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

 


Saturday, Sept. 30

 

Jim Hightower: “Election 2000: a Space Odyssey” 

8 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Sponsored by KPFA and Global Exchange 

“I am an agitator,” Hightower says. “The agitator is the centerpost in a washing machine that gets the dirt out.” 

$10 in advance/$12 at the door 

848-6767 x609 

 

Tour Mission District Gardens 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

One of a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance for this fall. Tour SF’s Mission District and learn about the role of gardens and open space in community planning. 

Call: 415-255-3233 to make reservations 

 


Sunday, October 1

 

Return of the Raptors to Marin 

Drivers: 11:45 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.  

Bikers: 10:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Witness the migration of birds of prey over the Marin Headlands. Includes a hawk talk and banding demonstration and lunch at Rodeo Lagoon. Bike from SF or meet at Hawk Hill. Part of Greenbelt Alliance’s series of free outings.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

 


Monday, October 2

 

“2nd annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

“Clean Lies Dirty War” 

7:30 p.m. Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar 

Event is part of a national campaign to end sanctions on Iraq.  

(510) 528-5403 

 


Thursday, October 5

 

3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

 


Saturday, October 7

 

Berkeley Grassroots Greening Tour 

Starts at 10:45 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. 

Celebrate Open Garden Day by joining this annual bicycle tour of local community and school gardens. Part of a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance. 

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

 

Houses or Open Hills? 

10 a.m.  

Experience Black Diamond Mines Regional Park’s ghost towns, coal mines, spectacular views and open space on this hike by the proposed sites of 7,700 homes near Antioch. Cosponsored by Save Mount Diablo. One outing in a free series organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

 


Sunday, October 8

 

Surmounting Sunol Peaks  

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

Learn about local geology while enjoying the panoramic views from three Sunol peaks. One outing in a free series organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

 

 

ONGOING EVENTS 

 

Sundays 

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 

 

 

 

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

 

 

 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

 

 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

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. 

234-0727;642-5168 

 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Wednesday September 13, 2000

 

Ebony Museum of Arts 

The museum specializes in the art and history of Africa.  

Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.  

30 Jack London Village, Suite 209. (510) 763-0745. 

 

Habitot Children’s Museum 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

“Back to the Farm.”  

Ongoing 

An 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 more.  

Cost: $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under.  

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.  

647-1111 or www.habitot.org 

 

Judah L. Magnes Museum 

2911 Russell St.  

549-6950 

Free 

Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

“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. 

“Spring and Summer.”  

Through Nov. 4. 

“Chagall: Master Prints and Posters, Selections from the Magnes Museum Collection.”  

Through Sept. 28. 

 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley 

“Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment,” through Sept. 17.  

An exhibit of rare and exquisite works featuring more than forty mandalas and related objects including sculptures and models of sacred spaces. 

“Hans Hoffmann,” open-ended.  

An exhibit of paintings by Hoffmann which emphasizes two experimental methods the artist employed: the introduction of slabs or rectangles of highly saturated colors and the use of large areas of black paint juxtaposed with intense oranges, greens and yellows.  

The Asian Galleries  

“Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery,” open-ended.  

A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection.  

“Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. 

“Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. 

“Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. 

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

642-0808. 

 

UC Berkeley Museum of  

Paleontology 

Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley 

“Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing.  

A 20-foot tall, 40-foot long replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. 

“Pteranodon,” ongoing.  

A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. 

California Fossils Exhibit, ongoing. An exhibit of some of the fossils which have been excavated in California. 

Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

642-1821. 

 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst  

Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College  

Avenue, 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.  

“Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended.  

This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history, including the role of Phoebe Apperson Hearst as the museum’s patron, as well as the relationship of anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie to the museum. 

“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. 

This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. 

$2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

643-7648 

 

Mills College Art Museum 

5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland 

“The 100 Languages of Children,” through October.  

An exhibit of art by children from Reggio Emilia, Italy. At Carnegie Building Bender Room. 

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. 

430-2164 

 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

“Math Rules!” Ongoing. A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. 

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

experiments. 

 

Holt Planetarium  

Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. 

“Moons of the Solar System,” through Dec. 10. Take a tour of the  

fascinating worlds that orbit Earth and other planets out to the edge  

of the Solar System.  

“Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn  

to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the  

planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18;  

$3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m.  

to 5 p.m.; Centennial Drive, University of California,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

 

The Oakland Museum of  

California 

1000 Oak St., Oakland 

“Helen Nestor: Personal and Political” Through Oct. 15.  

An exhibit of images documenting the Free Speech Movement, the 60s civil rights marches, and women’s issues. 

“California Classic: Realist Paintings by Robert Bechtle” through Oct. 1.  

An exhibit of 18 paintings and drawings by the Bay Area artist dating from 1965 to 1997. 

Special Exhibit – “Meadowsweet Dairy: Wood Sculpture,” through Sept. 15.  

An exhibit of 12 sculptures made with materials found and salvaged to reveal the beauty of the natural object. At the Sculpture Court, City Center, 1111 Broadway. Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students; free children age 5 and under; second Sundays are free to all. Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; first Friday of the month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

(888) OAK-MUSE or www.museumca.org. 

 

Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery 

942 Clay St., Oakland 

625-1350 

www.lizabetholiveria.com 

Tuesday- Saturday  

10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.. 

Franklin Williams exhibit through Sept. 30 

 

TRAX Gallery 

1306 3rd. St., Berkeley 

Mary Law “Altered Ceramic Pots”  

Sept 16- Oct. 21 

Opening reception: 5- 7 p.m., Sept. 16 

For more information or to sign up for the workshop call 526-0279 or e-mail to cone5@aol.com 

 

Stork Club 

Wire Graffiti 

9:30 p.m. Sept. 23 

$5 

2330 Telegraph, Oakland 

444-6174 

 

Jupiter-Berkeley Events 

2181 Shattuck Ave. 

(510) THE-ROCK 

Sept. 12:Tenor Joshi Marshall comes back wsith jazz/blues/funk 

Sept. 13: Musicians Rosin Coven 

Sept. 14: Phat beats wit the Beatdown featuring DJ’s Delon, Add 1 and Yamu 

Sept. 15: Folk, blues, funk with Sex Fresh 

Sept. 16: New-scholl jazz combo of Bird 54 featuring Joshi Marshall and Gavin Distasi 

 

Downtown Berkeley Association 

Lunchtime Concert Series 

Every Thursday through October 

noon - 1p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

1 hour free parking available in Center Street Garage 

Sept 14: A cappella groups The UC Men’s Octet & the California Golden Overtones 

Sept 21: African percusion players Pacal Bokar 

Sept 28: Berkeley High School Jazz Combo  

Oct. 5: Brazilian music players Capoeira Arts Cafe & Company 

Oct. 12: Members of the Berkeley Symphony performing chamber music 

Oct. 19: Jazzschool’s vocal jazz ensemble Vocal Sauce 

Oct. 26: East Bay Science & Arts Middle School will perform folk, swing and Cuban rueda dances 

 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo Ave.  

525-5099 

For all ages 

www.ashkenaz.com 

Sept. 27, 8 p.m., dance session, 9 p.m., music 

Kate Brislin, Jody Stecher, Heath Curtis, Bluegrass intentions 

Old time, Appalachian music $10 

Sept. 28:Benefit for Bay Area Arts Collective. Features the Hip Hop group Nameless and Faceless $5, 9 p.m. 

Sept. 29: Box Set (Folk Rock), Legion of Mary (Psychedelic Rock) $11, 9p.m. 

Sept. 30: Soukous Stars (African Rumba) $11, 9:30 p.m. 

525-5099 

 

924 Gilman St. 

924 Gilman Street is an all-ages, member-run no alcohol, drugs, and violence club. Most shows are $5. Memberships for the year are $2. Shows start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Sept. 15: Kill Your Idols, The Movielife, The Oozies, Divit, Inner Struggle 

Sept. 16: Dystopia, Anticon, Noothgrush, Trantula Hawk, Yeti 

Sept 23: Plan 9, Anti-World, Venus Bleeding, Blue Velvet Flesh 

Sept. 29: The Hellbillies, Subincision, Fracas, Union of the Dead, Monster Squad 

Sept. 30: Yaphet Koto, Pitch Black, Phantom Limbs 

Call 525-9926.  

 

The Albatross Pub 

1822 San Pablo Ave. 

843-2473 

All shows begin at 9 p.m. 

 

The Jazzschool 

2375 Shattuck Ave. 

Sept. 17, 4:30 p.m., Dick Hindman Trio 

Sept 24, 4:30 p.m., David Friesen and Jerry Hahn 

$12; $10 students/seniors; $6 for Jazzschool students and children under 13 

 

Cal Performances 

Marisa Monte 

Brazils’ best-selling pop singer performs her unique mix of styles, re-interpreting traditional Brazilian genres and filtering them through contemporary global joazz, funk and pop. 

Sept. 25., 8 p.m.  

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Avenue at Telegraph.  

$20 - $32  

642-9988 

 

Eli’s Mile High Club 

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 

(510) 655-6661 

Doors open at 8 p.m. 

Sept 15: Takezo 

Sept. 22: J.L. Stiles 

 

Films 

University of California,  

Berkeley Art Museum 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Treasures from the George Eastman House” 

Various programs and a 16-film salute to little-known actresses. 

Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m. : The Love That Lives” (1917) 

7 p.m.: “Madame X” (1920) 

Sept 22, 7:30 p.m. : “Backstairs” (1921) 

8:55 p.m. : Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1931) 

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

 

Paramount Movie Classics  

Summer 2000 Series  

The evening includes a classic movie, walk-in music from the Wurlitzer  

organ, a newsreel, cartoon, movie previews and the Paramount's prize  

give-away game “Dec-O-Win.” 

Sept. 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

$5. Shows at 8 p.m. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. 

 

Theater 

“The Green Bird”  

by Carlo Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs through Oct. 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Opening night is September 14, admission is $35. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

 

“MIMZABIM!” 

Climate Theatre & Subterranean Shakespeare 

La Vals Subterraniean 1834 Euclid, Berkeley 

Through Oct. 14 

Thursday - Saturday 8:00 p.m. 

$12, Students $8 

 

Julie Morgan Theatre 

Fanny at Chez Panisse 

Musical based on the book with opening proceeds going to the Verde Partnership Garden in Richmond. 

7 p.m., opening night benefit $50, tickets for remaining shows are $26-$34 

Runs Sept. 13 through Oct. 29 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley 

1-888-FANNY06 

 

Exhibits 

The Artistry of Rae Louise  

Hayward 

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

548-9286, ext. 307 

Through Sept. 27 

Rae Louise Hayward, one of the founders of The Art of Living Black, Bay Area Black Artist Annual Exhibition and Open Studios Tour. 

Haywards’ art celebrates the beauty of African culture from its people to its music.  

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 1-7 p.m., Saturday noon -4 p.m. and by appointment.  

 

Traywick Gallery 

1316 Tenth St.  

527-1214 

Charles LaBelle 

Through Oct. 15 

LaBelle’s new series of large-scale color photographs highlight nighttime nature in Hollywood. He recreates trees at night using a hand-held spotlight and playing on the beam across the leaves and branches. The opening reception will be held on September 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.  

Blue Vinyl by Connie Walsh  

Through Oct. 15 

This multimedia project combines video, sound and printmaking to explore concepts of intimacy and its relation to private space.  

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-6 p.m. and Sundays 12-5 p.m. 

 

A.C.C.I. Gallery  

“Paperworks,” through Oct. 7.  

A group exhibit of works by Carol Brighton, Vannie Keightley, Jean Hearst. 

Opening Reception, Sept. 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527 

 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

 

California College of Arts and Crafts  

“Add/Drop/Add: CCAC Fine Arts Faculty Exhibitions”  

through Sept. 16. 

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

 

Chi Gallery  

“Alegres Cantos en Mi Ser (Songs of Joy in My Being)” through Sept. 30.  

An exhibit of paintings depicting scenes of Afro-cuban music, by Susan Mathews. Reception, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. 912-A Clay St., Oakland. (510) 832-4244. 

 

Kala Institute  

“Layerings: New Work by Four Kala Fellows” through Sept. 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part II of works by Margaret M. Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and  

David Politzer. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center  

Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-2977  

 

Readings 

Rhyme & Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant 

Second and fourth Sundays of each month. For open reading following featured readers, sign up at 2 p.m., readings begin at 2:30 p.m. 

Sept. 10. Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

 

Readings at Cody’s 

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

Sept. 12: Brad Newsham will have slides to accompany his talk on “Take Me With You–A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home” 

Sept. 13: Poetry presented by Katherine Harer and Andrena Zawinski 

Sept. 14: Mike Riera and Joe Di Prisco discuss their new “Field Guide to the American Teenager – Appreciating the Teenager You Live With” 

Michael Lerner, rabbi, author and Tikkun editor will talk about his book “Spitit Matters-Global Healing and the Wisdon of the Soul” 

 

 

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place  

843-6812 

Free 

Sept. 17, 6-7 p.m. “Knowledge of Freedom” 

Buddhist teacher June Rosenberg will demonstrate how “Knowledge of Freedom” teachings can be applied in daily life. 

 

Rhyme and Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive 

2621 Durant Ave. 

2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. 

Includes featured readers and open mike poetry. Free 

2 p.m. sign-up. Program runs from 2:30 - 4 p.m. 

Sept. 24: Jessie Beagle, Kirk Lumpkin 

Oct. 15: Professor Ron Loewinsohn (Morrison Room, UC Main Library) 

Oct. 29: Fernando Brito, Lara Dale 

234-0727 

 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series 

8p.m., Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall 

For more information call 653-2439 

Sept. 19, Dean Young and Kim Johnson, “Strike Anywhere” and “First Course in Turbulence” 

Nov. 1: John Yau and Garrett Caples, books include “Forbidden Entries” and “My Symptoms” 

Nov. 7: Marie Howe and Brian Glaser, “The Good Thief” and “What the Living Do” 

 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley 

2066 University Ave.  

548-2350 

October 1, 3 p.m., Lawson Fusao Inada and Patricia Wakida duscuss with a slide presentation, the new Japanese American anthology “Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience” 

Oct. 7, 7p.m., Kimi Kodani Hill presents with art slides from her grandfather. “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art on Internment” 

 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National  

Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Dance 

Yoshi’s 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or  

(510) 762-BASS 

 

Luna Kids Dance 

Creative dance for children 

Parent-child class 

Sept. 12, open house 

Ashkenaz’s, 1317 San Pablo, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

530-4113 

 

Mark Morris Dance Group 

“Four Saints in Three Acts” and “Dido & Aeneas” 

Sept. 21-24 Zellerbach Hall 

Music by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and American Bach Soloists 

Tickets: $34 - $52 

643-6714 

Downtown Berkeley Association 

Lunchtime Concert Series 

Every Thursday through October 

noon - 1p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

1 hour free parking available in Center Street Garage 

Sept 14: A cappella groups The UC Men’s Octet & the California Golden Overtones 

Sept 21: African percusion players Pacal Bokar 

Sept 28: Berkeley High School Jazz Combo  

Oct. 5: Brazilian music players Capoeira Arts Cafe & Company 

Oct. 12: Members of the Berkeley Symphony performing chamber music 

Oct. 19: Jazzschool’s vocal jazz ensemble Vocal Sauce 

Oct. 26: East Bay Science & Arts Middle School will perform folk, swing and Cuban rueda dances 

 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo Ave.  

525-5099 

For all ages 

www.ashkenaz.com 

Sept. 27, 8 p.m., dance session, 9 p.m., music 

Kate Brislin, Jody Stecher, Heath Curtis, Bluegrass intentions 

Old time, Appalachian music $10 

Sept. 28:Benefit for Bay Area Arts Collective. Features the Hip Hop group Nameless and Faceless $5, 9 p.m. 

Sept. 29: Box Set (Folk Rock), Legion of Mary (Psychedelic Rock) $11, 9p.m. 

Sept. 30: Soukous Stars (African Rumba) $11, 9:30 p.m. 

525-5099 

 

924 Gilman St. 

924 Gilman Street is an all-ages, member-run no alcohol, drugs, and violence club. Most shows are $5. Memberships for the year are $2. Shows start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Sept. 15: Kill Your Idols, The Movielife, The Oozies, Divit, Inner Struggle 

Sept. 16: Dystopia, Anticon, Noothgrush, Trantula Hawk, Yeti 

Sept 23: Plan 9, Anti-World, Venus Bleeding, Blue Velvet Flesh 

Sept. 29: The Hellbillies, Subincision, Fracas, Union of the Dead, Monster Squad 

Sept. 30: Yaphet Koto, Pitch Black, Phantom Limbs 

Call 525-9926.  

 

The Albatross Pub 

1822 San Pablo Ave. 

843-2473 

All shows begin at 9 p.m. 

The Jazzschool 

2375 Shattuck Ave. 

Sept. 17, 4:30 p.m., Dick Hindman Trio 

Sept 24, 4:30 p.m., David Friesen and Jerry Hahn 

$12; $10 students/seniors; $6 for Jazzschool students and children under 13 

 

Cal Performances 

Marisa Monte 

Brazils’ best-selling pop singer performs her unique mix of styles, re-interpreting traditional Brazilian genres and filtering them through contemporary global joazz, funk and pop. 

Sept. 25., 8 p.m.  

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Avenue at Telegraph.  

$20 - $32  

642-9988 

 

Eli’s Mile High Club 

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 

(510) 655-6661 

Doors open at 8 p.m. 

Sept 15: Takezo 

Sept. 22: J.L. Stiles 

University of California,  

Berkeley Art Museum 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Treasures from the George Eastman House” 

Various programs and a 16-film salute to little-known actresses. 

Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m. : The Love That Lives” (1917) 

7 p.m.: “Madame X” (1920) 

Sept 22, 7:30 p.m. : “Backstairs” (1921) 

8:55 p.m. : Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1931) 

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

 

Paramount Movie Classics  

Summer 2000 Series  

The evening includes a classic movie, walk-in music from the Wurlitzer  

organ, a newsreel, cartoon, movie previews and the Paramount's prize  

give-away game “Dec-O-Win.” 

Sept. 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

$5. Shows at 8 p.m. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. 

 

“The Green Bird”  

by Carlo Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs through Oct. 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Opening night is September 14, admission is $35. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

 

“MIMZABIM!” 

Climate Theatre & Subterranean Shakespeare 

La Vals Subterraniean 1834 Euclid, Berkeley 

Through Oct. 14 

Thursday - Saturday 8:00 p.m. 

$12, Students $8 

 

Julie Morgan Theatre 

Fanny at Chez Panisse 

Musical based on the book with opening proceeds going to the Verde Partnership Garden in Richmond. 

7 p.m., opening night benefit $50, tickets for remaining shows are $26-$34 

Runs Sept. 13 through Oct. 29 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley 

1-888-FANNY06 

 

The Artistry of Rae Louise  

Hayward 

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

548-9286, ext. 307 

Through Sept. 27 

Rae Louise Hayward, one of the founders of The Art of Living Black, Bay Area Black Artist Annual Exhibition and Open Studios Tour. 

Haywards’ art celebrates the beauty of African culture from its people to its music.  

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 1-7 p.m., Saturday noon -4 p.m. and by appointment.  

 

Traywick Gallery 

1316 Tenth St.  

527-1214 

Charles LaBelle 

Through Oct. 15 

LaBelle’s new series of large-scale color photographs highlight nighttime nature in Hollywood. He recreates trees at night using a hand-held spotlight and playing on the beam across the leaves and branches. The opening reception will be held on September 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.  

Blue Vinyl by Connie Walsh  

Through Oct. 15 

This multimedia project combines video, sound and printmaking to explore concepts of intimacy and its relation to private space.  

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-6 p.m. and Sundays 12-5 p.m. 

 

A.C.C.I. Gallery  

“Paperworks,” through Oct. 7.  

A group exhibit of works by Carol Brighton, Vannie Keightley, Jean Hearst. 

Opening Reception, Sept. 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527 

 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

 

California College of Arts and Crafts  

“Add/Drop/Add: CCAC Fine Arts Faculty Exhibitions”  

through Sept. 16. 

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 

a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

 

Chi Gallery  

“Alegres Cantos en Mi Ser (Songs of Joy in My Being)” through Sept. 30.  

An exhibit of paintings depicting scenes of Afro-cuban music, by Susan Mathews. Reception, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. 912-A Clay St., Oakland. (510) 832-4244. 

 

Kala Institute  

“Layerings: New Work by Four Kala Fellows” through Sept. 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part II of works by Margaret M. Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and  

David Politzer. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center  

Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-2977  

 

Readings 

Rhyme & Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant 

Second and fourth Sundays of each month. For open reading following featured readers, sign up at 2 p.m., readings begin at 2:30 p.m. 

Sept. 10. Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

 

Readings at Cody’s 

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

Sept. 12: Brad Newsham will have slides to accompany his talk on “Take Me With You–A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home” 

Sept. 13: Poetry presented by Katherine Harer and Andrena Zawinski 

Sept. 14: Mike Riera and Joe Di Prisco discuss their new “Field Guide to the American Teenager – Appreciating the Teenager You Live With” 

Michael Lerner, rabbi, author and Tikkun editor will talk about his book “Spitit Matters-Global Healing and the Wisdon of the Soul” 

 

 

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place  

843-6812 

Free 

Sept. 17, 6-7 p.m. “Knowledge of Freedom” 

Buddhist teacher June Rosenberg will demonstrate how “Knowledge of Freedom” teachings can be applied in daily life. 

 

Rhyme and Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive 

2621 Durant Ave. 

2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. 

Includes featured readers and open mike poetry. Free 

2 p.m. sign-up. Program runs from 2:30 - 4 p.m. 

Sept. 24: Jessie Beagle, Kirk Lumpkin 

Oct. 15: Professor Ron Loewinsohn (Morrison Room, UC Main Library) 

Oct. 29: Fernando Brito, Lara Dale 

234-0727 

 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series 

8p.m., Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall 

For more information call 653-2439 

Sept. 19, Dean Young and Kim Johnson, “Strike Anywhere” and “First Course in Turbulence” 

Nov. 1: John Yau and Garrett Caples, books include “Forbidden Entries” and “My Symptoms” 

Nov. 7: Marie Howe and Brian Glaser, “The Good Thief” and “What the Living Do” 

 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley 

2066 University Ave.  

548-2350 

October 1, 3 p.m., Lawson Fusao Inada and Patricia Wakida duscuss with a slide presentation, the new Japanese American anthology “Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience” 

Oct. 7, 7p.m., Kimi Kodani Hill presents with art slides from her grandfather. “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art on Internment” 

 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National  

Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Dance 

Yoshi’s 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or  

(510) 762-BASS 

 

Luna Kids Dance 

Creative dance for children 

Parent-child class 

Sept. 12, open house 

Ashkenaz’s, 1317 San Pablo, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

530-4113 

 

Mark Morris Dance Group 

“Four Saints in Three Acts” and “Dido & Aeneas” 

Sept. 21-24 Zellerbach Hall 

Music by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and American Bach Soloists 

Tickets: $34 - $52 

643-6714 


Scathing letter publicly faults top cops

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday September 13, 2000

In a move that has catapulted the normally low-key Berkeley Police Association into the public arena, a strongly-worded letter sent by the association’s attorneys to Police Chief Dash Butler was also sent to the city manager and to the City Council, rendering the caustic document public. 

The Sept. 6 letter, delivered anonymously to the Daily Planet, honed in on the department’s modifying a procedure for handling suspects without consultation with the BPA.  

But that is just the tip of the iceberg, BPA attorney Michael Rains wrote. “At best, this issue is the manifestation of a managerial philosophy rooted in inflexibility and autocracy, rather than one in which the voice of our employees is sincerely sought out and heard before final decisions relating to terms and conditions of employment become etched in policy memoranda.” 

Not so, said Butler in a phone  

interview Tuesday.  

“I have a meeting with BPA every Wednesday afternoon. We talk about issues.” 

Rains said, however, that officers tell him that the chief meets but does not listen. 

Butler, a member of the Berkeley force for 30 years and chief for 10, says there are numerous examples of department policy being modified as a result of consultation with the union. One is the issue of pepper spray. 

The City Council had wanted officers’ spray cans tabbed, so that it would be known when they were used. However, the tabs interfered with effective use. The chief said union brought the issue to him and he brought it to the council and got the policy modified. 

The specific complaint addressed in the letter deals with an order by Captain Will Pittman who advised officers of a change in policy. 

“It appears over the years, we have developed a practice of asking,directing persons removed from a vehicle and/or those detained on city streets, to sit down on the curb of the pavement with their feet placed in the street,” said the directive. “The above-described practice is not a departmentally-approved technique...Placing people on the ground unnecessarily is demeaning and is a practice not supported by the department. Therefore, effective immediately, a report will be written whenever a citizen is placed on the ground (lying or sitting)....” 

Alison Berry Wilkinson, attorney for the BPA, responded to Pittman’s order in a July 31 letter: This method is “taught in all (police) academies and is utilized in your departmental training.” 

Although some might feel the tactic is “demeaning,” when it is used correctly, it “reduces the number of officers required to control a situation and eliminates the need to use more intrusive (and potentially more demeaning) techniques.” It is less intrusive than handcuffing suspects or putting them in the back seat of a patrol car, stated the July 31 letter to Butler. 

Further, the association lawyers argue that the instruction is ambiguous: how can officers be directed not to sit people on the sidewalk, then be told that when they do this, they’re supposed to write a report? 

“Officers would conclude that, if it is not approved or supported, use of the technique could hold the officer subject to discipline,” Officer Douglas Emberton wrote in a July 22 e-mail to Pittman. 

Butler, however, said he stands firmly behind the directive. “If they tell you to sit cross-legged on the ground, how are you going to feel if you haven’t tried to run or tried to fight?” he asked. 

As for the question of ambiguity, Butler argued that the order did not imply that officers could never use the procedure.  

Writing a report when they do make people sit on the sidewalk it would make them reflect on their action. “It’s a catalyst for introspection,” the chief said. 

Although the technique of having suspects sit on the curb was cited with a particular emphasis, the BPA listed other complaints against the department that include alleged misrepresentation to the BPA around promotional opportunities and derogatory statements including the use of profanity concerning the BPA made by Pittman. 

While the BPA alleges that a second promotional list was established that added persons not on an earlier unused list, the chief said the promotions had been meted out strictly according to department rules and that all the persons had scored as they should on exams. 

The chief said if in fact, the alleged foul language had been used by Pittman, the officers should have brought it to his attention earlier. He said he would look into the allegations, and that he and other ranking officers would be attending classes on improved communications. 

As far as what needs to be done in response to the letter, Butler said he is in touch with the BPA attorneys and has asked them to determine exactly what the BPA wants.  

“They have a very smart chief,” Rains said. “The officers just want the chief to (allow them to) give their input.” 

Acting City Manager Weldon Rucker said he plans to step in and try to bring the two sides together. “I would like to see a better dialog between the administration and the association,” he said. “Unfortunately, (the union) has elected to go to this (public) level so soon.” 

Rucker said he believes the problem will be resolved. “We’ll get to the root cause. They are all good people who want a healthy work environment.”


Reddy case could get new defendants

By Justin Pritchard Special to the Daily Planet
Wednesday September 13, 2000

OAKLAND – A federal judge did not hear motions Tuesday to dismiss some of the charges against Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy and his son accused of sex and immigration offenses.  

Instead U.S. District Court Judge Sandra B. Armstrong gave the prosecution the time it requested to add new defendants to the case. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy would not specify how many more defendants he would name, but did tell Armstrong that the charges against them would be similar to those against Reddy and his son, Vijay Kumar Lakireddy.  

The pair allegedly brought three Indian women to the Bay Area on special high-tech worker visas and then kept them for Reddy as sexual objects and menial laborers at his Berkeley restaurant, Pasand Madras Cuisne.  

Lakireddy is charged with filing the false visa applications that enabled his father to import the women.  

Kennedy said he would present any new indictments by Oct. 5. 

Reddy appeared in Armstrong’s marble and wood paneled courtroom to ask that the judge dismiss two of the nine charges against him.  

His lawyer, Ted W. Cassman, has argued that charges he imported the women “for immoral purposes” is too vague to be constitutional and in any case do not apply to Reddy’s alleged acts because any sex with the women was consensual. 

But Cassman never formally presented that argument because of Kennedy‘s request to delay the process so he could finish his investigation.  

Armstrong granted the delay and asked both parties to return Oct. 10 to schedule further appearances, when the substance of the case will be discussed. 

The events were anticlimactic for a case that made national news in January, when Berkeley police arrested Reddy and charged him with bringing two young women – said to be minors – from India for the purpose of having sex with them.  

Still, a group of protesters, present at all the court hearings on the matter, objected to the attempt by Reddy’s attorney to remove any charges. 

“Any sexual activity that may have occurred between Reddy and the immigrant women needs to be recognized and named as sexual assault,” said Shaily Matani, a member of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action. “Reddy is wealthy, well-connected, and controls the workers’ immigration and employment status. It is not possible to truly give consent to someone who holds your entire livelihood in their hands.” 

Reddy arrived in the Bay Area from India more than 40 years ago to study engineering at UC Berkeley and stayed to become Berkeley’s wealthiest landlord, with 1,100 apartment units reportedly worth $70 million. He is free on a $10 million bond.


Cuban library, UC Berkeley sign up for joint project

By Joe Eskenazi Daily Planet Correspondent
Wednesday September 13, 2000

UC Berkeley and the Jose Marti National Library of Cuba proudly announce a unique and historic pact in which, retrieved from the depths of the Cuban archives, the University has received – grocery bags. 

“From a publishing house called Avigia in the city of Matansas, we have handmade books,” said Carlos Delgado, librarian for Latin American collections at UC Berkeley. “They were made with whatever materials they had. Some are made with grocery bags. That’s what they had, so that’s what they used. It’s an example of doing creative things with very little resources.” 

The grocery bag books are but a small selection of the Cuban literary and cultural paraphernalia on display in UC Berkeley’s Doe Library in celebration of the first-of-its kind research pact. Delgado brainstormed the partnership two years ago, when he met with Cuban national library director Eliades Acosta at a conference for heads of national libraries in Venezuela.  

While UC Berkeley has a similar partner ship with the Chilean national library, Delgado says the Jose Marti National Library of Cuba has never before entered into a research pact with an overseas library.  

“We get books and posters. The idea is, we get access to their collection by what we call a ‘duplicate collection,’ materials they already have several copies of. I went down there in December and selected almost 2,000 titles and shipped them to Berkeley. 

“For them, we’re going to be buying U.S.-printed books about Cuba by Cuban authors in exile and shipping those to them,” continues Delgado. “Those are books that Cubans can’t buy directly from the U.S. because of restrictions on commerce.”  

The partnership with the Caribbean nation’s national library is a “perfect fit” for Berkeley scholars, says Delgado.  

“Here in Berkeley, there is an increasing interest in studying the Caribbean. Several years ago we started a Ph.D. program called ‘Diaspora Studies’ about the immigration of Africans to America: the slave trade,” explains the librarian. “You can’t study this movement without bumping right into the Caribbean.”  

The influx of rare Cuban documents and items during the pact’s agreed three-year course promises to give UC Berkeley researchers a truly unique opportunity.  

“This means that we have access to materials that are simply not available anywhere else in the country,” says Charles Faulhaber, head of the Bancroft Library. “If you’re doing scholarly research on anything relating to Cuba; its relation with the U.S., relations with Latin America, socio-economics, Cuban literature – it’s kind of like asking what kind of research about the U.S. could be aided if you had materials published in the U.S. I mean – everything!” 

Despite the century of contentious relations between the United States and Cuba, and the politically charged atmosphere most recently ignited by the Elian Gonzalez debacle, UC Berkeley librarians insist that the pact is not a political statement but a scholarly one.  

“One of the things libraries do as part of their core value is collect materials that reflect all sides of an issue, as many sides as you can,” says Patricia Iannuzzi, an associate university librarian and the director of Doe and Moffit libraries.  

“I believe an individual needs the right to access an issue and draw his or her own conclusions. Because of the embargo, libraries in the U.S. have limited access to materials. We’d like to be able to provide the research community with access to those materials.” 

While details of the pact are largely agreed upon, it has not been completely finalized because of possible copyright issues emanating from UC Berkeley’s intended posting of Cuban revolutionary posters on the Web. Delgado says he believes these sticking points will be ironed out within a few months, and that these details will not disrupt the exchange of materials between the libraries.  

Today’s celebration will feature a speech on the Spanish-American War by Jose Marti National Library of Cuba director Eliades Acosta near the north entrance to Doe Library at 4 p.m. The 17 cases of Cuban historical materials will be on public display there until October 15. To view the posters on the web go to http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~lcush/CubaGen.html.


Residents object to planned SFO runway construction

Bay City News
Wednesday September 13, 2000

Bay City News 

 

More runways at San Francisco International Airport could smooth the way for better-flowing air traffic, but objections to the plan from Bay area residents are likely to trigger some heavy turbulence. 

Concerned San Mateo County residents packed a meeting in Redwood City last night to discuss the environmental impacts of a proposed runway expansion at SFO onto Bay fill. 

Three people in the front and center of the runway debate – Lyn Calerdine of SFO, Peter Thorn of Save the Bay and Ralph Nobles of the Restore San Francisco Bay Associates – fielded questions for about an hour last night at the Redwood City public library, discussing the merits and faults of a evelopment plan that many residents fear is a fait accompli. 

Virtually all citizens in attendance expressed disapproval of the idea of filling in more of the Bay. More than one person pointedly questioned airport officials' stated motives and methods, giving planners plenty of food for thought as they prepare for the complex approval process. 

It was also the first opportunity for Peninsula residents to ask questions about the Regional Airport Planning Committee report issued Friday, which recommended the construction of new runways. 

The committee's report has been widely characterized as a blank check for airport officials in San Francisco and Oakland to go ahead with plans to build new runways out onto San Francisco Bay. 

“A lot of us think they dropped the ball,'' Thorner said in reference to the plan, which was summarily blasted by environmentalists last week, claiming it lacked vision and blindly accepted airline projections of a doubling of demand in the next 20 years. 

Thorner also reiterated complaints that the board's plan lacked substantive discussion of alternatives to runway construction, and failed to coordinate regional transit needs. 

“Should the airlines operate within the environment that exists,” he asked, “or should they be allowed to modify the environment?” 

In response, SFO's Calerdine restated the airport's unconditional need for wider, longer, properly aligned runways to allow larger modern aircraft to land safely and avoid weather-induced delays. 

Under its current configuration, airport officials must shut down two of four runways in foggy or inclement conditions – cutting the number of arriving and departing flights in half. This is because the 750 feet of space between parallel strips violates certain Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. 

“The project is based on an existing need, not just on a forecast need,” he said. 

Calerdine also said the problem of alleviating the area's congested runways and air corridors was not one of regional planning, but of federal laws that prevent the airports from forcing airlines to alter or reschedule flights. 

“RAPC is not in the business of changing the law,” he said, later noting that the airport has tried to pressure its biggest carrier, United Airlines, to increase the size of its planes and reduce the frequency of its shuttle flights, without success. “The fact is, it's not going to help in terms of solving the delay  

problem,” he said. “You just can't tell the airlines where to fly.” 

Thorner said that if the law is the problem, then the law needs to go. 

“I would suggest that we do need to change the law,” he declared, to mild applause from the public. 

“It may be that getting airlines to operate rationally, within our environment, may require a change,” he said. 

The evening’s only real note of moderation came from Nobles, an environmentalist who would prefer trading off the runway expansion for the restoration of as much as 45 square miles of South Bay salt ponds, owned by the Cargill Salt Corp. 

“I think that when you can make the Bay healthier and larger, then that’s something you have got to do,” he said. 

After the meeting, SFO's Calerdine said he respected residents’ input, even if much of it opposed the airport's cause. 

“It's good to have a lot of differing opinion,” he said. “That means we're going to be held to a high standard.” He continued, “The burden is going to be on us to prove the project can be done in a responsible manner.” 

 


State temporarily banning coastal gillnet fishing

The Associated Press
Wednesday September 13, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — New restrictions that keep halibut gill nets farther from shore have the fishing industry wondering how it will make its catch and wildlife conservation groups cheering over potentially fewer wildlife drownings. 

The state Department of Fish and Game on Tuesday issued an order that forbids the use of gill nets and trammel nets for the next 120 days in the shallow ocean waters near Monterey Bay and Morro Bay – prime halibut fishing areas that had been the last left accessible to gillnetters on the coast. 

David Bunn, deputy director of the department, says fish and game officials issued the order after seeing the last week’s results of a year-long survey of fishing impacts on coastal animal populations. 

The 120-day restriction may expand to a permanent ban after a public hearing in Seaside next week, Bunn said. 

That’s great news to Carol Fulton Yates, former executive director of the Monterey-based conservation group Friends of the Sea Otter. 

“We’re not against fishermen or fishing but they need to use a method that doesn’t drown marine birds or mammals,” Fulton Yates said. “We are very grateful to the director for putting these closures into place.” 

Fishermen view the order as “another nail in the coffin” for the industry, says James Mauney, a wholesale fish buyer in Morro Bay. 

“If you go out past 60 fathoms you won’t affect the marine mammals or the birds but the fish aren’t there, either,” Mauney said. “This is completely out of the blue.” 

Not so, says Bunn. The department did meet with some of the affected fishermen last week, Bunn said. He said the decision was hard to make, but that the study showed that the nets were killing species that the state has pledged to protect such as the southern sea otter and the common murre, which dives to great depths in search of food. 

In Monterey Bay, for example, Bunn says national Marine Fisheries Services observers noted that gill nets and trammel nets caught and drowned 5,200 of the birds. Bunn said more than 100 sea otters a year are killed by the nets. 

Gill nets are mesh nets similar to a volleyball net, that are buoyed and weighted on the edges and are left in the water to catch fish for around 12 hours. The mesh is sized to catch the desired fish and allow smaller fish to escape.  

But the nets have proved deadly to marine mammals and shore birds who are too large to avoid the nets. 

The order goes into effect Wednesday and bans gill net and trammel net fishing in ocean waters which was 360 feet or less in depth between Point Reyes in to Yankee Point and from Point Arguello to Point Sal. 

 


Groups say auto insurance industry violating measure

The Associated Press
Wednesday September 13, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — Consumer advocates told an appeals court Tuesday that the state is giving its blessing to insurance companies that violate a voter-approved measure to reduce auto insurance rates. 

Under Proposition 103, passed in 1988, the bulk of auto insurance rates were to be calculated based on a driver’s record, annual miles traveled and number of years behind the wheel, a group of consumer groups told the state’s 1st District Court of Appeal. 

But the insurance industry is basing a large part of premiums on where somebody lives, violating the measure and resulting in huge premium disparities among similar drivers. 

“Twelve years after voters passed Proposition 103, insurance companies are still using ZIP codes as the single most important factor in setting auto rates,” said Mark Savage, an attorney with Public Advocates, which is representing a variety of community groups in the suit. 

A woman with 27 years driving experience living in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacoima, for example, would pay a $772 annual premium compared to $281 if she lived in San Luis Obispo. Her premium is 63 percent higher solely because of her ZIP code, Public Advocates said. 

The insurance industry said there’s a good reason for charging higher premiums based on where drivers live. Drivers in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles, for example, pay more because it costs more to insure motorists in high-crime and high-accident areas. 

If the consumer groups prevail, the industry said premiums for motorists in other areas will increase to subsidize others. 

“What’s going to happen, in most counties in California, rates are going to go up,” said Vanessa Wells, a State Farm Insurance Co. lawyer. 

Savage told the court that even if it is more expensive in those areas to issue insurance, Proposition 103 forbids insurance companies from using ZIP codes as a primary factor when calculating rates. 

Justice Marc Poche said the Department of Insurance’s rules allowing ZIP codes to weigh heavily in premiums was out of line with Proposition 103. But the court said it would hold off on ruling until a new insurance commissioner has an opportunity to review the department’s rules. 


Yosemite suspect may escape death

The Associated Press
Wednesday September 13, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — Motel handyman Cary Stayner has agreed to plead guilty to the murder of a Yosemite naturalist in a deal that will spare him a federal execution, but he still faces a possible death sentence if convicted of killing three sightseers. 

The plea is scheduled to be entered Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Fresno before Judge Anthony W. Ishii. In exchange, Stayner will be sentenced at a later date to life in prison without parole, federal law enforcement sources told The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity. 

Stayner, 39, initially pleaded innocent to charges of kidnapping, attempted sexual assault and murder in the July 21, 1999, death of Joie Armstrong, who led children on nature hikes.  

The case was being prosecuted in federal court because she was killed in Yosemite National Park. 

A change of venue had been granted and a trial date set for April 10. 

U.S. Attorney Paul Seave and Assistant Federal Defender Robert Rainwater did not immediately return phone calls for comment. 

Lesli Armstrong, who has said publicly that she would prefer not to sit through a trial and hear the details of her daughter’s murder, could not immediately be reached.  

She is expected to attend Wednesday’s hearing. 

Prosecutors considered the sentiments of the Armstrong family in agreeing to drop their pursuit of a death sentence in return for the plea, according to a federal source. 

The plea bargain will not affect the state’s plan to seek the death penalty against Stayner in the murders of Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, of Cordoba, Argentina. 

The three women were killed five months before Armstrong, during a sightseeing trip to Yosemite National Park.  

They had been staying at the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, where Stayner lived and worked. 

Mariposa County prosecutors, who had unsuccessfully appealed to Attorney General Janet Reno for the right to proceed first with their case, can go forward once Stayner is formally sentenced on the federal charges. No pleas have been entered and no hearing dates set in the Sund-Pelosso murders. 

Carole Carrington, Mrs. Sund’s mother, said Tuesday she was surprised prosecutors agreed to the guilty plea in Armstrong’s murder, since they were pushing for the death penalty.  

But she is relieved the state’s case can proceed sooner. 

“I’d like to get it going,” she said in a telephone interview from her Eureka ranch. “I just hope they have it all figured out now.” 

Relatives of the Sunds and Pelossos are mixed about whether they want a death sentence.  

Carrington said she and her husband, Francis, would be satisfied if Stayner gets a parallel sentence of life in prison without parole. Raquel and Pepe Pelosso, Silvina’s parents, oppose the death penalty. 

Stayner, who according to sources has confessed to single-handedly killing all four women, has been in custody since his arrest three days after Armstrong was killed.  

He is being held in isolation at the Fresno County Jail. 

Delbert Stayner said he and his wife, Kay, visit their son weekly, and that the government’s agreement to drop its demands for the death penalty answered their prayers. 

Stayner is a brother of Steven Stayner, the center of a highly publicized kidnapping case two decades ago.  

Steven was snatched off a Merced street at age 7 in 1972. He remained missing for seven years, then was hailed as a hero for finally going to police when his abductor kidnapped another boy.  

He died in 1989, at age 24, in a collision with a hit-and-run driver.


Immersion program gets A+

By William Inman Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday September 13, 2000

Greg Martin hushes his first grade, two-way immersion class, and cuts out the lights. 

“Tranquilo,” says the Cragmont Elementary School teacher.  

He gives every instruction to the class in perfect Spanish. 

The 3-year-old K to 5 program has the administration, teachers and parents raving about its results. In kindergarten and first grade, the children receive 90 percent of instruction in Spanish. In second and third grade, 60-80 percent of the instruction is in Spanish. Fourth- and fifth- graders study half the time in English and half the time in Spanish. 

The program is aimed at producing bilingual and biliterate students. Research by Virginia P. Collier and Wayne P. Thomas shows that the students come away from the program not only with the ability to read and write in a different language, but also with a greater mental flexibility.  

Research from similar programs in the state that have been in operation for over seven years shows that many students have a much greater capacity for complex subject matter at the secondary level and often experience honors status and enroll in advanced placement classes. 

The program is funded by a Title VII foreign language grant at Rosa Parks, Cragmont and LeConte elementary schools. Rosa Parks (then Columbus) and Cragmont were the first to implement the program in 1998. LeConte began the program just this year. 

“We have a waiting list,” said Cragmont principal Jason Lustig. “Every year people want to get their kids in.” 

The children are chosen by lottery, and parents lucky enough to have kids in the program, tend to keep them there. 

“What we’re seeing is that we don’t have normal attrition,” Lustig said. “Parents in Berkeley are really committed to this program. It’s really exciting.” 

Some eight students from the first two-way immersion class at Cragmont beginning in the fall of 1998 have left. Every kindergartner in the program last year returned. 

The program now has to address the problem next year when children will enter fourth grade, where children are instructed at a 27 to one ratio, rather than 20 to one.  

Next year, the first crop of kids in the program will be moving into the fourth grade at Rosa Parks and Cragmont schools.  

At last week’s school board meeting, a dozen or so parents of children in the program showed up in support of the program. 

Lustig said that parents, staff and school board members have been raising the question of what will happen when the class size is supposed to increase. “We’ve known that next year we would have to be ready,” he said. 

Lustig said that in such an intensive program where students are preparing for literacy in two languages, it would hinder the level of instruction and impede the progress of other two-way immersion students if they added new students to get to the mandated 27. 

A task force spearheaded by Lustig and Rosa Parks Title VII grant coordinator Allison Kelley met six times last school year and put together two plans for the school board to choose from. 

In the first plan, which Lustig said is the most likely to be implemented, the two-way immersion students would be taught science and math in Spanish in the morning, then history and language arts in the afternoon. 

The following year, the students would flip-flop morning and afternoon subjects – history and language arts instruction in Spanish in the morning, with the other subjects taught in the afternoon in English. 

Lustig said this program would cost the schools roughly $15,000 each to implement this program, but said that they don’t consider cost to be a serious barrier. 

The second plan would be to designate an entire site in Berkeley as two-way immersion. Lustig said that by choosing a specific school as two-way immersion, the district would be able to serve a greater number of students and a provide a more cohesive program. 

Once a site was chosen the program would be phased in over time with one grade-level each year, which would take six years to extend from kindergarten to the fifth grade. 

“There are definite advantages to dedicating an entire site,” Lustig said. 

Such as having an entire school community supporting the educational objectives. It would also solve the dilemma of compromising the percentage of time needed for English language development by maintaining the appropriate percentages of enrichment classes taught. 

Superintendent Jack McLaughlin said they hope to sort it out and make a decision by early November.


Five to compete for District 5 race

Judith Scherr
Tuesday September 12, 2000

 

When two-term Councilmember Diane Woolley decided not to run for another term on the City Council, a crush of five council hopefuls emerged to try for the District 5 seat. The district sits in the lower north hills area, roughly between Spruce Street on the east and the line formed by Neilson and Acton streets on the west and between Kensignton-Albany on the north and Vine Street on the south. To find if you live in District 5, call the city clerk’s office at 644-6840. 

The area, which includes Live Oak Park and King Middle School, has a population that is wealthier than the average Berkeley household. The approximate median household income (averaged between the five census tracts that are in the district, but spill out of it as well) in 1989 was about $53,000 well above the city’s median income of $29,000 at the time. The median home price was about $316,000, compared to the citywide median of $256,500 at the time. 

Mark Fowler 

Although Mark Fowler has no experience in government, he understands some of the nuts and bolts that make the city’s operations work. Among other occupations, the 56 year-old candidate for the District 5 council seat has worked as a welder/mechanic for the Public Works Department in Richmond. 

A frequent caller to a nighttime KGO radio talk show, where he has honed his oratory skills, Fowler has volunteered his time at Free Radio Berkeley, the local low-powered pirate radio station and for the Berkeley Black Repertory Theater.  

Fowler is running for office on the principle of “accountability.” Projects should be completed by a date certain, he said.  

Moreover, the city pays too much in compensation for employee accidents. The problems that cause the accidents should be cured, he said. 

Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas on accident prevention – $100 a month could be awarded to the worker who has the best safety idea.  

And, people should be encouraged to do their work in fewer hours, then go home. The last part of the day is the time that employees have the most accidents, Fowler said. 

The traffic problem could be solved by offering free bus passes, he said. 

As for rent control, Fowler said in the beginning, he thought it was a good idea. But landlords have withdrawn units from the marketplace because of it, he said.  

Students should have subsidized housing, but they should have to pay back the subsidy when they are working , he said. 

Public participation in city government could be expanded with better use of the community cable TV station. For example, before the council meetings, someone could go through the items that are coming up and explain them. 

As for the 170-foot communications tower next to the Public Safety Building, Fowler said, “leave it to Stephen Dunifer (of Free Radio Berkeley) and the others to use.” 

Fowler said he didn’t know exactly how much he’ll be spending on his campaign. “Not very much,” he said. 

His campaign can be reached at 841-8520.ability.” Projects should be completed by a date certain, he said.  

Moreover, the city pays too much in compensation for employee accidents.  

The problems that cause the accidents should be cured, he said. 

Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas on accident prevention – $100 a month could be awarded to the worker who has the best safety idea.  

And, people should be encouraged to do their work in fewer hours, then go home.  

The last part of the day is the time that employees have the most accidents, Fowler said. 

The traffic problem could be solved by offering free bus passes, he said. 

As for rent control, Fowler said in the beginning, he thought it was a good idea. But landlords have withdrawn units from the marketplace because of it, he said. Students should have subsidized housing, but they should have to pay back the subsidy when they are working , he said. 

Public participation in city government could be expanded with better use of the community cable TV station.  

For example, before the council meetings, someone could go through the items that are coming up and explain them. 

As for the 170-foot communications tower next to the Public Safety Building, Fowler said, “leave it to Stephen Dunifer (of Free Radio Berkeley) and the others to use.” 

Fowler said he didn’t know exactly how much he’ll be spending on his campaign. “Not very much,” he said. 

His campaign can be reached at 841-8520.ability.” Projects should be completed by a date certain, he said.  

Moreover, the city pays too much in compensation for employee accidents.  

The problems that cause the accidents should be cured, he said. 

Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas on accident prevention – $100 a month could be awarded to the worker who has the best safety idea.  

And, people should be encouraged to do their work in fewer hours, then go home.  

The last part of the day is the time that employees have the most accidents, Fowler said. 

The traffic problem could be solved by offering free bus passes, he said. 

As for rent control, Fowler said in the beginning, he thought it was a good idea. But landlords have withdrawn units from the marketplace because of it, he said. Students should have subsidized housing, but they should have to pay back the subsidy when they are working , he said. 

Public participation in city government could be expanded with better use of the community cable TV station.  

For example, before the council meetings, someone could go through the items that are coming up and explain them. 

As for the 170-foot communications tower next to the Public Safety Building, Fowler said, “leave it to Stephen Dunifer (of Free Radio Berkeley) and the others to use.” 

Fowler said he didn’t know exactly how much he’ll be spending on his campaign. “Not very much,” he said. 

His campaign can be reached at 841-8520.ability.” Projects should be completed by a date certain, he said.  

Moreover, the city pays too much in compensation for employee accidents.  

The problems that cause the accidents should be cured, he said. 

Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas on accident prevention – $100 a month could be awarded to the worker who has the best safety idea.  

And, people should be encouraged to do their work in fewer hours, then go home.  

The last part of the day is the time that employees have the most accidents, Fowler said. 

The traffic problem could be solved by offering free bus passes, he said. 

As for rent control, Fowler said in the beginning, he thought it was a good idea. But landlords have withdrawn units from the marketplace because of it, he said. Students should have subsidized housing, but they should have to pay back the subsidy when they are working , he said. 

Public participation in city government could be expanded with better use of the community cable TV station.  

For example, before the council meetings, someone could go through the items that are coming up and explain them. 

As for the 170-foot communications tower next to the Public Safety Building, Fowler said, “leave it to Stephen Dunifer (of Free Radio Berkeley) and the others to use.” 

Fowler said he didn’t know exactly how much he’ll be spending on his campaign. “Not very much,” he said. 

His campaign can be reached at 841-8520.ability.” Projects should be completed by a date certain, he said.  

Moreover, the city pays too much in compensation for employee accidents.  

The problems that cause the accidents should be cured, he said. 

Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas on accident prevention – $100 a month could be awarded to the worker who has the best safety idea.  

And, people should be encouraged to do their work in fewer hours, then go home.  

The last part of the day is the time that employees have the most accidents, Fowler said. 

The traffic problem could be solved by offering free bus passes, he said. 

As for rent control, Fowler said in the beginning, he thought it was a good idea. But landlords have withdrawn units from the marketplace because of it, he said. Students should have subsidized housing, but they should have to pay back the subsidy when they are working , he said. 

Public participation in city government could be expanded with better use of the community cable TV station.  

For example, before the council meetings, someone could go through the items that are coming up and explain them. 

As for the 170-foot communications tower next to the Public Safety Building, Fowler said, “leave it to Stephen Dunifer (of Free Radio Berkeley) and the others to use.” 

Fowler said he didn’t know exactly how much he’ll be spending on his campaign. “Not very much,” he said. 

His campaign can be reached at 841-8520.ability.” Projects should be completed by a date certain, he said.  

Moreover, the city pays too much in compensation for employee accidents.  

The problems that cause the accidents should be cured, he said. 

Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas on accident prevention – $100 a month could be awarded to the worker who has the best safety idea.  

And, people should be encouraged to do their work in fewer hours, then go home.  

The last part of the day is the time that employees have the most accidents, Fowler said. 

The traffic problem could be solved by offering free bus passes, he said. 

As for rent control, Fowler said in the beginning, he thought it was a good idea. But landlords have withdrawn units from the marketplace because of it, he said. Students should have subsidized housing, but they should have to pay back the subsidy when they are working , he said. 

Public participation in city government could be expanded with better use of the community cable TV station.  

For example, before the council meetings, someone could go through the items that are coming up and explain them. 

As for the 170-foot communications tower next to the Public Safety Building, Fowler said, “leave it to Stephen Dunifer (of Free Radio Berkeley) and the others to use.” 

Fowler said he didn’t know exactly how much he’ll be spending on his campaign. “Not very much,” he said. 

His campaign can be reached at 841-8520. 

Miriam Hawley 

backed by the mayor, who is part of the council’s moderate faction, but says she “has a lot of respect and affection for everyone on the council.” 

Hawley said the problems of items languishing on the council agenda for months could be solved, in part, by the issues going to staff for their review early in the process. “That would help the discussion,” she said. 

Transit, naturally, is among the issues Hawley said she would be able to address on the council. She was among those who got the “class pass” instituted at UC Berkeley. All students pay a transit fee with their student fees. Those who want to take advantage of “free” unlimited bus rides, get the “class pass” to use for a semester.  

Hawley would like to institute a similar pass for other Berkeley residents. 

She wants to set up a study on how it would work. It could be funded by employers or groups of commuters, she said. 

Parking, Hawley said, is another big issue. Creating satellite lots may be one answer.  

One of the big issues the council will address after the elections is the choice of a new city manager. “Weldon Rucker is well-accepted,” she said, referring to the interim city manager. “But I think he doesn’t want to do this forever.” 

The person selected would have to be able to work with both council factions, she said. 

Addressing the city’s housing needs, “We need to pursue a regional approach,” working with nearby cities, Hawley said. “We need to work together.” 

Hawley said she is in favor of zoning for “some higher buildings,” but not higher that 10-stories and not a concentration of them on one block. And they should not surround the library, which “needs space to be admired.” 

“They need to be spread through downtown,” she said. 

What is important, she said, is building a “walkable, bikeable” area. 

As for Beth El, the synagogue-school proposed near Live Oak Park, Hawley said it would not be appropriate for her to take “a firm, irrevocable position.” 

The issue needs mediation between the neighbors and those representing the synagogue, she said, noting that she moderated a meeting between the two sides on behalf of the League of Women Voters.  

Despite the fact that she doesn’t like the lack of clarity in Measure Y, restrictions on landlord move-in evictions, Hawley said she will support it. 

“I’d like to see it be a stop-gap measure,” she said. “I would work for some amendments.” 

The health disparities between the hills Caucasians and flatlands African Americans “came as a shock to everyone,” she said.  

“We may need to work with the city of Berkeley’s health department to beef up services,” she said, arguing that it is a question of outreach and education and bringing people into the system. “People don’t know what services are available,” she said. 

Hawley said she hopes to raise $7-$10,000 for her race. If she’s elected she plans to be a full-time councilmember. 

Hawley can be reached at 527-7727 or mrhawley@att.net. 

Tom Kelly 

“I’ll work with issues and not worry about (political) relationships,” he said. 

Kelly, who works for the State Department of Health to get funding for researchers investigating the environmental causes of non-infectious disease, said he’s financing his own campaign and plans to keep expenses to around $2,000, although he has supporters who are volunteering their skills for his campaign. 

The candidate is a graduate of the City University of New York Law School, which encourages graduates to avoid litigation and use alternative dispute resolution practices. He has some ideas about improving the climate on the council.  

Changing the city manager – Interim City Manager Weldon Rucker took over the city last month when the former city manager left his post – will “change the chemistry” of the council meetings, he said. The council and department heads should get together in a workshop, where they will develop communication skills with one another, he said.  

The bottom line is that all the councilmembers are “nice, smart well-intentioned people,” he said. 

The housing problem is regional, Kelly said, but the city still needs to take responsibility for providing more housing.  

Medium-to-high density housing, both affordable and market rate, should be constructed, he said. Buildings of three-to-five stories fit nicely into neighborhoods, he said, adding that low and medium income people should be able to purchase their own units. 

If they are built near where people work and shop, that would help remedy the traffic problem, he said. 

Another way to get people out of their cars is for the city to promote a program such as the state is doing and allow people to purchase BART cards with pre-tax dollars. 

Beth El is a difficult issue, Kelly said, addressing the land-use issue that will likely come before the council in the coming months.  

“The charge of NIMBYISM undermines an attempt to find a solution,” he said, adding that he can understand the points of view of both the synagogue which needs a larger building and the neighbors who feel the project is too big for the site. 

Kelly supports Measure Y. “Housing is not a commodity that should be subject to the vagaries to of the market place,” he said. “People should feel safe and secure in their living situations.” 

Kelly’s website is www.electtomkelly.org and he can be reached at jandtkelly@igc.org. 

Carrie Olson 

Carrie Olson has lived in Berkeley all her 47 years. She’s an active member of the Landmarks Commission, appointed by City Councilmember Linda Maio, volunteered in the schools for ten years before that and has been a member of the AC Transit Citizen’s Advisory Committee.  

Olson, a business woman who works for moveon.org, decries the division she sees on the council, which, she said, continues to the commission level. Commissions are made up of council appointees. Olson said she doesn’t plan to become part of either council faction, but would accept the endorsement of either. 

New blood on the council may be able to heal some of the division, Olson said. “We need to be able to speak to each other.” 

Olson said she has been watching the General Plan process and working with Students for a Livable Southside, who have pushed for alternatives to the Southside Plan. 

“I support more housing built in Berkeley,” Olson said. “But you don’t have to build high-rises.” 

Instead, build infill that is “contextually sensitive,” she said, pointing to large homes that have been transformed into comfortable apartments. 

There should be incentives for developers to build carfree housing near campus. More affordable housing should be built in order to help maintain the city’s diversity, she said. 

Students need affordable housing as well, which does not mean stuffing three to four students into an apartment. “I’m not a fan of the Gaia Building,” Olson said, referring to developer Patrick Kennedy’s building going up on Allston Way. “It will become a rabbit warren for students.” 

She said there are Kennedy buildings that are of more appropriate scale, such as the four-story building at University Avenue and Grant Street. 

Building apartments over retail is good, to a degree, she said. But the city needs to recognize that as some point, an excess of retail could be developed, she said. 

Addressing the traffic problem, Olson said putting in light rail that goes from the MacArthur BART Station to the campus would help a lot. Olson said, however, she recognizes that some people have a need for their cars. 

As for the question of building the Beth El Synagogue and school on property near Live Oak Park, Olson said she was among the Landmarks Commissioners who said that the Draft Environmental Impact Report showed an “inadequate analysis of historical resources.”  

Moreover, she said, the document does not reveal the size and bulk of the building that is proposed. 

At the same time, Olson said she understood Beth El’s need for a new synagogue.  

If elected, Olson said she would serve the whole community, not just her district. But at the same time, she said she will be an advocate for the nuts and bolts things the district needs, such as sewers and street repairs. 

Olson said, in general, she’s not supportive of increased taxes. With the increasing cost of housing and taxes tied to that, “the city has a windfall it will receive in the next few years,” she said.  

Those funds should be used for city needs rather than raising more taxes, she said. At the same time, she said she supports some of the taxes on the November ballot such as the retrofit of the branch libraries and funding for parks. 

“I’m not quick to jump up and say we need a lot of money spent on schools,” she said, questioning where past school facilities’ money has gone. “I’d rather see teachers paid more,” she said. 

While Olson said she is supportive of the idea of protecting disabled and older renters, she questions Measure Y, the restrictions for owner move-in on the ballot, which goes beyond the protection of those two classes of people. 

Olson said she will be spending “as little as possible,” on her campaign. She’s working with a “core-group” of supporters, including two women volunteers, whom she declined to name, who are “experts” in the field.  

Her website is at www.carrieolson.com. 

 

 

Carrie Olson has lived in Berkeley all her 47 years. She’s an active member of the Landmarks Commission, appointed by City Councilmember Linda Maio, volunteered in the schools for ten years before that and has been a member of the AC Transit Citizen’s Advisory Committee.  

Olson, a business woman who works for moveon.org, decries the division she sees on the council, which, she said, continues to the commission level. Commissions are made up of council appointees. Olson said she doesn’t plan to become part of either council faction, but would accept the endorsement of either. 

New blood on the council may be able to heal some of the division, Olson said. “We need to be able to speak to each other.” 

Olson said she has been watching the General Plan process and working with Students for a Livable Southside, who have pushed for alternatives to the Southside Plan. 

“I support more housing built in Berkeley,” Olson said. “But you don’t have to build high-rises.” 

Instead, build infill that is “contextually sensitive,” she said, pointing to large homes that have been transformed into comfortable apartments. 

There should be incentives for developers to build carfree housing near campus. More affordable housing should be built in order to help maintain the city’s diversity, she said. 

Students need affordable housing as well, which does not mean stuffing three to four students into an apartment. “I’m not a fan of the Gaia Building,” Olson said, referring to developer Patrick Kennedy’s building going up on Allston Way. “It will become a rabbit warren for students.” 

She said there are Kennedy buildings that are of more appropriate scale, such as the four-story building at University Avenue and Grant Street. 

Building apartments over retail is good, to a degree, she said. But the city needs to recognize that as some point, an excess of retail could be developed, she said. 

Addressing the traffic problem, Olson said putting in light rail that goes from the MacArthur BART Station to the campus would help a lot. Olson said, however, she recognizes that some people have a need for their cars. 

As for the question of building the Beth El Synagogue and school on property near Live Oak Park, Olson said she was among the Landmarks Commissioners who said that the Draft Environmental Impact Report showed an “inadequate analysis of historical resources.”  

Moreover, she said, the document does not reveal the size and bulk of the building that is proposed. 

At the same time, Olson said she understood Beth El’s need for a new synagogue.  

If elected, Olson said she would serve the whole community, not just her district. But at the same time, she said she will be an advocate for the nuts and bolts things the district needs, such as sewers and street repairs. 

Olson said, in general, she’s not supportive of increased taxes. With the increasing cost of housing and taxes tied to that, “the city has a windfall it will receive in the next few years,” she said.  

Those funds should be used for city needs rather than raising more taxes, she said. At the same time, she said she supports some of the taxes on the November ballot such as the retrofit of the branch libraries and funding for parks. 

“I’m not quick to jump up and say we need a lot of money spent on schools,” she said, questioning where past school facilities’ money has gone. “I’d rather see teachers paid more,” she said. 

While Olson said she is supportive of the idea of protecting disabled and older renters, she questions Measure Y, the restrictions for owner move-in on the ballot, which goes beyond the protection of those two classes of people. 

Olson said she will be spending “as little as possible,” on her campaign. She’s working with a “core-group” of supporters, including two women volunteers, whom she declined to name, who are “experts” in the field.  

Her website is at www.carrieolson.com. 

 

 

Carrie Olson has lived in Berkeley all her 47 years. She’s an active member of the Landmarks Commission, appointed by City Councilmember Linda Maio, volunteered in the schools for ten years before that and has been a member of the AC Transit Citizen’s Advisory Committee.  

Olson, a business woman who works for moveon.org, decries the division she sees on the council, which, she said, continues to the commission level. Commissions are made up of council appointees. Olson said she doesn’t plan to become part of either council faction, but would accept the endorsement of either. 

New blood on the council may be able to heal some of the division, Olson said. “We need to be able to speak to each other.” 

Olson said she has been watching the General Plan process and working with Students for a Livable Southside, who have pushed for alternatives to the Southside Plan. 

“I support more housing built in Berkeley,” Olson said. “But you don’t have to build high-rises.” 

Instead, build infill that is “contextually sensitive,” she said, pointing to large homes that have been transformed into comfortable apartments. 

There should be incentives for developers to build carfree housing near campus. More affordable housing should be built in order to help maintain the city’s diversity, she said. 

Students need affordable housing as well, which does not mean stuffing three to four students into an apartment. “I’m not a fan of the Gaia Building,” Olson said, referring to developer Patrick Kennedy’s building going up on Allston Way. “It will become a rabbit warren for students.” 

She said there are Kennedy buildings that are of more appropriate scale, such as the four-story building at University Avenue and Grant Street. 

Building apartments over retail is good, to a degree, she said. But the city needs to recognize that as some point, an excess of retail could be developed, she said. 

Addressing the traffic problem, Olson said putting in light rail that goes from the MacArthur BART Station to the campus would help a lot. Olson said, however, she recognizes that some people have a need for their cars. 

As for the question of building the Beth El Synagogue and school on property near Live Oak Park, Olson said she was among the Landmarks Commissioners who said that the Draft Environmental Impact Report showed an “inadequate analysis of historical resources.”  

Moreover, she said, the document does not reveal the size and bulk of the building that is proposed. 

At the same time, Olson said she understood Beth El’s need for a new synagogue.  

If elected, Olson said she would serve the whole community, not just her district. But at the same time, she said she will be an advocate for the nuts and bolts things the district needs, such as sewers and street repairs. 

Olson said, in general, she’s not supportive of increased taxes. With the increasing cost of housing and taxes tied to that, “the city has a windfall it will receive in the next few years,” she said.  

Those funds should be used for city needs rather than raising more taxes, she said. At the same time, she said she supports some of the taxes on the November ballot such as the retrofit of the branch libraries and funding for parks. 

“I’m not quick to jump up and say we need a lot of money spent on schools,” she said, questioning where past school facilities’ money has gone. “I’d rather see teachers paid more,” she said. 

While Olson said she is supportive of the idea of protecting disabled and older renters, she questions Measure Y, the restrictions for owner move-in on the ballot, which goes beyond the protection of those two classes of people. 

Olson said she will be spending “as little as possible,” on her campaign. She’s working with a “core-group” of supporters, including two women volunteers, whom she declined to name, who are “experts” in the field.  

Her website is at www.carrieolson.com. 

Benjamin Rodefer 

Benjamin Rodefer hasn’t much experience in city government, but the 37-year old candidate for District 5 has spent a number of years working in politics. 

He interned for former Rep. Ron Dellums when he was in high school and participated in student government when he was at Cornell University, working briefly for a U.S. Senator after his graduation. 

An art dealer – and a jazz musician, once part of the celebrated Berkeley High Jazz Band – Rodefer has worked with different committees planning public art at Aquatic Park and along the BART tracks. 

The father of a 17-month old baby knows Berkeley well, having gone through public school here. The values present in the city when he was younger, however “are in danger of being co-opted,” he said, underscoring the need for affordable housing to maintain the city’s diversity. 

Another issue that is high on Rodefer’s list of priorities is the environment. People should own green and hybrid vehicles, he said.  

“I love Berkeley. I want to still love it 10 years from now.” 

Rodefer is not aligned with either of the two council factions. “They’re all Democrats,” he said, “not ‘moderates’ or ‘progressives.’” 

On the other hand, Rodefer does take issue with the mayor. “I am concerned with Shirley Dean’s support for developers,” he said, pointing to Eddie Bauer’s as the kind of chain-store that the city does not need. 

“It’s not in the interest or character of Berkeley,” he said. 

Chain stores “take the money out of the city. That doesn’t benefit us.” 

There are better ways to revitalize the city, Rodefer said, through the creation of city loan pools. 

Someone needs to liaison between small businesses and the city,” he said. Sometimes the city makes plans for shopping areas and does not consult with the merchants. “There’s not enough communication.” 

As for the issue of Beth El, Rodefer said he has a concern with preserving the creek that runs through the property and the limited parking. “There are 600 families (who are members of Beth El) and only 35 parking places.” They will need 50 to 100 spaces at any one time, he said. 

Ideally, the city would purchase the property to expand Live Oak Park and Beth El would find a more suitable place to build. Though he hopes they would not leave the city. “They offer a lot of positive benefits,” he said. 

Housing is a concern and development needs to conform to “long-tem” community standards, he said. The council’s job would be to “make sure the concerns of the whole community are addressed.” 

One of the particular needs for District 5 is traffic control. Decisions about where barriers are placed were made long ago, Rodefer said. Existing conditions need to be examined, such as the amount of traffic that uses The Arlington. 

Overruns on capital projects is an issue that Rodefer would address if he gets on the council. “There has to be a way to cap (costs) in contracts,” he said. 

Health disparities between Caucasians lining in the hills and African Americans in the flatlands needs to be addressed, Rodefer said. One way would be to create a city health plan, whereby everybody would be covered by insurance. The Berkeley Free Clinic and outreach programs should be fully funded, he said. 

As for Measure Y, Rodefer said he is “100 percent” for protection of affordable housing for the elderly and handicapped. However, he said he was concerned about the amount of money the measure mandated for a landlord to pay a low-income person who has to leave in a low-income eviction. 

“I don’t support it although I support all the values it espouses,” he said. “It needs to be tightened” then go before the voters at a later date. 

Rodefer said he will seek the support of both the Berkeley Democratic Club and Berkeley Citizen’s Action. He said he’s probably more fically conservative than BCA. “I want to see the money spent, effectively,” he said. 

Rodefer, who will be running his own campaign, can be reached at 525-9263. 

 


‘The Illusion’ is odd, rambling story

by John Angell Grant Daily Planet Theater Critic
Tuesday September 12, 2000

Tony Kushner's epic Pulitzer and Tony Award winner “Angels in America” is the most important American stage work of the past 25 years. 

The Los Angeles world premiere of that play was co-directed in 1992 by Tony Taccone, now artistic director of the Berkeley Repertory Theater. 

Since then, the theater has hosted premieres of two other Kushner works – “Slavs!,” a wonderful piece about the collapse of Eastern European communist bureaucracy constructed out of outtakes from “Angels in America,” and “Hydriotaphia,” an odd bedroom meditation about dying 17th century English physician Sir Thomas Browne. 

For those who might be interested in catching up with yet more of Kushner's less well-known work, foolsFURY theater company opened a physical, dance-influenced production this past weekend of Kushner's 1990 play “The Illusion,” a very loose adaptation of Pierre Corneille's 17th century French tragic-comedy “L'Illusion Comique.” 

foolsFURY is staging “The Illusion” in San Francisco at the Gurdjieff Hall, a small converted movie theater a few doors off Potrero Hill's charming 18th Street neighborhood commercial strip. 

“The Illusion” is an odd and rambling story about an elderly father (Keith Davis) who has been estranged from his son (Alexander Lewis) for years.  

To address the needs of his heart, the father seeks out a magician (Neil Flint Worden) in a cave who is able to invoke visions that reveal the son’s life story. In foolsFURY's bare stage and dance-based production, the father eagerly and painfully sits and watches these stories, like a play within a play. 

Told in three chapters, with the characters oddly renamed in each chapter, the son’s life is revealed. For much of the play, he pursues a love triangle with two women, one rich (Heather Mathieson) and one poor (Kaliopi Eleni), and fends off male rivals (James Cutts and Stephen Jacob).  

Betrayal ensues, and a murder. After marriage, there is infidelity, and another murder. 

But director Ben Yalom's production of “The Illusion” is a tough staging to appreciate. 

In many ways, it feels like a mythical story about generic types, rather than a story about flesh and blood individuals. It is harder to care about generic types, than it is to care about distinct individuals. 

In the foolsFURY production, the airy spirits skittering here and there in the dark magician’s cave reiterate what is already one of the most accessible parts of the script. This production might have been made more interesting by challenging the text in some way to reveal its less obvious underlying meanings. 

Kushner’s script itself is a declamatory one that does its share of preaching. 

As the estranged father watches conjured images of his long-lost son pass through complex romantic struggles with women, “The Illusion” seems at times to be a theatrical deconstruction of the Oedipal conflict. At other times, the play seems to be about the fragility and arbitrariness of human karma. 

Then, unexpectedly, at the play’s end there is a twist that shifts the meaning of everything that has come before.  

But is it enough, and after waiting two hours, is it worth the wait? On reflection, it seems like a lot of work for what proves to be kind of a small story. 

The acting in foolsFURY’s production is generally good. Passing along an interesting arc, Keith Davis’ angry, but ultimately vulnerable father, is one of the evening's best performances. 

Alexander Lewis is a multi-faceted prodigal son. Steven Jacob has graceful, hypnotic movements as a military conqueror and rival to Lewis in romance. 

Heather Mathieson is a coy, then committed love interest. Kaliopi Eleni sews seeds of romantic dissent as Mathieson's handmaiden. James Cutts is stoic and tough as a determined rival for Mathieson's love. 

Neil Flint Worden’s severe, demanding and judgmental magician proves surprisingly ironical at the play’s end, but is an unsatisfying monotone for much of the evening’s performance. 

In Michael Burg’s set design, the audience enters the theater through the back of the set and across the stage to take seats at the far end of the small, high-ceilinged space. It is like sitting at the back of a cave and looking out its opening. 

At his best, such as with “Angels in America” or “Slavs!,” Kushner is one of the world's best playwrights. 

But he has a pedantic and lecturing side in which he likes his characters to explain to the audience how things are. “The Illusion” ends up being a self-conscious and rather sententious parable about theater. 

“The Illusion,” presented by foolsFURY at Gurdjieff Hall, 312 Connecticut (at 18th Street), San Francisco, through Oct. 1. For tickets and information, call (415) 248-1918, or visit the website (www.foolsfury.org). 

 


Letters to the Editor

Pacific News Service
Tuesday September 12, 2000

Wild animals belong in nature 

 

Editor: 

 

Your Reptile Appeal article in the 9-11 issue misses the point, that wild animal belong in the wild, in their own natural habitat, not in pet stores nor people’s apartments.  

Animal dealers who take animals from the wild are not regulated, they destroy habitat and a variety of animals to get to their target animal. Many animals die in transport. 

The hard to find, high-priced animal, points out the need to leave them alone, their numbers are dwindling.  

In countries where too many snakes are taken, rodent populations can increase out of control.  

We need to be more mindful in this country about the impacts of our consumerism. 

 

Sue Cipolla  

Berkeley 

 

 

Try alternatives to cars, ease the parking problem 

 

Editor 

 

Parking in Berkeley is often a gnash-your-teeth affair. These days, parking downtown is in even shorter supply. Berkeley High School’s parking lot now holds temporary portable classrooms rather than cars.  

Due to a fire set by an arsonist earlier this year, one school building is out of commission and needs to be repaired. Hence the portable classrooms. 

The temporary loss of the large parking lot can’t be helped.  

However, this loss may result in endless searching and circling for parking.  

For some there is an added complication: A parking space, when found, needs to be a very short walk to the desired destination.  

The seniors and people with disabilities who use the warm water pool on the Berkeley High School campus for healing and exercise after school hours and on weekends have been particularly hard hit by the lack of parking for several weeks.  

To compensate, the school district is carving 19 parking spaces out of the girl’s softball field for parking and all 19 will be earmarked for disabled drivers during community swim hours. 

The city, for its part, has a number of alternative transportation solutions to offer to help limit the number of cars seeking parking. 

By the way, these solutions will work for all Berkeley seniors and citizens with disabilities, whatever the destination. 

There are several city subsidized transportation programs. First of all, qualified Berkeley residents can purchase East Bay Paratransit tickets for less than the usual price directly from the city. The limit is ten for calendar quarter and the cost is $1 instead of $2.25. 

Then there is a separate city paratransit program with its own vans that people can use in addition to East Bay Paratransit.  

Both services are door-to-door. This program offers 20 vouchers a quarter at $2.25 each for trips up to ten miles.  

Finally there is a city taxi scrip program for anyone with a mobility problem and seniors over 70.  

Scrip costs $1 - $2 (depending on income level) for a booklet with $10 worth of coupons that can be used with designated cab companies. Currently Berkeley residents may purchase 15 booklets each calendar quarter and an additional five booklets for $4-$5 each. 

Any income level can participate. To get more information about these three programs, please call 664-6607 Monday through Thursday, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. 

The city has also contacted RIDES for Bay Area Commuters, the agency that links up commuters throughout the region. Warm pool users, and anyone with a commute, can sign up quickly and easily to access 12,000 other people interested in sharing rides.  

In the case of people using the warm water pool, RIDES has offered to set up a separate database for them as well. 

RIDES can be reached at: 800-755-POOL. 

 

Since parking in Berkeley is the issue, I can’t help but mention another alternative to cars, a bicyle. 

 

The city’s consultant on the warm pool project, for example, just bought a bike to overcome many of her work-related parking needs as well as running errands around town. 

 

This may not be an option for warm pool users, but it is an alternative others might consider that will alleviate some of the parking stress and dental bills resulting from gnash-your-teeth parking woes. 

 

 

Rene Cardinaux 

City of Berkeley 

Public Works Director 

 

 

 

 

 


Out & About

Tuesday September 12, 2000


Tuesday, Sept. 12

 

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 13

 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Last town hall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

 

Commission on Disability 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The commission will discuss Project Impact disaster funding, I-80 overpass amenities, removal of obstacles from the sidewalk and more.  

 

Second Annual Bertram Gross Award 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The campaign to abolish poverty/full employment Coalition presents the second Annual Bertram Gross Award. Gross, 1912-1998, was the chief author of the Roosevelt Full Employment Act, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act and the current full employment legislation HR1050. 

Award recipients are Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Amaha Kassa, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy and Pat Ford, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. 

Music by Barbara Dane. $10-$15; nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

 


Thursday, Sept. 14

 

Eugene O’Neil House,  

Mt. Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

 

Environmental Sampling Project Task Force 

6:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

Agenda items include public comment time and sampling reviews 

486-4387 

 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

What next for Haiti? 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue, 

What is the true story behind the recent elections in Haiti? What’s the real impact of the global economy on Haiti? 

483-7481  

please call to reserve childcare 

$5-10 


Friday, Sept. 15

 

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

“Lift the Sanctions from Iraq” 

Interfaith Brunch & Community Gathering 

Talk by Denis Halliday, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General 

10:30 a.m. -noon 

Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento 

(510) 527-8370 


Saturday, Sept. 16

 

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Seabreeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

Call: 848-9358  

Shoreline cleanup 

9 a.m. 

Behind Sea Breeze market at West Frontage Rd and University Ave. or at Aquatic Park playground 

Bring gloves, sunscreen and hat and help clean up the shoreline. 

644-8623; TDD 644-6915 

 


Sunday, Sept. 17

 

Berkeley Citizen’s Action  

Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

To include local and state endorsements. 

Please place this upcoming event in your listings. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 


Thursday, Sept. 21

 

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

415-749-4965 


Friday, Sept. 22

 

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

 


Saturday, Sept. 23

 

From Capitalism to Equality 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. at Alcatraz 

Why have the conditions of work become more difficult and the 

rewards more unequal since 1973? Join author Charles Andrews to 

discuss these issues and solutions for them. 

$5 admission includes $10 discount coupon the book, “From Capitalism to Equality” 

535-2476 

 


Sunday, Sept. 24

 

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using both story-telling and generational techniques, Dr. Lois Silverstein will offer beginning steps to rediscovering family heritage and traditions.  

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 848-0237 

 

5th anniversary party and film festival 

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Fifth Birthday 

6-8 p.m. party 

film: 8:30-10:30 p.m. 

Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Movie Theater 

1901 Gilman St. 

The event is to honor five years of BFB bike advocacy. Films will include: “Pedalphiles and Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels” 

Bring something to sit on. 

Free to members; $10-$20 sliding scale to non members.  

549-7433 

 

“How Berkeley Can You Be?” 

11 a.m. on University Avenue and California Street, culminating at Civic Center outside Berkeley High School 

Festival in the park starts at 12:30 p.m. 

849-4688, www.howberkeleycanyoube.com 


Monday, Sept. 25

 

Open forum on affordable housing 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Sean Heron of the East Bay Housing Organizations will talk about building a campaign for affordable housing. Sponsored by the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project. 

1-800-773-2110 

 

 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 27

 

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Business” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework promoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

 


Saturday, Sept. 30

 

Jim Hightower: “Election 2000: a Space Odyssey” 

8 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Sponsored by KPFA and Global Exchange 

“I am an agitator,” Hightower says. “The agitator is the centerpost in a washing machine that gets the dirt out.” 

$10 in advance/$12 at the door 

848-6767 x609 

 

 


Monday, October 2

 

“2nd annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

“Clean Lies Dirty War” 

7:30 p.m. Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar 

Event is part of a national campaign to end sanctions on Iraq.  

(510) 528-5403 

 


Thursday, October 5

 

3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

 

ONGOING EVENTS 

 

Sundays 

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 

 

 

 

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

 

 

 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

 

 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

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. 

234-0727;642-5168 

 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Marina area employees to receive living wages

By Josh Parr Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday September 12, 2000

If all goes as planned, the Berkeley Marina restaurants and hotel will be paying higher wages to their employees by Oct. 20. The Berkeley City Council is poised to expand its Living Wage Ordinance at tonight’s meeting, requiring established Marina businesses to pay their employees a minimum of $9.75  

per hour. 

A Living Wage Ordinance was adopted in June, and applies to workers employed by persons leasing land from the city.  

But Marina workers, whose employers lease city land, were not covered, because the hotels’ and restaurants’ contracts with the city would not be renewed for a number of years. 

However City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque reviewed the question and determined that including Marina employees in the ordinance under a Marina Zone was legal, said Lindsey Urbina, deputy city attorney.  

“It was added later, and had to be addressed by the City Attorney after the fact,” Urbina said. 

The Living Wage ordinance mandates higher wages for workers in Berkeley whose employers contract with the city or whose employers lease property from the city.  

Current living wage standards are set for $11.38 per hour without health insurance, or $9.75 per hour with employers setting aside the difference for health care coverage. 

The levels are set this way because legally, employers cannot be forced to purchase health insurance, said Amaha Kassa, an organizer at the East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economic Development. “This way, workers are guaranteed that they can pay rent and have health care,” he said. 

Such living wage in the Marina is overdue, Kassa said. “Marina businesses have been taking advantage of a unique, city-owned location while cutting out service-sector employees from the windfall,” he added. 

“The Radisson is a worst case scenario, where many employees make only $7 an hour, and get no health benefits,” Kassa said. “They benefit from a location that the city funds to keep up. It’s the location that brings tourists and weddings to the Marina on a permanent basis.” 

Cliff Marchetti, Waterfront manager, said that the city has budgeted $3.3 million for operations in the year 2001. “I don’t know the exact number of people who come in a year.” Marchetti said. “But it’s a lot. Several thousand a day.” 

In 1962, the city was granted the Marina Zone via the state’s Public Trust Tidelands grant. This includes Aquatic Park and all lands west of Marina Boulevard. The lands were designated for “the public’s use and enjoyment of the bay and the waterfront,” according to a memo written by Weldon Rucker, acting city manager.  

Rucker argued that such wage increases will “improve the service given to the public by employees there.” 

“The public interest is best served by ensuring that the public is not deterred from visiting the Marina because they do not wish to patronize businesses who do not pay their employees a living wage or provide them with health care benefits,” Rucker wrote in a report to the council. 

Roxanna Gipson has been working for 10 years at the Radisson as a housekeeper.  

“They’ve been working us like slaves,” she said. “We clean between 15 and 16 rooms everyday.”  

Up until two years ago, she was working for $6.25 an hour, without health care benefits. When Radisson employees presented management with a petition to unionize, in September of 1999, that wage shot up to $9.25, but she was still paying over $112 a month for health coverage. Now, living in Oakland, the skyrocketing price of gas has set her back even more, just getting to and from work, and even if she wanted to move to Berkeley to be closer to work, she couldn’t. 

“There’s no way I could live in Berkeley. The rent is too high,” Gipson said. “Basically, they can afford to hire me in Berkeley, but I can’t afford to live in Berkeley.” 

It’s such conditions, Kassa said, that make living wage ordinances necessary now.  

“Berkeley is extremely expensive. Many people want to live here, to be close to work, but they can’t, because of low wages and high rent. This results in low wage service providers, many of whom are people of color and immigrants,” he said. 

Polly Armstrong, councilmember from District 8, said: “If we want Berkeley to remain a diverse city, we need to increase housing opportunities and raise wages. By demanding that these long term Marina workers make more than just a minimum wage, we are using our power to improve the quality of their lives.” 

Brij Misra, general manager of the Marina Radisson, said he hadn’t had time to study the impact of the pending ordinance. “I’m sure that there would be some kind of impact on the Radisson,” he said. 

Kassa and Gipson, on the other hand, are sure about the impact the higher wages will have. 

“Obtaining living wages will ensure that more people benefit from the advantages of a location that almost guarantees economic success,” Kassa said. 

Gipson agreed. “I’ve been living pay check to pay check, and now I’ll be able to save a little for a rainy day.” 

 


ADA trainings on council agenda Daily Planet Staff If all goes as planned, the Berkeley Marina restaurants and hotel will be pa

By Josh Parr
Tuesday September 12, 2000

A quick read-through of tonight’s City Council agenda is akin to looking at a Jackson Pollock painting. It’s as if the city’s issues were poured through a fan and splattered across 2,000 pages of paper – well, 631 to be exact. Undergrounding utilities contrasts sharply with the obligatory monthly renewal of needle exchange programs. Expanding the Living Wage Ordinance compliments a “buy Berkeley” campaign, billboard removal within the city limits, meets Berkeley police undergoing American Disabilities Act trainings. As with a Pollock painting, the underlying balance comes from the contrast, the incongruity, the arbitrary limit of the canvas itself, or in this case, the limited time constraints of the council meeting and the finite patience of the council members. 

Despite a smaller-than-normal number of items on the consent calendar, (“only 58,” says Kriss Worthington, the District 7 councilmember), the meeting is expected to last 4 to 5 hours, and still, not every item on the agenda will be discussed. 

Perhaps because of this, one proposal that should receive air time is Councilmember Linda Maio’s (District 1) plan to “improve working relations with staff and council.” 

“It has to do with the burgeoning number of items on the calendar, and things getting carried (forward) from meeting to meeting,” says Jennifer Price, a Maio aide. “She’s hoping to make people more respectful of council time by asking for simple things - like preparation and communication. No more bickering. It’s really gotten preposterous. Meetings generally last until midnight and items constantly get held over.” 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong, from District 8, agrees. 

“I’ve been very impatient with the lack of productivity,” says Armstrong. 

“The problem is that for some political agendas, delay is a good thing, making real progress difficult.” 

But Maio’s item won’t even be discussed until 41 other items have been taken up. The mayor has also proposed a “meeting on meetings” to get through the bottleneck. 

Often criticized for bickering and oneupsmanship, the council is roughly divided into two groups - one which includes Dean, characterized as the “moderates”, and the other characterized as “liberal/progressive” which includes the dogged Worthington.  

Calling it a largely “ceremonial agenda,” Armstrong looks at earthquake preparation and fire safety as important issues. 

“Fire safety is similar to earthquakes in that you have to prepare for the aftermath similarly,” she says. “It’s been nine years since the big fire, and we can get complacent.” 

Worthington however, is focusing on the expanded Living Wage Ordinance to include a Marina Zone, undergrounding utilities, and freedom to discuss “appealable matters” with constituents as the most significant issues. 

“Right now, it is illegal to talk to constituency about appeals. You can’t have a public meeting with those who are in contention, which obviously, raises people’s ire.” 

The rules, he claims are hindering Margaret Breland, now embroiled in just such a case, from satisfying her constituency just before the Nov. 7 elections. 

Other issues include Golden Oldies of Berkeley politics: Save the Whales, Save the Old Growth Forest, and Free Political Prisoners - in this case Sarah Jane Olson, accused of planting bombs for the Symbionese Liberation Army.  

Traffic, ever increasing in Berkeley, also comes up in many forms, whether from residents who want to reduce traffic in their neighborhoods, or bikers who want safer streets and a “bike highway” along Ninth Street. 

After the “summer vacation”, from July 26 to today, Armstrong characterizes the re-opening of the council meetings, “like coming back to school.” 

“While I’m excited about getting back to work, summer went too fast.” she says, laughing. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Old City Hall Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It is televised on B-TV 25 and broadcast on KPFB 89.3. 

 


Prescription drug coverage debated

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

The Associated Press 

 

SACRAMENTO — Prescription drug use is up, prices are higher and those who need the medications most are least likely to have insurance coverage for them, health care experts said Monday. 

The Center for Health and Public Policy Studies at University of California, Berkeley, held a roundtable event at the Capitol to address growing concerns about prescription drug coverage. 

It included discussion of coverage by HMOs; Medicare, the federal government’s health coverage for the elderly and disabled; and Medi-Cal, a state-federal plan for low-income Californians. 

“A significant portion of the population doesn’t have coverage for prescription drugs,” said Janet Lundy, an author of a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study. “A lack of coverage can mean that prescriptions doctors prescribe don’t get filled.” 

Though coverage of prescription drugs has increased, 23 percent of the non-elderly and 31 percent of Medicare beneficiaries still have no coverage, according to the national study by Kaiser, a nonprofit health care foundation unrelated to the health insurer Kaiser Permanente. 

Finding a way to help people get coverage for prescription drugs is imperative as drug costs and use rise dramatically, Lundy said. 

Prescription drug use rose 37 percent between 1992 and 1998, while the population grew 6 percent, according to the foundation’s study. 

Retail prices for drugs have increased 6.7 percent per year since 1991 – a rate higher than both general inflation and medical care inflation, the study found. 

As a result, out-of-pocket expenses for medication, both for the insured and uninsured, are projected to rise, Lundy said. 

All of that adds up to a system that “hurts people’s ability to stay alive,” said David Gross of the AARP Public Policy Institute in Washington D.C. 

The topic is one of the hottest in this year’s presidential race, with both major-party candidates touting plans to expand coverage. 

Democratic nominee Al Gore would incorporate prescriptions into Medicare. Republican George W. Bush has suggested four years of grants to states to provide coverage for low-income seniors while a national program was established. 

Two panelists at Monday’s roundtable, Dr. Sharon Dean, a pediatrician from Kaiser Permanente, and Robert Seidman, of Blue Cross of California, said they were troubled by the increase in pharmaceutical marketing directly to consumers. 

The pharmaceutical industry spends about $8 billion per year to promote its products, with more than $1 billion of that spent on advertising to the general public, the study found. 

A Blue Cross study found a 600 percent increase in advertising of antihistamines on television and in magazines, Seidman said. 

“If they’re marketed like candy, they should be sold like candy and you shouldn’t need a prescription,” Seidman said. 

The drug industry opposes attempts at price controls or HMOs using restrictive plans that allow doctors to prescribe only the lowest cost drugs, said Chris Ward, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. 

It supports expanding coverage under Medicare, Ward said.


POLICE BRIEFS

Staff
Tuesday September 12, 2000

Daily Planet Staff 

 

The University and State Employees Credit Union at 1995 University Avenue was robbed at around 4:40 p.m. Sept. 6. An unarmed man wearing yellow dishwashing gloves vaulted over the bank counter and grabbed an undisclosed amount of money from an open cash drawer. 

Lopes said the man walked in and shoved his way through a line before jumping over the counter and grabbing the money from a teller’s drawer that was open as she made a transaction  

“It probably scared her because the guy was pretty big,” he said. 

The suspect is described as a black male, 45-50-years old, 5 feet 11 inches, 210-220 pounds with a muscular build. Lopes said the man was clean shaven wearing plastic wrap-around glasses and a black T-shirt, black pants and the yellow rubber gloves. 

* * * 

Detectives are investigating an armed robbery on the 2400 block of Dwight Way where two masked men barged into an apartment and held the female inhabitant face down with a sawed-off shotgun to her head while they ransacked the house. 

Lopes said two late teen-to early 20’s-aged men knocked on the woman’s door around 1:30 a.m. Sept. 6. Lopes said the woman opened it, thinking it was her male roommates, and when she did the men forced their way in and held her at gunpoint. 

Lopes said one of the men, described as a young white or Hispanic male, 5 feet 8 inches, heavy set with black, closely shaven hair, wearing a black ski mask, held the woman down with the double-barreled sawed-off shotgun to her neck while the other rummaged through the apartment yelling “where’s the money?” 

The second suspect is described as a white male, 5 feet 11 inches with dirty blond hair cut in a fade, wearing a handkerchief over his mouth and brandishing a handgun. 

Lopes said the two didn’t take anything and he thought the robbers had the wrong place. 

Lopes said that detectives are investigating several robberies in that area.


EPA blasts lax communication on Superfund fire

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — After nearly four weeks of effort by two fire departments, an underground hazardous waste landfill fire still smolders at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. 

But what has the Environmental Protection Agency up in arms is that the Navy took three of those weeks to tell anyone about it. 

In a letter sent Monday to naval officials and local politicians, the EPA admonished the Navy for failing to alert the agency, local officials and neighbors of the Superfund site about the fire and the possible hazardous situations it may have created. 

“Only after the EPA’s request did the Navy release a fact sheet to the public and install air monitoring stations to determine the impact of the fire on nearby residents,” wrote Daniel Meer, chief of the Superfund Division of the EPA’s Federal Facilities Cleanup Branch. 

The letter went on to criticize the Navy’s decision to stop stationing federal fire fighters at the site while the fire continues to burn. The EPA says the Navy has since reversed its plan. 

Results from soil, water and air samples submitted by the Navy to a laboratory are expected back this week to determine whether neighbors could have been harmed by smoke which took on yellow and green hues over the weeks. 

The fire smolders on though it no longer produces much visible smoke, says Jeannie Light, a Navy spokeswoman based in San Diego.  

The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

The EPA doubts Hunters Point neighbors are in any danger, but isn’t taking any chances. 

“We don’t believe there’s any risk to people out there, but it’s nice to have the monitoring up just to make sure there aren’t any emissions coming from the landfill,” said Sheryl Lauth, Hunters Point project manager for the EPA. 

The fire has burned since Aug. 16 at the shipyard, near a section where the city hopes to build new homes and businesses after the site is cleansed of toxic wastes.  

Heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and other industrial wastes are imbedded over the 46-acre landfill. 

Lauth says it’s hard to tell how long the fire could burn until a landfill expert the Navy plans to send to the site later this week can figure out what’s actually burning. 

The Navy issued a news release Friday which detailed the efforts of both the Federal and San Francisco fire departments to put out the fire.  

But the methods used – including flooding the area with water and bulldozing and shoveling out hotspots – have thus far left the fire unbeaten. 

Alex Lantsberg, program coordinator of environmental group Arc Ecology, which was a party in a lawsuit against the Navy earlier this year, says the EPA needs to beef up its oversight of the Navy’s cleanup efforts.  

EPA is a partner in the cleanup effort, though it lacks legal power to discipline the Navy. 

“I think a lot of people are wondering whether the EPA is a watchdog or a lapdog,” said Lantsberg who is also a member of the Community First Coalition, a coalition of Bay View and Hunters Point residents and environmental groups who demand the immediate cleanup of the Superfund site. 

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was closed in 1974 and comprises 500 dry acres and 440 submerged acres within San Francisco’s Bay View and Hunters Point neighborhoods.


Approval expected for transforming terminal

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — A plan to transform the Transbay Terminal into a hub for public transportation is expected to be approved this week despite difficulty funding the $904 million project. 

The Bay Area Toll Authority, which will consider the plan, has proposed paying for the new terminal with money from the sale of land in the South of Market area of the city. 

But that, according to Metropolitan Transportation Commission Project Manager Rod McMillan, will raise only about $345 million. Bridge tolls and federal money may provide another $95 million, leaving more than $400 million, plus an estimated $13 million a year to run the terminal. Plans include tearing down the three-level building at First and Mission streets and replacing it with a five-level, glass-walled terminal for buses and trains. 

If the plan is approved Wednesday, it is still uncertain when it would be started and finished. It is expected to snarl traffic and eliminate parking during the two or three years it would take to build. 


Decision may cause wave of drug appeals Judges say they know ruling will dramatically change trial policy

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court Monday reversed a precedent in how drug convicts are sentenced, potentially ushering in a wave of new appeals. 

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a common practice where judges, not juries, decide the quantity of drugs involved in a crime for sentencing purposes. 

The three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based circuit based its decision on a little-noticed June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that said juries, not judges, must decide if a hate crime was motivated by racial bias and therefore subject to a steeper sentence. 

“This is big. This is a major change in law,” said Linda M. Leavitt, a San Francisco defense lawyer whose client’s sentence was at issue Monday. “There’s probably thousands of cases like this across the country.” 

Leavitt represented a Humboldt County man convicted of cultivating marijuana. 

At sentencing, the government accused Kayle Nordby of growing 2,300 plants. The judge found he had grown more than 1,000 plants, requiring that he serve a 10-year sentence. If the judge found he grew less than 1,000 plants, he would have received a mandatory five-year term. 

In overturning the precedent, the panel reduced Nordby’s sentence to five years. 

The circuit panel acknowledged in its opinion that it was dramatically changing trial policy. 

“Our existing precedent to the contrary is overruled,” Judge William C. Canby wrote for the court that covers California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii. 

Thousands of drug convicts who have exhausted their appeals could seek a new trial or request their prison terms be reduced, said Steve Kalar, a federal public defender in San Francisco. 

In new cases, federal prosecutors must prove to a jury the amount of narcotics at issue. 

“I think this is going to have a dramatic impact on drug cases,” Kalar said. “It’s really the jury that should be making these decisions, which is a fundamental American concept.” 

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 12-year prison termed imposed on a white New Jersey man accused of firing shots into a black family’s home. The court found the defendant was entitled to a jury decision, not a judge’s, on whether he acted out of racial bias. 

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority that the case was “an unacceptable departure from the jury tradition that is an indispensable part of our criminal justice system.” 

Three-judge panels of the 8th and 6th appellate circuits have ruled similarly to Monday’s decision.  

But experts said the 9th Circuit is the nation’s most influential and largest appellate panel and other circuits are likely to follow suit. 

The Supreme Court ruled on the hate crime case the same day it issued a landmark ruling saying police still must warn suspects of their right to remain silent when questioned. 

The case of so-called Miranda warnings received the bulk of media attention, and the hate crime case received little notice. 

“A lot of people thought the hate crime case was a revolutionary case,” said Yale Kamisar, a University of Michigan Law School professor. “It dwarfed (Miranda), which got more publicity.”


Bay Area residents react to Lee plea bargain

Bay City News
Tuesday September 12, 2000

Bay area Asian Americans today reacted with a mixture of anger and relief to news that jailed Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee might be freed, despite late word that a plea agreement had been postponed. 

Lee, 60, a Taiwan-born nuclear physicist who worked at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, had been accused by the U.S. government of stealing sensitive nuclear weapons secrets – allegedly for sale to the Chinese government. 

After months of legal proceedings and closeted plea negotiations, Lee was expected to enter a plea agreement on a 59-count federal indictment this afternoon in a New Mexico federal court. 

Late this afternoon, however, U.S. District Judge James Parker reportedly announced a delay until Wednesday in the agreement between federal prosecutors and defense lawyers. 

According to the reported terms of the deal, Lee will plead guilty to just one felony count of the indictment – all other charges will be dropped. He will be sentenced to nine months in prison and released for time already served behind bars. 

In exchange, Lee has apparently agreed to cooperate with federal authorities to disclose all he knows about several pieces of sensitive information he allegedly downloaded onto a personal computer. 

He will also reportedly drop his own charges that authorities prosecuted him solely because of his ethnicity, although he will retain the right to file suit against the government in civil court. 

This afternoon, a coalition of civil rights activists and Asian  

American community rights organizations said that while the fight for Lee's freedom is over, the battle to end racial profiling and the selective prosecution of minorities has only begun. 

“It's a very, very limited victory,” said Diane Chin, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, commented earlier today. 

“This is something we cannot now simply let go by the wayside just because Dr. Lee has rejoined his family.” 

Victor Hwang, managing attorney of the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based legal rights group, said federal prosecutors were hypocrites for simultaneously refusing to allow Lee to leave jail on bail while negotiating a plea bargain. 

“This is a virtual acknowledgement that they have no case,” he declared. 

The controversial case of the scientist and the disappearing data has aroused the suspicions of many Asian Americans that the federal government had focused on Lee solely because of his ethnic background. 

Lee was fired from his post at Los Alamos in March 1999, shortly after the missing data had been discovered. He was subsequently arrested in December and held in solitary confinement to loud protests from Asian American groups over the seemingly heavy-handed treatment of the scientist. 

“I guess from an idealistic perspective it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Dr. Lee had to plea to anything,” he said, citing statements by several high-level investigators on the case who admitted to practicing racial profiling.  

“Regardless of what China may or may not do, they can't target Chinese-Americans because of what some foreign country is doing.” 

Dorothy Ehrlich of the American Civil Liberties Union said Lee's case was only the most recent instance of “a long and dishonorable history in this country.” 

“We are deeply disturbed by the happenings of the last nine months,” she said.  

“We don't think today's decision by the court . . . resolves this problem.” 

In San Francisco this morning, Supervisor Michael Yaki issued a statement expressing both anger and acceptance at Lee's ordeal.  

“I have a sense of both relief and anger upon receiving the news that the U.S. government has reached a plea bargain deal with Dr. Wen Ho Lee, resulting in his possible release,'' Yaki said. “Relief, in that Dr. Lee's nine month ordeal in jail is finally over and that the Department of Justice appears to understand that any mistakes he made were not detrimental to national security. 

“Anger, in that nine months in jail is hardly proportional given the offense.” 

Yaki hinted that federal prosecution of Lee had critically ruptured the trust of varied Asian American communities in the government, a broken faith reflected in the declining participation of Asian American scientists at the national labs. 

“I still believe that the U.S. government shamelessly engaged in scapegoating Dr. Lee because he was Chinese-American,” Yaki added.  

“It will take more than this plea bargain deal to regain the trust of Asian Americans who used to, would want to, or currently work for the Department of Energy.”Hwang concurred with Yaki's assessment. 

“I think the Department of Energy is going to have to work very hard to repair the damage done by this case,” he said, adding that “there has been no meaningful attempt to correct the hostile atmosphere at the labs.” 

The case has also drawn attention from the international media due to the nature of the mishandled data, which experts at one time called the “crown jewels” of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, as well as prosecutors’ speculation that it might be sold to a foreign power. 

In a statement this morning, the Coalition Against Racial and Ethnic Scapegoating said the case revealed the hypocrisy of the investigation. 

“What began as the greatest espionage case since the Rosenbergs is now revealed as nothing more than a case of mishandling classified information. ... (a) common practice at the national laboratories,” the group said in a release. 

“The case remains as a symbol and a caution of the dangerous power of the government when individuals choose to abuse the system to persecute an individual based on his race and identity.”  

Hwang said today’s sudden retreat by federal prosecutors will also have repercussions beyond U.S. borders. 

“This is an embarrassment to the United States of international proportions. The U.S. is going to have to do a little bit more to clean up its reputation on the international level.”


LAPD ‘fosters hostility,’ according to report

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department needs more aggressive independent review and a permanent special prosecutor to investigate misconduct, according to a police union-commissioned report Monday. 

The 150-page report by University of Southern California law professor Erwin Chemerinsky found the department fosters a culture of hostility among its officers. An environment in which excessive force and a code of silence is tolerated has allowed corruption to fester, he said. 

“When innocent people are convicted, all of the institutions have failed us and all must be reformed so this doesn’t happen again,” he said during a news conference at City Hall. 

Chemerinsky, who was not paid for his work, is a constitutional expert who served as chairman of the elected commission that helped draft the revised City Charter that voters approved last year. 

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents 9,300 rank-and-file officers, asked Chemerinsky to review an internal Board of Inquiry report into the department’s ongoing corruption scandal. 

More than 100 convictions have been overturned as a result of allegations that anti-gang officers at the Rampart station lied under oath, planted evidence, wrote false reports and in some cases shot unarmed suspects. 

The Board of Inquiry report, released in March, recommended several changes, including expanding the LAPD’s internal affairs division. Ultimately, however, it blamed the scandal on the failure of officers and supervisors to carry out existing department policies. 

Chemerinsky said it downplayed the scandal and failed to acknowledge how the department’s culture allowed the corruption to continue. He also noted that the Los Angeles criminal justice system, including the county district attorney’s office, shares some of the blame by not catching irregularities in officers’ cases. 

He called for strengthening the civilian Police Commission and a system in which people can more easily complain about alleged police misconduct. 

The Board of Police Commissioners, which has existed since the 1920s, sets department policies while the chief manages day-to-day operations. The five members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. Chemerinsky recommended giving the mayor two appointments and one each to the City Council president, the city attorney and the city controller. A majority council vote should be required to remove a commissioner, he added. 

Mayor Richard Riordan had not read the report and had no specific response to the suggestion of a more aggressive civilian review process, a spokesman said. 

“The mayor insists on reform, so that anything that is reasonable that relates to reform the mayor wants to seriously take a look at,” said Peter Hidalgo, Riordan’s press secretary. 

The LAPD and the Police Commission did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But Police Chief Bernard Parks has defended the department’s handling of the scandal, saying its own officers brought it to light and have aggressively investigated the allegations. 

Parks has responded to Chemerinsky’s past criticism of the Board of Inquiry report in letters to newspapers, saying it is far from the department’s final word on the Rampart scandal and that the professor has complained about a lack of civilian oversight on the report before the Police Commission has had a change to review it. 

The report’s finding of widespread corruption is “very, very painful, and completely opposite to my entire life as a police officer,” said Police Protective League President Ted Hunt. “But if someone like that says it, we have to examine it.” 

Union officials said they don’t agree with some of Chemerinsky’s 80-plus recommendations, including his call for the city to enter a federal consent decree that would give a judge power to force reforms. 

Several recommendations are similar to those found in the Christopher Commission report, which was written in response to the 1991 Rodney King beating. 

Some of those suggestions are being better received this time by officers, said Don Lint, a union director who represents patrol officers. They opposed citizen review when it was recommended by the Christopher Commission, but welcome it now, Lint said.


Biggest state scholarship program created

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

SACRAMENTO — California is promising to spend at least $1.2 billion a year to create the nation’s biggest state scholarship program, covering college tuition for all low- and middle-income students with at least a C average. 

Under legislation signed Monday by Gov. Gray Davis, all California students whose grades are high enough and incomes are low enough can get a Cal-Grant scholarship, starting with the 2001-02 academic year. 

“This is the most ambitious financial aid program in America and we’ll say to all students, we’re putting our money where our mouth is,” Davis said at a bill-signing ceremony in front of the Student Union at California State University, Los Angeles. “You do your job well to get the grades, college will be a reality.” 

State Senate Leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, called the bill the greatest expansion of financial aid to California students since the passage of the G.I. Bill after World War II. 

The expansion is made possible largely by a boom-time state surplus and a push by lawmakers and Californians to improve public education, particularly for low-income students. 

Most other states are increasingly targeting their scholarship programs at students’ grades and not financial need, said Ed Elmendorf of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. 

“I don’t know of any other state that would guarantee support such as this and at the same time use it to target low-income families,” he said. “I have to give them a lot of credit for having the guts to do that.” 

California actually promised college access to all students with good grades four decades ago, in its 1960 Higher Education Master Plan. But the state has never before spent enough to cover everyone eligible for a Cal-Grant, instead ranking applicants according to need and grades. 

For example, five years ago only 23 percent of eligible Cal-Grant applicants received awards.  

For the 2000-01 academic year, the state gave awards to 57 percent of those eligible and is spending $503 million on 130,000 students. 

CSU-Los Angeles student Nani Escudero, 19, has received $1,000 from the Cal-Grant program and said she didn’t think she could go to college without financial aid. 

“Right now I’m a part-time worker, full-time student. But if I didn’t get any help financially, like Cal Grant, it would be very hard to focus on school and be a full-time worker,” Escudero said. “It makes it easier to concentrate on school.” 

When the Cal-Grant program is fully expanded in 2006, it will cost the state an estimated $1.2 billion a year and provide scholarships for about 250,000 students, according to the state Student Aid Commission, which runs the program. 

“It’s a great stride in opening the doors to public education,” said Alex Ding, executive vice president of Associated Students of University of California, Berkeley.  

“It’s this type of thing that a lot of the state has been needing to increase diversity” of students. 

The expansion affects the two major types of Cal-Grant awards. 

Cal Grant A awards, aimed at low- and middle-income students, require at least a 3.0 or B high school average and a maximum income of $64,100 for a family of four. It provides annual tuition of $1,428 for CSU, $3,429 for UC and up to $9,708 for private colleges. 

Students who are eligible for a Cal Grant A but who attend community colleges can have their grant placed in reserve until they attend a four-year college. 

The Cal Grant B award is for low-income students who have at least a 2.0 or C average and have maximum incomes of about $33,700 for a family of four.  

In the first year of a Cal Grant B, the student receives $1,551 for books and living expenses to attend a community college.  

In later years when he or she transfers to a four-year college, full tuition plus $1,551 is provided. 

The bill also contains 22,500 scholarships for “second-chance” students returning to college as adults. 

Davis also signed a bill Monday providing $118 million to provide new merit scholarships of $1,000 and $2,500 to students with high scores on the statewide test and advanced math and science exams, regardless of the income. 

On the Net: 

Read the bills, SB1644 by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, and SB1688 by Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, at http://www.sen.ca.gov 

Read about Cal Grants at the Student Aid Commission: 

http://www.csac.ca.gov


Man seems to have bled to death after wounding leg

Staff
Tuesday September 12, 2000

Berkeley homicide detectives responded to a call Friday from the daughter of an 84-year-old man found dead in his home after he apparently bled to death from a puncture wound to the leg. 

Lt. Russell Lopes of the Berkeley Police said the man had somehow impaled his left calf with a wooden gardening stake while tending his tomatoes Thursday. 

“We have no idea how it happened,” he said. 

The Alameda County coroner determined that the death was accidental, and guessed the man somehow punctured his leg by falling or kneeling into it.  

Lopes said that the man quickly pulled out the wooden stake because it was found close to the beginning of the blood path. 

Lopes said the man was probably in shock because the blood path indicated that he walked around the yard before finally making it to the bathroom of his home.  

There, he took of his shoes and socks and appeared to be attempting to tend to the wound before he succumbed to blood loss. 

Lopes said the man’s daughter found him around 4:30 p.m. Friday after she became concerned about her father’s whereabouts. 


Business booms for Vivarium

By William Inman Daily Planet Staff
Monday September 11, 2000

It takes a unique kind of passion to surround yourself every work day with serpents, tarantulas, lizards, hissing cockroaches as big as your thumb – and rats. Not to mention breeding some of the critters at your own home. 

“It’s been a lifelong passion,” said John Emberton, who with Cliff Moeser, Owen Maercks and a band of fearless employees, runs the East Bay Vivarium at 1827 Fifth St., the country’s oldest and largest reptile retail store. 

“Snakes are great pets,” Emberton said.  

“They’re quiet, hypoallergenic, they don’t need much space or any emotional support and they only eat once a week. It’s a great animal for the casual apartment dweller.” 

Business is booming, Emberton said. The 30-year-old enterprise that began in Oakland has as many as 3,000 animals – not counting the rats, mice, hamsters, rabbits and chickens they breed for the reptiles’ lunch – in the store at any given time. 

Emberton also said he and a few others breed several species at their homes because space at the cold-blooded copa cabana is limited. 

There are no venomous snakes or crocodiles at the store. It’s “against the law,” he said. “We have animals ranging from three bucks to $10,000,” he said. “It has nothing to do with size or beauty, it’s the difficulty of acquisition.” 

The rarest animal at the store is an albino Brazilian rainbow boa. Only four or five people in the world own them, Emberton said. However, in terms of rarity, he said that they have had some snakes, such as the Madagascar tree boa, that is losing its habitat at an exponential rate and could be wiped in a matter of years. 

The Vivarium doesn’t participate in a raise-and-release program, he said. For one, because “like the California Condor, they don’t exactly work,” and because many of the animals they get come from distant spots on the globe. 

What they do, however, is act as a reptile shelter. They take in wayward reptiles that owners are unable to take care of. 

It’s obvious he loves the little monsters and is enthusiastic about caring for them. 

Busy packing for a reptile show in San Mateo, Emberton took a few minutes to give the Daily Planet a tour. 

He said the Vivarium often takes its show on the road. They travel all over the country and show and sell reptiles. 

“This is the busiest time of the year,” said the former plumber, explaining that he turned a hobby into a job. “There are 30 to 70 animals hatching per day.” 

When you walk into the Vivarium, you see a quasi-tropical showroom, with wooden reptile terrariums stacked on each other forming makeshift walls. Some of the reptile homes are filled with knotty logs for the creatures to climb on, and tropical plants. 

“This is only a small part of what we do,” he said. 

The tour began in the “rat room,” where the food for the product is bred. 

Hundreds of rats, mice, and hamsters, and a few rabbits and chickens for the big boys, spend a their days in wait for eminent doom. 

“We keep a lot of them,” he said as he reached into a 6-inch-deep tub and pulled out a mother rat with several young. “She’ll probably stay with us forever, she’s a breeder.” 

Next on the tour was one of the reptile breeding rooms. 

“We don’t sell many big snakes, but we sell a lot of babies,” he said. 

Many of the snakes, like their warm-blooded prey in the adjacent room, stay around as breeders and never make it to the showroom floor, he said. 

Then it’s off to the incubators, where Emberton pulled out a new-born King snake and in the same motion dumped a rat into the cage of a salivating Indigo snake. Business as usual. 

“They’re the largest non-venomous snake in North America,” he said as the Indigo snake began exercising its jaw to swallow the rat. 

The tour winds up to  

the office, where Emberton, Moeser and Maercks do paperwork beside cages of  

tarantulas and aforementioned giant cockroaches. 

Emberton remembered the time when a King snake escaped and ended up in the third story of a print shop on Fourth Street. 

“He’d been gone for about a year,” he chuckled.  

Escapes are commonplace.  

“When a lizards gets loose, everything shuts down and we start looking for him, but with snakes, it’s different,” he said. He said that snakes are by nature low-metabolism creatures and are fine under a rock or in a hole. “Sometimes they’ll stay hidden for months. But most of the time we find them within days.” 

Finally, it’s back to the showroom where Emberton lets loose “Spot,” a Cocker-Spaniel sized Asian water monitor. Emberton said that Spot is “one of the few animals in the store that has a name. And he’s not for sale.” 

Maercks, the co-owner, and Spot are a birthday party attraction. Spot also goes along with Maercks to educational lectures for kids at the San Francisco Exploratorium. 

“He’s as tame as a puppy,” Emberton said, with a motherly gesture, wiping dust from his star-attraction’s face.


Calendar of Events & Activities

Monday September 11, 2000


Monday, Sept. 11

 

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA  

Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

 

Voter workshop 

1 p.m. 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Tuesday, Sept. 12

 

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 13

 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Last town hall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

 

Commission on Disability 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The commission will discuss Project Impact disaster funding, I-80 overpass amenities, removal of obstacles from the sidewalk and more.  

 

Second annual  

Bertram Gross Award 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The campaign to abolish poverty/full employment Coalition presents the second Annual Bertram Gross Award. Gross, 1912-1998, was the chief author of the Roosevelt Full Employment Act, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act and the current full employment legislation HR1050. 

Award recipients are Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Amaha Kassa, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy and Pat Ford, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. 

Music by Barbara Dane. $10-$15; nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

 


Thursday, Sept. 14

 

Eugene O’Neil House,  

Mt. Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

 

Environmental Sampling Project Task Force 

6:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

Agenda items include public comment time and sampling reviews 

486-4387 

 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. $35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

What next for Haiti? 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue, 

What is the true story behind the recent elections in Haiti? What’s the real impact of the global economy on Haiti? 

483-7481  

please call to reserve childcare 

$5-10 

 


Friday, Sept. 15

 

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

“Lift the Sanctions from Iraq” 

Interfaith Brunch & Community Gathering 

Talk by Denis Halliday, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General 

10:30 a.m. -noon 

Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento 

527-8370 

 


Saturday, Sept. 16

 

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Sea Breeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

848-9358 

 

Shoreline cleanup 

9 a.m. 

Behind Sea Breeze market at West Frontage Rd and University Ave. or at Aquatic Park playground 

Bring gloves, sunscreen and hat and help clean up the shoreline. 

644-8623; TDD 644-6915 

 


Sunday, Sept. 17

 

Berkeley Citizen’s Action  

Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

To include local and state endorsements. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 

 


Thursday, Sept. 21

 

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

415-749-4965 

 


Friday, Sept. 22

 

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

 


Saturday, Sept. 23

 

From Capitalism to Equality 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. at Alcatraz 

Why have the conditions of work become more difficult and the 

rewards more unequal since 1973? Join author Charles Andrews to 

discuss these issues and solutions for them. 

$5 admission includes $10 discount coupon the book, “From Capitalism to Equality” 

535-2476 

 


Sunday, Sept. 24

 

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 

848-0237 

 

5th anniversary party and film festival 

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Fifth Birthday 

6-8 p.m. party 

film: 8:30-10:30 p.m. 

Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Movie Theater 

1901 Gilman St. 

The event is to honor five years of BFB bike advocacy. Films will include: “Pedalphiles and Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels” 

Bring something to sit on. 

Free to members; $10-$20 sliding scale to non members.  

549-7433 

 

“How Berkeley Can You Be?” 

11 a.m. on University Avenue and California Street, culminating at Civic Center outside Berkeley High School 

Festival in the park starts at 12:30 p.m. 

849-4688, www.howberkeleycanyoube.com 

 


Monday, Sept. 25

 

Open forum on affordable housing 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Sean Heron of the East Bay Housing Organizations will talk about building a campaign for affordable housing. Sponsored by the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project. 

1-800-773-2110 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 27

 

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Business” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework promoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

 


Saturday, Sept. 30

 

Jim Hightower: “Election 2000: a Space Odyssey” 

8 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Sponsored by KPFA and Global Exchange 

“I am an agitator,” Hightower says. “The agitator is the centerpost in a washing machine that gets the dirt out.” 

$10 in advance/$12 at the door 

848-6767 x609 

 

 


Monday, October 2

 

“2nd annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

“Clean Lies Dirty War” 

7:30 p.m. Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar 

Event is part of a national campaign to end sanctions on Iraq.  

(510) 528-5403 

 


Thursday, October 5

 

3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

 

ONGOING EVENTS 

 

Sundays 

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 

 

 

 

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

 

 

 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

 

 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

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. 

234-0727;642-5168 

 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Letters to the Editor

Monday September 11, 2000

Carnivore bites back 

 

Editor:  

Apropos your September 8 front page feature: I, too, am a Berkeley landlord who along with my colleagues indulged in a steak dinner at H’s Lordships last Thursday. Devouring steak is quite an American custom, absent which the Western States' economy might be in trouble. 

Fortunately for both Berkeley and the beef industry, we landlords decided to go out for our meal. Just think! We might have stayed home and eaten little children. 

Peggy Schioler,  

carnivorous landlady 

Berkeley 

 


Bears build big lead, hold on to beat Utah

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Monday September 11, 2000

Last year, Cal’s defense was the most dominating in the Pac-10, but the offense, guided for much of the year by true freshman Kyle Boller, never got on track and held the team back from winning. This year appears to be different. 

“Last year we kind of got off track offensively, and never got to where we wanted to be,” said head coach Tom Holmoe. 

This year’s version of the Bear offense showed a new look in Cal’s 24-21 victory over the Utah Utes on Saturday. Using a hurry-up offense for much of the first half, Boller showed that his sophomore year will be vastly different from his rough inaugural season. 

“There’s no way I could have run the no-huddle last year,” Boller said. “I felt a lot more comfortable out there today.” 

With an arsenal of new receivers, Boller spread the ball around, completing passes to nine different players, including a team-high four to true freshman Geoff McArthur. Boller also made his best throw of the day at the most crucial moment, a bullet through a crowd of defenders to wideout James Smith for a 12-yard touchdown to give Cal a 14-7 lead in the third quarter. 

Boller completed 18 of his 28 passes, his most accurate performance yet at the college level. After starting for just one year in high school, Boller seems finally to be reading the field and checking off to his second and third options. He also showed improved touch on his passes, completing several fade passes dropped right in over the Utah cornerbacks’ heads. 

“Kyle understands the system better now, and we knew the safeties would bite on play action,” said Cal offensive coordinator Steve Hagen. “It’s more of a game to Kyle now, rather than a task.” 

The defense allowed just one touchdown, holding Utah to just 158 passing yards and pressuring quarterbacks Darnell Arceneaux and T.D. Croshaw nearly every time they dropped back to pass. 

Croshaw opened the game for the Utes, but was ineffective during the first two drives. Utah coach Ron McBride quickly inserted the more mobile Arceneaux, who broke several big runs by scrambling away from the pass rush. 

Cal opened the scoring when Saleem Muhammad plunged over the goal line from the one-yard line to give the Bears a 7-0 lead. 

Disaster hit during the next Cal drive, as Utah’s Lauvale Sape broke through on Boller, hitting his arm as he threw. The ball sailed into Dyson’s hands, and he had a clear path down the sideline to the end zone and a 7-7 tie. 

When Utah drove 79 yards to inside the Cal five-yard line with less than a minute left in the first half, it looked like the Bears might be in for a halftime deficit. But the defense stiffened, as Arceneaux threw an incomplete pass, then made the mistake of lofting a pass into double coverage. Cornerback Jameel Powell skied for the ball, ending the threat and sending the teams into the locker rooms tied. 

The Bears came out fired up for the second half, and Utah’s drive was ended abruptly by Asomugha, who put a big hit on running back D’Shaun Crockett, causing a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Scott Fujita in Utah territory. 

Boller quickly moved the Bears down the field, throwing a fade to McArthur for 21 yards before hitting Smith for the touchdown. 

“Boller reads the game a lot better now,” Smith said. “It really boosts our confidence out there.” 

Carter then turned up the heat on the Ute offense, pressuring Arceneaux into two bad throws and stuffing Crockett on a run for no gain. Senior linebacker Jason Smith also made his presence felt, coming off the bench to make two big stops on Crockett in the backfield. 

Cal barely dodged a bullet when Steve Smith’s apparent punt-return touchdown was wiped out by an illegal block call.  

The Cal defense forced another turnover when defensive end Shaun Paga jarred the ball loose from tight end Phillippe Wells on an inside screen pass. Andre Carter corralled the ball on the Cal 48. 

Boller showed his maturity on the ensuing drive, audibling to a pass to freshman Chase Lyman, who had single coverage, and finding tight end Brian Surgener for a 22-yard gain on a crossing route. Igber finally found some room on a cutback run, scoring from 15 yards out to give Cal a 14-point lead. 

Utah’s Smith fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and defensive end Tully Banta-Cain returned it to the Utah 13. The Bears couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone, however, and settled for a 27-yard field goal by Jensen. 

The Cal defense appeared a little complacent with the 17-point lead, and the Utes’ offense drove down the field for a touchdown. The dangerous Smith then returned a Tyler Fredrickson punt 46 yards for a touchdown to pull Utah within three points, and the Bears looked to be teetering on the brink of total disaster. 

Cal put the passing game away and pounded the ball into the line three times, and Fredrickson buried the Utes deep in their own territory with just 1:16 left on the clock. Arceneaux got the Utes to the Cal 38 with seven seconds left with two passes and two scrambles, giving kicker Golden Whetman a chance to send the game into overtime. But the kick was well short, giving the Bears their fifth straight opening-day win.


Marines won’t practice in town

By Josh Parr Daily Planet Staff
Monday September 11, 2000

“Marines in Berkeley” sounds as unlikely as “tofu in Wichita.” But both exist. Or nearly – as in the case of the Marines.  

Mayor Shirley Dean said she was “quite surprised” to find that the Marines were considering a three-day military simulation in a West Berkeley warehouse belonging to Bayer Corporation.  

Designed to “seize a ‘terrorist’ who is believed to be occupying a hide site in an urban building,” the proposed war games would involve, “live fire with safety frangible ammunition or (paint balls), sound/light diversionary devices and a water explosive charge to breach an exterior door,” according to an Aug. 14 letter to the mayor from David Weber, the FBI’s liaison to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. 

Part of an overall effort to retrain the U.S. Marine corps to deal with urban environments and terrorism in particular, the letter also offered to allow the Berkeley police to use the site. 

“At the conclusion of the Marine training, we invite the host city SWAT team to conduct their own tactical training exercises,” according to the letter. “I must remind you, Mayor, that this training is in no way part of any point police/military training. Your SWAT team, however, would have the benefit of receiving unique and realistic training.” 

Dean said she wasn’t aware of the offer until she received the letter. 

“They had received permission from Bayer to run an operation on one of their warehouses and wanted to know if we would approve it,” she said.  

Bayer spokespeople could not be reached for comment, but did relay through an employee in the Human Resources Department that they would not issue a public statement on the matter. 

“Bayer’s warehouse was on a list of possible reserve sites,” said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

After receiving the letter, Dean quickly penned a reply. 

“While I understand the need for such training and appreciate your offer to provide special training to our police officers, I must inform you that I cannot support your request,” she wrote back. 

Last year, the Marines ran Operation Urban Warrior in the streets and hills of Oakland. While Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown brought $4 million into city coffers for opening the door to the military war games, he also reaped criticism from protesters who said they believed the show of force was aimed at them. 

Worthington, however, had his own gripe. 

“While I have no objection to the content of the mayor’s letter,” he said, “She’s overstepping the boundaries of her job. By sidestepping the City Charter, which more or less makes the mayor a ceremonial figure, she’s trying to take the role of the City Council. This city has a city manager/council form of government. It’s not the first time she’s acted this way.” 

Dean, on the other hand believes it was a decision completely within her jurisdiction. “The letter was clearly addressed to me, not the City Council,” she said. 


Washington upsets No. 4 Miami; Stanford loses to SJSU again

Monday September 11, 2000

No. 15 Washington 34, No. 4 Miami 29 

SEATTLE (AP) — Marques Tuiasosopo passed for a touchdown and ran for another, and freshman Rich Alexis scored on a 50-yard run. 

Washington (2-0) led 20-3 at halftime and took a 34-22 lead on early in the fourth quarter on Pat Conniff’s 1-yard run. But Miami (1-1) scored on James Jackson’s 1-yard run with 2:52 left. 

Tuiasosopo completed 18 of 31 passes for 223 yards with a touchdown. He rushed for 45 yards and scored a TD on 15 carries. 

 

No. 5 Wisconsin 27, Oregon 23 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Big Ten sprint champion Michael Bennett rushed for 290 yards and two long touchdowns. 

The suspension-ridden Badgers got three interceptions from Jamar Fletcher, whom coach Barry Alvarez considered sitting out. As it was, Wisconsin (2-0) went without a dozen players who were suspended for receiving unadvertised discounts at a shoe store. 

Bennett scored on runs of 59 and 75 yards in the third quarter and set up another TD with a career-long 83-yard burst. 

 

No. 11 Southern Cal 17, Colorado 14 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — David Newbury, who missed two earlier field- goal tries, kicked a 24-yarder with 13 seconds left to lift Southern California (2-0). 

Mark Mariscal left the game tied when he was wide left on a 41-yard field goal attempt with 1:14 remaining for Colorado (0-2). 

 

No. 16 UCLA 24, Fresno St. 21 

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — DeShaun Foster ran for two fourth-quarter touchdowns and UCLA (2-0) withstood two late touchdown passes from David Carr to Charles Smith. 

Foster scored on a 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal with 11:16 remaining, and a 49-yard burst less than 2 1/2 minutes later to give the Bruins what appeared to be an insurmountable 24-7 lead. 

However, Carr threw scoring passes of 16 and 32 yards to Smith to make it a three-point game with five minutes to play. 

 

Oregon St. 28, New Mexico 20 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Pile-driving running back Ken Simonton rushed for 184 yards and two touchdowns, and Oregon State’s defense kept a struggling New Mexico offense gasping for yards as the Beavers won a 28-20 nonconference football victory Saturday night. 

Simonton, a 5-foot-10, 194-pound junior, allowed the Beavers to control the ball for long stretches of the second half, particularly as Oregon State’s bigger offenseive line began to wear down the Lobo defense. 

 

San Jose St. 40, Stanford 27 

STANFORD (AP) – Deonce Whitaker rushed for a career-high 254 yards on 21 carries, scored two touchdowns and set up two others as San Jose State stunned Stanford for the third consecutive year, winning 40-27 on Saturday night. 

Marcus Arroyo added two touchdown passes and threw for 199 yards as the Spartans (1-1) rebounded from a 49-13 loss to No. 1 Nebraska. San Jose State last beat Stanford three straight times from 1981-83. 

 

No. 18 Ohio St. 27, Arizona 17 

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – There won’t be any talk about a defense-offense imbalance this week at Ohio State practices. 

Steve Bellisari saw to that as he passed for two touchdowns, including a 60-yarder to Chad Cacchio, to lead the Buckeyes. 

Nate Clements set up another score with a 47-yard punt return late in the third quarter, and Dan Stultz kicked two field goals as the Buckeyes (2-0) won in their first visit to Arizona Stadium.


Growing local papers doing Bay Area battle

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SAN MATEO — When a suspected natural gas leak forced 1,000 office workers out onto the streets here last month, it became big news in two local upstart papers. 

Meanwhile, the region’s well-established newspapers devoted a short blurb to the harmless incident or didn’t report it at all, choosing to devote their space to more regional, national and international stories. 

Providing readers with a complete package of high-impact news, business, sports and entertainment coverage that appeals to a wide group of readers and advertisers has long been the newspaper industry’s lifeblood, but a new niche is emerging. 

A growing number of entrepreneurs – like those who launched two newspapers in San Mateo last month – believe there’s a market for a more parochial approach.  

What’s more, they believe they can make money by giving away their community papers for free. 

The concept is facing one of its toughest tests in San Mateo, a vintage San Francisco suburb best known for a heavily trafficked bridge that bears its name. 

The placid city with a population of about 94,000 now is home to an old-fashioned newspaper war in an era when the medium is supposed to be dying. 

Six daily newspapers are now duking it out for readers and advertisers in a city located about 10 miles south of San Francisco. 

The new San Mateo papers, the Daily News and the Daily Journal, are trying to fill a growing niche market for free publications that offer low advertising rates and cover local minutiae that readers can’t find in other media. 

The cheap ad rates appeal to small businesses that can’t afford big-paper prices, and the community news fills a gap for people interested in learning more about what’s happening in their own back yards. 

“This is a trend that we have been seeing for some time now. It tells me that there is still a market for intensely local newspaper coverage,” said James Bettinger, director of the Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists in Palo Alto. 

The two latest entrants in San Mateo are joining with the city’s 111-year-old hometown paper, the San Mateo County Times, which charges for its copies. 

Together, these papers are butting heads with the San Francisco Bay area’s largest dailies, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, which are owned by media giants Hearst Corp. and Knight Ridder Inc. 

The San Francisco Examiner also circulates in San Mateo, but that may change later this year after San Francisco entrepreneur Ted Fang takes over the paper from Hearst, which sold it to buy the Chronicle earlier this year. 

Fang, who already delivers a twice-weekly free paper to San Mateo, has said he will limit the Examiner’s news coverage and circulation almost exclusively to San Francisco. 

San Mateo’s crowded newspaper market will make it tough for both of the city’s two new dailies to survive, predicted industry analyst John Morton. 

“It would be a difficult market for just one free paper to break into,” he said. “Having two free papers there will make it doubly difficult.” 

Free daily papers remain an anomaly – there are only a dozen or so across the nation. The largest free daily is the Metro, which distributes its paper to more than 150,000 Philadelphia commuters.  

The Swedish-owned Metro hopes to establish similar free, commuter-focused papers in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. 

The New York Daily News, the nation’s sixth largest daily paper, is even getting into the act. In late August, the paper announced plans to distribute a free afternoon commuter paper called “Express.” 

The recent spurt in free dailies follows the success of free weekly papers, which range from advertising-only vehicles aimed at shoppers to gritty alternative publications. 

Circulation at free weekly papers nationwide totals about 122 million, up by about 17 percent from four years ago, according to Editor & Publisher, a trade publication. 

Meanwhile, the paid circulation at daily papers has been eroding for decades. Paid daily newspaper circulation nationwide totaled 56 million in 1999, down 3 million, or 5 percent, from 1995, according to the Newspaper Association of America. 

San Mateo’s new daily papers represent expansions for their owners. 

The Daily Journal is run by entrepreneurs who started a free daily paper in Berkeley last year, The Berkeley Daily Planet started in April of last year with eight pages and a circulation of about 3,000 and now produces a six-day-a-week paper of 24 to 40 pages, with a circulation of over 11,000 copies each day,  

The Daily News is controlled by the same backers of a free daily paper in Palo Alto that started with eight pages in 1995 and now produces more than 70 pages in some editions today. 

Arnold Lee, CEO and president of Bigfoot Media, which owns the Daily Journal and the Daily Planet, said both tiny San Mateo papers will be filling a huge news void in the city by covering government meetings, neighborhood issues and local trouble spots like the recent natural gas leak. 

“The more time we spent in San Mateo, the more we realized that there was a lot going on here that wasn’t getting reported,” Lee said. 

San Mateo County is attractive to newspaper publishers because it is California’s third most affluent county behind Marin and San Francisco and is home to a high concentration of families and older people – households that tend to be loyal newspaper readers. 

San Mateo’s demographics are shifting, though, as the San Francisco Bay area’s technology boom ushers in younger, more eclectic residents who cashed in on the e-commerce craze. 

While these changes make it more difficult to define the community’s increasingly diverse interests, Daily News Co-publisher Dave Price believes most San Mateo residents share at least one common bond.  

“All the people here are starving for a newspaper that they can call their own.”


Vaccine shortfalls limit city clinics

Bay City News
Monday September 11, 2000

Seniors and other Berkeley residents dependent on the city’s community health clinics for pre-emptive flu vaccines may be left unprotected this autumn due to a production shortfall. 

A spokesperson in the city’s Public Health Department announced this week that the city may not receive its annual shipment of influenza vaccines for months, causing its immunization program to lack the medicines at its clinics at community and senior centers. The vaccines are not expected until early November.  

Hospitals and private physicians’ offices may also be affected by the production shortfall, according to city officials. 

The federal Food and Drug Administration and National Center for Disease Control jointly announced earlier this week that shipments of the vaccines would be delayed due to manufacturing problems. 

Residents with questions or concerns about the availability of the flu vaccine may call Immunization Coordinator Dr. Vicki Alexander at 665-6802 or public health nurse Vera Labat at 665-6829. 


Reaction sends chemical cloud into air above homes

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — Residents east of an industrial plant in the Pittsburg area were asked to stay in their homes with the windows and doors closed for more than two hours Saturday morning, because of a yellow cloud sent into the air after a chemical reaction. No one was injured. 

According to the Contra Costa County hazardous materials director Lewis Pascalli, the cloud was not the result of an explosion but an “exothermic reaction” that made the contents of a 55-gallon drum expand rapidly. 

The chemicals were stored at the Dexter Hysol Plant, which Pascalli said makes an adhesive used to secure the external tiles on the space shuttle. 

The chemical involved in the incident was an epoxy resin that was in a partially filled drum of chemicals to be thrown away. 


Marin paper may be bought by bigger group

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — The Marin Independent Journal, a 40,000-circulation newspaper based north of San Francisco, could be bought by ANG Newspapers owner William Dean Singleton, according to a published report Saturday. 

The Independent Journal, founded in 1861, has been owned by Gannett Co., the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, since 1980. 

Reporters at the Independent Journal said Executive Editor Jackie Kerwin said she did not know if there is a deal to buy the paper, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. 

Reporters said she told them she thinks Gannett will decide the Independent Journal’s future by Sept. 29, when the current publisher leaves for another job. 

Buying the paper would allow Singleton to combine the Independent Journal’s operations with those of his other papers. ANG publishes papers around the Bay – in Oakland, Fremont, Hayward, Alameda, San Mateo, Vallejo, Pleasanton, Milpitas and Pacifica.  

They have a combined circulation of about 250,000. 

According to the website for Singleton’s Denver, Colo.-based MediaNews Group, controlling papers in contiguous markets will help the company be more efficient. 

The publisher, Phyllis K. Pfieffer, is not the only top-ranking Independent Journal employee to leave recently.  

The director of advertising and the head of online operations have resigned, and the managing editor left several months ago. 

Gannett prints its Northern California version of its flagship paper, USA Today, on the Independent Journal’s presses, which has relegated the Independent Journal to afternoons, because the USA Today printing is done for mornings. 

The Chronicle quotes newspaper observers as saying that any sale of the Independent Journal would likely have a clause covering USA Today printing.


Panel OKs new runways to go into Bay

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — A regional panel gave San Francisco Bay area airports approval to extend runways into the bay, paving the way for the biggest encroachment on the bay in 40 years. 

Environmentalists oppose the idea, saying the airport needs to examine other options to deal with long delays and canceled flights that plague the airport. 

Supporters say the new runways would ease delays, cut down on noise complaints from neighbors and accommodate larger aircraft. They also say the runways are necessary for the economy of the area. Visitors bring an estimated $10.7 billion to the area. 

The Regional Airport Planning Committee passed the plan Friday with a 10 to 1 vote, with four committee members absent. The plan would affect San Francisco International and Oakland International airports. 

“Those people who have experienced delays at SFO for a long time can say there is something that is being done in the long-term to respond to that issue,” said William Ward, committee chairman. “I think this document says we’re finally going to support the new infrastructure improvements that will allow us to catch up with the population growth and the growth in the economy.” 

The committee’s approval is advisory. It will be used in planning growth in bay area air traffic over the next 20 years. 

Cary Greene, who represents San Jose International Airport, cast the sole “no” vote, saying the plan was too vague and that there was too much confusion over what the plan actually does. 

“This plan does not in any way approve, support or endorse any specific runway project at any specific location, and if that’s the case, the plan needs to be very explicit ... if that’s not the case, I’ll have to vote ’No,”’ he said. 

San Francisco airport officials want to replace two of the four existing runways to increase the space between the parallel landing strips. The new runways would jut up to a mile farther into the bay. 

During bad weather at the San Francisco airport, the airport’s capacity is cut in half because federal regulations require greater distances between planes. 

Oakland airport officials also are considering adding a runway in the bay to handle increased capacity. 

Environmentalists say other options, such as using better radar or sending planes to other airports, would be viable solutions to the airports’ problems. 

“This is not a plan, rather, a pretty weak description of each major airport’s proposed projects. It suggests gridlock is inevitable, planning is impossible, and detailed, comparative analysis is beyond this committee’s scope of mandate,” said David Lewis, executive director of Save the Bay. “It’s a mistake to endorse more runways into the bay – an already severely degraded resource – without that kind of regional airport system plan.” 


Environmental group offers $11 million to preserve land

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

 

SANTA CRUZ — A Los Altos-based environmental group has offered $11 million to buy 1,340 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains. 

The land that the Sempervirens Fund has offered to buy includes old-growth redwood forests at the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River. 

At a hearing regarding the land last week, water district directors received two letters from timber companies saying they were interested in logging the property, known as the Waterman Gap. 

The two timber companies set different prices on the land. One estimated it was worth $7.4 million and another valued it at about $13 million. 

The letters were not offers to buy the land, said water district manager Jim Mueller. District directors have said it is in the community’s best interest to keep the land in its natural state and not to sell it to timber companies. 

The district and Sempervirens have been discussing the offer on the land since February. A hearing is scheduled for later this month, and that could be the final negotiations for the land. 

Mueller said the $11 million price originally was based on the “highest and best use” of the land which included selective logging. 

The Sempervirens Fund does not plan to log, but instead plans to give the land to the state parks department.


Fake tickets sold for arts festival

Bay City News
Monday September 11, 2000

SAUSALITO — The Sausalito Police Department is looking for eyewitnesses who can describe the people who sold counterfeit tickets to the Sausalito Arts Festival over Labor Day Weekend. 

The tickets look and feel just like authentic BASS ones.  

“Basically, don't buy tickets on the street, no matter what the story is,” Sausalito Arts Festival promotion chairman Benjamin Train said today. “These guys are pros. This is not some guy with a laser printer.” 

Train says he has notified other upcoming events, such as the San Francisco Blues Festival, that take BASS tickets to let them know tests to know if the tickets are authentic.  

These events will not admit customers with counterfeit tickets, Train said. Anyone with information is asked to call the Sausalito Police Department at (415) 289-4170.


Possessions make Silicon Valley divorces messy

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SAN JOSE — With stock options, time shares and the high cost of living in Silicon Valley, divorces are no longer only about who gets the kids and the house. Now couples, attorneys and judges must figure out how to split stock options and how a single parent can afford to live in the area to be able to see the children. 

Family court workers say what is making marriages harder to dissolve include nebulous assets, such as stock options. Those present the difficult question of how one divides a future employment benefit. 

Typically, options are looked at as property, but sometimes they can be considered income. 

That has been one of the central questions in the divorce of Silicon Valley couple Iris Fraser and David Cheriton, who filed for divorce in 1994. The divorce was finalized four years later and they are still battling over whether Cheriton must exercise his stock options in Cisco Systems and share even more money with his children and ex-wife. 

Cheriton became a millionaire in 1996 when the company he co-founded was bought by Cisco. He agreed to create a trust for each child using a certain number of Cisco stock options, worth millions of dollars. 

He also exercised 3 percent of his stock options for Fraser. And he pays child support each month. 

Cheriton says he doesn’t want to exercise more options because he doesn’t trust his ex-wife and thinks she would try to get more money. 

Fraser says Cheriton has the money and that “after everything the children and I have been through, we shouldn’t be treated like a bag of garbage.” 

The court has sided with Cheriton so far, ruling that his options should not be considered income unless he exercises them and sells the stock. 

Another reason the marriages are hard to dissolve is because of the high cost of living. 

“People can’t afford to be divorced,” said Phil Hammer, a family law attorney who says he often discusses the financial aspect of divorce with his clients. 

“I tell them to think twice about what they’re doing,” he said. “They just may not have thought about what is going to happen when they try to set up a second household, and they realize a one-bedroom apartment in Palo Alto is going for, what, $2,100 a month? And if they’ve got kids, one bedroom will not be enough.” 

Deborah Taylor, a mother of two, found out how expensive being a single parent in the valley is, following her 1998 divorce from Richard Taylor. 

She bought a San Jose townhouse for herself and her two children, but the payments were too much, so she moved to Arnold, a mountain town near Bear Valley. That created problems, however, because Richard Taylor wanted to keep his weekday visits with the children, and a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Arnold made that difficult. 

A court officer recently recommended that the children stay in Silicon Valley. While Richard Taylor calls that “legitimate,” he said he does not want the children to be away from their mother either. 

“It’s just not a great situation to be in,” he said. 

While getting a divorce is more difficult, fewer couples are splitting up. In 1990, there were 8,997 divorces, according to Santa Clara County Superior Court’s Family Resources Division. In 1995, there were 7,983, and in 1999, even with a larger population, there were 7,315. 


Attorneys use technology to make their arguments

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — Some trial lawyers are tossing out posterboards and overhead projectors in favor of computer presentations and other technology to help illustrate their arguments for jurors. 

Others aren’t so quick to embrace the technology that some claim is the future of courtroom action. 

But as attention spans drop and computer use increases, attorneys are looking for some way to keep jurors interested and to win cases. 

Studies show the average person can keep interested for only 11 to 15 minutes. 

“You ask what people watched on TV last night and they say ’everything,”’ said Nancy O’Malley, Alameda County chief assistant district attorney. “We have to have a way to keep those jurors engaged in our case or they will zone out, or they won’t remember, and they won’t pay attention, and at the end, they won’t retain the important information that you need them to retain to vote guilty.” 

Dodie Katague, a Contra Costa County deputy district attorney, is a firm believer in the power of technology in the courtroom. 

“I believe in my cases – complex cases that I do which involve white-collar fraud, using (technology) made many of those cases end successfully,” Katague said. “It certainly helped explain complex litigation easily to a jury.” 

“We have all these phobias about problems like hard drives crashing and stuff like that,” said Larry Blazer, an Alameda County prosecutor who has won cases using presentation software. “Most of the lawyers up here don’t use it. I think a lot of people are really minimalist when it comes to trying cases.” 

Convincing others in the court system that technology is beneficial is also sometimes hard. Judges have the final say about what they let in the courtroom, and some do not grant requests to bring in computers. 

“One of the reasons (Contra Costa District Attorney Gary Yancey) decided to come on board is because a defense attorney beat the pants off us,” Katague said. “I’ve been begging for years to get this LCD projector, saying ‘Let’s get PowerPoint and this other equipment,’ and they wouldn’t do it.” 

Then this defense attorney beat the pants off the prosecutor and the next thing you know, I got the approval to buy the equipment.” 


New issues arise with Indian gambling

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

SACRAMENTO — California’s new Indian gambling compact is so vague and shrouded by secrecy that the state doesn’t know how many slot machines are on reservations or how much money each tribe has given the state. 

California voters in March ratified an agreement between the tribes and Gov. Gray Davis to operate Las Vegas-style casinos on reservations. 

But the deal “doesn’t necessarily say how you’re supposed to cross the T’s and dot the I’s. We are sorting through that with the tribes,” said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. 

The compact limits the number of slot machines that tribes could own and requires the 40 or so tribes that have gambling establishments to contribute to a fund benefiting other tribes. 

The Davis administration has said the agreement capped the maximum number of slot machines at 45,206, but the legislative analyst’s office said by some interpretations the figure could be 113,000. 

Earlier this year, the tribes met to divide up the new machines but that information won’t be made public, said Daniel Tucker, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. 

Barankin said the attorney general does not have a complete count of the new machines. 

Meanwhile, on Aug. 8, the tribes gave the state $34.5 million, based on their own calculations of what they owe. However, the money was contributed without explanation in the form of a single check from the tribes’ accountant. 

The tribes didn’t know how much other tribes contributed. 

“We decided it was none of our business,” said Tucker, vice chairman of the Sycuan band of Indians near San Diego. “We didn’t get into those details.” 

The attorney general’s office has been trying to obtain an accounting since before the check arrived, Barankin said. 

Regulators are dealing with the tribes on a “sovereign government-to-sovereign government basis,” he said. 

Some of the money comes from a fee of $1,250 per slot machine that tribes must pay when they buy new ones, Barankin said. 

The money was placed into an account by state Treasurer Phil Angelides. 

The issue may not be resolved until a recently formed state gambling commission convenes. Davis named four of five members last week. No date for its first meeting has been set. 

“That’s pathetic,” said former Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, a critic of expanded gambling. “How can they enforce the terms of the compact without knowing how many machines each tribe has purchased?” 

The tribes also have contributed at least $65,000 this year to Lockyer’s political coffers. 


Pact may short-change patients

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

LOS ANGELES — A compromise to rebuild Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center with fewer hospital beds is raising concern that more uninsured residents will go without medical care. 

State and county lawmakers Sept. 1 ended a four-year feud over rebuilding the hospital in East Los Angeles, which was damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It will have 600 beds, down from the current 770. 

Even with its current capacity, however, the hospital turns away about 150 uninsured patients a day, said Dr. Demetrios Demetriades, director of trauma and critical care at the medical center. 

The reduced number of beds is expected to worsen that problem in a county that has nearly 3 million uninsured residents. 

“We are going to have a big disaster on our hands unless we find another solution,” Demetriades told the Los Angeles Times. 

About $820 million will be spent rebuilding the hospital. An 80-bed, $47 million annex is planned for Baldwin Park, about 16 miles away. 

Other health experts said the annex will not make up for a smaller County-USC hospital, especially with public and private clinics closing throughout Los Angeles. 

“They are rationing care by making it 600 beds,” said Rodolfo Diaz, executive director of the Community Health Foundation in East Los Angeles. 


Barbara Christian broke the mold; community bids a pioneer professor farewell

By Josh Parr Daily Planet Staff
Saturday September 09, 2000

 

Barbara Christian was the sum cum laude of soul, a spirit who engendered and colorized the ivory tower of the American academy. At Thursday evening’s memorial in Wheeler Auditorium her spirit was invoked in jazz, text, poetry and play. 

Forging new space for African-American Women’s literature in the syllabus and African-American women in the faculty, Christian was a “pathbreaking scholar” according to Margaret Wilkinson, her colleague in the African-American Studies Department.  

“She brought African American women writers into the ivory tower,” Wilkinson said. “She carved out a physical, mental, and spiritual space for African-American women in the university.” 

Christian died of cancer, on June 25 at her Berkeley home. 

Born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Christian left her home for the frigidity of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her life was a series of firsts. She graduated from high school at 15, from college at 20. She received her doctorate from Colombia University in 1970, was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley in 1971, and became the first black woman to gain tenure in 1978. She was the first African-American woman to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991, and the first to gain full professorship in 1986. 

The author of several books and over 100 essays, her landmark study, “Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition,” brought national attention to such writers as Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. 

Ishmael Reed, a pioneer of African American literature himself, spoke before the 400 gathered in Wheeler Auditorium, saying, “She challenged white supremacy. She challenged a bunch of -isms. She was armed and dangerous.” 

Known for her ability to transform literature into living narrative, Christian taught people who thought they knew how to read, to read.  

“I thought I had read Beloved before I went into her class,” said former student Kelley Navies. “But then I realized I hadn’t even scratched the surface.” 

Christian’s theories provided a foundation for black women to assert control over their own image in American literature. Most images of black women were authored by white writers, and were based in stereotype. Without a historical tradition through which they could view themselves, many black women writers never felt themselves to be represented genuinely.  

What they did recognize, however, were stories told them by their mothers, their grandmothers, their neighbors. Those voices, those stories were unrepresented in libraries, curriculums and popular culture.  

“Barbara defined a field,” said Robert Berdahl, university chancellor. “She was a leader, a pathbreaker.” 

To commemorate her memory, a chair in the African American studies department was established in her name. A scholarship bearing her name will also permanently designate space for future African American women to continue to study literature at UC Berkeley.


Calendar of Events & Activities

Saturday September 09, 2000


Saturday, Sept. 9

 

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival 

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Park 

Martin Luther King Jr. and Allston ways 

Poets will include Robert Hass, Jane Hirshfield, Kay Ryan, Michael McClure, Julia Butterfly Hill and others. For a complete list see www.peotryflash.org 

 

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

 


Sunday, Sept. 1

 

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

 

“Next Stop, Greenwich  

Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

$2 suggested donation.  

848-0237 

 

Solano Avenue Stroll 

10 a.m. 

The Local Legacies on Parade kicks off with Grand Marshal Wavy Gravy. The mile-long block party is filled with over 75 entertainers including RhythMix - a women's percussion group, Frog Legs - a Cajun band, and Mal Sharpe & Big Money in Dixieland. There's a giant slide, a bicycle ramp-jumping show, ethnic foods, game booths, a hang gliding simulator, pony rides, castle bounces, a silent auction, dunk tanks, art projects, palm readings and more.  

Admission is free. 

 


Monday, Sept. 11

 

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA  

Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

 

Voter workshop 

1 p.m. 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Tuesday, Sept. 12

 

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 13

 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Last town hall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For more information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

 

Commission on Disability 

6:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

The commission will discuss Project Impact disaster funding, I-80 overpass amenities, removal of obstacles from the sidewalk and more. 

 

 

 

Second Annual Bertram Gross Award 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The campaign to abolish poverty/full employment Coalition presents the second Annual Bertram Gross Award. Gross, 1912-1998, was the chief author of the Roosevelt Full Employment Act, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act and the current full employment legislation HR1050. 

Award recipients are Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Amaha Kassa, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy and Pat Ford, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. 

Music by Barbara Dane. $10-$15; nobody turned away for lack of funds. 

 


Thursday, Sept. 14

 

Eugene O’Neil House,  

Mt. Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

 

Environmental Sampling Project Task Force 

6:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

Agenda items include public comment time and sampling reviews 

486-4387 

 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107


Letters to the Editor

Saturday September 09, 2000

ADA gray areas need clarity 

 

Editor: 

I am writing to express my praise for the officers that were involved in the arrest of Michael Minasian on this past Sunday at Jupiter restaurant in Berkeley. I am the shift manager that signed the arrest warrant. The officers responded to a very difficult call, one that involves at best, what can be referred to as grey areas within the Americans with Disabilities Act. The officers acted responsibly and it was Mr. Minasian who became beligerent. In my opinion Mr. Minasian is attempting to exploit the law. According to a representative that I spoke with at the Department of Justice, when a person with no visible physical impairment whose dog bears no identifiable markings claims the the dog is a service animal, one can inquire as to the role and nature of the dog. After that inquiry is made, it is unclear under the act at what point federal law is violated. It is very important to note that at no time did I inquire into the nature of Mr. Minasian's disability. I did however make inquiries about the dog in an effort to comply with local health code requirements. The newspaper accounts unfortunately do not accurately state this. I have already received a personal apology from San Francisco Chronicle writer Henry Lee for his inaccurate account of the events that day. 

The ADA is a vital law and I am a proponent of it. But the grey areas that still exist need clarification. Do police officers need to obtain a warrant when responding to a call of this nature, before they can attempt to verify the veracity of one's claim. Do they need to obtain a warrant to inquire as to the function of the dog? Are merchants required to accept at face value the assertions of anyone with a dog? 

According to the Department of Justice, in a situation like this, a merchant is supposed to make a subjective call as to the validity of the customers’ claim. This is an unreasonable standard to set. If you make the wrong call you face a lawsuit. Service dogs should simply be required to be registered and readily identifiable. This simple solution would have kept a city official out of jail without jeopardizing his federal rights. 

 

Joe Bisbiglia 

Shift Manager, Jupiter Cafe, Berkeley 

 

 

Smith’s support of ‘mean spirited’ legislation astounding 

 

Editor: 

Thank you for the incisive front page coverage of the candidates running for City Council District 6 and their positions on Measure Y. 

I was astounded that candidate Norine Smith supports this mean-spirited piece of legislation which, as the other candidates correctly mentioned, will result in landlords not wanting to rent to the elderly, disabled, and the poor. 

Smith ironically states that she would poll people to gauge their concerns on a given issue. The facts about Measure Y are anathema to this admirable position. Measure Y was placed before the Council at the eleventh hour without the benefit of any public input or debate despite the fact that a similar measure which became law in San Francisco in 1998 was followed by an unprecedented increase of Ellis type evictions.  

The Ellis Act is a state law which allows owners to go out of the rental business with the provision that all units in the building must be vacated and not offered for rent again for a ten year period. 

A recent SF Chronicle article provides the statistics for Ellis evictions in that city: there were 17 for the fiscal year 97-98 while for the two subsequent periods following the passage of San Francisco’s measure equivalent to Measure Y this figure increased to 116 and 209 respectively; nearly a tenfold increase. 

Measure Y perfectly sets the stage for Ellis evictions via one of its provisions which grants attorney’s fees to any tenant - regardless of age, income or length of tenancy - in the event he or she prevails in an owner move-in eviction action. 

Ask any attorney about the myriad ways this could happen on a technicality and you get the answer for the high incidence of Ellis evictions in San Francisco. An owner who must move into his or her own property will avoid this potential legal quagmire by invoking Ellis, even if the intent of the owner was to only occupy one of the units involved. 

Tenants who otherwise would not have been affected find themselves evicted and forced to seek housing at a time when all agree there is a housing crisis. 

This brings us full circle; what if some of these ousted tenants happen to be elderly, disabled or poor? What will their chances be in their competition for housing?  

Given that hordes of prospects show up to apply for any reasonably priced Berkeley apartment for rent, Measure Y will put them at a disadvantage. 

Ms. Smith, as a candidate for City Council, displays little knowledge of the facts surrounding this issue. 

Measure Y is merely another regulation that will only result in the further decrease in the number of tenants in the protected categories and the further erosion in the number of Berkeley rental units. It only advances the careers of some local politicians and makes lawyers wealthy by preventing middle class owners from acquiring their own homes.  

 

Robert Cabrera 

Berkeley 

President, Berkeley Property Owners Association 

 

Rent board member to blame for tight rental market 

 

Edito: 

Stefanie Bernay's recent hate parade at a gathering of the Berkeley  

Property Owners Association underscores a generation of continued false promises made by Berkeley housing activists to UC Berkeley students. 

Over twenty years ago, tenant activists, in a fanatically desperate attempt to court the all-important student vote, had promised students they would be the primary beneficiaries of the most draconian rent control law in U.S. history. Yet students eventually found themselves shut out of the marketplace due to these misguided, bungled, and destructive housing policies. 

The situation has worsened in today's rental housing market, thanks to the efforts of Bernay and her colleagues on the Rent Board. Berkeley's austere rent control laws mean that owners are no longer allowed to be fair and reasonable when setting new rents. Owners have no choice but to set exaggeratedly higher rents, knowing that a vindictive, irrational  

Rent Board will make it impossible to raise those rents in future years.  

At the other end of the spectrum, nearly 65 percent of Berkeley's rental units are inhabited by long-term tenants who enjoy rents at 50 percent of bay area housing market levels. Although the Rent Board is mandated by law to allow owners to pass on reasonable inflationary increases to these  

tenants, the Board refuses to do so. The rent board has simply gone too far by denying these increases. 

The owners who gathered together during Bernay's “protest” have been denied millions of dollars in revenue, thanks to Bernay's actions.  

The pending lawsuit against the rent board is not only justifiable, it is non-defensible by city attorneys, and promises to be yet another ugly chapter in Berkeley's never-ending series of hate crimes against rental housing providers. 

 

Leon Mayeri 

Berkeley 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Rediscovering the Berkeley shoreline – way down under all that ugly trash

By Joe Eskenazi Daily Planet Correspondent
Saturday September 09, 2000

Enough plastic lids to top 1,000 six-packs. Enough cigarette butts – and, mind you, just the butts – to stretch from home plate to the right field wall and back home again at Pac Bell Park. Enough plastic grocery bags to supply a Dom DeLuise shopping run.  

These massive quantities of trash weren’t culled from somebody’s filthy mind, but instead from our local shoreline. The 16th annual East Bay Shoreline Cleanup is scheduled for the 16th of this month. And, as in the past, the event’s organizers will work late into the night, long after the volunteers have cleaned up and gone home, tabulating out the exact amounts of trash collected in an almost disturbingly methodical manner.  

So we know, down to the last wrapper, butt or other filthy unmentionable, that last year 1,041 volunteers picked up 40.27 tons of garbage, including 15,665 pieces of foamed plastic, 10,309 plastic food bags and/or wrappers, 5,998 plastic lids and the aforementioned 6,138 cigarette butts – all in four hours.  

“We’re very unusual in the way we do it,” says Patty Donald, a naturalist at the Shorebird Nature Center and coordinator of the local shoreline cleanup for the past 15 years. 

“After the participants are done (with the clean-up), we go back to the nature center and calculate all the items picked up at the Berkeley Waterfront, Aquatic Park and have Albany and Emeryville (figures) faxed to us. I try to get the information to the City Council as soon as I get it. If they have information as to what kind of garbage is showing up in Berkeley, they can change laws.” 

No bones, wrappers or little bit of hard plastic about it, what washes up on the shore can tell you a lot about the area’s inhabitants. Donald’s past collection data led to laws outlawing foam plastic food containers within Berkeley city limits. Interestingly enough, laws forbidding indoor smoking have led to vast increases in the numbers of cigarette butts littering the beaches. Instead of scrunching out cigarette butts in ashtrays, smokers are now tossing them into the gutters, where, almost without fail, they’ll flow through the sewers and end up on the shore (in addition to being where the land meets the sea, the beach is, unfortunately, where garbage from the land meets the garbage from the sea).  

“It’s kind of crazy, when you drive by you don’t see it,” says past cleanup volunteer Eric Chow, a member of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. “It’s surprising how much trash there is washed in from the shore and also from the land. It makes you think about littering. You’re going to think twice about doing it after you’ve done a project like this.” 

Last year, Chow and most of the other volunteers from UC Berkeley fraternities, sororities, societies and clubs were stationed within the clean-up’s “ground zero” – the stretch of frontage road between University and Ashby avenues.  

The heavily used – and abused – roadway is actually shut down to the public during clean-up hours (much to the wrath of speed demons hoping to elude bumper-to-bumper hellishness on Highway 80), while volunteers pick it clean and road crews fix the notoriously pockmarked concrete. 

In addition to Frontage Road, clean-up volunteers also hit Strawberry Beach, near Frontage Road and University Avenue, where Strawberry Creek runs into the Bay, Caesar Chavez Park, Shorebird Park Beach and “The Brickyards,” so called because the coastal site was used as a dumping ground for brick foundations following the 1906 quake, located south of Strawberry Beach. 

“For so many years, Cesar Chavez Park was the city dump,” says Donald (in fact, the road leading to the park is still known as “Old Dump Road”). 

“People get in the mindset of going down to the shoreline to dump their garbage. We’ve picked up water heaters, air conditioners, sofa beds and, a couple of years ago, there was a rash of people dropping off broken and headless parking meters (ah, those were the days!). Yet finding odd debris can be more than just mind-boggling; you can also make a buck! 

“They had a contest for who could bring in the weirdest thing they found and you’d get a prize for it,” says Chow. “One person found a message in a bottle, and it looked pretty old. Someone else found a Danish driver’s license.” 

While several local companies have generously donated prizes to be raffled off among the volunteers, Donald says she is less concerned about attracting prize-hunters than people who want to lend a hand and learn a lesson.  

“I don’t want people to come down for the free stuff, I want them here for the shoreline,” says the naturalist. 

“I don’t want people picking up stuff for half an hour and saying ‘where’s my coupon?’ I want them feeling how people can be such pigs, but, wow! We can make a difference!” 

 

For more information about participating in the East Bay Shoreline Cleanup on Sept. 16, call the Shorebird Nature Center at 644-8623 or check out the clean-up link on the City of Berkeley’s home page (www.ci.berkeley.ca.us).  

 


Cal Shakes tackles the age-old question of fidelity

By John Angell Grant Daily Planet Theater Critic
Saturday September 09, 2000

Can one trust a man when he pledges to a woman his promise of long-term fidelity? 

That is one of the themes in William Shakespeare’s unusual comedy “Love’s Labors Lost,” currently running in a visually exciting, but otherwise somewhat hit-and-miss production, as California Shakespeare Festival’s final outdoor summer offering at Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda. 

“Love’s Labors Lost” is a comedy about four enthusiastic young noblemen who make a pact to live in celibate seclusion for three years to pursue the study of philosophy so they can understand the deepest mysteries of life. 

However, when four French noblewomen suddenly show up on a political errand, the men make a complete one hundred and eighty degree reversal, fall in love with the women, and decide instead to woo love partners with the same enthusiasm they recently expressed for their celibate philosophical search. 

In many ways, Shakespeare’s play is more interesting in its conception than its execution. “Love’s Labors Lost” is one of those works credited to Shakespeare that feels like writers other than Shakespeare were involved in the creation of the material, making for hot and cold spots in the script. 

Similarly, director Lisa Peterson’s production has hot and cold spots. She has brought to the production an exciting concept and look – staging it in the 1920’s with a jazz and flappers feel – but the strength of the acting varies, and so does the chemistry among the performers.  

“Love’s Labors Lost” contains some of Shakespeare’s classic comedy bits. The unmasking of the four men, for example, occurs when secret love letters are discovered, and their non-celibate tendencies are exposed. 

Untypically for Shakespeare, this comedy does not end in marriage. As the end of the play moves inexorably towards a four-couple wedding, the father of one of the women dies and the celebration is dampened. 

The four men then pledge to wait a year until the four women have returned from mourning. 

In the context of the speed with which the four men earlier abandoned their celibate pledges, should we believe their new pledges of fidelity? This is one of the questions the play poses. 

Several of the most interesting characters in “Love’s Labors Lost” are common folk, in explicit contrast to the eight nobles. Among them, the “rustic” Costard (Colman Domingo) and the Spanish knight Armando (Gerald Hiken) get caught up in a bawdy sex triangle with dairymaid Jaquenetta (Emily Ackerman). The directness of these three in sexual matters contrasts with the hypocrisy of the nobility. 

Peterson’s staging has its pluses and minuses. In her vigorous and physical production, the madcap zaniness never quite jells. Often the production tries hard, but simply is not very funny. There is fire in the glances between only one of the four noble couples – Berowne (Jonathan Haugen) and Rosaline (Florencia Lozano) – but not in interactions of the other three couples. 

Except for the play’s finale, the scenes in which the eight lovers appear together for romance are oddly bland. Nancy Carlin, although she has some good technical acting skills, is an unpowerful presence as the Princess of France, the ringleader of the four noblewomen. 

L. Peter Callender is a fascinating and powerful actor. As King of Navarre, the ringleader of the four noblemen, he has distinctive moments early on organizing the philosophical retreat, but his romance with Carlin’s French Princess lacks fire. 

Gerald Hiken blows hot and cold as buffoonish Spanish knight Armando. He has some funny moments in the play’s second half, but his opening work gets swallowed up by the energy he puts into his Spanish accent. 

On the positive side, Julian-Lopez Morillas turns in one of the evening’s funniest performances as schoolmaster and buffoonish intellectual snob Holofernes. This is a man who uses language and philosophy in extreme poses and is out of touch with reality. In a wonderful piece of casting, Julie Eccles plays Boyet, the male chaperone to the four French women. She is rakish, loose and poly-sexual. 

Dirty joke-cracking Rosaline (Florencia Lozano) is the strongest of the four noblewomen, and the only one with a distinctive presence. 

There is a strong musical end to the show. Its final scenes are among its best. Designer Kate Edmunds’ spectacular set, which includes a hill on the stage covered with live grass, trees and flowers, blending back towards the actual open hillside behind the theater, is one of the most spectacular sets I’ve ever seen. 

Meg Neville has cooked up some wonderful 1920s costumes. Gina Leishman composed original music for the play’s many songs. There is a band on stage for most of the evening. 

“Love’s Labors Lost” is about weighing the merits of philosophical intellectual pursuit, versus the experience of love. Berowne, probably echoing Shakespeare’s view, concludes that it is from women that men can learn the real meaning of life. 

It is a good idea for a play, but neither in Shakespeare’s script, nor in the production, does the examination of the idea equal the merit of the thesis. 

“Love’s Labors Lost,” presented by California Shakespeare Festival at Bruns Amphitheater, Highway 24, Orinda, Tuesday through Sunday, through Sept. 23. Call 548-9666, or visit the website (www.calshakes.org). Dress warmly.


BHS gets off to rough start against Foothill

By Sean Gates Daily Planet Correspondent
Saturday September 09, 2000

Big plays, a solid running game, an elusive quarterback, and a swarming Yellow’Jacket defense are all things Berkeley High football fans can look forward to this upcoming season. If the ‘Jackets can improve their special teams play and limit their penalties, Berkeley High football fans can look forward to a trip to the playoffs. 

The ‘Jackets kicked off the regular season and their second season under head coach Gary Weaver with a tough 20-7 loss to a Foothill Falcon team tabbed by many to repeat as EBAL division champions after winning last year’s East Bay 2A Championship.  

However, it was Foothill that appeared to stumble out of the gates – literally – early on. The Falcons provided a dose of pregame humor for those in attendance by running and stumbling through a ten-foot-long banner as they took the field. And after Foothill’s opening kickoff to Berkeley sailed out of bounds, it was the Falcons that were shooting themselves in the foot early on. 

But Berkeley quarterback Nitoto Muhammed was picked off by Falcon defensive back Scott Cooper on his very first passing attempt and the young Yellow’Jackets, returning just seven starters from last year’s squad, suddenly had to clamp down on Foothill’s offense. 

The ‘Jacket defense did just that. On their first defensive sequence of the season, Berkeley pushed the Foothill offense back four yards and forced a punt. The defense played solidly all game long, as the ‘Jackets swarmed in on tackles and contained the Falcon rushing attack.  

On offense, the ‘Jacket running game clicked with Ramone Reed, Germey Baird, and Muhammed all carrying the ball. Reed showed little signs of fatigue in adjusting to playing both tailback and linebacker full-time by rushing for a game high 110 yards on 12 carries, while Baird rattled off 22 yards on 3 carries. Muhammed directed the option attack with 35 yards on 9 carries. 

In addition to his contribution to the ground game, Muhammed completed nine of his 19 pass attempts for 85 yards. Weaver utilized his quarterback’s elusiveness and speed by calling rollouts and bootlegs. Looking back, it is a wonder Muhammed was only sacked once during the game, as the Falcon defense relentlessly stacked the line with eight defenders. When Muhammed was not bursting ahead for yardage, he was delivering passes to five different receivers. Anthony Franklin led all ‘Jacket receivers with three receptions for 34 yards and scored a 12-yard touchdosn in the second quarter when Muhammed bought time in the pocket, escaped an oncoming Falcon rush, and lofted a picture perfect pass to a wide open Franklin in the back of the end zone. 

Throughout the night, however, the battle for field position found Berkeley at a keen disadvantage. Both of Foothill’s first two touchdowns were a result of poor special teams play by the ‘Jackets. The Falcons received a gift after a botched punt gave them possession at Berkeley’s 22 yard line. Foothill then scored on a six-play drive that ended in an Ian Anderson rushing TD on fourth-and-goal from the one yard line. Until that scoring drive, Berkeley had held the Falcon offense to just 25 yards on 10 offensive plays. Berkeley’s next offensive series led to a punt that traveled just six yards after a misplaced snap. The Falcons had the ball again in Berkeley territory, this time traveling 45 yards on three plays in a short drive that ended with a two yard TD run by rb Brandon Strickler. 

After Muhammed threw an interception on the ensuing Berkeley possession, it appeared as though the Falcons would score again with 33 yards separating them from the endzone and three minutes left in the first half. But the ‘Jacket defense rose to the challenge and forced a Foothill punt. Berkeley’s offense then marched on a six play, 48 yard drive that cumulated in Franklin’s TD reception. Weaver and his coaching staff masterminded the impressive drive by working both the left and the right side of the field with rollouts, bootlegs, and misdirection plays. The ‘Jackets struck with their passing game, as five of the six play calls saw Muhammed zip the ball through the air. 

The second half saw the ‘Jackets dominate the time of possession but fail to capitalize on Foothill’s mistakes. Foothill missed two field goals and failed to convert both of their fourth-down opportunities. With time winding down in the fourth quarter, Weaver called for four straight passing plays that failed to move the chains. The Falcons took over at Berkeley’s 20-yard line and tight end Jared Kenitzer’s post pattern left him wide open, as he reeled in a 22-yard TD to push the Falcon lead to 13 points in a game much closer than the final score indicated. 

The Yellow’Jackets (0-1,0-0) continue the regular season with a road contest at James Logan at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15th.


BHS gets ready to go digital

By William Inman Daily Planet Staff
Saturday September 09, 2000

In a tiny room in the far corner of the C-building at Berkeley High School, a staff of three pedagogues are diligently building a high school within a high school. This school, however, isn’t built from bricks and wood, it’s built in cyberspace. 

History teacher Stefan Henryson, Spanish teacher Carolyn Gery and Network Administrator Antonio Castro are happy to wear several hats in order to coordinate Berkeley’s “digital high school,” an instructional network that will serve every one of the school’s 3,200 students and its 200 faculty members. 

Working with a $1 million grant from the California Technical Assistance Program, the trio are coordinating – along with some “very dedicated volunteers,” they say – a project that will get the school wired and bring computers to every classroom and instructional space. 

Henryson said they aren’t just computers, but “state of the art multi-media workstations” – Macintosh G-4’s or Gateway E-3200’s. There’s about 250 of them altogether. 

The three are in the process of bringing up the network, and said they hope to have it running by the end of the month. There are only about three more machines to install, Gery said. 

“Students will be able to log-in, have their own databases where they can store their work and create a portfolio. They will also be able to print to a student printer station.” Henryson said. “Teachers will be able to do the same.” 

Future filmmakers will also learn how to integrate computer technology with video, said district spokesperson Karen Sarlo. Students who work in the community television station, housed at the school, will be able to use the computers as part of the student productions aired on TV-25. 

Henryson said that he had hoped the library could house the print station hub, but last year’s fire damaged the library as well as other parts of the school. 

“The fire really changed what were defined as instructional spaces,” he said. 

But that hasn’t stopped them from putting the workstations in such places as the Community Theater, the gym and the pool. 

“We’ve had to provide additional lab areas as well as making sure every classroom has a computer,” Gery said. 

It has been a daunting task, they say, working to bring up an entire network for 3,400 people to use with only three full-time staff members. 

Not to mention unloading 500 boxes of equipment and getting the machines set up. And every computer had to be engraved with a serial number and placed and secured on tables, they said. 

But they’ve had help. 

“A lot of people have come in and contributed,” Henryson said. “Without their help, we wouldn’t be where we are.” 

Helpers include Paul Monroe, the district-wide technology coordinator, and Mike Miller and Chan Leung, two Berkeley High grads who have spent much of their summer working on the infrastructure of the network, connecting computers and troubleshooting. 

“We’ve also got a lot of positive response and help from the community and parents,” Henryson said. “The city even came out for network assistance, which says a lot about Berkeley.” 

He added that a number of community members as well as representatives from Apple and Gateway came out when they held a full-day of computer training on August 25. 

Henryson said that it was amazing to see the digital gap among the teachers. He said some teachers knew how to set up their own websites, while others were turning on a computer for the first time. 

Even more important will be bridging the digital divide that separates students who have computers at home and those with little access. 

“We’re all about trying to increase student accessibility,” Gery said. “Our big goal is to create areas with more access. We’re creating additional spaces, and we’re putting more machines into the existing labs and the Student Learning Center.” 

Castro, who graduated from Berkeley High and has worked with the school as an instructional technician for 10 years, remembered what it was like just three years ago when there were a paltry 20 machines in the library. 

“Most of those weren’t Internet capable,” he said. 

Gery said that they have until Feb. 1 to certify completion of the network and meet the benchmarks of the grant, which she says shouldn’t be a problem. 

Gery said that one standard is an individual learning plan for every freshman that will be filed in the database. That means over 800 freshman familiarizing themselves with the computers. 

“Everyone will also have their own log-in,” she added.  

“We’re taking all the paperwork and creating the database,” Henryson sighed, pointing to the sea of freshman files they will transform from paper into computerzed data – soon.


Cinemayaat Arab Film Festival brings new perspectives to screen

By Peter Crimmins Daily Planet Correspondent
Saturday September 09, 2000

“I came to Casablanca for the waters,” Bogart mumbled as Rick Blaine. When Claude Raines told him there was no water, that they were in the desert, the owner of Café Americain didn’t miss a beat. “I was misinformed.” 

Indeed. The amiable clash between the subversive entrepreneur and the fallible French official made for ripping dialogue, and the hodgepodge of nationalities in that enduring Hollywood chestnut (a Swede, an Englishman, a couple of Frenchmen, an African-American on the ivories, and a whole slew of Nazis) allowed little details like geography flubs to go unnoticed.  

Casablanca, as any atlas will tell you, is on Morocco’s Atlantic coast and a comfortable distance from the Sahara. 

The producers of Casablanca were concerned about the title, fearing audiences would be confused because of its similarity to a popular Mexican beer, Carta Blanca. 

Les Casablancais (The Casablancans) is not out to right the wrongs of Hollywood, but it’s a story of three people whose lives unexpectedly cross under strained circumstances and will take the viewer on a tour of Casablanca, circa 1998. The film is screening Sunday at Berkeley’s Fine Arts Cinema as part of Cinemayaat, the fourth annual Arab Film Festival. 

The festival is spreading out around the Bay Area, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and the Towne Theater in San Jose. Cinemayaat is the only independent Arab film festival in America, and has set the standard for film programming to bolster community identity, and debate the nature of ethnic and religious prejudice. 

In addition to documentaries (both personal and political), features, and shorts from the wide swath of diverse Arabic cultures, Cinemayaat will bring Dr. Jack Shaheen’s presentation of Arab Screen Images to the Fine Arts Cinema on Friday, Sept. 15. The author of Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture will elucidate the messages inherent in American images of Arabs. In the U.S. film industry, he told the Al-Ahram Weekly, “it is perfectly acceptable to vilify, to demonize, whatever or whoever is Arab and Muslim.” 

In his documentary “Paying the Price – the Killing of the Children of Iraq” (Friday, Sept. 15), British journalist John Pilger uses images of dying children to different ends than does Hollywood’s patriotic blockbusters. The investigation into the effects of UN sanctions against Iraq for their noncompliance in regard to destroying chemical weapons relies on pictures from pediatric wards to garner sympathy and anger in behalf of the starving and diseased. 

John Pilger, along with Denis Halliday who resigned as Assistant Secretary-General of the UN in protest of the sanctions, explores the effects of denying citizens essential imports of food and medicine from other countries. They explain the UN has a progression of actions it imposes on aberrant nations, the final step being military action. Imposing sanctions is the preceding step before war, but the effect they have on a country is warlike. 

Pilger explains why British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook refused to be interviewed for Paying the Price. He said he didn’t want to be in a movie with pictures of dead babies. 

Pictures of a more pointedly political agenda, and less grotesquely sensational, come from the pen of Naji Al-Ali, a Palestinian cartoonist murdered in 1987. The documentary Naji Al-Ali – an Artist with Vision (Thursday, Sept. 14) portrays his newspaper panels and restless political convictions for the people of Palestine. In the film Tamar Salman, editor of the Palestinian newspaper Al Safir said Al-Ali could “simplify the most complicated ideologies…and portray the real meanings behind them in just a few lines of drawings.” 

His signature figure, a destitute child named Handahla, always drawn with its back turned, was a watcher. He would calmly watch the tumultuous national identity move from the aftermath of the Isreali invasion of 1967 to Henry Kissinger’s oil deals. 

Cinemayaat’s celebration of the diversity of Arabic identities goes beyond the often unstable political landscape. The Arabic world’s film heritage, now strengthened by Egypt’s Youseff Chahine and Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami, gets spotlit with a trio of musicals from Egypt’s early film industry. 

Three musicals from the 1940’s are a part of this year’s program, one of which will come to the Fine Arts. Flirtation of Girls (1949) features the bumbling comedy of Nauib el Rihani, Egypt’s once reigning everyman comedian.  

The story of a teacher (Rihani) hired to tutor the daughter of a pasha climbs heights of hijinks when the daughter is more interested in playing coy games. 

The balcony scene, a la Romeo and Juliet, gets slapstick laughs as Rihani shows he is not nearly as graceful as Romeo in climbing a vine when dogs are napping at his heels. Another Egyptian musical comedy, Love of My Life (1947), and an “epic melodrama” called Salaamah (1945) will play the Towne next week. 

Festival programs can be picked up at the Fine Arts Cinema, or browsed online at www.aff.org.


Wood-burning stoves create quandary

By Nerissa Pacio Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday September 09, 2000

Wood-burning stove business representatives, pediatricians and public health officials were among those speaking out at a public hearing on restricting the use of wood-burning fireplaces held Thursday night by the city’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission. 

The commission took no action and will consider the public’s oral and written opinions before making a recommendation to City Council next month. Comments can be sent to the commission by Sept. 15. 

The commission has proposed 10 possible actions, from setting up a complaint hot line and sending out “smoke police” to enforce emission limits, to prohibiting the use of wood burn ing devices on “Spare-the-Air” days. Other proposals include the replacement of wood stoves with EPA-approved stoves, or a formal two-year study of the air to help the public make a more informed decision. 

“I’ve worked nearly half my life in third-world countries,” said Dr. Davida Coady, a pediatrician and Berkeley resident. “So, I’m very aware of the health hazards smoke causes to children who are directly exposed to cooking fires in the kitchen. And in my own home in the winter, when I don’t get home early enough to close the windows, smoke from neighboring chimneys comes in, and I get sinus headaches so bad that I’ve had to sleep in other people’s places.” 

Many residents such as Coady urged the commission to consider their personal testimonies as proof that wood burning should be banned.  

Bay Area communities that have already placed restrictions on wood-burning stoves include the cities of San Jose, Palo Alto, Petaluma, Dublin and Los Gatos.  

Though there has been talk in Berkeley for a year of requiring conversion of wood-burning fireplaces when homes are sold, the health hazards of wood burning raised even greater concern when the commission recently released a report compiling results of studies conducted over the last twenty years. 

Although the dangers are usually associated with automobile and factory pollution, the report cited a 1989-1996 study by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District that stated “between 20 and 50 percent of air polluting particulate matter comes from home fireplaces and wood stoves.” 

Particulates can cause aggravated asthma and other increased respiratory problems and possible premature death due to heart rate interference. They are also known to contain certain cancer-causing chemicals, the commission report said. 

Dr. Anthony D.A. Hansen, an expert on smoke particles from Magee Scientific and a manufacturer of smoke-measuring instruments, said air particulates released by wood burners are tiny, hard particles, which are considered toxic air contaminants. However, the contaminants can not be consistently measured in the area due to variable winds from the bay that blow smoke away, he said. 

“It’s difficult to pinpoint the amount of smoke in Berkeley due to our location. If the air is stagnant, as in the spring or fall, the air will be hazy due to the smoke settling,” Hansen said. “But if the wind is blowing, the air will be much clearer. Air quality is diversely proportional to wind speed so this is a regional issue, not a local one.” 

People in the fireplace business also argued that the problem is regional and that converting wood stoves and fireplaces in Berkeley is not the final answer. 

Michael Gersick represents California Hearths and Homes, a Sacramento-based organization of fireplace designers. He told the commission that people should be educated to use wood stoves responsibly. He said that 30 percent of total emissions are actually produced during the kindling phase and do not come from the smoke itself. 

Gersick said his organization has a local interest in Berkeley because whenever regulations are being made by organizations in different locales, they “want to be sure to offer their expertise and make sure regulations adapted are fair and reasonable.” 

Others in the hearth industry, such as Karen Fenton of the Northern California-Nevada Hearth Products Association and Energy Unlimited in Richmond, said that the hearth industry has responded responsibly to health issues and that possible and potential damage to their businesses should be considered. 

“The hearth industry, of which I have been a member for the last 25 years, responded quickly and responsibly to the research and the laws that address wood smoke,” Fenton said. “We have done so because this is our livelihood. Not to be able to sell, service, and use hearth products, such as fireplaces, heaters, and the chimneys would cause us severe economic hardship.” 

The widely varying opinions and clashing data cited by many attendees from different groups revealed the need for more research and public education about the issue, said Elmer Grossman, a retired pediatrician and a member of the commission. 

“We are all students of this and no one really knows what to do,” he said. “Even the commission is in disagreement about the proposals and we’d like to hear what the public has to say so we can try and figure out how to solve this problem together.” 

Comments on wood-burning fireplaces and stoves can be sent to the CEAC at 2118 Milvia, Berkeley, 94704.


Renters protest owners

By William Inman Daily Planet Staff
Friday September 08, 2000

Rent Board member Stephanie Bernay stood with a crowd outside H’s Lordships Restaurant at the Marina and toasted the Berkeley Property Owner’s Association – celebrating inside – with a plate of Ramen noodles. The mock toast was for BPOA’s hiring a high-priced attorney to sue the rent board. 

At issue is the board’s annual rent increase – zero for units rented after Jan. 1 and a flat six dollars for all other units.  

The BPOA argues that a rent increase is needed to cover changes in operating costs –1.8 to 2.4 percent. That means an increase in rent of about $11.50 for a $571 per-month unit. 

The crowd, which included a number of UC Berkeley Students, rent board members and candidates, and City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, held a symbolic plateful of Ramen noodles wrapped in tin-foil to contrast to the invitation-only steak and salmon dinner hosted inside by the BPOA. 

The dinner was held to announce their hiring of attorney Jim Parrinello. 

Parrinello has represented both Tosco and Phillip Morris. In 1998 the attorney represented Oakland property owners Rose Ventures III, which members of the Lakeshore Tenants Association at 1200 Lakeshore Drive, sued for raising the rent 9 percent and turning a shared rooftop recreational facility into a luxury penthouse suite. 

He will be paid $50,000 to take the case on behalf of the Legal Defense fund for the BPOA. 

Jim Smith, the current membership chairperson for the BPOA and a former president of the Black Property Association, came outside to explain to reporters why the property owners are suing. 

“They will not grant a rent increase,” he said. “They should give us a reasonable percentage to keep up with inflation.” 

The sign-holding rent control supporters disagreed. 

Bernay introduced speakers at the makeshift press conference that was held next to the breezeway entrance to the restaurant. 

“How can they raise our rents any more,” she said. “They’re in there dining on filet mignon when all we can afford is Top Ramen.” 

“This is Berkeley! Justice will not be bought,” said Paul Hogarth, a November candidate for the Rent Board. Hogarth said that the property owners should run for seats on the Rent Board instead of suing. 

Max Anderson, Rent Board member up for re-election, said since 1997, rents on two-bedroom apartments have increased 51 percent, and one-bedrooms have increased by 47 percent. 

“I think its legitimate to ask, ‘how much is enough?’” he said, contending that the landlords have “pooled money for an expert on attacking poor people.” 

Smith said that the real issue is a housing shortage. 

“Rent Control doesn’t put anybody in a unit,” he said. “It’s been 20 years of rent control and it has removed thousands of units from the market.” 

Smith explained that if a landlord owned a single family home, because of rent control, he wouldn’t want to have to rent to someone who could be there for 10 years. So, many landlords have either moved into these houses or sold them to others who have moved into the units, therefore taking many homes off the rental market. 

“We all need to work together and focus on increasing the housing supply,” he said. “A larger vacancy rate is what brings rent down.” 

Nonetheless, the students bemoaned outrageous rents and Associated Students of the University of California showed solidarity in support of rent control. 

“It’s ridiculous for this attorney to be hired and we won’t tolerate it,’ said ASUC president Teddy Liaw. 

UC Berkeley sophomore Sarah Trejo, who was forced to pay a $7,000 security deposit on a $2,000 two-bedroom apartment she shares with three other UC Berkeley students said she and her roommates had to settle on it because landlords wouldn’t rent to them because there were too many of them, and they were being outbid. 

“And we had to outbid someone else to get it,” she said. 


Calendar of Events & Activities

Friday September 08, 2000


Friday, Sept. 8

 

Computer, software help 

Vista College, Room 303, 7 p.m. 

Topic will center on Quicklink Pen, a small hand scanner 

For more information call (510) 527-2177 or meldancing@aol.com 

 

“Discipline & Citizenship” 

conference 

9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

895-4542 

 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Berkeley Critical Mass 

5:30 p.m. gather, 6 p.m. ride 

Downtown Berkeley BART plaza 

Join scores of happy cyclists and even some rollers and joggers in this monthly celebration and street reclamation. 

Kids welcome! After the ride there will be a free party. 

273-9288 

www.bclu.org 

 


Saturday, Sept. 9

 

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

 


Sunday, Sept. 10

 

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

 

“Next Stop, Greenwich  

Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

$2 suggested donation.  

848-0237 

 


Sunday, Sept. 10

 

Solano Avenue Stroll 

10 a.m. 

The Local Legacies on Parade kicks off with Grand Marshal Wavy Gravy. The mile-long block party is filled with over 75 entertainers including RhythMix - a women's percussion group, Frog Legs - a Cajun band, and Mal  

Sharpe & Big Money in Dixieland. There's a giant slide, a bicycle ramp-jumping show, ethnic foods, game booths, a hang gliding simulator, pony rides, castle bounces, a silent auction, dunk tanks, art projects, palm readings and more. Admission is free. 

 


Monday, Sept. 11

 

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA  

Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

 

Voter workshop 

1 p.m. 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Tuesday, Sept. 12

 

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 13

 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Last town hall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

 


Thursday, Sept. 14

 

Eugene O’Neil House,  

Mt. Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

 

Environmental Sampling Project Task Force 

6:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

Agenda items include public comment time and sampling reviews 

486-4387 

 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

What next for Haiti? 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue, 

What is the true story behind the recent elections in Haiti? What’s the real impact of the global economy on Haiti? 

483-7481  

please call to reserve childcare 

$5-10 

 

 

 

 


Friday, Sept. 15

 

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

“Lift the Sanctions from Iraq” 

Interfaith Brunch & Community Gathering 

Talk by Denis Halliday, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General 

10:30 a.m. -noon 

Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento 

(510) 527-8370 

 


Saturday, Sept. 16

 

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Seabreeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

Call: 848-9358  

 


Sunday, September 17

 

Berkeley Citizen’s Action Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

To include local and state endorsements. 

Please place this upcoming event in your listings. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 

 


Thursday, Sept. 21

 

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

415-749-4965 

 


Friday, September 22

 

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

 


Saturday, Sept. 23

 

From Capitalism to Equality 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. at Alcatraz 

Why have the conditions of work become more difficult and the 

rewards more unequal since 1973? Join author Charles Andrews to 

discuss these issues and solutions for them. 

$5 admission includes $10 discount coupon the book, “From Capitalism to Equality” 

535-2476 

 


Sunday, Sept. 24

 

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using both story-telling and generational techniques, Dr. Lois Silverstein will offer beginning steps to rediscovering family heritage and traditions.  

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 

848-0237 

 

5th anniversary party and film festival 

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Fifth Birthday 

6-8 p.m. party 

film: 8:30-10:30 p.m. 

Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Movie Theater 

1901 Gilman St. 

The event is to honor five years of BFB bike advocacy. Films will include: “Pedalphiles and Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels” 

Bring something to sit on. 

Free to members; $10-$20 sliding scale to non members.  

549-7433 

 

“How Berkeley Can You Be?” 

11 a.m. on University Avenue and California Street, culminating at Civic Center outside Berkeley High School 

Festival in the park starts at 12:30 p.m. 

849-4688, www.howberkeleycanyoube.com 

 


Monday, Sept. 25

 

Open forum on affordable housing 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Sean Heron of the East Bay Housing Organizations will talk about building a campaign for affordable housing. Sponsored by the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project. 

1-800-773-2110 

 


Wednesday, Sept. 27

 

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Business” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework promoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

 


Saturday, Sept. 30

 

Jim Hightower: “Election 2000: a Space Odyssey” 

8 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Sponsored by KPFA and Global Exchange 

“I am an agitator,” Hightower says. “The agitator is the centerpost in a washing machine that gets the dirt out.” 

$10 in advance/$12 at the door 

848-6767 x609 

 

 


Monday, October 2

 

“2nd annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

“Clean Lies Dirty War” 

7:30 p.m. Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar 

Event is part of a national campaign to end sanctions on Iraq.  

(510) 528-5403 

 


Thursday, October 5

 

3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

 

ONGOING EVENTS 

 

Sundays 

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 

 

 

 

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

 

 

 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

 

 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

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. 

234-0727;642-5168 

 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Letters to the Editor

Friday September 08, 2000

Celebrate pier with renaming 

 

Editor: 

For over 10 years I have walked the Berkeley Pier in the late afternoons. It is not unusual to hear five to six languages other than English and see the cultural expressions that accompany them. This pier is truly an extraordinary asset, welcoming everyone as it does.  

In keeping with the international spirit of the city of Berkeley I propose that the Berkeley Pier be officially called the City of Berkeley International Pier. 

 

William Noel 

Berkeley 

 

Setting the record straight 

Editor:  

Thank you very much for your article on the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation on Thursday, Sept. 2. I need to follow up on one major point. I owe a deep apology to our much respected former board member and business consultant, H.S. Zulu. I did not fairly represent the reason why he has withdrawn from the Fifth Street Market project for the next few months. 

Mr. Zulu is indeed seeking housing (like reporters of this and other Bay Area newspapers). His situation reflects the widespread problem of displacement and spiraling housing costs in the area. Looking for permanent housing for himself and his children must be his first priority at this time. His contributions to the Fifth Street Market have been invaluable and I deeply regret that I may not have conveyed that fully to your readers in the recent interview.  

 

Willie Phillips  

President  

West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

their positions on Measure Y. 

I was astounded that candidate Noreen Smith supports this mean spirited piece  

of legislation which, as the other candidates correctly mentioned, will  

result in landlords not wanting to rent to the elderly, disabled, and the  

poor. 

Smith ironically states that she would poll people to gauge their concerns on  

a given issue. The facts about Measure Y are anathema to this admirable  

position. Measure Y was placed before the Council at the eleventh hour  

without the benefit of any public input or debate despite the fact that a  

similar measure which became law in San Francisco in 1998 was followed by an  

unprecedented increase of Ellis type evictions.  

The Ellis Act is a state law which allows owners to go out of the rental  

business with the provision that all units in the building must be vacated  

and not offered for rent again for a ten year period. 

A recent SF Chronicle article provides the statistics for Ellis evictions in  

that city: there were 17 for the fiscal year 97-98 while for the two  

subsequent periods following the passage of San Francisco’s equivalent to  

Measure Y this figure increased to 116 and 209 respectively; nearly a tenfold  

increase. 

Measure Y perfectly sets the stage for Ellis evictions via one of its  

provisions which grants attorney’s fees to any tenant - regardless of age,  

income or length of tenancy - 

in the event he or she prevails in an owner move-in eviction action. 

Ask any attorney about the myriad ways this could happen on a technicality  

and you get the answer for the high incidence of Ellis evictions in San  

Francisco. An owner who must move into his or her own property will avoid  

this potential legal quagmire by invoking Ellis, even if the intent of the  

owner was to only occupy one of the units involved. Tenants who otherwise  

would not have been affected find themselves evicted and forced to seek  

housing at a time when all agree there is a housing crisis. 

This brings us full circle; what if some of these ousted tenants happen to be  

elderly, disabled or poor? What will their chances be in their competition  

for housing?  

Given that hordes of prospects show up to apply for any reasonably priced  

Berkeley apartment for rent, measure Y will put them at a disadvantage. 

Ms. Smith, as a candidate for City Council, displays little knowledge of the  

facts surrounding this issue. Measure Y is merely another regulation that  

will only result in the further decrease in the number of tenants in the  

protected categories and the further erosion in the number of Berkeley  

rental units. It only advances the careers of some local politicians and  

makes lawyers wealthy by preventing middle class owners from acquiring their  

own homes.  

 

Robert Cabrera 

President  

Berkeley Property Owners Association 

 

23 Hillside Ct. 

Berkeley, CA 94704 

 

843 8772 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Friday September 08, 2000

 

Ebony Museum of Arts 

The museum specializes in the art and history of Africa.  

Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.  

30 Jack London Village, Suite 209. (510) 763-0745. 

 

Habitot Children’s Museum 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

“Back to the Farm.”  

Ongoing 

An 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 more.  

Cost: $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under.  

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.  

647-1111 or www.habitot.org 

 

Judah L. Magnes Museum 

2911 Russell St.  

549-6950 

Free 

Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

“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. 

“Spring and Summer.”  

Through Nov. 4. 

“Chagall: Master Prints and Posters, Selections from the Magnes Museum Collection.”  

Through Sept. 28. 

 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley 

“Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment,” through Sept. 17.  

An exhibit of rare and exquisite works featuring more than forty mandalas and related objects including sculptures and models of sacred spaces. 

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

642-0808. 

 

UC Berkeley Museum  

of Paleontology 

Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley 

“Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing.  

A 20-foot tall, 40-foot long replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. 

“Pteranodon,” ongoing.  

A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. 

California Fossils Exhibit, ongoing. An exhibit of some of the fossils which have been excavated in California. 

Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

642-1821. 

 

Stork Club 

Wire Graffiti 

9:30 p.m. Sept. 23 

$5 

2330 Telegraph, Oakland 

444-6174 

 

Jupiter-Berkeley Events 

2181 Shattuck Ave. 

(510) THE-ROCK 

Sept. 8: Cuban inspired Beth Custer Dona Luz 30 Besos 

Sept. 9: Funky blues and jazz with the Paula Murray Trio 

Sept. 12:Tenor Joshi Marshall comes back wsith jazz/blues/funk 

Sept. 13: Musicians Rosin Coven 

Sept. 14: Phat beats wit the Beatdown featuring DJ’s Delon, Add 1 and Yamu 

Sept. 15: Folk, blues, funk with Sex Fresh 

Sept. 16: New-scholl jazz combo of Bird 54 featuring Joshi Marshall and Gavin Distasi 

 

Downtown Berkeley Association 

Lunchtime Concert Series 

Every Thursday through October 

noon - 1p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza 

1 hour free parking available in Center Street Garage 

Sept 14: A cappella groups The UC Men’s Octet & the California Golden Overtones 

Sept 21: African percusion players Pacal Bokar 

Sept 28: Berkeley High School Jazz Combo  

Oct. 5: Brazilian music players Capoeira Arts Cafe & Company 

Oct. 12: Members of the  

Berkeley Symphony performing  

chamber music 

Oct. 19: Jazzschool’s vocal jazz ensemble Vocal Sauce 

Oct. 26: East Bay Science & Arts Middle School will perform folk, swing and Cuban rueda dances 

 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo Ave.  

525-5099 

www.ashkenaz.com 

Sept. 5, 9 p.m. A night of Big Mountain Awareness with Blackfire 

Sept. 6, 8 p.m. lesson and 9 p.m. show Poullard-Thompson Band (Cajun) 

Sept. 8 Fantcha 

Sept. 27, 8 p.m., dance session, 9 p.m., music 

Kate Brislin, Jody Stecher, Heath Curtis, Bluegrass intentions 

Old time, Appalachian music $10 

Sept. 28:Benefit for Bay Area Arts Collective.  

Features the Hip Hop group Nameless and Faceless $5, 9 p.m. 525-5099 

 

The Greek Theatre 

Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals, Maceo Parker, Sept. 8, 7 p.m. $30.  

Hearst Avenue and Gayley Road, Berkeley. (510) 444-TIXS 

 

Henry J. Kaiser  

Convention Center 

Daniela Mercury, Sept. 8, 8 p.m. $35. 

10 10th St., Oakland. (510) 534-6348, (510) 762-BASS 

 

Philharmonia  

Baroque Orchestra 

Nicholas McGegan conducting, Sept. 9 and Sept. 10.  

A performance of Handel's opera-oratorio “Semele.”  

$32 to $46. Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. First  

Congregational Church, Dana Street and Durant Avenue,  

(415) 392-4400 or www.philharmonia.org 

 

The Jazzschool 

2375 Shattuck Ave. 

Dick Hindman Trio 

4:30 p.m., Sept. 17 

$12; $10 students/seniors; $6 for Jazzschool students and children under 13 

 

Cal Performances 

Marisa Monte 

Brazils’ best-selling pop singer performs her unique mix of styles, re-interpreting traditional Brazilian genres and filtering them through contemporary global joazz, funk and pop. 

Sept. 25., 8 p.m.  

Zellerbac Hall, UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Avenue at Telegraph.  

$20 - $32  

642-9988 

Eli’s Mile High Club 

3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 

(510) 655-6661 

Doors open at 8 p.m. 

Sept. 8: Sonny Rhodes 

Sept 15: Takezo 

Sept. 22: J.L. Stiles 

 

Films 

University of California,  

Berkeley Art Museum 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Treasures from the George Eastman House” 

Various programs and a 16-film salute to little-known actresses. 

Sept. 10, 5: 30 p.m. : “The False Faces” (1919)  

7:20 p.m.: “The Penalty” (1920) 

Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m. : The Love That Lives” (1917) 

7 p.m.: “Madame X” (1920) 

Sept 22, 7:30 p.m. : “Backstairs” (1921) 

8:55 p.m. : Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1931) 

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

 

Paramount Movie Classics  

Summer 2000 Series  

The evening includes a classic movie, walk-in music from the Wurlitzer  

organ, a newsreel, cartoon, movie previews and the Paramount's prize  

give-away game “Dec-O-Win.” 

Sept. 8: The French Connection. 

Sept. 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

$5. Shows at 8 p.m. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. 

 

Theater 

“The Green Bird” by Carlo  

Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs from September 8 - October 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Preview dates are September 8-10 and 13, tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Opening night is September 14, admission is $35. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

 

“MIMZABIM!” 

Climate Theatre & Subterranean Shakespeare 

La Vals Subterraniean 1834 Euclid, Berkeley 

Sept.7 -Oct. 14 

Thursday - Saturday 8:00 p.m. 

$12, Students $8 

 

Julie Morgan Theatre 

Fanny at Chez Panisse 

Musical based on the book with opening proceeds going to the Verde Partnership Garden in Richmond. 

7 p.m., opening night benefit $50, tickets for remaining shows are $26-$34 

Runs Sept. 13 through Oct. 29 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley 

1-888-FANNY06 

 

Exhibits 

The Artistry of Rae Louise  

Hayward 

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

548-9286, ext. 307 

Through Sept. 27 

Rae Louise Hayward, one of the founders of The Art of Living Black, Bay Area Black Artist Annual Exhibition and Open Studios Tour. 

Haywards’ art celebrates the beauty of African culture from its people to its music.  

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 1-7 p.m., Saturday 12-4 p.m. and by appointment.  

 

Traywick Gallery 

1316 Tenth St.  

527-1214 

Charles LaBelle 

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

LaBelle’s new series of large-scale color photographs highlight nighttime nature in Hollywood. He recreates trees at night using a hand-held spotlight and playing on the beam across the leaves and branches. The opening reception will be held on September 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.  

Blue Vinyl by Connie Walsh  

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

This multimedia project combines video, sound and printmaking to explore concepts of intimacy and its relation to private space. The opening reception is on September 12 from 6-8 p.m. 

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-6 p.m. and Sundays 12-5 p.m. 

 

A.C.C.I. Gallery  

“Paperworks,” through Oct. 7.  

A group exhibit of works by Carol Brighton, Vannie Keightley, Jean Hearst. 

Opening Reception, Sept. 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527 

 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Sept. 10 through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

 

California College of Arts and Crafts  

“Add/Drop/Add: CCAC Fine Arts Faculty Exhibitions”  

through Sept. 16. 

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

 

Chi Gallery  

“Alegres Cantos en Mi Ser (Songs of Joy in My Being)” through Sept. 30.  

An exhibit of paintings depicting scenes of Afro-cuban music, by Susan Mathews. Reception, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. 912-A Clay St., Oakland. (510) 832-4244. 

 

Kala Institute  

“Layerings: New Work by Four Kala Fellows” through Sept. 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part II of works by Margaret M. Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and  

David Politzer. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center  

Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-2977  

 

Readings 

Rhyme & Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant 

Second and fourth Sundays of each month. For open reading following featured readers, sign up at 2 p.m., readings begin at 2:30 p.m. 

Sept. 10. Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

 

Readings at Cody’s 

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m. Glenn Dickey, “Glenn Dickey's 49ers – the Rise, the Fall and the Future of  

Football's Greatest Dynasty.” 

Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. Julia Cameron and her book “The Artist's Way.”  

 

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place  

843-6812 

Free 

Sept. 10, 6-7p.m. “Overcoming Obstacles to Meditation” 

Instructor Abbe Blum talks about meditation troubles and how they can be viewed to unlock the mind’s secrets. 

Sept. 17, 6-7 p.m. “Knowledge of Freedom” 

Buddhist teacher June Rosenberg will demonstrate how “Knowledge of Freedom” teachings can be applied in daily life. 

 

Rhyme and Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive 

2621 Durant Ave. 

2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. 

Includes featured readers and open mike poetry. Free 

2 p.m. sign-up. Program runs from 2:30 - 4 p.m. 

Sept. 10: Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

Sept. 24: Jessie Beagle, Kirk Lumpkin 

Oct. 15: Professor Ron Loewinsohn (Morrison Room, UC Main Library) 

Oct. 29: Fernando Brito, Lara Dale 

234-0727 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National  

Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Dance 

Yoshi’s 

Ray Brown Trio with Kevin Mahogany, through Sept. 10. $20 to $24 general; Sunday matinee: $5 children; $10 adult with one child. 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or  

(510) 762-BASS 

 

Luna Kids Dance 

Creative dance for children 

Parent-child class 

Sept. 9, 9-10 a.m. 

Redwood Day School, 3245 Sheffield Ave, Oakland 

Sept. 12, open house 

Ashkenas, 1317 San Pablo, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

530-4113 

 

Mark Morris Dance Group 

“Four Saints in Three Acts” and “Dido & Aeneas” 

Sept. 21-24 Zellerbach Hall 

Music by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and American Bach Soloists 

Tickets: $34 - $52 

643-6714 


Panthers serve up an easy victory over Contra Costa

By Sean Gates Daily Planet Correspondent
Friday September 08, 2000

After the undefeated St. Mary’s women’s volleyball team posted their third win of the young regular season by coasting to a 15-7, 15-3, 15-3 victory over the Contra Costa Christian Cougars, first year St. Mary’s head volleyball coach Herman Shum commented that, “something we really work on is to take the opponent out of the game.” One could argue that Shum’s statement contained just a tinge of truth in it, for the Cougars played as though they were never in the game to begin with.  

Jazmin Pratt sparked the Panther riot by serving up nine consecutive points to open up the contest. While the Cougars did fight back to narrow the gap to within 10-7, Pratt nullified any further damage with a spike and an ace to push the Panther lead to 12-7. Shum then brought in the taller Ronice Sweet to substitute for Karen Sommers in anticipation of a play at the net. Sweet’s height was not needed, however, as the Panthers served their way to the final three points and a first set victory. 

Setter Akilah Wilhite assumed serving duties from Pratt to start the second set, and the carnage continued: easy serves by St. Mary’s that were rarely returned successfully. Wilhite dished out a total of six aces in the game, second only to Pratt’s 11. The Panthers jumped out to a 9-1 lead behind the serves of Wilhite and Pratt and wrapped up its second set with a 15-3 win. 

A scary fact is that the Panthers actually got stronger as the game progressed, as anyone who witnessed the third set will attest to. Shum told his squad during the interval that the third set is “where you can afford to try things.” But the only thing the Panthers tried was the same thing they did all game long: serve, ace, score. This time, St. Mary’s rattled off an unbelievable 13 consecutive points to start the set. A timeout by Contra Costa after the Panthers had jumped to an 8-0 lead managed to give them a sideout and possession of the serve. This just delayed the inevitable, as St. Mary’s immediately regained possession of the serve and applied the finishing touches for a 15-3 win. 

Leading the attack was Pratt, who racked up 30 serve attempts, accounting for more than half of the team total of 58. Eleven of Pratt’s 30 attempts translated into aces. Even more impressive is the fact that Pratt committed just one error. Such a statistic is a testament not only to the focus displayed by the hustling Panthers but the confusion and chaos that reigned on the Cougar side of the net. 

Not to be outdone by their teammate, Ronice Sweet led the Panthers with nine spikes, followed closely by the eight posted by Nisha Chada and Elisabeth Carr. Carr also led the Panthers in kills, with five, and Sweet used her imposing height to record two solo blocks. The hustle department featured Suzanne Vendit and Marisa Diaz as major players. Both recorded two digs on defense, complementing Chada’s team high total of three. 

Asked after the game what his expectations were for his squad, Shum didn’t hesitate. “Definitely playoffs... I’m bringing in a new system. The girls are excited and working hard.” If their game against the Cougars is any indication of what lies ahead, the St. Mary’s Panthers will be an exciting team to watch. 

The Panthers (3-0, 0-0) will kick off league play with a home contest against the El Cerrito Gauchos at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, September 12th.


Department receives money from tobacco settlement suit

By Josh Parr Daily Planet Staff
Friday September 08, 2000

Habitot, an indoor romper room for toddlers, was filled to capacity with smiling and suited adults. Generally ignored by the infant inhabitants, Alameda County Supervisors Wilma Chan and Keith Carson stood before a model firetruck, handing out checks to Berkeley health care providers. Eleven organizations received $1.2 million in funds collected from Proposition 10, a voter-approved tobacco tax to provide a comprehensive system of early childhood development services for young children. 

Standing with Chan was Mayor Shirley Dean, who touted the city’s plan to provide “pre-natal to pre-school” health care with the new funds. 

“The Health Department will do home visits to new born babies where the public health nurse will be able to assist the parents, tell the parents what kind of medical care and immunizations they need to do, asses the family’s needs, and make referrals to places where they can get the help they need,” Dean said. 

Dr. Vicki Alexander, director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health for the city’s Health Department, received a check for $100,000. “This money has been a long time coming. The home visits will ensure that every child is ready for school, regardless of race, income, or parents’ levels of education,” Alexander said. 

The program, said Alexander, brings together parents, community organizations, the city and county governments, the schools and the university to provide early childhood education before kindergarten. Such a program will attack achievement gaps which develop among school children later, around third grade, Dean said. 

“Healthy kids become healthy adults, and the problems with health care start right at the beginning of life. The problems of early education start then and there also,” Dean said. “What we’re trying to do with the pre-natal to pre-school program is recognize this link between health and education.” 

Dean said early childhood is the proper, and least expensive, time to intervene in a child’s life. 

“If you can change the environment, not just the physical, but the health environment, the family environment, the learning environment of a child in a positive way, you will make a difference. Our goal is that every child in the city of Berkeley will enter kindergarten healthy, ready and motivated to learn, and this will address later achievement gaps in the schools,” Dean said. 

“Some families will require more assistance than others and they will receive that.”  

The home visit program will address other disparities as well. Revelatory findings in the city’s 1999 Health Status Report showed Berkeley had the largest disparity in low-birth weight between black and white babies in the nation. 

According to the report, the rate of low birth-weight babies born between 1990-1998 in Berkeley for African American women was 14.8 percent. Comparable rates for whites was 4.7 percent. Alexander, an African-American pediatrician, attributes the disparity to the psychological and physical toll of racism. 

“Regardless of income and education, you have higher blood pressure and infant mortality rates in African-American communities. And while half of those numbers can be reasonably attributed to income, education, and medical causes like smoking and drugs, the other half is not due to anything we can put our finger on,” Alexander said. 

Racism affects “low birth weight babies” in the African-American community because of a process she called, “weathering.” 

“Just living day to day, there is constant stress on the mother, stress in the community, and as a woman gets older, her stress levels rise. When you add that to stress levels that an expecting mother is going through anyway, lower birth weights are a natural consequence.” Alexander said. 

“These programs will try to rectify the differences in birth weights, ensure that kids are immunized, see that there is no lead in homes, increase pay of childcare workers, and educate parents and grandparents,” Alexander said. 

But even if there are plans to bridge the disparity gap, there are several hurdles yet to be overcome. There is still a health care crisis to be reckoned with, said Marty Lynch, Executive Director of Lifelong Medical Care, an organization he calls the “primary safety net provider for health care” in low-income areas of Berkeley. 

“There are between 15,000 and 20,000 people living in Berkeley without health care coverage,” said Lynch. Because of this, his clinic sees the hardest-hit portion of the population. 

“We see unbelievable examples of disparity in the areas we work in - mostly South and West Berkeley and North Oakland. It ranges from more chronic health problems like cancer, heart disease, and hypertension to mothers-to-be who have difficulty getting pre-natal care.” 

“The problem is outreaching to the people who need health care,” he said. “We have almost no capacity or resources to get to everyone who needs it. For whatever reasons, they often don’t come to us. All we have now is some doctor time - but even then we can’t serve everyone who comes through our doors. It’s impossible for us to serve the needs of the community.” 

 


Smaller cinematic endeavors triumph

Peter Crimmins Special to the Daily Planet
Friday September 08, 2000

In the almanac of cinema distribution, September begins the in-between season. When the summer blockbusters have cooled off and the holiday fare is yet to come a-caroling, a window of opportunity opens up for smaller, quieter films to be seen and local festival programmers can get a foothold on the moviegoing public. 

The first festival of this season is the MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, a showcase of earnestly experimental short films with a slightly misleading title. Ariella Ben-Dov, the festival founder, programmer, organizer, and all-around cheerleader, has put together a handful of programs by women filmmakers, whose subject matter is not necessarily women. 

The fourth annual MadCat festival kicks off its 2000 incarnation with four programs at the Pacific Film Archive, which runs today and Saturday, jumps across the Bay to the Artist’s Television Access, a storefront screening gallery in San Francisco’s Mission District, then moves further down to the backyard screening space of El Rio, a bar lower in the Mission. 

If the 20th century has been dominated by movies as an historical and psychological imperative, and if moving pictures are landmarks of great moments – public and private – in our lives, Hollywood can smugly pat itself on the back. The films of MadCat stand in opposition to the movie industry’s cultural insistence, but not as entrenched guerillas. The reactionary tone of the most effective films denounce the hegemony of the industry and its products, and at the same time they acknowledge a great affection for its spectacular glories. 

Where “Chaos Hags,” I and II, by Courtney Egan, is a two-minute looping collage of hair and lips and breasts and legs cut out from movie clips (with the “Wizard of Oz” mantra on the soundtrack: “Only bad witches are ugly”), a more forgiving ode to the graceful embrace of cinema is “Madame X,” a narcotic homage montage of on-screen water ballet. It doesn’t have the grandeur of Busby Berkeley, but is does have the fetish. Both shorts screen as part of the “Reinventing Cinema” program Saturday night at the PFA. 

Also in “Reinventing Cinema,” “Illusions” by Julia Dash closely mimics Hollywood’s classic style with a slyly subversive narrative. An African-American woman “passes” as a white executive of a movie studio during the rampant patriotism of the movie industry’s WWII effort. Among its Art Deco interior design and standard camera technique so ingrained in mainstream cinema you hardly notice it’s there, the character is given space to rant about her ambition to use the Hollywood structure to tell stories of real people, not just war heroes. The film is trying to historically buck the system, and is still able to indulge in musical numbers with coifed blondes and tuxedoed soft-shoe. 

It’s not just Hollywood’s sparkle and fade that threaten to be the popular document of history. Television and home movies offer a visual chronicle of our lives and times, and the filmmakers featured in MadCat are prone to problemize their visual cues.  

War, for example, is serious stuff. Survivors of war zones are treated with valor or pity. In the short documentary “Happy are the Happy,” Sarah Jane Lapp and Jenny Perlin asked them if anything funny happened, if dark times. Whereas Roberto Bignini’s Oscar-winning performance of zany antics in a concentration camp (“Life is Beautiful”) often lost sight of its horrors, the moments of jocularity in “Happy are the Happy” are never divorced from the bleak setting.  

Here’s a taste, from Sarajevo: 

A man returns to his village from the war with a new car. 

He spends all day driving the car around the plaza, smiling and waving his hand out the window. His friends tell him he’s being foolish, because everybody has a car. “Yes,” he says, “but not everybody has a hand.” 

Black humor, undeniably grotesque. But not altogether unfunny, in a sort of sick way. “Happy are the Happy” screens Friday night at the PFA in the “World Travelers of the Mind” program, which is followed by “Remembering the Past,” a program in which films continue to problemize historical events. 

In “Lineage,” in the “Remember the Past” program, filmmaker Erika Mijlin mines her father’s home recordings of the Apollo II moon landing. 

Dad had recorded the television broadcasts of Walter Cronkite’s reports of Houston collecting transmissions from space. The great distance between the viewer and the subject renders the true historical event taking place on the Mijlin family’s living room floor, not Tranquility Base.  

“Lineage” uses the static disruptions and blurry images to create a memory-scape of mankind’s giant leap in the summer of 1969.  

Sara Takahashi takes those ambiguities of film – scratches and blurs and distortions of light – personally in “Cut, Cut, Re-Cut,” screening at the PFA on Saturday as part of the “Reframing the Frame” program.  

Her film manipulates home movies from her childhood into what she calls a “prosthetic autobiography,” an account of her family dynamic, burdened by the artificiality of her artifacts.  

Through optical printing, densely layered editing and broken filmstrips Takahashi searches for an absolute truth inside 8mm frames, and gets tangled up in theories of plasticity and projection.  

Her voice over narration wonders if she is getting any closer to her mother, to whom we hear her speaking on a long-distance phone call. 

For more information on the MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, call the catline at (415) 436-9523, or log onto www.soaglow.com/madcat.


Sports briefs

Staff
Friday September 08, 2000

The Cal men’s golf team opened the 2000-01 season with a seventh-place finish at the Topy Cup at the Tanagura Country Club in Japan.  

Tohoku Fukushi of Japan won the 11-team competition, which featured four U.S. collegiate teams.  

Individually, senior Dong Yi, in his first competition for the Bears after taking a redshirt year last season, tied for 12th. After shooting an opening-round 76, he came back with a pair of 71s for a three-round total of 218 (+2).  

Unfortunately for Cal, no other player broke par in any round. Freshman Jayme Berkowitz opened with a 72, but finished tied for 37th with a 228 total. Walter Chun, who started with a 79, finished 73-72 to complete the tournament tied for 26th (224).  

The Bears return to action Sept. 25-26 for the Husky Invitational in Seattle.  

*** 

Student Tickets are still on sale for the upcoming football season. Season tickets cost $59 and are on sale at the Cal Athletic Ticket Office, located at 2223 Fulton St., between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. They may also be purchased at the Recreational Sports Facilty through Friday Sept. 8, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  

If you want to see the 2000 Big Game vs. Stanford, tickets are still available. Also on the home schedule are UCLA, Utah, Washington State and Oregon State.  

*** 

Cal heads to the Farm this weekend not to face their conference foe, the Cardinal, but to face a less familiar adversary in Northeastern University. The Huskies represent the America East Conference. Although a perennial field hockey powerhouse, Northeastern went through a rebuilding phase last year and finished 8-12.  

The Huskies are still a young team with only two seniors returning in forwards Krisanne Duchemin and Jenn Foley. Rounding out the Husky line-up are eight freshmen, seven sophomores and only three juniors. Northeastern comes to the West Coast after a 2-1 win over UMass, evening their overall record to 1-1. Cal is 0-1 all-time versus Northeastern, losing 3-1 in 1986.


School Board approves high school cameras

By William Inman Daily Planet Staff
Friday September 08, 2000

 

Berkeley High School students will soon have 38 watchful eyes looking over them in the hallways of the C, G and H buildings, the School Board decided Wednesday night. In a 4-0-1 vote, the board approved the use of the 38 cameras to monitor activity at the school, which suffered a rash of arson fires last year.  

Board President Joaquin Rivera, and Directors Pamela Doolan, Shirley Issel, and Ted Schultz voted in favor of the measure, while Vice President Terry Doran and Student Director Niles Xi ‘An Lichtenstein abstained. The student director’s vote is advisory. 

Directors added language to the resolution to make sure that the cameras would not provide live surveillance without the board’s permission and that the cameras could not be used for teacher evaluation. 

Doran, however, said he didn’t want surveillance under “any circumstance.” 

Issel voted in favor of the resolution only after adding a clarifying amendment to the resolution. “I want to be crystal clear that there would be no live surveillance without the permission of the board,” she said. 

She added that live surveillance could be useful and it shouldn’t be ruled out. 

“This is really serious and requires some public discussion, but it’s more useful than saying ‘you can never use this.’” 

Questions also arose over who would authorize the viewing of the tapes.  

The board left it to the judgment of the either the school administration, the Police Department or the Fire Department, if an incident were to occur that would compromise the safety of the students. 

Although the plan to install the cameras was devised in hopes of catching the arsonists, the cameras could theoretically be used at the discretion of the administration or the police, to review student behavior, such as violence or vandalism. 

“There will be a bunch of precedents,” Superintendent Jack McLaughlin said. “We have to develop a clear policy as to when its OK to go back and look at the videotape.” 

Issel added that it was imperative that the cameras be used as intended – the protection of the students. 

“You can’t provide for the safety of the students if you don’t have the means,” she said.  

“But there is a potential for abuse, and we have a responsibility to ensure that the devices be used for the purposes they were intended, which is prevention and apprehension.” 

McLaughlin said the cost of the implementation would be about: 

• $63,000 for cable installation. 

• $55,000 for equipment cost. 

• $22,000 for equipment installation. 

He said that these costs are estimates, and that staff will be working with contractors on the exact installation costs and the use of existing district cabling.  

Funds for the project could come from a one-time block grant that the school received from the state, or from bond interest, he said, explaining that there are still many details to work out, including a date for beginning the installation. 

“The concept is now approved,” he said. “We just have to get the details worked out.”


Proposition 10 recipients

Staff
Friday September 08, 2000

l Alta Bates Foundation/ Infant Follow-Up Clinic- $64,877 

The clinic serves high risk infants and includes neurodevelopment assessments, diagnostic and referral services plus expansion of clinic-based services. 

 

l Berkeley-Albany YMCA - $50,000 

The program provides developmentally appropriate integrated and comprehensive early intervention and prevention services to children age 0-5 with disabilities. 

 

l Center for the Education of the Infant Deaf - $46,250 

The funding will pay for outreach and training around infant hearing/deafness issues, including assessment training for public health nurses. It will include home visits. 

 

l Family Violence Law Center - $50,000 

The funding will go to family violence prevention programs for families whose children are at risk of abuse or neglect, including parenting skills and anger management classes and legal services. 

 

l Habitot Children’s Museum- $25,000 

The funds will go to a children’s educational program for low-income families and agencies serving at-risk families. 

 

l Jewish Children and Family Services - $35,000 

Funding is for prevention/early intervention services to the Jewish preschool system, including mental health services and parent support classes. 

 

l Lifelong Medical Care- $28,844 

The funding is for community health outreach to provide follow-up and community linkage to ensure low-income pregnant women receive prenatal medical services. 

 

l The Link to Children - $30,000 

The program provides mental health services for children and their families, including mental health intern recruitment/training, and parent empowerment services (education, newsletter, video/books.) 

 

l Through the Looking Glass- $50,000 

The program provides community-based family support services to disabled and deaf communities including outreach to expectant parents with disabilities, in-home support for disabled grandparent caregivers and disabled parents and children. 

l Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center - $20,000 

Funding will go for a staff position to allow a children’s program coordinator to conduct more outreach and develop more program linkages to other community-based organizations and services. 

 

l City of Berkeley Public Health Department - $100,000 

The funds will go for community organizing, education and planning programs to increase health and education services for young children and their families.


New league causes shifts in travel, traditional rivalries

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Friday September 08, 2000

St. Mary’s won’t play traditional rivals El Cerrito or DeAnza in football league play this year. Berkeley High won’t play Piedmont or Salesian at all. These historied matchups won’t be happening because of the formation of a new league in the East Bay. 

The Bay Shore Athletic League begins play this year, and many rivalries from the East Bay Athletic League, the ACCAL and the Superior Athletic League will have to be played out in non-league matchups. 

But that is a small price to pay for BSAL member St. Mary’s, which will now be matched up against teams closer to its own size, between 500 and 600 students. 

“It won’t make a big difference for football, but in smaller sports it’ll probably be more fair,” said St. Mary’s athletic director and head football coach Dan Shaughnessy. “We were getting overwhelmed in some sports.” 

The BSAL consists of St. Mary’s, Kennedy, Albany, Piedmont, St. Joseph’s, Holy Names, John Swett, St. Patrick-St. Vincent and Salesian. 

Berkeley High has moved to the ACCAL from the EBAL. They are now matched up against the biggest schools in the area, such as DeAnza and Alameda, and will have to make certain adjustments. 

“The biggest advantage now is there’s less travel, and funny things happen when you travel,” said Berkeley head football coach Gary Weaver. “Now the boys’ and girls’ families can come out and see their kids play more often.” 

Weaver said the biggest difference between the EBAL and the ACCAL is the style of play. 

“The EBAL teams were more passing-oriented, while the new teams seem to be better running the ball,” he said. 

While Berkeley High has less travel, St. Mary’s will have more, thanks to trips to BSAL members Kennedy, John Swett and St. Patrick-St. Vincent. 

“We’ll be heading up to Vallejo and out to Swett, but we won’t have any problems with transportation. Mom and Dad will go to Cucuomunga to see the kids play,” Shaughnessy said. 

While traditional rivalries may have been put aside during league play, St. Mary’s will still play former league-mates El Cerrito, DeAnza and Pinole Valley in pre-season play. 

“We’ve had real good competition with those teams, and formed close bonds,” Shaughnessy said. “We still want to compete against them. Now it’s just for bragging rights.”


Shellmound preservation effort strong

Josh Parr
Thursday September 07, 2000

Paved over, built on, and even sold for fertilizer and tennis court bedding, the West Berkeley shellmound is now completely covered by the cityscape.  

Monday evening, the Landmarks Preservation Commission convened to discuss procedures to preserve the remnants of Native American culture that lie beneath the blacktop. 

Though the commission did not endorse a proposed amendment to the existing Landmark Ordinance written by Vivian Khan, acting deputy director of the city’s Planning Department, it did unanimously decide to set such guidelines at a later meeting. 

Included in Kahn’s proposal were expansions of the Shellmound District boundaries, permit approval requirements, environmental review requirements, and exemptions for emergency repairs. 

At stake is the Landmarks Commission’s ability to review all permits for development, whether repairs, construction, or infrastructure work, that take place in the Shellmound Cultural Resource District - a swath of land extending beneath I-80 to what is now the Nature Company parking lot at the corner of Hearst Avenue and Fifth Street. 

“Basically,” says Khan, “the intent of the proposal was to preserve the resource. It would set guidelines for reviewing proposed building permits in the area so that any decisions made around development or repair would be based in fact – so you’re not flying blind and destroying a historical resource.” 

Several bones of contention were exhumed in last night’s deliberations. 

“We’ve never had to protect a resource that we can’t see,” Kahn said. “How to balance protection with the needs of developers is extremely delicate.” 

The proposals to extend the LPC’s jurisdiction to city streets was unprecedented, according to Rene Cardinaux, director of public works. 

“It’s the first time they’ve landmarked blocks and streets,” says Cardinaux, “and it could affect the ability to maintain utilities.” Cardinaux attended last night’s meeting to find a way to fast track public works’ projects in the shellmound area. 

“The protection proposals create a separate zone with its own rules, and I want to be able to maintain utilities and streets without having to get permission from the landmarks committee. What happens if there’s an emergency one morning, and the committee isn’t meeting for a month? 

“I don’t want somebody standing over me saying, ‘Hey wait a minute, you might be disturbing some shells,” says Cardinaux. 

Also affected will be the competing telecommunication firms trying to make inroads into Berkeley. Because West Berkeley is a growing area for dot-com businesses, competing telecommunication firms are attempting to access the “undeveloped” Oceanview neighborhood with cable and telecommunication technology. Building terminal boxes across the city, the telecom companies only need a city permit issued by the Public Works Department to begin construction. Because all permits to dig would fall under the supervision of the Landmark’s Commission, it could cause delays for “customers who want DSL lines.” 

If the shellmound district expands, as proposed, the zone would extend to include the Frontage Road and the Hearst Avenue right of way, an area covering Spenger’s Parking lot, Truitt and White Lumber Company and myriad smaller residences and dot-com “lofts.” If such a designation is given to this chunk of cityscape, argues Cardinaux, it would create a zone where something as simple as digging a hole in the ground would require an archaeologist and a Native American observer to get accomplished. 

So the public works head wants to map out the area, “to show where all the pipes and previous excavations were. This allows us to show that we’d be taking out soil that had already been imported, and didn’t have any historical resource in it. That will allow us to go ahead with the work that we need to get done, the work would be pre-approved,” says Cardinaux. 

“What I’m doing is getting control back on the streets.” 

Essentially, Cardinaux would be able to green light telecom digs through the Shellmound district, something that Leslie Emmington Jones, a member of the commission opposes. 

“We should have Pac Bell come before us,” she says. “If it falls under preservation, that’s what this commission is for.” 

Activists from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association say that such practices will not only undermine commission authority, but will chip away at an irreplaceable resource. Even if maps show where the imported soils are, “crews often miss by a foot or so, and even that would destroy historical resources that we don’t even know exist,” says John Dore, principal of Archaeological Mapping Specialists. 

“City workers would have the ability to designate what a cultural deposit is or isn’t. I often have to call in a geomorphologist to determine what’s an artifact and what’s not,” says Dore. 

Furthermore, public works excavation techniques don’t lend themselves to finding or preserving such artifacts, says Stephanie Manning, a member of BAHA. “There are piles of rubble from past digs sitting by the railroad tracks, and I’m certain that artifacts can be found inside them.” 

Richard Schwartz, a local contractor and author of “Berkeley 1900,” a compendium of old Berkeley Gazette stories, says that such a loophole provides carte blanche access for development and places a historical resource in the hands of people whose primary interests are at odds with preservation. 

“In construction, everybody’s job depends on construction. If you think that anyone in the field has an interest in reporting archaeological finds, think again,” said Schwartz. 

He also remembers what happened to the Emeryville shellmound. “There were all kinds of promises about what would happen there, but because protecting the site was not a priority, the shellmound is now gone. 

“The only way to preserve the shellmound is to decide to protect it. Trying to find a balance between development and preservation only means that preservation is being compromised,” says Schwartz.


Thursday September 07, 2000

Wednesday, Sept. 6 

Alzheimer’s and dementia  

support group 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Martial arts demonstration 

noon-1 p.m. 

Sproul Hall steps, Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley  

UC Berkeley Martial Arts Program will put on a demonstration to show what martial arts styles are offered at the university. 

Contact Patrick at beatty@haas.berkeley.edu. 

 

Thursday, Sept. 7 

Housing Advisory  

Commission 

Regular meeting 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Agenda includes discussion and action on project-based Section 8 proposal and program to inspect vacant units and monitor for fire alarms. 

 

Growing wise  

with Betty Goren 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

“Discipline & Citizenship” conference 

6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

 

Conversation between actor  

Paul Newman and Laura  

D'Andrea Tyson 

5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Arthur Andersen Auditorium 

Gayley Road between Hearst Avenue and Bancroft Way 

The event inaugurates the business school's annual lecture series Forum on Philanthropy in Business. 

 

Rent Stabilization Board 

7 p.m. 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Among the issues the board will hear is a tenant’s appeal of a hearing examiner’s decision. The tenant in a building at 2472 Virginia St. will argue that the rent reductions granted for habitabilitiy problems were too small. 

 

Friday, Sept. 8 

Computer, software help 

Vista College, Room 303, 7 p.m. 

Topic will center on Quicklink Pen, a small hand scanner 

For more information call (510) 527-2177 or meldancing@aol.com 

 

“Discipline & Citizenship” 

conference 

9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

895-4542 

 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Berkeley Critical Mass 

5:30 p.m. gather, 6 p.m. ride 

Downtown Berkeley BART plaza 

Join scores of happy cyclists and even some rollers and 

joggers in this monthly celebration and street reclamation. 

Kids welcome! After the ride there will be a free party. 

273-9288 www.bclu.org 

 

Saturday, Sept. 9 

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

 

Sunday, Sept. 10 

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

 

“Next Stop, Greenwich  

Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

$2 suggested donation.  

848-0237 

 

Sunday, Sept. 10  

Solano Avenue Stroll 

10 a.m. 

The Local Legacies on Parade kicks off with Grand Marshal Wavy Gravy. The mile-long block party is filled with over 75 entertainers including RhythMix - a women's percussion group, Frog Legs - a Cajun band, and Mal  

Sharpe & Big Money in Dixieland. There's a giant slide, a bicycle ramp-jumping show, ethnic foods, game booths, a hang gliding simulator, pony rides, castle bounces, a silent auction, dunk tanks, art projects, palm readings and more. Admission is free. 

Monday, Sept. 11 

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA  

Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

 

Voter workshop 

1 p.m. 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Tuesday, Sept. 12 

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

Wednesday, Sept. 13 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Last town hall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

Thursday, Sept. 14 

Eugene O’Neil House,  

Mt. Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

Environmental Sampling Project Task Force 

6:30 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way 

Agenda items include public comment time and sampling reviews 

486-4387 

 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

What next for Haiti? 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Avenue, 

What is the true story behind the recent elections in Haiti? What’s the real impact of the global economy on Haiti? 

483-7481  

please call to reserve childcare 

$5-10 

Friday, Sept. 15 

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

 

“Lift the Sanctions from Iraq” 

Interfaith Brunch & Community Gathering. Talk by Denis Halliday, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General 

10:30 a.m. -noon 

Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento 

527-8370 

Saturday, Sept. 16 

 

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Seabreeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

848-9358  

 

 

 

Sunday, September 17 

Berkeley Citizen’s Action Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

To include local and state endorsements. 

Please place this upcoming event in your listings. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 

 

Thursday, Sept. 21 

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

415-749-4965 

 

Friday, September 22  

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

 

Saturday, Sept. 23 

From Capitalism to Equality 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. at Alcatraz 

Why have the conditions of work become more difficult and the 

rewards more unequal since 1973? Join author Charles Andrews to 

discuss these issues and solutions for them. 

$5 admission includes $10 discount coupon the book, “From Capitalism to Equality” 

535-2476 

 

Sunday, Sept. 24  

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using both story-telling and generational techniques, Dr. Lois Silverstein will offer beginning steps to rediscovering family heritage and traditions.  

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 

848-0237 

 

5th anniversary party and film festival 

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Fifth Birthday 

6-8 p.m. party 

film: 8:30-10:30 p.m. 

Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Movie Theater 

1901 Gilman St. 

The event is to honor five years of BFB bike advocacy. Films will include: “Pedalphiles and Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels” 

Bring something to sit on. 

Free to members; $10-$20 sliding scale to non members.  

549-7433 

 

“How Berkeley Can You Be?” 

11 a.m. on University Avenue and California Street, culminating at Civic Center outside Berkeley High School 

Festival in the park starts at 12:30 p.m. 

849-4688, www.howberkeleycanyoube.com 

 

Monday, Sept. 25 

Open forum on affordable housing 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Sean Heron of the East Bay Housing Organizations will talk about building a campaign for affordable housing. Sponsored by the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project. 

1-800-773-2110 

 

Wednesday, Sept. 27 

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Business” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework promoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

 

Saturday, Sept. 30 

Jim Hightower: “Election 2000: a Space Odyssey” 

8 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Sponsored by KPFA and Global Exchange 

“I am an agitator,” Hightower says. “The agitator is the centerpost in a washing machine that gets the dirt out.” 

$10 in advance/$12 at the door 

848-6767 x609 

 

 

Monday, October 2 

“2nd annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

“Clean Lies Dirty War” 

7:30 p.m. Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar 

Event is part of a national campaign to end sanctions on Iraq.  

(510) 528-5403 

 

Thursday, October 5 

3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

 

ONGOING EVENTS 

 

Sundays 

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 

 

 

 

Tuesdays 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

 

 

 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

 

 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

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. 

234-0727;642-5168 

 

Tuesday and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109


Indian-American community supports mom charged with children's attempted murder

Viji Sundaram (Pacific News Service)
Thursday September 07, 2000

LOS ANGELES – On the morning of Aug. 27, when Nina Sloan saw Narinder Virk on her regular weekly visit to the Ventura County Jail, Virk asked, teary-eyed, “Can nothing be done? Can no one come up with the money and get me out of here?”  

That did it. “I decided that this girl should be bailed out without any further delay,” said Sloan, 66, a retired county employee who, like Virk, was born and raised in India's Punjab province. 

That very afternoon, Sloan offered to put up all her personal property – two rental houses, her bank certificates of deposit and jewelry – as collateral toward Virk's $500,000 bail. 

“I did it because I know what a battered woman goes through,” Sloan says, “I know how she must feel because I went through two terrible marriages myself.” 

Sloan is one of dozens of sympathizers – in the Indian-American community and outside it – rallying behind the 39-year-old Virk who was arrested in January for allegedly trying to drown her son, age 9 and daughter, 6, and herself in Channel Islands Harbor. 

A harbor resident and former lifeguard awakened by cries for help from the little boy rescued the three. At the time of the rescue, mother and daughter were unconscious. 

Virk is facing two counts of attempted murder, a charge that could keep her in prison for life. Her attorney, Ventura County Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles, said the trial will probably begin early next year. 

Virk's supporters say her action was a result of years of abuse at the hands of her husband, Santokh, a liquor store owner in Port Hueneme, CA. 

When called for his comments, an angry-sounding Santokh told this reporter, “I don't want my side of the story in the paper. I don't want my name or my children's names in your paper. You can put my wife's name, but not mine.” 

The case has brought rare unanimity to the diverse and somewhat fractured Indian-American community. At every one of her court hearings, community members – among them Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Parsis and Muslims – have packed the courtroom in a strong show of support. 

At one hearing, supporters handed over a petition to prosecutors with 1,000 signatures on it, urging leniency. 

Indian-Americans “have a more sophisticated analysis of domestic violence” than they once did, notes Firoza Dabby, executive director of Narika, a nine-year-old support group for South Asian victims of domestic violence based in Berkeley. Dabby said that formerly South Asians living in the U.S. would have either denied that the problem existed or explained it away as culturally acceptable. 

Briles argues that Virk was suffering from depression when she attempted the murder-suicide because of the years of harsh abuse she had endured from her husband. 

She was trapped in a loveless marriage, kept isolated in their home, Briles said. Virk snapped when her husband left for India telling her he was going to file for divorce there. 

Virk came to the U.S. in 1991 from a small farming village in Punjab, sponsored by her husband. Poverty and prejudice kept her from receiving any formal education. Virk neither reads nor writes Punjabi, and does not know any English. 

This did not trouble her would-be husband or his family when they entered into negotiations for the marriage in 1978 when she was barely 18 and he 21. All Santokh wanted was someone who could cook, keep house and produce children – a role acceptable to Virk as a young woman reared in India's village culture where female subservience is the norm. 

Virk, speaking through an interpreter in a jailhouse interview, said that the first 14 years of her marriage were trouble free. In 1984, Santokh left for the U.S. and found himself a job in Northridge, while she stayed in India with relatives. He would visit them every couple of years. 

Virk joined her husband in the U.S. in 1991 and soon became pregnant. She assumed her husband would provide for her, as he had always done. She in turn, would be a dutiful housewife, as she had always been. 

But within a couple of years after their son was born, Virk saw her marriage turn into a sinister game. Her husband kept her isolated, blocking long-distance phone calls and restricting her every movement. 

“I was unable to speak to my parents or write to them,” she says. “I had no relatives to talk to and the only loved ones I had were my children.” 

Santokh began drinking. Then the physical abuse began. “He never abused the children,” Virk said, through tears. “When he got drunk, though, he would beat me in front of the children.” 

In 1997, he took her and the children to India and dumped them there, says Virk. “I tried to call him, but he wouldn't take my calls.” She and the children flew back to Los Angeles using their round trip tickets when a friend warned that her green card would lapse if she stayed away from the U.S. for too long. 

The next year her husband took off for India for six months, leaving her and the children with no money for food. For two years she poured out her grief to a tape recorder. Four tapes were recovered by investigators from the Virk home after she was arrested. In one outpouring she recounts that “I have two small children, I don't have any right to live, but still he threatens me that I will be killed.” 

Virk said hunger and fear drove her to the local Sikh temple where she told the priest of her situation. But for the kindness of her neighbor, Elisa Quezada, and friends from the Sikh community, she and her children would have gone without food many a day. 

Quezada, a mother of four, and Virk communicated and bonded, crossing language barriers. “She was afraid they would go hungry,” Quezada says in halting English. “(Every time) he left her and went away, she didn't know when he would come back.” 

When Virk's case goes to trial, jury members are sure to wonder why she never called the police or walked out. Briles will have to convince them that Virk grew up in a country where the police are not always viewed as helpful and sympathetic, in a culture where women are told that marriage is forever, that if it fails, the wife – not her husband – didn't do enough to make it work. 

 

Viji Sundaram is a staff reporter for India West, a weekly journal based in San Leandro. A longer version of this story appears in the


Berkeley playwright will be at Fringe Festival

John Angell Grant
Thursday September 07, 2000

Timothy Erenta, former playwright-in-residence at Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, will present his solo performance piece "Happy Endings are Overrated" as part of the ninth annual San Francisco Fringe Festival that opens Thursday. 

Over the course of the festival’s 11-day run, 52 local, national and international theater companies and artists will present 250 performances of traditional plays, solo performance, dance and physical theater, sketch comedy, and multi-media happenings, in what has become a yearly ritual of avant garde Bay Area theater madness. 

The San Francisco Fringe Theater Festival, masterminded by Christina Augello and Richard Livingston of San Francisco’s Exit Theater, is part of a "family" of fringe festivals from around the world, some as old at 50 years.  

All these festivals follow the Fringe tradition of showcasing uncensored, non-traditional, not-yet-famous actors, puppeteers, mimes, dancers, and musicians. The result is controlled chaos, and a chance for the public to experience live performances at bargain prices. 

Each performance runs under 60 minutes, each event has a maximum ticket price of $8, and one hundred percent of the ticket revenue goes to the performers. 

Show starting times are staggered at 90 minute intervals, so that theater addicts can walk from performance to performance at key downtown venues near San Francisco’s Union Square. 

Erenta’s “Happy Endings Are Overrated” tells the behind-the-scenes story of the Prince character from the Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella stories.  

Erenta is an actor, playwright and storyteller who specializes in ancient myth, folk and fairy tales, and family stories. 

His plays have been seen by more than 50,000 elementary school students in Northern California. He serves on the board of directors of the Storytelling Association of Alta California. 

Other highlights from the 52 Fringe shows include the return of Bay Arean Byron Yee, whose “Paper Son” broke out of the San Francisco Fringe in 1998 to enjoy sold-out runs across the United States and Canada, and at the Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe,. Yee will be back with a new work titled “Opium.” 

Antonio Sacre of Los Angeles also returns with “My Penis– In and Out of Trouble,” which won the New York “Best of the Fringe Festival Award” for solo performance in 1999. 

From Orlando, Florida, comes "”Trailer Trash Tabloid!: The Mobile Homo [sic] Sex Scandals, Murders & Other Unnatural Disasters of 1964,” in which two actors take the audience on a madcap, plot-twisting, roller-coaster ride playing all the residents of a South Georgia trailer park. 

This high-camp comedy, featuring rapid-fire dialogue and quick costume changes, was the outright hit of this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival, turning away hundreds at every performance. 

Bay Arean Trevor Allen’s play “Chain Reactions,” presented by Black Box Theater Company, invites audiences to Golden Gate Park’s Morrison Planetarium to explore the connections among Einstein, a pregnant physicist, and a bachelor with an empty fishbowl. 

Other than the Golden Gate Park shows, most Fringe Festival performance locations are within walking distance of San Francisco’s downtown Union Square. These locations include Exit Theater, EXIT Stage Left, the Phoenix II, the Lorraine Hansberry Theater and Il Teatro 450.  

Shows begin from 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, from September 7-17. 

For more information about the Fringe, or a full schedule of events, call 415/673-3847, or visit the website (www.sffringe.org). Tickets for downtown venues are available only at the time of performance.


2000 is a make-or-break season for Bears, Holmoe

Thursday September 07, 2000

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

 

For a man with a year left on his current contract and an extension just waiting for his signature, Tom Holmoe doesn’t seem too secure. He has repeatedly stated that he considers this season his last chance to show some improvement in the standings, and his minimum goal is to reach a bowl game. This would be a surprise to most, as most prognosticators have the Bears finishing no higher than eighth in the Pac-10, which has six bowl spots. 

If the Bears are to exceed expectations and reach a bowl game, they will have to lean heavily on two sophomores, quarterback Kyle Boller and tailback Joe Igber. Boller is coming off of a difficult freshman year, during which he completed 38.6 percent of his passes and was ended prematurely by a separated shoulder in his eighth start. If he can make a leap similar to that of former UCLA quarterback Cade McNown, who struggled as a true freshman but became a great quarterback and leader, the Bears will definitely improve. 

Igber had a productive freshman year with 694 rushing yards, but was also hampered by injury, playing with a bum shoulder during the final five games. But his slippery moves and instincts for hitting the hole make him a dangerous back if he can stay healthy.  

The receiving corps is a mess, as newcomers battle the two remaining lettermen for playing time. Boller desperately needs one or two of them to step up and become reliable pass-catchers. 

Injuries have made what should have been a veteran offensive line into a question mark going into the season opener against Utah. The top two right guards, Scott Tercero and David Hays, are both out with injuries, and veteran center Reed Diehl is struggling with an injured snapping hand. 

The defense lost several veteran starters, including three linebackers to the NFL, but should again be the strength of the team. The defensive line has the potential to be the most dominant in the conference, with seniors Andre Carter and Jacob Waasdorp teaming up for a fourth year. The six new starters behind the line will struggle early, but should come together as a unit in time for conference play. 

The kicking game is a mystery except for pre-season All-American punter Nick Harris. Mark-Christian Jensen has looked great in practice, but he had little success last year. The return game looks solid, but Iwuoma has to prove he can be a game-breaker returning punts and kickoffs. 

It all comes back to Boller and the receivers. If they can connect and make opponents respect the passing game, Igber should have more room to run. Boller has the talent, but can he find the magic that great quarterbacks have? Holmoe is anxiously awaiting the answer.


Recycling in city expands

William Inman
Thursday September 07, 2000

Dave Williamson couldn’t repeat the two words enough – “manufacturers’ responsibility.” 

That’s why the operations manager for the Ecology Center said that the center, on contract with the city to pick up curbside recyclables, didn’t want to collect plastics in the early ’90s. 

“The reason why this material wasn’t picked up was a pragmatic one,” Williamson said. “The plastics industry has not done its part to make revisions and buy it back and recycle it.” 

In February, the City Council ordered the Ecology Center to begin collecting No. 1 PET and No. 2 HDPE plastics curbside, and Sept. 1 the center began picking up plastic bottles and jugs. 

Now, anything with a neck smaller than its base and is labeled by a No.1 or a No. 2 surrounded by the chasing arrows, can be tossed into the recycling bin with aluminum and glass. 

The Ecology Center has been picking up recyclables for 25 years in Berkeley. It conducted a curbside plastics program in 1996 in two sections of the city to test the waters.  

“It worked out,” he said. “We found we could do it in a cost-effective manner.” 

But after the Plastics Task Force formed in 1995 – a group of Berkelyeans who worked in conjunction with the Ecology Center – they found that much of the plastic collected by cities ends up in landfills all over the world anyway. So the City Council voted in 1996 not to move ahead with a plastics pick-up program. 

When the notion came back to the council in February, the old arguments resurfaced. Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that it’s sort of misleading to tell the public that plastic is, in reality, being recycled. 

“We need to put more pressure on the plastic industry to increase the capacity for using these products,” said Worthington, who in February voted to amend the agenda item to include council pressure on the plastic industry to come up with technology that would actually turn plastic bottles back into plastic bottles. 

The plastics that Berkeley recycles will not be converted to containers again, but will be made into secondary products such as grocery bags, carpets and plastic lumber. 

Better than going into the landfill, yes, but most of these secondary materials are non-recyclable, Williamson said. 

The problem is standardization.  

“Despite the numbers on the bottles, there is a chemical variance,” he said. “You can’t mix the two together.” 

He added that it’s very difficult to get recycled plastic back into a bottle, and most U.S. manufacturers have resisted pressure to use anything other than virgin plastics. 

“The only thing that will solve it is legislation,” he said. 

He said that the Ecology Center is wholeheartedly supporting SB1110, a bill working its way through the Senate that requires manufacturers to include 35 percent of recycled content in its plastic packaging. 

He added that the Food and Drug Administration has approved around 55 different processes that would recycle plastics back into food containers, but “It’s a matter of price,” he said. 

Williamson said that the No. 1 plastic that the city collects is being sold to a company that will make it into rugs, and the No. 2 plastics are being sold to a company that makes garbage bags. 

Some of the No. 2 plastics is being sold to a company that sells it directly back to the Proctor and Gamble Co. for reuse. 

The Ecology Center has added two new trucks with additional capacity for the 130 annual tons of plastic they anticipate. Williamson said the city recycles 7,000 tons of material a year. 

He also said that the state has initiated redemption fees for some No.1 and No. 2 plastics, and the city should be able reap some of the benefits.  

The Ecology Center asks that residents step on the containers to reduce the space they use. 

For more information, call the Ecology Center at 527-5555.


Pac-10 2000 Preview

Jared Green
Thursday September 07, 2000

1. UCLA Bruins 

(4-7 last season, 2-6 in the Pac-10) 

The Bruins certainly looked like the class of the conference with their opening win over Alabama, and there’s no arguing with the talent they have on both sides of the ball. 

The quarterback situation is up in the air, with sophomores Corey Paus and Ryan McCann battling for playing time. Paus won the job out of camp, but suffered a separated shoulder on the season’s opening drive. McCann came in and led the Bruins down the field several times against Alabama’s vaunted defense, showing that he can do the job. Even if Paus returns at full strength, look for a the battle to continue all season. Head coach Bob Toledo could end up rotating the pair to keep them both happy.  

Starting wideouts Brian Poli-Dixon and Freddie Mitchell are the best duo in the conference, and huge tight end Gabe Crecion serves as an outlet in the passing game along with as creating holes for tailback DeShaun Foster, the most talented back in the conference. If he can stay healthy after dealing with ankle and knee injuries the past two years, the junior should have a breakout year running behind a monsterous line and catch the attention of NFL scouts. 

As with most of the Pac-10 contenders, the Bruins’ real questions are on defense. Senior end Kenyon Coleman is the most proven of the line candidates, but a dominating defensive end has to get more than the 3.5 sacks he recorded last season. Junior linebackers Ryan Nece and Robert Thomas are both Butkus Award candidates, and Thomas was all over the field against Alabama. 

If UCLA can survive another huge non-conference game with Michigan with no key injuries, they are capable of running the Pac-10 table. The schedule is a killer, as the Bruins miss only basement-dweller Washington State in conference play. But with Washington dealing with injuries and suspensions and UCLA getting USC at home, the Bruins could be in for a big year. 

 

2. USC Trojans  

(6-6, 3-5 Pac-10) 

Coach Paul Hackett can rest a little easier after the Trojans routed Penn State 29-5 in the Kickoff Classic. Hackett’s job may still be in jeopardy, however, if USC doesn’t translate speed and talent into results this season. Hackett has recruited unprecedented speed to “Tailback U,” but track stars don’t always make for football stars. But with four players who run the 100-meter dash in under 10.5 seconds, Hackett had better hope they get a chance to show their speed with a football in their hands. 

One of those speedsters, tailback Sultan McCullough, had a breakout game against Penn State, rushing for a career-high 128 yards, most of them tough yards between the tackles. If he can show the same toughness week in and week out, he could be the latest in the storied line of great USC running backs. 

Also returning from injury is junior quarterback Carson Palmer. Palmer looked outstanding before breaking his collarbone in week three last season, and is expected to be one of the top signal-callers in the nation this year. He looked hesitant against Penn State, but will come around as he gets back into the flow of the offense. He certainly has a wealth of receivers to throw to, with sophomore Kareem Kelly looking like a future star after catching 54 passes for 902 yards as a true freshman last year. 

Summer wasn’t kind to the USC defense, as the team’s best cover cornerback, Antuan Simmons, is probably out for the year after having surgery in May to remove a benign growth in his abdomen. The Trojans still return nine starters, however, and have several standout players. Linebackers Zeke Moreno and Markus Steele are among the nation’s elite at their positions, and tackles Ennis Davis and Ryan Nielsen team with them to form a solid heart of the defense. 

The Trojans are another team capable of winning the conference. It may come down to the final weekend’s rivalry game with UCLA to determine the Pac-10 Rose Bowl entry. 

 

3. Washington Huskies  

(7-4, 6-2 Pac-10) 

The team that entered fall camp as many experts’ pick to win the Pac-10, the Huskies have several problems looming over their heads as the season begins. Marques Tuiasosopo is clearly a special talent at quarterback, but who will he throw the ball to? The team’s best receiver, Chris Juergens, is out with a knee injury, and potential star tight end Jerramy Stevens is facing legal problems following a July arrest in a rape investigation. Also, the Huskies only proven cornerback, Tony Vontoure, was suspended for breaking team rules. The Huskies don’t have the overwhelming talent of the southern California schools, and the loss of three key players would be too much to ask Tuiasosopo to compensate for. 

With little talent at receiver, coach Rick Neuheisel will turn to tailback Paul Arnold to carry the offense along with Tuiasosopo. Arnold, who averaged 6.3 yards per carry last year, put some extra muscle onto his small frame this summer and should be a breakout star this year. Huge lineman Chad Ward (6’5”, 335) will move from guard to tackle this year, and along with three other returning starters, should provide room for Arnold and Tuiasosopo to run. 

The defensive line returns only one starter, and the talent is thin at best. After recording just 13 sacks last year, the Husky defense doesn’t scare anyone. 

 

4. Oregon Ducks  

(9-3, 6-2 Pac-10) 

The Ducks were the Pac-10’s second-biggest surprise last year, finishing just behind the Rose Bowl-bound Stanford. Coach Mike Bellotti’s offense averaged more than 35 points per game. All-Pac-10 tailback Reuben Droughns is the biggest loss, with junior college transfer Maurice Morris the leading candidate to take over the position. The lack of experience at the position, combined with the three-deep tight end position, may lead to more one-back sets this year. 

The talented duo of junior Joey Harrington and senior A.J. Feeley will battle for time at the quarterback spot, with Harrington named the starter.  

The defense returns only three starters. The defensive line will be led by senior end Saul Patu, who had 7 sacks last season. He will be joined by fellow seniors Quinn Dorsey and Jed Boice. Senior inside linebacker Matt Smith was third on the team in tackles last season, and should step up to a leadership role this year. 

The secondary should be the strongest area of the defense, as CB Brian Johnson is joined by Rashad Bauman, who missed last season with a knee injury. Bauman, a junior, joined the starting lineup as a true freshman in 1997 and earned honorable mention all-conference honors his sophomore year. Assuming he’s fully recovered, the Ducks should be one of the top pass-defense teams in the conference. 

 

5. Stanford Cardinal  

(8-3, 7-1 Pac-10) 

Stanford’s unlikely run to the Rose Bowl last year was powered by the conference’s best offense, as the Cardinal had the worst defense in the Pac-10. They parlayed their success into on of the nation’s top recruiting classes, so the future looks bright for the program. But this season will be filled with transition and growing pains. 

The offense returns seven starters, which should provide a solid base. But all four of the departed starters were first-team All-Pac-10 performers last year, and the projected starter at quarterback, Joe Borchard, was stolen away by baseball’s Chicago White Sox. The starter will be Randy Fasani, who played mostly on special teams and at linebacker last season. He looked good against Washington State in the opener, but consistency is a question. 

Junior Brian Allen and sophomore Kerry Carter were both impressive at tailback last year; Allen averaged 5.3 yards per carry, and Carter led the team with six rushing touchdowns. If the passing game looks weak early in the season, coach Tyrone Willingham may be forced to scrap tradition and concentrate on the ground game. The line blocking for the tandem returns three starters, but must deal with the loss of center Mike McLaughlin and left tackle Jeff Cronshagen. Both were All-Pac-10 players last season, and McLaughlin made all the line calls. 

The defense is led by senior tackle Willie Howard, who was awarded the Morris Trophy as the Pac-10’s best defensive lineman, and played in the Rose Bowl despite suffering considerable damage to his knee in the last regular season game. Howard founded the “Trench Dogs,” the tightly-knit group of linemen that return five of the top six players this year. Combine the line with senior outside linebacker Riall Johnson, who tied for the conference lead in sacks with 13, opposing quarterbacks should feel the heat this year. The Cardinal certainly hope so, as the secondary is unproven. 

 

6. California Bears  

(4-7, 3-5 Pac-10) 

See breakdown on page 16 

 

7. Arizona Wildcats  

(6-6, 3-5 Pac-10) 

The Wildcats were possibly the biggest disappointment in the nation last year, starting with the humiliating 41-7 loss to open the season against Penn St. Picked to finish in the top 5 in nearly every poll, they didn’t even make a bowl game. QB Ortege Jenkins will be given the keys to the offense full-time this year, after splitting time with the departed Keith Smith for the past three seasons. Jenkins has the athleticism and arm to be a star, but his judgement hasn’t always been the best. If he can step up and find two-way star Bobby Wade (WR/CB) and TE Brandon Manumaleuna for some big gains, the running game should open up for the tailback tandem of Leo Mills and Larry Croom The offensive line returns four starters, so holes should open up for the runners on a regular basis. 

After dominating defensively with head coach Dick Tomey’s “Flex Eagle” defense in the early and mid-90s, the Wildcats have struggled to stop the opposition for the past two seasons. But with the defensive line returning players like Joe Tafoya, Idris Haroon and Keoni Fraser, the Wildcats should get back to their attacking ways, smothering running backs and harassing quarterbacks. The secondary is shaky, led by converted receiver Brandon Nash at strong safety, and will have to prove it can stop the big play that plagued the defense last season. 

 

8. Oregon State (7-5, 4-4 Pac-10) 

Well-traveled coach Dennis Erickson took over the program at Oregon State last year, and the move paid immediate dividends as the Beavers had their first winning season since 1970 and made their first bowl game appearance since 1964. Fourteen returning starters would seem to assure the program of staying in the middle of the pack. But this team has never dealt with any expectations before, and the pressure may show. 

The Beavers got an ugly start to the year when five players, including top receiver Robert Prescott, were suspended indefinitely for connection to the beating of a fellow student. His loss leaves QB Jonathan Smith without a go-to receiver. Smith is a good leader, but he only completed 49 percent of his passes last season. The offense really depends on tailback Ken Simonton, who gained 1,329 yards last season. He should continue to plow through defenses during his junior year. But if the Beavers can’t get the passing game going, it’ll be a long season. 

The secondary returns intact and should be the best of the Pac-10. Assuming CB Dennis Weathersby can beat his off-field legal problems, the sophomore should be one of the conference’s best. Strong safety Terrence Carroll is a hard hitter who plays the run and pass equally well. 

The defensive questions come in the interior of the line and linebackers. Both tackles are letter-winners who have experience, but neither has shown themselves to be an outstanding talent. The starting ends, seniors DeLawrence Grant and LaDairis Jackson, combined for 11 sacks last year and should be solid. 

 

9. Arizona State Sun Devils (6-6, 5-3 Pac-10) 

What should have been a strong offensive season for the Sun Devils went down the drain during the summer. Senior QB Ryan Kealy, plagued by injury the past two seasons, was healthy and ready to lead the offense. But Kealy was suspended by Coach Bruce Snyder for “breaking unspecified rules.” If he isn’t reinstated, the job goes to redshirt freshman Jeff Krohn, which would doom the Sun Devils to the second division. 

The other offensive mainstay was supposed to be senior tailback Delvon Flowers, who ran for 512 yards last season while backing up the departed J.R. Redmond. But Flowers’ year came to a premature end when he injured his knee during a pre-season scrimmage. With Flowers out for the year, the tailback duties fall to untested junior Davaren Hightower. 

The only proven weapon left for Arizona State is junior tight end Todd Heap, who led the team in receptions last season and has been picked for several pre-season All-America teams. But in the high-scoring Pac-10, having a tight end as the main offensive threat leaves a team at the bottom looking up. 

The defense will be led by a talented linebacking corps, including first-team All-Pac-10 performer Adam Archuleta, who led the conference in tackles-for-loss last season, and freshman All-America Solomon Bates, who is coming off a knee injury. Both cornerbacks are new as well, but with several experienced safeties to choose from, the secondary should come together. 

 

10. Washington State (3-9, 1-7 Pac-10) 

Three straight three-win seasons have put longtime head coach Mike Price’s job in jeopardy. Just 11 starters return, so Price will be counting on a bunch of newcomers to contribute right away. Unfortunately, Pullman isn’t exactly a magnet for high-profile recruits, and it doesn’t look like the losing will stop this year. 

Price has had success with big, pocket-passer quarterbacks like Drew Bledsoe and Ryan Leaf. So it is curious that he chose sophomore Jason Gesser, a mobile athlete, over freshman Matt Kegel, a 6’5”, 226 pounder with a rocket arm, to start the season. Look for Kegel to take over at some point this year, as he fits the offense better than Gesser. 

The receivers are solid but not spectacular, depending on the spread offense to provide room to run after the catch. Huge senior Marcus Williams (6’5”, 231), caught 28 passes and four touchdowns last year. This may be the first time in Cougar history that the running game looks more reliable than the air attack. Deon Burnett was the top freshman rusher in the conference last year, gaining 974 yards. He is an ideal back for the spread offense, able to hit draws up the middle and step up to pass-block for the quarterback. 

The defensive backfield should be a strength, with senior Lamont Thompson moving from cornerback back to free safety, where he looked like a future star as a true freshman on the 1997 Rose Bowl team. Sophomore cornerback Marcus Trufant looked like a player last year; he needs to turn some of his 13 pass deflections into picks.


Parking lot protester trial delayed

Michael Coffino
Thursday September 07, 2000

 

The trial of a 34-year-old Berkeley law student scheduled to begin Wednesday in Oakland Superior Court was reset after the judge held a lengthy closed meeting with prosecution and defense lawyers to discuss whether the case would be decided by a judge or jury.  

Rick Young, a third-year law student from Pennsylvania, is facing three counts of disorderly conduct in connection with his 21-day protest in May against a planned parking structure south of the UC Berkeley campus. On April 30, Young installed himself at the Underhill parking lot at College Avenue and Channing Way, later fortifying his encampment with couches and a television set. 

He was arrested three times by campus police in May for “unlawful lodging,” but returned to the protest site each time.  

If found guilty, Young could be sentenced to as much as a year and a half in jail. 

“We have the right to request a jury trial,” Young said Wednesday. “We may try to go in front of the judge that has been hearing it all along since he is familiar with the case.” 

That appeared to be the outcome yesterday after Young’s lawyer, Oakland public defender Mike Sobel, and Assistant District Attorney David Lim met privately with Superior Court judge Marshall Whitley in chambers. The judge transferred the case to Judge Thomas Reardon and rescheduled the trial for October 20 at 9 am.  

The trial had been expected to start yesterday. Five campus police officers were among the witnesses waiting to testify in the criminal case. Dressed in dark suits, they sat side by side in the front row of the courtroom.  

Assistant D.A. Lim will likely call the officers to testify against Young, who staged his three-week demonstration to protest the university’s plan to construct a multi-story parking garage in the Underhill area.  

Young believes student housing should be constructed there instead of additional parking spaces. 

“I just think it’s socially and environmentally irresponsible to build a giant parking structure given the environmental impact and the need for more housing in Berkeley,” he said yesterday. Young is no longer living in the Underhill lot, where he studied by flashlight for his law exams last spring. He nevertheless appeared fatigued yesterday. 

Attired in a blue dress shirt and slacks, Young slept in his seat in the back of the courtroom as the morning session dragged on, his head resting against the wood-paneled wall. Young said he will argue that his protest was a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. He denied it was an act of civil disobedience. 

“Civil disobedience means you’re breaking the law,” he said, “and I don’t think I broke the law.” Earlier this year the District Attorney’s office proposed a plea bargain in which Young would have agreed to plead guilty to one count of disorderly conduct.  

“They wanted me to plead guilty to one count and then I’d get probation,” said Young, who plans to practice law when he graduates. But Young refused to accept the plea offer. Prosecutor Lim could not be reached for comment yesterday. 

Young attended college at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania before enrolling at Boalt Hall as a law student in 1998.  

He said the protest was motivated in part because he had trouble finding housing when he first moved to Berkeley.  

The area slated for development forms a square city block bordered by College Avenue, Channing Way, Bowditch and Haste.  

In April, the university announced a plan to construct a 1,000-space multi-level parking garage topped by a playing field, along with housing for 900 students.  

The Underhill area previously held a multi-level parking garage with an astroturf field on top. But in 1993 the University demolished the garage after engineers determined it was seismically unsafe. The current lot can accommodate a total of 425 cars.


BHS volleyball kicks off league play with a win

Thursday September 07, 2000

By Tukka Hess 

Daily Planet Correspondent 

 

Berkeley High responded to the first challenge of their volleyball league season last night, handily beating Piedmont three games to one at the Berkeley High gym last night.  

After sharing third place in the San Ramon tournament, and enduring a tough scrimmage last weekend, the Yellow Jackets’ home opener was supposed to have the feel of a grudge match against a tough opponent. Instead, Berkeley took charge of games that were in doubt, and won 15-12, 15-13, 9-15, and 15-11.  

Berkeley began the match on the offensive, jumping out to a 10-5 lead in the first game. In what was to become the motif of the evening, Piedmont roared back to tie the game 10-10. The Jackets responded with precision passing, pelting the Highlanders with an impressively distributed attack to rally to a 15-12 victory. 

Piedmont quickly rebounded, taking a 10-6 lead in the second game. Berkeley focused on placing the ball in the hands of junior Desiree Gilliard-Young and sophomore Vanessa Williams. Pounding the Highlanders with an impressive aerial attack, Williams forced a Piedmont side-out with a vicious spike, and Gilliard-Young answered on the ensuing Piedmont serve-return with one her own, bringing Berkeley to within one point, 11-10. Senior OH Lezzi Akana followed their lead and tied the game at 12 with one of her team-high 11 kills. A Williams block shut the door on Piedmont, winning the game 15-13. 

Commenting on the effort of his team, Berkeley coach Justin Carraway said, "After the tournament, I thought we needed to do some better work with ball control. We certainly have to pass better so that we can take advantage of the hitters that we have. I thought the first two games we did a pretty good job of that." 

The match was marred by early difficulty at the scorer’s table. During the third game, with the scoreboard ostensibly showing a Berkeley 6-5 lead, one Piedmont fan was ejected from the stands after voicing with displeasure with the scoreboard reversals.  

Down 9-7 and struggling to keep within range of the Yellow Jackets, Piedmont called a timeout to collect themselves. The effort evidently worked, as the Highlanders rattled off 8 unanswered points to take their only game by a score of 15-9.  

Embarrassed by their collapse, Berkeley savaged Piedmont in the fourth game, bursting out to a 13-1 lead. With defeat imminent, slowly battled to within two points of the Yellow Jackets, 13-11.  

Reflecting on their fourth game, Berkley junior DS Ferron Salniker noted, "In the fourth game we’re up 13-2, and then lose our mental focus. We kind of got tentative and weren’t prepared to finish them off. Something that we really need to work on is closing teams out." 

Her teammate Williams did just that, snapping the Yellow Jackets out of their doldrums with yet another vicious spike to force a Piedmont sideout. On the subsequent play she drove home her tenth kill of the evening, bringing the score to 14-11.  

After the match Carraway remarked, "Vanessa got some key kills when we needed them. She got the side-out at 13 to get us where we could serve, that was huge for us. She is only a sophomore, so I expect big things to come later on."  

Gilliard-Young finished the Highlander off with her match-leading tenth block, giving the Yellow Jackets a 15-11 fourth game victory.  

Reflecting on the match, Carraway struck a note of surprise, commenting that "We scrimmaged them on Friday, and they looked much more solid than we did. I knew we would have to work really hard on terminating the ball and try to keep the pressure on them on service." 

Williams, wasn’t quite as shocked, saying: "I think we all expected the game to go pretty well. We played Piedmont before in a scrimmage and we although we didn’t do too hot; we had a couple of practices where everything seemed to be going well. We knew we were going to come out and win." 

Berkeley improved its overall record to 2-1. The Yellow Jackets will host Clayton Valley tonight at 6 p.m.  

The freshman team plays at 3:45 and the junior varsity squares off at 5 p.m.


Bike station promoter earns clean air award

Julian Foley
Thursday September 07, 2000

Amanda Jones was the force behind the downtown Berkeley BART station’s bike station, which opened last year. 

Wednesday, Jones received one of two 2000 Clean Air Champions Awards given by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. 

The bike station, run by the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition, provides free, supervised bicycle parking for between 65 and 80 commuters a day, according to bike station employee Van Taylor.  

Space constraints prevented the bike station’s expansion, said Joe Carroll, a member of BART’s Bicycle Task Force. 

Having opened in October 1999, the station, funded by the BAAQMD, is still in its 18-month trial period . 

As commute coordinator for Palo Alto, Jones was also the driving force behind the bike station that opened in April at the Palo Alto CalTrans station, the first of its kind in the Bay Area. In addition to a full time security attendant, local businesses in Palo Alto offer concessions, bike repair, parts sales and rentals.  

“It’s great because people can leave their bikes all day and not have to worry about whether they will be there when they get back,” said Jones. The additional services help pay for the free parking. At the Palo Alto bike station, commuters can even leave their bikes there overnight. 

Bike station plans are under way in San Francisco and at the Fruitvale BART station, as they are nationwide.  

The Bikestation Coalition offers guidance and technical expertise to local organizations setting up their own bike stations. 

Jones was selected for the Clean Air Champion Award by a committee which included the American Lung Association, Rides for Bay Area Commuters, KCBS, the Environmental Protection Agency, and BAAQMD.  

The award, now in its ninth year, is part of the Spare the Air Campaign, a program spearheaded by BAAQMD that issues ozone alerts to the public, and encourages them to leave their cars at home on days when the ozone levels exceed federal standards.  

The Clean Air Award is given in part to draw media attention to that effort, said Karen Licavoli of the American Lung Association.  

In the past, the yearly award has been presented to a seventh grade class that built an electrical car, a girl scout troupe, and even a tap dancer. “We look for people who have done something unique and beyond their job,” said Licavoli. “Regular people who have done something exemplary.” 

John Ruzek of Walnut Creek was also named Clean Air Champion this year. A former senior electrical engineer at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab in Berkeley and BART engineer, Ruzek is devoted to improving bicycle and pedestrian safety “on the other side of the hills” through overpasses, bike lanes, and wider streets.  

Nominated by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, he is an activist in the community who successfully lobbies city councils and transportation agencies like CalTrans to make transportation more accessible.  

“CalTrans is more than a department of highways,” said Ruzek, “and sometimes they need help focusing on that.”


First Golden Bear Classic brings teams in from east Daily Planet Correspondent Berkeley High responded to the first challenge o

Thursday September 07, 2000

Daily Planet Wire Services 

 

The Cal women’s volleyball team will host the inaugural Golden Bear Volleyball Classic Sept. 8 and 9 at the Recreational Sports Facility on the Cal campus. 

The opening game of the tournament will be George Washington against Florida Friday at 5 p.m. Cal will host McNeese State in the following game at 7 p.m. Friday’s losers will face off in the consolation game Saturday at 5 p.m., and the championship game is scheduled to being at 7 p.m. 

Cal meets McNeese State for the first time this weekend. The Cowgirls went 2-1 last weekend at the Marquette Challenge and host Louisiana-Lafayette Sept. 5. they are led by senior outside hitter Anissa Parker, who was the MVP of the Marquette Challenge with 61 kills in three matches.  

The Bears have a 1-2 all-time record against Florida and a 0-1 all-time record against George Washington. No. 12 ranked Florida is currently 3-2 and is led by 6’1” junior middle blocker Nicole McCray (71 kills, .397 hitting percentage). George Washington is 4-0 (travels to Maryland-Baltimore County Sept. 5), has won 12 straight games and is led by senior outside hitter Tracee Brown (36 kills, .456 hitting percentage).  

The Bears returned last weekend from the Silver Legacy/Ray Wersching Invitational in Reno, NV with a second place finish. Cal defeated host Nevada, 3-1 (7-15, 15-10, 15-11, 15-8) Sept. 1, fell to No. 11 ranked Minnesota, 3-0 (15-6, 15-6, 15-5) Sept. 2 and defeated Kent State, 3-0 (15-3, 15-11, 15-5) Sept. 2.  

The top player last weekend for the Bears was 5-10 freshman outside hitter Gabrielle Abernathy. In Abernathy’s college debut versus Nevada, she had a team-leading17 kills and 13 digs. She went on to tally 34 kills, a team-high 23 digs and eight total blocks during the tournament’s three matches. Abernathy was a member of the all-tournament team along with 5-9 senior outside hitter/setter Alicia Perry, who had a team-high 37 kills during the weekend and recorded 21 digs. She had an impressive .481 hitting percentage (15 kills, two errors, 27 attempts) in the Bears 3-0 victory over Kent State.  

In the victory at Nevada, the Bears started two true freshmen in Abernathy and 6’0” middle blocker Jessica Zatica. Besides Abernathy’s 17 kills, Perry, sophomore outside hitter Leah Young and junior setter/outside hitter Candace McNamee had 14, 12 and 11 kills respectively. McNamee also recorded her second career triple double with 11 digs and 37 assists.  

Sophomore middle blocker Reena Pardiwala, who sat out the entire 1999 season with a ruptured disk in her lower back, led Cal with four block solos. Pardiwala currently leads the Bear starters with a .333 hitting percentage (16 kills, four errors, 36 attempts), has 21 digs and a team-high five solo blocks and 16 total blocks.  

McNamee is doing a solid job as both an outside hitter and a setter with 30 kills and 73 assists in the first three matches. She is currently third on the Cal all-time assist list with 1992 career assists. The other Bear who is a member of the Bears all-time career Top 10 list is Perry, who is eighth on the career kill list with 937 and ninth with 2584 kill attempts.


Measure banned race-, gender-based preferences

The Associated Press
Thursday September 07, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — In one of the most important California civil rights cases in years, a state Supreme Court majority indicated Wednesday that the voter-approved ban on affirmative action abolished race- and gender-based preferences in government contracts. 

The high court was hearing arguments in a challenge to a San Jose ordinance that required government contractors to solicit bids from companies owned by women and minorities. 

Although a decision is not expected for three months, four of the seven Supreme Court justices spoke out against the ordinance, saying it appears to be prohibited by Proposition 209, which passed in 1996. 

“In plain language, the provision prohibits any preference,” Justice Joyce L. Kennard said. 

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who personally argued in defense of the San Jose ordinance, said the case could gut scores of so-called outreach programs run by local governments statewide. 

Proposition 209, approved by 54 percent of voters, prohibited preferences for women and minorities in state and local contracting, employment and education.  

It did not define “preferences,” but its sponsors focused their campaign attacks on quotas, set-asides and other measures that gave groups advantages in selection. 

San Jose officials argued that the city’s practices were not covered under Proposition 209. 

The ordinance requires city construction contractors, on contracts over $50,000, to contact at least four firms owned by women or minorities, negotiate with them and accept their bids or state legitimate reasons for rejection. 

The measure was challenged by Hi-Voltage Works, a Rancho Cordova company that submitted a low bid of $197,000 on a circuit-switcher for a San Jose sewage treatment plant in 1997.  

It was rejected because the company did not reach out to minority or female contractors to help with the project. 

The city, which found minorities underrepresented in subcontracting in a 1990 study, says it is merely giving previously excluded groups a chance to compete equally.  

Hundreds of state and local programs to inform, recruit, train or tutor women and minorities use the same rationale, San Jose attorney Joan R. Gallo argued. 

“The federal Constitution demands that we just can’t sit by discrimination and say, ‘oh well,”’ Gallo said. 

Chief Justice Ronald M. George suggested that governments could affirmatively reach out to all contractors so long as they did not base it on race or gender. 

Justice Janice R. Brown agreed: “It is permissible to set up an outreach program that encompasses the entire universe of people so long as it doesn’t target one race or one sex.” 

And Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar said that in the description of Proposition 209 in the ballot guide, “The legislative analyst said it would eliminate affirmative action programs.” 

In his first appearance before the high court, Lockyer pleaded to the justices to uphold the ordinance.  

He likened San Jose’s program to a race “where we make every reasonable attempt to get people to the starting gate.” 

The U.S. Justice Department, Lockyer and nine cities and counties filed briefs in support of San Jose’s measure, while a host of groups, including the American Civil Rights Institute, Pacific Legal Foundation and former Gov. Pete Wilson filed opposition papers.  


Opinion

Editorials

County guards sue for more jail staff

The Associated Press
Wednesday September 13, 2000

SAN JOSE — Corrections officers are suing Santa Clara County on behalf of their greatest antagonists – inmates – claiming that low staffing levels have made the area’s jails unsafe. 

The union for more than 750 local jail officers filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in San Jose and believes the case is unprecedented. 

The lawsuit contends that the county’s failure to hire more corrections officers has created conditions that violate the inmates’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. 

As examples, the union claims that violence among prisoners and attacks on guards are on the rise; that attorney-inmate visits are regularly suspended; that jail hygiene is poor; and that inmates do not regularly receive mail and timely medical care. 

“We are now declaring to the courts that we cannot perform our job to the expectations that the law requires,” said Richard T. Abbate, president of the county Correctional Peace Officers Association. “There’s been several different days, several shifts, with such low staffing that if inmates knew how really bad it was, we would be in trouble.” 

County attorney Ann Ravel called the case “just another one of a series of meritless, totally baseless lawsuits filed by this organization.”  

She said the officers are exaggerating conditions in the county’s jails as part of their quest for higher pay. 

“There is a lower inmate population, and staffing levels have remained fairly constant,” she said.  

“People are working longer hours, but nevertheless the staffing levels have remained appropriate.” 

There are no unsafe conditions, either for the workers or for the inmates.” 

The lawsuit asks that the court order Santa Clara County to adequately staff its jails.  

For example, in the county’s main jail, the union says there should be 57 workers per shift. The lawsuit claims that since last year there have been only 40 officers per shift, and occasion, just 32. 

Abbate said the union did not believe it would have standing to sue the county on behalf of the corrections officers themselves, so the case was filed in support of the inmates’ civil rights. 

He said there are between 4,440 and 4,800 inmates in the Santa Clara County corrections system, which holds both people charged with crimes and convicts serving sentences.


Man arrested for hacking into Livermore lab

The Associated Press
Tuesday September 12, 2000

The Associated Press 

 

SAN FRANCISCO — A Minnesota man suspected of hacking into a computer at the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons laboratory last year was arrested Monday. 

Benjamin Troy Breuninger, 21, was taken into custody at his Bloomington, Minn., home by federal agents on a charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer and recklessly causing damage. 

He was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury in Oakland for breaking into a computer at the national laboratory run by the University of California. 

“Fortunately, he didn’t access secret or classified government documents, but he did gain access to the lab’s administrative network and disrupted the use of it,” said FBI spokesman Andrew Black. 

The hacking, twice in November, caused an estimated $50,000 in damage and took about a week to fix,  

Black said. Malicious hacks, like the one into the laboratory’s computers, are rare. 

“Most hackers do not destroy or steal information,” he said. “They’re more curious. Malicious hackers are in the minority.” 

Black said the FBI and Department of Energy tracked the intrusion to Breuninger. 

Breuninger was released Monday on $25,000 bail after appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge E.S. Swearingen in federal court in Minneapolis. No plea was entered. 

Prosecutors are working to bring him to California.


On-line advertising fortunes may be on the line

The Associated Press
Monday September 11, 2000

 

SAN FRANCISCO — A slowdown in online advertising is translating into a painful comedown for the Internet’s glamour stock, Yahoo! Corp., and other popular Web sites that sell ads to pay their bills. 

For the sixth straight day, Yahoo! stock suffered through a wave of selling Friday, falling $2.81. The Santa Clara-based company’s market value has plunged by $10.5 billion, or 15 percent, since Aug. 30 amid deepening investor worries about the flagging market for online ads. 

The pall hanging over Yahoo! – the owner of the world’s most popular Web site and one of the few profitable Internet businesses – threatens to spread to other companies whose fortunes are tied to online advertising. 

“If Yahoo! has a cold, then other Internet companies could get the pneumonia,” said Rick Kimball, general partner for Technology Crossover Ventures, a venture capital firm in Palo Alto. 

Yahoo!’s problems have thrown several other new media stocks into a September funk. Shares in prominent new media companies such as Inktomi Corp., Ask Jeeves Inc., DoubleClick Inc. and About.com also have suffered in the past week, although not as badly as Yahoo!. 

Analysts disagree on just how badly the online advertising market is ailing. But virtually everyone agrees that online advertising isn’t growing at the robust clip of nine months ago, largely because the e-commerce companies that propelled the spending are no longer flush with cash. 

Following an April market meltdown among dot-com businesses that weren’t making money, the venture capitalists financing those companies tightened their purse strings. As a result, many online companies slashed their marketing budgets to save money, putting a crimp in the revenue stream at Yahoo! and other major online ad space sellers. 

“Online advertising has been in the doldrums all summer,” said Dave Smith, president of Mediasmith, an online media planning agency in San Francisco and New York. 

To lure business, Yahoo! and other popular online sites have been lowering their advertising rates, reversing their direction of a year ago. 

The average online ad rate fell from $33 per thousand unique visitors at the end of 1999 to $31 during the summer, according to AdRelevance, a division of Media Metrix, which tracks Web traffic. 

No one expects Yahoo!’s revenues to fall precipitously, but the company is unlikely to produce the dramatic financial gains that helped make its stock a Wall Street darling.  

Blodget predicts Yahoo!’s revenues in the quarter ending Sept. 30 will total $280 million. 

Besides a short-term loss in ad revenue, Yahoo! and other Web sites are facing concerns that banner ads – the flashing online billboards that route traffic to an advertiser’s site – aren’t living up to expectations. 

An estimated 4 percent to 5 percent of site visitors used to click on banner ads. The average “click-through” rate on banner ads is now 0.5 percent or lower, according to advertisers. 


Diverse coalition opposing Proposition 38

The Associated Press
Thursday September 07, 2000

SACRAMENTO — As kids played kickball in the background, Rosamunda Guillen and Jocelyn Graves described Wednesday how the school voucher initiative on the November ballot would harm their Hispanic and black communities. 

Guillen of the United Farm Workers said the union voted unanimously to oppose Proposition 38 because “they know this proposition will take away even more resources” from strapped rural schools. 

“Proposition 38 will not help my kids,” said Graves, a black parent from Sacramento. 

Opponents of the voucher initiative held press conferences Wednesday in four California cities that were called “back-to-school” events to kick off their campaign. 

However, both sides have already run summer television advertisements in what is expected to be a very expensive campaign, exceeding $40 million. 

And Wednesday’s events were more an opportunity for black and Latino leaders to stress opposition to the initiative. 

Tim Draper, a millionaire venture capitalist from Redwood City who is backing Proposition 38, has been trying to appeal to minority voters whose children attend poor-performing inner-city schools. One of his first rallies in July was at a black church in Los Angeles that runs a private school that could receive children with vouchers. 

In the four cities, speakers included black leaders such as San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Aminah Jahi of the San Jose chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Hispanic leaders such as San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and Bert Corona-Hermandad of Mexicana Nacional. 

In Sacramento, the press conference was held in a playground next to an elementary school a few blocks from the Capitol. 

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who has already appeared in Spanish-language ads opposing Proposition 38, said the initiative would undermine several recent years of reforms that are just starting to produce increases in student scores. 

“Everybody is always looking for the silver bullet, just like Proposition 38, some kind of a magical silver bullet,” he said.  

Alice Huffman, executive director of the California branch of the NAACP, was critical of Draper’s overtures to the black community, calling him a “wolf” and a “phony.” 

“There are not enough private schools, let alone voucher schools, that will take our children. So who’s going to have the choice? It will allow the voucher schools to choose,” she said. 

Proposition 38 spokesman Chris Bertelli said Wednesday that the black and Latino leaders are not representative of parents who will vote. 

“These leaders do a disservice to their communities that they purport to represent. They are beholden to the teachers’ unions and the status quo that is failing miserably for their communities,” Bertelli said. 

The pro-38 campaign, however, is trying a unique method to build up a mailing, phone and e-mail list of interested people. Its Web page says anyone who registers on the page will be eligible for three drawings for a computer to be given to the school of the winner’s choice. 

Read the initiative at the secretary of state’s page: www.ss.ca.gov  

The two sides: 

www.SchoolVouchers2000.com,  

www.NoVouchers2000.com.