BERKELEY — Alice Walker’s life has been one headlong charge against racial barriers. She overcame her sharecroppers’ childhood to emerge as a civil rights activist, and she challenged Southern law by marrying a white, Jewish lawyer. 

Years of pain and struggle brought her joy and Pulitzer Prize-winning success, but not without scars. Her marriage crumbled under the strain of passion and politics, violence and racism. And she wasn’t the only one left wounded – her daughter, Rebecca, grew up angry and confused. 

In a new, cathartic memoir, Alice Walker comes full circle, revealing details of her 10-year marriage and subsequent divorce from the man who nurtured her talent and celebrated her heritage. 

And this January, readers can get a distinctly different glimpse at the same family in the writing debut of her daughter: “Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self.” 

Both works are achingly personal as they tell a tried-and-true love story – meeting, marrying, creating a child – against the racially charged backdrop of Mississippi in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

The 56-year-old Walker opens her new book, “The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart,” with a note about her former husband, Mel Leventhal. She had spoken to him only rarely in 20 years. 

“Humor and affection joined us, more than anything. And a bone-deep instinctive belief that we owed it to our ancestors and ourselves to live exactly the life we found on our paths,” she writes. “It was a magical marriage.” 

The book, a series of essays she describes as “mostly fiction, but with a definite thread of having come out of a singular life,” ends a 30-year cycle of writing, she explains. Walker talks about her family and career in an interview at her home on a Berkeley hillside, where rooms are decorated with Native American and African art and stacks of books on the floor reveal a range of tastes from a biography of slain rapper Tupac Shakur to an artful look at dreadlocks. 

“Part of what I hadn’t written about was my marriage,” she says. “Writing about it has helped me a lot because there were some loose ends that needed to be tied off.” 

As a result, she now feels freer, she says. And her former husband has read “The Way Forward” and “loved it.” 

Exploring the pain of losing their love also helped her heal, she adds. “Whatever I’m writing about, there are people going through exactly that at that time,” she says. “It can be a real medicine.” 

At 30 years old, Rebecca Walker found she needed some medicine as well. 

“I want to be closer to my mother, to have something run between us that cannot be denied,” writes Rebecca, who took her mother’s last name when she was a high school senior. “I want a marker that links us tangibly and forever as mother and daughter. That links me tangibly and forever with blackness.” 

Educated at Yale University, she’s an activist who founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating young women’s leadership skills. Rebecca Walker refused an interview request. She explained through her publicist that she wants her work to stand on its own, not be propped up by the fame of her award-winning mother. 

Alice Walker, author of more than two dozen books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, most notably 1982’s “The Color Purple,” says she and her daughter are close friends, live near each other in Berkeley and see each other often. Rebecca also has a good relationship with Leventhal, Alice says. 

She has read her daughter’s book, but refuses to discuss it other than to say she enjoyed it and she understands her daughter’s confusion and frustration about finding her place in the world. 

She has no qualms about how she raised Rebecca – she stopped working when her daughter was born to give “her a full year of my undivided attention. 

“It’s hard for her to understand all that we were trying to do ... to correct centuries of violence and abuse,” she explains. 

Alice Walker met Leventhal in 1966 while registering voters door-to-door in Mississippi. They moved to New York City where he was attending law school, then married and returned to Mississippi, where he defended civil rights cases and she taught school. 

“Part of the lure of our marriage was that it was illegal,” says Alice Walker, who now is in a committed relationship with a woman. “When it became weakened by the sheer stress of living there, it ended.” 

Rebecca Walker accepts that she was brought into this world, in part, to make a statement, to prove a point at a time when the Black Power Movement was on the rise and interracial marriages were suspect. (Mississippi did not officially legalize interracial marriage until 1987.) 

“Black on black love is the new recipe for revolution,” she writes. “The only problem, of course, is me. My little copper-colored body that held so much promise and broke so many rules.” 

She was in the third grade when her parents separated, after her father’s affair with a white, Jewish, woman. 

Her search for herself and her connection to her blackness, her whiteness, her separateness culminates shortly after high school graduation, one of the few events her parents attended together. 

“It all comes to this,” writes Rebecca Walker, who dedicates her first novel to both her parents. 

“I stand with those who stand with me. I am tired of claiming for claiming sake, hiding behind masks of culture, creed, religion. My blood is made from water and so it is bloodwater that I am made of. ... I exist somewhere between black and white, family and friend.”

It’s official, Berkeley High School students want Al Gore to be the next president of the United States.  

They also want to re-elect Dianne Feinstein, require probation and drug treatment for nonviolent offenders instead of jail time, throw the school voucher idea in the circular file and authorize bonds for school repair, construction or replacement with a 55 percent local vote. 

Now all they have to do is wait until they turn 18. 

Not so, says Helene Lecar, League of Women Voters educational liaison. “These votes may have an indirect impact on election day because this movement is national.” 

Lecar said Berkeley isn’t the only High School conducting a mock election. It’s happening nationwide as part of a campaign headed by the University of Arizona that aims to re-engage youth in the political process.  

The university compiled all the results and they were aired on CNN Thursday evening. 

“This year we’re going full boar ahead. We want the nation to know who these young people support and who knows . . . maybe they’ll think twice on election day,” Lecar said. 

In addition to voting for President, U.S. Senator and propositions 36, 38 and 39 the mock ballot also included a survey on national issues. 

The results:  

• Students feel the most important issue facing America is education and they think retaining the current educational system and increasing federal funding to schools is the best way to tackle the problem. 

• They feel the best change to make in the criminal justice system is to increase funding for prevention efforts. 

• As for restoring faith in government and in elected officials they voted to shorten the campaigns and use only public money to fund them. 

The results of the nationwide presidential mock election were strikingly different.  

According to the CNN tabulation at press time, students nationwide voted Republican George W. Bush into the white house.  

According to Michele Hanssen, faculty coordinator for student activities, they tried to mimic the real world voting process as much as possible. Students were required to register to vote by a specific date and make it to the polls on election day to cast their vote. 

“We don’t want to hold hands here, we want to teach students to do for themselves.”  

Many of the students at the voting polls credited the mock election process for teaching them about the political process and how to study the issues and vote. 

“It felt really good to vote,” sophomore Erik Frank said. “The results might actually effect the outcome and now I know what to do when I turn 18.” 

Freshman Francie Jones, 14, said that the election not only got her interested in the election process and also helped demystify the voting process. 

“It made it less scary for me. I’m glad I had the opportunity. Now when I turn 18 it won’t be such a big deal.” 

The polls, which were open from 8 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., were manned by volunteers from the League of Women Voters who had lists of all registered voters. 

Anyone who wasn’t on the list was turned away and according to volunteer, Jim Lindsay, there were “hundreds of them.” 

“This is the like the real world. If you don’t register, you can’t vote.”

The Washington Generals would have been proud. 

Much like the hapless eternal whipping boys of the Harlem Globetrotters, the Los Angeles Stars put up minimal resistance in the opener of the Cal men’s basketball season. The Bears won the exhibition game Thursday night 88-61, shooting 50 percent from the field while holding their semi-pro opponents to less than 26 percent in a game marred by a total of 66 personal fouls, more than one and a half per minute of action. 

“The refs are going to call things tighter this year, that’s for sure,” said Cal head coach Ben Braun after the game. “Our players will have to make some adjustments.” 

“We had some idea what to expect from the officials,” said forward Sean Lampley, who scored 15 points to lead the Bears along with Joe Shipp and Brian Wethers. “These exhibition games will help us see how the refs will call things.” 

The Bears came out full of energy, and the Stars didn’t appear to know what hit them. The visitors missed their first 11 shots from the field, and didn’t score a point until Cal had already put 29 points on the scoreboard. 

The humiliation didn’t stop there for he Stars. Forward Sidney Faison managed to foul out in the first half, collecting his fifth foul with more than two minutes left in the half. With just a four-man bench to begin the game, Stars coach Dave Benezra was down to just eight eligible players, opposed to the 12-man squad at Braun’s fingertips. Braun was missing only forward Ryan Forehan-Kelly, held out because of a thigh bruise. 

The game was so out of hand by halftime, with the score standing at 50-19 in favor of the Bears, that the two coaches agreed to increase the number of fouls allowed per player from the standard five to an oversized seven. Although Faison never returned to the game, the extension allowed both Cal freshman Saulius Kuzminskas and L.A.’s Saipele Tuialii to play despite reaching the five-foul limit. 

Braun chose not to play Lampley or sophomore point guard Shantay Legans, who had three steals and three assists in limited action, for much of the second half, resting his starters and letting several freshmen get some experience. Newcomer Gabriel Hughes collected nine rebounds (along with four fouls) in just 10 minutes of play, and Kuzminskas finished the game with seven points, including a breakaway dunk.  

“We wanted to make sure some guys got their feet wet tonight, and we did that,” Braun said. 

The 6-11 Lithuanian import also had several moments where he played out of control, however, leading to three turnovers. The Bears committed 19 turnovers in the second half and managed to foul the Stars 21 times, and were actually outscored in the half 42-38. 

“That’s how you end up losing games. We have a system we need to follow, no matter who is in the game,” Braun said. “I’m glad we don’t have another game for a while, and I’m glad we have practice tomorrow.”

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Spanish Book Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books  

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

A discussion of the work of contemporary Mexican writer Ethel Krauze. New members welcome. The group meets the first Friday of each month.  

Call 601-0454  

Circle Dancing 

7:45 - 10 p.m. 

Finnish Brotherhoos Hall 

1970 Chestnut St. 

Simple folkdancing in a circle. Beginners welcome and no partners are required.  

Call John Bear, 528-4253 

Who Owns America? 

An Anti-Racism/Oppression Gathering 

2 - 10 p.m.  

UC Berkeley Labor Center 

2521 Channing St.  

Trainings and workshops on identifying racism and oppression and building solutions. Organized by STARC, which is trying to build support on the West Coast. This event runs through Sunday. Hot meals will be provided.  

$10Call 869-2538 

Marga Gomez 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Comedian Marga Gomez was one of the founding members of Culture Clash and the Latino comedy ensemble. Part of the La Lesbian performance and film series. 

Call 654-6346 

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Does Asian = Spy? 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Bade Museum  

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Professor L. Ling-Chi Wang from UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Department will lecture on the ramifications of the Dr. Wen Ho Lee fiasco.  

Call 849-8224 

“Re-Emerging Japan” 

Luncheon served, 11:15 a.m.  

Speaker, 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

James R. Lincoln, professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business school will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon 

$1 general for speaker only, Free to students  

Call 848-3533 

The Next Ivory Trade? The Intellectual Property Rights of University Faculty 

A conference sponsored by the Berkeley Faculty Association/American Association of University Professors Coalition 

9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley International House 

841-1997 

Putting Disability in Its Place 

9 a.m. - 7 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Student Union 

Pauley Ballroom 

Civil rights historians, scholars and leading 1960s activists explore the parallels and differences among social movements and how the disability rights movement fits into this larger context.  

Call 548-6608 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Cohousing Tour 

8:15 am  

Parker Street Housing Cooperative 

2337 Parker St.  

Join a Shared Living Resource Center organized tour of seven examples of Cohousing. The tour will visit the Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, Swans Market Cohousing in downtown Oakland and three others, including North Street Cohousing in Davis. Bring a lunch. Advanced registration is required.  

$65 per person 

Call Ken Norwood, 548-6608 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

New Science & Ancient Wisdom Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International Center 

2222 Harold Way 

Featured speakers include Father Charlie Moore speaking on “The Cosmic Origins of Man,” Dolores Cannon speaking on “Visions of Nostradamus,” and David Hatcher Childress speaking on “Technology of the Gods.” Event runs through Sunday.  

Pre-registration admission, $65; after Oct. 27, $85 

Call Charles Gotsky, 650-343-5202 

Installing Windows, Doors and Skylights 

9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar instructed by builder Glen Kitzenberger. Other seminars also scheduled.  

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

$75 per person 

Collecting Chinese Decorative Art 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Oakland Museum  

1000 Oak St.  

Dessa Goddard, director of the Asian Department at Butterfields, and a panel discuss. Followed by a collectors’ tea. Included in admission price to museum.  

Call for reservations, 238-2022 

“Broadway to La Scala” 

7 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

2501 Harrison St. (at 27th St.) 

A benefit concert for the Oakland Lyric Opera featuring a selection of Broadway musicals and arias from operas, including “Madame Butterfly.” $25 Call 836-6772 

Nuclear Disarmament 

2 p.m.  

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 

6508 Telegraph Ave.  

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation will speak on disarmament and proliferation.  

Life in the Pueblo  

10 a.m. - 6 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Zuni Fetish carver Amos Pooacha and his sister, Linda Pooacha-Eli, a painter of miniatures on sandstone and jewelry sell and display their art. Also on Sunday, same hours.  

Call 528-9038  

Free Sundiata 

Noon 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School 

1781 Rose St.  

Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and Hilde Mosse Programs for Education present this free performance of Edward Mast’s play. The story is based on the ancient legend of Sundiata the Lion King. Free, but reservations are strongly suggested.  

Call 647-2972 

Who Owns America? 

An Anti-Racism/Oppression Gathering 

8 a.m. - 10 p.m.  

UC Berkeley Labor Center 

2521 Channing St.  

Trainings and workshops on identifying racism and oppression and building solutions. Organized by STARC, which is trying to build support on the West Coast. This event runs through Sunday, Nov. 5. Hot meals will be provided.  

$10 

Call 869-2538  

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour 

Downtown Berkeley  

Tour new construction, new uses, historic rehabilitation and public improvments that are completed or still in the works.  

Noon 

RSVP required 841-0181 space is limited. Tickets: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers. 

A Dispirited Rebellion 

10 a.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Author, television personality and columnist Gadi Taub will explore the literary and cinematic changes in Israeli society since the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. A brunch will be served at 10 a.m.  

Admission: $7 non-JCC members; $5 members 

Call 848-9237 

Soprano Stephanie Pan Sings 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

Soprano Stephanie Pan is joined by Meg Cotner on harpsichord, Salley Blaker on cello, and Alex Jenne on lute. They will perform the music of Barbra Strozzi, Jacopo Peri, Giovanni Felice Sances and others.  

$10 general; $9 students and seniors; under 12 Free 

Call 644-6893 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Stucco Repair 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Hands-on workshop taught by handyperson Jim Rosenau. Other seminars also scheduled this day.  

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

$90 per person 

“Bigger Things” 

7 p.m.  

La Pena Cultural Center  

3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Judith-Kate Friedman celebrates the release of her new CD.  

$12 general; $20 reserved seating 

Info and tickets: 654-7464 or 849-2568 

Women Warriors, Women Thinkers & Women Awliya 

3 p.m.  

St. Johns Presbyterian Church  

2727 College Ave.  

The final in a series, “The Feminine Side of Islam.” Refreshments will be served and donations are appreciated.  

Call 527-4496  

Playing Field/Skate Park Dedication 

1 - 3:30 p.m. . 

Harrison Park 

Fourth St. (at Harrison) 

This being the first new recreational facility built by the city in 30 years, they are pulling out all the stops. Performing will be the Berkeley High pep band and local band Mariachi Los Gavilances. Attending will be Mayor Shirley Dean and City Councilmember Linda Maio. An exhibition soccer game will also be played.  

Call 525-1734 

Monday, Nov. 6 

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Flu Shots for Seniors 

9 a.m. - Noon & 1 - 2 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

$2 for seniors 

“The Weir” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Director Tom Ross will discuss the Aurora Theater’s production of “The Weir” and will distribute 30 free tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.  

Youth Commission 

6 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Youth Center 

1730 Oregon St.  

Peace & Justice Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst St.  

Discussion for support of the city council proposal that Peace & Justice Commission review contracts with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Personnel Board Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Permit Center 

2118 Milvia St.  

Stop the removal of Pepples’ signs 

Editor: 

We are supporters of the People for Pepples Campaign. Because we are excited about Eleanor Pepples and hope to see her elected as the new City Council Representative the Berkeley Hills, we have spent our free time distributing flyers and posting signs advertising her candidacy. In particular, all of us during the evenings and on weekends have spent our time posting signs not only to generate interest in her Campaign, but also to notify voters about the website: www.peopleforpepples.com where they can get more information about Eleanor Pepples and her positions.  

Unfortunately, the People for Pepples signs have been systematically removed. You may recall that in September, an employee from the Dept of Public Works removed our signs. Since that time, the department has acknowledged that this conduct is unacceptable and assured us that it would not happen again. Without question, the removal of the People for Pepples signs by government employees on city time violated our First Amendment rights as well as those of our candidate Eleanor Pepples and the local sign ordinance. We do not believe that is happening this time; however, someone is systematically removing our signs. For example, a number of signs posted last Saturday afternoon in the Walnut/Vine Street area and near Claremont and Ashby were removed by Sunday morning. As you can imagine, this is incredibly frustrating and we feel the tactic is designed to quell our full and active participation in the democratic process. 

For example, a number of signs posted this past Saturday afternoon in the Walnut/Vine Street area and by Claremont and Ashby were removed by Sunday morning. As you can imagine, this is incredibly frustrating and interferes with our ability to fully and actively participate in the democratic process. 

Removal of even one sign is illegal. They are election signs and under Berkeley's City Sign Ordinance, should stay posted until after the election. There is no basis for anyone to remove election signs from public utility poles or lamp posts. Both the City Attorney's Office and the Department of Public Works have acknowledged that the People for Pepples signs comply with all sign ordinances and that they should not be removed.  

We are concerned that the campaign staffs of other candidates may be involved in the illegal removal of our signs. We ask the other candidates in District 6 to issue a strong statement affirming their support of free speech in Berkeley, and denouncing the illegal removal of campaign signs.  

If you or your readers see anyone tampering with our signs, please notify either our Campaign (Tel: 510-528-2970) or the Department of Public Works, so that we can stop this kind of illegal and unfair activity. 

Al Arredondo, Sylvia Brownrigg, Terry Castle and 25 other individuals 

Selawsky experienced in school matters 

To the Residents of Berkeley: 

My eight years of working in Berkeley classrooms, PTA programs such as Reading Is Fundamental, on site improvements such as the renovation of Oxford School, and with and for parents, students, and teachers on numerous issues and problems has earned me support from many sectors of the community. I have the distinct honor of being the only School Board candidate endorsed by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers C.O.P.E. – of which I am most proud. Teachers deserve the best from us, as we expect the best from them. I have the endorsement of Berkeley Citizens Action, The Green Party of Alameda County, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian (which wrote that I am “the standout in this race.”). I have been endorsed by five Berkeley City Councilmembers (including Vice-Mayor Maudelle Shirek). Sheila Jordan, the County Superintendent of Schools, and Susan Duncan, Trustee on the Peralta Community College Board have recognized my commitment to quality public education and have endorsed me. 

My son currently attends Willard Middle School, which has allowed me the privilege of working directly in the classrooms and serving on the site committees, as well as serving as site representative on the Berkeley Schools Excellence Projects Planning and Oversight Committee. The past two years I have served as Co-Chair of that Committee (reviewing and advising the School Board on the allocation of about $8.5 million per year), which has earned me the endorsement of Co-Chair Nancy Riddle and PTA Council Co-President Mark Coplan.  

Serving last year on the Superintendent’s Blue Ribbon Budget Committee has extended my knowledge of the District budget process, with all its flaws. I have served as Chair of the City of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission. I have been a member of the District-wide Music Committee since 1994, helping to solidify and expand our elementary music program for all our students at all our schools when there was a move to limit it to magnet-schools or a limited number of sites.  

Because I care deeply about the equity of education, and opportunities for all our students, I worked last year to inform the Berkeley community and to galvanize community support about threats to the District’s 32 plus year commitment to integration in our Berkeley public schools; the School Board, by a 3-2 vote, approved continuing our integration policy on a year-to-year basis. I have worked hard and long for the good of all our students in the Berkeley schools because I believe that what is good for my son is good for all students, and ultimately what is good for all students is good for my son.  

Remember also to vote against state Proposition 38 and support Measures AA and BB here in Berkeley. 

John Selawsky 

candidate Berkeley School Board 

Breland helped reduce crime in neighbor 

Dear Editor, 

I am writing to express my support for Margaret Breland's re-election to District 2. Four years ago, when Ms. Breland took office, our neighborhood had a serious problem with prostitution taking place along San Pablo Avenue at the intersections with our neighborhood. Thanks to community meetings that Ms. Breland sponsored and chaired, we were able to voice our concerns to the police department's Area Coordinator for West Berkeley. I now find it ironic that the police have chosen to endorse Ms. Breland's opponent, when they know that Margaret has worked with them to lower the crime rate in West and South Berkeley. 

We are grateful to Margaret for bringing us this opportunity to solve a serious problem. Her persistent efforts to help us rid our neighborhood of this type of crime demonstrate her commitment to making West and South Berkeley a more livable community. I urge everyone in the district to vote for Margaret on Nov. 7. 

Cloé Guesdon 

West Berkeley Resident 

Foldvary will eliminate root causes of ills 

Editor: 

Because Democrats and Republicans create social problems such as poverty, pollution, and conflict with their policies, and because Fred Foldvary's libertarian solutions will eliminate the causes and remedy these social ills, District 9 voters who do not vote for Foldvary for Congress will be morally responsible for helping to cause poverty, pollution, congestion, 

high housing costs, and crime. To avoid this moral blame, you must vote in Foldvary for Congress. Media that do not publicize this will also be culpable for the social problems that plague us. Voters must be made aware of this fundamental choice and then decide whether to cause social problems or remedy them. (Those voting for the Natural Law candidate for Congress would also be absolved of responsibility - vote for the minor party of your choice!) 

Fred Foldvary 

Berkeley  

Sweeney knows city’s transportation issues 

Editor: 

Mr. James Sweeney is the only AC Transit candidate who lives in Berkeley and knows the issues here. He is the only candidate who actually attended any measure B meetings and supported Measure B with a personal donation.  

Sweeney’s experience includes being a manager/consultant to UC Communications and Transportation Department. The fact that he is the executive director of Oakland Independence Support Center and serves the dually diagnosed mentally disabled homeless, is a constant reminder of those in the society who are transit dependent.  

He strongly supports the maintenance and expansion of para - transit services for our seniors and disabled. He also supports a commitment to weekend and late bus service to assist our youth.  

James Sweeney’s credentials include a bachelor’s degree from UC Riverside, and a juris doctorate from UC Davis. He is currently chair of the board of trustees for New College of California in San Francisco.  

The Mayor of Berkeley, Shirley Dean endorsed Sweeney as well as the Mayor of Richmond, Rosemary Corbin, the Mayor of San Pablo, Barbara Vigil, the former Mayor of Albany and former AC Transit representative, Ruth Ganong, Alameda County Supervisors Keith Carson and Mary King, Berkeley city council members Betty Olds and Margaret Breland, and former Berkeley AC Transit director Jerry Wiggins.  

Frank Davis 

President 

Black Properties Owner Association 

Berkeley 

Nader should help Gore 

Editor: 

I think it is a disgrace that Ralph Nader will not release his votes to Al Gore. The Republican party is playing into it and couldn’t be happier.  

Each vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. It is sickening to think of George W. Bush being president for the next four to eight years.  

Andree Leenaer Smith 

Berkeley 

Berkeley residents have long demonstrated pride in their library system by showing overwhelming support at the ballot box. On Nov. 7 they will have the opportunity to do it again. Twice. 

Berkeley libraries are open seven days a week and offer the community many services. Besides lending over 500,000 books, magazines, tapes and videos, libraries provide other services including job training, computer access and children’s reading programs. 

Berkeley residents will decide on two library measures next Tuesday. One asks voters to re-authorize the library tax that will continue the current level of service in the city’s five libraries and the other would partially provide much-needed funds to renovate, upgrade and expand the four branches. 

Library officials estimate Berkeley’s library system needs $15 million worth of renovations, upgrades and expansions. Measure P would authorize the City Council to issue $5.2 million, or 35 percent of the estimated remodeling costs, in general obligation bonds. Like all general obligation bonds, the measure would have to pass by a two-thirds vote. 

However, if the measure passes, the bonds would be issued only when the city secures the other 65 percent of the estimate in matching funds. Sources would be the state, under Proposition 14 the State Library Bond Act or private donations and grants.  

“This is a win-win measure,” said the library’s branch service manager, Audrey Powers, “The bonds will not be issued unless we secure matching funds from either the state or other sources.” 

State Proposition 14 was passed last spring and will make available approximately $330 million for library renovation projects to qualifying cities. To apply for funds, cities must first raise 35 percent of their construction estimates through general obligation bonds. If library system applicants are approved by a state board they will receive 65 percent of construction costs.  

Cities across the state are putting library renovation measures on local ballots in order to be eligible for Proposition 14 funds.  

According to Berkeley library officials, 87 percent of Berkeley voters supported the proposition last spring. According to state election result records, Alameda County passed the proposition with 70 percent voter approval that was close to the statewide 69 percent. 

“The citizens in Berkeley clearly support library renovation,” Powers said.  

There were no arguments against Measure P on the ballot.  

Powers said the branch libraries, one of which has not been upgraded since it was built in 1936, are in need of renovations.  

“Our highest priority is to improve access for the disabled in all the branches,” Powers said. She said none of the branch libraries, except the Claremont Branch, are up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. 

Powers said up to 1,000 people use the 64-year-old North Branch each day and there can be up to 200 children in a single youth reading program. She said there would be some modest expansion to create group meeting rooms. “We have people hanging off the rafters and to accommodate the kids we have to rearrange furniture and shelves,” she said.  

Other projects would include new plumbing, wiring and computer infrastructure. Measure P will cost the average Berkeley property owner about $1 per month. 

Measure V 

Measure V will ensure that Berkeley Public Libraries will be able to continue providing the same level of service. Measure V asks for re-authorization of a special tax approved by voters for the first time as the Library Relief Act in 1980. Special taxes are used for only one purpose and in this case it’s to maintain the city’s library system.  

As of 1988, the library tax is required by the Gann Initiative Two to be re-approved by voters every four years. Voters have upheld the tax three times since then. 

The measure will not raise taxes other than a slight increase to allow for inflation. If Measure V passes it will authorize the city to use the library tax funds through 2004. Also the city will be allowed to spend $9.7 million for fiscal year 2000-01. 

If Measure V, the soul source of support for the libraries, fails, it could mean a financial crisis for the Berkeley Public Library system because there are no funds allocated in the city’s general fund for library support. 

There are two arguments against measure V listed on the ballot. Opponents wrote that the reason the city needs a library tax is because of the City Council’s reckless spending. They said the possible passage of the measure “is akin to handing an alcoholic a blank check for more drinks in the hope it will end his craving.” 

The letter also says Berkeley’s annual budget was $69 Million in 1982 and that it has now more than tripled to $214 million and claims city services have “drastically declined.”  

The letter is signed by Mealie Morris of the California Neighborhood Association.  

The other argument against Measure V is signed by five individuals among which is John Denton, a former Berkeley Councilmember. Denton said he is not against the city’s libraries but rather the City Council’s excessive spending and their failure to plan for the future. “If they planned ahead they would easily be able to support the libraries out of the general fund,” he said. “As far as this City Council is concerned there’s no place for economy when it comes to the libraries.”  

Both Measures P and V are endorsed by more than 185 individuals and organizations, including the mayor and entire City Council, Board of Education and the Downtown Berkeley Association.

As more and more people move into Alameda County, residential and commercial developments are pushing into the area’s open spaces. 

On Nov. 7, voters will find two measures on the county ballot that claim to slow urban sprawl.  

Measures C and D have different plans to save the county’s landscape, and are in direct competition with one another. If both measures are passed Tuesday, the one with the most votes will prevail. 

The measures aren’t just trying to save the county’s pretty views. They’re part of an ongoing struggle to find a balance that supports farming, industry, affordable housing, and the environment. While economic growth in the county may be good for business, it has also led to a bitter struggle over new land development. 

“Right now, there’s a tidal wave of sprawl in eastern Alameda County,” said Steve Bloom of the Sierra Club, who helped draft Measure D. “We’ve come to the point where we have to decide whether the remaining space will be preserved or given over to sprawl.” 

Although both measures claim to curb growth, they represent the bitter struggle over how it should be done. Measure C is primarily backed by business and farmers. Measure D gets most of its support from environmental groups. 

Measure D supporters collected 63,000 signatures to require Alameda county to stop the spread of cities like Livermore and Dublin. “It doesn’t make growth impossible,” said Bloom. “It just makes it difficult.”  

Bloom said the measure forces cities to revise their growth plans to avoid spreading beyond their current boundaries. He said under Measure D, a city would have to annex new land to grow outward, and do so without subsidy from the county.  

One project that would be wiped out by Measure D is the planned construction of 12,500 homes in North Livermore, not yet a part of the city of Livermore. Tom O’Malley, president of the Tri-Valley Business Council, which got Measure C on the ballot, said the cancellation would be inappropriate. He said new growth boundaries should mark where previously-approved expansions end.  

“Measure C represents a build-out of approved general plans,” O’Malley said. He said the measure develops growth boundaries, but doesn’t infringe on growth that cities are already counting on. “These general plans have been through the public process,” he said.  

O’Malley said Measure C represents the needs of the community of Eastern Alameda County, and preserves the farmland and wildlife habitat. Measure C proponents say measure D will cause city housing costs to skyrocket, and will require county-wide voting for trivial changes in land use.  

Bloom said measure C is “an utter fraud.” He said it’s intended to look like it will slow growth, but it will actually give developers a free hand. Bloom said he’d rather see both measures fail than have measure C put into effect. 

A Berkeley teen-ager who disappeared Halloween night is still missing, according to police. 

Faith Brown, 15, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 160 pounds, was last seen near Sacramento and Julia streets at about 9 p.m. Tuesday.  

Brown was wearing her hair in a pony tail and dressed in a “ghetto spy” costume, wearing all black, with a fur coat. 

Her mother Elvita White said a neighbor stopped by and told her that Faith was down the street with a young man and “seemed disoriented.” White and the neighbor went to get her, but when they reached the corner she and the young man were gone. 

“Nobody recognized the young man and friends said that (Faith) didn’t even know her name,” White said. 

The last time White saw her daughter was about 5 p.m. 

“She was happy,” White said. “She was going to Iceland with her twin sister, Hope, and some friends and then trick-or-treating.” 

White said that she got separated from her sister at about 6:30 p.m. near their home in the 1500 block of Julia Street. 

Berkeley Police Sergeant Steve Odom of Youth Services said Thursday that the department had begun to distribute flyers that day with the girl’s description. 

Odom said Youth Services receives about 30 missing youth reports a month. 

“Ninety-nine percent of them turn up within 72 hours but until then we treat it very seriously. We have generated more than 250 flyers and are actively looking for clues.” 

Anyone with information about Faith Brown should call the Berkeley Police Youth Services Dept. at 981-5715. 

The City Council on Oct. 24 approved steps a citizens committee and city officials will take in an attempt to find design alternatives to an existing 170-foot communications tower next to the public safety building neighbors have nicknamed the “Oil Rig.” 

The triangular tower, with 13 vertical antennas, was built to enable the police and fire departments to communicate with their field personnel. The structure was designed to withstand a major earthquake.  

Neighbors have complained the tower destroys views and hurts home values. In addition they are concerned the electromagnetic radiation that would emanate from the tower may be a health hazard. Currently the tower is not in operation. 

The City Council has allocated $50,000 for a consultant who will prepare a study to examine alternatives. The content of the study will be determined by city staff and a six-member citizens committee.  

“The tower is just too demanding of your attention, it overwhelms the neighborhood,” said Carrie Sprague, a member of the approved six-member citizens committee and tower neighbor who is working with the city to find a solution to the tower design. 

The committee is currently considering a draft report outlining the issues the consultant will address. The draft, prepared by the Office of Capital Improvements, includes a thorough examination of the health risks presented by electromagnetic radiation, the possibility of moving or dispersing the tower and the possibility of camouflage. The study will also present a cost estimates for each option. 

Sprague said the committee is adamant that the tower’s visual impact must be addressed. One way of accomplishing that is to disperse the antennae to several locations in the vicinity of the Public Safety Building. 

Sprague said the committee understands the tower must remain in the area for technical reasons. “We know the tower won’t be moving and we would not inflict our tower on any other neighborhood,” she said. 

Sprague added that whoever is hired as the consultant will have to have experience in tower dispersal. 

City project manager, Joe Derie said he will meet with the citizens committee Nov. 8 and they will hash out the consultant’s responsibilities. “Once everybody is happy with the wording in the draft, we’ll go back to the City Council for their blessing and the next step is to find a consultant.” 

Derie said he did not want to estimate the cost of any of the mitigation options and that the city did not prefer one solution over another. “We want the neighborhood to be happy and that’s why we’re hiring a consultant.” 

Philosophical differences between faculty and teachers at Berkeley High School may have had an effect on the turn out of Thursday’s mock election, Helene Lecar, League of Women Voters educational liaison said. 

According to Lecar, this year’s student voter turnout was significantly lower than at previous mock elections. 

Lecar said that only 340 of the schools’ 3,500 students cast their vote this year compared to more than 700 during the previous election. 

“The difference this year was that some teachers chose to give students the opportunity to register in class and brought them to the polling booth and some did not. Leaving it entirely up to them, just like in the real world.” 

What many teachers may not have known is that this year the mock election was being sponsored by CNN nationwide. The mock election, which operates under rules set down by Congress, was designed to teach students and teachers about the voting process and the benefits of civic participation by involving them in a realistic stimulation of all aspects of the electoral process. 

“It’s unfortunate that so many students didn’t have that opportunity,” Lecar said. “But, maybe when they hear the results it will be a wake up call.” 

According to CNN the mock election drew more than 1 million voters, the majority of which voted for republican candidate George W. Bush. A technical problem, created by the large volume of participants, made the exact count unavailable at press time. 

“Students Natalie Magana and Anya Lopez were disappointed that they were turned away at the polling booth. 

“I wasn’t aware that the election was even happening. My second period teacher doesn’t always read the bulletin because it’s so long and by the time I figured it out the registration date had passed,” Magana said. 

Ben Giustine, 15, said that he didn’t vote because he didn’t know it was going to make such an impact. 

“I should’ve registered and voted. I didn’t have any of the information and no one let me in on where to go and what to do.” 

One teacher commented that in the real world people don’t register in groups and they don’t vote in groups. 

“If you don’t register, you can’t vote. That’s how it is in the real world.”

The state’s beleaguered Department of Motor Vehicles is looking to several big companies to help improve customer service. 

It’s part of a “DMV of the Future” project that will include shorter lines and more ways to get information, including over the phone and Internet. 

The department is looking to companies famous for their customer service to give them a few pointers. Disney, Nordstrom, and Southwest Airlines have been contacted. 

High-tech company Cisco Systems has also been asked to give department officials some ideas about how to boost Internet services, which could lead to fewer people stuck in long lines. 

It is unclear how much the project will cost, but state officials say the emphasis on customer service is important because Californians deal with the DMV more often than any other state agency.

ROHNERT PARK — A Sacramento man sought in the shooting of an 8-year-old boy and his father in an El Dorado County marijuana garden was arrested by Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies. 

The shootings occurred Oct. 8 when William Hunt, 42, and Matthew Hunt, 8, wandered into the pot farm while hunting deer on the Hunt family’s land. Both were treated and released from a nearby hospital. 

Investigators found about 1,200 harvested marijuana plants in the area and one man was arrested by El Dorado County deputies. 

But alleged garden owner Silvestre Gonzalez remained at large until Wednesday night, when he was pulled over near Rohnert Park by Sonoma County deputies. 

Gonzalez was booked for investigation of attempted homicide and carrying a loaded gun, a stolen assault rifle and six pounds of marijuana worth about $20,000, officials said.

SACRAMENTO — Carol Pope, a recently divorced single mother, was just out “browsing and wishing” for a new house when a real estate agent told her there was someone who would give her the money for a downpayment. 

Pope had a steady job at Sutter Health, where she’d worked for nine years, but she didn’t have the savings to cover the 3 percent down-payment required for a Federal Housing Administration loan. 

“It was hard saving the money, being a single parent,” said Pope, who works as a technician in the workers’ compensation department and has a daughter. 

Without the gift from the Sacramento-based Nehemiah Corp., which gives low-income home buyers the downpayments on FHA-guaranteed loans, Pope said she’d still be renting. 

But FHA officials say consumer complaints and possible abuse have led them to consider banning that financing technique, even though it helps the very people FHA programs target. A decision is expected by mid-month. 

The proposal would drastically affect the Nehemiah Corp., a nonprofit organization that grants gifts to those who have good credit and a steady income, but don’t make enough to save a downpayment. 

The program is funded by a 4 percent fee the property seller or home builder pays Nehemiah. Three-fourths of that fee is put into a trust fund for future gifts and one-fourth goes toward Nehemiah’s administrative costs. 

Under the proposed rule, buyers would not be able to use a gift from a nonprofit or charitable organization if the money came from the builder or seller, either directly or indirectly. 

FHA officials are concerned that the selling price is inflated to cover that fee, leaving the agency guaranteeing a loan that’s worth more than the property, FHA Commissioner William Apgar said. 

The FHA has had reports of companies offering two prices for the same house – with a higher price listed for FHA-approved buyers in gift programs, Apgar said. 

“Nehemiah has developed a pretty nice process, but not all the imitators have the same degree of community involvement and care that the Nehemiah people have,” Apgar said. 

People who put little or nothing down on a mortgage are considered risky for lenders because they don’t have much invested in the property, he said. 

The gift programs target low-income or first-time buyers who aren’t “the most sophisticated of buyers,” Apgar said. 

“You have to have safeguards so these people don’t get bamboozled,” he said. 

The 5-year-old Nehemiah program has given $34.4 million in downpayment subsidies to more than 7,350 families in California, said president and founder Don Harris. Nationwide, the program has helped more than 60,000 families with $200 million in gifts. 

“The largest zero-down loan program in America is getting money from mom and dad,” Harris said. “It doesn’t make sense that you have someone who is creditworthy and working, but are renting because they weren’t born into a family that can hand them a few thousand bucks.” 

Rita and Donald Price say the program was the only way they were able to buy a house. Rita Price earns minimum wage as a full-time caregiver for her husband. 

“My husband is disabled and on Social Security, so our income is limited,” she said. 

There are other companies that offer gifts for downpayments, but Nehemiah is the largest, FHA officials said. 

Apgar and Harris are optimistic that a compromise can be reached that will include greater oversight of the industry. 

Apgar said FHA has started tracking the gift programs, and will eventually be able to tell which programs have higher loan default rates. 

“Clearly, our intention is not to close down the legitimate nonprofit programs,” he said. 

The programs should be required to offer loan counseling for clients, appraisals that ensure the selling price hasn’t inflated the price and appropriate costs “so the buyer doesn’t have a bunch of fees tacked on,” Apgar said. 

Pope, who has been in her house for more than two years, said she still attends Nehemiah workshops on home improvement and gardening. She said she’d hate to see gift programs closed down. 

“There are so many people out there that really need it,” she said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.hud.gov/ownahm.html 

www.nehemiahcorp.org

OAKLAND — Four Oakland police officers face a combined 49 felony charges including assault, kidnapping and filing false reports in one of the city’s biggest crackdowns on police misconduct. 

The officers – Jude Siapno, 32, Clarence Mabanag, 35, and Matthew Hornung, 28 – were arraigned Thursday in Oakland Superior Court. They wore jackets and ties and did not speak. Frank Vazquez, 43, was out-of-town and did not attend the hearing; a warrant was issued for his arrest, prosecutor David Hollister said. 

None of the officers entered pleas and they were expected to be held in protective custody until a bail hearing Nov. 9. 

The alleged misconduct took place against 10 men between June 13 and July 3 in West Oakland where the officers, who called themselves “The Riders,” patrolled late at night, Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said Thursday. 

Vazquez and Siapno face the most serious charges of kidnapping and assaulting two men, including one who was beaten in the face, stomach, back and legs while handcuffed. Vazquez and Mabanag later intimidated him when their supervisor asked about his injuries, according to the complaint. 

The officers also were accused of falsely accusing several men of possessing drugs and weapons. 

Mabanag, a training officer, was accused of telling his trainee “not to be a ’snitch’ and that what occurred within the police car stayed within the police car.” Vazquez allegedly told the same man that he should “disregard all police training learned in the police academy, disregard probably cause and arrest suspects on contact without lawful reason,” according to the complaint. 

Mabanag’s lawyer, Michael Rains, said the officers are “both sad and anxious to have their stories heard.” Attorneys for all three officers, who remain on paid administrative leave, said they have seen no evidence backing up any of the charges against their clients. 

Orloff, who does not anticipate additional charges although the investigation is ongoing, said the alleged misconduct has “created a heightened sensitivity in all of us to scrutinize all situations.” 

He said 23 mostly drug possession cases in which the officers were involved have been dismissed. 

Oakland Police Chief Richard Word said he’s confident the four officers’ misconduct was isolated, but the department has implemented additional protections – including a strengthened internal review and early warning system to help prevent future problems. 

He acknowledged, however, that his force faces an uphill battle restoring the public trust. He said the department will grow and learn from this incident. 

“It’s difficult, but you have to take strong and severe action,” Word said. 

The investigation began after a rookie officer who had been on duty about three weeks came forward to his superiors in early July. 

”(He) saw some things going on that he knew weren’t appropriate,” Orloff said. Additional officers and citizens also came forward during the investigation, he said. 

But defense lawyers questioned the informant’s credibility. 

Rains said Mabanag has been with the department 10 years and has worked the same beat for four years. 

“This officer has worked diligently,” he said. “The day (the informant) resigned, he thanked my client, gave him a bottle of wine and said maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a police officer.” 

Hollister refused to comment on those allegations. 

A separate FBI investigation into possible civil rights violations is ongoing, FBI spokesman Andrew Black said.

fLIVERMORE — New research shows that turning hamburger patties once every minute cuts down on the formation of cancer-causing agents while ensuring the demise of harmful bacteria like E. coli. 

The burger findings, published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, were the result of work by researchers at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory – where scientists design and develop nuclear weapons. 

“It is the well-done meat that is the problem, but yet the general public is always hearing that you need to cook foods enough to kill bacteria,” said Lawrence Livermore researcher Mark Knize. 

It is a gentle balance between overcooked and just right, Knize said. Meat has to be cooked through to make sure harmful bacteria are killed, but not so well done that cancer-causing chemicals are produced. 

The lab’s food mutagen team found that optimal temperature for burger cooking is 320 degrees, combined with constant aerodynamic flipping techniques, of course, to kill off harmful germs while minimizing the formation of cancer-causing chemicals. 

Hundreds of chemicals are created when meat is cooked. Some chemicals create the smells and tastes that have made hamburgers a dietary staple for many Americans.  

But cancer-causing chemicals called heterocyclic amines also are produced that can be harmful when consumed. 

Other studies by food toxicologists have determined that as much as 30 percent of known cancers may be related to foods we consume. 

The researchers experimented with various pan temperatures and concurred that any cooking heat above 320 degrees is a wasted effort.  

Eight to nine minutes under those conditions should result in the best burger, the lab’s research found, but flipping is the key. 

“We found if you flip every minute you get a reduction (in carcinogens) in all those temperatures that we tested,” said Cynthia Salmon, a member of the research team that worked on the not-so-top-secret burger project for more than a year. 

It’s not the first time the mutagen team has dabbled in the science of the barbecue pit.  

In previous research, the team published advice on avoiding cancer-causing chemicals by marinating chicken. 

WILLITS— When Victoria Titus moved to this small Northern California town, she thought her children would have a safe place to grow up. Now, she says, her family suffers from such ailments as kidney failure and seizures. 

Titus and others in this town billed as “The Gateway to the Redwoods,” blame Remco Hydraulics, a company that polluted for more than 40 years before going bankrupt in 1995. Now Remco’s owners are battling insurance companies over the company’s claims, keeping at bay the money to pay for testing residents who say they’re sick from the pollution. 

In the meantime, the residents wait and worry. 

“I cannot believe that any of that funding can be dependent on the making good of insurance policies,” Jane Gurko, a retired professor, told U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in a Monday hearing for residents to air their concerns and questions. “I hope in the decree it can be turned around so there’s money for people who’ve actually been affected.” 

About 200 residents of the 5,000-person town claim they suffer from pollution-related ailments. 

A court settlement last year between the city and Whitman Corp. – Remco’s parent company – requires at least $2 million be put in a fund for the medical monitoring of residents. According to the agreement, only insurance money can be used for that fund. 

If the court decides in favor of Whitman, the insurance money left over after Whitman is reimbursed for its expenses – including cleanup of the site – will pay for the residents to be screened to see if they were exposed to toxins that made them sick. But the fund doesn’t provide money for treatment if they indeed are sick from contamination. 

Titus wants to know if the sicknesses that have afflicted her family are, in fact, caused by the company’s dumping. 

“I think they should test us,” she said at the hearing, and many echoed her sentiment. 

The settlement also required Whitman to set up two other funds to compensate for damages to natural resources and the city, and to monitor the site into the future. Both of those funds are empty. Meanwhile, Whitman and the insurance companies haggle in court. 

Few deny that Remco, which made hydraulics equipment for the U.S. Department of Defense, polluted the ground with chromium 6 and other chemicals at its 3.5-acre site and at a couple of other sites around town. But residents and the company differ on the extent and effect of the pollution. 

The site was investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the 1980s as a Superfund site, but it has not made the national priorities list. The city sued Whitman in 1996, a year after the plant – at one time the city’s largest employer – closed. They settled in 1997, but the settlement was amended last year to set up an annual fund from Whitman for cleanup. 

People who live near the contaminated sites and say the pollution made them sick have to prove the chemicals moved from the sites toward them in concentrations that could cause their illnesses.  

The illnesses also have to be the kind people could get from the chemicals. That has yet to be done, said David Drell of the Willits Environmental Center established by local citizens. 

Santa Cruz resident Leslie Hernandez believes the pollution killed her 5-year-old son in 1997, after he played in a nearby creek while the family visited the city. The coroner’s report said the boy, who had mild hemophilia, died from internal bleeding in his stomach. 

“He never had a problem with cuts, scrapes,” Hernandez said. “We believe they dumped and he got runoff residue.” 

Illston dismissed Hernandez’s case, but Erin Brockovich’s law firm has taken Hernandez’s appeal. Brockovich is the law clerk made famous in a movie named after her. 

About 100 residents have sued, said Bill Simpich, one of the attorneys representing them, and another 100 people are expected to sue. 

Illston took the unusual step of leaving her San Francisco courtroom Monday to take a tour of the Remco plant to listen to residents.  

For two hours, she heard resident after resident tell her about waterways that ran yellow with pollution, about waiting when they were children for a truck from Remco to dump what they now believe was polluted water so they could play in it, and about a host of sicknesses they think resulted from this exposure, such as cancer, reproductive problems and migraines. 

Gerald Duncan, a former Remco worker, said he saw the company dump at various sites in the town, “especially at night, especially when it was raining,” to dilute the chemicals. 

“I know this for a fact because I was there,” he said. 

Marilyn Underwood, a toxicologist with the state health department, which is assessing the site, urged Illston to put the medical monitoring fund at the top of her list. 

“It seems like it might be something that would help this community,” she said. 

Barbara Guibard, who represents Whitman, said the company is focusing on cleaning up the site. 

“I think it’s important that studies to date have shown that the site today poses no public health risks,” she said. 

Not all agree that Remco has harmed the community. 

Marvin Hansard, who lives across the street from the site, said he never had any problems with the company in the 28 years he has lived there. 

“I think the environmental problem has been blown out of proportion,” he said. “They’ve done test drills throughout this immediate area but never found anything.” 

Floyd Brandt, principal for the past 10 years of Baechtel Grove School across the street from Remco, said he has never heard complaints from students and has not experienced any problems with Remco. 

“I’m sure there are pollutants in the ground just as there are around any gas station,” he said. “They’ve tested the well waters here, and my understanding is it’s always come back negative.” 

Whitman has set up a court-mandated trust to clean up the site. Over the last two years, Whitman has given the trust $11 million, including a $7 million loan. 

However, that money is just for cleanup. In the future, the amount of money Whitman allocates for cleanup will be negotiated each year, based on need, Guibard said. 

Illston will consider the comments given at the hearing before deciding how the company and the city should continue with their agreement. The next hearing is set for Nov. 17 in Illston’s San Francisco courtroom. 

LOS ANGELES — Support for the death penalty in California has dropped 20 percent in the last decade, according to a Los Angeles Time poll. 

The poll, published Thursday, found that 58 percent of those surveyed supported the death penalty, down from 78 percent in 1990. It also found that 44 percent of residents opposed a moratorium, while 42 percent supported one. 

The findings come at a time of intensifying national scrutiny of capital punishment and the decline is in line with similar trends in other polls. 

In March, a Gallup poll found that 66 percent of Americans back the death penalty, a 19-year low. 

The Times Poll found that opposition to the death penalty in California was strongest among blacks, with 49 percent disapproving and 42 percent approving. Support was strongest among whites, with 66 percent approving and only 30 percent disapproving. 

Gov. Gray Davis has voiced firm support for execution “as a matter of deep conviction.” He has rejected all three requests for clemency that have come before him since he took office in January 1999 and has repeatedly said he opposes a moratorium on executions. 

Lance Lindsey, director of Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco-based group that opposes capital punishment, said he believes that “a large part of the reaction is a backlash to what is going on in Texas.” 

Texas has executed 232 people – more than any other state – since the Supreme Court permitted the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. 

California has the nation’s largest death row, with 577 inmates, but has had only eight executions since reinstating capital punishment. 

Experts also believe the findings reflect the growing concern over how the death penalty is administered and the widespread publicity about wrongful convictions around the country — including 13 in Illinois in recent years. 

The Times poll surveyed 1,837 California adults from Oct. 19 to 23 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

LOS ANGELES — The indignant minister arrived at the police station to demand answers when an officer fatally shot a black suspect. 

“It had nothing to do with him being black,” a white police official insisted. 

The minister was actor Anthony Lee, playing a role on a 1997 episode of the CBS police-drama “Brooklyn South” that would foretell a deadly irony. 

Lee was shot to death Saturday at a Halloween party when a Los Angeles police officer responding to a noise complaint mistook the actor’s costume gun for a real weapon. 

The slain actor was mourned Wednesday night by some 300 people, including friends and family members, who took part in a Buddhist memorial ceremony at the Los Angeles Friendship Center. 

Among the mourners was Lee’s sister Tina Vogt.  

She told reporters before the ceremony of the irony of her brother’s death, noting he was a devout Buddhist who was devoted to his religion’s teachings of pursuing a peaceful way of life. 

“Despite the violent manner in which he died, my brother was an anti-violent man,” Vogt said. 

The ceremony included chanting and the burning of incense in Lee’s honor. 

Critics question whether the officer overreacted because Lee was black – even though the officer was, too. LAPD officials said they don’t believe race played a role in the shooting. 

The LAPD has struggled to distance itself from race issues such as the 1991 Rodney King beating and the O.J. Simpson double-murder case, in which Det. Mark Fuhrman was discredited by taped interviews of him repeatedly using a racial slur. 

The ongoing Rampart police corruption probe, however, shows that many of the key officers accused of brutalizing and framing suspects in largely black and Hispanic neighborhoods are themselves black or Hispanic. 

Inherent racism within the culture and structure of the LAPD may influence nonwhite officers to distrust or repudiate people of their own race, said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 

“For years, those of us who do civil rights work thought the answer to police brutality was integration,” Ripston said. “What we see is that black police officers can be as brutal as white officers.” 

Joey Johnson, an anti-police brutality activist with the Stolen Lives Project, a catalog of victims of police shootings, said he believes the officer was mostly frightened of Lee because he was black. 

“If he had been a white person with a toy gun – or real gun for that matter – the police would have thought twice,” he said. “Instead, it’s almost instinctual that they shoot when it looks like a large black man has a gun, regardless of the race of the officer.” 

Lee and three other guests were standing in a brightly lighted back bedroom of a mansion in the affluent Benedict Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles when Officer Tarriel Hopper and a female officer, responding to a noise complaint, arrived to quiet the party. 

After the officers contacted security guards at the home and asked for the owners, the female officer remained in the kitchen while Hopper left to search the rear of the house with a flashlight, said attorney Johnnie Cochran, who is representing Lee’s sister. 

That’s when Hopper saw Lee and three friends through the window. 

The actor held a realistic replica of an Israeli-made semiautomatic handgun as part of his costume.  

Although Lee brought a rubber devil Halloween mask to the party, he was not wearing it when he was shot, witnesses said. 

Hopper told investigators that Lee looked at him and pointed the fake weapon toward the window. Fearing for his life, police officials said, Hopper fired at Lee nine times, killing him. 

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks dismissed the idea that race influenced the shooting.  

Police officials refused to discuss whether Hopper registered the race of the victim before he fired. 

The fact that Hopper is black, Parks said, seems to discount fears that the victim was shot because he was black.  

Any officer in that situation, he added, would have mistaken Lee’s fake gun for a real weapon and respond with deadly force. 

Even Cochran concedes race might be irrelevant in the case. He has blamed the shooting on “tactics and strategies gone awry.” 

Hopper has been placed on paid leave while the department and county district attorney’s office investigate the shooting. 

Police culture often can affect the way black, Hispanic or Asian officers view communities that are largely nonwhite, said researcher Darnell F. Hawkins, of the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

Those officers might become predisposed to using force against others of their own race because they often are assigned to high-crime, ethnic neighborhoods, he said. 

Minority officers may not even realize they have developed prejudices, said Hawkins, a professor of African American studies and sociology who has written extensively on race and crime. 

Research shows officers react faster and with more force when confronted with people of color, he said. 

In the Lee shooting, however, Hawkins cautioned that it’s possible the officer focused only on the apparent gun in the victim’s hand – not his skin color. 

“Police are taught to shoot,” he said. “And even though they are trained, they get scared when they feel their lives are threatened.” 

LOS ANGELES — The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday said it will seek a temporary restraining order to prevent Secretary of State Bill Jones from shutting down vote-swapping Web sites. 

Three sites voluntarily shut down this week after Jones told one of the operators they were violating state election laws. The ACLU, however, said the practice constitutes free speech and probably wouldn’t have been challenged if promoted through a more traditional medium such as newspaper or radio. 

“The ACLU will not allow the Internet to become the First Amendment punching bag for every government official,” said Peter Eliasberg, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California. 

The sites have turned up in recent weeks. Many are aimed at supporters of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, seen as a threat to siphon votes from Democrat Al Gore. Democrats fear those voters could decide the election in states that are too close to call. 

The Web sites allow users to discuss a strategy called vote-swapping. 

A Nader supporter in a hotly contested state, for example, would contact a Gore supporter in a state that is considered safe for Republican George W. Bush. The Nader supporter would agree to vote for Gore in exchange for the Gore backer casting a vote for Nader. 

The online barter could allow Gore to win some swing states while giving the Green Party the 5 percent of the national vote it needs to gain federal campaign money in 2004. 

The creators of one such site, www.voteswap2000.com, said they were contacted by Jones’ office and told they were violating state law. The site remained closed on Thursday. 

Jones’ office said the state Election Code prohibits offering payment or any other “valuable consideration” to voters. 

“What they were doing was brokering the exchange of votes,” Secretary of State spokesman Shad Balch said. “You can’t swap your vote. It’s not a commodity. This constitutes fraud.” 

The ACLU said discussing or agreeing to a voting strategy is different from offering or receiving payment for a vote. The sites’ political message “qualifies them for the highest level of protection under the First Amendment...,” Eliasberg said. 

Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Southern California, also disagrees with Jones’ interpretation of the law. 

“What’s going on at these sites isn’t like some kind of contract. No one is giving up their vote,” he said. “All that is going on is free speech.” 

Named as plaintiffs will be the operators of www.voteexchange2000.com, as well as several people who attempted to access the vote-swapping sites but found they were shut down. 

“I’m here because I believe in my First Amendment right and my rights to discuss with whomever I want about political issues that affect me,” said Scott W. Tenley, a University of California, Los Angeles law student. 

——— 

On the Net: 

ACLU: www.aclu.org 

Secretary of State: www.ss.ca.gov 

www.voteswap2000.com 

www.NaderTrader.org 

www.voteexchange.com 

www.voteexchange.org 

www,winwincampaign.org 

http://winchell.com/NaderTrader 

NEW YORK — Virtual reality studios, interactive games and 3-D graphics – a presidential election night traditionally lets network news divisions trot out plenty of high-tech gadgetry and stars for prime-time exposure. 

This year grateful TV networks are looking forward to a new wrinkle: an actual competitive race. 

“This has been a banner year for my favorite theory in American politics – the UFO theory, the unforeseen will occur,” NBC’s Tom Brokaw said. “I don’t remember one like this.” 

Brokaw will be the anchor for NBC’s Election Night coverage Tuesday, as he has been since 1976.  

His two chief competitors, ABC’s Peter Jennings and CBS’ Dan Rather, have been ringmasters for their networks since the 1984 election. 

They are all preparing for the possibility of a very late night before the White House race between George W. Bush and Al Gore is decided. 

ABC is experimenting this year with interactive elements. It will try to poll viewers through computer and will even ask people to participate in a political trivia contest. 

“I don’t think there’s any rule that says politics can’t be fun,” said Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News. 

The hot competition for most-watched network is likely to be between ABC and NBC. By one important barometer – evening news ratings – Brokaw has been on top this year, but more viewers watched the presidential debates on ABC. 

With ratings low for many of the year’s big political events, many in television believe the same will be true Election Night.  

An average of 24.9 million homes were tuned in to the returns in 1996, the second-lowest since 1960, according to Nielsen Media Research. 

More ominously, a higher percentage of viewers watched something else on TV other than election returns four years ago than ever before, Nielsen said. 

“The rhythm of the race will dictate to a certain extent what the audience is,” Rather said.  

“If it’s cardiac arrest time for both sides as we head to the Pacific coast, the audience will be quite large.” 

Viewers will have more options to watch returns.  

Fox is covering Election Night for the first time ever, simulcasting with Fox News Channel. Financial commentator Louis Rukeyser anchors CNBC’s coverage, emphasizing how the election affects the economy. PBS coverage begins at 10 p.m. 

It is also the first time three cable news networks will be competing. CNN promises 24 hours of election coverage, starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. MSNBC’s coverage will be anchored by Brian Williams. 

The boldest alternative for people who don’t like politics is on USA, which premieres the movie “Chippendales Murder.” 

NBC’s Brokaw is hoping for a night as exciting as 1960 when, as a college sophomore, he stayed up past dawn to see the Kennedy-Nixon returns come in. Watching Chet Huntley and David Brinkley was a pivotal night for him. 

“I had this kind of epiphany that that’s what I wanted to do with my life,” he said. “I wanted to be one of those guys who see the world and cover politics.” 

The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON — Attacks against Ralph Nader are mounting from groups once closely aligned with his views but now angered by his refusal to get out of Democrat Al Gore’s way in Tuesday’s election. 

But the Green Party candidate, a possible spoiler in closely contested states, remained defiant Thursday in the face of criticism from environmentalists, organized labor, gays and abortion-rights groups that he could tip the election to Republican George W. Bush. 

“What are these people doing?” he asked. “They’re going around the country trying to salvage Al Gore’s campaign.” 

Nader urged supporters in Seattle not to be swayed by “surrogates of Al Gore.” 

“These are the same surrogates who couldn’t get their calls returned from the Clinton-Gore administration for eight years,” Nader told the rally. 

The Sierra Club, National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, the National Organization for Women, the gay-rights Human Rights Campaign and the leading public sector union have joined at least 20 Democratic senators and congressmen in stumping for Gore. 

The cross talk has grown bitter, mainly over Nader’s insistence that there’s no major difference between the two leading candidates. 

“If he can’t see the difference between Gore and Bush, it’s pretty pathetic,” said Toby Moffett, a former Democratic member of Congress from Connecticut and Nader colleague. 

Moffett and other former Nader associates have posted ads in college newspapers and done radio interviews to try to convert Nader votes into ones for Gore. 

Nader was urged to drop out in a letter by George Becker, president of the United Steelworkers of America, who described the longtime consumer activist and himself as “steadfast allies.” 

Any advances in workers’ rights, wages and turning back corporate influence in government would be reversed with a Bush victory, Becker said. 

“It would be tragically ironic if your dedication to principle should ultimately result in the further domination of our political process by the very forces of corporate greed that we have both worked so hard to restrain,” he said. 

Nader was hearing none of it. 

Attacking the vice president’s environmental record, he said Gore’s about-face on a waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, was reason enough for environmental groups to rescind their endorsement of the Democrat. 

“Gore made the sensible decision to oppose the incinerator in 1992, promised that a test-burn permit would not be issued, and then turned around and told the Bush administration to issue the permit before he took office,” Nader said. 

“This is an unbelievable betrayal by Al Gore,” he said in Seattle, before heading to another campaign stop in Denver. 

Nader averages about 4 percent in national polls, but he gets more in close-race states where much of his support comes from voters who might otherwise back Gore. 

He’s been variously annoyed and amused by all the pressure on him from fellow liberals, Democrats and even a dozen former “Nader’s Raiders.” He argues that if Bush happens to win, that will spark a progressive movement that will serve their causes down the road. 

Ralph Neas, president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, disputed that, saying in a letter that Bush could “turn back the clock for decades” by achieving a right-wing lock on the Supreme Court. 

The appeals by Gore supporters have had the unintended effect of raising Nader’s profile and boosting his fund-raising efforts. His campaign raised $155,000 in Web donations alone over the last two days; not bad considering it has raised only $7 million all year. 

“The focus on Nader in the last week of the campaign has helped us get his message out there in ways that it wasn’t getting out before,” said Nader spokesman Tom Adkins. “So I think all this is going to help us, to be honest with you.”

RENO, Nev. — For David Peri, onions always have been pretty basic. They come out of the ground. 

It’s been that way since 1979 when Peri planted his first crop in Mason Valley.  

Since then, Peri & Sons Farms has grown into the do-it-yourself king of the onion world. 

Peri, with 1,200 acres, runs the nation’s largest soil-to-supermarket onion operation – planting, growing, harvesting, packing and shipping. He does just about everything to be done with onions, short of placing slices on hamburgers. 

This fall, Peri is adding something to the process – high technology. 

The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension is using Peri’s fields to experiment with “precision farming,” employing satellites, receivers, computers and other gadgets to, he hopes, grow more, better and cheaper onions. 

“I’m the guinea pig,” Peri said. 

It’s a big step for Peri who believes in some old-fashioned methods. 

On most farms, onions are machine harvested. Peri’s Nevada High Desert Onions are picked by hand. 

“You have less bruising,” he said. 

But Peri is willing to try some 21st century techniques. Precision farming, tried with success extensively in the breadbasket Midwest, is relatively new to the arid Great Basin. 

“I’m not aware of any other projects in northern Nevada,” said Bill Chounet, a Yerington-based agriculture consultant who’s developing the program with Peri and the cooperative extension. 

The extension assists the state’s ranchers and farmers, some of whom might adopt precision techniques if they prove successful with Peri. 

This year’s onion crop, grown without satellites and computers, is being processed. Results of the high-tech program, which is based on precise mapping of Peri’s fields, won’t show up until next fall. 

“There should be increased yields and reduced costs for fertilizers,” said Loretta Singletary, an agriculture economist for the cooperative extension. 

Soil research started in September and continues this month as Peri prepares his fields for spring planting. 

The satellite mapping system allows Peri to analyze soil in different parts of his fields and determine which fertilizers to apply in various locations. 

Before technology, Peri, like many farmers, did random soil samples and from those selected a fertilizer for an entire field. 

Since most dirt looks the same, mapping removes the guesswork, allowing farmers taking samples to know exactly how it compares with the rest of the field. It also lets them return to the same spots later for additional tests. 

“It’s just like in your back yard,” Chounet said. 

“You can take a (soil) sample in a spot and the next year you want to go back and see how you did. You go back and scratch your head and say, Where did I take it? Your information isn’t as good.” 

Equipment for the precision farming project includes a portable receiver, similar to a small television satellite dish, which receives the tracking signals from space. The system can pinpoint sampling locations within about three feet. The signal information is recorded so the sample spots can be found again. 

“If we put a pound of nitrogen (fertilizer) on a square foot of ground, we can go back and look at the (crop) yield on it with comfort that we are in the same exact spot,” Chounet said. 

When it’s time for next year’s onion harvest, Peri will be able to look at the yields from sections of his fields where particular fertilizers were spread, then analyze the results. 

Instead of using satellite signals, Peri could pound sticks in the ground to remember the sample locations. 

But “you can’t leave a stake in the field,” he said. “With harvesting the crop, the chance of that stake staying there is pretty slim.” 

Along with increasing efficiency and reducing costs, precision farming could help the environment by reducing fertilizer runoff into rivers and streams. 

“The water quality has yet to be determined,” Singletary said. “It would take more than one farmer.” 

Finding more guinea pigs might be difficult because precision farming is expensive. The technology can cost from $30,000 to $250,000, depending on how much a farmer wants to do. 

Since the onion project is experimental, Peri is getting a lot of free assistance. The program is costing him about $3,000. 

“We are going to try to measure the change in yields,” Singletary said of the programs immediate goal. “I think (growing) more onions is what we’ll focus on.” 

JOLO, Philippines — At least seven people were injured when shells fired by the military against a Muslim rebel group holding two hostages hit an evacuation center on a southern Philippine island, victims said Thursday. 

At least two cannon shells landed late Wednesday on a school building and two others landed near a flag pole at the school in Patikul town on Jolo island being used as temporary shelter by civilians fleeing clashes between soldiers and members of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf. 

There was no immediate comment from army spokesmen. 

Norinda Alih, one of those wounded, said she and the others were preparing to go to sleep when the shelling started. 

Alih, who was hit by shrapnel in the chest, was taken to a hospital in Jolo’s capital. 

The military said 151 rebels have been killed and 157 others have surrendered since a rescue operation for 19 hostages was launched Sept. 16. Six soldiers and three government militiamen have also been killed in more than 80 clashes, the military said. 

Seventeen of the hostages have been recovered during the rescue operation, leaving only American Jeffrey Schilling and Filipino Roland Ulla still in rebel hands. 

The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the military regards it as a bandit gang. 

WASHINGTON — Department of Veterans Affairs employees are suing the government, accusing the VA of breaching their privacy by giving fellow workers and some patients access to their Social Security numbers and dates of birth. 

The class-action suit on behalf of the VA’s 180,000 employees seeks $1,000 for each one, the minimum amount under the 1974 Privacy Act. If successful, that would total about $180 million. 

The suit says that through an internal patient record system, employees’ personal information appeared along with the medical information on patients. Workers at any VA facility could check up on VA workers anywhere else, said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Wisconsin last month. It said there were no warning screens or logs of who accessed the information. 

Jim Bensen, a VA spokesman, declined Thursday to comment on the suit’s details. 

“We take the issue very seriously, not just veteran information but also employee information,” Bensen said. 

Employees said they were worried about more than fellow workers peeking at their private information. 

“We even have patients who pull this information up,” said Sandy Bond, a plaintiff who works at a VA hospital in Leavenworth, Kan. “Incentive therapy job patients have access to the computer. These people are convicts, substance abusers, (people with) mental illnesses.” 

The allegations follow a House committee hearing in September in which lawmakers grilled VA officials about lax computer security.  

Witnesses said that during a planned test, hackers could break into VA computers and quickly gain full access to any VA system, including billing privileges and the personal records of any veteran. 

The department has planned an “Information Security Stand Down” on Friday for all VA employees. Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Hershel W. Gober will speak to the department’s employees via closed-circuit television about the importance of computer security. 

Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala., who convened the September hearing, said he could not comment on pending litigation. Everett, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs oversight subcommittee, said in a statement that he was aware of the allegations, and his panel “is continuing to review the matter.” 

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, declined to comment for the same reason. 

Bond, a union leader for the Leavenworth hospital’s workers, learned the problem from a fellow employee earlier this year. Bond filed a grievance that was handled over the summer by an independent arbiter who sided with the employees.  

However, the arbiter had no authority to award damages or attorneys’ fees. Bond and her fellow employees then decided to sue. 

When she told her supervisors about the problem, Bond said she was informed it involved software that affected every VA facility nationwide and would be difficult to fix. 

Since the arbitration, the VA has installed a software patch that blocks out the Social Security numbers and dates of birth for the workers. However, Bond said the information remains available through another software program used by the VA. 

Albert Schmidt, the other named plaintiff, works at a VA hospital in Milwaukee and suspects someone tried to use his information illegally. He said a credit card company’s fraud department contacted him and said a Houston resident tried to open an account with Schmidt’s date of birth and Social Security number. 

“It really scares me,” Schmidt said. “There really is not a way somebody could find my Social Security number and date of birth other than through the VA. They didn’t have my address.” 

Schmidt said he learned from discussions at a federal employees’ conference that it has become standard practice at some VA hospitals for workers to check a new employees’ birth dates to find out how old they are. 

“One person was irate because she was lying about her age for some time,” Schmidt said. “She was very hurt about it. She said she doesn’t like to see her date of birth accessed by other people, even if it’s only to check to see how old (she is).” 

When Bond first brought her complaint to supervisors, she just wanted the problem fixed. Now she says she’s frustrated and saddened by both her employer and Washington officials. She says they failed to help her and her co-workers. 

“I was totally shocked that the VA would do something like this,” she said. ”... I was baffled that the people in D.C. that were supposed to be helping us didn’t even help.” 

——— 

On the Net: Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov 

Want to know why Bruce Hornsby didn’t disappear – as so many do – after his initial string of pop hits, beginning in 1986?  

Check out his new, two-CD live set, “Here Come The Noisemakers,” or his concert at the Berkeley Community Theater, Saturday. It will soon become clear why Bruce Hornsby is an artist in music as a career, not a one-hit wonder. 

Bruce Hornsby’s shows are highly regarded affairs in which his tightly constructed songs are opened up wide. Many are completely reinvented, a new arrangement improvised on the spot. “Valley Road” was a Southern-inflected ditty, on “Here Come The Noisemakers” it is more a moody power ballad.  

In part because of this type of almost re-composing his songs on the fly, but also because of the wide range of music he is interested in, Hornsby is able to make his shows stylistically diverse.  

His concerts feature songs from the bluegrass, jazz, rock and pop idioms, often in various blends during one song. 

Bruce Hornsby has also begun approaching virtuosity on  

the piano. 

He was a very good piano player when he first hit the charts in 1986. 

By the time the tracks on “Here Come The Noisemakers” were recorded, between 1998 and 2000, Hornsby had become a great piano player.  

The introduction to “The Way It Is” and “King Of The Hill” reveal exceptional improvisational skills that erase the boundaries between jazz and classical playing; here and elsewhere Hornsby proves he’s worked really hard to develop his left hand skills to the point they were on par with his right, while continually raising the bar for both hands.  

One can not really imagine the Bruce Hornsby of 1986 playing a two-week run at Yoshi’s jazz club in Oakland, but by the end of the 1990s it made perfect sense, as the tracks on this collection that were recorded at the world-famous jazz venue demonstrate. 

The band is up for the task, as the bass, drums, guitar, and organ accompanying him are superb in every style; the bass player is especially phenomenal as a jazz soloist.  

Of course Hornsby also adds some accordion to the mix at times, if only to lighten things up. 

Hornsby pays tribute to the influence of the Grateful Dead on his work. 

He had a Dead tribute band with his brother in the mid-70s, long before he joined the Dead for a two year, transitionary period in 1990. 

He does covers of “Lady With A Fan” (from the “Terrapin Station” suite), an almost aching version of “Black Muddy River,” and perhaps most powerfully, by taking the riff from “China Cat Sunflower” and making a whole new dance tune from it, “Sunflower Cat,” and later adding “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry,” a Bob Dylan song the Dead also covered, to the same offbeat boogie groove. 

As a member of The Other Ones (TOO), which features guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, all of the Grateful Dead, among others, Hornsby seemed to have developed a special musical bond with Bay Area guitarist Steve Kimock (TOO, Zero, Steve Kimock Band).  

The two often seem to share an enhanced sense of musical communication even as ensembles play around them.  

This was true during the TOO tours in 1998 and 2000, as well as when Kimock shared the stage with Hornsby at Yoshi’s in 1998 and 1999, some of which is documented on “Here Comes The Noisemakers.” 

Kimock will again join Hornsby on stage on Saturday night at the BCT. 

Hornsby’s voice often sounds like the very ideal in the idea of Southern hospitality as he explores a wide range of adult emotions in his lyrics. 

“Mandolin Rain” is a watercolor poem depicting a scene and a feeling, for example, while “Rainbow’s Cadillac” is a more cinematic tale of a revivalist preacher and/or snake oil salesman. 

In short, “Here Comes The Noisemakers” is an excellent representation of Hornsby’s recent concerts, which are good reason to be glad he’s in it for the long haul, not a fly-by-night sensation. 

Those attending the concert at the Berkeley Community Theater are likely to experience the same feeling.

A Berkeley resident and criminal attorney who was booked on suspicion of nine felony drug and weapons charges waived his right to arraignment Monday afternoon and is scheduled to enter a plea today in Superior Court in Oakland. 

Michael Moore was arrested early Friday morning at his home in the 1100 block of Glen Avenue in the Berkeley hills as part of a two month investigation conducted by the narcotics division of the Oakland Police Department. 

“We had information which led us to believe Moore had drugs and guns in his house . . . and just followed the trail to Berkeley,” narcotics officer Jim Beere said. 

Police found more than 15 pounds of packaged marijuana, 171 budding marijuana plants that were hung up to dry and several dozen potted plants in Moore’s basement and garage. In addition police said they seized 15 grams of cocaine, 12 grams of hashish and an arsenal of assault weapons including submachine guns and assault pistols. 

“Moore had a elevator lift covered with a throw rug in the kitchen which led us to the basement where most of the drugs were found,” Beere said. “After that he temporarily waived his Miranda rights and showed us where the guns were hidden stating that he didn’t want us to feel ‘uncomfortable’ or get hurt because they were all loaded.” 

According to Beere, this isn’t the first time Moore has been arrested. He has a prior record and has been arrested for transportation of drugs, possession of drugs and two convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol. 

According to Beere, both drug related charges were reduced and he was assigned to a diversion program, rather than being sentenced to jail time. This allowed Moore to continue practicing law. His driver’s license was suspended at the time of arrest for driving under the influence. 

Moore’s attorney, Robert J. Beles, strongly argued his case in the hopes of getting his bail reduced, stating that Moore has Lou Gherigs disease, a disorder that results in muscle deterioration, paralysis and eventually death, and that Moore has a valid prescription for medical marijuana. 

“Michael Moore is a respected citizen and attorney. He is not a drug dealer and was growing marijuana for personal use. He is not a flight risk,” Beles said. 

However, the amount of marijuana found in his home far exceeded the amount Berkeley permits for medical marijuana users, which is 60 budding plants, police said. 

State attorney, Blair Thomas, argued successfully, however, that Moore’s bail be raised from $290,000 to $325,000, the amount the court deemed equal to the crimes he’s suspected of committing. 

Neighbors on the street where Moore has lived for more than 30 years said they were dismayed and horrified when more than 30 drug enforcement agents descended on their neighborhood Friday morning and uncovered the arsenal of weapons and drugs. 

Christine Kenton, who runs Kinderfarm Preschool out of her home two doors down from Moore said she always knew he was an offbeat criminal attorney who represented members of Hell’s Angels, but was shocked to learn that he had weapons in his house. 

“We run a preschool here. Parents were dropping their kids off when the bust went down. Drug enforcement agents were carrying out all these weapons and nobody wants drugs and guns two doors down from where their children are being cared for.” 

As for the marijuana plants found in the house Kenton added that she is a believer in the use of medical marijuana and said she thought Moore suffered from several illnesses. 

Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said that she was upset to learn that there were so many weapons in the house and that Moore may have been conducting drug deals there. 

“It was really unsettling to know he may have been bringing unsavory people into the neighborhood. Other neighbors have told me that people were always coming and going at his house.” 

Moore faces a minimum of 12 years in prison if convicted under state law and more than 30 years if the case is tried in Federal court.  

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. Free. 649-2440 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equipment, fundamental climbing techniques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Wen Ho Lee: Victim  

of Racial Profiling? 

7 - 9 p.m.  

USF 

252 McLaren Hall 

Fulton St. (at Clayton St.) 

Speakers will include Victor Hwang, managing attorney of the Asian Law Caucus, Kalina Wong, a Lawrence Livermore Lab employee who filed a discrimination suit against the University of California, and Ling-chi Wang, Chair of Asian-American Studies at UC Berkeley. 

Call Patricia Lin, (415) 422-5765  

Task Force on  

Telecommunications 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Dia de los Muertos Ceremony 

6:30 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes 

1573 Solano Ave.  

Pennie holds a simple ceremony to honor those who have passed on out of this world. Remember loved ones with offerings of food and beverages which they enjoyed while on earth.  

“Attic Conversions” 

7 - 10 p.m . 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architect/builder Andus Brandt.  

$35 

Citizen’s Budget Review  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Instructional Technology in Higher Education 

4 - 5:30 p.m.  

Geballe Room, Stephens Hall 

UC Berkeley 

Kenneth C. Green, Founder/Director of the Campus Computing Project speaks on “Compelling, Competing, and Complementary Visions for Instructional Technology in Higher Education.” Free 

Call 642-5040 

Community Action Team 

7 p.m. 

Over 60 Health Center 

3260 Sacramento 

Meet to plan actions to take to reduce the health disparities in the city. 

Board of Education 

7:30 p.m. 

Old City Hall 

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Commission on the Status  

of Women 

7:45 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Among topics to be discussed will be the Mayor’s special study group’s report on domestic violence and a transitional housing zoning proposal by the planning commission.  

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

7:30 p.m. 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic  

Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Poetry of Goh Poh Seng 

12:10 - 1 p.m.  

Doe Library, Morrison Room  

UC Berkeley  

Part of UC Berkeley’s Lunch Poem Reading Series 

Exploring the Galapagos Islands 

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Amateur photographer John Kokoska presents a slide-show of his recent trip into this unique volcanic landscape of giant tortoises and marine iguanas. Free  

Call Polly Bolling, 527-7377  

Spirit of the Road 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Don Patton, general editor and Vice President of Publishing for the California State Automobile Association presents a slide show celebrating the first one hundred years of the automobile and the CSA. Free. 

Call 843-3533 for more info.  

BOSS Graduation 

6 - 8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

27th & Harrison 

Oakland 

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency’s graduation gala for poor, disabled, and homeless folks who have worked hard to achieve jobs, housing, education, training, and other milestones. There will be special guests, music, and a buffet. The community are invited. 

Call 649-1930 

Spirit Matters 

4:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Rabbi Michael Lerner speaks about his new book. 

Call 849-8244 

Housing Advisory Commission  

7:30 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St.  

On the agenda is discussion and comments on Berkeley design advocates’ report on housing.  

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Public Works Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Discussions will include a Capital Improvement Subcommittee report report on possible solutions and recommendations to info/infiltration sewer system.  

Community Environmental Advisory Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2118 Milvia St.  

Second Floor Conference Room  

Discussion of storm water violations.  

American Yoga Winter Teacher Training 

John F. Kennedy University 

Orinda  

Scheduled for Nov. 17 - 19, this three-day seminar features classes that meet the national accreditation standards for yoga teachers. Early Bird deadline for discounted registration is Nov. 3.  

Call Jean Marie Hays, 415-884-0816 or www.americanyogacollege.org 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Circle Dancing 

7:45 - 10 p.m. 

Finnish Brotherhoos Hall 

1970 Chestnut St. 

Simple folkdancing in a circle. Beginners welcome and no partners are required.  

Call John Bear, 528-4253 

Who Owns America? 

An Anti-Racism/Oppression Gathering 

2 - 10 p.m.  

UC Berkeley Labor Center 

2521 Channing St.  

Trainings and workshops on identifying racism and oppression and building solutions. Organized by STARC, which is trying to build support on the West Coast. This event runs through Sunday, Nov. 5. Hot meals will be provided.  

$10 

Call 869-2538 

Marga Gomez 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Comedian Marga Gomez was one of the founding members of Culture Clash and the Latino comedy ensemble. Part of the La Lesbian performance and film series. 

Call 654-6346 

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Does Asian = Spy? 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Bade Museum  

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Professor L. Ling-Chi Wang from UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Department will lecture on the ramifications of the Dr. Wen Ho Lee fiasco.  

Call 849-8224 

“Re-Emerging Japan” 

Luncheon served, 11:15 a.m.  

Speaker, 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

James R. Lincoln, professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business school will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon 

$1 general for speaker only, Free to students  

Call 848-3533 

The Next Ivory Trade? The Intellectual Property Rights of University Faculty 

A conference sponsored by the Berkeley Faculty Association/American Association of University Professors Coalition 

9 a.m. tp 3:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley International House 

841-1997 

Putting Disability in Its Place 

9 a.m. - 7 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Student Union 

Pauley Ballroom 

Civil rights historians, scholars and leading 1960s activists explore the parallels and differences among social movements and how the disability rights movement fits into this larger context.  

Call 548-6608 

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Cohousing Tour 

8:15 am - ? 

Parker Street Housing Cooperative 

2337 Parker St.  

Join a Shared Living Resource Center organized tour of seven examples of Cohousing. The tour will visit the Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, Swans Market Cohousing in downtown Oakland and three others, including North Street Cohousing in Davis. Bring a lunch. Advanced registration is required.  

$65 per person 

Call Ken Norwood, 548-6608 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943  

New Science & Ancient Wisdom Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International Center 

2222 Harold Way 

Featured speakers include Father Charlie Moore speaking on “The Cosmic Origins of Man,” Dolores Cannon speaking on “Visions of Nostradamus,” and David Hatcher Childress speaking on “Technology of the Gods.” Event runs through Sunday.  

Pre-registration admission, $65; after Oct. 27, $85 

Call Charles Gotsky, 650-343-5202 

Installing Windows, Doors and Skylights 

9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar instructed by builder Glen Kitzenberger. Other seminars also scheduled.  

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

$75 per person 

Collecting Chinese Decorative Art 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Oakland Museum  

1000 Oak St.  

Dessa Goddard, director of the Asian Department at Butterfields, and a panel discuss. Followed by a collectors’ tea. Included in admission price to museum.  

Call for reservations, 238-2022 

“Broadway to La Scala” 

7 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

2501 Harrison St. (at 27th St.) 

A benefit concert for the Oakland Lyric Opera featuring a selection of Broadway musicals and arias from operas, including “Madame Butterfly.”  

$25 

Call 836-6772 

Nuclear Disarmament 

2 p.m.  

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 

6508 Telegraph Ave.  

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation will speak on disarmament and proliferation.  

Life in the Pueblo  

10 a.m. - 6 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Zuni Fetish carver Amos Pooacha and his sister, Linda Pooacha-Eli, a painter of miniatures on sandstone and jewelry sell and display their art. Also on Sunday, same hours.  

Call 528-9038  

Who Owns America? 

An Anti-Racism/Oppression Gathering 

8 a.m. - 10 p.m.  

UC Berkeley Labor Center 

2521 Channing St.  

Trainings and workshops on identifying racism and oppression and building solutions. Organized by STARC, which is trying to build support on the West Coast. This event runs through Sunday, Nov. 5. Hot meals will be provided.  

$10 

Call 869-2538  

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour 

Downtown Berkeley  

Tour new construction, new uses, historic rehabilitation and public improvments that are completed or still in the works.  

Noon 

RSVP required 841-0181 space is limited. 

Tickets: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers. 

A Dispirited Rebellion 

10 a.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Author, television personality and columnist Gadi Taub will explore the literary and cinematic changes in Israeli society since the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. A brunch will be served at 10 a.m.  

Admission: $7 non-JCC members; $5 members 

Call 848-9237 

Soprano Stephanie Pan Sings 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

Soprano Stephanie Pan is joined by Meg Cotner on harpsichord, Salley Blaker on cello, and Alex Jenne on lute. They will perform the music of Barbra Strozzi, Jacopo Peri, Giovanni Felice Sances and others.  

$10 general; $9 students and seniors; under 12 Free 

Call 644-6893 

Stucco Repair 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Hands-on workshop taught by handyperson Jim Rosenau. Other seminars also scheduled this day.  

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

$90 per person 

“Bigger Things” 

7 p.m.  

La Pena Cultural Center  

3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Judith-Kate Friedman celebrates the release of her new CD.  

$12 general; $20 reserved seating 

Info and tickets: 654-7464 or 849-2568 

Women Warriors, Women Thinkers & Women Awliya 

3 p.m.  

St. Johns Presbyterian Church  

2727 College Ave.  

The final in a series, “The Feminine Side of Islam.” Refreshments will be served and donations are appreciated.  

Call 527-4496  

Monday, Nov. 6

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Flu Shots for Seniors 

9 a.m. - Noon & 1 - 2 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

$2 for seniors 

“The Weir” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Director Tom Ross will discuss the Aurora Theater’s production of “The Weir” and will distribute 30 free tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.  

Youth Commission 

6 p.m.  

MLK Jr. Youth Center 

1730 Oregon St.  

Peace & Justice Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst St.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

Personnel Board Meeting 

7 p.m.  

Permit Center 

2118 Milvia St.  

Tuesday, Nov. 7

Zonta Club dinner 

5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

$20 per person 

Dr. Sylvia Earle, a marine bioligist, author and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, will be the featured speaker. 

For more information call 845-6221 

Exercise for Seniors 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Exercise to music with Doris Echols. Free 

“How Can We Restructure Civilization?” 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332 

Bayer’s Biotechnology Center Groundbreaking 

1 p.m.  

Seventh & Grayson 

Seventh & Dwight 

Call 705-7880 

Home Design Workshop 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Instructed by architect/contractor Barry Wagner, this class runs four consecutive Tuesdays through Nov. 28.  

$150 for all four classes 

Call 525-7610 

Wednesday, Nov. 8

Tinnitus & Hyperacusis Sufferers Support Group 

10 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Public Works Commission Special Meeting 

5 p.m.  

Engineering Conference Room 

2201 Dwight Way 

Discussion and prioritization of Commission work plan priorities for Public Works.  

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

“Diabetes: What to Know Head-to-Toe” 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free 

869-6737 

Love and Betrayal: A Musical Journey 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Mezzo Soprano Sylvia Braitman discusses the role Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler played in the development of modernity in German, Austrian and Western music.  

Tuition: $8 for general; $5 JJC members (class code A101-BJ) 

Call 848-0237 for more info.  

Hour of the Furnaces 

4:30 - 6 p.m. 

Hewlett Library, Dinner Board Room 

2400 Ridge Rd.  

Renny Golden, poet, liberation theologian, and professor of social ethics at Northeastern Illinois University, will read from her new book on the Central American experience of struggle.  

649-2490 

Meeting Life Changes 

10 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

With John Hammerman. Free 

Become A Travel Photo Expert 

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional photographer Richard I’Anson, who has taken photos all over the globe, shares highlights and insights from his book, “Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures.” Free 

Call 527-7377 

Friday, Nov. 10

Dragon and Phoenix Banquet Cooking Contest 

7 p.m. 

Oakland Museum  

1000 Oak St.  

Students from Bay Area cooking academies present original dishes based on the “Dragon and Phoenix” theme to a panel of celebrity judges. Fee and price of admission to museum. 

Reservations: 238-2022  

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Korean Literature Seminar 

10 a.m. - 8 p.m.  

7768 Duke Ct.  

El Cerrito 

Korean writer and professor Do Chang Hoi will speak on the topics of creative writing and modern Korean literature. Sponsored by the Korean Literary Art Fellowship. Continues on Saturday, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.  

Call 559-7856 for more info.  

PC Users Group 

7 p.m. 

Vista College 

Room 303  

2020 Milvia St.  

A groups of PC users who help each other solve problems. They introduce their members to new software, hardware, and invited speakers and technicians from various PC related companies. Meet the second Friday of each month.  

Call Melvin Mann, 527-2177 

Cultural and Historical View  

of the Dalmation Islands, Croatia 

Luncheon served, 11:15 a.m.  

Speaker, 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Byron Bass, archeologist with the URS Corporation will speak. 

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon 

$1 general for speaker only, Free to students  

Call 848-3533  

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Kitchen Design Fundamentals  

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by independent kitchen and bath designer Beverly Wilson.  

$75  

Homeowner’s Essential Course 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

The annual six-Saturday intensive with lectures, slides, and demonstrations taught by professional builder Glen Kitzenberger. Six Saturdays through Dec. 16.  

$425 per person, including textbook 

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

“Time Across Cultures” 

2 - 4 p.m. 

St. Clements Church 

2837 Claremont Ave.  

The annual Roselyn Yellin Memorial lecture with a slide-illustrated panel discussion. Also a tour of the “Telling Time” exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum followed by a reception at the museum, 4 - 5 p.m.  

More info: 549-6950 

Buddhism & Compassion 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Psychiatrist and teacher Bobby Jones on “Healing through Compassion.” Free.  

843-6812 

“Road To Mecca” Auditions 

2 p.m.  

Live Oak Theatre 

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 

The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley is auditioning roles for two females, 60-70 and 25-35, and one male, 60-70. Auditioners should prepare a monologue no longer than two minutes. No appointments. 

Call Debra Blondheim, 667-9827 

Solar Electricity for Your Home 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar instructed by engineer Gary Gerber of Sunlight and Power.  

$75 per person  

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

Carpentry Basics for Women 

9:30 - 4:30 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

A hands-on workshop taught by carpenter Tracy Weir. This workshop is a two-day workshop and runs Nov. 12 and 19.  

$195 per person  

Monday, Nov. 13

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s works include “Animal Dreams,” “High Tide in Tucson,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Prodigal Summer” 

free parking $10 in advance, $13 at the door 

Benefits KPFA and Urban Ecology. 

848-6767 

From Rossi to Bernstein 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses the works of Jewish classical composers beginning with the sixteenth century. The first in a series of three Monday evening classes on music.  

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students  

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students 

Call 848-0237 

Berkeley Preschool Fair 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, this fair features representatives from local preschools. The topic will be how to evaluate preschool education philosophies and make the most of the admissions process. A fair featuring many local preschools will follow panel discussion. 

$5 non-members; Free to NPN members 

Call 527-6667 or visit www.parentsnet.org 

“Timber Framing - Ancient and Modern” 

7 - 10 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar led by contractor/Timber Framers Guild member Doug Eaton.  

$35 per person 

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Take a Trip to the Steinbeck Museum and 

Mission San Juan Bautista 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organzied by the Senior Center.  

$40 with lunch, $25 without  

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Three Little Pigs 

3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley South Branch Library 

1901 Russell St. 

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets perform.  

649-3943 

More Little Pigs 

7 p.m.  

Berkeley North Branch Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets huff and puff and blow the house down.  

“The Hand of Buddha” 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck (at Rose) 

In her new book poet, columnist and travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin explores the lives of women from different ethnic backgrounds and in moments of crisis. Free 

Call 843-3533 

Quest for Justice 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

Bade Museum 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

A reception and discussion with the artists of “Quest for Justice: The Story of Korean Comfort Women as Told Through their Art,” an exhibit on display at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.  

849-8244 

Even Seniors Get the Blues 

1 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

A holiday blues support group with Lyn Rayburn.  

Recognizing Alzheimer’s Disease 

10 - 11:30 a.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion 

Annexes B & C  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland  

Susan Londerville, MD, Gerentologist, will discuss how to recognize the signs and common symptoms of Alzheimer’s and how to distinguish them from normal aging. Free 

Call Ellen Carroll, 869-6737  

Wednesday, Nov. 15

Even More Little Pigs 

3:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Library Claremont Branch 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets help Little Red Riding Hood get to Grandma’s house.  

Healthful Holiday Cooking 

11:30 a.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

With Natalie. Free 

Community Action Commission & 

Berkeley Homeless Commission  

Joint Public Hearing  

7 p.m.  

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. (at Ashby) 

The purpose of this hearing is to allow low-income residents of Berkeley, and people who use the services to inform these agencies about what services they need.  

Call Marianne Graham, 665-3475  

Making Additions Match 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Seminar taught by architect/colunist Arrol Gellner.  

$35 per person 

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

Thursday, Nov. 16

Reminiscing in Swingtime 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Library  

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

George Yoshida, author and jazz drummer, presents a multi-media program recounting the big band experience in the Japanese American internment camps. The presentation will be capped with a set of live jazz by the George Yoshida Quartet. 

Call for more info: 644-6850 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Free blood pressure screenings 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

free 

869-6737 

Three Little Pigs  

3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library West Branch  

1125 University Ave.  

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets perform.  

Tai Chi for Seniors  

2 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

With Tai Chi master Mr. Chang. Free 

Sea Kayaking in the Bay Area and Baja 

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Mitch Powers of Sea Trek Ocean Kayaking Center presents slides of some of his favorite paddling destinations and gives tips on selecting gear, paddling safety and planning trips. Free 

Call 527-4140 

HVAC for Beginners 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning for beginners seminar taught by contractor/engineer Eric Burtt.  

$35 per person 

Call Sydney, 525-7610 

Friday, Nov. 17

Community Dance Party 

7:45 - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 

Come learn to dance with easy instructions presented by the Berkeley Folk Dancers.  

Teens $2; Adult Non-members $4 

Information: 525-3030  

California Energy Re-Structuring 

Luncheon served, 11:15 a.m.  

Speaker, 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave.  

Severin Borenstein, director at the UC Energy Institute will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon 

$1 general for speaker only, Free to students  

Call 848-3533  

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Housing Clinic for Seniors 

3 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst (at MLK Jr. Way) 

A housing clinic with the East Bay Community Law Center. Free  

Saturday, Nov. 18

S.F. Stairs and Peaks 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Begin the day with a visit to the farmer’s market, then meander up the stairways and streets of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Then up Russian Hill, descending to Fisherman’s Wharf for a ride back on the new historic streetcar line. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival 

11 a.m. - 1 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Fourteen hours of free concerts, workshops, jam sessions and to top it off a Saturday night dance. The fifth annual Folk Festival will feature Shay & Michael Black, Spectre Double Negative & the Equal Positive, Larry Hanks, Wake the Dead and many others. Sponsored by Charles Schwab and the City of Berkeley.  

More info or to volunteer: 525-5099 

Berkeley Video & Film Festival 

2 - 11 p.m. 

2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Screenings of 35 documentaries, features, short features, animation, comedy, commercials, educaitonal and art video and film works. Featuring a number of local filmakers.  

$8  

Call 843-3699 

Zuni Fetish Show  

10 a.m. - 6 p.m.  

Gathering Tribes  

1573 Solano Ave.  

Fresh from a trip to Zuni, Janet & Diane from Beyond Tradition will have new fetishes and jewelry. This is the last fetish show of the year for Gathering Tribes.  

Call 528-9038 

Sunday, Nov. 19

Soprano Deborah Voigt 

Cal Performances  

3 p.m.  

Voigt’s performance is a postponment from her original Oct. 15 date. The program will remain unchanged. 

$28-$48 For tickets call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Mt. Madonna & Wine  

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Hike through evergreen forests and visit the remains of a 19th century estate, then finish the day with a visit to Kruse Winery. One of many free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: (415) 255-3233 for reservations 

“Drawing Marathon”  

Merritt College’s Art Building 

Live models, group poses.  

$12 for half a day, $20 for a full day, senior and student discounts available. No cameras or turpentine. 

523-9763 

Berkeley Video & Film Festival 

2 - 11 p.m. 

2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Screenings of 35 documentaries, features, short features, animation, comedy, commercials, educaitonal and art video and film works. Featuring a number of Berkeley filmakers.  

$8  

Call 843-3699 

Monday, Nov. 20

The Music of Israel 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses the music of Israel, from the early pioneers of Palestine to the latest rock.  

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students 

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students  

Call 848-0237 

Tuesday, Nov. 21

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center, Maffly Auditorium 

Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Call D.L. Malinousky, 601-0550 

Environmental Solutions! 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose) 

Informally led by Robert Berend, former UC Extension lecturer, this group aims to have intelligent discussions on a wide range of topics. They stress that there is no religious bent to the discussions and that all viewpoints are welcome. Bring light snacks to share with group.  

Call Robert Berend, 527-5332  

Saturday, Nov. 25

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Get map from: 

1250 Addison St. #214 

or download at: http://www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Over one hundred professional artists and craftspeople open up their studios and workspaces to the public. All styles of artistic expression are represented. Runs Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 17. 

Call 845-2612 

Monday, Nov. 27

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students 

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students  

Call 848-0237 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it.  

Call 843-3533 

Thursday, Nov. 30

Pro Arts Juried Show Reception 

6 - 8 p.m.  

Pro Arts 

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

With the work of 70 artists, this annual show features the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The show runs through December 30. See A&E calendar for details.  

Snowshoeing Basics  

7 p.m . 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Professional snowshoe guide Cathy Anderson-Meyers gives basic instruction on how to get out and experience Tahoe’s winter terrain on “shoes.”  

Call 527-4140 

Don’t ask Nader  

to step aside 

Editor: 

It’s wrong to ask Nader to drop out because he spoils Gore’s chances. If the Nader votes are honestly cast, the nation should know that Greens are a coming power. Voting is a group activity: each vote shows solidarity with a group. It’s an insult to tell Green voters that they are “really” voting for Bush. 

The problem is not Nader; it’s that too many people have been talked into voting for Bush. Perhaps all those people really do want the EPA dismantled, corporations free to do what they like, and the Christian Right imposing their religious beliefs on the rest of us. If a substantial number of Bush voters do not favor these things, then they are the ones who should drop out, not Nader. 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley 

Bush laughs at global warming, other dangers 

Editor: 

“What would it be like if one of us ran for president?” my roommate and I asked ourselves. It was early in the morning, neither of us was dressed, and I at least hadn’t had coffee.  

“I identify with Gore,” I said, too groggy to be less than honest. I know that a lack of subtlety and finesse would be my downfall too. 

My roommate, an environmentalist with her eye always on the ecological ball, said that as a presidential candidate she would appeal for change. “We have to restructure everything about the way we live,” she said. But she knew, she told me, that as she stood on the campaign stump, tomatoes would fly as an unruly crowd shouted and jeered at her environmental message. 

Here, I had to stop her. Isn’t it clear from recent events that our crowd would not shout away my friend’s message. Wouldn’t these people, these Americans, led by a simpering George W., simply laugh it off? Isn’t that what happened in Illinois? But it was Gore’s tax plan (a small part of it) that was lampooned in place of my poor friend, as Bush encouraged his audience’s laughter at electric-gasoline cars and solar panels.  

What is Bush playing at? Global warming is real. The Sierra Club, the EPA, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and others agree. Some parts of the world have warmed by as much as 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit and scientists predict that the average global temperature will increase 1.8 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100. This should be a real problem for people living in California where hotter, drier conditions could increase the frequency and intensity of our already too frequent and intense wild fires. Isn’t it really rather stupid to laugh at these things? 

But maybe the more important question is: What is Bush playing on. Why would 52 percent of us, according to the latest Gallup, prefer to watch Bush smirk for the, next four years rather than change anything about our lifestyles?  

Laura Benedict 

Berkeley 

Nader lacks resume  

for presidency  

Editor: 

For those flirting with voting for Nader rather than Gore because he’s greener, think again. Nader is not the better messenger for the earth’s agenda. Unlike Gore, who has a substantial resume for the Presidency along with being a formidable environmental policymaker, Nader, as a consumer advocate, does not have the credentials to be President nor is he a very informed spokesman for the planet. And it is doubtless that Nader could well become the spoiler tight race, a point reinforced by his behavior. The ironic effect is that votes for Nader could become defacto votes for Bush in many states; green votes could translate into scorched earth votes. 

I am voting for Gore, recognizing his faults and compromises, but also assured that he is the among the best Presidential candidates we’ve ever had for the environment -- as he has worked for it throughout his 20 years in Congress, and been an advocate for environmental initiatives as Vice President, including: the Kyoto Protocols (Global Warming) -- which he helped author, set asides of new national monuments, Wilderness and Roadless Area Protection, Lands Legacy, among others. He has the intelligence and the background to address complex issues like global warming, forest and species protection. And he has been the major voice for greening the Clinton Whitehouse throughout these past eight years. I have grown tired of Nader’s “tweedle-dum, tweedle-dee” references to Gore and Bush. That such rhetoric is intellectually dishonest and politically dangerous is dramatically illustrated by the savage attacks Nader has made on the Gore and by a letter he recently wrote to environmentalists condemning the Vice President’s environmental credentials. But as Carl Pope Director of the Sierra Club responded to it, Nader has “no right to slander those who disagree” with him until he can answer how he would “protect the people and places who would be put in harm’s way, or destroyed, by a Bush presidency.” 

While it’s understandable that we all are tired of business as usual in government, let’s not be naive about political processes that might seem easier to ignore or curse than deal with. Rather, let’s be realistic and remember that change comes best by reforming the system from within it: Gore is clearly better equipped to do this than Nader. Moreover, Nader’s campaign shows a lack of consideration for the consequences of his strategies, yet another illustration of the left (represented by the Green Party) serving to splinter rather than unite people of conscience, drawing away drawing votes away from the only candidate who would likely be an effective president, and one who believes that protection of the earth is an organizing principle for this millenium. 

At such a critical time in our history, effectiveness is needed, not ideological purity. For the environment, for women’s choice, for reducing greenhouse gases, for the Supreme Court – and for a far greater likelihood of effecting lasting and positive change for the greatest number I believe that Gore is the best choice and encourage your vote for him, too. 

John Steere 

Elyce Judith 

Michael Fried 

Sue Olive 

Berkeley 

Presidential elections: exercises in power, not principle 

Editor: 

Message to Ralph Nader’s Greens who argue that we can afford to have Al Gore lose this election if they get enough votes to build their party. Grow up! 

Many American leftists foolishly believe that once they irrevocably muck something up, those most harmed by their actions will flock to them for leadership. It never happens. In 1966, many left-wing California organizations refused to support then governor Edmund “Pat” Brown and de-facto threw the election to Ronald Reagan. Similarly, John Anderson’s third party efforts helped elect Reagan president (even Anderson later regretted it). In neither of these cases, did the “masses” rise up with the left to dispose of Reagan. If anything, they moved further right with him.  

That is why it took conservative democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore to recapture the White House. 

The sad truth is that presidential elections are exercises in power, not principle. The next president will appoint a voting majority to the Supreme Court, who will far outlive his term. He will decide whether to drill in the Alaska wilderness, or offshore in California. He will either allow RU-486 with no restrictions or work to keep it from American women. Those choices are real and matter beyond the narrow confines of your party’s agenda. (An agenda that will be irrelevant because you will have no means to exercise it beyond group hugs at meetings and maybe a few House Representatives.) 

If I wake up to “George Bush’s America,” I will not be happy. I will have a president who does not know what ENDA means. I will watch primarily poor and minority children attend voucher schools with inadequate funding and no oversight. I will see a Supreme Court so right-wing, that I will probably miss Chief Justice Rehnquist. 

I assure you that I will not look to the Green Party for leadership. Nor do I think that I will be alone in this assessment. Your selfishness, and your refusal to think beyond the consequences of your actions, shows me that you are incapable of building coalitions. Those most harmed by your actions will be scrambling for survival and in need of real leadership. The rest of the country will continue its rightward drift.  

I shudder to think what type of candidate it will take to recapture the  

White House after Bush. 

Catherine S. Daly 

Berkeley 

Support AA and BB 

Editor:  

One of the cornerstones of a good school system is well-built facilities and safety systems that are adequately maintained. Measures AA&BB would provide this. 

Measure AA would continue the rehabilitation of school buildings (mainly classrooms) as well as updating alarm and fire sprinkler systems. Measure AA will not increase our tax rate – rather, it extends the maximum tax rate from the 1992 bond measure. Measure BB would ensure that our school facilities and safety systems are maintained. 

These two measures would set high standards for our buildings and grounds and would send a clear message that we hold to high standards for teaching and learning. A yes vote on Measures AA & BB obviously makes sense. 

Ted Schultz 

Berkeley Parent,  

School Board Director 

A property owner who demolished an 80-year-old cottage in north Berkeley to build a much larger home has been slapped with a Stop Work Order. 

As reported in the Berkeley Daily Planet on Oct. 27, residents on a quiet tree-lined street were surprised when the cottage at 1728 Delaware St. was suddenly gone. They said owner Patrick Mebine, a computer programmer in San Francisco, assured them the project was only a remodel and addition that would incorporate the existing structure. 

Builders had completed the foundation and laid some of the flooring on the new 3,000 square foot project when the city halted work on the site last Friday.  

“The city has issued a Stop Work Order and Patrick Mebine has been advised that he will have to appear before the Zoning Adjustment Board for a Use Permit Modification,” Said Matt Le Grant, the senior planner at the Planing and Development Department.  

Le Grant said it could take a month or longer before work on the project will begin again.  

Mebine said he thought he received permission from the city to demolish the cottage. He said he is uncertain what the Stop Work Order will accomplish because the cottage is gone and in the meantime the unfinished project will just sit there. “It’s not good for the neighbors, it’s not good for me and it’s not good for the contractor and sub-contractors,” he said. 

He said the project contractor had no other work scheduled and is now out of work.  

Mebine filed a Zoning Project Application last year in which he described his plans as a “Remodel of, and addition to existing dwelling resulting in 1,657 additional square feet of usable floor space.” 

Notices of a public hearing before the ZAB were mailed out to neighbors and notices were posted in the immediate area.  

The notices announced the project as a “Partial house demolition, major residential addition and hot tub.” 

In addition Mebine went to his neighbors and showed them an architect’s drawings that incorporated the existing cottage into the remodel.  

He presented the same plans to ZAB and they issued a Use Permit allowing for additional square footage and construction of a hot tub. The Use Permit also allowed for the demolition of “more than 50 percent of the building’s walls and roof so as to constitute a demolition of an existing 1,200-square foot dwelling.” 

The Use Permit is the governing document that specifies what is permitted on all development sites. 

Mebine said when his contractor took a look at the cottage he strongly recommended demolishing the entire structure. “He said all I’d be saving is some studs that might not meet city requirements,” Mebine said. He agreed with the contractor and decided to completely demolish the cottage. 

Mebine applied for and received a demolition permit from the city and said no one at the permit center told him there would be a problem. 

But Assistant City Attorney Zack Cowan said any permit for demolition would not supersede the conditions of the Use Permit. “At the point he decided to change his plans he should have gone back to the city for approval,” he said. 

Cowan said the conditions of the Use Permit are created by representations made to the Zoning Adjustments Board and once the Use Permit goes into effect those representations bind the property owner.  

At no time did Mebine ever present to ZAB any plans that described a demolition of the cottage. 

Mabine will now have go through the application process again. Which means waiting for available space on the calendar for another public hearing before ZAB. He will also have to post and mail hearing notices to residents in the project area. Zab will then decide whether to award Mebine permission to demolish a building that no longer exists. 

“I’m not sure how the board will vote,” said ZAB member Gene Poshman. “We’re kinda back at square one.”

Christ Klinger-Desade, as Psychotic Jill in the Box, springs from her hiding place scaring the brave souls who ventured into the Haunted House on Fifth Street. Scott Connolly and Madeline Stanionois have organized the Halloween scare fest for the last three years. Entrance to the Haunted House was free but those who survived the three stories of  

Halloween-styled fright Tuesday were asked to make a small donation to Access to Software For All People.

Americans tell pollsters they are unsatisfied with the current state of the nation’s public schools and the presidential candidates can’t stop talking about education.  

All of this would make it seem the perfect time for dot-com millionaire Timothy Draper to launch an initiative to offer parents a $4,000 voucher to send children to the school of their choice. 

But instead of taking off as the bilingual education initiative did last year, Draper’s Proposition 38 is now behind in the polls, dropping from 45 percent in August to 37 percent last month, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.  

Educational experts and political scientists blame Proposition 38’s failure to catch on to everything from an inappropriate campaign strategy, to negative perceptions of vouchers and a misreading of the polls on education. 

To begin with, they said, it is easy to misread the voters’ desire for change in the education system. 

Americans may be unsatisfied with schools in general, but they are mostly satisfied with their local schools. This is true especially among the parents of school-age children. The vast majority, 70 percent, grade their kid’s schools with As and Bs, according to the 2000 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s attitude toward Public Schools. 

In addition, Proposition 38 supporters decision to make access to the voucher system universal, instead of targeting it to low-income children, played against them.  

“The majority of parents with kids in inner-city schools don’t vote so the backers said ‘if we just make it for the poor people we won’t have enough voters,’” said Pam Riley, a political scientist from the Pacific Research Institute. 

The campaign failed to ally with organizations such as the Catholic Conference, which could have helped to move middle to higher income voters around the subject, she said. The Catholic Church’s 718 schools, which serve 254,000 of the state’s students could have given Proposition 38 support from those type of families, as Riley predicted. 

Moreover, involving Catholic educators would have also provided an expert opinion on the mechanics of running a school, said Luis Huerta, researcher of the Policy Analysis of California Education, a joint effort between UC Berkeley and Stanford University.  

“The Catholic Conference would have flat out just told them that $4,000 was not enough to run a school,” he said. 

But the initiative’s campaign strategy is not the only factor working against it. Vouchers have a bad reputation. Less than 4 percent of Americans see vouchers as an effective action to improve public schools in the United States, according to this year’s Gallup polls. More than 50 percent of Californians think that passage of the voucher initiative will not help the public school system, or the students with the lowest test scores, according to the Public Policy Institute’s findings. 

Moreover, with the economy booming, California residents have seen big changes in the education, system in recent years, including more funding, improved bonuses for students and teachers, increased accountability through tests and smaller class sizes. 

“(Prop. 38) is a hard sell in the current state of California because if we are seeing improvements, why are we going decentralize and risk whatever gains we have been making?” asked Huerta. 

To top it all, Proposition 38 would cost California residents at least $2.6 billion dollars, and so far now, there is no evidence that it would work. None of the other existing voucher programs in the country are based on the universal access that Proposition 38 promises. 

“It is a more drastic measure than most people are comfortable with,” said Kim Rueben, education research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. 

But even if Proposition 38 fails, its presence on the ballot has given public schools a wake-up call. 

Its second one. 

The first was in 1993, when another voucher initiative, Proposition 174, was on the ballot. 

Although it failed with a ratio of 3-to-1, it did have an impact on the education system: It strengthened the charter school movement, Riley said. 

Since then, 261 charter schools that serve 121,000 students have sprouted in California. 

The current voucher initiative could have less impact on school choice, but more on its less publicized half: state school funding, said Huerta. 

“One positive thing is that it calls attention to folks that school funding is still very low to 

compete with other states,” he said. 

Seniors will make a difference Nov. 7. There are almost 5 million of us 65 years old and older living in California.  

So I decided a ask a diverse group of seniors about their voting preferences and concerns. 

Many have bought the argument that one’s vote doesn't matter. Joe Dallas, at lunch at the senior center, firmly declared he doesn’t vote, doesn’t believe in it.  

Most seniors with whom I come in contact oppose State Proposition 38, school vouchers, but support Berkeley Measures R, the warm water pool, Y, eviction controls and County Measure B/transportation funding.  

No one mentions Bush-Gore! 

Nancy Blumenstock is a founding mother of Berkeley-based editcetera, a former UC Press editor with World War II top secret clearance.  

By absentee ballot, she’s voting for Berkeley Measures R “extremely important,” she says, Y “...although I doubt it would protect me, a project-based Section 8 tenant,” and Z/low-rent housing; State Proposition 36/drug treatment and probation instead of incarceration – “jail serves no purpose whatever,” she says and County Measure B “I am disabled and rely on taxi scrip.”  

Did she listen to the Presidential debates? “I carefully avoided them!”  

Before retiring, 57-year-old Alberta Sitlani was a Social Security Administration claims representative.  

A former Commission on Aging member, she is no longer able to involve herself in senior activities.  

“Dismayed” about people who don’t vote, she considers Measure B the most important. She will vote to continue California Assemblyperson Dion Louise Aroner.  

“I have never been politically involved,” declared Aiko Yamamoto, a Nisei – a person whose parents immigrated from Japan – who was incarcerated in a World War II relocation camp. She relies on League of Women Voters analyses. Increasingly aware of her good judgment in purchasing her home years ago, she realizes the present housing crisis would make life very difficult for her – a divorced grandmother.  

“I like what Nader says but I fear voting for him is like voting for Bush; if only Nader had been allowed to debate... I’ll vote straight democratic. I always vote Yes on schools and libraries.”  

Elvira Rose is a Berkeley-born Hispanic, a great grandmother completing her second term as president of the North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council.  

She opposes State Prop 33, which allows legislators’ Public Employees’ Retirement System participation.  

A Thousand Oaks home-owner, she is not sure how she will go about deciding among the four Council District 5 candidates; also unsure about Prop 38 and doesn’t want to give an opinion on Measure Y, owner move-in evictions.  

A Democrat who on occasion “does cross,” she will vote for “the library of course – it affects everyone.”  

Eighty-plus Eleanor Gibson delivers Meals on Wheels to shut-in seniors and co-chairs the Older Women’s League chapter. She owns her own Berkeley Hills home. “As a senior citizen housing advocate, I am quite discouraged. ‘Affordable housing’ does not make for low enough rents. I will vote for Measure D because it tries to prevent urban sprawl and supports infill of the present spaces in cities, and for Measure Z, for 500 units of low-income housing in Berkeley. It is a bit vague but its message is correct.” 

A Green Party member, Charlie Betcher considers County Measure B and City Measures Y and Z the most important ballot choices for disabled and aged persons; his votes for State Senate and Assembly go to incumbents Perata and Aroner. Kudos to chair Charlie for bringing the problem of elder abuse to the Commission on Aging’s table. 

As for me, I voted several weeks ago, using the new electronic voting machine at the City Clerk’s office.  

Helen Wheeler invites comments and suggestions: pen136@inreach.com. She is a member of the: Alameda County Advisory Commission on Aging and its Legislative Advocacy Committee, North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council and Berkeley Housing Authority, and a former Berkeley Commission on Aging Vice Chair. 

Opponents of Proposition 37 held a news conference in front of the Chevron refinery in Richmond today to urge voters to defeat the proposition they say is financed by big businesses.  

Representatives from the California Public Interest Research Group, Clean Water Action and the American Lung Association were joined by Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington today to call attention to the proposition, which they say would protect certain industries from paying for any pollution or sicknesses they cause.  

Linda Wiener, with the American Lung Association, said the proposition could pass unnoticed by voters who might end up supporting it unknowingly in next Tuesday's election. 

According to the opponents, the proposition is backed primarily by big business – including the alcohol, tobacco and oil industries – because it would make it harder for legislators to impose monetary penalties or mitigation fees, collected to pay for clean-up or other mitigation costs for activities that cause harm to people or the environment. 

The proposition would amend the state’s constitution to redefine those mitigation fees as taxes.  

Under such a designation, the state legislature would have to come up with a two-thirds vote to raise the amount collected, while a two-thirds vote of the people would be needed to increase the taxes at a local level. 

Under the current mitigation fee designation, only a majority is needed by either the legislature or the public to increase the fees. 

According to opponents of the proposition, the tax designation would make it virtually impossible to collect money from the targeted industries for community programs, and the cost would be passed on to taxpayers. 

Sarah Dahan of Clean Water Action said, “It is irresponsible that the oil industry would rather shift the cost of their own clean-up to the taxpayer.” 

In accordance with Tuesday’s Halloween celebrations, Councilman Worthington compared the proposition, named the “Two Thirds Vote Preservation Act,” as a razor inside of an apple. 

Worthington said, “As our children trick or treat for nickles and dimes, the oil and chemical industries are attempting to trick the republic to get them millions of dollars in exemptions from paying regulatory fees protecting the environment.” 

Austin Lee, spokesman for the campaign in support of the proposition, said the idea that the taxes would be shifted over to taxpayers in inaccurate. 

He noted that the California Taxpayers Association and the California Chamber of Commerce are among the co-sponsors of the proposition, showing, he said, that the coalition’s position is wrong. 

“All we want to do is clearly define what a tax is and what a fee is,” Lee said. 

Lee said the proposition is drafted so that those who are  

causally responsible for incidents that compromise public safety are held accountable for their actions. 

But the current system, which Lee said targets small firms that may not be causally responsible for incidents, puts businesses at a competitive disadvantage. 

If anything, he said, taxpayers are currently at a disadvantage with the system that “opens the floodgates” on taxes disguised as fees. 

“The consumers are actually going to bear the burden of such  

increases,” he said.

DAVIS — Though California researchers are at the forefront of agricultural biotechnology, the commercial use of genetically modified crops is sparse compared to widespread use in the Midwest. 

“That’s kind of the paradox,” said Kent Bradford, director of the seed biotechnology center at the University of California, Davis. “UC has some of the original patents for recombinant DNA and a lot of research capability. But it mostly hasn’t gone into the commercial market here.” 

That’s not due to a public outcry over “Frankenfoods” or concerns for safety, but because California’s agriculture covers more than 250 crops, as opposed to the Midwest’s reliance on corn and soybeans, said Judith Kjelstrom, associate director of the biotechnology center at UC Davis. 

“They’re niche crops, not the large crops. The research into the niche crops is slower and is just coming into play over the next few years,” she said. 

UC Davis officials estimate that within the nine-campus UC system there are 200 invention disclosures on agriculture biotechnology – the first step toward a patent. About half of those are from UC Davis, said school spokeswoman Pat Bailey. 

The international environmental group Greenpeace warned last week that if California farmers jump into genetically modified crops, it could harm the state’s $26.8 billion agriculture economy. 

The Greenpeace report looked at six of the state’s agricultural products – rice, walnuts, grapes, lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes – that amount to $1.1 billion a year in exports to Japan, Canada, South Korea, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. 

Consumers in those countries are reluctant to buy genetically engineered products, with some governments requiring labeling and others banning their import, said Jim Tischer, director of the Davis-based Community Alliance with Family Farmers. 

The result, Tischer said, would be a glut of GMO products with no place to sell them. 

“It would be horrific, as highly regarded as California farm products are in foreign markets, to have them be tainted with the genetically engineered label,” said Tischer. 

California has a reputation for organic growing and makes up a good portion of that $6.6 billion industry nationwide, he said. 

“You can have thriving organic growers who have a genetically engineered crop go in the next field, and there goes your crops,” he said. 

While scientists are testing genetically modified strains of those crops, commercial use of GMOs in California is limited to cotton and a small percentage of corn, said Bradford, who also is a professor of vegetable crops at UC Davis. 

“We’re behind the curve, since the companies mainly targeted the big crops like corn and soybean in the Midwest. We have very little corn and soybeans aren’t grown here,” he said. “It’s just taking much longer to develop those markets.” 

Most of the crops that scientists have tinkered with are geared to making life easier for farmers, not consumers, Kjelstrom said. 

“There are advances in herbicide-tolerant lettuce, but the industry isn’t real excited about that,” she said. “They were hoping for something like golden rice that has increased Vitamin A – a poster child for biotechnology.” 

Golden rice – genetically modified to contain extra beta carotene – is advertised as a way to reduce blindness brought on by a Vitamin A deficiency, a condition that affects millions in Third World countries. 

Kjelstrom said biotechnology is not only safe, it has the potential to feed the world as the planet’s population grows. 

“We’ll have to be able to grow on less-than-desirable land,” she said. “We’re going to have to have new crops that can grow in salty or drought-stricken soil. We have to think of the future.” 

Bradford believes the use of GMO in most crops is inevitable. 

“Commercialization is still a few years off. All the industries involved want to make sure the public will accept it,” he said. 

“The problem now is marketing. Greenpeace has hit it.” 

The state’s rice industry has taken measures to ensure that the GMO and traditional rice won’t be mixed in silos or in transportation to appease public apprehension. 

“They worked very hard to get into the Japanese market. They don’t want to lose that,” Bradford said. 

While Greenpeace cites surveys showing that the U.S. public wants GMO products labeled, limited or banned, Tom Hoban, a researcher at North Carolina State University, said consumers place genetically engineered foods at the bottom of their list of concerns. 

Even the recent discovery that GMO corn not approved for human consumption was found in taco shells and corn chips hasn’t changed the public’s opinion about altered crops, Hoban said. 

Hoban is conducting an ongoing study of the public’s attitude toward GMOs and said when it comes to food safety, microbial contamination and pesticide use are the top concerns. 

Tim Johnson, president and CEO of the Rice Growers Association, said the California rice industry will respond to what customers want. If that’s GMO, then rice growers will produce it, he said. 

But he said he’s not concerned that public opinion of the genetically altered strains will create a glut of GMO rice without a buyer. 

“We honestly don’t know if they will be in production in California. It takes between seven and 10 years to bring rice to production,” he said. 

Tischer’s organization, which promotes sustainable and organic farming, is proposing a moratorium on GMO crops until testing protocols are redesigned. 

“We also think the biotech companies should be prepared to stand behind the products, and indemnify the farmers who buy their crops from liability and loss of market,” Tischer said. 

On the Net: 

Read the Greenpeace report at www.greenpeaceusa.org 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is at www.cdfa.ca.gov 

LOS ANGELES — Steve Allen, who pioneered the enduring late-night talk show with the original “Tonight Show” and produced a stream of songs and books, was remembered Tuesday as a comic who became a renaissance man. 

Allen, 78, died Monday night of an apparent heart attack at the Encino home of his son, Bill Allen. 

“He said he was a little tired after dinner. He went to relax, peacefully, and never reawakened,” his son said.  

Steve Allen’s wife, actress Jayne Meadows, was “distraught” at the loss of her husband of 46 years, Bill Allen said. She had stayed home while her husband visited with their son and his family at their nearby house. 

“Like the rest of America, Dolores and I share in the sadness of Steve Allen’s death but celebrate his great and full life. We’ll miss him. He left us too early,” comedian Bob Hope said in a statement. 

“All of us who have hosted the “Tonight Show” format owe a debt of gratitude to Steve Allen. He was a most creative innovator and brilliant entertainer,” said former “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson. 

And current “Tonight” host Jay Leno said of Allen: “He was one of the sharpest guys off the cuff. He never played dumb. He played many characters, straight man and comic, and he did each role perfectly. But the role he played best was Steve Allen.” 

“He had a magnificent mind. He was a kind, gentle, warm man. He would be embarrassed for me now, because I can’t put into words the way I felt about this man. I loved him,” entertainer Dick Clark said. 

In recent years, Allen used his celebrity to lobby against what he saw as increasing and dangerous vulgarity and violence in media. He was featured in a series of newspaper advertisements calling on viewers to demand more family friendly TV shows, including an ad that ran Tuesday in his hometown Los Angeles Times. 

Allen’s versatility made him a force in music, theater and television and more for decades. The day before his death, he performed in concert at an area college. 

Besides starring the King of Swing in the 1956 movie “The Benny Goodman Story,” Allen appeared in Broadway shows, on soap operas, wrote newspaper columns, commented on wrestling broadcasts, made 40 record albums, wrote plays and a TV series featuring historical figures in roundtable discussions. 

Several Allen tunes were recorded by pop vocalists; the most popular was “This May Be the Start of Something Big.” 

His skill as an ad libber became apparent in his early career as a disc jockey in Phoenix. He once interrupted the playing of records to announce: “Sports fans, I have the final score for you on the big game between Harvard and William & Mary. It is: Harvard 14, William 12, Mary 6.” 

Allen was born to vaudeville comedians Billy Allen and Belle Montrose in New York City on Dec. 26, 1921. Steve was 18 months old when his father died, and his mother continued touring the theater circuits alone while Steve grew up in the care of relatives. 

In the early 1940s Allen dropped out of college to work as a disc jockey and entertainer at radio station KOY in Phoenix before he was drafted in 1943. 

He was soon released because of asthma, returned to KOY, and married his college sweetheart, Dorothy Goodman. They had three sons, Steve Jr., David and Brian, and divorced in 1952. 

Allen moved to Los Angeles and began offering his comedy and music on local radio. He and Meadows married in 1954 and had one son, William (Bill) Allen. 

His midnight show on KNX attracted national attention in 1950 when it was carried on the CBS network as a summer replacement. The radio networks were converting to television, and he was brought to New York by CBS for “The Steve Allen Show.” 

Allen’s most enduring achievement came with the introduction of “The Tonight Show” in 1953. The show began as “Tonight” on the New York NBC station WNBT, then moved to the network on Sept. 27, 1954. 

Amid the formality of early TV, “Tonight” was a breath of fresh air. The show began with Allen noodling at the piano, playing some of his compositions and commenting wittily on events of the day. He moved to a desk, chatted with guests, taking part in sketches, doing zany man-in-the street interviews. 

Allen’s popularity led NBC in 1956 to schedule “The Steve Allen Show” on Sunday evenings opposite “The Ed Sullivan Show” on CBS. 

A variation of “Tonight,” the primetime show was notable for its “Man in the Street Interview” featuring new comics Louis Nye (“Hi-ho, Steverino”), Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Pat Harrington and Bill Dana. The show lasted through 1961, airing the last year on ABC. 

Allen cut back his “Tonight’ duties to three nights a week when the primetime show started. He left even that in 1956. He was replaced for a season by Ernie Kovacs, then NBC tried a new format in 1957, “Tonight! America after Dark.” It failed, and “Tonight” resumed with Jack Paar, followed by Johnny Carson in 1962 and Jay Leno in 1992. 

Over the years, Allen remained busy with concerts and with appearances in movies and TV series, often with his wife. Her sister, the late Audrey Meadows, played Alice in Jackie Gleason’s “The Honeymooners.” 

A self-styled advocate of “radical middle-of-the-roadism,” Allen often spoke out on political matters such as capital punishment, nuclear policy and freedom of expression. 

He joined with the Parents Television Council, a nonprofit, conservative group based in Los Angeles, to speak out against TV content in a series of ads. In a speech last year, he said shows such as “Jenny Jones” have “taken television to the garbage dump.” 

Allen was proudest of his 1976-79 PBS series “Meeting of Minds.” He moderated a panel of actors impersonating historic figures such as Galileo, Cleopatra (played by Jayne Meadows) and Attila the Hun, who explained their diverse philosophies. 

Besides his wife and children, Allen is survived by 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. 

In addition to private services, which had yet to be planned, the family intends to organize a service at which Allen’s friends in the industry can share stories about him, his son Bill said. 

SACRAMENTO — Two Internet sites offering to trade votes among supporters of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Democratic candidate Al Gore have been shut down. 

The Web sites were taken offline Monday evening after the California secretary of state, the state’s top elections officer, told the site administrators that the vote trading violated California law. 

The sites www.voteswap200.com and www.voteexchange.org allowed Gore voters to trade their vote for a Nader vote in another state where the presidential race is close. 

If successful, the trade would manipulate the electoral college election system by helping Gore win undecided states. 

A fair swap would also help Nader maintain support that could get the Green Party federal election dollars in 2004. 

At least three other vote-swapping sites targeting Nader supporters remained online Tuesday. 

“This is not only illegal but it compromises the integrity of elections and the fundamental underpinnings of elections. We can’t take this lightly,” said Alfie Charles, spokesman for Secretary of State Bill Jones. 

Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury said Tuesday that he is not convinced that the sites are illegal. He has asked the state’s attorney general investigate the issue. 

In Oregon, Nader voters could swing the election in the favor of Republican candidate George W. Bush. 

Green Party volunteers in Oregon pointed out that because the state has an all-mail-in ballot, the site may have already done damage to the Nader campaign. 

“There is no reason to think that anyone who signs up for these sites is a real person and there is no way to know if these people are going to vote the way they promise,” said Dan Meek, a Portland attorney volunteering for the Nader campaign. 

Because state officials have little authority over Web sites, other vote-swapping sites could remain online until they are removed by the site author or the company that issued the domain name. 

Earlier this month, Jones announced an investigation into what California voters had offered to sell their votes on www.vote-auction.com. The site offers a block of more than 2,500 California votes to the highest bidder. 

On Tuesday, the block of votes for president in California was selling for $19.61. 

State officials are also cracking down on smaller Web sites. Colin Goldman, a Libertarian candidate running for a Southern California assembly seat was offering a $1,000 raffle to people promising to vote for him. 

That site was shut down Oct. 26 after state officials complained. 

——— 

On the Net: 

VoteSwap2000: http://www.voteswap200.com 

NaderTrader: http://www.NaderTrader.org 

VoteExchange.com: http://www.voteexchange.com 

VoteExchange.org: http://www.voteexchange.org 

Winchell: http://winchell.com/NaderTrader 

Vote-Auction: http://www.vote-auction.com 

Bush campaign site: http://www.georgewbush.com 

Gore campaign site: http://www.gorelieberman.com 

Nader campaign site: http://www.votenader.com 

SACRAMENTO — One of the nation’s best known drug treatment centers is weighing in against an initiative on next week’s ballot designed to provide more treatment programs. 

“A lot of people have expressed surprise that the Betty Ford Center would oppose an initiative that’s about treatment,” center President and CEO John Schwarzlose said Tuesday. 

The initiative would require that first- and second-time drug users be sent to treatment instead of prison or jail. That, and a lack of funding for frequent, random drug tests, means users can’t be held accountable, Schwarzlose said. 

Proponents countered that California’s current treatment system isn’t working, as evidenced by the record number of people imprisoned for drug possession. 

However, the sort of treatment allowed under Proposition 36 is a far cry from what his center provides, Schwarzlose said prior to a news conference at the Rancho Mirage-based center, which has treated Hollywood celebrities and other well-known people. 

“I truly believe the Texaco on the corner could hold treatment sessions,” Schwarzlose said. It would be better to increase funding for existing treatment programs and California’s successful drug courts, he said. 

Dale Gieringer, director of the San Francisco-based Drug Policy Forum of California, noted that drug courts treat about 5 percent of users, while California prisons held a record 20,116 inmates on simple drug possession charges as of June 30. Those inmates made up a record 12.4 percent of the prison system’s population. 

“We’ve had drug courts now for the better part of a decade, and they don’t seem to have made much of a dent,” Gieringer said. 

Nor has imprisoning drug offenders noticeably reduced drug use, added Dave Fratello, campaign manager of the California Campaign for New Drug Policies. 

BAKERSFIELD — United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta remained in critical condition Tuesday after undergoing surgery to stem bleeding from a rare opening in an artery. 

Family members gathered at the bedside of the 70-year-old labor and women’s rights activist in the intensive care unit at Bakersfield Heart Hospital. Huerta was on life support and sedated, but was beginning to open her eyes and reach for respiratory tubes running into her throat, giving her family hope that she will recover. 

“With prayers and that great fighting spirit we’ve come to know her by we’re hoping it all comes together for her,” said Emilio Huerta, one of her 11 children. 

After surgery Monday morning to repair an aortic artery in her intestines, her progress was monitored by the minute for the first three hours. 

“They told us that the odds were against us at that point,” Emilio Huerta said. “She has improved in the sense that her bleeding has stopped and she didn’t have any cardiac arrest and the likelihood of that is less and less.” 

Huerta was first hospitalized last Wednesday for treatment of a bleeding ulcer, and was released Friday. She began feeling ill again the next day and was readmitted Sunday, family members said. 

Huerta was a young elementary school teacher in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley when she decided to follow another calling in 1955. 

“I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes,” she once said. “I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.” 

She began working with Cesar Chavez and in 1962 co-founded the National Farm Workers Association – the forerunner to the UFW – where the single mother of seven earned a reputation as a fearless fighter. Chavez died in 1993. 

Emilio Huerta was optimistic that his mother would show the courage she did 12 years ago when she recovered after being critically injured during a San Francisco rally called to protest presidential candidate George Bush’s opposition to the UFW grape boycott. 

The 5-foot, 100-pound woman suffered three broken ribs, a pulverized spleen and required more than a dozen blood transfusions after being caught between advancing police officers who were thrusting their batons into the crowd of demonstrators. 

The city paid about $850,000 to settle her lawsuit in what was the city’s largest-ever police misconduct settlement. A grand jury investigating the matter chose not to bring charges, but recommended sweeping changes in crowd-control policies. 

Huerta stepped down as the UFW’s secretary-treasurer in September to help campaign for Al Gore. 

Last year she was honored with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights by President Clinton for her lifelong work as a labor activist. 

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA — Some days, Joe Steinfeld is awake by 3 a.m. in his cluttered house, handwriting letters that he will fax to officials in Washington. He has called members of Congress, picketed alone in the nation’s capital, complained at town meetings and made a failed run for City Council. 

His quest? To end a 97-year-old tradition and open up Carmel-By-The-Sea to what nearly all Americans expect – home mail delivery. 

His persistent efforts make this proudly crotchety town recoil at the prospect of losing one of its most revered social occasions – the daily ritual of going to the post office for the mail. 

Steinfeld, 71, a retired antiques dealer recovering from cancer, said this is an important civil rights fight for elderly and disabled people who have trouble getting to the post office. 

If he has to, he said, he’ll sue the city 115 miles south of San Francisco. 

“The basis of our system is choice, but not in Carmel,” Steinfeld said. “Your neighbors are going to tell you you have no choice of postal service. Does that make any sense?” 

It does in a town that clings fiercely to its quaint idiosyncrasies, a place where you have to get a permit to wear high-heeled shoes, where there are no sidewalks in residential areas, no traffic lights or street lamps, no fast-food joints – and no mailboxes or numbered addresses. 

Houses have names like “Green Door Cottage,” “Sunburst” and “The Gazebo,” because that’s the way it’s always been. 

Steinfeld said he was amazed when he and his wife moved here last year from down the coast and found there was no home mail delivery. He began making regular calls to Postal Service officials in Washington and San Jose, plus every member of the House and Senate committees that oversee the Postal Service. 

In August, the Postal Service said it could begin home delivery if mailboxes and a numbering system were in place, and Steinfeld placed mailboxes in front of his house and the homes of his supporters. 

“It would be a complete luxury to have the mail delivered to my house,” said Carolina Bayne, a widow in her 60s. “Thank God for Joe.” 

But many Carmelites believe that if mailboxes clutter their narrow streets, then traffic lights, sidewalks, maybe even a McDonald’s, could come next. 

They also aren’t swayed by Steinfeld’s argument that the absence of addresses delays emergency vehicles, a contention supported by the fire chief. 

The City Council is scheduled to vote next Tuesday on an ordinance to prohibit mailboxes and addresses for 45 days. That would give the town time to come up with a compromise to preserve the no-mail tradition and ensure that disabled and elderly people are served, possibly through private delivery, Mayor Sue McCloud said. 

More than 4,000 communities nationwide don’t have home mail delivery, mostly small or remote towns that are served with a cluster of boxes on a highway or with boxes in a post office. The Postal Service will go along with whatever Carmel-By-The-Sea decides, spokesman Gus Ruiz said. 

Many residents are tired of the attention Steinfeld has brought. 

“They just want him off their backs,” McCloud said. “He is not likeable. You just can’t deal with him on a reasonable basis.” 

The mayor said she has received 664 letters or postcards on the mail issue, and only 108 favored home delivery. More than half the town’s 4,000 residents are older than 65. 

“I’m so used to coming down here, it’s no problem whatsoever,” 82-year-old William Frost said recently at the post office. “In fact, I kind of enjoy the trip and every once in a while I see somebody down here that I say hello to.” 

Though many Carmelites complain that Steinfeld doesn’t appreciate the town’s deliberate ways, he may be more like them than they would like to admit. 

“You have a community with a lot of retirees and you’ll always have somebody who doesn’t like this and doesn’t like that,” said Clint Eastwood, who was mayor from 1986 to 1988. “They have more time on their hands, as opposed to a working-class community where everybody’s busy.”

At about 8 p.m. Tuesday night a car drove by Rasputin’s records on Telegraph Avenue and opened fire, taking aim at a young man standing in front of the store, said Lt. Russell Lopes of the Berkeley Police. 

No one was hit, Lopes said. Police stopped a suspicious car near University Avenue and Milvia Street at about 8:30 p.m., believing that it might be the assailants, but witnesses said it was not the suspects’ car, Lopes said.

Guilty pleas expected to be entered by a Berkeley landlord and four relatives facing criminal charges for sex, immigration and tax offenses were put off Monday after the judge hearing the case refused a request by government and defense lawyers to seal the plea agreement and close the courtroom to the public.  

Federal prosecutors have implicated Lakireddy Bali Reddy, a 63-year-old Berkeley landlord, in an alleged conspiracy to import Indian teen-agers and adults to the United States for sex and cheap labor. Four members of Reddy’s extended family have also been charged and are expected to plead guilty to federal criminal charges. 

“I feel sick about the whole thing,” Reddy told the Daily Planet shortly before the hearing began Monday morning. “God is great,” he said, putting his hands together in a gesture of supplication. “God is great,” he repeated.  

Reddy said his attorney had advised him against talking to the press. “My mouth is shut up, my hands are shut up,” he explained genially. “I should not be talking.” 

Indeed, media issues moved to the center of Monday’s proceedings.  

Citing the “intense publicity” the case has received, lawyers for the defendants refused to enter scheduled guilty pleas unless the court session was closed to reporters. They argued that press coverage of statements the five defendants would have to give as part of their guilty pleas would prejudice potential jurors if the plea agreement is rejected by the judge and the case goes to trial.  

After initially closing the courtroom session for close to three hours, Oakland Federal District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong finally opened the hearing to the public. She then asked defense lawyers if they wished to have the guilty pleas entered in open court. Defense lawyers declined to do so and Armstrong reset the entry of guilty pleas for Feb. 6.  

Judge Armstrong said she would also issue a judgment on that day and sentence the four men and one woman named in the case, including two of Reddy’s sons, 31-year-old Vijay Kumar Lakireddy and 42-year-old Prasad Lakireddy, Reddy’s brother, 47-year-old Jayprakash Lakireddy of Oakland, and Jayprakash’s wife, Annapurna Lakireddy. 

In an order signed late last week but not made public until Monday morning, Judge Armstrong had agreed to close Monday’s proceedings pursuant to a joint request by the defense and prosecution. As a result, about twenty media personnel and spectators seated in the courtroom Monday morning were ordered to leave before the session started.  

For close to three hours reporters waited in the hallway outside the courtroom until Roger Myers, a media lawyer representing the San Francisco Examiner, faxed an urgent request to the court seeking to have the proceedings opened on First Amendment grounds.  

At first, only a reporter from the Examiner was allowed inside the courtroom. This set off an indignant reaction among the dozen remaining journalists, who began to compose a handwritten letter demanding they be admitted as well. But before the note could be transmitted to the judge, the double doors to the courtroom were abruptly flung open and a bailiff instructed the assembled crowd to “come in, sit down and be quiet.” 

What little of Monday’s hearing spectators were then allowed to see presented the unusual spectacle of government and defense lawyers joining forces to argue that the defendants’ guilty pleas should be entered in a closed courtroom session, while Examiner attorney Roger Myers argued via speaker phone for open proceedings. Myers said it would be unconstitutional to hold closed proceedings.  

“There’s a constitutional right of access to criminal proceedings,” he told the judge. “Congress cannot legislate away the First Amendment.” 

But Reddy attorney Ted Cassman said media coverage would prejudice his client. “The extent of media coverage defies our experience,” Cassman told the judge. “The publicity in this case has exceeded anything we have ever seen in its tenor, its sensationalism, its pervasive(ness),” he said.  

When entering a guilty plea in federal court a defendant is required to engage in a lengthy “colloquy” with the judge elaborating on the circumstances of the guilty plea. This dialogue, Cassman argued, if covered in the media, would likely taint potential jurors, prejudicing them against Reddy and the other defendants in the event the judge rejects the proposed plea agreement with the government.  

Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Kennedy agreed there was a “substantial danger” of prejudicing a jury pool.  

But Judge Armstrong denied the request. She held that publicity alone was not a sufficient basis to close the courtroom.  

The judge ruled that on Feb. 6 she would receive the pleas, enter a judgment, and hand down sentences, all on the same day. In the intervening months she said she would study a probation report discussing the case. A probation report makes an independent sentencing recommendation based on an investigation of the defendant’s life circumstances, background and other factors bearing on an appropriate sentence.  

Media law specialist Stephen Barnett, who has taught at Boalt Hall School of Law for thirty years, said he had never heard of a guilty plea hearing being closed to the public. “It’s contrary to what the Supreme Court says the First Amendment requires,” he said. 

“I think it’s unjustified and outrageous for a hearing in a criminal case that does not involve young children or other special considerations to be closed,” he said. “The law is that criminal proceedings in federal court must be open to the public.” 

Despite her later ruling that the session be opened to the public, all but thirty minutes of Monday’s nearly four-hour hearing was held behind locked doors.  

During this period a freelance courtroom artist tried to sketch the proceedings from a narrow window in the side door to the courtroom. That vantage afforded spectators an oblique view of the mute scene being played out inside. Reddy was dressed informally in slacks and running shoes, while the other defendants wore ties or more formal attire for their courtroom appearances.  

Meanwhile, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and a San Francisco law firm coordinating representation of what they say are numerous still unidentified victims in the case were also denied access to the proceedings for more than an hour. They were finally admitted to the courtroom and later spoke with numerous television and newspaper reporters gathered outside the courthouse. 

“More and more victims come forward every day,” said attorney Michael Rubin who plans to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of the alleged victims. 

“We think there are scores if not hundreds of victims throughout the world,” Rubin said, “some here, some in different parts of the country, many back in India, who are victims of this reprehensible conduct.” Rubin claimed Reddy’s activities had gone on for “decades.” 

“One of the things we’re doing is making sure that the people who are responsible for these events receive justice. We think all five defendants should go to prison,” he said. 

None of the lawyers representing the defendants in the case returned phone calls Monday seeking comment on Monday’s court session. 

In a related development, the government appears to have made a concession to claims by Reddy’s lawyer, Ted Cassman, that charges stating Reddy imported aliens for “immoral purposes” are unconstitutionally vague. In the government’s revised indictment filed last week, those charges against Reddy were dropped and replaced with different charges under a separate law specifically forbidding transportation of minors “for sexual activity.” Defendant Vijay Kumar Lakireddy, however, continues to be charged under the law Cassman claimed was too vague to stand up to a constitutional challenge. 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 644-6107 

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for additional info 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equipment, fundamental climbing techniques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members, $110 for non members 

To register (209) 753-6556 

Task Force on  

Telecommunications 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Fire Safety Commission 

7:30 p.m.  

Fire Training Division 

997 Cedar St.  

Discussion will include undergrounding of utilities in Berkeley and a proposal to the City Council for additional support for the Fire Department.  

Citizen’s Budget Review  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Community Action Team 

7 p.m. 

Over 60 Health Center 

3260 Sacramento 

Citizens will meet to plan actions to take to reduce the health disparities in the city. 

Board of Education 

7:30 p.m. 

Old City Hall 

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel Discussion 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

7:30 p.m. 

“Saddling the Site: The Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Spirit of the Road 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Don Patton, general editor and Vice President of Publishing for the California State Automobile Association presents a slide show celebrating the first one hundred years of the automobile and the CSA. Free. 

Call 843-3533 for more info.  

BOSS Graduation 

6 - 8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

27th & Harrison 

Oakland 

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency’s graduation gala for poor, disabled, and homeless folks who have worked hard to achieve jobs, housing, education, training, and other milestones. There will be special guests, music, and a buffet. The community are invited. 

Call 649-1930 

Spirit Matters 

4:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Rabbi Michael Lerner speaks about his new book. 

Call 849-8244 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 848-3696 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork Movement. 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25, 843-6514 

Circle Dancing 

7:45 - 10 p.m. 

Finnish Brotherhoos Hall 

1970 Chestnut St. 

Simple folkdancing in a circle. Beginners welcome and no partners are required.  

Call John Bear, 528-4253 

Marga Gomez 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Comedian Marga Gomez was one of the founding members of Culture Clash and the Latino comedy ensemble. Part of the La Lesbian performance and film series. 

Call 654-6346 

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Saturday, Nov. 4

Breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales. Call 649-3943  

New Science & Ancient Wisdom Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International Center 

2222 Harold Way 

Featured speakers include Father Charlie Moore speaking on “The Cosmic Origins of Man,” Dolores Cannon speaking on “Visions of Nostradamus,” and David Hatcher Childress speaking on “Technology of the Gods.” Event runs through Sunday.  

Pre-registration admission, $65; after Oct. 27, $85 

Call Charles Gotsky, 650-343-5202 

The Next Ivory Trade? The Intellectual Property Rights of University Faculty 

A conference sponsored by the Berkeley Faculty Association/American Association of University Professors Coalition 

9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley International House 

841-1997 

Collecting Chinese Decorative Art 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Oakland Museum  

1000 Oak St.  

Dessa Goddard, director of the Asian Department at Butterfields, and a panel discuss. Followed by a collectors’ tea. Included in admission price to museum.  

Call for reservations, 238-2022 

“Broadway to La Scala” 

7 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

2501 Harrison St. (at 27th St.) 

A benefit concert for the Oakland Lyric Opera featuring a selection of Broadway musicals and arias from operas, including “Madame Butterfly.” $25 Call 836-6772 

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. Call 843-6812  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour 

Downtown Berkeley  

Tour new construction, new uses, historic rehabilitation and public improvements that are completed or still in the works.  

Noon 

RSVP required 841-0181 space is limited. 

Tickets: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers. 

A Dispirited Rebellion 

10 a.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Author, television personality and columnist Gadi Taub will explore the literary and cinematic changes in Israeli society since the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. A brunch will be served at 10 a.m.  

Admission: $7 non-JCC members; $5 members 

Call 848-9237 

Soprano Stephanie Pan Sings 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

Soprano Stephanie Pan is joined by Meg Cotner on harpsichord, Salley Blaker on cello, and Alex Jenne on lute. They will perform the music of Barbra Strozzi, Jacopo Peri, Giovanni Felice Sances and others.  

$10 general; $9 students and seniors; under 12 Free 

Call 644-6893 

“Bigger Things” 

7 p.m.  

La Pena Cultural Center  

3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Judith-Kate Friedman celebrates the release of her new CD.  

$12 general; $20 reserved seating 

Info and tickets: 654-7464 or 849-2568 

— compiled by  

Chason Williams 

Monday, Nov. 6 

Airports vs. the Bay 

7 p.m. 

Albany Community Center 

1249 Marin St.  

Albany 

David Lewis, Executive Director of “Save the Bay” will speak on the airports’ plans to expand into the SF Bay and other challenges to Bay restoration.  

Contact: Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 

Tuesday, Nov. 7

Zonta Club dinner 

5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley City Club 

$20 per person 

Dr. Sylvia Earle, a marine bioligist, author and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, will be the featured speaker. 

For more information call 845-6221 

Thursday, Nov. 9

The Life and Art of Chiura Obata 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Public Library 

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

A slide show and lecture presented by Obata’s granddaughter, Kimi Kodani Hill, celebrating Obata’s book, “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” and the retrospective exhibit of Obata’s work to appear this Fall at SFs De Young Museum. 

For details call 644-6850  

From Morgan to Modern 

“Bay Area Modern” 

7:30 p.m. 

The Hillside Club 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242 

ESL Teacher Job Fair 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave., Room 7  

ESL program representatives from adult schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties will provide information about desired qualifications, current job openings, credentialing requirements, and more.  

Call Kay Wade, 644-6130 

“Feeding the Moon: A Nutritive Approach to Feminine Fertility” 

Lern how fertility is affected by the environment and how it can be enhanced by healthy lifestyle choices 

7:30 to 9 p.m. 

The Ecology Center 

2530 San Pable Ave.  

558-1324, free 

“Diabetes: What to Know Head-to-Toe” 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Free 

869-6737 

Love and Betrayal: A Musical Journey 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Mezzo Soprano Sylvia Braitman discusses the role Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler played in the development of modernity in German, Austrian and Western music.  

Tuition: $8 for general; $5 JJC members (class code A101-BJ) 

Call 848-0237 for more info.  

Hour of the Furnaces 

4:30 - 6 p.m. 

Hewlett Library, Dinner Board Room 

2400 Ridge Rd.  

Renny Golden, poet, liberation theologian, and professor of social ethics at Northeastern Illinois University, will read from her new book on the Central American experience of struggle.  

649-2490 

Friday, Nov. 10

Dragon and Phoenix Banquet Cooking Contest 

7 p.m. 

Oakland Museum  

1000 Oak St.  

Students from Bay Area cooking academies present original dishes based on the “Dragon and Phoenix” theme to a panel of celebrity judges. Fee and price of admission to museum. 

Reservations: 238-2022  

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Saturday, Nov. 11

Moonlight on Mt. Diablo 

1 - 10:30 p.m.  

Hike up the Devil’s Mountain by daylight, catch a glorious sunset and hike back by the light of the moon. One in a series of free outing organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

Sunday, Nov. 12

Views, Vines and Veggies 

9:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  

Climb Bald Mountain in Sugarloaf State Park and peer down upon the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then please your palate at the Landmark Winery and visit Oak Hill organic vegetable and flower farm. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations 

“Time Across Cultures” 

2 - 4 p.m. 

St. Clements Church 

2837 Claremont Ave.  

The annual Roselyn Yellin Memorial lecture with a slide-illustrated panel discussion. Also a tour of the “Telling Time” exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum followed by a reception at the museum, 4 - 5 p.m.  

More info: 549-6950 

Buddhism & Compassion 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place 

Psychiatrist and teacher Bobby Jones on “Healing through Compassion.” Free.  

843-6812 

“Road To Mecca” Auditions 

2 p.m.  

Live Oak Theatre 

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 

The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley is auditioning roles for two females, 60-70 and 25-35, and one male, 60-70. Auditioners should prepare a monologue no longer than two minutes. No appointments. 

Call Debra Blondheim, 667-9827 

Monday, Nov. 13

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s works include “Animal Dreams,” “High Tide in Tucson,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Prodigal Summer” 

free parking $10 in advance, $13 at the door 

Benefits KPFA and Urban Ecology. 

848-6767 

From Rossi to Bernstein 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses the works of Jewish classical composers beginning with the sixteenth century. The first in a series of three Monday evening classes on music.  

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students  

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students 

Call 848-0237 

Berkeley Preschool Fair 

7 - 9 p.m.  

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Parents Network, this fair features representatives from local preschools. The topic will be how to evaluate preschool education philosophies and make the most of the admissions process. A fair featuring many local preschools will follow panel discussion. 

$5 non-members; Free to NPN members 

Call 527-6667 or visit www.parentsnet.org 

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Take a Trip to the Steinbeck Museum and 

Mission San Juan Bautista 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

This is an outing organzied by the Senior Center.  

$40 with lunch, $25 without  

Call Maggie or Suzanne, 644-6107 

Three Little Pigs 

3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley South Branch Library 

1901 Russell St. 

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets perform.  

649-3943 

More Little Pigs 

7 p.m.  

Berkeley North Branch Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets huff and puff and blow the house down.  

“The Hand of Buddha” 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck (at Rose) 

In her new book poet, columnist and travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin explores the lives of women from different ethnic backgrounds and in moments of crisis. Free 

Call 843-3533 

Quest for Justice 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

Bade Museum 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

A reception and discussion with the artists of “Quest for Justice: The Story of Korean Comfort Women as Told Through their Art,” an exhibit on display at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.  

849-8244 

Wednesday, Nov. 15

Even More Little Pigs 

3:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Library Claremont Branch 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets help Little Red Riding Hood get to Grandma’s house.  

Thursday, Nov. 16

Reminiscing in Swingtime 

7:30 p.m.  

North Berkeley Library  

1170 Alameda (at Hopkins) 

George Yoshida, author and jazz drummer, presents a multi-media program recounting the big band experience in the Japanese American internment camps. The presentation will be capped with a set of live jazz by the George Yoshida Quartet. 

Call for more info: 644-6850 

Berkeley Metaphysic Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters. Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 

Free blood pressure screenings 

Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave. 

free 

869-6737 

Three Little Pigs  

3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library West Branch  

1125 University Ave.  

Roger Mara and his Snapdragon Puppets perform.  

Friday, Nov. 17

Community Dance Party 

7:45 - 9:45 p.m. 

Live Oak Park 

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 

Come learn to dance with easy instructions presented by the Berkeley Folk Dancers.  

Teens $2; Adult Non-members $4 

Information: 525-3030  

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Saturday, Nov. 18

S.F. Stairs and Peaks 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Begin the day with a visit to the farmer’s market, then meander up the stairways and streets of Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Then up Russian Hill, descending to Fisherman’s Wharf for a ride back on the new historic streetcar line. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 

Berkeley Free Folk Festival 

11 a.m. - 1 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1317 San Pablo Ave. 

Fourteen hours of free concerts, workshops, jam sessions and to top it off a Saturday night dance. The fifth annual Folk Festival will feature Shay & Michael Black, Spectre Double Negative & the Equal Positive, Larry Hanks, Wake the Dead and many others. Sponsored by Charles Schwab and the City of Berkeley.  

More info or to volunteer: 525-5099 

Berkeley Video & Film Festival 

2 - 11 p.m. 

2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Screenings of 35 documentaries, features, short features, animation, comedy, commercials, educaitonal and art video and film works. Featuring a number of local filmakers.  

$8  

Call 843-3699 

Sunday, Nov. 19 

Soprano Deborah Voigt 

Cal Performances  

3 p.m.  

Voigt’s performance is a postponment from her original Oct. 15 date. The program will remain unchanged. 

$28-$48 For tickets call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Mt. Madonna & Wine  

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Hike through evergreen forests and visit the remains of a 19th century estate, then finish the day with a visit to Kruse Winery. One of many free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: (415) 255-3233 for reservations 

“Drawing Marathon”  

Merritt College’s Art Building 

Live models, group poses.  

$12 for half a day, $20 for a full day, senior and student discounts available. No cameras or turpentine. 

523-9763 

Berkeley Video & Film Festival 

2 - 11 p.m. 

2451 Shattuck Ave. 

Screenings of 35 documentaries, features, short features, animation, comedy, commercials, educaitonal and art video and film works. Featuring a number of Berkeley filmakers.  

$8  

Call 843-3699 

Monday, Nov. 20

The Music of Israel 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses the music of Israel, from the early pioneers of Palestine to the latest rock.  

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students 

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students  

Call 848-0237 

Tuesday, Nov. 21

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center, Maffly Auditorium 

Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight Way 

Call D.L. Malinousky, 601-0550 

Monday, Nov. 27

To Make the World Whole 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Bay Area musician Mark Levy discusses songs of peace, protest and change from labor, feminists, peace, and environmental activists of the past 125 years, that inspired others to action. 

Tuition for all three classes: $30 general public; $20 JJC members, seniors and students 

Individual classes: $10 general; $8 JJC members, seniors and students  

Call 848-0237 

Wednesday, Nov. 29

Wanderlust: Tales of Adventure and Romance 

7:30 p.m.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Jeff Greenwald and other travel writers discuss the art of writing travel literature and how to make a living doing it.  

Call 843-3533 

Compiled by Chason Wainwright 

Editor: A recent letter by John Cecil contained erroneous statements about about Berkeley public school ballot Measures AA and BB. It is important to correct those errors so that Berkeley voters can understand what is at stake. 

Thanks to community support of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project Measure (BSEP) in 1987, K-6 class sizes were reduced to 26 students. At that time the district had enough classrooms. Two things have happened since then which have put a strain on classroom facilities. First, when the refurbished school buildings began to reopen the Berkeley public school student population began to grow, increasing to an additional 20 percent. This need for more classrooms brought about by growth is especially acute at Berkeley High. Also, the State instituted a program to reduce K-3 class sizes to 20. The state provides only a fraction of the funds necessary, but for Berkeley it was nearly enough because its class size was formerly at 26. The state program does not pay for the additional classrooms required. Because of this program and the growing number of students, Franklin School has been reopened. It needs much work to bring it up to the level of the other elementary schools. 

In short, the Berkeley school community is asking the Berkeley voters to provide its students – elementary, middle school, and high school – with adequate classroom space and other needed facilities and to ensure that they are adequately maintained. Measures AA and BB will address these needs. For details see “www.bcsss.com.” 

I leave the reader to weigh the concern about the use of word “income” instead of “revenue.” Mr. Cecil is having to scrape hard to find fault in the case for AA and BB. 

Bruce Wicinas 

Berkeley 

Editor: 

The case for AA  

AA proposes a school bond that will allow us to undertake the unfinished work of rebuilding our schools. We are still have many buildings that are old and run down to the point where they create a negative environment for teaching and learning. There is work to be done at the High School, King Middle, our wonderful Adult School, Franklin and more. Sooner or later we are going to have to do these jobs and it might as well be now. The reason is that we already have a successful building program in place. Our current administration has delivered both beautiful buildings and meaningful improvements in student test scores, at the same time! And this has been accomplished at a time of increasing enrollment. That’s an impressive achievement!  

The case for BB 

BB is a parcel tax that will provide adequate funds for maintenance. I can”t bear to see our beautiful new properties looking prematurely worn, our new equipment fail for lack of timely maintenance or repair, our landscaping wither and die. State funding for maintenance is simply not enough to do the job right and this community will not tolerate using scarce educational dollars to make up the shortfall. BB will create a 12 year endowment for maintenance which will protect our capital investment and provide a positive environment for teaching and learning. Vote for BB to make sure that we can provide for our children’s health, education and welfare.  

Shirley Issel 

School Board Director 

AA, BB and more 

Editor: 

Where does the Parent Teacher Association stand on the elections? I’d like to share the views of the California State PTA and the Berkeley PTA Council in regards to issues on the November ballot. 

No on Proposition 38 - Vouchers: The School Voucher Initiative does nothing to add funding to the public schools, and could potentially divert funding that might otherwise be directed towards public education.  

Yes on Proposition 39 - School Improvement and Accountability Act: Prop. 39 is a California State Constitutional Amendment that would lower the vote requirement for the passage of local school facilities bond measures from 66 percent to 55 percent and would also enact new accountability standards.  

Yes on Local Measures AA & BB: This is supported by the Berkeley PTA Council, and school site PTA”s. Measure AA will raise $116.5 million dollars for the Berkeley schools. These monies will be used to continue the rehabilitation of our school facilities. More classrooms, cafeterias and kitchens. Needed safety and heating systems. Adequate infrastructure to accommodate technology. AA will not increase our tax rate, it only extends the maximum tax rate from the 1992 bond measure. Measure BB funds by law would be dedicated to school maintenance. During the first year, Measure BB will raise $3.8 million and will cost most homeowners around $60 a year. There is no other foreseeable source of funding for a standard level of maintenance services, with the exception of cutting our precious academic programs. We urge you to vote YES on Measures AA & BB 

See more about the PTA Council & Berkeley schools at our Web page, http://berkeleypta.org/ 

Mark A. Coplan, President 

Berkeley PTA Council 

Students hear from several party delegates 

Berkeley High School senior Miriam Feeley celebrated her 18th birthday on Saturday and now that she’s “legal” she said she can’t wait to cast her first vote as an adult citizen in the upcoming presidential election. But there’s one problem – she can’t make up her mind.  

“I registered months ago,” she said “I’ve been following the election really closely. I listen to National Public Radio, read the papers and watch the news regularly but I still don’t know who to vote for.” 

That is why she decided to attend a special presidential debate forum Monday afternoon in the Community Theater at Berkeley High School.  

“I hope when I walk out of here I will finally know who to vote for,” she said. 

Feeley and about 800 of her classmates poured into the theater to hear what representatives from the Republican, Democratic, Green and Reform parties had to say about education, foreign policy and their candidates’ visions for the future. 

The event was organized by student Zoe Sachs-Arellano, 16, as part of Berkeley High School spirit week and to prepare students for a mock presidential election on Thursday. 

The mock election will be conducted with the help of the Berkeley Albany Emeryville League of Women Voters. 

“I’m hoping that the event will make the mock election more spirited and help students be more informed on the issues and differences between the parties and candidates,” Sachs-Arrellano said. “Even though most of us can’t vote yet the election outcome will affect us in the coming years.” 

The event created so much “spirit” that at times it was impossible to hear panelists. 

Loud roars of approval and applause peppered every Nader and Gore representative response to questions while the Bush and Buchanan representative responses were greeted with jeers, hisses and an occasional rude comment from the high school audience. 

“Schools not jails,” shouted one student in the back of the crowded auditorium. Loud applause followed and someone else’s voice rang out: “Keep abortion legal.” 

Teachers scrambled around trying to quell the growing cacophony as Bush and Buchanan representatives shifted uncomfortably in their chairs and Gore and Nader representatives smiled patiently awaiting their next opportunity to rally their current and future supporters.  

Student Parker Robinson, 17, said that even though he’s not old enough to vote he attended the forum to familiarize himself with the issues so that he can cast an intelligent vote on Thursday at the school’s mock election. 

“Also, I just want to know what’s going on because the outcome will affect my life. Hopefully, I’ll be able to figure out who the best candidate is and convince my (voting) friends and family to cast their vote for him.” 

Megan Greenwall, 16, said she attended the forum because she’s “really politically minded” and interested in seeing the different view points of the parties. 

“I wish I could vote. If I could I’d vote Gore or Nader. Maybe we should try to get the voting age lowered to 15,” she quipped.  

The majority of the students in attendance favored Nader but many said that although they agree with Nader’s domestic policy and pro-environment position, they didn’t think he was qualified to lead the most powerful country in the world. 

Feeley, who spent several years living in Israel, said she is “very concerned” with foreign policy issues. 

“I just can’t see Nader doing well in the foreign policy area,” she said. “He’s good for communities but I honestly don’t think he could succeed in foreign affairs. I don’t see him as someone capable of ending the violence in my home country.” 

Ramona Gonzales, 17, said she thinks Nader is a “romantic” and although his ideas sound good most of them are unrealistic. 

“Nader is awesome, no doubt, but he’s not even in the race,” Gonzales said. “Gore is the only realistic choice, and I think he will focus on enough of Nader’s issues to appease the Greens.” 

After the forum, registered voter Volissia Goodwin, 18, said she is still undecided. She’s leaning toward Nader mainly because that’s who got the most cheers during the event and that’s who her friends like. 

“The biggest problem is understanding what’s really going on,” Goodwin said. “Nader finds out where the money goes and that’s good. That’s what my friends say but it’s not always clear.” 

Goodwin said the main reason she thinks young voters like herself are confused and undecided is because they’re coming from “a child’s place.”  

“We’re young and not too concerned with what goes on outside of our own world. We’re too caught up in our own lives,” she said. 

In an effort to become more informed Goodwin said that she’s planning on spending a lot of time reading the papers, watching the news and talking to her parents in the coming days. 

“My parents encourage me to make my own decisions but they’ll probably throw in a hint or two – those hints might be my deciding factor.” 

Senior Phiron Yim, 18, said she hasn’t registered to vote and didn’t want to because she feels “uncomfortable” with the level of responsibility voting requires.  

“I don’t know enough about politics and the issues,” Yim said. “I just want to sit this one out and wait until next time.” 

After attending the forum Yim said that based on what she heard and experienced she’s going to cast her mock vote for Gore.  

“He’s pro-choice and I firmly believe abortion should be the woman’s choice.” 

As for Feeley, the event was a success. 

“I’ve decided . . . finally. It’s got to be Gore. America is just not ready for Nader and Nader’s not ready for America and the world. I want world peace not just peace in the U.S.”  

The release of a Final Environmental Impact Report has done little to deter what promises to be a long battle pitting the Congregation of Beth El against neighbors and environmentalists.  

Neighbors said the Final Environmental Impact Report, which was released on Oct. 20, is a poorly prepared document that does little to address their concerns about the development. Members of Beth El said they are pleased overall with the report and that it shows the current proposal is workable.  

The report was commissioned by the city and paid for by the Congregation of Beth El. The purpose of the report is to provide information about potential environmental effects of the project according the standards of the California Environmental Quality Act. The report is also required to make suggestions on how developers can avoid adverse environmental effects.  

The report, which was prepared by Pacific Municipal Consultants of Sacramento, was released in two stages. The Draft Environmental Impact Report was reviewed by all concerned parties, who were then invited to make comments and raise concerns about the report to the consultant.  

The consultant then evaluated and addressed those concerns in writing after which the report was released again as the Final Environmental Impact Report.  

“There were no surprises or concerns in the FEIR, in fact what’s remarkable is the FEIR found no significant unavoidable impacts,” said Congregation member Martin Dodd.  

Neighbors said the report fails to live up to CEQA requirements because it did not present a reasonable range of possible alternatives. “It dismissed the idea of building an underground parking lot as too expensive without providing reasonable estimates,” said Juliet Lamont a member of Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association, which has collected over 2,300 signatures on a petition and enlisted the support of a variety of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, Urban Creeks Council of California and Friends of Five Creeks. 

“We are not against Beth El building here,” Lamont said, “but we want a smaller project and we want them to stay away from the creek,” Lamont said. 

Dodd said they have worked very hard to have as little impact on the site as possible and the FEIR shows they were successful. He said building a underground parking lot would not only drastically raise construction costs but it was uncertain what effect digging out so much earth would have on the creek. 

The Beth El congregation purchased two acres at 1301 Oxford St., in 1997 with the intent of constructing a synagogue and school on the park-like setting to accommodate its burgeoning congregation. The site was formerly the home of the Alliance Chinese Church. 

The Congregation proposed a single 35,000-square-foot structure that would include a temple, school and nursery school.  

There was immediate resistance from neighbors and environmentalists, who cited a variety of issues. Chief among them are concerns about parking and traffic, damage to Codornices Creek which runs through the property one third above ground and two thirds underground and that the proposed development is just too large. 

The Temple is currently located a few blocks away at Arch and Vine streets. Temple members said the 600 family congregation has outgrown the 50-year-old facility, that was built for 250 families.  

Beth El has proposed a 35,000-square-foot development that would include a sanctuary with seating for 350 people, a social hall, school and nursery school. To ease traffic and increase safety for parents dropping of young children at the school, the design calls for a driveway with an entrance on Oxford Street that will allow cars to drop off passengers and then park in one of 35 on-site parking spaces or drive back out onto Spruce Street.  

Temple members said regular activities at the site would be Saturday morning services for 100-200 people, religious classes for 325 students, half attending twice a week on different days and a nursery school operating five days a week for 60 tots.  

The 300-foot section of Codornices Creek is generating the most concern. Common wisdom among environmentalists is that it is best to “daylight” or open up culverted creeks and allow them to run above ground in a natural course which facilitates wildlife and allows for better flood prevention. 

The creek runs from the hills through the flatlands and into the Bay. 

Opponents said if the proposed development is constructed, daylighting the creek would be impossible because the 35-car parking lot would be directly over the culverted section of the creek.  

Dodd said daylighting the creek doesn’t make sense because the setback lines from the creek would change requiring the structure to be much taller. In addition he said 300 feet of open creek at the bottom of a deep ravine would be dangerous for children attending the school. 

“If the creek were to be exposed it would effectively mean your couldn’t build on it,” Dodd said. 

The location was formerly the site of Napoleon Boneparte Byrne’s home. He was one of the city’s first settlers and his home and the surrounding area was designated a historical landmark by the city. However, the home was extensively damaged by fire in the 1985 and demolished in 1988. However, the Landmarks Preservation Board reaffirmed the site as a landmark on Nov. 19, 1990 two years after the Byrne’s home was demolished. 

The next step in the process is a meeting of the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Nov. 6, in which they will make a recommendation on the historical aspect. Then the Zoning Adjustments Board will review the FEIR for approval on Nov. 9.  

Lamont said no matter what happens this project is going before the City Council. “I can guarantee you the neighbors will appeal an unfavorable decision by ZAB and I’m willing to bet Beth El will do the same,” she said. 

When Tom Gorham was 37, he lived in a house in Half Moon Bay so close to the ocean he could hear the waves. 

Two years later, he was living under an Oakland freeway where all he could hear were the passing cars. 

“My mother died of an overdose of pills and vodka,” Gorham said. “My sister was dying of cirrhosis of the liver and my wife left me and took our children. The only way I knew how to deal with my problems was drinking and getting high.” 

Gorham, who has been clean and sober for 26 months, lived on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland for 12 years until a judge at a drug court in Berkeley sent him to treatment instead of jail. By then, he says, he had been arrested more than 400 times. 

“Drug court saved my life,” he said. “Most of my arrests were drug related but I was sent to jail every time. Being sent to treatment gave me a second chance in life.” 

Gorham could be a poster child for Proposition 36, an initiative on the November ballot that suggests spending $120 million a year to send first and second-time non-violent drug offenders to treatment rather than jail. Instead, he joined the opposition and will be speaking against Proposition 36, along with actor Martin Sheen, chair of the No on 36 campaign. 

Opponents of Proposition 36, Gorham included, argue that the initiative fails to address addiction and it eliminates accountability and consequences giving drug abusers little incentive to change their behavior or take treatment seriously. 

”Nowhere in the proposition does it say the aim is to get people clean and sober,” said Gorham, who works as outreach coordinator and case manager with Options for Recovery, a drug treatment program in Berkeley. “They talk about treatment but it’s obvious they don’t understand how to help addicts.” 

Backers of Proposition 36 say the initiative won’t help everyone but, they argue, the current drug court system only serves at most 7 percent of the offenders charged with non-violent drug offenses. They say the proposition, if passed, will reroute as many as 36,000 drug offenders away from prison and county jails and into community-based treatment centers. 

”It will leave out some badly addicted offenders,” said Scott Ehlers, spokesperson for the Yes on 36 campaign. “We agree with that. But what the proposition wants to do is help those people whose only crime is being in possession of drugs for personal use. Unfortunately, one initiative is not going to solve all of California’s drug related problems.” 

Nearly one in three of the state’s 162,000 prisoners is serving time for a crime related to drugs and about eight in 10 have a history of substance abuse. Yet, there are only 8,000 beds in prison designated for substance-abuse treatment. 

Community drug-treatment programs fail to fill the gap. According to the state’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs 6,806 people were in residential programs funded by public dollars at the end of the past fiscal year. Another 2,500 were on the waiting list. And if Prop 36 passes another 36,000 could join them. 

But the availability of beds, opponents such as Gorham say, is not the only problem with the initiative. 

In the current drug court system a judge gets to decide whether the drug offender should go to jail or be sent to treatment. If passed, Proposition 36 will require all defendants who plead guilty to simple drug possession and have no other convictions such as violence or use of a firearm to be sent to drug treatment. 

“The problem is that the proposition, if passed, will take away drug testing and the threat of jail,” Gorham, who has a certificate in addiction counseling from John F. Kennedy University, said. “Without these two tools there is no chance of getting an addict's attention.” 

Ehlers dismisses these criticisms and says a judge can still order drug testing, the only difference is that the addict will be required to pay for their drug testing as part of probation. Judges, he says, will retain the ability to send drug abusers to jail or prison, but only after the addict has failed two or more attempts at recovery. 

”We don't do anything to prohibit drug testing,” Ehlers said. “We just want all funds available to be used in treatment programs.” 

Opponents argue the initiative deprives judges of the carrots and sticks approach they need to ensure that drug offenders remain in treatment and as a result it will eventually clog courts with drug related cases. 

”An addict does not wake up one day and decides to stop using,” said Gorham. 

”They will choose treatment to avoid going to jail. But without intervention and support the addicts won't be able to successfully complete a treatment program and they will end up in jail sooner or later.” 

Alameda Superior Court Judge Carol Brosnahan, who has been in charge of Berkeley's drug court since March, worries Proposition 36 will give the addict control of the situation. 

“This proposition let's the addict decide what type of treatment they should get,” Judge Brosnahan said. “They can fail treatment three times before a judge can intervene and help them see there is the option of a sober and clean life. For some of them it might be too late.” 

Gorham says he feels lucky to have had a tough judge and the help of Dr. Davida Coady, director of Options for Recovery. 

”Four times I was put in jail while in treatment for showing up drunk to the progress reports,” Gorham said. “But they stuck with me. Under Proposition 36 I wouldn't be here today.”

If you turned in a form to register to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Oakland and you didn’t receive a sample ballot, you may not be registered. 

Some 35 to 40 people who believed they registered at the DMV on Claremont Avenue in Oakland have called the Alameda County Registrar’s Office with that complaint, said Sandy Creque, office manager for the registrar. 

Evan Nassoff, DMV spokesperson, called the problem “regrettable.” He said the DMV does its job of transmitting voter registration cards to the registrar of voters as best it can. “We make sure our part of the job is done effectively and efficiently,” he said. 

Sometimes, however, people forget to check the card where one is supposed to check it, to show there is an updated address. Other times, people have forgotten to fill out voter registration forms, he said. 

This number of complaints is “not unusual,” he said. 

But that answer did not satisfy the mom of one 18-year-old, who called the Daily Planet, wondering what the problem was. Asking that her name not be used, she said her son, anxious to vote for the first time, told her he filled out the correct form and turned it in to a DMV clerk in July. The registrar of voters, however, has no record of her son’s registration.  

Creque said the registrar’s office is taking pains to make sure everyone who has registered can cast a ballot. 

People who believe they are registered but did not receive a sample ballot should call the office of the Alameda County Registrar of Voters at 663-8683. The office will check to see if it has a record of the registration, Creque said. 

If there is no record, the caller can request materials to fill out, explaining that they did, in fact, register. Alternatively, they can pick up the materials at the registrar’s office in Oakland. 

The registrar’s address is 1225 Fallon Street, Room G1, Oakland, 94612. 

The person who completes these forms then must vote as an “absentee” voter, by coming in to the offices in Oakland.  

The registrar will then turn these ballots over to a judge. “The judge will make the determination,” Creque said. 

If the individual affected is disabled, or has another hardship which makes it difficult to come into the county office to vote, the registrar will make special arrangements to allow the person to vote at a polling place near that person’s house.

SAN FRANCISCO — Aspiring homeowners who borrow from the federal government could save $1,650 in upfront mortgage fees under an initiative announced Monday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

The initiative will apply to some 1.3 million Federal Housing Administration loans each year, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo told a convention of mortgage bankers. 

The FHA lends at market rates to borrowers whom private lenders deem too risky. FHA loans are targeted toward low-income and first-time homebuyers. Beginning in 2001, the FHA will make loans as high as $235,000. 

Families stand to benefit – as do community service organizations like the Genesis Project, which provides low-rent apartments to recovering drug addicts. 

With seven FHA mortgages, Oakland-based Genesis stands to save thousands a month. 

“For us, it means we can provide more services,” said Patrick Stoute, the nonprofit’s executive director. “Because we put everything back into programs for the benefit of clients, it means that we can hold rents at the lower end of the spectrum. So the client benefits.” 

Until now, the FHA charged a 2.25-percent fee to execute the mortgage – for example, tacking $2,250 onto a $100,000 loan. 

Cuomo announced that premium would fall to 1.5 percent of the original loan. Taking a typical $100,000 FHA mortgage, the fee would fall to $1,500. The borrower thus would save $750 in the short term. 

Cuomo said his plan would not cost taxpayers anything – rather, it would cut into FHA loan profits by some $1 billion per year. 

“We can reduce the premium because we are financially very strong,”

SAN FRANCISCO — For the second time, a federal appeals court Monday upheld the legality of a test that California teachers are required to pass, despite claims it is racially discriminatory. 

First-time passage rates for the CBEST, which is mandatory for people trying to qualify as teachers in the state, are twice as high for white applicants as for blacks. 

The California Basic Educational Skills Test has been required by state law for teaching, counseling and administrative credentialing for public schools since 1983. 

Organizations of Mexican-American, black and Asian educators argued there was no proven connection between CBEST and teaching skills, and that teachers should be judged on their classroom performance. 

The test consists of multiple-choice questions in reading comprehension and mathematics and two essays to measure writing skills.  

It is given six times a year and can be repeated indefinitely. 

In a 7-4 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the CBEST was a valid measure of job-related skills despite a disproportionate number of minorities failing to pass it. 

“The CBEST is intended to establish only a minimum level of competence in three areas of basic education skills,” Judge Susan Graber wrote for the majority in an 80-page opinion. 

Recent state figures showed that 100,000 people a year took the test, 70 percent passed on their first try and 82 to 85 percent passed eventually. 

But there were significant differences among ethnic groups, particularly in first-time passage rates: 80 percent for whites, 60 percent for Asians, 47 percent for Hispanics and 37 percent for blacks. 

The state says the test is set at an eighth to 10th grade level and screens out only the unqualified. For example, the math question missed by the most applicants in August 1995 asked how many students could be served a half-pint of milk from a five-gallon supply. (The answer is 80.) 

Last year, a three-judge panel of the same circuit court upheld the test’s usage. But a majority of the circuit’s judges voted in March to rehear the case with 11 judges. 

U.S. District Judge William Orrick of San Francisco upheld CBEST after a non-jury trial in 1996. He said the test had an adverse impact on minorities, but measured essential job skills better than other alternatives. 

In a dissent, Judge Stephen Reinhardt said the majority’s opinion is a blow to California’s students. 

“As a result of this ruling, qualified minority educators ... will be denied the opportunity to work in California’s severely understaffed public schools, simply because they failed to pass a test that concededly has a disparate impact on minority group members,” Reinhardt wrote. 

He said one Cambodian-born applicant with a postgraduate teacher preparation certificate and a bachelor’s degree cannot teach bilingual elementary classes to address the needs of 24,000 Khmer-speaking students. That person did not pass the CBEST reading section. 

The case is Association of Mexican-American Educators vs. State of California, 96-17131.

SAN FRANCISCO — Musicbank, a start-up promising to give consumers online access to their personal CD collections, said Monday it signed a licensing agreement with Sony Music. 

The deal means San Francisco-based Musicbank now has the rights to store CDs made by four of the five major record labels. 

BMG Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group previously signed licensing agreements with Musicbank. The company is trying to negotiate an agreement with the remaining major label, EMI. 

Before the end of the year, Musicbank plans to launch a service that will enable consumers to listen to their CDs through any Internet-connected computer. Musicbank will record the entire catalogs of the music labels and then play them online for consumers who can prove that they previously purchased the requested music. 

The new “music locker” service is similar to one launched earlier this year by San Diego-based MP3.com, which didn’t obtain licensing agreements before giving consumers online access to their CDs. The music labels sued MP3.com, which now faces settlements and penalties that could exceed $250 million. 

MusicBank’s licensing agreements are expected to require the company to pay millions of dollars in royalties to the labels.  

The privately held company hasn’t disclosed the specifics of its licensing deals. 

Rival makers of digital music lockers, such as Myplay.com, believe the licensing agreements will force MusicBank to charge subscription fees. Musicbank hasn’t provided details of its business plan.

SAN FRANCISCO — The black population in San Francisco has declined, and with it, the political power of the community to address issues such as affordable housing, poverty, education and crime. 

The black population in the city has decreased only two points, from 13 percent in 1970 to 11 percent in 1998, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, at the same time that Asian and Latino populations have grown. 

The Asian population rose from 29 percent in 1990 to 36 percent in 1998, and the Hispanic population grew from 12 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 1998. The white population fell from 46 percent in 1990 to 38 percent in 1998. 

With the decrease in the black population of the city is a decrease in the strength of traditional institutional forces, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; a lack of future leaders for the community; and the loss of power and members in black churches, the San Francisco Examiner reported Sunday. 

Some argue that more blacks are now in positions of power in the city, for example, the mayor and superintendent of schools. But critics say the people in those positions have not improved conditions for most blacks in the city. 

The issues facing blacks in San Francisco, such as education, racial profiling and the economic development of urban neighborhoods have complex answers and not everyone agrees on how to deal with them, said Robert Smith, a San Francisco State University political scientist. 

“No one has an idea of how to address the miseducation of poor black kids,” he said. “We talk about how bad it is, but no one has any real agenda or strategy of how to address that problem. It’s very complicated.” 

SAN FRANCISCO — Republican Tom Campbell remains far behind incumbent Dianne Feinstein in the race for U.S. Senate, according to a poll by the San Francisco Examiner and KTVU-TV. 

The poll shows Democrat Feinstein with support from 53 percent of those polled, while Campbell has support from 38 percent. 

Campbell also does not have name recognition among voters, according to the poll, which showed nearly four of every 10 voters surveyed did not know who he was or had no opinion of him. 

The congressman from San Jose is a known maverick, a pro-choice, pro-gun control Republican who won’t take money from Political Action Committees. 

One of Campbell’s big challenges will be giving voters a reason to unseat Feinstein, who “hasn’t made any major mistakes in Washington or in California,” said Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies and a political science professor at Cal State Sacramento. 

A Los Angeles Times poll conducted Oct. 19 to Oct. 23, found an even bigger discrepancy. It showed Feinstein leading Campbell 60 percent to 35 percent overall and among every group polled except white males. 

The Examiner/KTVU poll was taken Sunday through Wednesday of 822 likely voters by Research 2000 of Rockville, Md. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

LOS ANGELES — Industrial runoff water with dangerously high levels of chromium 6 was discharged for two decades into storm drains that flowed to the Los Angeles River, it was reported Monday. 

Newly released city records provide the first clear evidence of how the chromium 6 used by local industries during the Cold War may have led to today’s ground water contamination, the Los Angeles Times reported. Chromium 6, which is suspected of causing cancer and other illnesses, appeared in industrial runoff between 1945 and the mid-1960s in concentrations as high as 80,000 parts per billion, according to the records. Health experts consider any chromium 6 concentration in the thousands of parts per billion in surface water to be dangerous. The records were compiled by the city of Los Angeles as part of a pollution study but were not made public. They were unearthed by Mel Blevins, a court-appointed water master who oversees the upper Los Angeles River area, and he provided them to the Times. 

Blevins said some of the runoff probably seeped into the San Fernando Valley aquifer and contaminated ground water pumped by Los Angeles and other cities for drinking water. 

“What it means to me is surface water had the opportunity to percolate down into the ground water,” he said. “That pollution is some of the main sources of the problem we’re seeing today.” 

The new information comes amid a fierce debate about the safety of some local cities’ water supplies and the potential costs and benefits of tighter standards for chromium in drinking water. 

The debate has acquired a high profile thanks in part to the recent Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich,” about a 1996 case in which residents of the California desert town of Hinkley won a $333-million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric when its tanks leaked high concentrations of chromium 6 into ground water. 

The cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale are in talks to jointly hire consultants to develop technology that would reduce the chemical in ground water, and Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation last month requiring state health officials to report by Jan. 1, 2002, on the risk posed by chromium 6. 

Officials say tap water pumped from the San Fernando Valley basin today is safe because wells are closed when chemicals exceed prudent limits. Water pumped from San Fernando Valley wells makes up about 15 percent of Los Angeles’ water supplies. 

Decades of industrial pollution — much of it from aerospace manufacturing — turned the San Fernando Valley aquifer into a federal Superfund site. Chemical contamination in water wells remains an issue for area residents who say they were sickened by drinking poisoned water, and has led to thousands of lawsuits against area companies including Lockheed Martin Corp., which has paid $60 million to date to settle claims but has not admitted liability. 

SACRAMENTO — The California Highway Patrol was slightly more likely to arrest Latinos and blacks than whites, according to a CHP report that looked at 2.1 million traffic stops over nine months. 

Gov. Gray Davis ordered the CHP to start keeping race and ethnicity data last year after he vetoed a bill that would have required such information from police departments statewide. 

California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick said the study shows no apparent racial bias by his officers because minorities were not over-represented in traffic stops. Only after they were stopped were there higher minority arrests. 

“When you’re going by on the highway at 70 or 80 mph, it’s pretty difficult to tell who’s inside,” Helmick said. “Originally, people tried to advance the idea that we were stopping people based on race. Once an officer stops somebody, they do their job.” 

The report looked at 2.1 million traffic stops over a nine-month period ending in April. 

The CHP did not say how often drivers were searched, and provided no geographic breakdowns that might show whether minorities were targeted in certain areas.  

It also did not break out results from drug enforcement teams that include CHP officers. 

Michelle Alexander, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s racial justice project, criticized the report as being deliberately inconclusive. 

The ACLU is involved in a class-action suit filed last year that accuses the CHP of targeting minority motorists on highways between San Jose and Los Banos. 

Helmick urged Alexander to “try your case in court. We’re not going to try it in the papers.” 

The CHP report says whites had the highest number of arrests after searches, followed by Hispanics, but doesn’t give the percentages or other statistics. 

The report says Hispanics were most likely to be released with a verbal warning after a search, which Alexander interpreted to mean a higher proportion of Hispanics were likely to be searched and cleared of wrongdoing. 

Additional data being collected by the CHP could be included in next year’s report, Helmick said. 

Whites made up about 51 percent of the population in 1999, but accounted for over 55 percent of those drivers pulled over for traffic stops, the report says. Whites were 47.6 percent of arrests, it says. 

Latinos made up 30.4 percent of the state’s population, 26.1 percent of traffic stops, and 34.7 percent of arrests, the CHP statistics show. 

Blacks made up 6.8 percent of the population, 7.6 percent of traffic stops, but 9.2 percent of arrests.

LOS ANGELES — Police Chief Bernard C. Parks on Monday blamed a realistic-looking prop gun for the police shooting of an actor at a Halloween party. 

The officer who fired 11 shots at Anthony Dwain Lee through a window at a West Los Angeles mansion had “no time” to determine whether the weapon was real or to shout a warning, the chief said at a news conference. 

Parks displayed the gun, which he said was made of solid gray rubber in the shape of an Israeli-made .357 Desert Eagle semiautomatic handgun. 

Parks said such replicas – often used as movie props – have led to at least seven recent officer-involved shootings. 

“Whether it’s a Halloween party, on the street or at a robbery ... we can’t take for granted that (a gun) is a replica,” Parks said. 

Parks also expressed his department’s “deep condolences” to Lee’s family. 

“It’s a tragic event,” he said. 

Lee, 39, was shot on Saturday when he pointed the gun at an officer investigating noise complaints. 

Parks said the officer and his partner identified themselves to some partygoers at the home and were directed to the rear of the house to find the host. Instead, they spotted Lee through a window. 

Parks said he doubted that the officers could have been mistaken for costumed guests. 

“I think when you show up with LAPD uniforms in LAPD cars, and an LAPD badge, it’s clear who you are,” he said. 

Lee had appeared in small TV and film roles on shows such as “ER,” “NYPD Blue” and the 1997 Jim Carrey movie “Liar Liar.” 

Those who knew Lee acknowledge he carried the fake weapon as part of a devil costume but insist he would never have pointed it at anyone – even as a joke. 

“I can tell you with absolute confidence that it wasn’t in his nature,” said Ramon McLane, Lee’s neighbor and friend for 13 years. “He was a lot smarter than that.” 

“Anthony was a well-seasoned actor who carried prop guns for some of his roles,” McLane said. “He knew never to point a gun at someone, regardless of whether it was real or not.” 

Friends planned to honor Lee’s memory with a candlelight vigil outside the West Los Angeles police division where the officer who killed him is stationed. 

Lee’s younger sister, Tina Vogt, who works for the chief of the Sacramento Police Department, planned to attend the rally. Vogt has said she is baffled by the killing and questions the LAPD’s account of the shooting. 

LAPD officials have refused to discuss many elements of the case, pending the outcome of a department investigation. 

Officer Tarriel Hopper, 27, who has been with the department for three years, has been placed on paid leave while the LAPD and county district attorney’s office investigate the death. 

Hopper and his partner arrived at the mansion in the affluent Benedict Canyon area about 1 a.m. Saturday morning, Lt. Horace Frank said. 

Tenants of the home – nicknamed “The Castle” for its towering, sky-blue turrets and arches – were hosting a Halloween costume party that attracted hundreds of guests. 

Witnesses said some of the revelers came dressed as police officers. 

Lee donned a rubber devil mask, friends said, and carried the toy gun as a prop. He was not wearing the mask when he was shot. 

Hopper and his partner were walking along the edge of the house looking for the party’s host when they spotted Lee in a back bedroom, Frank said. 

”(Lee) turned to (Hopper) and pointed what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon at him,” he said. 

That’s when Hopper opened fire. 

Lee died of multiple gunshot wounds, county coroner Scott Carrier said. Exactly where Lee was shot, and how many times he was hit, remained under seal by investigators Monday, Carrier added. 

The tenants said they were shocked by the killing but refused further comment. 

Andrea Lipson, of Camarillo, who owns the house with her husband but did not attend the party, questioned why officers would prowl around the home instead of knocking on the front door. 

“Why did they walk around most of the house just to peer in through a small window at a guy in the last room?” she asked. “And if the officer saw a gun pointing at him, why didn’t he stand aside and duck down. Next to the window is a great big plaster wall.” 

Frank could not say whether the officers entered the home before the shooting or identified themselves to party guests. He wouldn’t say whether Hopper had his gun drawn before looking in the window. 

“You have an officer who just felt his life was being threatened,” Frank said. “It’s sinking in on the poor guy. He’s horrified by the whole thing.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.lapd.com 

FRESNO — A federal judge Monday agreed to unseal court papers that spell out why prosecutors sought the death penalty in the case of Yosemite murderer Cary Stayner. 

At the request of a group of news organizations, Judge Anthony W. Ishii ordered that all court documents in the case be unsealed, but delayed the release of two items until Stayner is sentenced Nov. 30 in the slaying of a Yosemite naturalist. 

“Whenever a court unseals a court record, the public wins,” said lawyer Neil Shapiro, who represented The Associated Press and four newspaper groups. But he said postponing the release of the most sought-after documents deprived the public of a constitutional right for a month. 

Ishii said the delay was due to the unlikely possibility that Stayner would withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. 

The documents had been sealed to protect Stayner’s right to a fair trial. With his Sept. 13 conviction in U.S. District Court, however, there was no longer a need to keep the papers secret, Shapiro argued. 

In pleading guilty to murdering Joie Armstrong at the national park on July 21 last year, Stayner was spared the death penalty but agreed to a sentence of life without parole. 

Among papers that will become public at his formal sentencing is a document prosecutors filed to prove Armstrong was killed in “an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner,” one of the aggravating factors that support a death sentence. Armstrong, 26, who led children on nature hikes in the park, was decapitated. 

The document also includes portions of a confession Stayner gave to authorities, sources have told The AP. 

A defense lawyer argued that releasing that document and a defense brief opposing the death penalty could jeopardize Stayner’s right to a fair trial in the case of three Yosemite sightseers he is charged with killing. 

Elements in the sealed papers will likely be discussed in that case, said defense lawyer Marcia Morrissey. 

“These documents would in no way assist the public,” Morrissey said. 

Stayner faces a state trial in Mariposa County and the possibility of the death penalty in the February 1999 murders of Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend Silvina Pelosso, 16. 

But Ishii said he didn’t have the authority to keep the federal documents sealed after sentencing. Stayner was charged in federal court because Armstrong was killed in a national park. 

The Sund-Pelosso party had been staying at Cedar Lodge, a remote and rustic motel outside the park’s western gate, where Stayner, 39, lived and worked as a handyman. 

Shapiro argued the case on behalf of The AP, The Chronicle Publishing Co., McClatchy Newspapers, Inc, the Hearst Corp., and Knight Ridder Inc.

SAN DIEGO — A Superior Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the state over the abandoned development of a radioactive waste dump near Needles. 

Superior Court Judge S. Charles Wickersham dismissed all of US Ecology Inc.’s claims against the state, Gov. Gray Davis, the California Department of Health Services and Diana Bonita, the agency’s director. The ruling, issued last week, was made final Monday. 

The company filed suit after the state decided not to pursue purchase of land in the Mojave Desert for a low-level nuclear waste dump. Wickersham ruled the decision was “discretionary” and not under the jurisdiction of the court. 

US Ecology alleged the state violated a contract with the company. That claim also was found to be without merit. 

The company sought to open a depository for low-level nuclear waste in Ward Valley, about 18 miles from the Colorado River. 

“I think that the judge is telling US Ecology that it’s going to have to pay for its own mistakes at Ward Valley ... that the state is not going to allow a radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley and it doesn’t owe any money to US Ecology in damages,” said Bill Magavern of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, an environmental organization opposed to the project. 

Critics said such a dump could contaminate the Colorado River and jeopardize the water supply for millions of people in the Southwest. 

Officials with American Ecology of Boise, Idaho, the parent company of US Ecology, said the dump would contain only low-level radioactive material and would not pollute the river. 

“We disagree with the ruling and we are in the process of filing our appeal,” said Steve Romano, vice president for corporate development at American Ecology. “We continue to believe we have a strong case and maintain that either this project will be built or we are entitled to get our money back.” 

Two appeals related to the dump are pending in federal court.

SANTA BARBARA — A Boy Scout executive was stripped of his Eagle Scout status and fired by the Boy Scouts of America National Council 10 days after he publicly admitted he was a homosexual, his attorney said. 

Len Lanzi, Boy Scouts Los Padres Council executive director, worked for the scouting organization 14 years before he was terminated by mail Thursday. 

“We plan to pursue all legal remedies available to him,” said Lanzi’s attorney, Steven Serratori, whose Century City firm specializes in employment law. 

“I think it’s fair to say that everybody is surprised at the arrogance of the Boy Scouts,” Serratori said.  

“To think in this day and age that they think they can fire someone based on their sexual orientation. It’s arrogant.” 

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer upholding the Boy Scouts’ right to exclude gay members does not apply to its employees, the lawyer said. 

Messages for the Los Padres Boy Scout Council were not returned Sunday. 

Lanzi, whose territory includes Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, is believed to be the highest-ranking Boy Scout executive to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality since the Supreme Court ruling in June. 

Los Padres Boy Scout board members told the Santa Barbara News-Press their options were limited because of the national council’s policy on gays. 

“We could contradict the national Boy Scout policy, and possibly risk the whole council being decommissioned, or we can go along with firing him,” said Karl Eberhard, a member of the Los Padres Boy Scouts board. 

“I maintain that the whole thing is completely idiotic,” he added.

REDWOOD SHORES — You know the drill: Message. Reply. Delete, delete, forward, reply, delete. 

Not only is the average online user wading through 2,052 e-mails this year, according to Jupiter Communications, many are battling an overload of instant messages, spreadsheets and Web pages – not to mention old-fashioned phone calls and snail mail. 

A Redwood Shores-based company called Zaplet Inc. has produced some software designed to make wired life a little simpler. 

The company’s Zaplets software combines instant messaging and e-mail features with the rich graphical content of Web pages to form what is essentially interactive e-mail. It connects groups of people to information that can be constantly updated even after it’s sent. 

With e-mail used as a delivery tool for content and conversation, one Zaplet can be used to collaborate on work projects, keep up invitation lists, conduct surveys, compile addresses, raise donations – even share gossip. 

“We think of the Zaplet platform as a whole new genre for the Web,” says company chief executive Alan Baratz. “Eighty percent of the tasks on which employees spend their time, there’s no (software) support for this. 

“Zaplets will make it really easy to snap together applications that support easy, efficient communication and collaboration,” Baratz said. 

Zaplet isn’t alone in trying to capture an emerging market for online collaboration. New York-based Gizmoz hopes to allow businesses to provide their customers constant updates of marketing and content, while privately held 2Way Corp. of Seattle focuses more on in-company communications. 

Microsoft’s Netmeeting and Lotus Development’s Sametime software offer interactive communications features – and a new program called Groove by a Lotus Notes author is also a potential contender in the arena. 

Zaplet executives stress, however, that their offering combines service and software for corporations looking for simple packages. 

The company is the creation of David Roberts, a former CIA employee, and Brian Axe, a former operations and marketing executive at Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. 

Axe concocted the idea two years ago during a stint at Reactivity, one of the Silicon Valley’s many high-tech incubators, and enlisted Axe as a co-founder. 

Zaplet was originally envisioned as a tool for consumers to do such things as store and exchange personal databases of anything from family photos to phone numbers. But Baratz recently decided to concentrate on selling the software and accompanying services to big businesses. Consumers can still try out the product for free at Zaplet’s Web site. 

A journalist’s attempt to do just that went smoothly. An invitation to a party with simple graphics went out to six friends, who had the opportunity to RSVP and make comments in a running tally that could be tracked simply by reopening the original e-mail. 

The Zaplet Web site will be changed next year when the company launches new software packages for business use. That might help explain why the start-up has had no shortage of investors. 

The new technology’s promise – and its potential to grab a chunk of the $10 billion online communications business – recently helped Zaplet secure $90 million in financing from major venture capital firms and such industry heavyweights as Cisco Systems Inc., Novell Inc. and Oracle Corp. Early customers include USAToday.com, ZDNET and the Republican National Committee, which used Zaplet to send its redesigned Web site to 25,000 supporters in 50 states, Canada, Mexico and England. 

Zaplet has already invited several Fortune 100 companies to test new prepackaged offerings, such as Zaplets that can do sales forecasting and field tracking of sales employees and software to track the progress of a company job candidate. 

By charging on a registered-user basis, a company with 10,000 to 20,000 employees would pay “a few million dollars” to get Zaplet software to install on its secure corporate servers, Baratz said. 

Zaplet also will host information for companies on its own servers under the same per-user arrangement, with monthly billing, he said. 

MALIBU — Southern California’s brown pelicans are returning to swoop and dive along the coast as the population bounces back from declines caused by El Nino. 

“We were talking about it last week as big flocks of them were going by,” said Lorry Haddock, a Malibu lifeguard.  

“It just seems that, progressively, the numbers keep growing each year a little more.” 

The warm currents created by El Nino kept the pelicans’ food away, but La Nina caused cold water to rise from the depths of the Pacific, bringing prey closer to the surface, biologists said.  

The past two years of such favorable weather in California and nesting areas in Mexico have greatly boosted the birds’ numbers. 

“During the last El Nino, there was almost no nesting in the Gulf of California,” Daniel Anderson, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of California, Davis, told the Los Angeles Daily News.  

“We had a big year down there this summer.” 

The famous pelican population on Anacapa Island off the Ventura coast has also made a comeback, according to a recent count.  

For many, the pelicans there and elsewhere in the area are a symbol of the early environmental movement because they were nearly wiped out 30 years ago by the pesticide DDT before the population crept back in subsequent decades. 

Frank Gress, a research biologist who, with Anderson, helped discover that the shells on Anacapa pelicans’ eggs were fatally thin because of DDT, recently made his 22nd annual census there. 

From Oct. 3 to Oct. 10 Gress counted nests, chick mortality, abandonment and productivity of each nest in the island rookeries.  

He has yet to finalize his results, but said he counted roughly 4,500 nests, about 2,000 more than in 1998. 

During 1992, one of three earlier El Nino years, he counted only 1,500 nests.

LOS ANGELES — As prosecutors rested their case, a judge dismissed two perjury counts against one of the officers charged in the LAPD corruption trial. 

Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor said prosecutors failed to prove that officer Michael Buchanan was on vacation when he claimed to have witnessed an arrest. 

“I believe the evidence is simply insufficient,” she said. 

Buchanan is one of four officers on trial for misconduct and still faces three other counts. 

Connor said defense lawyers presented enough doubt to suggest that personnel records introduced by prosecutors might be wrong. The officer’s lawyer, Harland Braun, said Buchanan came to work late on the day in question after visiting his terminally ill parents in a hospital. 

Connor’s ruling came after defense lawyers asked that all charges against their clients be dismissed. She allowed the remaining seven counts, including three against Buchanan, to be decided by the jury. 

Buchanan, officer Paul Harper and sergeants Brian Liddy and Edward Ortiz are charged with conspiracy, perjury and filing false reports. The charges stem from three cases between March 1996 and April 1998 in which the officers are alleged to have framed innocent people. 

Defense attorneys urged Connor to dismiss all charges, including a conspiracy count against each. 

“There simply was no evidence in this trial of any conspiracy,” attorney Barry Levin said. “There was no agreement. ... Your honor, there hasn’t been one piece of evidence that is reliable and credible that says this case should go to the jury.” 

Deputy district attorneys Anne Ingalls and Laura Laesecke argued there has been ample proof to sustain a guilty verdict on all the allegations. 

“This is a decision that needs to be made by the community, that needs to be made by the jury,” Laeseka said. “There is sufficient evidence to send this case to the jury.” 

The arguments over whether to dismiss the charges took place outside the presence of the jury and after prosecutors rested their case. 

Both prosecutors repeatedly accused the defendants of lying on written reports. They did not discuss the absence of their star witness, former officer Rafael Perez. 

Perez turned informant in exchange for leniency after he stole $1 million worth of cocaine from a police evidence room. His allegations that officers in the Rampart Division antigang unit planted evidence, lied under oath and falsified reports has led to dismissal of charges in about 100 cases. 

Perez wasn’t among the 26 witnesses called during the first two weeks of testimony. His lawyer said he would refuse to testify unless he received immunity from recent murder allegations made by an ex-lover. 

The claim remains under investigation and no murder charges have been filed. 

Defense attorneys have said Perez is a liar and that without his testimony there is no case against their clients. 

OAKLAND — Audie Bock stunned California’s political establishment last year when she won a special legislative election to become the highest-ranking Green Party officeholder in the country. 

Now Bock hopes to spring another surprise on the Capitol, this time by winning re-election as the Legislature’s only independent and doing it in an Assembly district where nearly two of every three voters are Democrats. 

Her Democratic opponent, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan, has lots of campaign money, lawn signs, glossy brochures and the backing of her party’s establishment, including Gov. Gray Davis and Assembly leaders. 

Bock has a tight budget, a simple campaign flier and homemade campaign signs lettered by an elderly friend. But she says she can win. 

“When people look at the record I have achieved in such a short period of time, combined with the fact I am not beholden to special interests and big-party agendas, they will vote for the person who gets the people’s job done,” she said. 

Bock’s victory in a March 1999 special election to fill the vacant 16th District seat marked her first foray into politics. 

Bock, who holds degrees in French and East Asian studies, has worked as an interpreter for Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa and taught at several universities, including Harvard, Yale College and the University of California at Berkeley. 

Bock entered the race at the request of Green leaders, who were looking for someone active in the party to run for the open seat. Bock said she really didn’t see herself as a party activist, although she worked on Ralph Nader’s 1996 presidential campaign and for the Green’s 1998 candidate for governor. 

And she was reluctant to run because she was about to start a new job teaching at Hayward State Univ rsity. 

“They assured me that it wouldn’t take up very much of my time,” Bock said of her first campaign. 

Bock defeated Democrat Elihu Harris by 327 votes. She left teaching to work full-time as an assemblywoman. 

Democrats say Bock’s victory was a fluke, that turnout was low and Harris, a former Oakland mayor and ex-assemblyman, had too much political baggage. 

They are determined to reclaim the seat, even though Bock votes with them most of the time. 

Bock’s campaign has raised about $120,000 since the middle of last year, including more than $33,000 in donations and loans from herself and her family. Chan has taken in about three times as much. 

Chan contends Bock has been ineffective and is a “little bit abrasive and arrogant.” 

“I think she tends to take credit for things she’s involved in marginally,” Chan said. 

Bock denies a claim by a former staffer that she called Chan “a big drip” but she says she may have called her a “wuss.” 

As for effectiveness, Bock points to the state spending she landed for her district and the five bills she got signed into law this year. They include measures to aid crime victims, promote low-income housing and study educational opportunities for veterans. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, said Bock has been a “good member in many respects.” But Chan is “fabulous” and Democrats, who hold 46 of the Assembly’s 80 seats, want a bigger majority, he said. 

Bock was once a Democrat. She left the party in 1993 after congressional Democrats failed to implement national health insurance. 

Looking for a party that cared about the issue, she picked the Greens, a liberal third party that has its roots in the European anti-nuclear movement and also supports strong environmental laws and campaign finance limits, among other causes. 

Her March victory made Bock the first third-party candidate to win a California legislative seat since 1917 and the top U.S. Green. 

Then she stunned Greens by leaving the party last October to become an independent. Bock said she hadn’t changed her views but wanted to avoid the March open primary and the stigma that would come if she trailed Chan in the overall vote. 

Green spokeswoman Nancy Marmol said party members were disappointed by Bock’s decision. 

“She had been kind of our star,” Marmol said. “And then people kind of moved on. From the point of view of the development of the party it didn’t make any difference at all.” 

Greens hold at least 71 local offices across the nation, and have about 240 candidates on ballots Nov. 7, from Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign to local school boards. 

Most Greens were further upset when Bock accepted $1,500 in campaign contributions from oil companies, said Greg Jan, an Alameda County Green and Bock’s former campaign manager. Those included $1,000 from Chevron. 

“You will not find a single vote I made that favored anything Chevron is doing,” Bock replied. 

Jan said Greens helped Bock gather the signatures she needed to make the fall ballot, but now “the vast majority” of their efforts are aimed at winning other offices. 

The Greens haven’t endorsed anyone in the Assembly race, which also features Republican Timothy B. McCormick, a title insurance executive, and Libertarian Richard E. Armstrong, a transit system technician. 

Bock said she doesn’t regret her decision to go it alone. 

“Independents are the fastest-growing sector of the voting public and there is a reason. In many ways a party is an advantage,” she said. “It’s a family and a support system. In many ways it’s baggage.” 

On the Net: 

Find Bock at audiebock.org 

Find Chan and McCormick at www.smartvoter.org 

Find Armstrong at http://members.aol.com/nicedad1/questions.html 

Parents at Berkeley High School are frustrated with the progress the school is making in addressing harsh criticism that African-American and Latino students are not receiving the same education of Asian and Caucasian students.  

Last year, the Western Associatåion of Schools and Colleges – the school’s accrediting agent – threatened to pull its accreditation if the school does not show marked progress by this Spring. That is when a team of inspectors from the association will visit Berkeley High to reevaluate the school. If the school loses its accreditation, a Berkeley High diploma would have little weight when it comes time for students to apply to college. 

In response, some 150 parents gathered at the school Saturday to hash out their differences and prepare a document that proves the school has made progress after the accrediting agent’s 1999 report. Input from parents, students, teachers, administrators and staff will be included in the report, which is due in December. 

“If we really want Berkeley High to get full accreditation, it’s imperative that we all get involved,” said School Board President Joaquin Rivera. 

However, parents at the meeting told stories reflecting the vastly different experiences of their children. White parents discussing student achievement cited some excellent teachers and diverse classes as the school’s strengths.  

“If you can get them!” interjected black parents. 

Parents complained that students who don’t know their options often end up on academic tracks that will not prepare them for college. Even students who know what they want are often misinformed by counselors, parents said. 

“My son is really into computers and he already wants to know what he wants to do as a career,” said one African-American mother. “He wasn’t able to get any of the classes he wanted. He has no classes in the seventh period, so he’s roaming around,” she said. 

“What are strengths for one group are weaknesses for another group,” said Jean Wang, a University of California at Berkeley researcher on a four-year study of diversity at the school. At least at this meeting, “there’s much more recognition of the achievement gap as a problem,” said Wang.  

Last year, the school set up 11

Monday, Oct. 30

Fun with Origami 

10 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

“BYOP: Pumpkin Carving By  

Porch and Hearth,” 

Tilden Regional Park 

4 to 7 p.m. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley.  

(510) 525-2233 

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Sing-A-Long 

11 a.m. 

Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst St. 

644-6107 

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free. 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Kathak Dancing with  

Pandit Chitresh Das 

7:30 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 

2640 College Ave.  

The Graduate Theological Union presents a free lecture-demonstration with Pandit Chitresh Das, a master of India’s Kathak dance form. This event is free. 

Call 649-2440 for information. 

Mountain Adventure Seminar 

In-store, registration required 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. 

Learn about equipment. fundamental climbing techniques and safety procedures. 

$100 REI members,  

$110 for nonmembers. 

To register (209) 753-6556. 

Task Force on  

Telecommunications 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Fire Safety Commission 

7:30 p.m.  

Fire Training Division 

997 Cedar St.  

Discussion will include undergrounding of utilities in Berkeley and a proposal to the City Council for additional support for the Fire Department.  

Citizen’s Budget Review  

Commission 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Board of Education 

7:30 p.m. 

Old City Hall 

Council Chambers, 2nd Floor 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Thursday, Nov. 2

PASTForward Panel  

Discussion at art museum 

2 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

Bancroft Way (below College) 

In conjunction with the White Oak Dance Project’s performances, a panel discussion with Judson era dance choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Free. 

From Morgan to Modern 

7:30 p.m. 

“Saddling the Site: The  

Environmental Designs of Wurster, Church and Others” 

The Hillside Club, 

2286 Cedar St. 

$10. 841-2242. 

Berkeley Metaphysic  

Toastmasters Club 

6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysic come together at Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters.  

Meets first and third Thursdays each month. 

Call 869-2547 or 643-7645 for more information. 

Spirit of the Road 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop  

& Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 

Don Patton, general editor and vice president of publishing for the California State Automobile Association presents a slide show celebrating the first one hundred years of the automobile and the CSA. Free. 

Call 843-3533 for more info.  

BOSS Graduation 

6 - 8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church of Oakland 

27th & Harrison 

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency’s graduation gala for poor, disabled, and homeless folks who have worked hard to achieve jobs, housing, education, training, and other milestones. There will be special guests, music and a buffet. The community is invited. 

Call 649-1930 

Spirit Matters 

4:30 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Rabbi Michael Lerner speaks about his new book. 

Call 849-8244 

Friday, Nov. 3

Taize Worship Service 

7:30-8:30 p.m. 

An hour of quiet reflection and song. First Friday of the month. 

Loper Chapel on Dana Street between Durant and Channing Way. 

Call 848-3696 for information. 

“Want to Transform your Dreams Into Reality?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Lecture by Leonard Orr, world known for creating the Rebirthing and Conscious Breathwork  

Movement. 

The Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 

$25. Call 843-6514. 

Circle Dancing 

7:45 - 10 p.m. 

Finnish Brotherhoos Hall 

1970 Chestnut St. 

Simple folkdancing in a circle. Beginners welcome and no partners are required.  

Call John Bear, 528-4253. 

Marga Gomez 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Comedian Marga Gomez was one of the founding members of Culture Clash and the Latino comedy ensemble. Part of the La Lesbian performance and film series. 

Call 654-6346. 

Women in Black 

Noon - 1 p.m. 

Bancroft at Telegraph 

Women for peace in the Middle East  

Saturday, Nov. 4

Hike breathtaking Barnabe Peak 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Hike through Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s lush forests and climb to the heights of Barnabe Peak, overlooking Point Reyes. One in a series of free fall outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call (415) 255-3233 for  

reservations and more  

information. 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Dublin Library’s resident storyteller and featured teller at the 1998 National Storytelling Festival tell kids aged 3 to 7 her favorite tales.  

Call 649-3943.  

The Next Ivory Trade? The  

Intellectual Property Rights of  

University Faculty 

9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

A conference sponsored by the Berkeley Faculty Association/American Association of University Professors Coalition 

UC Berkeley International House 

841-1997. 

New Science & Ancient  

Wisdom Conference 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

International Center 

2222 Harold Way 

Featured speakers include Father Charlie Moore speaking on “The Cosmic Origins of Man,” Dolores Cannon speaking on “Visions of Nostradamus,” and David Hatcher Childress speaking on “Technology of the Gods.”  

Pre-registration admission, $65; after Oct. 27, $85 

Call Charles Gotsky, 650-343-5202 

Chinese Decorative Art  

collecting discussed 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Oakland Museum  

1000 Oak St.  

Dessa Goddard, director of the Asian Department at Butterfields, and a panel discuss. Followed by a collectors’ tea. Included in admission price to museum.  

Call for reservations, 238-2022. 

“Broadway to La Scala” 

7 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

of Oakland 

2501 Harrison St. (at 27th St.) 

A benefit concert for the Oakland Lyric Opera featuring a selection  

of Broadway musicals and arias  

from operas, including “Madame Butterfly.”  

$25 

Call 836-6772. 

Sunday, Nov. 5

Buddhist Psychology 

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Buddhist teacher Sylvia Gretchen on “Beyond Therapy and Into the Heart of Buddhist Psychology.” Free. 

Call 843-6812.

As someone who came from Southeast Asia, I am no stranger to astrology. And I’m inclined to consult the occult when it comes to picking important leaders – the president of the United States, for instance. Pick one with lousy karma, and the whole country might go to pot. 

Sure, I’ve considered Bush’s tax cut promises and Gore’s pledges on education, and I fret over Bush choosing Supreme Court justices and Gore’s lack of charisma. But when all is said and done, the two don’t seem to differ greatly. Both are political animals controlled by big money, and there’s no telling what they would do under pressure. 

So, if you are as undecided as I am, you might want information about our two candidates that is not available in the mainstream media. 

Al Gore’s sign is Earth and his running mate, Joe Lieberman’s is Water. Gore was born March 31, 1948 at 12:53 PM with his Moon in Capricorn, Sun in Aries and his Mercury in Pisces. 

George W. Bush, in contrast, is the sign of Fire, and his running mate Dick Cheney is Metal. Born July 6, 1946, Bush’s Sun is in Cancer and his Moon is in Libra. 

This means that both Gore and Bush picked atrologically compatible running mates. 

“Water and Earth imply growth and productivity,” observed my mother who knows something about astrology. “It might mean more biotechnology breakthroughs.” The bad side, she said, “is that it could mean plagues and flood and natural disasters if they run the country.” 

Fire and Metal, my mother suggested, imply scientific progress, strong civilization and military strength. The bad side, and this is very bad, is that a strong military could lead to war. 

So, who’s my mom going to vote for? 

“Bush and Cheney.” 

Why? 

“Their faces have good feng-shui, especially Cheney. Auspicious for the country.” My mother may be biased, having voted Republican for the last two decades. 

So I went to Horoscope.com, the Internet’s oracle. 

Gore, it said, can be bold, brash and impatient. “Other aspects of his chart affect this, though, making him appear much different. The influence of Aries brings into play his role as an action guy and a good initiator.” 

Horoscope.com went on, “Gore’s Moon in Capricorn simply reaffirms that he’s a go-getter. Even if it takes a lifetime, he will achieve his goals.” 

Does this mean the vice president will run again if he loses? Help! 

For Bush, Horoscope.com has this to say: “His Mercury in Leo shows him to be an excellent talker. He can keep an audience enraptured by his storytelling abilities. He has the rare gift of making almost everything he says interesting and entertaining.” 

The downside? 

“He may be prone to exaggerate, but this gift will certainly be appreciated by those who must sit through hours of political speeches.” 

And I thought Gore was the exaggerator?! 

“His Mercury also conjuncts Pluto. Couple that with his Sun squaring Jupiter and you have a man who may be following a blind faith and preaching about something that isn’t quite real.” 

Does that mean war? Horoscope.com doesn’t provide an answer. 

Still confused, I cast the I-Ching at Iching.com. For Bush it says: “Do not be too assertive at this time, for if you try to direct things, you are liable to become confused or alienated ... Strive for a pure natural responsiveness based on inner strength rather than outer show.” 

I take it that the I Ching is telling him to keep doing what he’s doing pray for the best. 

For Gore the I-Ching seems hard to interpret: “During a period of abundance, it benefits one to show benevolence....Think of good deeds now as a hedge against times of scarcity in the future. This reading bodes well in the raising of children.... “ 

Is this why he doesn’t want to squander the budget surplus? Or will Gore lose the election and end up raising his kids in the private sector? 

The I-Ching doesn’t have straightforward answers of course, which is a problem with oracles in general. 

OK. After all this research, who am I going to vote for? 

I admit, I still don’t know. I’m a Gemini and am always of two minds. 

But my moon is in Taurus, and I am the sign of Water which makes me a bit unpredictable. 

Maybe Ralph Nader. 

PNS commentator Andrew Lam is a journalist and short story writer

Five is the magic number for the Cal (9-11, 4-9 Pac-10) women’s volleyball team. That’s the number of matches the Golden Bears need to win to guarantee a .500 season and to give the team a shot at NCAA Tournament play. 

But wins have eluded the Bears and its magic number has remained at five since Cal’s last victory over William & Mary College two weeks ago. Following the Bears’ loss to Arizona State (15-8, 7-6 Pac-10) Saturday at the RSF Fieldhouse, 16-14, 15-3 and 15-8, Cal has dropped four straight matches. Moreover, the Bears failed to win a single game in those four losses and have lost 16 of its last 19 games. 

“I think we tend to push the past out of our minds pretty well,” Cal coach Rich Feller said, dispelling any notion of decreasing morale due to the slump. “We look at every match and try to push to win.” 

Against ASU, Cal played without outside hitter Candace McNamee who is still recovering from an ankle injury she suffered earlier in the month. Caity Noonan posted a team-high 42 assists filling in for McNamee. Feller mixed up his lineup even more by playing freshman Jenna Grigsby who had previously seen action in just one game this season. 

“We had to mix it up to try and find some answers,” Feller said. “Grigsby did a spectacular job out there.” 

In fact, Cal seemed to have the first game well in hand, leading 7-3 before the Bears won four straight points on Grigsby’s serve. Leading 12-5, Cal lost 11 of the next 13 points and let the first game slip away. 

“We just weren’t consistent,” said Cal’s Reena Pardiwala, who contributed 12 kills and nine digs. “We need to go hard on every point.” 

The Bears dug themselves a deep hole in game two, falling behind 3-8 before the Sun Devils scored seven straight points. Cal kept pace with ASU during the first half of game three, but after freshman Gabrielle Abernathy’s kill tied the score at eight, the Sun Devils ran off the game’s final seven points. 

“There was a lack of focus and energy,” said Alicia Perry, who led the Bears with 17 kills and 18 digs. “We need to prepare mentally and go in thinking we can win every game.”  

Freshman outside hitter Ashleigh Turner sparked the Bears with seven kills and nine digs while playing on the left side of the court, opposite her normal position.  

“You can’t come into matches, make changes like that and expect the continuity to be there,” Feller said. 

Two of the Pac-10’s most prolific hitters squared off against each other Saturday. Cal’s Perry matched up against ASU’s Amanda Burbridge, who was named both Pac-10 and national player of the week for her combined 77 kills against the Washington teams last week. Burbridge leads the conference in kills and is tied with Perry for the lead in digs. 

Cal starts a three-match road trip this week with contests against Washington State on Nov. 2, Washington on Nov. 3 and Santa Clara on Nov. 7.

Measure Y is among the most debated ballot measures in the city. Its aim is to protect seniors and the disabled from being dislodged when owners move into units which belong to them. Tenant activists say the measure is necessary to protect vulnerable people from being tossed into the streets, while property owners argue that the measure makes these individuals even more vulnerable – landlords will choose to rent to nondisabled students and dot-commers rather than the elderly and disabled. 

Measure Y prohibits landlords from moving in and evicting a person 60 years or older who has lived in a building for five years or more, or a disabled person who has lived in the building five years or more. 

Landlords are also prohibited from moving in and evicting any person who has lived in the building for five years, when the landlord owns multiple units, defined as having 10 percent or greater ownership interest in five or more residential units in Berkeley. 

The landlord (or spouse, parent or child) who evicts a tenant must move into the property within three months of the eviction and stay there 36 months. 

A landlord who owns a comparable vacant unit in Berkeley must use that unit for himselfor his relatives. If the landlord owns a unit that is not comparable and is vacant, the unit must be offered to the

Pac-10 roundup 

UCLA 27, No. 24 Arizona 24 

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — If Cory Paus was hurt, it didn’t show on UCLA’s final snap. 

With coaches trying to determine whether something was wrong with Paus’ shoulder, the sophomore quarterback scrambled 13 yards for a touchdown with 48 seconds left as UCLA rallied for a 27-24 victory over No. 24 Arizona on Saturday night. 

“Cory started off slow, but the last play he was phenomenal,” coach Bob Toledo said. “Early in the fourth quarter, we almost pulled him because we thought he had a separated shoulder. He hung in there and was a difference-maker for us.” 

After falling behind 21-14, the Bruins (5-3, 2-3 Pac-10) held Arizona (5-3, 3-2) to one field goal in the second half to snap their eight-game road losing streak. UCLA last won away from home on Nov. 14, 1998, beating Washington in Seattle. 

Paus, who was 19-of-35 for 230 yards, one score and two interceptions, capped a 66-yard drive in the final 2:47 when he scrambled left, pulled out of three arm tackles and put the ball in the end zone with an extended arm. 

No. 9 Washington 31, Stanford 28 

STANFORD (AP) – With a teammate in the hospital and time running perilously short, Washington scored the last improbable touchdown in a fourth quarter full of them. 

Justin Robbins caught a 22-yard TD pass from Marques Tuiasosopo with 17 seconds left as the ninth-ranked Huskies blew an 18-point lead with six minutes to play and then drove 80 yards in the closing seconds to beat Stanford 31-28 on Saturday. 

A driving rain at Stanford Stadium made scoring difficult until the frenetic final six minutes, when the teams combined for five touchdowns. The small, soaked crowd — equally divided between Washington and Stanford supporters — might have got neck aches from watching the teams drive up and down the field. 

No. 7 Oregon 56, Arizona St. 55, 2OT 

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – In a game as wild as college football gets, Joey Harrington threw for 434 yards and tied a school record with six touchdown passes as No. 7 Oregon staged an amazing fourth-quarter comeback to beat Arizona State 56-55 in overtime Saturday. 

The Ducks (7-1, 5-0 Pac-10) never led in regulation, but Harrington threw a pair of touchdown passes in the final 3:21 of the fourth quarter, the last with 27 seconds to go. 

Allan Amundson, playing in place of injured Maurice Morris, ran 1 yard for the Ducks’ touchdown on their second overtime possession. 

Arizona State (5-3, 2-3) followed with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Krohn to Richard Williams. The Sun Devils set up for a conversion kick that would have tied it again, but it was a fake. 

Krohn, who threw for 432 yards and five touchdowns, rolled right and threw to Todd Heap, but the tight end couldn’t quite catch it. 

No. 18 Oregon St. 38, Washington St. 9 

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) – Ken Simonton ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns as No. 18 Oregon State kept its Rose Bowl hopes alive by overpowering Washington State 38-9 Saturday night. 

The Beavers (No. 17 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 The Associated Press) are tied with Washington for second place behind unbeaten Oregon, but the Huskies hold the tiebreaker over Oregon State (7-1, 4-1 Pacific-10). 

The game featured the two most productive offenses in the Pac-10, but Washington State (3-5, 1-4) gained just 240 yards. Jason Gesser, the leading passer in the conference, was 11-for-29 for 104 yards and two interceptions under heavy pressure.

Michael Barklay is recovering from major back surgery and, leaning on a walker, he took careful steps towards the steaming warm water pool at Berkeley High School.  

Barklay was a paraplegic for 37 days and, though he still relies on a wheelchair, is beginning to walk again. Once he is submerged up to his neck his body is partially released from the painful pull of gravity. 

Barklay spends three evenings a week at the pool and regards the free facility as a God-send. 

“This is the only place I can go to exercise,” he said.  

If voters pass Measure R on Nov. 7, more people like Barklay will be able to use the two indoor water pools which will be modernized with $3.5 million of general obligation bonds. Those bonds would cost homeowners an average of $4 per year. Operation of the two indoor warm water pools (one pool is heated to approximately 85 degrees and the other 92 degrees) will be turned over to the city which will modernize the 70-year-old facility so that pool programs can be expanded and more accessible. Currently there are programs seven days a week for seniors (age 55 and older) and disabled swimmers of all ages. The pool is also used by those who are rehabilitating from injuries or recovering from surgery.

LOS ANGELES – Jemeel Powell turned a couple of keen observations into big plays for California. 

Powell returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, then added an interception as Cal beat Southern California 28-16 on Saturday to hand the reeling Trojans their fifth consecutive loss. 

“They were not in punt coverage, but block coverage and I knew I would have a chance,” Powell said after Cal (3-5, 2-3 Pac-10) downed the Trojans (3-5, 0-5) for the third consecutive time. 

“Powell’s punt return broke our back,” said USC coach Paul Hackett. “We had opportunities to make plays and so did Cal. They did and we didn’t.” 

Powell said the Bears found they gave the Trojans’ receivers too much of a cushion early in the game and decided to pressure them more. He was in perfect position for his interception, when he leaped high above USC’s Kareem Kelly to grab Palmer’s long throw at the Cal 41 with 6:52 remaining. 

“I relied on my skills and, luckily, they threw to him and I had good coverage,” Powell said. 

Bears coach Tom Holmoe said, “Powell had a spectacular return and a key interception.” 

Cal’s defense sacked Palmer seven times and kept the Trojans off-balance most of the game. Andre Carter logged 2 1/2 sacks, had eight solo tackles and an assist, and Scott Fujita had two sacks. 

Kyle Boller threw for a pair of touchdowns as the Bears downed USC for the fourth time in their last five meetings. 

The Trojans, who had never started conference play 0-4 before this year, have lost five straight overall for the first time since 1991, when they had a six-game losing streak and finished 3-8. Head coach Larry Smith was fired a year after that season. 

USC was 3-0 and ranked No. 8 nationally this fall before their losing streak began. 

“It’s been an awful October,” said Hackett, whose record in two-plus seasons at USC fell to 17-16. “You cannot play raggedy special teams and expect to win in our conference; the teams are too good and too even. I’ve got to take the time to focus more on special teams.” 

Cal’s defense shut out USC in the second half, allowing the Trojans across midfield just once after they led 16-14 at halftime. 

After the Bears rallied to take the lead late in the third quarter, Powell gave them a 12-point pad with his spectacular punt return 2:55 into the fourth. 

He started to his right then sliced up the center of the field, as two Trojans desperately dived but only got their fingertips on him. 

Any real chance the Trojans had of catching up afterward evaporated when Palmer threw the two interceptions. USC also squandered another chance when it was called for an illegal substitution on a Cal punt with about five minutes remaining, giving the Bears a first down instead of a fourth-and-1 at midfield. 

Boller was 7-of-12 for 131 yards, with no interceptions. Joe Igber carried 28 times for 80 yards in the victory. 

The Trojans’ Sultan McCullough rushed for 122 yards on 15 carries, including a 32-yard touchdown. Palmer completed 19 of 39 passes for 202 yards and one touchdown. 

Cal’s Nick Harris set an NCAA career record for punting yardage, with his seven punts for 272 yards giving him 13,157 yards. Cameron Young of TCU had 12,947 from 1976-79. 

Boller threw a 12-yard scoring pass to Derek Swafford late in the third quarter and connected with Geoff McArthur for a 2-point conversion and a 22-16 lead. 

The Trojans had scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 2:11 of the first half to move ahead 16-14. They took the lead on John Wall’s 25-yard field goal 32 seconds before halftime, shortly after McCullough’s scoring run. 

Carter set up the Bears’ second touchdown, jarring the ball out of Palmer’s grasp on a sack at the USC 11 early in the second quarter. Daniel Nwangwu picked up the loose ball and ran to the 7 before he was tackled, then Joe Echema scored shortly afterward on a 1-yard run. 

Both teams scored on their first possession of the game. Boller threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Pipersburg, and Palmer responded with a 19-yarder to Chad Pierson.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – President Clinton sang along with the gospel choirs at two black Baptist churches Sunday and implored congregants to ponder what he called the stark choices of the presidential campaign and to “make sure nobody takes a pass on Nov. 7.” 

“When I hear people say this is not really a very significant election it makes me want to go head first into an empty swimming pool,” Clinton said at Alfred Street Baptist Church just outside Washington. “We really do have a big, clear, unambiguous stark choice here. We don’t have to get mad, but we need to be smart.” 

Leaving the White house shortly after dawn on a clear, crisp late-October day, Clinton issued a strong appeal for a large turnout of black voters for Vice President Al Gore in the contest with Texas Gov. George W. Bush. 

“There are differences in education policy, in health care policy, in environmental policy, in crime policy and on foreign policy, just a ton of things,” Clinton told the early morning service at Shiloh Baptist Church in the nation’s capital. “You need to show on Election Day.” 

“We still have bridges to cross,” he told worshippers. “The question is, are we going to be walking in the right direction. Are we all going to walk across, or just a few of us? 

The president’s church appearances represented his most direct and public appeal to energize black voters to go to the polls in record numbers for Gore, despite the vice president’s reluctance to campaign with Clinton and reservations about having him out on the campaign trail at all. 

Clinton met in the East Room on Friday with 150 black leaders in an attempt to spread the word that black voters — a core Democratic constituency — are vital to Gore’s chances. 

On Saturday, Clinton recorded more than 70 telephone messages to tell blacks that their votes are needed. On Monday, he participates in a 45-minute live national radio conversation with television talk-show host Queen Latifah and entertainers Sinbad and Will Smith in another attempt to address concerns that this year’s black vote will be lower than in recent elections. 

Clinton is to continue that effort in meetings with black ministers at the White House on Monday and at get-out-the vote rallies later in the week in Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif. 

There was evidence that Clinton’s message was getting across. 

At Shiloh Baptist Church, the Rev. Wallace Charles Smith told congregants in a letter that people who think there isn’t much difference between Gore and Bush are “dead wrong.” 

“Probing beneath the surface we see that their policies would take the nation in very different directions,” Smith said, citing the candidates’ positions on civil rights, education, judicial choices, and Social Security, where he said Bush’s call for partial privatization is “a considerable gamble,” 

“There are huge differences, which when it comes to policy implementation that will set the nation’s course for a long time to come,” he said. 

Clinton sat near the ministers at both services and sang along with the choirs, clapping and smiling, and needing no prompting on the verses. 

In his sermon, Smith prayed for the Clintons, whom he said have “been under a fierce onslaught of hostile forces for eight long years.” He urged God to “touch the electoral process ... and anoint the polling places” and ended by saying of Clinton, “if he could only run again.” 

Gore, who began the fall campaign by declaring himself “my own man,” has not asked for Clinton’s direct help in the campaign. Clinton did not mention Gore by name but made no secret of his preference. 

“Don’t pretend there’s no difference and it won’t have any impact on you,” Clinton said. “It’ll have a huge impact, which decision we make.”

Panthers headed for showdown with Piedmont 

The St. Mary’s High Panthers traveled to Vallejo Friday and defeated the St. Patrick/St. Vincent Bruins 48-28 in an offense-dominated game that saw the teams combine for 10 touchdowns and two field goals. 

The Panthers improved to 3-0 in the Bay Shore Athletic League with the win and face John Swett High on the road this week before returning to Berkeley to play Piedmont High in a game that could decide the league championship. 

Following St. Mary’s opening kickoff, it took only 45 seconds for St. Patrick/St. Vincent to put points on the board. On 3rd-and-10, Bruins’ running back Pat O’Donnell broke through the Panthers’ defense and raced 80 yards to the end zone for the first of his two touchdowns. Evan Kestloot added the extra point to give the home team a 7-0 lead. 

On its next series St. Patrick/St. Vincent turned the ball over on downs and St. Mary’s took over. Junior running back Phil Weatheroy found a seam and scampered 79 yards untouched for the Panthers’ first score of the game. Pat Barry, who is transitioning from the soccer field to the gridiron, added the point after on his way to an 8-for-8 kicking performance.  

But the game was tied for just 41 seconds when Bruins’ quarterback Alex Vasquez ran for 46 yards before running back Justin Eweres ran another 24 yards untouched for the first of his two touchdowns and the second St. Patrick/St. Vincent score of the game.  

Still in the first quarter, the Panthers countered. A mere 48 seconds later, St. Mary’s Trestin George rolled to the right and ran 49 yards down the sideline to even the score 14-14 with 1:32 left in the opening period. 

“We had a shaky start, but everything came together for us,” said George, who scored three touchdowns. “We’re a good team, we play as one unit and by the second half we stepped it up.” 

St. Mary’s didn’t trail for the rest of the game. A pair of field goals by Barry before the end of the half gave the Panthers a 27-14 lead heading into the locker room. 

Known for its explosive running game, St. Mary’s didn’t attempt a pass until the 3:03 mark of the second quarter. Panthers’ quarterback Jason Washington went 2-for-6 on the night, but both completions resulted in touchdowns. With 2:12 left in the third quarter, George caught a screen pass and ran 26 yards for the score. Wide receiver Courtney Brown caught the second TD pass with 10:17 left in the game. 

“That wasn’t by design,” said Panthers’ coach Dan Shaughnessy, referring to the team’s few pass attempts. “Our best receiver (Omar Young) went down, so we had to scrap our double tight, double flanker set. We went back to our old horse and buggy offense.” 

After the win, George admitted he’s looking forward to the season finale against Piedmont, and may even be looking past John Swett. 

“We’re going to go out there and crush them (John Swett), hopefully make them quit in the first half,” he said. “We’ll stomp them into the ground and get ready for Piedmont.” 

Shaughnessy knows his team’s offense is potent, but he also recognized that St. Mary’s defense has to improve its consistency for the final two games of the year. 

“We’ve put up a lot of points on the year, but it isn’t a patient offense,” he said. “We’ve got to get more consistent on defense to hold these teams.”

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Back when wetlands were less respectfully known as swamps, marshes and bogs, Bolsa Chica was tied to the ocean’s undulations. 

For millennia, its high tides and low tides nurtured creatures that wriggled in the mud and the cordgrass, and thus made a fine dinner spot for hundreds of bird species in Southern California. 

The Bolsa Chica wetlands lost its direct connection to the Pacific more than a century ago when its inlet was blocked off for the sake of a duck club. The discovery of oil decades later means walking-beam oil pumps slowly churn where marine life once teemed. 

Now, in what may be the biggest and best chance to recover a chunk of the more than 90 percent of California coastal wetlands lost to human use, more than 1,200 acres of the Orange County saltwater wetlands will be restored to something resembling its former self. 

But how close the resemblance will be is dividing former allies. 

Environmentalists who had fought to save Bolsa Chica from development now question the idea of sacrificing beach land to create a new ocean inlet, the main measure in a $63 million proposal put forward in an environmental report released this summer. 

The document is the product of a Bolsa Chica steering committee that includes eight state and federal agencies. They collaborated three years ago to buy 880 acres of the wetlands from a developer who once planned a marina there. 

“We have fought tooth and nail right alongside some of these same people, but (building an inlet) is just an unwise thing to do,” said Don Slaven, a member of the executive board of the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. 

The preferred plan, which would be mostly funded by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, would eliminate part of Bolsa Chica State Beach — across Pacific Coast Highway from the wetlands — to create a 360-foot-wide inlet. It temporarily would close areas of the beach 800 feet north and south of the inlet for construction. 

Estimates in the agencies’ environmental impact report show that without an inlet, the project would be about $40 million cheaper. 

“From an ecological value standpoint, there may be more bang for the buck by not doing such an aggressive restoration,” said Evan Henry, president of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which has fought efforts to build in the Bolsa Chica lowlands. 

Defenders of the project say dropping the inlet would give the wetlands only a shadow of its potential biological diversity. A 300-acre portion of Bolsa Chica that was restored two decades ago represents only the beginning, they say. 

The existing wetlands relies on ocean water delivered through a channel running from Huntington Harbor a few miles north. 

The system mutes the tidal system, making the difference between high tide and low tide about 18 inches, said Jack Fancher, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife official and one of the project’s managers. In a full tidal system, the difference would be as much as 10 feet. 

An inlet, which would have to be dredged about every other year, would help create a variety of wetlands habitats. Under such conditions, Fancher said, “the ecosystem blossoms” with great blue herons, great egrets, California halibut, sea bass, anchovies, smelt and hundreds of other species. 

“If you’d like to see 60 (fish) species instead of 10 or 12 species, you need an ocean inlet,” Fancher said. 

Restoration without an inlet “may still have some benefits, but it won’t have all these others,” Fancher said. “If your restoration potential is a 10, it gives you a 2.” 

Amigos de Bolsa Chica, a group that has fought to preserve the wetlands since development plans emerged in the mid-1970s, supports creating an inlet but contends it will need to be smaller for the project to gain the approval it needs from 16 different federal, state and local entities. 

“That big a cut isn’t going to see the light of day,” said Amigos President Linda Sapiro Moon. “I’d rather see a compromise in wetlands restoration and retain the beach rather than have no project.” 

Slaven, of Surfrider, said the Bolsa Chica plan would not only erase beach land, but would release urban runoff along one of the area’s cleanest beaches and might aggravate erosion problems. 

“Flushing reintroduced water could turn this into a toxic brew that no one knows anything about,” Slaven said. “We can’t save a wetlands by turning around and destroying a public beach. 

“We’ve worked hard to save the wetlands. We probably should take a rest here and take a look at things,” he said. 

Testing at the wetlands turned up no urban runoff problems, said Dwight Sanders, Bolsa Chica’s state-level project manager and chief of the State Lands Commission’s division of environmental planning and management.  

He said the project cannot proceed until the oil contamination is cleaned up. 

Some of the oil wells are expected to continue pumping for 15 to 20 years, so part of the restoration will be delayed. 

When the least terns make their annual flight from South America to build nests in the sand, “The island is just alive with white,” she said. 

But the oil machinery in the landscape testifies to a job unfinished. 

“After achieving all we’ve achieved,” Dettloff said, “to not do a good restoration job would be criminal.”

LOS ANGELES - After trailing only 1-0 at the half, the No. 5 California women’s soccer team lost to No. 3 UCLA, 4-1, Sunday at rainy Drake Stadium. The Golden Bears are now 15-2-1 and 5-2 heading into the final two games of the regular season this week. The Bruins improved to 14-2-1 and 5-1-1 in league play.  

“We made some mistakes,” said Cal coach Kevin Boyd. “We self-destructed a little bit. It was raining the entire game. Wet conditions are definitely going to play to the favor of a team that is a little faster. They’re a little faster than we are, certainly up top against our backs. They do a really good job transitioning numbers forward and attacking with five and six players. They played very well and got in behind us and put the ball away.” 

With Cal’s loss and second-ranked Washington’s 6-1 victory over Oregon today, the Huskies clinched their first Pac-10 title in school history.  

Lindsay Greco gave UCLA a 1-0 lead at the half by converting on a one-on-one opportunity with Cal goalkeeper Maite Zabala in the 22nd minute.  

Stephanie Rigamat pushed the Bruins lead to 3-0 with goals in the 59th and 68th minute.  

At 73:25, sophomore forward Laura Schott helped Cal avert its first shutout loss of the season when she scored off a feed from senior midfielder Natalie Stuhlmueller from 10-yards out. The goal was Schott’s Pac-10 best 22nd and pushed her league-best point total to 45.  

With the Bears pressing forward, UCLA’s Lauren Emblem added an unassisted insurance goal at 74:09. UCLA’s four goals are the most Cal has given up in a game this season. The Bears had only once permitted more than one goal in a game - in a 2-1 loss to Washington.

Viva Mexico shut down after woman is poisoned 

REDWOOD CITY – Health officials suspect that shigella bacteria-tinged salsa may be to blame for a woman’s death and more than 100 illnesses after patrons of a Mexican food restaurant fell ill. 

San Mateo County shut down Viva Mexico, a popular Mexican food restaurant, earlier this week after Constance Williams-Pennel, 53, died Monday. She had eaten lunch at the restaurant three days earlier and preliminary laboratory reports indicate she died of shigella poisoning, or shigellosis. 

Dozens of other diners were also sickened after eating at Viva Mexico and several had to be hospitalized, county officials said. The Environmental Health Services Division of the San Mateo County Health Services Agency shut the restaurant down less than a half hour into an inspection of the facilities following William-Pennel’s death. 

Investigators discovered buckets of stagnant water used to thaw shrimp, meat and vegetables stored at unsafe temperatures and dirty cutting boards. 

A man who answered the phone at Viva Mexico Saturday said the owners were present but had been advised by their attorney not to comment on the restaurant probe. 

Previous inspections of Viva Mexico resulted in “above average” marks from the county, but the latest shigella outbreak could be the worst ever in California, health officials said. 

Investigators have focused their attention on kitchen workers who failed to wash their hands, tainted cilantro used in the salsa, and un-refrigerated foods as prime sources for the outbreak. 

“If someone had contaminated food with shigella, it was in prime territory to grow,” said Dean Peterson, director of the county’s environmental health services. 

Stanford employee Gene Yep dined at Viva Mexico with his two sons and a daughter the same night as Williams-Pennel. Forty-eight hours later they were all ill. 

“I thought it tasted a little funny,” said Yep’s daughter April. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people infected with the bacteria develop bloody diarrhea, high fever and stomach cramps beginning a day or two after they are exposed. The disease usually subsides in about a week. 

About 18,000 cases of shigellosis are reported in the United States each year. This is the first documented shigella outbreak at a food establishment in San Mateo County.

San Francisco’s Petopia.com fires more than 60 percent of staff 

SAN FRANCISCO – These are dog days for Petopia.com, an online pet supplies retailer. Even the animals are getting fired. 

The Web site fired more than 60 percent of its staff Thursday and those 120 workers are expected to clear out their cubicles for good Monday morning. 

Petopia was on the verge of a major acquisition Wednesday, but the deal fell through, according to company spokeswoman Donnelle Koselka. 

The company even fired the live-in pets that used to roam the halls of the brightly colored headquarters in the South of Market Street area in San Francisco. 

An oversized fire-hydrant for dogs and chew toys will now go unused, as well as cages for Louie the lizard, a Chinese water dragon, Albert the guinea pig and assorted chinchillas, hamsters and fish. 

Petopia was founded last year and is partially owned by San Diego-based Petco, the country’s second largest pet store chain. 

Pet stores online haven’t had the greatest track record. In June, Emeryville-based Petstore.com laid off all its workers, folded up shop and teamed up with Pets.com.

Bush at home, Democrats do TV talk shows, churches 

MACOMB, Mich. – While the Republican side mostly rested on Sunday, Democrats Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman blanketed TV talk shows, mined Detroit’s black churches and motored through Michigan with a blunt homestretch message: “George Bush is not ready to be president of the United States.” 

Tipper Gore appealed to those who don’t see her husband’s personal appeal, telling Macomb County’s swing voters the presidential election is not “The Dating Game.” 

“You don’t have to fall in love with Al Gore — I already did that,” she said before boarding a bus caravan with the vice president, running mate Lieberman and his wife Hadassah. 

At home in Austin, Texas GOP Gov. George W. Bush interrupted his day off to address California Latino supporters by satellite. He predicted he’ll beat Gore there because he is working to earn every vote while Gore, who will make a late dash to California on Tuesday, has taken its 54 electoral-vote grand prize for granted. 

President Clinton, banished to the wings, preached at two Washington-area black churches, trying to excite likely Gore voters to turn out on Election Day. 

The latest polls give Bush a narrow but notable edge in a race that has seesawed since the summer conventions. State polls dramatize the historic closeness of the contest: Gore appears ahead in Florida, Bush up in Ohio and other battlegrounds still tight tossups. 

With nine days left in the campaign, the rhetoric got even sharper, with Lieberman flatly asserting that Bush is not ready to be president. 

“Maybe someday, but not now. Now George Bush is not ready to be president of the United States, the kind of president you need and deserve,” Lieberman told a rally on the lawn of Macomb County Community College, repeating lines he used on three network morning shows. 

Mrs. Gore, who normally keeps her introductions short and sweet, also piled on, saying voters want experience and “somebody who understands foreign policy.” 

Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate who is pulling support from Gore among liberals in key states such as Michigan, where Gore has a slight edge, dismissed him as ineffectual. 

“If Gore cannot beat the bumbling Texas governor, with that horrific record, what good is he? What good is he? Good heavens, this should be a slam dunk,” Nader said on ABC’s “This Week.” 

Gore previously had left it to lower-profile surrogates to question whether Bush’s 5 1/2 years as governor with limited state constitutional powers qualify him to be president. 

Aides did not rule out that Gore himself would take up the charge, if he makes no headway in the next several days. Late Saturday night, Gore signaled the shift in focus in commenting on his endorsement by The New York Times, which said Bush’s knowledge and resume were lacking. 

“My already high estimation of the New York Times has risen even further,” Gore told reporters aboard Air Force Two. 

He is “now throwing every negative kitchen sink at the governor he can find,” complained Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, who said Bush’s final-week theme will be “bringing America together.” 

Underscoring his confidence, Bush will campaign in New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington state, Minnesota and Iowa — all states that Democrats traditionally win in presidential elections. 

His parents, former President Bush and first lady Barbara, will be out on the trail, too, along with former Sen. Bob Dole, the 1996 GOP nominee, and wife Elizabeth Dole. 

At home in Austin, Texas, Bush went to church hand-in-hand with wife Laura, took a back pew and a hymnal. Outside Tarrytown United Methodist Church, he told reporters there was nothing like being around friends “you can count on” and “a little spirituality to prepare my mind for the final week. 

“Keeps life in perspective — properly in perspective, I might add,” Bush said. 

From campaign headquarters, Bush addressed more than 200 Latino Republicans meeting in Anaheim Hills., Calif., by satellite TV. 

“While my opponent has been busy counting the votes of California, we’ve been working hard to win them,” said Bush, who will campaign Monday and Tuesday in the biggest state, where a GOP upset would cripple Gore. 

“It’s becoming pretty clear that the vice president is taking California for granted,” he said, noting that Gore has now changed his plans to go there on Tuesday. “I hear he’s going to rush in at the last minute,” Bush said. 

Gore told Detroit church worshippers: “The next nine days will determine if we have grown weary in doing good. ... We have left Egypt but we have not yet arrived in Canaan.” 

In Washington, Clinton told churchgoers “there are differences in education policy, in health care policy, in environmental policy, in crime policy, and our foreign policy, arms control, how we relate to Africa and the rest of the world, just a ton of things here.” 

“Now, you need to know and you need to show on Election Day!” 

Gore also met privately Sunday morning with Michigan’s influential Arab-American leaders, some of whom have endorsed Bush and have been alarmed by Gore’s recent pro-Israel statements. Gore assured them of his “even-handed” approach to the Middle East, participants said. 

In what Lieberman jokingly calls “double dating,” the Democratic candidates, their wives and rocker Jon Bon Jovi rolled 260 miles through Michigan, where the latest poll gives Gore a hair-thin edge. 

Bon Jovi said he wrote his song “Living on a Prayer” during the Reagan-Bush era of “trickle-down economics” and didn’t want to go back. 

One spectator in their last-stop Muskegon crowd held a poster goading Gore, “Let’s see that kiss.” He shouted out, “I feel hot!”

Pot advocates blowing smoke over measure 

BOONVILLE — Mendocino County voters are abuzz over recreational marijuana use. 

That’s not necessarily because they’re smoking the stuff, but because Measure G, if approved, would attempt to legalize recreational marijuana use in the county. 

Local Boonville bakery owner Bruce Hering even wrote a poem about pot that was printed in the local newspaper. He was one of the first to sign his name on the petition that put Measure G on the ballot. 

No matter to supporters of legal pot use that state and federal laws would supersede the Measure G even if it was approved. The federal government doesn’t even recognize the legitimate use of medical marijuana. 

Proponents of the measure hope a victory will send a clear message to state and federal legislators that the move toward legalizing marijuana is the right one. 

Who is the force behind the move to legalize green buds? The Green Party. 

Mail box explosion hurls heavy metal  

EUREKA — Local and federal agencies continue investigating a mailbox explosion that showered several Eureka neighborhood yards with shards of metal. 

The explosion occurred on Saturday at about 2 p.m. was apparently caused by a chemical reaction inside a two-liter soda bottle, investigators say. 

Metal fragments were thrown more than 100 feet from the explosion. 

No injuries were reported, but Eureka Fire Chief John McFarland reminded those responsible that destroying a mailbox is a federal offense. 

Lamas dance, sing for locals 

CRESCENT CITY — Ten Buddhist lamas from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in southern India came to town Saturday for a music and dance performance. 

Performers were to showcase their talents by playing ten-foot-log trumpets, cymbals and gyaling horns for the audience at the Crescent Elk Auditorium. 

The Tibetans are the only their culture has been able to cultivate known as “overtone singing” wherein each chant master sings three notes simultaneously to create a complete voice chord. 

The performance was part of a tour sponsored by Richard Gere and Drepung Loseling Institute, the North American seat of the Drepung Loseling Monastery.

SAN FRANCISCO – The man charged with drunken driving after downing up to a dozen cups of kava tea was effectively acquitted after his case ended in a mistrial Friday. 

A jury at the San Mateo County Superior Court found itself hung 10-2 in favor of acquitting Taufui Piutau, who California Highway Patrol officers arrested for DUI on Aug. 7, 1999. 

The case is thought to be he first of its kind in California. 

Piutau, a native of the South Pacific island nation Tonga, was allegedly weaving before CHP officers puled him over. He also failed a roadside sobriety test after being stopped. 

Prosecutors said the kava he drank before the arrest impaired his ability to drive. Kava tea, used ceremoniously in the Pacific islands, is made by immersing in water powder made from the rhizome of a pepper plant called kava-kava or Piper Methysticum. 

The Physicians’ Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines calls kava-kava a drug with anti-anxiety effects used to treat patients who are nervous, stressed or restless. 

The mistrial forces District Attorney Jim Fox to decide whether he will refile the charges, something he told the San Francisco Chronicle is unlikely. 

“With a split like that in a misdemeanor case, I can’t remember the last time a case was retried,” he said. 

Defense attorney Scott B. Ennis suggested to the jury that the “impairment” investigators saw could be explained as a combination of gout and cultural misunderstanding.

LOS ANGELES – An ocean pollution trial a decade in the making has ended with Montrose Chemical Corp. and two other companies agreeing to pay an undisclosed amount to compensate Californians for damages linked to a giant DDT deposit in the ocean off Los Angeles. 

The deal came Friday after nearly a week of testimony in what was one of the nation’s largest and longest-standing environmental cases. The government was seeking roughly $150 million for damages to natural resources. 

U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real ordered that the agreement between the government and industry remain confidential until a consent decree outlining the terms is filed by Dec. 15, and attorneys for both sides declined to discuss the terms of the agreement. 

But the deal came after several government witnesses testified about the effects of half a century of contamination, and after Montrose suffered a major defeat when Real ruled that the company’s leading scientific consultant did not qualify as an expert on key issues. 

The issue of whether Montrose or the federal Superfund must pay for cleaning up the pesticide contaminating about 17 square miles of ocean floor off Palos Verdes Peninsula remains before a federal appeals court. 

The non-jury trial stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 1990 over pollution which took place from 1947 to 1971. 

Defense lawyers acknowledged the dumping of DDT into the ocean, but argued those actions were legal and did not significantly harm marine life, fishing or public health. 

But the government presented detailed testimony from several biologists and geologists who described the extent of the DDT on the ocean floor and the reproductive damage to eagles and falcons. 

After hearing that testimony Real called a weeklong recess, during which time the two sides completed the settlement. 

The 100 tons of DDT at the center of the case is the largest known deposit in the world, and the area is on the federal Superfund list of the nation’s most hazardous chemical sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is experimenting with a dredging operation in which tons of silt from Long Beach Harbor are being poured into the ocean to cover the deposit. 

DDT, which was widely used in the United States until it was banned about 30 years ago, is linked to cancer and reproductive problems in humans and continues to contaminate fish and kill bald eagle chicks. Montrose, now defunct except for the lawsuit, was the world’s largest manufacturer of the compound. 

Except for claims in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the government was seeking more money from Montrose and its co-defendants than in any other case involving damages to natural resources. At times during the 10 years, Montrose appeared close to victory. In 1995, the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk, but it was later reinstated by an appeals court. 

In addition to Montrose, the settlement involves Aventis CropScience USA Inc., formerly Rhone-Poulenc, and Atkemix Thirty-Seven Inc. Another defendant, Chris-Craft Industries, which is a 50 percent shareholder in Montrose, has not settled. Real has yet to rule whether the company is liable. 

Three federal and three state environmental agencies, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will decide how to use whatever money comes from Friday’s settlement after a public review process.

Everyone at the Piedmont Lodge near the UC-Berkeley campus seems to have horror stories to tell about the conditions there. 

Roger Pao showed the red spots on his arm that he said were caused by bed bug bites. Joseph Enayati told how it was sometimes difficult to open the front door because of trash piled up in the foyer. Jordan Epperson said when he complained about his poorly functioning toilet he was told to throw used toilet paper in the garbage can. 

Five residents of the Piedmont, 2434 Piedmont Ave., took their complaints Wednesday to a campus meeting of a City Council-Rent Board Joint Task Force on Housing. 

City Councilmember Dona Spring listened to the complaints in disgust. “It sounds like a slumlord,” she said. “It’s really appalling that people should live like this.” 

The next day, city housing code enforcement inspectors were at the Piedmont. The city investigation is in its early stages, because as of Friday afternoon, inspectors had not been able to enter most of the residents’ rooms. But the inspection so far has found that some smoke detectors either had dead batteries or no batteries at all, and that the heat had been illegally shut off, said Carlos Romo, the city’s supervising housing inspector.  

Other city departments are also scheduled to inspect the rooming house. The fire department will inspect the building to respond to allegations of loose cables, blocked entrances and a faulty fire escape, Romo said. Planning department inspectors will determine whether rooms were illegally subdivided, he said. Housing inspectors counted five more rooms in the building than city records indicate existed only a year ago, he said; the subdividing was “possibly” carried out without permits, Romo said. 

More than 30 people live at the Piedmont, said building owner Barbara Lee (not to be confused with another individual of the same name who is a Bay Area congresswoman.) The rooms are small, there is only one kitchen, and most tenants share bathrooms, but rents – usually $880 for a room with two beds – are lower than at apartment buildings. 

Some Piedmont residents – most of whom are UC-Berkeley undergraduates – said they knew beforehand of the substandard conditions at the lodging house, but said that the Piedmont was their only housing possibility in the extremely tight Berkeley housing market. 

“Everyone is desperate in Berkeley for housing,” said Irshad Alam, a graduate student in Middle Eastern studies who has lived at the Piedmont for more than a year. “I want to move out but I can’t find another place to live.” 

“The battle in Berkeley is not just finding quality housing: it’s finding any place at all where you can sign a lease,” said Nick Papas, external affairs vice president for the student government. “Once they find that place, students are often willing to overlook deficiencies.” 

“They feel if they complain, they’ll get kicked out,” said City Councilmember Linda Maio. “We have a certain number of unscrupulous landlords who are willing to take advantage of that. There’s a lot of money to be made.”  

But tenants at the Piedmont finally realized things would not improve unless they publicly complained, said Gurpreet Sandhu, a first-year extension student. Residents posted leaflets advertising Wednesday’s meeting on their doors; one leaflet had “Stop Barbara” written in red marker. 

Sandhu showed a photograph of an arm covered in red marks. The marks are from the bed bugs or mites that bit her, she said. 

“I started my first week in school with hideous welts on my face” as a result of bug bites said Sandhu’s roommate, Guelda Voien, a first-year extension student. 

“My daughter called me one day crying, saying she had gotten bitten all over her body,” said Catherine Ro, mother of Jennifer Ro, a first-year student who lived for a month in the Piedmont before breaking her lease because of the conditions there. Lee suspected the bugs were living in the wooden bed frames and eventually replaced them with metal frames, apparently solving the problem for most students. But 

Roger Pao, a freshman extension student, said he still has a wooden frame and got bitten for the first time earlier this week.  

An unannounced visit by the Berkeley Daily Planet after Wednesday’s meeting confirmed many of the residents’ complaints. 

A television cable lay loose across the second-floor hallway at the foot of a stairway and on the path to the bathroom; residents said they have tripped over the cable. A water hose draped the top stairs of the fire escape on the third floor. The bottom vertical ladder of the fire escape itself protruded several inches above the railing and appeared difficult to climb on to. Sandhu said she took it for granted that she would not be able to climb to safety if there were a fire. 

Plastic bottles and other objects propped up windows that do not stay open by themselves. The three washing machines – one of which was broken – had rust stains. 

Residents said the basement laundry room regularly flooded. The back stairway to the building was dark because no light bulb was installed. 

Until about two weeks ago, a desk in the building foyer was practically surrounded by trash, said Joseph Enayati, a second-year student in molecular cell biology. “There was so much, it was hard to even open the ( outside) door,” he said. “Nobody knows how it gets there. The worst thing is it smells like sewage.”  

Residents said their rooms were dirty when they moved in. “It was filthy,” said Jeanne Phung, a first-year student in history and ethnic studies. “There were used sheets on my bed, (used) socks in the drawer and flies in the kitchen.” Several residents complained of toilets that clog regularly and do not flush easily. 

Lee said residents share some of the blame. Trash does sometimes pile up in the foyer, but that is because the residents put it there, she said. 

Lee acknowledged that the laundry room floods. “I don’t know how that can be done (repaired),” she said. Lee also acknowledged that the back stairway was too dark. “Maybe I should have put a bulb in there, huh?” she said. 

The toilets regularly clog because tenants “put too much paper in there,” she said. “If they have too much paper, they can just throw it (the used toilet paper) in the garbage can,” Lee said. 

Lee denied the fire escape is unsafe – “I don’t think anybody would have a problem” climbing on to the ladder, she said – but she acknowledged that the hose “shouldn’t be on” the steps. “Yeah, I’ll have to get that organized,” she said. 

Lee said she attempts to keep the Piedmont as clean as possible, but admitted that perhaps the rooms “collected dust over the months” before new tenants arrived in August. 

Residents repeatedly complained about power outages that ranged from a few minutes to a few hours. But Lee said that is tenants’ fault for “overloading the electricity” by using too many appliances at the same time. 

Jennifer Ro, the student who broke her lease and moved out after a month at the Piedmont, said she is happy to have found a place in the university residence halls. But she and her mother are still trying to recover the three months of rent they paid Lee. Catherine Ro said she paid Lee $1,720 – for rent plus a security deposit – and that Lee had verbally agreed to return all the money. But Lee sent a check for only $300, she said.  

Lee, who denied she promised to return the $1,720, said the $300 covered most of the security deposit – $100 was deducted as “application” and “processing” fees, and to cover long-distance calls to Ro’s Torrance home – but said she will not return the rest, because Ro had broken her lease. 

A building owner does have the right to collect rent for the entire term of a lease if a tenant breaks a lease and the owner “makes an effort” to find another renter, said Tom Brougham, senior management analyst with Berkeley’s rent stabilization board. But, he added, “the landlord has a responsibility to deliver to tenants a safe, habitable and peaceful enjoyment of the property.” 

If a tenant breaks a lease to escape poor living conditions, the owner must return the rent payments, he said.

Saturday, Oct. 28

Shakespeare Festival’s annual costume and garage sale  

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, props, and set pieces from previous productions. Free. 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-3422 ext. 120. 

Buddhist Peace Fellowship 

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 

A Day of Mindfulness with Claude Anshin Thomas 

A day of meditation, dialogue, teachings and reflection on transforming violence in ourselves an in the world. 

We the People Auditorium, 200 Harrison St. 

Donations excepted 

496-6072 

Community Workshop to  

discuss the strengths and  

weaknesses of Berkeley High  

School  

9 a.m. – noon 

Florence Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School 

Students, parents, teachers, business owners, neighbors, and others are invited to a discussion on that will help set the course for future school improvements and provide the basis for accreditation review. 

Iris Starr, AICP, 540-1252 

tinstarr@earthlink.net 

“Grassroots Globalization vs.  

Elite Globalization” 

2 p.m. 

Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library 

6501 Telegraph Ave. 

595-7417 

“Halloween Mask Making” 

Tilden Regional Park 

2 p.m. 

Come learn the origins of Halloween and make a plaster-gauze mask. Registration required. $4. Take Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard, Berkeley. (510) 525-2233. 

Pedaling the Green City 

11 a.m. -3:30 p.m.  

Take a leisurely bike ride along the future San Francisco Bay Trail. One in a series of free outings organized by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call: 415-255-3233 for reservations  

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Berkeley Central Library 

2121 Allston Way 

Halloween for the little guys with (not so) scary stories, music, and more. 

Call 649-3943  

Haunted House 

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. 

1818 5th St. 

Free 

Donations benefiting youth activities in Berkeley appreciated. 

644-3305 

St. John’s Church and Camp  

Elmwood Haunted House  

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  

Party for teens from 8:45 to 10 p.m.  

Free. Wear a costume and bring a canned good, book or toy donation.  

845-2656 

“The 3rd annual Habitot  

Halloween” 

Habitot Children’s Museum  

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

A not-too-spooky Halloween event for young children with entertainment, parades, games, magic and songs. Come in  

costume. Registration strongly suggested. $4 general; $6 for the first child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

647-1111 

“Not Very Scary Halloween  

Celebration” 

10:30 a.m. at La Pena  

Betsy Rose performs songs and activities to celebrate the harvest season and the ancestral spirits. Children are invited to come in costume. $4 general; $3 children. 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2572. 

New School’s Halloween  

Bazaar 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

1606 Bonita St. (at Cedar) 

Free to the public, this annual event features face painting, mask-making, children’s games, apple bobbing, pumpkins, live entertainment, and a vast array of other delights. Proceeds benefit the New School’s scholarship fund and the playground project. Free.  

Call 548-9165 

Run Your Own Landscape Business: Part 3 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave. (at Blake) 

Local horticultural consultant and UC Master Gardener Jessie West will teach you how to plant, prune, control weeds, and more. This is the final class in the series. 

$15 general; $10 for members; $5 materials fee 

Call 548-2220 x223 

West Coast Live Comes to Berkeley 

10 a.m. - Noon 

Freight & Salvage 

1111 Addison (at San Pablo) 

Broadcast around the world this live, on-stage radio show will feature The Austin Lounge Lizards, author Anne Lamott, and others. The show can be heard on KALW at 91.7 FM.  

Reservations: 415-664-9500 or www.TicketWeb.com 

Battle of the Drills 

2 p.m. 

Veterans Hall  

1931 Center St. 

Presented by the Flaming Five this fifth annual battle will feature drums squads, fancy trick, precision, and dance. 

$5 

Denice Cox, 841-1126 

Sunday, Oct. 29

“Almost Halloween Hike”  

Tilden Regional Park 

10 a.m.  

Explore the nature of Halloween folklore on the trails.  

“Wake the Dead: A Music  

Concert”  

Celebrate the Celtic “Day of the Dead” (Halloween) with folksong artists Paul Kotapish and Danny Carnahan.  

2 to 4 p.m.  

(510) 525-2233 

“Gateway to Knowledge” 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl. 

Barr Rosenberg describes how to master new knowledge and take the power to shape our lives in wise and compassionate ways.  

843-6812 

compiled by Chason Wrainwright

It’s not quite opening time for the merry-go-round at Tilden Park this sunny Saturday morning, but already toddlers and parents are arriving in eager hordes.  

Several small children press against the metal gate that surrounds the carousel and peer in at the painted menagerie. “I’m going to ride on the dragon!” shouts one little boy. “There’s no dragon,” a smaller boy says scornfully. “Yes, there is,” the first insists. “See?” He points to a fantastical green creature with the head and claws of a griffin and a long serpentine tail. 

Matthew Thomas of Albany is here with his son, Henry, who is 20 months old. This is Henry’s second or third visit to the carousel, and “he’s just getting okay with it,” says his dad. He has overcome his initial trepidation and is happy today to ride on a horse with his father close beside him. Dad is drawn to the carousel for his own reasons: nostalgia for his own childhood visits to amusement parks, and an appreciation for the historic 1911 structure. 

“It’s got old-world charm,” he says, noting the detail on the carved figures and the painted roof. “They don’t make them like this anymore.”  

The entire setting seems to conjure up days gone by. Set in a wooded grove where the air is permeated with the smell of eucalyptus, the carousel is next to an old-fashioned candy shop, where visitors can purchase everything from popcorn and candy to sparkly stickers to Beanie Babies. There’s a vintage organ within the carousel enclosure (played on Sundays), and decorations change continually with the seasons. This month there are jack-o-lanterns and straw bales and swags of artificial colored leaves. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving, the carousel will be decked with holiday ornaments and lights, and special family entertainment is offered nights until Christmas Eve. 

At the heart of this year-round festivity is Terri Holleman Oyarzún, a cheerful mother of four who seems to believe completely in the magic of the place. Oyarzún and her family have managed the Tilden Park carousel since 1992, when she took over from longtime operators Jeanette and Harry Perry. 

Oyarzún calls her transition to carousel operator “one of those cosmic, karmic things.” She was working as a probation officer when she stumbled upon her new job.  

“I came up here with my kids one day and it was closed, with a sign saying the Perrys were retiring,” Oyarzún recalls. Her first reaction was dismay. “Then I started thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I could do this.’” 

It was the beginning of a new life that Oyarzún calls “pretty much a 24-hour commitment.” With a small staff that ranges in age from teens to retirees, she runs the carousel, the gift shop, and the summer concession stand at Lake Anza. Any given day may find her cleaning or retouching the carousel animals, driving down the Peninsula in search of the perfect holiday decorations, or climbing struts to repair the carousel mechanism. On top of that, she and her husband, Egon, run Goats R Us, an Orinda ranch that raises goats for hire to graze brush and reduce fire hazards. 

But Oyarzún wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’ll be doing this forever. I’ll go until I can’t go around anymore.” 

Her youngest son, 9-year-old Zephyr, has never known any other life. When not in school, he helps with the ticket sales and the upkeep of the antique carousel, polishing the brass poles and repainting the horses’ hooves – ”and sometimes the saddles,” he adds. 

Oyarzún delights in pointing out highlights of the carousel. Built in 1911 by the Herschell-Spillman Company, this is a merry-go-round in the “County Fair” style, with muted colors and a kind of primitive country charm. The side of the animal that can be seen from outside the carousel is known as the “romance side,” and is more elaborately decorated than the inside. There is a lead horse, more lavishly carved and bejeweled than the others. She is nicknamed “Rosie,” for the red rose in her bridle, and is a particular favorite with little girls. 

“Can you guess which figure is the most valuable?” Oyarzún asks.  

There’s so much to choose from. The mythical sea monster? The spotted giraffe? The stork, with a tiny baby carved in its saddle? 

None of these, as it turns out. It’s the frog – or frogs, to be more precise. The Tilden Carousel has two of them. What makes them unique is that they are clothed, in cheerfully painted britches and jackets that suggest Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows.  

All the staff are “very protective” of the historic structure, Oyarzún says, and their shared enthusiasm makes the people who work at the Tilden carousel something of an extended family. Oyarzún likes the fact that the merry-go-round draws all kinds of people: not just children, but adults with special needs and the elderly. For her younger employees, she says, it provides valuable exposure to a broad spectrum of humanity.  

“They learn that there’s nothing wrong with being different,” she says. “It’s the cycle of life. It’s all part of being human.” 

Oyarzún clearly derives great satisfaction from her job. “I think the best part of this is presenting something where families can make memories,” Oyarzún says. “Usually children don’t know what their parents go through; life can be hard, with worries and struggles and bills to pay. But you can come here and know that life can be okay… Life can be just a ride on a merry-go-round.” 

The Tilden merry-go-round is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends during the school year, with extended hours Nov. 24-Dec. 23. For more information, call 524-6773, or visit the regional parks website at www.ebparks.org. 

University must pay fair share 

Editor: 

It was great to see “fairness injected into discussion of the city-University relationship. Hegarty’s letter accurately pointed out that there are other tax and fee exempt entities in town and added that UC contributions “easily total in the millions each year.” But the question is what is a fair and reasonable share? While no letter could possibly do justice to a topic which warrants an extensive study, several points may contribute to this critical, ongoing dialogue.  

The direct payments itemized in Hegarty’s letter constitute less than half of 1 percent of the city’s budget. A decade ago, then Mayor Loni Hancock initiated an effort to gain recognition of and compensation for UC costs. The payments vary – some are time-limited annual payments, others are one-time only or in kind donations, and some are not made to the city but to the school district, which is a separate jurisdiction. Some payments have been instituted to replace fees eliminated by new state laws.  

A study by the city’s Planning Department of a few select services some years ago concluded that UC cost the city at least $11 million. A full analysis of the services the city provides the university’s extensive, expansive, dense land uses needs to be renewed and include new UC developments. A look at one city project, sewer rehabilitation, may serve to put the issue in perspective. 

According to an Aug. 14 Public Works Commission communication to the Planning Commission, deferred sewer maintenance is currently nearly $500 million, double the city’s total annual budget. As the largest single user of the city’s sewer system, UC is contributing $250,000 annually toward repairs as noted in Hegarty’s letter. At that rate, it will take 500 years for UC contributions to fund even twenty-five percent of current sewer repair needs.  

If the repairs were done today, as some argue is prudent, what would be the cost per person? If the city paid all the cost, each resident of Berkeley would pay $5,000. On the other hand, if the state were to pay the total bill, the cost for each resident of California would be about $20. 

This is only one example of the burdens which seem unreasonably heavy for one small city’s taxpayers. The city and UC both have an interest in good maintenance of the city’s basic services. The city cannot fund these services alone with its severely reduced tax base.  

It seems reasonable and fair to request that the state consider taking more responsibility for state institutions, particularly when these are located in dense urban areas where the state institution has displaced many revenue generating land uses and constitutes a comparatively large proportion of the land uses, and thus the demand for services. This does seem fair! 

Nancy Holland 

Berkeley 

Town-gown need to work together 

Editor: 

I am writing in response to a recent later to the Editor and a news article, concerning proposed university development in the Southside neighborhood. 

The letter from John English, titled “UC must respect the historic district” states that the proposed Centralized Dining and Student Services Building should conform to its historic neighbors and that the university has ignored the concerns of the city committees and commissions and concerned citizens. From my own close involvement with the project I can say this is not true. 

Conformity and contextuality in architecture are highly subjective - and controversial matters. One building’s attempt to “blend in” with its neighbors may be seen by some as mimicry or a cartoon of older features and styles. Another building may express an individuality some may feel is intrusive to the surrounding character. 

In most cases where a new building is inserted in the midst of older, well-designed neighbors a very careful design process is necessitated. In a neighborhood as rich and varied as the Southside, this process is mandated. This careful process took place in planning the Centralized Dining and Student Services Building, proposed at the center of Bowditch and Channing.  

As part of the Underhill Area Master Plan, of which the dining facility is a component, the campus prepared detailed design guidelines for the properties involved, guidelines that called for inclusive designs sensitive to the scale and character of the neighborhood. While the campus does not prescribe a design style when planning a new building, a palette of materials and colors was recommended. Further, the guidelines prescribes a strong relationship of new buildings to the street, building massing broken down to a neighborhood scale, and creating pedestrian-active sidewalks.  

The guidelines intent was realized in the new Centralized Dining and Student Services Building. This design was not easy to achieve, as any new building on this site would have its challenges. But the neighborhood building style is quite eclectic. The site’s neighbors include the brown-shingled Anna Head School across the street, the stuccoed Casa Bonita adjacent, a modern apartment building faced with plywood to the north, and the shingled Shorb House diagonally across Channing. No style predominates, and how each “fit in” to each other is a highly relative notion.  

The campus Design Review Committee, chaired by Harrison Fraker, Dean of the College of Environmental Design, held numerous meetings to resolve the building’s design and to refine its elements to be a good, albeit modern, neighbor. The massing, fenestration, orientation, and materials (still being developed) have been carefully debated and eventually received a recommendation for approval.  

At each meeting I transmitted the comments of the City Design Review Committee and Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the concerns of local citizens; these comments played a constructive role in the buildings evolution.  

I have two comments on the Friday, Sept. 29 article “Campus pavilions may be leveled.” In the article, Landmarks Preservation Commission member and BAHA staff Lesley Emmington Jones asks the question, “...Does the southside of campus become a neighborhood community based on the needs of the community or an institutional expansion zone...?”  

My first comment is that the Southside is and has been a campus-oriented neighborhood since its initial development in the 19th century. Indeed, the land was once owned by the campus and was sold to finance the nascent College of California, UC’s predecessor. In this neighborhood the university is also “the community.” the notion that the university is not an integral part of this neighborhood belies the fact that 8,000 of the 10,000 residents are students, that the churches, businesses and apartment buildings are here due to the university’s presence, and that the ongoing and celebrated vitality of the neighborhood is due in major part to the university’s presence, reputation, and stature. 

My second comment is that we need to transform the seemingly endless debate over the future of the Southside into a true dialogue between campus, city and community. The Southside Plan had true promise when it started out almost three years ago. Campus and city worked effectively as a team gathering information and holding many meetings with community and campus members. The opinions on the direction of future plans were as diverse as Berkeley is today. This process resulted in the Draft Southside plan published last January.  

Since then, contrary to the initial agreement between the city and the University, the City Planning Commission has decided to develop its own Southside Plan without the active partnership of the University. The University awaits the results of this effort.  

I am hopeful we can find common ground between town and gown, and not create barriers to dialogue or dig into opposing positions. The Southside has traditionally been a place of creativity and toleration. Only if the campus, city and community approach this effort in a spirit of cooperation, rather than confrontation, will it be possible working to create a common vision for the Southside. 

David Duncan 

Community Planning & Urban Design ManagerCapital ProjectsUC Berkeley 

Cuba is misunderstood 

Editor, 

Thank you for Tuesday’s (10/24) front page article on the Pastors for Peace challenge to the Cuba embargo. I do believe, however, that the author misrepresents Cuba’s repression of civil rights on the island. It is true, as he alleges, that Amnesty International and other human rights groups have found fault with Cuban policies toward dissident groups and trade unions. But we would do well to try to understand these policies within the larger international context that motivates them. 

Since the beginning of the revolution until today, The United States has been carrying out a campaign of high- and low-intensity warfare against Cuba. The U.S. interventions that have made it into the history books – including the seizure of Cuba from Spain at the turn of the century and the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 – make up only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. For more than four decades now, a deadly campaign against Cuba has been waged by paramilitary groups in Florida and elsewhere. These groups have, for example, bombed hotels in Cuba, tried to sabotage Cuba’s food supply, and have worked with CIA operatives to carry out assassinations of Cuban leaders (there have been several such attempts on Fidel’s life). 

This adversity has encouraged something of a siege mentality in Cuba. Political repression in Cuba is in large measure a response to decades of aggression directed at the island by its northern neighbor. What I find impressive is that, under such difficult circumstances, Cuba has nevertheless accomplished so much, in education (achieving a higher literacy than in any other Latin American country), universal health care, and the arts, for example. 

If our aim is to support democratic participation and civil rights in Cuba, we’ll work to end the U.S. embargo. 

Raymond Barglow 

Berkeley 

"Hoping 

Al Gore will protect the environment, is like praying Jerry Farwell will 

protect abortion" 

Why Al Gore could be the worse thing to happen to the environment since 

James Watt 

by Elliot Cohen 

Besides destroying trees to print "Earth In the Balance" what has Al Gore done for the environment? In 1992 Gore criticized Bush administration plans to license an Ohio hazardous waste incinerator, writing a letter that promised not to "...issue the plant a test burn permit until all questions concerning compliance" were answered. That promise was broken. Even after the plant failed two test burns – emitting 92 percent more mercury then it was supposed to – the Clinton/Gore administration granted a commercial operating permit. Since then that incinerator has burned over a half million tons of waste, spewing airborne mercury, lead, and dioxin into the Ohio river, and affecting thousands of people in Ohio and West Virginia. 

Gore personally lobbied to repeal the ban on importing tuna caught with dolphin killing nets. Gore personally assured Norway sanctions would not be imposed for killing 300 whales. Court orders aimed at protecting the spotted owl had brought the logging of ancient Northwest forest to a virtual halt. 

After election the Clinton/Gore administration had the court orders lifted, and permitted logging so intensive that with-in five years the spotted owl population declined more than environmental impact statements predicted would have happened in a forty year period under the previous Bush administration plan. Millions of acres of National Forest were clear-cut after the administration exempted certain timber sales from environmental laws and judicial review. The administrations failure to enforce strip mining laws destroyed more than 1,000 miles of streams.  

Gore supports NAFTA and other environmentally destructive trade pacts. He opposed an outright ban on whaling as detrimental to free trade. Gore convinced Clinton to use the CIA against free trade opponents. With-in months the London Daily Telegraph was reporting the CIA had targeted environmental minister Michael Meacher for questioning Monsanto's plan to sell genetically engineered crops. The administration also killed an international Biosafety Convention to protect the biotech industry. 

Most frightening is Gores cavalier attitude toward nuclear power. Gore took credit for negotiating a deal to sell China up to ten nuclear reactors, claiming it was good for the environment because nuclear waste was preferable to burning coal. Gore convinced the Energy Department to triple spending on commercial nuclear power, pushed trade pacts to sell nuclear reactors to Argentina and Brazil, and agreed to pay Russia ten billion dollars for the right to dump 200 tons of high level radioactive waste in the Urals, securing what the nuclear industry needs most: a place to dump it's poison. In essence Gore's stance, that he favors environmental protection, except on the nuclear issue, is like supporting woman's rights, except on the issue of abortion! 

Environmental groups, heavily invested in lobbying, support the candidate they believe will make the best back room deals, so they endorsed Gore despite his record. But as a voter you can make a far wiser choice, and vote in a way that leads to long term efforts to protect the environment. The environment has an amazing capacity to restore itself. With-in years after pollution destroys an area plants and trees begin to take hold. This does not mean protecting the environment doesn't matter, but it shows why who is president during the next four or eight years is less important then long term environmental policies. If Ralph Nader attracts enough votes to make the election very close, or to cause Gore to lose, future Democrats and Republicans, will take environmental policy far more seriously. Voting for what you believe is not throwing your vote away. If you care about environmental protection and nuclear proliferation voting for Gore could be the biggest ballot box mistake you ever make. 

Elsa Tranter  

To:  

dailycal@dailycal.org, voice@cctimes.com, calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com, Ebxpress@aol.com, mreiley@cctimes.com, 

dscardina@cctimes.com 

PRESS RELEASE: League of Women Voters of  

Berkeley, Albany & Emeryville 

1414 University Avenue Suite D 

Berkeley CA 94702 

Contact: Elsa Tranter 

(510) 642-1657 days 

(510) 524-8970 evenings 

etranter@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

PRESS RELEASE: League of Women Voters of  

Berkeley, Albany & Emeryville 

1414 University Avenue Suite D 

Berkeley CA 94702 

Contact: Elsa Tranter 

(510) 642-1657 days 

(510) 524-8970 evenings 

etranter@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Berkeley 

Dear Editor, 

I don't understand why the price of gasoline here in the San Francisco Bay Area is higher than most other regions in the USA. There are several refineries making it here, yet the price for middle-grade gasoline has been hovering around $ 2 a gallon. 

Republican politicians blame taxes and the price of imported oil from OPEC. If those were the reasons for the high price, then oil company profits would be about the same this year as last year. They would simply have pushed through their higher costs to the customer, right? Wrong! 

Chevron's third-quarter profits increased three times higher than last year, from $ .58 billion to $ 1.53 billion. Exxon Mobil's profits doubled to $ 4.29 billion, up from $ 2.21 billion in the same quarter last year. 

These numbers aren't fuzzy. The clearly focus on price gouging. 

If Bush gets elected President, will his team help us drivers? Well, Dubya was the head of a failed oil company in Texas, and has often expressed sympathy for others "working the oil patch". V.P. candidate Cheney received a generous severance payment that included future stock options from the Halliburton oil company which he headed. If Halliburton's profits drop, so will Cheney's golden parachute. Bush's foreign policy advisor, Condolezza Rice, has served on Chevron's board of directors since 1991; they even named a new tanker after her. His economic advisor, Michael Boskin, has been a director of Exxon-Mobil since 1996. Bush's campaign economic advisor, Lawrence Lindsey, is a close consultant to Enron. Is this crowd going to protect us from the oilgopolies? Get real! Quick! 

We've got only one chance to prevent a Republican-controlled government from colluding with Big Oil to squeeze ever more profits from our wallets. That chance is to vote against Bush on November 7. 

Bruce Joffe 

Subject:  

measure Y 

Date:  

Fri, 27 Oct 2000 16:35:53 PDT 

From:  

"John Koenigshofer"  

To:  

opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com 

Dear Editor 

Like rent control, measure Y will further reduce the number of rental units  

available in our city. 

The facts speak for themselves. Every time a new restriction is placed on  

rental housing more units are removed from the market and those who would  

develop new housing are less likely to do so. 

The path of hyper-regulation is counter productive. History proves this.  

Whether in Berkeley or the Soviet Union, intrusive bureaucracies merely  

suppress creativity and inventiveness. 

Randy Silverman and other rent board cronies have spent tens of millions of  

dollars in the past 20 years but have never created a single housing unit!  

Rather they have reduced the number of rental units in our city. What a  

solution! 

They have wasted an extraordinary amount of money supporting their Orwellian  

Bureaucracy and promoting their reactionary agenda while the housing  

shortage grows worse. 

I for one, with a lot less money, have created several new homes and units  

in Berkeley. I have also seen many units pulled off the market and projects  

abandon as the result of the totalitarian mentality of Silverman and his  

comrades. 

I know for a fact, if Y passes several more housing units will be removed  

permanently from the market. I also know that some housing proposal  

currently on the drawing board will be abandon. 

Measure Y is a suicide mission. It will hurt property owners and renters  

alike. It is time we reject these old school bureaucrats who haven't created Editor: 

It's wrong to ask Nader to drop out because he spoils Gore's chances. If the Nader votes are honestly cast, the nation should know that Greens are a coming power. Voting is a group activity: each vote shows solidarity with a group. It's an insult to tell Green voters that they are "really" voting for Bush. 

The problem is not Nader; it's that too many people have been talked into voting for Bush. Perhaps all those people really do want the EPA dismantled, corporations free to do what they like, and the Christian Right imposing their religious  

beliefs on the rest of us. If a substantial number of Bush voters do not favor these things, then they are the ones who should drop out, not Nader. 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley 

one unit with all their money and power. All they do is attack the  

creativity and vision of others. 

Randy Silverman and the rent board should stop meddling and use their  

multimillion dollar budget to create housing. 

John Koenigshofer 

Berkeley, Ca. 

(510) 848-7509 

_________________________________________________________________________ 

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. 

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at  

http://profiles.msn.com. 

LOS ANGELES – California sophomore midfielder Brittany Kirk scored the game-winning goal with 1:15 remaining in the second overtime period to lift the No. 5 Golden Bears to a 2-1 victory over No. 12 USC Friday at McAlister Field. The Bears improved to 15-1-1, 5-1 in Pac-10 play, while the Trojans dropped to 11-4-2 and 3-2-1 in league play. The win also avenged the Bears 2-1 double overtime loss to the Trojans last season in Berkeley.  

The game was scoreless until the 80th minute when Cal's go-to player Laura Schott posted her Pac-10-best 21st goal of the season. Senior midfielder Natalie Stuhmueller sent a 30-yard free kick in front of the Trojan goal, and Schott headed the ball into the net for her league-best 42nd and 43rd point.  

Less than a minute later, USC's Jessica Edwards tied the score by converting on a Christy Callier pass from eight-yards out.  

The game went to overtime with the score 1-1 and the shots even at 11-11. USC also was forced to play down a player in the 81st minute when Katie Ticehurst was issued her second yellow card.  

With the second and final 15-minute overtime period winding down, the Bears held a 7-4 edge on shots, but the game looked as if it was going to end in a tie. With 75 ticks on the clock, Kirk nailed her second-game winning goal of the season on the Bears eighth shot in extra time, and senior forward Regina Holan was credited with the assist on Kirk's 10-yard winning strike. Kirk's other game-winning goal came in Cal's 2-1 overtime victory against Missouri Sept.15 in Winston Salem, N.C.  

The Bears created more dangerous opportunities throughout the match, as USC's goalkeeper Shaelyn Fernandes was forced to make nine saves, while Cal's Maite Zabala only had to save three shots with the help of a veteran Bear defense.  

Cal remains in second-place in the Pac-10 with second-ranked Washington (16-1, 7-0 Pac-10) defeating Oregon State, 2-1, in double overtime Friday afternoon.  

Cal looks to remain in the Pac-10 title hunt when it battles No. 3 UCLA Sunday at 1 p.m.

Frances Beal has devoted her life to fighting racism. Long before race, class, and gender became popular topics in literary academic theory, Beal identified these concepts as the theoretical basis for oppression, in her 1969 pamphlet “The Black Women’s Manifesto.” From protesting Jim Crow laws in the 1950s to her current work with the Black Radical Congress, which she helped to found, she has been at the forefront of the struggle for social justice. 

It hasn’t been easy. A Bay Area resident since 1981, Beal remembers weeping as she watched the 1988 film A World Apart, which showed a daughter’s pain at the disruptions to her life caused by her activist parents.  

“My mother was active in leftist politics, and I sometimes felt some resentment because we were ‘different.’ And there were times my children complained because I wasn’t there for them,” Beal recalls. “That’s the human side to this, the sacrifice you make.” 

This Sunday, Beal and other Bay Area trailblazers will be honored at the second annual Sisters of Fire Awards Ceremony, honoring “women who light the way.” The awards are sponsored by Berkeley’s Women of Color Resource Center, which celebrates its 10th anniversary at the same event. 

The honorees are an impressive group, a reminder that the Bay Area truly is a center of liberal activism. Besides Beal, the women include former Ms. magazine editor Helen Zia, an award-winning journalist who has led the way in giving a voice to Asian-American women’s experiences; Avotcja Jiltonilro, a popular Latina poet and musician; and Yuri Kochiyama, a lifelong human rights activist who was imprisoned with other Japanese Americans in an American internment camp during World War II. The ceremony also recognizes the local youth organization Third Eye Movement and Native American activist Nilak Butler. Entertainment at the Sisters of Fire ceremony includes poetry, dance, and music, including a performance by the Korean women’s drum group Jamae Sori. 

The Women of Color Resource Center has a lot to celebrate. For ten years it has provided information and developed reports and curricula meant to empower minorities and connect women of different ethnic backgrounds. It boasts an board of directors that includes luminaries such as Angela Davis. Director and co-founder Linda Burnham was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, as was Frances Beal and many other leaders. 

The Center has this year brought out two publications that are finding a wide and avid audience. Working Hard, Staying Poor is a report on the effects of welfare reform intended to balance the generally sunny reports seen in the mainstream media. “We find that in fact it has largely hurt women, especially women of color and increased their economic insecurity,” says center staff member Jung Hee Choi. 

Another publication, Women’s Education in the Global Economy, is a curriculum guide to study the impact of globalization on women around the world. It has received “a tremendous response,” says Choi. Besides the community, religious, and labor organizations one might expect to be interested in the program, the center has received orders from hundreds of university professors of women’s studies and ethnic studies across the country. The demonstrations at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and subsequent protests have probably helped spur interest in the topic, says Choi. 

The Center’s 10th Anniversary and Sisters of Fire Awards ceremony will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. Tickets range from $15 to $50. For more information, call 848-9272. 

Practice makes perfect. 

After an intensive week of staying after the Cal men’s soccer team’s regular practices to work on his shooting, forward Kendall Simmonds made his extra work pay off by scoring both of his team’s goal in Friday’s 2-0 win over Oregon State. 

“My coaches had me out there for an hour every day to work on my shooting,” Simmonds said after the game. “I guess they really helped me out, and it showed today.” 

The win puts the Bears back in contention for the Pac-10 title at 2-2-1 in conference play with leader Stanford coming into Berkeley to play on Sunday. A win in that game would put Cal within a half-game of the Pac-10 lead. 

“We’re definitely in the picture right now,” Simmonds said. “We’re as good as any team in this league.” 

Simmonds scored both of his goals in the second half, despite taking a hard fall that injured his shoulder and ribs. 

The first goal came off of a pass from forward Austin Ripmaster in the 68th minute. Simmonds got the ball clear of two OSU defenders, then slotted the ball past goalkeeper Peter Billmeyer for his fourth goal of the season. 

Rather than being happy with a one-goal lead, the Bears continued to play the ball forward to Ripmaster and Simmonds. The attacking style paid off again six minutes later, as Simmonds trapped a high ball, dribbled across the top of the goal box and feathered a shot over Billmeyer, who had come off of his line. Ripmaster was credited with his second assist of the game on the play. 

“It was a composure shot. He drew the ’keeper out and then put the ball right over him,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. “He was definitely the man of the match today.” 

Simmonds now lead the Bears with 11 points for the season. 

The victory continued the team’s three-game winning streak, which was started by a win over highly-ranked UCLA. It also gives the Bears a 4-1 record when playing at Edwards Stadium this year, while they have yet to win away from home. 

“I think at home, our guys are more comfortable,” Grimes said. “When we’re here, we can make life miserable for our opponents, and that’s what we’re going to keep trying to do.” 

Simmonds agreed with his coach. 

“This is Bear territory, baby,” the senior said. “We can beat anybody on our home turf.”

The Committee to Support Our Parks wants to make sure measures S and W pass on Nov. 7 and they’re not taking any chances. So far the committee has spent more money than any of the other campaigns for the various tax and bond measures on the ballot.  

Supporters say the increased revenue is needed to maintain city parks, which have been built up in the last few years. Much of the work was done by volunteer labor, through organizations such as Berkeley Partners for Parks. 

According to campaign statements filed at the City Clerk’s Office Oct. 21, the campaign for the two measures has spent about $30,000. Berkeley Citizens for a Safe and Sound Schools, promoting Measure AA and BB, is second at about $24,500. Those promoting other local ballot measures have spent about $10,000 or less.  

Currently Berkeley maintains 306 acres of parklands which include 50 parks, 80 landscaped medians, 100 pathways and 35,000 trees. 

Measures S and W are both special taxes, one is new and the other was passed in 1997. The state considers a tax special when the revenue raised by the tax is spent on a single program such as parks. A general tax is spent on any program deemed necessary by city governments. 

Voters must approve special taxes by a two-thirds majority. If a special tax passes it then must go before the voters every four years for approval to spend its revenue. The four-year approval requires only 50 percent of the vote. 

Measure S is a new special tax intended to increase the 1997 tax. 

If approved, the annual increase in parks taxes for a person with a 1,900 square-foot home will be $15, bringing the total to $169. 

Promoters of the measure said that additional money will be well spent. Campaign Coordinator Nancy Carleton said Berkeley parks are improving by leaps and bounds. “Most of the recent improvements were done by volunteers who put in thousands and thousands of hours to make the city better.” 

Even though much of the work was done by volunteers, it will take additional tax dollars to maintain the improvements. “This is a modest fee that will raise $600,000 every year which will allow the city to take care of its parks,” she said.  

Carleton said recent additions to the parks system include the Gabe Catalfo Playing Field, a new soccer field on Harrison Street, the Dreamland For Kids, a playground designed with the help of kids at Aquatic Park and the soon to be completed Bay Trail. 

“Those are just a few. There are updated play areas, recently planted street trees. Soon there will be the pedestrian bridge. All these things need to be maintained,” said Carleton. 

Measure W is a special tax passed by voters in 1997 and is now due for its four-year reapproval. If Measure S passes, Measure W, which only requires 50 percent voter approval, will not even go into effect.  

Detractors of the two measures said in printed arguments in the County of Alameda Sample Ballot that taxes are already too high and the revenue is ill spent on costly projects that always seem to require more taxes. The argument was signed by former City Councilmember John Denton, Evelyn Giardina, Martha Jones and Marie Bowman. 

Denton said he’s voting against the measure out of protest against city councilmembers who always seem to vote together when it comes to increasing taxes and spending despite deep philosophical differences. He said the dog area in Cesar Chavez Park is an example of mismanagement. “That area has the prime view of the Bay and San Francisco and they made it a dog park, which precludes anyone else from using it.” 

Measures S and W have been endorsed by eight of the nine members of the City Council, the Berkeley Democratic Club, Berkeley Citizen’s Action, the Sierra Club, the entire school board and a host of present and past public officials.  

The largest contributors to the S and W campaign are two city workers’ unions SEIU Local 790, which contributed $7,500 and SEIU Local 535, which threw in another $7,000.  

Carleton said the workers don’t stand to gain anything from the passage of the measures other than securing the means to do their jobs well.  

Carleton said taxes for city parks are strongly supported among most residents because they have such a positive effect. She said there good for kids and homeowners are usually in favor because they can raise the value of property. “It’s a win, win situation,” she said. 

Pinole Valley deals ’Jackets their first ACCAL loss 

Please forgive the Pinole Valley Spartans. They can just be downright rude at times. Not only are they possessive, direct, and offensive, but they demand constant attention. Nobody looks for these traits when they’re trying to find that special someone. But to find these characteristics in a high school football offense? If only everyone could get this lucky. 

The Spartans (7-1, 3-1 ACCAL) rode their dominating offense to a 47-28 win over the Berkeley Yellowjackets (3-5, 3-1) by scoring on seven of their 10 offensive possessions, cruising out to 40 first half points, racking up 446 total yards, and scoring on the very first play from scrimmage when running back D’Andre McFarland transformed a sweep right into a broken tackle and a 67-yard touchdown jaunt. 

Early scores are nothing new for the sixth-best yardage offense in the Bay Area. McFarland finished the night with 168 rushing yards, 75 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Call him Big Play D’Andre: McFarland tallied runs of 26, 43, and 67 yards and scored a 67-yard touchdown reception late in the first half. For the night, the Spartans pulled off nine plays of at least 20 yards, averaging 9.3 yards per play. Move over, St. Louis Rams! 

Throwing McFarland the football was the Bay Area’s top-rated passer, quarterback Adrian Smith, who entered the game with 14 touchdowns and 1091 passing yards. Smith added to his league-leading statistics by completing 10 of 13 pass attempts for 173 yards and three touchdowns.  

Four different Spartans tallied at least two receptions. Leading the way was super split end Marcus Maxwell, who entered the game with the third-highest yardage (624) and fifth-highest reception (34) marks in the Bay Area. The ‘Jackets "held" Maxwell in check for most of the game, however, to just three receptions for 81 yards and a 27-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. 

As for Berkeley, the ’Jackets found themselves playing catch-up all game long. This limited the number of carries for the sixth-best rusher in the Bay Area, Ramone Reed. A true warrior, Reed rushed 15 times for 121 yards and caught four passes for 97 yards and a touchdown. Reed alone accounted for 218 of Berkeley’s 369 total yards and beckoned his teammates on during the game, noting "this is not the day to be walking!" Nothing could stop Reed on this night, not even an injury to his right leg that forced him to retreat to the sidelines for a series. 

The ‘Jackets pulled out all the stops in the second half. Down 40-14, Berkeley head coach Gary Weaver utilized the reverse, the halfback option pass to the quarterback, and even the good ol’ hook and lateral pass. But it was too little, too late, and not even a sensational 65-yard punt return in the fourth quarter by Anthony Lee Franklin could rescue the ‘Jackets from their misery. 

Penalties continue to be the thorn in Berkeley’s side, as the ‘Jackets committed eight infractions for 60 yards. Six of the eight penalties were either false starts or encroachment gaffes, and a 40-yard pass reception by Charles West with 1:53 remaining in the first half was wiped out because of a personal foul. 

Berkeley faces another difficult opponent next week when they square off at home against the El Cerrito Gauchos at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3.

SAN FRANCISCO – A California judge who ordered the recall of 1.7 million Ford Motor Co. cars and trucks said Friday he would stand by the decision. 

“I’m not likely to change my mind,” Alameda County Superior Court Michael E. Ballachey said. 

Ford had asked Ballachey to reconsider almost three weeks after he ruled that the automaker concealed a dangerous design flaw that can cause some vehicles to stall in traffic. Ford said the ignition devices are not defective for the 1983 through 1995 model years in question. 

Ballachey’s recall order, which won’t become effective until a court-appointed expert decides how to repair the faulty ignition devices, was the first from a state judge. Government agencies normally order recalls, but Ballachey said California law gives him that power. 

The recall order came in response to a class-action suit filed on behalf of millions of former and current Ford owners in California. 

After Ballachey said the recall would move forward, Ford attorney Richard Warmer asked Ballachey to remove himself from the case — the second time Ford had made that request. 

“I didn’t do it last time and I’m not doing it this time,” Ballachey said in a terse tone from the bench Friday. 

After the hearing, Warmer told The Associated Press that Ford believed the judge was biased against the automaker. 

“We don’t believe he is impartial,” Warmer said. 

It was not the first time that Ballachey appeared upset with Ford. When he ordered the recall Oct. 11, he said Ford was living an “Alice in Wonderland” dream for repeatedly denying the vehicles were dangerous. 

Ballachey said Ford sold as many as 23 million vehicles nationwide with the flaw, but his jurisdiction does not extend beyond California. Similar class-action suits are pending in Alabama, Maryland, Illinois, Tennessee and Washington. 

The judge said as early as 1982 Ford knew the vehicles were prone to stalling, especially when the engine was hot, but failed to alert consumers and repeatedly deceived federal regulators. 

The ignition device was put on 29 models between 1983 and 1995, including the Taurus, LTD, Ranger, Bronco, Mustang and Escort, the company has reported. During that period, the Taurus was one of the top-selling cars in America. 

Ballachey said he expects a court-appointed referee to suggest how to fix the vehicles by March. 

He also said he would call a jury, perhaps in April, to hear the case. Before that, however, he must decide whether jurors should have a trial to decide for themselves whether the devices were faulty, or whether the jury can rely on the judge’s findings and move directly into a punitive damages phase of trial.

Arizona’s big hitters too much for Cal 

The University of California women's volleyball team fell to No. 5 ranked Arizona, 3-0 (15-9, 15-5, 15-10), Friday night at the RSF Fieldhouse on the Cal campus.  

The talented Wildcats (19-2, 12-1), who have won 19 of their last 20 matches, were led by Allison Napier, Marisa DaLee and Lisa Rutledge with 13, 12 and 10 kills respectively. The Bears (9-10, 4-8) were paced by senior outside hitter Alicia Perry with a team-high 14 kills.  

In game one, Cal was tied with Arizona, 5-5, with the help of kills from Perry, sophomore Leah Young and freshman Gabrielle Abernathy, and a block by freshman Heather Diers. The Wildcats then took control with a 5-0 run to lead 10-5 and ended up winning 15-9. The closest the Bears could get was 12-9 behind back-to-back block assists by Diers and sophomore setter Caity Noonan.  

Arizona completely dominated game two, 15-5, with most of Cal's points coming off Wildcat errors. Game three was probably the Bears best game as they came back from a 9-1 deficit to get within 10-9. Cal's comeback was fueled by an ace by freshman Ashleigh Turner, block assists by freshman Jessica Zatica and Perry, back-to-back kills by Young, an ace by Noonan, block assists by freshman Lisa Collette and Young, and a solo block by Collette. With the score, 10-9, Arizona took the next four points before Noonan's second service ace got the Bears to 14-10, but the Wildcats scored again to take the game and the match, 15-10.  

The Bears will next host Arizona State, Saturday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Recreational Sports Facility Fieldhouse.

Korean immigrant helped introduce books of leading English poets and Buddhist writers to Korean readers 

Ok-Koo Kang Grosjean, noted poet and translator, died last night in her home in Albany. She would have been sixty years old on November 1 and had been diagnosed with liver cancer earlier this year.  

She is best known for introducing the work of leading English language poets and Buddhist writers to Korean readers through her translations of several books including the Dalai Lama's Policy of Kindness and Ocean of Wisdom, Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace and The Heart of Understanding, J. Krishnamurti's Flame of Attention and Education and the Significance of Life and Gary Snyder's No Nature.  

She also translated works from Korean into English, most notably with the volume Selected Poems by Park Nam Soo. Her own books of poetry, Horizon and A Hummingbird's Dance remain in print, and a book of recent poems entitled Delightful Encounters is forthcoming. About her poetry she once said, "I let myself flow in the mysterious stream of the heart."  

Ok-Koo Kang was born in Kwang-Ju, Korea, and emigrated to the United States in 1963 with a pharmacy degree from I-Hwa Women's University in Seoul.  

She attended Columbia University and San Francisco State University before receiving a master's degree in nutrition (biochemistry) from U.C. Berkeley.  

She immediately got work as a chemist for the USDA labs in Albany and continued there until taking early retirement in 1995.  

She met Glen Grosjean ("grow-zhahn") at Cal, where he was an associate in speech (he later held various academic positions there until his retirement) and they were married in 1965.  

She had been raised Presbyterian but was gradually drawn to Buddhism through her husband's interest - he had been a Zen monk for three years in the 1950s at Shogenji, a monastery in Japan - and in response to the loss of her sister to cancer in 1968.  

Her garden was a great passion, and Ok-Koo was also a devoted musician, playing viola da gamba, piano, recorder, lute and the Korean kayageum (koto).  

Her husband survives her along with their son, Charles, who lives in Pasadena.  

A Buddhist service will be held on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. in the Chapel of Light at Skylawn Memorial Park on Half Moon Bay Road, off Skyline Boulevard.

Cal water polo upsets No. 3 Long Beach St. 

LONG BEACH, CA - The No. 5 ranked Cal men’s water polo team (9-7, 3-2) defeated No. 3 ranked Long Beach State (12-7, 2-1), 11-6, in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play Friday afternoon at Long Beach State’s campus pool. It was the first home loss of the season for the 49ers.  

Cal took control in the second half of what was a close game. The Bears outscored Long Beach State 6-3 in the final two periods. Freshman Attila Banhidy led Cal with four goals. Senior Eldad Hazor added three goals and junior Joe Kaiser chipped in two goals. Goalie Tim Kates had seven saves.  

The Bears will next face USC, Saturday, Oct. 28 at 1:30 p.m. at McDonald’s Olympic Swim Stadium 

Bear swimmers dominate at Pacific meet 

STOCKTON, CA - The California men’s (1-0) and women’s swimming teams (2-0) dominated host Pacific Friday afternoon in Stockton. The Bears won 22 of the meet’s 28 events at Chris Kjeldsen Pool on the Pacific campus. Cal’s men won 120-104, while the Bear women captured 10 of 14 events to win 131.5-92.5. No other information was provided by Pacific.  

Nort Thornton’s men’s team will next host CS Bakersfield Friday, Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex. Teri McKeever’s women’s team next travels to Athens, GA to face two-time defending national champion Georgia Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. ET, before visiting South Carolina Nov. 4.  

Andre Carter to chat with fans online 

On Tuesday, October 31, Cal defensive end Andre Carter will drop by ESPN.com to chat with the fans beginning at 11:00 a.m. PT.  

A preseason All-American and a semifinalist for the Lombardi award, Carter has been a stalwart for the Bears as the defensive end has been on the field for all but two defensive plays this season for the 2-5 Bears.  

Carter leads the Bears with a total of seven sacks this season, despite constant double-teaming by opponents. That figure is tied for second place on the Pac-10 sack list heading into Saturday's clash with USC.

There has never been a flu epidemic like it. In one year - 1918 – half a million Americans died from a contagion often identified as the deadliest epidemic of the 20th century, a flu so severe that the fear of it happening again causes public health authorities to go on global alert. 

Now a researcher in demography at the University of California, Berkeley, has evidence that undetected tuberculosis, or TB, actually may have caused much of the mortality in 1918. 

If so, such a deadly flu may not occur again, at least not in the United States which has low rates of TB infection, reports Andrew Noymer, UC Berkeley doctoral student in demography, a department in the College of Letters and Science. He published his findings in the current (September) issue of Population and Development Review, the main journal of the Population Council.  

Noymer’s evidence comes from patterns of mortality in the U.S. population in the years after the epidemic year. Death rates from tuberculosis fell dramatically in 1919 and 1920 and, for decades thereafter, changed an historic gender pattern in mortality. 

Apparently, those who died from the flu already had diseased lungs. When they got the flu, it turned into pneumonia, which in those people with TB became especially severe. It was the pneumonia complicated by TB that killed them, said Noymer. Their early demise depressed the death rate from TB in the following years.  

He said tuberculosis creates cavities in the lungs that are notorious breeding grounds for staphylococcus A bacteria that causes a pneumonia that was actually the killer in 1918. Noymer’s findings explain a peculiarity of the 1918 pandemic that killed at least 20 million people worldwide.  

Normally, the influenza virus is not lethal to young and middle-aged people. Most of its victims are elderly. But in 1918, the typical victim was a man between the ages of 20 and 40, a group that normally has a very low death rate, said Noymer. 

In the early 20th century, however, tuberculosis was a major killer of men in that age group, apparently because of transmission in factories where men worked in densely-packed, poorly-ventilated conditions, Noymer said. Men were about 30 percent more likely to die from TB than women were- a pattern closely paralleled during the flu epidemic.  

In 1918, men were 35 percent more likely than women to die from flu. Of the 500,000 Americans who died that year, 280,000-300,000 were men.  

“This can’t be a coincidence,” said Noymer. “I think TB is the missing piece of the puzzle. It explains why younger people, especially men, died in such great numbers. Scientists since 1918 have been searching for clues for why the 1918 epidemic was so deadly, especially in middle age. But people did not look at what happened to tuberculosis death rates, not only in the epidemic year, but in the years afterwards.”  

His findings explain another mystery. Scientists who have attempted to study the gene sequence of the 1918 influenza virus have seen nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to explain the flu’s virulence.  

“Never before or since have we seen a flu epidemic that was so virulent,” said Noymer. “The spread was extremely rapid, as was the development of the infection. Almost everyone who died was gone in two weeks. 

“I do believe my finding explains most of the deadliness of the 1918 epidemic. It doesn’t prove that, if another strain were to appear, that the U.S. population would be safe, but it strongly suggests that we would fare much better.”  

Noymer’s analysis shows that the 500,000 people who died in 1918 were almost exactly the number who would have been in various stages of disease from TB. Using pre-1918 death rates, Noymer calculated that 500,000 more TB deaths would have occurred between 1918 and 1932 had there never been a flu epidemic.  

As a result of the excess death among men in 1918, a healthier male population was left, said Noymer. For years afterward, the life expectancy of men, which usually lagged behind women by six years, moved up to more closely resemble the female pattern. It was this startling change that sparked Noymer’s research, when he saw something no demographer had ever noticed before - a precipitous drop in 1919 in the gender differential from six to two years.  

“When I saw that,” said Noymer, “ I said to myself, ‘That’s the flu!’ And, surprise, surprise, it leaves the same mortality patterns on age and sex that TB does.”

Man convicted of manslaughter had 16 priors 

MARYSVILLE – An Olivehurst man who was recently convicted of manslaughter in connection with a drunken-driving car crash that killed two people had 16 prior drunken-driving convictions on his record, court records show. 

Ronald Bushers Sr., 51, is expected back in court Dec. 8 for sentencing. He faces a prison term of 15 years to life. 

The accident that killed the two Paradise people occurred November 1999 on Highway 70. 

California Highway Patrol officers said Bushers had a blood-alcohol content of .22. A level of .08 is considered legally intoxicated. 

Prosecutors said they found that Bushers’ first drunken-driving conviction was in March 1970. 

Treatment programs introduced in the 1980s seemed to have little impact on Bushers, said Yuba County District Attorney Patrick McGrath. 

The state chairman of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Linda Oxenreider, said she has never heard of anyone with more drunken-driving convictions. 

Former politician and wife busted for marijuana, could face other drug charges 

AUBURN – A former gubernatorial candidate and his wife on trial for growing marijuana may also have to defend themselves against other drugs found in their house. 

Prosecutors have pointed out that a half gram of a psilocyben mushroom was also found in the house of Steven and Michele Kubby. 

The drug, also known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, is usually ingested for its hallucinogenic effects. 

Defense attorneys say the mushrooms have been used as medicine and spiritual aids in other countries. 

The Kubbys argue they were legally growing more than 250 marijuana plants found in their Squaw Valley home last year. They have been vocal advocates of medicinal marijuana and say they had permission to use the drug to treat their ailments. 

Steven Kubby was the Libertarian candidate for governor in 1998. 

Students under fire for paper’s content 

SACRAMENTO – A behavioral hearing was postponed for two Sacramento students suspended for editing an underground newspaper. 

Administrators at Sacramento High School say the publication included several racial slurs and sexual references. 

School officials said the hearing was postponed Thursday because not all people involved in the hearing were available at the time. 

Some students say the publication was distributed off campus and brought to school by other students. 

One of the editors’ parents is protesting the suspension. He claims the boys have a First Amendment right to publish the newspaper. 

The hearing has not been rescheduled, school officials said Thursday. 

UC Davis police call for removal of their chief 

DAVIS – Police officers working for the University of California, Davis, are calling for the removal of their chief and asking for an audit of the entire department. 

Officers say they are frustrated by the mismanaged police force and the department’s practice of underreporting crimes that happen on campus. 

In a letter to university Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, the officers and department staff announced a vote of no confidence in Chief Calvin Handy, who has been the department’s top officer for the past seven years. 

An attorney for the officers said there have been “serious allegations of abuse of authority” in the department. 

In a prepared statement, Handy said he was open to hearing any complaints from officers and hoped to revolve the issues dividing the department. 

UC Davis spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said Thursday that the officers’ letter was the first formal complaint of the department in 10 years. 

Similar problems recently bothered the Davis Police Department, where officers took a vote of no confidence against Chief Jerry Gonzales. The city hired a consultant to examine the complaints.  

Gonzales’ said his last day on the job was Friday.

Aryan Nation will take to the streets of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho despite impending loss of their rural compound 

SPOKANE – This weekend, days before they lose their rural compound, members of the Aryan Nations will march defiantly down the streets of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. 

Saturday’s march is the most visible sign that Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler is not going away despite the $6.3 million judgment awarded against him in a civil rights lawsuit Sept. 7. 

“It’s to drive home the point that I’m not running out of town like a whipped dog,” Butler said after filing for the parade permit. 

It’s not clear how many supporters of the neo-Nazi group will march in support of its anti-Semitic, white supremacist message.  

Past parades have had close to 100 participants. Last year’s event drew fewer than two dozen, who were greatly outnumbered by various protesters and news media representatives. 

Butler’s supporters have been using the Internet to try and draw marchers to Coeur d’Alene, 30 miles east of Spokane. 

“This is a white pride and racial awareness march where true Aryans are standing together ... and showing the fine folks of north Idaho and the national media that we are not going to be silenced,” wrote Vincent Bertollini of the white-supremacist 11th Hour Remnant Messenger. 

Bertollini, a wealthy computer executive who lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, recently bought a house in nearby Hayden that Butler is living in. 

One protest group, the Seattle-based United Front Against Fascism, plans to attend the 11 a.m. parade. 

“Fascism cannot be vanquished in the courts alone,” said Luma Nichol, a founder of the group. 

Coeur d’Alene city officials have tried to block past parades in court, but failed because of constitutional free-speech protections. 

Human rights groups in the area say they do not believe in directly confronting the Aryans. The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations will use the parade as the occasion to roll out its new “Idaho, the Human Rights State” public relations campaign. 

Protesters say that’s the wrong approach when dealing with a hate group such as the Aryan Nation. 

“Turning your back on the fascists only encourages them,” said Gil Veyna of the United Front. 

All Coeur d’Alene police officers will work Saturday, and they will be joined by staff from the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and Idaho State Police. Officers will reportedly set up barriers along the parade route in an attempt to keep marchers and protesters apart. Anyone who crosses the barriers will be arrested, Sheriff Rocky Watson has said. 

Butler took out a permit for more than 100 participants on Sept. 8 — the day after losing the lawsuit brought by Victoria and Jason Keenan, a mother and son. 

The Keenans were chased and shot at by Aryan Nations security guards when they drove past the group’s compound near Hayden Lake, Idaho, in 1998. A Kootenai County, Idaho, jury found Butler and the Aryan Nations negligent in hiring and training the guards. 

On Thursday, a judge denied a request for a new trial for the Aryan Nations, clearing the way for the victorious Keenan family to take over the 20-acre compound as soon as next week.

Ewing interfered with fair housing rights for neighbor 

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Attorney's Office said today a Lake County man has been sentenced to six months in jail and six months of home detention for making racist threats against his Clearlake neighbor last year. 

U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer sentenced Gregory Ewing, 43, yesterday in San Francisco after he pleaded guilty to interfering with fair housing rights. Ewing will begin serving his prison term on Dec. 5. 

According to a U.S. Attorney's spokesman, Ewing yelled racist slurs and threatened his 68-year-old neighbor after she invited her grand daughter, her daughter's African American husband and their daughter to her home on May 11, 1999. 

Ewing admitted going to his neighbor's porch and shouting racial epithets as well as building a 9-foot, 4-inch cross on his lawn. He also threatened to kill his neighbor and burn the cross, according to prosecutors. 

The woman contacted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People when Clearlake police failed to immediately respond. Police arrived after the NAACP contacted them. Ewing was arrested, released on bail and a restraining order was issued. Local charges were filed but dismissed, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. 

Ewing made more racist slurs on Aug. 3 during another visit by the neighbor's granddaughter and great-granddaughter, prosecutors say. 

On Oct. 14 Ewing threatened to burn his neighbor's house down and kill her following a visit by the NAACP representative. 

Ewing was arrested again, released on bail on Oct. 18 and another restraining order was issued.  

The NAACP then filed a complaint with federal authorities and the FBI began an investigation.

LOS ANGELES – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s second-largest health benefits provider, will lose $96 million this year on its self-insured health plans, according to a newspaper report. 

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that CalPERS officials will consider double-digit rate hikes and higher co-payments in the next two years to offset some of the losses. 

The health fund’s reserves will drop to $73.1 million, enough to last six weeks should unexpected medical costs or other emergencies hamper the fund’s ability to draw from it regular cash flow to pay claims. The recommended industry standard is to have at least three months of reserves. 

The health fund losses will not impact CalPERS’ ability to pay retirement benefits to members or destabilize other programs. 

CalPERS attributes the losses to an increase in membership to its self-funded plans. The increase is largely from members in the state’s rural areas who are joining because health maintenance organizations are pulling out of the counties where they live. 

“This is the only option that is available statewide,” said Allen Feezor, CalPERS assistant executive officer for health. 

Unlike HMOs, which can leave when it becomes too expensive to operate, CalPERS is obligated to provide care for all its members no matter where they live. 

The result, Feezor said, is that the PERSCare and PERSChoice plans have suffered high increases in the cost of doctor and hospital visits, as well as high prices and increased demand for prescription drugs. 

About 22 percent of CalPERS’ 1.1 million members are enrolled in the two plans. The plans are preferred provider organizations where there is no primary-care gatekeeper and patients don’t need a referral to see a specialist. 

Premium increases will be instituted in 2001 that will average 19 percent more than this year, officials said. An increase of 24 percent is needed to stem the losses and premiums, deductibles and co-payments may be raised in 2002, Feezor said. 

The CalPERS board voted last month to increase by 300 percent the amount that some board members receive to attend meetings. The compensation for some board members, who attend about 75 meetings a year, will increase to an annual average of $30,000 from about $7,500 a year.

VENTURA – Fisherman Aaron Plunkett can talk about his whale of a catch that didn’t get away: The Lake Casitas angler snagged fossilized bones of a 25 million-year-old toothed baleen whale, a first-of-its-kind find in California. 

“They’ve been found before in Washington and Oregon and Baja, but we’ve never found one in California,” said Howell Thomas, a paleontologist at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. “This is the only one ever found in California. 

“We were just kind of waiting to see where the first one would be found. It’s exciting because it proves tooth baleen whales were off the coast of Southern California.” 

Plunkett, an Ojai musician, was fishing at Lake Casitas on Jan. 19 when he noticed what appeared to be bones among the pebbles along the shoreline. The mountain lake is 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. 

“Twenty-five million years ago, that was all under water,” Thomas said Friday. 

Plunkett contacted paleontologists and they were thrilled. 

“We said, ’Hey, that looks like a primitive bone,” said Thomas, who then accompanied Plunkett to the site and gathered parts of the skull, an ear bone and a tooth and brought them back to the museum adjacent to the Coliseum. 

“He’s a musician,” the paleontologist said. “How he noticed it was a vertebrate is anybody’s guess.” 

The toothed baleen whale, which was about 30 feet long, represents a rare evolutionary link between whales as we know them — with their brushy, plankton-catching plates — and their ancient, toothy ancestors. 

The toothed baleen whale dates back to the earliest part of the Miocene Epoch, and the Casitas find may be one of the last of the toothed baleens to survive past the Oligocene Epoch. 

Plunkett, whose telephone number isn’t listed, has been very protective of his fossil find. In a written statement, Plunkett said he hoped to create an Ojai learning center to house the skeletal remains. 

“I feel it appropriate for the whale to remain in the Ojai Valley,” Plunkett said. 

But Thomas said he is hoping to dig up the entire skeleton later, once the museum is able draw up a budget for digging and cleaning. 

Doug Ralph, director of the Lake Casitas Recreation Area, said he would like excavation to occur quickly for fear scavengers might descend on the site.

CHICO – Manslaughter charges could be filed against some members of a fraternity where an 18-year-old student died, the Butte County district attorney has announced. 

Adrian Heideman died Oct. 7 during a party where he tried to drink a bottle of brandy. 

The California State University, Chico, freshman from Palo Alto had a blood-alcohol content of .37, more than four times the legal limit for driving. 

District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Thursday that he had only recently been given the results of the police investigation, but added that he was considering charges against members of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. Heideman was a new member of the fraternity. 

Medical reports show that Heideman died of asphyxiation due to alcohol poisoning. 

Ramsey said medical examiners found that the alcohol stopped Heideman’s ability to vomit the alcohol. Instead, it filled his lungs. 

The fraternity could also be charged with manslaughter. If the organization is charged, it could face criminal fines of up to $10,000.

PEBBLE BEACH – This is some of the world’s most prized real estate – looming Monterey pine and cypress trees, top-caliber golf courses and achingly lovely mansions, all giving way to a pristine, rocky shoreline. 

But the celebrities and other investors who paid $820 million last year for 2,600 acres of this land say beauty alone can’t pay the bills. They want to build a new golf course and expand resorts in the area – and some residents and environmentalists say they’re tricking voters into going along with it. 

The Pebble Beach Co. – whose investors include actor-director Clint Eastwood, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and golfer Arnold Palmer – is making an intriguing offer in its development plans. The company says 425 forested acres it owns, now zoned for housing, should be preserved forever as open space. 

“We’re doing this because we love the area and we want to keep it always great,” said Eastwood, who has lived in Monterey County for nearly 40 years and served two years as mayor of nearby Carmel in the 1980s. “I guess everybody has a little bit of nostalgia. I’d like to see Pebble Beach remain the same, as much as it can in the real world.” 

The company has placed an initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot in Monterey County, asking voters to change zoning rules so the company can carry out both its expansion and the forest preservation. 

The initiative, Measure A, is supported by the local residents’ association and endorsed by the local newspaper, the Monterey County Herald. If the measure passes, parts of the development itself could still be vetoed by county officials and the California Coastal Commission. 

But critics say a ballot initiative is the wrong way to carry out complicated changes in land-use plans, which usually require laborious public hearings and environmental impact studies. The company says all such procedures will still take place before it begins its expansion. 

The opponents say the company has given voters a deceptively titled ballot measure – the Del Monte Forest Preservation and Development Limitation Initiative – and are using Eastwood’s reputation to present itself as a bunch of preservationists, rather than golf course builders. 

“Clint and Ueberroth and Palmer want some return on their big, big investment, and I don’t blame them,” said Ted Hunter, co-chairman of the opposition group, Concerned Residents of Pebble Beach. “We’re saying they’re getting too greedy, they ought to do it the right way, the way any other developer would.” 

Though the opposition consists mostly of well-off residents of Pebble Beach and nearby communities, they clearly are outgunned. As of Sept. 30, the company’s campaign already had spent $734,235, while the opponents had spent just $4,224. Pebble Beach Co.’s executive vice president, Mark Stilwell, said the company is willing to spend “whatever it takes.” 

The company wants to send at least four mailers to every voter in the county and might air commercials with Eastwood, to draw the interest of far-away county residents who might never cruise the area’s famed 17-Mile Drive or tee up at Spyglass Hill. 

Gillian Taylor, who chairs the local Sierra Club chapter, said Measure A contains provisions that restrict the ability of county officials and the Coastal Commission to refine certain elements of the company’s plans. She fears that if the initiative passes, other developers will feel emboldened to try the same tactic. 

Pebble Beach Co. contends nothing sneaky is going on. The company says the initiative merely lets it know now, rather than years down the road, whether it will be able to carry out an expansion that Stilwell estimates will cost more than $100 million. 

The previous owner of the Pebble Beach Co. – Taiheiyo Club Inc., a Japanese company – had proposed 315 new homes in the area, though it is zoned for as many as 890, in addition to a new golf course. 

Under the new plan, the company could only add 38 new residential units, adjacent to existing streets, though it could add as many as 210 new guest rooms at the resorts. An equestrian center in the area would be moved to an old quarry, with the new golf course in its place. 

The opponents say they fear increased traffic from big events at the new golf course and effects on their water supply. 

They also say Measure A does not save as much forest as it purports. While it blocks residential development, some areas will be rezoned for “recreational open space” – meaning a golf course that will require cutting down some trees. 

Alan Williams, a developer who has worked on other Eastwood properties in the area and is advising Pebble Beach Co. on this project, said trees removed for the golf course can be moved elsewhere on the property. 

“We try to educate people in what we’re trying to do,” Eastwood said. “And I think if we let them down, we deserve to not have their faith, and not have the project.”

Open-records advocates praise Judicial Council’s decision;  

opponents claim ruling hurts defendants’ privacy 

SAN FRANCISCO – California’s trial judges no longer can seal court records automatically under a new rule adopted Friday. 

The rule, an outgrowth of a California Supreme Court decision last year, requires judges to state on the record why they are sealing a record. The reasons must be in accordance with guidelines spelled out by the high court. 

Open-records advocates hailed the rule, approved 18-1 by the Judicial Council — the administrative arm of California’s court system. 

The only negative vote came from John Collins, a Pasadena lawyer appointed by the State Bar to sit on the council. He said the Judicial Council has no place to adopt such a controversial rule, adding that is the state legislature’s job. 

“There is an awful lot of stuff that may get daylight that shouldn’t,” said Collins, whose vote does not reflect the position of the State Bar that represents all of California’s lawyers. 

Advocates said the rule would stop judges from the common practice of “casually” sealing records at the request of attorneys. 

“It’s not going to stop all sealings. But I think it will cut down on the number of casual sealings that occur without any good reason except that the parties in the case think it is OK,” said Terry Francke, counsel of the California First Amendment Coalition. 

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Ronald Robie agreed with Francke. Robie, a Judicial Council member, said judges immediately seal records at the request or by so-called “stipulations” of lawyers, regardless of whether the documents should remain open. 

Now a judge must conduct a hearing and state the reasons for sealing, which might make judges leery of sealing a record, Robie said. 

“It eliminates stipulations,” he said. “That happens frequently.” 

When a judge seals a record, the judge must find an “overriding” interest. That is the standard the California Supreme Court spelled out last year when the high court ruled that a lower court erred when it excluded the public and media from portions of a civil trial in which the jury was not present. 

The high court said there was a First Amendment right to access courts and the justices requested the Judicial Council propose how and when court records could be sealed. 

Even so, the definition of an overriding interest is at the judge’s discretion. Such interests include sealing trade secret information in a lawsuit, the addresses and phone numbers of witnesses and, in some cases, psychiatric and medical reports. 

However, even under the new rules, settlement agreements of lawsuits remain confidential as well as a host of juvenile court records and documents of family mediation disputes. 

Some lawmakers have said they may introduce legislation next year requiring that lawsuits settled out of court become public records.

OAKLAND – The man accused of shooting and killing three meat inspectors on a visit to his linguisa factory in June has pleaded innocent to murder charges. 

Stuart Alexander, 39, is accused of shooting U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors Thomas Quadros, 52, and Jeannie Hillery, 56, and state inspector Bill Shaline, 57 at his Santos Linguisa Factory in San Leandro. Another state inspector, Earl Willis, escaped unharmed. 

The Alameda County district attorney’s office has said it will seek the death penalty. 

The next court date is for discovery on Dec. 8. 

On surveillance tapes from the June 21 shooting, Alexander is seen grabbing three handguns in his office, loading them, then closing the window blinds. The next scene, from a surveillance camera high above the retail section of the factory, shows the inspectors falling after being shot. 

The black and white tapes show Alexander coming into the room, shooting at prone inspectors Quadros, Hillery and Shaline. Alexander then runs outside to chase another Willis. 

Hillery is seen lifting her head and moving her right arm, and Quadros appears to be moving, as Alexander re-enters the room. The factory owner reloads, then moves over to each of the inspectors and shoots them several times. 

Alexander, who is seen pacing his office before grabbing the handguns, appears calm during the shootings. 

Shaline was shot six times. Hillery was shot four times. Quadros was shot three times. All died in the factory.

SAN FRANCISCO – Pacific Bell could face more than $2 million in fines levied by state regulators who appear likely to punish the company for tricking customers into signing up for unwanted telephone service options. 

California Public Utilities Commissioner Josiah Neeper said Pac Bell scared customers into dropping the “complete blocking” option by telling them they might experience difficulties completing calls. 

When customers choose the “complete blocking” option, their numbers do not appear on Caller ID boxes, making the devices a tough sell for Pac Bell. 

Neeper, who previously said no fine was needed, now recommends Pac Bell pay a $2.4 million fine. 

Neeper’s about-face came as a surprise to the company. 

“This entire case is a sad commentary on the regulatory system, as there were virtually no facts on customer complaints to support the proceeding,” said Pac Bell spokesman Bill Blase. 

Commissioner Richard Bilas has begun drafting a separate proposal to fine Pac Bell for a different amount, a sign that a majority of the five CPUC commissioners would endorse such a penalty on the company.

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Senate contenders Dianne Feinstein and Tom Campbell clashed sharply Friday on drugs, economics and immigration, as raucous Green Party protesters rushed the television station where they debated and demanded their candidate be allowed to participate. 

There were no injuries. After the hour-long debate, Feinstein left the building through a rear entrance to avoid some 100 protesters, who remain jammed in the building’s lobby. 

Supporters of Green Party candidate Medea Benjamin began their protest on the sidewalk in front of KRON-TV, then pushed into the stations’ lobby. Benjamin was excluded from the debate under ground rules adopted by the station and the Feinstein and Campbell campaigns. 

About a dozen police officers blocked the demonstrators and arrested two people. One was identified as Northern California campaign director June Brashares. Both were immediately released. 

The protest did not delay the debate’s start. 

Meanwhile, in the upstairs studio, Campbell and Feinstein differed on immigration and the Republican Campbell’s proposal to help addicts kick the habit by giving them access to drugs. 

They also clashed on Social Security financing, with Democratic incumbent Feinstien opposing Campbell’s proposal — similar to that of Texas Gov. George Bush —to invest some Social Security funds in the stock market. 

The disagreements began with an exchange on drug policy. 

Campbell said the federal government’s plan to give $1.3 billion to Colombia for an anti-drug program was the first step toward a “third world jungle war.” 

“Don’t spend this money on Colombia, spend it on rehabilitation,” he said. 

Feinstein said though current anti-drug efforts have not succeeded, she opposed offering drugs to addicts. 

“It’s folly to legalize narcotics,” she said. 

Campbell also said Feinstein supported a national ID citizenship card as a citizenship test — which she denied — and restricted levels of legal immigration. 

As the two met in the studio, their scant, newly released television ads peppered the air waves — the first TV spots in the no-frills campaign. 

Feinstein’s 30-second spot focuses on education, health care and crime, while Campbell’s ad centers on his drug treatment proposal. Campbell says giving addicts drugs in controlled settings with local authorities’ approval would help treatment and limit crime. Feinstein has ridiculed the idea. 

By election day, Feinstein is likely to spend roughly $5 million on her general election and Campbell little more than half that — cheap in a state known for costly campaigns. 

Campbell, 48, a Harvard-trained Stanford University law school professor with a decade in the House, has raised issues he says distinguish him from Feinstein. 

Those include replacing the personal income tax with a national sales tax. He also notes that he refuses to accept contributions from special-interest political action committees. 

Feinstein, 67, opposes Campbell’s position on taxes and drug rehabilitation, and accepts PAC funds. 

Both favor gun control and abortion rights, two hot-button issues in California. 

Any differences on issues have been overshadowed by Campbell’s claim that Feinstein has conflicts of interest arising from her husband’s financial dealings and that she failed to fully disclose them. 

Campbell raised the issue in their first debate Tuesday in Santa Monica. He hammered it again at a San Francisco news conference Friday afternoon. 

Feinstein’s husband, international investment banker Richard C. Blum, has an array of financial interests, including some in China affected by Feinstein’s Senate votes, Campbell said. 

Feinstein denies Campbell’s assertions. She said she has supplied complete disclosure information. 

A Los Angeles Times poll released Friday showed Feinstein with a 25-point lead over Campbell among likely voters. The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

SACRAMENTO – Californians continue to drift away from the two major political parties, with 14 percent of voters now registered as independents, figures released Friday show. 

That compares to 11 percent four years ago. In all, 15.7 million Californians are registered to vote Nov. 7, a record high, according to the report by Secretary of State Bill Jones. 

The figure is only 45,184 voters higher than it was for the 1996 presidential election, but Jones declared it a victory. 

County elections officials wiped more than 1.5 million names of voters who had died, moved away or were otherwise ineligible to vote from the rolls in the last four years, he said. 

The increase in independents comes directly at the expense of the Republican and Democratic parties, which both saw their slice of the electorate shrink slightly. 

Democrats still hold a sizable registration advantage over Republicans, 45-35 percent, roughly the same spread as in 1996. 

And they registered 449,920 new voters since the March 7 primary, compared to 344,516 for the GOP and 223,648 for decline-to-states. 

The Green Party has 0.88 percent of the California electorate, up slightly from 1996, and the Reform Party 0.5 percent, down a bit. 

“It’s just incredible, that despite all the efforts of the major parties, the voter group that is expanding at the fastest rate in California continues to be people who choose neither major party,” said pollster Mark Baldassare. 

“It’s one of the two most powerful political trends in the state, the other being the growth of the Latino vote,” he said. 

Bob Mulholland, a spokesman for the California Democratic Party, said the defection from the parties mirrored a general decline in loyalty. 

“It’s the baby boomers, plus the X Generation, have little loyalty to institutions — they change car dealerships, spouses, jobs,” he said. “Parties are one of last bases they’re hanging in with.” 

“California is an independent state,” said Stuart DeVeaux, a spokesman for the state GOP. “And when young people are registering to vote, they’re registering independent, and saying, ’Work for my vote, work for my participation.”’

Eatery closed after one diner dies, dozens of others sick 

REDWOOD CITY – One woman died and dozens of other diners were sickened after eating at a restaurant, and officials shut Viva Mexico down after finding a number of health code violations at the restaurant. 

Constance Williams-Pennel, 53, of Sunnyvale, ate lunch at Viva Mexico last Friday. She died Monday, and at least 30 other people reported they became sick — with several requiring hospitalization — after eating at the same restaurant, county officials said Thursday. 

The Environmental Health Services Division of the San Mateo County Health Services Agency shut the restaurant down this week, less than half an hour after beginning an inspection into the establishment. 

Preliminary laboratory reports say Williams-Pennel apparently died from shigella poisoning, or shigellosis, an infectious disease caused by bacteria.  

Final autopsy results won’t be released until toxicology tests are completed later this week. 

Dean Peterson, director of the health services division, said they were alerted by a person who became seriuosly ill after eating at Viva Mexico on Friday. 

“They stay closed until we are completely confident they have the ability to provide a safe product to the public,” Peterson said. 

Inspectors said they found serious violations, including open containers of food left in a walk-in cooler; plastic tubs used to cool potentially hazardous chicken products, beef and beans; cooking and reheating temperatures not regularly checked by cooks; an inaccurate thermometer used to check the temperature of food; shrimp thawing in standing, rather than running, water; and cutting boards and food preparation surfaces not cleaned between uses. All are violations of the California Health Code. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people infected with the bacteria develop bloody diarrhea, high fever and stomach cramps beginning a day or two after they are exposed. The disease usually subsides in about a week. 

About 18,000 cases of shigellosis are reported in the United States each year. 

S.F. supervisor promises zoning to help protect non-profits 

SAN FRANCISCO – Supervisor Michael Yaki said he will introduce interim zoning protections in the mid-Market area of the city in an effort to buy time for more than two dozen threatened nonprofit organizations. 

The legislation would limit the number of new uses in the area, a move that would forbid existing nonprofit space from being rented to commercial businesses. The measure would not prohibit evictions, but would force property owners to bring in another tenant with the same or similar use. 

The protections would last 12 months and give San Francisco time to apply long-term solutions, said Yaki, who called his plan a drastic but necessary step to stop a wave of displacements sweeping the neighborhood. 

“This tsunami isn’t going to take out an individual group, it’s going to wash out a whole village,” Yaki said. “It’s like building a temporary dam. Right now, the river is washing away nonprofits one by one and now it’s about to hit a whole group of them. This gives us time to work and figure out what to do.” 

There are about 30 or more organizations in the area that have been kicked out, face eviction or have been hit with up to 400 percent rent increases.  

Feds commit $8 million for S.F. salt ponds 

WASHINGTON – The federal government has committed $8 million for the purchase of nearly 20,000 acres of San Francisco Bay salt ponds, which have been used for salt production since the Gold Rush era. 

The salt ponds, now eyed as a wildlife sanctuary, are located mainly in Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. 

The money will be added to the $25 million that Gov. Gray Davis pledged last month toward the downpayment on the land owned by Cargill Salt Co. and estimated to be worth $300 million. 

Environmentalists worry that buying the ponds will speed San Francisco International Airport’s proposal to build new runways.  

Paying to restore the ponds to their natural condition is considered a way for the airport to mitigate environmental damage from the expansion. 

Daily Planet Staff reports  

Berkeley High School has been granted $350,000 through the Federal Safe School Initiative to install comprehensive intercom and fire safety systems.  

“I am delighted that the House and Senate approved these funds for Berkeley High School. We need these funds to supplement the safety systems the school has installed this year. This money will help ensure the safety of our Berkeley High School students,” Mayor Shirley Dean said. “The people of Berkeley are very grateful for Senator Boxer’s efforts.”  

Dean wrote to Boxer in March requesting federal funds to acquire a working alarm and communication system at the high school.  

In the last two years, Berkeley High School has had serious arson fires that went undetected for some time due to the lack of a working alarm system. Students and staff literally did not have warning about one fire until smoke began to waft into classrooms from a nearby supply room fire.  

Teachers and staff hastily evacuated the building without injury, but the circumstances were very disturbing. The damage from the April 2000 fire is estimated at $1 million.

An audience of mostly college students challenged New York Times editors and writers Monday about what news is fit to print when it comes to race in America. 

“We believe in this project with all our hearts,” said Gerald M. Boyd, deputy managing editor who conceived the Times’ year-long investigative series “How Race is Lived in America,” a 15-part series dealing with race through the lens of relationships. 

But audience members said the series reduced race relations to an “emotional statement” and that the Times often fails to fairly cover other racially charged issues, most recently the case of a Chinese American scientist charged with espionage. 

About 25 reporters and photographers fanned throughout the country over a year to produce the series, which included articles about the frustration of low-wage workers in a North Carolina pork-packing plant, the struggle of middle-school New Jersey girls of different races to maintain their friendship, and the decision of an Atlanta-area church to include a mixed-race Jesus in the Christmas pageant. Decades ago, the story would have been about blacks denied equal rights, said Boyd, who is African American. But that has changed, he said. “There's been some progress. Even so, whites and people of color remain divided.” 

About 700 people packed Wheeler Auditorium for the symposium. In cities like Berkeley, people often think “we are beyond even talking about race, that’s only for those hicks in the South,” said Timothy P. Egan, a national reporter who wrote one of the articles. Egan is Caucasian. But students lined up to comment on and question the Times coverage. 

Boyd said the genesis of the series was the office mood after the OJ Simpson verdict was announced. “Every place you looked in the New York Times when the verdict was announced, you could hear a pin drop,” he said. At the Times, as elsewhere in the United States, reactions to the verdict came down on racial lines, Boyd said. 

But soon the conversations stopped and everyone went back to their work. “Why was there this difference and why weren't people talking about it?” said Boyd. “We set out journalistically to go into this silence. The silence taking place in the newsroom, and the silence across the country,” Boyd said. 

Times writer Dana Canedy, who is African American, said, “There's a silence and fear of saying the wrong thing. Am I going to lose my job, just blow that promotion, are people going to ask me to lunch?” 

“I don't know what it is about race that makes it so powerful,” said Boyd, who said he had sleepless nights while the series was being produced. 

Timothy P. Egan, a Seattle-based correspondent, said while writing for the series he was looking for “one moment of revelation and a bit of light coming through.” 

Race often boils down to class, said UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism alumnus Charlie LeDuff, who is mixed Native American and Caucasian. “Who gets what?” he asked. 

One audience member criticized the series for being “tokenist” and superficial. Another asked about the decision to focus on black and white, as the series included only one article on Asian Americans. 

Ariel Luckey, a UC Berkeley senior in Environmental Studies, criticized the Times coverage of Wen Ho Lee, a Chinese American scientist accused of espionage. The Times, which identified the Los Alamos scientist by race, later printed an explanation for the coverage that came close to an apology. 

“We take this as seriously as anything I've ever encountered in my career as a journalist,” said Boyd. “This year will be remembered for two things,” he said. Boyd said in future the Times will recall its 15-part, 100,000-word series on race in America, and its 1,600-word statement on Wen Ho Lee. 

A lawsuit filed by civil rights groups against the state got under way today, charging that California schools are plagued by filthy facilities, outdated textbooks and uncredentialed teachers. 

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch decided on two motions today. First, he declined to appoint an independent evaluator to survey schools and determine such things as the availability of textbooks in California classrooms.  

He further decided to take under submission the state's demurrer, or request for dismissal, which would determine whether the case can proceed or not. 

“It does not seem that the case turns on cleaning the underbrush or figuring out which of the alleged problems are actually there,” Busch told the court. “But rather on whether the existing standards and mechanisms to address them are constitutionally adequate.” 

Busch, however, indicated the case had basis, saying, “Discovery can go forward. There is a case here that can survive the demur stage.” 

The complaint alleges that the state reneged on its constitutional obligation to provide the bare essentials necessary for education and charges that officials violated state requirements that equal access to public education be provided without regard to race, color or national origin. 

Specifically, it charges that low-income and non-white students are being denied the basic necessities required to get an education because they are in schools with substandard conditions such as unqualified teachers, no textbooks even for core courses, not enough classrooms or rotting classrooms with mold, leaks or vermin. 

The complaint cites 46 schools that lack bare minimum necessities of education in Southern and Northern California. They include Balboa High School, Luther Burbank Middle School and Bryant Elementary School in San Francisco; Fremont High School in Oakland; and Watsonville High School in Watsonville. Busch questioned the direction of the lawsuit, saying it is not clear whether it is aimed at the state’s oversight or supervision role regarding strategy to make sure it carries out its functions in an appropriate way, or whether it is aimed at asking the state to correct the specific conditions outlined in the suit. 

Plaintiff’s attorney Mark Rosenbaum tried to address the judge’s concern, saying the obligation of the state is to establish a system of accountability. 

“What's missing is a plan of accountability to identify and  

implement remedies and ensure basic conditions are provided,” he said. 

John Daum, attorney representing the state, said, “It cannot be disputed that the state has some ultimate responsibility for  

education.” 

But Daum said if the case, as the plaintiffs assert, is about the absence of standards, it must be determined what the standards are before litigation commences. 

“What should the state have employed that it didn't? What did the state fail to do that the constitution required it to do?” he asked the court. 

Daum said the state, like any large organization, does have a system to address concerns and manage its responsibilities in the form of its Uniform Complaint Procedure, and it is unfair to assume the state would not have fixed the problems once they were highlighted.  

He said, however, that the process of correction stopped because the plaintiffs withdrew their administrative complaints. 

Rosenbaum retorted by saying the real question is why doesn’t the state – on its own – monitor, school conditions and remedy them. 

Busch said the issue is not one of blame, but rather what in the system “broke down,” noting that he will come to his final conclusion as quickly as he can and let both sides know when it is time for a status conference.  

Meanwhile, Michael Jacobs, a plantiff's attorney with Morrison & Foerster, said outside court that his side will move ahead by hiring its own surveyor. He said he hopes the state will answer the questions put to them and is looking forward to getting a trial date.  

“Judge Busch is trying to sort out the complexities of the state’s role in education,” Jacobs said. “We are pleased with his questions.”

Actor slain at Halloween party 

LOS ANGELES – A police officer shot and killed a guest at an upscale Halloween costume party after the man pointed a fake gun at him, police said. 

It wasn’t clear if the man knew the officer was a real policeman, or if he thought he was just another partygoer in costume, a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman said. 

Anthony Dwain Lee, 39, of Van Nuys died at the West Los Angeles mansion where he was shot shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday. He was an actor who had appeared in small TV and film roles, including on the shows “ER” and “NYPD Blue” and as the character Fred in the 1997 Jim Carrey movie, “Liar Liar.” 

Police said several hundred people, many of them in costume, were at the Benedict Canyon mansion, known to some as “the Castle” for its extravagant design. Officer Tarriel Hopper and his partner went there in response to a noise complaint, and were looking for the mansion’s owner as they walked along an outside walkway. 

Police reported that the officers looked through a window and saw Lee and two other people in a room. Lee looked up toward Hopper and allegedly pointed a phony gun in his direction, said police officer Charlotte Broughton. 

Hopper responded by firing several rounds from his weapon through the window. Investigators later determined Lee’s gun was fake. 

“It does not appear that (the officer) did anything wrong,” Broughton said. “When somebody has what appears to be an authentic weapon, you respond the way you’re trained to respond.” 

Hopper, 27, has been with the department three years, while his partner Natalie Humphreys, 25, joined the force two years ago, police said. The shooting is being investigated by the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division and a team from the district attorney’s office. 

Partygoer Rick Hull told KTLA-TV in Los Angeles that Lee raised his toy gun after an officer shined a flashlight into the room, and that officers did not identify themselves before the shooting. 

“I can’t explain why the officer would shoot someone at a costume party who might have had a toy gun,” Lee’s younger sister, Tina Vogt, told KTTV-TV in Los Angeles. 

“I mean, I don’t think they can give me the kind of answers that I need, quite honestly,” said Vogt, who works in the police chief’s office in the Sacramento Police Department. 

Lee’s friend, Kirsten Blackburn of Glendale, said Lee was a “man of peace,” a Buddhist who worked with a youth organization. 

“We’re devastated, and we’re not alone by any means,” Blackburn said. “This is so incredibly shocking that a person would be taken down like this.” 

Lee was wearing a black sweatshirt, a black vest and tan colored pants, said county coroner’s Lt. Dan Aikin. 

A friend of 15 years who was not at the party, Mitch Hale, told the Los Angeles Times that Lee usually wore a devil mask costume with a hood and carried a replica gun to Halloween parties as a reminder of his past. 

As a youth in Northern California, Lee had followed the gangster life before becoming an actor and eventually moving to Los Angeles, Hale said. 

“He was dressed as a devil, not a gangster,” Hale said. “How could this happen?”

Stanford’s Leber scores two goals 

The Cal men’s soccer team was shut out by a more energetic Stanford squad Sunday at Edwards Stadium. The 3-0 loss dropped the Bears out of Pac-10 contention at 2-3-1 in league play, while the No. 2 Cardinal boosted their title hopes by running their conference record to 5-1. 

After winning a tough match against Oregon State Friday, the Bears looked a step slow all game. Stanford didn’t play Friday, and it showed as they raced around the field cutting off passing lanes and attacking the Cal goal with a frenzy, outshooting the home side 19-4 and playing most of the game in the Cal half of the field. 

“They were fresh coming into this game. It’s hard to recover in two days when your opponent didn’t play,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. “We were physically tired and maybe a little bit mentally tired.” 

The first Stanford goal came in the 12th minute when Scott Leber collected a pass inside the box and slid the ball past Cal goalkeeper Marco Palmieri. 

Leber scored again to open the second half, heading in a corner kick by teammate Matt Moses, who also assisted on the first goal. 

Cal was unable to get the ball to their front men, Austin Ripmaster and Kendall Simmonds, and had numerous passes intercepted by the Stanford midfielders. No Bear had more than one shot in the game, and Stanford goalie Adam Zapala wasn’t seriously challenged on his way to his conference-best 11th shutout of the year. 

“Our possession game really didn’t work today, but I think that’s a byproduct of Stanford’s pressure,” Grimes said. “They had so much more jump in their legs than we did.” 

Stanford put the game out of reach with their third goal in the 62nd minute. 

Forward Corey Woolfolk took a breakaway down the center of the field and passed off to Roger Levesque, who scored easily.

Findings from half-million-dollar study give go-ahead for next year 

SAN FRANCISCO – A seismic safety examination of plans for a new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has determined that the state Department of Transportation is on its way to designing a seismically safe bridge. 

A team of 25 engineers and scientists from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the report Friday. 

The Army Corps’ findings are the result of a $500,000 two-phase study commissioned by the city of San Francisco and the state to help resolve the bitter and costly dispute over how to make the 65-year-old bridge withstand an earthquake. 

The Army Corps determined in September, after a first phase of the seismic safety study, that the eastern span of the bridge needs to be replaced, not repaired.  

But the findings of the second phase, which studied whether the current design meets seismic criteria, are less clear. 

The Army Corps said it did not have the data to evaluate the bridge according to a set of earthquake criteria it was asked to use, but expressed faith in Caltrans’ designers. 

Caltrans is “moving along a path to design a bridge that meets the seismic performance criteria,” the report states. 

“They’ve got the right kind of people with the right kind of knowledge and the design procedures they’re following appear to be on a path to meet the criteria they’ve established,” said Jim Taylor, an Army Corps spokesman. 

Part of the problem in the evaluation of data, according to the Army Corps, is that Caltrans is designing the bridge according to one set of earthquake standards, and the Army Corps was asked to evaluate it on a different set. 

Caltrans spokesman Dennis Trujillo said the difference between the two sets of criteria “is like inches versus centimeters — it’s a different methodology.” 

The Army Corps’ report said the quake it used to evaluate Caltrans’ plans would be larger than the quake Caltrans is designing the bridge to withstand. 

Trujillo said the report has not changed Caltrans’ plans for the new span, and that it will continue the process. 

The Army Corps spent four months evaluating 75,000 pages of data that Caltrans has drawn up for its plans so far. Construction on the four-year project could begin as soon as next year.