When the Cal men’s basketball team faces off against the Oregon Ducks on Thursday, it will be a battle of teams looking to break into the top half of the Pac-10 conference. It will also be an individual battle between two stars with remarkably similar backgrounds. 

Cal’s Sean Lampley and Oregon’s Bryan Bracey are both seniors. They are both 6-foot-7 forwards from Chicago. And both players lead their team in scoring with effective inside-outside games. 

But while Lampley’s journey since high school has been fairly smooth, becoming a starter in his freshman year at Cal, Bracey took the long way to stardom. He started out at Malcolm X Junior College in Chicago, leading the team in scoring and rebounding and making the all-conference team. Bracey clearly has the talent to play big-time basketball, but he feels Al Allen, his coach at Oak Park High, held him back and forced his onto the juco circuit. 

“My high school coach didn’t want to give me a chance,” Bracey said. “He didn’t want to help me get a scholarship to play basketball, and that’s what I wanted. We just had a difference of opinion.”  

Bracey headed to Oregon in 1999 to play for head coach Ernie Kent, and was the sixth man on a team that made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years. This year he has emerged as the leading scorer in the Pac-10, combining an improved outside game with his powerful inside moves after spending last summer back home in Chicago, playing against big-time opposition in summer league games. 

“I actually went and played and Coach Kent came down to watch me play. He thought that I was the best player in the gym. Now, we're talking about guys like Michael Finley, Antoine Walker, Juwan Howard, all them guys, and I was just dominating everybody,” Bracey said. “I feel more confident that I can compete with those guys at the next level. While I was there, they taught me offensive moves, ways to get open, things like that. I learned a lot. It was a very productive summer for me.” 

Bracey is using those moves to score 20.3 points per game, to go with 7.5 rebounds. Cal head coach Ben Braun is impressed with the improvement Bracey has shown, especially since the Ducks lost their three leading scorers from last season. 

“I think Bryan Bracey has really stepped up and shown improvement from a year ago. He was a solid player a year ago, but he’s really stepped up,” Braun said. “After losing some of the players they lost, it’s really given Bryan Bracey an opportunity to take more of an assertive role on the team, and I think he’s taken advantage of that. He’s an active player, he’s scoring, he’s rebounding and he’s a versatile player, as well - somebody who can score inside and outside.” 

Bracey has led the Ducks to a 10-1 record so far this year, and they could be on their way to a second straight NCAA appearance. But with Stanford, Arizona and USC firmly entrenched at the top of the Pac-10, they will have to battle several other teams, including the Bears, for a spot in the tournament. 

Lampley and Bracey will likely be matched up for much of the game on Thursday. Neither player is known for his defensive prowess, so it could be a big scoring game for both players. The game will be won in the backcourt, where the Ducks are led by freshman point guard Luke Ridnour. Cal point guard Shantay Legans has been stepping up his offensive game lately, so Ridnour will have his hands full. 

“He’s getting better and better with his confidence. He’s getting more aggressive in spots,” Braun said of his point guard. “I think he’s becoming more familiar and understanding situations a little bit better. He’s coming around. He’s been a lot steadier for us.” 

The Ducks also have a two-headed threat at the off guard, where both Frederick Jones and Anthony Norwood are averaging more than 14 points per game. But the Bears will have an advantage inside, as the Ducks only have one player in their regular rotation who is taller than 6-foot-7.  

Centers Nick Vander Laan and Solomon Hughes should be able to have their way with the Oregon frontcourt. Hughes, who has been coming off of the bench of late, has been playing very well lately. 

“He’s using his agility, not rushing himself as much, and he’s playing with confidence. He’s confident that he can be a factor,” Braun said. “I think his teammates are looking for him, and that may have been something that didn’t happen as much earlier in the year. His teammates’ confidence has grown as well. You can see that by Lampley giving up shots to get the ball to Solomon. That’s a good sign.”

During his last days in office, President Clinton will review the case for clemency of Anishinabe-Lakota political prisoner Leonard Peltier. 

In 1973 I participated in the Wounded Knee occupation for seven weeks. There I learned first hand of the reign of terror being perpetrated against traditional Lakota people who were demanding a modicum of civil rights and protesting both outrageous police brutality and violations of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. From 1973 to 1976 over 66 traditionalists and American Indian Movement supporters were murdered and over 300 severely beaten on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which is also the poorest county in the United States. 

After attending the October, 1973 funeral of Lakota civil rights leader Pedro Bissonette, I was arrested for walking Pine Ridge streets after dark. I was held overnight. All my cash was taken as a fine and I was left on an isolated road on the reservation border in freezing wind and rain to hitchhike home.  

Thirty days of jail awaited me if I returned to the reservation. Luckily the first car that stopped that day was filled with friendly Lakota elders. 

Leonard Peltier was not so lucky. Leonard has taken the rap for everyone involved. The FBI Cointelpro program was out to make someone serve prison time for the Wounded Knee occupation and its aftermath. 

Peltier was convicted of “aiding and abetting” the murder of two FBI agents during a shootout in the civil war zone/police state that was the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. How ironic is it that the two individuals Leonard supposedly “aided and abetted” were found innocent on grounds of self defense? 

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that the FBI coerced witnesses to perjure testimony, that evidence was fabricated, and that a ballistics test proving Peltier's innocence was suppressed. While the Court called FBI behavior “a clear abuse of the investigative process” it refused a new trial, being “reluctant to impute further improprieties to them (the FBI).” 

At a 1995 parole hearing U.S. Prosecutor Lynn Crooks admitted again that no evidence exists against Peltier, but the parole board denied Peltier's request. 

The California Democratic Party, Green Party, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jesse Jackson, Mother Theresa, Robert Redford, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark are among over 10,000 individuals and groups who have called upon President Clinton to release Leonard. 

I implore you to add your voice and call the White House comment line: 202-456-1111 

to urge Peltier's clemency before January 20. Just wait on the line – you'll have to spend a lot more time if you start punching numerical options. E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov. 

In the words of Green vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke. “At this point there can be no justice for Native people until Leonard Peltier is free.” 

John Iversen is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa (Anishinabe) Tribe and co-founder of ACT UP/East Bay and the Berkeley Needle Exchange. He lives in San Leandro. 

Thursday, Jan. 11

Toni Stone and the Negro Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball League in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Benefit Concert for Food First 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz  

1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 

Featuring the David Thom Band, Buffalo Roam, Tree o’ Frogs, and Ten Ton Chicken. All proceeds benefit Food First.  

$10 - $15 donation 

Call Kevin Doyle, 843-6389 x201 

California Babylon  

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Kristan Lawson & Anneli Rufus discuss their book “A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State.” Free 843-3533  

Free Anonymous HIV Testing 

5:15 - 7:15 p.m. 

Check in 5 - 7 p.m. 

University Health Services 

Tang Center  

2222 Bancroft Way 

Drop-in services and limited space is available. 642-7202 

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Presentation of housing proposals, including those from: Center for independent Living, Affordable Housing Associates, Jubilee Restoration and others. 

Ski & Snowboard Descents  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Paul Richins, author of “50 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Summits in California - Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney,” presents in slides some of his favorite ski mountaineering and backcountry snowboard descents. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Ballroom Dancing  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

With Roman Ostrowski  

Call 644-6107  

Former Foster Kids & Friends 

Arts & Writings Project  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Free Clinic  

2339 Durant Ave.  

A free drop-in, open discussion project.  

Call 548-2744 

Berkeley Reads program  

6-8 p.m. 

West Branch Library 

1125 University 

Program orientation for volunteer tutors. 

644-8595 

Friday, Jan. 12

“Who’s Really In  

Charge Anyway?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Cedar St.  

The subject to be discussed is the guru dilemma and individual spiritual mastership. Hear about the spiritual path of light and sound and the ancient teachings of the saints. 841-4824 or visit www.masterpath.org 

“Sing for Hope” 

8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2435 Channing Way (at Dana) 

The second annual event features an evening of arias and Broadway show tunes sung by seven of New York’s young rising opera stars. All proceeds benefit the Center for AIDS Services.  

$35 performance only, $50 performance & post-concert reception 

Call 655-3435 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program. 549-2970  

“Innovative Approaches  

to Farming”  

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Reggie Knox, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farms of Santa Cruz will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533  

Yiddish Conversation  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With allen Stross  

Call 644-6107 

“Igniting the Dream:  

Social Justice in  

the New Millennium”  

6 - 9 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality  

2141 Broadway  

Oakland  

An art reception, film screening, and panel discussion featuring Rev. Phillip Lawson, Rafael Gonzalez, Luisah Teish, and Dr. Barbara Cannon. Free  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Berkeley PC Users Group 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way  

School District Office, 2nd Floor 

Doug Finley will discuss firewall protection. Free 

E-Mail: meldancing@aol.com 

Metropolitan  

Transportation Commission  

9:30 a.m.  

101 8th St.  

Auditorium  

Oakland  

Discussion of the Caldecott Tunnel Corridor Study. 

Saturday, Jan. 13

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184 

Dia de los Reyes Concert  

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church  

1640 Addison  

Performing will be Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo with the Jackeline Rago Ensemble de la Pena.  

$12 - $15  

Call (415) 431- 4234 

Rose Pruning Workshop  

9:30 a.m.  

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

Peter Klement, UC Botanical Garden rose expert will share his expertise and demonstrate techniques for shaping old-fashioned roses, climbers and hybrid teas to assure maximum flowering.  

$20 - $27.50  

Call 643-2755 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St.  

In their first East Bay show of the millennium, Sedge Thomson welcomes Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers.  

Call 415-664-9500 for reservations 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes  

for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Pancake Breakfast Fund-raiser  

8 a.m. - noon  

Frances Albrier  

Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

The Teen Clubs of Berkeley present this fundraiser in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Tickets available at all city of Berkeley recreational sites and at the Young Adult Project.  

$3 - $5  

Call 644-8515 

Bridge Rail Unveiling  

9:30 a.m.  

Codornices Creek at the Ohlone Greenway  

Members of the Berkeley and Albany city councils, along with members of the creek-restoration group, will swing sledgehammers to remove forms from the concrete bridge footing and towers. 

Call 8 48-9358 or visit www.fivecreeks.org  

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Sunday, Jan. 14

Teaching Chinese Culture in the U.S.  

2 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Educators from Bay Area Chinese schools explore issues related to teaching Chinese culture and language. Included in museum admission.  

$6 general; $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

“Berkeley, 1900” 

3 - 5 p.m. . 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Richard Schwartz gives an oral history of Berkeley at the turn of the century.  

848-0181 

A-Singin’ and a Chantin’ 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Pagan recording artist DJ Hamouris shares some songs and chants. 

Call 848-8443 

Free Feng Shui Class 

3 p.m. 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley  

2066 University Ave.  

Taught by Lily Chung, author of “Calendars for Feng Shui and Divination.” 

Call Eastwind, 548-3250 

Reimagining Pacific Cities  

6 - 8:30 p.m. 

New Pacific Studio  

1523 Hearst Ave.  

“How are Pacific cities reshaping their cultural and environmental institutions to better serve the needs and enhance the present and future quality of life of all segments of their societies?” A series of ten seminars linking the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, and other pacific cities.  

$10 per meeting  

Call 849-0217 

“Deterrence” 

2 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Kevin Pollak, as the nation’s first Jewish president, must deal with the Middle East war and a nuclear crisis of his own making while snowed-in at a campaign stop in Colorado. Discussion to follow the film.  

$2 suggested donation 

Monday, Jan. 15

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church  

1188 12th St. (at Adeline) 

Oakland  

Featuring Rev. Dorsey Blake, Dr. Matthew Fox, Reconnect Performance Troupe, Cole Performing Arts Choir and Avotcja.  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Tuesday, Jan. 16

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

“Travel as Pilgramage” 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Various travel writers discuss the spiritual aspects of travel. Free 

Call 843-3533  

Avalanche Safety Course  

6 - 9:30 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Dick Penniman, internationally known avalanche instructor and consultant, presents a slide lecture and video presentation on the fundamentals of avalanches and rescue techniques.  

$20  

Call Dick Penniman, (877) SNO-SAFE 

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is the role of the U.S. in global politics and priorities.  

Call 527-9772  

Wednesday, Jan. 17  

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters 

7:15 p.m. 

Vault Restaurant  

3250 Adeline St.  

Learn to speak fluently without fear or hesitation.  

Call Howard Linnard, 527-2337 

Your Justice System at Work 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

West Oakland Senior Center  

1724 Adeline St.  

Oakland  

Judges of the Superior Court, attorneys, probation officers, sheriff’s officers and other justice system representatives will be present to hear the concerns of the public and to answer their questions.  

Call 268-7610 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Jan. 18  

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicty,” learn about this movement whose philosophy is “the examined life richly lived.” Work less, consume less, rush less, and build community with friends and family.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Ayodele Nzinga and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

Combating Congestion  

1 - 5 p.m. 

Pauley Ballroom 

Student Union Building  

UC Berkeley 

A one-day transportation conference featuring Martin Wachs and Elizabeth Deakin, both of UC Berkeley. Co-sponsored by the Institute of Transportation Studies and the UC Transportation Center.  

Call 642-1474  

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Become Berkeley City Smart 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

In a slide presentation & talk, Berkeley resident, restaurant and movie critic John Weil takes attendees on a unique tour through the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Berkeley and Oakland. Free 

Call 843-3533  

Disabled American Veterans Chapter 25 Meeting 

8 p.m. 

Veterans Memorial Building  

1931 Center St.  

Any woman who has had a relative serve in the U.S. military is invited to attend and join the auxiliary.  

Call 916-372-8364 

Journey Across China 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Eugene Tsiang, Shanghai native, will give a slide presentation on his two-month journey last spring by train and four-wheel drive vehicle across China’s Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang Provinces. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us  

Friday, Jan. 19 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Evidence-Based Practice - How it May Effect You” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Eileen Gambrill, professor in the department of social welfare at UC Berkeley with speak. 

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Jan. 20  

On Death & Dying 

9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Buddhist Temple  

2121 Channing Way (between Shattuck & Fulton)  

Kathleen Gustin, Zen priest, and Rev. Ronald Nakasone of the Graduate Theological Union speak at this workshop designed to help those considering their own ending or that of loved ones.  

$20 per person (box lunch included) 

Call Ken Kaji, 601-5394 

Corinne Innis Reception 

5 - 7 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings.  

Call 548-9286 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Building And Remodeling 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Glen Kitzenberger discusses what homeowners need to know before building or remodeling. Skip Wenz discusses the pros and cons of building an addition. Free 

Call 525-7610 

Sunday, Jan. 21  

Live Oak Concert 

7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St.  

The music of J.S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi played by the trio of Marvin Sanders, flute, Becky Lyman, harpsichord, and Alexander Kort, cello.  

$8 - $10  

Call 644-6893 

Saying No To Power 

10:30 a.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut St. (at Rose) 

Bill Mandel, author and activist talks about his new book.  

$4 - $5  

848-0237 

Monday, Jan. 22  

Berkeley Rail Stop Community  

Design Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center  

1900 Sixth St.  

The public is invited to suggest ideas and comment on plans for design-development at the rail stop/transit plaza area of West Berkeley.  

Call 644-6580 

Urban Homelessness  

& Public Policy Solutions 

9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Alumni House  

UC Berkeley  

This day-long conference will include key scholars, service providers, and policymakers in the homelessness field. Some of the subjects to be covered will be: Homeless population dynamics and policy implications, health issues in homelessness, and legal and political issues in homelessness. Free and open to the public.  

For more info, visit: http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/homeless.htm 

Building or Remodeling? 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Glen Kitzenberger discusses what you need to know before building or remodeling. 

Call 525-7610 

Tuesday, Jan. 23 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Jan. 24 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Jan. 25  

Spirits in the Time of AIDS 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

Pro Arts reception for the opening of their new exhibition seeking to expand the understanding of HIV and AIDS and the people who are affected by them.  

Call 763-9425 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Climbing Mt. Everest  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Bob Hoffman, organizer and leader of four environmental clean-up expeditions on Everest, will give a slide presentation on the Inventa 2000 Everest Environmental Expedition’s recent ascent. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Glenn Ingersoll and host Louis Cuneo.  

644-0155 

Women in Salsa  

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Orquesta D’Soul, a San Francisco based band, is hosting this benefit featuring the musical talents of local bay area women in salsa.  

$8 in advance, $10 at the door 

Call 849-2568 or visit www.lapena.org 

Conversations in Commedia 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. (at Prince) 

Mime Troupe vet and St. Stupid’s Day creator, Ed Holmes, and 84-year-old Bari Rolfe, a mime for over 30 years, give dialogues on satire.  

$6 - $8  

Call 849-2568 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission  

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St.  

Discussions will include review of the initial environmental study and recommendations on a request to establish a public market. Also, consideration of a petition requesting that diagonal parking and parking meters not be installed on Fifth St. 

Friday, Jan. 26 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“The Aftermath of the National Election” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Susan Rasky, senior lecturer at the graduate school of journalism at UC Berkeley will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Jan. 27  

Clori, Tirsi & e Fileno 

8 p.m. 

Crowden School  

1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 

Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company, will be performing Handel’s story of jealousy in love. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performance.  

$15 - $20  

Call 658-3382  

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Cuddly, Soft, Furry Things & Friends 

10 - 10:50 a.m. & 11:10 a.m. - Noon  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

A special workshop for two - three year-olds to meet, pet, and feed rabbits, doves, and snakes.  

$22 - $25, $10 for additional family members, registration required  

Call 642-5134 

Book Publishing Seminar 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St.  

Mark Weiman presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publication. From page layout to promotion and distribution, Weiman will cover all practical aspects of independent book publishing.  

Call 547-7602 or e-mail: regent@sirius.com 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

One-Day Travel Careers Class 

8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Vista College  

2020 Milvia St.  

Room 210 

Learn about new employment opportunities in travel in the 21st century. Class will include a look at salaries, travel benefits, necessary education and preparation required. Bring payment by check to the class.  

$5.50 for California residents 

Call Marty de Souto, 981-2931  

Sunday, Jan. 28  

Clori, Tirsi & e Fileno 

7 p.m. 

Crowden School  

1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 

Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company, will be performing Handel’s story of jealousy in love. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performance.  

$15 - $20  

Call 658-3382  

Reimagining Pacific Cities  

6 - 8:30 p.m. 

New Pacific Studio  

1523 Hearst Ave.  

“How are Pacific cities reshaping their cultural and environmental institutions to better serve the needs and enhance the present and future quality of life of all segments of their societies?” A series of ten seminars linking the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, and other pacific cities.  

$10 per meeting  

Call 849-0217 

Finns in Berkeley and Co-op Beginnings 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society  

1931 Center St.  

A panel discussion on Finnish and Co-op history and on the Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley.  

$10 donation  

Call 848-0181 

Tuesday, Jan. 30 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Jan. 31 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Featuring “Berkeley Images,” a world premiere by Jean-Pascal Beintus.  

$10 - $35  

Call 841-2800 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 1 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet John Rowe and host Randy Fingland.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 2 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Allee der Kosmontauten 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Performance of Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz 1996 work in its West Coast premiere. Also features the film work of Elliot Caplan.  

$20 - $42  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

“A Night In Oakland” 

8 p.m. 

Alice Arts Center 

1428 Alice St. (at 14th St.) 

Oakland  

Savage Jazz Dance Company launches their 2001 spring season along with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.  

$10 - $15 

Call 496-6068 or visit www.savagejazz.org 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 3 

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Artists Talk 

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland  

As part of “Consecrations,” the public is invited to hear artists speak about their work and show slides. Free 

Call 763-9425 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Sunday, Feb. 4 

“Under Construction No. 10” 

7:30 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church  

2727 College Ave.  

Experience the unusual rehearsal-reading format that lets the audience experience the collaboration between conductor, orchestra and composer in the Berkeley Symphony’s unique series presenting new works or works-in-progress by local Bay Area composers.  

Call 841-2800 

Russian National Orchestra  

4 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

On their tenth anniversary tour, the RNO will perform Shostakovich’s symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No. 2.  

$30 - $52  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

From Flatlands to the Stars  

9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Diamond Park  

Fruitvale Ave. (at Lyman Rd.) 

A hardy hike along Sausal Creek in Oakland’s unexplored Diamond and Joaquin Miller parks. A free hike sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

“A Night In Oakland” 

2 & 8 p.m. 

Alice Arts Center 

1428 Alice St. (at 14th St.) 

Oakland  

Savage Jazz Dance Company launches their 2001 spring season along with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.  

$10 - $15 

Call 496-6068 or visit www.savagejazz.org 

Tuesday, Feb. 6  

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is sex, love, dating, and relationships in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  

Call 527-9772  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 7  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 8 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Tom Odegard and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 9  

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Berkeley PC Users Group 

7 p.m. 

Vista College 

2020 Milvia St., Room 303 

E-Mail: meldancing@aol.com 

Saturday, Feb. 10  

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Open Mic.  

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland  

As part of “Consecrations,” the public is invited to see special performances, spoken word, commentary and more.  

Call 763-9425 

Masters of Persian Classical Music 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Featuring vocalist Mohammad Reza Sharjarian and his son, Homayoun Sharjarian.  

$20 - $40  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Sunday, Feb. 11  

Ruth Acty Oral History Reception 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society  

Veterans Memorial Building 

1931 Center St.  

In 1943 Miss Ruth Acty became the first African American teacher to be hired by the Berkeley Unified School District. She taught thousands of students until her retirement in 1985. Oral History Coordinator Therese Pipe interviewed Acty in 1993-94 for the Berkeley Historical Society. Free  

Horacio Gutierrez  

3 p.m. 

Hertz Hall 

UC Berkeley  

The Cuban-American pianist will perform Berg’s Sonata, Op.1, George Perle’s Nine Bagatelles, Schumann’s Fantasie, Op. 17 and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29.  

$24 - $42  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Reimagining Pacific Cities  

6 - 8:30 p.m. 

New Pacific Studio  

1523 Hearst Ave.  

“How are Pacific cities reshaping their cultural and environmental institutions to better serve the needs and enhance the present and future quality of life of all segments of their societies?” A series of ten seminars linking the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, and other pacific cities.  

$10 per meeting  

Call 849-0217 

Tuesday, Feb. 13 

“Great Decisions” - U.S. Trade Policy 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session, $35 entire series for single person, $60 entire series for couple  

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 14 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 15 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicty,” learn about this movement whose philosophy is “the examined life richly lived.” Work less, consume less, rush less, and build community with friends and family.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Basics of PCs 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley 

A class for adults that will cover file management, loading software, software management, downloading pages from the Web, and more. 

$30 - $35, registration required  

Call 642-5134  

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Kathleen Lynch and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 16 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 17  

“Go-Go-Go Greenbelt!” 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Rockridge BART  

Oakland  

A bike tour on this ride into the rolling East Bay hills. A free ride sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

Sunday, Feb. 18  

Waterfalls of Berkeley  

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

North Berkeley BART  

Sacramento at Delaware  

On this urban waterfall hike, discover three waterfalls along rushing creeks hidden in Berkeley neighborhoods. A free hike sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

Tuesday, Feb. 20 

“Great Decisions” - China & Taiwan 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session 

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is different cultural, ethnic and religious values.  

Call 527-9772  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Berkeley could be the first municipality in the state to share the pain of soaring energy costs with its residents by not collecting taxes on utility rate hikes. 

The recommendation comes from the Citizens Budget Review Commission that voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the City Council to make the gesture to residents and small business owners who are feeling the pinch of higher energy costs. Commissioners want the city to refuse tax assessments on gas and electric rate hikes. 

Berkeley charges residents a utility tax of 7.5 percent for a variety of services including gas, electric, telephone, cell phones and cable TV. Last year the city collected $11.8 million from the tax. The commission is requesting the city not assess the tax on gas and electric rate hikes. 

The savings would not be huge, about $4.91 per resident per month just for electricity. But in this case, supporters say it’s the thought that counts. 

“This is certainly not the answer to rising energy costs,” said Commissioner Bill Gilbert, who proposed the idea to the commission. “But at least the city won’t be a coconspirator with the utilities.” 

PG&E representative Mindel Penn said it would be easy to change the tax to reflect the city-imposed cap. 

“Each city charges a different tax rate, so it should be no problem to adjust the rate accordingly and users would not be charged the difference,” Penn said. 

She added that she has not heard of any other city that is considering an “empathy cap.” 

Gilbert said the exact language of the recommendation has not been worked out yet. He said another possibility, if it is too difficult or cumbersome to implement the tax cap, is collecting the revenues from the increases and depositing them in a special fund that would be used for an undetermined project, presumably to benefit Berkeley residents. He estimated that the fund could generate anywhere from $1.5 to 3.5 million each year.  

Mayor Shirley Dean said she has not yet seen the recommendation but thought it sounds like a good idea. It would make more sense to not tax residents for the rate hike, rather than creating a city-maintained fund, she said. 

“I like the idea of capping the increase at the source. It’s a more efficient way of doing it,” Dean said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he is also enthusiastic about the recommendation. “I think the city should not reap a windfall from utility taxes while residents and small businesses are getting hit with massive electricity and gas bills,” he said. 

Several budget commissioners will make a brief presentation at the Jan. 16, City Council meeting and then submit a formal recommendation for the council’s consideration at the following meeting on Jan. 23. 

Ryan Davis – Berkeley High 

When a player transfers to a high school for his senior year, few expect him to be a leader of the basketball team. But Ryan Davis has done just that: become the point guard and leading scorer of Berkeley High’s varsity, and the player that his teammates look to when times are tough. 

But Davis had a bit of an advantage coming in. He attended BHS as a freshman, making the varsity team and showing promise for the future. Then his family moved, and he transferred to Lincoln (San Francisco), where he starred for two years as a shooting guard for one of the city’s strongest teams. Now he’s back at Berkeley, and he feels right at home. 

“All my friends were over here, so I definitely wanted to come back,” Davis says. 

Davis joined a team that is inexperienced on the varsity level, and immediately became a go-to player and the general of the offense. This is also head coach Mike Gragnani’s first year at Berkeley, and he knows he was fortunate to get Davis back into a Yellowjacket jersey. 

Ryan’s got a real outgoing personality, and he’s always running on a high level. That has helped a lot,” Gragnani says. “Being inexperienced, we needed him to show what it’s like to be competitive all the time, and he’s given that to us.” 

Davis also brings a mix of athleticism and skill that the ’Jackets can count on in crunch time. 

“He’s our go-to scorer, the kind of guy who can create his own shot,” says Louis Riordan, a senior in his third year on the varsity. “He can do everything we need him to do, he’s a good ballhandler, a good shooter and he throws good post entry passes. Whatever we need on offense, he can get it for us.” 

Coming back to Berkeley allowed Davis a chance to play the point after two years of being a scorer for Lincoln. 

“I like the ball in my hands. I feel like my natural position is point guard, so I can get the rest of my teammates involved,” he says. 

Davis has also been re-energized by Gragnani’s up-tempo system, with Berkeley using a full-court press on defense and moving the ball around on offense. 

At Lincoln we didn’t do much up-tempo. It was mostly slow, half-court stuff,” Davis says. “The up-tempo stuff works for me, because I get a chance to show my athleticism.” 

Davis is quick to point out that he doesn’t do it all himself. He singled out fellow guard Byron St. Jules as a big factor in the team’s success. 

“B.J. doesn’t get that much ink, but he does a lot for the team,” Davis says. “He usually guards the other team’s best player. That helps me out a lot, it means I don’t have to do as much.” 

The Yellowjackets have become one of the top teams in the Bay Area, beating Skyline and playing tough against such powerhouses as Oakland Tech and St. Ignatius. Davis says the mix of maturity (nine seniors) and depth have made Berkeley a threat to do some damage in the postseason. 

“It’s good to have so many seniors on the team, just because of the maturity level. When coach says something, everybody listens. Also, we know we have to win now, because it’s our last year,” he says. “We might not be as big as other teams, but we’ve got a real deep team. We go 15 deep, and everybody can play.” 

Davis broke his thumb this summer, and several colleges pulled back on their interest in him. But Davis says “schools are starting to come around again. I’ll definitely be playing college ball somewhere next year.” 

Gragnani says any college program would be lucky to have Davis. 

“He’s very athletic player. He’s quick and he can jump, and he’s very strong physically. If he continues to work on his skills and fundamentals, he’ll be valuable to any program,” the coach says. “He’ll probably be at a lower-level Division 1 team, but if a bigger program were to take a chance on him, they’ll be happy they did, because he’ll work very hard for them. With four years to develop, who knows what he can do?” 

Davis 

I’ve played varsity since freshman year, so they do look to me. 

It’s more competitive out here. Over at Lincoln, we only had one or two good opponents. But over here, it’s a battle every game. 

It’s up to us how far we go. It depends on how hard we work. 

Gragnani 

I know Lincoln’s hurting without him, that’s for sure. 

It’s not an easy transition to move to point guard, and he’s done a good job. One of the main reasons is that he’s looking to get our other guys involved. Ryan’s got a scorer’s mentality, but he knows that for us to be successful, he has to get other guys involved. He’s been getting better every day at the point. 

Senators should stand up against ideologues 

Editor: 

When Newt Gingrich took out his “Contract on America” the Republicans demonstrated no hesitation in obstructing Democrats by any means available, and with no concern for the public good.  

The means by which the presidential election was stolen is their most recent and egregious example of this behavior.  

While it may sound nice to talk about “conciliation” and “unity”, I believe that such talk is a sucker's move. 

Republicans haven't afforded Democrats such a courtesy. Look at how many Federal judgeships have they blocked in the last eight years! 

I strongly urge Democratic Senators to block the confirmation of at least four of President-select Bush's cabinet nominations: Gale Norton (Interior), John Ashcroft (A.G.), Donald Rumsfeld (Defense), and Tommy Thompson (HHS).  

These are right-wing ideologues, extremists, and people dangerous to our way of life in America.  

They will roll back social progress and cause the economy to collapse through war-mongering defense spending. 

Normally, both political parties give the incoming President a “honeymoon” to establish a Cabinet according to his ideology.  

However, in this case, the President's election is illegitimate, due to the partisan stoppage of vote counting.  

He has been selected President in spite of the fact that Gore received over half a million more votes, and most probably a majority in Florida as well. 

It is time to stand firm.  

Forty-one Democratic Senators can stop any confirmation, whether for Cabinet or for judgeships.  

This is the last best power Democrats have until 2002. They'd best not default on stopping the rampage of right-wing Republicans. 

Bruce Joffe 

Oakland 

The Board of Education took the first step toward hiring a new superintendent Wednesday evening with the selection of a search firm.  

The San Marcos-based Leadership Associates was selected from among the five firms that interviewed for the job. 

“They have a very sound track record and in fact many people have said that they are the best search group in the state of California,” Board President Terry Doran said of the group. The consultant will work with extensive input from the board.  

Members took the selection of a search firm quite seriously. 

Doran said Berkeley residents will monitor the way the selection is handled. They will look critically at how seriously the board takes issues of diversity and community input. “I think we have an opportunity to send a message to our community by the process we follow,” Doran said. 

Board members focused on the consultants’ ability to find a diverse group of candidates with experience working in an urban school district, Doran said. 

“The pool of qualified people of color is not very large,” he said. “It’s important to have a group that can recruit aggressively within that small group.” 

According to the consultants, finding those candidates is becoming more and more difficult. Paul Plath of Springfield, Ore.-based PNR Associates said the number of qualified applicants is actually shrinking. “There’s an age range of people that are retiring,” he said. “There hasn’t been attention to the preparation of urban education leaders.” 

In order to find a suitable candidate, board members agreed they would need a nationwide search.  

Board members asked whether a California-based firm would have the networking resources to conduct an in-depth nationwide search. But, said Doran, large national firms have their own down sides. “Will they know what we need in Berkeley, California?” he asked. 

Another important issue in the hiring process is the ability to balance the applicant’s need for confidentiality with the need for community input. The consultants reiterated the fact that many of the best candidates are not actively looking for a new position. Jake Abbott of Leadership Associates estimated that 80 percent of the candidates they approach are not actively looking for new positions. “It’s almost like cold calling salesmen,” he said.  

When approached, successful superintendents may be interested in exploring the possibility a move to Berkeley, but do not want to jeopardize their current positions, consultants said. “Sitting superintendents are very worried about applying for positions and having their confidentiality protected,” Abbott said. 

If the community is involved in the selection process, and the name of a candidate is leaked, he or she may withdraw from the application process, they said, limiting Berkeley’s ability to ensure the highest quality of candidate. Some possibilities for community inclusion were holding forums and interviews to determine the desired qualities of the new superintendent, and allowing a community board to interview the top candidates. The Board of Education will have the final say on how much the community is involved at each stage of the hiring process.  

In addition to Leadership Associates and PNR Associates, the board interviewed California School Board Association of Sacramento, RBL Enterprises, Ltd. of Oakland, and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, Ltd. of Glenview, Ill.  

Doran said all the bids hovered around $30,000 with an estimated time line of three to five months. The board hopes to hire a new superintendent by July, the beginning of the new fiscal year. 

On Friday, the board will hold a closed session meeting to interview five candidates for the position of interim superintendent.  

Soon Berkeley residents will be thinking twice before trashing their reusable materials.  

Recyclers will be rewarded more than $250 for keeping their newspapers, old bills and bottles out of the garbage. 

Next month the Ecology Center, the city, the Community Conservation Center and the Alameda County Waste Management Authority will kick off the citywide “Cash For Trash” contest.  

Over a 22-week period, $6,500 will be given away to Berkeley households with garbage bins without recyclables. 

Every week during the contest the trash from one randomly selected Berkeley home will be taken to the Ecology Center, which operates the city’s curbside recycling. There it will be inspected by a city solid waste employee and Dave Williamson, operations manager for the Ecology Center. They will ask written permission from the household before going through its trash.  

If no recyclables are found in the trash, the residents win $250. If there are some recyclables, but it accounts for less than 1 percent of the trash by volume, the residents win $50. Recyclable materials include anything that the city’s curbside recycling service collects as well as yard debris. 

The chosen residences, selected by random sample through a computer database, will not know before they put their trash out for collection each week. 

“Any kind of education program or publicity program that promotes recycling is good,” said Kathy Evans, of the Community Conservation Center. 

The center is responsible for recycling the goods picked up by the Ecology Center. “This is fun and it appeals to everyone – even people who aren’t interested in the ecological aspect of it,” she said. 

Williamson said a reason for holding the Cash For Trash contest is to meet state mandates for limiting materials that go into landfills. He said Berkeley is two percentage points short of meeting its goals for the amount of materials diverted from landfills. 

“There has been high participation of curbside recycling in the hills and not so much in the flats,” he said. “We want to offer an incentive for those people to recycle more.” 

The contest announcement will arrive in Berkeley mailboxes the first week of February. Twenty random households will also receive “Cash For Trash” stickers. If one is attached to a full recycling bin during the first two weeks of the contest, the household will automatically win $50, even if that residence is not selected for garbage inspection. 

“We are sending out 20 stickers so people will look forward to getting the information in their mailbox,” said Portia Sinnott, project manager for the Ecology Center, who is running the contest. 

If less than $250 is awarded in a week, the money will carry over to the next week so residents have a chance to win even more money. The prize money is available through grants from the Alameda County Waste Management Source Reduction and Recycling Board. 

Sinnott said this contest is unique to Berkeley and she does not know other cities with similar projects. The city has only held this contest one other time, for six months in 1988. That year one resident won $4,000.  

“It was a really popular program,” said Evans, who along ran the contest at that time. “Once a week we gave somebody $250 for not throwing away recyclables and it worked very well. People were excited to recycle.” 

Williamson said in 1988 there was a 23 percent increase in Berkeley’s materials diverted from landfill as a result of the contest. 

All Berkeley residences of fewer than 10 units that are served by the curbside recycling program are eligible for the contest. The exact starting date will be announced in late January.

A common nursery plant may lead to increased complications and possible new management practices in the fight to halt Sudden Oak Death, a highly contagious fungal disease that is killing California oak trees, University of California researchers announced Wednesday. 

In a breakthrough in the study of the disease, UC researchers discovered that the rhododendron, a popular ornamental plant, can be infected by the same fungus that is causing the oak disease. The fungus has infected European rhododendrons and, as of yesterday, the researchers confirmed that it also is affecting California rhododendrons, suggesting a transcontinental link.  

Finding this relatively new fungus in two different parts of the world – and in two species – is unusual, the researchers said. The rhododendron discovery gives insight to the potential origin and transmission of this pathogen and may suggest new ways of spread. Previously, the pathogen only was known in three other California oaks - tanoaks, coast live oaks and black oaks.  

"We now know we have a host that could have carried the fungus a long way," said Matteo Garbelotto, a plant pathologist and adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management in UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. "People don't really export oak trees across state lines or around the world," he said, "but they export rhododendrons."  

The finding may have a major impact on how scientists manage the disease. Co-investigator David Rizzo, assistant professor of plant pathology at UC Davis, said it may result in new restrictions on the rhododendron nursery industry. "The big concern is that someone will transport a sick rhododendron to a place where there are susceptible oak species," he said.  

The breakthrough came when a Clive Brasier, a British researcher who had visited UC Berkeley last summer, later noticed in Europe a fungus that looked like one he'd seen in Garbelotto's lab.  

The European fungus had been found on rhododendrons in Germany and the Netherlands. Brasier contacted the UC scientists, and researchers from all four countries determined together that the European rhododendron fungus was identical to the California oak-killing agent. This finding established that the fungus is not exclusively found in California and has important implications for international trade.  

But Rizzo and Garbelotto needed more proof to confirm the link between the two plant species, and yesterday they got it. Rizzo and Steve Tjosvold, a Santa Cruz County farm advisor, found the fungus in a rhododendron taken from a Santa Cruz County nursery, and Garbelotto confirmed with DNA analysis that it was the same fungus killing the oaks.  

The scientists don't know whether the disease was transmitted from California to Europe, or vice versa, or whether it traveled to both places from a third, as yet unknown, location. The fungus, first noted in European rhododendrons in 1993, has not been found in European oaks.  

However, European scientists are concerned that the disease will spread to European oak forests, particularly those in areas with a climate similar to that of California.  

Since the discovery of the mysterious oak-killing illness in California in 1995, researchers have been scrambling to understand the disease and design strategies to stop its spread. It is not known if the fungus recently was introduced into California, or if it is a native fungus that recently became a tree-killer because of environmental changes. Tens of thousands of oak trees have succumbed to the disease, and the researchers have reported up to 80 percent mortality in some infected groves.  

Through molecular sleuthing, Rizzo and Garbelotto determined that the disease was caused by a never-before-seen strain of fungi from the genus Phytophthora. A relative belonging to this 60-member group caused the Irish potato famine, and another relative is linked to the dieback of cedar trees in Northern California and southern Oregon, eucalyptus trees in Australia and oaks in Mexico, Spain and Portugal.  

In California, Sudden Oak Death has been reported from Sonoma Valley in the north to Big Sur in the south, a 190-mile range, as well as east to the Napa County border, about 25 miles inland. The hardest hit counties are Marin and Santa Cruz. The disease affects tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus), coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia), and California black oak (Quercus kelloggii) found along the coastal belt in California. To date, the disease has not been found in other oaks such as blue oak or interior live oak.  

The dieback is alarming, researchers say, for its potential to disrupt the coastal forest ecosystems. Oaks provide habitat for wildlife and a food supply for small mammals and are frequently planted as ornamentals in gardens and parks. Additionally, downed dead trees create a fire hazard from the resulting buildup of dry fuel.  

There are similarities between the disease in oaks in California and rhododendron in Europe. In both cases, the fungus attacks above ground parts of the plants. In oaks, the fungus enters through the trunk and causes the formation of bleeding cankers on the trunk. On rhododendron plants, the fungus causes similar cankers and spreads from twig tips to the stem base, according to the European researchers.  

The researchers have notified agricultural and ecosystem managers in the affected areas of the rhododendron discovery. Research is underway to determine if native rhododendrons - those that have not been imported - are being infected. Research also is being conducted to determine how many other susceptible species may be affected by the fungus.  

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday proposed a $104.7 billion state budget he said would tackle California’s electricity crisis, beef up teacher training and offer shoppers a three-day sales tax suspension. 

Under Davis’ proposal, at least part of the sales tax would be suspended for the last weekend in August this year to let consumers save up to 8 1/4 percent on clothes and computer equipment. 

Davis said it would “help parents as they prepare to send their children back to school” and increase sales overall. 

Other key items in the spending plan include $1 billion to ease the state’s power shortage, $100 million to begin phasing in a six-week addition to the middle school academic year and $335 million to start a three-year, $875 million effort to improve training of reading and math teachers and school principals. 

“We are winning the battle to improve student performance and student possibilities,” Davis said. Lawmakers will consider Davis’ proposals along with their own as they work on a new state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. 

The governor’s plan would raise overall state support for elementary and secondary schools to $33.5 billion, up $2.1 billion from this fiscal year and $1.9 billion over the minimum spending level required by Proposition 98 of 1988. 

Per-pupil spending would jump to $7,174, up from $6,695 this year. 

Besides the teacher training and middle-school extension money, the proposed education spending includes: 

• $30 million to help middle schools and high schools attract and keep algebra teachers. 

• $20 million to help set up 10 new high-tech high schools that would emphasize science, math and engineering. 

• $20 million for computer software to help teachers and principals analyze students’ test results to determine their strengths and weaknesses. 

Higher-education funding includes $300 million to help community colleges prepare students to transfer to four-year schools and $160.4 million in construction funding for a new University of California campus near Merced. There would be no increase in student fees. 

The $1 billion to tackle the state’s electricity shortage would be used to increase energy efficiency, reduce consumption and increase electricity supplies. 

Davis wouldn’t specify how he planned to use that money, but aides have said about $250 million would provide rebates of up to $200 per product to consumers who buy more energy-efficient home appliances. 

Davis’ proposed environmental spending includes $150 million to protect beaches from pollution and buy wildlife habitat and wetlands, $100 million to replace up to 6,000 diesel engines with cleaner-running motors and $50 million for grants of up to $6,500 to encourage the purchase of battery-powered and other zero-emission vehicles. 

The proposed sales-tax holiday would save consumers at least $27 million by eliminating the state portion of the sales tax on clothing items or shoes worth up to $200 and computer equipment costing up to $1,000. 

The savings would be greater, another $12 million to $15 million, if local governments agreed to suspend their share of the sales tax during the three-day period. 

The tax ranges from 7 to 8 1/4 percent of the purchase price depending on the county. The state’s share is 4 3/4 percent. 

Eight other states have similar sales tax holidays. 

Assembly Minority Leader Bill Campbell, R-Villa Park, praised the tax holiday idea but said that it should be made permanent. Gage said the administration wanted to see how it worked before extending the program. 

Pat Leary, a lobbyist for the California State Association of Counties, said Davis should agree to reimburse local governments for any sales taxes they lose instead of putting them in the position of having to decide whether to approve a tax suspension and lose revenue. 

“We have a lot of local governments who aren’t doing as well as the state and can’t afford to lose the money,” she said. 

Davis’ plan also includes $110.8 million in tax breaks for businesses, mainly by expanding and extending a tax credit for certain types of industries that buy new equipment and increasing the capital gains exclusion for small business stock held for more than five years. 

Campbell said the governor should also have recommended that lawmakers extend a one-year, quarter percent sales tax cut that took effect Jan. 1. 

“I think, given the prosperity, the surplus we have, he should have made it permanent,” Campbell said. 

Davis said he was willing to consider additional tax cuts if revised budget projections in May show that revenue is up more than anticipated. 

“My highest priority this year is to continue to make progress in education and resolve the energy challenge,” he said. “If I feel confident that we have made enough progress on both fronts then tax cuts, health care and others would compete for additional money.” 

In health care, Davis proposed funneling the $468 million the state expects from the 1998 tobacco settlement agreement to a fund that would be used solely for anti-tobacco, cancer research and treatment and other health care programs. 

Davis proposed to spend $74.4 million of the tobacco funds to expand insurance coverage for children through the Healthy Families program. The governor’s budget plan also includes $201.5 to cover uninsured parents of children enrolled in Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. 

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On the Net: 

The governor’s Web site: www.governor.ca.gov 

The Department of Finance: www.dof.ca.gov

LOS ANGELES — In the midst of a state energy crisis, federal regulators on Wednesday asked a court to allow a wholesale price cap opposed by California’s electricity clearinghouse 

In its response to a lawsuit, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission argued that a cap of $150 per megawatt/hour for wholesale electricity serves the public interest. 

The cap was contained in a Dec. 15 FERC order challenged by the Pasadena-based Power Exchange, which manages the wholesale buying and selling of electricity in California under a 1996 deregulation law. The exchange, which currently operates under a $250 cap, alleged the lower cap would cause “irreparable harm” to its markets. 

The exchange asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to rule by Friday on its request to block the cap and other portions of the order. 

In the FERC response, attorneys Dennis Lane and Beth Pacella said the order was issued following an investigation of complaints levied against the Power Exchange. 

Staying the order would erode FERC protections “against unjust and unreasonable rates in the California electricity markets,” the response said. 

“During the past few months a seller’s market has existed, with the market clearing prices higher than retail rates,” the response said. 

“We are meeting with our attorneys and are in the process of determining where the Power Exchange goes from here,” exchange spokesman Jesus Arredondo said Wednesday. “We disagree with FERC that there will be no harm to consumers or participants in this market if the full force of the order is enacted.” 

SACRAMENTO — School districts for the first time will be able to use state money to buy math textbooks that fully meet the state’s tough 1997 standards that call for algebra in eighth grade. 

The state Board of Education, by an 11-0 vote Wednesday, approved a dozen math textbook programs offered by nine publishers for elementary and middle-school students. 

“I’m pleased to say these materials will place good instructional materials in the hands of students and teachers,” said Susan Stickel, an assistant superintendent in Elk Grove. 

The board also rejected 11 programs by seven publishers as not meeting the standards that outline in detail what students should learn in each grade. 

Dozens of teachers and school officials and state Superintendent Delaine Eastin asked in vain for the board to approve a set of books for kindergarten-through-third grades by Everyday Learning Corp. 

However, the board did allow districts that are currently using Everyday’s books and can show “exemplary achievement” by students on the statewide test to apply for a waiver to use state funds to buy the books. 

School officials have been complaining for years that the state’s effort to improve student learning and test scores was a bit disjointed. The standards were approved for math, English, science and social studies in 1997 and 1998 and statewide testing began in 1998. However, getting textbooks that reflect the standards in classrooms has lagged behind. 

A new rating released Wednesday makes that point. California’s grade for having tough standards and accountability slipped from a B-plus last year to a B, said the report card issued by Education Week magazine for all states. 

The report said California has tied rewards and other funding for teachers and schools to the statewide test, but that test, the Stanford-9, is a standardized national exam not related to the state’s own standards. 

The state has started adding questions to the test that reflect the standards, but the ones for math will not be used for the state ranking of schools until 2003. 

Gov. Gray Davis’ spokeswoman said Wednesday that the Education Week report card uses some outdated statistics and information. 

“It’s not taking into account the things that are happening now to make sure students are getting the benefits of the standards,” said spokeswoman Hilary McLean. 

In approving the 12 textbook programs, the state board accepted the recommendation of its Curriculum Commission, the final of four committees that spent 18 months intensively reviewing the books. 

In most cases, all four of the committees agreed on the books. However, for a few submissions, the Curriculum Commission and the board reversed recommendations made by panels of math scholars, teachers and parents. 

For example, the commission recommended books for kindergarten-through-sixth grade by Saxon Publishers Inc., even though previous panels said they did not meet the standards. Saxon textbooks are popular among back-to-basics schools. 

The opposite occurred for Everyday Learning’s books, which were developed by University of Chicago mathematics professors. The K-3 books were recommended by the first two panels, but rejected by the Curriculum Commission. 

Stickel, the commission’s math chairwoman, said the commission decided Everyday’s books did not meet the standards and were difficult for teachers who were not math majors to teach. 

Stanford University math professor Jim Milgram said Everyday’s program “would be a disaster” when used by teachers who don’t have math knowledge equivalent to a third-year math major in college. 

Teachers and officials from dozens of districts that have been using Everyday for several years disagreed and said their test scores had risen with the books. 

“Districts should have the right to choose and then they should be held accountable for the results,” said Mary McKee, assistant superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District. 

Everyday vice president John Atkocaitis said the program is not difficult to teach and is used not only in California, but also in schools in New York City, Dallas, Memphis and Minneapolis with test score increases. 

Ruth Cossey, a math education professor at Mills College in Oakland, said the arguments against Everyday imply that teachers who are working with minority and poor students are not capable of teaching rigorous material. 

“For the next seven years, it’s OK for them to wallow with inferior materials,” she said. 

The board’s student member, Jacqueline Boris, a senior at Buchanan High School in Clovis, said the board should allow districts to continue to use textbooks that work. 

“So few kids are excited about math,” she said. 

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On the Net: 

The state board is at http://www.cde.ca.gov/board 

Read the math standards at http://www.cde.ca.gov/board/pdf/math.pdf 

Read about state textbook lists at 

http://www.cde.ca.gov/cilbranch/eltdiv/cdsmc.htm 

GLENDALE — Prosecutors charged a former respiratory therapist Wednesday with murdering six elderly hospital patients whose exhumed bodies were found to contain evidence of a common but dangerous drug that stops breathing. 

The case against Efren Saldivar, 31, included two special circumstances – poisoning and multiple murder – which could lead to the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole if he is convicted. 

Saldivar, who once called himself the “Angel of Death” and then recanted, had been under suspicion since early 1998 in deaths at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. 

“After years of hard work, the combined efforts of both the Glendale Police Department and the district attorney’s office have paid off in the filing of charges against Efren Saldivar,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said. 

Saldivar was arrested by Glendale police on Tuesday and was held without bail. Arraignment was scheduled for Thursday in Glendale Superior Court. Prosecutors said they will decide whether to seek the death penalty after the preliminary hearing. 

The victims died between Dec. 30, 1996, and Aug. 28, 1997. They were identified as Salbi Asatryan, 75, Eleanora Schlegel, 77, Jose Alfaro, 82, Luina Schidlowski, 87, Balbino Castro, 87, and Myrtle Brower, 84. 

Toxicological testing showed the drug Pavulon in the remains of all six and it was not part of legitimate treatment of five of those patients, Cooley said at his Los Angeles office. 

Deputy District Attorney Al MacKenzie said Pavulon is frequently used in hospitals to stop the normal breathing of patients who are put on artificial respiratory devices. 

“If you’re going to do surgery, you’re going to put the person on an artificial breathing device,” MacKenzie said. “If you give the person the drug Pavulon and don’t create an artificial means to breathe, they die.” 

The complaint also alleges one count of receiving stolen property, the drug Versed. A source familiar with the case said that Versed, used to induce sleep in patients but can be fatal if too much is used, was recently found at Saldivar’s home. 

Glendale Adventist officials commented on the case at a hospital news conference. “We have no idea how Saldivar got Pavulon,” spokesman Mark Newmyer said. “We find it hard to believe that a licensed medical professional could do such a thing.” 

Newmyer said the hospital has implemented strict regulations, including keeping drugs such as Pavulon locked up, using a computer to record every detail of the usage of patient ventilators, and accounting for all unused medications after emergencies. 

Attorney Terry M. Goldberg, who represents Saldivar in a half-dozen wrongful-death lawsuits, said his client is indigent and will need a public defender in the criminal case. 

Goldberg said the arrest came as he was preparing a motion seeking dismissal of the lawsuits because the families suing Saldivar had failed to show he was responsible. The attorney said he expects the civil suits to be stayed until the criminal case is ended. 

“Unfortunately in society we judge people before all sides are heard. I hope people will be patient in ferreting out the truth in this case,” Goldberg said at his office. 

Newmyer said there were four lawsuits pending against the hospital and two of the four patients involved were among the six named as murder victims. He would not identify them. 

Early in the investigation the hospital suspended 38 people in the respiratory care department, fired four in addition to Saldivar and let most return to work. Newmyer continued to refuse comment on what prompted the four other firings. 

Hospital board Chairman Robert Carmen said it had been difficult to wait for the results of the investigation. 

“Our journey to find the truth is coming to a close and to all those affected, I can say, we feel their pain,” Carmen said. 

Cooley said the long delay in arresting Saldivar was not unusual in cases with such complex evidence. He said similar cases have taken three to four years to develop. 

A toxicology team assembled to evaluate evidence from the exhumations included Dr. Brian D. Andresen, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, an expert in analysis of Pavulon. 

MacKenzie, who has tried other high-profile cases with complex scientific evidence, has been working with Deputy District Attorney Brian Kelberg, who was a key witness in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial and heads the prosecutor’s medical-legal section. 

The hospital probe began in February 1998. Police said that a month later Saldivar told investigators he committed dozens of mercy killings at Glendale Adventist between 1989 and 1997 and that he considered himself the “Angel of Death.” 

Police said Saldivar told them he was angry at seeing terminally ill patients kept alive. 

Saldivar was in custody only briefly at that time because police lacked evidence. He later said in interviews that he lied to police because he was depressed, suicidal and wanted to be sent to death row. 

Police looked into 171 deaths that occurred while Saldivar worked at the hospital. Fifty-four were eliminated because the bodies were cremated. Eventually the probe focused on 20 deaths that raised suspicions. 

——— 

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report. 

WASHINGTON — Americans are increasingly anxious about the nation’s economy as the Bush administration gets under way, according to an Associated Press poll. Faith in the stock market as a safe place to put money has dropped as well. 

Only a third of Americans expect their family finances to be better in a year, said the AP Poll – a big drop from last spring when more than half felt that way. And more than half now say if they had a thousand dollars, it would be a bad idea to put it in the stock market. A strong majority said last spring that they would invest the money. 

By a 57-39 margin, women now feel that investing the money would be a bad idea, while men are about evenly split, according to the AP survey, which was conducted by ICR of Media, Pa. 

“No way, things are too shaky,” said Delores Sapeta, a 72-year-old retiree from Middletown, in north central California. 

“I might have been willing to invest it maybe a year or two ago,” said Charles Odom, a 32-year-old paint contractor from North Wilkesboro in western North Carolina. “Now the market goes up, then it drops right back down.” 

Just over two in 10 Americans have a lot of confidence in Bush’s ability to deal with the economy, the poll indicated, while just over four in 10 have some confidence and almost three in 10 have no real confidence. That’s similar to the public’s confidence in President-elect Clinton eight years ago. The number with no confidence in Bush on the economy is slightly higher than the one in eight who felt that way about President-elect Reagan in 1980. 

The confidence shown in Bush’s ability to handle the economy closely follows partisan lines. Just over half of Republicans said they have a lot of confidence in Bush on the economy, while almost half of Democrats have no confidence. 

Just under a fourth of independents said they have a lot of confidence and half said they have some confidence, while a fourth have no confidence in Bush to handle the economy. Half of black Americans said they have no confidence, and just over a third of those who make less then $50,000 felt that way. 

Economic reports that could cause nervousness have been mounting: 

• Retailers just announced they had their weakest holiday sales in a decade. 

• Worries about future job growth and the economy pushed consumer confidence in December to its lowest level in two years. 

• The Federal Reserve unexpectedly lowered a key interest rate this month. 

Many in the public have noticed such developments. 

“It looks like my family finances are going to be worse in a year,” said Kimberly Armstrong, a 25-year-old mother of two young children from Louisville, Ky. “I get that feeling from the news reports, from technology stocks going down. ...” 

Entering this uncertain economic climate will be Bush, who has cautioned several times that he’s seen signs of economic trouble on the horizon. 

As he prepares for the presidency, just over half in this poll, 52 percent, said they approve of the way he’s handling the transition, while about a third, 31 percent, said they do not approve. That’s slightly lower than the six in 10 Americans who approved of President-elect Clinton’s transition at a similar point eight years ago. 

“In the sense that he seems to be picking people, with a couple of exceptions, who are qualified to take the Cabinet positions, I think he’s doing a fairly good job in the transition,” said Cliff Reynolds, a 53-year-old high school science teacher from Parker, Colo., just southeast of Denver. “I don’t have much confidence in his abilities to take us through the next four years, but it appears he has selected some good people.” 

A plurality in the poll, 46 percent, said they felt the country is on the wrong track, while 41 percent said it is headed in the right direction. Late last year, the situation was about reversed, with a plurality saying the country was headed in the right direction. 

Republicans felt the country was going in the right direction by a 2-1 margin, Democrats felt at least as strongly that it was on the wrong track. Only 38 percent of independents felt the country was headed in the right direction, with 47 percent saying it was on the wrong track. 

That public response can reflect varying concerns, from anxiety about the country’s economic health, to troubles overseas to the moral direction of the country. 

Armstrong, of Louisville, said her role as a mother influences her concern that the country is not on track. 

“Things are definitely headed in the wrong direction, morally speaking,” she said. “Things are just out of control.” 

DALLAS — American Airlines agreed Wednesday to buy most of TWA for about $500 million in a complex deal that will reshape the industry and retire one of the most storied names in aviation history. 

American chairman and chief executive Donald Carty said the airline jumped at the chance to scoop up financially troubled Trans World Airlines and also buy a piece of US Airways and a stake in a new Washington-based airline. 

The acquisitions give American “a level of growth that would otherwise take us years to achieve,” Carty said. 

United set off the buying spree last year when it agreed to acquire most of US Airways. Analysts said No. 2 American wanted to keep up with United, the nation’s largest airline. 

If regulators approve the United and American deals, the two airlines will control half the U.S. market, with No. 3 Delta far behind with 15 percent. 

“This is a turning point,” said Mark Cooper, research director of the Consumer Federation of America. “Consumers will pay higher prices and lower services.” 

In addition to the regulatory hurdles, American’s purchase of TWA could still be challenged by creditors or another bidder. And American’s unions could also stand in the way. 

The deals could prompt more industry mergers. The nation’s fourth- and fifth-largest airlines, Northwest and Continental, already have an alliance. 

“I think the carrier that will be under the most pressure is Delta,” said William Franke, chairman and chief executive of America West Airlines. “If it does nothing, it’ll be significantly smaller than the other two.” 

While others plot their next moves, the end appears near for one of the grandest names in aviation, TWA, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier Wednesday as part of its agreement with American. 

TWA, which traces its roots to the 1925 founding of Western Air Express, once catered to popes and movie stars and was owned at one time by Howard Hughes. It held the world’s attention during a 1985 hijacking in Beirut and the 1996 crash of a flight from New York to Paris. 

But the airline hasn’t turned a profit since 1988 and has filed for bankruptcy twice before. 

It lost $115.1 million in the first nine months of 2000 and $353 million in 1999. TWA said an increase in oil prices pushed it into bankruptcy this time. 

TWA has 20,000 employees, and Carty said American would offer jobs to all 17,600 unionized workers, including about 2,300 pilots. 

American hopes to sell the deal to its famously fractious pilots – who conducted a sickout the last time American bought another airline, much-smaller Reno Air in 1998 – by promising it will need more pilots to fly the planes it will acquire. 

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American’s 10,700 pilots, said it is withholding judgment on the deal. 

Under the multipart deal, American agreed to pay $500 million for most of TWA’s assets, including up to 190 planes, TWA’s hub in St. Louis and hundreds of prized gates and takeoff spots. If the bankruptcy court approves, TWA passengers could earn American frequent-flier miles on TWA flights before the airline’s name disappears. 

American also will pay $82 million for a 49 percent stake in DC Air, a start-up of United and US Airways controlled by Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson. DC Air, to be based at Reagan Washington National Airport, would use some American planes and crews. 

Finally, in an effort to win regulatory approval for its blockbuster purchase of US Airways, United has agreed to sell US Airways assets to American, including 86 planes and half of US Airways’ Washington-New York-Boston shuttle. American would pay United $1.2 billion in cash and assume $300 million in aircraft leases. 

Many air travelers predicted higher prices, worse service and fewer choices. 

“The consumer isn’t going to have much say,” said Helena Yancey, 42, at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. “It’s like the gas and power people. You buy it from them and that’s it. There’s no competition.” 

In afternoon trading Wednesday, American’s parent company, AMR Corp., fell 44 cents to $38.50, United parent UAL rose 19 cents to $42.19 and Delta climbed 19 cents to $48.56. Shares of TWA, which haven’t traded since last week, remained at $1.32 on the American Stock Exchange. 

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On the Net: 

TWA: http://www.twa.com 

AMR: http://www.amrcorp.com 

American: http://www.im.aa.com 

United: http://www.united.com/site/primary/0,10017,2102,00.html 

US Airways: http://www.usairways.com/corporate/uaus/index.htm 

Consumer federation: http://www.consumerfed.org 

You seldom hear a good proposal to cut taxes that isn’t in some way associated with economic engineering, which in today’s economy means tax cuts as a way of stimulating the economy. 

It goes like this: If the economy is overheating you raise taxes and take money out of the private sector; if the economy is threatening to fall into recession you lower taxes and put money into circulation. 

President-elect George W. Bush has all but declared the latter a good reason to have his proposed tax cuts moved higher on the agenda, the better to spread benefits and lessen the impact of the current slowdown. 

But what about a tax cut simply out of fairness to taxpayers?  

Aspects of that reasoning are contained in Bush’s tax goals, but like most such proposals, it is now likely to be sold mainly as an antidote to recession. 

Conceding the importance of avoiding inflation and recession, over the longer term it’s at least important to watch the changing equation between private and government sectors. 

It’s been tilting toward government, whereas the productivity gains that raise living standards is very much a consequence of private-sector investing. 

Economists Gary and Aldona Robbins, sent 1960s and 1990s tax data through their analytical machine and found there was no contest – the 1990s (and beyond) took a bigger bite from incomes than in the 1960s. 

In the 1960s, taxes consumed less than 35 percent of national income; in the 1990s the percentage had risen to 37.1. Not all the increase was at the federal level; bigger state and local budgets contributed too. 

Working at their own Fiscal Associates, the two ex-Treasury economists found federal, state and local taxes in 1997 took 56.4 cents of the dollar value of private business output. In 1991, it was 48.3 cents. 

In short, government grows, the private sector shrinks, a situation that hardly coincides with the ideas proposed by the founding fathers, and probably at odds also with the impression held by millions of Americans. 

As taxes grow, government benefits of course expand, but inevitably so does the matter of fairness, the marriage penalty, the loss of family businesses important among them.  

Myriad inequities arise and, privacy advocates insist, the potential for loss of personal freedom also rises. 

The Robbins’ analysis, published during the summer by the Institute for Policy Innovation, a Lewis, Texas, think-tank, gets merged into the current political discussion over tax cuts to avert recession. 

But the Robbins take a longer view too. 

Tax burdens, Gary reminds us, cut short the 1960s expansion. Now, he says, they have the potential to discourage saving and investing in the future – in raising productivity and lifting living standards. 

If businesses shy from expanding, he would blame rising marginal tax rates as “the one factor reducing U.S. attractiveness as a place to invest.” 

John Cunniff is a business analyst for The Associated Press.

Shannon Singleton-Banks, coordinator of Berkeley High School’s Domestic Violence Peer Education group, draws two columns on the board: power and non-power.  

Students add categories to each – rich and poor, able-bodied and disabled, adults and kids. The categories are about the way that power can be exercised by different people at different times. 

“We may fit into the non-power group but we’re always empowering ourselves by what we’re doing,” said Sarena Cervantes, a junior. 

The seven young women are peer educators attending one of their weekly training sessions to learn about teen dating violence. They will use this knowledge, in turn, to teach their peers. In the process of learning about the subject, they’ve begun to scrutinize the world and themselves from a new perspective. There were over 1,800 incidents of domestic violence in Berkeley in 1997-98, according to Deborah Arthur, the city’s domestic violence prevention coordinator. In five percent of those, 88 cases in all, the victims were under 20 years old. But, Arthur said, these statistics don’t accurately reflect what’s going on in Berkeley. “One in four young women will be in an abusive relationship before they’re 21,” she said. “And a lot of relationships that are abusive among adults started when they were teens.” 

The peer education program began three years ago to combat those grisly statistics. The coordinators train peer educators to give classroom presentations to middle school and high school students. The group brought their message to 400 students this year, said Singleton-Banks.  

Studies found that young people learned best from people their own age, said Arthur. Peer educator Maeve McGovern explained this, saying that teens have knowledge about student culture that adults can never have. “I can get up and describe a scenario that I know has happened.”  

Those scenarios often include different types of emotional and psychological abuse. That, the peer educators said, is what teens suffer most. “When we tell people about emotional abuse, they’re surprised, because people’s boyfriend or girlfriend disrespects them everyday,” peer educator LaRonda Sullivan said. 

Student educators agreed that one of the primary areas of ignorance was not understanding the definition and scope of relationship violence. “Most people just think domestic violence is being hit,” said Maeve. 

But relationship violence encompasses a much broader range of behavior, said Arthur, such as “insults, put-downs, or humiliation.”  

“It’s about one person in a relationship having power over another person, determining where they go, what they do. It’s a lot about controlling the other person.”  

Coordinator Singleton-Banks said that during emotional teenage years controlling behavior – constant paging, checking in on the person – can be misinterpreted as affection.  

“Often they don’t realize that when he tells you ‘You got to be at this place at this time,’ that it can be abusive. It may look like cute jealousy, but it can potentially be very harmful,” she said. 

Once the teen educators learned about the warning signs and indications of relationship abuse, they saw many of the relationships around them differently. Maeve said she sees some form of abuse in at least half of the relationships at Berkeley High School.  

“It’s an undercover huge issue,” said Sarena.  

The teen educators believe that their presentation will help others recognize abuse, by learning that abuse can be psychological and emotional. People often respond to the peer educators with situations from their lives, said LaRonda, mostly ones they’ve witnessed, rather than ones they’ve lived. 

“Most of them, they’re talking about older people, they say stuff about their own family members,” she said.  

But once exposed to the nature of relationship abuse many are shocked to discover it issue in their own lives. 

“With my friends that are girls a lot of times it didn’t feel right, so they’re not surprised,” said Maeve. “Boys are more surprised,” she said, “because they had no idea that controlling behavior can be considered abuse.”  

All of the educators said they joined the program in order to help people around them. But in the process of educating others, they said, they have begun to examine their own histories as well.  

“It made me take a second look at past relationships,” Maeve said. “For future relationships I’m going to be a lot more careful and picky. It’s not just going to be, ‘do I like him?,’ I’m going to think how he’s going to treat me, how does he treat his mom and his family.”  

Peer educator Courtney Hinton agreed that the workshops made a strong personal impact. “It makes you value yourself more,” she said. 

Arthur said it is hard to change people’s attitudes from one presentation. But analysis of the peer education program showed that the peer educators themselves were deeply affected by the program. She said that having a safe space to talk about the emotionally charged subject of abuse was an important benefit, but, she said, the work itself contributed to the change. The impact of the program, said Arthur, can be seen in “the level of empowerment (the educators) experience by being able to share this information with their classmates and knowing that makes a difference.” 

A hobbled and bickering Landmarks Preservation Commission was unable to take action on the controversial Beth El project Monday night as a result of an ongoing dispute over allegations of conflict of interest against four commissioners. 

In what’s becoming a familiar scene at LPC meetings, Chair Burton Edwards refused to recognize four commissioners regarding certain applications on the commission’s agenda. Edwards was following directives from City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque who has ruled that the four are precluded from participating because of a conflict of interest arising from their positions as members of the board of directors or as staff of the nonprofit Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. 

This was the second meeting in which the chair would not recognize the four commissioners. A third meeting on Nov. 6 came to an abrupt end when the commissioners refused to step down from their seats and then quickly voted to adjourn. 

According to Albuquerque’s Sept. 30, opinion, the commissioners are ineligible to take any action on applications before the LPC on properties on which BAHA has already taken an official opinion. By Albuquerque’s standards, the LPC had two such applications on Monday night’s agenda: 2526 Dwight Way and 1301 Oxford St. 

The four commissioners, Becky O’Malley, Lesley Emmington-Jones, Carrie Olson and Doug Morse deny any conflict of interest and their attorney, Antonio Rossman, has threatened to take the case to court. Albuquerque’s opinion, however, was recently supported by an independent attorney who specializes in municipal law.  

The pared down commission was able to approve an alteration permit for the Dwight Way project on Monday, but did not have five votes to close the public hearing on the Oxford Street application. The motion failed 4-1 with Commissioner Jill Korte voting in opposition. 

Beth El is seeking an alteration permit – altering a historic landmark – to build a 35,000-square-foot synagogue and school. The permit is required because the two-acre site is an official city landmark despite the destruction of the Byrne House, an 1868 Italianate villa, in a 1985 fire. 

Before the commission opened the public hearing on the 2526 Dwight Way project, an obviously uncomfortable Edwards asked the four commissioners to leave the dais. Commissioner O’Malley asked Vivian Khan, the interim deputy director of the Planning and Development Department, what would happen if they refused to leave. 

Kahn was explaining that they had never been faced with that situation when O’Malley said “Well you’re faced with it now.” 

The four remained at the dais and Burton proceeded with the meeting while the disqualified commissioners sat back with their arms folded. 

O’Malley continued to interrupt the hearing during discussions of protocol. A frustrated Burton twice threatened to adjourn the meeting. “You’re out of order,” Burton said repeatedly. “This is exactly why you were asked to step down from the dais.” 

O’Malley responded that the whole meeting was “null and void anyway so we might as well go home and get some sleep.” 

Commissioner Richard Dishnica said O’Malley comments were inappropriate. “I find it disrespectful not only to us but to the members of the public.” he said. “Especially the constant and belligerent attitude towards the chairman.” 

The Oxford Street alteration permit will be considered again by the LPC at its Jan. 22. meeting. If the LPC is ultimately unable to make a decision by March 14, the application will be approved by operation of law according to the California Permit Streamlining Act of 1978. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board will hold a public hearing Thursday night on the controversial Beth El proposal to build a synagogue and school at 1301 Oxford St. 

This phase of the process leads to use permits for the project that is to be built. An Environmental Impact Report has already been approved. 

Once adopted, the use  

permit describes the size and design of the building. It may also impose restrictions on certain activities such as parking and traffic patterns. It could take ZAB months to finalize the permit. 

The proposal has faced heated opposition from the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association, which contends the 35,000-square-foot project is too large and will adversely impact traffic and parking in the neighborhood. The group also contends that Codornices Creek will lose any chance of being daylighted from a culvert on the property and that the site, a Berkeley historical landmark, will be irrevocably altered. 

Beth El members argue the structure takes up only 29 percent of the site despite current zoning laws which would allow them to build on 40 percent of the property. 

Project supporters also claim the project plan is sensitive to the natural and historical elements and that the Final Environmental Impact Report, approved by the ZAB Dec. 14, proves it. 

LOCCNA members said the EIR is woefully inadequate and should never have been approved. 

Congregation member Marianne Magid said there will be a presentation by project architect Buzz Yudell at the use permit hearing and then commentary from supporters of the project.  

LOCCNA spokesperson Juliet Lamont said she is astonished that city agencies have appeared to be rushing the project through. “This is something we’re seeing more and more of in Berkeley,” She said. “Rushing the projects through gives neighborhoods less time to form organized opposition.” 

Lamont said LOCCNA is also concerned because so far members believe the process is weighted on the side of Beth El. “Religious institutions are not allowed to, according to the zoning law, build in areas where it is detrimental to the neighborhood,” she said. “This is absolutely detrimental to the neighborhood and so far there has not been one iota of compromise or modification.” 

Beth El member, Harry Pollock said the congregation is looking forward to the next phase of the process. “It’s been several years since we decided to purchase the property and began design meetings,” he said. “And now we’re finally nearing the time when we’re hopeful we will obtain a use permit. We’re glad to be at this stage.” 

No such thing as a free music download 

Editor: 

Scott Louie’s article on Napster was very interesting – but mostly wrong. 

I am fourteen years old, and use Napster frequently. As a musician, I understand the implications of Napster. But most of Mr. Louie’s statistics were exaggerated.  

For instance, people who do not have high-speed internet (like myself) can download songs in much less than an hour—a seven minute song usually takes about thirty minutes. Also, many CD burners cost $100, and fast burners cost only $250. That is nowhere near $400 as Mr. Louie stated. 

Many MP3 players also cost much less than Mr. Louie’s cited. Some cost as little as $150 and play high-quality music. 

Another way of playing MP3 files wasn’t even mentioned in this article – not having a CD burner or MP3 player myself, I listen to my downloaded songs straight off my PC, and that costs nothing extra. 

Mr. Louie also stated that teenagers prefer to buy CDs rather than pay for Napster. I agree with that, but Napster still has a purpose. There’s not much worse than plunking down $20 for a CD that you turn out to hate.  

Maybe there could be a free version of Napster that only allows you to download half of a song, so you can get a sample of that CD you were going to buy. Computer games make free demos available for download, to test a game; maybe the record industry should follow suit. 

I had to laugh when Mr. Louie quoted a student as saying, “I’d pay for Napster if I really had to, but I’d prefer to have it for free.” What is that telling us? I’d like to get my lunch for free, but since it costs money I’ll just have to buy it anyway. These arguments are specious.  

Later he quotes, “Every month, there’s my pager and my cell...I don’t got the money for Napster.” This person needs both a pager and a cell phone, but is unwilling to get unlimited music for the monthly fee of $20. So this person can afford CDs for $20 each, and a cell phone and a pager, but not Napster? I find that hard to believe. 

Daniel Brady 

Berkeley 

Local activist takes fight to Rome 

Editor: 

Saturday, Jan. 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, a very important holiday here in Rome. It is also the official close of the Year of Jubilee for Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II, celebrated Mass and the official “closing of the doors” early in the morning. But, we know that those doors have never been opened to self-affirming gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Catholics. This morning the police detained two of our members, one being our videophotgrapher.  

It was clearly an attempt to try and convince us not to come back today. 

But, we are prepared to go to jail, and so it does not dissuade us. We gather for worship at 1 p.m. inviting members of the press to join us in worship. Several do, and then walk with us over to the Square. There for the first time we go inside the barricades, open up our banners which say “Stop Spiritual Violence” and “No More Tithes & Gifts until the Church Stops Its Antigay teachings.”  

For three hours we stayed in St. Peters Square, praying, and singing. The police are adamant that we cannot bring our pictures to the Christ child at the creche. 

What truly surprised me was the response of the pilgrims there. So many smiled at us and joined us in prayer, accepting our gifts of rainbow crosses and hearts that we have given all we meet. Watching our circle grow larger as people joined us was a very powerful moment. We gave testimonies to the pain our Church has caused by its teaching, explaining that we come as faithful dissenters.  

Much to our amazement one of the testimonies, brings tears to a police officers eyes, and he walks away so we will not see. 

As the sun begins to set, we make a decision to leave since the police have been very kind and gentle and our intent is not to disrupt this holy day.  

We have been told that we are the first demonstration to be allowed in St. Peter's Square. They did not take our banners or hustle us away to be “detained,” as they did the National Council of American Nuns. With this in mind, we leave St. Peter's Square and join our hosts for Mass and dinner.  

Early tomorrow morning, we fly home to the United states. 

Kara Speltz,  

Rome, Italy 

Concerned about school success for African Americans  

The Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to Everyone Concerned About the Success of Students at Berkeley High School: 

Did you know that at least 250 of our 875 freshmen students have failed or will fail a class in this first semester, and that the majority of these D or F grades are occurring in classes that are necessary for promotion to the 10th grade and/or eventual graduation? 

The failure and drop out rate among Berkeley High School students, especially among students of color, continues unabated at a very high level which has been documented for the past six years, despite efforts by caring teachers and administrators. Even if your teenager is not failing courses, your student's education is directly affected by the struggles, discouragement, and loss of hope already experienced by as many as one-third of their fellow students. Given this continuing and unacceptable situation, a group of parents with strong membership in the PNC04, called the Parents of Children of African Descent, have developed some new solutions, rather than relying on or repeating what has already been proven to fail. 

The letter is to ask for your participation in reviewing and carrying out a Draft Intervention Plan that has been created to help our freshmen get back on track toward 10th grade and graduation. The Plan can be found at the 

following website address: 

http://home.earthlink.net/~pcad01 

This new Intervention Plan recognizes the important role of the wider Berkeley community in supporting and ensuring our students’ success. The programmatic element of the intervention has three types of strategies that 

have been tailored to meet the differing needs of these 250 struggling students. Parents are now asking the principal, superintendent, and the board members to collaborate in this effort, not only by pledging immediate resources but also by helping make contacts and connections with the business, university, and religious communities to get the additional one-time resources necessary for demonstrated success. 

Please offer your immediate feedback on this plan. As the coordinator of the Parent Network of the Class of 04, I have volunteered to gather responses and transmit them to PCAD, and to work with these 04 members to make this intervention successful.  

If you have access to resources that may be useful in meeting the demands of this intervention, please email PCAD from the website, rely email to me, or call me right away at 540-1252. 

Time is short: Jan. 30 is the start of the new semester. Act now to make a difference. It can be done. 

Iris Starr 

Coordinator, Parent Network of the Class of 04 

Berkeley  

Editor: 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE no sex ads in your paper!!! 

I love your newspaper, you guys write good stuff, but PLEASE I don't want to see another magazine (especially a newspaper) with sex ads. And I am not a prude. But who want to see another butt or bust jumping at 

you when you perouse a newspaper... 

Thank you (and the picture is horrible, anyway!) 

Cloe Guesdon 

Berkeley 

Subject:  

Fw: O line service problems 

Date:  

Sun, 07 Jan 2001 19:09:21 -0800 

From:  

Judy and Steve Gerstle  

To:  

news@berkeleydailyplanet.com 

CC:  

bus_riders , Joe Wallace , alice creason , 

Chris Peeples , Greg Shiffer , Matt Williams , 

Nancy Skowbo , Pat Cannon , 

Richard Fernandez , Victoria Wake , 

members Alameda-transit  

Editor: 

In response to your story on AC Transit's non-existent complaint resolution system, I offer the following experience. After AC Transit ruined our dinner plans, I contacted both the Customer Service department and the General Manager's Office. I received no response. I called the General Manager's Office and was told by his secretary that he was at a retreat, but that he would call me back. I never heard from the General Manager or from Customer Service. An investigation of where taxpayers and farepayers dollars are going is long overdue. I urge you to conduct an investigative report on this matter. 

Steven Gerstle 

Alameda 

The following is the letter Gerstle sent to the General Manger: 

Dear Manager: 

Since the passage of Measure B there has been a marked decline in reliability on the transbay O line. Just about every day over the past few weeks I have had problems getting to work or getting home. I have waited 

25 minutes for buses that are supposed to run every ten. There have been numerous missed runs and buses running in packs. It is to the point that the O Line is not reliable enough to take to work. 

The final straw was last night, Saturday, December 16th. My wife and I had dinner reservations in SF. The O bus only runs once an hour on weekends. 

We arrived on the corner of Santa Clara and Grand before 4:45 p.m. An SF bound O bus was scheduled to leave downtown Alameda at 4:48 p.m. There were other O Line passengers waiting... and waiting and waiting. It was cold, the concrete was hard and our feet began to ache. At 5:30 p.m. we gave up and went home. It was too late to drive into the City and I called to cancel our dinner reservations. I called AC Transit but no one was on duty. 

Under no circumstances should service that runs only once an hour be allowed to have a missed run. I don't know what happened, but it is yet another instance of the horrible service I've experienced since Measure B passed. 

I feel somewhat like a fool for having supported AC Transit, having worked on Measure B and, now, to be paying tens of thousands of dollars in Measure B sales tax over the next 20 years. It would be difficult for me to 

encourage others to take AC Transit considering my recent experiences. 

No business or organization can do well without the support of its customers. You are going to have a difficult time regaining rider confidence. 

Steven Gerstle 

Alameda 

Berkeley has been spending an average of $500,000 a year on making public buildings accessible despite the lack of a formal transition plan required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The 35-page Transition Plan, which is four years overdue, has been approved by the City Attorney’s Office and is being reviewed by the city manager. The document will be made public later this month, when it goes to the Commission on Disability.  

City officials said despite the lack of a formal plan, Berkeley has steadily moved forward with accessibility projects in public parks and buildings. 

The American With Disabilities Act became law in 1990 and gives the disabled civil rights protection similar to rights guaranteed to individuals on the basis of race, sex, national origin and religion. It also requires all American cities to develop plans and implement alterations to public buildings to improve access to the disabled. 

Some members of the Commission on Disability have criticized the city’s Disabilities Services Specialist Eric Dibner, for not completing the transition plan sooner. 

Dibner said the city has been installing wheelchair ramps, modifying playgrounds and improving access in libraries and other buildings despite the lack of an approved plan. 

“Besides the new Main Library and Civic Center, which will be ADA compliant when construction is completed, we have implemented accessibility projects at all three senior centers, some of the libraries, as well as other buildings and some parks.” Dibner said. 

One of the recently completed accessibility projects was the Claremont Library on Benvenue and Ashby avenues. The improvements include a modified access ramp, automatic door openers, completely new bathrooms and increased spacing between bookshelves, according to the librarian Dawn Swanson. 

But Commissioner Karen Craig, said it’s surprising that Berkeley, a city that has a large disabled population and has been on the forefront of disabled issues, has not yet approved a transition plan when other cities like San Francisco and Oakland did long ago. 

“Berkeley was the first to adopt a curb cutting program and is the location of the first Center of Independent Living. We should have been one of the first cities to have a Transition Plan completed,” she said. 

Director of Public Works Rene Cardinaux said Dibner had been so busy implementing ADA modifications, he did not have adequate time to write the transition plan more quickly. But the lack of an approved plan hasn’t hurt accessibility projects at all. He said the primary reason for completed projects to date is the willingness of the community and the City Council to approve money for accessibility projects. 

“No matter how aggressive a written plan is, you can only move ahead as fast as the money will let you,” he said. “We live in a fortunate political environment and the city has plunked down about $500,000 every year for curb cuts and building improvements.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she understands why some members of the commission are frustrated, although she’s convinced the city is accomplishing as much as it can with or without a formal transition plan.  

“Government often moves very slowly and I think the commission has been able to cut through a lot of red tape by getting automatic doors put on senior centers and improving curb cuts to the latest specifications.” 

According to Dibner other accessibility improvements have been carried out at some fire stations and recreation centers. Also pathways and play equipment have been adapted in several of the city’s parks including Aquatic Park and Berkeley Way Mini Park.  

Tuesday, Jan. 9

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

531-8664 

Remembering: What’s Normal and What’s Not  

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

With Tina Williams  

Wednesday, Jan. 10

KPFA Advisory Committee 

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1902 Hearst Ave. 

Agenda includes discussion of situation at WBAI 

Kids Dance Open House  

& Class 

5 - 6 p.m. 

El Cerrito Community Center 

7007 Moeser Lane 

El Cerrito  

Parents are invited to explore how dance relates to cognitive, kinesthetic, and socio-emotional development in their children. For ages three to seventeen. Free  

Call 530-4113  

Tai Chi Chuan  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Henry Chang 

Call 644-6107 

Glaucoma: Early Detection Free Lecture  

1 - 2:30 p.m.  

Alta Bates Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne St.  

Oakland 

Dr. Richard Lee, ophthalmologist, will discuss the risk factors and causes of glaucoma, as well as other aspects of the aging eye. Free 

Call 869-6737 

Thursday, Jan. 11

Toni Stone and the Negro Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball Legue in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Benefit Concert for Food First 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz  

1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 

Featuring the David Thom Band, Buffalo Roam, Tree o’ Frogs, and Ten Ton Chicken. All proceeds benefit Food First.  

$10 - $15 donation 

Call Kevin Doyle, 843-6389 x201 

California Babylon  

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Kristan Lawson & Anneli Rufus discuss their book “A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State.” Free 

Call 843-3533  

Free Anonymous HIV Testing 

5:15 - 7:15 p.m. 

Check in 5 - 7 p.m. 

University Health Services 

Tang Center  

2222 Bancroft Way 

Drop-in services and limited space is available.  

Call 642-7202 

Housing Advisory Commission 

7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis St. 

Presentation of housing proposals, including those from: Center for independent Living, Affordable Housing Associates, Jubilee Restoration and others. 

Ski & Snowboard Descents  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Paul Richins, author of “50 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Summits in California - Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney,” presents in slides some of his favorite ski mountaineering and backcountry snowboard descents. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Ballroom Dancing  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Roman Ostrowski  

Call 644-6107  

Friday, Jan. 12

“Who’s Really In Charge Anyway?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Cedar St.  

The subject to be discussed is the guru dilemma and individual spiritual mastership. Hear about the spiritual path of light and sound and the ancient teachings of the saints.  

Call Unitarian Hall, 841-4824 or visit www.masterpath.org 

“Sing for Hope” 

8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2435 Channing Way (at Dana) 

The second annual event features an evening of arias and Broadway show tunes sung by seven of New York’s young rising opera stars. All proceeds benefit the Center for AIDS Services, a nonprofit day center in Oakland for people with HIV and AIDS.  

$35 performance only, $50 performance & post-concert reception 

Call 655-3435 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Innovative Approaches to Farming”  

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Reggie Knox, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farms of Santa Cruz will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free 848-3533  

Yiddish Conversation  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With allen Stross  

Call 644-6107 

“Igniting the Dream: Social Justice in the New Millennium”  

6 - 9 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality  

2141 Broadway  

Oakland  

An art reception, film screening, and panel discussion featuring Rev. Phillip Lawson, Rafael Gonzalez, Luisah Teish, and Dr. Barbara Cannon. Free  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Saturday, Jan. 13 

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184 

Dia de los Reyes Concert  

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church  

1640 Addison  

Performing will be Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo with the Jackeline Rago Ensemble de la Pena.  

$12 - $15 (415) 431- 4234 

Rose Pruning Workshop  

9:30 a.m.  

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

Peter Klement, UC Botanical Garden rose expert will share his expertise and demonstrate techniques for shaping old-fashioned roses, climbers and hybrid teas to assure maximum flowering.  

$20 - $27.50  

Call 643-2755 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St.  

In their first East Bay show of the millennium, Sedge Thomson welcomes Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers.  

415-664-9500 for reservations 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St. 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes  

for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 644-8515 

Pancake Breakfast Fund-raiser  

8 a.m. - Noon  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Tickets available at all city of Berkeley recreational sites and at the Young Adult Project. $3 - $5  

644-8515 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Bridge Rail Unveiling  

9:30 a.m.  

Codornices Creek at the Ohlone Greenway  

Members of the Berkeley and Albany city councils, along with members of the creek-restoration group, will swing sledgehammers to remove forms from the concrete bridge footing and towers. 

Call 8 48-9358 or visit www.fivecreeks.org  

Sunday, Jan. 14

Teaching Chinese Culture in the U.S.  

2 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Educators from Bay Area Chinese schools explore issues related to teaching Chinese culture and language. Included in museum admission.  

$6 general; $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

“Berkeley, 1900” 

3 - 5 p.m. . 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Richard Schwartz gives an oral history of Berkeley at the turn of the century.  

A-Singin’ and a Chantin’ 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Pagan recording artist DJ Hamouris shares some songs and chants. 

Call 848-8443 

Free Feng Shui Class 

3 p.m. 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley  

2066 University Ave.  

Taught by Lily Chung, author of “Calendars for Feng Shui and Divination.” 

Call Eastwind, 548-3250 

Monday, Jan. 15

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church  

1188 12th St. (at Adeline) 

Oakland  

Featuring Rev. Dorsey Blake, Dr. Matthew Fox, Reconnect Performance Troupe, Cole Performing Arts Choir and Avotcja.  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Tuesday, Jan. 16

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

“Travel as Pilgramage” 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Various travel writers discuss the spiritual aspects of travel. Free 

Call 843-3533  

Avalanche Safety Course  

6 - 9:30 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Dick Penniman, internationally known avalanche instructor and consultant, presents a slide lecture and video presentation on the fundamentals of avalanches and rescue techniques.  

$20  

Call Dick Penniman, (877) SNO-SAFE 

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is the role of the U.S. in global politics and priorities.  

Call 527-9772  

Wednesday, Jan. 17

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters 

7:15 p.m. 

Vault Restaurant  

3250 Adeline St.  

Learn to speak fluently without fear or hesitation.  

Call Howard Linnard, 527-2337 

Your Justice System at Work 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

West Oakland Senior Center  

1724 Adeline St.  

Oakland  

Judges of the Superior Court, attorneys, probation officers, sheriff’s officers and other justice system representatives will be present to hear the concerns of the public and to answer their questions.  

Call 268-7610 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Jan. 18  

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicty,” learn about this movement whose philosophy is “the examined life richly lived.” Work less, consume less, rush less, and build community with friends and family.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Ayodele Nzinga and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

Combating Congestion  

1 - 5 p.m. 

Pauley Ballroom 

Student Union Building  

UC Berkeley 

A one-day transportation conference featuring Martin Wachs and Elizabeth Deakin, both of UC Berkeley. Co-sponsored by the Institute of Transportation Studies and the UC Transportation Center.  

Call 642-1474  

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Become Berkeley City Smart 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

In a slide presentation & talk, Berkeley resident, restaurant and movie critic John Weil takes attendees on a unique tour through the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Berkeley and Oakland. Free 

Call 843-3533  

Disabled American Veterans Chapter 25 Meeting 

8 p.m. 

Veterans Memorial Building  

1931 Center St.  

Any woman who has had a relative serve in the U.S. military is invited to attend and join the auxiliary.  

Call 916-372-8364 

Journey Across China 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Eugene Tsiang, Shanghai native, will give a slide presentation on his two-month journey last spring by train and four-wheel drive vehicle across China’s Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang Provinces. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us  

Friday, Jan. 1

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Evidence-Based Practice - How it May Effect You” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Eileen Gambrill, professor in the department of social welfare at UC Berkeley with speak. 

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Jan. 20  

On Death & Dying 

9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Buddhist Temple  

2121 Channing Way (between Shattuck & Fulton)  

Kathleen Gustin, Zen priest, and Rev. Ronald Nakasone of the Graduate Theological Union speak at this workshop designed to help those considering their own ending or that of loved ones.  

$20 per person (box lunch included) 

Call Ken Kaji, 601-5394 

Corinne Innis Reception 

5 - 7 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings.  

Call 548-9286 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Monday, Jan. 22  

Berkeley Rail Stop Community  

Design Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 1900 Sixth St.  

The public is invited to suggest ideas and comment on plans for design-development at the rail stop/transit plaza area of West Berkeley.  

Call 644-6580 

Urban Homelessness  

& Public Policy Solutions 

9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Alumni House  

UC Berkeley  

This day-long conference will include key scholars, service providers, and policymakers in the homelessness field. Some of the subjects to be covered will be: Homeless population dynamics and policy implications, health issues in homelessness, and legal and political issues in homelessness. Free and open to the public.  

For more info, visit: http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/homeless.htm 

Tuesday, Jan. 23 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Jan. 24 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Jan. 25  

Spirits in the Time of AIDS 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

Pro Arts reception for the opening of their new exhibition seeking to expand the understanding of HIV and AIDS and the people who are affected by them.  

Call 763-9425 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Climbing Mt. Everest  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Bob Hoffman, organizer and leader of four environmental clean-up expeditions on Everest, will give a slide presentation on the Inventa 2000 Everest Environmental Expedition’s recent ascent. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Glenn Ingersoll and host Louis Cuneo.  

644-0155 

Women in Salsa  

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Orquesta D’Soul, a San Francisco based band, is hosting this benefit featuring the musical talents of local bay area women in salsa.  

$8 in advance, $10 at the door 

Call 849-2568 or visit www.lapena.org 

Friday, Jan. 26 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“The Aftermath of the National Election” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Susan Rasky, senior lecturer at the graduate school of journalism at UC Berkeley will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Jan. 27  

Clori, Tirsi & e Fileno 

8 p.m. 

Crowden School  

1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 

Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company, will be performing Handel’s story of jealousy in love. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performance.  

$15 - $20  

Call 658-3382  

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Cuddly, Soft, Furry Things & Friends 

10 - 10:50 a.m. & 11:10 a.m. - Noon  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

A special workshop for two - three year-olds to meet, pet, and feed rabbits, doves, and snakes.  

$22 - $25, $10 for additional family members, registration required  

Call 642-5134 

Book Publishing Seminar 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St.  

Mark Weiman presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publication. From page layout to promotion and distribution, Weiman will cover all practical aspects of independent book publishing.  

Call 547-7602 or e-mail: regent@sirius.com 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Sunday, Jan. 28  

Clori, Tirsi & e Fileno 

7 p.m. 

Crowden School  

1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 

Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company, will be performing Handel’s story of jealousy in love. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performance.  

$15 - $20  

Call 658-3382  

Tuesday, Jan. 30 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Jan. 31 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Featuring “Berkeley Images,” a world premiere by Jean-Pascal Beintus.  

$10 - $35  

Call 841-2800 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 1 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet John Rowe and host Randy Fingland.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 2 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Allee der Kosmontauten 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Performance of Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz 1996 work in its West Coast premiere. Also features the film work of Elliot Caplan.  

$20 - $42  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

“A Night In Oakland” 

8 p.m. 

Alice Arts Center 

1428 Alice St. (at 14th St.) 

Oakland  

Savage Jazz Dance Company launches their 2001 spring season along with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.  

$10 - $15 

Call 496-6068 or visit www.savagejazz.org 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 3 

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Artists Talk 

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland  

As part of “Consecrations,” the public is invited to hear artists speak about their work and show slides. Free 

Call 763-9425 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Sunday, Feb. 4 

“Under Construction No. 10” 

7:30 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church  

2727 College Ave.  

Experience the unusual rehearsal-reading format that lets the audience experience the collaboration between conductor, orchestra and composer in the Berkeley Symphony’s unique series presenting new works or works-in-progress by local Bay Area composers.  

Call 841-2800 

Russian National Orchestra  

4 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

On their tenth anniversary tour, the RNO will perform Shostakovich’s symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No. 2.  

$30 - $52  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

From Flatlands to the Stars  

9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Diamond Park  

Fruitvale Ave. (at Lyman Rd.) 

A hardy hike along Sausal Creek in Oakland’s unexplored Diamond and Joaquin Miller parks. A free hike sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

“A Night In Oakland” 

2 & 8 p.m. 

Alice Arts Center 

1428 Alice St. (at 14th St.) 

Oakland  

Savage Jazz Dance Company launches their 2001 spring season along with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.  

$10 - $15 

Call 496-6068 or visit www.savagejazz.org 

Tuesday, Feb. 6  

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is sex, love, dating, and relationships in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  

Call 527-9772  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 7  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 8 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Tom Odegard and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 9  

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 10  

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Open Mic.  

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland  

As part of “Consecrations,” the public is invited to see special performances, spoken word, commentary and more.  

Call 763-9425 

Masters of Persian Classical Music 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Featuring vocalist Mohammad Reza Sharjarian and his son, Homayoun Sharjarian.  

$20 - $40  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Sunday, Feb. 11  

Ruth Acty Oral History Reception 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society  

Veterans Memorial Building 

1931 Center St.  

In 1943 Miss Ruth Acty became the first African American teacher to be hired by the Berkeley Unified School District. She taught thousands of students until her retirement in 1985. Oral History Coordinator Therese Pipe interviewed Acty in 1993-94 for the Berkeley Historical Society. Free  

Horacio Gutierrez  

3 p.m. 

Hertz Hall 

UC Berkeley  

The Cuban-American pianist will perform Berg’s Sonata, Op.1, George Perle’s Nine Bagatelles, Schumann’s Fantasie, Op. 17 and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29.  

$24 - $42  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Tuesday, Feb. 13 

“Great Decisions” - U.S. Trade Policy 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session, $35 entire series for single person, $60 entire series for couple  

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 14 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 15 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicty,” learn about this movement whose philosophy is “the examined life richly lived.” Work less, consume less, rush less, and build community with friends and family.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Basics of PCs 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley 

A class for adults that will cover file management, loading software, software management, downloading pages from the Web, and more. 

$30 - $35, registration required  

Call 642-5134  

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Kathleen Lynch and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 16 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 17  

“Go-Go-Go Greenbelt!” 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Rockridge BART  

Oakland  

A bike tour on this ride into the rolling East Bay hills. A free ride sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

Sunday, Feb. 18  

Waterfalls of Berkeley  

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

North Berkeley BART  

Sacramento at Delaware  

On this urban waterfall hike, discover three waterfalls along rushing creeks hidden in Berkeley neighborhoods. A free hike sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

Tuesday, Feb. 20 

“Great Decisions” - China & Taiwan 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session 

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is different cultural, ethnic and religious values.  

Call 527-9772  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 21 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 22 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Charles Ellick and host Louis Cuneo.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 23 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Sunday, Feb. 25  

“Imperial San Francisco: 

Urban Power, Earthly Ruin” 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley History Center 

Veterans Memorial Building 

1931 Center St.  

Gary Brechin speaks on the impact and legacy of the Hearsts and other powerful San Francisco families. Free 

Call 848-0181 

Tuesday, Feb. 27 

“Great Decisions” - Missile Defense  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session 

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 28  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, March 1  

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Eliza Shefler and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

Friday, March 2  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Tuesday, March 6  

“Great Decisions” - U.S. & Iraq 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regar

The Associated Press 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis proposed a smorgasbord of solutions for California’s electricity crunch Monday in a State-of-the-State speech that also focused on improving schools and expanding health care for the poor. 

His answers to the state’s power woes included possible formation of a public power authority to buy and build new power plants and using eminent domain to take over plants to “prevent generators from driving consumers into the dark and utilities into bankruptcy.” 

“Make no mistake,” he said in his toughest language yet on the state’s power crisis. “We will regain control over the power that’s generated in California and commit it to the public good.” 

The Democratic governor’s third annual address to the Legislature included proposals to expand teacher training, lengthen middle-school students’ academic year and provide health care for low-income parents. 

But a proposed fix for California’s power crisis was the centerpiece of his 35-minute speech. 

Davis said the state’s venture into a gradually deregulated electricity market had been a “colossal and dangerous failure” that has left consumers facing the prospect of huge rate increases and two giant investor-owned utilities predicting bankruptcy. 

“It has not lowered consumer prices and it has not increased supply,” Davis said. “In fact, it has resulted in skyrocketing prices, price-gouging and an unreliable supply of electricity. In short, an energy nightmare.” 

Doug Heller, a consumer advocate who has been one of the governor’s biggest critics on energy issues, praised Davis’ threat to use eminent domain and his call for a public power authority. 

But he said the governor also should have proposed an excess profits tax on power generators to repay consumers for rate hikes. 

Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy, a major power wholesaler, said that seizing plants and creating a state power authority would “do nothing to produce power.” Williams said earlier that Duke would fight any attempt to take over its power plants. 

“California needs to increase supply and as rapidly as possible,” he said. “We’re willing to develop any kind of solutions to increase supply and anything that can be done to reduce demand.” 

Davis asked lawmakers to: 

— Earmark $1 billion in the state budget to help stabilize electricity prices and provide generate additional power and spend $4 million to allow the attorney general to investigate whether suppliers manipulated prices. 

— Restructure the boards that manage the state’s power grid and overhaul a “crazy bidding process for electricity.” 

— Make it easier for utilities to buy electricity through long-term contracts to stabilize prices. 

— Give the state the power to order power plants down for unscheduled maintenance to go back on line and to make it a crime to deliberately withhold power from the state grid if it results in an imminent threat to public health or safety. 

— Require California utilities to hold on to their remaining power plants and sell their power in California instead of out of state. 

— Provide low-interest financing to build more power plants designed to be used during periods of high demand and to “repower” existing ones to make them cleaner and more efficient, and provide state-owned lands to site more generating facilities. 

But Davis said the state had to go further than building new plants. 

“The time has come to take control of our own energy destiny,” he said. 

That will require a joint-powers authority made up of the state and California’s 30 municipal utilities or a state power authority “that can buy and build new plants,” Davis said. 

He asked consumers to cut electricity consumption by at least 7 percent and urged lawmakers to allocate $250 million for cash incentives to encourage consumers to replace inefficient refrigerators, washers and air conditioners. 

He said the state would cut consumption by at least 8 percent and by 20 percent during serious electricity shortages. 

On education, Davis proposed adding 30 days to middle schools’ academic year, expanding training for reading and math teachers and school principals and vice principals and spending $30 million a year to beef up algebra instruction. 

Barbara Kerr, vice president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s larger teachers’ union, said Davis’ training proposals were good and his plan for longer middle-school academic year was interesting. 

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, said extra classroom time would be “voluntary for everybody but the kid. If I was a kid I wouldn’t like it much,” he said. 

Davis also said he was forming a task force led by his education secretary, Kerry Mazzoni, and actor-director Rob Reiner, chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, to develop a school readiness initiative for young children. 

On health care, Davis said he was asking for a federal waiver to expand the Healthy Families program, which now serves 375,000 children, to also cover 290,000 low-income working parents. 

Davis said California’s economy is still “fundamentally strong” despite increasing signs of an economic slowdown nationally. 

But he said the state could “no longer expect short-term stock-market windfalls or $10 billion budget surpluses.” 

“Fiscal restraint is more important than ever,” he said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

www.governor.ca.gov 

Gov. Gray Davis’ State of the State message was a mixed bag for Assemblymember Dion Aroner.  

While she appreciated Davis’ call for the state to take a greater role in decision-making on questions of energy, Aroner said he left out the people she directs much of her energy to – “poor people.” 

Though Aroner would like the state to take over its power supply – “people like me say electricity is public,” she said – she acknowledged that was not going to happen. Davis’ call for restructuring the system operators’ boards would help the state gain some of the control it needs, she said. 

While failing to talk about upgrading building standards so that buildings are more energy efficient, the governor did talk about giving incentives for energy conservation, she said. She applauded the incentives Davis proposed for people to get rid of their old refrigerators “Refrigerators use up 20 percent of the electricity in a home,” she said, noting that the old refrigerators ought not to be recycled. 

The governor said nothing about housing, Aroner said critically. “We’ve got this work force that can’t afford to live here.”  

The governor’s proposal to keep kids in school an additional thirty days still needs to be worked out, Aroner said, noting that “every other industrialized country in the world is on a longer-year schedule.” There’s also a logistics issue, she said, pointing to the 120,000 children who are on year-round schedules. 

What Aroner would want, above all, is for the governor to augment school allocations and allow local school districts to spend the money as they see fit, including raising teacher salaries. “He didn’t talk about this,” she said. 

Aroner commended the governor’s move to try to get parents of poor children government-supported health insurance, but chastised him for otherwise ignoring the needs of the poor. For example, she said she would have wanted Davis to address the mental health needs of low income people. 

Still, Aroner said she appreciated Davis’ silence. When former Gov. Pete Wilson used to talk about poor people, it was to take programs away from them, she said. “I appreciate the Governor not saying anything. That’s good news.”

How do you get 70 Berkeley High School students to a small communist country? The question is not the set-up for a one liner, but the financial nightmare faced by leaders of a group hoping to take students to Cuba this spring. 

“I don’t think that necessarily most of the students realize the amount of money we need,” said junior Jared Lee, who hopes to go to Cuba. “The students are less skeptical than the parents. It’s mostly the parents that are concerned, students seem to think that they can work it out.” 

The trip, organized by Global Exchange will expose youth from BHS’s Communication Arts and Sciences program to rural and urban Cuba. The students will visit schools and hospitals as well as museums, and will gain an understanding of contemporary Cuba, and Cuban history.  

“Reality tours are always focused on an inter-cultural exchange, bringing people a little closer to the reality of the countries that we visit,” said Malia Everette, director of Reality Tours for Global Exchange.  

But inter-cultural exchange like this one isn’t free. The group is budgeting about $1,800 per student, plus the costs for teachers and chaperones. Lee gets a regular paycheck from his job at a toy store, all of which will be put towards the Cuba trip. But students who don’t have jobs, or whose work money goes to other causes, may not be able to make the funds. Parents and guardians have submitted forms indicating how much money they can contribute. Lee said that’s left them with a deficit of about $80,000.  

“That’s a lot of money to raise in a couple of months,” he said.  

So parents, teachers and students have started fund raising. They can be found at the Rockridge Bart station on Friday evenings selling bread donated by Acme. Or they might be seen asking relatives, friends and neighbors for small donations. 

Students must contribute five hours to fund raising, even if they already have their own way paid. “It has been made clear that regardless of the amount of money your family can commit, they have to do fund-raising,” said Michael Miller, a parent of one student going on the trip. 

The fund-raising takes all forms. Students organized a Cuban dinner-dance for Friday at the Alternative High School. “Everything that needs to be done the students will be doing it,” said Miller, including preparing food, acting as waitpersons, and cleaning-up afterwards. 

He cautioned that hungry cubanophiles should secure their tickets right away. “Tickets went on sale yesterday at group meeting,” said Miller. “There were probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-70 people and almost all the tickets are spoken for.”  

“It’s an interesting concept to fund-raise from our own pockets,” he said, laughing. On Feb. 25 the students will host a benefit lunch at Venezia Caffe and Ristorante. 

Lee said that the fund-raising process hasn’t been all drudgery. “If everybody was paid for there wouldn’t be bi-weekly meetings,” he said. The meetings have provided an opportunity for the students from all different grade levels to get to know each other prior to crossing borders. 

The students will learn even more about each other through the various projects about Cuba leading up to their travels. But the trip, to take place around spring break, is what most students have their eyes on. 

“A lot of inner city youth don’t have a lot of opportunity to travel,” said Global Exchange’s Everette, who has taken other high school groups to Cuba. “For them to go to another country and see another culture broadens their world view. They realize, wow, things aren’t like they are in Berkeley.”  

Lee is looking forward to discovering the truth behind the myths of Cuba. “It’s a good example of a working communist nation,” he said. “It’ll be interesting because of the stigma on communist governments.”  

In particular he is interested in seeing the way U.S. policy has impacted Cuba. 

Everette’s goal, she said, is to encourage this kind of thinking on a larger world scale. “Hopefully they’ll think about U.S. policy in other countries,” she said. “I think that honors young mature minds.” 

To donate money or attend a fund-raiser contact Kimberly Willis-Starbuck at 869-4544. 

California’s youth population is exploding – both in numbers and, potentially, behaviors breeding poor health and even early death. 

Those twin conclusions in a report by a coalition of public- and private-sector advocates have led the group to propose new ways of turning teens from problem-prone to healthy. 

The California Adolescent Health Collaborative presented its findings and recommendations Tuesday. 

The population of children aged 10 to 19 is growing almost three times as fast in California as in the nation. The state’s youth population is expected to rise from 4.4 million in 1995 to 6 million in 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau predicts. 

This growth is expected to amplify the state’s racial diversity, affecting everything from pregnancy prevention to  

murder rates, which differ between 

racial groups. 

“It’s an important social experiment that we’re about to engage in,” said Claire Brindis, a group leader and pediatrics professor at the University of California, San Francisco. “Schools are starting to think about this in terms of classrooms they need. Prisons are starting to think about this.” 

Now is also the time for health advocates to consider the implications, Brindis said. The group’s report argues that while the warning signs aren’t extreme, the population boom could compound typical teen problems. 

Teens are already murdered here at a greater rate than the national average. Meanwhile, California must work to keep its teen suicide and car crash death rates relatively low, Brindis said. 

There is no vaccine for these kinds of health hazards and no one expects a quick fix. Instead, the group argues, adults need to adopt a fundamentally new view of growing up. 

“We’re talking about changing the way that people think about teens to get people to understand that teens are a resource instead of a liability,” said Serena Clayton, the group’s director who wrote the report with Brindis. 

That requires change among parents, who may now view the teen-age years as an eerie perversion on the path to adulthood. 

“Kids need to feel connected to meaningful adults,” Brindis said. 

Not that all the onus falls on older generations. Teen-agers need to take advantage of public health assistance programs, engage in volunteer work and even insist on advising institutions that influence their lives, the groups said. 

“It’s not just about ’just say no to drugs,”’ Clayton said. “It’s about how to be successful.” 

On the Net: youth.ucsf.edu/nahic/alpha.html

AUSTIN, Texas — President-elect Bush said Monday “I’ve got confidence in Linda Chavez” despite the revelation his labor secretary-designee had provided money and housing to an illegal immigrant. The woman said Chavez knew she was illegal, an assertion a Bush spokesman denied. 

Marta Mercado said she was never formally employed by Chavez in the early 1990s – federal law prohibits hiring illegal immigrants. Instead, Chavez had simply “opened all of her house because she knew about my situation,” Mercado said, adding that she told Chavez she was illegal. 

“She knew I was not legal in this country,” Mercado told The Associated Press. “She knew I didn’t have my green card. I wanted to get it, but it was not easy. ... She had the intention to be my sponsor. She told me one day that she wanted to help me.” 

A spokesman for Bush, Tucker Eskew, gave a different account Monday, saying Chavez “came to know of this woman’s status sometime after she had left her home, when the woman returned to Guatemala.” 

Several Bush aides said Chavez told his advisers she did not know Mercado was in the country illegally until the woman had left her home. 

Mercado said FBI agents interviewed her about her ties to Chavez on Sunday. Though rarely enforced, knowingly harboring an illegal alien is prohibited by federal law – a fact Democrats who oppose Chavez’ nomination were exploring ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing, Jan. 16-17. 

Bush, who said he learned of the matter Sunday night, stood by his nominee. “I strongly believe that when the Senate gives her a fair hearing, they’ll vote for her,” he said. 

The president-elect faced a barrage of questions on the subject on two separate occasions Monday, 12 days before his inauguration. He said of Chavez, “I firmly believe she’ll be a fine secretary of labor.” 

Democrats promised a vigorous examination of the case. Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the committee considering the Chavez nomination, called the new information “very troubling.” Bush aides were reviewing FBI interviews with Chavez and Mercado, as well as their own discussions with Chavez, to determine whether the nominee had abided by the law and had been forthcoming.  

Knowingly housing an illegal immigrant is against the law, but authorities usually go after smugglers who violate “harboring” statutes, not people who let undocumented aliens stay at their homes. 

But for Chavez, providing housing and money to a Guatemalan women – she said she was driven by compassion – has added controversy to her quest to win confirmation. She already was being strongly criticized by unions and some Democrats for past statements on such issues as affirmative action and the minimum wage. 

Mercado said she did laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms and took care of the dogs in Chavez’ home but was not regularly paid and did not consider herself an employee. “I felt it (made) me feel better doing some things for them. She gave me some money, not every week, maybe two or three weeks,” she said, adding the payment varied from $60 to $200. 

Mercado said she worked for a Chavez neighbor. “Mrs. Linda’s neighbors might have thought I was working for her because sometimes they saw me with the dogs and trash,” she said. “They might have thought I was working for her. That was not exactly what was happening.” 

A maid at the neighborhood home where Mercardo worked, Sandra Johnson, said the Guatemalan woman did extra housekeeping for her employer in the secluded cul de sac and was paid $130 a week. 

“My employer paid her more than Linda Chavez. I remember that very clearly,” Johnson told The AP, adding that she was certain Mercardo was working rather than simply accepting donations “because she has three girls back in her country that she had to support.” 

Johnson said the FBI spoke to her employers a few days ago. 

Mercado lived at Chavez’s Maryland home in 1991 and 1992. She now has a visa that allows her to work legally in the United States. 

At the start of the Clinton administration, Zoe Baird’s nomination for attorney general was derailed because she had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny. 

Chavez was critical of Baird, saying in 1993 on PBS: “I think most of the American people were upset during the Zoe Baird nomination that she had hired an illegal alien. That was what upset them more than the fact that she did not pay Social Security taxes” on the nanny’s wages. 

Bush’s aides said Chavez helped Mercado for charitable reasons. Chavez told The Washington Post: “If someone came to me needing shelter and needing a helping hand even under the same circumstances, I would try to help them. 

An Immigration and Naturalization official said that if Chavez knew Mercado was undocumented she might well have been in violation of the immigration law, which carries fines starting at $2,000 per charge. 

“It’s very rare that an individual would be prosecuted for this,” said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “On the other hand, if you are a Cabinet secretary you have to expect that you are going to be under a lot of scrutiny.” 

Employers are supposed to check on whether workers have documents. Exempt are housekeepers who provide “sporadic, irregular and intermittent service,” according to federal statute. 

Chavez did not return messages left for her at the Center For Equal Opportunity, a Virginia nonprofit group she heads. 

A spokesman for Sen. Kennedy, Jim Manley, said the case would be pursued in confirmation hearings and Chavez would also be questioned about her opposition to affirmative action, a minimum wage increase and other issues. 

Another case that could come up: In 1986, during a failed run for the Senate, Chavez acknowledged that she defaulted on “a couple of thousand dollars” in government student loans used to pay for college. She told The Post that she paid them back a decade later, only after she had become a federal employee and was tracked down. 

Chavez is not the only nominee who assisted an illegal alien. New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, Bush’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, disclosed in 1993 that she and her husband had employed two Portuguese natives for more than three years when they were in the country illegally. 

Whitman didn’t pay taxes on their wages for part of that time, but later said she paid the outstanding taxes. The couple, who obtained legal residency in 1991, still work for Whitman. 

——— 

Editors’ note: Reporters Laura Meckler and Scott Lindlaw contributed to this story in Washington. 

WASHINGTON — Overturning environmental protections imposed by the Clinton administration would cost Republicans a lot of public support, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said. 

President-elect Bush has criticized actions by President Clinton that restrict timber cutting, oil drilling and mining on federal land, and some Western Republicans are urging him to reverse several of those decisions. 

Babbitt, in an interview with The Associated Press, said, “I think that attempts to undo the gains of the last eight years are going to be very costly, because there’s an enormous amount of public support.” 

Rep. Jim Hansen, the Utah Republican who now chairs the House Resources Committee, wrote Bush an eight-page letter last month outlining ways to reverse several Clinton environmental regulations. Gale Norton, Bush’s choice to replace Babbitt, once worked for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which has sued Babbitt repeatedly to try to do the same. 

Babbitt declined to criticize Norton, but did denounce an idea Norton and Hansen have supported: compensating property owners when environmental regulations stop them from developing their land. 

“The radical property-rights crowd are anarchists at heart, and I don’t believe the American people will buy into that,” Babbitt said in the interview last week. 

Hansen and other Republicans have blocked many Clinton administration environmental initiatives, such as raising grazing fees and royalties for minerals dug from federal land. Babbitt said he is proud that the administration, through regulations, has accomplished many of the goals blocked by Congress, something that enraged Republicans. 

“Here we are, having achieved 80 percent of what was sought in legislation, by administrative rule,” said Babbitt, who has been interior secretary since the start of the Clinton administration. 

Most galling to Western Republicans has been Clinton’s use of the 1906 Antiquities Act to create and expand national monuments, further restricting development on federal land.  

On Babbitt’s recommendation, Clinton has created or expanded 13 national monuments, most of them in the West. 

Babbitt has recommended seven new or expanded monuments in Montana, California, Arizona, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Clinton’s creation of monuments also prodded Congress into adding protection to federal tracts in Colorado, Oregon, California and Arizona in the past two years. 

Four of the new monuments have been in Arizona, where Babbitt grew up and served as governor. That blunted criticism that the actions were taken by Washington bureaucrats unfamiliar with the areas, Babbitt said. 

“I know every inch of land and every third person in Arizona,” Babbitt boasted. 

After he leaves office Jan. 20, Babbitt plans to write a book and continue to speak out on environmental issues. He said he plans to “spend a lot of time fighting” Bush’s proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and natural gas drilling. 

Although some have urged Babbitt to head a conservation group or take a university job, he said he would not do so. He said he also would not become a lobbyist, but might affiliate with a law firm. Another political run is out of the question, he said. 

“I will be spending a lot of time writing and speaking, but I am not seeking institutional affiliation,” Babbitt said. “I will be a private citizen. I am not for hire.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Interior Department: http://www.doi0.gov 

BEIJING — China’s government on Tuesday rejected newly published documents vividly describing how Chinese leaders split over the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, suggesting that the papers are fake. 

“Any attempt to play up the matter again and disrupt China by the despicable means of fabricating materials and distorting facts will be futile,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a statement issued early Tuesday morning via the official Xinhua News Agency. 

The crackdown was “highly necessary to the stability and development of China,” Zhu said. He said the ruling Communist Party’s “correct conclusion” about the 1989 protests would not change. 

It was the first official reaction to the papers, which were purportedly smuggled out of China by a disaffected civil servant and were published over the weekend.  

Andrew Nathan, a professor of political science at Columbia University who co-edited “The Tiananmen Papers” with Perry Link, a professor of Chinese language and literature at Princeton University, said he believed revealing Zhang’s identity would place him at risk. 

Nathan and Link, both well-known China experts, told The Associated Press the documents are consistent with the smattering of information already available outside China and with the testimonies of other former officials who have since fled. 

The two professors also spent hours interviewing the former civil servant. They say he painstakingly transcribed original records from files in Beijing and elsewhere onto computer disks, which he brought with him out of China. 

Orville Schell, dean of the journalism school at the University of California at Berkeley and author of several books on China, worked with Nathan and Link. 

He said he was also skeptical about the authenticity of the documents at first. He said, the author’s extensive knowledge of inner workings of Chinese government and the clarity of his motive in releasing documents helped convince him that the work was legitimate. 

Beijing has long argued that the protests were an anti-government rebellion that needed to be crushed to safeguard economic growth and Communist Party rule. It has ignored calls for an investigation into the bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown, in which hundreds were killed, and sought to silence victims’ relatives who have demanded redress. The papers are said to be based on never-before-published minutes of secret high-level meetings, Chinese intelligence reports and records of Deng’s private phone calls. 

They reveal deep-seated paranoia that the protests were controlled by unknown anti-communist conspirators. They also expose anxiety by the party’s top leaders that the more than 1 million demonstrators gathered at Tiananmen Square could demand their arrest. 

If genuine, scholars who translated and published the papers said, the documents offer a rare glimpse into the motivations and fears behind the communist leadership’s decision to order troops into Tiananmen Square.

SAN JOSE — Steve Jobs rescued Apple Computer Inc. once before. Now he has to try to do it again. 

With the pioneering company he co-founded losing money and struggling to hold on to its niche in the computer world, Jobs will make one of his signature sales pitches Tuesday at the Macworld expo in San Francisco. 

Jobs is expected to unveil new Power Macs and PowerBook laptops and more fully display the new Macintosh OS X operating system, in hopes of generating a buzz among loyal Apple users and software developers. 

“What I’m hoping for is some pretty dramatic stuff. They need to get people excited again,” said Roger Kay, a PC analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. “They need to come back roaring.” 

But while an upbeat Macworld might raise morale, it won’t quickly change the cold fact that demand for Macs remains weak and inventories are way too high despite holiday-season price cuts, according to a report Monday from the Salomon Smith Barney investment bank. 

Apple’s earnings report for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 is due next week, and the company has said it will lose between $225 million and $250 million. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial are projecting a staggering loss of 64 cents per share. 

Jobs has tried to assure analysts that the company can return to profitability, and the consensus forecast is that Apple will earn 4 cents a share in the current quarter, which ends March 31.  

But Salomon Smith Barney analyst Richard Gardner reduced his estimate for this quarter to a loss of 24 cents per share on Monday. 

“While Apple’s shares may receive a boost from Tuesday’s product announcements, we would not be buyers,” Gardner’s report said. 

Even Jobs has acknowledged for months that Apple has an image problem – the belief among some consumers that the sleek, top-line Mac Cube computers are slower than competing models that run on Microsoft’s Windows system. The latest Mac Cubes are expected to narrow that “megahertz gap.” 

Analysts also have complained that Apple is relying too heavily on the Macs’ impressive design to wow customers – who instead want functions that Apple has been slow to provide, such as CD-recording drives and compatibility with peripheral devices such as personal digital assistants. 

Adding to Apple’s woes, the company lost its traditional leadership in the education market last year, falling behind Dell Computer Corp. in sales to schools. 

Apple shares gained 19 cents Monday to $16.56 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, far below the 52-week high of $75.19 reached last March. 

All this happened after Jobs – whose first run at Apple helped revolutionize personal computing – returned in 1997 to save the company from the brink of ruin by sharpening its focus. 

In 1999, the year for which the most recent figures are available, Apple held 3.4 percent of the nearly $200 billion worldwide PC market and 4.4 percent of the nearly $80 billion U.S. market, according to IDC. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.macworldexpo.com 

http://www.apple.com 

NEW YORK — One of the less discussed peculiarities of the the financial marketplace in the year 2000 was the decline in dividends, those partial payouts of earnings that old-time investors relied upon. 

Standard & Poor’s announced that the payout rate for stocks in its S&P 500-stock index slipped to just 2.5 percent last year, the first decline since 1991 and the biggest decline since 1951. 

It says a lot about how much the marketplace has changed. 

You don’t hear nearly as much about dividends today as you do about prices, because these are times when many newer investors are in pursuit of quick money, and it takes long years of dividends to make you rich. 

In fact, those who do rely on dividends are likely already to be rich, rather than, as so many are today, merely striving to be rich. 

Investors today want quick capital appreciation, the new-fashioned way, whereas dividends at, say, 3.5 percent a year, double only after 20 years or so. That’s a long wait for someone with a one-month timeframe. 

Besides, the new market has even netted some of the rich old-timers, and you can’t blame them. Neither can you blame the companies who in the spirit of the times substitute stock buybacks for dividends. 

Finally, as if companies and investors were seeking to rationalize the situation, it is frequently pointed out that dividends are taxed as ordinary income, while the levy on capital gains is at a lower rate. 

The result: The number of dividend increases reported to Standard & Poor’s in 2000 totaled 1,496, a 12 percent decline from the 1,701 reported in 1999. It was the fewest number of increases since 1992. 

But now the tone of the market has changed. It may take a while for companies to adjust their strategies, but in a slower growing market it can be assumed that dividends are likely to regain some lost popularity. Still another factor will be at work: also getting older will be those companies that forgo dividends today in the race to grow larger. And as they slow down, they might need the lure of dividends to attract investors. 

John Cunnif is a business analyst for The Associated Press.

NEW YORK — Bargain hunters saved the market from another big tech selloff Monday, rescuing the Dow Jones industrials and the Nasdaq composite index from losses of more than 100 points each in the last hour of trading. 

Stocks still finished lower, because Wall Street is waiting to see how much of a negative effect the slowing economy has had on earnings. 

Discounted prices prompted investors to do some last-minute buying Monday. 

“Looks like the sellers ran out of gas,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst for Jefferies & Co. “It’s hard to say who flipped on the ‘buy’ sign ... but we’ll take it.” 

With stocks continuing their slide despite last week’s interest rate cut, investors were anxiously looking for a bottom. Hogan said the market might be close, and theorized that upcoming earnings reports might not be as bad as expected, which could mean a rally in deeply depressed stocks. 

“It’s probably going to be a bit better than the market has priced in,” Hogan said of fourth quarter earnings, which are starting to trickle in this week. “I think we have overdone (the selling) a bit.” 

Since the new year began, the market has continued to fall on Wall Street’s fears about falling profits and the slowing economy. The one exception was Wednesday, when the Dow and Nasdaq soared more than 300 points each after the Fed’s rate cut – but investors quickly realized it will take time for earnings and the economy to benefit from lower interest rates and so they resumed selling. 

— The Associated Press 

Still, stocks might rally longer if upcoming earnings beat analysts’ expectations or if the market can shake off disappointing results, said Ricky Harrington, technical analyst for Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C. 

After nearly five months on a downturn, “that could be a key change in character in the market,” Harrington said. 

The first big day of tech earnings comes Wednesday when Motorola and Yahoo! are due to report results. 

On Monday, investors seemed guarded, sending Yahoo skidding $1.31 to $27.19. But Motorola, which had fallen earlier, closed up 56 cents at $21.75. 

Before turning into bargain hunters, investors directed their ire at technology in general, because the sector stands to have the weakest profits. 

Companies that supply the PC industry also were hurt but rebounded somewhat. Microsoft lost 19 cents to finish at $48.94, while Intel was down 13 cents at $31.94. Both are Dow components. 

Blue chip advances were spread across sectors with no clear leader. Coca-Cola rose 94 cents to $58.63, and Procter & Gamble climbed $1.63 to $76.56. 

But shares of retailers, many of which reported they had the bleakest holiday shopping season in years, were down. Best Buy fell sharply, down $2.38 at $37.56. 

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 13 to 11 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume was 1.33 billion, down from 1.69 billion on Friday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of smaller company stocks, was down 1.50 at 461.64. 

Overseas markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.3 percent, and Germany’s DAX index inched up 0.2 percent. But Britain’s FT-SE 100 slipped 0.8 percent, and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.4 percent. 

Horace Albert Barker, one of the preeminent biochemists of the mid-20th century and professor emeritus of biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, died Dec. 24 at his home in Berkeley after a brief illness. He was 93.  

Barker, who had a research building named after him at UC Berkeley in 1988, is best known for work in the late 1950s on the biochemical function of vitamin B-12. This was regarded as a major advance in understanding the complex chemical conversion processes inside living organisms.  

“He was richly deserving of the Nobel Prize for his work on coenzyme B-12,” said biochemist Jack F. Kirsch, professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley. “He was one of the finest microbiologists who ever lived.”  

Barker also was a member of the team that, in 1944, first discovered the enzymatic steps living cells take when they synthesize sucrose - common table sugar. This feat involved one of the first uses of radioactive carbon-14 tracers, which Barker helped pioneer. His studies in vitamin chemistry, bacterial metabolism, fatty acid oxidation and synthesis, carbohydrate transformations and amino acid and purine metabolism form a basic structure for much of our current understanding of metabolism and its role in sickness and health.  

“He was a true leader in biochemistry and a leader on campus, widely respected internationally and by his Berkeley colleagues,” said Daniel E. Koshland Jr., professor emeritus of biochemistry at UC Berkeley. “He was very self-effacing, but was the real core of the biochemistry department initially and as it developed on campus.” 

Barker won numerous awards for his achievements, including the National Medal of Science in 1968 and election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  

An avid fisherman and outdoorsman, he continued into his 90s to hike and fish at his summer cabin near Mount Lassen.  

Barker was born in Oakland, on Nov. 29, 1907, and raised in Palo Alto. He received his AB in physical sciences in 1929 and a PhD in chemistry in 1933 from Stanford University.  

After two years as a National Research Council Fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey and a year at the Technical University of Delft, Holland, he came to UC Berkeley as an instructor in soil microbiology in 1936. He was appointed a full professor of soil microbiology in 1946, but switched titles periodically until 1959, when he became a professor in the new Department of Biochemistry in the College of Letters & Science.  

He chaired the Department of Plant Nutrition from 1949-50, the Department of Plant Biochemistry from 1950-1953, and the Department of Biochemistry from 1962-1964. He retired as a professor emeritus of biochemistry in 1975, although he remained active in the department into his 80s.  

He is survived by two daughters, Barbara Friede of Piedmont; and Betsy Mark of Lexington, Mass; a son, Bob Barker of Camino; and four grandchildren. His wife, Margaret (McDowell) Barker, died in 1995.

Dressed in a light blue smock, bow tie and his trademark black derby, Jose LaCrosby wended his six-foot-two-inch frame past a bank of hair dryers and styling cubicles to an obscure area in the rear of his salon. 

“This is where I had to work when I first started,” he said. “Men just didn’t work in beauty salons in 1954, well not in black beauty salons, anyway.” 

LaCrosby remembers his first day at Minnie’s Beauty Salon on Alcatraz Avenue near Adeline Street. One of Minnie’s clients had just had her hair washed and treated when she became alarmed at the sight of a man. 

“She threw a towel over her head, ran to the bathroom and locked herself in,” LaCrosby said with a smile. “She swore she wouldn’t come out unless I left the building.” 

In the following years, LaCrosby broke through all the barriers in the beauty business and went on to enjoy success. At the height of his career in San Francisco he simultaneously ran five salons and two beauty supply stores. He would also became nationally known for innovative hair styling techniques. 

In December the 74-year-old hair stylist came back to his roots when he opened LaCrosby’s Style House in the same 12-seat beauty salon where he started 46 years ago. But now his name is proudly displayed on the front window and he doesn’t have to come and go

Monday, Jan. 8

Berkeley Community Chorus Rehearsal 

7 - 10 p.m. 

St. Ambrose Church, basement 

1145 Gilman St.  

Conducted by Julian White, pianist, teacher & composer, the chorus will perform White’s “The Children’s Hour” and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasia.” The chorus meets every Monday night. Performance dates are May 5, 12 & 13.  

$75 tuition for semester 528-2145 or visit www.bcco.org 

Fun With Origami  

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Pato O’Sullivan 644-6107  

Tuesday, Jan. 9

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

531-8664 

Remembering: What’s Normal and What’s Not  

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

With Tina Williams  

Wednesday, Jan. 10

Kids Dance Open House &  

Class 

5 - 6 p.m. 

El Cerrito Community Center 

7007 Moeser Lane 

El Cerrito  

Parents are invited to explore how dance relates to cognitive, kinesthetic, and socio-emotional development in their children. For ages three to seventeen. Free  

Call 530-4113  

Tai Chi Chuan  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Henry Chang 

Call 644-6107 

Glaucoma: Early Detection Free Lecture  

1 - 2:30 p.m.  

Alta Bates Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne St.  

Oakland 

Dr. Richard Lee, ophthalmologist, will discuss the risk factors and causes of glaucoma, as well as other aspects of the aging eye. Free 

Call 869-6737 

Thursday, Jan. 11

Toni Stone and the Negro  

Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball Legue in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Benefit Concert for Food First 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz  

1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 

Featuring the David Thom Band, Buffalo Roam, Tree o’ Frogs, and Ten Ton Chicken. All proceeds benefit Food First.  

$10 - $15 donation 

Call Kevin Doyle, 843-6389 x201 

California Babylon  

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Kristan Lawson & Anneli Rufus discuss their book “A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State.” Free 

Call 843-3533  

Free Anonymous HIV Testing 

5:15 - 7:15 p.m. 

Check in 5 - 7 p.m. 

University Health Services 

Tang Center  

2222 Bancroft Way 

Drop-in services and limited space is available.  

Call 642-7202 

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Ski & Snowboard Descents  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Paul Richins, author of “50 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Summits in California - Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney,” presents in slides some of his favorite ski mountaineering and backcountry snowboard descents. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Ballroom Dancing  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Roman Ostrowski  

Call 644-6107  

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Kirk Lumpkin and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

Friday, Jan. 12

“Who’s Really In Charge  

Anyway?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Cedar St.  

The subject to be discussed is the guru dilemma and individual spiritual mastership. Hear about the spiritual path of light and sound and the ancient teachings of the saints.  

Call Unitarian Hall, 841-4824 or visit www.masterpath.org 

“Sing for Hope” 

8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2435 Channing Way (at Dana) 

The second annual event features an evening of arias and Broadway show tunes sung by seven of New York’s young rising opera stars. All proceeds benefit the Center for AIDS Services, a nonprofit day center in Oakland for people with HIV and AIDS.  

$35 performance only, $50 performance & post-concert reception 

Call 655-3435 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Innovative Approaches to Farming”  

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Reggie Knox, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farms of Santa Cruz will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533  

Yiddish Conversation  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With allen Stross  

Call 644-6107 

“Igniting the Dream: Social Justice in  

the New Millennium”  

6 - 9 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality  

2141 Broadway  

Oakland  

An art reception, film screening, and panel discussion featuring Rev. Phillip Lawson, Rafael Gonzalez, Luisah Teish, and Dr. Barbara Cannon. Free  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Saturday, Jan. 13

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184

An open letter to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer 

Editor: 

As your constituent it pains me to hear that you have not supported Democracy and protested the acceptance of the Electors from the State of Florida. 

Alas, we now have a court appointed president for an impoverished Democracy. The future of a free citizenry is in your hands and yet you stand silently. I am 

asking that you ask yourself what you entered politics for. Remember when you had principals and ideals that mattered? It seems to me, a crises is before us (before you especially) and this is the time when you can do something that will matter in the large scheme of things. The next year should not be business as usual for you. It will not be for me. I will be doing mischief.  

I will be stirring discontent with a court appointed presidency, but my power is much less than yours. Please act in defense of Liberty, Democracy, and Justice. Protect your country’s principals. Make mischief as only a U.S. Senator can. 

Thank You, 

Harry Wiener 

Berkeley

Turnovers and free throws give ASU a 58-47 win 

If this is a pattern, it could be a long season for the Cal women’s basketball team. 

In their first two Pac-10 games of the year, the Bears have taken a one-point lead into halftime. Thursday, they were beaten in the second half by a fired up Arizona squad that simply had more talent on the court. But the second-half collapse against Arizona State (8-5 overall, 1-1 Pac-10) on Saturday was more disturbing, because not only are the Sun Devils not more talented overall, they didn’t even play very well in beating the Bears (4-8, 0-2), 58-47. 

The Sun Devils only outrebounded the Bears by three, and turned the ball over 19 times. They got 14 points from guard Betsy Boardman and 13 points from center Melody Johnson, but shot just 37 percent from the floor. And they really didn’t take advantage of a Cal scoring drought that lasted nearly 10 minutes sandwiched around halftime. When Cal guard Kenya Corley finally hit her team’s first basket of the second half, the Bears were down by just three points at 33-30.  

Point guard Courtney Johnson followed with a layup, and the Bears were within one despite their offensive woes. But they could never quite take the lead away from the Sun Devils, mostly because they didn’t take care of the ball on offense. Cal committed 10 turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the half, and tacked on six more before the game ended. 

“We lost intensity in the second half,” said Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer. “We’re just not putting the whole game together. We have to be better than that offensively.” 

With neither team performing well on offense, the game came down to free throws. ASU went to the line 25 times, making 17 of their free throws. And the Bears, who were averaging more than 25 trips to the line coming into the game, shot just five on Saturday. Horstmeyer was clearly upset with several calls by the officials during the game. 

“I find it hard to believe that we only shot five free throws in the game, and none by our post players,” she said. 

Johnson, Cal’s leading scorer, has struggled on the offensive end since returning from an illness that kept her out of the team’s final preseason game two weeks ago. She shot just 3-of-12 against Arizona, and followed that up with a 1-of-7 showing on Saturday, scoring just two points. Combine that with forward Lauren Ashbaugh’s scoreless performance against ASU, and it’s not hard to see why the Bears struggled on offense. When two of your top three scorers combine for just two points, it’s tough to win. 

“We need Courtney to be more confident out there,” Horstmeyer said. “We’ve been playing her more at the two spot to get her more shots.” 

Ami Forney was the only Bear to break double figures in points against the Sun Devils, scoring eight points in the first 10 minutes of the game. But she missed several shots in close and finished the game with just 12 points. 

“We have yet to have five players play well on the same night,” Horstmeyer said.

City offers to pay each week if garbage is indeed garbage 

This Earth-friendly city plans to pay residents at least $250 if their trash is clean — of recyclables, that is. 

The city is launching a “Cash for Trash” contest next month that will see inspectors sift through the garbage of one willing household each week. If the trash is free of recyclables — from the obvious glass bottle to the less celebrated milk carton — the household wins the cash. 

Should inspectors from the city and the nonprofit Ecology Center find recyclables, however, the money will roll over into the next week. 

Berkeley featured a similar initiative in 1988, when the jackpot swelled to $4,000. This installment will last five months. 

“This is a fact: If you don’t do promotions, then your recyclables go down,” said Kathy Evans, an adviser to the campaign. “People loved it the last time. They would come up to me all the time and say, ’I’m going to win.”’ 

Actually, the chances of being chosen are quite slim — Berkeley has 38,000 eligible households. 

TEMPE, Ariz. – Sean Lampley had 21 points, leading California in scoring for the ninth consecutive game, as the Golden Bears beat Arizona State 82-67 Saturday night for their first victory in Tempe since Jan. 25, 1990. 

Shantay Legans had 16 points and five steals, and Solomon Hughes and Joe Shipp contributed 15 points each off the bench, helping the Bears (9-4, 1-1 Pac-10), bounce back from a three-point loss to Arizona on Thursday which snapped their seven-game winning streak. 

Legans scored three times on layups after stolen passes and assisted on another. 

Alton Mason had 21 of his 25 points in the second half, and Awvee Storey had 17 points and 13 rebounds, but the Sun Devils (8-5, 0-2) couldn’t keep their 10-game home winning streak against Cal going. 

The Sun Devils had held 20 of their last 23 opponents below 50 percent, but they didn’t come close against Cal, which made a season-high 58.3 percent. Lampley was 7-of-13, Hughes 6-of-6, Legans 5-of-7 and Shipp 5-of-8. 

And the Bears came back to outrebound Arizona State 18-13 in the second half after allowing the Sun Devils a 25-11 margin in the first. 

Despite that, Cal led 29-18 at halftime, and practically decided the game with a 5-0 surge in the first 1:49 of the second half. 

Nick Vander Laan established Cal’s rebounding ethic with a putback, Lampley made a free throw, and Legans made it 34-18 when he stole a pass by Shawn Redhage and scored easily. 

The lead reached 49-29 at the 7:01 mark after Legans made a 3-pointer and a layup after another steal 27 seconds apart. 

Legans’ first stolen-pass layup made it 5-4 at the 6:20 mark of the first half, and the Bears never trailed again.

After reading a book about the experiences of Asian-American women, Kathy Bing-Yeu decided it was time to start her own group to discuss the experiences of being an Asian woman in the United States. 

The group will be free-form, providing room for whatever people wanted to talk about. But, Bing-Yeu suspects several topics will come up.  

“How do we honor our families, meet parental and societal expectations of us, have several careers and fulfill our dreams,” she said. “How do we balance the best of East and West.” 

Claire Chow, a marriage and family therapist in San Ramon, authored “Leaving Deep Waters: The Lives of Asian-American Women at the Crossroads of Two Cultures,” which inspired Bing-Yeu.  

She strongly supports the creation of an Asian-American Women’s Group.  

“One of the problems for women is they tend to be isolated,” said Chow. “Assimilation pushes people to blend into the dominant culture, you disconnect yourself from roots

Gymnasts hit the road to open season with a win 

The No. 5 California Golden Bears defeated the ninth-ranked Stanford men’s gymnastics team Saturday night to earn open the 2001 season by a score of 204.650-190.650 at Burnham Pavilion.  

Cal swept the floor exercise with senior Andrew Hampy taking top honors with an impressive 9.400. Cody Moore’s 8.650 was second, followed by Tal Moscovitz (8.600). The Bears also took the first three spots in the vault with Carl Ziehn winning the title, scoring a 9.150. Hampy placed second (9.050) and Aaron Floyd was third (8.950). On the parallel bars, Cal went 1-2-3 again with Cody Moore in first (8.800), David Eskildsen second (8.650), and Ziehn third (8.550). Ziehn won the high bar event with a score 8.450, while Tom Kutz was second (8.250) and Eskildsen third (8.150).  

Stanford’s David Durante won the all-around competition with a 49.350 while Cal’s Michael Ashe was second with 47.650, and Cardinal Matt Mclean a close third with a 46.500. Stanford’s only individual winner came on the pommel horse as Durante’s scored a 8.950. Cardinal Marshall Erwin, a former NCAA Champion in the rings, tied for third in the event with an 8.300. Cal’s Ashe, the 2000 NCAA Champion in the high bar, won the ring competition with an 8.650.  

A new international style scoring has been implemented for the 2001 season, as the rules are changed every four years. The new scoring system was a first for both teams as well as the judges. Due to the change of rules, the scores will be lower than in years past.

The last time I made a fool out of myself in public was last summer when I attempted to take a sushi-making class and then shared my experiences in this newspaper. I am not good at preparing unusual foods. 

I am not good at acting either. 

But when I was assigned to cover a hip-hop theater workshop at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts on Saturday morning, I decided to give it a try. It was just going to be four hours, so how hard could it be?

Decision based on trends that have halted earlier economic slow-downs 

An economist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley says the likelihood of a national economic recession is 50 percent and possibly even 70 percent. 

Professor Kenneth T. Rosen, who is a professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, said in a paper released this week that he based his decision on current economic trends that he says have precluded recessions in 1974, 1980 and 1991. 

He said the convergence of indicators such as high oil prices, a tight labor market, a spike in private sector debt and an over-valued stock market all lead him to believe that the U.S. economy could be headed for a major slump. 

In a paper titled Recession Risk Rising, which Rosen coauthored, he said, “Seldom have so many danger signals converged at the same time.  

We believe that federal economic policymakers, investors and the public at large should be paying close attention to the situation and making relevant decisions accordingly.” 

A recent weakening in demand for commercial real estate, Rosen said, could prove to be beneficial to the sector by providing a soft landing in the event of a recession. 

Rosen, who is also the chairman of Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, said last week’s interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve System was a step in the right direction to alleviate pressure on the economy.  

But, he stressed, other more aggressive policy action will be necessary to fully combat the risk of recession.

Gov. seeks $45 million 

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gray Davis is expected to seek $15 million in next year’s budget for a new state crime lab to analyze DNA and $30 million to help local police improve their own outdated crime labs. 

Sunday’s announcements come as Davis prepares to present his spending priorities Wednesday for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. 

The state’s only existing DNA lab in Berkeley is strained by demand from new laws and new technologies that take advantage of genetic fingerprints, administration officials said Sunday. 

Among the changes that stretch the current system, they said, are a new law giving prison inmates greater leeway to demand DNA tests. Other new laws set up a database to compare DNA from missing persons with DNA from unidentified remains and allow police to match DNA from suspects with samples collected at unsolved crime scenes. 

The officials said Davis will name a selection committee to choose the site and design of the new state lab. 

The $30 million he will propose for local law enforcement crime labs would fund one-time grants to equip, improve or build new labs for jurisdictions that can demonstrate the greatest need, administration officials said on condition they not be named. 

Davis will also propose $75 million to help local police buy the sort of high-tech equipment his aides said is increasingly needed to fight high-tech criminals who rely on computers to create everything from child pornography to instant identities. 

In addition, Davis is expected to seek $11 million dollars to combat identity theft and other high-tech crimes like electronic fraud, counterfeiting, industrial espionage and software and compact disk theft. Together they are projected to cost the state more than $8 billion in lost revenues, wages and taxes each year. 

Of the $11 million, some $3.3 million would go to the state’s five High Technology Crime Task Forces to better train and coordinate with local police, the public and the businesses to fight identity theft. The balance of the funds would expand the High Technology Theft Apprehension and Prosecution Program that helps local law enforcement investigate high-tech crimes. 

Davis also is expected to seek $246.6 million in other aid to local law enforcement, the same amount as in the current year’s budget. 

Of that, $121.3 million is proposed for the COPS (Citizens’ Option for Public Safety) program, which helps hire local police and sheriff’s deputies, build jails, and prosecute criminals. Each of the state’s local law enforcement agencies would get at least $100,000 under the funding proposal. 

The other half of the money would go again to local juvenile crime prevention and treatment programs.

Fremont senator proposes a 

‘do-not-call’ list for state 

SACRAMENTO – A California lawmaker is making another attempt to help consumers hang up on pesky telemarketers before they call. 

State Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, has reintroduced a bill that would let consumers put their phone numbers on a telemarketers’ do-not-call list that would be maintained by the state. 

A telemarketer who called a number on the list could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. 

Two attempts to create the list have died in the Senate Appropriations Committee since 1996. One of those unsuccessful bills was a 1999 proposal by Figueroa opposed by some of the Capitol’s most influential interest groups, including newspaper publishers, real estate agents and insurers. 

This time, Figueroa predicts, the chances are better. 

“I think more and more people are affected, and more and more people are concerned about privacy issues,” she said. 

Her bill is modeled after a 10-year-old Florida statute. 

“It’s kind of like hanging up a do-not-disturb sign on your home telephone,” said Terence McElroy of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. 

About 125,000 Floridians have their numbers on the do-not-call list and about a dozen other states have enacted similar laws since the Florida program took effect, McElroy said. 

Current federal law requires telemarketing companies to honor the do-not-call requests they receive from consumers, and the Direct Marketing Association maintains a list of off-limits consumers for member companies. 

But not all telemarketers are association members, supporters of Figueroa’s bill say. 

Her legislation would give consumers a “one-swoop opportunity” to eliminate unwanted sales calls, said Shelley Curran, a policy analyst with Consumers Union. 

“We think consumers ought to have control over whether they get solicited by telemarketers,” Curran said. “A lot of people find the calls very frustrating.” 

Jim Ewert, an attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said the federal law is better because it gives consumers “the ultimate power to pick and choose from whom they want to receive solicitations.” 

“People still have the ability to hang up or erase the message from the answering machine,” Ewert said. “You just never know when there may be something you would be interested in (buying).” 

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, a San Francisco Democrat who cast a key vote to kill the 1999 bill, said the measure was “not a pro-consumer thing; it’s a stop-pestering-me bill.” 

“As I recall it was kind of a silly bill,” Burton said. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to work and there was a question of how constitutional it was. Can’t people just hang up?” 

McElroy said no one has ever challenged the Florida law’s constitutionality in court. 

Figueroa’s bill would cover telephone salespersons trying to sell or lease goods or services, including credit, investments and insurance. It would not cover calls requested by the consumer or debt-collection calls. 

Consumers could exempt businesses with which they have a financial relationship, including their banks, insurance agents and investment advisers. 

The bill would allow prosecutors and consumers to sue a telemarketing firm for allegedly violating the do-not-call requirement. Courts could order violators to pay up to $500 for a first offense and up to $1,000 for a subsequent one, plus the plaintiff’s attorneys fees. 

Violators could also be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. 

So far the bill doesn’t specify which state agency would maintain the don’t-call list, keep it updated and sell it to telemarketers for a fee. The designated agency would set up procedures for consumers to remove their names from the list.

Las Vegas trade show gives a glimpse of the future of tech 

LAS VEGAS – From a digital frying pan to a digital camera wrist watch, the gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show promise a future with more beeps, computer chirps and portable convenience than ever before. 

The manufacturers and dealers at the annual trade show here are banking that consumers will continue to gobble up electronic products. 

Sales of consumer electronics devices such as DVD players, camcorders, MP3 players, and other mobile devices hit a record $90.1 billion last year in the United States, the Consumer Electronics Association said. 

Sales are up 10 percent from 1999, and are expected to reach $95.6 billion in 2001. 

Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said consumer electronics are the online store’s fastest-growing segment. Huge sales in devices such as the Palm IIIXE handheld digital assistant helped make electronics the company’s second-highest revenue generator in 2000, he said. 

It won’t be long before electronics surpass books as the company’s biggest draw, he predicted. 

“They’re perishable items,” Bezos said. “The shelf life is short, and people have to keep getting the latest product.” 

Vendors spread out a plethora of new consumer products — some useful, some amusing — over more than 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space at the trade show. 

Here’s a sampling of wares American consumers can expect this year: 

—Ultra fancy wristwear: Samsung’s Watch Phone tells time, saves voice memos and is a mobile cell phone that can be dialed by voice command. A new Casio wrist watch is touted as the first wearable digital camera and holds up to 100 images. 

—Super Audio CD (SACD) players: Pioneer’s Elite Services DV-AX10 is a combination ultrahigh quality CD and DVD player, Philips is also entering the market with its SACD-1000. 

—In-dash MP3 music players for cars: Rio says its car stereo can store enough digital music files that someone could drive from Los Angeles to New York City more than 10 times without listening to the same song twice. Visteon says its MP3 car radio can store up to 10 hours of music. 

—A growing crop of Web appliances: devices designed either to fit under a kitchen counter or be toted around the home provide wireless Internet access away from a clunky desktop computer. One fancy offering will be Sony’s Airboard, a touch-screen tablet allowing users wireless access to the Web and e-mail while they watch TV from almost anywhere inside their homes. 

—Satellite car radios: More than 18 models of car radios will feature AM and FM radio as well as up to 100 radio channels via satellite, according to XM Satellite Radio. 

—SmartMedia’s DDL Player: a combined receiver for Internet radio stations and a CD player for home stereo systems. 

—Nokia’s Media Terminal: a “home infotainment” set-top box that receives digital TV and video-on-demand, plays MP3 files or connects to a digital camera, and offers Internet access. 

—Harman Kardon’s DMC100 Digital Media Center: a product with high-speed Web abilities for streaming video and audio, a built-in DVD/CD player and a 30-gigabyte hard drive that can store up to 10,000 songs in the compressed MP3 format. 

—The Truster: a small, portable lie detector that uses voice recognition technology to sense when a person is telling a lie. 

—A digital French skillet by Digital Cookware, Inc. The display on the pan handle beeps to alert the cook when the pan’s target temperature has been reached. A digital recipe book is included. 

—SmartBox by Brivo: a washing-machine sized container that acts like a 24-hour doorman to receive packages. Delivery persons punch in a product-specific code to open the digitally locked box, which automatically e-mails or pages the owner about the arrival. 

—An electronic towel dispenser from Bens Electric Appliance of China that shoots out moist towels, either hot or room temperature.

Subterranean Shakespeare opened an oddly cheerful staging Friday at La Val’s of "Waiting for Godot," Samuel Beckett’s bleak comedy that is one of the original anti-plays of the theater of the absurd. 

Composed initially in French by the Irish writer, "Godot" opened in Paris in 1953 and took the literary community by storm, changing forever the meanings, sensibilities and structures of modern drama. This play had the same magnitude of impact on drama that Picasso had on painting. 

In many ways, Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is the most influential playwright of the 20th century. His stripped down minimalist, existential style influenced many playwrights who followed him — Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, and Tom Stoppard, to name a few. 

Beckett's plays ask the big questions: "Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Who am I?" Many of his characters are people facing death. 

Though bleak, the plays are also funny. Against all of their negative experience, Beckett's characters hope to survive. Beckett himself lived with depression all his life. 

In "Waiting for Godot," a quintessential 20th century story, two shabby tramps Vladimir (Stanley Spenger) and Estragon (Greg Lucey) kill time as best they can loitering on an empty landscape in some vague and unidentified territory, waiting for a man who may or may not arrive. 

This play is a metaphor for the desperately unfulfilled and meaningless 20th century life. The clown tramps are toxic mutations of Chaplin’s clown tramp, which obviously was an influence on Beckett when he wrote this play. 

The tramps’ isolation is broken up for a short time by the arrival of a rich man named Pozzo, played untypically in this production by a woman (Karen Goldstein). Pozzo leads on a leash her shattered, numb, tortured and incoherent servant Lucky (George Frangides), who carries her baggage and suffers her abuse. 

The Sub Shakes production is a mixed bag. For whatever reason, director Yoni Barkan has chosen to stage the play at a fast clip. 

In other productions I’ve seen of this play, the banter between Vladimir and Estragon, is usually played slowly and thoughtfully, with lots of silent time between lines for the philosophical ramifications of the two tramps’ suffering and comic commentaries on life to sink in. 

This slower pace gives the characters time to ponder their predicament line by line, and gives the actors comic opportunity to react pointedly to each idea they consider. 

Barkan’s fast pace, on the other hand, often gives these tramps the feel of an Abbott and Costello routine. Initially, I found this off-putting, though in some ways it grew on me as the production evolved. There are places where this speed enhances the play, such as in a funny argument between Vladimir and Estragon over conflicting crucifixion accounts in the Bible. 

But there are also minuses to the fast pace. It negates, for example, the painful feeling of waiting that the characters suffer in this play. It also at times costs the play some of its humor by glossing over its delicious ironies and paradoxes. 

Barkan’s visually intriguing stylized set features a tree made of metal piping that looks like it was lifted out of a Fernand Leger painting. A Dali-like empty landscape painting by Irina Mikhalevich hangs on the wall as a reminder of the surreal surrounding landscape. A trashed television set serves occasionally as a seat for Estragon when he needs to remove his ill-fitting boots and massage his sore feet. 

In an unusual acting choice, Stanley Spenger plays Vladimir as warm, friendly, nurturing and almost cheerful. This is an atypical interpretation of that normally grim and depressed character. 

And Barkan’s choice to cast a woman as Pozzo, in a play that is usually performed by all men, puts a potentially interesting spin on the play’s abusive dominating character. But nothing more is made of it, so I think ultimately this casting choice trivializes the dynamic of a story which, on a gender politics level, is generally about the desolate dead end realized in a world that is controlled, empowered and conceived by only men. 

Sub Shakes untypical high-speed staging of "Waiting for Godot" runs at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid (at Hearst), Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m., through Feb. 5. $10 (general), $8 (students). 510/234-6046.

Independent newspapers are increasingly rare. The East Bay Express is the latest to join those swallowed by large corporations. 

New Times, the 30-year-old Phoenix-based corporation that bought the SF Weekly in 1995, will purchase the 22-year-old homegrown Express that began its days in small offices on Adeline Street. 

“The New Times group today announced it has signed a letter of intent to purchase the Express Publishing company, owner and publisher of the East Bay Express,” said Express Editor and Publisher John Raeside, who declined to discuss the deal, but instead issued a press statement. 

Raeside will stay on as editor and publisher, according to the statement. The deal, announced to the Express staff at 10 a.m. Friday, is expected to be sealed in two weeks, said one Express insider. 

One anonymous employee said what the deal means to employees is unknown, while another said it is believed that editorial positions will remain in tact and the paper’s contents will remain unaffected. “We’ll retain full editorial control locally,” the person said. 

“New Times also plans to add resources, beefing up the paper’s editorial, advertising and circulation departments to further fuel its already impressive growth,” according to the press release. 

Jim Larkin of New TImes did not return phone calls. 

The pending sale was news to media critic Norman Solomon, author of the Habits of Highly Deceptive Media. Solomon said that when corporations take over independent papers, “it tends to have a negative effect. It tends to homogenize” the paper, giving it a “cookie-cutter feel.” 

The Express has a circulation of 64,000, while the SF Weekly circulation is 129,000. When the Express is added to its totals, the New Times readership of its 13 weeklies will have grown to 1.2 million. The corporation also owns and operates the Ruxton Group, a national advertising sales group. 

According to the New Times Web site the chain has remained true to “a different vision.” It explains that the corporation was founded “by students at Arizona State University irate over the Vietnam-era shootings at Kent State University....As many daily papers shorten stories and hire consultants to tell them what to print, New Times papers thrive by cultivation networks of local sources, generating truly original story ideas, and digging into stories rather than skating across their surface.” 

The last local newspapers to be gobbled up by a corporation were the Hills Newspapers, including the Berkeley Voice, bought in August 1998 by Knight Ridder, Inc. The Hills newspapers are now published from the West County Times’ offices in Richmond.

Saturday, Jan. 6

Hip Hop Theater Workshop  

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts  

2640 College Ave. (at Derby)  

A participatory one-day workshop as part of the center’s Kaleidoscope Arts Infusion Series. Led by hip-hop poet and performer Will Power and playwright Rickerby Hinds.  

$60 individual, $45 family (two or more)  

Call 845-8542 x376 or visit www.juliamorgan.org 

Rose Pruning Workshop  

9:30 a.m.  

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

Peter Klement, UC Botanical Garden rose expert will share his expertise and demonstrate techniques for shaping old-fashioned roses, climbers and hybrid teas to assure maximum flowering. $20 - $27.50 643-2755 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Lessons for Children  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

P.U.R.R.S. Pet Adoption Day  

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Pet Food Express 

1942 MLK Jr. Way  

Pet’s Are Us is a non-profit animal rescue organization. 444-3204 

Monday, Jan. 8

Berkeley Community Chorus Rehearsal 

7 - 10 p.m. 

St. Ambrose Church, basement 

1145 Gilman St.  

Conducted by Julian White, pianist, teacher & composer, the chorus will perform White’s “The Children’s Hour” and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasia.” The chorus meets every Monday night. Performance dates are May 5, 12 & 13.  

$75 tuition for semester 528-2145 or visit www.bcco.org 

Fun With Origami  

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Pato O’Sullivan 644-6107  

Tuesday, Jan. 9

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

Share your slides and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 531-8664 

Remembering: What’s Normal and What’s Not  

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

With Tina Williams  

Wednesday, Jan. 10

Kids Dance Open House &  

Class 

5 - 6 p.m. 

El Cerrito Community Center 

7007 Moeser Lane 

El Cerrito  

Parents are invited to explore how dance relates to cognitive, kinesthetic, and socio-emotional development in their children. For ages three to seventeen. Free  

Call 530-4113  

Tai Chi Chuan  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Henry Chang 644-6107 

Glaucoma: Early Detection Free Lecture  

1 - 2:30 p.m.  

Alta Bates Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne St.  

Dr. Richard Lee, ophthalmologist, will discuss the risk factors and causes of glaucoma, as well as other aspects of the aging eye. Free 

Call 869-6737 

Thursday, Jan. 11

Toni Stone and the Negro Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball Legue in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Benefit Concert for Food First 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz  

1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 

Featuring the David Thom Band, Buffalo Roam, Tree o’ Frogs, and Ten Ton Chicken. All proceeds benefit Food First.  

$10 - $15 donation 

Call Kevin Doyle, 843-6389 x201 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Kirk Lumpkin and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

California Babylon  

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Kristan Lawson & Anneli Rufus discuss their book “A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State.” Free 

Call 843-3533  

Free Anonymous HIV Testing 

5:15 - 7:15 p.m. 

Check in 5 - 7 p.m. 

University Health Services 

Tang Center  

2222 Bancroft Way 

Drop-in services and limited space is available.  

Call 642-7202 

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Ski & Snowboard Descents  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Paul Richins, author of “50 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Summits in California - Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney,” presents in slides some of his favorite ski mountaineering and backcountry snowboard descents. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Ballroom Dancing  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Roman Ostrowski  

Call 644-6107  

Friday, Jan. 12

“Who’s Really In Charge Anyway?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Cedar St.  

The subject to be discussed is the guru dilemma and individual spiritual mastership. Hear about the spiritual path of light and sound and the ancient teachings of the saints.  

Call Unitarian Hall, 841-4824 or visit www.masterpath.org 

“Sing for Hope” 

8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2435 Channing Way (at Dana) 

The second annual event features an evening of arias and Broadway show tunes sung by seven of New York’s young rising opera stars. All proceeds benefit the Center for AIDS Services, a nonprofit day center in Oakland for people with HIV and AIDS.  

$35 performance only, $50 performance & post-concert reception 

Call 655-3435 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Innovative Approaches to Farming”  

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Reggie Knox, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farms of Santa Cruz will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533  

Yiddish Conversation  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With allen Stross  

Call 644-6107 

“Igniting the Dream: Social Justice in  

the New Millennium”  

6 - 9 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality  

2141 Broadway  

Oakland  

An art reception, film screening, and panel discussion featuring Rev. Phillip Lawson, Rafael Gonzalez, Luisah Teish, and Dr. Barbara Cannon. Free  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Saturday, Jan. 13

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184 

Dia de los Reyes Concert  

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church  

1640 Addison  

Performing will be Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo with the Jackeline Rago Ensemble de la Pena.  

$12 - $15  

Call (415) 431- 4234 

Rose Pruning Workshop  

9:30 a.m.  

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

Peter Klement, UC Botanical Garden rose expert will share his expertise and demonstrate techniques for shaping old-fashioned roses, climbers and hybrid teas to assure maximum flowering.  

$20 - $27.50  

Call 643-2755 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St.  

In their first East Bay show of the millennium, Sedge Thomson welcomes Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers.  

Call 415-664-9500 for reservations 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser  

8 a.m. - Noon  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

The Teen Clubs of Berkeley present this fundraiser in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Tickets available at all city of Berkeley recreational sites and at the Young Adult Project.  

$3 - $5  

Call 644-8515 

Bridge Rail Unveiling  

9:30 a.m.  

Codornices Creek at the Ohlone Greenway  

Members of the Berkeley and Albany city councils, along with members of the creek-restoration group, will swing sledgehammers to remove forms from the concrete bridge footing and towers. 

Call 8 48-9358 or visit www.fivecreeks.org  

Sunday, Jan. 14

Teaching Chinese Culture in the U.S.  

2 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Educators from Bay Area Chinese schools explore issues related to teaching Chinese culture and language. Included in museum admission.  

$6 general; $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

“Berkeley, 1900” 

3 - 5 p.m. . 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Richard Schwartz gives an oral history of Berkeley at the turn of the century.  

A-Singin’ and a Chantin’ 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Pagan recording artist DJ Hamouris shares some songs and chants. 

Call 848-8443 

Free Feng Shui Class 

3 p.m. 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley  

2066 University Ave.  

Taught by Lily Chung, author of “Calendars for Feng Shui and Divination.” 

Call Eastwind, 548-3250 

Monday, Jan. 15

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church  

1188 12th St. (at Adeline) 

Oakland  

Featuring Rev. Dorsey Blake, Dr. Matthew Fox, Reconnect Performance Troupe, Cole Performing Arts Choir and Avotcja.  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Need help to shop smart 

Editor: 

Many thanks for printing David Bacon's piece on persecution of union organizers in Rio Bravo.  

Bacon is a great resource. Could you ask him to do a piece that would help us uninformed folks to buy clothes and other consumer goods in a way that does not give profit to companies that violate human rights in order to coerce cheap labor here and overseas?  

Perhaps a brief list of “good guy” companies? or titles of sources we can refer to for our own buying?  

Any other things we can do? 

Dorothy Bryant 

Berkeley

The Berkeley High boys’ basketball team is used to David versus Goliath matches. They just aren’t used to playing the role of Goliath. 

The Yellowjackets, who have faced larger opponents in most of their games this season, picked on an even smaller De Anza team Friday night for a 78-41 in their first ACCAL game of the season. 

Berkeley (9-5 overall) went on an 18-3 run during the second quarter to build a comfortable 38-24 halftime lead, then shut down the De Anza offense in the second half, holding the Dons to only six points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth. 

“We have usually been the smaller team this year,” Berkeley coach Mike Gragnani said. “We were fortunate enough to get some inside stuff going tonight.” 

De Anza played without 6-foot-4-inch Michael McFadden, who was serving a one-game suspension after being ejected in the team’s last game against McClymonds. California high school basketball rules prohibit a player from competing in a game following an ejection. 

McFadden scored 40 points against Oakland Tech and 39 points against McClymonds earlier this week. In McFadden’s absence, Berkeley was able to control the glass and the pace of the game. 

“It will be a different game when he is back next time,” Gragnani predicted of the teams’ next matchup on Feb. 2. 

The Yellowjackets were outscored 12-10 in a slow first quarter that saw both teams miss the majority of their shots. They were down by as many as four points before forward Louis Riordan sparked a rally early in the second quarter with a short jump shot.  

Berkeley caught up at 16-16 when guard Ryan Davis made the first of three layups he would score off of steals. Davis scored eight of his team-high 14 points in the second period. 

Berkeley settled down in the second half and allowed De Anza to make only five field goals in the final 16 minutes. The ’Jackets began the fourth period with a 13-0 run and cruised to their first win in the ACCAL, their new league. 

“We were rushing in the first half and we got a little bit sloppy,” Gragnani said. “In the second half we kept our composure. Our goal at halftime was to hold them to nothing. Any time you hold the other team to single-digit quarters, you have to be pleased with that performance.” 

Jahi Milton and Atticus Honore both scored 10 points for Berkeley off the bench. De Anza’s Angelo Hughes led all scorers with 15 points. The Dons dropped to 5-10 this season. 

The Yellowjackets next host Richmond on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Robin Clewley 

Special to the Daily Planet 

Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center on Ashby Avenue recently conducted an extensive neighborhood phone survey to monitor concerns regarding future expansion and renovation of its facilities. 

But the tone and context of the survey has raised issues with neighborhood participants who said it was biased and manipulative. 

“I was very concerned,” said Lucy Smallsreed, who lives one block from the center. “I’ve had experience designing surveys, and it was quite clear what they wanted to hear.” 

The survey, conducted at the end of December, was a way to get feedback for Alta Bates’ proposed “Master Plan Permit,” a document currently under review which, if approved, will allow the center to move forward with renovations.  

The survey was conducted to “take temperatures of the neighborhood,” said Carolyn Kemp, hospital spokesperson. She also said it was a way to undergo good pre-planning for the possible construction of an additional building and renovation of emergency room facilities. Other potential renovations include refurbishing the lobby and atrium, constructing a new parking garage and creating additional space for administrative needs. 

“We wanted to take in the concerns of the neighborhood,” said Kemp.  

Good intentions or not, some neighborhood participants believe that the questions were phrased in a way to badger them into agreeing to the terms outlined in the hospital’s permit. One survey participant, who wished to remain anonymous, said many of the questions were prefaced with a pro-health bias, but did not address environmental concerns of the neighborhood. Additionally, some of the statements introducing the questions were so long that they “would make your head swim.”  

Smallsreed agreed and said the survey was quite lengthy. She said in addition to the questions pertaining to the permit, some questions were “peculiar.” These included questions which asked her opinion of certain council members and the mayor.  

Over a three-day period, all three people over 18 years old in her household were called. These included herself, her husband and her 19-year old daughter. She does not know where the pollster found her family information.  

Smallsreed said it was difficult to get a straight answer from the interviewer as to the intention of the survey, and which organization was behind the survey. 

Kemp said the survey was conducted by Berkeley-based Evans McDonough, a public opinion polling organization.  

The survey is only the latest issue in the 30-year conflict between the hospital and its neighbors. 

In 1971, the hospital won a city use permit to construct a $17 million building on Ashby Avenue. In return, it promised to demolish an existing building and leave substantial remaining open space. Four years later, the older building was never demolished, and the center began lobbying for additional space to be created, neighbors said.  

In hopes of governing hospital growth, the Hospital-Neighborhood Agreement was signed in 1983. But that did not put an end to friction between the hospital and its neighbors, according to Marty Barclay, president of the neighborhood association. 

In 1997, the city won a lawsuit against the hospital after it learned that Alta Bates was undertaking renovations without appropriate permits.  

Kemp, on the other hand, says the hospital now has a good working relationship with the neighborhood association.  

The center believes that it has every right to renovate its emergency department. “It’s not a secret at all that we need more space in our emergency room,” said Kemp. “When it was built in the early ’70s, it had room for 12,000 patients. Now we’re up to 45,000.” 

Deborah Pitts, public affairs manager for the Alta Bates said the emergency department renovation is a “necessity,” and would not increase traffic or parking in the neighborhood.  

Kemp said according to Berkeley permit rules, the center must outline all possible future renovations in the document, even if the renovations are years down the line. These include the possible renovations for the atrium and lobby, parking lot construction and expansion of administrative offices.  

Permit rules aside, neighborhood residents are skeptical of the center’s motives due to the long history of strife between the parties.  

Smallsreed, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1975, said the survey cemented that skepticism. “It (the survey) was not a neutral or scientific tool,” she said. “It was a marketing tool.”  

St. Mary’s started the game with 10 men, and ended the game with 10 men. But when they did have a full complement of players on the field, they managed to eke out a 2-2 tie against rival Piedmont in a battle of two top EBAL teams on Friday. 

The Panthers started the game with 10 players because of a mix-up with the starting lineup, and coach Teale Matteson quickly got his last player on the pitch. But Matteson’s team finished with 10 men because Bryan Warren, who minutes before had put his team ahead 2-1 with a brilliant goal, was given a red card for violent play. Warren kicked at another player from the ground, and was dismissed with less than seven minutes left in the match.  

That opening was all the Piedmont team needed, as flanker Greg Moore ended a day of frustrating misses with a missile that sailed over the head of St. Mary’s goalkeeper Nick Osborn and into the net, knotting the score. 

“We should have been able to hold a lead with 10 minutes left, but that was a stupid retaliation foul by Bryan,” Matteson said. 

Warren’s dismissal, while unfortunate for the Panthers, was not unexpected. Both teams had been getting increasingly physical in the second half, with three different players being helped off of the field with injuries.  

During actual gameplay, Piedmont was the aggressor for most of the game, and attacked down the flanks effectively. Several crosses went through the St. Mary’s box untouched, and midfielder Mark Beilock hit three shots directly at Osborn.  

Two bright spots for St. Mary’s were defender Nolan Horinouchi and midfielder Stephon McGrew. Time and time again, Horinouchi turned back Piedmont attacks with fearless tackles and headers while McGrew controlled the middle of the field, running with the ball and distributing to his forwards for the few chances they had in the first half. 

The game was scoreless at halftime, but Piedmont came out with a fury in the second half, and Beilock pounced on a loose ball in the 45th minute and wrong-footed Osborn, who didn’t even move to stop the ball on its way to the back of the net. 

Two minutes later, Beilock beat Osborn to a cross and put a header on net, but Warren came back to clear the ball off of the line. Piedmont forward Steve Van Maren hit a cheeky backheel that came off the post, but Piedmont couldn’t add to their lead. 

The Panthers made them pay in the 52nd minute, as Pat Barry’s corner kick bounced around in front of the Piedmont goal several times before Brendan Slevin hammered it into the roof of the net to tie the score. 

“Every time St. Mary’s and Piedmont play, it’s exciting, fast, hard-fought soccer,” Matteson said. “Today was probably the best game we’ve played this year, but we also made a lot of mistakes.”

SAN FRANCISCO – About thirty protesters carrying signs denouncing the George W. Bush “coup d’etat” rallied outside the offices of Senator Barbara Boxer Friday afternoon.  

The group petitioned Boxer to reject the Florida electors today and open public debate about what they alleged to be election fraud.  

“We believe that George Bush did not win Florida,” said event organizer Monica Friedlander, an Oakland resident who works in Berkeley. “We believe that the Florida  

electors are illegitimate and they should be rejected by the full House and the Senate.” 

On Saturday, the House and Senate meet in a joint session to ratify the state electors. The congressional black caucus, including Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, will object to the Florida electors. If one member from both the House and the Senate object to the Florida electors, it opens the question for discussion before the entire joint legislature. The demonstrators wanted Boxer to provide the one senate voice necessary to beg the question.  

Chief of Staff Sam Chapman offered little hope to the petitioners. “(Boxer’s) position is that unless Gore asks her to intervene, she won’t,” said Chapman. “Senator Boxer has taken the position that as one of Gore’s strongest supporters, it is his call whether the contest goes forward.”  

Petitioners were disillusioned by Boxer’s decision. “I’m disappointed that her action will depend on what Vice President Gore wants. I think it’s about democracy and the people of California,” Friedlander said. As political feelings became inflamed, members of the crowd argued, “They represent us, they don’t rule us” and “Gore isn’t her constituent, we’re her constituents,” to protest Boxer’s basing her decision on Gore’s desires rather than on the desires of voters.  

“The country is being robbed of the president we elected,” Friedlander said . 

People said objecting to the Florida electors was not about support for any individual candidates, but about a respect for the democratic process. “We’re going to have the first illegitimate president,” Friedlander said. “I think it would be a very serious threat to our democracy. It’s a matter of principle and democracy at this point, not of political persuasion.” Friedlander is originally from Rumania. “For me it’s especially painful to see something like this happen in a place like America,” she said. 

The attendees agreed that even if Boxer did object to the Florida electors, the election results would probably stand. But, they insisted, Boxer’s formal objection was an important and necessary step to opening public dialogue and protecting the democratic process. “Even though there’s no chance that the protest will be successful it’s important for history to know that people thought the election was illegitimate,” said protester Eric Lindgren. 

Boxer’s petitioners came to demonstrate from all over the Bay Area, including Emeryville, Berkeley, Pleasant Hill and Marin County. When asked how many had never attended a protest before, over half raised their hands. Most of the group had not worked on political campaigns prior to the elections, but were galvanized by the events after the elections.  

Organizer Friedlander said the short notice explained the small turnout for the rally. “It’s an emergency action,” she said. Friedlander began organizing for the Friday rally Wednesday night on the Internet – especially through Berkeley-based moveon.org. She turned in about 200 signed letters to Chapman by Friday noon. 

Despite the short notice, enough people tuned out to move the meeting with the chief of staff from his office to outside the building, where the crowd flanked him on all sides. “For every one of use here there are probably many many thousands of people who support us,” Friedlander said. 

In what is sure to become a regular event this season, the Berkeley girls’ basketball team dominated their first ACCAL opponent, using all 13 players and resting their starters after the first quarter. 

The victim on this occasion was De Anza, but it doesn’t look like any team in the ACCAL will be much of a challenge to the Yellowjackets’ supremacy after their 70-32 dismantling of the Dons. 

“We know we’re going to be facing teams that aren’t as good as us,” said Berkeley forward Robin Roberson. “We just have to concentrate on doing the little things right, and not lose a game in the league.” 

Roberson helped make sure there was no danger of defeat in the first quarter, as she poured in 11 points and the ’Jackets jumped out to a 24-4 lead at the break with a runs of 14 and eight points. Roberson and center Sabrina Keys combined for eight steals in the first quarter, taking advantage of wild passes from the De Anza guards, who were under the pressure of the Berkeley full-court press. 

With victory assured, Berkeley head coach Gene Nakamura sat his starters for most of the second period and dropping his team back into a half-court trap defense. The offense stagnated, scoring just four points in the first five minutes of the quarter. But in came Roberson to score six quick points on her way to 21 for the game, and the Dons’ fate was sealed. 

The only concern for Yellowjackets was the the play of Keys. She made just 4-of-14 from the floor, and seemed nervous when she got the ball inside. 

“Sabrina’s holding the ball too much right now,” Nakamura said. “She needs to just catch and shoot.” 

That’s a pretty good description of what Nakamura’s entire team needs to do to go undefeated in the ACCAL: catch and shoot. Everything else is just gravy.

A former Solid Waste Management intern filed a civil suit against the city Tuesday alleging she was sexually battered by a department manager and that her supervisors did nothing to stop the harassment. 

The suit, filed in the Alameda Superior Court, alleges that last Feb. 14, Transportation Manager Louie Rodrigues masturbated in the presence of intern Fleece Crump while offering her $40 if she would watch him.  

Other allegations against Rodrigues and the city include intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery. 

The suit also alleges Crump complained to her immediate supervisor, Earl Pryor, but no action was taken against Rodrigues. Shortly after she complained, the suit alleges Rodrigues offered Crump $10,000 to say the event never happened.  

The suit also claims that Rodrigues  

“on numerous occasions grabbed Ms. Crump’s hand and attempted to force her to touch his crouch.” And that a group of male  

co-workers participated in a betting pool as to whom would be the first to have sex with her.  

Crump was so upset by the harassment that she became physically ill, requires therapy and has “developed insomnia and poor eating habits,” according to the suit. 

Grump is suing the city for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages. 

The suit was filed by Crump’s attorney, John Harrison , of Harrison, Taylor and Bazile. Harrison is not commenting on the case. 

Likewise, Department of Public Works officials and City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque are not commenting on the allegations. Albuquerque’s office would only say that the city has not been served with the law suit yet.

This week’s statewide energy rate increase will not break the city, but could have long-term effects on the budget. 

State regulators approved an immediate 90-day increase in electricity rates Thursday, ranging from 9 percent for residences to 15 percent for large industrial businesses.  

Energy costs in city-owned buildings are increasing 10 to 13 percent on average, said Berkeley Energy Officer Neal DeSnoo. The first 90 days will cost the city about $25,000. If the rate increase continues beyond 90 days, the city will likely have to rearrange its budget. 

“If it continues (past 90 days) then it is a problem that will be dealt with in the budget,” DeSnoo said. “It likely will continue, so I think our budget officers will have to work on some adjustments.” 

The city will not make any budget adjustments over the next three months but will be cautious about its electricity use. To conserve energy, city employees are being urged to rely on natural light rather than indoor lighting, and use less heat during the winter and less air conditioning during the summer. The city already pays approximately $1 million a year for electricity. 

The city is saving money on electricity bills through a one-year contract with the Association of Bay Area Governments. Berkeley is part of a group of local cities that buys energy through ABAG to receive discounts. DeSnoo said the money Berkeley saves with that contract will ultimately be equal to the extra money it will pay out for the rate increase. 

“It is not terrible because we have a lower wholesale cost right now. The city will be affected but we are already buying cheaper.” 

The moderate rate increases came after Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco and Southern California Edison asked for a 26 to 30 percent increase.  

After 90 days the state Public Utilities Commission will decide whether to continue the rate increase or not, or possibly make prices even higher. 

“We don’t know exactly what to anticipate because it is not clear what will happen in the future,” DeSnoo said. “PG&E is asking for even more money, so things can change in the future.” 

“It’s not an issue if this only lasts for three months because we are already saving that much money with ABAG. If it goes beyond that three months, we will have to go back and look at next year’s budget and make any necessary changes.” 

City offices will not be the only buildings in Berkeley affected by rate increases. Residences make up 28 percent of the Berkeley community’s overall energy expenditure and will pay the smallest increases.  

PG&E was previously charging 10 to 11 cents per kilowatt hour for residences. DeSnoo said the 9 percent rate increase means households will pay one penny more per kilowatt hour. To calculate how much money a household will now have to pay, add one cent to the price per kilowatt hour and multiply it by the number of kilowatt hours used, he said. 

Commercial and industrial groups make up the rest of the community’s bill and will see either a 12 or 15 percent increase, depending on the size of the business. 

Most companies in the city will pay 12 percent increases, but a few of Berkeley’s larger companies like Bayer Corp. and Pacific Steel Casting Company will see 15 percent increases, DeSnoo said. 

Carolyn Kemp, spokesperson for Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley said she did not know how much prices are going up at the hospital, but she expects dramatic increases. 

“It’s going to have a huge impact on us,” she said. “We work very hard to conserve energy, now we will have to work even harder.” 

She said Alta Bates already turns all the lights out in its offices at 6:30 p.m. every day to conserve energy.

SACRAMENTO — California’s power crisis deepened on several fronts Friday, with a utility losing a round in court and announcing layoffs, President Clinton calling for a high-level meeting and a consumer activist warning of a ratepayer rebellion. 

Hours after its request to cap wholesale prices was rejected by a federal appeals court, Southern California Edison announced it will cut 1,450 jobs over the next several months. 

Meanwhile, Harvey Rosenfield, president of the Foundation for Consumers and Taxpayers Rights, warned of a rebellion when consumers receive utility bills. 

“The fuse has been lit. When people get their bills, it’s going to detonate,” Rosenfield said a day after state regulators approved electric rate increases of 7 percent to 15 percent by California’s two biggest utilities. 

The rate increases were only about half as big as SoCal Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wanted, and they warned that they are headed for financial ruin, in part because of deregulation. 

The two utilities have lost more than $9 billion since June because of soaring prices for wholesale electricity and a state-imposed rate freeze that prevents them from passing the costs on to their customers. That, in turn, affects their ability to borrow money to buy power and avert blackouts. 

The prospect of bankruptcy filings by the two utilities prompted Clinton to set a meeting in Washington on Tuesday. 

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, are expected to meet with California officials and the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

“The idea there is to try to create some sort of framework that could help to alleviate the supply crunch that California is experiencing now in energy,” said White House spokesman Jake Siewert. 

Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis, said it was unclear if Davis — who will discuss the power crunch in his State of the State address on Monday night — will attend. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington rejected a bid by SoCal Edison to order FERC to cap prices for wholesale electricity. FERC had argued that the utility’s request would not solve the crisis. 

The three-judge panel said SoCal Edison “has not demonstrated that its right to this relief is clear and indisputable.” 

The rate increase approved Thursday affects about 25 million Californians. The average monthly residential bill of $54 will go up by about $5. Customers could see the increases as soon as next week. 

The rate increases weren’t enough to placate Wall Street. The major credit rating agencies downgraded both utilities. And their stocks have plunged in the past few days. 

Politicians, utility executives and others have offered various solutions to the energy crunch, including establishing a state power authority that would promote the building of power plants; bailing out the utilities at taxpayer expense; giving taxpayers rebates from California’s expected $10.3 billion surplus to cover higher electricity bills; and sending energy-saving light bulbs to residents. 

Meanwhile, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and Washington Gov. Gary Locke on Friday urged Northwest consumers to cut back on electricity use for the next two or three months to avoid blackouts in their states. California is buying higher amounts of Northwest power at a time when dry weather and declining river levels have reduced hydroelectric generating capacity. 

“We are not going to let the chaos of California drag us down,” Locke said. 

Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock and several anti-tax groups Friday proposed spending $5.3 billion of California’s expected surplus on a rebate to taxpayers. Taxpayers could use that rebate – $530 for families and $200 for singles – to pay their energy bills, McClintock said. 

State government helped cause the energy problem because it “actively discouraged the construction of new power plants” and should provide some short-term relief, he said. 

James Mays, a Southern California conservation advocate, said SoCal Edison should send an energy-efficient light bulb to each of its customers. 

“If the 5 million customers in the L.A. area had just one of these bulbs, it would save enough electricity to power 50,000 homes,” said Mays, of the Coalition for Electrical Energy Conservation. “We don’t consider this a panacea, but as a position, it’s a shot of penicillin.” 

On the Net 

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.: http://www.pge.com 

Southern California Edison: http://www.edisonathome.com 

California Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: http://www.ferc.gov 

Foundation for Consumers and Taxpayers Rights: http:ratepayerrevolt.org 

SAN FRANCISCO — A local radio station has stepped into the mix of the state’s energy crisis, offering to pay the utility bills of randomly selected listeners who fax in their statements. 

“It’s the same reason KMEL does toys drives and food drives – to help the community,” said KMEL marketing director Katie Eyerly.  

The station was already being inundated with faxes from San Francisco Bay Area residents Friday afternoon, with bills ranging from $30 to $800, Eyerly said. The faxes were to be put in a box with one bill drawn randomly each hour beginning at 5 p.m. Friday. 

The station expects to pay between 20 and 30 bills and will continuing drawing faxes throughout the broadcast days during the weekend, with the bill-paying promotion ending Sunday.

WASHINGTON — President Clinton on Friday declared nearly a third of the country’s federal forest land off-limits to most logging. Some Republicans already were urging President-elect Bush to scuttle the plan. 

The president’s announcement of the the massive forest-protection plan capped a string of White House actions in recent months aimed at establishing a legacy for protecting public lands as Clinton completes the final weeks of his presidency. 

He has proclaimed a number of new national monuments to further protect federal lands and is expected to designate several more before leaving office Jan. 20. But his forest-protection rules, covering nearly 60 million acres of roadless forest lands in 38 states, have been even more controversial. 

“Sometimes progress comes by expanding frontiers. But sometimes, it’s measured by preserving frontiers for our children,” Clinton said. “Today, we preserve the final frontiers of America’s forests for our children.” But the forest plan, largely intact from a proposal unveiled in November, has come under intense attack from mostly Republican Western lawmakers, and from energy, timber and mining industries as being too restrictive. 

Last week, Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, the new chairman of the House Resources Committee, urged Bush to work with Congress to roll back the expected forest regulation. 

In a letter to Bush and Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, Hansen called the ban on road building and the logging restrictions “one of the most egregious abuses by the Clinton administration.” 

Hansen also outlined other Clinton-era environmental actions that ought to be overturned – from banning snowmobiles in parks to the president’s string of monument designations. 

Under the forest plan, the Forest Service will ban road building in 58.5 million acres of federal forests where no roads currently exist, including 9.3 million acres in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. 

The regulations also will limit future logging in those areas to only activities that “restore and preserve” the forest, although commercial timber contracts already in the government pipeline will be allowed to go through. In some cases that could amount to continued logging for another six to seven years at today’s harvesting rates, officials acknowledged. 

Some environmentalists had wanted the timber sales stopped immediately. Still, environmentalists applauded Clinton’s decision, while at the same time voicing concern that Bush may blunt its implementation or work with its opponents in Congress to reverse it. 

Any efforts to overturn it “would come with a great deal of political liability for Bush. This has huge public support,” maintained Kenneth Rait of the Heritage Forest Campaign, an Oregon-based environmental group. 

Despite an outcry from some Western lawmakers, Clinton has all along been determined to complete the forest plan before he leaves office. One senior adviser characterized it as largely a question of leaving an environmental legacy. 

The vast majority of roadless federal forests are in the West, including parts of Idaho’s Bitterroot range and Alaska’s Tongass, viewed by environmentalists as North America’s rain forest. Smaller sections are scattered across the country from Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest and Virginia’s George Washington National Forest to New Hampshire’s White Mountains. 

Clinton advisers have argued that the impact on the timber industry would be minimal because the roadless areas — although 31 percent of all federal forests — account for only a small percentage of all timber taken from government-owned land. 

Still, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the plan “fatally flawed” and predicted it likely will be overturned by the courts. He has complained that the road-building restrictions would prevent the development of large reserves of natural gas, especially in the intermountain West. Timber, mining and energy industries already have threatened lawsuits against the forest plan. 

Another of the plan’s most vocal critics, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has promised “to leave no stone unturned” to find a way to block the Clinton regulation. Several senators have said they will use a never-been-invoked 1996 law that allows Congress to rescind a regulation within 60 days. 

But rescinding the regulation may not be easy. 

A coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans increasingly has opposed road-building in federal forests, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. As to those who want to overturn Clinton’s plan, “they better bring their lunch to that fight” because it will be intense, said Miller. 

WASHINGTON — Colin Powell. Several women. A couple of Hispanics. By the time President-elect Bush announced the last of his Cabinet selections this week, he had managed to assemble a group every bit as diverse as the one put together by the man he will replace. 

President Clinton began his presidency in 1993 with the most diverse Cabinet in history, fulfilling a campaign promise to build a government that “looks like America.” 

He also set a new standard for his successors – one that Bush has met. 

“I don’t really think it’s possible anymore to form a government of all white men in this country and that’s quite remarkable,” observed Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and an expert on women and politics. 

Bush is putting women and minorities in charge of eight of 14 statutory Cabinet departments. He has tapped three women, two blacks, two Hispanics, one of whom is female, an Asian-American and an Arab-American. The Republican president-to-be also has chosen a women to run the Environmental Protection Agency, which he has designated a Cabinet-level post, as did Clinton. 

Clinton also had eight women and minorities in his first Cabinet. Three were women, including one black. There also were two Hispanics and three black men, along with a female EPA chief.  

Clinton also put women in charge of several other Cabinet-level agencies. 

His replacements for departing secretaries included one black woman, a Hispanic, two black men, another female and the first Asian-American named to the Cabinet. 

In contrast to Bush’s diverse Cabinet, the incoming House Republican leadership for the 107th Congress picked all white men to head legislative committees. That left Rep. Marge Roukema of New Jersey without a chairmanship, despite 20 years in the House and seniority on the banking committee. 

Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, said Cabinet diversity did not start with Clinton but that “his commitment to it has set a standard which is clearly being followed.” 

The all white-male Cabinet changed some in 1933, during the Great Depression, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose Frances Perkins, a woman, to head the Department of Labor. 

More than 30 years later, in 1966, the country got its first black Cabinet member in Housing Secretary Robert Weaver, who served under President Johnson. 

President Carter named the first black woman, Patricia Harris, who oversaw two departments – Housing and Urban Development and later Health and Human Services. 

In 1988, late in his second term, President Reagan appointed the first Hispanic, Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos, who continued in the post under President Bush, the president-elect’s father. Bush also had Manuel Lujan Jr., a Latino, as interior secretary. 

Six months ago, Clinton made Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta the first Asian-American Cabinet member. Mineta also has agreed to serve the president-elect as transportation secretary. 

In his second term, Clinton also named the first Hispanic woman to the Cabinet, Aida Alvarez, who became head of the Small Business Administration in March 1997. 

While the younger Bush’s Cabinet is visually diverse, ideologically it is the opposite. Most members hold moderate to very conservative views, and several face opposition from labor unions and women’s, environmental and civil rights organizations. 

Diversity also extends to Bush’s White House staff, where his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is black and his chief legal adviser, Alberto R. Gonzales, is Hispanic. Another top White House adviser is Karen Hughes. 

“It will be good for America to have African-Americans in nontraditional roles. He (Bush) did this for the right reasons,” Rice said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “That’s what’s most important to me. In fact, that’s what’s very nice about this. Maybe it says something about where we are 140 years after slavery, which is pretty remarkable.” 

Bush has no Jews in the Cabinet, but some of his closest advisers are Jewish, such as policy aides Josh Bolten, Paul Wolfowitz and former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. Ari Fleischer, who will become a familiar face to Americans as White House press secretary, also is Jewish. 

Erwin Hargrove, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, said Bush’s selections are just a first step. More important, he said, will be how they all govern. 

“I think it must now be incumbent on a Republican president to show you’re just not a white, male corporate group, even though that’s what they are,” Hargrove said. “I think he’s just saying this is the country as we well know it and I commend him for that.” 

NEW YORK — The slowing economy reasserted itself on Wall Street Friday, sending stocks tumbling and erasing much of the big gains the market enjoyed earlier in the week. 

Rumors of losses tied to slower economic growth triggered a selloff first in financial stocks and later in high-tech bellwether Cisco Systems. The plunge illustrated how vulnerable the market remains to even a hint of bad news despite its big rally Wednesday on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut. 

Heavy selling began early in the session, when rumors spread that Bank of America had suffered credit losses tied to the weakening economy. The company quickly denied the rumors, but its statement did not placate extremely nervous investors. 

Bank of America lost nearly 7 percent, closing down $3.50 at $48. Those rumors “reminded the market that something is happening out there,” said Dan Ascani, president and research director for Global Market Strategists in Gainesville, Ga. “Maybe it’s not Bank of America, but it’s unnerved by whatever it is.” 

The damage spread to other financial stocks and then the rest of the market. 

Banker J.P. Morgan Chase traded down $3.06. Wal-Mart lost $2.25 and Boeing fell $2.25. 

Another set of rumors that Cisco had held a special board meeting to discuss earnings problems helped send the stock tumbling more than 12 percent, or $5.25, to $36.63. Cisco said it would not comment on the rumors. 

Earnings warnings from a handful of companies exacerbated the selling. Investors punished Borders Group, sending it down 7 percent, off 94 cents at $12, after the retailer said fourth-quarter results would miss expectations because of weak holiday sales. 

A similar gloomy forecast from Nordstrom sent the tony retailer’s stock down 7 percent, falling $1.50 to $18.88. 

“I’d expect we’re going to see selloffs like this on and off through January and probably through February and March,” said Charles Pradilla, chief investment strategist at SG Cowen Securities.  

“The Fed rate cut earlier this week was very good, but there are still other issues to work out. Some of these stocks are still overvalued, and then there’s earnings and the slowing economy.” 

A Labor Department report Friday that the nation’s employment rate held steady at 4 percent last month added to the concerns about the economy. 

Investors who have been worried that a decelerating economy would hurt profits temporarily set aside those worries Wednesday, when the Fed cut interest rates earlier than expected. The result: the biggest one-day rally ever in the Nasdaq and a healthy bounce for the Dow. 

But the reprieve didn’t last as market worries over why the Fed would act so dramatically — breaking from its history of incremental action to ease rates more than expected and before its next scheduled meeting — shifted to the forefront again. 

“It’s nervous about what the Fed is reacting to,” said Ascani, the head of Global Market Strategists. 

The Dow closed the first week of 2001 down 124.84 or 1.2 percent. The Nasdaq ended the week down 62.87 or 2.5 percent, while the S&P 500 fell 21.93 or 1.7 percent. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 5 to 3 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.69 billion shares, compared with 2.48 billion Thursday. 

The Russell 2000 index fell 14.06 to 463.14. 

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.3 percent. Germany’s DAX index was up 0.1 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 gained 0.2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 dropped nearly 1.0 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 

NEW YORK — The Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut is expected to lend support to the slowing economy, but as Wall Street quickly learned, it was no panacea for the stock market’s woes. 

After rallying spectacularly on Wednesday in response to the Fed’s move, stocks plunged Friday on earnings worries and rumors of credit and loan losses related to the economy’s weakness. The slide nearly erased the market’s big gain, including the largest one-day advance ever in the Nasdaq composite index. 

Why the sharp rise and then steep decline? 

“We had a relief rally Wednesday, relief that the Fed would not let the economy go into an abyss,” said Jim Weiss, chief investment officer at State Street Research.  

“The reason the market then faded is that we woke up from our reverie and thought, ’What about earnings?’ and realized interest rates don’t address earnings.” 

That’s not to say the Fed’s move was insignificant. Long-term, interest rate cuts could provide relief for a lot of the problems plaguing stocks: weak corporate earnings, soft consumer demand and waning consumer confidence. 

But most market watchers expect it will take at least six months for the effects of the rate cut to work their way through the economy and show up in productivity, manufacturing and employment data – and, eventually, higher stock prices. 

“Lower interest lowers the costs of borrowing money to do business and could help make the U.S. dollar weaker, improving currency rate translations for companies doing business overseas,” said Dan Laufenberg, chief U.S. economist at American Express. “Those gains may come late in the first quarter but probably not soon enough to save it as far as earnings are concerned.” 

“Possibly it will help the second quarter, but there’s a chance it won’t,” he said. 

In the immediate future, the effects of a rate cut are far less grand and much more fleeting. 

“The short-term impact has already been felt, the psychological impact, that something is being done about this,” said Bob Christian a stock market analyst with Wilmington Trust in Wilmington, Del. 

But the rush didn’t last. Instead, he said that investors began to dwell on why the Fed felt it was necessary to cut rates after an emergency conference call, rather than wait until its its regularly scheduled meeting later this month. 

“That suggests that the Fed seeing something in the economy that is not doing too well and saying, ’Gee, we better start cutting rates,”’ Christian said. 

Many on Wall Street expect the Fed to cut rates again, although no one is quite sure when. 

A few such cuts could help boost consumer confidence, rescuing the retail sector, which is reeling from its worst holiday sales period in years, speculated Weiss, the State Street Research analyst. 

But don’t look for the market to respond again like it did Wednesday. 

“This was a special case because you got the positive shock value of the Fed cutting rates dramatically and unexpectedly,” he said. “Now the market is expecting there will be more and won’t react with such surprise. The negative will be if there aren’t more rate cuts, but I think there will be.” 

Still, many market watchers hope the Fed action marks the beginning of the end to the 2000 correction that resulted in the worst year ever for the Nasdaq and the weakest in nearly two decades for the Dow Jones industrial average. 

They also contend 2001 could be a much better year for investors. Unlike the markets of recent years, where growth was primarily limited to the technology sector, many analysts expect to see investment opportunities in a wider range of stocks, including healthcare, financial and some consumer products and manufacturing issues. 

“I think the low in this market is behind us, but we’re not going to have a V-shaped recovery, where the market shoots right back up. This time it will be more gradual, which is more healthy,” said Christian, the Wilmington Trust analyst. “The Fed cut is the first step of what is likely to be a lot of positive steps in the year, but there are still going to be some potholes in the road ahead.” 

The Dow closed the first week of 2001 at 10,662.01, down 124.84 or 1.2 percent following Friday’s 250.40-point loss. 

The Nasdaq fell 62.87 or 2.5 percent to 2,407.65 for the week, lowered by a 159.18-point drop Friday. 

The Standard and Poor’s 500 index lost 21.93 or 1.7 percent for the week, closing at 1,298.35 after Friday’s 34.99-point decline. 

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of smaller company stocks, gave up 20.39 for the week, a 4.2 percent decrease. It closed at 463.14 after losing 14.06 Friday. 

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index – which represents the combined market value of all New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq issues – ended the week at $11.87 trillion, off $304 billion from the previous week. A year ago the index was nearly $13.50 trillion. 

End adv for weekend editions 

TUCSON, Ariz. – On a night loaded with emotion, Arizona’s Loren Woods lost his cool. 

His teammates kept theirs, though, and the Wildcats (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today, No. 16 Associated Press) beat California 78-75 in their Pacific-10 Conference opener. 

Michael Wright matched his career high with 28 points and Gilbert Arenas scored nine of his 13 points in the final six minutes, after Woods was thrown out of the game. 

The Wildcats (8-4) were without coach Lute Olson for the second consecutive game. Olson has taken an indefinite leave of absence following the death of his wife, Bobbi, of cancer on Monday. 

Arizona players wore a black strip across their left shoulder in honor of the woman they and many before them knew as a second mother. She had cooked pancakes for the players and was a constant, outgoing presence in the crowd until illness kept her away. 

Arizona, which had struggled throughout the early season after being ranked No. 1 in the preseason, nearly lost consecutive home games for the first time since 1983-84, Olson’s first season at Arizona. 

“It was a real emotional week,” the Wildcats’ Luke Walton said, “but we knew we had to win this game.” 

The Wildcats, who face No. 2 Stanford on Saturday, took the lead for good with a 9-1 run, with Arenas scoring seven, after Woods was thrown out with 6:17 left. 

Sean Lampley scored 21, including 4 of 6 3-pointers for the Bears (8-4), who had won seven in a row. Ryan Forehan-Kelly added 16 points. Cal shot 57 percent from the field, including 8-for-17 from 3-point range. 

Arizona shot 54 percent, and the Wildcats made 10 consecutive free throws in the final 3:51. 

Woods, Arizona’s 7-foot-1 center, had to be restrained by teammates after referee Charlie Range called a foul against him with 6:17 left. Range called a quick technical, then another when Woods kept trying to get to him, using profanity over and over. 

Arizona associate coach Jim Rosborough said Woods, recently selected one of the team captains, might face some sort of penalty from the university for what the coach called “inexcusable” behavior. 

“It’s intolerable. I don’t think it represents us very well. I mean it’s embarrassing as heck,” Rosborough said. 

Rosborough wouldn’t say whether he might bench Woods for the big game against Stanford, “but I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to win at any costs.” 

Woods said he was frustrated the whole game. 

“I was getting a lot of cheap fouls and things like that,” Woods said. “It was like quicksand out there. I just kept getting lower, like I was going to die out there. Fortunately, the refs took care of that for me.” 

California turned the incident into a five-point play. 

Shantay Legans made three of four free throws on the technicals, then Solomon Hughes made two more on the foul and the Bears led 65-61. 

Arenas sank a 3-pointer, Hughes missed two free throws, and Arenas banked in a short jumper to put Arizona ahead 66-65 with 4:21 to play. Arenas’ two free throws made it 68-65 with 3:51 left. 

Hughes blocked Arenas’ shot, but Wright grabbed and put it in to put Arizona ahead 70-66 with 2:23 remaining. Arenas’ two free throws with 1:55 to go made it 72-66 with 1:55 left. 

But Cal rallied again. Forehan-Kelly sank his last 3-pointer and Lampley made a short jumper to cut the lead to 72-71 with 34.4 seconds remaining. 

Jason Gardner and Wright each sank two free throws to make it 76-72, then Brian Wethers banked in a 3-pointer to slice it to 76-75 with 11.6 seconds to go. 

“At the free-throw line there at the end is where we could have crumbled,” Rosborough said, “but we didn’t.” 

Richard Jefferson’s two free throws put Arizona up 78-75 with 6.6 seconds remaining, and Wethers’ 3-pointer at the buzzer wasn’t even close. 

“As disappointing as it was to lose, tonight we showed we can play,” Hughes said. “Arizona is a strong, good team. It’s like playing against an all-star team, but at the same time, they are beatable.” 

Wright was 11-for-13 from the field. 

“Michael Wright had a great performance tonight,” Cal coach Ben Braun said. “He is a warrior and has a great attitude. We tried to take him out of the game, but we just couldn’t. He was as good as advertised.” 

There was a moment of silence before the tip-off, preceded by a brief tribute by public address announcer Jonathan Norris. 

“Bobbi and Lute were an unbeatable team,” Norris said. “During the 18 years that she called Tucson home, Bobbi’s warm personality and graceful nature made everyone feel very special.”

“This is a critical moment for lesbian and gay people in California,” says Alan LoFaso, the affable chief of staff for Assembly member Carole Migden. “We have the opportunity to expand our rights in California,” he says, “and it’s very important, no - it’s crucial, for us to seize this opportunity.” 

The critical moment LoFaso refers to concerns new legislation coming out of Migden’s office that gives California’s year-old domestic partner policy more teeth with a host of new benefits and rights for same-sex couples. LoFaso and activists around the state are urging same-sex couples to register as domestic partners in 2001 to demonstrate to the legislature - and thereby to the people in California and around the nation - that gay and lesbian couples want and need the important benefits such legislation provides. 

“Use it or Lose it” 

Though California is one of just three states in the country to provide statewide recognition of domestic partners, only 6,000 couples have registered here. And given the states’ burgeoning population of 34 million people, there are likely hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples across the state. Fearing a “use or lose it” response from the legislature or the general public, experts argue it is essential for same-sex couples to register this year.  

“Numbers speak volumes, especially to politicians,” explains Lisa Belsanti, the Director of Communications for the California Alliance of Pride and Equality, the biggest statewide lobby for gay rights. “When Migden and other legislators are pushing for additional domestic partner benefits in their bills,” Belsanti says, “they need to show there is a segment of the population that is in need of the benefits.” 

The current California law grants domestic partners hospital visitation rights and requires government employers contracting with the state to offer domestic partner health benefits. Though widely understood to be a starting point for gay couples on the long road to equality, the law’s limited benefits may account for the small number of couples who registered last year.  

Among the benefits of the new bill, however, domestic partners will be able to make medical decisions on each other’s behalf, inherit property, use sick leave to care for a partner or a partner’s child, be appointed the conservator of each other’s estate, and leave a job to relocate with a partner without jeopardizing unemployment benefits. These are, of course, but a small part of the countless benefits automatically available to spouses when they marry.  

Not Civil Unions or Marriage.Yet Belsanti and others believe that a strong showing of same-sex couples registering in California will help foster additional pro-gay legislation in the state and help other states to follow suit. “It’s not marriage and it’s not civil unions yet,” she says, “but other states are certainly looking to California to see what happens in terms of our domestic partner laws.”  

Given the strong sentiment against same-sex marriage among certain segments of the population, with 36 states passing same-sex marriages bans since 1995, LoFaso is convinced that the path to equality will only happen incrementally: “The referendums against same-sex marriage can be interpreted to say, “If you go too fast, voters will backlash,” so in California we’re doing it slowly and we’re doing it legislatively.” 

Attacks from the Right 

With a strong Democratic majority in both houses and a Democrat, albeit a centrist one, in the Governor’s seat, California is poised to pass some of the most pro-gay legislation in its history. That said, the organized and well-funded Right in the state is actively campaigning against what they refer to as the “counterfeit” and “anti-marriage” domestic partner laws. 

In mid-December, the group “Californians For Families” sent state legislators a “Marriage Protection Pledge,” stipulating that lawmakers “uphold the spirit of Proposition 22 (the anti-gay marriage initiative passed in California last year) and refuse to support domestic partnerships.” Since gay marriage is not likely to appear on the horizon here for a while, the Right has set its sights on dismantling domestic partner laws. “Let’s face it,” says LoFaso, “fear and ignorance is all they have going for them. But fear and ignorance are potent forces in American politics.” 

“In 2001 I will register...” 

Same-sex couples are strongly encouraged to make registering as domestic partners a resolution for the New Year. Couples and families across the country are clamoring for legal recognition, and here in California all you need do is fill out a simple form, have it notarized, and drop it in the mail with a $10 registration fee. Registering is a public affirmation of your relationship, an important political step for gay rights, and, well, it’s certainly easier than trying to lose those ten pounds you said you’d lose last year.  

Patrick Letellier is a freelance writer and activist living in Oakland.

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm.”An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

Judah L. Magnes Museum “Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season” Through May, 2002 An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. “Second Annual Richard Nagler Competition for Excellence in Jewish Photography” Through Feb., 2001. Featuring the work of Claudia Nierman, Jason Francisco, Fleming Lunsford, and others. 2911 Russell St.  

549-6950  

UC Berkeley Art Museum “Amazons in the Drawing Room”: The Art of Romaine Brooks through Jan. 16. Predominantly a portrait artist, Brooks paintings were influenced by elements of her life and are a visual record of the changing status of women in society. “Tacita Dean/MATRIX 189 Banewl” through Jan. 28. A film instillation by British conceptual artist Tacita Dean of the total solar eclipse of Aug. 11, 1999. Wednesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Open Thursdays to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Gallery “Continuous Replay: The Photographs of Arnie Zane” through Jan. 8. Best known as the cofounder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Zane began his exploration of the human form through photography. 2625 Durant Ave. 

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery,” open-ended. A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection. “Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. “Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. “Three Towers of Han,” open-ended. $6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 642-0808 

UC Berkeley Museum of  

Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 by 40-foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. 

“Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst  

Museum of Anthropology “Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended. This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history.“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing.This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. $2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Ave. 643-7648  

Lawrence Hall of Science “Math Rules!” Ongoing. A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations. Within the Human Brain” Ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “In the Dark,” through Jan. 15, 2001. Plunge into darkness and see amazing creatures that inhabit worlds without light. “Vision,” Jan. 20 - April 15, 2001. Get a very close look at how the eyes and brain work together to focus light, perceive color and motion, and process information. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership 

Jan. 5: Remnants, The Clumsy Bears, Eleventeen, Whorange, Tear It Up, Fast Times; Jan. 6: The Locust, Beautiful Skin, National Acrobat, The Pattern, Heart of Snow; Jan. 12: The Sick, Totimoshi, 7 Days of Samsara, Vida Blue, The Sabians; Jan. 13: The Stitches, Tsuanami Bomb, Derelectrics, Starvations, Labrats; Jan. 19: Plus Ones, Anti 45, Strike-O-Matics, The P.A.W.N.S., The Bob Weirdos, This Bike Is A Pipebomb; Jan. 20: Groovie Ghoulies, Pansy Division, Subincision, The Potatomen, The Sidekicks; Jan. 26: Tragedy, Yaphet Kotto, Esperanza, Under a Dying Sun; Jan. 27: San Geronimo, Merrick, Anti Domestix. 525-9926  

Ashkenaz Jan. 5, 9:30 p.m.: Reggae Angels Foundation, Jah Light Music; Jan. 6: California Cajun Orchestra, dance lesson at 8:30 p.m.; Jan. 9, 9 p.m.: Andrew Carrier & Cajun Classics, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; Jan. 10: Red Archibald & the Internationals, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; Jan. 11: Benefit concert for Food First featuring: Ten Ton Chicken, Tree o’ Frogs, The David Thom Band and Buffalo Roam, $10 - $15. 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Eli’s Mile High Club Jan. 5: Scott Duncan; Jan. 6: Takezo; Jan. 12: Ron Hacker; Jan. 13: Frankie Lee; Jan. 19: Craig Horton Blues Band; Jan. 20: Jimmy Mamou; Jan. 26: Carlos Zialcita; Jan. 27: Mark Hummel. 3629 MLK Jr. Way Oakland  

Freight & Salvage All shows begin at 8 p.m. Jan. 5: Beth Custer Dona Luz 30 Besos; Jan. 6: The Waybacks; Jan. 7: The Joyce Todd Trio; Jan. 9: Modern Hicks; Jan. 10: Sonia of Disappear Fear, Denice Franke; Jan. 11: Duck Baker & Jamie Finlay; Jan. 12: Ginny Reilly & David Maloney; Jan. 13: Caren Armstrong; Jan. 14: Street Sounds; Jan. 15: John McCutcheon; Jan. 18: Dry Branch Fire Squad. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761  

Jupiter All music begins at 8 p.m. Jan. 5: Full Throttle Trio; Jan. 6: Post Junk Trio; Jan. 10: Realistic w/DJ Turtle; Jan. 11: Joshi Marshall Project; Jan. 12: Kooken & Hoomen; Jan. 13: Mitch Marcus Trio; Jan. 17: Realistic w/DJ Turtle; Jan. 18: Joshi Marshall Project; Jan. 19: Sex Fresh Trio; Jan. 20: Mamas Boy. 2181 Shattuck Ave. Call THE-ROCK  

Crowden School Sundays, 4 p.m.: Chamber music series sponsored by the school. 1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 559-6910 

Jazzschool/La Note All shows at 4:30 p.m.Tickets are $10 - $12  

Jan. 14: Afro-Jazz with Pascal Bokar ; Jan. 21: The BlueJazzHouse Party with Brenda Boykin and The Eric Swinderman Quartet. 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 

Cal Performances Jan. 19, 8 p.m.: Gospel ensemble The Mighty Clouds of Joy and The Campbell Brothers, $16 - $28; Feb. 2 & 3, 8 p.m.: Allee der Kosmonauten by Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz with video installations by New York artist Elliot Caplan, $20 - $42; Feb. 4, 4 p.m.: Russian National Orchestra, $30 - $52. Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley. 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Jan. 31, April 3, and June 21, 2001. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

“Sing for Hope” Jan. 12, 8 p.m. The second annual event features an evening of arias and Broadway show tunes sung by seven of New York’s young rising opera stars. All proceeds benefit the Center for AIDS Services, a nonprofit day center in Oakland for people with HIV and AIDS. $35 performance only, $50 performance & post-concert reception. First Congregational Church, 2435 Channing Way (at Dana) 655-3435 

Dia de los Reyes Concert Jan. 13, 8 p.m. Performing will be Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo with the Jackeline Rago Ensemble de la Pena. $ 12 - $15. St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison (415) 431-4234  

“Rebecca Riots” Jan. 6, 8 p.m. A trio of women who sing about contemporary political, social, spiritual and personal issues. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave.  

“Clori, Tirsi e Fileno” Jan. 27, 8 p.m.; Jan. 28, 7 p.m. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before each performance. Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company perform Handel’s opera. $15 - $20. Crowden School Theater 1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 658-3382 

“Women in Salsa” Jan. 25, 8 p.m. Orquesta D’Soul, a San Francisco based band, is hosting this benefit featuring the musical talents of local bay area women in salsa. $8 in advance, $10 at the door. La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or visit www.lapena.org 

Theater 

“Dinner With Friends” by Donald Margulies Through Jan. 7. $15.99 - $51. Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org  

“Fall” by Bridget Carpenter Jan. 19 - Feb. 11. $15.99 - $51. Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, www. berkeleyrep.org 

“Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett Jan. 5 through Feb. 3, Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m. $8 - $12. Subterranean Shakespeare La Val’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 234-6046  

Films 

New Iranian Cinema Featured films include Mariam Shahriar’s “Daughters of the Sun,” Rassul Sadr Ameli’s “The Girl in Sneakers,” and Parvi Shahbazi’s “Whispers,” and many others. Through Jan. 13 $7 for one film, $8.50. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412  

“Abel Paz Durruti & the Spanish Revolution” A new documentary film made in 1998. Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. $7 donation requested. La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. LaborFest, 415-642-8066  

Exhibits 

Toki Gallery “Heads of the Class,” ceramic sculptures by seventh and eighth grade students at the East Bay Science & Arts Middle School. Through Jan. 10, Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 1212 San Pablo Ave. 524-7363  

Kala Art Institute Over sixty artists affiliated with the Kala Art Institute will show works ranging from wood block prints to digital media.  

Through Jan. 16, Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 5 p.m. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

Berkeley Historical Society “Berkeley’s Ethnic Heritage.” An overview of the rich cultural diversity of the city and the contribution of individuals and minority groups to it’s history and development. Thursday through Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m. Free. 1931 Center St. 848-0181 

“Consecrations: Spirits in the Time of AIDS,” Jan. 24 - Feb. 24. An exhibit seeking to expand the understanding of HIV and AIDS and the people affected by them. Wednesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Pro Arts Gallery 461 Ninth St., Oakland. 763-9425  

“Celebration” An exhibit of artists working and living in the East Bay. Jan. 10 - Feb. 3; Opening reception Jan. 13, 7 - 9 p.m.; Tuesday - Saturday, 11 - 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 - 5 p.m. !hey! Gallery 4920-b Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349 

Acrylic Paintings of Corinne Innis Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings. Jan. 16 - Feb. 26; Opening reception Jan. 20, 5 - 7 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, 1 - 7 p.m. and by appointment. Women’s Cancer Resource Center 3023 Shattuck Ave. 548-9286 x307  

Drawings & Watercolor Paintings of Daniel Hitkov Hitkov is a young Bulgarian artist whose subjects are the real and unreal in nature, people and things. Through Feb. 12. Red Cafe 1941 University Ave. 843-7230 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Jan. 6: Gaymes Night; come play Balderdash, Sequence, and others and enjoy pizza, company, and teamwork; Jan. 13: Dyke Open Myke!; Jan. 14, 11 a.m.: LesBiGayTrans prospective parenting group meeting; Jan. 19: Marcy Sheiner and local contributors read from “Best Women’s Erotica 2001”; Jan. 20: Jenny Scholten reads from “Daystripper”; Jan. 27: Susan Swartz reads from “Juicy Tomatoes: Plain Truths, Dumb Lies, & Sisterly Advice About Life After 50” 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington 559-9184. www.boadeciasbooks.com 

Cody’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Jan. 10: Poetry of Neeli Cherkovski & Judy Grahn; Jan. 12: Spanish Book Club discusses “Los Anos Con Laura Diaz”; Jan. 14: Poetry of James Schevill, Parenting Book Club discuss “Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences”; Jan. 16: Eliahu Klein discusses “The Babbalah of Creation”; Jan. 17: Poetry of Judith Tannenbaum & Ruth L. Schwartz; Jan. 18: Elwyn Berlekamp plays “Dots & Boxes: Sophisticated Child’s Play”; Jan. 19: Anita Roddick discusses “Business As Usual”; Jan. 22: Mona Halaby discusses “Belonging: Creating Community in the Classroom”; Jan. 23: Rebecca Walker reads from “Black, White, & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self; Jan. 24: “Grrrrr Anthology” poets CB Follett, Lynne Knight, Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, Robert Aquinas McNally, & John B. Rowe; Jan. 25: Norman Stolzoff presents “Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica”; Jan. 26: James Carroll discusses “Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews”; Jan. 28: Poetry of Lynne Knight & Kathleen Lynch; Jan. 29: Tim Wohlforth discusses “On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left”; Jan. 30: James Elkins discusses “how to use Your Eyes”; Jan. 31: Poetry of Steven Ajay & Anita Barrows  

“Strong Women - Writers & Heroes of Literature” Mondays Through June, 2001, 1 - 3 p.m. Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program. North Berkeley Senior Center 1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 549-2970  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All free events at 7:30 p.m. (unless noted) 

Jan. 11: Kristan Lawson & Anneli Rufus discuss their book “California Babylon: A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State.”; Jan. 16: Various travel authors discuss the spiritual aspects of traveling, “Travel as Pilgrimage.”; Jan. 18: Berkeley resident, restaurant and move critic John Weil, through a slide presentation and talk, takes attendees on a unique tour through the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Berkeley and Oakland. 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. Jan. 11: Kirk Lumpkin; Jan. 18: Ayodele Nzinga; Jan. 25: Glenn Ingersoll; Feb. 1: John Rowe; Feb. 8: Tom Odegard; Feb 15: Kathleen Lynch; Feb. 22: Charles Ellick; March 1: Eliza Shefler; March 8: Judy Wells; March 15: Elanor Watson-Gove; March 22: Anna Mae Stanley; March 29: Georgia Popoff; April 5: Barbara Minton; April 12: Alice Rogoff; April 19: Garrett Murphy; April 26: Ray Skjelbred. Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 848-7800  

The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley. 486-0623  

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting.  

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley. 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/  

The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. Tours, Saturday and Sunday, 1:30 p.m. $3 general; $2 seniors; $1 children; free on Thursday. Daily, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. 

Lectures 

Berkeley Historical Society Slide Lecture & Booksigning Series Sundays, 3 - 5 p.m. $10 donation requested Jan. 14: Richard Schwartz on “Berkeley 1900,” the history of Berkeley at the turn of the century; Jan. 28: “The Finns in Berkeley and Co-op Beginnings,” a panel discussion on Finnish and Co-op history; March 11: Director of Berkeley’s International House, Joe Lurie, will show a video and dicuss the history and struggle to open the I-House 70 years ago. Berkeley Historical Center Veterans Memorial Building 1931 Center St. 848-0181 

“Great Decisions” Foreign Policy Association Lectures Series Tuesdays, 10 a.m. - Noon, Feb. 13 - April 3; An annual program featuring specialists in the field of national foreign policy, many from University of California. Goal is to inform the public on major policy issues and receive feedback from the public. $5 per session, $35 entire series for single person, $60 entire series for couple. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 526-2925 

City Commons Club Social Hour & Speaker Series Fridays, 11:15 a.m., Jan. 5 - 26; Jan. 5: “Medieval China - How We Got to Where We Are,” Stephen West, professor of East Asian studies at UC Berkeley; Jan. 12: “Innovative Approaches to Farming,” Reggie Knox, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farms of Santa Cruz; Jan. 19: “Evidence-Based Practice - How It May Effect You,” Eileen Gambrill, professor of social welfare at UC Berkeley; Jan. 26: “The Aftermath of the National Election,” Susan Rasky, senior lecturer at the graduate school of journalism at UC Berkeley. Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 848-3533 

Friday, Jan. 5  

“Medieval China - How We Got to Where We Are” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Stephen West, professor at the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free 848-3533  

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Saturday, Jan. 6  

Hip Hop Theater Workshop  

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts  

2640 College Ave. (at Derby)  

A participatory one-day workshop as part of the center’s Kaleidoscope Arts Infusion Series. Led by hip-hop poet and performer Will Power and playwright Rickerby Hinds.  

$60 individual, $45 family (two or more)  

Call 845-8542 x376 or visit www.juliamorgan.org 

Rose Pruning Workshop  

9:30 a.m.  

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

Peter Klement, UC Botanical Garden rose expert will share his expertise and demonstrate techniques for shaping old-fashioned roses, climbers and hybrid teas to assure maximum flowering.  

$20 - $27.50 643-2755 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St. 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Lessons for Children  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

P.U.R.R.S. Pet Adoption Day  

Noon - 5 p.m.  

Pet Food Express 

1942 MLK Jr. Way  

Pet’s Are Us is a non-profit animal rescue organization. 444-3204 

Monday, Jan. 8  

Berkeley Community Chorus Rehearsal 

7 - 10 p.m. 

St. Ambrose Church, basement 

1145 Gilman St.  

Conducted by Julian White. The chorus will perform White’s “The Children’s Hour” and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasia.” The chorus meets every Monday night. Performance dates are May 5, 12 & 13.  

$75 tuition for semester 528-2145 or visit www.bcco.org 

Fun With Origami  

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 644-6107  

Tuesday, Jan. 9  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

531-8664 

Remembering: What’s Normal and What’s Not  

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

With Tina Williams  

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Wednesday, Jan. 10  

Kids Dance Open House &  

Class 

5 - 6 p.m. 

El Cerrito Community Center 

7007 Moeser Lane 

El Cerrito  

Parents are invited to explore how dance relates to cognitive, kinesthetic, and socio-emotional development in their children. For ages three to seventeen. Free  

Call 530-4113  

Tai Chi Chuan  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Henry Chang 

Call 644-6107 

Glaucoma: Early Detection Free Lecture  

1 - 2:30 p.m.  

Alta Bates Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne St.  

Oakland 

Dr. Richard Lee, ophthalmologist, will discuss the risk factors and causes of glaucoma, as well as other aspects of the aging eye. Free 

Call 869-6737 

Thursday, Jan. 11 

Toni Stone and the Negro Baseball League 

1 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Marcia Eymann, curator of historical photography, discusses memorabilia of Toni Stone, a woman who played in the Negro Baseball Legue in the 1940s. Free. 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

Benefit Concert for Food First 

8 p.m. 

Ashkenaz  

1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 

Featuring the David Thom Band, Buffalo Roam, Tree o’ Frogs, and Ten Ton Chicken. All proceeds benefit Food First.  

$10 - $15 donation 

Call Kevin Doyle, 843-6389 x201 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Kirk Lumpkin and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

California Babylon  

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Kristan Lawson & Anneli Rufus discuss their book “A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State.” Free 

Call 843-3533  

Free Anonymous HIV Testing 

5:15 - 7:15 p.m. 

Check in 5 - 7 p.m. 

University Health Services 

Tang Center  

2222 Bancroft Way 

Drop-in services and limited space is available.  

Call 642-7202 

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Ski & Snowboard Descents  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Paul Richins, author of “50 Classic Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Summits in California - Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney,” presents in slides some of his favorite ski mountaineering and backcountry snowboard descents. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Ballroom Dancing  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With Roman Ostrowski  

Call 644-6107  

Friday, Jan. 12 

“Who’s Really In Charge Anyway?” 

7:30 p.m. 

Unitarian Hall 

1924 Cedar St.  

The subject to be discussed is the guru dilemma and individual spiritual mastership. Hear about the spiritual path of light and sound and the ancient teachings of the saints.  

Call Unitarian Hall, 841-4824 or visit www.masterpath.org 

“Sing for Hope” 

8 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2435 Channing Way (at Dana) 

The second annual event features an evening of arias and Broadway show tunes sung by seven of New York’s young rising opera stars. All proceeds benefit the Center for AIDS Services, a nonprofit day center in Oakland for people with HIV and AIDS.  

$35 performance only, $50 performance & post-concert reception 

Call 655-3435 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Innovative Approaches to Farming”  

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Reggie Knox, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farms of Santa Cruz will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533  

Yiddish Conversation  

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

With allen Stross  

Call 644-6107 

“Igniting the Dream: Social Justice in  

the New Millennium”  

6 - 9 p.m.  

University of Creation Spirituality  

2141 Broadway  

Oakland  

An art reception, film screening, and panel discussion featuring Rev. Phillip Lawson, Rafael Gonzalez, Luisah Teish, and Dr. Barbara Cannon. Free  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Saturday, Jan. 13 

“Dyke Open Myke!” 

7:30 p.m. 

Boadecia’s Books  

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

A coffeehouse-style open mic. night for emerging talent. 

Call Jessy, 655-1015  

or Boadecia’s Books, 559-9184 

Dia de los Reyes Concert  

8 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church  

1640 Addison  

Performing will be Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo with the Jackeline Rago Ensemble de la Pena.  

$12 - $15  

Call (415) 431- 4234 

Rose Pruning Workshop  

9:30 a.m.  

UC Botanical Garden  

200 Centennial Dr.  

Peter Klement, UC Botanical Garden rose expert will share his expertise and demonstrate techniques for shaping old-fashioned roses, climbers and hybrid teas to assure maximum flowering.  

$20 - $27.50  

Call 643-2755 

West Coast Live  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Freight & Salvage  

1111 Addison St.  

In their first East Bay show of the millennium, Sedge Thomson welcomes Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers.  

Call 415-664-9500 for reservations 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser  

8 a.m. - Noon  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

The Teen Clubs of Berkeley present this fundraiser in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Tickets available at all city of Berkeley recreational sites and at the Young Adult Project.  

$3 - $5  

Call 644-8515 

Bridge Rail Unveiling  

9:30 a.m.  

Codornices Creek at the Ohlone Greenway  

Members of the Berkeley and Albany city councils, along with members of the creek-restoration group, will swing sledgehammers to remove forms from the concrete bridge footing and towers. 

Call 8 48-9358 or visit www.fivecreeks.org  

Sunday, Jan. 14 

Teaching Chinese Culture in the U.S.  

2 p.m. 

Oakland Museum of California 

1000 Oak St.  

Oakland 

Educators from Bay Area Chinese schools explore issues related to teaching Chinese culture and language. Included in museum admission.  

$6 general; $4 seniors and students with ID 

Call 1-888-OAK-MUSE 

LesBiGayTrans Parenting 

11 a.m. 

Boadecia’s Books 

398 Colusa Ave. (at Colusa Cir.) 

Kensington 

These two groups meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group meeting at 11 a.m. is for prospective parents, the one at noon for parents.  

Call 559-9184 

“Berkeley, 1900” 

3 - 5 p.m. . 

Berkeley History Center 

1931 Center St.  

Richard Schwartz gives an oral history of Berkeley at the turn of the century.  

A-Singin’ and a Chantin’ 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers 

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Pagan recording artist DJ Hamouris shares some songs and chants. 

Call 848-8443 

Free Feng Shui Class 

3 p.m. 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley  

2066 University Ave.  

Taught by Lily Chung, author of “Calendars for Feng Shui and Divination.” 

Call Eastwind, 548-3250 

Monday, Jan. 15  

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church  

1188 12th St. (at Adeline) 

Oakland  

Featuring Rev. Dorsey Blake, Dr. Matthew Fox, Reconnect Performance Troupe, Cole Performing Arts Choir and Avotcja.  

Call 835-4827 x31 or visit www.creationspirituality.com  

Tuesday, Jan. 16  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

“Travel as Pilgramage” 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

Various travel writers discuss the spiritual aspects of travel. Free 

Call 843-3533  

Avalanche Safety Course  

6 - 9:30 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Dick Penniman, internationally known avalanche instructor and consultant, presents a slide lecture and video presentation on the fundamentals of avalanches and rescue techniques.  

$20  

Call Dick Penniman, (877) SNO-SAFE 

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is the role of the U.S. in global politics and priorities.  

Call 527-9772  

Wednesday, Jan. 17  

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters 

7:15 p.m. 

Vault Restaurant  

3250 Adeline St.  

Learn to speak fluently without fear or hesitation.  

Call Howard Linnard, 527-2337 

Your Justice System at Work 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

West Oakland Senior Center  

1724 Adeline St.  

Oakland  

Judges of the Superior Court, attorneys, probation officers, sheriff’s officers and other justice system representatives will be present to hear the concerns of the public and to answer their questions.  

Call 268-7610 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Jan. 18  

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicty,” learn about this movement whose philosophy is “the examined life richly lived.” Work less, consume less, rush less, and build community with friends and family.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Ayodele Nzinga and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

Combating Congestion  

1 - 5 p.m. 

Pauley Ballroom 

Student Union Building  

UC Berkeley 

A one-day transportation conference featuring Martin Wachs and Elizabeth Deakin, both of UC Berkeley. Co-sponsored by the Institute of Transportation Studies and the UC Transportation Center.  

Call 642-1474  

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Become Berkeley City Smart 

7:30 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore  

1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose)  

In a slide presentation & talk, Berkeley resident, restaurant and movie critic John Weil takes attendees on a unique tour through the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Berkeley and Oakland. Free 

Call 843-3533  

Disabled American Veterans Chapter 25 Meeting 

8 p.m. 

Veterans Memorial Building  

1931 Center St.  

Any woman who has had a relative serve in the U.S. military is invited to attend and join the auxiliary.  

Call 916-372-8364 

Journey Across China 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Eugene Tsiang, Shanghai native, will give a slide presentation on his two-month journey last spring by train and four-wheel drive vehicle across China’s Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang Provinces. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us  

Friday, Jan. 19 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“Evidence-Based Practice - How it May Effect You” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Eileen Gambrill, professor in the department of social welfare at UC Berkeley with speak. 

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Jan. 20  

On Death & Dying 

9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Buddhist Temple  

2121 Channing Way (between Shattuck & Fulton)  

Kathleen Gustin, Zen priest, and Rev. Ronald Nakasone of the Graduate Theological Union speak at this workshop designed to help those considering their own ending or that of loved ones.  

$20 per person (box lunch included) 

Call Ken Kaji, 601-5394 

Corinne Innis Reception 

5 - 7 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings.  

Call 548-9286 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Monday, Jan. 22  

Berkeley Rail Stop Community  

Design Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 1900 Sixth St.  

The public is invited to suggest ideas and comment on plans for design-development at the rail stop/transit plaza area of West Berkeley.  

Call 644-6580 

Urban Homelessness  

& Public Policy Solutions 

9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Alumni House  

UC Berkeley  

This day-long conference will include key scholars, service providers, and policymakers in the homelessness field. Some of the subjects to be covered will be: Homeless population dynamics and policy implications, health issues in homelessness, and legal and political issues in homelessness. Free and open to the public.  

For more info, visit: http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/homeless.htm 

Tuesday, Jan. 23 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Jan. 24 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Jan. 25  

Spirits in the Time of AIDS 

6 - 8 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland 

Pro Arts reception for the opening of their new exhibition seeking to expand the understanding of HIV and AIDS and the people who are affected by them.  

Call 763-9425 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Climbing Mt. Everest  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Bob Hoffman, organizer and leader of four environmental clean-up expeditions on Everest, will give a slide presentation on the Inventa 2000 Everest Environmental Expedition’s recent ascent. Free 

Call 527-4140 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Glenn Ingersoll and host Louis Cuneo.  

644-0155 

Women in Salsa  

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Orquesta D’Soul, a San Francisco based band, is hosting this benefit featuring the musical talents of local bay area women in salsa.  

$8 in advance, $10 at the door 

Call 849-2568 or visit www.lapena.org 

Friday, Jan. 26 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

“The Aftermath of the National Election” 

11:45 a.m. luncheon 

12:30 p.m. speaker  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

Susan Rasky, senior lecturer at the graduate school of journalism at UC Berkeley will speak.  

$11 - $12.25 with luncheon, $1 with coffee, students free  

848-3533 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Jan. 27  

Clori, Tirsi & e Fileno 

8 p.m. 

Crowden School  

1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 

Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company, will be performing Handel’s story of jealousy in love. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performance.  

$15 - $20  

Call 658-3382  

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Cuddly, Soft, Furry Things & Friends 

10 - 10:50 a.m. & 11:10 a.m. - Noon  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

A special workshop for two - three year-olds to meet, pet, and feed rabbits, doves, and snakes.  

$22 - $25, $10 for additional family members, registration required  

Call 642-5134 

Book Publishing Seminar 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

Regent Press 

6020-A Adeline St.  

Mark Weiman presents an overview of the business of book publishing oriented towards the author considering self-publication. From page layout to promotion and distribution, Weiman will cover all practical aspects of independent book publishing.  

Call 547-7602 or e-mail: regent@sirius.com 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Sunday, Jan. 28  

Clori, Tirsi & e Fileno 

7 p.m. 

Crowden School  

1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 

Teatro Bacchino, the Bay Area’s Baroque Opera company, will be performing Handel’s story of jealousy in love. Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performance.  

$15 - $20  

Call 658-3382  

Tuesday, Jan. 30 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Jan. 31 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra  

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Featuring “Berkeley Images,” a world premiere by Jean-Pascal Beintus.  

$10 - $35  

Call 841-2800 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 1 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet John Rowe and host Randy Fingland.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 2 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Allee der Kosmontauten 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Performance of Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz 1996 work in its West Coast premiere. Also features the film work of Elliot Caplan.  

$20 - $42  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

“A Night In Oakland” 

8 p.m. 

Alice Arts Center 

1428 Alice St. (at 14th St.) 

Oakland  

Savage Jazz Dance Company launches their 2001 spring season along with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.  

$10 - $15 

Call 496-6068 or visit www.savagejazz.org 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 3 

“Waiting for Godot” 

8 p.m. 

La Val’s Subterranean  

1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 

Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Yoni Barkan, director of last summer’s “A Midsummers Night Dream.”  

$8 - $12  

Call 234-6046 

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Artists Talk 

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland  

As part of “Consecrations,” the public is invited to hear artists speak about their work and show slides. Free 

Call 763-9425 

Free Tae-Bo Classes for Adults  

10 - 10:45 a.m.  

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park 

2800 Park St.  

Call 644-8515 

Free Martial Arts Classes for Kids  

11:15 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Frances Albrier Community Center  

San Pablo Park  

2800 Park St.  

Classes taught by Michael Johnson, a fourth degree black belt. Ages 5 - 7, 11:15 a.m. - Noon; Ages 8 - 12, 12:15 p.m. - 1 p.m.; Ages 13 to adults, 1:15 p.m. - 2 p.m. 

644-8515 

Sunday, Feb. 4 

“Under Construction No. 10” 

7:30 p.m. 

St. John’s Presbyterian Church  

2727 College Ave.  

Experience the unusual rehearsal-reading format that lets the audience experience the collaboration between conductor, orchestra and composer in the Berkeley Symphony’s unique series presenting new works or works-in-progress by local Bay Area composers.  

Call 841-2800 

Russian National Orchestra  

4 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

On their tenth anniversary tour, the RNO will perform Shostakovich’s symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No. 2.  

$30 - $52  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

From Flatlands to the Stars  

9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Diamond Park  

Fruitvale Ave. (at Lyman Rd.) 

A hardy hike along Sausal Creek in Oakland’s unexplored Diamond and Joaquin Miller parks. A free hike sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

“A Night In Oakland” 

2 & 8 p.m. 

Alice Arts Center 

1428 Alice St. (at 14th St.) 

Oakland  

Savage Jazz Dance Company launches their 2001 spring season along with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.  

$10 - $15 

Call 496-6068 or visit www.savagejazz.org 

Tuesday, Feb. 6  

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is sex, love, dating, and relationships in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  

Call 527-9772  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 7  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 8 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Tom Odegard and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 9  

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 10  

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Open Mic.  

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery  

461 Ninth St.  

Oakland  

As part of “Consecrations,” the public is invited to see special performances, spoken word, commentary and more.  

Call 763-9425 

Masters of Persian Classical Music 

8 p.m. 

Zellerbach Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Featuring vocalist Mohammad Reza Sharjarian and his son, Homayoun Sharjarian.  

$20 - $40  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Sunday, Feb. 11  

Ruth Acty Oral History Reception 

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society  

Veterans Memorial Building 

1931 Center St.  

In 1943 Miss Ruth Acty became the first African American teacher to be hired by the Berkeley Unified School District. She taught thousands of students until her retirement in 1985. Oral History Coordinator Therese Pipe interviewed Acty in 1993-94 for the Berkeley Historical Society. Free  

Horacio Gutierrez  

3 p.m. 

Hertz Hall 

UC Berkeley  

The Cuban-American pianist will perform Berg’s Sonata, Op.1, George Perle’s Nine Bagatelles, Schumann’s Fantasie, Op. 17 and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29.  

$24 - $42  

Call 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Tuesday, Feb. 13 

“Great Decisions” - U.S. Trade Policy 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session, $35 entire series for single person, $60 entire series for couple  

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 14 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 15 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benveue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicty,” learn about this movement whose philosophy is “the examined life richly lived.” Work less, consume less, rush less, and build community with friends and family.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Basics of PCs 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley 

A class for adults that will cover file management, loading software, software management, downloading pages from the Web, and more. 

$30 - $35, registration required  

Call 642-5134  

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Kathleen Lynch and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

Friday, Feb. 16 

Strong Women - Writers & 

Heroes of Literature 

1 - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” this is a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program.  

Call 549-2970  

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Saturday, Feb. 17  

“Go-Go-Go Greenbelt!” 

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Rockridge BART  

Oakland  

A bike tour on this ride into the rolling East Bay hills. A free ride sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

Sunday, Feb. 18  

Waterfalls of Berkeley  

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

North Berkeley BART  

Sacramento at Delaware  

On this urban waterfall hike, discover three waterfalls along rushing creeks hidden in Berkeley neighborhoods. A free hike sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance.  

Call 415-255-3233 for reservations or visit www.greenbelt.org 

Tuesday, Feb. 20 

“Great Decisions” - China & Taiwan 

10 a.m. - Noon  

Berkeley City Club  

2315 Durant Ave.  

The first in a series of eight weekly lectures with the goal of informing the public of current major policy issues. Many of the lectures are presented by specialists in their field and are often from the University of California. Feedback received at these lectures is held in high regard by those in the government responsible for national policy.  

$5 single session 

Call Berton Wilson, 526-2925 

Berkeley Intelligent Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

With no religious affiliation, this twice-monthly group, led informally by former UC Berkeley extension lecturer Robert Berent, seeks to bring people together to have interesting discussions on contemporary topics. This evenings discussion topic is different cultural, ethnic and religious values.  

Call 527-9772  

Berkeley Camera Club  

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church  

941 The Alameda  

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

Call Wade, 531-8664 

Wednesday, Feb. 21 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

Thursday, Feb. 22 

Free “Quit Smoking” Class 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis (at Ashby)  

Cease your smoking with the help of this free class offered to Berkeley residents and employees. 

Call 644-6422 to enroll or e-mail quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Charles Ellick and host Louis C

The need to dig through your car’s coin trays for dimes and quarters to feed ravenous parking meters may soon become a thing of the past.  

The city will begin using E-Park cards, electronic debit cards accepted by about 3,000 Berkeley parking meters, as soon as Feb. 1. 

The cards are the size of a credit card said Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

Like a BART card, E-Park cards withdraw money every time they are placed into a slot in the front of the parking meter. However, unlike BART cards, they are not disposable, so people can keep their cards and recharge them. 

“The idea is great,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “It means that people don’t have to shift around for change. That’s exciting.” 

The cards will come in $10 increments up to $50 and will be sold at the Finance Customer Service Center at 2020 Center St. When the cards run out of money they can also be recharged there.  

Every time the card is put into a meter 25 cents will be deducted, good for 20 minutes of parking. People will be able to insert the card multiple times.  

Kamlarz said the cards will work on nearly every meter in Berkeley that operates for a single parking space. These meters already have a small slot for electronic cards just below the coin slot. Reinos – Berkeley’s new meters that control several parking spaces at once – will not accept the E-Park cards. 

“We have gone out and asked people what they thought because we had to see if they would use it,” he said. “It’s not a money-maker, it is just more of a convenience.” 

The idea came up several years ago and the city has since been working with the Chamber of Commerce to implement E-Parking. In 1998 the city installed 3,000 electronic meters and last July the City Council approved a resolution to implement the system, which included purchasing software. 

In the future, electronic cards may be used for other city services that are charged by hourly rates. Kamlarz said parking garages are a possibility. The city may also adapt a regional E-Park card that people can use in other nearby cities. 

Minneapolis and Orlando are two cities that already use parking meter cards. Kamlarz said Berkeley officials talked with officials in those other cities about implementation of the system. 

The city has set up a parking meter hotline at 1-877-METER-411, which leads a caller to a voicemail system for the city’s Finance Department. The Daily Planet continues to wait for a call back from that number.

California head football coach Tom Holmoe announced the signing of former UCLA offensive coordinator to the same job at Cal Thursday, ending a two-month search to fill the position. 

“Having Al Borges join our football staff is a major development, a move that will have a huge impact on our program,” Holmoe said. “There’s a strong consensus in football circles that he is one of the best offensive coordinators in the game and I certainly agree with that assessment. He’s imaginative and creative while also being fundamentally sound.” 

Borges spent the last five years as the offensive coordinator at UCLA, following one season at Oregon. He was a finalist for the Frank Broyles Assistant Coach of the Year Award in 1997 and ’98, and has established a reputation as one of college football’s best offensive minds. 

Borges, 42, is Holmoe’s third offensive coordinator in his five years at Cal, but he comes in with much more experience than either Doug Cosbie, Holmoe’s first hire, or Steve Hagen, who Holmoe fired at the end of last season. Neither man had been a coordinator at a major university before coming to Cal. 

Borges enters a coaching staff that is on shaky ground, as Holmoe’s first four years have resulted in little success. Many consider next year a win-or-else situation for Holmoe. 

“People may be surprised at my moving to Cal, but I really believe it makes a lot of sense,” Borges said Thursday. “Cal is a place with incredible potential and I think I can help. They have a lot of athletes, in particular on offense, who are champing at the bit to be successful.” 

Borges’ most important task will be tutoring quarterback Kyle Boller, a highly-touted recruit who has been inconsistent for the past two seasons. 

“I think Kyle Boller has a chance in the right system, and with the right discipline, to be as good as anybody in the conference,” Borges said. 

Boller will benefit from an offensive line that returns four starters, as well as talented tailbacks Joe Igber and Joe Echema. In all, nine starters return to the offense, which averaged 317 yards per game and 22.4 points per game last year. 

Borges governed an explosive offense at UCLA, peaking in 1997 when the Bruins scored more than 40 points per game and rolled up 433 yards per game, ranking 13th in the nation. 

Borges grew up in Salinas, and was a part-time assistant at Cal in 1982 and ’83 under head coach Joe Kapp before moving on to Diablo Valley College. 

“The last play when I was at Cal was when we ran through the Stanford Band for the winning touchdown in the 1982 Big Game. That has to be some type of omen,” he said. “Ultimately, I think the timing is good for me to come to Cal and I’m excited as heck to get started."  

From Diablo Valley, he moved to Portland State and Boise State before being hired at Oregon in 1995.

Need incentives for new housing construction 

Editor: 

Four years ago the idealogues on the PUC deregulated the power companies with the mantra that the free market would reduce prices. In Berkeley, the Planet has carried a number of opinion pieces on how deregulation of the rental market will solve the rental crisis.  

It is the same argument. 

I was taught that the market is the most efficient, and equitable, way to allocate resources, if certain fairly common conditions are met. If I remember correctly one of those conditions is that supply and demand be rapidly responsive to price signals. A two to three year lead time for new power plants clearly violates this condition. Demand too, tends to be slowly responsive. Small, temporary changes are possible through changes in habit, but major permanent changes require the purchase of more efficient equipment or structures, or changes in product mix or production technology. 

The rental market is similarly inelastic, and neither market is necessarily efficient or well-behaved when allowed to operate in a completely unregulated fashion. This does not mean that one should simply ignore the influence of the market, as former Rent Stabilization Board Chair Randy Silverman does in his arguments for more extensive rent control (Forum: 12/12/00).  

The current form of rent control forces landlords to shoulder the burden of the social problems of poverty and over-population without even an atta-boy in recompensation. If we are serious about the rental problem we should restructure our regulations to provide incentives for new construction, and continued availability of low-income units. 

Robert Clear 

Berkeley

Developers, commissioners and activists have expressed interest in establishing a shelter in Berkeley for survivors of domestic violence.  

Even with widespread support, proponents have found the creation of a shelter difficult; for several years they’ve struggled with the problem of balancing shelter confidentiality with the public input required by zoning ordinances.  

Now planning commissioners say they are at an impasse. 

The difficulty was brought to the fore because of a failed development project in 1996, when nonprofit developers Resources for Community Development attempted to get loans for a project without disclosing the location. The city determined that the project had to go through a public process and the organization dropped the idea. 

“The whole concept of trying to do housing for survivors is it’s not a publicly known site,” said Dan Sawislak, executive director of Resources for Community Development. “We did not want to go through the process that would disclose the location of the site.” 

“It’s very important to secure confidentiality on the address for the safety of the residents in there,” said Susan Sung, member of the Commission on the Status of Women. “Because of the nature of the population, usually they are being pursued or are in danger of perpetrators.” 

But Sawislak said there needs to be a way for the community to give input. “The reality is that these projects are going to have community scrutiny.”  

Other cities in the Bay Area have found ways to allow sites and maintain confidentiality. Oakland manages to keep confidentiality by being circumspect. Willie Yee, zoning administrator with the city of Oakland, said that when posting public notices about the housing facilities, Oakland lists that there will be a residential care facility for a certain number of residents, without specifically saying who the facility will serve.  

“We talk to the applicants and say they should apply under their own names,” he said. “If you have as the applicant Bay Area Battered Women’s Collaborative it’s a pretty dead giveaway of what it is. It’s not to mislead the public but to insure the safety of the women.” 

Most other shelters seem to get through the zoning process by similar means, avoiding the public hearings that would advertise the location of the shelter. 

“Basically they did not go through a zoning process,” said Planning Commissioner Susan Wengraf.  

Commissioners have been trying to find a way out of the dilemma. The Commission on the Status of Women was working with the Planning Commission to find a way to give special dispensation to battered women’s shelters within the zoning ordinances. Somehow, they want to find a way to avoid posting notices and calling public hearings for battered women’s shelters.  

Deborah Arthur, coordinator of the city’s Domestic Violence Prevention Program, called this attempt a progressive step. “In some ways I think Berkeley is kind of on the cutting edge in trying to be proactive,” she said. “They’ve done the research in calling around the state and there’s not a lot of precedent.” 

Deeming complete confidentiality impossible, commissioners decided to create a special permit that would allow for limited public disclosure – instead of posting the notice on telephone poles, they would send it to close neighbors by mail. To get the special permit, management would need to meet with neighbors before the shelter opened and would have to plan for a well-run facility. 

However, the city attorney, in what planning commissioner Zelda Bronstein described as a “conservative ruling,” called the plan a violation of equal rights, because the city would require special procedures from a targeted group. 

At the crux of zoning problem is the relationship between neighborhoods and the social services the community provides to disadvantaged members. It’s a problem that commissioner’s feel can be overcome. “You can try to facilitate working relationship between the neighbors and a transitional house,” said Bronstein.  

Arthur agreed that building community support around domestic violence issues is possible, and imperative to making a neighborhood amenable to the shelter. 

“We as a community need to support the existence of a transitional house,” said Arthur. “We need to recognize what our role is and educate ourselves about domestic violence: how we can be involved to stop the violence and also challenge perpetrators.” 

There are still people who want to create a shelter in Berkeley, if the zoning question can be addressed satisfactorily. But Bronstein said the city attorney’s opinion has left the planning commissioners with their hands tied. 

As Kenya Corley goes, so go the Cal Bears. 

Corley, the Bears’ senior shooting guard, has been hot and cold this season. She was instrumental in Cal’s four pre-Pac-10 wins, averaging 17 points per victory. But she averaged less than nine points per loss, and the Cal offense clearly struggles when she is off her game. 

So it was no surprise that when Corley scored 11 points in the first half against Arizona Thursday in the Pac-10 season opener for both teams, the Bears had a lead over the favored Wildcats going into halftime. But Corley came out cold, missing all eight of her shots in the second half, and the visiting Wildcats took over the lead and held it for a 79-68 win at Haas Pavilion. 

“I can’t explain it,” Corley said of her second-half slump. “I just stopped being as aggressive, and I missed some open shots.” 

Making those open shots carried the Bears to leads as big as six points in the first half, as they shot over 46 percent from the field. But Corley’s coldness was catching, and Cal shot just 31.4 percent in the second half. 

While Corley and her teammates were clanking shots, Arizona point guard Reshea Bristol was heating up after a slow first half. She drew her team within one point with two quick baskets, then gave the Wildcats a 39-38 lead with a three-pointer. Bristol’s teammates rallied behind her, and before the Bears blinked, they were behind by seven points. 

All of this happened despite Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini suiting up just eight players for the game. Leading scorer and rebounder Veranda James was left in Tucson to finish a winter course, and guard Tysell Bozeman is suspended this week for violating team rules. 

“We stayed together as one unit, and we came out with a win,” Bristol said. “We knew we had to step it up another notch with players out.” 

Helping Bristol out were forward Elizabeth Pickney and center LaKeisha Taylor, who each scored 16 points and caused havoc on the offensive glass. The two combined for eight offensive rebounds, and the Wildcats outrebounded Cal 50-35 overall. 

“Our defense was pretty good, but we didn’t finish it off by blocking out,” Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer said. “We just gave up way too many offensive boards and second chances.” 

Cal forward Ami Forney continued her recent success with a career-high 22 points to go with nine rebounds, but her staunch inside play couldn’t offset her team’s bad shooting. Point guard Courtney Johnson was just 3-of-12 from the floor, and forward Lauren Ashbaugh never got into the flow of the game, grabbing just five rebounds and scoring just five points. 

But the dominating force of the second half was Bristol. She scored 22 points in the half, including her team’s first seven, and time after time penetrated the Cal defense for short jumpers or passes to wide-open teammates. Despite committing 10 turnovers in the game, she handled the ball well against the Cal pressure, and her confidence spread to her teammates. 

“Reshea has been our leader all year, and she carried the team tonight,” Bonvicini said. “Her confidence and big plays just give our other players more confidence.”

The Jewish Community Center on Walnut Street has decided against installing two Sprint PCS wireless communication antennae on the center’s roof after members, staff and neighbors expressed health concerns. 

JCC Director Joel Bashevkin said the board of directors voted Dec. 19 not to install the antennae, after soliciting input from the community. JCC staff presented the community with reports supplied by Sprint PCS which downplayed possible health effects, but after reviewing them some community members were still not convinced. 

“When we looked at the reports, using the most conservative estimates, the antennae emissions would have been 400 times lower than what the FCC regards as unsafe,” Bashevkin said. “But there were still people concerned about possible long-term health effects.” 

Caroline Semerdjian, a spokesperson for Sprint PCS, said she understands the community’s concerns but said they are based more on a fear of the unknown rather than factual evidence. 

She said cell phones and their antennae have been used for 20 years without any confirmed adverse health effects. 

Ironically, the JCC board decided to nix the antennae installation on the same day the City Council adopted a 45-day citywide ban on any new applications for wireless antennae. 

The council adopted the moratorium after neighbors protested the Zoning Adjustments Board’s approval of a plan to install seven antennae on the roof of the Oaks Theater on Solano Avenue. 

A neighbor is appealing the ZAB’s decision and the City Council will hold a public hearing on the appeal this month. 

In recent years there has been growing concern about possible health risks from the electromagnetic radiation associated with cell phones and their supporting antennae. 

Community concerns were fueled last month when a respected British medical journal published an article claiming a growing body of evidence that electromagnetic radiation is harmful, especially to children. That report, along with others, prompted the British Government to fund a $10 million research and education program. 

The JCC’s cancellation of the installation will come at some cost. The center was going to use lease proceeds from Sprint PCS to pay for the replacement of a smoke stack on the roof. The stack, now purely an architectural element of the facade, has not been functional since the 1940s. The exterior of the building has been a city and state historical landmark for 18 years. 

“We want to replace the smoke stack to keep the building beautiful,” Bashevkin said. “We’ll just find another way to pay for it.” 

Health fears cause JCC to say no to antennae 

Friday 

Men’s Soccer – St. Mary’s at Piedmont, 3:30 p.m. at Piedmont High School 

Men’s Basketball – Berkeley vs. DeAnza, 7 p.m. at Donahue Gymnasium 

Women’s Basketball – Berkeley at DeAnza, 7 p.m. at DeAnza High School 

Saturday 

Women’s Basketball – Cal vs. Arizona St., 1 p.m. at Haas Pavilion 

Men’s Swimming – Cal vs. Michigan, 1 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex

California death row inmates will soon receive legal representation from one of the top law schools in the country, the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall).  

Boalt Hall officials announced Thursday the establishment of the Death Penalty Clinic, where Boalt Hall faculty members will supervise law students in investigating cases, interviewing witnesses and launching death row appeals in state and federal court.  

The Death Penalty Clinic, scheduled to open July 2001, will be the first such clinic in the state to be run by a law school.  

“This is an important opportunity for our students to gain first-rate, hands-on criminal law experience and provide a service that is central to our most cherished principles in criminal justice – the right to a fair trial and equal protection under the law,” said John P. Dwyer, dean of the law school.  

Dwyer, who has had experience working on death penalty appeal cases, said the clinic will open after the law school hires a death penalty specialist. A national search is under way.  

Boalt Hall law professor Charles Weisselberg, who directs the law school's clinical center, also will join the new clinic's staff and help lead the program. Weisselberg has more than 15 years of experience representing criminal defendants in trial and post-conviction cases.  

“There is a growing awareness that the death penalty and, indeed, our criminal justice system in general is not always fairly administered,” Weisselberg said. “This seems to be a very good time to start a program that will look closely at the death penalty in California.” 

While much has been written about death row cases in Texas, Mississippi and elsewhere, Weisselberg said capital punishment in California also merits attention for several reasons. Among them:  

• With 585 inmates, California has the nation's largest number of inmates on death row.  

• More than 160 of California's death row inmates have no attorney to represent them in their appeals.  

• In recent years California voters have expanded the categories in which individuals may be sentenced to death.  

Weisselberg said Boalt Hall is in an ideal position to work on death penalty cases because of enormous student interest and enthusiasm in the project. In addition, he noted that the lawschool is within 15 miles of San Quentin State Prison, which houses all of the state's male death row inmates.  

Sarah Ray, a first-year law student at Boalt Hall, said she is looking forward to the prospect of hands-on experience with a death penalty case.  

“It’s a great learning experience for us," said Ray, "but, more importantly, it affords some legal representation and a voice to people who don't have the resources or the ability to speak for themselves.”  

Students will work on appeal cases from top to bottom. They will hit the streets to search for important new evidence and seek out mitigating information about an inmate's upbringing. 

They will scour the legal record, evaluating the work of defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges, all in an effort to ensure that their clients – whether they appear innocent or not – received a fair trial and sentence.  

Cases will be selected carefully, with preference for cases with a strong Northern California link. A local tie will facilitate investigations, said Weisselberg.  

Students will not work on direct appeal cases - the automatic state Supreme Court review that is confined to the trial court record. Instead, they will focus on "habeas corpus" cases in which defense counsel can explore issues beyond the trial court record, including matters such as the discovery of new and compelling evidence and the conduct of the prosecution and defense.  

Martha W. Barnett, president of the American Bar Association, said strong legal representation for death row inmates is crucial.  

“The ABA looks to all segments of the legal community to respond to the shortage of competent, adequately funded counsel in capital cases," Barnett said. “The association is extremely pleased that Boalt Hall has established a capital punishment clinic, which will train law students to become skilled defenders in this demanding area of litigation and will also make a vital contribution in securing due process and fundamental fairness for those who face the death penalty.” 

The clinic has been funded by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Nick McKeown and Peter Davies, who were brought together by a common desire to abolish the death penalty in California and the United States. For now, they want to ensure that inmates receive fair treatment under the law. The donors chose Boalt Hall because of its strong commitment to clinical education.  

“A death penalty clinic will engage students in capital defense cases and, at the same time, educate the next generation of criminal defense lawyers,” said McKeown. 

McKeown and Davies, who have donated more than $1 million, plan to fund the death penalty clinic for at least five years. Boalt Hall's clinical education program includes the International Human Rights Law Clinic and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic.

The Associated Press 

California approved emergency rate hikes Thursday for two cash-starved utilities, who denounced the move as inadequate and pleaded for intervention from the governor and state Legislature to avoid bankruptcy. 

Wall Street reacted negatively to the decision by the Public Utilities Commission: Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Inc. sharply downgraded the credit-worthiness of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. 

The stock of both utilities dropped sharply for the second consecutive day. 

Wall Street’s fiscal analysts said the rate increase was insufficient to assure the teetering utilities with enough cash flow to remain solvent over time. 

S&P reduced the investor-owned utilities’ rating to near junk bond status. Fitch went even further, cutting their rating to the level of junk bonds. 

The intervention sought by utilities could include a state-backed, multibillion-dollar bond package to refinance the utilities’ debts, with ratepayers paying off the bonds through a monthly surcharge on their bills. 

PG&E spokesman Ron Low said company executives have presented the bond financing plan to Gov. Gray Davis. SoCal Edison also is interested in exploring the proposal, a company executive said. 

Davis has not yet responded to the proposal, spokesman Steve Maviglio said. 

“Four years ago, Californians were promised that deregulation would reduce the cost of electricity. If I had my way, there would be no rate increase to consumers,” he said. 

The governor is expected to discuss electricity issues Monday. 

in his State of the State Address, including a new plea to federal officials to intervene in California’s electricity crisis and a $1 billion energy conservation and supply plan. 

The plan is expected to include low-cost financing for new power plants, plus incentives for consumers to replace energy-guzzling appliances. 

The five-member PUC voted unanimously to allow PG&E and SoCal Edison to raise residential rates 9 percent, and businesses’ bills by 7 percent to 15 percent, effective immediately. 

Utility company executives had urged the PUC to approve rate increases of 26 percent to 30 percent or more, and Wall Street analysts had supprted rate hikes of that magnitude. 

“We are voting the epitaph for deregulation in California today,” Commissioner Carl Wood said. “Deregulation is dead.” 

The commission also said it would convene Jan. 18 in San Francisco to consider deregulation-related issues. The commission did not offer specifics of the Jan. 18 meeting, but consumer groups suggested more rate increases may be in the offing. 

The stock of both utilities continued their two-day slide. 

PG&E’s parent company, whose stock lost 13 percent of its value on Wednesday, was down another 29 percent to $12 on Thursday. SoCal Edison, which lost 18 percent on Wednesday, was down another 12 percent Thursday to $10.75. 

Together, the utilities have lost more than $9 billion since June, paying spiraling prices for wholesale electricity but blocked by a rate freeze from passing those costs on to their 10 million customers. 

They buy power for roughly 30 cents a kilowatt hour and, because of a rate freeze, they can only charge customers about a fifth of that amount. 

Low said lawmakers in Sacramento should move quickly to stave off insolvency for the utilities, which say they could run out of cash within weeks. 

SoCal Edison agreed. 

“The Legislature will have to take action on a very expedited basis,” SoCal Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said. 

The rate freeze, part of California’s 1996 deregulation law, was established at what was then a generous level to assure utilities a steady stream of revenue as they sold off assets and made the transition to deregulated companies. 

But earlier this year, the cost of wholesale electricity skyrocketed. The rate freeze prevented the utilities from charging customers more to cover those costs. The utilities must maintain a good credit rating to borrow money to buy power. Otherwise, they might be forced to institute rolling blackouts. 

Standard and Poor’s was skeptical of the rate hike’s value, saying it would make only a small dent in the utilities’ cash-flow problem. 

Even if the rate increase remained in effect for a full year, not just 90 days, it would provide only $274 million for PG&E and some $234 million for SoCal Edison, the credit-ratings service said. The numbers were calculated on 1999 figures from the Energy Department. 

“It may be a question of too little, too late,” said David Bodek of Standard and Poor’s. 

But the PUC’s estimates were far higher. 

The commission’s advisory group estimated the rate increase would provide $1.4 billion annually, said Kim Malcolm, chief of staff to PUC President Loretta Lynch. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Securities and Exchange Commission: http://www.sec.gov 

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.: http://www.pge.com 

Southern California Edison: http://www.edisonathome.com 

California Public Utilities Commission: http://cpuc.ca.gov 

California approved emergency rate hikes Thursday for two cash-starved utilities, who denounced the move as inadequate and pleaded for intervention from the governor and state Legislature to avoid bankruptcy. 

Wall Street reacted negatively to the decision by the Public Utilities Commission: Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Inc. sharply downgraded the credit-worthiness of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. 

The stock of both utilities dropped sharply for the second consecutive day. 

Wall Street’s fiscal analysts said the rate increase was insufficient to assure the teetering utilities with enough cash flow to remain solvent over time. 

S&P reduced the investor-owned utilities’ rating to near junk bond status. Fitch went even further, cutting their rating to the level of junk bonds. 

The intervention sought by utilities could include a state-backed, multibillion-dollar bond package to refinance the utilities’ debts, with ratepayers paying off the bonds through a monthly surcharge on their bills. 

PG&E spokesman Ron Low said company executives have presented the bond financing plan to Gov. Gray Davis. SoCal Edison also is interested in exploring the proposal, a company executive said. 

Davis has not yet responded to the proposal, spokesman Steve Maviglio said. 

“Four years ago, Californians were promised that deregulation would reduce the cost of electricity. If I had my way, there would be no rate increase to consumers,” he said. 

The governor is expected to discuss electricity issues Monday. 

in his State of the State Address, including a new plea to federal officials to intervene in California’s electricity crisis and a $1 billion energy conservation and supply plan. 

The plan is expected to include low-cost financing for new power plants, plus incentives for consumers to replace energy-guzzling appliances. 

The five-member PUC voted unanimously to allow PG&E and SoCal Edison to raise residential rates 9 percent, and businesses’ bills by 7 percent to 15 percent, effective immediately. 

Utility company executives had urged the PUC to approve rate increases of 26 percent to 30 percent or more, and Wall Street analysts had supprted rate hikes of that magnitude. 

“We are voting the epitaph for deregulation in California today,” Commissioner Carl Wood said. “Deregulation is dead.” 

The commission also said it would convene Jan. 18 in San Francisco to consider deregulation-related issues. The commission did not offer specifics of the Jan. 18 meeting, but consumer groups suggested more rate increases may be in the offing. 

The stock of both utilities continued their two-day slide. 

PG&E’s parent company, whose stock lost 13 percent of its value on Wednesday, was down another 29 percent to $12 on Thursday. SoCal Edison, which lost 18 percent on Wednesday, was down another 12 percent Thursday to $10.75. 

Together, the utilities have lost more than $9 billion since June, paying spiraling prices for wholesale electricity but blocked by a rate freeze from passing those costs on to their 10 million customers. 

They buy power for roughly 30 cents a kilowatt hour and, because of a rate freeze, they can only charge customers about a fifth of that amount. 

Low said lawmakers in Sacramento should move quickly to stave off insolvency for the utilities, which say they could run out of cash within weeks. 

SoCal Edison agreed. 

“The Legislature will have to take action on a very expedited basis,” SoCal Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said. 

The rate freeze, part of California’s 1996 deregulation law, was established at what was then a generous level to assure utilities a steady stream of revenue as they sold off assets and made the transition to deregulated companies. 

But earlier this year, the cost of wholesale electricity skyrocketed. The rate freeze prevented the utilities from charging customers more to cover those costs. The utilities must maintain a good credit rating to borrow money to buy power. Otherwise, they might be forced to institute rolling blackouts. 

Standard and Poor’s was skeptical of the rate hike’s value, saying it would make only a small dent in the utilities’ cash-flow problem. 

Even if the rate increase remained in effect for a full year, not just 90 days, it would provide only $274 million for PG&E and some $234 million for SoCal Edison, the credit-ratings service said. The numbers were calculated on 1999 figures from the Energy Department. 

“It may be a question of too little, too late,” said David Bodek of Standard and Poor’s. 

But the PUC’s estimates were far higher. 

The commission’s advisory group estimated the rate increase would provide $1.4 billion annually, said Kim Malcolm, chief of staff to PUC President Loretta Lynch. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Securities and Exchange Commission: http://www.sec.gov 

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.: http://www.pge.com 

Southern California Edison: http://www.edisonathome.com 

California Public Utilities Commission: http://cpuc.ca.gov 

Composting is a way to turn garbage into gold. 

Many landfills now compost yard waste, but backyard composting has the advantage of requiring less energy and taking care of food scraps also.  

If everyone composted their yard wastes and food scraps, 30 percent more space would be available in our landfills, even more if some nonrecyclable paper, such as dirty paper plates, were also composted. 

So how does one go about taking that leap from talking about composting to doing it? Begin with a compost bin, which keeps the ingredients neat, holds in moisture and heat, and discourages animals from scavenging.  

The best bins have solid walls so that the ingredients do not dry out excessively. Besides plastic bins available in stores and mail order, homemade ones have been made from cinder blocks, hay bales, logs, wood, even stone. 

Set the bin somewhere convenient, near the source of materials you are going to be adding or the place where you will be using the finished compost – usually between or near the garden and your kitchen door. 

Almost anything that is or was once living can go into the compost bin. The only items not to include are dog or cat feces, meat scraps high in fat, or colored paper. 

Like humans, composting microorganisms need air, water, and food to function at their best. Provide air by not overly compacting the pile as you build it, and by mixing dense materials, such as grass clippings, with fluffier materials, such as straw or leaves.  

Most compost piles are too dry when they are built, then too wet by winter’s end.  

Avoid either extreme by watering the pile as you build it, sprinkling the ingredients just enough to make them glisten.  

Then cover the pile with plastic or wood to prevent moisture from escaping or additional rainwater from entering. 

Carbon and nitrogen are the two most important foods of composting microorganisms. Old plant materials – dry, brown things such as straw, autumn leaves, and wood chips – are high in carbon.  

Succulent, green plant materials, such as grass clippings and vegetable and flower plants, are high in nitrogen.  

Manure and fertilizers also are high in nitrogen.  

Strive for a balance of carbon and nitrogen materials. 

Don’t fret about getting just the right foods and moisture levels into your compost. No matter what you do, the pile of material will eventually turn into rich, brown compost.

For growing indoor blooms in winter, why not try for the ultimate: roses? 

Miniature roses are a good choice for windowsills, a variety such as Lyn Gold, for example, which grows only 6 inches tall and sports lemon yellow blossoms each the size of a nickel. 

Miniature roses trace their lineage back to a plant found about a century ago.  

On some varieties, the petals are knit into a tight bud like those of hybrid teas; blossoms shape might be like a miniature hybrid tea, or loose and floppy like wild roses. Original miniature roses were scentless, but newer hybrids such as Sachet and Singles Better fill the air with their delicate scents. 

Plans for indoor rose blooms should begin in autumn. If you have miniature roses planted in the ground, dig up a plant and pot it up. A 6-inch pot is adequate for a rose as small as Lyn Gold, along with any standard potting mix.  

After giving the potted plant a thorough watering, keep it cool to hold back top growth while roots take hold in the potting soil. A sunny window in a cool room or a garage could provide temperatures close to the ideal 50 degrees Fahrenheit for this stage of growth. 

After a few weeks of cool temperatures, the plant is ready for some warmth to stimulate growth of new shoots and leaves. Put the plant in the sunniest window you have, and in no time you should see shoots capped by fat flower buds, which soon open. 

Q: My two-story house is 40 feet wide on each side, and has three 12-inch-square vents on the roof’s south side.  

There are four soffit vents on the house’s north and south sides. During the winter, frost collects on the attic side of the roof deck and on the rafters. The frost melts and drips on the insulation and seeps through the ceiling. What can I do to reduce the attic moisture in the winter? 

A: Your problem is typical of an attic that has excessive moisture buildup and inadequate ventilation. The unobstructed attic ventilation should be one-threehundreth of the attic floor area. 

Based on your data, the vent openings are about 20 percent less than the recommended amount.  

If there are insect screens covering the vent openings, then the percentage is even more. Insect screens reduces the effective opening by about 40 percent. 

To increase moisture reduction, the roof deck between the rafters should be “washed” with cool dry air.  

This can be achieved with continuous ridge and soffit vents. If these vents cannot be installed, then you must use additional roof and soffit vents. Frost tends to develop on the roof’s north slope, there are no vents presently located there, so install the vents on the north side. 

Also, moisture can migrate into the attic through wall cavities because water can collect in the basement or crawl space after a rain. Keep those areas dry. 

Q: The cathedral ceiling in my 10-year-old house was OK until five years ago, when we noticed black spots appearing through the sand finish. I painted it and it looked good but the black spots came back. No matter what I do, they come back. I have asked many carpenters what causes it, but none seem to know. Can you help? 

A: The black spots are probably mildew spores. Mildew is a fungus and unless you kill it, it will come through a new layer of paint, especially a water-based paint.  

Try washing the ceiling with a solution of bleach, detergent and water. After the ceiling is dry, paint it with a mildew-resistant paint or use a fungicide additive in the paint. 

Q: The plans I have for building a year-round doghouse state that low-radiant heat can be used during the cold winter months. Just what is low-radiant heat and where can I get the parts needed to install it? 

A: This type of heat radiates directly to objects so it does not have to heat the air around them to have a warming effect. Low-radiant heat is usually supplied by electric cables embedded in floors or ceilings.  

To protect the cables from damage by the animals, lay them in a bed of sand over polyurethane insulation and a vapor barrier followed by a minimum of 3 inches of concrete.  

Some low-radiant heating cables can be laid directly in the concrete, but insulation is still required to keep bottom heat loss to a minimum.  

Use Styrofoam panels for this purpose. Protect all wiring in metal conduit so your dog can’t chew it. 

To submit a question, write to Popular Mechanics, Reader Service Bureau, 224 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. The most interesting questions will be answered in a future column.

NEW YORK — Wall Street stepped back Thursday, taking profits from the stellar gains that followed the Federal Reserve’s unexpected interest rate cut. Investors retreated from blue chips and also refrained from making new commitments to high-tech issues. 

Some pullback was expected after the Fed’s surprise half-point rate cut. 

“Investors awoke today to realize the reason the Fed lowered rates the way they did yesterday is because the economy is fairly soft,” said Charles G. Crane, strategist for Spears, Benzak, Salomon & Farrell in New York. “As exciting as it was to have rates cut, that is not going to prop up profits in the immediate future.” 

Trading was the heaviest ever on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume surpassed 2 billion for the first time. 

Most analysts agreed that Wednesday’s euphoric rally can’t be sustained yet. Investors still must face more signs that the economy is slowing and warnings that first-quarter profits will miss expectations. That was evident with software maker Inktomi, which tumbled $4.63 to $13.88 after it lowered its first-quarter forecasts. The company, which makes network software for delivering Web content, also said fourth-quarter earnings and sales fell short because customers canceled orders. 

But some technology companies built on Wednesday’s sharp gains. Hewlett-Packard gained 56 cents, finishing at $34.63, and Microsoft advanced 50 cents to $48.44. 

Given the cheaper prices in the long-battered tech sector, one market observer said he expected investors to do more buying Thursday. 

“If there is one surprise, it’s that tech stocks aren’t up more than they are,” said Dick Dickson, technical analyst for Scott & Stringfellow Inc. in Richmond, Va. But, “you have a back-and-forth between those who are bottom fishing and the get-me-out-even crowd.” 

But Dickson noted that it was blue chips, not high-techs, that caused the bulk of the losses in the S&P 500, considered the best indicator of the overall market. With Wall Street taking on a healthier tone in Wednesday’s rally, investors were not as attracted by blue chips that are seen as safe havens during times of market volatility. 

S&P component American International Group fell $6.94 to $89 in trading Thursday. Drug issues also hurt the index with Pfizer losing $1.81 at $41.75, and Merck dropping $4.13 to $85. 

Retailing issues rose significantly, despite many companies’ reports that holiday sales slumped. 

“The assumption is that the consumer is going to be an immediate beneficiary of lower rates and will have more disposable income and that is going to help those stocks,” said Barry Berman, head trader for Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee. 

Abercrombie & Fitch climbed $2.50 to $22.75, although the trendy clothing retailer said December sales dropped 11 percent from last year. Sears was up 40 cents at $36.43, despite announcing that December sales fell 1.1 percent and that it is closing 89 underperforming store. 

A prolonged turnaround in consumer confidence, the economy and corporate earnings will require more than one rate cut by the Fed, analysts said. The Fed likely will be looking for more signs — like the government’s employment report due out Friday — that the economy is weakening before making any further moves. 

Analysts expect the Labor Department to report unemployment rose slightly in December from 4 percent in November. The department reported Thursday that initial applications for unemployment benefits rose by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 375,000 for the week ending Dec. 30, the highest level since July 4, 1998. 

Advancing issues narrowly outnumbered decliners 13 to 12 on the NYSE, where consolidated volume — including trades on other exchanges — was 2.48 billion, higher than the 2.2 billion on Wednesday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which measures the performance of smaller company stocks, ended down 7.18 at 477.20. 

Overseas markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei stock average closed down 0.7 percent, and Germany’s DAX index slipped 0.9 percent. Britain’s FT-SE 100 gained 2.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 advanced 2.3 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 

LOS ANGELES — A staple of every auto show is the concept car – an idea rendered in steel that may never reach showrooms. 

Thursday, a top Ford Motors executive gave a concept speech, in which he challenged car companies to shed their old economy reputations and lead the way with new technology and new thinking. 

“I am pretty much fed up with the negative, defensive situation we in the automotive companies nowadays are so often put in,” Wolfgang Reitzle, head of Ford’s Premier Auto Group, said at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. 

Reitzle discarded his prepared remarks and spoke passionately about the auto industry and a future that might include dealerships with their own test tracks and vacation packages sold along with certain cars. 

Car companies should stop thinking of themselves as manufacturers of “sheet metal boxes” and define themselves as “mobility enterprises,” he said. 

For instance, Reitzle suggested that a globe-trotting customer might pay Ford $50,000 for a “mobility package,” which would provide a car wherever in the world it was needed. 

Reitzle also said car makers have much to learn from the fashion industry and companies such as Wal-Mart, which know how to package an experience and make shopping pleasant. 

He had harsh words for the typical American car dealership, which he called a “parking lot with a roof.” 

He called rebates a “disease” that cheapens a brand. 

“This comes from creating unattractive products which nobody wants that can only be sold by rebates,” he said. 

He was also critical of financial analysts who put great value on Internet companies and consider the automotive industry to be a poor investment. 

“I think we are the future economy,” he said. “Because there is no substitution for the car, it will always grow.” 

Reitzle heads Ford’s luxury car division, representing the Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Lincoln and Volvo brands. 

“Last year we sold more than 1,000 Aston Martins and I tell you, a few hundred went to these dot-com millionaires,” Reitzle said, generating a huge laugh. “Even in this way we have an advantage.” 

Reitzle said individualization is a trend, especially in California, that car makers have to embrace to survive. 

“My prediction is that the last step of personalization will take place in the big dealerships,” he said. “The big, strong dealers will not only have a service shop, they will also have a shop for personalization, where the dealer can change parts, make the interior a personalized interior. You can change the colors. You can change it after a year.” 

Reitzle said a new Premier Auto Group dealership will open soon near Phoenix that will have all five Ford luxury brands under one roof and will include two test tracks, including one simulating off-road conditions. 

The group has moved its headquarters to Irvine, Calif., where it will open a design studio, Reitzle said. A second studio in London will design branded merchandise for sale along with the cars, he said.

SACRAMENTO — California’s largest energy consumer – state government itself – is promising to go on a diet. 

Officials acknowledge, however, that they are only now finding ways to measure how much power the state uses and how much it must cut back to meet Gov. Gray Davis’ promises in this week’s State of the State speech. 

Davis pledged state government will cut its daily electricity consumption at least 8 percent, and save at least 20 percent during Stage 2 power emergencies when consumers are urged to conserve. 

“Nobody thinks about gasoline prices until they go up, nobody thinks about water until there’s a drought,” said Rob Deignan, spokesman for the General Services Department that oversees state facilities. “In terms of how we’re going to make it up to 8 (percent) and 20 percent, we’re in the process of developing that.” 

“That was news to me last night as well,” Doug Grandy said the morning after Davis’ speech. Grandy coordinates the state’s conservation efforts as chief of energy assessments for the Department of General Services. State government accounts for about 11/2 percent of California’s energy use. The four million megawatt hours of electricity it gulped during the fiscal year that ended June 30 cost taxpayers $260 million, according to an analysis last week by the Department of General Services. 

That was before prices soared last summer.  

“We use in an average year as much electricity as the entire city of San Francisco uses,” said Water Resources’ spokesman Jeff Cohen. 

Water Resources consumes about 5 million megawatt hours in a typical year to pump Northern California water 600 miles to feed Southern California’s thirst. Much of that goes to a pumping plant south of Bakersfield to boost water 2,000 feet up over the Tehachapi Mountains. 

But the department can produce more than 1,700 megawatts of its own power, and has volunteered to shut down its massive pumps to free up electricity during peak periods, said Viju Patel, the department’s power systems manager. 

The lights remain on at the Capitol, but exterior lighting was cut by 50 percent last month – “the lowest they can go and still meet CHP (California Highway Patrol) requirements” for security, said Senate spokesman Dave Sebeck. 

State buildings overseen by the Department of General Services have permanently cut their electricity consumption by shutting buildings’ lights and ventilation systems at 5:30 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m. 

That amounts to a nearly 8 percent cut in demand during peak summer hours, which run from noon to 8 p.m., Grandy said. 

It’s a higher percentage compared to winter peak hours from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Grandy said: “That’s a game you could play if you want to get to a 40 percent reduction, but that’s certainly misleading.” 

State computers also are being made permanently more efficient by setting them to a “sleep” mode when they’re not in service, he said. Davis said that can cut each computer’s power use by 40 percent. 

Over short periods, the state can cut its consumption an estimated 20 percent during Stage 2 emergencies by turning off lights, raising temperatures and unplugging computers, copiers, coffee pots and fax machines, said Grandy. 

The department is spending the bulk of a $3.25 million grant from the California Energy Commission to install more sophisticated computers to control the environment in 50 high-use state buildings by July 1. Another $2.25 million is going to state universities for the same purpose. 

The state also will tap into a $250 million energy efficiency fund set up in the mid-1980s to install more efficient lights and ventilation motors in state buildings. High-efficiency motors can cut energy use at least 20 percent. 

The Department of Corrections already has energy efficiency projects lined up to take advantage of another $1 billion Davis is pledging for conservation efforts during the fiscal year that starts July 1, said Steve Green, assistant secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency. 

“We’re the number one priority because we’re the second highest energy consumer in California behind the University of California,” Green said. Most of the money will go to more efficient lighting and ventilation systems, Green said. 

Long-term, the state hopes to increase its use of co-generation plants that recycle what would otherwise be wasted energy, Grandy said. It also is exploring installing generators to power individual buildings or groups of buildings instead of relying on outside power suppliers. 

LOS ANGELES — Members of a civil rights group Monday announced a plan to address what they called Election Day voting irregularities in South Central Los Angeles during the November election. 

Voters in about 250 precincts encountered polls that had no ballots, lacked elections workers or were closed during voting hours, said the Rev. Norman Johnson, interim executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles. 

Voters also told SCLC representatives about not being listed on voter rolls, difficulty calling the registrar, and seeing completed ballots that were not placed in locked boxes. 

“While we were successful getting people to the polls, many people encountered problems once they were there,” Johnson said. 

But officials with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters said they were not aware of any irregularities at the polls. 

Assistant Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Michael Petrucello said fewer than 10 polls of the 5,000 in the county opened late, and added that it would have been “virtually impossible” for any polling stations to have gone without ballots. 

The registrar-recorder’s office has received about 200 letters commenting on the November election, about same number it receives after any election, Petrucello said. 

SCLC officials, who had no estimate of how many voters may have been affected, are not contending that the South Central voting irregularities affected the outcome of any races. 

Organizers unveiled the African American Voter Registration Education Participation Program to educate voters and poll workers using classes and simulated voting situations.  

Their intention, they said, was to ensure that every vote will be counted in future elections. 

The criticism echoed complaints that blacks in Florida and other states were excluded from the polls in the November election. Some activists have contended that disenfranchisement of black voters, 90 percent of whom are believed to have intended to vote for Vice President Al Gore, may have contributed to Florida’s 25 electoral votes being awarded to George W. Bush. 

“This is an issue here and not just in Florida,” Johnson said. 

The Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St. in Berkleley, announced its increase in weekend adoption hours. New shelter and adoption hours are: 

Tuesday - Friday, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Closed Mondays. 

The adoption center will be open for pet food sales, training class enrollments and all other business from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Rummage Sales will continue to be held on the first and third Saturdays of the month from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. 

For more information, call (510) 845-7735 or go to the website at WWW.BEHUMANE.ORG

Q: What is happening with California’s deregulated electricity market? 

A: For months, two investor-owned utilities serving 25 million people have been paying dramatically increased costs for wholesale electricity. The utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and Southern California Edison Co., have been paying nearly 20 cents to 30 cents per kilowatt hour for power, sometimes more. But they can’t recoup those costs: A rate freeze — part of the state’s deregulation law — caps what they can charge their customers at far less, roughly 6 cents a kilowatt hour. Since June, PG&E and SoCal Edison have lost about $9 billion. Wall Street has downgraded their credit worthiness, wholesalers are reluctant to deal with them and the utilities say they expect insolvency within weeks if things don’t change. 

Q: Where did all the money go? 

A: According to state officials, most of it has gone to Texas-based providers of wholesale electricity. 

Q: Why was deregulation put into effect, and when? 

A: Traditionally, California has had higher electricity costs. In the mid-1990s, the large industrial ratepayers wanted a break in their energy bills and said if competition was introduced into the electricity market, rates would fall through natural market forces. The industrial ratepayers were joined by the utilities, who wanted out from under regulation, and free-market theorists. Consumer groups — who now are the most vocal critics of deregulation — were neutral on the plan, which was approved without a dissenting vote by the Legislature and signed by former Gov. Pete Wilson in 1996. The effective date of the law was 1998. 

Q: What was deregulation supposed to do? 

A: The idea was to require utilities to buy power on the open market, presumably at lower, competitive costs and pass those savings on to consumers. The law — and the PUC’s rules accompanying it – froze rates at a level that was much higher than the actual cost of electricity at the time. The goal was to make sure the monopoly utilities had enough cash coming in as they divested themselves of their power-generating assets. After the divestiture was completed, no later than March 2002, the utilities could operate without a rate freeze, passing on to their customers the cost of electricity. The law required the utilities to sell any power they generate into a market pool – the same pool from which they are required to buy power. The law was directed at the state’s large investor-owned utilities – PG&E, SoCal Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. The law also set up a private nonprofit body to manage the state’s grid, the Independent System Operator, and a similar group to conduct the market transactions, the California Power Exchange.  

SDG&E finished its transition last year, and its rate freeze was removed. When wholesale prices rose this year, SDG&E passed those costs on to ratepayers, prompting an outcry and raising fears that the rest of the state would be similarly affected. 

Q: What happened? 

A: When deregulation was approved, the state enjoyed excess electricity capacity. But in recent years, the state’s grid has become stressed. That’s because demand has increased, more power plants are aging and down for maintenance and repairs, imports are down because other western states are vying for power, and wholesalers have spotted flaws in California’s market and are able to exert maximum leverage. Wholesale electricity prices have increased roughly fivefold since the summer. 

Q: What happens next? 

A: One question is whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will curb wholesale electricity prices. Another is whether the PUC will boost rates again, and a third is whether Wall Street will downgrade the utilities still further.  

The utilities say some wholesalers already want to sell only on a cash-and-carry basis, which means the utilities may order power rationing if they can’t buy enough electricity. 

Q: What will the governor do? 

A: The governor has urged conservation, favors financial incentives for those who build power plants, signed a law speeding up the licensing of new plants and has demanded that FERC take action. He has described deregulation as a “colossal” failure, but has not said whether he wants to deregulate the market, or how. 

SAN DIEGO — A civil rights group is contesting San Diego County’s policy of stopping a nonprofit group from distributing informational pamphlets inside and near welfare offices, arguing that the policy is a violation of the First Amendment right. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties filed a claim Wednesday that also accuses county employees of harassment during a demonstration last summer and targeting a nonprofit group called SPIN while allowing other groups to leave pamphlets inside welfare offices. 

“County welfare offices may not select certain groups to express their ideas on government property while silencing another just because they may not like what that group has to say,” said Guylyn Cummins, a lawyer for the ACLU. 

“The Constitution protects everyone’s right to communicate with others in a lawful and non-disruptive manner,” Cummins said. 

County officials have not had a chance to review the claim and were unable to comment, Cathy Spearnak, spokeswoman for the county’s Health and Human Services Agency, said Thursday. 

The issue stems from several incidents last July when representatives of Supportive Parents Information Network tried to give fliers to people seeking welfare.  

The fliers explained their rights and offered help in filling out applications. 

According to the claim, SPIN members were ushered out of the welfare offices and were not required to remove their fliers from display racks inside the offices. 

In another incident, the executive director of SPIN, Joni Halpern, attempted to go with a woman seeking welfare-to-work assistance but was forced to leave the office after she began talking with other people in the lobby about SPIN’s application services.