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News

Skate park back on track and on a roll

By John Geluardi Daily Planet Staff
Saturday February 10, 2001

A detoxified and newly designed Harrison Street Skate Park project may soon be rolling again after the discovery of contaminated groundwater halted construction last November. 

The City Council will consider a request from the city manager for $115,000 to complete the clean up of contaminated groundwater and $50,000 to hire designers to develop new skate park plans. Lisa Caronna, director of Parks and Waterfront, said if the funds are granted the new plans could be ready for review this month. 

The skate bowls, nine-foot-deep concrete skating areas, were being excavated last November when the carcinogen chromium 6 was discovered in groundwater that had seeped into the bowls. Construction was stopped and the City Council approved emergency funding of $100,000 for the removal and treatment of the water. 

Some 120,000 gallons of contaminated water was removed from the site and another 80,000 gallons are currently being stored in four enclosed tanks adjacent to the site, according to Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy. 

Al-Hadithy said some of the additional $115,000 being requested from the City Council will be used to treat the groundwater in the tanks with iron sulfate, which will render the chromium 6 into a benign form known as chromium 3 or metallic chromium.  

Once treatment is complete, the groundwater will be released into the sanitary sewer system. The city is in contract with the environmental engineering company SECORE Inc. to carry out the groundwater treatment. 

Al-Hadithy said the treatment plan was complex to design. “It really was a great deal of work,” he said. “We worked with outside chemists and chemical engineers to develop the plan.” 

In addition to treating the groundwater in the bowls with bisulfate, the bases will be filled with crushed rocks and sealed off. Al-Hadithy said the bisulfate treatment would provide an added margin of safety. 

“Once completed there will be no route of exposure,” Al-Hadithy said. “It will be double and triple sealed.” 

City officials would like to have the work completed as soon as possible. According to a staff report, Harrison Field, immediately north of the skate park, is scheduled to open for adult soccer teams on Feb. 18. Youth soccer is scheduled to begin on March 11. 

The soccer field use does not depend on the decontamination of the skate park area. 

A temporary fence has been erected around the skate park site and signs have been posted in English and Spanish, warning soccer players to not enter the construction site. 

Because of the contaminated groundwater plume beneath the skate park, the design will have to be changed. The Parks and Waterfront Department has requested $50,000 to redesign the bowls so they rest above ground. 

Caronna said the city will hire a skate park designer and a structural engineer to create the new design. She said the two excavated bowls on the east side of the park will probably not be re-designed. 

“We should be able to save about 50 percent of the work already done,” Caronna said. “But the two bowls to the west will probably have to be raised.” 

The estimated cost of the Skate Park is $400,000, which is only $20,000 more than the original budget according to the staff report prepared by the city manager. 

However, if the cost of the toxic clean up is added to the overall cost of the skate park, the project is about $235,000 over its original budget.


Calendar of Events & Activities

Staff
Saturday February 10, 2001


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  

 

Dreams & Intuition 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

1502 Tenth St.  

Marcia Emery, Ph.D., will discuss how to attune your intuitive dream antenna, intuitively unravel the symbolic message of a dream symbol and apply an intuitive dream interpretation method to the entire dream.  

$85  

Call 526-5510 

 

“The West Wing Meets the East Bay” 

7:30 p.m. 

Saint Joseph the Worker Church 

1640 Addison St.  

A conversation with Martin Sheen. Tickets available at Black Oak Books, Cody’s Books, St. Joseph the Worker Church, and at the door.  

$20 donation 

525-3787  

 

Annuals for the Dry Garden 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive  

Annie Hayes of Annie’s annuals will suggest some annuals to plant in gardens that are water-deprived during the summer months.  

$15  

Call 643-1924 


Sunday, Feb. 11

 

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  

 

Storyteller Yolanda Rhodes  

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Rhodes performs music-filled stories of African and African-American history and folklore. Part of series of events throughout February to honor Black History Month. Included in admission.  

$5 - $7  

Call 642-5132 

 

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 

 

“From Swastika to Jim Crow” 

2 - 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Due to the depression and anti-Semitism in the ‘30s, many Jewish “refugee scholars” found they had difficulty finding jobs and were embraced by black universities. Both students and teachers, in the pre-Civil Rights era, found they shared a common experience of living under oppression and a passion for education. Guest speaker Jim McWilliams.  

$2 suggested donation  

Call 848-0237 x127 

 

Why Do a Long Retreat? 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Retreatants from Holland, Brazil, Germany, and other places share how they made the time to participate in two and four month retreats.  

Call 843-6812 

 

African-American “Death of a Salesman” Auditions 

1 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. Auditioners are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Museum  

2621 Durant (at Bowditch)  

Featuring poet/photographer Valentine Pierce. Call 527-9753 


Monday, Feb. 12

 

African-American “Death of a Salesman” 

Audtions 

7 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. z are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 

Read Those Plans 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Architect Andus Brandt will instruct how to read architectural plans.  

$35  

Call 525-7610 

 


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 

 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

 

 

 


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 

 

Faye Carol Sings Lady Day 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St.  

A tribute to Billie Holiday including Lady Day’s most popular songs, including “Strange Fruit,” “Good Morning Heartache,” “God Bless the Child” and “You Let Me Down.” Benefit for KPFA Radio and La Pena Cultural Center.  

$15 

Call 848-6767 x609 or visit www.kpfa.org 

 

Planning Commission Public Hearing  

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

The commission is holding public hearings on the Planning Commission Draft General Plan. The commission requests that all written comments on the plan be submitted by March 1.  

 


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 

 

Natural Conversations 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” Focus on conversations in nature and explore what they are meant to convey.  

$10  

 

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 

 

Climbing Mt. Shasta 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Tim Keating of Sierra Wilderness Seminars will give a slide presentation on climbing and skiing this North California peak.  

Call 527-7377  

 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

 

“Religion, Power & the New Economy”  

1:30 - 3 p.m. 

Chapel of the Great Commission  

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

A panel discussion featuring distinguished GTU alumni/ae, in celebration of Dr. James A. Donahue’s inauguration as President of the GTU.  

Call 649-2400 

 

West CAT Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church  

997 University Ave.  

Review the racial and health disparities issues and see the model of the community capacity building.  

 


The Arab world sees a wide window of opportunity opening

By Franz Schurmann Pacific News Service
Saturday February 10, 2001

There is a widespread sense in the Arab world that this is an important transition period – based in part on the view that the West, especially America, has messed up in the Middle East. 

Many think this could be a window of opportunity in the “Arab world” – some 200 million people in 28 countries bound together by their common Arabic language. 

Underlying this sense of transition are a number of events in the wider world. 

One is the new administration in Washington. The Arabic press makes no secret about its belief that the Clinton administration was too closely tied to Israel to succeed in brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, even though most Arab papers supported those efforts. 

They also made it clear that the new president has already sent signals to several Arab states that his administration wants to work with them on Middle East issues. A commentary in the Jan. 24 issue of the Saudi-financed newspaper As-Sharq al-Ausat noted that the Bush administration has far fewer top-level Jewish- Americans than the Clinton administration. 

There is a widespread sense in the region that Bush is downgrading the Israel-Palestinian conflict to lesser urgency. 

As for the new Israeli government, many if not most Arabs see little difference between Sharon and his predecessor, the peace-seeking Ehud Barak. Barak built more settlements in the Occupied Territories than Benyamin Netanyahu, and under Barak the military have killed more Palestinians than the earlier Rabin and Netanyahu governments. 

Clearly the most important elements of change, from the viewpoint of American global interests, are tied to the fact that the Middle East remains the world's main source of oil, and also – with the Caspian and Central Asian regions, both predominantly Muslim – potentially the main source of natural gas. 

Ten years ago, the Bush Sr. administration not only won a military victory that forced Saddam Hussein to pull out completely from Kuwait, it won a political victory that made America the dominant power in the Middle East and gave it great influence in the Caspian and Central Asian 

regions. 

This political victory came about even before Desert Storm. Then Secretary of State James Baker III succeeded in organizing a coalition to fight the war that included Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria as well as Britain and France. 

When the coalition asked Security Council permission to use military force to dislodge Saddam from Kuwait the Soviet Union voted yes and China abstained. The stunning military victory consolidated the coalition, and later in 1991, Baker organized the Madrid conference that launched the Arab-Israeli peace process. 

Now the coalition is in shambles. 

It started to weaken in June, 1993 when the then-new Clinton administration excluded Saudi Arabia from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It became clear that, despite “progress,” Israel only wanted peace on its own terms and Arafat's Palestinian Authority was unable to 

deliver on any accord. 

The Palestinian al-Aqsa Intifada finally doomed the coalition. Syria dropped out, Egypt pulled back and Jordan, especially after King Hussein died and the Intifada erupted, started inching backwards. 

The balance of power in the Middle East has suddenly changed quite radically. 

Russia's new young leader, Vladimir Putin, ardently believes Russia is a military superpower – and that if America were not so arrogant it would concede it is an empire like Russia. Putin is leading Russia into a new Middle Eastern role in a way that has turned America's dual containment policy into a farce. 

Iran and Iraq have de-contained themselves. Russia is arming Iran and helping it build nuclear reactors, and UN sanctions against Iraq have become irrelevant – with Russia in the lead a growing roster of countries has ignored the UN air embargo against Iraq. 

Indeed, Syria and Iraq, once sworn enemies, are now busy visiting each other. And, more significantly, foreign oil companies last year built a pipeline linking Iraq's oil rich north with Banyas, a Syrian port on the Mediterranean and netting Iraq a million or two US dollars every day. 

Saddam has even announced he is going to try again to get back Kuwait, Iraq's alleged “19th province.” And to irk his American enemies he has converted all his wealth from dollars into euros. 

The Gulf War coalition is not dead. A lengthy commentary by a noted writer, Ghassan al-Imam, published in As-Sharq al-Ausat, which has an intense dislike of Saddam Hussein, argues that neither Sharon nor Saddam will able to shake the alliance between Egypt, Syria, and the Saudis. 

His most telling point is that the rulers of all three countries have had a long and profitable association with the Bush family going back to the Reagan days when George Sr. was Reagan's vice- president. These contacts helped raise oil prices from a disastrous low of $10 a barrel during the 1980's and stabilizing the price at $25. When Bush chose fellow Texan Dick Cheney to be his vice- presidential candidate the media noted their common links to the oil industry. And when James Baker III became the chief lawyer for Bush in the Florida vote dispute another link to the oil industry was revealed. 

It was clear that Middle East issues played a key part in those nominations. Not only in the super-rich USA but in most parts of the world – oil and gas are the global economy's lifeline. 

Ghassan al-Imam believes that almost two decades of personal contacts between the Bush family and various ruling Arab clans could give the Arab world a window of opportunity they have never had since the 1950s. 

 

 

PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley, has traveled widely in the Middle East and reads the Arab- and Farsi-language press.


Arts & Entertainment

Saturday February 10, 2001

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  

 

UC Berkeley Art Museum “The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered” through March 26. An exhibit of black and white photographs that capture the fears and faith of those who traveled from Marks, Mississippi to Washington, D.C. ,with mule-drawn wagons to attend the Poor People's Campaign in December, 1967; “Joe Brainard: A Retrospective,” Through May 27. The selections include 150 collages, assemblages, paintings, drawings, and book covers. Brainard’s art is characterized by its humor and exhuberant color, and by its combinations of media and subject matter; Muntadas - On Translation: The Audience, Through April 29. $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. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. 642-0808. 

 

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery” 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  

 

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership 

Feb. 10: Lifes Halt, Rocket Queen, Barry Manowar, Rosemary’s Billygoat, Adversives; Feb. 16: The Bananas, Pitch Black, Shotwell, Pirx the Pilot, Rock & Roll Adventure Kids; Feb. 17: Lack of Interest, The Neighbors, Black Hands, Capitalist Casualties, Iron Lung; Feb. 18, 5 p.m.: Good Riddance, Missing 23rd, Fire Sermon, Lugosi 525-9926  

Albatross Pub All music at 9 p.m. unless noted Feb. 8: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Feb. 13: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Feb. 14: Carlos Oliveira Brazilian Jazz Duo; Feb. 15: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Feb. 20: pickPocket esemble; Feb. 21: Whiskey Brothers 1822 San Pablo 843-2473 

 

Ashkenaz Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m.: Musical theater with Zorman & Yampels; Feb. 13, 9 p.m.: Danny Poullard & Friends, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; Feb. 14, 8:30 p.m.: Carlos Zialcita plays R&B, swing, and soul for lovers; March 24, 2 p.m. - 2 a.m.: Ashkenaz fourth annual dance-a-thon featuring Lavay Smith, African, Caribbean, reggae, Balkan, North African and cajun bands for 12 hours of nonstop dance music. 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

 

Eli’s Mile High Club Feb. 10: Kenny Blue Ray; Feb. 16: Little Johnny & the Giants; Feb. 17: Ron Thompson; Feb. 23: Carlos Zialcita; Feb. 24: R.J. Mischo 3629 MLK Jr. Way Oakland  

 

Freight & Salvage All shows begin at 8 p.m. Feb. 8 & 9: Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys; Feb. 10: Baguette Quartette with Odile Lavault; Feb.11: Bob Franke 1111 Addison St. 548-1761  

 

Crowden School Sundays, 4 p.m.: Chamber music series sponsored by the school; Feb. 24, 8 p.m.: Cynthia & the Swing Set and the American Jubilee Dance Theatre. Free swing dance lesson, 7 p.m. New Orleans cajun and creole dinner to be served before dance lesson. $10 - $40 Benefits the Crowden School 1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 559-6910 

 

Tuva Space All shows at 7:48 p.m. Feb. 18: Saadet Turkoz seeks to evoke pictures and atmosphere by means of voice and music which transcend cultural boundaries. Saxophonist Eric Barber defies categorization; Feb. 19: Trio of Fred Frith, guitar, Pierre Tanguay, percussion, and Jean Derome, alto and bariton saxophones. $8 donation 3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 649-8744  

 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 11: Hal Stein Quarter; Feb. 18: Sheldon Brown Group; Feb. 25: Lauri Antonioli; March 4: Ray Obiedo; March 11: Stephanie Bruce Trio; March 18: Wayne Wallace Septet $6 - $12 2377 Shattuck Ave.  

 

Cal Performances Feb. 10, 8 p.m.: Masters of Persian Classical Music, $20 - $40; Feb. 16 & 17, 8 p.m.: Balinese Orchestra Gamelan Sekar Jaya present “Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream,” $18 - $30.; Feb. 20, 21, 23 & 24: In two separate programs the Netherlands Dans Theater I presents the work of former artistic director, Jiri Kylian $34 - $52 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley. 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu Feb. 11, 3 p.m.: Horacio Gutierrez $24 - $42; Feb. 25, 3 p.m.: Prazack Quartet $32; Feb. 28, 8 p.m.: Clerks’ Group performs music from the Burgundian Courts; March 4, 3 p.m.: Baritone Nathan Gunn sings Brahms, Wolf, and a selection of American songs $36 Hertz Hall UC Berkeley 

 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra 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  

 

“Songs for the Young at Heart” Feb. 10, 4 p.m. Featuring La Bonne Cuisine by Bernstein and The Shepherd on the Rock by Schubert. Donations accepted St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave.  

 

Gianni Gebbia, Michael Manring, Simple Sample & Garth Powell Feb. 11, 7:48 p.m. Italian saxophonist Gerbia teams up with electric bassist Manring for a set of free improvisations. Local percussionist Garth Powell will present a short solo on a soprano musical saw. $8 donation Tuva Space 3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 649-8744 

 

“The Prodigals” Feb. 11, 9 p.m. An Irish rock group who play “jig-punk” $5 This show is 18 and up. Blake’s 2367 Telegraph Ave.  

 

Community Women’s Orchestra Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Pieces to be played include those written by Berkeley High students Ariel Wolter and Maianna Voge. Donations accepted Malcolm X School 1731 Prince St. 653-1616 

 

Young People Chamber Orchestra Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Celebrating the music of J.S. Bach, Corell, Handel and others St. Johns Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. Call 595-4688 

 

Percussions Du Guinee Feb. 16 & 17, 8 p.m. Feb. 18, 7 p.m. Internationally respected Guinean percussionists craft a performance simultaneously inspired by traditional music, yet modern in presentation. $20 - $25 925-798-1300 

 

Will Bernard & Motherbug and Ten Ton Chicken CD Release Party and Live Web Cast Feb. 17, 9 p.m. IMUSICAST Studios 5429 Telegraph Ave. (at 54th) Oakland $10  

 

“Dido and Aeneas” March 2, 8 p.m.; March 4, 2 p.m. A tale of English Baroque opera that follows the tale of Dido, queen of Corinth, as she is courted and won by Aeneas, conqueror and future founder of Rome. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. Call 925-798-1300 

 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra March 3, 8 p.m. David Ramadanoff conducts the orchestra in a program featuring Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and a suite from Piston’s ballet “The Incredible Flutist” $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. Call 925-798-1300  

 

“In Song and Struggle” March 4, 4 - 10 p.m. Copwatch presents the second annual event bringing together some of the best women artists from around the Bay Area and beyond in commemoration of International Women’s Day. Artists include Shelley Doty, Rebecca Riots, Rachel Garlin, and many others. Call Copwatch, 548-0425  

 

“Mystic Journey” March 10, 8 p.m. Suzanne Teng and Mystic Journey are a unique contemporary world music ensemble, based in Los Angeles, making their Bay Area debut. $15 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. Call 925-798-1300 

 

Theater 

 

“Fall” by Bridget Carpenter Through Feb. 11. $15.99 - $51. Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, www. berkeleyrep.org 

 

“In Search of my Clitoris” Written and performed by Sia Amma Feb. 8 & 9, 8 p.m. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. $12 - $14 415-775-6608 

 

“The Road to Mecca” by Athol Fugard Through Feb. 24, Friday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Feb. 22, 8 p.m. $10 Live Oak Theatre 1301 Shattuck 528-5620 

 

“Nightingale” presented by Central Works Theater Feb. 9 - March 4, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 24 & Saturday, March 3, 5 p.m.; Free preview Feb. 8, 8 p.m. $8 - $14 LaVal’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381 

 

“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” by Frank MacGuinness Feb. 15 - March 17, Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Sunday, 8:30 p.m. The story of three men - an Irishman, an Englishman and an American held in a prison in Lebanon. $10 - $15 8th St. Studio Theatre 2525 Eighth St. (at Dwight) 655-0813 

 

“New Territory” Presented by Terrain along wih the Choreographer’s Performance Alliance. An eclectic evening of dance and performance with a variety of choreographic styles and themes. $10 Western Sky Studio 2525 Eighth St. (at Dwight) 845-8604 

 

Films 

 

“Magnetic North” Six programs of experimental Canadian video from the past 30 years that range from documentary to conceptual art. In all, 40 tapes from 46 artists will be shown on six Wednesday evenings. Through Feb. 28. $7. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch) 642-1412  

 

“Durruti and the Spanish Revolution” The LaborFest U.S. premiere screening and dicussion of this documentary which tells the story of the Confederation National del Trabajo during the Spanish Civil War. Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. $7 donation requested. La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 415-642-8066 

 

“Toto Recall” A 15-film retrospective honoring Italy’s comic genius. Through Feb. 24 Weekend days only, Friday - Sunday. $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

 

 

Exhibits 

 

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,” Through 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  

 

“Race & Femininity” Acrylic Paintings of Corinne Innis Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings. Through Feb. 26; 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 

 

“Trees With Frosting” Stevie Famulari decorates landscapes with sugar and frosting, making her artwork edible and changeable by viewers. This particular display will remain for two months. Through February Skapades Hair Salon 1971 Shattuck Ave. 251-8080 or steviesart@hotmail.com 

 

“Dorchester Days,” the photographs of Eugene Richards is a collection of pictures portraying the poverty, racial tension, crime and violence prevalent in Richards’ hometown of Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1970s. Through April 6. UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 121 North Gate Hall #5860 642-3383 

 

“Still Life & Landscapes” The work of Pamela Markmann Through March 24, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Red Oak Gallery 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387 

 

“Kick Back,” the Department of Art Practice of UC Berkeley spring faculty show Through March 2; Informative lecture Feb. 14, Noon Worth Ryder Gallery Kroeber Hall UC Berkeley Call 642-2582 

 

“Unequal Funding: Photographs of Children in Schools that Get Less” An exhibit of black & white photographs by documentary photographer Chris Pilaro. Through March 16, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Saturday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Opening reception, Feb. 9, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400 

 

“Contemporary Photogravure” Printing from hand-inked plates etched from a film positive, a unique exhibition of photographs with luxurious tones. Feb. 8 - March 30, Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 5 p.m. or by appointment; Opening reception, Feb. 8, 6 - 8 p.m. Kala Art Institute 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

 

“Evolution,” No problem quilters exhibit their soft-cloth sculptures. New Pieces is the only gallery that exclusively exhibits quilts in the Bay Area. Through March 1, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. 1597 Solano Ave. 527-6779 

 

Amanda Haas, New Paintings and Olivia Kuser, Recent Landscapes Feb. 14 - March 24, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Opening reception Feb. 14, 6 - 8 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 

 

“Water From Your Spring” Artistic residency with composer Ann Millikan and painter Selena Engelhart Feb. 11 - 17, Wednesday - Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m. Free; Performance of Millikan’s music featuring the California E.A.R. Unit, plus guests: Feb. 17 & 18, 8 p.m. $15 - $20 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park  

 

Readings 

 

Boadecia’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Feb. 10: Karin Kallmaker reads from “Sleight of Hand”; Feb. 23: Becky Thompson reads “Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage” 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington 559-9184. www.boadeciasbooks.com 

 

Cody’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Feb. 8, 7 p.m.: Sheli Nan presents “The Essential Piano Teacher’s Guide”; 7:30 p.m.: Susan Griffin, Willy Wilkinson, Ellen Samuels, Dorothy Wall and Abe Doherty talk about “Stricken: Voices from the Hidden Epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”; Feb. 9: Matt Ridley discusses “Genome: The Autobiography of a Species”; Feb. 11: Poetry of Jack Hirschman & Luke Breit; Feb. 12: Jett Psaris and Marlena Lyons discuss “Undefended Love”; Feb. 13: Christie Kiefr talks about ‘Health Work for the Poor: A Practical Guide”; Feb. 15: Jason Lutes, cartoonist, will discuss his graphic presentation “Berlin: City of Stones”; Feb. 20: Becky Thompson discusses “Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage”; Feb. 21: Poetry of Gillian Conoley & Kathleen Fraser; Feb. 22: Alison Gopnik describes “The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind”; Feb. 23: Carol Field reads “Mangoes and Quince”; Feb. 25: Poetry of Martha Rhodes, Linda Dyer & Joy Manesiotis; Feb. 26: Terry McMillan reads from “A Day Late and a Dollar Short”; Feb. 28: Poetry of Sandra Gilbert & Wendy Barker 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852  

 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8: Bruce Henderson tackes a 130 year old mystery in “Fatal North: Adventure & Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole”; Feb. 27: Barbara Wagner, co-founder of Lost Frontiers, gives a slide presentation and talk about “Pakistan & the Lost Tribes of teh Hindu Kush”; Feb. 28: Travel writer Christopher Baker will read and talk about his 7000 miles motorcycle odyssey through Cuba as chronicled in his book “Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro’s Cuba” 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533  

 

“Strong Women - Writers & Heroes of Literature” Fridays 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  

 

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. 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. 

 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series Feb. 8, 8 p.m.: Carl Dennis and Jen Scappettone will read. Sponsored by the Department of English UC Berkeley Maude Fife Room (Room 315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439  

 

Lunch Poems First Thursday of each month, 12:10 - 12:50 p.m. March 1: Aleida Rodrigues; April 5: Galway Kinnell; May 3: Student Reading Morrison Room, Doe Library UC Berkeley 642-0137 

 

Class Dismissed Poetry Posse March 2, 7:30 p.m. Afro-Haitian dancers, Dance Production dancers, the BHS poetry slammers, an opening a capella number and a few surprises. A benefit for a Berkeley High school student trip to Cuba. $5 - $10 Little Theater Berkeley High School 2246 Milvia St.  

 

“Escape from Villingen” Feb. 10, 10:30 a.m. Dwight Messimer will be reviewing his new book dealing with POW escapees Great War Society 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118 

 

Mick LaSalle Feb. 11, 6 p.m. S.F. Chronicle film critic, LaSalle will read from his book “Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood.” After the reading two Pre-Code films will be screened, “Design for Living” and “A Free Soul.” $7 Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

 

 

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 Feb. 25: “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin,” Gray Brechin will discuss the impact and legacy of the Hearsts and other powerful early families; 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; March 18: “Topaz Moon,” Kimi Kodani Hill will discuss artist Chiura Obata’s family and the WWII Japanese relocation camps. 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 

 

Ruth Acty Oral History Feb. 18, 3 - 6 p.m. In honor of Black History Month, Therese Pipe will present the history of Acty, who became the first African American teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District in 1943. Berkeley Historical Society Veterans Memorial Building 1931 Center St. Admission free 848-0181 

 


BHS beats up on weary Spartans

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Saturday February 10, 2001

The first time the Berkeley boys’ basketball team faced Pinole Valley this season, they slipped away with a 59-54 win in a tough game that could have gone either way. But thanks to a depleted Pinole Valley squad, the rematch wasn’t nearly as exciting. 

The Yellowjackets (18-5 overall, 9-0 ACCAL) blew past the visiting team on Friday night at Donahue Gymnasium 67-58, taking advantage of a Spartan team that was missing three starters due to academics. Although Pinole Valley’s (12-9, 5-3) remaining starters, Mike Gates and John Chapple, combined to score 38 points, the rest of the team was tentative and ineffective against the Berkeley press. 

Gates, the Spartans’ leading scorer, had a rough game, turning the ball over seven times and looking out of control on several drives to the basket. Berkeley’s rugged forward Ramone Reed guarded him for much of the game. 

“Ramone Reed can guard anyone in this league. Hell, he can guard anyone in this state,” Berkeley head coach Mike Gragnani said. “We didn’t have to do anything to Gates besides put Ramone on him.” 

The ’Jackets were led by point guard Ryan Davis’s 24 points, while shooting guard and defensive specialist Byron St. Jules pitched in with 14. 

“I had my worst game against Pinole Valley the first time, and I wasn’t going to let it happen again,” said St. Jules, a senior. 

Berkeley is now clearly in the driver’s seat in the ACCAL race, three games ahead of the second place team. 

“It feels great to come in here in my first year and take control of the ACCAL,” Gragnani said. “But I’m really not satisfied with the way we played tonight.” 

St. Jules got Berkeley going early, pulling down two rebounds and taking them coast-to-coast for layups. Guard Muhammed Nitoto came off the bench to give the team an early spark, getting two steals and two assists in the first period. But Gates scored six points early to keep his team in the game at 11-8. 

The ’Jackets started to pull ahead for good when Davis put back his own shot and was fouled. He hit the free throw to put his team up 18-12, then center Jahi Milton converted a layup to give Berkeley a 20-12 lead after the first quarter. 

After Gates hit the first bucket of the second period, the ’Jackets went on a 9-0 run, keyed by two more Nitoto dishes, both to St. Jules for layups. When Davis got another putback right at the buzzer, Berkeley was up 35-18 at the half. 

St. Jules, who struggled in the teams’ first game, scored 12 points in the first half, most of them from penetration into the lane.  

“I know my best offense is going to the hole,” the senior said. “I’m doing it more in games now, because that’s where I’m strongest.” 

Davis hit a three-pointer early in the second half to double up on the Spartans, 40-20. But Berkeley’s defensive intensity lagged, and Gates and Chapple led their team back into contention, ending the period down by 14. Gates hit a three to open the fourth quarter, and Chapple made two free throws, and the Berkeley lead was down to nine points.  

“We got ahead 40-20 and our defense completely shut down,” Gragnani said. 

“Whenever we get a cushion, we should put teams away,” Davis said. “But we don’t have that killer instinct we need.” 

But the Spartans couldn’t get any closer until there were only 30 seconds left in the game, and when Atticus Honore made a layup and was fouled soon after, the game was decided.


Cancer claims KPFA producer

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet Staff
Saturday February 10, 2001

Master gardener, speech therapist, nurse, photojournalist, radio programmer, a friend who knew how to listen, a religious, spiritual and fun-loving person – Leona Jacobs-White was all of these, according to her friends and family. 

Jacobs-White, 72, died of cancer in her Berkeley home Jan. 31. Her death was peaceful, friends said. 

KPFA, Berkeley’s community radio station, had been White’s second home since the mid-1980s. After she retired, first from nursing at Oakland Kaiser Hospital, then from her post as speech therapist for the public schools in Richmond, Jacobs-White, an African American, joined a training program at the radio station especially designed to bring minority women into broadcasting.  

After graduating from the program, Jacobs-White began producing shows at the station’s Women’s Department. Amelia Gonzales, who heads KPFA’s training program today, directed the Women’s Department at the time. She talked about the breadth of Jacobs-White’s programs, recalling that they ranged from shows on sex workers trying to unionize, to issues of women’s health and nutrition. “She would not let herself be pegged into one arena or genre of radio,” Gonzales said. 

Some of the work the Women’s Department took on was grueling, such as the 24-hour programming on International Woman’s Day. “She made work seem like a party,” Gonzales said. 

Around the time that Jacobs-White was completing the training program, Dr. Mike Alcalay found out he was HIV positive and was beginning to plan a radio show on the epidemic. White became his co-host in addition to her work in the Women’s Department. 

While the program covered serious topics, what stands out for Alcalay was the “laugh in her voice.” 

Others who work at KPFA also point to Jacobs-White’s sense of humor and they signal out the infamous bat show on “Seven Generations.” 

White co-produced “Seven Generations,” a program about the environment, which draws its name from the Native American concept that today’s decisions ought to be made with the seventh generation in mind. 

“She was very committed to the earth and to gardening,” said Weyland Southan, who co-hosted the program with Jacobs-White. 

The program on bats that Jacobs-White produced was aimed at showing that the flying creatures eat insects in gardens and eliminate the need for pesticides. 

White wasn’t content to simply interview an authority on bats. She had the expert come into the studio with the creatures. They flew around the studio during the interview. “Bats were screeching on the air,” Southan said. 

Adding to the diversity of her programming, Jacobs-White recently worked on a series called “Pagliacci’s Fools,” which recreated old-time radio drama.  

She was more than a programmer. She was a decision-maker as well. As such, she was a member of the station’s Local Advisory Board. “She was helpful on internal matters,” said Phil Ofegueda, KPFA’s assistant general manager. 

“Living Room” host Kriss Welch remembers White as someone who, when she asked how you were, really wanted an answer and listened to it. “She always had a comforting and kind word,” Welch said. “If you were unhappy, she would really support you.” 

She was both loving and fun-loving said her cousin P.J. Jackson, who had recently gone to Trinidad for Carnival with Jacobs-White. 

Weyland Southan remembers that White “lived every moment to the end of the moment.” She practiced the Yoruba religion and “was very excited about going to the next world,” Southan said. 

Gonzales recalls: “She called everybody love.” 

Her survivors include her uncle and aunt, Charles and Meda Lewis of Oakland, cousins Phyllis “P.J.” Jackson of Oakland, April Campos of Oakland and Charles Lewis, Jr. of San Jose.  

A memorial service will be held near the time of her birthday, May 28.


Students focus of film festival

Peter Crimmins Daily Planet correspondent
Saturday February 10, 2001

As well intentioned as they are, high school video productions are marked by a level of discipline given to home movies crossed with the enthusiasm of a term paper. Something only a mother could love, and she could be jiving, too. 

“When you think of high school filmmakers you think of silly fighting films,” said Berkeley High School junior Portia Boni. She and her curatorial compatriots – Natalia Ackley-Barahona, Zachary Cohen, Dario Fernandez, Chevalier Patterson and Jesse Roll-Beyea, all members of the Berkeley High Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) program – have waded though almost 75 submitted tapes of student work to come up with a program of which to be proud.  

The 2nd annual Berkeley High School/Bay Area Film and Video Festival, screening this Sunday at the Pacific Film Archive, is culled from works submitted by East Bay high school students: documentaries, experimental pieces, parodies, animation, and music videos. And one silly fighting film for good measure. 

Some thoughtful, some slapstick, these filmmakers’ intentions may be to push a social envelope, or to have fun with a camcorder. “Last year was a little more avant-garde,” said Maria Chavez, a Cal student and ArtsBridge scholar who mentored the curatorial process, “this year they chose a wider range.” Casting the net wider enabled them to catch works that were clearly intended to have fun with the medium and take a stab at teenage culture. A hotbed of adolescent output is Pirate Productions at Pittsburgh High School, from whence comes “Menacing Phantom,” two minutes of pure swordfighting, a la Star Wars, featuring plastic light sabers and surprisingly impressive choreography and sound mix. 

Another Pirate Production is a music video by 5-Gether called “Hardest Part of Breaking Up,” in which the pop vocal boy-group laments their kleptomaniac girlfriends. It may be poking fun at N’Synch, or it may be an homage. (After the recent Superbowl half-time show, who can tell the difference?) The underground party scene is sent up in Walker Koppleman-Brown’s “One Rave,” a seven-minute blurt about the frustration of looking for the elusive something-to-do on a Friday night. Koppleman-Brown, a senior at Berkeley High and the son of Berkeley-based filmmaker Charles Koppleman, said his film was not made through any campus group, but as a teaching assistant to a freshman video class he had access to equipment. 

He was also a member of last year’s festival programming team, and had been concerned that the festival would not continue.  

“We didn’t think there was anybody else who wanted to do this,” he said. When Portia and her colleagues stepped up to the plate, Koppleman-Brown’s offered his strongest piece of veteran advice: to not be discouraged by the lack of submissions. 

After the eventual flood of tapes arrived, Portia said one of the challenges was getting the right mix. Haphazardly placing works of serious intent inside an array of comedic pieces risked robbing the former of the reading they are due. Kabu Nietschmann’s “The Next Generation,” an impressionistic video of dance and Santana music, touches on the humanistic hopefulness of physical movement and community – arguably the spiritual intention of rave parties – and compliments Koppleman-Brown’s humorous piece. 

The documentary discipline is well executed in “Port Chicago,” a non-fiction, historical account of a WWII naval disaster. Using archival photos and an interview with an historian, the filmmakers’ telling of the racist aftermath of an ammunition explosion would not be misplaced on PBS television. 

The film that best captures an intuitive filmmaking touch and sheer goofball yuks is John Sobel’s “Water Polo: Triumph of Glory.” A mock-documentary starting with an incompetent high school water polo team and their water-less practice pool, the 15-minute video inventively exhausts all the omic potentials of Zen training, chorus-line calisthenics, and inflatable water wings. 

Sobel’s deft hand in the editing demonstrates the wisdom that comedy is all about timing, and he gets kudos for assembling a troupe of actors with seemingly unquenchable excitement for absurd slapstick. The idiotic physical humor is reminiscent of Saturday Night Live (remember the synchronized swimming skit with Martin Short? How could a teenager like Sobel know that one?) and older, intellectually stunted Little Rascals. 

The Berkeley High School/East Bay Film and Video Festival screens Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. For ticket information call 642-5249.


Panthers overwhelm St. Elizabeth’s 91-70

By Tim Haran Daily Planet Correspondent
Saturday February 10, 2001

St. Mary’s started sluggishly for the second week in a row, but another dominant second half sealed the Panthers’ 91-70 victory over St. Elizabeth’s (Oakland) on Friday night.  

Early on, the Bay Shore Athletic League-leading Panthers were down by a bucket at the end of the first quarter and led by just six at the half before going on a tear that saw them outscore St. Elizabeth’s 49-34 after the break. 

St. Mary’s missed its first four shots of the game before DaShawn Freeman hit a three-pointer with 6:02 left in the first quarter. For St. Elizabeth’s, senior guard Bakari Altheimer scored seven of his game-high 27 points in the low-scoring opening period. At the end of one, the Mustangs led 13-11. 

St. Elizabeth’s Adebola Odunikan scored the team’s first two points of the second quarter before St. Mary’s went on a 7-0 run to grab the lead with 5:12 remaining in the half.  

The Panthers never looked back.  

Freeman scored 13 in the period and St. Mary’s led by as many as 11 before the break. St. Elizabeth’s scored the final five points of the half including a running, nothing-but-net three-pointer that the Mustang’s Altheimer launched from beyond half-court as time expired. 

The Panthers built its lead in the third quarter by using a full-court press on defense that forced Mustang turnovers, while on offense John Sharper, Terrence Boyd and Jeremiah Fielder drained timely three-pointers. Boyd added two more three-point plays after scoring the hoop and adding the free throw as St. Mary’s went on a 9-2 run to end the third. 

“I think the kids just stepped up their intensity (in the second half),” said St. Mary’s coach Jose Caraballo. “We came out pretty lethargic (in the first half) while they came out ready to play.” 

St. Mary’s continues to overpower BSAL opponents with its offensive rebounding and tenacious defense. Its performance against St. Elizabeth’s was no exception. 

“They’re big and strong and finally beat us up a little bit,” said St. Elizabeth’s head coach Bob Howard. “Physically we got worn down. That’s a hard pace for us to play against.” 

Eleven different players scored for St. Mary’s. Behind Freeman’s team leading 22, Sharper added 18, Boyd contributed 14 and Chase Moore tossed in 10 despite getting two quick fouls in the first quarter. Altheimer was the only player in double figures for St. Elizabeth’s. 

“DaShawn is playing the way he’s supposed to be playing,” Caraballo said of the 5-foot-10 guard. “He has the ability to make everyone around him better.” 

As the team did last week, St. Mary’s struggled from the free throw line, hitting just 7-of-18. St. Elizabeth’s was 15-of-24 from the line. 

The Mustangs are the latest conquest for the Panthers, who have dominated the BSAL this season. With the win, St. Mary’s improves to 21-4 overall and 9-0 in the league. St. Elizabeth’s dropped to 15-10 and 6-4 in the BSAL. 

“We were fine until they started hitting the threes,” Howard said of the Mustang’s second half woes. “The press kicked in a little better and it sort of snowballed on us.” 

St. Mary’s faces Piedmont on Tuesday.


Learning program results in school’s population boom

By Michelle Hopey Special to the Daily Planet
Saturday February 10, 2001

Like most cities, the City of Franklin school is growing.  

Unlike other population booms this one is being embraced with excitement, especially since the increase is the successful result of a unique public learning program. 

The City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School, currently a K-5 program will expand to include a middle school curriculum next year, making it the first K-8 model offered in the Berkeley Unified School District.  

A microsociety school is a progressive interdisciplinary curriculum program established nationally in the 1980s by a New York City school teacher, George Richmond. It was founded on research data that suggest students learn best by doing, so every microsociety is a student-run miniature “city.” 

“We’re really excited,” said Principal Barbara Penny-James. “Adding the middle school program was part of the original plan, so we’re eager to continue growing – parents, kids and staff are really looking forward to this.” 

The middle school program, as it was designed when approved, will be phased in over three years. Next fall, the Virginia Street school will welcome two sixth-grade classes and add a grade per year through 2003-2004. 

Derick Miller, media coordinator for the City of Franklin, said there are currently 160 students who attend the school. Next year he expects the school to increase by about 70 students for the entire school. Miller said the school has more than enough room since classes currently use only about one-third of the building space.  

As a magnet school, the City of Franklin receives some federal funds in addition to state funding, and is a school that parents elect to send their child to, rather than one where the students’ school is determined by the school district. 

The “citizens” of the sixth-grade community will have their own town square like the lower grades, with a council and mayor, among many more mock real-life businesses and governing agencies, which are all student run. The classrooms and hallways will also be decorated with murals, such as of a town square, to ensure a more realistic experience.  

According to Principal Penny-James, the sixth-grade program will encompass a global theme. Given that, the school will introduce a French program next year. Penny-James also said that when seventh grade is added the school wants add a Spanish program and perhaps a Cantonese class for the eighth grade, so that students are exposed to a number of the world’s languages. 

The sixth grade will have a multimedia and technology program which will include a T.V. studio and a stock market unit.  

“Middle school is known as a dilemma,” said Penny-James, underscoring her excitement at directing the first K-8 public school in Berkeley. “We’re confident that initiating a K-8 school will change the middle-school era to an innovative, positive time in an adolescent’s life.” 

A K-8 program allows parents to keep their children in one school and not have to reroute them from an elementary school to a middle school, which is often tough on a child. 

“Normally sixth graders jump into a middle school and start on the bottom and it makes (the transition into adulthood) even more startling,” said Miller. “ Where as in a K-8 school, sixth graders are more of older role models to the younger kids and in return they gain more confidence.” 

Addie Holsing, a curriculum advisor with a non-profit education corporation Knowledge Context in Santa Cruz, who has been working with the school, agrees with Miller. She said that the middle school years are a key time in adolescent development for creating close relationships and finding ones’ place in the world. 

According to Holsing the City of Franklin’s real world approach is beneficial to the students because it fosters these developments. 

“Real world tasks make more sense to students,” said Holsing. “If they do tasks that are practical, they think there is something there for them and stay interested - that’s the magic of a microsociety school.”  

The fifth-grade students that plan on staying at the school to attend the sixth grade said they couldn’t be happier. 

“This school is a whole lot better than my last school,” said 11-year old Erin Williams. “You learn a lot more, plus you get to have your own business.” 

“I wasn’t here last year, but my mom thought this would be a good school,” said 10-year old, Cassimere Pugh. “I ran for mayor this year, but wasn’t elected and then I ran for secretary and didn’t get that, but I’ll run next year and hopefully become mayor.” 

 

The City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School will host an information night on the middle school program at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28. For more information or a private appointment or tour call 644-6260. 

 

 

 


Bears even BYU series

Daily Planet Wire Services
Saturday February 10, 2001

The Cal baseball team evened its series versus Brigham Young on Friday, defeating the Cougars 5-3 at Evans Diamond. The Bears, who fell to BYU 2-1 on Thursday, improve to 4-1 on the season, while the Cougars go to 5-4 overall.  

Cal was led by the strong pitching of senior David Cash (2-0) and freshman Matt Brown. Cash, who struggled early, recovered to pitch six innings with a career-high nine strikeouts. Brown replaced Cash in the seventh inning and earned his first collegiate save.  

After the Bears were down, 1-0, they responded with three runs in the third inning off of BYU starter Jeff Stearman . Cal’s freshman catcher Chris Grossman led off the inning with a single, and after Brad Smith fouled out to third base, the Bears tacked on four straight hits with RBI singles from sophomore David Weiner and freshman Conor Jackson, and a sacrifice fly from senior Clint Hoover.


Shattuck Avenue always the hub

By Susan Cerny
Saturday February 10, 2001

The picture above is a 1930s post card of Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley’s “main street” looking north from Dwight Way.  

Shattuck bears the name of one of Berkeley’s earliest landowners and most enterprising developers, Francis Kittredge Shattuck.  

Shattuck was born in New York in 1824 and arrived in California with his brother-in-law, William Blake, in 1850.  

After two years in the gold fields Shattuck, Blake, William Hillegass and James Leonard purchased a square mile of what would become Berkeley in 1852.  

The area is now bordered by Addison and Russell streets, Grove Street and College Avenue. Shattuck’s parcel was the mile long strip between Shattuck Avenue and Grove Street. 

In 1876, Shattuck convinced Leland Stanford to bring a Central (later Southern) Pacific spur line from Oakland along Adeline Street into what is now downtown Berkeley.  

The width of Shattuck Avenue today is the legacy of the old rail line. Shattuck Square and Shattuck Place were the location of the train station.  

The post card shows the second phase of public transportation, the era of electric street cars.  

Shattuck Avenue remains today the principal transportation route through central Berkeley with its modern-day BART trains now underground.  

 

Susan Cerny, author of Berkeley Landmarks, writes this column in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association


Congresswoman unveils caucus’ tax plan

Daily Planet wire services
Saturday February 10, 2001

Progressive Caucus Vice Chair Congresswoman Barbara Lee joined her caucus colleagues in unveiling a10-year, $900 billion tax cut that benefits all Americans equally.  

The “American People’s Dividend,” presented by the Progressive Caucus, proposes a $300 tax credit for every man, woman and child in America.  

The Progressive Caucus plan is part of a larger budget framework that will protect Social Security and Medicare, pay down the federal debt, provide tax credits, and vastly increase spending on education, health care, housing, alternative energy, and veterans programs. 

"It is evident that President Bush’s Plan will help the very rich far more than others," said Lee. "President Bush’s Tax Plan leaves out childless couples, senior citizens, stay-at-home mothers and the very poor." 

Economists agree that Bush’s tax cut plan will cost somewhere between $2.0 and $2.7 trillion rather than the $1.6 trillion claimed.  

The Bush Tax Plan uses almost the entire projected budget surplus for tax cuts, 43 percent of which go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, while giving little to nothing to those in the lowest tax brackets. Under the Bush plan, a low-income family of four making less than $13,000 per year would receive less than $100 in tax credit. 

Under the American People’s Dividend, the same family would receive $300 hundred per person, amounting to $1,200 – a difference of $1,100. 

“President Bush’s Tax Plan is ‘Reaganomics’ revisited,” Lee said.  

“We learned during the 1980s that a huge tax cut for the wealthy, particularly when combined with a significant increase in military funding, leads to growing deficits and economic instability for the poorest Americans.”  

“‘Trickle Down Economics’ did not work then, and will not work as currently proposed by President Bush.  

“ Our tax plan will stimulate the economy, while protecting Social Security and Medicare, funding federal programs, and leaving enough money to pay off the long term national debt,” she said.  

“With the skyrocketing costs of housing, medicine, college education, and other important and necessary items, we must act now to benefit people who need this tax credit to enhance the quality of their lives,”Lee said.


Map shows estimated epicenters of quakes

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles and San Francisco have been damaged at least six times by major earthquakes in the past 200 years but the mighty San Andreas Fault has been relatively quiet in recent decades, according to a new map of historical temblors. 

The map shows the estimated epicenters of more than 800 quakes of magnitude-5 or above, along with areas that were shaken strongly enough to suffer building damage. 

The quakes occurred between 1800 and 1999. The map cannot be used to predict earthquakes but it does point out areas that have been historically active, said Tousson Toppozada, a senior seismologist with the state Department of Conservation’s Division of Mines and Geology. 

It “tells you where the risk is highest,” he said. “It can be used by planners, city and county officials who are concerned. It can be used in site studies for critical structures like hospitals and schools,” he said. 

However, quake damage can occur far from the epicenter depending on factors such as the temblor’s magnitude and how its energy is released. 

For example, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the Santa Cruz Mountains caused a freeway to collapse 55 miles away. 

“A map that just shows epicenters wouldn’t tell you whether other areas had been damaged, or how often they have been damaged. This map provides that information,” Jim Davis, a state geologist who heads the mines division, said in a news release. 

The map was released a day before the anniversary of the Feb. 9, 1971, San Fernando quake. The 6.7-magnitude temblor killed 65 people. 

More than 20 years in the making, the map used earthquake information recorded by instruments. For older quakes, estimates of the epicenters and damage were made based on reports in travelers’ journals, mission records and Gold Rush-era newspapers, Toppozada said. 

The map shows that, on average, California has been jarred by a quake of magnitude-6 or higher every year since 1850, Toppozada said. 

Since 1800, earthquakes capable of damaging unreinforced buildings have occurred at least six times in the Los Angeles area north to San Fernando, San Francisco Bay area to Santa Cruz, and the region from Eureka to Cape Mendocino. 

A 1999 U.S. Geological Survey study concluded that there is a 70 percent chance that a large earthquake will shake the Bay area in the next 30 years. 

The study found that the rate of large quakes in the region dropped after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, probably because it released strain on local faults.  

But the study said strain on those faults has been slowly building and strong quakes began to occur in the 1980s. 

The new map shows that the San Andreas Fault system has been relatively quiet in the past 90 years compared to a century earlier. 

 

That “raises the red flag” that the fault could be building up pressure and could be helpful as scientists determine whether a major fault will erupt on the fault in the next 30 years, Toppozada said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.consrv.ca.gov/dmg/geohaz/ms49.htm 


Dog owners’ apartment searched

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — Investigators have searched the apartment of the owners of the dogs that fatally attacked their neighbor, Diane Whipple, outside her apartment two weeks ago. 

KGO-TV is reporting that investigators searched the apartment of Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller on Friday and removed boxes of evidence. It is not clear what was recovered. 

“I only wish it were done sooner,” said Michael Cardoza, an attorney for Sharon Smith, Whipple’s partner. “Now that the D.A.’s homicide team is involved, we’re pleased.” 

Whipple died Jan. 26 in her apartment hallway after being attacked by the two mastiff-Canary Island dogs.  

Prosecutors are still mulling charges against Noel and Knoller, who are both attorneys. 

In another development, police said they have solid evidence that one of the dogs had a history of biting. 

A former tenant of the Pacific Heights building was passing by the dogs when one of them lunged and bit him. Police Lt. Henry Hunter said the skin was not broken, but there was swelling and bruising. 

The owners of the dogs are under investigation to determine if they knew of any dangerous tendencies the animals might have had, according to District Attorney Terence Hallinan.  

He has said they could face manslaughter charges in Whipple’s death under a state law regarding dogs trained to fight, attack or kill. 

Cardoza expects to file suit against the couple within a month. 

The canines involved in Whipple’s death are part of a fighting-dog ring in which dogs were bred for such jobs as protecting illicit drug labs.  

The ring was run by two white supremacist inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, and in a bizarre twist, Noel and Knoller recently adopted one of the inmates, 38-year-old Paul John Schneider.


Cost from Capitol crash could top $8 million mark

Staff
Saturday February 10, 2001

The Associated Press 

 

SACRAMENTO — Damage caused by a truck driver who rammed his 18-wheeler into the state Capitol last month could top $8 million, a legislator said Friday. 

The General Services Department has estimated damage to the Capitol at $5 million to $8 million, said Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Rules Committee. 

He has since been told it will be at the upper end of that range. 

“It could run even higher,” Cardoza said. “It’s amazing how quickly it adds up. The first day’s tally was $2-to-$3 million, then it was $3-to-$5 (million), now it’s $5-to-$8 (million).” 

The preliminary damage estimate didn’t include the cost to fight the resulting fire or the cost of investigating the crash, the Merced Democrat said. 

Driver Mike Bowers, 37, of Hemet, was killed but no one else was injured when his big rig struck the Capitol’s south porch Jan. 16 as the Assembly was adjourning for the night. 

Bowers’ employer, Dick Simon Trucking Inc. of Salt Lake City, has a $50 million insurance policy on its drivers, and the state will seek reimbursement from the insurance company once all the costs have been tallied, said Cardoza, whose committee oversees maintenance of the Capitol. 

The California Highway Patrol has spent $179,724 on the crash, $175,000 of that for personnel costs, spokeswoman Anne DaVico said Friday. The CHP investigation and resulting costs are continuing, she said. 

The Sacramento Metro Fire Department determined Friday that its total cost is $23,194, said spokesman Capt. Don Braziel. Costs to other agencies, including Sacramento police, weren’t available Friday. 

The company’s insurer made an early offer to settle the claim but the state rejected it as premature, Cardoza said. He said that decision turned out to be wise, because costs keep mounting. 

Jeff Abernathy, the trucking company’s security manager, said he couldn’t comment Friday because he hadn’t seen the damage estimates. Abernathy said neither the company’s insurer nor its attorney would comment. He would not reveal the name of the insurance company. 

Water used to fight the fire flooded the Capitol’s elevator shafts, which had to be repeatedly pumped as water seeped back in from the surrounding substructure, Cardoza said. 

The elevators had to be checked for damage, mold had to be contained and plaster replaced. 

The state archivist had to specially treat old books, antiques and other artifacts in the historic governor’s office because smoke contains damaging acids. 

“That is an incredibly expensive process, so we don’t even know yet all of the different costs that are involved,” Cardoza said. 

He has scheduled a Feb. 22 hearing to gather what he hopes will be final damage estimates. 


Ennis Cosby’s convicted killer confesses, drops appeal

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

LOS ANGELES — The convicted killer of Bill Cosby’s son has withdrawn his appeal and confessed that he murdered Ennis Cosby, an act which he called “great wickedness” in a letter to authorities that was released Friday. 

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley announced the development after Mikhail Markhasev and his lawyer filed a notice in appeals court that they were abandoning efforts to reverse Markhasev’s conviction. 

In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Kyle Brodie, the 22-year-old Markhasev apologized to the victim’s family and said he wanted to abandon his appeal and admit his guilt. 

“Although my appeal is in its beginning stages, I don’t want to continue with it because it’s based on falsehood and deceit,” said Markhasev’s hand-written letter. “I am guilty and I want to do the right thing.” 

Markhasev added, “More than anything I want to apologize to the victim’s family. It is my duty as a Christian and it’s the least I can do after the great wickedness for which I’m responsible. This is way overdue and although my apology is too late, it’s still the right thing to do.” 

Ennis Cosby, 27, a graduate student at Columbia University, was home on vacation when he was shot to death while fixing a flat tire near a freeway offramp in January 1997. 

Markhasev, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, was convicted of the shooting in which Cosby was a target of opportunity. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

After the conviction, Markhasev’s lawyer tried to win a new trial on grounds that incriminating letters used against him had been forged by another convict. But that attempt was rejected. 

Cosby’s family had no comment, spokesman Joel Brokaw said. “This is an extremely rare event,” Brodie told a news conference. He said he knew of no other case in which a defendant has made such an explicit post-conviction confession to a prosecutor. 

Deputy District Attorney Anne Ingalls, who handled the case, said she had no doubt that the letter of confession was penned by Markhasev because “I recognized the handwriting.” She said she always believed she had an “airtight case.” 

As for Markhasev’s motivation, Cooley said, “It falls in the category of confession is good for the soul.” 

In his letter, Markhasev said he had tried to get a message to the Cosby family about a month ago but does not believe they received word that he wanted to confess. 

“I’m not coming to you with guile or hidden agendas,” Markhasev said. “This is as simple and plain as I can get. ... This is not about me, but about those whose lives I’ve marred and my motive is to at least try to mend the things which I’ve destroyed.” 

 


Court hearing could result in electricity rate hike

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

While legislators continue to debate plans to help the state’s debt-ridden utilities avoid bankruptcy, a federal court judge could take the matter into his own hands Monday and order an increase of nearly 50 percent in electricity rates. 

Southern California Edison says the increase is needed so it can recover the billions of dollars it owes power generators. Edison wants the increase to begin within seven days of the judge’s ruling, before a hearing can be held on the underlying merits of its case. 

The utility is arguing that if the court later rules against Edison or lowers the amount granted, refunds could be made. 

Edison sued the state Public Utilities Commission last November for refusing to lift a rate freeze that has been in effect since the state deregulated its utilities in 1996. The company wants to pass to ratepayers wholesale electricity costs, which have skyrocketed since last summer. 

The lawsuit is scheduled to be heard in U.S. District Court on Monday, and if a ruling in Edison’s favor is issued the state is expected to appeal. 

A similar lawsuit filed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was recently transferred to the same court. Both cases are likely to be consolidated, although that hasn’t happened yet. 

Edison won a preliminary victory in its lawsuit in January when U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew agreed with the utility’s central claim that regulating wholesale rates was a federal – not a state – concern. But he allowed the PUC to pursue a claim that Edison ignored opportunities to buy electricity at a lower cost. 

The PUC is opposing Edison’s application in part because it has not finished its review of the company’s power purchases. 

Edison had originally sought a rate increase to help it recover past costs as well as cover any current cost overruns. After the state committed $10 billion to buy power on behalf of the utilities last week, Edison dropped the demand for current compensation. It is now seeking a smaller rate increase it says is needed to recoup about $2.5 billion in past costs. 

The PUC argues that if the injunction is granted and Edison recoups its costs within one year, rates would rise by about 3 cents per kilowatt hour – a nearly 50 percent hike. Ratepayers now pay a state-capped 6.5 cents for the cost of power, which doesn’t include additional costs for transmission and service. 

Edison says it wants to spread those costs over three years, raising rates by a more modest 1 cent per kilowatt hour. 

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said late Thursday he will ask the court to deny Edison’s request or at least delay a ruling while the state debates several plans to reduce the debt incurred by Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric. 

The legislature is considering several options, including buying the state’s transmission grid from the utilities. 

“The situation which the governor and Legislature face is already complex, and granting SCE the relief it now seeks will simply create a new obstacle around which the state must navigate,” Lockyer’s court filing states. 

Lockyer also told the court that thanks to recent state action Edison no longer faces the threat of imminent bankruptcy and should not be granted any immediate rate hike. 

Lockyer and the PUC also both argue that Edison should not be allowed to alter an agreement it entered freely in 1996. 

“Edison zealously advocated and lobbied for the enactment of AB 1890 (the deregulation bill), knowing full well that AB 1890 froze rates and created risks for utilities,” the PUC states in its court filing. 

The PUC also argues that Edison “reaped billions of dollars in excess revenues as a result of the regulatory scheme it now attacks.” 

A recent independent audit commissioned by the PUC revealed that since 1996, Edison transferred $4.8 billion to its parent corporation, Edison International, which used the money to pay debt, buy back stock and issue dividends to shareholders. 

 

DEVELOPMENTS 

• California power regulators brace for an electricity-sucking cold snap stretching well into next week that could make it even tougher for the state to draw much-needed power from the Pacific Northwest. 

• The strapped power grid remains under a Stage 3 alert with reserves threatening to fall below 1.5 percent. No blackouts are expected. 

• Duke Energy files a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles challenging Gov. Gray Davis’ authority to commandeer long-term power contracts owned by financially struggling Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. 

• A group of power suppliers sues in federal court in Los Angeles resisting the California Power Exchange’s attempt to make them pay nearly $1 billion in bills owed by Edison and PG&E. 

• Three power wholesalers, Reliant Energy, Dynegy and Mirant, form a committee to consider their options for obtaining payment for energy purchased by the Independent System Operator, which oversees the state’s power grid, and by Edison and PG&E. 

• Davis says that by the end of next week he expects to have agreement among state officials, SoCal Edison and PG&E on a plan to help the two utilities pay off their debts. 

• The state stands by its refusal to pay for the last-minute emergency electricity purchases the state power grid makes on behalf of Edison and PG&E. Southern California Edison CEO John Bryson tells lawmakers at an Assembly oversight hearing that his company can’t afford the high bills. 

• Also at the Assembly energy hearing, Bryson defends his company’s decision to issue dividends in September while the utility was facing extremely high wholesale costs.  

Failing to pay them would have scared off lenders, he testifies. 

— Robert D. Glynn, head of PG&E Corp., the parent of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., tells the Assembly panel that the parent company has not hidden its assets. PG&E Corp. restructured to let non-utility subsidiaries get separate credit ratings, but those entities are still fully owned by the parent company, Glynn says. 

— Law enforcement officials give the Davis administration their plan for enforcing an energy conservation mandate issued last week by Davis. It will take effect by mid-March. 

The executive order mandates $1,000 fines for retailers who fail to “substantially reduce” outdoor lighting after business hours. The goal is to reduce retail outdoor lighting demand by 50 percent. 

Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman, president of the California State Sheriffs Association, says law enforcement wants to work with businesses, with an emphasis on rewarding those that dim their lights. 

— The California Energy Commission announces a new Web site, www.consumerenergycenter.org, aimed at helping consumers conserve power. 

— Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, introduces legislation that would double penalties for crimes committed during blackouts and give law enforcement advance notice so they can flood blackout areas with patrol cars. 

 

WHAT’S NEXT: 

— A federal hearing is scheduled Monday in Los Angeles to consider an Edison lawsuit seeking to pass its high wholesale costs onto customers. PG&E has filed a similar lawsuit. State lawmakers, concerned that the utility may prevail in the case, hope to devise a debt-relief plan before the hearing. 

— The state’s Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency start an outreach campaign next week, sending e-mails to 80,000 associations, chambers of commerce, and economic development organizations that will in turn pass the message on to more than 300,000 businesses. 

— U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. holds a hearing Friday in Sacramento on the ISO’s attempt to continue requiring three major wholesalers to sell it power. He is weighing whether to replace his temporary restraining order against the three utilities into a preliminary injunction, the next step before a permanent injunction. 

— The governor expects to reach agreement by Friday on a plan to help Edison and PG&E pay off their debts. 

 

THE PROBLEM: 

— High wholesale power costs, high demand, transmission glitches and a tight supply worsened by scarce hydroelectric power in the Northwest and maintenance at aging California power plants are factors in the crisis. 

Much of the problem is blamed on the state’s 1996 utility deregulation law, which required the state’s investor-owned utilities to sell their power plants and buy wholesale power, but capped the rates they can charge customers. At the same time, no new power plants were built in California. 

Edison and PG&E say they’ve lost nearly $13 billion due to soaring wholesale prices and are on the brink of bankruptcy. Electricity and natural gas suppliers, worried by the two utilities’ poor credit ratings, are refusing to sell to them, leading the state to start buying power for the utilities’ nearly 9 million residential and business customers. 


Natural gas shortages may occur

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in Northern and Central California could face natural gas shortages by next month – or as soon as next week if a cold front hits – the power company warned. 

The problem intensified when companies that supply about 10 percent of PG&E’s gas terminated deliveries after Tuesday expiration of a U.S. Energy Department order that required suppliers to continue providing gas to PG&E. 

The utility’s chief executive, Gordon R. Smith, sent a letter to Gov. Gray Davis late Wednesday asking him to support PG&E’s request to state regulators for an emergency declaration that would require Southern California Gas Co. to buy extra gas and sell it to the financially ailing utility. 

Smith also asked the governor to use the state’s credit to help buy gas for PG&E’s residential users and other core customers. 

Davis is reviewing the request, a spokesman said Thursday.  

The California Public Utilities Commission declined to take up PG&E’s request at its Thursday meeting. 

Without enough supplies, many of PG&E’s 3.9 million gas customers and entire cities, from the Bay Area and Sacramento to Fresno, face potential shortages of gas for furnaces, stoves and clothes dryers. 

 

 

Because electricity-generating plants that burn gas, along with hospitals and industrial users, are among the “noncore” customers whose supplies would be reduced or curtailed first, any gas crisis could affect electricity supplies. 

PG&E projects that its gas storage inventory will be drawn down to minimum levels by mid-March. Even before then, executives said, diversions from noncore customers could occur, especially if cold weather increases demand for heat. 

Projected temperatures of 39 degrees to 40 degrees would place a core load on PG&E’s system of 2.1 billion cubic feet. The utility has about 1 billion cubic feet on contract and can draw 950 million additional cubic feet from supplies. 


Court reconsiders background check for reporters

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

FRESNO — Mariposa court officials are reviewing a policy requiring criminal background checks for reporters covering the case of Yosemite killer Cary Stayner. 

News editors who were surprised to hear about the novel restriction imposed on the media – but not on other members of the public – challenged the measure Friday that they claim violates the Constitution.  

A public interest group concerned about free press issues said the county may have violated the civil rights of reporters. 

Editors at the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News wrote letters Friday officially protesting the constraint, and editors at The Fresno Bee planned to phone the court to challenge the policy. 

“Any citizen can go watch a trial,” said San Francisco Chronicle Managing Editor Jerry Roberts.  

“To try and impose some special restrictions and sanctions on news organizations because they’re covering a trial is a clear violation of the protections of a free press.” 

County officials said they required the background checks for security purposes in the historic little courthouse in the foothills of the Sierra. 

No threats have been made on Stayner’s life, but county officials wanted to make sure there were no rogues in the gallery. 

Michael Berest, the court’s executive officer, said he thought he was following the procedure used during Stayner’s case in U.S. District Court in Fresno.  

But federal court officials said they never checked to see if reporters had criminal records. 

“It is being re-evaluated,” Berest said Friday.  

“We understand the concerns that have been raised and we are looking at it very seriously.” 

No member of the media had questioned the policy until The Associated Press protested  

this week.  

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the press and public to attend criminal trials for years, said Kent Pollock, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition. 

The coalition – a network of citizens, journalists, attorneys and public officials concerned with open government, free speech and free press – lodged a letter of complaint with Mariposa County.  

Pollock said the group would be willing to file a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of reporters who had consented to the background check. 

“By requiring background checks on reporters and not the general public, the county is imposing a highly intrusive, utterly arbitrary invasion of privacy on professionals whose work is protected from governmentally imposed burdens,” Pollock wrote in a letter to the county counsel. 

At least 16 reporters had passed the criminal background check by Thursday, after their fingerprints were analyzed by a Department of Justice computer, said Lt. Brian Muller of the Mariposa Sheriff’s Department. 

Berest said a Friday deadline to submit fingerprints for analysis was on hold as court officials reviewed the policy. 

Stayner, who is serving a life sentence for murdering Yosemite naturalist Armstrong, faces trial in Mariposa on charges that he murdered three tourists visiting the park. 

Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and their friend, Silvina Pelosso, disappeared while staying on the outskirts of the park at the Cedar Lodge, where Stayner worked as a handyman.  

Their bodies were found a month later and Stayner reportedly confessed to the killings. 

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 5 in the case, but is likely to be postponed.  

Stayner’s lawyer filed a motion to continue the case until April 26. Prosecutors are not contesting the motion, said defense lawyer Marcia A. Morrissey.


Bush’s Arctic drilling plan a hard sell

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

WASHINGTON — To win the centerpiece of his energy plan, President Bush will have to change some minds among seven Republican senators who staunchly oppose oil drilling in Alaska’s pristine Arctic wildlife refuge. 

That’s in addition to penetrating an almost solid wall of Democratic opposition and overcoming intense lobbying from environmentalists who have made protection of the Arctic refuge their top priority, people on both sides of the issue agree. 

“We’ve got a lot of selling to do,” the president acknowledged recently. 

Bush, a former oilman, has made drilling in the now off-limits Arctic National Wildlife Refuge the focus of a campaign to boost domestic energy production, arguing that drilling and wildlife preservation can go hand in hand. 

But some members of the president’s own party have made clear their distaste for exploitation of the Alaska refuge. 

Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire is among the lawmakers bracing for a high-powered pitch from the White House. He says he won’t be swayed. 

A Republican energy bill, to be introduced next week in the Senate, will include as its core proposal the development of the refuge’s 1.5 million acre coastal plain where geologists believe 11 billion barrels of crude oil may be waiting. 

Democrats already have indicated they’re prepared to filibuster, if necessary, any legislation that includes the refuge issue. “It’s kryptonite and will kill the energy bill,” predicts Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. 

Congress set aside the refuge’s coastal plain for protection 41 years ago and oil companies have been lobbying to gain access to the tundra just east of the Prudhoe Bay oilfields ever since.  

Environmentalists view it as a national treasure not to be disturbed, citing the annual migration of caribou and numerous migratory birds to the refuge’s coast along the ice-filled Beaufort Sea. 

 

While Bush’s victory in November gave new impetus to lifting the congressional ban, Senate elections the same day made it more difficult. 

Six Republicans and one Democrat who favored development of the refuge either lost their bids for re-election or retired. Two of them — Attorney General John Ashcroft and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham — are now part of the Bush Cabinet. They were all replaced by Democrats opposed to drilling. 

On the other hand, all but one of the eight anti-drilling Republicans are back, showing little sign of shifting sides. Along with Smith, they are Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, James Jeffords of Vermont, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Richard Lugar of Indiana. 

The lone GOP drilling opponent who lost — Delaware’s William Roth — was defeated by a Democrat with the same stance. Only in Nevada and Virginia did the pro-drilling forces make gains with the election of two GOP senators — John Ensign and George Allen — who are likely to be in their camp. 

Three Democratic senators have made clear their support for developing the refuge: Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, both of Hawaii and John Breaux of Louisiana. 

Last year, pro-drilling forces won a narrow 51-49 symbolic vote on drilling in the refuge as part of a budget bill. With the changes produced by last November’s election, that vote now would be 54-46 against drilling. 

Public attitudes, according to various surveys, indicate voters prefer the Alaska refuge be protected. A recent Associated Press poll showed 53 percent of those responding were against oil drilling there, while 33 favored development. 

“I don’t think the case has been made,” said Collins, the Maine senator, in an interview. “We need to look at other ways to increase production and conserve more energy and develop alternative energy sources.” 

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, who will guide energy legislation through the Senate and for years has been a staunch advocate for drilling in the refuge, says he thinks he can win some anti-drilling senators to his side. 

He’s circulating invitations to senators to join him in a trip there, perhaps as early as next month. If they see it for the barren land that it is, they might be convinced oil can be drilled there using modern technology without doing environmental harm, he argues. 

Snowe says she might take Murkowski up on the invitation but doesn’t believe the trip will change her mind. “There are other steps that can be taken,” she says. 


Military grant boosts research on personal flying craft

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

SAN JOSE — The small Silicon Valley company developing a personal flying machine has gotten an important boost in its effort to make the sci-fi dream a reality: a $5 million grant from the military. 

The SoloTrek Exo-Skeletor Flying Vehicle being developed by Millennium Jet Inc. has not been tested in the air yet, though it has been undergoing rigorous testing in a NASA wind tunnel.But the project is showing enough promise to attract the interest of the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA), which hopes the SoloTrek someday can help soldiers get around obstacles or avoid dangerous situations. 

“It’s incredibly exciting,” said Michael Moshier, an aerospace engineer and former Navy combat pilot who founded Sunnyvale-based Millennium Jet five years ago and has been pouring his own money into it. DARPA’s funding will come over the next three years, allowing special forces troops to to do further testing after that. 

But don’t strap on your helmet just yet: Consumer use – if ever – would come much later. 

The SoloTrek is one of many projects being considered for a DARPA program called Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation. It aims to find technologies that will help troops maneuver better and carry more firepower and supplies. 

“Systems with varying degrees of sophistication may be explored, from an unpowered mechanical apparatus to full-powered mechanical suits,” according to a description on a DARPA Web page.  

The agency won’t comment further about the program. 

If the SoloTrek works as designed, it would take off and land like a helicopter and transport its user in a standing position. The pilot would stand on two footrests, lean on a sliding backrest and grip handles that control the tilt and speed of Hula Hoop-sized ducts that blow air. 

The 7-foot-6-inch tall aircraft would have a 10.5-gallon fuel tank and a top speed of about 80 mph. It would be able to stay up for three hours, and travel about 120 miles. 

NASA has been helping with engineering and testing, but for the most part, the project has been built on the dreams and sweat of Moshier and his chief engineer, Rob Bulaga. The company is adding employees, in hopes of bringing the total number to seven. 

Moshier estimates that even with the DARPA funding, Millennium Jet needs to raise another $3 million over the next three years to stay alive. 

The next step for the SoloTrek is to be put through what Moshier calls a “high-power static thrust test,” in which a test pilot will fire the prototype up to full power for the first time. The machine will remain chained to the ground, however, while researchers measure its thrust. 

If all goes well, by late spring or early summer Moshier hopes to begin “tethered hover testing” – the SoloTrek would be propelled off the ground for the first time, but still leashed to the ground. 

“It’ll be the first time we’ll see daylight under the tires, so to speak,” Moshier said with a laugh Friday. “We’re continuing to push the envelope one step at a time.” 

On the Net: 

http://www.millenniumjet.com 

http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/md/Exoskeletons/index.html 


Appeals court to rule Monday on Napster

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — The federal appeals panel considering Napster Inc.’s fate will issue its ruling Monday in the high profile music-sharing lawsuit, the court announced Friday. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a decision by the three-judge panel will be released by 11 a.m. The decision is to be posted at the court’s Internet site at www.ce9.uscourts.gov. 

The court, which in the past year has issued rulings in favor of technology despite concerns of copyright infringement, national security and Internet monopolies, heard the recording industry’s case in October against the Napster site that acts as a gateway for millions of online surfers to exchange and record copyrighted music. 

The recording industry wants Napster shut down, alleging it is contributing to widespread copyright infringement. The panel could remove Napster from the Internet or allow it to keep operating. 

Napster maintains it is just providing a service for users to share music and not all of the music is copyright protected. 

The recording industry has accused the Redwood City-based company of copyright infringement and wants the giveaway stopped. Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, issued a statement Friday regarding the upcoming ruling. 

“We’re confident that the Ninth Circuit understands the severity of our claim and will uphold the decision of the U.S. Federal Court.  

Monday’s decision may finally clear the way for the legitimate online marketplace to thrive in an environment that encourages both creativity and a respect for copyright,” Rosen said. 

 

The 9th Circuit temporarily halted a federal judge’s July order shutting down Napster so it could decide for itself whether Napster could continue operating while the recording industry’s case against it proceeds in court. 

On the Net: 

http://www.napster.com 

Recording Industry Association of America: http://www.riaa.com 


Tax papers can be extended, not the payment

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

WASHINGTON — From credit cards to installment plans, the Internal Revenue Service offers taxpayers several options if they can’t pay their tax bills in full. 

Those who are unable to file their tax return by midnight April 16 – the traditional date of April 15 is a Sunday – also can ask for an automatic four-month extension.  

That extension, however, doesn’t apply to any taxes owed, which must be paid on time. 

“Filing for an extension does give taxpayers some extra time to make sure all of their paperwork is in order, but it doesn’t push back the deadline to send the IRS a tax payment,” said Kathy Burlison, senior tax specialist at H&R Block.  

“In fact, you are required to estimate what you owe and send that amount with your extension form to the IRS.” 

Any tax liability that isn’t paid by the April 16 due date could be subject to interest and a late penalty, she added.  

Taxpayers should use IRS Form 4868 to request an extension. For another two months – the IRS doesn’t automatically grant these – use form 2688. 

There are a variety of ways to pay a tax bill: 

• Credit Card. Taxpayers can use American Express, MasterCard or Discover to charge taxes due by calling either Official Payments Corp. at 1 (800) 2PAY-TAX (272-9829) or PhoneCharge Inc. at 1 (888) ALLTAXX (255-8299). A convenience fee is applied; Visa is not participating in the program. 

Tax experts say people should carefully consider the interest rate on a credit card when deciding whether to use it.  

An IRS installment agreement currently charges 9 percent interest plus a late penalty of one-half percent – one-quarter percent for taxpayers who filed returns on time – compared to some credit card interest rates of 18 percent or higher. 

• Installment agreement. IRS Form 9465 is used to request such a payment plan, which is guaranteed for taxpayers whose total liability doesn’t exceed $10,000, haven’t had an installment plan in the last five years and agree to pay the bill within three years or less, among other requirements.  

Interest, late payment penalties and a $43 processing fee also apply. 

• Offer in compromise. For large unpaid tax liabilities, the IRS may accept a lesser amount if the taxpayer can’t pay.  

Form 656 is used to make such an offer, and the debt can often be paid off over time with fixed monthly payments. If a taxpayer defaults, the entire original tax liability plus interest and penalties will be reinstated. 

• Direct debit. Taxpayers who file returns electronically can have their taxes due debited by the IRS from a checking or savings account.  

Taxpayers can specify the date for the debit, meaning they can file their return early and then wait until April 16 to pay the bill.


Market Watch

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

NEW YORK — News that Motorola plans to cut up to 4,000 additional jobs sent the stock market down sharply Friday as investors grew more pessimistic about the prospects of a quick turnaround for the economy and company earnings. 

Pharmaceutical and financial stocks advanced, but not enough to offset the broader downturn that began early in the session on reports that Dell Computer was also pondering layoffs. Analysts said investors, still unable to take many chances, were again shifting away from technology to sectors viewed as less risky. 

“The focus is on the near term. Are we going to go into a recession and who is going to warn next about bad earnings,” said Robert Streed, portfolio manager at Northern Select Equity. “This is another excuse to take profits, especially on the technology side, where you had some significant gains last month.” 

All three major indexes are now within a handful of points of where they started 2001. The Dow is slightly down for the year. 

Motorola’s announcement Friday wasn’t a huge surprise, given the semiconductor and wireless technology company’s previously disclosed 5,000-plus job cuts.  

— The Associated Press 

But it accelerated a technology selloff already under way on more general concerns that the sector will suffer in the months ahead as businesses and consumers spend less. 

Motorola fell 92 cents to $18.90. 

Dell dropped $2.56 to $23.50, a 10 percent loss, on a Wall Street Journal article that the computer maker was considering job cuts. 

Future performance worries also hurt Nortel Networks, which fell $2.20 to $30.50, and Oracle, down $3.56, or 13 percent, at $23.56. 

The market has been struggling for months with worries about profits and whether stocks are fairly valued in light of the slowing economy. Two interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve last month helped spur some strong technology gains, but the rally has since faltered. 

“It just seems like there hasn’t been any good news for a while in technology, and these are the latest examples,” said Charles Pradilla, chief investment strategist at SG Cowen Securities. “The earnings news and the announcements we’ve heard in this sector have been overwhelmingly negative. 

“There really isn’t a reason for these stocks to move higher right now.” 

The financial and drug sectors were stronger, reflecting investors’ desire for less volatile stocks. Banker J.P. Morgan Chase rose 27 cents to $51.95, while pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson climbed 35 cents to $94.98. Utilities also benefited; Duke Energy climbed 27 cents to $41.30. 

But retailers trailed for a second session after Thursday’s selloff on worries that the sector will struggle in a sluggish economy. Wal-Mart dropped $1.90 to $50.40. 

Also Friday, Lucent fell $1.53 to $15.36, a 9 percent drop, on a Journal report that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating accounting practices at the company. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 17 to 13 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 1.28 billion shares, down from 1.32 billion Thursday. 

The Russell 2000 index fell 5.84 to 497.05. 

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 2.6 percent. Germany’s DAX index was dropped 2.1 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 slipped 0.7 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell nearly1.1 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com 

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com 


Lampley’s buzzer-beater downs OSU in overtime

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Sean Lampley scored a career-high 32 points and hit the game winning 3-pointer with under a second left to give California a 72-69 overtime victory over Oregon State. 

Jason Heide scored a career-high 23 points to lead Oregon State (8-14, 2-8 Pac-10), which only had seven players in uniform. Sophomore Emonte Jernigan did not play, while point guard Deaundra Tanner did not dress for the game because of a two-game suspension for breaking an unspecified team rule. 

With one second to play in regulation, Adam Masten inbounded to Jimmy Haywood, who dribbled once and hit a layup to tie the game at 62 and force overtime. 

Solomon Hughes rebounded a 3-point attempt by teammate Joe Shipp and banked in a 6-footer to put California (16-6, 7-3) ahead 69-68 with 24 seconds in overtime. 

Heide was then fouled by Hughes, and hit one of two free throws to tie the score. 

The Golden Bears then inbounded the ball to Shantay Legans, who brought the ball up and found Lampley at the top of the key for the 3-pointer. 

After Heide hit two free throws to tie the score at 60 with 40.3 seconds remaining, Lampley backed Heide down at the other end and drew a foul. Lampley made both free throws with 10.6 seconds left to give the Bears the lead. 

Heide tried to answer at the other end, but his fade-away 12-footer was blocked out of bounds by Lampley, setting up Haywood’s layup.


Workers organize new union

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet Staff
Friday February 09, 2001

Perhaps labor martyr Joe Hill’s not dead after all. 

The International Workers of the World, better known as the wobblies, announced Thursday they have organized a union at Berkeley’s Community Conservation Centers.  

The 16 new union members sort and sell the recycled goods the city collects from its citizens, then sells the goods for re-use.  

The dozen or so recyclers who work for the Ecology Center have been members of the IWW since 1989. 

“We voted yesterday,” said CCC employee Ron Wynn. Wynn does a little bit of everything at CCC – he drives a forklift, sorts materials and works shifts overseeing the recycling center at Dwight and Martin Luther King Jr. ways.  

With a union contract, there will be “better pay, more benefits for us and our families, and better working conditions,” he said. 

The employees had wanted to form a union the easy way, by card check, with the workers filling out cards authorizing a union. If a majority completes the cards, then the employer must accept a union. But the employer must accept the card check process. 

Jeffrey Belchamber, CCC general manager, didn’t. So the union had the National Labor Relations Board hold a vote Wednesday. With one employee absent, all the workers voted for the union. 

Belchamber said he didn’t see the need for a union. “I think that I’ve been a fair manager,” he said. Union negotiations will take time away from his other duties, he said. “I hope people will be reasonable and educated,” he said. 

Steve Ongerth, branch secretary for the IWW, contends that the CCC does not pay its workers a “living wage,” a minimum wage mandated by the city for businesses that contract with it, but Belchamber strongly disagreed. “They don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re ignorant,” he said. 

Berkeley’s Finance Director Fran David said the city does not have staff to track businesses to oversee which ones comply with the ordinance. The council decided that “essentially enforcement will be complaint driven,” she said. 

Ongerth boasts that the IWW, founded in 1905, is a radical union. Organizers are unpaid, so union dues are low he said. They organize everyone within one industry, so that unions are not in competition with each other.  

As for the long history of the union – with which singer-songwritier Joe Hill was an organizer – it’s “one of the first to call for an eight-hour day,” he said. The union opposed the Chinese exclusion act, fought for child labor laws and was “one of the first unions to organize woman,” Ongerth said.


Calendar of Events & Activities

— compiled by Chason Wainwrigh
Friday February 09, 2001


Friday, Feb. 9

 

 

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 

 

Introducing: Julia Morgan  

School for Girls 

7:30 - 8:30 a.m. 

Julia Morgan School for Girls 

Holy Names College 

Sky Room, Durocher Hall 

3510 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A select gathering of business and professional women devoted to fostering leadership in the young girls in our community.  

 


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. 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  

 

Dreams & Intuition 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

1502 Tenth St.  

Marcia Emery, Ph.D., will discuss how to attune your intuitive dream antenna, intuitively unravel the symbolic message of a dream symbol and apply an intuitive dream interpretation method to the entire dream. $85 526-5510 

 

“The West Wing Meets the East Bay” 

7:30 p.m. 

Saint Joseph the Worker Church 

1640 Addison St.  

A conversation with Martin Sheen. Tickets available at Black Oak Books, Cody’s Books, St. Joseph the Worker Church, and at the door.  

$20 donation 

525-3787  

Annuals for the Dry Garden 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive  

Annie Hayes of Annie’s annuals will suggest some annuals to plant in gardens that are water-deprived during the summer months.  

$15  

Call 643-1924 

 


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  

 

Storyteller Yolanda Rhodes  

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Rhodes performs music-filled stories of African and African-American history and folklore. Part of series of events throughout February to honor Black History Month. Included in admission.  

$5 - $7 Call 642-5132 

 

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 

 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

 

“From Swastika to Jim Crow” 

2 - 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Due to the depression and anti-Semitism in the ‘30s, many Jewish “refugee scholars” found they had difficulty finding jobs and were embraced by black universities. Both students and teachers, in the pre-Civil Rights era, found they shared a common experience of living under oppression and a passion for education. Guest speaker Jim McWilliams.  

$2 suggested donation  

Call 848-0237 x127 

 

Why Do a Long Retreat? 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Retreatants from Holland, Brazil, Germany, and other places share how they made the time to participate in two and four month retreats.  

Call 843-6812 

 

African-American “Death of a Salesman” 

Audtions 

1 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. Auditioners are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Museum  

2621 Durant (at Bowditch)  

Featuring poet/photographer Valentine Pierce.  

Call 527-9753 

 

Monday, Feb. 12  

African-American “Death of a Salesman” 

Audtions 

7 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. z are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 

Read Those Plans 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Architect Andus Brandt will instruct how to read architectural plans.  

$35  

Call 525-7610 

 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

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 

 

Faye Carol Sings Lady Day 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St.  

A tribute to Billie Holiday including Lady Day’s most popular songs, including “Strange Fruit,” “Good Morning Heartache,” “God Bless the Child” and “You Let Me Down.” Benefit for KPFA Radio and La Pena Cultural Center.  

$15 

Call 848-6767 x609 or visit www.kpfa.org 

 

Planning Commission Public Hearing  

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

The commission is holding public hearings on the Planning Commission Draft General Plan. The commission requests that all written comments on the plan be submitted by March 1.  

 

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 

 

Natural Conversations 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” Focus on conversations in nature and explore what they are meant to convey.  

$10  

 

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 

 

Climbing Mt. Shasta 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Tim Keating of Sierra Wilderness Seminars will give a slide presentation on climbing and skiing this North California peak.  

Call 527-7377  

 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

 

“Religion, Power & the New Economy”  

1:30 - 3 p.m. 

Chapel of the Great Commission  

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

A panel discussion featuring distinguished GTU alumni/ae, in celebration of Dr. James A. Donahue’s inauguration as President of the GTU.  

Call 649-2400 

 

West CAT Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church  

997 University Ave.  

Review the racial and health disparities issues and see the model of the community capacity building.  

 

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 

 

Rockridge Writers 

3:30 - 5:30 p.m. 

Spasso Coffeehouse  

6021 College Ave.  

Poets and writers meet to critique each other’s work. “Members’ work tends to be dark, humorous, surreal, or strange.”  

e-mail: berkeleysappho@yahoo.com 

 

Valentine’s Dinner Dance Benefit Gala 

4:30 p.m. - 10 p.m. 

Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists hall  

1924 Cedar (at Bonita)  

Dance to the music of Toru Saitu & his band. Benefits BFUU.  

$10 donation  

Call 849-9508 

 

Free Puppet Show  

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health  

2230 Shattuck Ave., Lower Level  

The Kids on the Block, an award-winning puppet troupe that includes puppets of diverse cultures and puppets with medical conditions such as leukemia and spina bifida. Free 

Call 549-1564  

 

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 

 

Kaleidoscope Performances  

2 p.m. 

Julia Morgan Center for the Arts  

2640 College Ave. (at Derby)  

Yassir Chadley, traditional Moroccan musician and Sufi storyteller.  

$5 - $10  

Call 925-798-1300 

 

Healthful Building Materials 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Learn about healthful materials in this seminar conducted by environmental consultant Darrel DeBoer.  

$35  

Call 525-7610 

 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

John Henry, Steel-Driving Puppet 

3:30 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Library  

1901 Russel St.  

Loren and Dean Linnard, using a variety of rod and hand puppets, elaborate sets, and original songs and music, will tell the story of this legendary railroad man.  

Call 649-3943 

 

John Henry, Steel-Driving Puppet 

7 p.m. 

North Branch Berkeley Library  

1170 The Alameda 

Loren and Dean Linnard, using a variety of rod and hand puppets, elaborate sets, and original songs and music, will tell the story of this legendary railroad man.  

Call 649-3943 

 

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 

 

Control Hypertension 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

Summit Medical Center - Summit Campus 

Summit South Cafeteria Conference Room  

3100 Summit St.  

Oakland 

Bessanderson McNeil, MPH, and the Ethnic Health Institute, will help attendees take control of their lives. Free 

Call 204-3443 

 

Sacred Cinema  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave., Chapel Six 

Ken Peer has sought to explore sacred themes and to draw attention to the spiritual lives of individuals from the world’s great wisdom traditions. See three of his short films at this free screening.  

Call 649-2523 

 

John Henry, Steel-Driving Puppet 

3:30 p.m. 

Claremont Library  

2940 Benvenue  

Loren and Dean Linnard, using a variety of rod and hand puppets, elaborate sets, and original songs and music, will tell the story of this legendary railroad man.  

Call 649-3943 

 

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 

 

Rivers of the World  

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Pamela Michael, writer, educator and river conservationist, will highlight her new anthology “The Gift of Rivers: True Stories of Life on the Water,” showing slides of nearly 100 of the world’s great rivers. Free 

Call 527-4140 

 

Growl & Howl of Man & Woman 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” Bring your favorite gender assumptions and put them to the test.  

$10  

 

Agaves & Yuccas 

7 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive 

Mary and Gary Irish, experts on these plants will show you where to find these dry garden plants and how to makes them grow happily.  

$15 

Call 643-1924 

 

John Henry, Steel-Driving Puppet 

3:30 p.m.  

West Branch Berkeley Library  

1125 University Ave.  

Loren and Dean Linnard, using a variety of rod and hand puppets, elaborate sets, and original songs and music, will tell the story of this legendary railroad man.  

Call 649-3943 

 

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 

 

Saturday, Feb. 24 

Tibetan New Year’s Celebration 

6 - 9 p.m. 

Britta Hauenschild gives a flute concert followed by a festive dinner and New Year’s celebration. Proceeds support Nyingma Institute sacred art and education programs.  

$30 suggested donation  

Call 843-6812 

 

Celebrate Samuel H. Day, Jr.  

2 - 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists 

1924 Cedar St. (at Bonita)  

Longtime anti-nuclear activist and journalists, Day was the coordinator of the U.S. campaign to free Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu. Day died suddenly at his home in Madison, Wisconsin on Jan. 26.  

Call 548-3048 or visit www.nukewatch.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 

 

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 

 

Authors in the Library: Lois Silverstein 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Writer and performer, Silverstein, will read selections from “Oh My Darling Daughter,” “Behind the Stove,” and a work-in-progress, “Family Matters.” Discussion and book signing will follow. Free.  

Call 848-0237 x127 

 

Planetary Temples 

8 p.m. 

Shambhala Booksellers  

2482 Telegraph Ave.  

Employee Don Frew will show slides of teh ruined city of Harran. Free 

Call 848-8443 

 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

City Council Meeting 

8 p.m. 

Sheryl Walton of CAT will provide an overview of the CAT and its model to the City Council and Berkeley viewers.  

 

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 

 

Conversations in Commedia 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. (at Prince) 

Mime Troupe founder Ron Davis and icon clown Wavy Gravy give dialogues on satire.  

$6 - $8  

Call 849-2568 

 

Women in Interfaith Relationships  

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Led by Dawn Kepler, this workshop will explore interfaith relationships on many levels, in relation to culture, religion, and gender. People of all backgrounds and orientations are invited to attend.  

$10 

848-0237 x127 

 

Planning Commission Public Hearing  

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

The commission is holding public hearings on the Planning Commission Draft General Plan. The commission requests that all written comments on the plan be submitted by March 1. 

 

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 

 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

 

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 

 

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  

 

Class Dismissed Poetry Posse 

7:30 p.m. 

Little Theater 

Berkeley High School  

2246 Milvia St.  

Afro-Haitian dancers, Dance Production dancers, the BHS poetry slammers, an opening a capella number and a few surprises. A benefit for a Berkeley High school student trip to Cuba.  

$5 - $10  

 

Saturday, March 3 

Rockridge Writers 

3:30 - 5:30 p.m. 

Spasso Coffeehouse  

6021 College Ave.  

Poets and writers meet to critique each other’s work. “Members’ work tends to be dark, humorous, surreal, or strange.”  

e-mail: berkeleysappho@yahoo.com 

 

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

 

Wild About Books? 

10:30 a.m. 

Central Berkeley Library  

2121 Allston Way  

Mary Miche, leader of Song Trek Music, will lead a sing-along that will send everyone home humming.  

Call 649-3913 

 

Sunday, March 4  

Free Sailboat Rides  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Cal Sailing Club 

Berkeley Marina 

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, give free rides on a first come, first served bases on the first full weekend of each month. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and must be accompanies by an adult.  

Visit www.cal-sailing.org  

 

Monday, March 5  

Your Legal Rights with HMOs 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

YWCA Oakland  

1515 Webster St., Second Floor  

Oakland  

Presented by the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, UCSF Cancer Resource Center and the San Francisco Bar Volunteer Legal Services, this free workshop covers what your legal rights are and how to guard them.  

Call 415-885-3693 

 

Beginning Bicyclist Workshop  

7 - 9 p.m. 

YMCA  

2001 Allston Way  

Community Room 1, Main Floor  

Jason Meggs and Zed Lopez will teach you how to keep yourself and your bike safe and even how to use your bike for shopping. Free  

Call Jason Meggs, 549-RIDE 

 

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 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 health, nutrition and science; bioengineering.  

Call 527-5332  

 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

Wednesday, March 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 

 

Women in Interfaith Relationships  

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Led by Dawn Kepler, this workshop will explore interfaith relationships on many levels, in relation to culture, religion, and gender. People of all backgrounds and orientations are invited to attend.  

$10 

848-0237 x127 

 

Thursday, March 8 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Judy Wells and host Dale Jensen.  

644-0155 

 

Friday, March 9  

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 

 

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  

 

Berkeley PC Users Group 

7 p.m. 

Vista College 

2020 Milvia St., Room 303 

E-Mail: meldancing@aol.com 

 

Saturday, March 10  

The Secrets of Sacred Cinema 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave., Mudd 103 

Kevin Peer, a documentary film maker for the past 25 years, gives a two-day intensive for people interested in exploring documentary filmmaking. No equipment or prior experience required.  

$200 per person and registration is required 

Call 486-1480 

 

Sunday, March 11 

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 

 

Myths & Realities of the International House  

3 - 5 p.m. 

Berkeley Historical Society  

1931 Center St.  

Director Joe Lurie will show a video and talk about the history and the struggle to open the International House.  

$10 donation  

Call 848-0181 

 

Walk on the Moon  

2 & 7 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

A mother and daughter explore their identities as they summer in the Catskills in 1969 amidst the news of Woodstock and the first lunar landing. Peer led discussion to follow film.  

$2 suggested donation  

 

Tuesday, March 13  

Berkeley Rep. Proscenium Opening 

8 p.m. 

Berkeley Repertory Theater 

2015 Addison St.  

Featuring the premiere performance of “The Oresteia” by Aeschylus. Opening gala dinner held prior to performance. Performance will be at 8 p.m. 

Call 647-2949 

 

“Great Decisions” - International Health Crisis 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

Wednesday, March 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, March 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  

 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Elanor Watson-Gove and host Mark States.  

644-0155 

 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

 

Friday, March 16  

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 

 

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, March 17  

Rockridge Writers 

3:30 - 5:30 p.m. 

Spasso Coffeehouse  

6021 College Ave.  

Poets and writers meet to critique each other’s work. “Members’ work tends to be dark, humorous, surreal, or strange.”  

e-mail: berkeleysappho@yahoo.com 

 

Tuesday, March 20 

“Great Decisions” - Mexico Reexamined  

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 death and dying in celebration of the Ides of March.  

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 

Wednesday, March 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, March 22  

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Anna Mae Stanley and host Louis Cuneo.  

644-0155 

 

Friday, March 23 

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 

 

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, March 24 

Ashkenaz Dance-A-Thon 

2 p.m. - 2 a.m.  

Ashkenaz  

1370 San Pablo Ave.  

Join Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers along with African, Cajun, North African, Balkan, reggae, and Caribbean bands in this twelve hour dance music-fest. This is Ashkenaz big fundraiser for making improvements, including a new dance floor and ventilation system.  

$20 donation  

525-5054 or visit www.ashkenaz.com  

 

Sunday, March 25 

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 a


Friday February 09, 2001

Report is correct: fire at labs poses real danger  

Dear Editor, 

Berkeley Lab spokesman Kolb accuses the City of Berkeley science consultant, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, of using false assumptions ( Lab poses health risk..., 2/7/01) in determining the radiation dose persons might get (18,000 milli- rem) if they were near a National Tritium Labeling Facility (NTLF) building fire.  

Perhaps Kolb doesn't realize these assumptions were recently distributed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in a SENES Risk Assessment written by the Lab's own consultant, Owen Hoffman. 

The Lab claims a radioactive fire at the NTLF would be no problem because the heat would cause the tritium plume to rise to a height of 38 meters. The Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) patio is 40 meters above the NTLF roof. Thus, the radioactive plume would disperse at nose level if the wind were blowing toward the LHS. 

U.S. EPA claims that the cancer risk from an 18,000 millirem exposure would be 7 in 1000. However cancer is only one of the risks from tritium. It also causes infertility, birth defects, genetic damage, mutations and immune suppression. If there were several hundred children visiting the LHS at the time of such a release, the cancer risk for just them would be at least two children.  

For comparison, a death rate, from defective Firestone tires, of less than .0006 per 1000 people caused the recall of thousands if not millions of those tires. At the Lawrence Hall Science 7 cancer cases per 1000, plus countless other maladies, should be sufficient to effect action. Do we have to have cancer deaths, and, if so, how many before we close the National Tritium Labeling Facility? 

 

Gene Bernardi 

Co-Chair Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste 

Berkeley 

 

Radiation doses to lab workers too small to measure by blood tests 

Editor: 

The following is a reply to a letter published in the Berkeley Daily Planet on Jan. 31, 2001 ("Labs should test staff blood", signed by Marion Fulk) 

We thank Mr. Fulk for his suggestions, but the methods he proposes do not have the sensitivity to detect the low levels of radiation exposure associated with Berkeley Lab operations.  

Radiation operations at Berkeley Lab are under strict control, and Lab monitoring programs show that personal radiation exposures are only a small fraction of the federal limits of 5,000 millirem (mrem) per year for workers; 100 mrem per year for members of the public; and 10 mrem per year due to offsite emissions of radionuclides like tritium.  

U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency have reviewed the Lab’s monitoring program and agree with this conclusion. The City of Berkeley's environmental consultant, IFEU, also concurred that offsite radiation exposures due to tritium did not exceed the 10 mrem per year limit. 

The blood tests suggested by Mr. Fulk have been used successfully elsewhere to measure effects in individuals exposed to much higher levels of radiation, including survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan and the reactor accident at Chernobyl. In those cases, individual radiation exposures exceeded 5,000 mrem by as much as 10 - to - 20 times or more.  

Monitoring radiation exposures at levels below 5,000 mrem per year can be done by direct measurement of the radiations, not of the effects, which are too small to measure.  

Direct radiation measurements have the sensitivity to provide assurance that worker and public radiation exposures remain below the applicable federal limits mentioned above.  

Background radiation in the San Francisco Bay area exposes all of us at a rate of approximately 260 mrem per year.  

Radiation operations at Berkeley Lab involve an additional exposure to the nearby community of no more than 0.3 mrem per year - 0.1% of the background radiation.  

It is not clear that any method existing today can detect effects in humans due to this small increase in radiation exposure. It is clear that the methods proposed by Mr. Fulk do not have the sensitivity necessary for this purpose. 

 

Gary H. Zeman, Sc.D. 

Eleanor A. Blakely, Ph.D. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Friday February 09, 2001

 

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 “The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered” through March 26. An exhibit of black and white photographs that capture the fears and faith of those who traveled from Marks, Mississippi to Washington, D.C. , with mule-drawn wagons to attend the Poor People's Campaign in December, 1967; “Joe Brainard: A Retrospective,” Through May 27. The selections include 150 collages, assemblages, paintings, drawings, and book covers. Brainard’s art is characterized by its humor and exhuberant color, and by its combinations of media and subject matter; Muntadas - On Translation: The Audience, Through April 29. This conceptual artist and pioneer of video, installation, and Internet art presents three installations. $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. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. 642-0808. 

 

The Asian Galleries “Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery” 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, each with a different mathematical challenge.“Within the Human Brain” Ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Vision,” Through April 15 Get a very close look at how the eyes and brain work together to focus light, perceive color and motion, and process infomation. “T. Rex on Trial,” Through May 28 Where was T. Rex at the time of the crime? Learn how paleontologists decipher clues to dinosaur behavior. Black History Month Events, Feb. 10 - 24, Events include a presentation by Dimensions Dance Theatre, storyteller Yolanda Rhodes and an event commemorating Black scientists and inventors. “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 Feb. 10: Lifes Halt, Rocket Queen, Barry Manowar, Rosemary’s Billygoat, Adversives; Feb. 16: The Bananas, Pitch Black, Shotwell, Pirx the Pilot, Rock & Roll Adventure Kids; Feb. 17: Lack of Interest, The Neighbors, Black Hands, Capitalist Casualties, Iron Lung; Feb. 18, 5 p.m.: Good Riddance, Missing 23rd, Fire Sermon, Lugosi 525-9926  

 

Albatross Pub All music at 9 p.m. unless noted Feb. 13: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Feb. 14: Carlos Oliveira Brazilian Jazz Duo; Feb. 15: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Feb. 20: pickPocket esemble; Feb. 21: Whiskey Brothers 1822 San Pablo 843-2473 

 

Ashkenaz Feb. 9, 9:30 p.m.: Bob Marley Birthday Bash with Foundation, Ras Kidus, DJ Spliff Skankin; Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m.: Musical theater with Zorman & Yampels; Feb. 13, 9 p.m.: Danny Poullard & Friends, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; Feb. 14, 8:30 p.m.: Carlos Zialcita plays R&B, swing, and soul for lovers; March 24, 2 p.m. - 2 a.m.: Ashkenaz fourth annual dance-a-thon featuring Lavay Smith, African, Caribbean, reggae, Balkan, North African and cajun bands for 12 hours of nonstop dance music. 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

 

Eli’s Mile High Club Feb. 9: Red Archibald; Feb. 10: Kenny Blue Ray; Feb. 16: Little Johnny & the Giants; Feb. 17: Ron Thompson; Feb. 23: Carlos Zialcita; Feb. 24: R.J. Mischo 3629 MLK Jr. Way Oakland  

 

Freight & Salvage All shows begin at 8 p.m. Feb. 9: Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys; Feb. 10: Baguette Quartette with Odile Lavault; Feb.11: Bob Franke 1111 Addison St. 548-1761  

 

Crowden School Sundays, 4 p.m.: Chamber music series sponsored by the school; Feb. 24, 8 p.m.: Cynthia & the Swing Set and the American Jubilee Dance Theatre. Free swing dance lesson, 7 p.m. New Orleans cajun and creole dinner to be served before dance lesson. $10 - $40 Benefits the Crowden School 1475 Rose St. (at Sacramento) 559-6910 

 

Tuva Space All shows at 7:48 p.m. Feb. 18: Saadet Turkoz seeks to evoke pictures and atmosphere by means of voice and music which transcend cultural boundaries. Saxophonist Eric Barber defies categorization; Feb. 19: Trio of Fred Frith, guitar, Pierre Tanguay, percussion, and Jean Derome, alto and bariton saxophones. $8 donation 3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 649-8744  

 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 11: Hal Stein Quarter; Feb. 18: Sheldon Brown Group; Feb. 25: Lauri Antonioli; March 4: Ray Obiedo; March 11: Stephanie Bruce Trio; March 18: Wayne Wallace Septet $6 - $12 2377 Shattuck Ave.  

 

Cal Performances Feb. 10, 8 p.m.: Masters of Persian Classical Music, $20 - $40; Feb. 16 & 17, 8 p.m.: Balinese Orchestra Gamelan Sekar Jaya present “Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream,” $18 - $30.; Feb. 20, 21, 23 & 24: In two separate programs the Netherlands Dans Theater I presents the work of former artistic director, Jiri Kylian $34 - $52 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley. 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu Feb. 11, 3 p.m.: Horacio Gutierrez $24 - $42; Feb. 25, 3 p.m.: Prazack Quartet $32; Feb. 28, 8 p.m.: Clerks’ Group performs music from the Burgundian Courts; March 4, 3 p.m.: Baritone Nathan Gunn sings Brahms, Wolf, and a selection of American songs $36 Hertz Hall UC Berkeley 

 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra 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  

 

“Songs for the Young at Heart” Feb. 10, 4 p.m. Featuring La Bonne Cuisine by Bernstein and The Shepherd on the Rock by Schubert. Donations accepted St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave.  

 

Gianni Gebbia, Michael Manring, Simple Sample & Garth Powell Feb. 11, 7:48 p.m. Italian saxophonist Gerbia teams up with electric bassist Manring for a set of free improvisations. Local percussionist Garth Powell will present a short solo on a soprano musical saw. $8 donation Tuva Space 3192 Adeline (at MLK Jr. Way) 649-8744 

 

“The Prodigals” Feb. 11, 9 p.m. An Irish rock group who play “jig-punk” $5 This show is 18 and up. Blake’s 2367 Telegraph Ave.  

 

Community Women’s Orchestra Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Pieces to be played include those written by Berkeley High students Ariel Wolter and Maianna Voge. Donations accepted Malcolm X School 1731 Prince St. 653-1616 

 

Young People Chamber Orchestra Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Celebrating the music of J.S. Bach, Corell, Handel and others St. Johns Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. Call 595-4688 

 

Percussions Du Guinee Feb. 16 & 17, 8 p.m. Feb. 18, 7 p.m. Internationally respected Guinean percussionists craft a performance simultaneously inspired by traditional music, yet modern in presentation. $20 - $25 925-798-1300 

 

Will Bernard & Motherbug and Ten Ton Chicken CD Release Party and Live Web Cast Feb. 17, 9 p.m. IMUSICAST Studios 5429 Telegraph Ave. (at 54th) Oakland $10  

 

“Dido and Aeneas” March 2, 8 p.m.; March 4, 2 p.m. A tale of English Baroque opera that follows the tale of Dido, queen of Corinth, as she is courted and won by Aeneas, conqueror and future founder of Rome. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. Call 925-798-1300 

 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra March 3, 8 p.m. David Ramadanoff conducts the orchestra in a program featuring Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and a suite from Piston’s ballet “The Incredible Flutist” $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. Call 925-798-1300  

 

“In Song and Struggle” March 4, 4 - 10 p.m. Copwatch presents the second annual event bringing together some of the best women artists from around the Bay Area and beyond in commemoration of International Women’s Day. Artists include Shelley Doty, Rebecca Riots, Rachel Garlin, and many others. Call Copwatch, 548-0425  

 

“Mystic Journey” March 10, 8 p.m. Suzanne Teng and Mystic Journey are a unique contemporary world music ensemble, based in Los Angeles, making their Bay Area debut. $15 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. Call 925-798-1300 

 

Theater 

 

“Fall” by Bridget Carpenter Through Feb. 11. $15.99 - $51. Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, www. berkeleyrep.org 

 

“In Search of my Clitoris” Written and performed by Sia Amma Feb. 8 & 9, 8 p.m. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. $12 - $14 415-775-6608 

 

“The Road to Mecca” by Athol Fugard Through Feb. 24, Friday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Feb. 22, 8 p.m. $10 Live Oak Theatre 1301 Shattuck 528-5620 

 

“Nightingale” presented by Central Works Theater Feb. 9 - March 4, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 24 & Saturday, March 3, 5 p.m.; Free preview Feb. 8, 8 p.m. $8 - $14 LaVal’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381 

 

“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” by Frank MacGuinness Feb. 15 - March 17, Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Sunday, 8:30 p.m. The story of three men - an Irishman, an Englishman and an American held in a prison in Lebanon. $10 - $15 8th St. Studio Theatre 2525 Eighth St. (at Dwight) 655-0813 

 

“New Territory” Presented by Terrain along wih the Choreographer’s Performance Alliance. An eclectic evening of dance and performance with a variety of choreographic styles and themes. $10 Western Sky Studio 2525 Eighth St. (at Dwight) 845-8604 

 

Films 

 

“Magnetic North” Six programs of experimental Canadian video from the past 30 years that range from documentary to conceptual art. In all, 40 tapes from 46 artists will be shown on six Wednesday evenings. Through Feb. 28. $7. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch) 642-1412  

 

“Durruti and the Spanish Revolution” The LaborFest U.S. premiere screening and dicussion of this documentary which tells the story of the Confederation National del Trabajo during the Spanish Civil War. Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. $7 donation requested. La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 415-642-8066 

 

“Toto Recall” A 15-film retrospective honoring Italy’s comic genius. Through Feb. 24 Weekend days only, Friday - Sunday. $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

 

 

Exhibits 

 

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,” Through 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  

 

“Race & Femininity” Acrylic Paintings of Corinne Innis Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings. Through Feb. 26; 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 

 

“Trees With Frosting” Stevie Famulari decorates landscapes with sugar and frosting, making her artwork edible and changeable by viewers. This particular display will remain for two months. Through February Skapades Hair Salon 1971 Shattuck Ave. 251-8080 or steviesart@hotmail.com 

 

“Dorchester Days,” the photographs of Eugene Richards is a collection of pictures portraying the poverty, racial tension, crime and violence prevalent in Richards’ hometown of Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1970s. Through April 6. UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 121 North Gate Hall #5860 642-3383 

 

“Still Life & Landscapes” The work of Pamela Markmann Through March 24, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Red Oak Gallery 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387 

 

“Kick Back,” the Department of Art Practice of UC Berkeley spring faculty show Through March 2; Informative lecture Feb. 14, Noon Worth Ryder Gallery Kroeber Hall UC Berkeley Call 642-2582 

 

“Unequal Funding: Photographs of Children in Schools that Get Less” An exhibit of black & white photographs by documentary photographer Chris Pilaro. Through March 16, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Saturday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Opening reception, Feb. 9, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400 

 

“Contemporary Photogravure” Printing from hand-inked plates etched from a film positive, a unique exhibition of photographs with luxurious tones. Feb. 8 - March 30, Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 5 p.m. or by appointment; Opening reception, Feb. 8, 6 - 8 p.m. Kala Art Institute 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

 

“Evolution,” No problem quilters exhibit their soft-cloth sculptures. New Pieces is the only gallery that exclusively exhibits quilts in the Bay Area. Through March 1, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. 1597 Solano Ave. 527-6779 

 

Amanda Haas, New Paintings and Olivia Kuser, Recent Landscapes Feb. 14 - March 24, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Opening reception Feb. 14, 6 - 8 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 

 

“Water From Your Spring” Artistic residency with composer Ann Millikan and painter Selena Engelhart Feb. 11 - 17, Wednesday - Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m. Free; Performance of Millikan’s music featuring the California E.A.R. Unit, plus guests: Feb. 17 & 18, 8 p.m. $15 - $20 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park  

 

Readings 

 

Boadecia’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Feb. 10: Karin Kallmaker reads from “Sleight of Hand”; Feb. 23: Becky Thompson reads “Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage” 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington 559-9184. www.boadeciasbooks.com 

 

Cody’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Feb. 8, 7 p.m.: Sheli Nan presents “The Essential Piano Teacher’s Guide”; 7:30 p.m.: Susan Griffin, Willy Wilkinson, Ellen Samuels, Dorothy Wall and Abe Doherty talk about “Stricken: Voices from the Hidden Epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”; Feb. 9: Matt Ridley discusses “Genome: The Autobiography of a Species”; Feb. 11: Poetry of Jack Hirschman & Luke Breit; Feb. 12: Jett Psaris and Marlena Lyons discuss “Undefended Love”; Feb. 13: Christie Kiefr talks about ‘Health Work for the Poor: A Practical Guide”; Feb. 15: Jason Lutes, cartoonist, will discuss his graphic presentation “Berlin: City of Stones”; Feb. 20: Becky Thompson discusses “Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage”; Feb. 21: Poetry of Gillian Conoley & Kathleen Fraser; Feb. 22: Alison Gopnik describes “The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind”; Feb. 23: Carol Field reads “Mangoes and Quince”; Feb. 25: Poetry of Martha Rhodes, Linda Dyer & Joy Manesiotis; Feb. 26: Terry McMillan reads from “A Day Late and a Dollar Short”; Feb. 28: Poetry of Sandra Gilbert & Wendy Barker 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852  

 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8: Bruce Henderson tackes a 130 year old mystery in “Fatal North: Adventure & Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole”; Feb. 27: Barbara Wagner, co-founder of Lost Frontiers, gives a slide presentation and talk about “Pakistan & the Lost Tribes of teh Hindu Kush”; Feb. 28: Travel writer Christopher Baker will read and talk about his 7000 miles motorcycle odyssey through Cuba as chronicled in his book “Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro’s Cuba” 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533  

 

“Strong Women - Writers & Heroes of Literature” Fridays 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  

 

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. 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. 

 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series Feb. 8, 8 p.m.: Carl Dennis and Jen Scappettone will read. Sponsored by the Department of English UC Berkeley Maude Fife Room (Room 315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439  

 

Lunch Poems First Thursday of each month, 12:10 - 12:50 p.m. March 1: Aleida Rodrigues; April 5: Galway Kinnell; May 3: Student Reading Morrison Room, Doe Library UC Berkeley 642-0137 

 

Class Dismissed Poetry Posse March 2, 7:30 p.m. Afro-Haitian dancers, Dance Production dancers, the BHS poetry slammers, an opening a capella number and a few surprises. A benefit for a Berkeley High school student trip to Cuba. $5 - $10 Little Theater Berkeley High School 2246 Milvia St.  

 

“Escape from Villingen” Feb. 10, 10:30 a.m. Dwight Messimer will be reviewing his new book dealing with POW escapees Great War Society 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118 

 

Mick LaSalle Feb. 11, 6 p.m. S.F. Chronicle film critic, LaSalle will read from his book “Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood.” After the reading two Pre-Code films will be screened, “Design for Living” and “A Free Soul.” $7 Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

 

 

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 Feb. 25: “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin,” Gray Brechin will discuss the impact and legacy of the Hearsts and other powerful early families; 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; March 18: “Topaz Moon,” Kimi Kodani Hill will discuss artist Chiura Obata’s family and the WWII Japanese relocation camps. 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 

 

Ruth Acty Oral History Feb. 18, 3 - 6 p.m. In honor of Black History Month, Therese Pipe will present the history of Acty, who became the first African American teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District in 1943. Berkeley Historical Society Veterans Memorial Building 1931 Center St. Admission free 848-0181 

 


Bears storm back in second half for win

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Friday February 09, 2001

The first half belonged to Felicia Ragland. The second half belonged to Kenya Corley. Luckily for the Cal women’s basketball team, Corley had some help, while Ragland did not. 

Corley, the Bears’ shooting guard, scored 21 of her 23 points after halftime, leading her team from a 15-point deficit early in the second half to a 72-60 victory over Oregon State on Thursday at Haas Pavilion. 

The Bears (9-11, 5-5 Pac-10) started slowly, and Ragland was viciously accurate from beyond the arc in the first half, hitting 5-of-6 from three-point land and scoring 19 points in the half. The Beavers (11-9, 3-7) pulled out to an early 13-5 lead thanks to their domination of the boards, pulling down the first 13 rebounds of the game. 

Trailing 36-24 at halftime, Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer told her team to stop Ragland. 

“We wanted to make someone else beat us, and we did a good job on Ragland in the second half,” Horstmeyer said. 

Ragland scored a career-high 30 in the game, but struggled after the break, making just four of her 14 shots. Nicole Funn was the only other Beaver to score in double figures, but shot just 4-of-13 on her way to 11 points. 

Corley, on the other hand, got plenty of help. Center Genevieve Swedor scored a career-high 13 off the bench, while forward Ami Forney and point guard Courtney Johnson each scored nine points. 

“Genevieve was a great spark for us,” Horstmeyer said. “It’s nice to get that kind of bench play.” 

The Beavers took a 41-26 lead before two events got the Bears fired up. First, Corley came out of nowhere to block a Beaver layup, then Horstmeyer stomped halfway across the court to protest a call, earning herself a technical foul. 

“When you see a coach that fired up, it really sparked us,” Corley said. 

From there on in, it was all Bears. Corley hit a three-pointer on the next possession, then made two free throws and another three. After making another free throw, she hit yet another three-pointer, giving her 12 points in two minutes and pulling the Bears within five. 

“I knew I played passively in the first half, and I wanted to come out and be aggressive in the second half,” Corley said. 

Cal forward Amber White blocked a shot on the next Oregon State possession, and point guard Courtney Johnson took the ball all the way for a layup. Corley followed with an acrobatic layup, the a jumper in the lane to tie the game at 49-49 with 10 minutes left in the game. 

Ragland immediately answered with a three-pointer of her own, and she shushed the Cal student section on her way back down the floor. But the momentum was still with the Bears, and when Corley again attacked the basket and was fouled, she converted both free throws to give the Bears their first lead of the game, 53-52, after nearly 32 minutes of play. It would be the only lead change of the entire game. 

Ragland tried to pull her team back into the lead, but missed two shots and committed a turnover on the next three Beaver possessions. Cal forward Ami Forney hit a layup and a free throw, then Corley did the same, and the Bears had a 67-58 lead. The Beavers started fouling the Bears, and a Cal procession to the free-throw line ensued. The Bears ended up with 30 shots from the charity stripe after shooting none in the first half.


Shellmound’s intangible value is spirituality

By John Geluardi Daily Planet Staff
Friday February 09, 2001

Environmental studies of proposed developments frequently consider things like traffic, noise and pollution. But at least one Landmarks Preservation commissioner would like to add a new category – spirituality. 

Commissioner Robert Kehlmann said the spiritual consideration is warranted in this case because a 21,300 square-foot retail building is being proposed by Rue-Ell Enterprises on a portion of the West Berkeley Shellmound. According to archeologists and Shellmound advocates, the site is a repository of Native American artifacts that go back to 3700 B.C. The City Council designated the site a Berkeley historical landmark in October. 

Kehlmann said the site was a Native American burial site and therefore is spiritually significant. He would like to see a focused Environmental Impact Report that considers the aesthetics and cultural aspects of the site. 

“Gothic cathedrals were often built on the site of Romanesque churches, which were built on top of a spiritually significant places.” Kehlmann said. “Berkeley should try to increase the vocabulary of environmental studies and go into areas of spirituality that are clearly important to  

its residents.” 

Planning and Development Department staff updated the Landmarks Preservation Commission with a Draft Initial Study of a proposed retail building at 1900 Fourth St. on Monday. The one-story building would be located on the northeast corner of Spenger’s Parking lot bounded by Fourth and Third streets and Hearst and University avenues. 

Because the site is a local historical landmark, the California Environmental Quality Act calls for study to determine if a Environmental Impact Report is necessary,said Interim Deputy Director of Planning Vivian Kahn. EIRs are costly and time consuming and usually developers prefer a Mitigated Negative Declaration, which is prepared by the Planning Department and is less thorough. 

Kahn said the California Environmental Quality Act usually requires only physical impacts be considered and that she was unaware of any EIRs that consider spiritual impacts. 

The Zoning Adjustment Board will ultimately decide which study is required. 

According to a preliminary study by archeologist Christopher Dore, of Garcia and Associates, the building foundation will not go deeper than four feet. The same report estimates that the upper limit of cultural deposits, such as shells, parts of tools and possibly human remains, begin at approximately six feet below the surface.  

The study concludes that there would be little or no affect on the site provided a series of measures are applied. One measure, the report suggests, is the presence of an archeologist who would be capable of identifying artifacts during excavation. If for example, human remains were discovered, all construction would stop and not be allowed to resume until approved by the Alameda County coroner and a supervising archeologist. 

But Stephanie Manning, who wrote the 75-page document the LPC used while considering the designation of the Shellmound, said that so far developers have only addressed whether there is a physical presence of artifacts on the site and not the intangible components. “The history of the site is much more important than how many bones they might or might not find,” she said. “They need to get Ohlone descendants involved, they’re the ones who know about the land and its value.” 

Manning said there may be ways to avoid compromising the historic value of the site and still build the retail building. But she said Berkeley will have to be more creative than Emeryville.  

The City of Emeryville has approved a 325,000 square-foot mall directly on top of Shellmound that still contains 200 human remains, according to Manning. 

“They’re going to drive piles 70 feet into the ground, right through the burial grounds.” she said. “And all they’re doing to make up for this is erecting a statue of an Ohlone Indian, painting a mural on a wall and putting up a web site.” 

Charles Kahn, of Kahn Design Associates, the architect for the 1900 Fourth St. project, did not return calls from the Daily Planet. 


Friday February 09, 2001

Consider workers at tool library 

 

Editor: 

Ever since I arrived in Berkeley three years ago, I have been extremely impressed by the existence a tool library in our great town, and also by the quality of service and assistance patrons can get there.  

When you think of it, where else than Berkeley would such a great concept as a tool library come to fruition? As if that in itself were not enough, the staff there are exceedingly helpful, conscientious, enthusiastic and good-humored people.  

I find all of Adam, Mike and Candida (and Peter, who just retired), extremely knowledgeable and always eager to help patrons with their every question, something that is increasingly rare nowadays. 

Over the past three years, with the help of these staffers, I personally have gone from a regular Mr. All-thumbs, to someone who knows basic tools and can actually fix and build things around the house, almost all of it thanks to this exceptional library. It is in fact such a subject of pride for me, as a new Berkeleyan (resident and home owner), that I actually include it on the occasional tours of Berkeley that I give to my friends and relatives who visit here.  

Truly, few local institutions represent the very spirit of Berkeley more proudly than this one.I would like to urge the Library Board to make sure to reward the very successful work consistently done by Adam,  

Mike and Candida by giving them priority, as is their due, when it comes to additional hours and benefits, before they write the job description for an additional new staffer.  

These guys are the real reason behind our tool library success and they deserve to be rewarded accordingly. 

 

Khalil Bendib,  

Berkeley 


’Jackets wrap up regular season with 3-0 victory over El Cerrito

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Friday February 09, 2001

Looking to end the season on a high note, the Berkeley boys’ soccer team dominated El Cerrito, winning 3-0. But by the time the game ended, the stakes got a lot higher. 

With rumors swirling that league leader Richmond was upset earlier in the day came a ray of hope for the ’Jackets (10-2 ACCAL, 14-5 overall). If indeed Richmond had lost, Berkeley would be co-champions with an automatic berth in the North Coast Section playoffs. The Richmond score was not available at press time. 

The Yellowjackets made sure of their own victory by shutting down the El Cerrito offense, only allowing one shot on goal in the first half. Freshman striker Kamani Hill scored two goals, the first from a feed from midfielder Liam Reilly that he side-footed into the El Cerrito net to give Berkeley a 1-0 lead in the first half. His second goal was a header from a cross by Stefan Isaksen that closed the scoring for the day early in the second half. 

“He’s a sensation, isn’t he?” Berkeley head coach Eugenio Juarez said. “Kamani’s as good or better than any freshman I’ve seen.” 

The ’Jackets also got a goal from Reilly, assisted by midfielder Tiago Venturi.


Student help program still questioned

By Michelle Hopey Special to the Daily Planet
Friday February 09, 2001

In the wake of last week’s rough launch of Rebound, a program to support ninth-graders who are not meeting class standards, the school board and community continue to question the development of the intervention plan. 

At Wednesday’s School Board meeting, Director Joaquin Rivera said, “It is clear to me that we need to hire experienced, qualified credentialed teachers. As of Friday those teachers have not been identified. At risk kids need experienced credentialed teachers. For me this is not negotiable.”  

The program, named Rebound last week by the 50 or so youngsters in the program, was developed by a group of residents who call themselves, Parents of Children of African Decent. They designed the program to help ninth-grade students failing core classes. 

Although it wasn’t on the agenda, Rebound proved to be a hot topic at the meeting. References to the week-old program were made throughout the evening. 

Approved by the school board on Jan. 23, the program hit a bump in the road last week when parents learned that the teachers hired for the program, although college graduates, did not hold proper teaching credentials. But that problem was mended quickly when substitute teachers were called in to work side by side with the non-certified teachers.  

So the intervention program began, but the board and community continue to raise questions: have student needs been assessed? do donations to the program actually reach it? who is really in control of the program? 

Rivera said the proposal he voted for included an assessment of the skills in which the students are deficient.  

“This is major and essential to this plan,” Rivera said, adding that not assessing student needs defeats the purpose of the program.  

“I want to see assessments – that’s imperative,” said board member John Selawsky. “But I see this program as an opportunity not only for students, but for the staff, board and community. I want to remind everyone that there will be ups and downs and bumps in the road, but we must view this as an opportunity.  

Proponents of the intervention program say that its uniqueness is in its structure. At risk students are placed in intensive courses with a low student-teacher ratio. In addition, students in the program must abide by an aggressive attendance policy and are closely monitored by teachers, mentors and parents. All efforts are made to ensure that participants do not slip through the cracks.  

Michael Miller, an active PCAD parent said Thursday that the program has already shown to be a success and that students are responding well to the undivided attention they have received from teachers.  

Miller said he is not sure who is responsible for the program at this point. He said he knows Dr. Charles Martin was named coordinator, but he said he wondered to whom Rivera was addressing his comments at Wednesday night’s meeting. 

“We (the parents) agree completely that this needs to be a part of the plan,” Miller said, referring to the need to make sure teachers are credentialed and that students are assessed. “I don’t know if it’s true, but it sounds like people are saying ‘it’s you, the parents of PCAD that aren’t doing what you are supposed to.’ ”  

Miller underscored that the program is now part of Berkeley High School and does not belong to the parents’ group.  

When the proposal was accepted by the School Board, Miller said he thought that meant that the school district would put the various support personnel in place, and that the School Board would be more involved in the actual implementation process. 

“We expected to have a lot more people involved,” said Miller, adding that Principal Frank Lynch has been a great help. “We expected to have the district put in place the various individuals. Through their expertise, the school board is the best at being able to identify what needs to happen – none of the parents is qualified to direct these kids.”  

Terry Doran, president of the School Board, said the high school is indeed in charge of the program. He said that Principal Lynch has been exceptional at managing the program so far and trusts him to make decisions and enforce the programs’ rigors.  

“ It’s fair to say that Director Rivera has legitimate concerns,” said Doran on Thursday. “I personally trust the principal to select qualified teachers. I have no reason to doubt him and I’m confident that he’s moving the program right along.” 

Doran said that Lynch will enforce the students’ skills assessment and make sure that all the teachers are qualified.  

“It’s an on-going process, said Doran. “It’s going to take a while for us to collect resources. Eventually we’re going to hire a counselor to help in assessing these students.”  

Miller said there is also a question of making sure funds get to the program. If the program receives a monetary donation, who makes sure that it goes to the program and not into the Berkeley Unified School District general fund? he asked.  

Early in Wednesday’s meeting, a few Berkeley residents voiced their dismay with the School Board’s approval of the plan.  

Resident Bruce Wicinas said he is disturbed with how quickly the proposal whizzed by the school board. He said he’s not sure if he agrees with the school board allocating $100,000 for the program, pointing out that Berkeley High School needs help in other areas such as building maintenance. He further noted that several tutorial programs for underachievers are already in place at BHS, but don’t get used by students.  

“There are a lot of resources that are under utilized,” said Niles Xi’an Liechtenstein, student board member. Discussions around the intervention program has brought out that fact, he said. “I see a lot of good coming from this.” 

 

 


UC Davis Asian students protest confrontations

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

DAVIS — About 300 Asian-American students and their supporters peacefully marched at the University of California, Davis, Thursday, protesting recent confrontations with white students. 

Administrators urged students to follow the university’s code of tolerance and nondiscrimination. More than 35 percent of the university students are of Asian or Pacific Islander descent. 

Julienne Kwong, a 20-year-old sociology major and a member of the university’s Council for Asian Pacific American Affairs, said the administration’s action was “not enough, not when victims don’t feel they have anybody to turn to when they feel threatened.” 

Problems began in October, according to the university, when members of a California State University, Sacramento, Asian sorority said they were intimidated by members of a white UC Davis fraternity as the two groups attempted to arrange rocks into messages at a levee, a traditional student activity. 

The same month, Korean-American and white youths, including some UC Davis students, had a confrontation in an apartment parking lot in Davis. Two white youths were arrested on hate-crime charges after a large group of whites then assaulted the Korean-Americans in their apartment. 

In December, police broke up a brawl at the levee between at least 70 members of a white fraternity and three Asian fraternities, all attempting to arrange rocks into messages. 

A series of other incidents have been less well documented, adding to students’ and administrators’ frustration, said university spokeswoman Lisa Lapin. 

“Everybody has been very concerned and taking this seriously,” Lapin said. “This really isn’t really an adversarial thing with the administration. This is really raising awareness.” 

Administrators pulled members of competing fraternities into a mediation meeting last month, and last week distributed an open letter decrying the incidents and urging hate crime victims to come forward. Carol Wall, the university’s vice chancellor for student affairs, met with Asian student leaders Thursday evening to hear their demands. 

The demands included mandatory diversity training for students and faculty; a coordinator to work with hate-crimes victims; more Asian language and culture classes and funding; and creation of an Asian-American student center. 


Stayner trial requires criminal check for media

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

FRESNO — When Yosemite killer Cary Stayner returns to court on charges of murdering three park tourists, he won’t be the only one in the room whose criminal background was examined. 

Concerned about security in the tiny old Mariposa County courthouse, court officials are requiring reporters to get a fingerprint analysis to make sure they have a clean record before they can report on Stayner’s trial. 

The measure is unusual in legal journalism and somehow managed to slip past the gaze of editors, news directors and First Amendment experts who usually make efforts to protect press freedom. 

“This is the first thing I’ve heard about it,” said Charlie Waters, executive editor of The Fresno Bee. “This is absurd.” 

Waters said Thursday that a reporter from the newspaper was credentialed because he covered Stayner’s case in federal court, but said he also plans to send other reporters and they won’t submit to criminal background checks. 

Mariposa Superior Court Executive Officer Michael Berest said he thought he was following the procedure used to issue press credentials in the federal case against Stayner. 

But Carol Davis, a federal court official in Sacramento who was consulted by Mariposa officials, said reporters only had to submit two photos and show their credentials to get a special pass for the case heard in Fresno federal court. 

“This is way off from what they said when I spoke with them. Whoa,” said Davis, an administrative analyst for the Eastern District of California. 

Thirteen reporters who had photo identification from the federal case did not have to undergo the background check, said Lt. Brian Muller, spokesman for the sheriff. The remainder of the 61 journalists who applied for credentials required the fingerprint analysis. 

So far, checks performed for 16 applicants have not unearthed any criminal activity, Muller said. If a record of a crime is found, then law enforcement and court officials will discuss whether the reporter can cover the hearing. 

The Associated Press reporter assigned to the case did not have federal court credentials and is the only reporter who has objected to the background check, Berest said. 

Terry Francke, general counsel for the California First Amendment Coalition, said the fingerprinting appears to violate constitutionally guaranteed press freedoms. 

“A background check may become relevant when the issuing agency has to provide security for people who are frequent targets,” Francke said. ”(Press passes) are certainly not issued to get you into a public trial, or public school board meeting. That’s a different issue entirely. I’m surprised that others aren’t balking at it.” 

The Mariposa rule only applies to the media. A few entry passes will be issued to the public for hearings and they won’t have to submit to a background check, Berest said. Everyone in the court will have to pass through a security check for weapons. 

Criminal background checks were required for reporters covering the Denver trial of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, but similar checks were not required in the high-profile case of convicted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski in Sacramento, Davis said. 

“This isn’t the McVeigh case, this isn’t a terrorist who blew up a federal building,” said Marcia A. Morrissey, Stayner’s defense lawyer. She said the measure was very strange. 

To understand what all the fuss is about, one need only take a look at Mariposa, a county of about 16,000 residents scattered among foothills that roll up to the rugged Sierra Nevada where Yosemite is located. 

The area has seen its share of crime, but nothing has brought the notoriety – or a stampede of media – like the killer who stalked Yosemite National Park two years ago. 

Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and their friend, Silvina Pelosso, disappeared while staying on the outskirts of the park at the Cedar Lodge, where Stayner worked as a handyman. Their bodies were found a month later. 

Stayner, who reportedly confessed to the killings, is already serving a federal life sentence for murdering and beheading Yosemite naturalist Joie Armstrong in July 1999. That case was heard in federal court because Armstrong was killed in a national park. 

The stakes in the state case are high and Stayner faces the possibility of execution if convicted, though prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty. 

The case made headlines around the world, where Yosemite is revered for its dramatic cliffs, tumbling waterfalls and granite domes. National and international media left footprints all over the area during the intense manhunt for the killer. 

The trial scheduled in Mariposa County is probably the biggest thing to hit town in years and officials want to make sure there are no security problems, Muller said. 

After Stayner was booked, Sheriff C.A. “Pelk” Richards held a hastily scheduled news conference to announce that Stayner had been safely transferred to the county jail. After his arraignment, Richards praised the security at the 147-year-old courthouse. 

The sheriff’s Web site looks more like the Cary Stayner home page, with his mug shot beneath the words ‘Sheriff Mariposa, CA’ and nary a sight of the county’s top cop. 

Even the editor of the local weekly newspaper has pitched in to help out, volunteering as a media liaison for an overburdened court staff. Jill Ballinger, editor of the Mariposa Gazette, said she initially offered to help because she works with the court people every day. 

“It’s been nothing but a huge pain,” she said


Illegal to watch illicit street racing

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

LOS ANGELES — Watching street races would be illegal under an ordinance approved by the City Council and sent to the mayor for approval. 

The ordinance, passed Wednesday, makes it an infraction to watch a street race. First-time offenders face a maximum fine of $250. Repeat offenders could go to jail. 

The ordinance also tacks a $40 administrative fine on the fee to retrieve cars impounded for racing. Drag racing is a popular diversion for both teen-agers and young adults, who flock to wide boulevards to race souped-up cars in areas such as San Pedro, the San Fernando Valley and cities such as Carson. 

“This problem has plagued our city for some time,” said Lt. Blaine Bolin of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Carson station. “The tradition of street racing goes back a couple of generations.” 

“A lot of people feel this is just kids being kids but in fact we’ve had more than one fatality involving street racing,” he said. “It’s very serious to us.” 

The county’s only legal venue for amateur drag racing is in Palmdale, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. 


Lawmakers raise millions before limits kicked in

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

SACRAMENTO — Getting a jump on new campaign contribution limits, California legislators raised $7.3 million between the November election and the end of 2000 in donations of up to $250,000. 

The end-of-the-year fund-raising, before voter-approved contribution limits took effect Jan. 1, enabled lawmakers to boost their campaign treasuries to a total of $18.3 million. 

“Clearly the candy store was open and they were out to get the candy,” said Tony Miller, a former top state elections official and a supporter of tough contribution limits. 

Proposition 34, approved by voters on Nov. 7, put a $3,000-per-election limit on donations to legislators from most sources. 

Small-donor committees, groups of at least 100 people who each chip in no more than $200 a year, can give up to $6,000. There is no limit on how much political parties can give to lawmakers. 

So far only organizations representing teachers, firefighters and real estate agents have formed small-donor committees. 

There were no donation limits for legislative races before Jan. 1, except for campaigns to fill midterm vacancies in the Senate or Assembly. Earlier attempts to impose broader limits were either rejected by lawmakers, vetoed by the governor, turned down by voters or overturned by the courts. 

Lawmakers put Proposition 34 on the ballot, saying it was a compromise that could pass a court constitutionality test. 

The end-of-the-year fund-raising ranged from a few thousand dollars taken in by some rank-and-file lawmakers to the $2.8 million collected by the Legislature’s top leaders, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco. 

Burton raised nearly $1.8 million; Hertzberg took in more than $1 million. 

Other big fund-raisers included Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Laguna Niguel, Assembly Minority Leader Bill Campbell, R-Villa Park, Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Sen. Bob Margett, R-Arcadia. 

Each of them raised more than $200,000. Dunn’s total topped $441,000, including $150,000 from Burton. 

Congressional Democrats gave $250,000 to Burton and $200,000 to Hertzberg. The speaker also got $100,000 from AT&T. Steven Kirsch, founder of the Internet company InfoSeek.com, gave $100,000 to freshman Assemblyman Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. 

Simitian said had no qualms about taking that much money from Kirsch. 

“This is a guy who is pro-environment, pro-campaign finance reform and concerned about the vitality of high tech, none of which troubles me in the slightest,” Simitian said. 

“People who give to me buy into my politics and my values; I don’t buy into their politics and values because of their gift.” 

He said wasn’t actively fund-raising after the election and was surprised when he got that large a donation. He had a little more than $139,000 in end-of-the-year donations altogether. 

There were also dozens of five-figure donations to legislators from labor unions, insurance companies, Indian tribes and other groups that lobby at the Capitol. 

“I think that groups maybe made an effort to empty out their coffers (before Proposition 34 took effect),” said Burton. “I think that may have accounted for a larger-than-normal (flow of contributions).” 

Philip Morris and its affiliates were among the most active contributors, giving $422,500 to lawmakers in the last weeks of the year. The tobacco giant and its sister companies were the biggest end-of-the-year contributors to 19 legislators, with donations of up to $25,000. 

“Our philosophy is to support those whom we believe may see issues in the same way we do or may be open to hearing our point of view,” said Peggy Roberts, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris, which also owns Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing Co. 

“We have a pretty significant presence there in California through all of our operating companies. California is a pretty important state for us.” 

She said many of the contributions were made in response to requests from lawmakers to help pay off their campaign debts. The company was not asked by legislators nervous about taking tobacco money to delay any donations until after the election, she added. 

Philip Morris gave more than $622,000 to lawmakers last year before the election. 

Proposition 34 also puts a $3,000 limit on transfers of campaign money from one lawmaker to another, and legislators shifted more than $2 million among themselves in the weeks before that cap took effect. 

The money is not included in the $7.3 million fund-raising total. 

Transfers of campaign funds have been one of the sources of power for legislative leaders. They have traditionally raised large amounts of campaign money and then given most of it to their fellow party members. 

Burton gave nearly $821,000 to other Democratic lawmakers between the election and the end of the year. 

Wesson funneled $511,900 to other lawmakers. He said he was trying to help Democrats who could face tough re-election campaigns in 2002, not attempting to line up support for a future campaign for speaker. 

“I don’t believe we did anything contrary to the intent of voters,” he said. “It was a window of opportunity to assist individuals that we are going to need to have here next session if we are going to continue to make improvements on civil rights, education and health care.” 

———— 

On the Net: Read the campaign finance reports at www.ss.ca.gov.


Judge orders power suppliers to sell electricity to California

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

YUBA CITY— Citing an energy crisis of “catastrophic proportions,” a federal judge Thursday ordered three major suppliers to sell electricity to California despite their worry two cash-strapped utilities won’t pay for it. 

The reprieve for California energy regulators came as the governor announced he will dramatically accelerate power plant construction to try to stave off summer blackouts. 

U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell Jr.’s extension of a temporary restraining order he issued Tuesday ensures three key suppliers will not pull about 4,000 megawatts off the state’s power grid. That’s enough power for roughly 4 million homes. 

“The state of California is confronting an energy crisis of catastrophic proportions,” the judge wrote. The loss of the power they provide “poses an imminent threat of blackouts.” 

The grid’s manager, the California Independent System Operator, sought the order, warning that the electricity’s removal would disrupt the region’s power supply so severely that outages would spread beyond California. 

“This would be a serious impact on the safety, health and welfare of not only Californians, but everyone in the Western U.S.,” said Jim Detmers, the ISO’s managing director of operations. 

The order, in effect at least until a Feb. 16 hearing on whether the judge should issue a preliminary injunction, names Reliant Energy Services Inc., AES Pacific Inc. and Dynegy Power Corp. 

Reliant had been the only supplier named in a restraining order issued by the Sacramento judge Tuesday night, shortly before the midnight expiration of a Bush administration directive requiring suppliers to continue selling to the state grid despite utility solvency concerns. 

The other two companies had voluntarily committed to keep supplying the ISO pending Thursday’s ruling on an extension of the order. 

Houston-based Reliant, which is responsible for about 9 percent of California’s energy, has balked at selling the ISO emergency power to send to Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. It fears it will never be paid by the cash-strapped utilities. 

Reliant has asked the state to stand behind the utilities’ purchases. Gov. Gray Davis is unwilling to do that because he believes Reliant wants to drive up prices by locking the state into purchases on the costly spot power market, spokesman Steve Maviglio said. 

AES and Dynegy said they would exceed their annual air pollution limits if the ISO required them to operate their plants. Air quality regulators reject those claims. 

California faced a Stage 3 power alert for a record 24th straight day Thursday. No repeat of the rolling blackouts that darkened large parts of northern and central California for two days last month was expected. 

Davis, looking ahead to a summer energy crunch expected to be even worse than the winter’s, issued an executive order he said will add enough electricity for 5 million homes by July. 

The state will provide $30 million in bonuses and speed up the approval process for small natural gas or renewable-fuel power plants that run only during peak hours of the day, if those facilities will be operating by summer, Davis said. 

Such “peaking plants” – which provide 50 megawatts or less during times of high demand – would go through the state approval process within three weeks. One megawatt is enough electricity for about 1,000 homes. 

 

The governor asked President Bush to direct federal agencies to also issue permits for small plants within the same time frame. 

“We will demonstrate that California can cut red tape, build more power and protect the environment,” Davis said at a news conference in Yuba City, about 45 miles north of Sacramento, where a new 545-megawatt power plant is expected to be operating by July. 

The bonuses, provided with taxpayer money, will be allotted according to plant size. The bonus would be about $1 million for a 50-megawatt plant, Davis spokesman Maviglio said. 

The White House is reviewing the governor’s request, spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. 

The state Energy Commission estimates California could fall 5,000 megawatts short during the hottest periods this summer. That’s enough power for roughly 5 million homes, the amount provided by July under Davis’ plan. 

In addition, the state will push to add 5,000 megawatts of in-state power production by July 2002 and another 10,000 by summer 2004, Davis said. He said no pollution standards would be eased to accomplish it. 

The state will provide at least $300 million in tax credits and other financial incentives to beef up business and residential use of renewable energy, including wind-driven and solar power, and retrofit natural gas plants owned by municipal water districts. 

For larger plants that could operate during peak demand periods next year, Davis’ order would cut the approval period to four months; it now normally takes more than a year. Davis reinstated an expedited process that expired in October. 

Winston Hickox, head of the state Environmental Protection Agency, said he had no estimate on the number of companies who might be interested in building power plants. 

“A tremendous number of people have come out of the woodwork with ideas,” Hickox said. 

The military has offered defunct bases as sites, and oil companies and other industrial power users are interested in building cogeneration plants, he said. Such facilities harness a byproduct of manufacturing such as steam to produce power. 

The state is trying to find a permanent solution to the energy crisis, which is blamed on the results of deregulation, limited hydroelectric supplies, transmission problems and aging power plants taken out of service for maintenance. 

A week ago, Davis signed a law allowing the state to negotiate long-term power contracts that would have California spend an estimated $10 billion raised through the sale of revenue bonds to provide power to PG&E and Edison’s nearly 9 million customers. 

California has already committed at least $1.1 billion to short-term power purchases for the utilities since mid-January. 

PG&E and Edison say they have been driven nearly $13 billion in debt since June under soaring wholesale electricity costs that California’s 1996 deregulation law bars them from passing onto customers. 

Lawmakers are working on a proposal to acquire PG&E’s and Edison’s transmission lines to help the utilities pay their wholesale power bills. 

——— 

On the Net: 

California ISO: www.caiso.com 

Read the judge’s ruling at http://www.caed.uscourts.gov/ 

See Davis’ order at www.gov.ca.gov 

Read SB33X, the transmission legislation by Burton, D-San Francisco, at www.sen.ca.gov 


Tax cut bill goes to Congress

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

WASHINGTON — President Bush dispatched his proposed $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut on what should be a tortuous journey through Congress on Thursday, urging action because “a warning light is flashing on the dashboard of our economy.” 

Democrats, while insisting that they, too, want to trim taxes this year, cast Bush’s proposal as a version of President Reagan’s first tax cut. They said the Bush plan was too big, risked plunging the federal budget back into deficit and was skewed toward the rich. 

“We’ve already tried what President Bush is proposing,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. “We did that in 1981. The rich got richer. The poor got poorer. And working families got stuck with the entire bill.” 

While Democrats try halving the size of Bush’s package and aiming it more at lower-income Americans, many Republicans and lobbyists will spend the next few months seeking to add on. 

Some GOP lawmakers have talked of pushing the price tag beyond $2 trillion. Business groups want to insert provisions trimming corporate income tax and capital gains tax rates, speeding up writeoffs for equipment purchases, and other items. 

“We’re on the verge of a feeding frenzy all across the board,” said Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, senior Democrat on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. 

The opposing tugs from both sides mean it is impossible to predict what the final bill will look like. But there is virtually no doubt that Congress this year will pass the biggest tax cuts since Reagan’s 1981 package. 

What Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill actually delivered to Congress was a nine-page document describing the plan Bush campaigned on, which focused on a reduction in income-tax rates. It would also double the $500 per child tax credit, phase out the estate tax, make permanent the temporary credit for business research and reduce the marriage penalty, which is the extra tax some couples must pay after they marry. 

GOP leaders were pleased to begin their first serious tax-cutting drive in years. Former President Clinton vetoed most of their tax cuts since they took over Congress in 1995. 

“After years of waiting, we finally have received an honest to goodness tax proposal from the White House,” said House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois. 

Though the bill may not clear Congress until at least the summer, Bush spent the third week of his presidency pushing his tax plans in daily appearances. His hope is to take advantage of momentum provided by the sluggish economy and skyrocketing budget surplus estimates. 

“Our Treasury is full and our people are overcharged,” Bush said in the White House Rose Garden, where he also reiterated his desire to make some of the cuts retroactive to last Jan. 1.  

 

“Returning some of their money is right, and it is urgent,” he said, underscoring the argument that a tax cut should help the slowing economy. 

Bush said his plan would mean tax savings of $1,600 to the average family of four, though he didn’t mention that that would be years from now, when all of the tax cuts are fully phased in. 

Besides putting extra money into people’s pockets, Bush said the cuts made sense in light of projected budget surpluses. The Congressional Budget Office envisions $5.6 trillion in surpluses for the coming decade. 

Bush and his aides say his plan will help lower- and middle-income taxpayers most because their reductions would grow by the largest percentages. Bush said families earning between $35,000 and $75,000 would get tax breaks of from $600 to $3,000 more each year. 

But Democrats say the biggest winners would be the rich, who pay most of the taxes but would also see the largest dollar savings. According to the Democratic-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers, earning less than $39,300, would get an average $227 tax cut, while the richest 1 percent – making $319,000 or more – would get an average $46,072. 

That led Daschle and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., to meet with reporters Thursday next to a muffler and a new 2001 Lexus. They said those represented what lower-income and wealthy taxpayers could buy, respectively, with their tax savings. 

Democrats say they are working on an alternative they expect to cost $700 billion to $800 billion, which would help all taxpayers but be more targeted on lower- and middle-income earners. 

Gephardt said it may include tax cuts contingent on the government running specified surplus amounts, and aides said it may include rebates that would be mailed to taxpayers. 


Solutions can be found to oil in well

The Associated Press The Associated Press The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

Q: About two years ago, the submersible pump broke in our 185- foot deep well. We had the pump rebuilt, but our well water took on an oily smell and began leaving a film in the toilet. We thought the condition would eventually clear up but it hasn’t. The pump rebuilder claims that oil from the broken pump contaminated our water, and can offer no solutions to the problem. Is there anything we can do short of drilling a new well to get clean water? 

A: It sounds as if you have a “weak well” rather than a “strong well.” In the latter case, the water level doesn’t rise and fall and, consequently, if oil gets into the well, it floats on top of the water and doesn’t get down to the pump. In a weak well, the water level rises and falls frequently and so the well components become coated with oil. 

Since the oil condition has lasted for two years (an exceedingly long time, when you consider that there is only about a half cup of oil in the pump) and, under normal use, it should take only a few weeks to flush out the oil, it’s possible that the oil is from a leak in a buried fuel oil tank. I suggest you have a water sample tested to determine if the contamination is fuel oil or lubricating oil. If it’s fuel oil, you’ll have to find and repair the leaking tank. If it’s pump oil, you should check further to see if the water is contaminated with PCBs, known carcinogens. Apparently, some well pump motors made before the mid-1970s had starting capacitors that were immersed in an oil that contained PCB. Possibly your old pump was one of these. 

Removing oil from the well is difficult and not a do-it-yourselfer job. It should be handled by a professional pump installer or well driller. 

Q: We get some rough winters and we have a problem with water leaking down through our ceiling when the snow starts to melt. We’ve had to retape and repaint our ceiling every spring because of this. Interestingly enough, our roof doesn’t leak at all when it rains. Is there a way we can correct this situation? 

A: Sounds to us like your water leakage problem is caused by an ice dam – a common situation in the Northeast. Ice dams begin when a layer of snow next to the roof melts. When this water freezes, a dam is created, which causes further melted snow to accumulate in a pool. Roofs are designed to shed water, not to protect against standing water, which eventually works its way down through the roof and your ceiling. Removing the snow from the roof is the best solution. The next best alternative is maintaining a “cold-roof.” The way to do this is by over-insulating the ceilings and having abundant ventilation in the attic. This will keep the heat in your home from warming the roof, and will keep the roof-deck temperatures lowered to the point where snow won’t melt. Heating tapes along eaves and valleys can also help, but ice dams may form farther up the roof giving you the same problem. 

To submit a question, write to Popular Mechanics, Reader Service Bureau, 224 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.


Buying the right windows can be energy efficient

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

Buying the right energy-efficient windows for your own particular needs goes beyond considering just the R value of the glazing system.  

The window frames also should play an important role in the buying decision, as should the location of the house and where in the house the new windows will be installed. 

For example, cutting heat loss is important in Minnesota, but not so important in Florida. Similarly, a window on the north side of a house in a cold climate should be designed to save energy. Those on the south side should save energy and allow as much solar energy as possible to pass through. Here are some points to consider when shopping for new windows: 

Energy ratings – Most manufacturers provide both the center-of-glass and the entire window energy ratings. Obviously, the entire window R value is a better indicator of performance. Don’t be confused if you see a U value alongside the familiar R rating. They are different sides of the same coin. R values measure resistance to heat transfer – the higher the better. U values measure heat transfer – the lower the better. To keep everything straight, convert U values to R values by dividing the U value into 1. 

Shading coefficient: This rating tells how much solar energy a window captures. A single pane of glass has a shading coefficient of 1. A blocked window would be rated at 0. So, if reducing cooling costs is important, pick a window that has a low shading coefficient. Tinted windows are good choices, but low-e technology designed for warm climates can also produce low shading coefficients while providing clear glass. 

Handling light: Besides letting heat energy pass through, windows also allow light into our homes. Not all windows do this equally. Clear double-glazed windows allow about 77 percent of the visible light to pass through. Low-e glass allows about 70 percent and a high-R window, around 62 percent. Part of the light is in the form of the ultraviolet radiation that’s responsible for the fading of carpets and furniture. You’ll find windows that allow everything from over 50 percent of the UV radiation through, to windows that let less than 1 percent through. 

Air infiltration: This is important in all climates. Windows should be well constructed and allow a minimum of air infiltration. The design of some types of windows make them tighter than others. Casement And awning windows are tighter than double-hung windows, for example.  

A rating of .02 or .03 is very tight; a rating of .5 is loose. These ratings apply to the window itself, not the actual installation. Stopping leaks around a window once it’s in the wall is the responsibility of the installer. 

 

Buying windows can get confusing. The trick is to decide what each window should do and then buy the system that best meets those goals. 


Adding sink shutoff can save faucet fixing hassle

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

It shouldn’t be necessary to turn off the water to the entire house just to fix a leaky faucet, but that’s exactly what many homeowners must do. Why? Because they don’t have individual shutoff valves installed under every sink. 

If you’re facing the same situation, consider putting a valve on every hot- and cold-water supply tube. The valves will not only allow you to shut off the water to one sink without disrupting the flow to others but they’ll also provide a quick way to turn off the water in the event of a flood caused by, for instance, a cracked fitting or ruptured supply tube. The good news is that adding compression shutoff valves to an existing sink is a simple, straightforward job that most homeowners can handle. In most cases you won’t even need to replace the supply tubes that run from the valves to the faucet. However, if the tubes are corroded or kinked, replace them with braided stainless-steel supply lines (about $5 each). Standard compression valves cost about $7 each.  

Two conditions, two valves 

There are two styles of compression valves commonly used in sink hookups. When the water pipe enters the sink cabinet through the back wall, a right-angle-stop valve is required to make the 90-degree turn to the faucet. When it enters through the floor, no turn is needed so a straight-stop valve is used. 

You must also consider the type of pipe that supplies water to the sink. If it’s made of half-inch rigid copper, you’ll need a compression fitting to connect the valve. If the piping is threaded galvanized iron, use a valve that has female iron-pipe threads. Here, we’ll show two different installations: adding an angle-stop valve to galvanized iron pipe and putting a straight-stop valve onto copper pipe. Note that angle- and straight-stop valves are available for both copper and iron piping.  

Angle-stop valve 

Your first step is to shut off the water to the entire house at the meter. Drain the system by opening the sink and tub faucets on the lowest floor. Some water might remain in the system, so keep a small bucket handy. 

Next, use a wrench to loosen the water-supply tube from the adapter. Break the 3-eighths-inch compression nut free with the wrench, then twist it off with your fingers. To disconnect the other end of the supply tube from the faucet, use a basin wrench. The long handle of this wrench allows you to reach up behind the sink bowl and grab onto the faucet’s coupling nut. With the water-supply tube removed, use a pipe wrench to grip the threaded galvanized pipe stub coming out of the wall. Then use an adjustable wrench to unthread the old adapter from the pipe stub. Clean away hardened pipe dope from the pipe threads. Brush on a fresh coat of pipe-joint compound, then thread on the new valve. Tighten the valve using the adjustable wrench, but be sure to backhold the pipe stub with a pipe wrench. Lubricate the threads of the angle-stop valve with pipe-joint compound and attach the new flexible supply tube. Connect the opposite end of the tube to the faucet with the basin wrench. 

Straight-stop valve 

Sinks plumbed with copper pipe are even easier to upgrade. In this case, we attached a straight-stop valve to the pipe stub with a compression fitting. Start by removing the water-supply tube and loosening the lower compression nut with a wrench. Lift out the old adapter fitting and set it aside. You won’t be able to remove the old compression nut because the crushed ferrule will keep it locked in place, but that’s not a problem.  

First, brush pipe-joint compound onto the valve threads and then press the valve onto the pipe stub coming through the floor of the sink cabinet. Next, pull up on the compression nut and thread it onto the valve. Finish tightening the nut using two wrenches; be careful not to overtighten the nut, or the fitting will leak. 

Finally, reconnect the supply tube to the valve and faucet, then turn the water back on. If you find a slight leak, tighten the compression nut a little more.


Hot shower one benefit of maintained water heater

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

 

 

If you’re like most people, chances are good that you don’t appreciate the convenience of hot water at the tap until there is none.  

This can be especially true when in the middle of a hot shower things turn cold, very cold. 

Generally, a water heater is one of the most reliable appliances in a home.  

With regular maintenance it can provide years of service. Besides keeping you in hot water (something we know a lot about), a good maintenance program can quiet a noisy water heater, lower your utility bill and extend the life of the water heater.  

And who can’t stand to save the cost and aggravation of yanking out a water heater and installing a new one that will do essentially the same thing that the old one did?  

It’s not like buying a fancy new appliance with lots of buttons and gadgets that will please and entertain you. A water heater is a water heater. 

It’s essentially a large thermos bottle that consists of an outer housing, a tank and a burner assembly.  

Have you ever wondered how your water heater does its job? Cold water enters at the top of the tank and flows through a plastic pipe called a dip tube, which delivers the cold water to the bottom of the tank where the burners are located.  

The heated water rises to the top of the tank where it flows out when needed. As hot water is drawn from the tank, more cold water enters the tank to be heated. The water is kept hot with a layer of insulation that is sandwiched between the tank and the outer housing. 

Corrosion presents the biggest threat to a water heat.  

The water’s chemistry combined with the high temperature creates a corrosive environment that can attack the tank, requiring its replacement.  

To prevent the tank from deteriorating, water heaters come equipped with an anode rod.  

The rod, also known as a sacrificial anode, is made of aluminum, zinc or magnesium. It attracts corrosive elements to keep the tank from deteriorating. The anode eventually will deteriorate completely – instead of the tank. 

To maintain this protection, the anode rod should be inspected at least once annually – more often where water is more corrosive. The anode rod can be inspected by removing a hex-head nut located at the top of the water heater.  

Once removed, the anode might consist of little more than a stub of wire – evidence that a new one is needed.  

Replacement anodes aren’t a standard stock item at many hardware stores or home centers, but can usually be found at a plumbing supply store. An anode will need to be replaced every five years or so. 

After the anode, sediment at the bottom of the tank is the next biggest threat to your water heater.  

Sediment reduces the efficiency of the burner, which raises your utility bill. Sediment also is a breeding ground for bacteria that can cause your hot water to smell like rotten eggs.  

And, as if that isn’t enough, sediment is usually the cause of the rumbling sound that makes a water heater sound like a locomotive. 

The most effective means of dealing with sediment is to get rid of it by regularly flushing the tank. This is done by connecting a garden hose to the drain valve located at the bottom of the tank, opening the valve and allowing water to flow for several minutes. 

Here’s a problem that might hit home. If during the first few minutes of a hot shower the water suddenly turns cold, you likely have a broken dip tube. That’s the plastic pipe that delivers cold water from the top of the tank to the bottom near the burners.  

A cracked or broken dip tube will cause cold water to mix with hot water at the top of the tank and, consequently, result in cold water at your shower or faucet. 

Ironically, your water heater is still flush with hot water.  

This can easily be solved by turning off the cold water supply to the heater, removing the water supply and nipple and broken dip tube and replacing it with a new one. 

Although generally reliable, a controller-thermostat will fail from time to time, causing the water temperature to vary erratically.  

The controller can be replaced without replacing the entire water heater – at a fraction of the cost. While the controller can be replaced by a do-it-yourselfer, this is something that you might want done by a pro.  

The safest and most energy-efficient setting for a thermostat is between 120 F and 130 F. A temperature setting less than 120 F could allow potentially fatal bacteria to propagate within the tank. A higher temperature setting can deliver scalding water. 

All water heaters have a temperature- and pressure-relief valve that is designed to prevent the water heater from exploding.  

Some manufacturers suggest testing the valve every six months or so by raising and lowering the test lever on the valve.  

This should produce a sudden burst of hot water from the drain line connected to the valve. More frequent testing can reduce the chance of a leak caused by mineral and corrosion buildup.  

However, if a leak results immediately after a test, simply operate the test lever several times to free lodged debris that might be preventing the valve from seating properly. 

Toxic gases produced by the burner should be safely vented through a flue pipe that attaches to the top of the water heater. Frequent inspections should be made to ensure that the flue pipe is aligned with the water heater exhaust port.  

Be sure that the flue is drawing properly by holding a match under the vent pipe. If the flame is drawn toward the vent pipe, it is drawing properly. If the flame blows away from the vent pipe, the flue is backdrafting, which could cause carbon monoxide poisoning.  

Check for an obstruction or damage to the vent pipe. If none exists, call in a pro to solve the problem. 

Readers can mail questions to: On the House, APNewsfeatures, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020, or e-mail Careybro(at)onthehouse.com. To receive a copy of “On the House: Plumbing” or “On the House: Painting,” send a check or money order payable to The Associated Press for $6.95 per booklet and mail to: On the House, PO Box 1562, New York, NY 10016-1562, or through these online sites: www.onthehouse.com or apbookstore.com.


Lawmakers support business approach to environment

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

WASHINGTON — A business approach to managing the environment that uses terms “performance-based” and “market-driven” won the backing Thursday of two senior Republicans and a Democrat who help steer natural resources policy. 

In an 18-page document described as a nonpartisan blueprint for lawmakers, the Business Roundtable laid out a program for “constructive changes in our environmental protection system.” 

The group, which comprises chief executives of large companies, said free trade and environmental flexibility should  

be emphasized. 

The document also recommended that lawmakers help shift regulatory controls away from the Environmental Protection Agency and toward the states along with voluntary self-auditing, approaches that have been endorsed by new EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, New Jersey’s former governor. 

Other goals include a “better alignment of energy and environmental policies” and an overall climate of fewer regulations on businesses in order to reduce barriers on developing new technology. 

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Bob Smith, R-N.H., described the group’s approach as serious and thoughtful. 

“Our goal is to ensure a clean environment in harmony with a strong economy,” he said.  

“By embracing innovation in the private sector, coupled with cooperation and not confrontation, we can achieve the environmental goals we set forward to accomplish.” 

Smith said the blueprint would “get the full attention it deserves from my committee” in addressing bills on everything from cleaning up abandoned industrial sites to reauthorizing the Clean Air Act. 

Two other lawmakers – Reps. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., Chairman of the House Science Committee, and Rick Boucher, D-W.Va., senior Democrat on the House Commerce Committee’s energy and power subcommittee — also described the plan as sensible. 

Industry leaders were represented by Earnest W. Deavenport Jr., chairman and CEO of Eastman Chemical Co.; Fred Webber, president of the American Chemistry Council; and American Forest and Paper Association President Henson Moore. 

Ben Beach, a spokesman for the Wilderness Society, said some industries seem to think “the Bush administration is going to get the gravy train up and running.” 

But, he said, “More and more, everyone is realizing that a healthy environment and a strong economy go hand in hand, and that, by and large, you’re going to have a stronger economy if you protect your lands, air and water.” 

——— 

On the Net: The Business Roundtable blueprint: http://www.brtable.org/document.cfm/496 


Judge allows governor’s suit against schools to proceed

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — The governor may proceed with a suit against 18 school districts in a bid to force them to fix shoddy classrooms, issue textbooks and hire credentialed teachers as required under state law, a judge ruled Thursday. 

The governor’s suit is an outgrowth of one by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU, which opposes the state’s litigation, in its suit accuses California of sidestepping its duty to guarantee students an equal public education. 

The state is claiming the school districts and their locally elected boards, not Sacramento, ultimately are responsible for ensuring equal educational opportunities for all children.  

The ACLU claims otherwise, and urged San Francisco Superior Judge Peter Busch to dismiss the state’s suit that could grow to include California’s 1,054 school districts. 

The judge, in approving the state’s claim, said he was bound by laws that allow so-called cross complaints in lawsuits. In this case, the state’s cross complaint is “suggesting that another party is responsible,” the judge said. 

ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum said the ACLU’s suit demands that the state implement a system to ensure all students get an equal education. The state’s cross complaint, he said, interferes with that goal. 

John Daum, an attorney for the state, said “our claim is that the districts can fix these problems.” 

Peter Sturges, a lawyer for the San Francisco Unified School District and the Fresno Unified School District, boiled down the issue: Did a school district “not get enough money, or did the school misspend it?” 

The ACLU sued the state in May in a case that grew to represent 98 students in 46 schools in 18 school districts.  

The ACLU soon will ask the judge to expand its suit to cover all 1,054 school districts and their 5.8 million students. 

Here is a sampling of allegations contained in the ACLU and state lawsuits: 

—At Cloverdale High School, classroom temperatures reach as high as 110 degrees in the summer. Students cannot take certain books home because there aren’t enough. 

—At Morris E. Daily Elementary School in Fresno, some children “have urinated or defecated on themselves at school because toilets were locked when they needed to use the restroom.” 

—At Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, economics textbooks haven’t been updated since 1986 and, among other things, one-third of the student population must stand during assemblies because the seats are missing. 

A hearing on how to proceed with both cases is set for May 6. 

The ACLU’s case and the state’s suit are Williams vs. California, 312236. 


St. Mary’s season ends on sour note

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Thursday February 08, 2001

Two weeks ago, the St. Mary’s soccer team beat St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 2-1. At the time, the Panthers were at the top of their game, looking forward to a run at first place, and the Pilots were scuffling along at 1-4 in BSAL play, just hoping to eke out a spot in the playoffs.  

The Pilots did manage to slip into the playoffs as the sixth and final seed by winning three of their last four games. Meanwhile, St. Mary’s lost to league power Kennedy and took a surprising loss to St. Patrick-St. Vincent to end the season. That loss knocked St. Mary’s out of first place and a first-round bye, setting up the home matchup with the St. Joseph. 

With three key players out, the Panthers couldn’t hold off the surging Pilots, losing 1-0 on a controversial goal. 

The teams had battled for 75 minutes with no goals, with each team missing several chances throughout the game. But when St. Mary’s backup goalkeeper Mark Pankow collided with sweeper Nolan Horinouchi and couldn’t come up with a cross cleanly, chaos broke loose in front of the goal. Pankow nearly recovered the ball, but had it kicked away by a Pilot. St. Joseph substitute Robert Dooley pounced on the ball and slammed it into the back of the net for the lead. 

St. Mary’s head coach Teale Matteson protested that Pankow had the ball kicked out of his hands, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, and after St. Mary’s midfielder Stephon McGrew blew a breakaway with two minutes left, the Panthers’ season was over. 

“The referees said Mark didn’t have control of the ball, so they didn’t afford him the normal protection given to the goalie,” Matteson said after the game. “I saw it as the goalie being fouled trying to make a save.” 

Matteson said despite his dispute with the deciding goal, he took nothing away from a ferocious St. Joseph team. 

“You create your own luck, and I can’t begrudge them anything,” he said. “The better team is the one that capitalizes on its opportunities, and today that was St. Joseph.” 

Although the Pilots barely made the playoffs, the result wasn’t as much of an upset as one might think. Head coach Jason Eisele’s team lost by just one goal to Kennedy and St. Mary’s, and tied second-place St. Patrick’s. Following the earlier loss to St. Mary’s, Eisele guaranteed his team would win a playoff game, and his team followed through on his promise. 

“A number six seed doesn’t do us justice,” said St. Joseph captain Jeffrey Gonzalez. “We’re a better team than they realize.” 

Eisele took the opportunity to make another prediction. 

“We’re going to be the first number six seed to win the league,” he said. 

The Panthers had plenty of chances to score on Tuesday, but just couldn’t finish them. They had three shots on goal in the first five minutes, and the St. Joseph defenders were resorting to clearing the ball blindly. But Gonzalez was able to start several counter-attacks, and Pankow, who started in place of the injured Nick Osborne, had to come out hard on several occasions to stop breakaways. 

St. Mary’s forward Pat Barry and McGrew both had several nice runs through the Pilot defense, but were turned back or mishit their shots every time. 

Notes: St. Mary’s Barry was voted to the first-team All-BSAL team after leading the league with 66 points in the regular season. Barry was the only player in the league to be named on every possible ballot (coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players). McGrew, Horinouchi and midfielder Zack Huddleston were voted to the second team.


Berkeley resident earns county honor

By Michelle Hopey Special to the Daily Planet
Thursday February 08, 2001

Berkeley resident Linda Levitsky has recently been recognized as the Alameda County’s Outstanding Woman of the Year in the category of environment for 2001. 

Levitsky, executive director of the East Bay Depot for Creative Re-use will be inducted into the Alameda County’s Women’s Hall of Fame on March 3 at a ceremony in Fremont that will honor her and seven other exceptional women who have impacted the county and its residents. 

The honor is awarded by the Alameda County Health Care Foundation and the Commission on the Status of Women, along with the Board of Supervisors who collectively established the Women’s Hall of Fame of Alameda County in 1993. 

“Linda is an exceptional woman whose work has made a great contribution to the county,” said Carolyn Roach of the Health Care Foundation.  

The depot is a nonprofit organization that is committed to protecting the environment through reduction of materials that end up in the landfill by collecting unwanted materials from businesses, manufacturers and individuals. These items, which consist of old fabrics, magazines, chairs, paintings, buttons, are available to teachers, artists, community programs and the public for reuse. 

It is currently housed at 6713 San Pablo Ave., a building owned by the University of California. The agency is currently in negotiations with the university, in an attempt to extend its lease at that location.  

In addition, Levitsky is honored for establishing several ecologically effective programs in the area, including the Second Chance, First Chance Program and the Renewed Products program. 

“You never know who makes a contribution to Alameda County unless we speak up and acknowledge them,” said Roach. “This is a way to let the community know of their achievements.”  

The Women’s Hall of Fame was spearheaded by former Supervisor Mary King with the goal of recognizing outstanding women in the county.  

Although there are 10 possible categories, this year only eight awards will be given, Roach said. She said the judges did not elect any women from the sports or youth categories.  

The other Hall of Fame inductees include Dorothy Graham in the health category for creating, Berkeley Place, a community mental health agency; Minnie Bateman in arts and culture, Dr. Cynthia Harris in education, Ruthe P. Gomez in business and professions, Helen Waukazoo in community service, Ilene Weinreb in justice and Dr. Susan Opp in science.  

 


Perspective

By Akilah Monifa Pacific News Service
Thursday February 08, 2001

Black History Month has turned into a mundane, meaningless and commercialized farce. 

The celebration was started in 1926 by the educator Carter G. Woodson as “Negro History Week.” Woodson selected a week in February because that is the birth month of two heroes, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. 

Woodson's purpose was to recognize the importance of black history to America. He never intended the celebration to continue. 

Woodson “fervently hoped that soon the history of African Americans would become an integral part of American history and would be observed throughout the year,” according to historian John Hope Franklin, “...down to his death in 1950, he continued to express the hope that Negro History Week would outlive its usefulness.” 

Instead, in 1976 Negro History Week became Black History Month. Many in the media take notice of this month, giving token nods by publishing articles about African Americans and airing special programs and movies. Museums and libraries hold special exhibits, lectures and events. And of course there are the omnipresent parades and food festivals. 

As Lynn Elber, the Associated Press television writer recently wrote: “television barely dips a toe into the breadth and depth of black experience, so some amends are made in February.” 

Amends is the word. Black History Month has become a ready-made excuse to ignore African American history for the other 11 months of the year. It's little more than a bone to throw to us, not amends enough. 

Our evolving story should be told – it cannot just be bottled up and packaged in the shortest month of the year (or any other month for that matter). 

At a 1998 symposium on the value of Black History Month, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education noted that it has become a “marketing weapon” allowing advertisers and book publishers to boost sales and then abandon them for the remainder of the year. There are also special marketing efforts directed to the African- American communities during the month for products like liquor, cigarettes and sodas, according to the Journal. 

Broadcast networks and cable channels can dust off old movies and show and re-show tired programs, add a few original programs and then forget about any commitment to diversity in front of and behind the cameras the remaining 11 months. 

What is lost in this commercialization is the essence of Woodson's dream – to recall the contributions of African Americans in history, industry, the arts and sciences and all aspects of our country. 

Grade school students do benefit from the Black History Month curriculum, but most citizens don't gain much of an appreciation for African Americans in February – or any other month, for that matter. For the record, February is also American Heart Month, International Boost Self-Esteem Month, International Embroidery Month, Library Lovers Month, National Cherry Month, National Children's Dental Health Month, National Snack Food Month, and last but not least Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. 

M. Dion Thompson of the Baltimore Sun, who supports the continuation of Black History Month says, “[It] is coming and I don't know what to do, the calendar is going to be crammed with more events than I could possibly attend, even if I were cloned.” 

And that's the problem. We're kidding ourselves if we think that by designating February as Black History Month we're really doing anything to honor African Americans or to combat racial prejudice in this country. For it is this prejudice that continues to divide us. 

So, I will boycott Black History Month and instead of a month of perfunctory gestures, I will have a yearlong effort of recognizing African Americans who made and continue to make a contribution. 

 

PNS commentator Akilah Monifa is a writer who lives in Oakland 

 


St. Mary’s Alexander heads new class of Bears

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Thursday February 08, 2001

The Cal football program got its yearly infusion of talent on Wednesday, as 17 high schoolers and three junior college players signed letters of intent to play for the Bears. Headlined by a local star who head coach Tom Holmoe caught on the rebound, the class is considered to be Cal’s strongest in several years. 

Lorenzo Alexander, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound lineman who starred for St. Mary’s College High School for the last four years, committed to the Bears only after the Stanford admissions office rejected him. Alexander is widely regarded as one of the top 10 defensive line prospects in the country this year, the most highly-touted defensive lineman to commit to Cal since Andre Carter. 

“We know that we got him in a rebound situation, and we don’t care,” Holmoe said Wednesday. “We’ve told him the same things since he was a sophomore, and I think he realized that it was real. He’s the major force in this class. He has great size and speed.” 

Alexander is one of four SuperPrep All-Americans in the class, and one of 12 PrepStar All-Americans. There are 10 offensive players and 10 defensive players in the class. 

The new class of Bears is rated 34th in the country by PrepStar and 36th by Rivals.com.  

Other key players who committed to Cal on Wednesday are linebacker Mike Wells (Tucson, Ariz.), quarterback Richard Schwartz (Huntington Beach), and running backs Will Scott and Terrell Williams, who were teammates at Hoover High School in San Diego. 

“I think Mike Wells is a real sleeper,” Holmoe said, pointing out the player’s long wingspan and athletic ability. “He didn’t get a lot of respect from the ranking services, but he’s got a lot of potential.” 

Schwartz will be brought along slowly, as junior-to-be Kyle Boller has a stranglehold on the starting quarterback spot, and redshirt freshman Reggie Robertson (Wells’ high school teammate) has impressed the coaches with his athletic ability. 

The two teammates from San Diego were both adamant that they wanted to play offense, although both are were outstanding cornerbacks in high school. Holmoe said that with Cal’s depth at tailback, Scott and WIlliams could change their minds. 

The three junior college transfers will all be expected to contribute next season. Defensive end Tom Canada, who had 16 sacks for Hancock JC despite battling an ankle injury for most of the season, is already enrolled at Cal and will take part in spring practice. Canada, along with defensive end Josh Gustaveson and Alexander, will be counted on to help replace the departing Carter and Jacob Waasdorp, who anchored the Cal defense.  

Cornerback Ray Carmel, who Holmoe said will also be a kick returner, should help offset the loss of cornerback Chidi Iwouma. 

Also bolstering the defense next season will be the return of two players who left the team last year for personal reasons. Cornerback Atari Callen and linebacker Jamaal Cherry should both challenge for starting spots after missing last season. 

One recruit, Healdsburg offensive lineman Andrew Cameron, won’t be ready to play until 2003. Cameron tore his ACL during the season and will enroll in the spring semester of 2002. 

One thing missing from the class is a speed receiver or two. The Bears didn’t have bona fide deep threat last season, and both wide receiver recruits, Christian Prelle of Huntington Beach and John Rust of Lake Oswego, Ore., are possession-type wideouts. 

“We did go after some real fast guys, but didn’t get that speed-burner type of wide receiver,” Holmoe said. “Our receiving corps has been shoddy in the past number of years, but there’s no question in my mind that we’re very strong now, and we’ve added two quality players. But there’s no coach in his right mind who doesn’t want speed outside.”


School blamed for child’s jaunt

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet Staff
Thursday February 08, 2001

 

Kim Jackson’s child is 6 years old. A good kid, says his daycare teacher Susan Tourban, but one who seeks adventure. 

The adventure the child and a friend had last week, however, left his mom steaming and pointing fingers at the school district.  

The first-grader was supposed to get on the bus at the City of Franklin Magnet School to go to his after-school program at Rosa Parks School, but he and his friend, a second-grader, never got on the bus. Instead they walked to their daycare and got in trouble along the way. 

Franklin Principal Barbara Penny James said both children were walked to the bus by their teachers, as they ought to be, but that, somehow, the two slipped away. “He has a history. He has money and goes to the store,” Penny James said. “Little boys do this.”  

Since the incident, Penny James said the school is keeping a closer eye on Jackson’s child. “He is being watched, since the incident happened,” said the 26-year principal. 

Interim Superintendent Steve Goldstone had not been briefed on the incident, but expressed concern, especially when he learned the age of the child in question. “With the real little ones, sometimes they get lost” just going to the classroom, he said. “I think we have to be concerned about all the children that need to be on the school bus. We have to find ways to improve our practice.” 

Jackson doesn’t excuse her child’s role in the misadventure – he and his friend ended up destroying property and getting police involved. She said, however, there would have been no problem had the adults in question seen to it that the child had been put on the bus properly.  

“He crossed University (Avenue) and San Pablo (Avenue) by himself,” Jackson said.


Inconsistent to ask utilites to build more plants

Thursday February 08, 2001

Editor, 

I have read many letters attacking the utilities for the present energy mess, and almost no letters pointing to those actors, and factors, that I think are significant. People have pointed to the fact that there have been no new power plants for years. Why should there be?  

The 1996 deregulation act required that the utilities divest half of their thermal generation, and it hardly seems reasonable that they would be building new plants in California, when they are supposed to be divesting themselves of plants.  

Nor would one expect the companies that buy the utility’s plants to be building new ones, since their capital is tied up in buying the old plants.  

How about more utility conservation programs? Excellent idea - in hindsight, but very difficult to justify beforehand in excess of what the PUC allows the utilities to recover in their rates. Price hedging? Another excellent idea, but the PUC turned down the utility’s request last summer. 

The issue of blame has skewed people’s thinking on recovery. People want the utilities and their stockholders to cover the short-fall, but I suspect that this is about as realistic as trying to squeeze blood from a stone.  

It is also malicious, as the utilities and their stockholders have already taken a major financial loss.  

Utility stocks have dropped precipitously, the utilities have defaulted on their contracts, their bonds are now classified as junk, they have suspended dividends, laid off employees and are talking bankruptcy.  

When I see people leaving their landscape lighting on during the day I can only suggest that we look in the mirror if we want to see who is responsible for this mess. 

The amazing thing in all of this is that our governor is still trying to artificially limit the price to the consumer.  

I have done the conservation measures that are cost-effective, but I could justify more, and would therefore do more, if energy prices were higher.  

One would hope that by now we would know enough to not repeat our past mistakes. 

 

Robert Clear 

Berkeley 

 

 


Pivnik, Zabala drafted by WUSA

SStaff Report
Thursday February 08, 2001

Cal goalkeeper Maite Zabala and defender Tami Pivnik were selected in the Women’s United Soccer Association supplemental college draft this week, and will both play in the fledgling league’s inaugural season beginning in April. 

Zabala was chosen with the eighth overall pick by the Atlanta Beat, and Pivnik was chosen by the Bay Area CyberRays with the 31st overall pick. 

“I was a little surprised to have been picked so high,” Zabala said. “But I’m glad I’ll be getting the chance to keep playing soccer.” 

Zabala plans to graduate next winter, but will drop her current classes to train with the Beat. She will return to school when the season ends in August. 

“I’m a little nervous, because I’ve never been to Atlanta,” she said. “But a lot of people have told me it’s a nice city.”


Housing board airs ‘dirty linen’

By John Geluardi Daily Planet Staff
Thursday February 08, 2001

First the Berkeley Housing Authority Board heard how the troubled agency has failed property owners and Section 8 tenants Tuesday night. Then it listened to a plan to save the agency from  

dissolution. 

Interim Housing Director Stephen Barton along with Interim Berkeley Housing Authority Manager Sheila Maxwell explained to BHA board members how the agency has failed to provide landlords with overdue rent increases and has been slow to process Section 8 voucher applications for the 1,500 priority households on the BHA waiting list.  

HUD has made 1,840 Section 8 vouchers available to the BHA and currently there are only 1,300 households receiving the government rental  

subsidies. Because BHA has failed to make full use of available vouchers, the agency is on the verge of collapse, according to Barton. 

According to a recent BHA report, last year the city agency was $255,000 over budget and it expects to lose another $247,000 this year. In addition to the operating deficit, the city was fined $54,000 last year by HUD for not assigning more vouchers.  

To add to the agency’s woes, BHA officials said that the Section 8 program is losing 10 housing units a month because landlords say they can get higher rents on the open market, Barton said. The number of landlords taking their units out of the program has increased from 1999 when a total of 29 units were taken out of the Section 8 program, said Councilmember Dona Spring. 

“If the Housing Authority is unable to return to self sufficiency reasonably quickly it’s very likely the city would contract its duties out another agency such as the Alameda County Housing Authority,” Barton said. 

Under state law, the City Council governs the BHA, which has the authority to dissolve the agency if is deemed unable to carry out its duties. Mayor Shirley Dean said the City Council may decide the BHA’s fate as early as May if there is no evidence of operation improvement. 

Barton and Maxwell outlined two tasks the agency must perform in order to turn the agency around. Barton said the first thing the agency has to do is process the qualified households on the waiting list. Once the agency raises the number of Section 8 households to 1,750, which would be close to 95 percent of HUD approved vouchers, the agency will not no longer be losing money. 

HUD pays the BHA approximately $700 per year for each assigned Section 8 voucher, according to Barton. Barton has set a goal of being financially solvent by June, 2003. 

Recently hired BHA Manager Sheila Maxwell, the former general manager of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, said she has taken steps to organize Housing Authority staff and policy.  

“We’ve been able to modify and revise procedures to cut down on the processing time of the huge amount of paperwork that this office is responsible for,” Maxwell said. “We also have regular and consistent meetings with staff to keep on top of internal problems.” 

Maxwell said she has taken steps to update the agency’s infrastructure with new computers and software that will allow staff to decrease processing time. 

Barton said the agency will also be working with landlords to put into effect long overdue rental increases. “Virtually all of the landlords who are in the Section 8 program need to have their rents raised to current HUD approved levels,” he said. “We are going to make a serious effort to have all the rents raised within six months.” 

Some landlords have not yet received increases that were approved by HUD two years ago. 

Barton said the BHA has trained and assigned several staff members to focus exclusively on shepherding landlords through the rental increase process. 

Barton said by bringing landlords up to current HUD approved rates, which he said are comparable to market rates, he hopes to reverse the trend of landlords opting out of the Section Program. 

Spring said if the city loses its Housing Authority, section 8 tenants and landlords could lose influence over the government housing program. “It’s a very sobering idea that we may lose the BHA,” she said. “If we did, we wouldn’t be able to give as much attention to the needs of Berkeley tenants or landlords. The accountability that we now have from the BHA would be greatly reduced.” 

Dean has suggested the creation of a seven-member commission that would have more time for BHA issues than the current BHA Board, which is made up of the mayor, city councilmembers and two tenants. 

“We have never been able to give the BHA the kind of time it needs,” she said. “I believe we need a board to meet two or three times a month to keep on top of things.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio thanked Barton for “airing your dirty linen.” She said it appeared he had analyzed the situation very well and put together an effective plan to turn the BHA around. 

Councilmember Betty Olds, who was a member of the Rent Stabilization Board for eight years, said it was about time the landlords got some consideration. “You can’t kick people in the teeth as long as Berkeley’s landlords have and expect them to continue participating in the Section 8 program,” she said. “I was very heartened to hear that the BHA is making landlord concerns a priority.” 

President of the Black Property Owners Association, Frank Davis, said the plan sounds good, but what the BHA needs to do is to take action. “If we can get that out of the way, we can solve a lot of these problems,” he said. “That is the most important thing.” 


UC study finds a ‘first love’ never leaves

Daily Planet wire services
Thursday February 08, 2001

Whether your heart belongs to anyone this Valentine's Day may depend on what happened the first time you fell in love.  

This new finding, by University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Jennifer Beer, challenges the notion commonly held since Freud that the stability of the parent-child relationship sets the stage for attachment later in life.  

With romance, said Beer, "Some of the problems you have in the romantic domain may have more to do with your first love than with your parents." She based her work on the first-love stories of 303 UC Berkeley undergraduates, mostly juniors, collected in 1997.  

By "first love," Beer doesn't mean a childhood crush on a teacher or movie star, but the first real relationship of a romantic nature between two individuals, often experienced in adolescence or early adult years. Those who remember the experience positively are more likely to consider themselves securely attached to their current romantic partners, she said, and to perceive their romantic partners as securely attached to them.  

She now is looking at how such recent and distant "vivid" representations of self and partner are stored in different memory systems in the brain and what this might reveal about self-perception.  

"Vivid memories are very detailed, self-defining, something you recall a lot, stories and anecdotes you dwell on or tell all the time," Beer said.  

In the case of first love, such memories often range from bittersweet but fond - perhaps recollections of a poignant puppy love tinged with regard or regret for a long-ago sweetheart - to deeply painful, soul-crushing experiences.  

Whatever happened, “it can set you up as thinking, 'This is what I am like as a relationship partner,’ ” Beer said.  

People who recollect their first romantic experience as involving good feelings, for instance, citing memories of happiness, excitement, strength, inspiration, pride and enthusiasm, were more likely to be in stable relationships years later than those recalling hostility, upset, stress, guilt, fright or shame, Beer found.  

"First love relationships often break up. So people say, 'What do you mean, good feelings? It was a breakup,' " she said. "But even though the relationship ended, which seems like it might be negative, the vivid memories surrounding the experience can be good or bad."  

As an example of a good experience, Beer cited one respondent who suffered greatly because her former boyfriend dated other women immediately after their relationship ended. But, prior to that, the experience had been a positive taste of what love could be, and the woman learned what made her happy in a relationship.  

 

Alternatively, Beer described a stormier experience that left the respondent years later with the unshakeable suspicion that all men were untrustworthy.  

"This is wrong, but I cannot help myself," the respondent commented. "One negative experience has been enough to change my entire outlook on men."  

Beer identified four patterns of perception surrounding relationships:  

* Secure - A secure, positive sense of both self and partner in a relationship.  

* Dismissive -A positive sense of self, but not of partner.  

* Preoccupied - A positive sense of partner, but not of self.  

* Fearful - Negative recollections of both.  

Those with memories of positive emotion and outcomes from their first relationship "were more likely to have positive views of self and others in romantic relationships," Beer said. 

"Those with more negative emotions and outcome were more likely to show one of the other three patterns." 

 


Dog attack may have been seen by one other

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — At least one other person may have witnessed the fatal mauling of a college lacrosse coach, and the victim’s partner says it wasn’t the first attack. 

An elderly neighbor has come forward, saying she witnessed the fatal attack through a peep hole in her door, San Francisco Police Lt. Henry Hunter said Wednesday. 

The woman, who police have not identified, said she was too scared to go outside, but said the “dogs were banging against her door so hard she put the chain up,” because she was afraid they would break it down, Hunter said. 

Sharon Smith said her partner of seven years, Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old coach at St. Mary’s College, had been bitten once before by one of the mastiff-Canary Island dogs in their apartment foyer.  

Smith said the dog lunged for Whipple’s wrist last month and bit down on her sports watch, which prevented serious injury. 

“She was terrified of the dogs,” Smith said. 

Smith, a vice president at the Charles Schwab investment firm, has hired lawyer and former Alameda County prosecutor Michael Cardoza to monitor the district attorney’s investigation and to ensure the owners, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, are prosecuted. No lawsuits have been filed. 

“I want to see the two of them locked up,” Smith said. “This isn’t a car accident, where it happens, and you grieve and then move on.” 

As Whipple was coming home to the couple’s sixth-floor apartment with groceries Jan. 26, Bane, a 120-pound dog, attacked Whipple, throwing her down on the floor and ripping at her throat with his teeth as Knoller tried to restrain him. Another dog, Hera, tugged at her clothes, police have said. Whipple died later that evening at the hospital. 

The canines involved in Whipple’s death are part of a fighting-dog ring in which dogs were bred for such jobs as protecting illicit drug labs.  

The ring was run by two white supremacist inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, and in a bizarre twist, Noel and Knoller recently adopted one of the inmates, 38-year-old Paul John Schneider. 

District Attorney Terence Hallinan has said Noel and Knoller could face manslaughter charges in Whipple’s death. 

But Cardoza is hopeful prosecutors will go one step further. He says under a mischievous dog section in the law, second-degree murder charges can be filed. 

“Hopefully, they will bring charges,” he said. “And hopefully, they will be second-degree murder charges against these people.” 

 

He said he expects to file suit against the couple within the next few weeks. 

Calls to Noel and Knoller were not returned to The Associated Press on Wednesday. 

But Hunter said police have been gathering mixed information about the dogs. 

“We want to be fair. We’re not going out with any preconceived notions. We’re letting the chips fall where they may,” he said. “We have had people say the dogs were friendly and they petted them every day and other people who say, ’These dogs scared the heck out of me.”’ 

Smith said she’s never really met the neighbors who live down the call of their Pacific Heights apartment building, but that even she had a close encounter with one of the dogs last year when she reached down to pet the animal. 

“Robert screamed out ’No!’,” she recalled. “He told me the dog had been in a fight in the park and was spooked. It made me scared of the dogs.” 


Nuclear power pushed as long-term energy solution

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

LOS ANGELES — Nuclear energy has a daunting list of negatives – economics, fears about safety and waste disposal, and the potential to fuel the creation of nuclear weapons. 

But California’s power crisis is prompting some to renew calls to expand the power source. 

State Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, plans to introduce legislation in the next few weeks to move the state toward greater use of nuclear energy. 

The measure would seek the reopening of the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, which shut down in 1989 a day after Sacramento-area voters passed a referendum calling for its closure. 

“I’m told that with half a billion dollars and nine months we could refit the facility and generate 1,100 megawatts of power,” McClintock said.  

“I don’t think the support exists at present, But once there has been public debate on the issue, I believe the support will exist.” 

California’s two nuclear facilities – Diablo Canyon and San Onofre – are the state’s two biggest power sources, generating more than 4,000 megawatts between them. 

State Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-San Fernando, said the energy crisis has thus far produced little talk in Sacramento of expanding nuclear energy. But the topic seems much less divisive, he said. 

“The discussion is much more casual,” he said. “In the past, it would conjure up automatic controversy.” 

Alarcon also sees a cautious optimism among nuclear power providers that the energy crisis could make it easier for them to operate. 

Alarcon, however, believes options like solar energy and new natural gas plants are better ways to handle the state’s long-term needs. 

Nuclear power provides roughly one-fifth of the nation’s electricity needs, but no nuclear plants have been approved in this country for 23 years. Meanwhile, a number of plants have closed. 

That could hamper any effort to bring more plants on line. 

“The politics could be insurmountable; it’s not clear,” said John P. Holdren, director of the Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy’s School of Government. “There’s a group in the middle I think are revisiting their views.” 

Holdren is scheduled to speak Friday in Irvine at a National Academy of Engineering symposium on the future of nuclear power.  

He said nuclear energy should be re-examined as an alternative to fossil fuels, which provide about 75 percent of the world’s energy but contribute to global warming. 

Holdren said he is “not an unabashed nuclear booster.”  

He considers using more natural gas and developing renewable energy sources like wind as high priorities on the world’s energy to-do list. 

“The question is will that be enough. We have to look at some of the more difficult” options, including nuclear energy, Holdren said.  

“There is no silver bullet out there, and that is what people need to get through their heads.” 

Dan Jacobson, legislative advocate for the California Public Interest Research Group, said embracing a rebirth of nuclear power “would take us from one crisis and put us in the next.” 

Nuclear power has proven to be a needlessly expensive and dangerous energy source, especially in earthquake-prone California, he said. In a state with the potential to meet about half of its energy needs with renewable sources, the long-term need for nuclear power is nonexistent, he said. 

Holdren said there are four primary obstacles to expanding nuclear power.  

It’s more expensive than fossil fuels; safety must improve before a significant number of new plants can be built; long-term solutions for waste disposal are needed; and strategies to keep nuclear material from ending up in weapons must be developed. 

“The authorities have endorsed so many missteps that they have little credibility,” Holdren said. 

Peter Lyons, science adviser to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said a project in South Africa may be the prelude to greater use of nuclear power. 

The 100-megawatt “pebble bed modular reactor system” is about one-tenth the size of a typical nuclear reactor and is designed to have zero chance of a meltdown, even if all coolant flow is lost.


Court strikes down part of juvenile law

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

SAN DIEGO — An appeals court Wednesday struck down a key provision of Proposition 21 which, with strong support from voters last year, allowed prosecutors to charge youths as adults for certain serious crimes. 

In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled the provision violates the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers clause by taking power from judges and giving it to prosecutors, who are part of the government’s executive branch. 

The court found that “the fundamental nature” of the decision to charge a juvenile as an adult amounts to a sentencing decision that can’t be turned over to prosecutors. 

The ruling came in an appeal of a decision to charge eight San Diego teens as adults for an attack on five Mexican agricultural workers last summer. Similar challenges to the law have been filed on behalf of minors around the state. 

“This changes the way the juvenile courts are going to proceed in thousands upon thousands of cases,” said Kerry Steigerwalt, a lawyer for one of the eight San Diego teen-agers. 

“This guts Proposition 21,” he said. 

The San Diego County District Attorney’s office, which charged the youths with robbery and assault in the attack, is expected to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. 

Proposition 21, approved by nearly two-thirds of voters in March, overhauled the state’s juvenile justice system to crack down on young criminals. It had strong backing from former Gov. Pete Wilson as well as Gov. Gray Davis. 

It required pretrial detention for people younger than 18 who are charged with serious crimes and established a new probation system for youths. 

Justice Alex McDonald, who was appointed to the court in 1995 by Wilson, wrote in the majority opinion that Wednesday’s ruling doesn’t invalidate other provisions of Proposition 21, such as a mandate that youths 14 and older be tried as adults for murder and sexual assaults. 

The troublesome part of the law was a portion giving prosecutors the power to decide whether they would charge youths as adults for other crimes — such as robbery and hate-crimes in the case of the San Diego teens. 

In dissenting from the majority, Justice Gilbert Nares argued that voters have the legal right to delegate such decisions to prosecutors. 

“I believe the people of this state have the constitutional power and the right to take such a measured approach to combat serious and violent juvenile crimes,” wrote Nares, who was appointed to the court in 1988 by Gov. George Deukmejian. 

The law also sought to close a wide gulf between sentencing for adults and minors. 

If the eight San Diego teens — who ranged in age from 14 to 17 at the time of the attack — had been convicted as adults, they would have faced sentences ranging from 12 years to 16 years for robbery and assault with a hate-crime enhancement. 

As juveniles, their maximum penalty would be confinement in California Youth Authorities facilities until age 25. 

Critics have argued that incarcerating juveniles with adults and for longer sentences is cruel and unusual punishment, and say that young people sent to adult prisons generally get no chance at rehabilitation. 


Web site featuring animated fare set to close down

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

The Associated Press 

 

LOS ANGELES — Icebox.com, an ambitious Web entertainment site that seemed on the verge of mainstream success, is closing. 

The company pioneered the idea of using the Internet as a place to test ideas that could later be made into television shows or feature films. Last August, it sold a short, animated series called “Starship Regulars” to the Showtime cable channel, which still plans on turning it into a live-action show later this year. 

The company also licensed an animated show, “Zombie College” to the Fox Broadcasting Network, which is developing it into a live-action pilot. 

The company said Wednesday it will lay off most of its remaining 27 employees Friday. 

Steve Stanford, chief executive officer and Icebox Inc. co-founder, said the company ran out of money and time. Icebox raised $13.4 million last April and has been unable to raise more money or find either a partner or a buyer. 

“There is such a negative sentiment about Web content out there,” Stanford said Wednesday. “Given the current environment, it did not make sense to continue the business.” 

Stanford said he is still trying to sell the company or at least some of the shows on the site. After Friday, the site will continue to exist for a while, although no new episodes will be posted. 

“We had great support from the creative community,” Stanford said. “We had fairly high aspirations. We wanted to make the Web a place where people could go to create quality entertainment.” 

Most companies that have tried to attract viewers and advertising revenue with original programming on the Internet have struggled. 

The Digital Entertainment Network was the first to fold early last year. It was soon followed by Pop.com, the much-heralded effort backed by such Hollywood powerhouses as Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard. Pop.com closed before it even debuted. 

Icebox.com seemed more likely to succeed, in part because it did not try to be an entertainment destination. Instead, it used the Web as a place for established artists to try out new material, which could then be sold, with Icebox retaining part of the subsequent profits. 

Unlike many other sites, which showcased content written, and often animated, by amateurs, Icebox enlisted top writers, including Rob LaZebnick, an Icebox co-founder and co-producer of the Fox television series, “The Simpsons,” and Eric Kaplan, a producer of the Fox animated series “Futurama.” 

“We believed if you could give a proven artist the freedom to create things, some good things would come out of that.,” Stanford said. “We had some great properties. We also had some not-so-great properties.” 

The site drew harsh criticism from those who charged it featured raunchy and often offensive material. One show, “Mr. Wong,” made sport of an 85-year-old Chinese houseboy complete with overbite and jaundiced complexion. 

Stanford said he is not sure what he will do next. 

“This is something I was really passionate about,” he said. “I never thought I would have to do something else.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.icebox.com 


Court allows suit over naval station to proceed

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

LOS ANGELES — A federal appeals court has ruled that environmental and preservation groups can sue the U.S. Navy over demolition of the Long Beach Naval Station that was home to bird habitats and historic buildings. 

“It was outrageous,” said attorney Richard I. Fine, who represented the plaintiffs.  

“They destroyed over $500 million worth of buildings. It was horrible.” Use of the closed naval installation was at the center of a heated political battle in the late 1990s when the city of Long Beach proposed an agreement with the China Ocean Shipping Co. to establish its own cargo port on the property. 

Two California congressmen opposed the plan, claiming the property could become a base for Chinese spying and smuggling. That plan was abandoned. 

The appeals court ruling issued Tuesday involves the removal of ficus trees that served as habitat for rare birds and the demolition of buildings designed by architect Paul Williams that might have been appropriate for inclusion on the National Registry of Historic Places. 

The attorney who represented the city of Long Beach in the protracted litigation said adequate environmental studies were done to determine how best to use the property. 

 

 

A mitigation fund was set up to move some 50 adult ficus trees to other locations, according to Principal Deputy City Attorney Dominic Holzhaus. 

Other measures provided for a shallow water habitat for the black-crowned night heron, one of the species of birds believed to be endangered by the demolition. The birds have been thriving in the new location, Holzhaus said. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling written by judge Stephen Reinhardt said the fact the naval station has already been demolished does not make the issue moot. 

Bird watchers want the U.S. Navy to repair damage done to the bird habitats and to consider more environmentally acceptable uses for the property. 

“The bird watchers have shown a concrete and particularized interest in observing the birds and their habitat from land adjacent to the station,” the ruling states. 

The appeals court sent the case back to a federal district court. The citizen groups plan to ask U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson to order the Navy to reconsider uses for the land that might include restaurants and commercial buildings, Fine said. 

The city, however, has arranged to lease the naval station property to Hanjin, a Korean shipping line that is already operating a newly constructed terminal. Other buildings remain under construction. 

The Navy plans to transfer ownership to the city after completing a mandated cleanup over the next year. It must decide whether challenge the appeals court ruling or return to district court for resolution, Holzhaus said. 


Actress Dale Evans dies at 88

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

LOS ANGELES — Dale Evans, the singer-actress who teamed with husband Roy Rogers in popular Westerns and wrote their theme song, “Happy Trails to You,” died Wednesday at 88. 

Evans died of congestive heart failure at her home in Apple Valley in the high desert east of Los Angeles, said Dave Koch, son-in-law of Evans’ stepson, Roy “Dusty” Rogers Jr. She had suffered a heart attack in 1992 and a stroke in 1996. 

Evans’ son and other family members were at her side. A memorial service will be held Saturday, Koch said. She was the “Queen of the West” to Rogers, the “King of the Cowboys.” She rode her horse, Buttermilk, beside him on his celebrated palomino, Trigger. 

“There’s the last of the great ladies from a great era – the cowboy era,” said Fran Boyd, executive director of the Academy of Country Music. “She was always really gracious and a very big supporter of her husband.” 

The first movie she made with Rogers, already an established singing cowboy star, was “Cowboy and the Senorita” in 1944. They married in 1947, and together appeared in 35 movies, including such Saturday afternoon favorites as “My Pal Trigger,” “Apache Rose” and “Don’t Fence Me In.” 

When the B Western faded in the early 1950s, they began their television career. “The Roy Rogers Show” ran from 1951 to 1957; later incarnations included “The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show,” 1962, and “Happy Trails Theatre,” 1986-89, a show of repackaged Rogers and Evans movies on cable TV’s Nashville Network. 

In 1951, she wrote “Happy Trails,” which became their theme song. She also wrote the 1955 gospel music standard “The Bible Tells Me So,” with the refrain, “how do I know? the Bible tells me so.” 

She and Rogers recorded more than 400 songs. Their most recent album was “Many Happy Trails,” recorded in Nashville in 1985. 

She wrote more than 20 books, including the best-selling “Angel Unaware,” a poignant account of their daughter, Robin, the only child born to the couple.  

Robin, who had Down syndrome, died of complications from the mumps shortly before her second birthday in 1952. 

It wasn’t the couple’s only taste of tragedy. Korean-born Debbie, one of the couple’s adopted children, was killed with seven others in a 1964 church bus crash; the following year, their adopted son John choked to death while serving in the Army in Germany. 

“In the Bible, it doesn’t say you’re going to get by without having troubles,” Rogers once said. 

The couple also adopted another daughter and raised a daughter by foster parenthood. In addition, Evans had a son by a previous marriage, and Rogers had a son and two daughters, one of them adopted, with his first wife, Arline. She had died in 1946, shortly after giving birth to Roy Jr. 

Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith on Oct. 31, 1912, in Uvalde, Texas. When she was a girl her family moved to Osceola, Ark., where she attended high school. 

She was working as a secretary in Chicago when she tried to launch a show business career, she recalled in the 1984 interview. 

“I wanted to get a foothold in radio, but I couldn’t get a job,” she said. “Finally I succeeded in Memphis, then I got jobs in Louisville and Dallas before going back to Chicago.” 

She became Dale Evans during her brief stint in Tennessee. Initially, she used her married name, Frances Fox, and then Marian Lee. Over her protests, the station manager changed it to Dale Evans, because he felt it was “euphonious” and would roll easily from the lips of announcers. 

From local radio singing jobs, she worked up to national radio, signing on in 1940 as a singer on a weekly CBS radio show “News and Rhythm.” Shortly afterward, she started working in Hollywood, appearing in films such as “Orchestra Wives” and “Swing Your Partner.” 

She said she felt sorry from some of today’s rock stars: “They are overnight successes making unbelievable amounts of money. They’re like meteors, shooting up and then falling just as fast. People like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Roy and me, we paid our dues. We’ve known the hard times and the good, and we appreciate what we’ve got.” 

Besides Roy Jr., she is survived by her son by her first marriage, Tom Fox; adopted daughter Dodie Sailors; foster daughter Marion Swift; stepdaughter Linda Lou Johnson; adopted stepdaughter Cheryl Barnett; 16 grandchildren; and more than 30 great-grandchildren. 


Electronic filing can lessen IRS contact

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

WASHINGTON — In its quest to persuade more taxpayers to file returns electronically, the Internal Revenue Service this year is making 23 more forms available in e-format and scrapping the requirement that taxpayers mail in a separate paper signature form. 

“People made fun of us: ’You’ve got electronic filing but then you’ve got to file a piece of paper.’ It didn’t make sense,” said IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti. “This is really a major breakthrough. It makes electronic filing paperless.” 

The IRS is expecting 42.3 million electronic tax returns out of a total projected 129.7 million returns by April 16, up from about 35 million that were e-filed a year ago.  

Among the benefits: faster refunds, much greater accuracy, direct deposit and debit and far less chance of further contact with the IRS. 

“You’re 40 times less likely to hear from the IRS if you file electronically,” said Terry Lutes, IRS chief of electronic tax administration. 

New this year to replace the paper signature form is a five-digit PIN number a taxpayer will select through a paid practitioner, tax preparation software or an Internet-based preparer.  

To prove identity, taxpayers must provide the IRS two “shared secrets” from last year’s tax return: the numbers for their adjusted gross income and total tax. 

“If those two things match, then we’ll accept it,” said Lutes said. 

This “self-selected” PIN number will also replace the postcards the IRS sent last year to about 11 million e-filing taxpayers that gave them an electronic signature to replace the paper form. 

Among the new IRS forms being made available electronically are those for supplemental income and loss, depreciation, wage and tax statements and farm rental income.  

With these additions, 97 percent of all IRS forms – and virtually every form needed by the average taxpayer – can be used in e-filing. 

Both of these changes will particularly encourage electronic filing by paid practitioners, who tend to deal with more complex returns and typically use a greater variety of forms, Rossotti said. 

“Paid preparers have said they don’t want some paper returns and some electronic. They want to do it one way,” he said. “That’s a legitimate point.” 

The IRS is attempting to meet a goal set by Congress of having 80 percent of all tax returns e-filed by 2007. 

Other electronic tax filing changes for this year: 

• Taxpayers will have a second option to pay their taxes using MasterCard, Discover or American Express cards. PhoneCharge Inc., at 1 (888) ALLTAXX, is now competing with Official Payments Corp., at 1 (800) 2PAYTAX. Fees apply in both cases. 

• Beginning April 1, taxpayers can seek a filing extension from the IRS through the TeleFile touch-tone phone system and allow taxes to be deducted directly from bank accounts. 

• Combined state-federal filing will be expanded to all states with an income tax. 

• Acceptance of 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ forms from U.S. overseas possessions. 

• Paid preparers will be able to write in comments supporting or clarifying an entry on a client’s tax return. 

Look for more tax help all this week on the Berkeley Daily Planet’s business page.


Drug-resistant AIDS virus appears to be growing

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

CHICAGO — People who catch HIV are increasingly likely to encounter mutant forms of the virus that are able to resist some of the drugs commonly used to treat the infection. 

Drug-resistant strains have been a major problem since the start of treatment in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but until recently this resistance emerged as the virus evolved inside each patient’s body. Now, however, doctors say these resistant viruses apparently are being passed on to others in significant numbers. 

U.S. researchers Wednesday reported an abrupt upswing over the past two years in the prevalence of resistant forms of the virus in newly infected people. 

They said the cause of this increase is almost certainly the widespread use of drug combinations that have revolutionized the treatment of AIDS since 1996. These medicines have transformed HIV from a death sentence to a manageable condition, but they have also increased the number of outwardly healthy people whose bodies harbor resistant virus. 

When all goes well, the drugs hold reproduction of the virus so low that no resistant mutants can evolve. But often, the medicines fail to work this well, and a virus gradually emerges that is resistant to one or more of the drugs being taken. 

“There are significantly greater numbers of patients who have failing regimens and who transmit their virus,” said Dr. Susan Little of the University of California, San Diego. 

Her study was conducted on 394 people in Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Montreal, Birmingham, Ala., and Vancouver, British Columbia. She presented the results at the Eighth Annual Retrovirus Conference in Chicago. 

The patients were seen by doctors between 1995 and last May. All were checked within three months of catching HIV. 

Between 1995 and 1998, less than 4 percent of the patients caught resistant virus.  

In 1999 and 2000, this rose to 14 percent. Six percent of these had a virus that was resistant to two drugs. 

Most of those who catch HIV never realize it until years later. However, patients occasionally realize it soon after infection because they get temporary flu-like symptoms. Some doctors recommend immediate drug treatment for such patients. 

In these cases, Little said doctors should check their patients’ viruses to see if they are resistant to any drugs before starting therapy. 

Doctors believe that without treatment, patients’ drug-resistant virus eventually evolves back to the non-resistant form. However, a record of the resistant virus is stored in patients’ immune systems, and it can re-emerge once treatment starts. 

The growing spread of resistant virus “has tremendous important in our ability to treat people effectively,” said Dr. Douglas Richman, another member of Little’s team. 

Another study, conducted by Dr. Hillard Weinstock of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, raises the possibility that the level of resistant virus varies greatly among different risk groups. 

Weinstock’s team surveyed 603 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 10 cities. It found that 16 percent of white homosexual men had resistant virus, compared with 3 percent of blacks who caught the virus heterosexually. 

Two other studies from Switzerland and France also found high levels of resistant virus, though resistance was more common there than in the United States during the mid-1990s.  

 

In a study of 121 newly infected patients, Dr. Marie-Laure Chaix of Necker Hospital in Paris found that 9 percent had resistant virus in 1996, 7 percent in 1997, 6 percent in 1998 and 10 percent in 1999. 


Company challenges drug manufacturers

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

NEW DELHI, India — In a challenge to big drug manufacturers, an Indian company is offering to supply AIDS drugs to a medical relief agency at 3.5 percent of the cost charged in Western countries, as long as they are distributed for free. 

Bombay-based Cipla Ltd. will sell the three-drug, anti-retroviral cocktail to Doctors Without Borders for $350 a year per patient, instead of the $10,000 to $15,000 charged in the United States and Europe, Cipla chairman Yusuf Hamied told The Associated Press on Wednesday. 

The decision could revolutionize the treatment of HIV patients in developing countries, where the virus is most rampant – but it’s unclear if the companies holding patents on the drugs will go along. 

Annick Hamel, of Doctors Without Borders, said the Paris-based aid agency is studying the proposal “with a lot – a lot – of interest.” 

“For us, it’s excellent news,” said Hamel, who runs the group’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicine that would oversee the project. 

“It’s going to make a huge difference,” said Anjuli Gopalan, executive director of an advocacy group for AIDS patients in India, the Naz Foundation. But Gopalan warned the proposal could get India into “a lot of trouble” because of international patent laws enforced under the World Trade Organization. 

The cocktail consists of two 40 milligram tablets of stavudine, two 150 milligram tablets of lamivudine and two 200 milligram tablets of nevirapine, all of which are patented and protected under WTO rules. 

Bristol-Myers Squibb holds the patent on stavudine under the brand name Zerit; GlaxoSmithKline of Britain developed lamivudine, also known as Heptovir; and Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany holds the rights to nevirapine under the name Viramune. 

Under WTO rules, if a country fails to enforce international patent laws, punitive trade sanctions could be imposed. But whether the big drug companies pressure their national governments to bring a case in the WTO remains to be seen considering the sensitivity of the issue. 

A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline in London, Phil Thompson, said the company was not consulted about Cipla’s offer and was waiting to see the details. 

“It would appear that the offer is partially one of donation. As a consequence of that, questions have to be raised about the sustainability of the offer. Certainly questions need to be answered,” Thompson said. 

A spokesman for Boehringer Ingelheim refused to say if the company would take legal action against Cipla, but it has said in the past that “intellectual property rights should be protected.” 

Hamied said Cipla can manufacture the drugs so cheaply because his company makes the raw materials and production costs in India are low. 

“This is my contribution to fighting AIDS,” Hamied said. He added that he was inspired by the Jan. 26 earthquake in western Gujarat state, where more than 17,000 people have been confirmed dead, and the outpouring of aid for the 1 million people estimated by the United Nations to have been left homeless. 

“AIDS is going to be a bigger holocaust in India than the earthquake,” Hamied said. 

Hamel of Doctors Without Borders said Cipla’s offer showed that quality generic drugs can be made, sold and distributed at prices far lower than currently on the market. 

The key to the program is a three-tiered pricing scheme in which wholesalers would pay $1,200 for enough drugs to treat one patient for a year; governments would pay $600 and Doctors Without Borders would pay $350. 

“We’re not making money, but we are not going to lose money either,” Hamied said. “With the average of the three prices, we should break even.” Hamied said Cipla cannot be sued in India and that it was up to Doctors Without Borders to work out the legalities of importing the drugs into the countries where they work. 

Doctors Without Borders has campaigned for two years to convince Western pharmaceutical companies to cut drug prices. 

Before finalizing a deal, certain details need to be ironed out, Hamel said. A group from Doctors Without Borders plans to meet with Cipla representatives on Feb. 15 in Bombay. 

“In any case, for that price — $350 — we’re takers,” Hamel said. “If the agreement is finalized, we will buy the medicine from Cipla and give it for free to those who need it.” 

The aid agency operates 40 AIDS projects worldwide, about half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 70 percent of the world’s 36 million AIDS cases. Some African countries spend only $5 a year per capita on health care. 

Hamied said he hoped his offer would “wake up” the government in India, where doctors say 3,500 people a day are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. More than 50 million Indians will be infected by 2005, Hamied said. 

GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Boehringer Ingelheim have all agreed to participate in the International Partnership Against AIDS in Africa initiative, which will supply drugs at a discounted price to the governments of developing countries, but the prices are still about $1,100 per patient per year. In a statement Wednesday, Doctors Without Borders called on the major manufacturers to match Cipla’s offer. 

Bristol-Myers Squibb spokesman Bob Laverty said Wednesday evening that his company was still looking into details of Cipla’s offer, but that “there’s a role for legally developed generic drugs” in some countries. 

“As long as they’re observing patent laws which are in effect in these countries, then they are absolutely free to sell their drugs,” Laverty said. He said Bristol-Myers Squibb must determine what patent laws are applicable in the African countries. 

Critics of the cheaper drugs argue that patients taking the drugs must be closely monitored in a well-equipped clinic, something that is rare in developing countries. AIDS activists, though, say that Western doctors are too cautious and that the problem is to large to deny those with HIV access to the drugs. 


Lab poses health risk in fire, report says

By John Geluardi Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday February 07, 2001

A new report analyzing the risk of radiation exposure during a fire at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says there is a much greater risk than reported in a similar 1996 analysis prepared by the laboratory. 

Berkeley’s Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy pointed out that the new report, funded by the city and prepared by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Heidelberg, Germany, is preliminary and the findings reflect a worse-case scenario. The final report is not due for 18 months. 

The draft report, released Monday, uses the scenario of a woman jogging downwind and within 135 feet of the Tritium Labeling Facility during a fire. If this scenario occurred, the jogger would be exposed to between 2,900 to 18,000 millirems of Tritium. The estimated exposure is 600 to 3,700 times higher than reported in the LBNL Safety Analysis Document prepared in 1996. 

The LBNL Tritium Labeling Facility works primarily with pharmaceutical companies researching new compounds. The compounds are incorporated with tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, and then injected into living organisms. The compound’s migration through the organism can be tracked by the glow produced by the tritium.  

Biomedical researchers then use the information to help determine the compound’s effectiveness in treating a variety of diseases including cancer. 

Members of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste argue that the amount of tritium released from the labs in a fire will cause cancer, sterility and birth defects. According to the EPA a person should be exposed to no more than 10 millirems of tritium per year. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong said she supports the Tritium Labeling Facility’s work, but would like to see the facility moved. 

“We can argue about millirems, air direction and such until the cows come home but when you have radioactive projects going on in an area susceptible to landslides, earthquakes and fires it just doesn’t seem safe,” Armstrong said. “I think it would be better somewhere in the desert.” 

The City Council has twice, once in September 1996 and again two years later in 1998, adopted resolutions requesting LBNL close the Tritium Labeling Facility. 

Al-Hadithy said the report does not find ongoing problems with the day to day operations of the facility although it does make suggestions for better site monitoring. 

He said Dr. Bernard Franke, one of the scientists who prepared the report, uses a worst case scenario of exposure to a woman jogging near the facility during a fire, but there is much more research that has to be done before Franke’s analysis can be relied on as an actual indicator of the danger to nearby residents and the Lawrence Hall of Science, a children’s museum near the labs. 

“As a city we encourage a scientific approach,” Al-Hadithy said. “And we have to remember that at this stage all the findings from the laboratory and Dr. Franke are very subjective.” 

Gene Bernardi, co-chair of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste and a neighbor of the LBNL said her group would like to see the facility closed down. She said the report doesn’t go far enough in analyzing exposure rates during a fire.  

“The report doesn’t take into consideration the compounded effect of materials stored in the Hazardous Waste Facility, which would likely be released during a fire,” Bernardi said. 

LBNL spokesperson Ron Kolb said Franke’s jogging scenario is based on assumptions, which the laboratory questions. “Dr. Franke suggests an independent analysis and we think that would be a good idea,” he said. “But we still believe, in a catastrophic fire, the threat to the local community would be relatively small.” 

Kolb said the laboratory will try to respond to Franke’s report within the next two weeks. 


Calendar of Events & Activities

Wednesday February 07, 2001


Wednesday, Feb. 7

 

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Call 444-4755 or visit www.stagebridge.org 

 

Legacy to Liberation  

7 p.m. 

Revolution Books  

2425 Channing Way  

A roundtable discussion by contributors to the recently published anthology “Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America.” Contributors include Richard Aoki, Yuri Kockiyama, Sun Lee and Dolly Veale.  

$2 donation 848-1196 

 

Buy Some Land 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Led by real estate broker Dan Maher, this seminar will teach you how to do just that.  

$35  

Call 525-7610 

 

National Writers  

Union Reading 

7:30 - 8:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books  

2454 Telegraph Ave. (at Haste)  

Geoffrey Cook, Jack Forbes, Reuben Halpern and Alice Rogoff to read. Free 


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 

 

Great Mt. Diablo Day Hikes 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Ken Lavin, former president of Mt. Diablo Interpretative Association, for a slide-show of his favorite day hikes in Mt. Diablo State Park.  

Call 527-7377  

 

Jam Session  

7 p.m. 

Maurice’s Cafe 

6038 Telegraph 

Oakland 

Poetry with jazz featuring Jimmy Sands. Call 653-6775 

Exploring Surfaces  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” Transverse the world’s ecological regions, describing what you know and what you’ve heard. 

$10  

 

Finding and Assessing Fixer-Uppers 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

A seminar conducted by contractor/fixer-upper owner Michael Hamman.  

$35  

Call 525-7610 

 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

12:10 - 1:10 p.m. 

California Dept. of Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way  

Session one of six: Selecting your topic.  

649-7750 


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 

 

Introducing: Julia Morgan  

School for Girls 

7:30 - 8:30 a.m. 

Julia Morgan School for Girls 

Holy Names College 

Sky Room, Durocher Hall 

3510 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A select gathering of business and professional women devoted to fostering leadership in the young girls in our community.  

 


Saturday, Feb. 10

 

Spirits in the Time of AIDS Open Mic.  

1 p.m. 

Pro Arts Gallery, 461 Ninth St.  

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  

 

Dreams & Intuition 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

1502 Tenth St.  

Marcia Emery, Ph.D., will discuss how to attune your intuitive dream antenna, intuitively unravel the symbolic message of a dream symbol and apply an intuitive dream interpretation method to the entire dream.  

$85 526-5510 

 

“The West Wing Meets the East Bay” 

7:30 p.m. 

Saint Joseph the Worker Church 

1640 Addison St.  

A conversation with Martin Sheen. Tickets available at Black Oak Books, Cody’s Books, St. Joseph the Worker Church, and at the door. $20 donation. 525-3787  

 

Annuals for the Dry Garden 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive  

Annie Hayes of Annie’s annuals will suggest some annuals to plant in gardens that are water-deprived during the summer months.  

$15 643-1924 


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 - $42 642-9988 or e-mail tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu  

 

Storyteller Yolanda Rhodes  

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Rhodes performs music-filled stories of African and African-American history and folklore. Part of series of events throughout February to honor Black History Month. Included in admission.  

$5 - $7 642-5132 

 

 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

 

 

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 

 

“From Swastika to Jim Crow” 

2 - 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Due to the depression and anti-Semitism in the ‘30s, many Jewish “refugee scholars” found they had difficulty finding jobs and were embraced by black universities. Both students and teachers, in the pre-Civil Rights era, found they shared a common experience of living under oppression and a passion for education. Guest speaker Jim McWilliams.  

$2 suggested donation  

Call 848-0237 x127 

 

Why Do a Long Retreat? 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Retreatants from Holland, Brazil, Germany, and other places share how they made the time to participate in two and four month retreats.  

Call 843-6812 

 

African-American “Death of a Salesman” 

Audtions 

1 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. Auditioners are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

2 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Museum  

2621 Durant (at Bowditch)  

Featuring poet/photographer Valentine Pierce.  

Call 527-9753 

 


Monday, Feb. 12

 

African-American “Death of a Salesman” 

Audtions 

7 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. z are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 

Read Those Plans 

7 - 10 p.m. 

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Architect Andus Brandt will instruct how to read architectural plans.  

$35  

Call 525-7610 

 


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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 


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 

 

Faye Carol Sings Lady Day 

7:30 p.m. 

King Middle School  

1781 Rose St.  

A tribute to Billie Holiday including Lady Day’s most popular songs, including “Strange Fruit,” “Good Morning Heartache,” “God Bless the Child” and “You Let Me Down.” Benefit for KPFA Radio and La Pena Cultural Center.  

$15 

Call 848-6767 x609 or visit www.kpfa.org 

 

Planning Commission Public Hearing  

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave.  

The commission is holding public hearings on the Planning Commission Draft General Plan. The commission requests that all written comments on the plan be submitted by March 1.  

 


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 

 

Natural Conversations 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” Focus on conversations in nature and explore what they are meant to convey.  

$10  

 

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 

 

Climbing Mt. Shasta 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Tim Keating of Sierra Wilderness Seminars will give a slide presentation on climbing and skiing this North California peak.  

Call 527-7377  

 

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month.  

Call 869-2547 

 

“Religion, Power & the New Economy”  

1:30 - 3 p.m. 

Chapel of the Great Commission  

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

A panel discussion featuring distinguished GTU alumni/ae, in celebration of Dr. James A. Donahue’s inauguration as President of the GTU.  

Call 649-2400 

 

West CAT Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church  

997 University Ave.  

Review the racial and health disparities issues and see the model of the community capacity building.  

 


Perspective

Staff
Wednesday February 07, 2001

Oxford St. development must consider the creek 

 

(Congregaton Beth El wants to develop the land at 1301 Oxford St. The project will be discussed at the Zoning Adjustments Board meeting on Thursday, 7 p.m., 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.) 

 

By Horst and Eva Bansner 

 

Is a Creek Not a Creek… if Congregation Beth El prefers a surface parking lot and a bus transfer station? 

Berkeley has adopted policy recognizing the values of natural creeks in the Municipal Code: “Streams and their riparian environment should be held as an important public asset in an increasingly endangered environment that provides an unusual urban ecological habitat with recreational and aesthetic value...it is in the interest of the city to encourage the removal of culverts and channels, prevent channel ripping, and to restore natural watercourses whenever safely possible... Restoration means the unearthing of a culverted stream or natural watercourse and the design of a new open channel to re-create the original stream channel and environment.” 

This policy must apply to Codornices Creek if anywhere. Berkeley has only one creek close to being open from the Bay through hills with steel-head trout already returning to its lower reaches: Codornices Creek.  

There is only natural feature visible from the Bay on the earliest photos of North Berkeley: a line of riparian trees along Codornices Creek that formed the backdrop for the white house landmark.  

Berkeley also has a public precedent on this same site. In 1992 a Chinese Christian Church sought a permit to add classrooms. Approval was predicated on leaving the creek corridor as open space, keeping the driveway and parking away from the unstable creek banks and respecting the historic development footprint of “The Farm” (Napoleon Bonaparte Byrne) landmark. Local architect Bill Coburn designed a school element for the Chinese Christian Church of the East Bay that respected those public interests. 

Yet now there is a Beth El development proposal that would envelop “The Farm” site with 35,000 square feet of building, a parking lot over the creek corridor and a drive tearing through the live oak woodland being brazened through normal review processes, dynamiting the Landmarks Preservation Commission along the way.  

On Jan. 25 staff Vivian Kahn told Zoning Adjustments Board members that – as staff did not record the findings and considerations of the Board in granting the 1992 permit on the same site – precedent was irrelevant. The current owners have more friends and everything Berkeley planners and engineers knew about the public interest in restoring creeks is forgotten.  

The part of Codornices Creek threatened is the most beautiful of all, selected by Napoleon Bonaparte Byrne for “The Farm” in 1856. A plan for a street beside the creek corridor was turned back by community sensitivities; Berryman path was built instead.  

Even after a second arson destroyed the farmhouse, the Landmarks Commission reaffirmed the landmark designation of the site. Care of the creek corridor was undertaken by community gardeners, as long as they were allowed on the site. The plan submitted is blind to the neighborhood context of the (R1-H) district that has consciously preserved natural features in its development pattern.  

This plan shows a building above the height limit flowing from street to street with one continuous eaveline. The blockbuster mocks the creek corridor now there that is to be truncated to make way for surface parking.  

The Design Review Committee had the temerity to recommend that the mass be broken up on January 31; staff responded, “we’re only looking for conditions of approval.” The oak woodland that borders Berryman Path and connects to Live Oak Park is to be sliced, smaller plants bulldozed and larger trees killed more slowly with soil compaction; four “protected” old live oaks are to be moved and other are to provide a canopy for the drive and parking until root compaction kills them.  

The Environmental Impact Reports suggests that City staff will figure out how to preserve these trees after project approval. Six-foot and higher sound walls along Spruce Street and Berryman Path shutting out views of a creek corridor are indicated on the plans or EIR, with a gated private roadway and parking lot replacing the community gardens.  

Over 2,400 people who have signed petitions to protect the creek corridor can visualize the impact. How can redesign be unthinkable?  

Codornices Creek is the most open creek in Berkeley, passing through Codornices and Live Oak Parks, along St Mary’s High School, through backyards of several neighborhoods and by the new Harrison fields on the Berkeley-Albany border. When development proposals come in along such a creek, creek restoration needs to be included in the plans as at Eighth Street and at Albany Village. We will not have saved the Bay until we systematically restore natural waterways feeding it.  

A creek is a creek, regardless of this year’s “ownership.” State bond funding for creek restoration announces the public interest and the financial feasibility clearly. There are obviously alternatives that would respect the creek. To limit pollution going into the creek, the Regional Water Quality Control Board said the driveway and parking should be as far away from the creek as possible.  

A drive along the south side of the lot, furthest from the Creek, would allow access to more sufficient and less obtrusive parking under the building. It would provide access to Spruce Street at an intersection where other traffic obliquely entering Spruce can at least be seen.  

It would interfere least with the bus stop and pedestrian access. It would avoid spewing traffic noise in the creek corridor, protected from a roadway all these years. Staff response to the Design Review Committee questions on soundwalls Wednesday January 31: We’ll build it; then we’ll test it; then we’ll do something if we have to.”  

Still there are no story poles to indicate the height and sprawl of the building and still no stakes for the drive and parking lot so that decision makers would have some idea of what they are being asked to approve. How could Berkeley countenance a plan to pave an irreplaceable creek corridor so that kids can be assembled in buses and driven off to nature somewhere else? This is good education?  

 

Horst & Eva Bansner are members of the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association


Taste testers

Judith Scherr/Daily Planet
Wednesday February 07, 2001

With the sounds of Latin jazz pulsating from amplifiers set up near by, Berkeley High School students forked over $4 and were treated to extraordinary noontime fare – tacos from Chez Panisse, Burritos from Cancuns’, chow mien from the Long Life Veggie House and pizza from the Cheese Board. It was a  

promotional day for the long-awaited “food court.” Principal Frank Lynch said the school would need to add vendors to serve more than a few hundred of the 3,200 teens on campus, but that it was a start. 

Pictured serving is volunteer Ying Lee, a former Berkeley city councilmember and former aide to  

Reps. Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee.


City attorney’s office cites commissioners’ conflicts

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet Staff
Wednesday February 07, 2001

It’s a stretch, a long one perhaps, to compare the banning of a number of commissioners from their volunteer duties on quasi-official bodies to the witch hunts of the 1950s.  

Still, a number of city commissioners say they have been unfairly singled out by the City Attorney’s Office, which has asked them either to step down completely or to recuse themselves from participation in commissions. 

George Wozniak, whose day job’s at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, has been the most recent commissioner placed under the city’s legal microscope. In January, he was told he had a conflict and had to leave the Community Environmental Advisory Commission. 

“On the basis of Dr. Wozniak’s management and scientific duties at LBNL, and the broad range of disputes between CEAC and LBNL, we concluded that the position of Senior Scientist and Deputy Division Head were incompatible with membership on the CEAC,” Acting City Attorney Zach Cowan wrote in a February memo, explaining a January decision. Cowan is taking the place of City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque for a few weeks while she is on vacation. 

Wozniak contends the ruling is wrong. “There’s a process you have to go through to remove a commissioner. You have to hear both sides of the story,” he said, further arguing, “They’re basically saying I’m a second-class citizen.” 

Wozniak has been talking to an outside attorney who has encouraged him not to step down from the commission. City Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who appointed Wozniak to the body, went with him to speak to the city attorney and says she stands behind his decision not to leave his post. “We shouldn’t exclude a whole group of people,” she said, referring to the exclusion of lab workers from the CEAC. “(Wozniak) is a brilliant man. I’m going to leave him on the committee as my appointee,” she said. 

But Cowan says his office is on solid ground. Quoting from state law, he wrote, “a local agency officer or employee shall not engage in any employment, activity or enterprise for compensation which is inconsistent, incompatible, in conflict with or inimical to his or her duties as a local agency officer or employee or with the duties, functions, or responsibilities or his or her appointing power or the agency by which he or she is employed...” 

Wozniak, who’s lived in Berkeley for 34 years and worked at the labs for 30 years, has been on the commission for two years. “Why now?” he asked. “Why didn’t I have a conflict two years ago?” 

Cowan said his office is not culling through the resumes of the hundreds of commissioners to find which ones have a conflict of interest. “We were asked (to look at Wozniak),” he said. “We don’t monitor every commissioner.” 

Wozniak said he’d have no problem recusing himself from votes concerning the lab. That’s what Councilmember Linda Maio, who also works at LBNL, has done at the council level. But Cowan said the law he is citing doesn’t allow for recusal.  

And it “doesn’t apply to elected officials,” he said. 

The other commissioner asked to leave the CEAC was Green Party member John Selawsky. He was told his election to the Berkeley School Board placed him in conflict with his duties as a commissioner. 

There is currently tension between the CEAC and the Berkeley Unified School District. The commission had asked the schools to allow the city’s toxics department to investigate BUSD’s use of pesticide, but the schools have not cooperated in the investigation, the city attorney’s report said.  

“There is a manifest conflict of loyalties in this situation,” says a report to Selawsky from City Attorney Albuquerque. “While it may be that over time this dispute will be resolved, the existence of this dispute indicates that it will not be possible ‘in every instance’ to discharge the duties of each. Accordingly, we conclude that the offices of CEAC commissioner and member of the BUSD governing board are incompatible.”  

Then there’s Carol Thornton, who heads up the Parks and Recreation Commission. She was told by the city attorney, following an address to the Zoning Adjustments Board on the subject of a development proposal, that she had a conflict of interest and needed to recuse herself when the project comes before her commission. 

She spoke before the ZAB as a member of the board of the Urban Creeks Council and called for the daylighting of a creek that traverses the property at 1301 Oxford St., where Temple Beth El wants to build a new synagogue and school. The problem, as the city attorney’s office explained it, is that she had taken a position on the project as a member of the Creeks Council and therefore ought not take a position as part of a commission. 

“...she should not participate as a commissioner since she has been an advocate on behalf of a non-profit on the project,” said an e-mail from the city attorney, forwarded to the Daily Planet.  

Similarly, on Oct. 30 the city’s legal team ruled that those commissioners who were board members or staff of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association could not participate on the commission while it was addressing questions pertaining to the Beth El Project. The president of BAHA had written a letter to the commission on behalf of the board, arguing that the Beth El Environmental Impact Report was inadequate. The four commissioners have refused to recuse themselves and are considering legal action against the city. 


Chronicle asks court to unseal Reddy papers

By Michael Coffino Daily Planet Correspondent
Wednesday February 07, 2001

Adding an alleged violation of press freedoms to an already complex criminal prosecution, lawyers for the San Francisco Chronicle have asked a federal judge presiding over the case against Berkeley real estate tycoon Lakireddy Bali Reddy to unseal dozens of documents in the case on First Amendment grounds.  

A hearing on the request is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 6 in Oakland Federal District Court. 

“A host of documents have been sealed in violation of the press’ and public’s constitutional and common law rights of access to pretrial hearings and documents,” Chronicle attorney Roger Myers told the court in papers filed last month. “The sealing of the records is unconstitutional,” he argued. 

Reddy, Berkeley’s largest residential landlord, was charged last year with smuggling Indian immigrants into the United States for cheap labor and sex, including sex with minors. Reddy’s two sons, 31-year-old Vijay Kumar Lakireddy and 42-year-old Prasad Lakireddy, as well as his brother, 47-year-old Jayprakash Lakireddy, and his sister-in-law, Annapurna Lakireddy, 46, have also been charged in a conspiracy which prosecutors say dates back to 1986.  

Paul Wolf, the lawyer for Reddy’s older son, said Tuesday that the 63-year-old Reddy had a third son who died a decade ago in an automobile accident while he was a medical student. 

The Hearst Corporation, which now owns the Chronicle, first became involved in the case last October when it faxed an urgent request to judge Saundra Brown Armstong seeking access to a closed court session at which Reddy and his relatives were expected to plead guilty to a host of federal crimes. After the court granted the request, opening the 

hearing to members of the news media, the defendants declined to enter guilty pleas in open court. 

Now the paper has intervened as a party in the case. Chronicle attorney Myers contends that “virtually the entire file” in the case against one defendant is unavailable for viewing by the public, while a total of 27 documents in the case against Reddy are closed to public 

scrutiny. 

“Each passing day may constitute a separate and cognizable infringement of the First Amendment,” Myers argued. He asked the court for an order “immediately unsealing all records sealed in these cases.” 

Since the aborted entry of guilty pleas last October, meanwhile, Reddy’s older son Prasad Lakireddy has changed his mind and informed the court he will not plead guilty.  

That decision could scuttle a tentative plea agreement the other defendants reached late last year with the government, according to papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Kennedy. He called the joint agreement a “package deal,” that would be withdrawn if even one of the five defendants declined to plead guilty.  

“The government and defendants are still discussing this matter and hope to find a solution to the present impasse,” Kennedy told the court in December. But he said the government will proceed to trial against all five defendants if no new agreement is reached. 

Paul Wolf, the lawyer for Prasad Lakireddy, declined to comment Tuesday on his client’s decision not to plead guilty.  

The plea agreement with the remaining defendants, though, would not likely be in jeopardy now had Hearst lawyers not filed their emergency request last year seeking access to the courtroom where Reddy and his relatives were preparing to enter guilty pleas on October 30.  

After Judge Armstrong granted Hearst’s request to receive the pleas in open court, lawyers for the defendants decided not to finalize the plea deal. They argued that intense media scrutiny could prejudice a jury in the event the court refused to accept the plea agreement. 

Chronicle attorney Roger Myers did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment. Reddy’s lawyer Ted Cassman did not return a request for comment by press time.  

 

 


Questions surround lobotomized cop shooter

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals panel questioned Tuesday whether a man who had a piece of his brain the size of an apple removed years before murdering a police officer should remain on California’s death row. 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a judge to review whether condemned inmate James Richard Odle was competent to stand trial in Contra Costa County for the 1980 shooting death of Pinole officer Floyd Swartz and county resident Rena Aguilar. 

The panel is not questioning Odle’s sanity, but whether he understood the court proceedings and whether he was able to adequately assist his lawyers at trial. If he is found incompetent, California law demands he be confined permanently to a mental institution. 

“Where a petitioner has suffered massive trauma to his brain and subsequently exhibits psychotic behavior ... an inquiry into whether he possesses the mental acuity to participate in the proceedings is the reasonable and appropriate course of action,” Judge Alex Kozinski wrote. He added that, because there was no such hearing before Odle’s 1983 conviction, Odle was denied a fair trial. 

The appeals court, in overturning the California Supreme Court and a federal judge, noted that if a state court is unable to conduct a so-called competency hearing retroactively, the conviction may be nullified. 

Odle’s mental troubles started in 1973 when he suffered a blow to the head in a vehicle accident. A surgeon removed an apple-sized piece of his brain and left only a flap of skin covering the opening of his skull. It was later covered with a plastic plate after Odle complained his brain was pulsating beneath his skin. 

“You would think that having a lobotomy would trigger a reasonable suspicion that he might not be competent to stand trial,” said capital defender Frederick Baker of San Francisco. 

Family members and employers testified at trial that Odle, who was committed to mental institutions three times and attempted suicide, changed like “night and day” after the car accident. They said he became confused, talked slowly like a child and acted wildly. 

One relative testified that he often would get “a hot look in him like a junkyard dog.” Mental health experts testified that Odle, who acted violently under mental health care, may never have recovered from the auto accident. 

Dane Gillette, the state’s death penalty coordinator, did not return messages for comment. 

The case is Odle vs. Woodford, 99-99029. 


CNET planning layoffs

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — CNET Networks, Inc. announced Tuesday it will cut its global work force by ten percent. 

The technology news and consumer information company said it will eliminate certain businesses duplicated when it acquired ZDNet in October, 2000. 

It will eliminate redundant jobs in some of those divisions, and among support staff in departments such as financial services, human resources and marketing. 

About 190 positions will be affected. Half were laid Tuesday; the remaining cuts will occur in the next few weeks. 

The announcement came as CNET released revised revenue estimates for 2001, and a day after it announced it would return some of the Internet and print properties it acquired from Ziff Davis Media Inc. last year. 

“These are the unfortunate things you have to do as part of business,” said Shelby Bonnie, chairman and CEO. 

“Given the current economic environment, we think it’s the prudent thing to do.” 

Bonnie said the layoffs were necessary because of lagging ad revenues and an uncertain market environment.  

He said the slowdown in the technology sector had hit CNET’s clients hard.


AIDS quilt moving to Atlanta from SF

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — In 1987, the first stitches of the AIDS Memorial Quilt were sewn in the Castro District to remember a best friend. Since then, 44,000 panels have been added to the San Francisco fixture that soon will be leaving for Atlanta. 

That has some contributors feeling bitter and heartbroken. 

“This is home. This is where it started,” Felicia Elizondo, a transgender woman who has made 55 quilt panels since 1988, said Tuesday. “It just really upsets me that I’ve done all this work for my friends to be remembered here in San Francisco, and they’re taking it away.” 

The move has been in the works since 1997. The Names Project Foundation, keeper of the quilt, voted to move its national office to Washington, D.C., where it can lobby and work more closely with other HIV/AIDS organizations. 

Atlanta was chosen as the new home for the quilt because it was more cost-effective than Washington.  

In addition, it will be located in a facility that is light and climate controlled, something it does not have in San Francisco, said Edward Gatta Jr., board president of the foundation. 

“I am fully prepared that a lot of people will not be happy with this move. San Francisco feels like it’s losing something,” Gatta said.  

“A lot of people who make a panel think they send it to San Francisco and it goes there and that’s where it stays. Very seldom are they on the shelves, and if they are on the shelves then we’re not doing our jobs.” 

Mike Shriver, special adviser to San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown on HIV and AIDS, said no one has contacted him about keeping the quilt in the city. 

“The option is still available for it to stay in the city,” Shriver said. “There’s an open invitation from my office and the mayor.” 

Shriver said the quilt is a testament to San Francisco’s decision to take on the deadly virus.  

It embodies “the psyche of the one place in the world that continues to do more for AIDS than any other place on the globe,” he said. 

Gatta said he would contact Shriver about creating an area where sections of the quilt can be stored and worked on for tourists and members of the community. 

Elizondo says she has threatened to steal her quilts back if they try to take them to the East Coast.  

At the very least, she said, they should allow her panels to stay at the Bay Area chapter of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that she helped co-found. 

“I don’t know if they have any legal right to take it out of here or if I have any legal right to keep it here,” said Elizondo, who tested HIV-positive in 1987. “What did I give up when I handed them those quilts?” 

Despite a feeling of loss, the Bay Area chapter of the Names Foundation understands why the move is necessary. 

“The chapter isn’t going anywhere and the move of the quilt is not going to change the visibility of the quilt in the Bay Area at all,” said Michael Higgins, executive assistant to the board.  

“San Francisco is where it started, and they would like to see it stay here and it would be nice in the perfect world, but San Francisco is very expensive. It’s not a nonprofit-friendly city these days.” 

The 50 chapters request segments of the quilt to display at various events throughout the year.  

For Higgins, the only thing the move changes is how the panels are received – they will now be shipped instead of simply picked up. 

And AIDS activists in Atlanta promise to take good care of the quilt that has come to symbolize education, remembrance, healing and awareness. 

“Obviously, we’re delighted. This is a great opportunity for our city to protect something that’s been a big part of our culture,” said Tony Braswell, executive director of AID Atlanta, a prevention and outreach program.  

“This really isn’t about one city, it’s about our country and our community. It doesn’t matter where the quilt is. It’s about the quilt and what it stands for.” 

The first panel was sewn in a backyard by Cleve Jones, who supports the move. It was a stitch to remember his best friend, Marvin Feldman.  

All 50 states and 35 countries have contributed to the quilt that contains more than 83,000 names and everything from champagne glasses and wedding rings to cremation ashes and love letters. 

And it’s those unique materials that make the quilt so special to people such as Elizondo. 

“The quilts mean they’re still remembered. They mean somebody gave a damn about them to remember them,” she said. “It’s comforting that I knew they would always be here in San Francisco. Never in my wildest dream did I think they were going to move.” 


Donations for school measures top $116 million

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SACRAMENTO — Silicon Valley millionaires, school teachers and anti-tax groups topped contributors who pumped more than $116 million into campaign battles over three school-related initiatives last year, according to spending reports. 

Most of that money – $62.8 million – was given to pass or defeat Proposition 38, the school voucher initiative that was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in November. 

Another $53.2 million was spent on campaigns for and against two attempts to convince voters to pass a measure making it easier to issue local bonds for school construction. 

In March, Proposition 26, to reduce the vote needed for such bonds from two-thirds to a simple majority, narrowly lost. Then in November, the same backers were successful with Proposition 39, which reduced the vote requirement to 55 percent. 

The anti-tax group that was greatly overspent opposing both local bond initiatives is now working on a new proposal for the 2002 ballot that would return the two-thirds vote requirement. 

Final campaign financial reports were filed last week with the secretary of state’s office. Proposition 38, written and largely self-financed by Redwood City venture capitalist Tim Draper, would have given parents $5,000 annual vouchers to send their children to private schools. 

His campaign committee, called Prop38yes.com School Vouchers 2000, reported raising a total of $30,807,567. Almost all the money, $24 million, came from Draper. 

The committee reported debts of $5.2 million, almost all of that for loans Draper made to the campaign. 

Other large contributors were his father, William Draper, with $2 million, and Jerry Perenchio of Los Angeles, head of Univision, the Spanish-language television network, with $1 million. 

The coalition of school, business and labor groups opposed to Proposition 38 listed a total of $31,944,707 in contributions and $87,824 in debts. 

The largest contributor was the California Teachers Association, the state’s biggest teachers’ union, which gave $26.4 million. Other large givers were the California School Employees Association with $1.8 million, the California Federation of Teachers with $1.3 million and the Association of California School Administrators with $588,711. 

Most of the same school and business groups that opposed Proposition 38 also backed the two local school bond initiatives. However, the CTA, which was one of the largest contributor to the March measure, shifted its attention to vouchers in November, leaving the fund raising almost entirely to Silicon Valley millionaires. 

The March initiative, Proposition 26, listed a total of $15,992,962 in donations and had $1.3 million in debts, all of those loans. The fund-raising total for the November measure, Proposition 39, was $31,547,740 with $9.5 million in debts, almost all of that loans. 

The biggest combined contributors for the two measures were CTA with $2.4 million; Palo Alto venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife Ann with $17.7 million in stock and loans; Reed Hastings, head of Netflix.com and president of the state Board of Education with $7.6 million in stock and loans; and Wal-Mart heir John Walton of Bentonville, Ark., with $3 million. 

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association opposed both Propositions 26 and 39 and raised $5,874,754 in the total effort during 2000 with debts of $862,533, more than half of that in loans. 

The association typically raises money through direct mailings, taking in hundreds of small contributions of a few hundred dollars or less. The association itself lent $570,000 and contributed $190,583 to the effort. 

The association has filed a proposed initiative to raise the approval rate for local school bonds back to two-thirds with the attorney general, the first step toward putting it on the 2002 ballot. 

———— 

On the Web: Read the reports at www.ss.ca.gov. 


Record number of DNA matches with suspects

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SACRAMENTO — A record number of rape suspects were identified in one day last week when genetic crime evidence matched convicted felons’ DNA in a state database, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Tuesday. 

The five matches came up as crime lab managers entered 21,000 genetic profiles from people in jail for one of nine violent offenses, including rape and murder, Lockyer said. 

Tuesday’s announcement means that a total of six DNA matches have been made this year in cases where police had no suspects. 

One of the men identified by the DNA match is now wanted on suspicion of raping of a Southern California woman. He is in a Texas jail awaiting trial for similar crimes, Lockyer said. 

DNA matches linked two other men to rapes in Southern California; a fourth man to a rape in the San Francisco Bay area; and a fifth to the rape and murder of a Sacramento-area woman about 20 years ago, Lockyer said. 

Their previously collected DNA profiles were matched by computer to crime scenes where DNA had been found. 

The attorney general said he wants the Legislature to approve a bill that would allow DNA collection from all felons. 

Currently the law only allows authorities to collect DNA from people convicted of rape, murder, attempted murder, voluntary manslaughter, domestic violence, kidnapping, child molestation, mayhem and torture. 

“We are only solving one out of three rapes based on DNA evidence that could be solved if we had all the felons, like in Virginia, submit samples,” Lockyer said. 

Thirty-two states have tougher DNA collection laws than California: Seven states collect DNA from all felons and 25 states add burglars to California’s list of crimes. Another 15 states are considering legislation to include all felons in DNA collection, Lockyer said. 

A backlog of prisoners’ DNA profiles is expected to be entered into the state’s database this summer, bringing the number of offenders to 200,000. 

That could jump significantly if expanded to all felons. More than 150,000 felony convictions are handed down each year in California. 

“There is no question that we are going to see many-fold increases in cold hits across the country. I think most states are dramatically increasing the size of their databases,” said Susan Gaertner, a Minnesota prosecutor who cochairs the DNA subcommittee of the National District Attorneys Association. 

Yet the increase in DNA matches has some wondering about the future of DNA identifications. Sacramento attorney Johnny Griffin III says he suspects that many people in the state’s database should have never been included. 

Griffin represents Paul Eugene Robinson, who was arrested in September on a John Doe warrant, which identifies Robinson only by his genetic code. 

Robinson’s DNA profile should have never been entered into the state database because he didn’t fall into one of the state’s nine categories, Griffin said. 

“My question is how many people are in that database when they shouldn’t be? The statute provides that if a sample is in the database ... by mistake, the results are not invalidated,” Griffin said. 

In other words, suspected drunken drivers who submitted to urine tests could be in the database, he said. 

Lockyer said concerns over privacy are forfeited when prisoners commit crimes. He compared the DNA profiles to a fingerprint, collected on all people convicted of crimes. 

The state’s first DNA match was in April 1994 when James King was linked to the murder and rape of 76-year-old Contra Costa County woman. King is serving a life sentence without parole for that conviction. 

Last year, the state matched 17 suspects to cases. In 1999 there were four matches. 


Judge drops hate-crime charge in beating case

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SAN DIEGO — A Superior Court judge has dismissed hate-crime charges against four San Diego County men who were accused of beating an Orange County man because they thought he was Mexican. 

Judge Laura Palmer Hammes said there was insufficient evidence to prove the Dec. 30 beating near the U.S.-Mexico border was racially motivated. 

However, Hammes said Monday it was one of the worst beating cases she had come across and said the suspects should have faced charges of attempted murder. 

She ordered the four to stand trial on mayhem, attempted robbery and other charges. 

Prosecutor Hector Jimenez had contended that brothers Ben and Jeremiah Pospisil, Jason Phillips and Kristopher Gill attacked Steven Pappas because they thought he was Mexican. 

During a two-day preliminary hearing, a witness said several epithets were used during the attack and Gill at one point said “white power.” 

Gill’s attorney, Lisa Bowman, said the attack was not a hate-crime but a drunken brawl. 

Hammes noted that Pappas, who is of Italian and Mexican heritage, looks white and that a friend who was with him and is a minority was not the focus of the attack. 

Pappas suffered a broken jaw and significant eye injuries in the attack. He also lost much of his nose, destroying his sense of smell.


Jurors told father’s neglect led to death of child with AIDS

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SAN BERNARDINO — The father of a 7-year-old girl with AIDS starved and neglected the child before leaving her to die alone on his living room floor, a prosecutor claimed. A defense attorney contended the girl refused to eat. 

Anthony Richardson, 37, did not feed his daughter, Brianna, and failed to obtain medical care for her, Deputy District Attorney Anne Marie Duncan told jurors during opening statements Monday in Richardson’s murder trial. 

Richardson has pleaded innocent to charges of murder, with a special allegation of torture, and felony child abuse. Brianna weighed only 33 pounds when she was found dead on June 11, 1999, at the family’s home in the desert community of Running Springs. 

If convicted, Richardson could be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. 

An autopsy determined the girl died of severe malnutrition complicated by a blood infection. 

Defense attorney Mark Cantrell said Richardson tried to feed his daughter but she wouldn’t eat. The child suffered from depression and had stopped talking and eating several weeks before her death, Richardson reportedly told deputies. 

Brianna contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, at birth from her mother, who has since died. She was left in her father’s care along with two older sisters and an older brother. 

Deputies discovered the child while investigating her absence from school. Paramedics found her lying on the floor in urine and feces. Oozing sores covered her mouth. 

Investigators also found beer bottles and trash on the floor. 

“A sink was mounted on the kitchen floor on top of a plastic bucket that was being used as a drain,” Deputy Raoul Loera testified. 


UC Irvine builds global warming lab

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

IRVINE — A $2 million grant will build the first facility nationwide dedicated to carbon research on global warming, the University of California, Irvine announced. 

The W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles gave UCI’s School of Physical Sciences the grant. It is exceeded at the school only by a $6-million donation received in July to build a state-of-the-art research facility. The mass accelerator spectrometry facility will allow researchers to study environmental processes that determine atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Excessive carbon dioxide contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. The accelerator will allow researchers to run a larger number of samples at lower cost, which will dramatically hasten critical research. 

The school’s Department of Earth System Science will establish a regional research center to be used by scientists from UCI, California Institute of Technology, California State University, Fullerton, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and elsewhere. 

UCI researchers Ellen Druffel and Susan Trumbore, along with John Southon of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will oversee the facility, set to be operational by early 2002.


Judge issues order to keep power flowing

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SACRAMENTO — A judge Tuesday evening ordered a major electricity supplier to keep selling to California despite the expiration of a Bush administration order requiring it to do so. 

Just hours before the directive’s midnight deadline, U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell issued a temporary restraining order requiring Reliant Energy Services Inc. to continue selling power to the state. The order will remain in effect pending a hearing Wednesday afternoon. 

The judge’s action, issued to avoid “obvious, irreparable harm to the public,” came after the keeper of the state’s power grid sought restraining orders to force three major electricity suppliers to continue selling to California. 

The other two, AES Pacific Inc. and Dynegy Power Corp., agreed to continue providing power at least until the Wednesday hearing and were not included in the court’s order. 

At issue was enough electricity for roughly 4 million homes. 

“There are about 4,000 megawatts at stake here,” said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the Independent System Operator. “We have not gotten confirmation of their intentions come midnight, when the order expires. The outcome of this is going to give us a good indication of the risk of rolling blackouts tomorrow.” 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s orders requiring power generators and natural gas producers to sell surplus supplies to California were due to expire at 12 a.m. PST. The orders, first issued in mid-December by the Clinton administration and extended by new Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, will not be renewed, the Bush administration said. 

That left the managers of California’s stressed grid – in the fourth straight week under a Stage 3 power alert – wondering whether enough electricity would be available to avoid rolling blackouts. The ISO ordered scattered outages twice last month. 

Adding to the scramble, the ISO predicted that on Wednesday it would only get about half the 8,000 megawatts it typically draws from the Pacific Northwest during California’s morning and evening peak periods. 

High demand and a short supply of water for hydroelectric power were blamed. One megawatt is enough power for about 1,000 homes. 

Gov. Gray Davis called the ISO’s request for temporary restraining orders “a tempest in a teapot.” 

“I think they are just using this imminent deadline as a way of getting our attention but believe me, we are working on those problems and we will get them resolved,” Davis told CNN. 

Reliant filed a lawsuit against the ISO last week in federal court in Washington, D.C., after receiving a letter the ISO sent to 140 generators asking them to confirm that they will continue to sell power to the state despite the expiration of the federal order. 

Reliant’s lawsuit contends the Houston-based company shouldn’t have to bear the cost of California’s energy crisis. 

“Incredibly, the ISO’s basis for demanding that Plaintiffs provide power ... is the fact that the utilities ultimately receiving the power will not be able to pay for it,” the lawsuit says. 

Reliant spokesmen did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday afternoon at their offices in Houston and Washington by The Associated Press seeking comment. 

The ISO says Reliant and other suppliers signed agreements promising to send power to California in an emergency or the threat of one, such as Tuesday’s Stage 3 alert, with power reserves threatening to fall to 1.5 percent. 

Davis told CNN he was confident the state’s new role as a major power buyer would keep the lights on. 

The state has been spending $40 million to $50 million a day to keep the lights on despite the credit problems of the state’s two largest utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern  

California Edison. 

PG&E and Edison together serve nearly 9 million residential and business customers. 

Davis said Tuesday that the state Department of Water Resources reached agreements on the first long-term electricity contracts, expected to provide power to PG&E and Edison customers more cheaply than the day-to-day purchases on the spot market the state has been making since mid-January. 

The initial contracts total about 5,000 megawatts – enough power for about 5 million homes – and range from three years to a decade, DWR power adviser David Freeman said. 

He did not disclose the purchase price or the suppliers. Legislation signed by the governor last week lets the state spend an estimated $10 billion, raised through revenue bonds, on the power purchases. 

Wall Street was watching the action closely. 

Standard & Poor’s, a major credit rating agency, issued a statement chastising Davis, the Legislature and the PUC for not taking more aggressive steps to assure the utilities are able to pay their bills. 

Power generators are reluctant to deal with the utilities until their debts are paid and suppliers have assurances that they will be paid for future energy deliveries. 

The stocks of both utilities fell Tuesday. PG&E’s shares declined 68 cents, or 5 percent, to close at $12.92 and Edison International’s stock fell 40 cents, or 3 percent, to close at $12.83. 

Meanwhile, PG&E officials were busy Tuesday trying to get commitments from suppliers to keep providing natural gas continuously. 

“We’re trying to get their trust,” utility spokesman John Nelson said. 

 

PG&E currently has a nine-day supply of natural gas in storage so there would be no immediate impact if providers cut off supplies as soon as the executive order expired, he said. 

Nelson said a few suppliers have agreed to contracts guaranteeing they will be paid with money generated when PG&E’s residential gas customers pay their bills. He declined to name those providers. 

The PUC recently approved the payment plan at PG&E’s request. Under its provisions, gas suppliers would be paid within 60 days. 

California’s energy scramble came as lawmakers and the governor continued looking for a way to help PG&E and Edison restore their financial health. 

Senate leader John Burton said California should buy 26,000 miles of transmission lines — nearly two-third of the state’s grid – owned by PG&E and Edison in return for helping the cash-strapped companies out of debt. 

“If they expect to get money from the ratepayer, the ratepayers get something in return. I give you a dollar, I get a hot dog,” said Burton, D-San Francisco. 

California’s electricity crisis is two-pronged. 

First, PG&E and SoCal Edison say they have suffered $12.7 billion in losses from spiraling wholesale electricity costs that they have been unable to pass on to their customers because of rate limits imposed under California’s 1996 deregulation law. 

Second, the state’s grid has been stressed by scant reserves, tight imports, high demand and power plants idled for maintenance or repairs. A speeded-up construction program is under way, but the first plant isn’t expected to begin generating power until mid-summer. 

California has been in a near-continuous Stage 3 emergency for more than three weeks. 

——— 

On the Net: 

California ISO: www.caiso.com 


Senator calls for full deregulation, end of rate freeze

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein thinks California should consider full deregulation of the state’s electricity market, including lifting the current cap on consumer electric rates. 

Gov. Gray Davis has been trying to find a way out of the current energy crisis without sending rates soaring. 

Feinstein, D-Calif., said Monday that while the commitment by Davis and the Legislature to buy $10 billion of electricity buys time, a long-term solution – either toward full deregulation or re-regulation – must be forged by summer. 

Power shortages are expected to become more dire in the summer months, when Californians crank up air conditioners to avoid sweltering heat. 

Rate increases on use above basic levels, Feinstein said, is one way to force conservation. 

“Everybody has done what they can do to try to solve the problems, but everything is being done because tomorrow might be a blackout,” Feinstein told the San Francisco Chronicle. “What this does is buy the state time to really give some thought on where to go and ... that thinking needs to be done.” 

Davis’s spokesman Steve Maviglio said lifting the price cap on electricity is “strictly off the table.” 

Electricity prices have been frozen since California’s deregulation law went into effect in 1996. The state Public Utilities Commission ordered a temporary rate hike last month after two cash-strapped utilities told them they were nearing bankruptcy and that their credit ratings made it nearly impossible to buy power. 

“Deregulation was promised to consumers as a way to lower rates, and the governor believes they shouldn’t have to pay the price for this experiment,” Maviglio said. 

 

Feinstein suggested some of the state’s 30 closed military bases be considered as sites for new power plants. She also called for an energy summit with input from economists and other experts that would examine where the state now stands and how it should proceed. 


Book offers ways to talk about gay parenting

By Sari Friedman Special to the Daily Planet
Wednesday February 07, 2001

The Queer Parent’s Primer, New Harbinger Publications, isn’t so much about navigating the straight world, as it is about navigating queer parenting – with some excellent advice on the legal, spiritual and social implications of becoming a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender primary parent, co-parent, or extended family member.  

There is advice on the best way to “come out” to a child, what to expect right after the child’s birth, and how to respond to that well meaning commentator on the grocery store check out line.  

This is an important book in our time of groundbreaking technological and social change.  

How do you clarify the role of a sperm or egg donor? How do you choose a last name when there are more than two primary parents?  

Just how much respect should be accorded the bond between the birth mother and “your” baby? (A lot.)  

Stephanie A. Brill, renowned Berkeley-based midwife and parenting educator, addresses these issues and more.  

With a foreward by Kate Kendall, Esq., Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Queer Parent’s Primer suggests common sense language, action, and legal solutions to minimize the unique pain, discrimination, and injustice that queer families too often experience.  

Even “small” problems can become formidable. What are the neighbors going to think when the baby shrieks at 2 a.m.? And what will they do when they discover that the whole family slept in the same bed last night?  

In America, in 2001, queer non-biological non-adoptive parents can lose custody of the child they’ve loved, supported, and nurtured since birth with less effort than it takes to close a screen door.  

Brill stresses the importance of parents honoring their non-adoptive, non-biological, partners’ parental roles – despite our legal system which doesn’t generally recognize such connections. Brill offers exercises devoted to increasing cooperation and mutual understanding – along with the advice that every parent evaluate every issue while asking: “What’s in the best interests of my child?”  

Brill describes this as walking a path of love and a path of pride.  

Superb examples demonstrate the value of patience, maturity, and good will in resolving dilemmas.  

How soon should the gay, male, partnered, co-parents of a newborn expect regular overnights with their new baby – when this requires the baby to be away from the lesbian co-parent who is still breast-feeding him or her every hour and a half?  

What happens when the day care plans fall apart? What if people at the child’s school are homophobic? 

How do multiple partners make religious decisions? And what to do when romantic relationships stumble? (Brill recommends new parents wait a year before making permanent relationship decisions.)  

Being a competent parent can be satisfying, grotesquely beautiful, and “normal” for anyone. There’s an urgent need for the wisdom offered in the Queer Parent’s Primer, which can bring dreams to fruition – and joy to many.  

Sari Friedman, whose short fiction and poetry appears in various literary magazines and anthologies, teaches writing at Vista, Laney, and Merritt colleges, and at the College of Alameda.


Investment gains can be a surprise tax issue

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

WASHINGTON — As mutual funds increase in popularity and more employees are compensated with stock options, taxpayers must beware of some pitfalls that can mean a big tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service. 

Mutual funds, for example, sometimes offer to automatically reinvest capital gains and dividends instead of sending the investor a check. But even if the investor never pocketed the cash, this money is treated as income by the IRS and taxed accordingly. 

“You get tagged for the dividends you don’t receive and it’s a gain that you don’t really realize,” said Don Weigandt, vice president for wealth strategy at J.P. Morgan. 

The mutual fund will send a tax form reporting all dividends that were reinvested, which must be reported as income on Schedule B of the 1040 form. The fund’s reinvestments also could have either a capital gain or loss consequence; IRS Publication 564 spells this out and Schedule D must be used to report capital gains and losses. 

Some taxpayers who get into a mutual fund late in the calendar year can also get an unanticipated tax bill, Weigandt said. Since most funds pay out dividends in December, the taxpayer gets a relatively modest share but is taxed on the full value of the capital gain made by the mutual fund that year. 

“If you are buying into a fund, you want to be buying in after that dividend date,” he said. “You should ask, ’Maybe I should wait a while.”’ 

One other mutual fund tip: some investors may qualify for the foreign tax credit if their fund invests in overseas securities. It can be claimed as a deduction or as a credit with IRS Form 1116; a credit is usually worth more because it is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in tax. 

Stock options, or rights to purchase a certain number of shares at a set price, can also raise some sticky tax questions. In some circumstances, taxes are owed even before the options are cashed in – meaning the taxpayer has to come up with the money from some other source. 

The two main types of stock options are nonqualified options and incentive stock options, or ISOs. The main difference is that the taxpayer must report income when exercising a nonqualified option, but not an ISO, because the nonqualified option is treated essentially as a form of salary by the tax code. 

Although an ISO isn’t subject to regular income tax, it could trigger the 28 percent alternative minimum tax. Otherwise, the main tax issue is capital gains, and the taxpayer can take advantage of the lower 20 percent capital gains rates on profits by holding the stock for at least one year after it is exercised and at least two years after it is received, Weigandt said. 

There are numerous variations in stock option plans that can have an impact on taxes, but Weigandt said people must consider all investment factors in making decisions – not just what might be owed to the IRS. “You’ve got to look at it in a broader context,” he said. 

Look for more tax help all this week on the Berkeley Daily Planet’s Business page.


BRIEFS

Staff
Wednesday February 07, 2001

Cisco Systems misses earning expectations by a penny 

SAN JOSE — Cisco Systems Inc. missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the first time in 31/2 years despite a nearly 50 percent gain in quarterly profits. 

The world’s top supplier of equipment for the Internet and other computer networks earned $874 million, or 12 cents per share, in its second quarter ended Jan. 27. In the same three-month period a year ago, Cisco earned $816 million, or 11 cents per share. Excluding one-time factors such as acquisitions expenses and research and development costs, Cisco earned $1.33 billion, or 18 cents a share. Analysts were expecting 19 cents per share.  

Fiber-optics company set to sell Nortel Networks subsidiary 

SAN JOSE — Fiber-optics company JDS Uniphase Corp. will sell a Swiss subsidiary to Nortel Networks Corp., satisfying Justice Department concerns over its $18 billion acquisition of rival SDL Inc. 

The two deals are expected to close next week, pending final approval by shareholders, the companies announced Tuesday. 

“We are very excited to be at the end of this process, so we begin to focus on our new combined organization,” said Jozef Straus, chief executive of JDS Uniphase. 

Nortel will pay $2.5 billion in stock for the Swiss operation and up to $500 million more if Nortel’s purchase falls short of targets at the end of 2003.  

U.S. Postal Service faces losses, stamp rate may rise again 

WASHINGTON — Just a month after higher stamp prices took effect the U.S. Postal Service, facing massive losses, is considering another rate boost that could result in higher prices early next year. 

The post office is reportedly facing losses of up to $2 billion this year despite the price increase that took effect Jan. 7, which included raising a first-class stamp a penny to 34 cents. 

 

 

— The Associated Press 

 

 

 

While approving that increase, the independent Postal Rate Commission rejected or scaled back several other requested price hikes, cutting expected income by some $1 billion. At the same time, mail volume has dropped because of the poor economy, further reducing anticipated income. 

 

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Struggling appliance maker Sunbeam Corp., owner of brands such as Mr. Coffee coffee makers, First Alert smoke alarms and Coleman outdoor gear, on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its operations. 

The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York came as Sunbeam was unable to resolve a $2.6 billion debt load. Its troubles were exacerbated by the cost of lawsuits filed by shareholders, whose stock became virtually worthless after the company restated its profits and losses from 1996 to 1998. 

As part of the restructuring, Sunbeam will lose its nine-year listing on the New York Stock Exchange and turn private, chairman and CEO Jerry W. Levin said Tuesday. 


Market Watch

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

NEW YORK — Wall Street reversed direction Tuesday when investors resumed buying riskier tech stocks and cashed in recent gains from safe-haven blue chips. 

Investors seemed to tune out earnings and economic worries while they shopped for bargain-priced high-tech stocks. 

Tuesday’s trading reflected a recent trend in which investors alternate throughout the day between the relative safety of blue chips and riskier tech stocks. Analysts expect investors will continue to waffle between techs and blue chips, making no big commitments until the economy improves or the Federal Reserve lower rates for a third time this year. 

“This is a little pause in a window in which the market is probably going to be in limbo and not make much progress,” said Ricky Harrington, technical analyst for Wachovia Securities. 

The market on Tuesday anxiously awaited earnings from tech bellwether Cisco Systems, which finished regular trading at $35.94, up $1.38. After the close of trading, Cisco announced earnings that missed estimates by a penny. 

Techs managed to move higher in advance of Cisco’s results, analysts said, because the market in the last two sessions had factored in the possibility that the company would have disappointing news. 

 

 


Campaign will try to halve new HIV infections cases

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

A government campaign intended to “break the back” of the AIDS epidemic will try to cut the number of new infections in half by 2005, largely by identifying Americans who carry HIV but do not know it. 

The effort, announced Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is based on the idea that most AIDS infections are spread by outwardly healthy people who do not realize they have HIV. 

The agency believes that if these people knew they were infected, they would be more careful to protect others, and they would also take AIDS drugs that would probably make them less likely to transmit the virus. 

The CDC already spends about $600 million a year on AIDS prevention, mostly to try to keep uninfected people from catching the virus. 

“We have been dealing with half of the equation,” said the CDC’s Dr. Robert Janssen. “Now it’s time to look at all of it.” 

Officials said the campaign would cost an additional $300 million annually. The CDC already has $100 million of  

this and hopes to get funding  

for the rest. 

The CDC estimates that 800,000 to 900,000 Americans are now infected with HIV, and 40,000 more catch the virus each year, a figure that has been stable since the early 1990s. The CDC’s goal is to cut the number of new infections to 20,000 annually. 

To do this, the CDC will try to identify many more of the 200,000 to 275,000 people who are infected and do not know it. Currently, about 75,000 new HIV infections are diagnosed annually. The CDC hopes to increase that by 30,000 for the next two or three years. By 2005, it hopes that 95 percent of infected Americans will know their status. 

“People who are infected and don’t know it need to get tested, need to be treated and need to be safe,” Janssen said. “It is critical that people learn they are infected.” 

The agency believes that most people who have HIV do not want to infect others, and they will take precautions if they know they have the virus.  

One CDC survey found that 90 percent of people adopt less risky sexual behavior during the year after they learn of their infections, typically using condoms more and having sex less often. 

As the infection progresses, the amount of virus in people’s bodies increases, making them more likely to transmit HIV.  

Drug combinations available over the past five years have made these virus levels plummet, and experts assume this will make infected people much less likely to pass on the virus. 

Finding infected people as soon as possible is an important goal, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The critical reason for learning early is to treat them as soon as treatment is appropriate,” he said. 

Details of the campaign, called SAFE – for Serostatus Approach to Fighting the Epidemic – were outlined at the Eighth Annual Retrovirus Conference in Chicago. 

Among the CDC’s plans: 

• Launch a new media campaign, called Know Now, involving radio and bus ads aimed at neighborhoods where HIV is most common. The ads will be tested in Detroit, New Orleans, Houston, Miami and Jackson, Miss. 

• Work with the Food and Drug Administration to get rapid AIDS tests on the market later this year. These tests use saliva or a drop of blood and give results within 15 minutes. They can be used on street corners, in bars or almost anywhere else. 

• Encourage much more widespread AIDS testing. Make AIDS tests a regular part of all emergency room visits in areas where the virus is common. Encourage routine voluntary testing in jails. 

• Work with the 2,000 doctors who provide most AIDS care to encourage their patients to take precautions against spreading the virus. 

Such an effort, said Janssen, “could possibly break the back of the epidemic in the United States.” 

Dr. Helene Gayle, the CDC’s AIDS chief, said a rough estimate of the entire cost of the campaign is $1 billion. 

“Academic researchers and health departments have looked at what it would realistically take, and that’s what it would realistically take,” she said. “It’s a matter of what our society is willing to pay for.”


Reconnecting residents, nature-New magazine strives to bring it all together

By Jennifer Dix Daily Planet Correspondent
Tuesday February 06, 2001

 

 

David Loeb, editor of the new Bay Nature magazine, was recently out hiking with his 12-year-old son. He started naming off the trees as they passed them, to the consternation of his son. 

“He said, ‘Why are you naming the trees?’” Loeb recalls, affecting a frown that perfectly evokes adolescent dismay at the uncoolness of one’s parent. “I said, ‘Well, it makes me feel like I’m home.’”  

Loeb pauses, ruefully. “He knows all the corporate logos . . .” 

To Loeb, 50, the incident captures the paradox of modern life in the Bay Area: a teeming metropolitan center near the heart of the tech industry where 6.5 million people are packed into 7,000 square miles; and at the same time, the site of some of the greatest natural beauty in America, including the largest estuary on the West Coast and more than half a million acres of county parks. 

“We live in a unique area,” Loeb said. “There’s an incredible natural diversity here and there’s also an incredible cultural diversity.” Besides being an epicenter for technological research, the Bay Area is a center for environment research.  

“We see an opportunity to share this research with a wider community,” he said. 

The Berkeley-based Bay Nature, a new quarterly which premiered in early January, seeks to acquaint urban dwellers with the natural beauty of their surroundings.  

“This is all about getting people to see the world around us as a natural part of our home,” Loeb says. “I’d like people to have a broader concept of home than just the four walls we live in.” 

Bay Nature is, in the words of its publisher, “dedicated to the intelligent and joyful exploration of the natural places – large and small – of the San Francisco Bay area, and the species (humans included) that inhabit them.” 

The first issue is full of treasures, richly illustrated with color photos. Fiction writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin offers a look at the sometimes glorious, sometimes stinky history of Lake Merritt, which just happens to be America’s first wildlife refuge. Geologist Doris Sloan explains the cliffs overlooking the Golden Gate. San Francisco Chronicle outdoor editor Paul McHugh has written a vivid history of San Francisco Bay that includes such tidbits as the fact that the missing half of Half Dome is probably on the floor of the Bay and that the ocean shore once began at a point some 30 miles west of where it is now, out beyond the Farallones. 

There’s a whimsical photo page called “Bay Area Blues,” featuring everything from blue flowers to the blue-tailed skink (that’s a lizard, for those who don’t know). Inquiring readers can “Ask the Naturalist” by sending their questions in to columnist Joe Eaton. There’s even a cartoon by “Farley” comic-strip author Phil Frank. 

Future issues will include verse by renowned poet Robert Hass, a look at development encroaching on the Diablo Ridgelands, and articles about sharks, bats, and coho salmon in the Bay Area – which for purposes of Bay Nature encompasses not only the nine counties which touch the Bay, but Monterey and Santa Cruz to the south and the Central Valley to the north. 

The magazine has been four years in the making. Loeb, former editor of the Oakland-based Report from Guatemala, says he recognized the need for a publication that focused on Bay Area nature during a hike one day when he was soaking in the beauty of his surroundings but realized he knew very little about the flora and fauna around him. 

He turned for advice to Malcolm Margolin, founder of the independent Berkeley press Heyday Books. As it turned out, Margolin himself had long had an interest in just such a publication, and he offered to act as publisher for the new magazine. 

It was just the push needed to get the idea off the ground. Margolin is widely known and respected among the literary and environmental communities. “To have Malcolm behind a project really means a lot,” says Amy Hunter, a former Heyday employee who is director of advertising and marketing for Bay Nature.  

Still, no one expected the project to be quite so long in the making. “We decided we wanted to do it right,” says Loeb. He and Margolin worked slowly, securing funding from grants and foundations, building an initial subscriber base, inviting input from groups like Save the Bay and East Bay Regional Park District. 

Then last June Bay Nature opened its modest office above a restaurant on Sixth Street and its tiny staff began drawing salaries. The magazine celebrated its premiere issue January 17 at a standing-room-only launch party at the San Francisco Main Public Library, and the response was “overwhelming,” Loeb says. In just a month, the subscription base has jumped from 1,400 to 2,200, and the phone these days rings almost continually with calls from environmental groups, writers and photographers, readers, and others eager to contribute or otherwise offer their support. 

“Mostly it’s the feeling that we’ve struck a chord,” Loeb says. “People are saying things like, ‘It’s about time!’ and ‘Why didn’t this already exist?’” 

That’s music to his ears, confirmation that there is a hunger among Bay Area residents to connect and more fully understand their special spot on the globe.  

“I think there’s a feeling that we’ve lost a sense of connection to where we live, and we may lose the place we live in,” he says. “If we don’t feel this sense of connection to the landscape, human society will stop.” 


Calendar of Events & Activities

— compiled by Chason Wainwright — compiled by Chason Wainwright
Tuesday February 06, 2001


H3>Tuesday, Feb. 6 

Berkeley Intelligent  

Conversation  

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

Jewish Community Center  

1414 Walnut Ave. (at Rose)  

This twice-monthly group 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 527-5332  

 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 


H3>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 

 

Legacy to Liberation  

7 p.m. 

Revolution Books  

2425 Channing Way  

A roundtable discussion by contributors to the recently published anthology “Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America.” Contributors include Richard Aoki, Yuri Kockiyama, Sun Lee and Dolly Veale. $2 donation  

848-1196 

 


H3>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 

 

Great Mt. Diablo Day Hikes 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Ken Lavin, former president of Mt. Diablo Interpretative Association, for a slide-show of his favorite day hikes in Mt. Diablo State Park.  

Call 527-7377  

 

Jam Session  

7 p.m. 

Maurice’s Cafe 

6038 Telegraph 

Poetry with jazz featuring Jimmy Sands. 653-6775 

 

Exploring Surfaces  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” $10  

 


H3>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 

 

Introducing: Julia Morgan  

School for Girls 

7:30 - 8:30 a.m. 

Julia Morgan School for Girls 

Holy Names College 

Sky Room, Durocher Hall 

3510 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A select gathering of business and professional women devoted to fostering leadership in the young girls in our community.  

 


H3>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. 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  

 

Dreams & Intuition 

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

1502 Tenth St.  

Marcia Emery, Ph.D., will discuss how to attune your intuitive dream antenna, intuitively unravel the symbolic message of a dream symbol and apply an intuitive dream interpretation method to the entire dream.  

$85  

Call 526-5510 

 

“The West Wing Meets the East Bay” 

7:30 p.m. 

Saint Joseph the Worker Church 

1640 Addison St.  

A conversation with Martin Sheen. Tickets available at Black Oak Books, Cody’s Books, St. Joseph the Worker Church, and at the door. $20 donation 525-3787  

 

Annuals for the Dry Garden 

10 a.m. 

UC Botanical Garden 

200 Centennial Drive  

Annie Hayes of Annie’s annuals will suggest some annuals to plant in gardens that are water-deprived during the summer months.  

$15 643-1924 

 


H3>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. 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 - $42 642-9988 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 

 

“From Swastika to Jim Crow” 

2 - 4:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Due to the depression and anti-Semitism in the ‘30s, many Jewish “refugee scholars” found they had difficulty finding jobs and were embraced by black universities. Both students and teachers, in the pre-Civil Rights era, found they shared a common experience of living under oppression and a passion for education. $2 suggested donation 848-0237 x127 

 

Why Do a Long Retreat? 

6 p.m. 

Tibetan Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Pl.  

Retreatants from Holland, Brazil, Germany, and other places share how they made the time to participate in two and four month retreats.  

Call 843-6812 

 

African-American  

“Death of a Salesman”  

Auditions 

1 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

There are roles for eight men and five women, aged 30 - 60. Auditioners are asked to present a monologue no longer that three minutes. Roles are non-paying. 

 


H3>Monday, Feb. 12 

African-American “Death of a Salesman” Auditions 

7 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre  

1301 Shattuck (at Berryman)  

 

 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

 

 

 

 


Tuesday February 06, 2001

Megawatts, volts and all that explained 

 

Editor: 

Because of deregulation, rising electricity consumption, hydroelectric power shortages, and greed, we’re suddenly seeing front-page articles about such unfamiliar topics as megawatts and volts. Most articles get some technical details wrong, confusing power and energy for starters. 

It’s easy to understand if we relate electricity flow to a familiar subject – wages. Electric power is the rate at which you use electric energy. This is like one’s wage rate, measured in dollars per hour. Electric power is measured in watts, kilowatts (1,000 watts), or megawatts (1 million watts). The total electric energy used is analogous to the total amount of money you’re paid for working some number of hours. Thus, the electric energy used equals the electric power multiplied by the duration of use, just as the total wages you earn doing a job is your wage rate times the number of hours it took.  

Your electric meter computes the product of the power and the length of time you use it. The unit used for the energy registered by your PG&E meter – as shown on its face – is the kilowatt-hour, abbreviated as Kwh on your PG&E bill. 

Suppose that the current flowing in a typical electric iron is 10 amperes, and the voltage at the wall outlet is 120 volts. The rate at which the iron converts electric energy into heat – the rate of energy consumption measured in watts – equals the current in amperes times the voltage in volts. The power rating for the iron is thus 1,200 watts, or 1.2 kilowatts. If you run this iron for half an hour, you use 600 watt-hours (0.6 kilowatt-hours) of electric energy. On my November 2000 bill, the charge for generating electricity was about 8 cents/Kwh, so the cost of generating the energy to run the iron for half an hour would have been 4.8 cents. The wholesale price charged by the generating companies has in recent months been as low as $45 per megawatt-hour (4-1/2 cents per Kwh), and as high as $1,000 per megawatt-hour ($1 per Kwh).  

You can find out more about this, and see some choice bloopers from the media, at: 

http://www.electronics-uncovered.com 

Dick White 

Berkeley 

 

Complies because he’s pressured to 

 

Editor: 

Richard Register suggests that developer Patrick Kennedy cuts special deals for disabled tenants because he “likes the people.” 

Perhaps, but interested observers should note that his buildings were brought into compliance with the ADA not voluntarily, but rather because of the hard work of activists in Berkeley who pressured him to do so. 

 

Carol Denney 

Berkeley 

 

Forget medical pot; Legalize the herb 

 

Editor: 

Why do we waste so much time on the medical marijuana issue? It seems so senseless anymore. Why couldn't cannabis be decriminalized and regulated like alcohol? 

Any doctor will tell you that there is no harm in relaxing after work with one beer or one glass of wine and it can actually be healthy for you. The 18th Amendment in 1920 ( prohibition) made alcohol illegal, except within the home or for “medical,” religious or industrial purposes. 

Cannabis contains antioxidants “more powerful than vitamin E or vitamin C,” according to Dr. Aiden Hampson of the National Institute of Mental Health.  

This is in addition to its well documented neuro-protective, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. So why couldn't one joint a day to relax with after work be healthy too! 

Why couldn't alcohol and cannabis be sold in the same stores side by side! 

Why not be able to grow your own cannabis? You can manufacture your own alcohol. You can legally make 100 gallons per adult, up to two adults per household. So its legal to manufacture and have in your home 200 gallons (1,200 pounds) of beer. 

It doesn't seem to matter that marijuana is illegal, even with the threat of prison, people use it recreationally or medically any way. 

We didn't repeal the 18th amendment on Dec. 5, 1933 so people could use alcohol, they were already using alcohol. It was repealed because of the crime and corruption it generated. 

 

Larry Seguin 

Lisbon, New York  

 

Support westside office moratorium 

Editor: 

The Planning Commission recently proposed (on a 5-4 vote) a year moratorium on any further office development in the West Berkeley Mixed Use-Light Industrial district. It is scheduled to come before the Council on March 13. 

As a person who has worked in manufacturing in West Berkeley since the 1970s, I support the moratorium and I urge you to. 

The moratorium comes in the wake of a developer's proposal to build 450,000 square feet of new office space near Aquatic Park, using a loophole in the West Berkeley Plan. This development - the “American Soils project” - would be tantamount to dropping a bomb on the area, setting off a new and unconstrainable gentrification spiral. Sadly we hear that some city staff have even been encouraging this. 

West Berkeley is a unique place, harmoniously mixing manufacturing, arts & crafts, and residents with limited commercial and office uses in defined areas. The basic goal of the West Berkeley Plan is to preserve and enhance this mix. This unique diversity has been preserved in some parts, but threatened and damaged in others.  

A diverse community-based economy is a great strength. Over-specialization is a great weakness. Options for blue-collar families and young people in our community need to be increased, but sadly they are still narrowing, as manufacturing jobs continue to disappear. 

Some developers would love to open the city's gates wide to the dot.com world, which is threatening to crash like a great wave against the East Bay and overwhelm the West Berkeley community. If they succeed, in a short time they will drive arts and crafts and manufacturing out of town and transform the city in their image. The diversity of North West Berkeley in particular has suffered greatly in the last few years. The irreversible gentrification around Fourth Street cannot be permitted to spread into South West Berkeley. 

Ironically, this threat is coming at the very moment when many dot.coms in San Francisco are collapsing, leaving empty buildings in their wake.  

Arts & crafts and manufacturing are gone in San Francisco through that municipal government having other priorities. They simply cannot generate the income levels required to compete with offices in an unregulated market. Without government regulation, offices will replace arts & crafts and manufacturing every time. 

This new huge office project has to be stopped, and additional regulations need to be enacted to prevent another threat of this magnitude from arising. City staff needs to be told in no uncertain terms that the council will not permit the destruction of West Berkeley. The moratorium is needed now to provide the time to evaluate the Plan's effectiveness, to plug loopholes and to strengthen weaknesses. 

The Plan is the only way we can preserve the diversity of West Berkeley, and therefore in the City. Without the West Berkeley community, the entire City would be impoverished, culturally and spiritually, and lack many essential services.  

Support the retention of arts & crafts and manufacturing in Berkeley. Support the moratorium. Strengthen the West Berkeley Plan. 

John Curl 

West Berkeley Cabinetmaker 


Tuesday February 06, 2001

 

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership Feb. 9: The Hellvillies, Divit, Teenage Harlots, Deficient, Arno Corps; Feb. 10: Lifes Halt, Rocket Queen, Barry Manowar, Rosemary’s Billygoat, Adversives; Feb. 16: The Bananas, Pitch Black, Shotwell, Pirx the Pilot, Rock & Roll Adventure Kids; Feb. 17: Lack of Interest, The Neighbors, Black Hands, Capitalist Casualties, Iron Lung; 525-9926  

 

Albatross Pub All music at 9 p.m. unless noted Feb. 6: Pickpocket Ensemble; Feb. 7: Whiskey Brothers; Feb. 8: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Feb. 13: Mad & Eddie Duran Jazz Duo; Feb. 14: Carlos Oliveira Brazilian Jazz Duo 1822 San Pablo 843-2473 

 

Ashkenaz Feb. 6, 9 p.m.: The Toids; Feb. 7, 9 p.m.: Frog Legs, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; Feb. 8, 10 p.m.: Grateful Dead DJ Nite w/Digital Dave; Feb. 9, 9:30 p.m.: Bob Marley Birthday Bash with Foundation, Ras Kidus, DJ Spliff Skankin; Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m.: Musical theater with Zorman & Yampels; Feb. 13, 9 p.m.: Danny Poullard & Friends, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; Feb. 14, 8:30 p.m.: Carlos Zialcita plays R&B, swing, and soul for lovers. 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

 

Eli’s Mile High Club Feb. 9: Red Archibald; Feb. 10: Kenny Blue Ray; Feb. 16: Little Johnny & the Giants; Feb. 17: Ron Thompson; Feb. 23: Carlos Zialcita; Feb. 24: R.J. Mischo 3629 MLK Jr. Way Oakland  

 

Freight & Salvage All shows begin at 8 p.m. Feb. 6: Chuck Brodsky; Feb. 7: Keola Beamer with Moana Beamer; Feb. 8 & 9: Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys; 1111 Addison St. 548-1761  

 

Cal Performances Feb. 10, 8 p.m.: Masters of Persian Classical Music, $20 - $40; Feb. 16 & 17, 8 p.m.: Balinese Orchestra Gamelan Sekar Jaya present “Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream,” $18 - $30.; Feb. 20, 21, 23 & 24: In two separate programs the Netherlands Dans Theater I presents the work of former artistic director, Jiri Kylian $34 - $52 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley. 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu Feb. 11, 3 p.m.: Horacio Gutierrez $24 - $42 Hertz Hall UC Berkeley 

 

“Songs for the Young at Heart” Feb. 10, 4 p.m. Featuring La Bonne Cuisine by Bernstein and The Shepherd on the Rock by Schubert. Donations accepted St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave.  

 

Gianni Gebbia, Michael Manring, Simple Sample & Garth Powell Feb. 11, 7:45 p.m. Italian saxophonist Gerbia teams up with electric bassist Manring for a set of free improvisations. $8 donation Tuva Space 3192 Adeline 649-8744 

 

“The Prodigals” Feb. 11, 9 p.m. An Irish rock group who play “jig-punk” $5 This show is 18 and up. Blake’s 2367 Telegraph Ave.  

 

Community Women’s Orchestra Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Pieces to be played include those written by Berkeley High students Ariel Wolter and Maianna Voge. Donations accepted Malcolm X School 1731 Prince St. 653-1616 

 

Young People Chamber  

Orchestra Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Celebrating the music of J.S. Bach, Corell, Handel and others St. Johns Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. Call 595-4688 

 

Percussions Du Guinee Feb. 16 & 17, 8 p.m. Feb. 18, 7 p.m. Internationally respected Guinean percussionists craft a performance simultaneously inspired by traditional music, yet modern in presentation. $20 - $25 925-798-1300 

 

Will Bernard & Motherbug and Ten Ton Chicken CD Release Party and Live Web Cast Feb. 17, 9 p.m. IMUSICAST Studios 5429 Telegraph Ave. (at 54th) Oakland $10  

 

Theater 

 

“Fall” by Bridget Carpenter Through Feb. 11. $15.99 - $51. Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, www. berkeleyrep.org 

 

“In Search of my Clitoris” Written and performed by Sia Amma Feb. 8 & 9, 8 p.m. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. $12 - $14 415-775-6608 

 

“Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett Through Feb. 3, Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m. $8 - $12. Subterranean Shakespeare La Val’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid (at Hearst) 234-6046  

 

“The Road to Mecca” by Athol Fugard Through Feb. 24, Friday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Feb. 22, 8 p.m. $10 Live Oak Theatre 1301 Shattuck 528-5620 

 

“Nightingale” presented by Central Works Theater Feb. 9 - March 4, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 24 & Saturday, March 3, 5 p.m.; Free preview Feb. 8, 8 p.m. $8 - $14 LaVal’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381 

 

“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” by Frank MacGuinness Feb. 15 - March 17, Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Sunday, 8:30 p.m. The story of three men - an Irishman, an Englishman and an American held in a prison in Lebanon. $10 - $15 8th St. Studio Theatre 2525 Eighth St. (at Dwight) 655-0813 

 

“New Territory” Presented by Terrain along wih the Choreographer’s Performance Alliance. An eclectic evening of dance and performance with a variety of choreographic styles and themes. $10 Western Sky Studio 2525 Eighth St. (at Dwight) 845-8604 

 

Films 

 

“Magnetic North” Six programs of experimental Canadian video from the past 30 years that range from documentary to conceptual art. In all, 40 tapes from 46 artists will be shown on six Wednesday evenings. Through Feb. 28. $7. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch) 642-1412  

 

“For the Love of It” Third Annual Celebration of Amateur Film Clubs A presentation of a selection of mini-movies from the convention of the Society of Amateur Videomakers and Cinematographers. Members of local film clubs will attend and will take part in a post-screening discussion. Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m. $7. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

 

“Durruti and the Spanish Revolution” The LaborFest U.S. premiere screening and dicussion of this documentary which tells the story of the Confederation National del Trabajo during the Spanish Civil War. Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. $7 donation requested. La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 415-642-8066 

 

“Toto Recall” A 15-film retrospective honoring Italy’s comic genius. Feb. 3 - Feb. 24 Weekend days only, Friday - Sunday. $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills. Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way (at Bowditch) 642-1412 

 

Pacific Center Women’s Evening at the Movies Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m. 2712 Telegraph Ave. “Late Bloomer,” the story of a high school basketball coach who realizes she’s fallen for the school secretary. Women’s Evening at the Movies is the first Saturday of every month. Visit ww.pacificcenter.org 

 

 

Exhibits 

 

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,” Through 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. Through Feb. 3; Tuesday - Saturday, 11 - 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 - 5 p.m. !hey! Gallery 4920-b Telegraph Ave., Oakland 428-2349 

 

“Race & Femininity” Acrylic Paintings of Corinne Innis Paying homage to her subconscious, Innis uses rich colors in her acrylic paintings. Through Feb. 26; 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 

 

“Trees With Frosting” Stevie Famulari decorates landscapes with sugar and frosting, making her artwork edible and changeable by viewers. This particular display will remain for two months. Through February Skapades Hair Salon 1971 Shattuck Ave. 251-8080 or steviesart@hotmail.com 

 

BACA Members’ Showcase Exhibition Nearly 150 artists submitted art in every imaginable medium: Painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and mixed media. More than ever before. Through Feb. 3 Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. Live Oak Park Wednesday through Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m. 644-6893  

 

“Dorchester Days,” the photographs of Eugene Richards is a collection of pictures portraying the poverty, racial tension, crime and violence prevalent in Richards’ hometown of Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1970s. Through April 6. UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 121 North Gate Hall #5860 642-3383 

 

“Still Life & Landscapes” The work of Pamela Markmann Through March 24, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Red Oak Gallery 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387 

 

“Kick Back,” the Department of Art Practice of UC Berkeley spring faculty show Feb. 6 through March 2; Opening reception Feb. 6, 4 - 6 p.m. Informative lecture Feb. 14, Noon Worth Ryder Gallery Kroeber Hall UC Berkeley Call 642-2582 

 

“Unequal Funding: Photographs of Children in Schools that Get Less” An exhibit of black & white photographs by documentary photographer Chris Pilaro. Feb. 1 - March 16, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Saturday, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Opening reception, Feb. 9, 6 - 8 p.m. Photolab Gallery 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400 

 

“Contemporary Photogravure” Printing from hand-inked plates etched from a film positive, a unique exhibition of photographs with luxurious tones. Feb. 8 - March 30, Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 5 p.m. or by appointment; Opening reception, Feb. 8, 6 - 8 p.m. Kala Art Institute 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 

 

“Musee des Hommages,” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Boticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

 

“Evolution,” No problem quilters exhibit their soft-cloth sculptures. New Pieces is the only gallery that exclusively exhibits quilts in the Bay Area. Feb. 3 - March 1, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday Noon - 5 p.m. 1597 Solano Ave. 527-6779 

 

Readings 

 

Boadecia’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Feb. 10: Karin Kallmaker reads from “Sleight of Hand”; Feb. 23: Becky Thompson reads “Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage” 398 Colusa Ave. Kensington 559-9184. www.boadeciasbooks.com 

 

Cody’s Books All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted Feb. 2; Manil Suri will read from “The Death of Vishnu”; Feb. 3: Bell Hooks reads from “Salvation: Black People and Love”; Feb. 4: Rick Moody reads from “Demonology”; Feb. 5: Alan Rinzler facilitates “Get That Manuscipt off the Shelf!,” the first of three writers workshops this spring at Cody’s; Feb. 6: Anneli Rufus & Kristan Lawson carry on about “California Babylon: A Guide to Sites of Scandal, Mayhem, and Celluloid in the Golden State”; Feb. 7: Poetry of the National Writers Union; Feb. 8, 7 p.m.: Sheli Nan presents “The Essential Piano Teacher’s Guide”; 7:30 p.m.: Susan Griffin, Willy Wilkinson, Ellen Samuels, Dorothy Wall and Abe Doherty talk about “Stricken: Voices from the Hidden Epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”; Feb. 9: Matt Ridley discusses “Genome: The Autobiography of a Species”; Feb. 11: Poetry of Jack Hirschman & Luke Breit; Feb. 12: Jett Psaris and Marlena Lyons discuss “Undefended Love”; Feb. 13: Christie Kiefr talks about ‘Health Work for the Poor: A Practical Guide”; Feb. 15: Jason Lutes, cartoonist, will discuss his graphic presentation “Berlin: City of Stones”; Feb. 20: Becky Thompson discusses “Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage”; Feb. 21: Poetry of Gillian Conoley & Kathleen Fraser; Feb. 22: Alison Gopnik describes “The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind”; Feb. 23: Carol Field reads “Mangoes and Quince”; Feb. 25: Poetry of Martha Rhodes, Linda Dyer & Joy Manesiotis; Feb. 26: Terry McMillan reads from “A Day Late and a Dollar Short”; Feb. 28: Poetry of Sandra Gilbert & Wendy Barker 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852  

 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8: Bruce Henderson tackes a 130 year old mystery in “Fatal North: Adventure & Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole”; Feb. 27: Barbara Wagner, co-founder of Lost Frontiers, gives a slide presentation and talk about “Pakistan & the Lost Tribes of teh Hindu Kush”; Feb. 28: Travel writer Christopher Baker will read and talk about his 7000 miles motorcycle odyssey through Cuba as chronicled in his book “Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro’s Cuba” 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533  

 

“Strong Women - Writers & Heroes of Literature” Fridays 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  

 

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. 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. 

 

Lunch Poems First Thursday of each month, 12:10 - 12:50 p.m. March 1: Aleida Rodrigues; April 5: Galway Kinnell; May 3: Student Reading Morrison Room, Doe Library UC Berkeley 642-0137 

 

Class Dismissed Poetry Posse 7:30 p.m., March 2 Afro-Haitian dancers, Dance Production dancers, the BHS poetry slammers, an opening a capella number and a few surprises. A benefit for a Berkeley High school student trip to Cuba. $5 - $10 Little Theater Berkeley High School 2246 Milvia St.  

 

“Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir” Barry Gifford will read from his new book and sign copies for attendees. The signing will be followed by a screening of the 1954 film “Vera Cruz,” starring Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper. $7 Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412 

 

 

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 Feb. 25: “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin,” Gray Brechin will discuss the impact and legacy of the Hearsts and other powerful early families; 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; March 18: “Topaz Moon,” Kimi Kodani Hill will discuss artist Chiura Obata’s family and the WWII Japanese relocation camps. 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 

 

Ruth Acty Oral History Feb. 18, 3 - 6 p.m. In honor of Black History Month, Therese Pipe will present the history of Acty, who became the first African American teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District in 1943. Berkeley Historical Society Veterans Memorial Building 1931 Center St. Admission free 848-0181 

 


City may give help to Section 8 landlords

By John Geluardi Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday February 06, 2001

In a bid to encourage more landlords to rent to the poor, the Berkeley Housing Authority will consider guaranteeing security deposits for Section 8 tenants. 

The Housing Department hopes that the guaranteed deposit of up to two months rent, along with recently increased rental subsidies, will encourage more landlords to rent units to families and individuals with Section 8 vouchers. The BHA will vote on the recommendation tonight. 

“We’ve had too many landlords pull out of the Section 8 program,” said BHA member Dona Spring. The Housing Authority is made up of the City Council and two community members.  

“We need to do more to encourage property owners to rent to low-income tenants,” she said. 

Under the proposed plan, the BHA will guarantee landlords up to two months security deposit. The tenants will then make payments to the landlord for a period of no longer than two years until the deposit is paid in full. 

If the tenant moves out and there is damage to the apartment, the BHA guarantees the cost of repairs for the balance of the deposit. If the recommendation is approved, the BHA will set up a fund of $25,000 to cover potential repair costs. 

Interim Housing Director Stephen Barton underscored that most Section 8 tenants are responsible. “Section 8 tenants are mostly made up of the elderly, the disabled and families, they’re a responsible group.” he said. “Occasionally there is a bad tenant, but no more so than other tenants.” 

The state allows landlords to require a deposit of up to two months rent, which can be as much as $2,000 or more for a one-bedroom apartment, an amount  

difficult for most Section 8 tenants to have in hand, according to Spring. 

Currently there are 5,500 Section 8 families on a waiting list for housing in Berkeley. The first 1,500 on the list are people who already live or work in Berkeley. 

Applicants for Section 8 vouchers must earn 50 percent or less of the median income for the area which is $60,800 for a family of two. The standard is set by HUD 

President of the Black Property Owners Association, Frank Davis, said he had not heard of the guaranteed security deposit program. “I don’t feel comfortable making a statement other than to say the only problem I might have is that the Housing Department didn’t come to the landlords for our input,” he said. “There may have been something we might have been able to add, to make the plan better.” 

Davis said he rents to Section 8 tenants and has had no problems, but he said other property owners have told him that the BHA has been unresponsive to landlords when problems do arise.  

“If the BHA wants more landlords to come into the program they’re going to have to do some outreach,” Davis said. “They have a reputation for alienating landlords, not returning phone calls and no support when there’s a tenant violating a contract or causing problems.” 

Barton agreed that the Housing Authority has been less than supportive for landlords which is a situation he said will change. 

“One of the reasons for the meeting tonight is to present the Housing Authority with a report of what steps we’re taking to correct those problems,” he said. 

Barton said reaching out to landlords is exactly what Housing Department wants to do. In addition to the security deposit guarantee, He pointed to a recent HUD approval of an increase in Section 8 rents.  

As of Dec. 1, the new Section 8 monthly rent allowance was increased to $750 for a studio, $980 for a one bedroom and $1,308 for a two bedroom, according to Barton. 

“We’re supposed to pay whatever the market rent for the unit is,” Barton said. “We usually go by the rent of the most recently rented unit in any apartment complex, but the Housing Authority has been instructed to give landlords the benefit of the doubt when setting rents. We want to reward them for participating in the Section 8 program.” 

The Berkeley Housing Authority is meeting Tuesday in the City Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be broadcast live on KPFB Radio 89.3 and Cable B-TV (Channel 25). 


ACommunity says public must take over private utilities

By Erika Fricke Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday February 06, 2001

After a three hour teach-in on the California energy crisis Sunday community members endorsed a resolution to pursue public ownership of utilities, and to refuse to pay the 9 percent rate hike if it becomes permanent. 

At the meeting the term “power broker” gained new meaning, entering the lexicon of double entendre the recent energy crisis has engendered. Local politicians, Green Party heavyweights and community organizers made calls for public power and re-regulation of the utilities before the 150 people filling the Berkeley Fellowship Hall of Unitarian Universalists.  

“This is an absolutely amazing opportunity to take control of a resource,” said Medea Benjamin, former Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. “It means a rollback of the whole agenda of privatization.” 

Speakers excoriated the private utility companies, calling the crisis “engineered,” and calling the government plans to provide debt relief a form of “corporate welfare fraud.” The utility companies have denied responsibility for manufacturing the crisis, and have explained it by pointing to the number of powerplants under repair and off line. 

“The utilities have created a financial crisis for themselves,” said Graham Brownstein of The Utility Reform Network. “We the people of California are having an energy crisis.” He cautioned against legislation providing debt relief to PG&E while giving Californians stock in the company. He said the state should not be invested in a private company, and instead argued that the government should simply purchase the corporation and use this opportunity to make electricity a public utility.  

Speaker Robin David said that fighting corporate ownership of utilities required changing  

perceptions of the nature of utilities as an open market good. “We cannot do without electricity,” he said. “It’s a social resource, not a commodity.” 

David, a public utilities promoter (who also happens to be a PG&E employee and Union member but was not speaking in that capacity) also noted that any movement to re-regulate the industry and bring it under public authority would require cooperation and support of the workers. “The public power movement must realize that the companies and workers are not the same thing,” he said. 

Speakers also made calls for municipal power authorities to regulate power locally and move toward forms of energy such as hydro-electric power and solar power and away from fossil fuels they said were environmentally harmful.  

To create a context of the current state of affairs, experts reviewed the history and functioning of California utilities to provide some explanation of the recent crisis. Dale Nesbit, former engineer for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, described how the fluctuation in power usage throughout the day makes electricity an ill-suited private commodity. He said that electricity must “be produced instantaneously as it gets used,” because it cannot get stored. That means that as energy consumption fluctuates at different times of the day – more during working hours than sleeping hours, for example – companies must provide more energy, which may mean using another power plant. However, purchasing a power plant to provide energy for only part of the day is not profitable. Instead, companies produce less electricity themselves and purchase the electricity needed at peak periods on an open market, where it can cost many times more than it would from a local power producer.  

Keith Carson, Alameda county supervisor, placed the power crisis within the larger context of California. “Today’s energy crisis is indicative of the challenges we’re going to face in years to come,” he said. Without mentioning the demographic shifts that are part of the population changes in California, he also told the all-white audience that they needed to outreach to African-American, Asian-American, and youth communities to expand their movement. He noted that the impact of utility costs disproportionately impact low-income communities. 

The event was organized by the Social Action committee of the Unitarian Universalists. 


Musicians seek change for PG&E

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday February 06, 2001

While UC profs are proffering manifestoes to solve California’s energy crisis and Berkeley radicals are rallying for a state takeover of the gas and electric industries, a few locals, calling themselves Public Utility Kinship Exhibition (PUKE) decided to take matters into their own hands Monday.  

With an ironing board laden with goodies, they held a bake sale for PG&E outside its offices at Center Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

“Spare change for PG&E; any amount will help,” Carol Denney, on squeeze box, called out between songs. 

Jim Nelson, on banjo, echoed her appeal. 

Patricia Davis had just paid her electric bill. Emerging from the PG&E office she grinned at Denney and Nelson – and at Richard List whose square head covering was adorned with light bulbs.  

“Sorry,” Davis said. “I just gave them all my money.”  

“But they have special needs,” Denney responded. “You need to open your heart.”


Global chip market tops $200 billion

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

SAN JOSE — Driven by the expansion of the Internet and demand for communications equipment, worldwide sales of semiconductors topped $200 billion in 2000, an industry group said Monday. 

The record-setting sales, however, were not expected to carry over into 2001 as the economy continues to slow and manufacturers report an excess of inventory, the Semiconductor Industry Association said. 

December sales were $17.9 billion, a 21.6 percent increase over 1999 but a 2.1 percent drop from November. The group said its 2001 forecast of 22 percent year-over-year growth probably will not be met. 

In 2000, the chip industry saw growth in all markets and in all parts of the world, the group reported. In all, sales increased 37 percent over 1999. 

“This was a very exciting year for our industry and reaching an all-time record high in sales of $204 billion is a great way to close the books for year 2000,” said George Scalise, SIA president. 

Flash memory, logic, analog, optoelectronics and programmable logic devices were expected to lead growth in the market as they are in demand for everything from Internet infrastructure components to digital cameras. 

Sales of flash memory, which is used in cellular phones, MP3 players and digital cameras, totaled $10.6 billion, a 133.2 percent increase in 2000. Laser devices and image sensors that make up the optoelectronic market increased 69.7 percent for a total of $9.8 billion. 

Memory chips known as DRAM grew 39.5 percent, with $28.9 billion in sales. Microprocessor sales were $31.9 billion, a 17.2 percent jump in 2000. 

Japan and the Asian Pacific markets led sales in 2000, with growth at 42.4 percent and 37.9 percent, respectively. The Americas saw 34.9 percent growth in 2000, driven by the Internet and communications. European sales grew by 32.7 percent. 

On the Net: 

Semiconductor Industry Association: http://www.semichips.org/ 


Volunteers react to news of Xiana Fairchild’s death

Staff
Tuesday February 06, 2001

The Associated Press 

 

VALLEJO — With a 7-year-old girl confirmed dead after more than a year of hope for her safe return, volunteers and authorities are seeking justice for those responsible for the crime. 

The death of Xiana Fairchild, missing since Dec. 9, 1999, was confirmed Saturday at a Santa Clara County Sheriff’s department news conference. The DNA test results on a child’s skull found in the Santa Cruz Mountains confirmed the bone fragments belonged to Fairchild. 

The medical examiner’s report indicated Fairchild was killed. Volunteers who searched tirelessly for Fairchild over the past year want someone held accountable. 

“I really wanted her home alive,” said Deena May, a volunteer who spent nearly every Saturday searching for Fairchild, a child she never knew.  

“Until I know why, it’s not going to sink in. It still feels like she’s missing.” 

Sheriff’s investigators combed the Santa Cruz Mountains for the rest of Fairchild’s remains over the weekend.  

Authorities took with them Curtis Dean Anderson, an alleged child molester who has said he took Fairchild and later passed her off – alive – to other individuals. 

Anderson is currently in jail on charges he kidnapped and sexually assaulted an 8-year-old Vallejo girl last year. Anderson reportedly pointed out a steep area for investigators to search Sunday. 

Police would not comment on whether Anderson’s information was any help, and denied reports they were planning to charge him in Fairchild’s disappearance. 

“We have no evidence to link Curtis Dean Anderson to Xiana Fairchild,” said Mark Eastus, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department.  

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t a cloud of suspicion. But we have no evidence to link him to the case.” 

The search for more bones and evidence was suspended Monday with no further discoveries. 

Vallejo police said the identification of the skull as Fairchild’s creates no new suspects, but among those under suspicion in Fairchild’s disappearance are her mother, Antoinette Robinson, and Robinson’s boyfriend, Robert Turnbough. 

Turnbough initially told police he had left the girl at a bus stop, but later changed his story to say she walked alone to catch the bus.  

Vallejo police never labeled Turnbough a suspect, but did say he had been under “a cloud of suspicion” because of his conflicting tales. 

“From the very day that Xiana disappeared we got conflicting stories from her mother and her mother’s boyfriend,” said Vallejo police chief Robert Nichelini.


Woman gets life for killing sister

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

OAKLAND — A woman who impersonated her sister in public after stuffing her dismembered body in a freezer was sentenced Monday to life without parole, and barred from profiting from the crime. 

Sarah Mitchell, 50, of Oakland, was found guilty Nov. 21 of murdering her sister, Stevie Allman, 52, an anti-drug crusader. 

Prosecutors said Mitchell had planned to impersonate her sister to withdraw money from her trust accounts. 

In December, an Alameda County jury recommended life without parole. Prosecutors had requested the death penalty.  

The judge Monday agreed with the jury and barred Mitchell from profiting from the murder. 

“We’re disappointed that the jury found her guilty,” said Albert Wax, Mitchell’s attorney, who promised to appeal. “We believe some jurors did have some lingering doubt that contributed to why the death penalty was not imposed.” 

Mitchell began posing as Allman in the summer of 1997. They shared a home, and when that burned down, Mitchell claimed they had been the victims of a firebombing. She blamed it on disgruntled drug dealers.  

Then-Gov. Pete Wilson offered a $50,000 reward for information in the case. 

Police soon discovered Allman was really Mitchell, but not until she had fooled others and received $3,600 in sympathy checks. 

Then, on July 16 of that year, police found Allman’s body.  

She had been murdered, dismembered and stuffed into a freezer sealed with duct tape in the ruins of her home.


Canadian students take credit for Golden Gate Bridge stunt

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — Blame Canada. 

Engineering students at the University of British Columbia said Monday they were responsible for tethering the shell of an old Volkswagen Beetle to the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge and then tossing it over the side. 

The stunt backed up rush-hour traffic as gawkers slowed to look at the dangling car. 

“It’s Engineering Week at the university,” said Chad Brown, 22, a senior mechanical engineering student, in a telephone interview. “The whole premise was to increase interest in engineering, specifically in engineering at the University of British Columbia.” 

The car was cut loose at about 8:10 a.m. by the Golden Gate Bridge District, and it quickly sank as U.S. Coast Guard crews kept the area under the bridge clear. 

Mary Currie, a spokeswoman for the Bridge District, said two workers crawled underneath the roadway and cut the webbing supporting the car with a knife. 

“The cable was attached to 2-inch-wide nylon webbing” at two points under the bridge roadway, said Currie, who added that the car “sank like a rock” after it was cut loose. 

The distance from the roadway to the water is approximately 220 feet, and the car dangled approximately 100 feet above the water. 

With the sounds of a party in the background as he was being interviewed, Brown said about a dozen people took part in the early-morning stunt.  

He said they carefully worked out the project so the bridge would not be damaged and the car wouldn’t injure anyone on the water. 

“Every year the engineering undergrads have a thing they call E Week,” said Bruce Dunwoody, associate dean for engineering student services at the university. 

“During E Week, often there have been VW Beetles hanging from various places in Vancouver, bridges, buildings.” 

Dunwoody said it was possible the university would take some action against the students, if they could be identified. 

The stunt marked the 20th anniversary of a similar incident on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Why the Golden Gate Bridge? 

“The more international the stunt, the better the press coverage,” Brown said. 

As the sun rose, a blurry televised view of the shell of the old-style red VW could be seen dangling from cables. Witnesses said an “E” and a Canadian flag were painted on the side. 

But if the pranksters were looking for publicity, they picked a bad day. The entire time the car dangled from the bridge, the scene was shrouded in thick fog. 

Witnesses told the California Highway Patrol they saw a truck stop on the bridge at about 3:30 a.m. About a dozen people jumped out, attached the cables and threw the car over the side before jumping back in the truck and driving off, the witnesses said. 

The car was attached on the northbound, non-commute side, but southbound drivers watching the activity slowed traffic heading for San Francisco. 

Currie said the Highway Patrol will lead the investigation into the prank, which could be punishable by fines and community service penalties.  

The penalties for such pranks increased following a 1996 episode in which actor Woody Harrelson and several other activists climbed one of the bridge’s cables to protest forest logging. 

Brown wouldn’t identify the group involved or say when they were expected back. 

“They still have to get across the border, you know,” he said.


Reagan turns 90; faces broken hip and Alzheimer’s

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

LOS ANGELES — A dozen years after leaving the White House and looking forward to sunset years chopping wood and riding horses, Ronald Reagan celebrates his 90th birthday as a recluse battling old age with Alzheimer’s disease and a broken hip. 

Reagan’s birthday Tuesday will be a subdued celebration at his Bel-Air home, where he is recovering from surgery to repair the hip broken Jan. 12 in a fall. 

“We will celebrate Ronnie’s 90th birthday very quietly here at home with a birthday cake (likely his favorite chocolate), of course!” Mrs. Reagan said in a written response to questions e-mailed to her by The Associated Press. 

Reagan is only one of three presidents to reach his 90th birthday – John Adams and Herbert Hoover are the others. Yet, the nation’s 40th president looks much like he did when the actor-politician returned to his beloved California. 

“He looks fine. I mean, you know, his skin, and he’s got a full head of hair. ... I mean, when the barber comes to cut his hair, he has to thin it!” Mrs. Reagan told Larry King for CNN’s “Larry King Live” show scheduled Tuesday. 

Reagan basked in the glory of retirement for six years, then learned he had Alzheimer’s. He became a recluse under the consummate protection of his wife. 

“Everywhere we go, she makes the world a little better. I can’t imagine life without her,” Reagan often said of Nancy. The couple’s 49th wedding anniversary is March 4, when Mrs. Reagan will christen the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. 

“Today we received a very large birthday card with a big picture of the entire crew and officers of the new aircraft carrier that’s being named after Ronnie, and they all signed it for him,” Mrs. Reagan told the AP. 

Mrs. Reagan has vigilantly guarded her husband’s privacy since he withdrew from public view on Nov. 5, 1994, with a poignant letter about his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. 

“I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience,” he wrote. 

God, prayer, friends and well-wishers worldwide have given her strength, Mrs. Reagan said. The world remembered the Great Communicator when he broke his hip: More than 10,000 cards, letters and e-mail wishes were sent. 

“With that kind of support and so many prayers, we’re able to get through this ordeal one day at a time,” she said.  

“Also, I’ve been blessed with an irreplaceable support system of doctors, nurses, staff and Secret Service agents. I don’t know what I would do without them.” 

One close friend, Merv Griffin, fondly remembers past Reagan birthdays. 

“Ronnie’s birthday was always the fun event of the year – sometimes at the ranch with cowboy clothes and the horses milling around, sometimes at Chasen’s (restaurant) with the Washington leadership,” Griffin said. 

“But always his acknowledgment of his birthday was the same. This year it would have been, ’Thank you for acknowledging the 51st anniversary of my 39th birthday,”’ Griffin said. 

Reagan has endured medical crises before: An assassination attempt, cancer, brain surgery, Alzheimer’s disease and now a broken hip. 

“I was really frightened,” Mrs. Reagan said. “I had never imagined anything else happening to him after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. I couldn’t get him to the emergency room fast enough.” 

She scoffed at a recent supermarket tabloid report claiming the president fell when he tried to stand and salute after hearing a gardener whistling “America the Beautiful.” 

“The story about Ronnie saluting right before he fell is ridiculous,” Mrs. Reagan said. “The doctors tell me that his hip appears to have broken when he put weight on the leg in a somewhat twisted position and this is what caused him to fall.” 

A pin, plate and screws were used to repair the hip and he was able to go home a week after surgery. 

“Right now he is involved in simple physical therapy that has him sitting up twice a day in a special orthopedic chair that helps to keep his leg straight,” Mrs. Reagan said. “He has been sitting in it longer each day and the doctors and physical therapists are encouraged that this is giving him the strength to begin with weight-bearing therapy in the next seven to 10 days. 

“He has a healthy appetite, his color has completely returned to normal and he’s even sleeping better.” 

The Reagans have helped others understand and cope with Alzheimer’s. 

Danny Chun, a spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Association said they were grateful for the couple’s “extraordinary courage in continuing to share their story with the world, building awareness, lifting the stigma of Alzheimer’s and showing families that they are not alone.” 

Fourteen million of today’s baby boomers are expected to have Alzheimer’s by the middle of the century, the association said. 

“It’s very age-related,” said Stephen McConnell, the association’s vice president of programs and public policy. “Between ages 65 and 74, it hits about 1 to 2 percent. For people over 85, it’s about half the population.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.reaganfoundation.org 

http://www.alz.org 


Gov. Davis seizes PG&E contracts

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

SACRAMENTO — Seeking to stabilize California’s wild energy market, the governor Monday pursued the first of $10 billion in state power-buying agreements and seized millions of dollars in utility electricity contracts. 

Gov. Gray Davis used emergency authority to claim at least $150 million in Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power contracts, just before they would have been taken by one of the utility’s creditors. 

The PG&E options to buy long-term power were held as collateral by the California Power Exchange, the state’s electricity marketplace. PG&E defaulted on payments to the exchange, and the PX wanted to sell the contracts. 

Long-term contracts provide power far more cheaply than purchases on the spot electricity market.  

Davis signed a $10 billion measure last week that lets the state sign agreements for up to a decade to buy power for customers of PG&E and Southern California Edison, both denied credit by suppliers. 

Edison and PG&E, the state’s two largest utilities, say they have lost $12.7 billion since June due to high wholesale electricity costs that the state’s 1996 deregulation law blocks them from passing onto consumers. 

The Davis administration will reimburse the Power Exchange for the PG&E contracts, Deputy Attorney General Ken Alex said. A price was under negotiation. 

Davis on Friday used the same authority – granted under a state of emergency he declared last month – to seize about $300 million in Edison contracts.  

The exchange wanted to sell them after the utility defaulted on a $215 million payment. 

The PX last month barred the financially ailing utilities from trading on it unless they posted new collateral. 

As of Monday, PG&E owed about $1.34 billion to the exchange, suppliers and the Independent System Operator, keeper of the state’s power grid, according to PG&E spokesman Jon Tremayne. 

A San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order last week blocking the exchange from selling the contracts to give Davis time to decide if he wanted them. Davis took the contracts just before a Monday morning hearing on the restraining order. 

The governor’s action came as his administration neared Davis’ self-imposed deadline of the close of business Monday to finalize the first long-term contracts authorized by a $10 billion law he signed last week. 

The new law lets the state spend up to $500 million on the costly spot market to keep the lights on for Edison and PG&E customers in the meantime. California spent more than $500 million since mid-January buying power day-to-day as lawmakers worked on the legislation. 

California’s energy problems – driven by high wholesale prices, high demand, a tight supply and transmission glitches – are expected to persist through the summer. 

A federal order requiring electricity suppliers to sell to the state despite concern about utility solvency expires at midnight Tuesday, and Davis has said he doesn’t expect it to be extended. 

In preparation for the order’s expiration, the ISO sent letters to about 140 generators, asking them to confirm that they will continue to sell power to the state. 

The letter sparked numerous complaints and one lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., by Reliant Energy Corp. The supplier contends it shouldn’t have to bear the cost of California’s energy crisis. 

“Negotiations are continuing regarding what’s going to happen when the order expires,” ISO spokeswoman Lorie O’Donley said. 

Meanwhile, California entered its fourth straight week under a Stage 3 power alert, with electricity reserves at risk of falling to 1.5 percent. No blackouts were expected, however. 

Reserves were tight in part because of a weekend fire at the San Onofre nuclear plant that took 1,100 megawatts off the grid. One megawatt is enough to serve roughly 1,000 homes. 

Plants capable of producing a total of 8,700 megawatts of power were out of service Monday, ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson said.


Bush to let emergency electricity-sales order expire on schedule

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

WASHINGTON — Standing by his word, President Bush will allow a federal order to expire Tuesday that required wholesale electricity companies to sell to California’s cash-strapped utilities, Bush’s spokesman said. 

The agency that manages California’s troubled power grid was surveying major suppliers to see what power they will have available on the wholesale market when the order ends, a spokeswoman for the agency said. 

Asked about the emergency directive that the Bush administration extended Jan. 23 for two weeks, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Monday: “It shall expire tomorrow.” 

California lawmakers last week approved a $10 billion long-term plan to ease the state’s power crunch. The state will sell bonds to buy electricity giving time for the state’s two near-bankrupt private utilities to come up with their own recovery plan. 

But even as Gov. Gray Davis and state lawmakers celebrated the agreement, the state remained under a power emergency with electricity supply margins so small during the weekend and into Monday that sporadic blackouts were possible. 

Officials at the California Independent System Operator, the agency that manages the state’s electricity grid, were uncertain whether they would have enough power after the federal directive expires Tuesday. 

In mid-December, the Clinton administration declared an energy emergency in California and directed that suppliers continue to sell to the state’s nearly broke utilities – Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric – even though for some time they had been unable to pay for their purchases, amassing debts that now have reached $12.8 billion. 

On Jan. 23, Bush extended the order, but made clear through spokesmen and his energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, that the power order would not be prolonged further. 

Fleischer noted Monday the directive has been sharply criticized by utilities and officials in other Western states who worry about electricity shortages of their own. 

The order “has implications for the region as a whole,” said Fleischer. 

Among those most critical of the federal directive have been utility and government officials in the Northwest, where electricity prices have soared because of the tight wholesale market caused by California’s demands. In Tacoma, Wash., the utility recently imposed a 50 percent rate hike for its customers to try to pay for higher wholesale costs. 

Major suppliers of power were not committing themselves one way or the other. 

“I don’t know what we will do,” said Richard Wheatley, a spokesman for Houston-based Reliant Energy, a major wholesale supplier with five generating plants in California. 

“We’re encouraged by the recent progress in California,” said Wheatley. “But the credit worthiness of SoCal and PG&E and their ability to pay for past power purchases remains very much in question.” 

Pressed on whether Reliant would continued to sell to the utilities, Wheatley said, “We’re going to continue to sell power to creditworthy buyers.” 

Reliant filed a lawsuit last week, challenging a directive from the California ISO that demanded power suppliers confirm that they planned to continue selling electricity in the California market. Reliant argues in the suit, which has yet to be heard, that the power agency lacks authority to make such a demand. 

Meanwhile, the chairman of a House Commerce subcommittee on energy became the latest in a slew of Republican lawmakers who have chided California for not building power plants and expecting low power rates. 

“We want to work with California, but California has to work with the rest of the country,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, during a speech at a conference of the American Public Power Association. 

He said California officials have an obligation to review environmental restrictions that inhibit power production, construction of new power plants and transmission lines. Like Bush, Barton rejected federal controls on wholesale prices, arguing that price regulation would lead to greater shortages. 

The APPA, which represents public power agencies around the country including large ones in the Northwest and in California, passed a resolution calling for the federal government to temporarily regulate wholesale prices until California’s power market problems are resolved. 

——— 

On the Net: 

California Independent System Operator: http://www.caiso.com/ 

California page of American Public Power Association: http://www.appanet.org/general/pressroom/california.htm 

Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov 


Kafka-based fable is a feeble attempt

By John Angell Grant Daily Planet Correspondent
Tuesday February 06, 2001

Walt Disney meets Franz Kafka – sort of – in Michael McClure’s 1979 play “Josephine the Mouse Singer,” which Berkeley’s Last Planet Theater revived Saturday at SomArts in San Francisco, in an unusual musical production that contains a powerful original score by world-renown Bay Area composer Terry Riley. 

“Josephine the Mouse Singer,” based loosely on a story by Franz Kafka, is a fable about the life of an artist. It premiered in the Bay Area in 1979 at the Magic Theater, where McClure was a playwright in residence for several years. 

In Last Planet’s current production, 17 actors are rigged out as mice – all of them wearing prosthetic mouse ears – to tell the story of Josephine the mouse (Tori Hinkle) who sings beautifully, but who has some personal hurdles in her life. 

Most important, Josephine doesn’t want to work a day job scurrying around with the other mice, since she is an artist who needs to save her energy for that higher calling. 

As an artist, Josephine is also annoyed by a former lover named Baby (Cory Bayne) who wants to get conjugal with her, though a conjugal relationship will stifle Josephine’s freedom, just like the day job. 

A group of not-too-bright followers of Josephine meet to consider her dilemma. For a moment they consider revolution against the status quo, but drop that idea. 

Ultimately, Josephine takes revenge against the day job by resolving to work herself to exhaustion. Later, things turn bloody when a cat kills some mice at one of Josephine’s concerts.  

The play, which is a muddled fable, has its minuses, and contains its share of self-conscious claptrap about the identity of an artist. 

For one, Josephine’s complaints about her life and her haughty dismissal of others make her an unsympathetic character, so it’s hard to muster enthusiasm for her dilemma. She also seems much more concerned with her image as an artist, than with her art. 

Only at the end of the play do we see Josephine perform, and it’s hard to tell whether she’s a great artist, or just a delusional nut case. The stupefying effect that she has on unthinking followers who lack all independent judgment, doesn’t necessarily speak well of her ability. 

The characters in this play don’t operate at the top of their intelligences, and the play speaks down to its audience in a patronizing way. 

Additionally, in this very untraditional structure and storyline, much of the play’s action is described off-stage – generally considered a no-no in drama. 

The amazing upside to this production is Terry Riley’s powerful new musical score. Director John Wilkins’ unusual staging has elicited good performances from many of the actors. 

Riley’s synthesizer composition includes sounds of piano, guitar, and larger orchestral combinations. 

Riley and Wilkins have skillfully integrated the musical track into the movement of the story, so that it becomes a storytelling vehicle like the best of movie soundtracks. The music is actually able to push the narrative of the show forward, especially in scenes where there is no dialogue spoken. 

The evening’s peak scene, near the play’s end where Josephine finally sings, is the production’s strongest scene – and carried principally by Riley’s magical music. 

California composer Riley is probably best known for his classic 1964 album "In C." A minimalist composer with an international reputation, over the last 40 years he has worked with the Kronos Quartet, Rova Saxophone Quartet and many prominent rock and avant garde musicians. 

Standout performers in Last Planet’s show include Hinkle in the lead as Josephine, Cody Bayne as her lover Baby, Matt Leshinskie as the Narrator, and Robert Avila as the mouse Dad. One of the show’s most striking visual moments occurs when a hoard of mice demolish a 15-foot cake, piece by piece. 

Last Planet must improve the look of its productions by getting rid of the raggedy-looking drapes hung around the theater that have been featured in its last three shows. These ugly jerry-rigged curtains give Last Planet productions the feel of a low-budget high school play from the 1950s. The company must find a new set design concept. 

In 1999, Last Planet Theater produced a four-play Wallace Shawn festival at Berkeley’s Julia Morgan Center.


Parents can earn big tax break

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

WASHINGTON — The unbridled joy of children extends into to the federal tax code, where parents can qualify for breaks for education expenses and student loans, adoption costs and even for simply having a child at all. 

The rules can be tricky, however, and complex family relationships like divorce can raise a whole set of complications. 

For instance, the $500 per-child tax credit applies to every child who was age 17 or under at the end of calendar year 2000.  

But that amount begins to phase out for married people filing jointly with more than $110,000 in adjusted gross income and above $75,000 for single filers, according to the Internal Revenue Service 

Similarly, each child claimed as a dependent translates into a $2,800 exemption.  

But there are special rules for divorced parents, which generally give the exemption to the parent who has custody for most of the year – unless that parent chooses to relinquish the exemption. Form 8332 can be used to give up the claim. 

A person can’t be claimed as a dependent if he or she earns more than $2,800 in income, unless that person is 19 or younger at the end of the tax year.  

Students must have full-time status for at least five months and be under 24 at year’s end. 

Even if these tests are met, high-income taxpayers can lose some of the dependent tax benefits if their incomes exceed $193,400 for a married couple filing jointly, $128,950 for singles. 

A reminder: the IRS requires that Social Security numbers be listed on Form 1040 for every dependent claimed as an exemption. 

Other important tax benefits for children: 

• A tax credit up to $5,000 can be claimed for the costs of adopting a child, $6,000 for adopting a special needs child. Examples of these expenses, according to the IRS, are court costs, adoption fees, travel expenses and attorney fees.  

These credits are phased out above certain income levels and there are timing rules regarding when they can be claimed. IRS Publication 968 spells it all out. 

• There is a new definition for foster children to qualify for either the $500 child tax credit or the earned income tax credit. The child must now be the taxpayer’s sibling, stepsibling or a descendent of one of these, or have been placed with the taxpayer by an authorized placement agency. 

In the past, the child simply had to live with the taxpayer for the entire year and had to receive care as if the child were the taxpayer’s own. Now, all three definitions apply. 

• Up to $2,000 of student loan interest can be deducted this year, up from $1,500 in 1999. But the deduction isn’t available for taxpayers with incomes above $75,000 for married couples filing jointly and above $55,000 for singles. 

• For lower-income families, the number of children determines whether they can claim between $2,353 and $3,888 under the earned income tax credit.  

This credit is refundable, meaning taxpayers can claim it even if they paid no income tax during the year. Publication 596 details this credit, which can be complicated. 

• The Hope Scholarship credit worth up to $1,500 can be claimed for college tuition and fees, but not room and board, for the first two years of school.  

The Lifetime Learning credit of up to $1,000 can also be used for college costs, but not for a student also claiming the Hope credit.  

Income limits apply to these credits; use IRS Form 8863 to claim them. 

• A tax credit of up to 30 percent of expenses is available for child and dependent care expenses necessary for a parents who work or are looking for work. The child has to be under age 13 at the end of the tax year. IRS Publication 503 has the details.  

For people who hire someone to care for children in the home, Publication 926 goes over an employer’s tax responsibilities. 

Look for more tax information on the Berkeley Daily Planet’s business page for the rest of the week.


Sunshine basketball

Jon Mays/Daily Planet
Monday February 05, 2001

A group of Berkeley residents and students at UC Berkeley took advantage of yesterday’s warm weather and played a series of pick-up basketball games at People’s Park. Although people across the Bay Area broke out shirt-sleeves and shorts this weekend, the National Weather Service promises cooler weather for the next few days, beginning this afternoon. Winds should pick up to 15 mph by 4:00 p.m. and temperatures are predicted to the  

mid-30s tonight. Throughout the week, the weather service predicts cooler and breezier conditions and possible showers by next weekend.


Calendar of Events & Activities

Staff
Monday February 05, 2001


Monday, Feb. 5

 

Youth Commission  

6 p.m. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Center 

1730 Oregon St.  

 

Rent Stabalization Board 

7 p.m. 

2134 MLK Jr. Way 

Second Floor Council Chamber 

 

Personnel Board Meeting  

7 p.m. 

Permit Center 

2118 Milvia St.  

First Floor Conference Room  

 

Landmarks Preservation Commission  

7:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

Will consider 1301 Oxford St. among other items. 

 

Peace & Justice Commission  

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way) 

 


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 527-5332  

 

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 

 

Free! Early Music Group  

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A small group who sing madrigals and other voice harmonies. Their objective: To enjoy making music and building musical skills.  

Call Ann 655-8863 or e-mail: ann@integratedarts.org 

 


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 

 

Legacy to Liberation  

7 p.m. 

Revolution Books  

2425 Channing Way  

A roundtable discussion by contributors to the recently published anthology “Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America.” Contributors include Richard Aoki, Yuri Kockiyama, Sun Lee and Dolly Veale.  

$2 donation  

848-1196 

 


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 

 

Great Mt. Diablo Day Hikes 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Ken Lavin, former president of Mt. Diablo Interpretative Association, for a slide-show of his favorite day hikes in Mt. Diablo State Park.  

Call 527-7377  

 

Jam Session  

7 p.m. 

Maurice’s Cafe 

6038 Telegraph 

Oakland 

Poetry with jazz featuring Jimmy Sands.  

Call 653-6775 

Exploring Surfaces  

7 - 9 p.m. 

Hillside Community Church  

1422 Navellier St.  

El Cerrito 

A series of Thursday evenings of conversation “engaging people in discovering the pleasures of an excellent discussion.” Transverse the world’s ecological regions, describing what you know and what you’ve heard. 

$10  

 


Friday, Feb. 9

 

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  

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 

 

Introducing: Julia Morgan  

School for Girls 

7:30 - 8:30 a.m. 

Julia Morgan School for Girls 

Holy Names College 

Sky Room, Durocher Hall 

3510 Mountain Blvd.  

Oakland 

A select gathering of business and professional women devoted to fostering leadership in the young girls in our community.  

 


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


Letters to the Editor

Monday February 05, 2001

The sickening smell of beer in northwest  

Berkeley does little to improve the neighborhood 

 

Editor: 

 

Today's a warmer day, sunny, lovely; except that when I go out to enjoy the yard, or for a walk, or if I open a window I get the sickening, penetrating blast of smell from the breweries in northwest Berkeley. I've been trying to figure out what to do about that for about three years, now, ever since some care LESS paper signing permitted them. Now, no one knows what can be done about it, except to ask them nicely not to do it. So far that hasn't worked. 

While they've lessened some of the smell, it still pervades one's days. As part of our dis-united-ness, and that most people seem not to be around during the time of the smell, or most people don't come out of houses closed up like cocoons for reason of one reasonable fear or other, the few of us who at least feel abused by the smell, have no further recourse. I wonder whether people who buy into this neighborhood at $300,000 to $400,000 a pop will begin to wonder why it wasn't disclosed to them that an irritant exists here. 

Or, I suppose they'll be away at work needing to work huge hours at all-consuming jobs to pay those mortgages. 

 

Norma J F Harrison 

Berkeley


USC ends Cal’s hot streak

The Associated Press
Monday February 05, 2001

Jeff Trepagnier’s return to Southern California’s lineup has given the Trojans’ offense a big lift. But it was his defense that made the difference against California. 

Trepagnier recorded his first double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and he also made five steals and keyed a defense that forced the Bears into 21 turnovers as the 21st-ranked Trojans rolled to an 80-66 victory Saturday night. 

“It’s nice to have Jeff back,” said USC coach Mike Bibby. “Each game he’s getting a little better at not forcing turnovers and letting the things come to him.” 

Trepagnier missed the first three games of the season with a hairline fracture in his left foot then served a nine-game suspension for violating athletic department rules. 

Trepagnier, in just his eighth game of the season, shut down California guards Shantay Legans and Donte Smith. 

“I just had to get in where I fit in,” Trepagnier said. “I couldn’t just come in and try to force things.” 

Legans scored 15 points for the Bears but sat out almost 12 minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul against Trepagnier at the 14-minute mark. Legan’s backup, Smith, missed all five of his shots and committed three turnovers. 

Sean Lampley matched his career high with 29 points to lead California, which lost at home for the first time this season. The Bears (15-6, 6-3 Pac-10) had won their first 11 games at Haas Pavilion this year, and 14 consecutive dating to last season. 

Lampley was the only California player who didn’t struggle against USC, which was coming off a 77-71 loss to top-ranked Stanford on Thursday — a game the Trojans led by seven at one stretch. 

Against the Bears, USC (16-5, 6-3) had no such letdown. 

The Trojans, led by Sam Clancy’s 25 points, jumped to an early lead and never looked back, recording 12 steals and forcing the Bears into 21 turnovers. 

The Trojans led 39-27 at halftime then broke the game open with an 18-3 run to start the second half. 

Center Brian Scalabrine scored 15 points for the Trojans and moved into ninth place on USC’s career scoring list. He needs just 62 points to move past Gus Williams into eighth place. 

Lampley said California’s problem was that it hadn’t gotten over beating UCLA 92-63 on Thursday. 

“The whole thing was we were satisfied with the win against UCLA and came out thinking (USC) was going to lay down and die,” said Lampley, who had 16 points in the first half. “To me, this is one of the best teams we’ve played. This team is a good team. They played ball tonight.” 

Bears coach Ben Braun agreed. 

“Any time you have a hint of complacency, just a hint, that’s the result of what happens,” Braun said. “Our players clearly didn’t have that urgency early and when we tried to pick it up it was too late.”


City Council considers power help for the poor

By John Geluardi Daily Planet Staff
Monday February 05, 2001

Utility Allowance may jump to between 25 and 40 percent for Section 8 recipients 

 

The Berkeley Housing Authority will consider raising the utility allowance for Section 8 and public housing families at its meeting Tuesday Feb. 6. 

There are 1,400 units of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 housing and another 75 units of public housing in Berkeley that pay 30 percent of family income for rent and utilities.City Manager Weldon Rucker has recommended the BHA increase the utility allowance for these families because they are the most vulnerable in the current energy crisis that has caused increases in gas and electricity rates. 

The BHA is required by federal law to maintain a utility allowance for its rental housing subsidies, according to the written recommendation. The regulations also require the BHA to review the allowance each year and increase or decrease it according to utility costs. 

The raise in the utility allowance will be between 25 and 40 percent, according to the written recommendation. The allowance will be increased according to whether the house or apartment uses electric of gas appliances. 

The rough estimate for two bedroom apartments is a monthly increase from $80 to $100, according to Director of Housing Stephen Barton. 


Forney’s layup gives Bears a big victory

Daily Planet Wire Services
Monday February 05, 2001

Cal women beat UCLA to end SoCal road trip 

 

The Cal women’s basketball team won in thrilling fashion, 58-57, over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday. Cal forward Ami Forney scored on a layup after taking an inbounds pass from Courtney Johnson under the Golden Bear basket with 3.5 seconds on the clock to provide the visitors with the winning margin.  

UCLA’s Kristee Porter misfired on a running shot from just outside the Bruin free throw line as the final buzzer sounded.  

Cal built a 32-21 halftime advantage after holding the Bruins to just two points over the final 4:08 of the period, while breaking a 19-all tie with a 13-2 run.  

In the second half, the Golden Bears upped their margin to 38-23 with16:17 to play on a basket by guard Kenya Corley. UCLA stepped up its defense and held Cal scoreless for almost six minutes, until 10:33 remained on the clock, and narrowed the margin to 38-36 on a layin by center Malika Leatham.  

The Bruin momentum helped them to take their biggest lead of the game at 47-42, with 5:51 on the clock. Corley then hit a three-point shot for Cal to break the ice and narrow the gap to 47-45.  

After the teams tied at 47-all with 4:52 to play, there were seven lead changes down the stretch. Brook Coulter’s three-point shot for Cal put the Bears ahead 56-54 with 59 seconds to play. UCLA’s Michelle Greco answered by hitting a pair of free throws at the 35 second mark to tie the game at 56.  

Natalie Nakase forced a Bear turnover on the next possession and was fouled with 20 seconds on the clock. Nakase made the first attempt but missed the second of the two-shot bonus situation, and Cal grabbed the rebound for a final chance at a win.  

The Bears failed to connect on an outside shot on the following possession, but managed to get the rebound. Their attempt at a follow shot was blocked out of bounds by UCLA’s Whitney Jones with five seconds on the clock, setting the stage for Forney’s game-winner.  

Greco led UCLA, now 3-17, 2-7, with 18 points for the game. Corley paced Cal with a game-high 25 points.


Berkeley doctor on call for philanthropy

By Mary Barrett Special to the Daily Planet
Monday February 05, 2001

Dr. Davida Coady lives in the home her family bought, in 1965, high in the Berkeley hills. A lemon tree laden with fruit graces the front window, birds cruise a painted bird house and a piano stands ready. It is a place full of light and calm where one could escape the world. Instead the visitor is led straight into the heart of what matters. 

Coady is on the phone arranging delivery of a donated stove to a “shelter plus care” home she’s just opening in Oakland. Her gigantic coffee table is piled high with envelopes stamped “San Carlos Foundation.” A glossy of Martin Sheen, bright eyed and presidential, has been reproduced for a fund-raising mailing. She has just returned from Bangladesh, where she traveled as a medical consultant and now, as always, she has no time to lose. The fund raiser is scheduled for February 10, yet hundreds of details must be pinned down. There is no doubt that they will be, but even Coady is beginning to feel stretched. 

Coady has, in spades, what many of us are searching for — an unflagging sense of purpose. And if one devotion isn’t all consuming, she directs her intense energies to another. She embodies the concept that one person can make a difference. Then she reaches out to others and incorporates them in her plans, to make an even bigger difference.  

Trained as a doctor at Columbia Medical School and Harvard’s School of Public Health, her interest in pediatrics and nutrition has led her to a life long involvement with world wide health issues. When she was not yet 30, Coady traveled to Biafra to offer help for famine relief. Stunned by the “lines and lines of starving people,” she testified before the U.S. Congress underscoring the need for immediate help. Years later, in Thailand, she witnessed a bus of 30 refugees arriving from Cambodia — 28 of whom were already dead. 

Despite desperate conditions, Coady continues to consult  

with dozens and dozens of international agencies and has used her expertise to relieve people’s suffering, especially children’s.  

“I’m most interested in training village health workers,” she said. 

Coady serves as a consultant to countries sunk in war. In fact, she was so deeply involved in Central America during its war that she was accused of smuggling drugs. Ironically, she admits she was — the drugs were burn ointments and antibiotics she housed in her garage and shipped to people in “sanctuary” protection. 

Coady believes health is a right, not a privilege. While teaching at UCLA’s medical school, she urged students to get involved with the poor to become more compassionate doctors. 

Hollywood people came to her for medical information about international travel. Martin Sheen sought her advice when he and his family were going to Nairobi and she was on her way to Uganda. Sheen was profoundly interested in her work and contributed the money from his role in the film “Gandhi” to Coady’s group. 

After Archbishop Romero was killed in El Salvador, Coady set up a health program in the Honduran camps for El Salvadorian refugees. In 1984, she and Sheen set up their own foundation. It was during Reagan’s presidency and they had to be careful as, she said, “things were kind of dicey.”  

They gave it what they considered a fairly establishment name, San Carlos, which was actually the name of the street in El Cerrito where Coady lived. They researched St. Charles to make sure he didn’t do anything contrary to their beliefs. (St. Charles in fact was a wealthy man devoted to the poor. The rich, however, hated him because he made them feel selfish.) Coady said it puzzled her that the Nicaraguans they worked with always liked the name San Carlos until she discovered they thought it was a code name for Karl Marx. 

The non-profit San Carlos Foundation has no paid staff. All money raised goes straight to volunteers in Central America and the Caribbean who provide health and educational assistance to refugees and others living in extreme poverty. Since its inception, The San Carlos Foundation has supported over 96 volunteers including doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers and teachers.  

Grants of $6,000 a year are awarded to people like Ann Hastings, who created an Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor in Haiti, and Nancy McGirr, a photographer from San Francisco. McGirr teaches photography to children in Guatemala. Together they published a book called “Out of the Dump,” full of stories and photos the children created. Another volunteer, Kurt Miron, a mechanic who can fix anything, loaded his back pack with tools and wandered from village to village in Guatemala teaching people to fix everything from corn grinders to bikes and trucks. 

Coady has an upbeat faith in her ability to affect change and she takes her ideas dead seriously. The full weight of her intelligence, stamina and drive stands behind her ideas. As she turned 56, though, she realized how strongly she wanted to contribute right here in Berkeley. She looked around for a “piece that was missing” and founded Options. 

While “moonlighting” at Children’s Hospital to support her trips consulting, she saw many abused children. During that time, she saw that parent’s addictions were not treated — a significant intervention she felt was missing because those addictions led them to be abusive.  

Over a period of several years, Coady developed a comprehensive program that works with the Berkeley court system to treat alcoholics and drug addicts who are arrested. Options, housed at the Veterans Memorial building across from the Court House in downtown Berkeley, is free and immediately accessible to everybody.  

Options is a daily program that provides a half day recovery program, several Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings weekly as well as Step Stay discussions (12-Step discussions). Options provides nitty-gritty support, too, including driving people to the DMV to get IDs. IDs are required to enter a residential treatment program. Many of the people the courts send to Options have never had IDs of any kind.  

“Less than 10 percent have,” Coady said. “They started drinking at the age of five and six and were never sober enough to get licenses.”  

Options operates on the model of clean and sober, as opposed to the harm reduction model of methadone treatment or “learning to drink in moderation.” It is devoted to hard core “bad” addicts, of whom sixty percent are homeless. The reality Coady experiences in her Options work is that most of the clients make great progress. That motivates her and the Options staff, some of whom are former clients. 

Her deep regard for those who struggle most is obvious when she stops on University Avenue and Milvia Street to talk to a homeless panhandler and invites him to join her at Options. She engages him in conversation, the same man that most pedestrians have walked a wide swath around. She is unable to convince him, but she will try again. Coady is tenacious, a close friend jokes she is like a “fox terrier.” Where others might see impossibilities, she sees endless potential.  

 

Join Davida Coady and Martin Sheen at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St., Berkeley on Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. for a conversation with Martin Sheen — “The West Wing Meets the East Bay.” Call 843-2244 for more information. 


Jackson caps Cal’s ninth-inning comeback

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Monday February 05, 2001

Shaking off a rough third inning and a clutch home run by their opponent, the Cal baseball team scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Santa Clara in the Bears’ home opener at Evans Diamond on Saturday. 

Cal left fielder Curtis Johnson got his only hit of the day, a double down the third base line, to drive in Brian Horowitz to tie the game, then scored on pinch-hitter Noah Jackson’s looping drive that landed just inside the right field line to win the game for the Bears in dramatic fashion. 

The Bears had gone behind in the top of the ninth when Santa Clara third baseman Pat Peavey crushed a two-out drive over the left field wall off of Cal reliever David Cash. Peavey’s clout would have been a two-run homer, but Jack Headley took too wide a turn at first base on his leadoff single, and Cal right fielder Rob Meyer gunned him down heading back to the bag. 

Meyer provided some offensive heroics of his own in the seventh inning, hitting a bomb that landed on top of the Recreational Sports Facility that rises three stories above the left field fence to tie the game at 2-2. 

The Bears were kept in the game by starting pitcher Ryan Atkinson’s outstanding outing. The junior righty gave up just two runs in seven innings, both in the top of the third. Matt Miller hit a double off of Cal third baseman Conor Jackson’s glove, and was driven home by a double by DH Joe Diefenderfer. Headley followed with a scorcher that Bear second baseman Carson White couldn’t handle, and Diefenderfer came around to score. 

Atkinson went on to set down the next 13 Gaels before being pulled in the eighth inning. 

“The key for us today was Ryan Atkinson giving us seven strong innings,” said Cal coach David Esquer. “Santa Clara did a good job of holding us down offensively, and when you do that, you are capable of beating anyone. We did have some guys come off the bench and produce. Brian Horwitz and Noah Jackson got big hits for us, as well as Curtis Johnson getting a key hit and a stolen base.” 

Johnson’s clutch hit was a long time coming, as he left a man on third base in the second inning and two men on base in the fourth. He stole third base after his RBI double, and Santa Clara intentionally walked David Weiner, loading the bases and setting up Jackson’s hit.


UC to study high-tech society with Finnish researchers

Daily Planet Wire Report
Monday February 05, 2001

Researchers from one of the world's most technologically-advanced countries, Finland, and researchers at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) and the University of California, Berkeley, will launch a collaboration to spark new discoveries in computer science, e-commerce, intellectual property rights and the sociology of theinformation society.  

The research agreement, announced Thursday, Feb. 1 at noon, will open the doors for Finnish researchers to spend a year or more in the Berkeley research community engaging in studies to propel innovation in the interest of society.  

“This is the beginning of something that will benefit the research community and society as a whole,” said Nelson Morgan, ICSI director and a UC Berkeley professor. 

The collaboration is being sponsored by the National Technology Agency of Finland (TEKES), a top funding agency for applied research and development in Finland. TEKES and industry giants like Nokia Corp. and Sonera Group, a Finnish telecommunications provider, have led the way in bringing technology to Finnish consumers.  

To continue this tradition of innovation, TEKES sought a partnership with the UC Berkeley-affiliated ICSI, an independent, non-profit basic research organization dedicated to fundamental questions in computer science and engineering. For Finnish researchers, part of their attraction to UC Berkeley was the work of sociology professor Manuel Castells, a renowned expert on the impact of information technology on society. Castells is a UC Berkeley professor of sociology and city and regional planning.  

“This initiative kind of got started because of Castells' interest in the Finnish knowledge society,” said Henri Grundsten, of the TEKES office in San Jose.  

For ICSI and UC Berkeley researchers, the collaboration provides numerous opportunities tolearn how Finnish technologists and entrepreneurs function. “There are lessons to be learnedfrom the way the Scandinavian countries do it,” said J. Richard Beer, executive director of the Fisher Center for the Strategic Use of Information Technology at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He hopes to retain a Finnish researcher in his work on entrepreneurial aspects of technology. “In some ways,” said Beer, “they are further along than the U.S.”  

One of the goals of the collaboration is to learn more about how technology affects human beings and their interactions. “We (American society and Finnish society) are working on similar problems in terms of the impact of technology on social and economic life,” said Hal Varian, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Information Management & Systems. “These questions involve economic, business, legal and technological considerations, and UC Berkeley is a leader in all four areas.” 

The research projects include:  

• Creation of a portable digital tape recorder that uses robust speech recognition to create indexed and annotated text for archiving meetings  

• The design of regulations and technologies to protect intellectual property rights for digital movies, books and other electronic information.  

• A project to discover how the human brain acquires language and how these results can be applied to designing more intelligent computer systems.


Davis hangs tough, but fall to Bears

Staff
Monday February 05, 2001

The Bears cruised to a 51-19 victory over Davis Saturday. The victory part was good. The cruising part was not. 

“Full marks to Davis. We were outplayed in the second half,” said Cal head coach Jack Clark. “Our work rate was not there today.” 

The Cal team got off to a fast start with a try to wing Cameron Bunce in the 3rd minute, as the Bears exploited the shortside from a scrum 40 meters out. They followed up quickly with fullback Dave Guest stepping through Davis’ goalline defense. His try was set up by center Mike Bonetto who had bulled his way through the midfield on the previous phase - a sight that became familiar throughout the afternoon. 

The Bears, however, seemed a little complacent with their lead, and Davis were unlucky to not get on the board in the first half with several attacking forays stymied just short of the line. The Aggies also proved competitive in the scrum, and played stout defense. While Cal were well clear on the scoreboard by halftime, Davis increasingly dominated possession as the game progressed, eventually outscoring Cal in the second period. 

The Cal side will need to shake off their lethargy next week when the University of British Columbia makes their annual pilgrimage to Berkeley. The Canadian team is usually one of Cal’s tougher opponents. 

The Cal second side also won Saturday, 53-0.


New president to lead theological union in Berkeley

Daily Planet staff report
Monday February 05, 2001

Dr. James A. Donahue a scholar, ethicist and administrator at Georgetown University has accepted the leadership role of president of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.  

Donahue was a former Dean of Students and Professor of Theology and Ethics at Georgetown and will be inaugurated on Feb. 15. 

During his inauguration, Donahue will unveil his strategic plan for a new interfaith GTU. That plan entails a enriched development of Jewish studies and increased attention to Asian religions, as well as a new focus on Islam.  

The GTU began as an experiment in ecumenical cooperation in 1962. The consortium consists of nine schools of theology representing the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions, institutes of Jewish, Buddhist and Orthodox studies and seven research centers. The GTU works collaboratively with UC Berkeley and is the home of the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library. 

Donahue has published widely in the field and provided ethics conultations to businesses and nonprofits. His research intrests have focused on the intersection of theoretical and practical ethics, virtues and practices in the moral life and issues of organizational and professional ethics. 

Donahue received a Ph.D. in religious social ethics from the GTU in 1984. From 1977 to 1985, he held teaching posts at the GTU, the Pacific School of Religion and at Santa Clara University. From 1985 to 2000, he was the professor of theology and social ethics at Georgetown University.


California not living up to its green reputation, experts say

By Michelle Locke Associated Press Writer
Monday February 05, 2001

Environment-friendly policies don’t always get results; SUVs and huge homes eat up power, contribute to current power shortage 

 

BERKELEY – You know the image of California as a tree-hugging, conservation-minded state. But how green, really, is our Silicon Valley — and the rest of the Golden State? 

Not very, say some. 

“California’s not green,” says Robert L. Thayer, professor of environmental design at the University of California, Davis. “While there’s quite a bit of technological innovation and quite a countercultural green movement, it doesn’t succeed very far in overcoming the momentum of business inertia.” 

California is a standard-bearer for environment-friendly policies, setting strict energy efficient standards for homes and workplaces. But it’s also the land of SUVs and starter-castles built on the far reaches of exurbia — energy intensive lifestyles that have become more conspicuous as power supplies falter. 

“Every day when I go to the gym, I’m sort of stunned at the population of big SUVs that nice suburban women are driving. We’re not talking about a little Jimmy or a Blazer. We’re talking about the big ’uns,” says V. John White, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies in Sacramento. “People in California have assumed a right to a certain amount of comfort and mobility.” 

White and others note that California does require low-energy buildings and appliances, and low-emission automobiles. 

“We have a lot more renewable energy than any other state. We have much more efficient use of energy in our houses and our offices,” says Timothy Duane, a UC Berkeley professor serving as senior policy adviser to the state. 

Energy use per capita has been going up, but not dramatically. Californians used about 7,000 kilowatt hours per year in 1980, compared to about 7,700 kilowatt hours last year, according to California Energy Commission numbers crunched by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

In 1997, California ranked 47th of the 50 states in energy consumption per capita — only Rhode Island, New York and Hawaii were lower. However, California’s mostly temperate climate has to be taken into account. 

Still, there is the matter of those SUVs, which make up an estimated 30 percent of the California market. 

Last week, the state Air Resources Board scaled back, for the third time, a program to put electric vehicles on California roads. 

There’s also the shaky green power system; the power crunch has underscored the major utilities’ decision six years ago to block a proposal forcing them to contract with independent producers relying heavily on wind, solar and other renewable resources. 

California still has more renewable energy and green initiatives than other states. The problem is that’s not saying a lot, says Daniel Kammen, associate professor of energy and society in UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. 

Meanwhile, a predilection for large, single-family homes has pushed development ever deeper into erstwhile farmland; two-hour, one-way commutes are not uncommon. 

“Urban sprawl and unplanned growth is, I think, the biggest single area where Californians have really demonstrated a brown thumb,” Kammen says. “No matter how efficient you are with putting a compact fluorescent light in your house or giving $10 a month to the Sierra Club, are you going to be able to offset the adverse effects of your commuting five days a week?” 

Putting energy efficient lights in a 5,000-square-foot home, Kammen notes, is on par with “going into McDonald’s and buying four Big Macs and a Diet Coke.” 

Why is it so hard being green? 

“Self-interest is a powerful force,” says Daniel McFadden, a Berkeley economist who shared a Nobel last year for his research developing theories on how people work and live. 

“People can feel very warmly about the environment and have very good intentions toward the environment, but when they’re confronted with their day-to-day economics they rarely have to face the choice that the SUV that they buy is going to mean a little more air pollution or a few less trees alive,” McFadden says. 

“If people were really as green as they say they are, they would be taking this extra income and putting it into the Nature Conservancy,” he says. “Instead, they go out and build a second home.”


Energy-efficient products selling at record pace

By Greg Risling Associated Press Writer
Monday February 05, 2001

Californians looking to save power and money; products flying off store shelves 

 

LOS ANGELES – Home improvement and hardware stores across the state are selling energy-efficient products at a record pace this year, signaling that Californians are willing to spend a little more to lower their power use — and their electric bills. 

Cold temperatures and the repeated threat of rolling blackouts this month have prompted consumers to invest in fluorescent lightbulbs, insulation and weather stripping. 

Fluorescent bulbs, which typically last 10 times longer than incandescent lights, have been the hottest seller. Home Depot reports a 66 percent increase in the sale of fluorescent bulbs at its California stores during January compared to the same time period last year. 

Michael Moore, an assistant manager at a Lowe’s store in Fresno, said he recently had to double the order amounts for the bulbs, which sell for $10 to $15. 

“We can’t keep them in stock,” Moore said. “In the past, we could keep about 100 fluorescent bulbs on the shelves for about a month. Now, it’s a matter of days before we sell out.” 

Smaller, independent hardware stores across the state also are having a surge in sales. Garth Smith, who runs Dale Hardware in Fremont, said customers have been asking more questions about energy conservation in recent weeks. 

“It boils down to economics,” Smith said. “A lot of people want to know what they can do conserve energy because they want to cut their electricity bills.” 

In case the increased conservation fails to stave out rolling blackouts, more people also are buying portable generators, which average between $400 and $750 and can provide enough juice to power household appliances during a blackout. 

Costco stores in California saw generator sales rise 300 percent from January 2000 to January 2001, and Home Depot reports a 85 percent increase for the same period. 

“The generators are more of an emergency type of product whereas the energy conservation items are being bought because people are trying to save money,” said Home Depot spokesman Chuck Sifuentes. 

The deluge of questions about energy-efficient products has prompted Home Depot to offer free, one-hour clinics for homeowners every weekend through the end of March. The “how-to” clinics demonstrate cost-saving measures and help customers learn more about their homes. 

Ofelia Lerma was busy jotting notes at a Home Depot clinic in Monrovia on Sunday. The 75-year-old Pasadena resident has a $300 bi-monthly electricity bill that she expects will drop significantly once she spends $300 to $600 to blanket her attic and basement with insulation. 

“If I can reduce my electricity bill, I am certainly going to try,” she said. “I think in the long run we will save more money by making the improvements rather than what we pay now for electricity.” 

Other people say they have changed their ways since the state’s power crisis began last year. Jack Stephanian, who also attended the clinic, said he used to leave the lights on most of the day in his La Canada-Flintridge home. 

Now he’s focusing more on reducing his home’s power use by installing new windows that reduce heat loss and purchasing a more energy-efficient refrigerator. 

“I got a $50 rebate back from my utility company,” he said. “If you own a home, you are going to have to invest money for upkeep. Buying products that will cut your energy bills seem like a smart decision.”


Volunteers, authorities say search for Xiana’s killer to continue

The Associated Press
Monday February 05, 2001

DNA evidence proves that skull found in Santa Cruz Mountains is hers; search for kidnappers still ongoing 

 

VALLEJO – With a 7-year-old girl confirmed dead after more than a year of hope for her safe return, volunteers and authorities are steeling their resolve and seeking justice for those responsible for the crime. 

The death of Xiana Fairchild, missing since Dec. 9 1999, was confirmed Saturday at a Santa Clara County Sheriff’s department news conference. The DNA test results on a child’s skull found in the Santa Cruz Mountains confirmed the bone fragments belonged to Fairchild. 

The medical examiner’s report indicated Fairchild died of “homicidal violence.” Now authorities will try to determine who killed the girl and why. Volunteers who searched tirelessly for Fairchild over the past year want someone held accountable. 

“I really wanted her home alive,” said Deena May, a volunteer who spent nearly every Saturday searching for Fairchild, a child she never knew. She said she wants answers about the death. “Until I know why, it’s not going to sink in. It still feels like she’s missing” 

Kim Swartz, whose daughter Amber has been missing for 13 years, also wants to know who killed Fairchild. 

“That brings us one step closer. We now have Xiana. We know she was murdered. Now we just have to figure out who it is (the suspect),” Swartz said. 

Vallejo police said the discovery creates no new suspects, but among those under suspicion in Fairchild’s disappearance are her mother, Antoinette Robinson, and Robinson’s boyfriend, Robert Turnbough. 

Turnbough initially told police he had left the girl at a bus stop, but later changed his story to say she walked alone to catch the bus. Vallejo police never labeled Turnbough a suspect, but did say he had been under “a cloud of suspicion” because of his conflicting tales. 

“From the very day that Xiana disappeared we got conflicting stories from her mother and her mother’s boyfriend,” said Vallejo police chief Robert Nichelini. 

Fairchild’s kidnapping case revived interest recently when a man in jail for allegedly abducting one girl began telling reporters he was also responsible for Fairchild’s disappearance. 

Curtis Dean Anderson told Fairchild’s great-aunt that the girl was still alive and he knew of her whereabouts. The latest findings contrast Anderson’s accounts. 

“At this stage of the investigation there is no evidence of links to Anderson to this case,” said Capt. Brian Beck of Santa Clara County investigative services. “We’re all aware of his notoriety and his discussions with the press, but that does constitute evidence.” 

Anderson is charged with kidnapping an 8-year-old Vallejo girl last August. The girl managed to escape when Anderson allegedly left her in his car unattended. 

Anderson’s attorney, Carl Spieckerman, said jail officials have told him his client was going to be transferred from Solano County to Santa Clara County where Fairchild’s skull was found Jan. 19 by a construction worker. 

“They’re going to book him,” Spieckerman said. “And I believe he’s going to be charged with something in connection with this case.”


Thousands flocking to woman’s home hoping to witness miracles

The Associated Press
Monday February 05, 2001

UNION CITY – Inside the modest home of Cora Lorenzo, where she claims mysterious oils appear on small religious statues and crucifixes, the real miracle may be that she can squeeze in all the visitors. 

Thousands of devout Catholics have heard about the oil said to flow from objects in Lorenzo’s home and they’ve made long journeys to see if indeed a miracle is occurring 

“People just keep coming,” Lorenzo said. “It just keeps growing, and growing, and growing and growing. One person will make an appointment for 20 visitors, and 75 show up.” 

So many visitors in fact that there is hardly any room for Lorenzo’s neighbors anymore. 

“Parking is horrible,” said neighbor Joe Hernandez. “There’s constant litter and noise late at night. The neighbors are fed up with it.” 

The congestion in the area is so bad some of those who live on Lorenzo’s street are considering passing around a petition indicating that the area is not zoned for a church. 

Lorenzo says the oil began appearing in 1995. A small cup she bought in Lourdes, France dried up one evening. But the next morning a sweet-smelling oily liquid had taken the place of the holy water. 

At first Lorenzo thought perhaps her husband or son put the oil in the cup. 

They denied doing so. 

Now strangers from as far away as Australia, Nigeria, Holland and Indonesia drop by the Lorenzo home to witness what many of them call a miracle. 

Patricia Wu of Daly City came by to rub some of the oil on the head of her 4-year-old son, hoping that such an application would do something to alleviate the condition that covered the boy’s body with small red bumps. 

After dabbing the boy with the oil the bumps began to vanish almost immediately, Wu said. 

“I’m religious and I believe in miracles,” Wu told the Mercury News. “But my husband says, ‘No, this just happened.’ Men are hard to believe in these kinds of things.” 

Another woman said her prayers in hopes of a better job were answered within 24 hours, because the praying was done in Lorenzo’s home where the oil flows so freely. 

Skeptics aren’t so impressed by Lorenzo’s purported miracle oils and say other similar claims have proven less than miraculous. 

Joe Nickell, a writer for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, says olive oil drizzled onto religious objects can stay fresh for weeks and those who own the items seldom allow the objects to be examined. 

A television crew that examined “blood” dripping from a Virgin Mary statue in Quebec 15 years ago found the substance to be pork drippings. Two years ago in Kansas, blood said to weep from a plaque of Mary turned out to be that of the icon’s owner. 

A spokeswoman for the Oakland Diocese, Barbara Flannery, says there’s nothing wrong with Lorenzo’s “miracles” as long as Lorenzo isn’t asking for money or donations. 

“It sounds like nothing that she is doing is outside the teaching of the church,” Flannery said. “She’s probably doing a lot of good.”


Bay Briefs

Monday February 05, 2001

Former schools superintendent gave his girlfriend district contract 

EMERYVILLE — The former schools superintendent of Emeryville awarded his girlfriend a lucrative contract as his district fell deeper in debt, a newspaper reported Sunday. 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that former schools chief J.L. Handy paid his girlfriend Jean Cross $213,000 to write grants and fill out reimbursement forms from 1998 to last May. 

Cross was also awarded 10 percent of every grant she brought in to the schools. 

The grant writing duties are typically performed by school principals without such incentives. 

Handy resigned as Emeryville schools chief in October and is under investigation for using school funds for personal expenses. 

 

Man arrested for battering  

anti-abortion protestors 

SANTA CRUZ — A man was arrested Saturday for battery against anti-abortion protesters. 

A 37-year-old transient named James Wilson was arrested after he punched and kicked two members of Voice For Life, an anti-abortion group that was protesting in front of Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center. 

The sheriff’s office said Wilson also took out a knife and told one protester he was going to stab him. 

 

Building owners paying tenants money to leave apartments 

SAN FRANCISCO — A growing number of renters are being paid big bucks to leave their apartments. 

Some building owners want to start charging more money for their rental space, and getting the old tenants out is the only way to do it. 

Rent-control has forced landlord and building owners to offer thousands of dollars to apartment dwellers paying low rents. One woman who lived in the same Pacific Heights apartment for the past eight years was given $26,500 to vacate her apartment. 

Evictions haven’t slowed up either. The city’s Rent Board recorded about 20 evictions in December under the Ellis Act, the law that allows landlords to stop renting the apartment to get rid of their tenants.


Wireless revolution turning to voice portals

By Michael Liedtke The Associated Press
Monday February 05, 2001

Cellphones can connect users to lots of information 

 

SAN FRANCISCO – Adam Burg used to lug his laptop computer to the mountains on his frequent skiing trips so he could log on to the Internet and check the latest weather reports. 

Now all he needs is his cellphone. 

With a phone call to a toll-free number, Burg, 27, simply asks for the latest weather report wherever he is and is told in a matter of seconds. 

If he wants to locate a nearby Chinese restaurant or find out what’s playing at nearby movie theaters, he can find that out too by just speaking a few words into the phone. 

Burg, a hard-driving technology worker, uses Tellme Networks, one of several free, voice-activated services known as “voice portals” that use voice recognition software to retrieve and translate information from the Internet. 

Taking their cues from spoken words, the services dispense stock quotes, horoscopes, driving directions, sports scores and other widely sought information over any telephone. 

“For a mobile person like me, it’s very useful,” Burg, of San Francisco, said before catching a flight to New York. “I already take my cellphone and Palm Pilot everywhere I go, so it’s nice not to have to haul my laptop, too, just so I can get on the Internet.” 

Tellme and rivals BeVocal and HeyAnita aren’t just designed to appeal to on-the-go, technology-savvy consumers. They also aim to attract the millions of people who aren’t computer literate. 

The services have become a valuable tool for blind people including Brent Bacome of Hanford, Calif., who finds it much easier to call BeVocal than to try to fetch information from the Web using special equipment that “reads” words aloud from a computer. 

“It’s been marvelous for me. It seems to understand me better than a lot of people do,” said Bacome, 47, a teacher’s aide who uses the portal for everything from news reports to locating the closest Starbucks coffee house. 

With an estimated 2 billion phones in use worldwide, building a voice portal seemed like a no-brainer to Tellme CEO Mike McCue, who helped popularize the Web browser as a vice president of technology at Netscape Communication. 

After leaving Netscape in early 1999, McCue, 33, invested more than $1 million of his Netscape nest egg and set out to develop an easily accessible information source that would be appealing to computer-adverse people — including his mother in Indianapolis, who he says now dials TellMe’s access number more frequently than he does. 

“Once you use it a few times, you quickly understand how easy it is,” said his mother, Lucy McCue Allan, 60. 

McCue’s mom isn’t the only one impressed with his company. Venture capitalists so far have invested $238 million in Mountain View-based Tellme. 

Although there remain far more Web surfers than voice portal pioneers, the service providers are quickly expanding their reach. 

Both Tellme and Sunnyvale-based BeVocal are accessible nationwide and provide business directories and driving directions that cover virtually the entire country. Tellme’s billboards are plastered on the sides of New York City buses. And it is developing plans to expand to Europe. 

Talking to a portal isn’t like having a normal conversation. The portals only recognize certain words. The limited vocabulary means users have to know each system’s keywords to navigate quickly. 

The voice portals also have trouble making out words in a noisy environment, or amid the static of a wireless phone. 

When talking on a clear phone line, the portals are fairly simple to use. Navigating around Tellme requires saying just one or two words, such as “driving directions,” or “restaurants,” and the voice prompts guide you the rest of the way. Get lost and the command “Tellme menu” takes you back to the auditory equivalent of a home page. 

Regular callers can also create a “favorites” list that makes it easy to go directly to specific information. 

As work continues on new software and applications, voice portals created for consumers and businesses are expected to become big business. 

The voice portal industry is expected to grow from $2 billion in 2000 to $12 billion in 2005, with a projected 128 million callers, according to the Kelsey Group. 

As privately held companies, the all-purpose portals don’t disclose how many people use their services. 

The Kelsey Group estimates users at slightly more than 1 million. Another 3 million are believed to use more specialized portal services that translate e-mail messages and perform other specific tasks. 

“There is still a lot of evolution that needs to take place,” said Kelsey analyst Mark Plakias. “A lot of what we are seeing now won’t be around in a few years. The portals today are where the Web was back in 1995.” 

The potential market for voice portals is spurring more Webmasters to encode the content on their sites with “Voice XML,” computer code that can be translated into English by voice browsers. 

Meantime, a San Francisco company, VocalPoint Technologies, has developed a technology that can read HTML, the computer code behind the Web, and convert it into voice applications for businesses that want to create their own portals. 

For now, Tellme and BeVocal are just trying to build a mass market of customers that will entice businesses to advertise on their services. 

Both portals are still in their infancy. Tellme’s phone lines opened in April 2000 and BeVocal began accepting calls in June 2000. 

Over the long haul, though, the companies hope to do much more than provide consumers with a new way to extract information from the Internet. Ultimately, they want to morph into the launching pad for the phone calls of the future. 

“We want to become ’Dialtone 2.0,”’ McCue said. 

In this scenario, voice portals essentially would supplant the telephone keypad for placing calls. 

Instead of punching in numbers to place a call, people simply would pick up a phone and announce the name of a person or business. Business calls might be answered by another automated system. 

As McCue sees it, this is the ultimate “killer application” for portals — free directory assistance that finds a business or person for a caller, then connects them. The company plans to make money from referral fees paid by businesses. 

It’s an ambitious game plan that the portal start-ups know they won’t be able to execute by themselves. 

Already, BeVocal has licensed its technology to wireless phone carriers Sprint and Qwest so they can provide voice portals to their subscribers. 

Even more wireless phone alliances are in the works, said C. Mikael Berner, CEO of BeVocal, which is backed by $46 million in venture capital. 

“We strongly believe every wireless carrier in the U.S. will have some kind of voice (portal) by the end of this year,” said Berner, whose company also operates its own publicly accessible portal. 

Tellme’s backers include AT&T, which invested $60 million. Eventually, says McCue, his company may well end up a business partner with Yahoo and America Online, which last fall introduced telephone portals of their own.


Older taxpayers can get breaks – and help finding them

By Curt Anderson The Associated Press
Monday February 05, 2001

Senior citizens can have complex tax issues, but also different rules 

 

WASHINGTON – America’s tax law is meant to apply equally to people of all ages, but there are some special considerations that older taxpayers should keep in mind when tax filing season rolls around — and some places they can get tailor-made help. 

First off, people age 65 and older have higher income thresholds to determine whether they have to file a tax return. They also get a higher standard deduction. But they can frequently have a perplexing income picture that includes Social Security benefits, health costs, retirement plan distributions and pension payouts. 

Anna Maria Galdieri, a certified public accountant in Oakland, said one of the biggest obstacles for many of her older clients is grasping all of the complexities involved. 

“The problem is that people are so fearful of the IRS, they tend to just close up,” she said. “Particularly as people age, their ability to tolerate these things is limited.” 

For those who might have trouble affording professional help, the AARP offers a free tax service under a $3 million grant from the IRS. The service provides 31,000 volunteers at 10,000 sites around the country, as well as help via the Internet and free electronic tax filing. 

The average customer at AARP Tax Aide, as the service is known, is a woman age 65 or over with $20,000 or less in income per year. “Those are people who can least afford to pay for their tax returns,” said Sabrina Reilly, national communications coordinator for the program. 

People can find an AARP site near them by calling 1 (888) 227-7669 beginning Jan. 15 or by checking on the Web at http://www.aarp.org. 

For taxpayers doing their own returns, the IRS offers Publication 554 with information geared toward older Americans. Some highlights: 

— Social Security or railroad retirement benefits can be taxable. To figure this out, the IRS says to add one-half of total benefits with all other income, excluding such things as interest from U.S. savings bonds or adoption benefits.  

If the total is higher than the income threshold for your filing status, then taxes may be owed. 

“You can get in a situation where you add a little more income and that increases how much Social Security payments are included in income,” Galdieri said. “You can be paying a dollar in taxes for every dollar you add in income.” 

— To deduct medical expenses, taxpayers must itemize and costs must top 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. Some long-term insurance care premiums may be included, as well as costs of a long-term care provider. 

Still, for many lower-income seniors, the deduction threshold is too high to make much difference. “It doesn’t make sense to think that these are appropriate levels,” Galdieri said. 

— The Credit for the Elderly or Disabled, a maximum of $1,125, is available for many people over age 65 as well as younger people who are “permanently and totally” disabled. The credit is subject to certain income limits. IRS Publication 524 has all the details. 

— Traditional individual retirement account distributions are generally taxable the year they are received. But non-traditional IRAs, such as a Roth IRA or a SIMPLE IRA, have different rules. Also, premature IRA distrubutions before age 59 1/2 can be subject to an additional 10 percent tax. On the other hand, most traditional IRAs require distributions or withdrawals at at 70 1/2. IRS Publication 590 sorts it all out. 

— Pension and annuity distributions are also taxable, except for the share of contributions made by the taxpayer. There are different rules governing annuities and pensions before and after 1987. IRS Publication 575 is available to help determine what’s taxable and what’s not. 

— Military retirement pay that’s based on length of service or age generally must be included in a taxpayer’s gross income. But military pay based on disability from active armed forces service is generally exempt from tax, and Department of Veterans Affairs benefits also are not included as income.


Alternative minimum tax is becoming more common

By Curt Anderson Associated Press Writer
Monday February 05, 2001

WASHINGTON – The number of taxpayers likely to be entangled in the complex alternative minimum tax is projected to reach 1.5 million this year, twice as many as three years ago. Increasingly, unsuspecting middle-class people are being affected. 

“The AMT is creeping up on those who weren’t intended to be victims,” said Rande Spiegelman, senior personal finance planning manager at the KPMG accounting firm. “It was meant as a way to make sure extremely high-income folks end up paying at least a minimum amount of income tax.” 

But the tax is no longer limited to the wealthy, mainly because it has only been adjusted for inflation once since Congress created it in 1969. As incomes rise, more and more people can become exposed to the tax, particularly if they have large itemized deductions or numerous exemptions for dependents. 

People living in a state with high personal income taxes are particularly vulnerable, Spiegelman said. Big families with lots of children could also pay the price. 

The minimum tax, with a top rate of 28 percent, actually operates in parallel to the regular income tax system. The big difference is that most usual deductions aren’t allowed, meaning that the 28 percent rate applies to income that wasn’t exposed to tax in the regular system. 

“When you’re in AMT, you’ve paid all your tax according to the regular rules and brackets. But it isn’t enough,” Spiegelman said. “They are going to tack on another 28 percent on income you didn’t have to pay tax on otherwise.” 

According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, 1.5 million tax returns will be affected by the minimum tax in 2001. That’s only 1.1 percent of the estimated total of returns, but nearly double the 828,000 returns reporting minimum tax in 1998. 

By 2010, unless Congress enacts some changes, almost 15 million tax returns could be affected.  

Congress has temporarily ensured that certain personal tax credits, such as the $500 per-child tax credit and education credits, cannot trigger the minimum tax — but that law expires at the end of 2001. 

“The more voters are exposed to the AMT, the more likely Congress is going to do something about it,” Spiegelman said. 

The Internal Revenue Service has a worksheet in the instructions for Form 1040 for taxpayers to determine if they owe alternative minimum tax; most tax computer software flags it automatically. Form 6251 is used to figure the minimum tax.


Opinion

Editorials

State asks permission to speed up power plant construction

The Associated Press
Saturday February 10, 2001

 

The White House examined a request Friday from California to speed environmental reviews involving power plant construction, triggering a sharp disagreement over whether the request amounts to rolling back environmental rules. 

California Gov. Gray Davis, in a letter to President Bush, asked that federal agencies help the state speed up consideration of permits for new power plants to try to avoid electricity shortages this summer. 

Since state permits often are affected by federal decisions on water and air pollution and endangered species protection, Davis asked the president for “assistance to expedite permitting by all appropriate federal agencies” along the same time schedule being adopted by state agencies. 

Asked about the letter, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said it was being reviewed by the special energy task force, headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. 

“Is the state asking to waive environmental laws?” Fleischer was asked. 

He said the administration views the letter “as a request to lift or relax environmental protection” in order to maximize power production in California, which for weeks has been under threat of rolling blackouts. 

Fleischer described the request as involving not only the issuance of permits for new power plant construction but also the permission to ease environmental rules on existing plants and for “relaxation” of current restrictions on pzlants using pollution permits. 

“The governor made no such request,” said Roger Salazar, Davis’ spokesman in Sacramento.  

“The only thing the governor requested is that the federal government direct a number of agencies to expedite the permit review process and essentially cut through the red tape” for new power plants. 

Salazar made available Winston Hickox, head of the California Environmental Protection Agency, who reiterated that Bush is not being asked to ease any federal environmental rules. 

 

 

 

“We have not waived any air quality standards to accommodate the need for maximum power production” and have no plans to do so, insisted Hickox. He said state regulators have “run every ounce of flexibility out of the system” to give power plants ways to produce maximum power and still meet air-quality requirements. 

Hickox was named by Davis as a power plant siting overseer who will direct the state effort to get an additional 5,000 megawatts of electricity capacity into operation by summer. The request to Bush was not aimed at environmental changes that apply to existing power plants, he said. 

In a series of orders issued Thursday, Davis directed state agencies to take no longer than 21 days to consider and act on permits involving power plant construction. 

The governor asked that federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, which handles air and water pollution matters, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, which have jurisdiction over endangered species, be required to also make their reviews in the same timeframe. 

The governor was not asking for a relaxation of the regulations but only expedited action on the regulations, said Salazar, and only as the rules apply to construction of new power plants. 

The governor’s plan calls for getting three large, base-load power plants, being built by Calpine Corp., of San Jose, Calif., completed by this summer. They are expected to add about 1,200 megawatts of power. 

Another 2,200 to 2,500 megawatts of capacity is hoped to be made available from smaller plants either near completion or at various stages of development, said Hickox. 

——— 

On the Net: Federal Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/ 

California Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/ 


Study finds 7 million Californians lack health insurance

The Associated Press
Friday February 09, 2001

LOS ANGELES — Nearly 7 million Californians lack health insurance despite the state’s economic growth, according to a university study released Thursday. 

The number of Californians under age 65 who were covered by health insurance rose by 500,000 between 1998 and 1999, mainly due to growth in employment-based insurance. 

But “we still have more than one in five non-elderly Californians uninsured,” said E. Richard Brown, lead author of the University of California, Los Angeles, study. 

“We see improvement in this last year, but that’s after several years of amazing economic growth,” he said. “That shows how resistant expanding coverage is ... even to things like improving the labor market.” 

“The most troubling thing is that it took so long for us to see improvements due to the economy,” he said, and a slowdown “may change these figures.” 

The number of uninsured Californians dropped from 7.3 million in 1998 to 6.8 million in 1999. About 1.1 million were illegal immigrants. 

The percentage of uninsured non-elderly dipped to 22.4 percent – down from a year earlier but about the same as in 1996. 

Six in 10 Californians were insured through their jobs or those of family members. About one in 10 were covered by Medi-Cal and the state’s Healthy Families Program. Healthy Families aims to insure children whose families earn too much to qualify for poverty-level programs but cannot afford private insurance. 

The study, funded by a grant from the California Wellness Foundation, concluded that the public programs could be expanded to help many more people. 

Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature have proposed expanding the Healthy Families Program to cover some parents.


Caltrans admits FasTrak mistakes

The Associated Press
Thursday February 08, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — Caltrans officials admit they made some mistakes when they rolled out the FasTrak electronic toll system on Bay Area bridges and have discussed several plans to alleviate continuing traffic backups. 

Those plans include adding more FasTrak lanes on the bridges, including a new one on the Dumbarton Bridge by next week. 

“While there were some short-term problems, in the long term we’re going to have thousands of motorists signed up with FasTrak,” Caltrans spokesman Colin Jones said Wednesday, adding that about 5,000 applications are being submitted each week. 

“We’d be more concerned if no one was signing up. As we add more lanes and get more people signed up, the system is going to grow and improve.” 

Jones’ optimistic assessment differs from the experiences many Bay area commuters have reported.  

Some commuters say they are being charged for trips they  

didn’t take.  

And those who cross the Golden Gate Bridge say their transponders – the devices on a car’s windshield at the heart of the electronic payment system – don’t always work. 

Also, new applicants must endure a four- or five-week wait to get their transponders.  

Commuters can sign up by telephone, on line or by getting an application from a toll collector. 

Some of the worst traffic problems have been at the Bay Bridge, where only the two center lanes are FasTrak-equipped – forcing commuters to weave through a sea of cars for a chance to pay their tolls electronically. 

“Generally, the last couple of times I’ve come in I’ve just paid the toll. (It’s) not worth cutting over all the lanes,” said Eric Enos, a Bay Bridge commuter. 

Jones said Caltrans plans to immediately add more FasTrak lanes to all Bay area bridges – including one on each side of the Bay Bridge toll plaza by the end of April. 

Officials expect a new FasTrak lane at the Dumbarton Bridge by next week.  

The San Mateo Bridge should have a FasTrak-only lane by March. Officials also hope to have every toll booth accept FasTrak by the end of the year.


Killer’s execution date set for March

The Associated Press
Wednesday February 07, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — A judge on Tuesday set the stage for California’s next execution, ordering San Francisco murderer Robert Massie to die March 27 in San Quentin. 

The condemned prisoner dropped his appeals last month after 21 years on death row, paving the way for a rare execution in the state with the largest number of condemned inmates. 

Massie is to die by lethal injection for the 1979 murder of a San Francisco liquor store owner. Of nearly 600 condemned men and women in California, eight inmates have been executed since 1978, the year state voters reinstituted capital punishment. The last California execution was of serial killer Darrell Rich last March. 

At Massie’s request, U.S. District Judge Charles Legge dismissed Massie’s federal appeals in January and San Francisco County Superior Judge Philip Moscone set an execution date Tuesday afternoon. 

Moscone set the date after San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan spoke briefly against the death penalty.  

Hallinan called execution “a primitive code of retribution” that does not deter crime and is applied disproportionately to racial minorities. 

In his petition to end his appeals, Massie told Legge that he would rather die than continue living on death row in San Quentin. He said life on death row is a “lingering death.” 

 

Even if his death sentence is reversed or commuted by an appeal, he would remain in prison for the rest of his life for shooting Boris Naumoff to death at a San Francisco liquor store. That is why he said he wants a “swift execution.” 

California’s condemned inmates are more likely to die of old age or illness than by execution. More than 100 inmates have been on death row for more than 15 years. 

One reason for the backlog of death row inmates is that about 160 inmates have not been provided a lawyer for their first and mandatory appeal to the California Supreme Court, which has no timeline to rule on cases. After the state Supreme Court, which upheld Massie’s sentence in 1998, defendants enter a maze of federal appeals. 

The state Corrections Department, which runs San Quentin, is asking a federal appeals panel to block a federal court order allowing assembled witnesses at San Quentin to view executions in their entirety. 

Opposing the state’s petition are the media and the American Civil Liberties Union, which jointly convinced a judge in July to order the state to abolish the practice of partial viewings of lethal injections. 


Businesses, drivers angered by proposed ban on trucks

The Associated Press
Tuesday February 06, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — Business owners say a proposed ban to keep truck deliveries out of the city’s financial district could wreak havoc on their bottom lines by preventing them from receiving necessary supplies. 

“We get many deliveries on a daily basis, that’s why we’re the No. 1 restaurant city in the world,” said Kathleen Harrington, president of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and co-owner of Harrington’s Bar and Grill. 

The proposed ban, introduced Friday, is meant to stop trucks from double parking on streets, an ongoing problem that clogs traffic and delays Muni buses. It’s the next step after double fines of $100 issued along Muni routes have failed to ease the problem, said Fred Hamdum, Department of Parking and Traffic director. Last year 28,704 drivers were cited for double parking, compared to 14,503 in 1996. The double fines are part of the mayor’s “Unclog the Streets” program that started in 1998. 

The proposed ban calls for trucks 25 feet or longer to stay out of the financial district from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Those caught within the prohibited areas would receive moving violations. 

“The attempt here is not to shut businesses down,” Hamdum said. “Traffic downtown has reached critical levels.” 

But some say the new proposal would make already restricted delivery times even tighter. 

Igor Rodionoff, assistant sales manager for Anchor Distributing Co., says alcohol can now only be delivered from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

“That gives us a three-hour window before 7 a.m. and a one-hour window after 7 p.m.,” he said. “If we can’t deliver until 4 a.m., we’re already behind the ball right there.” 

Rodionoff said his only solution would be to use smaller trucks for his deliveries, which would add even more traffic to the area’s streets. 

But the mayor’s office says the traffic problem has gotten out of control and must be resolved somehow. 

“The mayor’s top priority when it comes to transportation is the efficiency of the Municipal Railway,” said P.J. Johnston, the mayor’s spokesman. 

Bob Ramorino, president of Hayward-based Bob Rich Shroeder Trucking, said the proposed ban would create a delivery nightmare because companies would have a hard time finding drivers to work early-morning or late-evening shifts. 

But Hamdum points out there’s time to work out a compromise between the city, businesses and trucking companies. 

The public has until Feb. 16 to submit written comments about the proposal. A community meeting also is scheduled for March. Even then, Hamdum said, it could take up to nine months to implement the proposal. 


Telegraph shut down

Jon Mays/Daily Planet
Monday February 05, 2001

Usually jammed with cars, Telegraph Avenue was shut down for nearly an hour Sunday afternoon while police questioned a young man allegedly involved in a burglary, according to a police officer at the scene.