The City Council directed opposing factions in the dispute over the Beth El development to meet with a mediator and find common ground and possibly a solution to their differences. 

At issue is a proposal to build a synagogue, school and parking lot on a 2-acre historical landmark at 1301 Oxford St. Neighbors, who have come together as the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association, oppose the project. 

LOCCANA members argue the development is too large and would create traffic and parking problems in the residential neighborhood. They also claim the project’s design would preclude a culverted section of Codornices Creek from ever being daylighted. 

Beth El members counter that the design of the project is sensitive to the creek and historical elements of the property. They also argue that the proposed structure takes up a smaller-than-average percentage of the 94,000 square-foot site. 

In addition the recommendation asks city staff to return to the council next week with a tentative schedule for two public hearings regarding opposing permit decisions related to the project made by two governmental bodies. One is the Zoning Adjustments Board March 8 granting of the use permit and the other is the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s denial of an alteration permit, which would allow existing structures on the property to be demolished.  

The council approved the recommendation by a vote of 5-2-2 with Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Linda Maio voting no. Councilmembers Dona Spring and Margaret Breland abstained.  

Maio said she voted against the recommendation because it did not give the two parties enough time to work on their difference before the first public hearing, which may occur as early as May 29.  

“It seems to me there’s not enough time to find a mediator, get them up to speed on the issues and work with everybody’s schedules,” Maio said.  

Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Mim Hawley said the tight deadline would move mediation along faster. “When you have a looming deadline you tend to try and meet it,” Dean said.  

Victor Herbert, a mediator with the nonprofit Berkeley Dispute Resolution Service, said outside mediation can be expensive and not always produce results.  

Herbert said in 1990, a dispute arose between an affordable housing developer and neighbors of a proposed Section 8 housing project on University Avenue.  

“Things got so bad, the City Council ordered mediation and the mediator came back to the city with a bill for $10,000 and no agreement between parties,” he said.  

Herbert said that in the case of the Beth El dispute, the mediator should be specialized in development and urban issues. 

BDRS frequently mediates disputes in Berkeley land-use issues but has chosen not to get involved with the Beth El issue because of the complexity of the problem and the high profile political attention its has received. 

According to Interim Deputy Director of Housing and Development Vivian Kahn, it has not yet been decided who will pay for the mediation services. 

Representatives from both sides of the issue said they agree mediation would help settle differences. 

Beth El member Harry Pollock said he was not surprised the City Council wanted them to participate in mediation. “We are going into the mediation process with an open mind,” he said. 

LOCCANA member Alan Gould said mediation seems like a good idea. “I dread the idea of mediation, but it’s the only way to reach a decision both sides can be happy with,” he said.  

Gould said he didn’t want to comment on what would be a good outcome for LOCCANA, but said some of the issues he would like to have discussed are the size of the buildings and the location the parking area.  

Thursday, April 19

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 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This meetings discussions will center on “Eroticism and Spirituality.” 654-5486 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Library 

Claremont Branch  

2940 Benvenue Ave.  

Facilitated by Cecile Andrews, author of “Circles of Simplicity,” 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. At this month’s meeting, Peter Mui, a Berkeley resident who retired at 32, will give a presentation on transforming your relationship with money and the “stuff” we buy with it.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Cancer Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Summit Medical Center 

Markstein Cancer Education & Prevention Center 

450 30th St., Second Floor  

Oakland  

Free support group for families, friends, and patients diagnosed with cancer.  

869-8833 to register  

Celebrating Our Past,  

Envisioning Our Future 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

The PSR Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry hosts its first annual conference which will address racism and heterosexism; being “out” in ministry; queer spirituality; queer and Asian; queer theory and comparative religions and other topics. This is a two day event.  

849-8206 

Light Search & Rescue 

9 a.m. - Noon  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

A free class as part of Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). Sponsored by the Berkeley Fire Dept. and the Office of Emergency Services.  

Call 644-8736 

EcoCity Message of  

Curitiba, Brazil 

7:30 p.m. 

Chan Shun Auditorium  

Valley of Life Sciences Building  

UC Berkeley  

Maria do Rocio Quandt, the chief representative of the policies, designs, planning and projects that have made Curitiba the ecological development model to the world will share strategies for long term success of cities on planet Earth. Opening remarks by Robert Haas, former U.S. poet laureate. 

$5 - $10 donation 649-1817 

Chiapas Support Committee 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. (at Prince) 

The delegation to Mexico will report back about the EZLN march and its aftermath with video footage, first-hand accounts, slides and more. 654-9587 

Estate Planning for the Living 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Norlen Drossel, an estate planning attorney, will cover such topics as the difference between a will and a living trust, durable power of attorney for health care, and other topics of importance to those who don’t plan on dying. 601-4040 x302 

Exploring Grand Staircase  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Liz Hymans, a leading panoramic photographer in the U.S. will share slides and stories of the making of “Hearst of the Desert Wild,” which celebrates the spirit of Grand Staircase - Escalante. Free 527-4140 

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17. Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

Transportation  

Commission Workshop 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst St. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A presentation of the Transportation Demand Management Study’s key findings and a discussion of Study objectives and related TDM program elements.  

Gray’s Gain, Public Pain  

7 p.m.  

2060 Valley Life Sciences Building 

UC Berkeley  

A slideshow presented by the Sierra Club California Forestry Reform Campaign. Learn how to make a difference in the fight to protect natural heritage for future generations. 

622-0290 x250 

Friday, April 20

Stagebridge Free Acting & Storytelling Classes for  

Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Call 444-4755 www.stagebridge.org 

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. www.ajob.org 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project.  

Call 644-6226 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

50 Plus Fitness Class  

9:30 a.m. - Noon 

UC Berkeley (varied locations)  

A class for those 50 and over which introduces participants to an array of exercise options. Demonstration and practice will include strength training, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, and more. Fridays through May 11.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

Trash Bridges 

1 p.m.  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Join Trash Bridges, garbage detective, in this Science Discovery Theatre performance as he explores how recycling, reusing, reducing and composting can help us tackle the ever-increasing garbage humans create. Free with museum admission.  

642-5132 

Saturday, April 21

California Native Plant Sale  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Regional Botanical Garden  

South Park Drive & Wildcat Canyon Road 

Tilden Regional Park  

A variety of plants will be for sale and proceeds benefit Botanic Garden programs. Please bring boxes for carrying your plants home.  

841-8732 

Family Farm Day  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way  

As a complimentary event to Earth Day Berkeley, taking place in Civic Center Park, this will be a chance to see what life is like on a farm. Farm equipment, an observable beehive, human powered hayrides, sheep, and more. Free  

548-3333 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Hands-On Seed Cleaning 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

924 Gilman St.  

Covering a variety of techniques and methods. At noon there will be a seed and plant swap, so bring envelopes to gather seed in.  

548-2220 

Building a Garden at  

Cragmont Elementary  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Cragmont Elementary School  

1150 Virginia St.  

Volunteers are asked to help students and staff of Cragmont make planter boxes, weed, trim, plant trees and more. The garden will be used in the schools environmental education program.  

Call Ellen Georgi 525-6058  

Run for Life  

8 a.m.  

UC Berkeley Campus 

An event to “Celebrate the Spirit of Goodness in Children.” Includes a 3K, 5K, and 10K course for walking or running around UC Berkeley. Culminating in a celebration in the newly renovated Edwards Track Stadium. Sponsored by Nantucket Nectars.  

$18 - $25 per person 

866-786-4543 or www.runforlife.net  

I-House Spring Festival  

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. . 

International House  

2299 Piedmont Ave. (at Bancroft)  

A celebration of cultures from around the globe. Featuring delicacies from India, the Netherlands, Turkey, Taiwan more. Performances of traditional dance on five stages.  

$3 - $5  

642-9460 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

6:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Art Center  

1275 Walnut St.  

Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton.  

527-9753 

Berkeley Earth Day  

11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way 

Beginning with an Eco-Motion parade, with kids and adults using forms of non-polluting transport. The Earth Day Fair will feature music, revolutionary comedy from Sherry Glaser, and speaker Rachel Peterson from Urban Ecology. Also, a climbing wall, kid’s making area, vegetarian food and beer, crafts, beeswax candle making and much more. Free 

654-6346 

Albany Senior Center White Elephant Sale 

9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. 

Friends of Albany Seniors 

846 Masonic Ave.  

Albany  

524-9122 

Earth Day Creek Walk  

10 a.m.  

Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy Garden 

Gilman and Curtis  

Explore history and opportunities for restoration on lower Codornices and Cerrito Creeks on an Earth Day walk co-sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers and Friends of Five Creeks. Bring water and snacks.  

848-9358 

Free Puppet Shows  

1:30 & 2:30 p.m.  

Hall of Health  

2230 Shattuck Ave., Lower Level 

The Kids on the Block, an award-winning educational puppet troupe which includes puppets from diverse cultures and puppets with medical conditions such as leukemia and spina bifida, will perform. Free  

International Tour Directing? 

8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Vista Community College 

2020 Milvia St., Room 303 

Learn about careers in tour leading: Dealing with guides, hotels, airlines and other suppliers, and much more. Learn what qualifications are needed and where the jobs are/aren’t.  

$5.50 for CA. residents 

981-2931 

Sunday, April 22

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 

The Value of Meditation  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Bob Byrne will discuss how you can bring the benefits of meditation into your life. Meditation instruction will be included. Free 

843-6812 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to repair a flat tire from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie will teach how to kick up your heels and move your hips. Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices are encouraged to attend.  

$10  

237-9874 

Plants of the Bible Tour 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

Explore the gardens with docents who will point out plants mentioned in the bible.  

643-1924 

Health Awareness Fair  

Noon - 1:30 p.m. 

Calvary Presbyterian Church  

1940 Virginia St.  

Booths for blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, massage therapy, geriatric medicine, HIV/AIDS, various cancers, nutrition and diet. Free 

415-454-8725 

Need innovation: autos killing us 

Editor:  

There is much on this page about automobile congestion and parking issues. But nowhere do I see an open acknowledgment that automobiles are choking us to death, and the innovative and daring measures we need to take to bring them under control. I would like to propose some.  

The university could do several things:  

a) As a condition of admission to, or employment by, the University of California, prospective students or employees should be forbidden to bring cars to Berkeley.  

b) There’s plenty of land in Contra Costa. The university could acquire some and build large parking garages, running students and employees in by shuttle.  

The city could do several things: 

a) Except under exceptional circumstances, limit cars to one per household.  

b) Or, levy a special tax on additional cars.  

c) Require its employees to come to Berkeley using public transport.  

d) Close off large sections of downtown Berkeley to create pedestrian-only, car-free areas. Run frequent shuttles to and through these areas.  

e) Require residents to park their cars in their garages or driveways. This would open up much of our public streets.  

These may seem like radical measures, but does anyone doubt that they, or something like them, will have to be adopted eventually if we are to control this automobile monster? If new laws are required, the university can easily handle this through the legislature. As for Berkeley, I suggest the council pass an ordinance embodying the above suggestions and be prepared to defend it in court, if necessary.  

It will take strong measures like these to deal with the automobile pollution and congestion problem. But who can do this better that Berkeley, known far and wide for its innovative and progressive cutting-edge initiatives?  

Charlie Betcher 

President, Bus Riders Union 

Chair, Commission on Aging 

Vice-Chair, Transportation Commission 

Spy planes are not protected 

Editor:  

While commercial flights are protected by international law, spy planes such as ours, are not. The law is quite clear about this; for example: Our war in Vietnam was an “undeclared war” (we never declared war on Vietnam). Thus, under the Geneva Convention, our captured personnel could be executed as “pirates” (look it up).  

Now, as to our current spy plane, the Chinese could have executed the crew and kept the plane, but they didn’t. Thank you Viet Cong, North Vietnam, and mainland China.  

George Kauffman 

Berkeley 

Franke needs to answer outstanding questions 

Editor:  

Mr. Bernd Franke, a physical geographer hired by the city (”Some Mistrust Over Tritium Report,” Berkeley Daily Planet April 4), stated in his presentation on April 2 at the North Berkeley Senior Center: “You can’t squeeze the truth from poor data.” In that case, what could possibly have motivated Franke to do just that?  

According to the Daily Planet, Franke told an audience of 150 people at Monday’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission meeting that he could not find evidence of dangerous amounts of tritium being released. Yet, concerning the evidence Franke did find, all provided by the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, he states in his own draft report Review of Radiological Monitoring at LBNL: “For 1998, the silica gel data and the real-time data measured with the Overhoff System was used instead. Due to large uncertainties present in the Overhoff data, this estimate is likely to be unreliable.”  

Franke further states that since “the Overhoff system did not continuously operate for the entire time periods in the years of 1998 and 1999 due to system malfunctions” the compliance report to the Clean Air Act was based only on silica gel sampler data. Regarding the silica gel samplers he states they “may not collect all the water in the air passing through, hence there is a chance that not all the tritium may be collected.” If you don’t know how much tritium is being released because one system malfunctions and the other is inefficient, how can you conclude the amount being released is not dangerous?  

Franke’s report reveals that the accidental release of tritium on July 24, 1998, originally reported as 23 curies, and later adjusted up to 35 curies by the Lab, was probably closer to 50 curies because the Lab only reported the tritium released from the roof stack and did not include about 15 curies which were released from the hillside stack near the Lawrence Hall of Science.  

The intent of the contract voted for by the Berkeley City Council on May 11, 1999 was that “IEER (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research) play an essential role as technical representatives for both a concerned community group (Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste) and the city’s Environmental Commission....” The major concerns of the Committee have not yet been addressed: How much tritium was released into the air such that 239,000 pico curies tritium per liter were found in rain water near the Lawrence Hall of Science in 1994, and 524,000 pico curies tritium per kilogram organically bound in vegetation near the LHS in 1996? And why is there 85,000 pico curies tritium per liter in ground water near the stack?  

Considering that the maximum allowable tritium in drinking water is 20,000 pico curies these alarmingly high levels in rain water and other media are of grave concern to the community. We sincerely hope that Mr. Franke will extrapolate the tritium in air concentrations that caused these high levels and report this in his finalized version of the draft report he presented to the community on April 2, 2001.  

Gene Bernardi 

Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste 

Berkeley 

Enforce traffic laws; re-engineer streets 

Editor: 

I agree with Mr. John Cecil (April 4): Berkeley needs better enforcement of existing traffic laws. It is surprising that so few people are killed or injured on our streets. Berkeley is a paradise for traffic scofflaws of all kinds – drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. 

It may be true, as Mr. Wald said, that we need a “change of culture” to make our streets safer. I’m for that: let’s get rid of TV ads showing passenger cars (including RVs) driven at high speeds in urban and country settings. But changing a culture is something that takes years and years and years. As a solution for the problems of Berkeley today, John Cecil is exactly right: it is nonsense.  

It is true, as Mr. Campbell (April 7) asserts, that “enforcement is not enough.” But increased enforcement is the only remedy immediately available, even if it is only a partial fix. His assertion that John Cecil wants to “turn Berkeley into a police state” is a disgraceful travesty of what Cecil actually said. Cecil observed that the Berkeley police department’s traffic detail is 50 percent smaller than the traffic details in cities of the same size, and recommended that we do as other cities do. 

Other available remedies include increasing the number of parking spaces and the number of one way streets downtown. Traffic congestion would be eased considerably (making it much less dangerous) if we had alternating one way streets between Hearst and Derby, with Milvia and Oxford also one way, going in opposite directions. 

Phil McArdle 

Berkeley 

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 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

UC Berkeley Art Museum “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 exuberant 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; children age 12 and under free; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and Wednesday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; 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. April 20: The Blast Rocks, The Sissies, Uberkunst, Audiowreck, Pirx the Pilot; April 21: MU330, Slow Gherkin, Big D & The Kids Table, The Lawrence Arms; April 27: Atom & His Package, Phantom Limbs, Har Mar Superstar, The Frisk, Shubunkins; April 28: 7 Seconds, Throwdown, Vitamin X, Over My Dead Body, Breaker Breaker; May 4: Plan 9, Zodiac Killers, Reverend B. Dangerous Freakshow, Dory Tourette & The Skirtheads, Knockoffs; May 5: Shikabane, Phobia, Harum Scarum, Vulgar Pigeons, Insidious Sorrow 525-9926  

Albatross Pub All music begins at 9 p.m. April 19: Keni “El Lebrijano” 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ashkenaz April 19, 9 p.m.: Blues for Choice with Craig Horton Blues Band, Rabia, Steve Gannon, Mz Dee, Georgia Freeman, Mark Naftalin, RJ Misho; April 20, 9:30 p.m.: Tamazgha; April 21, 9:30 p.m.: West African Highlife Band, dance lesson at 9 p.m.; April 22, 2-6 p.m.: Free Cajun, Zydeco and Waltz Dance Workshops; April 22, 7 p.m.: KPFA Legal Defense Benefit with Venusians and DJ Dragonfly; April 24, 9 p.m.: Zydeco Flames, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 25, 8 p.m.: Fling Ding with Crooked Jades, Bluegrass Intentions, clogging lesson; April 26, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ night with digital dave; April 27, 8 p.m.: Musicians for Medical Marijuana Benefit featuring Fact or Fiction with Martin Fierro, Shelly Doty X-Tet; 1370 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Eli’s Mile High Club Door open at 8 p.m. April 20: Little Jonny & the Giants; April 21: Jimmy Mamou; April 27: Carlos Zialcita; April 28: J.J. Malone; May 4: Henry Clement; May 5: Terry Hanck; May 11: Jimmy Mamou; May 12: Fillmore Slim 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 655-6661  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. April 19: Joe Louis Walker, Rusty Zinn; April 20: Michael McNevin; April 21: Peter Apfelbaum; April 22: mary Schmary; April 24: Phil Cunningham & Aly Bain; April 25: An Evening Honoring Kenny Cahn with Caren Armstrong, Doug Blumer, John Lester, Christie McCarthy, The Urban Accoustic Dude and others; May 5, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with author P.D. James and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser; 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. April 22: Alan Hall & Friends; May 6: David Creamer Trio 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Performances April 28, 8 p.m.: Vanguard Swing Orchestra, UC Berkeley Big Band $18 - $30 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley; April 22, 3 p.m.: Violinist Gill Shaham and Pianist Orli Shaham perform Coplan, Faure, and Brahms Hertz Hall 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Jazz Singers’ Collective April 19, 8 - 10 p.m. With Mark Little on piano. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

“The Magic Flute” April 20, 25, 30 7:30 p.m. UC Berkeley’s Cal Opera and B.A.C.H. present an updated version of Mozart’s classic. Proceeds benefit new developments for the Longfellow Jr. High theater. $10 Longfellow Jr. High 1500 Derby St.  

Kensington Symphony Orchestra April 21, 8 p.m. Featuring UC Berkeley student and soprano, Vanessa Langer performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G and other selections. $8 - $10 First Baptist Church 770 Sonoma St. Richmond 251-2031 

Jeanne Starkiochmans April 21, 7:30 p.m. Belgian-born Bay Area resident performs works by Claude Debussy on the piano. $25-$35 Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland 

The Pirate Prince April 21, 22, 29, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sunday The first production for the new Hillside Players. Princesses, pirates, witches and modern dialogue in a family-geared show. Free admission, reservations required Hillside Club 2286 Cedar St. 528-2416  

Sharon Isbin April 22, 4 p.m. A rare Bay Area appearance in a benefit concert for the Crowden School. $20 - $30 St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. 559-6910 

Kids Carneval! Brazilian Dance for the Whole Family April 22, 2 p.m. The Borboletas Children’s Dance Troupe will transport children and their families to Brazil and promises to have the audience dancing in and out of their seats. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300  

Alla Francesca April 25, 8 p.m. Performing French and Italisn love songs of the 14th century $28 First Congregational Church 2345 Channing Way 642-9988 or e-mail: tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Community Music Day at the Crowden School and Crowden Center for Music April 28, 1-5 p.m. Music and dance performances and storytelling. Families can make their own instruments, watch a master violin maker at work, or go to the Instrument Petting Zoo to try playing different instruments. Rose Street at Sacramento in Berkeley. Free. Call 559-6910.  

“Music from the Mediterranean and Beyond” April 29, 2 p.m. Zahra combines Arab folk roots with the groove and influences of modern music $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

People’s Park 32nd anniversary Festival April 29,12:30 - 6 p.m. Performances by, among others, Rebecca Riots, X-Plicit Players, Shelley Doty X-tet, with special guests Wavy Gravy, Frank Moore, Stoney Burke, Kriss Worthington and many more. Also including skateboarding demos, animal petting farm, puppets, and “surprises.” People’s Park Haste St. & Telegraph Ave. 848-1985 

Community Women’s Orchestra Family Concert April 29, 4 p.m. Conducted by Ann Krinitsky, featuring works by Rossini, Richter, Beethoven. Free or by donation. Piano solo by Dr. Pearl Toy. Malcolm X School 1731 Prince St. 653-1616 

Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble & Art of Ballet Dance Theater April 20, 7 p.m. Part of Dance Week at the Julia Morgan Center, April 20 - 29. $16 - $18 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300 

UC Dance Theater Spring 2001 Season Program A: April 20, 27, 28, 8 p.m. and April 22, 7 p.m. A premiere of “Soulmate” by Marni Wood, “New Work” by Anne Westwick and “New Work” by Christopher Dolder with original music by Edwin Dugger. Program B: April 21, 28, 29, 2 p.m. and April 21, 8 p.m. “Esplanade” by Paul Taylor, reconstructed by Mary Cochran, “American Decades” by David Wood, “Le Matin sans Minuet” by Christopher Dolder, and “Treading” by Christopher Dolder $6 - $12 Zellerbach Playhouse UC Berkeley 601-8932 

Movement April 26, 7 p.m. Movement will be presenting various dance styles such as commercial jazz, hip-hop, swing, lyrical, and a fusion of jazz and hip-hop. Featuring student choreography as well as professional choreography from LA and New York $5 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 or www.juliamorgan.org 

Reflejos de Mexico April 28, 2 p.m. The dance troupe celebrates the vast richness of the Mexican culture. Park of Dance Week. $10 - $12 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Odissi Dance April 28, 7 p.m. Reputed to be the most lyrical of the seven main forms of Indian classical dance with its liquidity of movement and graceful expression. $18 - $28 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 19: Andrew Harvey talks about “The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Spiritual Traditions”; April 22: Poetry of Maxine Hong Kingston & Fred Marchant; April 23: Janis Cooke Newman discusses “The Russian Word for Snow”; April 24: Chitra Divakaruni reads “The Unknown Errors of Our Lives”; April 25: Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel discuss “Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect”; April 26: Maud Casey and John Searles read from “The Shape of Things to Come” and “Boy Still Missing”; April 27: Poetry of Michael Heller & Carl Rakosi;  

1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted April 20: Susie Bright discusses “The Best American Erotica 2001”; April 26: Mother of three Wynn McClenahan Burkett will read from “Life After Baby: From Professional Woman to Beginner Parent” 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 19: Bruce Feiler will discuss “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses” 1385 Shattuck Ave.  

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. April 19: Garrett Murphy; April 26: Ray Skjelbred. Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series April 25, 5 p.m. Chris Nealon reads from his new book “Ecstasy Shield” Sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English Maude Fife Room (315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439 

Open Mike Poetry Reading April 21, 2 - 4 p.m. In commemoration of National Poetry Month and the fourth anniversary of the death of Poet Allen Ginsberg. Students, parents, teachers, friends and neighbors are invited to read poems of short prose on any subject. Poetry Garden at John Greenleaf Whittier Arts Magnet Elementary School Allen Ginsberg Memorial Milvia & Lincoln Sts.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike April 21, 6:30 p.m. Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

PSR Professor Book Release Celebration April 25, 3 - 5 p.m. Karen Lebacqz and Joseph D. Driskell, co-authors of “Ethics and Spiritual Care,” and Randi Walker, author of “Emma Newman: A Frontier Woman Minister,” will be honored at this faculty book forum. Hear reviews of the books by the authors. Pacific School of Religion PSR Bade Museum 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8252 

Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai April 29, 10:30 a.m. Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld, co-translators of Yehuda Amichai’s “Open Closed Open,” will read their translations from the Hebrew. Book signing to follow. $4 - $5 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237  

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park 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. 486-0623  

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. Through April 29, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. See an amazing display of plants that are sources of commonly used fibers and dyes. 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. 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour April 29: Susan Schwartz leads a tour of the Berkeley Waterfront; May 12: Debra Badhia will lead a tour of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Arts District; May 19: John Stansfield & Allen Stross will lead a tour of the School for the Deaf and Blind; June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Lectures 

UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research Seminars Noon seminars are brown bag. April 23, 4 p.m.: Mary Dudziach of USC will discuss “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.” 119 Moses Hall UC Berkeley 642-4608  

City Commons Club Speaker Series All speakers at 12:30 p.m. April 20: Julius Krevans, M.D. chancellor emeritus, UCSF, will speak on “The Promises and Perils of Medical Research”; April 27: Wen-Hsing Yeh, professor of history, UC Berkeley speaks on “The Culture of China in a Changing World” $1 admission with coffee Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 848-3533 or 845-4725 

California Colloquium on Water Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design speak about water resources and hopefully contribute to informed decisions on water in CA. May 8, 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.: “What Makes Water Wet?” Richard Saykally, professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (refreshments served in 410 O’Brien Hall at 4:15 p.m.) 212 O’Brien Hall, UC Berkeley 642-2666  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. April 29: Barr Rosenberg on “The Ornament of the Middle Way”; May 6: Sylvia Gretchen on “Faith, Doubt, and Refuge in Buddhist Practice”; May 13: Abbe Blum on “Tapping Into Creativity”; May 20: Miep Cooymans and Dan Jones on “Working with Awareness, Concentration, and Energy”; May 27: Eva Casey on “Getting Calm; Staying Clear”; June 3: Jack van der Meulen on “Healing Through Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga)”; June 10: Sylvia Gretchen on “Counteracting Negative Emotions” Tibetan Nyingma Institute 1815 Highland Place 843-6812 

An Evening of Art & Politics April 20, 7:30 p.m. Speak Out presents Howard Zinn, author, playwright, and activist in conversation with poet Aya De Leon $15 - $20 King Middle School 1720 Rose St. 601-0182 

West Coast Regional Spartacist Educational April 28, Noon Jon Wood, of the Spartacist League, will speak: “Defend the Gains of the Cuban Revolution”; 3:30 p.m.: George Foster, central committee, Spartacist League, will speak: “For Socialist Revolution in the Bastion of World Imperialism” 60 Evans, UC Berkeley 839-0851 

“Hunting T. Rex” May 6, 2 p.m. A talk by Dr. Philip Currie, curator of dinosaurs, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. Currie asks the question: Was there social interaction amongst the Tyrannosaurs? $3 - $7 Lawrence Hall of Science UC Berkeley 642-5132 or visit www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

Berkeley 1900 May 7, 7 p.m. Richard Schwartz, author of Berkeley 1900, a book about life at the turn of the 19th century, will speak at the Friends of Five Creeks’ monthly meeting. Albany Community Center (downstairs) 1249 Marin 848-9358 

Peopling of the Pacific May 11, 8 p.m. Dr. Patrick Kirch, department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, will review results of archaeological research in the Pacific Islands, providing a current overview of Oceanic prehistory. 370 Dwinelle Hall UC Berkeley 415-338-1537  

Against a strong opponent and under an unexpected rain, the Berkeley girls’ lacrosse team put up a valiant effort Wednesday, coming up just short in a 13-10 loss. 

Jamie Lee carried the ’Jackets (5-2 NCGLA) on her back, scoring six goals and one assist, and Elena Kriefer had two goals and two assists. Acalanes (6-1) was led by Merryl Geisse’s four goals and two assists. 

The game was played in streaks, as Acalanes would go up four or five goals, then Berkeley would answer back with a couple of goals. Down by four at halftime, the ’Jackets couldn’t get closer than three in the second half. 

The game started well for Berkeley, as Krieger scored the first goal of the game less than a minute in. But Acalanes scored the next four, using their taller players to take passes in front of the Berkeley goal for easy chances. But Lee brought her team back into the game with two rugged solo goals, bulling her way through several defenders on each one. After that impressive outburst, the Dons started double- and triple-teaming Lee each time she got the ball. 

“(Lee) has great leadership, and can often swing the game for us, to get us the goals we need,” Berkeley coach Quincy Struve said. “Usually our scoring is more diverse, but Jamie did a great job today.” 

Geisse followed Lee’s goals with her own long run, during which she fended off five ’Jackets on her way to the goal. The Dons pulled out all the stops for the next two minutes, scoring two goals in 12 seconds, and seemed happy with the 7-3 lead.  

With six minutes left in the first half, they went into a stall, holding the ball in the Berkeley end but not shooting. The ’Jackets seemed afraid to be the aggressors on defense, as they had exposed their goalie to several one-on-one situations early in the game, and the half played out with little action on the field. 

“We generally play a defense where we wait for a challenge, rather than presssuring out,” Struve said. “You run the risk of getting burned when you run at people. We tend to wait and be ready to go where they’re going.” 

Unfortunately for Berkeley, the Dons came out firing to start the second half. They needed just 40 seconds to score their first goal of the half, and followed up four minutes later with another. But Krieger reeled off two quick assists, one to Elizabeth Howe and one to Lee. Lee then scored another goal on a strong solo run, and the ’Jackets were back within three. 

Once again, the Dons headed off a Berkeley comeback before it could really pick up steam. Taking less than 30 seconds to get back a four-goal lead, they quickly extended their lead to five on a fast break. Berkeley’s Kate Walstead found Krieger open for a goal to get back within four, then Lee and Geisse started trading goals. Lee broke triple coverage to score, but Geisse sliced through the Berkeley defense for an answer. Lee again waded through the Acalanes triple-team for a goal, but Geisse recovered a loose ball and fired her final goal into the Berkeley net with four minutes left to make the score 13-9. Although Lee found Sonja Graves for a goal seconds later, the ’Jackets couldn’t keep possession long enough to get any more good shots, and the Dons’ swarming defense finally stopped Lee, as she had two shots deflected before they got to the Acalanes goalie.

When a high school team improves its record dramatically from one year to the next, the reasons are usually found in the maturation of players as they gain experience. But for the Berkeley High boys’ golf team, which will likely claim a share of the league title after winning just one match last season, there are three factors for the improvement, and none of them are carried over from last year. 

Probably the biggest reason for the team’s 7-1 record in the newly-formed Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League is an infusion of talent from the middle school level. Of the seven players who perform in league matches for the ’Jackets, four are freshmen. In all, coach Evan Nik Dang has six freshmen on the 12-man squad this year. That’s a pretty big step up from last season, when the team had a hard time putting together a five-man team for some matches. 

“Last year, we knew we didn’t have a chance of winning, so a lot of times people didn’t show up,” said junior Adam Breckler, the only current player who was on last year’s team. “This year, with so many guys being competitive for spots, we can concentrate on winning more.” 

That winning has undoubtedly been made easier by Berkeley’s switch from the ultra-competitive East Bay Athletic League to the ACCAL. The EBAL was full of teams from the suburbs, where golf is much more prevalent than in the urban schools of the ACCAL. In fact, only five of the nine ACCAL members even field a boys’ golf team. 

Berkeley’s main competition for the league title this year is Alameda. Berkeley has already completed the season series with the Hornets, with each team winning at its home course. Neither team has lost another league match. Both figure to win their remaining matches as well, which would leave them in a tie for the title. 

In addition to their league matches, the ’Jackets have had a chance to play at some of the best courses on the west coast, including Spyglass, Hidden Brook and Oakhurst. Those opportunities came via Dang, who is in his first year of coaching the team. 

Dang is a Berkeley High graduate (Class of ’74), and was hired shortly before the current season. That left him little time to put together a schedule for the team, but he did an admirable job, getting the team into two tournaments and dates at some great courses. As a result, there were 25 golfers at team tryouts, and Dang had the luxury of keeping the best 12, a big improvement from last season. 

“Being hired at the last minute, I had to scramble for a schedule,” Dang said. “But we got some great courses and good tournaments, which I’m sure helped attract more players.” 

Those players produced good results at the tournaments, as the ’Jackets finished third in San Leandro and sixth in Brentwood. 

The freshmen who made the team include Samson Taka Holmes, whose brother was last season’s best player. Samson saw his brother go through tough times during his Berkeley High career, and is grateful he doesn’t have to endure the same. 

“It’s a totally different atmosphere this year,” he said. “Everyone really wants to play this year.”

A group of senior citizens recounted stories to the City Council of poor service and mistreatment by taxi drivers who they say are rude, unhelpful and overcharge. That is, of course, if they show up at all. 

The seniors were talking about Berkeley’s subsidized taxi service that provides transportation for the elderly and disabled. Taxi riders purchase discounted vouchers, which are called scrip, from the city and use them instead of cash to pay taxi fares with contracted taxi services. 

The cab companies redeem the scrip with the city once a month at 90 cents on the dollar.  

According to Commission on Aging Vice Chair Charlie Betcher, there are fewer cab companies willing to provide the scrip service. The only cab company that currently provides the scrip service is Friendly Cab, which did not return phone calls to the Daily Planet on Wednesday.  

“Ten years ago there were 10 cab companies that were contracted with the city to provide scrip service. Now there’s only one.”  

Betcher said taxi drivers are reluctant to pick up scrip fares because the elderly and disabled often go short distances and want drivers to perform other tasks besides driving such as carrying grocery bags.  

The City Council was scheduled to consider a recommendation from the Commission on Aging that would raise the redemption value of the scrip for cab drivers, redeem the scrip for cash twice a month instead of once a month and require all contracted cab companies to provide a specific portion of scrip service each day as a requirement of permit renewal.  

Magnolia Evans, 70, one of about 40 scrip-using seniors who attended the meeting, told the council she has missed doctors’ appointments because cabs show up late. “I took a cab to the grocery store and when I was done shopping, I waited three hours for the cab and it never came,” she said.  

Evans said a grocery store worker finally gave her a ride home after her shift was done.  

Ester Kassoy, 88, said she was stranded at a market and had to walk 15 blocks when a cab didn’t show up. 

“I can’t understand why a liberal city like Berkeley would allow cab drivers to treat old people this way,” she said. 

City Manager Weldon Rucker asked the council to postpone voting on the recommendation until May 8. He said officials from the Housing Department, which administers the program, need time to consider other alternatives.  

According to Interim Director of Housing Stephen Barton, one alternative might be requiring all cab companies that take fares in Berkeley to be required to provide scrip service. 

COA Commissioner Maris Arnold said the commission hopes to have a Scrip Rider Bill of Rights prepared by May 8. “We want cabs to show up when they say they will,” said Arnold. “Every cab company that does business in Berkeley should have to sign the document.”  

Rucker said he takes the situation very seriously and told seniors at the meeting to call his office if they have complaints about cab service. 

Lodging Law 

The City Council did not have time to address the Compassionate Treatment of Homeless recommendation at Tuesday’s meeting, disappointing homeless advocates who waited late into the night. 

The recommendation, submitted by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, called for a moratorium on enforcement of a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to sleep on public property as well as in abandoned buildings and automobiles.  

About 75 homeless advocates, many of them homeless themselves, attended the meeting to show support for the moratorium.  

But it became clear at 11:30 p.m. that the council was unwilling to extend its meeting to consider the issue as well as several others that remained on the agenda.  

The recommendation was moved to next Tuesday’s meeting. 

Community organizer, Darren Noy, of Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, said he was disappointed the council didn’t take action on the item.  

“They don’t want to deal with the issue,” he said. “They ignored the fact that there are people sleeping on the streets tonight who have no where else to go and they are being arrested.”  

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said that the city does not have the authority to enact a moratorium on state law but the city can make issuing citations and arresting the homeless a low priority. 

“Even if we do that,” she said, “people could still make citizens’ arrests which the police would have to carry out.”  

MORAGA – Cal allowed Saint Mary’s to score four runs in the third inning and six runs in the fifth inning on the way to a 10-6 loss to the Gaels Tuesday at Louis Guisto Field in Moraga. The Bears fall to 22-19 overall and Saint Mary’s improves to 14-25.  

Cal’s freshman starter James Holder gave up four runs to the Gaels in the third inning, yielding a fielder’s choice RBI to Mike Reardon, a two-run double to Mark Teahen and an RBI single to Brian Houle.  

The Bears responded with a run of their own in the fourth inning on an RBI bunt single by senior Rob Meyer, but then things fell apart in the bottom of the fifth inning. Cal freshman reliever Brian Montalbo gave up six runs on five hits in the fifth, but also was a victim of two Bear errors in the inning.  

Despite being down 10-1, Cal did make a game of it by scoring four runs in the sixth inning and a run in the seventh inning. In the sixth, the Bears had five straight hits against Saint Mary’s reliever Gabe Palma to start the inning, including an RBI double by Clint Hoover and a three-run homer to right field by Brad Smith, his first collegiate home run. Cal added a run in the seventh on an RBI single to left field by Carson White, but couldn’t get any closer..  

The Bears will next travel to Tucson, Ariz. for a three-game Pac-10 series Apr. 20-22 against Arizona.

As the Berkeley school board considers ways to reduce an estimated $5 million budget shortfall next year, including possibly increasing class sizes slightly for some grades, some are wondering if the district can still afford to take hundreds of students each year from outside the city. 

“The impact on the district hasn’t been quantified,” said board Director John Selawsky Wednesday. “We can tell how many kids are coming in, but nobody has really broken that down to determine what it does to class size.” 

In the current school year, 673 of the district’s more-than 9,000 students live outside Berkeley, according to district records. Nearly 90 percent of them hail from Oakland or the West Contra Costa County School District. 

“People perceive Berkeley public schools as being markedly better than some of our neighboring districts primarily because of the (level of financial support for Berkeley schools),” Selawsky explained. 

But what Selawsky and others want to know is: are the out-of-town students putting undo strain on the district’s finances? 

“This has always been an issue, particularly for property owners (who pay taxes),” said Berkeley PTA Council President Mark Coplan. “We need to have information at our finger tips to tell us what effect this has.” 

Of course, as is often the case, this is easier said than done. 

At the heart of the question, said Fred Dunn-Ruiz, manager of student services for the school district, is the issue of whether the so-called interdistrict transfer students bring in more money than it costs to educate them, resulting in a net gain for district finances. 

The lion’s share of school district revenues come from the state and are paid out on the basis of the district’s overall attendance numbers in a given year. More students means more revenue – roughly $24 more for each day those students attend school. 

During the tenure of former Superintendent Jack McLaughlin, who left earlier this year, the Berkeley school district actually had an informal policy of trying to encourage school enrollment growth in order to increase education dollars the district receives from the state, Dunn-Ruiz said. 

And, Berkeley school district enrollment growth outstripped the state average for unified school districts between 1995 and 1999, growing at more than 4 percent annually, from 8,308 students in the 1995/1996 school year to 9,400 students in the 1998/1999 school year. 

But Berkeley’s robust school programs and low student/teacher ratios can be traced, in large measure, to the millions of dollars Berkeley taxpayers shell out each year under the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Project tax measure, passed by voters in 1994. Under that measure, Berkeley schools have $5.3 million a year to pay for additional teachers to keep class sizes small, for example. But it is a fixed number, and as district enrollment grows, the funds are not enough to meet the district’s class-size reduction goals. 

As a result of interdistrict transfer students, “we have the district gaining some money, but on the other hand it’s diluting the enrichment funds,” Dunn-Ruiz said. 

Furthermore, there is broad consensus among district administrators that Berkeley High School, with its 3,300 students, has outgrown its 17-acre campus. More than 40 percent of Berkeley’s interdistrict transfer students, or 281 kids, are Berkeley High students. Selawsky said he wanted to know how much those 281 students impact the school’s limited resources. 

“That’s the kind of information that we need,” he said. “It’s important to separate the anecdotal stuff from reality.” 

Berkeley resident Kris Hardie actually opted to send her son to Albany High school, fearing that he would not cope well at Berkeley High after his years in a small, private elementary school. 

“There are not as many issues with violence and fights,” at Albany high school, Hardie said, as she filled out transfer forms at the Student Services Office in Berkeley on Wednesday.  

“Although I know Berkeley has some great programs, so it’s kind of a trade off,” she added. 

Selawsky said he is not suggesting current interdistrict transfer students should be removed from Berkeley schools, but merely asking how interdistrict policies might be used in the future to control enrollment growth, should such an action prove desirable. 

Berkeley school district Interim Superintendent Stephen Goldstone said reducing the high school’s enrollment could have significant negative impacts as well.  

Since large schools such as the high school can spread out their costs, the expense of educating a few hundred more students is relatively small, Goldstone said. As a result, much of the state money brought in by interdistrict transfer students could be available to support other district programs in need of more funding, he said. 

Goldstone said district staff are working on “refining” some of the information around inter-district transfer issues to provide more definitive answers to the questions raised by Selawsky an others. The information will be presented to the school board during a public forum some time next month, he said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Five days after he was rescued from nearly eight months in the hands of Muslim rebels in the Philippines, Jeffrey Schilling arrived home Wednesday to an emotional welcome. 

Schilling was met by his mother and a number of supporters at San Francisco International Airport before he was led by police to a waiting van. 

Schilling appeared gaunt, tired and a bit bewildered as he entered the terminal. He did not speak to reporters. 

Army troops in the Philippines found the Oakland resident barefoot and covered with mosquito bites when they rescued him Thursday on southern Jolo Island, where he had been held in a jungle since August by the Abu Sayyaf rebels. He left the Philippines for Guam, a U.S. territory 3,700 miles west of Hawaii, on Sunday after debriefings by American and Philippine authorities. 

Schilling, a Muslim convert, was detained by the Abu Sayyaf when he and his now-wife, Ivy Osani, traveled to an Abu Sayyaf camp last August. Osani, a cousin of one of the guerrillas, was allowed to go. 

However, Osani remains in the Philippines, where she is waiting for clearance to come to the U.S. It is not clear when that might happen. 

Schilling has denied links with the Abu Sayyaf and told reporters before he left the country that he wanted the military to continue assaults to annihilate the group. 

The Abu Sayyaf, one of three insurgency groups battling the government, threatened to behead Schilling as an April 5 birthday gift for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. 

Arroyo responded by ordering a massive military assault against the Abu Sayyaf, resulting in Schilling’s rescue. 

Meanwhile, the wife of the final hostage held by Muslim guerillas pleaded Wednesday for his safe return so he can see his four-month-old son for the first time. 

Joy Acune, 34, said diving instructor Roland Ullah was unaware that she was pregnant with their second child when Abu Sayyaf separatist rebels captured him, 10 other resort workers and 10 Western tourists on Sipadan island off northeastern Borneo on April 23 last year. 

All the captives except Ullah were released or rescued in stages amid protracted negotiations, with Malaysia and Libya reportedly paying millions of dollars in ransom to the Abu Sayyaf. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Survivors of San Francisco’s devastating 1906 earthquake gathered at a historic fountain Wednesday morning for a wreath-laying ceremony marking the 95th anniversary of the temblor that leveled much of the city. 

In 1906, Lotta’s Fountain served as a meeting point for survivors looking for loved ones. This year, more than a dozen survivors met at there as sirens blared at 5:12 a.m., the exact time of the quake. 

Most of the survivors were toddlers during the 7.8-magnitude quake that killed about 700 people and triggered a fire that all but destroyed the city. Many remember the commotion surrounding the quake, but said they were too excited to be scared. 

Flora Allen, 98, was almost 4 years old when she was woken up by the shaking. 

“I was screaming,” she said. “I remember my mom dressing us up all nice and warm and putting us in the middle of the street, not having any drinking water, my brothers showing us at night how red the sky was because the city was burning.” 

Allen, who has lived in Mexico and throughout Latin America, now lives in Alameda and said the earthquake taught her not to worry. 

“Something’s going to happen no matter where you go,” she said. 

Bessie Shum was two when the earthquake happened. She remembers her father rushing in and telling the family there was no time to pack.  

He had to carry her mother out because, as part of Chinese tradition, her mother’s feet were bound and she could not walk. 

Others remembered what their parents told them about the quake and its aftermath. Marie Sagues, who was 2 days old at the time, said her parents and others put stoves out in the street because they couldn’t cook in the house. 

The earthquake lasted at least 45 seconds, about twice as long as is typical, and the movement traveled along an almost 300-mile long stretch of the San Andreas fault.  

Many survivors have said they heard a low rumbling that grew louder for a few seconds before the ground began to shake, said Jack Boatwright, a geophysicist for the United States Geological Survey. 

The ground shook violently back and forth and the land along parts of the fault moved as much as 26 feet, Boatwright said. Some areas sank as much as 5 feet, he said.  

The quake was probably centered somewhere off the coast of San Francisco, not under the city. 

The San Andreas fault has the potential to experience an earthquake up to 50 percent stronger than the one in 1906, Boatwright said. But there’s only a 5 percent chance that the region will experience a quake the size of the 1906 one over the next 30 years, Boatwright said. 

“That is very small,” he said. 

The survivors at Wednesday’s commemoration were treated to breakfast at the Westin St. Francis hotel, one of the few buildings that survived the temblor and is standing today. In the hotel’s lobby, photographs of the city after the quake show piles of rubble covering streets, with only a few buildings standing. 

SANTA BARBARA — Nearly two years of attempts to reach an agreement on creating no-fishing zones around California’s northern Channel Islands almost collapsed Wednesday when fishermen and environmentalists failed to reach a compromise. 

The snag occurred during a meeting of the Marine Reserves Working Group after the most conservation-minded members of the panel grew frustrated with what fishing interests were willing to give up around Channel Islands National Park. 

“I don’t know if it is realistic or ever was that all of these people can come to a consensus,” said Deborah McArdle of the California Sea Grant Program, a government group involved in the talks. 

Group members agreed to talk to their constituents about areas of agreement reached so far and meet again within the next month. 

The working group was formed by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council in July 1999 to help create a reserve that would ban fishing in some areas of the national park. A final decision on establishing the reserve is up to the California Fish and Game Commission, Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. 

Marine reserves are relatively rare but are on the rise, with one approved recently in the Florida Keys and several others proposed in California. 

Finding consensus on where to ban fishing proved difficult Wednesday because the areas around the islands are widely used by sport and commercial fishermen. If squid fishermen don’t use a particular spot, chances are that it’s worked by lobster trappers, sea urchin divers or kelp harvesters. 

During the hearing, computer images of proposed no-fish areas projected on a screen expanded and contracted as fishing interests pleaded their cases. Fishermen said they were willing to give up more than 90,000 acres of fishing areas, the bulk of it around westernmost San Miguel Island. 

But environmentalists pressed in vain for more protection for kelp beds and waters off sandy beaches. They cited a study by a science advisory panel that concluded that 30 percent of the area around the islands needed to be off-limits to fishing to prevent depletion of marine life. 

Many fishermen dispute that figure and have been looking to keep no-fish zones at 15 to 25 percent of the total area. 

“I think certain members of the group have come a long way, and we’re being treated like dirt because we didn’t go all the way,” said Robert C. Fletcher, president of the Sport Fishing Association of California. 

Neil Guglielmo, who harvests squid in the area said, “I just gave away two miles of very productive squid habitat and now, because we are not meeting everyone’s expectations of a Garden of Eden, it was thrown out.” 

Time is running out for the group because a state panel also is planning marine reserves and will make its own recommendation for the islands this summer if the group fails to provide any. 

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers are looking for ways to lure more qualified teachers into the schools that need them the most – those with mostly poor, minority and non-English-speaking students. 

Lawmakers spent much of Wednesday considering a variety of bills to lure more qualified teachers to these schools that, studies have shown, are more likely to have unqualified teachers and low test scores. 

Proposed solutions include higher pay, smaller class sizes, cleaner schools and other ways to make those schools more attractive to qualified, experienced teachers. The first of these bills have started to move through the Legislature’s education committees. 

Schools with the lowest scores on the statewide test are predominantly those with the poorest students, the highest numbers of minority children and the most kids who don’t speak English. 

Low-performing schools also are the most likely to have many classes taught by teachers without the state credential showing they have a college degree, have taken teacher training classes and have passed a basic-skills test. 

Currently, 37,000 of the state’s 292,000 teachers are teaching with emergency credentials, says state school Superintendent Delaine Eastin. 

Those unqualified teachers are not evenly distributed among schools, according to a study by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Cruz. 

The schools tend to be those in the state’s poorest communities, where students come to school the least prepared and are most in need of the best teachers, says the center. 

Leaders of the California Teachers Association, the state’s larger teachers’ union with 295,000 school and college members, have started a bus tour this week to some of those lowest-performing schools to promote their own proposals. 

The CTA wants to make those schools attractive places to teach by giving districts money to use as needed to train teachers, reduce the sizes of more classes, improve school buildings and provide books and materials. 

CTA President Wayne Johnson, sitting in the bus near Jefferson Elementary School in Fresno, said by telephone that transferring teachers involuntarily to low-performing schools will not work. 

“We think that would probably drag a lot more teachers out of teaching,” he said. 

The committee, with CTA support, Wednesday approved a bill to gradually reduce class sizes in grades four through eight, starting with the state’s lowest-performing schools. The state’s class-size-reduction program covers kindergarten through third grades and some ninth-grade classes. 

The teacher shortage, caused by more students, teacher retirement and class-size reduction, is expected to worsen, with California needing 300,000 new teachers in the next decade. 

SANTA ROSA — Two men arrested for growing 899 pot plants were acquitted Wednesday on charges of cultivating and possessing marijuana. 

A Sonoma County jury found Kenneth E. Hayes and Michael S. Foley innocent after a day of deliberations. 

The two men had claimed they were growing the plants for the 1,200-members of a San Francisco medical marijuana club called CHAMP – Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems. Hayes ran the club. 

The pair was arrested in May 1999 after a county narcotics task force found the plants in a greenhouse near Petaluma. 

Prosecutors said Hayes and Foley grew the marijuana for profit and were not the patients’ primary caregivers.  

That definition was at issue because state law, approved by voters as Proposition 215, allows marijuana possession with a physician’s approval for medical patients and their caregivers. 

“Our contention was that you can’t be a caregiver under the definition of the statute to that many people,” said Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins. “The jury felt otherwise.”

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — NASA on Wednesday unveiled a futuristic “scramjet”-powered aircraft designed to hurtle over the Pacific Ocean at up to 7,200 mph in a test this spring, becoming the world’s fastest air-breathing plane. 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s first unpiloted X-43A will make its maiden flight in mid-May, flying under its own power for just 10 seconds and about 17 miles before coasting to a water impact off the coast of California. 

Two more X-43As will fly at six-month intervals. The 12-foot-long, surfboard-shaped planes with spatula noses and 5-foot wingspans should travel seven to 10 times faster than the speed of sound. 

“This is an aviation first in that no one has flown an air-breathing aircraft at Mach 7,” said Vince Rausch, manager of the X-43A program at NASA’s Langley Research Center. 

If successful, the X-43A will smash the speed record of Mach 6.7, set by an X-15 in October 1967. But unlike the rocket-powered X-15, the X-43A, or Hyper-X, has an air-breathing engine. It carries hydrogen for fuel, but must scoop oxygen out of the atmosphere to combust it. Conventional rockets carry both fuel and an oxidant. 

Currently, the fastest air-breathing aircraft is the SR-71 “Blackbird,” which cruises slightly faster than Mach 3.  

The X-43A should become the first air-breathing plane to go hypersonic, or faster than Mach 5. 

The government has pursued the idea of routine hypersonic flight for four decades, including an abortive $2.4 billion effort begun under President Reagan to build a “National Aero-Space Plane” capable of zipping halfway around the globe in a few hours. 

“The concept is pretty simple, it’s just that no one can seem to make it work,” said Howard McCurdy, a professor of public affairs at American University. 

The $185 million X-43A project is purely experimental. Engineers will collect flight data needed to build future planes perhaps 200 feet in length. The first piloted prototypes may fly by 2025. 

Such planes will probably never carry commercial passengers because of the high acceleration, high heat generated by friction with the atmosphere and the difficulty of turning a plane moving at those speeds. 

“This is not a very nice way to travel,” said Hans Hornung, director of the graduate aeronautical laboratories at the California Institute of Technology. 

Backers of the technology see air-breathing hypersonic propulsion as advantageous for improving access to space.  

Eliminating the need to carry oxygen could cut the weight of a space-faring version of such a plane in half. 

The X-43A, however, requires a big boost to get going. 

During the test flights, one of the same B-52s used on the X-15 program will haul the X-43A to about 24,000 feet and release it. A booster rocket will ignite to accelerate the X-43A to its test speed and altitude of about 100,000 feet.  

The X-43A will then separate from the booster and fly west over the Pacific under its own power and control. 

The X-43A needs the rocket boost in order for its specialized supersonic-combustion ramjet, or “scramjet,” engine to work. 

In normal jet engines, rotating blades do the compression work for the engine. Ramjets work through the subsonic combustion of fuel in a stream of air compressed by the forward speed of the aircraft. In scramjets, however, the airflow travels through the whole engine faster than the speed of sound. 

“The analogy is lighting a match and keeping it lit in a hurricane,” said Joel Sitz, X-43A flight test project manager at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. 

In the X-43A, the shape of the plane itself forms part of the engine, with the forebody acting as the intake for the airflow and the aft serving as the nozzle. The copper engine has no moving parts other than the valves used to supply the hydrogen fuel. 

“From the nose to the tail, you basically have a flying engine,” Rausch said. 

Project officials said that using a rocket to get the X-43A up to speed is a complicated but necessary step because the scramjet propulsion system cannot be tested at such velocities in a laboratory. 

“It’s a brute-force approach to get something to test conditions,” Raush said. “For a real airplane this is a goofy way to do it, but this is research.” 

Initial plans called for the X-43As to land on San Nicolas Island, southwest of Los Angeles, but ultimately they were built without landing gear. None of the X-43As will be recovered from the ocean.

SACRAMENTO — Unchecked free-market forces drove up the price of natural gas to Southern California Edison by about $750 million over the last year, an industry consultant testified Wednesday. 

Paul Carpenter told the Assembly Electricity Oversight Subcommittee the price spikes came after the El Paso Natural Gas Co. contracted first with Dynegy and later with its own marketing affiliate, El Paso Merchant Energy, to control the pipeline capacity. 

The California Public Utilities Commission estimated a year ago that overcharges by the companies that control natural gas flow drove up prices by $100 million a year to California gas and electricity customers. 

But PUC attorney Harvey Morris said that was before last summer’s price spikes, which he blamed on natural gas suppliers using a “monopoly” to “game the system.” 

“It’s way worse than we could possibly have imagined,” Morris said after testifying before the subcommittee. “It’s obviously way higher than $100 million.” 

Natural gas rates at the California border generally tracked national prices until November, when they spiked as high as 11 times higher than the price of natural gas elsewhere in the nation, Carpenter said. 

“I have never seen gas prices like this anywhere in the world,” said Carpenter, who has been studying the energy market for 20 years for Cambridge, Mass.-based consultant The Brattle Group. The Brattle Group was hired by Edison to study the natural gas market. 

Officials with El Paso and other natural gas suppliers have denied illegally manipulating the market. They are scheduled to testify Thursday. El Paso officials did not return telephone calls for comment Wednesday. 

The committee is one of two legislative committees exploring whether illegal market manipulation in the electricity and natural gas markets has driven up California’s energy costs. 

“This is a market that is plagued by the exercise of market power,” Frank Wolak, chairman of the California Independent System Operator’s Market Surveillance Committee, told the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation of the Wholesale Energy Market. The ISO runs the state’s power grid. 

However, “there is no law against me saying, ’I’m not going to sell to you,”’ Wolak said. Market manipulation only becomes illegal when there is collusion, Wolak said, and such evidence is hard to find. 

Electricity generators and natural gas suppliers say a severe supply and demand imbalance – not market manipulation – has led to higher prices. 

“Everybody’s busy doing investigations. They’re not interested in solving the problem,” said Independent Energy Producers Executive Director Jan Smutny-Jones. 

Investigations “are wasting everybody’s time,” Smutny-Jones said, adding that previous probes and lawsuits have uncovered no wrongdoing. He said the state’s power problems came because state regulators denied utilities the chance to sign long-term energy contracts when they had the chance. 

“People have been playing by the rules,” Smutny-Jones said. 

But the Senate committee’s first witnesses are ISO officials who authored studies that claim the state paid more than $6 billion too much for power last year. 

Committee chair Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, also has slated state Auditor Elaine Howell, who last month blamed buyers and sellers for skyrocketing electricity costs. Dunn also has scheduled future testimony from state, federal, academic and private investigators studying the power market. 

He invited five major generators to attend the committee’s second hearing next week. All five – Reliant, Dynegy, Williams Energy, Duke Energy and Mirant – say they are eager to cooperate and clear their names, Dunn said. 

Dunn asked the five for a total of 86 specific documents. If the companies feel they cannot provide documents because of legal or confidentiality concerns, Dunn said he will subpoena them. 

Smutny-Jones said investigators appear to be growing desperate to blame the state’s natural gas and electricity price hikes on illegal market manipulation instead of natural market forces. 

He cited Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s announcement last week that any informant who helped prove wrongdoing would be entitled to a percentage of the state’s recovery he estimated could range from $50 million to hundreds of millions of dollars. 

“If the state’s offering a $50 million reward, they haven’t found anything,” Smutny-Jones said. “I don’t think you’re going to find the fact that anybody did anything criminal here.” 

Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, said she believes otherwise after Wednesday’s testimony: “I think it is very clear there was some price manipulation going on.” 

But Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine, isn’t sure there was anything illegal. 

“There clearly are market forces at work, that’s evident,” Campbell said. “Whether you make the jump to market manipulation ... I haven’t seen conclusive evidence that leads me to make that jump.” 

WHAT’S NEXT 

• The Assembly’s Energy Oversight Subcommittee plans to resume hearings Thursday in its inquiry into California’s highest-in-the-nation natural gas prices with testimony from gas companies. 

• Davis’ representatives continue negotiating with Sempra, the parent company of San Diego Gas and Electric Co., to buy the utility’s transmission lines. Davis says he expects to have an agreement within two weeks. 

• The state Public Utilities Commission will decide Thursday whether to investigate why a key block of power generators is staying off-line despite regulators’ order last month that they start getting paid by the state’s utilities. Independent Energy Producers Executive Director Jan Smutny-Jones says the generators can’t afford to operate because they are still owed more than a billion dollars, and because the PUC’s rates don’t cover their operating costs. 

The problem: 

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

• Edison and PG&E say they’ve lost nearly $14 billion since June to high wholesale prices that the state’s electricity deregulation law bars them from passing on to consumers. PG&E, saying it hasn’t received the help it needs from regulators or state lawmakers, filed for federal bankruptcy protection April 6. 

• Electricity and natural gas suppliers, scared off by the two companies’ poor credit ratings, are refusing to sell to them, leading the state in January to start buying power for the utilities’ nearly 9 million residential and business customers. The state is also buying power for a third investor-owned utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, which is in better financial shape than much larger Edison and PG&E but also struggling with high wholesale power costs. 

•The Public Utilities Commission has raised rates up to 46 percent to help finance the state’s multibillion-dollar power-buying. 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis urged state regulators Wednesday to approve the construction of a controversial power plant in southern San Jose. 

The proposed 600-megawatt power plant would provide electricity to roughly 450,000 homes in the Silicon Valley. 

“It will provide reliable energy to a part of the state that is now too dependent on outside power,” Davis said at a press conference at a Sacramento Municipal Utility District electric substation. 

Building and permitting new power plants in California is critical to pull the state from its current energy crisis, Davis said. 

“We will build our way out of this, probably by the end of 2003,” Davis said. 

Calpine Corp. has promised to provide the electricity produced at the Metcalf Energy Center plant only to the local community, Davis said. 

In November, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and the rest of the city council voted to block Calpine and its partner, Bechtel Enterprises Inc., from building the proposed $400 million, natural gas-fueled Metcalf plant. Gonzales said the plant would be too close to residential areas. 

The plant would be built in San Jose’s Coyote Valley, one of the area’s last swaths of open space. Cisco Systems Inc. also hopes to build a $1.3 billion office complex there, which some resident oppose but the mayor supports. 

Davis said all communities in the state must do their part and the Metcalf plant would be one of the nation’s most efficient. 

“They’ve made a number of concessions to San Jose,” Davis said. “The plant will be as efficient as any in the nation.” 

If the California Energy Commission approves the project this summer, it could be done by spring 2002, Davis said.

SACRAMENTO — Former vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman Wednesday jumped on the pile of key Democrats thumping President Bush for ignoring California’s energy crisis. 

“You can’t disengage from California’s problems as if they were happening somewhere else on the globe,” Lieberman, D-Conn., said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles during his three-day speaking and fund-raising tour of the state. 

Lieberman said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should impose price caps on electricity wholesalers, a move Bush opposes. 

“If FERC does not do that,” Lieberman said, then the Senate should act. He said he will support a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ordering FERC to impose caps. 

Lieberman – who said he is “not closing any doors” on a possible presidential run in 2004 – is crisscrossing the state delivering speeches and meeting with powerful fund-raisers and lawmakers. 

He is scheduled to meet separately Thursday with Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to discuss the energy crisis. 

Lieberman also is to attend a prayer breakfast in Sacramento Thursday morning with Hertzberg and Gov. Gray Davis, where Lieberman jokingly said the three will “pray together for more energy, more rain and more electric generation.” 

Later Thursday, Davis plans to meet with 25 members of the state’s congressional delegation from both parties, to discuss what the federal government and lawmakers can do to help the state. 

Davis and others have said price caps will help ease the electricity crisis that has caused rolling blackouts statewide and record electricity rate increase for many residents. 

The state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., filed for bankruptcy April 6 and two other investor-owned utilities say they are drowning in debt from paying sky-high wholesale electricity prices. 

Lieberman’s trip comes at a time when Democrats are accusing the Republican president of shunning the Golden State, where Vice President Al Gore beat him by 1.3 million votes in November. 

Bush’s recently released budget plan calls for cuts in several California-oriented programs, including a more than 50 percent reduction in a program that helps states pay to incarcerate criminal illegal immigrants. It also shaves dollars from agriculture, renewable energy programs and hints at possible military base closures. 

The president also has not visited California despite traveling to 26 other states, including Lieberman’s Connecticut Wednesday, in his first three months in office. 

However, Bush’s sole Democrat on the Cabinet – Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, a former House member and San Jose mayor – defended the White House this week. Mineta told reporters Tuesday that Bush realizes the state’s political clout and the power crisis’ potential national effects. 

Bush also has appointed three Californians to his Cabinet, including Mineta, and dozens of others for key administration jobs. On Tuesday, the White House announced Bush has nominated Huntington Park City Councilwoman Rosario Marin to be U.S. treasurer. 

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to say whether the president has any future plans to travel here. 

“I don’t think that the president’s travel schedule suggests the president’s opinion of one state or another,” Lisaius said. “He’s the president of all 50 states.”

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, under fire for scrapping former President Clinton’s standard for arsenic in drinking water, announced plans Wednesday to set a new standard within nine months. 

Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she was asking the National Academy of Sciences to examine the impact of a range of possible reductions. The new standard could be higher or lower than that set by Clinton. 

President Bush drew heavy criticism from environmentalists and others last month when his EPA killed a Clinton administration regulation that would have tightened the standard to no more than 10 parts of arsenic per billion in drinking water. The current standard, set in 1942, is 50 parts per billion. 

Whitman said she wanted a panel of scientists at the academy to examine a standard in the range of three to 20 parts per billion. “The Bush administration is committed to protecting the environment and the health of all Americans,” Whitman said in a written statement, promising a final regulation within nine months. 

She said the decision to seek a report from the academy would “ensure that a standard will be put in place in a timely manner that provides clean, safe and affordable drinking water for the nation and is based on the best science.” 

Senate Democrats called attention to the delay in tightening the arsenic standard, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the senior Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, questioned its legality. 

“I am troubled by the notion that EPA would ignore a federal law requiring that a new arsenic standard be established by June 22,” he said.  

“There has been no consultation with Congress and no mention of meeting the federally mandated time frame for this action to take place.” 

The Bush administration’s decision on March 20 to stop the regulation put into place three days before Clinton left office created an uproar, and the latest action drew further criticism. 

“That is a huge step backward, no matter how they try to spin it,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. “The Bush administration should be ashamed that it has taken this course and all the more ashamed 

that it was announced on this Earth  

Day weekend.” 

Whitman argued there was insufficient scientific evidence to justify the $200 million annual cost to municipalities, states and industry of meeting the new Clinton standards by 2006. 

“I have said consistently that we will obtain the necessary scientific review ... and that we will establish that standard in a timely manner,” she said Wednesday. 

In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences said that arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer, and might cause liver and kidney cancer. 

The study found a cancer risk of one in 100 at the current 50 parts per billion standard, dropping to one in 250 at 20 parts per billion, one in 500 at 10 parts per billion and one in 1,667 at three parts per billion. 

Arsenic is both a naturally occurring substance and industrial byproduct, entering the water supply from natural deposits and pollution. It is found at high concentrations in Western mining states and other areas heavy with coal-burning and copper smelting. 

Physicians for Social Responsibility said the new study will only confirm what science has already shown: the lower the standard, the better. 

“There is no safe level of arsenic,” said Robert K. Musil, the group’s director. “A mountain of existing research - including a new report on the dangers of low-levels of exposure published just last month - shows that the safest standard the United States can adopt is the lowest one: three parts per billion.” 

The Clinton EPA had initially proposed setting the standard at five parts per billion last year in response to a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, but then settled at 10 parts per billion. 

Environmentalists, who have argued for years that the arsenic standard should be stricter, criticized the EPA on Wednesday for putting off a final decision. 

“We’re outraged that this is going to assure a year of delays for protection of public health for millions of Americans,” said Erik D. Olson, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

He and other environmentalists said the parameters set by Whitman showed that the EPA was headed toward settling at 20 parts per billion — double the Clinton standard. 

——— 

On the Net: 

EPA Office of Water: http://www.epa.gov/ow 

Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org 

Physicians for Social Responsibility: http://www.psr.org 

WASHINGTON — A largely black congressional district can be constitutional if drawn to satisfy political rather than racial motives, a divided Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. 

Just in time for the new round of congressional redistricting, the 5-4 ruling gives states a roadmap for drawing boundaries that acknowledge race. 

The court upheld the crazy-quilt outline of a North Carolina district drawn after the 1990 Census.  

Rep. Mel Watt won the seat in 1992 as one of two blacks sent to Congress that year from a state that had not sent one since 1901. 

North Carolina said it redrew the district in 1997 to concentrate Democrats, not blacks. The state wanted to maintain an even split between Democrats and Republicans in its congressional delegation. That goal may be political, but it is also constitutional, state officials argued. 

“The evidence ... does not show that racial considerations predominated in the drawing of District 12’s boundaries,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority. “That is because race in this case correlates closely with political behavior.” 

The majority, led by the court’s more liberal members, said that North Carolina legislators were within their rights to draw a district that strings several city centers along skinny ribbons of countryside. 

“After all, the Constitution does not place an affirmative obligation upon the Legislature to avoid creating districts that turn out to be heavily, even majority, minority,” Breyer wrote.  

“It simply imposes an obligation not to create such districts for predominantly racial, as opposed to political or traditional, districting motivations.” 

State legislatures can follow North Carolina’s lead and provide alternative justification for drawing a heavily black district, while acknowledging that race is part of the equation, national participants in the current redistricting said. 

“This decision will help Democrats preserve every existing minority district and protect minority voting opportunities from Republican gerrymanders across the country,” said Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas, head of his party’s redistricting strategy group. 

Republicans also said they liked what they viewed as a decision upholding the status quo. 

“I think it certainly gives them (states) some guidance. We have a district here that’s been upheld,” said Don McGahn, general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee. 

Wednesday’s ruling marked the fourth time the high court had looked at Watt’s district. 

In a landmark 5-4 ruling in 1993, the high court said the oddly shaped concentration of black voters in a largely white part of the state might violate the rights of white voters. 

Majority-black districts were also overturned in Texas, Florida and Georgia. 

The high court underscored its reasoning in another case covering the same district in 1996.  

North Carolina then redrew the 12th the next year, making it somewhat more compact and reducing the number of blacks it contained. 

Watt won re-election in 1998, even as white voters filed and won a new challenge in federal court.  

The Supreme Court then overturned the lower court in 1999 and sent the case back. The majority reasoned, much as it did Wednesday, that opponents had not made their case that race was the overriding factor. 

This time, Breyer was joined by Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Dissenting were Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. 

O’Connor was the key swing vote. She is a former Republican majority leader of the state Senate in Arizona, and the only member of the court with a background in partisan electoral politics. 

The cases are Hunt v. Cromartie, 99-1864, and Smallwood v. Cromartie, 99-1865. 

——— 

On the Net: Supreme Court site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

WASHINGTON — To paint wholesaler Erasmo Hinojosa, free trade means savings for his grandchildren’s college, more weekend getaways and the possibility of an early retirement. 

To Carol Colborn, a former factory inspector, free trade means losing 33 years of seniority and being forced to accept a job with lower pay and little vacation. 

Hinojosa and Colborn are two faces of the trade debate that will be reignited when President Bush attends the Summit of the Americas in Canada this weekend. 

Bush and 33 other Western Hemisphere leaders are pushing the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a hemisphere-wide agreement targeted for 2005. Advocates say it would boost U.S. exports and help the economy while encouraging Latin American and Caribbean countries to continue moving toward democracy and free markets. 

Opponents, including many congressional Democrats, say free-trade agreements have hurt U.S. workers by encouraging companies to cut costs and move to countries with lower wages, poor working conditions and lax environmental standards. 

For Hinojosa and Colborn, it’s an issue that goes beyond the debates in Congress or the protests that have occurred in Seattle and Washington – and are anticipated in Quebec City this weekend. Free trade has changed their lives. 

Hinojosa credits free trade for his job managing a Mexican-owned paint wholesaler and retailer in San Antonio, Texas. He’s doubled his income and declares, “I can now see a future.” 

Colborn blames it for the loss of the job she held for 33 years, at a company that makes controls for gas appliances in New Stanton, Pa., 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. 

Colborn started working at the plant when she was 22. She worked her way up to a quality control inspector, making $14.50 an hour with five weeks of vacation, 11 holidays, and both pension and 401(k) savings plans. 

But in January 2000, the plant was shut by its last owner, the British company Invensys. Colborn and her union, United Steelworkers Local 1163, say many of the jobs went to Mexico. 

A company official in Richmond, Va., Andrew Bonham, said the shutdown resulted from a consolidation following the merger that created Invensys.  

He said 50 percent of the plant’s production went to outside contractors, 35 percent to a company plant in Mexico and 15 percent to one in West Plains, Mo. 

Three months after losing her job, Colborn found work conducting quality-control audits for a subcontractor to a supermarket chain. She earns $2 an hour less, has only five holidays, one week of vacation and no pension plan other than the 401(k). 

“I’m starting at the bottom and working my way up again. What took me 33 years, now I’m starting completely over,” said Colborn, 55.  

Colborn, who is divorced, said she has to be more careful about what she buys. She planned to remodel her kitchen, but can only afford to replace some windows. 

Also 55, Hinojosa said his life has become more comfortable, thanks to his job managing the Amerimex Paint Center. 

He now hopes to retire by age 62. Before he got that job, “I believed I would be working until I died,” he said. 

Hinojosa started at Amerimex when it opened in 1995. The Mexican paint company Comex opened the store a year after the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, formed a trade bloc among the United States, Mexico and Canada.  

Though NAFTA didn’t directly affect the business, it created an environment that encouraged cross-border trade, said Brian Martin, a Comex manager in San Antonio. 

Hinojosa said his previous job managing a paint store paid $32,000 a year. Now, including bonuses, profit sharing and other benefits, he earns about $75,000. 

“That has given me a little more stability than in the other job I had,” he said. “I could not see a future. Now I see a future.”

JACKSON, Miss. — The NAACP raised the threat of an economic boycott Wednesday to drag Mississippi “kicking and screaming into the 21st century” after voters overwhelmingly decided to keep their 107-year-old state flag with the Confederate emblem. 

NAACP leaders said they will decide next month whether to lead a boycott, a tactic used by the organization against South Carolina, where a Confederate flag flew for decades over the Statehouse dome until it was taken down last year. 

“That flag has never been my flag, nor will it ever be my flag nor the flag of black people in the state of Mississippi who really understand the reason behind the Confederate flag and all of its history,” state NAACP President Eugene Bryant said. 

By nearly 2-to-1 Tuesday, Mississippi voters decided to keep their 1894 flag, rejecting a new design that would have replaced the Confederate emblem with a cluster of 20 stars signifying Mississippi’s admission as the 20th state. 

No other state prominently displays the Confederate emblem on its flag. 

“The voice of the people has been heard. The people of Mississippi do not want another flag. Mississippians are proud of their families, this state and its rich history,” said William Earl Faggert, a leader of the state Sons of Confederate Veterans. 

Mississippi NAACP official Deborah Denard said the vote means the state will have to be “dragged along kicking and screaming into the 21st century.” 

“Mississippi is kind of acting like children in that regard,” Denard said. “They know that the Confederate banner has to go eventually, but they have to cling to antiquated ideas about what constitutes honor and dignity.” 

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove supported the new flag, saying the racially divisive Confederate symbol could hurt business. After the vote, he said: “It’s important that we accept the majority vote and move forward with the business of bringing new jobs and better opportunities to all Mississippians.” 

Even though Mississippi lacks the drawing power of a major city like Atlanta, tourism-related businesses employ 94,000 people and pumped $6 billion into the state economy last year.  

Gambling at 30 state-regulated casinos accounted for $2.62 billion of that. 

A coalition of business leaders, academics and civil rights groups had pushed for a new flag, saying the Confederate X hurts Mississippi’s image. 

“We thought it was the right thing to do,” said Andy Bourland, director of the Mississippi Gaming Association. 

University of Georgia historian James Cobb – whose 1992 book “The Most Southern Place on Earth, explored social divides in the Mississippi Delta – said Mississippi’s hold on the Rebel flag could put it at a disadvantage in economic development. 

“Mississippi will be the last Confederate state – that will be the rallying cry for some,” Cobb said. 

Faggert, of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, condemned the possibility of boycotts. 

“Our state had withstood yet another unbelievable assault on its culture by a few of its own citizens and other outside influence that cowered toward political correctness carried to the extreme,” he said. 

Kirk Fordice, who served two terms in the 1990s as Mississippi’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction, said the world should accept the flag vote. 

“What people have to understand is that Mississippians resent the heck out of the constant drumming on the part of the media and others, day after day, that something’s wrong with you if you support the old flag,” Fordice said. “You have to change hearts, not the flag, if you want racial reconciliation.” 

The state has 2.8 million people, 61 percent of them white and 36 percent black. The vote was 65 percent to 35 percent in favor of the old flag, though in a few majority-black counties, the vote was surprisingly close. 

On the Net: 

http://www.naacp.org 

http://www.state.ms.us 

Flag history: http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/flags/ms—flag.htm 

NEW YORK— An unexpected interest rate cut and a stream of positive earnings news sent stock prices soaring Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrials leaping as much as 470 points and the Nasdaq composite barreling back above 2,000. 

Better-than-expected first-quarter profits had already sent stocks sharply higher in mid morning trading when the Federal Reserve announced it was lowering interest rates by 0.5 percentage point. The cut, the fourth this year, gave investors hope that the economy and earnings will rebound by the end of 2001. 

The market’s early, earnings-inspired gains were not a surprise; stocks have been moving higher this month, including the Nasdaq’s four-day winning streak last week, its first such advance since early September. Wall Street has been encouraged by the market’s recent stability despite poor earnings reports. 

Investors also expected stocks to recover somewhat after the major indexes suffered their worst first quarter in decades, when even the Dow industrials – considered the safest havens on Wall Street – slipped briefly into bear market territory. 

However, the rate cut was quite unexpected. Analysts said the market was particularly pleased by the Fed’s move because it was bigger and sooner than anticipated, coming ahead of the Fed’s mid-May meeting. The Fed’s decision also helped propel trading volume to record levels — an all-time best 3.18 billion shares on the Nasdaq and the second-best of 2.25 billion on the New York Stock Exchange, well ahead of 1.31 billion on Tuesday. 

“It energized the market right on the spot,” said Alan Ackerman, executive vice president for Fahnestock & Co. “The market was really waiting for a catalyst, and this Fed move appears to have been just that.” 

But analysts cautioned that the market remains vulnerable after months of losses and volatility and that it was too soon to tell if Wednesday’s momentum would last. 

“You have to take a wait-and-see attitude,” said Ricky Harrington, a technical analyst for Wachovia Securities. 

The Fed’s move came shortly after the Conference Board reported that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators, used as a forecasting tool, fell during March, signaling continued weakness in the economy. Investors have been hoping the Fed would cut rates more aggressively to stimulate the economy and ultimately send profits and stock prices higher. 

Analysts said one of the most encouraging aspects of Wednesday’s rally was the fact investors were swayed more by good news than by earnings warnings from high-tech bellwethers Cisco Systems on Tuesday and Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday. 

Cisco rose $1.35 to $18. Hewlett-Packard, which also announced it will cut up to 3,000 management jobs, rose $2.65 to $31.90. 

“The strength in tech stocks is looking much better,” said Harrington, the Wachovia analyst. “There has been a continued series of negative reports that the market has shrugged off. It is the best sign, in layman’s terms, that the market is ready to move up.” 

Some stocks, however, stumbled on weaker earnings. Gillette fell $2.50 to $26.50 after saying it missed analysts’ expectations due to increased costs, a decline in sales and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. 

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners about 2 to 1 on the NYSE. 

The Russell 2000 index rose 10.93 to 466.51. 

Overseas markets also made strong gains Wednesday with Japan’s Nikkei stock average closing up 4.4 percent. Germany’s DAX index climbed 4.0 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 rise 2,2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 advanced 3.1 percent. 

——— 

On the Net: 

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

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

The Federal Reserve’s enormous power over the economy was demonstrated again on Wednesday with a brief announcement that in minutes added billions of dollars to stock market valuations. 

The exultation in the stock market, depository for a large portion of the financial assets of more than 50 million households, was remarkable in itself, but more importantly as an indicator of things to come. 

Stocks don’t rise on the basis of past or present performance, but on prospects for earnings. Lower interest rates not only cut costs and so help to improve earnings, but they spur expansion plans now on hold. 

They can also be an alternative to the cost-cutting practice of mass layoffs, almost a daily occurrence among technology companies that in recent months saw their markets dry up as consumers put off purchases. 

And, equally significantly, they can lower the rates debt-ridden consumers – the latest reports show them borrowing to maintain life styles – must pay on credit-card balances, assuming banks are quick to comply. 

The broadest reaction to the cut is likely to be an improvement in mass psychology, affecting businesses, consumers and investors, all of whom have been licking their wounds and putting spending plans on hold. 

Consumer confidence had remained surprisingly strong. Business had been postponing capital spending projects, such as for new plants and equipment. 

Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, has repeatedly expressed concern about the dangers inherent in using high interest rates to restrain the economy. And those dangers seemed to have been rising. 

Bad enough that consumers, who account for two-thirds of economic activity, had lost so much of their investment and pensions assets. Now the Fed feared falling corporate earnings would cut business spending too. 

The Fed’s job is to anticipate and guide the level and direction of economic activity, balancing supply and demand in a quest for sustainable, low inflation growth.  

John Cunniff is a business analyst for The Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Despite American criticism, Israel on Wednesday briefly re-entered the Gaza Strip and leveled a Palestinian police station on territory granted to Yasser Arafat’s government in peace agreements. 

The raid in southern Gaza came 10 hours after Israel withdrew troops from a square-mile area they had seized Tuesday morning at the opposite end of the strip. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came under criticism that he had bowed to pressure from the United States, which had denounced the land takeover. 

Israel said its actions were a response to Palestinian mortar and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians. The attacks and Tuesday’s land seizure outraged Palestinians. Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians would respond with “popular resistance” to Israel’s incursions. 

Soon after Israeli troops pulled out of the northern pocket, six mortars hit near the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in Gaza. After nightfall Wednesday, five mortar shells landed at Nir Am, an Israeli village just outside the Gaza border fence, as well as near the Gaza settlement Kfar Darom, the military said. No injuries were reported. Israeli tanks fired shells at a police post in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, Palestinians said. 

Sharon’s government insisted it had planned to pull out of the northern Gaza pocket even before Secretary of State Colin Powell denounced the takeover. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke with Powell by phone Wednesday and said Powell’s sharp words had resulted from a “problem with communication.” 

In a telephone call late Wednesday, President Bush carried a message of restraint directly to Sharon, the White House said, reinforcing U.S. efforts to moderate Israel’s retaliation to Palestinian attacks. 

“Both leaders agreed on the need for restraint by both parties to avoid further escalation in the area,” White House spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman said. 

Sharon aide Raanan Gissin said the call was aimed at clearing the air over the incursion. 

Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia praised the U.S. stand against the Israeli incursion.  

He said it showed that the United States can play an active role in Middle East peacemaking and “can impose this role on Israel.” Up to now the Bush administration has hesitated to involve itself deeply in the conflict. 

In Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Commission censured Israel for allowing Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, with only the United States taking Israel’s side. 

In Wednesday’s incursion, a tank and two bulldozers razed a Palestinian police station and farmland near Gaza International Airport in the southern Gaza Strip, then returned to Israeli-controlled territory. 

The army said shots had been fired from the position at workers at the nearby Israeli-Egyptian border fence. No one was injured in the shooting. 

During its land-seizure in northern Gaza, Israeli troops razed six Palestinian police stations and destroyed orange groves and farmland outside the town of Beit Hanoun. Hassan Shabat, returning to his farm, said he lost 5,000 chickens, the livelihood of a family of 17. 

Traces of the incursion were everywhere – tracks of battle tanks, piles of concrete rubble, dozens of weary and frustrated Palestinians shifting through the ruins. Before its troops entered early Tuesday, Israel fired a heavy rocket barrage across the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian policeman. 

Soon after troops seized the pocket, an Israeli army commander had said troops might remain in place for “days, weeks or months.” Yet the soldiers were pulled out just several hours after Powell called the Israeli action “excessive.” 

Sharon’s aides denied there had been a hasty about-face following the U.S. condemnation, the harshest rebuke of Israel since Bush took office three months ago. 

The decision to withdraw was made at a time when Powell was still “sleeping the sleep of the just” in Washington, said Gissin, the Sharon adviser. The army said the Israeli brigadier general who spoke of a possibly extended stay of troops in the Palestinian-controlled area had “exceeded his authority.” 

But legislators from both the dovish opposition and right-wing parties accused Sharon of unfairly shifting the blame to the army officer to avoid the appearance of having succumbed to U.S. pressure. 

“Sharon is covering up an operational failure,” said Shaul Yahalom of the right-wing National Religious Party. “Instead of admitting he withdrew under American pressure he shifts the blame to .. Naveh.” 

Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip, whose communities have frequently been targeted by Palestinian mortars, complained that Sharon has not lived up to his promise to restore security. 

Yossi Yered, whose infant son was injured in a mortar attack on a Gaza settlement earlier this month, said troops should not have withdrawn from the Palestinian area. 

“Where is the feeling of security?” asked Yered. “They (government officials) talk, talk, talk and when finally they do something, they back down with their tail between their legs.” 

Military commentators called the army’s incursion a resounding failure because it did not prevent more mortar fire and deprived Israel of a major option. 

“The Palestinians know that there is no longer an (Israeli) option of going in and occupying areas they control. A card has been lost,“said Roni Daniel, the military correspondent for Israel Channel 2 TV. 

COTONOU, Benin — Police questioned passengers from a ship that sparked a frenzied hunt for suspected child slaves, seeking clues Wednesday to the status of scores of children once thought to be aboard. 

The Nigerian-registered MV Etireno, which U.N. and local officials originally thought left Benin two weeks ago with 100 to 250 children destined for the slave trade, docked in Cotonou Tuesday, but reportedly few children were aboard. 

The disembarked passengers were questioned as part of an official inquiry launched Wednesday on whether the ship carried child slaves along the coast of West Africa. 

“The captain of the Etireno and his crew are still confined aboard because we need them for the investigation,” said Martin Degan, head of the police department’s child protection unit. “That’s all we can say for now.” 

Government officials also requested foreign diplomats to supply “any possible assistance” on whether there had been any trafficking in slaves, diplomats said on condition of anonymity. 

The vessel first grabbed world headlines last week when government officials in Benin announced that a ship loaded with child slaves had been turned away from two African ports and was headed back to Cotonou. 

Benin said it had been tipped off by officials in Douala, Cameroon, where the boat had been prevented from docking last week. 

Passengers and crew of the Etireno confirmed the vessel had indeed been turned away from Douala, as well as from Gabon’s capital, Libreville – but not because it was carrying child slaves. The boat apparently didn’t have proper documents and its passengers had traveled abroad willingly, in search of work. 

The ship’s Nigerian captain, Lawrence Onome, denies he was trafficking child slaves and says he has nothing to hide. 

Some U.N. officials and aid workers speculate that the children might have been thrown overboard, although there is no evidence to suggest that. Others say the Etireno was confused with a second ship, whose name and whereabouts remain a mystery. 

“We are pleased, extremely pleased. We’ll do whatever we can to facilitate and move the process along,” said Nicolas Pron, a senior official with the U.N. children’s fund in Benin, after hearing the police inquiry had begun. 

The ferry, once known as the Nordby, was built in Denmark in 1969 and shuttled between Danish ports until it was sold three years ago to the Nigerian company, Titanic Investments, said Gert Jacobsen, a spokesman for the Scandlines shipping group. At the time of its sale, its name was changed to Etireno. 

The boat has a capacity of 400 passengers, but Social Protection Minister Ramatou Baba Moussa said its handwritten manifest listed 139 names, including seven children. 

Aid workers said they took a number of unaccompanied minors from the ferry to two children’s homes in Cotonou, where they were allowed to eat and rest before being interviewed by police. It was not immediately clear how many of the children were aboard. 

UNICEF officials said 31 children were taken from the ship and placed in homes. The Swiss-run Men of the Earth charity, which runs one of the homes, put the number at 43. 

The U.N. children’s fund on Tuesday ordered its offices along Africa’s western coast to stay alert for the possibility that the child traffickers they sought might turn up elsewhere. 

But on Wednesday there was still no news of another ship. 

Despite efforts to end child trafficking, the trade remains a serious problem on the continent, particularly in West and Central Africa. 

Parents living in some of the poorest countries on the planet are sometimes willing to sell off their own children for as little as $14 – often in the belief the children will be educated and find employment. Most end up instead as prostitutes or slaves in coffee and cocoa plantations. 

Alfonso Gonzalez Jaggli, regional delegate of the Men of the Earth, said the police inquiry into the Etireno was a necessity. 

“An international investigation would be the logical way to prove what happened to the others,” Jaggli said. “It is not possible to clear up the question of trafficking at this time.” 

Benin, a small country of 6 million people, has a history of slave trading. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was known as the Slave Coast for its role as a center of the trans-Atlantic trade. 

PRETORIA, South Africa — Pharmaceutical giants entered settlement talks with the government Wednesday, a sign they are dropping their fight against a law that could provide cheap copies of AIDS drugs to millions of South Africans. 

The suit, postponed until Thursday as the discussions continued, has deeply embarrassed the drug companies since it began six weeks ago. Many have responded by drastically cutting prices on their own. 

However, human rights groups say those prices would fall even further in the face of generic competition. 

An official with one of the pharmaceutical companies said the suit “had largely been resolved” after the South African government reached an agreement with several of the largest companies involved. 

Those companies spent much of the day convincing the remainder of the 39 companies involved in the suit to accept the agreement, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Only technical issues, including who will pay court costs, remained to be worked out, the official said. 

International human rights groups and AIDS activists have waged a global public relations offensive against the suit, which they see as an obstacle to securing medication for the nearly 26 million people in Africa infected with HIV. 

As the case resumed Wednesday morning after a six-week postponement, Stephanus Cilliers, a lawyer for the drug companies, asked for a four-hour recess “in hopes that certain discussions that are going on will obviate the need for further ... proceedings.” 

When court reconvened at 2 p.m., he was granted a recess until Thursday morning so discussions could continue. 

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang declined to comment on the negotiations as she left the courtroom, which was filled to standing-room capacity with journalists, AIDS activists and union members expecting a settlement. 

The pharmaceutical companies had argued that the South African law, which was never implemented, was too broad and unfairly targeted drug manufacturers. 

The government, AIDS activists and human rights groups say the drug companies are trying to wring profits out of a public health nightmare that threatens to devastate South Africa and dozens of other poor countries. 

The situation has changed drastically since the suit was filed more than three years ago. At that time, the European Union and the United States backed the drug companies and the case had almost no impact on the public’s view of the drug companies. 

Since then, however, the U.S. government and the European Union withdrew their support for the case, and the pharmaceutical companies have suffered a public relations battering. 

“The pressure was just too much for them not to respond to,” said Ellen ’t Hoen, an official with Medicins Sans Frontieres. 

Zachie Achmat, chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign, a local AIDS activists’ group that had filed a brief in support of the government demanded the companies drop the suit immediately, and appealed to the government not to compromise in the talks. 

“There’s nothing to discuss. The companies must simply withdraw from the case,” he said. “We ask the government to stand fully by the legislation, not to give an inch, because the law is on their side, the Constitution is on their side, international law is on their side.” 

Members of the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association held a press conference Tuesday at the gates of the proposed site of a synagogue to announce the next steps in their opposition to the project. 

At the historic wrought iron gate in front of the two-acre site at 1301 Oxford St., LOCCANA spokesperson Juliet Lamont said several groups would appeal to the City Council the Zoning Adjustment Board’s granting of a use permit for a proposed 35,000-square-foot synagogue and school. The project includes a 32-car parking lot. 

About 30 people attended the press conference including several representatives from Beth El and six LOCCANA supporters dressed in tree and fish costumes. 

According to the appeal, the permit is being challenged because of an inadequate Environmental Impact Report and ZAB’s “irregular” treatment of the project during the permit process. 

“We are formally filing the appeal on behalf of the 2,300 citizens who have signed a petition opposing the development and the neighbors who have put in their time to try and find an alternative,” Lamont said. 

Beth El spokesperson Harry Pollock said the charge of irregularities was not warranted. He said that ever since the congregation submitted its application in September 1999, the process has been above board and public.  

“This has been a very detailed process and the project has been put under a microscope from the very beginning,” he said.  

The proposed site is the former location of the Napoleon Byrne Mansion, which was a Berkeley historical landmark until it was destroyed by an arson fire in 1985. Despite the loss of the structure, the Landmarks Preservation Commission reaffirmed the property’s landmark status. 

Codornices Creek, partially culverted, runs across the northern portion of the property. Opponents say the proposed parking lot, which will be placed very near the banks of the creek, will preclude the culverted section from ever being daylighted. 

LOCCANA and 11 environmental groups including the San Francisco Bay chapter of the Sierra Club, The Golden Gate chapter of the Audubon Society and the Center of Biological Diversity, are appealing the March 8 decision by the ZAB to approve the project.  

The appeal, which was filed Tuesday, states five reasons the permit should be revoked including a poorly prepared Environmental Impact Report, violations of the California Environmental Quality Act and procedural irregularities on the part of the ZAB. 

Berkeley attorney Sharon Duggan, who assisted in preparing the appeal, said the EIR was certified despite an inadequate description of some buildings and their uses. “One example is the Social Hall that is normally 3,000-square feet but has the capability to expand to 3,600-square feet” she said. “There was no mention of that in the EIR.” 

The appeal also states that granting the permit was an abuse of discretion because “the ZAB gave this applicant preferential treatment and numerous procedural irregularities impermissible tainted the approval process.” 

“What the neighbors want is a fair forum to be heard in,” Duggan said, “and we hope the City Council can provide that.” 

Pollock said that the process has so far been fair and public. “Of all the accusations I’ve heard since we began this process, that’s the silliest,” he said. “The city has had go before numerous commissions and boards and there has been over 55 hours of public testimony and discussion, I don’t know where the irregularities occurred.” 

Addressing the group gathered at the property gate, LOCCANA member Alan Gould called attention to the “story poles,” a loosely framed structure of two-by-fours that outlines the actual height and width of the proposed project. “These poles give an idea of just how large this project is going to be,” he said.  

Pollock said the story poles show that the height and width of the frontage of the synagogue on Oxford Street is proportioned to the height of the homes directly across the street. 

“It fits perfectly into the context of the residential scale of the neighborhood,” he said. “In fact the building is set further back than most of the homes on the street and doesn’t take up the entire width of the frontage property.” 

But Gould said the building doesn’t fit in with the neighborhood. “This building will be the size of the Safeway at Rose and Shattuck,” he said. “Or another way of looking at it is it has the same footprint of a football field.” 

In a conflicting decision on March 5, the Landmarks Preservation Commission denied a Beth El application to demolish two existing structures that are standing in the way of the proposed development. Beth El is expected to file an appeal with the City Council on that decision. 

Both permit decisions have been sent to the City Council, which was expected to schedule public hearings on both issues at Tuesday night’s meeting. 

Wednesday, April 18

Stagebridge Free Acting  

& Storytelling Classes for  

Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755 www.stagebridge.org 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Stroke Prevention  

10 - 11:30 a.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland  

Cardiovascular Nurse Practitioner Debbie Seneca will speak about stroke prevention, as well as the warning signs of stroke and what to do if you suspect that someone is having a stroke. Free 

869-6737 

Art & Jam  

5 - 7 p.m. 

30 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Ryan Buckley and Dave  

will play songs to sing-along to. Free 

Thursday, April 19

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Garrett Murphy 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. 869-2547 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” 654-5486 

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. At this months meeting, Peter Mui, a Berkeley resident who retired at 32, will give a presentation on transforming your relationship with money and the “stuff” we buy with it.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Cancer Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Summit Medical Center 

Markstein Cancer Education & Prevention Center 

450 30th St., Second Floor  

Oakland  

Free support group for families, friends, and patients diagnosed with cancer.  

869-8833 to register  

Celebrating Our Past,  

Envisioning Our Future 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

The PSR Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry hosts its first annual conference which will address racism and heterosexism; being “out” in ministry; queer spirituality; queer and Asian; queer theory and comparative religions and other topics. This is a two day event.  

849-8206 

Light Search & Rescue 

9 a.m. - Noon  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

A free class as part of Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). Sponsored by the Berkeley Fire Dept. and the Office of Emergency Services. 644-8736 

EcoCity Message of Curitiba, Brazil 

7:30 p.m. 

Chan Shun Auditorium  

Valley of Life Sciences Building  

UC Berkeley  

Maria do Rocio Quandt, the chief representative of the policies, designs, planning and projects that have made Curitiba the ecological development model to the world will share strategies for long term success of cities on planet Earth. Opening remarks by Robert Haas, former U.S. poet laureate. 

$5 - $10 donation 649-1817 

Chiapas Support Committee 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. (at Prince) 

The delegation to Mexico will report back about the EZLN march and its aftermath with video footage, first-hand accounts, slides and more.  

654-9587 

Estate Planning for the Living 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Norlen Drossel, an estate planning attorney, will cover such topics as the difference between a will and a living trust, durable power of attorney for health care, and other topics of importance to those who don’t plan on dying.  

601-4040 x302 

Exploring Grand Staircase  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Liz Hymans, a leading panoramic photographer in the U.S. will share slides and stories of the making of “Hearst of the Desert Wild,” which celebrates the spirit of Grand Staircase - Escalante. Free  

527-4140 

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register  

and for location  

Transportation Commission Workshop 

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst St. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

A presentation of the Transportation Demand Management Study’s key findings and a discussion of Study objectives and related TDM program elements.  

Gray’s Gain, Public Pain  

7 p.m.  

2060 Valley Life Sciences  

Building 

UC Berkeley  

A slideshow presented by the Sierra Club California Forestry Reform Campaign. They invite you to “learn how you can make a difference in the fight to protect our natural heritage for future generations.” 622-0290 x250 

Friday, April 20

Stagebridge Free Acting  

& Storytelling Classes for  

Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Oakland  

Call 444-4755  

www.stagebridge.org 

Free Writing, Cashiering  

& Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

50 Plus Fitness Class  

9:30 a.m. - Noon 

UC Berkeley (varied locations)  

A class for those 50 and over which introduces participants to an array of exercise options. Demonstration and practice will include strength training, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, and more. Fridays through May 11.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

Trash Bridges 

1 p.m.  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Join Trash Bridges, garbage detective, in this Science Discovery Theatre performance as he explores how recycling, reusing, reducing and composting can help us tackle the ever-increasing garbage humans create. Free with museum admission.  

642-5132 

Saturday, April 21

California Native Plant Sale  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Regional Botanical Garden  

South Park Drive & Wildcat Canyon Road 

Tilden Regional Park  

A variety of plants will be for sale and proceeds benefit Botanic Garden programs. Please bring boxes for carrying your plants home.  

841-8732 

Family Farm Day  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way  

As a complimentary event to Earth Day Berkeley, taking place in Civic Center Park, this will be a chance to see what life is like on a farm. Farm equipment, an observable beehive, human powered hayrides, sheep, and more. Free  

548-3333 

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Hands-On Seed Cleaning 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

924 Gilman St.  

Covering a variety of techniques and methods. At noon there will be a seed and plant swap, so bring envelopes to gather seed in.  

548-2220 

Building a Garden at  

Cragmont Elementary  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Cragmont Elementary School  

1150 Virginia St.  

Volunteers are asked to help students and staff of Cragmont make planter boxes, weed, trim, plant trees and more. The garden will be used in the schools environmental education program.  

Call Ellen Georgi 525-6058  

Run for Life  

8 a.m.  

UC Berkeley Campus 

An event to “Celebrate the Spirit of Goodness in Children.” Includes a 3K, 5K, and 10K course for walking or running around UC Berkeley. Culminating in a celebration in the newly renovated Edwards Track Stadium. Sponsored by Nantucket Nectars.  

$18 - $25 per person 

866-786-4543 or www.runforlife.net  

I-House Spring Festival  

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. . 

International House  

2299 Piedmont Ave. (at Bancroft)  

A celebration of cultures from around the globe. Featuring delicacies from India, the Netherlands, Turkey, Taiwan more. Performances of traditional dance on five stages.  

$3 - $5  

642-9460 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

6:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Art Center  

1275 Walnut St.  

Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton.  

527-9753 

Berkeley Earth Day  

11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way 

Beginning with an Eco-Motion parade, with kids and adults using forms of non-polluting transport. The Earth Day Fair will feature music, revolutionary comedy from Sherry Glaser, and speaker Rachel Peterson from Urban Ecology. Also, a climbing wall, kid’s making area, vegetarian food and beer, crafts, beeswax candle making and much more. Free 

654-6346 

Albany Senior Center White Elephant Sale 

9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. 

Friends of Albany Seniors 

846 Masonic Ave.  

Albany  

524-9122 

Earth Day Creek Walk  

10 a.m.  

Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy Garden 

Gilman and Curtis  

Explore history and opportunities for restoration on lower Codornices and Cerrito Creeks on an Earth Day walk co-sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers and Friends of Five Creeks. Bring water and snacks.  

848-9358 

Free Puppet Shows  

1:30 & 2:30 p.m.  

Hall of Health  

2230 Shattuck Ave., Lower Level 

The Kids on the Block, an award-winning educational puppet troupe which includes puppets from diverse cultures and puppets with medical conditions such as leukemia and spina bifida, will perform. Free  

International Tour Directing? 

8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Vista Community College 

2020 Milvia St., Room 303 

Learn about careers in tour leading: Dealing with guides, hotels, airlines and other suppliers, and much more. Learn what qualifications are needed and where the jobs are/aren’t.  

$5.50 for CA. residents 

981-2931 

Sunday, April 22

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 

The Value of Meditation  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Bob Byrne will discuss how you can bring the benefits of meditation into your life. Meditation instruction will be included. Free 

843-6812 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to repair a flat tire from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie will teach how to kick up your heels and move your hips. Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices are encouraged to attend.  

$10  

237-9874 

Plants of the Bible Tour 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

Explore the gardens with docents who will point out plants mentioned in the bible.  

643-1924 

Health Awareness Fair  

Noon - 1:30 p.m. 

Calvary Presbyterian Church  

1940 Virginia St.  

Booths for blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, massage therapy, geriatric medicine, HIV/AIDS, various cancers, nutrition and diet. Free 

415-454-8725 

Pedestrian-oriented environs good for mental health 

Editor: 

I’m writing as an ecopsychologist, to express what I believe to be a valuable perspective on traffic in the city. Ecopsychology is a field of study and practice that focuses on the impact of environment on the human psyche. Many ecopsychologists, including myself, agree that urban settings can often be psychologically harmful. The reason for this has to do with negative sensory input such as that from the smell of car exhaust, the noise of traffic, and the monotone dullness of gray cement. These negative sensory stimuli cause the senses to partially shut down so that they take in as little as possible of this abrasive input. When the senses shut down, parts of the psyche, including emotional and spiritual aspects also suffer because they cannot be mirrored by the environment.  

Sensory input from the natural world around us is a vital component of psychological health.  

With regard to traffic in Berkeley, I’d like to support two projects. The first is the development and implementation of a clean fuel shuttle bus system that would go to all BART stops, shopping districts, employment centers, residential areas and satellite parking lots for commuters.  

The Draft General Plan speaks of trying to attract new riders to public transportation with little success in the past few years. Speaking for myself as a typical female resident of Berkeley who also works in the city, I would use bus service to get around town if it was frequent, reliable, clean, safe and pleasant.  

Even if I thought that bus service was reliable, I would still not want to ride a bus that was noisy and smelly as are the AC Transit diesel buses. Their size and design are also problematic in that the deep cavernous interiors of the buses are intimidating to enter.  

Berkeley citizens are longing for bold solutions to traffic problems that will make the city pleasant and fun to get around in.  

The second traffic related project I want to support is a car free, pedestrian downtown. I’m aware that this idea is deemed impractical by those who quote commercial interests as fearing that their businesses will suffer if cars can’t drive to them. I believe that businesses would do much better in a pedestrian downtown.  

As an ecopsychologist, its my sense that people in Berkeley want communal spaces where human interaction doesn’t take second place to the automobile. I think this can be seen in the success stories of pedestrian commercial districts in cities around the country. A day spent in a downtown setting without cars and traffic could bring a delightful sense of freedom and even community. 

The parking problems, noise and traffic are too horrendous. But in a pedestrian downtown sidewalk patios for cafes and restaurants could expand and become destinations to spend time at rather than places to grab some easy food on a harried lunch break. The street might have outdoor entertainment; and in combination with more trees and greenery, not to mention the daylighting of the creek, our downtown could be unbeatable as a dynamic, thriving, and wonderful place to be. 

In past decades Berkeley has fallen behind other cities through its lack of ecological or environmental initiatives relating to cars and traffic. As a result we are being overwhelmed by twentieth century gridlock and pollution. Help bring Berkeley into the 21st century, and make Berkeley a place that all of its citizens can be proud of. 

Fran Segal, Ph.D. 

Berkeley 

Proposal curtails freedoms 

The Daily Planet received this letter, edited for length, addressed to the City Council, dated April 14. 

Re: Proposed adoption of a new Chapter 13.47 requiring advance notice to the Chief of Police for large events. 

At the April 17 City Council meeting, the action calendar will include an item entitled “Advance Notice to the Police Department.” We are asking you to vote against this item. 

The proposed ordinance would cover any “large event” that takes place in Berkeley that is not covered by chapter 13.44 (“march, demonstration, assembly or parade, festival, street fair, concert, block party, or any other gathering on any public street, sidewalk or alley within the City”), 13.46 (“entertainment events in residential occupancies”) or 6.46 (“park events”). 

That means it would cover any event that is not in a public park, private residence or city street. 

It would cover any event which is open to the public that is held indoors or outdoors, and it would apply to events that “can reasonably be expected to draw over 500 persons, whether or not all prospective attendees are ... able to attend.” If an event is planned at a venue that accommodates 250, and unbeknownst to the organizers, 500 people show up, this ordinance would apply. This definition of events would most certainly cover events which are political in nature. 

We also object to the city manager maintaining a list of operators and promoters since this list will most certainly include people who plan events of a political nature. Hence, the city would maintain a list of people who do political organizing in Berkeley, reminiscent of the list the FBI kept on communist party members in the fifties. 

The ordinance has a complicated notification time schedule which is burdensome. The information that event operators/promoters must provide the police department include: description of event, rules for its conduct, name address and phone number of all persons responsible for the promotion and conduct of the event, extent of advertising, expected number of attendees, and security arrangements. 

Based on these factors, the chief of police may require the promoter/operator to provide security not to exceed one security person per 25 attendees. For many events, this would be cost prohibitive. For an event for 500 people, this would be 20 security personnel. At the modest rate of $8 per hour, it would cost $1,000 for a 5-hour event. 

We are concerned that the number of security personnel required will be prejudicially applied based on the “character” of the event, i.e. the type of event, with raves, political events, or events which might be perceived by the chief as drawing people of color, being required to provide the highest attendee/security ratio. 

We are opposed to this item because it impinges on our constitutionally protected “freedom of assembly,” and can be selectively enforced.  

COPWATCH 

Berkeley 

Be TV, don’t kill it 

Editor:  

In honor of “Turn Off Your T.V.” Week, April 23 - 29, we propose a radical alternative to keeping your set off. Instead of watching television or avoiding television altogether, head down to Berkeley Community Media and learn how to make some television. There is much to complain about when it comes to the quality of television, but don’t withdraw completely from this valuable, pervasive, and exciting educational and entertainment medium - take matters into your own hands and put what you want to watch on T.V.  

Berkeley Community Media is a wonderful community media resource that not only operates public access channel 25, which is available to cable subscribers in Berkeley and airs government, educational, and an amazing variety of community-produced programming) but offers low-cost classes to the community in camera operation, editing, studio production, and more. BCM also offers fee-based taping and editing of community events, and will air the results.  

BCM is a community bulletin board, a learning center, a blank canvas for video-artists-in-waiting, a virtual campfire around which to share our stories. It has so much to offer and too few Berkeley residents know about it. Come down and visit the staff, members, and volunteers at the center at 2239 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, on the Berkeley High School campus, between Bancroft and Allston. Our hours are Monday - Thursday, 1:30 - 9 p.m., Friday, 5 - 9 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

We understand and sympathize with the grievances of the “Kill Your T.V.” faction, but we think we have a much better solution - don’t kill your T.V., be T.V.  

Sonja Fitz 

BCM Board of Directors

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership. April 20: The Blast Rocks, The Sissies, Uberkunst, Audiowreck, Pirx the Pilot; April 21: MU330, Slow Gherkin, Big D & The Kids Table, The Lawrence Arms; April 27: Atom & His Package, Phantom Limbs, Har Mar Superstar, The Frisk, Shubunkins; April 28: 7 Seconds, Throwdown, Vitamin X, Over My Dead Body, Breaker Breaker; 525-9926  

Albatross Pub All music begins at 9 p.m. April 18: Whiskey Brothers; April 19: Keni “El Lebrijano” 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ashkenaz April 18, 9 p.m.: Brenda Boykin & Home Cookin’, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 19, 9 p.m.: Blues for Choice with Craig Horton Blues Band, Rabia, Steve Gannon, Mz Dee, Georgia Freeman, Mark Naftalin, RJ Misho; April 20, 9:30 p.m.: Tamazgha; April 21, 9:30 p.m.: West African Highlife Band, dance lesson at 9 p.m.; April 22, 2-6 p.m.: Free Cajun, Zydeco and Waltz Dance Workshops; April 22, 7 p.m.: KPFA Legal Defense Benefit with Venusians and DJ Dragonfly; April 24, 9 p.m.: Zydeco Flames, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 25, 8 p.m.: Fling Ding with Crooked Jades, Bluegrass Intentions, clogging lesson; April 26, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ night with digital dave; April 27, 8 p.m.: Musicians for Medical Marijuana Benefit featuring Fact or Fiction with Martin Fierro, Shelly Doty X-Tet; 1370 San Pablo Ave.  

525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Eli’s Mile High Club Door open at 8 p.m. April 13: Scott Duncan and R.J. Micho; April 14: Mark Hummel; April 20: Little Jonny & the Giants; April 21: Jimmy Mamou; April 27: Carlos Zialcita; April 28: J.J. Malone; May 4: Henry Clement; May 5: Terry Hanck; May 11: Jimmy Mamou; May 12: Fillmore Slim 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland 655-6661  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. April 18: Rick Shea w/Brantley Kearnes; April 19: Joe Louis Walker, Rusty Zinn; April 20: Michael McNevin; May 5, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with author P.D. James and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser; May 12, 10 a.m. - Noon: West Coast Live with authors Adair Lara and Janis Newman, and the Acoustic Guitar Summit guitar quartet. 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. April 22: Alan Hall & Friends; May 6: David Creamer Trio 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Performances April 18, 8 p.m.: Soprano Dawn Upshaw & Pianist Richard Goode perform Haydn, Mahler, Bartok, Ives, Beethoven and Debussy $30 - $52; April 28, 8 p.m.: Vanguard Swing Orchestra, UC Berkeley Big Band $18 - $30 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley; April 22, 3 p.m.: Violinist Gill Shaham and Pianist Orli Shaham perform Coplan, Faure, and Brahms Hertz Hall 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Jazz Singers’ Collective April 19, 8 - 10 p.m. With Mark Little on piano. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

Shotgun Players April 19, 20 7 p.m. Preview of Black Box Productions’ double-bill: “Slings and Arrows: Love Stories from Shakespearean Tragedies” written and directed by Rebecca Goodberg and developed by the ensemble and “The Glass Tear” conceptualized and directed by Christian Schneider. Discussions with the audience will follow each show. The show opens April 21 and continues Thursday-Sunday through May 5. $10 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid Ave. 655-0813  

“The Magic Flute” April 20, 25, 30 7:30 p.m. UC Berkeley’s Cal Opera and B.A.C.H. present an updated version of Mozart’s classic. Proceeds benefit new developments for the Longfellow Jr. High theater. $10 Longfellow Jr. High 1500 Derby St.  

Kensington Symphony Orchestra April 21, 8 p.m. Featuring UC Berkeley student and soprano, Vanessa Langer performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G and other selections. $8 - $10 First Baptist Church 770 Sonoma St. Richmond 251-2031 

Jeanne Starkiochmans April 21, 7:30 p.m. Belgian-born Bay Area resident performs works by Claude Debussy on the piano. $25-$35 Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland 

The Pirate Prince April 21, 22, 29, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sunday The first production for the new Hillside Players. Princesses, pirates, witches and modern dialogue in a family-geared show. Free admission, reservations required Hillside Club 2286 Cedar St. 528-2416  

Sharon Isbin April 22, 4 p.m. A rare Bay Area appearance in a benefit concert for the Crowden School. $20 - $30 St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. 559-6910 

Kids Carneval! Brazilian Dance for the Whole Family April 22, 2 p.m. The Borboletas Children’s Dance Troupe will transport children and their families to Brazil and promises to have the audience dancing in and out of their seats. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300  

Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble & Art of Ballet Dance Theater April 20, 7 p.m. Part of Dance Week at the Julia Morgan Center, April 20 - 29. $16 - $18 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300 

Movement April 26, 7 p.m. Movement will be presenting various dance styles such as commercial jazz, hip-hop, swing, lyrical, and a fusion of jazz and hip-hop. Featuring student choreography as well as professional choreography from LA and New York $5 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 or www.juliamorgan.org 

Reflejos de Mexico April 28, 2 p.m. The dance troupe celebrates the vast richness of the Mexican culture. Park of Dance Week. $10 - $12 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Odissi Dance April 28, 7 p.m. Reputed to be the most lyrical of the seven main forms of Indian classical dance with its liquidity of movement and graceful expression. $18 - $28 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org  

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 19: Andrew Harvey talks about “The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Spiritual Traditions”; Poetry of Maxine Hong Kingston & Fred Marchant 

1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted April 20: Susie Bright discusses “The Best American Erotica 2001”; April 26: Mother of three Wynn McClenahan Burkett will read from “Life After Baby: From Professional Woman to Beginner Parent”  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 19: Bruce Feiler will discuss “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses” 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. 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. May 3: Student Reading Morrison Room, Doe Library UC Berkeley 642-0137 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series  

April 25, 5 p.m. Chris Nealon reads from his new book “Ecstasy Shield” Sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English Maude Fife Room (315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439 

Annual Open Mike Poetry Reading April 21, 2 - 4 p.m. In commemoration of National Poetry Month and the fourth anniversary of the death of Poet Allen Ginsberg. Students, parents, teachers, friends and neighbors are invited to read poems of short prose on any subject. Poetry Garden at John Greenleaf Whittier Arts Magnet Elementary School Allen Ginsberg Memorial Milvia & Lincoln Sts.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike April 21, 6:30 p.m. Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

PSR Professor Book Release Celebration April 25, 3 - 5 p.m. Karen Lebacqz and Joseph D. Driskell, co-authors of “Ethics and Spiritual Care,” and Randi Walker, author of “Emma Newman: A Frontier Woman Minister,” will be honored at this faculty book forum. Hear reviews of the books by the authors. Pacific School of Religion PSR Bade Museum 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8252 

Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai April 29, 10:30 a.m. Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld, co-translators of Yehuda Amichai’s “Open Closed Open,” will read their translations from the Hebrew. Book signing to follow. $4 - $5 Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237  

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park 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. 486-0623  

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. Through April 29, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. See an amazing display of plants that are sources of commonly used fibers and dyes. 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. 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour April 29: Susan Schwartz leads a tour of the Berkeley Waterfront; May 12: Debra Badhia will lead a tour of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Arts District; May 19: John Stansfield & Allen Stross will lead a tour of the School for the Deaf and Blind; June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Lectures 

UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research Seminars Noon seminars are brown bag. April 23, 4 p.m.: Mary Dudziach of USC will discuss “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.” 119 Moses Hall UC Berkeley 642-4608  

City Commons Club Speaker Series All speakers at 12:30 p.m. April 20: Julius Krevans, M.D. chancellor emeritus, UCSF, will speak on “The Promises and Perils of Medical Research”; April 27: Wen-Hsing Yeh, professor of history, UC Berkeley speaks on “The Culture of China in a Changing World” $1 admission with coffee Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 848-3533 or 845-4725 

California Colloquium on Water Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design speak about water resources and hopefully contribute to informed decisions on water in CA. May 8, 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.: “What Makes Water Wet?” Richard Saykally, professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (refreshments served in 410 O’Brien Hall at 4:15 p.m.) 212 O’Brien Hall, UC Berkeley 642-2666  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute Free Lectures All lectures begin at 6 p.m. April 29: Barr Rosenberg on “The Ornament of the Middle Way”; May 6: Sylvia Gretchen on “Faith, Doubt, and Refuge in Buddhist Practice”; May 13: Abbe Blum on “Tapping Into Creativity”; May 20: Miep Cooymans and Dan Jones on “Working with Awareness, Concentration, and Energy”; May 27: Eva Casey on “Getting Calm; Staying Clear”; June 3: Jack van der Meulen on “Healing Through Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga)”; June 10: Sylvia Gretchen on “Counteracting Negative Emotions” Tibetan Nyingma Institute 1815 Highland Place 843-6812 

“The israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Report from the Israeli Women’s Movement” April 18, 7:30 p.m. Marcia Freedman, one of the founders and leaders of the Israeli feminist and peace movements, will speak Dinner Board Room Flora Lamson Hewlett Library Graduate Theological Union 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2482 

An Evening of Art & Politics April 20, 7:30 p.m. Speak Out presents Howard Zinn, author, playwright, and activist in conversation with poet Aya De Leon $15 - $20 King Middle School 1720 Rose St. 601-0182 

West Coast Regional Spartacist Educational April 28, Noon Jon Wood, of the Spartacist League, will speak: “Defend the Gains of the Cuban Revolution”; 3:30 p.m.: George Foster, central committee, Spartacist League, will speak: “For Socialist Revolution in the Bastion of World Imperialism” 60 Evans, UC Berkeley 839-0851 

“Hunting T. Rex” May 6, 2 p.m. A talk by Dr. Philip Currie, curator of dinosaurs, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. Currie asks the question: Was there social interaction amongst the Tyrannosaurs? $3 - $7 Lawrence Hall of Science UC Berkeley 642-5132 or visit www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

Berkeley 1900 May 7, 7 p.m. Richard Schwartz, author of Berkeley 1900, a book about life at the turn of the 19th century, will speak at the Friends of Five Creeks’ monthly meeting. Albany Community Center (downstairs) 1249 Marin 848-9358 

Peopling of the Pacific May 11, 8 p.m. Dr. Patrick Kirch, department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, will review results of archaeological research in the Pacific Islands, providing a current overview of Oceanic prehistory. 370 Dwinelle Hall UC Berkeley 415-338-1537  

In a perfect world, elementary schools might look like something out of the pages of a bucolic children’s book: rabbits and ducks would gaze in benevolently at the windows, and clouds of butterflies would drift down the corridors, carried in from peripheral gardens by a sweet-scented wind. 

Nice sentiments, but hardly something to be squeezed into a perennially strained school budget, between textbooks and computers. 

Well, don’t tell that to the folks at LeConte Elementary School. 

Next to the playground for upper grade students sits a lush vegetable garden, where students harvest their favorite organically grown delicacies every day.  

Deep inside the school a courtyard garden is home to rabbits, ducks, chickens and goats – part of a 15-year-old program to teach kids growing up in an urban environment that their food doesn’t just magically appear on supermarket shelves. 

As for the perimeter of the school grounds – a chain link fence that appears to be overgrown with weeds – that’s actually a green universe of butterfly eggs whose progeny will soon flap around the LeConte playground equipment like so much May Day confetti. 

“Every time someone comes to look at (the LeConte Butterfly Garden) they say it’s full of weeds,” said LeConte parent Susan Fischer, who helped apply for a recently awarded $3,000 grant from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to expand the school’s Butterfly Garden. 

“But, butterflies like a lot of the things that we think of as weeds.” 

Take the common plantain plant for example, the sort of angry-looking weed you might expect to find widening a crack in the sidewalk in front of your house. Buckeye butterflies wouldn’t think of laying their eggs on anything other than a plantain. 

Pull out all your weedy mallow plants and you can forget about ever seeing the Westcoast Lady, Gray Hairstreak or Checkered Skipper butterflies. 

Pretty flowers are good because butterflies feed on their nectar, said Andy Liu, a landscape architecture student at UC Berkeley who volunteers his time to maintain the garden and teach LeConte students. But it’s the glamour challenged “larval host plants” that draw the butterflies on a Biblical scale, Liu said. 

“Flowers are like a gas station and larval host plants are like a bed and breakfast,” Liu said. “Of course you’re going to see cars around a gas station, but what we want to provide is subsidized housing.” 

Of the 21 species of butterflies known to dance over Berkeley lawns during late spring and summer, Liu has designed the LeConte Butterfly Garden to lure the nine most common varieties. At this very moment the plants clinging to LeConte’s playground fence could be covered with countless thousands of butterfly eggs about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Eggs lead to caterpillars, caterpillars form cocoons, and cocoons, finally, give way to the miracle of butterflies.  

For LeConte teachers, the butterflies are the world’s greatest natural occurring teacher’s aid. Kindergarten and first grade teacher Judy Maynes takes her students out to search for eggs – right around Easter, of course. The students collect a few egg-laden leaves to take into the classroom so they can witness each stage of the butterfly life cycle. The learn about the critical relationship of each species to its natural habitat. Through art projects, they depict the butterflies’ transformation. And when the day comes to release the hatched butterflies back into the air, they read poems that meditate on the importance of freedom and escape from captivity. 

After the experience, “Kids are much more observant of nature around them,” Maynes said. “They are much more respectful of natural space.” 

Whereas before kids might have stripped leaves from a plant to throw playfully at a friend, they now recognize that those very leaves might house butterfly eggs that depend on the health of that plant, Maynes said. 

“It’s an attempt to engage kids in learning about their natural environment, and learning how things are all connected,” Liu said. 

A feature of the LeConte school for nearly 10 years now, the butterfly garden has traditionally been maintained through the labor and money donated by LeConte parents and neighborhood residents. The recent grant will allow the school to build out the garden over the next year in a truly systematic way, Liu said. They even plan to put up all-weather signs to identify plants and the butterfly species they host to passersby. 

The school, after all, should be an asset for the whole neighborhood, Fischer said. 

“It’s sort of the thing that sits right in the middle of their neighborhood. It’s used in many respects as a neighborhood park.” 

Karl Reeh is president of the LeConte Neighborhood Association, which will manage the implementation of the grant for the school. He said he gets comments from other residents in the community any time there’s a change in the school’s appearance. 

“It is important for the aesthetics of the whole neighborhood that the school look as good as possible all the time,” Reeh said. 

This Saturday, volunteers are invited from 9:30 a.m. to noon to help weed out unwanted vegetation and replace it with plants preferred by butterflies . For more information call Susan Fischer at 644-4480. 

For a complete listing of California butterflies click on: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/ca/toc.htm. 

Monday night was indeed different from other tax-filing nights in Berkeley. The downtown post office stopped accepting returns at 10 p.m., leaving some 75 late-night procrastinators in the lurch.  

The Berkeley post office has a long history of staying open until midnight on tax-filing deadline day. 

“It was a business decision,” said Berkeley Postmaster George Banks. “It is simply at my discretion every year.” 

With the advent of e-mail filing, the crowds that typically surge near midnight have dissipated in the last couple of years, Banks said.  

He said he posted notices on the downtown post office doors and otherwise left it up to the office of Consumer Affairs in Oakland to alert the public. 

Berkeley residents Tom and Jane Kelly were among those milling about on the Post Office steps, tax returns in hand, after the post offices doors had been shut tight.  

Tom Kelly tells it this way in an e-mail to the Planet: “After chatting with a few people a young girl suggested that it would be quite a mitzvah if someone was to offer to take the tax returns to Oakland. Jane and I agreed and began to offer to take the returns. At first, people seemed reluctant. We were sized up carefully. As soon as one person of every age group, gender, and ethnicity turned over their returns, the flood gates opened. People started handing over their returns with many thanks and reminders of their great trust in us! One young man told us that this was his first tax return as if that would carry some extra weight. Within 10 minutes we had an armful and began to make our way to Oakland.” 

The purpose of Kelly’s e-mail was a request to let folks know that “the couple who were entrusted with the armful of tax returns on Monday, April 16, at approximately 10:30 p.m. arrived at the West Oakland Post Office by 11:15 p.m. and placed the mail in the hands of a postal supervisor who guaranteed that the returns would be postmarked before midnight. All is well.” 

Banks noted that people gathered at the Berkeley post office were so desperate to get tax forms after 10 p.m., that post office workers had a hard time closing the doors. They called police for help.  

Next year probably won’t be different from this one. The post office will probably close its doors at 10 p.m. “Maybe next year people will be more efficient,” Banks said. 

Civil Rights Lawyer Steve Rosenbaum spoke Tuesday at a rally and petition drive of students and activists in the disability community, protesting a recent Supreme Court decision that limits the American with Disabilities Act. 

“It’s ironic,” he said, because steps, which wheelchairs can’t ascend, are emblematic of the daily problems many people with disabilities face. Steps represent barriers to access – access to schools, institutions and jobs. The ADA attempted to eliminate those barriers by preventing discrimination against disabled people and ensuring access to public institutions. Now many feel the ADA is under attack, and with it the protections necessary to ensure equality for people with disabilities.  

In the case University of Alabama vs. Garrett, a nurse with breast cancer was not allowed to sue the university for damages when it discriminated against her because of her disability. The court ruled that the state’s right not to be sued in a federal court – the university is a state institution – superseded Garrett’s civil rights. 

“We’re concerned that the Garrett decision which only applies to employment could eventually be extended into other areas like education,” said Daniel Davis, co-founder of the National Disabled Student Union. “When we started to talk we realized that there was a necessity that disabled students who had quite often been very isolated needed to start to work together on a national scale.” 

The event at UC Berkeley was one of about 90 rallies at schools around the country.  

“It released a lot of energy in the community to do something to raise awareness in the community,” said Davis, who is also vice president of the University Disabled Students’ Union. “Meeting attendance basically doubled when the Garrett decision came down.”  

While the Garrett ruling was explicitly narrow, and states still must enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, Linda D. Kilb an attorney with, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc., said that the fears about civil rights erosion are justified. 

She explained that the constitution grants rights, such as free speech in the First Amendment, or equal protection in the 14th Amendment. However, Congress has often determined what those rights actually mean.  

“The 14th Amendment was passed in the wake of the Civil War, and was clearly directed at race,” said Kilb. A strict interpretation of that constitutional protection would say that equal protection can only be granted based on race alone – leaving out protections against discrimination for people based on gender, age, disability, gender or anything else.  

“Historically the civil rights movement had largely presumed that congress had a great deal of latitude in saying what things mean,” said Kilb, and Congress has used its power to expand civil rights protections. Now, she said, the court is asserting its jurisdiction, and saying that the legislature has gone too far. 

“That’s where the vigilance needs to happen now. It’s very very important that people recognize that this is a long-term trend and picture,” said Kilb. “We’re in the middle of this interpretive discussion about how broadly civil rights laws can be enacted and enforced by the federal government and the U.S. Congress, and that dialogue is one of the more significant developments in the last half century.” 

If the Supreme Court is granting more power to the states, activists said, then movements should incorporate that into their strategy. Jenny Kern, board member of the American Civil Liberties Union recommended that people focus on local legislation to ensure that rights are protected at the state level, and City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring both spoke about the importance of California legislation to protect disability rights. “We have the power to say, in California the Garrett decision will have no effect,” said Worthington.  

The students passed around a petition asking that California protect the civil rights of people with disabilities by passing legislation which would incorporate many of the provisions of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act into a state statute, AB 677 sponsored by Assemblymember Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and to support AB925, a bill by Assemblymember Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, to move people with disabilities into the workforce.  

The rally was timed to increase awareness about disability before more judges hostile to disability rights start getting appointed to the federal bench. Student co-founder Davis encouraged the audience to write their representatives and let them know that civil rights are important in any federal judge.  

Davis said April 17 has its own significance. “It’s the day after tax day,” he said impishly. “We’re reminding our elected officials that it’s only fair that if you tax people as citizens, you need to represent them and treat them as citizens.” The date also commemorates the founding of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, which fought for civil rights in the 1960s. “We wanted to hearken back to that tradition of idealistic leadership in causes of social justice,” he said. 

High school-aged assailants targeted pedestrians listening to portable CD players in a series of robberies last week, police said. 

A man walking along the 1900 block of Sacramento Street about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday was tripped from behind by three suspects, said Berkeley Police Lt. Russell Lopes.  

As the victim struggled to get back to his feet, two of the suspects allegedly kicked and punched him while the third went through his pockets searching for his wallet. 

The victim managed to get away from his attackers without being robbed, Lopes said, and with no more serious injuries than a number of bruises and abrasions. 

But, about an hour later, two youths attacked another lone pedestrian nearby, at the corner of Bancroft Way and Jefferson Avenue, this time forcibly removing the victim’s CD player before making their escape, Lopes said. 

Thursday night about midnight a third pedestrian listening to a portable CD player was approached by two suspects near the intersection of King and Woolsey streets. As one suspect pressed an object against the back of the victims neck, possibly simulating a gun, the victim handed over his CD player, wallet and briefcase, Lopes said. 

Police have no leads in connection with the robberies, Lopes said, but they believe all three incidents may have involved the same suspects. 

When the suspects didn’t get anything in the first attack, the may have “(walked) a couple blocks away (to) do it again until they (got) something,” Lopes said. 

••• 

A 19-year-old female UC Berkeley Student leaving the International House at the corner of Bancroft Way and Piedmont Avenue Sunday night was surrounded and groped by four high school-aged youths, police said.  

The victim managed to break away from her attackers and run home, where she immediately called police, said Lt. Lopes. 

Police failed to locate the alleged attackers Sunday and have made no arrests in the case, Lopes said. 

••• 

A man found a body in some bushes near the railroad tracks at the end of Page Street Tuesday morning. 

Police called to the scene found a hand gun and a suicide note indicating that the 41-year-old man had taken his own life after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. 

Police believe the man shot himself sometime Monday night. Although he was not a Berkeley resident he routinely visited the city for business, Lt. Lopes said.

The Berkeley school board will hold a special budget workshop tonight to consider some possible scenarios for reducing a projected $5 million budget shortfall next year. 

At the top of the agenda is the issue of how much the district will spend to hold down class sizes, said Stephen Goldstone, interim superintendent for the Berkeley Unified School District. 

In 1994, Berkeley voters approved the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Project (BSEP) tax measure, which pulls in millions of dollars each year aimed at holding Berkeley student/teacher ratios at 25-to-1 for fourth through sixth grades and 27-to-1 for grades seven through 12. 

Because of enrollment growth since 1994, however, the BSEP money no longer covers the cost for extra teachers needed to maintain these ratios. In order to meet the ratios next year, the Berkeley school district would have to kick in an estimated $880,000 from its general fund, contributing to the overall budget shortfall for the district. 

Tonight district staff will present the school board with different scenarios for reducing or eliminating this $880,000 expense, carefully explaining each scenario’s impact on student/teacher ratios. 

Goldstone estimates that the district will need four more teachers next year than this year to maintain current ratios.  

If the district were to make no contribution to class size reduction out of the general fund it would have 15 fewer teachers next year than this year, he said. 

Tonight’s workshop is for informational purposes only, Goldstone said. The board is not expected to vote on different budget-cutting scenarios until some time in May. 

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room on the second floor of the district’s administrative offices, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

SAN FRANCISCO — As many as 2,300 health care workers continued their strike Tuesday at nine Northern California hospitals, while the state’s attorney general listened to hearings about whether their employer should be allowed to join the city’s largest charitable care hospital. 

The walkout, which began Monday and is scheduled to last three days, is the seventh such action in recent months aimed at Sutter Health.  

Members of Health Care Workers Union Local 250 of the Service Employees International Union say they’re tired of understaffing and a lack of input. 

The goal is to create staffing committees made up of union members and management to give workers more say in staffing levels and decisions made at Sutter Health-owned hospitals, according to union officials. 

Lillie Mitchell, a 16-year veteran of California Pacific Medical, stood in front of City Hall on Monday holding a union banner that said “Health Care For All.” As an environmental services worker, it’s up to her to keep patients’ rooms clean, but she says that’s impossible to do when she’s forced to clean 27 rooms a day. 

“Hotel workers only have 14 (rooms to clean). We can’t keep up the pace since Sutter came into the picture,” she said.  

“They don’t care about patients. They just fret about money.” 

Mitchell said she also can’t afford to get sick because there’s no one to cover for her, meaning untrained workers will do her job and potentially endanger patients. 

“In oncology, you can’t use certain chemicalstion of two Sutter members. 

San Francisco Public Health Director Mitch Katz said the city’s public health system is willing to come to cash-strapped St. Luke’s rescue. Katz said he’s willing to consider everything from an affiliation to a partnership. 

Striking hospitals include San Francisco’s three California Pacific Medical Center campuses, Alta Bates Medical Center and the Alta Bates Herrick campus in Berkeley, Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo and Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport. 

On the Net: 

http://www.sutterhealth.org 

http://www.seiu250.org/

LOS ANGELES — Outraged by a recent court ruling that the Japanese government need not compensate women forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during World War II, hundreds of activists staged a noisy protest Tuesday outside that country’s consulate. 

The demonstrators delivered a letter addressed to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori calling on his government to fully disclose war crimes committed by Japanese troops.  

They also want Japan to acknowledge its complicity in those crimes, make reparations to victims, and approve textbooks that are historically accurate. 

The protesters screamed and waved hand-painted signs while denouncing textbooks recently approved by the Japanese government that they say fail to acknowledge World War II sex slaves, forced labor and civilian massacres. 

Historians say as many as 200,000 women, mostly Koreans but also Filipinos, Chinese and Dutch, were forced into sexual slavery during World War II. 

A Japanese appeals court last month overturned a 1998 ruling ordering the government to compensate women forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.  

The Hiroshima High Court said the government need not pay three Korean women a total of $7,260 because no serious constitutional violations had occurred. 

“The recent court decision is a brutal slap in the face to the ’comfort women,”’ said Haena Cho of Young Koreans United of Los Angeles.  

“The Japanese government’s continuing refusal to redress these women for what they have suffered during World War II demonstrates the ongoing nature of their oppression.” 

The consulate released a copy of an April 3 statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda as its response to the protest. 

Fukuda cautioned critics against interpreting textbooks that receive authorization as representative of the government’s viewpoint.  

He said any problems found in textbooks are remedied during the authorization process and maintained that process was carried out impartially in this instance. 

He also pointed to a 1995 statement by the prime minister as proof that the country has acknowledged and apologized for damage and suffering caused in the past. 

The textbooks in question have caused a public furor in South Korea, where the ambassador to Japan is now scheduled to return home Wednesday because of the dispute. South Korea is asking the Japanese government to revise the textbook, which was written by nationalist scholars and approved by education officials earlier this month. Japan has rejected the demand. 

The controversy has rekindled anti-Japanese sentiments in Korea, where 35 years of Japanese colonial rule from 1910 until the end of the World War II in 1945 remain a bitter memory. 

Some protesters also called Tuesday for a boycott of Japanese products.  

Others said Japan should be denied a position on the United Nations Security Council, a seat the country has been pursuing for years. 

More than 100 organizations signed the letter written to Mori, questioning whether a “nation that violates human rights and approves revisionist history (is) prepared” to serve on the Security Council.

SACRAMENTO — Two men accused of selling fake masterpiece paintings on an online auction site and inflating the bid prices pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud charges in federal court. 

Kenneth Walton, 33, pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and four counts of mail fraud. Scott Beach, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and three mail fraud charges. 

Walton, a Sacramento attorney, was accused of having nearly 20 different eBay login identities that he used to sell paintings and bid on paintings. Those login names hosted more than 250 auctions, according to court documents. 

Beach, of Lakewood, Colo., is also accused of having many login identities that he used to drive up auction prices. 

Both men faced five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on top of restitution payments. If they cooperate with the federal investigation, they could be sentenced to probation. 

A third man, Kenneth Fetterman, 33, of Placerville is a fugitive, prosecutors said. 

Harold Rosenthal, Walton’s attorney, said his client would cooperate with the investigation but did not know where Fetterman was living. 

Fetterman has been charged with fraud and money laundering. He faces at least 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted. All three men together are thought to have hosted about 1,000 auctions from late 1998 to May 2000. 

The fraudulent bidding, known as shill bidding, is forbidden by San Jose-based eBay Inc. and is generally illegal in traditional auctions. EBay’s deputy general counsel, Rob Chesnut, has said he believes this is the first criminal case to result from alleged shill bidding online. 

In the plea agreement, Walton agreed to pay about $65,000 in restitution to six people who bought the paintings. He also agreed not to challenge a decision to remove him – at least temporarily – from the State Bar of California. Beach agreed to pay about $39,000 in restitution. 

Paintings offered for sale included an orange-and-green abstract work on which Walton forged the initials “RD 52” to imply it had been created by renowned artist Richard Diebenkorn, according to court documents. 

A Dutch man bought it for $135,805. EBay later dissolved the deal and barred Walton from the Web site. 

Prosecutors accused Walton of posing as an unsophisticated art owner who knew nothing about the art he was selling. The “RD 52” painting was sold along with a Mexican voodoo mask and an unopened roll of twine, according to prosecutors. 

The indictment said the three men drove up bids together on other works presented as if they were created by Diebenkorn and artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Clyfford Still and Maurice Utrillo. 

The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS, and the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. 

——— 

Ebay: http://www.ebay.com 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It was all Ku Klux Klansman Mitchell Burns could do to keep from getting sick to his stomach. 

Laid out in front of him were morgue photographs of four black girls killed when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Their bodies were burned and mangled. 

As a Klansman when the church was bombed in 1963, Burns didn’t have much sympathy for blacks and the civil rights movement. But something within him changed when an FBI agent showed Burns those pictures and asked for help finding the girls’ killers. 

“I told them I’d help them all I could,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “It was all because of those pictures.” 

Burns became a confidential, paid informant known by an FBI number he cannot recall and a pseudonym he can – Tom Dooly. He let agents put a tape recorder in the trunk of his ’56 Chevy and went out night after night with Tommy Blanton, a fellow Klansman. 

That was nearly four decades ago, when Burns was 36. Today, at 73, he is about to testify for the prosecution in the murder case against Blanton, now 62. 

Jury selection began Monday for Blanton’s trial in the church bombing, the deadliest act of violence against the civil rights movement. A judge last week cited medical problems in indefinitely postponing the trial of another ex-Klansman, Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, who was indicted with Blanton. 

Burns – who left the Klan more than three decades ago – said he never heard Blanton or Cherry directly claim responsibility for the blast. Burns and the two other men were in different Klan groups. 

But prosecutors have the tapes and three bound volumes of reports documenting Burns’ work, and included in the printed material are potentially incriminating statements by both men, including Burns’ claim that Blanton once said: “They ain’t gonna catch me when I bomb my next church.” 

Blanton would often want to go sit outside the Sixteenth Street Church in the car after drinking, Burns said. “It was like he got a charge out of it,” Burns said. 

Burns’ voice is gravelly after years of smoking unfiltered cigarettes. He said he has never been afraid of the Klan or anyone else, but he often keeps a loaded .38-caliber revolver on his kitchen table. 

“They weren’t crazy, they were just mean as hell. I mean hate,” Burns said. 

Burns’ name surfaced last year in court files that identified him as a witness in front of the grand jury that indicted Blanton and Cherry. 

He said he is proud of what he did all those years ago as an informant, and he is ready to take the stand against Blanton. 

“I’ve got to live with myself after this is over,” he said. “I’ve got to go home and look at myself in the mirror and I’ve got to go sleep. I can’t lie and do that.” 

Burns got involved in the investigation within weeks of the bombing, which came during a tumultuous year of civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, where segregation was the law. Blanton already was a suspect, and agents were looking for anyone – particularly someone in the Klan – who could help them get close to him. 

Burns said an agent approached him after seeing him talking to Blanton at a cafe where Klansmen hung out. Burns initially refused to help investigators. But he relented after seeing those grisly photos of Denise McNair, 11, and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson. 

Burns was paid $200 a month for talking to Blanton and relaying to agents anything he could find out. Burns and Blanton were soon spending a lot of time together. When Blanton asked for help picketing FBI headquarters to protest “harassment” by agents, Burns went along. 

When Blanton wanted to go drinking, Burns offered his car and let Blanton drive. The tape machine was running whenever the two were in the vehicle, Burns said, and the radio was disabled to keep down the noise. 

Burns did not have a body microphone, so he wrote detailed reports about things that were said inside bars or elsewhere by Blanton. The alleged statements by Blanton and others could be attacked by the defense as the ramblings of boastful, drunken Klansmen. So could Burns’ extensive written reports, since many were completed after a night on the town. 

But Burns said he never got “staggering” drunk. He also denies being a racist. He said that he never participated in Klan violence and that he has a spotless record – “not even a speeding ticket.” 

Burns said practically every man he knew was in the Klan in the early ’60s, and he was only “playing a part” in using vile racial slurs with Blanton. “I had to act as mean as him,” Burns said. 

Burns said he believes the right man is about to go on trial. But he is unsure whether there is enough evidence for a conviction. 

“He never admitted he did it. It’s all circumstantial,” he said.

SAN JOSE — Intel Corp.’s first-quarter profit fell more than 80 percent, and the chip-making giant warned that the effects of the economic slowdown will continue to be felt for months to come. 

Intel’s net income was $485 million, or 7 cents a share, for the three months ending March 31. That compares with $2.7 billion, or 39 cents a share, in the same period last year. 

Exluding acquisition-related charges, Intel earned $1.1 billion, or 16 cents a share, down 64 percent from last year’s $3 billion, or 43 cents a share, the company said Tuesday. 

Analysts were expecting earnings of 15 cents a share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Revenue for the period was $6.7 billion, down 16 percent from $8 billion in the same period last year. 

Last month, the company said its first-quarter revenue would be off about 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2000. It also said it would be trimming 5,000 jobs through attrition. 

In Tuesday’s announcement, Intel said it expects second-quarter revenue between $6.2 billion and $6.8 billion. Last year’s revenue for the period was $8.3 billion. 

Analysts say Intel’s bottom line will face pressure from unprecedented price cuts planned on its high-end Pentium 4 processors. 

The entire semiconductor industry has been hit hard by the economic downturn and subsequent slowdown in demand. As a result, companies are fighting over smaller markets – and Intel so far has been lagging. 

“We had significant inventories and a downturn in demand,” said Eric Ross, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners. “Those two on top of each other really did a whammy on the market.” 

Beyond the economy, however, the Pentium 4’s sales have suffered because of its higher cost and performance issues. Critics say existing programs run just as fast on a high-end Pentium III as on a Pentium 4. 

“Cost is king, and that makes the Intel Inside brand less valuable,” Ross said. “If they don’t have the performance that’s well above the competitors, they’re going to have to drop their price down to competitors’ level in order to compete.” 

Intel’s market share has been eroding – dropping roughly 1 percent in five of the last six quarters, according to Mercury Research. 

“It had been declining slowly,” said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury. “Our estimates for Q1 showed a little bit more of a dramatic change. The industry downturn impacted Intel more directly.” 

Intel will not discuss its pricing strategy or market share, said spokesman Robert Manetta. AMD also has not disclosed whether it will match the prices set by its competitor. 

Intel’s most surprising cut will involve its yet-to-be-released 1.7 gigahertz Pentium 4. Analysts believe it initially will be priced at $700 when released Monday, and then cut to about $350 on April 29. 

That would put the pricing in line with AMD’s speediest processor, the 1.33 GHz Athlon, which currently runs for about $350. 

The pricing could result in high-end consumer PCs costing less than $2,000, which would have bought a machine half as fast six months ago. 

Intel has dominated the market with fast processors while its competitors lagged. AMD, in particular, struggled with getting competitive processors to market. 

Now, the table has turned. AMD appears to have worked through its challenges while Intel had to deal with the Pentium 4’s performance issues and a requirement that it use a more expensive type of memory. 

Intel’s bottom line will feel more of a pinch from price cuts than before because demand and margins for the company’s highest-end server and workstation processors, which earned more profit, have decreased with the economy’s slump. 

“They don’t have that fat store, that profitability to fight AMD,” McCarron said. “They’re going to feel that pinch of pricing pressure directly.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.intel.com 

http://www.amd.com 

Union activists know the drill: 

“Health care! We care!” they chant as they circle the main entrance to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.  

This is the seventh time since July that workers from the Service Employees International Union Local 250 have gone out on strike actions of short duration. They’ve been working without a contract for one year. About 2,300 Bay Area heath care workers walked out Monday. 

“Honk if you support the hospital workers,” come calls from another group stationed on Ashby Avenue, in front of the hospital, one block east of Telegraph Avenue. Drivers respond with honks and waves. 

Some thirty hospitals – Catholic Healthcare West and Kaiser Permanente hospitals among them – have settled with the union. But workers, such as Licensed Vocational Nurses, food service staff, psychiatric technicians and others at Sutter Hospitals – which includes Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and its Herrick Hospital campus – have not signed contracts. 

Questions of salary and benefits have been negotiated to the satisfaction of both sides. But staffing continues to be at issue. The unions say workers want a voice. And the hospital says it is not denying worker input. 

Alta Bates spokesperson Carolyn Kemp says the hospital welcomes employees’ participation in employee-management committees. 

When there is disagreement, an arbitrator, who is a health-care specialist, would make a final determination on staffing. 

Kemp said the hospital has agreed that there would be an arbitrator for six months, but health care workers are asking for  

arbitration to be a permanent part of  

the agreement. 

Fola Afariogun, a union spokesperson and Care Associate 1 at Alta Bates, said, for example, staffing should be three patients per nurse or LVN. He said that inside the hospital Monday, staffing was at that ratio. 

Kemp argued that if that was the fact – and she didn’t know if it was – it was because the hospital didn’t know how many workers would be out on strike and so may have overstaffed. 

Afariogun said the lower staff/patient ratio should be permanent. “It’s not going to hurt anybody. It’s going to help patients.” 

Kemp said the hospital does not disagree with the concept of employee input into staffing ratios. It “will always give the employees a voice in staffing,” she said. 

But questions on the mechanism for the employees to be heard, shouldn’t be debated in the streets. “The life-span (of the arbitrator) should be decided at the negotiating table,” Kemp said. 

Questions that are still to be worked out between union and the hospital “should be sorted out and agreed to at the (bargaining) table.” 

In addition, the two sides debated strike tactics, with the unions decrying the uniformed security officers who were videotaping strikers at a number of locations around the hospital and the hospital saying it has to do what is necessary to protect employees and patients. Kemp, who was unable to provide the name of the company that provided security, said cameras were important to document inappropriate actions by strikers. “We wished we could have had documentation” during previous strike actions, she said. 

Tuesday, April 17

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.  

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 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283  

www.pacificcenter.org 

Real Deal Seminar 

12:45 - 1:45 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 103  

Bill O’Neill on “Ethics of Social Reconciliation and/or Human Rights.” Bring a lunch.  

849-8229 

Intelligent Conversation  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

A discussion group open to all, regardless of age, religion, viewpoint, etc. This time the discussion will center on the question of how your life conflicts with your ideals. Informally led by Robert Berend, who founded similar groups in L.A., Menlo Park, and Prague. Bring light snacks/drinks to share. Free 527-5332 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 548-3333 

Chaos Theory  

7 p.m. 

CDSP  

2451 Ridge Rd.  

Common Room  

Dr. Laurie Freeman on “Method in Science and the Humanities: What Does Chaos Theory Have to Offer?” 848-8152 

Problems Abroad 

7 - 9 p.m. 

200 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

A presentation on the impact of the war on drugs on Columbia by the Columbia Coalition. Free 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

This session will be a rap session.  

601-0550 

The Creek  

11 a.m.  

1301 Oxford St.  

With the approval of the Use Permit for the Beth El Synagogue project by the Zoning Adjustments Board, environmental organizations, a neighborhood group and others are protesting the design. They are seeking an appeal with the Berkeley City Council of the ZAB decision. 

Wednesday, April 18

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 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Stroke Prevention  

10 - 11:30 a.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland  

Cardiovascular Nurse Practitioner Debbie Seneca will speak about stroke prevention, as well as the warning signs of stroke and what to do if you suspect that someone is having a stroke. Free 

869-6737 

Art & Jam  

5 - 7 p.m. 

30 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Ryan Buckley and Dave  

will play songs to sing-along to. Free 

Thursday, April 19

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Garrett Murphy 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. 869-2547 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This meetings discussions will center on “Eroticism and Spirituality.”  

654-5486 

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. At this months meeting, Peter Mui, a Berkeley resident who retired at 32, will give a presentation on transforming your relationship with money and the “stuff” we buy with it.  

Call 549-3509  

www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

— compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Cancer Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Summit Medical Center 

Markstein Cancer Education & Prevention Center 

450 30th St., Second Floor  

Oakland  

Free support group for families, friends, and patients diagnosed with cancer.  

869-8833 to register  

Celebrating Our Past,  

Envisioning Our Future 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

The PSR Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry hosts its first annual conference which will address racism and heterosexism; being “out” in ministry; queer spirituality; queer and Asian; queer theory and comparative religions and other topics. This is a two day event.  

849-8206 

Light Search & Rescue 

9 a.m. - Noon  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

A free class as part of Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). Sponsored by the Berkeley Fire Dept. and the Office of Emergency Services.  

Call 644-8736 

EcoCity Message of Curitiba, Brazil 

7:30 p.m. 

Chan Shun Auditorium  

Valley of Life Sciences Building  

UC Berkeley  

Maria do Rocio Quandt, the chief representative of the policies, designs, planning and projects that have made Curitiba the ecological development model to the world will share strategies for long term success of cities on planet Earth. Opening remarks by Robert Haas, former U.S. poet laureate. 

$5 - $10 donation  

649-1817 

Chiapas Support Committee 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. (at Prince) 

The delegation to Mexico will report back about the EZLN march and its aftermath with video footage, first-hand accounts, slides and more.  

654-9587 

Estate Planning for the Living 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Norlen Drossel, an estate planning attorney, will cover such topics as the difference between a will and a living trust, durable power of attorney for health care, and other topics of importance to those who don’t plan on dying.  

601-4040 x302 

Exploring Grand Staircase  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Liz Hymans, a leading panoramic photographer in the U.S. will share slides and stories of the making of “Hearst of the Desert Wild,” which celebrates the spirit of Grand Staircase - Escalante. Free  

527-4140 

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

Friday, April 20

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 

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.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  

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 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

50 Plus Fitness Class  

9:30 a.m. - Noon 

UC Berkeley (varied locations)  

A class for those 50 and over which introduces participants to an array of exercise options. Demonstration and practice will include strength training, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, and more. Fridays through May 11.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

Trash Bridges 

1 p.m.  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Join Trash Bridges, garbage detective, in this Science Discovery Theatre performance as he explores how recycling, reusing, reducing and composting can help us tackle the ever-increasing garbage humans create. Free with museum admission.  

642-5132 

Saturday, April 21

California Native Plant Sale  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Regional Botanical Garden  

South Park Drive & Wildcat Canyon Road 

Tilden Regional Park  

A variety of plants will be for sale and proceeds benefit Botanic Garden programs. Please bring boxes for carrying your plants home.  

841-8732 

Family Farm Day  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way  

As a complimentary event to Earth Day Berkeley, taking place in Civic Center Park, this will be a chance to see what life is like on a farm. Farm equipment, an observable beehive, human powered hayrides, sheep, and more. Free  

548-3333 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Hands-On Seed Cleaning 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

924 Gilman St.  

Covering a variety of techniques and methods. At noon there will be a seed and plant swap, so bring envelopes to gather seed in.  

548-2220 

Building a Garden at  

Cragmont Elementary  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Cragmont Elementary School  

1150 Virginia St.  

Volunteers are asked to help students and staff of Cragmont make planter boxes, weed, trim, plant trees and more. The garden will be used in the schools environmental education program.  

Call Ellen Georgi 525-6058  

Run for Life  

8 a.m.  

UC Berkeley Campus 

An event to “Celebrate the Spirit of Goodness in Children.” Includes a 3K, 5K, and 10K course for walking or running around UC Berkeley. Culminating in a celebration in the newly renovated Edwards Track Stadium. Sponsored by Nantucket Nectars.  

$18 - $25 per person 

866-786-4543 or www.runforlife.net  

I-House Spring Festival  

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. . 

International House  

2299 Piedmont Ave. (at Bancroft)  

A celebration of cultures from around the globe. Featuring delicacies from India, the Netherlands, Turkey, Taiwan more. Performances of traditional dance on five stages.  

$3 - $5  

642-9460 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

6:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Art Center  

1275 Walnut St.  

Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton.  

527-9753 

Berkeley Earth Day  

11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way 

Beginning with an Eco-Motion parade, with kids and adults using forms of non-polluting transport. The Earth Day Fair will feature music, revolutionary comedy from Sherry Glaser, and speaker Rachel Peterson from Urban Ecology. Also, a climbing wall, kid’s making area, vegetarian food and beer, crafts, beeswax candle making and much more. Free 

654-6346 

Albany Senior Center White Elephant Sale 

9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. 

Friends of Albany Seniors 

846 Masonic Ave.  

Albany  

524-9122 

Earth Day Creek Walk  

10 a.m.  

Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy Garden 

Gilman and Curtis  

Explore history and opportunities for restoration on lower Codornices and Cerrito Creeks on an Earth Day walk co-sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers and Friends of Five Creeks. Bring water and snacks.  

848-9358 

Free Puppet Shows  

1:30 & 2:30 p.m.  

Hall of Health  

2230 Shattuck Ave., Lower Level 

The Kids on the Block, an award-winning educational puppet troupe which includes puppets from diverse cultures and puppets with medical conditions such as leukemia and spina bifida, will perform. Free  

International Tour Directing? 

8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Vista Community College 

2020 Milvia St., Room 303 

Learn about careers in tour leading: Dealing with guides, hotels, airlines and other suppliers, and much more. Learn what qualifications are needed and where the jobs are/aren’t.  

$5.50 for CA. residents 

981-2931 

Sunday, April 22

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 

The Value of Meditation  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Bob Byrne will discuss how you can bring the benefits of meditation into your life. Meditation instruction will be included. Free 

843-6812 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to repair a flat tire from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie will teach how to kick up your heels and move your hips. Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices are encouraged to attend.  

$10  

237-9874 

Plants of the Bible Tour 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

Explore the gardens with docents who will point out plants mentioned in the bible.  

643-1924 

Health Awareness Fair  

Noon - 1:30 p.m. 

Calvary Presbyterian Church  

1940 Virginia St.  

Booths for blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, massage therapy, geriatric medicine, HIV/AIDS, various cancers, nutrition and diet. Free 

415-454-8725 

Pedestrian deaths in Berkeley are a public health emergency 

Editor: 

We are co-workers and friends of Jayne Ash, a 35-year-old woman, who was killed in broad daylight in a pedestrian crosswalk on March 13, 2001. Many of us also reside in Berkeley.  

As Jayne returned to her office at the California Department of Health Services with the cup of coffee she had just purchased, she was struck by a truck in the crosswalk at Hearst and Shattuck avenues. Jayne was crossing with the light.  

She had the right of way; no matter, she was killed. 

This tragedy has been referred to as an accident. But in Berkeley, where vehicles routinely and aggressively violate pedestrian crosswalks, it highlights an important public health emergency.  

Jayne joins a growing number of pedestrians killed or injured in attempting to reach the other side of the street. Less than a year ago, a pedestrian was killed only three blocks away in the pedestrian crosswalk at Shattuck and Virginia.  

The intersection of University and Shattuck, two blocks in the other direction, has been labeled the most hazardous for pedestrians in Berkeley.  

We are all pedestrians; we are all at substantial risk of trauma, injury, and death in this city’s crosswalks. Who will be the next pedestrian maimed or killed in a crosswalk? Each of us thinks it will be someone else, that these statistics are about other people. Likely, Jayne thought so too. 

At the 3/20/01 City Council meeting, Berkeley Police Department Chief Dash Butler described the skeletal crew of motorcycle officers available to enforce traffic regulations, indicating that effective enforcement of pedestrian crosswalks is not a priority for BPD.  

Although effective enforcement of the Vehicle Code is only one part of the solution, it is imperative that drivers understand that they cannot violate pedestrian crosswalks with impunity. At present, they know they can, and they do. 

Data obtained from a member of the Berkeley Community Health Commission indicate that Berkeley ranks first in pedestrian/bike injuries and deaths among 44 cities of similar size in California.  

This statistic demonstrates a public health emergency, requiring a coordinated and effective response at all levels of government.  

Who is accountable to the pedestrians of Berkeley to ensure their safety? What are the Mayor and City Council doing to ensure that this emergency is addressed, to ensure that Berkeley’s citizens and visitors are not injured or killed in its streets?  

A five-year Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program was approved in May 2000. What is the status of its implementation? How will the effectiveness of this program be evaluated? 

It is imperative that the Council grasp the urgency of this situation. How many more pedestrians must be injured or killed to make this point?  

We have an emergency in this city, and a business-as-usual response is unacceptable. We demand that appropriate attention and resources be allocated to address this emergency. Pedestrian safety must be among the highest priorities in Berkeley.  

Jayne’s death was a tragedy, and she is sorely missed by her family and friends. We urge the Berkeley community to prevent this from happening again.  

The next pedestrian casualty could be you, a family member, a friend, or a co-worker.  

If you are concerned about your safety as a pedestrian in Berkeley, please contact your Council Member to urge the Council to take appropriate and effective action.  

You may also email the City Clerk at clerk@ci.berkeley.ca.us and request that your message to be distributed to all Council Members and the Mayor.  

In addition, when you’re driving the streets of Berkeley, remember Jayne and watch out for pedestrians.  

Joan Sprinson 

Lisa Pascopella and 22 others 

Grandfather abuelo knows best 

Donal Brown 

Pacific News Service  

My two-year-old grandson knows me by “ha, ha, ha,” a greeting we used when he recognized me before he had words. 

Now that he knows words, I am not only “ha, ha, ha,” but also “grandpa” and “abuelo0” as well. 

When I want him to give me a kiss, I say to him, “Dame un beso.” When he sings “twinkle, twinkle, little star,” it's “brilla, brilla, estrellita.”  

His first sentence was “I hit the ball.”  

He's being schooled in two languages, Spanish and English. It would have been three, but it got too hectic when Italian was added. Maybe he can learn Italian in college, like his father. 

In multicultural America, by the third generation, on average, the language of origin is lost. When I was teaching high school, the grandchildren of immigrants only shrugged when I asked if they knew Spanish, Cantonese, Polish or Italian. 

Our grandson's birthday party is at his grandmother's house and the extended Latino family is there.  

It is festive, especially the rhythmic and dulcet sounds of the mariachi. The band plays the famous song, “El Niño Perdido” – “The Lost Child” – with a distant trumpet answered by another trumpet on stage. My grandson takes some whacks at the pinata. We feast on tamales, beans and rice. 

I do not know how any of my forebears celebrated birthdays. My middle name is Flinn, but I don't think of myself as Irish. I am also descended from Mennonites, but do not participate in their culture. 

I would be like the rest of homogenized Northern European America except that I married an Italian-American and consider myself Italian by osmosis. 

Italians celebrate family ties and cement relationships with lengthy dinners.  

We tell our guests to “mangia, mangia!” – “eat, eat!” or the food will get cold. My grandson is learning to curl pasta on his fork. 

A young woman from New England who spent Christmas with us last year remarked later that she had never before spent so much time eating a holiday dinner. 

Languages preserve differences and identity and cultural heritage, but for some Americans, an unreasoning fear of strangers translates into a desire to discourage the teaching (and learning) of languages other than English.  

So the whole idea of bilingual education is under fire. 

Few students have rigorous instruction in any “foreign” language until high school. Asked if they want their children to learn English or their parents' language, immigrant parents naturally opt for English. 

However, when they are asked their opinion of bilingual programs that cultivate proficiency in both languages, parents favor those programs. 

Research has shown that in true bilingual programs, the language of origin can be maintained at no cost to English and in fact offers obvious advantages to students. 

Yet the head of my grandson's nursery school suggests the child should only speak English – apparently unaware of studies showing that bilingual children, although they may not at first perform as well as native speakers in either language, emerge not only unscathed but enriched with continued practice. 

My son and daughter-in-law will continue as before to give my grandson a bilingual education – speaking to him and reading to him in Spanish and English. 

If we give in to fears, however well intentioned, America is the loser – in richness of culture, in linguistic wealth, and especially in cohesiveness and connection. I feel happy that my grandson will be bilingual. Being able to conceptualize in two language may well make him smarter than average. 

He will certainly feel connected by two cultures, Latino and Italian, and secure in family and family traditions. 

Donal Brown taught journalism and English literature in California's public schools for 35 years. 

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s 1890 masterpiece “Hedda Gabler” tells the story of a big woman newly locked into a confining marriage with a small man – at a time when there were limited options for what women could do with their lives. 

“Hedda” is part of a series of plays – including “A Doll’s House”– that Ibsen wrote at the end of the 19th century about restless, unsatisfied women. These works went on to be seminal pieces in the evolution of modern drama. 

On Thursday, Berkeley’s wonderfully talented Aurora Theater opened a challenging and thoughtful production of Ibsen’s difficult and complex play, in a new adaptation by gay male New York playwright Jon Robin Baltz. 

A blueprint for the well-made play, “Hedda Gabler” is a gossipy and vicious story of domestic intrigue, well-suited to the tiny, intimate 50-seat Aurora performance space at the Berkeley City Club, where audience members sit within a foot of the performers. 

In “Hedda Gabler,” newlyweds Hedda (Stacy Ross) and George (Steve Marvel) arrive home after an awkward five-month honeymoon to the expansive and dangerously credit-financed house that scholar George hopes pay for with a pending academic appointment. 

Hedda is immediately out of sorts with her life, having married a man she doesn’t love, because it was the time in her life to get married. 

When old flames and would be lovers appear – sensing her loveless marriage – Hedda schemes desperately, vengefully and willfully to control those in her unhappy social arena. 

The play is a little bit like Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” with touches of Lillian Hellman’s “Little Foxes” and the television show "Dynasty" thrown in. 

The story hits powerfully on the polar conflict themes of money and poverty, family and orphaning, friendship and enmity, men and women, work and idleness, generosity and blackmail, creativity and ordinariness. 

The success of any production of this play turns greatly on the performance of the complex character of Hedda. As with great Shakespearean characters, an actor has options to play the character of Hedda in varying ways. 

In part, Hedda is a princess – a high-maintenance interloper into George’s stable middle-class family. She is a beautiful woman who often reacts with negativity to the kind things others say. Of one acquaintance, she remarks, “She had very irritating hair.” 

Regal and controlling, icy and manipulative, Hedda is part Strindberg vixen from hell. She has a fondness for shooting her father’s pistols at men who frustrate her. 

The trick with Hedda, for both actor and director, is to find some understanding of how much Hedda is a victim of the social repressions of the society around her, and how much she is just plain nuts. And what the connection is, if any, between the two. 

In Stacy Ross’ interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying Aurora performance, this connection and understanding aren’t quite achieved. 

In Ross’ performance, there are places where the character is psychologically unbalanced, places where she is angry, and places where she is a victim of her social circumstances, but the performance jumps back and forth among these states, and never quite finds a center. 

The viciousness, self-hatred, angry craziness and evil of the character flash from time to time, but don’t come through in full force. 

At times, this Hedda seems more like a deer caught in the headlights, than a malevolent architect of conflict. But it is hard to believe this interpretation of a character who is trapped and struggling in a world in which she is generally the most powerful person. 

Steve Marvel is wonderful as Hedda’s simple husband George, an emotional, conjugal and sexual naïf.  

A university philological aspirant, George is an amiable young man most excited by the time he spends rooting through old documents. 

Navigating cheerfully and obliviously among the conflicts between his wife and those around her, George’s capacity for emotional misunderstanding is enormous. 

Elizabeth Benedict takes a wonderful turn as George’s proper but kind aunt Julia, abused back-handedly in each of her encounters with Hedda. 

Marvin Greene is a somewhat flat and predictable as Lovborg, the reformed black sheep tempted by Hedda to travel once again to the dark side. 

Beth Donohue is believable as a nervous and fearful former schoolmate of Hedda’s, manipulated mercilessly by the control freaks around her, but holding steady in the end because of her good heart. 

Julian Lopez-Morillas turns in a marvelous performance as charming, manipulative Judge Brack, in Baltz’s adaptation a slippery bi-sexual hedonist angling for an affair with Hedda. 

Even with the limitations that this production hits, this is a fascinating evening of theater. "Hedda Gabler" is a classic story of a trophy wife at a loss about who she is and what to do with her life, who puts her intelligence into making other people unhappy. 

This turn-of-the-century, proto-Freudian theater, was written at a time when explicit psychiatric subtexts were first beginning to creep into modern drama. Nowadays, we might say that the people in this play have poorly nurtured inner children. 

Planet theater reviewer John Angell Grant has written for “American Theatre,”  

“Callboard,” and many other  

publications. E-mail him at  

jagplays@yahoo.com.

Action Movie: The Play Through April 21, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. Non-stop action and martial arts mayhem with comedy, surprise plot twists, and the occasional movie reference thrown in. $7 - $12 The Eighth Street Studio 2525 Eighth St. 464-4468 

“quietpassages” by Cariss Zeleski April 19, 20 at 8 p.m. & April 21 at 7 & 10 p.m. A historical adaptation based on the autobiographical writings of French writer/actress Sidonie Gabrielle Colette. $5 - $8 UC Berkeley Choral Rehearsal Hall 642-3880 

“The Oresteia” by Aeschylus Through May 6 Directed by Tony Taccone and Stephen Wadsworth, Aeschylus trilogy will be the first production staged on the Berkeley Rep’s new proscenium stage. Please call Berkeley Repertory Theatre for specific dates and times. $15.99 - $117 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St.  

647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Death of a Salesman” Through May 5, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. plus Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m. The ageless story of Willy Loman presented by an African-American cast and staged by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. $10 Live Oak Theater 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 528-5620 

“All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond” April 18, 7:30 p.m. A documentary about Cointelpro, repression of the Black Panther Party and allied organizations, including those among Native Americans and Latinos. Directed by Lee Lew-Lee $5 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 433-0115 

“New World Border” April 19, 7 p.m. A film by Jose Palafox and Casey Peek about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. Includes a Q&A panel with the filmmakers. 2040 Valley Life Science Building UC Berkeley 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 17: Michael Parenti discusses “To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia”; April 19: Andrew Harvey talks about “The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Spiritual Traditions”; Poetry of Maxine Hong Kingston & Fred Marchant; April 27: Poetry of Michael Heller & Carl Rakosi; April 29: Poetry of Gloria Frym & Lewis Warsh 

1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted April 20: Susie Bright discusses “The Best American Erotica 2001”; April 26: Mother of three Wynn McClenahan Burkett will read from “Life After Baby: From Professional Woman to Beginner Parent”  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 17: Julie Lavezzo will give a packing demonstration for a three week trip with two climates; April 19: Bruce Feiler will discuss “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses” 1385 Shattuck Ave. (at Rose) 843-3533 

“Strong Women - Writers & Heroes of Literature” Fridays 1 - 3 p.m. Taught by Dr. Helen Rippier Wheeler, author of “Women and Aging: A Guide to Literature,” a free weekly literature course in the Berkeley Adult School’s Older Adults Program. North Berkeley Senior Center 1901 Hearst  

Duomo Reading Series and Open Mic. Thursdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m. April 19: Garrett Murphy; April 26: Ray Skjelbred. Cafe Firenze 2116 Shattuck Ave. 644-0155. 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series April 17, 8 p.m. Ann Lauterbach and Nadia Nurhessein will read. Maude Fife Room (315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439 

Open Mike Poetry Reading April 21, 2 - 4 p.m. In commemoration of National Poetry Month and the fourth anniversary of the death of Poet Allen Ginsberg. Poetry Garden at John Greenleaf Whittier Arts Magnet Elementary School Allen Ginsberg Memorial Milvia & Lincoln Sts.  

*Rhythm & Muse Open Mike April 21, 6:30 p.m. Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

PSR Professor Book Release Celebration April 25, 3 - 5 p.m. Karen Lebacqz and Joseph D. Driskell, co-authors of “Ethics and Spiritual Care,” and Randi Walker, author of “Emma Newman: A Frontier Woman Minister,” will be honored at this faculty book forum. Hear reviews of the books by the authors. Pacific School of Religion PSR Bade Museum 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8252 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park 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. 486-0623  

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. April 14 - April 29, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. See an amazing display of plants that are sources of commonly used fibers and dyes. 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. 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour April 29: Susan Schwartz leads a tour of the Berkeley Waterfront; May 12: Debra Badhia will lead a tour of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Arts District; May 19: John Stansfield & Allen Stross will lead a tour of the School for the Deaf and Blind; June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Lectures 

UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research Seminars  

Noon seminars are brown bag. April 23, 4 p.m.: Mary Dudziach of USC will discuss “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.” 119 Moses Hall UC Berkeley 642-4608  

City Commons Club Speaker Series All speakers at 12:30 p.m. April 20: Julius Krevans, M.D. chancellor emeritus, UCSF, will speak on “The Promises and Perils of Medical Research”; April 27: Wen-Hsing Yeh, professor of history, UC Berkeley speaks on “The Culture of China in a Changing World” $1 admission with coffee Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 848-3533 or 845-4725 

California Colloquium on Water  

Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design speak about water resources and hopefully contribute to informed decisions on water in CA. May 8, 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.: “What Makes Water Wet?” Richard Saykally, professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (refreshments served in 410 O’Brien Hall at 4:15 p.m.) 212 O’Brien Hall, UC Berkeley 642-2666  

An Evening of Art & Politics April 20, 7:30 p.m. Speak Out presents Howard Zinn, author, playwright, and activist in conversation with poet Aya De Leon $15 - $20 King Middle School 1720 Rose St. 601-0182 

“Justice and Human Rights Since the Return of Democracy in Chile”  

April 17, 7 p.m. Chilean Judge Juan Guzman, in charge of the criminal investigation of former President Augusto Pinochet will speak. Booth Auditorium Boalt School of Law UC Berkeley  

“Hunting T. Rex” May 6, 2 p.m. A talk by Dr. Philip Currie, curator of dinosaurs, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. Currie asks the question: Was there social interaction amongst the Tyrannosaurs? $3 - $7 Lawrence Hall of Science UC Berkeley 642-5132 or visit www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

Berkeley 1900 May 7, 7 p.m. Richard Schwartz, author of Berkeley 1900, a book about life at the turn of the 19th century, will speak at the Friends of Five Creeks’ monthly meeting. Albany Community Center (downstairs) 1249 Marin 848-9358  

The City Council will consider suggestions tonight from the Commission on Aging on ways to salvage a faltering subsidized taxi service for the elderly and disabled.  

According to the COA and the Commission on Disability, cab drivers are increasingly refusing to pick up elderly and disabled fares. Commissioners said it’s because the city’s paratransit program doesn’t pay full fare and because elderly and disabled passengers can require more work. 

COA Chair Charlie Betcher said his commission is recommending the city contract with more taxi companies, pay full fare and reimburse the companies twice a month instead of once a month. 

In a report to the council, the city manager asked the council to wait until June 12 to take action, so the implications of the recommendation can be thoroughly examined.  

Disabled or elderly Berkeley residents can purchase taxi vouchers, which are called scrips. The scrips, redeemable with four taxi companies in contract with the city, are discounted to passengers on a sliding scale depending on income.  

Instead of cash, scrip riders pay cab drivers with the vouchers, which drivers then submit to the taxi companies they work for. Then the drivers can wait up to two months for the city to reimburse the taxi company at 90 cents on the dollar. 

COD Commissioner Karen Rose said the problem became worse when Golden Gate Luxor Cab Company pulled out of its longtime contract with the city.  

“They were the number one company in Berkeley,” she said. “They showed up when they said they would and they screened their drivers so they were always friendly.” 

Rose said that the remaining three taxi companies rarely show up and if they do they’re late. Rose, who is blind, said she now has to hitchhike to work as many as three times a week. 

“I had a doctor’s appointment today and the company I called didn’t show up so I was out there on University Avenue hitchhiking with shingles all over my face,” she said. 

Mahin Rajabi, who runs Golden Gate Luxor Cab Company with her husband, Nemat Modarresi, said their small company can no longer afford to provide scrip service. “We haven’t been able to afford it for the last two years,” she said. “But we continued because we felt an obligation to our customers.”  

Rajabi said their drivers often live day to day and come to work with little or no cash. They have to buy gas for the cab and be able to pay for lunch “and all they get is paper.” 

She said the six-cab company recently lost a driver who had 14 years experience to a San Francisco cab company because he wanted to work for cash. 

“As it is, my husband drives seven days a week and we are in debt,” she said. “We will miss our regular customers, but we just can’t do it anymore.” 

The city administers the program and subsidizes half of it. The other half comes from Measure B, a countywide transportation tax, first approved by voters in 1986. Voters renewed the tax in November.  

Currently 11 percent, or $149 million, of the revenue raised by the half-cent sales tax goes to county paratransit programs including discounted taxi services and van transportation for the disabled and elderly. 

According to the Berkeley Paratransit Subsidy Services Operations Administer Gene Biggins, the taxi scrip budget for this fiscal year is roughly $175,000. 

Director of Housing Stephen Barton said the city might raise the scrip redemption from 90 cents to 103 cents on the dollar to encourage cab drivers to provide the much-needed service. 

Barton said another possibility is making it mandatory for all cab companies doing business in Berkeley to provide a certain amount of scrip service each week as a condition of renewing their taxi permit. 

COD Vice Chair Karen Craig said she would like the city to require taxi companies doing business in Berkeley to have a percentage of their fleet be wheelchair accessible vans.  

“I think the city manager should start looking into some sources for grant funding that would help the companies purchase the vans,” she said.  

One Berkeley cab driver, who asked not to be identified, said that picking up the disabled and elderly can be difficult work. “You have to help them from their house to the cab,” he said. “And then they only want to go three blocks to do the shopping, which you get to carry, all for a voucher you have to wait a month to get paid for.” 

He said that most scrip users don’t have much money so they rarely tip. 

Tonight the City Council will hear from Bobby Singer, former chair of the COA and presently head of the Elders’ Network and Esther Kassoy, 86, a frequent scrip user. The two will speak in behalf of the COA recommendation. 

Tonight the City Council will likely accept a $50,000 grant from the Alameda Alliance for Health, for a contract with Positive Outlook Consultant Services to provide substance abuse counseling to pregnant and parenting African American women. 

The program is proposed to run from May 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002.  

According to a council report approved by the Health and Human Services Director Fred Medrano, increasing women’s access to health care is a priority. The report claims proof of the department’s commitment is reflected in the city’s high rate of prenatal care. 

Berkeley is the only city in California that has reached its 10-year goal of 90-percent use of prenatal care by pregnant women, according to a State Department of Health Services study. The study shows that Berkeley’s rate for prenatal visits is 18 percent higher than the state average. Tuolumne County comes in next, with an 83.3 percent rate for prenatal care. 

According to the council report, a recent Alta Bates Hospital review of births to Berkeley women revealed an alarming disparity of infant birth weights between white and African American women.  

The same report also revealed that African American women had higher rates of drug and nicotine use during pregnancy.  

Positive Outlook was chosen because it has the widest array of services available.  

Tower study 

The council will also likely approve a recommendation to enter into a $50,000 contract with the MARCO Corporation to study safety issues concerning the Tsukamoto Public Safety Building tower, which is currently not in use.  

According to the council report approved by Director of Public Works Rene Cardinaux, San Francisco based MARCO Corporation was determined by city staff and a specially formed committee to have an acceptable amount of experience to perform the six-month study. 

The study will examine several aspects of the tower’s impact on the surrounding neighborhood including a review of possible health risks from electromagnetic radiation, spreading the tower’s multiple antennas to various locations around the city to reduce an overload of radiation and does the city in fact require all of the antennas on the tower. 

The final cost to the city will be $68,000 including administration costs.  

Beth El 

The council will consider setting two public hearings related to the proposed 35,000 square-foot Beth El Synagogue at 1301 Oxford St. 

The council may set the public hearings as a means of reconciling two opposing decisions by two separate permit boards. One is the March 8 decision by the Zoning Adjustments Board, which approved a use permit for the synagogue project and the other is the March 5 Landmarks Preservation Commission decision to deny a permit to demolish two buildings on the site that stand in the way of the proposed project. 

Neither decision has been officially appealed by the Beth El congregation nor the Live Oak Cordonices Creek Neighborhood Association, which opposes the project.  

The city manager has recommended the council certify the ZAB decision and appeal the LPO decision. 

Moratorium in the MULI 

The Planning Commission has recommended the council enact a moratorium on office development in the Mixed Use-Light Industrial District, also known as the MULI, in West Berkeley. 

The recommendation says the moratorium should remain in effect until the impact of the growing number of offices on blue-collar jobs, artists and artisans can be determined. Another concern is increased traffic congestion posed by more offices. 

The council report, approved by Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn, said that 348,821 square feet of office space has been developed in the MULI in the last three years.  

Special meeting 

The City Council will meet in executive session with the City Attorney at 5:30 p.m. to discuss pending litigation against the city. There will be time for public comment before the meeting goes into closed session. The meeting will be held at 2180 Milvia St. on the sixth floor. 

The regular City Council will meet in the City Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. The meeting will be broadcast live on KPFB Radio 89.3 and Cable B-TV (Channel 25).

Martin Luther King Middle School has been named a California Distinguished School for 2001. 

“These Schools are leaders in the education community,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin last week, announcing the 157 middle schools and high schools that have received the “California Distinguished School” designation this year. 

More than 250 schools applied to for the honor in December of last year. Beginning in January panels of educators from around the state reviewed each 20-page application, evaluating the schools’ educational programs, learning environment, and “public confidence” – the level of family and community involvement in the school. 

“I’m glad we decided to go for it this year,” said teacher Kristin Collins. “It’s a way someone outside of ourselves can look at us and kind of validate what we’re doing...It’s a way of telling the community what’s going on here.” 

“It’s a source of pride for people who are involved with King,” said teacher Rachel Garlin. 

King was named a California Distinguished School once before, in 1996. The award goes to elementary schools one year and middle schools and high schools the next. Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary school was named a California Distinguished School last year. 

The panels of judges “look at all aspects of the school,” said King Principal Neil Smith. Last month three of them spent a day at King, talking with students and staff and inspecting the campus classroom by classroom. 

Smith pointed to a strong library staff, wide availability of computers (three per class), and an annual professional development retreat for teachers as just some of the things that set King apart. The school’s Edible Schoolyard program helps engage kids in the more practical side of learning, he said, involving them in all aspects of food preparation at the school – from the garden to the kitchen.  

Garlin said, “There are lots of opportunities for kids, before school, during school and after school, to help shape the school.” 

The school’s culture encourages involvement not just in the classroom, she explained, but on a number of levels, from the garden to the stage of a dramatic production.  

As an example of how the school goes out of its way to include all students, Garlin pointed to the fact that “gifted” classes at King are held after school and are open to all students who want to attend. 

Staff work together closely to meet the individual needs of students, Collins said.  

“We work hard trying to meet kids where they are,” Collins said. “We try not to see them as just a group of kids.” 

With about 900 students, some kids could easily fall through the cracks at King if not for the vigilance and energy of the staff, Collins said. 

“We try to know them individually, to challenge them individually, and to support them individually; to make sure they have a place to shine or belong.” 

But there are still areas where King can improve, Garlin said. 

“It’s important that we see this (the Distinguished School award) as recognition that we’re doing some of the right things, not as a stamp of approval that says our work is done,” Garlin said. 

Garlin said students’ No. 1 complaint is that the school is old and worn down. 

Smith said an $18 million renovation project scheduled to begin at King this summer while bring long overdue improvements to one of the Berkeley school district’s oldest facilities, enlarging classrooms and adding new windows and new wiring. 

Another goal ought to be the hiring of more minority teachers to reflect the diversity of the student body, said Garlin. 

Last year, King’s 900 students were 36 percent white, 31 percent African American, 17 percent Hispanic and 9 percent Asian. The school’s 57 teachers were 70 percent white, 12 percent African American, 11 percent Asian and 5 percent Hispanic. 

A love of comic books and of the history of mid-20th century New York led Michael Chabon to write “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” the book that won him a Pulitzer on Monday. 

“It’s just a time and a place I’ve always been drawn to,” said Chabon, who lives in Berkeley with his wife and two children. “I think I was always looking for a way to time-travel back there and when I somehow came up with this idea of these two comic-book creating young men ... it just suddenly seemed like that was the perfect vehicle.” 

Chabon’s book is set in New York City in 1939. The Kavalier of the title is Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has escaped from Nazi-occupied Prague. He and his Brooklyn-born cousin, Sammy Clay, go into partnership creating a comic book hero, the Escapist. 

Chabon has a history of writing about losers. This is his third novel. His first, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” was published in 1989, and his second novel, “The Wonder Boys” was made into a movie starring Michael Douglas. 

The 37-year-old Chabon (pronounced Shay-bon) had no idea his book was up for a Pulitzer. “Did I really win?” was his first reaction. 

Hours after learning he’d won, the news was “taking a little while to sink in. But it feels really good. It felt especially good to be able to call my parents and tell them.” 

Chabon also called his 6-year-old daughter at school. 

“She was very excited,” Chabon said with a laugh. 

He is currently working on a screenplay for “Kavalier & Clay.” 

On the Net: Chabon’s homepage, http://home.earthlink.net/ 7/8mchabon/

The Supreme Court refused to let California jail inmates testify anonymously in the murder trial of two fellow prisoners. Prosecutors said the inmates needed to keep their names secret to protect their safety. 

The court, without comment, on Monday turned down prosecutors’ argument that allowing inmates to testify anonymously will not violate the fair-trial rights of two fellow prisoners charged with stabbing another inmate to death. 

Joaquin Alvarado and Jorge Lopez were charged with murder in the Feb. 6, 1993, stabbing death of Jose Uribe, a fellow inmate at the Los Angeles County Jail. Uribe was stabbed 37 times. 

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Alvarado but not against Lopez. 

Prosecutors asked the trial judge to allow three other inmates, who were in the jail at the time of the killing, to testify without revealing their names. Government lawyers said the inmates were in danger from the prison gang known as the Mexican Mafia that ordered the killing. 

A state trial judge ruled that prosecutors could withhold the inmates’ names throughout the trial, but that defense lawyers would be allowed to interview the inmates – without knowing their names – before the trial. 

The California Supreme Court ruled last August that the inmates’ identities could be withheld before the trial, but that defense lawyers must be given their names during the trial. 

The Constitution’s Sixth Amendment gives criminal defendants the right to confront the witnesses against them. The California court said that to do so effectively, defense lawyers must have the witnesses’ names. 

The state court said the witnesses’ identities could be concealed before the trial because they were “particularly vulnerable to threats, coercion or violent acts of other inmates.” The trial was put on hold to allow prosecutors to appeal to the Supreme Court. 

In the appeal acted on Monday, prosecutors said the witnesses were in “extreme danger” and that the defendants’ constitutional rights will be adequately protected by allowing their lawyers to cross-examine the witnesses in court. 

Lawyers for Alvarado and Lopez said longstanding precedent supports the California Supreme Court’s ruling. 

The case is California v. Alvarado, 00-1312. 

——— 

On the Net: For the state court ruling: http://www.courts.net and click on (name of California. 

NEW YORK — News coverage of the pre-dawn raid by federal agents who grabbed Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez resulted in two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday: a breaking news reporting award for The Miami Herald and a breaking news photography award for Alan Diaz of The Associated Press. 

Diaz’s dramatic photo captured the confrontation between a rifle-toting federal agent and a family friend clutching Elian in his arms at the height of last year’s raid. 

The double winners were the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Oregonian of Portland and The Wall Street Journal. 

Also among the winners was the Rutland (Vt.) Herald, circulation 22,000, which won its first Pulitzer for David Moats’ editorials supporting civil unions for gay couples. The civil unions eventually became state law. 

The Oregonian won the public service award for a series about the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the feature writing prize for Tom Hallman Jr.’s profile of a disfigured teen-ager who underwent life-threatening surgery to improve his appearance. 

The INS series found that the agency was detaining people for long periods without giving them access to legal representation. “I really want to thank the sources. It took a lot of courage to tell their stories to us,” said Rich Read, one of four reporters who worked on the stories. 

The Times’s David Cay Johnston won the beat reporting award for exposing loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code. The Times also won for national reporting for a series on race in America. 

The Tribune staff won the explanatory reporting award for “Gateway to Gridlock,” about the American air traffic system. 

There were two Pulitzers awarded this year in international reporting, and one of them went to Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek, who wrote about political strife and epidemic disease in Africa. Salopek also won a Pulitzer in 1998 for explanatory reporting on the human genome project. 

The last time that the Pulitzer committee awarded two prizes in international reporting was in 1993 for stories about the Bosnian conflict. 

The other international reporting award went to Ian Johnson of The Wall Street Journal for stories about the Chinese government’s suppression of the Falun Gong movement. 

The Journal’s other Pulitzer was for commentary, awarded to Dorothy Rabinowitz for articles about American society and culture. 

The original trio nominated in commentary included two writers for The Philadelphia Inquirer: Karen Heller for humorous columns on life and culture and Trudy Rubin for analysis of the Middle East. The third finalist was Derrick Jackson of The Boston Globe for columns ranging from politics, education and race. 

The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., won its first Pulitzer, for feature photography by Matt Rainey. His emotional pictures documented the care and recovery of two students burned in a dormitory fire at Seton Hall University. “I think they’re heroes,” Rainey said. 

The Ledger’s spot coverage of the fire and feature stories about the students’ recovery also were finalists in the breaking news and feature writing categories. 

THE WINNERS  

Journalism: 

•Public service: The Oregonian of Portland. 

•Breaking news reporting: Staff of The Miami Herald. 

• Explanatory reporting: Staff of the Chicago Tribune. 

• Beat reporting: David Cay Johnston of The New York Times. 

• National reporting: Staff of The New York Times. 

• International reporting (two winners): Ian Johnson of The Wall Street Journal, Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune. 

• Feature writing: Tom Hallman Jr. of The Oregonian. 

• Commentary: Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal. 

• Criticism: Gail Caldwell of The Boston Globe. 

• Editorial writing: David Moats of the Rutland (Vt.) Herald. 

• Editorial cartooning: Ann Telnaes of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. 

• Spot news photography: Alan Diaz of The Associated Press. 

• Feature photography: Matt Rainey of The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. 

Arts: 

• Fiction: Michael Chabon for “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.” 

• Drama: David Auburn for his play “Proof.” 

• History: Joseph J. Ellis for his book “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.” 

• Biography: David Levering Lewis for the second volume of his biography of civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois, “W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and The American Century, 1919-1963.” 

• Poetry: Stephen Dunn for his volume of original verses “Different Hours.” 

• General Nonfiction: Herbert P. Bix for his book “Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan.” 

—Music: John Corigliano for “Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra.” 

American consumers must work four months just to pay taxes. Their mutual funds have plunged. Layoffs loom. Their utility bills are up. They are deep in debt. 

But consumer confidence is up. 

Well, yes, confidence did fall, and sharply, during the past year, but it rebounded in March even as some of the other economic indicators worsened. Business confidence, for example, remains depressed. 

Does the consumer sense something that the best trained economic eyes cannot perceive? It’s a question not to be ignored, because no matter how bad a rap consumers have taken in the past, they do have common sense. 

But as consumer confidence rises, as measured by March readings from The Conference Board, businesses are laying off workers and cutting their capital spending plans. 

The obvious but perhaps superficial explanation is that consumers expect tax refunds, a tax cut, an easing of interest rates, a pickup in business, and a rising stock market that will restore their lost wealth. 

And underlying all this appears to be an unreserved faith in the ability of Congress, the White House, the Federal Reserve and business leaderhip to restore the economy to its old robust health. 

That faith already is evident in the consumer willingness to spend at a level that dropped the savings rate to a record low of minus 1.3 early in the year, and raised the debts to 107 percent of disposable income. 

Unanswered is whether or not leadership can deliver on the hopes. 

The Tax Foundation has already concluded that President Bush’s tax plan won’t stop the tendency of the tax code to extract a growing fraction of the nation’s income over the next 10 years. 

After having been caught underestimating the economic slowdown, the Federeal Reserve aggressively lowered interest rates, but more recently has shown a reluctance to continue doing so. It still fears inflation. 

For its part, businesses aren’t showing a great deal of leadership. They are cutting inventories and reconsidering capital investments, not yet convinced that sales will rise and justify expansion. 

The latest report from the National Federation of Independent Business, which considers itself a spokesman for small-business owners, shows optimism fell again in March after having rebounded in February. 

Among the specifics of the NFIB report: hiring plans fell, both spending plans and actual outlays fell, and despite a slight improvement over February, “march still delivered one of the worst readings since 1991.” 

None of this means the consumers is wrong. But, as economist David A. Wyss sees it, business executive confidence may be more important. 

Wyss, author of Standard & Poor’s “U.S. Forecast Summary”, acknowledges in the April issue that consumer spending accounts for 64 percent of gross domestic product, but says the 15 percent accounted for by declining fixed investment by businesses is far more volatile 

He believes the turnabout in consumer confidence, “increases our hope that the economy will not fall into actual recession.” But he suggests that the March rebound could be temporary, “a false dawn.” 

John Cunniff is a business analyst for The Associated Press

Cal Day, the University of California, Berkeley's annual open house, will host a daylong resource fair to help students and their families prepare for college.  

Called “From Kindergarten to College,” it will give parents tools to lay the groundwork for a successful college application – and a successful future on Saturday.  

Getting into college today requires more than good grades. As early as middle school, students must take the right prerequisite courses and engage in extracurricular activities. 

UC Berkeley has numerous programs for reaching out to students before and during high school.  

Campus organizations that target educationally disadvantaged K-12 students will be staffing booths in Dwinelle Plaza this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to meet students and their parents and to answer questions. 

From 9:30-11 a.m., young people and their parents are invited to attend a seminar, “College: Making it Happen,” which aims to answer questions like, “What level of math should my 7th- grader be taking?” and “How much do I need to save now to afford tuition?”  

Included will be a discussion on how to choose between California's higher education options - the University of California, California State University, and California state junior colleges. The session, held in 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, will be conducted in both English and Spanish. 

Other highlights include: 

• At 11 a.m., an ArtsBridge dance performance by Bay Area children in the Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall. 

• At 11 a.m., and 1 p.m., special Kindergarten to College tours of the campus leaving from the tour table in Dwinelle Plaza. 

• At 11 a.m., a seminar for youth entitled, “Explore Careers in Health” to learn about the Health Partnership Initiative, a new, five-year project aimed at bringing underrepresented youth into health professions. 160 Dwinelle Hall. 

• At 2 p.m., a session for high school students on the undergraduate admissions process, including how to write a personal statement. 2 LeConte Hall.

A powerful education reform movement sweeping the nation has hit Berkeley High School, and now parents are being invited to join the discussion.  

The Berkeley Unified School District has more than $100,000 to study how small learning communities might help solve pressing problems at Berkeley High like campus violence, poor attendance and high teacher turnover. 

The first in a series of Community Workshops to study small learning communities and their potential at Berkeley High has been scheduled for 10 a.m., May 19, at Berkeley Alternative High School, 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

“Anyone who has a kid they’re considering sending to Berkeley High, they should be coming,” said Joan Blades, a parent activist whose volunteered to help with the small learning communities planning process. “The greatest success with this kind of transitions are the ones that have strong grassroots support, and that’s what we need to provide.” 

The federal government set aside $45 million in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings to create smaller, more personal learning communities in some of the biggest high schools in the United States. This was done by either creating schools-within-a-school with specialized curriculums or by simply restructuring the school day. 

Education research, said supporters of the Small Learning Communities program, shows that communities of less than 600 students are simply less likely to develop many of the problems that plague U.S. high schools today, from violence to achievement gaps between students of different ethnicities. 

Nearly half of U.S. high school students today attend schools of more than 1,500 students, according to Small Learning Communities program literature. 

“Research ultimately confirms what parents intuitively believe: That smaller schools are safer and more productive because students feel less alienated, more nurtured and more connected to caring adults, and teachers feel that they have more opportunity to get to know and support their students,” said one report on the program. 

(For an extensive bibliography of small schools research, visit the Small Schools Workshop at www.smallschoolsworkshop.org/info3.html.) 

Of the $45 million in grants made in the Small Learning Communities program’s first year, more than $10 million went to the state of California. The Los Angeles Unified School District alone received seven grants, one less than the entire state of Texas. And Congress has set aside $125 million to be awarded for small learning community efforts at the end of 2001 – an increase of 277 percent over this year’s appropriation. 

The Berkeley Unified School District was one of 19 California school districts to received a Small Learning Communities planning grant this year. The district has received two matching grants on top of the $47,000 federal grant, Blades said, bringing the total to $141,000. 

Blades said the money will be used to educate parents and train teachers, in some cases by sending them to see how other schools have implemented small learning communities. 

Tim Greco, an education programs consultant for the California Department of Education, said one of the reasons California schools applied so heavily for the Small Learning Communities grants is that the program gives local school districts a great deal of latitude to decide how to reduce school size. 

As opposed to pulling something off the shelf and trying to replicate it, the grant recipients are expected to come up with their own model based on what would be practical and effective for their community, Greco said. 

In the case of Berkeley High, one of the challenges will be to maintain the school’s current strengths — test scores consistently place it among the best high schools in the state — while finding ways to better serve underperforming students, Blades said. 

Grade estimates 15 weeks into the fall semester this year indicated that as many as 242 Berkeley High freshman were failing two or more classes. 

“Berkeley High is a complex entity,” Blades said. “I don’t pretend to have expertise in that area. But I have read the literature about small schools. And you just think, ‘yeah, these kids need to have a real connection with the people who are teaching them and a real connection with each other.’”  

If the community rallies behind a single model for small learning communities in the coming months, the Berkeley school district could apply to the Small Learning Community program for an implementation grant in October. The Oakland Unified School District received a $1.5 million grant from the program this year to implement its own model for more personalized education, which consists of breaking five high schools that serve 10,405 students into as many as 20 small autonomous schools.

Monday, April 16

Dino Safari 

1 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Learn how paleontologists sift through evidence to make predictions about the size and behavior of dinosaurs. Included with museum admission. 

$3 - $7  

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

Before the Build  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by builder Glen Kitzenberger on what you need to know before you build or remodel your home. Learn to solder pipe and more. Free 

525-7610 

TREES Forum  

12:30 p.m. 

2400 Ridge Rd.  

Hewlett Library  

Board Room  

Michael Warburton on local environmental issues.  

E-mail: trees@gtu.edu 

Systematic Theology  

7 p.m. 

PLTS  

2770 Marin Ave.  

Great Hall  

Conversation with Dr. Oswald Bayer, professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Tuebingen, Germany.  

524-5264 

Design Ideas for Vista? 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Community Center  

1901 Hearst St.  

Vista President Ione Elioff, representative from Ratcliff, a Bay Area architectural design firm, and Peralta Community College District officials, will be present to hear suggestions, answer questions, and present draft design plans for the facility.  

981-2852 

Energy Crisis  

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

7th Floor, Eshleman Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Get the professional point of view about our energy debacle. Speakers include, Laura Nader, Ignacio Chapela, and Medea Benjamin. Free  

Millennial Presidency  

7 - 9 p.m. 

155 Dwinelle Hall  

UC Berkeley  

The American Presidency in the year 2001, a UC Berkeley Extension public program. Free  

642-4111 

Tuesday, April 17

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 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 

Real Deal Seminar 

12:45 - 1:45 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 103  

Bill O’Neill on “Ethics of Social Reconciliation and/or Human Rights.” Bring a lunch.  

849-8229 

Intelligent Conversation  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

A discussion group open to all, regardless of age, religion, viewpoint, etc. This time the discussion will center on the question of how your life conflicts with your ideals. Informally led by Robert Berend, who founded similar groups in L.A., Menlo Park, and Prague. Bring light snacks/drinks to share. Free  

527-5332 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Chaos Theory  

7 p.m. 

CDSP  

2451 Ridge Rd.  

Common Room  

Dr. Laurie Freeman on “Method in Science and the Humanities: What Does Chaos Theory Have to Offer?”  

848-8152 

Problems Abroad 

7 - 9 p.m. 

200 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

A presentation on the impact of the war on drugs on Columbia by the Columbia Coalition. Free 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

This session will be a rap session.  

601-0550 

The Creek  

11 a.m.  

1301 Oxford St.  

With the approval of the Use Permit for the Beth El Synagogue project by the Zoning Adjustments Board, environmental organizations, a neighborhood group and others are protesting the design. They are seeking an appeal with the Berkeley City Council of the ZAB decision. 

Wednesday, April 18

Stroke Prevention  

10 - 11:30 a.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland  

Cardiovascular Nurse Practitioner Debbie Seneca will speak about stroke prevention, as well as the warning signs of stroke and what to do if you suspect that someone is having a stroke. Free 

869-6737 

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 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Art & Jam  

5 - 7 p.m. 

30 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Ryan Buckley and Dave will play songs to sing-along to. Free 

Thursday, April 19

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This meetings discussions will center on “Eroticism and Spirituality.”  

654-5486 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Garrett Murphy 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 

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. At this months meeting, Peter Mui, a Berkeley resident who retired at 32, will give a presentation on transforming your relationship with money and the “stuff” we buy with it.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org

Treatment of Wozniak unfair 

Editor: 

In my opinion Dr. Wozniak is a decent person who sincerely believes in the safety of tritium. He deserves credit for having volunteered significant time over the years to the Parks Commission, and although I have always felt it was a conflict of interest to serve on a commission which investigates the violation of health and safety laws by his employers, he clearly did not deserve the shabby treatment that resulted from the City Attorney’s inconsistent legal opinions. At the March 27 City Council I stated Dr. Wozniak should be allowed to remain on the commission but be barred from participating in decisions related to LBNL, where he is employed as a nuclear scientist, but your article “City commissioner accused of chair kicking” (DP 4/2/01) makes clear to me that Dr. Wozniak must be removed from the Community Environmental Advisory Commission. 

Pushing or slamming a chair at a person objecting to LBNL’s refusal to properly locate radiation monitors clearly crosses the line. Members of the public should not have to fear violence by city commissioners who disagree with their opinions. In this case a woman who wished to participate in the meeting was effectively silenced because she had to leave and go to the hospital. Polly Armstrong’s bad judgement in appointing Dr. Wozniak to a commission that investigates his own employer, which became evident when she refused to remove him despite the disruptive effect leading to walkouts for two commission meetings in a row, should now be obvious. Dr. Wozniak has shown he can not control his temper when people criticize tritium pollution. Because his presence on the commission could have a chilling effect on the right of citizens who wish to speak out against LBNL’s tritium facility he should be removed. If Armstrong lacks the common sense to do so despite this act of violence, the council should remove him, not only because of the conflict of interest, but because his actions expose the city to liability and prove that he lacks the temperament to deal appropriately with people who criticize the tritium facility. 

Elliot Cohen 

Berkeley 

Berkeley law enforcement ignores state law 

Editor: 

Why is everybody so concerned about how the new state law about sleeping in public places is going to be enforced? Simple answer- enforce it like some other state laws are enforced in Berkeley — just choose to ignore it!  

I’ve seen Berkeley police watch drivers driving across the double yellow line to turn around in the middle of the block to get a parking place on the other side of the street — they just ignore it. I’ve seen city employees park city owned cars in red zones while getting a cup of coffee in Peet’s — the parking enforcement and the squad car totally ignore it. When was the last time anybody looked at the head shops on Telegraph selling drug paraphernalia? Wake up, Berkeley, your city officials and police ignore what they want! 

Allan Munkres 

Kensington

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. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins, and become little “dump” workers. $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. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) 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. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

UC Berkeley Art Museum “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; “Ernesto Neto/MATRIX 19” A Maximum Minimum Time Space Between Us and the Parsimonious Universe, Through April 15. Made from disposable materials such as styrofoam pellets, glass, paper, paraffin wax, and nylon stockings, Neto’s sensual sculptural works provoke viewers to interact with his art; “Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193” This Oakland-based artist will use low-tech gadgetry to turn the museum into a sound sculpture as part of his site-specific installation Vanishing Point; “A Passion for Art: The Disaronno Originale Photography Collection,” Through April 18 Featuring the work of photographers worldwide who have demonstrated passion and excellence; $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!” 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. “Fossil Finding with Annie Montague Alexander” April 21; “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $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. April 20: The Blast Rox, The Sissies; Uberkunst; April 21: MU330, Slow Gherkin, Big D & The Kids Table, Thee Impossibles 525-9926  

Albatross Pub All music begins at 9 p.m. April 17: pickPocket ensemble; April 18: Whiskey Brothers; April 19: Keni “El Lebrijano” 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ashkenaz April 17, 9 p.m.: Tom Rigney & Flambeau, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 18, 9 p.m.: Brenda Boykin & Home Cookin’, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 19, 9 p.m.: Blues for Choice with Craig Horton Blues Band, Rabia, Steve Gannon, Mz Dee, Georgia Freeman, Mark Naftalin, RJ Misho; April 20, 9:30 p.m.: Tamazgha; April 21, 9:30 p.m.: West African Highlife Band, dance lesson at 9 p.m.; April 22, 2-6 p.m.: Free Cajun, Zydeco and Waltz Dance Workshops; April 22, 7 p.m.: KPFA Legal Defense Benefit with Venusians and DJ Dragonfly; April 24, 9 p.m.: Zydeco Flames, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 25, 8 p.m.: Fling Ding with Crooked Jades, Bluegrass Intentions, clogging lesson; April 26, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ night with digital dave; April 27, 8 p.m.: Musicians for Medical Marijuana Benefit featuring Fact or Fiction with Martin Fierro, Shelly Doty X-Tet; April 28, 9:30 p.m.: Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums, 8 p.m. dance lesson; April 29, 9 p.m.: Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band, DJ Edwin The Selector; May 6, 7 p.m.: Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. April 17: Brigitte Demeyer; April 18: Rick Shea w/Brantley Kearnes; April 19: Joe Louis Walker, Rusty Zinn; April 20: Michael McNevin 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. April 22: Alan Hall & Friends 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Performances April 18, 8 p.m.: Soprano Dawn Upshaw & Pianist Richard Goode perform Haydn, Mahler, Bartok, Ives, Beethoven and Debussy $30 - $52; April 28, 8 p.m.: Vanguard Swing Orchestra, UC Berkeley Big Band $18 - $30 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley; April 22, 3 p.m.: Violinist Gill Shaham and Pianist Orli Shaham perform Coplan, Faure, and Brahms Hertz Hall 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Young Emerging Artists Concert April 17, 7 - 8 p.m. Works by Mozart, Brahms, Lehar, and others staged by Sharla Goodson-Sullivan, soprano and Gustavo Hernandez, tenor with Sarah Aroner on violin, Jorge Cruz on saxophone, and alumna Danica Morrison, winner of the 2000 Yamaha Young Artists Competition, on trumpet $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Jazz Singers’ Collective April 19, 8 - 10 p.m. With Mark Little on piano. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

Shotgun Players April 19, 20 7 p.m. Preview of Black Box Productions’ double-bill: “Slings and Arrows: Love Stories from Shakepearean Tragedie” writen and directed by Rebecca Goodberg and developed by the ensemble and “The Glass Tear” conceptualized and directed by Christian Schneider. Discussions with the audience will follow each show. The show opens April 21 and continues Thursday-Sunday through May 5. $10 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid Ave. 655-0813  

“The Magic Flute” April 20, 25, 30 7:30 p.m. UC Berkeley’s Cal Opera and B.A.C.H. present an updated version of Mozart’s classic. Proceeds benefit new developments for the Longfellow Jr. High theater. $10 Longfellow Jr. High 1500 Derby St.  

Kensington Symphony Orchestra April 21, 8 p.m. Featuring UC Berkeley student and soprano, Vanessa Langer performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G and other selections. $8 - $10 First Baptist Church 770 Sonoma St. Richmond 251-2031 

Jeanne Starkiochmans April 21, 7:30 p.m. Belgian-born Bay Area resident performs works by Claude Debussy on the piano. $25-$35 Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland 

The Pirate Prince April 21, 22, 29, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sunday The first production for the new Hillside Players. Princesses, pirates, witches and modern diolgue in a family-geared show. Free admission, reservations required Hillside Club 2286 Cedar St. 528-2416  

Sharon Isbin April 22, 4 p.m. A rare Bay Area appearance in a benefit concert for the Crowden School. $20 - $30 St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. 559-6910 

Kids Carneval! Brazilian Dance for the Whole Family April 22, 2 p.m. The Borboletas Children’s Dance Troupe will transport children and their families to Brazil and promises to have the audience dancing in and out of their seats. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300  

Alla Francesca April 25, 8 p.m. Performing French and Italisn love songs of the 14th century $28 First Congregational Church 2345 Channing Way 642-9988 or e-mail: tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Community Music Day at the Crowden School and Crowden Center for Music April 28, 1-5 p.m. Music and dance performances and storytelling. Families can make their own instruments, watch a master violin maker at work, or go to the Instument Petting Zoo to try playing different instruments. Rose Street at Sacremento in Berkeley. Free.

Saturday, the Golden Bears hosted the USC Trojans at Evans Diamond for the third and final time in this week’s series. Having dropped the first two games, the Bears needed a win badly to salvage the series. But Cal got off to a rough start with starter Ryan Atkinson not lasting past the first inning, and it looked like the Trojans were gearing up for a sweep.  

But by chipping away at the USC (26-13 overall, 8-4 Pac-10) lead run by run, the Bears managed to send the game to extra innings, and scratched their way to a 5-4 run victory in the tenth when designated hitter Brad Smith bounced a grounder over a drawn-in USC infield with the bases loaded. 

The Bears (22-18, 7-8) are hoping this win will be a turning point in their season, allowing them to make a late run at the post season – just as they made a late run at the Trojans on Saturday. 

Southern California started fast, ripping Atkinson for three runs on three hits in the first inning. The Bears responded with three hits of their own in the bottom half. Ben Conley and 

Conor Jackson singled with Conley scoring on cleanup hitter John Baker’s soft liner between the shortstop and third basemen.  

Trailing 3-1 after the first inning, Cal coach David Esquer decided to pull Atkinson, turning to reliever Andrew Sproul.  

“There’s no use leaving somebody rested throughout the weekend because there is no other game in the weekend,” Esquer said after the game.  

Sproul allowed only one runner in his first three innings of relief. In the fifth inning, during the Trojans second time through the order against Sproul, Michael Moon hit his second career home run off the top of the track field stands behind the right field wall, putting USC up 4-1. Moon’s home run capped the Trojan’s scoring.  

Trojan starter Anthony Reyes started shakily, allowing a run and three hits in the first inning, but settled down afterwards. Cal spent the game trying to recover from the slow start. 

Sproul gave way to David Cash in the sixth inning. Cash threw five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five Trojans. The two Cal relievers combined to throw nine innings, giving up just one run on five hits and no walks. The near flawless bullpen pitching allowed the Bears to stage a late inning comeback, giving Cash his third win of the season. As Cash put it, “the bullpen held on long enough.”  

Reyes didn’t allow a second run until the seventh inning, when Carson White scored on a Ron Meyer’s fielder’s choice, cutting the USC lead to 4-2. Cal scratched together another run in the eighth inning. After Conley struck out, Jackson drew a walk. Reyes, preoccupied with Jackson, threw two pickoffs to first basemen Bill Peavey. On his third pickoff attempt, Reyes threw the ball away, allowing Jackson to move up to second. Brian Horowitz hit what could have been a double play ball up the middle, only Jackson was already on second after the throwing error. Cal capitalized on the break when Baker followed with his second RBI single.  

Trailing by one in the ninth, Cal needed base runners. They appeared to have a good start when Clint Hoover grounded a ball between third and short. Trojan third basemen, Michael Moon, snared the chopper, spun and threw to first, throwing out a sliding Hoover in a close play. The call prompted Esquer to emerge from the dugout, arguing Hoover had been safe.  

When asked about the tough calls going against his team, Esquer said, “you can’t have those calls be the cause, in your mind, of why the game won’t turn out your way.”  

Heeding Esquer’s words, the Bears overcame the close call to tie the game. Meyer hit a one-out single, and Brad Smith followed with a walk, the first of the game allowed by Reyes. 

Reyes’ struggles prompted USC coach Mike Gillespie to make a pitching change. He called in Brian Bannister, who induced Jeff Dragicevich to ground out. With Cal down to its final out, Conley drew a walk, loading the bases. That brought up Jackson, who walked when Bannister missed on four of five breaking balls, forcing in the tying run. With the bases still loaded Horowitz lined out to center, ending the ninth and sending the game into extra innings.  

After Cash retired Southern Cal in order in the tenth, the Trojans handed the ball to Frank Dizard. Dizard got Baker to ground out to first. Carson White followed with a double, and Dizard intentionally walked Hoover to set up a potential double play. Pinch hitter Chris Grossman drew a walk, loading the bases and forcing the Trojans to bring the infield in. That was all Smith needed, as he chopped a 2-2 fastball over leaping USC second basemen Jon Brewster, driving in White for the game-winning run.  

Smith provided a lift to a young team that has played in tight games with some of the top teams in the country, but always seems to come up just a little short. Saturday, they finally pulled one out.

A loose coalition of local businesses and city organizations gathered in Civic Center Park Saturday for Berkeley’s first Safety and Preparedness Fair.  

Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Services, the Berkeley Police Department and Project Impact — a national initiative begun in 1997 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — the fair was designed to inform the public, introduce the affiliated companies and services and realize Project Impact’s mission of, “building a disaster-resistant Berkeley.” 

“It's about how to strengthen our built environment,” said Carol Lopes, Project Impact’s local coordinator. “Because we have a lot of information now. The city’s had safety fairs before. ... All these folks are partners of ours.”  

She indicated the diverse but complementary collection of interactive exhibits and information tables.  

Another organizer, OES’ Dory Ehrlich, agreed. 

“It doesn't happen all that often that city departments work cooperatively to put together a fair,” she said. 

But a safety fair is a tough sell, especially on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Despite the lure of a mobile climbing wall by Cal Adventures, the hospitality of Dylan, a disaster search dog and a raffle of small prizes, many locals were either preoccupied with the Easter weekend — or simply in disaster denial. Attendance was relatively sparse.  

The fair’s planners hoped for hundreds, but instead received dozens. Still, planners remained confident that informing even one person constitutes success, and that once the fair becomes an annual event, it will gain momentum. 

Many of those who did attend trickled in from the nearby farmer’s market. 

“I needed to trip over this to actually buy it,” said Oakland's Amy Hertz of the glowsticks and solar powered radio she'd purchased from the fair’s Earthquake Store outpost. “It's the kind of thing I've been meaning to do for a while, but it's never at the top of my list.”  

Hertz has lived in the Bay Area since 1987.  

“So I’ve been through the ’89 earthquake,” she said. “I take earthquakes seriously since that one.” 

She was not alone. Discussions at nearly every table — from the Red Cross to the energy office to the Tool Lending Library — revolved around the prospect of a major local earthquake.  

There is a 70 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 quake striking the greater Bay Area within 30 years, according to Project Impact, and fairgoers, whether in denial or not, seemed at least resigned to the notion that it’s just a matter of time.  

“If you're prepared for earthquakes, you're prepared for everything,” said Berkeley Fire Capt. Malcolm Green. 

No public discussion of preparedness would be complete without the Boy Scouts, of course, and members of Troop 19 were also on hand.  

“We heard about this event, and we thought it would be a good way to help the community,” said Garrison Ham, a 14-year-old star scout from Richmond. “Because that’s what we do. We hope more people will take an interest in safety.”  

Among their many local projects, the scouts have helped with seismic retrofitting throughout the community. 

Seated behind pamphlets weighed down with foundation plates, special square washers, and other retrofitting hardware, Berkeley Building Inspector Ellie Leard explained that permits for seismic work are free. Doing such work, she said, provides homeowners with safety, peace of mind and tax incentives as well.  

Foundation work, she noted, is the most important element of seismic retrofitting.  

“If they can’t afford to do all of it, what they can afford to do is better than nothing,” she said. 

Committed to making the public aware of abundant available resources, fair organizers hope it won’t take a seismic shock for people to get over their preparedness inertia.  

“We can minimize loss of lives and property through taking these actions,” said Lopes. “Seattle’s probably a poster child for mitigation,” she added, referring to the minimal damage wrought by a 6.8 quake there in February. “They had a minimum of loss there. They put in a lot of pre-disaster investment. Right now we are touting about a 38 percent home retrofit rate. We want to get that up to 60 or 70 percent.” 

Inside the home, she explained, preparedness needn’t require radical efforts or be terribly costly.  

“It’s about a hundred dollar investment for the average homeowner and involves minor adjustments and easily modified behavior. Just like we latched our cupboards when our kids were small,” she said. 

Lopes and her colleagues could at least rest assured that the fair’s attendance, however sparse, was enthusiastic.  

“I'm very glad that they have these programs,” said Berkeley's Alicia Juarez. “This was very interesting.” 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Cal volleyball player Candace McNamee has been selected as one of 14 athletes from around the nation who will train as part of the A-2 Women’s National Volleyball Team this summer at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.  

The A-2 squad is comprised of student-athletes who are potential members of USA teams that will be competing at the 2003 World University Games and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.  

“This is a great opportunity for me to be able to train at a high level with some of the best college volleyball players in the nation,” said McNamee, who will be a senior setter/outside hitter for the Bears this fall. “Hopefully the experience I gain over the summer will help me provide leadership for Cal next season.”  

McNamee joins Norisha Campbell (Florida State), Lizzy Fitzgerald (Wisconsin), Tayibba Haneef (Long Beach State), Wendy Hatlestad (Pittsburgh), Brittany Hochevar (Long Beach State), Hedder Ilustre (Cal State Northridge), Jennifer Jones (Pacific), Lilly Kahomoku (Hawaii), Kristy Kreher (Notre Dame), M’Myia McQuirter (Western Michigan), Nina Puikkonen (BYU), Cheryl Weaver (Long Beach State) and Elisha Thomas (Long Beach State) as members of the 2001 A-2 team.  

McNamee was selected to the A-2 squad after traveling to Colorado Springs this past February 3-5 along with Cal teammates Leah Young and Gabrielle Abernathy and over 70 other college athletes who attended the national team tryouts. She will be leaving for the Olympic Training Center May 20 to join the other member of the A-2 squad. The A-2 squad will practice over the summer and play in exhibition matches, including competing at the Junior Olympics in early July in Salt Lake City, Utah and traveling to Beijing, China in early August.

The City Council will likely adopt a recommendation Tuesday directing the city manager to “vigorously pursue” the transformation of energy sources in public-owned buildings to renewable sources using mostly solar-based technologies. 

The recommendation, from Mayor Shirley Dean and Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, outlines a series of proposed policies that would transform all city-owned buildings into users of renewable energy sources. The new policies would also encourage other public institutions including The Berkeley Unified School District, the Peralta Community College District for Vista College and the University of California to use alternative energy sources in all new construction. 

“The technology is here,” Dean said, “and it has the potential to lift us out of this insane energy situation we’re in.” 

If adopted, the city manager’s office would look into available grants and begin to identify possible funding within the city budget while considering long-term savings from conversion to renewable energy sources. 

The recommendation also asks the city manager to consider the financial implications of offering incentives to business and home owners to convert to renewable resources by extending the use of the Transfer Tax. The Transfer Tax was used to encourage seismic retrofit work at the point of sale. 

According to the council report from the offices of Dean and Shriek, a residence can be converted to solar power for approximately $10,000. The report also said there are state energy assistance programs that could reduce the cost to $3,000 to $6,000. 

“We’re also convening meetings with bankers to see if we can get them to offer some low-interest loans to help with conversion.” Dean said. 

The report said the technology is now available to allow homes to be hooked up to the power grid as well as an independent solar power system. Homeowners can install reverse meters through which they can sell extra energy back to PG&E. 

The residential system are capable of seamlessly switching to the solar energy source in case of a blackout, according to the report. 

Dean and Shirek said in their report that the energy crisis will likely get worse before it gets better. Even if the state purchases the utilities, it will still have to purchase energy from generators, many located out of state, at the same high prices PG&E and other utility companies pay. 

“Those generators mostly rely on natural gas to provide electricity,” Dean said. “Even if they do provide better service there’s still the problem of contaminated air from the energy plants. Solar power represents real freedom.”

When the St. Mary’s track & field team shows up for a meet, they usually expect to do well, with several top finishers. Even though the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday was the top meet in California, the Panthers had high hopes. But when all was said and done, they came home with some disappointing performances and just one win. 

St. Mary’s two most consistent performers this season, hurdler Halihl Guy and thrower Kamaiya Warren, both had up-and-down days. Guy helped the Panther 4x100-meter relay team to a big win at 41.78 seconds, but finished third in his signature event, the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, and dead last in the 110-meter high hurdles. Gyu actually bettered his winning time from last weekend’s Oakland Invitational in the 300-meter event, but faced stiffer competition on Saturday. Guy also ran for the second-place 4x400-meter relay squad. 

Warren threw strongly in both events, but finished fourth in the discus with a best of 151’10”, and second in the shot put with 44’09.75”. Like Guy, Warren bettered her winning marks from last weekend, but couldn’t beat the better field. 

St. Mary’s triple jumpers also finished worse than expected, with Solomon Welch, Asokah Muhammed and Trestin George coming in fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. Tiffany Johnson and Quiana Plump were sixth and ninth on the girls’ side of the event. 

Berkeley High’s Kyle Hammerquist, the school’s lone entrant in the meet, finished eighth in the discus with a throw of 154’10”.

Most people think of Greenpeace and recycling when they think of Earth Day, but UC Berkeley kicked off its Earthweek 2001 events yesterday with panel discussions on political reform and nuclear weapons.  

Now in its second year, Earthweek’s panel discussions will include a host of issues ranging from genetically-modified food and California’s Energy crisis to the war on drugs in Columbia on campus throughout the week.  

“We are raising consciousness. Which is a slow subtle process of building networks, friendships and activities that bring people together,” said Howard Chong of the Campus Green Party.  

To members of the Campus Green Party who helped organize the event, the subjects are a natural fit into Earth Day’s philosophy. 

“It’s not just the environment. It’s politics, housing, business. It’s a lot of things,” said Evan Payne of the Campus Green Party. 

This is Chong’s second year helping with Earthweek. He is also interim president of SOURCE, or Students Organized for Using Resources Conscientiously and Efficiently, and sees the Earthweek events as a way to bring global issues home while bringing attention to some issues that affect UC students and Berkeley residents directly. 

“On campus, we are offering an alternative to the ‘get a degree, make money, work and spend, two-party system lifestyle,’” he said. “This is an electoral forum. Aside from the Florida coverage, there was very little talking about alternatives.” 

Chong, 21, is the self-proclaimed “tent guy” who said he was arrested for handing out flyers on the housing crisis sitting near a tent in a UC parking garage.  

He believes that UC should take a stronger stand on solving the student housing situation that he said is reaching emergency levels. 

“The housing situation is in crisis. It needs to be subsidized, not necessarily monetarily, but it needs to be addressed,” he said.  

Chong will be a fourth year electrical engineering major this fall, but said he will most pursue a career of politics. For Chong, the Green Party is a natural fit. 

“The political arms were interested in my goals – which is to see a better world community both in touch and enlightened by its surroundings,” he said.  

Earthweek 2001 events are officially organized by the Progressive Student Alliance and are sponsored by the school, student groups and the city of Berkeley. For more information visit ucb.earthweek.org.

The No. 4 Cal Bears softball team split a doubleheader with No. 3 Stanford on Saturday in Pacific-10 Conference action in front of a standing room only crowd of 450 at Levine-Fricke Field. The Bears dropped the first game 5-4, but came back to shutout the Cardinal in game two, 1-0.  

Cal, which dropped Friday’s game between the two teams 5-4, is now 44-6 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-10, while Stanford is 38-5-1 and 7-2 in conference play.  

In Game 1, the Cardinal got on the board in the first inning with an unearned run after an error by senior Paige Bowie at shortstop, giving Stanford an early 1-0 lead.  

The third was another inning where the Cardinal was able to capitalize on a Cal error. Robin Walker’s drive to right field was dropped, and Walker ended up on second. Jessica Mendoza followed with her second single of the game. With runners on second and third with two outs, Kira Ching drove a line drive double to centerfield, scoring both Walker and Mendoza for a 3-0 Cardinal lead. 

The Bears answered in the bottom of the third with a single run. Kristen Morley led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Then Candace Harper doubled off the left centerfield wall for Cal’s first run of the game.  

In the bottom of the fourth, Stanford pitcher Dana Sorensen ran into some trouble. A walk and back-to-back singles left the Bears with the bases loaded and one out. Morley drew a walk, which scored Courtney Scott from third and chased Sorensen.  

Cal still had the bases loaded with one out, but Stanford relief pitcher Tori Nyberg forced two ground balls getting the Cardinal out of the jam.  

In the top of the sixth, Stanford extended its lead on Jenni Shideler’s two-run homer.  

All five of Stanford’s runs were unearned, due to three Cal errors.  

Cal cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth. The Bears strung together four singles, which chased Nyberg. Jaime Forman-Lau came on in relief and got out of the inning with a fly out.  

Forman-Lau earned her fourth save of the year. Nyberg, who went 2 1/3 innings picked up the win to improve to 4-0.  

Cal’s Nicole DiSalvio went the distance in the circle, giving up five runs on six hits. She struck out four in falling to 16-2.  

The second game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth. Scott drew a two-out walk and then Mikella Pedretti and Amber Phillips hit back-to-back singles for the only run of the game.  

The Cardinal’s only chance came in the fourth inning when Sarah Beeson’s hard ground ball was missed by sophomore Eryn Manahan at second and Ching followed with a double off the left centerfield wall. But Cal junior hurler Jocelyn Forest struck out the next two batters to strand the runners at second and third.  

For Cal, Forest pitched a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts. She improves to 23-4 on the year. LeCocq pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up just three hits and one run. She took the loss to fall to 11-4.  

The Bears continue Pac-10 play on the road this week when they travel to No. 8 Arizona State for a single game on Friday and a pair of games at No. 2 Arizona.

Earthquakes act on structures in two ways: 

•By shaking the building itself, weakening its structure 

•By moving the ground, lifting or disrupting a building from its foundation 

Five Steps for Earthquake Preparedness: 

•Make an evacuation plan for yourself and your family or household, include a post-quake meeting place. 

•Arrange for a long-distance telephone contact, preferably out of state, with whom everyone in your family will be able to check in. 

•Prepare an emergency supplies kit — include canned food, one gallon of water per person per day, a flashlight, first aid kit, a portable AM radio with batteries, blankets, extra clothes, tools, cash, necessary medications and a fire extinguisher. 

•Prepare your home to survive a quake — Learn to turn off the utilities; secure heavy objects; latch cupboards; check walls, chimney, foundation (bolt it if you can) and roof for stability, repairing any decay; check for termites. 

•Identify the needs and capabilities of your neighbors. Learn who lives where, who has special needs (seniors, disabled, non-English speakers), who has special skills (nurses, plumbers, retired firefighters, etc.), who has important resources (a generator, tools, tents, food supplies, a ham radio). Organize a phone tree to pass on information, designate one person and two alternates to act as a disaster coordinator, make a utility map and mark gas meters, main water turn-offs, spigots and electrical boxes. 

Courtesy of OES. 

Resources to help make homes earthquake safe: 

•Project Impact Coordinator: 644-6580 

•Office of Emergency Services: 644-8736 

•City Transfer Tax Rebate Program: 644-6470 

•Retrofit Permit Fee Waivers: 644-6915 

•Berkeley Home Repair Program: 644-8546 

•Senior and Disabled Rehabilitation Loan Program: 665-3487 

•Berkeley Rental Rehabilitation Program: 665-3487 

•Tool Lending Library: 644-6101 

Websites for more information: 

•Berkeley Fire Department/Office of Emergency Services 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

•Federal Emergency Management Agency 

www.fema.gov 

•American Red Cross 

www.crossnet.org 

•US Geological Survey (recent earthquake info) 

http://quake.usgs.gov/QUAKE/CURRENT 

•Techniques for Mitigating Earthquake Hazards 

www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/fixit/fixit.html 

Outraged over a sudden multibillion-dollar increase in cost estimates to retrofit the Bay Bridge, state Sen. Tom Torlakson has called a senate hearing in Oakland to investigate the matter. 

Originally, Caltrans said Bay Bridge retrofits, including replacing its eastern span, would cost $1.3 billion. But in a report released April 6, the agency doubled that estimate to $2.6 billion. 

The skyrocketing figures have upset a number of East Bay legislators, including Torlakson, D-Antioch, and Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland. In response, the senators have called a special bi-committee hearing tomorrow in Oakland to look into the overruns.  

Torlakson is chair of the Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Infrastructure, and Perata is chair of the Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Transportation. 

“Bay area drivers deserve an explanation, because they are helping pay for this work with bridge tolls,” Torlakson said Thursday.  

There have been reports that the $2 bridge toll, which was set to expire in 2007, could be made permanent to cover the overruns. 

On Wednesday, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said the increase “proves my point that they should have had a world-class design, like the Golden Gate Bridge, so (the cost) would have been worth it.” 

The Bay Bridge has required retrofits, including the rebuilding of its eastern span, since it was damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. But costs for the fix have drifted steadily upward due to a number of planning delays, including disputes over design and a feud between Caltrans and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown over where on Yerba Buena Island the eastern span should be situated. 

That argument was settled in October 2000, when the U.S. Department of Transportation took the disputed piece of the island from the U.S. Navy, which owned the land, and gave it to the state of California. 

The Senate Select Committees Hearing on Toll Bridge Cost Overruns will be held Monday, April 16, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., at the Elihu Harris State Building Auditorium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland.

Berkeley’s Ecology Center announced Friday they will begin doing their recycling rounds with 10 new trucks that run on recycled vegetable oil. 

The renewable biodiesel fuel recycles carbon through the process of photosynthesis.  

“By using this renewable fuel, the Ecology Center hopes to do its share to reduce climate change by reducing carbon emissions,” according to a statement by Berkeley’s Solid Waste Operations department. 

The non-petroleum fuel is made from soybean oil, which will extract carbon from the atmosphere using solar energy. Next, the carbon-rich oil is processed like diesel fuel in a conventional engine, according to the statement. 

“As the truck burns the fuel, it releases the carbon again,’’ it said. 

Berkeley City Manager Weldon Rucker said the city was helping to close its own loop in the carbon cycle. 

“This will help protect our natural and economic resources, including the Sierra snow pack which provides most of our water,’’ he said.  

The city says biodiesel produces less particulates and soot.

SACRAMENTO – Several University of California campuses have not been complying with federal crime reporting laws, but there is no evidence that the schools covered up campus crime, according to a report by a UC task force. 

The report recommends several changes that UC president Richard Atkinson wants to implement to make certain the campuses are complying with federal law. 

Colleges and universities must keep and classify all campus crime statistics and make that data available to students, staff and faculty, something the UC system hadn’t done effectively, the report says. 

The flawed system was documented in a series of articles in The Sacramento Bee last September. The report prompted the federal government to begin an investigation into UC crime figures. 

The reports showed schools had been ignoring or misinterpreting the Clery Act, an 11-year-old federal law intended to increase awareness of campus crime. 

The UC report released this week includes an independent audit by George Washington University Police Chief Dolores Stafford, a nationally recognized expert on campus crime reporting. 

Her review concludes the Irvine and Riverside campuses “were seriously out of compliance.” UC Davis, while making a concerted effort to follow the Clery Act, also was not in full compliance. 

Stafford reported that crimes from branch campus locations and non-campus buildings were not included in annual crime reports at the Davis and Irvine campuses. 

She also found that in several instances burglaries were wrongly categorized as thefts and that crime statistics from residence halls were reported separately from on-campus statistics even though they should be reported as an aggregate number. 

“It is obvious that there was no intent to ’hide crime’ since some of the errors included instances where crimes were overreported,” Stafford writes in the report. “However, it is imperative that the campus make an effort to accurately report the crime statistics.” 

A spokesman for the UC Office of the President said Friday that the system will aggressively implement the task force recommendations, including calls for uniform reporting of Clery statistics and better training for officials who gather the data. 

“These are not going to gather dust on a shelf somewhere,” said spokesman Charles McFadden. 

UC officials plan to share the task force report with other colleges and universities, he said. 

Jennifer Beeman, director of UC Davis’ campus violence prevention program, said she generally agrees with Stafford’s perceptions and recommendations. 

“There’s nothing in there that anyone objects to,” she said. 

Beeman said she hopes that UC officials will devote more personnel to complying with the Clery Act. 

“People have been working above and beyond to comply with the act,” she said. “We were making every effort to do this right.” 

The UC task force recommendations include: 

— Setting up an office to ensure all campuses are using the same criteria to report crime. 

— Establishing uniform crime definitions from the FBI Uniform Crime Report, California Penal Code and the Clery Act. 

— Creating a central UC website with links to all campuses tht will serve as a clearing house. 

“There’s no question they were in violation,” said S. Daniel Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, Inc. in Tennessee. “The only question is whether or not it was intentional.” 

Carter, a vocal critic of UC crime reporting over the past year, said he was “very pleased” with the task force report because it lays groundwork for uniform reporting practices at the nine campuses. 

“They’re well on the road to doing what is right,” he said. 

But he said much of the blame for noncompliance can be placed on the U.S. Department of Education, the agency responsible for enforcing the Clery Act. 

“There has been no fear among these schools because the DOE has not been enforcing a 10-year-old law,” he said.

Four-alarm fire guts S.F. hotel on Easter Sunday 

SAN FRANCISCO – Nearly 100 people were displaced Easter Sunday following a four-alarm fire that gutted a 60-unit residential hotel in the South of Market area. 

Two residents suffered minor ankle injuries after they jumped from their second-story windows. Others suffered smoke inhalation and were treated on the scene. 

The fire sent black smoke billowing above San Francisco’s skyline at Howard and Sixth streets. 

Some residents escaped out their windows and onto the roof until firefighters helped them down. 

Firefighters battled the blaze during the morning fire, but said it continued burning due to the three-story building’s age and its numerous crawl spaces. 

Displaced tenants are being housed at a nearby Red Cross shelter. 

Firefighters are investigating the fire to determine how and where it started. 

Community of squatters found in Hayward 

HAYWARD – Hayward police this weekend discovered a small colony of alleged drug users and other squatters living illegally in an underground storage facility. 

Six people were arrested and about a half pound of methamphetamine was confiscated last week. Several handguns and $3,000 also was seized by police. 

The storage facility is located beneath a business complex. It housed at least five people, and a motorcycle shop and was equipped with beds, microwaves and refrigerators, Hayward police said. 

The area used to be offices for JC Penney when it was located on Foothill Boulevard. 

Some had lived in the storage facility up to nine months. 

Man ordered to pay $2,000 for killing dog 

MARTINEZ – A Martinez man convicted of fatally shooting his neighbor’s dog has paid $2,000 as part of his settlement. 

Timothy Mulgrew sent his check to Voices for Pets in January. A note also was included, saying the money was a donation in memory of Teddy Dempster, the neighbors’ late son who had died of cancer after picking the dog out as his pet. 

The civil settlement also calls for Mulgrew to pay the animal rights group for the cost of the black Labrador mix’s examination. 

Mulgrew shot the dog, named Cole, while it was in a creek behind his house in June 1999. 

The Dempsters sued Mulgrew for severe mental anguish. Mulgrew filed a cross-complaint accusing the family of negligence, saying the dog had entered his yard numerous times before and was a threat. 

Mulgrew was convicted last April. He received 90 days of home arrest and two years probation. 

Judge orders $1 million payment to retired Union City steelworkers 

SAN JOSE – Retired Union City steelworkers will receive back pay for their health and pension plans. 

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel ordered the release of $1 million to the steelworkers retired from the defunct Pacific States Steel Corp. 

The Union City mill shut down in 1978, and workers have been fighting for their benefits ever since. 

Patel also ordered $1 million be paid to an out-of-state environmental cleanup firm and $250,000 dollars to Hoffman and Lazear, the law firm that has represented the workers for the past 20 years. 

Patel last week ordered that Palo Alto attorney Bruce Train was overpaid. She ordered him to repay $200,000 and to drop his request for $20 million additional dollars to compensate his work. 

Boat sinks after collision with freighter 

SAN FRANCISCO – A freighter leaving San Francisco bound for Los Angeles struck a fishing boat earlier today, sinking the smaller vessel. 

The collision happened 17 miles southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

The two fisherman on board a 30-foot boat quickly put on their floatation gear before their boat sank. 

The men were uninjured and swam to another fishing boat. 

The operators of the freighter may not have been aware they struck the smaller craft, according to U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Christian Allaire.

5,000 fewer inmates after first year of Proposition 36 

SACRAMENTO – California’s prison population will drop by more than 5,000 inmates in the first year after voters opted to send drug offenders to treatment instead of prison, according to new projections. 

The nation’s largest prison population — 160,655 inmates at the end of 2000 — will keep shrinking until 2004. Then, tough-on-crime laws will grow the population again, although much more slowly than prison officials had projected before now. 

By 2006, the population is projected to be nearly 18,000 inmates less than the California Department of Corrections had predicted just six months ago, before voters approved Proposition 36 in November. 

Despite the drop, prison officials say they need to keep building maximum-security prisons to house hard-core offenders. And officials in California’s 58 counties could see their budgets stretched considerably as they take on the burden of treating and supervising drug offenders. 

The proposition, which takes effect July 1, requires that those convicted of using or possessing drugs for the first or second time be sent to community treatment programs instead of prison or jail. 

After the first year, the department predicts its population will be 9,216 lower than it had estimated in October. Of that, the voter initiative is projected to be responsible for 5,388 fewer inmates. 

The decrease due to Proposition 21 is expected to continue in successive years, but Corrections spokesman Russ Heimerich warned that the department is entering uncharted waters. 

“Especially with Proposition 36, we just don’t know what kind of effect that’s going to have,” Heimerich said. 

The projections depend in large part on guessing how many drug offenders will qualify, and whether California’s 58 county prosecutors will refuse to negotiate plea bargains with drug dealers, knowing that a drug use or possession conviction will bring no prison time. 

“To me it sounds like the estimates might be a little aggressive,” said K. Jack Riley, director of Rand Corp.’s community justice department. “I think we’ll see uneven implementation of it across the state.” 

Riley hopes to provide guidance for other states looking to California for direction on how the drug treatment proposition works. 

Riley directed a preliminary Proposition 36 study last year, and has applied for a state grant to study its impact in the state’s nine largest metropolitan counties, with preliminary results expected by early fall. 

Steve Green, assistant secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, predicted the proposition will eventually result in longer terms for hard-core drug offenders. 

“In the long run, we think our population will go up as persons who escape prison the first time around come into the system as they commit more serious crimes,” Green said. 

Fewer drug offenders also won’t mean a dramatic cut in prison costs, Green said, because most serious drug offenders are housed in minimum security conservation camps and community correctional facilities. 

“We continue to have a serious shortage of maximum-security beds in state prisons,” Green said. “We don’t see that abating anytime soon.” 

The prison population dropped last year for the first time in 22 years. Prison officials credited a lower crime rate and a drop in parole violations. 

According to the report, the number of inmates dropped 1,345 in the last half of the year, for a net decline for 2000 of 32 inmates. That compares to an increase of 1,124 in 1999 and 4,287 in 1998. 

The decline compares to an average 14.5 percent population growth during the 1980s and average 6.3 percent increases during the 1990s. 

An economic downturn also could drive up crime rates again, as is already beginning to happen in the latest urban crime reports, Green warned. 

He said fewer parolees may be returning to prison because of new programs aimed at helping ex-convicts get jobs, and because of increased supervision of ex-convicts with two felonies — those who face life in prison for a third offense under the state’s three-strikes law. 

That law, along with other sentence increases, will eventually overcome the drop in prison population due to Proposition 36, the department report said. 

In addition, the Proposition 21 juvenile justice measure — approved by voters in March 2000 — may increase the population of adult prisons while it reduces the population of juvenile facilities. 

The initiative expands the definition of serious or violent offenses that qualify under the three-strikes law and boosts penalties for street-gang activities. However, the proposition is being challenged in court and its future is uncertain.

Schilling says he wants his captors destroyed 

MANILA, Philippines – An American who was rescued by the Philippines military after nearly eight months in Muslim rebel captivity left for home Sunday, saying he wants the guerrillas destroyed. 

Jeffrey Schilling, 25, of Oakland, casually walked into Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport with his American security escorts and boarded a Continental Micronesia flight to Guam. 

Looking relaxed in a white sweatshirt, he ignored reporters’ questions before passing through security, when he turned back and gave a brief statement, thanking President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and defense chief Angelo Reyes for working to liberate him from his Abu Sayyaf rebel captors. 

“I’d like them to continue the efforts against the Abu Sayyaf,” Schilling said. “There are groups which can and will be destroyed as long as the operations continue.” 

Army troops found Schilling barefoot and covered with mosquito bites when they rescued him Thursday on southern Jolo Island, where he had been held in the jungle since August. 

He first was taken to the northern mountain resort city of Baguio to meet Arroyo, who was vacationing there. He said he had lost 100 pounds of his pre-captivity weight of 250 pounds. 

U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Anderson said Schilling, who has denied reports he had joined his captors, was debriefed in Manila by U.S. and Philippine authorities. 

Civilians on Jolo reported seeing Schilling patrolling with guerrillas and carrying a rifle. Schilling’s wife, Ivy Osani, is a cousin of an Abu Sayyaf spokesman, Abu Sabaya, and the couple were visiting a rebel camp when the guerrillas decided to keep him. Osani was allowed to go. Schilling said he was told to carry a weapon for appearances. 

Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, armed forces chief of staff, said officials were convinced Schilling was an unwilling hostage. 

Schilling is the last of scores of foreigners seized by the Abu Sayyaf last year. The smallest of the three major insurgency groups in the Philippines took them in two daring raids in Malaysia. They then held scores of foreign journalists who went to Jolo to cover the kidnappings. 

The foreigners were freed reportedly in exchange for huge ransoms. Only Roland Ulla, a Filipino worker at a Malaysian scuba diving resort, remains in their custody. 

The Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead Schilling — who they had vowed six times before to kill — on April 5 as a gift for Arroyo’s 54th birthday. Arroyo responded by ordering “all-out war” on the group. 

On Sunday, Arroyo delivered a strong warning and repeated she would not negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf, along with other criminals who mock the law. 

“They better beware. There will be no peace table for them,” Arroyo said. “The only peace for them is the peace of the graveyard.” 

Abu Sayyaf rebels say they are fighting for Islamic independence in the southern Philippines but Arroyo called them a “kidnap-for-ransom gang” which would be pulverized by the military if they don’t surrender. 

Arroyo has sought peace talks with another Muslim rebel group, the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, along with communist rebels, who have been waging a Marxist rebellion nationwide for more than three decades.

SAN FRANCISCO – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. officials demanded the utility be cut free from state regulation and be allowed to push huge rate increases onto its customers, two weeks before negotiations with Gov. Gray Davis broke off, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday. 

“Perhaps we misjudged their primary concern,” said Steve Maviglio, the governor’s spokesman. “It wasn’t resolving their credit issue. It was extracting vengeance on the PUC.” 

In addition to insisting that it be released from the state Public Utilities Commission’s regulatory grip, PG&E demanded it be allowed to buy back its power lines without competitive offers if the state ever decided to sell. In addition, it wanted to continue profiting from any telecommunications lines or antennas linked to the system, according to a Feb. 28 eight-page proposal obtained by the Chronicle. 

PG&E denies the document influenced the outcome between the utility and the state. 

“It is ludicrous to suggest that this document caused the negotiations to break down,” said PG&E spokesman Ron Low. “There were negotiations that occurred later and other documents that followed.” 

At the time of the utility’s bankruptcy filing April 6, PG&E Corp. Chairman Robert Glynn said no talks had been held for three weeks. PG&E’s proposal had been delivered about two before talks ceased. 

PG&E has said it’s entitled to recoup $9 billion it paid for wholesale power because of PUC-regulated rate caps, which kept the utility from passing high costs onto customers. 

The proposal said this money “will be fully recovered in retail rates without further CPUC review for prudence or any other purpose,” the Chronicle reported. 

The document went on to demand the PUC drop all proceedings concerning PG&E, including an investigation into whether the utility violated California law by transferring millions to parent company PG&E Corp. prior to filing bankruptcy. 

“They took a position on regulatory matters that was out of touch with reality,” Maviglio said. 

PG&E Corp. spokesman Shawn Cooper declined to comment on the proposal. 

“That document is confidential,” he said.

SAN JOSE – In an effort to ease this summer’s promised power drain, state energy officials are pushing for approval of a proposed power plant in San Jose’s Coyote Valley, despite recommendations that other sites may be more environmentally suitable, a newspaper reported Sunday. 

California Energy Commission top administrators undermined a negative environmental assessment of the project and recommended approval of Calpine Corp.’s Metcalf Energy Center over other sites, the San Jose Mercury News found, citing internal documents and transcripts obtained through a California Public Records Act request. 

But commission deputy director Bob Therkelsen denied any impartial dealings concerning the plant. 

“I would not deny that some of the staff have strong feelings,” Therkelsen said . “But I think the process allowed all perspectives to be heard.” 

San Jose City Council opposes the project because the city had planned to save the property for high-tech campuses. 

Commission administrators and attorneys directed an analyst to downplay other sites’ advantages and quieted him at a hearing when he tried to voice his concerns over the pressure that prompted him to alter his findings, the newspaper found. The commission also reversed a third analyst’s recommendation that Calpine obtain a contract for recycled water prior to construction, which could have slowed building the plant. 

A 574-page Preliminary Staff Assessment released in May identified other more “environmentally preferable” sites, including two industrial sites in Fremont. 

Therkelsen said the report was a premature draft that changed as more information became available. 

“I was concerned that the alternatives were being portrayed more optimistically than realistically,” Therkelsen said. 

Analyst Gary Walker, a 21-year veteran, reported other plant sites would be more suitable, but was later told his report was full of “bias” and “inconsistencies,” the newspaper reported. 

In an e-mail, senior commission attorney Arlene Ichien said Metcalf must be cast in a better light or it would be hard for the commission to grant approval. 

“Staff is building a strong case for finding the alternative sites feasible,” Ichien wrote. 

In a report last fall, Walker’s discussion of other sites’ advantages was ultimately replaced by a warning that the Silicon Valley is at risk for blackouts unless Metcalf is built. 

The final report recommended approval. 

Another analyst was told to change his report about how much noise the plant would create and the amount of insulation needed to quiet it, the newspaper reported. The analyst was taken off the project, and the final assessment released last October said insulation was not necessary because of the few homes near the plant. 

The five-member commission is expected to make its decision this summer during the power crisis’ peak load. There is a push to build power plants in the technology-dominated Silicon Valley, which imports most of its electricity. The plant would use 3 million to 6 million gallons of water a day, but with San Jose officials opposed to the plant, it is unclear where that water would come from. 

Calpine and its development partner, Bechtel Enterprises, wants the plant operating by 2002.

LOS ANGELES – If the 2000 census reflected the decade of the Hispanic population explosion, look for the nation’s 2010 head count to reflect the decade of the Asian population boom. 

While much has been made of the fact that Hispanics increased their numbers to 35 million, putting them almost dead even with non-Hispanic blacks as the nation’s largest minority group, it was actually Asians who had the country’s fastest growth rate in the 1990s. 

That increase of nearly 75 percent — compared with almost 58 percent for Hispanics — may have caught some pundits by surprise. But it’s actually part of a trend that’s been building for decades, says Don Nakanishi, who heads the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

“In some ways, it’s not surprising at all,” says Nakanishi, who notes the U.S. Asian population has doubled every 10 years since immigration restrictions were eased in 1965. 

“Whereas in 1970 there were 1.5 million Asian Americans in the entire United States, you now have three major metropolitan areas that each have a million and a half,” he said, citing Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. 

With those kinds of numbers bringing the overall Asian population to 11.5 million in 2000, demographers expect America to have a much different look 10 years from now. 

Indeed, while large numbers of Hispanics were migrating in the 1990s from the country’s traditional strongholds of the Southwest to other regions of the country, Asians were quietly doing the same, albeit in smaller overall numbers. 

Many in particular moved from traditional Chinatowns, Little Tokyos and Little Saigons, which were either in or on the fringes of big cities, to what had in many instances been nearly all-white suburbs or even rural areas. 

As a result, places like the New York City suburb of Fort Lee, N.J., is now 30 percent Asian and located in a state that saw its Asian population increase as much as 94 percent over the past decade. Other states with similarly sharp increases include Louisiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. 

Typical of such migrating immigrants is Dong Hwan Park, 39, who was a chemical engineer when he moved from Seoul to Los Angeles’ Koreatown 10 years ago, coming here largely so his wife, a diabetic, could receive better medical care. 

Within a year he’d put his expertise with chemicals into creating his own pool-cleaning business. Soon after that, he bought a house in Diamond Bar, once a sleepy rural area 30 miles east of Los Angeles but now a booming suburb of 56,000 with a rapidly growing Asian population that slightly outnumbers whites 43 to 41 percent. 

“Everyday I read the Korean newspaper, I can listen to the Korean radio station, there are two Korean cable TV channels. So I am very comfortable,” he says of life there. 

The only downside, he admits sheepishly, is that there is so much Korean culture in Diamond Bar that his English language skills have probably diminished in the 10 years he’s been in the United States. 

In Northern California and suburban New York, meanwhile, many Asians have flocked to the computer and dot-com businesses, though not necessarily always in white-collar jobs. 

“Asian Americans do everything in that region,” Nakanishi said. “Everything from owning some of the most successful high-tech and dot-com and hardware-software companies, all the way to people who assemble computers and others who are simply security guards. 

“There’s been a remarkable growth and remarkable diversification of the Asian population,” he continues, adding, “That carries with it enormous ramifications for those regions and for the (new) Asian-American communities there.” 

Indeed, unless the people involved on both ends of the new migration are willing to learn lessons from the past, they can expect those ramifications to include serious tensions between the newly arriving group and the one already there, says Leland T. Saito, who has studied Asian migration patterns around the country. 

His 1998 book, “Race and Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos and Whites in a Los Angeles Suburb,” relates how a huge influx of Asians of various backgrounds into the more than two dozen cities that make up the sprawling San Gabriel Valley in the eastern half of Los Angeles County did much more than dramatically change the area’s look over the last 30 years. 

It also tested the attitudes of the large number of white residents who were already there, Saito says. 

In Monterey Park, the first U.S. city to record an Asian majority population, early Japanese residents sometimes literally had to sneak into town. 

“There were still restricted covenants attached to homes in the 1950s and ’60s,” Saito said in a recent interview. “Asian Americans sometimes had to buy homes using a white person to do the paperwork for them.” 

Although that ended in the ’60s, he noted that as recently as the mid-80s, when Chinese immigrants began flocking to the city five miles east of Los Angeles. Officials adopted a nonbinding English-only resolution and made efforts to bar Asian-language street and business signs. 

Today all that’s changed, as a car trip along one of the San Gabriel Valley’s major thoroughfares, Valley Boulevard, quickly shows. 

As one passes through such places as Alhambra, Arcadia, Temple City, San Marino, San Gabriel and Rosemead, all cities well on their way to having Asian majorities by the next census, signs in languages like Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai and Korean are seen frequently, sometimes all on one block. 

“There aren’t many of the old businesses left,” says Norbert Lighthouse who has operated Petrillo’s Pizza in San Gabriel, now 49 percent Asian, since 1954. 

Still, he isn’t complaining. 

He welcomes the newcomers and says he’s managed to pull a fair number of them into his restaurant with a special pizza that features seven, mainly vegetable, toppings. 

“A lot of the Asian customers really go for that,” he said, laughing. “I think maybe it reminds them of some of their own dishes.” 

Overall, he says, he’s happy to see the newcomers, adding they have re-energized the city that takes its name from the San Gabriel Mission. 

“They did put money into the area,” he said. “They’re building new buildings, new centers and everything. It’s caused a lot more traffic. But hey, that’s good for our business.”

High-tech investors pay for paper profits 

SAN JOSE — Like so many others in the high-tech world, Jeff Chou watched his millionaire dreams crumble along with the plunging stock market last year. But through it all, the 32-year-old hardware engineer never expected he would have to endure a taxpayer nightmare for the rest of his life. 

Chou owes the Internal Revenue Service taxes on $6.5 million in paper profits he never saw after exercising Cisco Systems Corp. stock options last year. 

By Monday’s filing deadline, the married father of an 8-month-old daughter would have to come up with about $2.5 million to pay his state and federal taxes. Even if he were to sell his three-bedroom townhome, cash in his 401(k) account, liquidate all his assets and hand it over to the IRS, he figures he’d still fall $700,000 short. 

“There’s no chance I can pay the government back within my lifetime,” moaned Chou, who left Cisco for a job at a Silicon Valley start-up in January. “I’m not an executive. I’m just a regular engineer, and now I face potential bankruptcy.” 

Thousands of taxpayers are in similar binds after losing at the roulette many employee stockholders play with capital gains rules. But many tax specialists also blame the growing problem on the decades-old alternative minimum tax. 

Created in 1969, the AMT was designed to ensure that the wealthy would have to pay some amount even if they were using many tax shelters. 

Today, the notoriously complicated AMT is increasingly snaring middle-income taxpayers and stock-options holders, forcing them to pay higher taxes. Also required is an additional, 62-line tax form — a chore the IRS estimates takes more than five hours to complete. 

“The AMT has gotten completely out of hand because it’s not capturing the people it was intended to capture,” said Bill Gale, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. 

As average investors jumped into the soaring stock market and more companies made stock options an essential part of compensation packages, tax law didn’t keep up with the changes, Gale said. 

Three years ago, 600,000 taxpayers were subject to the minimum tax. In 2001, that number is expected to hit 1.5 million. If current law remains the same, more than 17 million taxpayers will be pushed into the AMT sector by 2010, according to the Treasury Department. 

Under President Bush’s tax cut proposal, the number of those affected by the AMT could be 35 million in 2010, according to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation. 

The National Taxpayers Advocate, a division of the IRS, has strongly recommended a repeal of the AMT since 1999. 

“It’s a tremendous burden,” said W. Val Oveson, the former National Taxpayer Advocate and now a managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “It’s so complicated, general tax practitioners sometimes miss it.” 

More than a dozen Democrats in the U.S. House are co-sponsoring a bill introduced last week that would provide an AMT exemption for workers who exercise incentive stock options, retroactive to last year. Rather than taxing paper gains, any taxes would come on actual gains after a stock is sold. 

Part of the reason more taxpayers are facing the minimum tax is that, while regular tax liabilities were pared over the years or adjusted for inflation, the AMT was not. The minimum tax rules also limit personal exemptions, including child credits, and deductions like state taxes. 

Chou was pushed into paying the AMT because it applies to incentive stock options granted to employees and is based on the paper gains made on the day the options are exercised, even if the stock value later drops. 

The number of employees receiving stock options ballooned to an estimated 10 million in 2000, up from 1 million in 1992, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership. 

“Stock options used to be for the highest paid in the corporations, the president and the VPs, but what happened in the dot-com era is stock options came down to the masses,” said Bob Sommers, a San Francisco tax attorney. 

Tax specialists say those who exercised their stock before the Nasdaq meltdown last spring could have sold the stock before year-end to avoid the AMT, or at least cut their losses by paying taxes on the actual capital gains. 

Many of Rich Dunham’s clients did that, but the San Jose certified public accountant said others chose not to sell, gambling that their stock was immune to further declines. Now about 10 of his firm’s 1,300 tax clients “are in real trouble and cannot pay,” he said. 

Still others were probably following what they were advised to do, said Kaye Thomas, a stock option expert and author of “Consider Your Options.” 

“For a lot of people who get stock options, all they hear is that if you exercise the option, you hold it for a year to get the best results,” he said. 

Still others couldn’t sell even if they wanted to because they were in a “lock-up” period, intended to curb trading abuses by insiders. 

Consider Sheryl Johnson, a 33-year-old marketing manager for Turnstone Systems Inc., an equipment supplier for providers of digital subscriber lines. 

Johnson exercised her options before Turnstone went public in February 2000 then watched helplessly as the DSL market went south at the end of the year, dragging her company’s stock price from $107 to $7 range today. 

Now she says she owes the IRS $250,000, and her dreams of building a nest egg and buying a home are gone. “I don’t have $250,000 lying around,” she said. 

She’s debates everyday whether to sell all her stocks, which would be enough to pay the tax bill, or hope for a stock rebound, file a tax extension and face extra penalties. 

“The closer we get to April 15, the more I think about it,” she said. “It gives me a headache every time.”

NEW YORK – Amid warnings that some states could encounter power problems similar to those in California, small business owners should start thinking now about their energy strategies for the peak usage periods of the summer. 

Businesses in some states might find they’re subject to the kinds of rolling blackouts that California suffered earlier this year. But even in states where power supplies are plentiful, electricity rates are likely to rise, which means business owners need to preserve their profits along with kilowatts. 

An Associated Press survey of power officials in all 50 states found power is expected to be tight in some Western states, and there are concerns about utilities being able to deliver electricity in some states in the Midwest and Northeast if demand is extremely high and transmission logjams develop. 

If you’re in a state where problems are anticipated, think now about how you’ll cope. For example, are you able to shift business hours away from peak periods? That might not be feasible if your business is a retail establishment or a restaurant, but if you operate, say, a medical billing service, perhaps the work can be done during off-hours. If you run a manufacturing company, does it make economic sense to pay workers a little more to work a different shift? 

You also need to think about insurance. There’s a split in opinion among insurance experts over whether sales and profits lost to power blackouts are covered under business interruption policies. 

If your business involves perishable material such as food, be sure you have a policy that covers losses from spoilage — or maybe you should think about investing in a generator to run your refrigerator. 

The problem likely to affect most business owners this summer will be rising electrical bills. Power is much more expensive these days not just because of increasing demand, but because the price of natural gas used to fire many electrical plants has surged over the past year. The AP survey found that some of the rate hikes are expected to be huge — as much as 30 percent in Louisiana, and in Rhode Island, businesses might see their rates rises as much as 46 percent. 

The Alliance to Save Energy, a not-for-profit organization, has a Business Energy Checkup on its Web site (www.ase.org) that you can use to find ways to cut your bills. The U.S. Department of Energy’s site (www.doe.gov) also has a section to help businesses. Your local utility might also have information, either on the Internet or through its public affairs office. 

But many of the things you need to do to lower your company’s electricity costs are the same common-sense steps you’d use in trimming your home utility bills. Start by looking over your entire operation and see how energy is being used — and wasted. 

First, check your appliances and equipment — especially your air conditioning system — and be sure they’re running efficiently. Are they being serviced regularly, and given necessary repairs? Would you be better off buying new appliances? If so, be sure the new ones are as energy-efficient as possible — the Department of Energy’s site has information on “Purchasing for Energy Efficiency”. 

Equally important is going over your entire office or building, and making sure that it’s well insulated and weather-stripped. If not, you’ll be air conditioning the outdoors this summer and throwing money down the drain in the process. 

Some other ways to lower your summertime energy costs: 

—Consider installing blinds or window shades to help keep the sun from heating up your business and increasing your need to cool the place. 

—If you have desk lamps that use incandescent bulbs, switch to fluorescents. They last longer, use less electricity, and don’t throw off as much heat. 

—Turn off the lights at night. If you’re worried about intruders seeing a darkened establishment, then leave fewer lights on, and use a timer to shut them off once dawn breaks. The kilowatt hours you’ll save will add up. 

Again, you might want to consider working during off-hours. Some utilities charge less for power used during non-peak periods. And if you can get more work done at night, you might find you’re using less air conditioning.

Former captive chows down on fried chicken on first leg of journey home 

MANILA, Philippines – An Oakland, Ca. man rescued from Muslim rebels who threatened to behead him arrived safely in the northern Philippines on Friday, a day after elite troops rescued him in a raid on a southern island. 

Jeffrey Schilling, 25, voraciously consumed fried chicken, fried fish, an omelet, rice, a sandwich and chunks of mango with his bare hands Friday morning in his first meal in freedom. Schilling was held hostage by Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels for more than seven months. 

Government troops and police rescued Schilling on Thursday after they stormed a guerrilla hide-out on the island of Jolo. 

A Philippine military video showed Schilling drinking coffee and chatting with army officers after he rode an attack helicopter from a remote jungle to an army base in the town of Jolo on Friday. 

From Jolo he flew in a military transport plane to Manila, where he arrived fit and alert and dressed in Philippine army camouflage fatigues, to greet Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and a U.S. embassy official. Schilling, who weighed 250 pounds before his capture, was notably slimmer and sported a closely trimmed beard. 

Schilling later flew to a military hospital in the northern city of Baguio where he was to meet President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. 

The Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group threatened to behead Schilling on April 5 as a “birthday gift” to Arroyo, who turned 54 that day. The rebels had demanded $10 million in ransom from the Philippine or U.S. governments. 

Arroyo responded to the threat by ordering “all-out war” on the group, based on the island of Jolo, about 580 miles south of Manila. 

The military last week poured 3,000 troops into the steamy jungles of Jolo and then sent in 1,800 reinforcements early Thursday. 

The troops found Schilling when raiding a guerrilla hide-out in the island’s Luuk area on Thursday afternoon. 

Rebel chief Abu Sabaya and other leaders are still at large, Philippine military Chief of Staff Diomedio Villanueva said late Thursday. 

He said the military will continue their assault until all guerrilla leaders are captured. There are thought to be some 1,200 Abu Sayyaf fighters. 

“They must surrender if they value their lives,” Arroyo told DZMM radio on Thursday. “This is a fight to the finish.” 

Schilling’s relieved mother, Carol Schilling, said Thursday she was looking forward to her son returning home. 

“I’m going to tell him I love him and I’m going to give him a great big hug and then I’m going to revoke his passport,” she told The Associated Press from California. 

Schilling said she talked to her son Thursday about 10:30 p.m. 

“He sounded composed and practical. He is looking forward to spending time with friends and family when he returns home,” she said. 

Schilling, a Muslim convert, was taken by the rebels after he visited their camp in Jolo on Aug. 31. He was accompanied by his wife, Ivy Osani, a cousin of Abu Sabaya. Osani was freed after the rebels seized Schilling. 

The strange circumstances of his kidnapping led some local military officials to speculate that Schilling might have been cooperating with the rebels. There were unconfirmed reports that he was seen, armed, on rebel patrols. 

Schilling’s wife, who says she suffered a miscarriage in Schilling’s fourth month of captivity, said Friday she is “very happy that he has been rescued. I will have inner peace now.” 

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the United States was “grateful” to Arroyo, the Philippine government and the country’s armed forces for freeing Schilling. 

“The Philippines deserves full credit for this successful outcome,” Reeker said in a statement Thursday. “The United States looks forward to continuing its close cooperation with the Philippines to combat terrorism and prevent future terrorist acts.” 

The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of the three major insurgency groups in the Philippines, shot to international notoriety last year after seizing dozens of hostages, many of them foreigners, in daring raids. With Schilling’s rescue, only Roland Ulla, a Filipino worker at a scuba diving resort, remains in captivity. 

The Abu Sayyaf claims it is fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the government regards it as a bandit gang. 

Saturday, April 14

Ethics of Globalization  

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Seaborg Room, Men’s Faculty Club 

UC Berkeley  

A one-day conference that will address ethics and globalization by focusing on three areas which bear much of the weight of globalization: International financial institutions and the flow of capital, immigration and refugee flows, and the role of private and local capital and political action. Free and open to the public.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Eggster Hunt & Learning  

Festival  

10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.  

West Campus, UC Berkeley  

In front of Life Sciences Building  

A day of egghunts, cultural performances, educational booths, arts and crafts, games and entertainment. Free for all and handicapped accessible. Proceeds benefit five non-profit Bay Area children’s organizations.  

643-2033 

Before the Build  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by builder Glen Kitzenberger on what you need to know before you build or remodel your home. Learn to solder pipe and more. Free 

525-7610 

Choosing to Add On 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by author and instructor Skip Wenz on the pros and cons of building an addition. Free  

525-7610 

Safety and Preparedness Fair  

11 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way  

Have your blood pressure checked, your kid’s fingerprints taken, and your bicycle licensed for free, and all in one place. The fair, sponsored by the Police Department, Fire Department/Office of Emergency Services and Project Impact, will also feature representatives from the Red Cross, PG&E, the U.S. Geological Survey and other organizations.  

From Athens to Berkeley  

11 a.m. - 10 p.m. 

145 Dwinelle Hall  

UC Berkeley  

A marathon day of performances, discussions and lectures around the Berkeley’s Rep’s production of the Oresteia. Designed to provide context and ancillary dramaturgical support to enhance patrons theatre-going experience of the play  

648-2963 

Planning for Seedsaving 

1 - 3 p.m.  

Ecology Center 

2530 San Pablo Ave.  

Interested in the life cycle of common vegetables? This workshop also gives heads up on what work and materials are involved in raising different crops.  

548-2220 

Sunday, April 15

The Buddhist Prayer Wheel  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Instructor Miep Cooymans will talk about prayer wheels and how to participate in their creation . Free 

843-6812 

Rotating Green Panels 

3 - 10 p.m. 

7th Floor, Eshleman Hall  

UC Berkeley  

The start of UC Berkeley’s week-long annual whole-earth event. Starting at 3 p.m., a series of hour-long panels on issues including electoral reform, free trade, and nuclear energy. At 6 p.m., an opportunity to dance and check out display posters created for the celebration.  

Monday, April 16

Dino Safari 

1 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Learn how paleontologists sift through evidence to make predictions about the size and behavior of dinosaurs. Included with museum admission. 

$3 - $7  

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

Before the Build  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by builder Glen Kitzenberger on what you need to know before you build or remodel your home. Free. 

525-7610 

TREES Forum  

12:30 p.m. 

2400 Ridge Rd.  

Hewlett Library  

Board Room  

Michael Warburton on local environmental issues.  

Systematic Theology  

7 p.m. 

PLTS  

2770 Marin Ave.  

Great Hall  

Conversation with Dr. Oswald Bayer, professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Tuebingen, Germany.  

524-5264 

Design Ideas for Vista? 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Community Center  

1901 Hearst St.  

Vista President Ione Elioff, representative from Ratcliff, a Bay Area architectural design firm, and Peralta Community College District officials, will be present to hear suggestions, answer questions, and present draft design plans for the facility.  

981-2852

Late-night parties at new Beth El bad for neighbors 

By Susan Schwartz  

I am a member of Congregation Beth El, and I live across the street from the synagogue’s proposed new site at 1301 Oxford Street. I look forward to the Congregation’s move.  

Living next to Live Oak Park, as I do, I enjoy the sounds of celebration and a sense of closeness to vital urban institutions. 

However, I am concerned that present plans do not also offer reasonable protections for the peace and quiet of neighbors. They offer half–truth and misstatement instead. 

An example is the recent Notice of Decision and proposed Use Permit, which state that Beth El is compatible with the neighborhood and will cause no additional burdens. Why?  

Since Beth El now is only a few blocks away, the neighborhood “has been, and is currently, subject to any impacts caused by the anticipated level of Beth El’s activities” and on Fridays and Saturdays, “the facilities are usually empty by 10 p.m.” 

But this is not true, as the same document makes clear. In place of its long–established 10 p.m. closing time, Beth El and the city propose 11 p.m. closing except on Sundays. On Mondays through Thursdays, activities would be generally limited to classes, meetings, and religious services, but on weekend nights the facility would be rented out for members’ private parties – something that does not happen now.  

Beth El particularly expects income from members’ Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties, large catered dances for 13–year–olds and adults with live bands or disc jockeys, at which kids do not stay indoors and do not leave quietly. (I have hosted two and seen many.) Given the numbers of kids at Beth El and the results of polling parents (including myself), Beth El’s new facility would be rented out for these parties on a majority of weekends.  

This nighttime party rental would be a major addition to Beth El’s present schedule of year–round nursery school with enrollment about 60; after–school and Saturday religious school with more than 100 kids per day; Sunday morning teen program with enrollment over 260; summer camp for 300 children; potlucks; carnivals; bazaars; kids’ social evenings and overnights; adult classes, lectures, and social activities; and planned new activities including wedding receptions and after–school and vacation day care. Beth El also plans outdoor private social activities, apparently with no limits on hours or amplified sound.  

In addition to the major new party–rental facility and later closing, the proposed use permit sets opening hours at 7 a.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday – an hour or more earlier than at present.  

No Berkeley school, community center, or religious institution in a single–family neighborhood has such hours and such a level of activity seven days a week.  

Even the Julia Morgan Center, which combines school and performance center on busy College Avenue, has a use–permit ban on private parties. 

Beth El’s hours and rules of operation are particularly important because this use permit will be the first under the federal Religious  

Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, passed in fall 2000. Under this law, government may not discriminate against an institution because it is religious – for example, setting stricter zoning rules or shorter hours than are allowed for schools or community centers.  

Government also may not discriminate among religious institutions. This is important to more than we few neighbors. If Beth El can operate from 7 or 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and rent out its facilities for large private parties right next to homes, so can any other group calling itself religious, anywhere in the city. 

Berkeley should ask the following questions (all apart from Beth El’s obvious right to hold religious services on the rotating Jewish calendar): Does any institution, no matter how meritorious, require hours that barely give neighbors time for sleep if they time it just right? (Bedroom windows are above any sound walls, and walls won’t muffle traffic, car doors slamming, and people talking on the street. Nor will Beth El’s 32 parking spaces, many unlikely to be used because they are tandem, accommodate crowds  

of the size these activities attract.)  

• Could not the synagogue give its neighbors one morning’s rest – opening at 10 a.m. on Sundays, like Live Oak Recreation Center? 

• On Sunday evenings, when Beth El now has no activities later than 6:30 p.m., could it not be gracious enough to close at 7 p.m., leaving parking and quiet for the long–established chamber–music concerts at the Berkeley Art Center, in Live Oak Park across the street? 

At the coming City Council meetings, we will learn the answers.

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. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins, and become little “dump” workers. $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. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) 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. 2911 Russell St. 549-6950  

UC Berkeley Art Museum “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 exuberant 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; “Ernesto Neto/MATRIX 19” A Maximum Minimum Time Space Between Us and the Parsimonious Universe, Through April 15. Made from disposable materials such as styrofoam pellets, glass, paper, paraffin wax, and nylon stockings, Neto’s sensual sculptural works provoke viewers to interact with his art; “Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193” This Oakland-based artist will use low-tech gadgetry to turn the museum into a sound sculpture as part of his site-specific installation Vanishing Point; “A Passion for Art: The Disaronno Originale Photography Collection,” Through April 18 Featuring the work of photographers worldwide who have demonstrated passion and excellence; $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!.” 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. “Fossil Finding with Annie Montague Alexander” April 21; “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Computer Lab, Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $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. April 14: The Oozzies, 16, The Red Light Sting, Powers of Darkness; April 20: The Blast Rox, The Sissies; Uberkunst; April 21: MU330, Slow Gherkin, Big D & The Kids Table, Thee Impossibles 525-9926  

Albatross Pub All music begins at 9 p.m. April 17: pickPocket ensemble; April 18: Whiskey Brothers; April 19: Keni “El Lebrijano” 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ashkenaz April 14, 8:30 p.m.: Edessa, UCLA Balkan Band, Vassil & Maria Bebelekov; April 15, 6 p.m.: East Bay Kindershul Benefit with California Klezmer; April 17, 9 p.m.: Tom Rigney & Flambeau, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 18, 9 p.m.: Brenda Boykin & Home Cookin’, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 19, 9 p.m.: Blues for Choice with Craig Horton Blues Band, Rabia, Steve Gannon, Mz Dee, Georgia Freeman, Mark Naftalin, RJ Misho; April 20, 9:30 p.m.: Tamazgha; April 21, 9:30 p.m.: West African Highlife Band, dance lesson at 9 p.m.; April 22, 2-6 p.m.: Free Cajun, Zydeco and Waltz Dance Workshops; April 22, 7 p.m.: KPFA Legal Defense Benefit with Venusians and DJ Dragonfly; April 24, 9 p.m.: Zydeco Flames, dance lesson at 8 p.m.; April 25, 8 p.m.: Fling Ding with Crooked Jades, Bluegrass Intentions, clogging lesson; April 26, 10 p.m.: Dead DJ night with digital dave; April 27, 8 p.m.: Musicians for Medical Marijuana Benefit featuring Fact or Fiction with Martin Fierro, Shelly Doty X-Tet; April 28, 9:30 p.m.: Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums, 8 p.m. dance lesson; April 29, 9 p.m.: Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band, DJ Edwin The Selector; May 6, 7 p.m.: Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. April 14: Dix Bruce & Jim Nunally, Eddie & Marthie Adcock; April 15: K. Sridhar w/Debopriyo Sarkar; April 17: Brigitte Demeyer; April 18: Rick Shea w/Brantley Kearnes; April 19: Joe Louis Walker, Rusty Zinn; April 20: Michael McNevin 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. April 15: Art Lande and Mark Miller; April 22: Alan Hall & Friends 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Performances April 14, 8 p.m.: Flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and the Paco de Lucia Septet $20 - $40; April 18, 8 p.m.: Soprano Dawn Upshaw & Pianist Richard Goode perform Haydn, Mahler, Bartok, Ives, Beethoven and Debussy $30 - $52; April 28, 8 p.m.: Vanguard Swing Orchestra, UC Berkeley Big Band $18 - $30 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley. Hertz Hall 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Dastan Ensemble with Namah Ensemble April 15, 8 p.m. Dastan Ensemble is a Persian classical music ensemble founded in Germany in 1991. Namah Ensemble is a group of four to six dancers who communicate the mystical Persian tradition to everyone. $25 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300 

Young Emerging Artists ConcertApril 17, 7 - 8 p.m. Works by Mozart, Brahms, Lehar, and others staged by Sharla Goodson-Sullivan, soprano and Gustavo Hernandez, tenor with Sarah Aroner on violin, Jorge Cruz on saxophone, and alumna Danica Morrison, winner of the 2000 Yamaha Young Artists Competition, on trumpet $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Jazz Singers’ Collective April 19, 8 - 10 p.m. With Mark Little on piano. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

Shotgun Players April 19, 20 7 p.m. Preview of Black Box Productions’ double-bill: “Slings and Arrows: Love Stories from Shakepearean Tragedie” writen and directed by Rebecca Goodberg and developed by the ensemble and “The Glass Tear” conceptualized and directed by Christian Schneider. Discussions with the audience will follow each show. The show opens April 21 and continues Thursday-Sunday through May 5. $10 La Val’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid Ave. 655-0813  

“The Magic Flute” April 20, 25, 30 7:30 p.m. UC Berkeley’s Cal Opera and B.A.C.H. present an updated version of Mozart’s classic. Proceeds benefit new developments for the Longfellow Jr. High theater. $10 Longfellow Jr. High 1500 Derby St.  

Kensington Symphony OrchestraApril 21, 8 p.m. Featuring UC Berkeley student and soprano, Vanessa Langer performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G and other selections. $8 - $10 First Baptist Church 770 Sonoma St. Richmond 251-2031 

Jeanne Starkiochmans April 21, 7:30 p.m. Belgian-born Bay Area resident performs works by Claude Debussy on the piano. $25-$35 Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland 

The Pirate Prince April 21, 22, 29, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sunday The first production for the new Hillside Players. Princesses, pirates, witches and modern diolgue in a family-geared show. Free admission, reservations required Hillside Club 2286 Cedar St. 528-2416  

Sharon Isbin April 22, 4 p.m. A rare Bay Area appearance in a benefit concert for the Crowden School. $20 - $30 St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. 559-6910 

Kids Carneval! Brazilian Dance for the Whole Family April 22, 2 p.m. The Borboletas Children’s Dance Troupe will transport children and their families to Brazil and promises to have the audience dancing in and out of their seats. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300  

Alla Francesca April 25, 8 p.m. Performing French and Italisn love songs of the 14th century $28 First Congregational Church 2345 Channing Way 642-9988 or e-mail: tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Community Music Day at the Crowden School and Crowden Center for Music April 28, 1-5 p.m. Music and dance performances and storytelling. Families can make their own instruments, watch a master violin maker at work, or go to the Instument Petting Zoo to try playing different instruments. Rose Street at Sacremento in Berkeley. Free. Call 559-6910.  

Bella Musica April 28, 8 p.m. & April 29, 4 p.m. Hear how various composers through the ages view the plight of the lovelorn, from the ardent exclamations of Morley’s “Fire, Fire” to the intoxication of the “Coolin” by Samuel Barber. $9 - $12 St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison St. (at McGee) 525-5393 or www.bellamusic.org 

“Music from the Mediterranean and Beyond” April 29, 2 p.m. Zahra combines Arab folk roots with the groove and influencs of modern music $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

People’s Park Thirty-second Anniversary Festival  

April 29,12:30 - 6 p.m. Performances by, among others, Rebecca Riots, X-Plicit Players, Shelley Doty X-tet, with special guests Wavy Gravy, Frank Moore, Stoney Burke, Kriss Worthington and many more. Also including skateboarding demos, animal petting farm, puppets, and “surprises.” People’s Park Haste St. & Telegraph Ave. 848-1985 

Community Women’s Orchestra Family Concert April 29, 4 p.m. Conducted by Ann Krinitsky, featuring works by Rossini, Richter, Beethoven. Free or by donation. Piano solo by Dr. Pearl Toy. Malcolm X School 1731 Prince St. 653-1616 

Chamber Music from Crowden School May 1, 7 - 8 p.m. The final installment of the Young Emerging Artists Series, Crowden presents some of its most talented string-instrument players. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

May Day Celebration May 1, 7:30 p.m. Part of LaborFest’s annual Labor Cultural Arts Festival features a screening of Sri Lankan “Slaves of Free Trade” by Yappa Kashyapa. Also, poet Jack Hirschman, singers Carol Denney, Larry Shaw, Pam Pam, The La Pena Choir, report on Kurdish prisoner and legislator Lela Zana, video on Korean Daewoo auto workers. $7 donation goes to Sri Lankan Women’s Free Trade Zone Center. La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck 415-642-8066 www.laborfest.net  

Music & Dance of Bali May 5, 8 p.m. & May 6, 2 p.m. Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the Bay Area 45-member ensemble, will perform music and dance from Bali under the direction of Balinese guest artists I Made Subandi and Ni Ketut Arini. $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org 

Berkeley Potters Guild Spring Show and Sale May 5, 6, 12, 13, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Fifteen artists open their personal studios to the public and offer pieces for sale. Berkeley Potters Guild 731 Jones St. 524-7031 www.berkeleypotters.com  

Tribu May 17, 8 p.m. Direct from Mexico, Tribu plays a concert of ancestral music of the Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Zapotec, Purerpecha, Chichimec, Otomi, and Toltec. Tribu have reconstructed and rescued some of the oldest music in the Americas. $12 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar May 19, 4 - 10 p.m. & May 20, Noon - 7 p.m. A fundraiser for the Berkeley Buddhist Temple featuring musical entertainment by Julio Bravo & Orquesta Salsabor, Delta Wires, dance presentations by Kaulana Na Pua and Kariyushi Kai, food, arts & crafts, plants & seedlings, and more. Berkeley Buddhist Temple 2121 Channing Way (at Shattuck) 841-1356 

Himalayan Fair May 27, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. The only such event in the world, the fair celebrates the mountain cultures of Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Ladakh, Mustang and Bhutan. Arts, antiques and modern crafts, live music and dance. Proceeds benefit Indian, Pakistani, Tibetan, and Nepalese grassroots projects. $5 donation Live Oak Park 1300 Shattuck Ave. 869-3995 or www.himalayanfair.net  

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra  

June 21, 2001. All performances begin at 8 p.m. Single $19 - $35, Series $52 - $96. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley 841-2800  

Dance 

Movement April 26, 7 p.m. Movement will be presenting various dance styles such as commercial jazz, hip-hop, swing, lyrical, and a fusion of jazz and hip-hop. Featuring student choreography as well as professional choreography from LA and New York $5 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 or www.juliamorgan.org 

Odissi Dance April 28, 7 p.m. Reputed to be the most lyrical of the seven main forms of Indian classical dance with its liquidity of movement and graceful expression. $18 - $28 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 www.juliamorgan.org  

Theater 

“The Tempest” by William Shakespeare April 14, 8 p.m. Final show. Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Stanley Spenger $8 - $10 LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid Ave. (at Hearst) 237-7415 

Action Movie: The Play Through April 21, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. Non-stop action and martial arts mayhem with comedy, surprise plot twists, and the occasional movie reference thrown in. $7 - $12 The Eighth Street Studio 2525 Eighth St. 464-4468 

“quietpassages” by Cariss Zeleski April 19, 20 at 8 p.m. & April 14 & 21 at 7 & 10 p.m. A historical adaptation based on the autobiographical writings of French writer/actress Sidonie Gabrielle Colette. $5 - $8 UC Berkeley Choral Rehearsal Hall 642-3880 

“The Oresteia” by Aeschylus  

Through May 6 Directed by Tony Taccone and Stephen Wadsworth, Aeschylus trilogy will be the first production staged on the Berkeley Rep’s new prosenium stage. Please call Berkeley Repertory Theatre for specific dates and times. $15.99 - $117 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. (at Shattuck) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Death of a Salesman” Through May 5, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. plus Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m. The ageless story of Willy Loman presented by an African-American cast and staged by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. $10 Live Oak Theater 1301 Shattuck (at Berryman) 528-5620 

Films 

“Lost & Found” Documentaries from the Graduate School of Journalism April 15, 5:30 p.m. Three documentaries from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism explore the possibility of redemption in the face of immeasurable loss. Lisa Munoz’s “Chavez Ravine,” Kelly St. John’s “In Forever Fourteen,” and Zsuzsanna Varga’s “Screw Your Courage.” Pacific Film Archive 2621 Durant Ave. 642-5249 

Films of Julio Medem April 14, 7 p.m. Medem is recognized as one of Spain’s leading filmmakers. On April 13, “The Cows” and “The Red Squirrel” will be shown. April 14, “Earth/Tierra” and “Lovers of the Arctic Circle” will show. $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412  

“All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond” April 18, 7:30 p.m. A documentary about Cointelpro, repression of the Black Panther Party and allied organizations, including those among Native Americans and Latinos. Directed by Lee Lew-Lee $5 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 433-0115 

“New World Border” April 19, 7 p.m. A film by Jose Palafox and Casey Peek about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. Includes a Q&A panel with the filmmakers. 2040 Valley Life Science Building UC Berkeley 

Exhibits 

Berkeley Historical Society “Berkeley’s Ethnic Heritage” April 14, Final show. An overview of the rich cultural diversity of the city and the contribution of individuals and minority groups to it’s history and development. Opening April 29, 3 p.m.: “The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” A decade of tremendous change for Berkeley as it became a “city” instead of a “town,” so much so that the Chamber of Commerce lobbied to move the state capital to our fair city. Thursday through Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m. Free. 1931 Center St. 848-0181 

“Sugar N’ Spice N’ Everything Nice: Live, Loves and Legacies of Women of Color” Through April 21, Wednesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Works by Aissatoui Vernita, Flo Oy Wong, Tomoko Negishi, Consuelo Jimenez and many others. Pro Arts Gallery 461 Ninth Street Oakland 763-9425 

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” The art of Amy Berk and New Color Etchings by James Brown & Caio Fonseca Through April 28, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 or www.traywick.com 

Art of Maia Huang & Brenda Vanoni Through April 28, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. !hey! Gallery 4920-B Telegraph Ave. (at 51st) Oakland 428-2349 

“Scenes from The Song of Songs/Images from The Book of Blessings” Landscape and still life oil pastels by poet and artists Marcia Falk Through May 2, Monday - Thursday, 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday, Noon - 7 p.m.; Opening reception April 11, 7 p.m. Flora Hewlett Library Graduate Theological Union 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

“The Distance Between Us” Through May 4 The photographs of Mimi Chakarova depicting South African townships, inland parishes in Jamaica and her most recent work in Cuba. Photographs about people and their incredible will to survive regardless of the circumstances. Graduate School of Journalism North Gate Hall UC Berkeley 

“The Art of Meadowsweet Dairy” Objects found in nature, reworked and turned into objects of art. Through May 15, call for hours Current Gallery at the Crucible 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511  

“Alive in Her: Icons of the Goddess” Through June 19, Tuesday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photography, collage, and paintings by Joan Beth Clair. Opening reception May 3, 4 - 6 p.m. Pacific School of Religion 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528 

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts & Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

Youth Arts Festival A city-wide celebration of art, music, dance and poetry by youth from the Berkeley Unified School District. Featuring paintings, drawings, sculpture and ceramics by K-8 students April 18 - May 12, Wednesday - Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m.; Opening reception: April 18, 5:30 - 7 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St.  

“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 

Images of Portugal Paintings by Sofia Berto Villas-Boas of her native land. Open after 5 p.m. Voulez-Vous 2930 College Ave. (at Elmwood)  

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 15: Poetry of John D’Agata & Joanna Klink; April 16: Isadora Alman talks about “Doing It: Real People Having Really Good Sex”; April 17: Michael Parenti discusses “To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia”; April 19: Andrew Harvey talks about “The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Spiritual Traditions”; Poetry of Maxine Hong Kingston & Fred Marchant; April 27: Poetry of Michael Heller & Carl Rakosi; April 29: Poetry of Gloria Frym & Lewis Warsh 

1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted April 20: Susie Bright discusses “The Best American Erotica 2001”; April 26: Mother of three Wynn McClenahan Burkett will read from “Life After Baby: From Professional Woman to Beginner Parent”  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 17: Julie Lavezzo will give a packing demonstration for a three week trip with two climates; April 19: Bruce Feiler will discuss “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses” 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. 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. May 3: Student Reading Morrison Room, Doe Library UC Berkeley 642-0137 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series  

April 17, 8 p.m. Ann Lauterbach and Nadia Nurhessein will read. April 25, 5 p.m. Chris Nealon reads from his new book “Ecstasy Shield” Sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English Maude Fife Room (315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439 

Annual Open Mike Poetry Reading April 21, 2 - 4 p.m. In commemoration of National Poetry Month and the fourth anniversary of the death of Poet Allen Ginsberg. Students, parents, teachers, friends and neighbors are invited to read poems of short prose on any subject. Poetry Garden at John Greenleaf Whittier Arts Magnet Elementary School Allen Ginsberg Memorial Milvia & Lincoln Sts.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike April 21, 6:30 p.m. Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

PSR Professor Book Release Celebration April 25, 3 - 5 p.m. Karen Lebacqz and Joseph D. Driskell, co-authors of “Ethics and Spiritual Care,” and Randi Walker, author of “Emma Newman: A Frontier Woman Minister,” will be honored at this faculty book forum. Hear reviews of the books by the authors. Pacific School of Religion PSR Bade Museum 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8252 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park 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. 486-0623  

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. April 14 - April 29, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. See an amazing display of plants that are sources of commonly used fibers and dyes. 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. 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour April 29: Susan Schwartz leads a tour of the Berkeley Waterfront; May 12: Debra Badhia will lead a tour of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Arts District; May 19: John Stansfield & Allen Stross will lead a tour of the School for the Deaf and Blind; June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Lectures 

UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research Seminars  

Noon seminars are brown bag. April 23, 4 p.m.: Mary Dudziach of USC will discuss “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.” 119 Moses Hall UC Berkeley 642-4608  

City Commons Club Speaker Series All speakers at 12:30 p.m. April 20: Julius Krevans, M.D. chancellor emeritus, UCSF, will speak on “The Promises and Perils of Medical Research”; April 27: Wen-Hsing Yeh, professor of history, UC Berkeley speaks on “The Culture of China in a Changing World” $1 admission with coffee Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 848-3533 or 845-4725 

California Colloquium on Water  

Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design speak about water resources and hopefully contribute to informed decisions on water in CA. May 8, 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.: “What Makes Water Wet?” Richard Saykally, professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (refreshments served in 410 O’Brien Hall at 4:15 p.m.) 212 O’Brien Hall, UC Berkeley 642-2666  

An Evening of Art & Politics April 20, 7:30 p.m. Speak Out presents Howard Zinn, author, playwright, and activist in conversation with poet Aya De Leon $15 - $20 King Middle School 1720 Rose St. 601-0182 

“Justice and Human Rights Since the Return of Democracy in Chile”  

April 17, 7 p.m. Chilean Judge Juan Guzman, in charge of the criminal investigation of former President Augusto Pinochet will speak. Booth Auditorium Boalt School of Law UC Berkeley  

“Hunting T. Rex” May 6, 2 p.m. A talk by Dr. Philip Currie, curator of dinosaurs, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. Currie asks the question: Was there social interaction amongst the Tyrannosaurs? $3 - $7 Lawrence Hall of Science UC Berkeley 642-5132 or visit www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

Berkeley 1900 May 7, 7 p.m. Richard Schwartz, author of Berkeley 1900, a book about life at the turn of the 19th century, will speak at the Friends of Five Creeks’ monthly meeting. Albany Community Center (downstairs) 1249 Marin 848-9358  

STANFORD – Junior Jocelyn Forest pitched a two-hitter, but the No. 4 California Golden Bears fell to the No. 3 Stanford Cardinal, 5-2, in game one of a Pac-10 three-game series. Forest allowed five runs, only two earned, as Cal committed two errors on the day, allowing Stanford to score three unearned runs. The Bears fall to 43-5 overall and just 2-4 in the Pac-10, while the Cardinal improves to 37-4-1 overall, 6-1 in the conference.  

The Cardinal jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on no hits and two-unearned runs.  

The Bears tied the game in the fourth when junior Candace Harper ended Cardinal hurler Dana Sorensen's no-hit bid and shutout with one swing of the bat, sending a shot well over the left-center field fence to cut the Stanford lead to, 2-1. Then stepped to the plate, sophomore Veronica Nelson. With a 2-0 count, Nelson instantly broke her own single-season home run record and set the new Cal career homer record with one swing of the bat, tying the game at two apiece, giving her 15 round trippers on the season.  

That would be all the runs the Bears would score, as Stanford put three more runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth on two hits, the only hits allowed by Forest, to break the 2-2 tie for the eventual, 5-2, final.  

Sorensen earned her 21st win on the season for Stanford, also pitching a two-hitter, while striking out five Cal batters.  

Forest falls to 22-4 in 2001, with a game-high nine strikeouts on the day.  

Cal gets back into action tomorrow for a doubleheader versus the same Stanford Cardinal. Game one is set to begin at 1 p.m., and will be televised on Fox Sports Net on a taped delay basis at 4 p.m.

At about 10:30 p.m. Thursday the phone rang. It wasn’t another reporter. Carol Schilling finally heard her son’s voice. 

“Hi mom. I love you.” 

What more could a mother want? Especially of a son who had been held captive in the Philippines for more than seven months. 

In a telephone interview Friday afternoon, Schilling said she and Jeffrey Schilling, 25, talked about normal things – the new car Carol Schilling’s thinking of buying, the friend who sold his house, the birth of his new cousin Molly-Rose. 

“He sounded composed,” said Schilling who works as a controller at the Berkeley YMCA . “It was great.” 

Schilling said her son still had to meet with people at the U.S. Embassy before coming home. “He’s exhausted,” she said.  

“They may not tell me (exactly) when he’s coming home,” she added.

Thursday, the Cal baseball team couldn’t score a run, falling to USC 1-0 in a rare pitchers’ duel. On Friday, they just couldn’t score enough.  

The Bears had USC starter Rik Currier on the ropes early, but failed to deliver the knockout blow. Jon Brewster’s two-run single kick-started a four-run fourth inning that powered the Trojans (26-12, 8-3 Pac-10) to a 5-3 victory over Cal (21-18, 6-8) yesterday at Evans Diamond.  

Currier (7-1) withstood a rough start to throw seven innings for the victory. Fraser Dizard pitched the final two innings for his fifth save.  

The Bears struck early in the game, but squandered opportunities to put USC away. Cal rapped three straight singles in the bottom of the first; the third, by Brian Horwitz, drove in Ben Conley with the Bears’ first run. But the Bears would leave the bases loaded as Spencer Wyman struck out looking and Clint Hoover grounded to third to end the inning. 

Horwitz drove in another run in the second with a sac fly, but the ensuing throw from Persell was re-directed to third, nailing Conley as he tried to advance and ending the inning. In the next inning, the Bears scored their third run on Wyman’s RBI single. Cal had runners at first and third with no outs, but were unable to push any more runs across. The Bears left five runners on base in the first three innings, and left nine on overall. 

“Again, we didn’t take the game when we had the chance,” said cal head Coach David Esquer.  

Jason Dennis (3-3) pitched well for the Bears. After giving up a leadoff triple to Seth Davidson (who scored), Dennis retired 11 consecutive Trojan batters. His streak ended when he hit leftfielder Josh Persell with a pitch, but Dennis then picked Persell off at first base to end the fourth inning. “I felt good, and my stuff was pretty good,” said Dennis afterwards. 

In the fifth, things turned against Dennis. Alberto Concepcion led the inning off with a walk, and advanced to second on Bill Peavey’s single. Abel Montanez then laid a perfect bunt down the third base line for a single, loading the bases with no outs. After Brewster’s single tied the score, Michael Moon chopped a ball to Carson White at second. White bobbled the ball, causing his throw to arrive late at first, again loading the bases. Dennis then walked in a run and allowed a sac fly before working his way out of the inning with USC taking the 5-3 lead. 

“Jason (Dennis) hurt himself with a couple of walks, but otherwise he threw well,” said Esquer afterward. “Our pitching has been pretty good, but since we play in a lot of close games, our mistakes are magnified.”  

Brian Montalbo threw two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief for the Bears. 

Cal had one last chance in the final inning. Jackson singled with one out, and reached second John Baker was hit by a pitch. With two outs, the fastball-hitting White was at the plate- exactly the scenario Esquer wanted.  

“(The coaching staff) said at the beginning of the inning that we wanted Carson to get to the plate,” Esquer said.  

White smacked Disard’s fastball deep into right-centerfield, but Brian Barre caught it just in front of the wall for the game’s final out.  

Cal has now lost every series in Pac-10 play with the exception of the Washington series. The Bears play the finale against the Trojans today at 1 p.m.

Berkeley may not seem like a high priority target for terrorists wielding weapons of mass destruction, but just in case it is, the fire department wants to be prepared.  

The City Council will consider an alliance with the cities of Emeryville and Albany to apply for a grant of $120,000 for the purchase of supplies and equipment specifically for “responding to incidents of terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.”  

Berkeley’s portion of the grant will be $54,000. 

The tri-city alliance will apply to the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which distributes U.S. Department of Justice funds for equipment for emergency response to large-scale attacks. 

According to the council report approved by Fire Chief Reg Garcia, the fire department is currently unable to properly respond to “terrorist acts of biological, chemical or hazardous materials.” 

OES spokesperson Sheryl Tankersley said there is about $4.1 million in federal grant funding available in California.  

“The money is to buy equipment that will protect and decontaminate first responders, such as firemen and other emergency service providers, in the event of a widespread chemical disaster,” she said. 

Garcia said there is no reason to anticipate a terrorist attack. He said the equipment is to make sure the fire department is able to respond to any situation that might arise.  

“Other cities an counties have already taken advantage of the grant,” he said. “The City of Oakland, the Alameda Fire Department and the City of San Jose all have a cache of this type of equipment.”  

One item the fire department will purchase is antidote kits, which will allow fire fighters and rescue workers to inoculate themselves against anti-nerve agents and other biological hazards, according to the council report.  

The kits were issued to soldiers during the Persian Gulf War. 

Other items include decontamination equipment such as mobile showers, contamination suits and breathing apparatus.  

Mayor Shirley Dean said she thinks it’s a good idea for the fire department to have access to all kinds of emergency equipment. 

“Looking at the list of items, I’d say it wouldn’t be used for terrorism; it would more likely be used in case of some kind of toxic spill,” she said.  

More than 80 percent of Berkeley students in grades seven through 12 are happy at their schools, but nearly half of them said they would put little effort into class work if not for the need to get “good grades”. 

These are some of the findings of a Youth Culture Survey released by the Berkeley Unified School District last week, part of a long-term effort to address the achievement gap between white students and students of color in Berkeley schools.  

Last year, only 55 percent of African American graduates from Berkeley High met the academic requirements to be eligible for the University of California or California State University systems, compared with 78 percent of white graduates, to cite just one measure of the achievement gap. 

After years of innovative programs failed to have the desired impact on the achievement gap, the Berkeley school district joined a consortium of 15 urban-suburban school districts in February of 1999 known as the Minority Student Achievement Network.  

A group of districts with connections to major research universities – and more financial resources than the average school districts in their respective states – the consortium aims to pool research to better address the achievement gap. 

The Youth Culture Survey is a critical first step, according to a report by BUSD staff, because it helps identify the different variables that affect the academic achievement of students of color from one district to another; variables such as peer culture, teacher expectations, parent involvement and curriculum design.  

Working with MSAN “has enormous potential to help us get some perspective on the achievement gap issues that we have in our community,” said Berkeley school board Vice-president Shirley Issel in an interview last week. 

“What are attitudes about learning? What are the aspects of youth culture that lead some kids to commit to a high achieving academic path?” 

One of the most disquieting findings of the Youth Culture Survey in Berkeley, said Issel, was that more than 45 percent of respondents cited as a reason for not working hard in school: “I could get a good grade without studying.” 

Forty-six percent of all students surveyed said their minds “wander” in class “often,” “usually” or “always”. 

If it is true, as these responses suggest, that nearly half of Berkeley students in grades seven through 11 are only marginally engaged by the school curriculum, then the school board needs to learn who these students are and find ways to address their needs, Issel said. 

Other survey findings may trigger debate among school administrators during the months ahead.  

At a time when assaults and fights at Berkeley High have become a community focus, the survey found that only 23 percent of students agreed with the statement “I do not feel safe in this school.” 

In the area of curriculum and grades, only 28 percent of students said they believed all their teachers knew how well they were capable of doing academically.  

While 44 percent of students said their English teachers managed to make the subject interesting more than 65 percent of the time, only 27 percent of students felt the same way about their math teachers. 

In a finding that will no doubt concern librarians, nearly 40 percent of survey respondents said they spend more than three hours a day “watching TV, listening to music, or playing with video games”. 

Other findings in the survey suggest, however, that Berkeley students feel little peer pressure not to do well in school. Asked how often they “didn’t try as hard as (they) could at school because (they) were worried about what (their) friends would think,” nearly 80 percent of the survey respondents marked “never.” 

As reasons for working hard, 59 percent of students cited wanting to “impress” their parents, compared to just 39 percent who said the subject was “interesting” to them. 

In Berkeley, 2,899 out of 3,745 students in grades seven through 11, or 77 percent, completed the survey. One hundred and fifty-eight Berkeley High seniors completed the survey. 

The survey respondents were 49 percent white, 37 percent black, 18 percent Hispanic, 18 percent Asian and 11 percent Native American. 

Berkeley High and Berkeley middle schools are already using the survey results to help with strategic planning. A comparative analysis of survey results from different MSAN districts will be presented at the consortium’s annual conference in Cambridge, Mass. this summer. 

But Berkeley school board director John Selawsky warned last week that the board needs to determine which students make up the 23 percent of seventh through 11th graders who failed to respond to the survey before they give too much weight survey’s findings. 

The oldest school building standing in Berkeley is located at 1814 Seventh St. and was built in 1887. The simple, one-and two-story wood-frame building, with clipped gable ends, has tall sash windows and horizontal board siding. Although now used as a residence, it retains much of the character of the original school building. 

The school was designed by architect/builder Alphonso Herman Broad. Broad came to Berkeley in 1877 and became the superintendent for the reconstruction of the Berkeley schools after the 1906 earthquake. He was a prominent Berkeley citizen and one of the first trustees of the Township of Berkeley. 

He also designed the original buildings for Whittier, Le Conte and Columbus schools, but none of these are still standing. Among his buildings that are still standing is the Haste Street Building of McKinley School at 2419 Haste Street built in 1906.  

Susan Cerny authors this history series with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association 

A team of recycling advocates in Berkeley is sifting through residents’ trash, hoping to find only garbage that is free of recyclable materials so they can hand over a hefty cash prize. 

But according to the folks at the city’ s Ecology Center, seldom has such pure trash been discovered so far. The Bogas family of North Berkeley recently won $500 by recycling everything that the Ecology Center picks up. 

Others whose trash has been tested have done well – but not as well – at managing to recycling nearly all types of paper and cardboard, as well as bottles and cans that are eligible for the curbside recycling program. They won $50 apiece. 

Since not all the money allocated has been spent in the program Ecology Center operates with the City of Berkeley’s Senior Recycling Supervisor, the reward for the most energetic recyclers keeps growing.  

It now stands at $1,600. Berkeley’ s cash-for-trash program is in effect until mid-July.

Sunday, April 15 

Rotating Green Panels 

3 - 10 p.m. 

7th Floor, Eshleman Hall  

UC Berkeley  

The start of UC Berkeley’s week-long annual whole-earth event. Starting at 3 p.m., a series of hour-long panels on issues including electoral reform, free trade, and nuclear energy. At 6 p.m., an opportunity to dance and check out display posters created for the celebration.  

Monday, April 16  

TREES Forum  

12:30 p.m. 

2400 Ridge Rd.  

Hewlett Library  

Board Room  

Michael Warburton on local environmental issues.  

E-mail: trees@gtu.edu 

Thursday, April 19  

EcoCity Message of Curitiba, Brazil 

7:30 p.m. 

Chan Shun Auditorium  

Valley of Life Sciences Building  

UC Berkeley  

Maria do Rocio Quandt, the chief representative of the policies, designs, planning and projects that have made Curitiba the ecological development model to the world will share strategies for long term success of cities on planet Earth. Opening remarks by Robert Haas, former U.S. poet laureate. 

$5 - $10 donation  

649-1817 

Haas Lecture on Business and Environment 

12:45 - 2 p.m. 

Cheit Hall 230  

Haas School of Business 

UC Berkeley 

Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute will speak on “Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution”. For more information contact Eric at strand@haas.berkeley.edu. 

Energy Forum 

3 p.m. - 5 p.m. 

Sibley Auditorium 

Bechtel Engineering Center 

UC Berkeley 

Panel discussion entitled “Re-De-Regulation: Planning, Learning, Blundering and the Future of Electricity in California”. Followed at 6 p.m. by Dr. Rosenfeld (see below). Free admission, limited seating.  

642-1640 

Energy and Environment 

6 p.m. 

Sibley Auditorium 

Bechtel Engineering Center 

UC Berkeley 

Dr. Arthur H. Rosenfeld, State of California Energy Commissioner will give a lecture on “Easing California’s Electricity Shortage with Buildings that Respond to Real Time Prices”. Free admission, limited seating. 

642-1640 

Friday, April 20 

Trash Bridges 

1 p.m.  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Join Trash Bridges, garbage detective, in this Science Discovery Theatre performance as he explores how recycling, reusing, reducing and composting can help us tackle the ever-increasing garbage humans create. Free with museum admission.  

642-5132 

Saturday, April 21 

Family Farm Day  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way  

As a complimentary event to Earth Day Berkeley, taking place in Civic Center Park, this will be a chance to see what life is like on a farm. Farm equipment, an observable beehive, human powered hayrides, sheep, and more. Free. 548-3333 

Building a Garden at Cragmont Elementary  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Cragmont Elementary School  

1150 Virginia St.  

Volunteers are asked to help students and staff of Cragmont make planter boxes, weed, trim, plant trees and more. The garden will be used in the schools environmental education program.  

Call Ellen Georgi 525-6058  

California Native Plant Sale  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Regional Botanical Garden  

South Park Drive & Wildcat Canyon Road 

Tilden Regional Park  

A variety of plants will be for sale and proceeds benefit Botanic Garden programs.  

841-8732 

Berkeley Earth Day  

11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way 

Beginning with an Eco-Motion parade, with kids and adults using forms of non-polluting transport. The Earth Day Fair will feature music, revolutionary comedy from Sherry Glaser, and speaker Rachel Peterson from Urban Ecology. Also, a climbing wall, kid’s making area, vegetarian food and beer, crafts, beeswax candle making and much more. Free 

654-6346 

Earth Day Creek Walk  

10 a.m.  

Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy Garden 

Gilman and Curtis  

Explore history and opportunities for restoration on lower Codornices and Cerrito Creeks on an Earth Day walk co-sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers and Friends of Five Creeks. Bring water and snacks.  

848-9358 

Saturday, April 28  

Berkeley Bay Festival  

11 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

Berkeley Marina  

160 University Ave.  

The Festival, held at the Marina since 1937, has had an environmental education and boating theme for the past 22 of those years. A variety of organizations will be on hand to inform and inspire people to learn how they affect the environment and to take action. Also, live music, food, a climbing wall and free sailing. Free 644-8623 

On April 22 Americans will be celebrating the 31st anniversary of Earth Day. In 1969 Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, frustrated by the lack of political attention to the state of the environment, took a lesson from the anti-Vietnam War “teach-ins” that were taking place across the country.  

He announced that the following spring a national grassroots demonstration would take place in celebration of the Earth and in protest of the destruction being caused to it. The community response was phenomenal: the first Earth day celebration, on April 22, 1970, drew over 20 million participants from coast to coast, according to the Earth Day Network website. Politicians took notice, and by the end of 1970 had founded the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Air Act.  

Within three years the United States also had the Clean Water Act, the Endagered Species Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act on the books. On the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990, 200 million people in 140 countries demonstrated in support of the environment.  

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal judge delayed a decision for a second time Thursday in the case of a gay U.S. Air Force doctor who was discharged and ordered to pay back $70,000 the government spent sending him to medical school. 

John Hensala, 36, a San Francisco psychiatrist in private practice who sued last May, said he shouldn’t have to repay the money because he wanted to serve but the Air Force refused to let him because he announced he was gay. 

Hensala was honorably discharged after telling his superiors in 1994 that he is gay. He claimed he wanted to serve honestly and had no reason to believe he would be automatically discharged after his announcement. 

The Air Force contends Hensala announced he was gay simply to avoid active duty military service, and has asked for the case’s dismissal. 

Hensala’s lawyer, Clyde Wadsworth, said the Air Force has a discriminatory policy of ordering gays to pay back tuition costs. 

He said the Air Force’s own guidelines for investigating whether a service member announced he was gay just to avoid service are discriminatory. 

“The recoupment guide ... says these statements of an officer’s willingness to serve are not relevant,” Wadsworth argued in court. “Short of recanting ... the gay service member can’t say anything to rebut the presumption that he’s coming out to avoid service.” 

But the Justice Department’s lawyer, Daniel Bensing, says the Air Force only ordered recoupment in 23 of 27 cases similar to Hensala’s. 

In three cases, the Air Force’s investigation determined the individual was not coming out as gay to avoid military service. 

One person was under psychiatric care and came out as part of treatment, a second person was outed by another service member and a third person was determined to be a good doctor and valuable to the service, Bensing said. 

“It’s not that there’s nothing the service member can say to avoid recoupment,” Bensing argued. 

“Nothing in the supplemental record supports there is a blanket policy of discrimination,” he said. “The Air Force ... does have a policy of aggressively seeking recoupment.” 

U.S. District Judge William Alsup asked Bensing to provide additional information about the three cases in which repayment was not sought. 

In January, Alsup delayed his decision on the Air Force’s request for dismissal when he asked for information about other people who were discharged for being gay and whether they were asked to pay back education money.

SAN FRANCISCO – NBC is being sued over its acquisition of its money losing Internet subsidiary NBC Internet. 

The shareholder class action suit, filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court, accuses NBC Internet, NBC, its parent, General Electric, and top company officers of setting an unfair price for shares in its acquisition of NBC Internet. 

The companies announced April 9 that NBC Internet would be shut down and its assets integrated into NBC. Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders of NBC Internet would receive $2.19 per share.

SAN FRANCISCO – An arraignment for two lawyers charged in the dog mauling death of their neighbor was delayed for a second time Friday because new attorneys for Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel haven’t had time to review the case. 

The arraignment now is scheduled for April 25. It originally was set for March 29, but was delayed then because another attorney said he hadn’t had time to review the case. 

At Friday’s five-minute hearing before Judge Philip Moscone, Knoller was represented by public defender Jan Lecklikner and Noel was represented by private attorney Bruce Hotchkiss. 

At the earlier hearing, the two lawyers were represented by George Walker. But Walker removed himself from the case Wednesday when the couple couldn’t raise the $50,000 he required to question witnesses. 

Knoller faces a second-degree murder charge in the Jan. 26 death of Diane Whipple. Knoller and Noel both face charges of involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a human being. 

The lawyers also face two civil suits. The wrongful death suits were filed by Diane Whipple’s partner, Sharon Smith, and by her mother, Penny Whipple-Kelly. 

Smith’s attorney, Mike Cardoza, said he believes the delays are tactics by Noel and Knoller to let the case fall out of public memory and he pressed prosecutors to push for a quick trial. 

“Remember, the people have a right to a trial, too,” Cardoza said. “It’s easy to lose sight of what this case is about ... to bring Sharon to court and say to them quietly, ‘They took someone I love.”’ 

At the request of defense attorneys, Moscone temporarily sealed the grand jury transcript. A hearing on the issue will be scheduled. 

“It’s time for the spin machine to be shut down,” Knoller’s attorney said. “This is a criminal case that should be tried in the courts.” 

But assistant district attorney James Hammer said the only spinning has come from Noel and Knoller, who, until recently, had spoken often in public about the case — including their insinuations that Whipple’s actions led to the attack. 

“There’s been one machine in this case, that’s Noel and Knoller. They have spun repeatedly what happened the night of Diane Whipple’s death. They have fed the press,” Hammer said. 

Knoller, 45, and Noel, 59, remain in jail in lieu of bail. Knoller, who faces a possible sentence of 15 years to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, is being held on $2 million bail. The bail for Noel is $1 million. 

The couple was caring for the two Presa Canario-mastiffs when the dogs — a 120-pound male named Bane and a 113-pound female named Hera — fatally mauled Whipple, 33, a St. Mary’s College lacrosse coach. 

Prison officials say the animals were part of a dogfighting ring run out of Pelican Bay State Prison by inmates Paul Schneider and Dale Bretches, who are serving life sentences without parole. 

In one of the case’s many strange twists, Noel and Knoller adopted Schneider as their son in a procedure that became official just three days after Whipple’s death.

SAN JOSE – A former telephone repairman pleaded innocent Friday to killing a woman’s little dog by throwing it into traffic after a minor fender bender. 

Andrew Burnett, 27, faces up to three years in prison if convicted of killing, maiming or abusing an animal. He already is jailed on unrelated charges. 

Trial is set to begin June 4. 

The dog’s owner, Sara McBurnett, said a man became enraged when she got into a minor accident with him in February 2000 near the San Jose airport. 

When he approached her car, McBurnett said, she rolled down her window to apologize. The man reached in and snatched her dog, Leo, threw him into oncoming traffic and fled. 

“He was so aggressive,” McBurnett said at the time. “He had my dog before I could even react. It was like lightning.” 

The small white dog, a bichon frise that McBurnett called “my best friend for 10 years,” died later at a veterinary hospital. 

McBurnett was inundated with condolence messages from dog lovers around the country, and $110,000 in reward money was collected. 

Police said for months there was not enough evidence to bring charges, but a Santa Clara County grand jury indicted Burnett on Thursday. Prosecutor Troy Benson said new evidence had surfaced, but he would not be more specific. 

Burnett has been jailed since December on charges he stole thousands of dollars worth of equipment from his former employer, Pacific Bell, and lied to get out of a speeding ticket. He also faces three years behind bars in that case, Benson said. 

Burnett appeared in court Friday with a public defender. Burnett said nothing other than to enter his plea, mostly staring straight ahead as he sat wearing an orange jail shirt and khakis. 

Another hearing was scheduled for Wednesday to give Burnett an opportunity to retain his own attorney.

Ford Motor Co. must replace defective ignition devices on an estimated 2 million California vehicles prone to stalling, a judge ruled Friday. 

The order, which would cost Ford an estimated $300 million, came months after Alameda County Superior Court Judge Michael E. Ballachey ordered the vehicles recalled as part of a statewide class-action suit that could develop into a national recall. 

Ballachey, who ordered replacement of the devices based on advice from a court-appointed expert, found that Ford concealed the shabby parts from government inspectors. 

Even with the fix, which may not happen for more than a year as the legal wrangling continues, the cars still may stall in traffic. But plaintiffs’ attorneys and consumer groups said it was the best of three recall options. 

“It’s problematic, but there is less likelihood that they will stall with the new modules,” said Jeff Fazio, the lead attorney in the case against Ford. Fazio called Friday’s ruling a victory for Ford owners in California. 

The Detroit automaker denies the devices are defective and stall, but has settled hundreds of wrongful death, injury and other suits in connection to allegations of Ford vehicles stalling. 

The Alameda County Superior Court suit challenged Ford’s placement of the thick film ignition (TFI) module, which regulates electric current to the spark plugs. In 300 models sold between 1983 and 1995, the module was mounted on the distributor near the engine block, where it was exposed to high temperatures. 

Ballachey, the nation’s only judge to order a vehicle recall, found last year that Ford was warned by an engineer that high temperatures would cause the device to fail and stall the engine. 

Internal documents show that Ford confirmed the problem in internal studies, and could have moved the module to a cooler spot for an extra $4 per vehicle. 

Ballachey said Ford concealed the information from federal safety regulators, who were studying hundreds of complaints about Ford vehicles stalling. The government found no safety problems with the modules, but a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official said the government would not have closed the case if Ford had given the agency key documents unveiled in the class-action case. 

“Had that information been in hand, I would not have closed either investigation without appropriate resolution,” said Michael B. Brownlee, the former director of the NHTSA’s defects investigative arm. 

Under the recall proposal, Ford would replace the older modules with modern, heat-resistant versions. But they still would be placed along the distributor and exposed to high temperatures, which could cause them to stall. 

Nevertheless, Fazio and consumer groups agree with the method. A second option, mounting the ignition devices in a new location, could take years to engineer — whereas a new, modern ignition device could be mounted immediately. 

“When cars are stalling on the highway, time is of the essence,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Auto Safety. 

A third option, for Ford to buy back affected vehicles, would not be fair to the poor because they would only get fair market value and might not be able to afford a new car, analysts said. 

Regardless, Ford said it would appeal the recall order, which affects all 1983-1995 Ford models in California — an estimated two million cars and trucks. The automaker said judges do not have the same power as does the NHTSA to order a vehicle recall. 

“We don’t think there’s anything that needs to be replaced. Our ignition system is as good as anybody’s,” Ford attorney Warren Platt said after hearing the judge’s order. 

Similar ignition-device suits are pending in other states and could develop into a nationwide class action suit, affecting some 20 million vehicles. 

In court papers, Ford said it would cost about $150 per vehicle to replace the ignition device. That’s about $3 billion to fix every affected vehicle nationwide, although recalls usually reach only about 60 percent of affected vehicles. 

The automaker also could be exposed to millions in punitive damages, but none of the suits has progressed to that stage. 

The case is Howard vs. Ford, 763785-2.

HALF MOON BAY – Organizers of the annual big wave surfing contest at the once-secret ocean spot known as Mavericks officially called off this year’s competition. 

The window of opportunity to hold the contest passed the surfers by this year without the perfect waves taking shape. 

“A great deal of hard work and camaraderie went into the preparation for this event. We had every base covered and we were ready to go, but Mother Nature did not cooperate,” said contest director Jeff Clark. 

The contest draws big wave surfers from around the world willing to ride towering water walls at Mavericks that often reach 60 feet high. 

Mavericks gained international attention after champion surfer Mark Foo died there after getting crushed by a 30-foot wave on Christmas Eve, 1994. 

Contest organizers wait for months for the perfect weather conditions. The swells that cross the Mavericks surf spot grow tall over the shallow sea floor, making for enormous wave faces.

Brown gives S.F. sales pitch 

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Willie Brown treated several hundred convention planners to a distinctively San Francisco sales pitch Thursday, portraying the city as an anything-goes place. 

“For many of you,” the mayor told the crowd at a posh hotel ballroom three blocks from the White House, “as I look around and observe you, you’ve got no shot at heaven. None.” 

“But San Francisco is close,” he said. “You can lie and cheat and steal, ... and we don’t ask you about those things.” 

Convention planners bring millions of visitors to the city each year and are accustomed to speeches of big-city mayors extolling the virtues of hotel space and convention facilities. 

Brown also mentioned the city’s various alternative lifestyles. 

“Those of you who wear white shirts and red ties, blue suits and regular shoes, and all those kind of things for the public to see, but there is a different side of you. Well, San Francisco caters to you,” Brown said. 

Woman punished for ham battery 

PLEASANTON – A Livermore woman involved in a grocery store brawl over a free ham has been sentenced to time served, a fine and 40 hours of community service. 

Rachel Cheroti, 33, pleaded no contest to a charge of battery on a police officer. Charges related to two store employees were dismissed. 

She was sentenced Wednesday to the three days she spent in jail after the Sunday night melee. She also must pay fines totaling $350, perform community service, apologize to the people involved and attend three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week. 

Cheroti showed up at a Ralph’s market in Livermore, spent $48 and demanded a free ham, which the store was giving away for purchases totaling $50 or more. 

The store agreed to give her the ham. But she got rowdy when the manager refused to give her more hams for money she says she spent for earlier purchases. 

She rammed the store manager with a grocery cart and wrestled with other employees. An officer sent to quell the brawl was slightly injured. 

Commission to consider store earthquake safety 

SAN FRANCISCO – After viewing a dramatic video of toppling water heaters, a state safety commission heard proposals Thursday to protect shoppers and workers from falling merchandise during earthquakes. 

During the hearing professor Andre Filiatrault, from the University of California, San Diego, ran several videos showing what happened when Home Depot steel storage shelves filled with paint cans, tiles roofing, and other various merchandise were tested on an earthquake-shaking table. 

The shaking table simulated the force on the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, and a number of boxes could be seen tumbling from the shelves, including several that contained heavy water heaters. 

When the boxes were shrink-wrapped in plastic, however, the boxes did not fall, he said. And the racks did not collapse.

SAN FRANCISCO – One in four tenants evicted from their San Francisco apartments over the past two years was a senior citizen, a study found. 

As a result of the state’s Ellis Act, a wave of evictions sweeping the city has taken a disproportionate toll on seniors —many of whom have lived in their buildings for years and paid lower rents than the average market rate, the San Francisco Tenants Union said. 

The law allows landlords to sell their buildings and drop out of the rental market. 

The union has said seniors were most likely to be evicted as a result of rising rents in the city during the current housing crisis. The group sent questionnaires to 1,253 tenants served with eviction notices over the past two years. Nearly 400 were reached. 

About 27 percent of those evicted were age 60 or over. However, 1990 census results show seniors account for only 16 percent of the city’s renters. 

Last June, 83-year-old Teruko Kanba was given one year to find another place to live under the Ellis Act. Her time is almost up. 

Kanba has lived in her Baker Street home for nearly half a century.  

Besides memories, she has furniture and keepsakes in the flat she once shared with her parents. And she admits she’s not likely to find another place as cheap as her current $500 rent in San Francisco. 

“I’m going to have to either put some of it in storage or get rid of it,” she said. “It’s really difficult for me to even think about it, but the reality is, I’ll have to move.” 

The union has campaigned for tighter controls on the sale of rental housing as “tenancies in common.” The study may add ammunition to the union’s fight. 

“Tenancies in common” allow a group of people to buy a building as a collective.

Companies branching out to other products to stay in business 

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The American handgun market has dropped off so steeply that some industry experts worry it may never fully recover. 

Observers and critics cite a number of factors for the decline, including tougher rules for purchasing handguns, a possible growing disenchantment with firearms due to the stream of horrific workplace and school shootings, and the fact that Americans may already own all the handguns they need. 

The handgun business is “a dying industry,” declares Cameron Hopkins, editor-in-chief of American Handgunner magazine. 

“It seems to me like everything’s wrong with the handgun industry,” says Dave Tinker, founder of the Firearms Business newsletter. 

Combined production for domestic and overseas handgun sales tumbled by 52 percent between 1993 and 1999, according to an Associated Press analysis of the latest data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. 

And industry experts foresee more rough going in the future for the country’s 50 handgun manufacturers, many located in New England’s Connecticut River Valley, where firearms have been made since George Washington established his armory there during the Revolution. 

Handgun imports also are way down, ATF figures indicate. 

Among the possible factors: 

— The market may be saturated. Handguns aren’t like cars that wear out in a few years or have built-in obsolescence. John Rosenthal, chairman of Stop Handgun Violence, says makers have “oversaturated the male market and failed in engaging women.” Larry Flatley, who runs specialty manufacturing for Smith & Wesson handguns, prefers to call it a “mature industry.” 

— The number of licensed gun dealers has plummeted — 104,000 today, down from a peak of 284,000 in 1992. The decrease came after the ATF, hoping to eliminate small-time dealers selling guns out of garages and basements, toughened certification requirements. 

— Stiffer rules for buyers. The Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 — the Brady bill — imposed nationwide background checks on buyers. Industry officials believe some potential gun-buyers have stayed away because they consider the checks intrusive. “I don’t know anybody else that buys anything else that has to be scrutinized by the FBI to buy it,” says Bob Morrison, vice president of Miami-based handgun maker Taurus International Manufacturing. 

— The crime rate is down. Last year’s national murder rate hit a 33-year low. Burglary fell 10 percent just since the previous year. “Most people who buy handguns do so for self-defense, so the handgun market is far more responsive to at least the public perception of the prevalence of crime,” says Dennis Henigan, legal director of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence. 

— The shooting sprees that have made front-page headlines may have eroded public acceptance. Philip Cook, a Duke University expert on the industry, says that “having handguns in your home is no longer seen as something that’s your personal business.” 

Separate from the ATF numbers, the number of handguns produced for the military also is down dramatically. The latest figures from the Defense Department show that average yearly handgun purchases from 1993 to 2000 fell 80 percent compared to the previous eight-year period. 

Greg Fetter, a defense analyst in Newton, Conn., attributes the drop to “the smaller armed forces and the greatly diminished threat” in the post-Cold War era. 

Experts forsee the handgun industry now becoming more specialized, supplying mainly police, as well as some hunters and target shooters. 

“I think the era of the mass marketing of handguns is going to end,” says Tom Diaz, a Violence Policy Center analyst who once was a handgun instructor in the military. 

“You’re not going to have the size of the market you had in the ’70s and ’80s ever again,” says Dave Simard, who oversees Smith & Wesson’s police products other than handguns. “It’s just a different world.” 

The crash does not extend to shotgun and rifle production, which rose by about 8 percent between 1993 and 1999 to 2.8 million annually, ATF figures show. 

The handgun decline follows about 30 years of growth, fueled initially by worries about crime and civil disturbances in the turbulent 1960s. Another expansion came as violent crime surged during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s. The market cooled during the recession that coincided with the first Bush administration, but recovered and reached a historic peak before the steep decline began. 

The 1.3 million handguns manufactured in 1998 was the lowest figure in 31 years. Production bounced back somewhat in 1999, but industry executives say that only interrupted, but did not stop, the slide. 

As handgun sales declined, a shift in strategy by gun control advocates also has taken a toll on the industry. 

For decades, gun control advocates concentrated on lobbying Congress and state legislatures to change the laws to restrict who could purchase guns and what kinds of guns they could buy. Then, in the late 1990s, gun control advocates added a new strategy — suing gun manufacturers. 

Since 1998, 32 cities and other government bodies have sued, accusing gunmakers and sellers of negligence by producing guns prone to accidents and doing too little to keep weapons away from criminals and children. The suits sought reimbursement from gunmakers for the high costs of policing violence and of treating gunshot victims. 

Some suits were dismissed, but others remain active. If the gunmakers should lose some of them, liability could run into billions of dollars. 

“All we need is one victory,” says Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York, one of the states that has sued. “That could change the industry.” 

Colt Manufacturing, one of the most venerable companies in the industry, decided to virtually leave the retail handgun business in 1999, largely because of the lawsuits. The Hartford, Conn., company now focuses its handgun marketing on soldiers and police, and on selling replicas of its historic firearms to collectors. 

Smith & Wesson, long the industry leader, tried a different strategy. Rather than fight in court, the Springfield, Mass., manufacturer negotiated a government settlement, agreeing last year to include safety locks on all its guns, as well as to a series of other safety features and marketing changes. 

When the other gunmakers decided not to follow Smith & Wesson’s lead, gun advocates blamed the company for selling out, and its sales suffered. 

However, even before the agreement, Smith & Wesson’s business was withering, its handgun production falling from 680,717 in 1995 to 343,064 in 1998, according to ATF figures.

Up to three cameras allowed 

LOS ANGELES – TV coverage will be allowed at Sara Jane Olson’s trial on charges of trying to bomb police cars in 1975 to avenge the shootout deaths of Symbionese Liberation Army members, a court spokesman said Friday. 

Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler, who rejected the latest motion to delay the trial, is expected to issue a written ruling on television coverage next week, court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said. 

The issue of cameras in court has been controversial in Los Angeles since the televised O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994-95. Olson lawyer Shawn Chapman was a member of the defense team in that case. 

The district attorney’s office opposed televising Olson’s trial. Court TV and others fought for the admission of cameras to a trial they said was of great public interest. The defense favored admitting cameras. 

“The judge has told us there will be up to three fixed cameras mounted on the walls with no wires showing,” Christopherson said. 

The TV cameras will not be allowed to swivel and pan the courtroom but will have fixed views of the lawyers’ podium, the judge’s bench and the witness stand. Still photo cameras also will be allowed. No camera operators will be allowed to move about the courtroom, Christopherson said. 

During a hearing Friday, the judge denied a defense bid to delay the trial for five months. He said he will begin hearing pretrial motions on April 30 and hopes to call prospective jurors a month after that. 

He rejected Chapman’s arguments that she had inadequate time to examine 40,000 pieces of evidence including thousands of pages of documents turned over by the prosecution. 

“I’m overwhelmed,” Chapman said. “I’m working as hard as I possibly can. ... I cannot represent my client in a case this serious without being ready.” 

The judge said the defense had been given additional staff by the court. 

“I understand this is a daunting task,” Fidler said. “But at this point you have a staff greater than anyone in the county.” 

Deputy District Attorney Eleanor Hunter argued that much of the material turned over duplicates other evidence. But she conceded she may have more evidence to disclose to the defense in the near future. 

Fidler ordered prosecutors to meet with defense attorneys and tell them exactly what evidence they will present and which witnesses they plan to call. 

Chapman said her pretrial motions will consume a month of court time. 

The case is complicated by the prosecution’s plan to exhume the detailed history of the SLA, detailing crimes before Olson allegedly joined the group. Although they concede she was not involved in kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst or the killing of an Oakland school superintendent, they say evidence of those crimes will show the nature of the SLA. 

Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, is charged with placing pipe bombs under two police cars in retaliation for a 1974 police shootout in which six SLA members died. The bombs did not detonate. Olson has said she had nothing to do with the bombs. 

Olson, who attended the hearing, was living as a Minnesota housewife and mother until her arrest in June 1999 after her picture appeared on “America’s Most Wanted.”

Criminals, victims sometimes put in same cells in current California penal system 

LOS ANGELES – Many California courts cannot separate criminals from victims because they lack adequate security and are in need of extensive repairs that will cost nearly $3 billion over 10 years, a state task force reported Thursday. 

The three-year study found that 21 percent of all California courtrooms are deficient in some way, mostly due to poor security. The task force will issue a final report in October and send it to the Legislature. 

“A courthouse’s ability — or inability — to separate adversarial parties or criminal defendants from their opponents and victims . . . can have a dramatic impact on public safety and the integrity of the judicial system,” the task force said Thursday in calling for the costly repairs and renovations. 

In Los Angeles County, 20 of 69 court buildings had insufficient security while five of 12 courts in Orange County were marginally deficient, according to the task force. In Riverside County, six of 21 were said to be deficient and one was even ranked among the five worst in the state. 

One of five buildings in Ventura County were found to be marginally deficient, while in San Diego five of 22 were listed below par. 

The report recommended security improvements at court entrances, separating defendants from staff and the public, and providing more space for juries. It also called for structural improvements such as reroofing old buildings, replacing ventilation systems, bringing buildings up to modern fire and earthquake standards, and providing better access for the disabled. 

The state assumed funding for trial courts in 1998, but left building operations in the hands of the counties. The task force was appointed to help the Legislature decide whether the state should also take over the care of the buildings. 

The report recommends such a transfer, estimating the state will need to spend at least $281 million each year for 10 years to fix the problems. 

In addition, the operation and maintenance of the buildings will cost about $140 million each year, the report said. 

What’s more, the state needs to spend $104 million a year over the next 20 years on new buildings to accommodate its growing population, according to the report. 

California currently spends about $2.3 billion a year, or 2.7 percent of its budget, for courts.

Davis wants $500 million more 

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gray Davis has asked state lawmakers to approve spending $500 million more to buy power for two struggling utilities, bringing his total requests to $5.2 billion. 

The good news is the state’s spending has slowed, said Department of Finance spokesman Sandy Harrison. 

The bad news is the pace is likely to pick up again, said Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio. 

Davis had been asking for an additional half-billion dollars about once a week since January to buy power for bankrupt Pacific Gas and Electric and credit-poor Southern California Edison. 

But his last request lasted the state 16 days, as temperatures cooled and prices fell. 

An order a week ago by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will likely reverse the trend even before hot weather returns, Maviglio said. 

FERC ruled that the overseer of the state’s power grid, the California Independent System Operator, must have creditworthy buyers for the last-minute power it acquires to fill gaps in the supply and avoid blackouts. 

That could add $5 million to $8 million more a day to state power purchases that had been in the range of $45 million to $50 million a day, Maviglio said. 

As a result, “we’re probably going to ramp up again” on state spending, he said. That will get even worse this summer, as supplies dwindle and prices soar. 

No decision has been made whether to appeal the FERC order, he said. 

Meanwhile, FERC has ordered generators who have sold electricity to the state to share power purchase information with the federal agency, which will then supply the information to a House subcommittee that held three days of hearings this week on California’s energy problems. 

In addition, FERC Secretary David Boergers said the commission wants the information to study how successful Davis has been at negotiating long-term contracts and insulating the state from having to buy power on the expensive spot market. 

Davis has fought disclosure of the information, saying it would drive up the price of the power the state is buying by telling generators how much the state is willing to pay. 

But Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who chairs the House Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif., who chairs its energy policy subcommittee, threatened to subpoena the information if it wasn’t provided voluntarily. 

Both sharply criticized the Democratic governor’s attempts to keep the information secret. News organizations and Assembly Republicans have also sought the information without success, contending there should be public scrutiny of the power purchases. 

FERC ordered the generators to submit the information by the end of business Monday, but promised to keep it secret and submit it to the House subcommittee under a seal of confidentiality. 

Davis will begin lobbying lawmakers next week to support his agreement to purchase Edison’s power transmission lines as a way of helping the company pay off its debt. 

The governor announced a deal for the state to buy the power lines for $2.76 billion, but lawmakers of both parties have challenged the plan. They question in particular if it makes sense for the state to buy Edison’s portion of the transmission system now that PG&E’s part is locked up in bankruptcy proceedings. 

Davis will meet Monday with legislative leaders, Tuesday with Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats, and Wednesday with Senate Democrats. 

Developments in California’s energy crisis 

FRIDAY: 

— Gov. Gray Davis asks state lawmakers to approve spending $500 million more to buy power for two struggling utilities, bringing his total requests to $5.2 billion. 

— The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders generators who have sold electricity to the state to share power purchase information with the federal agency, which will then supply the information to a House subcommittee that held three days of hearings this week on California’s energy problems. 

— A business group, the California Alliance for Energy and Economic Stability, says a proposed restructuring of the state’s electric rate structure by the state Public Utilities Commission’s would hurt the state’s economy by putting a greater rate burden on businesses. 

— Southern California Edison is granted a stay in a federal lawsuit it brought against the PUC seeking to raise rates. Edison says both sides agreed to stop discovery and postpone hearings on all motions while the state considers an agreement brokered by Davis last week. Either side can request that the stay be lifted with five days notice. 

— A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles agrees to consider whether the dozen or so cases filed against Edison by small power generators should be consolidated into one case. The companies say they have not been paid for power delivered to the utility since November. 

— Edison says it has sent $206 million in payments to all small power generators that have provided the utility with estimates of their April bills. Under a PUC plan, Edison and PG&E were required to pay the so-called “qualifying facilities” by Monday. 

— The state is under no power alerts as reserves stay above 7 percent. 

WHAT’S NEXT: 

— Davis will lobby legislative leaders on Monday, Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats Tuesday, and Senate Democrats Wednesday to support his agreement to purchase Southern California Edison’s power transmission lines as a way of helping the company pay off its debt. The governor wants to buy the power lines for $2.76 billion, but lawmakers of both parties have challenged the plan. 

— An Imperial County judge could rule Monday whether Edison must pay CalEnergy, a geothermal power producer, $140 million in past payments. CalEnergy has already been granted the right to break its contract with Edison and sell power on the open market. 

— Edison and PG&E are expected to file their 2000 earnings reports April 17. 

— The state Senate starts hearings April 18 in its inquiry into allegations that electricity suppliers illegally withheld power to drive up California’s wholesale prices. Wholesalers deny such accusations. 

— Also April 18, the Assembly plans to resume hearings in its inquiry into California’s highest-in-the-nation natural gas prices. 

THE PROBLEM: 

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

Edison and PG&E say they’ve lost nearly $14 billion since June to high wholesale prices that the state’s electricity deregulation law bars them from passing on to consumers. PG&E, saying it hasn’t received the help it needs from regulators or state lawmakers, filed for federal bankruptcy protection April 6. 

Electricity and natural gas suppliers, scared off by the two companies’ poor credit ratings, are refusing to sell to them, leading the state in January to start buying power for the utilities’ nearly 9 million residential and business customers. The state is also buying power for a third investor-owned utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, which is in better financial shape than much larger Edison and PG&E but also struggling with high wholesale power costs.

Panel denies pay raises to Davis, state officials 

SACRAMENTO – There will be no pay raises for Gov. Gray Davis or state lawmakers this year. 

The California Citizens Compensation Commission voted Thursday to deny pay increases to lawmakers and state constitutional officers such as the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and state treasurer. 

Commission members said they decided against raising state officials’ and lawmakers’ pay because of the slowing economy. They noted that the panel approved a 26 percent pay increase in 1998. 

Consumer activists had objected to any pay raise this year, citing the cost and uncertainty of California’s energy crisis. 

California officeholders are among the nation’s highest paid state officials. 

The governor currently earns $175,000 a year. Lawmakers make $99,000. 

Four of the commission’s seven members attended the annual meeting. The vote against pay raises was unanimous. 

State jobless rate inches up from three-decade low 

SACRAMENTO – California’s unemployment rate inched higher in March after hitting a three-decade low the month before. 

The state’s March jobless rate hit 4.7 percent, up from 4.5 percent in February, according to figures released Friday by the California Employment Development Department. 

Despite the rise, March’s unemployment still was less than a year earlier. Also, surveys of employers and households showed the number of jobs in the state hit an all-time high and a record 16.5 million Californians were working in March. 

The largest gains came in business services and restaurants and bars. 

The number of people unemployed in California in March reached 808,000 — 28,000 more than February but down 43,000 since March the year before. Of the unemployed, 535,300 were laid off, 70,500 left their jobs voluntarily and the rest were new entrants or returning entrants to the job market. 

Agency: Need for water system improvements shouldn’t hurt state’s credit 

SACRAMENTO – The need for $17.4 billion over 20 years to improve the state’s water systems likely will not affect California’s credit ratings, a rating agency said Thursday. 

A report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that $150.9 billion in improvements will be needed nationwide. 

California has the most costly improvement needs, followed by New York at $13.1 billion and Texas at $13 billion. 

Improvements are needed to maintain distribution and treatment facilities and to protect public health, the EPA report said. 

California’s improvement needs are mostly in large water systems that serve more than 50,000 customers — which will mean a lower cost per household, the report states. 

The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said California’s credit ratings will not change because the report does not call for any major repairs that the state did not already anticipate. 

Lawmakers want to thwart phone campaign attacks 

SACRAMENTO – Two state lawmakers want to make it illegal to place anonymous campaign phone calls, similar to attacks made in the waning days of the Los Angeles mayoral race. 

Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, each are proposing separate bills to require political phone banks to identify the candidate or proposition they represent. 

The measures follow at least two incidents before the Los Angeles primary, held Tuesday, in which voters received misleading information from anonymous phone recordings. 

“It just runs contrary to our belief in fair play,” Brulte said. 

Similar bills introduced in 1996 and 1997 by Brulte never made it to the governor’s desk, but he said he hopes the recent incidents will help this time.

Current violence a long time coming; 15 blacks, 0 whites killed by cops in five years 

CINCINNATI – The racial tension that erupted in violence in the streets of Cincinnati this week has been building for years. 

Blacks have long complained that they are harassed by police and that their neighborhoods are neglected economically. They note that 15 blacks — and no whites — have died in confrontations with Cincinnati police since 1995. Four of those deaths have come since November. 

“All this has been festering for some time,” city historian Herbert Shapiro said Friday after three days of riots followed the shooting death of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. 

The city along the Ohio River has grabbed ugly headlines before — for the racial slurs of Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, for example, or the trampling deaths of 11 people at a concert by The Who in 1979. 

But Cincinnati is in the spotlight this week because of violence that has injured dozens, caused thousands of dollars in damage and led to more than 150 arrests. 

Behind the riots is a discord between police and blacks that dates to the Civil War, when Cincinnati became a hotbed for runaway slaves. Blacks now make up 43 percent of the population but only 28 percent of the city’s 1,000-member police force. 

Black residents are congregated in rundown areas like Over-the-Rhine, where the riots broke out among pawn shops and mom-and-pop markets that line the cramped streets.  

Whites live in quaint historic districts or, more often, in distant suburbs outside the city of 331,000. 

Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Cincinnati Black United Front sued Cincinnati, accusing the police department of failing to end 30 years of police harassment of blacks. 

“Outside of Oakland (Calif.), I don’t believe there is a city that has this many people dead at the hands of police,” Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Thursday while touring the streets of Over-the-Rhine. 

City officials insist no bad practices or wrongheaded policies are involved. 

“The fact is, Cincinnati police do not use force as often as other police departments, and do not shoot as often,” Mayor Charles Luken said. 

City officials claim they have made strides in race relations. They created a citizen police review board and last month adopted a requirement that officers record the race of every driver during traffic stops as a hedge against racial profiling. 

But members of the seven-member citizen board complain that the police do not communicate with them and that they lack authority to properly investigate complaints. 

The National Coalition for Police Accountability, a Chicago-based watchdog group, has fielded no more than a dozen complaints about Cincinnati police over the past decade. 

“But that doesn’t mean misconduct isn’t occurring, just that we’re not hearing about it,” said Mary Powers, the group’s national coordinator. 

Those who study police practices give Cincinnati good ratings, and some observers say similar violence could break out in any big city because it is deeply rooted in national racial and economic problems. 

“There’s no insurance against this happening in any city in the United States because there are so many issues that come into play,” said Sylvester Daughtry Jr., executive director of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. 

Cincinnati fulfilled the commission’s standards for accreditation, which few big-city police departments do. Appropriate use of force is one of the tests. 

But flashpoints persist in neighborhoods like the one where white officer Stephen Roach chased and shot 19-year-old Timothy Thomas on April 7. 

“One spark, and everything is lost,” said James Fyfe, a professor of criminal justice at Temple University in Philadelphia and a former New York City police officer. 

Mob violence after Thomas’ death prompted Luken to impose the city’s first curfew since riots broke out in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

The slaying has also focused attention on the other deaths. 

Of the 15 blacks to die in confrontations with police in the past six years, 13 were armed. In most incidents, the men first shot at or threatened police officers. 

Still, two of five officers involved in a November arrest were indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault after Roger Owensby Jr. died of asphyxiation while in police custody. 

The Justice Department is looking into Owensby’s death. It is also investigating allegations of patterns of police misconduct in at least 15 police departments, but Cincinnati is not one of them.

GARDEN GROVE – Estela Cuevas had been trying to get tickets to the Crystal Cathedral’s “Glory of Easter” pageant for three years, so she jumped at the chance when a friend nabbed some this year. 

“It was beautiful and it touched my heart,” Cuevas, 57, said after attending one of this year’s 22 performances. “It made me feel alive.” 

Cuevas is one of more than 880,000 people who have seen the play at the Crystal Cathedral since its debut 18 years ago. Performances in the 2,980-seat church often sell out and officials estimate millions more have seen it through cable, satellite TV or on videotape. 

Using professional actors in lead roles, Hollywood effects and a 124-foot-long stage, the $3 million production continues to draw big audiences to the towering glass and steel sanctuary. 

“It’s the story of the passion of Christ,” said the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, pastor of the 10,000-member Protestant church. “It’s taking a classic play of suffering and splitting it into a contemporary scene and venue.” 

The “Glory of Easter” tells the story of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the last supper, his trial, crucifixion and resurrection. The play debuted two years after the success of the “Glory of Christmas,” a musical about the birth of Christ that still goes strong each November and December. 

“I liked that I saw everything at once,” said Cuevas, who plans to return next year. “I don’t have to go to church every week to get part of it. I feel like I can be part of it.” 

Church officials say the play has become part of their mission to reach out to the community. “The arts are a great tool of evangelism,” said Dorie Lee Mattson, the production’s assistant director. 

“When you invite people to church they don’t know what’s expected of them or they think you’re trying to convert them,” said Trudy Miller, 72, a church member and volunteer actor. “But if you invite them to a play, that’s something nonconfrontational.” 

An underpinning of the cathedral productions’ draw is the popularity of the 74-year-old Schuller, who began preaching atop a drive-in theater concession stand some 40 years ago and went on to become a household name through his “Hour of Power” broadcasts. 

“We like Dr. Schuller’s preaching,” said Jim Singer, 60. “He says to look positively at things even when it’s something negative.” 

Singer and his wife, Sandie, 61, said they made a special effort to visit the Crystal Cathedral while on a long drive back to LaBelle, Fla., after visiting their son in Sacramento. 

They were able to see the show on short notice because friends had extra tickets. “It was wonderful and so well done,” Sandie Singer said. 

The director and writer of “The Glory of Easter” is Paul David Dunn, who happens to be Schuller’s son-in-law. While the story comes from the Bible, Mattson said the production “takes advantage of technology” as well as the sight and smell of peacocks, pigs, horses and donkeys to make it vivid for audiences. 

“The images are so strong,” said Terry Yang, 36, of Diamond Bar, referring to special effects that enable angels to fly above the audience, bring on an earthquake that shakes the rafters and pump smoke and flash lasers across the stage. 

Schuller, who’s trying to raise $14 million to finance a third theatrical production for a story about creation, predicts “The Glory of Easter” will remain popular.  

He attributes its success to the cathedral’s location, just a mile from Disneyland and accessible by freeway. 

His staff, however, thinks people watch the show for intangible reasons. 

“You can publicize the special effects,” said spokeswoman Cindi Palomarez. “Ultimately, it’s the message that’s the draw.”

Summer blackouts could have an effect on tourism 

SAN DIEGO – Mickey Mouse will have his fingers crossed this summer. 

Disneyland, Sea World and other major California tourist attractions are preparing for anticipated summer blackouts, while tourism officials move to reassure potential travelers to the nation’s most-visited state that the power will stay on. 

“Hopefully, like for Y2K, the planning will just be planning, and we won’t have to implement,” said Bob Tucker, a spokesman for Sea World in San Diego, the state’s No. 3 tourist attraction with more than 3.5 million visits last year. 

Officials in California’s $15.4 billion tourist industry are concerned because peak tourist season from Memorial Day to Labor Day coincides with the time state regulators predict overwhelming demand for electricity and more rolling blackouts. 

Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and SeaWorld — the state’s top three attractions with a combined 22.7 million visits last year — could all be hit by power outages this summer, according to representatives of those parks and utility officials. 

Blackouts are a possibility that theme park officials don’t want to discuss in detail, fearing that would add to tourists’ concerns. 

But tourism officials say the parks would likely get a warning from power providers, and signs would go up alerting visitors about ride closures and other problems. Backup generators would switch on at the three biggest parks. 

At SeaWorld, for example, generators can handle 20 percent of the park’s power needs for about eight hours. Less-popular attractions, such as water rides on a cool day, would be closed quickly. 

In the worst cases, roller coasters and other rides are designed to return to starting points if power is cut, ensuring that visitors don’t spend too much time on Space Mountain. 

Disneyland, the state’s leading attraction with 13.9 million visitors last year, gets its power from the city of Anaheim, not Southern California Edition. Chula Castano-Lenahan, a spokeswoman for the Magic Kingdom, said that lowers the risk of blackouts because the city has a more stable power supply. 

She declined to discuss contingency plans for the park. 

State tourism officials insist that disruptions caused by blackouts will be minimal, but the parks aren’t taking any chances. Marketing departments are launching programs to ensure visits don’t drop off; and lights and unused equipment are already being switched off in “backstage” offices as part of escalating conservation efforts. 

Lobbyists for Universal Studios Hollywood are working to have the theme park added to a bill that could help the power stay on. 

The legislation, Assembly Bill 54X, would allow the state’s No. 2 attraction, with 5.2 million visits last year, to buy power from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which has a more stable supply than Edison, the park’s current supplier. 

In a marketing offensive, SeaWorld will send 10 Volkswagen Beetles customized to resemble killer whales on a tour of the West this summer. 

“It’s letting people know that we’re here,” Tucker said. “It’s an extra initiative that we came up with because we felt this year we had to be a little more proactive.” 

SeaWorld saw its electricity prices triple last year as San Diego underwent deregulation. The park absorbed the costs by scaling back expenses and hiring fewer workers, keeping the cost of admission at $41.95, Tucker said. 

Hoteliers say their businesses are seriously threatened by the power crisis. 

The threat of blackouts this summer “can only have a chilling effect on families who are now planning their summer vacations,” said Samuel A. Hardage, chairman and chief executive officer of Woodfin Suite Hotels. “Most tourists would rather not run the risk of being stuck in a hotel elevator.” 

Woodfin Suites, like many hotels around the state, has imposed a $4 per night power surcharge on its California hotels in response to electricity bills that Hardage said have increased 313 percent. Other hotels around the state have started imposing surcharges ranging from $1 to $3 per room per night, said Rick Lawrance, president of the California Lodging Industry Association. 

Summer is the off-season in the desert oasis of Palm Springs, where temperatures soar into the triple digits. 

Some hotels say that given the added cost of power, it makes sense to close. For the first time, the Palm Springs Marquis, a 165-room luxury hotel, is shutting from July 1 to Aug. 25 due to the power crisis. 

Around the state, hotel operators say they are already seeing a decline in occupancy, forcing them to cut rates on rooms. Unless the power crisis is quickly resolved, Hardage said, “skyrocketing utility bills will force us and other hoteliers to look to our labor force to bring costs into line.” 

The California Division of Tourism has distributed a letter on its Web site, as well as in overseas offices and tour agencies, telling potential visitors that disruptions will be minimal and essential services are exempted from power outages. 

“California is faced with a very real energy challenge, but the lights are on and our welcome to visitors is as warm as ever,” wrote Caroline P. Beteta, executive director of California Travel & Tourism Commission. “No one can pull the plug on the extraordinary experience visitors have come to expect in the Golden State.”

SANTA CLARA – Leading Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. has said it will remove pornographic products from its shopping, auctions and classifieds Web pages. 

The move is in response to concerns voiced by its customers following the company’s expansion of its online offerings of pornographic videos this week. 

The company has said that it has offered adult products through Yahoo! Shopping for two years and has controlled access to them. Yahoo also expanded efforts to block underage shoppers, requiring buyers to register an e-mail address and enter a credit card number to verify shoppers’ ages.

NEW YORK – Investors’ bear market-ravaged portfolios haven’t kept them away from financial advisers – Wall Street’s recent fluctuations have many people looking for suggestions about their next move. 

“I think the market’s convinced a lot of people that it’s not as easy to do it on your own as you might think,” said Gary Fry, a Dallas-based broker for Merrill Lynch. Fry said he’s seeing an increase in business from investors who might not have sought professional advice in the past. 

“It’s not brain surgery, but it takes some expertise,” he said. 

Many individual investors have shied away from the market for months, discouraged by the bear market in technology and other stocks that has sliced into many stock portfolios. But now, some investors are going back in. 

This past week, the pressure on technology appeared to ease somewhat, with issues like Cisco Systems and JDS Uniphase notching double-digit percentage gains. Those advances appeared to encourage some investors, although stock market experts say most of the buying on Wall Street is still being done by professional money managers, not individuals. 

Income tax filing season is partly responsible for the recent increase in brokers’ business. At a Charles Schwab & Co. branch in Denver, 20 people waited in the lobby Thursday to invest in Individual Retirement Accounts and get a tax deduction before this year’s April 16 deadline. 

“It’s the tax advantages, but people are more interested in stocks than they were a few months ago,” said Katie Cyester, a Schwab planner. “There’s the feeling that the market is probably near its low, so they feel comfortable investing.” 

Ray Mignone, a certified financial planner in Great Neck, N.Y., said he recently started moving more of his clients’ cash into equities, although he’s not expecting an immediate payback. 

“This is mostly for the long term,” he said. “If you have over five years before you need the money, this may be a good time to buy.” 

But many investors remain more skittish than enthusiastic about the market and the economy’s prospects. 

“You have some people looking at their portfolios and saying, ’Well, I bought CMGI at $140 and now it’s less than $3 a share, What should I do?”’ Cyester, the Denver planner, said. 

“My clients are worried. We have a big Chrysler plant here that’s talking about 1,000 job cuts and my small business owner clients are telling me they’re worried about cash flow,” said Toni Kofoed, an American Express adviser in Rockford, Ill., who has fielded calls from investors wondering if they should liquidate their assets. 

Still, she says, “Most of the people I work with haven’t wavered from their regular investments, but maybe they’ve gotten more conservative and have put more cash aside.” 

All the advisers say their clients are more receptive than ever to diversifying their portfolios, especially those who have only been in the market for a few years and might have focused heavily on technology stocks. 

“We try to come up with a game plan and stick to it,” said Fry, the Dallas broker, describing the longer-term strategies he devises for his clients. “Sometimes people do have an emotional attachment to stocks, but it’s my job to make sure their portfolios are diversified.” 

What investors want to know now is where the market’s headed – a question advisers can’t answer. 

“I see people who feel that we’ve kind of reached a bottom and they call me to verify and get my opinion,” Kofoed, the Illinois planner, said. “I try to tell them about what to watch for, but it’s really hard to know.” 

The trading week ended Thursday, with the markets closed for Good Friday. 

The Nasdaq composite index rose 241.07 or 14 percent for the week, its largest percentage gain since the 5-day trading week ending June 2. It closed at 1,961.43 after a 62.48-point climb Thursday, the index’s longest winning streak since the four days ending Sept. 1. 

The Dow Jones industrials closed up 113.47 at 10,126.94 Thursday, giving the blue chips a gain of 335.85, or 3.4 percent, for the week. 

The Standard & Poor’s 500, the market’s broadest measure, advanced 55.07, or 4.9 percent, for the week. It closed at 1,183.50 after closing up 17.61 on Thursday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which measures the performance of smaller companies stocks, rose 5.77 to 455.02 Thursday, creating a gain of 20.36, or 4.7 percent, for the week. 

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index – which represents the combined market value of all New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq issues – ended the week at $10.853 trillion, up $534.15 billion from the previous week. A year ago the index stood at $13.335 trillion.

After an exhausting 12-inning loss to rival Alameda the night before, the Encinal baseball team could have been easy pickings for the ACCAL-leading Berkeley Yellowjackets on Thursday. But the Jets depleted pitching staff wasn’t a factor, as starter Jason Rivera threw a complete game for the 5-2 victory. 

The loss was the first in ACCAL play for the ’Jackets, who looked frustrated at the plate all afternoon. Rivera didn’t throw very hard or have much on his breaking balls, but Berkeley (3-1 ACCAL) could only reach him for five hits. 

“He wasn’t striking people out, but we just couldn’t get a hit when we needed it,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. “His pitches might just have looked a little too tempting, even though they weren’t always strikes.” 

Berkeley ace Moses Kopner, on the other hand, was overpowering for much of the game, striking out six. But his own fielding mishaps did him in, as the Jets (3-2 ACCAL) exploded for four runs in the seventh inning. They loaded the bases on a single, a walk and a Kopner bobble on a sacrifice bunt. Up came Encinal catcher Jimmy Olson, whom Kopner had struck out in his first three at-bats. But Olson atoned by hitting a shot just inside the third base line for a bases-clearing double. Moellering lifted Kopner soon after, but reliever Sean Souders couldn’t stop the bleeding before right fielder Marcus Buckingham drove Olson home with a single. 

A weary Rivera almost let the ’Jackets back in the game in the bottom of the seventh, as designated hitter Matt Toma started things off with a double. After a Paco Flores strikeout, right fielder Bennie Goldenberg walked. John Roper scored Toma with a fielder’s choice, and DeAndre Miller singled to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Yani Teichner. But Teichner grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game. 

A Kopner fielding error also contributed to the Jets’ only run before the final inning. Mike Jones started the fifth off with a single, and Eugene Smith laid down a sacrifice bunt. But Kopner couldn’t handle it, and Berkeley third baseman Robert Williams muffed another Encinal bunt to load the bases. Rivera brought Jones home with an RBI grounder, and Encinal had a 1-0 lead. Berkeley scratched back a run in the bottom of the sixth before the Jets blew the game open. 

Moellering said the ’Jackets sloppy play could be attributed to being on spring break. 

“Our lack of focus was evident in practice yesterday, and I think it carried over into the game today,” Moellering said. “A couple of those were good bunts that we couldn’t do anything about, but we have to make the fundamental play.”

About 100 homeless advocates rallied outside the county courthouse on Martin Luther King Jr. Way Thursday, calling for the City Council to halt enforcement of a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to sleep outside. 

The rally, organized by the nonprofit Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, was held to call attention to a resolution before the City Council Tuesday to direct police to stop issuing tickets and arresting people under State Penal Code 647j, also known as the “lodging law.”  

The lodging law gives police jurisdiction to cite and arrest homeless people for sleeping on public property such as parks and on private property such as abandoned buildings. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the resolution does not specify a set time for the moratorium but he said it should remain in effect until Berkeley can provide a bed for everyone who needs one. 

“We have keep in mind that the Emergency Shelter closes on April 15 and that will put more homeless on the street with no place to sleep,” Worthington said. “What are we going to do, arrest all those people?” 

Police Chief Dash Butler said the City Council will have to give serious thought to the results of a lodging-law moratorium and how the community will react to it.  

“I am very sympathetic to the plight of the homeless, they too often just have no place to go,” he said. “But I am also sympathetic to the plight of business owners and home owners who have people sleeping on their door steps.” 

The Emergency Winter Temporary Shelter is a joint operation between Berkeley and Oakland. For the last two years it has converted a former bowling alley on the Alameda Army Base into a 100-bed homeless shelter during the coldest months of winter. The shelter, run by Operation Dignity, provided 50 beds for each city’s homeless. 

Interim Director of Housing Stephen Barton said the city currently maintains about 200 beds for the homeless on a regular basis. He said for the city to be able to offer a bed for anyone who asks for one would require a lot of money and coordinated regional effort. 

“If Berkeley offers housing for anyone who asks for it, we’ll draw homeless form neighboring cities and the problem will never be solved.” 

The rally also called attention to the court case of Ken Mosheh, a homeless filmmaker and writer, who has been cited numerous times under the law by UC Berkeley police.  

According to a press release issued by Worthington’s office, UC police arrested Mosheh on a warrant related to code 647j citations on Oct. 27. He spent two days in the Berkeley Jail, and three more at Santa Rita before being released. He is currently challenging the constitutionality of the lodging law in Alameda County Superior Court claiming that the law violates the fundamental right to sleep. 

Mosheh said he has never been arrested or charged with a crime other than the lodging-law citations. 

Worthington said Mosheh’s case could set a precedent for the entire state.  

“Ken Mosheh is an award-winning filmmaker who happens to currently be homeless,” Worthington said. “He should not be made a criminal because he has no place to sleep and hopefully his case will call attention to the criminalization of the homeless throughout the state.” 

Mosheh’s video documentary on homelessness recently won the Associated Students of the University of California Art Studio “Ethnographic Award of Excellence.” 

The resolution calls for a moratorium on enforcement of state code 647j, which states it’s a misdemeanor for anybody “who lodges in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it.” 

It also calls for a request for funds for detoxification facilities, rainy-day vouchers for hotels during bad weather and storage lockers where the homeless could keep their possessions. 

BOSS Community Organizer Darren Noy said he has tried to obtain the exact number of citations and arrests under the lodging law but so far the Berkeley Police Department and the UC Police Department have not provided him with those figures. 

Long-time Berkeley resident Darryl Smith, 47, attended the rally to show support for the moratorium. Smith held two green citations in each hand as evidence of police policy. Each citation charged a fine of $280, which Smith said would turn into arrest warrant because he would never be able to pay them. 

“I received both of these in March, one on the 10th and the other on the 15th,” he said. “It was raining both of those nights and I had to find some kind of shelter.” 

Smith said one citation was issued for sleeping near the Willard swimming pool and the other for sleeping in an underground garage near the UC Berkeley campus. 

Friday, April 13

Stagebridge Free Acting  

& Storytelling 

Classes for Seniors 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

First Congregational Church  

2501 Harrison St.  

Call 444-4755  

www.stagebridge.org 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave.  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Free Writing, Cashiering  

& Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

50 Plus Fitness Class  

9:30 a.m. - Noon 

UC Berkeley (varied locations)  

A class for those 50 and over which introduces participants to an array of exercise options. Demonstration and practice will include strength training, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, and more. Fridays through May 11.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

Yiddish Conversation  

1 p.m.  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst St.  

With Allen Stross. Free 

644-6107 

Saturday, April 14

Ethics of Globalization  

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Seaborg Room, Men’s Faculty Club 

UC Berkeley  

A one-day conference that will address ethics and globalization by focusing on three areas which bear much of the weight of globalization: International financial institutions and the flow of capital, immigration and refugee flows, and the role of private and local capital and political action. Free and open to the public.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 548-3333 

Eggster Hunt  

& Learning Festival  

10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.  

West Campus, UC Berkeley  

In front of Life Sciences Building  

A day of egghunts, cultural performances, educational booths, arts and crafts, games and entertainment. Free for all and handicapped accessible. Proceeds benefit five non-profit Bay Area children’s organizations.  

643-2033 

Before the Build  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by builder Glen Kitzenberger on what you need to know before you build or remodel your home. Learn to solder pipe and more. Free 

525-7610 

Choosing to Add On 

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by author and instructor Skip Wenz on the pros and cons of building an addition. Free 525-7610 

Safety and Preparedness Fair  

11 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way  

Have your blood pressure checked, your kid’s fingerprints taken, and your bicycle licensed for free, and all in one place. The fair, sponsored by the Police Department, Fire Department/Office of Emergency Services and Project Impact, will also feature representatives from the Red Cross, PG&E, the U.S. Geological Survey and other organizations.  

From Athens to Berkeley  

11 a.m. - 10 p.m. 

145 Dwinelle Hall  

UC Berkeley  

A marathon day of performances, discussions and lectures around the Berkeley’s Rep’s production of the Oresteia. Designed to provide context and ancillary dramaturgical support to enhance patrons theatre-going experience of the play  

648-2963 

Sunday, April 15

The Buddhist Prayer Wheel  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Instructor Miep Cooymans will talk about prayer wheels and how to participate in their creation . Free 843-6812 

Rotating Green Panels 

3 - 10 p.m. 

7th Floor, Eshleman Hall  

UC Berkeley  

The start of UC Berkeley’s week-long annual whole-earth event. Starting at 3 p.m., a series of hour-long panels on issues including electoral reform, free trade, and nuclear energy. At 6 p.m., an opportunity to dance and check out display posters created for the celebration.  

Monday, April 16

Dino Safari 

1 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Learn how paleontologists sift through evidence to make predictions about the size and behavior of dinosaurs. Included with museum admission. $3 - $7  

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.org 

Before the Build  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Building Education Center  

812 Page St. 

A free lecture by builder Glen Kitzenberger on what you need to know before you build or remodel your home. Learn to solder pipe and more. Free 525-7610 

TREES Forum  

12:30 p.m. 

2400 Ridge Rd.  

Hewlett Library  

Board Room  

Michael Warburton on local environmental issues.  

E-mail: trees@gtu.edu 

Systematic Theology  

7 p.m. 

PLTS  

2770 Marin Ave.  

Great Hall  

Conversation with Dr. Oswald Bayer, professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Tuebingen, Germany. 524-5264 

—compiled by  

Chason Wainwright 

Design Ideas for Vista? 

7 p.m.  

North Berkeley Community Center  

1901 Hearst St.  

Vista President Ione Elioff, representative from Ratcliff, a Bay Area architectural design firm, and Peralta Community College District officials, will be present to hear suggestions, answer questions, and present draft design plans for the facility.  

981-2852 

Energy Crisis  

7:30 - 9 p.m.  

7th Floor, Eshleman Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Get the professional point of view about our energy debacle. Speakers include, Laura Nader, Ignacio Chapela, and Medea Benjamin. Free  

Tuesday, April 17

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 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Real Deal Seminar 

12:45 - 1:45 p.m.  

Pacific School of Religion  

1798 Scenic Ave.  

Mudd 103  

Bill O’Neill on “Ethics of Social Reconciliation and/or Human Rights.” Bring a lunch.  

849-8229 

Intelligent Conversation  

7 - 9 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

A discussion group open to all, regardless of age, religion, viewpoint, etc. This time the discussion will center on the question of how your life conflicts with your ideals. Informally led by Robert Berend, who founded similar groups in L.A., Menlo Park, and Prague. Bring light snacks/drinks to share. Free  

527-5332 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Chaos Theory  

7 p.m. 

CDSP  

2451 Ridge Rd.  

Common Room  

Dr. Laurie Freeman on “Method in Science and the Humanities: What Does Chaos Theory Have to Offer?”  

848-8152 

Problems Abroad 

7 - 9 p.m. 

200 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

A presentation on the impact of the war on drugs on Columbia by the Columbia Coalition. Free 

Fibromyalgia Support Group  

Noon - 2 p.m.  

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus  

2001 Dwight Way  

This session will be a rap session.  

601-0550 

Wednesday, April 18

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 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Stroke Prevention  

10 - 11:30 a.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland  

Cardiovascular Nurse Practitioner Debbie Seneca will speak about stroke prevention, as well as the warning signs of stroke and what to do if you suspect that someone is having a stroke. Free 

869-6737 

Art & Jam  

5 - 7 p.m. 

30 Wheeler Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Ryan Buckley and Dave  

will play songs to sing-along to. Free 

Thursday, April 19 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Garrett Murphy 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 

LGBT Catholics Group  

7:30 p.m. 

Newman Hall  

2700 Dwight Way (at College)  

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Catholics group are “a spiritual community committed to creating justice.” This meetings discussions will center on “Eroticism and Spirituality.”  

654-5486 

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. At this months meeting, Peter Mui, a Berkeley resident who retired at 32, will give a presentation on transforming your relationship with money and the “stuff” we buy with it.  

Call 549-3509 or visit www.seedsofsimplicity.org  

Cancer Support Group 

Noon - 2 p.m. 

Summit Medical Center 

Markstein Cancer Education & Prevention Center 

450 30th St., Second Floor  

Oakland  

Free support group for families, friends, and patients diagnosed with cancer.  

869-8833 to register  

Celebrating Our Past, Envisioning Our Future 

Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave.  

The PSR Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry hosts its first annual conference which will address racism and heterosexism; being “out” in ministry; queer spirituality; queer and Asian; queer theory and comparative religions and other topics. This is a two day event.  

849-8206 

Light Search & Rescue 

9 a.m. - Noon  

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

A free class as part of Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). Sponsored by the Berkeley Fire Dept. and the Office of Emergency Services.  

Call 644-8736 

EcoCity Message of Curitiba, Brazil 

7:30 p.m. 

Chan Shun Auditorium  

Valley of Life Sciences Building  

UC Berkeley  

Maria do Rocio Quandt, the chief representative of the policies, designs, planning and projects that have made Curitiba the ecological development model to the world will share strategies for long term success of cities on planet Earth. Opening remarks by Robert Haas, former U.S. poet laureate. 

$5 - $10 donation  

649-1817 

Chiapas Support Committee 

7 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. (at Prince) 

The delegation to Mexico will report back about the EZLN march and its aftermath with video footage, first-hand accounts, slides and more.  

654-9587 

Estate Planning for the Living 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave.  

Norlen Drossel, an estate planning attorney, will cover such topics as the difference between a will and a living trust, durable power of attorney for health care, and other topics of importance to those who don’t plan on dying.  

601-4040 x302 

Exploring Grand Staircase  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Liz Hymans, a leading panoramic photographer in the U.S. will share slides and stories of the making of “Hearst of the Desert Wild,” which celebrates the spirit of Grand Staircase - Escalante. Free  

527-4140 

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

Friday, April 20 

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 

Free Writing, Cashiering & Computer Literacy Class 

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  

AJOB Adult School  

1911 Addison St.  

Free classes offered Monday through Friday. Stop by and register or call 548-6700. 

www.ajob.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  

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 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

50 Plus Fitness Class  

9:30 a.m. - Noon 

UC Berkeley (varied locations)  

A class for those 50 and over which introduces participants to an array of exercise options. Demonstration and practice will include strength training, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, and more. Fridays through May 11.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

Trash Bridges 

1 p.m.  

Lawrence Hall of Science  

UC Berkeley  

Join Trash Bridges, garbage detective, in this Science Discovery Theatre performance as he explores how recycling, reusing, reducing and composting can help us tackle the ever-increasing garbage humans create. Free with museum admission.  

642-5132 

Saturday, April 21  

California Native Plant Sale  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Regional Botanical Garden  

South Park Drive & Wildcat Canyon Road 

Tilden Regional Park  

A variety of plants will be for sale and proceeds benefit Botanic Garden programs.  

841-8732 

Family Farm Day  

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market  

Center St. at MLK Jr. Way  

As a complimentary event to Earth Day Berkeley, taking place in Civic Center Park, this will be a chance to see what life is like on a farm. Farm equipment, an observable beehive, human powered hayrides, sheep, and more. Free  

548-3333 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Building a Garden at Cragmont Elementary  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Cragmont Elementary School  

1150 Virginia St.  

Volunteers are asked to help students and staff of Cragmont make planter boxes, weed, trim, plant trees and more. The garden will be used in the schools environmental education program.  

Call Ellen Georgi 525-6058  

Run for Life  

8 a.m.  

UC Berkeley Campus 

An event to “Celebrate the Spirit of Goodness in Children.” Includes a 3K, 5K, and 10K course for walking or running around UC Berkeley. Culminating in a celebration in the newly renovated Edwards Track Stadium. Sponsored by Nantucket Nectars.  

$18 - $25 per person 

866-786-4543 or www.runforlife.net  

I-House Spring Festival  

11 a.m. - 6 p.m. . 

International House  

2299 Piedmont Ave. (at Bancroft)  

A celebration of cultures from around the globe. Featuring delicacies from India, the Netherlands, Turkey, Taiwan more. Performances of traditional dance on five stages.  

$3 - $5  

642-9460 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike  

6:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Art Center  

1275 Walnut St.  

Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton.  

527-9753 

Berkeley Earth Day  

11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Civic Center Park  

Allston & MLK Jr. Way 

Beginning with an Eco-Motion parade, with kids and adults using forms of non-polluting transport. The Earth Day Fair will feature music, revolutionary comedy from Sherry Glaser, and speaker Rachel Peterson from Urban Ecology. Also, a climbing wall, kid’s making area, vegetarian food and beer, crafts, beeswax candle making and much more. Free 

654-6346 

Albany Senior Center White Elephant Sale 

9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. 

Friends of Albany Seniors 

846 Masonic Ave.  

Albany  

524-9122 

Earth Day Creek Walk  

10 a.m.  

Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy Garden 

Gilman and Curtis  

Explore history and opportunities for restoration on lower Codornices and Cerrito Creeks on an Earth Day walk co-sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers and Friends of Five Creeks. Bring water and snacks.  

848-9358 

Sunday, April 22 

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 

The Value of Meditation  

6 p.m.  

Tibetan Nyingma Institute  

1815 Highland Place  

Bob Byrne will discuss how you can bring the benefits of meditation into your life. Meditation instruction will be included. Free 

843-6812 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to repair a flat tire from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

Salsa Lesson & Dance Party  

6 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Mati Mizrachi and Ron Louie will teach how to kick up your heels and move your hips. Israeli food provided by the Holy Land Restaurant. Novices are encouraged to attend.  

$10  

237-9874 

Plants of the Bible Tour 

1:30 p.m. 

UC Botanical Garden  

Explore the gardens with docents who will point out plants mentioned in the bible.  

643-1924 

Health Awareness Fair  

Noon - 1:30 p.m. 

Calvary Presbyterian Church  

1940 Virginia St.  

Booths for blood pressure checks, blood sugar checks, massage therapy, geriatric medicine, HIV/AIDS, various cancers, nutrition and diet. Free 

415-454-8725 

Monday, April 23  

Cold War Civil Rights 

4 p.m.  

Harris Room  

119 Moses Hall  

UC Berkeley 

Mary Dudziak, USC, will discuss “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.” Free  

Tuesday, April 24  

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 

Young Queer Women’s Group 

8 - 9:30 p.m.  

Pacific Center 

2712 Telegraph Ave.  

Make some new friends, expand your horizons and get support with a bunch of queer women all in the same place at the same time (somewhere between 18 and 25).  

548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2 - 7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Wednesday, April 25  

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 

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

The New Math  

7 - 9 p.m.  

School of Journalism Library  

121 North Gate Hall  

UC Berkeley  

Part of the Terner Series, an informal salon-style discussion series, which brings together industry professionals, students, and interested community members. This session is a discussion of the common misunderstandings in the economics of development. Free 

Thursday, April 26 

Duomo Readings Open Mic.  

6:30 - 9 p.m. 

Cafe Firenze  

2116 Shattuck Ave.  

With featured poet Ray Skjelbred and host Louis Cuneo.  

644-0155 

Fire Suppression Class  

1 - 4 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center 

997 Cedar St.  

A free class as part of Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). Sponsored by the Berkeley Fire Dept. and the Office of Emergency Services.  

Call 644-8736 

Trail of a Lifetime  

7 p.m.  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Deborah Brill and Marty Place hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, from the snowy northern terminus in Canada’s Manning Provincial Park, to the Mexican border. They will share highlights of their 2,658-mile trip and will give you tips on how to plan a trip of your own. Free 

527-4140  

Free Smoking Cessation Class  

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  

Six Thursday classes through May 17.  

Call 644-6422 to register and for location  

Free Blood Pressure Screenings  

Noon - 1 p.m.  

Alta Bates Summitt medical Center  

2450 Ashby Ave.  

Health Education Center, Room 203  

Samuel Merritt College 

A screening for individuals with a potential risk for high blood pressure.  

869-6737  

Plan Reading Seminar 

7 - 10 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Conducted by Andus Brandt.  

$35  

525-7610 

Friday, April 27  

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  

Living Philosophers  

10 a.m. - Noon  

North Berkeley Senior Center  

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

Hear and entertain the ideas of some modern day philosophers: Jacob Needleman, J. Revel, Hilary Putnam, John Searle, Saul Kripke, Richard Rorty and others. Every Friday, except holidays. Facilitated by H.D. Moe.  

Computer Literacy Class 

6 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

MLK Youth Services Center  

1730 Oregon St.  

A free class sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Young Adult Project. The class will cover basic hardware identification and specification, basic understanding of software, basic word-processing and basic spreadsheets.  

Call 644-6226 

50 Plus Fitness Class  

9:30 a.m. - Noon 

UC Berkeley (varied locations)  

A class for those 50 and over which introduces participants to an array of exercise options. Demonstration and practice will include strength training, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, and more. Fridays through May 11.  

$10 per individual session 

Pre-register: 642-5461  

Lost in Dreamland?  

10 -11:30 a.m.  

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center 

Summit North Pavilion, Cafeteria Annex A  

350 Hawthorne Ave.  

Oakland 

Dr. Jerrold Kram, pulmonologist, sleep specialist and director of the California Center for Sleep Disorers, will talk about sleep disorders and how to remedy them. Learn about snoring, restless leg syndrome, and sleep apnea. Free 

869-6737 

Saturday, April 28  

Planning Commission  

7 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. (at MLK Jr. Way)  

There will be discussion of an Ecocity Amendment before the commission.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Berkeley Bay Festival  

11 a.m. - 4 p.m.  

Berkeley Marina  

The Festival, held at the Marina since 1937, has had an environmental education and boating theme for the past 22 of those years. A variety of organizations will be on hand to inform and inspire people to learn how they affect the environment and to take action. Also, live music, food, a climbing wall and free sailing. Free 

644-8623 

Sunday, April 29  

Berkeley Waterfront Walking Tour  

10 a.m. - Noon  

Led by Susan Schwartz and sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society.  

848-0181 

Hands-On Bicycle Repair Clinics  

11 a.m. - Noon  

Recreational Equipment, Inc.  

1338 San Pablo Ave.  

Learn how to maintain the drive train and to repair the chain of your bicycle from one of REI’s bike technicians. All you need to bring is your bike. Free  

527-4140 

People’s Park 32nd Anniversary Festival  

12:30 - 6 p.m.  

People’s Park  

Haste St. & Telegraph Ave.  

Performances by, among others, Rebecca Riots, X-Plicit Players, Shelley Doty X-tet, with special guests Wavy Gravy, Frank Moore, Stoney Burke, Kriss Worthington and many more. Also including skateboarding demos, animal petting farm, puppets, and “surprises.”  

848-1985 

The Reform Future 

Noon  

Fellowship of Humanity  

390 27th St. (at Broadway)  

Oakland  

Craig Wilson, anti-Buchanan delegate, will discuss the future of the Reform Party.  

655-7962 

Monday, April 30  

Politics of Permits  

7 - 10 p.m.  

Building Education Center 

812 Page St.  

Contractor/Mediator Ron Kelly will explain how to get your permit approved.  

$35  

525-7610 

Venus & Mars  

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Rabbi Yaacov Deyo, founder of LA’s speed dating will explain how to pick a mate, make your relationship thrive and how to fight effectively.  

$10  

848-0237 

Close the Tritium Labeling Facility 

Editor: 

Bernd Franke, consultant hired by the city to evaluate emissions from the Tritium Labeling Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab concluded that for the last two years radioactive tritium dumping was reasonably measured and tolerable. Unfortunately, this was when LBNL halted most operations at the Tritium Facility after it was revealed to the public that emissions from the last 30 years had contaminated the next door Lawrence Hall of Science museum badly enough to qualify for Super Fund status. LBNL has curtailed tritium activity in preparation for its upcoming sampling investigation.  

The lab is hoping that the reduced emissions will yield favorable results and cause the facility to be removed from the Super Fund list. No evidence was presented by Mr. Franke disavowing the return to normal levels of operation at the Tritium Facility after the tests. He did acknowledge that emissions data from the last 30 years of tritium dumping was so shoddy that he could not affirm the validity of LBNL’s annual declared releases. LBNL admitted to releasing as much as 600 curies of tritiom per year, a frightening amount of this deadly radioactive killer which has been linked to leukemia, cancer, infertility and other mutations. So, minus an independent tree-ring analysis and investigation of the high levels of contamination originally reported by researchers Mencheca and Monheit, we may never know if the large amounts of missing tritium inventory was dumped along with what was admitted by LBNL. Mr. Franke did recommend more investigation of this sort, citing the limits of his contract, but the Lab prefers to stick with its phony sampling plan of which it has total control. 

Mr. Franke pointed to the grossly inadequate and non-functioning monitor system as part of his inability to analyze past tritium dumping. When asked if the removal of five monitors which reported high tritium levels was evidence of a cover-up, he responded that this was a political problem and not related to science for which he was hired. After his report became public, the Enviromental Protection Agency, which has been perfectly happy with the Tritium Facility all these years, magically produced $400,000 to upgrade the monitor system. In a blatant attempt to buy off the Facility’s critics, the EPA even offered to let the public have input.  

The Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste suggested several state-of- the- art radiation detectors at the LHS site along with smoke tests from the stack to prove that the tritium plume dumps directly onto the museum. The EPA rejected the requests saying that they did not want museum visitors to get the impression that the place was radioactive. They are instead opting for distant locations where the tritium plume never reaches. The community and local leaders should continue to demand the closure and clean-up of the TLF. 

Mark MacDonald 

Berkeley 

Skip Saturday mail 

Editor: 

Through “rain, snow sleet or hail,” Americans are used to getting their mail six days a week. We arrive home from work and magically our mailbox is full. It is rare that we ever see how it gets in the box, let alone talk to our mail-carrier or wonder about the logistics of getting mail Monday through Saturday.  

As someone who gets the privilege of talking to my mail carrier on a regular basis, I can assure everyone that ending Saturday service is a fair and reasonable thing to do. Mail carriers have a job that requires them to be on their feet for most of the day. Often, these days are long, especially for those working routes that have many large apartment buildings. It isn’t rare for my mail carrier to be out until six or seven in the evening even though he arrived at work before seven in the morning.  

Most residential customers, I believe, would be willing to give up their Saturday service so that our mail carriers can have a break. No one should be encouraged to work six days a week so that we can have a simple convenience that most residential customers can live without. The media is making a big deal about losing this service that Americans have come to expect. I hope that most people would agree however that it is worth missing one day of mail service so that our carriers can have a weekend. 

Beau Beresford 

Berkeley 

Family Plan should help family 

Editor:  

Are you aware that Social Security has a “Family Plan”? Since “family” is an important word in everyone’s lexicon, one would think that the Social Security Family Plan would be something that every political party would like to be a part of - use the magic word “family” and win votes. Yet for the past several years my attempts to interest my Senators and Representatives in a glaring omission in the Family Plan have met with little or no response.  

Under the current “Family Plan,” parents who take care of a handicapped child are being cheated out of spousal benefits. This is fundamentally wrong. The Family Plan must be changed.  

For 24 years I took care of my autistic, retarded son 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Without financial remuneration of any kind, I spent most of my adult life seeing that his every need was met; yet I did not accumulate Social Security Quarters to qualify for Social Security on my own.  

Under normal circumstances, when my husband retired at 65 I would have been entitled to full spousal benefits (half of his benefits). Yet because we have a handicapped child, Social Security has determined that the major portion of my spousal benefit be allocated to our developmentally disabled child. Approximately 700,000 mothers of developmentally disabled children all over America are similarly affected. This is grossly unfair. 

All other disabled people in America are eligible for Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, and Medicaid. Only parents of developmentally disabled children must give up their spousal benefits. These parents are often elderly women who, instead of entering the regular work force, have spent their lives caring for their disabled loved ones. This situation is particularly perplexing when one considers that SSI money comes out of General Revenue funds, whereas the “Family Plan” is part of the Social Security system. Please write to your Congress person and demand the Social Security Family Plan be changed. 

Ruth Beckner 

San Rafael 

415-479-9542 

924 Gilman St. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless noted $5; $2 for a year membership. April 13: The Locust, Dead & Gone, Honeysuckle Serontina, Tourettes Latrec, Last Great Liar; April 14: The Oozzies, 16, The Red Light Sting, Powers of Darkness; April 20: The Blast Rox, The Sissies; Uberkunst; April 21: MU330, Slow Gherkin, Big D & The Kids Table, Thee Impossibles 525-9926  

Albatross Pub All music begins at 9 p.m. April 17: pickPocket ensemble; April 18: Whiskey Brothers; April 19: Keni “El Lebrijano” 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473 

Ashkenaz April 13, 9 p.m.: Omaya, Prophets of Rage, Nameless & Faceless, DJs Riddim & Poizen; April 29: Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band; May 6, 7 p.m.: Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble 1370 San Pablo Ave. (at Gilman) 525-5054 or www.ashkenaz.com  

Freight & Salvage All music at 8 p.m. April 13: Ray Wylie Hubbard; April 14: Dix Bruce & Jim Nunally, Eddie & Marthie Adcock; April 15: K. Sridhar w/Debopriyo Sarkar; April 17: Brigitte Demeyer; April 18: Rick Shea w/Brantley Kearnes; April 19: Joe Louis Walker, Rusty Zinn; April 20: Michael McNevin 1111 Addison St. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool/La Note All music at 4:30 p.m. April 15: Art Lande and Mark Miller; April 22: Alan Hall & Friends 2377 Shattuck Ave. 845-5373 or visit www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Performances April 13 & 14, 8 p.m.: Flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and the Paco de Lucia Septet $20 - $40; April 18, 8 p.m.: Soprano Dawn Upshaw & Pianist Richard Goode perform Haydn, Mahler, Bartok, Ives, Beethoven and Debussy $30 - $52 Zellerbach Hall UC Berkeley; April 22, 3 p.m.: Violinist Gill Shaham and Pianist Orli Shaham perform Coplan, Faure, and Brahms Hertz Hall 642-9988 or www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Dastan Ensemble with Namah Ensemble April 15, 8 p.m. Dastan Ensemble is a Persian classical music ensemble founded in Germany in 1991. Namah Ensemble is a group of four to six dancers who communicate the mystical Persian tradition to everyone. $25 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. (at Derby) 925-798-1300 

Young Emerging Artists Concert April 17, 7 - 8 p.m. Works by Mozart, Brahms, Lehar, and others staged by Sharla Goodson-Sullivan, soprano and Gustavo Hernandez, tenor with Sarah Aroner on violin, Jorge Cruz on saxophone, and alumna Danica Morrison, winner of the 2000 Yamaha Young Artists Competition, on trumpet $5 - $10 Julia Morgan Center for the Arts 2640 College Ave. 925-798-1300 

Jazz Singers’ Collective April 19, 8 - 10 p.m. With Mark Little on piano. Anna’s Bistro 1801 University Ave. 849-2662 

Kensington Symphony Orchestra April 21, 8 p.m. Featuring UC Berkeley student and soprano, Vanessa Langer performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G and other selections. $8 - $10 First Baptist Church 770 Sonoma St. Richmond 251-2031 

“The Tempest” by William Shakespeare Through April 14, Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m. Presented by Subterranean Shakespeare and directed by Stanley Spenger $8 - $10 LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre 1834 Euclid Ave. (at Hearst) 237-7415 

Action Movie: The Play Through April 21, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. Non-stop action and martial arts mayhem with comedy, surprise plot twists, and the occasional movie reference thrown in. $7 - $12 The Eighth Street Studio 2525 Eighth St. 464-4468 

“quietpassages” by Cariss Zeleski April 13, 19, 20 at 8 p.m. & April 14 & 21 at 7 & 10 p.m. A historical adaptation based on the autobiographical writings of French writer/actress Sidonie Gabrielle Colette. $5 - $8 UC Berkeley Choral Rehearsal Hall 642-3880 

“The Oresteia” by Aeschylus Through May 6 Directed by Tony Taccone and Stephen Wadsworth, Aeschylus trilogy will be the first production staged on the Berkeley Rep’s new prosenium stage. Please call Berkeley Repertory Theatre for specific dates and times. $15.99 - $117 Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2015 Addison St. (at Shattuck) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Death of a Salesman” Through May 5, Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m. plus Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m. The ageless story of Willy Loman presented by an African-American cast and staged by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. $10 Live Oak Theater 1301 Shattuck 528-5620 

“Lost & Found” Documentaries from the Graduate School of Journalism April 15, 5:30 p.m. Three documentaries from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism explore the possibility of redemption in the face of immeasurable loss. Lisa Munoz’s “Chavez Ravine,” Kelly St. John’s “In Forever Fourteen,” and Zsuzsanna Varga’s “Screw Your Courage.” Pacific Film Archive 2621 Durant Ave. 642-5249 

Films of Julio Medem April 13, 7:30 p.m. & April 14, 7 p.m. Medem is recognized as one of Spain’s leading filmmakers. On April 13, “The Cows” and “The Red Squirrel” will be shown. April 14,  

“Earth/Tierra” and “Lovers of the Arctic Circle” will show. $7 for one film, $8.50 for double bills Pacific Film Archive 2575 Bancroft Way 642-1412  

“All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond” April 18, 7:30 p.m. A documentary about Cointelpro, repression of the Black Panther Party and allied organizations, including those among Native Americans and Latinos. Directed by Lee Lew-Lee $5 La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave. 433-0115 

“New World Border” April 19, 7 p.m. A film by Jose Palafox and Casey Peek about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. Includes a Q&A panel with the filmmakers. 2040 Valley Life Science Building UC Berkeley 

Berkeley Historical Society “Berkeley’s Ethnic Heritage” Through April 14 An overview of the rich cultural diversity of the city and the contribution of individuals and minority groups to it’s history and development. Opening April 29, 3 p.m.: “The Decade of Change: 1900 - 1910” A decade of tremendous change for Berkeley as it became a “city” instead of a “town,” so much so that the Chamber of Commerce lobbied to move the state capital to our fair city. Thursday through Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m. Free. 1931 Center St. 848-0181 

“Sugar N’ Spice N’ Everything Nice: Live, Loves and Legacies of Women of Color” Through April 21, Wednesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Works by Aissatoui Vernita, Flo Oy Wong, Tomoko Negishi, Consuelo Jimenez and many others. Pro Arts Gallery 461 Ninth Street Oakland 763-9425 

“It’s Not Easy Being Green” The art of Amy Berk and New Color Etchings by James Brown & Caio Fonseca Through April 28, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214 or www.traywick.com 

Art of Maia Huang & Brenda Vanoni Through April 28, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. !hey! Gallery 4920-B Telegraph Ave. (at 51st) Oakland 428-2349 

“Scenes from The Song of Songs/Images from The Book of Blessings” Landscape and still life oil pastels by poet and artists Marcia Falk Through May 2, Monday - Thursday, 8:30 a.m. - 9:45 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday, Noon - 7 p.m.; Opening reception April 11, 7 p.m. Flora Hewlett Library Graduate Theological Union 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541 

“The Art of Meadowsweet Dairy” Objects found in nature, reworked and turned into objects of art. Through May 15, call for hours Current Gallery at the Crucible 1036 Ashby Ave. 843-5511  

Bernard Maisner: Illuminated Manuscripts & Paintings. Through Aug. 8 Maisner works in miniature as well as in large scales, combining his mastery of medieval illumination, gold leafing, and modern painting techniques. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library 2400 Ridge Rd. 849-2541 

Youth Arts Festival A city-wide celebration of art, music, dance and poetry by youth from the Berkeley Unified School District. Featuring paintings, drawings, sculpture and ceramics by K-8 students April 18 - May 12, Wednesday - Sunday, Noon - 5 p.m.; Opening reception: April 18, 5:30 - 7 p.m. Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St.  

“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 

Readings 

Cody’s Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 15: Poetry of John D’Agata & Joanna Klink; April 16: Isadora Alman talks about “Doing It: Real People Having Really Good Sex”; April 17: Michael Parenti discusses “To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia”; April 19: Andrew Harvey talks about “The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Spiritual Traditions”; Poetry of Maxine Hong Kingston & Fred Marchant; April 27: Poetry of Michael Heller & Carl Rakosi; April 29: Poetry of Gloria Frym & Lewis Warsh 

1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 All events at 7 p.m., unless noted April 20: Susie Bright discusses “The Best American Erotica 2001”; April 26: Mother of three Wynn McClenahan Burkett will read from “Life After Baby: From Professional Woman to Beginner Parent”  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore All events at 7:30 p.m., unless noted April 17: Julie Lavezzo will give a packing demonstration for a three week trip with two climates; April 19: Bruce Feiler will discuss “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses” 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. 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. May 3: Student Reading Morrison Room, Doe Library UC Berkeley 642-0137 

Holloway Poetry Reading Series April 17, 8 p.m. Ann Lauterbach and Nadia Nurhessein will read. April 25, 5 p.m. Chris Nealon reads from his new book “Ecstasy Shield” Sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English Maude Fife Room (315) Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley 653-2439 

Annual Open Mike Poetry Reading April 21, 2 - 4 p.m. In commemoration of National Poetry Month and the fourth anniversary of the death of Poet Allen Ginsberg. Students, parents, teachers, friends and neighbors are invited to read poems of short prose on any subject. Poetry Garden at John Greenleaf Whittier Arts Magnet Elementary School Allen Ginsberg Memorial Milvia & Lincoln Sts.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mike April 21, 6:30 p.m. Open to all poets and performers, opening at it’s new home at the Berkeley Art Center. Featuring poet Giovanni Singleton. Free Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753 

PSR Professor Book Release Celebration April 25, 3 - 5 p.m. Karen Lebacqz and Joseph D. Driskell, co-authors of “Ethics and Spiritual Care,” and Randi Walker, author of “Emma Newman: A Frontier Woman Minister,” will be honored at this faculty book forum. Hear reviews of the books by the authors. Pacific School of Religion PSR Bade Museum 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8252 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. The fourth Sunday of every month, Noon - 4 p.m. $2 848-7800  

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park 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. 486-0623  

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Centennial Drive, behind Memorial Stadium, a mile below the Lawrence Hall of Science The gardens have displays of exotic and native plants. April 14 - April 29, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. See an amazing display of plants that are sources of commonly used fibers and dyes. 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. 643-2755 or www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden/  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours All tours begin at 10 a.m. and are restricted to 30 people per tour $5 - $10 per tour April 29: Susan Schwartz leads a tour of the Berkeley Waterfront; May 12: Debra Badhia will lead a tour of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Arts District; May 19: John Stansfield & Allen Stross will lead a tour of the School for the Deaf and Blind; June 2: Trish Hawthorne will lead a tour of Thousand Oaks School and Neighborhood; June 23: Sue Fernstrom will lead a tour of Strawberry Creek and West of the UC Berkeley campus 848-0181 

Lectures 

UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research Seminars Noon seminars are brown bag  

April 23, 4 p.m.: Mary Dudziach of USC will discuss “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.” 119 Moses Hall UC Berkeley 642-4608  

City Commons Club Speaker Series All speakers at 12:30 p.m. April 13: Richard Schwartz, author and historian, will speak on “Berkeley 1900 - Daily Life at the Turn of the Century”; April 20: Julius Krevans, M.D. chancellor emeritus, UCSF, will speak on “The Promises and Perils of Medical Research”; April 27: Wen-Hsing Yeh, professor of history, UC Berkeley speaks on “The Culture of China in a Changing World” $1 admission with coffee Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave. 848-3533 or 845-4725 

California Colloquium on Water Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design speak about water resources and hopefully contribute to informed decisions on water in CA. May 8, 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.: “What Makes Water Wet?” Richard Saykally, professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (refreshments served in 410 O’Brien Hall at 4:15 p.m.) 212 O’Brien Hall, UC Berkeley 642-2666  

An Evening of Art & Politics April 20, 7:30 p.m. Speak Out presents Howard Zinn, author, playwright, and activist in conversation with poet Aya De Leon $15 - $20 King Middle School 1720 Rose St. 601-0182  

Apparently, Major League Baseball’s desire for shorter games has affected the Pac-10. In a game that took only two hours and 15 minutes to play, USC’s Mark Prior pitched a complete game two-hitter as ninth-ranked USC (25-12, 7-3 Pac-10) defeated Cal, 1-0, yesterday at Evans Diamond.  

The loss drops Cal (21-17, 6-7) below the .500 mark in the conference. The team is now 5-10 in one-run games this season. 

The game was the complete opposite of most Pac-10 baseball games, a conference from which pro sluggers like Jeff Kent, Troy Glaus, and Mark McGwire have grown and prospered. Prior (10-1) struck out a career-high 14 batters, walking only one. The Bears did not get a runner to second base.  

“I’d like to know when the last 1-0 game happened in the Pac-10,” said Cal head coach David Esquer after the game. “Prior pitched an excellent game, as did Trevor Hutchinson.” 

Cal’s inability to generate offense spoiled a fine performance by Hutchinson (2-6). The Bears’ ace right-hander struggled in his last outing against Oregon State, but was in command on Thursday, allowing eight hits and one walk in eight innings and striking out three.  

“We’re going to need him as we go down the stretch run of the season,” said Esquer. “We need him to be tough on Friday, because everyone else’s Friday starters are going to be good.” 

The game’s lone run came in the third inning. Alberto Concepcion led off with a double and advanced to third on a groundout to second by Michael Moon. Concepcion then scored on an RBI groundout to short by Jon Brewster.  

“They got themselves into a position where contact could score a run, and that’s where we got beat,” Esquer lamented afterward. 

The Bears were able to keep the Trojan offense at bay for the rest of the contest, turning three double-plays and causing the Trojans to strand three runners on base. 

For a team that has played reasonably well this season, the Bears face a number of crucial series in the next few weeks. Cal has played solid baseball against College World Series-caliber foes like Stanford, Arizona State, and now USC. For them to return to the playoffs for the first time since 1995, Esquer thinks they have to learn a bit from the battle-tested Trojans.  

“(The NCAA playoffs) would be a tremendous experience for our team; even some of the upperclassmen haven’t experienced that,” said Esquer. “USC has been through big games; they know how to concentrate in big games, how to play when they’re nervous. You can’t tell people about those experiences; they have to be there for themselves.” 

The Bears know that things get no easier against USC; up next is last season’s Pac-10 pitcher of the year Rik Currier.  

“If you can just get past USC’s starting pitching, you might find a little weakness,” said Esquer, “but it’s hard to do.”  

The first pitch for today’s game is 2:30 p.m.

Elite Filipino marines rescued Carol Schilling’s son from rebels Thursday. 

“I’m deliriously happy,” she said, in a phone interview from her Oakland home Thursday afternoon. “Friends and family and strangers have been praying for me.” 

Jeffrey Schilling, 25, had been held captive by a rebel group for more than seven months.  

Schilling got the good news in a 3:30 a.m. phone call from the U.S. Embassy. As of a 4:30 p.m. press conference in front of her Oakland home, Schilling was still waiting to hear directly from her son. She’s not heard his voice since a mid-September call. 

A Muslim convert, Schilling was taken hostage by Muslim rebels after visiting their camp in Jolo on Aug. 31. He was accompanied by his wife, Ivy Osani, the cousin of a rebel leader. Osani was freed after the rebels seized Schilling. 

The circumstances of his kidnapping led some Filipino military officials to speculate that Schilling might have been cooperating with the rebels. The rebels accused him of being a CIA agent. 

How has Carol Schilling managed to get through the long ordeal that included the threat to behead her son? 

“It’s not in Dr. Spock,” she said, or in any other parenting manual. “It’s uncharted territory.” 

Schilling, who works as controller at the downtown Berkeley YMCA, said one of the best therapies for her has been playing with Roger, her friend’s toddler. Friends brought her food and took her for long walks. Co-workers were supportive, and her supervisor at the “Y” allowed her a flexible work schedule. Above all, she credits her faith in God. 

Schilling had held off going to the Philippines herself, until she was told of the rebels’ threat to behead her son on the birthday of the president last week. She flew to the Philippines and made an appeal via radio to the rebels to spare his life.  

While she was there, Schilling said she met with the Filipino Secretary of Defense. “He felt very empathetic,” she said. 

The embassy told Schilling that before her son comes home, he would be checked out by doctors, debriefed and would meet with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She said she believed Jeffrey would be back in Oakland this weekend. 

“I’m going to tell him I love him and I’m going to give him a great big hug and then I’m going to revoke his passport,” she said with a smile at the late afternoon press conference. 

A U.S. Embassy statement expressed “its deep appreciation” to the Arroyo and the military “for their efforts over the past 7 1/2 months to free Mr. Schilling.” 

And Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, issued a statement saying: “I am relieved that Jeffrey was released and is in good health. We all look forward to his return home." 

The Abu Sayyaf, the group that held Schilling, is the smallest of the three major insurgency groups in the Philippines. It shot to international notoriety last year after seizing dozens of hostages. It released all but two – Schilling and Roland Ulla, a Filipino worker at a scuba diving resort – for reported multimilllion-dollar ransoms. 

The group claims it is fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the government regards it as a bandit gang. 

Arroyo said her government will not hold peace talks with the group as it plans to do separately with the Muslim secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the communist National Democratic Front. 

Schilling’s only message to the rebels Thursday was a plea to free their remaining hostage, Filipino resort worker Ulla. 

“There’s no point in me being angry,” she said. “Hate the evil doing, not the evil doer.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Cal’s Jocelyn Forest and Veronica Nelson have been selected by the Amateur Softball Association as two of the 51 of the nation’s finest women’s fast pitch softball players to participate in the USA Softball Women’s National Team Camp, May 30–June 3 at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. USA Softball will select two 16-player teams to represent the U.S. in international competitions during the 2001 season.  

The players invited are a who’s who of women’s fast pitch softball, including NCAA champions, world champions and a total of 54 NCAA All-America selections. A total of 10 states from Alabama to California and 15 NCAA Division I colleges will be represented at the camp. 

Forest, a junior from Santa Maria, is currently 22-3 overall and is among the top 10 in the NCAA in wins, ERA and strikeouts per seven innings. Earlier this season, Forest had an 88 consecutive scoreless-inning streak, good enough for sixth on the all-time NCAA record book.  

Nelson, a sophomore from Oakland, tied the Cal career home run record last weekend with her 28th career homer against Oregon. The home run was her 14th of the year, tying her own Cal season home run record that she set in 2000. Nelson currently is batting .404 overall, and has drawn a Pac-10 leading 58 walks. Last year, Nelson shattered the NCAA season walk record with 87.  

Selections for the national teams will be made following the camp. The two teams will then participate in the USA Softball Shootout, a four-city west coast tour that will stop in Portland (June 8), Spokane (June 10), Sacramento (June 14) and Los Angeles (June 17) prior to leaving for the U.S. Cup in Hawaii.  

USA Softball Women’s National Teams have been among the most dominating of any sports team in history. The USA’s ability to bring home the gold in World Championships, the Pan American Games and the Olympics is unchallenged, with a total of 13.

About 50 people, from bus riders to business people, weighed in for and against the parking policy recommendations in a Draft General Plan for the city Wednesday. 

The Planning Commission met at the North Berkeley Senior Center to consider last minute changes in the language of the housing and transportation elements of the plan before submitting it to the City Council for approval next month. 

By discouraging the construction of any new parking downtown in the next five years the Draft General Plan would diminish the area’s appeal to visitors and jeopardize years of economic expansion, representatives from downtown businesses and cultural institutions told the commission in public comments. 

Many said their own patrons have complained of the lack of affordable or easily accessible parking in downtown Berkeley already. 

“People tell me they can only come at certain times because there is no parking,” said Fran Gallati of the Berkeley YMCA, adding that he is afraid the club’s membership could decline if the parking situation fails to improve. 

Susie Medak, managing director of the recently enlarged Berkeley Repertory Theatre on Addison Street, said the General Plan amounts to a “moratorium” on new parking spaces downtown at a time when cars are already overflowing into residential neighborhood streets because of a downtown parking shortage. 

Kathy Eyre, board president for the Habitot Children’s  

Museum, located on the 2000 block of Kittridge downtown, said the lack of affordable parking was the number one reason people opted to discontinue their museum memberships this year. 

Habitot Children’s Museum draws 70,000 visitors a year from throughout the East Bay and beyond, according to Executive Director Gina Moreland. Since its clientele are young parents with small children, it’s critical that they have access affordable parking as close to the museum as possible, Moreland said. 

But nearly as many people spoke out in favor of the Draft General Plan’s parking recommendations as against Wednesday. 

The downtown business people are promoting “a not very sensible parking or nothing theory,” said Berkeley resident Becky O’Malley, who has spoken out before at Planning Commission meetings about the problems of noise and air pollution caused by excessive auto traffic in Berkeley. 

Dave Campbell, of the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition, said he supports a moratorium on parking “until you get good data on the real need” for parking downtown. 

And City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said if there really was a need for more parking in downtown Berkeley, private companies would be building parking structures today. 

“It makes no economic sense at all to build parking (in downtown Berkeley),” Worthington said. “If it did people would invest the money and they would make millions of dollars.” 

Worthington said Thursday that the city actually has to subsidize some existing lots to keep them in business. The city is spending “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to put new elevators in the Sather Gate parking facility, he said. 

People perceive a parking shortage in Berkeley only because they’re unwilling to park in garages and then walk to their destination, Worthington said. Instead, they expect to park as close to the business or institution they’re visiting as possible, he added. 

There are thousands of parking spaces “sitting there vacant right this minute and every night this week,” Worthington told the Planning Commission Wednesday, referring to a recent city and UC Berkeley sponsored study that found that parking facilities near downtown, like the Tang Center garage on Bancroft Way, are never completely full and have numerous vacancies in the evening hours. 

Worthington said the city “needs to look at a bunch of practical ideas” for making better use of existing parking before building new facilities.  

Planning Commissioner Zelda Bronstein said Thursday that the Draft General Plan’s parking recommendations are not so much a “moratorium” on new parking downtown as an effort to encourage the city to try alternative ways of dealing with the parking issue before investing in new parking structures that may not be needed. 

“If you build more parking garages you’re going to encourage more people to drive downtown,” Bronstein said. “Maybe that’s what we have to do, but that’s a last resort, not a first resort.” 

Specifically, the current language in the draft General Plan says “The City will not consider expanding any existing city-owned public parking lots or structures, and will not consider building additional parking lots or structures in the Southside or Downtown” until it has attempted to reduce the demand for downtown parking spaces in other ways.  

The plan recommends that the city encourage the use of public transit by giving people who work downtown an “Eco Pass” so they can ride buses for free, promoting housing around public transit centers, charging higher rates for all day parking, and creating various other incentive for people to drive less. 

The plan recommends that the city find ways to manage existing parking facilities so they better meet the needs of visitors to the city. For example, UC Berkeley has opened its parking facilities near downtown to the general public, but Worthington said there still aren’t enough signs to tell people that they can park in these garages. 

Worthington also suggested that the city could put shuttles in place to carry people from parking garages to shopping areas, theaters, etc. That way people who don’t use the garages because they are not close enough to their destination might begin using them, Worthington said.  

The plan calls for the city to evaluate the possibility of constructing “satellite” parking facilities away from the congested downtown area and then transporting people to popular Berkeley destinations by shuttle. 

Sill, Planning Commissioner Mary Ann McCamant said Thursday that the plan’s language is “too draconian” and “really ties the hands of the city” in dealing with parking. 

McCamant said she agrees that downtown is too congested and that the solution lies in getting people to rely on their cars less, but she said ruling out new parking only harms merchants without reducing congestion. 

“There are all kinds of things that are starting to blossom” in downtown Berkeley, McCamant said, pointing to Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the soon to be reopened Berkeley Public Library, and the new downtown location planned for the popular Freight & Salvage Coffee House. 

“People will not continue to come for all that if they can’t park. They just won’t.” 

The Planning Commission’s General Plan would replace the Berkeley Master Plan of 1977, serving as an updated statement of community priorities to guide city government in the years to come. The Planning Commission will continue making last minute adjustments to the language of the plan at its next meeting: 7 p.m., April 24, at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Kaiser Permanente settled a lawsuit Thursday accusing it of providing inferior care to disabled patients. 

The suit, filed in July by Disability Rights Advocates in Alameda County Superior Court, charged that the nation’s largest not-for-profit health maintenance organization failed to offer accessible facilities, examination tables, toilets, scales and other medical devices for wheelchair users and other disabled persons using its California facilities. 

The suit is the latest legal challenge for Oakland-based Kaiser, which last year was accused of requiring psychiatrists to prescribe medication to patients they had not seen. In December, the health care concern, which has 6 million California clients, also was accused of unlawfully requiring patients to split pills to cut costs. Richard Pettingill, Kaiser’s president for California, said the company and plaintiffs began meeting to address the concerns of the disabled, days after the suit was filed. 

“Because our common goal is to improve access to medical care for our disabled members, I am pleased Kaiser Permanente and Disability Rights Advocates can collaborate rather than litigate to benefit our disabled members,” he said. 

John Metzler, a Benicia man who suffers from cerebral palsy and is unable to walk, was among three plaintiffs in the suit against Kaiser’s 27 hospitals and dozens of outpatient facilities throughout California. 

Because of Metzler’s disability, he said he was unable to be weighed at the Kaiser hospital in Vallejo, even though it’s critical to his health that his weight not greatly fluctuate. 

Also, sores on his body were troubling him, but doctors at the hospital were unable to examine them because the hospital did not have proper lifting equipment. 

“Our goal in bringing this lawsuit was to make the health care system truly available to people with disabilities,” he said. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Kaiser will begin removing architectural barriers to those in wheelchairs, acquire equipment helpful to Metzler and others in his situation and implement a health care training program for its workers. 

SAN JOSE — A bizarre road rage incident, in which a fluffy little dog was yanked from its owner’s car and thrown into oncoming traffic, has led to the indictment of a man already being held in jail on unrelated charges. 

The dog, a 10-year-old bichon frise named Leo, was killed Feb. 11, 2000. The dog was grabbed from the lap of owner Sara McBurnett after her car bumped another motorist’s vehicle near San Jose International Airport. 

A Santa Clara County grand jury indicted Andrew Burnett on Thursday on a charge of killing or maiming or abusing an animal, a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. 

Karyn Sinunu, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara district attorney’s office, said Burnett, 27, of Santa Clara, will be arraigned Friday. He was being held on $100,000 bail in the dog-killing case. 

“He showed criminal negligence and complete disregard for the life of the animal, and it eventually was killed because of that disregard,” assistant district attorney Troy Benson said. 

Burnett has been in jail in Santa Clara County on three unrelated matters since mid-December. He is in custody on charges of grand theft, filing a false document in court, and having a dangerous weapon while in jail. His bail is set at a combined $200,000, and he is awaiting trial in those matters. 

In the first charge, he is accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of tools from his employer, Pacific Bell. He also is accused of filing a false document to get out of a speeding ticket, saying he was in Bosnia serving in the military at the time of the incident. Burnett left the Navy in Virginia three years ago. 

Though he declined to give details, assistant district attorney Al Weger said the investigation into the theft uncovered a lead in Leo’s case. “We think we have a very strong case,” he said. 

McBurnett was driving to the airport to pick up her husband when she said a large black truck cut her off. She said she was unable to stop in time to avoid tapping the rear bumper. 

The damage was minimal, but the man jumped out of his truck and began berating her, McBurnett said. When she rolled down her window to apologize, the man reached inside and grabbed Leo, throwing the dog into three lanes of oncoming traffic. 

“His movements, his body language. He was so aggressive. He had my dog before I could even react. It was like lightning,” McBurnett said. 

McBurnett tried to catch Leo, but the dog was struck by a car and died soon after at a veterinary hospital. 

“I keep seeing his little body going under the car. He made a sound I’ve never heard before,” McBurnett said shortly after the incident. “My heart is broken. He was my baby.” 

McBurnett, a real estate agent from Incline Village, Nev., was inundated with condolence messages from dog lovers around the country, especially after she went on Oprah Winfrey’s nationally televised talk show. 

“It touched everybody’s heart, it was a defenseless little animal that was victimized in a very serious way,” said Marcia Mayeda of the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley. “It scared a lot of people, because they feel that a person that is this violent with such a trigger temper could do the same thing to a person.” 

Citizens collected $110,000 in reward funds for information leading to an arrest of the killer of the little white dog with a black button nose. 

“I guess he has become such a symbol,” McBurnett said. “It’s so symbolic that such an innocent little fluffy ball of life could be taken with such needless violence.” 

The newest star in Barbra Streisand’s garden is not any second-hand rose. This star is a brand new hybrid tea rose named Barbra Streisand that was selected by the singer herself. 

Now available at retail nurseries across the country, the Streisand rose is a dusty, mauve-pink color that will blush to a deeper shade around the edges, depending on the time of year. 

Horticulturist Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses, who bred the new hybrid tea, says it’s also “naturally vigorous and disease-resistant” and “so fragrant it almost hurts.” Carruth gave Streisand three roses that met her criteria for color, fragrance, and style, and she grew them in her own garden for nine months before selecting the one to bear her name. 

Streisand has extensive gardens on her property in Malibu, Calif., and has been cultivating roses for some time. Dan Bifano, Streisand’s horticulturist, says she has more roses than anything else on the property, “but frankly, she loves flowers, and her landscape is flowers from one end to the other.” 

Among them are close to 1,200 roses of all types, including climbers, miniature roses, old garden roses, English roses, shrub roses, modern hybrid teas, and floribundas. “I can’t think of anything she doesn’t have,” Bifano said, adding that Streisand herself is very involved in the process. “She is in the garden almost every day,” and on occasion “actually gets down and digs,” he said. 

Rosa Barbra Streisand is a fairly upright hybrid tea, growing to a height of about 4 feet on the east coast and taller out west, with deep green glossy foliage, lots of sprays, and repeat blooms throughout the growing season that have a fairly long vase life. 

Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses, said naming roses after celebrities is back in vogue after a hiatus of some time. 

Another new trend is wild colors and large sizes that were popular a century ago. Tony Avent, the owner of Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina, says “tacky” is back in style. “We’re sort of having a Victorian revolution now,” he said. “We’re into tacky plants and that’s why all the canna lilies are hot again now.” 

Among his nursery’s new offerings is Phlox paniculata Becky Towe. Avent said it was discovered in Britain in the garden of June Towe, who named the plant after her dog. “It has dramatic, yellow-edged leaves,” said Avent, “and the flowers are Pepto-Bismol pink.” 

Another newcomer at Plant Delights is Vinca minor Illumination, a groundcover periwinkle that Avent says “is poised to set the gardening world on fire.” It has brilliant golden leaves bordered in green and pinwheel-shaped lavender flowers in spring. Unlike the usual green-leafed species, however, it does not have an invasive habit. 

Avent is also fond of Zantedeschia aethiopica White Giant, a calla lily with spikes that are 6 to 7 feet tall. He said the plant was found as a seedling by a gardener in Oregon who “just began sharing it with people, and it sort of made it into the trade through an underground sort of way.” 

Avent’s nursery is currently growing and testing over 9,000 plants. Of those, only 700 make it into the mail-order catalog, and only a very small percentage are new. Plant Delights looks for new plants all over the world but is now doing more research in the United States. “We really think that right now places like China have become the flavor of the month for plant collectors,” he said. 

“and there is no one we can find really doing a good job here in the United States.” 

Avent is doing a lot of exploration in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas, looking for plants that are tolerant of heat and drought. He’s now testing ferns that grow in full sun and hopes to introduce them within the next few years. 

For 2001, he’s introduced a new sun-tolerant hosta called Stained Glass that he says is a “sun-loving hosta with brilliant gold, almost fluorescent leaves with a wide green border and very large fragrant flowers.” 

Heronswood Nursery in Washington state also is offering a number of new plants that fit right in with the Victorian revival. Begonia grandis Heron’s Pirouette has hot pink flowers over twice as long as the typical species that tumble down in a graceful manner. Helleborus foetidus Chedglow is a sensational new shade plant with golden foliage instead of green, and rich yellow flowers that bloom in very early spring. And Crocosmia Severn Sunrise (the Sword Lily) has blooms that are a noticeable departure from the normal golds, deep oranges and reds. This new plant produces vigorous upright stems bearing blooms of coral pink splashed with orange. 

Gardeners more interested in annual blooms should check the new selections at Thompson & Morgan. A breakthrough black-eyed susan, Rudbeckia Chim Chiminee, has unique quilled petals in shades of bright yellow, gold, mahogany and bronze that thrive in full sun and withstand stormy weather. And a new dwarf sunflower, Helianthus Dwarf Yellow Spray can be used as quick-growing, 2-foot-high hedge in beds, along borders, or in containers. 

Thompson & Morgan is also offering a special Kew Collection of limited-availability annual and perennial flower seeds that are for sale at commercial nurseries. A percentage of all sales will go to support the Millenium Seed Bank of Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The seed bank conserves rare and threatened seeds throughout the world, which may someday include many of the new selections that are just hitting the market in 2001. 

Web sites: 

Heronswood Nursery - http://www.heronswood.com 

Plant Delights - http://www.plantsdelight.com 

Thompson & Morgan - http://www.thompson-morgan.com 

PASADENA — NASA will add a giant dish to the worldwide network of antennas it uses to communicate with interplanetary spacecraft to accommodate an anticipated spike in traffic that threatens to tax the array’s capability. 

The new $30 million dish, to be built beginning this fall outside Madrid, Spain, will bolster the Deep Space Network’s ability to transmit and receive data from far-flung spacecraft. 

Without the 112-foot wide dish, the network faces demand levels that will exceed its capacity by 300 percent during certain periods between November 2003 and February 2004. 

Even with the added tracking power, National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists say they are going to lose data. 

During the four-month problem period, more than a dozen robotic probes launched by the United States, Europe and Japan are expected to perform critical maneuvers that demand careful monitoring from Earth. Three missions involve spacecraft scheduled to land on Mars, two will enter Martian orbit and two are supposed to make close passes by distant comets. 

“The good news is there are more planetary missions. The bad news is there are more planetary missions to track,” said Ed Weiler, NASA’s associate administrator for space science. “If all these things work, which obviously you have to plan they will, we need more capacity.” 

There are three identical antennas in Goldstone, Calif., and one each in Canberra, Australia, and outside Madrid. 

To further relieve the crunch, the European space agency is building a similar sized dish in Perth, Australia, that it will use to track its Mars Express orbiter and the British Beagle 2 lander, both expected to arrive at the Red Planet in December 2003. 

And the Japanese will press into use a 211-foot dish it built nearly two decades ago to help track its Nozomi spacecraft as it enters orbit around Mars. NASA expects further upgrades will allow it to simultaneously downlink data from any two of the seven spacecraft expected to be operating at Mars during that time. 

“We think we’re going to squeak through here,” said Rich Miller, manager of the office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that oversees planning and commitments for the Deep Space Network. 

Hardware will not be the sole solution to the problem: representatives from various missions will spend until August horsetrading time on the network of antennas in an effort to accommodate the needs of all the various spacecraft. 

“It’s not a good position to be in, because you go in like a gorilla with the other projects and say ’we need this’ and ’we need that,’ then you go back to your own mission and they say, ’You dummy, why did you give that up?”’ said Robert Ryan, operations manager for the Stardust mission, which will fly past the comet Wild-2 in early January 2003. “It’s all a compromise.” 

NASA expects the juggling act will force it to lose some science data that it simply will not be able to downlink from the fleet of spacecraft. That has led to heated exchanges at JPL. 

“It can be stressful. Sometimes temperatures — and tempers — can rise as you are trying to negotiate through a situation,” said Belinda Arroyo, who represents several missions at the bargaining table. 

Even with careful planning, an emergency aboard one or more of the unmanned spacecraft — almost guaranteed, given the number — could further complicate an already difficult situation. 

“That’s going to be the roughest, if there’s a real problem,” said Ryan, of the Stardust mission. 

Looking toward the future, NASA may seek to internationalize the Deep Space Network and enlist more foreign resources in beefing up the global array of dishes. At present, many foreign space agencies rely on NASA support to track their missions. 

——— 

On the Net: Deep Space Network: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/ 

FOLSOM— State officials are negotiating with federal pollution regulators to keep some power plants online this summer during power emergencies even though they may exceed air emission limits. 

“Peaker plants” – small facilities that typically operate only a few hours a day during the hottest months – have been running frequently this year as state power grid officials struggle to keep the lights on. 

The peaker plants are likely to exceed federally imposed annual pollution limits next month and could be required to shut down or face federal fines and other penalties. 

Combined, the plants produce about 1,450 megawatts, enough power for just over 1 million households as California struggles with a tight electricity supply. 

The state Air Resources Board is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to let the plants continue running when they are most needed this summer. 

So far, the EPA has balked at letting the plants violate federal pollution limits, said Tracy Bibb, director of scheduling outage coordination for the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state’s power grid. 

Negotiations so far have been at the regional level, Bibb said Thursday. 

“Our goal is to find ways to increase generation without increasing emissions,” ISO board member Cal Finney said. 

The ISO has delayed installation of pollution control equipment at five plants until winter so those plants can operate through the hot summer months. 

The ISO has also scheduled all routine maintenance shutdowns to be completed by mid-June, Bibb said. 

As the ISO continued to work with the EPA on the emission limits, the EPA reported Thursday that emissions from coal- and oil-burning power plants in California increased 93 percent from 1998 to 1999. 

The increase, EPA officials said, is mostly due to the Stockton-based Posdef Power plant, which burns coal. The plant reported a release of 90,464 pounds of ammonia in 1998. That jumped to 629,008 pounds in 1999, said EPA spokesman Adam Browning. 

Posdef officials said they thought the tests were incorrect and are investigating the ammonia release with their local air district. Ammonia is not considered a regulated pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act. 

Meanwhile, officers of six large California businesses said energy conservation is the state’s best and perhaps only hope to avoid devastating blackouts this summer. 

Representatives from Agilent Technologies, The Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corp., NEC Electronics and Safeway Inc. said Thursday that they are cutting back their power use in response to soaring prices and dwindling supplies. 

The trick is getting enough businesses and individuals to do likewise fast enough to forestall blackouts the business leaders said could devastate their industries. 

Agilent Technologies is spending $20 million the next two years to cut its energy use by 15 percent. Of the money, $7 million will be spent in California to install more efficient lighting and equipment. 

Also Thursday, another group of businesses joined together to create the California Alliance for Energy & Economic Stability to ask the state Public Utilities Commission to restructure its proposed rate increases to not pose serious harm to businesses. 

California ISO: www.caiso.com 

U.S. EPA: http://www.epa.gov/ 

More than three-fourths of public school ninth-graders took the new state high school graduation test last month, education officials said Thursday. 

About 350,000 of the 450,000 freshmen took both the English and math portions of the test, which were given for the first time on March 7 and 13, officials said. The relatively high participation rate encouraged state education officials, who worried that confusion about whether the test would count this year would decrease participation. 

“I think that’s a positive response to somewhat less than great circumstances,” Phil Spears, director of the Department of Education’s testing division, told the state Board of Education meeting Thursday. 

However, students who took the test won’t know until August if they passed or not. Those who didn’t pass will have eight more chances to take the test. 

In June, the state board plans to set a passing score. Students will receive those scores in August. Confusion stemmed from Gov. Gray Davis’ attempt to make the March test a practice test because court decisions have said it is better for all students to take the test at one time. But the Legislature rejected the Davis bill two days before the March 7 test. Senate Republicans said they did not want to postpone or weaken the test in any way. 

School officials reported no major problems, except for concerns about the disruption of school time for the four-hour test, Spears said. The department is exploring whether future tests can be given on Saturdays. 

Many students got tired taking the English test, which features 92 multiple-choice items and two essay questions, some school officials said. Participation in the test varied according to district policy, said John Mockler, the board’s executive director. 

Participation was higher in districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, that said all students had to take the test unless parents opted out.  

It was lower in districts that left the decision to take the test up to the students, he said. 

On the Net: Read about the high school test at 

http://www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/hsee 

More than three-fourths of public school ninth-graders took the new state high school graduation test last month, education officials said Thursday. 

About 350,000 of the 450,000 freshmen took both the English and math portions of the test, which were given for the first time on March 7 and 13, officials said. The relatively high participation rate encouraged state education officials, who worried that confusion about whether the test would count this year would decrease participation. 

“I think that’s a positive response to somewhat less than great circumstances,” Phil Spears, director of the Department of Education’s testing division, told the state Board of Education meeting Thursday. 

However, students who took the test won’t know until August if they passed or not. Those who didn’t pass will have eight more chances to take the test. 

In June, the state board plans to set a passing score. Students will receive those scores in August. Confusion stemmed from Gov. Gray Davis’ attempt to make the March test a practice test because court decisions have said it is better for all students to take the test at one time. But the Legislature rejected the Davis bill two days before the March 7 test. Senate Republicans said they did not want to postpone or weaken the test in any way. 

School officials reported no major problems, except for concerns about the disruption of school time for the four-hour test, Spears said. The department is exploring whether future tests can be given on Saturdays. 

Many students got tired taking the English test, which features 92 multiple-choice items and two essay questions, some school officials said. Participation in the test varied according to district policy, said John Mockler, the board’s executive director. 

Participation was higher in districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, that said all students had to take the test unless parents opted out.  

It was lower in districts that left the decision to take the test up to the students, he said. 

On the Net: Read about the high school test at 

http://www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/hsee 

WASHINGTON — Health care workers who handle needles will have more say about the safety of the devices they use under a new federal law that takes effect next week. 

Employers also will be required to document injuries from contaminated needles as part of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act. 

Needles and other sharp medical objects potentially carry bloodborne illnesses such as AIDS and hepatitis. Up to 800,000 people are stuck by contaminated needles each year. A switch to safer needles could prevent nearly 70,000 injuries a year, the government said. 

About 50 types of specially protected needles, syringes and other protective devices have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Examples are retractable needles and devices that automatically cover used needle tips. 

But the American Nurses Association says just 15 percent of hospitals have adopted safer needles. 

A federal law already sets safety standards for needles and the prevention of bloodborne illnesses at health care facilities, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said. 

The new law, which takes effect next Wednesday, only will reinforce the need to use safe needles to reduce injuries and will not add enforcement teeth. But it will require employers to document injuries and to seek input from employees who use the needles. 

“The most important component of this new law is that nurses will be involved in the evaluation process to ensure that we get the kind of equipment we need in treating our patients,” said Carol Bragg, a nurse at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, Md. 

OSHA is planning a 90-day education effort. OSHA officials say they already cite employers that don’t use safe needles and other devices, but investigations usually are not conducted unless a complaint is received. 

“No one was very proactive until they found out the new law was going to be mandated,” said Bragg, president of her local Service Employees International Union. 

SEIU is the nation’s largest health care union representing 710,000 medical workers. Members fought for safe-needle legislation that has passed in 15 states, and pushed the effort in Congress last year. It was signed into law by former President Clinton in November

WASHINGTON — Frugal consumers made for anemic retail sales in March, and jobless claims hit a 5-year high, spurring new talk of recession. Wholesale prices fell for the first time in seven months. 

With spending by consumers accounting for two-thirds of all economic activity, the fact that they tightened their belts last month made economists worry about whether the economy might stall or slip into reverse in the current April-June quarter. 

After being flat in February, sales at the nation’s retailers fell in March by a bigger-than-expected 0.2 percent as people cut back spending on cars, building supplies, furniture, food and clothes, the Commerce Department said. Sales at gas stations also fell, reflecting lower prices at the pump. Retail figures aren’t adjusted for inflation. 

In another report, the nation’s largest retailers said their March sales fell sharply below expectations. 

Department stores, particularly Dillard’s Inc. and Saks Inc., were hardest hit, but even usually strong performers like discounters Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and Target Corp. suffered from the economic malaise. 

“Consumers had been the principal difference between an economy that is struggling and an economy that is in a recession,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, a consulting firm. “While they haven’t packed it in yet, they are retrenching, and if that continues the economy is going to unravel.” 

On Wall Street, investors gave a positive spin to the batch of disquieting economic news, bidding stocks solidly higher amid rising hopes for another interest rate cut. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 113.47 points to close at 10,126.94. The Nasdaq finished up 62.48 points at 1,961.43, the first time since early September that the index has had a four-day winning streak. 

Stock market volatility, rising unemployment and worries about the economy are all factors that make people feel less inclined to spend, economists said. 

Most economists believe, however, that the economy still managed to grow during the first three months of 2001, but probably not by much. 

Given that the economy was booming in the first half of last year, the swiftness of the slowdown has jolted many Americans. “People see a bear market, layoff announcements, earnings warnings. These are the most difficult economic times people have generally seen in at least 10 years,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. 

Another report provided fresh evidence of how the weak economy is taking its toll on the labor market. 

The Labor Department said new claims for state unemployment insurance rose last week by 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 392,000, the highest level since March 30, 1996. 

“Labor market conditions are key to the consumer outlook, and they continue to deteriorate,” said Merrill Lynch economist Gerald Cohen. 

Government officials said layoffs in the automobile industry, because of production cuts in the face of slumping demand, accounted for part of the unexpected rise. 

With employers’ appetite for workers waning, economists expect the nation’s unemployment rate, now at 4.3 percent, to rise to 4.5 percent or possibly higher in the coming months. 

Trying to stave off recession, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates three times this year, totaling 1.5 percentage points. Economists expect another rate reduction of half a point either before or at the Fed’s next scheduled meeting May 15. 

Given that inflation remains tame, the central bank has plenty of room to lower interest rates aggressively to rejuvenate economic growth. 

In a fourth report, the Labor Department said its Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach store shelves, edged down by 0.1 percent last month. Lower prices for energy and computers outweighed higher prices for food. 

It provided a brighter reading on wholesale inflation than many analysts expected and marked the first drop in the PPI since August. In February, wholesale prices rose a tiny 0.1 percent. 

Excluding volatile energy and food sectors, which can swing widely from month to month, wholesale prices edged up an expected 0.1 percent in March, after falling by 0.3 percent the prior month. 

Energy prices, which rose 1.4 percent in February, fell 2.6 percent in March, the best showing since April 2000. Costs for residential natural gas declined by a record 4 percent, surpassing the previous all-time drop of 3.8 percent in April 1997. 

After peaking in December, natural gas prices have eased, and economists expect prices to continue to moderate or fall in coming months. That provides little comfort to consumers, who have been socked with huge bills. Costs remain much higher than they were in the winter of 1999. 

Prices for computers fell 5.9 percent in March, the second-largest decline on record. But food prices rose 1.1 percent, the biggest increase since April. 

In the retail report, car sales fell by 0.8 percent; building supply sales were down 1.2 percent; clothing and furniture sales each declined by 0.7 percent; and gasoline station sales were down 2 percent. 

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On the Net: 

Report sales report: http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/retail.html 

Jobless claims: http://www.ows.doleta.gov/news/news.asp 

PPI report: http://www.bls.gov/ 

Kids come to school on  

foot, bus, scooter Friday 

The Safe Routes to School Program is organizing an Eco-Motion Event in which seven local schools will participate on Friday in celebration of Earth Day. Elementary and middle school students will receive free breakfast and small prizes if they arrive at school on foot, bicycle, scooter, bus, in a carpool or another environmentally friendly mode of transportation. Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Berkeley Arts Magnet, Le Conte and Washington elementary schools along with Willard and King middle schools are participating.  

UC Berkeley to open  

business journalism center 

The University of California, Berkeley’s journalism school will begin offering a business writing and editing program next fall. 

The business journalism center springs from a $585,000 grant by Bloomberg L.P., which runs a news wire, television networks and a radio station, the university said in announcing the three-year grant. 

Students will take general courses in finance and markets, as well as specialized classes on reporting personal finance, technology and international business. 

— staff, wire reports 

“It will help us give future generations of journalists the tools to make sense of the topsy-turvy world of the marketplace today,” said journalism school dean Orville Schell. 

Going to work may become less onerous for disabled people if the state legislature backs AB925, a bill introduced by Assemblymember Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley. It was heard in the Assembly Health Committee Tuesday. 

Most folks, when they go to work, try to get their employers to pay them as much as they can. No so for the disabled.  

If they earn too much, their Medi-Cal and attendant care benefits get cut off. 

The bill “ensures that people can go to work and not lose their income and services,” Aroner said, noting that 70 percent of disabled people are unemployed. For disabled people of color, the figure goes up to more than 90 percent, she said. 

Pam Dahl, a disabled woman from Oakland, works and earns about $20,000 a year. That’s  

little enough to allow Dahl to keep her medical benefits and home health care attendant.  

The problem, as Dahl describes it, is that she’d like to get married. But under present law, her income would be added to her husband’s, and she would lose Medi-Cal and attendant benefits. 

“His income would put us over the top,” Dahl said in a telephone interview from Sacramento Monday, where she had just discussed the bill in a capitol press conference.  

Under Aroner’s bill, an individual can earn up to 450 percent of poverty rate without having benefits cut off. Currently, a disabled person can earn only up to 250 percent of the poverty rate.  

And the income of an individual’s spouse would not be added to the recipient’s income to determine eligibility, as it is today. 

AB925 also provides for one-stop centers to help disabled people get into the work force and it sets up a board that will include the disabled to oversee the effectiveness of the centers. 

“(The Employment Development Department) is not a good service provider to people with disabilities,” Dahl said.  

Dahl’s not only thinking about getting married. She’s thinking far ahead to retirement. Under current law, she’s permitted to put aside only $2,000, but under Aroner’s bill, she could save $80,000.  

“It’s not that much,” she said.

PG&E Corp., the parent of Northern California’s bankrupt utility, reported a $4.1 billion fourth-quarter loss Monday in a grudging acknowledgment that the company might not be able to charge its customers for last year’s soaring electricity costs. 

The San Francisco-based company recorded a before-tax charge of $6.9 billion to account for the difference between what it paid for wholesale electricity last year and what state regulators allowed the utility to charge its 4.5 million customers. 

After a tax benefit, the special charge produced a loss of $4.1 billion, or $11.34 per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31. That compared to a loss of $611 million, or $1.67 per share, in the prior year. 

Despite the utility’s bankruptcy, the parent company continued to portray itself as a successful business. 

“While overshadowed by the extraordinary impacts of the California energy crisis, we demonstrated continued solid performance on an operating basis,” said PG&E CEO Robert Glynn Jr., a written statement. 

If not for the one-time charge, PG&E’s fourth-quarter earnings would have been 39 cents per share. The consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call was 40 cents per share. 

The earnings report, released Monday evening, represented the first snapshot of PG&E’s finances since the company’s regulated utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy April 6. PG&E management has scheduled an 8:30 a.m. PDT conference call Tuesday to discuss the results with industry analysts and investors. 

Despite the charge taken in the fourth quarter, the company expressed confidence that it will prevail in its legal fight to raise rates retroactively and pass on last year’s electricity costs to its customers. 

The fourth-quarter charge “does not diminish our conviction that the utility is entitled under law to recover these costs,” Glynn said. 

PG&E is suing to recover its electricity rates in federal court. The company also has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali to overturn a California Public Utilities Commission ruling that could hurt its bid to raise rates retroactively. 

Management argues that the utility had met all the conditions needed to raise its rates as of July 2000. Regulators at the CPUC disagree. 

The issue also could affect PG&E’s earnings this year. In the first two months of 2001, PG&E estimates that the utility’s electricity costs exceeded what it could charge for retail rates by another $2 billion. 

Excluding the special charges, PG&E said it earned $925 million, or $2.54 per share, for all of 2000, a 13 percent increase from a 1999 profit of $826 million, or $2.24 per share. PG&E said the showing exceeded its goal of increasing profits by 8 to 10 percent annually. 

With one-time charges, PG&E said it lost $3.4 billion, or $9.29 per share, for all of 2000, versus a loss of $73 million, or 20 cents per share, in 1999. 

The company’s unregulated power wholesale subsidiary, the National Energy Group, contributed most of the gains last year. 

National Energy’s operating profit shot up to $162 million last year, more than doubling from $63 million in 1999. The unregulated business, now based in Maryland, also accounted for most of the company’s sales with revenues of $16.6 billion, up 43 percent from 1999. 

The parent company and National Energy Group aren’t a part of the utility’s bankruptcy. Their exclusion from the bankruptcy is expected to become a sticking point among the utility’s 30,000 creditors. 

With the PG&E’s utility in bankruptcy, National Energy has become the most valuable part of the company. Some analysts estimated PG&E’s regulated businesses may be worth as much as $12 per share if the company can keep it out of the bankruptcy proceedings. 

PG&E’s stock gained 19 cents Monday to close at $8.84. 

————— 

On the Net: 

http://www.pgecorp.com/ 

Berkeley Police officials are looking for Pauline Grana, a 79 year old, white woman with white shoulder length hair and blue eyes. 

Grana, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs about 125 pounds and has an identification bracelet with an 800 phone number. 

Dressed in a tan zip-up windbreaker outfit, a long lavender shirt and sandals, Grana was last seen at 9:45 a.m. today near her home on Vine and Grants Streets in North Berkeley. 

Police have been searching for Grana to no avail since 10:45 a.m. this morning. Anyone who has seen her should detain her and call police at (510) 981-5900. 

S. Stephen Nakashima announced his resignation Friday as a member of the University of California Board of Regents. 

Nakashima, 79, cited the death of his wife in 1999 and his failing health as reasons for his decision to step down. His resignation is effective immediately. 

Board of Regents Chairman S. Sue Johnson lauded Nakashima for his years of service on the board. 

“Stephen Nakashima has been a dedicated representative of the people and University of California,” Johnson said. “The entire UC community is extremely grateful for his many years of devoted service, and we wish him well.” 

Nakashima was first appointed to the board by former Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989. He was reappointed by former Gov. Pete Wilson in 1992 to a term expiring in 2004.

Although garden plants hail from all corners of the world, they have surprisingly similar soil requirements. Before planting, make sure the soil is well-supplied with air, water, and nutrients. 

Aeration must be the first consideration, because plants can’t use nutrients if roots have no air. Poor aeration occurs when water fills all the soil pores, the result of a high water table or too much fine clay in the soil. 

There are three options for dealing with a high water table: Move your garden; raise the roots above the water with raised beds; or lower the water table by draining water away in trenches or a buried, perforated plastic pipe. 

Clay soils become poorly aerated because their small pores fill with capillary water. Improve aeration by clumping the clay particles into larger units, forming larger pores from which water can drain. “Glue” for clumping together clay particles is organic matter, such as compost, peat moss, manure, rotted leaves, or sawdust. Mix an abundance of any these materials into the soil. 

Inability to hold moisture is a typical problem in sandy soils. Watering plants is one cure, but also mix plenty of organic matter into the soil. With aeration and water taken care of, now consider your soil’s fertility. Soils must supply plants with 12 essential nutrients, so test your soil with a home kit or send a sample out to a laboratory to see what is needed. 

Before fertilizing, make sure soil acidity is in the correct range, or else plants will not be able to use nutrients.  

Finally, fertilize. The three nutrients needed in greatest amounts by plants are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The organic matter that you added for aeration and water-holding also supplies nutrients, perhaps enough so that no additional fertilizer is needed. 

Lee Reich is a columnist for The Associated Press